I know anthony casso was considered a very nice guy as is steve crea and nicky scarfo sr.
What about frank locascio , vinny basciano, and chin gigante?
I heard neal delacroce was not a nice guy. Forget where i heard it but Delacroce supposedly slapped ozzy osbourne around because he made fun of frank sinatra. Gave him a black eye and a bloody lip. Had to be in 1982 or something.
He made ozzy sing a sinatra song or something.

Anthony casso was a nice guy ???? Ha ha u serious . I would say anyone who steals prays on human weakness and murders people is prob not a nice guy

What about Tommy Pitera?... No...

Sam Destefano I would add to the list.

The papers got it wrong. His nickname was NOT mad sam.

It was Nice sam.

I think that all the people have two sides: good side - bad side. The mobsters too, so I don't understand what do you want to know. Before gangsters, they're people.

Neil Dellacroce beat up Ozzy Osbourne. Is this guy high?

Yeah i think i heard that story about Neil... .. That's right after they both sniffed a line of ants.

Carmine Galante was a real nice guy, apparently he had a stare that would put you instantly at ease

Anthony Mirra comes to mind

Johnny Chang Ligambi

don't forget fifi buccieri..

Tony Spilotro was a sweetheart.

Going back a while but Dion O'Banion from accounts of him was supposedly a nice guy for a mobster. His funeral was the biggest Chicago had ever seen at the time, he's said to have helped many poor people in his neighbourhood.

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCDZX7pB0BI[/video]

Here's an interesting doc on him from Irish tv.

I heard that Ronnie Padavona and Vinny Appice put a contract out on Sharon Osborne.

All kidding aside, and this might be in need of a separate thread, wasn't Don Arden (Sharons' dad and manager of Black Sabbath and others, founder of Jet Records etc...) a "connected" guy in London? Are there any ties between the British underworld and LCN?

I heard the Gemini twins used to help old ladies cross the street when they weren't busy nursing stray kittens back to health. Those 2 wouldn't hurt a fly

People try to give JT and Tony bad reps. I grew up in the neighborhood, and nobody called them the twins. They both came from broken homes and it was that fat fuck Roy who made them what they became. Still JT and Tony did their own thing, dirty Harry was Roy's go to, and the others only went to him when needed. They were scared, easily influenced young men who grew up in a time when us neighborhood kids didn't have much. Aside from doing what they did when that fat fuck Roy forced them to do these things, they were quiet and didn't hurt anybody, unless that person deserved it.

Yeah Henry borelli must have been a nice guy , he didn't go in for the dismemberment he just like to shoot a lot of people in the head ha ha

Tony Spilotro was a nice guy, he was well respected & he & His family were well liked gentlemen within the Oak Park community. His old man owned a restaurant in the old Patch neighborhood & everyone liked him too. That casino movie is a joke. He was a serious gangster but he wasn't some ultra feared monster that terrorized civilians. He was a loyal soldier to Lombardo who thought he'd be safe pocketing some extra cash & making a few of his own decisions because of the buffer zone between him & his bosses.

Guys like Alderisio, LaPietra, DeStefano, Buccieri, and later Chiaramonti, Andriacchi, Centracchio, if we're talking Outfit guys these guys were real domineering pricks & bullies to just about everyone.

Chiaramonti used to force his 10 year old son to watch him go to work on guys who couldn't pay up in the back offices of Balmoral Race Track.

.

And thought it was a good idea to fuck Lefty's wife.

Those few decisions cost him his life

Salvatore Liga in Sicily was very nice and moral: he baked bread in the same oven where he burned bodies.
Toto' Riina introduced many nice guys into the mafia when he took over.

Vinny appice is a very good drummer. He was a brooklyn guy.

Lol Yeah again, taking that casino movie way too literally. No one gave a fuck whether or not Spilotro was banging some Jew lackeys wife. Rosenthal was some Jew kid from the neighborhood that Lombardo was wise enough to take advantage of, not much more.

Spilotro was killed because he gave the greenlight to kill people That weren't okayed by Aiuppa & they were also selling coke & heroin out There, as well as doing a bunch of other shit tax free & getting away with. Not to mention getting arrested right & left by local law out there.

