| Chapter 5: | The Racketeers |
break ball rested only a few inches from the new rack, while the cue ball was only several inches up the table from the break ball. No other contest arranged by Felix the Cat ever equaled this event in the history of the poolroom on my block.
Journalists knew nothing about Felix The Cat but knew almost everything there was to know about Francesco Castiglia. Born in 1891 in Lauropoli, Italy, a town in Calabria, Francesco came to East Harlem with his father at the age of four. His mother came two years later. The family ran a small grocery store on One Hundred and Eighth Street. Francesco did well in school but decided to pursue a career in crime. Like many Italian American racketeers of his generation, he took an Irish name, Frank Costello. Establishing business dealings with Jewish, Italian, and Irish racketeers, Costello amassed a fortune from his legitimate and illegitimate enterprises. During the late 1940’s journalists exaggerated his importance as a mobster. He was nicknamed the “Prime Minister of the Underworld.” In March 1951 Costello appeared before the Senate Crime Investigating Committee, chaired by Senator Estes Kefauver. As a child he had had a throat operation that left him with a whisper for a voice. Only his hands were filmed during the hearings. His whispered testimony may have inspired Marlon Brando’s portrayal of Don Corleone in “The Godfather.” He served two jail terms. He died in 1973.19 On my street the racketeers were indifferent to Frank Costello and his career in crime. Felix the Cat was the gangster they feared and admired.
Some of my friends tried reefers. The racketeers never distributed reefers on the street. It would have been dangerous to sell that stuff on their home turf. Their honest neighbors would have strongly disapproved. But reefers, I imagine, could be bought elsewhere.