Blood and Volume

Blood and Volume: Inside New York's Israeli Mafia by Dave Copeland reads like fiction but is absolutely all true. Ron Gonen ran a multi-million dollar drug distribution and contract murder syndicate in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan in the 1980's. With associates Ron Efrainm and Johnny Attias, the money was coming in fast. Closest in comparison is Henry Hill's story, which was made into a movie, Goodfellas. Gonen was manipulative and charismatic, traveling between Tel Aviv and New York, doing deals until it all unraveled. He saw the helicopter over his house and knew it was over. After his arrest he exchanged information for the witness protection program. Lest the reader think he is enjoying the ill-gotten-gains of his crimes, the morality tale here is that he is living somewhere unrevealed with his family, eking out a modest income and even borrowing a few dollars from his mother to get by.