Page 83 of The Enforcer’s Revenge (Untamed Hearts #4)
COSA NOSTRA TERMINOLOGY AND STREET SLANG
Note from Tino: The information contained in this guide was obtained through academic research and does not, in any way, indicate any sort of personally obtained knowledge of the internal workings of Cosa Nostra, criminal activity, drug use, etc.
(In other words, I’m not a narc, and I’m not in the organization.
So the Borgata and the Feds can just back the fuck up.
It’s a fucking story. That’s it. Made-up.
I’ll swear on a thousand stacks of Bibles that none of the shit in these books is true anyway.)
Administration —The upper-level management of a crime family.
Usually consisting of the Don (boss), Capo Bastone (underboss), and the Consigliere (advisor).
It’s all about the bottom line with them, and shit always rolls downhill from the administration.
Also, many of the rules in Cosa Nostra revolve around protecting the administration, but despite that, historically there are a lot of bosses who have gone down.
Feds will give just about anyone a free pass to grab someone from the administration of a crime family, and it works more often than it should.
The old man has done over ten years in federal, and that’s light for a don.
It’s a fucking miracle Nova hasn’t gone down as Capo Bastone, but no one’s sold him out.
(Note, selling out Nova would be very bad for your health.
Don’t think I can’t find you. There are a lot of dead motherfuckers who made that mistake.)
Associate —An associate is someone who works with an organization but is not an actual member of the mob.
The power and influence of an associate are vast. For example, if you’re just the drug dealer up the street, paying out a cut to the capo in charge of the area, you have no power, but if you’re someone like Chuito, who is now a known confidant to the Capo Bastone of the Moretti crime family, that’s a different set of issues.
There have been associates who’ve gained great power in an organization, even if they weren’t Italian.
Think Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. They were both Jewish but gathered huge amounts of power and authority with the Italian mafia.
It’s all about playing your cards right and allying yourself with the right powers that be, ’cause shit can change very quickly in the Cosa Nostra.
(Note, not playing your cards right is a good way to end up dead.
There aren’t too many Meyer Lanskys in history.
Most associates are expendable should a mafia war break out.
They aren’t protected like a made man is.)
Blow —Cocaine. (The rich man’s drug. In case you didn’t know, a cocaine habit is expensive as hell. Upside is coke will make you very productive. It’ll also wreck your life if you hold on to the habit for any extended period of time. I don’t recommend blow. Drink coffee instead.)
Borgata —The family. Used in mafia circles to refer specifically to a crime family—one with an established upper-level administration, soldiers, associates, etc.
There are different Borgatas. Some are small; others, like the Moretti crime family, are very large, with capos, soldiers, and associates in most major cities.
Boss —This word has a million different meanings, but at the end of the day a real boss is probably someone you should respect. In the Cosa Nostra, boss is another term for the godfather. (Can also be referred to as don or father in Italian.)
Burner phone —I’m a big fan of the burner phone.
It’s essentially a prepaid phone that you keep for a few days or weeks and then toss for the next burner phone.
In doing this, it makes you very hard to track.
Cosa Nostra believes, with good reason, keeping a cell phone in your pocket is like carrying the government around with you.
Carlo never carried a cell phone, even a burner, but we’re in the modern fucking age. I use a lot of burners.
Candy —Code word for drugs, particularly cocaine.
Like real candy, the rule of thumb is never to take candy from strangers.
You never know what they cut it with to save their bottom line.
Trust me on this; dealers will cut cocaine (and other drugs) with some very nasty shit to save their bottom line.
You’d be lucky to get baking soda. Very lucky.
(Note, it’s extremely rare to get pure cocaine, unless you’re the grandson of a don. Then it’s a perk of the job.)
Capo Bastone —Underboss. Just like it sounds, the Capo Bastone is the vice president of the mafia, but in this scenario, the vice president isn’t just sitting around waiting for the old man to kick off.
He handles all the shit, big and small, that goes into running a crime family.
For big families like the Morettis, more steps need to be taken to protect the Don, which means the underboss is the one who takes more risks, makes more decisions, and essentially puts himself out there as a moving target to distract the Feds and other enemies from the Don.
That’s why Nova’s on the commission. It’s the reason he’s the one who handles the Capos.
The Don is supposed to be invisible, protected at all costs.
The underboss, in contrast, is almost like a decoy who got stuck doing all the work.
Underboss is a shit fucking job if done right.
(My father never did it right. The Don was always picking up his slack until Nova took his spot.) Bet you didn’t know that’s what Nova was dealing with all this time, but he owns it… like a boss.
Capo Dei Capi —Boss of all bosses. Literally translates in Italian to head of all heads.
This is a very old-school term, one given to the few godfathers who gained so much power they held supreme authority over the entire Italian mafia organization in America, which essentially means they controlled most of the underworld.
This is a lot of power for one individual, and it can create a lot of tension, as crime families only like to recognize their own administration as their ruling party.
I think another capo dei capi rising to power is a dead ideal, as in, not really possible anymore no matter how much it’s romanticized.
Nova likes to say anything is possible, but let’s get real.
A play like that would have to be epic, and even if they did succeed, holding it down would take a powerhouse administration.
Caporegime —Almost always shortened to capo.
Can also be called a skipper, or lieutenant.
A capo is the leader of a crew in the mafia.
Crews often run independently, doing their own thing, making money, but on regular intervals they will have to give a taste (a cut) to the administration.
A capo will usually have an area they work for the Borgata, or in other instances a specialty within the Borgata.
Gambling, theft, guns, drugs, unions, etc.
There are also capos who run legitimate businesses.
Particularly in our family, over the past many years, shock of shocks, a lot of our money is made legitimately.
Of course, the accountants will often use the capos who are running legit crews to funnel dirty money, so don’t get the wrong idea.
The Moretti family isn’t going straight by creating all these legit crews.
They’re hiding the money from the Feds, but that’s complicated.
It has Nova’s name written all over it and makes me faze the fuck out when he talks about it.
Anyway, capos who make more money have more power and respect.
Some suck; others rock it out like a motherfucker.
A good underboss (Nova) will often try to help them be as efficient and profitable as possible.
Nova does all right with this. I haven’t met a capo yet who didn’t love him.
Considering they’re all rich, and their money is pretty and clean and legit looking to the government.
Nova is what we like to call an overachiever when it comes to mafia work. He protects his capos.
Comare —A mistresses to a mafioso. This is not wife material, this is a girlfriend, most of the time an on the side girlfriend since getting married is a sort of a requirement for a Mafioso.
Though a few slip by into their mid-twenties like Nova, in which case a girl he was seeing regularly would likely be considered a comare unless she was a good girl he was courting as a future wife.
Enforcers also have comares, since they don’t get married.
Anyone dating an enforcer would automatically be considered a comare.
Commission —A while back, long before I was even a sexy thought, the crime families instituted a commission to make the decisions that might have once been reserved for a capo dei capi (see above), because the battle for that title left a lot of dead wiseguys in its wake.
The commission has members from all the powerful families who help make the decisions that affect the organization as a whole.
Which seems odd, but think of it like this.
The NFL is an organization that has rules and a commissioner to make sure they’re followed, but the NFL also has all these different teams who do their own thing and have their own bosses.
These teams really don’t like one another.
Some of them even hate one another, but they all follow the rules laid down by their organization.
That sort of describes how the mafia works, if you forget for a moment that one commission member might be inclined to ice another for fucking with their agenda.
If something major goes down, the commission can punish individual members as well as entire Borgatas.