if he wanted Whales killed. Cerone was too fond of Whales to do that but said he would have nothing more to do with Whales. Accardo let it pass, but it was clear the offer was there if Cerone ever wanted it. He apparently never did, and Whales eventually went off the deep end and disappeared. However, one should not perceive Cerone as a gentle soul. Details of some of his authenticated killings demonstrated a savage blood lust. Pathological violence from which final death is a blessed release often typifies Mafia killings. Enforcer Tony Spilotro enjoyed torturing victims by squeezing their heads in a vise until an eye popped out. When Spilotro himself was summoned to his own execution, his killers batted him unconscious at a prepared grave and then covered him up for the final blackness while he was still alive.
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Mob killers surrender themselves to both the need and joy of killing. After completing his first contract Sammy "the Bull" Gravano reflected in
Underboss
: "... I felt a surge of power. I realized that I had taken a human life, that I had the power over life and death. I was a predator. I was an animal. I was Cosa Nostra."
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The feeling of power is common to the cold-blooded "stone killers" of the Mafia. Roy DeMeo, the stone killer and body dissembler for the Gambinos, murdered at least 37 people and perhaps many times that. He believed a similar philosophy, here repeated almost certainly word for word by one of his apt "disciples": "No one understands what it's like to kill. The power you possess when you kill someone, it's like being God. Do I want this guy to continue living, or should I kill him? No one can understand it unless you do it."
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When the boss orders a hit, it reflects the total power of the Mafia, a power to be celebrated for the ease and matter-of-factness with which it can be executed. Carlo Gambino had but to arch an eyebrow and a killing would be done. Sam Giancana, the Chicago boss, had what was called "the look." He could be with several of his men and the potential victim, and say nothing, merely give the look, and his men knew what to do.
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Killing is part of what mobsters call "the life." Sonny Black, who plotted and killed his way to the position of acting boss of the Bonanno family, told undercover FBI agent "Donnie Brasco": "Every day is a fucking struggle, because you don't know who's looking to knock you off, especially when you become a captain or boss. Every day somebody's looking to dispose of you and take your position. You always got to be on your toes. Every fucking day is a scam to keep your power and position.
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That too is the romancefor want of a better wordof Mafia life.
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From the 1980s to the '90s law enforcement authorities led a string of successful prosecutions. A key figure, New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, predicted that in time the crime families would be reduced to little more than street gangs. Clearly, the prosecutions left many of the crime families in various levels of disarray. Certainly that was true of the Gambino family, which after the disastrous Gotti era saw its wise guy membership drop from about 250 or 300 to a mere 150. (On a bottomline basis, John Gotti may have been the worst Gambino family leader of all.)
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It seemed only a matter of time before further degeneration set in. The mainstream press bought wholeheartedly into the theory. Thus it was something of a shock when John Gotti Jr. was arrested in January 1998 along with 39 others in what was alleged to be a massive strike at the Gambino family.
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The
New York Times
(January 22, 1998) observed, "Although prosecutors portrayed the indictments as a triumphant blow to organized crime, the allegations also testified to the resiliency of the Mafia, which despite repeated indictments has been able to continue its hold on lucrative ventures and enter into new ones, like telecommunications fraud." Even the triumphant Mary Jo White, the U.S. attorney for Manhattan, noted, "What this case graphically shows is the power, profit and reach of the Gambino crime family in business and industries, both legitimate and illegitimate, throughout the metropolitan New York area."
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The families have lost considerable clout and power in the fish and construction industries and to a lesser but growing extent in trash hauling and the garment industry, but the Gambinos and the other families are still around. Officials concede that even as the Mafia loses ground in some areas, it gains ground in others. Certain mainstays, such as loan-sharking, chop-shop rings and gambling, are still there. A new crop of mobsters, however, is focusing on lucrative white-collar crimes, such as stock swindles, the sale of fake prepaid telephone cards, and medical-insurance frauds. Said Lewis D. Schiliro, the head of the FBI's New York office, "The families are in transition, trying to figure out how to redirect their criminal activities in a new environment."
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If John Gotti bossed the Gambinos down in power, other families have thrived. Typical was the Bonanno family, which had fallen into disrepute among mafiosi. They were deeply involved in drug trafficking and fought numerous brutal turf wars among themselves for internal rackets and spots in the power structure. Yet under boss Joseph Massino, the Bonannos staged a stunning resurgence with 100 active members and no top leaders in prison or even under indictment. By 1998 they had gained so much strength that they were close to rivaling the Gambinos as the second most powerful crime group in the East. Law-enforcement agents
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