The Rampers and it's members have been well documented thanks to Gravano. I was looking for any other info on Italian-American street gangs that may have worked as sort of a farm league for OC. Links would be great.

South Brooklyn boys,a gang from park slope.Anthony Casso was a member,Persico was a member..Scrappy scarpati from the colombos was also a member..A gang caled Sand street angels was conected to the luccheses,they were from the navy yard in brooklyn.Jackson Gents from Billyburg in brooklyn were conected to the mob,also John Gottis fulton rockaway boys were.connected....and so on tons more

Don't forget the Jets!

Also I just remmebered Avenue U boys from Gravesend bk were mafia connected.Frank Lino was member.New lots boys were kind of connected,Foxy Jerothe was a member and Anthony Stabile from the vario crew..Harlem redwings and fordham baldies..who were the jets?Dont know about them..

ive heard of the Fordham baldies, but, I thought they were of the sixties.

The Jets were the gang from the most gritty and realistic account of NY gang life ever: West Side Story.

No, they go way back. They did not really shave their heads like in the movie (The Wanderers). Biggest Italian gang in The Bronx. Dion of The Belmonts was a member in his teens.

thank you.

hey,I thought the Jets were an Irish gang and the Sharks were Puerto Rican.

When your a jet your a jet all the way.

The Gianinni crew formerly from Ridgewood, Queens, was a farm club for the Bonanno's.

Ridgewood is where a lot of the Kinickerbocker Avenue Bonanno's wound up. I believe Baldo Amato is still there.

In Philly you have the 10th and O gang....

Pigtown angels,brooklyn....Ditmas dukes(Brooklyn),Dayhill road Gremlins(brooklyn),The Jokers(brooklyn),Golden Guiness (Bronx)...Blacktops from Canarsie...

I guess new York city has always been full of street gangs, you have so many millions of young people on a island.

to someone like me seeing "west side story: when I was 19, it looked laughable, like it should have been an amimated cartoon. all the gangs did was stab each other, for what?

didn't any of them have jobs, no one worked? what's the point.

it looked like they were all going nowhere.

you can tell im from the far north. new York city to me is like mars.

N Park Boyzzz

They shot that movie a block from where I lived at least the east side part. That play ground was my play ground. I never saw anyone dance while they fought.

Want a laugh go see Westside story in Germany.

If it was real and they were italian. They went right into the mafia. You could buy a button knife in any candy store 8 inch blade 8 dollars. The old man that own the candy store would have sold them.

The wrist band that the Sharks wore could buy that in any candy store.

He also would have been a fence for stolen goods that they stole. That is how come those gangs left him alone.

If the old man was smart he would have got a blow job from the local Spanish ladies for 5 dollars.

The kids that worked got their money taken off them. Except my friend Johnny. Only because John had a lot of friend kids and adults looked at for him. But you have to fight to keep it. Big fish ate the little fish

Red Wings no one fucked with them. When they threw down the building around the corner from. They must have found the remains of over 50 bodies under the basement floor. That is where the Red Wings burned them.

When they made the movie they tried to hire some red wings as extras they were told to go fuck themselves.

I think they did hire some vice Roy's as shark extras. Also when they shot the movie young savages vice roys were horsemen extras.

Some people used gang fights to settle old scores.

There was this one guy Tommy who made a lot of enemies. He got away with shit because no one wanted to mess with a guy he hang out with Ralphie.

I liked Ralphie but he hurt a lot of guys.

Any during a fight someone saw tommy walking around. He never fought anyone in a gang fight. So some guy took the opportunity to fuck him up. Because they with blame it on the PR gang. The guy put a car jack into his head.

Some how he lived through it. Had a metal plate in his head to hold what was left of his brains in it. He grew like a shemp Howard hair do to cover the big scare he had from his head to his forehead

Were most Italian street gangs back in the heydays controlled by the mob? Doing muscle work etc. I remember reading a story about how 16 year-old gotti roughed up some guy who owed some money to the local wiseguys

East Harlem Purple Gang,the italian members was made in genovese and lucchese familis;
South Brooklyn Boys and the Garfield Boys was made with the colombos;
Tanglewood Boys was a lucchese recruitment pool
Bath Avenue was under the bonanno consigliere Tony Spero
Ozone Park Boys with the gambinos
42 gangs in the 30s and 40s gave a men for the outfit
as I know the 10th and O was an enemy of the philly mob

I talked about this before I don't remember if pizza boy agreed or not butchie santorelli was a red wing and I thought started the tangle wood boys.

He almost killed my brother by mistake. He went to shoot my brother in the head from behind thinking he was someone else, and the gun misfired. He saw my brother was the wrong guy and left.

I had him over my house in Brooklyn.

That's correct.


They weren't strictly Italian. Predominantly Italian, but it certainly wasn't a requirement. They even had some tough Jewish kids from Bathgate as members.


For about five minutes. But he wasn't a tough guy. A great guy, but not a tough guy.

He didn't start them. His son was involved with them, and they got a lot of bullshit press when the Balancio kid got killed at the bar in Yonkers.

The Tanglewood Boys weren't a gang in the traditional sense anyway. They were all tough kids. Some of them VERY tough kids. But there weren't enough of them to be considered a real gang. And if it wasn't for a few of them having made guys for fathers, and that murder that they tried to frame Sally Bo's son for, no one outside of the area ever would have heard of them.

Two words: Jeanine Pirro. She was Hell-bent on making a name for herself (and to her credit, she did). But if it wasn't for her witch-hunt, most of you never would have heard of those kids.

Pizza never heard of a guy named Ray Ray. Butchie Santorelli and him were close as kids

I was older then both of them. For a half a second I was Ray Rays body guard.