Word: corsican
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...remain of the 180,000 who lived there on independence day five years ago. More than 100,000 of the 350,000 French who resided in Morocco have left. Most have returned to France. But more than half of the million Europeans in Algeria are of Spanish, Italian and Corsican descent, have no family or economic links with France, and work as farmers, mechanics, postmen and plumbers. "Where can we go?" asked one. Said another glumly: "If the Moslems treat us the way we used to treat them, we will all have to flee...
Within hours, the Corsican and North African hoods who control Parisian prostitution and crime began oiling their revolvers as they eyed the tempting spoils. Lodged high on the shoulder of Montmartre, just below the soaring domes of the Cathédrale du Sacré-Coeur, the Place Pigalle by day is a dreary, working-class square crowded with Algerians. At night, the square and the nearby alleys blossom into neon brilliance, offer to any passer-by probably the tawdriest and most expansive display of nude female flesh the world has seen since the passing of the Babylonian slave market. Prostitutes...
Nachat Martini graduated from Cairo University and practiced and taught law in Damascus before emigrating to France during World War II. Fascinated by the sleazy world of the Place Pigalle, Martini tried to carve himself a slice at war's end but was scared off by the swaggering Corsican gangsters of Pierre Cue, then King of the Place Pigalle. Martini tried his luck in the U.S. in 1947, opening a nightclub off Times Square called the French Casino...
...wife whisked about Paris in a snow-white Chevrolet Bel Air and spent her evenings backstage at the Folies Pigalle, Martini stayed snugly at home in the suburban chateau, where every visitor was screened by three ham-handed Arab thugs. The empire was briery threatened last spring when a Corsican hood named Michel Defendin loudly announced his intention of "conquering the Place Pigalle." This threat evaporated last month when Defendin was found lying on the Place Pigalle with three bullets in his chest...
...solemnity. His wife is his sole heir, and Paris wondered whether Helene Martini would sell and run, or stay and fight for her neon inheritance. At week's end she gave her answer. "I am keeping my husband's business," said Helene firmly. In a warning to Corsican and North African rivals, she added "I will fight them all. I am by nature a fighter...