American Notes THE MAFIA

The Mob normally shuns publicity, but if gangsters cannot stay out of the spotlight, it seems they have a fallback position: they want a piece of the profitable action that others may generate from their crimes. The FBI has learned that East Coast racketeers are demanding a cut of the earnings from a proposed film about the life of Meyer Lansky, the Mafia's legendary financial genius who died in 1983.

The apparent extortion scheme suggests that the current intrigue between the Mob and Hollywood may be every bit as spicy as it was in Lansky's heyday. MCA, Inc., the conglomerate seeking video rights to the movie, has suspended Eugene Giaquinto, president of its Home Entertainment Group, following reports that the FBI was investigating his possible ties to organized crime. For at least a year, FBI agents have been tapping the phones of Giaquinto and others in the industry who were heard discussing contacts with mobsters like New York's Gambino-family boss, John Gotti. The eavesdroppers have listened to talk about films being made with laundered Mob money. A widening investigation is under way.