Word: sharked
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...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 to ceiling in a closet of his apartment on West End Avenue...
...substantial tax cut; the bookie is merely a private entrepreneur trying to survive in competition with state-run betting operations; the loan shark's 20%-a-week bite seems almost reasonable to a businessman who must raise cash fast but cannot qualify for a loan at a bank. Abetting this ethical blind spot are the romanticized accounts of the Mafia in novels and movies. Says Stephen Schiller, executive director of the Chicago crime commission: "The public doesn't realize how bad these people are. The Mob makes for good talk. We have made these bums folk heroes." Adds Ralph Salerno...
Some mobsters have tried to win Galante's favor by turning over their businesses to him at distress-sale prices. In one deal, he scooped up the betting and loan-shark rackets in Pennsylvania Station, which net at least $500,000 a year. Other mobsters, including some nominally under Dellacroce, sold Galante a number of Manhattan sweatshops in which black and Hispanic women, many working at less than $3 an hour (the union scale is $4.81), stitch garments that are sold in legitimate clothing stores across the country. Authorities
Torello revels in the sadistic side of his work. An FBI wiretap once recorded him plotting in Miami to murder a Chicago union boss by taking him out to sea in a powerboat, slitting his throat, chopping up his body and feeding the pieces to the sharks. The FBI intervened. Another FBI wiretap overheard Torello telling how he had hung William Jackson, a 350-lb. loan shark, on a meat hook and tortured him with an electric prod. "He was on that thing three days before he croaked," Torello said excitedly. "He was floppin' around...
...Vincent Capone, 39, a small-time gambler and loan shark slain in Hoboken, N.J., in August 1976 while his Cadillac was stopped for a red light. Two killers hit him with 15 shots. He was reportedly about to turn state's evidence in an investigation of New Jersey Mobster John DiGilio...