It seems that old Joe eliminated the competition in a rather harsh manner. I know a couple of his cousins, they say the same thing, and the story has the possibility of being true.
I think most of the family fortune came not from bootlegging, but from manipulation on Wall Street, which would qualify as "insider trading" under today's regulations, if not those in force then.
Joe was as much a mobster as any Sicilian.
I was talking to a friend of mine whose grandfather (A "Pollock) was a bootlegger in Lynn, Mass and a good sized bookie. He claims that his great uncles used to get drunk on the Anniversary in celebration of JFK biting the bullet.
It seems that old Joe eliminated the competition in a rather harsh manner. I know a couple of his cousins, they say the same thing, and the story has the possibility of being true."
Well there you go, ANOTHER theory for JFK's death: He was snuffed by someone who lost a loved one to one of Joe's bootlegger hits many years before!