de·i·cide
ˈdēəˌsīd/
noun
- the killer of a god.
o the killing of a god.
It was an uncharacteristically cold day in Maryland that Wednesday, several feet of snow outside and very little activity on the road. The locals were either locked inside their homes huddled around the fire place or at one of the few local businesses that stayed open regardless of the weather. Sin Kitty, the strip club owned by Benny Noodles, the legendary leader of the Noodles, Bad Company and Black Hand organizations. The club was one of the few establishments that stayed open on this snowy day. Behind the Sin Kitty was a large warehouse that was used as a place to store the vast amounts of money the High Council had been raking in over the many months they had been in charge. The agreement to keep the majority of the money in this warehouse was made by the two Founding Fathers of the High Council: LeftyTwoGunz, Boss of the Barzini Crime Empire, and Benny Noodles.
The atmosphere inside the Sin Kitty did not reflect the dreary weather outside. It was warm, the women were scantily clad and there was an overall jovial mood throughout the building. In the back office Anthony Noodles, the son of Benny, was counting the money that the dancers had brought in from the afternoon shift. When the door opened, letting a large cold draft into the building, it took many people by surprise as they were not expecting to see LeftyTwoGunz and his Empire Underboss Gunnz on this particular day. Lefty & Gunnz nonchalantly made their way to the back of the club towards the office, greeting the girls individually as they passed the bar and stage. As they got to the door of the office, which was open, Lefty knocked on the door frame which startled Anthony who had been concentrating on counting the money. “How’s things Anthony? Your mom and dad doin ok?” Lefty asked Anthony. “Hey Left, yea they’re doin good. They ran out to grab some food from the Chinese place they should be back in a little bit if you wanna take a seat,” Anthony replied. Lefty explained that he hadn’t stopped by for a social visit but that he needed to get into the warehouse to grab a few dollars for a business investment the Barzini Crime Family was looking to make back in New York.
Lefty’s mention of the warehouse seemed to rattle Anthony’s nerves and he could tell right away that something was amiss. “What’s the matter?” Lefty asked Anthony noticing his change in posture. “Nothing, nothing wrong.” Anthony replied. Anthony proceeded to reach into the safe to grab the key to the warehouse to give to Lefty. Lefty took the key, still unsure of why Anthony had begun acting so strangely after the warehouse was mentioned, but he thought nothing of it and made his way to the back of the club. Lefty and Gunnz made their way out the back door and walked the several hundred yards to the warehouse that held their money. Inside this fortified warehouse was hundreds of billions of dollars the High Council had been storing as they waited to slowly launder the money over time. Lefty opened the door to the warehouse and him and Gunnz walked in. They were greeted by the regular armed guards on duty who immediately stood up at the site of Lefty and Gunnz and seemed to almost start shaking. What was going on here? Why was everyone so nervous? Lefty and Gunnz were about to find out.
When they opened the large metal door that led to the large vault containing the money, they found the vault completely empty save for a few bills scattered across the floor. The thought of hundreds of billions of dollars being stolen…especially out of this particular warehouse…was way too improbable. There was only one explanation for the missing money, Benny took it. Lefty and Gunnz quickly picked up their phones and called the other Bosses on the Council. When they heard the news they all became incredibly angry. Lefty arranged for Machine Gun Kelly, Pazzo Moretti and Ricardo Barzini to fly to Maryland as soon as possible. Something obviously had gone down and they wanted to get to the bottom of it.
Meanwhile, back at the Sin Kitty Anthony had already called his parents Benny and Talulah Noodles who were both racing back to the club to try to catch Lefty before anything happened. They were not even to their cars yet when Benny’s phone rang, it was Lefty. “What the f*ck is this s*it?! You just go ahead and take our money and not even say a f*ckin word?? Who the f*ck you think you are?!” Lefty screamed into the phone. Benny tried to explain that he had only merely borrowed the money and was planning to replace it before anyone had known, but this answer was not sufficient enough. This was not a few dollars we are talking about; this was hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars that were missing. “You got a day Benny, a f*ckin day and the only reason I’m giving you that is because of my respect for you.” Lefty said ominously to Benny. Benny not one to back down started getting loud with Lefty, “Who the f*ck are you to tell me, Benny f*ckin Noodles, what to do?! I’m immortal motherf*cker you ain’t got sh*t on me!” Benny screamed back into the phone at Lefty. “O it’s like that?” Lefty asked, to which Benny replied “Yea it’s like that!” Lefty then hung up the phone and him and Gunnz made their way back into the Sin Kitty. Lefty told Gunnz he was headed to the car to warm it up and that he already know what he needed to do. Gunnz, knowing exactly what Lefty meant, nodded and made his way back towards the office where Anthony Noodles had been counting the money.
