The Land of the Dollar Bill

[Caporegime]

Foreword: This is the beginning a story I've been mulling over for a year now. It's not in the view of my character, but from the characters around him. The following "chapter" is an intro to the "street legend" of Salvatore "The Cheat" Lena.

 

One.

 

 

On the evening of July 13, 1991, Senior Special Agent Nicholas Callahan of the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a call at his home which was located in the Overland Park suburb of Kansas City. It was a Saturday evening at the Callahan household and the family was doing its Saturday evening routine of dinner and a theatre outing, tonight Terminator 2: Judgement Day was chosen as their movie of choice. The call rang just as Nicholas’ wife Helen was buttoning up her shirt and finishing dressing.

On the line of the telephone was his partner Shane Donahue, another veteran agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“Nicky, some nobody wiseguy just came in and said he wanted to flip.” Said Shane with little to no enthusiasm. 

“What’s his name? He connected to anyone we know?” Replied Nicholas with the same level of enthusiasm.

The two veteran field agents have been working Organized Crime in the Kansas City area for the last ten years, five of which they have been partnered. Contrary to popular belief not all “rats” brought forth good information which would lead to anyone of importance, not like the Al D’Arcos or the Sammy the Bulls.

“Well Nick, here’s the thing. Since he reached out to me he’s been harping on about some guy he only knows by the name “The Cheat”. We have anything in relation to anyone named that in our files?” Said Shane with haste.

“Who? “The Cheat”? I haven’t heard of anyone. I’ll check the files and I’ll get back to you in an hour? I’ll page you.”  Replied Nicholas once again.

Shane agreed to the set time and both men hung their respective phones up. Nicholas continue to mull over the name which Shane had given him, The Cheat. Who was this so called Cheat? Sitting at the edge of his bed he sat there for what seemed like an eternity, continually running through the vast quantity of names and faces he had acquired from his many years following Organized Crime. Even with ten years on the Kansas City Organized Crime Task Force, the name The Cheat did not ring with Nicholas.

Kissing his wife on the cheek and explaining to her that the movie would have to wait till next Saturday, Nicholas with this newfound name got into his 1991 black Buick Park Avenue. With a flick of his wrist Nicholas turned his key and ignited the engine of his vehicle, before shifting his car into drive he made a mental note of the time. 5:47 P.M.
Arriving at the Kansas City field office shortly before the strike of the hour, Nicholas quickly made his way to the Task Force’s main room. Here they kept boxes upon boxes of names, mugshots and other intelligence they have collected over recent weeks. The older intelligence would be housed in the basement. Nicholas quickly cracked opened several of the typical office supply boxes and rummaged through the contents in search for the elusive name which was given to him earlier. His efforts provided him with zero answers or results.

He looked up towards the clock which hung upon the wall and noticed that he was fifteen minutes late making the scheduled call which both agents previously agreed to. He hurried to a telephone and rang Shane. Within minutes Shane returned the call and both men started their conversation where they last left off.

“Well? Find anything in relation to the name?” asked Shane, this time cars could be heard in the background. It was clear to Nicholas that Shane was in transit and was using a payphone.

“I went through four or five boxes from the last couple months, I found fuck all. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing though. There’s still a good fifteen years worth of stuff in the basement. It’ll take an entire team to sift through all of that.” Nicholas replied. His voice sounded more puzzled then interested.

“What’s the plan Nick? We taking this guy’s word for it? You want to meet him?”

“Yeah I do actually Shane, I do. This wiseguy got me interested in the name. What’s the worst that could happen? We follow up and find nothing, toss ‘em to the streets again.”

The conversation lasted only seconds after Nicholas agreed to meeting with this stool pigeon. The two veteran agents agreed to a meeting place, a Hotel, the Sheraton, which was located in Crown Center. Shane said he would call back his contact, who in turn would contact the stool pigeon and inform them of the location and time. Nicholas still ever curious about the name, grabbed a couple boxes of intelligence to go. As he placed the boxes into the trunk and thought of about his many years at the bureau he fantasized about having that break through informant who would bust wide open the case he was building around one of the many Italian-American Crimes Families which plague the United States of America.

The informant was an hour late to the meeting, both Shane and Nicholas were infuriated beyond belief.

“You little shit, you call us and end up coming late? Who the fuck do you think you are?!” bickered Shane. Shane talked with his hands and his hands were flying around as he berated the Informant.

