Joe Bruno's Mobsters - Six Volume Set (99 page)

Mia
- Ok, I grew up in a N.J. suburb just a half hour from NYC (how the crow flies). Growing up, one of my best friend’s father was in the mob. In fact, at one point they just packed up and moved away. Overnight. No word. No calls (Before email).

She never liked the rumors and whispers. Her father was a muscled-up tough guy, as were all of his friends. Half her cousins ended up in jail over the years. So what if they take a few takes? It’s TV, but I do think it’s as close to reality as they can show on TV.

JB
– Mia, I disagree. I lived in Italian and so-called mob neighborhoods for 48 years.

I never met women like the ones on
Mob
Wives
. Everything is over-exaggerated; especially the cursing and constant theatrics. All bogus.

Bgy
- I like the show
Mob
Wives
. I feel bad for Renee.

Mar
- MOBSTERS DO NOT DIE!! THEY GET FAT AND MOVE TO MIAMI.

Deb
- I think Junior did a flip to get away from that crazy woman. I don’t think it’s right at all, but I don’t see any other way for him to get away from her.

JB
- Deb, they were divorced. He could have just split. But the Feds put him back in bed with Renee so they could get the goods on her father (Anthony Graziano) and her father’s friends. Sure, Renee’s a nut. But what Pagan did was inexcusable.

Deb
- You’re right, Joe, Renee just makes me nuts.

Jos -
For some reason, when I think about this “show,” I can’t help but think of Willie Moretti. He was brought before the Kefauver hearings in 1950. He never divulged anything about mob activities, but he joked around quite a bit and put on a “show,” and was gunned down for it. In the old days, someone like Junior Pagan would have been popped for even being on a program or for cheating on a boss’ daughter. If you do a Google search, he actually poses for a promotional photo for the show. OMG, in the old days he would have been so gone!

JB -
Jos, Willie Moretti was whacked because his brain was shot from venereal disease and the mob was afraid he would blab by accident. It was considered a mercy killing by the mob.

Dee
- It may be staged and maybe it isn’t. But the fact that the editors cut, paste and splice things up does not determine whether the scenes are “staged” or not. But it’s a “reality” show, so it’s all contrived to begin with. BTW, that Big Ang is a blast.

Ki
- This site may answer some of the questioning in regards to the nail polish discrepancies. According to this site, Renee was rushed to the hospital after receiving the news, which would explain the retakes and fakeness of the show.

JB -
Sec, thanks for the information. I wrote a blog on Renee being rushed to the hospital the day after it happened. But now I feel the show is basically one big embellishment on the truth after another. I wouldn’t be surprised if all this was staged for the benefit of increasing the viewership. I wouldn’t put anything past the producers of this show.

Junior was arrested in mid-November and the world knew, if they read the newspapers or went on the Internet, that he had become a government informant. But it wasn’t until last week that the show even hinted at the truth.

Sure the show is shot months in advance, but a simple disclaimer at the beginning of each show would have set the record straight. But they were afraid that doing the right thing might decrease their viewership.

Shameful.

Facebook
Responses to “The Producers of Mob Wives Show No Shame”

Fan
- It was definitely staged. While Renee is in the kitchen - having her extremely long hysterical breakdown -  her nails start out dark blue and instantly change to a vibrant red. How sad they can't even get a minor detail right - such as the color of her nails needed to be the same, just like the outfit she was wearing the last time they were shooting.

As far as feeling sorry for any of the wives; can't muster it up. If you play - you pay. They reap what they sow.

JB
– Fan, great observation. Only a woman would have noticed the change in the color of Renee's nails. This shows how amateurish the producers of the show really are. They can't even get the color of Renee's nails right, when they are doing multiple takes of the same staged scene. Simply amazing.

Mor
- The good old days are unfortunately gone. I have no respect for a man who used his wive’s family ties to save his ass. HONOR AND LOYALTY I see only in the face of my dog.

Chr
- Do you think the Feds should have investigated Renee for nail tampering? Or use her hysterical screaming as evidence of felonious fakery?

Jam
- First off - if you glorify this lifestyle, then you should be able to handle the pitfalls that come with it. Secondly - how many times did she defend that piece of crap Junior - saying “don't talk bad about my son's father” - acting like he was supposed to be immune from anyone saying what he really is? You, Renee, looked foolish then and plain stupid now. Also, why do these women think they are too good for "civilian" men with real jobs? I think civilians have good qualities and good character. And at least I’m not a snitch.

The Families of Sammy Gravano’s Victims Want Karen Gravano Arrested for Shooting a Gun at Legal Gun
 Range

March 30, 2012

Think what you want about the ridiculously bad TV show
Mob Wives
, but this seems to be much ado about nothing.

During the March 18 showing of
Mob Wives
, Karen Gravano, along with three of the other wives, including Renee Graziano, took a trip to the Poconos for a change of scenery. The first night there they wound up in a redneck bar, and were verbally abused by a drunk, who if this had happened in New York City, would have wound up in the hospital, if not in the morgue.

The next day the girls decide to blow off a little steam by going to an outdoor gun-firing range. There, under the supervision of a gun expert, the ladies fire all sorts of guns at paper
 targets, and empty soda and beer cans.

The ladies giggled, cursed, and screamed, like they do on every show, but certainly no laws were broken.

Then out of nowhere, the families of the victims of Karen Gravano’s father, Sammy “The Bull,” want Karen arrested because she legally fired a gun. This silly rationale was echoed by Linda Milito, wife of Gravano victim, mobster Louie Milito. 

