The Commission by Tommy Gambino
Ever since I can remember, I never wanted to be a gangster. Back then, my father was in charge, but I didn't want anything to do with his business, but I didn't have much of a choice. I was invited for the position at first, but I didn't think about the offer, I wasn't willing to be involved with crime, let alone murder.
When I was made Don after my father passed, I actually felt alive for the first time in my life, but that didn't stop me from wanting to leave. When you're a Don, you're basically in charge of a family, the family patriarch. When I was made, I had to choose who was who in this organization.
The underboss was the one who would stand by the Don and take over whenever the Don is absent. That was when I met Enzo Strollo. Enzo was a top man for the role, he was loyal enough, and he had already earned his reputation through quote on quote "promises" he made to people I'm sure he never even met, but regardless, he still kept his word.
Next was picking a Capo, a lieutenant for the family, and that was a very difficult choice as not too many people were keen on the role, mainly because of the mortality rate they got, but in the end, the role was handed to Bruno Pappalardo, who was already a feared individual by the time he was made. He was in 3 different families before coming to us, and it surprised me that he was still in tip top condition, so he was perfect for the role.
After that, it came to choosing two people in the family to be bodyguards, of course they had to be people you would trust with your life. My first pick was Nicholas Farkus. Nicholas wasn't fully Italian, but he earned the position from a job which only left him a scratch, meaning he was a highly dependable person for the job. The second bodyguard position was a lot harder to find then I thought, that is until Robby Zito came into the family. Robby was a happy go-lucky guy and was definitely fun to be around, always cracked good jokes to lighten the mood. We liked him immediately, so I simply gave him the job when he proved he was loyal enough.
Last was picking a consigliere, an advisor for the family and the Don's right hand man, but that proved to be the easiest thing to do because it immediately landed on Sergio Sinatra, who was smart and loyal enough to even earn him an underboss position, but seeing as the position was already taken, being consigliere was the next best thing, plus, he had already consigliere for my father and I didn't have the heart to let him go.
The soldatos were an easy choice as well, but they had to be highly dependable people, so I had to give it some thought. But we came though; within a month I was introduced to Sal Milano, Avery Hogan, Lou Manna, Jacopo DiMaggio and Vittorio Andolini. We mostly just dealt with stolen goods: gems, cigars, clothes, you name it, just as long as it wasn't something big.
We did this for about a year before we joined the Commission as a gift from the Torini family. Don Leo Torini was from the "old days", he kept promises, made successful ventures and was always on time for anything and he was respected for it. Me and Leo hit it off easy. Over time, we became close friends.
In Leo's family, there was underboss Giovanni Amore, capo Maffeo Malone, consigliere Sonny Salieri, bodyguards Lando Palermo and Tommo Siciliano, and soldatos Dante Pisano, Joe Donatti, Augustino Moretti, Ned Barnaby, Ventura Gucci and Dino Ferrari.
After a few months of working together, Leo introduced me to the other five Families: the Messinas, the Pavanos, the Forellis, the Sindaccos and the Leones. The Dons were interesting people, at least in their own ways. For instance, Vincenzo Pavano was probably the sternest person I had ever seen back then and Luigi Messina was the type who wanted no bloodshed, no bad blood, no violence whatsoever, except when it was needed
Alfonso Forelli was a hothead for sure, never the kind for rational thinking, always going on angry outbursts and rants, not to mention famous for his incredibly short temper. I learned never to cross him, hell, I never even stepped so much as 10ft in front of the guy. Then there was Vito Sindacco, arrogant, ruthless and a complete moron, but not stupid enough to know what's what, or at least that's what he thought back then.
Then there was Pepe Leone, the second I saw the guy, I knew I didn't like him; sadistic, careless and a complete psychopath by my standards. I didn't even know how Leo could put up with the guy. I got to know the rest of the lot soon enough. All interesting people; crooks, thieves, murderers, gents etc.
