He Paid a Debt He Did Not Owe, I Owe a Debt I Could Not Pay: The Resurrection Journey of an American Family of Italian Descent

By Dr. Vincent M. M. Galici Sr. and Angeline E. Peterson

The contemporary figure has somewhat similar characteristics to his father, grandfather, and great grandfather; a soul-searching thinker, all the same, departing from the ruinous while conserving the beneficial side of the culture, customs, and manners in which he was raised and the larger generational dimensions embedded in it.
A virtual page-turner, the highly intense and graphically detailed saga reaches its most intense crescendo in this final installment. Characters readily identifiable in your own life, cheek by jowl with the hero and foe, percolate the gamut of your emotions. Rooting for the one while despising the other, you are propelled into the bowels of the narrative.
Some personalities appear to be born evil and feed on the environs; others tend to virtue and progress upon it. Protagonists and antagonists are mixed and varied; some are eternal optimists and find happiness even in dark periods; some are risk takers in the will for clarity, putting their reputation on the line; some are perpetually abstruse and find it their sad comfort zone; and then there is the many up and down others.
The first and second generation Stanoli patriarchs were fond of saying, “There is nothing greater than loving God and loving your neighbor,” and “I am a learner, willing to be corrected and criticized in order to become what I ought to become no matter where it comes from,” and “I make it my moral ambition to be happy around others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Nov 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781663244307

Dr. Vincent M. M. Galici Sr.

Vincent M. M. Galici, Sr has an earned undergraduate degree in biblical studies, an earned master’s degree in theology, and an earned PhD in biblical/secular counseling, and Christian thought. He has more than 45 years of ongoing passionate interest, study, and application in America, and Americans of Italian descents history, customs, and manners, as applied to mortal man and the guarantee of immortality for the Christian.

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Previous Books by the Author

Primrose Path: Heaven’s Road to Hell’s Gate

Dayspring: A Life of Yore Led of Late

Threshold: Aperture to the Light of the World

Stanoli: The Saga of an American-Italian Family

The Stanolis: The Epic and Enduring Legend of an American-Italian Family

When I am Weak, Then I am Strong: The Incredible Saga of the Stanoli Family Book 1

When I am Weak, Then I am Strong: The Incredible Saga of the Stanoli Family Book 2

HE PAID

A DEBT

HE DID NOT

OWE,

I OWE

A DEBT

I COULD NOT

PAY

THE RESURRECTION JOURNEY OF

AN AMERICAN FAMILY OF ITALIAN DESCENT

Dr. Vincent M. M. Galici, Sr.

HE PAID A DEBT HE DID NOT OWE,

I OWE A DEBT I COULD NOT PAY

THE RESURRECTION JOURNEY OF AN

AMERICAN FAMILY OF ITALIAN DESCENT

Copyright © 2023 Dr. Vincent M. M. Galici, Sr.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

iUniverse

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6632-4431-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-4430-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023911539

Cover image by Angeline E. Peterson.

iUniverse rev. date: 11/17/2023

This book is dedicated to the honor and appreciation of my family. My daughter, Lorene, her husband, Peter Heinzen, my son, Vincent Jr., my grandchildren, Brandon, Caleb, and Angeline, and my godson, David Galba, and wife, Sue, whose love and support has been incalculable. All praise to God.

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

The Brothers

The Real Authority Behind Drucci

Chapter 1: WHERE IS FAMILY?

The Sisterhood Trio

Conversation with Vincent Jr.

The Letter and Spirit of the Will

Sisters’ Oblique Belief in God

Chapter 2: TURNING ANTIQUITY ON ITS HEAD

The Bards Timely Visit

Backwoods Blacks and Humanist Whites

Propaganda vs Real History

Slavery and Groupthink

The Bards, cont’d

The 3/5s Clause

Present-Day Sicko Mindset

Chapter 3: THE THREAT

Infiltration

The Divide

Factions

The 1776 Report

Intent

Factions, cont’d

Black on Black

With the Grandsons

With Lorene and Angie

Chapter 4: CULTURE WARS

The Colors of American Marxism

Black Lives Matter

I’m White, I’m A Racist?

Chapter 5: HISTORY

Truthful

Founders and Religion

Reversal of Black History/1619 Project

White Privilege and Whiteness Training

Dystopian Existence

Critical Race Theory

History and CRT

Today and 1984

Chapter 6: MOBSTERS

The Past Catches Up

Borgati of the Mondini

The Josie and Katie Incident

Gabriano Falvone

One Request

Onslaught

Chapter 7: THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD

The Ruse

What Makes a Man

Swan Song

A Little Light, A Little Life

Rackets and the Man-Child

Virtue to be Content

Be Unlike Your Father and Despise Your Heritage

Chapter 8: LUTHER, CONSCIENCE

The Five Solae

Roman Church Monopoly

Breath of Fresh Air

Upending the Culture

Differences

Chapter 9: THE UNFINISHED

Putting it Together

Pursuit

At Mama Stanoli’s

Lost Causes

Ill Diavolo in un Vestito Rosso

Old Country and the End of Mondini

Vincent and Wild Bill Celebrate Domenico Amade

Chapter 10: HIGHS AND LOWS

Lost Letters of Gold Framed in Silver

Father to Son

A Father’s Son

Out of Time and Place

Marriage at The Bijou

Uncle and Nephew: The Incidents

Purveyor of Education Lies and Deception

Chapter 11: HOME STRETCH

The Little Cottage, 1951

Chase

Salinas

Oakland

Early Spring of ‘52

Chapter 12: AFFECTING THE FUTURE

Surviving a Fatality

Happy Holidays?

Hunt

Strange

To 1961…

Clarence Davis

Resurrection

Make the Most of It

The Man the Directive

Zest for the Feat

Rendezvous with Destiny

Chapter 13: PATH OF RECONCILIATION

Reaching Out

Alternate Approach

A Year Later

FINALE: VIGNETTES

A Childhood Moment

Mother

To Join the Military

Monroe/Swartz, LA. Doy & Janie Place (Vincent’s best friends for 12 years until Doy’s sudden departure)

Central Park and South Ferry, NY

In Days of Old

One of a Hundred Like Incidents

Upon Reflection

The Left

A Father’s Heirlooms

The Epic Battle of Our Time Is the New Cold War

Betrayal

Nine Lives

Foster Grandparent

Pedophile

No Karma in Christianity

Where did you come from? Why are you here? Where are you going?

