More likely the East River, between Brooklyn/Queens and Manhattan. No reason to take someone across to Jersey just to dump them.
Fun to reread this thread 10 years later.
John McPhee’s “The Pine Barrens” would have been one of my prime source when I posted that above. Along with some New Jersey history books I have. Rocky might indeed be too strong, but the southern stretches of Ocean County (Monmouth at the time) and maybe Atlantic Counties were the area of the Land Pirate’s activity.
Here’s one thing I’ve noticed about New Jersey… if you’re driving, whether you enter NJ from Delaware, Pennsylvania, or New York, you just do it. But if you’re leaving New Jersey for Delaware, Pennsylvania, or New York, you have to pay a toll. I figure it’s because 1) if they made you pay to enter, no one would ever go there and B) people are willing to pay to leave the place.
I’m not so sure of that, but I can’t place my finger on just why.
FWIW, there’s this:
Feds Search ‘Mafia Graveyard’ in New York
October 05, 2004
NEW YORK – Authorities Monday unearthed a suspected Mafia graveyard in an overgrown New York City vacant lot where at least five men — including the unlucky guy who accidentally ran over and killed Gambino crime family don John Gotti’s son in 1980 — are believed to have been buried.
FBI agents, backed by cadaver-sniffing dogs, a helicopter and heavy construction equipment, swooped down on the site on 75th Street in Ozone Park, Queens, … specifically searching for at least two bodies believed to have been stuffed into steel drums, and three more wrapped in canvas, sources said.
In addition to Gotti’s tragic former neighbor, those believed to be buried there include Tommy DeSimone — the crazy hit man portrayed by Joe Pesci … in the movie “GoodFellas” — and Bonanno crime family capos Dominick “Big Trin” Trinchera and Philip “Philly Lucky” Giaccone, sources said.
The fifth man was described as a thug who refused to carry out the hit on DeSimone, only to wind up being personally killed by a furious Gotti.
…As many as 15 more corpses could be buried at the empty, weed-choked spot — most of them the remains of victims killed by the Gotti-run Gambino family … sources said.
Also FWIW I grew up near Ozone Park. I always felt bad for that poor bastard John Favara, Gotti’s neighbor. Many more details on those sadists in cite: http://www.foxnews.com/story/2004/10/05/feds-search-mafia-graveyard-in-new-york.html
Matador Network travel/culture site named Hoboken “Most Underrated US City”. As the patch article about it notes, that goes with a mixed list of other high placements on various lists: “Most Promiscuous,” “Best Place To Live,” “Drunkest Places” and “Snobbiest Towns”. A dog magazine also rated it “Most Dog Friendly City” (our dog has mixed feelings about that, being one of the most non-dog friendly dogs in America herself). Except for ‘most promiscuous’ which I know nothing about, high placement on the other lists is generally plausible IME.