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Re: Irish- Coming to a theatre near you!
[Re: Blackie]
#552713
08/24/09 02:56 PM
08/24/09 02:56 PM
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THE IRISH MAFIA, SO HOT RIGHT NOW
Ray Stevenson, Val Kilmer, and Christopher Walken have all signed on for The Irishman, based on the story of Danny Greene.
Greene was a violent Irish-American gangster who competed with the Italian mob in 1970s Cleveland and ended up provoking a countrywide turf war that crippled the Mafia. Stevenson will play Greene. Walken will play the loan shark and nightclub owner Shondor Birns, and Kilmer is cast as a Cleveland police detective who befriends Greene. Jonathan Hensleigh, who co-wrote and directed “The Punisher,” will direct the action film. He and Jeremy Walters (”Dali”) wrote the screenplay, which is inspired by the book “To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia” by Rick Porrello. [Reuters] Proud Italian-American Mafia Buff:"Seems like every mob movie since The Departed has been about the Irish mob, and how they tricked the Italian mob, or killed someone in the Italian mob, or got drunker than the Italian mob, or were more Boston than the Italian mob. And it’s all a big excuse for the 12th generation Irish douchebags in the audience to celebrate like a Boondock Saints marathon on St. Paddy’s Day. Please. The Irish are just jealous of our bigger penises and better jewelry.
Last edited by Blackie; 08/24/09 03:10 PM.
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Re: Irish- Coming to a theatre near you!
[Re: Blackie]
#552714
08/24/09 03:02 PM
08/24/09 03:02 PM
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http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/2008/03/boondock-saints-sequel“The boys and their father Il Duce have been living in seclusion, deep in Ireland on a sheep farm, away from everything, when Il Duce’s brother comes to tell them that a priest was murdered in Boston and it was set up to look like it was done by the Saints. The boys rush back to deal with it while their supposedly ailing father stays on the farm. As soon as the brothers land, they start picking off anyone who may be tied to this framing. Why does their Irish father have an Italian name, you ask? Well, there’s an interesting story there, but the gist is that Troy Duffy’s a dipshit. Anyway, this sounds like Godfather II but with more pointlessly killing people in slow motion. (more on why Boondock Saints sucks after the jump) The courtroom speech from Boondock Saints: Now you will receive us. We do not ask for your poor or your hungry. We do not want your tired and sick. It is your corrupt we claim.It is your evil that will be sought by us.With every breath, we shall hunt them down.Each day we will spill their blood til it rains down from the skies.Do not kill, do not rape, do not steal, these are principles which every man of every faith can embrace.These are not polite suggestions. These are codes of behavior and those of you that ignore them will pay the dearest cost.There are varying degrees of evil, we urge you lesser forms of filth not to push the bounds and cross over into true corruption, into our domain. But if you do, one day you will look behind you and you will see we three and on that day you will reap it. And we will send you to which ever god you wish.And shepherds we shall be, for thee my Lord for thee, power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command. We shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Wow, I’ve never heard someone say “We kill bad guys” in so many words before.
Last edited by Blackie; 08/24/09 03:09 PM.
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Re: Irish- Coming to a theatre near you!
[Re: Blackie]
#552715
08/24/09 03:05 PM
08/24/09 03:05 PM
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http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/2009/07/boondock-saints-2-trailer-reaction I could tell you why Boondock Saints sucks till I’m blue in the face, but you can’t deny that even 10 years later the film has one of the most rabid cult followings in all of film fandom (Oh my God, bro, Irish dudes kill bad guys and then pray? It’s like the War and Peace of comically self-important Punisher ripoffs!). The long-gestating sequel, Boondocks Saints II: All Saints Day, will supposedly have a theatrical release November 1st (I’ll believe it when I see it), and writer/director Troy Duffy premiered the trailer at Comic-Con over the weekend. Shortly afterwards, /Film was able to capture some reaction footage of the rare species known as the Boondock Saint fanatic in their natural habitat (the state of irrational excitement). I could ridicule them for their crunchy hair and abundance of man-jewelry, but I sort of respect their willingness to let their freak flags fly. They’re like the film version of Juggalos. Duffalos, say.
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Re: Irish- Coming to a theatre near you!
