-:Saturday Review 20 January 1973 The :Society A MAFIOSO CASES THE

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The Mafia is big business. In fact, its anything else but numbers-racket odds two industries these days. There's the or loanshark records didn't interest me. one I was in. That one makes billions Today, though, I have nothing to do of dollars each year through stock but read, because I'm not out hustling thefts, loansharking, gambling, drug anymore. I'm an informer, something I traffic, and other rackets. And then always hated. But the mob stole my there's the other Mafia industry—the money, tried to kill my wife and one one that writes about what we do and of my kids, so I talked. Now that I'm puts it in bestsellers and on movie living in seclusion, I have time to think screens for the public to lap up. The about all the things I did and read the funny part is that while the Mafia picks stuff that's being written. I can't get the public's pocket, the public is beat- over what I see on the newsstands these ing down doors to read about how it's days. being stolen blind. Right now I think If you want to know the truth, I there are more books on the Mafia float- think the American public are sadists ing around than Joe Namath signature at heart. I remember sitting in a movie- footballs. Everyone's making money on house in Virginia watching The God- the mob. father. The audience was actually It's funny. All my adult life, since I cheering at times. That shocked me. was thirteen, I've been around Mafia You'd think that Don Corleone was the people. My grandfather was a Mafia Lone Ranger and the other mob were BY VINCENT TERESA don, a in in the old the bad guys. Everytime a bad guy days. My friends were all street thieves did something to hurt Corleone and his or big Mafia people. When I was in the "Right now I think men, the people would shout: "That mob, stealing millions, I never thought lousel Get the bum!" I couldn't believe about the public's interest in what my there are more books it. Didn't they understand that all the friends and I were doing. I only have mobsters in the movie were vicious? a ninth-grade education, so reading on the Mafia floating Just because Don Corleone didn't want to sell dope, or because his son Mike Vincent Teresa, the highest-ranking Ma- around than had an Irish girlfriend, that didn't make fia figure ever to turn state's evidence, them any better than the other guys. now lives under federal protection and Joe Namath signature They were still dumping stiffs around uses an assumed name. His autobiogra- footballs. Everyone's the corner like everybody else. They phy, My Life in the Mafia, which he were still making their money off gam- wrote with the collaboration of Thomas making money bling and loansharkini and extortion. C. Renner, will be published by Double- But the public doesn t want to know. day early in March. on the mob." They like seeing blood and guts, cheer-

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ing for good guys and booing bad guys. show you a sucker I can beat. I don't secret business is over. It's secret to the Look at prizefighting in this country, care what anybody says-90 per cent extent that mobsters want to stay on or the phony wrestling matches. Mil- of the public are dying to be Sicilians, the street. If you talk, of course, you're lions go to see them and watch them to lead that kind of life. Even the Na- going to get hurt. Why? Because, if on television. They shout their lungs politanos are dying to be Sicilians. All you talk, I'll go to the can, that's why. out while a guy bites another guy's most people know is that a Mafia man Not that you're giving away any big ear off or pounds his head on the Hoer. wears a $350 silk suit, $150 Italian secrets about blood rites and that kind They sit there thinking: "O-o-o-o, would shoes, a Borsalino hat, a silk shirt, of thing. I love to do that to that guy." So when drives around in a big Lincoln or Cad- The only time those rites are still someone else does it, it's just like they illac, and always has a good-looking used is when a man of pure Sicilian were sitting there doing it themselves. girl in a mink on his arm. blood is being made a don. But that It's the same way when people read The trouble is that the fellow that isn't the way you become an ordinarZ about the Mafia. They love to read that wants to be a Mafioso doesn't realize member—what we call a " Joe the Boss got shot in the head or that the guy he saw all dressed up ten —of an organization today. Nowadays that Tony the Nut got stabbed in the minutes ago may be going around the a mob member sponsors another guy— chest. Let's face it: most mob guys corner to get two bullets in the head just like you're trying to get into a wouldn't read this stuff or look at it from