GLOSSARY

PROLOGUE

quietus - enter into rest

Note: The ensuing prevue¹ is from When I am Weak,

Then I am Strong; 4th in the novella series.

THE BROTHERS

Evils, Theodorus, can never pass away; for there must always remain something which is antagonist to good. Having no place among the gods in heaven, of necessity they hover around the earthly nature, and this mortal sphere. Wherefore we ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like Him is to become holy and just and wise.

~ PLATO, THEAETETUS, 176

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.

~ FREDERICK DOUGLASS

THE STANOLIS WERE FLYING high in 1938. Early that spring, on a Saturday, Sam’s sister, Katie, was out with some girlfriends, at the Indianwood Golf and Country Club for a day of golfing and invited her brothers, Clem and Sam, for a luncheon there. Lively Katie had a plan, or, well, it just wouldn’t be Katie.

Lucille Martello, her best friend was there, and, for months, matchmaker Katie had imagined Lucille and Clem would make a great pair. And, would you know, it was love at first sight? For weeks on end, Clem was consumed with the thought of her and she, though more reserved could not get him off her mind.

Not since the days of Felona Calimera had Sam seen his brother as happy. And six months later, to the joy of family and friends on both sides, especially Mama Stanoli, they wed, and a royal to-do it was, held upstate at the Stanoli property in Petoskey. Sam was best man and Katie, the matron of honor. Sam and sisters, Josie and Rose, had prearranged accommodations in lodges and motels in the outlying area for the three hundred in attendance for an unprecedented two-day celebration. Ah, the days when money was the least of Stanoli concerns.

Sam flew in an entertainer, one year his senior, and his orchestra that regularly perform at Billy Rose’s Casa Manana, in Ft. Worth, Texas. The brothers had been following him a few years now and had grown fond of the fellow Italian’s humor, showmanship, and music style. Louis Prima was definitely the one for such an occasion. A little-known fact is, due to Clem and Sam’s New York connections, by the end of the year, the William Morris Agency retained Louis and his career took off from there. Over the decades, he made numerous recordings and record albums, radio and television appearances, and live performances, well into the late 1960s.

Lucille’s father was of Italian and Armenian descent, and her mother of Persian, who upon her kind, yet persistent persuasion, unconventional Clem agreed to include a lavish East Indian accent to the ceremonies. Although the addition was uncommon it wasn’t so extraordinary as to be considered immoral by Italian standards, as long as it played second fiddle to Italian tradition, flavor, and emphasis which, of course, it did. Truth be told, opinions were mixed but no one undermined nor dared to cross Clem.

About five o’clock in the evening, Clem arrived at the house of the bride where the priest pronounced the nuptial benediction. He then, with refreshment, escorted her to his own house, and the assembly of her relatives and friends reconducted, or presented her to her father’s house. When she arrived, the priest repeated the nuptial benediction, performed at 10 pm, rather than the traditional midnight. Immediately after, Lucille was accompanied by part of her attending troop, (others had returned to their dwellings), who reconducted, or presented her to the house of her husband, at one o’clock in the morning.

The nuptial solemnities were brilliant. On the Stanoli dime, the assembly was richly dressed in gold and silver, and Lucille’s friends and relatives were all mounted on horses, richly harnessed. The goods, wardrobe, and the bed of the bride, were carried in triumph. Clem, opulently mounted, magnificently dressed, was accompanied by friends and relations, as Lucille’s friends followed behind in ornately covered carriages. During the procession, at various intervals, guns and rockets were fired, prodigious torches were lit, and the Louis Prima band went at it, to top a spectacle beyond description.

The music, throughout the extravaganza, to his bride’s delight, was of Clem’s choosing, traditional Italian tunes including, Mattinata, La Donna è Mobile, Funiculi funicula, Torna a Surriento, O Solo Mio, Concerto in C for Two Trumpets, Symphony No. 4 in A, Minuet, Santa Lucia, Nessun Dorma, Caro Mio Ben, Barcarole, etc. However, American swing time was Clem’s favorite genre and the list of songs included, Body and Soul, (I’m) Confessin’ (that I Love You), Embraceable You, Exactly Like You, Georgia on My Mind, I Got Rhythm, Love for Sale, Memories of You, Mood Indigo, All of Me, Just Friends, Lazy River and others.

When the band was on a break, Clem stepped up to the mike and summoned Sam, giving him the knowing wink, and, like that, they went into a routine they’d improvised numerous times before, bantering about their trips to South America and Italy, and the food, music, women, and such. Everyone loved it.

When band returned, Louis Prima joined them on stage and the three melodiously bantered about musical tastes and how the swing era was among their favorites. In one of their routines, Clem handed Louis a piece of paper with the list of tunes they came up with. Louis looked at it, crumbled it in his hand, tossed it over his head, and the drummer caught it and stuffed it into his coat pocket. Sam then handed Louis his list of songs on a piece of paper and did as had done before as did the drummer. Then Louis handed two pieces of paper, one to Clem, the other to Sam, and they crumbled it and tossed it to the drummer but played like he has no room left in his pocket and tossed them both over to Louis. And the hilarious, tongue and cheek theme was made that it’s Louis Prima’s band and he’ll decide what to perform.

All this was worked out beforehand and they loved how it had played out to applause. But Louis concluded the razzing with a pass that he will, indeed, fit their requests into his design for the balance of the night, and performed: Out of Nowhere, When Its Sleepy Time Down South, Alone Together, How Deep is the Ocean (How High is the Sky?), I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You, New Orleans, Autumn in New York, Blue Moon, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, These Foolish Things, I Can’t Get Started, Once in a While, September Song, You Go to My Head, My Funny Valentine, Summertime, Caravan, Sophisticated Lady....

