......... La Famiglia è Tutto...........

The wrinkled old newspaper swept drunkenly down the street...

A victim to the winds vagaries...

Had it eyes....

It may have noticed the two darkened figures in the shadows of the alley across from the steak house...

Cucina Raffinata....

That had sitten on the same spot since Capone took his sojourn to Alcatraz...

and it still "catered" to the underworld crowd.

Had the tired old paper drifted closer to the darkened alley...

It may have seen the figures..

One tall and skinny with a dark fedora...

The other,

Short, rotund...

wearing a crumpled old grey train cap,

with a "roll your own" hanging limply from the side of his mouth.

Both of the men wore long dark overcoats with abnormally large pockets...

and had their collars turned up...

Though it was a beautiful December night in the City that Never Sleeps..

"Cosa pensi stia arrivando?"

"Whasammadda for you...

How many times I tell you... speak English...

How long you been over here, anyway...

You are American now...

NO MORE with Italian...

You godda no class...no respect...

"But..

Lingweenie...

English is very hard learning...

I try every night...

My Marisa,

she read to me every night...

then I read back to her, and she tell me...

No Frankie...not this or that...

Or she say..yes Frankie..the k is silent...

why you put a K in a word you no want anyone to hear?

Is crazy...

Now is like...say words how you want people to hear them...

not how they were written...

Soon nobody use the same words...

I even look for some of these things up in Marisa dicktionairy...

No make sense...

same word for going someplace as for the people what may be standing someplace....

Or even if some thing belong to dem..

There...their...they're....

What...?

non ha senso.....

or like they say.....

Hair...

good, everyone knows hair is on head...

But then they say heir...

means somebody gonna get something..."

"WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP"...

You are supposed to be watching for the Limo..."

"he usually doesn't get her till nine o'clock sharp...

Every thursday night...

He meet the Capos...

Collect his greedy money from the street guys...

Give his orders..

Oh he loves to give all his orders...

for everyone for the week..

Drinks his grappa...

Decides who he want to kill this week...

How much we give each Police precinct...

It don't pay to be a heavy earner no more...

Not like before him...

Then...

You good earner...

you move up.

Now...

The more you bring him..the more he wants...

In just six months, he make everybody "donate" to the Italian Businessmen Society 30 per cent more than before...

our guys can't keep up with his big "belly"...

always..the Family say...

No drugs..

But now,

men can make more money than ever...

Easy..and you don't need gun...

So..we losing togetherness...

some crews want to split from this family..

either...

join one of the other 4 Famiglias...

Split away...and hope not to get killed...

Or replace the Boss.

"I hear it was cuz he never came up from the streets...

When the Teflon Don went away...

He just appointed Casletano to Boss until his son come out from jail...

The Boss...

he never come out from his big house on the hill'...

He might as well be in jail...

and he never let no one...

even made men,

come there...

He never kill no one...

but he has long lists of those he wants killed...

Or beaten up...

remember Sammy the Bull...?

Castletano had him beaten and driven out of town...

so he could shack up with his old lady...

He is very...uh..how you say...

Paranoid....

just him, his fat wife and kids, and those dam dogs he takes everywhere...

"What is pairinoid?"

"you know...

that's where some guy don't trust nuttin...

Nobody...

Capisci?'

Uhhhgghh...

what time is it now...

The taller man,

his face completely hidden by the brim of his fedora,

Reached into his embroidered vest pocket and pulled out his silver watch...

sei minuti...

Six....

Are you sure the men are in place?

"Si...

but like you tole me...

make sure no one can see them...

So I can't see them...

heavy dark clouds moved over the area,

and a light rain began to fall.

"Better...

even the streetlights are dimmer...

Tell me again...

what is the signal?

"Please...

don't keep ask me...

I light my lighter three times..

very slow...

And I make sure they all know it..."

"Good...

THERE...

Just turning onto the boulevard...

That long black limo...

That's him...

Are you sure everything is ready?

"Si...

each man know what he to do...

The long dark vehicle, it's windshield wipers gyrating to a tune only it knew

moved slowly, silently down the street towards them...

As if surveilling the surrounding buildings...

and drove on past them to the end of the block...

then,

disregarding the posted "No U Turns" sign...

The driver pulled a sudden U turn...

disrupting traffic...

and glided into the marked reserved spot...

right in the front of the restaurant...

For a moment nobody moved...

Then,

the two men in the front...

the driver and his passenger,

Both of whom held their right hands high inside their long cashmere coats...

Stepped out and looked around...

finally, the "passenger" moved to the back of the car and opened the door...wide...

"this rain is gonna play hell with our coats, Boss..."

"Well...

Go get me a bloody umbrella...you idiot...

Bring two...and make sure the dogs don't get wet...

And hurry..."

He rushed off to the restaurant to do as he was told...

The other man...his hand still inside his coat,

came around to stand in front of the closed back door...

"As soon as he opens the door...

and Castletano steps out...

Give the signal..."

at that moment the other guy stepped quickly from the restaurant,

two large umbrellas,

One already blowing open...

clutched haphazardly in his hands..

And moved to advance around the car to the back...

and the bulkier man began to open the door...

"NOW...NOW...WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?"

Frankie quickly flicked up the top of his lighter...

And rolled the little wheel three times...slow..

At that moment,

Four men...

all dressed alike in long open dark overcoats,

and Cossack style Russian fur hats...

Jumped out of a car parked directly across from the limo...

The moment Castletano stepped into the night...

Three shotguns fired rapidly...

Castletano was blown half way back into the car...

his left leg bent strangely under him...

both of his accomplices fell under the hail of double aught buckshot...

Then the fourth man...

carrying a .45 calibre Thompson submachine gun..

Walked slowly up to Castltano's broken body...

Spraying the whole car as he approached...

He leaned over Castletano's sprawled body..

and fired a quick burst directly down into his face...

then they raced back to their car and sped away....

"There...

Now I am Boss"

La Famiglia è Tutto...