Leo and all the rest placed my family into the Commission full time a while later. Leo was in charge and no one was to do anything without his say-so. I was in charge of stolen goods. Luigi ran the casinos. Vincenzo ran the protection rackets. Alfonso ran the loan shark business. Vito ran the police bribes, judges and lawyers. Pepe ran the gunrunning business. And then there was Leo, who's only business as the boss was to watch over us, make sure we didn't step out of line. Although, we couldn't do it alone. Leo called in several favors from some clients of his.
Luigi's assistant in the casino business was the self-proclaimed casino boss himself, guy named Remo Casino. Remo was no doubt the best guy to run the casino business, he knew practically everything about it, hell, you can even say he invented the business himself. Vincenzo was to be partnered up with Walt Gould, who was nothing but a part-time hood before he was working for us. Gould wasn't really anything special to us, he only distributed what we gave him into the streets.
Alfonso was with Guino Scaletta, who was always there to calm him down, and that was a good thing too. For Vito, it had to be someone who worked inside the police station, so he was partnered with police chief Frank Guarino, although the two obviously didn't get along very well. Pepe, meanwhile, was working alongside with Guino's business partner, Mac Barbaro. Leo didn't need anyone by his side, although, when he did, he usually came to me, and when I couldn't help him, he went to Santino Fonzarelli.
As for me, I was instantly joined up with Henry LaBlanc; nice guy, occasionally liked to drink, smoked about three packs of cigarettes a week and was always on top of everything. After a while, we became friends, although he was starting to feel more like a brother to me, more than my biological brothers, Danny and Ellis. There were several others which we worked alongside, such as Aldo Costillo of the Sicilians, Hollis Reyes of the Puerto Ricans or Rita Cheever of the press.
After a while, we had to include several people from our own families, although it was mainly just brothers and cousins. I didn't want my family involved with this business, but when Leo gives the order, you're not given much of a choice, so I picked Danny and Ellis, I mean who else could I pick? The rest of my family was either holed up or living their lives far away from the states.
That and the fact that Danny and Ellis needed work, they needed money, so I took them in, but only after Leo gave me his word that they would not be involved in the dangerous work. After a while, things were really looking up for us, I mean we made more money than any of the banks in the states.
During our work, I met this wonderful woman named Karen. Eventually, after a few months of getting together, we got married. I remember that day perfectly. Leo and Sergio were the best men and Leo's wife was the bridesmaid. Before you knew it, I was fitting in with the Dons more than I thought after getting married.
Although as the weeks went by, whenever I looked at Pepe, Vito or Alfonso, they had the unsatisfied look, like they weren't happy with what they got and wanted more than they could bargain for. Sometimes, my guys would be in the streets and see people in the alleyways or near the warehouses and they would be doping themselves up. Of course, we weren't sure exactly what was going on, but we decided to investigate and as it turned out, it was exactly what we feared: narcotics: drugs. I mean all sorts: heroin, coke, weed etc.
After a while, I sent Bruno to the Forellis' warehouse to see if Alfonso was dealing, although that turned out to still be the big question. Bruno had told us that he had only seen Rocco Menzana and Marco Romano right there selling smack to people who came to them and who could afford it.
Now drug dealing was against the rules of the Commission, if you dealt with them behind the Commission's back, you die. Unfortunately, Bruno was spotted and had to run for his life, although he managed to pop Rocco before he escaped. We weren't 100% sure of what was going on, I mean the two could have been selling on their own behind without Alfonso's knowing, but that didn't matter, what mattered was that Marco was in hiding and we had to shut him up, mainly because the others were afraid he could rat us out to be let go or get a lighter sentence and that would mess everything up for us.
Everything we had worked up to would be going down the drain if he did talk. Now Marco was a straight worker, but even then, he was still a threat to the business, so we sent Sal after him. It took a couple of days, but Sal finished the job in the end. He even gave us proof that he had killed Marco and disposed of his body, an old Sicilian message, the classic fish in the body armor.
Alfonso didn't take this very lightly, mainly because, as he claimed, Sal had killed one of his men without a say so, but Leo had managed to sort it out with him, at least that's what I thought until Robby and Nicholas were ambushed by Alfonso's cousins Derek and Tony. Thankfully, Derek and Tony were not being as smart as as they were made out to be and my guys got out of there alive.
