Mob Candy

Last updated
Mob Candy
Mob Candy July 2007.jpg
First issue, July 2007
EditorTyrone Christopher
Categories Men's magazines
Frequency6 issues annual
Founded2007
First issueJuly 2007
CountryUSA
Based inBrooklyn and Fort Lauderdale
Language English
Website http://mobcandymag.com/

Mob Candy is an American magazine promoting the Mafia lifestyle. [1] The magazine is subtitled "The Underworld Magazine of Mafia Politics, Pleasures and Power". It is targeted towards males aged 18 to 35 years. [2]

Contents

Publication history

The idea for the magazine came from a meeting between Tyrone Christopher, a graphic designer, and Frank DiMatteo, a former magazine publisher and distributor. DiMatteo grew up in the Gallo faction of the Colombo crime family and made a lot of money in the 70s and 80s publishing porn magazines. [3] The two developed the idea of a glossy magazine about Italian-American Mafia culture. The name of the magazine comes from a line of mafia-inspired clothing owned by the founders [1] [2]

DiMatteo himself claims to have been brought up "in the life", and has been quoted as saying, "When I was a young guy I ran around with some people known to have a lot of contacts, let's put it that way." his father Richard Dimatteo was bodyguard to Larry Gallo, Joe Gallo's brother, and brains of the Gallo crew. [4]

Crime author and reputed former mobster Sonny Girard has been enlisted as one of the magazine's regular writers. He was also a consultant on such mob-related media as the film Mickey Blue Eyes . [5]

Editorial direction

Editor-in-chief Tyrone Christopher has said that the magazine will feature talks with "legendary mafia" in prison about pop culture topics such as "what they think about Paris Hilton, hip-hop, government, Obama, a woman president." [2] The magazine has been called the "Maxim for wiseguys". [1] Christopher himself has described his editorial philosophy on the magazine as "if The Rat Pack were a magazine, that magazine would be Mob Candy." [6]

Criticism

Even before the publication of its first issue, the magazine was a target for criticism, largely from the Italian American community, some of whom felt the magazine stereotyped Italian American culture, while others felt that the magazine's "Staten Island flavor" gave the New York borough a bad name. [1]

Some also felt the magazine glorified criminality. [7] The first issue featured a fold-out poster of John Gotti, a profile of crime boss Carlo Gambino, and a feature called "50 Years of Rats", criticizing mob informers such as Joe Valachi and "Sammy the Bull" Gravano. [4]

Related Research Articles

The Gambino crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. The group, which went through five bosses between 1910 and 1957, is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963, when the structure of organized crime first gained public attention. The group's operations extend from New York and the eastern seaboard to California. Its illicit activities include labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking, and fencing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Gallo</span> Italian-American mobster from New York City, New York

Joseph Gallo, also known as "Crazy Joe", was an Italian-American mobster and Caporegime of the Colombo crime family of New York City, New York.

The Genovese crime family, also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American Mafia. The Genovese family has generally maintained a varying degree of influence over many of the smaller mob families outside New York, including ties with the Philadelphia, Cleveland, Patriarca, and Buffalo crime families.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carmine Persico</span> American mob boss (1933–2019)

Carmine John Persico Jr., also known as "Junior", "The Snake" and "Immortal", was an American mobster and the longtime boss of the Colombo crime family in New York City from 1973 until his death in 2019. He had been serving 32 years in federal prison from 1987 until his death on March 7, 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Five Families</span> Five major New York City organized crime families of the Italian American Mafia

The Five Families refer to five Italian American Mafia crime families that operate in New York City. In 1931, the five families were organized by Salvatore Maranzano following his victory in the Castellammarese War.

The Colombo crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and the youngest of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City within the criminal organization known as the American Mafia. It was during Lucky Luciano's organization of the American Mafia after the Castellammarese War, following the assassinations of "Joe the Boss" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, that the gang run by Joseph Profaci became recognized as the Profaci crime family.

