The Mafia and Newton can both tell you, you shouldn’t need an apple to hit you on the head to realize a good idea.
In New York City during the seventies and eighties, many minority families and senior citizens couldn’t afford their own homes and lived at the mercy of slumlords. Men with reputed links to the Mafia created a corporation that built affordable homes and renovated apartments for them. This wasn’t a charitable gesture; the Mob realized no one else was doing shit for poor tenants, and seized an opportunity to land windfall profits.
They spotted a niche and moved fast.
Organized crime goes where the money is.
—Howard Abadinsky, organized crime historian
While the Mob was building houses in the Bronx, the Bronx Bombers were attracting hungry hordes of diehard fans.
Wiseguy Matty “The Horse” Ianniello supplied Yankee Stadium’s hot dogs. Other mobsters, unable to land a contract as big as The Horse’s, were getting wealthy one wiener at a time.
Mobster Philly Dogs operated in Ridgewood, Queens, with hot dog carts planted on all the major intersections. If you watched any of his carts long enough, you’d spot a black Cadillac pull to the curb, a tinted window roll down, and a hand reach out for an envelope. The hand belonged to Philly Dogs.
“I make more money with these carts than my loan shark book,” Philly told me. “Everyone loves hot dogs.”
At a time when street vending licenses were hard to get, Philly bribed disabled American vets, who received preferential treatment, to apply for the licenses. He had a butcher on the take stealing hot dogs. And his ketchup packets were labeled “Burger King.”
Granted, Philly kept his overhead low, but he could have done it legit and still made a small fortune. Ridgewood was a hardworking blue-collar area and Philly had the savvy to see a racket in a dollar a dog for lunch-on-the-go.
Flexibility and durability are hallmarks of LCN [La Cosa Nostra]. Given a window of opportunity, they will take full advantage of it.
—Frederick Martens
Most of the Mafia’s biggest successes started out with only the knack to spot a racket and move fast. Some have figured out how to literally make money coming and going. I knew a guy who was an arsonist for the Mob. He wanted to go legit and used the little money he’d saved to buy a small bulldozer.
After six months’ work, he’d saved enough to purchase a full-size bulldozer. A year after that, he bought an excavator. He broke his ass and acquired a couple of big city contracts, then homed in on a real racket: a sand and gravel yard.
Here, he made money coming and going. “I charge people to haul away earth with my machines, then resell it at my yard.”
He also got into the demolition business. Today, people pay him to demolish buildings and haul away the wreckage. Back at his yard, he separates steel from concrete and resells it at market value.
A mobster I’ll call Joe Puma is now a real estate millionaire living in South America. Long before Puma made his fortune spotting property bargains, he showed his ability to spot a racket.
A hard worker, Carlos [Marcello] often woke up at 4 A.M. to scan the real-estate ads in the papers to spot a bargain before anyone else.
—John H. Davis, Mafia Kingfish
One Christmas Eve, I dropped off a bottle of whiskey at Puma’s house. As I walked in, I passed a guy in a Santa Claus outfit on his way out. Puma thanked me for the bottle and said, “I can use a drink after handing that fat fuck five hundred to entertain my kids.”
“Is that what he makes?” I asked.
“Yeah, I send him to my nephew’s house, too.” This got me curious.
“How many houses does he do?”
“At least a dozen. You gotta book him two months out.”
The following Christmas Eve, I went to Puma’s house to drop off a bottle. This time, six fatsos were crowded around his living room, squeezing into Santa suits.
“I know everyone’s trying to outdo their neighbors around here, but you think your kids will believe there’s six Santas?”
“I’m makin’ twenty G’s in four hours. I’ll buy my kids a friggin’ reindeer. They’ll get over it.”
Puma spotted a demand for Santas at Christmastime and knew that fat men are a surplus commodity in the United States. Whether through a seasonal Santa business, hot dogs, or trash collection, the Mob supplies demand every day and on every level.
