| Chapter 5: | The Racketeers |
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Benny to the cops. Benny served a prison term of seven years and was released on the very day his wife died.
In the early 1950’s Benny left our street and bought a house in the Bronx. During a vacation in Miami, Florida, he met and fell in love with a rich Jewish widow. They got married and Benny lived in the lap of luxury for the rest of his days.
Rosario was not as successful as his brother. My father’s sister Rose had married Rosario. Rosario had worked as a cab driver before going into the rackets like his younger brother. He was a violent man who once hit a rival with a brick. Rosario fathered three sons but rarely saw them. He spent time at Joliet. When my father was dating my mother, an Italian racketeer named Ryan told him to get lost. Ryan wanted no rivals in his efforts to win over Rosalie Cassara. Ryan told Benedict Mondello that he would send his gang after him if he didn’t quit seeing Rosalie. Benedict said, “You get your gang and I’ll get Rosario’s. He’s my brother-in-law.” Ryan told Benedict that he would stop seeing Rosalie.
Benny Salsice liked to keep a low profile. Tom Mix didn’t. Tom Mix owned a tenement on the corner of One Hundred and Seventh Street and Second Avenue. He took two apartments for his own use. He was a lavish spender. He was careless with his money. I found a roll of eighteen one-dollar bills on his stoop and pocketed the money. One day at a bar called the Switzerland on Eighty-sixth Street Tom Mix placed two thousand dollars on the counter and ordered drinks for everyone. An FBI man was there, took a picture and Tom Mix went to jail.
On a roof near my tenement building, Benny Salsice owned a