Catalogue of Dan E. Moldea's published works
about Ronald Reagan and his associates
Dark Victory:
Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mafia (1986)Moldea's third book, Dark Victory, was published by Viking Press in August 1986. It was on the Los Angeles Times best-seller list for three months. The principal characters in the book were President Ronald Reagan; Lew Wasserman, the chairman of the Music Corporation of America (MCA), the entertainment conglomerate (which has has been renamed Universal); and Sidney Korshak, the link between the legitimate business world and organized crime. The centerpiece of the book, which detailed the Mafia's involvement in Hollywood, was the first-time publication of Ronald Reagan's secret testimony before a federal grand jury in 1962. Moldea alleged that Reagan, via his talent agency, MCA, had maintained ties to major organized crime figures throughout his career, charging that the Reagan Administration's wars on crime and drugs were nothing more than charades and public relations campaigns.
Remarkably, even though MCA was the key to Reagan's rise from actor to U.S. President, no previous book or biography about Reagan had even addressed this subject. Moldea's book was the first.
Dark Victory was released in trade paperback by Penguin Books in May 1987. Included in this edition was a postscript dovetailing Moldea's charges with details of the Reagan Administration's Iran/Contra scandal that were revealed after the hardback was published. Specifically, Moldea predicted that the scandal "is going to wind up as a series of multimillion dollar drug deals involving right-wing ideologues who sold drugs to raise money for the Contras as part of their eleemosynary activities. But more prominently, there were those who were more mercenary, selling drugs for profit, using the Contras as a cover for their illicit operations."
The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Dark Victory is indeed a victory for author Moldea. He has, through sheer tenacity, amassed an avalanche of ominous and unnerving facts. It's a book about power, ego and the American way. Moldea has shown us what we don't want to see." Library Journal said, "Using previously classified documents, crime reporter Moldea spins several tales in this extraordinary book, principally the rise of the Music Corporation of America (MCA) from a fledgling band-booking company in 1924 to Hollywood's most powerful TV, film, and recording conglomerate, and the intertwined journey of MCA client Reagan from mediocre actor to U.S. President." The San Francisco Chronicle stated that, "The whole saga reaches a critical mass of sleaze. . . . [Moldea] has woven enough threads to call into serious question the conduct of the highest office in America." American Film said, "Actually, Moldea tells three separate but tangential stories: organized crime's infiltration of legitimate business and labor, the meteoric rise of the entertainment conglomerate MCA, and the jet-propelled ascension of a somewhat passe movie actor to the president of the United States. These stories have been abundantly researched and are set forth in exquisite detail." The Dallas Morning News wrote, "Moldea's exhaustive expose of MCA is one of the most explosive books of the decade."
And, in Gus Russo's 2006 book, Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America's Hidden Power Brokers, the author wrote: "Dark Victory . . . was the most courageous, and well-researched, indictment of a sitting president and his power base in history."
Books:
* Dan E. Moldea, Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob (Viking Press, 1986, 2016) - Chapter OneVideos* _____________, Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football (Williams Morrow, 1989, 2014) - Chapter One
* _____________, Confessions of a Guerrilla Writer: Adventures in the Jungles of Crime, Politics, and Journalism, "Part Four: Reagan and MCA," (Moldea.com, 2013, 2015)
* DEM on MCA, the Mafia, and Iran Contra (CNN, 1986)Articles and essays:
* Dan E. Moldea, Organized Crime Digest, "Reagan Administration Officials Closely Linked With OC," February 1982.* _____________, City Paper, "The Mafia and the Right," March 12-25, 1982.
* _____________, The Nation, "More Than Just Good Friends," June 11, 1983.
* _____________, Crime Control Digest, "Nevada's Senior Senator: Little Attention Has Been Focused On His 'Connections' (Part I)," May 28, 1984.
* _____________, Crime Control Digest, "Nevada's Senior Senator: Encouraged And Helped Billionaire Howard Hughes (Part II)," June 4, 1984.
* _____________, Crime Control Digest, "Nevada Senior Senator: Didn't See Anything Wrong With Moe Dalitz's Contributions (Part III)," June 11, 1984.
* _____________, City Paper, "That's Entertainment: Ronald Reagan's Four Decades of Friendship With World Show Biz Colossus MCA," October 5-11, 1984 (with Jeff Goldberg).
* _____________, Washington Weekly, "Laxalt Ups The Ante: Will Anyone Call His Bluff," October 29, 1984.
* _____________, Village Voice, "Networks Knuckle Under to Laxalt," March 5, 1985 (with Robert I. Freedman).
* _____________, David Pecchia, Los Angeles Times, "Review of Dark Victory," October 12, 1986.
* _____________, Washington Post Outlook, "Reagan Was Forgetting 25 Years Ago, As Well," March 15, 1987.
* _____________, Regardie's, "The NRA Goes to War with Itself," April 1987.
* _____________, Regardie's, "The NFL and the Mob: Pro Football's Dirty Secret," February 1988.
* _____________, Regardie's, "MCA and the Mob: Did the Justice Department Cut Reagan's Hollywood Pals a Break?" June 1988
* _____________, Regardie's, "Jack Presser and the Teamsters," September 1988.
* _____________, Moldea.com, "The Corruption of Ronald Reagan," July 15, 1999.