I was just reading up on the Lucchese NJ faction and it seemed to have a few associates who came across as just normal middle-class italians who grew up in the suburbs. Doesn't being in the mob require you to be tough like guys such as Roy Demeo, Anthony Casso, Sammy Gravano and to come from a harsh environments in poor neighbourhoods?

Someone in their family was probably a member and they followed in those footsteps.

A few things on current day NY: the entire city is turning inside out. The inner city used to be a proving ground for the mob and criminality in general That's more of a suburban thing now. Manhattan is almost entirely luxury condos and private playgrounds. With exemption of Wash Heights, there is not a single predominantly ethnic zip code in manhattan. Brooklyn is going in the same direction rapidly.

Where would you guess all the poor people are going? Just sayin. I am in the process of trying to get my family out of the rapidly changing neighborhood of Flushing. The main street by me is all massage parlors, gambling dens and bars. Prostitutes, gambling and drug everywhere. Near the very suburban LIRR stations along the Port Washington line are almost all illegitimate businesses.

Suburban poverty: coming soon.

Gravano didnt really come from a harsh environment perse neither did carmine persico but they both grew up in the city. For the sake of argument you could say does growing up in the city automatically make you tough?

Well I mean there is a difference between growing up in places like Bensonhurst and growing up in Westchester County. Even if they do have an father or an uncle who was involved in the mob, they grow up different to them and don't have that same type of street mentality

These lil Italian kids growing up in the city are more spoiled then kids growing up in Cherry Hill, nj

Being a criminal isn't just about being tough. The most important part of criminality is simply the idea that other people are meant to be used like pawns on a chessboard. Essentially narcissism. That can come from anywhere, anybody, and at anytime.

Granted people in certain neighborhoods have made up the mafia due to a certain familiarity but if guys with the essential makeup needed gravitate that way I don't see why they won't be embraced.

Drugs or reputation or family/friend connections. Most a combination. Most those kids u we're talking about grew up in Morris county.... Same area as me. You start using pills, get arrested once or twice and it's hard to get on the straight path. Some start selling or stealing and it goes from there.

Skinny you on the record now ?

Sorry to muddy the thread with fiction, but the Sopranos come to mind. Obviously, it wasn't real life, but I believe David Chase tried to make it believable and it took place in the suburbs.

Seems many of the young wannabes were connected through family and grew up as middle class Italian Americans. None of them seemed very tough as they were all beaten up and hospitalized by other mobsters, or whacked. And as a viewer, it seemed believable.

You out of the half way house yet john?

Na I'm still in here I hope your looking after my family. Skinny you were always like a son to me you know that right.

you would need to be 100% Italian to ever have had a hope of being made, but "soldiers" were of many ethnic origins. It helped big time if you had a relative in already. And in the Chicago suburbs, many Italians sought a better life style than that of the city, especially for their kids. This included the likes of Sam G, Tony S, and my Dad.
Their was one exception to the Italian rule, and that's the Jewish guys. They weren't strictly considered "familia", but were working associates and sometimes partners. Is that Mafia? I don't really know that answer. I know they never, ever referred to themselves that way. You were working for the "company". at least that's what i was brought up hearing.

Growing up in the city does not make you tough. There are plenty of ass kickers out in the suburbs. This subject could make up a full sociology class. My father in law could easily afford to move to the suburbs but he preferred to remain in the Italian part of town because almost everyone spoke the same, they had the Italian foods there and so-fourth. To be a real member of LCN you had to be Italian so this is why many were from the "Harsh" neighborhoods. Now, there seems to be a movement to the suburbs.

the ufc took growing up tough in a bad neighborhood rite out the equation. white kids go to the gym rite after lacross practice. anyone can fight nowadays if you want to. don't think carlo Gambino could have fought out a wet paper bag its more being criminal minded or some shit.

With all due respect, I think some of you guys are a bit off base. Take it from a second generation Italian American who's lived in the Bronx for more than fifty years. It's not the city itself that made those old timers a tougher breed (I've known PLENTY of tough-as-nails rednecks in my day). It's the abject poverty they were born into that made them real gangsters. And that's why (among other reasons) it will never be the same.

Italian Americans today just aren't born into the kind of poverty that makes a real gangster. Are there exceptions? Sure, you have plenty of suburban kids with blood ties and all that. But they're the exception, not the rule. Generally speaking, it takes a childhood of poverty to give you a true gangster mentality.

Thats right UFC is a rich kids sport Brazilian jujitsu is expensive to learn and so is wrestling its not like boxing where you had any tough guy off the street joining a local free gym.90% of american UFC fighters were collage wrestlers

Any way back to the original post it doesn't matter where you live you HAVE TO know someone in that world.Living in bensonhurst and not knowing any wiseguy is the same as living Montana and not knowing someone.You need that some one whos in that world so you can start kicking up what ever you earn so then eventually you can be put on record.

Guys like Carlo gambino when he was young if he didnt steel or kill he didnt eat.The 20s and early 30s generation today most of them still live with there parents so even if they do a score and the money runs out they are not too fussed about it.So for alot of these guys its like an adventure rather than a way to be able to eat

cicero is a suburb

the chicago heights crew was one of the most violent mafia crews in the country

chicago heights is a suburb

I dunno, I would be more scared of Joe Pesci's characters from Goodfellas and Casino than Chuck Liddell

I agree. But for Chicago I think it's a little different because many of the crews are based in suburbs (except grand ave, Taylor st, and Bridgeport).

100%

accardo/aiuppa/cerone should've told the heights to stop killing each other

they'd still be around if they weren't warring during the 70s/80s

nobody is gonna recruit their son or nephew while a war is going on