Comments for Second Thief, Best Thief

Comment on The father of “Crazy” Joe Gallo was in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on a fine Italian dinner. by Patrick McLaughlin

Patrick McLaughlin — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 04:39:52 +0000

Anthony, I just wanted to share with you that I was born in Jersey city in 1945 at the Margret Hague hospital as well. My mom was an OBGYN nurse who worked at the Margaret Hague and the Medical center. I have been working on both sides of my Family Tree and have been using Ancestry.com for about 12 years. My grandfather, John McLaughlin, worked for the Jersey city water department as a truck driver. After Frank Hague’s election, John became Frank Hague’s chauffeur. In the years that he drove the mayor around my grandfather overheard many things that the mayor did not want to get out to the public. My father, Mike McLaughlin, was the middle son of ten children. Several of my uncles ended up in jail and the way my grandfather got them off was to ask the mayor to get them out of jail. John was also a Ward Healer for mayor Hague and ran a speakeasy in JC. His brother in law, Michael (Mickey) Russell, was a fairly famous bantamweight boxer in JC and almost take the title from Jonny Buff. After injuries forced him to retire at 33 he worked with my grandfather at his speakeasy as a bouncer. Mickey went out to the alley with two men who were acting up and one of them had a gun and killed my great uncle. I found the newspaper article about the murder. I lived on Corbin Avenue between Sip and Pavonia in a redbrick walkup.I went to PS 23 school until we moved out of JC. My dad worked on the Erie RR and one of the stops was Port Jervis NY. That is where my parents decided to move to in 1955 when I was ten years old. I would really enjoy hearing from you and maybe we could swap some JC stories from the 50’s.

Patrick McLaughlin
143 Commonwealth avenue
Middletown, NY 10940

Comment on Life-long resident of Jersey City hired as Security by maria scariati

maria scariati — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 18:07:28 +0000

Too Funny
Ahhh, the good old days ….when just walking down the street, being aware of your surroundings, was good for a laugh!
No Reality TV needed

Comment on Jersey City and TB — Perfect together? by Anthony Olszewski

Anthony Olszewski — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 16:17:57 +0000

Jersey City has been number one in the state for tuberculosis for nearly a decade. It also appears that the other municipalities in the top 5 have managed to contain the disease and cut the rate — most dramatically Newark — but not Jersey City
I tend to doubt that the towers or brownstones on the waterfront are much affected. That would mean that certain communities are even harder hit than one might at first surmise from the raw numbers.
And I’m old enough that the first time I heard of tuberculosis was in a 10th grade Literature class when we read Crime and Punishment. As far as public health goes, is progress a thing of the past?

# # #

From: Anthony Olszewski
Date: Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 6:20 AM
Subject: Jersey City TB case rate
To: Frank.Romano@doh.state.nj.us
Cc: Jersey Journal
Here
http://www.state.nj.us/health/tb/documents/tbstats/city.pdf
The most recent figures for the Jersey City TB incidence and case rate / 100k are given as
34/5.2
Since the Jersey City population by the 2010 census is given as
240,055
Dividing 34 by 2.4 gives 14.17.
How was the 5.2 case rate/100k calculated?
BTW, as the TB cases probably are not spread evenly through Jersey City, is there any way to get some idea of the streets / neighborhoods / wards where TB actually was found? Are there places in Jersey City where the prevalence of TB essentially is the same as in the Third World?
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6510a3.htm?s_cid=mm6510a3_e

Thank you.

Anthony Olszewski

Comment on Frank Hague by Anthony Olszewski

Anthony Olszewski — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 10:04:12 +0000

Good to hear from you. Where are you in California?

Comment on Frank Hague by Lou Padula

Lou Padula — Sun, 11 Sep 2016 22:31:58 +0000

Born in Jersey City in 1941 . Still a Jersey guy in California at 75 years old.

Comment on Frank Hague by Patrick McLaughlin

Patrick McLaughlin — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 20:49:39 +0000

I was born in Jersey city in 1945 and live there until I was ten years old. My grand father, John McLaughlin, worked for the Jersey city water department and also for several years was Mayor Hague’s chauffeur/driver. My grandfather heard many things while driving the mayor around and was able to use that information to get many of his sons out of jail as they frequently were in some type of trouble. My great uncle, on my grandmother’s side, Michael, (Mickey) Russell was a famous bantam weight boxer in Jersey city and at one point drew over 30, 000 spectators at Boyle’s Acre. He and my grandfather ran a speak easy in Jersey city and my great uncle was shot while taking care of some unruly patrons.