some snake who hates him, or country club. It's a business. The spon- in a movie. They know what the mob that at three in the morning his door- sor goes to his associates and says, is like. They got to go to bed each bell rings, and when he goes to open "Look, I got a good man here that we night wondering if they'll wake up the the door the building blows up under- want to have with us; his capabilities next morning, and when they do, neath him or police are there to pull are this, that, and the other thing. I'll they're too busy hustling money to him out and tailor him for stripes for vouch for him." As soon as be vouches worry about what someone's writing. the rest of his life. People don't think for the applicant he puts his head on They don't like to see things written of that. All they think about is the ro- the block, too. The new guy's taken into because that makes them too visible, mance and excitement. a room with the top men, asked a few brings heat on them, and they haven't The funny thing is that Mafia people questions, told what's expected of him. time to waste reading about what sometimes get caught up in the Holly- Then there's a vote. But if they weren't they're doing. wood image of mobsters—at least years going to vote him in, he wouldn't be I read The Godfather a few years ago, ago they did. I remember that Jerry there in the first place to see who else while I was waiting to be sentenced Angiulo, who's now head of the Boston was present. You can only come out in the Baltimore County jail. You have mob, used to come on like George Raft. of that room two ways—a made man to read something else besides the He'd wear a silk smoking jacket with or feet first. I guess that's the main Bible in solitary. Don't misunderstand an ascot tied around his neck and patent difference between getting into the me, I enjoyed it. But if I was out on leather shoes. Here's this bum I grew mob and joining a countub.ry club. the street, I wouldn't have paid any up with, and all of a sudden he I know old Joe Valachi talked about attention to it. Believe me, I know started calling me "the kid." Sinatra secret blood rites before a U.S. Senate what a godfather is. I don't have to used to impress a lot of mob guys, committee and in the book by Peter read about one. The guys who read too. Once Ralphie Chong saw Sinatra Maas, The Valachl Papers, but that the book in the can were the under- wear those long, pointy collars in some sort of thing went out in the Thirties. lings—the street hoods. They would movie, and the next day he went to a I knew Joe, and he lived in the past. always tell each other lines like, "I'll tailor and had two dozen shirts made All he had were his memories. make you an offer you can't refuse"— with those same collars. Don't get me wrong. The Valachi and then laugh like they were hearing As a kid, my own movie idol was Papers was accurate, but to me the it for the first time. Sydney Greenstreet. He always im- book was just a rehash of the story Joe It's the same in the legit world. The pressed me because he had a lot of told at the hearings. And it wasn't Joe people that read these books are the nerve, he was smart, and he had class. talking in the book—not the way he little guys who work their tails off for I was never impressed by tough guys— talked to me at La Tuna Prison in El $100 or $200 a week. They buy them, they're a dime a dozen. Greenstreet Paso, when we were both there a few put one in their lunch box, and bring was big and sloppy-looking, but when years ago. I didn't see the movie, but it to work. Then they nudge the guy the guy spoke he had tremendous dic- from what I've heard about it Joe next to them while eating a ham sand- tion, a great vocabulary. All my life would have had a fit. It was all blood wich: "Boy, imagine that Luciano. I tried to fashion myself to have style and guts. That's all the public wants, What a life he had, huh? Lived at the in everything I did. I didn't want to not the real story about how a guy like Waldorf-Astoria . . . a different broad be a common, ordinary thief. I tried Joe had to sweat bullets to make a every night." Then they go home at to use my brains. Sometimes I used living from day to day, or the agony night and dream about being in to stay in my office in Boston, turn of his death in prison. The biggest Lucky's shoes. You know why? Be- out the lights, look out over the city. score Joe ever made was $80,000 on cause they've got nice fat wives at home. and just plan out my next move. counterfeit ration stamps. Today that's They're cornered by dull and routine For the most part the Hollywood peanuts to a mob money mover, But lives, so they long for the excitement image of a mobster—back in those days Joe went public. He gave the world a and glamour they can never have. If as well as now—was