Publishers Weekly
03/14/2022
In this exceptional debut, former federal prosecutor Gleeson chronicles his efforts to bring Gambino family crime boss John Gotti to justice. Gotti had been an obscure Mafioso before the 1984 murder in midtown Manhattan of his predecessor, Paul Castellano. Gleeson, a junior Brooklyn Assistant United States Attorney who was a crucial part of the team that tried Gotti in 1987 for racketeering, was devastated by his acquittal. Gleeson learned years later that the jury had been tampered with. In 1992, he got another shot at his target in a high-stakes case that followed two other acquittals of Gotti on state charges and included charges that Gotti had ordered Castellano’s murder. The prosecution had been built on extensive electronic surveillance, but got a last-minute boost when Sammy Gravano, Gotti’s underboss, agreed to testify against Gotti. Gotti’s conviction at that trial was a major blow to the mob. While the general contours of the investigations have been covered elsewhere, Gleeson pulls back the curtain to reveal intriguing information previously not made public, including his daring and risky choice not to inform his superiors of his negotiations with Gravano, out of fear that the U.S. Attorney might accidentally disclose that sensitive development. This is a must-read for anyone interested in organized crime. Agent: Kathy Robbins, Robbins Office. (May)
From the Publisher
A meticulous chronicle of good triumphing over evil...Gleeson manages to make the oft-told tale of Gotti’s downfall fresh with new perspective, insight, wisdom, and humor.... The book convincingly argues that, along with ensuring Gotti’s conviction, other information [mob turncoat] Gravano provided and the precedent he set caused other high-ranking mobsters to flip, dealing a virtual death blow to the American Mafia.”
—Washington Post
“A useful reminder, especially for Mafia romanticizers, that we’re dealing with sociopathic knuckle scrapers who settle scores with casual brutality...Gleeson, a lawyer in private practice these days, is an able storyteller [and his book displays] keen insights and neat turns of phrase.”
—New York Times
“The Gotti Wars is the riveting story of Gleeson’s fight to bring Gotti to justice, which spanned years, brought him into the crosshairs of organized crime, and ultimately took down five major mob families. It’s an electrifying true crime story of the Mafia-smitten 80s and 90s, to be certain, but also a vivid memoir of Gleeson’s development as a lawyer, and an excavation of the celebrity culture that turned a murderer into a superstar. Suspenseful and multifaceted, The Gotti Wars can’t be missed.”
—Esquire, "The Best Nonfiction Books of 2022 (So Far)"
“In this exceptional debut, former federal prosecutor Gleeson chronicles his efforts to bring Gambino family crime boss John Gotti to justice...A must-read for anyone interested in organized crime.”
—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
“Compelling...Gleeson has crafted this retelling as carefully as he prepped the two cases [against the mobster]. His description of the politics behind the scenes and his interactions with the likes of U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General Bill Barr are icing on the cake....Do we need yet another book on Gotti? Gleeson answers the question with a resounding yes.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
"A memoir from the federal prosecutor who took down the “Teflon Don” 30 years ago...Gleeson is a thorough writer...[The Gotti Wars] offers a realistic portrait of how big cases are pieced together."
—Kirkus Reviews
“Spellbinding...tells us in electrifying detail how the good guys finally won, how justice triumphed over evil, and how Gleeson himself was transformed by his long war.”
—Nelson DeMille, New York Times bestselling author of The Gold Coast and Wild Fire
“Vivid, evocative, and genuinely suspenseful...An impressively detailed account of what it was like in the late 80’s and early 90’s to be chasing a flashy, dangerous mobster who had morphed into a pop culture icon.... John Gleeson is one of the most gifted prosecutors ever to match up against the Mafia. As I should have guessed, he is also an immensely gifted storyteller.”
—Mary Jo White, former Chair of the SEC, former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and former Acting US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York
“Unflinchingly honest...contains moments that are both frightening and funny. I covered the rise and fall of John Gotti for seven years—through three trials and a dozen murders. I thought I knew this story inside and out, but this book shows I was mistaken. As John Gleeson tells the full story of how he built his ironclad case, you’ll feel like you’re sitting in the room where it happened—with the same nerve-jangling anticipation of how it will all turn out.”
—John Miller, former co-anchor of 20/20 and, currently, Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism for the NYPD
“A unique unveiling of the prosecutorial strategy that vanquished the American Mafia's most exalted late 20th century gangster. As a bonus, Gleeson offers candid views of the skills and shortcomings of his main opponents: the Teflon Don's battery of mob lawyers. Perhaps from his former perch on the bench his next book should pinpoint the frailties of our creaky criminal-justice system.”
—Selwyn Raab, New York Times bestselling author of The Five Families
Library Journal
★ 04/01/2022
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) Gleeson recounts the two times he prosecuted New York mob boss John Gotti. The first trial, in 1987, where Gleeson served on the team as a new AUSA, ended in a not guilty verdict. Gleeson had another shot at Gotti five years later, and this time the prosecution prevailed. Notably, at the second trial, defendant-turned-witness Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano broke Omertà (the mafia code of silence), which was unheard of in mob circles. Readers may be daunted by the four-page cast of characters, but Gleeson's writing is so compelling and organized that the list of names is almost unnecessary. He leaves almost nothing out and unabashedly admits his own missteps along the way. Gleeson has crafted this retelling as carefully as he prepped the two cases. His description of the politics behind the scenes and his interactions with the likes of U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General Bill Barr are icing on the cake. Gleeson describes going on to serve as a federal judge; he is now in private practice. VERDICT Do we need yet another book on Gotti? Gleeson answers the question with a resounding yes.—Karen Sandlin Silverman
Kirkus Reviews
2022-02-24
A memoir from the federal prosecutor who took down the “Teflon Don” 30 years ago.
Gleeson recounts a youthful yearning to be an assistant U.S. attorney, a job denied him by an ambitious Rudy Giuliani in Manhattan. For his troubles, Gleeson, accepted in the jurisdiction just across the river in Brooklyn, was soon put on a case that took on the head of the Gambino crime family, John Gotti. “Even though I was a rookie, eight months earlier I’d been assigned to prosecute John Gotti on an entirely different set of charges,” Gleeson writes of one notorious hit, “so I’d already become part of the criminal world in which the murders outside Sparks were a seismic event.” That first case failed for reasons the author makes clear. Gotti’s second trial was on constantly shaky ground, built on insider informants who played both sides. “Just about everybody in Gotti’s crew had gone to jail at least once because of information Willie Boy had passed along,” writes Gleeson about one informant whose calculations didn’t play out to a happy ending. The prosecutors, working with the FBI, had to be careful not to tip off the mob lawyers to the identities of these informants or to let it be known that they were listening to their quarries’ conversations. Gleeson is a thorough writer, so much so that his chronicle drowns in detail, a boon for procedural adepts but less so for civilian true-crime buffs. Still, the author is admirably generous with credit where it’s due, especially the fact that without his successfully turning mobster Sammy Gravano into a federal witness, Gotti might well have walked a second time. Says Gravano, memorably, “I know I have to tell youse everything, and I will….I will not hold back, and I’m trusting you not to double-bang me.” Gleeson earns that trust, as this lumbering but nonetheless valuable narrative reveals.
A courtroom drama that, albeit without much drama, offers a realistic portrait of how big cases are pieced together.
