Criminal Element by Hugh Holton

Author:Hugh Holton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2011-05-27T00:00:00+00:00

At the exact moment that Vampire Campos entered area “B” of the McCall Room, a large white man with a shaved head who appeared to be completely round from every angle, walked north on Michigan Avenue toward DeWitt Plaza. He weighed over four hundred pounds, which forced him to waddle from side to side and the exertion of moving his bulk caused him to wheeze noisily and sweat profusely. His features—eyes, nose, and mouth—were all oval-shaped and his waist measured eighty inches in circumference. He was dressed in a not-too-clean denim suit and unshined brogan shoes. He was an unusual figure, perhaps even a ludicrous one, to behold. In actuality, he was extremely dangerous.

His name was Michael “Butterball” Zane and he was the chairman of the Chicago Congress of Neighborhood Organizations. The title made the operation that Butterball represented sound like a civic-minded group. However, good government had nothing to do with CCNO. What it was in actuality was a coalition of street gangs whose territory covered a vast area of the Windy City.

The street gangs making up CCNO were mostly white with a few Hispanics and very few blacks thrown in. In the scheme of things, as far as street gang operations went, the individual groups, such as the Chicago Avenue Counts, TJO’s, and Montrose Monarchs were small fry compared to the Gangster Disciples, the Latin Lords, and the El Rukns. But with the money to be made from street corner drug sales, the small gangs got involved. This led to conflicts with the larger gangs, which were able to easily smash their smaller rivals. Then, as they were on the verge of extinction, an overweight graduate history student named Mike “Butterball” Zane came forward with a proposal. In order to survive, the white street gangs at the beginning of the twenty-first century would have to do the same thing that the Irish and Jewish gangs had done to survive against Al Capone in the 1930s. Consolidate.

Because Zane was fat and odd looking, it took some doing for the obese man, who had been saddled with the nickname “Butterball” all of his life, to convince the gangs to join CCNO. But, finally, they had no choice. The impact was slow in coming, but as had been the case during Prohibition, the force of numbers began to make itself felt and CCNO became a criminal element to be reckoned with.

Mike Zane did not run the Chicago Congress of Neighborhood Organizations by force; he did not have the authority to do so. However, he was respected, because he had not only kept the white ethnic gangs from vanishing, but had also set up a system by which they controlled a vast narcotics operation. He was considered the brains of CCNO and was held in high esteem. So it was to the man nicknamed Butterball that the invitation containing the five-thousand-dollar cash payment had gone.

Butterball made his way across the main lobby of DeWitt Plaza drawing a number of curious and amused stares.

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