Red Hook Brooklyn Mafia, Ground Zero

Penguin Random House sent me another book on organized crime to review. This one is called Red Hook Brooklyn Mafia, Ground Zero by Frank Dimatteo and Michael Benson. 

Gangland wire did a podcast about it with the authors. It's about the rivalry between the Irish and Italian Mafia in Brooklyn. Apparently the Irish originally controlled the docks before the Italians took over. Around 1925 to 1927. Hells Kitchen over in Manhattan was also an Irish stronghold in New York. 

The Mafia isn't my specialty as that usually implies the Italian mob and I'm from Vancouver. The Italian mob isn't here it's in Montreal and Ontario. That's not an invitation by the way. Commercial Drive is awesome. We don't need drama.

I normally cover gangs and drugs. Which the mob control over there but not here. Over there the mafia is also involved with illegal gambling and extortion. 

Nobody cares about illegal gambling or contraband cigarettes. That doesn't destroy societies like crystal meth or fentanyl does. There's no such thing as illegal gambling just unlicensed. Under normal circumstances, the house wins. The odds are in their favor. Then there's rigged ones we saw when I was a kid. 

Anyone who takes up gambling debts with the mob or the Hells Angels is very unwise. That takes risk taking to a whole new level. It's stupid. Don't do it. We don't have extortion in Vancouver. That's the government's job with their inflated taxes. Maybe Chinatown but I don't see that. 

In Montreal it's common. The call it pisa. For us in Vancouver pizza is what we have with pepperoni and cheese. Evidently it's still a problem in Montreal. The mob says pay us protection money or your business might have an accident. It may get firebombed. Nobody respects that. Extortionists are simply parasites living off the work of others.

When I was in Belfast 1988/89 I came across a video of a journalist reporting on businesses being extorted by the IRA and the UDA. I sent it to a friend from High School who was originally from Belfast but when I got back they didn't want anything to do with that and threw it out. It was a really good documentary and I can't find it posted anywhere.

In Montreal, Vito Rizzuto negotiated a truce between the Irish mob, the Italian Mafia and the Hells Angels. Everybody made money for a time until the Rizzutos were betrayed by the Calabrians out of Hamilton and the Ontario village idiots.

Julian Sher put out a documentary about the Irish West End Gang in Montreal called King of Coke which was streamed on Crave. Julian Sher is credible. He also wrote Road to Hell.

I don't know anything about the West End Gang other than the fact that Larry Amero's coaccused Shane Baloney wasn't affiliated with them. Shane claimed his mother who was a waitress had an affair with a leader of the West End Gang. 

Shane Maloney was from Burnaby not Montreal. People here who knew him talked about how he would rip people off. They called him wheels because he rolled around on a wheelchair after an accident. He mysteriously disappeared while on parole like Robby who escaped prison. Nothing shady about that. Much. Some of the fake news called him the leader of the West End Gang. That is ridiculous. He's simply an illegitimate son from Burnaby who would rip people off. 

So Red Hook takes place in Brooklyn during the 1920's. The movie Gangs of New York with  Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz took place way back in 1863. It was a very wild time period so it was. So this is history.

Before I went to New York in the /80's, I watched the movie Warriors a million times. That's what I was expecting to see when I got there but by 1985, all those gangs in New York were gone. The NYPD lead a successful harassment campaign targeting anyone who wore colours in public. 

That's why the Crips and Bloods in LA didn't wear patches, they just wore a red or blue banana in their back pocket. They just wore coloured clothing instead of gang logos. In LA the gangs exploded while they died down in New York.

When I was young I read the book Run Baby Run by Nicky Cruz. It was a sequel to the Cross and the Switchblade. That fed my fascination with the gangs of New York which lead me to join the Guardian Angels and eventually train and patrol with them.