Have you ever encountered the mob?

[Scumpup]

If we want to extend the discussion to include people involved in the drug trade, then I personally know a great many people who are part of organized crime. The ones who do more than just sell product are tied to various well known gangs. Those gangs, in turn, deal with other gangs and the historical organized crime families. As far as traditional Tony Soprano-style mafiosi, though, I know just the ones I mentioned upthread.

[Urbanredneck]

Havent the old Italian gangs been pushed aide by the black and hispanic gangs?

[Scumpup]

@Urbanredneck

Havent the old Italian gangs been pushed aide by the black and hispanic gangs?

From what I understand, it’s less of having been pushed aside than it is a change in focus. Here in PA, you don’t hear much about the old gangs partly because some of them got rolled up by LE. There are survivors, though, and they are more into government/corporate graft and corruption than they are drugs, gambling, prostitution, etc. I guess you could say they achieved Vito Corleone’s dream.

[Missy2U]

@Bullitt

How do you handle this? Do you politely ignore the fact, entirely? Do related topics ever occassionally arise in conversation or activities? Is it part of your everyday interactions?

There really isn’t anything to “handle” - they’re friends just like any of our other friends. We talk to them about the same stuff we talk to all of our friends about. They’re just regular people.

ETA - I’ll expand a little - we got to know a bunch of them through work my husband does - he’s done work at a lot of their houses and his name has been passed around. As I drive my husband, I’ve gotten to know many of them too, and over the years we’ve all become friends. They’re just like all of our other friends. Regular people.

[Doctor_Jackson]

@Lacunae_Matata

When I was in college, I tended bar at a place that I’m almost positive was owned and operated by the Dixie Mafia. I was very naive at the time, but things I’ve learned since I worked there have convinced me that there was a lot more going on there than a juke joint and amusement company. (And both of those, in the late eighties, were mostly-cash businesses, so very good choices for moving money through without a lot of paper trails…)

My grandfather took me to the Dixie Mafia trials in Monroe, GA many years ago. Scary folks. One of their more lucrative businesses was burning down houses for the insurance money. Even when the houses happened to be occupied by renters.

[Slow_Moving_Vehicle]

@AppallingGael

Ok, basically no, but…while at an almost year-long job, of which thousands open up nationally every ten years, in the northernmost borough of a major US city, I learned (a few months into the job) that my (big) boss’s maiden name was the surname of a very big mob figure of the past. I mentioned having read an article by another woman with this surname, who explained that, while she was unaware of any blood connection, having the name had come in handy a number of times in her life (i.e., when being stopped by traffic cops). So…I asked my boss if she knew her own relation to this past big mob name. She said “yeah”, but went on to express a disliking for the most infamous subsequent leader of the family which still bears the name of her relative(though this successor was admired for his sartorial flair and was often compared to a synthetic substance, used in cookware, for the way nothing seemed to adhere to him), because he killed too many people.

Meanwhile, my immediate boss at this job, had his father or grandfather not dropped the final vowel from his name, would have had the same surname as that of a notorious Midwestern gangster of the 20’s, who was nicknamed for his prominent cicatrix.

TL; DR version: you worked at the U.S. Census in the Bronx for a man named Capon, who reported to a woman named Gambino. Or maybe Luciano. But they weren’t actually mobsters. So your answer to the OP is: no.

[Morbo]

One winter in High School I worked with a friend of mine at Rigazzi’s, a St. Louis Italian institution on The Hill, a fairly well-known mobbed up neighborhood. The owner, Lou, was rumored to have mob ties, and I certainly recall waiting on many typical mobster-looking guys, who all knew Lou personally and were the regulars, staying well past closing time smoking cigars.

The entire experience could not have been more stereotypical “Italian mobster” - the look of the place, the neighborhood, the regulars…(“Stayin’ outta trouble, kid?”) - quite an experience.

[Loach]

My great-uncle by marriage ran a speakeasy on Staten Island back in the day. I don’t even remember meeting him. From what my mother says he got by on his minor league mob ties but was basically a bum after that. Also a shitty husband and father.

My grandmother claimed that we were somehow related to Frank Colombo but I doubt it. For some reason she was proud of it.

My ex-wife lived near Sammy The Bull. She didn’t know exactly what he did but it was known that he was a guy to stay away from.

You would think there would be more mafia in New Jersey but I don’t really see it where I grew up and now work*. I guess it’s too suburban. And in the heyday of the mafia it was basically just farmland. The politicians are the most visible organized crime. I’m sure if you crack the surface there are ties to the mafia in the traditional places.
*Only talking about the traditional Italian Mafia. I’ve seen plenty of Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings, MS13, Hells Angels, Pagans etc.

[Captain_Amazing]

It wasn’t anyone I knew, but my great, great uncle was, among other things, a bootlegger during Prohibition. who wound up dead of a gunshot wound in his hotel room in New York City.

[gaffa]

My dad was a cop in Kansas City during the 70s when the mob was blowing each others cars up, and he was on the Metro squad. I’m pretty sure some of these people were informants, and remember one of them giving a running commentary on the film “The Godfather” when it was on TV.

Ed Asner’s older brother Ben owned Caper’s Corner, the best record store and ticket agency in town. Reportedly, Ben survived an attempted hit by Anthony “Tiger” Cardarella, and the rule in those days was if you survived, you were thereafter untouchable.