.

In all the history of OC, surely there cant have been any nice gangsters..

So he killed people and sold dope, but he was a nice guy because he made his son heart healthy pancakes and went to little league games? (Okay, the pancakes and little league are from the movie ).

Look, I firmly believe in the duality of man, and it applies to a lot of wiseguys in an almost disproportionate way. I've known a few of them who were genuinely benevolent given the right circumstances.

But when you live by the sword, it's quite possible that you'll die by the sword. And it seems to me that Spilotro ended up exactly where he belongs.

In the desert..

I'm not positive on what your point is. When did I suggest he wasn't one of the bad guys?

The thread was about deceptively friendly gangsters who were well liked & respected by civilians throughout their immediate communities. Tony Spilotro fit this description. He's a guy that if You met him at the red hot stand, you'd never know he was a gangster. As opposed to tyrannical pigs like Phil Alderisio who were feared by their men & hated by their community, & threw their weight around towards anyone who made eye contact with them.

Or was it about something else?

.

Oh, okay. That actually fits in with the duality that I was referring to.

And off topic: Are you aware that when you make a post, another blank post with a single period (.) usually follows?

Ehh, I know, whenever I post from the mobile phone, it double posts, so I have to go back & edit the second one, but can't delete it. And I have to leave some sort of punctuation. Lol.

Oh, thank God. I thought you had OCD or something .

Nope just herpes

.

Ok jokes aside

I think OP wants to distinguish between the mobster that you can walk up to and have a conversation as opposed to the mobster who would tell u to fock off before he whacks u

John Gotti comes to mind, Afterall he had to maintain his public image and would be more than willing to have a drink with u especially if your wearing a miniskirt

Quack quack would also chit chat with u

However, OP what made u think scarfo sr was a very nice guy?

He'd butcher u just for sitting in his seat

He was a maniac according to nicky crow and once threatened to whack a very friendly pharmacist who was delaying a gift due to work

That's not very nice is it?

Salvatore Lucania aka Lucky Luciano,one of the masterminds of the global narcotics network,was sort of a "nice guy".Many historians say that if you bump into Luciano on the street he would say "sorry" to you and youll never guess that he's the prince of darkness.Some one once said that "the prince of darkness comes as a gentleman".

Also there are reports that while he was in jail,ordinary inmates would ask for his advice and they would never turn their back while walking away from Lucky.Thats respect.

Heres an article that I found some time ago... http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=702586

That's fine, Toodoped .

And I think everyone agrees that not everyone is "all good" or "all bad." It's called the duality of man. But a man is judged (here, and by God, if you believe in a deity) by his entire life. I've seen videos on the History Channel of Hitler kissing a few babies in between goose steps.

See what I'm getting at, pal?

Yup I agree with you.Thats why I said that "the devil comes as a gentleman"...

Ok...am I a bad person,for example if I take this girl for a "one night stand" and I say to her that I love her and blah blah blah and then dump her after the sex?!I think no because she got played.Survival of the fittest right?Same goes for selling drugs,booze,gambling or prostitution...if you take it,than you got played.The person that sells you thouse "stuff" I do not concider him as a bad person.Its just business.BUT I cant say the same thing for murder....

This is the one thing I've never been able or have had a hard time reconciling..niceness/Mafioso..I mean, aren't there wiseguys who aren't involved in crime and live a somewhat normal life? I read somewhere "not all Mafioso are criminals" but can't seem to grasp this fact.

hey are you saying Rosenthal wasn't responsible for the skim and running the.casinos? Was he also not one of the best sports handicappers in the world?

I wonder if he still lives in boca or is he dead?

Rosenthal died a few years ago. At which time it was revealed that he was a long time informant.

Figured he would of passed saw an interview he did for one of the cable channel on the mob n vegas n he didn't look to good he said he snuck back into Vegas over n over again throughout the years.

