Five Families cover art

Five Families

The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Five Families

By: Selwyn Raab
Narrated by: Paul Costanzo
Try Premium Plus free

Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $50.99

Buy Now for $50.99

About this listen

Genovese, Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo, and Lucchese. For decades these Five Families ruled New York and built the American Mafia (or Cosa Nostra) into an underworld empire. Today, the Mafia is an endangered species, battered and beleaguered by aggressive investigators, incompetent leadership, betrayals, and generational changes that produced violent, unreliable leaders and recruits. A 20-year assault against the five families in particular blossomed into the most successful law enforcement campaign of the last century.

Selwyn Raab's Five Families is the vivid story of the rise and fall of New York's premier dons, from Lucky Luciano to Paul Castellano to John Gotti and more. The book also brings the listener right up to the possible resurgence of the Mafia as the FBI and local law enforcement agencies turn their attention to homeland security and away from organized crime.

©2005 Selwyn Raab (P)2015 Tantor Organised Crime True Crime New York Mafia

Critic Reviews

"This masterpiece stands an excellent chance of becoming a bestseller with crossover appeal beyond devoted watchers of The Sopranos." ( Publishers Weekly)
All stars
Most relevant  
Very good telling of the entire history of the American mafia. The book details every major event in the history of the American mafia, from their humble beginnings at the turn of the century, all the way to their near eradication at the hands of the federal government in the early 2000’s.

Great history.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Thanks for dedicating your life to this. I recommend anyone who is interested in mafia history to read this book.

Loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Comprehensive history of this scourge on society. Often complex and convoluted, but the author maintains the momentum and interweaving of the various family machinations. The marathon 30+ hours of narrative are only slightly marred by very few jarring mispronunciations.

Needs to be Heard

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The writer of this book kept chopping and repeating the same story I found it very hard to follow and did not finish

hard to follow

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.