{"id":3831,"date":"2022-07-02T21:38:56","date_gmt":"2022-07-03T01:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/?page_id=3831"},"modified":"2022-07-02T21:38:56","modified_gmt":"2022-07-03T01:38:56","slug":"make-sure-you-have-more-next-time","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/?page_id=3831","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMake Sure You Have More Next Time\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

He wasn\u2019t an imposing teenager: slim, medium build, 5\u20198\u201d tall and 125 lbs.\u00a0 At 17 years old, Sal had a boyish look about him, a typical, run-of-the-mill teenager who lived in Brooklyn in the 1950s.\u00a0 His appearance was innocuous \u2013 innocent even \u2013 but his mannerisms and behavior betrayed something beneath the surface.\u00a0 Indeed, Sal was far from innocent.\u00a0 He was a young hoodlum committed to crime.<\/p>\n

Sal was a member of a youth gang called the Gremlins.\u00a0 Their members were Irish and Italian and came from the Flatbush\/Windsor Terrace area of Brooklyn.\u00a0 Along with a character named Danny Marino, Sal was one of the leaders of the gang.<\/p>\n

The Gremlins were a rough bunch of bullies and some of them aspired to have careers in the underworld or later became connected with the Mafia.\u00a0 This was true with Italian gangs all across New York City.\u00a0 Either gang members did small jobs for wise guys in their neighborhood and\/or they later graduated to the big show when they were old enough.\u00a0 When I wrote Brooklyn Rumble<\/em>, a book about the Mau Maus and Sand Street Angels gangs, one of my favorite parts to write was Chapter Five.\u00a0 In that chapter I wrote about the relationship between the Italian Sand Street Angels and the Mafia in the Brooklyn Navy Yard neighborhood.\u00a0 Like the Angels, the Gremlins had this type of relationship with the Mafia.<\/p>\n

\"Brooklyn<\/a>

Brooklyn Rumble Book Cover (Click to Order)
<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The Gremlins had a history that went as far back as early 1945 with members between the ages of 14 and 16 who alternated between playing baseball on Prospect Park Parade Grounds and roving the streets engaging in gang warfare.\u00a0 In February 1945, one of their enemies was a gang called the Garfields (probably the Garfield Boys which had their own members who were connected to organized crime).\u00a0 One time the Garfields approached a couple of boys and demanded to know if they were members of the Gremlins.\u00a0 They denied it (always deny!), but one of the Garfields said, \u201cLet\u2019s beat \u2018em up anyway.\u201d\u00a0 So they did and fractured one boy\u2019s skull.\u00a0 He was taken to Kings County Hospital.<\/p>\n

In the 1950s, the Gremlins fought the Jokers and Flatbush Tigers.\u00a0 One fight in 1954 with the Jokers happened at East Fifth Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway.\u00a0 They slugged it out with clubs and bayonets.\u00a0 One of the arrested boys had bail of $10,000 and the other was $20,000 because he had stabbed one of combatants with a bayonet.<\/p>\n

Two years after this the Gremlins were still at it.\u00a0 Several of them were charged in February 1956 with Unlawful Assembly when a fight between them and the Flatbush Tigers was thwarted by police who confiscated a bayonet, a scout knife, bricks and sticks.<\/p>\n

In 1957, a Gremlin was severely beaten up by the Flatbush Tigers and sent to the hospital.\u00a0 Following the gang code of revenge, the Gremlins combined forces with the Park Slope Royals and as they were about to fight the Flatbush Tigers on Newkirk Ave and East 28th<\/sup> and East 29th<\/sup> Streets, eight detectives arrived on the scene and arrested 37 of the boys, 25 of whom were under the age of 16.\u00a0 Someone had tipped them off and the detectives got there just in time to prevent an all-out rumble between more than 50 members of the three gangs.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good thing they were stopped because their weaponry was simple enough in its own quaint, brutish way \u2013 if that makes sense: wooden clubs, four lengths of tire skid chains, iron bars, 20 belts with heavy buckles, nine knives and two bombs, one of them made from a cold cream jar filled with gun powder and the other a metal container filled with gas, a Molotov cocktail.<\/p>\n

