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Apple Podcasts Cops, Robbers, The Mob, and John Gotti
Tony Celano and John Gotti Eye to Eye
What does a man do after spending 22 years working organized crime cases for the NYPD — including going face-to-face with John Gotti during a surveillance operation and serving on the task force that fought through the bloodiest mob war of the 20th century?
If you're Tony Celano, you build a second career running a major corporate security firm. And then you write seven crime novels.
This episode of Do You Ever Wonder is one you won't want to miss.
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ABOUT OUR GUEST
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Anthony Celano is a retired NYPD Detective Squad Commander who served 22 years on some of the most dangerous assignments in modern New York law enforcement history, during the era when the New York Mafia was at the absolute peak of its power. His assignments included:
🔹 Queens District Attorney's Office Squad (John Gotti surveillance)
🔹 DEA Joint Task Force (Five Families narcotics trafficking investigations)
🔹 Organized Crime Control Bureau
🔹 Colombo Organized Crime Task Force (the Third Colombo War — 12 dead, 121 arrests)
🔹 Special State Prosecutor — Nursing Home Investigation (mob infiltration of healthcare)
He testified in organized crime cases in state and federal courts across the country and served as the liaison between the Queens DA's Squad and all state and federal agencies nationally on organized crime matters.
After retiring from the NYPD in 1995, Celano founded Full Security, Inc., a midtown Manhattan investigative firm whose clients included Morgan Stanley, Condé Nast, Pepsi, BBDO, McGraw Hill, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Within that firm, he created the Streetwise Communication Training Program, which was featured in Forbes Magazine in 2003.
He is now a mystery novelist and the author of the acclaimed Sergeant Markie Mystery Series — 8 published novels with Book 9 currently in progress.
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WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE
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⏱ Growing up in New York when the mob was everywhere — and what it was like to police it
⏱ The John Gotti surveillance story: coming face-to-face with the most dangerous man in America
⏱ The Third Colombo War — Victor "Little Vic" Orena vs. Carmine Persico, the assassination attempt that started it all, and Gregory Scarpa Sr. ("The Grim Reaper")
⏱ Nursing home fraud and institutional corruption — the mob's hidden empire
⏱ What it's actually like to testify against organized crime figures in federal court
⏱ From the streets of Brooklyn to the boardrooms of midtown: building Full Security, Inc.
⏱ The Streetwise Communication Training Program — what corporate America learned from a mob detective
⏱ Why he started writing fiction — and how 22 years of real cases made him a better novelist
⏱ Sergeant Markie, Oliver Von Hess, and the unforgettable Detective Fishnet Milligan
⏱ Which book is his favorite — and whether the stories are based on real situations
⏱ Book 8: The Case of the Missing Sole — what's coming next
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THE SERGEANT MARKIE MYSTERY SERIES
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📖 Book 1 — The Case of Two in the Trunk (2019)
📖 Book 2 — The Case of the Crosseyed Strangler (2020)
📖 Book 3 — The Case of the One Eared Wolf (2021)
📖 Book 4 — The Case of Too Many Wives (2022)
📖 Book 5 — The Case of the Hunted Woman (2023)
📖 Book 6 — The Case of the Amorous Caddy (2024)
📖 Book 7 — The Case of the Deadly Diary (2025)
📖 Book 8 — The Case of the Missing Sole (coming soon)
CONNECT WITH TONY CELANO
Website: http://anthony-celano.com// Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Anthony-Celano/author/B08VM41855