Connecticut’s Little Mob Secret Exposed: A Q&A with Jeff Nadu

"For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster." 

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That is the famous line Ray Liotta delivers in "Goodfellas" and it always resonated with me. No, I don't want to be a gangster but I was always fascinated by them and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. The Italian mafia in America is as much pop-art as it is reality and if we're weighing the two honestly, one is great and the other is terrifying.

The mob has always been a hobby of mine, one of the many topics I like to read and wonder about. So when I came across Jeff Nadu's videos on Tik Tok, I was instantly hooked.

Jeff Nadu is a self-described content creator and mob historian who has a huge social media following. I reached out to Nadu recently and he agreed to make a guest appearance on the I-95 Morning Show.

We talked about how relevant the Italian mafia is today, where they have influence and what role, if any Connecticut has played in the American mafia record books. We've highlighted some of our Q&A below and you can listen to the complete interview at the bottom of the page.

Lou: How prevalent is the Italian mafia in the United States of America? 

Nadu: "I would say in New York it's still around. Is it a group that is doing some of the things they were doing in the 70's and 80's? No, I mean the five families are still active though. They all have the leadership, they all have things going on but they behave a lot differently now. I mean their families are a little bit more boisterous. You look at this indictment last week involving the Gambino family, one of the people involved is a captain. A captain is someone who is supposed to set an example, be quiet, control people below him I mean this is a guy, if you read the indictment was essentially going to bars and being kicked out and saying you know me I'm in the Gambino family. These people are behaving kind of wild way different than the mafia is supposed to behave and I think today the mob is a lot different. Now in some circles, in certain families they are just very quiet and they don't do anything you would know. They're just doing union infiltration and things like that but it's prevalent in New York City, Philly a little bit, Boston but nowadays there is probably nine or ten active families around the country. Really, anything west of Pittsburgh there is nothing other than Chicago, that's about it."

Dave: You mentioned the East Coast, does Connecticut have any role in the mob? Has anything of any importance happened here with the mafia? 

Nadu: "Yeah so Connecticut had a pretty decent faction, the Gambinos had a faction there for awhile. Recently, this was probably a month or two ago Tommy Gambino passed away that was Carlo's son. He was a mobster for years, at one point he controlled the rackets in Connecticut. They had at one point, the underboss of the family in the early 2000's was from Connecticut, this guy Anthony Megale. He was from Stamford I believe, yeah, they have always had a faction there. Connecticut has come up, I wouldn't say that it has it's own particular family, its a lot more factions, things of that nature. I know in Springfield, Massachusetts there has always been Genovese, a faction there. Yeah, Connecticut has always had people. In fact, like I said in the Tommy Gambino indictment there is a bunch of references to Connecticut and people having pizzerias and running operations in Connecticut." 

Listen to our complete interview with Jeff Nadu below. We also talked about John Gotti and what industries the Italian mob has it's hands in today.

Check out the Ethan, Lou & Large Dave Podcast on Apple and Spotify

We have plans of bringing Nadu back on the I-95 Morning Show in the future but you can get more right now on his Youtube page "The Sitdown with Jeff Nadu."

P.S. I remember and interview we did years ago with the real Henry Hill. Henry came on the I-95 Morning Show to promote a CT pizza place. That was the deal we could ask him anything, as long as we mentioned this pizza place.

We thought, sure that is not a problem at all. We asked Henry all the questions you might expect and a bunch more. Finally, we got to the pizza obligation and could not get a straight answer out of him. He insisted it was not his place, they just have good pizza, it's owned by a friend of mine and you should check it out. We said OK, Henry.

It was OK for about 2-3 weeks then we read the place burned down. I can't say for sure that the fire had anything to do with Henry's public association with the place but it sure seems weird.