The cop who identified the five families of the Mafia in the U.S. describes his role as commanding officer of the Queen's district attorney's squad and how he brought John Gotti, the boss of bosses, to justice. 50,000 first printing. National ad/promo. A former top cop's rough-and-tumble memoir of mob-busting in the NYPD. Franceschini is all business--certainly on these outspoken pages, where he tells us little about his personal life but more than most cop-memoirists do about the hazards of cop life; and apparently on the job as well, where as head of the Queens D.A.'s Squad he won a no-nonsense reputation. His long NYPD tenure (1957- 91) saw great changes in police work: ``In [1957] we controlled the streets''--and Franceschini pins blame for today's soaring crime rate squarely on Supreme Court rulings, especially Mapp v. Ohio, which required probable cause for searches; after Mapp, ``criminals didn't worry about us the way they always had, the way they always should have.'' The bad guys the author fought changed too, with new mobs arising (he devotes a chapter to the Colombian and Chinese mobs) and with Mafia reins slipping from the hands of the strong and silent ``Moustache Petes'' like Carlo Gambino to the ``Young Turks'' led by John Gotti. Franceschini's mob-hunting started early (he helped i.d. N.Y.C.'s five Mafia families) and was interrupted only by a late-60's stint spent tracking Weathermen and Black Panthers. By the early 80's, the author had zeroed-in on Gotti's dark star and, here, devotes much space to bugging (figuratively and literally) the Godfather, including breaking into his headquarters and suborning his chauffeur. Franceschini's Gotti is charismatic but terrifying: ``Gotti's face was all contorted. It was twitching like something inside was trying to claw its way out....'' The author traces Gotti's fall to his acting more like a street capo than a don, and he predicts that Thomas Gambino, Carlo's son, will likely succeed Gotti as head of the Gambino family. Tough-talking and full of intrigue--a far more involving ride than, say, top-narc Robert M. Stutman's comparable Dead on Delivery (1992). (Eight pages of b&w photos--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Gotti and the Mob A matter of Honor Remo Franceschini Mobsters