It’s not that he [a mobster] changed, he just understood what was required at the time, and responded to that. He’s been a man for all seasons.
—Sociologist Umberto Santino describing a mobster’s mentality
You might not think of mobsters as the men who feed America, but their meatpackers and suppliers ship pork, beef, poultry, and even kosher meats to major supermarket chains. Their trucking companies crisscross the United States delivering every product you can think of. They control the ports and piers, putting seafood on our plates. Their wine and liquor suppliers make sure we have a white or red to wash down all that good food. Their launderers clean the tablecloths in our favorite restaurants, and their jukeboxes play our favorite songs.
“They were almost like a parallel economy in this country,” Michael Chertoff, former head of the Department of Homeland Security, said. “There was virtually no area of heavy industrial activity that the Mob was not involved in to some extent. They controlled construction . . . waste carting and garbage removal . . . they were involved in entertainment . . . the hotel unions . . . they controlled the waterfront on the East Coast. They were involved in Las Vegas casinos.”
The Mafia men responsible for this parallel economy aren’t worthy of the big screen. Business-minded mobsters aren’t wild and reckless enough to hold our attention for a two-hour movie. They prefer the shadows and they dress like Mister Rogers. But they’re street-smart and they know how to give people what they want.
It’s a different side of mobsters, one we’re not used to seeing, and they’re quite happy not to be seen. They’re sated with money, power, and success; who needs notoriety?
Look around your current business environment for areas of untapped profits—jobs others turn their noses up at, markets people don’t bother trying to appeal to; there’s opportunity everywhere.
If the Mafia had been in ancient Egypt, they would have supplied the stone for the pyramids, unionized the slave labor, put up a sausage and pepper stand, and turned the Sphinx into a casino. They also would have robbed the gold from the pharaohs’ tombs; Napoleon later did that himself.
LESSON 12
Roll Up Your Sleeves but Keep Your Pants On
JULIUS Caesar supervised the building of bridges and siege works, marched at the head of an army, and when it came time to fight he rolled up his sleeves and got down and dirty. But off the battlefield, he couldn’t keep his toga on. He may have been the first Italian playboy; he screwed everyone’s wife, mother, and sister.
Once, while standing on the senate floor, Caesar read aloud a love letter addressed to him from Cato the Younger’s half-sister, who was also Brutus’s mother.
When Brutus and his coconspirators finally whacked Caesar, Brutus drove his dagger deep into Caesar’s groin. “Take that, you pig bastard!”
Twelve hundred years after Caesar’s death, the island of Sicily was occupied by a French army. During the occupation, the French conquerors were having their way with the Sicilian women. The Sicilian men bided their time while planning revenge. When they finally struck, the Sicilians cut off the French soldiers’ balls and stuffed them in their mouths, a last meal before dying.
Some things never change for Italians: their love of art, architecture, opera, pasta, and cutting people’s balls off when they misbehave.
Seven hundred years after the Sicilians served the French their last supper, a man named Michael Devine came on to the wife of a don. Soon after, Devine was found dead, his genitals mutilated, just like Caesar.
Lucchese underboss Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso admitted to killi
ng Anthony Fava, the architect he hired to redesign his home. Casso claimed that Fava, having accepted cash payments, might inform to police, but denied reports that Fava had made a pass at his wife. Oddly, though, when Fava’s body was found, his genitals had been burned with a blowtorch. You decide.
The Mob forbids whoring around with another man’s wife or sister. If caught, you may be left with your sausage, but your meatballs are sure to go.
Pietro was discovered dead in the boot of a car with dollars stuffed in his mouth and his genitals cut off. These Mafia trademarks suggested that he might have been running around with the wife of another Mafioso, a capital offence.
—Tim Shawcross and Martin Young, Mafia Wars
Stay away from the boss’s goods, or the goods of any coworker. It’s the surest way to make enemies, and you’ll ruin your career before it starts. There’s plenty of fish in the sea. Go catch your own.
