BF>> The home of the American maffia.

 BK>  Hard to say. New York has their share, and before Chicago I
 BK>  believe. Chicago was just more famous.

 BK>  When I visited Ireland, about 1980, there had been a recent
 BK>  killing of some police by the extremist IRA. Everywhere we went
 BK>  we were stopped by police checkpoints. One asked where we were
 BK>  born. When I said, Chicago, he said, "You must be used to this".
 BK>  I told him I had never been at a police checkpoint before in my
 BK>  life.

My first experience with checkpoints was at Domenican Republic. They had
over 10 before we came to the Haiti border.

 BK>  Detroit was the home of the Purple Gang. Also famous.

Never hear of them.

 BK>  When I said from Chicago I mean originally. I now live near
 BK>  Toledo Ohio. Toledo was, much to my surprise, also heavily
 BK>  involved in organize crime in the '30s. It was also famous as a
 BK>  'rest area' for gangsters from Detroit. Guess they considered it
 BK>  a truce zone or something. Used to work with a nice little old
 BK>  lady. It wasn't until after she died that I learned that she and
 BK>  her husband had run a restaurant that was known to the police as
 BK>  a hangout for gangsters.

Think about listening to everyones life story.

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