Family Legacy

Book excerpt: On the morning of October 25, 1957, a group of men enter the barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel on 55th Street and Seventh Avenue and approach the figure in the brown suit sitting in Chair 4. A minute later, Albert Anastasia lies on the floor in a pool of blood. The dramatic assassination of the head of Murder, Incorporated captures the imagination of the press, as pictures of the corpse adorn front pages nationwide. But for Jack Pagano, a seventeen year-old high school football hero with a penchant for Shakespeare's history plays, the episode has special relevance. Because a little over a week before, completely out of the blue, Anastasia came into his life to announce that Jack was his son. It seems that Rip Collins, Jack's quasi-guardian, has been training Jack for more than just the college football league. Shortly after the shooting, Jack is given a letter from his father that, in extraordinarily candid and detailed terms, lays out Anastasia's view of the world, and outlines his plans for his son. Under Rip's tutelage, as well as the watchful eye of his father's close associates Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello, now is the time for Jack to inherit his dark legacy. Based on real events, and peopled with dozens of historical characters, Family Legacy takes us on a fascinating and eye-opening journey that criss-crosses through the interconnected worlds of the Mafia, law enforcement, and the business and political classes of the late fifties and early sixties, to build to a shattering and revelatory climax in Dallas, Texas on the morning of November 22, 1963.