1: as an undergraduate there was a guy in my year who was of the italian persuasion and came from a certain neighborhood in brooklyn. he was kinda loud, kinda big, kinda two-faced, and just kinda unpleasant, and had quite a bit of difficulty saying what his father did for a living. people closer to him than i bothered to get were convinced of what that was.
2: donnie brasco's apartment when undercover was about 4 blocks from mine.
3: i work in a building which has retired NYPD as door security. he was in a diner near the courts once, waiting for the call to come back in. they get the call, hop out of the place in a hurry so aren't paying too close attention, and jog smack into john gotti. his sidekick gravano reached for his gun but it was all cleared up fast.
4: i grew up straight across the street from, played with, and went to school with, a kid whose father, i learned only in my 20s, was a full-time gun for the genovese. the parents on the block must have known this, so mine did a good job keeping that information from me. the father was a sourpuss, the mother was a battleax, but the kid himself seemed a little lost and was perfectly friendly. there were alot of bullies in the neighborhood but despite his parentage he wasn't one of them. we even said hello many years later. i'd be amazed if he went into LCN.
i was baffled when i learned of this so i went on the web to scour around. the guy was a soldier therefore low-level, and i haven't been able to find info about him, but there is a guy of the same name and same business who i'll assume is the guy's father (so, my friend's grandfather). he's mentioned a few places, one is here:
Anthony Carfano (it's not the title character).
5: on my own side of the block there was a kid who i was very friendly with when very young but that didn't last and just as well, he grew up to do armed robberies and
may have been a stringer with the westies/gambinos.
