WHAT was it REALLY like INSIDE Neil DELLACROCE’s RAVENITE Social club? – HT

 

 

 

What was life really like inside the Gambino crime family’s infamous Ravenite social club? Let’s check it out. I’m James Gladwish and welcome to OC Shorts, bringing you detailed historical snapshots of the Mac Mafia and other organized crime. Feel free to subscribe if you like that sort of thing. Social clubs were a staple part of Mafia life for decades.

I sat down with former Gambino crime family associate Anthony Ruggiano Jr., son of legendary mob figure Fat Andy Ruggiano, to discuss his memories of visiting mob social clubs around New York City. Um so, Anthony, throughout of see your your time with the mob, you obviously frequented um quite a few of the of the famous social clubs in terms of the Ravenite and things like that.

 I mean, starting with the Ravenite, what was your memories memories of going in there like for the first time? Well, the first time I went in there I was a teenager. I mean, you know, it was very my the Ravenite changed when John became the boss. And I always liked the Ravenite when Neil was the underboss. It was very old.

 It was very um it was it had a soul like when you walked in it was you know there was guys in suits playing cards and there was a bar and it was all the ceiling, you know, it was that tin ceiling and and then there was a table in the back where people were playing card, you know, Neil used to play pinochle in the back. Yeah.

 Did it still have the glass front at the time? Hadn’t been bricked up at that point or >> It had it had glass windows, big glass windows. It had when you walked in, so when you walked in the bar was on the left and then there was tables along the wall with like two chairs, you know, where people played gin. And then in the back there was a big table, a card table that Neil stood at and there was a bathroom and then there was the door that went into the hallway that led up to the stairs that went upstairs that later on became famous when John was

going up into that apartment. Yes. >> And it was really old. On Sat- it was on Saturdays it was very crowded. Um but it was always, you know, it was always homey. It was always uh comfortable. You know, you walked in, “Hey, what’s going on?” You have a couple of espresso, play a number, you [ __ ] you know, it was always um it was like a club, you know, like a home, like you know, it was always I always felt comfortable there.

 They had a going away party for me there in ’78 when I went to prison. Neil gave me a going away party like I was going off to college. They had a buffet of food and, you know, it was really crowded. So, I always liked it there. I hung out with Buddy there, Neil’s son. He lived across the street. Later on when John became divorced it totally changed. He modernized it.

 He bricked up the front. You couldn’t get in the door. It was like wall-to-wall We stopped going there, me and Tony. We used to go to go out to this joint and go, you know, to the Bergen because it was just got ridiculous. You couldn’t even get in the door. It was like sardines because everybody wanted to be up John’s ass, you know what I mean? Guys that we never that I never even saw were showing up there.

 You know, but when when Neil had it it was really nice. I liked it. And around the corner Charlie West had a club. That was another nice little club with a bar. There was a club around the corner that Charlie West had. That was nice. On Mott Street he had that Well, did Well, did they have a name or You know, I don’t know.

 I don’t If you did, I don’t remember it, but it was right around the corner on Mott Street. I mean, you walked out of the You walked out of the Raven night. You made a left. You made a right. You went to Mott Street. You made a left. And it was right off the corner. And he had a club there cuz we used to walk back and forth.

 He had a club there um There was another club up the street that Black Phil had. He was a Genovese guy. He had a club up the street. I mean, there was so many clubs on Mulberry Street. There was another club that had a big saint in the window. I forgot whose club that was, but that was another club. My father had a club in East New York that was on top of a beer distributor with a pigeon coop.

 Um, he had a pigeon coop up there. That was the first club I went to that he had. Yeah. >> in Brooklyn. I used to park where it was on top of a beer distributor. We had a poker game in there. And then from that club we moved to a Cafe Liberty. Charlie Wagons was the first guy to go to Ozone Park. Yes. >> He left East New York and he went to the Bergen and everybody followed cuz so East New York was right on the borderline and then we went over to East New York.

 We went from East New York to Ozone Park. My father opened up the the Cafe Liberty. Ciro Perrone um, from the Genovese family. He opened up a club there. He had a really nice club. Ciro Perrone, I mean he had a really nice club. He had he was a tinkerer and he used to um He collected memorabilia and stuff, right? Excuse me? Yeah, yeah, yeah, but he used to refurbish it like he would like read, you know, like bring it back to life and he had a basement with all machines in it, you know, where he would go tinker with the stuff and shine it up

and he had he had he had a lot of baseball memorabilia. He had a beautiful kitchen. He did a lot of cooking in there. That was his club. He had a club there. Jo Jo opened up a club down on 77th Street and 101st Avenue. Um That was like a That was nice. He had another little poker game on top of it. That was good That was a nice little club.

