Re. target on your back: Here's a quote from "The Digger's Game" by George V. Higgins (who also wrote "The Friends of Eddie Coyle"). In this scene, a Mob guy is telling an associat that the Don likes him and is talking him up for getting made. Here's what the associate replies:

"Sooner or later they catch up with some guy, got made the same time as you, he's gonna spill his guts as usual.Then you go to bed at night, you got a state cop under the window. In the morning, you get up, FBI onna doorstep. The afternoon, you're having lunch, Treasury guys swap the FBI guys off. Internal Revenue in the dinnertime. Fuck that. My idea, getting made's a great idea, you want police protection. Otherwise, fuck it."