In the back room of a New York restaurant in 1930, Joseph Valachi swore his dark oath of allegiance to organized crime. Blood ran from a ceremonial wound in his finger, and the young ex-convict vowed ...

For Joe Valachi, the twelve days of Christmas always turned up 13. “I believed in Santa Claus and hung up my stocking,” he solemnly attests in a recently completed 1,180-page autobiography. “But all I ...

Peter Maas, who wrote convincingly about crooks and incorruptible cops in such best-selling books as “Serpico,” and “The Valachi Papers,” died Thursday. He was 72. Maas died at Mount Sinai Hospital in ...

is pulp rather than a great film). The narrative is framed by scenes involving an older, imprisoned Valachi, we're yanked back in time to see his rise through the ranks as he earns the trust of older ...

I’ve been reading “The Valachi Papers,” about Joe Valachi, the mob soldier who ratted out the Cosa Nostra in the ’60s. It seems one of his steadiest and most lucrative operations from the ’30s through ...