Storybook Gangsters and Entrepreneurs.

Robert Smith, Doctoral Candidate, Centre for Entrepreneurship, Aberdeen Business School,
Robert Gordon University, AB107QE.

Paper presented at the British Society of Criminology Conference, 2003, Bangor, Wales.

Abstract.
This conference paper revolves around a biographical analysis of criminal stories, particularly
those of gangster-entrepreneurs. It evolved from similar research inti the biographies of
entrepreneurs and an appreciation that gangster stories can be accommodated under the
spellbinding rubric of the entrepreneurial narrative. These ‘Storybook’ Gangsters and
Entrepreneurs (as a genre in fiction and biography) are traditionally portrayed as
‘Businessman Gangsters’. However, of late, the terms ‘Criminal Entrepreneur’ and ‘Gangster
Entrepreneur’ have become the ‘in vogue’ tabloid norms, as the paradigm gains social
currency. Indeed, gangster entrepreneurism is an expanding, predatory form of social
advancement. This is no coincidence, because a strong theme of enterprise runs through the
rhetoric of criminality, as documented by a new generation of criminologists and mafia
scholars. Biographical analysis as a methodology is in its infancy but has been used in
criminology (Firestone, 1987). In fiction and biography, the entrepreneur is often portrayed in
a less than heroic image, as a rascal, rogue or villain. A narrative style is discernable in
gangster stories, mirroring those of classical entrepreneur stories and an appreciation of the
structure of such stories offers additional insights to understanding the social construction of
both criminality and entrepreneurship. By charting and analysing the storylines we widen our
knowledge of entrepreneurship as a socio-economic phenomenon and life theme.

Introduction.
This conference paper explores the concept of the ‘Storybook Gangster’ 1. Smith and
Anderson (2003) researching entrepreneurial identity suggest that the entrepreneurial and
constructs share a common heritage in working class mythology. They also share common
epistemological storylines (Warshow, 1948) and ontological elements such as shared cultural,
values and symbolic capitals. Even normally eulogised entrepreneurs have the capacity to
commit villainous deeds as evidenced by the fall from grace of rogue entrepreneurs such as
John DeLorean (Fallon and Srodes, 1994) and Robert Maxwell (Greenslade, 1992) who both
committed crimes of staggering proportions. Indeed, the very term entrepreneur has a roguish
allure to it, hinting at links with criminality without the stigma normally attached to villainy
1
The ‘Storybook Gangster’ concept was inspired by London gangster and entrepreneur ‘Dodgy Dave’ Courtney
who created his caricatured persona from a composite of villainous characters borrowed from the pages of
fiction and media screens. Courtney, the charismatic showman, has perhaps become the real life equivalent of
his fictional counterparts. The idea was discussed in a personal communication between the author and
Courtney.

1
(Smith and Anderson, 2001). Historically, entrepreneurs have been accused of having a
casual sense of business ethics, as well as routinely engaging in sharp business practices. The
economist William Baumol (Baumol, 1996) asserts that entrepreneurs can engage in
productive, unproductive and destructive entrepreneurship including acts of criminality.
There is a social cache in being associated with the entrepreneurial ideal which manifests
itself in the notion of the entrepreneur as a ‘rough diamond’ (Scase and Goffee, 1982: 138).
This theme of situational cleverness pervades entrepreneurial narratives and it is common for
stories to circulate about how individual entrepreneurs outsmarted local criminals or other
businessmen with the reputation of being bandits. Becoming an entrepreneur is a process
driven, socially prescribed label, not an occupational prescribed identity, thus if one acts and
communicates in a particular manner, they can be ascribed the status of entrepreneur. Thus,
an enterprising thief or armed robber can be entrepreneurial, just as an entrepreneur can be
criminal. Nevertheless, it is important to differentiate between the criminal entrepreneur and
the entrepreneurial criminal. The latter repeatedly displays innovative and entrepreneurial
tendencies and succeeds by virtue of these traits, imbuing their criminal actions with a
competitive edge. They may operate at the forefront of professional crime, exploring and
developing new markets whilst simultaneously controlling and exploiting existing markets.
Criminal entrepreneurs cynically exploit crime as another lucrative market. The profiles of a
criminal entrepreneur and an entrepreneurial criminal are distinctly different, and as a
consequence, this determines their modus operandi and ultimately, their chances of
interdiction by the authorities. Researching this genre is difficult because they are elusive and
may masquerade in a variety of identities as discussed below. Gaining access to them is
problematic, hence the desirability of researching them in ‘storybook’ format. In addition, if
one’s life story conforms to the tenets of the entrepreneurial narrative, one can metaphorically
shelter under the umbrella of the entrepreneurial rubric.
Thus sheltered, the words ‘criminal’ and ‘entrepreneur’ are used in conjunction and are
found co-located in numerous books, magazines, periodicals, journals, newspapers, films and
documentaries, all of which use the label indiscriminately without proffering a definition
(Smith and Anderson, 2001). In addition, there is no official definition of exactly what
constitutes a criminal entrepreneur, leaving it open to subjective interpretation. At the time of
writing, a search of the internet and academic library catalogues, using the co-located words
‘criminal’ and ‘entrepreneur’ failed to uncover much directly applicable material. Indeed, the
term in increasingly being used as a euphemism for the ‘professional criminal’. To
complicate matters, there are few individuals whose knowledge spans the necessary
disciplines and literatures. Moreover, the very label ‘entrepreneur’ covers a plethora of socio-
economic types and behaviours. As a result, entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes and
from different backgrounds with their basic characters ranging from the moral, immoral,
amoral to the criminal (Smith and Anderson, 2001). To illustrate this, Walvin (1997) evoked
the use of the word ‘entrepreneurial’ to describe the story of a Quaker boy who stole apples
and sold them in a nearby village whilst conversely, Taylor et al (1975) in discussing the
other end of the spectrum, notes that the crimes of the powerful, committed at corporate level,
makes Al Capone and the Great Train Robbers look like novices. In a similar vein, Golding
and Middleton (1982) narrate the story of businessman Edmond Vestey, who was exposed as

2
having only paid £10 tax of profits on £4.1 million but was lauded for displaying
entrepreneurial initiative. Golding and Middleton (1982) further note that the popular image
of the tax evader is as a hero, not a cheat and that, in business, the prevailing attitude is good
luck towards anyone who can succeed by any means. This would suggest that criminal
businessmen are frequently portrayed as being smart, if not heroic. Wells (1992: Foreword)
echoes this sentiment, noting that the public are intrigued and respectful of wealth and
harbour a secret admiration for such successful middleclass offenders who beat the system.
At present, the term ‘criminal entrepreneur’ is primarily a linguistic phenomenon,
located within the pages of a particular genre of criminological, journalistic and academic
literature. Increasingly, scholars of entrepreneurship agree that it is a legitimate area of
study. For example, Casson (1982:351) stressed that crime can be viewed as an illegal form
of entrepreneurship. Indeed, Casson (1990) accepted that Mafia Entrepreneurship existed,
noting that it was normally only associated with organised crime, not business. As argued in
this paper, it is demonstrated that it also pervades ordinary crime. Similarly, Chell (1985)
articulated the popular image of the entrepreneur as having much in common with the
criminal. Criminologists and sociologists have long appreciated this paradigm. For example,
Sutherland (1937) in his seminal text, ‘The Professional Thief’ implicitly made the
connection between the professional thief and the self-made man. Sutherland later developed
this into another seminal thesis of the ‘White Collar Criminal’ to refer to the crimes of
entrepreneurs and corporate players (Sutherland, 1949). Later, the Scottish criminologist
Mack used the word entrepreneur in a criminal context, positing the terminology of the
‘background entrepreneur’ (Mack, 1964, 1972). The Mafiologist Blok (Blok, 1974) posited
the twin notions of the Mafia as ‘violent peasant entrepreneurs’ and the Mafia as
‘entrepreneurs of violence’. Heyl (1978) extended the comparison to the ‘Madame as
entrepreneur’ linking entrepreneurship with organised prostitution. Similarly, Smith (1978)
considered the links between organised crime and entrepreneurship. Arlacchi (1986)
attributed the success of the Mafia to their entrepreneurial flair; whilst Hobbs (1988, 1996)
charted the rise of entrepreneurial criminality during the era of the enterprise culture, positing
the notion of the ‘Enterprise Orientated Criminal’. Furthermore, Stewart (1991) criticises
Hobbs for selectively ignoring the concept of entrepreneurship entirely, concentrating on the
descriptive as well as over-using the word entrepreneur to describe opportunistic and often
criminal self-aggrandisement. Entrepreneurial behaviour in certain contexts can often be
viewed as self-aggrandising in nature.
One becomes an entrepreneur, or a gangster for that matter, because one earns the
respect required to be referred to as such by others. The most critical trait that appears to
separate the legitimate entrepreneur from the criminal variety, is that of morality and how
they use their stock of social capital (Bordieu, 1996). Indeed, social and human capital appear
to be significant factors in determining entrepreneurial success. In a criminal context,
Bourgois explored the them of social capital in relation to the entrepreneurial propensity
within a Puerto Rican crack dealing clique, attributing entrepreneurial success, or lack of it,
to an individual’s level of social and cultural capital acting as a barrier or key to success.
Bourgois describes a world populated by underground economy entrepreneurs and using
ethnography profiled their gang leader Ray as a crack dealer come entrepreneur who looked