As Gunnz got to the door of the office, he could hear Anthony on the phone talking to Benny, “Dad what do you want me to do? How the hell am I supposed to keep these guys here long enough for you to get here?” Just as Anthony finished the question he looked up and saw Gunnz standing in the doorway to his office. “Gunnz gimme just a sec man, why don’t you go have a drink I’ll be right out,” Anthony said to Gunnz. “Why don’t you go f*ck yourself,” Gunnz replied as he pulled his .45 from his waistband. He pointed the gun at Anthony’s face and fired three shots. All three shots hit their mark, one piercing Anthony’s neck the other two going clean through his head killing Anthony instantly. Gunnz quickly turned around and made his way out of the club to the car where Lefty was waiting and they drove away to meet up with the rest of the Council members. What Gunnz and Lefty didn’t realize was Benny was still on the phone and heard the gunshots that killed his son.
As they were driving to the airport to pick up Ric, MGK and Pazzo, Lefty got a call from Benny. “You’re dead motherf*cker! All of you!” Benny screamed at Lefty. Lefty just hung up on Benny not caring to hear anything he had to say. As they got closer to the airport they recognized a car headed in the opposite direction at a high rate of speed. In the car were Benny and Talulah Noodles, racing back to the Sin Kitty. Almost on cue, as they were just about to pass Benny and Talulah on the road Lefty rolled down the driver’s side window and Gunnz leaned out the back passenger window and opened fire on Benny’s car. Several shots hit Benny, one going through his shoulder and another two lodging in his thigh. The pain from the gunshots and the shock of being shot at caused Benny to veer off the road and crash the car into a light pole. Looking back through the back window, Gunnz said to Lefty, “Sh*t I think we killed em.” To which Lefty’s first reaction was to just start laughing.
As they got to the airport, Ric, MGK and Pazzo’s plane was just landing. They picked the three men up and drove to a local hotel to gather their thoughts on what had occurred. What happened to all of that money? Was Benny working with anyone? These are questions the five men would ponder for the next several days as they tried to figure out the magnitude of the breach in trust. By now it was Friday the 13th of February and midnight was approaching. The five men had rented out the top floor of the hotel and each was relaxing in their room when suddenly the phone in Lefty’s room began to ring. Thinking it was probably one of the other guys Lefty answered the phone, “Yeah?” The voice Lefty heard took him by surprise at first, “Lefty, it’s Benny.” Lefty smiled when he heard the voice of his old friend, he now knew Benny had survived and this gave Lefty almost a feeling of relief knowing he wasn’t responsible for the death of the man he once referred to as a mentor. “What do you want?” Lefty asked. “Listen, I f*cked up. I shoulda came to you first and told you what was going on and I was wrong. I’m sorry it came to this and even though my son is dead, I’m willing to let bygones be bygones and move on from this.” Benny replied to Lefty. Lefty sat quiet for a few moments and then replied, “It ain’t gonna be that easy Benny. It’s not only me you f*cked over here, so even if I say we’re cool you still got the other guys to talk to.” Benny replied, “Let me worry about them.” Lefty didn’t like the way Benny said this, but the two friends had made their amends and now Lefty hoped Benny would do the same with the others. They chatted for a few minutes longer and then said goodbye. As Lefty was going to hang up the phone he all of a sudden heard Benny’s voice again, “Chapo you still there??” Lefty then hung up the phone and said out loud, “That son of a b*tch.”
