List $34.99

Written by Philip Carlo - Audio book narrated by Alan Sklar - Unabridged Nonfiction - 10 RETAIL EDITION COMPACT DISCS - 12.5 hours

Publisher, Tantor Media (July 2008)

NOTE: Tantor RETAIL COMPACT DISC EDITIONS are packaged in attractive, durable plastic albums with a ring binder and individual CD sleeves with full-color cover artwork.

Listen to an MP3 audio clip.

"The inside information about the lifestyle, rituals, killings and betrayals is priceless." ---Kirkus

Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, the boss of New York's Lucchese crime family, was a Mafia superstar, responsible for more than fifty murders. Currently serving thirteen life sentences at a federal prison in Colorado, Casso has given journalist and New York Times bestselling author Philip Carlo the most intimate, personal look into the world of La Cosa Nostra ever seen. By pure happenstance, Casso had lived next door to the family of young Philip Carlo, who was able to get into the mind, heart, and soul of one of the most cunning, ruthless mob bosses in the annals of crime history. In Gaspipe, Casso reveals the shocking details behind headline-making crimes and crime figures, such as:

---The mob's decision that John Gotti had to be taken out after whacking Big Paul Castellano without approval---and how Casso got the order to hit Gotti

---A fly-on-the-wall view of the Mafia commission sit-down at which John Gotti was made capo di tutti capi, the boss of all bosses

---The insidious relationship between La Cosa Nostra and the Russian Mafia, and how the Lucchese family murdered the most-feared assassin in the Russian mob

---Details of secret sit-downs with mob bosses Vincent "The Chin" Gigante and John Gotti, and the notorious Sammy "The Bull" Gravano

---How Gravano made fools of the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI

---The real story of the Mafia Cops and the revelations of other law enforcement personnel on Casso's payroll

---How the Mafia managed to get a tight stranglehold on most unions in America

---The truth behind the Mafia's real role in bringing huge amounts of narcotics into the United States

---How federal prison officials were bought and sold by the Mafia

---The intimate details of the women behind the Mafiosi

---The truth behind the assassinations of JFK and RFK

---Who killed Jimmy Hoffa, and where his body is

---Why J. Edgar Hoover protected the Mafia

Chilling and illuminating, unvarnished and entertaining, Gaspipe is a roller-coaster ride into a world few outsiders have ever dared to enter.

About the Author: Philip Carlo grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, amidst the world's highest concentration of Mafia members. His intimate knowledge of their walk and their talk helped him become a successful crime writer. His breakthrough, the critically acclaimed The Night Stalker, chronicles the brutal career of serial killer Richard Ramirez. Carlo lives in New York.

About the Narrator: Winner of several AudioFile Earphones Awards, Alan Sklar has narrated over 100 audiobooks, including Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden, The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings by Thomas Maier, and The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright. The Dartmouth graduate's theatre credits include Hamlet, Taming of the Shrew, The Seagull, and many modern roles. Alan has also narrated thousands of corporate videos for clients such as NASA, Sikorsky Aircraft, IBM, Dannon, Pfizer, AT&T, and SONY. "I am so pleased, as is my husband, to have found a narrator that holds our attention so well that we have come to compare every other narrator to him (you). So far we have found none with such a talent as yours. We very much plan to listen to as many of your works as we can find." ---Sandi King, a letter to Mr. Sklar