Those Amazing Mafia Wives

By K-lee Starland

It was in the 1950s that mafia boss, Don Amato Rizoso, determined it was time to enter the lucrative human trafficking business. Five dedicated Rizoso mafia wives stepped up to work tirelessly for one desperate purpose: to rescue innocent girls their cutthroat husbands were trafficking in for modern day sale.

While, operating in a netherworld teeming with greed and corruption, the wives officially opened business after their daring rescue of multiple sex slaves from a mafia-owned opium den. As they adjusted to their life of vigilante justice, they faced near rescue misses, they helped set-up a daring underground railroad, and they took down the notorious Cocaine Queen. Amidst betrayal, mass slaughter, forbidden love, and a son whose secret threatened his life, they learned that fighting for what they believed in was anything but easy. Nevertheless, those amazing mafia wives worked doggedly to take down a family empire built on the bodies of children – even if it meant their own lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798891551893

K-lee Starland

Dr. Starland has dedicated her life to raising awareness of the travesties of human trafficking and sex slavery. While specializing in issues pertaining to women’s rights and violence against women, she has worked as a human rights advisor to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) for many years. In conjunction with several of these NGOs, Dr. Starland has contributed numerous peace program workbooks and materials that are currently in use within schools and international community forums.

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About the Author

Dr. Starland has dedicated her life to raising awareness of the travesties of human trafficking and sex slavery. While specializing in issues pertaining to women’s rights and violence against women, she has worked as a human rights advisor to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) for many years. In conjunction with several of these NGOs, Dr. Starland has contributed numerous peace program workbooks and materials that are currently in use within schools and international community forums.

Dedication

I dedicate this work to all those children who have both died from and are currently caught in the dark web of trafficked prostitution as well as to those fortunate to have escaped and are brave enough to tell their stories.

Copyright Information ©

K-lee Starland 2024

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Ordering Information

Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Starland, K-lee

Those Amazing Mafia Wives

ISBN 9798891551862 (Paperback)

ISBN 9798891551879 (Hardback)

ISBN 9798891551893 (ePub e-book)

ISBN 9798891551886 (Audiobook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023921649

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published 2024

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302

New York, NY 10005

USA

[e-mail]

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Acknowledgment

I would like to give heartfelt thanks to Kat Bennett for her valuable insight and especially to Sheila Tamble for her never-ending and encouraging belief in this work.

Prologue

1980s

I hate those damn pimps! declared Mary to the other four women crouched down low behind a thirsty Agave hedge so typical of a hot night in Phoenix, Arizona. I simply cannot imagine what kind of violent upbringing those pimps, as children, had to endure to be able, as grown men, to inflict such hideous acts of torture on those poor girls. Then again, it is probably only about money. Keep low. Here comes that pimp bastard Alejandro with some young girl now.

Quickly, Mary hunched down to join the others. Quietly, she added, "I guess it makes sense that the tyrannical Padrote (Mexican Godfather), Cisco Valdez would take on that barbarian to work his trafficked girls in this establishment. Get lower, Loretta! That wild, flaming red hair of yours can be seen all the way to the border!"

"Get in here, puta! bellowed Alejandro to the girl child in his uncompromising grip. You stupid whore! I am going to fix it so you don’t ever consider leaving again. You don’t make me enough money to bother sparing your sorry-ass life anyway. I’m going to kill you and be done with it."

Alejandro roughly dragged the fourteen-year-old, rail-thin, New Delhi girl by her long hair into the dilapidated Bristol Hotel, now deemed by the city council to be acceptable housing for the city’s indigent. As the young girl crossed the hotel threshold, she twisted her skinny ankle in her red spiked, three-inch heels, a size too small for her swollen feet. She fell, spiraling downward by her captured hair. Awwww, she screamed as she grabbed at her hair. Alejandro held on tight as the horrified girl coiled toward him in agony.

Get up, whore!

Please! No! I… I… pleaded the frightened girl, terrified of what she knew lay ahead.

Let’s go, girls! ordered Mary. In unison, Mary, Doris, Georgiana, Meredith, and Loretta sprang into action like a pride of fierce lionesses determined to protect their young.

