Mob Cop

April 15, 2015
A former crooked cop looks back on his conflict-of-interest life as a policeman and midlevel grifter. Italian-American and native Chicagoan Pascente's nonfiction debut, co-written with crime novelist Reaves (Mean Town Blues, 2008, etc.), is a rollicking mess of a wiseguy memoir that vividly evokes the sights, sounds, and sins of a long-vanished criminal gangland of Chicago. Born in 1942 (he died in 2014) in a typically rough urban district of the city's Near West Side, Pascente grew up with future "made man" Tony Spilotro (immortalized in Nick Pileggi's book Casino), who would eventually be financially linked to Pascente's future police boss William Hanhardt. While Spilotro went on to become a mob heavyweight running a casino empire in Las Vegas in the 1960s, Pascente served in the Army before getting an early discharge for joining the police force; he ended up working under Hanhardt, who would exploit Pascente's gangland connections. During his more than 25 years as a cop, the author may have spent more time committing crimes than preventing them. The book is packed cover to cover with Pascente's pithy tales of the dirty deeds he and his corrupt cohorts (with cartoon gangster names like Johnny Bananas, Louie the Mooch, and Milwaukee Phil) pulled off for big money: insider bank scores, racetrack betting swindles, casino heists, mail and insurance scams, and plenty more. Pascente, for all his shady dealings, ended up doing very little jail time in a minimum-security prison for insurance fraud (although he did lose his police pension). Of course, his criminal curriculum vitae can't compare to those of Henry Hill or Whitey Bulger, but Pascente comes off about as affable as any criminal could. In the end, he expressed a modicum of shame and regret over his weakness for the lure of easy money. Not exactly a self-portrait of a criminal mastermind, but a somewhat worthwhile glimpse into the schizoid world of a corrupt cop.

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June 1, 2015

There is a constant feeling of being in a Martin Scorsese film when reading this book. Pascente, an officer for the Chicago Police Department from 1968 to 1993, also happened to consort with connected mafia men and even participated in a few schemes before, during, and after he was on the force. Here, Pascente, with author Reaves (Cold Black Earth), shares the story of growing up in Chicago idealizing the mob. It's at this early age that the author sees the relationship the mafia has with the authorities and how one helps the other. It is suggested that joining the police force will be helpful, and along the way to becoming a cop, Pascente assists in cons and robberies, either by scouting for information or actually doing the looting. From helping criminals avoid arrest to scamming people at a Bruce Springsteen concert, Pascente describes living a dual life: serving the community and taking from those that he or others deemed worthy. He both brags and reprimands himself for his lifestyle over the decades. VERDICT Pascente's tale is fascinating. Reaves captures the former policeman's voice, and the book is a long one-sided conversation of Pascente laying out his sins. For fans of mafia stories and lovers of Scorsese films (the main characters in the film Casino were modeled after two associates of Pascente).--Ryan Claringbole, Coll. Lib. at the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison

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