It was during the early part of December in Cleveland and a snowstorm had just come through the area the night before blanketing everything in a thin layer of snow. There were Christmas lights on all the houses and all the storefronts downtown had also been decorated for the holiday season. Even the famous strip club The Executives Den, known to be the headquarters of Don Vindog Fratesi, had been elaborately decorated for the holiday season. Inside The Executives Den it looked like business as usual, but on this particular day it was clear that things were certainly not being taken care of like normal. The entire club had been closed down, yet a contingent of dancers had been summoned and were all gathered in the dressing room. The girls were all in various forms of undress as they were getting themselves ready for what they hoped would be a lucrative night.
In the dining area of the strip club, all of the tables had been pushed together to make one long table and it was clear that some sort of ceremony or meeting was soon to take place in the club. The bar was fully stocked and staffed, the kitchen was pumping out some of the best food in the United States and all of the doors had been locked to insure complete privacy. As the army of waiters finished setting the table, a man entered through the front door wearing an Armani overcoat over his Valentino suit and a Borsalino Fedora atop his perfectly combed hair. “Good afternoon Mr. Fratesi,” the Maître d’ said as Vindog handed him his overcoat and hat. “How ya doin,” Vindog replied. Vindog made his way around the club double checking that everything had been set up perfectly and then went to the office to wait for his guests to arrive. In the office he found his Right Hand Man Jay Soprano waiting for him. “Hey boss,” Jay said, “looks like everyone is going to be arriving soon.”
Vindog had called a meeting of all the American Mafia Empires and said he had something serious he needed to discuss. It had been speculated for many weeks that Vindog would be retiring, and it appeared that this meeting of the top bosses would be the occasion for him to do it. One after another the representatives of all the major Mafia empires began to arrive. The first limo pulled into the covered driveway of the strip club and stopped at the front door. The club’s valet immediately rushed towards the limo and opened the door and stepped to the side as he continued to hold the door open. Out stepped Benny Noodles the reputed Capo di tutti capi of the Mad Angels and Noodles Empires. Also with Benny were Noodles Empire Boss ReyRey and Mad Angels Empire Boss The Dubliner. The three men made their way into the club, where they found Vindog waiting for them, and made their way to the bar to get a drink.
The next car that pulled up contained the Barzini delegation, which included Barzini Empire Boss LeftyTwoGunz, Barzini Empire Street Boss and the reputed Kingpin of the American Mafia Ricardo “Ric” Barzini, Barzini Empire Underboss Gunnz and Barzini Empire Consigliere MrTexas. The four men made their way into the club where they found the other men gathered in a small circle. They all greeted each other and ordered another round of drinks. The next limo that pulled up was the Camonte Organization. The Camonte Empire Boss, Antonio “Scarface” Camonte, got out of the limo, tailed by his Right Hand Man Carlos Marcello, and they made their way into the club where he found the others already two drinks ahead of them. The last limo finally made it’s way up to the front door of the club. The valet opened the car door and out stepped Angel Corleone and Grim Reaper, the reputed leaders of the Corleone Empire. Both men made their way into the club where they found the rest of the men at the bar and took the time to individually greet each man.
After a little bit of small talk and a few more drinks, Vindog suggested the men make their way into the dining area where they could have a seat at the table a discuss a little bit of business. The group of men made their way into the dining room and sat down at the table next to the men they all arrived with. Each empire was clearly represented, by seating arrangement, around the entire table. There had only been one chair placed at the head of the table, a chair that under normal circumstances would be where Vindog would sit, but out of respect for tradition Ricardo Barzini, Kingpin of AM, sat at the head of the table. He was flanked by his Underworld Advisers, on the right LeftyTwogunz and on the left Benny Noodles. After the men were seated and the waiters topped all of their glasses off with wine, Vindog began to tap his glass lightly with the back side of his butter knife to get the attention of the rest of the men.
“First of all I want to thank all of you for taking the time to come here for this meeting,” Vindog said as he stood up, “I know we are all very busy men and the Feds would love to catch us all in this room together, so I appreciate the show of respect that all of you are here.” The men all briefly lifted their glasses in the direction of Vindog, almost as a way of collectively saying You’re Welcome. Vindog then continued, “I know many of you have been expecting this day for some time, and most of you already know why we’re here,” Vin paused to sip his wine, “but I wanted to officially announce my retirement from The Life.” Vin raised his glass in a toast to all the other men and wished them all well in their future endeavors. He then took a sip from his glass and and sat down.
Ric then stood up at the head of the table and recited one of the most popular Italian toasts, which was directed at Vindog, “Cento di questi giorni.” Ric continued, “For those of you that don’t know, that toast means ‘wish you one hundred years like today.” All of the men raised their glasses and almost simultaneously said “Salud.” The waiters then returned to the room to bring the men their first course of food and refilled any glasses that had gotten low in their absence. Vindog directed one of the waiters to bring several more wine bottles to the table so the men wouldn’t have to be disturbed by the waiters if anything was being discussed. As the waiters left the room, Ric, now seated again, asked the men “Since we’re all here together is there any business any of you would like to discuss?” The retirement celebration had now turned into a High Council meeting. With the difficulty of bringing together so many of the country’s most powerful mobsters, the men took advantage of the fact they were all together and took the opportunity to discuss business.
