Syndicate Wife: The Story of Ann Drahmann Coppola

She was the queen of Miami's gangland society, envied by all the other wives and mistresses of mobdom's elite. Yet after penning a message to Robert Kennedy -- "Do not only wipe out the gangsters but please wipe out the city officials" -- Ann Drahmann Coppola committed suicide in her hotel toom in Rome.

She had begun her dangerous career of syndicate wife by a youthful marriage to a gambler named Charley Drahmann, manager of one of the syndicate's casinos. Shortly after Drahmann's accidental death while carrying out a bit of busienss for the mob, she married the notorious Mike Coppola, boss of the lucrative numbers racket in East Harlem and a syndicate overlord, and moved to his fantastic house in Miami Beach.

Syndicate Wife is the exciting, moving story of an ill-starred but ultimately courageous woman. It is also the best and best informed reporting -- much of the material is known exclusviely to the author -- of the mob's huge role in our amoral society.