JIGGS wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 3:27 pm
The Press but especially the Capeci need to stop dropping the "Purple Gang" handle when they talk about Meldish or anyone else dealing junk in the '70s. That bogus DEA Report from the 1970s had Frank Viserto Jr as the boss of the pgn. When joe meldish was making the rounds after he got arrested for a murder from years ago the press had joe as the boss of "the purple gang." Now its mike meldish who is the leader. One day there going to ID Terrence Caldwell as the former boss of the purple gang.
JIGGS
Friends of mine from the area (UES) always say that the so-called "purple gang" were just a bunch of scumbag drug dealers and junkies, who were chased off more than a few blocks. That's from guys that been living there for the past 50-60 years or longer.
The only purple gang in harlem was a bunch of spics and moolies in the 80s that sold crack and the blue thunder street justice package. An italian american purple gang east of 2nd avenue is a hand job by the dea, the atf, the fbi, the ymca, and the e.i.e.i.o. East harlem purple g ang huh? Joe meldisch and dominic raimone (who aint listed on them funny pages) robbed a shooting gallery on 116th & 8th avenue. Most of the guys the dea say was purple gang were up in the bronx. The white section a throgsneck. The nypd is full a shit. And so are them reporters. Pileggi and them. Worst a the lot. Fuck em.
JIGGS
Yeah the Purple Gang you are referring to operated out of East Harlem on 121st/122nd and 1st/2nd Ave. They sold over $500,000 a week from just crack. There was another crew called the Obsession Crew that worked the same territory but only sold heroin. These two crews combined were doing well over $1M per week in sales and only operated on like 2-3 blocks.
I think the name was purple caps or some boys in the hood type shit.
There was a book out in 1976 titled "The Pleasant Avenue Connection" by David Durk and Ira Silverman Harper & Row; ISBN-10: 0060111429, ISBN-13: 978-0060111427. It's hard to come by today. Anyone who has a copy is charging an arm and a leg for it.
If I recall (I haven't read the book since it first came out) it has something about the Purple Gang (Italian American faction) in there. There were surveillance photos of some of the guys hanging out and placing junk in cars. At the time (throughout the '60's and '70's) the so called Purple Gang were considered a sort of farm team for the Lucchese and Genovese Families where these younger guys hung around doing things or making themselves available in hope of being noticed to the point of being accepted into the circle. At least that is how I always (rightly or wrongly) understood it to be.
The younger guys in the (Italian East Harlem) Purple Gang came from around the Bronx and East Harlem areas. Most of the older and more established East Harlem guys they were trying to emulate and impress for the most part grew up in and came from those same areas of the Bronx and East Harlem themselves.
Again this is just my understanding and or confusion on the subject but definitely not Gospel truth, so proceed with caution at your own peril. Or spend an arm and a leg and read these books. If you do let me know if I am right or wrong. To quote the venerable Giuseppe Mazzini. "You can throw a coin into the fountain. Me? I gotta take a leak."
JIGGS wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 3:27 pm
The Press but especially the Capeci need to stop dropping the "Purple Gang" handle when they talk about Meldish or anyone else dealing junk in the '70s. That bogus DEA Report from the 1970s had Frank Viserto Jr as the boss of the pgn. When joe meldish was making the rounds after he got arrested for a murder from years ago the press had joe as the boss of "the purple gang." Now its mike meldish who is the leader. One day there going to ID Terrence Caldwell as the former boss of the purple gang.
JIGGS
Friends of mine from the area (UES) always say that the so-called "purple gang" were just a bunch of scumbag drug dealers and junkies, who were chased off more than a few blocks. That's from guys that been living there for the past 50-60 years or longer.
The only purple gang in harlem was a bunch of spics and moolies in the 80s that sold crack and the blue thunder street justice package. An italian american purple gang east of 2nd avenue is a hand job by the dea, the atf, the fbi, the ymca, and the e.i.e.i.o. East harlem purple g ang huh? Joe meldisch and dominic raimone (who aint listed on them funny pages) robbed a shooting gallery on 116th & 8th avenue. Most of the guys the dea say was purple gang were up in the bronx. The white section a throgsneck. The nypd is full a shit. And so are them reporters. Pileggi and them. Worst a the lot. Fuck em.
JIGGS
Yeah the Purple Gang you are referring to operated out of East Harlem on 121st/122nd and 1st/2nd Ave. They sold over $500,000 a week from just crack. There was another crew called the Obsession Crew that worked the same territory but only sold heroin. These two crews combined were doing well over $1M per week in sales and only operated on like 2-3 blocks.
I think the name was purple caps or some boys in the hood type shit.