 Um Phineas Shaw had a club over there on 101st Avenue. I mean, there was clubs There was so many clubs. Um, Johnny Green, the guy from the Banana family, he had a club in Brooklyn. I used to go there with Mikey Gal was good friends with him. I used to go to that club. That was a very old club. That was really old. But they all had the same kind of feel, you know, like um They all basically did the same thing or acted the same way, you know what I mean? It was all the same.

 Card games, meetings, number runners were in there always taking numbers. Um guys walking in and out, you know, no strangers. Never no strangers. Um but that it was like that it was like people on Wall Street go to the office, those were our offices, the clubs. That’s That’s where we went. So in our previous discussion, you mentioned um a time on Sullivan Street.

We went to the Triangle Club. And what was the feel of that place? I know you had an incident in there, so like you remember you had a >> know, that was place was pretty wide open. You walked it when when when Well, I was only there twice inside. The time I had the beef with Tommy and the time we had to sit down.

 Other than that, the the other times I was there actually I I was outside. I never really went in because my father would go meet They had a meeting video. A lot of times they were standing outside when we pulled up. So I was only inside it twice, but when you walked when you opened up the door, it was wide open and there was just a table, a big card table right in the middle of the floor and that’s where Don was sitting with his back against the wall and he was the had all these sheets on the table for my guess his number business or whatever. He had these

sheets on the table. But it was kind of wide open. Um it was old. It was in an old building, you know, but it was nothing special. It wasn’t a It was just like a regular like sort of like a Ravenite type club. But there was there was never Was there any clubs you felt uncomfortable going into or not? Was it never that kind of feel? Was there any ever clubs I felt uncomfortable in? Not really, no.

 Um no, I I I never felt uncomfortable going to any clubs. No, because most of the time when I went to the club, I knew the people that were in it. I mean, there was this guy uh Louie Metropolitan. He was with the uh Bonanno family. Um he was a captain. He had a club on Metropolitan Avenue and uh a guy around him owed this sports money.

 So, we got permission from Joe Massino, actually. He was the boss, that we could go there, me and Mikey Gal could go there and sit down with Louie without having Pete with us, the captain, with us. And we went there. I wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was um it was the first time I went there. I never was there before.

 I didn’t know him. So, it it was maybe a little it was a little uncomfortable, but you know, when I walked in, it was the same kind of setup as any other club. So, you know, it was just that was about the only time that I went somewhere that I was thinking ahead about it, you know? >> Yeah. Just cuz you didn’t know the guy and things like that, right? >> Right.

 And it was a sit-down over money and and you know, and and all that and and you know, I I didn’t know what the outcome was going to be, but he already knew that Joe Massino okayed us to go there. So, he already knew that we had a relationship with his boss. And then when I went there, the kid owed us money, but his father was his father was actually with Louie, and the kid owed us 16,000, and I made a deal with the father for 8,000 in cash, and the kid could never bet with us again cuz it was all sports betting was all on paper. You know, I mean, it

wasn’t like we gave the kid 16,000 in cash or and he he was all on paper, so we made a deal with the father through Louie, and we got eight half of the money back, which was fine. But that was about the only time really that I could think of that um any kind of little uncomfortability or any kind of little thinking ahead.

So, going back to the Ravenite, obviously, um you know, with Dellacroce’s kind of operate pace pace operations, and then Gotti kind of inherited it. But obviously, famously, the building, the actual building was owned by Joe the Cat LaFont, right? Yeah, he bought it later on.

 I think Joe the Cat bought it in the ’70s. Actually, the the original owner, I’m going up to New York at the end of April, and I think the original owner is going to meet us cuz we have a copy of the He sent us a copy of the original floor plans. Pasquale has the copy of the original Yeah, so this other family owned it and Joey D Cat bought it.

 Bought that building and the building next to it. He bought basically almost half the block. He bought And I Neil made him buy it. Serious money he had. Neil made Neil made Joey D Cat buy the building. Neil made Joey D Cat buy the building. Yeah, oh yeah, Joey D Cat had millions. That’s why I don’t understand what’s going on now with his grandson.

Joey D Cat was in jail. Where’s all the money? Listen, I worked for Joey D Cat for years. I know what he was making. Just with the numbers business alone, the guy was taking out 20, 25,000 a week back in the ’70s. And he had a little little property in Staten Island as well. As well as my house. >> listen, you couldn’t write a number on Staten Island without him being the controller.

