by PolackTony » Sun Aug 13, 2023 10:15 pm
Ivan wrote: ↑Sun Aug 13, 2023 9:58 pm
Wow, really? He looks super young in it, figured he was like 20. I'm bad at guessing ages though. Thanks for all the info. That's wild about the pics. I half suspected Paulie was circulating them himself because he's "fucking proud of it" haha.
Everyone knows Paulie is a Player and he is very much “fucking proud” of it. Players have been around since the ‘70s, like I said, they have old heads a lot older than Paulie (and were a successor to an older Italian gang in Cicero that went back to the 50s, the Arch Dukes). For guys who came up when, where, and how Paulie did, the outfit was their dream, this is the social circle that idolizes the mob of course and aspires to one day be affiliated with them (a made guy of Italian, an associate of non-Ital).
Here’s some photos of Paulie in the mid to late ‘80s. In the second one, he’s on the left wearing his Nation sweater with “Paul” in Old English letters (photos courtesy of James “Jinx” O’Connor):
These sweaters are memorabilia today but for decades dudes in Chicago killed and died over them; like warriors taking scalps, guys would pose with their collections of rival organizations’ sweaters taken at gun point or worse. You were supposed to die before surrendering your sweater — as we said back in the day, “death before dishonor” (though we didn’t use sweaters in my era, as police pressure made it too hot):
[quote=Ivan post_id=265875 time=1691989084 user_id=64]
Wow, really? He looks super young in it, figured he was like 20. I'm bad at guessing ages though. Thanks for all the info. That's wild about the pics. I half suspected Paulie was circulating them himself because he's "fucking proud of it" haha.
[/quote]
Everyone knows Paulie is a Player and he is very much “fucking proud” of it. Players have been around since the ‘70s, like I said, they have old heads a lot older than Paulie (and were a successor to an older Italian gang in Cicero that went back to the 50s, the Arch Dukes). For guys who came up when, where, and how Paulie did, the outfit was their dream, this is the social circle that idolizes the mob of course and aspires to one day be affiliated with them (a made guy of Italian, an associate of non-Ital).
Here’s some photos of Paulie in the mid to late ‘80s. In the second one, he’s on the left wearing his Nation sweater with “Paul” in Old English letters (photos courtesy of James “Jinx” O’Connor):
[img]https://theblackhand.club/forum/ext/dmzx/imageupload/files/d794e7fd9fd5f2c02673fce25f9f45ce.jpeg[/img]
[img]https://theblackhand.club/forum/ext/dmzx/imageupload/files/2f851ad4e2a1c8ba49be0840058106de.jpeg[/img]
These sweaters are memorabilia today but for decades dudes in Chicago killed and died over them; like warriors taking scalps, guys would pose with their collections of rival organizations’ sweaters taken at gun point or worse. You were supposed to die before surrendering your sweater — as we said back in the day, “death before dishonor” (though we didn’t use sweaters in my era, as police pressure made it too hot):
[img]https://theblackhand.club/forum/ext/dmzx/imageupload/files/1890a84d40ebb379f14f3afea7020fc4.jpeg[/img]
[img]https://theblackhand.club/forum/ext/dmzx/imageupload/files/ae7e0cb2c49f0fe9617127c278f1f76b.jpeg[/img]