The Mafia Gazette Issue 167
For All The News That Is News (E&OE)
Tuesday 30th September

EXCLUSIVE – TWO DOWN, ONE TO GO!

Nerezza and Lombardi fall as the Nation take on their renegade enemies, but at a heavy cost…
By Dominic Guerra

A New York leader and a prominent Miami Capo lay dead on respective slabs this morning as the events of the past 12 hours take their toll. Miami old-timer Regg1e1 died under seemingly mysterious circumstances in Los Angeles whilst Conceptualist leader Pudge bit the bullet whilst sleeping in down town Detroit. Thought Pudge’s assailant has been confirmed as Ellis Hobbs – now public enemy number one, Regg1e1’s killer is yet to be established. However the Gazette has heard from many individuals how Los Angeles was a city marked for a gunfight last night… Reports claim that an all-out attack on vigilante assailant Leo Lombardi was being staged, spanning across the entire West Coast. Prominent figures from Miami and Atlanta including Juanita, Juan Palladino and Regg1e1 were spotted prior to the attacks and eventual slaying of Lombardi, looking highly suspicious on various street corners next to parked cars full of additional men. So it would appear Regg1e1 was the main victim to fall under a successful attack on Miami’s main target. Pudge was a man largely tipped to re-instate the Conceptualists as ‘the’ force to be reckoned with in the US today before he fell under Hobbs’s gun in the middle of the night. He was a man hugely respected in New York circles and his death will no doubt have severe consequences.

Lombardi was eventually cornered in Dallas where he sustained numerous gunshot wounds to the face and neck, he was pronounced dead on the scene without a clear indication of who fired the lethal shot. Nerezza was killed later on in Denver by an unknown assailant, almost as an afterthought. Nerezza himself had claimed that his assassination of Warwick Hunt was ‘no big deal’ and remained defiant to the last, laughing through the blood choking up his throat.

All members of this bloodbath were survived by their respective sons and daughters, the Gazette send their condolences to the families involved.


TWO WEEKS IN MIAMI – A SOUTH COAST DYNASTY

PART ONE - THE NEW RULES
By Terry_Dorsey

Reporters from the Gazette were out in force early last Tuesday morning due to a tip-off from a well-placed informant that arrived late on Monday evening in our Chicago offices, indicating that a high-level meeting of the Mafia was due to take place some time in the next 24 hours. With the ever dependable Mack Harley as the driver and behind the wheel of a medium-sized truck, both SidHudgens and JJ-Jameson rose early, dressed as street vendors and waited for the pick-up that would take them to the intended meeting point. Arriving just after 5am, this gave the masterful duo the better part of an hour to set up on street corner, complete with a stall and approximately 200lbs of fruit and vegetables.

By 6:20am the first mob heavies had started to case the streets, paying particular attention to a small raised section. Some 15 minutes later and with the representatives of most of the Underworld families milling around with their bodyguards and advisors, Miami Don Emiliano_Cortez appeared and immediately made clear to those in attendance that the violence of the past few weeks was no longer acceptable and action was to be taken.

This action was to take the form of a new policy. Those operating outside the law while not in Mob families were henceforth to be eliminated. While the old Don was keen to emphasise that special consideration was to be given for those out on the lam after greasing their contacts in the Police Departments and likewise for Joe Citizen, he was keen to point out that those looking to get involved in crime should immediately contact their local family representative. Failure to do so will result in death. Cortez also reiterated that Miami continues to be locked down.

From their stall in the corner, Jameson and Hudgens noted the reaction to this announcement was mixed. As was to be expected, Cortez loyalists in Miami and Atlanta were obviously supportive and Juanita made a point of standing beside her Boss in the face of raised objections. So too was Vegas Boss Ezio and others from We The People. However the many objections raised seemed to come from representatives of Detroit, New York and elements of We The People in Las Vegas. If nothing else, the policy seems to be steeped in the desire to address the practical difficulties of controlling those who aren't in families. Family members are easily identified, located and in most case eliminated if they step out of line. The same cannot be said for hoodlums who, in acting as lone gunmen, have caused considerable damage to the Mafia structure, the assassination of Detroit Boss CharlestonCharlie being a particularly relevant example. However while some feel the response is measured in dealing with the threat, others see it as Draconian, unncessary and in the worst cases, pointless.

As the meeting broke up, Jameson and Hudgens sold a few apples to departing mobsters and by 8am they were on the road and headed to Chicago, with Mack again at the wheel.

