Il Dottore:
The Double Life of a Mafia Doctor

The inspiration for Fox TV’s drama series, “Mob Doctor,” Il Dottore (Barricade Books, October 2004) by Ron Felber is the riveting true story of a Jewish kid from the Bronx who became a Mafia insider and physician to top New York Mafia dons such as John Gotti, Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano, and Joe Bonanno. As a result, the doctor led a double life: well respected surgeon and socialite by day, and “Il Dottore,” gambler and sex addict by night.

Welcomed into an exciting and glamorous underworld which included discos, drugs, high-stake gambling, and beautiful women, he somehow managed to pursue his true profession and became one of the nation’s leading cardiac surgeons. Eventually, he had to make a choice between loyalty to the mob by killing a government witness on the operating table, or remaining true to his Hippocratic Oath, all under the watchful eye of New York’s top federal prosecutor, Rudolph Giuliani.

Publishers Weekly calls Il Dottore “a must read for anyone interested in mob lore, a raging page-turner.”