Sometimes I kind of feel sorry for these guys. From the Boston Globe.
The New England Mafia just is not what it used to be.
In what would be an unusual move for a man of his rank, the family’s reputed underboss, Carmen “The Cheese Man” DiNunzio, is accused of personally delivering a $10,000 bribe to a near stranger, a man who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.
Some of his underlings have supplemented their incomes by shoplifting, and one aging soldier was spotted peddling electric toothbrushes on a street in the North End, State Police said.
The big break against the mob happened when sentences shot way up. Guys were willing to serve 5 years for their crew. But the threat of 50 yearsmade them sing like birds.
Legalized gambling also played a part. There’s a lesson in that.
Interesting piece Peter. Legalized drugs could, with time, make current corner boys and gangsters equally pathetic (instead of menacing).
Yeah, roaming the streets selling electric toothbrushes!
Or, more likely, pirated CD’s and DVD’s. I know that’s part of the underground economy where I live. But people don’t generally kill or get killed over that stuff.
I bet if we started CD and movie prohibition, people would start getting killed in the illegal market that would develop.
In New York City, Asian immigrants tend to have a lock on the pirated CD and DVD business.