I wonder why gotti decided to hold court in Manhattan.? Was it because his rival did? Carlo was content in Brooklyn. Wonder where tony ducks headquarters was in the 70tys. Was he up in east harlem
According to Selwyn Raab who interviewed the guys who surveilled Tony Ducks, he didn't have a HQ. He would meet with his top guys in parking lots or restaurants chosen at the last minute.
Tony lived out on LI for decades so he wasn't exposed to many social clubs except when he went to Harlem or the Bronx. He didn't run one himself. Chin was born, raised, hung out, and had his Triangle Social Club within several hundred feet apart on Sullivan Street his entire lifetime. The furtherest he ever went was uptown to his comare's townhouse, and out to Tappan, NJ where he had his wife and kids. That WAS his life. Pretty stupid if you ask me. He seemed like the shrewdest guy ever born until he got pinched and thrown in jail to die. Plus he did the 7 years with Vito in 1959.
So WTF did he really accomplish in his whole life? I'll answer my own question if you guys don't mind ok. ZERO!!
He lived like stumble bum. Dressed like a hobo, and never went anywhere. Never saw shit; Europe, Bahamas, Caribbean, or even Italy to see where his ancestors came from.
Never went to top nightclubs or fancy restaurants, no vacations, never spent 4 cents on clothes, jewelry, or a good time. He was a multi-multi millionaire but never enjoyed his money.
He spent his days, every day, in a ramshackle tin-roofed, 120 year old rat-infested social club with an expresso machine, a few wooden card tables and hard wooden chairs, and a little TV.
He lived like a mutt, just so he could say he was the "boss"!
He rode in trunks of cars to avoids surveillance. He dressed in a smelly old bathrobe and slippers every day. He pissed in the street daily and mumbled incoherently just so FBI investigators would maybe think he was nuts.
He didn't spend much time with his kids and family. He lived solo a lot with his elderly mother Yolanda in a little smelly, rathole of an apartment up on Sullivan Street.
All for what?...... in the end he still died in the can.
Not everyone lives for material things. Not everyone needs things to be happy. It's obvious that you do, but the majority of the people who lasted in that life and made it far did not care about owning the biggest house or having the fanciest cars. During his reign, The Chin had more power than anybody. It's also not true that he never enjoyed the fruits of his labor. He just didn't do it openly.
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The truth is 99% of the guys who go into that life do so because they wanna make a better and easier life for themselves and their families. They want big money or power. And most seek out both to a lesser, or greater degree. Fact. You don't become a bookmaker, shylock, or racketeer, let along a top racketeer like Chin because you DON'T want money and power ok.
You wanna live in a nice home (maybe not a mansion, but at least a nice home), drive a nice high-end car, have a fat knot of C-notes in your side pocket, beautiful broads fawning over you, and recognition on the street with people..... only the old "Zips" and first immigrant mafiosi kept a low profile, and most of them did so because they didn't have big money despite what the general public wants to believe.
If you're a Joe Bonanno, Joe Profaci, Vito Genovese, Lucky Luciano, Tommy Brown, Joe Colombo, etc, etc, you wanna buy things, absorb things, grow in wealth and ENJOY! Just look at their lifestyles and it proves my point out very well. Hell, even Carlo Gambino, admittedly one of the lowest-keyed true Sicilian minded bosses ever owned a beautiful, all-brick home in Brooklyn, a million-plus home on the oceanfront in Massapequa, all kinds of real estate, a ton of legitimate business interests he clearly had ownership in, and lived very well.
Even second string guys like a Jimmy Nap, Gentleman Johnny Masiello, Mike Sabella, etc., lived very well with shows of wealth. Otherwise, why in the hell would you risk you very life and liberty in jail every single day of your life. And why would a guy like Chin clip a ton of guys around him over the years if he thought they were fucking him for a quarter? Because he DIDN'T like money? Wasn't in it for the wealth?
Get real already! ..... No, in my book Chin took it to the umpth degree because he was a little fruity. A criminal mastermind for sure. But he also had to have a screw loose upstairs to have lived nearly forty years like a hermit. He was better off being a shoemaker, or a barber.
They live a better lifestyle than he did. He was a zillionaire, but lived like a hobo. He was a powerhouse, but hid himself away everyday of his life like a hermit. Nah, he was a bit screwy for sure. Thats NOT genius for me. Thats called lunacy! Lol