over-romanticized. lot of history about the mob, and that they were hungry, they'd be out steal- So the public has a false idea of the was important. ing. That's what separates honest guys Mafia, which has been built up by remember when Joe was testifying from thieves. You got to be hungry— writers and filmmakers who haven t before that Senate committee back in for money, for power—to be a thief. been close enough to a mob guy to 1963. I was sitting in Raymond Petri- But I'm not really that surprised by know what it's all about. They pump area's office in Providence, Rhode Is- the public's curiosity about the Mafia. out a lot of garbage from newspapers land. That was the headquarters for rye played on it in my business for and cops and informers, but they don't the New England mob. Patriarca was many a year—that's how I beat so really know. It's a big game, the other the don then; now he's hi jail. We were many suckers. I found out one thing Mafia industry. They feed the public all sitting there, Raymond and me and early on: you show me a guy that's some pabulum about a secret society, Henry Tameleo, the , and got a touch of larceny in him and and the public eats it up. But this some other guys, and we were watching 24 Joe on television. I remember Raymond Office. In Buffalo they called it the Arm. about someone in his mob, and it proves saying: "This bastard's crazy. Who the The Valachi Papers was really the to be the truth, you'll get justice. That's hell is he?" Henry knew him. "I re- first popular book about the mob, and what makes the dons so important in member that guy," Henry said. "Vinnie it was something thepublic liked be- the mob. They rule fair and square. and I met him in some café in Man- cause it had seen old Joe on television I don't know who Puzo had in mind hattan. He was a nothing." At that and could identify with him. But the when he made up the character of moment Valachi was testifying about book that really made the mob fashion- Corleone, but to me it was a little bit Joseph Bruno, an old able was The Godfather. As far as I'm of Joe Profaci, who used to be the boss who used to operate in Boston. Then concerned, the book was far superior of Brooklyn; Carlo Gambino, who's he went on to talk about meeting to the movie. What I liked about the head of the largest in New Raymond. Raymond still didn't remem- book—and what they dropped from York; and Three-Finger Brown, who ber Valachi, and he was mad as hell, the movie—was that it showed how used to be the boss of the Long Island but everyone else in the room was Don Corleone came over to this country mob. I even saw a little of Don Pep- getting a big kick out of the hearings. intending to work and make an honest pino, an old Mustache Pete I loved "What the hell's the Cons Nostra?" buck, but there were prejudices against when I was in the New England mob. Henry asked. Italians, so he was forced into doing realize Puzo didn't know about him, "Is he a soldier or a button man?" things the way they were done in but he captured some of his manner- someone else said, pointing to Henry. Sicily. I know that's accurate because isms in the book anyway. "I'm a zipper," another guy joked. it's what happened to my grandfather, When I saw Marlon Brando play the "I'm a flipper," someone else said, Vincenzo Teresa, when he came to Godfather on the screen, I remember It was all a big joke to them. In Boston from Sicily. The Irish politicians thinking to myself that this guy ought New England we never used names and the Protestant snobs looked down to get an Academy Award. He had the like "soldiers" or "." People their noses at the Italians. They mannerisms of a don, the class of a don, in our mob were either "made men," squeezed them for every dime they down to perfection. The soft, soft voice, dons, Mustache Petes, bosses, or under- could and made them work like pigs always talking in riddles and parables. bosses. Sure, we all knew about the in the dirtiest jobs. I'm not crying "poor Dons are like that. They're elegant Commission—the ruling body of the Sicilian boy that couldn't make a liv- people in their own way—princes of Mafia, or Cosa Nostra—and the crime ing." Don't misunderstand me. What crime, so to speak. They might look families that Joe described, but we I'm saying is that Don Corleone, like like old greaseballs. They might be called them the Ruling Council and my grandfather, showed his Sicilian little squirts, like Don Peppin, who "the mobs." Our mob was called the temper and found another way to make was only five feet tall. But when they

