Spanish Johnny drove in from the underworld last night, with bruised arms and broken rhythm and a beat up old buick but dressed just like dynamite

From one of my all time favourite albums and a concept album at that. Some of the imagery is amazing but how I interpret the songs seems different to what Springsteen intended.
I always imagined Madame Marie was either part of organised crime or knew that the cops were bent and who they were going to lean on.