Nick Cramandi - Philly

Anyone know where the crow grew up? did he grow up in AC or Philly? What part?
How did he hook up with OC?

I think he was south philly guy.

wonder if he is still alive

RE: Read the book!!!!! (Blood & Honor)..&Yes , he is still alive..source N/A...! [quote=merlino][quote=Lenox]Anyone know where the crow grew up? did he grow up in AC or Philly? What part?
How did he hook up with OC?[/

His book is pretty good.

His first connection to the Philly Mob was Dominick "Mickey DIamond" De Vito, who was a made guy. He also had ties to Tony Caponigro.

I saw a great American 🇺🇸 Justice with Bill Curtis, when I was a kid. It was about Scarfo and Ricobenne, I believe. It has interviews with Caramandi, if he is the ‘Crow’?

No one really knows where he grew up. I think he met Scarfo in AC but I dont think Caramandi was raised in AC.

He was a schemer and a trickster. NOT an organized crime associate at all.

He was befriended by Pat the Cat Spirito I believe. He and Tommy Del Giorno came around Spirito. Caramandi learned the ropes, etc.

And he later got made. But by and large he was just a scam artist who originally didn't know shit from shineola before getting hooked up

But where was he from and where did he grow up?

He was born and raised in south Philly.... he was around Mikey Diamond for 20 years and later on was with Pat the Cat

Leonetti has stated on a couple occasions that Caramandi wasn't made man material.But if you listen to him talk he sounds like a total gangster and killer.Caramandi did say he had nightmares about the Salvie hit.He said that he hated that one

It seems that Nick Caramandi must have come out of Northern NJ, around the Newark area.

Because in a book about him, in his own recorded words he says that he first started coming around to a private social club in Newark after he was invited by a few hoods he had met.

He also said he was nuts to get made. That once he was, he was forced to walk lock-step. He no longer could operate freely and missed out on many lucrative schemes such as drugs running, and other things because he was told not too. Worst move of his life as per his words.

Also, he was only straightened out "three years" before he flipped. And that was because he feared that "Nutty Nicky" would have him clipped like he'd seen Scarfo do to others.

So he ran to the fee-bees for protection. Scarfo had actually scared Caramandi straight into the arms of the feds.

“Nick Caramandi grew up on the streets of South Philadelphia, living in one of the thousands of two-story brick homes that are packed one next to another along a gridwork of narrow, congested streets that stretch across several square miles in the city’s southeast quadrant.”

— Blood and Honor: Inside the Scarfo Mob, the Mafia's Most Violent Family, Updated and Expanded by George Anastasia



““I was with Mickey Diamond [Dominick DeVito] and Joe Rugnetta from about 1969. I musta been about thirty-one years old then. Mickey was a soldier and Joe Rugnetta was the consigliere with the Angelo Bruno family. In those days I really didn’t know what the Mafia was about. But word on the street was that I was a good hustler. An older guy I used to work with introduced me to Joe Rugnetta and Mickey Diamond. We made a deal with them that anything that we did we would give them a third of the profit in exchange for their protection. And that’s how I really got involved with the Mafia stuff, with Mickey Diamond and Mr. Joe.””

— Blood and Honor: Inside the Scarfo Mob, the Mafia's Most Violent Family, Updated and Expanded by George Anastasia



Yes , he flipped because he believed Nicky was going to murder him.... He was led to believe this by Long John Martarano who himself was later murdered in January of 2002.

A lot of guys would get invited up to Caponigro's club in Newark. It's important to note that Caponigro wasn't just consigliere, he was also head of the Calabrian faction of the family after Joe Rugnetta died

Caramandi's parents split up when he was 10 so he lived with his mother and younger brother in South Philly. He dropped out of school by the time he was 15 and started working at a tailor shop. When he wasn't working he hung out on the corner at 17th and Morris.

I see you are familiar with Caramandi. Thanks for that info Chin.

As I mentioned, if not all that up on him. Only what I was able to read in a book or two on that era in Philly.

Yes that is a great documentary. You can find it on youtube

Caramandi was brought in by a rounder who introduced him to Mickey Diamonds.

Nice, I’ll have to check it out again.

Even as a kid you could sense from the interview, that killing was excepted and almost natural for the guys he was around.

The crow was from Philly. He later hooked up with Pat the Cat who.was.from Trenton so that's why the confusion about him being from Jersey

What's a rounder, mean??

A frequent bar guy. Making the rounds, bar hopping.

A frequent bar guy. Making the rounds, bar hopping.[/quotes

Rounders a gambler

Rounder has many meanings today, Louiebynochi is the closest to it. The Rounder term I was speaking of is a term to describe someone as a jack of all trades, but mainly they are gamblers who know how to steal and scam on the sleigh. They are into many things, but you can always bet you will find them at a card came. They know mob guys as they usually get invited to a game and are known to be good tippers when they are winning and good sports when they are losing. The ones I know anyway.

You guys been watching too many movies. Thinking Rounders originated with fucking Matt Damon and shit. A Rounder is a frequent bar guy, he drinks, he gambles, he talks scores,picks up money, sends receives messages.His bar rounds are his office. It's not a Boston guy gambling. That's the Hollywood take.

Never a A.C. Guy ....

