Violent 1990’s mob crews and Good Fella’s

I noticed after the release of the movie Good Fella’s, all of these violent wanna be mob crews emerged. The bath ave crew, tanglewood boys, cafe ginaninni crew, colombo farm team , ect….. I think that movie had a lot to do with it, i really do.

I strongly disagree, the mob always had farm teams, and the Jimmy Burke crew was one of them. Where do you think most of the notorious mobsters come from? Carmine Persico and many others were part of street gangs before graduating to the big leagues, and that was before Goodfellas. Goodfellas was a true story, so to say that a true story inspired other true stories is ridiculous.

Movies get blamed but they are not the cause, I also think the term farm team is inaccurate. More mafia members are not into that when young, and most members of those groups don't get into organized crime. There was an epidemic of street gangs in New York in the 1950's to 1970's, but the members would stay in it til they were about 18 or 19 years old, then move on with life. Persico was supposedly part of a gang like that.

The Tanglewood name was hung on that group by a reporter, I don't think that is what they referred to themselves as. The Bath Avenue group were a nothing made into a big thing because of all the rats in it.

Movies can influence a few people, but I have to think if a person sees a movie and is inspired to be a mobster, the mafia would be the first to reject them. Goodfellas went out of it's way to portray the life in a most negative way, and glorified a rat. Everyone winds of dead, double crossed, or in prison. If anyone sees that and thinks they want it, well....

I think the old James Cagney movies were often blamed for glorifying gangsters, even though the morality code of the time always had them end with he criminal dead or in prison.

I have to agree with you Jace, maybe I was partially wrong. But the Bath Avenue Crew did spawn a few stand-up guys who became made Bonanno members I believe. I also think Paul Gulino would've fell in that category if he didn't get whacked.

My main point though was that culture was strong in NYC long before Goodfellas came to be.

Also, the Bath Avenue Crew became notorious because of Miami Beach nightclub owner Chris Paciello. Ever read the book Mob Over Miami? Scorsese should've made a movie on that one.

Who do u think had the strongest farm crew? A few guys from each of those crews got made and a few ended up turning government witness ...

This is an important point. The overwhelming ways all these guys made money were ways that only a bunch of teenagers and guys on their 20’s would pull off. They were violent, brainless, and very risky crimes; mostly robbing drug dealers and pulling off home invasions. I highly doubt most of them would of been able to earn in their 30’s. They did exactly what the bloods and crips do. And just like the crips and bloods, they all get arrested and all do heavy prison time where over half of them flip.

True, but I think many of the early mob guys came up the same way, with different violent crimes instead of drug dealer robberies and home invasions, Many had armed records for stick ups, or it seems like they did. The one big, big difference is that many of these modern era ((1970's-today) grew up better off financially and went into crime anyway. That would bolster your point on the Goodfellas theory.

I just don't see Goodfellas influencing them, Mafia-affiliated crews were doing that type of shit long before that show. And the Mafia has always had their nitty-gritty rackets like robberies and home invasions. Hell, the Chicago Outfit did that shit on an industrial-scale!

Jace, there have been instances where even guys who were already wealthy were sworn in to the mob, in fact that's why the mob wanted them, because they were business savvy. Some people are just drawn to crime, it's in their DNA, figuratively speaking. Like Henry Hill said, "if you offered Paulie a million dollars he would turn you down and try to figure out a way to steal it from you." Genovese mobster Gyp DeCarlo even said something like, "I don't know why all these guys wanna go legit, not me. I don't want to go legit like these other fucks who get money." I'm paraphrasing of course. You can even go outside the mob and find these types, I'm sure Bernie Madoff wasn't poor.

the '"Tanglewood Boys" name may have been placed upon them by a reporter... but those guys were known as Tanglewood for years prior, due to the name of the shopping center they often hung out at.

Most of the gangs above started out in the late 80s. A few years before Goodfellas,these guys didn’t need a movie. All they had to do was walk out they’re door and into the street and they could see “the life”