Never knew he was a long-time informant but I could easily see that given the amount of heat Spilitro put on them. I haven't read any of the books just saw the movie but I guess Rosenthal like the camera's too I dunno I'll see if I have the patience to read the book

Here is an article on Rosenthal:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/jane-ann-morrison/lefty-rosenthal-was-fbi-snitch

Home » Jane Ann Morrison
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Posted October 30, 2008 - 10:00pm
'Lefty' Rosenthal was an FBI snitch

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Jane Ann Morrison
writes on topics from politics to human interest. Her column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday in the Nevada News section.

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Back before he was mayor of Las Vegas, when he was the city's leading mob attorney, Oscar Goodman insisted he didn't represent snitches.

He represented Frank Rosenthal. Now that Rosenthal is dead, three former law enforcement sources with first-hand knowledge confirmed what was long suspected. Lefty Rosenthal was an FBI informant, whether his attorney knew it or not.

While Rosenthal was alive, no one would confirm it. Nobody wanted to be the one who got Lefty whacked.

After he died of a heart attack in his Florida home Oct. 13 at the age of 79, it is confirmed Rosenthal was a "top echelon" informant, someone with firsthand knowledge of the top ranking mob bosses.

Rosenthal's code name was "Achilles," one source said. Was it a sly reference to the handsome Greek warrior who was invincible except for his heel? Or was he simply a heel? Sure beat the code name his mob buddies used when discussing him -- "Crazy."

I couldn't confirm exactly when he started informing to the FBI, but the relationship was lengthy and useful. His information helped the FBI develop a lot of organized crime and casino skimming cases.

Rosenthal was an informant even before the 1982 bombing of his Cadillac outside Tony Roma's restaurant on Sahara Avenue, one source said. After the bombing, the FBI tried to convince Rosenthal to enter the Witness Protection Program, but he refused.

Later, he told the Chicago Tribune he rebuffed the offer to become a federal witness. "It's just not my style. It doesn't fit into my principles." Instead, in 1983 he left Las Vegas, which had been his home since 1968, moving first to California, then Florida.

"He talked about everything and everyone, whether he had first-hand knowledge, like he did at the Stardust, or second- and third-hand knowledge like at the Tropicana," one source said.

Nobody had a definitive answer as to why Rosenthal would become a Chatty Cathy.

One source said Rosenthal was an expert handicapper. "He was a smart guy, he could see people were going down. As an oddsmaker, this was his chance to bet both sides of the game."

A second source said it was speculation, but "he may have felt he needed a way out at some point, and he knew cooperation was one way to get out."

Rosenthal was from Chicago, but since he was Jewish, he wasn't a made member of the Chicago Outfit, but he was a close mob associate. From childhood, he was friends with another mob watchdog, Anthony Spilotro, which ended with Spilotro's affair with Rosenthal's wife, Geri, the tale fictionalized in the movie "Casino."

When the mob needed someone to watch over its Las Vegas casino interests, Lefty was the man. From 1974 until 1979, San Diego businessman Allen Glick was the casino owner, but Rosenthal, despite his ever-changing titles, was the smooth operator.

Although federal officials claimed millions were skimmed from Glick's casinos, Rosenthal was never indicted. Nor did he testify against Midwest mob leaders as Glick did during the trial in Kansas City, which ended with mob boss convictions in 1986.

Las Vegas was an open city for the mob. No one organized crime family controlled all the casinos; different families shared the booty. The Chicago mob through the Argent Corp. had a foothold in the Stardust, Fremont, Hacienda and Marina.

The Tropicana was the playground of the Kansas City mob.

The boys in Detroit staked out the Aladdin.

The Dunes had ties with St. Louis mobsters.

Milwaukee bosses arranged for Glick's $62 million in loans from the Teamsters Union pension funds to buy Las Vegas hotels, then insisted Glick hire Rosenthal.

The indictments were many, so were the convictions. Despite the extensive wiretapping, Rosenthal was never charged, even though authorities described him as the man who "orchestrated the skim at the Stardust."

Inevitably, some of his buddies figured he wasn't charged because he was informing on them to the FBI. The late Joe Agosto -- entertainment director at the Tropicana and the Kansas City mob's guy on the scene -- was wiretapped in 1978 telling a Missouri mobster Rosenthal was "a snitch" who would "bite the hand that feeds him."

