I believe he was released from prison last year, just curious anyone know if hes still a skipper/on the ruling panel? Best guess obviously, since the Genovese are extremely secretive and I havent found anything that concretely identifies their hierarchy.

This may be a dumb question, but i read he lives in NJ, but wasnt he a skipper or acting boss with territory in NY? im sure some of the more knowledgeable guys can set the record straight, thanks fellas

Those guys who know, probably won't tell... those who tell, probably don't know. That's usually the case here, especially when it comes to the Genovese family.

Its not polite to gossip about guys that are still on the street

Throw my cents in waiting for national champ. Leo was acting boss after gigante died maybe the boss then he gets locked up for 5yrs does he step down tapp someone else. He's a new yorker so were he lives don't mean shit. There's tons on him in the search button. Seems like these guys are quicker to pass on or step down from the top. I been reading on here the gambino boss Dom probably doesn't want all the heat. Will see but I think there gonna be a big bust in the families soon probably rackets not murders.

But no one wants to use the fucking thing. Hence, a hundred threads on the same twenty guys.

Danny's 74, semi-retired, enjoying his life, and not looking to go back to prison. Give the guy a break and let him enjoy his golden years. Because before you know it, people start calling him the boss on the Internet, then in the papers, and finally in the street. Then all of a sudden it's a "fact."

And for the record, he's East Harlem through and through. He fucking bleeds purple. I don't care what his zip code is today.

like that line PB,nice

The search feature kind of sucks here.

Now, with Leo, it should work fine. But with more obscure stuff, its a pain in the ass.

Thanks for the info sorry I kinda gave up on the search function.bc it doesnt narrow shit down but ur right their is leo info there my apologies fellas I didnt think Leo was that common of a topic like gotti, gravano, demeo, etc

I highly doubt a dopey mob forum chat board would effect public perception to that degree but i was simply hopin for most current info on danny leo bc hes an interesting guy and theres literally nothing out there on him...does anyone know who took over the crew he was in charge of since hes either semi-retired or part of the family admin?

Pb solid point about his territory, I was just going off of what I read on wiki and gangsters inc that said he resided in nj, I had no clue where he held court at but assumed it was pry ny since i never heard him mentioned as an nj skipper..thanks for the corrections/insight guys

Personally I could care less gossiping about criminals. I'm not usually interested in modern organized crime, but if I was, I don't know 'em. (Not to start an argument or anything, but humans have always been fascinating with criminals, and this is a board to discuss them). However, the moment a new poster starts fanboying or writing letters to Anthony Casso in prison, I will be the first to say that's a little different

But out of respect for you guys, I will ask a non-Danny Leo related question, a two-parter. Who were the Purple Gang members that got made other than Leo and Prisco? I also wonder were they forced to kick up to one of the five families or did the families see enough recruiting potential to let them stay independent for the time being. Kinda reminds me of the old timers in Chicago scoping out the 42 gang.

I don't know much about the Purple Gang, but it seems like the guys moved in to more sophisticated rackets as they were brought in to the Genovese. I wonder if the hierarchy saw big potential for Prisco and Leo. That's a lot of foresight. Both were huge successes. Another credit to the Westside.

I'm not going into detail, Barrett. Because, unbelievably, a lot of those guys are still alive. And I didn't say unbelievably because of their age (the oldest Purple Gang guys are in their 70's now, which ain't that old today). I say unbelievably because of their lifestyle.

But what I wanted to point out was, there were about as many Lucchese associates running with the Purple Gang as there were Genovese associates. And one of those Lucchese guys is a very high-ranking captain today. And more than a few of those guys got made into both of those families.

They were tremendous earners, made a fortune off of skag, and kicked it up to the right people.

http://z14.invisionfree.com/GangstersInc/ar/t618.htm

The East Harlem based Purple Gang was a tightly connected group of at least 127 Italian-American drug dealers from Pleasant Avenue in Italian Harlem, and the Bronx, during the 1970s. Many members became Lucchese and Genovese family mobsters, including Daniel Leo, and Angelo Prisco.

