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u/Finish_My_Math

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Nipsey Hussle KNEW that gangbanging was a form of autogenocide: "You're just looking for yourself on the other side of town"
▲ 103 r/SaintLouisDrill+1 crossposts

Nipsey Hussle KNEW that gangbanging was a form of autogenocide: "You're just looking for yourself on the other side of town"

In a 2018 interview with HOT97 he said:

“As a gangbanger, when you go on a mission, when you’re looking for your so-called ‘enemy,’ you’re driving through a different hood down the street…and you’re hunting. And when you look you’re gonna pass up the dude that’s dressed ‘square,’ you’re gonna pass up a dude from a different race.

When you see someone that’s dressed how you’re dressed, and got the walk that you got, and got the body language like you, you’re gonna say ‘There he go: Get him!’ and that’s deep…when you unpack it…you’re looking for yourself just on the other side of town”

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Organizations such as the Crips can be auto-genocidal and even anti-black. The behavior that Nipsey described in that quote is a prime example. These groups (allegedly) start out protecting their community (I think a lot of that BS too, but I won't belabor the point here).

Then they exploit & abuse their community’s distrust of authority to create a self-serving, self-destructive wall of silence. They frequently use their oppressors' tactics against their own people. And they actively want to kill people who are just like them. Kinda crazy & sad when you think about it.

u/Finish_My_Math — 10 days ago
▲ 56 r/MafiaHistory+1 crossposts

The 4 Mobsters who made the cover of TIME Magazine: Capone, Costello, Colombo, Gotti

I posted recently about 2 mobsters who made the cover of TIME (Capone & Gotti). But, in reality, there were 4 total mobsters to make the cover. I just wanted to share all 4 covers with you guys.

u/Finish_My_Math — 28 days ago
▲ 44 r/Mafia

You ever heard of Anthony Brooklier, the criminal defense lawyer whose dad was the boss of the Los Angeles Cosa Nostra?

I first heard of Anthony Brooklier while reading a book about Suge Knight & Death Row Records. The book is titled “Have Gun Will Travel” (about 25% done with that book, it’s quite a good read). He is mentioned as being a friend of David Kenner, the lawyer who helped establish Death Row Records. Apparently Kenner had a gangsterish aura about him & his association with Brooklier was evidence of that.

So I decided to do a little bit of digging on the web to learn more about Brooklier.

Anthony Brooklier’s story is both fascinating & tragic.

Anthony’s father, Dominic Brooklier, had a long career in LCN. And he was the boss of the Los Angeles LCN from 1974 to 1984.

Anthony represented his father in some notable cases. One of which was getting Dominic acquitted of murder. The other was defending him in a racketeering & extortion case in 1980, which he lost. Dominic was sentenced to 4 years in prison. His dad remained free on appeal until he went to prison in 1983. He died there in 1984.

Although Anthony lost the case, he made a great defense of his dad and the case helped to establish him as a top-notch criminal defense attorney. In open court he said (while crying):

“There are things in his past he shouldn’t be proud of, and I’m not proud of. But he’s always provided for his family. Whatever sentence he does, he’ll be missed every day.”

Anthony went on to have a very distinguished career as a lawyer, representing many people affiliated with the mob & also defending the famous madam Heidi Fleiss. In 1989, he was featured in the LA Times. The article discusses his life & his mobbed-up family. One part that stuck out to me is when, in reference to his dad’s 1980 case, he said:

“I hoped that this was over, that the family couldn't take any more of this, my mother couldn't take any more of this”

Dominic allegedly said (in a philosophic way): 'It's been over for a long time. We're dinosaurs"

Of his dad’s “We’re dinosaurs” quote, Anthony said:

"My father was a product of his times…When my father was growing up, it wasn't very good to be Italian. My father strove for what he wanted within his world as he knew it. I have to think that things were different then. You know, it's easy to look back and say, 'You should've gone to Yale. But things weren't like that when my father was born."

He went on to say:

"This thing had outlived its reason for being. This was a defensive mechanism to fight the inequity and the injustice when Italian people first established themselves in the United States. And when it became something that was not noble . . . something that was not in favor of justice, in the broadest sense, it had outlived itself. And my father understood that. It was over. It is over."

I am NOT entirely buying the whole notion that Cosa Nostra was a kind of noble defensive mechanism for Italians, but it does seem like it was less scummy back then.

