Oct 23 2008
The Skeleton In My Family Closet
Well, the title’s a bit misleading, since there is more than one skeleton lurking there. There are in fact many; indeed! a whole freaking crime syndicate!
But not just any old run-of-the-mill crime syndicate, no siree Bob. Long before “mafia” became a household word here in America, my lily white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant forbearers achieved international fame by being the single largest crime syndicate in 19th century America. (The modern reader will do well to remember that at that time the USA was much smaller, thus effectively limiting the influence of the two other great crime syndicates, Congress and the Senate).
The London Quarterly Review once noted that the gang had established “freedom for thieves-and thralldom for honest men.”
They engaged in land swindle, horse theft (their specialty), prostitution, influence peddling, jury tampering, bribing of police, judges, and politicians, counterfeiting, arson, murder, attempted murder, petty larceny.
Do you know the name of this infamous crime family which made its base in the Nine Mile Swamp in Madison County New York? No Googling!
I hope to post some things on this gang over the weekend.
