Digital Social Hour
The Untold Podcast Journey: From Gangs to Gangland | Anthony Ruggiano #886
Wed, 13 Nov
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Join the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly for an unforgettable podcast journey, "The Untold Podcast Journey: From Gangs to Gangland," featuring special guest Anthony Ruggiano Jr. Dive deep into Anthony's gripping transformation from mob life to sobriety and redemption. With 36 years of recovery under his belt, Anthony shares his extraordinary stories from his time in the mafia and prison, offering insights into a world few have experienced. Explore the shift from crime to counseling, and learn how he turned his life around. Packed with valuable insights, this episode is a must-watch for anyone curious about the untold stories of the underworld. Don't miss out! Tune in now and subscribe for more insider secrets. Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! Join the conversation and be part of this amazing transformation story. #jeffnadu #truecrimedocumentary #howardbeach #substanceabuse #recoverycoach #counseloreducation #substanceabuse #recoverycoach #addictioncounselor #chrisherren CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Prison Squad 00:35 - Intro 04:56 - Dr*g Trafficking Experiences 06:55 - Reasons for Imprisonment 08:01 - Mafia's Current Money-Making Methods 09:37 - Advanced Surveillance Techniques 10:59 - Modern Illegal Income Strategies 13:52 - Father's Candid Life Stories 16:26 - Father's Lavish Lifestyle 17:55 - John Gotti's Influence 19:14 - Close Calls with Law Enforcement 23:13 - Mafia Sit-Down Negotiations 25:20 - Most Successful Mafia Families 26:56 - Understanding the RICO Act 29:30 - Life After Organized Crime 34:15 - Coping with PTSD 40:10 - Realization of FBI Surveillance 45:55 - Father's Background in the Mob 49:52 - Where to Find Anthony 49:54 - Upcoming Projects APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [email protected] GUEST: Anthony Ruggiano https://www.instagram.com/anthonyruggianojr/ https://www.reformedgangsters.com/ www.youtube.com/@AnthonyRuggiano SPONSORS: BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.com/DSH LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/
Chapter 1: What were Anthony Ruggiano's prison experiences?
Did you have the same squad you hung out with in prison?
Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I was hung out with Italian guys, you know, mob guys. You know, I did state time, New York state time, and then I did federal prison time. So it's different. In the New York state, the Italian guys were like, we were like pretty much hooked up with the Latin Kings. Like we had each other's back. In the feds, it was all, there was so many Italian guys.
So we were all clicked up really by what city we came from. There was the New York crew, the Philly crew, the Chicago crew. There was that many Italian guys? Oh yeah, from all over the country.
All right, guys. Got Anthony Ruggiano here today. Thanks for coming on, man. Oh, my pleasure. I've been looking forward to it. Yeah, I've been seeing you blow up on the internet. Thank you. Yeah. How long you been doing the podcast for now?
About three years, coming up on three years. You know, I just got into this, you know, I had no clue about podcasts or shows, and I just got a phone call one day that these people in England were looking, keep hearing things about me and my father, and they wanted to put me on this show, National Geographic, or Narco was, and I did it, and then one thing led to another, and I wanted to...
Getting my own podcast. Nice. And do you interview people or is it just you? No, I do both. I interview. I tell my own story. I interview people. I interview people that I know. I interview people that are in recovery because I'm in recovery. So, yeah, I interview people. How long have you been in recovery? I'm coming up on 36 years. Holy crap.
Clean and sober. Dude, congrats. Before you were born. Yeah, I'm 27. I got clean in 1989, January of 1989. And it was really bad before that?
yeah it was uh the last few years were bad you know the last few years were pretty were kind of crazy yeah what was the substance it was alcohol cocaine oh cocaine alcohol yeah i was free basing cocaine at the end you know it was not a not pretty you were free basing what's up It's before crack that we would make, cook it up ourselves and smoke it.
And then after what I had progressed into crack cocaine, but just, they used to call for you. I don't know if you ever heard of Richard Pryor. He was a famous comedian. He caught on fire from free basin. That's how it was a form. So you took the cocaine and you, you, you purified it yourself and you smoked it.
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Chapter 2: How did Anthony Ruggiano get involved in the mafia?
It's legal everywhere.
