by Jim Wygand
“Uncle Carlo knows the drill, Charlie. Just keep the cap and the glasses on until we get inside, OK?”
“Gotcha”, Charlie was a lot more worried about how he would deal with Gina’s uncle than he was about being photographed but he followed Gina’s instructions.
A hefty looking bodyguard opened the door as they approached and they stepped inside. Charlie quickly removed the cap and glasses because he thought he looked silly. The bodyguard did not seem to pay any attention to what Charlie thought was weird garb.
“Hi, Frankie!” Gina greeted the bodyguard. “Hello Miss Gina. Your uncle is in the living room waiting for you.”
“Thanks, Frankie, how’s the family?”
“They’re all just fine, Miss Gina, thanks for asking.”
Charlie looked at the bodyguard. He looked like the kind of guy that could break an arm like he would snap a twig. And he was talking to Gina like a tender father about his family! “Well, he’s just a person too” thought Charlie, “but he is a very BIG person!”
Frankie led the way to the living room. Carlo Rizzo was leafing through the Sunday newspaper. He closed the paper and rose to meet them.
Charlie looked Carlo over quickly. The man had silver grey hair combed straight back. He was wearing a blue blazer with a cream colored silk shirt and light grey slacks. Like Charlie he was wearing a pair of moccasins that looked even more expensive than Charlie’s Gucci’s. He was a far cry from the caricature of mafia figures. He looked like what Gina said he was, a successful businessman. Carlo had catlike movements, even at his age. It was clear that he was a wary man. His movements were slow and fluid but one sensed that he could suddenly move very quickly if he had to.
Carlo walked first to his niece, “Ah, bambina mia, you look beautiful as always. I’m always so happy to see you.” He kissed her on the cheek and then gave her a strong embrace.
Gina backed away after hugging her uncle and said, “Uncle Carlo, this is Charlie. He’s the man I told you about.”
“Ah, really Gina? I thought you were bringing a total stranger to the house” Carlo said, laughing.
“Aw, c’mon Uncle Carlo, you know what I mean.”
Charlie offered his hand to shake and said, “Nice to meet you Mr. Rizzo.”
“Nice to meet you too, Charlie. Gina never stops talking about you. She tells me she is going to bring you by the house for lunch today, then arrives here and says ‘this is Charlie’ like she might have brought somebody else. I just thought that was funny.”
“Well, I guess Gina is a bit nervous like I am. I mean you are her father and I, ah, we are here to talk about our relationship…”
“Yes, don’t worry”, Carlo interrupted, “I know and Gina knows I was just giving her a hard time. I love my little girl. She’s all I have in the way of family. So, maybe she is right to be nervous. Anyway, welcome. Have a seat.” Carlo pointed to the sofa.
On the coffee table in front of the sofa was an enormous array of antipastos. There was eggplant marinated in olive oil, artichoke hearts in olive oil and oregano, sardella, anchovies, salami, olives, and a large parmesan cheese with the center carved out to make a bowl and chunks of the cheese broken up inside. A woman in a maid’s uniform came out of the kitchen with a bottle of red wine and a corkscrew. She handed the bottle and the corkscrew to Carlo who deftly popped open the wine, poured a small amount to taste, and after swirling the wine around in his glass and sniffing the bouquet, put a small amount in his mouth and “chewed” the wine to release its flavor and bouquet. “Ahhh, that’s a good hearty wine!” he exclaimed with obvious pleasure. He served Gina and Charlie and then himself and they sat down to talk. Carlo was across the coffee table in an easy chair and Gina and Charlie were together on the sofa. “Welcome” said Carlo as he held his glass for a toast.
“Thank you”, said Charlie. “Salute” said Gina and they touched their glasses together.
“Gina told me you work for the Shaw Corporation, Charlie.” Carlo reached for some antipasto and added, “Come on, eat something. The antipasto is delicious. Paola is a great cook.”
Charlie helped himself to some marinated eggplant and placed it on a small piece of Italian bread. He answered Carlo, “Yes sir, I work in the Treasurer’s Department. I’m First Assistant Treasurer there.”
“Isn’t Fred Perkins your boss then? He’s Treasurer, no?”
“Yes sir, Fred is my boss. Do you know him?”
“Well, kind of,” said Carlo, “I know he’s a real prick.” He stared at Charlie with a wry smile waiting for a response.
