Any Mafia stories you’d like to share?

[CJBauer]

I know some of the folks from out around Templeton, Iowa. One of the clan was out hunting and found an old rusted out Tommy gun. He told a couple of people about his find and about a week later the FBI knocked on his door. They confiscated the Tommy gun as it was "part of an active investigation".

My mom's side of the family is from the Templeton area...I remember Thanksgivings out on my grandparents' brothers farms when I was a kid where you were not allowed into certain barns...my cousin got a beating for opening the door of one when I was about 10, will never forget that...there were always jokes and vague comments during the card games from the old timers about the contents in those barns...nothing ever confirmed... but for a bunch of farmers, they seemed to take a lot of vacations to nice places over the years...never seemed to have an "off" year either...

 

[PoopandBoogers]

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This isn’t me, but I was in Russia about the same time and have similar experiences. Never robbed a train.

That guy is an FSU legend. Made the movie Vanwilder about him. One story of his at FSU was that when he ran for president of his fraternity he came out naked and shit in a pizza box. He won on the spot.

 

[Moral]

My sister married into the Road to Perdition family. A nice marriage between an Irish Boston crime family name and QC Irish.

 

[FAUlty Gator]

My dad was a union president for 30 years in Philly. What do you want to know?

 

[Moral]

My dad was a union president for 30 years in Philly. What do you want to know?

Were people paid off to laugh at your jokes?

 

[FAUlty Gator]

Were people paid off to laugh at your jokes?

No…but every one of my friends’ parents told them, “If the cops come, get arrested with FAU.” My dad got a lot of judges elected.

 

[FSUTribe76]

That guy is an FSU legend. Made the movie Vanwilder about him. One story of his at FSU was that when he ran for president of his fraternity he came out naked and shit in a pizza box. He won on the spot.

Apparently I knew him. He was basically right across from my place at Indian Village in 97. I was a junior and he was a sixth year sophomore. I didn’t think anything of him other than he was one of many wild partiers in Indian Village as I didn’t read the Rolling Stone article until no joke…this year. And then it dawned on me……wait a minute….that a%*hole was comedian Bert Kreischer aka “The Machine”? Eh, it makes sense. I asked my former roommates if they remembered him and they did as well. They just also had no clue he went on to become famous. I think we all just assumed he went on to become dead, a rapist or a CEO, maybe all three.

Edited to include the article

Bert Kreischer: The Undergraduate

Florida State University student Bert Kreischer talks about his six years and counting as a student at the Number One Party School.

www.google.com

 

[CarolinaHawkeye]

Grew up in Avoca, IA. There was a ranch about 2 miles north on hwy 59 where they trained race horses. At the time there was a track in Omaha. Rumor always was that the owner was connected. My Dad, who was a construction contractor, built and remodeled several parts of the ranch. It’s an enormous spread with a track for the horses, several large sheds and barns. The house, in the 80’s was beautiful and even had an indoor pool. I worked for my Dad and when we had jobs on the ranch, there were certain places that were off-limits. I awakes just assumed the mob rumors were true. One summer after I graduated HS, a couple guys I knew from Walnut were working there as actua employees for the owner. I stopped out there one night to hang out with them. In one of the giant barns, they showed us one of the gun storage rooms. Lined up from wall to wall were, what looked like, fully automatic rifles. At least 100, if not more. Granted, I don’t know sh*t about guns, but it was an arsenal.

Eventually horse racing ended in Omaha and the guy left. The ranch is still there today, so if you ever head north on 59 to Harlan, it sits on the East side of 59.

Thats my brush with the Mob….or maybe not.

Ask some of the old timers if they know anything about the "chicken coop" near Shelby.

 

[PoopandBoogers]

Apparently I knew him. He was basically right across from my place at Indian Village in 97. I was a junior and he was a sixth year sophomore. I didn’t think anything of him other than he was one of many wild partiers in Indian Village as I didn’t read the Rolling Stone article until no joke…this year. And then it dawned on me……wait a minute….that a%*hole was comedian Bert Kreischer aka “The Machine”? Eh, it makes sense. I asked my former roommates if they remembered him and they did as well. They just also had no clue he went on to become famous. I think we all just assumed he went on to become dead, a rapist or a CEO, maybe all three.

