Great article about a lesser known Mobster Fat Tony:
http://aestheddict.com/magazine/fat-tony-a-mobsters-mobster-to-the-very-end/

Good article, but I've never thought of Fat Tony as a "lesser known mobster."

yes very true but lesser known to the general public.

PB, I guess it´s a matter of age. I´d think that the younger crowd in here considers him as lesser known.

Yes, good article although some irregularities appear.

I guess, but I really can't see how. The guy was part of the Commission Case for crying out loud .

Absolutely. But let us not be old and grouch about it.

You may be the general public, but I assure you that Fat Tony is well known to us here on the Board.

I can't help it. I'm almost 53 and I'm getting grouchier by the day .

Yeah im realizing that. I had heard of him before but didn't know much about him until I read the article.

We´re just messing with you a little bit. For fun. Welcome aboard!

Yeah, he's not "lesser known." Because, if we're going by the general public, any gangster not named Capone or Gotti is lesser known.

Here are some segments from an article written by Thom L. Jones regarding Fat Tony Salerno:

"Tony went to prison for six months in 1978 on charges of illegal gambling and tax evasion. It was his first time in jail in over 50 years of criminal activity. He was so cautious and circumspect following this that it was indeed ironic that the FBI was able to plant a bug at the Palma Boys [Salerno´s social club] and, as a result, gather enough information to ultimately retire him for the rest of his life to a Federal penitentiary. His comments recorded on one of these tapes, were ironic, to say the least. Talking to one of his soldiers, the conversation went:

He had em put a bug in Tonys car? asked an incredulous Salerno.

In Avellinos car

Avellinos car? repeated Salerno.

They got 770 hours of tape.

They put a bug in Pauls house, Added Salerno.

Unfucking believable.

Tony was Tony Ducks Corallo, head of the Lucchese family, and Avellino was the driver of the black Jaguar that had been bugged. Paul was Paul Castellano, head of the powerful Gambino family whose mansion on Todt Hill, Staten Island, was also wired by the FBI."

/// The same year he was convicted of RICO charges, Salerno wrote a letter (with help from a lawyer I would think) to a New York journalist who had covered the Commission trial. In the letter, Salerno wrote:

"I am familiar with the foibles of RICO It is a congressional enactment that is a prime example of the seldom use term juxtaposition incongruity. It is a plaything for frustrated drama actors such as U.S. Attorney Giuliani and his stand-in Assistant Chertoff. For actors they are, the jury box, the audience for their courtroom histrionics.

For what else can it be called when a 76-year-old man who has never been convicted of anything but a tax violation is portrayed as a murderer and worse and receives a 100-year term for RICO extortion.

What is a 100 years sentence to a 76-year-old man? A death sentence, even though the Constitution of this country allegedly forbids such a sentence for a non-capital offence.

When this government has (under the guise of RICO) placed all the bad guys of Italian extraction in prison, who will be next?

History repeatedly shows us that a government that relies on unprincipled abuses of authority and dubious laws has a tendency to snowball into worse scenarios. The same jurors who most shamefully allowed these RICO convictions may one day find themselves at the defendants table for nothing more sinister than belonging to the Palma Boys Social Club or the White Plains Civic Ladies Sewing Club.

Sincerely, Anthony Salerno."

Read more about Salerno here:
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/family_epics/genovese3/4.html

Now who's Fat Tony??

You've never heard of Fat Tony? He's the crime boss in Springfield.

Right. Thanks for enlightening me.

Fat Tony rocks!

I met him when I sat in on that trial sentencing. I was like 14 years old. My father was the court clerk for the case in the SDNY. Judge Owen was the judge and had no sympathy for these guys and threw everything he could at them. I remember Salerno coming into the courtroom with a cane and he was breathing heavy, sweating like a pig.

Did he have his pockets stuffed with candy bars, like the prosecutors mentioned one time?

Poor Tony, he was a saint!

Not that I saw, but I did hear my father comment that if Judge Owen saw him eating in the courtroom, he'd throw him out, so it must have been seen by someone.

Incidentally, this judge was the same one that handled John Lennon's extradition case back in the 70's and ruled that Lennon would be allowed to stay in the US. There were many high profile celebrities...the Beatles, Madonna, Billy Joel, Julio Iglesias, etc etc that Judge Owen handled, as well as serial killers, Rev. Sun Yun Moon, Bernard Geotz, many many mafioso.
He never had any leniency for mafia, though. Always denied bail for them. My dad was his clerk for over 30 years, though. I grew up in that courthouse practically.

Come on, Tony was a short and fat guy he probably walked like a penguin.

On a serious note; Salerno's a legend. The government can't be no better... Never.

Would you tell him that to his face?

Dunno how many of you guys heard of Jimmy Breslin but he was a writer/author of great acclaim here in NYC. He'd often write about the Mob in his daily newspaper column and one of his favorite subjects was Fat Tony. VERY interesting stuff.

Fat Tony was a true mafioso, I think we can all agree on that. He talked the talk, walked the walk and all... Ofcourse he was also a leech, a crook, you name it. But in nature, there is no good or bad.

I don't think that'd be a good idea. Well, if he's alone then I would just run away like a duck... Quack quack. Who'd whack a kid?

How awesome, youve seen some shit!

Not the Lennon case. I was just born. lol And for the Commission trial I was like 14 and didn't really grasp it all at the time. I was happier about Madonna more than anyone.

Breslin is a great writer with terrific wit. The Good Rat is probably the most entertaining LCN book I have ever read.

I have to admit I haven't read that yet, but I'd give the honor of most entertaining LCN books to another of Breslin's works - "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight".

How was Billy Joel, C? I have heard he can be a great down to earth regular guy and then snap into "Diva" mode at the drop of a hat. Probably the one "celebrity" I would truly like to meet.

I didn't meet him. My father did get me his autograph, though. Interested in it?

I have to check with my father as to why he was on trial, but from what i remember, a family member was suing him.