The five women raced into the deserted hotel lobby at top speed shouting distracting obscenities at Alejandro.

Startled, he glanced over his shoulder. What the hell?

Like savage predators on a targeted prey, Doris and Loretta lunged at Alejandro with full-power-on body thrusts, knocking him off balance. In midair, Alejandro released the girl’s hair. Faster than a bolt of lightning, Mary snatched the thin, five-foot-two-inch, child sex slave and pulled her aside.

Alejandro crashed face down onto the hard marble floor. Doris and Loretta instantaneously climbed on his backside. Loretta straddled his kicking legs while wielding sharp brass-knuckle chops to the back of his knees. With an agonizing moan of surrender, Alejandro’s legs fell limp. At the same moment, Doris jammed her knees into Alejandro’s outstretched arms, pinning him securely onto the floor. Grabbing a tuft of his thick, black hair, she pulled his head backward, nearly breaking his neck.

How do you like that bucko? Without another second’s delay, she slammed his face onto the marble hotel floor. From his broken nose and chin, copious amounts of blood splattered out in all directions.

On her knees by the pimp’s shoulder, Meredith reached into her jacket pocket to retrieve a pre-loaded syringe. This will help you sleep, you bastard. She plunged the needle deep into his left arm pushing the plunger all the way down. Sweet dreams in hell, she added sarcastically.

Before slipping into a dark unconsciousness, Alejandro muttered, You bitches will pay… I’ll get you… I will kill you…

Mary held the limp, exhausted girl tightly next to her. Mary smiled lovingly at her as she gently pushed the girl’s hair away from her eyes. Mary felt a warm liquid seep into her shoe. That’s okay, kid. I feel like peeing myself. Mary removed her shoe, dumping the excess liquid onto the floor. With the hem of her brown, ankle-length skirt, she wiped the inside of her shoe clean.

Hey, y’all! We need to get out of here now! shouted Georgiana peering out of the front window. People are coming.

Mary maintained her firm, supporting grip on the frail, malnourished girl. Let’s get out of here.

They ran through the back door into the nearly deserted kitchen. An old Chinese man, wearing a white chef’s coat and hat, immediately threw his hands up in the air, while greasy pork chops sputtered frantically on the grill in front of him. The old man stood transfixed as the ragged band of rescuers dashed past him, out the back door, and into the cover of night. The five mafia wives plus one abused girl child piled into Doris’ dark blue Ford and sped off.

The girl child—trafficked for sex—wiped away a tear sneaking down her cheek.

Part I

Chapter 1

Meet the Wives

1940s

Mary

As a kid growing up in central Illinois, Mary lived on a sprawling hundred-acre farm not more than eighteen miles from Springfield. Being the youngest child meant that her parents doted on her, her three brothers teased her, and her two sisters used her face as a mannequin to practice their amateur cosmetic skills.

About two miles down, on the next farm over, lived Bobby Michaels. Mary was in fourth grade, and Bobby in the fifth that fateful day they bumped shoulders running in opposite directions down the elementary school hall.

A week later, as they strolled hand in hand toward Mary’s classroom, Bobby asked, Mary, will you be my girlfriend?

Mary smiled. Yes. I will take real good care of you, Bobby. She planted a child’s kiss on his cheek. Their relationship was sealed. Throughout their school years, Mary and Bobby stayed only with each other.

You two act like an old married couple, her mother would tell her.

Mary, why don’t you date some other boys? There are lots of fish in the sea, her dad would chide.

Still, Mary stayed only with Bobby, and Bobby stayed only with her. Every day, after completing her farm chores, Mary would run over to his place. They spent the remaining daylight hours helping Bobby’s father gather honey from the fifty buzzing hives he tended far back in the grove by the willow trees.

Soon after Bobby was born, his mother passed away. Mr. Michaels thought Bobby needed a mother, so when Bobby reached the age of six, his dad remarried. As it turned out, Bobby’s new stepmother didn’t like children, so Bobby spent most of his extra time at Mary’s house.