Edited to include the article

Bert Kreischer: The Undergraduate

Florida State University student Bert Kreischer talks about his six years and counting as a student at the Number One Party School.

www.google.com

Yeah I was in Tally at that timeframe and had friends that lived in IV and I lived back in that Airport/Mayhew student ghetto neighborhood across the street. I'm sure I crossed paths with him many times.

 

[FAUlty Gator]

My dad has his own table here. Brought me to lunch there one day in high school. Chef came out and said, "What do you want?" No menus. Just, "What do you want?" I don't think he paid for anything either. I and my friends always thought that was pretty cool.

Mob Talk: Remembering the attempted hit on Nicky Scarfo Jr. on Halloween 1989

The Philly Mob boss' son was shot multiple times eating dinner at Dante & Luigi's by a gunman wearing a mask and carrying a trick-or-treat bag

www.phillyvoice.com

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

When I was in high school a buddy and I were driving in the car and at a stoplight this white van pulls up next to us and a guy in the passenger seat gets my attention and asks me to roll down the window. He says he wants to know if we were interested in some speakers. Being high school kids interested in stereo equipment we say sure and pull over to a parking lot to take a look. He opens the back of the van and there's probably 50 high end speakers that were all brand new. Being young and naive it didn't click that something might be off with all this until we told him that we didn't have money worth these and then he offered to take them for a gold chain I was wearing. Unfortunately that kind of freaked me out and we politely left. Looking back, I kind of wish I would have taken him up on the deal.

I don't know if that was mob related, probably just some people who stole stereo speakers and tried to sell them off.

On that note I had a similar experience in college, was walking down Chapel drive and some random car pulls up and asks if I want to buy stereo equipment. Being a bit older and knowing this isn't normal I just said "No thanks".

 

[HawkeyeShawn]

Ask some of the old timers if they know anything about the "chicken coop" near Shelby.

I actually live in Shelby (25 years now) and know plenty of old timers. I’ll report back in.

 

[WisestIowan]

My grandfather was the president of the brotherhood of railroad carmen in the late 60's, 70's, 80's. He always had trips to Chicago and my mother (no pics) swears he met with the mob. That's all I got. He died when I was 10 in 1993.

 

[jasonrann]

I visited a buddy in Philly about 15 years ago. One of his best friends was a bookie with the Philly mob. We were hanging out one night at the local pub and the whole crew came in. It was unreal. I was talking to a few of the guys and they thought it was cool that I was from Kansas City. My nickname from then on was KC Prime. I haven't had that many free Crown Royal shots in a night in my entire life.

Another thing, I heard rumors a few years ago that our family attorney when I was growing up supposedly ran a gambling operation out of the basement of one of the local bars in NW Iowa. It was allegedly all tied to the Chicago mafia. I don't know if it was true or not, but at one point when I was a teenager, he picked up and moved his family within the span of about 48 hours.

 

[hawkfan0319]

My ex-wife is from NE Penn and their family has ties to NY mafia. Her grandfather has pictures with different mob bosses from back in the day. I didn't even want to hear the stories.

 

[SansSouci]

My best friend’s dad was Italian from Chicago. He drove from Waterloo to Chicago every week. They lived in the largest house in the city at the time. Drove a Black Cadillac and his wife had Corvette. Not one single thing was in their name. They owned a mortgage company in Chicago apparently. It was a given. He lived large and smoked Cuban cigars.

I was like fourteen and we were watching a movie about Al Capone. I said that’s a cool mother ******. He said in his nasally Chicago accent “you think he’s cool? He’s a piece of shit. My father ran store in Chicago and refused to pay his men. They blew up his store and him. Yeah, he’s real cool. Wrecking an entire family.” I felt small. He did say it was retaliated.

 

[Obviously Oblivious]

There was a guy on my dorm floor my first two years at Iowa that was from the Chicagoland area. Once I started imbibing in illegal substances, he eventually became my dealer of extraordinary convenience.

My second year, I came back to campus after Christmas break a little early and he was back in town as well, but the floor was largely quiet and deserted. He came down to my room and said he wanted to show me something in his room. Once there, he pulled out a sizable burlap bag with Arabic writing on it. The bag was still sealed shut with a red wax imprint on it. He broke the seal open and extracted the biggest piece of black tar hashish I've ever laid my eyes on. I believe it was at least a kilo in weight, but it might have been more, it's been 40 years ago now.

Naturally, I asked him just how in the hell he got his hands on such a specimen. Apparently, he had a contact back home (I suspect he probably started moving drugs when in high school) and he would just call the guy when he needed his inventory replenished when he was in the area. A car would pick him up, with a driver and the contact person inside. They'd make him put on a blindfold in the car and once they got to the location, he could take off the blindfold and talk to another guy inside of a warehouse as far as what he wanted to take home with him and what was available and the prices of the various goods. This unusual hashish had just arrived and he thought it would move well in Iowa City and the price was right (he paid up front for his inventory due to the distance and he didn't like carrying debt with these guys). Of course I had a million other questions for him but he told me that's about all he knew and he wasn't in the practice of asking them many questions. I helped him move about half of that black tar a gram at a time, but once the word was out, it was gone in about two weeks.

 

[tigerguy_]

Big Tuna used to go watch his grandson play high school football and just sit in the stands by himself like any other grandpa. But everyone knew not to approach him and just left him alone.

Oak Park River Forest high school. His grandson went on to play in the NFL.

That's all I got with the mob.

 

[longliveCS40]

When I was a kid, I saw a man get shot seemingly over a parking spot. The cops came, lined several guys up and asked me to point out the guy that did it. I told the police it wasn't any of the guys they had. Several years later, I started working for one of the guys from that day. A guy named Sonny. He was in the mob and ran the neighborhood. My dad hated it as he was an upstanding citizen and didn't mess with that lifestyle. Sonny actually kept me out of trouble, though. He once pulled me out of a car when I was with some friends and up to no good. Those friends would die later that night so he saved my life, essentially. I went to the club where Sonny hung out to thank him that night only to see someone shoot and kill him.

 

[CAhawki]

Once dated a girl, that had a best friend with family connections. I think, if i remember correctly, her father was the nephew of some connected guys in Chicago... Now, we lived in the California valley and at the time invited to this girls wedding(GF at the time was maid of honor). It was made very clear that we would be introduced but no personal pictures were to be taken at the reception.

day of the wedding comes. we go to wedding and then, naturally hit the reception... It was like wedding scene from the Sopranos. Shortly after we arrive, a parade of caddy's and buicks. The bride and groom were given a lot of items, that i assume "fell off a truck". A few of these older guys, 70+, were really nice and generous. All were not afraid to throw some money around.

But, 1 of the more unnerving moments came when we were being introduced to one of the "older cousins". This guy shakes my hand and simply tells me, that if i ever need anything taken care of, "call the number on the back of the card." He then hands me a business card for a Chicago pizza joint...

Best wedding i ever went to.

 

[FAUlty Gator]

One of my earliest memories was watching my brothers chasing a Cadillac down the street after a brick came through our kitchen window.

 

[lucas80]

Once dated a girl, that had a best friend with family connections. I think, if i remember correctly, her father was the nephew of some connected guys in Chicago... Now, we lived in the California valley and at the time invited to this girls wedding(GF at the time was maid of honor). It was made very clear that we would be introduced but no personal pictures were to be taken at the reception.

day of the wedding comes. we go to wedding and then, naturally hit the reception... It was like wedding scene from the Sopranos. Shortly after we arrive, a parade of caddy's and buicks. The bride and groom were given a lot of items, that i assume "fell off a truck". A few of these older guys, 70+, were really nice and generous. All were not afraid to throw some money around.

But, 1 of the more unnerving moments came when we were being introduced to one of the "older cousins". This guy shakes my hand and simply tells me, that if i ever need anything taken care of, "call the number on the back of the card." He then hands me a business card for a Chicago pizza joint...

Best wedding i ever went to.

So, who did you have killed?

 

[SSG T]

A friend of mine was on the gang unit of the Joliet PD. He said about a year after the first of the gaming boats were started there, one of the boats was found to have some bullet holes in it. Evidently they were from some street gangs just shooting at them.

He said they had evidence that a couple of the families in Chicago came down and had a meeting with the heads of the gangs in Joliet. The gangs were basically told, "If those boats are bothered again, Joliet won't have a gang problem by the end of the week".

The more personal one. When I left active duty, we first lived in Joliet (how I got to know the cop). We lived in the Cathedral District, just off Raynor. Our neighbor was a member of a "family". Great dude (to us anyway). Once in a while, he would bring over pasta, gravy (what he called the sauce), bread, occasional desert and some wine. Treated my wife and I great, and he and his wife (they were probably early 60's at the time) spoiled our daughter, who was still a baby. I mean, they paid for a diaper service for us. Just wonderful, pleasant people...when he wasn't doing mob stuff. I don't know what his job was, and he might have had a few murders under his belt, but he was great to us.

 

[Cougar_80]

When I was a kid, I saw a man get shot seemingly over a parking spot. The cops came, lined several guys up and asked me to point out the guy that did it. I told the police it wasn't any of the guys they had. Several years later, I started working for one of the guys from that day. A guy named Sonny. He was in the mob and ran the neighborhood. My dad hated it as he was an upstanding citizen and didn't mess with that lifestyle. Sonny actually kept me out of trouble, though. He once pulled me out of a car when I was with some friends and up to no good. Those friends would die later that night so he saved my life, essentially. I went to the club where Sonny hung out to thank him that night only to see someone shoot and kill him.

I like that movie too C

 

[lucas80]

A friend of mine was on the gang unit of the Joliet PD. He said about a year after the first of the gaming boats were started there, one of the boats was found to have some bullet holes in it. Evidently they were from some street gangs just shooting at them.

He said they had evidence that a couple of the families in Chicago came down and had a meeting with the heads of the gangs in Joliet. The gangs were basically told, "If those boats are bothered again, Joliet won't have a gang problem by the end of the week".

The more personal one. When I left active duty, we first lived in Joliet (how I got to know the cop). We lived in the Cathedral District, just off Raynor. Our neighbor was a member of a "family". Great dude (to us anyway). Once in a while, he would bring over pasta, gravy (what he called the sauce), bread, occasional desert and some wine. Treated my wife and I great, and he and his wife (they were probably early 60's at the time) spoiled our daughter, who was still a baby. I mean, they paid for a diaper service for us. Just wonderful, pleasant people...when he wasn't doing mob stuff. I don't know what his job was, and he might have had a few murders under his belt, but he was great to us.

Did he ever ask you to do him a favor and drop off a package at his cousin’s house?

 

[SSG T]

Did he ever ask you to do him a favor and drop off a package at his cousin’s house?

Nope. Just a nice, old, Italian couple who treated us well. He did ask me to help him change light bulbs a couple of times, he was afraid of heights.

 

[Hawk and Awe]

Once dated a girl, that had a best friend with family connections. I think, if i remember correctly, her father was the nephew of some connected guys in Chicago... Now, we lived in the California valley and at the time invited to this girls wedding(GF at the time was maid of honor). It was made very clear that we would be introduced but no personal pictures were to be taken at the reception.

day of the wedding comes. we go to wedding and then, naturally hit the reception... It was like wedding scene from the Sopranos. Shortly after we arrive, a parade of caddy's and buicks. The bride and groom were given a lot of items, that i assume "fell off a truck". A few of these older guys, 70+, were really nice and generous. All were not afraid to throw some money around.

But, 1 of the more unnerving moments came when we were being introduced to one of the "older cousins". This guy shakes my hand and simply tells me, that if i ever need anything taken care of, "call the number on the back of the card." He then hands me a business card for a Chicago pizza joint...

Best wedding i ever went to.

You should ask that guy to drive you to the airport or help you move. True test of someone that can take care of anything