Me, Luigi and Vincenzo had a discussion regarding this and we eventually found out that several of our men had made Alfonso's hit list for simply being involved, which meant they had to go into hiding. From what we had gathered, from my people was Robby, Nicholas, Vittorio and Avery. Luigi's: Vinnie Camonte, Ignazio Pacino, Dario Fazio and Jimmy Toscano. Vincenzo's: Al Rivera, Sammy Sorvino, Jon Capone and Phil Steyn.
The guys from the Pavanos were to be sheltered by Guarino in the Bronx. Guys from the Messinas went to hide in Maine along with Fonzarelli, who just so happened to have stumbled into this situation. As for my guys, they were given special precautions, courtesy of Leo. So basically, no one was to know where they went apart from me and Leo. Leo had arranged for them to be sheltered in Corleone, Sicily, under supervision of Leo's connection, Don Gravano.
We waited for several weeks before they could come out of hiding, courtesy of Leo's Sicilian connections with the Commission. For a while, it was business as usual, but things got heavy again when the cops found Pier Gallo and Pietro Borroni in an alleyway, both of them riddled with bullets. Whether it was the Forellis or any of the other Families, we honestly had no idea. Eventually, me, Luigi and Vincenzo made connections to outside sources.
Luigi's connection was with this African-American gang called the Boomers and their leader Dutch Marley. Vincenzo was in connection with the Chinese Triads, lead by Zhou Kwang. Me? I was put in touch with Bucky O'Hara, leader of some Irish mob. When it turned out that this wasn't enough connections, we got in contact with the Jewish leader Isaac Levine.
We had each made a deal that they would keep tabs on the Forellis, Sindaccos and Leones. We knew that Leo would never be involved in something like this, but being in contact with outside gangs and mobs would be trouble for us, so we agreed to keep Leo out of the ordeal until it was over.
At first, we were getting nowhere, but in about 2 months, Zhou's guys managed to uncover some really dirty info. As it turned out, the Sindaccos were in on the drugs game as well. We weren't really surprised, seeing as we already had our suspicions about them. I was sincerely hoping that somehow the Leones were in on this too, but so far they were no where in sight.
After a while, things got pretty ugly. Gould stumbled in on our investigation and wanted in on it. Although he had street connections, which gave us an advantage, Gould also tended to be very unpredictable, so I told Sal to keep an eye on him in case he tried anything funny. We decided if Gould kept clean for the rest of the month, we would let him go on undisturbed.
Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, he slipped up. Sal informed us that Gould was buying drugs and shipping them out to make a side profit. We informed this to Leo, although we kept the Sindaccos and Forellis out of it so he wouldn't get suspicious of what we were up to, after all, we still needed a full scale amount of proof before we could tell this to Leo. Leo gave us the get go to rub Gould out. Maffeo took up the job. The next day's news: "Street thug killed in car bombing". I doubt anyone would have missed him, seeing as there was no investigation surrounding his death. Besides, stuff like this happens on a monthly basis, someone screws us, we whack 'em.
About a week later, Tommo found out about our plan, but promised to help keep Leo out of it. We took Tommo in immediately, seeing as he was more dependable than Gould was. That didn't stop me from worrying though. I took some time to think over the situation: Here, we got the Forellis and the Sindaccos selling drugs behind the Commission's back and any outside contacts who stumble in on it are as much a threat to us as they are to the Commission.
Me and Sergio had a talk and we agreed that if any more blood was shed and we got nowhere with this, we would talk about this with Leo, even if it meant placing ourselves in danger with the Commission. After all, I was willing to take any risk to do the right thing.
A few more months went by and we had no luck, but thankfully, there was no bloodshed. That is until someone from the Triads decided to be a moron and take a little more extra from our work. Couldn't get a solid name on this guy on our own, but Zhou and Dutch pulled some strings and named our guy, Wu Chu. Zhou had a real temper tantrum about it and shouted at us to pop Chu, not that we cared anyway. Jacopo did the job, but got shot in the process. We took him to this Greek doctor named Stelio Kontos, expert at this stuff, in fact, the only doctor you can go to without the cops being involved.
