GoodFellas, A true Story

The Smaldones were big here in the '50's

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The kids were active for years after that.

I ended up spending an evening sharing a table, at one of the dog tracks, with one of their button men. Hell of a nice guy. I Had no idea who he was until I got a call the following Monday from one of our intelligence dicks, wanting to know what the hell I was doing.

Back in the 70's I was working days off as a pilot at our local airport, taking tourists for rides to view the foliage. A nice twin engine plane landed and 4 well dressed men walked into the lounge. They asked where they could rent a car. I had a friend in the auto repair business who could help. They didn't want a plane ride, they had their own pilot, but was I familiar with this remote mountain area and would I like to hire out to drive them around? Yes, I deer hunted that area and, after obtaining a car, off we went. Drove around for several hours, dirt roads, all over a potential ski area they were considering for development. It didn't take long to realize they were "family" from Long Island (NY). After the trip they paid for the car and I earned $ 100. A week later I was working a got a call to come to the HQ. Waiting for me were two FBI agents anxious to hear about the conversations I overheard that day. Apparently I failed to mention to these people what I did for a living. They wouldn't have hired me had they known. The FBI agents found it very funny.

old bear said:

The kids were active for years after that.

I ended up spending an evening sharing a table, at one of the dog tracks, with one of their button men. Hell of a nice guy. I Had no idea who he was until I got a call the following Monday form one of our intelligence dicks, wanting to know what the hell I was doing.

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Had to laugh after reading your post, I'm sure others did the same.

I know that is a 100% true story, yes some of them are great guys especially if they like you.

lots of Italian history, here in the windy city.....

back in the day...I knew a fellow who would take care of any parking tickets I received....

These guys are criminals, life long, hardcore criminals, thieves, murderers, ect., why all the adoration? I don't understand.

Kinman said:

I spent Christmas '69 with my uncle's Italian/American family in the Bronx. My uncle had married my mother's sister back in the 50's while stationed out here in the Air Force. He told me to call them if I had a leave for Christmas because he would never hear the end of it if they ever found out I had spent Christmas away from family. They took me in like I was family and I have to say I have never been treated better by anyone in my life. I probably gained 15lbs over the week leave, I hung out with my new cousins in the Bronx which was nearly all Italian back then, they lived near a Catholic church fairly close to Pelham Bay subway station. I never experienced such a celebration for Christmas, we ate and toasted all day long and into the evening. It would have been very easy for someone like myself to get involved with the lifestyle over there but as it was explained to me by my family with Sicilian connections I would always be considered an outsider.

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I used to live on Mayflower Ave between Buhre and Westchester Aves, right around the corner from where Son of Sam started off, killing Donna Lauria and wounded Jody Valenti.

Awesome story.

Great story, thanks!

When I lived in Tucson I went to the same Walgreens as Joe Bonanno. He always had silver Cadillacs, would go in with a stack of papers and coins and stand at the copy machine making copies. Always traveled alone (this was the late 70s/early 80s-I moved away in '84). He was finally brought down when the feds exchanged his trash with theirs-the courts ruled once something was thrown in the trash cans left in the alley it wasn't private anymore. He was an interesting guy, I had a friend on the surveillance teams call and ask if I was ok when he saw me come out of the store with a small prescription bag lol.

We also had a guy named Peter Licavoli and his sons Dominic and Peter Jr. that were heavily involved in various nefarious things.

Prior to that, living in the Atlantic City area as kid I heard lots of stories from my folks (dad mostly as he was "in the know") about The 500 Club (the first place Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis performed together), Paul "Skinny D'Amato (the owner) and the guys that traveled in that crowd. There was a full size portrait of Sinatra in the club, when it burned down in '73 that was about the only wall left standing, Sinatra was a pall bearer at Skinny's funeral.

Lots of mob activity there, my dad made a couple of guys mad and my siblings and I couldn't go to school for awhile (the city cops and others were keeping an eye on our place). Things quieted down and life went back to normal.

