by Rusty Kontos
everything in her name, and she is living with him.”
“Mr. Geanellie, I am sure that everyone here shall agree with what I am about to say. You may tell Don Colletti that we do not wish to put upon him any more pain than he has already suffered. So he may continue as he has, by sending you as his personal aide to speak for him. It hurts me deeply to learn of such treachery and deceit in his family. Don Colletti in years past was always a good Don, and I am sure he will continue to be so. I am glad to know that he has his child living with him, because it is our children that we live and die for. I only wish that Don Colletti himself could have come to me and told me of this. I would have helped him in every way I could. I know that he is a proud man and he had to take care of his vendetta in his own way. You tell Don Colletti, he has our best wishes and that we are truly glad that he is a part of us.” After Stracci had finished, Tony let out his breath with a sigh of relief, for he knew that they had accepted what he had told them.
Peace came to Chicago, and the years began to pass quickly. Nickole ran things as well as her father, Nick Colletti, if not a little better. She was the first female Don, and one of the youngest in the history of
the Mafia to run an entire city in the underworld of crime. Nickole had gotten her revenge on two of the men responsible for her father’s and mother’s death, but there was still one more man she wanted
and was unable to find — that man was Mike Scallenie.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Years had passed since the day Johnny Gallucio was shot and pushed out of the car by Scallenie and left for dead in an alley. Johnny Gallucio had heard that Nick Colletti was still alive. He thought that like him, maybe Scallenie had missed once again. Even though he remembered how he last saw Nick, with blood covering his pillow in his room at the hospital, maybe it was just a flesh wound. Maybe through some miracle, Nick did make it. Whatever the case, Johnny knew that he had to find out for sure. He went to Colletti’s house in hope that if Nick was alive, he would give him a job again if he told him that he had nothing to do with trying to kill him. He would tell Colletti that he tried to stop Scallenie and in doing so, Scallenie tried to kill him. Johnny also knew if Nick would not believe him, he was as good as dead. He knew that Nick would make sure of it.
Franky answered the door when Johnny arrived. He told Franky that he had come to see Nick, that he had once worked for Nick and wanted to do so again. Franky told Johnny to wait outside and he would find out if Nick would see him. Franky went up to Nickole’s office where she sat a desk going over some figures in a book in front of her. Nickole looked up at Franky, a little annoyed at him for just barging in without knocking first. Her annoyance left her face
when Franky said to her, “Hey, Nickole! There is some guy by the name of Gallucio waiting outside. He says that he used to work for your father and wants to see him.”
Nickole waved her hand to Franky, gesturing to say no. Then as Franky started out the door, she thought a moment, and then called to him, “Wait! On second thought, tell him to wait for me in the study. I will be down in a few moments.”
Franky looked at Nickole, as if starting to protest, but then he said nothing as he changed his mind and left. Franky returned to the front door and showed Johnny into the study, telling him that Nick would be down in a few moments. Johnny Gallucio very nervously stood waiting for who he thought would be Nick Colletti. His eyes filled with surprise when he saw Nickole enter the room. She was dressed in a pair of black satin pants and a white blouse. A white headband pulled her hair back, letting the rest of her hair swing freely down her back.
“Mr. Gallucio, my father is unable to see you at this time, so I am here on his behalf to listen to what you have to say. Please sit down.” Nickole motioned to a large chair as she spoke. Johnny sat down in the chair. At first, he thought of leaving and coming back later, but the powerful force of Nickole, generated from her eyes and mannerisms, made Johnny feel a twinge of fear from her. He sat down as if he had no will of his own and began telling Nickole everything that he had come to say. Nickole sat there, very quietly. Listening carefully, she focused on Johnny with authority. After he had finished, Nickole looked Johnny squarely in the eyes as she said to him, “Johnny Gallucio, do you swear on your mother’s grave that no matter what I tell you, you will serve my father’s wishes, with devotion, respect, and honesty, and never go against his family in any way?”
“You have my word as a good soldier and comrade to my Don. I will remain faithful to him.” Johnny answered.
