How did huge mob bosses that “everybody knew” was a mob boss, or criminal running the place, etc, get away with it?
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Generally speaking, the mob bosses don’t *directly* commit crimes – they have underlings commit the crimes for them, while being careful not to leave paper trails linking them to the actions. This creates a form of plausible deniability for the boss.
The boss would give verbal orders only to a small group of trusted underlings, who themselves likely also only give verbal orders to another small group of underlings. Those might then actually commit the crimes or use less secure methods of issuing orders, but its far enough disconnected to make it hard to prove the boss gave the order.
People will “know” the boss is involved due to loose lips, but the people willing to talk will be far enough disconnected that their testimony isn’t worth much. The few who are close enough to be useful also benefit enough from the arraignment to be trusted, and thus typically unwilling to turn on the boss.
Combine that with fear of the boss taking action against the underlings, or their families or friends, and very few will actually commit to legally admissible testimony.
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