“I can’t really answer to that, Mr. Rizzo. I know some people in the company don’t like Fred, but I don’t have a problem with him. He’s my boss and I respect him as a professional.” Carlo appeared pleased at the response.
“Nice going, young man” Carlo thought, “never say anything bad about anybody. Smart guy!”
“Did you ever know Phillip Shaw? I mean the old man, not his son.”
“Not to speak to him, no sir, but I had seen him around the company. My father worked there for over 30 years and I went to a lot of company-sponsored events and Mr. Shaw would often be there.”
“I know old Phil. When he was first getting the company started I helped him get some start-up money. Banks don’t like to loan to new businesses, you know. They only lend money to people who don’t need it.”
Charlie was surprised that Carlo knew old man Shaw and even more surprised that he had arranged a loan for him. “That’s interesting, Mr. Rizzo. I didn’t know much about how Mr. Shaw got started except that he worked hard to build the company.”
“He worked all right, and damned hard. But you can work your butt off and get nowhere if you can’t pay the bills. I was just a young guy, but I introduced him to a friend of mine and he got the money to help him keep going. I liked him. He paid back every dime, thanked me for helping him, and for years sent me a card every Christmas. He would send it by messenger with a basket full of wine, cheese, and other assorted stuff. I liked him. We lost touch over the years, but I was always glad to have helped him through a tight spot. Look at what the company is today!”
“That’s really interesting, Mr. Rizzo. I had no idea….”
“Ah, there are a lot people that you have no idea I know.” Carlo laughed, as much to himself as to Charlie.
“You and Gina are really serious, huh?”
“Yes, Uncle Carlo” Gina chimed in.
“Ah, bambina, I know what you told me. I want Charlie to tell me.”
“Sorry Uncle Carlo”, Gina said with exaggerated mock contrition.
“So, you are really serious?”
“Yes sir, Gina is the most wonderful woman I have ever met. With your permission, I intend to marry her.”
“You know of course that Gina is like a delicate flower. She has had a very comfortable life but she has been raised in a kind of ‘hothouse’. I have been very protective of her. It’s not easy being my niece as I gather you saw from the ‘photographers’ in front of my house. She’s tough, you know. She dealt with it over the years. But I know it was tough for her. When she was a little kid the ‘suits’ would follow her to school. What the hell was a little girl going to do that they had to follow her? She’d be out on the playground and there were two idiots in suits standing around. I tried to protect her from the pressure but I also tried to raise her to be independent and think for herself. So, in some ways she was sheltered. She came to live with me when she was just a little more than two years old. Her parents were killed in an automobile accident. Her mother was my sister. We all came over from Sicily together – I was five at the time – and when my sister died, I became Gina’s legal guardian. I made sure she always had the best but she also knew that the best was not easy to come by. I never let her forget her Sicilian parents and how hard they had to work when they came here. So, Gina’s got a very unique perspective on life. She’s as wealthy as any of the girls she went to school with at Bryn Mawr, but she is a ‘real’ person who is
true to her family origins. She suffered a lot of discrimination from some of the daughters of the ‘finer families of Philadelphia’, Carlo seemed to almost spit the words, but she held her head high. She got fantastic grades and graduated magna cum laude. She has stuck by me through a lot of stuff.”
“That’s one of the things I love most about Gina, Mr. Rizzo. She has a wonderful and supportive group of friends who all try to protect her, too. I am aware of her vulnerabilities. We talked a lot about her life. I think you have done a fantastic job of raising her.”
“Well, in a lot of ways it was easy. Gina was as beautiful when she was a little girl as she is now. She was and still is captivating – and she knows how to use it too,” he laughed, “everybody loved her. It’s hard not to love beautiful children, no? She was always well-behaved but she could be a terror if she thought she was wronged. She can be hard-headed as hell, if you want to know.”
“Uncle Carlo! Are you trying to help me or scare Charlie to death?!” she cried.
“Oh, you mean you haven’t shown Charlie your obstinate side?”
“I never had to and I don’t think I ever will have to, Uncle Carlo.”
“No problem, Mr. Rizzo, I pretty much sensed that Gina has a very strong will and a mind of her own. I can deal with it.”
