Former Boss Holds No Grudge Against Mob Wives Daughters
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TG Graziano |
I just don't know -- but I do know that I dig immersing myself in this stuff and writing about it.
Patrick Parrotta, TG Graziano’s attorney, recently gave an interview outside the courthouse, insisting everything was fine between Graziano and his Mob Wives daughters, daughter Renee's comments on the show, which was filmed last year, notwithstanding.
While Renee stars in the show, it is the brainchild of sister Jennifer.
Parrotta stated, “[TG] does not hold what Hector did against his daughters.”
His lawyer further asserted that any animosity Graziano may have had about VH1′s hit show is in the past. “There’s no estrangement, everybody’s talking,” Parrotta said.
This post once read: "Renee Graziano’s dad Anthony is not speaking to her and her sister, producer Jenn Graziano, over Mob Wives." And I included a read article link. I now believe this is all propaganda.
Logic makes me wonder if perhaps the Grazianos only want "certain" people to believe there is a feud between father and daughters over the TV show. Just like countless politicians and corporate honchos always do, TG probably is just distancing himself from the show with a cover story. The irony is the Mob Wives do not offer anything about mob life -- no mobsters are mentioned, no facts unearthed. It's about a bunch of women who fight and argue too much, some of whom carry an overabundance of rage, some suffering from depression due to destroyed marriages and fear of the hammer of the law falling on a loved one. These are damaged women, and the show's success stems from its ability to exploit this in deft, subtle ways.
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| Ramona Rizzo, Karen's friend and second
most 'hated' Mob Wife. She is also grand-
daughter to "Lefty Guns," whom Al Pacino portrayed in the Donnie Brasco film. |
"Junior" Pagan is the reason why I had this change of heart. Pagan has been the primary male on Mob Wives throughout the show, and likely will remain so until the Feds yank him into hiding. He turned rat.
So if TG is not speaking to his daughters over the show Mob Wives, why the hell would he speak to Pagan?
He did -- there are surveillance photos. It was these conversations, which Pagan recorded, that put TG back in prison after he made it out by the skin of his teeth on a rarely given ruling that landed the Bonanno capo -- now consig, I believe -- in a halfway house, before, finally, home.
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We present Drita, among the
most liked on the show, based
on our straw poll.
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My guess is Renee and Pagan, who seem to have agreed to remarry, will get all nice and cozy on the next episode. Maybe he moves back in, cooks dinner for her. My prediction is that by the end of episode three next Sunday Pagan will be gone -- Renee will learn her father was rearrested, and then that Junior had turned and was the reason why.
She falls on the floor, hysterical, in tears. We saw the clip already, and you can find it somewhere on this site.
I have a lot more pity for Renee, and like her a lot more than I did in the first season. I see her as a little girl, a lonely little girl who just wants a family and friends to love. She wants her daddy. I am not mocking her, if you think I am, go jump in the lake. But it seems odd. When did they film the park scene, with Renee and Junior getting back together... It almost seems like Jen knew what Pagan had done, and then built this plot thread to help create a story line for Renee.
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| These pics of Drita we are running especially for Karen Gravano.
It's not about Lee, or friendship, is it?
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But, as we know, opinions are like a--holes. I chatted about this with a retired NYPD detective who worked organized crime for years and was deeply involved in the third Colombo war, dealing with the likes of "Wild Bill" Cutolo and Greg "Grim Reaper" Scarpa. He has also been "deputized" several times by the Feds, which gave him certain powers only FBI agents have, like pursuing suspects across state lines. He is familiar with Pagan and Graziano, not because he watched this show -- he doesn't -- but because he was part of the teams that arrested them over the years. As for my query about whether Jen and Renee knew he had flipped, and wrote it into the story, he disagreed.
"In my opinion Pagan getting back with Renee had nothing to do with it -- he was around TG one way or the other," the former detective said.
At the same time, I think Renee is a manipulator, and as much as I try to like her, I remember things like the fact that there is NO DOUBT that she set Drita up for confrontation with the bullies named Gravano and Rizzo. First, Renee doesn't invite Carla, because Carla didn't get on her knees and apply her lips to Renee's liposucked assed because Renee nearly died from ripped-open stitches, she claims.
