The American and The Mob: the addiction knows no bounds
by: The Man In The Nose...

The American public have always had a love affair with the Mafia. Myths verses facts of "This Thing Of Ours" naturally capitalized on the imagination caused by the doll-drums of the every-day-working-lives of the ordinary. Stories of the fast paced adventures of a group of organized and sharply dressed gun-toting men, with wads of cash in their pockets, beautiful woman at their beckon call, and the ability to face fear, doubt, the unexpected and expected with unbridled personal power, enthralled millions of minions of a society that preached a commercialism of sex and the dollar in a world of individualism and a Pull-Your-Self-Up-By-Your-Own-Bootstraps mentality.

It did not take long for enterprising individuals of this Social-Order to realize a "PUSH" of the facts and myths of "The Mob" in this growing national ( soon to be generational ) addiction could realize fame and fortune. Writers and reporters pooled their energies and resources to "main-line" the myth with grand articles and stories of killers like Salvatore "Little Caesar" Maranzano, Giuseppe "Joe The Boss" Masseria, Carlos Marcello, Benjamin "Bugsey" Siegel, Dutch Schultz, Arnold Rothstein, Genovese, Gambino, Bonanno, Dion O'Banion, George "Bugs" Moran, Meyer Lansky, John Gotti: Sam Giancana, Al Capone and many others. It did not take long before teenager and adult alike could recall the name of a mobster before that of a president.

The "fix" was in, movie and TV "Pusher" moguls profited from feeding this insatiable hunger and addiction with movies like The God Father and TV shows like The Sopranos --and the names of men such as Joseph Valachi and Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, who had "turned" on the Beloved and Glorious Mob, became Rats and Snitches... of the American Family...

It was with all of the above that a known con-artist and mob-wannabe, born Thomas Anthony Papanier, discovered a new twist to this "Main-Line-Fix" of money, fame and power by capitalizing on the fascination of The American with The Mob...

.. he would go after it's Majority Christian Community's need of a Fable to prove that God Works Miracles.

The Con and The Christian:

In 1985 Thomas Anthony Papanier discovered he was in a bind in Atlanta Georgia, Thomas Bilotti, driver and body guard for Gambino Mob Chieftain Big Pauly, had been murdered ... along with Big Pauly.
This was a life threatening situation. Though everyone in Law Enforcement and the Mafia knew that Tom was not a "He's With Us Made Gambino Wiseguy", Tom enjoyed acting like a Gambino Made Guy by capitalizing on Bilotti's name against those whom were fascinated or fearful of the mob. In effect, Tom's well developed glib fashion of boasting to the ordinary man and woman who knew only what News Papers, TV and Movies depicted, and none of True Mafia Protocol, had placed his life in jeopardy. Tom was now fearful that he would get whacked [murdered] by someone who would recall that he had used Bilotti's name.
At the same time bloody bodies lay at the door step of a NY Mid-Town Steak House, the FBI were moving in, ready to pounce on one Thomas Papanier for Pornography Distribution, Drug Trafficking, and Conspiracy To Murder in a full blown Drug Dealing Racketeering Indictment. You see, Tom had used his "connection" to Bilotti to secure a JOB as a BODY GUARD for one on the most successful Drug Importers and Distributors in the South, Carl Copolla.
Copolla was a long time drug importer and dealer whom used a chain of Atlanta restaurants called Jilly's Ribs to launder cash from his South Florida Drug Smuggling Operation. While laundering the cash, he "forgot" to pay his estranged and long time partner in crime, Joseph Cam. With two of his off-loading Miami Crew Members, Joseph Cam kidnapped Copolla and tortured him for two weeks. After Copolla agreed to pay $600,000 he owed Cam, Cam released him. During the trial and tribulation, Cam informed Copolla that he had been secretly recording all his conversations with Copolla for the past year. After he was released, Copolla contacted Daniel "Danny" Forgione, a member of the Detroit Mafia Family, to request Mob help in getting Cam "off his back". He did not want to pay him, and he wanted the tapes. Soon it would cost more to pay for paying mob protection money then it would have been to pay off his partner.
Like all "good" mob things that come to pass, word of a six figure protection pay off soon stirred up a proverbial Pack Of New York Wolves -- ravenous for more than a piece of the action, they would bury the Golden Goose within a lair of Envy, Greed and Murder. And Tom, well, even though no Made Mob Soldier would ever work as a body guard for a non-made guy, let alone a non-mafia drug dealer, Tom heard about the cash and the golden goose and tried using Bilotti's name to get a slice of the white meat ... all he got was a job as a lowly body guard; a job he would loose soon after.
As all the above was coming to a head, Carl stopped paying the rent on the home that he had secured for Tom, his wife Maggie and step-daughter and fired him.
In effect, Tom was broke, about to get thrown out of his home, and an indictment was looming on the horizon, charging Tom with Drug Distribution, Pornography and Conspiracy To Murder. On top of this, Tom had forsaken his family years ago.

Broke, In Fear, Where Do I Turn.

Tom was in a quandary, he was lost. Just maybe he could figure how to con someone. He had no choice. It was weither that otr the streets, and the streets teemed with nothing but the enemy! He ciould not go to New York! What, get a job? Heck, he had not worked a job since he was ....

Well, ever the con artist, he had to use the names once more. His Glib Tongue and his tried and true use of other peoples names always worked. Like the Robert DiNero movie, there was a Christian Group he new of. A group that would open their arms to a man who Fascinated them with stories of being the Third In Line to the Throne of The Gambino Crime Family..

Soon, Tom would be using God as his Godfather and a story of being Rich and Powerful and Giving It All away and being saved like Big Pauly, not of the Gambino Family, but of the New Testament Family ...