“Confidence doesn’t seem to be your problem, Charlie. That’s good. Let me say something, Gina’s happiness is everything to me. She has told me that you make her happy and that she is confident that she will always be happy with you. I want my little girl happy and protected. I also want the man she is with to be happy. That might be a bit more difficult in view of Gina’s unique family circumstances. We’ll talk about that over lunch, but I hope you know what I mean.”
“Understood Mr. Rizzo, Gina and I have talked about it a good deal. I want you to know how much I really love her. I will do whatever I have to do to be with her. I’ve dealt with a lot in my life to get a lot less. I can certainly do whatever is necessary to have the woman I love. I suspect you would do exactly the same.”
“That’s right, Charlie, I would never walk away from someone or something I wanted because of others. I’m glad to hear you see it that way too. Now let’s sit down to some lunch.”
They moved to the dining room and Paola set to bringing out the meal. The first course was a delicious penne with prosciutto with a light tomato sauce. It was delicious and light. “I get that pasta from a fellow who makes it here in Philly. It’s as good as you can get in Italy.”
“It’s very light”, said Charlie, “not filling at all. It was perfect.”
“Ah but wait until you taste the next dish”, said Carlo, “it’s Paola’s specialty and there is nothing like it anywhere in the world!”
Carlo was right. Paola’s specialty was veal with black truffle and porcini mushroom sauce. It was done to perfection. Charlie did not know where or when he had ever eaten any better. “Mr. Rizzo, may I suggest you never lose that cook. She is a veritable treasure. I have never had veal that tender and that delicious in my entire life!”
“I’m glad you like it, Charlie. Paola only cooks like that for Gina and now you. During the week she is not nearly so creative!” he laughed.
For dessert they had a lemon gelato. It was just what Charlie needed to digest the wonderful meal. They retired to the living room for espresso and black Sambuca liqueur.
Carlo began, “Charlie, all day you have been calling me Mister Rizzo. It would seem that you purposely avoided calling me Don Carlo like they refer to me in the papers and on the street. Why is that?”
“Well, sir, I didn’t come here to talk to ‘Don’ Carlo. I came to talk to Gina’s ‘Uncle Carlo’ whose last name is Rizzo, so I call you Mister Rizzo because it would be ill-mannered of me to call you by your first name.”
“I like you, Charlie. You have respect and a lot of guys your age don’t any more. You’re right. When it comes to Gina, I am ‘Uncle Carlo’, not that ‘Don Carlo’ nonsense that started with those stupid movies about Italian gangsters. All they do is walk around and mumble. I don’t know any Italians that talk like that. Christ, they said Marlon Brando put cotton in his cheeks to play Don Corleone. No wonder he couldn’t talk right. It’s like going to the dentist.” Carlo laughed.
Charlie thought it genuinely funny that Carlo would make fun of the portrayal of mafia gangsters in the movies. Carlo continued, “You know what we used to call that TV program, you know, ah, ‘The Untouchables’? We used to call it ‘Cops and Wops’” Don Carlo broke out laughing, “all the bad guys were Italian. No Irish, no Jews, all Italians.”
“So, Charlie, let me come right to the point. My reputation doesn’t bother you? You want Gina no matter what, is that right?”
“Well, most certainly the answer is ‘yes’ to the last question. As for your reputation, no it doesn’t bother me but maybe that’s because I don’t have the slightest idea how it affects me.”
“Good for you, Charlie. If you said my reputation didn’t mean anything, you’d be lying. When your situation with Gina becomes a matter of public knowledge, you are going to think you got hit by a brick, Charlie. You saw those ‘suits’ out front? They will be all over you like white on snow. That’s not something you are used to. I’m sure they would tell the Shaw Corporation about you and Gina and her relationship to me. I know Shaw has defense contracts and they require security clearances. They don’t just check for communists, they also ask if anyone has a criminal record or is in any way linked to organized crime. You’re not naïve, Charlie, you know what it would mean if you were dating the only daughter of a reputed organized crime figure – a gangster.”
“Well, Mr. Rizzo…”
“Let me talk a little further, Charlie. I know what I am accused of. I also know how many politicians come to me for donations to their campaign. They tell me to be discreet. I’ll bet they don’t tell Phil Shaw to be discreet! I’m supposed to be a crime figure Charlie. Phil Shaw is supposed to be an ‘industrialist’. You don’t think old Phil Shaw didn’t bribe his share of politicians and generals for his defense contracts? You think he didn’t use contacts in Europe to sell equipment to both sides during the war? I’ve bought politicians in my time and I’ve bought judges. How am I different than Phil Shaw? I don’t deal in porn or drugs. Everybody knows that. I keep the drugs under control by handling money for the dealers. If they step out of line, they lose their connection to me and the feds will blow them out of the water. They’re going to be here anyway because the cops can’t stop them.
