SOURCE: "Mob Hit?," in The New York Times Book Review, March 10, 1996, p. 13.

[In the review below, Raab discusses Perfect Villains, Imperfect Heroes, an account of Robert Kennedy's efforts against the Mafia.]

For half a century one of the nation's premier growth industries was the Mafia. Virtually ignored by Federal and local law-enforcement agencies, America's adaptive mobsters always found new commercial enterprises to enrich themselves. When Prohibition ended in 1933, the dons and godfathers blithely switched from bootlegging into even more lavish rackets: prostitution, gambling, loan-sharking, labor racketeering and narcotics trafficking, to name just a few.

But the Mafia's golden era was disturbed when John F. Kennedy entered the White House in 1961. Kennedy surprisingly appointed his brother, Robert, as United States Attorney General, and fighting the mob became Robert Kennedy's top priority, perhaps bordering on an obsession.

One of the first prosecutors to enlist in Robert Kennedy's campaign was Ronald...