The Boys From New Jersey: How The Mob Beat The Feds

The Boys from New Jersey: How the Mob Beat the Feds

Of all the extraordinary stories to emerge about the war on organizedcrime, none is quite so bizarre as the U.S. government's 1988prosecution of the notorious Lucchese crime family, the mob that claimedto "own" New Jersey. Federal authorities called it the most ambitiouslegal attack ever mounted against underworld figures--a sixty-five-pageindictment capping a ten-year investigation that would take out anentire organization, from godfather to street soldier, in one knockoutblow. The two-year proceeding became the longest Mafia trial in Americanhistory--but it took the jury less than two days to render its verdict: not guilty. On all counts. It was a devastating blow for thegovernment. How did this happen? Robert Rudolph, the only reporter tocover the story from start to finish, answers that question in a bookthat turns courtroom drama into a rollicking theater of the absurd. Atits center are defendants like Jackie "Fat Jack" DiNorscio, the careercriminal representing himself, who began the trial by announcing, "I'm acomedian, not a gangster," and then proceeded to turn the legal systemon its ear; mob boss Anthony Accetturo, a man of almost unlimited luck, who once avoided prosecution by claiming to have Alzheimer's disease, only to experience a miraculous "cure" when he slipped and fell in the shower after the case against him was dropped; and thephilosophy-spouting underboss, Michael Taccetta, who brazenly debatedhis FBI nemesis on the morals of the underworld and how they applied tothe teachings of Socrates and Machiavelli. And there are lawyers, likeVincent "Grady" O'Malley, who'd never lost a case until quarter-backing a government offensive that aimed too high and took too long; and Michael Critchley, who led a Mission Impossible-style defense team thatsucceeded in putting the government itself on trial. Here is the fullstory behind what should have been the government's shining hour, andhow it turned into one of the most embarrassing.