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It was Christmas at the Laing home December of 1980. Just after
Christmas dinner good old dad Mario tells the kids a story about the
good old days.
Back when he was about sixteen and was running around with the mafia
and his days of crime. Dad was always a character, so quiet but so
close to the ones he cared about. Sometimes mom wondered if dad was
closer to the mafia than he was her, but deep down she knew that he
held her closer.
See in the mafia you can't have weakness dad says. When asked why he
always says "They'll use them against you, don't be a fool. Never have
weaknesses exposed". He never made it big just kind of stuck by the
side of his partner in crime you could say.
Antonio Pesaro, I like to know him as Anthony 'moonlighting' Pesaro.
Dad always described him as having two sides, one in the mafia and one
to his wife. The two lives he had never crossed paths, but his wife
Danni always knew what he was into.
See in the mafia you've got all these different people. There's the
boss of course, then the boss has a right hand man who takes care of
everything and then the captains that make sure the soldiers do what
they're told.
See my dad Mario 'the third leg' Laing was a soldier you may even be able to say less than that since he practically was the right hand to Anthony.
My dad though keeps Anthony up on a platform no one else can touch,
like a godly figure. See Anthony was very good at what he did. He owned
a simple butcher shop near the Russo Family speak easy my dad said.
Anthony wasn't too old and when his father died left him the butcher
shop as a gift to Anthony at the age of 19. Even though Anthony grew up
only knowing the mafia life he hid it very well from everyone.
Anthony had been in the Russo family mafia for years. My dad isn't even
sure how long, but he knows Anthony's father was in the same mafia. I
bet you're wondering well how he would die or what not. Well Anthony
was always around with his father whom was forty three years old when
he was shot to death when collecting from the businesses around town.
See when this happened Anthony felt like he had some sort of duty not
only to stay in the mafia to honor his father but to also get revenge.
Anthony did exactly that but not quite in the best way. See Anthony had
been working for Russo for close to seventeen years and to most
Mafioso's that's nothing at all. Anthony was about twenty though when
he got his fathers' killer. Young and naive seeing as how it was a
rival family's captain, very well known. Even though revenge is
something that is dealt with guns eventually usually people take the
time to figure things out before going "trigger happy" you could say.
Anthony though was upset with how his father was killed without
retaliation.
So Anthony like I was saying killed the man and took that upon himself.
However about four days after he shot that captain the family he
belonged to tried to hit Anthony, but someone made a mistake and they
tried to hit the wrong guy.
Sad thing is that wrong guy was the captain of the little crew Anthony belonged to. His name was Ricky 'The Gasbag' Jackson. Yeah weird name let me tell ya.
I'm not sure if that's his real nickname or not but from what my dad has told me it seems to suit him well.
See Ricky always treated people below him like they owed him something
and only him, but when it came to any other captains, the right hand,
or Russo you'd never hear him speak without saying Sir at the end of a
sentence. Ricky though always seems to be like a knife with Anthony.
One side admired him and how ruthless he was to stick to love for the
family but the other side of Ricky hated him like you hate when you
step on a piece of gum walking down the street. See the person the
other family who put the hit out on was actually Ricky, see one of the
families grunts you could say, and messed up. He didn't think that a
hit this high up in ranks would come from a soldier killing one of the
most important captains in his family. So he assumed that it came from
the cockiest and loud mouthed captain, Ricky.
Even though the hit went wrong and Ricky was shot in the arm and
another bullet only gave him a flesh wound on the side of his ribs he
was pissed.
Anthony never intended on getting Ricky shot, but Ricky and Anthony's
father were close and seen together a lot in public. Ricky loves
Anthony but has a hate for him just for this. Ha-ha every time I think
about it I even would understand why Ricky hates Anthony. Anthony
always worked hard though to show to Anthony that he never meant any
harm to come to him. All he was looking for was to avenge his fathers'
death
Luckily Russo struck a deal with the other family before he was forced
to send his hit squad to take out their Boss. Seeing as how the other
boss didn't want to die it didn't take Russo much to persuade him.
