The exclusive story of the fall of the Philadelphia mob, through the eyes of the FBI informant who brought it down . . .
As a cop, Ron Previte was corrupt. As a mobster he was brutal. And in his final role, as a confidential informant to the FBI, Previte was deadly. 'The Last Gangster' is his story - the story of the last days of the Philadelphia mob, and of the clash of generations that brought it down once and for all.
For 35 years Ron Previte roamed the underworld. A six-foot, 300-pound capo in the Philadelphia-South Jersey crime family, he ran every mob scam and gambit from drug trafficking to the extortion of millions. By the 1990s, Previte, an old-school workhorse, found himself answering to younger mob bosses like 'Skinny Joe' Merlino, who seemed increasingly spoiled, cocky, and careless. Convinced that the honour of the 'business' was gone, he became the FBI's secret weapon in an intense and war on the Philadelphia mob.
Operating with the same wit and stone-cold bravado that had made him a force in the underworld, Previte recorded it all; the murder, the mayhem, the affairs. Previte and his FBI cronies eventually prevailed, and now Previte explains why today is so sure of his success, and the mob’s downfall, that he lives free from federal protection in his home town of Philadelphia.