Special guests, Fred and Curtis Bard, brought with them a local musical group from Detroit, friends and relations all, to entertain from then on during Louis’ breaks.

Soon thereafter, that would become one of the highlights of the night, Louis made a surprise announcement that the Stanoli sisters had prepared something they will perform, dedicated from the groom to his bride. At the time, Clem was standing with Lucille alongside Sam and Gloria, posing for photos in the back. Quickly informed of it, they rushed to the front to enjoy their sisters’ routine, they’d performed times before in their Detroit, Black Bottom and Paradise Valley stomping grounds. Josie, Rose, and Katie, opened up with a few, short and amusing stories about Clem and Lucille and their romance before performing a tribute to their favorite trio, The Boswell Sisters, singing Going Back to Old Yazoo, Come on Now Cow Moooooooo, and some of the same songs listed above, ended with booming encores.

In a moment of pure nostalgia from those days in Brazil, Sam got up in the middle Louis Prima’s set and asked him to play Vincent Youman’s rousing tune, Carioca. The brothers caught each other’s eyes and Clem joined him on stage in a performance never to be forgotten by all. And as the band continued playing the number, to the thrill and delight of all, Clem with Lucy and Sam with Gloria hit the dance floor.

On the heels of that, in sweet melancholy, Katie stepped up to the platform and told the story of the times when Sandy had taken her, Josie, and Rose, to see the Boswell Sisters and Ruth Etting and Annette Hanshaw perform live. And she went on to say the Boswell’s had so inspired them that, soon afterward, they began singing and harmonizing to the songs of the times, and, for the next three years, they became popular attractions at friends and relations get-togethers, and Sandy was always there cheering them on, that is, until he was taken away.

With that, Clem saw his opportunity and asked his sisters to do a song in honor of that happy go lucky fella, and performed one of Sandy’s favorites, On the Sunny Side of the Street. By the end the second encore, you couldn’t find a dry eye….

I can’t believe, Clem shook his head in wonder, how Josie didn’t fall apart, Sam.

This may be a good sign, Clem, Sam replied, and added, maybe, just maybe, she’s going to be okay. I haven’t seen her like this since….

Yeah, God knows, I hope so. I can’t stand to see what’s become of her. This isn’t the Josie we’ve always known.

Josie was the toughest nut to crack of any woman I’ve ever known. I’ll never forget how she always looked out for us. And, man what a couple she and Sandy made, I tell you, it breaks my heart still….

Mine, too, Sam. So, oh God, I hope so, I hope, she’s finally really coming out of it.

All the same, she hadn’t. A few minutes later, in the Women’s Room she was a basket case again, asking to be taken (to the Petoskey) home…Naomi Grissini was there and volunteered to take her. Security was as tight as ever and two hundred guardie del corpo, in predesignated strategic zones, were stationed all around the vast grounds, armed to the teeth. Thus, Bambini and Alfredo Giulupa followed behind them to get her there safely.

Oh my, what a shindig Clem and Lucille’s wedding and reception turned out to be. Years later, it was still the talk of the town. Clem’s honeymoon choice was as expected, Rio de Janeiro, but Lucille always wanted to go to Hawaii, and so it was Hawaii or bust. It turned out to be two of the most restful and peaceful and fun-loving weeks of Clem’s life that rivaled, if not overshadowed anything he’d ever had with brother, Sam, and, boy, that said something. Just two months later they learned of something greater, a heavenly, life changing one: Lucille was pregnant.

The whole of it was euphoric, and were so much in love they believed nothing could go wrong. Clem would often remark he believed God was showering him with blessings he didn’t deserve, and, as a way of giving back, he decided to attend mass on a regular basis, even though he didn’t believe in the church but wanted to honor Lucille’s Catholic faith. But he said he wasn’t doing it only for her, he’s doing it for the God he believed in, for her. There were many things in Catholicism he could not agree with, most in fact.

Clem had been introduced to God another way, thanks to Giuseppe Falvone’s son, who was a protestant pastor and did attend their wedding and reception but kept a low profile. It can be said that Clem and Sam grew up with Gabriano Falvone, they called Gabby, because their father, Giuseppe, had been one their father’s all-time best friends. Although coming from different influences, their camaraderie was beyond question and mutual respect beyond dispute. Long before Gabby went into the ministry, he often shared what Christ meant to him with childhood pals, Clem and Sam, telling them of the challenges and glories of what a Christian life carried with it.

During this period, Clem was still as involved as ever in Partnership, co-donning it, as alluded to earlier, with Sam. This extraordinary arrangement had been working out so well that others in administration stopped asking when Clem would take over and man the helm. But Clem didn’t want to, he never wanted to, and that, he said, was that. Had things been different and Sam wasn’t there, he would have…for Pop’s sake. But Sam was there, just as he’d always been, and just as Clem has been for Sam, Sam was there for Clem. They were the perfect match, the ideal team, the best of the best of companionable brothers all along the pact they’d made together. The decision only made sense because every decision made was made together, most of which were easy. But when there was an impasse they stuck it out until they came to a clear and mutual understanding and agreement.

A case in point was when Villi’s, Lucille’s sister’s, husband wanted more active involvement in the business. Before he and Villi moved to Detroit and Luigi got a job, working at Ford’s on the production line, some years earlier Luigi had been a soldato out of Brooklyn, under the command of Colosimo and Torrio. And Villi couldn’t have been happier that he was out and away from the underworld. However, like a habit you can’t break, it always seemed to follow him and when Lucille married into the Stanoli family, and consequently Partnership he didn’t stop hounding her to put in a good word for him. The long and the short of it was after they were all invited to Clem and Lucille’s home on a Sunday, Lucille made the pitch to Clem, and he arranged a meet.

That very night Clem made the decision to give Luigi the privilege of becoming part of the waste management business, which was a move unparalleled. Never had he done such a thing without first conferring with Sam. Long afterward, the only explanation anyone could think of was it must have been a carry-over from that unprecedented euphoric state that made him vulnerable to deceit. Yes, it was rumored that Luigi’s good standing was without merit, though he’d claimed to have the support of Big Jim and Johnny Torrio. But, truth be told, Clem never did contact them to corroborate it and was this faux pas that would ultimately lead to his murder.

