Chapter 6 Summary and Analysis

Fiorello La Guardia is the new Mayor of New York and runs all the slots out of town. Valachi relocates his machines to New Orleans but that soon fails too. Next, Valachi and friend Bobby Doyle (Girolamo Santucci) get permission from Genovese to get into the numbers racket, sometimes called the policy game. It gets its name from the penny insurance that was popular in the 1920s. Daily winning numbers are based on the outcome of daily horse races. Numbers racketeers, like Valachi, are able to rig the results.

The numbers enterprise does not at first work out for Valachi as he has a major loss in the first few days of operation. However, family Boss Lucky Luciano bails him out by fronting him $10,000 in working capital. Luciano's deal includes the influx of three new partners from the family and a...