Flim Flam guy .... as soon as sr. Started to move up he was around constantly to try to prove his worth . He did drink everyday from what I could tell he was always shaken ! He was not cut out for the life as far as when it got bad .... he flipped on his own .... that crybaby story of him flipping because there was a massive hit on him is bull .... they were all fucked and he was not doing the time .


He was around AC often mostly seen him in summer when there was action in casino and bars and boardwalk.... just a pretty good con man that Nick gave to much power to and he was not into that big business where he ended up getting the entire racket busted before it even should have .... he jumped the gun with threats and in big business many of them guys have to be brought along.... he threatened them straight out with Nicks power because he didn’t have the knowledge for that .... street flim-flam guy ..... not Multi million dollar rackets just not his thing .

All the the above replies &quotes are correct...but ..as young dude who met the man when I was selling women's swag (clothes) @ 13th & McKean off a rack 4 the 1rst time...he could have been a major dude in the Famiglia if he was suscessful in extorting Willard Rouse..but as we all know , that did not pan as planned. But 2 me , he was a nice fellow,somewhat knowing distancly my old man.

I didn’t know him at all ... but he would walk to White House Subs get a sub go across street to Mick’s bar and eat it ... I would be shooting pool . He would go to Beep’s pool hall or over to Muck’s then head up Georgia ave. Guess hoping someone would be out in front of Scarf Inc. so he could probably get word to Phil or Nick , remember before cell phones .... you had to hang around. Guess he cane up on streets because he was very comfortable walking around Ducktown then probably up casino . But one thing for sure he was persistent or a brown nose . I know lots of the neighborhood kids - young adults knew him because thats how everyone would find out who everyone was ..... and mostly the girlfriends.... they know more then most made guys it’s amazing.

That's funny Serp..that the young kids knew who were the old head's were before the the locals..even though the young folk were local as well...I wonder how it got that way?..maybe some of the old heads were braggarts intent on getting their name known or so they didn't have 2 sit around so long waiting 2 b called upon...I would have loved 2 have grown up in Ducktown in those days..u had it made!...

Serp
So the crow never grew up in AC and never lived in AC ?

Speaking of Ducktown, great write up in The Press of Atlantic City today on Angeloni’s .

Write up is spot on, Alan has told me a lot of Scarfo stories over the years at the bar when hes in a good mood and he feels like it, you can really get a sense of what the 80s were like in Ducktown with Scarfo living next door in that neighborhood from his stories he’s told me. Must have been absolutely wild times!

Made me laugh when he was quoted in the newspaper saying that the neighborhood went from Italian to “American” LMFAO that’s a funny Joke I caught!

https://atlanticcityweekly.com/food...4ec67c9-9969-56b5-be88-31c73fde6f57.html

https://atlanticcityweekly.com/food...4ec67c9-9969-56b5-be88-31c73fde6f57.html

The article says that the previous restaurant in Angeloni’s building was Madrid Club owned by Parisi’s. I wonder if those are same Parisi’s that are Nicky Jr’s first cousin that was in his AC crew , JP John Parisi?

JP is out of prison now after his Firstplus sentence , he’s been like a ghost you don’t hear or see him anywhere on the island (AC/Margate/Ventnor) , even in the summer. He was always a Nicky Jr guy and also Nicky Jr’s First Cousin so I can’t see him being involved anymore, but would wonder if he did jump back in if Philly would try to absorb him (if they haven’t already) like they did with the other guys in Nicky Jr’s crew like Sammy Piccolo , Pelullo, and the Rat Persiano. JP has always been based out of AC.

Fun fact about Madrid Club in Atlantic City was that it was where Leonetti and Scarfo cut the deal with Michael Matthews to financially support his Mayoral run for office which he ultimately won in a second, run off election and then basically gave Scarfo and Leonetti control of the Atlantic City Mayor’s Office via sweetheart land deals. Mayor Matthews wound getting jammed up by the FBI for this with Leonetti.

-Dante

No Dante

You would be surprised how big Matthews family is / was and the way that all went down.

JP is not here for good reasons.

Lots of people had blood here and stayed with family over summers . He is older then i he was not in our neighborhood coming up in 50’ - 70’s after Nick he was there looking for work ... but not a local.

Yes he was around later ... but not a local .... his step kid was around and had a thing for jr.

He would stay at little rooming houses in Ducktown ( like Nicks mothers )but this is all after.

Back in the day when casinos first came a regular guy just gambling a little $$$ at say Playboy could be comped Friday and Saturday and get a discount room for 18$ a night Sunday- Thursday .... anyone could live at a casino ... and many did .

Where’s JP at these days? Why did he have to leave town? I was told he was still in the area nearby in Brigantine just laying low but no one really hears or sees him ever anymore on the Island

There is bad blood with some in Lukes and of course Philly he has a X and a adult child in Florida.

Nick sr, wife ( Mimi) and Johnny’s mother were sisters.

Such a terrible place now .... its hard to believe when you knew everyone in the city ... now there are maybe 5 left.

Lots of cousins that knew who was who in philly .... but there were places here that old timers still hung and talked about who’s who to there kids and grandkids ... there was a lot of that .... you know stay away from this guy ... and never go near that guy stuff ,,,,