I used to work with a woman who had the same last name as a very famous American gangster and was from the same city. She told me she was vaguely related to that branch of the family, but that her dad was just a regular dad who had his own business separate from that.
But my real brush with the mob was that the local pizza place in my suburban home town was mafia owned and run and it was where they would launder money and move heroin. It came out during the “Donnie Brasco” trials.
A couple of Whitey Bulger’s guys ‘retired’ to my home town. They bought and ran an auto repair shop that was conveniently placed a 100ft from the local air strip. They owned and maintained a small plane there. Business was strictly cash only. Never knew anyone that had issues with having cars worked on there. They never caused any problems, I’m aware of, in my town. When Whitey was arrested they closed shop for a while for a while.
While I have no idea if they maintained connections to larger families the Anselmis were very active in Wyoming in the late 1970’s
As Ed Cantrell is more of a “wild west” story it is that side of the story that often makes the popular TV shows like city confidential. People reverted to a lower profile after Cantrell, but I went to school and camp with several families. As an outsider I have no internal view but several of the Italians I did go to school were frustrated that it had followed them to Wyoming, so the social pressure may have helped encourage those black sheep to move on.
They were from some of the larger name East Coast families.
There was a very ugly period where it was not too surprising to hear that someone had “committed suicide” by shooting themselves in the back of the head with a shotgun.
They weren’t “Mafia.” They were legitimate businessmen, and they just happened to have a couple of people on their payroll who . . . would do special assignments for their bosses when they needed something or someone taken care of.
You got a problem with that?
I mean, it’s not impossible between the size of all the Italian families and the fact that half the people don’t know who’s related to who. When I meet a relative (an actual relative) it’s 10 minutes of ‘so my Nana is your aunts cousin?’, ‘no MY aunt’s cousin and your dad…do you remember the pasta sauce Aunt Lucy used to make…’ and that was that and we might never actually get into figuring it out beyond just saying we were cousins and knowing that we probably all at the same house on Sunday’s for pasta when we were kids.
Also, Balistreri is a really (well, kinda) common name (and there’s a few different spellings of it).
If it was in Milwaukee and you’re willing to mention the name of the place (assuming restaurant or bar) I certainly have the resources available to find out if the place had anything to do with the mafia. My dad is one of those guys that knows everyone and certainly knows enough Balistreris.
ETA, I just realized you said you worked with someone, not worked for someone.
If bikers are allowed… I went to trade school with a few Outlaws and Banditos who were on vocational rehab or GI Bill. Generally they just kept to themselves, though there was one at a party who kind of signaled a friend (not a student) to shut up around me. One guy did confess/talk about getting caught by the local sheriff while cutting the VINs off motorcycle frames; the sheriff had obviously ignored it and left quickly.
I also worked with a guy who had been a low level guy in the Banditos. He didn’t say much, but it sounded like his job was to deal with people, and he once make an offhand comment about going to a country vet to have someone’s gunshot wound treated, to avoid mandatory reporting. Otherwise, he was just some working class schlub. By turns, he went back to drinking, claiming that ‘his sins had come back to haunt him.’ He refused to quit, insisted that he had caused too much misery to others, and over the next few months he pretty much just willfully drank himself to death.
Met one in Massachusetts who had a functioning skateboard shop in the late 1990’s to early 2000’s as a front. He sold industrial quantities of narcotics out of the back. Always had the Maserati or the Alpha Romeo parked in the handicapped space in front. Nice enough fellow though.
Did he end up in jail for tax fraud or money laundering or something? A Maserati in the handicapped spot in front of s skateboard shop just screams ‘look at me’. C’mon, guy, at least park around back. And if you’re claiming 50 million dollars a year on your taxes for your mom and pop skateboard shop, they’ll catch on sooner or later.
On the other hand, that was a season on the Sopranos. Tony took over a legit business, sucked every dime he could out of him and left. The person (IIRC) had to close up with all the debt in his name. “It’s what I do”…the scorpion and the turtle.
I think in the end, he felt the heat and shut down operations. The shop was in a very affluent area, and a sports car of that caliber wouldn’t have been out of place.
My grandfather was a business owner in NJ. He used to know and play pinochle with Joe Adonis. He was also an investor in the Riviera Club, in Fort Lee, right after prohibition. Albert Anastasia was a silent partner, in that. (Somebody was murdered over this and tied to a tree apparently.) Anyway a piano was given to my grandfather for his service, and they bought him out. My speculation is that he was the straight man to let Anastasia buy in to the club.
My family would mention Adonis, but Anastasia was not a name that ever issued forth from anyone’s mouth. Both Adonis and Anastasia were at the Havana conference with Lucky Luciano, where the mob was basically formed, and where Frank Sinatra was seen at the airport carrying a briefcase with a million dollars in it. Adonis was the number one man in the US for a time. He retired though, an unusual occurence in the mob. He was deported to Italy and died during a police raid.
Does anyone know how these old italian mafia types got along, or didnt get along, with the newer black, hispanic, and asian gangs?
How does your story not involve Medellin???
I suppose both of those sentences make sense.
I had a second cousin who was a bookie. I don’t recall, if I even knew, if the organized criminal group he was associated with was the Mafia or not. A couple of his first cousins, and his sister, were lawyers with one being a prosecutor. They were less than amused.
I have spent most of my life in Rhode Island. Does a bear shit in the woods?
A high school girlfriend’s father was over prostitution in New Orleans for Carlos Marcello.
Yup, one of my parents favorite restaurants was owned by a “retired” low level mobster who was involved in the food service hotel linen business. I also was on speaking terms with the 1% bikers who had their clubhouse across the street from me in Norfolk VA and Sonny Barger’s second in command lived across the street from mraru when he was growing up.Also having worked in contract compliance for a waste management company I had the interesting pleasure of being on the phone with a guy as the FBI showed up to arrest him for that price fixing problem in the NY CT Jersey corner of the world.
I grew up in Boston and did construction in New Jersey.
What do you think?
When I was little, a boy (I’ll call Frank), used to come to our neighborhood to visit his Gran. He was about 6 years older than I. He had a cute kid crush on my mom so he was always making excuses to visit. Frank took on the job of an older brother to my sister and I. My parents divorced and I moved out of the neighborhood. Later, as he got into his teens, he would occasionally be in the newspaper for committing some crime. We ran into each other in my late teens. Frank immediately recognized me and was very sweet asking after my mom. Shortly after that my then boyfriend was walking me home after a date. It was very late. We came upon Frank and his “friends.” I will not give specifics; but it was like a scene from the Sopranos. One of the violent ones. His “friends” saw us standing there like deer in the headlights unable to move for fear. Thankfully they said something to Frank before they dealt with us.
Frank said, “Oh they’re OK, she’s my sister.” And we were allowed to go on our way.
Frank is still a high ranking member of a group who operate in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
He is in fact not my brother. My mother was way too young to be his mom and living across the country with her parents when Frank would have been born.
I know what they did that day was beyond awful. But I loved Frank like a big brother and never would have told on him.
I have no idea, but here’s The Sopranos humorous take on that subject from an episode that dealt with the gentrification of the old neighborhood.
