Word: persicos
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...first they called it Operation Star Quest. But when a federal grand jury last week indicted alleged Mob Boss Carmine ("the Snake") Persico, 51, and ten other members of the Colombo clan, one of New York's five major Mafia families, federal agents triumphantly renamed their probe Star Struck. Those involved were said to control seven union locals in New York City's restaurant, trucking and construction businesses, extorting large payments from restaurateurs and contractors...
Some law-enforcement officials confessed to being puzzled by the sweeping announcement. The Colombo clan was all but eclipsed years ago by stronger rivals.Those familiar with the Mafia say that the true force behind the Colombo group was not Persico, but a onetime bank robber named John ("Sonny") Franzese, who was tapped by other Mafia bosses six years ago to help straighten out the inept clan. Franzese was not named in the indictment. Rudolph Giuliani, the U.S. Attorney in New York, told TIME, "We have a lot more to do." Indeed, Washington officials said an organized-crime strike force...
NONFICTION: After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection, James Davidson and Mark Lytle/ Clare Boothe Luce, Wilfrid Sheed/ How to Make War, James F. Dunnigan/ The Imperial Rockefeller, Joseph E. Persico/ Mrs. Harris: The Death of the Scarsdale Diet Doctor, Diana Trilling/ Scenes of Childhood, Sylvia Townsend Warner
...appointment as Vice President in the Ford Administration, where he glumly complained, "I go to funerals. I go to earthquakes." His own death in 1979 caused some seismic waves. At 70, he suffered a late-night heart attack while in the company of a young woman employee whom Joseph Persico describes as "a 20th century Rubens wearing aviator's glasses...
...make them feel the power." To a heckling crowd he showed one finger. The tough-guy style was not inconsistent with the physical man, built like a truck battery with a constant charge of direct current. Those around him learned to keep their distance. Persico describes relationships clearly signaling that one did not work for Rockefeller but served him. There were 80-hour work weeks, Sunday night staff meetings, and one session at which the Governor had to be cautiously reminded that it was Christmas Eve. His office superlatives had to be adjusted for inflation. Persico's revaluation...