Deadwood and Beyond

Boston gangster Whitey Bolger was long feared by his fellow criminals because every one of them with a working brain knew to cross Whitey could get you killed. So, those caught with their pants down did the time, refusing to rat on Whitey and his crew. Well, most of them anyway. Some gave it up to the Fed with a promise of a new life in the Witness Protection Program Ironically, Bolger was a snitch himself, trading information on his rivals in exchange for a certain amount of protection from law enforcement This corruption ultimately led to Bolger becoming one of the first gangsters to penetrate the FBI’s informant rolls. Unfortunately, he would not be the last. John Smiley, known in his previous life as John ‘Smiling Jack’ Cochran, felt secure in the new life provided by the Witness Protection Program. He didn’t think today was going to be his last. He had plans. He was in control. Tonight he has a date with Cindy, the cute cocktail waitress from work. Tomorrow, a Harley ride to Sturgis, maybe with Cindy hanging onto his waist. Next month he has a two week vacation coming, a trip to Seattle in the works. Like most in the life, he probably spent considerable effort suppressing any thoughts of his own demise. Women and booze were his vices of choice and dealing cards provided him the wherewithal to indulge both. He learned to do card tricks as a kid and after serving a two year stretch in Attica, became an accomplished card cheat for the Outfit. They used him to fleece many a mark in crooked games set up to do just that. In one such game the mark caught on to Jack’s bottom dealing and called him on it. Jack just smiled and stuck a knife in the guy’s heart. Impressed with Jack’s decisiveness, the boys let him do a couple of contract hits in Far Rockaway and another in the Bronx. With the addition of “Button Man” to his “Card Shark” resume, Jack was a mob “up and comer’, until he got caught. Faced with a lifetime of doing card tricks for fellow Attica inmates, Jack became a rat for the Feds. And who could blame him? Well, after a couple of Bosses got sent to Federal prison, the mob focused on Jack. Word on the street said a $25,000 contract was the reason for a botched attempt on his life, so Jack disappeared into the promised safety of Witness Protection. Soon his old bosses, ensconced in Maximum Security, were no longer in a position to get anyone clipped. Their replacement however was a real disciplinarian who felt the violent death of a rat like Smiling Jack would cause underlings to think twice about entering into any similar deals with the Feds. When Vincenzo “Big Vinnie” Costello was appointed by the mob as “caretaker” of the Salerno operation, Vinnie vowed Cochran would pay for his treachery. But, truth be told, he was grateful to Cochran for his promotion, too. How else would he move up? Fortunately for Cochran, the arrests of Salerno and his second in charge, Dino Mendolia, left their operation in chaos, requiring all of Big Vinnie Costello’s attention to restore order. There was the Russian encroachment at the Kennedy and La Guardia airports, the cement business in Queens, the garbage contracts in Nassau and Suffolk counties, and the labor problem on the docks in Brooklyn. This moved dealing with the rat Smiling Jack Cochran way down his ‘to do’ list. It would take a couple of years of guile, diplomacy and muscle for Big Vinnie to complete his consolidation work. His reputation for violence grew with the territory he regained and controlled, and all that heavy lifting made him the Mob’s biggest moneymaker from Montauk to Staten Island. Big Vinnie decided it was time for John “Smiling Jack” Cochran to get his due. And Vinnie also knew that even his best man could use a little help from a friend. Hello Rollo Michaels.