Hollywood Godfather is Gianni Russo's over-the-top memoir of a real-life mobster-turned-actor who helped make The Godfather a reality, and his story of life on the edge between danger and glamour. Gianni Russo was a handsome 25-year-old mobster with no acting experience when he walked onto the set of The Godfather and entered Hollywood history. He played Carlo Rizzi, the husband of Connie Corleone, who set her brother Sonny―played by James Caan―up for a hit. Russo didn't have to act―he knew the mob inside and out: from his childhood in Little Italy, where Mafia legend Frank Costello took him under his wing, to acting as a messenger for New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello during the Kennedy assassination, to having to go on the lam after shooting and killing a member of the Colombian drug cartel in his Vegas club. Along the way, Russo befriended Frank Sinatra, who became his son's godfather, and Marlon Brando, who mentored his career as an actor after trying to get Francis Ford Coppola to fire him from The Godfather. Russo had passionate affairs with Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minelli, and scores of other celebrities. He went on to become a producer and starred in The Godfather: Parts I and II, Seabiscuit, Any Given Sunday and Rush Hour 2, among many other films. Hollywood Godfather is a no-holds-barred account of a life filled with violence, glamour, sex―and fun.
Born to a Japanese-American family in ritzy suburban Orange County, California, Kenny “Kenji” Gallo was a bookish, hyperactive kid who lived a double life as a car-bombing, gun-toting international drug trafficker. He owned a nightclub, produced porn movies, and was arrested for the murder of his own best friend- all before he could legally drink. Gallo graduated to life as a jet-setting playboy thug, refining his gangster style under Mafia legends, marrying a legendary porn star, and making millions in credit and stock fraud, extortion, gambling, and the sex trade. Then, after more than two daredevil decades, Gallo voluntarily wired up as an under cover FBI informant in exchange for a fresh start, nearly losing his life in the process. From 1980s cocaine cowboys, to the modern mob and its Tony Soprano wannabes, to the porn industry’s dirty secrets, this riveting and redemptive memoir captures the American underworld in all its tawdry spectacle.
In 1954 Johnnie Frank Griffin witnessed the violent death of Attorney General-elect Albert Patterson, of Alabama. Six months later he told a grand jury what he knew. The next day he was stabbed. Though his wounds seemed slight, that night he died in a hospital built from the profits of crime. Nine years later, less than an hour after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Johnnie Frank’s son, Frank Griffin, saw Lee Harvey Oswald fleeing the scene of the murder of a Dallas police officer. Between these two events Frank grew up in one of the strangest decades in American history. His story touches that of one of the era’s best known governors, John Patterson of Alabama. It intersects with mob bosses and CIA operations. There’s even room for country music and barroom brawls. This story shows how Frank Griffin’s life was truly Touched By Fire. Read less
Award-winning investigative journalist and bestselling author Caitlin Rother explores the mysterious death of 32-year-old Rebecca Zahau, who was found hanging from a second-story balcony of her multimillionaire boyfriend's San Diego mansion in 2011. She was naked and gagged, with her ankles tied and hands bound behind her. On the door to her bedroom, investigators found a hand-written message: "SHE SAVED HIM CAN YOU SAVE HER." The death was deemed a suicide, but Rother reveals there's more to the story... "I got a girl, hung herself in the guest house." The call came on the morning of July 13, 2011, from the historic Spreckels Mansion, a lavish beachfront property in Coronado, California, owned by pharmaceutical tycoon and multimillionaire Jonah Shacknai. When authorities arrived, they found the naked body of Jonah's girlfriend, Rebecca Zahau, gagged, her ankles tied and her wrists bound behind her. Jonah's brother, Adam, claimed to have found Rebecca hanging by a rope from the seco...
David Berkowitz is the only person ever charged with the infamous Son of Sam murders in New York City during 1976-77. But what about the Yonkers-based satanic cult of which Berkowitz claims to have been a member? Is there any evidence that such a cult existed and had already been active for many years when the Sam shootings began? Before Son of Sam definitively answers that question. In my novel The Agent I wrote about a fictionalized version of the cult; this is the bizarre, terrifying reality.
James Hudnall : My Disturbing Michael Jackson Experience Jaames Hudnall describes meeting Michael Jackson in a comic booc stare and seeing Jackon disappear into the restroom for a long period of time with a little boy.
Entrepreneur, publisher and maverick, Robert Maxwell was a man who committed fraud on a global scale. A bully and a womaniser whose appetite for power and possessions knew no limits, he manipulated others to fulfil his own unsurpassed greed. With connections that stretched far beyond the City and Wall Street to the shadowy world of espionage and the conflicts of the Middle East, Maxwell was privy to some very dangerous secrets. Mossad, the famed Israeli intelligence agency, were observing him. Maxwell was becoming a liability and they decided that he had to be silenced. Forever. In this explosive account, investigative journalists Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon reveal for the first time the secret plot to assassinate one of the world's most powerful businessmen. This is the real story of the billionaire's execution - the motivation, the planning, and the events of that cold night at sea when he met his fate- and of much else too sensitive to reveal in advance of publication. Drawin...
ason Bermas is a producer and writer, known for Fabled Enemies (2008), Invisible Empire (2010) and Shade: The Motion Picture (2013). Jason Bermas - Documentary Filmmaker & Independent Media Pioneer https://twitter.com/JasonBermashttps://rokfin.com/JasonBermasPayPal - JasonIsVoid@yahoo.comhttps://patron.podbean.com/JasonBermasContent Creator / Talking Head / Documentary Filmmaker / Activist, Watch Invisible Empire, Fabled Enemies, Loose Change, & SHADE. #BermasBrigade #BeYourOwnHeroBuyMeACoffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/addyaddsSubstack: https://www.addyadds.substack.comWebsite: https://www.addyadds.one/Telegram: https://www.t.me/oneaddyaddsRokfin: https://rokfin.com/addyaddsCashApp: https://cash.app/$AddyAddsVenmo: HTTPS://VENMO.COM/ADDYADDSPatreon: HTTPS://WWW.PATREON.COM/ADDYADDSTwitter: HTTPS://TWITTER.COM/ONEADDYADDSETHEREUM: 0x18d83c60d3b933960c5ff5Cbb9596f495eBa0d99BITCOIN: 3MNbWXUdjFf9uokVR5ysJ1SovV8FJr8Nqw
Copiously researched and documented, Hit Men is the highly controversial portrait of the pop music industry in all its wild, ruthless glory: the insatiable greed and ambition; the enormous egos; the fierce struggles for profits and power; the vendettas, rivalries, shakedowns, and payoffs. Chronicling the evolution of America's largest music labels from the Tin Pan Alley days to the present day, Fredric Dannen examines in depth the often venal, sometimes illegal dealings among the assorted hustlers and kingpins who rule over this multi-billion-dollar business.