Mr. Untouchable: My Crimes and Punishments

Book Description

From inside the Federal Witness Protection Program, the "Black Godfather" chronicles the 1970s New York City underworld and the most devastating urban crime wave in history.

1962 LEROY "NICKY" BARNES walks out of Green Haven State Prison. There are an estimated 153,000 heroin abusers in the United States.

1977 Two million junkies score $100 million worth of Barnes's smack a year. Sporting flashy suits, riding in a Citroën with a Maserati engine and satisfying a wife while pleasuring a harem of mistresses, Barnes presides over a staggering multinational dealership that pushes dope and launders money with the efficiency of a Fortune 500 company. Despite President Nixon's creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration and New York State's adoption of the no tolerance Rockefeller drug laws, Barnes's operation seems impregnable.

How does a small-time hustler and heroin addict end up on the cover of the New York Times Magazine as MR. UNTOUCHABLE, the one gangster the Feds can't touch? And how is the future Mayor of New York City Rudolf Giuliani involved? With Machiavellian pragmatism matched with biblical fury, Barnes lays bare his life's remarkable trajectory--a rise, fall and resurrection defined by brutality, brotherhood and betrayal.

Customer Reviews:

You Had Me at the Book's Dedication!.......2007-10-04

Mr. Untouchable finally got touched...hard! The book offers a great retelling and details of the life of a druglord and CEO of one of New York's most infamous criminal enterprises. My greatest concern after reading the book and the passing of so many years since Mr. Barnes drug activities is his level of bitterness at others. The only true person to blame is the one who made the decision to enter such a lifestyle. That would be you Mr. Barnes...not Guy Fisher or the other council members, not the government, or even your ex-wife or society. You authored your life's path just like you did this great book.

Mr. Untouchable.......2007-09-17

I enjoyed the book. It was intersting to see how one man was able to organize a huge drug operation but to see it all fall in the end. A good book and a lesson to learn about the drug buisness. Its not all about the glitz and glamour but also the lies and betrayal.

A Great Read!.......2007-08-10

I actually grew up in NYC during the time of the events in this book. I also come from people who ran in the same circles as Barnes. I remember him as a Harlem legend, so it's interesting to read this book and get from the horse's mouth, as it were, the behind the scenes story of his rise and ignomious fall.

This book has a raw style, and apparently very little editing. This is evident in the fact that nobody seemed to tell Barnes that some of the things he admits paint him in EXTREMELY unflattering lights. This is, for me, a large part of the appeal. Much like the African American Experience in the latter decades, it is what it is...and very little is done to hide the facts. Things are kept real.

A VERY interesting read indeed.

Cracking book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!........2007-07-22

I really enjoyed this book, it takes you right in to 'Their world', anyone who is thinking of getting involved in that business should read it, it doesn't matter what level you get to the people around will turn and send you to jail just to save their own life.
Greed takes over and ruin's everything.
A very good book, highly recommended.

Mr. Untouchable: THE BIGGEST SNITCH IN AMERICA!!.......2007-07-11

I REALLY LOVED THIS BOOK AT FIRST HANDS DOWN!! TILL I READ GANSTERS OF HARLEM. I REALLY THOUGHT HE WAS A STAND UP MAN WHO HAD TO JUSTIFY HIS MEANS OF LIVING, BUT I KNEW SOMETHING WASN'T RIGHT WHEN HE GOT FREE AFTER HE CHOSE NOT TO CUT A DEAL WITH THE GOVERMENT!!!
WTF!! WOW!!
THIS DUDE DID NOT TELL THE REAL STORY...HE HONESTLY TRY TO GLORIFY HIMSELF AS BEING A STAND UP GUY AND SNITCHED ON HIS WHOLE CREW BECAUSE OF GUY FISHER!! COME ON THAT IS BS....THIS DUDE SNITCHED ON EVERYBODY HE CAME IN TO SITE WITH PEOPLE IN HIS CELL TO BE FREED UP...I'm NOT MAD ABOUT THAT ....BUT PLEASE IF U TELL A STORY TELL THE WHOLE STORY YOU ABOUT 10 CHAPTERS SHORT!!! TELL HOW U BROUGHT THE WHOLE MOB DOWN IN THE FACE OF AMERICA!!!! **PLEASE READ GANGTERS OF HARLEM** VERY GOOD BOOK WITH SEARCHABLE FACTS!! LEROY STAY IN YA HOLE!!!RAT

Average customer rating:

Spying on the self
Will the real Victor Maskell please stand up
I spy with my little eye
Banville-The Untouchable
Old people rock!

