BOOKS: BULL SESSION?

HINT: NOT A GOOD FATHER'S DAY GIFT FOR JOHN GOTTI

It is beyond the scope of this reviewer's expertise to adjudicate the accuracy of events as related by the title figure to author Peter Maas in Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia (HarperCollins; 308 pages; $25). Like most people when you get right down to it, our protagonist--the most famous snitch in Mob history, the man whose testimony helped put "Teflon Don" John Gotti behind bars for good--sees himself as a voice of reason in a world of blowhards and sociopaths. A contract on his brother-in-law, which Gravano himself doesn't carry out but which good manners...

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