Lefty quickly made his way to the other guy’s rooms and called for a meeting. When the five men were finally all seated Lefty delivered the news. “So Benny just called apologizing and saying everything was good and he was gonna replace the money,” Lefty explained. “Bullsh*t,” Pazzo replied. “Yea, calling you doesn’t fix what he done to us,” MGK added. “I’m not disagreeing boys,” Lefty said, “but there’s more, he IS full of sh*t and not only that he’s back working with Chapo.” This last bit of news seemed to take the group by surprise. “How you know that?” Pazzo asked. “This f*ck pulled a High School move and had Chapo on the line with him when he called me and was dumb enough to ask if he was still on the line before he hung up with me.” Lefty answered. The men all sat quiet for several minutes as the weight of Lefty’s words sank in. “Well, it’s time to depose the ‘Royal Family’ then isn’t it?” Pazzo asked rhetorically. The five men agreed, Benny and his family had to go. Not family in the sense of the clan that Benny ran, but family as in his blood relatives. The men put in motion the plan that would become known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
The news of Benny taking sides with the League of Shadows again hit Lefty hardest of all. Benny and Lefty were practically brothers and Lefty had sworn he would never turn on Benny, as Benny had sworn to him. The news of his linking back up with LOS almost made Lefty sick. LOS were known for killing random people because they did not possess the means to take on their true target and had never considered the fact that Benny would stoop to their levels. Unfortunately what he long thought an impossibility had become a reality. Over the next few hours the men put together a list of people that would have to go in order to ensure no retaliation against the masses. The list consisted of four names: Benny, Talulah and Nina Noodles as well as Benny’s brother Dead Pool. Considering they were in Maryland, the Noodles family home turf, they knew it wouldn’t be hard to find the people they were looking for. It was about 2am when they received a phone call alerting them to the fact that Talulah had fled the country on Benny’s orders. It seemed Benny was trying to make sure the family name would survive by making sure at least one of his relatives was out of reach of the five notorious killers. The same phone call also produced the locations of both Dead Pool and Nina. Gunnz and MGK were dispatched to take out these two targets.
Dead Pool was relaxing at his apartment in Baltimore, unaware of the fireworks that had occurred in the underworld over the past several days. Dead had been noticeably missing from most underworld gatherings lately so it was unclear if he was planning to leave The Life or was dealing with personal issues of his own. Either way, he would still pay the price of being related to Benny by blood. There as a knock on the door to the Dead’s apartment. Not expecting any visitors, Dead grabbed his .38 and walked to the door to find out who it was. When he got to the door he looked through the peephole but couldn’t see anybody. He then cracked the door, keeping the chain on to provide some security in case someone popped out, and peered out into the hallway. Just as he thought the coast was clear and was about to close the door, MGK popped out from the side of the door and put two bullets into the face of Dead Pool. Dead fell backwards from the force of the shots and was dead before his body hit the floor. They say in the underworld to be shot in the face is a sign of respect, it seemed Lefty, Ric, Gunnz, Pazzo and MGK still held the Noodles family in high regard.
On the other side of town, in a small gated community was Nina Noodles who was shacked up in a safe house that had been provided by her father. He had been having his goons come check on her once an hour. Up the street from the house was a van parked on the side of the road and inside the van was Gunnz who had been staking the place out for the last few hours. He had taken notice of when the men would come each hour and how long they would stay. Like clockwork, they came right when Gunnz expected them to and left in the same amount of time they had each previous hour they stopped by. As the lights from the car carrying Nina’s guards faded as they turned the corner at the end of the street Gunnz got out of the van and slowly walked to the front door of Nina’s house. He knocked on the door, using the same knock he had seen the guards use to identify themselves to Nina, and Nina opened the door not expecting a thing. When she saw Gunnz standing there she was unsure who he was though she knew he looked familiar and had seen him with her dad many times. She invited him in, thinking he was one of the guards sent to check on her and asked if he wanted anything to drink. “Yea, beer if you got it,” Gunnz told her. Nina then made her way to the kitchen and Gunnz followed closely behind her. As Nina reached to open the refrigerator door, Gunnz pulled his trusty .45, now equipped with a suppressor, from his waistband and fired three shots into the back of Nina’s head. The job was over that fast and Gunnz quickly made his way out of the house, back to the van and as far away from Nina’s neighborhood as he could get.