LESSON 13
The Walls Have Ears: Never Bad-Mouth the Boss
CICERO, Illinois, was named after the ancient Roman lawyer and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. For decades, the town was home base for the Chicago Outfit crime syndicate.
Cicero is considered one of the great Roman orators, and like anyone who likes to hear the sound of his own voice, Cicero often talked too much. Following Julius Caesar’s assassination, Mark Antony, a Roman consul, capitalized on Caesar’s death and made a grab for power. Cicero spoke out against Antony. In response, Antony had Cicero whacked, his head cut off and hung up for everyone to see.
By doing this, Antony sent a clear message to anyone else thinking about bad-mouthing the boss.
Nearly two thousand years later, Al Capone controlled Cicero, Illinois. When Capone died, his successor running the Outfit was a shrewd mobster named Anthony Accardo. Unlike Capone, who liked publicity, Accardo avoided it, and appointed acting bosses as front men while he pulled their strings behind the scenes.
One of Accardo’s front men was Sam Giancana. Once Giancana was appointed acting boss, he made himself a media attraction. To Accardo’s dismay, Giancana gravitated toward the limelight. While Giancana was in power, he refused to answer a grand jury subpoena; he was charged with contempt of court and hauled off to the can for a year. This gave Accardo the opportunity to correct his mistake and replace Giancana with a new acting boss. When Giancana was released from the can, he spoke out against Accardo, making it clear to members of the Outfit that he didn’t want to relinquish his position.
Accardo, a patient man, knew that Giancana had to be removed. But how and when?
A short time later, Giancana was cooking a meal in his home when an assassin crept up from behind and shot him several times. Accardo had ordered the hit man to fire five shots in a circle around Giancana’s mouth.
By doing this, Accardo sent a clear message to anyone else thinking about bad-mouthing the boss.
History repeated itself. In the town of Cicero, Illinois, Sam Giancana made the same exact mistake as Marcus Tullius Cicero, and bought it in similar fashion.
Meyer Lansky outlived just about every one of his cronies from the New York Mob, and he did it the old-fashioned way—he kept his mouth shut. —Godfathers Collection: The True History of the
Mafia
Around the same time Giancana got whacked, Mob boss Angelo Bruno was in charge of Philadelphia, where mobster Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo was coming up in the ranks.
As a young mobster, Scarfo did time with Don Bruno.
Prison has a code of conduct. Items like a book light, sweat suit, or sneakers are considered valuable to a con, but easy to obtain in the free world. Thus, when a convict is released from prison, he leaves his belongings to another inmate, usually someone he was tight with, or a wiseguy from the same crime family.
When Bruno was released from prison, he left Scarfo a handful of paperclips. Just so you know, even in prison, paperclips are worthless.
Although Scarfo knew this was deplorable conduct for a don, Scarfo quietly accepted the “gift” and never uttered a word about it to anyone.
Years later, when Bruno was dead and Scarfo became don of the family, Scarfo repeated the paperclip story to everyone and called Bruno a cheap bastard.
Scarfo wasn’t the best don in the world, far from it, but he kept his insults to himself knowing that plenty of mobsters have bad-mouthed the boss and wound up dead.
In the business world, nothing less than your corporate survival is at stake.
Keep this in mind. The walls have ears.
LESSON 14
Did You Wash Your Car or Screw It in the Muffler?: Verbal Skills
A mobster once said to me, “I sodomized my car this afternoon.” I was pretty sure he hadn’t tapped his car in the ass; he meant he’d Simonized it. I laughed and he realized what he’d said.
Most mobsters have poor linguistic skills. Their vocabulary is limited, and any attempts to use unfamiliar words often end in comedy. But in the professional world, poor use of language can end in tragedy when you don’t get that promotion or are relegated to non-communicative tasks.
We think with words, so the broader our vocabulary, the greater our range of thought. A poor vocabulary doesn’t mean someone is unintelligent, but a strong vocabulary is indicative of your education, background, and the circles you can move in. The way you speak literally speaks volumes about you and the inner workings of your mind.
