I was just wondering something to myself and thought i had better ask the experts?
Do the wiseguys still hang around in Social Clubs these days?
Or are the days of the Ravenite et al long gone now?
I just thought that after the battering they have took over the last few years would they still hold court publicly so to speak?
Cheers!

Good question Yogi.

I have often wondered about that myself. One would venture to think that after all the convictions that were brought about through wiretapping and bugging these places, that 'the boys' would have abandoned these kinds of hangouts.

However on a recent trip into Brooklyn I drove through one of the old neighborhoods that have always been home to these 'mobbed up' social clubs and I was surprised to find that many of these clubs are still in existance with the usual crowd sitting at tables outside the clubs drinking their espressos and shooting the breeze.

Well no one ever said that these guys were the sharpest tools in the shed.

As far as I can tell, there are still a few left but not nearly as many as there used to be. It's said that when Joe Massino took over the Bonannos in the early 90's, the first thing he did was order ALL of his family's social clubs closed. He felt they made it's regulars targets. Funny, before he decided to cooperate, the Bonannos had the last great run for a mob family in New York. In the 90's they were the only family to avoid a major prosecution at the top level. I guess alot can be said for flying below the radar.

I never understood the logic behind the social clubs as a gathering place for Wiseguys. It was like saying "Hey FBI guys, over here."

In addition to the reasons DC and PB gave, the demise of "social clubs" is a sociological phenomenon:
The social club was the local Mob guy's "court": where he presided over neighborhood affairs and dispensed "justice." He didn't just conduct Mob business at his social club: he established a restful, safe, "exclusive" place where neighborhood geezers (most often not Mob-types) could sit, sip espresso, play cards, gossip, and generally pay fealty to the local Mob guy. If someone in the neighborhood had a beef against someone else, they brought it to the "court," and the Mob guy would rule.
Now, I'm not waxing rhapsodic about the so-called "good old days" of Mob life. The local Mob boss didn't operate the social club as a free public service. It was a great place for him to win loyalty, respect, silence--favors--from the local populace. This was especially important in the days when Italian-Americans (especially Sicilians) were the most prejudiced-against white minority in America. For them, the social club was like a touch of home. And the Mob guy could keep his eye on the young people of the neighborhood, looking for recruits.
Today, Italian-Americans are among the most upwardly mobile groups in America. They no longer have a connection to the old country, and don't need the "protection" of a Mob boss. Ambitious Italian-Americans go to college, not to the Mob social club. The Mob is left to the John and Junior Gotti's. The reason that law enforcement was stimulated to successfully tap Gotti's Ravenite and Bergin Hunt and Fish club was that they were hangouts exclusively for Mob guys, not the general populace. The cops couldn't miss.

good topic and great responses as usual i love this forum lol