PART TWO: CARPE DIEM
By Heart-Throb

As the Co-Editors of the Gazette hit the road for their long journey back to base, their infiltration of this high-level mob meeting had already hit the wireless. By 1pm on September 16th, a dozen telegrams had arrived at local and national news agencies across the country, to be pored over by cynical editors and hard-nosed reporters in an effort to interpret this latest bout of underworld maneuvering. It was clear to most, including the Gazette, that irrespective of what was said at this meeting, the fact of the statement in itself was telling. Whether or not officially endorsed by the Underworld at large, Emiliano_Cortez has risen in prominence and is now head of the Commission.

So what does this mean for business? The objections of New York to this announcement were telling. Conceptualist gunmen have a long history of killing independent thugs and hoodlums, with a virtual monopoly on mob slayings in New York and neighbouring cities including Chicago, Dallas and Denver. This annnouncement effectively allows the other families to take a piece of the action that in the old days would have led to family gunmen being labelled as wild-dogs, choosing their victims at random. No longer. Now mob family gunmen can legitimately kill thugs and hoodlums operating in their territory and looking to make a quick dollar at the expense of the local corner store, a fact that will no doubt have some bearing on the efficiency and strength of existing families muscle over time as more shooters take to the business of enforcing the rules.

In Miami, Vegas and New York this is especially noticeable. Miami soldiers and Capos in particular are quick to remind everyone in their turf that if you aren't an associate, you're dead. Vegas Made Soldiers are of a similar vein to their Miami counterparts except in one key issue, namely the statement made by Ezio under a hot sun while sat in his favourite café, some three days after the Miami meeting. As part of his vision, the Vegas lockdown has been lifted.

Whether or not New York cares about what the Miami Don has proclaimed, the killings in the Big Apple and further afield continue, with the recent shooting of several hoodlums in Chicago being linked to Conceptualist gunmen. For them, it seems, it's business as usual.

And how does this play out in terms of territory and power? Cortez as per his style, was the epitomy of reason. Regardless of the different families in attendance at the meeting, his fellow mobsters know his position in the scheme of things and this was reflected in the largely deferential treatment he received. In days gone by it was WarwickHunt casting a shadow over the US, to whom such announcements were reserved, as was his custom. The gap needed to be filled and Cortez has stepped up to fill it.

As head of the Commission he continues to run Miami and it continues to be under lockdown. He also continues to have a hand in Atlanta. While not under lockdown, Atlanta is run by his Lieutenant Palladino and offers another dimension to the enforcement of the Miami lockdown. It also allows the Allstars to exert dominance over the drug market in this corner of the US and principally cocaine. Therfore Cortez has a strong base of operations while not encroaching onto the territories of the other families. Indeed at the Miami meeting he was clear in his belief that the Bosses should control their own territories as they see fit and while he desires a clean sweep of all thugs and hoodlums who aren't Mafia associates, this apparently won't come at the expense of over-ruling his fellow Bosses and Commission members. It seems his announcement represents a gentle recommendation that it is hard to see being openly defied by anyone, a fact that is further demonstrated by the support offered by Ezio in Vegas, CharlesCarter in Chicago and elements of Detroit outfit that is now rumoured to be bossed by JoeyCusack.

So as the Commission head, Emiliano_Cortez is certainly less hands-on that WarwickHunt was. In his time at the top, Hunt laid strict guidelines down on the mob families concerning the amount of Men of Honour they could have in their ranks at any one time. This sort of centralised control, though viewed as a necessary strategic evil, is not how business is playing out in this new era of Miami dominance. And while it can be argued that Cortez will be a lenient Commission head at a time when the Mob families grow in size after the wars that have claimed the lives of as many as 35 Soldiers and Captains or above in the previous three months, his ruthless side is also apparent.

This announcement in itself opens the way to more death. It is Miami's "necessary evil" in a time of progression. It's also true that the late LA Captain BlueMagic was a friend to Cortez and serves as an example of what happens to those who cross him, even without knowing. The two had what could have been described as a good working relationship, with open channels of dialogue. Yet when DoomSquad renegade Cool_Face went off the reservation and downed a Capo and a Made guy from Miami, Cortez acted immediately and without hesitation to have his friend and leader of the Doom Squad in Los Angeles killed in retaliation. His control of the drug trade has also been lamented on the streets by those who don't have access to such profitable cocaine markets. Money and power alike are a stake on a daily basis and as the new head of the Commission, Emiliano_Cortez has both.

