THE BIG BANKROLL (369 pp.)—Leo Katcher—Harper ($5). Gangster Arnold Rothstein’s life story is the sort of straw out of which psychologists make their bricks. At the age of three, the future “Big ...

The mob as in ... The Mafia. Goodfellas. The Godfather. The Sopranos. That culture and way of life has fascinated movie and TV audiences for generations. But what about the reality of organized crime?

Robert De Niro stars as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, picked by Mob bosses to front four Las Vegas casinos, who ends up doubling their take and changing the rules of how the casinos are run, in “Casino.” (Phil ...