1957 was a big year. the russians put that sputnik into outer space, the dodgers played their last game at ebbets field, 'that guy' shot frank costello in the head, and missed, and the gallo brothers whacked albert anastasia in that barber shop in the park sheraton hotel. it was total chaos. with anastasia gone, vito genovese figures he's king shit, but carlo gambino and 'joe bananas' both want to be boss of all bosses. so they call a meeting -- a big meeting.
it was the first time the whole commission was ever gonna meet face to face. bosses and wiseguys were comin' in from all over the country, and all the new york families, too -- maybe sixty bosses, the whole wiseguy world -- all headin' toward this little town upstate to figure out what's what.
your father and me, we were goin' up with tommy d., fat tommy.
he was running the family at the time. anyway, i don't know what anybody was thinking, but some asshole thought it would be a good idea to have this meeting at joe babara's farm in the country where nobody would notice.
turns out the local cops were watching joe babara like a hawk. so now you got about fifty caddies and lincolns pullin' into apalachin and some deputy sheriff with cow shit on his shoes notices all the traffic and calls the feds.
the meeting never even got started. the feds moved in --
-- and we moved out.
your papa and me hid in a field with hay or corn, some kinda foliage, i don't know.
then along comes this farmer who almost runs us over in a tractor, so your father hauls out his piece, this .44 cannon he used to carry, and hijacks the goddamn tractor. funniest fuckin' thing i ever saw.
anyway, carlo gambino came out of it capo de tutti capi, and that was the last time the whole commission tried to meet -- until now.
the '57 meeting was about how we were going to divide up the whole country. this meeting is about how we're gonna survive. you got 'made' guys informing for the feds; bosses going to jail; everybody's dealing drugs; people are getting whacked without permission. and on top of everything, now we got the chinese triads and these crazy russians to deal with. everything's changing. we need a leader. someone with fresh ideas. someone like you. it's gonna be a new century, paul. we gotta change with the times.
you remember what else happened in 1957, paul?
when your father died, i promised him i'd always look out for you. come to the meeting.