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MOM'S DIARY
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Mafia Romance Mother recounting ARLYNE'S misdeeds
As far back as Arlyne's memory goes, every Friday night the Weiss family went to Grandma's house. It was a sacred obligation, one they could not skip under any circumstances. As a child, Arlyne looked forward to those outings with innocent enthusiasm, taking them for granted and not understanding them. By 1944, when she was eleven years old, an age when the growing knowledge of the mysteries behind ordinary events pricked her curiosity, those visits took on a new importance. At three o'clock sharp, as soon as they came home from school, Arlyne and her little sister, Barbara, would bathe and change, putting on the dress the maid had left on the bed. They then presented themselves to their mother, who, as was customary at that hour, was seated on a stool before the dressing table. Billie Weiss assessed her daughters with a critical eye and then placed the little girl before her. As she braided her long honey-colored hair, the little girl's head bobbed docilely up and down. But that idyl
Mafia Romance the adventures of his youth
As Arlyne observed, Grandma was always surrounded by men, most of them much younger than she was. Among those blowflies flying over Ida's kitchen on Friday night were Jimmy and Jake, the chauffeurs in charge of driving the hearse during the funeral. It was obvious that both young men held their benefactress in high esteem. Jake, a ladies' man, flirted with Ida nicely and then went on his way. The other, however, had been hit harder. Jimmy the Pagan, as he was known, was a shy soul who seemed unable to find a girlfriend. Ida had taken pity on him and offered to teach him to dance. Later, when she had finished her duties as cook, she would take his hand and lead him into the living room, where she would put a record on the phonograph. Then, to the delight of those present, she would show Jimmy the first steps in the erotic pleasures of tango. Their bodies were not a perfect match; Ida was much more muscular than her skinny dancing partner. But Jimmy was eager to learn and Arlyne found i
Mafia Romance Gangster doll
They were all avid gamblers, and they all came to Frankie. Sometimes, preferably on Saturday afternoons, because no funerals were officiated and she was allowed to gamble on the front steps, Arlyne would visit her grandmother. On those occasions, she would go down a back staircase leading to the neighboring basement and visit Uncle Frankie and his friends. She used to find them stretched out on a couple of old couches, going over the race sheet and listening to the standings on a big old wooden radio. They didn't seem to mind that little girl hanging around. Sometimes Frankie or one of the others would sneak her a quarter and a pat on the cheek. In fact, as Arlyne recalls, those men were "the Uncles." For example, there was Uncle Milty Tillinger, the loan shark. Once, when one of Milty's relatives was on the run from justice, Ida hid him in the coffin room until the danger passed, earning the loyalty of the Tillinger family forever. There was also Izzy Smith, owner of Zion Cemetery do
Mafia Romance His novel
Those who declined the offer received threats of sabotage and often death. Lansky and Los Chicos ran their criminal enterprises almost unchallenged until 1933, when they found themselves in troubled waters in the political arena. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had emerged victorious at the 1932 Democratic National Convention with the support of the Lansky-controlled political bosses, soon turned against his old allies and launched an all-out war against organized crime. That move made him so popular that local politicians across the country took his lead. New York Governor Herbert Lehman appointed a politically ambitious young man named Thomas Dewey as special prosecutor to bring the mobsters to justice. Dewey set about his task with fervor, lashing out at the bouncers across the spectrum of suspect sectors. However, the onslaught of his prosecutorial fury fell especially hard on Lepke and Gurrah, whom he considered "the two biggest extortionists in the country." Realizing t
Mafia Romance She
Although pleasant at first, these formalities began to wear on Miss Blum's patience. Constrained by convention, she could not initiate contact without a suitable pretext. Fortunately, one did present itself. One of the funeral homes was going to hold a raffle and all the East Side undertakers were given a handful of ballots to sell. Ida Blum, who usually handled these matters, called her daughter and asked if she was interested in trying her luck with the Weiss brothers. At her mother's timely suggestion, Billie went to Houston Street on the pretext of selling them ten raffle tickets. Irving was willing to buy all ten, but Henry stopped him, telling him that five would be enough. That confirmed what Billie thought: that Irving was the most generous, and the best catch. In fact, Billie had left nothing to chance. Before approaching them and without anyone seeing her, she had lifted the red Mafia Girl 46 stamps from the ballots in order to guarantee that she was selling a winning one t
Mafia Romance The club
Irving and Billie, who were used to frequenting classier joints, had to pop in from time to time, basically because one of the other co-owners was one of Lucky Luciano's friends: Giuseppe Antonio Doto, also known as Joe Adonis. Adonis was an aloof guy and, to Arlyne, a complete mystery. She managed to catch a glimpse of him one night while he sat waiting for her father in front of the apartment. Although Arlyne was not yet a teenager, the sight of Adonis' hazy profile through the tinted glass of the Cadillac aroused some sexual interest in her. His marked, sensual features seemed both exotic and forbidding. Although the question had not been explicitly discussed, it was clear that any daughter of Irving Weiss would stay far away from the Italians, who were widely known for preying on mirror maze 51 Jewish girls and recounting the details of their conquests on street corners and in taverns all over the Lower East Side. On the one hand, Adonis was attractive because he was so strange,
Mafia Romance fin
When she picked up the phone, however, she heard the stern rebuke in her father's voice, who shouted, "Arlyne!" She withdrew her hand. With one brief command, Irving had just firmly excluded her from his most intimate affairs. That was the way things worked in the Weiss family. Doors that slammed shut. Mirrors that stared back. And telephone rings that hid secrets. Maria De La Cruz would have been slow to reflect on her mother's writings, at least she discovered that her real name was "Arlyne", and that she had made a kind of auto-bibliography written in the third person, but how could I find out? Well, those sheets hid an admirable truth and bandit, they coincided perfectly with her father's chest. She was confused for a few days, she wasn't sure what her real surname was, her real name, and she certainly had become quite messed up in her mind. However, in the shadows of her questions, she was filled with relief and emotion for the blood that ran in her veins; even though they carrie
Mafia Romance Preface
There are more misnamed gentlementhan flies,of those who still rest their conscienceon the first ticketthey ill-earneddyed red, dyed in blood and miseries.and miseries.For with time they well forgetwhat their poor ethics are,for they never cared if they swindle, steal or kill.if they swindle, steal or killfor, as long as they are not caught,they come to care rather nothing.And it is that they are like applesworms,as for the hairnits,or that kind of black fungusthat eats flowers.But they think they are elegant,of course, the best,believing they know everything.It is normal that they do not want to see their misery,they don't want to realize that they liveas in a room without windowsblack, dark, without sky,without sun, without heat or clouds.Alone, eternally alone,constantly angry children,cowardly with themselves,immature,capricious and spoiled,who do not even know how to govern themselvesonly want to control the world.Without regard for their own tea
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