Bill O’Reilly sits atop the biggest nonfiction series of books the nation has ever seen. The “Killing” books, co-authored with researcher Martin Dugard, have sold 18 million.
And now, they are ready to unleash their 10th, the one O’Reilly thinks is one of their best, Killing the Mob. And so does publisher St. Martin’s, which has already printed 600,000 copies of the book, set for release May 4.
“I’m very proud of all the ‘Killing’ books. This one, if you read this one, you’re going to know about organized crime. I did my job,” he told Secrets.
“My goal is to basically cover the history of this country in a way that is totally accessible and interesting for everyone,” said O’Reilly, whose post-Fox career includes a mammoth online show, No Spin News.
The new book goes deeper than any “Godfather” movie, revealing the fecklessness of former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, the mob’s fingers in every aspect of American life, and how the mafia has started to contract work out to others, such as Mexican drug cartels.
In an interview, the newsman suggested that the opening of the U.S.-Mexico border should be a benefit to the mob, boosting deliveries of drugs.
“The drug cartels, they run Mexico. It’s not a battle anymore. They won. And they’re behind the people smuggling and the drug smuggling. Now, they have an informal alliance with the mafia,” he said.
“So, they have an arrangement with the Italians that they’ll get the stuff in, the heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, all manufactured in Mexico. Some of it originates in Colombia still, but harder for those people. So, and they’ll get it in, but then the Mexican cartels are out of it,” he added.
He said that border closures put in place by former President Donald Trump and his diplomacy with Mexico slowed the trafficking. But even border agents have said that Joe Biden’s policies have opened the border to easy smuggling.
“I’m telling you, the man is clueless, not only on this, but on just about every other thing. I am just stunned in the first 100 days of what he has done to this country,” O’Reilly said of Biden.
While the media sometimes make mobsters appear glamorous, O’Reilly came away from the project hating them. “I think they’re all evil,” he said, adding, “There’s nothing good about them. They just hurt people for money, that’s what it comes down to.”
