(photo by Nesnad is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)
“Sleeping with the fishes” is an age-old idiom associated with the mob as a punishment for serious offenders of their code of honor. The phrase actually dates back to ancient Greece, being first referenced in The Iliad. It’s not the only retribution the mob carries out, though. In Japan, the mob is called the yakuza. When the yakuza wants to penalize an offending member – but not fatally – one permanent and still painful punishment is yubitsume.
