louis ferrante
From the freewheeling rush of hijacking trucks to the brutal race wars that marked his decade-long stint in jail, former Mafia insider Louis Ferrante describes his remarkable journey from rising mobster to federal prison inmate to full-time writer. [1]
From former Mafia insider and federal prison inmate Louis Ferrante comes a remarkable and moving memoir about the author’s journey from a life of crime to that of a professional writer. [2]
Louis Ferrante began hijacking delivery trucks at age seventeen, and New York’s infamous Gambino crime family took notice. [3]
Louis Ferrante is an American writer and Orthodox Jew who is former member of the Gambino crime family. [4]
Louis Ferrante made a lot of bad decisions in his life. [...] A life-long wiseguy who served time for racketeering, armed robbery and credit card fraud, Ferrante wrote a 1,200-page novel set in the antebellum South while he was locked up in federal custody. [5]
A former New York Mafia soldier, Ferrante was known for being a solid guy, a thug with a specialty in safecracking, truck heists and loan-sharking collections. [6]
Sometimes his mob account reads like a Puzo novel on steroids, but the author takes his licks when he is busted on a federal credit card rap and sentenced to a maximum security prison even though famed attorney William Kunstler represents him. [7]
When he got out of prison, Ferrante wanted to find a publisher for his novel but no one seemed interested. [5]
In the prison library he embarked on an extraordinary journey of the mind that took him from history to philosophy to major world religions, from the art of writing to the law. [3]
Ferrante successfully appealed his own conviction from his prison cell, a case that is cited in courtrooms across the country. [...] In the early nineties, Ferrante’s growing Mafia connections enabled him to commit some of the most lucrative robberies in US history, all by the age of twenty-one. [4]
For a seventeen-year-old who liked fist fighting and fast cars, it was the quickest money on the street, and it soon earned Ferrante the attention of the infamous Gambino crime family, led by late Mob boss John Gotti. [1]
In interviews, Ferrante has said he ‘felt powerfully drawn’ to the Jewish faith. [5]
“Ferrante produces a raw, brutal memoir with glimmers of hope and redemption, and in so doing, this true crime account does not resemble any of the cardboard wise guys of the tube or the silver screen. [3]
Sources:
[1] Unlocked by Louis Ferrante
[2] Louis Ferrante
[3] Unlocked: The Life and Crimes of a Mafia Insider by Louis Ferrante
[4] Louis Ferrante - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[5] Louis Ferrante: from mobster to mensch
[6] Amazon.com: Unlocked: A Journey from Prison to Proust: Louis Ferrante …
[7] Amazon.com: Unlocked: The Kindle Store: Louis Ferrante