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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Sometimes they develop a cult of personality and run for the highest political office in their country. Sometimes they even get away with it by leveraging and wielding that political power, but sometimes they don’t.
The mob bosses would not commit the crime themselves. They would have closed room, verbal discussions with the people, or they would hint at what they wanted done without actually saying it.
It’s exactly how Trump operates to protect himself a bit from all the illegal stuff his businesses do.
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.
“Did”? They still do.
Unless you can prove they committed a crime it doesn’t matter if you know they are a criminal
Often mob bosses actually took care of their communities, and made the neighborhood more safe than law enforcement does.
The classic mob boss move is to get an unproven, but very believable reputation for brutal violence. Then, you simply suggest things that people might do for you because you are such good friends. Things like lend me your truck in the dead of night, no questions asked. Tell me when a certain lawyer comes into your shop. Give me your best produce as a present.
This is why mobsters have a very odd manner of speaking. They make clear demands, but in a way that sounds like you are just doing a favour to an old friend. It’s very difficult to prove that they are extorting everyone or bribing people because no one will talk to police about it.
How did all those top nazi scientists get a free pass to America during opperation Papir Clip? The way she goes…. It’s the fucking way she goes.
A good book on this is [*Smalltime a Story of my family and the Mob* by Russel Shorto.](https://www.russellshorto.com/book/smalltime) It is quite an amazing piece of journalism, the author’s grandfather was a local mob boss of a small city, and he interviewed elderly family members and their friends, and verified everything with court documents, newspaper reports, or multiple witness accounts. I have family in that small city (Johnstown PA), my uncle was a cop, he verified the accuracy.
The simple answer was that *they bribed the mayor and chief of police, and both of them (multiple people who held office) were regular participants in the illegal gambling.* The mob hangout was on the same block as City Hall. Once a year, the police would stop by and give notice that they were going to do a raid the next day. The mobsters would pay a few bums to get arrested, and pay their bail and fines, and the newspaper would publish a front page story about it. It was somewhat wholesome- they only did gambling, never prostitution or drugs, which they considered “dirty”, although there are some oblique hints that they were associated with the people who run those businesses. They roughed people up, but there was only one murder associated with them, and it was a huge scandal that caused their downfall, despite the fact that everyone in town knew they were the mob. They were directly associated with the big crime families of the East Coast, who committed murder regularly.
It is more than a history, it is a very personal look at the Grandfather, who was an emotionally crippled man who lied, cheated, and stole. The author’s own father started his own gang, that did worse crimes, but eventually became a legitimate businessman. (The author’s father supposedly ordered the gang to kill my uncle, but my uncle was cousins with one of the gang members who talked them out of it. Small town.)
fear for witnesses OR complete adoration for witnesses where the mob boss may be doing illegal things but also is benefitting the community enough that people don’t want to testify or provide evidence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Picariello
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