Hi there, Bobby, Mary’s mother would greet. How do the bees buzz today?

Real good, Mrs. Johnson. We collected two buckets of honey today. Dad is pouring the honey into jars right now. I will bring a jar to you tomorrow.

That will be wonderful, Bobby. Thank you. I look forward to having some of your delicious honey on my toast in the morning.

The impending Depression was on everyone’s mind and lips. One business after another was forced to shut down. The week prior to Christmas, Bobby’s dad had lost almost all of his meager savings. In his effort to keep body and soul together, he sold every ounce of the honey he could gather. In addition, his wife left during the night stating that she could no longer take living with him and that kid of his. In a last desperate attempt to keep his ancestral farm from being taken over by the bank, he harvested and sold his last field of corn.

Because of all the honey Bobbly helped his dad sell, the kids in school nicknamed Mary’s boyfriend Bobby Bees. The nickname stuck. Bobby Bees dropped out of high school in his last year. He was determined to find work in the big city of Chicago in order to help his dad.

Even though Bobby Bees wrote love notes to Mary faithfully once a week, he didn’t return for more than a year. When he did, he had his black hair slicked back. He wore an expensive blue suit. Bobby Bees stood tall and straight. He was a man of means. Proudly he parked his yellow Packard Eight luxury car in front of Mary’s house.

Wow, Bobby! exclaimed Mary, stunned. What kind of job did you get? she asked, admiring his fancy new vehicle.

I got me a real good job, Mary. I make good money now. Mary, will you marry me? He didn’t say what kind of job he had.

Oh, yes, Bobby! Of course, I will. They wrapped their arms around each other and didn’t let go for several minutes.

Bobby opened the car door for her to climb in. As she did, her knee bumped into a half-opened satchel sitting on the floorboard. Instinctively, she peeked in. A pistol rested atop a pile of rumpled clothes.

Bobby, you have a gun? she exclaimed in horror as Bobby climbed into the car. What are you doing with a gun?

Bobby quickly grabbed the bag and threw it onto the backseat. Chicago is a dangerous place. I need it for protection.

They drove in silence to the First Illinois Bank. Bobby strolled up to the bank manager looking like he had won the blue ribbon prize at the fair. The bank manager’s eyes opened wide when Bobby removed a roll of crisp hundred-dollar bills from his pocket. Counting out the bills one by one, Bobby paid off his family farm in full.

Where did you get all that money, Bobby? asked Mary wide-eyed. You never did tell me what kind of job you got to make all that cash.

When I first arrived in Chicago, the only job I could get was selling newspapers on the street. One morning, a guy about my age, who called himself Antonio Rizoso, came up to me. He said he had been watching me each morning for a while. What’s your name, kid, he asked me.

Bobby, I replied.

Then he said, I can teach you how to make lots of money working with me in my Family. If you want to make money, come with me.

I dropped my papers right there and walked off with him. So, Mary, that is all you need to know except that I love you and we will be financially set from now on.

With the final release papers in hand, they drove over to his dad’s farm. See, Dad? Bobby gloated as he handed his dad the bank papers marked Paid in Full. The farm is yours free and clear.

Mr. Michaels stared at the papers with tears of relief forming in his eyes. He started to ask Bobby where he got the money but thought better of it. Thank you, son. Thank you. He locked his son in a big bear hug.

Mary and Bobby Bees were married in the backyard of her childhood home. Family and a few friends attended to wish them well and throw the traditional rice. It was a lovely wedding. Everyone said so.

After all the tearful goodbyes, the newlyweds climbed into Bobby’s luxury Packard and drove up to their small but comfortable, pre-secured by the family, apartment on Chicago’s South Side. Two years later, Bobby dashed in the door one day excitedly exclaiming, We are moving to San Leandro, California, Mary! I have been assigned a new job with the Family. Antonio is already there waiting for us.

Mary smiled. Congratulations, Bobby. She had learned early on not to ask questions about his work.

Once in San Leandro, they moved their belongings into a large bedroom in what was called the Big House run by Bobby Bees’ long-time friend, Antonio Rizoso. Mary and Bobby loved children. They had three over the years they lived there.

