Usually it is victims who become trapped in the web of fear. But sometimes the members do also. For years Frank Sindone was the principal loan-shark in the Angelo Bruno Crime Family. Violence or the threat of it, was his most effective tool. He was threatened to pull the eyes out of a man deep in debt, after promising to break his back. As the years piled up, so did the money. And there came a time when Frank Sindone was ready to call it quits, settle down and enjoy his twilight years on the West Coast. But the system from which he prospered, would not let him go. In the end it killed him. "I'll get out of here one day," he told two mob friends during a meeting in April of 1976 at Frank's Cabana Steaks in South Philly. "You watch, i'll get the f..k out. Get a F-ing ranch. I want to get a nice ranch, with some grapes on it, you know. Make a little bit of bit of wine, sell the wine, get a couple of horses and about 40 or 50 acres. Change my name, this way they can't call me no more." But Bruno wouldn't have it. Here is the conversation that the FBI bug between Sindone, Salvatore "Chuck" Merlino, and Lawrence "yogi" Merlino:
SINDONE: I want to go out there, i told him(BRUNO)... He say's "What do you want in Vegas. What do you want in California?" I said, "Ange, you want me to tell you the truth or do you want me to lie to you?" He says, "You know that bothers me. What do you want with that big house of your own?" I said, "I'll try to tell you, maybe you'll understand. I was poor all my F..king life, I didn't have nothing. My mother and father weren't rich, whatever i have i had to steal. My father used to sell fish like a F..king Indian, so now i got money. I'm getting old fast and i'm almost 50 now. I want to enjoy the F..king money!"
SALVATORE MERLINO: What's the good of having it if you can't spend it?
SINDONE: If i don't make no money for the rest of my F..king life I'd never be broke. I can't spend what i've got. So i got a right to enjoy myself. I've lived my F..king life in one lousy place.
LAWRENCE: MERLINO: Sure, you can see the writing on the wall.
SALVATORE: MERLINO Sure. I agree with you.
SINDONE: Sooner or later they are gonna knock my F..king socks off!"
SINDONE:.... Chuck, see, this guy(Bruno) is.....I love this guy! This guy has been good to me! But he's got them Old F..king ways. He isn't getting out of them, you know what i mean? Those guys i don't know, i don't understand them! It's just get the money, get the money! Don't spend it! What good is it. I mean, you know what i mean, that's all he says to me! He's gonna die and he is gonna leave all his money to his ...his kids. And what are the kids gonna do with it? Their gonna play the horses... i told him, Ange, you know the kind of(financial) shape i'm in! i says, "if i couldn't afford it, i wouldn't do it. I'm not a fool!"
Sindone never got permission to leave the Family and start a new life. At one point in the conversation with the Merlino's, he spoke of what he would do if Bruno had ever said,Go Ahead.
"And i would tell him, all the business i got, youse whack it up you know, God Bless You, I hope youse get rich on it." Police found Sindones body behind South Philly Five-and-Dime store at approximately 1:20 a.m. on Oct. 30, 1980. He had been shot three times in the head. His rope bound body was stuffed in two green plastic trash bags. He was wearing a gold watch and there was $500 in cash in his pockets.