The Gremlins enjoyed robbing other kids and humiliating them.\u00a0 One boy who lived in Flatbush had regular run-ins with the Gremlins when he and his friends were 7-8 years old.\u00a0 The dividing line between the safe cocoon of his neighborhood and their area was Fort Hamilton Parkway.\u00a0 North of that was Windsor Terrace, a working class neighborhood, a Wild West to him and his friends, an area full of ruffians.\u00a0 At the corner of East 5th<\/sup> Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway was P.S. 130, an elementary school.\u00a0 It was on the edge of the territory of the ruffians and his safe neighborhood.\u00a0 However, the school served both groups.\u00a0 The schoolyard was a favorite spot to play baseball for the 7-8 year olds, but it wasn\u2019t as simple as showing up to play whenever they wanted.\u00a0 There was a system the young boys used so they didn\u2019t get beat up.\u00a0 They sent out reconnaissance to scout the schoolyard for any bullies.\u00a0 If nobody was there they were free to play.<\/p>\n

\"P.S.130<\/a>

P.S.130 as it looks today, still with a chain link fence.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The worst was when they were in the middle of a game and they were interrupted by the Gremlins.\u00a0 A high chain-link fence surrounded the schoolyard and the only entrance and exit was on East 5th<\/sup> Street.\u00a0 Like song sparrows dodging birds of prey, if they weren\u2019t watching, the Gremlins came through the gate and trapped them in the schoolyard.\u00a0 If that happened, the Gremlins stole their ball, lined them up and forced them to their knees and made them bow to them.\u00a0 If anybody resisted, a beating was promised.\u00a0 The interesting thing is that the Gremlins were only about 10 years old and the boys they picked on were 7 or 8 years old.\u00a0 This batch of Gremlins began their life of terror at a young age.\u00a0 It was \u201cthe natural pecking order;\u201d the Gremlins \u201cwere the wolves, and we were the sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gremlins were vicious and years ago I met someone who grew up on Ocean Parkway in the 1950s and hung around the skating rink at Park Circle.\u00a0 He lived in Ditmas Duke territory, but he wasn\u2019t a member of the gang.\u00a0 However, he liked to emulate them.\u00a0 That had very bad consequences for him one night when he was walking down East 5th<\/sup> Street and Beverly Road wearing a motorcycle jacket with a skull and cross pistons painted on the back.\u00a0 It was a copy of the jacket Marlon Brando wore in The Wild Ones movie.\u00a0 As he walked down the street, someone emerged from a car and greeted him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi Ditmas Duke,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

I smiled, because I felt complimented and then took a concussion from a baseball bat.\u00a0 The guy who did it was Frank Reilly, I believe, a member of the Gremlins.<\/p>\n

From this hawk\u2019s eye view of Gremlin activity in the 1950s, we dive directly into July 1955, where we learn of a devious scheme Sal and his fellow Gremlins concocted.\u00a0 It was the middle of July, school was out, and as the saying goes, an idle mind is the devil\u2019s workshop.\u00a0 The Gremlins were looking for a victim to sink their talons into.\u00a0 Luckily for them, and equally unfortunately for their victims, the Gremlins found six of them hanging out on the corner of Avenue C and Ocean Parkway.<\/p>\n

Like a hot desert wind blowing off the Sahara, Sal and the Gremlins fell upon their prey.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a fair match with 3:1 odds.\u00a0 The Gremlins were looking for money and David, one of the boys standing at the corner, refused to be intimidated and resisted their demands.\u00a0 But this didn\u2019t do much and Sal slapped him several times and either he or one of his cronies reached into David\u2019s pocket and stole a dollar and some change.\u00a0 The other boys were also robbed and in total, $2.40 was stolen.<\/p>\n

As the Gremlins left, Sal told David they now had to $20 a week for protection (from them) and the first payment was to go down on July 18, 1955 at 8 p.m. on the same street corner.\u00a0 Sal was only 17 years old and he was already a junior Mafioso shaking people down.<\/p>\n

David promptly told the police what happened and they arranged to spy on the extortion planned for the evening of July 18.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure how he did this, but Sal caught wind of the planned sting, and he didn\u2019t show up.\u00a0 Instead he paid a little visit to David who worked as a delivery boy for a cleaning store on Church Avenue and Ocean Parkway.\u00a0 He told David that he found out what he did and warned him to never involve the police again.\u00a0 Arrangements for the extortion were reschedule for Jul.20, 1955, where the payoff would happen at the entrance to the Greenwood playground on Fort Hamilton Parkway and Ocean Parkway.\u00a0 This was the same park that the police would stop a fight between the Gremlins and Flatbush Tigers seven months later in February 1956 (as noted above).<\/p>\n

