America's King of Poetry

Chapter 1 Not Dangerous Crossing

New York, spring, night, the time is approaching the wee hours of the morning.

At an Italian restaurant on Mulberry Street in the Queens borough of lower Manhattan, a secret party was going on.

The restaurant has long been closed, and the floor-to-ceiling glass windows have drawn curtains to cover them tightly.In a corner of the restaurant, a round table was placed, with three groups of people sitting or standing around the round table, and a desk lamp was on the table.

There were three people sitting in front of the round table. One was Joseph Masino, a short, middle-aged man with plump apple muscles; the other was Vincent Gigandi, his chestnut hair was neatly combed, and his face was broad; the third was a tall, thin old man with a Mediterranean hairstyle. He had a prominent hooked nose and drooping eyes, and his name was Tony Luciano.

The three of them were dressed in ordinary clothes. The fat Massino was wearing a tracksuit, Gigandi was better, a white linen shirt, and Luciano was wearing a beige T-shirt, like a retired old man.

But all three of them have a record in the FBI, and their photos have been pinned on the small blackboard of the task force for a long time, because they are the leaders of the three gang families in New York.

They gathered here tonight to discuss a very important matter.

They decided to kill Luca Abramo, the leader of a family in New Jersey.

Abramo is also of Italian descent, and he was not at odds with people in Manhattan.But this winter he suddenly launched a "war", killing members of several families, and stretching his hands into Manhattan and Brooklyn. This made the three major families unbearable and fought back.

After a mutual vendetta, many parties suffered heavy losses, and the New York police were alarmed, and many people were arrested and prosecuted.

After a stalemate, they shook hands and made peace to end the war.The three families were amazed by the power of Abramo. This "country guy" who was originally unknown in New Jersey could compete with New York?

The three families suspected that Abramo was supported by other families in New York. They launched an investigation and decided to find an opportunity to kill Abramo and eradicate this confidant.

They are here tonight to discuss the specific plan and the aftermath after killing him - dismembering Abramo's property in New Jersey. They have been planning and preparing for a month.

According to intelligence, Abramo's security work is very good. He has bodyguards with him, sleeps in bulletproof vests, and is very cautious.Recently they got an important piece of information that Abramo had a lover in East Rutherford, New Jersey, a Ukrainian girl.

He spends time with that girl every week, alone every time.Pass in the morning, leave in the afternoon, and noon will be an excellent window for assassination.

Now the three party leaders are sitting together to discuss which party will send someone to carry out the assassination plan.

They thought about spending money to find a killer to complete this task before, but they couldn't find a suitable candidate at all.

If it was the 20s and 30s, or the 50s and 60s, they'd find a reliable killer from Chicago or Philadelphia or the South, pay him a fortune, and disappear when he's done.

It is different now, it is not so easy to find a reliable killer from other places, their power is not as good as before.And the Italians have always tended to "internal solutions" in doing things, not only because of tradition, but also because the internal people are reliable and it is more convenient to deal with the aftermath. After all, they must follow the law of silence.

Another important reason is that it costs a lot of money to hire a reliable killer.If a Vietnamese or Mexican is too conspicuous and easy to be tracked, what's more terrible is that they are worried that these people who are open to money and willing to sacrifice their lives for money will fight back and sell the buyer, which will be troublesome.

"The person who did this shouldn't come from my side. I will find a way to deal with the police, but someone... no, I'm being watched too closely." The chunky Masino shook his head, saying that he could get the police out of the way afterwards, but he didn't want anyone to carry out the plan.

Gigandi and Luciano glanced at Masino, thinking you can fucking take down the police, and you're afraid of being watched too closely? TM will not find a reason.

But Gigendy also said immediately, "I have two candidates in my mind, they are people from my side, but one of them is hiding in Canada, and the other is still in prison. They may stay in the next century. However, I can bear the cost of this plan, and I can also be responsible for the safety of the executor."

Another bullshit.

Now only Tony Luciano is left, and to be honest, he doesn't want to send his men to perform this task.

The current gangs are no longer compared to their golden age. In the era when Edgar Hoover was still in charge of the FBI, the gangs were the eagle dogs under the leader of the American East Factory.After he died, the FBI became the police dog of the federal government, and the life of the gang became more and more difficult every day.

With the development of the times, the industry soil they rely on for survival is constantly shrinking. There are more and more multinational large companies, more and more emerging technology industries, and more and more franchise companies.They can't go to McDonald's to collect protection fees, open software companies to make money, or invest in stocks and futures, right?If they could, they wouldn't have to engage in underground gangs.

They can only do some garbage cleaning and recycling, transport and contract construction raw materials, operate small and medium-sized sex and gambling establishments, and collect protection fees from some private shops in the community.

Some of these industries are serious businesses that need to pay taxes to the federal government, including opening pornographic bars and private casinos.As for the most lucrative drug industry, the Italians cannot cover the sky with one hand, and the black gangs, Mexicans, Irish, etc. will all come out to get a share.

