Great post.
The Godfather was right though, in the end.
Used to be a lot of the old time mafioso died of old age at home. Drugs put an end to that.
RICO put an end to everything!!
The Italians of my father’s generation were brutally tough. The ones that became mobsters made a lot of money and brought up softer kids. Violent, but still softer.
It’s not so hard going from ghetto-like conditions to prison. But going from Very Upper Middle Class diggings to prison, major difference.
A bunch of dopes out here (Staten Island) got arrested selling macines guns and narcotics out of a barbershop. I was in it two weeks before it was busted. All Italian kids.
I bet they were rolling on each other quicker than you can blink an eye.
But the mafia still has more than enough power. None of the local Indian run delis are OWNED by the delis, perhaps on paper, but not in reality. Not the 7/11ss, the local delis.
The pizzerias, the major produce stores, etc., still washing money, I’m sure.
A lot of Italians were brought in from the old world and the Mafia is keepig its head low but still making money.
They’re down, but far from out, unfortunately.
Excellent point! I never thought of that.
The families worked back in the old country because Sicily was poor and culturally not that well aligned with the rest of Italy. The reasons for that go back hundreds of years, right?
When the bosses tried to export the system to America, the concept worked, except America turned into the richest society in history. That made them fat, and soft.
Also, there's not that much reason for a Mafia in a rich country. Ordinary people can get ahead without a Mafia system to help them out.
Another factor might be that the prisons got a lot nastier, don't you think? I mean, getting sent up the river in 1930, or even in 1950, was a lot different than getting sent up in 1990.
I don't know for sure, of course, but I think life in prison got a lot rougher in the last forty years or so.
So you had softer young people coming in, and the downside looking a lot less pleasant too.