There is, however, a bolder argument to explain its failure as a name. Reputation is vulnerable if its symbolic markers are easy to pirate: names and symbols may lose their credibility and even perish under the weight of too many competing attributions. During the 1960s in France a gang of vicious criminals began robbing banks while wearing comical masks consisting of a big nose, a mustache, and eyeglass frames. They became known as "the mustache gang." Soon, throughout France, robbers of all sorts, including some incompetent ones, took to wearing masks; "mustache gangs" proliferated, and the disguise eventually lost its potency.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 366