The Untouchable
John Banville
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Irish | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0679451080
Release Date: 1997-04-22

Amazon.com

A brilliant, engaging, and highly literate espionage-cum-existential novel, John Banville's The Untouchable concerns the suddenly-exposed double agent Victor Maskell, a character based on the real Cambridge intellectual elites who famously spied on the United Kingdom in the middle of the 20th century. But Maskell--scholar, adventurer, soldier, art curator, and more--respected and still living in England well past his retirement from espionage, looked like he was going to get away with it when suddenly, in his 70s and sick with cancer, he is unmasked. The question of why, and by whom is not as important for Maskell as the larger question of who finally he himself really is, why he spied in the first place, and whether his many-faceted existence adds up to an authentic life.

Book Description

wenty years after his "retirement, " ex-spy Victor Maskell attempts to come to terms with what has happened to his life by embarking on his memoirs. This is the plot which fuels Banville's stunning new novel--a story that goes beyond the mere facts of espionage to penetrate the intricate heart of the spy.

Customer Reviews:

Spying on the self.......2007-01-25

Getting long in the tooth now after a lifetime of spying on London for Russia, Victor Maskell is shocked to learn that someone has ratted him out. In trying to figure out what went wrong, he begins keeping a long journal in which he reviews his life, and which, basically, becomes this novel. There are lots of interesting and quirky turns of events, including his relationship with his family, his dealings with upper-crust Englishmen, and his realization that he is gay. Victor is a good analyzer, but a poor summationist, and as he explores his past life and dances around the central question of why he chose to live the life of a spy as he did, he never seems able to answer it. This can be frustrating for the reader. But John Banville is a superb writer and he relates the story of Victor Maskell (based on a true character) incisively and with power.

Will the real Victor Maskell please stand up.......2006-12-28

John Banville's The Untouchable is a remarkable book for myriad reasons. For the sheer artistry of his prose alone, I would recommend this book. The weight and care placed upon each word and sentence gives the novel a wonderfully balanced and effortless feel, and at the same time leaves the reader in no doubt that he/she is in the presence of a true master craftsman of the English language.
But it is not just Banville's prose that makes The Untouchable a book of the highest merit; it is the character of Victor Maskell, portrayed in all of his ambiguity and nuance, which moves this book. Based of the Cambridge spy Anthony Blount, Victor Maskell narrates his pseudo-memoir in the first person, but that doesn't clarify the man or make him easily understood. In short, Banville gives us a masterful insight into a man of many contradictions: Royalist, jaded Communist, spy, husband, father, homosexual, Irish yet working for the British at Bletchley. The sheer amount of contradictions gives the reader a sense of wariness when it comes to trusting Maskell's word, but that is the point for I doubt that Maskell himself truly knows who he is.
The setting and ancillary characters like Boy (based on Guy Burgess), Nick and Querell (Graham Greene?) are also deftly handled with meticulous care.
This is a profound, beautiful and at times darkly humorous work of art that deserves to be ranked among the great works of Western literature.

I spy with my little eye.......2006-12-05

Better than his novella THE SEA for which he won the recent Man Booker Prize, THE UNTOUCHABLE is almost the perfect novel by which John Banville could display his unique talents, in that it provides a thinkly disguised fictional portrait of Sir Anthony Blunt, the so-called "Fourth Man" of the Cambridge spy ring. Blunt's background as the head of the Courtauld Institute and as a leading expert on Poussin (and Purveyor of the Queen's Pictures) makes him as suitable a subject for Banville as does his conflicted ethical choices and crimes. The novel reconstructs what it was like for Blunt (here called -- unfortunately -- Victor Maskell, and given an Anglo-Irish background closer to Banville's than to Blunt's) to have do0ne what he did, centering particularly on his experiences spying before and after the Second World War. Two-thirds of the book are very successful, but the last third, wherein Maskell's adventures in spying wind down and he goes fuklly against the grain of his character by coming out of the closet and becoming a superstud, doesn't hold together. Otherwise it is a fine and gripping study of identity and betrayal, and one of Banville's best novels.

Banville-The Untouchable.......2006-09-28

It is rather commonplace, I suppose, that it is difficult to write an "objective" review of a book one so deeply enjoys. Nevertheless, I'll give it a whirl. Banville truly does seem incapable of writing about anything that does not become a work of art under his pen. And, while John Le Carre is frequently praised as writing spy novels that are literature, they aren't. They're merely a cut above the usual 007 sort of thing. For something to be labelled art, correctly, it must soar above not only any genre it supposedly represents (herein, the "spy novel"), but must also must stake a unique claim in the reader's mind as something rich and strange, the like of which she/he has never yet come across. Banville accomplishes this feat with such apparently effortless ease here that this reader, in any event, is left, after reading it, in a swoon of delight which I'm still savouring.

