What are the vending machines at the black fair? Meaning explained in the movie

A brief mention of vending machines in the 2015 film directed by Johnny Depp Black Mass leaving people scratching their heads as to why buying soda is so important to the crowd.

The film is a biographical crime drama set in 1975 and follows Whitey Bulgaria, a highly prolific American mobster in Boston for the Winter Hill gang.

Johnny Depp plays the role of Whitey and is joined by a number of actors including Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Kevin Bacon, David Harbor and others.

What are the vending machines in Black Mass?

First, it is important to explain why vending machines are important to criminal organizations such as Black Mass.

The answer is simple, it was a key method of money laundering.

The vending machine only used cash and could not trace or prove any transaction made through it. This made them perfect for cleaning up money that people like the mafia got in less desirable ways.

At one point, a little less than halfway through Black MassJohnny Depp’s Whitley asks Joel Edgerton’s John Connolly to do him a favor if he still wants their partnership to continue.

He firmly says that he “want all Angiulo vending machines out of the old settlement” adding how “(he doesn’t) care how (he does) it.”

Said Angiulo is Gennaro Angiulo, a prominent Boston mob boss who is an enemy of Winter Hill.

Whitley pleaded that he was trying to remove income from the Mafia – or at least legitimate-looking income. Now the criminal organization has fewer ways to launder its illegal cash flow.

Speaking to Boston.com, Kevin Cullen, co-author Whitley Bulger: America’s Most Wanted Gangster and the manhunt that brought him to justiceoffered more information on why vending machines were interesting.

The author revealed that at some point in the mid-70s, before Whitey was a big player in the gang, both Winter Hill and the mafia were fighting over the vending machines. Although the parties tried to work together, they ended up “going after the same money” which caused problems.

Whitley’s request in the film may also be a direct reference to these specific events from real life.

According to writing Black Mass stream Netflix.