I have and just once.
In high school I lived in Antigua, Guatemala for a few weeks to learn Spanish (it didn’t work), since it’s a popular and safe spot for hippies/foreigners to stay. At my academy I met another Korean man that was in his late 20ish and looked like a fairly average, nice guy. Until he opened his mouth that is, and a string of obscenities would come streaming out (all in Korean of course). I swear this man could not go 3 words without cursing, and a conversation with him was like watching a Korean mob movie (complete with the southern regional dialect). You could tell that he wasn’t trying to sound tough but it was just the way he talked naturally. That together with his stories of prostitutes, fights and his undying appreciation for the corrupt Guatemalan police really made me wonder. He was a nice to me though, always buying me lunch and stuff.
This was during a period when Korean mobsters realized that the Korean community in Guatemala was ripe for intimidation and extortion (especially with the shoddy “law enforcement”) and several prominent members were being threatened. Eventually they were caught and shipped off to Korea (without trial) by Korean law enforcement agents and I still wonder if that guy was among them.
Anybody have similar stories to share?
Someone? I’ve met about nine of them in the past month, and it’s scaring me to death! :eek: 
There was a guy in my old neighborhood, an Italian-American guy in his 40s or 50s, who seemed to have the classic “no visible means of support.” He was actually a plumber by trade, who never seemed to do any plumbing (though my landlady once hired him to fix a toilet for us). He just seemed to hang around.
Buried in the yard of a house I once lived in was a 4’ length of PVC piping. Stuffed inside that pipe, in exceptionally tight-packed round bundles, were rolls of $100 bills. The thing weighed upwards of 80 pounds.
It was buried there by the (semi-estranged) father of my roommate. As a “thank you” for letting him keep the cash buried there for a few months, the guy bought his son a mid-bogglingly expensive mahogony bedroom set.
Yeah, slightly mobbed up.
I dated one once. I didn’t know at the time, until his dad was arrested. You would know his name.
the brother of a college buddy of mine is married to the daughter of one of the Angiulo Borthers. He wasn’t really in love with her any more by the time they got married, but she was with him, and she was, shall we say, a simple soul, who would have been inconsolable if he broke up with her, and might have cried on God-knows-who’s shoulder if he had, so…
Probably. I know for a fact that a neighbor of mine growing up was A) a wife-beating, child-abusing jerk of magnificent proportions, B) heavily into drugs, C) an arsonist, D) the owner of a business that was constantly under extremely close IRS scrutiny, and E) very, very Italian.
He was also murdered just behind my high school; the police never really bothered to investigate.
Yep, didn’t suspect, it was open knowledge. Family man, a Mexican drug smuggler with several legitimate fronts. His son was a HS classmate.
This was 25 years ago, back before they were little more than violent murderers who also run drugs.
I have known a few that definitely were. Two were Great Aunts and now long dead. They took over their husband’s numbers rackets apparently. Both Great Uncles had died before I was born. Both Great Aunts were unpleasant to say the least. I don’t know much more about them or their business.
I have a Cousin who was married to a “Guido” who turned out to be connected. While they were still married, he somehow had both legs broken and then after she divorced him, he was apparently shot to death. I don’t know the details and this is a cousin I have not seen in about 20 years.
One of my Brother’s Landlords was apparently a retired bookmaker. Strangely, he was a really nice guy and always liked my Brother. By odd chance, he was squeezed out of his home by the one form of organized crime far worse than the mob. Eminent Domain was used on his neighborhood to make way for expensive townhouses and condominiums. So, he lost his house across the street from the beach.
So, that is 4 people I am sure of. I think I have met a few others over the years. I don’t know any details and I would never want to. I think all 4 were very minor players, though possibly not my Cousin-In-Law, but he seemed too dumb to be more than a petty member.
Jim
My great uncle was a Jewish mobster who had a casino, ran numbers and allegedly had prostitutes (this one is a sore subject for my family).
My friend’s estranged dad is probably in the mob too. She was going to sue him for child support and he showed up shortly after she filed her case and said he was going to buy her a car. They went to the dealer ship and tried to pay for the car in cash (he had around $25k in cash with him). When the dealer didn’t want to take the cash he made a call and two guys showed up and went into the guys office to talk with him. When they came out the guy was crying and she got her car. I still don’t know how much is true but the other stories I heard from her husband made me believe it.
John Gotti would be a my mom’s uncle (my second uncle then, right?). I imagine I couldn’t get more mobby than that.
My cousins (his grand kids) have a TV show on A&E, of course they are less mob and more hair gel and spray tan than anything. We don’t do the family reunion thing, but when I do see the cousins they are even oranger in person. It’s magnificent.
My husband’s first wife was Italian-American, diluted. They went to an uncle’s wedding in New Jersey back in the 60’s. My husband said the wedding was right out of The Godfather (One), right down to the guys in suits watching everyone come and go.
For what it is worth, I have been to some old-fashioned Italian Weddings that looked like they could have been out of the Godfather and yet to my knowledge, the parents were completely clean. Some Italians just seem prone to over-the-top weddings. I am not saying this was the case but it is worth keeping in mind.
Jim
Too many to count. I grew up in Metairie in the 1970s when Carlos Marcello still had power there.
My brother found out that a guy that lived in his building was a small-time mobster when he was arrested for shooting and killing another patron at a well-known Italian restaurant in Manhattan because the guy had insulted a singer who was entertaining there. My brother’s neighbor went by the name of Louie Lump-Lump.
Given the neighborhood I grew up in in the north Bronx I have little doubt that I have met people with mob connections, but I don’t know specifics.
I don’t know. An ex’s brother in law doesn’t work but has a very nice house, complete with swimming pool. If his wife is out of town and she feels a chill, she’ll buy herself a coat. For $9000. Apparently they get this money from his father, who made his fortune in scrap metal.
Yes, lots. Hazard of the trade.
I met “Tony Boy” Boiardo in the lobby of a hospital when I was very young. My sister had been admitted for a procedure and his father was a few rooms down with an armed guard in fron of it. I remember he smiled & I think he tussled my hair.
Relocating to the Northeast gave me a whole new perspective on this - I know I am in the same situation as **Colibri **relates. I was picked for jury duty and during the selection process (where, thankfully, I was ultimately not selected) the judge relayed that the case was a mob-related bookmaking case. At one point, the judge asked if anyone in the jury pool knew of the following restaurants where dealings with the alleged bookmaker took place. The list was a variety of restaurants in the Bronx and south Westchester county - some in my town or right next door…
You might need to explain this a little. Could you please?