“What? What do you want me to do? He calls, I go. It is how it is.”

Shane quickly got up into the face of the informant, spit flew from his mouth as he replied. “Who? Who called?!”
Sitting at the edge of the bed, Nicholas just soaked in the conversation. Both Shane and the informant continued to bicker, each tossing insults and retorts quicker than the last. Standing up from the bed, Nicholas grabbed onto the shoulders of both men, separating them before he spoke.

“Both of you, shut the fuck up and let me talk.” grumbled Nicholas.

Shane and the nameless informant both halted their bickering and turned to Nicholas. Nicholas pushed them both towards a chair and told them to sit down and shut up.

“First, what the fuck is your name?” question Nicholas as he glared into the eyes of the Informant.
“What? He didn’t tell you? What type of fuckin’ half ass agent are you” said the informant as he tossed a quick glance towards Shane before refocusing on Nicholas.

Shane quickly got up from his chair and lunged towards the informant, his fist balled up and ready for action. 
“I’ll give you half assed!” barked Shane.

Stopping mid lunge, Shane tilted his head and grunted before moving back to his chair and sitting down. He let out a deep exhale before nodding at Nicholas, an indication that he could continue.

“Well, what’s your name? We’re going to start there.” continued Nicholas as his trance remained on the informant.
“Joseph Mezzasalma. Friends call me Joey. I also heard they call me Joey Fingers on the street, but I don’t like the name.” explained the informant, now known as Joseph Mezzasalma.

Joseph Mezzasalma was 32 and a low-level associate for a crew which operated in North Kansas City. Several members of the crew were being followed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for an array of crimes which ranged from, but was not limited to gambling and murder. Joseph, or Joey Fingers to several of the crew members. His arrest recorded dated back to when he was 13 and he had been arrested for everything under the sun, but the majority fell under burglary. The veteran agents would soon find out that Joey got his nickname “Joey Fingers” as a result of a burglary gone awry. 

Joseph explained the best he could to the agents about the various break-ins he did throughout his 19 year career as a criminal. Eventually he stumbled his way onto the topic about how he got his nickname.

“You see, there was this one time myself and a close friend broke into this elderly lady’s house. We heard that she had a floor safe and that she was loaded. Married some old timer who croaked and left a couple million to her. Anyways, no one was home and we got in through the back door. It was left unlocked for some reason. We made our way throughout the house and found out there was no floor safe. Nothing, not one thing about the job felt good. So we start looking for anything, anything at all that could make a buck. Freddy, the friend of mine, found a safe, it wasn’t what you’re thinking of though. It was a gun safe. Freddy was a master safecracker, any safe, he’d get into it. Well, he gets into it and there’s nothing. So, we’re in this house and we were told that there’d be a lot of dough supposed to be here and there wasn’t. All of a sudden the red and blue lights begin to flash outside.”

Both Shane and Nicholas look at each other with a puzzled look on their faces. Joseph continues to ramble on with his story, both agents listening attentively.

“Some schmuck called the cops on us. I guess our entry wasn’t as quiet as we thought. Anyways, Freddy slams the door of the gun safe shut, but there was something stopping it from closing. My fingers.”

A roar of laughter erupts in the room. Both of the agents just stare at each other, laughing. Joseph just sat there, silent, his face was stoic.

“Yeah, laugh it up, you two.”

As the laughter slowly came to an end Nicholas stood up and walked towards Joseph, he placed his hand onto his shoulder and asked him why he was coming forward. Joseph explained that he thought his life was in danger and that his family was in danger too. He continued to elaborate on to why he thought he was in danger. He began to tell the veteran agents about a situation he got himself into a while back, how it involved drugs and someone’s daughter.
While Joseph was mainly earn by burglarizing houses and businesses, he was also familiar with the art of drug dealing and his arrest record confirmed that. He was jailed at 20 years old for 3 years and at 24 for 4 years, both for narcotics. Joseph described to the agents how he use to sell cocaine, heroin and marijuana by the kilo and how he did it all under the noses of his Mafia overlords. Crime Families throughout the United States have always had a “deal and die” rule, this meant that if anyone found dealing drugs would end up six feet under. The reason as to why they made such as rule was that the Crime Family bosses did not think that their members would hold up with the sentences the Government was handing out for drug dealing, so to combat the potential risk they ordered that all people who dealt in drugs to be killed. While this was a rule, it was hardly followed.

