JON ROBERTS is considered most responsible for bringing cocaine
into the United States during the era in which the Medellin Cartel
flourished. He is a central figure in the documentary Cocaine
Cowboys, which has been watched by millions.
EVAN WRIGHT is a two-time National Magazine Award Winner and
recipient of the Columbia University School of Journalism and
Harvard University Niemen Foundation Lukas Prize. He is a
Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair and author of the bestseller
Generation Kill as well as Hella Nation.
“A spellbinding narrative of drugs, death and debauchery as told by
one of America's most notorious criminals….A savage, unrelenting
tale.”
─Kirkus Reviews
“The Moby Dick of mob memoirs…here is everything you've
wanted to know—and much better, here is the way everything felt.
Evan Wright puts you so deep inside a career in organized
crime that midway through you'll begin expecting a knock on your
door and a call from your lawyer.”
─David Lipsky, author of the national bestseller ABSOLUTELY
AMERICAN
“Delivers all the guilty pleasures one expects from a gangster's
memoir, but Wright's superb prose offers something more: a
meditation on good and evil during the glittering decay of late
20th century civilization…One of the best books of the year.”
─James L. Swanson, Edgar Award winning author of the New York Times
bestsellers MANHUNT and BLOODY CRIMES
“AMERICAN DESPERADO is not only stranger but so much better than
fiction…Captivating, addictive, and head-spinning, this
one-of-a-kind book earns its place on the top shelf of true crime
accounts.”
─Chuck Hogan, New York Times bestselling author of PRINCE OF
THIEVES (basis of the Academy Award-nominated “The Town”)
“American Desperado is the first great crime book of the 21st
Century. Dangerous, darkly hilarious, hair-raising, and
terrifically written, Wright's prose spills over with the kind of
insane, brilliantly rendered detail and dialogue that make you want
to call people at four in the morning and read out loud.”
─Jerry Stahl, New York Times bestselling author of PERMANENT
MIDNIGHT
“AMERICAN DESPERADO is one of the most disturbing memoirs I’ve
ever read…Evan Wright does a brilliant job getting into Roberts’
scary head … I never want to be in the same room with Jon Roberts,
but I couldn't stop reading his book.”
─Steven Gaines, New York Times bestselling author of PHILISTINES AT
THE HEDGEROW and FOOL’S PARADISE
“Seldom have I read an account of criminal enterprise that took me
so deeply into the blackness of a man’s soul—a scary read, pounding
and relentless and irresistible.”
─Bruce Porter, author of BLOW
“Imagine if Mister Kurtz from HEART OF DARKNESS sat down with Dick
Cavett for a little chat about the nature of good and evil,
empathy, fatherhood, violence, drugs, power, self-knowledge, women,
family, the hero versus the anti-hero, freedom, imprisonment...Try
as you might, you can't really put this book down.”
─Doug Stanton, New York Times bestselling author of HORSE SOLDIERS
and IN HARM’S WAY
“A tour de force. The best crime book since WISEGUY. Puts you
in the middle of a world where it's wonderful to be a tourist,
terrible to be a resident. I am filled with nothing but admiration
and envy for Evan Wright.”
─Rich Cohen, New York Times bestselling co-author of WHEN I STOP
TALKING YOU’LL KNOW I’M DEAD, and author of TOUGH JEWS
Roberts (nee Riccobono) was born into a Mafia family. At seven, he witnessed his first murder when his father shot a man simply for blocking traffic. As a teen, instead of merely dealing drugs he robbed the drug dealers. After a kidnapping scheme went awry and he ended up in prison, he was released to serve in Vietnam, where he tortured and killed before returning to do the same for his Mafia family in New York. After the suspicious suicide of a corrupt police officer, Roberts was exiled to Miami, where he ran an even more profitable criminal enterprise. His greatest success came as cocaine smuggler-he was featured in the 2006 documentary Cocaine Cowboys-working first with Cubans and then Colombians, including Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel. He also smuggled guns to Noriega in Nicaragua for the CIA. When he was finally indicted, he snitched his way into serving only three years. He is now living the good life in Florida as villain-cum-celebrity, happily married, and succeeding in his new career as a father. Verdict Crime, sex, violence, drugs, celebrities, politicians-this book has it all. Recommended.-Karen Sandlin Silverman, Ctr. for Applied Research, Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Jon Roberts was perhaps the most infamous and powerful man in the United States at one time, but most people have never even heard of him. In this fascinating and scrupulously detailed account, Roberts's life-from his days as head of the drug cartel in Florida to his time as an assassin in Vietnam-is for the first time revealed to the world. This gripping audio edition is read by a large, gifted cast of narrators, including Mark Bramhall as Roberts, Erik Davies, Mark Deakins, Kirby Heyborne, Thomas Vincent Kelly, and Jonathan McClain. Bramhall's standout performance is stern and composed, well capturing Roberts's cool exterior. When an audiobook is this good, listening becomes a compulsive act. A Crown hardcover. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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