Word: almost
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...felonies to finance the habit. Cosa Nostra's ability to flout the law makes preachment of law and order a joke to those who see organized crime in action most often: the urban poor and the black. Says Milton Rector, director of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency: "Almost every bit of crime we study has some link to organized crime...
...former Water Commissioner of New York City, took a loan at 104% annual interest. When he was unable to pay, the gangsters found him a willing victim for other schemes, including graft on city projects. In the case of Marcus, as with many other public officials, the loan was almost certainly a come-on for what the Mob really wanted: a good friend in a high place. Marcus, Mobster Anthony ("Tony Ducks") Corallo, and Contractor Henry Fried were convicted in the kickback scheme...
Once brought under the Mob's umbrella, a business almost always ceases to operate legitimately. If it is a restaurant ?favorite targets?or a nightclub, it buys coal or oil from one LCN affiliate, rents linen from another, ships garbage out through still another. Its entertainers, parking-lot attendants and even its hat check girls must always be approved by the Mob?and sometimes they must kick back part of what they take in. When the gangsters were big in Las Vegas, they sometimes used skimmed cash to supplement the fees paid to featured performers. The under-the-table...
Another legacy from the Sicilian Mafia is Cosa Nostra's almost mystical concept of respect. Something like the Oriental notion of "face," respect means more to a Cosa Nostra mobster than money. If he does not have the regard of his fellow members, he is nothing, even in his own eyes. An equally high value is placed on loyalty. It is not always honored, to be sure, but it nevertheless remains a powerful binding force within the organization. Indeed, the very human characteristics of respect and loyalty, together with the organization's dynastic structure, offer some clues to its remarkable...
Except for Hill, whose blond good looks, shaggy hair and modish clothes could easily mark him as a jet-setter, there is almost no one else around. It is a sad contrast to his high-rolling days, when prominent clergymen, judges and politicians felt it an honor to be entertained at the home of the mobster known as Joe Bananas. When the Government tried to deport Bonanno in 1954, for instance, among those who testified as character witnesses were the Most Rev. Francis Green, former Congressman Harold Patten and former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Evo DeConcini (the Most Rev. Francis...