Memories of the "Mob" in NYC in the 1970's

Paladin1950

Paladin1950

Still love 50's & 60's music!
Location
Mohawk Valley, NY
It seemed a regular thing hearing about a "mob rub out, during the 70's and even the early 80's. In July 1979, Carmine Galante was gunned down while eating in the garden of an Italian restaurant. The one I remember the most was when "Crazy" Joey Gallo was murdered in front of his family at Umberto's Clam House, in Little Italy (lower Manhattan), in April of 1972.

It was a well know fact that the Mob ran and operated all of the garbage removal and carting companies. If you owned your own company in a business that the Mafia controlled, they would offer to buy you out at a low price. If you declined, your place of business would be burned down. Something similar happened to a place where I worked at in Jane Street in the village (Greenwich Village).

I worked at a business called P.E. Guerin. They sold and made decorative brass hardware. The trash removing company wanted the place where I worked to rent a dumpster monthly from them. They declined. Instead they used 2 or 3, 50 gallon metal drums. When we came to work on trash pick day, the garbage and steel drums were gone. So my company got several more steel drums. The following week, the garbage men came real early in the morning, and took the garbage along with the steel drums. The carting company was trying to get my place to start renting a dumpster by stealing our 50 gallon steel drums.

So the 2nd in command after the owner ( a tight fisted Scotsman, not saying they all are), called up the carting company and spoke to someone called Rocky, and I heard him say, "What do I have to do? Stand out side with a camera and take a picture of your people stealing our drums?"

Well for about a month later, they never took our drums again. We very naively thought that was the end of our problems. We seemed to forget that we were dealing with the Mob. Then came the next trash pick up day. Rocky must have sent some of his thugs to come to the place where I worked, and pour some gas in our drums filled with garbage, start a fire, and push the drums close to the front of the building, which was all glass and wood at the time. When I arrived at work the next morning on my 10 speed bike, the entire front of the building was burned out. I remember being shocked and saying, "Oh, my God!"
Management probably told the police it was the trash collectors, but there was no evidence or witnesses. The owner had to shell out over $100,000 for repairs. Because of where the building was located, the new front of the building had to be exactly like the original front.

The Mob's message was clear: "You should have rented a dumpster from us. It would have cost you a hell of a lot less money." They never took our drums again.
 

In the city I lived in, Binghamton and nearby Endicott, NY, the Mob was prevalent also. Their business here was vending machines and beer distributors. I was a barmaid at a local bar and the owner was not one of them, but had grown up with the guys in it. So they were regular customers as well as providing the vending machines, juke box, cigarette machine including the ice machine for the bar. That was around 1973 and on. There were poker games and after hour parties pretty much every week there. Bookies and Mob restaurants turned out to be part of my life when I married my first husband who was not one of them either but he was a gambler and best friends with my boss.

To go back even farther, my grandfather was involved with them doing a lot of bootleg running for them during prohibition. He even ran a speakeasy in the basement of an apartment house my mother's family lived in. The Mob owned the building and set up the bar and the only way to access it was through the apartment. When the feds came in and wanted to investigate it my grandmother just waved them in while she sat holding her baby. They could not find the entrance since it was so well hidden built into the wall.

While I was searching for information on my grandfather doing my family tree I came across an article of him being chased by the feds and when they caught him he had a car full of whiskey. He spent time in jail a few times for them but never gave any information to the cops. I never knew him but sure wish I could have heard some of his stories.
 
I grew up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, so I saw nothing like that, ever. It was accepted practice, though, for those of us who lived well out of town to keep trash in a garage or shed so Yogi wouldn't spread it all over the yard.

ETA: Same story for where I live now in the northern Lower Peninsula (MI). Yogi comes around regularly and birdfeeders come in at night if you want to keep them in one piece. A few weeks ago, big boy came around at 1600 and was ready to rip one down until I ran out and scared him away.
 

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