Interesting story on the friends of ours blog.


The Gay Mafia Really Exists!
There really is a gay mafia -- or at least gay mobsters -- according to the following excerpt from the new book The Mafia and the Gays by Phillip Crawford Jr.:

There is a long history of wise guys sampling the merchandise from their gay bars, engaging in prison trysts in a curious phenomena known as situational homosexuality or otherwise just being an old-fashion friend of Dorothy. Historian Thaddeus Russell writes in his 2011 book A Renegade History of the United States that "many of the Mafiosi who managed the Stonewall and other gay clubs were themselves gay, and several had penchants for drag queens." For example, Russell writes:

The Stonewall Inn seems to have had more than the usual number of gay mobsters. According to historian Martin Duberman, a gangster-bouncer named "Petey," who worked various gay clubs, including the Stonewall, "had a thick Italian street accent, acted 'dumb,' and favored black shirts and ties." He was "the very picture of a Mafia mobster -- except for his habit of falling for patrons and coworkers." Petey was especially fond of an Italian drag queen named Desiree who frequented the Stonewall.

Russell also cites the example of "an enormous bouncer known as 'Big Bobby,' who worked the door at Tony Pastor's, a popular Mafia-run gay club at Sixth Avenue and MacDougal Street, carried on an open relationship with a Chinese drag queen named Tony Lee, who performed ballet at the club."

While some mobsters may have liked the drag queens, others were into underage boys. In his book Christopher and Gay: A Partisan's View of the Greenwich Village Homosexual Scene (1973), Wallace Hamilton writes:

I was also interested to note a considerable lavender streak running through the lower levels of -- of all things -- the Mafia, an organization I had been led to believe was given to firm hetero domesticity. But members of the Mafia had interests in various gay bars and soda joints around town, and an equally keen interest in some of the customers, who happened also to be guys who hung around my place. So I developed a rather strange interchange with Godfather types. It reached a climax of a sort one summer afternoon when some of my egghead neighbors were assembled outside the house. A long, sleek black Cadillac pulled up in front of the house with two white-on-white types in the front seat. Out of the back seat came one of my Cherished, duly delivered, and the Cadillac purred away. The expression on the neighbors’ faces was something to behold.

One reputed Bonanno soldier managed to outrun police for thirty years on a murder charge in New York until he was discovered living under another name in Pennsylvania where he was accused of raping a 12-year-old boy multiple times according to a Dec. 5, 2001 article ("Suspect Outlives Slay Rap") by Laura Italiano for the New York Post. In January 1971 Joseph Scudiero supposedly gunned down George Kelly, the son of a retired NYPD officer, at the after-hours gay bar Club Z on 400 West 14th Street, but after living 30 years as Joseph Monaco was unmasked with his 2001 arrest for child sex.

Homosexual sex was not uncommon for wise guys during a prison stint. For example, Joey Gallo once recounted how a poke in the pokey was "normal, natural and unremarkable" according to Donald Goddard's 1974 biography Joey about the beatnik mobster. And some mobsters were willing to rape those who did not willingly give it up. The FBI documents a 1958 incident when Salvatore "Midge Renault" Annunziato, the Genovese capo who ran the Hartford rackets, was incarcerated with several of his crew members at the New Haven County Jail, and they viciously beat an inmate unconscious who attempted to stop them from sexually assaulting a sixteen-year-old boy. According to the FBI's investigation corrupt jailers then gave the beaten inmate a 30-day good behavior credit for promising not to report the ugly incident.