It's a pity to dissect what makes this so, but, really, it's not much of a dissection, only one cut into two parts: 1) Banville's lyrical, lulling yet erudite prose which comes here through the medium of our somewhat flawed protagonist, Maskell. It is literally transporting, in its Yeatsean reveries, not only to a different time and place but to the inside of Maskell's mind and heart, or perhaps some would prefer the term soul. 2) The Proustian depths of Banville/Maskell's insights into the kaleidoscopic, shape-shifting nature of life, love and identity.

I suppose I'm obliged to say something about the "spy" aspect of the book and the to-do about the Cambridge set. I shall. It's of no importance.........Well, let me qualify, it's of no importance save as the setting in which Banville writes. It's just a sort of prop, as is Maskell's homosexuality. For, after reading this book, one realises that whether one is homo or hetero, spy or patriot (Maskell is, at times, all four.), we are all a bit out of our depths in this world in defining who we are and why we do things. To quote from the book, "Yes, how deceptively light they are, the truly decisive steps in life we take."

When is a certain Swedish committee going to take note of this fellow?

Old people rock!.......2005-12-02

I've only read the first 20 pages of this book but I feel I am now an expert on Banville's work. I checked this book out at the library as a substitute for buying "The Sea" because I just can't buy hardcovers, but still want to be hip and up to date on the latest books. With all the critics ripping into a man booker winner I had to see what the fuss was all about. Banville's style is like a nice mild drunk by the fire on a cold winter's day after a few days off from work. It's clear and reflective. Warm but not to sentimental. He's painting an internal life and does it with a fluid brilliance that I haven't had the pleasure of experiencing in a long while. It's an intimate style that is comfortable and yet cool and detached at the same time, the signature of all great works of art.

Average customer rating:

Readable and revealing

Untouchable: An Indian Life History
James M. Freeman
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0804711038

Book Description

Freeman's study of a forty-year-old untouchable, named Muli, is a welcome contribution to South Asian ethnography, offering unique insights into the impact of complex psychosocial and environmental forces on India's untouchable castes. . . . It also has broader implications for the understanding of oppressed peoples throughout the world. . . . The volume includes certain topics that have received little attention from anthropologists. There are chapters on 'oath friendships,' transvestites (male prostitutes), a symbolic marriage to a tree trunk, and several devastating chapters about the sexual exploitation of Bauri women by high-caste men. The text is full of rich information on social roles, family structure, marriage customs, and dishonesty among bureaucrats, priests, farmers, and even fellow Bauris." ---James J. Preston, "Journal of Psychological Anthropology"

Customer Reviews:

Readable and revealing.......2000-06-11

Reading this book was very satisfying to my curiosity. It only portrays one person's life, and that person is probably fairly unusual in some respects. But, as a transcribed and translated oral narrative from an "outcaste", it includes much authentic detail about the customs of life passages, such as in courtship and marriage, in childbirth, in death, and also the struggles of the village community theater group, as well as descriptions of true "daily life": obtaining food and eating, relationships between parents and children, wives and husbands, the complications of living within earshot of family and neighbors, traveling, finding work, getting paid, and even the activity I, a middle-class mall-culture American, refer to in public as "going to the bathroom". This book remains simultaneously frank and delicate, due to the particular propensities of the man Muli, the informant, and the faithful rendering of the author, James Freeman.

Freeman, an academic type, in the course of finding an informant who would be willing, for payment, to spend long hours talking and several months engaged in an activity that might be considered odd or even idle to his peers, came to undertake this work with Muli who turns out to be (in plain language) a pimp. It may be because Muli desires above all other things being connected with people of the highest castes that he cultivates delicacy when speaking of unsavory topics like "professional" sex, unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. He is a very gossipy man so he'll tell you everything he knows about his customers, his employees, and everyone else in his village, and while he excuses himself much, he seems never to cheat us by leaving out bad information about himself.

If this book were only about what it is like to be a pimp in rural India, it would not have been so interesting. Muli comes from an otherwise industrious family, who mainly do pick-up work in quarries and farm-fields, and tells much about them and about his own attempts to please his parents and general propriety by doing this work himself.

Book Description

Cheating, partying, blackmail, and now...murder?

Can the Billings Girls remain untouchable?

Reed's boyfriend, Thomas Pearson -- the popular, easygoing, irresistibly handsome and charismatic boy she fell in love with -- is dead. No one knows how it happened, and everyone is after the truth. Or are they?

Life at Easton Academy begins to feel very different. Taylor is acting like the poster child for Prozac, Kiran is spiking her cornflakes, Noelle is being kind of...nice, and Arianna keeps floating along as if nothing has happened.