I mean, listen, even me, I went to prison for bookmaking. It's legal today, sports betting. Numbers is the lotto. That's everything I went to jail for outside of murder is legal today. Crazy. That makes you feel pissed probably, right? Yeah. It does. At times, it really does. Yeah, definitely. Because you served years. I went to jail for years. I spent 14 years in prison. Holy crap.
Was that mainly for the bookmaking? Well, no. The first time I went to prison was in 1978. I went to prison for we robbed a liquor warehouse. And then I went to prison in 91. That was for policy. That was for the lottery. We had a number of business. Lottery? Yeah, you know, the lottery like the, you know, that they have now. The states all have the lottery, the numbers.
So we had an illegal number business, and I went to jail for that. And then in 95, I got arrested for sports betting, for bookmaking, and I went to jail for that and extortion and a whole bunch of other stuff. Damn.
Which one brought in the most money? Oh, the bookmaking brought in the most. The numbers, really. The numbers brought in the most money because that's an everyday thing. That's like people are betting dollars and 50 cents and quarters and dimes and $5. So, you know, it was a lot of money. Wow. So you literally had your own lottery.
That's crazy. Yeah, we did. I didn't know that was a business. Yeah, that was a big business. Yeah, it was a big business. But I went to jail for it, of course. I always wonder what the mafia does now for money because it's a lot harder to get away with stuff, right?
You know, that's a good question because I was talking to somebody the other day. I don't know what they do anymore because everything, like I said, everything I did to earn money today is legal. You know, they're selling drugs, that's for sure. I mean, that's for sure. And probably, you know, white-collar crimes, you know, stocks, bonds, whatever they could.
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Chapter 3: What were the reasons for Anthony's imprisonment?
Listen, the mob is going to do whatever they could do to make money. They're going to figure ways to, you know, Make money, but everything I did to make money back then, I couldn't do today. First of all, there's too much surveillance. There's cameras everywhere you go. I mean, there's cameras in fucking people's doorbells. I mean, it's insane. I made money with fraudulent credit cards.
You couldn't do that no more because every store you go in has cameras. I had a vending company. I'm sure there's still people out there with gambling machines and bodegas and all that stuff, so they're still making money with gambling because even though gambling is legal, Not everybody has a bank account.
So if you don't have a bank account, you can't hook the app up to a checking account or a savings account. You can't bet legally, so you're going to go to a bookmaker. So there's ways for them to make money, not like it used to be, and there's no more violence.
So no more murders or anything? No, they're not doing that anymore. Was it because they kept killing each other? They were like, we need to stop. It's really because of the surveillance, because of the laws, and because people are cooperating.
Yeah, the surveillance is insane. I'm watching these cases on these rappers right now, and they tracked the murder from their phones and the towers. It showed they were at the same place at the same time. And then you got everybody's on TikTok and YouTube and Instagram and...
this kid this guy was on the lamb a colombo guy a captain in the colombo family michael francis's old family yeah he was on the lamb hiding from the fbi and his son put his picture on uh instagram or tiktok and the guy had to go surrender himself they knew where he was yeah because all they need is a photo now right that's it even your tesla if you have a tesla it pretty much tracks wherever you go everywhere that's crazy so
The way I made money back then, I could never... I want to know how to make money illegally today. You know, well, I would, because somebody asked me the other day, if I had to do anything illegal today, what would I do? And I says, I would do two things. They said what? I would smuggle untaxed cigarettes from Florida to New York because the New York cigarettes are $17 a pack.
And then when I got to New York, I would go to Canal Street and get knockoff Gucci's and Louis Vuitton's and bring them back to Florida. That's the only thing I would know how to do right now. It's tough. But I'm not. I mean, that's what I would do. Yeah, cigarettes in prison sell for a lot though, right? A lot right now. You can't smoke in it. You got to smuggle them in. It's like drugs now.
Crazy. When you were in prison, were there drugs everywhere? Everywhere. I wonder if it's still like that now. The first time I went to prison, I had my own drugs. I mean, I was getting, the COs were bringing me marijuana and volumes and alcohol. That's not too bad then. Yeah.
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Chapter 7: How did Anthony Ruggiano transition from crime to recovery?
How did they find out so late? Like, what happened?
Other people cooperated that knew about it and led them to us. So, yeah. Damn. But they had no evidence? It was just their word? Yeah, they had no evidence. There's no physical evidence, no, because the body disappeared. They never found the body. They never had a murder weapon. But they had enough. They had enough to indict us. I mean, they had enough.
