The "Associates" Thread

[CabriniGreen]

How about Marat Balagula?

Morris Levy?

I'll see if I can think of more good ones....

[CabriniGreen]

How about the food guys?

[CabriniGreen]

Kaplan from the Luchesses, the other Jewish guy Casso hit Pappadio over the Garment center rackets...

[CabriniGreen]

Bumpy Johnson, Nelson Cantellops?

By food guys, I meant someone like Frank Ferro.

Zef Mustafa? Top tier?

We're there any really crooked big Union guys, who were not made? Must be a lot, right?

[CabriniGreen]

Ruby Stein?

[The Greek]

Wasn't John Gotti an unmade Acting Captain?

[Browniety86]

Hugh "Apples" McIntosh was direct with Carmine Persico I believe...

[CornerBoy]

Wasn't John Gotti an unmade Acting Captain?

Imagine being made since the 50's and have some unmade prick ordering you around>

[Angelo Santino]

Just to say, if somebody who is an associate of a member and said member becomes boss, the associate wouldn't automatically go to the top tier of associates. Top Tier has less to do with who they are with and and more to do with what influence they play on the organization. It's a very, very small group.

John Scalish, boss of Cleveland dies, and the Cleveland Mafia listened to non-member Maishe Rockman who claimed that Scalish wanted Licavoli to succeed him as head of the Cleveland Mafia. That's very significant. But as much as it violates the rule it also confirms it. If Rockman suggested some lackey, Cleveland might have said "yeah, Ok Boomer." But Licavoli had the credentials. Same situation as Joe Watts proposing DiLeonardo, a spectacular situation where we have a non-member advising a Mafia Boss who to make a mafia member. Had Watts suggested Wesley the Dunce then John might not have went along with it. These top tier associates made it to that point by being efficient in the life even if they could never formally be a part of it.

Drawing back to the Merlino theoretical. I could date his daughter, I could go into business with him, I could even do illegal stuff with him. I'm connected to a boss. But does Merlino as boss listen to me on who to propose for membership? If Merlino died would Philadelphia take my word that Merlino wanted this person or that person to succeed him? More than likely not.

Here's another example, let's say Merlino was listening to me, an Irishman in this example, on who to make and elevate within the Philadelphia Mafia and I run a bookstore, meanwhile Scott B is bringing in one million a month to Merlino. Who is more influential? Scott would get most of the credit since he's bringing in money but I'd argue it's me since my advice to Merlino on a topic he shouldn't be having with me, a nonmember, is considered and is impacting the Mafia Organization of Philadelphia.

Guys like Alex, Rockman and Watts are anomalys, the roles that they played are very significant and should be weighed with the utmost consideration of just how rare, nearly impossible such a position they were in or able to fulfill.

[B.]

Another category might be celebrity associates. Sometimes they're just friends but other times they're officially on record with a Family.

- Leonetti said Scarfo volunteered to help Burt Young with anything he needed, but Young told him he was already "with" Tony Ducks Corallo.

- Gravano testified Don King was with the Cleveland Family.

- Sinatra was supposedly on record with the Genovese Family.

- I'd guess James Caan is/was with Andy Russo and the Colombos based on how close they were.

- Not sure if it was just internet talk, but people on the boards used to say Joe Pesci was with the Gambino Family from his days in NJ. He was definitely connected to the old Gambino NJ crew.

Many more examples I'm sure, especially when we get into lower level celebrities like Tony Darrow (Gambinos), etc. I imagine some of these guys who were gangsters first then did acting are still with people too but they don't really count.

Point being, celebrity associates tend to be close to the boss or admin and couldn't be considered powerful or influential in an underworld sense, but are still valuable and important contacts who go into business with members, introduce them to people, and give/receive help. Like Gravano said, John Gotti purposely started cultivating celebrity relationships early on so they would appear in court and possibly sway jurors.

[Antiliar]

Was Steven Seagal with Angelo Prisco or was that just a brief business relationship?

[B.]

His business partner Julius Nasso was a Gambino associate who recruited the Ciccone crew to extort Seagal, so Seagal arranged for Prisco to represent him. Be interesting to know who put him in touch with Prisco or if there was an existing relationship.

[CabriniGreen]

Speaking of Kaplan... how about the mafia cops? And crooked law enforcement in general?

Is a crooked cop a top tier associate?

[B.]

In Chicago there were for sure cops / ex-cops who could be considered top associates.

In most cases I'd consider corrupt cops fringe players at best unless they're relatives. Kind of their own special category, ranging from guys with no connections who just accept payoffs to guys who are full-on associates. That NJ cop Policastro was so close to the Bonannos he was misidentified as a member.

With the mafia cops, Eppolito was from an entire family of Gambino members so he was raised in it long before he was a cop. Hard to place guys like them though because they were obviously associated with the mob and what they did with Casso was huge but they did it for money and weren't really affiliated, at least not with the Luccheses.

Question though -- how do you sit down for a cop? Even if he's trusted it's wild to imagine a made guy sitting down to settle an issue and saying "on behalf of my cop friend...". They're not allowed to make cops, so I wonder if they can officially put them on record or if it's just general association.

[CabriniGreen]

In Chicago there were for sure cops / ex-cops who could be considered top associates.

In most cases I'd consider corrupt cops fringe players at best unless they're relatives. Kind of their own special category, ranging from guys with no connections who just accept payoffs to guys who are full-on associates. That NJ cop Policastro was so close to the Bonannos he was misidentified as a member.

With the mafia cops, Eppolito was from an entire family of Gambino members so he was raised in it long before he was a cop. Hard to place guys like them though because they were obviously associated with the mob and what they did with Casso was huge but they did it for money and weren't really affiliated, at least not with the Luccheses.

Question though -- how do you sit down for a cop? Even if he's trusted it's wild to imagine a made guy sitting down to settle an issue and saying "on behalf of my cop friend...". They're not allowed to make cops, so I wonder if they can officially put them on record or if it's just general association.

How did Previte get in?