Long before the murder, the girls and a role in “The Godfather,” Gianni Russo was a 13-year-old with a bum arm. Freshly sprung from Bellevue’s polio ward, he ditched his neglectful parents to sleep on flour sacks in the back of a Little Italy bakery and sell pens in front of the Waldorf-Astoria.
It was 1956 and one of his regular customers was mob boss Frank Costello. The don would throw Russo a fiver and rub the boy’s withered shoulder for luck.
After a few months of that, Russo objected to being touched. Costello respected the kid’s gumption — and was even more impressed when he found out that Gianni’s great-uncle was Angelo Russo, a Sicilian kingpin who had been hanged by the Italian government in 1947 after having played a role in establishing New York’s five crime families.
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3 comments:
It would be more believable as a deathbed confession.
DON'T believe a word. It's the ones who boost themselves usually are the ones who hide in the closet when shit hits the fan.
He's been squeezing the life out of his role in The Godfather since 1972. He comes off as an opportunistic snake.
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