Journalese of the Day: Bobby? A mobster nickname?

As you know, there’s a journalese law that requires all mobsters be given a nick-name. No other trade gets this honor, except professional sports. Well, it looks like the nicknames are getting thin, as indicated by this story in the Boston Globe, Aug. 3, 2016, about a 61-year-old plumber being charged in the slaying [note: all mob murders are slayings] of a nightclub owner in 1993. The plumber has no nick-name, since he was not a mobster. But the story mentions “New England Mafia boss Francis ‘Cadillac Frank’ Salemme” and “notorious gangster Stephen ‘The Rifleman’ Flemmi”, and killer “James ‘Whitey’ Bulger”.