In the bestselling tradition of Wiseguy comes a mobster's behind-the-scenes look at how drugs and greed and the decline of traditional family values brought down an American institutionthe New York Mafia. Told in his own words, The Sinatra Club recounts Sal Polisi's life of crime in riveting detail during the last great glory years of the New York Mobbefore that notorious American institution was destroyed from within by drugs and greed. It's a fascinating story that begins when the Five Families were at the height of their power and ends with their demise, tracing the downfall of the Mob through Polisi's firsthand experiences. Polisi's life as a mobster consisted of robbing banks, hijacking trucks, pulling heists, running gambling and loan shark operationsand years of nonstop thrills and excitement. Then Polisi moved into a second, secret career as a distributor of heroin and cocaine, a desperate and dangerous business in which he risked life in prison if caught by the law and certain death if discovered by his brothers in crime. Finally, a bloody arc of death and betrayal plays out in the last part of the story, as Polisi's double life finally catches up with him and he becomes a federal informant.Wearing a wire proved to be as dangerousand almost as thrillingas the life he lived outside the law. And because he gave evidence and testimony against old friends and colleagues, including two mob bosses; a courthouse full of corrupt judges and lawyers; and a gang of drug dealers, arms smugglers, and bomb makers, Polisi lives under a death sentence to this day.

Sal Polisi spent much of his life inside the New York Mafia before he flipped and provided testimony against key Family members. No longer under federal witness protection, he has been featured in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, New York, and Playboy, and has been interviewed by Larry King, Connie Chung, and Matt Lauer, among others. He works as a screenwriter and playwright and also speaks frequently in schools and at law enforcement gatherings as an organized crime expert. He lives somewhere in America. Coauthor Steve Dougherty is a freelance journalist in New York City.