[Mb-civic] For the Mafia, Life Equals Art - Richard Cohen - Washington Post Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

For the Mafia, Life Equals Art
<>
By Richard Cohen
The Washington Post
Thursday, April 13, 2006; 12:01 AM

NEW YORK -- It was extremely thoughtful of Bernardo Provenzano, the boss 
of all the bosses of the Sicilian Mafia, to have been finally captured 
(after 43 years) on the outskirts of Corleone, Italy. That is the town, 
as we all know, from whence came the Corleone family of "The Godfather" 
book and movies and which, although genuinely Sicilian, has become 
mythically and deeply American. When it comes to the Mafia, it's not 
that life imitates art, it's that they have become indistinguishable.

This became readily apparent during the recent trial here of Louis J. 
Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, two retired New York City detectives who 
were accused -- and convicted -- of at least eight contract killings 
while working both for the NYPD and for a Luchese family underboss named 
Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso. It was virtually impossible to read any account 
of the trial without some mention of Hollywood, mob movies and the 
foolish attempt of the hapless and homicidal Eppolito to break into 
films. He had, like apparently everyone else in the mob, a script to sell.

It was that script, "Murder in Youngstown," that enabled the authorities 
to trap Eppolito and Caracappa by putting them in touch with fake 
Hollywood producers who needed a favor: some drugs. One thing led to 
another -- see any of the forthcoming movies for the details -- and 
arrests were ultimately made. Suffice it to say, though, that when an 
informer met with Eppolito in the garage of Eppolito's Las Vegas home, 
he found "the walls were adorned with a multitude of pictures framed of 
Lou and Hollywood people."

It used to be that washed-up newspaper reporters went into the PR 
business, going from peddling truth to peddling spin. Now it is that 
washed-up mobsters try getting into the movie business, sometimes more 
or less successfully. I am tempted to say that it's hard to know if this 
represents a move up or a move down, but by doing that I would fall into 
the very trap I am writing about: the apparent compulsion to make 
everything into a movie, even the gruesome murder of innocent people. 
 From some of the coverage, you could almost forget that two sociopaths 
were on trial for multiple murders committed while still wearing the badge.

For instance, in some newspaper accounts, witnesses were called "rats" 
or a "stool pigeon" -- colorful language that adopts both the lingo and 
ethos of the mob and somewhat obscures that these witnesses were doing 
the right thing, sometimes at substantial risk to their lives. Even The 
New York Times could not restrain itself. It noted that Eppolito and 
Caracappa were arrested at a Las Vegas restaurant, adding the errant 
Hollywood detail, "where Jerry Lewis often celebrates his birthday."

In the same story, it said that Variety had reported that three movie 
studios were interested in Eppolito's memoir, "Mafia Cop," and that 
didn't count the fictional property being developed by the team of Irwin 
Winkler and Nicholas Pileggi, the producer and screenwriter of the best 
mob movie ever, "Goodfellas" -- yet another film based on a mobster's 
life. The ever-alert Times noted quaint New York accents and expressions 
and wrote that "Eppolito's writing bears a whiff of Old World Brooklyn." 
I was born in Brooklyn and have no idea what that means.

The truth is that the more the real mob shrinks into oblivion, the more 
potential recruits realize crime does not really pay (even John "Junior" 
Gotti swears he's renounced the family business), the more it becomes 
mythologized. The Italian mob lends itself to this because it supposedly 
emphasized family and loyalty, secrecy and honor -- all qualities 
missing in American corporate life or, for that matter, the U.S. 
Congress -- and because its victims are fellow mobsters. In reality, 
though, the mob's true victims are usually ordinary people who can be 
squeezed and beaten to a pulp if they resist. This is why Sicilians 
cheered the arrest of Provenzano, yelling "assassin!" and "bastard!" 
when he was brought to the police station in Palermo. In Sicily, the 
Mafia is no movie.

In America, though, the rapacity of the mob, its homicidal vileness, has 
been thoroughly romanticized. Now, even mobsters yearn for the silver 
screen. Eppolito risked committing one more crime just to score some 
drugs for what he thought were Hollywood producers -- showing himself to 
be as naive as any stereotypical pretty girl thinking there's a career 
beyond the casting couch. This is why Edward Hayes, Caracappa's lawyer, 
said, "Nothing has hurt people more in this country than wanting to be 
in the movies."

Even for a mobster, it's an offer you can't refuse.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/04/12/BL2006041201543.html
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