[HN Gopher] The Last Gamble of Tokyo Joe
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The Last Gamble of Tokyo Joe
Author : effects
Score : 81 points
Date : 2023-05-12 07:28 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.chicagomag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.chicagomag.com)
| [deleted]
| nbar wrote:
| I would love a contemporary account of the Chicago underworld,
| have the Italian families long since been replaced by the
| cartels?
| doodlebugging wrote:
| Remember boys and girls - crime should not pay.
|
| This guy lived a life outside the law and due to a twist of fate
| was able to live in publicly-funded obscurity until he died.
|
| I enjoyed reading this story. It was told in a way that manages
| to maintain one's attention. I liked the way the author wove
| facts from each individual's life in to color the story.
|
| I remember when all this came to light and arrests of mobsters
| became a regular news event. Problems highlighted in the story
| still exist - police corruption, organized crime control of
| drugs, prostitution, gambling, sports, etc. The difference today
| is really just a power dynamic shift. When you remove the
| influence of a group like the Mob, someone else inevitably steps
| in to fill the void because obviously there are opportunities in
| that space to profit and survival depends mainly on staying under
| the radar long enough to introduce yourself to customers,
| consolidate power and forge the local connections needed to
| persevere.
|
| Just like any business.
|
| One thing that strikes me about this story is how it tells the
| common story of someone in a weak position who desires to be
| stronger (they just want to be left alone, maybe to go fishing)
| and discovers a path to a form of strength (do this for us and we
| will protect you) that they may not have taken initially but
| which they can be induced to take (a promise of increased
| responsibility as long as they continue to follow instructions
| without raising any red flags) just to relieve their lack of
| power.
|
| Eto was like a lot of people who find themselves powerless
| against some force they can't control (abusive father, bullying,
| racist peers) and so they exchange one peer group for another
| that offers some protections and a form of respect that they had
| not previously enjoyed. Gangs are composed of a critical mass of
| ruthless, power-hungry individuals who control a group of weak
| individuals. They demand the respect of and keep the weak ones in
| line by providing protection from accountability in exchange for
| execution of illegal or unsavory tasks that, were the weak
| individuals to avoid the gang, they would have never had the
| inclination to consider because they fear the consequences
| (different, more ethical peer group controlled their actions).
|
| Cartels gained their power here in the states as these mob groups
| power was fading and so most of the distribution of illegal drugs
| is now handled by cartels. They have used the same tactics
| pioneered by mobsters - find people in positions of power and
| offer incentives to help build a base that allows one to be
| insulated from investigation and prosecution, send products to
| major population areas and make them as widely available as
| possible, maintain multiple entry paths for your products so that
| supply remains steady in spite of interdiction efforts, eliminate
| competition in markets you control.
|
| I think the part of this story that disturbs me most is the
| untold story about the disposition of all the cases where Eto was
| suspected of having personally killed someone during his years
| spent with the Mob. I guess that once he became a prosecutorial
| asset all of his transgressions were forgiven in exchange for him
| helping dismantle the mob. I'm not sure that is a fair trade for
| the families of those who died. At the very least he should have
| been compelled to tell those stories once he was given immunity.
| Maybe he was and that is not part of this tale.
| blockwriter wrote:
| I'm working on a book of fiction that involves some of the
| figures mentioned tangentially in this article. Rosemont, run by
| the Stephenson family, a mob connected bunch, figures
| prominently. Interestingly, a gambling firm called Emerald with
| suspicious ties to Rosemont's garbage collection was in line to
| open a casino in Rosemont, for which the Stephensons simply
| started building infrastructure before the license was granted,
| but an alleged meeting between Donald Stephenson and "No Nose"
| Lombardo put an end to those efforts. Rivers casino had to open
| over the border in Des Plaines so that Rosemont would not
| directly benefit from the tax revenue. Rosemont is a town of
| roughly 3000 people, and the citizens are actually paid some
| amount from the city's funds for living there rather than
| contributing taxes, whereas Des Plaines is a town of 60000.
| gumby wrote:
| What a great story.
|
| I don't know why I read past the first couple of paragraphs --
| it's not the kind of thing I usually care about -- but it was
| gripping.
