What got you interested?

[Ciro_DiMarzio]

Great thread and enjoyed reading everyones stories.

First time I watched Goodfellas with my dad when I was 8 I was absolutely blown away. Still my favourite movie of all time. I know it sounds corny and people might roll their eyes but when Henry explained "you had to be 100% italian/sicilian to be made...." I instantly thought being italian was the coolest thing in the world. I've always been obsessed with everything about the culture. I had an my zio Vittorio live with us on and off for years when I was a kid and he really contributed to this. He was an actor (not famous type just mostly commercials and small rolls) that was obsessed with anything De Niro and Pacino so I started watching all the classics from a young age. He played small parts in movies with a few legends including Ray Liotta and Paul Sorvino. So I basically always watched any movie or show on the subject and did my own little side research here and there.

As I got older I remember always following stuff in the news especially when Rizzutto first got arrested and extradited. That was big news up here. Around this time Sopranos starting showing on TLN in Toronto and I basically watched that every night before bed for 3 years. I remember when I was in high school I had a conversation with a good friends brother in law who was a cop. He started talking about the mob and for some reason I was surprised and fascinated when he told me they were top of the food chain in Toronto, Montreal and Canada basically (this was mid 2000s so its changed obviously). But thinking in retrospect for my entire life its really been in your face in Toronto, from shootings and bombings, it was constantly in the news growing up. I was on College watching Italy during the Raposo hit. Jimmy DiMarias bakery is around the corner from my house and its been blown up a few times over the years. The war in Montreal and all the murders in Toronto and Hamilton are all pretty constantly in the news up here. I didn't realize until I joined the forums that it wasn't active anymore in most american cities like it once was and was on the decline.

I only discovered GangsterBB at the beginning of covid and thought that was the coolest thing on the internet. Then I discovered BHF and have been blown away by all the information you guys have here. Now I've started ready all the good books out there on the subject. Don't have a lot to contribute besides from questions yet.

[dave]

The Dick Tracy movie got me interested in gangsters as a kid. lol. Bugsy, Goodfellas and Godfather 3, HBO Mob Stories all came out around the same time and I was fascinated. John Gotti was still in the news. A&E began producing a lot of great mob docs throughout the 90's. I discovered Capeci's Gangland News on the internet in 2000 when it was still free. Then the American Mafia forum, Real Deal, on and on.

[B.]

Oh man, I was obsessed with Dick Tracy when it came out. My neighbor and I used to pretend we were in the movie.

Completely forgot that was 100% my intro to "gangsters". I still laugh that there was a character just called the Influence.

[dave]

Yep, had it on VHS and watched it a million times. I had all the action figures too. The acting and action scenes were pretty solid for what it was. It starred Beatty, Pacino, Caan, Sorvino, Forsyth, etc. It was like candy cigarettes. Introduction to my mob addiction.