Hi my dear friends. Today we are going to know a bit more about gangsters, New York and the Mafia.
Hola mis queridos amigos. Hoy vamos a conocer un poco más sobre gangsters, Nueva York y la Mafia.
Info: Speak Up magazine.
Photos: NuevaYork.es / nycgangstermobtour.com / nycgangstersandghosts.com / freetours.by.foot/ untapped.new.york.
THE GANGSTER MOB TOUR - NEW YORK
If you want to find more about the dark side of New York history, then you should try the "NYC Gangster Mob Tour". It concentrates on an organization that still fascinates people: the Mafia.
Italians had been moving to New York since the 1880s, but this story begins during the Prohibition era. 1928 was the start of the Castellammarese War, between rival Sicilian-born gangsters: Giuseppe "Joe" Massaria and Salvatore Maranzano (from Castellammare del Golfo). The conflict also involved two Jewish gangsters, "Bugsy" Siegel and Meyer Lansky, and another Sicilian, Charlie "Lucky" Luciano. Massaria and Maranzano were both killed in 1931. At this point Luciano emerged as the most powerful mafioso and decided to divide control of New York among five families. Unlike most Sicilian mafiosi at that time, he worked with crime families from other Italian regions and with Jewish and Irish gangsters. In this way he effectively created "organized crime".
NOLITA
Much of the violence of the Castellammare War took place around Mulberry Street. Today New Yorkers refer to this area as "Nolita" or "North of Little Italy". This is now one of Manhattan's most chic neighbourhoods and is full of fashionable shops and bars, but back in the Prohibition era it was home to speakeasies. It was also the favourite haunt of gangsters. Their memory lives on in the many movies that have been filmed around here, like "The Godfather, Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco and American Gangster.
MEET THE MAFIA
The Mafia may be a sensitive issue for Italian Americans, but in New York City it's also a form of tourism thanks to the NYC Gangster Mob Tours. Lucky Luciano who was born in Sicily in 1897 and who died in Naples in 1962, features prominently in the tours.
When the Italians came over New York, some of the immigrants snuck in and they weren't the better people of the Italians that immigrated there. They were known as the Black Hand. They were a group of extortionists that used to extort money from all the Italian storekeepers that were in New York city, with threats of killing them or bombing them if they wouldn't give them what they asked for.
Charlie Luciano was a gentleman who was a big-time mobster and he was also the founder of the Five Families in New York and the creator of what is known as "organized crime". He used to hang out in this neighbourhood, he lived on the Lower East Side, made lots of money during this time of Prohibition and eventually in gambling and other things. On the block of Mulberry Street, was the Gambino crime family territory, and if we walk up the block, you will be able to see what was the Ravenite Club which was the social club run by the Gambino crime family where John Gotti, the head of the family, was caught by the FBI.
ON LOCATION
Italian Americans tend to hate the many fims and TV shows that portray them as mafiosi and, not surprisingly, there are plenty of film locations in the Gangster Mob Tours. Mulberry Street is full of restaurants. These ones were fronts for all the mob families, especially the Colombo and the Genovese families. They would use the restaurants to hold their meetings, either in the back room, the basement or upstairs. A famous Tour is called Mulberry Street Bar, and it is where the movie "Donnie Brasco" was filmed, the very opening scene at the bar inside and also the TV show from HBO, "Sopranos". Mulberry Street Bar was used as the Averna Social Club in the series. Further down the block there was a shooting in 1972 of a gentleman named Joe Gallo who was a capo in the Colombo crime family and was accused of killing Joe Colombo the year before.
VOCABULARY
UNLIKE: a diferencia de / SPEAKEASY: bar clandestino / HAUNT: lugar frecuentado / TO SNEAK IN: entrar furtivamente / STOREKEEPER: tendero / THREAT: amenaza / MOBSTER: gangster, mafioso / EVENTUALLY: finalmente / GAMBLING: juego / BLOCK: manzana de calles / TO PORTRAY: RETRATAR / FRONT: tapadera / THE MOB: la Mafia.
