Mostly referring to the Italian-American version but any stories will do.
Without giving too much away how did you know? What were they like? Did they try to get you or someone you knew involved with less than savory behavior?
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I knew an ex ms13 gangbanger. Does that count?
I don’t know for sure, but I suspect so. At my cousin’s wedding there were a lot of distant relatives wearing shiny suits and sunglasses. When I remarked that it looked like the wedding scene from The Godfather nobody thought that was funny at all, just lots of tie straightening.
I worked for a defense lawyer, and a few of the lawyers in their office had Outfit or Outfit-adjacent clients (Outfit being the Chicago/Cicero branch of the mafia.) The ones I personally talked to and dealt were on the boisterous side and carried themselves with a certain air of confidence, but not really that much different than a lot of non-mob-related old school Chicago types I’ve known (particularly police or local politicians.)
Unfortunately, I don’t have anything much more interesting than that to share.
I’m related to a few not made associates in Chicago they didn’t say much about it except to say some of them were actually nicer than you’d expect as long as you didn’t cross certain lines and some of the stuff written about them was exaggerated oh and tony Accardo aka joe batters was a pretty good grillmaster when he bbq’ed (mainly the fish he so often caught) and youd think he was just someones retired grandpa if you met him on the street
I won’t tell because of omertà…
I was at a wedding years ago like that. A friend at college married a beautiful Italian girl. The reception was at a big Italian restaurant that shut down to host the event. There was an old, craggy looking man who sat in a chair and recieved visitors who treated him reverentially. The food was amazing; course after course, filet mignon followed by lobster tail, followed by crab cakes, etc.
The brides parents gave the couple their wedding gift: keys and a slideshow (this was eons ago) consisting of a photo tour of their new home, an honest to god mansion they’d had built for the newlyweds.
ETA: There is no mafia.
That’s a marriage you can’t ever get out of.
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Friend of mine and I were walking on sidewalk by the main street in town near our base in Japan when a Yakuza flunky almost hit us. We yelled at him (my friend and I both speak Japanese) and he held out his hand showing us that one fingertip was missing. He yelled at us, “Do you know what this means?” We shouted back, “Yeah, you’re an incompetent Yakuza flunky!” Then we walked onto the base. This happened back in the 1990s. I wonder what their flunkies are like now.
I met John Gotti while he was incarcerated awaiting trial. I was a law student and my criminal law clinic took a tour of the facility. He talked to us for awhile.
At two different places that I worked in the 1990s, there were secretaries who, rumor had it, were married to Mafia members, and for whom their jobs were somewhere between a cover identity, and something to keep them occupied during the day.
One of them checked pretty much every Italian-American stereotype you can think of; the other was actually Filipino (and was one of the most drop-dead gorgeous women I’ve ever personally met). Both of them dressed exceptionally well.
A friend I got to know moved from Australia to Osaka, Japan and unbeknownst to her, rented a room above a Yakuza gang’s office. She only saw the room during the day time and rented it because it was considerably cheaper than the surrounding area.
When she found out, she tried looking for ways to get out of the lease but found that as long as she kept to herself and didn’t try to pry into their business, they pretty much ignored her. She ended up living there for close to two years and said she never felt safer in a neigbourhood because no one wanted to cause trouble around the Yakuza it kept everyone straight and honest.
An Italian-American boy in my middle school classes almost certainly had some Familial relations. 40 miles north of New Rochelle, where the Mafia was definitely involved in numbers running 20 years earlier.
In my last job (Seattle area) I had a good friend who had some family members (back in NY) who were Mafia. This friend had no dealings at all with them that involved any Mafia business, although he did say that occasionally a family member would feel it prudent to get out of NY for a while and come out here to stay with my friend until things cooled off.
Actually now that I think about it:
Costa Rica 2012 resort. A large group of Russians with at least one of the guys with tattoos. They were nice enough to me but a woman from Brooklyn which has a Mafyia presence warned us to stay away from them. The only odd thing about them was they spent all day at poolside in Speedos drinking and talking all day in a circle, rarely swimming. There appeared to be a very beautiful middle aged woman that seemed in charge.
Not sure if they were in the Life, but a trip there from Russia in the middle of December probably costs a good amount of coin so who knows?
Around the same time I had a customer who I was told was a MMA and bone breaker for the Mob. The story was whenever there was a problematic Union negotiation, when the business negotiator would enter his hotel room, he would be sitting in there.
I was also told he would constantly try to pick fights with my co-worker, and loved to play a violent form of chicken. My co-worker was scared to death of him. He was also rumored to steal things from his neighbors garages, and ripped off a distributor of mine of product (can’t remember the scam).
I met the guy face to face twice and he was a little well built guy and seemed nice enough. But one time there was problem and he got mouthy with me on the phone but never threatened me.
I’m 50/50 on whether he really was mob affiliated or just a thief that intimidated people when confronted.
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Yes!
It involved beef liver out of Kansas City, I don’t remember which one.
Given the Bronx neighborhood I grew up in, almost certainly, though none I knew personally were confirmed.
However, my brother lived in the same building as Louie Lump Lump,, a low-level mafioso who shot a guy in a fancy Italian restaurant for insulting the singer.
Also, the father of my sister’s first boyfriend was reputed to be mobbed up.
Yes, in NYC. Nothing more to say.
In New Orleans, a couple guys came on the office one day an asked for one of our salesmen, who was out in the field. They said “Tell him Rocky and Angelo were looking for him.”
I knew a guy there who was a labor goon.
Wife liked the parties at Tuna’s, I mean Mr Accardo’s, though she was stuck in the kitchen with the womenfolk rather than out by the pool. OTOH, closer to his end she was sick of him hogging all the blood of his type when there were people more deserving of it. I don’t recall just how much he was given to delay his inevitable trip to Hell.