STRAIGHT TALK
MARK BARNES: Don’t be fooled — a life of crime inevitably leads to a dead-end
When you’re public enemy number one with the FBI at your heels, what have you got? A life of bodyguards and hiding
After I watched yet another gangster movie on TV, I still haven’t figured out what the prize is for the kingpin, the godfather, the most feared gangster in the world. The endgame is predictable. Yet they keep coming, and there are recurring themes. At the core is a thirst for money and power that can never be quenched, stereotypically sought by those who started with little of either. Every gangster has a lovely, if not doting, mother. She still lives in the same house in the old neighbourhood, goes to church regularly and cooks a fabulous dinner. Sons are always welcome at home, even though they slaughter other humans for the price of a fix, for disobedience to the code or just for show. "Johnny is still my little boy, a nice kid." In these neighbourhood origins of the billionaire-to-be drug dealer, there are street codes more powerful than the rule of law that you dare not break. Codes governing loyalty, family, brutality, revenge, rites of passage (that sort of stuff) which found...
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