The Mafia Killer’s Wife by Rosa Milano

Glossary of mafia terms

• Administration - Top level management of a family, consisting of the Don, underboss, and consigliere
• Associate - Works for/with mafia but is not a made man
• Bagman - Collects or distributes illegally gained money
• Barone - Baron or landlord
• Boss - Alternate term for Don
• Bratva - Russian mafia
• Capo - Captain, leads a crew
• Capo dei capi - Boss of all bosses, a supremely powerful boss
• Captain - Capo
• Comare - (pronounced goomah/goomar) Mistress
• Confirm - To be made
• Connected guy - Associate
• Consigliere - Don’s advisor/fixer, always consulted before decisions are made
• Crew - Group of soldiers under commands of a capo
• Cugine - Young soldier desperate to be made
• Don - Head of an individual mafia family, decides who gets whacked, who gets made
• Famiglia - Family
• Family - An organized criminal clan
• Goombah - Senior associate
• Hit - To murder
• hitting the mattresses - Going to war with a rival family
• Initiation - Becoming a made man
• Kick up - To pass a part of income to the next up in the chain of command
• Lam - To go into hiding
• Make your bones - Gain street cred by killing someone
• Made man - An associate initiated into the famiglia
• Message job - Shooting someone in such a way to send a message (such as through the mouth)
• Oath - Becoming inducted as a made man
• Omerta - A vow of silence, punishable by death if broken
• Outfit - Another term for family/clan
• Pass - A reprieve from being whacked
• Paying tribute - Giving the boss a cut of a deal
• Pinched - To get caught by the police
• Rat - Someone who snitches after being pinched
• RICO - (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act)- The legal act that allows harsher punishments if it can be proved the defendant is part of the mafia
• Shakedown - To extort money from someone or give them a scare
• Shy - The interest charged on loans by sharks
• Soldier - The initial level of made man
• Spring cleaning - Get rid of evidence
• The commission - The body of leading mafia members who settle disputes between the families
• Through the eye - A message job to say “We’re watching you.”
• Through the mouth - A message job to say “This guy’s a rat.”
• Underboss - Second in command to the Don
• Vig - The house’s take in gambling or interest paid to a loan shark
• Whack - To murder
• Wiseguy - A made man