There were many mobsters playing ball for the gay team. For example, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's cousin Lewis "Steve the Blond" D'Avanzo was a gay mobster according to former FBI agent George Moresco who said "we determined that Lewie had gone squishy [gay] in prison" according to a July 8, 2000 article ("Mayor's Mob Cousin Had A Gay Lover, Says G-Man") by Jack Newfield for the New York Post. D'Avanzo was an associate who ran various schemes with the Colombo and Gambino crime families, and suspected in multiple murders. Apparently his lover also was a partner in crime, and the pair allegedly were involved in a museum burglary. D'Avanzo was shot dead by the FBI in October 1977 when he attempted to run down an agent seeking to arrest him for his alleged role in a car theft ring. Another gay mobster was Gambino hit man Vito Arena from Roy DeMeo's crew. During a search of his home FBI agents discovered a photo of Arena doing the nasty with a boyfriend. Arena flipped for the FBI only to later resume the life, and in 1991 was shot dead during a botched robbery.

Of course, in the butch world of organized crime being gay had its risks. Former DeCavalcante boss John D'Amato was whacked in 1992 for being gay, and his killer Anthony Capo said "nobody's going to respect us if we have a gay homosexual boss sitting down discussing La Cosa Nostra business." Similarly, Lucchese associate Al Visconti was whacked in 1991, and although there apparently were multiple reasons for the hit boss Vittore "Jesse" Amuso thought Visconti was "a disgrace to the Lucchese family because he had a reputation of engaging in homosexual acts in prison" according to courtroom testimony from former capo Alphonse D'Arco.

Robert Mormando, a onetime Gambino hitman who "had a close personal friendship" with John Gotti's nephew Richard G. Gotti, came out of the closet only after entering the federal witness protection program according to an Oct. 20, 2009 article ("Telling Court He's Gay, Mob Informer Crosses Line") by Alan Feuer for The New York Times: "while there is no suggestion that the friendship was anything more than that, the mere fact that an avowed gay man was once 'inseparable' from a member of the Gottis is 'an intolerable stain on their name,' said the person who has knowledge of the case."

However, the mob may be evolving on gay issues. John Gotti's widow Victoria defended John Travolota to play the late Gambino boss in a planned biopic notwithstanding accusations that the actor made untoward advances against male masseurs according to a May 15, 2012 article ("Don't mess with John Travolta and his role as Dapper Don, says John Gotti's widow Victoria") by John Marzulli for the Daily News:

"What difference does it make if he were gay?" Victoria Gotti told the Daily News in an expletive-filled defense of the actor, who's been embroiled by a sex scandal for more than a week. "Who the f--k really cares? Does it make him less of a beautiful human being? No. . . . Leave him the f--k alone. Whatever the true story is, leave him with his dignity," she added. "In the grand scheme of things, it really does not matter."

Perhaps Victoria said it best.

The mob is evolving on gay issues because two of the Gotti women stuck up for that fag*ot John Travolta?

Please. There's a better chance of seeing a gay marriage performed at the Vatican than seeing the mob knowingly and openly making gay men into their families.

well i have to agree with the gotti women...

there is money to be made by them, so now they say its o.k. to be gay..money tends to skew the opinion times..no movie with travolta..back to old story

They might look the other way if the guy earns enough money and keeps it on the downlow, but they would never allow an openly gay guy into the family.

Believe it or not, there were at least a couple made guys in the Outfit who were at least bisexual.

Who faithful? Never heard that.

Right. I never said that there haven't been a few butt rangers who were made in New York over the years. There have been more than just the guys you've read about. That's usually the way. What I'm saying is, they'll never KNOWINGLY make a guy they know is openly queer.

I said it five years ago, Bronx. Here and everywhere else. That the movie would never happen. That sham press conference was a shameless money grab for funding.

Plus, a lot of people don't like Fiore. He did a little time and thinks he's Al Capone. But considering the fact that Joe Pesci got the nod (from a heavyweight) to openly sue him speaks volumes about what the wiseguys really think of him.

Fuck that movie.

double on that..imagine JR would have killed someone for doing what he and his family are doing..

Pesci went right to that fat guy's son. The dead Arthur Avenue guy we were recently talking about. The kid that Ernie knocked down last year.