 He originated the They used to bring the numbers across in the ferry before they built the Verrazano Bridge. That’s how far back Joey D Cat goes. So he had crazy He had his own plane at one time. He had a compound in Lake George that was worth millions of dollars. There’s a famous picture of Neil on his boat. That’s Lake George.

 There’s a picture Oh, on the speedboat with the wife and the family and the wives. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, that was Lake with Joey D Cat driving the boat. That was in Lake George. He had a big compound that was worth millions in Lake George. He had one of the biggest travel agencies in the in New York.

 Joey D Cat he When I got married in ’77, Neil was in jail. He made Joey D Cat his wedding present to me through Joey D Cat was they sent me to Vegas to Caesars Palace. I had a suite. I had a $2,000 credit limit in the casino. I mean, it was crazy. I was only 23 years old. And the underboss of the Gambino family sent me to Caesars Palace through Joey D Cat.

 So when I read about his grandkids that they’re they’re Where’s the money? I don’t know. know, I don’t know. It’s crazy. >> I mean, I think I read a wiretap where there was a bit of tension between Joe the Cat and and Gotti. I think after Gotti got kind of elevated, I think Gotti kind of speak quite disparaging about about Joe the Cat.

 I mean, did you did you ever know anything much about that at all? Yes. Yeah, I know a lot about that. John did not like Joe the Cat. And Joe the Cat I I I Joe the Cat was a good guy. I mean, he you know, he he was very close to Tony Lee and my father, very close. I mean, I worked for the guy for years. John didn’t like him.

I think John felt that he shortchanged the family. He had so much money and he was earning so much money that he wasn’t kicking up what he should have been kicking up. And John used to abuse him bad. I mean, I saw John abuse him at the Bergen. Like I saw John like throw him out of his office.

 Like get the [ __ ] out of here. I I and and so there was I was there one day So John next to the Bergen, John had an office. Right next to the Bergen. I mean, you know about that? He had an office next to the Bergen. >> yeah. Yeah, right. So he told Junior don’t let anybody in the club, the office, and he went into the back room. And when he came out of the back room, Joe the Cat was in the office.

And he went, “What the [ __ ] are you doing here? Get the [ __ ] out.” He threw Joe the Cat out of the office and then he started yelling at his son, “Didn’t I tell you not to let anybody in here?” And and he says, “Yeah, but it’s Joe.” And and he just berated both of them. To the point where Sammy the Bull talks about it and I discussed it with Sammy the Bull.

Joe the Cat went to Sammy’s house and said, “Listen, you got to talk to this guy. He’s abusing me. He don’t want to leave me alone.” He said, “Call O’Malley and treat me like this guy’s treating me.” Mhm. And Sammy said, “What do you want me to tell you? You know, what do you want me to do? You know, he’s the boss.

Yeah. But yeah, he did not like Joey D’ and I think he lost a lot of respect for Joey D’ through that beef Joey D’ had with his somebody. Cuz the guy wanted to have his son killed. I mean, you know, the guy, you know, that’s that’s crazy, you know, over money, over $120,000. You want to have your son killed? You know, and I knew Buddy. Buddy I I I knew Buddy good.

Um I knew his other son Eddie good. I knew, you know, I knew the whole family. But uh yeah, so I think John didn’t like that whole scenario between Buddy and him and John abused the [ __ ] out of him. Well, interestingly, we we touched on this before and I think I made a video on it. You said that Buddy always had an un- It’s Let’s go back to the Ravenite.

 Buddy had an uneasy feeling about Gotti at one point, whether it was paranoia. You said in an interview, you said you never sensed that, but you’d say Buddy used to say to you >> Buddy. Not Not Joey D’s Buddy. >> talking about Buddy Delacroce now. Yeah, not >> Oh, yeah. So, I was I was very tight with Buddy. Very tight with Buddy.

Uh and we would be in the Ravenite and John would be sitting in the back at the table with with Neil and everybody and he would lean over and tell me “When my father dies, this guy’s going to kill me.” And I said, “Buddy, are you crazy?” Cuz I’m telling you, I get I said He said, “I’m telling you, this guy’s going to hurt me when my father dies.

” And I said, “I don’t understand, Buddy. I don’t I never got that feeling. I never heard John say anything bad about him. I never, you know, um I mean, there was always I mean, I was, you know, I mean, his father was John the Boss, but there was and uh but my father was Fat Andy and there was always a level of jealousy between like guys like John and Nicky with me and John with Buddy.

