Alone in the Fight
The Dead Business
The Camorra mafioso of Naples and Salerno wanted to branch out. Not as significant as other mobs in Italy and the United States, the Camorra wanted a niche business in the supply-and-demand market that didn't interfere with the larger mobs. After eight years of controlling the dead business — supplying bodies as cadavers to a limited number of medical schools in Europe — the Camorra saw an opportunity in America.
The American Federation, comprised of medical school deans, had fallen on hard times. Their chief supplier was arrested for abuse of corpses and sent to a state prison in Oklahoma for four years. He had been recently released and immediately moved to the Philadelphia area to revive the dead business. Alone in the Fight takes place in Philadelphia in the mid-1960s. Medical schools in America were under tremendous pressure to find cures for the onset of new diseases. Degenerative diseases such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and various cancers were on the rise. Medical schools needed bodies, or cadavers, to properly teach their students.
Moreover, the Camorra saw the American Federation as weak and believed that the time was ripe to move into the American market and take over, thus creating the largest supplier of cadavers in the world. And that they did. These competing forces — each with their own hitmen — ended up in the same Philadelphia neighborhood: The Hill.
Meanwhile, one detective discovers what the competing forces are up to, but unfortunately, no one, including the Superintendent of Police, believes him. They think he needs to retire. The detective gets his hitman too—"you have to fight fire with fire"—and sets out to bust the dueling mobs. Alone in the Fight is a page-turner from the beginning to the fantastic finish. It has the same suspense, great dialogue, and creative characters as in all the author's books.
Excerpt from Chapter Six. Setttimo, upon arriving in South Philadelphia, pays a 'respect call' to Philly mob boss Angelo Bruno.
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"Please come in, Settimo. You are most welcome here. How can I help you, Sir?"
Settimo was sent to Philadelphia to set up the dead business. Still, Don Gubiannie insisted that when Settimo first got to Philadelphia, he checked in with Don Bruno of the Philly mob. The Don wanted Settimo to get Bruno's approval of the Camrroa operating in Philadelphia, "you know, as a proper courtesy."
Settimo's driver picked him up at the Philadelphia airport and took him to his new home in Belmont Hills. But on the way, Settimo had the driver go to 954 Snyder Avenue in South Philadelphia and stop at Anglo Bruno's residence.
"Thank you, Don Bruno. It is a pleasure to meet you," Settimo replied.
"Let me introduce you to my two capos, Louie DeJessup and Michael Maganucci."
Settimo got up and shook hands with both capos. They were polite and respectful.
"Thank you for taking the time to see me on such short notice, Don Bruno."
"The Naples Camorra is always welcome in Philadelphia, Settimo. But I am curious. What business do you have here?"
"The Naples Camorra is in the dead business," Settimo replied. "We get dead bodies so medical school students can experiment and find cures."
"On dead bodies?" Bruno responded.
"Yes," he replied. "That is how many diseases are cured."
"Well," Don Bruno said, "how do you get these dead bodies?"
"We have a producer, the Frenchman. He can kill about ten people a week. We get those bodies and deliver them to medical schools in high demand. We also get dead bodies from the undertakers in South Philadelphia. These medical schools pay top dollar for the bodies. We hope that is appropriate for you."
"Sure. Hell, we don't want any dead bodies. And if we do, we get rid of them fast." The two capos chuckled. Settimo quickly glanced at both.
"So, if I can ask a question," Capo DeJessup said. "So, these dead bodies. The students try to bring them to life or something?"
"Oh, no," Settimo replied. "Nothing like that."
"Then what the fuck do they do with them?"
"Hey, hey," Don Bruno said to DeJessup, "have some respect. He is our guest, our visitor from the Old Country. You address him politely."
"Yes, Sir," DeJessup said. "My apologies to you, Mr. Settimo." Settimo nodded.
"So, what do these students do with the dead bodies?" Bruno asked.
"Well," Settimo replied, "to find a cure to a disease, you have to see what the body will take and not take."
"But these bodies are dead," Bruno said. "How can they tell you anything?"
"I'm not a medical expert, Don Bruno, but the medical professors tell me the dead bodies can tell them about diseases."
"It sounds like somebody's getting ripped off here," Capo Maganucci chuckled. "I mean, if you don't mind me saying, dead bodies can't talk, so how can they tell you about a disease?"
"You say this producer will kill people," Bruno said. "He walks around killing people? Just like that?"
"In a way," Settimo replied. "He must shoot them without losing a lot of blood or their major organs like the brain and heart."
"So where does he shoot them? DeJessup asked. "In the balls?" And he chuckled and looked at Bruno and Maganucci.
"In the lips," Settimo answered.
"The lips?" Bruno said. "He shoots them in the lips?"
"That's right, Don Bruno."
"Excuse me, Sir," capo Maganucci said. "I whacked a lot of people but never shot nobody in the lips. How can you whack somebody by shooting them in the lip? Jesus Christ," and he glanced briefly at the other two.
