The Heights: A Novel by Ray Franze

Author:Ray Franze [Franze, Ray]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blue Handle Publishing
Published: 2023-10-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

Vice Paradise

One of my other big projects in the late 1930s was working deeper into labor unions. Why? If you control the union and its officials, you control the dues. You have access to pension funds and good construction jobs. And let’s not forget about the kickbacks. With control of the unions, we’d gain access to cheap loans so we could develop and expand our endeavors.

Whenever possible, we put our guys in positions of influence at the unions. Our selections came from families we knew well or guys who were already part of our crew in The Heights. One of those guys was Dante Fazio, who you may recall was the oldest Fazio brother and the brick-wielding kid who ran into the house of the bully who was harassing his younger sister.

Dante started off in the Local 5 of the HOD Carriers, which became the Laborers’ Union, consisting mostly of bricklayers. He worked his way up to business agent when the Local 5 became the Laborers’ Local around 1941. Nunzio Neroni, who served The Heights for decades, was a union representative in the Local 5 before he handed the title off to Fazio. Vince Pizzoli, who caught Jon’s eye when he was a bookie at Balmoral race track, started off pulling weight in the unions and it was big-time for us. It was guys like that who took prominent roles within the unions, cultivating the power and political influence that The Heights and The Outfit have today.

We also had guys in the Common Laborers’ Union, which represented ditch diggers and asphalt spreaders. We steered away from the Barbers’ Union, though. These sons-of-bitches were run by socialists, and my father was right in warning me to steer clear of the socialists and their ways. They’re bad for business. In fact, Jon and I did everything we could to support political candidates who were running against socialists during the thirties.

Jon was tirelessly networking with politicians for the whole decade. One politician in particular, John Macky, had to be caressed. Macky was actually one of Dominic’s best catches, and Dom even maintained the relationship while in Leavenworth before his deportation.

Macky was a successful construction contractor when Dominic first started dealing with him. When Macky decided to go into politics, Dom, Jon, and I always did what we could for him. Macky was serving as head of the County Central Committee for the Republican party in ’34 and would eventually go on to serve as Cook County commissioner. It was crucial we kept him happy, which Jon ensured after Dominic wasn’t around.

Let’s also be quite clear about something. Jon and I may have voted Republican, and Jon was a member of the Republican order of Chicago Heights, but we contributed to plenty of Democrats, too. We contributed to whatever party was going to best serve our interests. That was my real political affiliation. I mean, we had to deal with that reform Democrat who got elected mayor of Chicago Heights in ’35. Jon made sure he was happy so our vice and gambling interests could continue to operate unmolested.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.