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In the 1950s, New York City youth gangs\u2019 ethnicities ranged from Black, Irish, Puerto Rican to Italian.\u00a0 Some of the individual members of the gangs were from different races such as Dominican, Cuban, German and Polish.\u00a0 This page takes a look at Italian youth gangs and their relationship to the Mafia.\u00a0 Some of the Italian gangs through-out the city that I have researched are the Golden Guineas, Sand Street Angels, Mayrose, Jackson Gents, South Brooklyn Boys, Fulton & Rockaway Boys and the Red Wings.\u00a0 In some cases, the youth gang almost served as a feeder into the Mafia.\u00a0 Of course not anyone could work with the Mafia, only boys who were smart or tough enough were asked to be involved.\u00a0 As they grew up, the boys were observed by the mobsters as they rubbed shoulders in pool rooms and bars scattered across the city.\u00a0 If anyone showed promise, the mobsters took mental notes and eventually asked the person in question to help him in activities like running numbers and making collections.<\/p>\n
This page can\u2019t even begin to dissect the vast topic of the Italian Mafia from New York City with all the different angles, stories and nuances.\u00a0 But it is safe to say that most people know the far-reaching effect the 5 families had on the city and the grip the Mafia had\/has on the unions, garment districts, gambling, loan-sharking and many other activities.\u00a0 There have been many major trials of some of the biggest bosses and capos in New York City that have been documented and followed intensely by Mafia-watchers, the press and researchers.\u00a0 The subject is huge and the reading material on it is wide.\u00a0 These trials predictably have all manner of shocking and salacious details and sometimes when you dig deep, other details come out that show how some of these mobsters started their life of crime, usually in their teens.\u00a0 Take for example, Frank Lino, a capo in the Bonanno crime family.\u00a0 In May 2004, Lino became an informant, testifying against Joe Massino, the boss of the Bonannos.\u00a0 During the testimony, the prosecutor asked him questions starting from the very beginning of his life, when he was born, how many people were in his family etc.\u00a0 As you can see from part of the trial transcript below, Lino testified he began his life of crime in a youth gang from Bensonhurst called the Avenue U Boys.<\/p>\n
![\"Frank](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Frank-Lino-Testimony-Partial.jpg?resize=640%2C649&ssl=1\")
<\/a>The Avenue U Boys committed robberies and had fights with other gangs in the area like the Zippers, Ghosts, Dandies, Senators and Silver Aces. Lino became involved with the Mafia around this time by running card games for a soldier in the Genovese crime family.<\/p><\/div>\n
Another example of a member of the Mafia starting his career of crime in youth gangs is that of Carmine Persico.\u00a0 Persico is currently the boss of the Colombo family and is in jail serving a 139 year sentence for murder, extortion, illegal gambling, racketeering and loan sharking.\u00a0 He began his life of crime when he dropped out of high school and joined either the Garfield Boys or South Brooklyn Boys – depending on who you ask.\u00a0 His splash into crime was much more serious than the robberies and rumbles Lino was involved in with the Avenue U Boys.\u00a0 Persico was arrested for his role in the fatal beating of a rival gang member in Prospect Park in 1951, but charges against him were dropped.\u00a0 Persico received a reputation in the neighbourhood for beating the charges and a soldier from the Profaci crime family, seeing promise in Persico, invited him to assist with his illegal activities.\u00a0 Persico became a made man in the Colombo family at the very young age of 25, eventually becoming the boss of the family.<\/p>\n
Anthony Casso – similar to Persico – was a high-ranking member of organized crime who started his life of crime in a youth gang in the 1950s.\u00a0 Casso was the former under boss of the Lucchese crime family and is also in prison, serving life without parole at Supermax ADX Florence.\u00a0 Casso started out in his teens as a member of the notorious South Brooklyn Boys, a tough gang known for their violence.\u00a0 As Selwyn Raab wrote, the South Brooklyn Boys battled with fists, knives, clubs and Molotov Cocktails.\u00a0 During this time in the gang, Casso became proficient in handling firearms and became a very good shot:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u2026Casso\u2026gained a macho reputation for his cast-iron demeanor, and especially for his marksmanship with a rifle and a handgun.\u00a0 Using roofs as makeshift firing ranges with bull\u2019s-eye targets pinned to chimneys, he had developed into a crack shot with a pistol, able to hit a soda can at a distance of about one hundred feet.\u00a0 A former detective, who was reared in the same section of Brooklyn, says that Casso and his chums evaded police scrutiny by rigging up homemade gun silencers with cotton and cardboard wadding.\u00a0 Roofs served as recreational areas in the densely populated neighbourhood, and a common hobby was tending pigeon flocks in rooftop coops.\u00a0 Young Casso\u2019s shooting skills were in great demand by pigeon-fanciers seeking to protect their birds from predatory hawks.\u00a0 \u201cPeople used to call me all the time, \u2018Could you come over and get this hawk,\u2019 he said in an interview.\u00a0 \u201cI was like a doctor on call.