Downtown Los Angeles was no stranger to Michael. Most of his crime had been done in New York City, but as the second biggest American artist behind Frank Sinatra, he was more than well acquainted with the palm trees of the west. Stepping off the private jet was a big relief. The 90 degree weather with cool breeze would be a big turn around from the snowflakes out east, and for once the jet fuel wasn’t coming out of his pockets. Michael approached the car that would be transporting him to his location. The blonde chauffeur wore a black sundress that was battling her boobs. No bra. White toes. Sunglasses. Ah yes. What a time to be American. 

The Dog House was everything that you’d imagine. Gigantic, yes. But literally a dog house. Or rather…. some sort of insanely fortified dog mansion. Seven foot tall Rottweilers in expensive Italian suits guarded the luxurious yard. They looked like the defensive team for the New York Giants. There were various perimeter walls of all sizes, electrified barbed wire, and for some reason a reinforced door. Michael wanted to ask why such a state of the art door existed if there was just gonna be a pet door on the door itself. Everyone stopped what they were doing. All 200 Rottweilers looked at Michael to see his next move. Instead of reaching for the doorknob, he decided to take the flap. A smart move. When he got up off his knees the entire mansion cheered him on as if he just brought the World Series trophy home to Los Angeles.

In the middle of the chaos stood the main event. The man who had survived more hit attempts than your local post office. The Dogfather, BuddyBigPaw. Michael reached his hand out to shake the Godfather’s hand, but they both found it difficult and decided to carry on. BuddyBigPaw led Michael to the top floor. It felt like the size of the Coney Island Boardwalk. A pile of ripped pockets were in one corner. In the other corner a pile of cartoon sized rib bones. On the wall to the left read “Rogues”, and beneath it were about 9 disembodied heads. Sheesh. Michael unzipped his mini suitcase and started unpacking his gadgets. Ampex 350, RCA 44, polyester magnetic tape. The whole shabang. In between Michael and BuddyBigPaw was a desk. On the desk sat two thick hard cover books. One bore Sicilian on the cover, and it looked to be an older, more worn down version of the second one.

Welcome to The Dog House Michael. I trust you find our furnishings to be as colourful as our city. Now, how can I help you?

Thank you Godfather Chairman for having me. I know you’re a busy man. Shall we give the people what they’ve been wanting? You’re one of the oldest men in this thing of ours. Some would even say one of the most, if the not THEE most, successful run as Godfather Chairman. Surely this had to start somewhere. Take us back to the beginning. To being a young pup. Where did it all start and how did it influence your early days?

My family has walked these shores on and off for generations, but had been taking a bit of a break. Around the time of change in regime last year I got a call from some old associates to come and help out with some pro wacks. Sadly for them I put a bullet right between @FatGrin’s eyes and wasn’t asked to do it again. So I had to find a new calling - I ended up handing for the likes of Monarch and then @TheNewGuy and it all escalated from there!

And what was it like back then? Being one of the oldest faces around now, is it safe to say the organized crime world has changed? Whether that be for better or worse.

Some things change, some stay very much the same. For example the world feels a lot more peaceful now - all-out wars are a rarity, which makes it a great environment for business. Here in LA we’re printing more cash than ever before. But some things stay the same, like Monarch going a year without managing to rank.

You say your bloodline has been in and out of this thing of ours. Surely you must have a deep rooted lineage to have not one, but TWO journals. Take us down memory lane for a second. Where in your bloodline do you feel like things started taking a turn for the better?

My family has had a mixed history in this thing of ours, but first found these shores in the ‘dot org’ era of this thing of ours. In fact they’d been browsing a gentlemen’s publication by a rival publisher known only as ‘FHM’ which had recommended the lifestyle we have become accustomed to.

Anyway - a few runs under the ‘Lynchy’ name and then a prolonged break. It was in fact then my brother ‘Utopia’ or ‘Simba’ who asked me to return. He needed a pro wacker for their takedown of the regime of the day and so the ‘Lynchy’ name was resurrected once more. In fact, soon after Lynchy came to rediscover many forgotten friends and served as Right Hand to Archy until his death, and so then began a first ever crew leader run for my family, ultimately becoming the Godfather of South Philly. Sadly this run came to an end after Mrs Lynchy forced Lynchy to retire as she wanted him to return to the old country and stop wasting his life…

My family returned again some years later as ‘Bonkers’. Knowing how things worked now his ascendancy was rapid - initially as a Right Hand to Senza and then as a crew leader in Chicago. Bonkers, alongside allies in Las Vegas such as FitzChivalry and Disorder came to take over through a sequence of takedowns. All was well, until Bonkers was asked to purge his city and refused. He was murdered by Disorder, and so began that era…

Again, some years later the family returned initially as gestra (who missed a shot on a Godfather called West and died shortly after). gestra was however followed by his son, KingLouis. KingLouis proved to be somewhat of a tyrant - warring and purging to no end, before eventually being murdered in his sleep just days before he was due to become Godfather in New York, somewhat deserved…

Finally there was JimmyLuigi, a hand to one of the ____I____ family. Jimmy had had a good run on the West coast, but had seen key contacts in TykkiMik and others die or retire. Jimmy had got frustrated by being part of what he referred to as the ‘outer circle’ and he believed that it was simply a matter of time before he and his friends would be removed. As a result Jimmy and the rest of ____I____’s crew launched a raid on the other cities - ultimately killing DangerClose and discovering the value of a gun that could hit coast-to-coast, killing various others before running out of protection wacks and making a last stand in Philadelphia. 

And that brings us up to today (ignoring the seven thousand times my family has been a hand for Monarch’s family only to die of boredom).