By now, news of Dead Pool and Nina’s death was making its way to Benny who had chose not to go into hiding, but instead stay in his normal residence in Baltimore. Far from the compound Don Corleone had in the Godfather, Benny’s house was a modest four bedroom home on a nondescript street perfect for blending in with the community. Benny was on high alert and had dispersed his men throughout the neighborhood in the hopes that any attempts to infiltrate his neighborhood would be noticed by his men before anyone even got close to his house. Benny had a walkie talkie sitting next to him on the sofa as he watched TV, drinking beer and smoking weed. Every 15 minutes his men would check in to let him know the coast was clear and that everything was fine in the neighborhood. 15 minutes had passed since the last update and Benny picked up his walkie talkie and asked for a status update, but all he heard was static. He again asked for a status update and only heard dead air. Benny now getting nervous grabbed his infamous Colt 1911’s and put them in their respective holsters on his shoulders. Finally he heard over the radio, “All clear boss.” To which Benny replied, “it’s about f*ckin time man.” Just as Benny finished his sentence the front door to his house came crashing down and in came Ric, Pazzo and Lefty. Lefty immediately fired a shot at Benny’s right hand, effectively taking Benny out of the fight by wounding his dominant hand. Benny knew his fate was sealed but decided he would go down like a man. “You know I never wanted it to come to this,” Benny said to the three men. “Too late for that now,” Lefty replied solemnly. “Just not in the face, ok?” Benny said to the three men as he turned his back to them resigned to his fate. “Any last words?” Pazzo asked. “Yea, f*ck you,” Benny said laughing, and with that the three men opened fire simultaneously hitting Benny with multiple shots in the torso, arms and legs. With the job seemingly done, Pazzo made his way out to the car to get it started and left Ric and Lefty inside for a few minutes with their old friend.
Lefty and Ric stood looking at Benny’s bloodied body for a few minutes before finally Lefty said, “You know if he just wouldn’t of let his pride get in the way this guy coulda been Boss forever.” “You’re right Boss, he carnt get enough of himself sometimes and that’s why he’s where he is now,” Ric replied. Ric patted Lefty on the back and made his way to the car where Pazzo was waiting in the driver’s seat. Lefty was the last one to leave the house. It had been Lefty and Benny who had taken on every threat the American Mafia had faced for many months now and Lefty still couldn’t get over the fact that his old partner and mentor lay dead and bloodied on the floor in front of him. “It’s been real brudda,” Lefty said out loud, seemingly directed at Benny, and with that he turned and walked out of the house.
The next day the five men made the announcement that the High Council was no more. “Me and Benny created the Council and it wouldn’t be right continuing to call ourselves the Council with him no longer with us,” Lefty told the masses. It was also announced that the new Kingpin of the American Mafia would be Pazzo Moretti. Pazzo’s speech was short and to the point, the rules would stay the same and business should continue as usual. Pazzo then informed everyone that Lefty would remain in an advisory role and the other three men would represent the remaining Empires as Big Bosses. With that said, a new ruling coalition had been formed and they hoped they would be able to quickly pick up the pieces and bring the American Mafia back on an upward trend.
So it seems that finally, after months and months of holding together and keeping the peace that the High Council era is officially over. It’s been rumored that the League of Shadows is looking for vengeance because of Benny’s death and that they will be returning soon to bring the fight to the masses. Until then, we all must take it one day at a time and eventually This Thing of Ours will return to prosperity. Wars are always bad for business and we all know this is not the last war we will see, but hopefully with the new leadership in place things will work a little smoother and disputes can be handled like men instead of like children. Only time will tell what the repercussions of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre will be, until then keep your heads low and your necks on a swivel. Stay safe out there America.
*Editor’s Note: It has been reported that when the police responded to the call that was later discovered to be the scene of Benny’s murder, that nobody had been found. It is unknown at this time where the body of Benny Noodles has been taken or if he is indeed dead or has somehow miraculously survived.