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There have been other, though less important changes induced by both shifting life styles and the desire to escape notice. Years ago, anyone could tell a mobster by his loud dress and, most particularly, his large, wide-brimmed, white hat. Now, the tendency is to dress like a businessman, in conservative Brooks Brothers gray.
One custom that had to be dropped was the kiss of greeting between members. "Charlie Lucky [also known as Salvatore Luciana or Lucky Luciano] put a stop to this and changed it to a handshake," Joe Valachi told Author Peter Maas. " 'After all,' Charlie said, 'we would stick out kissing each other in restaurants and places like that.' "
Ostentatious living has gone out as well, despite the fact that even the lowliest members are often millionaires. The Government provides one good reason. If a man spends much more than he shows on his income tax return, the IRS can nail him for tax fraud. Few of the bosses thus claim or openly spend much more than would a moderately successful businessman. The ancient, somewhat puritanical code of the Mafia, which dislikes display, provides another reason for simple style. The late New York boss Vito Genovese, for example, used to drive a two-year-old Ford, spent little more than $100 for his suits, and lived in a modest house in Atlantic Highlands, N.J. When his children and grandchildren visited him, Genovese, very much the kindly paterfamilias, would cook them up a huge pot of spaghetti.
Another legacy from the Sicilian Mafia is Cosa Nostra's almost mystical concept of respect. Something like the Oriental notion of "face," respect means more to a Cosa Nostra mobster than money. If he does not have the regard of his fellow members, he is nothing, even in his own eyes. An equally high value is placed on loyalty. It is not always honored, to be sure, but it nevertheless remains a powerful binding force within the organization. Indeed, the very human characteristics of respect and loyalty, together with the organization's dynastic structure, offer some clues to its remarkable durability. Son follows father, underboss follows boss, and the line continues over the decades.
Another element seems to be a sense of unity against a world viewed as hostile. The chaotic history of Sicily remains an unconscious memory. There, amid poverty and foreign intrusion, survival and prosperity depended on one's own immediate group and one's own rules. Does the younger generation have any qualms about what it is doing? It would seem not. In The Godfather, the Dartmouth-educated son of a New York boss gives his bride what is probably the typical rationale. Members of Cosa Nostra, he reasons, are no worse than any other Americans. "In my history course at Dartmouth, we did some background on all the Presidents, and they had fathers and grandfathers who were lucky they didn't get hanged."
Perhaps. They were not, however,