“LITTLE PUSSY & LONG BRANCH: PERFECT TOGETHER“
Gregory Macolino
Non-fiction
June 2025
If you love tales of power, loyalty, corruption, and the brutal code of the underworld, “Little Pussy & Long Branch: Perfect Together” by Gregory Macolino is your next obsession. Once the exclusive playground of America’s elite — with its opulent hotels, glamorous beaches, and high-stakes gambling dens — Long Branch, New Jersey, had by the 1940s transformed into something far more dangerous: “The Gangster Riviera.” At the center of it all was Anthony “Little Pussy” Russo, a flamboyant and ruthless figure who rose from small-time Newark street thief to a powerful player in the Genovese Crime family, infiltrating Long Branch’s political and law enforcement circles to dominate the town for over two decades. But as the 1970s brought a new wave of hungry criminals and the destabilizing poison of the drug trade, Russo’s iron grip on the city began to crack — setting the stage for a violent reckoning. Written by a Long Branch insider who spent decades piecing together this story, the book weaves the mob’s violent history with vivid Shore-life memories and a colorful cast of real-life characters — culminating in the 1979 murder of the man who served as the real-world inspiration for a Sopranos character. This is the Jersey Mob story you didn’t know you needed.