Joe Bruno's Mobsters - Six Volume Set

by Bruno, Joe

  Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but I think Gotti was probably the beginning of the reason why the Mafia was brought into "reality" for the rest of the world. I remember, as a child, thinking that the Mafia was only something in the movies. But then, when you started seeing Gotti flaunting himself and all his money in public, it became a lot more “real.” So, in my opinion, (whether it's viewed as correct or not) I can understand how Gravano felt like Gotti was double-crossing him and putting the whole lifestyle, or family, in jeopardy.

  Just from my research, from what I understand, I can't imagine being side-by-side in prison with someone you have been completely loyal to your whole life (while in the life) and have them plotting behind your back. I realize that is probably what happens a lot in that lifestyle, but can you imagine being betrayed like that?

  All and all, when I think of a rat I think of a coward who is too scared to do the time they are given for a crime they willingly committed (knowing that day of judgment would eventually come and still committing the crime anyway). That is obviously the definition of Junior: a coward.

  Sammy, on the other hand, I don't think he was afraid of the time given to him. I think he felt betrayed by his “family” and took on an eye for an eye mentality.

  Bev - They say love is blind. If Renee is back with Pagan, doesn't she have to go into the program with him? I thought that he would have taken his girlfriend with him.

  JB -With a face like his, he'd have to pay big bucks for a girlfriend.

  The - Lmao!!! Not even mama can love that fugly face.

  The - Hell no! He don’ even deserve the paradise of Hawaii. Instead, send his snitch ass to Siberia and burn his passport! What a punk!!!

  The - Mr. B: Exactly how many people were arrested as a result of Junior’s cheese-eating proclivities, or as Renee calls it: “cooperating with the government.”

  JB - I think it was six altogether. As of today (April 25), all have pleaded guilty except Nicky Santoro.

  The-Thank you for the information. What exactly was Hector Pagan accused of doing? All one hears is something vague about attempting to rob a private poker game, and someone having been injured or killed, for which seven years in jail did not seem like enough time. Was Junior alone, or with others?

  JB - It was an armed robbery. A man named James Donovan was killed. Junior was involved. I don’t know if he was the shooter; and I don’t know how many people were involved.

  Gui - Wow, this is hard to believe! How can this be? Will Renee get revenge on Junior and turn on him, and get the last sweet turn for her father’s name and family, and for Junior's cheating, too?

  Renee Graziano Says She is Behind Her Father Anthony Graziano 100 Percent

  January 29, 2012

  In a recent post on her Twitter account, Renee Graziano, co-star of Mob Wives, told the world that she is behind her father, Anthony Graziano, 100 percent, and has had no contact with her ex-husband, Hector Pagan, since he wore a wire and became a rat against her father. Renee also posted that the Mob Wives episode which showed her and Pagan reconciling was taped before it became common knowledge that Pagan had gone over to Team America.

  In typical Twitter language, Renee posted, “”Aj n I stand behind MY FATHER TG and only MY FATHER wht ur r cin on tv was shot prior 2 jr becoming a ci We have no contact w jr!!!!!!!!”

  Additionally, she tweeted, “MY father would die and rot in prison 4 ratting and that’s how his lifestyle should be. WHOEVER commits the crime DOES the time.”

  As a result of Pagan continually helping the Feds, Anthony Graziano was arrested again on January 26, along with Vito Balsamo, Nicholas Santora, Anthony Calabrese, James LaForte, and Vincent Badalamenti. All men were charged with “racketeering, extortion, illegal gambling, and conspiracy to distribute marijuana,” If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison.

  According to the New York Post, “The massive sweep against the Bonanno leadership stems in part from the assistance of former mob associate, Hector Pagan, who is the ex-husband of ‘Mob Wives’ star Renee Graziano.”

  OK, I buy Renee Graziano’s explanation that the episode in which she and Pagan were all lovey-dovey again was taped before it became common knowledge Pagan had become a government informant. There is a general lag time of two-three months from when a show is shot and when it airs.