Anthony’s life took a dark turn later on. He had substance abuse problems and was convicted of not paying taxes some years later. But the really bad part is when his son (also named Anthony) committed suicide in 2015. Anthony, Sr. took it hard and also committed suicide about 1 year later in 2016. In the LA Times profile, he mentioned how much he cared about his family and how he wanted to be a good father like Dominic was to him. So I imagine the untimely death of his son devastated him like nothing else. According to my cursory research, Anthony Sr is survived by a wife and at least 1 other adult child (the LA Times profile said he had sons aged 15 & 18 in 1989 but maybe he had more kids afterwards)

I am always reminded of Michael Franzese saying the Mafia life is an evil life.
Here you have a mobster (Dominic) whose life brought lots of stress to his son. Dominic died in prison. Then both his grandson & son commit suicide. Super tragic

Also, this is another example of how LCN has declined tremendously since the 1980s. Still very active & wealthy, but a shell of its former self. When someone (like Dominic) calls themselves a dinosaur, you know they’re cooked!

Do you guys have anything else to add to this?

Btw, If you want to learn more about Dominic Brooklier, there’s (what seems to be) a nice little writeup at this website:

https://silverscreenwiseguys.wordpress.com/dominic-regace-brooklier-los-angeles-boss/

The article gives a lot of details of Dominic Brooklier’s life. But much of the info is unconfirmed and the narrative seems a bit staggered. This is to be expected when covering the life of most mafiosi. They call it a secret society for a reason.

u/Finish_My_Math — 1 month ago
▲ 68 r/Mafia

Today I learned that only 2 American mafiosi have been on the cover of TIME magazine: Al Capone & John Gotti

I thought there would've been more. But the fact those 2 made the cover doesn't surprise me. Definitely 2 of the most public mobsters ever in the USA. If you were to ask an "average" American whether they can name 5 mobsters, Capone & Gotti would probably be the most frequently mentioned. Lucky Luciano is maybe the only other American with had as much juice back in the day.

Bugsy Siegel is also quite well-known, but he's not Italian (regardless he never made the cover either). Maybe also Arnold Rothstein & Meyer Lansky. The time span of 1930 to 1986 also interestingly spans the period that you can say are the Golden Years of Cosa Nostra in the USA.

Also worth mentioning is that Andy Warhol did the Gotti cover. To get arguably the most famous artist to depict the most famous mobster is kinda cool.

What do you guys think?

EDIT: So Joe Colombo & Frank Costello made the cover of TIME. My bad! Idk if I can show those images in this thread, however.

u/Finish_My_Math — 1 month ago
▲ 27 r/hiphop101

J Prince wanted NOTHING to do with Suge Knight. Thought Knight was a “clown” & a "time bomb"

Here’s my second post about cool stuff I learned while reading J Prince’s book “Art & Science of Respect”

This story is about Prince’s unnerving first interactions with Suge Knight. 

Prince’s connection to Suge Knight had come through Harry-O, someone Prince had known from his street days. At first, Harry-O couldn’t understand why Prince walked away from the streets to get into music. Then, after being sentenced to decades in prison for drug trafficking, Harry-O now wanted to get into music because he needed a new hustle.

At the time, Dr. Dre was the hottest thing coming out of the West Coast. So Prince told Harry-O to get Dr. Dre to build a new company around. Harry-O still had enough juice in the streets back then to make that sort of move, according to Prince. Instead, however, Harry-O picked Suge Knight to be his business partner. 

And that is how Prince ended up first speaking to Suge. It was on a prison-monitored phone call with Harry-O.

Prince said of the first conversation: ”I saw immediately that Suge could become a potential problem.” On the call, which was definitely recorded (like all penitentiary calls), Suge spoke recklessly about “the type of things you don’t want the federal government to know about.” Prince didn’t specify here, but one can guess it was about illegal stuff. 

In any event, Prince said nothing on the call. When the call was over he thought “either Suge isn’t very bright, or he doesn’t care.” 

Prince was uncomfortable. He voiced his concern to Harry-O on another call (presumably just between them), who said he’d talk to Suge. Still, on the next call, Suge began to speak recklessly again. 

Prince said (of second convo with Suge):

“This clown was a time bomb waiting to happen. This time I hung up. Harry-O called me back, and I made it very clear to him - and to any members of law enforcement who might be listening - that I had no part in what Suge was talking about. I told him I wouldn’t be a part of their Death Row venture, but I’d be happy to cheer them on from the sidelines.”

Things seemed to go well for a while. Death Row went on to sign Dr. Dre (per Prince’s suggestion) after Suge got him out of his deal with Eazy-E’s Ruthless Records. When 2Pac needed $1.4 million to bond out of jail, Suge bailed him out, and was able to sign him to Death Row. They had other acts such as Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound, etc. And they stayed caught up in controversies, largely related to Suge’s reckless movement in the streets.

