THE BLACK HAND FORUM

Thanks. It's been a while since I've read the book.

[quote=Snakes post_id=91835 time=1539476394 user_id=66]
What was Borgesi upset about? That it didn't go into more detail? If so, that's pretty strange but we are talking about Philly here.
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There's fleeting rumors that Previte "exaggerated" his role in things (a commonly used reason for discrediting someone) but if I recall in the book, Previte, while having few good words for anyone, actually laid it on to Borgesi, describing him as a bully and scumbag. True or not, I wouldn't enjoy reading my opponents words about me without any way to offer up a rebuttal. And given that GA penned the book, that's who his frustrations were taken out on. This was not the case with Merlino who's had an amicably relationship with GA, even speaking while he was incarcerated.

What was Borgesi upset about? That it didn't go into more detail? If so, that's pretty strange but we are talking about Philly here.

The Last Gangster was mostly told from the perspective of Ron Previte, which went into no detail of his being made other than Stanfa just said it and that they'd have a ceremony later on which never happened. And his elevation to capo wasn't covered at all. Outside of the leadership changes, there's no documented Family Meetings, nothing. George Borgesi was allegedly furious over the book which caused him to sever ties with Anastasia.

If someone knowledge came on and argued that Previte wasn't made I'd find it halfway believable.

[quote="Pogo The Clown" post_id=91788 time=1539444579 user_id=53]
I'm really looking forward to the next installment covering his time as Boss. Hopefully it clears up a lot of stuff about the Capos and crews, the induction ceremonies and other things that has often been ignored about this era. We got some good tidbits in this one such as Steve Mazzone being a Capo early on before becoming Consigliere. I suspected he was but didn't know for sure.


Pogo
[/quote]

Agreee. Anastasia missed out on telling a lot of that

[quote="Chris Christie" post_id=91807 time=1539456182 user_id=69]
I wonder what Felix Bocchino's rank was prior to his murder, by all accounts seems he had some rank.
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There was one article after his death that implied he was the number two man in the organization, something along those lines. Most info talks about him handling the street rackets for Stanfa early on, but it's not clear if he was going around like an enforcer or simply re-organizing everything on a leadership level, or both. Like Natale says on the LCNBios excerpt, the underboss is the "street boss" so it's possible Bocchino's activities fit that description. Wouldn't surprise me if he was Stanfa's first underboss since Ciancaglini Jr. wasn't made/in place yet. From conversations recorded with Stanfa and Piccolo, it sounds like they were planning the full administration even before Stanfa became boss, as Sparacio suggested a different administration which upset Stanfa who had his own ideas for the administration. Since Stanfa and Piccolo look to have been in place around the same time, it seems likely they would have also filled the underboss position unless the plan from the beginning was to leave the underboss spot open, then Ciancaglini and immediately promote him kind of like Piccolo had planned to do previously with Fresolone as captain. Fresolone was also of the opinion that he was going to be promoted to underboss when Martirano died but it was all pretty vague.

I wonder what Felix Bocchino's rank was prior to his murder, by all accounts seems he had some rank.

I’m really looking to hear about his father/son relationship with Carlo Gambino.

How Carlo raised him, groomed him, loved him more than even his close blood family and finally put him in charge of the Gambino Family and why Natale turned it down.

Can’t wait.

I'm really looking forward to the next installment covering his time as Boss. Hopefully it clears up a lot of stuff about the Capos and crews, the induction ceremonies and other things that has often been ignored about this era. We got some good tidbits in this one such as Steve Mazzone being a Capo early on before becoming Consigliere. I suspected he was but didn't know for sure.


Pogo

Agreed B. Fascinating time period. I just wish we didnt have to sift thru his lies

The thing about Natale is he was legitimately a scary guy in his day and one of relatively few Philly associates/members to be heavily involved with unions. You have to be skeptical of a lot of his claims, especially with all of the boasting, but there is good information to be learned, especially from the info he provided direct to the FBI.

Glad to see LCNBios is digging into some unexpected areas, especially one like mid- and late- 90s Philly since it's easy to gloss over the family at that time given their problems. I also appreciate Pogo's posts about the Stanfa regime since a lot of info about the organization gets overlooked/lost due to the "gang who couldn't shoot straight" storyline.

The best one was his claim in book that he made in a private ceremony held by Angelo Bruno and Carlo Gambino. I mean, that's too hilarious to even get mad about. He's rivalling Kuklinski in terms of bullshit there

[quote=Cheech post_id=91720 time=1539362061 user_id=71]
this guy might be the biggest bullshitter ever
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That’s funny. I was going to post the exact same thing.

Fucking moron. He can’t even lie well. At least lie about things which can’t be cross checked (Merlino and his prison time).

It’s almost a waste of time reading anything he has to say.

[quote="Cheech"]this guy might be the biggest bullshitter ever[/quote]If not the biggest definitely the funniest. But at least he believes in himself.

Surprised there was no mention of Natale's visit to New York in 1996 to meet with the William D'Elia (Bufalino) and Andrew Russo (Colombo).