Mob Rules Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Preface

  Introduction

  PART I - LESSONS FOR A SOLDIER (EMPLOYEE)

  LESSON 1 - Make Them an Offer They Can’t Refuse: A Surefire Way to Get Hired

  LESSON 2 - It’s the Principle!: When to Make a Point

  LESSON 3 - Why Are the Mobsters in the Newspapers So Old?: Love What You Do and ...

  LESSON 4 - Hide Your Gun and Help the Old Man Across the Street: Family Values

  LESSON 5 - The Mob Doesn’t Take Notes: Sharpen Your Memory

  LESSON 6 - Don’t End Up in the Trunk of a Car: Avoiding Office Politics

  LESSON 7 - Three Can Keep a Secret if Two Are Dead: Trust

  LESSON 8 - Why Italians Cut Up Pigs and Cook Them in the Sauce: Greed

  LESSON 9 - It’s Good to Go to a Funeral as Long as It’s Not Yours: The Power of Networking

  LESSON 10 - Ole Blue Eyes: Why Mobsters Love Sinatra

  LESSON 11 - Turning Garbage into Gold: Sniffing Out Opportunity

  LESSON 12 - Roll Up Your Sleeves but Keep Your Pants On

  LESSON 13 - The Walls Have Ears: Never Bad-Mouth the Boss

  LESSON 14 - Did You Wash Your Car or Screw It in the Muffler?: Verbal Skills

  LESSON 15 - Count On Yourself and You’ll Never Be Counted Out

  LESSON 16 - How Luciano Became Lucky: Make Your Own Luck

  LESSON 17 - The Bank of Favors Pays the Highest Interest

  LESSON 18 - Why “The Chin” Wore Pajamas to Work: When to Play Dumb

  LESSON 19 - The School of Hard Knocks: Experience

  LESSON 20 - Is This Phone Tapped?: Watch What You Say Every Day

  LESSON 21 - He Should Kill Gus Farace or Kill Himself: Respecting the Chain of Command

  LESSON 22 - Go Get Your Own Coffee!: Respecting the Chain of Command Without ...

  LESSON 23 - Kill or Be Killed: When to Defy Orders

  LESSON 24 - Plato—Didn’t He Own a Swingers’ Club?: Be Informed

  LESSON 25 - I Want My Fucking Money: Paying Promptly

  LESSON 26 - Don’t Tip Your Hand: When to Keep Quiet

  LESSON 27 - Capone, Harvard, and Yale: The Key to Growth

  LESSON 28 - The Bug and the Jaguar: Patience

  LESSON 29 - Stick Your Handouts Up Your . . . : Cultivate Aggressiveness

  LESSON 30 - Be the Master of Your Own Fate, Not a Master of Disguises

  PART II - LESSONS FOR A CAPO (MIDDLE MANAGEMENT)

  LESSON 31 - Bacon, Lettuce, and DeMeo: You’re Responsible for Your Crew

  LESSON 32 - How to Hit Your Target Without a Gun: Motivating Your People

  LESSON 33 - Let’s Meet in the Back for a Sit-down: Mediating Disputes and the ...

  LESSON 34 - When to Take a Bullet for the Boss

  LESSON 35 - Why Hit Men Tell Jokes over a Dead Body: Bonding with Subordinates

  LESSON 36 - Nino Gaggi’s Magic Bullet: The Mob Never Kills a Good Idea

  LESSON 37 - Toss the Dice High: Dealing with Unreasonable Ultimatums

  LESSON 38 - How to Bury the Hatchet—but Not in Someone’s Head

  LESSON 39 - Take That Stone from My Shoe: Firing and Hiring

  LESSON 40 - The Toughest Guys Have the Thinnest Skin: Never Embarrass Someone ...

  LESSON 41 - The Mafia Isn’t Turning Yellow, but Going Green: Keeping Up with ...

  LESSON 42 - Flashiness Can End in the Flash of a Gun: Modesty

  LESSON 43 - Why a Mobster Makes His Son Pull the Trigger: Confidence Building

  LESSON 44 - Seize the Bull by the Horns—and Rip Off Its Balls: The Fast and ...

  LESSON 45 - Just Get the Job Done!: Flexibility

  LESSON 46 - We Shot Him Twelve Times and He Lived: Most Problems Take Care of Themselves

  LESSON 47 - Aye, You Know Who My Uncle Is?: Everyone Is Important

  LESSON 48 - What Am I, a Gavone?: What People Really Think About You

  LESSON 49 - Play the Fence and You’re Sure to Fall Off

  LESSON 50 - Italians Talk with Their Hands: Body Language

  LESSON 51 - Deliver the Goods: Stand Behind Your Name

  LESSON 52 - Fireproof Your Ass: Never Let Anyone Light a Flame Under You

  LESSON 53 - Go to Bat for Your Guys: Loyalty to Your Employees

  LESSON 54 - Rest in Peace—in a Lakeside Cabin, Not an Early Grave: Taking a ...

  LESSON 55 - Don’t Split Yourself in Half: The Wrong Decision Is Better Than ...

