| Chapter 5: | The Racketeers |
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bakeries, ice shops and shoe repair stores. He owned many tenements. He was in control of most gambling operations in the area. He was influential in political affairs. Competitors shot him to death in 1915, ending the life of a gangster police called the “Mayor of Little Italy.”
To the racketeers of the thirties and forties, however, the Gallucci brothers were ancient history. Benny Salsice had a candy store. The back room served as a major command post for the wholesale merchandising of illegal goods in New York. Miss Bulge owned another candy store on the block. She was a grumpy old Victorian lady who had found on my street a refuge from what seemed a life of misfortune. Both Miss Bulge and Benny had something to hide, Miss Bulge her past and Benny his illegal enterprises. Louie Jap and I preferred gregarious Benny to grumpy Miss Bulge. Besides Miss Bulge had accused me of stealing one of her candies.
“We wanna buy four cigarettes, Benny,” Louie said.
“Gonna smoke them on the pier?”
“That’s right,” I said.
“Try to break the habit, fellas,” cautioned Benny as he pulled four cigarettes from a pack of Camels and handed them to us. “They will give you cancer when you get to be my age.”
But Benny was in his thirties and he looked healthy enough to us guys.
“Do you want the usual?” Benny added.
“Yeah.”
Benny scooped up vanilla and chocolate ice cream balls, pressed them carefully on sugar cones, and added chocolate sprinkles on