Notorious, heroin kingpin, Leroy "Nicky" Barnes, went from organizing one of the most powerful African-American heroin rings in New York to a government informant. Out of spite, Barnes turned on his fellow associates and destroyed the drug trafficking empire he took so long to build.

The biography of "Nicky Scarfo" reveals the life of one of the most violent American mafia bosses in the past half century. It explores Scarfo's fast rise within the ranks of the Philadelphia Mob--as soldier, consigliere and finally as boss. It outlines Scarfo's vicious crimes and his authoritative management style. His paranoia, volatility and treachery ultimately lead to his demise.

He rose from the slums of Brooklyn to take on the biggest Mafia dons of the 1950s and 1960s. Joey Gallo began his criminal career as a small-time loan shark and jukebox racketeer. He became a top enforcer in the Profaci crime family, but felt he never got the respect he deserved. So Gallo formed his own gang and revolted against mafia Don Joe Profaci in a long, bloody war on the streets of New York. But there was another side to Joey Gallo--the ruthless mob leader was also an artist and an avid reader. Living in Greenwich Village with his wife Jeffie, Gallo was inspired by his beatnik neighbors and their counterculture ideas. He also began hobnobbing with New York's social elite, befriending everyone from Neil Simon to Jerry Orbach. In the end though, nothing could save Joey Gallo from a dramatic end.

Detective Sergeant Luddie Austin and Detective Kevin Searing are tracking a fugitive wanted for the second-degree rape of a young woman barely out of high school. Soon Commander Lenny DePaul and Deputy Michelle "Michy" Mendez soon join the hunt. Upon hearing the details of the crime, Michy becomes outraged and determined to make sure the woman, who was brave enough to come forward with her story, receives justice. Word on the street is the fugitive works at a business in the Bronx, and Michy stakes it out all morning. But it's not going to be an easy capture. New info places their fugitive on the other side of town. To make things even more difficult, a torrential rainstorm hits the city right at rush hour, and traffic comes to a grinding halt. Though the Marshals are the fastest thing on the road, they have to rumble through fourteen miles of gridlock before they can nab their fugitive, hoping he hasn't already fled the city.