As time went on, some guys ended up doing the wrong thing, which meant they earned themselves a photo on the hit-list. In a month, everything calmed down and it was back to business as usual, but at the cost of 5 guys from the Jews, Irish, the Triads and the Boomers. From the Boomers, two morons called Callum Mills and Grant Hadley. From the Triads, guy named Chen Wong. Man named Eli Coyne. And from the Irish, punk named Patrick O'Malley.
I though that things would settle, but they didn't. After a while, the cops were getting wise to us, and in the end, all our partners went down, apart from Levine, O'Hara, Marley and Kwang, and some of their top guys. Those guys were Mel Duke, Huang Chung, Mori Roth, Bernie Green, Gordon Flynn and Declan Hopkins. As much as a surprise it was that they got away, it was also a disaster as they were pissed at us and they were declaring a war with us. As soon as I heard it, my immediate though was "This is just great". And I sure as hell was not happy about any of this.
As things escalated, I was back to wanting out of the business. I almost did as well, but then Leo came. Turned out Tommo had us fooled all along and was keeping tabs on us for Leo. I was expecting Leo to be pissed, but, to my surprise, he let me off. He explained that he had his own investigation and we were 100% guaranteed to whack the three opposing families. First, we hit our now-rival gangs. Roth, Green, Duke, Hopkins, Flynn, Chung, Levine, Kwang, Marley and O'Hara: all of them were bumped off in a week, one or two went down a day.
Next, we got to liquidating the Forellis. Every single one of them went down, courtesy of us and the cops. Some of them got whacked, others got caught. As for Alfonso, he got out early at the wrong time. When he heard what became of his family, he got so angry that he had a heart attack. He was transferred to hospital and stayed there for three days before attempting to leave. Only he didn't get very far. He didn't even step so much as a foot outside the hospital before taking a bullet to the back.
On the Sindaccos' side, guys either got whacked or arrested by the cops. Vito? He was one of the whacked. Sadly, he had his guys come over and whack Luigi and some of his guys before they got whacked themselves. When it came to the end, we almost persevered, but at the cost of Vincenzo and some of his guys. The remainder of the Messinas and the Pavanos eventually split and went their separate ways.
As for the Leones, same as the last two families, only Pepe got out far ahead of us and headed off to Sicily. The cops were also getting more wise and we lost a lot of good guys. Guarino was getting exposed as a result. Poor guy. He got so upset that he had a heart attack and dropped dead in front of his boss.
As for the family members of the remaining families, Luigi's brother and Vincenzo's cousin were killed by the cops during the crackdown, while we made an example of Derek, Tony, Vito's brother Paco and Pepe's cousins Louis and Steve. We, of course, made sure to look after the Don's wives. They weren't involved as much as their husbands were, but we did owe them that much.
As for our associates, Cheever got the ultimate scoop she wanted and cut her ties with us. Hollis and Aldo retired to their respective countries. Santino and Remo retired to Rhode Island. Denny left for Britain. And Guino and Mac moved away to the west coast. Stelio, meanwhile, simply disappeared, but I suspect he left for Europe, probably back home to Greece. We were getting close to the end of this mess, but at the cost of Giovanni, Lou, Jacopo, Sal, Avery, Ned, Joe and Dante. I attended each and every one of their funerals, Christ, we were so upset at this.
Eventually, Gravano told us that Pepe was hiding in Sicily. We journeyed over ourselves and found him. I offered him a chance, but he hadn't changed a bit, so I killed him myself, quick and painless. Me and Leo decided to stay in Sicily for a while with Gravano until he passed away. A week after, Leo was nearing his end. I was sad to see him like this, but at least he lived long enough. The next day, Leo and his wife passed. We buried them next to Gravano at the funeral. I was so upset that I stayed an extra day. After returning to New York, I finally left the mob business behind, took Karen and left for Maine.
I guess after Leo passed, I decided I had enough. And, now that I think about it, things might have been a lot easier if I just left after my father passed. I don't know how to feel now. I'm no longer in the gangster business, which I pretty much wanted all along, but now, I don't feel relieved at all. I guess I just feel like all of this wouldn't have happened if I just refused the offer.