PART THREE: TROUBLE IN PARADISE?
By Old_Man_Tucker

Sergeant Griff Markosian was reportedly first on scene at the Atlanta theater, outside of which lay a total of ten bodies, a ghastly red mist and a huge amount of paper work. It was early morning, September 23rd and this was the aftermath of an attempted Mafia hit gone wrong. The target? None other than the Don of Miami, Emiliano_Cortez. In the days after his announcement concerning a restructuring of the mob during a meeting that was infilrated by the Gazette's finest, things had seemed quiet. They weren't destined to stay that way. A source who wished to remain anonymous got word to the Gazette that a Miami associate had recently been the victim of a mugging and subsequent attempted murder. This source, who had no insider information from within the crime family and had no other connection to these incidents than as an eye ball witness, put two Conceptualist gunmen in the frame, apparently roughing up the Miami associate.

Whatever the truth of these allegations, one of the gunmen, New York Wise Guy Cool_Jesus, was soon afterwards shot to death in Atlanta, the fatal shots rumoured to have been fired by Don Cortez himself in retaliation for the incident with his associate. As was befitting of his customary wit and cool exterior, Cool_Jesus was just able to mutter about the shots that had missed before death took him on the steps of the Atlanta Meridian Theater, where a play had been going on inside that featured the famous actor and reformed mobster Tony Hatchet as he played John Wilkes Booth in the Assasination of Abraham Lincoln. As the smoke wistfully rose from the corpse of Cool_Jesus, continuing to do so until it became a few small trails of blue and while cordite hung fresh in the air, a loud report was accompanied by Eddie Tricella pitching forward headfirst into the gutter.

There was no mistaking that this was not a car backfiring and the protective cordon surrounding Don Cortez as he surveyed the scene was now one bodyguard less. As the group hugged corners and brought their weapons out in front in sweeping arcs in an effort to track and eliminate the threat, all went silent. Two minutes later the early evening silence was again punctuated by another shot and this time Vera Keane slumped into the doorway of the theater. More single shots began splintering the doorway and walls behind the Don and his entourage as they attempted to take cover inside and Richard Tricella was blasted back in through the doorway and flat on his back in the foyer, dead before he hit the wooden floor amid the screams of those in attendance at the play who had stepped out for some refreshments before an impending interval.

As the Don surveyed the train stations across the street from which he had arrived in Atlanta minutes earlier, it was probably clear in his mind that this shoot-out was going to last some time and it was at that moment that two things happened. A devastating salvo took out a line of bodyguards in front of him, five dying in one minute of fire. But this salvo betrayed the shooter from his position across the street. It was JogOn, the Conceptualist Boss from Vegas. Cortez immediately returned fire and his smoking gun quickly blasted holes in the Vegas Boss and a bodyguard stood off his right shoulder. As the two slid down into death and the Don recovered his composure, sirens began to wail. The Don and his bodyguards surrendered to police at the scene and after a short period of questioning, self-defense was established and they were released.

And what of JogOn? The Boss has spoken for some time of a desire to get out of the business. Suicide, retirement or a steamboat to Easter Island were all listed as possiblities for the Vegas Boss. He is not known to have run a family despite his powerful rank and seat on the Commission as a Conceptualist Boss and so his loss, while felt by his associates in the Underworld, may turn out to be nothing more than the death of a man who wanted out.

The implications of what he did are of more interest to those left behind however. Indeed one of the first questions asked by Police on the scene of the carnage and subsequently also asked by the Gazette to anyone who would listen, was quite simply, was it a set-up? A visit to the archives of the Chicago public library turns up dozens of old articles from the Gazette and even the Tribune that tell tales of lone Conceptualist gunmen attempting to take certain individuals out of play. In some cases the reasons for the attacks are given as being alcoholism, drug-use or even suicidal despair. Whatever the true story, Don Cortez went to Atlanta to handle the unsavoury business with his associate and lost seven bodyguards in a well-coordinated ambush. His ability to hold his nerve and identify the shooter may be the one thing that saved him from ending his career in a bloody heap on an Atlanta sidewalk. Historians remember that the last Don to be assassinated fell to the gun of another Boss. In this case history has not repeated itself. But whatever the circumstances of the attack, whether carried out by a brutal yet suicidal Boss or as part of a wider network of conspirators, the Don still stands. For now.

