Sometimes the banker who is
paying to a Camorrist is blackmailed by a Mafius'. He
straightway complains to his own bad man, who goes to the
"butter-in" and says in effect: "Here! What are you doing?
Don't you know So-and-So is under my protection?"
"Oh!" answers the Mafius'. "Is he? Well, if that is so, I'll
leave him alone--as long as he is paying for protection by
somebody."
The reader will observe how the silence of "the man of honor"
is not remotely associated with the Omerta. As a rule,
however, the "men of honor" form a privileged and negatively
righteous class, and are let strictly alone by virtue of their
evil past.
The number of south Italians who now occupy positions of
respectability in New York and who have criminal records on
the other side would astound even their compatriots. Even
several well-known business men, bankers, journalists, and
others have been convicted of something or other in Italy.
Occasionally they have been sent to jail; more often they have
been convicted in their absence--condannati in contumacia--and
dare not return to their native land.
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