By Robert Riggs

The Godfather. Goodfellas. The Sopranos.

Hollywood entertained us with polished fiction—honor among thieves, loyalty bound by blood, men of principle wrapped in tailored suits.

But the real mob? It was darker. Colder. Predatory. The smile came first. The knife came after.

This is the true story of how FBI Special Agent Mike Campi helped dismantle the Genovese crime family—the oldest, largest, and most insidious of New York’s five Mafia Families.

Founded by Charles “Lucky” Luciano in 1931. Consolidated under Vito Genovese in the late 1950s. The family once ruled Manhattan’s west side piers and the Fulton Fish Market on the East River with quiet brutality. Everything moved through their hands—money, muscle, silence.

Campi joined the FBI’s Organized Crime Squad in 1985, stepping into the heart of a sweeping federal assault on the American Mafia. Over the next two decades, he led investigations that exposed the rot behind the façade.

His new book, Mafia Takedown, pulls back the curtain on what really happened.

Not the Hollywood version. The truth.