Word: franke
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Nobody shot at Frank Costello, and he fired no shots himself; he had long since quit packing a gun. He was a big shot from the start-a fixer, conniver, ship operator and financier-who did his work in an office at 405 Lexington Avenue, made business trips to Montreal to buy liquor from Canadian and European exporters, took enormous risks and made enormous profits. He also kept himself so shadowy and unobtrusive a figure that when U.S. Attorney Emory Buckner made a desperate but unsuccessful effort to smash the liquor racket, Costello was erroneously charged with being an accomplice...
...barons of the underworld. He became an intimate of Arnold Rothstein, the great gambler and criminal banker; he gained the esteem and affection of Tammany Swagman Jimmy Hines. When Al Capone and the other big men of gangland met in the famous Atlantic City peace conference of 1929, Frank Costello took a leading part in calling for cartels in the 'rackets instead of armed competition-a role which gained him the title of "The Prime Minister of the Underworld...
...machine a year, brought in an annual profit of $3,000,000. But in 1934. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia ordered the machines seized, personally banged up dozens of them with a sledge hammer while photographers recorded his prowess. He also called fellow Italian and longtime admirer Frank Costello a bum, a tinhorn gambler, and a punk. That was the end of Tru-Mint and of Costello's regard for the Little Flower...
...partners bedded down happily with Huey's heirs and remained in business. It was an ideal arrangement for Frank Costello, who had put up only $15,000; he stayed in New York City and just let the money roll in. One year, they grossed $1,297,580. The Louisiana venture was still an ideal arrangement last week even though slot machines are illegal in Louisiana and Reform Mayor Chep Morrison had chased them out of New Orleans...
...Schedule." With his business embarrassments thus detached and distant from his home town, Frank Costello lived as openly as his more respectable neighbors along apartment-lined Central Park. He followed an almost unvarying routine ("I go places so regular they call me Mr. Schedule...