a buck—the way they did in Sicily open their mouths, they're ten feet tall. "Personally, I wish more when outsiders pushed them around. They speak in broken English and all The one great thing Puzo did in his that, but I remember that when Don writers would get close book was show the Sicilian genius for Peppino sat down and spoke in his to mob guys and find organization. That's one thing about broken English, it was like the sound Sicilians. They might not always be of music coming from him. His speech out what they're really educated people, but if there is one was so nice and soft, and he never thing they know, it's organization. They swore. If you said a four-letter word in like. Then the public know how to take four guys that are front of him, he'd say: "Hey, what ambling around aimlessly with no place are 7ou, a nigger, you talka lika that? might stop thinking to go and make them a tight-knit unit. Don to you talka lika that in front of about the Mafia like Puzo also showed the compassion of me. I no lika that language." a don, the fair way Corleone ruled. Peppin was an elegant man, and it was Robin Hood That's the way most dons are. I don't so was Joe Lombardo, the old Massa- care what you say, if you go to a don, chusetts boss. I was a thirteen-year-old and his Merrie Men." even if you're not a member of his kid and a petty thief when 1 met him. mob, and you've got a legitimate beef I thought to myself, here I am, shaking

25 hands with Joe Lombardo, a big Mus- understand why Puzo, a guy who wrote they're not trusted in the inner circle. tache Pete. I'd heard about him from such a tremendous book, so easy to Take , the leading Jew hanging around the North End of Hos- read, so interesting, and so close to in organized crime. Hank Messick wrote ton and from my Uncle Sandy, who being true on so many things, fouls about him in his book called Lansky. up with that. Now Messick has to be spellbound by '01 was connected with the mob. It was Don Lombardo this and Don Lom- Nobody can be an adviser to a Lanky. He thinks Lansky is some kind bardo that. Hell, Lombardo looked like Sicilian if he isn't as Sicilian himself. of god. Well, a guy like Lansky has a banker, not a thief. He dressed very They don't trust anyone who isn't of a lot of power. A lot of mobsters admire conservatively, mostly in grays. He their blood, even if they raised him him. I did myself, but from a different wore a little pinky star sapphire, a gray from birth. Not only would a don dis- angle than Messick. I think of him as fedora, and black shoes. I was ready trust him, the rest of the mob would, the great money mover, probably the to meet a big mobster who'd say in a too. They'd say, "What are you doing greatest of all time. He had the fore- deep gravel voice: "How are ye, kid?" with this Irish guy here. We don't want sight to organize Las Vegas and Cuba But when he greeted me, it was in a him here." and Europe with casinos, then to skim soft, easy voice. "Be a niece boy. You That's the way it was in Boston. I off the top and wash the mob money be a goods boy. Soma day you gas had a black man working for me called through banks all over the world, where he has contacts. r. someplace." He was an educated man, Walter. He'd saved my life, and I even though he spoke broken English. trusted him, but nobody else in the mob The big trouble with Messick's hook Clean, he smelled clean. I remember wanted any part of him. I was told is that he makes Lansky into something that the most, like it was yesterday. point-blank, We don't want this guy be isn't—chairman of the board of or- I remember that this man smelled like around." ganized crime. That's nonsense. The he'd just stepped out of a shower. "Why?" I asked, "He's trustworthy." truth is that because Lausky's a Jew Now, while Puzo had the Sicilian "He's black," they answered. "C.t he can't sit in on a meeting of the don down perfectly, he went haywire rid of him." Ruling Council, They don't trust him. in other areas. I remember both the I'D say one thing. I didn't have to That's why they had Jimmy Blue Eyes, book and movie portrayed a sitdown tell Walter. He understood. If I went a eaporeglme in Vito Cenovese's family, of the dons. Everything was fine except into Ciro's Restaurant, he'd go in, but with Lansky all the time. Jimmy Blue for one thing—Don Corleone had an he'd sit way over in a corner booth all Eyes kept an eye on Lansky to make Irish . It could never happen. by himself and never come near the sure he didn't chisel, and he prevented An outsider, a Jew, an Irishman, a table where 1 was sitting with the boys. mob punks from shaking down Lansky. black—no one but a Sicilian could sit He knew that they wouldn't allow me Without Jimmy Blue Eyes, Lansky hi on a council of the dons. I can't to bring him close enough to overhear would have been like a toothpick stand- the conversation. It wouldn't have mat- ing in a forest. But Messick doesn't tered if he was Irish or Indian or black know that. He's even got Lansky belt- "The people that he wasn't Italian, be wasn't Sicilian. ing