Originally posted by Turnbull:
[QB]Like every other big-time real estate and construction tycoon in NYC, Trump probably had to pay off Mob-dominated unions and contractors. In "Underboss," Sammy Da Bull uses Trump's name in an example of how he used his union connections to extort real estate and construction moguls. He didn't exactly say he really did extort Trump, but Trump probably paid off the Mob one way or another.
Two other points BTW:
1. During the 1984 Presidential campaign, the media uncovered that real estate agent and developer John Zaccaro, husband of Democratic VP candidate Geraldine Ferraro, owned NYC buildings that housed Mob-dominated businesses. One pal noted that it was a measure of Democratic Presidential nominee Walter Mondale's naivete that he didn't figure that his VP candidate's husband would have skeletons in his closet simply by being in the real estate business in NYC. Had nothing to do with being Italian, though the bigots and sexists had a field-day with the revelation.
/QB]
Yeah I rember that story faintly, I was only 15/16 when it broke. But I do remember paying attention to it closely.
I think alot of people in New York pay the mob off in some way or another. But it doesn't mean that they're necessarily connected.