Thanksgiving break arrives and Reed and Josh find themselves alone on campus. They are forced to confront the feelings they've been hiding. Those feelings combined with an empty campus result in the hottest hookup Reed could possibly imagine. But when Reed breaks the news about Josh to the Billings Girls, there's no fun game of tell-all. Instead, Josh begins to look like suspect No. 1 in the murder of Thomas Pearson.

The perfect life Reed has constructed as a Billings Girl begins to crumble. And as everyone becomes more convinced of Josh's guilt, Reed's private suspicions lead her somewhere she doesn't want to go.

Customer Reviews:

Untouchable.......2007-07-03

I thought when i read this that it was nice and simple, and it was. I really enjoyed reading such a wonderful quick and easy read. Thank you Kate Brian for thia wonderful quick, easy, but enjoyable series!

Courtesy of Teens Read Too.......2007-01-25

Right when Reed Brennan was accepted into the Billings Girls' clique and had finally gotten over her ex-boyfriend (if you could call him that) Thomas Pearce, she discovers that Thomas, the guy that she truly loved, was found dead. Now Reed feels guilty for ever moving on or thinking the worst about Thomas. It's hard for Reed to mourn his death since everyone around her is watching her every move and emotions. It doesn't help either that Thomas's parents couldn't care less that their son has passed away--or how Taylor, Kiran, Noelle, and Arianna are all acting very strange. Especially Taylor, who seems to be crying more than Reed over the death of Thomas.

Being at school doesn't help Reed's problems either. She can hardly focus on her school work, since her mind is always on Thomas. There are detectives there investigating Thomas's death, guessing that he was murdered, and interviewing all of the students about Thomas and his past.

But there is only one person that can actually keep Reed sane, and that's Josh. He's the only that actually makes her laugh now and she feels happy whenever she's around him. Except for the fact that he was Thomas's best friend and he did share a room with Thomas. Right when Reed begins to fall for Josh, she discovers things about his past that not only could hurt their relationship but also be the answers to all of the questions that she has.

Kate Brian does it again in this third installment of the PRIVATE series. UNTOUCHABLE delves deeper into the lives of the students that attend Easton Academy. Who knew a private school could have so many secrets? With another cliffhanger, the only thing the reader can think about is, "why is the next book so far away?"

Reviewed by: Randstostipher "tallnlankyrn" Nguyen

one of my favorite book series!!!.......2007-01-23

After reading the first 2 novels in the private series, i couldnt wait to read untouchable!! I finished it the same day that i started it; it was a great book. it was a little bit unrealistic, though. it had a few too many twists and turns and the ending sort of leaves you hanging, but i definately recommend this to anyone who enjoys the private series.

OMG LUV IT.......2007-01-03

this entire series has been great but this latest book untouchable reached a new level of greatness, it is full of intigue, scandel, gossip, and secrets all the elments that make great teen novels!!!! This is both realistic and yet so belieable at the same time.... i know that doesn't make much sence but thats the only way i can discribe it.... i can not wait until april!!!!

One of those books that keeps you from doing all the things you previously planned on doing........2006-12-30

Untouchable, the third installment of the Private Series, was AMAZING. Not only does it include more secrets, undeniable connections, and scandals so big they'll make your head spin, but somehow the outrageous plots seem so real and probable. Reed defintely wasn't expecting any of the things she's expierienced to happen when she got her scholarship to Easton, but they did.

The love triangle between Reed Brennan, her dead boyfriend Thomas Pearson, and his former-roommate Josh Hollis is incredibly real and page turning. You'd think that falling in love would be hard when you've lost your, albeit, drug-dealing, boyfriend, and it is, but Josh just being Josh makes it sooo easy.

Then, of course, there just HAS to be something wrong with the man in question. It sort of aggrivated me because I wanted Josh to just be, and stay, perfect and not have any skeletons in his closet. But, whats the point of a book if there is no drama, especially in Easton Academy.

So this book was beyond incredable and I'm having a hard time controlling myself from hunting down Kate Brian and demanding she give me an early copy of Confessions. I think I speak for all of the Private readers out there when I say this cliff-hanger of an ending really leaves you craving for more.

