The younger boy shrugged. “It don’t mean nothin’ to me.
Gino took his arm and said earnestly, “It could mean a lot to you. To both of us. Listen to me, kid…”
The fight with Lou Domenic took place at Stillman’s Gym on a Friday afternoon and all the big boys were there—Frank Costello, Joe Adonis, Albert Anastasia, Lucky Luciano, and Meyer Lansky. They enjoyed watching the young boys fight, but what they enjoyed even more was the fact that they had found a way to make money on the kids.
Lou Domenic was seventeen, a year older than Tony and five pounds heavier. But he was no match for Tony Rizzoli’s boxing skills and killer instinct.
The fight was five rounds. The first round went easily to young Tony. The second round also went to him. And the third. The mobsters were already counting their money.
“The kid’s going to grow up to be a world champion,” Lucky Luciano crowed. “How much did you bet on him?”
“Ten grand,” Frank Costello replied. “The best odds I could get was fifteen-to-one. The kid’s already got a reputation.”
And suddenly, the unexpected happened. In the middle of the fifth round, Lou Domenic knocked out Tony Rizzoli with an upper cut. The referee began to count…very slowly, looking apprehensively out at the stony-faced audience.
“Get to your feet, you little bastard,” Joe Adonis screamed. “Get up and fight!”
The counting went on, and even at that slow pace, it finally reached ten. Tony Rizzoli was still on the mat, out cold.
“Son of a bitch. One lucky punch!”
The men began to add up their losses. They were substantial. Tony Rizzoli was carried to one of the dressing rooms by Gino. Tony kept his eyes tightly closed, afraid that they would find out he was conscious and do something terrible to him.
It was not until Tony was safely home that he began to relax.
“We did it!” his brother yelled excitedly. “Do you know how much fucking money we made? Almost one thousand dollars.”
“I don’t understand. I…”
“I borrowed money from their own shylocks to bet on Domenic, and got fifteen-to-one odds. We’re rich.”
“Won’t they be mad?” Tony asked.
Gino smiled. “They’ll never know.”
The following day when Tony Rizzoli got out of school there was a long black limousine waiting at the curb. Lucky Luciano was in the backseat. He waved the boy over to the car. “Get in.”
Tony Rizzoli’s heart began to pound. “I can’t, Mr. Luciano, I’m late for…”
“Get in.”
Tony Rizzoli got into the limousine. Lucky Luciano said to the driver, “Go around the block.”
Thank God he wasn’t being taken for a ride!
Luciano turned to the boy. “You took a dive,” he said flatly.
Rizzoli flushed. “No, sir. I…”
“Don’t shit me. How much did you make on the fight?”
“Nothing, Mr. Luciano. I…”
“I’ll ask you once more. How much did you make by taking that dive?”
The boy hesitated. “A thousand dollars.”
Lucky Luciano laughed. “That’s chicken feed. But I guess for a…how old are you?”
“Almost sixteen.”
“I guess for a sixteen-year-old kid, that ain’t bad. You know you cost me and my friends a lot of money.”
“I’m sorry. I—”
“Forget it. You’re a bright boy. You’ve got a future.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m going to keep quiet about this, Tony, or my friends will cut your nuts off and feed them to you. But I want you to come and see me Monday. You and me are going to work together.”
A week later, Tony Rizzoli was working for Lucky Luciano. Rizzoli started as a numbers runner, and then became an enforcer. He was bright and quick and in time he worked himself up to being Luciano’s lieutenant.
When Lucky Luciano was arrested, convicted, and sent to prison, Tony Rizzoli stayed on with Luciano’s organization.
The Families were into gambling, shylocking, prostitution, and anything else in which there was an illegal profit to be made. Dealing drugs was generally frowned on, but some of the members insisted on being involved, and the Families reluctantly gave them permission to set up drug trafficking on their own.
The idea became an obsession with Tony Rizzoli. From what he had seen, the people who were in drug trafficking were completely disorganized. They’re all spinning their wheels. With the right brains and muscle behind it…