Luciano in the °Id days. If Lansky read these books are So they wouldn't trust him. He ran a ever laid a finger on Luciano before small loanshark racket for me, and he'd or after Luciano became a boss, he the little guys who do other things for me, but not when would have been whacked out on the it involved other mob members. spot. Big as he is, Lansky couldn't work their tails off for In that way, the title of Nicholas even order a guy like me around unless Cage's book—The Mafia Is Not an he got the permission of my boss. To $100 or $200 a week. Equal Opportunity Employer—is per- do that, he had to go to Jimmy Blue fect. Blacks, Irish, Jews, or Poles don't Eyes, who would ask Patriarca if I They long for the have equal status with Mafia members. could work with Lansky on something. glamour and excitement They work for them, maybe sometimes Otherwise, I'd tell Lansky to take a they make more money than Mafia flying leap. they can never have," members, but unless they're Sicilian When Messick overrates Lansky, it

proves he really doesn't understand the Esquire Sportsman's Club and the what the mob is all about. His book is Logan Sportsman's Club out of Boston. "When I saw all opinion—his opinion. He sure as I'll give Gage credit—he had some brass Marlon Brando play hell never interviewed Lansky, yet he to go on the junket, but he didn't know quotes conversations between Lansky enough about what to look for, so he the Godfather on the and Luciano when they were young missed the real action. The action punks. How the hell can you make up comes when the junket operator wines screen, I remember quotes like that? The trouble Ls the and dines the sucker, then knocks him thinking to myself that public eats that stuff up and believes it. out in a rigged card or dice game for In The Mafia Is Not an Equal Op- $50,000 or $100,000 in a hotel suite this guy ought to get portunity Employer, Nick Gage puts away from the casino games—and then an Academy Award. He Lansky on the same pedestal that Mes- turns the victim himself into a loan- sick does. In Fact, that's one trouble I shark or a stock swindler. had the mannerisms of a found with Gage's books—he's too rep- Gage would never have gotten on etitious. He's writing the same thing any of my junkets unless he had the don, the class of a don, Messick is writing about Lansky and a right banks to vouch for him, and even down to perfection." dozen other guys are writing about then I think I'd have found out about other hoods. To be honest, the only his real identity and bounced him. I only thing I found in Cage's books that I went after the high rollers with lots of hadn't read somewhere else was his de- dough in their bank accounts, and I scription of a gambling junket he went checked each one out thoroughly. A on with the Eastern Sportsmen's Club. good mob junketeer always does his I know Eastern. In fact, I did some homework properly. The Eastern business with them while I was running Sportsmen's Club was strictly a fast-

27 moving operation. They'd take 100 they didn't have those special rare wines mob only to help out his poor old dad, players to the Victoria Sporting Club that he ordered in the club's restaurant joe "Bananas." Let me tell you some. or some other London club and pull in in London. I guess he tbolght It was thing: Joe Bananas don't need his kid's $300,000. Hell, I'd take an average of all phony. The truth is that they treated help to get out of a jam. He never did thirty or forty high-rollers to the Colony him that way because he was a small- and never will. Where Talese went Club in London, and they'd go for potato man, a cheapskate. If I had wrong—and don't take my word for it, $600,000, sometimes a million bucks— walked into that joint with him—and ask any mob guy—is that he took a not to mention what I'd make in rigged rve been there—they would have run punk and glamorized him. I think games in hotel suites. If any of my out and started squeezing the grapes Talese wrote what he believed was a players were as cheap as Gage was, as for me. Any guy that's a big spender true story. But in plain English, he was careful about spending his $1,000 ad- gets what he wants. If he nurses his conned. vance fee for chips as he said he was— $1,000 in chips, he gets zip. I remember Bill Bonanno. He was a it took him a whole week—he'd have Frankly, I'm disappointed with hooks little over six feet, a nice-looking kid. been bounced on his ear. He couldn't like Messick's and Gage's. For the most When I first met him, he reminded me understand why they kept telling him part, they're ancient history. They re- of one of those college joes you she on peat what everyone and his brother has the football field. But he was a jerk who written about—the Mafia wars of the didn't know what time of day it was "I remember watching