My grandfather and the Cosa Nostra (Sicilian mafia) with pics

[SnikPlosskin]

My wife forced a garage sale on me this weekend. My net: about $2.00 am hour. Plus I have a lot of new Mexican friends. Priceless.

Going through our stuff, I found an obviously very old, hand made wooden box. It was full of black and white marbles and split into two sections.

On the bottom is the date 10/7/38 and on the sides M.S.S. I knew I got it from my grandfather but didn't know it's history. So I called my dad.

My dad told me it is a voting box. My grandfather was the treasurer of a sort of fraternal organization that collected dues from members of the familia. In the event of a death, this organization would cover the costs of the deceased family's funeral and burial.

The box was used to make organizational decisions via secret vote. Each voting member would be given a single black and a single white marble.

The box would be passed around and the voter would place his marble in a metal spout where it passed through to one side of the box. The marbles were counted and the decision made.

Like this:

"We learned that Tony is a rat. We will now vote to determine if we whack Tony right away, or torture him first. Since Tony's wife will most certainly cut off your penis if she finds out how you voted, we will have a secret vote. White means whack him now. Black means torture, then whack."

Pics to follow.

[99 pewtercoupe]

Now you know where the term "black balling" someone came from

[SnikPlosskin]

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k130/ThrakkorzogPJM/photo_zps155459c4.jpg


http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k130/ThrakkorzogPJM/photo_zps73600fcc.jpg

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k130/ThrakkorzogPJM/photo_zpsf2361c8c.jpg

[OddBall]

So, did Tony get tortured before he got whacked? And did his wife find out?

[SnikPlosskin]

So, did Tony get tortured before he got whacked? And did his wife find out?

We will never know. It was secret.

My grandfather always played down the mob angle. I don't thing he was very involved. But he did have some level of participation.

[Jeff '79]

Very interesting....:yesnod:

[MrPeabody]

Exact same method used today to vote on a new member at the Elk's Lodge.

[xXBUDXx]

If that box could talk, the stories it could tell.............

[DukeAllen]

Looks like you kept the blue ones.

[mrvette]

Knew a man, decades ago, his father was a auto mechanic with his own shop in the Woodmont Triangle area of old Bethesda Md, Italian last name.....

suffice to say, this auto mechanic managed to buy up a really good size chunk of real estate, and retire rather wealthy......his son who I worked with, just t stated clearly how that was done.....the old man retired out maybe 25 years ago......pretty good show for a guy working on cars, and swinging multi million buck real estate transactions......he WAS connected.....

:kimblair:

Back in the early 60's I went to college with a guy in the 'family'.....

caught the accent and attitude, yeh, he was real.....

:dance::leaving:

[lspencer534]

Knew a man, decades ago, his father was a auto mechanic with his own shop in the Woodmont Triangle area of old Bethesda Md, Italian last name.....

suffice to say, this auto mechanic managed to buy up a really good size chunk of real estate, and retire rather wealthy......his son who I worked with, just t stated clearly how that was done.....the old man retired out maybe 25 years ago......pretty good show for a guy working on cars, and swinging multi million buck real estate transactions......he WAS connected.....

:kimblair:

Back in the early 60's I went to college with a guy in the 'family'.....

caught the accent and attitude, yeh, he was real.....

:dance::leaving:

I used to meet some real ones in my work. One I particularly remember was a guy named Rocco Russo, a member of the Carlos Marcello family in New Orleans. His business card simply said:

Rocco Russo
Private Contractor

He was indicted for falsely obtaining Gov't. loans for hurricane rebuilding. He put together some fake deeds, recorded them, and claimed that the properties were damaged by hurricane. I had been appointed to represent him in Federal Court. He said that he liked me and that if I ever had any trouble I couldn't handle to call him. I knew better than to fall for that.

About 15 years ago I got a letter that said he had died "peacefully". Yeah...right.

[benny42]

Exact same method used today to vote on a new member at the Elk's Lodge.

Freemasons lodges use a box just like that too. :yesnod:

[Milton Fox]

Pics of Tony's wife? :waiting:

[JRD77VET]

Cool piece of family history :yesnod:

[snide]

:cool:

[DJ_Critterus]

Now you know where the term "black balling" someone came from

I thought that was something Sanchez came up with :leaving:

Actually, it looks more like an old school Freemason ballot box and the term "Black Balling" somebody comes from that practice. Casting a black ball is a negative vote and depending what jurisdiction you are in, either one or however many is decided upon keeps somebody out of the secret decoder ring society.