The Purple Gang was not exclusively Italian-American. They used the toughest, smartest and best street thugs from any ethnic group. The leaders, however, were of Italian origin and were marked by various families to become made members of La Cosa Nostra when the membership books were opened. Vinny Basciano, one time "Boss" of the Bonanno borgata, was a Purple Gang member, responsible for their considerable interests in Westchester County. At the time, the late 1970s through mid 1980's, Vinny Gorgeous was the owner of the heroin brand "Blue Thunder"--a very popular bag sold primarily in the neighborhood around 157th street and Melrose Avenue in the Bronx.

Arnold "Zeke" Squitieri, a powerful Gambino captain, was also a Purple Gang shot caller in the early 1970s, and, legend has it, was the man who made the lucrative world of babania available to a young John Gotti in 1977. Bobby Germaine, a close associate of Jimmy Burke, familiar to most as "Jimmy Conway," in the Martin Scorcese film Goodfellas--and by proxy supergrass Henry Hill was an influential member. You can even make a leap and consider The Purple Gang the modern extension of the 107th Street Mob which held among its ranks such Mammasantisima as Frank Costello(Castigila), Vito Genovese, John Ormento and an early Federal Bureau of Narcotics informant Eugenio Gianinni. Mr. Gianinni was shot and dumped on 109th street after attempting to gather evidence of the FBN's "Moby Dick," Lucky Luciano, and his involvement in the international heroin traffic.

Carmine (Gribbs) Tramunti was the LCN overseer of the Purple Gang during the late 1960s. Gribbs was the front boss of the Lucchese clan after Gaetano Lucchese died in 1967. Many believe that Paul Vario of Brooklyn was the real boss until Anthony Corallo took the helm in or around 1973.

Dominic Cirillo, Il Messagario of the Genovese Family, a position that calls for the maintenance of the relationship between Genovese's and the Outfit of Chicago, was also very close with the Purple Gang. Mr. Cirillo did a prison stretch for heroin trafficking in the early 1960s. The aforementioned Carmine Tramunti also served a federal prison sentence for heroin.

The Colombo crime family also had it's hand in the Purple pot. In 1983, the Colombo's were running a heroin operation based in Hell's Kitchen's northern edge in concert with the Purple Gang and the Irish locals, mythologized as "The Westies." 9th Avenue and 49th street during the mid to late 1980s and 37th street between 6th and 7th avenues (dealers would stand in doorways that led to garment district sweat shops) were the street outlet points for this alliance. In addition to heroin (10 dollars a bag), nickle (5 dollar) bags of cocaine were also sold.

In the early to mid 1980's the Purple Gang aquiered the moniker "The Sixth Family." This highly complimentary claim was also used to describe the renegade Profaci/Colombo Gallo Crew, led by Larry, Albert and the infamous Joey in the early 70's. It has also been used in recent years when referring to the Sicilian Mafia cosca operating in Montreal, Canada, led by the Rizzutos. Once again, heroin is the source of the Rizzuto's income and hence, power.

The Purples, much like the fabled Murder,Inc., took care of "heavy work"(internecine murders) for all five families.

When cocaine became a big money maker in the late 1970s, the Purple Gang formed strong ties with the Contras in Nicaragua, trading military grade weapons for the potent powder.

Crack cocaine was the downfall of the Purple Gang. Their spots around 122nd street and second avenue were gold mines,yet many younger members and associates began to use themselves, and their credibility faded fast.

Not your fault , Furio. But this is absurd.

Number One: Vinny grew up in Yonkers. He had no connection to East Harlem whatsoever until after the Purple Gang was pretty much defunct.

Number Two: Vinny is a few weeks younger than I am. Born in 1959. By the time we were in our early twenties, East Harlem was 90 percent Puerto Rican and the Purple Gang was pretty much done.

Number three: While it's true that Vinny made quite a name for himself through the Blue Thunder product, he wasn't the "owner" of the brand. He was a distributor who had absolutely no fear of middling the product to the dealers in the worst Black and Puerto Rican neighborhoods (and as an aside, how he beat that case back then still boggles my mind).

Patty Prisco (Angelo's deceased cousin, rest in peace), was the point man for Blue Thunder, and reported directly to the Palma Boys. Patty made a lot of those guys rich. He died very young (of natural causes), or he would have eventually been a powerhouse himself. In other words, he didn't just ride on Angelo's coattails. He was a tough guy and an earner in his own right.

PB, when did the demographics of East Harlem really begin to change? Was it still majority Italian by the early 70s?