3
and acted the part of the gangster, trading on his street cred and entrepreneurial image.
Bourgois (1995) further discussed the content of the ‘crossover dream’ noting that Ray
continually dreamed of ‘going legit’, and despite being an astute businessman, failed to
progress his ambitions of opening up legal businesses including a deli, a club and a
laundromat. Ultimately, Ray was unable to cope with the regulations surrounding legal
business. Ray had been socialised into an entrepreneurial gangster identity, not a business
one. Ray’s gang members also experience similar problems in trying to convert their
entrepreneurial aspirations into reality. One particular gang member also attempted to
establish a legitimate enterprise repairing electrical items, but ultimately failed despite
“obvious entrepreneurial skills as a crack house manager” (Bourgois, 1995:135-6). This
scenario demonstrates that there is a gulf between criminal entrepreneurial skills and
legitimate ones.
This conference paper has 3 sections. The first explores 2 common gangster-
entrepreneur stereotypes who share a common epistemological heritage with classic
entrepreneurial ideology. This is because traditional Mafia and gangster stories often mirror
the entrepreneurial themes of the ‘humble poor boy made good’. Traditional Mafia converts
were usually the sons of shepherds or similar rural occupations and were frequently portrayed
as ‘having made good’ (Firestone, 1997). Modern Mafioso are more likely to be the educated
sons of men experienced in business. The second section discusses research into the fictional
and biographical accounts of gangsters and professional criminals using content analysis to
develop and explore common themes between them. The third part articulates the
methodology and the fourth part develops a narrative model showing how gangster stories
conform to the tenets of entrepreneurial narrative or vice versa. This has important
implications for high society views such masterful criminals, who nowadays may have more
in common with the entrepreneur than the stereotypical criminal of yore. There are two
research questions which emerged from the literature review. These are:

 How do gangster stories conform to the tenets of the entrepreneurial narratives and in
what ways?
 Do entrepreneur stories also conform to the tenets of certain types of criminal
narrative?

The rise of the gangster-entrepreneur.

Freeman (2002) notes the similarities between the gangster and the legitimate entrepreneur as
identified by criminologists and economists, arguing that few would argue that the dividing
line between the two is often an indefinite one: they regularly have a common origin in
having entered society from its margins, as immigrants and exiles, or from the lower depths
of the economic or social system. Entrepreneurs and gangsters share a similar quest – namely,
the pursuit of 1) financial success as fortune seeking; 2) the search for respect: and 3) a desire
for legitimacy. Both socio-economic activities are ‘methods of operating’ [Modus Operandi],
not a career or job description. There is a long-standing tradition of casting entrepreneurs in
the role of the villain, usually by situating the experience in anecdotal stories, innuendo, or by

4
fictionalising them. For instance, Casson’s (1980) fictional hero ‘Jack Brash’ emerged from a
streetwise background and established his first fortune by ‘black marketeering’ and when he
was in need of venture capital to finance a large deal his old factory, his factory mysteriously
burnt down and he claimed the insurance. Thus, it is often left to the reader to fill in the
missing information and accusations. Entrepreneurs such as George Reynolds (Bolton and
Thompson, 2000) and Kjell Inge Rokke (Gibb, 2001) have overcome criminal beginnings to
become legitimate tycoons. Even Sir Richard Branson had an early minor scrape with the law
and in his autobiography narrates that a former teacher prophesied that he would either end
up a millionaire or in jail (Branson, 2001). Fallon (1994) makes an interesting point in
relation to entrepreneurs operating at the edge of legality, discussing two entrepreneurial
associates of the legendary Irish entrepreneur Tony O’Reilly, whom whilst employed at the
allied Irish Bank, entered into ingenious negotiations to obtain finance from the Ulster Bank
for a business venture. The pretended that the other was going to provide the venture capital,
and vice versa. The ambitious but dubious scheme almost succeeded, until their ruse was
discovered at the last minute. They were both sacked but because of their position and social
class they were not reported to the police. It was a risky business strategy of bluff, half-truths
and lies. Had they succeeded they would have no doubt achieved legendary status, probably
inspiring a book and a movie. It is perhaps the portrayal of the gangster as a businessman and
entrepreneur in storybooks, the media and in movies that led to the peculiar phenomenon of
gangster-entrepreneurial morphology.

Gangsters or Entrepreneurs?

As a result of this morphology, both ideological and semiotic, distinguishing between the
gangster and the entrepreneur is often difficult because the boundaries have become
somewhat blurred. It is common in movies and books to portray the ‘self-made-man’ as
‘dodgy’ by grafting on cliched criminal iconology – thus the entrepreneur will be depicted
wearing black shirts and flashy designer suits, adorned with gold jewellery and smoking large
cigars. This fabricated visage of ‘bad-boy’ masculine ‘Sigils of success’ will be rounded off
with the ubiqitous Mercedes marque to signal wealth and enterprising nature (Smith, 2002).
Indeed, the notion of the ‘Enterprise Orientated’ criminal (Hobbs, 1987/1996) is not a new
phenomenon in criminology, but appreciation of it in the entrepreneurship literature is a new
development (Smith, 2000; Anderson and Smith, 2001; Smith and Anderson, 2003). Indeed,
Anderson and Smith (2001) stress that there are more negative entrepreneurial types than
positive ones. Smith and Anderson (2003) emphasise the influence of the ‘Spiv’ and the
‘Barrow Boy’ on British enterprise culture and entrepreneurial iconology. Researching the
gangster-entrepreneur is difficult because enterprise orientated crime is committed by a
plethora of criminal types as appreciated by Smith (1975) who distinguished between the
illicit-businessman, the illicit-entrepreneur, the gangster-outlaw and the gangster-
businessman.

5
 In the press the notion of the criminal-entrepreneur is fast gaining social currency as a
‘catch-all’ descriptor, but the sub-genres described below are all metaphors for the brutish
opportunism of criminal entrepreneurship (Hobbs, 1987). In the academic literature, the
notion is becoming questioned. From an analysis of biographies and academic literature a
taxonomy of entrepreneurial criminal stereotypes emerged namely the Criminal-businessman;
the Rogue-entrepreneur; the Businessman-gangster; the Gangster-entrepreneur; the Mafiosi-
entrepreneur; the Entrepreneurial-criminal; and the Criminal-entrepreneur. The need for such
a typology arose from the generality and vagueness of the term criminal-entrepreneurship
fails to distinguish practices and styles. However, they are all discrete categories, which
differentiate between criminal styles and modus-operandi. The criminal-businessman is an
elusive category, as many operate as legitimate-businessmen whose criminal activities have
not been unmasked. The rogue-entrepreneur is an established entrepreneur with a reputation
for dodgy dealing, sharp practice and criminality. The businessman-gangster is a well-
established genre, in the literature and in many cultures (such as the Japanese Yakuza and
Chinese Triads). The Mafiosi-entrepreneur is fast becoming an accepted paradigm, whilst the
Entrepreneurial-criminal is an interesting new paradigm because they may display
entrepreneurial traits and tendencies but may not project an entrepreneurial persona nor
identity. The lexicon of gangsterism is pervaded by business metaphors and imagery as
suggested by Hobbs (1987) who stresses that villains “do the business”. Also, the term
criminal-entrepreneur is over-used and under articulated because it potentially covers the
whole taxonomy. This is not a case of pedantic or semantic differentiation because the classic
businessman-gangster is more businessman than gangster, whereas the Mafiosi-entrepreneur
is more Mafioso than entrepreneur. They are not the same phenomenon, although they
display epistemological similarities. Many believe that crime is anti-entrepreneurial, but the
crimes of the entrepreneur will undoubtedly display entrepreneurial flair. See table 1 – ‘A
Taxonomy OF Entrepreneurial Criminal Types’ for a fuller explanation.

Table 1 – A taxonomy of entrepreneurial criminal types.

