Lion in the Basement Growing up in the Gallo Crime Family

The Publisher of ‘MOB CANDY’ Magazine Brings You The Untold Stories of What life is Really Like Growing Up Inside the World of the American Mafia. Frank DiMatteo grew up in the Mafia. His new book reveals the true stories behind some of the most infamous mobsters, mob wars and mob hits of the last half century.Frank takes on the legendary tales that have for years been falsified and grown into urban myth. As an insider who lived the life, up close and personal, Frank will share his unique perspective. His first-hand accounts and deathbed confessionals that will blow the lid off the secrets that have been confidential for so many years.In honest and sometimes graphic detail, Frank will take his readers into a world they only thought they knew. Born in South Brooklyn in 1956 into a family of hitmen, my father Ricky and my uncle Bobby Darrow were shooters for the Gallo crime family. They were also bodyguards to Larry Gallo and Joe Gallo. Uncle Joe Schapini was a capo in the Genovese crime family and bodyguard to Frank Costello. I didn't have a chance, with Crazy Joe and his two brothers pinching my cheeks till tears came down my face (which was a sign of affection). I dropped out of school by 9th grade to hit the streets that’s all I knew. I went from distributing Screw Magazine to publishing Mob Candy Magazine. Now here's the first of two books telling that story. Read more