Giovanni’s Ring
Killing Pace: A Mystery
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Giovanni’s Ring
Douglas Schofield
The story of a former FBI undercover task force officer who spent years penetrating New Jersey’s DeCavalcante crime family, the criminal organization known to law enforcement as “the real Sopranos”
About Douglas
Douglas Schofield was raised and educated in British Columbia, where he earned degrees in History and Law. Over the years, he has worked as a trial lawyer in Canada, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, prosecuting and defending hundreds of cases of murder, sexual assault and other serious crimes. In 2018, Douglas retired from the practice of law to devote himself full time to writing……
Books
By Douglas Schofield
Reviews
Giovanni’s Ring: My Life Inside the Real Sopranos (Chicago Review Press, June 2021, Cloth: 9781641603508) was reviewed by Library Journal
The reviewer says “Fans of the Netflix docuseries Fear City, the films Donnie Brasco and The Irishman, or Selwyn Raab’s Five Families will enjoy this insider’s update on of one of the original Italian American crime families.” The full review follows below:In this compulsively readable mix of memoir and true crime, former undercover FBI agent Rocco (a pseudonym the author is using to safeguard his identity) describes infiltrating a branch of an Italian American mafia syndicate in New Jersey and New York in the mid-2010s, leading to the arrest of multiple members. Better known to his mafioso friends as “Giovanni ...
Giovanni’s Ring was reviewed by Publishers Weekly on April 12, 2021
Rocco, the alias for a New Jersey cop who infiltrated the Mafia in the 2010s, vividly conveys the challenges and perils of undercover work in this gripping if inadequately sourced memoir. Rocco, the son of a policeman, grew up in Bayonne, N.J., playing with kids whose relatives were in the mob. After he barely graduated from high school, his father’s reputation enabled him to land a spot with the police. He quickly began undercover work, and his talent at dealing with people and the unexpected led to him being assigned to work with the FBI. In 2012, he was tapped ...
Giovanni’s Ring: My Life Inside the Real Sopranos (Chicago Review Press, June 2021) is slated for review in the May 1, 2021 issue of Booklist. It will go live online on April 29, 2021
"Giovanni Rocco walked the tightrope of an undercover operative deftly for years, infiltrating the DeCalvacante crime family in New Jersey. Rocco grew up in Bayonne, New Jersey, where the presence of organized crime loomed. Despite some minor rabble-rousing in his youth, Rocco avoided going the way of the wiseguy. A career in law enforcement beckoned as an escape, and kept up family traditions. He succeeded as a street cop, maintaining a no-nonsense persona. His career would be made when he began an undercover assignment. Under the name Giovanni Gatto, he operated as a fence for stolen goods and soon had ...
Joaquin
Very few undercover agents (UCAs) have been able to successfully infiltrate the inner sanctum of Cosa Nostra. Giovanni Rocco is one of those UCAs. This page-turner is a must read if you want to experience Giovanni's dangerous and oftentimes violent journey inside the real-life Sopranos.
Les Standiford, author of Bringing Adam Home
This account of Giovanni Rocco's many years' work to infiltrate the ranks of the Jersey Mob drips with authenticity and crackles with tension from the first page to the last. But what sets it apart is Rocco's unflinching honesty concerning the cost of such work to his family, his marriage, and, ultimately, his very soul. You will likely read this at an unbroken gallop, just as I did.