Jared GoetzZenpire · CEO & Founder at Zendrop

How Italian Mafia RULED The 80s - Adam Jablin

7 Nov 2025 · 1 min

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In this first‑person monologue, the speaker recounts the rise and fall of his family's lace manufacturing empire during the 1980s. The family owned the world’s leading lace production company, benefitting from a fashion boom where icons like Madonna and Prince popularized lace. As unions grew powerful, a strike was called, but the grandfather leveraged connections with an Italian New York crime family to temporarily halt it. The New Jersey mafia family objected, leading to a renewed, forceful strike and threats against the speaker’s father. Faced with escalating danger and a lucrative market, the grandfather decided to sell the machinery at a record price, effectively ending the family business. The narrative blends personal family history with broader themes of labor conflict, organized crime influence, and 1980s fashion trends.

Chapters

My grandfather got a call that my father's not going to make it home alive, and that night my dad came home extremely late. My family was the best. We were the number one lace manufacturing company in the world. And somewhere in the '80s, the unions got very, very strong. Our employees loved us, but when the union says you're not going to work, you're not going to work. But my grandfather had some connected friends in New York, Italian, and he's able to somehow get the strike to go down. But the New Jersey family told the New York family, you're stepping over our grounds. Before you know it, the strike came back full force. My grandfather got a call that my father's not gonna make it home alive. But that night, my dad came home. My grandfather was like, that's it, I'm out. He sells his machinery for more money than they were ever worth, because at that time in the '80s, Madonna was wearing lace, Prince was wearing lace. It was hot.