She said, “Sammy was a psychotic killer. And I do believe genes are inherited. What about the people Sammy killed, and their extended family? How can Karen be allowed to shoot a gun? The apple does not fall far from the tree and crime does not pay.”

In 2000, Karen Gravano was arrested in the same Arizona drug deal that imprisoned her father for 19 years. She was given no jail time and went off parole in 2003.

Karen told the
New York Post,
“My probation terms have been over since 2003. At that time, I filed a motion to have my constitutional rights restored and to my knowledge, they have been restored. They’re doing everything they can to discredit me because of their personal issues with my father.”

OK guys – the show
Mob Wives
sucks; it’s possibly the worst show in the history of television (Jersey Shore?). The people on the show are imminently unlikable, and Karen Gravano is one of the least likable.

But come on now. She has the right to go to a Pennsylvania gun range and legally fire a gun. And if she lived in Florida, she could obtain a concealed carry permit, even though she has a criminal record (as long as someone
 doesn’t lie on their application, it’s possible to get a concealed carry permit even if you have a criminal record, as long as your past crime didn’t include a gun.).

To show how ridiculous these charges are, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Philadelphia Field Division said it has not yet opened a criminal probe of the incident. “We are aware of the show and the episode. We do not have a criminal investigation.”

Nor should they.

You want to punish Karen Gravano for her and her father’s crimes, don’t watch
Mob Wives
, and don’t buy Karen Gravano’s book
Mob Daughter.

But don’t try to have her arrested for something she has every right to do: fire a gun at a legal gun range.

Responses to “The Families of Sammy Gravano’s Victims Want Karen Gravano Arrested for Shooting a Gun At Legal Gun
 Range”

Jos
- You’re wrong… Her touching the gun, handling the gun is a crime and she actually shot it. She is a convicted felon. To have your civil rights restored in a state is only good in that state. She violated both state and federal law.

             
JB
- Jos, I’ve heard different opinions on this. The key is if her rights were restored, and where. We don’t have all the information yet. She claims they were restored. We’ll find out soon if charges are brought against her.

I would think that the producers of the show would have checked this out before they shot the episode. But this show is so screwed up, maybe they didn’t.

Time will tell.

Jos
- One more thing JB … that didn’t look like any shooting range I ever saw. It looked like the backyard of a farm.

Editor’s note: As of the publication date of this book, no charges have even been brought against Karen Gravano for firing guns at the Pennsylvania gun range.

Top of Form

Mob Wives Again Causes My Blog to Get Bombarded With Hits

April 3, 2012

It happened last Monday, and now it’s happened again on Monday April 2, 2012. And all it proves
 is that the American public loves to watch a train wreck.

My blog
Joe Bruno on the Mob
got 20,000 hits before noon today; the great majority of those hits were on articles I’ve written concerning the TV show
Mob Wives.
I’ve written more than 340 articles for my blog; only 16 on
Mob Wives.

Go figure
.

I forced myself to watch
 
Mob Wives
last night (Sunday, April 1) and it certainly was an April Fool’s joke turned bad.

Last week (March 25)
Mob Wives
finally disclosed that Hector “Junior” Pagan was in police custody.  Even though before Thanksgiving last year it was revealed in the newspapers, and on the Internet, that Pagan was a rat for the FBI, viewers, not aware of that fact, were conned into thinking this was happening in real time. Or close to real time.

On last night’s show, Renee Graziano was featured for most of the show doing her “I’m going crazy” routine; and doing a damn good job at it, too.

In no particular order, Renee began crying, banging her hands over her face and head, and hugging other crying mob wives such as Karen Gravano, who has some experience with the rodent kingdom herself.

It was enough to make my ear hairs hurt, and Renee’s antics compelled my four dogs to start howling at the TV screen, as if they had seen a vampire.

It wasn’t until the last few minutes of the show that viewers were given a hint Pagan was now a stool pigeon. But this revelation did not come through Renee, but from other mob wives reading the local newspapers.

At show’s end, Renee was still supposedly in the dark as to why her ex-husband “self-incarcerated” himself, (Pagan was actually pulled off the streets by the FBI because he had served his purpose by wearing a wire while talking to several alleged mob figures, including Renee Graziano’s father, Anthony “TG” Graziano, who was arrested the same day Pagan went bye-bye).

Then the viewers got the all–telling promo for next week’s show.  Next week, Renee will go from despair, to plain anger, as well she should, when she finds out the truth about Pagan; a man so low, he can lick the curb standing up.

The producers of
Mob Wives
, which includes Renee’s sister, Jennifer Graziano, are milking this Graziano family tragedy for all its worth (like making chicken salad out of chicken spit). Instead of telling the viewers in one minute what happened five months ago, it’s taken them three shows (maybe more) to let the viewers know:

1.
      
Pagan went into the wind.

2.
     
Renee is overwrought that her ex-husband is going back to jail, as well as her father.

3.
      
Pagan is an FBI informant who was instrumental in putting TG Graziano back into the can.

Welcome to the wacky world of Reality TV. It’s all about ratings, not about the truth. Surprise, surprise.

I now wait with baited breath for the April 9
Mob Wives
extravaganza. But before I watch that show, I’m going to get myself good and drunk so that I can endure almost 60 minutes of bad, over-the-top acting, that is no longer part of a Reality Show, but in actuality a rotten piece of half-truths manipulated by the producers to bring more viewers to the table.