| Chapter 5: | The Racketeers |
Monk didn’t know how to do an honest day’s work. Benny Monk lived in the apartment next to mine with his two brothers and his mother, a woman in her eighties. She was a pleasant old woman and frequently sat and talked to my grandmother in our apartment.
One day I saw Benny Monk leaving his flat bandaged and bruised with a black eye and I asked Louie Jap if he knew what had happened to him. Louie Jap told me that his father, Cary Grant, had picked up the story of Benny Monk’s bad day through the racketeers’ grape vine.
Louie Jap told me that Benny Salsice never tolerated men who dared to commit crimes against him. One day he came home to his apartment and discovered it had been looted. He suspected Benny Monk of committing this robbery. Petty theft was what Benny Monk did best. Benny Salsice and two of his henchmen beat Benny Monk to a pulp as he kept denying his involvement in the crime.
“Testa di minchia,” Benny Salsice kept hollering at Benny Monk while pounding him without mercy.
Benny always demanded repayment of his loans even from members of his family. Benny’s son Pete and his brother-in-law Mike were racketeers. Benny lent Mike a shipment of illegal goods worth $100,000. When Benny’s son went to collect the loan, Mike refused to pay. Pete told his father. Benny went to see his father-in-law and told him he would have to pay back the loan since Mike had refused to pay. Benny’s father-in-law told Benny he would not pay. That was a fatal mistake. Benny shot and killed his father-in-law but only wounded Mike who fingered