The Bookie's Daughter by Heather Abraham Page A

enforcement.
     
     
     
The year after I took office, the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 vastly increased federal jurisdiction over racketeering. It defined new federal offenses in the areas of illegal gambling (which I called the “cash register” of organized crime) and public corruption; provided for witness immunity to compel underlings to testify against bosses; created the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act to reach mob fronts posing as legitimate businesses; lengthened prison sentences for racketeering; and authorized special investigative grand juries to concentrate on organized crime. These tools were to transform the role of the U.S. attorneys. 5
     
     
    Armed with the OCCA’s new crime fighting policies, Thornburgh’s task force awaited the opportunity to use their newly created might. Events unfolding in Jeannette would provide them with the opportunity and unleash a scandal that would shake the foundations of Jeannette’s City Hall.
     
    While I was caught up in the excitement of first grade, my father was struggling to extricate himself from a sticky situation involving city officials who determined that Jeannette’s numbers business was going to be conducted according to their rules.
     
    Sometime in 1970, the mayor and chief of police of Jeannette began to systematically “push” minor bookies to turn their business over to one specific individual, thereby creating a monopoly in Jeannette for their chosen “numbers boss.” My father at first refused to comply but eventually acquiesced after his arrest in October 1970. A few days after his arrest and subsequent bond release, he visited the chief of police and agreed to comply with their directive, turning over his book to “the numbers boss backed by the Police Chief and Mayor.” 6 In short order, charges against my father were dropped and his bond was returned to him. Although guaranteed protection from legal action as long as he played by their rules, my father eventually balked at taking orders from government officials. After months of conflict, he decided to stop playing ball with City Hall. Big Al began to make inquiries at the federal level, which eventually led to meetings with Thornburgh’s task force.
     
    My father, code named “Canary #1,” was about to become chief witness and unindicted co-conspirator in a federal case that would test the efficacy of the anticorruption component of the OCCA. In the interest of a full and accurate description of the events, I refer to the official 1972 United States Court of Appeals summary of the affair.
     
     
     
The government’s chief witness, Albert J. Abraham, was an admitted gambler, and an informer. His testimony discloses that prior to January, 1970 he conducted a numbers operation in Jeanette which employed more than five runners and that the same operation continued thereafter.
     
     
Beginning in January Rinaldi, the Chief of Police, began to harass his operation in an effort to compel him to turn his numbers in to defendant Chick. Riehl, the Mayor, spoke to him about requiring all local numbers business to be turned in to Chick. Abraham yielded to this pressure and thereafter did business with Chick, and continued to do so until April 23, 1971. He also became an informer for a state law enforcement agency, and began surreptitiously to record conversations with the defendants. These recorded conversations corroborate his testimony that Riehl, Rinaldi and Chick were conspiring to facilitate Chick’s gambling enterprise. (Nos. 71-2133 to 71-2135) 7
     
     
    Although my sister and I were too young to understand the political and legal implications of the events swirling around us, we were nevertheless caught up in the scandal. Al the bookie was about to sing like a canary. Vanessa and I found ourselves targets of angry and ignorant adults who thought it appropriate to take out their ire on two young girls.
     
Two-Legged Animals
     
    Anonymous threats began