Honor Among Thieves

Hole of Justice

By Peter G. Jimenea

 

Honor among Thieves!

 

In underworld business, there are always jealousy, swindling, double-cross and betrayal. Characters engaged in illegal activities have no recourse to the proper court of law for settlement of differences. Thus, death is the logical solution to all judicial problems.

 

I believe the Mafia, the Cocaine Cowboys of Latin America, the Marielitos of Cuba, the French Connection of Augusto Ricord, the Yakuza of Japan and the Chinese Triad subscribe to this. This is true with other criminal syndicates in this world.

 

During the stint of the notorious US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) chief J. Edgar Hoover, he strongly denied there is a crime syndicate in the US known as the Sicilian Mafia   But Attorney-General Robert “Bobby” Kennedy, disagrees with him.

 

When Joe Valachi, a jailed mob, sent an emissary to the Justice Department to tell all that he knows about the Mafia, Hoover ate his words. In Iloilo, Eleazar Idemne, transfigures the Valachi’s story after he linked the Ilonggo Allied Group in different crimes. It happened after he was picked up from his cell in Antique by government agents for interrogation. 

 

Idemne implicated Pototan, Iloilo as territory of the Allied Group. On why, he has yet to disclose. In Valachi, he said “Cosa Nostra,” is a term used by Mafiosi to distinguish particular “families” and added that Hoover enjoyed watching their activities.

 

Valachi’s confession has helped those investigating the operation of the crime bosses more vividly than what they all wanted to know about. He gave them a detailed insight into the world of the Mafia. Idemne did the same. He named few individual members of the Ilonggo Allied Group in his confession.

 

He described the breakdown of the New York “families,” their quasi-Masonic rituals of initiation and linked them to the deadly killings of rivals by “Lucky” Luciano and allies to gain control of the organized crime in New York.

 

Valachi knew the mess he’s in when he sings his song to the Justice Department. But Idemne, deliberate or not, blew-up his confession from Pototan and beyond - to high heavens he cannot command. Thus, authorities no longer believe him anymore.  Yet, it was his ticket for the Ilonggo Allied Group to excuse him.

 

Lucky Luciano whose real name is Salvatore Luciano, joined the mob as a boy under the direction of fellow Sicilian Johnny Torrio. While a kid, he became friendly with Meyer Lansky a Jewish mob controlling the illegal production of liquor in New York.

 

His name “Lucky” came after he survived the “summary execution,” returned home with badly cut face after abductors has seized him.  Later, he eliminated Mustache Pete, another gang lord whose desire for supremacy kept the Sicilian Mafia in gang wars for years.

 

Luciano also became the first prominent victim of FBI agent Tom Dewey’s crime busting campaign. Two street-smarts testified that big portion of their earnings from illegal trade goes to Luciano. When meted a sentence in jail, he regretted why despite his riches he didn’t quit from illegal business.

 

During the war, he negotiated with the government from his cell supplying vital information to the US prior their allied landing in Sicily. The deal has reinstated the Mafia, whose power in Sicily was destroyed by Italy’s Mussolini.

 

Luciano’s supreme importance in the formation of modern syndicate crime was credited to his close-ties with Lansky, which sets aside the Sicilian good views of a crime family affair. Luciano is a full-bloodied Sicilian Mafioso but Lansky is a Jew.

 

His long-stay with Lansky in underworld business as the remorseless “Lucky” Luciano has raked financial successes more highly than any of their ethnic rivals with hollow prestige. They also ascertained that cooperation is as important as competition. Which some local vice-lords failed to accept.

 

The secret of a successful alliance by a Sicilian Mafioso with a Jewish mob tells of one thing, they happily enjoyed their similarities but greatly respect their differences. Now it can be told, even in the underworld business, there is…… see the title!