Surviving the Mob: A Street Soldier’s Life Inside the Gambino Crime Family

What do you do when the law wants you behind bars and the New York crime families want you buried? That was the life or death dilemma confronting Andrew DiDonato, who began his criminal career at the age of 14 under the watchful eyes of the local mob. By the time he was 17, the infamous Gambino family made DiDonato an associate of the Nicholas Corozzo crew. For the next 14 years he was a loyal street soldier immersed in dangerous and profitable activities including burglary, extortion, loan sharking, car theft, bank robbery, counterfeiting, drug dealing, witness tampering, weapons possession, and attempted murder. At age 31, DiDonato ran afoul of the both the law and his friends, turning him into a hunted man on two fronts. After 17 months on the run, he was lucky the law caught him first. Surviving the Mob is a cautionary tale of the harsh reality of a criminal, inmate, fugitive, and witness who--so far--has lived to tell the tale.