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corrupt a saint. He said bribing cops was like feeding elephants at the zoo. “All you need is peanuts.”
    â€˜Jimmy was the kind of guy who cheered for the crooks in movies. He named his two sons Frank James Burke and Jesse James Burke. He was a big guy, and he knew how to handle himself. He looked like a fighter. He had a broken nose and he had a lot of hands. If there was just the littlest amount of trouble, he’d be all over you in a second. He’d grab a guy’s tie and slam his chin into the table before the guy knew he was in a war. If the guy was lucky, Jimmy would let him live. Jimmy had a reputation for being wild. He’d whack you. There was no question – Jimmy couldplant you just as fast as shake your hand. It didn’t matter to him. At dinner he could be the nicest guy in the world, but then he could blow you away for dessert. He was very scary and he scared some very scary fellows. Nobody really knew where they stood with him, but he was also smarter than most of the guys he was around. He was a great earner. Jimmy always brought in money for Paulie and the crew, and that, in the end, is why his craziness was tolerated.’
    On Henry’s fourteenth birthday Tuddy and Lenny Vario presented Henry with a card in the bricklayers’ local. Even then, in 1957, a job in the construction workers’ union paid well ($190 a week) and entitled its members to extensive health care and other fringe benefits, such as paid vacations and sick leave. It was a union card for which most of the hardworking men in the neighborhood would have paid dearly – if they had ever had enough money to buy anything. Henry was given the card so that he could be put on a building contractor’s payroll as a no-show and his salary divided among the Varios. He was also given the card to facilitate the pickup of the daily policy bets and loan-shark payments from local construction sites. For months, instead of going to school, Henry made pickups at various construction projects and then brought everything back to the basement of the Presto Pizzeria, where the accounts were assembled.
    â€˜I was doing very nicely. I liked going to the construction jobs. Everybody knew who I was. They all knew I was with Paul. Sometimes, because I was a member of the union, they let me wet down all the new brick with a fire hose. I loved doing that. It was fun. I liked to watch the way the brick changed color. Then one day I got home from the pizza joint and my father was waiting for me with his belt in one hand and a letter in the other. The letter was from the school’s truant officer. It said that I hadn’t been to school in months. Here I was lying to my folks that I was going every day. I even used to take my books like I was legit, and then I’d leave them at the cabstand. Meanwhile I’m telling Tuddy that my classes have already let out for the summer and everything wasokay with my parents. Part of my situation in those days was that I was juggling everybody in the air at once.
    â€˜I got such a beating from my father that night that the next day Tuddy and the guys wanted to know what had happened to me. I told them. I even said that I was afraid I’d have to give up my bricklayer’s job. Tuddy told me not to worry, and he motions a couple of the guys from the cabstand and me to go for a ride. We’re driving around, and I can’t figure out what’s happening. Finally Tuddy pulls the car over. He pointed to the mailman delivering mail across the street. “Is that your mailman?” he asked. I nodded yes. Then, out of the blue, the two guys got out of the car and snatched the mailman. I couldn’t believe it. In broad daylight. Tuddy and some of the guys go out and kidnap my mailman. The guy was crammed in the back of the car and he was turning gray. I was ashamed to look at him. Nobody said anything. Finally we all got back to the pizzeria and Tuddy asked him if he