[Re: Blackie]
#552721
08/24/09 03:27 PM
08/24/09 03:27 PM
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Danny Greene Much like Whitey Bulger, Greene became a top-echelon confidential informant, quietly passing along information to the FBI but only that which suited his personal needs and nothing that would hurt himself or those he valued. His codename was "Mr. Patrick", a reflection on his steadfast Irish pride. The name was both the name with which he was confirmed as a child and that of his beloved Irish saint. By 1964, the members of the union were fed up with Greene's behavior and the Cleveland Plain Dealer began writing a nine part series about him. The series brought Greene unwanted attention from U.S. attorney, the Internal Revenue Service, the Labor Department, and the Cuyahoga County prosecutor. The International Longshoremen's Association began their own investigation and soon Greene was removed from office.[2] Eventually, Greene was convicted of embezzling $11,500 in union funds as well as two counts of falsifying records. The verdict was overturned by an appeals court and federal prosecutors finally settled for Greene's guilty plea of two misdemeanors. All in all, he was only fined $10,000, but even then he only paid a fraction of it. Some think that his FBI connections were at work to lessen his punishment.Greene soon found employment with the Cleveland Solid Waste Trade Guild wherein he was hired in a capacity to "keep the peace". Impressed with his attitude and abilities, mobster, Alex "Shondor" Birns, hired Greene to be an enforcer for his various numbers operators. The Cleveland family boss, Frank "Little Frank" Brancato, brought in Greene and other gangsters of Irish heritage to act as errand boys and muscle to enforce the Mafia’s influence during the 1960s. Greene was used as muscle in enforcing the Mob’s control over the garbage hauling contracts and other Mob influenced rackets. This was a move Brancato would later grow to regret. Until his death in 1973, he regretted bringing Danny Greene into the Mob and the damage it did. In May 1968, under Birns's orders, Greene was supposed to toss a bomb at a dissident black numbers man who was holding out on the protection money due. He stopped a block down the street and pulled the igniter. However, Greene was unfamiliar with the military type detonator and the fuse was burning faster than he had anticipated. Greene opened the door and had barely made it out when the bomb exploded, blowing out the roof of the car. He told the police that a passing car had tossed the bomb into his vehicle at which point he managed to push it away. The explosion threw Greene nearly 20 feet (6 m) from the demolished vehicle and he claimed "the luck of the Irish" for having only minor injuries. The blast severely damaged his right eardrum, leaving him unable to hear properly through his right ear for life. In the future, Greene would only trust professionals to handle bombs for him. One of the men in charge of the Cleveland Solid Waste Trade Guild, Mike "Big Mike" Frato, decided to end the group and form a more legitimate trade group called the Cuyahoga County Refuse Haulers Association. Frato was a legitimate businessman, who despite his own mob connections, protested upon realizing that Greene was bringing mob-involvement and strong arm tactics to the guild. The Cleveland Solid Waste Trade Guild fell apart shortly thereafter. In 1971, Frato's car was destroyed by a bomb. The body inside wasn't Frato, but instead was an accomplice of Greene named Art Sneperger. Sneperger had allegedly been careless with the bomb he was trying to plant. Frato had been playing cards in an office across the street, when his car was bombed. In the previous September, Greene had instructed Sneperger to fix a bomb on Frato's car, but Sneperger had second thoughts and informed Frato of Greene's plan. Also, Sneperger had been a police informant and solemnly revealed everything, including Greene's top-echelon FBI informant status, to Sgt. Edward Kovacic, of the Cleveland Police intelligence unit. Some investigators were certain that the explosion was an accident caused by a radio signal, possibly from a short wave radio, or a passing police car. It seems likely that Sneperger's death was, in fact, a murder arranged by Birns and Greene, after learning of his informant status. This view was held by Sneperger's girlfriend and Kovacic. Kovacic was told by an underworld source that Greene was the person who pressed the button on the detonator, killing Sneperger instantly. The case was never officially solved. A month later on December 26, 1971 Frato was shot and killed in White Beach, Illinois. Greene was arrested and interrogated. He admitted to the killing but claimed it was self-defense. He stated that Frato had fired two shots at him, while Greene was jogging and exercising his dogs. Evidence seemed to corroborate Greene's story and he was released. Later, Cleveland police learned that Frato was armed and had an opportunity to kill Greene several weeks prior to the White Beach shooting. Ironically, during their partnership, Greene and Frato had become apparently so close that they had named sons after each other. Not long after the Frato shooting, Greene again found himself a target while jogging in White City Beach. A