Comment on Tommy’s handling of other things of value by Anthony Olszewski

Anthony Olszewski — Sat, 23 Jan 2016 16:54:46 +0000

Tommy had a square of plexiglass that was around 18″ on each side on the floor that served as a chair of sorts. The plastic seemed to be filled with pennies. How the coins were obtained, I don’t know. Once when the place was burglarized, the thieves attempted to haul away the copper coins. They got it as far as the door, but left it there, apparently deciding that the weight just was too much to handle.

In a sad and sorry incident, Peter the Bulgarian broke into a nearby apartment that Tommy was using for storage. The unpleasant export of Eastern Europe set fire to a collection of old comic books. Somehow, the fire didn’t spread, but the rare comics were destroyed.

In a curious incident, some bandits secreted themselves about midway up the very long flight of steps leading to Tommy’s place. As potential customers arrived, the gunmen robbed those seeking better living through chemistry and then kept them there.

Comment on Jersey City somewhat shady out-of-state lottery shop by Arnold B. Williams

Arnold B. Williams — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 13:05:21 +0000

Anthony Olszewski you are the man. I remember that story it was told once by Anthony R. Cucci the former Mayor of Jersey City. And Fiola was also good friends with Glenn D. Cunningham who became Council President after successfully running on Cucci’s ticket. I remember Anthony Fiola very well. Cunningham had a campaign office just around the corner on Newark Avenue from Fiola’s. Man on have you kick up some old memories.

Comment on A week or so after the abduction and murder of Butch Cap, . . . by Anthony Olszewski

Anthony Olszewski — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 17:56:16 +0000

The junky buddies of Michael Labruno — later convicted of killing Butch Cap — were wont to repeat the Organized Crime figure’s words of wisdom, like Red Guard quoting their leader Mao. Sad to relate, now I remember just one: “Michael says that there’s a contract out on him in Brooklyn, but they’s ascared t’come t’Jersey.”

Not long after Butch was killed, someone mentioned to me that Michael LaBruno’s auto body shop in Hoboken was closing. Disingenuously, I asked “Gee? Why’s Zat?” The other end of the conversation not knowing that one plus one equals two answered “They lost their City contract.” I guess that’s to be expected when you off the mayor’s nephew.

Comment on A week or so after the abduction and murder of Butch Cap, . . . by Anthony Olszewski

Anthony Olszewski — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 11:02:21 +0000

As noted in The pigeon hobby in Hudson County, this place PG (PreGentrification) was exceedingly egalitarian -- at times inexplicably so. A prime example is Tommy's years later saying that he knew then North Bergen mayor Peter Mocco "very well." He provided an anecdote of Mayor Mocco calling one day to ask for a favor. It seems that the mayor's mother had locked herself out and Peter hoped that Tommy might manage to return access. Tommy climbed up and in a second floor window and then unlocked the front door from inside. It must have been a pleasant change for Tommy who'd spent most of his youth worrying about officials learning of his unconventional methods of entering now to have one in charge asking him to do so.

Comment on Rape, Murder and Kidnapping by Lee Ann

Lee Ann — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 18:28:19 +0000

This is terrible… wow just wow!

Comment on Applied Trigonometry by Anthony Olszewski

Anthony Olszewski — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 23:19:49 +0000

Jimmy Wolf went missing at the same time as Eddie Conte, but the difference was that Wolf did reappear — a long time later. He brought the under the bridge gang in out of the cold for an hour or so of drinks in the bar, a rare treat. They were the only ones there and Jimmy Wolf spoke to all of the incident.

“I wakes up ’cause I hears this here horrible screamin’ an’ I goes to get up and I can’t; my leg’s busted. Then’s when I realize that it’s me doin’ the screamin’. Conte’s standin’ there holdin’ a two by four. He’s got this weird look on his face like he’s in a trance. I don’t know who called ’em, but an ambulance shows right up. An’ ye’r not gonna believe what he says to me as they’s puttin’ me in: ‘I hope we can still be friends.'”

“Alls the while I’m laid up I’m concentratin’ on gettin’ better and stayin’ in shape. I kept offa the booze and only had one beer a day. I was meanin’ to pay ‘im back every cent and alla the interest.”