With the various rats on podcasts, is there any that you find likeable.

Yes, we know they saved their skin by informing!


For me there is only one and it's Mikey scars, doesn't make excuses and comes across as a decent personality.

@Brit I agree about Scars but when he went "internet" fuck him too. So, for me personally none of the podcast rats...Chicago's Nick Calabrese doesnt give a shit while walking alone around the old neighborhoods, and never did an interview or any public/youtube shit like that. Again for me, he and Valachi are my most "likeable rats".

They all seem to miss that life. Not a very likable trait if you ask me. No one is more unlikable than Merlino though lol

Sammy Gravano is a pretty good storyteller and a likeable personality,but for me,my #1 rat is Henry Hill.

I used to listen to him on Howard Stern,and he was either drunk or high before and during the show.
Stern had to constantly remind him not to use the "F" word ( pre-satellite radio).
Lots of people who knew him from the street would call in and just rip him apart for being a scumbag.
He even took a call from "Spider's" sister who pleaded with him to tell her where her brother was buried so they could give him a proper funeral.

A Junkie that beats up his daughter in a heroin crazed stupor, is a likable guy ??

Where is this board going ??

To me they'd be a lot more likeable if they could admit that they're just rat pieces of shit who flipped to save their hide. I don't see any of them doing that so....

Joey Merlino isn't a rat though. Whether he's breaching omerta as far as Mafia codes of conduct is debatable. If we're talking about the most unlikeable, for me it's Bingy Arilotta.

Merlino sat down with vlad and was going to work with Scott Bernstein that makes him a rat by his defition

Nick died last year, but good pick is his nephew still doing those mafia tours lol?

Frank Culotta also had something about him otherwise they wouldn't let him on CASINO. I've read one of his books not bad IIRC.

Michael DeLeonardo says he is sorry he ratted, and misses the life, but he follows that up all the time by ratting more on his channel. Merlino can be likable, I don't see him as unlikeable most of the time, although there have been exceptions. He is truthful on things to an extreme, he does not care what anyone says or things about him. That trait is often good, but occasionally very bad.

Yeah I completely forgot, thanks for the correction @H. As for Calabrese Jr.....i dunno, because he started inventing stories after there was no more stories to tell (like Accardo personally pulling the trigger in Giancanas murder lol lol lol maybe the old boss was hiding under the kitchen table lol lol lol), and so his credibility quickly went down the toilet, meaning he shouldve sticked to the tours and cooking only. On top of that, he is a former cokehead who stole millions from his gangster father and some of that cash was also Outfit money, meaning he placed himself, his father and his whole family in great danger. He tries to sound like he had the full right to steal mob money lol. If I was Calabrese Sr, I was going to exile him out of the country without a dime in his pockets, never to return.

I think most have now run out of stories to tell.

+1

No problem, they'll invent something and ppl will still believe them and pay money for it.

I don't think so.

The most interesting aspect of the Mafia for me is the protocol, rules, hierarchy as well as the interactions between families. I really enjoyd these little stories about a sitdown or an issue with making a guy or settling a beef with anoter family... These stories can really only be told by insiders. Not by law enforcement or journalists.

The informants tend to talk about the big stuff and theres some great stories (I mean Gravano gives you a detailed and vivid account of the Castellano hit) and I agree that we have now heard them for a thousand times so it's getting tedious. I prefer when they talk about the little stuff but I understand it's not made for a larger audience.

For instance what OC shortz did with Gravano was great because he questionned him about all the capos in the Gambino families or about his interaction with guys like Benny Eggs, Gaspipe Casso,... And you realize Sammy has all these interesting little stories to tell.

Franzese probably also have some good little stories but for some reason he never talked about it. Of all the informants, I'd say he is the one who tells the least about how his family was functionning. He goes on and on about the same stuff.

