MARKED TO DIE

Hardback. Ten years previously, a criminal named Gerard Festa turned state witness in a sensational murder trial. His testimony was so explosive that the Mafia put a $5000,000 price on his head. Since then, Festa and his wife and children became the most hunted - and haunted - family in the history of the Witness Protection Programme. Under assumed names the Festas moved constantly from one town to another, living in rented rooms, motels, seedy apartments and shabby houses, barely escaping the mobsters who relentlessly pursued them, and waiting for that day when former friends would find Gerard Festa and settle the score. And the Festas were on their own; since Gerard was of no further use to the Government, authorities became indifferent to his fate. The book is based upon confidential documents, wiretaps, and interviews with 130 people, including organised crime figures still on the street. The author spent months with the Festas in their hideouts, and the result is an engrossing, disturbing and ultimately moving account of a family devastated by the sordid career of the father. 331pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Vg+ in Vg. dw. which has some fading to sp. and partially to covers.