In John L. Smith's book "Of Rats and Men," Goodman said Kansas City mobster Nick Civella thought Rosenthal had become too friendly with the FBI. Civella called Goodman, his own attorney, and asked whether Rosenthal was crazy, apparently a code term for untrustworthy. "No, I don't think he's crazy," Goodman answered.

"If I had agreed with Civella, Rosenthal would have been killed. I didn't know it at the time, but I apparently saved his life," Goodman told Smith.

Goodman started representing Rosenthal in 1971 after Rosenthal was indicted on illegal betting charges. In 1975, a Las Vegas federal judge dismissed the indictment against him, saying the wiretap was illegal and should have been an investigative tool of last resort.

That same year, Sheriff Ralph Lamb submitted an affidavit to help Rosenthal restore the rights he lost after pleading no contest in North Carolina to trying to change the point spread for a college basketball game with a bribe in 1960. The sheriff said he had known Rosenthal for five years and "he has evidenced the highest integrity and his reputation for truth and veracity in the Las Vegas community is unexcelled. Mr. Rosenthal is among the most respected persons in the Las Vegas gaming community."

Contrast that with Glick's Kansas City trial testimony 10 years later about a 1974 meeting with Rosenthal in the Stardust coffee shop. Glick said Rosenthal told him: "You're not my boss. And when I say you're not my boss, I'm talking not just from an administrative position, but your health. If you interfere with what's going on here, you will never leave this corporation alive."

As one of the recipients of the Rosenthal Glare, I can vividly imagine how those words were delivered.

Goodman represented Rosenthal for decades, fighting to keep him licensed to operate the Argent casinos. Higher courts ultimately overturned Rosenthal's victories in lower courts. Gaming regulators put him in the Black Book.

Throughout his life, Rosenthal denied being an FBI informant, but said it wasn't for want of trying by the FBI.

In 1976, Rosenthal told gaming officials that in 1960, when he was working in horse racing in Miami, J. Edgar Hoover sent an agent who asked him to provide information about gambling throughout the country. He said the agent promised him "near total immunity, except murder."

In 1977, he claimed he was the victim of harassment because he refused to supply information to the FBI.

As recently as 2006, when asked why he never snitched, Rosenthal said, "It all comes down to style and doing what you feel comfortable with. I never talked about or testified against anyone and never will."

He may not have testified, but he definitely talked.

As far as Goodman not representing snitches, one knowledgeable source said, "I think he represented more than one, whether he was aware of it or not."

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0275

I heard Buffalino was a sweat heart of a man. Carlo Gambino and his wife would cook the meal themselves for their guests and John Gotti would throw big 4th of July parties feed the neighborhood...Al Capone and the soup kitchens, Joey Merlino same thing. These are very NICE GESTURES. Who says a gangster cannot be a nice guy...

These guys have ulterior motives for their "good deeds". Gotti throwing those parties was all part of his act, and getting some of the neighborhood people onside really helped him in his strategic battle against the heat. None of the money that paid for all the booze, fireworks and food came out of his or Victoria's pocket anyway. It probably came from hard working people from other similar neighborhoods who were extorted by those bastards.

Hes a top top bloke if he did that to ozzy the disrespectful little shit

I think there is some niceness in everyone. Don't try to tell me hitler was never nice to Eva.

I think it is true with everyone in that life. I would not be surprised if Roy Demeo was not a totally bad guy. Anyone ever heard that he had a sense of humor I heard that.

Great Point. I visited Manhatton last year and spoke to a fair few people from mafia neighbourhoods.

Most said that there area was much safer when the mafia run it and said most of them were very nice and respectful around the area

Yup all these nice gestures are always done with other peoples money that's a given. Gotti didn't just get "some" of the neighborhood people on his side, he got "almost all" of them. He was a "God" to those people. One thing about the wiseguys was they certainly took care of their neighborhoods. Old ladies felt safe walking down the street back then. Not like today. Those days are gone.

Really? I thought New York was one of the safest big cities around now. When I was there, I felt very safe walking around at night - even in some dodgy looking places.

