For the Sins of My Father
by Demeo, Albert
Sept 2003A suspenseful, emotionally charged real-life Sopranos: The son of New
York's most notorious Mafia killer reveals the conflicted life he led
being raised by a cold-blooded murderer, who was also a devoted family
man, and the wrenching legacy of Mafia family life.Al DeMeo will
never forget the day in 1992 when a coworker, a fellow trader at the
New York Stock Exchange, taunted him with a copy of the hot new book
Murder Machine, chronicling the horrific criminal life of DeMeo's
father, Roy, the head of the most deadly gang in organized crime. The
moment sent DeMeo into a psychological tailspin: How could he have spent
his life looking up to, and loving, a vicious killer?For the Sins of My Father
recounts the chilling rise and fall of the man who led the Gambino
family's most fearsome killers and thieves, through the eyes of a son
who had never known any other kind of life. Coming of age in an opulent
Long Island house where money is abundant but its source is unclear, Al
becomes Roy's confidant, sent to call in loans at age fourteen and
gradually coming to understand his father's job description--loan shark,
car thief, porn purveyor and, above all, murderer. But when Al is
seventeen, Roy's body is found in the trunk of a car, a gangland slaying
that places Al between federal prosecutors seeking his testimony and a
mob crew determined to keep him quiet.Desperate to abide by the
father-son bond, but equally determined to escape his father's dangerous
and doomed life, Al Demeo embarks on a courageous quest for the truth,
reconciliation, and honor. With the implacable narrative drive of a
thriller and the power of a painfully honest memoir, For the Sins of My Father presents
a startling and unprecedented perspective on the underworld of
organized crime, exposing for the first time the cruel legacy of a Mafia
life.
York's most notorious Mafia killer reveals the conflicted life he led
being raised by a cold-blooded murderer, who was also a devoted family
man, and the wrenching legacy of Mafia family life.Al DeMeo will
never forget the day in 1992 when a coworker, a fellow trader at the
New York Stock Exchange, taunted him with a copy of the hot new book
Murder Machine, chronicling the horrific criminal life of DeMeo's
father, Roy, the head of the most deadly gang in organized crime. The
moment sent DeMeo into a psychological tailspin: How could he have spent
his life looking up to, and loving, a vicious killer?For the Sins of My Father
recounts the chilling rise and fall of the man who led the Gambino
family's most fearsome killers and thieves, through the eyes of a son
who had never known any other kind of life. Coming of age in an opulent
Long Island house where money is abundant but its source is unclear, Al
becomes Roy's confidant, sent to call in loans at age fourteen and
gradually coming to understand his father's job description--loan shark,
car thief, porn purveyor and, above all, murderer. But when Al is
seventeen, Roy's body is found in the trunk of a car, a gangland slaying
that places Al between federal prosecutors seeking his testimony and a
mob crew determined to keep him quiet.Desperate to abide by the
father-son bond, but equally determined to escape his father's dangerous
and doomed life, Al Demeo embarks on a courageous quest for the truth,
reconciliation, and honor. With the implacable narrative drive of a
thriller and the power of a painfully honest memoir, For the Sins of My Father presents
a startling and unprecedented perspective on the underworld of
organized crime, exposing for the first time the cruel legacy of a Mafia
life.