“Good, now one more thing,” Nickole went on. “You must promise that what I am about to say, you will never repeat to anyone. It will mean certain death for you if you do repeat what you are about to hear.”
Johnny looked at Nickole a little stunned for a moment, and then he answered her, “I promise that whatever you tell me, it shall never leave my lips. I will serve your father as faithfully as any one man
can.”
Nickole searched Johnny’s eyes for a moment, for one spark that might reveal any treachery. She was satisfied that this man had none, that he was sincere and meant what he said.
“My father is dead. I have taken his place to carry on where he left off.” Nickole went on to tell Johnny everything that she had done and how.
Johnny sat there and listened to her. It was as if through Nickole’s lips, Nick was speaking to him. Johnny thought to himself, “Nick truly does still live. He lives through his daughter, she is his new body. Through her, Nick’s orders are being carried out. Yes, Nick Colletti is very much alive,” he thought.
“I want you to find this Mike Scallenie,” Nickole said coldly, “and when you do find him, bring him to me ALIVE! Take as many men as you need. But you find him.”
“I will do as you ask, and I promise you, I will serve you as I did your father. May I ask one question?”
“You may.” replied Nickole.
“What do you wish me to call you?”
“By my name, of course, Nickole.”
“Thank you. I will do as you ask.” Johnny said as he got up to leave. Nickole gave him some money, and then Johnny left the house to go on his mission to find Mike Scallenie. Johnny wanted Mike as bad as Nickole. He had not forgotten what he had done to him. Johnny still had trouble with his stomach because of the gunshot wound that Mike gave him.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Mike Scallenie went into hiding when he had heard that Nick was still alive. Scallenie figured that Nick was out for revenge when he heard of the deaths of Luchino and Torrio, and he knew that he would be the next on his list. Scallenie was now living in an old tenement house in Gary, Indiana. He made his living from his girlfriend. She worked as a whore in a local cathouse, two blocks down the street from where she and Scallenie lived together in an apartment.
After the first day Johnny left Nickole’s house to look for Scallenie, he found out where he was. Six weeks later, Johnny got a lead on Scallenie from a girl who worked in the same whorehouse as Scallenie’s girlfriend. The girl told Johnny where Scallenie was staying, and of his daily, as well as his nightly routines. Johnny paid the girl well for her information. He gave her a hundred-dollar bill. Johnny took Tony, Franky, and two other men with him. The two men were much older than Franky and Tony. They had worked with Johnny in years past when Nick was still alive. The five of them drove to Gary to find Scallenie and bring him back to Nickole, just as she had ordered.
Johnny and his men arrived at Scallenie’s apartment
house at eleven o’clock in the evening. Two of the men waited at the back entrance of the building, just in case Scallenie might spot Johnny and make a run for it. Tony and Franky waited out front with Johnny. At exactly eleven-thirty, Scallenie came out of his apartment. He was on his way to pick up his girlfriend’s money she made for her day’s work. He did this every evening, just like clockwork, just as the girl who had informed on him to Johnny said he would.
Scallenie came down the front steps of his build
ing. Johnny stepped in front of him, blocking his way as he said to Scallenie, “Hiya, Mike, old pal! Remember me? It’s your old pal, Johnny! Johnny Gallucio.”
Scallenie looked at Johnny as though he had just seen a ghost. “It can’t be you! I — killed you!”
“You only thought you did, pal! You should have made sure of it.” Johnny said to Scallenie as he glared at him. Scallenie started to reach for his gun, but he stopped short, as Tony came up behind him, poking a gun into his back. Then he saw Franky come out of the shadows, holding a gun on him also. Franky reached his hand into Scallenie’s coat, relieving him of the gun that he carried in a shoulder holster, and his switchblade. Johnny motioned to Franky, telling him to let the guys in back know that
they had Scallenie. Johnny and Tony shoved Scallenie into the back seat of their car. Franky and the other two men got in and they drove off, heading for Chicago.
“Johnny! Where are you taking me?” Scallenie asked in a nervous voice.
“To see an old friend of ours, Nick Colletti!” Johnny answered, as he watched the expression on Scallenie’s face as he said it.