  LESSON 56 - New Orleans Wasn’t Built in a Day

  LESSON 57 - Bugsy and Bacchus: The Lessons of History

  LESSON 58 - Time to Go: How to Leave the Organization

  PART III - LESSONS FOR A DON (BOSS)

  LESSON 59 - You Gotta Know When to Fold ’em: Controlling Your Ambition

  LESSON 60 - It’s Strictly Business: Friends or Enemies?

  LESSON 61 - The Mafia Spends Very Little on Office Supplies: Cutting Overhead

  LESSON 62 - Social Clubs Have Solid Steel Doors—That Are Always Open: An ...

  LESSON 63 - Don’t Bother Me Now!: The Value of Interruptions

  LESSON 64 - The Bail Money’s in the Bedside Drawer: Get It Right Ahead of Time

  LESSON 65 - Don’t Build Yankee Stadium, Just Supply the Concrete: Spotting New Rackets

  LESSON 66 - Give the IRS Their Vig: What We’ve Learned from Al Capone

  LESSON 67 - Victory Without Follow-up Is Like Pasta Without Dessert: Crisis Management

  LESSON 68 - The Power of an Elite Circle: Why the Mob Opens and Closes the Books

  LESSON 69 - Give the Spic Bastard a Call!: Hiring the Best Person, Regardless ...

  LESSON 70 - A Little Give and Take: Hospitality

  LESSON 71 - Tip the Coat Check: Charity

  LESSON 72 - Eat, Drink, and Be Productive: The Only Bribe I’ll Advise You to Make

  LESSON 73 - I’m Comin’ on the Heist Tonight: The Hands-on Boss

  LESSON 74 - A Tough Guy Has Balls. A Smart Guy Has Crystal Balls: Foresight

  LESSON 75 - Never Underestimate Your Opponent

  LESSON 76 - Who Is Your Opponent?

  LESSON 77 - Don’t Shoot a Rising Star: Neutralizing Potential Opponents

  LESSON 78 - They Can Take It in the Ass on My Dance Floor: Don’t Let Opinions ...

  LESSON 79 - Choosing Your Consigliere

  LESSON 80 - Why Frankie Fever Don’t Believe the Hype

  LESSON 81 - I Got an Inside Guy: Staying Up on the Competition

  LESSON 82 - Hide Your Money Under the Mattress: Stay Cash Heavy

  LESSON 83 - Poverty Sucks. Or Does It?

  LESSON 84 - The Mafia Is a Brand Name: When to Franchise

  LESSON 85 - It’s Good to Be King: But No One Is Above the Law

  LESSON 86 - Guys Like Us, Guys Like Them: Stick with What You Know

  LESSON 87 - Marcus Aurelius Was a Great Emperor, but That Doesn’t Mean His Son ...

  LESSON 88 - Leave the Gun, Take the Cannolis . . . and Beware of Hubris

  EPILOGUE

  Acknowledgements

  NOTES

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  INDEX

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  First published in 2011 by Portfolio / Penguin,

  a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  Copyright © Louis Ferrante, 2011

  All rights reserved

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Ferrante, Louis.

  Mob rules : what the Mafia can teach legitimate businessmen / Louis Ferrante.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-51534-1

  1. Strategic planning 2. Success in business. 3. Management. 4. Mafia.

  5. Organized crime. I. Title.

  HD30.28.F474 2011

  658.4’012—dc22

  2010053098

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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  To Gabriella, and her mother, Angelika

  —an angel on Earth, the other in Heaven

  The organization chart of a crime family or syndicate mirrors the management structure of a corporation. At the top of the pyramid is a boss, or chief executive. Below him are an underboss (chief operating officer) and a consigliere (general counsel). Then follow ranks of capos (vice presidents) and soldiers (lower-level employees who carry out the bosses’ orders). Like corporations, crime groups often rely on outside consultants.

  —Fortune magazine

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Readers of my memoir, Unlocked, know that in that book I had changed the names of men I had committed crimes with in order to conceal their true identities. I have never snitched on fellow mobsters or anyone else, and although I chose to leave the Mafia while in prison, I remain true to my former associates. In this book, with few exceptions, I use actual names since the mobsters I write about are dead, in prison, or have cooperated with the government. Nothing I write here can lead to criminal indictments. I am not uncovering crimes or pointing out targets for law enforcement, but simply highlighting the acute business sense of the Mafia.

  Throughout this book, I refer to organized crime as the Mob or the Mafia. These serve as accessible terms; however, they are seldom if ever used by members of a crime family who refer to their organizations as La Cosa Nostra, meaning “our thing,” or the borgata, meaning “the family.”

  I apologize in advance for any colorful language.

  PREFACE

  IN ancient Sparta, boys around the age of twelve underwent a peculiar education designed to sharpen their wits and teach them the skills necessary to succeed in a harsh world. In the hills surrounding the militaristic city-state, the boys were underfed to the point of starvation, then sent into town to steal food in order to survive. They would have to be clever and cunning; if caught, they were severely punished. Not for stealing, but for failing.