Average customer rating:

A shocking book
keyne readers admire untouchables
A very touching story
Universally vital subject matter from a creative author

Untouchable (Penguin Classics)
Mulk Raj Anand
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Indian | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0140183957

Customer Reviews:

A shocking book.......2007-07-03

Documents the life of the untouchables in a way that would shock any reader who had no prior knowledge of how these people live.

keyne readers admire untouchables.......2004-07-05

Untouchable, by Mulk Raj Anand, 1933
We thought this was a valuable book because it was motivated by passionate political convictions to inform people about the plight of the `Untouchables' in Hindu society in the 1930s and was well written. We felt that, apart from the contrived ending, the novella worked very well in telling a believable story. We felt that Anand represented the main protagonist of the narrative - a young man called Bakha - as someone to identify with and feel for. He was not a `cardboard' hero but someone pitiable in his eagerness to please and his gratitude for the smallest crumbs of kindness from his superiors. Because there are no chapter headings the readers are drawn on and on to follow him in his path.
The characterisation was considered to be vivid with the story being told in a succession of short `set pieces' entailing dramatic encounters with the friends and the enemies of the Untouchables. The novella covers just one day from sunrise to sunset in the life of the eighteen year old Bakha. It seems to be a day when he `comes to consciousness' in many ways as to his position at the bottom of the social and spiritual hierarchy. We learn that he is imprisoned by an invisible wall of prejudice so that he cannot walk in the streets freely, nor buy food, nor worship or even visit someone's house normally. Through following his sister briefly we learn that Untouchables are even unable to collect water for themselves but must beg others to obtain it for them. Nor is he allowed an education or medical care. Nevertheless Anand portrays him as capable of some happiness. Even in his restricted position he takes some pleasure in his clothes, enjoys part of his hard work and a game of hockey.
Anand provided a contrived ending so as to offer the varied solutions to the problem of Untouchables as put forward by Ghandi, a Christian, a Muslim and a social reformer cum poet. Bakha is left at the end of the day only with the comfort of knowing that his situation has been noticed as something which needs to be addressed.
We thought that it was very much of its time in the sense that Anand cannot conceive of getting Bakha to perform his own liberation. He must be freed by someone else: whether by radicalising Hindus, or becoming a Christian or a Muslim, or by being given flush toilets by western industrialists.
We also felt that society in the UK had treated poorer classes which did dirty jobs - cleaning up after others often - in ways which had some parallels with the situation of Bakha.

A very touching story.......2001-08-09

I do not remember why I first bought this book, but when I was reading it, it sure fired up some long gone memories into my system of the times when I was a six year old boy use to visit my grandparents in a remote village in Punjab, India.

I have always heard of the Untouchables but did not remember how disrespectfully the Indians have been treating their own people known as the Untouchables.

To summarize the book in some sentences -

1 It is an excellent story, which may not be true, but 99.9% of the Untouchables and the rest in India will relate to it.

2 The story also describes very clearly the Context in which these people have/had to work for their Masters (Jats, Brahmins etc.) in the villages of India.

3 If you do not wish to do extensive research on this topic but you want to understand the meaning and get a handle on 'the Untouchablility' existing in India then this book is for you.

4 I have also read an excellent book by John D. Morley called "Pictures from the Water Trade" which describes how a very similar Caste system also flourishing in Japan. My point here is that India is not alone, guilty of subhuman practices. In India there exists, perhaps, a more established hierarchical Caste system structure than any other place, and you will get a clear picture of it after reading the book.

Universally vital subject matter from a creative author.......2000-03-31

Looking at the title some people might say: "Oh, well, it is another one of those stories about poor, suffering Indians...It is probably just another tearjerker, nothing more...and this and that..." They would be only half-right. Yes, it is another story about unimaginable suffering of out-cast Indians, The Untouchables. Yes, if you call yourself a HUMAN being and have a heart, you WILL empathize with them. However, this book doesn't ask you to pitty its characters and/or cry for them. Instead, it makes you think about them, not only in the context of Indian culture, but in a context of a much larger world. It also forces you to draw parallels to your own culture, whether you like it or not. Today, this book is especially potent, as we no longer live in our "little isolated cultures", separated by endless preconceptions and stupid prejudices about each other. In addition, this book is simply a piece of excellent writing, thanks to the wonderful writing skills and creative methods of its author. The story is narrated through the eyes of a main character, who directly addresses you as a reader, and yet sometimes seems to ignore you completely, while going about his own business (those are particularly interesting moments in the story). So, read this book, follow the lives (actually, try to live their lives with them) of its numerous and vivid characters, not one of whom is like the next one. I garantee that you will learn something new about India and also about yourselves, in the process of reading this book.