Thirties, Prohibition, the Gallo wars, unless someone shook him and said Joe Valachi on TV the Purple Gang. What about the mob it's nine in the morning. He was irre- today? The only book where a writer sponsible and had a loud, sassy mouth. testifying before that really talked to the mob guy he's writ- Believe me, the only reason someone ing about is Honor Thy Father by Gay didn't whack him out years ago was out Senate committee Talese. of respect for his old man. When T was Now there is one of the hest written in La Tuna Prison, a kid named Ii iilky. back in 1963. It was books I've ever read. Talese is a real who'd been in jail with Bill for a while, artist with words. And he got close to told me that if it wasn't for the reputa- at the headquarters of the mob. He spent a lot of time talking tion of Joe Bananas, Bill would have the New England mob to Bill Bonanno and other people in the been thrown from a prison tier a dozen Bonanno mob. I'd say he gave a pretty times. in Providence, and at good picture of mob life, the strains I was on the street when the so- on the family, the problems of survival. called Banana Wars were taking place. one point Raymond He did one thing I didn't like, though: The whole mob was buzzing about the he got too close to Bill Bonanno and way Joe Bananas had tried to whack Patriarca, the don, said: because of that he didn't see Bill for out Carlo Gambino, Steve Magaddino, what he really was. He made Bill out to and Three-Finger Brown in order to `This bastard's crazy. be a tough guy, a loyal son, a courage-. put himself in the chair as the boss of Who the hell is he?'" ous leader—as though Bill got into the bosses. So what Talese writes about is

28 pretty accurate, except maybe it wasn't son—never let anyone know how you the things we get away with in some the big gang war he makes it out to feel. That's a story I had pounded into other country. It's a land of oppor- be. It was really small potatoes. Only my head by Tameleo day after day, tunity for us. Don't forget, most of about six or seven guys of hit. Hell. and it's a lesson he learned from us grew up with holes in our shoes. iR in Boston they once whacked out more Bananas. In his younger days Tameleo What do you think would happen to than fifty in a gang war. used to lose his temper a lot, and me or Lansky or any other mob guy NON Talese doesn't really say it, but the Bananas pulled him aside one day and in Russia, or Haiti, or Brazil, or some reason why the mob didn't put Joe gave him a little lecture. "Don't ever European country? It would be, empty Bananas to sleep was because of the forget," Bananas told him, "that when your pockets, stand up against the wall, loyalty of a lot of his friends, people you get mad at a guy, smile at him, look and boom—that's the end of it. This is like Patriarca and Tameleo. Gambino him right in the eye, walk over and pat the greatest country in the world—par- and Magaddino wanted him hit, but him on the shoulder. Keep patting him ticularly for a mob guy. You are a free the old Mustache Petes who started the there. Eventually you're going to look man. As bad as your reputation may be. mob with guys like loe Bananas felt down and see a big hole where you you'll normally get a fair trial. That different. I remember the Boston mob were patting him." What be meant was doesn't happen in a lot of countries. sent Tameleo, Don Peppino, and Don that if you keep on your enemy's good I was against a guy like that George Nene to Buffalo. I drove them. They side, he's going to trust you like a McGovern, and I'll bet most mob guys met with Magaddino in a restaurant, brother and then you can whack him were, too. Not that I love Nixon. But and it was there that Joe Bananas's life out whenever you feel like it. any guy who wants to give amnesty was saved. Tameleo came out after the I met Bananas a couple of times. to a bunch of draft dodgers, to a bunch meeting and said to me: "1 think Joe first at the old Rcd Devil Restaurant of cowards who ran away, shouldn't Bananas will be all right now. Every- in New York with Tameleo and later he President. T don't want to see my thing is going to be okay." And it was. at the Dream Bar in Miami. I was very sons go to war. It would rip my heart They banished Bananas as a boss, but impressed with him. He was a very out to see them go. But if they get they let him live. stern man, good-looking, well-built, their notices, Ill drive them to the draft Talese saw a dying mob in the Bo- with hard features, He bad those snake board center. Why? They owe it to nannos, and so now he thinks the whole eyes—it's a trait of all the old Mus- their country. It's as simple as that. Mafia is dying and unimportant. Well, tache Petes—eyes that can look right Another thing I'd like to see is nothing could be further from the