MAFIA IS IN TOWN Dr C.V ANANDA BOSE

 

20. MAFIA IS IN TOWN

When the notorious forest brigand, Veerappan, was killed, people were greatly relieved. Youngsters had the habit of erratic hero worship of such lone wolves who incessantly indulge in crimes, taking law into their hands and basking in the glory of the dubious stardom bestowed on them by the media. It is important that new Veerappans did not emerge in our midst or in the woods.

To learn what happens when Veerappans multiply in the society all we have to do is to take a look at America. The number of killings attributed to Al Capone, an infamous mafia head of Chicago, was a thousand. Our Veerappan who killed about a hundred people in the forests pales into insignificance before the city bred Al Capone.  Al Capone was only one among the many mafia chieftains. But it was ‘Al Capone style’ that made mafia killings more gruesome and more horrendous.

Groups of rowdy gangs from Italy that migrated to America and settled down there came to be known as the mafia. One such migrant family had nine children, including Alphonse. He began his career in crime in New York as a thug, indulging in stray street fights and petty robberies when he got involved in a murder. When the police came in search of him, Alphonse thought it prudent to flee the city for the time being. He moved to Chicago where the ruling mafia gang was headed by one James Colosimo. Johny Torrio was the lead gangster in that outfit who was then on the lookout for fresh recruitments to his gang. Alphonse was spotted by him as an eligible entrant and was taken in as an apprentice.

It was during this period that prohibition was enforced in America. While Alsphonse saw this as a godsend opportunity to make millions out of bootlegging, Colosimo did not agree. Colosimo was promptly done away with. He was shot dead by an unknown assailant, believed to be Alphonse. He then attended the gang leader’s funeral, shedding tears for all to see. Shortly thereafter the New York street thug became Chicago’s mafia don Al Capone.

Under Al Capone’s leadership the Chicago outfit soon became a huge and powerful mafia empire. He went on a victorious march, liquidating all his rival gangs and operating a vast crime syndicate. Robbery, murder, prostitution ring, gambling dens and bootlegging were the major money spinners that raked in millions for Al Capone. As imaginative as he was ruthless, Al Capone went after any means to make money at gunpoint.

There were two major mafia families in Chicago at that time, one of them headed by Dean O’Banion, a migrant from Ireland. Initially what he did was to work as a florist, supplying flowers to rich households. This was a respectable business and Al Capone decided that enough was enough. One day three youngsters came to O’Banion’s flower shop and ordered a wreath. A beautiful wreath was promptly supplied. The youngsters then took out their revolvers, pumped O’Banion’s body with bullets and left the shop after placing the wreath on his body. Like this Al Capone eliminated many of his rivals in Chicago, ultimately crowing himself as the monarch of all he surveyed in the Chicago criminal world.

The law and order machinery of the city just remained as a mute witness before the power and resourcefulness of Al Capone. Though he escaped many big nets, like our Veerappan he got ensnared ultimately in a small net. A court sentenced him to eleven years in prison, not for any major crime like murder, dacoity, bootlegging or prostitution, but for evasion of tax. The long jail term naturally enervated him besides making him emotionally distraught. He showed symptoms of insanity apart from having to undergo treatment for sexually transmitted disease. The mafia don who came out of the prison was a veritable wreck.

After his release, Al Capone did not go back to his olden ways. Hated and discarded by everyone, he led a lonely life in his house in Florida. He died in 1947, burying with him the ‘Al Capone style’ of underworld crimes.

Instances are not few in America when law enforcers and law breakers join hands. There were reports that the CIA of America had sought the help of the mafia to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The entrusted task was to make available to cigar smoking Castro a consignment of poisoned cigars. Otherwise, gun him down with a machine gun in the Al Capone style. The CIA even hatched a plot with the mafia to humiliate Castro by causing a fall of the hairs of his beard in public.

As in India, America also had its share of the unenviable situation of the fence itself eating up the crop. New York police appointed a super cop to squarely deal with the mafia. His assigned task was to raid unauthorized gambling dens and force their closure. Lt Charles Becker enthusiastically took up his assignment. Mafia groups were jittery. To put a long story short, the police authorities were shocked to learn, when it was too late, that the supercop had become the head the nefarious empire that he was assigned to neutralize. He had himself turned a far more powerful mafia don.

There is something in this that seeks to open our eyes. Is it here or there that an effective setup is in force to prevent law breaking? Though slightly delayed, Indian police could eliminate a dreaded brigand like Veerappan. Though there was an organized move under Robert Kennedy to go against the mafia in America, nothing could be done to break up the sinister empire. Similarly they could only watch as the terrorist planes pulverized the world trade centre towers. When parliament came under attack in India, our security forces could counter it and eliminate all the perpetrators. When world leaders met in Seattle the conference of the world trade organization could not be carried out as planned because of vociferous demonstrations outside the venue. Murasoli Maran who was then a union minister, in India, had said in Seattle that if two collectors from India were deputed there the demonstrators could have been effectively controlled. Officials in this country usually get accused of inefficiency and ineptitude, but an occasional pat on their back for their commitment will not be out of place. It only goes to prove that in regard to law and order enforcement as in everything else, if there is a will there is a way.

Generally speaking both here and there the society witnesses the games of the thief and the cop. The law breakers entice the law enforcers through many appeasements. When the law enforcers accept them, crime and punishment get mixed up. In other words crimes are committed by a collective of law breakers and law enforcers. And invariably the punishment goes to the hapless general public.