“What do I do for a living? I lend money to people the banks won’t touch or that they have screwed and now need my help. I run gambling operations in Philly. I’m sure you read the papers. I once was accused of fixing a ball game. Now tell me something, how is that different than rigging a bid on a government contract? Aren’t you affecting the outcome? Hell, I would think that building a battleship or a missile is a lot more important to society than a damned basketball game!”
“You know, Charlie, I came from Sicily after the war. I was 5 when I got here. My father smuggled weapons and cigarettes during the war. You know who for? For the Americans! They wanted the Sicilians to engage in smuggling to help get the Germans out of Italy and bring down Mussolini. That was OK, right? When they smuggled cigarettes and guns to make money to feed their families that was ‘wrong’. My father didn’t give a shit about Hitler or Mussolini. He was a peasant content to raise his olives and oranges. He would smuggle once in a while to make some additional money. The US Army taught him how to be good at it.”
“I had a hard time when I started school here. My English was what I learned from other kids and it wasn’t good. I had a thick accent and the other kids made fun of me. I got through school thanks to a Sicilian priest in the local parish. He improved my English and helped me with my studies. I got good grades and finished high school. I got a job in construction right out of high school because my family needed money. I was smart enough to figure out the construct
ion companies were padding their costs. I watched for a while and just kept my eyes and ears open. I was quiet and I suppose they thought I didn’t understand much English. They certainly thought I was stupid. I got together with some of the other guys and one day we cornered one of the engineers. I told him I knew what was going on and that we wanted the wages they were claiming to pay us. He laughed in my face and told me to shut up or I would lose my job. He started with some stuff about wise-ass guineas and we should be glad we even had jobs at all, being as stupid as we were. One night after work, we caught the guy alone and told him what would happen if he did not pay us what he was claiming. I hit him so hard I broke a couple of ribs and told him that he would remember what I said every time he breathed. The next day he called me into his office. I could see that he was all wrapped up under his shirt. He told me that if I kept my mouth shut I would get full wages. I made sure that his deal included my friends and he agreed. We followed up with his suppliers and found out he was padding on the stuff he bought from them too. So we shook him down for a part of that as well.”
“I don’t apologize for what I do, Charlie. People might not like it, but all I am really doing is getting a share of what other ‘more reputable’ guys are doing. When a fourteen dollar toilet seat costs the government one-hundred-fifty dollars, I will go to the supplier and tell him I want fifty. If he doesn’t come across, I remind him that I have some judges and politicians on my payroll and that he might find himself under investigation and in a cage for a while.”
“I certainly don’t hope you think Phil Shaw is a Boy Scout. I wouldn’t open too many of his closets if I were you.”
“Mr. Rizzo, you don’t need to tell me anything. I don’t judge you or anybody else. I am love with the woman who happens to be the biological daughter of your sister and the little girl who became your emotional daughter.”
“That’s admirable, Charlie and I appreciate it. But I’m a businessman that a lot of people talk about. You are going to hear a lot of crap and I want you to know who I am. You’re going to hear a lot of stuff, believe me. If any of it is a problem for you, come to me. I’ll tell you. You are Gina’s choice for happiness. I won’t pull any punches. I’ve played hardball all my life, I know it. So has Phil Shaw and a lot of other guys in this area. They don’t apologize for being tough, and neither do I. If you are wearing a uniform and kill somebody for some ideology, you get a medal. If somebody rapes your daughter and you blow his brains out, you get the chair. I’m not here to judge and I’m not here to be judged. I’ve helped a lot of people and I have hurt some. There are a lot of companies in Philly that wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t helped them get started. The owners and the presidents strut around and get their pictures on the society page. I’m always on the city page when I can’t avoid the press. I don’t say it’s not fair. It’s just the way it is. I was born in Sicily. They were born in Bala Cynwyd or Wilmington. I worked in construction, they went to Harvard or Penn. Different circumstances, different people, same money.”