What is the fascination with pigeons?

Was watching a Youtube vid and saw Monk Eastman also was into pigeons.
Anthony Spero, Sonny Black, Casso (Liked killing them apparently)
Even Mike Tyson had the love for them.

I am sure there are other gangsters that loved these birds for an unknown reason to me.

I can only speculate that being that they aren’t indoor birds, it may have given them the freedom to speak there mind freely to them. In the same manner just as we do to our dogs. Like a therapist that just listens.

Anyone know what the possible attraction of pigeons and gangsters could be?

As long as they are not Stool Pigeons.....

Street guys who grew up in the inner city, New York City for instance, garnered a liking for them because pigeons (in the old days spelled as pidgeons) were all around our neighborhoods. Everywhere you looked they were landing on rooftops, telephone wires, sidewalks, etc., whether it was Downtown New York, up in Harlem, the Bronx, Brooklyn, or Queens.

So I imagine from starting to feed them, they become somewhat friendly and eventually domesticated. And lots of guys starting collecting them and housing them in makeshift pigeon coops fellas would build on the roofs of our homes or apartment houses. Most often they trained these pigeons for racing and a competition of sorts. It became a real big thing for a time too.

But it's strictly a city thing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt anyone in the suburbs (anywhere) was into it the way city guys were.

It was more of a thing that older generation guys from the 1930s to 1960s did. The younger set didn't take to it the way their predecessors did. Today its not a thing among 99% of the younger set.

Remember too that it wasn't only knock-around guys who had a fascination with racing pigeons. Many legit guys loved em too. In my neighborhood alone a knew of several dozen fellas who were crazy about their pigeons. Very proud and protective of the "flock" so to speak.

If you could look down from above, you could see all the makeshift coops with the little slanted roofs and chicken wire on them atop many homes and apartment houses.

I guess you could say it was a phenomena of sorts

They're still around in Carroll Gardens on President St. and 3rd Ave, you xan see the coops from the street and they often called to my mind, how FBI stakeouts observed Sonny Black with his pigeons after learning about Donnie Brasco.
One time when I was about 12 or 13 I found one in my parent's yard and I called the Audubon Society and they tracked down the owner from the ID number on the legband and gave me his info, so I called him and he came and got the bird and gave me like $5 for buying birdseed and calling him, but he wasn't a Wiseguy.

You still see them in my town, but not as popular as in the old days.

Pigeon racing was particularly popular throughout the twentieth century in the New York City area, particularly in Brooklyn/Coney Island and in Hoboken New Jersey.

But in Asia pigeon racing has become a big money sport where the sums at stake can reach several million euros. A top pigeon can fetch more than a million euros.

Flying fucking rats with wings. Filthy animals, their shit is extremely toxic.

I can see liking an animal because they're a rarity in the city but pigeons? Might as well play with sewer rats. They're loud too. Talk about an animal that does absolutely no good.

We used to drive around in the country when I was about 12. My uncle and his buddy would take me. They'd drink beer as we drove from farm to farm getting out the shotguns at each stop.

I didn't start to hate them until I moved to the city out west here though. Shit EVERYWHERE, never shut the fuck up. Can't shoot them in city limits. I heard if you mix Alka seltzer or pop rocks into bits of bread it makes them blow up. Not sure if that's true. Then you've got a stinky diseased flying fuckin rat carcass in your yard.

My father told me a story when he was a kid, he had pigeons and he came home one day and his grandmother made soup with them !!

Yeah, there ares still a few old-timers, wiseguys and legit guys too, who enjoy raising pigeons. And if you travel through the old Italian areas of the city and look up at all the roof tops on rare occasion you'll still spot a coop or two.

But its mostly a fad of the past.

There still even have a few pigeon breeders associations where guys get together and swap notes about the sport.

It was big, especially on the east side NYC. Guys would race them, fly them, train them, and trade each other. All the buildings had coops on top. All my great uncles and lots of the old guys in my family had pigeons. My uncle would poke a hole in the eggs and give it to me as a kid. I must have ate a 100 raw pigeon eggs in my time.

Haha we also call them flying rats they shit everywhere around my house.

Pigeons aren't that bad.

Fuck that, they're the sammy Gravano and Michael franzese of birds.

Pigeon collectors might debate detractors about the value and appeal of these birds. Fact is that everybody's got a right to their own opinion. Thats what makes the world go round.

Sure, as long as they shit all over everyone else's property who cares, right?

Me me me Gimme gimme gimme I need I need I need.

Stool Pigeons and rats. They’re gutter animals and that’s where they belong...

They seem like they would be excellent pets for an apartment dweller in a city. You don't need a lot of room like horses or something. Just a coop up on the roof.

Correct. I suspect that was another reason why guys were attracted to it. Plus you didn't have to buy them. Although feed, building a coop, etc., had a cost to it.