cover image Blood Oath: The Heroic Story of a Gangster Turned Government Agent Who Brought Down One of America's Most Powerf

Blood Oath: The Heroic Story of a Gangster Turned Government Agent Who Brought Down One of America's Most Powerf

George Fresolone. Simon & Schuster, $22.5 (316pp) ISBN 978-0-671-77905-4

``Organized crime is not a thing of honor,'' we're reminded by Fresolone, a former member of the Bruno-Scarfo family, which ran the underworld in Philadelphia, Atlantic City and other parts of New Jersey. As a minor cog in the gambling-loansharking wheel, he went to prison in 1983 with assurances that his fellow mobsters would take care of his family financially. But they did not, and here began Fresolone's disillusionment with organized crime. In 1988, he became an informant for the New Jersey State Police, collecting enough evidence to indict some 39 figures. Ironically, he was inducted into La Cosa Nostra a month before his undercover work ended. With the aid of Wagman (The Nazi Hunters), Fresolone tells a suspenseful story, ending with a chapter on his life in the Witness Protection Program. Photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)