| kevinwang wrote:
| Agree, this was one of the most captivating pieces I've read in
| recent memory.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| I think mob stories tend to be gripping. We, especially now so
| many years removed from the heyday, have a romantic idea about
| mobsters, always living on the edge. Sure they're on the wrong
| side of the law, but just barely and they usually keep the
| violence away from civilians (this is the romantic bit). Some
| mobsters are bad dudes, yeah, but some are regular Tokyo Joes
| thrown into a bad situation.
|
| It's easy to take these seeds and blossom them into a tale
| about an anti-hero you can't help but root for, because you
| know how it usually ends for people in this situation (in the
| ground or behind bars), but you can't help but think, will it
| be different, just this one time?
| gumby wrote:
| > Some mobsters are bad dudes, yeah, but some are regular
| Tokyo Joes thrown into a bad situation.
|
| The article makes it clear that he was no "regular joe" and
| was likely responsible for several murders whether he pulled
| the trigger or not.
| doodlebugging wrote:
| >have a romantic idea about mobsters
|
| TV did that for you. This is another situation where you can
| prove anything if you ignore enough facts so they just gloss
| over or ignore all the things that don't fit the story they
| want to tell.
|
| This is also a classic example of how the "entertainment"
| industry has been used as a vehicle to shape public
| perception over the last few decades.
|
| When I was a kid the police shows were Dragnet, Adam-12 etc.
| The good guys won by following established rules - witnesses
| report, cops arrest, courts handle trials and convictions,
| prisons handle rehabilitation/punishment.
|
| Today we see cop shows (firefighter, etc) where the same
| people who should be making the arrests instead take on the
| role of executioner. It's been portrayed as okay for a LEO
| (star of the series) to bend rules and ethical mores, to look
| the other way when they see one of their own fabricating
| evidence against someone that is already familiar to them in
| order to take them off the street, and they routinely ignore
| constitutional protections when it serves them. The whole
| idea that cops and courts have these options is one
| fabricated on your TV screen to help build the narrative that
| things are bad out there and you need to use all the tools,
| even the unconstitutional ones, to catch the bad guys because
| - believe them when they say - there's one around every
| corner and they're after you.
|
| SV assists all this shit by building tools that they know
| enable invasion of privacy and near real-time surveillance of
| everyone who buys a gadget or an app.
|
| In the end, your value to society is measured by what you
| have contributed in the process of making it better for all
| of us. For many of you on this site out there you have dug
| yourselves a deep hole and should begin working on a way to
| fill it in while there is still time for all of us.
| rqtwteye wrote:
| I have noticed that too! When I grew up, a show would end
| with the bad guy being arrested and handed over to the
| cops. Now the hero kills the bad guy with pleasure. I think
| this is more and more creeping into society. Following the
| rules is for suckers, you have to hustle, cheating is
| almost mandatory (just don't get caught), discussions need
| to be "won", loyalty can be exploited and faking honesty
| and values is a recipe for success.
|
| Also: In a lot of older sci-fi movies the aliens had
| motivations and could be interacted with. In most newer
| sci-fi movies they are just an evil faceless force that
| needs to be destroyed. No need for understanding.
| godzillabrennus wrote:
| I do not doubt that organized crime is a terrible
| institution. That said, I wonder how much more effective the
| labor movement in the United States would be if La Cosa
| Nostra ran labor unions still. Probably just my brain
| romanticizing the power of those who operated mafia families
| to be harnessed for good but I think it'd be a wonderful
| counterbalance to the power of the American oligarchy to have
| to negotiate with such a powerful violent force over labor
| issues. Labor seems to have lost all of it's teeth in it's
| negotiations. Imagine Bezos sitting across from mafia to
| negotiate peeing in bottles? lol
| gumby wrote:
| The era of mob control over the unions was pretty bad -- I
| remember living through it. The unions needed their backs
| broken to get cleaned up.
|
| Naturally a certain political party seized the moment and
| tried to eradicate unions all together, sadly with some
| success. I hope the tide is turning away from that.
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(page generated 2023-05-12 23:01 UTC)