First of all, there aren't any Italian neighborhoods left in Manhattan. The only ethnic neighborhood left in Manhattan is Washington Heights, which is Dominican.

Second of all, the wiseguys pulled out of Little Italy and East Harlem as far back as the '90s.

Third of all, the crime rate in Manhattan is at a hundred year low.

But thanks for posting.

I was a little surprised by that, but they tried to kill him, can ya blame him?

Or did he inform BEFORE the car bomb?

Wow to me (Gotti's territory) Ozone Park looked terrible I wouldn't want my Nonna walkin around there.

The only neighborhood I thought resembled the Italian neighborhood I've been to years ago was Arthur Ave in the Bronx. Little Italy NYC seemed to be filled with young ppl, but in the Bronx I got to see the old men hanging outside the market talking in Italian to the clam guy. That made me happy.

The article states he was informing prior to the car-bomb attempt.

These people I spoke to where from different areas of nyc where the mob no longer held a great presence

I think I already may have mentioned it to you. But I grew up on 187th and Hoffman, and I own a property there today. I've spent my entire life in and around that neighborhood, even after I moved out of it.

At the 2010 census the population in the 10458 zip code (Arthur Avenue/Botanical Garden/Bronx Zoo area) was less than 15 percent Italian. And even that's a stretch. Our Lady of Mount Carmel (made famous in "A Bronx Tale"), has Masses in Spanish every day. They're down to one Italian Mass per week. That's all you have to know.

The stores and restaurants will always be Italian (I hope so, anyway). But the third and fourth generation Italian Americans have almost all split for the burbs. Even the Albanians are starting to move out .

a few people told me that the albanians run the show around a lot of areas now like in europe

Selwyn Raab really nails Gotti's 2 sides in "Five Families." He writes how Gotti would throw parties for the neighborhood and was well loved by everyone, and then transcribes a phone call between him and an associate where he threatens to blow the guy's house up and kill him.

They definitely run the restaurants...

ha ha that a pretty big racket lol

Lol maybe those old Italian men and the ppl I saw in the Bronx came there JUST FOR ME
Out here in California there are no real Italians unless they are transplants from the east coast

All kidding aside, but you'd be shocked at how many Albanians pass themselves off as Italian. It's possible that you saw some of them. And don't feel bad, they fool me all the time. And like I said, I'm here all my life.

I posted about this fairly recently. But they're almost all from Montenegro, which is just on the other side of the Adriatic. They speak better Italian than anyone born here, and some of them even look Italian. When you throw in the fact that they settled in all of the Bronx neighborhoods that the Italians left behind, and that they own something like 75 percent of the pizzerias in New York City, it's actually very understandable.

They've done very well for themselves. It's estimated that Albanian Americans own over thirty percent of the apartment buildings here in the Bronx.

You should be happy with the ones from Montenegro. Over here we've got the Kosovo-variant of Albanians and some of them are batshit crazy if you don't know them

Thanks pizzaboy for the kind words...I don't feel so dupid now.

Back to nice gestures from wiseguys-
The wiseguys were nice to my great grandpa.
They wanted to put a phone booth in his deli/restaurant but he told them NO cuz he had 4 daughters and didn't want "those type of men" congregating in his place making bets around his daughters. They respected his wishes and went to the next store.

Generally speaking Islamic Albanians are worse than christian ones.
Same with the Lebanese.

Read of that what you will.

Read what? It's the fucking truth .

Every time I read or hear anything about Albanians all I can picture is wiseguys on one side n Albanians on the other in the middle of the day at a Jersey rest stop. I think it was the Gambino crew and the Albanians almost had a big blowout.
I can't remember where I read that but the Gambino's had a beef with them over territory and were trying to settle it. I don't know how true it is.

There was a mafia hitman, that did kid parties dressed as a clown even into his old age, I forget the guys name or to which family he belonged to.

It was blown way out of proportion. That whole crew of Albanians fell apart with one indictment, which is very telling.

But for the most part, they get along pretty well with the Italians here. In the Bronx, anyway.

You're welcome, Chickie .