I believe Renee set Drita up -- ironically Drita kept yelling at Renee, "You set me up! You set me up!" Think about it -- what did Renee do after the fight? She stuck to Drita like glue, apologizing, trying to minister to Drita's mental and physical wounds, yelling at everyone to get away from her and snapping at Gravano and Rizzo, telling them to get the hell out of the place.
Outside, the two ensconced in an SUV, the camera not allowed to capture the interior but the audio within loud and clear, Drita's accusations continued and Renee started swearing she didn't set Karen up. That, my friends, to me, anyway, is someone who is acting out of a sense of guilt. Or, perhaps she did a quick calculation and realized Drita was the one the audience would sympathize with more than they would with "Fatal Attraction" Gravano and "Lucifer" Rizzo, the clever and fitting nicknames pinned on Karen and Ramona.
I like Drita and Carla, who are fiercely independent women, "real" people -- it's pretty much, what you see is what you get with these two ladies -- and Drita is hot; Carla's not bad. I think jealousy also drives Karen's anger; Ramona, despite her horrible personality, is indeed a looker.
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Sonny Black suffered for Lefty's
sins; sources say he met his
death like a man.
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The newest cast member of the show -- Ramona Rizzo, the new Mob Wife who isn't married to a mobster. She is the granddaughter of the now-deceased "Lefty Two-Guns" Ruggiero, the lovable mobster who killed a lot of people and who Ramona says is the "love of her life, the person who made me learn my self worth" and, hey, Al Pacino played him in the Donnie Brasco film!
Lefty was a street smart gangster well versed in the life yet so fucking stupid he let an FBI agent walk right in the front door of the Bonanno family's headquarters. Lefty survived this stunning mistake because then family boss Joe Massino lifted the contract on Lefty's life, an act that probably owes more to Massino's sense of humor than anything else.
Sonny Black Napolitano was not so lucky. He died hard, by the gun, his hands chopped off and his corpse left rotting in the swampy marshes outside Manhattan. Does anyone wonder if the Bonannos would be in better shape today had Sonny Black survived and become boss instead of Massino, which was a scenario Massino certainly was concerned about back in the '80s. Sonny was the only man who had a chance of taking the family from Rusty, after he had died, of course.
Anthony Mirra bought it too; he actually brought Donnie in before Lefty, but went to prison, so he was out of the picture for most of the Brasco era. He was such a lowlife scumbag, his murder is only a footnote to the Brasco story.
Ramona's flaw is that she is seemingly tied to Karen's waist and does not seem much aware of what's going on. It's like, "Karen, Karen, Karen, I agree 100% with everything you say or do."
She didn't make a very good impression after Drita bloodied her mouth; Ramona knew damn well who hit her, but she still screamed, "WHERE'S DEREK! I WANT HIM NOW!"
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Joe Massino cleaned up the
family after the Joe Pistone
incident, handing the death
penalty down to two family
members.
Ironically it would be the threat
of death that would cause Joe to
flip decades late
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Sonny Black Napolitano was not so lucky. He died hard, by the gun, his hands chopped off and his corpse left rotting in the swampy marshes outside Manhattan. Does anyone wonder if the Bonannos would be in better shape today had Sonny Black survived and become boss instead of Massino, which was a scenario Massino certainly was concerned about back in the '80s. Sonny was the only man who had a chance of taking the family from Rusty, after he had died, of course.
Anthony Mirra bought it too; he actually brought Donnie in before Lefty, but went to prison, so he was out of the picture for most of the Brasco era. He was such a lowlife scumbag, his murder is only a footnote to the Brasco story.
Ramona's flaw is that she is seemingly tied to Karen's waist and does not seem much aware of what's going on. It's like, "Karen, Karen, Karen, I agree 100% with everything you say or do."
She didn't make a very good impression after Drita bloodied her mouth; Ramona knew damn well who hit her, but she still screamed, "WHERE'S DEREK! I WANT HIM NOW!"