Saturday, June 18, 2005

OldFellas

OldFellas

I think they made a really bad mob movie a few years back where the aging wise guys retired to Florida and pulled off one last caper. Here's the real life version:

The authorities hauled a dozen men into a Queens courtroom yesterday and charged them with participating in a mob-run gambling and loan-sharking operation.

They called the men chiefs, soldiers and associates in the Bonanno crime family, but to one defense lawyer, Mathew J. Mari, they looked more like "the Geritol generation."

Mr. Treccagnoli, who maintained his innocence, was released without bail. Outside court, he said, "I'm living on borrowed time," and pointed to his heart and neck.

"I got what they call a cabbage down here, a shunt here and another shunt here," he said. "I'm blind in one eye from my diabetes."

He said that detectives raided a veterans' club on Metropolitan Avenue in Greenpoint where he spends time with other aging friends.

"Half of these guys got one foot in the grave," he said. "The cops come in the club and the sergeant says, 'Go block the back entrance so no one runs out.' Run out? Half these guys couldn't walk out."


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