“I was what you say, a wholesaler. I use to get kilos of whatever and sell them to other people, who in turn sold it to another person.” explained Joseph to the agents.

“Yeah? And how did this all end up becoming our problem?” replied Nicholas with little concern.
The now informant continued his criminal tale. He went into detail on how his drug deals usually went. When he acquired whatever drug he was going to sell he’d inform the buyer that they’d be receiving a pizza within the hour and he’d then name off the so called delivery address. This system wasn’t as complex as some others, but it worked. 
Eventually Joseph got onto the subject of how he sold narcotics to a daughter of a made guy in the Civella Crime Family, Kansas City’s local borgata. While he was mainly a wholesaler to local gangs and groups he did occasionally sell to individuals. He did not do this frequently.

The night of January 1990 Joseph was frequenting a discoteque, Club 632, he was with a group of individuals who all were associated with the Civella Crime Family. At this same club was a young lady, Veronica. Veronica was a 20 year old with raven hair and dressed in the finest of clothes and she was with a group of women who were equally as pretty and equally as well dressed. The paths of both groups failed to connect, but the eyes of both Joseph and Veronica did meet. Multiple times. As time past and the dancing crowd began to part, Joseph made his way up to the bar where Veronica was in mid conversation with one of her girlfriends. He bought himself a drink, his usual a whiskey ginger-ale and turned towards the dance floor. Finishing her conversation with her friend, Veronica moved her way over to Joseph and began to strike up a conversation with him. She had an aura which emitted confidence and fearlessness when she conversed. Joseph made note that she smelled of oranges when he first met her.

Both Shane and Nicholas sat attentively for a while, until Joseph began to go off onto one of his tangents about something which made no sense nor had anything to do with the original question. This time the tangent was about how Veronica smelled of oranges when he first met her. Nicholas spoke up and made Joseph aware that they did not care which fruit she smelled. With a grunt and a groan Joseph got back to his original tale on how he sold drugs to a made member’s daughter.

Joseph began to elaborate more on how Veronica quickly changed subjects four or five times, their conversation started with a simple hello and it ended with Veronica asking if Joseph knew where should could score an 8 ball of cocaine. Now, Joseph acknowledged that he knew that selling drugs would place a target on his back, but he also stated that the mob had a tendency to ignore the rule when it came to big earners, which he claimed he was. But what he didn’t know at the time was how connected Veronica’s father was and how not so street savvy she was.

“So there I was sitting in my car with this model like being in the passenger seat and she was just doing line after line off the dashboard. Her golden dress twinkled in -- “ Joseph was cut off by Shane who quickly butted in on the conversation.
“Listen here you little shit, we’ve been here for 2 hours and all we’ve heard about so far is how you were a shitty burglar and you deal drugs to women. Get the the fucking point or we’re going to leave.” barked Shane.

Both agents just stared at each other while Joseph excused himself to the bathroom. As soon as the door to the bathroom shut Nicholas stood up from his seat and darted to the side of Shane. He began to question Joseph’s motive and story.

“This kid just comes in off the street and starts to tell us a fairytale. How do we know this kid’s legit?” question Nicholas.
“Listen, the guy who called me said he was legit and that he has a line to some guy named “The Cheat”. Don’t ask me who that is, but apparently it’s someone with a lot of clout with the Civellas. We’ll just see what he says and toss him to the wolves if need be.”

Nodding in acknowledgement Nicholas returned to his seat and awaited Joseph to return from his bathroom adventure. Within minutes of Nicholas taking a seat Joseph emerged from the bathroom pinching his nose. Both agents knew exactly what was going on, Joseph excused himself to the bathroom as an excuse to snort a line of cocaine.
“You’re a fucking junky? You’re a motherfucking junky! You’re wasting both our times aren’t you?” hollered Nicholas as he stood to his feet to confront Joseph.

“Woah, I ain’t no junky! I just needed a bump to give me a umf. You know, this ain’t easy. I grew up in this life and this spilling my guts to two suits isn’t easy.” retorted Joseph as he backed up into the bathroom with his arms raised.
Nicholas knew that a junky’s reliability in both testifying and retelling of facts are not good, but he also knew that he wanted more information in relation to this so called Cheat.

“Okay, here’s the deal kid, you tell us your story, we’ll fact check it to see if you’re bullshiting. If you are, you’re gone to the wolves. What happens, happens.” explained Nicholas as he made a passing glance at Shane, Shane nodding in agreement.

