OUT NOW

Sydney, Australia's Sin City. Crooked cops take the cream off the top of crime profits. Judges frequent illegal gambling dens. The winners of races are known before the horses have run.

Heroin floods the streets, and the fight for the control of the trade sees men being gunned down left and right.

This is the world of George Freeman. Often portrayed as a charming celebrity gangster, he was in fact a calculated criminal motivated from childhood by greed and a lust for power and influence. One of Sydney's most notorious and unforgiving hard men, Freeman was part of a triumvirate that ruled Sydney's underworld for more than three decades.

He worked alongside murderer Lennie McPherson and drug pusher Stan Smith, controlling a vast illegal gambling empire while keeping top cops, judges and politicians in his pocket. Here, at last, we hear the truth about Freeman's links to the US Mafia and drug trafficking, his secret addiction and the accusations of murder.

In this compelling and unsettling account, award-winning true-crime author Tony Reeves reveals George Freeman without the gloss.

The REAL George Freeman will be published in Australia by Penguin Books on May 30, 2011. Check the Penguin website for details