The biggest mob myth is that they extorted legitimate people, Maybe in 1910 some immigrants were extorted, and I don't want to hear about Italian goat farmers of today getting shaken down in that country. Every case I looked i to where it was legged a legitimate businessman minding his business was extorted there was more to the story than that.

I understand what you are saying and agree we can't know what Ricca actually said in the meeting with other gangsters, but if he confirmed to prosecutors (as Toodoped said) the information about Cerone, then the thing is on record and became known to public at least after the trial. While I agree it's the mafia that decides what is acceptable for the organization, but if we apply the rigid logic of "no ratting whatever the circumstances" to every single gangster, then what Ricca did was at least controversial in my opinion.

Jace, with all due respect, what do you think protection money is? Legit business owners had to pay so that their businesses wouldn't be destroyed. If they operated in someone's territory, they had to pay. These were people who had no ties to the mob. And I'm not talking about loansharking types of extortion which is something totally different because those people borrowed money. But people who were trying to earn an honest living had no choice if they wanted to succeed. So they were extorted. And it wasn't only in the early 1900s...it continued for years and years and years.

To even conjecture that it's a myth the mob didn't extort legit people is ludicrous.

Thats absolutely correct, MS.

Since day one in America, the Mafia has shaken down and extorted thousands of businesses across many sectors of commerce and industries, not just in the "early days" but right up through the 1980s, 1990s and beyond; trucking companies, restaurants, bars and nightclubs, wholesale food and liquor suppliers to those industries, fish dealers in the Fulton Fish Market and other businesses operating along the NY/NJ waterfront, private garbage carting companies, trade associations, freight forwarders at JFK Airport, etc., etc., etc....this list could go on and on. Its never-ending.

I agree, many times people get themselves involved in shit they can't handle and, just like mob rats, go running to Big Brother.

And I suppose the two of you are on this new bandwagon that mobsters weren't really mobsters at all....just a bunch of Italian guys hanging together on a street corner with no dishonest bone in their body...

At what age does one go from being a Tattletale to a Rat?

We grew up hearing :"Don't be a Tattletale"
"Fight your own battles" (if at age 7 you were bleeding and tattling on maybe some other kid that hit you over the head with a hammer while your head was cracked open LOL)

That why as little boys growing up in NYC we were all encouraged to join Little League....so we'd learn how to handle a baseball bat. lol

A RAT IS A RAT IS A RAT!

A rat is a rat is a rat! Regardless of who they may have ratted on. There is NO distinction made between informers based on who they happen to give up. There is no line in the sand drawn that differentiates between the depth of rats or their levels of informing, of “how much” of a rat they were.

If you opened your mouth about anyone at all, regardless of who they may have been, then you’re a piece of shit.

Whether a given rat provided information to the authorities about a top Italian Mafia boss or a soldier, a top Jewish associate, a peripheral hanger-on, a corrupt politician or cop, or he spilled his guts against a lowly destitute Bowery Bum, that guy has now become, in the eyes of everyone who counts and pays attention to such things, a confirmed stool pigeon!

There is no such thing as, “I only gave them certain things” or “I only gave up a black guy” or “I only gave up a Jewish ‘associate, not an ‘inducted’ Mafia member.” Or, “He was a nobody, so who cares? It really doesn’t count as ratting.”

Once you open your mouth and give information against another person, any other person, then you’re a fucking rat…period!

And that is, hands down, an ironclad and non-negotiable fact of life…fact of street life…and a fact of “The Life.”

Here’s another weak excuse, “I only gave him up because the guy did this, that, and the other thing to me.” Or, “I only talked to the cops this one time because of the circumstances involved. But I’d never do it again, I’m not a rat”

The fact is that once is enough. In fact, once is more than enough! And another fact of life is that if you did it once, then under the right circumstances, you’d do it all over again.

Like I said, “A Rat is a Rat is a Rat!”

And there is no two ways about that!…End of story!
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Ahhh another commercial for your site "disguised" as a post.

And the irony of you bitching about mob rats. Ya can't make this shit up.

It's what I do best!

Since we're talking about rats, I recommend the book On The Run by Henry Hills kids. It will snap the romanticism out of any mob groupie.

1st of all, Henry Hill was never in the mob, neither was 90% of the characters portrayed in Goodfellas. 2nd of all, I've been knowing that Henry Hill was a slob, though there's maybe 3 photos with him actually dressing the part. He was for the most part nothing like his Goodfellas portrayal. Lastly, I've never read the book so I can't say much.

The fuck are you even talking about?

He was in the life though, and he was a rat, which is the topic at hand.

Everyone in Goodfellas seems like a Disney version of the real life guys.

that (the systematic extortion)is a prerogative of the Italian mafia, especially Cosa Nostra but also Ndrangheta and Camorra

Bingo! And in the old days, maybe not so much nowadays, but in the old days...back in the early 1900s thru the 1950s era, many guys grew up in a poverty few of us could even imagine today.

So it might have not been a "pass" per se, but there was a damn good reason why many of them went into the line of "work" they did.

In the year approaching 2024? Not so much!

Bingo! And in the old days, maybe not so much nowadays, but in the old days...back in the early 1900s thru the 1950s era, many guys grew up in a poverty few of us could even imagine today.

So it might have not been a "pass" per se, but there was a damn good reason why many of them went into the line of "work" they did.

In the year approaching 2024? Not so much!