My book, Gangsterland a novel ends in Las Vegas at the synagogue. The main character David Cohen, formerly known as Sal Cupertine, a hit man for the Chicago mafia is now a rabbi in Las Vegas. At this point in the book, the FBI agent named Jeff Hopper, who has been trying to track him down is visiting all locations that Kochel farms delivers shipments of meat to (See previous blog post for more info). On his list is the Temple Beth Israel. He heads in and meets with David, and is immediately suspicious when David answers none of his questions. As David takes him on a tour of the campus, Jeff starts accusing him of not answering any questions, and as soon as David offers him a handshake, Jeff says "You didn't tell me what happened to your face" with David responding "All is Vanity." Jeff then says "Then I'd think you'd want a better plastic surgeon." (Goldberg Pg. 369) At this point David takes a knife from his pocket and stabs Hopper 3 times. The ending scene in my book takes place back in Chicago with Jennifer Cupertine, Sal's wife. As she leaves her desk at a museum to grab lunch a strange package is delivered for her. As she opens it she realizes that there are 7 stacks of hundred dollar bills followed by a note from her husband reading "I will send more when I can. I love you and William. I always have and I always will." (Goldberg Pg. 382) This is how my book ends. This ending really shows that your mistake will catch up to you. This is a valuable lesson in life, and the main takeaway from my book. This lesson can also relate to my current connections blog post, in which my connection is modern day gangs. Those gangs end up getting caught most of the time, once again showing how important the lesson from my book is.
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In my book, Gangsterland the main character Sal Cupertine a hitman for the Chicago mafia, kills 3 FBI agents and a CI. He then goes to his cousin, Ronnie Cupertine, a higher up in the Mafia is able to put him on a meat shipping truck were he is sent to Las Vegas. More than 6 months later he emerges as a new man, with a new face. He is now David Cohen, a Jewish rabbi at the nearby temple. The temple is the front for a money and body laundering scheme. He becomes good friends with Bennie Savone, the mafia man who brought him to Vegas. Together along with the head Rabbi, Savones father in law, the two have made millions in the past years. Bennie and Davids alliance is furthered as he is ordered to kill a lower member with whom he has been living with. In the meantime back in Chicago a FBI agent named Jeff Hopper who was responsible for the 3 agents Sal killed has been put on leave, following a run in with Sal's wife. Him along with Matthew Drew a FBI intern who was also fired, aim to track down Sal. The two of them approach Fat Monte one of Ronnie Cupertines enforcers, and while talking to him, Matthew punches him in the face. Later that night Fat Monte calls Hopper and gives him one piece of information before he shoots his wife in the head, leaving her paralyzed, and killing himself. Kochel Farms. Hopper then goes back to the FBI and in return for the information they make him a deal for his future. Back in Vegas, Bennie is being extra cautious as two of his employees at one of his ventures have been arrested. Back in Chicago, the FBI along with Jeff and the U.S. marshals raided Kochel Farms. The farm had no connections at all to the mafia, so Jeff was confused. The FBI decides to allow him to visit all the places that Kochel farms ships stuff to, cause that is how they assume he got out. Back in Las Vegas now Bennie has been arrested on Federal charges, meaning bail can be denied for a while. David now has a talk with Rabbi Kales, letting him know that the two options he has is to easily go out and leave control of the synagogue to him and Bennie, or when Bennie decides he knows too much, can go out the hard way. He chooses option number 1 and makes plans to change his will. David then lured the doctor who re did his face into a trap, and killed him. He calls Gray Beard, one of Bennie's friends who he has recently become acquainted with and tells him all the medical supplies at the doctors office are his also long as he cleans up the body and delivers it to the synagogue cemetery. David then calls another acquaintance of his, who has been paying him to harvest tissue from people in the cemetery. David offers him the organs in return for a paycheck. In the meantime Jeff Hopper, the FBI agent has made him way to Vegas and begins looking at places Kochel farms delivers too. He eventually makes it to the cemetery where he meets with Rabbi Cohen, who he immediately is mistrustful of. As Cohen is taking him on a walk of the property's, he slips up and Hopper goes on the offensive, forcing Cohen to stab him multiple times and kill him, but not before he can say he found Sal Cupertine. In the coming weeks David has Grey Beard go to Chicago and deliver 70 thousand dollars to his wife. This is how the book ends.
The point of this blog post is to link the mafia of my book, to a present day conflict, in which i chose the gangs that the U.S. and other countries have problems with. Modern day gangs, whether they be drug related or have to do with something else. instill fear into there community's and use threats and violence to get there way. Often times they have officials and police in there pocket just like the mafia did. They do all this because its a way of life, that they are often times born into, just like many people in the mafia. These two events/groups are very similar, and you could even consider the mafia a gang. In this blog post I will be talking about about the connection between the mafia and the book I am reading, Gangsterland. During the main time period, that the mafia had a grip on the U.S. there were many big events happening, some of which the Mafia used to their advantage. Stuff like Prohibition, which the mafia used to make a profit happened, but there was other stuff going on which likely indirectly led to the Mafia gaining power. An assassination of a president, rampant crime, and fear led to more relaxed investigations into the mafia, meaning they could have free reign over cities like New York, Chicago, and Las Vegas. In the book that i'm reading, the main character kills 3 FBI agents when he loses his restraint. "Normally he was cool and collected, but he just lost it." This totally changes his life as he is forced to move to Las Vegas and start a new life. In a similar fashion, a gangster named Lester Gills shot and killed 3 FBI agents also in Chicago, back in 1934. While they weren't exactly similar, the author of my book could've used this as a basis for his plot line. Americans, and American-Italians, back when the mafia was in its prime, usually either were scared of the mafia, or looked up at them in awe. They definitely scared some people, which threats and extortion and other methods. A big part of my book is the special task force looking into the mafia. Back when the Mafia was prevalent, the FBI used a lot of man power, to track them down and eventually make arrests. I feel like these connect very well, and show some of the historical aspects of my book.
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