Contract Killer: The Explosive Story of the Mafias Most Notorious Hitman Donald "Tony the Greek" Frankos
by By Hoffman, William and Headley, Lake
Category: Social Science , General

He knows where Jimmy Hoffa was buried. He knows how to perform a "hit" seamlessly, having done so dozens of times for everyone from John Gotti on down. He has worked with big-time members of the underworld whose names read like something from a Mafia Who's Who - Fat Tony Salerno, Nicky Barnes, Chin Gigante, Crazy Joe Gallo, Jimmy Coonan, Mad Dog Sullivan. And he's telling it all in Contract Killer.Donald "Tony the Greek" Frankos, ex-Navy boxer, pimp, heroin dealer, burglar, loan shark, and contract killer, the "last person anyone thought would rat," has turned state's evidence. One result is that John Gotti has offered $300,000 for Frankos's head; another is Contract Killer - a completely candid, extraordinarily vivid account of thirty years in organized crime. The result is the "down and dirty truth" - a chillingly fascinating story, an expose of some of the underworld's biggest secrets, and a shocking confession of his participation in the murder of Jimmy Hoffa.Co-authors William Hoffman and Lake Headley (whom Vincent Bugliosi called the "the best p.i. in the world") logged over 40,000 miles in verifying what Frankos said was the "down and dirty truth" of his life at the center of the underworld. Here are the most intimate details of Jimmy Hoffa's death, dismemberment, and burial - down to the lock of his hair saved for good luck; a portrayal of John Gotti in prison, where Frankos took the young, future godfather under his wing and showed him the ropes and where Gotti used fake furlough passes to sell drugs; Frankos's involvement in the Pierre Hotel heist, one of the biggest robberies of the decade; and for the first time the nitty-gritty truth behind the contract killing of Joey Gallo.Told in Frankos's own voice, Contract Killer is more than an extraordinarily vivid and detailed account of events expertly told and documented by Hoffman and Headley. It will spark the reopening of many investigations and may prove to be the most explosive and disturbing portrait of the mob yet.