Couple of questions....
About when/why did wearing a pinkie ring become associated with being in the Mafia?
Traditionally, in the past, say pre-Gotti era, did a guy have to be made to wear a pinkie ring or did associates wear them too?
Did Bosses tend to wear pinkie rings pre-Gotti?
What about today, do younger guys wear 'em?

Maybe pinky rings represented if they wacked someone or not?

That's a joke, right?

Pinky rings have always been worn by Italian American men. They're not mutually exclusive to the mob.

Hi Pizza man

Yeah, a ring for each hit. When you whack out your eleventh victim, you put the ring on your dick .

Hello, Wilson. Try to behave yourself this time.

Yeah well you don't really have to wear more than one pinky ring if you have wacked someone. One is all you need.

There's absolutely no significance to the pinky ring other than as a fashion statement that they happen to like. I've worn one myself since my Confirmation 40 years ago.

Ernie Biondello's pinky ring, diamond encrusted initials EB, was taken by one one the guys that wacked him. It turned-up in a pawn shop in Pittsburgh and led to the killers getting caught. Go figure!

I remember that. That's hysterical. And it shows you just how smart some of these mutts are today.

I mean, it's in the gangster's handbook: Leave the pinky ring, take the cannoli.

It's just they're so associated with the Mafia....
I've never seen an Italian man who wasn't affiliated with the Mafia, or didn't like to show off and act like they were connected, wear one. Nowadays or even 40, 50 years ago.

I look at my old family photos--all old school Italians---and the only guy I've ever seen wearing one was connected.

Now, I realize they were in the 30s and 40s as an upper class fashion statement (FDR wore one as did Bob Hope and others) but who are they associated with most today?

Where are you from?

Because you're dead wrong. In the New York area pinky rings are very common among Italian American men. Not just the connected ones.

Granted, pinky rings are often asociated with wiseguys. But they're not mutually exclusive to them. That's all I'm saying.

No the pinky ring is an Italian thing my father,uncles all wore them all the time and they were legit guys.

Out of curiosity, did they wear their wedding rings as well?

I always remember my uncles, cousins, etc... wearing a wedding ring & gold watch on their left hand and a pinky ring & gold bracelet on the right hand. Of course they had the horn & malocchio thing and crucifix gold necklace as well.

That's the way it's supposed to be worn, on the right hand, so it's not next to the wedding ring. And they usually do wear the bracelet on the right wrist as well.
I just find it amusing that men will wear a pinky ring for fashion, or to show they're connected, yet won't wear a wedding ring to show connection to their wife.

In Italy, though, connected men will generally wear the ring to show they're connected when they dress to go out.

thanks for clearing this whole pinkie ring stuff up for me guys. here i always thought that the point of wearing a big pinkie ring was that so if your wife or girlfriend mouthed off to you, you could just turn it around and give them a crack

Well that's a given, I assumed everyone knew.

I guess .. "Homosexuality
In the 1950s through the 1970s, wearing a pinky ring was sometimes used as a covert sign of male homosexuality. Judy Grahn in her book "Another Mother Tongue" writes that in 1959, the year she came out, that rings worn on the pinky were known as a secret way to communicate homosexuality."

^ ^ ^ Respect for this post!

He wore it on the opposite hand.Watch wedding ring on left pinkie ring and bracelet if u want on rightWhen he was young all the guys use to wear it.Then after years of wearing it for show it just became natural but now he doesnt wear it anymore.I wouldnt wear one it just seems out of fashion to me

Most mobster don't wear flashy pinkie rings for the same reason rappers don't wear huge gold chains with larege timepieces affixed to them. (Unless you're a hipster)

That kinda outlandish jewelry accessory was realy only fashionably in the Pre-Gotti era because it was a symptom "disco dandyism"

It's the same reason that mobster don't wear leisure suits anymore.
Simply went out of style.

I liked that comment, it cracked me up. Hehe haha The 11th wack and 11th ring

I remember one of my buddies from high school was selling a lot shit when we in our second year of college and he bought one we all made fun of him for it. He was known to be a pathological liar, just to be an asshole, a few months ago when it was his birthday, I wrote on facebook wall " Hey John is it really your birthday today?"

Apparently in the past, if you wore pin-stripped suits, traveled in a tringle of people, or talked in a Marlon Brando voice you would be considered "connected". To be honest, If I saw a man wear a pinky ring and had any other clothing or item which was pink then I would assume he would be into men.

That's just ignorant on your part.

Ignorant? What's ignorant about it. I only suggested that men that had pink clothing on were into men. I know that many guys do wear pink but I don't think its the first color that goes into our mind.

It's ignorant to think ("assume" was your word, actually) that b/c a man wears a pinky ring and a pink tie or shirt that he's into men. What does color have to do with homosexuality?