"When it comes to the giants of 20th Century underworld the names you rarely read about are often more interesting than the ones you did. And they wanted it that way! Vincent "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo was there from the beginning, when organized crime got organized by Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky, Alo's lifelong business partner. From the formation of the modern syndicate during Prohibition through the creation of Las Vegas and the Mafia empire in Havana, Jimmy Blue Eyes was the ghost who slipped the grasp of gangland chroniclers. Until now. Jimmy raised his niece Carole Russo like a daughter-and now she tells his story from the inside out. A natural writer, Russo paints an intimate portrait of her own family and the leading lights of the era-Luciano, Lansky, Costello, Siegel, Sinatra, the Kennedys-that are a must-read for students of one of the most fascinating periods in American history."

• Eric Dezenhall, author, The Devil Himself and Best of Enemies