Average customer rating:

"BEYOND BRIBERY OR BULLETS"-Oscar Fraley
Don't Waste Your Time.....
The right man for the time
Ness does tend to exaggerate a bit
Excellent

The Untouchables
Eliot Ness , and Oscar Fraley
Manufacturer: Buccaneer Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1568491980

Customer Reviews:

"BEYOND BRIBERY OR BULLETS"-Oscar Fraley.......2005-03-31

"One thing was certain: someone had declared open season on Elliot Ness, and it was a damned uncomfortable feeling."-Elliot Ness

The sale or consumption of alcohol was not really the problem. The Sicilian mafia landed on American shores sometime around 1899. One of their most notorious progeny was "Scarface" Al Capone with whom Elliot Ness did battle from 1929-1931. Elliot Ness had nearly finished this true story before he died of a heart attack at age 54 in 1957. This book is not a biography of Ness's life, just an account of the two and one half years during which time he and his ten or so hand-picked federal men finally succeeded in stopping Capone in his murderous tracks. The story is mostly about raid after countless raid of breweries by Ness's "untouchables" in the Chicago area during Prohibition and the Depression years. While millions of Americans were starving, shoeless and jobless, Capone and Co. were living the high life and living it as if they were above the law itself. Or so they thought...

Ness chose his men carefully like Gideon in Judges 7; they had to be beyond reproach, content to live on a $2800/year salary and strong enough to resist the temptation of Capone's thugs constantly flaunting thousand dollar bills and diamond-studded fat, fleshy fingers under their noses. Money is powerful in its effects, yet more powerful were those like Ness and co. who, under the law were content to live by it, and who with the law put a lot of rotten, murderous apples behind federal bars. The chief problem with Capone was not just flat out lawlessness or the profligacy his rackets engendered, but corruption which had seeped into all areas of the judicial system, police force, federal agents, judges, lawyers, and other court officials; Capone had lots of money to throw around from the profits of his liquor selling illegal enterprise, and because he never somehow had to pay income taxes. That was the reason why Ness was so careful in selecting his men and also the main reason for their success in finally undoing Capone's vast network of criminals. Once, one of his men working undercover took money from one of Capone's gang, and admitted it to Ness. Ness told him to find the same man and give him back the exact dollar amount he had been given.

Elliot Ness was the coolest fed that ever lived (in my opinion). One had to be tough dealing with the mafia; they stopped at nothing to preserve their domineering hold in their cities. I think that just because Ness did not suffer physical harm from Capone and co. may lead some to think that Capone was not so bad, Ness's life was not so threatened. However, I think it just proves that he really had his wits about him and was sober to every aspect of the circumstances surrounding himself and his men; the threat and evidences of the mafia's revenge such as bullets in their enemies' heads and body parts mutilated is evidence enough to me that Elliot Ness and his "untouchables" were in a deadly battle dealing with the Mafia. Capone had hired Tony Napoli to kill him, read the book and you'll find out how Ness survived.

Exodus 23:8 And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous.

Don't Waste Your Time............2003-05-19

So much credit and legitimacy has been lauded this tale over the years that it has tended to be taken as truth.....and no further from the truth could it be. It was written very close to the end of Eliot Ness's life when he was little more than a boozy has-been who would "weave" his tales for anyone who would listen. Usually this was done in some tavern where Ness would corner some sucker for the free drinks that went with his storytelling. A writer by the name of Oscar Fraley saw the chance of big bucks and sure success by putting some of this into print and there you have the reason for this rag to even exist. The TRUE story of Al Capone and the Chicago mob of the prohibition era is MUCH better reading than this tale form some drunk's bleary imagination. Do yourself a favor.....get ahold of and READ the Capone biography by John Kobler. You will get the TRUE story of Capone's rise and fall(which has much more to do with the IRS than with Elliot Ness)and none of the "bologna" that makes up this tall tale. The true story is plenty TALL itself.

The right man for the time.......2001-12-27

This book is one of the few accounts we have of the '20s gangster era. The book recounts Eliot Ness's experiences as the leader of a team of nine men who were assigned the job of cutting off Al Capone's main sourse of income-illgeal booze. Ness and his team were part of a two pronged attact to get Capone. While agent Frank Wilson gathered evidence to convict Capone of tax evaison, Ness and his team raided stills and breweries that provided Capone with income to bribe police and newsmen. The book recounts the selection of the team and their early failures and successes. When Ness made a raid he often informed the media to show that some lawmen were honest and as a result he has been called a glory hound. The book tells of their many raids and some insight on the Chicago mob. The book has been accused of exaggerating but much in the book has be varified and Ness WAS celebrated as a hero in the New York Times when Capone was convicted. Ness died before this book was published and is not responsible for the Eliot Ness legend. When we needed lawmen to set the example Ness did the job he was called to do, and moved on.

Ness does tend to exaggerate a bit.......2001-11-09

I've read this book and I think that Elliot Ness did exaggerate a bit. Yes, he may have been in the team set out to capture Capone, he may even have been the group leader but in the book he does exaggerate his bravery and the risks he took. I would not recommend this book if you don't like reading lies.