Things were different back then, Alfano. It can be said that some of the Italian American men of that generation turned to crime because doors were closed to them. And not to be an apologist, but it was true to a certain extent at that time. That's why they were more likely to look out for their neighbors back then. They were in crime out of necessity, not always by choice, so they were often kind to the people in the neighborhood. But anyone who uses that "doors are closed" excuse today is full of shit. If you join the mob today it's because you're criminal minded and lazy.

Italian Americans have produced more college graduates in this country than any other European immigrant group, save for the Jews. But keep in mind that the Jews came from more than one place (Poland, Russia, Hungary, etc.). So if you're born after, say, 1960, and you're still talking out of the side of your mouth, and saying thing like "I had no choice," and "they're only going after me because I'm Italian," you need to have your head examined.

I imagine that the majority of those neighborhoods were a lot safer back in those days, pb. There's a lot to be said about the old guys from old school ways.

Neighborhoods were a lot safer from outside interference, but were victimized to some degree from the local Italian gangsters, but not like it was when the 70's rolled around. A majority of those before the 1960's had a certain code of honor, that they left certain people alone who were actually helping out their nieghborhoods or other Italians in need. But a majority of shop owners in the Italian neighborhoods pay some sort of protection to the local crime group.

Supposedly they buy a lot of the apartment buildings not a lot of people really want to deal with.(Albanians).

It was Squitieri and alex rudaj who had the beef and the meeting at the gas station in jersey

Yeah, that's about it.

I have no illusions about these guys ever being Robin Hood. I grew up with with a front row seat to their bullshit, and little by little I saw every myth ever propagated about them being Robin Hood ripped apart.

But the older guys WERE different. And I don't necessarily mean the guys my father's age (he's in his 80's now). Because some of them were greedy pigs. I'm talking about the guys who would be a hundred today. These guys were old men when I was growing up, and I'm almost 55.

There was more of a duality to them. A lot of them ended up in the life by accident or by necessity. Most of the guys who I grew up with who ended up in the life lacked that duality. They became criminals not out of necessity, but by choice. Big difference.

True, but they still own 30 percent of the buildings in the Bronx. And if you break it down to the Pelham Parkway area, it's more like forty percent.

And I see that you're from Yonkers. They own a lot of the buildings that straddle Woodlawn, on the Bronx-Yonkers line. Still a very Irish neighborhood, but the apartment buidings around Katonah are partially owned by the Albanians.

Oh yea I didn't know that. The best thing for the wiseguys to do is KEEP THEIR SONS IN COLLEGE don't let them follow in their daddy's line of work.

OOOOO I really botched that last reply up. I'm still learning my way around this site. oops

That's okay. I was able to decipher it .

K good

Is this topic a joke? None of them were "nice" guys.

Sure a lot of them had families they were close to.

But that doesn't mean that they didn't separate their family life from their work life.

Even people who were involved in mafia activities such as bootlegging, illegal gambling/numbers games/betting, etc. were not always nice when they were at work or having to deal with people who they would see as customers at work who made them angry.

There were never days of "Loyalty, honor, respect, etc." they would kill each other or attempt to, rip each other off, break the rules or think the so called rules didn't apply to them, etc.

Can you imagine if they had had snuggies before? I can just picture Galante curling up on home on the couch after a long day of peddling smack and just relaxing with some tv and pint of ice cream

Good point. I knew a few as well who were more earners but if cornered, they wouldn't hesitate. I'm sure Tommy Gambino was overall a pretty nice, clean cut guy...but all he had to do was say the word.

Roy DeMeo was loved around his neighborhood. He would have insane firework shows on 4th of July, was quick to help/offer neighbors with yard work, etc. He even personally drove a neighborhood kid, who was hit by car, to the hospital. And according to his wife was "shaken" because the kid was his sons age. Even one of his neighborhood friends, helped Al get a job on Wall street out of friendship with Roy, when Al was all grown up.

Seemed like a real nice guy, outside of clipping a couple hundred people, and scamming countless others.

That's the definition of a sociopath.

i thought that you had to be a stone cold arch criminal to even join the mafia?

dishonest 24/7 but a nice guy....i don't know that's a tough one

in the history of the mafia i'm sure there were some nice guys but not mqny