Nothing But Money by Greg Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

Funzi. Funzi would someday become the boss of the Genovese crime family. At the time he was just a powerful man in the world of Brooklyn Sicilians, and if you asked him for help, he would help. In this case, a fellow Sicilian, Frank Ciccone, was facing the possibility of being deported back to the old country after being caught boot-legging. Ciccone needed to make sure his daughter, Louise, was taken care of here in Brooklyn if he needed to leave, so he went to the gangster boss. The gangster boss, being a practical man who knew a victim when he saw one, immediately embraced the Ciccone family as if they were his own. He immediately promised to arrange a nice marriage to a nice boy named Frank Lino. Frank’s father was a friend of the boss, so there was no negotiation about whether Frank and Louise would begin this new life together. The blessed event, arranged by the boss Funzi, went forward, and thus forever linked the Lino family to la cosa nostra .

    Years later there would be Bobby and Eddie and Frank Junior, all immersed in the life. All believed in the life, and in Brooklyn in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, it was something to aspire to. Bobby had enjoyed it, anyway. He would disappear for months at a time to Italy, arranging heroin purchases. He would sell marijuana, cocaine, whatever the demand required. He tried manufacturing quaaludes for a while but didn’t make any money at it. And of course, he did a piece of work or two.

    Lying in the hospital bed with the Big C looming over his head, it could happen that all of a sudden you saw all the people you’d clipped from a different point of view. Getting close to the end of the book had a way of doing that. Things you never spoke of had a way of coming back, even if you couldn’t remember all the names.

    One of the guys he remembered was Bobby C. He didn’t really know the guy too well and somebody else did most of the work. It was explained that Bobby C owed everybody in Brooklyn money, and everybody in Brooklyn believed Bobby C was about to turn into a government rat. There were no documents or anything to prove this, just strong belief. Strong belief was usually good enough. When Bobby Senior was told to do it, he did it. Simple as that. He was also quite aware that if he didn’t do as he was told, they would clip him and he would be the guy who winds up in Tommy Karate’s bathtub. That’s what happened with Bobby C, rest his soul. There was this two-family house on Bay 50th Street in Brooklyn; Bobby Senior couldn’t ever remember the address. It was one of Tommy Karate’s houses. Tommy had shot Bobby C while Bobby watched, and then they both dragged Bobby C’s body to the bathtub, where Tommy went to work. In a way, it was pretty low-key. He didn’t have to pull the trigger, and he didn’t even have to do any of that business with the saws and knives in the bathtub. He just had to be around and lug first the guy and then the bags with the guy inside to a lonely spot in Staten Island, and then speak no more of Bobby C.

    There was a reasonable explanation for what had to be done about Bobby C. This was also true about the other piece of work, the business with Sonny Black. Although in that case, it had almost been a disaster.

    Sonny was a well-known man’s man, a respected guy who many believed could one day wind up as boss. Everybody loved the guy, but everybody knew he had to go. Although it is true that in the civilized world, ignorance is not a sin, in Brooklyn, ignorance is a good way to get clipped. Ignorance was certainly the reason Sonny Black had to go. He had vouched for this knock-around guy named Donnie Brasco, even putting him on a list to get made. That would have been fine except for the fact that Donnie wasn’t really Donnie. He was really Joe the FBI agent. And he’d been hanging around with Sonny Black and the rest of them for a very long time. Things were discussed. Conversations took place. Who knew that not every rat agent hired