The rogue-entrepreneur
The ‘I’m a businessman’ This is a very useful identity for the criminally inclined to hide behind.
criminal-businessman.
The Businessman-Gangster.
This category relates to established entrepreneurs who have a reputation
or dishonesty and/or sharp practices and revel in the infamy of not being
caught. Such individuals deliberately invoke entrepreneurial iconology
and invariably project a charismatic-flash persona. They are usually
known to the authorities for being on the fringes of the law.
Invariably such businessmen are indistinguishable from other bona-fide
businessmen, but they can be distinguished by their reputation and
propensity to pursue hedonistic pleasures. They invariably also have no
previous convictions and are often unknown to the authorities but well
known in business circles for their tendencies. They are drawn from the
ranks of small businessmen, traders, shopkeepers, and self-employed
tradesmen and are often regarded as being pillars of their communities
and as such are often beyond suspicion. They project an image of
honesty, probity and adherence to family values. Many act as criminal
facilitators, resetters and trade in contraband. There are often few
outward cues to criminality.
This category relates to individuals who are more businessmen than
gangster which is an important distinction. They encourage the
perception of being a ‘Mr Big’ type figure and deliberately adopt

6

The Gangster-Entrepreneur.
Gangsta’s.
The Doorman-Gangster.
The Entrepreneurial-Criminal.
The Mafioso-Entrepreneur.
The criminal-entrepreneur.
gangster iconology mixed with business attire and gangster regalia.
They also project an image of being ‘hard-nosed’ but astute
businessmen with legitimate and criminal connections. They are
frequently conflated with other crimino-entrepreneurial types.
This category is more gangster than entrepreneur and adopt hard core
gangster iconology and project a charismatic, flash persona whilst
deliberately invoking the entrepreneurial label and mythology. Clues
will be verbal, textual and semiotic.
This category is interesting because instead of adopting business values
and imagery these young street criminals idealise gangster iconology
and merge it with street cred, Gangsta rap music and ‘fly clothing’.
Many of these ‘gangstas’ are very entrepreneurial in their nature and
modus operandi.
This category consists of ‘doormen’ and security at clubs and pubs and
they are a discernable sub-category in that they often control their own
firms of doormen and act in an entrepreneurial manner. They are
entrepreneurial agents and often sub-contract themselves out for
protection and debt collection jobs for other gangsters.
This category is an interesting one because the entrepreneurial criminal
may not display any outwards signals of being an entrepreneur. They
often project the outward appearance of being ordinary criminals and
adopt an over-stated criminal ‘hard-man’ looking often projecting
hardcore criminal values and beliefs. One has to understand them and
their modus operandi before one appreciates that they are in fact
entrepreneurs of crime.
This is an important mythologized sub-genre and in business circles
they will project the image of internationally sophisticated businessmen.
Privately, and in their own domain they adopt the ‘Mafiosi’ imagery.
This is a ‘catch-all’ label which incorporates all the above types. There
is no one, overarching look or type. Its value and utility lies inits
qualities as a discriminatory prefix and negative accolade.

Each of the categories described above, invoke their own peculiar version of the
‘entrepreneurial narrative’ to achieve legitimacy. In the following section, we look at the two
major categories of the ‘Businessman-Gangster’ and the Mafioso-Entrepreneur’ more in
depth and examine how they (or commentators) utilise the entrepreneurial narrative and
rhetoric.

The Ubiqitous Businessman Gangster: The construct of the ubiqitous ‘Businessman-

gangster’ posited by Warshow (1948) has a long history in popular fiction and in the cinema
(Freeman, 2000). In Britain, since Victorian Times it has been merged with that of the
‘Villain’ or major criminal. The British love affair with the businessman-gangster is related to
its association with the ubiquitous Spiv beloved of British ‘B’ class gangster movies. 2 Indeed,
Clarke (1990:226) in referring to “simple villainy”, belies the complexity of this multifaceted
construct. Villains, like entrepreneurs are portrayed as flamboyant characters, or as silent
sinister, cartoonesque figures. Thus, the genre of the businessman-gangster is a ready-made
2
These include such classics as Brighton Rock (1948); The Italian Job (1969); Get Carter (1971); The Long
Good Friday (1980); McVicar (1980); Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (1998); Sexy Beast (2000); Snatch
(2000); Essex Boys (2000); and Layer Cake (2004).

7
lionised characterisation taken from movies and storybooks that can be adapted as an identity
position by villains. Nevertheless, the gangster as a genre is a multi-faceted construct with no
overarching typology and the businessman-gangster is just one of many possible identity
positions. Carcaterra (2002:152) refers to ‘pure gangsters’ but other sub-typologies as
indicated in table 1 below include the doorman gangster and the now ubiqitous street based
‘Gangsta’s’. However, to distinguish between the pure villain and the other types, in adapting
the persona of the businessman gangster, one is also partially invoking the entrepreneurial
narrative.

Businessmen-gangsters operate in a shadow world that links legitimate and illegal

businesses and many villains have small businesses such as taxi cabs, scrap yards and
second-hand car salesrooms etc (Robinson, 1983). According to Taylor (1984:150) it is the
norm to depict the gangster as lacking in brainpower and entrepreneurial propensity,
however, the businessman-gangster negates the assumption permitting one to consider the
gangster as a worthy opponent. Indeed, Taylor (1984) stresses that many villains regard
themselves primarily as local businessmen, interceding on behalf of other businessmen
clients to restore the natural order of things. There is an obvious crossover between the
business and gangster worlds and the term encompasses two polar opposites the businessman
who fancies himself as a bit of a gangster and the gangster who adopts a business persona. To
the real gangsters, some businessmen who adopt a gangster persona are derogatorily known
as ‘Chocolate Gangsters’ because they melt in the heat. Taylor (1994) describes one
respondent Phil as an ex armed robber who funded a lgitimate business on the proceeds of his
robberies. It is common for Villains to cross over from villainy to legitimate businesses on a
regular basis. Viccie (1991:31) astutely notes that it is typical for crooked businessman to
consider themselves smarter than the real predators. Much of the organizational energy
expended by businessmen gangsters is on maintaining the balance between the two frenetic
worlds. Taylor (1994) ironically notes that it has become a cliché that nightclubs have a
resident gangster with a suit of stereotypical sartorial, double-breasted-style. Indeed, the term
businessman-gangster is invoked in a derogatory manner as a mechanism of dismissing the
recipient of the title as not being worthy of the accolade of the genuine businessman –
highlighting an obvious double standard at play.

The Mafioso-Entrepreneur: The story of the ‘Mafioso-entrepreneur has a long tradition

with stories, which mirror the entrepreneurial theme of the poor-boy-making-good. Indeed,
traditional Mafioso were the sons of shepherds, farmers and tradesmen, whereas in modern
mafia stories the poor boy seldom makes good and the new genre are the educated sons of
businessman and professionals. Arlacchi (1979) was the first scholar to consider the mafia as
entrepreneurs in his paper “From Man of Honour to Entrepreneur: The evolution of the
mafia”. Arlacchi (1986) in his seminal work “Mafia Business: The Mafia ethic and the Spirit
of Capitalism” developed the hypothesis of the entrepreneurial mafia. 3 Elsewhere, Arlacchi

3
An obvious parody of Max Weber’s seminal study “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”.

8
(1986:68) refers to “…the cancer of the Mafioso-entrepreneur”. The psychological profile
proffered by Arlacchi of the Mafiosi entrepreneur only bears faint traces of the deviant
outsider. Albini (1997:21) made reference to the mafia as being very rational criminal
entrepreneurs. The Mafiosi-entrepreneur has the profile of a successful businessman and only
differ from their legitimate peers by the speed of their rise from obscurity. Blok (1969 and
1974) also considered the Mafia to be entrepreneurs as did Cook (1980). Cook suggested that
the Mafia were an invisible enterprise. Smith (1975) discussed how the mafia imagery has
changed over time as a result of the gradual transfer to entrepreneurship. Three distinct
ontological phases are discernable in the literature – 1) The Mythic Mafioso-entrepreneur; 2)
The Immigrant Mafioso-entrepreneur-gangster; and 3) The new business orientated Mafioso-
entrepreneur.
In relation to the mythic Mafioso narrative, Hess (1988:47) acknowledges that the
traditional, successful Mafioso were situated in the middle classes bit originated from the
lower classes or gabelleto. Hess further discusses the humble beginnings of the Mafioso who
rose by dint of their greed, ruthlessness and shiftlessness. Hess discusses the stories of Vito
Cascio Fero the son of a poor illiterate labourer; Guiseppe Geco Russo the son of a penniless
goatherd who became a gabelleto; and Nitto Minasila a goatherd who started with two goats;
Vincenzo Rimi the son of a shepherd who became a cowherder then successful cattle dealer;
Filippo Baltciglia who rose from being a ceramic worker. Hess stresses that many of these
now rich Mafiosi are illiterate e.g. Fero could not read nor write and others had limited
schooling or never attended school. The narrative of an anonymous author translated by
Bardoni (1991) offers an insight into the mafia poor-boy-makes-good. Luciano ‘Lucky’ Ligio
is a classic example of this genre rising from humble beginnings who began his ascent as an
illiterate estate guard of hunch backed appearance, due to an early illness. In prison, the old
persona disappeared to be replaced by an elegant assured gentleman who spoke good Italian
and read extensively.
The myth of Italian émigré gangsters turned entrepreneurs is another well-established
storyline. Indeed, Hess (1988:161) discusses the generis of the American myth of the Mafiosi
as an entrepreneur stating that “the Sicilian who emigrated to America at the turn of the
century, found himself in a country where the pioneering spirit and the myth of the robust
self-made man, was very much alive. He came to a world where it was up to the individual to
cease his chance and make his fortune, even though by not altogether legal means, by
bending the law or if necessary, by using force.” Hess argues that the typical
Italian/American gangster rose from the lower stratum of society and accrued dual benefits
from being associated with the entrepreneurial and American dreams. Hess argues that the
‘Mafioso made good’ were regarded by their community as being their manifestation of the
archetypical ‘American poor boy made good’. Hess further discusses the role of ethnic
cohesion in creating a breeding ground for gangsterism in the new world. He describes a
process of morphology by which immigrant ruffians turned into conservatively dressed
businessmen with smooth manners. Cohen (1998) also makes a similar argument for Jewish
gangster entrepreneurs in the new world. Cohen describes a process whereby the Jewish
mobster turned to crime out of necessity but quickly worked to become a legitimate