 There was always like a little jealousy cuz we were the real sons and they were like very tight with them, you know? So, there was always like a little jealousy, but I never felt like I was going to get hurt like he did and I would tell him, “I don’t understand. I don’t get that feeling.” But, you know, he he believed it and it and and you know, the proof is in the pudding.

When when Neil died, he was incarcerated. When Neil died, and when Neil died, he took a plea that he wasn’t supposed to take just to get out of jail to just to get out and run away cuz he believed that John was going to kill him. Yeah. And he and he went to Staten Island and he took all his father’s jewelry.

 You know, I heard through his cousin Sally that he took over a million dollars worth of jewelry and he ran away. Never to be found again and then he died. Yeah. >> Cuz he was a you know, he became you know, he was a big >> died in the Poconos, wasn’t it? I think. >> Yeah, he was a big cocaine user. He was a big drinker. >> Yeah, he he liked to do his cocaine and alcohol and it killed him.

But, he ran away because he thought John was going to hurt him. So, back to the other buddy that we’re talking about, Buddy LaForte, um Joe the Cat’s son. Um I mean, there was that interesting thing involving Mike Tally, wasn’t it? Was it alleged as he Buddy LaForte who pretty much paid Caraza to make him the acting captain or next acting? And I mean, that’s really what what pretty much [ __ ] Buddy LaForte, right? Yeah, that was the end of that was the last straw. I mean, that was it.

You know, what what when he did that and he went behind everybody’s back and Mike Tally took the money. I mean, that was crazy. You know, what? He never deserved to be acting captain. I mean, look at the guys that were with Mike Tally at that point. I mean, you know, Nicky, Lenny, John.

 I mean, you could go on and on the names that were Yeah. with Mike Tally And and the the money wasn’t even that I mean, it’s a big amount of money, but it’s not huge amounts of money to be made a captain. It was like 40,000 or 50,000 or something. That’s just telling you what kind of guy Mike Tally was. Yeah. >> what I mean? I mean, hit realistically, Mike Tally and Buddy should have both got killed.

 I mean, the only thing that saved Mike Tally was he grew up with Neil. Yeah. And and and and Buddy, you know, Buddy who got saved I guess because Neil was close to Joe. I don’t know why Buddy got saved at that point, but uh they should have both got killed behind that. I mean, there was so many better equipped guys that should have been acting captain ahead of Buddy.

Well, I mean, well, there’ve been people who’ve been killed for far less than what they did. Without a doubt. Without a doubt. Without a doubt. People got killed for Look at Paul Deebie. He got killed for not showing up at an appointment. I mean, come on, you know what I mean? So, Anthony, you’ve um you’ve got a book coming out soon.

Yeah, can you tell us a bit more about that? What’s what’s going to be involved in that? >> Yeah, so so I I sat down with my team and and you know, and Hollywood glamorizes the mob and all that, you know, so so I put together a book like telling my story about my life, the people that I ran across, the choices I made.

And it’s about not the dark side of the mob, but it’s about reality. It’s about what really goes on inside the mob, what really goes on inside of a mob family and an immediate family. Like there’s your mob family and then there’s your children >> family, yeah. Right. So so we put together this book about, you know, the consequences of living in that life and the outcome, you know, and how I got thrown in and how I survived it and how and now I’m clean and sober 37 years, you know, about my 14 years in prison.

It It’s all about It’s all about my life and my perspective of of what really goes on in the mob, not Hollywood’s perspective, my >> Yeah. you know, the the real someone that was in it perspective. So and that’s basically what it is. It’s going to be It’s going to be coming out. We’re going to start taking orders in June.

 It’s going to be ready in June. We’re going to have a book launch in September. So it’s going to be on my website like I told you, anthonyruggeriano.com. Do you have a confirmed title for it at this point? Uh well, I’m going to tell you what we do. I’ll show you a picture. Hold on. Let me I got a picture of that.

 Where is it? I have a picture of it here. If you could see it. So, this is what it’s going to be. Ah, there we go. Fantastic. >> it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Perfect. >> That’s going to be the cover. Yeah, Reform Gangsters of the life inside. You’re going to be in a crime family, born into the life, lived to tell it as told by Anthony Rugiano Jr.

, son of mafia legend Fatty Andy Rugiano. So, that’s >> you if I put a link to your website, you people can do some pre-orders there, can’t they? Yes, put the go put a link to my website and everything. They can get everything on there, my Patreon, my YouTube, my book, everything’s on there.