Reading for Hours

Kadizzle grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia.  A couple days ago older brother Tom told of a book about Wheeling crime.  "Murder Never Dies" is a complete history of crime in my home town.  The book is fascinating because so many of the names and places are familiar.  Additionally my grandfather was mayor when a lot of this was going on. To top it off a childhood friend was the son of one of the major players in the illegal activities.

The story revolves around the two men who were deeply involved in the mafia, drugs, gambling, prostitution, you name it.  Once upon a time Kadizzle was walking across the Suspension Bridge in Wheeling.  A convertible pulled up beside us.  My friend knew the guy.  Paul Hankish was in the car. He is one of the two men the book relates to.  Kadizzle never had any idea this man was one of the biggest crime figures ever in the United States.  Hankish offered to take us for a boat ride on the Ohio River.  Not many weeks after the boat ride Hankish went out to start his car one morning.  Explosives meant to kill him went off. He was not killed, but his legs were blown off. When he came to in the hospital he was asking for my friends father. 

The book is amazing.  How the author got so much inside information is amazing.  Organized crime was connected in the book to the Kennedys, Eisenhower, Nixon, and right on down the line.  The alliance between politicians and criminals was amazing.  Reading frantically Kadizzle is trying to find mention of his friends family.  It has not yet come up.

Reading familiar names and places is fascinating.  What one quickly comes to realize is how dependent the city was on gambling a prostitution.  The city fathers knew the economy was closely tied to the illegal activities and had a strange way of dealing with it.

The City of Wheeling levied fines on all illegal activity.  No one went to jail, the fines were really a tax.  If you had prostration, you were fined so much a month.  If you had slot machines you again paid a monthly fine.

The hypocrisy was insane.  One story in the book relates to how a charitable group wanted to raise money for crippled children.  They enlisted the local mafia to sponsor a casino night.  Hankish brought in professional card sharks, and dice game managers.  The crooked gambling with loaded dice, and marked cards netted the charity $25,000.  The symbiotic relationship between crime and religion was incredible.