Google that shit

There are so many characters in this book and the author bounces back and forth in time so it's a little hard to follow, but I think I'm starting to catch on.

There are 22 bad guys, all of whom are Sicilian. For the life of me I can't keep track of who is who because they all seem to be related in some way to the main guy, Gaetano Badalamenti. He was the Boss of Bosses of the Sicilian Mafia for a few years in the 70's until there was an over throw or something and he moved to Madrid. I think. He decided he wanted to start trouble in the U.S. and set up a Heroin importing and money deporting operation called the Sicilian Mafia Commissione. His son Vito was his number one man outside the country and I think Salvatore Catalano was the main guy in New York. They shipped the drugs in, to the New York area as well as Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and cash only was shipped out to be laundered in Europe by the Mafia warlords. Since the men were all pizzeria and restaurant owners, the press spent no time at all coming up with the name The Pizza Connection. Also, the first suitcase of money that was uncovered, the money was wrapped in pizzeria aprons.

The book covers the entire year and a half long trial and the nearly five years of wire taps and FBI investigation that was reported to or by, it was never really made clear what was actual fact and what was speculation in some parts, the author Shana Alexander. There are pictures in the middle of the book and I have to say that Gaetano looks like what a Mafia Godfather should look like. He has big bishy eyebrows and black hair and a near scowl. I googled him to find his picture and got something a little better : http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://nndb.net/people/498/000045363/bada.gif&imgrefurl=http://nndb.net/people/498/000045363/&h=310&w=236&sz=26&tbnid=exanqKO5cKcOoM:&tbnh=117&tbnw=89&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgaetano%2Bbadalamenti&usg=__x1y7Im8HPwp1lGbxbLF6HW-Ulr8=&ei=XAZ6S7vIG8SInQes9fSLAw&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=5&ct=image&ved=0CB0Q9QEwBA

You can judge for yourself about whether or not he was a good fellow. I like that they listed his occupation as criminal. Made me giggle a little.

Most of the names of the important people I didn't recognize because the trial happened before I was born but Rudy Guiliani was the U.S. Attorney for the southern part of New York during the trial so he played a big role.

In an effort to try to get a quick recap of a slightly confusing book, I googled (My parents say 'Google that shit' all the time at my house) and found that Wikipedia had the best summary of events.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_Connection_Trial

It's all starting to make sense now. Yay!