PhillyMafiaHistory.com - Mafia Wipeout: How the Feds Put Away an Entire Mob Family (1992)

The Mob Family in this book was headed by Nicodemo Scarfo from 1981 until 1991. This book was published in the same year that Frank Friel credited himself in Breaking the Mob, although Cox reported that there were federal agents and federal prosecutors who got the job done in wide-sweeping convictions. There’s much to debate to this book if the reader also reads Anastasia’s Blood & Honor and Joseph Salerno’s The Plumber which were published near the same time as this. Too much information. Too much confusion.

As for Cox’s rendition of the Mafia’s roots in Philadelphia, he’s weak and he’s wrong in minor cases such as on page 3 about Italy and Sicily “combined” in 1881. (It happened in 1860.) But Cox does not depend on the past because he focused on the Scarfo years and the trials that ended years of violence and corruption of public officials. This is a very comprehensive book on the post-Angelo Bruno era with the Scarfo Family at the climax of the drama. Cox interviewed so many people and quoted from really good passages and pages of testimony that it’s hard to find any holes. Cox seemed to answer questions before they were asked.

Reflecting back now, about 20 years later, there’s little to comment on for anyone to revise on Cox’s “after-1980” mob—which makes this a very good reference on this history of the Philadelphia Mafia, if only for this small time-frame.

	The Mob Family in this book was headed by Nicodemo Scarfo from 1981 until 1991. This book was published in the same year that Frank Friel credited himself in Breaking the Mob, although Cox reported that there were federal agents and federal prosecutors who got the job done in wide-sweeping convictions. There’s much to debate to this book if the reader also reads Anastasia’s Blood & Honor and Joseph Salerno’s The Plumber which were published near the same time as this. Too much information. Too much confusion. As for Cox’s rendition of the Mafia’s roots in Philadelphia, he’s weak and he’s wrong in minor cases such as on page 3 about Italy and Sicily “combined” in 1881. (It happened in 1860.) But Cox does not depend on the past because he focused on the Scarfo years and the trials that ended years of violence and corruption of public officials. This is a very comprehensive book on the post-Angelo Bruno era with the Scarfo Family at the climax of the drama. Cox interviewed so many people and quoted from really good passages and pages of testimony that it’s hard to find any holes. Cox seemed to answer questions before they were asked. Reflecting back now, about 20 years later, there’s little to comment on for anyone to revise on Cox’s “after-1980” mob—which makes this a very good reference on this history of the Philadelphia Mafia, if only for this small time-frame.








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