Note: The ensuing prevue is from When I am Weak, Then I am Strong; 4th in the series.

THE REAL AUTHORITY BEHIND DRUCCI

What! Are your hearts as adamants and your eyes as marbles, that you cannot bestow upon me one compassionate thought, or look, or tear?

~ HENRY, LAM 1:12

The right knowledge of God consists not in notion and speculation, but in the convictions of the practical judgment directing and governing the will and affections.

~ HENRY, JER 24:7

Meanwhile, all hell broke loose at The Lodge. Secreted in two suites, rival factions appeared from the third floor, and, like airplanes targeting a boat, they fired a barrage from their BARs upon the first floor in the attempt to draw out the Giulupas and Gennas. Best made plans, however, can sometimes turn around quickly. Out from the rooms, on two sides of the third floor the finest of The Combination and their men emerged, positioned there in advance by visionary, Capo Bastone Adriano Lioni, having seen unusual goings on the night before, and because of his alert tactic they quickly took out the would-be attackers with their own BARs.

While the mess was being cleaned up, Cola and the guardie del corpo arrived with a weakened and bleeding Albio. The Giulupas and Gennas were the first to meet them at the door and conveyed what had happened. Minutes later, while everyone was still on ready alert, Don Stanoli, Big Jim, and others, accompanied by sgarristi and guardie del corpo, arrived to see the place in shambles.

Introspectively, Big Jim turned away and went outside and leaned against the railing as a kind of crutch. Wistfully, he gazed upon the verdant acreage, knoll and gardens, stretching out into the woods. He considered taking a walk toward the gazebo and pergola, where patrols were stationed protuberantly like medieval knights around a castle, but the second thought brought caution, and wisely decided against it.

Aren’t we overplaying this? he said aloud to himself.

Another voice said quietly, "The only thing we’re overplaying is the one that can’t be done. A lot has happened, too much too quickly, and we must be of one mind, Jim. We’re under siege. And, to my knowledge, nothing like this has ever happen before, a?"

Not according to my sons while I was away. Yes, this is more than I’d imagined and….

"Bigger than any of us. And the past nine, ten months nothing has been like it in the states. Not in fifth estate, The Honored Society, you name it, a?"

Not that I know of, Big Jim acknowledged.

And yet here we are and still no breakthrough. Annoyed, Sam stood up and shook his head. "All the supposed leads have led us to none. Still, of the many times I’ve lived it and with what happened today, I am convinced we are close to finding out what’s really going on. I know we are on to it. Okay, what say we grab some strong espresso and get to Albio, si?"

Immediatamente!

Batti il ferro quando è caldo!

An hour later, we find them in the infamous Colosimo suite where Lucchese had once been interrogated….

Stand him up, Sam demanded sharply. Cola and another guardie del corpo, Fraggino, grabbed a weakened and expiring Albio, slumped on the chair and sat him up. No, he said with contempt, "stand up the figlio di puttana - stand him up! Dom, hand me your lighter."

"Don Stanoli, Don Stanoli, per favore, per favore, pietà, pietà, [please, please, have mercy, have mercy]. And dropped to his knees, pleading for mercy. I told you all I know, there is nothing…."

Unmoved, Sam flicked a flame and placed it just under his left eye. You haven’t told me the half of it. You see, Albio, your mistake was saying just enough to tell me there’s more. And here I was, thinking that the snake was a low level - but you? In disgust, he pulled back the flame just before it reached his eyeball, and backhanded him, rocking his head senseless. You should have said nothing and died, at least then you would have died with your boots on. Ah, but now you helped me tie things together. Ah, yes, it is the Mondinis alias Ormondini. I know the story that goes back many generations with my family.

Bart stared at Sam, not believing his ears. Are you saying they are in on this?

Sam turned to Bart, his piercing eyes looking even larger and more menacing. I am not saying they are just in on it, Bart, I am saying they’re the ones behind the whole damn thing. In utter horror, Albio would have liked nothing better than disappear. And if I’m right the pieces will all come together. I thought there was no real connection or importance these last two months, but I was wrong. It’s when I put my notes together and we went over them, night after night. Then, little by little, we saw what could be a link to that mysterious something behind it all. And, yesterday, dead tired as I was, just before sun-up, man, the light went on!

You see, Bart, we didn’t know a Mondini, she, this Atresia, had married Jack Drucci. Capo Bastone Adriano Lioni added, his hands lifted up above his elbows and out to the side. And we said, what’s with this? The Mondinis and Druccis didn’t get along, never had, so why? We had to find out and we went deep, using all our resources in the investigation.

We’d been dealing with so many other things at the time, Consigliere Vizio Starace furthered, looking around the room at somber faces in the reflected lamplights, that we had to put much of it aside so we could concentrate on this.

I was long acquainted with such things, Domenico Amade said dryly. "The history of the Mondinis I knew from Vincenzo Stanoli in the stories he told Clem and Sam when I was there. The infamous Ormondini was their predecessor. And the Ormondini galantuomini were the worst of the worst galantuomini. Whoever got in their path was crushed in the vilest way."

"Yes, that’s right, Dom, thank you for reminding me of those bygone days when our people had to live under the thumb of such galantuomini, and those that enforced it."

Aha, this is what you were saying, Sam? Big Jim grinned and took up his belt a notch. "You know, I’ve been out of the loop so long I’d forgotten the many things Vincenzo and Giuseppe had told me; yes, it is all coming back now and no one knows better than Saggio Linguini. Bart?"

"Si, si, I know. Bart responded, and thoughtfully took a few puffs on his cigar. I know some about the reign and rule of the Ormondinis. Had it not been for the Stanolis maybe no one would have ever known they were behind the terror way back when. You see, they were among the highly esteemed, the top rung of the aristocrats, and who would ever suspect them of such devilry? It took years for the Stanolis to fully unravel it. Slithery snakes the Ormondinis were had kept it neatly under wraps for, God knows, generations. But, it is true, this present-day Mondini thing, you say, are not just part of, they are running it?"

