PB I'm curious about Ida...aside from consigliere do you know what he was into? Was he a heavy n feared guy?
He was big downtown. I mean, he was Matty's successor in the downtown crew when Matty went away in the late '80s. As far as his being a "heavy guy," I think that says it all.
He was pretty active in with the concrete and the bricklayers back then, too. And the masons were mostly Westchester based, so that really extended his domain from lower Manhattan all the way up to Westchester, which is pretty rare. He eventually bought a farm sized property up in Bedford and lived there part time. But he was still a Little Italy go to the bone.
He was a sharp guy. Very feared. Very well respected. But he made a huge mistake in not taking that plea in '96 or '97. He'd be out now, and he'd probably be on the short list to be a panel member.
Oh, lastly, fun fact about Jimmy: He's one of the RARE Italian Americans of Northern Italian descent to end up so big in the American mob (back then, anyway, today they'll make anyone lol). I'm pretty sure his family was from Milan.