Sometimes the offences
have been serious, others have been merely technical. At
least one popular Italian banker in New York has been
convicted of murder--but the matter was arranged at home so
that he treats it in a humourous vein. Two other bankers are
fugitives from justice, and at least one editor.
To-day most of these men are really respectable citizens. Of
course some of them are a bad lot, but they are known and
avoided. Yet the fact that even the better class of Italians
in New York are thoroughly familiar with the phenomena
surrounding the Mala Vita is favorable to the spread of a
certain amount of Camorrist activity. There are a number of
influential bosses, or capi maestra, who are ready to
undertake almost any kind of a job for from twenty dollars up,
or on a percentage. Here is an illustration.
A well-known Italian importer in New York City was owed the
sum of three thousand dollars by an other Italian, to whom he
had loaned the money without security and who had abused his
confidence.
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