Really? I didn’t know that.
Dont know much outside of the 5 families here. Knew guys growing up but that’s a given growing up on staten island as an Italian.
Me and about half my friends speak Italian, the other half speak none.
Doesn’t matter. We’re in America now where English is the language!! :)
Ya, the Italians came to work in the iron mines around there. And of course everything fell into place.
They used to come up there to hide and all that. Boot legging was really rampant up there back in the day since the Canadian Border was close. The Chicago and Milwaukee bunch are WAY different than the east coast. They take anyone that makes money. Not closed like your area. To this day they run like that I guess.
The elders used to speak it (Italian) so the kids didnt know what the hell they were arguing about.
Like my Granny and Gramps-moms side, who spoke High German so the kids didnt know..etc. Course, then there was my Dads parents who spoke Gaelic sometimes.
Man, that used to piss us off.
One story-and this all happened after the time Hoffa came up missing.
A guy owned some property up there who had one of his strip joints burned down around the Detroit area. He came to one of the locals who had dug a 3 acre pond on his property a few years earlier and told him that he wanted the pond filled back in. No reason, just fill it back in, and dont bother to pump the water out. So the guy did. About a year later the FBI raided the place and had the local guy go back and dig the SOB all back up. They didnt find anything but it really shook the whole area up.
Then there was the hit on the family of a lawyer who turned states evidence. They shot the wife through the screen door of the house where they had her. That one happened about a mile from my home place. Then there was the hit on a couple who was camping around there. Never heard anything about that one anymore after it happened.
Been quiet since. I guess they figured it got to hot for those types of things up there.