Thanks. Your NYC history lessons are the best part of the board.

Honestly? Unless you're going to listen to a romantic revisionist, it was probably as far back as the '50s. And after the comprehensive zoning revision of East Harlem in 1961, which gave way to the First Avenue highrises, it was just a matter of time.

If you have the time, just Google the zoning revisions of 1961. As soon as those projects went up, the ballgame was over. The fans didn't just stop showing up overnight, though. It took a little while.


By the early '70s, they were already referring to everything from 2nd to Lex as Spanish Harlem.


Thanks, buddy. But it honestly bothers some people here. But the history of New York City is a passion of mine, so that's that. And by now, you know me better to know whether or not I care when people criticize me for being a "know-it-all" about certain neighborhoods.

I forget if it was Yeats or Walt Whitman who wrote it. But they were both great poets, and the quote affected my outlook on criticism in a big way. It went something like this: Too fucking bad .

There's a older p.Rican book author from Spanish Harlem actually 2 can't remember the first he write about the changes in the 60tys he went to Attica during the riots was it younglords? Then a favorite bodega dreams a classic. The black guy from harlem that wrote scorpions that a classic to. Forgot names. Should have been a movie.

Manchild In a Promised Land, read it in 7th grade. highly recommend.

who is that lucchese captain?

He's still active and on the street, so let's leave it at that. But it's not Bowat, that much I can promise you.

But is it really dangerous to mention them by name, even today? In that discussion about Liverpool people didn't want to name names either, and I still have to guess who the "Bird of prey" might be.

They're not even whacking their own rats anymore, let alone someone posting on an obscure website. I just don't like being put on the spot like that.


It was Pete Best. The Beatles thing set him off.

Yeah but that's really because no poster on here who's not from Liverpool himself knows what his real identity is. Liverpool posters might have an idea who he might be. But in general it is very easy to name names of whatever gangsters when you yourself live in some country far away. But when you live or have lived in the concerned area yourself, then in my opinion it is completely understandable you don't want to throw the names of some of the local heavyweights around on the internet.

You dont want to anyways, nobody likes a motor mouth, there is alot of power in silence.

I like motor mouths on organized crime forums, if their information is true.

And what kind of discussion about organized crime would that be, if we stopped gossiping and referring to them by their real names? Even if a poster from Liverpool posted the "Bird of prey's" real name here, it's not like testifying against him in court. Why would the gangster care if somebody just pronounced his name on a forum? That's not a threat to his business.

Agree, its " Hooks".

People might have personal reasons not to throw someone's real name around. Anyways it's THEIR choice not to name someone and their choice should be respected.

Ok, I am not saying that I don't respect it. They don't want to tell, that fine with me. It's just that my curiosity is overwhelming: there are those 2 books by Graham Johnson about organized crime in Liverpool but almost everybody is covered by a pseudonym. I was only told that "The Banker" is Philip Glennon, "Kallas" is James Taylor and "Fred the rat" is Tommy Comerford.

Yeah Graham Johnson always uses synonyms. He's a native of Liverpool himself, but currently lives somewhere else. Chances they would whack him probably are nil, yet it still seems as if he feels there is some threat of violence which must be why he refrains from using the proper names. Glennon, Taylor, Comerford, Fitzgibbon, Ungi, Bromley, Gee,...are examples of names of notorious criminal families or local hardmen who have had major cases against them and who in turn have been named openly in the media. So that's why they're referred to by their proper names. But there are other who -despite local people knowing who they are- have not yet been busted. So when journalists or newspapers openly connect their proper names to criminal activities, they would probably sue them for defamation (which happened before). That's why they use aliases. The threat of having a libel case nailed to your ass is currently far more real than the threat of violence

I remember there was a case in Russia when the thief in law Yevgeniy Vasin has been openly called "thief in law" by a journalist. Vasin sued him for defamation. The journalist then said: "I will present my humble apologies if Mr Vasin will appear on TV and openly tell everybody he is NOT a thief in law". The suit was immediately withdrawn

That's because the thieves in law who publicly renounce the title (even if they lie when they are telling it) are considered traitors by the traditional criminal world in Russia.

Lol, that's one good story Dwalin. Always wanted to know more about the vory v zakone.

They're a dying breed, aren't they? Vory v zakone.