After this it seemed Anthony better just to stick to what he knows and
what's best for him and the Russo family.
Over the next eight months Anthony stuck to life around the butcher
shop and collecting all that was owed by the local shops on his street
like usual. During those few months things began to change you could
say. Anthony found his FiancDanni.
Danni was new to town and was from a small town in Indiana. Came to the
city to find out what it has to offer a small town girl. She had been a
customer for awhile before Anthony even asked her out. Ha-ha the great
thing about it was my dad said that's the one time he saw Anthony
actually get weak at the knees for anything or anyone. Whatever Danni
asked for it seemed Anthony weighed it out to be a lil more so that way
she'd always come back. My dad always asked Anthony what made him go
weak at the knees. All he could say was tan, tall, black hair, dark
eyes, and sweet soft voice. Not much more you can ask for in my
opinion. Anthony loved Danni so much he never let his business with the
Russo family intervene with their life. He always kept her closer to
her heart and no one knew that up till the end. I suppose you could say
things with Anthony and Danni are like the old saying "two peas in a
pod".
Now see about here is were my dad is going to end the story for the
young ones. He never has told anyone the whole story except my mother
and I. That's for good cause to considering the Russo family is still
around and the case stayed open, but he told us because it affected us.
I understand it may be very confusing like, "He already told them about
knowing a murderer and holding people to pay the Mafia". The thing is
that stuff is expected when hearing the mafia stories ya know? But
there is always something behind the cover and someone, kind of like an
unopened book and the author who wrote it. Now to get to the good part
about everything and I'll try and give the best details. See how
everything really went was amazing. Everything I've already told you is
true to the "T", but the parts that were left out are the ones that no
one is suppose to really know about. Other than the Russo family that
is.
See Anthony wasn't just the average soldier for the Russo family, he
had a good gun. He was the up and coming lead hitter for the family
actually. After everything calmed down when Anthony killed the captain
in those months who killed his father and Ricky was shot things heated
up again.
Russo himself ordered Ricky, Anthony, and my father Mareo to take out the family head.
Slowly the hit squad picked apart the family getting it down to just
about fifteen maybe twenty left. They were supposed to make the hit at
a local speak easy. Everything was going accordingly when they got
there. After the dinner Ricky, Anthony, and Mareo followed them back to
their headquarters. Where they had already sent the rest the hit squad
to take out the last, 'wise guys' you could say. See this is where the
proverbial shit hit the fan with the whole deal.
When they got there and were ready to make the hit the cops busted
Ricky and Mareo. Anthony got away and both Ricky and Mareo got off with
nothing since the Russo family had enough money to buy the city for
Christ sakes. After Russo did some bribing with the investigators they
were able to get the family head after all. Wouldn't you know it
Anthony was told to take the shot too. It was clear Anthony was going
to lead his own family one day.
He went from being a butcher's son to the hit squad leader. What Russo
didn't know though was that family head apparently was the brother of Sally 'The Sour' Vitalli the biggest mob out of New Orleans. I know what your thinking, a girl?
But this wasn't just a girl, if you even looked at her wrong your eyes
were hers'.... literally. She was the top hitter in the Southeast.
Sally came to kill Anthony herself. At this point Anthony had already
setup under Russo so he was under heavy protection for months.
Unfortunately one rainy night came and Anthony had to leave sweet Danni
home alone for a night. Later he found her and the few wise guys he
left to protect her dead.
Russo and Anthony took there families to war against Sally.
Unfortunately Anthony and Sally found each other in the streets and
dueled it out with the few men they had. Anthony went down after
killing Sally's right hand. Russo came back for Sally and it took years
to get her, but the life Anthony led a life proving even the people who
aren't expected to do anything... may do soooo much more. |