"The gabelloti and campieri of the Ormondini were the best at what they did, Dom’s eyes narrowed. Few dared cross their paths, less to challenge them and none got away without getting the worst of it."

But something from out of nowhere came on the scene, a peaceful, fun-loving, folk, and the last you would expect to fight against it. That’s my heritage. Sweating profusely, Sam stood up and removed his coat, his fierce eyes bearing witness the intensity of his thoughts. "And the Ormondinis, via their gabelloti and campieri, went after them and others who saw the raw courage of the Stanolis and began to align with them."

It’s good to look throughout history and find there was always someone to have an answer to tyranny. Dom got up and went to the counter with his back to everyone. He poured himself a stiff drink, downed it, uttering profane words under his lips. All was quiet. He saw the box of cigars, picked one out of the box, stroke a match and lit it, coolly puffing until he was satisfied with the result. Finally, he turned around to see he still had everyone’s attention. With his thoughts in order, he walked calmly to his seat.

This time it would be the Stanolis and when they came on the scene the entire landscape of that oppression would ultimately come to an end. To underscore the point of what kind of people they were it could even be said they would not have entered the ring had they been left alone and allowed to live as they always had. But, as Sam said, the Ormondinis would not let them be and that would be their biggest mistake and live to regret. The rest, as they say, is history. But it didn’t happen overnight. It would take almost half a generation for the Stanolis to fully expose Ormondini’s clandestine rule and reign, to once and for all wipe them out.

I had no idea the man fast moving up the ranks, came from that very clan itself, Big Jim said dryly, and added, But, in time, I would. He’d proved himself in ways nothing short of remarkable to me. And I knew there was no better man to take over when I went to Brooklyn. Ah, my friend, how I miss you, ‘Cenz.

---

¹ The purpose of the prevue is to connect the previous novel with the present.

Chapter I

WHERE IS FAMILY?

The character that takes command in moments of crucial choices has already been determined by a thousand other choices made earlier in seemingly unimportant moments. It has been determined by all the ‘little’ choices of years past—by all those times when the voice of conscience was at war with the voice of temptation, [which was] whispering the lie that ‘it really doesn’t matter.’ It has been determined by all the day-to-day decisions made when life seemed easy and crises seemed far away—the decision that, piece by piece, bit by bit, developed habits of discipline or of laziness; habits of self-sacrifice or self-indulgence; habits of duty and honor and integrity—or dishonor and shame.

~RONALD REAGAN

Happy is the heart which finds its joy in the commands of God, and makes obedience its recreation.

~ CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON. PS 119: 54

THE SISTERHOOD TRIO

When they had it upon the board it was not that to them that they expected: "You eat, but you have not enough, either because the meat is washy, and not satisfying, or because the stomach is greedy, and not satisfied. You eat, but you have no good digestion, and so are not nourished by it, nor does it answer the end, or you have not enough because you are not content, nor think it enough. You drink, but are not cooled and refreshed by it; you are not filled with drink; you are stinted, and have not enough to quench your thirst.

~ HENRY, HAG 1:9

Faith is the condition of realizing the divine promise.

~ DR. MARVIN R. VINCENT, HEB 3:6

IN ORDER TO ADEQUATELY make the point of the sisterhood trio it is important to characterize Vincent’s discerning point of view. Of the three sisters, his best hope had been Susan because of the image she portrayed of common sense and conscience. On the negative side, were the mad excuses and amendments when she couldn’t cope with her emotions in the midst of difficult conditions. No better example of this could be described than in the exceeding, doting mother syndrome (reminiscent of sis Maggie?), in opposition to the noisome and odorous cruelty of her husband, toward their children that began in the formative through adolescent years. And what was the result? They were becoming emotional cripples. The exception was the eldest, Aileen, who had a mind of her own.

Long after this was in play the one who brought it to Vincent’s attention was none other than his mother, Angie, during the Lunds visit in the mid ’90s when she said the children didn’t even know how to properly use a fork and knife. The very thought of her quite dour description that Susan somehow felt it was for their best interests found him blushing when steaks were served at a restaurant one afternoon, observing Chester Jr., June, and Wes waiting upon mother-dear to cut their steak down to bitesize pieces. The image of pubescent-to-grown children having no ability to perform a simple task, was mind boggling.

The one who suffered the worst emotional damage was Chester Jr., second eldest to Aileen. His best was menial work and little more. Unable to handle emotions, but not aggressively, he internalized them sometimes to the point of going catatonic, treatment and prescription drugs could not adequately mitigate. Fortunately, the youngest, Wes, was spared that and grew up a well-balanced person. And the middle child, June, even in her ever-childlike demeanor, was reasonably balanced as well.

There was a time when Vincent believed Susan was without guile but he’d failed to recognize how troubled a person she actually was. All that changed now as he watched her suffer from her own mistakes, as much as if not more than the older siblings, Vincent, Sammy and Margaret, and the far youngest of the five, Prima.

Maggie’s reaction to a troubled life gave birth to living vicariously through her first and third born children, Nestlie and Penn, to become victims of her rapacious grip. And husband, Tiers, was fated to be a lifelong victim of her control by his own choosing to stay with her. The middle child, Bertha, given her pixie characteristics and cute prettiness would be spared such fate, that is, until her mother’s preponderant grip set in. Maggie seemed to have resolved in her mind that Nestlie didn’t meet her higher expectations but it was Penn who would meet the lower. What she accomplished in vengeance to her own perceived misery, was to create a problem child whose reckless and unconscionable actions, in the form of a pestiferous and flagitious bent, would rake others’ lives through the coals. All for dear mother.

There came a point when Tiers could no longer handle it, and left on a brief romantic wild goose chase. Although he did return and was deeply repentant, nonetheless, she was bound and determined to make sure he would never live it down and she used the children as instruments of her ire. But Penn, already becoming the ultimate hooligan, was the one she used most vigorously, feeding on her disappointment and bitterness of life at the expense of even those at opposite poles; father and son, Tiers and Penn, callously played one against the other. Maggie was consumed with it.