9
businessman. The aim of the Jewish gangster was to obtain legitimacy in one generation so
that their children could go to university and become doctors and lawyers.
The latest manifestation of the mafia entrepreneurial narrative emerged in the 1960s
with the genesis of the Entrepreneurial Mafia. During this period, established mafia families
entered into business in large numbers, establishing entrepreneurial businesses in
construction and transport and enriched themselves through a combination of legal and illegal
enterprises (Hess, 1998:186). Hess differentiates between the new Entrepreneurial Mafia and
what he terms as the Old Mafia Gangsteristica. The new Mafiosi entrepreneur, despite
emerging from successful middle class, second and third generation mafia families,
benefitted from the mythology of their forebearers as self-made men, who rose from nothing.
Both entrepreneurial and social prestige are transferable across generations. Buchanan (1998)
in discussing the life of Lucky Luciano, invokes the sentimental storyline of the ‘poor boy
made good’ describing him as ‘Horatio Alger with a gun’. Hess (1998) stresses that the early
Mafiosi in America chose occupations requiring no training or education and requiring a
degree of risk and speculation. Such occupations stand on the borderline between legal and
illegal activity. Arlacchi (1986) conversely profiles the contemporary Mafiosi as possessing a
reasonable level of education and emanating from middle class professional or commercial
backgrounds. Arlacchi further notes that the new mafia recruits from middle class university
students who gravitate towards entrepreneurial occupations. These combine high risk with
rapid advancement and permit dealing and mediating behaviours. Nevertheless, the Mafiosi
must still prove himself as an entrepreneur or an entrepreneurial criminal before being
accepted as a ‘made man’. Ironically, the ‘Made Man’ must first still be ‘self-made’. This
positions entrepreneurship as a collective activity.
From a reading of the mafia entrepreneur literature a time-line model emerges, detailing
the ontological and epistemological development of a mafioso as detailed in figure 1 below:

The Poor-Boy-Making-Good. From Made Man to Businessman.

The ‘Wanna be’ Mafioso is born into
criminal environment, family or area.
The acolyte hangs about street corners
and becomes a runner. He attracts the
sponsorship of a Mafia mentor.
Through perseverance and hard work
he rises above the level of exploitation
and works his way upwards under the
protection of his mentor and gains
‘street cred’ as a thief and entrepreneur
of violence. He develops his own
reputation and legend.
Becoming a Self-Made Man.
In these anomic years he develops a
reputation for criminal cunning and
commits an escalating number of crimes.
The inevitable jail sentence enhances his
reputation and criminal provenance and
expands his network. On release he forms
his own team, diversifies into other
lucrative crimes and earns respect as
serious earner. He is rewarded with
admittance to the Mafia as ‘A Made Man’
for his obvious entrepreneurial flair.
In this phase he still plans and commits
audacious crimes but does not always
execute them himself. He directs the
criminal activity and recruits his own
sponsored acolytes. He diversifies his
portfolio of legitimate businesses. His
persona as a businessman and man of
respect develops and he becomes a local
benefactor and philanthropist. He joins
the criminal aristocracy and educates his
children sending them to university and
into the professions. He becomes a
‘Don’.

In Search of Respect The Anomic Years In Pursuit of legitimacy

Figure 1 – The development of an entrepreneurial Mafiosi.

10
What all these entrepreneurial criminal types have in common is that they are easier to study
in story book format, than in real life. Biographies allow the gangster or entrepreneur to tell
their story and justify their actions and make the portrayal of a reified entrepreneurial identity
easier to portray, broadcast and narrate. In biography they can craft their stories to fit the
storybook formula. In part 2 we look at the biographies of ordinary British villains, gangsters
and thieves to see how they invoke the entrepreneurial narrative for their own ends.

Storybook Gangsters and Entrepreneurs in fiction and biography.

The storybook gangster-entrepreneur populates the pages of fiction and biography. One does
not have to be an avid reader of novels or biographies to be exposed to the phenomenon as
journalists expose us to biographical rendition, using the micro story or micro biographical
methodology (Firestone, 1997). The entrepreneurial narrative thus perpetuated can be used as
a mechanism to legitimise the stories of individual villains who display an enterprising
nature. We look at two such tabloid tales told by journalist Jo-Ann Goodwin and paraphrase
the articles – see tables 2 and 3 below:
Table 2
Jo Ann Goodwin ‘Cannabis Conspiracy, in the Daily Mail (2001).
Goodwin narrates the story of Alan, a drugs dealer. She describes him as having the appearance of a self-
made businessman, emphasising his affluent, rural mansion, stressing that he is a benefactor, philanthropist,
pillar of the community and part of the social fabric. Alan projects the persona of the country squire replete
with Barbour jacket and green Wellington boots but lives two lives – one as a reputable businessman and the
other as a major importer of cannabis. Alan uses the successful business businessman / Country Squire to
cover his gangster identity but betrays himself by wearing tell-tale heavy gold bracelets, sovereign rings and
Kruggerands on chains. Alan entered the drug scene as a teenager, associating with biker gangs but upon
leaving school with A-Levels became a builder. Displaying entrepreneurial flair, he established a property
company. Success and riches followed, but the lure of easy money was too tempting. Using his biker
contacts, he established a lucrative import network, quickly expanding his illegal empire. Simultaneously he
built up his legitimate business and perfected his ‘country squire’ image whilst trading illegally in guns and
other contraband commodities.

Table 3
Jo Ann Goodwin ‘The Professor, in the Daily Mail (2000).
Goodwin narrates a cautionary tale of the alternative business career of the so-called ‘Professor’. Of middle-
class extraction, the ‘Professor’ gained 6 A-Levels, before graduating from university with a Chemistry and
Engineering degree. Whilst at university he manufactured illegal drugs (mainly speed) to make ends meet.
After graduating from University, he pursued the entrepreneurial dream, setting up a legitimate precision
engineering business, initially finding it difficult to obtain the necessary start up capital. He was sentenced to
14 days in prison for a minor offence and met a major league villain who later hired him as an illegal chemist.
He did this as a side-line to finance his fledgling business and fulfil his dreams. He excelled in his new
criminal venture too as an ecstasy manufacturer and later dealer. According to Goodwin, he became one of a
new breed of gangsters with carefully constructed business plans and a jet set lifestyle, having more in
common with a legitimate entrepreneur than an old time crook. The ‘Professor’ soon achieved legendary
status in the underworld as an operator. One fabled story relates to him seizing and ‘cubing’ a Mercedes
marque from a debtor to teach him a lesson. He and an associate Sydney Frankel pioneered the distribution of
ecstasy and speed in the UK. In, 1980, the ‘Professor’ was imprisoned for two years for manufacturing E’s.
Ironically, he still considered himself to be a legitimate entrepreneur. On his release, he tried to go straight
but the lure of easy money, vast profits and a hedonistic lifestyle sucked him back into a criminal lifestyle.
He teamed up again with Frankel and another infamous criminal entrepreneur Marc Stern, forming a joint
venture in Yugoslavia producing E’s at a rate of 600,000 per hour. The business became quickly worth

11
 billions and ran for over two years until forced to close. Back in Britain, he was again jailed for a further six
years and Frankel for nine for manufacturing E’s. He escaped from an Open Prison and aligned himself with
major league London Villains conspiring to set up a factory producing 3 million E’s a month, with a
projected income of £60 million. When caught at the time of the article he turned “Queens’ evidence.

It is tempting to dismiss Alan and the ‘Professor’ as simply being rogue entrepreneurs but
there are too many common entrepreneurial life themes present to do so. Neither Alan nor the
Professor are archetypal criminals of working-class extraction so often encountered in
biographies. Both were pulled into crime by dint of their entrepreneurial flair. In addition, a
genre of true crime books such as ’Hard Bastards’ (Kray, 2000) or Barnes (2000) have
become popular, providing readers with min-biographies of villains frequently also referred
to as entrepreneurs. The phenomenon of the television biopic also serves a similar purpose.
Such biographical rendition act to confirm the emerging stereotypical representations.

