Mike Basile had been a bodyguard for Vincent Coll, the freelance enforcer of all sides of NY's bootleg wars. Basile was with Coll when he earned his tabloid tag as "Mad Dog" by strafing an East Harlem street corner with machine gun bullets, felling a five year old boy. A few months later, Coll met his own end, gunned down while sitting in a drugstore phone booth on west twenty third street. Basile retreated with the remaining gang members to an upstate hideaway in Colonie, NY, near Albany. There he was wounded in a shoot-out with detectives. Sentenced in 1933 to seventeen to thirty-five years for attempted first-degree murder on a policeman, Basile served the full term.
By the time Al met him, Basile, was soon to be released. But like aging tough guy Anthony Russo, it wasn't going to do him much good. He was dying of cancer. They'd never done anything for him in the hospital. He was an attempted cop killer do they really wouldn't treat him. They just let him get sicker.
Basile did finally make it out of Sing Sing, only to die in an ambulance on his way to an outside hospital.
(That was from D'Arco's book)
DOES anyone have any info on him? Was he SICILIAN? Was he affiliated with any of the NY families? There's not much info on him.
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1932 ... card-party
Mike Basile
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Re: Mike Basile
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Re: Mike Basile
I was hoping someone would know more about him. Besides EB and Bronx does anyone from the Bronx come on here?
Re: Mike Basile
He was born in NY in 1908, one of 10 kids (5 sons and 5 daughters) to Italian immigrants who lived on 153rd street in the Bronx. The father was a laborer.
Re: Mike Basile
Wow! Thanks a million. I appreciate the info. 
Re: Mike Basile
I'm trying to make a connection with bootleggers in Jersey of the same last name. So that's why I am asking if he is a Sicilian. I will look into it now that I have more info.
Re: Mike Basile
I'm not sure if they were Sicilian or not...old man was Pasquale. He came here in 1855, naturalized in 1898 but the papers at the time didn't state where in Italy he came from. Sorry.
Re: Mike Basile
I looked it up and if I'm correct he may have come from Bracigliano in Salerno, Italy which is in Campania. So basically he's Napolitano. 
Re: Mike Basile
I have the wrong Pasquale then. But I will keep researching. Maybe the Pasquale I found is a relative. You know how they name the sons after the Grandpa so maybe this is a cousin ???