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

activities. On one tape he described his organisational ambitions thus: ‘This is gonna be a Cosa Nostra ’til I die. Be it an hour from now, or be it tonight, or a hundred years from now when I’m in jail. It’s gonna be a Cosa Nostra.’
    Other memorable quotes from the opinionated Gambino family godfather include: ‘If they don’t put us away for one year or two, that’s all we need. But if I can get a year run without being interrupted … put this thing together where they could never break it, never destroy it. Even if we die, be a good thing.’
    ‘When I think of the American Indian I think of their courage, strength, pride, their respect and loyalty toward their brothers. I honour the reverence they share for tradition and life. These traits are hungered for in a society that is unfortunately plagued by those whose only values are self-centered and directed at others’ expense.’
    ‘I never lie to any man because I don’t fear anyone. The only time you lie is when you are afraid.’ ‘If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn’t have a job if he was any smarter.’ ‘I know where my mistakes are, where I made my mistakes. They’re too late to remedy, you know what I mean?’
    ‘Don’t carry a gun. It’s nice to have them close by, but don’t carry them. You might get arrested.’ ‘You will put the garbage in the cans and make certain that the cans are covered. We got to keep our own backyard clean.’ ‘Be nice to bankers. Alwaysbe nice to pension fund managers. Always be nice to the media. In that order.’ ‘I would be a billionaire if I was looking to be a selfish boss. That’s not me.’ ‘I’m in the Gotti family; my wife’s the Boss.’ ‘All I wanted was to be what I became to be.’
    A prophecy that would have been more likely if Gotti hadn’t talked so much: ‘He who is deaf, blind and silent lives a thousand years in peace.’ And a final wrong call before he was sent to jail in 1992: ‘Three-to-one odds I beat this.’

CHAPTER 4
THE SYNDICATE SUMMIT THAT SHOOK AMERICA
    T he American Mafia’s ‘coming of age’ – its transformation from a high-profile killing machine into an invisible corporate entity – had begun with the first man to claim the title Capo di Tutti Capi, Salvatore Maranzano. But he was ahead of his time. Within months of his 1931 peace conference to end blood feuds between the major families, he and 40 of his men were dead. Gang warfare on such a scale had alerted Americans to the magnitude of the crime problem in their midst. It had also alerted the Mafiosi themselves to the dangers of advertising their power in blood.
    So the man who ordered Maranzano’s killing, Meyer Lansky, took up his assassinated rival’s theme of cooperation, saying: ‘Crime has moved out of the ghettoes and become nationwide.’ Lansky and his contemporaries, ‘Bugsy’ Siegel, ‘Lucky’ Luciano and Vito Genovese, made themselves millions by adopting anew, more ‘businesslike’ approach to organised crime. As Luciano explained: ‘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.’
    So what happened to these Mafia ‘modernisers’? The previous chapters took us through the blood-stained years to World War Two and highlighted the influence of the original infamous foursome – Luciano, Lansky, Siegel and Genovese – who formed a strong family bond that enabled them to survive that violent era. Extraordinarily, after a lifetime of corruption, torture and violent death, three of the four died of natural causes. The fourth was murdered on the orders of his supposed long-term ‘friends’.
    The nickname ‘Lucky’ certainly applied to the Sicilian-born Salvatore Lucania. As one of the most – if not
the
most – powerful men in organised crime, his influence over the US underworld still holds. The first person to challenge the ‘old Mafia’ by breaking through