  The Spartans believed that a young man who could master the skills of a thief would flourish in life. I don’t advise anyone to become a thief in an effort to excel, but by studying the underlying nature of successful criminals, one can glean many valuable lessons.

  A career of banditry in early youth often indicated a man of strong character and purpose.

  —Edgar Snow, Red Star over China

  I began stealing at age twelve. I operated an automobile chop shop in my early teens, hijacked my first truck in my late teens, and was heading my own crew of much older men within the Gambino crime family by my early twenties. I was suspected of pulling off some of the largest heists in U.S. history before the age of twenty-one.

  Without higher education, I relied on instincts to navigate the treacherous but profitable world of the Mafia, netting millions of dollars for my family, or company. At any given time, my life in the Mafia cast me in three separate roles. I was an employee for the Gambino family; I was the boss, or CEO, of my own crew; and I was middle management, taking orders from Mafia chieftains and handing them down to underlings. Thus, I’m well qualified to speak to individuals on each rung of the corporate ladder.

  I was never caught committing a crime, but information from confidential informants resulted in several investigations.

  After a highly prosperous run, I was taken down by state law enforcement officers and federal agents, who pieced together cases against me using these informants. I faced the rest of my life in prison, and was asked to cooperate against other mobsters in return for my freedom. I refused to inform on friends and associates, and my lawyers negotiated a plea bargain after the main snitch against me was thrown out of the government’s Witness Protection Program. I was sentenced to twelve and a half years and sent to the maximum security penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

  In prison, I realized that crime was wrong. Sure, life is a struggle and we can’t live it on our knees, but I didn’t have the right to victimize people. I decided to change my life.

  While in prison, I read my first book. It wasn’t easy at first; my vocabulary sucked, as did my attention span and ability to grasp whatever I read. But I stuck with it and discovered the joy of reading. Soon, stacks of books lined the floor of my cell, were shoved under my bunk, and piled around the toilet. Where posters of nude women decorated the stone walls of other cons’ cells, maps covered mine. For years, I read every day until the muscles in my eyes ached and I would conk out from sheer exhaustion. A few hours’ sleep, long enough to rest my eyes, then back to the books. My cell became a live-in classroom where I studied every subject possible. I personally reversed one of my federal cases from prison and was released after serving eight and a half years. By then, I’d taught myself the art of writing by analyzing the novels of nineteenth-century masters and I had written a novel of my own.

  Upon my release from prison, I had this glorious notion that I was leaving criminal behavior behind, and with it the variety of rogues I’d dealt with on a daily basis on the street. I dreamed of taking up my place in the legit world. How different it would be from the life I’d known.

  To my surprise, I realized that my idea of the legit world was a fantasy. I soon encountered creeps in legal society far worse than many of the mobsters I’d known—these wolves all hid in sheep’s clothing.

  As a loan shark, I never increased the interest rate on someone’s loan. If anything, I dropped the rate as a reward for timely payments. Credit card companies increase your rate, regardless of your history, and do so without your knowledgeable consent. How about all those hidden fees? “It’s in the small print,” one customer service rep told me. “You should have read it.” That’s like me increasing someone’s vig on a loan, and saying to him, “When I gave you the money, I whispered that part. You should have heard me.”

  Collection agencies call a person’s house and harass whoever answers the phone. They don’t care if your mom or grandmother is about to drop dead. Too bad, pay up! Say what you want about the Mob, but Mafia code forb
ids mobsters to even go near a man’s home, let alone harass his family.

  Banks foreclose on homes and toss the occupants into the street. The local sheriff issues a court order, locks the door, and throws the family out. I’d bet any dad who lives through that would rather deal with us. You might get a couple of broken bones, maybe a black eye; big deal, you still own your home.

  Let’s be real: mobsters are selfish men, out for personal gain, but so are businessmen. Mobsters may kill their own, but everyone else gets a little slack. Most businessmen, banks, and credit card companies prey on everyone.

  We only kill each other.

  —Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel

  As a mobster, I was feared, so vultures stayed clear of me. As a legit guy, I became fair game; everyone tried to screw me.

  Coming home from prison, I needed a car and an apartment.

  Time and again, I was bullshitted by car salesmen with the old bait-and-switch. Every time I was ready to sign on the dotted line, the deal changed.

  I rented an apartment. During the winter, my landlord wouldn’t turn up the heat, but the cheap bastard wanted his rent on time. I had to buy an electric heater. When I left and asked for my security back, he hemmed and hawed, claimed he didn’t have it.

  I shopped for a house. Every mortgage broker tried to put me into an adjustable rate loan, which they swore would never go up. I knew they were lying. When I threatened to return with a baseball bat if it just so happened to go up, they promptly admitted that the rate could very well increase.

  I can’t count how many times I threw up my hands and said, “What a bunch of crooks!” I felt surrounded by predators, not unlike the streets, or worse, prison, where I had to watch my back every second.

  I’m not the first to notice that prison is a lot like ordinary society. Jonathan Swift, eighteenth-century author of Gulliver’s Travels, commented that convicts in prison, when it came to morals, weren’t all that different from people in high society.