Mob Rules

by Louis Ferrante

  2 His intelligence and personality: John Marzulli, “Colombo Boss Alphonse (Allie Boy) Persico Sentenced to Life in Prison for 1999 Hit,” New York Daily News, February 27, 2009.

  2 Mafia families are cut: Pino Arlacchi, Mafia Business: The Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Martin Ryle (London: Verso, 1987), p. 136.

  3 Some of them, except: Godfathers Collection: The True History of the Mafia, Volume One, DVD, A&E Home Video/The History Channel, 2004.

  4 “Today, the power”: “Remarks Announcing Federal Initiatives Against Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime.” Speech given by President Ronald Reagan, October 14, 1982, www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1982/101482c.htm.

  4 These criminal gangs: Kefauver Committee Interim Report #2, February 28, 1951, U.S. Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce.

  5 “[Petrizzo] was one of”: Selwyn Raab, “Double Portrait of a Man on Trial Astounds Friends.” New York Times, April 11, 1995.

  5 My word is better: Selwyn Raab, Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005), p. 335.

  5 the IBM Building, South Street: Selwyn Raab, “Double Portrait of a Man on Trial Astounds Friends,” New York Times, April 11, 1995.

  5 The success of the: Nicholas Pileggi, “The Mafia Is Good for You,” The Saturday Evening Post, November 30, 1968, p. 18.

  7 Good morning, gentlemen: Curt Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets (New York: Plume, 1992), p. 457.

  10 [Chris] Rosenberg was a: Mobsters: Roy DeMeo, Part 2: No Turning Back, The Biography Channel, 2009.

  11 We can’t be letting: Philip Carlo, The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2006), p. 62.

  13 The thing you’ve got: Nicholas Pileggi, Wise Guy: Life in a Mafia Family (New York: Pocket Books, 1987), p. 96.

  14 I’m going to a: Selwyn Raab, Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005), p. 616.

  18 But tell me, Charlie: Martin A. Gosch and Richard Hammer, The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1975), p. 116.

  18 Soldier: “My business is”: Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci, Murder Machine: A True Story of Murder, Madness, and the Mafia (New York: Onyx, 1993), p. 111.

  19 Trust your memory: Dennis Eisenberg, Uri Dan, and Eli Landau, Meyer Lansky: Mogul of the Mob (New York: Paddington Press, 1979), p. 108.

  20 It would have been: Nicholas Pileggi, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), p. 149.

  20 A large mass of recent: Geoff Colvin, Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else (New York: Portfolio, 2008), p. 45.

  21 War is a very rough: Robert Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 135.

  22 Louie [Milito] knew: Peter Maas, Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano’s Story of Life in the Mafia (New York: HarperTorch, 1997), p. 397.

  24 I’ve never broken: Lawrence H. Larsen and Nancy J. Hulston, Pendergast! (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1997), p. 184.

  24 “We made an”: Peter Maas, Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano’s Story of Life in the Mafia (New York: HarperTorch, 1997), p. 327.

  25 I told you I’d: Carl Sifakis, The Mafia Encyclopedia: From Accardo to Zwillman, Third Edition (New York: Checkmark Books, 2005), p. 144.

  26 [Paul Castellano] is a greedy: Philip Carlo, Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss (New York: Harper, 2009), p. 137.

  26 “On the patties”: Jonathan Kwitny, Vicious Circles: The Mafia in the Marketplace (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1979), p. 14.

  27 “twelve pounds of”: William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany (New York: MJF Books, 1988), p. 971.

  27 For putting bodies: Ibid.

  30 Jimmy lived in: Louis Ferrante, Unlocked: The Life and Crimes of a Mafia Insider (New York: Harper Paperbacks, 2009), p. 23.

  31 OC [organized crime] has become a: Mike La Sorte, “Defining Organized Crime,” AmericanMafia.com Features article 349, May 2006.

  32 The fact of having: Salvatore Lupo, La Storia della Mafia, in Clare Longrigg, Boss of Bosses: A Journey Into the Heart of the Sicilian Mafia (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2008), p. 67.

  34 I thought of: Frank Sinatra, “That’s Life,” by Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon, recorded October 18, 1966.

