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Tom Folsom And The Great Red Hook Mafia Wars

Fresh Air
Published July 21, 2009 at 11:05 AM EDT

Murder, gang wars and Mafia dons all appear in Tom Folsom's new book, The Mad Ones: Crazy Joe Gallo And The Revolution At The Edge Of The Underworld.

A look at the real-life Gallo family — a gangster clan that inspired Bob Dylan's song "Joey" as well as The Godfather — The Mad Ones looks at Larry, Albert and "Crazy" Joe Gallo as they war against established crime families and take over the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn in the '50s and '60s through a variety of colorful and brutal means.

Folsom co-authored the book Mr. Untouchable: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Heroin's Teflon Don, about drug kingpin Nicky Barnes; his film credits include The Road to Gulu for Showtime, The Lost Generation and Ernest Hemingway: Wrestling with Life for A&E Biography and Neo-Noir, a short film for the Sundance Channel.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT is an initiative from Connecticut Public, the state’s local NPR and PBS station, to elevate Latino stories and expand programming that uplifts and informs our Latino communities.
Visit ctpublic.org/latinos/we-are-connecticut for more stories and resources.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca dar a conocer historias latinas y elevar nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Para más información sobre nuestro esfuerzo por conectar con las comunidades latinas, visita  ctpublic.org/latinos/somos-ct