Mary loved all the children. In the early years, she did volunteer work three days a week at the nearby elementary school. Each day she took notice of the sinister activity outside the school boundaries. I hate to see those innocent kids being lured into taking drugs by my Bobby’s dealer, she told herself. Something has got to be done. But what can I do? I need help.

Doris

Doris had never been out of Los Angeles, California. She loved everything about it. I love the beaches. I love shopping. I love the palm trees. I love the ice cream! she exclaimed. Los Angeles was a big city all right, but not nearly as big as it is now and not so dangerous, she later explained to Mary. When I was a kid, I could walk down the street and not worry about someone grabbing me or robbing me or doing something sinister. It was a lot safer then.

Doris enjoyed being the tomboy type. She wore her black hair short and shaped around her face. She loved sports, but when she was a kid, only boys could play. That used to piss me off, she related to Mary. I knew I played as well as they did, especially baseball, basketball, and street hockey. Even though I was a girl, the boys in my neighborhood let me play with them most of the time. They made it clear, however, they really didn’t want a girl to play with them. Still, they picked me first when choosing teams because I could play any sport better than they could. If I got on their team, they won. Doris liked to brag about those days.

One day her older sister, Nancy, came home with a new pair of roller skates. Doris begged and begged her parents for a pair of skates until they finally relented. Doris hooked the metal skates onto the bottom of her shoes and tightened them up with the skate key she wore on a string around her neck. Doris loved to skate. The town folks stopped to take notice of her as she skated passed them by. In fact, she skated everywhere she went.

As soon as she turned seventeen, Doris joined the Transcontinental Roller Derby in Los Angeles. It was a very popular sport in California back then.

Her manager, Rocky, taught her everything she needed to know to succeed in the sport. You are a champion skater in the making. He used to tell her.

Jos was Doris’ best friend on Rocky’s Rollers of Death team. Hey, Doris, Jos shouted to Doris before a game. Want me to give you a whipping tonight?

Sure do, Jos, Doris shouted back. They laughed because ‘whipping’ was a term used when they would be skating fast around the track, and at just the right moment, Jos would take Doris’ hand and ‘whip’ her around so that she sped past everyone else, slamming girls aside as she zipped by.

It only took a couple of years for Doris to become famous in the Roller Derby. Twice she got her picture in the newspapers, and one of the articles touted her as ‘The New Superstar on Wheels’.

She earned plenty of money. She was famous. Life was good. Rocky put his arm around her shoulder and proudly told her, You bring in quite a crowd with your powerful skating style and your many wins. You are the best, Doris.

Then it happened. Doris and her team were set to race against Midge ‘Toughie’ Brasuhn and her undefeated team.

I’m going kick your sweet ass tonight, Toughie shouted at Doris from across the track.

Ya, gotta catch me first, you slow-skating bitch. Doris was hot to trot.

Flying around the track, The Rollers of Death were racking up the points. Suddenly, Toughie came up unexpectedly behind Doris. As they raced around the far turn, Toughie shoved Doris hard. With the force of a runaway train, Doris slammed into the railing. She flipped over the rail.

Her skates flew straight up. She crashed violently onto the cement floor, suffering at least two broken ribs. Later she learned that she also had a couple of fractured thoracic vertebrae. For Doris, the worst pain of all was that Toughie’s team won.

When Doris was finally released from the hospital, she wore a cold, metal brace on her back designed to keep her back straight at all times.

Rocky called Doris into his office. How do you feel, Doris? he asked.

Pretty awful, actually, she replied honestly.

How do you feel about continuing to skate? You have been doing this for a long time now. Even though you are still my best skater, I think you should consider retiring.

Actually, I have been thinking about that. The doc told me not to even think of putting on another pair of skates for at least two years. Why do you ask? You got a replacement for me already, Rocky?

"I have to leave Los Angeles next week, Doris. I will be heading up north to San Leandro. That is up around the Bay Area. Another capo (mafia man heading up a Family business) is arriving tomorrow to oversee this business. I was wondering Doris, if you would be my wife."