PART FOUR: SHADOW OF A GUNMAN
By Reginald Coen

In the mob, the best thing about retiring to bed at night on a day in which someone has attempted to kill you is usually that the day is over. Whatever else they have to throw at you, they'll throw tommorrow. Emiliano_Cortez, having survived a very serious attempt to kill him, has another problem. A problem that by all accounts has arisen because of his Atlanta Lieutenant Palladino. The name of that problem? LeoLombardi. Little is known about Lombardi, save that he's a taciturn individual, a fully-fledged Mafia soldier and a killer. When JJ-Jameson met him by a beach bar in Miami, he had little to say. Jameson had tried to secure an interview days before and been rebuffed. The reason he sought this interview was that Lombardi was a name on peoples lips. He wasn't a Boss and he wasn't running a crew in a city on behalf of someone else.

Instead he'd become a lucrative free agent. In Mafia terms he was a rogue. This was a charge Jameson put to him. Lombardi took a moment to sip his drink before responding, looking directly into Jameson's eyes as he did so:

"Jameson. I am not a rogue by any means. One day, I shot a man of good stature in the community to protect my family. My boss saw otherwise. He then immediately kicked me out of the family. I was left with no family, no one willing to accept me. I then cleared my rapsheet with the captain, and yes. I was attempted on kidnap. Shot a bodyguard and my good friend Wenmer."

I asked after Wenmer. Reports of his death hadn't shocked us here at the Gazette, but he was an old-timer and they don't usually go so easily. I wondered it Leo would have done things differently, could he consider bringing him back? Lombardi answered easily, speaking about his death as if he was ordering another drink.

"I would not bring Wenmer back at all. If they are stupid enough to try to kidnap me, they deserve death.

My direct boss when entering the family was Emiliano. Upon Emiliano always being on business trips and not having enough time to devote to family, I transferred to Palladino."

From his words it was clear, this story was gold-dust as it had everything. The soldier betrayed by his Capo for the crime of being loyal to his family, the soldier who cleared out and went solo, being forced to kill his good friend in the process after he came after him for going his own way. How true his story actually was, no-one can tell. He stayed only for one drink and his body language made clear that he needed to be somewhere else. As he left a twenty dollar bill on the bar and left quietly, Jameson spied another man by the bar who'd be taking an interest in the brief conversation between the newspaperman and the ruthless Lombardi. Insaniac was a Conceptualist and he has a smile on his face as he downed a whiskey. Jameson was blunt.

"Unless Lombardi is a Conceptualist, why would he go rogue at this point in time? He's been off the radar. It doesn't make any sense. Why now?"

Insaniac's reply was also to the point;

"Can I just say, Leo is and has no link with us at all. Palladino, his previous boss failed to kidnap him and got shot badly...he then dropped Leo and moaned at him..I guess Leo is just taking matters into his own hands. Both Emiliano and the other heads know of Leo's rogue status...but will we go to miami to end him? no..he will die soon enough as he has no ammo and a good gun is sure to get him soon. I must make it clear that Leo has no connection with the Conceptualist group."

Palladino was the name that kept coming up. The Gazette had no dealings with the Atlanta All-Star Lieutenant, other than when he'd bought a copy of the paper and been allegedly overheard to express disappointment that his name hadn't appeared. At this point his status on the Commission and running a city on behalf of the Boss of all Bosses wasn't known. Now his name was coming up a lot and an old radio by the bar top was bringing in the first reports of a number of shooting deaths in Miami. They were being initially linked to little-known Denver hood JakeRyan. This didn't fit. On the one hand, a hood striking out at Miami made sense, considering the Don's new policy had outlawed them. But the way Lombardi had left the beach bar interview an hour before said differently. In the next fifteen minutes the radio would confirm the elimination of four Miami Wise Guys, XRampage, Chuck_Taylor, Mafiosa and MrsJuice. Of these, MrsJuice was the oldest but all were mid-level Miami associates, the next ones in line when Miami opened the books. Their loss was telling and they weren't the only ones going down. Jameson asked about the situation with Lombardi, Palladino and how they fit with the new round of blood-shed on the Miami streets, to which the Conceptualist associate replied simply;

"Palladino is the one to blame for tonights occurance, yes."

Whatever has gone on inside the Atlanta HQ, it's clear that it has implications for Miami. Rogue or not, LeoLombardi was the latest challenge to the established leaders and a man that needed to be stopped.

PART FIVE: THE FUTURE, A WARTIME LEADER?

As the dust settles, the shape of things to come from the South Coast appear to be sharpening to a point, aimed out at the rest of the world. The eventual death of Leo Lombardi cannot be thought of as an end to the troubles facing established families across our fine nation, and Miami for one, is not ready to sit back on their laurels.