Again, David told the police what happened and again arrangements were made to spy on the extortion attempt in Greenwood playground.\u00a0 The police provided David with five one dollar bills that were marked.\u00a0 While the payoff happened they would observe from a distance.\u00a0 David waited at the entrance to Greenwood playground and with the precision of a Swiss time piece, Sal and a comrade approached David and told him to follow him to a secluded spot in the park where he asked for the money.\u00a0 David told him he only had $5.\u00a0 Sal accepted the money but told him, \u201cOkay, give it to me, and make sure you have more the next time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sal walked away when two detectives who watched the event go down arrested him.\u00a0 Sal had stuffed the $5 into his underpants where it was recovered.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure whether the detective wore latex gloves to expel the cash from its dark hiding place or if Sal plucked it out with his own fingers.\u00a0 From there Sal was taken to the 70th<\/sup> Precinct where he was booked for attempted extortion.<\/p>\n

When Sal was doing his dirty work, a fellow Gremlin was with him.\u00a0 His first name was Robert, and no last name given.\u00a0 For some unexplainable reason the arresting officer dismissed Robert.\u00a0 I bring this up because like a late-popping kernel of corn, Robert will show up later in this story.<\/p>\n

Sal told the police that it was true that he got $5 from David, but they misunderstood.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t extorting David.\u00a0 No, the money was to pay for a debt owed to Danny Marino, one of the other leaders of the Gremlins who I mentioned earlier in this article.\u00a0 However, after close questioning, Sal wilted and admitted that it actually was a shakedown as well as the previous extortion when him and the rest of the Gremlins stole $2.40.<\/p>\n

David didn\u2019t care either way what type of punishment would befall Sal.\u00a0 He just wanted to be left alone.\u00a0 Other than the money he lost from the first extortion, he wasn\u2019t out by much.\u00a0 Of course there was the insult of being shoved around by Sal and the Gremlins, but since their arrest, the Gremlins hadn\u2019t come around anymore to terrorize him.\u00a0 The $5 in marked $1 bills would be returned to him by the police who held it for evidence.<\/p>\n

The police investigated the case and even though the cash the Gremlins stole wasn\u2019t very much, this wasn\u2019t Sal\u2019s first rodeo in the extortion business.\u00a0 In fact, the arresting officer said that Sal was the \u201cmuscle man\u201d of about 15 Gremlins who were a menace to the neighborhood of Ocean Parkway and Church Ave.\u00a0 Their modus operandi was slapping other boys around and collecting extortion money from them.\u00a0 In fact, when Sal was 15 years old, he was arrested on February 22, 1954 for extortion.\u00a0 His 16th<\/sup> birthday was the next day and when you take into account he committed the crime at 8:45 p.m., he was literally hours away from being charged as an adolescent instead of as a juvenile where the punishment wouldn\u2019t be as punitive.\u00a0 In that incident, along with two others, they stopped a 13 year old and a 14 year old, and armed with a penknife, brass knuckles and a club, they assaulted them, hitting them with the brass knuckles and holding the open penknife to their vulnerable bellies.\u00a0 They stole 25 cents from them with violent force.<\/p>\n

Sal\u2019s extortion attempt in July 1955 wasn\u2019t his first time.\u00a0 Extortion was his business.<\/p>\n

\"Sal\u2019s<\/a>

Sal\u2019s first extortion in 1954 took place somewhere on this corner of Beverley Road and East 3rd Street.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Sal launched into blame-shifting mode and tried to pin the blame on Danny Marino by saying he was the leader of the gang, gave all the orders and that he obeyed him because he was afraid of getting beat up by Danny\u2019s older brother.\u00a0 The plan was to divide the $5 with Marino, himself and three other Gremlins.\u00a0 All of them had Children\u2019s Court records and all of them were on probation.\u00a0 According to the arresting officer, the Gremlins had a sophisticated operation (at least for teenagers) and no police action was taken against them because they adeptly hid their criminal deeds.<\/p>\n

Sal didn\u2019t see the seriousness of the situation.\u00a0 He told the police the Gremlins forced it on him and that the reason he was in the gang in the first place was because he would get beat up if he didn\u2019t join.\u00a0 Plus, there were social functions that were connected with the gang that he wanted to be a part of.<\/p>\n

However, Sal\u2019s gang behavior didn\u2019t match what he said about joining the Gremlins out of fear of getting beat up.<\/p>\n