“Yeah, sure, that’s good. I’m a lot of things, a bastard, a thief and criminal, but a liar I am not.”
Joseph continued where he left off, explaining how Veronica took him for more than an 8 ball and only gave him her number.

“You see fellas, Veronica knew how to play a man, use him for what he’s worth. But she wasn’t all that smart on the streets. You know, the life. She knew what it was, obviously, her father was apart of it, but she was just as dumb as you two sitting there.” Joseph said with a brief chuckle.

It was now 9 P.M, it’s been little over 3 hours since Shane originally called Nicholas with breaking news which put a hold to his family night. The thought of him sitting in a darkened theatre watching Arnold Schwarzenegger chase a teenager and his mother through Los Angeles passed through his mind. Nicholas chuckled to himself at the thought. He knew exactly where he wanted to be, he was here, gaining more intelligence on an Organization which he’s been following for 10 years.

“Joe, where does this “Cheat” come into play? Who is he?” asked Shane.

“The Cheat, yeah, him. Well through a friend of mine, I find out that Veronica's father is the Cheat. Us fellas on the street only know him as the Cheat. He’s supposed to be a mid level player who’s in the life. You know, full fledged member. He’s straightened out.”

“Yeah? Why do they call him “The Cheat”?” asked Nicholas as he butted into the conversation.

“Yeah, the name. It’s like folklore of the street. They say he got the name from the many arrest warrants he’s not been included throughout the years, even though he was a critical player in each. You know, cheating the warrant. But he also been known for cheating people out of money. Anything and everything, he’ll charge for or take. He’ll take your socks right off your feet if you’re not looking. I heard this one time he made a shy pay him for his own vig. But who knows if that’s true or not.” continued Joseph.

Squinting as he continued to jot down his notes, Nicholas pointed towards Joseph and asked if he knew of any dates or other names he can could cross reference. He had to make sure the story Joseph was telling was true or had some clout to it, if not, all this time he was spending on this informant was wasted. Nodding and pointing towards the window Joseph said that he knew of this guy from back when he burgled jewelry stores, Joseph Gaccione, or known to his friends as “Sonny” or “Sonny Craps”. He said that Sonny bought and sold stolen jewelry.

“Sonny Craps was the type of guy to buy and sell anything that shined. He was my number one fence to use when we had a score. He paid well too. Hell, there was even a story that he sold one of the stolen rings we brought in to another made guy. If that made guy found out, Jesus, Sonny Craps would catch hell.”

As a made member of the Civella Family Sonny Craps wasn’t allowed to jeopardize another made member’s life, be it jail or death. Selling this ring to another made member was violating that. If the ring was spotted and the police were involved the made member in question would have the law enforcement on his back and potentially would end up going to jail for larceny.

“Anyways I grew close to Sonny, like real close. Sonny only ever had his nephew to turn to for the father-son relationship and I never really had a father who was in the life. So we grew close.”

Joseph turned away from the agents and stared out of the Hotel window. He was silent for five or so minutes until Shane cleared his throat as an indication that he was getting impatient. He continued to retell his story.

“Where was I? Oh yeah. Back a year or two I went to see Sonny to fence off a load of top quality merchandise and we got to talking about the club and how I met this girl. You know, Veronica. Anyways Sonny starts pestering me about her, asking all kinds of questions. I didn’t know it at the time, but he recognized the description and the name. He starts going on about how she’s the daughter of a friend of his, The Cheat and how I should stay away.”

Both agents were now writing down tidbits of information and each sat there attentively as Joseph was speaking. Nicholas raised his writing hand as if he was school boy.

“Joey, this Sonny Craps he still alive?” asked Nicholas

“He should be, unless he’s in a trunk somewhere. I lost contact with him a while back, that’s another story for another time.” replied Joseph.

Nicholas simply nodded at Joseph and began to continue to jot down notes. Assuming Nicholas was finished his question period Joseph continued on.

“So I asks him who “The Cheat” was? Someone I was suppose to know? Cause this was the first time I’ve heard of him you know, the first time.”

Joseph sat down in one of the empty seats and leaned forward towards both men, his legs shaking continuously. Shane asked him if he was alright, did he need something to drink, but all Joseph did was shake his head.