Words can raise the mind to higher things.
—Aristophanes
If you want to impress, develop your linguistic skills. Learning one new word a day, even one word a week, will make a big difference in your speech and, more important, your ability to think.
When I first became a voracious reader, I kept a dictionary at hand and looked up every single word I didn’t know. I would write word definitions on a piece of paper, study them, then mull the words over in my mind, using them in different sentences. If conversing with someone who said a word I did not understand, I would shamelessly inquire of its meaning on the spot, or look it up in the dictionary the first chance I got. These practices contributed to expanding my vocabulary and, therefore, my ability to think and express myself.
Although poor speech is acceptable in the Mafia and happens to be the norm, a mobster who speaks well stands out.
Practice elocution . . . 5–6 A.M.
—Fictional gangster Jay Gatsby, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
Don Joe Bonanno once said, “The greatest regret of my life is that I never pushed myself to master the English language. This has proved to be a terrible disadvantage . . . Since I have a limited English vocabulary, I’m forced to simplify my thoughts. Consequently, I come off sounding crude.”
At a Commission meeting, Genovese don Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno commented to Gambino don Paul Castellano, “You talk so beautiful. I wish I could speak like that.”
Even the foul-mouthed, cigar-chomping Salerno admired the beauty of speech.
LESSON 15
Count On Yourself and You’ll Never Be Counted Out
I’VE met older men who’ve lived uneventful lives and can boast of having five or six friends they’ve held on to since childhood. That’s great for them, but in the Mob friendships are tested daily; most don’t survive.
When push comes to shove, when a guy’s got a gun to his head, that’s when you know what he’s made of.
—Sam Giancana
On the streets, no man can predict what another man will do when his back is against the wall, but it’s a safe bet to put your money on betrayal. That’s why a smart mobster, and a smart businessman, makes many friends and builds alliances but never forgets that when push comes to shove he can only count on himself.
An old adage goes, “He who represents himself has a fool for a lawyer.” But it’s not always true. Plenty of smart mobsters have represented themselves in court because they know that no one, not even a lawyer, can be trusted with their lives.
Going to trial with a lawyer w
ho considers your whole lifestyle a crime in progress is not a happy prospect.
—Journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson
Carmine “The Snake” Persico was brought to trial in 1985 in a courtroom case dubbed “The Mafia Commission Trial.” Persico, with enough cash to fill a fleet of dump trucks, could have afforded any high-profile attorney, but chose to represent himself. It took guts. His life was on the line, but he knew from a lifetime of experience that he could only count on himself in a jam. That’s how The Snake was able to master the snake pit of Mafia life.
Jersey mobster Giacomo “Jackie” DiNorscio was put on trial with thirty codefendants for various racketeering charges, including murder. Many of DiNorscio’s codefendants hired hot-shot attorneys while DiNorscio represented himself. Nearly everyone at the trial agreed that DiNorscio’s Oscar-winning courtroom performance was responsible for the jury acquitting the whole lot.
I wasn’t on the streets as long as Persico or DiNorscio, but I also understood that I could only count on myself.
When I was happy, I thought I knew men, but it was fated that I should know them in misfortune only.
—Cecil Rhodes
Stuck in the same jam as Persico and DiNorscio, I hired and fired seven lawyers, including the famed civil rights attorney William Kunstler, before I realized that a lawyer will never care as much about my life as I do. I decided to represent myself and soon discovered I could be just as sharp as any attorney; I reversed a federal case my attorney had claimed was impossible to reverse.
Count on yourself and you’ll never be counted out.
LESSON 16
How Luciano Became Lucky: Make Your Own Luck
THE kid had a pockmarked face. He worked for five dollars a week. He was arrested for gun possession, armed robbery, assault, gambling, and drugs. Did time in the can. Was shot at. Was knifed, leaving an ugly scar across his cheek. Was beaten senseless while hanging from a rafter. Lived under constant scrutiny of law enforcement. Was exiled. Dead by the age of sixty.
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