So just a witness testimony is enough? Yeah, in the feds, yeah. You don't need a body. Damn. Because you could just pay someone off. Circumstantial evidence in the federal courts is good. Wow. So that's why you went with the plea route?
Because if you went to trial, you would have gotten... Well, I went to the plea route because my co-defendants were sort of like trying to throw me under the bus. You know what I mean? Like I was the last person with him. I picked him up and drove him somewhere, and then he disappeared.
So I had some conversations with some people, and I had some conversations with some attorneys, and the attorney actually told me, listen, you're going to get thrown under the bus here.
you should call the government damn you know and uh and i didn't couldn't do it you know i talk about it all the time i still couldn't do it the next day my wife was driving to work and i told her to call them and tell them i couldn't make wow that was probably the toughest one for you because you had the family the worst the worst i couldn't do it that haunts me sometimes that i cooperated but uh
You know, I think because I cooperated and I changed, you know, I became a counselor. I think I'm sort of trying to make up for all the bad I did, I guess you could say. I don't know. Karma, right? Yeah. Damn, that's deep. Yeah, because you were programmed your whole life to never, ever do that. So that must have been the toughest decision you ever had to make. It was.
Terrible. Yeah, it was tough. It took me a year. I used to pick up the phone and hang it up. Holy crap. I would have the FBI card in my hand and I would pick up the phone and I would hang it up. Damn. I couldn't do it. I used to get knots in my stomach, sweat. I couldn't do it. And I still couldn't do it. Even when I did do it, I made my wife do it. I couldn't do it.
Because you knew you'd lose your whole friend group, everything was gone.
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Chapter 8: What insights can Anthony share about addiction and recovery?
I've never seen that in the mob. Maybe Gotti and Sammy. No, Gotti and, they were never partners. Oh, they weren't? No, they were just, they were, you know, if Sammy was the underboss, they were probably partners in some things, but not partners in everything. Got it.
You know, I think, I think probably Angelo Quack at one time was John Gotti's partner, partner. But other than that, there's not really anybody I knew that had a partnership like Tony Lee and Fat Andy. I mean. That's probably why it was a successful. Oh, yeah, very. Yeah, they had a big crew. They had a big crew. Yeah. They were partners from when they were teenagers.
Yeah, that's crazy, the trust and the loyalty there. They used to tease each other. You were a window breaker before you became my partner. Oh, I love that, man. So was your grandfather in the mafia too? No, you know, that's a funny thing. Nobody in my family was in the mob except my father. Oh, wow.
You know, he never had a father. So my grandfather immigrated from Naples, Italy in like the turn of the century. And my grandmother was a teenager when they got married. My father was the youngest child out of eight. My grandfather, in 1932, got hit by a trolley car. Damn. And died. And my father was only six. Holy crap.
At the time of my grandfather's death, my father's best friends were this guy Lenny, the donor, and Larry Abedando. Larry's father was the Dasher and Lenny's uncle was Happy Mayoni. They were both members of Murder Incorporated. I'm sure you know about Murder Incorporated. They all got the electric chair with Lepke and Sing Sing. Holy crap. So they became his father figures.
These mob guys, because his friends... family were all mobbed up. The Mayonis were all mobbed up. The Abedandos, these people were all mobbed up. So they became like his father figures. And when he became a teenager, he started working for them. And he used to tell me he's the way he is because he had no father. Wow, that's deep. Yeah, because a young kid is so impressionable, right?
Because my uncles, his brothers, all were legitimate guys. Oh, none of them joined? My uncle, no. They all worked. My two uncles worked for the transit. One of my uncles, I mean, he made money legally within the transit. He was shy like a money, you know, booking bets. But he was legitimate. They all were World War II veterans, my three uncles. Wow.
totally all legit oh and my mother's family too all legit damn that is interesting i said gene gene my cousin gene his grandfather my uncle junior he was a little he was legit but not legit he he was a bus driver but he was a criminal dude gene is funny man because with his mouth the fact that he survived with because he just says whatever he says yeah his grandfather was my mother's kid brother wow so he's my second cousin were you like mentoring him through the through the game
No, you know, I was away. When I went away, he was a kid. When I went away, he was only 12. Wow. When I went away in 96, he was 12. He was a year younger than my son. Him and my son are very tight. They grew up together. So when I went away, he was 12. When I came out, eight, nine years later, he was in the mob. He was already made? No, he was just running around with the Banana family.
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