The World's Most Evil Gangs by Nigel Blundell Read Free Book Online

even know what street Canada is on.’ ‘Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class.’ ‘I have built my organisation upon fear.’ ‘My rackets are run onstrictly American lines and they’re going to stay that way.’ ‘Now I know why tigers eat their young.’ ‘Prohibition has made nothing but trouble.’ ‘When I sell liquor, it’s called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on Lake Shore Drive, it’s called hospitality.’ ‘I am going to St. Petersburg, Florida, tomorrow. Let the worthy citizens of Chicago get their liquor the best they can. I’m sick of the job – it’s a thankless one and full of grief. I’ve been spending the best years of my life as a public benefactor.’ And finally: ‘This American system of ours, call it Americanism, call it capitalism, call it what you will, gives each and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands and make the most of it.’
    The masterful ‘Lucky’ Luciano averred: ‘There’s no such thing as good money or bad money. There’s just money.’ ‘If you have a lot of what people want and can’t get, then you can supply the demand and shovel in the dough.’ ‘The world is changing and there are new opportunities for those who are ready to join forces with those who are stronger and more experienced.’ ‘Ever since we was kids, we always knew that people can be bought. It was only a question of who did the buying and for how much.’ ‘Behind every great fortune, there is a crime.’
    The ‘Mob Accountant’ Meyer Lansky boasted: ‘We’re bigger than US Steel.’ His other advice: ‘Don’t lie. Tell one lie, then you gotta tell another lie to compound on the first.’ ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry. Look at the Astors and the Vanderbilts, all those big society people. They were the worst thieves and now look at them. It’s just a matter of time.’ And some advice he ignored himself: ‘Always overpay your taxes. That way you’ll get a refund.’
    Hitman ‘Crazy’ Joe Gallo once prodded an accomplice andsaid: ‘You like federal judges? I’ll buy you one for Christmas!’ Carlo Gambino famously said: ‘Judges, lawyers and politicians have a license to steal. We don’t need one.’ His son Thomas Gambino reflected: ‘Me I never had the chance to say, “Well I’m going to do something I want to do.” I always did it for my family, for my children, for my father, for my mother.’
    Carlo Gambino’s successor Paul Castellano, sometimes known as the ‘Howard Hughes of the Mob’, was more reflective: ‘This life of ours, this is a wonderful life. If you can get through life like this and get away with it, hey, that’s great. But it’s very unpredictable. There’s so many ways you can screw it up.’
    Castellano also explained a Mafioso’s sense of duty: ‘There are certain promises you make that are more sacred than anything that happens in a court of law, I don’t care how many Bibles you put your hand on. Some of the promises, it’s true, you make too young, before you really have an understanding of what they mean. But once you’ve made those first promises, other promises are called for. And the thing is you can’t deny the new ones without betraying the old ones. The promises get bigger; there are more people to be hurt and disappointed if you don’t live up to them. Then, at some point, you’re called upon to make a promise to a dying man.’
    But Castellano also exposed his sense of cynicism: ‘We’re not children here. The law is – how should I put it? A convenience. Or a convenience for some people, and an inconvenience for other people. Like, take the law that says you can’t go into someone else’s house. I have a house, so, hey, I like that law. The guy without a house – what’s he think of it? Stay out in the rain, schnook. That’s what the law means to him.’ And on political influence: ‘If the President of theUnited States, if he’s smart, if he needs help,