  35 Eradication of organized: Mafia Empire, DVD, Mpi Home Video, 2006.

  35 I am just a: Selwyn Raab, Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005), p. 42.

  36 Organized crime goes: Ibid., p. 707.

  37 Flexibility and durability: Mafia Empire, DVD, Mpi Home Video, 2006.

  38 A hard worker: John H. Davis, Mafia Kingfish: Carlos Marcello and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy (New York: Signet, 1989), p. 77.

  38 It’s not that he: Clare Longrigg, Boss of Bosses: A Journey into the Heart of the Sicilian Mafia (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2008), p. 154.

  39 “They were almost”: Mafia Empire, DVD, Mpi Home Video, 2006.

  40 Brutus drove his: Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), p. 509.

  41 Pietro was discovered: From Mafia Wars: The Confessions of Tommaso Buscetta, by Tim Shawcross and Martin Young, in The Mammoth Book of the Mafia, eds. Nigel and Colin Cawthorne (Philadelphia: Running Press, 2009), p. 320.

  43 Meyer Lansky outlived: Godfathers Collection: The True History of the Mafia, Volume Two, DVD, A&E Home Video/The History Channel, 2004.

  45 Words can raise: Aristophanes, The Birds, in Aristophanes: The Complete Plays, trans. Paul Roche (New York: New American Library, 2005). p. 401.

  46 Practice elocution: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995), p. 181.

  46 The greatest regret: Joseph Bonanno and Sergio Lalli, A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno (New York: St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 1983), p. 382.

  47 When push comes: Sam Giancana and Chuck Giancana, Double Cross: The Explosive, Inside Story of the Mobster Who Controlled America (New York: Warner Books, 1992), p. 185.

  47 Going to trial: Hunter S. Thompson, Song of the Doomed: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 353.

  48 When I was: Antony Thomas, Rhodes: The Race for Africa (London: BBC Books, 1996), p. 296.

  50 Tony [Spilotro] was: Nicholas Pileggi, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), pp. 148–49.

  50 another bickering Europe: James Thomas Flexner, Washington: The Indispensable Man (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1974), p. 288.

  52 [Lucky] Luciano had: Selwyn Raab, Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005), p. 77.

  53 The Genovese family is: Godfathers Collection: The True History of the Mafia, Volume Two, DVD, A&E Home Video/The History Channel, 2004.

  53 Bonasera: How much shall I: Mario Puzo The Godfather (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1969), pp. 32-33.

  54 Favors are like: Nelson DeMille, The Gold Coast (New York: Warner Books, 2006), p. 594.

  59 “Stalin became the”: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Young Stalin (London: Phoenix, 2008), p. 205.

  59 “I have seen him”: Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers, trans. and ed. Strobe Talbott (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970), p. xiii.

  59 Most of these guys: Joseph D. Pistone and Richard Woodley, Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia (New York: Signet, 1997), p. 104.

  60 What you have experienced: Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, revised and updated (New York: Pocket Books, 1997), p. 104. 61 Me, John Gotti: Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain, Gotti: Rise and Fall, (New York: Onyx, 1996),
p. 362.

  62 Never talk when: Peter Elkind, Rough Justice: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (New York: Portfolio, 2010), p. 8.

  63 “[Petrucelli] should kill”: United States v. Vittorio Amuso, 1992.

  63 Their way sure: Joseph F. O’Brien and Andris Kurins, Boss of Bosses: The Fall of the Godfather: The FBI and Paul Castellano (New York: Island Books, 1991), p. 361.

  64 I felt terrible that: Peter Maas, Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano’s Story of Life in the Mafia (New York: HarperTorch, 1997), p. 132.

  64 Truman owes everything: Sam Giancana and Chuck Giancana, Double Cross: The Explosive, Inside Story of the Mobster Who Controlled America (New York: Warner Books, 1992), p. 162.

  67 Maybe you didn’t: Goodfellas, DVD, screenplay by Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese, Winkler Films, 1990.

  69 “What the fuck’s”: George Anastasia, Blood and Honor: Inside the Scarfo Mob, the Mafia’s Most Violent Family (New York: William Morrow, 1991), p. 207.