  However, Mob Wives is produced by Renee’s sister, Jennifer Graziano, and it’s hard to believe that Jennifer could not have told VH1, which televises the show, that the reconciliation between Renee and Pagan was no longer valid. Or at the very least, a disclaimer could have been run in the opening or closing credits, stating the change in circumstances between Renee Graziano and Hector Pagan.

  They say money is the root of all evil and there must be tons of money to be made by everyone associated with the show. So why rock the boat?

  Still, it’s hard not to feel a little bit sorry for Renee Graziano and her son AJ; especially the son, who is an innocent bystander in all this drama. The only bad guy here is Pagan Sr.

  Truthfully, I just wish that Mob Wives, and all other programs like it, would just go away. (Jersey Shore included). They serve no useful purpose except to line the pockets of the participants, and make legitimate Italian-Americans cringe at the over-the-top stereotypes portrayed.

  Responses to “Renee Graziano Says She is Behind Her Father Anthony Graziano 100 Per Cent”

  Gid - Junior is a pig. Love the mob!!

  Wil - It’s cowardness to sign up to be something and when the spit hits the fan, you decide that this wasn’t for you, and that taking those down for you is the best way to get out of the problems you created for yourself. He needed to man up instead peeing sitting down like a bitch. And to do that to your father-in-law is the worst crime I have ever heard a person commit. He might as well just have whacked him himself. Quicker death.

  JB - Wil, there a lot of people who wished Junior would have killed himself rather than turn rat. This scars his wife and son forever.

  Wil - Henry Hill all over again; just minus the support of his immediate family. F*****g rat, snake punk.

  JB – Wil, Henry Hill did not have the support of his immediate family. His son and daughter wrote a book “On the Run,” which maintains they were little more than prisoners of their irrational and explosive junkie father, whom the son Gregg hated immensely because Hill constantly beat their mother.

  Kas - I love the girls in this show, Renee - keep your head up. Junior is a pig for what he has done because now in the long term, he won’t have his son or you in his life. He had to become a rat instead of doing what he should have done; meaning, go to jail and do the time. Now, he’s off the hook? He deserves to go to jail. Poor Renee’s father trusted Junior and Junior stabbed him in the back.

  Lis - It is so unfortunate because the men choose this lifestyle and most accept the consequences, but some of the family members did not sign up for this. Renee and her sister were born into it. Her sister does a show to vent and Renee is in therapy, all because they grew up with a father who was a criminal and then are allowed to marry criminals.

  It’s a vicious cycle.

  Junior is a coward writing Renee a letter and turning on his family only to save himself. I bet he is in Arizona somewhere enjoying his new life.

  JB - Lis, Junior’s in some jail/country club waited to testify in several trials, including one on TG Graziano. Then he’ll probably be in Hawaii on the lam.

  Lac wrote: Keep your heads up - Renee and AJ. It’s hard to just make all that love you have for Junior just go away. It will happen though. You’re a good person and you too AJ. Stick with your family and real friends. God will help you through this.

  Renee Graziano Hospitalized After Panic Attack

  January 30, 2012

  I don’t care what anyone (including me) thinks about the TV show Mob Wives, or what they think about Renee Graziano and her co-stars in general. But this is not good news; not news that anyone should feel glad about, or glo
at about.

  Mob Wives star Renee Graziano, estranged daughter of reputed Bonanno crime family member Anthony Graziano, was rushed to the hospital on Friday January 27, with what appears to have been a severe panic attack. Her illness came soon after her father was arrested by the Feds, based on the information given, and tapes made, by Renee’s ex-husband, Hector “Junior” Pagan. Anthony Graziano has not spoken to his daughter since she agreed to appear on national TV to air her family’s dirty laundry.

  The entire situation is sad for everyone involved, except for Pagan, who must be the lowest-of-the-low to wear a wire on his former father-in-law, which hurt everyone in the Graziano family, including his son AJ.

  Pagan Sr. was reportedly facing big time in the can for armed robbery, in which a murder was committed, and instead of doing his time like a man, he screwed those who were closest to him to save his own hide.