JIGGS
Yeah they called their territory on those couple blocks in East Harlem “Purple City”. Those crews had originally been getting supplied by mob guys. But then the Colombians came in and were offering better product for like half the price. And this was when crack really first started taking over NYC. At first police used to catch people with crack around 83, 84 and they had no clue what it was. They’d just let em go. Next thing you know you got 16 year old kids became borderline millionaires overnight. Those couple blocks would do close to $200,000 a day back then.
At 72 Spags cant catch a break. Guy was just in Northern state for Racketeering like 8 yrs ago. You would think that at 72 he could walk away and live out his days in a condo in Boca... He aint made...walk away. Hes got money.
JIGGS wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 3:27 pm
That bogus DEA Report from the 1970s had Frank Viserto Jr as the boss of the pgn.
JIGGS or anyone else who will know. Where can I find a copy of that report? I have scoured the web high and low over the past two years and I cannot find it anywhere so help me Giuseppe Garibaldi. Thanks.
I have a pending DEA FOIA request on it. I've also reached out to Rutgers who has he personal papers of Alan Block who used the report in a story he did- they are looking for it for me. Unraveling the myth of the Purple Gang is the subject of my next book (maybe- still haven't submitted the proposal yet).
sdeitche and JIGGS: There is a book from 1985 titled "Poisoning For Profit, The Mafia and Toxic Waste in America' by Alan A. Block and Frank R. Scarpitti, ISBN: 0-688-03970-7. In the book Chapter 8 is titled "The Secret Government of Waste." Part of what the chapter covers is murders that took place of owners of various solid waste companies (primarily in New Jersey). It also mentions the Purple Gang and how they were being employed to conduct the enforcement of those in control of the solid waste industry in New Jersey. It also mentions how they thought it was the Purple Gang because of their signature of using small caliber weapons (.22 caliber, presumably a handgun) and how in some instances the same weapon was using in multiple killings (ballistics). The Chapter goes into how the Purple Gang (or members of it) was into bringing easily obtainable weapons up from Florida. That is one of the places where the July 1979 ATF report on the Purple Gang is mentioned in the book.
Thanks!
I also reached out to the ATF for their report.
love that you're thinking of a purple gang book. i would buy. the new jersey book you wrote was really good
JIGGS wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 3:27 pm
That bogus DEA Report from the 1970s had Frank Viserto Jr as the boss of the pgn.
JIGGS or anyone else who will know. Where can I find a copy of that report? I have scoured the web high and low over the past two years and I cannot find it anywhere so help me Giuseppe Garibaldi. Thanks.
I have a pending DEA FOIA request on it. I've also reached out to Rutgers who has he personal papers of Alan Block who used the report in a story he did- they are looking for it for me. Unraveling the myth of the Purple Gang is the subject of my next book (maybe- still haven't submitted the proposal yet).
sdeitche and JIGGS: There is a book from 1985 titled "Poisoning For Profit, The Mafia and Toxic Waste in America' by Alan A. Block and Frank R. Scarpitti, ISBN: 0-688-03970-7. In the book Chapter 8 is titled "The Secret Government of Waste." Part of what the chapter covers is murders that took place of owners of various solid waste companies (primarily in New Jersey). It also mentions the Purple Gang and how they were being employed to conduct the enforcement of those in control of the solid waste industry in New Jersey. It also mentions how they thought it was the Purple Gang because of their signature of using small caliber weapons (.22 caliber, presumably a handgun) and how in some instances the same weapon was using in multiple killings (ballistics). The Chapter goes into how the Purple Gang (or members of it) was into bringing easily obtainable weapons up from Florida. That is one of the places where the July 1979 ATF report on the Purple Gang is mentioned in the book.
I remember reading that book sometime in the early '90's. I thought it was good. But thinking back on that chapter (Chapter 8) about the Purple Gang suspected of being used as the enforcement arm of the mob controlled solid waste industry in New Jersey; that theory appeared to be based on ballistics and the caliber ammunition used in a few mob murders that were directly related to the garbage industry. No one was ever arrested for any of the murders (three or four of them). As a result of the connection between the murders and the caliber ammunition and the fact that the so called Purple Gang were known for interstate traffic in firearms does not prove the weapons used in the murders came from the "Purple Gang" just because the weapons (or at least one) could be traced back to Florida the state from which the Purple Gang was known to acquire weapons and then take them up North to sell or for personal use or both. It also doesn't prove that anyone from "Purple Gang" committed the murders. It seems that based on these incidental occurrences and what was previously known about the Purple Gang and weapons trafficking the ATF composed a report about them in July of 1979. As interesting and as fascinating as all of this may appear, it all seems highly speculative and whether the weapons used in the murders came from the Purple Gang or not, it appears that whoever actually committed the murders, despite the fact they are being attributed to the Purple Gang, are more than happy to have the blame and focus of any investigation pointed in any direction but theirs. I am surprised a copy of the ATF report did not appear as an appendix in the book which now causes me to wonder a) was it not included because it would have cost more to print the book assuming the report is twenty to thirty pages in length (I don't know the page count of the report) or b) the content of the report about the Purple Gang dose not fully support the theory or speculation presented in the book. All of these sentiments are strictly my own opinion conjecture and interpretation reliant upon vague memory of a library book I once read some twenty-nine years ago.
