Black Mass

[JakeTheSnake630]

Rereading black mass and came across this part where they say in 1980 Whitey and Stevie forced an unaffiliated Eastie bookmaker first name Vito LNU to either pay them for get out of business and the guy closed up shop. I found this surprising that an Italian book maker in east Boston of all places in 1980 was not affiliated with or protected by LCN and was allowed to be shaken down by Bulger and Flemmi. Does anyone know more about this? Last time I read black mass was 10+ years ago and reading it now with the knowledge I have you pick up on more things. Would love to hear some thoughts!

[Ryan98366]

Not all bookmakers are paying tribute. Some are independent or fly under the radar. Joe Vito in Philly didn’t pay.

[JakeTheSnake630]

I realize that. When was joe Vito around tho? During Stanfa era? Boston is smaller than Philly and east Boston used to be a heavy lcn area. So it is surprising that this bookie wasn’t at least protected by lcn and was allowed to be shaken down and put out of business by Whitey. I just found it hard to believe guys like joe Russo, the Rosettis’, etc would have let that happen. A lot of people say Whitey didn’t have much power outside of Southie.

[davidf1989]

Rereading black mass and came across this part where they say in 1980 Whitey and Stevie forced an unaffiliated Eastie bookmaker first name Vito LNU to either pay them for get out of business and the guy closed up shop. I found this surprising that an Italian book maker in east Boston of all places in 1980 was not affiliated with or protected by LCN and was allowed to be shaken down by Bulger and Flemmi. Does anyone know more about this? Last time I read black mass was 10+ years ago and reading it now with the knowledge I have you pick up on more things. Would love to hear some thoughts!

I read about that in the book and I thought that Black Mass mentioned that Nicky Femia who was Barboza's sidekick pointed a gun at the bookmaker when Whitey and Stevie were shaking him down.