From its bold and brilliant inception to its epic, history-making endgame, here is the never-before-told true-crime account of the elimination of the Mafia’s Five Families—revealed by the then-untested FBI agent who controlled the investigation that ultimately led to the convictions of the top ranks of Cosa Nostra . . .

For over 50 years, the families Genovese, Gambino, Lucchese, Bonanno, and Colombo controlled organized criminal activities throughout the country. Overseen and held in check by the New York Mafia Commission, they operated with impunity. Until 1981, when Joe Pistone emerged from his 6-year undercover infiltration of the Bonanno family as Mob associate “Donnie Brasco.” It was then that Frank Storey, a newly assigned FBI agent spearheading Mafia investigations in New York, recognized the potential for wiping out the scourge of the Five Families once and for all.

Directing a band of 140 young and relatively inexperienced agents who would become the FBI’s game changers, Storey implemented the RICO law—the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Under his directives, they created an effectively groundbreaking playbook in the fight against organized crime.

Through undercover infiltration and surveillance, they investigated over 70 murders committed by the Mafia, including that of Paul Castellano, boss of the Gambino family. Besides gathering vital witnesses, they developed the necessary evidence to record court-authorized conversations of the Mafia bosses, which revealed the specifics of their illegal activities. The task would prove formidable and dangerous—and would take its toll on the personal lives of the agents themselves.

For the first time, and with never-before-revealed information, the full story of the dismantling of the Commission is told by the one man behind the unprecedented investigation that ended the criminal reign of the Five Families—and the Mafia’s bosses of all bosses—forever.