Word: cosa
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...Cosa Nostra is inflexible. Only those who boast Italian parentage may take the oath. Anyone who "goes wrong" (informs) is condemned to death and must be "hit" (murdered). The assignment to carry out the death sentence is a "contract." The contracts are awarded to other members who, unlike the highly paid assassins of Murder, Inc., carry them out without pay to demonstrate their loyalty...
...Avenge a Pal. Inevitably, the division of powers in Cosa Nostra has bred jealousies. Valachi for the first time linked some of the top names of gangland past and present in a drama of rivalry and murder...
That angered the infamous Albert Anastasia, a Costello crony and one time high executioner for Murder, Inc. Anastasia was further enraged when another old mobster buddy, Frank Scalise, was hit on Genovese's order a month later for selling memberships in Cosa Nostra for $50,000 apiece. To Anastasia's mind, that broke Lucky Luciano's old law that the Cosa Nostra higher-ups should never be physically punished but only fined by the grand council. Word went out that Anastasia would retaliate against Genovese...
...that bloody feud that led to the Apalachin summit meeting of Cosa Nostra higher-ups in November 1957. There the council approved Genovese's action, and he emerged as undisputed boss. For his part, Gambino inherited Anastasia's spot as a New York capo...
...Second-Class Rackets. More than internal rivalry has sapped the strength of Cosa Nostra in recent years. Its profitable trafficking in narcotics and prostitution has become too dangerous. Now it has been reduced to such second-class rackets as Shylocking (lending money at exorbitant interest rates), gambling and extortion...