Today's post could
be accused of being a little macabre but I hope you will look beyond
that to the potentially useful information contained within.
One week, I was
staying at a friends' apartment in Chelsea while she was out of town.
And, being bored, I went to a local bar and ordered a drink, and
ended up in a conversation with someone who claimed to be a former
officer in the NYPD. Now maybe he was, and maybe he wasn't, but the
bartender who knew him did not contradict him, for what that may be
worth. There are times when I can talk to anyone and get them to
talk about themselves and their work and this was one of those
nights.
Somehow we got on
the subject of crime, whether the so-called mafia were as noble as
that portrayed in The Godfather (1972), and finally on how to
commit murder, or rather, what the attributes of a perfect murder are
from the point of view of someone formerly of the NYPD.
The point of this
post is to document what I learned that evening so that the
information might not be forgotten but can
instead be available to my loyal readers should the occasion present itself. I suppose you never know when you might have to knock someone off, and this information would be good to have at that time.
On the subject of
the mafia, nobility and idealism, the bartender, a youngish man,
claimed some personal knowledge. I guess he was of appropriate
descent, and had friends or possibly relatives who worked in that
profession in one way or another. I told him the story from WW2 that
when we invaded Sicily, that one of the American Don's was there on
the beach to meet his old patron, one of the Sicilian Don's to help
ease the way for the Americans. My friend the bartender, laughed at
my naivete. Well, maybe, he said, if it was part of a plea bargain,
but patriotism for their new country aside, he said, the right way to
think of the mafia is as pure capitalists. What they care about is
money. Beginning and ending with money.
On the subject of
the perfect murder, the interesting person who may indeed have been a
former NYPD police officer had this to say. “No weapon, No motive, No body”. He then went on to explain what this cute little
saying meant.
The missing Jimmy Hoffa in happier days.
“No weapon”
means that the murder weapon no longer exists, and can not be found,
for one reason or another (like it is at the bottom of the Atlantic
ocean). Thus no weapon can be introduced in court by the
prosecution and without a murder weapon, establishing guilt in a
murder case is very difficult, he said.
“No motive”
means that the person or people who commit the crime are in fact not
the people who had a reason to commit the crime. This is the big
advantage, if you can swing it, of a larger organization of loyal and
trustworthy people. In other words, you may hate Joe and want to
kill him and have good reason to kill him, at least from your point
of view. But on that evening you were home with your family eating
a spaghetti dinner and had a foolproof and even legitimate alibi. On
the other hand, Pete may barely know Joe or not know him at all, has
no motive, and he commits the murder. But the police have no
particular reason to suspect Pete, he has no motive for the crime.
Nor would the prosecution be able to show why Pete should commit such
a crime in court. Even if they know Pete did the deed, they would
still have to establish motive, and being a distant friend of someone
who hates Joe is not a strong connection.
“No body” means
the body disappears. It may not even be certain that Joe was
murdered (although I suppose a lot of blood on his apartment floor
would be a clue). But if Joe simply disappears, and there is no sign
of violence, then for all anyone knows, Joe may be in Rio de Janiero
fucking little boys. Think Jimmy Hoffa. Now how do you reliably
get rid of the body? Well, there are a variety of ways and again
this is where having a larger organization comes in handy. But
butchering Joe into component parts and depositing them on the bottom of the
Atlantic Ocean is one thought. According to one informant, Mr. Hoffa was put into a trunk of a car, compressed, and sent to Japan as scrap. Another thought is that nice new
Javits Center where, it is said, Jimmy Hoffa rests in peace, or in
pieces.
I hope you have
found this post educational and useful in your work.
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