Many top mafiosi are big donors to churches. It is doubtful they hope for expiation for their sins but rather seek to pay homage to their wives, the piousness of Mafia wives being both legendary and understandable. Chicago don Sam Giancana fit this churchman category. Whenever he was in church the collection box on his side of the aisle would outproduce the other side by at least $500 or $600, that being the amount Sam would drop in.
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Joe Profaci was an especially big giver to the church, so big that when a young thief stole a jeweled crown from his local parish, the angry Profaci forced the thief to return the crown and had him murdered anyway. It made sense from Profaci's viewpoint. If he gave a lot to the church and somebody stole from the church, it meant that somebody was stealing Profaci's money. Profaci did not take a charitable view of that.
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Chauffeurs: Mafia road to success
Chauffeur becomes power brokera plausible Mafia rags to riches story.
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The chauffeur is in a unique position, often knowing more about mob activities than the too highly touted
consigliere
. Mafiosi, it seems, turn loquacious in Cadillacs. Chauffeurs privy to closely held secrets often become a boss's confidant, even his appointment ecretary, and, of course, a trusted bodyguard.
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Perhaps the best case in point is the Chicago Outfit's John "Jackie the Lackey" Cerone, for years the driver for top boss Tony Accardo. By the 1970s when Accardo was in semi-retirement (although always consulted on important business), Cerone was viewed by law enforcement officials as being the day-to-day head of the mob. Al Capone himself was first recruited to Chicago by Johnny Torrio to act as his trusted driver (although when Torrio did not need him Al went to work as a shill or barker outside one of the mob's whorehouses).
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The late informer Joe Valachi would have had far less interesting or informative testimony to provide had he not served as the chauffeur for Salvatore Maranzano. At the conclusion of the Mafia War of 1930-1931, which put Maranzano in position to proclaim himself the boss of bosses, chauffeur Valachi learned Maranzano's intention to go back to war. Maranzano told Valachi he was planning to wipe out such nationwide crime leaders as Capone, Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, Joe Adonis, Vito Genovese, Willie Moretti, Dutch Schultz and others. Unfortunately for Maranzano his foes got him first. It was also unfortunate for Valachi for he would, as a trusted chauffeur, have moved much higher in crimedom than he did as just an ordinary soldier in Luciano's family. Maranzano had already rewarded a previous driver, Joe Bonanno, with an important position within his own family, and when Maranzano died, Bonanno became the "father" of the Maranzano family.
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Not all chauffeurs rise to the top, especially if their boss is marked for extinction. Richard Cain, driver for Sam Giancana, had been a former Chicago police officer, having been assigned to infiltrate law enforcement. He even became chief investigator of the Cook County sheriff's office. Finally discredited by the force, he openly joined the Chicago Outfit and became Giancana's driver and aide. He also served as negotiator, interpreter (Spanish, to help Giancana in his Latin gambling enterprises), as well as keeper of Sam's personal secrets. Giancana trusted him to drive around his problem daughter, Antoinette, who later wrote the best-selling
Mafia Princess
. Cain was shotgunned to death in December 1973, a year and a half before Giancana was murdered. They had both offended the Chicago Outfit, and especially the powerful Joe Aiuppa, by refusing to share the profits they made setting up cruise-ship casino gambling. After Cain's death Dominic "Butch" Blasi took over as Giancana's chauffeur as well as performing Cain's other duties. He was with Giancana the night he was murdered, but neither the FBI nor Giancana's daughter ever believed he was involved in the killing. He was considered too loyal.
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Not all of Giancana's drivers were as highly thought of by their boss. Sal Moretti was murdered on Giancana's orders after the driver carried out a hit contract for Sam on Leon Marcus, a banker-land developer. Unfortunately, Moretti had failed to remove from Marcus's body a document that linked Giancana to Marcus in a secret motel deal. On Giancana's orders Moretti did not die easy. He was viciously tortured before he was shot and stuffed in a dry-cleaning bag in the trunk of an abandoned car.
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Crime boss Carmine Galante was another chauffeur who made good, but in the end his former boss acquiesced to his murder. In the old days Galante had served as a driver for Joe Bonanno who, it was said, in later years still "felt paternalistic toward him." Galante later went to prison for narcotics violations and when he came out he moved to take over the Bonanno family, with his old patron in a sort of retirement in Arizona. Galante then moved to take over the other New York families, and a nationwide decision was made to eliminate him. It was considered prudent by the other crime bosses to obtain Bonanno's okay to the contract, knowing the esteem in which he had held Galante. Since at the time, despite all indications to the contrary, Bonanno still clung to the idea that his son Bill might be able to take over the crime family or perhaps a portion of it, Bonanno was said to have given his approval
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