ABSTRACT
This chapter updates and greatly expands the case study of Sam Goodman's fencing activity found in Steffensmeier's award-winning 1986 book The Fence: In the Shadow of Two Worlds. Sam Goodman, was a long-time thief, fence, and quasi-legitimate businessman. The chapter combines Sam's colorful narrative accounts with substantive commentary by the authors to provide a more nuanced portrayal of criminal careers, illegal enterprise, and the broad landscape comprising the entity called "crime." It ain't like someone see in the movies or read in the papers. There ain't one boss or one family or one guy telling the others what to do. Different ones each have different pieces. In the public's eye, yes—they will think the mafia is involved. In the cops'eye, many times too. Sam's first dealings with the Guccis was on cigarettes. He had guys come to him who were clipping trucks for cigarettes.