The Gazette can exclusively reveal that, due to recent acts of vengeance and assault on the fine people of Miami, and coupled with the Nation’s worst kept secret of Don Cortez’s imminent obligations in Sicily, the hands that pull the strings in downtown Miami have been substituted by a man credited with turning the Florida outfit into what it represents today. Faustino – founding father of the Miami All Stars has returned to take the reigns at what could be described as their most dangerous of times.

The Gazette will strive to secure an interview with the newly appointed Miami Boss for our next edition.

WALKING ON SUNSHINE: ZOOLANDER MOVES HIS MODELS TO TINSEL TOWN
By Sid Hudgens

The Gazette recently witnessed a public address by notoriously handsome Mafioso, Zoolander, as he set out his intentions to move his outfit out west to the fine city of Los Angeles. We managed to gain a brief statement from the man at the top of the pile in Hollywood.

“My recent move to LA came somewhat out of the blue, considering my past family preferences to cities. It was inspired too by one of my late generations Jackie_Giamatti, who took on a similar project out in Las Vegas. Los Angeles is about coming out of my comfort zone… It is about adding a structure to a city that should be up there alongside the jealous amounts of talent and order LV, Miami and NY hold. My plans currently are centred on bringing respect and acknowledgement back to the city, for too long it has been outcaste and almost forgotten politically and that needs to change. The rules are quite relaxed at the moment as we don't want to discourage business away from LA. Obviously random killing and mugging will be hunted down and snuffed out but borders remain open to those who wish to exploit the cities vast array of connections from the movie business to grade ‘A’ sitcoms.”

Zoolander has come under criticism recently for housing individuals rumoured to have ulterior motives towards the East and South Coast. Always known as an approachable man, Zoolander could be seen as the perfect man to gain experience under before attempting any kind of renegade action. One insider went on record by stating;

“I love that guy, my family has known his for decades, but if he and his ancestors had one problem though, it was that he was too kind, too trusting, to quick to defend those who would never defend him…”

We at the Gazette wish Mr Zoolander a very prosperous time in Los Angeles, and we will endeavour to report back on any developments over the coming weeks.

EDITORIAL: THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY

As the mortuaries are once again filled with the corpses of family men and unconnected ‘rogues’, the Gazette takes a look at day to day life on the other side of ‘Our Thing’.

A new type of villain has emerged on the busy streets of America of late. Until recently, the nation has witnessed what some perceive to be organised crime at its highest, whilst others remain certain that they are working under some form of dictatorship. Whichever side of the fence you may fall, it appears that an uprising against this current climate has taken the form of vigilante ‘justice’, with certain individuals taking it upon themselves to rid the world of the powers that be. As the Gazette exclusively revealed within Issue 166, the lone gunman Rich Nerezza was accredited with the slaying of American King Pin, Warwick Hunt. The subsequent weeks have seen both Nerezza and additional allegedly un-connected individuals taking the law of Omerta into their own hands with acts against figures across the country. From this activity, it appears that Mr Leo Lombardi and Ellis Hobbs had established themselves (along with Nerezza) as America’s most wanted fugitives. Lombardi in particular has been accredited with numerous deaths along the East Coast recently and was credited with an unconfirmed bounty on his head somewhere in the region of 5-10 million dollars.

Nerezza had recently announced his decision to retire from the Italian American led industries in place today, and had been spotted frequenting various bars and nightspots with an air of carefree decadence only associated with those who are under citizenship protection laws. Ellis Hobbs is also rumoured to have decided upon ‘Un-diplomatic Immunity’ as a long term agenda and is pursuing a career in the entertainment industry. Lombardi remained a man of industry, yet seemed unprepared to stroll down the street for fear of vendettas against his person by the many families he had recently upset. None of these men were available for comment at the time of going to press. Nerezza and Lombardi now lie in the county morgue, whilst Hobbs continues on his quest to rid the world of our leaders. Many believe his time is fast running out.

It appears that, with this activity proving so successful, we as a Nation can take a few points as granted. First and foremost, society as a whole still seems more than ever before a unified conglomerate of organisations pulling in the same direction. The fact that these individuals – though it must be pointed out that they are not the sole assailants of recent times – seem to have carried out their crimes without any over-ruling body or even established Family, also points out that we have now entered an era even more un-nerving than the ‘Underground Crew’; that of the Vigilante Movement. Lombardi and Nerezza were rumoured to have fathered sons, and they were not without friends, some of which are considered to be residing in high places.

What does the future hold? We cannot possibly say for sure… The sole absolute certainty is that the future holds a considerable body count.

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