In time, Vincent too would be exposed to such bitter wiles. That Penn was tied to the apron strings of her wildness and ferocity can only be measured by the lifestyle of an inconsiderate and uncontrolled rebel, Maggie had cunningly controlled. For a time, Vincent retained in his heart the nostalgia of bygone days when they, the two eldest of the boys and the girls were fond of each other, up to the early to mid ’70s. But from that point forward, and over the next twenty plus years, it slowly deteriorated until his involvement at St. Jude’s Ranch for Children, when Penn was showing definitive traits of a gangsta, and yet she kept candy-coating it. Try as he may, nothing Vincent recommended was getting through to change her direction and help Penn. That Maggie would not follow her brother’s counsel, to stop the course he was on was unthinkable because he’d seen it work, time and again at the Ranch.

However. Vincent had no idea that Maggie was the force behind it, unaware she was the one imposing that life upon the albeit mimicking son, and that Penn had been too conditioned not to apprehend it.

Much has been said about Prima except on the issue of her disenchantment, the profligate and decadent life she’d led, manipulating the objects of her rage to pay what she blamed on them. Of the threesome, she is the quintessential Guru of Guile.

Susan, in less than decent living conditions, it was said, having no other option, justified her choice and position when she and Chester elected to live under the same roof with Maggie and Tiers. And it was there where another pact in their sisterhood would be formed when Maggie, more keenly designed the plan to protect the miserable life she’d created, now fully supported by Susan.

Prima vindicated her will to destroy others commensurate to, she would say as, the hand I was dealt, doing as she pleased and took no personal blame for what she had created and would continue to further.

In each disparate case, who can live happily and prosper with the likes of that?

CONVERSATION WITH VINCENT JR.

When the Forbidden Fruit was handed to Adam and Eve, they were allowed the moral choice to accept or decline. I know people who have refused to feast on the money tree. They live simply, within their means, and seem far more content than those who are trying to horde their wealth while clinging to the ladder of ‘success,’ terrified to let go. That isn’t real living. The Puritans rightly saw that as covetousness.

~ CAL THOMAS

Nor did I deem thy edicts strong enough,

That thou, a mortal man, shouldst overpass

The unwritten laws of God that know not change,

They are not of to-day nor yesterday,

But live forever, nor can man assign

When first they sprang to being.

~ SOPHOCLES, ANTIGONE

VINCENT, JR. CAME TO visit his father in Greeley, Colorado, for the express purpose of discussing the Will and his aunts. Subsequently, a transcript of that Will was sent to brother Sam, as well as, Vincent’s best friends, Royce & Janie Place. He’d deduced that daughter, Lorene, had played a part in her brother’s visit but when they spoke over the phone the next day she said she was totally unaware of it and that it her brother’s idea.

A few minutes into the discussion….

When you didn’t contact me, I thought you might have been angry and disappointed, even disgusted, with me, Son. As I understood it, the last time we spoke that week before Carmine passed, if you decided to attend, what to me would be, an inevitable wake for Penn, you’d let me know but didn’t. Hoping to say what he meant without intimidating his son. Then, as time slipped by, it appeared you had no intention of doing so and it did a number on me.

Sure enough, he understood what his father was saying and didn’t take it personally. Dad, I didn’t and never will doubt your character or intentions. If anyone would dare bring up such a thing I would have let them have it. No one is going to bad mouth you and get away with it but I think people know that and maybe it’s why no one ever does. As far as spending time with the gang, well, I was only in Pahrump the night of the funeral and part of the next day before I went back home. I might have had ten minutes with Aunt Prima, tops, the whole time and just played board games with a few of the cousins and Aunt Maggie and Aunt Susan. And none of your sisters said one word to me about you. In fact, I never heard them talk about you at all.

He was quite relieved and felt he could more easily proceed. Hmmm, that’s good to hear, Son… a little later I’d like to address how you were influenced by the proceedings. And, like I said, how you feel about your grandpa and aunts is okay, and I won’t denigrate them. When we spoke that week, I only wanted you to know - obviously before Carmine died – it bothered me hearing you were getting together with the others, I referred to as, ‘A rat’s nest.’ That has not changed….

Yes, I remember and I know what you meant, Dad. But I actually had a good time.

I am glad to hear that and am happy for you, Son.

Vincent Jr. cuts to the chase, But, Dad. He paused and was thinking hard how best to say what was on his heart without pushing his father away. I am bitter about what the five of you are doing. That’s the one thing some of the cousins and I talked about, especially me and Wes. I think it is selfish and childish that you can’t sit down and talk things over but hang on to things that really don’t matter much and it makes the cousins miserable and unhappy. I don’t know of any of those I spoke to that were not upset with what you all are doing. I hung out with Wes the most, I guess, because our grief was similar. It’s all so ridiculous. And I did make fun of you all but Wes was so uncomfortable and upset that I decided to drop it.

I understand, really do, and what you just said tells me I have a lot to say. Pleased his son brought it up because it would give him an opportunity of making his case. I’m sure you thought long and hard about it and I appreciate it. It’s one of the main elements in our relationship I’ve always wanted, to have an open and honest discussion.

Me too, Dad.

May I kindly remind you what I’ve often said that I do not need you to agree with, just to have an open conversation. Life in my home, you know, was different; I was expected and required to agree with my father, that even a minor difference was considered disloyal. I thought I was not allowed to have my own opinion or perception if it differed from his. That’s an awful way to live and it comes with a very cold expectation. That was the image I had when younger. But, years later, thanks to wonderful feedback from Aunt Lou and Uncle Johnny, and Dom Amade, they helped me understand that wasn’t true. And, boy, when I first heard it, it really threw me off how wrong I was and, though there would be guilt I’d have to deal with, to be happy that I now knew the truth. And I am. Well, that’s what I desire to have for us.

Yeah, I remember you telling me about that and I want it for us, the freedom to say what I think. This further opens the door to better communicate the hard points he wants to make now. I just don’t understand how you can be so stubborn because I have always known you to be reasonable and open-minded. I guess, that’s why it’s been so difficult and doesn’t make any sense. You all seem to be in the same place, so unreasonable and stubborn. Look, I understand what they have done is awful and inexcusable but that isn’t everything. And to harp on it, as if it’s the end, is far below what I know about you.

