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Even after he became Tammany's top tiger, De Sapio was plagued by his Italo-Americanism. When Racketeer Frank Costello (born Castiglia) casually told the Kefauver committee that he knew De Sapio "very well," the public assumed the worst. After all, weren't both men Italians? "What do I have to do?" asks De Sapio. "Send a special scout ahead all day everywhere I go to case a joint before I step inside? About a week ago, I was having lunch with some friends at one of the best restaurants in town.† We're all having a pleasant time, when suddenly someone comes up and tells me Costello is in the next room. Well, I called the owner and asked him, look, should I leave? No, he says, that's all right. He's going in a minute. Stay where you are. So I stayed, Costello left, and I never even saw or talked to him. But some people can construe that to mean all sorts of things. It makes ya sick."
One of De Sapio's reactions to his problem is to bear down on the Italians around him. An aide says: "If an Italian name comes up at the Hall for a prominent public job, Carmine goes into his background with as much thoroughness as J. Edgar Hoover, a thing he never does with an Irishman or a Jew." De Sapio can also set a personal example. His present job as Secretary of State pays him $17,000 a year, the most he has ever made, and never once in his career has there been any evidence that he makes money from hidden sources. If Carmine De Sapio is acting when he talks about personal honesty and political integrity, then he is indeed a magnificent actor.
"I don't want to get sentimental or dramatize this thing," says De Sapio, "but I want to tell you—I swear to God that if the day ever comes when those guys or their kind [Costello & Co.] have any hold over me whatever, I'm going to get out so quickly it'll make your head swim. The thing you have to remember is that an awful lot of people are depending on me—on my political integrity—for their political futures, their jobs—everything. I couldn't possibly afford to get mixed up with mobsters or hoods, and believe me. I don't intend to—ever."
Tammany's new public-relations approach may either be sincere or "sincere"—but it is certainly the reverse of the old easy, open cynicism. There have been no grave city political scandals involving De Sapio's men, and until there are, fairness requires the assumption that things are better in City Hall—although experience whispers a caution against a conclusion that graft has stopped. As for municipal services, New York is still far behind many other cities, but its filthy, potholed streets and clumsy police may be blamed as much on an apathetic citizenry as on Tammany Hall.