Word: mobbing
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...revolt by vicious young mobsters outside of New York against many of the remaining Mob elders, who had been spooked by repeated federal investigations from the 1950s until the early 1970s. For fear of letting in undercover agents, the old dons "closed the books" in 1965?that is, they stopped admitting new members. To keep a low public profile, they put the brakes on their men. To evade police wiretaps, they operated furtively from phone booths...
...rigid insulation of his family from his life in the rackets. At home, a Mafioso cultivates the image of a solid, churchgoing, charity-supporting citizen (see box). On the job, he keeps up a flashy front by wining and dining associates at expensive restaurants and resorts. Nearly every important Mob figure sports a well-kept mistress at gangster affairs. The dichotomy of Mafia life was nowhere seen better than at a flashy Manhattan restaurant where mobsters used to entertain their wives and children on Sunday afternoons and return in the evening with their girl friends...
...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...
...Concentrating more money and manpower on fighting the Mob. According to a study by G. Robert Blakey, director of the Cornell Institute on Organized Crime, all levels of government employ only 400 lawyers who specialize in organized crime. Says he: "The Mafia now has more lawyers than we have...
...Enacting stronger legislation. The Carter Administration last week moved in this direction by proposing laws that would prohibit the laundering of Mob money, tighten loan-sharking statutes and provide stiff prison sentences for operating racketeering syndicates. The proposals, however, do not solve the central problem: the very difficulty of proving charges of money-washing, loan-sharking and running illegal rackets...