Storybook Gangsters and Entrepreneurs in Fiction: Nonetheless, the rogue entrepreneur

makes a perfect storybook hero and villain. In fiction, the storybook entrepreneur often acts
in a world where criminality is ever present and is seen as a pathway to future success and
legitimacy. This indelible link between the entrepreneur and the criminal is perpetuated
again and again in fiction. This is evidenced in the following novels. Max Britsky, the
fictional entrepreneur, created by the novelist Howard Fast (1983) began is career as a
streetwise petty thief, before moving on to commit minor scams as a ticket tout and bagel
seller. In later years, he was continually accused of being a thief, but although he had a
flexible morality and purchased stolen property, he was paradoxically not interested in
money. It was the thrill of earning that drove him inexorably forward. As a youth, his
enterprising nature came to the attention of a villain who tried to muscle in on his expanding
empire, but Max outsmarted him. Max entered into an uneasy alliance with the older villain
before, in time, himself becoming a criminal kingpin.
Another classic example is found in Taylor Caldwell’s (1972) entrepreneurial hero,
Joseph Francis Xavier Armagh who operated on the edge of legality. He emigrated to
America from Ireland as a young man before first becoming a bootlegger. He went on to
become an evil entrepreneur whose crimes included slave running and other vices. Joseph
went on to start many nefarious enterprises. After settling into an émigré community in New
York, he migrated with his siblings to the thriving frontier town of Titusville, which we are
told was populated with ruthless entrepreneurs and gamblers, as well as thieves and petty
criminals. We are told that Joseph learned to dress exquisitely and became indistinguishable
from other hunters of men who became his peers. Serendipity led him to gain admittance to a
sinister network run by his future mentor and Irish businessman Mr Healey, described as a
likeable rascal and amoral entrepreneur whose personal life philosophy was never to turn
down an honest penny or a dishonest one either. Under Healey’s tutelage, Joseph went on to
supervise a vast legal and criminal enterprise, playing the twin roles of gunman and business
associate. During the American Civil War, Joseph broke free from Healey’s network and
built up his own, consisting of 13 other atavistic acolytes of one breed, one blood and one
mind. After the war, suitably enriched, he diversified into the oil business and became a

12
feared Robber Baron. He founded the mighty Armagh Enterprises and built it into a vast
empire, encompassing oil and property interests, as well as bootlegging, gun-running and
prostitution.
There are also strong entrepreneurial life themes running through the novel, The Long
Firm by Jake Arnott (1999). Arnott’s story is a parody of 1960s gangsterism, based loosely
on the life of gangster Charlie Richardson who is transformed in fiction into the anti-hero
Harry Stark. Stark is an entrepreneurial homosexual businessman gangster who attempts to
jump the counter into legitimacy. In prison, Harry educated himself. His favourite book was
Max Weber’s Protestant Work Ethic. Harry ironically reified his life position from gangster
to businessman. Harry became an underworld business consultant. In prison, Harry was
interviewed by an academic who was fascinated by his entrepreneurial life story and went on
to emulate his exploits. The book ends with Harry becoming a legitimate businessman and
the academic being jailed for emulating Harry’s crimes. Gerald Seymour (2001) in his novel
The Untouchable, does not utilise the body of myth and metaphor that has come to pervade
the entrepreneurial narrative. Instead, he tells the tale of his fictional gangster hero, Mr
Packer, using instead the power of storytelling techniques to develop to gangster story into a
thriller story. It is interesting to note that, in novels written by dispassionate outsiders, the
legitimising rhetoric of entrepreneurship is often absent. Similarly, the villainous anti-hero
Zippo, described by the author Frankland (2002) also started from humble beginnings, until
being mentored by a crooked lawyer. Zippo transformed himself by attending business
school. He became a gangster drug dealer, with the adopted persona of a businessman.
An entrepreneurial life theme also pervades the gangster novel by Carcaterra (2002).
Carcaterra invokes the entrepreneurial narrative when he refers to his fictional hero Angelo
Vestieri as being an astute man of business, who saw opportunities before they materialised.
Angelo studied the habits of industrial and business leaders and sought to follow their ways.
We are told he read the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, devouring books on
business and banking, and read the biographies of businessmen. Angelo was possessed of a
love of reading, which is one of the characteristics of entrepreneurs. Angelo’s story has all
the hallmarks of classical entrepreneurial narrative such as overcoming poverty, marginality
and personal tragedy to success where others fail. Ironically, Angelo’s ascent to mafia power
began with the decision of his father to flee Sicily to escape Mafiosi oppression. Angelo’s
father developed a reverence for the American Dream but failed in his honest pursuit of it.
Conversely, Angelo attained the status of Godfather and blossomed under the American
Dream. Gangster novels can offer a unique insight into the entrepreneurial narrative. For
instance, the writings of Carcaterra provide many insights. For example, gangsters are
intensely proud of starting from scratch and often display a unique flair for business. They
wrap their hands around every form of commerce, legal or illegal. They live for action and
turn external depravation into inner strength. Their silence is perceived by others as being a
communicational sign of strength. This is augmented by their propensity towards flashiness.
Gangsters survive by minimising risk. They are loaners with few friends. Many gangsters
are raised by women who nurture them with ‘hand me down’ tales. Gangsters are
superstitious beyond normality and carry lucky charms such as coins from their first heist or
rings given them by gangster bosses. They seldom get along with their fathers and gravitate

13
towards alternative criminal role models. A similar argument has been made for the
entrepreneur being shaped by strong women in the absence of a viable father figure.
An analysis of the limited number of novels discussed above illustrate that strong
entrepreneurial life-themes are present in the stories of the fictional gangsters. These mirror
the stories of real gangsters as contained in their biographies.

Storybook Gangsters and Entrepreneurs in Biography: Criminal biographies have been a

feature of society since the advent of the printing press. Indeed, Hamilton (1993) charted the
rise of criminal biography which superseded the previous genre whereby celebrated cases
were passed on to the public via the oral tradition of storytelling. However, biography is not
the only style of crime writing of interest to researchers. For example, Rawlings (1995)
identified 4 sub-groups of crime writing, namely Crime Fiction, Polemics, Popular
Criminology and Academic Criminology. Rawlings incisively notes that, for the majority of
people, their most frequent contact with crime is through newspapers, books, television,
films, videos and computer games. This holds true for public contact and perceptions of the
entrepreneur. Rawlings, in examining the true crime genre, noted that popular criminologists
utilise journalistic techniques such as short sentences, paragraphs and chapters as well as
narrating several stories simultaneously to create tension. Rawlings demonstrated that
criminal biographies have been popular reading material since the 16 th century, whether
biography, autobiography, collaborative biography or thinly veiled accounts. The latter
include picaresque novels and rogue fiction based on clearly identifiable persons, scenarios or
events. It is of note that McKenzie (2002) classifies entrepreneur stories as belonging to the
picaresque genre. Rawlings (1992) also noted that many criminal biographies tend to be
written in a disparaging manner. Nevertheless, Bennet (1987) noted that in criminology and
sociology, the Chicago School of Writers pioneered the use of biographical accounts as a
serious research agenda. In these studies, the life story of the subject was used as a
framework upon which to build sociological or criminological theories. In the contemporary
criminal biographies analysed in this section, sociological and criminological theories are
discernable by their absence. Instead, one has to make use of key words and phrases,
scattered throughout the books to appreciate the significance of the entrepreneurial life
themes contained in the stories.
In the criminal biographies, one can detect what Bolton and Thompson (2000:193) refer
to as strong entrepreneurial life themes. These themes often run through the text as parallel
or even disjointed micro stories, forming condensed micro biographies that tell parallel or
alternative tales. One often has to read the text in its entirety before one can appreciate the
significance of particular sentences or remarks because the entrepreneurial narrative takes
time to build up. Micro biographies are powerful stories when reconstructed from the original
narratives in which they are embedded. They are powerful precisely because they are micro
stories that are familiar to us and therefore have resonance. In traditional narrative analysis,
the academic strips interesting quotes from the body of the text, thereby dismembering the
text and removing only that which is of value to them. Conversely, by employing the micro
biographical approach, one adds value by concentrating similar storylines, themes and clichés

14
into a more compact spatio-temporal format. One often has to be socialised into
entrepreneurship to appreciate its relevance in storybook format. This is because
entrepreneurship is not a universally understood self-fulfilling phenomena but has to be
deliberately invoked. The usual way in which this is achieved is by invoking myth, metaphor,
clichés and stereotypes and weaving them into a convincing socially constructed narrative.
Thus, familiar phrases such as ‘from humble beginnings’; ‘he was a self-made man’; ‘he has
a finger in every pie’; ‘he is a poor boy made good’; ‘he started with nothing’; or ‘he became
rich beyond his wildest dreams’ are introduced in tandem until gradually the penny drops and
one appreciates that one is listening to an entrepreneur story.
There were entrepreneurial life themes discernable in the biographies of British
professional criminals reviewed for this study. See the reference section for details of the
novels and biographies examined. The author read the biographies and extracted data from
them using a constant comparative methodology, searching for key words and themes
indicative of entrepreneurial propensity. The entrepreneurial themes were then assembled and
re written as micro biographies. They make powerful stories in their own right. Each micro
biography explores the entrepreneurial life themes invoked by the individual criminals or
their biographer. It is also of interest that most biographies of criminals are written by
journalists and that many autobiographies of criminals are ghost written by journalists too.
What is of importance is that the exercise demonstrated that there are strong
entrepreneurial life themes evident in the stories of ordinary British villains. These themes
manifest themselves in different ways, dependent upon the degree of social and criminal
capital that the villain possessed. Interestingly, the themes would not have been evident but
for the biographical analysis. Given that entrepreneurship pervades humanity, it should not
come as a surprise to us that its presence can be found in acts of ordinary criminality. Another
interesting finding of the study was the exposure of a formulaic structure or protean narrative
model, used by the villains to tell their stories convincingly. This forms the basis of the next
section.

