The DIFFERENCE between SICILIAN Mobsters and AMERICAN mobsters in the BONANNO CRIME FAMILY HT

 

 

 

in the Banano crime family in the United States. What was the difference between the hangouts of the Italian American mobsters and the Sicilian faction of that family? Let’s check it out. I’m James Gladwish and welcome to OC Shorts, bringing you detailed historical snapshots of the American Mafia and other organized crime.

 Feel free to subscribe if you like that sort of thing. I sat down with former Banano Crime Family associate Frank Fjordelino to discuss the various mob hangouts within the Banano Crime Family. Frank has a brilliant YouTube channel called 52 topics that is well worth checking out. So, hi Frank, thanks for coming on again.

 It’s always a pleasure talking with you. Um, obviously you grew up around the the life you had two two uncles who were captains in the Madano family. um yourself an associate and you know you you you grew up with a lot of kind of upandcoming guys like VTO Gazo Jr. and people like that. I just want to talk to you a little bit about kind of mob hangouts and social clubs really.

 Um I mean when you were coming through I mean where did you tend to hang out?  Um we we hung out in coffee shops and I mean we were talking about the Sicilian faction of the Banano family. Yeah. and the and the Sicilian factions of the Gambino family where where the American factions had more like clubs.

 They had um veterans clubs either be Vietnam, Korea, WW2 and they and they turned these places into hangouts, you know, either sometimes you had uh a member of organized crime that fought in one of these wars and therefore ran together with their social clubs, you know. But as far as the the Sicilians did in the Bushwick and Rididgewood sections and then later Glendale and Middle Village neighboring um towns, the the coffee shops were the hangouts.

 Were they like private coffee shops though or was it you know?  Well, envision I don’t know these guys have Starbucks in there or any coffee shop in general. Pretty nice. Some nice look better than the others. I remember in the 70s um like let’s say the pre galante 79 they were a little bit more rundown than than than the the ones that followed after.

 So you’d come into this place and already was unwelcoming smokey and you had some guys either in the front having some coffee or talking and then in the back it said members only. And then the members only would be where they would have card games or whatever is going on. Later on the the video poker machines were installed when that became a thing.

 But before that it was uh the the card tables. So one room might have four card tables with the lesser guys playing for money and then the back room might have two or three for higher stakes. So unlike somewhere like you know the Ravenite where a civilian would just walk through the front door. These were kind of legitimate coffee shops, but out the back and the me was was where you know all the mobs guys hung out.

 Yeah. Yeah. So basically Exactly. So um the American ones tended to be just the members only from the front. You just weren’t getting in like you see in those video tapes or those videos or the surveillance where they’re going to a club and there’s somebody by the door looks in.  So you ain’t getting in there.

 But the Italian or the the the Sicilian or the Neapolitan organized crime ones were more welcoming until you had to go. Let’s say somebody need to go to use the bathroom and it was in the back and they be coming there for a while. It’s okay. They ain’t stupid. They know what’s going on. You know what I mean? It it was discreet up to a certain uh sense.

 Um you know and obviously you hung out obviously the the Geneini crew was obviously Cafe Ganini. again is that you know like a coffee shop you know what was that like to hang out in a on a dayto-day was that many mob guys only there or up and cominging guys I should say  well it was owned by obviously a a a uh a known mobster and then and then the Janini coffee shop was one of the nice launch around it came in around 1990 89 because I I worked there um around that time I was 19 20 years old and it was one of the first to be uh it was fast.

Had a marble had a $15,000 coffee shop machine uh an espresso machine with a big eagle on it. It was two rooms. We had a pool table, a real snooker table actually in one of the rooms. Um there was card games and then we had a downstairs where you could go play cards as well. In the beginning they were there for more of the gambler type and the money guys.

 So when my friends started coming there 19 to 20 21 years old we weren’t welcomed at first like you know until I guess it was Paul Regus started playing cards with the older guys then he got accepted more you know so you know money is king. You have money I don’t give a [ __ ] how old you are but that that happened there.

