Between me hitting and kicking him and the fall, he was banged up pretty good.
“In the meantime, one of the neighbors called the police. Dina’s brother Larry picked up my gun and took it back into the apartment. When the cops showed up, Dina told them Ronnie was a stalker. One of the cops said there was a report that a gun was involved and wanted to know who had it. Dina told him nobody had a gun.
“Sitting there on the couch, I was getting worried about the gun issue. I knew Larry had hidden it, but it had been in my waistband for so long I figured there was probably a mark from it on my skin. If the cops checked me over, I’d probably be in trouble. They never did, though. Ronnie refused to press charges and they all left. He never bothered her like that again.
“That episode showed Dina another side of me. She knew my reputation on the street and now she knew it was true. She knew her way around, though, and didn’t mind. Like I said, we were very much alike. She introduced me to some people in Bensonhurst she knew. They became my friends and, in some cases, my drug-business associates. That was in addition to my contacts in the Persico crew.
“After a while I took Dina to meet my mother and it didn’t go all that well. It wasn’t that my mother didn’t like her. It was just that to my mother, no girl was good enough for me. It didn’t matter who the girl was, my mother would find fault with her.”
NO-SHOW JOB
Around April, Andrew landed a job that was almost too good to be true. In fact, it wasn’t true. Thanks to the Gambino family’s influence with labor unions involved in the construction business, he was hired for a job with one basic requirement: Show up only to collect his paycheck.
At that time, major construction was underway at Battery Park City. The Gambinos controlled one of the labor unions with members working there. A deal was worked out where guys from all the crews were hired for the construction jobs. About 10 crew members rotated on and off the payroll at a time.
“My job title was pipe insulator. I was credited with all kinds of overtime and my take-home pay was around a thousand a week. Multiply that by ten guys and you’re talking serious money. When I got my paycheck, I took it right to Nicky and signed it over. When he cashed it, he gave me a couple hundred and split the rest with the union guy.
“That wasn’t a lot of money for me, but it was free. The best part was that after twenty-six weeks, we got laid off and went on unemployment. Then other crew members were hired to replace us. The unemployment checks were all mine. On top of that, because I was single, they taxed the shit out of me and I got almost all of it back as a tax refund. I think I got a refund of eight or nine thousand and I gave a thousand to Nicky. Not that I had to. It was a way for me to thank him for setting this deal up for me. I don’t know if all our guys had the same exact arrangement, but that’s the way it worked for me.”
PROFIT AND LOSS
Around this time, Andrew got involved in a memorable rebuildable-car episode.
He purchased two Cadillacs that an insurance company was selling as recovered stolen vehicles for about $2,000 each. Their book value was about $20,000 each. Then he stole two cars that were identical right down to the color.
Within a couple of months, he rebuilt both cars. He sold one to a crew member for $13,500, well under book. That gave him a profit of about $11,000 and left the crew member room to make some money when he did an insurance job later on. Andrew helped him strip the car again and he filed an insurance claim. They gave the adjuster a few hundred not to total the Cadillac, just to show damage of around ten thousand. The check from the insurance company was pure profit. After that, they put the car back together and he now had a $20,000 car that cost him only $3,500 out of pocket. Then he sold it at book value and realized $16,000. Between them they made
“In the meantime, one of the neighbors called the police. Dina’s brother Larry picked up my gun and took it back into the apartment. When the cops showed up, Dina told them Ronnie was a stalker. One of the cops said there was a report that a gun was involved and wanted to know who had it. Dina told him nobody had a gun.
“Sitting there on the couch, I was getting worried about the gun issue. I knew Larry had hidden it, but it had been in my waistband for so long I figured there was probably a mark from it on my skin. If the cops checked me over, I’d probably be in trouble. They never did, though. Ronnie refused to press charges and they all left. He never bothered her like that again.
“That episode showed Dina another side of me. She knew my reputation on the street and now she knew it was true. She knew her way around, though, and didn’t mind. Like I said, we were very much alike. She introduced me to some people in Bensonhurst she knew. They became my friends and, in some cases, my drug-business associates. That was in addition to my contacts in the Persico crew.
“After a while I took Dina to meet my mother and it didn’t go all that well. It wasn’t that my mother didn’t like her. It was just that to my mother, no girl was good enough for me. It didn’t matter who the girl was, my mother would find fault with her.”
NO-SHOW JOB
Around April, Andrew landed a job that was almost too good to be true. In fact, it wasn’t true. Thanks to the Gambino family’s influence with labor unions involved in the construction business, he was hired for a job with one basic requirement: Show up only to collect his paycheck.
At that time, major construction was underway at Battery Park City. The Gambinos controlled one of the labor unions with members working there. A deal was worked out where guys from all the crews were hired for the construction jobs. About 10 crew members rotated on and off the payroll at a time.
“My job title was pipe insulator. I was credited with all kinds of overtime and my take-home pay was around a thousand a week. Multiply that by ten guys and you’re talking serious money. When I got my paycheck, I took it right to Nicky and signed it over. When he cashed it, he gave me a couple hundred and split the rest with the union guy.
“That wasn’t a lot of money for me, but it was free. The best part was that after twenty-six weeks, we got laid off and went on unemployment. Then other crew members were hired to replace us. The unemployment checks were all mine. On top of that, because I was single, they taxed the shit out of me and I got almost all of it back as a tax refund. I think I got a refund of eight or nine thousand and I gave a thousand to Nicky. Not that I had to. It was a way for me to thank him for setting this deal up for me. I don’t know if all our guys had the same exact arrangement, but that’s the way it worked for me.”
PROFIT AND LOSS
Around this time, Andrew got involved in a memorable rebuildable-car episode.
He purchased two Cadillacs that an insurance company was selling as recovered stolen vehicles for about $2,000 each. Their book value was about $20,000 each. Then he stole two cars that were identical right down to the color.
Within a couple of months, he rebuilt both cars. He sold one to a crew member for $13,500, well under book. That gave him a profit of about $11,000 and left the crew member room to make some money when he did an insurance job later on. Andrew helped him strip the car again and he filed an insurance claim. They gave the adjuster a few hundred not to total the Cadillac, just to show damage of around ten thousand. The check from the insurance company was pure profit. After that, they put the car back together and he now had a $20,000 car that cost him only $3,500 out of pocket. Then he sold it at book value and realized $16,000. Between them they made
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