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One Of The Family

One Of The Family

Summary

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At Ronnie Kray's funeral, London crime expert John Pearson saw a man he didn't recognise - but who all the notorious criminals present deferred to.

This is the remarkable true story of that man: 'the Englishman'.

Investigations revealed that the Englishman was never mentioned in any of the previous books on organised crime, not because he wasn't involved, but because everyone was too scared to speak his name. Moreover, he was as legendary a figure on the streets of New York as on the streets of London.

Pearson persuaded the mysterious criminal leader to talk to him - and the result was a story even more extraordinary than that of the Kray twins. Here Pearson reveals the true story of the Englishman who became the adopted son of Joey Pagano, the head of one of the major New York crime families. Here the Englishman tells the story that no-one else dared to tell.
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John Pearson's The Profession of Violence created the myth of the Kray twins, and remains a classic of true crime and the principal work on East London criminals.

Reviews

  • Straight out of The Godfather ... this insight into the hidden world of the mafia is well worth reading
    The Oldie

About the author

John Pearson

John Pearson graduated from Peterhouse Cambridge with a double first in History, then worked on the Economist Intelligence Unit and as a BBC trainee producer before being offered a job by Ian Fleming as his assistant on the 'Atticus' column for the Sunday Times. Pearson was the author of - among others - the only authorised biography of Ian Fleming, as well as bestselling The Profession of Violence.
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