New Book Says Guiliani’s Dad Was a Felon

— -- New York’s Rudolph Giuliani has been a law-and-order mayor, but a new book probing his life alleges that his father servedprison time and was tied to the mob.

By Peter DizikesABCNEWS.comNEW YORK, July 6— New York’s law-and-order mayor, RudolphGiuliani has long credited his father with passing on the values that have made him a success. But a new book now claims that Giuliani’s father served time for armed robbery and had ties to organized crime.

The book, Rudy: An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, by Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett, contains a string of claims about Gotham’s controversial mayor and his family.

According to Barrett, Harold Giuliani served a one-and-a-half year term in Sing Sing prison after robbing a milkman at gunpoint in 1934, a decade before his son, the mayor-to-be, was born.

Rudy also alleges that Harold Giuliani served as the “muscle” for a loan-sharking outfit, claiming that he “broke legs, smashed kneecaps [and] crunched noses” in the 1950s — even taking part in a gunfight on a Brooklyn street in the 1960s.

But Barrett did not find any direct dealings between the mayor and organized crime figures.

“I think Harold Giuliani went out of his way to protect his son from that environment,” Barrett told ABCNEWS. “Rudy has said he was taught to hate the mob when he was growing up.”

Barrett’s book also chronicles Giuliani’s romantic life and relationships with two women that led to a very public separation from his wife, actress and television host Donna Hanover.

Mayor Refuses Comment Mayor Giuliani became irritated with reporters when asked about the book on Tuesday, and defended the memory of his father.

“He taught me enormously important lessons, including the lesson of being honest, which I’ve practiced all my life,” Giuliani said.

Asked about Barrett’s book Wednesday, the mayor’s spokeswoman, Sunny Mindel, said that “The mayor hasn’t seen this and therefore he has no comment.”