 But but the that that in particular, Janine’s Cafe was one of the nicer cafes in the neighborhood.  And and a member of a civilian members of the public could could go in there and just order coffee and things like that. Or was it more the same routine? You could come in. We had the first room.

 There was one, two, three tables. When you first came in, there were two seaters. And then you had one to the side that was a fourseater, four table, a four top as they say in the restaurant business. And then on your right you had a TV where you could watch the soccer games and whatnot. And that was also for the public as well.

 Um, and you had I believe there was like six tables there, but there were a smaller type of tables and and you could watch a soccer game when there was any kind of game, a big game either. We beat the World Cup cuz in 94 I remember watching a couple of games there.  Yeah.  In the 94 World Cup it it was it was it was open for the public up to that.

 It wasn’t that discreet.  Yeah. What So what’s kind of the day-to-day activities like in the in in the back rooms? Is it just gambling? Is it just bullshitting each other? Is it or is that actual talk about kind of work and jobs and things like that? Was there a balance? Well, let let’s just go back to the Janini days, that era.

 It’s the video poker game was king. The video is is uh similar like they have in the casinos, but not as uh elaborate. You know, obviously, we’re talking about 30 years ago. We had a room and people could come in there from 6:00 in the morning to we had a closing time for the public which was about 11:30 to 12 but we we could stay open for 24 hours if there was card games going on but 11:30 12 that was it.

Um, if there was a coffee shop guy, a coffee boy, whatever, he worked that shift. He could sit down, hang out in the back or whatever. If somebody knocked on the door, he’d go over there. If he knew the guy, he let him in. But then they’d have like one, two, three tables in one room and then card tables that is, and then about four in the back.

 And if they really were playing high stakes, it would be downstairs. They had it downstairs. Sometimes guys will come and talk and meeting if uh one guy says they’ll go downstairs and talk and and usually you know those were guys that uh to us up and coming that even we didn’t recognize them and somebody was talking to them there was somebody that was around somebody.

 So when when did the label come for for the likes of VTO Gazo you know and it kind of say oh that’s the Janini crew. When did that you know you said your friends started kind of socialize around the 8990. When did that kind of label come around and when did you that was you know that’s their base of operations?  We we were ne we never called ourselves the Janini crew.

 Um that was um I just look at No, we never called ourselves the Janini crew. Uh that was something that was made up. Jerry Kafki labeled us that like anything else. It’s either the media or or the or the or the law enforcement that labels people groups or whatnot. You know, that just came with the 1996 indictment. And the first 16 kids that got arrested, I call them kids, but we were very young.

 Yeah.  Uh they were they were labeled the Janini crew because they hung out at the Janini Cafe.  And I still until up to today, I don’t even know who Janini is. And I don’t I don’t think uh whoever named the place does either. So um you know obviously you said it was known by a quite well mobster but obviously Gazo was very much associated with it.

 Was he you know a prominent figure around that because he was kind of a a leader? No because he was very lowkey. Um when he did come there he came to see people who originally had hung out there. Uh but he was he was there. I mean but not not prominent. Not like I I no I would have to say no.  So it’s funny how that you know he kind of constantly gets labeled you know Janini crew genini crew but you said you never called yourselves that and veto didn’t really hang out there loads either.

 Not loads. He’d come in. Yes, definitely. But not loads. Not more than 30 minutes at best.  Yeah. So it’s interesting. Um so yeah the only other places you kind of  He didn’t gamble either. He didn’t gamble either. So,  you had no reason going there. He’d come in for coffee. That was it.  So, was there any other places you you kind of frequented at all in your in your early days?  Yeah, because later on I become I I um I get into Avid Grimmaldi’s crew and he had a coffee shop that not by name, but

people ran it for him actually two. One was in Lower Ridgewood, the border of Bushwick and that was on Cypress Avenue. kind of kind of older looking place, smaller, but um they they did very well with their machines. They had four machines. That’s all you were allowed to have.

 I believe four or three, I think three. And they they were killing it. They were making a lot of money weekly on those video poker machines. But we would meet there when I was part of that click. It was me, Mito, obviously Vito’s son, and another guy I will not mention. Um and and and we we we used to go and meet up.

