in the basement of his social club that he used to torture his enemies?

I don't know but the one Sonny Blacks crew had in Donnie Brasco was real this thread - http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthr...true#Post653256 has a link to a sample of Sonny talking to Donnie about the lion thanks to HairyKnuckles.

I don't know anything about that.. But I do know that lefty ruggiero from the bonnanos had a pet lion cub.. But gave it away once it got too big to take care of. Picture lefty walking down the streets of little italy with a fucking lion on a leash haha.

reminds me of Mean Streets

great movie

Can't remember what book it was but some Wall street yuppie raped a girl from Red Hook and Joey's men kidnapped him.
They took him to a basement where Joey was sitting with a starving lion and the rapist had to put his hand in the cage.

A rapist? How stupid of them, they stuck wrong body part into cage.

So what happened later? Did the lion bite the hand off or did he ignore it?

i like lions