Summary of Howie Carr's Hitman

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 John Vincent Martorano was a unlikely gangster. He had only one sibling, and he grew up in a stable middle-class family. He was always fascinated by the city, and he always returned to it.

#2 After the war, Andy Martorano was doing well in the postwar economy. He bought a medallion, and put his brothers, Danny and Louie, to work as drivers. They eventually sold their half of the business to Andy.

#3 Johnny was a popular kid at St. Agatha’s parochial school in Milton. He was also becoming harder and harder to handle, as his parents were finding him difficult to control. So they shipped him off to a Catholic prep school in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Mount St. Charles Academy.

#4 I was always loyal to my family and friends, and I tried to protect the blood of my blood - my family and friends -, even when I was in the gang. I was doing what people asked me to do, to help them out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822511323

IRB Media

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Insights on Howie Carr's Hitman

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

John Vincent Martorano was a unlikely gangster. He had only one sibling, and he grew up in a stable middle-class family. He was always fascinated by the city, and he always returned to it.

#2

After the war, Andy Martorano was doing well in the postwar economy. He bought a medallion, and put his brothers, Danny and Louie, to work as drivers. They eventually sold their half of the business to Andy.

#3

Johnny was a popular kid at St. Agatha’s parochial school in Milton. He was also becoming harder and harder to handle, as his parents were finding him difficult to control. So they shipped him off to a Catholic prep school in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Mount St. Charles Academy.

#4

I was always loyal to my family and friends, and I tried to protect the blood of my blood - my family and friends -, even when I was in the gang. I was doing what people asked me to do, to help them out.

#5

Johnny’s brother, Jimmy, was 11 months younger, and was already going to Boston College. Johnny struggled academically, and began going out with a nice girl from North Quincy named Nancy O’Neill.

#6

In the fall of 1958, Jimmy and Johnny Martorano made the Quincy Patriot Ledger’s South Shore All-Scholastic Football Team. Johnny was the only all-star to repeat for a second year. In addition to fullback, he played linebacker on defense for Milton High.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

Johnny Martorano, the father, was a businessman of sorts at Luigi’s. He would receive a weekly envelope from the Boston police District 4 captain and lieutenant, who were usually bookmakers, and he would give them a tip if one of their flying squads was planning a raid.

#2

Johnny was arrested for the first time when he was just 14 years old. He had taken to carrying a gun, like everyone he knew in the Combat Zone, and bought it from a local character. He was arrested for possession of an unregistered firearm.

#3

Johnny was arrested for gun charges, and when he went before the judge, he asked for permission to enlist in the military. The judge gave him permission, and Johnny went to Miami. Six months later, he returned to Boston. In his absence, the police bagman made the gun charges go away.

#4

In Boston, there were many Irish and Italian gangs that battled each other for control of the city’s rackets. After Prohibition, the Mafia took over the city’s underworld, but not completely.

#5

In Boston, organized crime was in your face in 1960. The American tabloid survived because it ran the winning daily number in the city’s underworld lottery, which was openly called nigger pool.

#6

In Boston, the Mafia was known as In Town. To visit Angiulo, you had to go to his headquarters in the North End.

#7

The North End had many allies, including the McLaughlin Gang of Charlestown, who handled enforcement in the Navy Yard and the docks. The Somerville guys were all Teamsters, members of a totally mobbed-up union.

#8

In Italian East Boston, the Martorano family ruled. But a young Portuguese-American named Joe Barboza had ambitions to join La Cosa Nostra. He didn’t know that behind his back, the Italians in the North End and Providence referred to him as the nigger.

#9

Wimpy Bennett was a mobster who was always looking for an edge. He was constantly hiring lip readers to hang around other mobsters he was lining up, so he could know what they were talking about.

#10

In the 1950s, Wimpy the Fox recruited two young brothers from Roxbury. Vincent Flemmi was better known as Jimmy the Bear. He was a compulsive thief who would not pay for anything. He had a piece of everything in Roxbury.

#11

South Boston was a bit off the gangland radar screen, with its organized crime being somewhat disorganized. The top