You have to dig through the stories to find this: “Left behind by the bandits was Early’s stolen bridgework bling, found sitting in the middle of Maurice Ave. in Maspeth near a spent shell casing.”
So they didn’t really take the gold ‘grillz’ with them.
Now, whether he, or the club, was the primary target will probably be swept under the carpet, but the firebombing suggests that he was just collateral damage.
I was thinking Big Mouth owed the money or he vouched for someone who does.
Business and personal. Pull the teeth for insult, shoot the knee for not paying up.
My idea is the bottle bombs were just a warning to the owners of the joint to keep their own mouths shut.
Mind you I am working from the wide array of mob movies I have watched (not to mention endless episodes of Law & Order), and they are all reliable as can be, right (lol)?