Lesson 14 A noble gangster
There was a time when the owners of shops and businesses in Chicago had to pay large sums of money t
o gangsters in return for 'protection.' If the money was not paid promptly, the gangsters would quic
kly put a man out of business by destroying his shop. Obtaining 'protection money' is not a modern c
rime. As long ago as the fourteenth century, an Englishman, Sir John Hawkwood, made the remarkable d
iscovery that people would rather pay large sums of money than have their life work destroyed by gan
gsters.
Six hundred years ago, Sir Johan Hawkwood arrived in Italy with a band of soldiers and settled near
Florence. He soon made a name for himself and came to be known to the Italians as Giovanni Acuto. Wh
enever the Italian city-states were at war with each other, Hawkwood used to hire his soldiers to pr
inces who were willing to pay the high price he demanded. In times of peace, when business was bad,
Hawkwood and his men would march into a city-state and, after burning down a few farms, would offer
to go away protection money was paid to them. Hawkwood made large sums of money in this way. In spit
e of this, the Italians regarded him as a sort of hero. When he died at the age of eighty, the Flore
ntines gave him a state funeral and had a pictured with as dedicated to the memory of 'the most vali
ant soldier and most notable leader, Signor Giovanni Haukodue.'