A narrative Model of Gangster-Entrepreneur Stories.

This section is subdivided into two parts. The first is a discussion of the entrepreneur story as
a genre; and the second is takes a different perspective constructing a unified framework or
narrative model of the storylines commonly used to construct and tell gangster-entrepreneur
stories.

Gangster-entrepreneur stories as a genre.

The morphology of gangster-entrepreneur stories begins with the union of the entrepreneurial
and gangster dreams. The entrepreneurial, American and gangster dreams are inherently
intertwined. Indeed, Bourgois (1995:75) notes that the entrepreneurial urge is an integral
facet of the American Dream. The gangster dream is aa variant of the entrepreneurial dream,

15
but one that has taken a darker shape. Indeed, Kappelar et al (1996) discuss the mythology
crime of which gangster mythology is but part of it. Gangster mythology (like its
entrepreneurial counterpart) is steeped in romanticism, with the exception that it is built upon
notions of greed, exploitation and violence, all of which are the antithesis of the romantic
notions. It is a gilded and eulogised image born of the gangster iconology of the prohibition
era of where gangsters were seen to epitomise the extreme type of the American Dream
whereby heroes arriving in the new world making good mainly by illegal means. Like its
legitimate counterpart, the gangster dream is heavily influenced by iconology and semiotics.
Courtney (1999:384) appreciates the allure of the gangster dream and stresses that for most
villains starting out, it is their dream to make it big and buy a fancy gaffe abroad or out in the
country. Courtney further appreciates that the gangster dream bewitches people who are
taken in by its false glamour. Blum and associates (1972) suggest that drug dealers are sellers
of dreams and using this analogy the legitimate entrepreneurs are makers of dreams and
creators of reality because their dreams are converted to something of tangible worth. This
gangster ethic is distinct from the entrepreneurial ethic, but they can and do meet at the
margins, albeit becoming blurred in places. The true entrepreneurial ethic is a noble one
perpetuating a self-hel ethic, whereas the gangster-entrepreneurial ethic is a selfish one and is
about ‘helping-one’s-self’. Also, gangster ethics (like entrepreneurial ethics) are spread and
perpetuated by virtue of stories and storytelling. Indeed, Carcaterra (2002:48) sums up the
gangster ethic with a simple story of the father of a small boy telling him to jump off the
balcony promising to catch him. When the son jumps the father makes no attempt to catch
him. The moral of the story being that you can trust bnoone but yourself. Paradoxically, the
more successful a gangster-entrepreneur becomes the weaker they become in relation to
being secure. Thus, the further away they travel from their roots, the weaker and more
vulnerable they become. Moreover, dreams and ethics are frequently expressed as stories.
Storytelling is an important facet of criminality. Indeed, Korobkin (2003) remarks that
storytelling is an essential aspect of any legal case with the ability of their criminal and
lawyer to tell convincing stories, impacting on whether they win or lose a case. Korobkin
explored the important issue of ‘criminal conversations’, looking at the impact of
sentimentality upon the legal rhetoric of a given time. 4 For Korobkin, storytelling is a
narrative performance where fiction influences reality and vice versa. Criminals, like all
people, swap stories and trade on reputational rhetoric. Many criminal conversations occur
within the magnifying loci of the prison system or the closed system of the underworld,
making them a valuable social currency. To make their mark, villains must learn to frame
their stories in a manner appropriate to their ambitions. Korobkin stresses that we appropriate
rhetoric, plots and characters from sentimental fiction. One of the linguistic strategies
discussed by Korobkin is the sentimental strategy. This is of interest to us because in
entrepreneurship, the poor-boy-made-good and humble-origins storylines of ‘Ragged Dick’
fame and Horatio Alger mythology are sentimental stories. Gangster and criminal identity is
socially constructed and undoubtedly is influenced by the genres of media and publishing.
For instance, Read (2001:122) discusses one rich, celebrity, Australian-Italian villain Freddie
who idolised Al Capone, collecting every gangster book and film ever made and lived in a
4
The notion of sentimentality was borrowed from the genre of female sentimental fiction.

16
‘mafia fantasy land’, perpetuating his image from a diet of ‘Godfather’ movies. This
evidences the power of gangster movies and the storybook format in influencing
contemporary criminal identities. Indeed, Chambliss (1978:9) warns us not to “look for the
godfather in every crime network”, however, we do expect reality to mirror storybook
representations.
Gangster and entrepreneur stories form part of a wider narrative of criminality and
criminal stories follow a similar cyclic, repetitive, climatic formula to classic entrepreneur
stories, in that one can trace the same or similar storylines in both narrative types. However,
the storylines are invoked at different times in their lifecycles and for different purposes.
Also, the two narrative types can crossover or overlap, or they can run simultaneously or in
parallel. The entrepreneur story is the dominant one with the other being a a more secret,
hidden narrative. It could be argued that gangster stories are a perverted parody of the
entrepreneurial narrative but nevertheless they still offer us invaluable insights into traditional
entrepreneurial narrative. There are obviously elements unique to the criminal narrative, for
instance prison yarns, stories of denial that comprise the ‘One Last Job’ and the ‘Big Job’
storylines. Also, the ‘Going Legit’ and the ‘Reformed Criminal’ storylines are timeless albeit
they may be contrived or genuine. In a similar vein, Adadinsky (1983:122) refers to criminal
‘tales of glory’. Elements of the criminal narrative are frequently used in in the
entrepreneurial narrative as either ‘cautionary tales’ or ‘failure stories’. Both serve the
purpose of warning the entrepreneur of the of the pitfalls that may befall them. However,
cautionary tales are an under values type of entrepreneurial narrative because failure and
recovery from a criminal lifestyle can build character. In Britain, failure is held by society to
be a worse stigma than criminality per-se. Narratives of criminal businessmen are a necessary
counterbalance to the frequently perpetuated ‘inspirational tales’ and ‘tales of achievement’
(Smith, 2003). This study provides evidence of the collocation of entrepreneurial and
criminal propensity in the form of strong life themes. Gangster stories, like those of the
entrepreneur, have a tendency to become sagas or epics where the drama occurs over a long
period of time, across many locations and involve a supporting cast of hundreds. The drama
is maintained via the introduction of cliched, sequential storylines. Many issues are raised
and revisited. In gangster-criminal stories an entrepreneurial propensity is merely one of the
many character facets emphasised. Likewise, in entrepreneur stories, criminality is often
merely hinted at, or alluded to as another interesting character facet of the villain.
Traditional gangster stories are narrated in in a retributive frame in which the gangster
must suffer payback in the same way entrepreneurs must suffer ‘hubristic payback’. The
inevitable ‘fall-from-grace’ storylines of the big-time gangster occurs as a result of
entrapment, born of economically determined reality. Gangster stories vary in their
fundamental narrative attitude from glorification, to self-loathing and demonization but both
gangsters and entrepreneurs are frequently portrayed as tragic figure (Warshow, 1948). The
now famous critique of Warshow is of interest because he regarded gangster movies as a
modern-day tragedy portrayed via the presentation of fixed dramatic patterns. The tragedy
motif works because it is familiar to us and understandable, having been repeated often.
Movies are cinematic representations of stories. Warshow saw the gangster as a creature of
our imagination, expressing parts of the American psyche, which rejects the qualities and