 Couple of guys actually in that place, but they were they were a staple of our community, the cafes. People went there, people gambled there. People actually got killed in them. Um which is pro you’re not allowed to have any kind of weapons in there, but obviously that that only went so far.  Yeah. Um, but yeah, the history of the cafes in in those areas and even on 86th Avenue, which I’m not too familiar with that when I mean 86 Street, I’ll talk about uh Bensonhurst.

 Yeah.  Nikka Heights, Bay Ridge, they’ve been around there forever as well. So you made a clear distinction earlier about obviously the Sicilian faction had the kind of the coffee shop coffee shops and cafes whereas the kind of more the American kind of Italian American guys had uh obviously the old school social clubs and obviously one of the most famous banana ones with um was Toyland was was that still around because obviously Masinos and kind of linked with that.

 Did you know much about that place?  That was before me. So he goes away to 86 so I wasn’t too familiar with that one. Um there was one on Grand Avenue had no name. It was by a Keyfood. I’ve been to that one on a um but I didn’t go there on a regular. It was a Christmas party one year. I remember I went there and Salvatali was actually running the family and we all stood in line and he got his envelope from a whole bunch of people and uh and and I was there at that time.

 That was 1990 or 91 or the other. It was me, my brothers, um my uncle and his kids who who I will say they they’re made today. They’re in that life today. And my brother’s well, but um yeah, so basically we we we were we were online and we went to say uh hello to the S and we just carried on.  So I mean we touched on your uncles earlier when I mentioned them.

 Obviously both the captains kind of prominent. Was it in the 60s roughly? Um I mean did they have their own did they have coffee shops or were they they have their own kind of social clubs? What was their thing?  Let me just think of this. What I was talking about with Savali is my uncle Frank Dara died and the uncle you’re talking about is my uncle John Fernolino. Yes.

 They had those coffee shops back then. They were in Nicab ever since then. So we had a pretty much the Fanano family, not we the Banano family. Again I was an associate. They had um a very lucrative Bakarat game for years and that started in the 60s and even up to the day I got arrested, it was still going in 2002.  Wow.

 So that game there was started by my uncle John. He was uh Santo Jordano’s brother-in-law. Not only were we cousins, but that was also his brother-in-law. Uh my uncle John married Santo Tony Trano’s uh sister and he started that game. He was around the the Gregorio and that game went on stroke for a while.

 The the coffee shop’s been around ever since the Sicilians started coming around. Not not so figure I I don’t even know the number but I could attach to like until the 50s and 40s they were there in Nicabach Avenue. So just finally on this topic really it’s uh so it’s quite interesting when you read about Joe MSino it says that obviously when he came into power he eventually realized that you know um social clubs were like a magnet for law enforcement they could be bugged like that and according to some sources you know he advised people not to socialize

at them um kind of almost like kind of almost shutting them down but then I think we’ve had discussion before he said he actually encouraged people to come to his restaurant so kind of defeats the defeats the object Yeah, but when he when he did give that kind of like lore, not to close down the social clubs, I don’t think he was aiming at the cafes because the cafes were still up and running.

 And I um for the most part, I don’t think uh he was very aware of the problems we at Janini’s Cafe were given as much as other places like let’s say B Avenue, you see. So I think he was going towards the Italian-American scene. uh where it being Nicabbaka Village, uh B Beth Avenue or even Staten Island.

 I he didn’t go after the the cafes. He did give I remember him telling people to chill out, you know, in those areas, but not not not basically closing them down. But back to what you said. Yes. He opens up the ca his restaurant at Casablanca on 95 or 96. That right where he comes out and um yeah, he tells everybody to come over there and come eat there. Come spend money here.

 Like what’s the difference? Okay. So there’s no illegal activity going on, but you are engaging with with known criminals. So isn’t that just a bit of a hypocrisy? But money’s king, my friend. So you know what I mean? And that’s what he was about. Makes sense now. No.  Yes. He got people to come to his place and line his pockets.

 Yeah. Basically, that’s that’s that’s how that world that that’s how that world turns.  In the comments below, let me know your thoughts on the topic covered in this video. I hope you found that interesting. Thanks for watching.