Also:

Could a guy ever get out from under the thumb of loan sharks? Another ancestor of mine had a big gambling problem from the time of his teenage years (1930s) and by the early '60s loan sharks were visiting him and his house often. Apparently (I don't know the full story), they tried to put a lien on the house or take it, but couldn't since it was in his wife's name. His wife also cowed down some of these loan sharks--Standing up to them. It didn't get her hurt or anything. By the late 60s the situation had become so bad that my ancestor was resorting to stealing money from the mail to pay for his debts, which got him fired from his longtime job as a postal worker; He was coming up on 15 years of working there, which (combined with his military service which was counted as years of employment) would've meant a lifetime pension, which he forefeited due to the circumstances. Only his great WWII record as a brave soldier, no history of any prior arrests, the fact that he had a wife and young children, and the corruption of NYC cops at the time stopped him from doing any time.

By the time he died in the late 70s (natural death), he was a card carrying OTB member and no loan sharks visited his house (that I know of). He was absent from the family (living with a mistress) from around 1968 through 1973, so his activities between those years are unknown. But a check done shows he ha police record However, when he died, it was discovered that his life insurance money had been entirely used up by him--Probably taken out to cover debts.

It just makes me wonder--if his slate with the loan sharks was clean at the time of his death in 1976, or if he would've been killed at some later point had he lived. He seems to have been able to avoid being killed--since he had dealt with loan sharks since probably the 50s, if not earlier.