Is Barney truly a "boss"?

[Amershire_Ed]

Gene Borrello shits on almost everyone involved in that life as overrated and a fake tough guy but Barney is someone he has spoken of with a great deal of respect. They had a Q&A and were asked to name the biggest gangsters of their era and Borrello said “Barney from the Bronx” immediately. I’m not co-signing everything Borrello says but I do think it’s notable that he said everyone in the street knew Barney was “the guy”.

[Ryan98366]

I am in agreement with this thread. Barney is not really a boss. People shit on Paul Castellano. They said he wasn’t a good boss or a real gangster. But he was meeting with his captains. He went to his social club. He attended sit downs. He went to commission meetings. Hell...he met with solidiers like Sammy Bull. He was a boss. Barney is too distant.

[Wiseguy]

I am in agreement with this thread. Barney is not really a boss. People shit on Paul Castellano. They said he wasn’t a good boss or a real gangster. But he was meeting with his captains. He went to his social club. He attended sit downs. He went to commission meetings. Hell...he met with solidiers like Sammy Bull. He was a boss. Barney is too distant.

I think you guys should send an email to Capeci, and have him forward it to his sources in law enforcement and the underworld, setting them straight on Barney not being a boss. Seriously, you can't leave them groping in the dark like this. It's embarrassing.

[CabriniGreen]

On the first point...Tribute

1. In what form does this " tribute" have to take? Does it HAVE to be money? Can the tribute be in the form of respect?

Chin didnt take a lot of tribute reportedly. This garnered him immense respect. Same with say, Luchesse. Whereas guys like Profaci and Castellano inadvertently provoked insurrections within their borgata
by being heavy handed with tribute demands. If Montagna is a trifle less greedy, he walks into Montreal and takes over easy.

Barney having his own legit income is a qualification for leadership, imo. He never has to reach deep into anyone's pockets.


Now Take Gotti.....

I believe he EXCESSIVELY demanded tribute CONSTANTLY, it's just that the tribute he demanded wasnt in the form of money, it was respect. He constantly wanted EVERYONE to meet him. Because he wasnt completely secure in his position, with how he took power, how could he be? Meeting people constantly compromised the whole thing......

Or his gambling losses that the crew had to cover. That amounted to basically a backhanded tax to his own crew, that caused a breakdown in disciple that rocked the whole family. In effect, too much tribute.

Bosses making excessive demands of tribute, either in money or respect to me is a sign of insecurity and or narcissistic personality.


2. As far as meeting people?

Chin had it right. Bosses meet to take a life, to solve issues between borgata, to approve new members, dictate overall LCN strategy. Not to shoot the shit, and brag over who banged what broad....

Bosses shouldn't be meeting with every Capo, Capos shouldn't be meeting with every soldier, and every soldier shouldn't entertain every jerkoff in the street looking to kiss ass. And ALL the Capos and soldiers should be able to stand on their feet and function on their OWN.

I got nothing against the guy, but I dont get guys like Gene Borello. He spends 10-15 years following some guy around, WAITING for HIM to validate you. And its NOT in the guys best interest to EVER really do that. Hed lose his trusted flunky. How did he not understand this?

[chubby]

Label him whatever you want.. but he does and has had the final word with the west side literally forever.... in heard he spends a decent amount of time in Florida and has enough legit business in Florida and ny to be a multimillionaire easily....
obviously he isn’t out there sitting at a social club picking up envelopes from every west side captain... but there’s got to be a couple that he’s willing to meet with... I’m sure he almost seems deaf since it’s obviously impossible to get him to speak openly about anything.. how long has he been around and not got caught on wires????
He’s also still extremely feared from the shit he did in his younger years... I’ve heard several stories, that Some could say are like “embellished neighborhood” stories since obviously he was never charged or convicted of these things... the person who relayed the stories to me, who I trust, said he couldn’t say they were 100 percent true, but also that he wouldn’t put it past Barney, and that these stories are somewhat known... if you guys are interested in me sharing, let me know... all I know is the name “Barney” alone still seems to bring fear. Ahaha on one of the old boards peiple wouldn’t even refer to him by name, they would refer to him as “pelham bay” and later “new Rochelle”

[CabriniGreen]

Label him whatever you want.. but he does and has had the final word with the west side literally forever.... in heard he spends a decent amount of time in Florida and has enough legit business in Florida and ny to be a multimillionaire easily....
obviously he isn’t out there sitting at a social club picking up envelopes from every west side captain... but there’s got to be a couple that he’s willing to meet with... I’m sure he almost seems deaf since it’s obviously impossible to get him to speak openly about anything.. how long has he been around and not got caught on wires????
He’s also still extremely feared from the shit he did in his younger years... I’ve heard several stories, that Some could say are like “embellished neighborhood” stories since obviously he was never charged or convicted of these things... the person who relayed the stories to me, who I trust, said he couldn’t say they were 100 percent true, but also that he wouldn’t put it past Barney, and that these stories are somewhat known... if you guys are interested in me sharing, let me know... all I know is the name “Barney” alone still seems to bring fear. Ahaha on one of the old boards peiple wouldn’t even refer to him by name, they would refer to him as “pelham bay” and later “new Rochelle”

What are these Barney stories?