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Anthony Casso<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Eric Schneider, author of Vampires, Dragons and Egyptian Kings,<\/i> interviewed several former gang members who, in the 1950s, while in a gang, dreamed of becoming members of the Mafia.\u00a0 In fact some of these promising youths who were in the Red Wings from East Harlem, were recruited by members of the Five Families.\u00a0 Schneider also reported that some members of the Fordham Baldies from the Bronx also joined the Mafia.<\/p>\n In the past couple of years, I have been in regular contact with a former member of an Italian youth gang from Williamsburg called the Jackson Gents.\u00a0 He shall remain nameless, but he took the time to personally explain to me what it was like for the Jackson Gents being around the mobsters in the neighbourhood and what the relationship was like between the two.\u00a0 His sharp memory gives a fascinating glimpse and some interesting stories about the two groups:<\/p>\n Q:\u00a0 Was the Mafia involved much in your neighbourhood? (Williamsburg)<\/p>\n A:\u00a0 Most civilians make the mistake of thinking that the mafia control specific boroughs of NYC.\u00a0 Their influence can be traced throughout the city.\u00a0 Sometimes their interests overlap and they operate in the same area, sometimes not.\u00a0\u00a0 The Gambino and Genovese families were the main families in our neighborhood.\u00a0 Carlo Gambino came to my Grandmothers wake to pay his respects.<\/p>\n As far as the Mafia goes, this was Brooklyn in the\u00a050s and early 60s, the wiseguys were everywhere.\u00a0 They knew us and we knew them, some of the guys\u2019 fathers were involved.\u00a0 Bookmaking and loansharking.\u00a0 We would all be mixed together in the pool rooms and bars.\u00a0 Sometimes\u00a0we would \u00a0be in the pool room and they would\u00a0ask a couple of us to go along with them if they were collecting money from some deadbeat, sometimes for other things.<\/p>\n Q:\u00a0 Did the Mafia tell you what to do or worry about your activities bringing unwanted police presence?<\/p>\n A:\u00a0 We were not affiliated with the mob.\u00a0 They did their thing and we did ours.\u00a0 The mob guys never told us to cool anything.\u00a0 They couldn’t care less what we were up to.\u00a0 As I said, they did their thing and we did ours.\u00a0 Gang violence didn’t impinge on their business, if it did we would have heard from them.<\/p>\n Q:\u00a0 Did the Mafia look at the Jackson Gents as possible members?<\/p>\n A:\u00a0 They looked at us as a kind of recruiting ground and approved of our conduct.\u00a0 I don’t mean to give you the impression that they talked to us about it or told us what to do.\u00a0 They just liked the fact that we were tough kids and had the balls to do what other people were afraid to do.\u00a0 Some of our guys ended up with them, I was asked if I had any interest myself.\u00a0 His exact words to me were “You can’t be half a prick so think it over and you can come with me.”\u00a0 As far as the Mafia pecking order goes we knew wiseguys from every strata.<\/p>\n Q:\u00a0 Did any of the Jackson Gents help the Mafia with some of their tasks?<\/p>\n A:\u00a0 I knew the wiseguys well and on occasion helped them, sometimes to collect money or sometimes to\u00a0help scare some deadbeat.\u00a0 These guys were dual personalities.\u00a0 They were a lot of fun to be around, but when they were working they wore their game-face and they could be pretty scary.<\/p>\n While it is true that we helped them now and then it was very haphazard.\u00a0 I’ll give you an example.\u00a0 In those days the pool rooms opened at about 10 am.\u00a0 One summer\u00a0morning I was shooting pool alone in Charlie\u00a0Politos pool room.\u00a0 When\u00a0I say alone, I mean the place was empty save for the owner Charlie and me.\u00a0\u00a0I was practicing on the front table right near the door.\u00a0 A wiseguy pulled up\u00a0in a tow truck, he stuck his head in the door and said “Hey ____ , take a ride with me.”\u00a0 Some guy owed him money\u00a0so we drove up Graham Ave. and found him washing his car.\u00a0 It was a red ’57 Ford convertible, a real nice car at that time.\u00a0 When we drove up he saw us and ran away.\u00a0 We got out of the truck, hooked the cable to the car frame underneath the car, and turned it upside down in the middle of the street.\u00a0 He drove me back to the poolroom and we never spoke about it again.<\/p>\n Map of Williamsburg. It is here that both the Jackson Gents and Mafia had a presence.<\/p><\/div>\n As you can see, there is an interesting relationship between organized crime and some of the Italian youth gangs in New York City in the 1950s.\u00a0 The options for Black and Puerto Rican youth gang members to graduate into organized crime were not as available as the Italians, but there were cases of it happening.<\/p>\n If anyone has any information to share on this topic or was in a youth gang and went into organized crime and would like to share your story, please contact me at newyorkcitygangs@mail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before you get to the article\u2026 On February 23, 2018, my book on the Mau Maus and Sand Street Angels, who were two Brooklyn youth gangs from the 1950s, has been completed.\u00a0 It took 15 years of research and writing … Continue reading ![\"Anthony](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/AnthonyCasso72.jpg?resize=180%2C257&ssl=1\")
<\/a>![\"Map](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/DSC_9059eBrooklyn-1-WilliamsburgSmall.jpg?resize=640%2C882&ssl=1\")
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