Being from Ridgewood, I knew some of the Giannini Crew from elementary school. I never hung out with them but when you're the same age and go to school together you know each other.

There were several "gangs" in the Ridgewood area and they formed in late 1983. "Ridgewood", "Ridgewood Juniors", "Italian Playboys" and "Harman Boys" were the ones I remember.

In addition, there were two white trash gangs named "Madison Boys" and "The Madison Crew" that formed mainly for the purpose of breaking into stores and doing graffiti.

In 1984, Ridgewood Juniors were into break dancing and were really good because as we all know, behind blacks, Italians are the best dancers. At the same time, "Ridgewood" was into hanging out at "The Arena" on Fresh Pond and Metropolitan and some other places I don't remember.

Anthony Tabbita hung around Forest Ave with his little crew of the Nicolosi Brothers, some Yugos, and his nickname was "Gotti", while Ragusa and "Fabio" were on Fresh Pond. They all dropped out of school or got kicked out by 1987 or early 1988 and Fresh Pond was the center of their lives at that point.

People talked about them, and how their parents were mobbed up.

Being a guido was the "in" thing around working class Italian neighborhoods like Ridgewood and Middle Village. Having mob connections was not a bad thing. It kind of defined being an Italian-American in those neighborhoods, and it all coincided with the popularity of John Gotti, which IMO made things worse for young Italian males. They weren't seen as the bad guys until you had a problem with them.