He came from a large family and his parents were too busy with raising so many kids to pay a lot of attention to him.\u00a0 Both his parents were Italian, but they came from Tunisia, Africa and didn\u2019t understand the American culture or their own son.\u00a0 So he drifted from the family to the point where his home was only a landing pad for eating and sleeping.\u00a0 He never confided in his parents.\u00a0 Instead he sought companionship with criminally-minded boys in the neighborhood.\u00a0 He joined the Gremlins in January 1955, after being invited to join the gang.\u00a0 They told Sal the purpose of the Gremlins was \u201cstrictly for social functions\u201d which included church dances, parties and skating rinks.\u00a0 However, this deteriorated into them terrifying the neighborhood, robbing boys and collecting protection money from them.\u00a0 The Gremlins were around as far back as 1945, so it\u2019s doubtful, laughable actually, that the Gremlins were there \u201cstrictly for social functions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sal told the investigators the names of a host of Gremlins and how he would meet up with them in playgrounds on Prospect Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway.\u00a0 They roamed up and down Ocean Parkway together.\u00a0 Seven of the names of the Gremlins that Sal gave up to the police were already known to them.\u00a0 They had actually assaulted a police officer near 76 Prospect Park West when he tried to stop them from being disorderly.\u00a0 Years ago I found an excellent write-up on a member of the Gremlins with the first name of \u201cDom.\u201d\u00a0 His story is no longer on the Internet, but here is a portion of it as it pertains to Dom\u2019s activities in the gang.\u00a0 This is an excellent description of what life was probably like in the gang, as seen through the eyes of an outsider:<\/p>\n

I first saw Dom get in trouble shoplifting small items from Kenny’s Variety Store on Church and E. 3rd. It seemed pretty stupid to shoplift right next to where his Mom worked but who knows. He usually got off with a lecture and having his Mom told but he never seemed remorseful or committed to change behaviors. He seemed to have an attitude that he would try harder and smarter at shoplifting.<\/p>\n

I once heard that he had gotten caught trying to shoplift a plastic model airplane kit from Victor’s Toy Store on Church and E. 5th Street. I was told that the Cops had come and that Dominic was taken away in a Police car.<\/p>\n

He wasn’t around for awhile but finally showed up with a new “look”. He told everyone that he had been staying with an uncle, his father’s brother, in the Bronx and that he used to get beatings.<\/p>\n

His new “look” was ’50s hoodlum-ish… greased pompador hair with a DA, pegged pants with an inset of red satin on the legs, very pointy shoes, and a nasty and intimidating attitude.<\/p>\n

Where we lived was just north of an area controlled by the Ditmas Dukes and south of Gremlins territory. Dom announced that he was a Gremlin and that he could get 500 guys to beat anyone’s asses. This is where I became even more remote from Dom.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t figure out how Dom could afford his new style till I was told that he was stealing checks out of mailboxes on Ocean Parkway and was also snatching purses from old women. I understand that he did get caught and was “sent away” but he always reappeared after three or six months.<\/p>\n

Sal was sent away upstate for a 3 year sentence.\u00a0 Up to this point, Sal\u2019s story isn\u2019t exactly promising and it feels like his life will be a repeating series of mistakes, bad decisions and outright crimes.\u00a0 Sal not learning his lesson while in prison would be normal.\u00a0 In today\u2019s age, two thirds of criminals go on to reoffend again with half of them going back to prison.\u00a0 It was probably the same in the 1950s and a life of crime and incarceration seemed to be waiting for Sal.<\/p>\n

But Sal wasn\u2019t like so many others.\u00a0 When the doors slammed shut on him, he matured quickly.\u00a0 Real quick.\u00a0 When the psychiatrist met with him on April 25, 1956, at first Sal was apprehsnive, sitting on the edge of his chair with a scared look on his face.\u00a0 However, the psychiatrist won his trust and they began to talk.\u00a0 As they talked, the psychiatrist became very impressed by Sal:<\/p>\n

\u2026There is no question about the fact that this boy has real, profound and sincere remorse for his activities and the fact that he became identified with a gang known as \u201cGremlins.\u201d\u00a0 One gathers that soon after the prison doors closed on his incarceration, he matured and stabilized and reached a point in his thinking and comprehension of a much more realistic nature.\u00a0 He now feels so motivated and so indebted and obligated to his parents that he anticipates obtaining two separate jobs in order that he can aid with the economy of the family.\u00a0 He indicates that the offense for which he is incarcerated was a result of the fact he was turning over his pay check of $34.00 to his mother from which she would give him a dollar a day and three dollars on Sunday.\u00a0 He states that at that time this did not seem to be sufficient in order to hang around with the associates that he had at that time.\u00a0 He now realizes the error of his ways and indicates that his parents are very interested in him.\u00a0 He states that he has caused, because of his behavior and disobedience, some concern to his mother and father, but he indicates in a very convincing manner that that has now come to an end and he can assume his role in life and society as a member of the family in a healthy, adult and constructive fashion.<\/p>\n