Regarding 2Pac, Prince also said that he wanted to sign 2Pac and was about a week away from “discussing a business deal” with him (whatever that means). But Suge got to Pac first. Assuming that was true, I have doubts that Prince would’ve offered Pac a better deal than Suge.

So that was basically it for Suge & Prince for several years. They were cordial but never that close.Prince said Suge was always respectful so there’s no hard feelings despite the awkward convos in the beginning. 

Prince also said something about starting a black-owned distribution company with Suge & Irv Gotti, but that fell through largely due both Suge & Gotti getting caught up in legal troubles.

Anyways, what do you make of that story? It sounds about right. Suge never struck me as being as cautious as Prince. 

reddit.com
u/Finish_My_Math — 1 month ago
▲ 0 r/Mafia

The most gangster sh*t you've ever heard someone say IRL

I was at a bar a few months ago, chatting with an acquaintance who said he served time in the British military in Afghanistan. I will call him “KC” for this story’s purposes.

KC also told me that in addition to being a former soldier he was also very active in a 1% biker gang and would routinely commit various crimes (most of which I will NOT discuss here).

Anyway, he ended up doing some prison time for a few crimes he was convicted of. Not sure how long, but I doubt it was more than 2-3 years

One day, when talking about his various military-related injuries he said he was prouder of the time he spent in prison than his military service.

I said to him: “But doesn’t the military at least give you nice benefits that make it worthwhile?”
He replied: “You get a pension in prison if you commit the right crime!”

I damn near gasped & clutched my (imaginary) pearls! 

I thought to myself: “That might be the most gangster shit I’ve ever heard in my life!”

To look at your time in prison as loaded with benefits on par with military benefits, you gotta be a serious criminal. I only think of the most powerful bosses truly getting anything like that. And maybe a few select subordinates.

I should also re-emphasize that this guy is British, so maybe things are different there with respect to the privileges & benefits bestowed upon the prison population. 

In the USA, I imagine VERY low-level prisons could have these kinds of benefits. Especially for white-collar, non-violent crimes. 

But violent offenders do not seem to go to these kinds of places in the USA. And KC seems to be a violent guy. He was stabbed multiple times about 3 months ago and always seems “ready to go” if you know what I mean. But he’s always been supercool with me.

Do you guys have similar stories of people you know saying some cold-blooded stuff like that? I would love to hear some of those stories!

reddit.com
u/Finish_My_Math — 1 month ago
▲ 44 r/hiphop101

Very interesting: J Prince Explains Why He Didn't Mediate Puff Daddy/Suge Knight Beef in the 90s

So I read J Prince’s autobiography recently. It’s a pretty short book. I was able to finish in 1 day. Lots of cool stories, but, not surprisingly, Prince was very cautious discussing certain things, especially illegal stuff. Smart man

One example of him being smart & cautious is when he talks about his involvement (or lack thereof) in the 90s East Coast v West Coast beef.

He was friends with everyone involved, which is part of the reason why he stayed neutral. No point in picking sides if it wasn’t his beef and there was no money to be made. Prince himself said that the beef was a “distraction which cost more money than it made.”

The most interesting part of the “East vs West” section is when he talks about how he warned Diddy to be more cautious about his movement in Los Angeles in February 1997 whenever the video for Biggie’s “Hypnotize” was being recorded. According to Prince, neither Biggie nor Puffy seemed to think they were in any danger.

As we all know, things didn’t work out in the end as Biggie got killed 1 month later when he returned to LA.

A few months after Biggie’s death, Jimmy Henchman & Puff contacted Prince to see if some kind of truce with Death Row can be worked out. Tensions were at an all-time high and “anyone could be next.”

They were so serious that they both flew to Houston to meet with Prince.

He said he didn’t want to get involved in Bad Boy/ Death Row because he heard too many rumors about some foul play on Bad Boy’s side. Reading between the lines, it seems that Prince had good reason to suspect Puffy had something to do with Pac getting shot in NYC.

Prince said:

I had some important questions to ask first: “When Tupac was shot at Quad Studios, did you go to the hospital to check on him? Did you use any of your resources to try to find out who did it?” Puffy was asking for a truce because he never wanted a war. He said he never had a problem with Tupac, and hated that it had escalated as far as it did.

Here’s the most damning part. Prince said:

“I couldn’t stand in the middle of bullshit and make it smell good. I hadn’t heard anything solid in response to my questions, and I couldn’t stand in a weak position with my credibility on the line. I also heard that some people believed Jimmy Henchman had conspired with Puffy and Haitian Jack to shoot Tupac at Quad Studios. There were too many hidden hands, and after I peeped what was happening, I just couldn’t be involved in this fight.”