“You two fellas don’t get it yet. After Sonny told me about this guy, I start to ask around, see if I could find anything out by myself. Here’s the thing about the Cheat, there’s only stories out there, nothing concrete, which you know kind of confused me. You always heard of something from someone who had a cousin who knew him, you know?”

Sniffing the air of the room, Joseph leaned back into the chair. His legs still shaking up and down, obviously a side effect of anxiety or adrenaline.

“I met up with Sonny again a few weeks later to check in and see if he needs anything. He did his usual twisting the subject around onto me, asking how I was doing and if I was in trouble. Sonny had a knack for that. I see this as an opportunity to go more in depth about this “Cheat”, because you know, Veronica was a knock out and I wanted to ask her out. Sonny usually never spoke about the life, but he opened up this one time about it. He told me that The Cheat was a mid level player in the Family, and by Family he meant Civella Crime Family. I took the assumption of mid level as a Captain, or Capo if you will and that the Cheat has his fingers in all the proper assholes and when he wiggles them they shit gold. So he was untouchable, the family wanted earners like that.”

Both Nicholas and Shane erupted in laughter. Joseph just smiled and shifted his weight in the chair and continued on with his story.

“What was unbenounced to me was that Veronica got busted with the 8 ball I gave her by her father. How? Don’t ask, I don’t know. But he was fuming that she was getting high and using drugs. I later found out that he grilled her non-stop until she gave up who sold her the cocaine. Now she didn’t know my name, only Joey. But the Cheat, like I said before, had his fingers in all the proper assholes, so it didn’t take long for me to find out eventually that he was looking for me. That he wanted to “talk” with me. Sonny said The Cheat only spoke in calibers, you know, bullet calibers. He only went to sit downs if asked or pressured. He got rid of his problems by removing them.”

It was clear that Joseph knew what he was talking about, but the information he was giving didn’t include any dates or names. So Nicholas knew it’d hard to track down and confirm these stories, but he believed Joseph. There was just something about the way he told the story that made it believable, either he was the best con artist Nicholas ever met, or the stories were true. He wanted to know more about this elusive character, The Cheat and what he was all about. If he was a Captain or Capo, how did he stay off the radar for so long? So many questions and so few answers.
 

Two.

 

Little to no progress towards the identity of “The Cheat” was made by either Nicholas or Shane since Joseph came forward and laid out a book of facts for the duo. Now two months on, Joseph was now somewhere in Alabama under some fake name the US Marshals gave him, but the information which he brought forward was still sitting on both Nicholas’ and Shane’s desks. 

    Joseph told the Agents a considerable amount of information about the low level crime he was involved with and how it all linked back to “The Cheat’s” crew. Both Nicholas and Shane knew that there was this character, Sonny, someone who’s earned their button - an official member of the organization. Both Agents agreed that they should start with Sonny and work their way up the chain to this illusive “Cheat” Joseph harped on about.

    The morning of September 23rd, 1991 was the day that both Agents kicked things into gear with their investigation. Doodling a view names on some flashcards Shane pinned them to a cork board and threaded red yarn around the push pins. With a flick of the chin, Shane pointed towards the board as Nicholas walked into the office with a coffee in each hand.

    “Take a look at this. It’s not much, but it’s a starting point. What do you think?” Shane asked as he stood up and grabbed one of the two coffee cups.

    “Yeah, like you said it’s a starting point. We don’t have much information yet, but we will”.

On the board only three flashcards were hung and each read a different name. The top card read “The Cheat”, the middle card read “Joseph “Sonny Craps” Gaccione” and the bottom card read “Joseph “Joey Fingers” Mezzasalma”. Before Joe was whisked away by the Federal Marshals and given a new identity he pointed Nicholas and Shane to an old laundromat which was renovated into a social club. Both Agents knew of this club, but did not realize how mob connected it was until Joseph tipped them off. The laundromat was once called “Rinse and Repeat”, but since the renovation and conversion to a social club, it was now called “

 

Will continue with time.

Edited December 4, 2018 by Caporegime

[Rust]

Very cool parable. Solid read Capo -- you know Joey Fingers is the type of greaseball whose past caught up with him eventually down south.

Now hurry up and write the next part stugatz.

[Nervous]

Dunno about this, I didn't see any of that on the Sopranos. 

[Caporegime]

11 hours ago, Ethanol said:

Dunno about this, I didn't see any of that on the Sopranos. 

Edited December 7, 2018 by Caporegime

[Chef]

The Lena family has always been a little pushy...