4 out of 4 stars
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John Costello with Larry Elder wrote Executive Hoodlum in 2017 after John became Corporate VP of Global High-Reliability Sales, a 200-million-dollar corporation and was living the American dream. Larry Elder encouraged John to write his autobiography: Larry thought that John’s beginning in the shadow of the Chicago “outfit (mob)," and John's subsequent life, of one foot in John's family’s camp, and the other foot in corporate America had the makings of a fascinating book.
John Costello was born in 1961 in Chicago. Ten years later, his father assaulted his mother so badly, and she ended up in hospital and John was sent to a foster home. After two weeks, John was taken in by his father to live with his father’s second family of three children the eldest of whom was also called John. Later, he reunited with his mother. His mother thought his father’s first family remained his father’s responsibility and waited for his father to move them to California, where they lived in his mother’s parent’s basement. They frequently moved from North Hollywood to Sherman Oaks, Reseda, and Woodland Hills. John and his father - known as Mario Casini - endure a tenuous lifelong relationship.
At one point, his father duped the “outfit” of $250,000 and left John to be the fall guy. John wriggled his way out of that “clear the air, and then we kill you” meeting. His father was a hustler, preferring all his life to scam other people for money. John fought his way through high-school and college and rose to be a very highly paid sales executive for Microsemi Corporation in the semiconductor industry. John also learned to be a hustler but used his brains to be a good salesperson.
I appreciate the numerous laudable areas of John’s life including his boxing skills that he uses to encourage kids to learn discipline and keep out of trouble. Throughout his life, John’s father landed John in tough guy situations so that John would have to fight his way out. His father would repeatedly say to John, “Did you learn anything." It took John many years to stop wanting his father’s love or acknowledgment. He finally earned the recognition of corporate people who cared about him more than his father did; he was able to “let go” the need for his father’s approval, let-go his anger, but it took him until he was 50 years old and writing the book helped.
The Executive Hoodlum is an extremely comprehensive book about all the people and influences in John Costello’s life. If he got his hustler genes from his father; he acquired his faith in God, a gentler side to his nature, and his love of country from his mother Mary Patricia McGuiness to whom he dedicated the Executive Hoodlum. You will end up understanding all the influences on John’s life as you read the book. He worked with other members of the family to flesh out parts that he could not remember.
John appreciates a second chance at family life with Janelle and not one but two sets of twins. The epilogue and acknowledgments sum up the actors who are part of John’s world. They include "celebrities, company executives, high-profile lawyers, best-selling authors, doctors, politicians, local news and radio personalities, playboy playmates, high-school and college friends and family." I commend John for achieving the American dream and melding together all the people in his life.
Executive Hoodlum deserves a 4 out of a 4-star rating for its amazing story of redemption, told in a very matter-of-fact way, but hiding no part of John’s life. It does not rate 3 out of 4 stars because it seems professionally edited, and I found only I error. I recommend it to people who like autobiographies, stories of redemption, stories about the mob. I found nothing that I disliked about the book, but it does include a frank rendering of mob lifestyle for which some readers may not care.
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Executive Hoodlum
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