Can't say I ever had any runins with mafia but I did have a landlord who murdered his crack friend by

I did a runner from that particular landlord when he stood in a doorway blocking my exit from the flat wielding an axe, I hit the guy so hard on the chin that he folded in on himself and just sort of crumpled, came back 2 days later with a friend and grabbed what we could quickly. This would have been exactly the time in-between the murder and his eventual arrest for that murder a couple months later.

I'd never really hit anyone like that before or since tbh it was a real situation of fear for life. I've been in fights but you're not really hitting someone with intent to do as much damage as humanly possible in fights, whereas when someone's blocking your exit from your 1 room flat with an axe you just sort of give it absolutely everything. I think about it sometimes and had it gone any differently I don't think I'd be here.