Jimmy Breslin

A syndicated columnist for over 40 years and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary (awarded in 1986), Jimmy Breslin is a New York legend. In his latest New York Times best-selling book, The Good Rat: A True Story (Ecco), he brings together the most recent, most memorable, and the long forgotten stories to create a sharp-eyed portrait of the mob as it lived and breathed, and as it tries to survive. A sought after keynote speaker, Breslin has spoken at Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, The University of Chicago, Kodak, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Young President's Club (YPO), and libraries and historical societies across the United States.

Breslin was born in Jamaica, Queens, on October 17, 1930 and began his newspaper career as a copy boy at the Long Island Press in 1948. He became a columnist for the legendary New York Herald Tribune in 1963, moving on to the New York Post in 1968 where he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary in 1986. In 1988 he joined Newsday where he has been a frequent contributor despite officially retiring in 2004. In addition to his recognition as a nationally syndicated columnist, Breslin also became a household name in 1969 when he ran for New York City councilman on the same ticket that featured Norman Mailer as the city's mayoral candidate, and in 1977 when serial killer David Berkowitz, known as Son of Sam, began corresponding with him. His best-selling and critically acclaimed books include a biography of Damon Runyon, The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, Can't Anybody Here Play this Game?, The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutiérrez,several anthologies, and the memoir I Want to Thank My Brain for Remembering Me.

A riveting raconteur on the page and at the podium, Breslin shares a legendary career in New York journalism chronicling life on his city's mean streets and the fascinating stories of the mafia's streetwise sagas. In his Good Rat talks, he gives audiences a guided tour through the death-for-hire industry - from its golden era to its decadent demise. In his inimitable New York voice, he talks about the people and places that define the Mafia. With characters like Sammy the Bull, Gaspipe Casso (named for his weapon of choice), Thomas (Three-Finger Brown) Luchese, and Jimmy (The Clam) Eppolito, and hangouts like Pep McGuire's, where a race horse is lapping a bucket of water at the bar, Breslin captures the moments in which the Mafia was made and broken. Woven throughout Breslin's stories is Burt Kaplan, the star witness in the trial of the two New York detectives convicted as hired hit men for the mob. Kaplan was a former handler for the Luchese crime family who owed the law 18 years in the penitentiary, and, like all rats, he knew when to flee a sinking ship. This is recounted in absorbing detail.

Most compelling of all, Breslin recounts the moments in which the Mafia was made and broken - he was there the night John Gotti celebrated his acquittal at his Ravenite Social Club on Mulberry, having bribed his way to innocence, only to incite the wrath of the FBI, who would later crush Gotti and others with the full force of the RICO laws. Breslin brings together these real-life and long forgotten Mafia stories to brilliantly create a sharp-eyed portrait of the mob as it lived and breathed, as it sounded and survived.

Breslin lives in New York City.

The Good Rat: The Mafia From Its Golden Era to Its Decadent Demise

An Evening with New York Legend Jimmy Breslin

A Half-Century of Covering New York City’s Mean Streets