Tony Bulmer peers inside Giovanni’s ring Meet geriatric crime nuisance Charlie “the hat” Strango, of the De Cavalcante crime family. Charlie isn’t exactly Al Capone. He is a low echelon crime captain fresh out of jail. The hapless demi-don is out on paper—probation—so his capacity for earning is limited but he is a little man with big ambitions that include drugs, prostitution, and murder. Trouble is, the De Cavalcante is crew is comprised of a doltish gang of lumbering misfits and out right losers, who are living on the gangs past glories. Enter Giovanni Rocco AKA Gatto. Giovanni is a Jersey ..read more

by Tony Bulmer Tony Bulmer checks out the Godfather of Harlem Retrotastic crime shenanigans in New York City, who can resist them, Crimeziners? The concept is well-turned soil let’s face it. Clearly there are more NYC mafia shows than shallow graves in Jersey and Godfather of Harlem is just the latest. There is an angle, of course—and the angle is African American. for GOH is based on real-life 50s gangster Bumpy Johnson [Forest Whitaker]. In real life, Johnson was a crime lieutenant for Harlem numbers queen, Madam Stephanie St. Clair. In the 30s his gang went to war with full-fledged psy ..read more

The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires. By Selwyn Raab. • Review by Tony Bulmer Pool up poolside with Tony Bulmer and enjoy a smooth sippin’ look at Five Familes by Selwyn Raab Genovese, Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo and Lucchese. Crimeziners everywhere will no doubt be familiar with the five mafia gangs of New York City. Five Families covers them all. From the wild days of Lucky Luciano to Paul Castellano, John Gotti and beyond, the usual suspects and their nefarious henchmen are all here. Crimeziners addicted to mafia documentaries will have seen Selwyn R ..read more

The Life and Death of Johnny Rosselli: Gentleman Gangster, Hollywood Producer, CIA Assassin by Lee Server • Review by Tony Bulmer Handsome Johnny Roselli is the most famous gangster you never heard of, and the crimetastic Lee Server biography on the handsome one’s rise and fall is perhaps one of the greatest ever biographies on both Rosselli, and the history of the American Mafia. Rosselli [born Fillipo Sacco] made his mafia bones on the mean streets of Boston and New York, but his career really took off in the roaring twenties when he hooked up with the Chicago Outfit and became th ..read more

The Cellist by Daniel Silva, reviewed by Tony Bulmer Uh-oh Crimeziners, fetching CIA agent-turned art dealer, Sarah Bancroft has found a dead Russki with poison drool dripping off his chin. As you might expect, the aforementioned redski who got deadski is a moneybags dissident name of Viktor Orlov. Yikes-a-rony and cheese toast, a game is afoot! Natch, Gabriel Allon, head of Israeli Intelligence is on the case immediately, and we are off and running. The investigation is all very glamorous, of course. The awesome Allon has travelled through five countries or more, before he has even had his br ..read more

Trejo My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood Danny Trejo is the most dangerous man in the history of cinema. He is the real deal. He is a face biter, neck stabber, and armed robber; he is a drug dealer, drunk, and survivor of the most dangerous prisons in America. He should be dead many times over. But God had other plans. Miracles happen, the story of Danny Trejo is proof of that. As is the way with such biographies the story starts early. But Trejo’s up bringing was more fraught than most. His entire family were career criminals. Drug dealing from aged seven, he had his first shot of he ..read more

Gunpowder Milkshake. Maraschino cherry with that, anyone? Imagine if you will, dear Crimeziner, a world without “why”. A world where you can no longer ask how mom got to be a murder for hire killer. A world where that same mom would screetch out of the parking lot in a big black Cadillac, leaving you in the arms of a very bad man for fifteen years. Imagine this experience inspired you to become a killer just like mom. Every young girl’s dream, surely? You can no longer ask questions, so it is best not to wonder about the bodies, and there are a lot of bodies. Hundreds. All of them me ..read more

Quentin Tarantino. You’ve got to hand it to him, Crimeziners. He is a man obsessed. And the best thing is, he wants to tell you all about it. The surprise is, he has taken so long to get around to it. His pulptastic new novel, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is a glorious retrotastic indulgence, fatly crammed with out-take details, that the parental oversight and editorial control of studio overlords gave the cult cinema scamp the hard no to. This will prove an unmitigated delight to his legions of adoring fans, no doubt. But here’s the thing, unfettered by editorial oversight this was never g ..read more

Downtown Los Angeles—just down the street from City Hall, the legendary L.A. landmark that appears on the badge of the Los Angeles Police department. The Bradbury building is no less legendary, you have seen it any times before, you just might not know just exactly where. There are the movies it has appeared in, of course, the legendary 1945 noir Double Indemnity written by Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder. Chandler lived in the neighborhood back in the 20s/30s, but Chandler has lived in just about every neighborhood in L.A. There were other classic noirs that involved the Bradbury ..read more

Rachel is not feeling too good. She thinks she might be going out of her mind. Sure, she has just killed her husband, but that is the least of her problems. Her mom’s dead too. Died in a T-bone car wreck just before she told Rachel about her dad. Where is Dad? Who is dad? What about those things that happened in Haiti—the visions of the dead girl. The hurricane, the Earthquake the cholera—the gun toting rapists? What indeed. Since We Fell, Dennis Le Hane A private detective? Sure that sounds like a good idea, if you want to make a bad thing worse. Rachel figures there might be the possibility ..read more