An extensive rap sheet for sure. Out of all the names you’ve listed, do you have a favorite? And if you do, what makes them your favorite? What lessons have you held dearly from their journals?

KingLouis was possibly the most intense, even if I did get a little carried away. The main lesson is to build a network and a gun as at some point you’ll need each.

Truer words couldn’t have been said. I don’t want to make this a nostalgia party, but have you ever had to suffer from the decisions of your ancestors? 

The only suffering I’ve had to do has been put up with the likes of Rouge and the like for a few generations 

You seem to reference a lot of friends. Your bloodline has created its own “group” so to speak. So I’ll ask this to bring things back to recent times. Dogfather Chairman, did you always know early on you’d be one of the top mobsters?

Groups of groups really. It’s like a web out there, lots of people you work with a couple of times in different circumstances. Some of whom hate each other. I never planned on being a crew leader, let alone a godfather. A right hand at most. Somehow I ended up war roguing and never disbanded because of needing the jobs coverage… fast forward half my life and here we are!

Let’s touch on the change of regime you mentioned earlier. Is the war roguing the same as the change of regime, or were these two different incidents. If they were could you tell those at home what it was like from your point of view? The build up? What were the problems? Why were you interested in helping?

Not to open any old wounds, but it isn’t everyday you get to speak with a Godfather Chairman, let alone get answers to questions.

No the change of regime pre-dated my involvement. At that stage I was but a young pup, pro wacking some family friends (and killing one of them in the process!)

The war roguing came at the point where I had been a RHM for some time, but needed to act fast to protect the city of Detroit from the former rulers of the west coast.

Would you care to go into detail about the dispute against the “old west coast”? I always thought your original stomping grounds was Los Angeles. Pardon my ignorance, my age is showing.

What was the problem(s)? The build up? Was this a consensus feeling across the organized crime world? Please, do spill the tea for those at home that are unaware.

Essentially Detroit was a happy go lucky fairytale town where mugging was a daily occurrence and we broadly kept ourselves to ourselves. Eventually the West coasters of LA and LV decided that we should die, not really sure why. But helpfully in reaching out to others for help they alerted some of our allies. 
They rallied to our aide and helped us remove the plotters. Irritatingly I was travelling at the time, and in the confusion I set up here in LA, missed my shot, forgot I was now LA HQd, missed another shot on the East coast and generally made a fool of myself!

But here I am - now calling LA home! And I can’t help but notice that the pale faced East Coaster like Richard-Harrow and Norella seem to like vacationing here as often as they can escape the hell hole that is New York!

Which opponent earned your respect the most?

I’ve been lucky enough to live in a time of relative peace, with a lot of the conflicts localised to other cities, so there haven’t really been so many opponents to worry about along the way - other than those poor excuses for mobsters in Los Vegas perhaps…

No, really the one time that my city faced real opposition was back in the Old Detroit days when the old West Coast approached other cities to remove us, but we got a heads up from the East Coast and were able to strike first. I didn’t know Dean Winchester well, but I respected the final stand that he put up - took a lot of my friends and family down with him along the way, but that’s how I’d like to go out!

What's harder: building an empire or keeping it together?

Well I wouldn’t want to say I run an empire - unless we’re counting my financial interests in some LA beachfront properties, Reggie’s brothels and DetroitSimon’s knotweed infestation protection racket.

Anyway, to your question, the building is the more fun bit! My family line have never been one to rule for long…boredom normally kicks in and they do something wild - and that is what makes it tough. I guess what has been different this time has been the extended network of existing friends, friends of old, but then also newly found friends of friends which has has helped glue the whole thing together.

What personality traits consistently lead mobsters to fail?

First and foremost there’s a lot of luck involved in reality. So many times where a bullet that could have had my name on it found another. It probably helps that New York crew leaders seem to have massive foreheads and their pro wackers have the marksmanship abilities of Napoleonic sharpshooters!

But what personality leads to failure? Paranoia, power hunger - any scheming that leads to unnecessary aggression has seen cities crumble in recent times.

Did power ever change how you viewed ‘the game’?

I think that power has almost always sat with groups, rather than individuals - the dynamics of distance and filling districts mean that this is more the case now than ever before. Many years ago one big gun could dictate things, but now you need local and mobile guns to really make things work. The most powerful player is the capped gun who can set up anywhere, not the Godfather largely tethered to their own coast.

If you had to build the perfect crew from mobsters throughout history, who would you choose?

Satanta - anyone who knew him will know why. The hardest working mobster my family has ever known. Knew how to balance fear and love and kept the streets entertaining.

I also tend to run with my family from the old country - brothers and relatives. You can’t get more loyal than blood, like Cristoforo.

And how could I miss ____I_____? Once you’ve covered the bases of activity, gun building and blood, then all that’s left is a sexy name!

Have you ever had to make a decision that cost you allies?

It comes with the territory unfortunately, I had a good relationship with Ghostof2011 and was gutted to hear that they had opted to side with the West Coast against us - but it was probably the smart play from their perspective.

More broadly than that though, this run has been about building more bridges than we burn and that’s what has helped it last so long…for now..

If a brand new mobster sat down in front of you today and asked how to become the next legend of your city, what would you tell them?

New mobsters walk through the door every day, some last, some don’t. We send the riff raff to Detroit or Shicago. But the ones that stay - we give opportunities to, to be crew leaders like Death420, to be hands like AlexTurner historically or AraMina more recently. The advice is be active, make the city lively, make it somewhere that people want to be - and if you achieve that, then that’s half the battle won.

To close things out this evening I have one more question. When future players talk about your era, what do you hope they say about you?

He had an amusing death.