sniper, concealed several hundred feet away, fired several shots at Greene from a rifle. Instead of ducking to the ground, Greene pulled out his revolver and started shooting, while running toward his would-be assassin, in complete disregard for his own safety. The sniper fled and was never positively identified. It was later learned that this was an attempt to fulfill the murder contract left by Shondor Birns. Soon after, Greene left his wife and their two daughters and moved to Collinwood, where he rented an apartment at Waterloo road. There, as Ned Whelan wrote in a Cleveland Magazine story called "How Danny Greene's Murder Exploded the Godfather Myth": "Imagining himself as a feudal baron, he supported a number of destitute Collinwood families, paid tuition to Catholic schools for various children and, like the gangsters of the Twenties, actually had fifty, twenty pound turkeys delivered to needy households on Thanksgiving." He would often pick up tabs for friends, neighbors, and acquaintances at a restaurant, and made it a point to leave generous tips. After moving to Waterloo road, Greene made sure that the neighborhood undesirables were kept in line. He evicted a bookmaker who operated out of a small Waterloo business and kept a local bar in order by personal visits, if things got too chaotic or disorderly. When a rowdy group of Hells Angels moved into Collinwood, Greene visited their headquarters with a stick of dynamite. He threatened to light it and throw it into their club house until they came out to receive a warning to keep things quiet when in Collinwood. He also formed his own gang of young tough Irish hoodlums called The Celtic Club. His main lieutenants were Keith Ritson, Kevin McTaggart, Brian O'Donnell, Danny Greene Jr., Billy McDuffy and enforcer-hitman James "Icepick" Sterling from Southwest Detroit. They started setting up their own gambling dens across the city. He also allied himself with John Nardi, a Cleveland family labor racketeer who wanted to overthrow the Cleveland family leadership. Underworld crime figures note that James "Icepick" Sterling, a gun & explosives expert, is believed to have almost 60 contract killings under his belt, but was never arrested or questioned in any of the Cleveland bombings. Sterling “retired” after Greene’s 1977 death and now leads a quiet life in Troy, Michigan. The relationship between Greene and Birns also began to sour. Greene had requested Shondor Birns for a loan of $75,000. Greene wanted the money to set up a "cheat spot," a speakeasy and gambling house. Therefore, Shondor had arranged a loan for Greene through the Gambino crime family. Somehow later, the money wound up in the hands of Billy Cox, a numbers operator, who used it to purchase narcotics. The police raided his house, arrested him, seized the narcotics and what was left of the $75,000. The Gambino family, from whom Birns had borrowed the loan, wanted their money. Shondor pressed Greene but Greene flatly refused to return the money. He told Birns that it wasn't his fault that it was lost.[3] In order to settle his dispute with Greene, Birns had left $25,000 with an associate to hire a hit man for Greene to be murdered, especially in the event of any harm befalling him. This contract was soon taken by several minor underworld characters who were burglars by trade. This contract would result in numerous failed assassination attempts on Greene. Not long after, Greene found an unexploded bomb in his car when he pulled into a Collinwood service station for gas. The explosive was wired improperly and failed to detonate. Greene disassembled the bomb himself, removed the dynamite, and brought the rest of the package to the Cleveland police lieutenant, Edward Kovacic. Kovacic offered him police protection, but he refused. He also refused to hand over the bomb, telling him, "I'm going to send this back to the old bastard that sent it to me." Suspecting that Birns was behind it, Greene decided to retaliate. On March, 1975, Holy Saturday, the eve of Easter, Birns was blown up via a bomb containing C-4, a potent military explosive outside St. Malachi Church. On May 12, an explosion rocked Collinwood. Greene's building was destroyed, but Greene somehow had only minor injuries. As the second floor fell, he was shielded from the debris by a refrigerator which had lodged against a wall. A second, and more powerful, bomb had failed to explode. This second explosion would surely have killed Greene. Greene credited his miraculous escape to the intercession of St. Jude, whose medal he always wore around his neck. In 1975 Green started asserting himself in the vending machine racket, which had traditionally been a Mafia racket, and began muscling into many of the Cleveland mafia's gambling operations. This greatly angered the Cleveland family leadership. According to a mob informant, this move brought him into conflict with the Cleveland family soldier, Thomas "The Chinaman" Sinito. Sinito considered Greene an extortionist and felt that Greene’s coined operated laundry contracts with their excessive fees were nothing more than extortion. Danny Greene controlled some of the more lucrative laundry contracts which Sinito was competing for. Sinito and mob soldier, Joseph "Joey Loose" Iacobacci soon murdered one of Greene’s lower level associates. Greene’s