Excellent.......2001-09-29

Some have complained that this book is fiction. I am ashamed of the people who said that Eliot Ness was an old drunk who captured a few beer stills. They obviously didn't read the book. Eliot Ness told sportswriter Oscar Fraley that he didn't want any fiction but Fraley convinced Ness that fiction was needed. This describes the life of Eliot Ness in Chicago. One must look at this through an eye of skeptiscm. But this is truly excellent reading. Most of it is true but the estimates that Ness and Fraley made are somewhat exagerrated. But otherwise this is a story which will entice your senses and will make you so thankful you weren't a mobster in the 30's

Untouchable: A Biography of Robert DeNiro

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A Suspect Expose
Untouchable...
De Niro
GOOD BOOK LOTS OF INFO.
"Anytime, anywhere."

Untouchable: A Biography of Robert DeNiro
Andy Dougan
Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1560254696

Book Description

From his amazing feature film performances to his roles as producer and director to his many notable guest appearances, De Niro started his career as early as 1965 and has since dominated the world of Hollywood. Untouchable will take you inside the life of this astonishing actor to provide a revealing and sometimes startling account of an intensely private man. Dougan provides information on actual life events that seemed to have had a profound effect on De Niro emotionally, and discusses De Niro's working and personal relationships with personalities such as Martin Scorcese, Jack Nicholson, Jodie Foster, and Sharon Stone. With an updated epilogue and filmography, this new edition will also include De Niro's entrepreneurial and behind-the-scenes role in co-founding Tribeca Productions in 1988 and the works he has since produced and directed. Although De Niro continues his work as an actor, it is his vision for Tribeca to be the axis of the film industry and the heart of New York City's film community that currently takes up most of his time. 24 black-and-white photos are included.

Customer Reviews:

A Suspect Expose.......2006-06-22

First, I must say that the writer must be British, because of his spelling. However, I personally believe that only a New Yorker can really accurately capture a man like Robert De Niro's life. I also believe that the author engages in speculation on more than one occasion and oftentimes his speculation is presented as fact. Granted, Robert De Niro is an "intensely private" individual, as the author says. So an author must engage in some speculation, however there is too much ambiguity, tenuous speclation in this biography, for my taste. But, Mr. Dougan's alleged reputation as "a respected film reviewer and broadcaster" became a matter of speculation itself, when Andy Dougan makes the impugnable offense of claiming that "De Niro, incidentally, is the only person in the Godfather films who utters the immortal phrase about non-refusable offers...When Al Pacino as Michael relates to Vito's negotiating ploy in the first film he says only, 'My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse.'" (page 65, second to last paragraph) Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone tells his godson, Johnny Fontane, that it's too late for the Godfather to get him into an acting role, because the part has been cast,
Fontane: "It's too late, they start shooting in a week."
Don Corleone (Brando): "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."
I only realized after this review that other Amazon reviewers spotted the mistake, however when I read it, I almost fell out of my chair; I knew it was a mistake immediately. How can a "respected film reviewer" forget about one of the most famous lines, in perhaps the most famous film ever made? For me, a movie purist, this casts a shadow on the veracity of this biography, or any of this author's speculation and/or conclusions. This is not pedantry, I believe that when writing a biography of Robert De Niro, and proclaiming yourself as a respected film reviewer, one cannot make these mistakes. Also, the author does not make much reference to the friendship of Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. Personally, through some inside knowledge, I happen to know quite a bit of their relationship through a source who "hung out with them" during the early to mid 1980s in Jersey City, NJ and Manhattan. However, let me point to some positives, I did in fact learn several little trifles of knowledge and interesting facts about the legendary screen actor, director, and film-maker.

Untouchable..........2003-12-27

I'm a big fan of Robert DeNiro.This book help me to see him in different view.The way he's prepare for each role his endeless hard work and great performing.He's know as a private person and the book is not only talk about his great movies,but tell a lot of his private life.I learn so much and I recomended everybody who loves him.

De Niro.......2003-12-14

UNTOUCHABLE is a decent book. I agree with the others that state some obvious errors, such as the famous Godfather quote. Another is the Scorsese/Raging Bull quote. Scorsese actually greatly admired Buster Keaton's work in Battling Butler (and Keaton never hit anyone over the head with a chair in it). Dougan has it all wrong.

Having said that, this is about the only biography of Robert De Niro available and Dougan does a good job of covering his personal life which is not well known.

GOOD BOOK LOTS OF INFO........2002-03-21

It took me a long time and I mean a very long time about 6 mths. to actually get into this book but after I did I enjoyed it and found out alot of information that I never knew about Deniro. The one thing that bothered me about this book and took me so long to get into it was the grammar in this book I mean I am no English lit. teacher but at least proofread the book before publishing it. I mean come on there was alot of mispelling of words and missing words that you just kind of had to fill in for yourself along the way, and it was a little confusing the way the author went back and forth with certain events and movies you really had to follow along every single step of the way. Overall I liked it because it was a good book as far as info. was concerned. I really only bought the book because I love Deniro as an actor and think he is THE sexiest man alive!!!

