"A bullet in the head is the customary penalty for violators of omerta, the Mafia's code of silence. Nevertheless, Frank Ragano, a lawyer who spent thirty years working for Mafia bosses like Santo Trafficante of Florida and Carlos Marcello of New Orleans, and fifteen years as Jimmy Hoffa's personal attorney, has come forward to tell an unprecedented insider's story. Never before has someone so highly placed revealed what goes on behind the closed doors of organized crime." "This is the unvarnished story of the murders, the fixed juries, the sweetheart deals, and the political corruption that characterized the heyday of the Mafia. Here is unprecedented detail of the day-to-day operations of America's most profitable and influential criminal organizations, huge operations whose tremendous growth from the fifties through the seventies was due in part to brilliant, aggressive, highly paid attorneys who kept the wheels of these gambling, drug, and prostitution factories well greased. Frank Ragano acted as a conduit between the mob and politicians, crooked businessmen, and powerful labor leaders. He sorted out kickbacks in the billion-dollar Teamsters pension fund and kept his clients out of jail." "For the first time anywhere Ragano exposes the truth about Mafia "cooperation" with the CIA plot to murder Castro. He provides an enthralling hour-by-hour account of the day Jimmy Hoffa was killed, including who ordered the hit and why. Here, too, is the story of how Jimmy Hoffa's animus toward Bobby Kennedy erupted in a brawl between the two men in the offices of the Justice Department. And, most shocking of all, Ragano tells how he unwittingly delivered the message - from Hoffa to the Mob - that may have resulted in JFK's assassination." "This is a memoir that will stand as the most revelatory and richly detailed history of the Mafia in this century."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved