Before There Was A Tony Soprano, There Was Richie The Boot, Sam The Plumber And Vinny Ocean. Jersey's Real-Life Sopranos

Ted Sherman at NJ.com offers a piece on New Jersey mobsters.

David Chase, who brought to life the fictional tale of a New Jersey crime family in “The Sopranos,” has a new story to tell. 

Said to be a prequel to his HBO series of mob boss Tony Soprano, “The Many Saints of Newark," is set in the 1960s, during the Newark riots. It is right around the time there was a real godfather by the name of Ruggerio “Richie the Boot” Boiardo, who many believe inspired “The Sopranos.”

He was no saint. 

Back in the 1960s and 70s, Boiardo was a ruthless and feared mob boss operating out of Newark. He had his hands in everything from gambling and loansharking to politics and labor unions, and had his hooks into the administration of Democratic Mayor Hugh J. Addonizio, who would be ultimately taken down in a major federal corruption investigation.

An associate of the Genovese crime family, the Boot was believed he was the model for the character Don Vito Corleone in Mario Puzo's book The Godfather. 

But there are obvious nods to the Boiardo’s life that show up in the world of Tony Soprano.

Boiardo lived on an estate in suburban Livingston in a custom-build mansion that Life magazine once described as “'Transylvania traditional.” Tony lived in suburban North Caldwell, where he ambled down the long driveway in the morning to get The Star-Ledger. 

The Boot’s top enforcer was a lieutenant known Big Pussy. His son, Anthony, was referred to as Tony Boy. Tony’s guy was Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero.

But Boiardo may not have been the only Jersey guy to spark the characters created by Chase. There are those who believe Vincent “Vinny Ocean” Palermo was the prototype for Tony Soprano.

In fact, New Jersey has a long history of being married to the mob. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.nj.com/expo/news/g66l-2019/02/2c3248019b4776/before-there-was-a-tony-soprano-there-was-richie-the-boot-sam-the-plumber-and-vinny-ocean-jerseys-reallife-sopranos.html

You can also read my Washington Times review of Garden State Gangland via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2018/03/garden-state-gangland-rise-of-mob-in.html 

'Garden State Gangland: The Rise of the Mob in New Jersey'

The Washington Times ran my review of Scott M. Deitche’s Garden State Gangland: The Rise of the Mob in New Jersey.

New Jersey is unique as it is the only state in America that is home to several different Cosa Nostra organized crime families (called La Cosa Nostra by law enforcement).

In addition to the state’s homegrown DeCavalcante Cosa Nostra crime family (which the TV series “The Sopranos” was based on), all of the five New York City Cosa Nostra crime families, as well as the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra crime family, have branches in New Jersey that operate criminal enterprises independent of each other and in tandem.

Scott M. Deitche’s “Garden State Gangland: The Rise of the Mob in New Jersey” tells the more than 100-year-old history of organized crime in the state, from the 1900s’ Black Hand extortionists to the Prohibition-era’s Enoch “Nucky” Johnson, an Atlantic City politician and bootlegger who was the model for the main character in the “Boardwalk Empire” TV series, and onward to the powerful Jewish gangsters, like Abner “Longy” Zwillman, and the eventual control by the Cosa Nostra crime families.

A good number of New Jersey mobsters became powerful and influential national crime figures.

“To trace the start of traditional organized crime (the mob, the syndicate, the Mafia) in New Jersey, you could begin in a few cities around the state where new immigrant groups at the turn of the twentieth century fell victim to extortion gangs and police indifference,” Mr. Deitche writes in the beginning of this interesting and informative true crime book.

“It was in these tight-knit immigrant neighborhoods where the strands and threads of organized-crime groups began. But if there was one focal point, one birthplace where originated the larger, more influential crime figures who would shape both the underworld and overall history of the state through much of the twentieth century, it would be Newark.”

Mr. Deitche describes Newark as the biggest city in the state where in the early part of the 20th century the expanding industries attracted immigrants that settled in neighborhoods like the Italian First Ward and the Jewish Third Ward. Wary and suspicious of the police, these immigrants were considered easy pickings by the criminal gangs.

By preying on their own people, the criminals had little to fear from the cops. But there was one tough police officer, Mr. Deitche informs us, that went up against the Black Hand in Newark, an Italian-American detective named Thomas Adubato. The tall and imposing detective with a thick handlebar mustache, one of the many fascinating people one learns about in the book, was later killed in New York.

There are so many interesting crime stories in this book, but one story that was of particular interest to me, having grown up in South Philadelphia, was the 1980 murder of Angelo Bruno, the Philadelphia mob boss. The story illustrates the greed, treachery and viciousness of the mob.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/11/book-review-garden-state-gangland-by-scott-m-deitc/

Note: The top photo is of Philadelphia Cosa Nostra crime boss Angelo Bruno. The bottom photo is of “Longy” Zwillman.