  I know people who have had panic attacks, including my wife, and they are certainly no fun. Your heart starts thumping like a runaway locomotive and you feel as if a piano is sitting on your chest. You can’t control your breathing and you think you are having a heart attack.

  There is medication you can take for repeated panic attacks. But when a panic attack starts, the best thing to do is to take deep, slow breaths until the panic attack passes. And it’s a great idea to avoid situations that put you under stress, which causes the panic attack in the first place.

  Hopefully, Renee’s panic attack is just an isolated incident, but if it’s not, quitting the show Mob Wives might be the best thing for her to do.

  Less stress. Less aggravation. Less money too, but your health is more important than money.

  You’ll never see a Brinks truck following a hearse.

  Renee’s sister, Jennifer, who is also the producer of the show, surely could take Renee’s place without the show missing a beat.

  P.S. — Anthony Graziano isn’t talking to his daughter Jennifer, either. For obvious reasons.

  Responses to “Renee Graziano Hospitalized After Panic Attack”

  Jgo - Wow, I’m so sorry for Renee and AJ. Junior is the lowest dirt-bag scum. Renee is a strong woman and you have my deepest sympathy.

  Joa -Unbelievable. How could he do that to her and her son and her family. He played her like a fiddle.

  JB - Joa, and the FBI played the entire Graziano family like a fiddle, too. It was a stroke of genius on the FBI’s part getting Junior on the show.

  Jt - These shows are filmed way in advance, so I don’t believe anything was held back. She was reacting in real time.

  JB - JT, maybe, maybe not. That’s not the point. The producers should have run a disclaimer starting with the first show this season, and continuing until the last show. All they had to do was run something at the beginning of each show, like, “Since this episode was shot, Junior Pagan has been placed in the witness protection program, etc.. etc..”

  That’s what, in the interest of fairness and full disclosure, they were supposed to do. The fact that they refused to do so tells me all I need to know about the integrity of this program.

  Anthony Graziano is Not Angry Anymore With His “Mob Wives” Daughters

  February 3, 2012

  Even though his two daughters, Jennifer and Renee Graziano, are involved in the TV tell-all Mob Wives, reputed Bonanno crime family captain Anthony Graziano feels like it’s water under the bridge. And despite the fact that Renee’s ex-husband, Hector “Junior” Pagan, joined Team America, and was instrumental in having Graziano arrested again - according to Graziano’s lawyer Patrick Parrotta - everything in hunky-dory in the Graziano household.

  Parrotta told the press at Graziano’s arraignment in late January, “He (Graziano) does not hold what Hector did against his daughters.”

  And that’s the way it should be. No matter what - blood is blood, and just because Pagan became a scumbag of the first order, does not mean Graziano’s daughters should be held responsible. Children make mistakes, and if every time a daughter or son pissed off a father he stopped talking to them, there would be stone silence throughout the world.

  Parrotta also brought up an interesting point in his interview with the New York Daily News. Despite the fact that Pagan began wearing a wire in August 2011, at the same time he was appearing in an episode of Mob Wives, Parrotta said he was unsure if the government directed Pagan to go on the show as a way of “cozying up to the Grazianos.”

  The more I think of it, the more it starts to make sense. I wouldn’t put it past the Feds to do anything legal they deemed necessary to put someone connected with organized crime behind bars. And where ordering Pagan to infiltrate the Graziano’s inner circle again is certainly legal, it still stinks to the high heavens.

  Remember one thing for sure - high-profile arrests and convictions (and anyone associated with the Mafia is certainly high-profile) generates promotions and fame for the Feds - agents and prosecutors alike. And promotions mean more pay, and more pay means higher retirement benefits, or maybe a future in politics, or a future judgeship … and so forth and so on.

  In the final analysis, it all comes down to cash and notoriety with the Feds. And putting away anyone whom the Feds perceive as “the bad guys,” is just an added bonus.