  69 Don’t start talking: The Sopranos, “Down Neck,” written by Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, Season One, February 21, 1999.

  70 We have witnessed: Stanley Milgram, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View (New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1974), p. 123.

  73 He that is known: Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, in The Autobiography and Other Writings, ed. L. Jesse Lemisch (New York: New American Library, 1985), p. 142.

  74 The marks of a true: Paul Lunde, Organized Crime: An Inside Guide to the World’s Most Successful Industry (London: DK, 2004), p. 57.

  75 [A]n ex-con named: T. J. English, Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster (New York: Regan Books, 2005), p. 307.

  78 These investigations take: Selwyn Raab, Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005), p. 366.

  79 How poor are they: William Shakespeare, Othello, in The Riverside Shakespeare, ed. G. Blakemore Evans (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974), p. 1219.

  80 “That’s what most”: Robert J. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone: The Real—and Complete—Story of Al Capone (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1992), p. 27.

  81 This system of ours: Jerre Mangione and Ben Morreale, La Storia: Five Centuries of the Italian Immigrant Experience (New York: Harper Perennial, 1993), p. 259.

  83 Can everyone be: Bryan Appleyard, “Can Everyone Be an Einstein?” The Sunday Times (London), November 16, 2008, Science, p. 23.

  83 Every saint has: Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance, in The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2002), p. 144.

  84 I put men to death: Leo Tolstoy, My Confession (London: Fount Paperbacks, 1995), p. 7.

  85 Cosa Nostra and: “The Conglomerate of Crime,” Time, August 22, 1969.

  91 Few men have any: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Representative Men, ed. Pamela Schirmeister (New York: Marsilio Publishers, 1995), p. 156.

  93 The “Docile Don”: George Fresolone and Robert J. Wagman, Blood Oath: The Heroic Story of a Gangster Turned Government Agent Who Brought Down One of America’s Most Powerful Mob Families (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), p. 54.

  93 At first, The Chin: Philip Carlo, Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss (New York: Harper, 2009), p. 183.

  95 Whatever happened in: Peter Maas, The Valachi Papers (New York: Harper Paperbacks, 2003), p. 85.

  96 Organized crime is: Paul Lunde, Organized Crime: An Inside Guide to the World’s Most Successful Industry (London: DK, 2004), p. 8.

  97 In all illegal enterprises: Hannah Arendt, On Violence (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1970), p. 67.

  98 That day, Tony and I: Louis Ferrante, Unlocked: The Life and Crimes of a Mafia Insider (New York: Harper Paperbacks, 2009), p. 120.

  100 “We’ll get some scuba”: Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci, Murder Machine: A True Story of Murder, Madness, and the Mafia (New York: Onyx, 1993), p. 254.

  105 “Since ya like to”: John H. Davis, Mafia Kingfish: Carlos Marcello and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy (New York: Signet, 1989), p. 58.

  106 [Hymie] Weiss, notably: Robert J. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone: The Real—and Complete—Story of Al Capone (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1992), p. 117.

  107 A Man of Honour can be: From Mafia Wars: The Confessions of Tommaso Buscetta, by Tim Shawcross and Martin Young, in The Mammoth Book of the Mafia, eds. Nigel and Colin Cawthorne (Philadelphia: Running Press, 2009), p. 299.

  108 The wildest colts: Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, trans. John Dryden, rev. Arthur Hugh Clough (New York: The Modern Library, 1950), p. 134.

  111 “Japanese crime syndicates”: Louis Freeh and Howard Means, My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005), p. 195.

  112 It’s no surprise: Philip Pullella, “Italy Seizes $1.9 Billion of Assets as Mafia Goes Green,” Reuters, September 14, 2010.

  113 Other mobsters didn’t seem: T. J. English, Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster (New York: Regan Books, 2005), p. 184.

  114 The traditional mafioso: Pino Arlacchi, Mafia Business: The Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Martin Ryle (London: Verso, 1987), p. 118.

  116 It’s chiefly to my: Ron Chernow, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (New York: Random House, 1998), p. 223.

  119 “Get Gallo!”: Selwyn Raab, Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005), p. 199.