The DeCavalcante crime family, also known as the North Jersey crime family or the North Jersey Mafia, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family that operates mainly in northern New Jersey, particularly in Elizabeth, Newark, West New York and the surrounding areas. The family is part of the nationwide criminal network known as the American Mafia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patriarca crime family</span> Italian-American organized crime group

The Patriarca crime family, also known as the New England Mafia, the Boston Mafia, the Providence Mafia or the Office, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family operating in New England. The family consists of two distinct factions, one based in Providence, Rhode Island, and the other in Boston, Massachusetts. The Patriarca family is primarily active in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, with other territory throughout New England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Amuso</span> New York mobster

Vittorio "Little Vic" Amuso is an American mobster and the boss of the Lucchese crime family. He was described as "The Deadly Don" by Assistant United States Attorney Charles Rose. Amuso's reign is considered one of the bloodiest periods in American Mafia history during the late 1980s and early 1990s, alongside his former underboss and close protégé Anthony Casso, who turned informer against him in 1994. Since the death of Colombo crime family boss Carmine Persico in March 2019, Amuso is currently the longest-serving crime family boss of the Five Families and American Mafia, dating back to 1987. Amuso has been serving a life sentence since 1992 and is currently located at the Federal Correctional Complex, Butner, in North Carolina, on murder and racketeering charges.

Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo is a former Italian-American mobster who rose to position of caporegime in the Gambino crime family. In the early 2000s DiLeonardo turned government witness and decided to cooperate with the FBI and managed to convict over 80 mobsters. DiLeonardo testified a record 15 times, more than any other "made" Mafia member to date.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Madonna</span> American mobster (born 1935)

Matthew Madonna is a member of the Lucchese crime family who served as acting boss before being imprisoned in 2017.

Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo is an American former mobster who was de facto boss of the New Jersey DeCavalcante crime family before becoming a government witness in 1999. Fictional mob boss Tony Soprano, the protagonist of the HBO series The Sopranos, is said to be based upon Palermo. He also owned a strip-club called Wiggles, which was the inspiration behind the show's Bada Bing! strip-club.

Anthony "Tony" Capo was an American hitman in the DeCavalcante crime family who later became a government witness and entered the Witness Protection Program. His aliases included Marshall Beach, Mathew Beach and Wade Beach.

The Lucchese crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. Members refer to the organization as the Lucchese borgata; borgata is Mafia slang for criminal gang, which itself was derived from a Sicilian word meaning close-knit community. The members of other crime families sometimes refer to Lucchese family members as "Lukes".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Cali</span> American mobster

Francesco Paolo Augusto "Frank" Cali, also known as "Franky Boy", was an American mobster and the acting boss of the Gambino crime family of New York City at the time of his death. Law enforcement considered Cali to have been the Gambinos' "ambassador to Sicilian mobsters" and had linked him to the Inzerillo Mafia family from Palermo. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Lipton, he was "seen as a man of influence and power by organized crime members in Italy." Cali was shot and killed outside his home in Staten Island on March 13, 2019, in connection with the killers belief in the QAnon conspiracy theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Angeles crime family</span> Italian-American organized crime group

The Los Angeles crime family, also known as the L.A. Mafia, Southern California crime family or historically the Dragna crime family, and dubbed "the Mickey Mouse Mafia" by former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family based in Los Angeles, California as part of the larger Italian-American Mafia. Since its inception in the early 20th century, the family has spread throughout Southern California. Like most Mafia families in the United States, the Los Angeles crime family gained wealth and power through bootlegging alcohol during the Prohibition era. The L.A. family reached its peak strength in the 1940s and early 1950s under Jack Dragna, although the family was never larger than the New York or Chicago families. The Los Angeles crime family itself has been on a gradual decline, with the Chicago Outfit representing them on The Commission since the death of boss Jack Dragna in 1956.

The Bonanno crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City as part of the criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia.

Mob Wives is an American reality television series that premiered on VH1 on April 17, 2011. The show focuses on the lives of several women residing in the New York City borough of Staten Island, whose family members and husbands have been arrested and imprisoned for crimes that are connected to the Italian-American Mafia.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Spencer, Peter. (2007). "New magazine highlights gangster lifestyle". Staten Island Advance. Retrieved July 8, 2007
  2. 1 2 3 Heifetz, Laurie. (2007). "Mob Mag Makes Move on Newstands" Archived 2007-09-26 at the Wayback Machine . Radar Online. Retrieved July 10, 2007.
  3. ↑ "Remembering 'Mob Candy,' the Mafia Lifestyle Magazine Beloved by Prison Inmates". www.vice.com. Retrieved 2023-03-11.
  4. 1 2 Dominguez, Robert (2007). "Subscribing to 'the life' magazine". New York Daily News. Retrieved July 8, 2007.
  5. ↑ Christophers, Nick. (2007). "New York Author/Goodfella Penning His Way". Retrieved July 8, 2007.
  6. ↑ "Mobsters at the Maidstone: The Hood Heads East" Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine . The Beach.
  7. ↑ Fox News. "Magazine About the Mob Debuts". Fox 5 New York. Retrieved July 8, 2007.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.