response was to have one of his gang, possibly his cousin Kevin McTaggart, wire a bundle of dynamite to the frame of Sinito’s car. Sinito found the bomb in his car, attached to the frame. He removed the bomb, disarmed it and later destroyed it. However, other competitors of Greene’s vending machine empire were not as lucky. In Greene’s war with the mafia to build a vending machine empire, John Conte became a victim. While Conte owned a vending machine company, he worked as a route man for another one. Conte’s company provided slot machines to various private clubs and parties. Conte was also a close friend to Mob figure Joseph Gallo. In the day of his disappearance, Conte told his wife that he had a meeting with Greene to discuss some business dealings. That was the last time Conte’s wife saw him. His badly, beaten corpse was discovered a few days later in Austintown, Ohio. Police investigators theorized that Conte was beaten to death in Danny Greene’s trailer and his body was later transported to the dump site in Austintown. Investigators also found some physical evidence in Greene’s trailer that a violent act may have occurred. Danny Greene was never charged with Conte’s murder. In 1976, longtime mobster John Scalish died, leaving control of Cleveland’s lucrative criminal operations, specifically the cities' Teamsters Union locals, up for grabs. Before his death, Scalish had appointed James Licavoli as his successor. However, other mobsters such as John Nardi challenged him for leadership of the organization. With the assistance of Greene, Nardi had many of Licavoli's supporters killed within weeks. That included Licavoli's underboss, Leo "Lips" Moceri, whose bloodstained car was found in a hotel parking lot in Akron, Ohio. The Cleveland family's most fearsome enforcer, Eugene "The Animal" Ciasullo was seriously injured and put out of commission for several months with a bomb that was placed on the front porch of his car. Soon after, another of the Cleveland family enforcers was targeted. A bomb planted in Alfred "Allie" Calabrese's car instead killed an innocent man. Frank Pircio, 50, of Collinwood, died when he tried moving the mobster's Lincoln Continental to get his own car out of a shared driveway. Calabrese died in 1999 of a stroke while behind bars, according to federal prison records. This started a long standing war between Licavoli's Cleveland crime family and Greene's Celtic Club. As the mafia began to chase Greene, he retaliated. In 1976 alone, 36 bombs exploded around the Cleveland area. It was soon to be called "Bomb City, U.S.A.". The use of Bombs, far from being solely used in the mob war with the Cleveland family, had become a favorite weapon in the Northeast Ohio underworld. The ATF was so inundated with blast investigations that they tripled their manpower in northeast Ohio. According to the book To Kill The Irishman by Rick Porrello, Greene personally assassinated at least eight of the Mafia hit men, sent to kill him. Most of these killings were either through the use of bombs or bullets.
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Re: Irish- Coming to a theatre near you!
[Re: Blackie]
#552723
08/24/09 03:28 PM
08/24/09 03:28 PM
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After the failed Waterloo Avenue bombing, Greene played up the stories of the Mafia's failed assassination attempts to his benefit. His bravado and flamboyant behaviour only added to his growing aura of invincibility and power in the urban legends of the Cleveland criminal underworld. To this end, he granted interviews to all the local television stations. For a newspaper photographer, he posed proudly in front of a boarded-up window of his destroyed apartment building. During a televised interview, Greene boldly declared to one television reporter, "The luck of the Irish is with me and I have a message for those yellow maggots (Cleveland Mafia). That includes the payers and the doers. The doers are the people who carried out the bombing. They have to be eliminated because the people who paid them can't afford to have them remain alive. And the payers are going to feel great heat from the FBI and the local authorities.... And let me clear something else up. I didn't run away from the explosion. Someone said they saw me running away. I walked away" In response to the reporter's assertion that he was a cat with nine lives, Greene said, "I am an Irish Catholic. I believe that the Guy upstairs pulls the strings, and you're not going to go until he says so. It just wasn't my time yet." In another televised interview, Greene denied any knowledge of the underworld war. However, Greene added, "I have no axe to grind, but if these maggots in this so-called Mafia want to come after me, I'm over here by the Celtic Club. I'm not hard to find." This was a public insult to the reputation of the Cleveland family and drastically reduced their stature in front of the other families including the Five Families of New York. Their constant inability and failure to kill Greene made them look like a laughingstock and gave them an impression as "the gang that couldn't shoot straight" in the criminal underworld. In a bugged conversation between two mobsters, an exasperated mob lieutenant complained, "How the hell did this guy ever come into the picture?"
