Rudy Giuliani: Mafia Violence Has 'Certain Rationality'

Rudy Giuliani  sounded wistful, maybe a bit maudlin, as if he was getting sentimental about the old days of New York, when organized crime held sway over the city and was a major focal point of law enforcement's efforts, as opposed to the Islamic terrorists who have stolen the limelight in the past two decades.

Rudy Giuliani enjoys discussing the two Mafia contracts placed on his head.
The mob put contracts on Rudy Giuliani.



He claimed that the Mafia in Sicily put an $800,000 contract on his head while he was New York City's Mayor.

Speaking as a guest on Oprah Winfrey's OWN cable-channel show, "Oprah: Where Are They Now," the onetime prosecutor seemed to relish that he was once important enough to be a target for organize crime.


Giuliani was U.S. Attorney before becoming the mayor, from 1994-2001.

"Certainly, no one sent them to prison for the lengthy periods of time that I did," he said of American mobsters, adding that the mob had paper on him within his first year in office as mayor. (Still, don't the judges do the sentencing?)

Carmine Persico

"They offered $800,000 to kill me. Then, toward the end of the time I was the mayor, a particular mafia guy who we convicted and put in jail for 100 years put out a contract to kill me for $400,000."

Giuliani, who turns 70 in May of 2014, also added with a laugh, "I kind of felt bad that I went down in value. I started at 800, I went down to 400."

In any case, he never was that concerned about threats from members of organized-crime gangs.

"Now, when we start talking about Islamic extremist terrorism — that worries me more, because they are suicidal.

"Part of why I didn't worry about the Mafia was because there was a certain rationality to their kind of violence. This other kind of violence is completely irrational violence."

We started wondering which of the New York mob bosses put away in the Commission Case was sore enough to put paper on Rudy's head... Could it have been the guy who hired Sailor?

But, alas, no -- in fact Giuliani told this exact same story about himself, as reported back in August of 2011.

Back then, Giuliani was hosting AMC's Mob Week special, during which he told the U.K.'s Mail Online that dealing with Mob bosses was "very, very exciting." And, by the way, he had been on not one, but two mafia hit lists, he said.

Two years ago, Giuliani named Carmine 'The Snake" Persico as putting a $400,000 price on his head.

"You know, they threatened to kill me twice... When I was first starting they put out an $800,000 contract to kill me, the Scillian Mafia did.

"And then I was U.S. Attorney for five and a half years. I was at the very end, just about to leave, and Carmine Persico (de-facto boss of the Colombo crime family, currently serving life imprisonment) put out a contract for only $400,000 to kill me.

"Come on, five and a half years of work and my value gets cut in half?" Giuliani quipped.

We are impressed he didn't stray from the original facts -- not even a little bit... but he could've come up with a new punchline, at least.



Comments

  1. A washed up politician trying to stay relevant. Nothing to brag about or make fun of. I consider him someone who used 911 for his own personal aggrandizement...and it has served him well. If history has taught us anything is that anyone can be killed- Michael Corleone. He was lucky he didn't get two behind the ear.

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  2. I can't be for certain but, I've gotta believe the Families made a killing on the debris clean-up effort and aftermath of the twin towers and surrounding properties. Maybe rightfully so...because they are connected and have expertise in these things...broken concrete recycling, steel scrapping, etc. They did an expert job for sure.

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    1. You can be quite certain. Also Rudy has mob associates, at least, in his family, including Lee D'Avanzo.

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  3. Rudy is not a horrible guy. I mostly agree with his comments when he shows up on FOX to put in his two cents worth. He was hard on mob activity...that was his job. Ultimately, in that position you have to make everyone happy all the time ( which is impossible) but, he did a hell of a job trying. Sure he's connected somehow...we'll just never know to what extent. All these guys go away somehow....some quietly, some with more noise but, he deserves some recognition.

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