DEE-Cleveland,OHIO

"Anytime, anywhere.".......2002-01-29

It took me a while to decide whether to give this book 3 or 4 stars. As you can see, I decided on the lower number. I have many reasons for this:
1. This is an interesting book, but only because it is about Robert De Niro. Not because the information is presented in an interesting fashion. In fact, my Calculus textbook presents its information more interestingly than this bio. Mr. Dougan either doesn't know how to write, or had his 9 year old write this book for him. The language of his writing is awful. The way he states things is bad (he also uses the word "keen" at least once every 2 pages-what's up with that?)You'll understand what I mean
if you have read this.
3. He doesn't do everything in chronological order. For example, he'll go on for a few pages about a movie De Niro was doing, than he'll suddenly go back five years and tell us about De Niro's relationship with one of his wives or something like that. He could definately have done this in a way so that it isn't so grating on the reader.
4. He uses quotes that are at times unrelated to what he's talking about.
5. He repeats the same information multiple times. For example, I think that he has John Belushi dying about 5 times in 2 chapters. In fact chapters 22 and 23 three begin with almost the exact same sentence ("The death of John Belushi was a devastating blow for De Niro." and "Since the death of John Belushi, De Niro had been taking stock of his life." Tell me that those two chapters don't sound like they are both about the same thing, De Niro dealing with Belushi's death.)
6. He uses unrelated things to make the book seem bigger. For example, a little over two chapters are devoted to John Belushi's life, his relatationship with De Niro, his death, and the investigation after his death.
7. He doesn't have enough actual information about De Niro preparing and making his movies. He tends to spend much more time quoting reviews that various critics gave of De Niro's performances. In fact, I'd say that the critic quotes outnumber actual facts about making the movies 3 to 1.
8. He has absolutely no interviews that he specifically did for this book with anyone who would know anything about De Niro's life, preparing for roles, making his movies, anything! Instead he relies on past interviews that other people have conducted with De Niro and people who know him.
So, overall this was an interesting book since it is the first bio of Robert De Niro that I read. However, that is the only thing it has going for it. Unless you can't find ANYTHING at all better, don't read this. If you have to read this because your library doesn't have any other bios on De Niro (the unfortunate situation that I fell into), then I guess this is okay.
Oh, I almost forgot one more thing:
9. He gets a lot of his facts wrong. For instance, he says that De Niro, playing Vito Corleone in Godfather II, was the only one to say the famous "offer he can't refuse" line. While in fact, Brando says it in the first one when telling Tom Hagen what to do about Woltz, the movie producer, AND Michael (Pacino) also says it in the first one when Fredo asks how he will convince Moe Greene to sell the casino. And those two are just off of my head (he does say that Pacino "alluded" to the famous line while telling Kay about Luca Brasi and the band leader during the wedding scene, but he says that that apparently doesn't count).

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The Untouchables
Oscar Farley
Manufacturer: Julian Messner Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H6D0JU

The Untouchables: Subordination, Poverty and the State in Modern India (Contemporary South Asia)

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The Untouchables: Subordination, Poverty and the State in Modern India (Contemporary South Asia)
Oliver Mendelsohn , and Marika Vicziany
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521556716

Book Description

In a compelling account of the lives of those at the bottom of Indian society, the authors explore the construction of the Untouchables as a social and political category, the historical background that led to such a definition and their position in India today. The authors argue that, despite efforts to ameliorate their condition, a considerable edifice of discrimination persists. The book promises to make a major contribution to the social and economic debates on poverty, while its wide-ranging perspectives will ensure a readership from across the disciplines.

Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Escape from India's Caste System

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Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Escape from India's Caste System
Narendra Jadhav
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520252632

Book Description

Every sixth human being in the world today is an Indian, and every sixth Indian is an untouchable. For thousands of years the untouchables, or Dalits, the people at the bottom of the Hindu caste system, have been treated as subhuman. In this remarkable book, at last giving voice to India's voiceless, Narendra Jadhav tells the awe-inspiring story of his family's struggle for equality and justice in India. Based on his father's diaries and family stories, Jadhav has written the triumphant story of his parents--their great love, unwavering courage, and eventual victory in the struggle to free themselves and their children from the caste system. He vividly brings his parents' world to light and unflinchingly documents the lives of untouchables--the hunger, the cruel humiliations, the perpetual fear, and the brutal abuse. Untouchables is an eye-opening work that gives readers insight into the lives of India's 165 million Dalits, whose struggle for equality continues even today.

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