  119 “Get Yamamoto!”: Bill Yenne, Aces High: The Heroic Saga of the Two Top-Scoring American Aces of World War II (New York: The Berkley Group, 2009), p. 114.

  119 “They bore down”: Edwin P. Hoyt, Yamamoto: The Man Who Planned Pearl Harbor (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990), pp. 246–47.

  121 Humphreys gets the job: Sam Giancana and Chuck Giancana, Double Cross: The Explosive, Inside Story of the Mobster Who Controlled America (New York: Warner Books, 1992), p. 75.

  122 “A clever girl”: Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life (New York: HarperCollins, 2000), p. 85.

  124 Everyone I know in the: Selwyn Raab, Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005), p. xi.

  126 In February of: William F. Roemer, Jr., Accardo: The Genuine Godfather (New York: Ivy Books, 1996), p. 136.

  127 “Who’s next on the”: Tim Pat Coogan, Eamon De Valera: The Man Who Was Ireland (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), p. 78.

  128 The eye sees: William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, in The Riverside Shakespeare, ed. G. Blakemore Evans (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974) p. 1107.

  128 The unexamined life: Plato, The Trial and Death of Socrates, trans. Benjamin Jowett (New York: Heritage Press, 1963), p. 95.

  130 [Tony Bender] was pretty: Martin A. Gosch and Richard Hammer, The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1975), p. 115.

  133 The tongue was given: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003), p. 347.

  134 A handshake from: Godfathers Collection: The True History of the Mafia, Volume Two, DVD, A&E Home Video/The History Channel, 2004.

  135 No one had any: Louis Ferrante, Unlocked: The Life and Crimes of a Mafia Insider (New York: Harper Paperbacks, 2009), p. 21.

  137 [N]ever give an: G. Lacour-Gayet, Talleyrand (1754–1838), Vol. 2 (1799–1815) (Paris: Payot, 1930), p. 44.

  139 These settlers may: Livy, A History of Rome, Selections, trans. Moses Hadas and Joe P. Poe (New York: The Modern Library, 1962), p. 213.

  139 It’s in the DNA: Godfathers Collection: The True History of the Mafia, Volume One, DVD, A&E Home Video/The History Channel, 2004.

  139 “I wouldn’t do that”: Fred D. Pasley, Al Capone: The Biography of a Self-Made Man (Whitefish, MT:
Kessinger Publishing, 2004), p. 91.

  139 [Gotti’s] one of the: Philip Carlo, Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss (New York: Harper, 2009), p. 136.

  146 Mr. and Mrs. Santo Trafficante: Scott M. Deitche, The Silent Don: The Criminal Underworld of Santo Trafficante, Jr. (Fort Lee, N.J.: Barricade Books, Inc., 2007), p. 114.

  146 I had a great: Robert Lacey, Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1991), p. 38.

  147 Aspasia . . . what great art: Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, trans. John Dryden, rev. Arthur Hugh Clough (New York: The Modern Library, 1950), p. 200.

  148 “shattered a small”: Otto Friedrich, City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940’s (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997), p. 265.

  151 [A don] must: John H. Davis, Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family (New York: HarperTorch, 1994), p. 296.

  153 Human strength: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Representative Men, ed. Pamela Schirmeister (New York: Marsilio Publishers, 1995), p. 106.

  154 [Don Angelo] Bruno wielded: George Anastasia, Blood and Honor: Inside the Scarfo Mob, the Mafia’s Most Violent Family (New York: William Morrow, 1991), p. 100.

  154 I’ll have to hand: Walter Noble Burns, One Way Ride: The Red Trail of Chicago Gangland from Prohibition to Jake Lingle (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1931), p. 33.

  155 Sir, if there is one: Peter Green, Alexander of Macedon, 356–323 B.C.: A Historical Biography (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), p. 410.

  156 Vito [Genovese] told me: Martin A. Gosch and Richard Hammer, The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1975), p. 127.

  157 God deliver us: Carlo D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002), p. 594.

  160 He plays politics: William L. Riordan, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall: A Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics (New York: Signet Classics, 1995), p. 55.

  166 Activities of the criminal: Paul Lunde, Organized Crime: An Inside Guide to the World’s Most Successful Industry (London: DK, 2004), p. 8.