Joey Merlino and JBM member Tracy Mason

Albert Lancelotti

Deceased Merlino soldier Dutchy Avicoli and Merlino soldier Frank Gambino both deceased

Thanks PHI-Mob I was hearing things and a few names about guys being made 2013-2016 and posting that I herd a good bunch were getting made and the way it sounds more were then I herd .

Hoodlum

I don't feel so young but I realize that is a relative to whom you are speaking with
LOL

Yes since childhood

In the belly of beast

To give you an idea of what it was like:

Bronx Tale was about as close as you could get to the real thing.

1) With C, living within close proximity to a hang-out or club, the olderguys taking a liking to the GOOD KID and watching out for him and taking him under their wing.
2) Then growing up a little bit and the older guys schooling you, us kids looking up to those guys like they were GODS,
3) The younger guys trying to imitate and impress the older guys, they start asking for small favors, a broken window, slashed tire, and we were so happy to do it just to get their attetieion. The problem with that was the older you got the more serious the favors got... Steel a car, Burn a Car and you can imagine where this is going....
A lot like in Good Fella's with Henry Hill and Joe Pesci, you get older and get more involved.. It was no big deal.... It was Normal... It felt like everyone was in on some sort of racket.

4) The scene in the Bar with the Bikers, I have many different versions of that type of story, the part with Pesci getting hit with a bat over a parking spot, stuff on that level very common, All of C's friends acting like wanna bee's, there was a crew of wannab'ees on every avenue.
5) To the part where Sunny gets whacked in the bar, every so often there was a body in the street, or someone disappeared.
6) Goodfella's when Henry Hill was young and the cab stand, again the ineratcion between the younger and older generation.
7) The God Father being the old timers in the neighborhood and how they would act all dressed in suits like business men.
8) Scar Face the newer generation running around selling drugs

There was a side to it that was very neighborhoody you knew just about everyone and everyone knew you and your family.
Everyone watched out for everyone. For the most part.

You grew up fast and the neighborhood taught you lessons like respect,
Respect your elders, respect woman, children

Mind your business, Keep your mouth shut
Never talk to cops

And if you didn't learn your lesson you would end up in a trunk.
Most learned...

It was a lot of fun
At times scary, sometimes VERY SCARY
Some really sad storys as well...

I would imagine Philly was like a mini version of what I described above??

Bronx tale was a knock off of the Goodfellas with a little different twist. Some of the lines and actions in the Tale were corny. I love the movie but its half a copy.

agree

I agree certain parts were cheesy

I was more giving the background of the story line

Of the parts i could relate to

In one case:

The actor that played "SLICK" when they were teenagers his name is Joe Dinofrio
Joey Zane I grew up with him in bensonhurst

He wasn't so much acting as he was re-inacting his teenage years in bensonhurst

He was a very big graffitti artist back then ZANE was his tage name

He was from the Bay Parkway Boys, B.P.B.

He was very close to Richie Greaves AKA Richie Bes was his tag name
Zane and Bes they tagged all over Brooklyn, the Trains, Train Stations, Buses and Garbage trucks.

They were both close to Lil Dino and Joey Caves Competello

Richie Greaves was the one they killed in the basement

The other part from Brox tale where Joey Zane was really re-living his younger years was he had his own Graffitti crew, White Boys Run Shit -- WRS

They fought with, Ricans Won Shit the RWS crew from Sunset Park Brooklyn

In the Bronx Tale he was fighting with African Americans

So some of the parts were very real

Damn that's wild I love hearin stories like that....I remembered reading about the Greaves murder I can't remember as to why he was killed tho....Slick was the one driving the car rite when they threw the Molotov back at them??....curious what Joeys feelings as towards Dino and Joey Caves since that happend...

you really lived in a tough spot biggie smalls raps n talks about Bensonhurst. The area shared by Italians and Black folk sounds like. you grew up next to it, u really know how the operation works.. the stories that must come from that place are endless. and the stuff you never know about. Ashame there wasn't more work or something elese to interst you for people in that area, back then.

