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I'm reading an interesting book called "The Murder Machine". Its about a crew who operated out of the Gemini Lounge on Flatlands and Troy Ave. They would take people in the back and kill and dismember them.
I grew up around the block from there and used to go to the Gemini on the weekends. I had no idea until now that there was a Murder for Hire organization going on there.
I left Brooklyn in 1982. Does anyone know what that area is like now?
It is one of those Gospel churches, and yes if they only knew. I used to live down the block from the bar and hung out many a night there. May the bar rest in peace. R
Location: Red Hook Brooklyn-winter Derby Line Vermont-summer
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As the other posters have stated it is now a church.
I see you have already read the Murder Machine,there are also some Gemini Lounge stories in The Iceman Confessions of a Mafia Hitman both the book and the interviews (including film of the Gemini) and the book Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss.Both books were written by Philip Carlo and are both great reads if you like that genre.
I'm from Philadelphia and a big mafia buff, I was in NYC visiting a friend last month and it seemed there were few neighborhoods left in the city. I saw a lot of recent immigrants and white yuppie types, but very few Italian Americans. I was mostly in Brooklyn and Queens, even little Italy in Manhattan seemed to be full of Asians. NYC without a heavy mafia presence is pretty lame in my opinion.
As the other posters have stated it is now a church.
I see you have already read the Murder Machine,there are also some Gemini Lounge stories in The Iceman Confessions of a Mafia Hitman both the book and the interviews (including film of the Gemini) and the book Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss.Both books were written by Philip Carlo and are both great reads if you like that genre.
Phil Carlo writes interesting books, but he's known to be quite loose with the truth. Iceman was a BS'er of epic proportions, he claimed to have killed Joe Gallo, Lilo Galante, Hoffa, and even Roy Demeo. All these claims have been proven false though. I really liked the book on Casso, though it was very biased and the writing resembled that of a high school girls diary. The story of his life was just fascinating though...
Location: Red Hook Brooklyn-winter Derby Line Vermont-summer
281 posts, read 1,237,321 times
Reputation: 163
Carlo does play loosely with the facts and I agree that Iceman BS'ed about 3/4 of his story. I believe Ice was only spotted on tape at the Gemini once and that was allegedly to buy a gun.Gaspipe is readable although not the work of a literary genius. It repeats alot of the same story in different ways throughout the book and Carlo is biased since his mother and father were friendly with the Cassos when they all lived in Bensonhurst.At least he did include this bit in the book.I personally enjoy all the mentioned books because I know many of the places mentioned but didn't know what was going on in them due to not being connected and being a kid.My grandparents lived around the corner from the Golden Ox where Casso took six shots and lived.(to later exact revenge on his attacker thanks to 2 crooked cops.)
Carlo does play loosely with the facts and I agree that Iceman BS'ed about 3/4 of his story. I believe Ice was only spotted on tape at the Gemini once and that was allegedly to buy a gun.Gaspipe is readable although not the work of a literary genius. It repeats alot of the same story in different ways throughout the book and Carlo is biased since his mother and father were friendly with the Cassos when they all lived in Bensonhurst.At least he did include this bit in the book.I personally enjoy all the mentioned books because I know many of the places mentioned but didn't know what was going on in them due to not being connected and being a kid.My grandparents lived around the corner from the Golden Ox where Casso took six shots and lived.(to later exact revenge on his attacker thanks to 2 crooked cops.)
Have you read Carlo's newest book, The Butcher: Anatomy of a Mafia Psychopath? It's about Thomas "Tommy Karate" Pitera, a very nasty member of the Bonano family. He was famous for robbing drug dealers, killing them, and chopping up their bodies. I haven't read the book yet, but plan to when it comes out in paperback. Casso getting shot resulted in the death on an innocent man. The mafia cops told gave him the address of a Nicky Guido who was involved in the hit attempt, problem was it was the wrong Nicky Guido. The Nicky Guido killed on Christmas Day was a slightly retarded 20 year old kid who had nothing to do with organized crime. The actual shooter in the hit was brought to Casso by the mafia cops, and Casso brutally tortured him before killing him. NYC was a crazy place back then when the mafia was running wild.... It's a lot tamer today!
I use to play in a group at the Gemini Lounge in fact we opened the place. Knew Roy DeMeo who was a strange cat. He use to ask us to turn up the amps to play louder, I guess to drown out the murders that were going on upstairs.
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