Zips

Zips (also Siggies or Geeps) is a slang term often used as a derogatory slur by Italian American and Sicilian American mobsters in reference to newer immigrant Sicilian and Italian mafiosi. The name is said to have originated from mobsters' inability to understand the faster-speaking Sicilian dialects, which appeared to "zip" by. Other theories include pejorative uses such as Sicilians' preference for silent, homemade zip guns. According to still another theory, the term is a contraction of the Sicilian slang term for "hicks" or "primitives." The older Sicilian mafiosi of pre-Prohibition known as "Mustache Petes" (who eventually were deposed by American-born mobsters during the Castellammarese War) were also referred to as zips.

With increasing violence and government presence in Italy, Sicilians and Neapolitans alike found positions in the growing drug trafficking market of New York City's Five Families. The Pizza Connection, a heroin drug trafficking operation involving Bonanno crime family capo Salvatore Catalano and Sicilian mafioso Gaetano Badalamenti, was largely organized by Zips. The Zips were effective because they were unknown in the country and had no police records. They hung out mainly by themselves in the Knickerbocker Avenue area.

However, the younger Sicilian mafiosi, became known for their reckless and undisciplined behavior which caused unwanted attention to New York's crime families. The Zips had no qualms about murdering people considered off-limits by the American Mafia, such as police officers, judges, women and children. They were also known for blowing up their targets with bombs; although bombings are common in the Sicilian Mafia, American mafiosi have usually shied away from bombs out of concern that they could put innocent people at risk. Zips have also been known to kill victims even when they are terminally ill; in the Sicilian Mafia, when someone is marked for death, that person cannot be allowed to die of natural causes.

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