Surviving the Mob - Dennis Griffin [87]
“My father had survived numerous attempts on his life throughout his many years on the streets. And he lived through a gangland civil war between two factions of the Colombo family in which over a dozen men were killed and numerous others went to jail with lengthy prison terms. He almost seemed invincible.
“But that all changed on May twenty-sixth, nineteen-ninety-nine. On the fateful day, he was called to a high-level meeting with the boss of the family and the number-three guy in the chain of command, the consigliere. He never returned.
“On that day, a close friend of my father’s and I were doing our usual Wednesday routine of haircuts, manicures, and then off to our social club in Brooklyn. When my father didn’t arrive there, I immediately started asking who may have seen him. I received nothing but, ‘No, Bill, we haven’t seen him.’
“I tried to think of a legitimate reason for him to not be around. Maybe he was with someone and he couldn’t get back to me. Or if he was at a high-level meeting [where only high-ranking members of organized crime were present], all beepers and cell phones had to be checked at the door, so to speak—anything that could be considered a listening device had to be out of the room. Even so, whenever I paged him and added a ‘nine-eleven’ after the phone number, he knew it was an emergency and always got back to me within minutes. But not that day.
“As the night grew on, I sat and played cards with friends, and an unusual question was whispered in my ear.
“‘Have you spoken to your Pop today?’ That’s when it really hit me. That’s when I knew he wasn’t coming back. I bided my time the rest of that night and showed little reaction. But the next morning, I set things into action that allowed me to be alive today to tell the story.
“I knew that my father had good rapport with the other families. I did my homework and by the morning after, I knew who was responsible for my father’s disappearance and murder, but I didn’t know exactly why they wanted him dead. My father and thirteen others had been charged with multiple crimes after the so-called Colombo war. They were locked up for thirteen months before being acquitted on all charges. All was said to have been forgiven within the family after he was released from jail. But I found out that wasn’t true. And that’s what provided the motive and set the wheels in motion leading to my father’s murder.
“My dad called a spade a spade. If he thought a guy was a rat, including a boss, he didn’t bite his tongue about it. He told it like it was. Being outspoken doesn’t set well with some people. And the powers that be were afraid of his power and his strong support. He was a true tough guy and whatever he touched turned to gold. He was the true meaning of an ‘earner’ in the life. And that in itself can get you killed. Jealousy and envy have led to a lot of deaths in the world of organized crime.
“As the next couple of days passed, all his crew came to me one at a time to express their sympathy for my loss. Not too long after, just days in fact, a guy who was supposed to be my father’s best friend came to my mother’s home in Staten Island and asked her where my father kept his financial ledgers and his stash of money. He even tapped on walls and floors thinking the money was hidden behind or under them. He came up empty. I have to say it was a bittersweet moment seeing the look on his face when I told him there was no ledger or money. It was priceless.
“He didn’t know it, but my mother had been told by my father years earlier that if anything ever happened to him, she was to give them [his criminal associates] nothing. That’s exactly what we did—gave them nothing. It was a victory, but it didn’t bring my father home or his killers to justice.
“I love my family. But let’s face it, when it came to my father’s disappearance, what were they gonna do about it? They didn’t know what to do. None of them did. They were