In addition, doing drugs is easy to be attacked, so they have always been very careful. Although they can't completely eliminate it like Vito Corleone in "The Godfather", they are still relatively restrained. At least a few party leaders themselves are unwilling to be contaminated with these things.

Without the support of strong economic strength, the past scenery will of course be gone forever.These are no longer the arrogant days when you took a typewriter and swiped at the enemy.

The Luciano family was the weakest among several families. Tony himself was still stabilizing the internal affairs, and his manpower was precious. He didn't want to waste a general to do such an assassination.

"Maybe we can find an unknown thug, those drug addicts, and give him a little favor to let him complete this task." Tony proposed a new idea.

But this idea was quickly rejected, and the question remains, how do you guarantee the loyalty and reliability of such an addict?

The reason for the formation and growth of Italian gangs lies in the maintenance of family loyalty, the incomparable trust and reliability between each other, rather than pure ruthlessness.

Once again, they fell into a stalemate, and none of the three people was willing to say "this matter is on me", and everyone was counting on others.

It's really not old.

At this moment, there was a loud noise from the kitchen of the restaurant, clanging and clanging, as if dishes, chopsticks and kitchen utensils fell to the ground.

Everyone was startled, and the members standing behind them put their hands in their pockets to draw their guns.

To be honest, if someone's gun goes off at this time, everyone will take out the gun and shoot at each other for a while, and the scene will be pleasantly surprised.

Tomorrow's headline in the New York Times will be "New York Gang Negotiations Failed, Internal Rush, All Three Family Heads Killed", and the FBI can also reap some unexpected joy and give the agents a rest.

Fortunately, everyone restrained themselves. This is the restaurant run by Tony Luciano. He got up and walked towards the back kitchen. While pulling out his gun, he shouted, "Arthur? Is that you Arthur?"

A somewhat confused voice came from the kitchen, "Yes, it's me."

Only then did Tony put the gun away, and turned around and said, "It's my nephew Arthur, did this guy fall asleep in the kitchen again?"

He went into the kitchen and turned on the light, and saw a young man in a white chef's uniform lying on the ground, with pots and pans scattered all over the floor.

"Arthur? Why are you still here? You're sleeping in the warehouse again? Why don't you go home?"

This young man's name is Arthur Luciano, Tony's nephew. His father Luther was once the leader of the Luciano family and Tony's younger brother, but that was more than ten years ago, and Luther died in an accident.Arthur's mother also died five years ago, leaving him alone.Arthur was not a member of the gang, and after high school he worked as a cook in his uncle's restaurant.He has a live-in girlfriend who has been losing his temper recently, so he sometimes doesn't come home and lives in a small warehouse in the kitchen.

Uncle and others were discussing the assassination of Abramo. He was lying in the small warehouse and sleeping. He woke up in a daze and slipped out of the door. He took a bunch of things with him and made a loud noise.

"Arthur? Arthur answered me Arthur, you fell to the ground with your butt, why did you rub your head instead of your butt?" Tony felt angry when he saw his nephew.

Nominally speaking, half of the property under Tony's name should belong to his nephew, and he just kept it on his behalf.Tony himself has no son, only one daughter, and after his death the property will still belong to this nephew.

But look at his dazed appearance all day long, he is not very good at doing anything except cooking, and he has not inherited his father's shrewdness and domineering at all.The weakness and dullness in him are mostly inherited from his Chinese mother.

Nowadays, Italian men don't necessarily have to marry an Italian girl.But marrying a yellow-skinned and black-haired woman is too out of line for a gang member. Tony thinks this is the beginning of the decline of the Luciano family. Without a Sicilian woman's good helper, the family cannot prosper.

Tony stepped forward to pull Arthur up, he was still rubbing his head, Tony looked at him, and suddenly a brilliant idea popped into his head.

Tony pulled Arthur, put his arms around his shoulders, and said softly: "Arthur, haven't you always wanted to join the family business? Now there is an opportunity in front of you, do you want to give it a try? You don't want to be a cook for the rest of your life, do you?"

Arthur stopped rubbing his head, looked at Tony Luciano with black pupils, and said in his heart, "What the hell is going on? Where is I? Who is I?"

Arthur didn't speak, Tony Luciano suddenly squatted down, picked up something from the ground, handed it to Arthur, and said, "Arthur, are you gambling again, cheating again? Put it away and follow me, you don't have to cheat again in the future."

What Tony handed over were four playing cards, which had just been pressed under Arthur's buttocks.

Arthur took the four cards and felt as if something had come to his mind.

[About the new book and Ball Master]:

There are two reasons for writing this book. One is because a pretty good idea popped up in my mind, and I thought it was very interesting, so I wanted to write it. The second is because I can write the book Ball Bully for a long time, so long that I think it would be boring if I didn’t write something new, so there is no problem of Ball Bully ending unfinished.Then, the new book has no drafts, no outline, and whatever you write on the watermelon rind counts, the ball master will be updated steadily, the new book depends on your mood, forgive me.

(End of this chapter)