Читать книгу Slaughter in the Streets. When Boston Became Boxing’s Murder Capital онлайн

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The adoration of gangsters was such a growing concern that Dr. A. Z. Conrad, the powerhouse pastor at Boston's Park Street Congregational Church, addressed the issue in a March 1932 radio address on WHDH. “The reason that so many boys almost worship gangsters is because we have made heroes of the gangster and the racketeer,” Conrad said. Known for his finger-wagging sermons from Boston's “Brimstone Corner,” Conrad blamed “the infernal moving pictures” that “presented crime in an attractive form.” But Boston's kids didn't need to go to the movies to see gangsters. The bad guys were right there in the neighborhood.

By Buccola's era, the Italian American mobster was undergoing a change of image. They were no longer old-country types operating under the cloak of darkness and hiding their money in a mattress. They were increasingly Americanized. They understood the city's politics and knew how to manipulate the local power structures. If they indulged in criminal activity, the reasoning went, it was only because American society had yet to fully embrace the Italians. Legit jobs were scarce; a fellow made a buck where he could. An elegant, intelligent man such as Buccola wasn't to be lumped in with the Black Handers, narcotics dealers, or two-bit robbers. If the authorities ever accused Buccola of anything too sinister, his admirers simply wouldn't believe it.