http://www.gorillaconvict.com/mob-parties-in-prison/There’s a scene in “Goodfellas” where Ray Liota who plays Henry Hill and some other mafiaso are in the joint. They’re in a backroom or a mop closet at the prison but due to their Costra Nostra status they are living large, drinking wine, and eating Italian delicacies. Having a blast like they’re at a social club or something. Joking and laughing like they’re not even doing time. Living it up in the feds.
Well, some people might think that is just some Hollywood fantasy. I mean, it’s a movie, right? But I am here to tell you that scene is not some made up act for a movie. That type of get together or party happens all the time in the feds. It ain’t no country club and maybe prisoners aren’t eating as well as they were in the movie but they’re still eating good or as well as they can. Whatever they can buy from the commissary or get out of the kitchen. Prisoners in the Bureau of Prisons are trying to live as nice as they can even on the inside and a lot of the mob guys are living pretty well. Throwing parties for all different occasions. Like when a prisoner is getting released and going home or on holidays like Christmas or on someone’s birthday or for the time honored American tradition, the Super Bowl party. Those are the most popular and it’s not just the mafia guys throwing them. The Spanish, Black, and Muslim communities get in on the act also. But in prison nobody can throw a party like the wiseguys and most dudes on the block are trying to get down.
When I was at FCI Fort Dix, a low security prison in central New Jersey a couple of years ago I saw and attended a lot of prison mob parties. Let me first state that I am in no way connected or affiliated or otherwise a member of any organized crime family. Yes, I have an Italian last name but my father and grandfather were career military men and I grew up in the suburbs of California. Not exactly a mafia hotbed but anyway during my 11 calendars in the feds I have met and associated with many east coast mafia types. Some of them were the real genuine thing while many other were fake, wanna-be, hang-on-the-coattai1s type. It seems that all these east coast dudes in federal prisons of the Caucasian persuasion want to be connected or down with the mob. I don’t know why, but hey, forget about it. I guess they’ve seen to many movies.
In Fort Dix though they had lots of mafia dudes, real and imagined. There were the New York guys, the Philly guys, and the Jersey guys. Most of them stayed with own cliques or crews but when some Big Willie Joe Mafia guy threw a social they all came out of the woodwork and made an appearance. In building 5702 on the eastside of the compound much parties were thrown. This was due to the presence of “Little Nick” Corozzo. A reputed Gambino capo and personal friend of John Gotti who was supposedly in line to take over the Gambino family. He was doing a short bid and considered himself lucky. And at Fort Dix he was the center of mafia attention on the compound.
For the parties he threw, for whatever reason, usually when one of his guys was going home, he would get his crew of Boston roughnecks to hold down a multi-purpose room on the second floor. Effectively the room was off limits unless you were invited to the party. These events would usually be held in the afternoons on the weekend or after the count on weekdays and would usually last several hours as the waves of mafiaso, connected guys, wanna-be’s, hangers on, and respected prisoners showed up, paid their respects, ate or drank a little then left to make room for the next wave. Because for real, it wasn’t no banquet hall “Little Nick” was renting. It was a tiny little multi-purpose room adjacent to the row of dorm rooms where prisoners slept. Usually it was used as a card room or game room to play dominoes and the like but when “Little Nick” wanted, it was turned into a sort of mafia social club.
There would be a couple of tables pushed together with a white sheet laid overtop like a tablecloth. A bunch or catered like appetizers and snacks would be spread out over the table on cardboard trays. Crackers with tuna salad, deviled eggs, pepperoni slices with olives and cheese, little burritos, chocolate chip cookies, various types of chips- basically anything that could be bought from the commissary or stolen from the kitchen. Usually a Mexican or Colombian prisoner would be hired to prepare all the snacks and appetizers and have them ready at the appointed time and place. It wasn’t fancy by real world standards but in the joint it was nice. Sort of like a catered banquet almost.
