What does 'Dry Rat' mean?

What is a dry rat? How is it different to any other rat?

A dry rat is a land rat, not a sewer rat.

From urban dictionary:
Someone who indirectly rats you out. A dry rat doesn't think they are ratting you out because they aren't directly ratting you out.


In my opinion, carelessly talking about others wrongdoings can be considered a dry rat because the person talking doesn't give a shit if the person they are talking about gets busted. A guy in my country got his fingers cut off for doing just that.

Neo is on right track, they will talk about things that will hurt someone on purpose, i.e. in social clubs, cars ect. place they think can be bugged ,nothing that can hurt them..

Never heard of “dry rat” but I’ve heard of “dry snitching” which is intentionally ratting on someone in an indirect manner to avoid the snitch label. Whether it be causing a scene during a physical altercation in an attempt to save your ass or like Moe said, indirectly giving up information on someone or someone’s without going directly to LE or whoever it may be.

Yep !!

Dry snitch
“ i heard that diner has good food and is a great place to have meetings, especially at lunch on fridays..”

He didnt directly say his crew talks mob biz on fridays at the diner. You get the jist.

Its a shame that guy got clippd, maybe he insulted a certain boss at a wedding, but what do i know. Maybe he insulted the presidient andnthe cia killed him.

When I ran away as a kid. During the cold weather I lived in a horse barn in the iron place. It was a scrap iron place. They used to have wagons pulled by horses. I was told it was the same barn joe Valachi lived in when he was a kid.

It was full of rats from the east river so they were water rats. Called norweign rats some were a foot long not including the tail. 2 of them could kill a cat. I would shoot them as a kid for fun with my friends.

My youngest son called me in our family tree. Ask him why? I don’t remember my mother much. I knew for sure her people were from Naples. And that her father used to hit her with a rubber hose. Nice Grand father on my mothers side.

My father said he was from Hungariia. But I think he was from Austria or Germany. I am pretty sure my grandfathers first name was Adolph. His last name was Braun. My Daddio Americanized the name to Brown which made sense.

But his wife’s first name was Ava sound familiar. Ava Braun was her married name. I am thinking her real name before marriage what if it was Ava Braun sound familiar.

I never heard the phrase dry rat, but I have heard "dry snitch". I think it means an informant who secretly gives information to law enforcement, but does not testify in open court. For example, Greg Scarpa.

hello Fleming, greg would be a C.I. not dry rat or snitch

I found this passage from a news article and they make mention of a dry snitch:

"These guys have double standards: When it's OK for them, they rat," said Alite. "John Gotti Sr. sat in a room and talked about crime after crime and blamed them on Sammy Gravano. That's a rat. That's a 'dry snitch,' and in our laws that means that man needs to be killed."[i][/i]

alite is wrong.that is a lying rat bastard scumbag who would frame people for murders they did not commit.i.e. jr gotti..

Alite is a liar and he knows that is not the meaning of a dry snitch.
Gotti was not a dry snitch , not even close.
Alite seems to have a strategy of calling everyone a rat just so his decsion to become a Rat blends in and he doesnt stick out as a rat.

If Gotti did that then he's a rat because if the guy he's pinning his murders on gets convicted then it serves the same purpose

Exactly dead on true about Alite. Greg Scarpa was a dry rat/snitch. So was Whitey Bulger. A dry rat is an informant who is not exposed as one in return for being allowed to keep operating freely while staying out of prison. These other explanations such as talking in a club or being heard saying something ona wiretap have nothing to do with the definition of a dry snitch.

That's not what it means, that's just an informant period. PetroPirelli was right in the beginning of this thread. Some of you guys really got no clue what you're talking about and shouldn't try and pass shit off like you do. Whitey and Greg Scarpa weren't "dry snitches" they were just straight up informants.

Say guy 1 & 2 do a crime and guy 3 knows about it and says "well, guy 1 and guy 2 were there but i know for sure guy 1 didn't do it" he's obviously inferring that guy 2 did it. that's a dry snitch, when you don't come right out and say it explicitly.

Rollin is on

They say back in the old days, mobsters use to make anonymous phone calls on each other

Big fella you are correct, not just anonymous they would set it up with l.e.

No.

If Gotti is pretending that guy (A) did the murders when in fact guy (A) had nothing to do with the murders then it is called lying not ratting.
You can't rat out a guy for something he didn't do. It is walking a fine line I know, but that is how it is, look at Tony Soprano who setup Feech for that possession of a stolen car parole violation.

Yeah, now that I think of it you are probably right.

I agree Bones. Scarpa and Whitey were rats. You become a full-blown rat when you start pointing your finger at your friends and cooperate with the government whether it’s local, state or federal.

Who is it that said that?

Informant is a formal official term. Dry snitch is urban slang. There is no official meaning for a dry snitch that anyone can point to as the only thing it means. I see it as a Scarpa or Bulger, you see it different.

there is absolutely an official meaning, i just told it to you and you're choosing to ignore it. scarpa and bulger were straight up rats, snitches, stool pigeons, whatever formal or informal term you wanna use. it's not the same as dry snitching, and there's no 2 ways about it. i don't understand why some people want to refuse knowledge when it's right there in front of you. but if you wanna continue sounding ridiculous, be my guest.

It’s common street knowledge. If you can’t eliminate your enemy or competition the “old-fashioned” way then what’s the next best thing? Putting them behind bars or putting them out of business so they’re no longer a threat or problem. I honestly believe this has always happened and always will but that’s only my opinion.

Sammy was ok to murder his brother inkaw, and best friends but turned rat when he was in jeopardy.

Mack..sam is evil ..no question.

Rollin..you are correct, your not going to convince them .they is misinformed .if Jace wants to have his opinion , no sense going on. I also agree with Petro, isn't that what a c.i. does? and lies at times to get it done. to bring heat to someone he dont like or is his competition ..been going on forever.no sense debating anyone on that topic either..

@ RollinBones
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