Nicholas Pileggi

Lecture: The Criminal Underworld.

From the NYPL Public Programs Brochure for Winter/Spring, 1988:

"Crime is an integral part of New York City's life," says Nicholas Pileggi, an old-fashioned street reporter who relishes his trade. Best known for his articles in New York magazine, Pileggi began as a crime reporter for the AP's New York Bureau, in the 1950s, working with the kinds of old-timers who knew Dutch Schultz personally. His second book, Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family, is an unsentimental study of a Mafia "wiseguy" --part errand boy, part terrorist --whose life is a lot grubbier than Hollywood or crime novelists would have us imagine. "A life of crime is filled with pain, much of it inflicted on others," say Pileggi. "These are not people you want to have over to dinner."

WNYC archives id: 11513