How do Mob bosses really live?

[Auntbeast]

I was a Realtor for a very short while. I sucked at it. There is a house here in Tampa that mobsters hung out in. The lady that lived there was a widow and a pretty odd duck. But that house? Was insane. She found wierd stuff in little hidey holes in the house, there was a 3rd floor that appeared to be an attic, however, it was accessed by a VERY hidden stairway and was a full apartment. Kitchen, bath, bedrooms, living room, dining room. The house itself was immense, and the apartment was probably close to 1500sq ft.

The rest of the house was odd also. There were two kitchens, a “wine cellar” that was hidden, a game room that had a full bar. The permanent fixtures in the house were garish at best. The house had a 4 car garage.

Now understand, this was in a very nice neighborhood, I had been in many of the homes on tours and such, but this one? This one stood out. You could have hid bodies in that house for days. The owner showed me a few of the things she found in some of the walls, a size 17 pair of shoes, a knife, some other stuff.

Yes, it is documented in at least one book they sell around here. Here’s a link with some info AmericanMafia.com 26 Mafia Cities - Tampa, Florida

BTW, from the outside, the house fit in the neighborhod, but on the inside? No way!

[BrainGlutton]

@dropzone

I’ve been given shit here for my casual attitude toward murderous criminals but they have been such a part of the environment around here that they’re like squirrels or pigeons.

Even now? I thought Their Thing was on a definite decline nowadays – Italian-Americans who have anything on the ball go into some respectable profession or legitimate business, so the Mob is left with the dregs and the dummies; plus, nowadays they have to face competition from newer ethnic crime organizations – Russian Mafiya, Latin American gangs, Yakuza, etc.

[BrainGlutton]

@BrainGlutton

Don Corleone’s place in The Godfather wasn’t exactly flashy. It was called the “Long Island Compound” – including the main big house and an arrangement of smaller houses in a horseshoe/cul de sac arrangement – the point being that it was off the main roads and access at the open end could be carefully controlled; so it wasn’t designed to impress the world, but to be secluded.

Which reminds me of this passage from Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, by Paul Fussell:

My researches have persuaded me that there are nine classes in this country, as follows:

Top out-of-sight
Upper
Upper middle

Middle
High proletarian
Mid-proletarian
Low proletarian

Destitute
Bottom out-of-sight

<snip>

“When I think of a really rich man,” says a Boston blue-collar, “I think of one of those estates where you can’t see the house from the road.” Hence the name of the top class, which could just as well be called “the class in hiding.” Their houses are never seen from the street or road. They like to hide away deep in the hills or way off on Greek or Caribbean islands (which they tend to own), safe, for the moment, from envy and its ultimate attendants, confiscatory taxation and finally expropriation. . . .

<snip>

The next class down, the upper class, differs from the top-out-of-sight class in two main ways. First, although it inherits a lot of its money, it earns quite a bit too, usually from some attractive, if slight, work, without which it would feel bored and even ashamed. It’s likely to make its money by controlling banks and the more historic corporations, think tanks, and foundations, and to busy itself with things like the older universities, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Foreign Policy Association, the Committee for Economic Development, and the like, together with the executive branch of the federal government, and often the Senate. . . . And secondly, unlike the top-out-of-sights, the upper class is visible, often ostentatiously so. . . . When you pass a house with a would-be impressive facade visible from the street or highway, you know it’s occupied by a member of the upper class.

[Jake]

Years ago (early sixties) I played honky-tonk sax in a bar in Cicero. Often “Soldiers” came in to drink, dressed up in suits and tie. looking very unusual in that environment. Friends soon told me to “Stay away from them! Dont look or ever try to talk to them. Ever.” I took their advice.

[BrainGlutton]

Come to think of it, how many Made Guys are left in America, any more? Does the FBI have any estimates?

[elmwood]

An “alleged” mob boss lives not too far from my parents. They have a new McMansion on a short cul-de-sac, in a gaudy interpretation of “Northtowns Neoroman” architecture: a style that was very popular among Italian-American builders in Buffalo’s northern suburbs between the mid-1960s throgh the early 1980s. Really, the house couldn’t scream “MAFIA!” any louder.

[elmwood]

BTW, if you want to see an image of the house, send me an e-mail.

[hajario]

@BrainGlutton

Tony is a boss, not an underboss – that is, he does not answer or kick up to anybody, not even his Uncle Junior, any more.

Tony has to kick up to New York and sometimes defer to them or ask for permission.

[Kalhoun]

I knew Sam Giancana’s nephew back in the 70s. Super nice guy who hated the association with the mob, so he changed his name.

[Savannah]

@Auntbeast

She found wierd stuff in little hidey holes in the house, there was a 3rd floor that appeared to be an attic, however, it was accessed by a VERY hidden stairway and was a full apartment. Kitchen, bath, bedrooms, living room, dining room. The house itself was immense, and the apartment was probably close to 1500sq ft.

I would SO love to have that house. Secret apartment! Whoo!