THE MAFIA CHRONICLES

A New York Times bestseller, the ?chilling and compelling . . . must-read? confessions of a mob hit man?and the riveting sequel of his most harrowing contract (former FBI agent Joe Pistone, aka Donnie Brasco).   Killer: The Bronx-born son of a Jewish bootlegger, ?Joey the Hit Man? was introduced to crime when he was just eleven years old. For the next thirty years he was a numbers king, scalper, loan shark, enforcer, and drug smuggler. He hijacked trucks, fenced stolen goods, and trafficked in pornography. But Joey really made his name as a Mafia assassin, racking up thirty-eight cold-blooded hits?thirty-five for cash, three for revenge. In this no-holds-barred account, he reveals the brutal truth of a life in organized crime.   Hit #29: In the fall of 1969, a public execution in a Brooklyn Italian restaurant earned Joey a mention in the New York Daily News and a twenty-grand payout from the mob. Next up: The bosses suspected their trusted numbers controller, Joe Squillante, was skimming the nightly bets to settle personal debts. But Squillante, aka Hit #29, was no clueless patsy and an unpredictable bull?s-eye. Taking the job meant entering into a game of predator and prey as nerve-racking as the cock of a .38 hammer.