Prince said that while he sympathized with Puff’s situation, there was so much bad information circulating that no one really knew what to believe. Prince didn’t want to risk getting tangled up in the middle of a truce where he didn’t know for certain that he had all the facts.

To me, this means that Prince thinks Puff had something to do with Pac getting shot in NYC. I also get the impression that Puff did NOTHING to assist Pac after the incident happened. He didn’t even visit Pac in the hospital. Of course, Puff didn’t investigate what happened, because he might end up telling on himself. 

What do you think? Am I reading too much into this?

reddit.com
u/Finish_My_Math — 2 months ago
▲ 4 r/Mafia

John Gotti once asked a prison guard to cook his meal. He instantly regretted it, lol

Story comes from this 56-second video on the As The Key Turn YouTube channel. The channel is hosted by a ex-CO at USP Marion, which was the highest-level security prison before ADX.

So here's the story:

Gotti would order some special meal from commissary and one day he asked this guard if he would be so kind as heat it up for him.

So the guard put it in a 240V microwave meant to cook 6 meals at a time.

Left it in there for 15 minutes!

Not surprisingly, the meal ended up being completed ruined & resembled an inedible, melted hockey puck.

He gave the "meal" to Gotti and apologized and offered to heat another meal for him. Gotti got the hint then walked away without saying a word. He never did ask that guard to heat another meal.

I am pretty sure this guard told this same story in another video which I cannot find. But I will share some of the details I vaguely remember from that video. I think it adds some good context to this current video.

In the other video he said he would use the microwave to heat his coffee mug. It would only require maybe 30 seconds to make scorching hot coffee. So 15 minutes is CRAZY.

He also said he made sure to use the bathroom & run some other kind of quick errand while destroying Gotti's meal in the microwave. Definitely delaying on purpose!

I also remember the guard saying the meal was a Salisbury steak.

The guard also mentioned that he wanted to make it clear to Mr. Gotti that the guards are NOT his friends & that by doing 1 favor for Gotti it was likely to lead to other requests and to possible corruption.

He’s not entirely wrong. It’s a common tactic for criminals to get civilians to do small favors that will increase in scope, value, and frequency to the point that the civilian is a de facto criminal. Then the favors might become brazenly criminal & now the civilian is f*cked.

So, I respect the guard’s professionalism & foresight in that regard.

But don’t quote me on those details. Again, the previous video is no longer available. And the Mandela Effect is a real thing!

What do you make of this story?

u/Finish_My_Math — 2 months ago
▲ 30 r/Mafia

I (mistakenly) thought Tommy Gambino was made by his father, Carlo Gambino

Apparently, Carlo Gambino never made any of his children. Tommy Gambino was made by Paul Castellano after Carlo died.

If this is true, than I am VERY surprised. I've never heard that before. I just assumed that Carlo wanted Tommy to join, but to not get his hands dirty.

FWIW, Tommy seemed to be more a legit guy than a street guy. A true racketeer who actually did good business and made lots of money while making zero headlines.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Carlo never wanted any of his kids to enter the mob. As shrewd as he was, he probably didn't want his sons to be official members knowing how unpleasant that world can be. In that sense, Carlo was like Chin Gigante.

Tommy had a degree in Accounting, I believe.

Sammy The Bull said all of this (that Tommy shouldn't have ever been in the mob & Castello made him) in a recent video in which he talks about guys that should've never been made into Costa Nostra.

What do you guys think? Have you heard similar things?

reddit.com
u/Finish_My_Math — 3 months ago
▲ 2 r/Mafia

Great books, essays, and articles about the mafia that have NOT been translated to English (from Italian or other languages)

As someone who's a bit of a mafia history buff, I have always wondered what great information & stories I have never been privy to simply because I mainly speak & read in English.

As of today, my Spanish is quite good but I have thought about learning Italian just to be able to fully understand & translate some Cosa Nostra content.

Do any of you guys speak & read Italian? Or know of any good content about the Italian mob that's only been published in Italian & never translated?

reddit.com
u/Finish_My_Math — 4 months ago
▲ 38 r/Mafia

Mobsters who killed their own blood relatives

In many interviews, Michael Franzese mentions that there were some brothers (presumably in the Colombos) who killed their own father who was also a made man.

Apparently, the son's took it hard. According to Franzese, the sons had nightmares and couldn't live in the house where they killed their father. Does any of this ring a bell? If so, who could it have been? And are there any examples of mobsters killing their own blood relatives (inducted or not) for the mob?

reddit.com
u/Finish_My_Math — 4 months ago