  The only problem I have with that is this: what if the Feds think you or I, unjustifiably, are the bad guys? Would they stop at anything to put us in prison?

  It’s happened before that certain people were unjustly targeted by the law. Wall Street people were arrested in droves during Rudy Giuliani’s reign as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, only for it to emerge later that the charges against some of these people were dropped for lack of evidence. This was after these people were forced to do the embarrassing “perp walk” in front of the cameras.

  Could the same thing happen to us?

  I hope not.

  But I’m not so sure.

  Responses to “Anthony Graziano is Not Angry Anymore With His ‘Mob Wives’ Daughters”

  Ron - This is SOOO funny! I can’t believe these people actually think these guys are being discriminated against because they’re Italian. All these guys…and I mean ALL of them…not just the guys that got arrested, are scumbag hoodlums.

  Discrimination against Italians? I’m Italian. I see Italians who have committed murder after murder, narcotics, extortion…are in prison on RICO charges and ask a judge to be let out to coach their son’s Little League game, attend their daughter’s wedding, and attend their children’s First Holy Communion. And the judges grant the requests.

  I ASK ANY READERS - WHEN IN HELL HAS A U.S. JUDGE ALLOWED A BLACK PERSON TO DO THAT? WHEN? And I answer, NEVER!

  Renee Graziano Weeps in Court

  February 8, 2012

  It was an extremely uncomfortable situation in Federal court on Tuesday, February 7, 2012.

  Mob Wives star Renee Graziano sat in court to hear the criminal charges alleged against her father Anthony Graziano, who was arrested recently, along with several other alleged Mafia figures, including Vincent (Vinny TV) Badalamenti. Also in the courtroom were the relatives of the other defendants, but nary a word, or glance was exchanged between Renee, who was in tears, and the other defendant’s relatives.

  The reason for the cold shoulder appears to be that Renee Graziano’s ex-husband, Hector “Junior” Pagan, who has been featured in episodes of Mob Wives (including one where the two apparently were headed back together), has been working as an informant for the Feds. Besides giving the Feds inside information on the defendants, Pagan wore a wire while speaking to Anthony Graziano. This wire allegedly revealed that Graziano asked Pagan to collect an overdue usurious loan. This was one of the charges leveled against Graziano in court.

  When a reporter approached Renee and asked if she felt uncomfortable being around the relatives of the other defendants, she said, “I don’t feel uncomfortable around anybody. I send my apologies and I feel horrible, but I’m not responsible (for Pagan’s treachery
). I didn’t do anything. But I can understand they may feel uncomfortable around me.”

  I really don’t see the need for any apologies on Renee’s part. Obviously, she and the executives of Mob Wives knew nothing about Pagan working for Team America. The Feds would never allow this knowledge to leak out; otherwise they would have a very dead ex-informant on their hands.

  I realize the show Mob Wives is an abomination, especially from the standpoint of the average Italian-American. I watched one episode and my ears were ringing from all the cursing (one of the stars banged out 22 variations of the f-bomb in a short segment, and seemed proud of the fact).

  I lived in Little Italy in New York City (Manhattan) for 48 years, and I never heard a woman curse in front of me, let alone in front of tens of millions of viewers. (I know women curse, but in my neighborhood, never in front of men. And men never cursed in front of women either. Just the rules. If an f-bomb ever slipped out, there would be an immediate profuse apology; or a severe smack in the face. Maybe even worse.)

  However, no matter what you think of the show, or of Renee Graziano in particular, you have to know she was an innocent victim in all of Pagan’s treachery. And what about her son AJ, who is the most innocent victim of all?

  As for the lawyer in court who said about Renee Graziano, “She’s the one with the fake face and the black shoe polish hair, right?” he deserves a kick in the belly. That potty-mouth retort was totally irrelevant to the trial, and if I were his client, I’d make this lawyer totally irrelevant too; by firing him on the spot.

  I know there are people out there gloating about the Graziano family’s problems, but I’m not one of them.

  Remember the old Indian proverb, “Walk a mile in my shoes.”