by B. » Wed Feb 17, 2016 1:32 am
The other side of this would be... how many guys in the old days were that rich? Hard to know how much money they were earning and where it all was going but I'm always surprised to find that a lot of these guys weren't as rich as they seem. I agree that the money the guys today are making is below what they made in their peak but it's easy to look at black and white pictures of guys in their old suits and figure they're all making tons of money.
In Philly the family has never been that sophisticated. Most of the members over the years have been small business owners who make their living from gambling and loansharking, sometimes drugs, basic labor racketeering, or some other short scam. At one point at least there was a street tax. They had control of Local 54 and influence in other unions at times, but no evidence they ever got the kind of money or power through it that other families got through unions. A few members many decades ago ran beer distributors but they don't seem to have been crazy rich, probably just exercised limited influence together to get beer sold.
Angelo Bruno was a successful businessman before he was a made member and continued to make investments which is where a good part of his wealth came from. In that Zerilli transcript I posted he is talking about how he's going broke because traveling for the Commission is taking him away from his business. He's gotta be exaggerating about going broke but still here's a guy who is boss for decades who wants to get back to running his source of legit income. Castellano was accused of being more businessman than boss, ran a large company. Tom Gagliano was said to have focused only on legitimate income. Maranzano was wealthy before he got into bootlegging. Most of these guys use the mob's influence to help their businesses when possible but they were still mainly businessmen.
It's a terrible time to be a street corner gangster. We live in a time of facial recognition software, tiny powerful microphones, digital recording, we can be tracked and hacked on our phones, etc. I was just talking to someone on here yesterday about how weed is getting legalized in some states and sportsbetting is right on the cusp also, so there are two potential sources of income that could be getting thinner in the near future. I've got no doubt that guys are having a harder time making money on the street these days. People have been saying for over 35 years that the mob is going to need to focus more on legitimate ventures if it wants to survive and I wouldn't be surprised if that's the biggest focus for a lot of guys now. It doesn't matter if you're the president of Lean Cuisine... if you're a mob boss, you're a mob boss. In the past though you'll see that a lot of the wealthiest guys have their legit income to thank as much if not more than their alleged street income.
The other side of this would be... how many guys in the old days were that rich? Hard to know how much money they were earning and where it all was going but I'm always surprised to find that a lot of these guys weren't as rich as they seem. I agree that the money the guys today are making is below what they made in their peak but it's easy to look at black and white pictures of guys in their old suits and figure they're all making tons of money.
In Philly the family has never been that sophisticated. Most of the members over the years have been small business owners who make their living from gambling and loansharking, sometimes drugs, basic labor racketeering, or some other short scam. At one point at least there was a street tax. They had control of Local 54 and influence in other unions at times, but no evidence they ever got the kind of money or power through it that other families got through unions. A few members many decades ago ran beer distributors but they don't seem to have been crazy rich, probably just exercised limited influence together to get beer sold.
Angelo Bruno was a successful businessman before he was a made member and continued to make investments which is where a good part of his wealth came from. In that Zerilli transcript I posted he is talking about how he's going broke because traveling for the Commission is taking him away from his business. He's gotta be exaggerating about going broke but still here's a guy who is boss for decades who wants to get back to running his source of legit income. Castellano was accused of being more businessman than boss, ran a large company. Tom Gagliano was said to have focused only on legitimate income. Maranzano was wealthy before he got into bootlegging. Most of these guys use the mob's influence to help their businesses when possible but they were still mainly businessmen.
It's a terrible time to be a street corner gangster. We live in a time of facial recognition software, tiny powerful microphones, digital recording, we can be tracked and hacked on our phones, etc. I was just talking to someone on here yesterday about how weed is getting legalized in some states and sportsbetting is right on the cusp also, so there are two potential sources of income that could be getting thinner in the near future. I've got no doubt that guys are having a harder time making money on the street these days. People have been saying for over 35 years that the mob is going to need to focus more on legitimate ventures if it wants to survive and I wouldn't be surprised if that's the biggest focus for a lot of guys now. It doesn't matter if you're the president of Lean Cuisine... if you're a mob boss, you're a mob boss. In the past though you'll see that a lot of the wealthiest guys have their legit income to thank as much if not more than their alleged street income.