truth. through you. He was a tough piece of writers paying more attention to the It's big, it makes billions of dollars each work. rackets that mob people operate, in- year, it still corrupts cops and politi- Books like Talese's and Puzo's, even stead of always talking about the mur- cians and fudges, and it's getting bigger Maas's, give the public at least a half- ders they're behind. Anyone can write now that so many Sicilians are being way decent picture of mob life. I think about a bunch of gangland murders. smuggled into this country as rein- Puzo and Talese got caught up in the All you have to do is read a police forcement. Go to Chicago or Detroit or excitement and made heroes out of file. But how about the millions that New Orleans and see bow big they are. bums, and that's wrong. Maas plays it are swindled in stocks, and how big Or lust look at New York. Carlo Gam- pretty straight, but he doesn't have the corporations are taken over, and how bino is more powerful than ever. He's style that gets you interested the way the mob washes its money through doing what Toe Bananas couldn't. He's Puzo and Talese do. corrupt bankers? What about how a making the five New York crime fami- Personally, I wish more writers would mob guy with a ninth-grade education lies into one, and hell boss them all. get close to mob guys and find out what outwits big, educated business execu- Both Talese and Puzo fell into another they're really like, what they really do, tives—the larceny that's in a lot of trap in their books. They've got the before they sit down and write books millionaires that makes them easy game dons grooming their kids to be in the about them. Talese did it. I think Puzo for a mob swindler? rackets. That's just fantasy. No mob- did. It's the only way they could know That kind of information is interest- ster—especially a boss—wants his kids some of the things they write about. ing, and it also does the public some to follow in his footsteps. To tell the I realize it isn't easy. Mob guys don't good. There is one thing that all these truth, of all the mob people I knew, like writers or reporters. The writers books and movies and newspaper arti- I can think of only two whose kids got may get hurt trying to get too close. cles have already done: they've put involved, Bill Bonanno and Anthony But if more would really do it, then beat on the Mafia, made it more visible. Zerilli, the son of old Joe Zerilli, the the public might stop thinking about A few years aco we were all stealing boss of Detroit. And you can bet they the Mafia like it was Robin Hood and Wall Street blind and nobody was never wanted it to happen, it just did. his Merrie Men. doing much about it. Then there was a Even Lansky has tried to keep his two Not that mobsters are all bad. There lot of publicity about the mob, and guys kids on the straight and narrow. Look are plenty of good things about them like myself were busted one after at Gambino or Luchese. Their kids are the public might be interested in. For another. Now it isn't so easy to swipe in legitimate businesses. Sure, their old instance, does the public know whether millions in stocks and use them for man helped them get set up. What mob guys are patriotic or not? The collateral to take over companies. Peo- father wouldn't? But they're not made truth is, most are. We don't think about ple are beginning to wise up. So that's members of the mob, and that's a fact. undermining the government. We cor- a plus. I got sons of my own. I'd break my rupt _politicians, but that's only so we just hope that people who write kids' legs rather than see them in- can do business. We cheat on taxes, about the Mafia will wise up more. 1 volved with the mob. I'd like to see but let's face it, there isn't a damn hone they start pinning down what the them go to college and become, say, business executive who doesn't. If you mob is doing now, not what it did attorneys—anything, really, so long as want to know the truth, I think every- twenty or thirty years ago. If they do it's straight and on the up. So when one's entitled to swindle a little on that, if they wake the public up and Puzo pictures the sons of Corleone taxes because they're too high and stop making the mob look like it's ro- taking over his mob with his approval, the politicians spend like drunken sail- mantic and exciting and a treasure he's dead wrong. ors on all their pet deals to help out house of easy riches, maybe then they'll I don't know how close Talese got to their buddies anyhow. contribute something. Otherwise, they're Joe Bananas, but he was right about Mob people aren't stupid. We know only picking the public's pocket just one piece of advice that Joe gave his that none of us could get away with like the mob does. 0

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