John Pennisi is kind of the opposite. He doesn't have any good big stories because he was a small time made guy. But he was active fairly recently and he had some good little stories like how he dealt with guys Lorenzo Mannino, Tony Federici, Lenny DiMaria... There's nothing epic but it's always interesting to hear about these guys from the inside.

I've recently read the book written by former Colombo associate Carmine Imbriale and it's the best mob book i've read these last years (believe me i've read them all in both english and italian) because there's a ton a good little stories with guys like Jimmy Ida, Carmine Sessa, Matty Ianniello,...

Arilotta and Cicale are soon each releasing a book about their life in the Mob. I already know the big stories about them but I hope we'd get to have some good little stories too.

One thing i would like is for these informants to be interviewed by experts like OC Shortz or making a podcast where two informants discuss with each other.

I did enjoy Underboss by Gravano a lot, but Peter Maas also did a great job writing it down.

A good writer is important.

Gaspipe Casso could have had a great book, on par with the Gravano, Leonetti or D'Arco's ones but the writer was horrible and the book is very disappointing.

I saw Larry Mazza in one or two podcasts, I think he's pretty likeable. Has good stories, is pretty sharp and well spoken, doesn't bullshit or exaggerate how important he was or how tough he was.

For me what makes Bingy Arilotta so shitty is the fact that you have this made man who folded while his surrounding associates all stood up and adhered to omerta. That's a bitter pill for the Mafia to swallow.

Yep Peter Maas made Gravano lovable LOL.

Johnny Penis Pennisi doesn't seem too bad.

John Pennisi seems to be very informative and articulate, he actually pronounces all the Italian names correctly. I just don't subscribe to his notion that the mob is dead, just because guys like him aren't in the game anymore, doesn't mean they're dead.

Pennisi is awful due to the fact he is just a prosecution spokesman. He was in the maifa briefly, but is telling stories that he can't know about. I think he has FBI and prosecutors who he ratted for telling him what to say 95 % of the time. Plus he likely has to clear anything he posts with them before putting it up.

Thanks Jace, as always, I welcome others input. I don't know everything.

A rat like no other

Julius Spike Bernstein, Matty Ianniello's right hand guy, they played a tape in court where he said, only way I rat is if you give me permission, he did rat, but after he ratted he came right back to live on Staten Island, and went back to collecting money like nothing happened:


He admitted several extortion charges in 2006 - including the Sbarro shakedown - and made an extraordinary decision to become an FBI informant.

Even then, the gangster had not quite reformed and eight months later he collected a $20,000 payment from a bus company owner inside a hotel bathroom

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...Bernsteins-secret-FBI-file-revealed.html

Mikey Scars actually makes me cringe with disgust. Why does his audience take his word on why he flipped? This is a guy who made a living lying, cheating and scheming. How do we know that what he accuses the mob of doing to him, he wasn't the one actually doing it? He's talking about people who obviously can't defend themselves. People are so gullible.

Thank you Liggio. None of us know everything, but quite a few people think they know it all.

Is it possible that Iannielo told him he could testify because for the most part, Bernstein was not really much of a gangster and there was nothing he could testify to that would hurt anyone?

I could really care less about John Pennisi's decision to flip, however he keeps coming out with these videos bashing his former comrades. It just seems self-centered and his way of getting back at them. It's really comical when you think about it. He seems to forget that he also chose that life, and he didn't turn because he found religion or because he had a change of heart. He turned for his own selfish reasons. I'm not judging his decision, if anything I'm glad he walked away from that shitty life. Good for him. I just think he's a hypocrite. I'm commenting because yet another of his videos popped up in my notifications.

John Pennisi made a choice that he did not have to make, he became a gangster. He came from a family with money, they own at least one successful restaurant.. He wanted that life, then turned into a crybaby and ratted. He does not even seem to be sure why he turned informer. He gives one story of a hit team being after him, Then he says his mother's ghost made his home shake and he took that as a signal. In a a video he says he felt mistreated at a funeral. He seems mentally challenged, I don't know how he ever got in with a mob family