Sal backed his words up with positive action and he got out on parole on July 12, 1957.\u00a0 I should say though that his time served wasn\u2019t perfect.\u00a0\u00a0 In his first parole hearing, for which he was rejected (which was normal and happened to all inmates), the following humorous exchange took place:<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 Back in September you got a little lazy?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0 Yes, sir.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 You didn\u2019t get up in the morning?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0 No, sir.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 Why not?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0 I was dreaming.\u00a0 Five minutes later I got a report.<\/p>\n

\"Sal\u2019s<\/a>

Sal\u2019s Prisoner Profile Card<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The day he got out on parole, Sal met his parole officer who spelled out the rules to him.\u00a0 Rules like an 11 p.m. curfew during the week and a midnight on Saturdays.\u00a0 He was especially warned about not hanging out with his old friends in the Gremlins.\u00a0 As long as he followed those rules he wouldn\u2019t be returned back to prison.\u00a0 Parole would expire on August 15, 1958.<\/p>\n

Sal was to live with his parents at 548 East Third Street and he landed a job at the Brooklyn Stone Renovating Company.\u00a0 He got the job because his boss was a personal friend of his father.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t screw up now.<\/p>\n

And you know what?\u00a0 He didn\u2019t screw up.\u00a0 He did very well on parole, in fact.\u00a0 Sal matured and was a regular and willing worker.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t hang out with the Gremlins anymore.\u00a0 His parole officer said that \u201cthere appears to be very little doubt that the parolee is on his way to make a very satisfactory adjustment in Society and meet his share of responsibility in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t find Sal having any further run-ins with the law, so I\u2019m assuming he wasn\u2019t fooling the psychiatrist:\u00a0 he really did want to do better with his life, prove his parents he could hold his own and be responsible.\u00a0 However, that wasn\u2019t the case with all the Gremlins.\u00a0 I mentioned three of them in this post:\u00a0 Dom, Danny Marino and Robert.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what happened to them:<\/p>\n

Dom<\/u><\/p>\n

When Dom got older he hung out with wanna-bees from the Gallo family at a place called the Burger Rail Diner.\u00a0 He was probably running errands for them and other small \u201cjobs.\u201d\u00a0 Dom worked out, got big and looked older than his age.\u00a0 Sometimes when he saw kids from the neighborhood he offered them deals on items that had \u201cfallen off a truck.\u201d\u00a0 Stuff like leather jackets, portable record players and even real 18-karat jewelry.<\/p>\n

Around 1961 or 1962, Dom had what I would call a very bad day.\u00a0 Someone found him \u201ccrumpled up and bloodied behind some bushes on one of the lawns on East 4th<\/sup> Street.\u201d\u00a0 When he asked Dom what happened, he replied through his bleeding mouth, which had missing teeth, that \u201csome \u2018pimp buddies\u2019 were jealous and had jumped him and then dumped him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Someone called the police and when they got to him, they stood over him laughing.\u00a0 They kicked Dom and spat on him.\u00a0 One of the cops said, \u201cLet\u2019s wait till we get another call about this piece of shit.\u201d\u00a0 With that they drove away.\u00a0 Dom was in really bad shape and was dragged into a cellar where he was taken care of.\u00a0 He lay there in the fetal position with his hand wrapped in his jacket.\u00a0 The jacket was bloody as Dom was using it to stem the bleeding in his hand.\u00a0 And it wasn\u2019t just a scratch either.\u00a0 His index finger was gone, severed completely off.\u00a0 To make things worse, his eye was seriously injured.<\/p>\n

Dom was nursed back to health and his eye was saved.\u00a0 But he was bitter and enraged.\u00a0 His associates from the Burger Rail Diner asked his mother where he was, and so did the cops, but she didn\u2019t give her son up.\u00a0 After he recovered, Dom moved out of New York City and settled down in Las Vegas, away from the cauldron of New York City organized crime.<\/p>\n

Dom has since passed away.<\/p>\n

Danny Marino<\/u><\/p>\n

Danny Marino took a different turn.\u00a0 On October 4, 1957, he was arrested for third degree assault with three other boys.\u00a0 They punched the victim but the charge was reduced down to Disorderly Conduct.<\/p>\n

When he got older, he graduated from teenage extortion to the big time \u2013 a member of the Gambino family.\u00a0 His family pedigree probably had a lot to do with that because his uncle was Carmine Lombardozzi who was a capo in the Gambino family.\u00a0 And a very successful and rich one at that.\u00a0 He ran the Gambino stock market rackets, loan sharking and had a \u201cbrilliant mind\u201d for numbers.<\/p>\n

Not only was Danny in the Gambino family, but he became a part of their leadership.\u00a0 As you would expect, he had a long and \u201cillustrious\u201d criminal career including the following:<\/p>\n