Thanks in part to the Sopranos, there's been a resurgence of interest in organized crime and the Mafia, but the pedestrian truth is that mobsters aren't all that interesting a breed. One need only read a transcript of their surreptitiously recorded conversations, whether it's Sam the Plumber DeCavalcante discussing how to rig a card game with his associates, or John Gotti threatening to decapitate an underling, to recognize that these aren't bright and noble Robin Hoods, but rather the most ruthless and unscrupulous representatives of unbridled American capitalism, imperialists of the most pernicious kind. Which is why Goddard's book "Joey" continues to exert an enduring fascination. Without doubt, Joey Gallo was one of America's most interesting and colorful mobsters, a psychopathic chameleon, a predator who was able to transcend the image of brutal thug even as he embraced its grim reality, a fact which people as diverse as Robert Kennedy and Jimmy Breslin recognized. Highly intelligent, poetic, a man who could quote Sartre and Camus, Gallo was also a feral man who could commit rape, inflict torture on those he attempted to extort money from, methodically murder some of the most dangerous and feared men in New York, and use the psychology of terror to dominate both those he loved and hated. Alternately humorous and terrifying, his pre-dawn operatic death on the streets outside Umberto's Clam House, while messier than he might have envisioned, was probably the precise kind of finale he desired- a bullet-ridden Mafia cowboy dying with his boots on. Richard Widmark in "Kiss of Death" (Gallo's favorite childhood movie) couldn't have done it better.
Goddard is not immune to the lure of Gallo's personality, but he stays above the sort of mythology that Bob Dylan indulged in when writing a song devoted to Gallo. Dylan's Gallo was a combination of Christ and Cagney. Goddard presents Gallo in all his aspects, examining his contradictions and complexity, his various roles from ferocious Mafia killer to radical prison inmate to the witty and articulate star of Sutton Place parties. Not only was he able to interview Gallo before his death, he was also able to extensively interview Gallo's ex-wife, his daughter, and those who were his friends and foes during his turbulent, incandescent lifetime. This makes for a richly textured portrait of a personality both monstrous and endearing, charismatic and chilling. In short, Goddard's book is still the best biography of an underworld figure that you're liable to read.

... Evidence is a word that is seldom used with any accuracy in this book, yet another conspiracy theory written by someone who got no closer to the EVIDENCE than many of his fellow writers of conspiracies.
I would not recommend this book to anyone who has a genuine interest in the FACTS behind the act of atrocity.

This book shows the extent to which our 'Public Servants' go to cover their criminal enterprises. These cranks that attempt to dis-credit those who expose criminal activity by government employees as conspiracy freaks are they themselves complicite in these Federal crimes. Conspiracy or not, these people are a deeply infiltrated cancer in the US Government.

Trail is another excellent case study of the unlimited arrogance, deceit, and duplicity in Washington D.C. Its value is reflected in the price of used copies... and the efforts to kill public interest in the book. The hardest message to communicate is the extent of arrogance, deceit, and duplicity in our own government because we have been taught from an early age of how wonderful our elected leaders are. Well, the truth is out there, but you have to search to find it. Trail of the Octopus is an excellent example. Another very good book is the Boys on the Tracks. There is no end of good examples in the efforts to get the truth out respecting the government's abandonment of missing American POWs from the top on down. See Betrayed by Douglass, which has a listing of 25 plus other books and videos on this subject, all with a consistent message respecting the absence of honor and principles at the highest levels in our government.