Boss
The departure of Genovese to Italy left Costello in firm control of the Luciano crime family. With the help of his top capos, Joe Adonis, Anthony Carfano (also known as "Little Augie Pisano") and Michael "Trigger Mike" Coppola, the crime family ran smoothly and undeterred. Costello's rule was very profitable, with slot machines in New Orleans with Carlos Marcello, illegal gambling in Florida and Cuba with Meyer Lansky, and illegal race wires with Bugsy Siegel in Los Angeles. Costello also enjoyed more political influence than any other mobster in the country. However, like Luciano, Costello did not believe in drug trafficking. This aversion to selling drugs was not shared by Genovese, a known drug dealer.
Costello was a popular boss within the crime family; he equitably shared the profits from family operations, and did not demand a large cut of his underlings' criminal earnings. He apparently was the owner of New York's third biggest poultry meat supply firms and a chain of MeatMarts.
In early 1946, Luciano's prison sentence was commuted and he was deported to Italy. With Genovese exiled to Italy also, Costello remained boss of the Luciano crime family.
Read more about this topic: Frank Costello
Famous quotes containing the word boss:
“When you overpay small people you frighten them. They know that their merits or activities entitle them to no such sums as they are receiving. As a result their boss soars out of economic into magic significance. He becomes a source of blessings rather than wages. Criticism is sacrilege, doubt is heresy.”
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)
“When the boss isn’t strict, the workers aren’t busy.”
—Chinese proverb.
“I have given my pain a name and call it “dog”Mit is every bit as faithful, every bit as nosey and shameless, every bit as entertaining, every bit as clever as any other dog—and I can boss it around and vent my bad moods on it, just as others do with their dogs, servants, and wives.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)