Pleasant Avenue Connection

Was finally able to read this book over the weekend. Been on my list for about 20 years but refused to spend $300+ on it as it's out of print.

Amazing book, lots of great info on specifics unlike Five Families and other broad based NYC mob books. I found this operation to be one of the most interesting of all racketeering in the city aside from garbage ("Takedown" on the garbage rackets was very good). Great ground level view of the operation and it named names. Was able to identify almost everyone that was mentioned except "Funzi". Assuming this was mostly a Lucchese operation I'm hoping NYMafia can help me w/ this ID.

70s seemed like a wild time in NYC between police corruption and the golden age of the mob. A must read if you can get your hands on it.

Hello Steve. I actually have that book lying around somewhere if I could ever find it. "The Pleasant Avenue Connection"

Depending upon in what context they mention this particular Funzi can make all the difference in the world, because there were several Funzi's who operated up in Harlem. And across NYC there were dozens.

But off the top of my head I think you may be asking about a guy named Alphonse (Funzi) Sisca. Although he later became part of the Gambino crew, Funzi Sisca hung around many East Harlem Genovese and Lucchese guys who were knee deep in the junk trade the same as he was.

I think he was also friendly and did business with Ernie Boy Abbamonte and that crew along Pleasant Ave.

I hope this helps you out. If you give me more info about this Funzi, I should be able to either confirm its him, or suggest another Funzi for you. Ok?

Thanks NYC. The author himself was confused on exactly which Funzi they were talking about, there were 2 mentioned in the book. I think Sisca is the right guy although he wasn't charged. Seems like he, Johnny Hooks, Gerry “Z” Zanfardino, John Campopiano and Gigi the Whale were the major bosses for this ring. This is the ring Gribbs was convicted on?

Seems like after they went down the Pizza Connection was the next big ring to pop up that we know about along w/ the Prince St guys.

Correct. Gribbs eventually got snagged up in this case too

Johnny Echoes was another fixture on the Avenue.

How did you manage to get hold of a copy?
Like you , I've been looking to buy a copy but the price is way high.
Only way I'll get to buy it is if amazon print it and sell. They've just released the 70s carlo gambino book, with an update. That's the second hard to get book I've bought from amazon reprint.

** thanks for the Takedown mention. Never came up in the many mob book searches I do.. ordered

I was able to obtain a copy through my local library. I requested and they put a search out in the area, pulled it from a local university graduate library.

That is a good way to do it, if an out of print book is not available online a good library will try their best to reach out to other libraries for it. Even for certain rare books.