If you could just say it a little stronger it would help. A little levity has almost always worked to get through difficult conversations.

Oh, Dad.... he chuckles a bit nervously.

It’s clear you have a great deal of emotional investment here, Vincent, so let me pose a question. You know the three individuals, among a larger group of characters, I try emulate: Jim McKay [The Big Country], Jake Holman [The Sand Pebbles] and Shane [Shane] and I’ll focus in on those three.

Got it.

"You once told me, when you were mentoring a new fraternity brother in a training assignment, that he had to see The Big Country, study Jim McKay and write a paper about his impression of him. In subsequent discussions with the newbie, you said, the one thing you emphasized was to understand, more than integrity, the quality of the character of the man. Have I got it right?"

Ab-so-root-ree, Dad! in a little levity of his own.

Hah, and here’s my point. Son, the sisters - you call ‘the group’ - that contrived a dishonest Will are the very same people they were before the contrivance. I’m saying, nothing had changed, one way or the other. Now….

Oh, Dad, it’s only since Nana died that things have come apart in the family. And here he is at another topic he’s wanted to address and has now found an opportunity to address it. She held things together for her five children but after that things got out of hand and all these silly and childish troubles started.

It’s completely understandable that you would think that way, Son. This is now the opportunity to explain what’s been so often misunderstood. But it’s not entirely accurate. All I want do – and really can do - is tell you what you don’t know that went on behind the scenes and divulge some facts to clear up what has been incorrectly told.

He looks at his father, then away, in wonder of what’s coming. Okay, Dad, okay, I but so far you are preaching to the choir.

Good to know but I still think you need to hear this. I’ll be as straight as I’ve always been with you. I only ask that you please be open-minded because you may find it hard to believe. You need real and concrete answers. However, I do think your inference is positive.

You mean, preaching to the choir?

Not quite. The trouble you’re having is about what you think of me. He takes a breath, knowing it is time to address it. I have thought long and hard about it for all kinds of reasons. The turning point was when I put myself in your shoes to better understand where you’re coming from.

He smiles in sweet recognition. That’s a relief, Dad, glad to hear it.

Here goes. You don’t have the full picture, or at least one full enough. I grew up in two different worlds, the one I lived in and the one I wasn’t supposed to be a part of. And that actually makes perfect sense since a child cannot comprehend the complexities of life but when you’re of age you need to be brought into the adult fold I was kept out of. And that was the reason it had a definite effect on my perception of myself. It affected my self-confidence. I had feelings of inadequacy and felt like I was being played as a sucker. But, as I’ve said, that thinking was wrong and left me unprepared to deal with issues I could have known before they came up later in life.

He raises his eyebrows and then smiles. I think, I can see your point.

I am talking about a lack of connectedness with those important to me and didn’t understand the value of interrelationships and it’s all about communication and sharing from the heart and mind. You have not read my books and I believe if you had you may have a head’s up in what I am going to share. Please understand this is not guilt trip. I am just letting you know if you’d read them it may help answer many of your questions and the things that trouble you about my view of family.

Uh-hmmm. I am listening but family is everything. He’s struggling a bit to understand where his father is going. Without it what are we…you know what I mean, Dad?

Your point is well-taken. He pauses for a minute to gather his thoughts and the better explain his case. What, who, is family is not what I once presumed. Certainly, it is not what it used to be where your very survival meant how closely connected you were to your family. Yes, Vincent, family was everything. Blood. We often say ‘family is blood.’ Genetically, of course, but interpersonally is it? Family is - well, let me put it this way – it’s been said that family is meant to be something so deep so ‘internally significant’ that ‘only blood’ can give it it’s due place and honor. I disagree. It can and cannot. It all depends upon how family members live it out.

This is hard for Junior to fathom. He sincerely wants to but cannot understand his father’s point. If you’re saying ‘friends’ are on a par with family? I can’t see that, Dad.

This can be an impasse but Vincent is relatively confident he can state it in a way that makes sense. Essentially, family is about those who live out what family is within, and designed to be. Wipe away all the rest and you can whittle it down to a lifestyle of relational confirmation, their behavior with one another. Look, we’ve all seen it play out that certain members of a family often behave as if they are not ‘family’, and persons who are not ‘family’ behave like they are.

I agree, Dad.

Then we’re on the same page, good. There is a line we come from where some people have lived like ‘unfamily’ not ‘blood’, and my father’s generation is a case in point. There is no question that Pa wrestled against that problem with firm conviction. Why? Because it was prevalent in the Italian underworld he’d grown up under where family kisses can at once flip and stab you in the back. The age-old expression that ‘You have to accept the good with the bad.’ Yeah, how, just let it come and go? Pa said he did his level best to fight for the unity of the family, meaning, people had to be held accountable for their bad behavior with appropriate consequences, and lively encouragements for good behavior. The bad seed needed to be exposed and separated or it would likely infect the whole. And he felt that his job was to focus on strengthening the good and build upon the ties that bind.

This is a not like anything he’s heard before and is disturbing, to be sure. We come from that kind of family, Dad?

In part, yes, some fit square into that mold, Son. And once I identified those differences I understood the value of being unchained from traditions in the family that flout it. He pauses and shines a compassionate glance at his son, feeling like there’s a real connection developing between them. I have friends that relate to me like family, more than ‘blood,’ if you understand my meaning. It’s about treating those who interrelated to me like family as I wanted to be treated. In other words, when my love and allegiance is not reciprocated, even maligned and scorned, and then twisted and turned against me, whether by ‘blood’ or ‘friend’, I need to make a decision about the value of that relationship. This is the crux of where I’m going here.

Scratching his head contemplatively, he’s old enough to have seen that play out. But, Dad, this is true with all people, don’t you think?

Certainly is. And now I can pick up where you left off about character, about those who chose to create a fake Will. This is your dispute with my decision, am I right?

Not totally but yes.

Okay. What they did is not a unique case in their lives. Whether deliberately or inadvertently, the mistaken impression you have been given is that the Will is an exception and unintended but that it had to be done. No, utterly not. It was intentional and premeditated.

