American Desperado: My Life--From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset

Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2011: From New York City gangster to running guns for the CIA and smuggling literally tons of cocaine and cash for the Medellín Cartel at the height of America’s “war on drugs”--Jon Roberts has done it all. American Desperado is the uncensored, jaw-dropping account of Roberts’s life of criminal enterprise, decadent excess, murder and mayhem, that has all the trappings of a best-selling crime novel. Yet, co-author Evan Wright’s meticulously researched footnotes serve as an authentic reminder that this is no work of fiction.  Roberts’s adherence to his father’s philosophy that evil is stronger than good, and his ease with violence, are coupled with an indelible charm, candor, and loyalty, that together paint a powerful portrait of a quintessential Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.--Seira Wilson

Featured Photographs of Jon Roberts

Before Jon was a Cocaine Cowboy, Jon's mother took this photo (1956) when he was a boy obsessed with cowboys. Jon later changed his name to Jon Pernell Roberts after Pernell Roberts, star of Bonanza.
  Jon (third from left) at a 1973 wedding in New York. It was his last wiseguy party before he fled to Miami.
  Jon's long-time girlfriend Toni Moon was the poster girl for the Ryan O’Neal movie So Fine. Here, Jon and Toni reenacted the poster's photo with Jon in place of O'Neil.
  Jon's mugshot taken after his arrest in the 1986 cocaine bust that unravelled his empire.