It's a shame I didn't go wired up, because we got out of him a lot of his past crimes, but at the end he wilfully signed a confession for us, anyway!
No, we're not on any (more) hitlists - we went to a book signing talk with Louis Ferrante.
His speciality was making money - mainly holding up trucks and selling their cargo on, and (allegedly) he never whacked anyone.
Eventually the feds caught up with him, and faced with serving over 150 years for his crimes, he still never ratted on any of his colleagues. Eventually they reduced his sentence to 10 years just to keep the penal system moving with his guilty plea, and he served eight and a half of them.
He was a much better talker than I expected, and very funny - but then I was half-expecting him to just be a Soldier who got out, rather than a major player with a full crew under him.
Whilst in prison, he learnt to read, found religion, and found his moral code - rather cliché on the face of it, but not if you read the book!
I was very impressed. Especially the way that he realised that it WAS fair tat he was in jail. It WAS fair that he was surrounded by loonies and psychopaths and had to defend his life - because that was his punishment and he deserved to be paying for what he'd done in his past.
He aimed to serve his time for as long as God wanted, because only then would he have paid his due and could come out clean.
He got out of the Mafia without getting whacked partly because he (allegedly) never killed anyone (i.e. there was nobody else out there waiting to get mentioned in a book and compromised on a crime that has no statute of limitation), but mainly because he kept his mouth shut and did the time - then as he wasn't going to do anything for the family anymore, there was no point keeping him in. "Whaddya want me to do? Make the tea? Get someone fokkin else!"
He said that the reality of the whole modern Mafia scene is a lot like the film 'Goodfellas' - 'The Soprano's' is close but of course over-dramatised with gangsters seeing shrinks and stuff.
I have to say, the tone, mannerisms, and height made me think of Joe Pesci!
OK - he's not quite that short!
It was a great night, though, and I'm glad I went. If he's coming anywhere near you on this tour then get your ass over to it.
Preferably without your ten-year old kid, so when he talks about prison rape you won't have to put your hands over her ears, and have me staring at the back of your head thinking "Why the utter f*** would you bring a 10 year old kid to see a fucking Mafia gangster do a talk, you stupid bitch???".
So, my personal impression?
When I shook his hand as he signed my copy of the book, he had some of the strongest eye contact of anyone I have ever known. Confidence, power, and... violence. Maybe the violence is under wraps now, but I don't think anyone ever loses that glint. If you've never been close or known people of that ilk, then you won't really understand what I mean by that. I can think of at least one Croatian girl reading this who'll know exactly what I mean by that!
Seriously, though - go get the book!
I read the opening this morning and I'm dying to read the rest. If it's as good as his talk then I won't be disappointed - but I suspect it will be even better...