Sonny,

Crazy shit
The craziest part was that it all seemed normal like there was nothing wrong with..

We were numb to it all, it just didn't phase us

As I got older I realized it wasn't normal I avoid all that as best I can nowadays

The last I heard Tommy Mclaughlin was upset with his cousin Tommy Shots they shouted at each other when Mclaughlin was getting off the stand after he testified he said something like how's Richie Bes, Gioli shouted back hows Joe Caves...

The other side of that all I seen some good familes destroyed and torn apart over nonesense thatis the part you never read about.

The kids growing up with out fathers the wives with out husbands

Sonny;

You are from IL they had neighborhoods like that as well..???

I totally get what ya mean and yes we had neighborhoods like that as well...where I'm from in Peoria it's always been known as Little Chicago it's made up of 4 sections the North End, South End, East Bluff, and West Bluff...I grew up on the Westside and my neighborhood was known as The Hilltop back then... It was never so much races havin beefs with each other but more each neighborhood of kids would just go at it anywhere or any reason ...for example we were known for "bag snatching" on especially we would cross over one of the main streets that split the East and West Bluffs called Forrest Hill Avenue and when street lights came on whatever kids were still out we start stealing bags from kids until the kids that we were lookin for found us or we would eventually run into them and would have huge fights that would talked about the following weeks thru out the other neighborhoods... I loved it...like you said back then you were numb a lot to what was going on around you I know a lot of kids who have died by senseless killings some well known gangsters and some outstanding athletes in highschool who would get caught in wrong place at wrong time...then again I grew up in a bar my father owned in the South End and he would always let Outlaws drink there and later on years later he held there annual Xmas party for there kids and families at a banquet hall he operated...he loved the relationship he had with them especially at the bar because they brought in so many people that would spend money...but the small twist in things is my mother was Italian not my father he is Lebanese... My mother passed in 98 from leukemia... Worst of the worst of cancers...hence why I don't trust doctors anymore.... But all in all don't mean to get carried away haha but ya your stories of the neighborhood remind me of mine as well your are just much more higher on the shelf then mine in my opinion lol.

How was it a knock off? I don't see it at all, completely different.

I have been to Chicago once I really liked it to me it seemed like a smaller cleaner Manhatten.
I definitely liked it

Sorry to hear about ur mom
Cancer SUX

Completley different? Are you kidding Nicky? The story line, the narative, the growing up in the nab, travel true time...etc. it's def a knock off, and don't get me wrong I love the movie very much but good fellas did it first, and the fellas is more complex that's why it's regarded as one of the best movies ever and its a 5 time better movie than the Tale.

Just from how people talk about it, I dont think guys that haven't been here understand Chicago actually is pretty similar to NY. Only real difference, and this is from New Yorkers I've met is it's very segregated compared to NY...

Thanks for posting those pics Phl_mob , good shit pal. I read Scott Deitsches book “Garden State Gangland” its good. He says in there that Ligambi has been and may still be involved in garbage in South Jersey/Philly, which i was suprised to read. I didnt think philly guys were involved in garbage... anyone know more about this and if its still true? I think if i remember correctly Uncle Joe was nebrr indicted for that, maybe gaming company?

@Bensonhurst I appreciate it...curious what places you got to eat at while in Chicago did any of the food remind you of back home at all...I know are pizza is different here because everybody loves there deep dish style but I will always forever love the big huge NY style slices of pizza that ya fold in half and eat....there is a show I watch on VICELAND called The Pizza Show that this kid Frankie Porello has seen a episode where he was with Mark Iacono I believe is his name I forget what his restaurant is called but he was the guy that muscled around by I wanna say the Gambino guy Benny Geritano...

Cabarini;

From what I had seen it was much cleaner than say Manhatten.

That was the first thing that stood out in my mind.

The highrise biildings seemed a little smaller.

I really really liked it.

