"In 2002 I was transferred to FCI Fairton, also located in New Jersey and here was the prison where I met the classiest Mobster I'd ever met. Mikey Perna was a Mafioso out of New Jersey. Part of the Lucchese crime family in New York. He was a pretty famous mobster. There was a book about him and his crew, "The Boys from New Jersey," that detailed how the feds took his whole organization to trial in the 1980s and lost. Mikey was a class guy in the Godfather mold. Honorable, respectful, and loyal. He approached me as soon as I arrived on the unit and for the next two years I ate with him almost every Sunday.
He would host mini banquets and invite all the Italians on the block to eat pasta with him. And on holidays and special occasions he would hold parties on the block. He was what the other prisoners called a big Willie prisoner. He was definitely living large and held much respect on the pound. He used to tell me if I needed anything to just let him know but I noticed how many dudes asked him for stuff on a daily basis and didn't want to be considered among them so I hardly asked him for anything.
I used to see him on the yard walking with the other wise guys. They would all be up under him seeking his favor and wisdom I guess. Dudes from other units would always be visiting him and paying their respects. He was a very popular guy and influential too. He was in his 60's but in tremendous shape and was really the first real mobster I actually had a friendship with. I would go to him for advice and enjoyed hearing him talk. He was really straight out of the movies and I was always thinking does art imitate life or vice versa.
I remember one time he showed me some information regarding the fine he was assessed to pay the government by the court as part of his sentence. It was a phenomenal amount to say the least but Mikey was questioning the interest on the fine. He showed me how he had paid a certain amount every month for a number of years and then asked me to check the interest. It turned out the government was charging him more for interest then he had paid toward the fine over a number of years and thus the fine was growing larger by the month. "Can you believe that," he told me. "These cocksuckers. They can't charge me like this. That is what I do, charge interest like this, who the fuck do they think they are?" I always thought it was funny that he couldn't believe the government was using his own tactics against him.
Also one time Mikey had a beef with this other old-timer over something and old Mikey was going hard. He had a lock in a sock all up in his cell and told a couple of dudes on the block to look out for this guy in case he decided to creep up on Mikey on the low. Eventually it was squashed but it showed Mikey's true colors. He wasn't afraid to mix it up even at 60 something.
Every new dude that came on the block would try to get up under Mikey but he wasn't no sucker. If he decided a dude was a mooch he would call them out to their face and set them straight quick. And he was an old line convict too that had spent his first years at USP Lewisburg. He had two of his cohorts with him at FCI Fairton too. Mikey Ryan, his right hand man, and Fat Jack, who was Jerry the Jews co-defendant.
I never met Fat Jack but I heard a lot of stories about him from Mike and other dudes on the block plus I read about him in the book, "The Boys from New Jersey." Supposedly Fat Jack was a mob superstar who had appeared on an HBO mafia special and was talking movie and book contracts. Mikey wasn't into that but he allowed Fat Jack his latitude. I always regretted not meeting Fat Jack as everyone told me he was a great guy and hysterical as hell. They said he was a great talker and could talk his way into or out of anything.
Supposedly Mikey had heard that when John Gotti was on his deathbed at the Federal medical center at Springfield, Missouri the only mobster that could gain access to see Gotti was Fat Jack. The word was he sweet talked the warden into letting him visit Gotti as he lay dying one last time. Fat Jack had a lot of medical problems also and that why he was at FMC Springfield, and not at FCI Fairton when I arrived.
I have just been transferred again and can truly say that Mikey Perna is one of the people who I will miss the most at FCI Fairton. He was a gentleman and a class act who taught me a lot about people and myself. He is one of the last of a dying breed. A true mobster who represents the values that Cosa Nostra held dear once upon a time. In this new era of the mob it seems they are too worried about publicity and getting that book deal or movie deal. They should just be actors instead of criminals. As Mikey told me once, "This thing, that we had, it was beautiful, but now, it's no more."....by Seth Ferranti(he's author of the book called "Prison Stories")
source...
http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs
