Sup Forums have you ever had actual run-ins with the actual Mob?

Sup Forums have you ever had actual run-ins with the actual Mob?

Are they a boogey-man? Do they even exist?

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in the old days if you were an Italian in the US either somebody in your family was in or you knew somebody who was, now all of a sudden everyone is so scared of admitting it though because muh stereotypes

Yes they exist, no they arent boogey-men, and mostly they are "legit" business people these days. Its not like how it used to be.
Their Old World model of business didnt work as well here in the US where more people are armed, and different layers of government (and government agencies) are more difficult to all corrupt.
You can undermine city civil integrity, and then find yourself getting fucked by feds, and even if you somehow manage to avoid even that, its only a matter of time until locals get sick of your shit and shoot up your restaurant.

In Italy, its a whole other ball of wax. My understanding is that they are still active and run things in some towns. Frankly, they sound more like street gangsters with city contacts than anything else, though.

Forget about it.

Do Union workers count?

The mob runs Las Vegas

Do the Triads count?

Good point, this is basically what they've become. I hear all the time about Unions and Teamsters here in Boston.

Made man here AMA

The mob-mob (criminal mobsters of Italian origin) don't really exist in the U.S. anymore.

Their last few operations went south in the 90s and they basically all either went legit or died or went back to Italy.

My grandfather had the mob help him get over here in the 60s, and in return he owed them a favor. By the time they called it in, in the 70s, they were weak and had no support. Basically, they just wanted to store some stuff on his property. Probably drugs they were running through. He threatened the two guys with a gun and they left and never came back. No retaliation, no nothing. It's been 40 years and he's senile. I doubt anyone out there even knows he owes them.

Yes, I use to work for Rick's Auto Wrecking, and Rick's strip Club, both mob operations (past tense) in Seattle. Ask me anything.

>Weak and had no support in the 70's

That is not true at all.

Did you know of any deaths? Were they fronts? What were the real sources of income?

Not me but my father was doing his residency at hospital when John Gotti's daughter gave birth. He said the doctors were instructed by the administration to not directly acknowledge any of the mafia members standing in the lobby and the whole place basically shut down. John posted guards outside without outright acknowledging they were guards. Just 8 guys standing out under the overhang with suspiciously large coats.

My dad had to walk through the room they all were in and he said he could feel the eyes track his movement.

Yakuza yes.
Polish mafia yes.
My grandfather and great grandfather were mafia, so yes.

someone explain the mob-union connection

The branch that helped my grandfather over was. He just sorta lucked out, I guess. Anyone who would call the minor favor in either wasn't able or willing. The guys who tried to probably would rather go for easier fish than put up with a headache.

Refuse to pay back the favour.

Probably the smart thing to do really. Every job is the one last job.

I think the mafia either built Disney Land or still collects rent from some of the land its on. Its hiding as legit business here and there.

I think I ran into an aryan brotherhood guy at a drug house. He was talking about speckle trout or something seemed like some sort of code.

It's the same kind of family-run thuggery. Basically stuff like "you're going to hire X number of our guys (teamsters) and pay them X amount of dollars or unfortunate things are going to happen to you and your worksite"

classic racketeering

Basically all of the construction of the buildings that went up in Manhattan in the 70s and 80s was overseen by the kind of people from Goodfellas.

Every union and org that deals with money and land will always One Day turn into a mob
Money and land are the most powerful resources You can have

When working at walmart, I had a co worker who claimed his grandfather was in the Mafia down on the Tex/Mex border, smuggling drugs and whatnot. He retired a long time ago. I saw him once, very flashy dresser, Had to be in his mid to late 80's with a white suit and a fedora, not shitting you. He tipped the cart pusher $200 because he was "doing hard work and deserves more' the kid was almost afraid to take the money. So, I was within 10 ft of a mobster. Or a pimp.

I'm Italian American,my parents have lots of friends in Italy that are in the Mob,they do little to nothing.All they do is sit around in bars and drink.

Is it private businesses getting forced to hire people represented by a union? I don't fully understand how these things work.

>79140675
Mafia established many of the unions in certain industries a loooong time ago and could make them strike virtually at any time which forced a lot of industries to pay a "tax" to mafia or flat out hand over control

Mafias are redundant ruling classes. They produce nothing and live by "taxing" as it were. They infiltrate existing businesses and "tax" along the lines of the fuck you pay me sequence in Goodfellas. The unions were among the businesses they targeted.

Anything?

Do you know Tony soprano?

What city if you don't mind me asking? The commission trial wasn't until 1985 and even after that the NY mafia did alright

not true, there was a big bust around 2010

Thats actually pretty cool of him.
>tfw tipping out of generosity and appreciation for hardword is going to die out soon

Great example is Movie production in Boston. There is a union that forces film crews to hire teamsters, and then you've got union thugs watching movie sets.

Here's a really interesting story from This American Life about an FBI sting in this exact kind of situation, I highly recommend listening.

thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/244/macgyver?act=3#play

Fuck, all my information on the Jewish mafia is on my PC at home.

That said the Jewish mafia is the most powerful in the world. There is a reason why Hollywood promotes the idea of the mafia being Sicilian.

I had a friend who visited Melbourne a few years ago. Apparently the Italian restaurant they ate at the night before was on the news, there had been a shootout where someone was killed. They thought it was a one off but the guy at their hotel said, nah theres a mafia killing about every other month.'

I looked into it recently, didn't realise Melbourne has a big underworld criminal element. You don't put that in your tourist brochures.

How do they convince businesses to pay, if the mob is flatlining?
neato, thanks m8
How did they establish the unions? Were the members of the union also part of the mob? Were they just working stiffs? If latter, were they aware of the ties?

Yes. Worked with a foreman who used to do work in Youngstown, Ohio. He got told if he was going to have his company truck on the job site, he had to have a teamster to drive it.

Contacted management and they told him, emphatically, to do so. He got a very large gentleman who would meet him at the gate every morning and drive his truck the rest of the way to the office trailer. Then sit in a chair reading the paper. When he needed to go around the site, the guy drove him around. End of the day, he'd drive him back to the gate and get out to head to his Lincoln.

They were in New York, out in the suburbs.

The thing is, in the 70s, the mafia was starting to go legit. Things were going tits up for the drug trade, and the end of the 70s ended with things like Studio 54 shutting down and a bunch of mafia types going to jail. The ones smart enough to see the signs got out before that and went legit enough to be passed over. What I'm saying is, the guys who called on my grand father were probably small fries left behind. They claimed they were still in the mafia but they didn't really belong to any organization and didn't have any backup to call in to actually carry through threats. They were just 'connected'. At least, that's how I read the situation, and how my grand father described it to me 10 years ago.

> Mafias are redundant ruling classes. They produce nothing and live by "taxing" as it were. They infiltrate existing businesses and "tax" along the lines of the fuck you pay me sequence in Goodfellas.

Not to be the edgelord here, but isn't that literally what a government is?

lol
With stories like that, I can see why there's so much resentment for unions.

When my gramps was a boy in Chicago he saw them hang mob criminals supposedly. That was when Al Capone used to control everything.

That is funny as fuck.
So how do I get in?

Yes.

And yet in the movies the Jews are finding their endeavors.

This did actually happen a lot (there were a lot of Jewish loansharks) but they were just as violent as Italians, if not more so.

Murder, Inc. had a ton of Jews and Italian mafia members often contracted jews to assassinate rivals in order to not cause suspicion of betrayal or infighting

>isnt that basically what the government is

No I do not know of deaths. Just rumors. Both businesses were fronts, but they did make money, just not as much as Rick claimed.

Coke, and grass.

You don't. You've got to be born into it for the most part.

Funding not finding

And it's union on union too. We're UA Local 72 Plumbers. He actually had to let a plumber go to cover the cost of the teamster.

I honestly have trouble doing the story justice. Mike (the foreman) was a really little guy, who'd had polio as a kid so he had the fucked up legs. Having this giant mafia goon following him around as a bodyguard and driver must have been hilarious. And the guy was a bodyguard. Some pissed off pipe fitter came after Mike for firing his ass for being sorry, and the guy came out to the trailer to whip Mike's ass.

He got in there and started ranting and threatening Mike and apparently Guido folded his paper, got up, grabbed the irate pipe fitter from behind and casually tossed him out the door without him landing on any of the steps prior to hitting the ground. Then he went back to his paper.

I've seen the Yakuza in Tokyo, but other than that, none

This
My mother kept the secret from me and my siblings that my grandfather was in the mafia and that he actually went to jail because he refused to snitch. He got out by the time I was 5 and we had a great relationship.

I live in Vegas, that's bullshit.

Russians, chinks, and Jews run las Vegas

Do you live in Seattle? Because I may have encountered some when I lived there

Ex Imports/Customs worker (AKA a worker for a port, airport, etc. Not going to say which one).

The ports in Australia are fucking full of mobsters. I have no bloody clue what they traffic, but when I worked we had a few guys who would take specific shipments and put them on trucks.

I had no connections to it, but I'm pretty sure the supervisors did. The mobsters themselves were actually pretty nice (they took me out for a night on the town once).

Hell, I'm surprised we weren't getting batons shoved up our ass every 5 minutes by the feds. It was blatant, Anyone living within an hour of my work would find it impossible to NOT run into a mobster.

One guy quite far up got slammed by the AFP once, but they're not concerned with low-level employees like I was.

Yah.

Guess what, they're all jews.

I work with the mob on a daily basis

>tfw you will never have a big silent bara guido protect you from pissed off pipe fitters

Were italian mobs a lot more civil and professional than the nig-nog gangs we have today?

Bit off-topic, how did you get into plumbing? Start with a union apprenticeship?

i.e., the mob

When I was a kid I met some kids ste dad who tutned out to be in the mafia. Found out when he got 20 years for some scam.

Members of the unions were simply workers who for the most part did not know of the mafias connection. Although every now and then a family would get too big and the media would report their connection to different industries.

not me personally, but lucky luciano stayed at my grandparents house for a while. my dad also ran into john gotti before.

That's classic mobsters by all accounts. They tend to treat regular working stiffs rather well. It's a cultural thing, part of how they maintained power. The regular people are supposed to like them, otherwise, they get the shaft pretty fast.

There can never be that many of the 'made' guys and everyone has to know who they are. A lot of those fuckers they interact with have to think they're alright. They can't murder everyone.

Yup. Almost everyone does. It possible for a licensed plumber to buy his way in as journeyman, but uncommon. Apprentices are paid pretty well, and raises are automatic every six months until you finish apprenticeship (five years).

Me. I run numbers.

>watch the sopranos
>every jewish character behaves exactly like the stereotypes
what did they mean by this

Go work in Youngstown, Ohio. That tale was from the 1980's, or early 90's, but I'm sure it hasn't greatly changed. You'll just need to be good enough to be the General Foreman on a project large enough to require driving your company truck on the site.

They had certain rules such as don't fuck with each other's girls, never snitch or you can expect to die very painfully, consider your boss more important than your own family , etc

Other than that they were somewhat similar except for the fact that much of their profits came from white-collar crime

What do you think the odds for getting accepted are today? Hours decent? I dropped out of college, trying to get my life together. Working part-time as a grocery store janitor, union is trying to win our support by bombarding our store with leaflets.

The russian mob owns a pizza place by where i used to live that had like 3 arcade machines with over 100 games a piece unlocked so you could play for free. They were all super cool and would challenge us to street fighter and some of the other weird games once we became regulars. Their delivery dude had a tricked out Volvo that he would haul ass around in. I once went in during the day and like 8 of them were having a meeting that halted until i left. Pizza was 6/10 but i fucking miss living by that spot.

I had a russian buddy in high school and im pretty sure his dad and older brothers were in the Russian mob. They ran an "import/export" business in North Seattle and all drove mercedes. Plus he always had tons of russian vodka that he would bring to parties to share with everyone.

I had a run in about ten years ago. A servicce buddy of mine invited me to visit his home city New York with him. I met his family and friends and everything was normal as could be. One night he said we should get some drinks with his dad. I thought that was kind of weird but whatever. We were in the bar drinking and his dad was funny as fuck.

As the night went on I got a bit too drunk and out of hand. I was acting like a dick. I spilled a drink and got confrontational with the bouncer when he said I had to leave. As the bouncer was dragging me to the door, my friend's dad came up and told the bouncer "it's all right he's with me" the bouncer said something like he didn't give a fuck who I was with.

Two guys came running over and whispered to the bouncer. The bouncer let me go and apologised to my friend's dad and quickly walked off. The other guys apologised and said we are welcome to stay.

We got back to our table and my friend's dad was not the same guy. He told me to sit down, shut the fuck up and stop drinking. I sobered up a bit and we left. On my way out the bouncer shook my hand and said "hey man I didn't know".

The next morning my friend told me his dad is a mob guy. Then it really hit me how scared everyone involved was when it happened. His dad's only comment was that I need to hold my liqour better.

I used to run coke for the mob but got stabbed once and got a gun pulled on me twice, I quit and became Christian and they left me alone.

did it hurt?

If you want to be "made" which who knows if they even do that anymore, you have to be at least half Italian on your father's side. (Back in the old days you had to be full Sicilian)

Anyone can be an associate but a made guy could/can literally spit in an associate's face and the associate would have to take it. Also an associate could be killed at any time while the assassination of a made man had to be approved by the boss (although approval wasn't always gotten)

No shit my pizza place was also in north seattle. They were close to UW

Why did he stay at your grandparents house...

If anyone is to be believed, and that's extremely suspect with the internal history of guys who are all fucking liars, sneak thieves and felons, they were more sophisticated. The old world peasant rules set up a culture of behavior, more so than hard and fast rules.

There's no money to be made fucking with regular people, certainly not enough for the guys who don't do anything but leach off the profits made by other criminals who they "know".

Mobsters weren't doing shit. They were enforcers, and the guys who directed enforcers. All the 'mob' operations are run by regular criminal assholes being skimmed, protected, or occasionally directed by mobsters. There aren't made mobsters in italian suits running numbers, and asking for protection money. It's some asshole doing it, who does it because they give him a decent cut for it, or because they'll break his legs if he doesn't.

If you made it into college, you'll be a scholar among plumbers. It's technical and involved work, but not really hard to learn on the academics side. If your local union's apprenticeship program is taking in apprentices the odds of acceptance are pretty high. Not everyone makes it through the program, and apprentice's lower labor is big part of how union companies make a profit, so there is a constant demand for them.

Can you elaborate on the academic side of things? I dropped out of college, but going back is always an option.
>lower labor
Stupid question, but: what is this? "Gopher" stuff, like digging holes or holding the toolbelt?

My barber recently invited me to join the an Irish mafia they use the shop as a front, I'm thinking about joining.

the yakuza own a lot of brothels and gambling parlors here.
theyre pretty cool and dont normally cause too much trouble for anyone else

>Mobsters weren't doing shit

Pretty much this. It was set up as a pyramid scheme where no matter how much you made, a percentage went to whoever your boss was. And then your boss gave a percentage to their boss, and up and up.

So there was plenty of nigger-like crime going on in the Italian mafia but made men weren't close to it. Although at some point they probably participated in it before they were made.

the mob-union connection mostly started with mob control over east coast docks and ports. the mob always controlled the ports for smuggling purposes.

but the mob had trouble when dockworkers started to unionize for better pay and benefits. for the first few years, the mafia just cracked heads to put an end to it, but then got smart, and simply took over the unions themselves. then they could use union dues and pension funds as slush funds and to launder money too.

then they branched out into other unions, most famously the teamsters (jimmy hoffa), but also steelworkers, electricians, and plenty more. now their biggest is probably construction.

apparently he was friends with my grandfather. at least thats what my grandmother said whenever I asked her about it, never got to ask him about it since he died when I was really young. He coulda been in the mafia but I'll never probably get the full story.

do it you pussy

The mob has rules. To those talking about unions, these rules apply. Don't screw with them they leave you be. They don't kill women and children or anybody for no reason. Sure they might extort a business but who cares. They don't go to widows for shit. The unions aren't opposite to this or bad or mafialike. They have that connotation because they help the poor the widows and the innocent women and kids and are suspicious of business. They are individualist but within a family. They talk of degenerates. They don't like gamblers or losing money. Or taxes because they see the guys taking them as corrupting everybody even the ones "they" don't. So you see. Blaming unions is wrong and mangia cakes know nothing of them. Other kinds of these groups don't do these things. Only steal and worse. Mafia is the good guys of organised crime. This is why the bigger fish get compared to them but they hate the mafia because they have somewhat of a sense of morals

Like shit, he stabbed me in my tricep muscles and retracted it by ripping it out instead of pulling back.

The mob got me into a hospital and covered everything and took care of the lowlife sandcoon who did it but it made me realize that it wasnt just making quick money anymore but gambling with my own life.

Im pretty sure they know where and how I live but I expect they respect my decision and the hell I went through for them.

Forgot pic

>the mob-union connection mostly started with mob control over east coast docks and ports. the mob always controlled the ports for smuggling purposes.
So, literally The Wire?
>Jimmy Hoffa
Sounds familiar, time to fire up the Google machine.

wow so you have no loyalty. smfh

>taxation is bad but extorting businesses is ok

wop logic

The mafia per se I've never dealt with, but large scale crime syndicats are the name of the game in city.

I don't agree 100% with their stuff but they're not fanciful about anything. Profit making is wrong. Why is it ok for a lemonade stand but not for the average citizen who must be taxed and profit seek? I don't agree in any violence really. But these sometimes are Roman Christians. Can't say the same for some of the others

Much better.

The Classic Cosa Nostra kept the Nig-Nogs down and a lid on some of the worst of their tendencies (as they hated them too).

I'd rank the Jewish Mob/Irish Mob up there as semi-respectable as far as Criminals go, they treat this shit like a business.

The very few Triads/Yakuza I've interacted with seemed very professional too.

Now the Mexican/Russian mobs, fuck them. A bunch of violent savages who'd whore their mothers out then dismember her body if they think it'd make a buck.

I never met a Made guy from the "respectable/professional" mobs who took an investigation or arrest as a personal offense... it was just part of doing business. Oh they'd try to kill anyone snitching on them, but they generally don't fuck with me.

I still check my vehicle for IEDs daily before going to work... funny story about it, I guess word got out I did it, and a known "Boss" approached me and said "user", your a pretty good guy for a Cop, so don't worry about it, if we wanted you gone you'd never see it coming...

Which I kinda took in the spirit it was intended. I don't worry about getting shot, I worry about getting blown up though still. But I'm not a beat cop... and no I won't say where I work.

The Mob is powerless these days.

They got beat out by Mexican drug cartels, some even have former ex military members that got trained by America.

The Mob in comparison never had such military training.

Also, Italian immigration to America had declined heavily.

The only gangs you need to be afraid in the first world today is mainly Mexican gangs, Russian gangs, Chinese gangs.

If you are already in a third world country, then Indian gangs, Thailand gangs, Brazilian gangs, Mexican gangs are what you should watch out for because these guys actually would commit rape in public.

Also, in South America, it is pretty much illegal for two people to ride on a motorbike due to gangmembers abusing this privilege to rob drivers on the streets or freeways.

hello relative of mobsters here

literally not interesting at all they commit crimes i guess? big fucking deal only problem is if i'm targeted for my family name (.00001 chance)

Here's the thing though; Yes they took vows on the virgin Mary and all that, but they were far from holy.

It seems they all went back to their shitholes of countries

by lower labor, I meant lower labor cost. Here a 1st year apprentice is getting $10.50 to a journeyman's $26.25 hourly.

You'll do all kinds of shit. At first, drilling hole for pipe hangers, learning to cut pipe properly, and a lot fetching tools so an older guy doesn't have to keep climbing up and down a ladder.

As you learn more, you do more. As you get on, or if you're clever, you end up doing while a journeyman passes you tools. You'll work side by side with someone for five years, learning from them while you help them be able to accomplish more work.

We dig occasionally, but generally it's done by equipment operators, and if there's a lot of digging by hand expected union laborers have to be brought in for it.

I spent most of my first year holding a ladder steady watching and waiting to grab, or hand them something, cutting cast iron because I am very fucking good at it, and drilling endless numbers of holes with a hammer drill and setting rod anchors.