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The Butcher's Boy is a 1982 book written by Thomas Perry. The suspense novel won the 1983 Edgar Award for Best First Mystery Novel (American). The book has been reprinted several times and was followed by three more novels in the "Butcher's Boy" series: Sleeping Dogs (1992), [1] The Informant (2011), [2] and Eddie's Boy (2020).
The Butcher's Boy, not to be confused with Michael Robb's "The Butcher's Boy - The Ballad of Billy Badass," features a professional hitman (whose real name is not given but who uses the alias Michael Schaeffer in sequels) as its protagonist. Murder is a craft for the "Butcher's Boy," a reference to his foster father, "Eddie the Butcher," who raised him to follow in both of his two trades: the cold-blooded killer with a gimlet eye, and an actual butcher for a cover life. When Eddie dies an unnatural death, his adoptive son continues in his footsteps, but leaves the butcher shop behind. After dispatching an innocent union member and a U.S. Senator, he arrives in Las Vegas, Nevada to pick up his fee. Instead of a payoff he finds himself on the wrong end of a murder contract. His reputation as a nonpareil professional killer has always ensured he would be paid, even by men who think no more about murder than scratching an itch, men who nonetheless would not risk creating such an adept enemy. The story brings that scenario to life as the Butcher's Boy seeks to collect the debt by terrorizing the Mafia—lifelong source of his freelance jobs and current nemesis—into backing off.
Meanwhile, the initial hits completed by "The Butcher's Boy" have attracted the attention of U.S. government specialists on organized crime. Elizabeth Waring, a bright young, unmarried analyst in the Justice Department, begins to see a pattern in the killings. As the violence escalates around the United States, her colleagues and superiors suspect internecine warfare among the bad guys, though Waring deduces the fact that one man on a mission may be the key. As she works her way closer to his identity, she and the reader come to admire his audacity and remorseless, creative efficiency in staying one step ahead of the Mob's death sentence.
The point of view switches back and forth between Waring and the killer, whom readers come to root for as the ultimate David to the Goliath of organized crime. Readers are drawn into rooting for the Butcher's Boy to succeed in evading both his Mafia pursuers and the government agents. And indeed, he does, only to find himself in similar circumstances one, and then two, decades later in Sleeping Dogs and The Informant, where both he and Waring have also aged historically, and share the knowledge and context of the earlier stories. Together the trilogy makes for a brilliant virtuoso fugue on the concepts of predator/prey, the affinity between detectives and killers, and the greater morality of what a true survivalist might be like, at the top of his game.
Perry has gone on to a prize-filled career as a consummate crime writer with a score of eclectic novels, another irresistible, unique protagonist named Jane Whitefield (novel series), and the reputation as a "capo di tutti capi" of crime writers.
Frank Abbandando, nicknamed "The Dasher", was a New York City contract killer and mobster who committed many murders as part of the infamous Murder, Inc. gang. His preferred killing method was to stab his victims through the heart with an ice pick. After a trial and conviction for murdering a Brooklyn loan shark, he was executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing on February 19, 1942.
Nicodemo Domenico Scarfo Sr. also known as "Little Nicky", was an American mobster who served as boss of the Philadelphia crime family from 1981 to 1990. Infamously known for his murderous reputation, Scarfo led the family through it’s bloodiest period until his conviction in 1988.
Filippo Marchese was a leading figure in the Sicilian Mafia and a hitman suspected of dozens of homicides. Marchese was one of the most feared killers working for mafia boss Vincenzo Chiaracane, closely related to the Giuseppe Greco family which was in control of the Ciaculli neighbourhood of Palermo.
The Irish Mob is a usually crime family-based ethnic collective of organized crime syndicates composed of primarily ethnic Irish members which operate primarily in Ireland, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and have been in existence since the early 19th century. Originating in Irish-American street gangs – famously first depicted in Herbert Asbury's 1927 book, The Gangs of New York – the Irish Mob has appeared in most major U.S. and Canadian cities, especially in the Northeast and the urban industrial, including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Chicago.
Luca Brasi is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather, as well as its 1972 film adaptation. In the film, he was portrayed by Lenny Montana, an ex-wrestler and former bodyguard and enforcer for the Colombo crime family.
The Chechen Mafia is one of the largest ethnic organized crime groups operating in the former Soviet Union next to established Russian mafia groups.
Dominic Phillip Brooklier was an American mobster and boss of the Los Angeles crime family of the Mafia during the mid-1970s who mainly worked in pornography, extortion, and gambling.
Thomas Perry is an American mystery and thriller novelist. He received a 1983 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best First Novel.
Philip Carlo was an American journalist and best selling biographer of Thomas Pitera, Richard Kuklinski, Anthony Casso, and Richard Ramirez. Carlo had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease".
The Philadelphia crime family, also known as the Philadelphia Mafia, the Philly Mob or Philly Mafia, the Philadelphia-South Jersey Mafia, or Bruno-Scarfo family is an Italian-American Mafia family based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formed and based in South Philadelphia, the criminal organization primarily operates in various areas and neighborhoods in Philadelphia, the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area and New Jersey, especially South Jersey. The family is notorious for its violence, due in particular to its succession of violent bosses and multiple mob wars.
The Lucchese crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. Members refer to the organization as the Lucchese borgata; borgata is Mafia slang for criminal gang, which itself was derived from a Sicilian word meaning close-knit community. The members of other crime families sometimes refer to Lucchese family members as "Lukes".
Thomas James Sinito, also known as "The Chinaman", was a powerful Caporegime in the Cleveland crime family who was once accused of plotting the assassination of then mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, Dennis J. Kucinich in 1979. Kucinich later became a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 elections.
Francesco Paolo Augusto "Frank" Cali, also known as "Franky Boy", was an American mobster and the eventual acting boss of the Gambino crime family of New York City. Law enforcement considered Cali to have been the Gambinos' "ambassador to Sicilian mobsters" and had linked him to the Inzerillo Mafia family from Palermo. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Lipton, he was "seen as a man of influence and power by organized crime members in Italy". Cali was shot and killed outside his home in Staten Island on March 13, 2019. At the time of his death, a number of media organizations described him as the "reputed" acting boss of the Gambino crime family.
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Giuseppe Greco was a hitman and high-ranking member of the Sicilian Mafia. A number of sources refer to him exclusively as Pino Greco, although Giuseppe was his Christian name; Pino is a frequent abbreviation of the name Giuseppe.
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Umberto "Albert" Anastasia was an Italian-American mobster, hitman and crime boss. One of the founders of the modern American Mafia, and a co-founder and later boss of the Murder, Inc. organization, he eventually rose to the position of boss in what became the modern Gambino crime family. He also controlled New York City's waterfront for most of his criminal career, mainly through the dockworker unions. Anastasia was murdered on October 25, 1957, on the orders of Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino; Gambino subsequently became boss of the family.
The 10th & Oregon Crew, or 10th & O Gang, is a predominantly Italian American gang and organized crime group operating in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Active since the 1960s, the gang is associated closely with but independent from the Italian-American Philadelphia crime family. It is primarily active in South Philadelphia and certain working-class Italian-American neighborhoods in nearby South Jersey.