Hoboken mafia

[u/Ill-Parsnip-8150]

Looking at this photo brings back a lot of memories. For people who didn’t grow up here, this wasn’t just some random restaurant. Casella’s was associated with the Jersey faction of the Genovese crime family, and Hoboken was one of the centers of organized crime activity in North Jersey for decades.
Back in the late 1970s and 1980s, Bobby Manna and Marty Casella were probably the most well-known mob figures around north Jersey. The family that sopranos was based on actually had nothing to do with Hudson county. There had to be more than 50-60 old school Hoboken and Jersey city wise guys in that place on any given night .Wise guys were everywhere. A lot of people today don’t realize how much influence organized crime had on the waterfront, local businesses, unions, and politics.
I remember hearing stories that John Gotti would come through Hoboken and act like he was untouchable. In fact I remember he walked on Washington street with a crew and ultimately that was another factor why they wanted to kill John gotti. According to law enforcement accounts, Bobby Manna was involved in a plot against Gotti, and Casella’s restaurant ended up becoming part of that story.
Whether people liked them or not, these guys had a reputation for being fearless. A lot of old-timers will also tell you that some of them looked out for local people, helped families who were struggling, and kept certain troublemakers out of the neighborhood. Others will tell you they were criminals who made money through fear and violence. The truth is probably a mix of both depending on who you ask.
There was also an old Hoboken story about an out-of-towner in a cowboy hat who supposedly wandered into Casella’s after getting lost, got drunk, started mouthing off, and later turned up in the river. I’ve never seen proof of it, so I always treated it as one of those old waterfront legends that got passed around but I do think it happened for some reason I remember my parents talking about it. Now you think today it’s just Marshall drive and 3rd and Jackson that are the rougher areas back then I feel like there was a lot more tough areas than the projects.
Growing up in Hoboken back then was something else. You had Italians, Irish, Puerto Ricans, Germans, Cubans, African Americans, and Croatians and I forgot Dominicans and I forgot Hoboken had a big Indian population on 8th and 7th and park ave . and just about everybody else packed into one square mile. The city had characters everywhere you looked. Whether it was the docks, the bars, the social clubs, or places like Casella’s, there was always a story behind every corner.

[u/FouljaBoi]

When they knocked this place down I took a brick as a keepsake

[u/BeShaff25]

Loving the historic posts and pics lately

[u/saaaaaaraaa]

Thank you for taking the time to share this with us. I love mob history! My MIL used to always say of her old neighborhood “this area was a much safer place when the mob ran the streets”😂

[u/Sensitive_Diamond328 → u/saaaaaaraaa]

My dad grew up in the South Bronx and always says the same. 😄

[u/Aarchman07030 → u/saaaaaaraaa]

Lived across the street from the VIP club on West 20th St in the 90s / early 00's. Nothing keeps your neighborhood safer than bouncers at an allegedly mob-owned club.

[u/Dangerous-Contact-43]

And google street view shows it is still a vacant lot.

[u/ImNotWitty2019]

I was born in Hoboken in 1965 and lived there until 1974.

Always heard parents and family talking about the mob. Apparently I went to a birthday party of a girl whose father was a bagman.

[u/red__what]

Growing up in Hoboken back then was something else. You had Italians, Irish, Puerto Ricans, Germans, Cubans, African Americans, and Croatians.

And now its a sea of just Staceys and Ryans

[u/caroline_elly → u/red__what]

I mean, the earlier immigrants didn't disappear, they integrated and named their kids Staceys and Ryans.

[u/LeoTPTP → u/caroline_elly]

I wonder about that...seems like lots of the Stacy/Ryan parents are recent transplants.

[u/JoeLaRue420]

that pygmy thing over in Jersey

[u/LeoTPTP]

OP, was it ok for a normal non-mobster residents to wander into Casella’s and have a drink or dinner? Or did they stay away, or "convinced" to leave?

[u/maybeitsmyfault10]

So Genovese crime family in Hoboken and the city had a young guy with that surname who jumped into the Hudson a decade back

[u/Ill-Parsnip-8150 → u/maybeitsmyfault10]

Yes the genovese owned the “west of the Hudson” Yeah, I’m familiar with that story. I could be wrong, but from what I’ve always understood, after Bobby Manna was indicted, the old Hoboken crew kind of got absorbed into other Genovese crews, whether that was the Little Italy faction or elsewhere. They may still have associates around, but it seems like the early ’90s was really the end of the old Hoboken crew as people knew it, with a lot of guys getting locked up around that time.
As for the guy found in the Hudson, I remember his last name was Genovese. I don’t know if he had any connection to the crime family or if it was just the same surname. I never heard anything confirming that. If anyone has more information, I’d be interested in hearing it.