The Weasel A Double Life in the Mob

Author: Adrian Humphreys
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9780470964514
Published In: October 2011
Format: Hardback , 416 pages
Jurisdiction: U.S. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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In the world of organized crime the bosses grab the headlines, as the names Capone, Gotti, Bonnano, Cotroni and Rizzuto attest. But a crime family has many working parts and the young mobster known as The Weasel was the epitome of a crucial, invisible cog-the soldier, the muscle, the driver, the gopher.

By a quirk of fate, Marvin Elkind-later The Weasel-was placed in the foster home of a tough gangster family, immersing him from the age of nine in a daring world of con men, cheats, bootleggers, loan sharks, bank robbers, leg breakers and Mafia bosses. During a Golden Age of underworld life in New York, Detroit and across Canada, The Weasel found himself working with a surprising cast of colourful characters. He befriended powerful gangsters by smuggling bottles of Scotch to their tables as a waiter at New York's famed Copacabana; he was pushed to be Jimmy Hoffa's chauffeur.

But his disenchantment with the broken promises of mob life brought him into another fraternity, one offering the same adrenaline rush, danger and dark comedy he craved. After a startling confrontation, he was embraced by law enforcement, and a cop with a reputation for results. Now a career informant, The Weasel learned he was a far better fink than he ever was a crook.

With his impeccable gangland pedigree, enormous girth, cold stare and sausage-like fingers adorned with chunky rings, no one questioned The Weasel's loyalty. The backroom doors were flung open and The Weasel slipped in, bringing undercover cops with him. For case after case over two decades, he worked for the FBI, U.S. Customs, Scotland Yard, RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police and other law enforcement agencies on three continents, trapping and betraying mobsters, mercenaries, spies, drug traffickers, pornographers, union fat cats and corrupt politicians.

With unflinching honesty, The Weasel and many of the undercover officers he worked with revealed their successes and failures to award-winning crime reporter and best-selling author Adrian Humphreys.

The Weasel is the riveting chronicle of a unique and engaging figure who lived a most dangerous and rare experience.

It is a story that was never supposed to be told.

Prologue vii

PART ONE 1

Chapter 1–22 3–147

PART TWO 153

Chapter 23–41 155–309

PART THREE 319

Chapter 42–50 321–383

Epilogue 391

Acknowledgements 397

Index 399

Adrian Humphreys is an award-winning journalist and the author of two critically acclaimed bestsellers, The Enforcer (HarperCollins) and The Sixth Family (Wiley), an epic mob saga published in three languages. A senior reporter with the National Post, his exposés of underworld life have been featured in newspapers and magazines around the world and made into movies, including Zeyda and the Hitman starring Danny Aiello as The Weasel.