i'm not allowed in joisey

my hair isn't big enough! (i can say that, i'm of eye-talian descent. and no, i'm NOT offended by the sopranos. as a matter of fact, i LIKE the show. i'd like it far better if they just brought back furio though!)

ya gotta love this article on the gotti trial coverage. they use the words, 'mook' and 'dressed in upscale moll-wear'.

Family Man

John Gotti Says He's Quit the Mob And Wants a Jury to Send Him Home
By David Segal Washington Post Staff WriterWednesday, September 14, 2005; Page C01
NEW YORK

John A. Gotti never took the stand in his five-week trial in Federal District Court on charges of kidnapping, extortion and other types of highly antisocial behavior, but he did get an unexpected chance to shout a few words in his defense. It happened Aug. 12, as a mob defector named Frank Fappiano coolly recounted life in the brutish and trigger-happy Gambino crime family, an organization that Gotti led through much of the '90s.
As Fappiano regaled the jury -- bang! -- a noise like the blast of a shotgun caromed off the walls. For a moment, everyone in Courtroom 26A assumed the worst -- that Fappiano had been whacked in plain sight and would sink to the ground, covered in blood. People momentarily bounced out of their seats, others gasped in fear.
But Fappiano was fine.
"I didn't do it!" Gotti yelled.
The sound had been a burst of feedback through the audio system. It took a while for the chuckles to die down.
Gotti's trial, which went to the jury Friday, had everything you might want from a mob drama, including senseless violence and silly nicknames. (One particular mook was referred to by various informants only as "Gas Pipe," for reasons that can only be guessed.) On hand to watch the show -- arguably the best theater in New York this summer, and no charge for a seat -- was a crowd of lawyers, media people, Gotti relatives and Gambino sympathizers. It looked like the guests for a wedding in which the groom hailed from the Upper West Side and the bride hailed from the New Skyway Diner in Kearny, N.J. Gotti's sister, Victoria, showed up for opening day, dressed in upscale moll-wear. The two sides rarely mixed.
You might think Gotti's shouted punch line simply rephrases his not-guilty plea. But the 41-year-old, who became acting boss when his father, John "the Dapper Don" Gotti, was sent to prison in 1992, isn't arguing that he's an innocent waste management executive, or that the Mafia is a figment of the DA's imagination. Instead, his defense boils down to this: Oh, I was in the mob all right, but I am so over it now. I quit.
"I am not saying he was never a gangster, because he was," Gotti's lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, told the jury on the trial's opening day. "I am simply saying he had enough and he wanted out."
Give Gotti points for nerve. Traditionally, there have been just two exit strategies from Cosa Nostra: through the door marked "Witness Protection Program," which requires you to rat out colleagues, or on a slab, which requires you to die.............