17
demands of modern life. Tragedy offers a realistic counterfoil to fairytale endings. Gangster
activity is a form of vague rational enterprise, involving definite goals using various nefarious
techniques in a drive for success. Entrepreneurship is also a vague rational enterprise because
most people find it difficult to explain as a concept to others. Warshow regarded the appeal of
the gangster film as being vicarious participation in the gangster’s sadism whilst revelling in
his downfall. Similarly, entrepreneur stories allow us to vicariously participate in the success
and heroism of entrepreneurial achievement. The typical plot of a gangster story involves a a
steady, brutal upwards progress, followed by a precipitate fall thus parodying the tragic
entrepreneurial tale. Warshow also noted that film representations of businessmen tend to
portray business success by showing businessmen talking on the phone and holding
conferences, which becomes synonymous with success, thus the criminal ‘big shot’ is a
distorted, parodied image of the American Dream, capitalism and the business ethic.
However, the gangster story is a nightmare inversion of ambition and opportunity, which
epitomises true success. Warshow envisaged a contract between the film and the audience
whereby the gangster was seen as a man imbued with possibilities of success and failure with
the gangster being compelled to seek respect and legitimacy. To succeed, the gangster carried
out acts of violence and aggression, leaving him alone, guilty and vulnerable among enemies
who ultimately punish him for his success. Thus, the gangster movie became a story of
enterprise and success ending in inevitable failure. Warshow likened the successful gagster to
other tycoons who despite being crude were nevertheless articulate albeit noisy in expressing
their aims. Gangsters are characterised by perpetual action and movement and thus the
gangster eho rests on his laurels is authoring his own destruction. Thus, gangster and
entrepreneur stories share similar heroic but tragic structures that merge intone basic story.
Also, gangster stories are a form of reputational currency upon which they trade. They are
formed of a mixture of adventure, mystery and horror genres with many adventure stories
stemming from stories of social injustice. Smith (1975:99) appreciates the role that the novel
and the gangster played in creating the fictional heroic figure noting that none of the
gangster-businessmen are the heroes of their sagas but are normally assigned secondary,
supporting roles. Smith further stresses that that they are presented as entrepreneurs and not
outlaws thus distinguishing them from workers. Carcaterra (2002) also informs us that
gangsters like stories set in the Wild West and thrillers etc which seduce us with romanticized
images of power and wealth because in reality the gangster life is one without scruples,
morals or decency. The gangster story as a genre has achieved mythic status.
When comparing entrepreneur and gangster stories, one must take into account other
similarities and differences. As stated by Smith (2003), entrepreneur stories seek to eulogise
and gangster stories seek to lionise. In gangster stories the negative aspects of character such
as cunning acts, cruelty and brutality are exaggerated in the telling. Fact is mixed with
imaginative fiction and the end result is the creation of myth and legend. In entrepreneur
stories, acts of cunning also play a significant role but cruelty and brutality are not
emphasised. Apocryphal stories also serve a particular purpose and because of this they are
seldom corrected. They bolster the ego and build up the myth and become accepted as fact.
They help create criminal and entrepreneurial reputations. Indeed, McClelland’s (1961)
‘tales of achievement’ are good examples of of the power of entrepreneur stories for inspiring

18
action in others. In their own way gangster stories are negative tales of achievement. In
reaching a subjective analysis of whether or not one is an entrepreneur or not one must take
cognisance of such stories because the traits are embedded in stories. It is difficult to separate
the actions of men from their stories and mythology. Does a lie or a myth cease to be such if
it is believed and perpetuated as fact? Reputations are made up from gossip and by those who
seek to consciously emulate their storied exploits.

A narrative model of gangster-entrepreneur stories.

Smith (2003) identified a circular narrative model for invoking heroic entrepreneur stories,
using cliched and mythic storylines that allow the entrepreneurs to construct authentic life
stories conforming to accepted tenets of entrepreneurial narrative. This enables the
entrepreneur to wrap the narrative around themselves (Hamilton and Smith, 2003). Five
heroic phases are discernable from the biographies of entrepreneurs, namely:

 The Genesis: Establishing the antecedents of one’s personal entrepreneur story.

 The metamorphosis: Achieving a change of stature and status.
 The Quest: Searching for one’s holy grail / confronting the establishment.
 The Ordeal: Passing the test or perishing.
 The Judgement: Achieving legitimacy or suffering ‘hubristic payback’.

A similar narrative model is discernable in gangster and criminal stories. Six phases are
further discernable from the biographies of criminals, namely:

 The Tainted Legacy: Involves overcoming social injustice and criminal antecedents
 The Fall from Grace: Involves a rite of passage into the criminal world
 The Lost Years: Involves struggling against the system and establishing a criminal
reputation
 The Glory Years: Involves acting out a perpetual, heroic criminal drama.
 The Local Hero: Involves talking up one’s personal moral reputation.
 The Redemption: Involves negotiating new legitimacies and adopting an
entrepreneurial identity.
These phases can be used to construct criminal life stories. They are not linear formulas and
it is not necessary for the criminal to conform to all the tenets of the cliched storylines. The
individual can flit between the two or invoke them simultaneously.

The Tainted Legacy: in this phase, the aspiring criminal has to broadcast colourful
antecedent stories of their criminal beginnings. These might consist of several
complimentary story types e.g. Boys Own Adventure Stories, where the future villain
explores the geographic area which later becomes his manor, fighting bullies, besting
authority figures and committing other heroic acts. Heidensohn (1989:36) remarks that

19
invariably, every villain’s autobiography begins with a visual description of the ‘Manor’ in
which he was raised. Somewhere in these storylines, the issue of morality tales is introduced
as the character delineates their moral boundaries, emphasising that they are ordinary decent
criminals who have values they adhere to. In all such stories the villain bonds with the area
forming a lifelong attachment. Other variants include exaggerated stories of ‘derring-do’ or
‘tall tales’. Also, ‘Tales of Enterprise’ are introduced to invoke the issues of entrepreneurial
propensity and accentuate difference. These include ‘Childhood Prodigy Stories’, Hard Work
Tales’, ‘Long Working Day Stories’, and ‘Tales of Financial Wizardry’ (often apocryphal).
Complementing these are ‘Differentiation Stories’ whose purpose is to accentuate the
difference between the hero and their detractors – these include ‘Ethnic Origin Stories’,
Émigré Tales’, ‘Outsider Narratives’ and ‘Deviancy Storylines’. In addition, ‘Tales of
Perdition, Penury and Poverty’. These are very similar to the hard luck tales and tales of
adversity told by entrepreneurs. In these tales the anti-hero introduces their humble origins,
their poverty and other social issues. These stories introduce the elements of social injustice
as a route cause of future success or a justification for failure. These stories or anecdotes
emphasise overcoming poverty, marginality, brutality, bullying by peers or authority figures,
blighted education and communicational problems such as Dyslexia etc. These form what is
known as the ‘put-down’ to be overcome in the manner of a challenge where they are
shunned by a vengeful society. Such stories often include elements of ethnic origin stories,
émigré tales, outsider narratives and deviancy storylines. In some stories criminal genealogies
are introduced and colourful relatives and associates are described as role models. What one
has to remember is that this phase is reified in that the villain revisits it after they have
succeeded or failed. It is a romanticized or skewed perspective.

The Fall from Grace: In this phase, the budding villain is cast out from society. This is
where criminal narratives start to differ from entrepreneur narratives, in that the entrepreneur,
even if deviant, operates within the moral framework of society. Claster (1992) notes that
many criminals assert that they fell into criminal ways, thus crime is viewed as a fall from
grace. The eventual fall from grace of an entrepreneur is an end point to a story, whereas a
criminal’s fall from grace begins the story. Most villains justify their lifestyle by
emphasising that they were drawn into a life of crime via peer pressure. Criminal storylines
are characterised by emphasising cunningness, deviousness and treachery. The genre is also
influenced by prison and borstal stories as well as stories of police deception. Pitting one’s
wits against the system and winning is emphasised. Persecution is a common theme,
whereby the villain is persecuted by officialdom. It is a variation of the entrepreneur’s
establishment love/hate story, but in this instance, it is a hate only story. The pace of decent
into villainy is frenetic and mentor figures predominate. Other common themes perpetuated
include rebel stories and the ‘underdog’ analogy.

20
The Lost Years: In this phase, also known as the wilderness years, the storylines are
characterised by a perpetual absence from home, failed marriages and relationships. Criminal
highs and lows follow each other with a dizzying rapidity. The predominant theme is that of
struggling the achieve something worthwhile. Breath-taking coups are followed by
monumental cockups giving rise to the ‘stupid criminal’ storyline. Repeated prison
sentences, excessive hedonism, perpetual violence and the strain of villainy, as well as a
hectic pace of life, take their toll on the villain. The epic struggle to succeed and maintain
their manhood recurs again and again. These are vital years for the villain in establishing a
reputation for violence or cunning, upon which he can later trade. Those that do not burn out,
vie with each other for prestige. At the beginning of this anomic phase, acts of spectacular
violence and daring criminality are frequent. Serendipity in the form of fate and ‘lady luck’
are frequent themes. The climax of this phase results in the villain developing a dual
personality as an entrepreneur in business and an entrepreneur of violence. In the Lost Years,
the genesis of the villain’s future legend begins.

The Glory Years: In this phase, the villain plots and masterminds his comeback as criminal
myth and legend is created. The phase is characterised by the same personal sins of pride and
hubris which afflict legitimate entrepreneurs. The vendetta storyline is common, either
against the authorities or other despicable villains. Other themes include epic stories of facing
the abyss and ruination or other failure stories. The villain takes on the persona of a charmed,
godlike figure and stories cast him in the role of the untouchable. Many villains never
outgrow this stage as they either fade into obscurity or die violent gangland deaths. Those
that survive and have not wish to reform, propagate unrepentant criminal storylines.

The Local Hero: In this phase, the villain begins the process of reinventing myth and legend.
This metamorphosis is achieved in a number of ways. The most common is to graft on
cliched entrepreneurial storylines. Indeed, many villains adopt an alternative entrepreneurial
identity, revisiting their youth for credible storylines that coincide with entrepreneurial
mythology. They deliberately encourage the association of entrepreneurial metaphors about
themselves such as ‘the self-made man’ and ‘a finger in every pie’. Like the entrepreneur,
they emphasise local hero stories; poor boy made good stories; and local success stories
relating to acts of philanthropy, charity and benevolence. This phase is characterised by the
introduction of the ‘going legit’ and ‘I’m a businessman’ storylines. At this stage, many
villains engage in writing their memoirs and publishing biographies. Apocryphal stories, the
fabrication of fable, the production of prestige and the manufacture of importance feature
heavily in this process. The aim is to talk up their reputation and distance themselves from
past misdeeds. There is also the temptation of committing one last job or ‘the big one’ before
retiring.

