Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie by Gary Weiss

• Author:
• Gary Weiss

Weiss paints an intricate portrait of greed, aspiration, and complicated family ties bolstered by recollections from Sammy [Antar], whose eventual cooperation helped secure convictions for Eddie and other Antar associates. The scheme can feel almost nostalgic following more recent financial scandals and the collapse of physical retail, but Weiss also emphasizes its very real consequences: Eddie ‘wasn’t hated, but he hurt people.’

It’s a rare business book from which you learn about an important industry and the methods of a criminal enterprise, all while shaking with laughter at the human beings involved as they attempt to rip off everyone in sight from customers to insurance companies to their own family members… Weiss writes up this tale of crime and punishment with great New York verve, delivering a probing examination of a profane way of doing business.