RS> This one hasnt got any mafia connections in the literal sense.
RS> In fact even has a black relo, mother of his grandmother or
RS> something. Which comes in handy apparently now.

BG> Dunno how it works in Oz, but I've just finished reading an
BG> incredibly interesting book on NY Mafia Boss, Paul Castellano,
BG> and several of his "mates", one of whom (John Gotti) killed him.

Yeah, there has been some fascinating stuff come out over the decades,
mostly when they have been stupid enough to have not delivered what
the mafiosi considers adequate assistance to his family when he ends
up in jail. Some of those have talked in the most spectacular fashion.

BG> Seems that unless you're of pure Sicilian blood or origin,
BG> you can't join the Mob.

Thats always been greatly overstated. Meyer Lansky wasnt,
didnt slow him down any. There are a number of others too.

BG> Whilst that is slowly changing in the US, I can't imagine that places
BG> like Griffith would be any different.  IOW, if this bloke's granny is
BG> an Abo, he's probably got Buckley's of getting "made" into
the Mafia. |-)

Ours arent even anything like the Sicilian mafia anyway, the Calabresi
do things quite differently. In fact the locals all come from a single
tiny village in Calabria.

BG> There has actually been some suggestion that people like these
BG> are suffering from a specific genetic abnormality, something to
BG> do with a chromosome completely missing from the gene, I seem to
BG> recall, but whilst the evidence points towards this being possible,
BG> I've seen no conclusive proof so far.

RS> Yeah, wouldnt surprise me. I think we are actually seeing a bit
RS> of an odd outcome in human society in many ways. In prior times
RS> those sorts of people could just become pirates or mercenarys etc.

BG> True, and some still do.

Yeah, just reading the memoirs of one completely loopy Scot who did.
Ended up at very senior level in some of the mercenary operations,
particularly in Rhodesia and Zaire etc. Some of those were literally
psychopaths at a large, managing to kill a considerable number of
their own for sport. He actually executed one of them.

BG> They tend to become career criminals like Darcy Dugan,
BG> and more recently, pricks like Neddy Smith.  Some even
BG> become coppers too, but you already knew that.  |-)

True.

RS> Nowadays we just pay them welfare and have to watch some
RS> pretty unspeakable outcomes instead.

BG> And in almost every single case, these people had exhibited
BG> anti social behaviour long before embarking on their criminal
BG> careers. It's not as if there was no prior indication whilst
BG> they were still kids or teenagers.

True. The trouble is tho the ones who exhibited the same sort of
anti social behaviour and never did turn into criminals. Makes it
hard to know that to do. I actually know one who was like that in
his youth, eventually turned into a very decent fellow. Ended up
a reasonable scale contract cleaner who the banks even trusted to
clean the bank with him in there by himself at night. The sort of
fellow you wouldnt have the slightest hesitation about leaving your
house keys with when you went away for example.

I know another one too who ended up as an abo social worker sort
of. I had known him for quite a while and happened to be working
on a machine in a big room with him on the other side of it talking
to someone else, vividly describing what he had got up to in his
youth, including carving up his current wife with a broken bottle
and all. Bloody amazing, classic truth stranger than fiction stuff.

BG> These days they call it stuff like ADD, and dose them
BG> up on amphetamines, for Christ's sake!  16,000 of them
BG> Australia wide, according to the report on ACA last night.

Yeah, tho there clearly is a problem there too. That kid,
bit of a mobile tornado |-)

RS> he's 34 now, wife and two kids. Never actually worked a
RS> day in his life, paid a total of $2.50 in tax apparently.

BG> Perhaps he'll end up like Capone then, put away for tax evasion
BG> because the coppers had no evidence that he was a crime boss.

RS> They have the evidence all right. He has been going thru
RS> the courts for quite a few years on a drug bust. No results
RS> so far incarceration wise. Its a hell of a saga actually.

BG> I'm surprised that the southern states appear not to have adopted the
BG> attitude of the Qld Govt, where the assets (cars, houses, the lot) of
BG> big-time drug growers or dealers are deemed to have been purchased
BG> with illegally-obtained money, and are confiscated and sold at auction.

They do that here too, in fact did with Trimbole. Most of those people
tho dont have much in the way of assets. In fact the HP company has been
doing it anyway. Corse with the psychopath aura he has he has managed to
comprehensively frighten some of those out of their wits too. He managed
to rip $9K out of one of the insurance companys and it appears that the
insurance assessor thought it was a cheap way to ensure his family didnt
end up with some unspeakable outcome. He did the same thing to the
electricity supply crown apparently tho not for so much cash.

BG> The only thing that's changed though is that nowadays, kids like
BG> that can get the dole or Austudy (or WTF you like to call it),

RS> How do you think he has existed for the last 20 years ?
RS> Dole and currently Austudy. Training to be a lawyer would
RS> you believe, external law degree.

BG> Don't prior felony convictions prevent acceptance to the Bar?

Well, he hasnt been convicted yet |-)

Yeah, I had the same reaction. Its quite complicated because
solicitors now can appear before the court and usually it is
solicitors that do for the bulk of the legal aid cases. You
dont get a barrister unless its pretty serious.

Corse it wouldnt be beyond the completely loopy welfare scheme to
be paying for an external law degree which can never be used either.

It actually gets quite complicated, I think that you can get to
do the stuff ancillary stuff like the ones used by the juvenile
justice system who are basically not required to even be solicitors
etc coz they are part of the state system.

BG> and at a much earlier age than ever before.

RS> About the only thing thats changed lately is the homeless kids allowance.

BG> Dunno, I'm sure that Austudy hasn't been around all that long,

The previous system was just different in detail. Whitlam actually
removed tertiary fees. Prior to that there was stuff like Commonwealth
Scholarships which were available to anyone who wasnt a complete dummy.
Many of the dummys just did it thru the teachers training system instead.

BG> then there's the family allowance payment, although that goes
BG> directly to the parent, not the kid, and cuts out at age 16 anyway.

Its only recently done that. For a long time it was dependance that mattered.

(Continued to next message)

--- PQWK202