[Dragaera] SKZB, and the Mafia

[Davdi Silverrock]

I was reading Steve's wikipedia page, and noticed the line saying "An
infatuation with, and, following the murder of a friend, subsequent
disillusionment with the Mafia".

Could Steve, or someone who knows him personally (Chica, DDB, etc)
please expand on whether, in their opinion, Steve's knowledge of or
interest in the Mafia could actually be called "an infatuation"?

I do recall Steve saying that Vlad Taltos was meant to be someone
"respected but not liked" (in contrast to being liked but not
respected).  My recollection of what he said about his disillusionment
was realizing, some years into the series, that he was indeed writing
about a quasi-Mafioso assassin - and some years before this
realization, a socialist activist friend had indeed been murdered by a
real, genuine Mafia assassin -- Steve had just never drawn the
connection between his fictional character, and the real-world Mafia.
That does not sound like he ever had an actual "infatuation" to me,
but what do I know?

Checking the article's history, I see that the line about
"infatuation" dates back to a change on 2004-May-16, by IP address
65.95.67.197.  Really, that could be anyone.

Anyway, I think the Wikipedia page could do with some editing on this
topic (so this is sort of a [citation needed], I guess).