Written by the legendary crime boss Russell Bufalino’s cousin, this gripping insider’s account is an epic tell-all of the Pennsylvania Mafia family’s origins, both personal and criminal, from its coal-mining Black Hand days in Pittston, to their national rise and control of the Teamsters Union, while also offering convincing clues as to what became of Jimmy Hoffa.
Russell Bufalino was considered the most powerful Mob boss of his day, if not all time—rivaling the likes of Carlo Gambino, Vito Genovese, and Lucky Luciano in their prime. But until now, no one has ever so personally traced Russell’s career back to the coal fields of Northeastern Pennsylvania, or explored so completely the legacy of the Pittston crime family Russell would inherit. Charles Bufalino, cousin and caretaker of the family’s explosive history, also offers the most authentic and probable solution to the greatest Mob mystery of all time: What really happened to Jimmy Hoffa?
Stretching back to the Bufalino roots in Sicily and the emigration of the men of Montedoro to the turn-of-the-19th-century Pennsylvania coal fields, this gripping story lays the groundwork for the inception of an organized crime empire. Once in America, the Bufalinos penetrated both sides of the labor-versus-management conflict to magnify their own power and ultimately influence events on the national stage. By the 1950s, in the wake of Black Hand threats, murder, kidnapping, and bombings, Russell would be named boss—the Don of all Dons. Blood ties and extended family were his to control. Likewise, his enemies, including Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa.
Delving deeply into corroborated family documentation, Charles Bufalino separates fact from fiction and corrects the presumed history of his ruthlessly enterprising ancestors to paint an intimate, epic, and riveting portrait of one of the most storied crime families of the 20th century.
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