Interesting times for sure.

It wasn't organized crime that changed America it was disorganized crime. Here is a pretty interesting Chicago area story: My wife lived on the same street as Sammy Gianconna ( see links to JFK and Marilyn Monroe). A short time after he was killed in his home with a .22, the local Catholic Church removed the prayer rail that he had donated.

Mario Puzo, in his Godfather and other books, explained the working of the Mob pretty well. The Chicago and Kansas City boys controlled smaller areas than the families in the New York metro area, but they worked in a similar manner.

None of them were heroic, but they did not kill entire families like the drug traffickers that followed them. They were brutal, but had a certain code that avoided drive by and random killings of civilians.

Ματθιας;138161392 said:

These guys are criminals, life long, hardcore criminals, thieves, murderers, ect., why all the adoration? I don't understand.

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I'm certainly not an expert on organized crime but just the little I do know tells me these are not people to be admired.

The reason Henry Hill went into the Witness Protection Program is because his "friends" were going to kill him to ensure he never testified against them.

Not to stop him from doing something they knew he was going to do but just in case. As in well he might turn state's evidence so kill him.

Read the book they went into people's businesses and sucked them dry and them left the owner with the bills.

They were criminals who wouldn't think twice about killing you.

Not a whole lot different from the Meth head you carry a gun to protect yourself from

When I was 18 I bought a used car. It had been stolen, fitted with a fake VIN from a wrecked car, sold at a used car lot in NJ. The GI who bought it traded it in after he was transferred to the Base close to us.

The FBI called, they had broken a large car theft gang and mine was one they had stolen, they checked my car and said yep, stolen. I could either get my money back from the dealer or keep it with a correct VIN by the Bureau. But the FBI told me The MOB bought stolen car titles from insurance companies for pennies on the dollar. If they take it or you give it to them it is theirs, watch out.

My Dad was a WW2 Vet, North Africa. He fought the Axis bunch there. My Dad was also pretty fearless. A couple of MOB guys showed up, suits, bulges under the left armpit, tough, demanding.

Dad stepped up in their face, he said leave and don't come back. I sent many of your relatives to hades and a few more won't hurt. They looked him in the eyes, looked at each other and left.

When I looked at my Dad I was not sure I recognized him, he had the look of a man who had danced with death and was not fazed.

Never got another call from them either.

Good story; crazy movie!

Thanks OP - that's a great story!

Great story and,ive learned more about the Mobin this thread than ive accumulated in all these years else where.

Ive got two "Brush with mobsters" stories too. The first one being-that my Brother in law is Italian and has "family" in Chicago-who weremobsters. Just before he married my sister--three-long black caddies came to our house--filled with guys in black suits who carried guns. I was 9 at the time-not knowing who they were. I went up to a oler guy wearing a dark suit--turned out he was the head of that "family.'I never learned his name but--he left his personal phone number with my Dad-in cas we had any troubles with (a certain ethnicity) since there had been problems they heard about that happened in our area.

Antyway, to make a long story short--I walked up to this guy--he hefted me onto his shoulders and walked around a bit. My dad cameupto him(knowing full well who they were and that they were packing "heaters" and kindly asked him to put me back on my feet. there were at least 10 guys in those cars--and they stayed a few minutes then left. I guess they had invited themselves to my BiL and Sis's wedding--but got uninvited. My dad was a WWII/Korean War vet--and didnt care to have mobsters invade his property.

The 2nd brush with the mob--was when i was in Laboe Germany back in 2000.The hotel Susanne and I stayed at--was owned by the Italian or Siscilian Mob--so were about 50% of the other businesses also on Laboe Beach. We checked into out Hotel--got rid of our stuff and were about to leave--when we saw 4-5 guys-wearing dark suits and all had the look of severe constipation on their mugs--walk in---walk around a bit then left. Well, I thought it strange but qiuickly realized who they were. I noticed those "bulges" in their jackets too.

