A Lifetime in Orgainized Crime

By Jon Roberts, Evan Wright

Crown 28.00 547 pages

“For my father evil was a tool. In the early 1970’s I realized I was different than him. Evil for me was not just a tool. I liked doing the evil thing.”

This book is about a bad man that starts out bad and continues this behavior for most of his life. The interview takes place in south Florida beginning in 2008. Mr. Roberts began his criminal career early in life. Facing time in prison, he was given a choice of going to Vietnam or jail. Considering that training for war would be a good career move he opted to join the US Special Forces. During the interview, he was asked about some of the things his unit did to retaliate against the Viet Cong. In the early 70’s Mr. Roberts was involved in organized crime controlled night clubs in NYC that were frequented by the famous such as Mick Jagger, Teddy Kennedy, Johnny Carson, Andy Warhol, Bruce Lee and even Ed Sullivan, who, without knowing it, drank a cup of LSD-laced tea.

The book is full of stories about the famous and semi-famous. Interesting tidbits such as Junior Sirico, of the movie Sopranos fame, a soldier for Fat Anthony in the New York City mob, was known as knife guy and he “knew how to use them.”  From New York, Mr. Roberts moved to Miami. In 1970 and 1980 there was an explosion of cocaine being shipped from South America into the United States. Needing to move his product from Miami to California, Mr. Roberts enlisted airline stewardess to transport his product.

The stories are so wild and seemingly unbelievable that the author spent a great deal of time trying to factually verify the subject’s outrageous claims. This book is fascinating for those interested in the subject matter.

Reviewed By Brian Taylor

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