Random Dumbest Things We Believe About The Mob Thanks To Movies (12 items)

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  (#5) Anyone Who Rats Is In Mortal Danger For The Rest Of Their Lives

  According to movies and TV shows, a made guy speaking to anyone, especially law enforcement, is a mortal sin. Traditionally, Italian mafiosi operate under omerta, a code of silence punishable by death. Anyone who violates omerta can expect a visit from an assassin. In Goodfellas, for example, Henry Hill's credo is "never rat on your friends, and keep your mouth shut."

  In The Sopranos, Tony Soprano runs into an ex-gangster turned informant living in the rural Northeast while visiting colleges with his daughter. Even though the guy's been off the radar for years, Tony tracks him down and strangles him as payback for turning rat.

  In real life, though, many ex-gangsters live public, open lives. Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, a notorious informant, lives publicly in Arizona. Henry Hill eventually left federal protection and lived publicly in Nebraska. Frank Cullotta, a former hitman, consulted on numerous movies and gave tours in Las Vegas where he spilled family secrets.

  As much as snitching is frowned upon in the mob - with often fatal consequences - families also don't want to take unnecessary risks and invite federal charges and lots of attention upon themselves just to get symbolic revenge on someone who's long ago left the organization.
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  (#9) Bosses Are Regularly Gunned Down In Public To 'Send A Message'

  According to mob movies, if you're a prominent member of an organized crime family, simply stepping outside your house can lead to your demise. In The Godfather, Tattaglia hitmen famously approach Vito and Fredo while they shop at a fruit stall and open fire on the Don, who barely survives. In Analyze This, Paul Vitti is almost taken out in a drive-by (and we learn he lost his father in a hit at a restaurant).

  But hits like this are a relic of the past. In more recent years, the mob has dwindled in power and influence. In 1998, a federal law was passed that gave contract hits a life sentence. That's not to say it never happens - mobster Francesco Cali was gunned down outside his home in 2019, for example - but law enforcement described the Cali hit as a crime from a "bygone era."
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  (#4) They Unceremoniously Dispose Of Law Enforcement

  Movie mobsters are portrayed as willing to get rid of anyone who stands in their way, even law enforcement. In The Departed, Frank Costello's henchmen believe they're tracking a potential rat to his meeting with police captain Joe Queenan (Martin Sheen). When they don't find anyone else there, they casually toss Queenan off the roof.

  But according to Michael Franzese, families rarely if ever take out law enforcement because it's bad for business. Queenan wasn't the suspected rat or acting undercover - he was a regular, public police captain. The scene shows off the gang's casual ruthlessness, but in reality, taking the life of any police officer, much less a high-ranking one, would have almost certainly sparked a massive manhunt or some law enforcement retaliation that would've severely impacted their business.

  Even if the Feds intervened and stopped the local police because of their relationship with Costello, the henchmen probably weren't banking on that, and it still would've attracted at minimum tons of public attention and pressure, if not outright retribution.
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  (#11) They Execute People By Giving Them 'Cement Shoes' And Throwing Them In A River

  Encasing someone's feet in cement and throwing them in a river seems like the perfect way to get rid of a body. The cement weighs down the body, keeping it from washing up onshore. In movies, this is a popular method of mob execution. The victim is always alive when they're thrown in the water, adding an extra dimension of psychological fear. 

  The problem is, the mob doesn't execute people this way for the simple fact that it's highly impractical. At most, if a crew really did get want to get rid of people this way, they would probably finish them off first, not actually drop them in the water alive. Concrete takes hours to harden, meaning anyone would need to either be unconscious or completely immobilized after their feet have been submerged. Even just wiggling one's feet would create room to slip out of the concrete once it's hardened. It would be much simpler to avoid concrete entirely and weigh the body down with something else, like rocks. 

  The only recent known example of a victim turning up in a body of water with concrete shoes happened in 2016, but the crime wasn't mob-related, and the target was most likely already deceased before their feet went in the concrete. 

  Also, cement is an ingredient in concrete, so technically the name for this trope should be "concrete shoes." 
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  (#10) Wiseguys In Prison Had Their Run Of The Place And Cooked Dinners Together

  In Goodfellas, when Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) and Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) get sent to prison, it turns into a mini vacation. According to Henry's narration, connected guys wield so much influence that the penitentiary is essentially a luxury resort. Using bribery, smuggling, intimidation, or who knows what other methods, jailed mobsters can still bring in practically any luxury items they want, like expensive booze and lobsters. They're even allowed to cook big traditional Italian dinners together. 

  But according to Michael Franzese, whose father was in prison for 40 years and who was imprisoned himself for eight, prison isn't like that for anyone, not even mobsters. Any of those items would be considered contraband. Illicit items do get snuck into prisons, but not on that scale and not that openly. As for the cooking, mobsters assigned to the kitchen do cook up the best meals possible, but they don't get their own separate kitchen stocked with the best-quality ingredients.
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  (#6) Hits Involve Dozens Of Goons

  One of the most memorable mobster moments in movie history is the slaying of Sonny Corleone in The Godfather. As an irate Sonny pulls his car into a toll booth, several suited goons with Tommy guns pop out and spray his car with bullets. 

  But former caporegime of the Colombo crime family Michael Franzese doesn't buy it. While 1920s mobsters did use Thompson submachine guns, more modern mafiosos preferred to use shotguns and small-caliber side arms at close range. They also wouldn't bring a whole crew with them because it would attract too much attention. According to Franzese, planning and carrying out a hit like Sonny's would involve "too much work." It also involves 10 times the weapons that could tie people to the crimes, 10 times the potential future informants (including the tollbooth operator), and so on.

  An actual crew would've most likely had one person walk up to the car, fire, and leave. But man does it make for a much cooler scene.

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