He asked if it was okay to file a breach of contract suit against that creep. They told him to go right the fuck ahead. That tells you what they think of Fiore and that skid bit that he did. He'd have you believe he did twenty at Lewisburg .

LOL..

Joe Gagliano was said to have gone that way on occasion according to one FBI informant. His street name was "Joe Gags". Make of that what you will.

Then there was the Philadelphia Crime Family capo who was caught in the act with a black man in a park. The Family found out and he was forced to retire.

PB, can you expand on this Pesci situation, i've got no idea who the fuck your talking about

The guy was built like sponge bob..

What a crap article. Its as if they are trying to argue being gay is common (and therefore normal) and using revisionist history to do it. Just by the odds alone there would be some guys that putt from the rough in the ranks but to claim it was " not uncommon" or that the mob knowingly allowed gays to become made members is beyond ludicrous. Victoria Gotti can think whatever she wants. It's obvious the mob itself would not agree. Ask John D'Amato.

Can't say at this time. It was a secret that would cause issues with their families.

originally thought to be with the Genoveses because of his close relationship with Tommy Eboli and Anthony Strollo but later discovered to be a Gambino, mob soldier Ettore "eddie toys" DeCurtis, along with his brother Guido "Dolls" DeCurtis, ran bars and after hours clubs catering for almost exclusively to the gay clientele from the late 50s through to the early 80s.
Their interests were spread across greater new York. In addition to the famous stonewall inn, they held interests in Rave Inn, Staten Island, Fawn and the comedy corner bar in Greenwich village, Baps bar, Houston st Manhattan, mask, w125th st, Mr Roberts, W86th St, the pompier, W 3rd St, mystique private club, W56th st.
When their club "the magic touch" in Island Park, long Island was losing business to "flame" and "the tradewinds", two opposing clubs catering to gays...the other two mysteriously burnt down in 1964.
The DeCurtis' were often seen at the business offices of M&M, matty Ianellos company that managed similar interests for the Genovese's, suggesting at least some cooperation between the two family's in this field.
Eddie was sentenced in 1968 to one year on racketeering charges stemming from his control of this industry along with Donato "danny" Fatico and John Vignini.

Interesting reading..DeCurtis' FBI file



http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCQQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbitterqueen.typepad.com%2Ffiles%2Feddie-decurtis-fbi-files-part-1.pdf&ei=92VlVcWzBOawmAXA4oPoBA&usg=AFQjCNHHvg473yEwC0i2Bhq3NJ2q2a25AA

Like Sponge Bob wearing a muumuu. He could move, though. A lot of squared off fat guys are deceiving like that.

You ever watch him play handball at Ciccarone by the bocce courts? Christ, the guy could play for hours. But he'd drink a dozen bottles of Manhattan Special to keep himself sharp lol. Like he needed all that sugar with his girlish figure lol.

Off topic, and you probably know this. But Vinny Artuso was honestly the best handball player I ever saw.

Another part of old New York that's gone. Handball. These sissy hipster kids walk around squeezing a little bean bag and call it a workout.

bad rumor about his son joe brought in by..you guessed it mr greg

He really was a scumbag. That rumor had a ripple effect that lasted for years. It's what got the ball rolling with Ernie and the other guy.

The kid's better off now anyway. He got his wings clipped, but he earns from up in Rockland. Not a bad gig. Jeez, he's gotta be fifty now. And I'm calling him a kid .

i say the same things, everybody is a kid..boy am i stuck

Since the cat's out of the bag on this one, he's one of the guys I was referring to.

Joe gags LOL

"Joey ballsdeep"

Frankie Fellatio and Ricky Rim Job were constantly hanging around that guy. Colorful crew.

LMAO!

Yeah, I thought he was one of the guys you were talking about.

what philly capo???? ive never heard that one

in brashlers book "the don" he mentions that more than one of the 42 gang were know to engage in homosexual activity, most of them were later made in the outfit.