Word: mafiosi
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...present turmoil is centered in New York City, where ex-Mafia Executioner Dellacroce is struggling with Drug King Carmine Galante over leadership of the city's five crime clans. Mafiosi from coast to coast will look on the winner as the don with the most "respect," the capo di tutti capi (translation: boss of bosses); in a word, the Godfather. The loser may wind up dead...
...wealthy mobsters live like millionaires, Internal Revenue Service agents can ask discomfiting questions. Some Mafiosi have large sums in secret bank accounts overseas, most notably in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as nest eggs in case they ever have to flee abroad. Other mobsters keep their escape money in bank safe-deposit boxes or hiding places called "traps." Anthony ("Fat Tony") Salerno, a gambler and loan shark who was indicted last week on charges of running a $10 million-a-year numbers operation in Manhattan, used to keep more than $1 million in small bills packed in shoe boxes stacked from floor...
...legal businesses with large cash flows?bars, pizza parlors, restaurants, jukebox companies or vending-machine firms. No matter how poorly the business may do, its books show huge profits because the mobster is pumping in the rackets money, thereby converting it into cash that can be spent openly. Other Mafiosi have no-show jobs, with either their own firms or companies run by businessmen who owe them favors; they are paid large salaries with money that originally came from rackets. The Mafia defector interviewed by TIME drew a $50,000 salary from a travel business...
...their washday efforts, top Mafiosi can never launder more than a fraction of their illegal earnings. Thus a valued member of each clan is the "money mover," who specializes in finding ways of putting Mob money to work. Loan-sharking is a favorite because of its quick and huge returns. California officials estimate that Chicago mobsters have invested $50 million in Palm Springs bars, restaurants, hotels and real estate. As the Mafia defector said: "Money layin' around in your pocket don't do nothin' but get wrinkles...
Despite the bloodletting in Chicago, the Outfit has been rapidly expanding its Western operations. Although freelance Mafiosi and other big-time criminals have operated in California since the heyday of Bugsy Siegel in the 1940s, the only important criminal clan was Jack Dragna's family in Los Angeles. When Dragna's nephew Louis turned down a chance to become boss in 1974 ?he was promptly dubbed "the Reluctant Prince"?the Outfit and New York's Gambino clan made an extraordinary agreement to exploit the West together. Frank Bompensiero, consigliere (chief adviser) of the fading Dragna family, outlined...