Originally Posted By: HairyKnuckles
Originally Posted By: Faithful1
It's hard to tell which words came from Wolf and which came from Joseph DiMona, the writer. Can more easily see DiMona adding the "boss of bosses" phrase more than Wolf. I think it's very possible the story happened, just that the date was off by a year or two. For people writing many years after the event it's very common. After all, how many of us can remember what we ate for breakfast yesterday?


I think the story, or a version of it, happened too. There was some kind of reconciliation between the two of them just like it says in the document you posted. But Wolf´s part in this reconciliation (and of course this is just my opinion) may have been embellished and/or enlarged to make the book sell better. If he´s wrong on the year of when he set up the meeting between the two of them, there is a possibility he is wrong on other stuff in the story as well.

smile I just like to comment shortly on the memory thing. It is easier to remember a big event that happened, let´s say, ten years ago than what you had for dinner a week ago. Because dinners are a daily occurence. It´s a daily, natural routine. Big events like the one in this case, setting up a reconciliation meeting between two of the most powerful mobsters in US history, is not.


Agreed on people recalling big events better than smaller ones. The key is how significant it was to the person doing the remembering. It was probably important to him, which is how this story got out. But even remembering the details of the event is different than recalling when it happened. A person may recall a childhood accident in vivid detail, but when asked when it happened will not be able to give an exact answer. So the chronology and history of the event may be off, but the details could be correct. However there's always perception. People see things through their eyes perceived by their life experiences.

We could take the example of the so-called "Pax Bonanno," the peace that Joe Bonanno claimed he helped maintain between the shooting of Frank Costello and the killing of Albert Anastasia. This was only a matter of months, but the way he remembered it, it stretched out to two years. Because of his position people didn't correct him when he made a mistake so his perception clouded his memory. I know Bonanno lied at times, was self-serving, etc. In this case I think his perception affected his recall. Most people aren't trained to think like historians or detectives and have little sense of chronology. If it wasn't for his interest in history he wouldn't have put out his autobiography at all.