“Colletti! That can’t be! I saw his brains splatter all over that place. I held the gun right against his head and fired. No man could have lived after that!”
“Colletti did!” Johnny smirked at Scallenie. He sat there, his face frozen to a horrified pale, sickening gray, as he thought about seeing the man he was sure he had murdered. Scallenie knew that Colletti was sure to give him a slow and painful death.
Franky stopped the car a mile from the house to use a pay phone. He called Nickole, telling her that they had Scallenie. Nickole told him to drive the car to the greenhouse that stood a good distance from the house in the back courtyard. The greenhouse was a well-built place, with an incinerator built next to it. Nickole was waiting inside the greenhouse for them when they arrived. Johnny pushed Scallenie through the door, causing him to fall to his knees. Scallenie looked and heard Nickole’s voice as she spoke to him, stepping out of the shadows.
“So this is Mike Scallenie! I hear, Mr. Scallenie that you like to torture your victims before you finally let them die.”
Scallenie’s face held a second shocked look on it, at the sight of seeing Nickole still alive. He thought he was losing his sanity, as he thought he was surrounded by dead people. People who he was sure he had killed. Then Scallenie started begging Nickole for his life, weeping like a wounded animal. Nickole looked at him with no pity in her eyes, no expression of feeling on her face as she said to him, “Well, Mr. Scallenie! I feel that a man like you who has lived and killed so violently by torturing others, should die the same way, by torture. Mr. Scallenie, it is time you pay your dues! Time for you to pay for all the women you butchered! Time to pay for my father! My mother! And my friend Sally! She was just a little girl you piece of shit! Franky! Give me Scallenie’s knife!”
Franky reached into his pocket and took from it a switchblade that was as sharp as a barber’s razor. Franky handed it to Nickole. She took the knife, as she ordered, “Take off his pants and hold him down!”
Scallenie tried to resist, by trying to kick himself free. He wrenched and twisted his body in the men’s
grip as they held on him. He started screaming and crying for mercy, as he screamed repeatedly, “No! Please no! I beg of you! No! No! Oh, please don’t do this to me!”
Franky stuffed a hanky into Scallenie’s mouth to muffle his screaming. Nickole approached Scallenie.
His eyes bulged out, his whole face strained and sweaty, as he watched in terrifying horror what Nickole was about to do to him. Nickole reached down and took hold of his penis in her left hand, stretching it out as far as it was possible. She then opened the knife in her right hand by squeezing a small button on the handle. She then brought the knife down to where the neck of his penis joined the
base of his groin. Very quickly, Nickole forced the knife blade to thrust through his flesh, cutting his penis completely off from his body. Blood gushed from the hole opening of his groin, where until a few moments ago, hung his manhood.
Nickole held the bloody piece of flesh in her hand, as she signaled to Franky to take out the hanky from Scallenie’s mouth. Scallenie was screaming in screeching agony from his pain. Nickole forced his mouth open and shoved the bloody piece of flesh into it. Scallenie gagged, and almost swallowed it, but the piece of flesh came out as he vomited all over himself. Nickole stood there with sheer delight on her face, as she watched the agonizing pain Scallenie was suffering. She then wiped the blood from her hands with a hanky and reached in her pocket, pulling out a gun. She then thrust the gun between Scallenie’s legs, and pulled the trigger, shooting off what remained of his testicles. Then she fired four more shots; one for each of his hands and legs. Scallenie passed out from the shock of his pain, and the loss of blood.
“Wake him up!” Nickole demanded. “I am not finished with him yet!” Scallenie came to, but he was more dead than alive. Nickole handed the gun to Johnny, and then demanded, “Shoot the bastard between the eyes!”
Johnny took the gun from Nickole, feeling sick and a little sorry for Scallenie. He held the gun to his head and fired with a sigh of relief, knowing that at least he had put Scallenie out of his misery. Scallenie’s body went limp, the men holding him let him fall the floor. Johnny and the others stared at Scallenie’s mutilated body for a second, and they knew this could happen to them if ever they tried to cross Nickole. They also know that like Scallenie, Nickole could kill without feeling or compassion for her victim.