"This is a proven fact," Settimo said. "Shooting someone in the middle of the upper lip will assist in striking the medulla oblongata, the pons, and the cerebellum, virtually destroying the brain's capacity to regulate or control involuntary functions such as breathing and heartbeat. At the same time, not destroying the brain's structure for medical research."
Settimo stared at three blank faces. They didn't know what to say.
Finally, DeJussep spoke up. "So, if he shoots them in the lips, how do these students who talk to them know one from the other?"
"The students don't talk to them. They cut them up and do experiments on them."
"Cut them up," De Jessup said. "Madone. "These students cut up dead bodies. What the fuck. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
"How do you tell if one's a boy or a girl?" Maganucci asked.
"That's easy," Dejessup said. "By the clothes they are wearing.
"They don't wear clothes," Settimo said. "When the students get them, they are naked."
"You're shittin' me," Dejessup said. "Holy hell. So how do you tell, then, if it's a boy or girl?"
“Easy,” Maganucci responded. "They look and see if it has a cunt or balls." Then, both capos laughed. Bruno chuckled, too.
"I'm sorry," Dejessup said, still chuckling. "I don't mean to be disrespectful, Sir. But this is off the fuckin' wall."
"The Camorra of Naples has done this work for many years," he said.
"Jesus Christ. Shootin' 'em in the lips," Maganucci said, shaking his head.
"Once this producer shoots a stiff in the lips, what do you do with the body? In our work, the body is evidence," Bruno asked.
"We quickly move the body and get it to an undertaker in our network," Settimo replied.
"But if you shoot somebody in the face, there's going to be eyeballs, teeth, jawbone, and shit all over the place. You leave that there?" Maganucci asked.
"If the shot is placed properly, nothing is left behind," he explained. All three men stared at Settimo with blank faces.
"So, what happens to the body?" Bruno finally asks.
"The process we used in Italy involves the undertakers and the church."
"Church?" Bruno says. "Why church?
"Parish priests connected to our organization will say mass and have a fake reception. These priests have a fabulous buffet layout and invite all their parishioners to the mass and fake luncheon."
"Fake?" Bruno asked.
"Yes, the body has no friends or relatives. But a reception is held in the church hall, with lots of food. The people know that the food is fantastic, and the nuns attend."
"Nuns?" DeJessup said. "What do the nuns do?"
"We have nuns who make the mass and fake reception look legitimate. Who would question nuns? We have a process where immediately after the mass, the nuns surround the coffin and place rosary beads on the deceased, and one nun, the head nun, puts a fake death certificate inside the coffin."
"These nuns connected to your organization, too?" Dejessup asked.
Settimo nodded. "Yes," he said.
Dejessup said, more so in a loud whisper, "Jesus, fuckin' Christ."
Bruno sat back in his chair — not sure what to say. The two capos were dumbfounded. Finally, Bruno said, "But why nuns? I mean, why would nuns do that?"
"Because, Settimo continued, "the church and funeral home has a fantastic food layout in honor of the departed, and the nuns get to take all the food back to the convent to distribute to the poor. In Italy, nuns are honorable. No authority would question a process by priests and nuns.
"They got pasta fazool at them receptions?" Maganucci said, and then he laughed and looked at Bruno and Dejsessup.
"Jesus Christ," Dejessup said. "This is a hell of an operation. Who came up with the idea of using priests and nuns?"
"Do the nuns know the death certificate is fake?" Bruno asked.
Settimo smiled.
“Boss,” Maganucci said. "Maybe we can get them nuns to run our numbers operation?"
"Fuck that," Dejessup said, "Get 'em to run our prostitution houses. Settimo just said, who'd question the nuns?"
Settimo smiled and nodded. "Besides, a nun with a ruler would keep those Johns in line."
"If you don't mind me asking, where will you set up this operation?" Maganucci asked.
"There's a town across the river from Manayunk called Belmont Hills," Settimo replied.
"Not sure I've heard of it," Bruno said.
"Wait, I know that place," Dejessup said. "They got all hills there and a lot of dagos with vegetable gardens. The people call it the Hill. You got to watch that place, them people are fuckin' crazy."
"You'd have to be, Maganucci added, "to handle this dead business," and he laughed.
"Well, Settimo. "I wish you luck in this operation," Bruno said. If we need to whack somebody, we can let you know, and you can take the body away, right, gentlemen?
Both capos: "Of course. We'd be happy to help. By all means."
"Other than that," Bruno said. "You are on your own."
"Don Bruno, you have no problem with us carrying out this operation in Philadelphia and on the Hill?"
Bruno stared at Settimo for several seconds, then said, "No, not at all. You can have all the dead bodies you want. No problem." Then he stood.
"Settimo, I appreciate you coming to tell me about your operation, and I wish you the best."
Settimo stood and offered his hand. "Thank you, Don Bruno. I will send this good news back to the Camorra in Italy."