Those Who Would Lead Must First Serve

Go get me an ice cream

               Anthony “Ham” Delasco

History does not record whether the ice cream in question was a Nutty Buddy or a cone of Neapolitan, but when Anthony “Ham” Delasco told young Anthony Accetturo to fetch a cold confection Delasco’s desire for a frosty treat wasn’t really the issue. The issue was the one that sets the context for all others matters on the street—who’s in charge.

Delasco was the guy who said what was what, particularly when that what involved slot machines, the numbers game and loan sharking in his part of North Jersey. Accetturo, who at that point helped to run Delasco’s numbers game and collected the occasional pound of flesh for his shylocking operation, was standing on the corner, cracking wise with his cronies when Delasco sent him on his errand.

Saint Augustine once observed those who would rise must begin by descending, to “first lay the foundation of humility.” Accetturo, who eventually rose to lead the New Jersey faction of the Lucchese crime family, later admitted in an interview with Selwyn Raab that the errand had nothing to do with Delasco’s sweet tooth. “I new that if I wanted to to stay with Ham and learn from him he had to have absolute control over me… He had to break me and I took the bit in my mouth.”  Delasco became his Myagi, teaching him the niceties of his chosen craft, such as how to take the wax off of recalcitrant debtors.

Years later Dylan would sing that you need to serve somebody, even if you are “high degree thief.” The irony is that Accetturo would become both a high degree thief and a singer of sorts when, in his dotage, he informed on his colleagues to the feds. His desire to serve a different master was set in motion when Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso—a blood thirsty assassin --broke what Accenturo considered a key principle of La Cosa Nostra by targeting Accetturo’s wife for murder. For Accetturo, service was a two-way street.

  

Wiseguy Wisdom is a guide to personal growth based on books, movies and government tapes.