A Bronx Story

My name is Vito Scalletti. I am an immigrant from Sicily who came to America to chase the American dream. I am going to tell you a story of how I and my cousin’s dreams were shut down by the New York mob. When I moved to America I already had family here like my cousin Joe Barbaro he has always been close to me and he would do anything for me and I would do anything for him.

         My cousin was already in America for about two years when I came over on a boat and he showed me the ropes. We started out little by robbing people and holding up stores. One night me and Joey went out to rob this jewelry store on 9th street when the store clerk hit an silent alarm and the cops were chasing us down the street Joey was in front, there was a fence ahead, he climbed the fence and I threw him the bag of jewelry he got it and took off around the corner and when I started climbing the fence I heard freeze or I will shoot. That night they gave me a choice either I could get a sentence to 15 years in prison or they were going to ship me out to fight in the war, anything was better than going to that place. so the  next day I was off to fight in the 53 battalion.

         Back in The old country we were fighting and we went into this house and killed all these soldier and it is so blurry to me but we went out on the porch and we heard that they surrendered and the war was over so I got to go back home to America.

         So when I got back home I was a nobody I was at the bottom of the totem pole. So I went to the only person I knew best a it was my cousin Joey. Turns out that Joe did some work will I was away and he was in with some pretty powerful men. When I asked him about work he got me in doing small stuff to work my way up the rank. But Joe was in already he was giving me a good name and whatever the boss needed done he would come to me.

         Life was alright but Joey was about to get made and when he did me and him would wreck up the New York area. He was going to get made. It was amazing to just think about. I could never get made though because I wasn’t a hundred percent Italian. Once Joey Got made he made me his right hand man and we were doing fine in our business everywhere we went people knew who we were. We were in with the five families we took over one of the biggest organized crime businesses in the world. Life was good.          

         Life was going a little too good. We were going to get into the drug trade. We didn’t know anything about smuggling narcotics but we were going to try. We only did this for a little while.

         A few months had passed. We decided to buy a bar. It was an awesome bar it was called the Vincent Ducati every major crime boss came to the bar to have a few drinks to gamble and all the other stuff mobsters do. A fight broke out one night and the next thing you know the five families were at war. There was a shoot out in the back and the next thing we know the cops were over us like crazy they later closed down the joint.

         “Jump in my car, I got to talk to you” said Joey.

I got in Joeys car and we talk about the biggest event we ever pulled off. We were going pretty fast and we were going to his house where he had a map out of the Marriott hotel down town. On October 11, 1947 the biggest crime bosses were going to meet there to discuses drugs coming in from Cuba. We were going to go in there the building and we were going to shoot all the big crime bosses that screwed us over. It was perfect they would never expect it and we would kill everybody.

         We were set and ready to go by 4:00am. It was me, Joey, Whispers, And the Bull. We’re going to the hotel. We had everything we needed. We arrived at the hotel at 5:00am and we parked in the parking garage. We left Mickey and Luca in the car for are escape and me and Joey went and got some window cleaner suits. We went outside and got into the lift. We went up to the top floor were the bosses were to meet and we waited. All the bosses came into the room and sat down at this big long table in the middle of the room. We waited until everyone was there and they were into the meeting a little bit then we opened fired through the window outside. We got into a big gun fight then we jumped through the window to get cover we were flipping table and stuff there were bullets flying every were and blood was all over the place. We had the element of surprise so we took out a lot of them off the bat but there was a lot that also ran away. The fight went out into the hall were we mowed down the bosses with are Tommy guns. Once we killed everybody and it look good we had to get out of there before the cops came and we would have to kill them to. So we ran down the stairs and went into the parking garage but the car was blown up and Mickey and Luca were dead. Joey was shacking up by this because these we his guys that he grew up with but I kept telling him we had to go so I got a car and we high tailed it out of the city to a safe house in the Bronx.

         We laid low for a while until the cops thought we were out of the country. Joey was still upset about his boys. I couldn’t believe that we survived it alone him and me but I guess Frankie said it best “That’s Life”. It was scary things that we took down the whole N.Y mob by are selves but I Don’t Know.

         After that came the 50s there was still the mob but it was too hard the government and the cops were getting too involved and started arresting other bosses that emerged. The 50s were a good time for me and Joey. Joey had a kid and he started to get out of the mob life more and we were still on top of New York but it was like we were wise old guys and all the young bosses looked up to us and didn’t mess with us or our connections or anything. It was really the golden years for us.

         By the 60s we were growing old and we couldn’t keep up anymore and the mafia was disappearing so we retired. A couple years later Joeys kid was in a car accident and died. Joey was so devastated that he practically died. For me I moved down to Florida. And built a house on the shore. I got married and had two kids who grew up to both become lawyers and star in the famous case with OJ Simpson. They are most famous for that.

I and my wife still live in Florida happily. I had a massive heart attack and had to have a quadruple bypass but other than that I live happy know. Although I have to live with the stuff I did in the N.Y. mafia. Sometime I can’t sleep at night or have nightmares about the stuff I did to get rich, sometimes I think I see people that I killed walking the street, sometimes it’s hard to be friends with anybody. It is hard to even live anymore and I thank god that my kids don’t have that same life.

         That is the story of my life in the mob and how I became rich. I became rich by gambling and loan sharking and killing people. I feed off the fear of others and made them pay for what they done. You don’t screw with me and I won’t screw with you. I came to America for a better life but found out it comes with consequences. It is hard to just work for it that is why they say that the working man’s a sucker. Sometimes when I lie awake in bed I ask myself would I do it again and my answer is always. No.