Surviving the Mob - Dennis Griffin [33]
When they arrived at the meeting location, Andrew waited in the car as Gilbert and Arena met on the street. Almost immediately, Arena started to punch Gilbert. Andrew left the car and walked toward the combatants. He describes what happened next.
“Robert noticed me approaching them. He turned toward me and smiled, then he gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. He asked me how I’d been, what was going on, and what was the matter. I told him Gilbert was my friend and I couldn’t let this happen. I said I didn’t know what this thing was all about and I wasn’t saying who was right or wrong. I just didn’t want my friend hurt.
“Robert said it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be worked out. He was just pissed off, because he thought Gilbert was acting like a punk. Robert and I took a walk and talked things over. When we passed his car, a couple of his friends were inside. The father of one of them was a captain in the Gambino family. We talked for a while and then went back to Gilbert and him and Robert talked. Things got worked out right then and there were no more problems between them. Robert and me became fast friends from that point forward.”
Around September or October, Andrew learned from Dina that he was going to be a father. The news was exciting at the time. But looking back at it now, Andrew questions whether people like him should want wives and children.
“It was selfish for a guy like me to want a family of my own. I couldn’t be there for them, because I was married to the crime family. I think the only reason guys like me want to get married or have kids is to be able to fit in with the normal society. But I wasn’t thinking like that back then.”
As Andrew prepared to start his third year as a member of Nicky’s crew, he began to think of where he wanted his career to take him. But he didn’t know then that his encounter with Ralph Burzo on East 2nd Street was only months away. And he hadn’t yet learned his lessons about Mob politics and loyalty. However, his education would soon begin when he got into trouble and Nicky Corozzo’s support wasn’t quite what he expected.
For Andrew, winds of change were on the way.
10
1988
At some point during their working years, most people take stock of where they are and where they want to go with their careers. Although he didn’t have what the majority of us would consider to be a normal job, Andrew was striving to be a professional in his chosen field, so he had work-related decisions to make. As he improved his criminal skills and became more valuable to his boss, he started thinking about a step up the career ladder. In his case, that meant becoming a made man.
Traditionally, to become a made member of the Mafia, the inductee had to be of full Italian or Sicilian descent. However, to become a made man in the Italian-American Mafia today, the candidate must only be of half-Italian descent on either his father’s or mother’s side, provided he has an Italian surname. A frequent example of a made member who wasn’t a full-blooded Italian is John A. “Junior” Gotti, whose mother was of Russian and Jewish descent. However, with a person as powerful as his father behind him, the traditional requirement was waived.
And the nominee should also have “made his bones” by committing a murder on behalf of his Mafia family or crew. Many Mafia families, especially the more violent factions, don’t consider a killing for personal reasons to meet this requirement.
If a man does get made, his elevated status entitles him to additional respect and financial rewards. In addition, he is not allowed to be killed without the permission of the Mob hierarchy—in essence, making him untouchable to his organized-crime rivals or enemies.
Andrew believed he had a legitimate shot at becoming a full member of the Gambinos in spite of his youth. He was qualified in regard to his ancestry. He’d demonstrated