Newark, New Jersey.

Sometime between 1972–1976.

He had in his hand the power to make sure the scumbag never bothered his family again.

He felt the gun pushing against the back of his adversary’s mouth, heard the teeth chattering against the metal of the gun and saw the saliva dripping from his mouth onto the gun. Most of all, he felt the pressure of his finger on the trigger, knowing one slight tug could end his adversary’s reign of terror forever.

Speckles of blood from the beating of his lifetime sprayed the plastic lined walls in the small room located in the basement of a restaurant. He had been set up, lured there by a rival drug dealer who was trying to beat his capitalistic spirit out of him; the beatings would not stop until he promised to cease his south Boston operations.

April 19, 1955. Almost every squad car in Hillsborough County, Florida lined Columbus Drive in Ybor City. A crowd of men, women and children stood anxiously in the yard of the only mansion of Ybor City, waiting to hear if the rumors of another gang slaying that had spread throughout the city were true. While gang slayings had become the norm in Tampa, the latest being the 21st in the last 23 years, this one was different. This murder was especially brutal. The victim’s head was caved in with a bat and his neck was sliced from ear to ear. Most importantly, though, was the identity of the victim. He was not just any Mafioso or gang member, the victim was one of the most colorful and notorious men in the history of Tampa, the man known as the “White Shadow”–Charlie Wall–the tall, Anglo, retired crime lord who ruled Tampa through both love and fear for most of the early part of the 20th century.

"I am going to St. Petersburg, Florida, tomorrow. Let the worthy citizens of Chicago get their liquor the best they can. I'm sick of the job-it's a thankless one and full of grief. I've been spending the best years of my life as a public benefactor."

-Al Capone at a press conference in 1927.

Hollywood screenwriters dare not dream up a more improbable script: Descendent of blue blood pioneer Southern family rebels against wicked stepmother, is expelled from military school and seeks refuge in exotic immigrant quarter, where he becomes prince of the underworld. 

History was about to be made. The evidence was inside that home:  thousands of bolita tickets collected throughout multiple counties- enough to deliver a crippling financial blow to the Trafficante empire and, perhaps, finally a change that could stick to Santo Trafficante and put him in jail for a long time. The months-long investigation was about to come to fruition.