Thursday, December 06, 2007
THE DARK SIDE OF GYPSY CULTURE
An AP story recounts the clan feuding between two Gypsy families in Southern California over who will reap the profits from a fortune-telling enterprise. It sounds like stories of the Mafia:
Things were calm for months until the Stevens patriarch died of a heart attack at age 53 last May. Edward "Davie" Merino showed up at the funeral, pulling up at the cemetery in a limo with what was described as a menacingly burly chauffeur.
Merino says members of the Stevens clan attacked him and screamed, "We will make your life a living hell!" But the Stevenses claim that Merino flashed a gun and threatened to "come back and kill all of you." Both sides agree that before speeding off, Merino shouted that he wanted to make sure "the mother-(expletive) was dead."
