Mafia Informants: 19 American Profiles

During the heyday of the Mafia in America, the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover, ignored organized crime believing it was better handled by local law enforcement. That changed when an all-out effort to contain and eradicate the Mafia was started in the 1960s by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and was escalated in the 1980s by Rudy Giuliani in New York City.

In this book, readers are introduced to several characters in the American Mafia, known as "rats" in the criminal world, who cooperated with law enforcement, resulting in the arrest of many in their gangs across the country. Short biographies of each informant detail their crimes and the deals they made to stay alive or reduce lengthy prison sentences. Through the use of FBI and CIA records released in 2017, and books written by the criminals themselves, it is revealed why previously loyal Mafia members and associates became informants. Most of the criminals written about are dead, a few are presumed to be alive and in the witness protection program.