Well, we wound up at a Pizza joint also owned by that mob. While eating-we saw those same 4-5 guys walk in-walk around the place and then leave. They were all still severely constipated. --I started giggling like a laughing Hyena--and sSusanne asked why I was laughing-well--I couldnt resist on how comical those guys looked--even though I knew they were all (insert derogatory insult of you choice here) who meant business.

BTW--their version of AMERICAN Pizza--sucked--NO CHEESE AT ALL-scarce toppings at best. >\\:-=(((

Great Stories, Ringo Kid

Europe has its own method of mob involvement in everyday life.
Here, they live by a code. There, they will kill anybody. For those interested, there are books available detailing the mob as it exists in Sicily and a similar variation in Naples. It's frightful reading. I believe the Sicilian mafia alone could take back the territory captured by ISIS, they are that well-armed and ruthless.

As an addendum, my Uncle Joe disowned both me and my father when I became a federal agent. The tenuous connection to Paulie Cicero was sufficiently remote that it did not present an integrity issue. Of course, all the players here, from Paulie, to my Uncle Joe are long since gone, amazingly, of natural causes.

model70hunter said:

Dad stepped up in their face, he said leave and don't come back. I sent many of your relatives to hades and a few more won't hurt. They looked him in the eyes, looked at each other and left.

When I looked at my Dad I was not sure I recognized him, he had the look of a man who had danced with death and was not fazed.

Never got another call from them either.

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I doubt very seriously that your dad scared them off I think it's much more likely they decided the car wasn't worth a murder beef.

I think we need a little music in this thread.

Feel free to sing along.

Lou Monte - Lazy Mary - YouTube

Smoke said:

I doubt very seriously that your dad scared them off I think it's much more likely they decided the car wasn't worth a murder beef.

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Thanks, but then I do not remember seeing you there that day.

The car was a 2 year old 1964 Chevy Impala 2 door hardtop, very popular at that time.

But then again you did not know my Dad.

A neighbor was the all Military light heavyweight boxing Champion, a SGT in the Army. He taught his kids to be tough, a neighbor boy whipped both of them. The Champion caught the kid in the corner of our yard while he was playing with my little Bro.

Little bro ran in the house and yelled at Dad, they are beating my buddy. Dad ran outside and I followed. The Champ was holding the kid telling his sons to punch him in the face. Dad grabbed the champ by the shoulder and spun him around, Dad then pushed him hard all the way out of our yard, Dad did mention he was not a kid and if the champ wanted a piece have at it. The champ never raised a hand. Coulda been the look in Dad's eyes.

When I was about 5 or 6 we were down town coming out of a restaurant, the City Marshall had a young Army boy on weekend leave down and was punching him in the face repeatedly.

Dad ran over and grabbed the 6' 5" Marshall and spun him off the young soldier. The Marshall spun as if to fight, he stopped, I'll never forget Dad called the Marshall by first name and said either let him go or arrest him do not touch him again. The Marshall walked off. Later in life I asked Dad about this. This is when Dad started opening up about his military service. Dad ended up being an MP after washing out of flight school due to being color blind. Their MP company went to North Africa and was there day one. Their company was thrown in with the rest as a fighting company. The MP company ended up getting all the dangerous jobs, recon, recon with jeeps and going after snipers. The City Marshall and he were in the same company. The big boy would push smaller fellow MP's around and kick their tail if they didn't like it. He pretty well thought he was the boss until he pushed my Dad. One fella got his tail handed to him on a platter and it was not my Dad.

At some point the MP company was given a troopship full of ex Nazi and Italian soldiers to bring back from North Africa to a POW camp in the US. Constantly outnumbered by POW's he did OK.

Like I said Dad had a look with body language that might make a believer of one.

I believe everything you said about your Dad and don't doubt that it happened.

Believe me, I have been around that element and have seen a few that had their lights put out by people like your Dad.

No Bull.