The Weasel

In the world of organized crime, the bosses grab the headlines. But a crime family has many working parts and the young mobster known as The Weasel was the epitome of a crucial, invisible cog—the soldier, the muscle, the driver, the gopher. By a quirk of fate, Marvin Elkind—The Weasel—was placed in the Toronto foster home of a tough gangster family, immersing him from the age of nine in a daring world of con men, cheats, bootleggers, bank robbers and Mafia bosses. During a Golden Age of underworld life in New York, Detroit and across Canada, The Weasel found himself working with a surprising cast of colourful characters. He befriended powerful gangsters by smuggling bottles of Scotch to their tables at New York’s famed Copacabana, and he was pushed to be Jimmy Hoffa’s chauffeur. But his disenchantment with broken promises put him in the hands of law enforcement and he made an abrupt career change, becoming Canada’s most prolific police informant. As he traveled the world befriending and betraying a stunning array of mobsters, mercenaries, spies, drug traffickers, pornographers, union fat cats and corrupt politicians, The Weasel learned he was a far better fink than he ever was a crook. The Weasel reveals a unique and engaging figure who lived a dangerous and rare experience.