Surprised, she couldn’t speak right away. Sure. Okay. I will go with you. She was ready for a change of scenery. But can I have some time to think about the marriage part?

I have got to leave here a week from Saturday. If you want to go with me, we must be married. That is the way we do things in the Family.

The family? Okay, Rocky. I will marry you. I will be ready to go when you are. What’s a capo?

Doris and Rocky were married on Friday and drove up north on Saturday. They pulled up in front of what Rocky called the Big House. This is it, Rocky said. This is home.

Noting the impenetrable fence around the building and the armed guards keeping watch, Doris wondered if she had done the right thing, but it was too late to change her mind. They moved in.

Two months later, Rocky, caught on an old warrant, got pinched (arrested) by the cops for selling drugs and gambling. He was immediately sent back to Los Angeles to serve time.

It was a year before he returned to the Big House, and then only another year before additional charges of racketeering and drug peddling were filed on him in San Leandro. With the cops after him again, he went on the lam (hiding).

For several months, Doris had no idea where her husband was hiding. Then one night, Antonio came to her with an envelope from Rocky containing five thousand dollars. Besides the money, Doris pulled out a small piece of paper with a phone number and instructions to call him from a pay phone on a certain night at a certain time.

She called as per directions. Where are you, Rocky?

I am in Las Vegas, baby. This is a great place. There is lots of opportunity to make money here.

Doris told him how much she missed him. Should I stay here, Rocky, or come to you there in Las Vegas?

Before he could reply, she heard, Dinner’s ready honey. Come and get it.

Who the hell is that, Rocky? Doris demanded.

That is Bunny. She is fixing dinner. I have arranged with Antonio for you to stay there in the Big House. I will continue to send money to you as often as I can. Bye, Doris. He hung up.

Doris slammed the phone down. Bye, Rocky. Later, she told Mary about the call. Hearing that girl made me mad, she said. But, later, you know, I didn’t feel all that bad about it. It is not like Rocky and I ever got close like a real couple.

Doris, I have an idea for rescuing some of the young girls that are getting hooked on the opium, heroin, and morphine our husbands’ sellers are supplying to them. Are you interested in helping me develop a plan?

Doris gave Mary a big hug. Let’s do it.

Georgiana

Growing up, it never occurred to Georgiana that other people did not live on a big, old Southern plantation like she did. Before her grandpa died, he would tell her stories about how it used to be on the Desmarais Plantation, with hundreds of acres of cotton and peach orchards.

About a hundred and fifty slaves worked the land back then, Georgi, he said, Come on. I will show you where they used to live. It was harsh living back then. Her grandpa related proudly that his pa did the best he could for the slaves.

Georgiana’s parents had lots of money. That is, they had a lot of money most of the time. Once, when Georgiana walked past her papa’s open office door, she heard him tell her mama that he needed to get some juice (loan money) from somebody. Mama said she did not want any dirty money from no damn loan shark, but Papa said it was only temporary.

Georgiana was the only child. Her parents teased her by saying she was spoiled. Maybe she was. She never went hungry. She had plenty of pretty dresses with shoes, gloves, and hair bows to match.

A girl through and through. Georgiana loved to flirt. Her papa said lovingly, Come give your papa a big hug, girly girl. With your good looks and flirtatious ways, you can have any man you want.

One night, Georgiana’s papa announced that he had invited a business associate (who works for the Family, soon to be confirmed) over for dinner. I want you to look pretty and be on your best behavior, you hear me, Georgi?

Yes, Papa. I will. I promise.

Georgiana dressed in her favorite light pink dress with little white roses stitched onto the embroidered eyelets. She even stole into her parent’s room and put on a touch of her mama’s pink lipstick. After all, I am seventeen. I am a woman now.

The Desmarais family had a cook named May. She was a brownish-black woman and quite heavyset. Georgiana thought May made the best Southern fried chicken in the world. That was what May prepared for everyone the night Dan Moretti arrived for dinner.

"Georgi, I want you to meet Dan Moretti, or Dan the Man, as we call him. Dan, this