It was a cold winter day a week before Christmas, a man was sitting inside the local social club. His favorite drink on the table and cigar in hand he nodded his head while listening to Dean Martin singing Christmas songs. He was sitting at the very last table at the back of the club facing the front door. Aside from him, only the bartender and five men at another table were inside the social club. The man sitting by himself at the table was Giovanni Greco also known as “The Greek”, “The Big G”, “GG” but most people called him Boss. Giovanni was the head of Chicago’s Greco Crime Family. The Greco Family can trace its roots to Prohibition Chicago having been close business associates to Al Capone but never attracted the same notoriety, which is probably the reason why you’ve never heard of them. Every Don of the Family had been a Greco, passing the reigns of the organization from generation to generation. Giovanni had inherited the position from his father and helped build the Family to be serious competitors with New York City’s Five Families. The Family controls multiple racket’s such as extortion, money laundering, loan sharking, illegal gambling and most recently drug trafficking.
Giovanni always visited the social club around 5pm before he went home for dinner. While sipping his drink, Don Greco looked up to see his brother Enzo leisurely make his way out of the bathroom. Enzo “Squirt” Greco was the younger brother of Giovanni. The nickname Squirt was given to him by Giovanni as a joke about his numerous bathroom trips. Enzo hated when his brother made fun of him, but he hated more how successful Giovanni was. Sure Enzo controlled some rackets of his own and made a good living but nothing like Giovanni. “Listen brother I don’t mind you making jokes about me,” an obvious lie, “but can you not do it in front of the guys? It makes me look bad. I can’t help I’ve got a weak stomach, the doctor said I’ve got some kind of condition.” Giovanni loved his brother more than life itself, he knew his brother hated his nickname. Giovanni also hated when other people abused his brother about his nickname. Once he actually cut out a mans tongue to make sure he never said the name again. “Alright Enzo I’ll stop making the jokes, but I only do it out of love, which you know.” Giovanni got up to hug his brother and told him to get his coat so they could leave. The men who had been sitting at the other table, both brothers’ bodyguards, stood up with both men ready to leave. Giovanni told them to go outside and get the car warmed up. Giovanni hated the cold, normally around this time of year he takes his family to his home in Florida but his mother was too sick to leave the state so instead of leaving for Florida he stayed in Chicago so he can celebrate Christmas with his mother. If there was anyone else Giovanni loved more than his brother, it was his mother.
As the guards were waiting outside, Giovanni started to walk toward the club exit, but Enzo rushed past him to get into the car before him. Since they were kids they always raced to the car to get the best seat. As Giovanni smiled he noticed the usual busy street was awfully quiet that day, too quiet. As he looked up the street he noticed a car running with three men inside. At first he didn’t think anything of it, but as he was just about to get in his car he noticed the car with the men began to move towards him faster and faster. Recognizing it was a hit, Giovanni yelled “Enzo get out of the car now!” Enzo thinking this was a joke because he ran in front of his brother took his time and did not notice the incoming hit men. Just before the hit men began to open fire with their tommy guns, Giovanni was able to grab Enzo out of the car. Shots rang out and three guards were killed instantly. Giovanni was hit once in the back and twice in the arm. Enzo escaped unscathed. The remaining two guards returned fire with their pistols and shot one of the hit men in the torso. The car made a fast escape, but the injured man fell out of the car door as they made a sharp turn around a corner. “GRAB THAT MAN!” Yelled Giovanni in pain, the Greco brothers guards grabbed the injured hit man and brought him back to Giovanni. “So Big G do those bullets hurt?” the hit man said while laughing at his own joke. Enzo helped his brother to his feet. Giovanni looked at the hit man with his dark and cold Sicilian eyes and said “These bullets are nothing. They’ll heal up sooner or later…….. but what we’re going to do to you will NEVER HEAL!”
Story received anonymously at the American Mafia Headquarters.