21
The Redemption: In this phase, the villain must achieve a change in stature to entrepreneur,
businessman or tycoon. It is a tall order but is achievable. The phase is characterised by tales
of penance whereby benefaction and philanthropy are dispensed on a gargantuan scale as
local football teams are sponsored, hospices are funded, and charities initiated. The positive
parts of the villain’s life are accentuated, and the negative elements reified as capers, larks or
exploits. If the ‘going legit’ storylines have stood the test of time, legitimacy may be granted.
Acceptance allows the villain to invoke the reformed criminal storylines. Non acceptance
dooms them to live out life as a caricature of their Glory Years. Likewise, a failure to
achieve legitimacy, or a lapse into old habits, sees them plunge into perpetual purgatory. The
publication of a biography has become part of a gangster’s dream of legitimation. It has
become common practice for a ‘crime doesn’t pay’ rider to be added in the concluding
chapter. Reformed gangsters must invoke this moralistic mantra.

The gangster stories discussed above, form the basis of the gangster dream, which is about
having respect, a nice house, nice clothes, a marque car, a good time, holidays and a trophy
wife or girlfriend to enjoy it all with. This wish list is the very purpose behind the drama. It
is about having everything upfront. Gangsters work towards setting up a straight business and
retiring into obscurity and legitimacy. It is the polar opposite of the entrepreneurial dream,
where the setting up of a straight business leads to acceptance and legitimacy.

Reflections and conclusions.

This conference paper illustrates that the biographies of gangsters and entrepreneurs share
common socially constructed themes and storylines. It also highlights the use of parochial
imagery and clichés in building up such storied identities. 5 It also lends credence to the thesis
of Baumol (1996) that criminals can be entrepreneurs and that entrepreneurs can be criminals
in different contexts and that both emerge from the same social strata. The gangster and
entrepreneur stories discussed above are very similar in nature and feed into the ‘Gangster
Dream’ which is about having money to spend, a nice house, a nice car, nice clothes, a trophy
wife or girlfriend, a good time and holidays. Indeed, this wish list is the very purpose behind
the criminal drama and provides the gangster with an all-consuming passion. The gangster
dream is one which is happening in the present and is all about having everything up front.
The gangster-entrepreneur is working towards eventually setting up a straight business and
retiring into wealthy security. For some gangsters it is a vague notion with a legitimate
business equaling legitimacy (Smith, 2000). Conversely, the legitimate entrepreneurial dream
is the polar opposite, it is about a new beginning, setting up a legitimate venture working
towards social acceptance via enacting a personally scripted storied form of legitimacy. This
becomes the entrepreneurs all consuming passion, not the cause of it. Also, a gangster’s
empire is a psychic which manifests itself in the minds of men, fueled by the fire of threats
which they instill in others. They can control vast shadow empires which are theirs in all but
5
For example, scrapes with the law, a finger in every pie etc.

22
legal name. They are (not so) silent business partners. Both the entrepreneur and the gangster
pursue legitimacy and desire the respect of their peers (Smith, 2000). Gangster stories reflect
the semiotic manifestations that they consider important to them, whereas entrepreneurs
stories reflect cherished values. As cognate stories they have everything, heroes, drama,
tragedy and human interest.
This conference paper has demonstrated that gangster stories have many crossover
points with entrepreneur stories and that gangster stories conform to the tenets of the
legitimate entrepreneurial narrative and are indeed invoked using similar storylines, albeit for
entirely different purposes. Likewise, entrepreneur stories can also conform to the tenets of
certain types of criminal narrative. Both are portrayed as success stories one being productive
and the other destructive (ala Baumol, 1996). Gangster-entrepreneur stories exemplify
immoral, amoral and parasitical forms of entrepreneurship because as a negative societal
force it preys on the entrepreneurial eco-system. 6 It feeds on the human desire relating to the
need to belong. Gangster-entrepreneurs are deviant capitalist, operating within the socio-
economic system at a hidden level. This is important because like the entrepreneur, we
usually encounter them via mediums such as movies and storybooks.
From an examination of the narratives and biographies of entrepreneurs and criminals, it
is apparent that there exists a mutual fascination between them. The gangster and the
entrepreneur share the ‘bad boy’ image of the successful male and the likeable rogue of
western culture (Smith, 2002). They also share the same outsider status. However, the
gangster is doomed to be excluded by society and held at ‘arms-length’. The ‘bad boy’
imagery is used as a convenient textual and pictorial storyline to excuse bad behaviour and as
such it has become enshrined in the narrative of success as part and parcel of the construct.
On closer analysis, the notion of inclusion and exclusion requires closer scrutiny. It may well
be that the ‘bad boy’ persona is actually a shadow or parallel form of inclusion. This
demonstrates the existence of an alternative path which is well documented as a form of
inclusion, albeit within a different strata, the ‘undesirables’ of society. Biographies and even
biographically inspired fiction offer important insights into the lifestyles, modus operandi and
modus vivendi of villains, gangsters and rogue entrepreneurs as larger than life personalities,
who in struggling for legitimacy, in their respective spheres, generate their own body of
folklore and mythology. These stories command status which is important because individual
acts committed by one person, can achieve legitimacy by the force of their personality,
whereas the same acts can be challenged and rejected if enacted by persons of a lesser status
or charisma. Storybook Gangsters and Entrepreneurs generate biographical stories in
abundance. The biographies and memoirs analysed in this study contain a rich vein of
narrated cultural and social capital worthy of serious further research.
This conference paper and the points discussed herein may hold important lessons for
society. The most important lesson is the prevalence of strong entrepreneurial life themes in
criminal biography. In such biographies, criminals have the opportunity to set the record
straight and narrate social values of importance to them. This is important as society seldom
6
For example, gangsterism preys on 1) legitimate business; 2) the working and middle classes; 3) the weak,
immigrants and those who cannot fight back; 4) it feeds upon addictions such as sex, alcoholism, drug abuse and
gambling.

23
listens to what criminals have to say and dominant social narratives berate their behaviour
and achievements. Similarly, Hess (1988:48) argues that the police pay scant attention to the
life stories of the criminal. This is an important point because it is only through sifting
through biographical intelligence that one can discover the strengths or weaknesses of men
separated from their storied life. Crime is a narrative driven system because villains seek to
perpetuate reputations through story and enactment. The police use these stories for
intelligence purposes and as the basis for pursuing an investigation. Yet, criminal intelligence
is forward thinking and moves at such a frenetic pace that many stories are ruthlessly culled
from the system. It takes many years for a villain to mature and biography is the most
pertinent method of accommodating disparate stories and achievements. Biographical
intelligence has the potential to be the next new gadget in the toolbox of the crime analyst.
Another important finding is that the entrepreneurial themes in ordinary crime are also
evolving to mirror the story of the entrepreneurial mafia. Whilst the villains analysed mostly
conform to the traditional ‘poor boy made good’ storyline, one has come to expect, as a
cultural norm, the next generation of villains will most likely have moved on. They will be
second generation gangster entrepreneurs who have experienced the power of
entrepreneurship to transform lifestyles. Some future villains may also be the sons of
existing businessmen. Being poor and struggling to succeed will no longer be enough to
trigger entrepreneurial status.
Biographical analysis provides a rich vein of data, highlighting a shared formulaic
structure between gangster and entrepreneur stories. These stories need not always be of the
tragic type articulated by Warshow (1948). Both narrative types are predominantly
masculine, exclusionary and pejorative constructs. It is apparent that gangster stories often
parody entrepreneur stories, tapping in to the same proverbial ‘poor boy makes good’ and
‘good fortune’ storylines. The gangster-entrepreneur is a living discourse as suggested by
Arnott (1999) who populate the pages of fiction and biography and are seldom encountered in
real life by the public. As a society, we can learn much from these storybook gangsters and
entrepreneurs from representations of them in fiction and biography. The deeds, actions and
words embedded in storybook format, were once real time happenings. As criminologists and
entreprenologists, we can benefit from this rich vein of data. We can take comfort in the
knowledge that, as suggested by Baumol, criminals can be entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs
criminals. It is the individual level of enterprise and the level of social capital that a person
develops through socialization, that determines whether they are entrepreneurial or not. The
villains highlighted in this paper may be entrepreneurs of crime if not entrepreneurs per se. It
is difficult to separate the storybook gangsters and entrepreneurs from their stories, and if one
tries to do so, one often loses the idiosyncratic elements (the essence of the men in their
environment), the very elements which make them successful. In storybook format, words
deeds, and actions become stories and these stories combine together to become biographical
events which are accepted as historical and empirical evidence irrespective of truth and
veracity.

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