So, they’re frauds. I guess, I understand. Fairly confident he can say what he thinks now without rebuke. But they didn’t say anything to give me that impression.

And won’t. They aren’t going to talk directly to you about it. I’ll come in other ways because cons – and I hate saying it – have convinced themselves they’re in the right, no matter what, like the get-together after Penn’s funeral. It was a sham. In obvious discomfort, Junior dropped back in his chair. Sympathetically, Vincent resumed. I know how you feel, son, and am sorry but I have a responsibility to be transparent about this. No one wanted anything said about the real Penn and made up all this other stuff, that he was happy, sweet, and kind. You say everything went well and no one would know anything was wrong between the five siblings. But let me pose another question. What if the three had suspected you were a ‘plant’ by your dear jerk of a father? And you were sent there to feel your way around, like some snake in the grass, and bring your findings back to me?

Junior’s curiosity perks up and leans forward. Okay, what if?

Let me quote a line about people who think like that: ‘Those that deceive others will in the end prove to have deceived themselves.’ It’s human nature.

Yes, of course, Dad, I’m well aware of that.

I’m saying they may have been walking on pins and needles.

But I didn’t see any of that.

Certainly. Let me try and make sense of this to you. They’ve made themselves victims and, therefore, may have suspected that you, being controlled by me and my evil devices, were there to investigate the goings on. Pensively, he cups his fingers to his chin, knowing it happened time and again. But he very much wants to edify and comfort his son. All the while, you didn’t do anything to make anyone suspect you of any of that. Of course, Son, because it wasn’t there to begin with. But if they did suspect it this is the sham I’m alluding to. For example, your Aunt Prima goes about her charade of cherished niceties, doing this, cooking that, helping clean up, like she’s Nana. She’s smooth, she’s slick, sick. Aunt Maggie can be a whale of ‘fun,’ especially in her comfort zone of board games; and happy Susan right along with her since childhood.

He’s squirms a little still thinking his father doesn’t understand and softly says, We had a ball, Dad.

And for that I’m glad, Son. I am just showing you what goes on beneath the surface when it comes what they think of their brothers. It’s interesting to me that not once did you mention your Uncle Tiers or Uncle Chester, Randy or Aiden, any males for that matter, except Wes. I am just wondering.

Well, it was mostly the females….

And there you have it! A door has opened where he can make another good point he’s often thought about telling his son. You know, few others are as good at it as your Aunt Prima. When all else fails, along the road to discovery, you have to go by patterns and those patterns habitually tell the tale. Your aunts have an historical pattern and the fraudulent document is simply an extension of it. It is not a matter that their decision to defraud was out of character and if you look at it like that you’ll miss my theme. It is entirely in character!

Trying to understand, he still thinks his father has got it wrong. I wish you could have been there, Dad, because I really think you would see what I mean.

Son, I understand what you’re trying to suggest but it’s a con. They have no trouble living with their bedfellow, duplicity. I’ve lived it. Seeing his son visibly distressed, he wonders if he may need to call it quits, and yet, still believes Junior can handle it, and decides to continue. It is very important that you grasp it because if anything about them is not foreign to me this is it.

Suddenly, a troubling thought looms large in Junior’s mind. Let me understand, you’re accusing them of scheming and deceiving me?

No, not at all, Son. It’s about them deceiving themselves.

Oh – what?

Perhaps he is getting through, after all, and with kind eyes he sits back in his seat. Look, sometimes I do things out of character I’m not aware of at the moment. But when I am I want to make it right because I can’t live with myself if I don’t. Some time ago I realized could not live with myself and go on tolerating the lies that Maggie and Prima have spread, and Susan willingly adjoins, making the three one. Let me ask, are you aware of this?

With you I can see it but I don’t know about Uncle Sam.

That’s reasonable.

I’m just saying I don’t know about him. This is the opening Junior didn’t know would come but he’s ready to state it. I remember so clearly the times he treated me so mean and cruelly when I was younger without even an apology. I mean, if I deserved it at that brutal level, it would have been one thing, but I didn’t. I just can’t believe wouldn’t do it again. You know what I am talking about.

Somewhat surprised his son brought up such a difficult subject, they’d never once discussed before, he’s glad, and sort of relieved, that he did. I remember it very well.

No need to go into it, Dad. He didn’t want to dig up old wounds and is concerned he may have upset his father. Oh, Dad, I’m sorry, it’s just that his ways and values are far from ours.

No worries, Son. Let me be clear, like what happened to you, we have widely divergent emotions and perceptions.

And this brings to mind a correlation with his sister. That’s what I lost with Lorene and I want it back, Dad, I really do.

She’d love to hear that because I’m certain she does too. He’s knows of their relational conflicts which have been no secret. But you both will have to work through some things before you can get there. I think you know that.

I do, yes, I do.

There’s more. This seems to be a good path to take it even further and decides take the opportunity. I got to a point in time when I knew I needed to look at the character of each of my sisters. I did. And it helped me to more clearly see that there was a pattern of irrational behavior behind their decisions. Once that was fairly clear, I then asked myself was it wise to enter into any discussion, let alone pact, with them and expect anything less than the results I had dealt with over and over again? Okay, what am I getting at? Throughout the years, they have said thus and so pretending that we were on the same page, all the while concocting schemes.

So, you don’t think, sitting down and talking about it with them is worth it?

‘Sitting down and talking, Son?’ Do you hear that voice at the back of the room, ‘What, are you kidding?’ Do you know how many times I sat down with Maggie, and Prima? Do you know how many times I was led to believe we were on the same page of mutual understanding, only to find, to my embarrassment and humiliation, we hadn’t? Again, it’s about the pattern I needed to pay attention to find the truth that I was being played.

I just don’t see how that makes any sense, Dad. Junior has encountered another troubling moment. If that’s true - and I’m not saying it isn’t – I mean, you aren’t stupid, what if you have it all wrong?

Maybe…but I thought you just said I’m not stupid? Your struggle is believing that the people you spent time with are not the people I’m describing and cannot be one the same. Does that make sense?

"You can put it like that, yes, that’s