"At the age of twelve, my ambition was to become a gangster. To be a wiseguy was better than being President of the United States. To be a wiseguy was to own the world." --Henry Hill When Henry Hill entered the Witness Protection Program, he was certain that his criminal days had finally come to an end. He was wrong. For over twenty years, Henry Hill lived the high life as a powerful member of the Lucchese crime family, a life immortalized in Martin Scorsese's classic film GoodFellas. After his arrest in 1980, Hill disappeared into the Witness Protection Program. With this book, Henry comes clean about his last twenty years, filling in the gaps about his recent past as well as setting the record straight on his days as a wiseguy. At once hilarious, unpredictable, scandalous, and arresting, Henry Hill's tale will destroy everything you thought you knew about the Witness Protection Program.

Perhaps the most compelling gangster tale is one that has been, until now, surprisingly well hidden. This is the story of the Outfit: the secret organised crime cartel that began its reign in prohibition era Chicago before becoming the puppet master of Hollywood, Las Vegas and Washington DC. Moving with purpose and panache, the Outfit blended effortlessly with underworld corporate heads, Hollywood moguls, and national political icons. It was only after a fifty-year run that their world started to crumble in the 1970s. With extensive research including recently released FBI files, original interviews with Outfit associates and members of the Fourth Estate (who pursued the Outfit for over forty years) and first ever access to the journals of Humphreys' long-in-hiding widow, veteran investigative journalist Gus Russo uncovers sixty years of corruption and influence.

November 22, 1963. A policeman's wife was fetching their sick child from school. A young shoe store manager had no idea what lay in wait for him that day. A future president was tending to his farm. A future vice president was standing on the steps of his college library. A Georgetown student was looking forward to playing the piano for the president when he returned to Washington, DC, that evening. A future movie star was attending his second-grade art class. Then the news rang out across airwaves, through telephone lines, and by word of mouth, plunging the country into shock and sorrow. It's hard to imagine how the last fifty years would have unfolded if President John F. Kennedy had lived. Would Vietnam have dragged on until 1974? Would Nixon have come into power? It's difficult to say-but, combining evocative archival images with the unique, first-person stories of those who lived through it, Where Were You? says what the history books can't and offers a fresh look at what was, what is, and what might have been since that fateful day. In the two-hour NBC documentary event that this volume accompanies, special correspondent Tom Brokaw interviewed people close to the tragedy as well as former heads of state, politicians, authors, journalists, performers, musicians, and more. He asked them five simple questions, starting with: Where were you? Together, their words paint a rich and moving picture of a hopeful nation torn asunder by grief. It will remind those who lived it of a pivotal moment in American history, and it bears witness for all who follow.

Whether you're a nostalgic member of the post-WWII generation or a digital native wondering what all the "Sixties" talk is about, you will find something to put a smile on your face as Gus Russo takes you on a personal cinematic ride through the turbulent 1960s, 1970s, and beyond. Emerging from the funky blue-collar Baltimore that gave rise to Edgar Allan Poe, H.L. Mencken, Frank Zappa, and John Waters, Russo nurtured an endless curiosity and joie de vivre by inserting himself ala "Zelig" (or is it "Forrest Gump"?) into the worlds of a stunning array of American icons- from music, to tennis, to politics, to filmmaking. However, he didn't do so as a "fan," but as a modern-day Siddhartha, trying to work with, and most importantly learn from the best. He made music with them, played tennis with them, and got pepper-sprayed at rallies with them. Through his eyes we view the civil rights movement, the JFK assassination, the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, the golden ages of tennis and music, and the rise of the counterculture. Like the late raconteur Jean Shepherd, Russo universalizes his growing-up experience as he follows his bliss during one of the most exciting times to be young in America. Boomer Days will make older readers misty-eyed and younger ones infinitely more informed about this transformational period in American history.