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Re: Irish- Coming to a theatre near you!
[Re: Blackie]
#552724
08/24/09 03:28 PM
08/24/09 03:28 PM
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On May 17, 1977, Greene's long time ally, John Nardi was killed by a bomb explosion. Greene was now left without an ally and was now fighting alone against the mafia. The bomb was planted by Pasquale Cisternino, Sr. and Ronald Carabbia. After the killing of Nardi, Greene tried to unsuccessfully make peace with the Cleveland Family. But mafia boss James Licavoli made a cease fire with Greene, hoping he would relax so he could kill Greene while offguard. Shortly after the meeting, Greene quickly muscled in on a large West Side gambling operation that was originally run by John Nardi. Greene offered Licavoli a percentage, but he declined. On October 6, 1977, Greene went to a dental appointment at the Brainard Place office building in Lyndhurst, Ohio. Members of the mafia, who had listened in on Greene's phone line they had tapped, anticipated this visit. Greene had his dentist repair a loose filling after which he left the office building and approached his car. The automobile parked next to his exploded. The explosion was thunderous and, sent a red ball of fire into the air, a blinding cloud of flame that for an instant bathed the already sunlit parking lot in a terrifying white light. Greene was ripped apart. His clothing, except for his brown zip-up boots and black socks, was blown clean off his body. His left arm was torn free and was thrown 100 feet away. One gold ring with five green stones was still on one of the fingers. His Adidas bag was untouched. Police found, among other contents, a 9mm pistol and a holy card with a prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
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Re: Irish- Coming to a theatre near you!
[Re: Blackie]
#552725
08/24/09 03:29 PM
08/24/09 03:29 PM
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The news of Greene's death brought about great joy to the members and associates of the Cleveland Mafia. A Cleveland magazine writer, Ned Whalen, relates an incident which occurred in a mob hangout, upon the mobsters discovery of Greene's death: "That night at a restaurant in Little Italy there was a celebration. One man who loathed Greene danced about in a drunken stupor. He pulled out a .38 and shot it wildly into the ceiling. "The Irishman is dead!" he screamed. "The Irishman is dead! The Irishman ..."[4] In the aftermath of Greene's murder, the FBI intercepted some interesting conversation through their Title III hidden microphone surveillance at Licavoli's house. Apparently Licavoli, his right-hand man John Calandra and an unidentified male were complaining about Frank Embrescia, Frank Brancato and John Nardi. They felt that these men, all deceased mobsters, as well as the FBI were responsible for Greene's rise to power. LICAVOLI: Embrescia was so fuckin' burned up when Shondor got it. Hey if he couldn't handle him, that's his own fault. CALANDRA: That's right. That's right. UNIDENTIFIED: How can a marked man put a big flag in front of his house. He had a big Irish flag out by the side, anybody could see it. He put it there on purpose. He'd be sitting out there under the sun. CALANDRA: He has some pretty good connections though. LICAVOLI: He had some connections all right. The fucking FBI. He used to tell them about every goddamed thing everyone did. CALANDRA: You know that with Greene. He was the FBI's boy. LICAVOLI: Oh fuck yes. But he didn't work with the F.B.I., he told them what to do! He told them what to do. He said F.B.I. your ass. He thought he got so fuckin' big. Well he wanted it all that's all. Him and Nardi. That fucker. He used to give them the money and he used to give them all the information. He created a monster. CALANDRA: Nardi and Brancato? LICAVOLI: That's right. They created that guy. And all the fuckin' headaches we used to have. The story of Greene's life and spectacular demise inspired the former Cleveland area police lieutenant turned writer, Rick Porrello, to write a book about Greene entitled To Kill The Irishman: The War that Crippled the Mafia in 1998. Porrello won a national Non-Fiction award for the book.[5] In 2001, this story was optioned for a film to be entitled The Irishman: The Legend of Danny Greene.[6]
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