“Well I’d like to mention something,” LeftyTwoGunz said. “I know what I’m about to say has already been in place for some time now, but it hasn’t been enforced the last few months and I think it may be a good idea to bring back.” The men all looked at Lefty quizzically, wondering what he was about to bring up. “Look, we all know this thing of ours thrives on organization and structure, so I think it’s a good idea to return to the days when each new associate has to be on record with an established wiseguy.” The men all nodded in agreement. “Besides the fact that this should be obvious, each family should know which specific made guy is vouching for each new recruit.” Benny interrupted, “I thought we already had this in place?” Lefty replied, “Yes we do, but we haven’t been enforcing it lately and as a way to help stop these fu**ing kids from trying to make names for themselves just by whacking people we should have a made guy that would be held accountable as well.” The men all nodded in agreement and seemingly approved of this idea. “Looks like everyone is agreement on this, right?” Ric said aloud to all the men. All the men seated at the table nodded in approval in Ric’s direction, and the new rule was passed. From this point on, the High Council wants all wiseguys recruited to place the name of their “sponsor” in their “profiles.”
“I had something else I wanted to bring up,” Benny spoke up. The room now focused on Benny he began explaining his idea. “I will be starting a new racket that will act sort of like an auction.” The men looked slightly confused at the idea so Benny continued to explain more. “Ok, so you know these Points they got going on around on the streets?” Benny asked rhetorically. “Them things are sellin’ like hotcakes and I’m sitting on a mountain of them, so I’m gonna start selling these things off bit by bit, “Benny looked around the room for reaction. “Well, lemme ask you, why not just sell em to the guys here in the room?” Angel asked. “I’d like to do that, and I’d probably make more money, but I figured I’d kick these out to the streets and give some of these guys comin’ up a shot at a little bit of power.” The men briefly talked among themselves and seemed to like Benny’s idea. “Hey, I’m even willing to bring a couple guys in to help me run the thing, after all, I am retired.” Benny said as the room erupted in laughter about Benny’s newest claim to retirement. “Well I’d like to help,” MrTexas spoke up. “Yea I’ll help out too, I got some for sale as well,” said ReyRey. “Alright sounds good guys, and hey Ric I’ll obviously kick something up to you and Lefty since I got two of your guys involved may as well get you in on this too.” Lefty smiled and nodded approvingly. “Ok, so this issue is settled?” Ric asked looking around the room. The men all raised their glasses in a show of approval and then they moved on to the next subject.
“Ok the next thing we need to talk about are all these random killings that keep happening,” Ric said to the rest of the men. “Yea it’s getting kind of old seeing these small time b*tches comin’ around and killing our guys and Barzini,” Grim replied to Ric’s statement. “Exactly,” said Ric, “we need something in place to make sure these kinds of things won’t happen and if they do can be quashed immediately.” The men began to strategize about different ways they could prevent the mass killings that have occurred so many times in the past. “The biggest problem is the League of B*tches providing these guys with the resources to pull this sh*t off,” Scarface said. “Absolutely agree, it’s bout time the League of B*tches knows we stand together against them,” Lefty replied to Scarface. “So from what I’m understanding here, if the League attacks one fam they’re attacking them all am I right?” Gunnz asked. “Yes,” Ric answered. He continued, “If an empire is attacked by those B*tches it will be expected that each empire will step in to help defend that empire as well as kill the remaining few members of the League.” The men all loudly agreed to this, some getting slightly angry about the thought of their men being killed needlessly. “Listen, I’m just saying this, Barzini is a sworn enemy of the League and if an empire chooses to stay out of a fight with the B*tches then Barzini will take it as that empire is an ally of them B*tches.” Lefty said ruthlessly to the other men around the table. “I second that,” Grim said immediately after Lefty finished speaking. The rest of the men nodded their heads in understanding and agreement.
“Is there any other business anyone would like to discuss?” Ric asked the men. “No,” Gunnz answered. He continued, “Hey Vin where them girls at?” Vin laughing at Gunnz joke looked over in Jay Soprano’s direction, as he knew he had one last thing to discuss. “Hang on guys, I think Jay has one last quick thing to bring up.” The men, starting to get impatient, all directed their attention to Jay. “Well as you all know Vin will be retiring and as Right Hand Man of the Fratesi Empire I’m choosing to let that name end with Vin and would like to join a new empire.” Jay said. “Well won’t this leave a bunch of territory unclaimed now?” Dubliner asked. “Yea but you know what, it may not be a bad idea,” Ric said. He continued, “We can all watch over that territory and this way we can promote someone who’s been doing good and let them have their own empire.” The men liked Ric’s idea and all raised their glass to show their approval. “Jay, if you need an empire, Camonte is always looking for good guys,” Scarface said to Jay. “I’ll definitely talk to you after the meeting Scar, thanks,” Jay replied. “Ok guys so it appears business is settled, let’s get those girls out here Vin.” Ric said.
Vin then called the waiters and staff into the room to clear off the clutter that had formed on the table during the meeting. As the waiters came in with the trays and trays of food and drinks, Vin grabbed aside his Head Waiter and told him to go get the girls from the dressing room. “Right away sir!” the waiter replied. Within five minutes, the room was bursting with activity. Most of the mobsters had at least two girls on his arm while the others will still discussing business or shooting the breeze. The atmosphere seemed jovial and these men seemed happy. The men standing in this room are responsible for bringing the last two year’s of warring to an end and for the first time in a long time will be ringing in the New Year in peace. As the night wore on, the men drank, ate and indulged more and more. Finally the night was coming to an end and the men were being lead back to their cars with a group of girls headed to each car. As they were making their way out of the club Benny looked over at Lefty and Ric and the ladies that were surrounding them and simply said, “Man I love this f*ckin job!” Lefty and Ric began laughing loudly at Benny’s drunken response and them and the rest of the guys got into their respective limos and headed back to their hotels. It had been a long day, a lot of progress had been made, and it seems that at least for now, the High Council continues to have a strong grip on the American Mafia.
Until next time folks, keep your heads low and your necks on a swivel…stay safe out there.