I never personally met Jimmy Calandra, and I HATED the Bath Ave Crew growing up.
I grew up with some of the 20th Ave, BPB boys..
I have watched some of Jimmy's videos and can tell you that his stories are accurate.
Some of the stories I remember from back then.
Some of players he mentions I knew personally and again are all accurate.
The way he describes the neighborhood and growing up in it are spot on.
To me the difference between and alot of the shows is he is honest about who he was and his position and what he did.
He is not re-telling the stories and making himself look like this all big and important mafioso.
He admits that he went bad and why he did it.
He basically says I was a nobody
I can respect that.
I absolutely agree with you BH. And thats what I liked, and still like, about him. He's as honest as you're gonna get with these type of podcasts.
And thats what initially drew me to him. To me it didn't matter whether he was a top guy or not. The honest recitation of the neighborhood's history is why I liked him. But its a two-edged sword I guess. Because he didn't get to spend many years and decades on the street, and never got the change to get 'elevated' in the mob, and was basically in jail for many years and then turned by his late 20s, his knowledge is very limited (naturally).
I still like him. But as I was trying to say earlier, its just that because he was a young associate with very limited stories about the deeper inner workings of the Bonanno mob and other mob guys, his stories are drying up. He is simply only got so many stories to tell (like everyone else I guess), but because of that (for me at least) his shows are getting a bit boring.