[SonnyBlackstein]

I think you guys should send an email to Capeci, and have him forward it to his sources in law enforcement and the underworld, setting them straight on Barney not being a boss. Seriously, you can't leave them groping in the dark like this. It's embarrassing.

You just HAVE to get all cute and cunty don’t you.
We’re talking absolute hypotheticals here and you get all passive aggressive.

This was my only point: IF a boss doesn’t fulfill a whole bunch of unknowns, at what level do we remove him, in a practical response, from being the boss. Ie Peter Gotti. There comes a time when despite the title, If a boss doesn’t fulfill a certain level of basic criteria we don’t carry them as functioning/legitimate.
We reached that with PG. At what stage (we were discussing a complete list of hypotheticals) would we do so with BB?

That’s a legit discussion which several posters have made interesting contributions on (polack)

Your response? “Why don’t you email the FBI and tell them BB isn’t a boss!” Hahahha.



See where you miss the boat?

[JesusMalverde]

i can agree barney isn’t as active as it seems but he used to be this cagey even in the 90s when he was chin’a stand-in. he used to meet with his underlings in the wee hours, on busy city streets or at those diners. there’s a great deal of fbi memos where’s he been mentioned present during sitdowns... i believe turncoats like sammy the bull and mike dileonardo said he has had met john gotti both sr and jr in many sit downs

[chubby]

Is the story of fish cafaro trying to set up sal larca sr. And Bellomo. This same Bellomo? Just curious cause they have his name in the article spelled leborio, instead of Liborio...

Barney and sal larca (sr.) we’re selling kilos of dope.. along with a few other guys... fish cafaro got most of them on tape talking about the dope dealing, but not a word from Barney, I guess fish cafaro tried to set up a buy bust to catch Bellomo red handed. And here’s a quote on how that went “ Bellomo got away with almost $200,000 of the money by eluding Federal agents in a high-speed car chase in the Bronx.”

[chubby]

I can’t find anything about whether Bellomo and his 3 other codefendants were found guilty or how much time they got. It was Bellomo, larca, Ralph tutino and leoluca guarino... with fish trying to set them all up..

[JohnnyS]

I am in agreement with this thread. Barney is not really a boss. People shit on Paul Castellano. They said he wasn’t a good boss or a real gangster. But he was meeting with his captains. He went to his social club. He attended sit downs. He went to commission meetings. Hell...he met with solidiers like Sammy Bull. He was a boss. Barney is too distant.

Castellano was a boss in a different era. A boss on the streets wouldn't last 5 minutes in this day going to social clubs, meeting with captains and soldiers. The last known commission meeting was 20 years ago that wasnt even attended by all the bosses.

The rules you've just made up for what makes a boss don't exist.

[TommyNoto]

Is the story of fish cafaro trying to set up sal larca sr. And Bellomo. This same Bellomo? Just curious cause they have his name in the article spelled leborio, instead of Liborio...

Barney and sal larca (sr.) we’re selling kilos of dope.. along with a few other guys... fish cafaro got most of them on tape talking about the dope dealing, but not a word from Barney, I guess fish cafaro tried to set up a buy bust to catch Bellomo red handed. And here’s a quote on how that went “ Bellomo got away with almost $200,000 of the money by eluding Federal agents in a high-speed car chase in the Bronx.”

I believe the Heroin deal was his cousin but it seems Boss Barney might of helped his cousin legally by getting Fish to hold back on implicating his cousin in the drug deal .

It’s interesting I was reading the Rubeo transcripts and he meets up with Cafaro son talking about Merlino and him being hooked up with the Bonnano guy with NJ land dumps. Very curious what his standing is as he is down in FL and was / is apparently close to Barney. Would of been a great question for Rubeo

[aleksandrored]

I am in agreement with this thread. Barney is not really a boss. People shit on Paul Castellano. They said he wasn’t a good boss or a real gangster. But he was meeting with his captains. He went to his social club. He attended sit downs. He went to commission meetings. Hell...he met with solidiers like Sammy Bull. He was a boss. Barney is too distant.

Castellano was a boss in a different era. A boss on the streets wouldn't last 5 minutes in this day going to social clubs, meeting with captains and soldiers. The last known commission meeting was 20 years ago that wasnt even attended by all the bosses.

The rules you've just made up for what makes a boss don't exist.

When was the last committee meeting?

[JohnnyS]

I am in agreement with this thread. Barney is not really a boss. People shit on Paul Castellano. They said he wasn’t a good boss or a real gangster. But he was meeting with his captains. He went to his social club. He attended sit downs. He went to commission meetings. Hell...he met with solidiers like Sammy Bull. He was a boss. Barney is too distant.

Castellano was a boss in a different era. A boss on the streets wouldn't last 5 minutes in this day going to social clubs, meeting with captains and soldiers. The last known commission meeting was 20 years ago that wasnt even attended by all the bosses.

The rules you've just made up for what makes a boss don't exist.

When was the last committee meeting?

Last official commission meeting was 1985. Massino called a meeting where he wanted a representative from each family to show in January 2000. It was attended by Massino, Sal Vitale, Louis Daidone, Larry Dentico, Peter Gotti and Joe Waverly.

[CornerBoy]

Not to long ago he was the only boss of the NY city families on the streets. So I assume he is really cautious. But nobody knows if doesnt take tribute.

Assuming he takes tribute which he must, how do you think he gets it?