Nickole looked at Johnny and the rest of the men, as she said, “Let this man be an example of my power to all of you. In case anyone ever gets ideas of trying to double-cross me, I can and will do the same to anyone that does. As for you, Johnny! I let you finish him off because Scallenie owed you something, too. Now burn his body in the incinerator and make sure there is nothing left of him except ashes. Nickole then left the greenhouse, returned to her house, and took a bath, as though nothing had happened.
Johnny, Franky, Tony, and the other two men carried Scallenie’s body out to the burning incinerator where they dumped his body into the raging flames and watched him burn, to make sure, just as Nickole had ordered, that there would be nothing left of him except ashes.
AFTER THAT NIGHT, THINGS went very smoothly for Nickole. As the years went by, Nickole was becoming more obsessed by her name and the power that she held in her hands. Tony was deeply in love with Nickole and wanted to marry her. Nickole knew this, but she insanely refused his offers of marriage. In her mind that was slowly becoming very sick, Nickole thought that if she was to marry Tony, the Colletti name would end, and there would be no one left to carry on the Colletti name of her father. So she became obsessed with the idea of having an affair with Tony, so that maybe in time, she would become pregnant, and by not marrying Tony, she would give the child her name — the Colletti name. Nickole let Tony make love to her, but each time as she waited to find herself pregnant, she would become furious when she discovered that she wasn’t. Then she would pacify herself by thinking that it just wasn’t time for her to have a baby.
Ten years went by, and Nickole still had not become pregnant. Her mind had become even sicker. She started having other affairs with men who she would hire to sleep with her. When they did not get her pregnant, she would find another greedy man who wanted money. Nickole was fast becoming so frustrated, that she began doing insane things, like killing needlessly to demonstrate her power. Then she made her final mistake — a very deadly one. Nickole decided to go to one of the council meetings.
Tony was sitting with the other leaders, as usual at the table. All at once, the doors opened, and in the doorway stood Nickole. She boldly walked in and presented herself. Tony turned pale when he saw her. He tried to stop her and make excuses for her, but it did no good. Nickole was determined to tell all.
“Sit down, gentlemen, it is time that I make my presence here known.”
“Nic
kole! Don’t! You don’t know what you are doing!” Tony said as he stood up and tried to get her
to leave.
“Shut up, tony, and sit down! I know exactly what I am doing!”
“Who in the hell is this woman, and how did she get in here?” Stracci demanded.
“I am Nickole Colletti, and I just walked in. Of course, I had to kill one of your men to do it, but I am here and you will listen to me. I have run my father’s family since his death, and I am tired of hiding behind his name by sending Tony here to do all of my business for me in my father’s name. I think that it is time you recognize me as a true Mafia leader, and that I am smarter than you shall ever be! You are all a bunch of fools. You stick to the old ways. Well, my friends, times have changed. Women have just as many rights as men do, and I intend to prove it to you, even if it means an all-out, full-scale war that I am sure to win! You all are very stupid, the whole bunch of you! In addition, you are too damned old to be running things. I want my rights recognized at this table at all future meetings. I will leave you now. Take a vote on it because it is the way of old men like you. However, I warn you, it is best for you to see it my way, because as you already know, I am much cleverer than you are. Good day, gentlemen!”
Nickole left, and all the Mafia chiefs were shocked and humiliated by her disrespect and boldness in their presence. Nickole had mocked them and called them fools, and even killed one of their men. To them, this was one of the biggest sins she could have committed. The men sat at the table, all their eyes on Tony. Then the leader, Stracci, stood up and began speaking to Tony.
“This stupid woman has disgraced us and we shall not stand for it. You have lied to us, and covered up
for her all of these years. You must be crazy like her, or you are in love with her. We do not wish to kill her, but if that is the only way, that is how it shall be. The only way she will be permitted to live, is if you marry this woman and make her turn over all of her business powers to you, naming you as the new Don of the Colletti family. This is a man’s organization, not a woman’s. It has been that way since our fathers before us, and it will continue to be so. I give you until our next meeting.”