Word: nostras
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Rooting out illegal dealing in heroin poses vastly complex problems. The heroin market is enormously profitable, and drying up the sources of supply involves an incredible tangle of such fractious forces as foreign governments and the U.S.'s own Cosa Nostra...
Gilbert Lee Beckley is-or was-a valuable man to the Cosa Nostra. He helped the mob flourish in the green field of betting on college and professional athletics. Handling as much as $250,000 worth of bets daily, Beckley, 58, mastered all the tricks of his ar-can'e trade: wangling information from locker rooms, computing odds in his head, occasionally bribing athletes. Once Beckley was discovered behind a scheme to fix college basketball games by bribing the referees. On another occasion, word flashed along his betting network that bookies need not worry about the outcome...
...Sides. Beckley's value was not limited to the Cosa Nostra; he also worked the legitimate side of the street. He had a deal with National Football League investigators to tip them about point spreads, possible fixes and tampering with games (TIME, Aug. 22). Mor? recently, he may have been tempted to cooperate with Government agents. Such a double life can be dangerous -even fatal. Last month, old No. 11 vanished. His lawyers have not heard from him, and he is "off the boards," or out of the play, in the betting world. Two weeks ago he forfeited...
...McLain, an accomplished musician, first became involved, says SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, when he was booked into the Shorthorn Steak House to play the organ. There he met one Jigs Gazell, a bookie who reportedly has connections with a local Syrian mob loosely allied with Detroit's Cosa Nostra. With get-rich-quick promises, Jigs reportedly offered to cut McLain in on the action if he would back the operation with "a few thousand dollars." McLain and his close friend, Edwin Schober, then vice president of Pepsi-Cola Metropolitan Bottling Co. in Detroit, fell...
...local high-roller wagered $8,000 on a race at the Detroit Race Course. His horse won, and the payoff was supposed to be $46,600. When McLain failed to cough up the money, says SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, he was called before Tony Giacalone, strong-arm man for Detroit Cosa Nostra Boss Joe Zerilli. Tough Tony put his foot down-hard, right on McLain's toes. According to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Denny explained in one of several versions that he had dislocated his toes at home while chasing raccoons away from his garbage cans. At the time Detroit was fighting...