In high school for some reason I took an interest in reading
books about organized crime. If memory serves me well I began with THE VALACHI
PAPERS and move on from there. One book I picked up in paperback was KILLER:
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A MAFIA HIT MAN. It took me a while to get around to
reading it, actually when I was in college. It was a fascinating read filled
with stories by a man who claimed to have killed a fairly large number of
people while never being prosecuted for it.
That read came in handy when as a member of the programming
board at Ball State we brought “Joey”, the author and subject of that book, to
campus to speak. He was on tour promoting the book having left that life
behind. As a member of the board we all went out to dinner with him that night.
He told us stories of his life and later that night spoke before a large crowd
with even more tales. Apparently he never left that life behind far enough as I
have learned from the publisher that he succumbed a bout of lead poisoning in
the form of being shot while at the race track, a favorite locale of his.
Which brings us to this book, HIT #29. In the book we’re
given a few details of the not so friendly attitude Joey shared with another
made man who calls him for a meet at a restaurant. The meet was set up by the
man’s boss, a hit of someone they’ve discovered is stealing from the mob. The
target is a head numbers runner who has systematically been hitting others with
his inside knowledge and the help of two low level thugs. Caught and giving him
up in the hopes of staying alive, they now know it was this man who set it all
in motion. He was someone Joey knew from the neighborhood growing up. Now he’s
being offered $20,000 to take him out.
Joey accepts the job reluctantly having just completed hit
#28 not long prior. His rule of thumb is to law low for a while to make sure
he’s clear of the first hit before taking on the next. But a bad day at the
track and a few other items help him decided to take on this hit. What follows
is his step by step routine of how he sets up the hit, how he prepares, the
follow through and more. Along the way his suspicions of the man who presented
him the job grow as well to the point he begins to wonder if his intended
target is that or if he’s being set up to be the target himself.
The book is written in easy fashion, as if Joey were sitting
there talking to you like a friend, recounting the story to your instead of
writing it. For me, having met him (or at least the person who said he was
Joey) I can see him now. A stout, solidly built man, not too tall with a
moustache and slicked down hair, the ring on his hand with a coin surrounded in
jewels (he told an interesting story about that to us that night) and a smile
and pleasant attitude. And yet he’s a killer.
At the heart of it all that’s what this book is about, the
killing of one human being by another. There is no hero to root for. Perhaps an
anti-hero in the form of Joey, a man who may be actually fighting for his own
life rather than taking one of someone else. While reading the book he does
things and recounts past experiences that make you realize he is a criminal.
And yet you find yourself hoping he comes out all right in the end.
If you enjoy crime non-fiction books then you’ll enjoy this
one. It’s a glimpse of the life led by one of the members of organized crime.
It tells you how things work, how he worked when performing a hit and provides
you with a look most aren’t privy too. With any luck none of us ever will be.
But at least we can read about it and be fascinated by the tale.
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