USA TODAY International Edition
‘ Brotherhood Betrayed’ a riveting gangster tale
A book that can whisk you away to another world – even the Mob underworld – has pronounced value in apocalyptic times marked by a global pandemic, unprecedented wildfires and menacing hurricanes. Michael Cannell provides just such an escapist passport in his true- crime gangster tale, “A Brotherhood Betrayed: The Man Behind the Rise and Fall of Murder, Inc.” ( Minotaur, 336 pp., ★★★☆).
The scene is New York City, the year is 1941. We first meet Abe “Kid Twist” Reles, 35, a squat, unrepentant killer for a Mob outlet known as the Commission, as he awaits his turn testifying against crime bosses Albert Anastasia and Lepke Buchalter. After spending his entire adult life dispatching squealers with guns, ropes and ice picks, Reles, fearing for his own life, turns state’s evidence.
The snitch carries the hopes of many a cop: “Reles was the keystone, the Jenga piece, in a government push to end once and for all the mob’s long- reaching free hand in murder, racketeering, extortion, loan- sharking, drug- smuggling, prostitution, and gambling.”
But, as Cannell writes in a tale rife with indelible detail, “The police took up a saying, ‘ The canary sang but he could not fly.’ ” Before Reles can continue testifying against his murderous bosses, he winds up exiting, against his will, his police- protected hotel room through the window, instantly rendering the canary’s voice mute.
From this cinematic opening trained on an unsolved mystery – “Who killed Kid Twist?” – Cannell hits rewind, bringing readers into the hardscrabble New York of the 1920s. There, Reles and countless other immigrant kids of various ethnicities and religious backgrounds find a brotherhood in gangs that demand loyalty unconditionally and punish betrayal.
We also meet the law enforcement officers bent on leveraging underlings and executioners such as Reles to put Mob kingpins behind bars. Chief among them is a name from a historic cliche: Thomas Dewey, perhaps best known for the famously erroneous election year headline held up by President Harry Truman, “Dewey defeats Truman.”
Far from a one- line joke, Dewey was a crusading Midwesterner who as top prosecutor ( and later governor) of New York helped put away Mob boss Charles “Lucky” Luciano and was relentless in his pursuit of criminal factions.
Seeing Dewey in this new light is part of the appeal of “A Brotherhood Betrayed,” which takes a detour off the well- trod path that is Mafia nonfiction. Where most such books immediately conjure images of “The Godfather,” Cannell’s is more “On the Waterfront,” as Reles and his cohorts often plied their brutal trade to keep waterfront union leaders from organizing.
What Cannell brings to this lurid banquet is meticulous research and writing flair, the same winning combination that animated past books on the 1961 Formula One racing season (“The Limit”) and a mad bomber who terrorized New York (“Incendiary”).
Of an interview between prosecutor Dewey and a Mob madam brought into custody for questioning, Cannell relays her first- hand fears: “If I talked, they’d slit my throat,” ( she) told Dewey. “God, how I hope you get them. If you don’t, it’s curtains for me. They’ll grab me the minute I’m out of here.”
If not before, as Kid Twist found out somewhere along his news- making plunge from sixth- floor “Rat Suite” to gravel roof of the hotel’s kitchen annex.
Three weeks after Reles’ death, Pearl Harbor was attacked. America’s priorities changed overnight. What Cannell has frozen in sparkling amber is a New York, and indeed a nation, from a century ago. It’s a fascinating and punishing place worth visiting.