JIGGS wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 3:27 pm
The Press but especially the Capeci need to stop dropping the "Purple Gang" handle when they talk about Meldish or anyone else dealing junk in the '70s. That bogus DEA Report from the 1970s had Frank Viserto Jr as the boss of the pgn. When joe meldish was making the rounds after he got arrested for a murder from years ago the press had joe as the boss of "the purple gang." Now its mike meldish who is the leader. One day there going to ID Terrence Caldwell as the former boss of the purple gang.
JIGGS
Friends of mine from the area (UES) always say that the so-called "purple gang" were just a bunch of scumbag drug dealers and junkies, who were chased off more than a few blocks. That's from guys that been living there for the past 50-60 years or longer.
The only purple gang in harlem was a bunch of spics and moolies in the 80s that sold crack and the blue thunder street justice package. An italian american purple gang east of 2nd avenue is a hand job by the dea, the atf, the fbi, the ymca, and the e.i.e.i.o. East harlem purple g ang huh? Joe meldisch and dominic raimone (who aint listed on them funny pages) robbed a shooting gallery on 116th & 8th avenue. Most of the guys the dea say was purple gang were up in the bronx. The white section a throgsneck. The nypd is full a shit. And so are them reporters. Pileggi and them. Worst a the lot. Fuck em.
JIGGS
And that's the thing. When anyone refers to the "Purple Gang" in NYC or East Harlem they also have to refer to a specific period of time. The Italian based guys up there from 1959/1960's to the early to mid 1970's was completely different from anyone up there in 1980 selling crack and calling themselves purple anything. Sounds like purple rain. The guys from the early 1960's were either in or pushing 50 years of age 980 came around. Totally different breed of cat. Anyone wanting to write about the Purple Gang as it relates to the Italian mob and East Harlem has to be aware of the specific time frame they are referencing. The late fifties early sixties and early to mid seventies were a lot different from the late seventies the eighties and the nineties. No comparison, not even the same thing. Also bear in mind when the 1980's came around that was when the NYC cement cartel and the Commission investigation and cases all came around. By that time the early Italian based so called "Purple Gang" was long gone. Those original guys were all older themselves and scattered all over the place by then. A lot of them were not even doing what they used to do when they were younger anymore. Some of them grew up got married had kids and a mortgage and had to go out and get a real job to stay out of jail and pay the bills.
Yonkers103 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 5:29 pm
that's what the law does!!! don't you realize that every OC bust they have either someone labeled as an acting street boss or a captain or acting captain? how many leadership roles can there be in a family of 90-120 guys??? it's all a show for the public. they have to justify their paychecks for following a bunch of old men around for 2 years , using millions of tax payer dollars , and exaggerating the entire indictment on for the most part rediculous misdemeanor crimes at best that they throw together to create a rico, say they are facing 20 years, put out the usual bullshit press report on how OC is alive and well and such a threat to our society and yadayadayada. meanwhile they make a name for themselves within Law enforcement and move up the ranks boasting about their major "accomplishments" in taking down OC. In a way this whole game is like politics! all bullshit! how many bosses are there how many captains how many consiglieres. it's like how many whistle blowers will there be against trump lol it's all a show
yea that's a good one too! and what about when they say " the suspect is a longtime known gambino, luchese, and bonanno associate"well which one is it??? if you even walk into a coffee shop and there is someone 5 tables away who they have labeled as OC you become an associate now of that crew , i'm suprised they don't have Trump down yet as associate with all the construction he did in NY but now i just have the looney left liberals their next impeachment inquiry, sorry Trump they are onto you know LOL what a joke!
looks like the feds had a undercover named pete who may already took the stand or is going to , he nailed datello , and was undercover from 2014-2016 , but I think the thing of most interest is chris penisii or how ever u spell it testimony
"if he's such A sports wizard , whys he tending bar ?" Nicky Scarfo
yea that's a good one too! and what about when they say " the suspect is a longtime known gambino, luchese, and bonanno associate"
well which one is it??? if you even walk into a coffee shop and there is someone 5 tables away who they have labeled as OC you become an associate now of that crew , i'm suprised they don't have Trump down yet as associate with all the construction he did in NY but now i just have the looney left liberals their next impeachment inquiry, sorry Trump they are onto you know LOL what a joke!
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