I am wondering if anyone may know who the members were in the Salerno crew back on the early-mid 80s. I am not entirely sure when Salerno became a captain, but other than Crea, who were the primary players in that arm of the Lucchese family when Ducks was still around?

Joey Giampa, Buddy Luongo, Joey DiNapoli, Tony Santorelli, Sally Bo DeSimone, TJ Gelardo, Johnny Hooks, the Mascias, Danny Squire, just to name a few of the made guys, and dozens of associates. That was some fucking crew, and that's why Casso's resentment and paranoia ran so fucking deep. Cocksucker deserves everything he got, and that includes getting fucked over by the government (which I usually wouldn't approve of).

How many of those guys in that crew got wiped out by Casso?

The two obvious ones would be Salerno and Luongo

Of the guys I just listed? Only Luongo and Salerno himself.

The one thing you have to realize about Salerno---and this is often overlooked---is that when Tom Mix got bumped up into the administration, Salerno inherited most of his Bronx and Harlem soldiers.

Salerno and Santoro were very close. And you have to give Santoro credit for being the one guy with the balls big enough to tell Ducks that he was making a huge mistake with Casso and Amuso. I personally feel that when Casso found out about it, he hit a lot of the Bronx/Harlem guys out of pure spite.

You also have to realize that by that time, Tom Mix was already doing life stemming from the Commission case. Because he likely would have just said fuck it and gone to war with those assholes.

Of the guys you listed, do you know whether Sally Bo, Gelardo, the Mascias or Squire are out of prison/still involved? Also, Squire seems like an interesting name for an Italian-American . . .

lotta big names up there. even my "sponsors" cousin

Squire was a nickname. Danny's last name was Latella. He's dead now. There's a story about him that's well documented in the media, so I'll tell it. You could probably find it with a Google search anyway. But he took a pinch about twenty years ago for smoking crack in a Super 8 motel with a Black hooker.

Now keep in mind that not only was he a made guy, but he was an acting captain himself for about five minutes. He was huge in Parkchester. He pretty much had that section of Westchester Avenue all to himself. Needless to say, it was pretty embarrassing for him. He got put on the shelf for awhile. And even afterwards, he was never the same.

The Mascias are dead. Sally Bo's son was an acting captain for awhile himself, but he got knocked down. He didn't do anything wrong. But like I said, he was just "acting" anyway. The DeSimones made a fortune in vending before it became so heavily regulated.

TJ was the boss of the Mount Vernon crew when there were still Italians in Mount Vernon lol. That entire strip of Gramatan Avenue is Brazilian now. All of the old coffee shops are Brazilian soccer clubs now, except for one.

Was it Bobby Amuso the triggerman in the Luongo hit? Or was it Vic? I remember from the Topmobs blog that is now gone where a user who said he is a retired policeman said that strangely the Luongo murder wasn't among those Amuso was indicted for.

P.S. Pizzaboy, could you please check your email later? You said earlier you would have continued the discussion about Lenny Simon through email.

Isn't mt Vernon mostly black nowadays, PB? Or is it mostky mixed?

Mount Vernon's about seventy plus percent Black today. But on the North Side it's mostly working class Blacks. The South side is where you'll run into people who, unfortunately, tend to live down to the stereotype.

Central Mount Vernon, which contains the heart of Gramatan Avenue, has one of the highest concentrations of Portuguese Brazilians in the entire country. It's been featured in several Brazilian documentaries.

Of course, Gramatan Avenue is also home to Sue's Rendezvous, where young (but legal) Brazilian girls make fine pole dancers .

Sue's Rendezvous...

Love Brazilian girls.

Back on topic, Gas and Casso were from Brooklyn. Were they affiliated with the Vario crew, or strictly through Tick?

It's common knowledge that the Bronx/East Harlem crews were always the power of the family, but it sounds like Brooklyn wasn't a non-entity, either. Do they still have crews out there? How about in the late 80s, was it the second biggest borough for them?

to clarify sponsor has nothing to do with mafia or whatever. he sponsors my softball team along with someone else. PB just happened to mention his cousins name. now me and him have spoke about it but i just didnt want anyone getting the wrong idea.

Cheech, everyone knows you're a made guy now!

Legal brazilians huh . Happy to hear that as a certain business has flourished

Salerno and Loungo were very well liked and respected. In fact, when Ducks went away, a lot of guys tapped Buddy as the new boss .
My take is when both those guys got clipped, everyone knew that no one was safe, it was the beginning of the end. t was a fucked up thing to do . Amuso and Casso would basically accuse someone of being a rat, order the hit, and then tell a crew memeber he woukd be rewarded by taking over as captain.

It was Ducks that ordered the hit on Loungo for being too greedy and trying to isolate Ducks from his troops and assets.

Vic just took advantage of the situation.

Sues rendezvous...lol. used to be a good cafe near there. .Cafe Aurora i think. .

Talk about a heavy crew! I had no idea.

thought that was obvious from the day i started posting

There were a few. Aurora was the big "legit" one all the way down by Hartley Park. They used to have nice Italian entertainment there many years ago. Umberto Tozzi actually made an unannounced appearance there one night. Nice memories.

Then there were three or four as you headed south towards Fourth Avenue and the Bronx Border. Those places were more like soccer clubs and had the occasional ziganette and brisque games going on. Scopa, too. Those were all TJ's.

Years ago Fourth Avenue was a beautiful shopping district. Today it makes Getty Square look like a Prada outlet.

And keep in mind that they were like this (fingers intertwined) with the Bronx and Harlem factions of the Westside.

Life is timing. If they didn't get caught, the day would have eventually come when Vic and Gas got put down in the street like dogs. Frankly, I'm glad things worked out the way they did. They suffered a much worse and befitting comeuppance by rotting in prison all these years.

Yeah, they would have been hit for sure, lucky they were inside, not just the Westside and BX/Harlem Luke's that wanted them dead, after what came out on the wiretaps about them wanting to kill Little Nicky, don't think he would have hesitated either. They were hated for sure.

What makes me laugh is the FBI fans who insist Amuso still calls the shots, after Daidone went away that was it imo, all the BK faction were in jail serving long sentences. I mean you had Migliore (who Vic tried to kill) Madonna and Dinapoli running the family, you can't tell me he put them in there 3 heavyweights loyal to the Bronx/Harlem. 10 years on and people still think he has say, it's crazy.

No sense in resurrecting that debate, Tommy. For as big of a pain in the ass that he can be , Ivy is our pal and a very dedicated researcher. He's an invaluable asset to this board, and he's entitled to his opinion.

What really made me laugh were the Brooklyn guys who swore, something like two years ago, that there would be Hell to pay and a blood bath when the two Georges came home. I'm still waiting to hear from the guys who made these bold predictions.

I think one of the Georges is working at Target in Starrett City .

Yeah, It's a never ending debate, shouldn't have brought it up again because no doubt it will derail the thread, Ivy's a great poster no doubt.

I remember that fan boy of Brooklyn, Bodies will be dropped!

Haha, that guy had to be a troll.

You don't know these guys! They don't care about money! Murder's all they know!

So do they even have a brooklyn crew now?

"Getto Square" .. what a shithole.. only time I'll ever go anywhere near there is if I have to pick up someone at the train station