In the old days of rigid Mafia discipline, a boss might order an “open hit,” meaning any member of the mob could take out the unwanted man at the first chance anyone got. It was particularly useful when a victim was suspicious he might be on a death list and took special precautions that made him a slippery target.
In later years the ploy was much harder to pull off as law enforcement used enough bugging and surveillance to frequently hear of the hit order. The FBI could readily pick up conversations between a couple of wise guys talking about making a try themselves or describing the tries of other mobsters. One can imagine how many mobsters were turned by the law when such conversations were played for the would-be victim.
As a result, in the new, more cautious mob world, open hits are rarely used, and bosses rely almost completely on specific hit assignments. If the proposed hit is later botched or not even attempted, the bosses know who to blame and those hit men may find themselves put under “contract” themselves.
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A recent exception were co-bosses Vic Amuso and Gas Pipe Casso who inherited control of the Lucchese family and sought to maintain control by wholesale killings, often bordering on the screwball if not outright insane, to wipe out their enemies. Under those circumstances they issued open hit orders almost willy-nilly and then might also put out open hits on the gunners they were relying on to make earlier open hit orders.
As a result, there were more desertions from the crime family than any other as the mobsters tried to survive. Also the bosses themselves came closer to implications in the hits than they would in more secretive ploys. Thus the open hit method is used to a lesser extent.
If a crime bigwig wants to engage in a cover-up, the current modus operandi is to assign a couple of killers to take out a victim then have a couple of hit men take care of the first set of hit men, and then the second pair is taken out by a third set of killers. Joel Cacace has been singled out by investigators for going this devious route.