Sonny;

Long time ago I do not even remmeber where I ate.

Lucali's yes GREAT pizza

That is in Carroll Gardens one of most beautiful neighborhoods in Brooklyn, it is about 7 minutes outside of manhatten.

That is where Joe Gallo's crew operated from way back when.
And more recently Boriello Jr's Body guard that Gas had killed.
Benny as well all from that neighborhood.

Benny he is an animal

He will kill you in 2 minutes and not think about it.

His younger brother Anthony is about to get sentenced for that 20MM Bank Robbery..

I cannot believe these guys pulled something like that off..

I remember when he was a kid he was doing nickel and dime stuff

I guess he graduated when I read they found $2MM in duffler bag in his apartment.

Me personally I would be more sick about the Feds taking back the money I sent than the 7 years he going to serve for robbinhg it.

Real Chicago pizza is thin crust tavern pizza cut into squares, deep dish is for the tourists

Yes, the majority of Bronx Tale is about racial tension and dating outside of your race, Goodfellas has none of that in it. Maybe the beginnings in both are slightly similar, but maybe that would have to do with Deniro directing Bronx Tale and starring in Goodfellas.

Ya from what I read Benny is off the chain

Both similar in the sense it was narriated by the star of the movie..

G.F. Henry Hill
B.T. Lilo Brancato

It tells the story from childhood growing up in the streets on NYC

it really is a matter of opinion

You could say B.X. copies off of G.F.

Or you could say one is based off a true story the other is not.

You guys need to start your own thread

Sonny;

The only person I seen him not get out of his face with was Black Dom
Black Dom is a MONSTER...

Those two were about to go..

If that would have happened I think one of them would probably not be here today..

He didn't back down but he wasn't like he usually is with everyone else

Wow hah and that's Dom Dionisio correct....Benny just seems really arrogant especially didn't do something or had relationship on purpose with the prosecutor in order to throw the case off or something like I read something I can't remember fully....guys like Benny and Dom I think are hard to come by nowadays.... Then again Chicago has had some monsters in the past as well like Albie Vena brother in law Chuckie Russell ...this guy Chuckie raped a woman and then threw her out of a second story apartment window and killed her....like really ...your a flipping monster Chuckie. I remember seeing a pic of Black Dom couple years back.

Yeah
That is Bonelli with the prosecutor I am pretty sure
Both Legit Tuff Guys
Dom more down to earth he wouldn't kill you over spilling a drink on him

Benny not so sure


I read about Vena seems like he is very powerful in CHI-TOWN
I read an article from a couple of years ago and the feds were quoted that were going to indict him any day now.
This has be like 5 years ago now.

I don't know what he is A.B.? seems to be having a long run on the streets.
Russell, interesting how in CHI I read they make non-Italians, is Russell one of them? Made Guy that isn't Italian?

Correct... They are known to have made guys who are not Italian which bugs me and then doesn't bug me so much at times just depends on the guy overall really you guys like Chuckie Russell who married into and got involved that way Chuckie is real mean mothertrucker lol prolly mostly because of being close to Vena he is pretty vicious alone by himself...Albie married one of Tony Spilotro niece so I'm sure Vena got his meanness from Tony...I have a feeling this new FBI guy really has something on Vena which is why he came out in the papers and said who he was targeting idk if to be arrogant or what but....I think Vena is considered a Street Boss more so then a actual AB role... And then again you have guys like Jeff Hollingshead who is cousins with Chris Spina... And this Hollingshead guy and girl friend flipped and these two there story is the basically knew too much of how things worked day to day which I don't understand why they would be let known so much information to begin with....there are more non Italians too I will look in my notebooks and get the rest I know about for ya but it pretty much give or take with that sort way of doing things is how I look at it.... Another real mean SOB was a guy named Frank Schweihs "The German" he died rite before the big Family Secrets Case started I guess you could say he's a lucky bastard haha he was apart a lot stuff that happened within the past 15 years.