This book, Joe Barboza's brutal memoir, was first published in 1975 and has long been out-of-print. Originally issued as a smaller mass market paperback, this new edition was completely redesigned and reformatted. While leaving the words unchanged and retaining elements of the original cover art, the publisher has reset the entire text into a larger trade paperback format (6x9 inches) that features more comfortable page margins and a standard sized type that is easier to read. Regarding the book itself, noted crime journalist and coauthor Hank Messick said it best: "Joe Barboza was a businessman. That's how Joe has always looked upon himself. When he beat a man to a bloody pulp, it was business. When he set up a man for a hit, it was business. When he shot a man down on the street or in his home, it was business. Now Joe Barboza opens his books-in a thorough accounting of all the business he did during his years of bloodletting in the underworld. There is no apology in his voice or regret or even embarrassment as he details the most gruesome aspects of his trade. There is just the calm tone and special language of a professional talking about his work. It will shock you as nothing you have ever read before." The book is indeed a record of one man's violent career in organized crime and his seemingly unavoidable cooperation with the FBI that sent notorious associates, including New England mafia boss Raymond Patriarca, to prison. Finally, the book laid bare the details and events that would lead, inexorably, as Joe always knew, to his own his violent death.
