Hit man Vito Arena was a thief who started out by stealing cars for the Gambino family.
“Just before his 36th birthday Vito fell passionately in love with 17 year old Joey Lee, the son of an Irish chauffeur. After a few months Joey moved into Vito’s apartment and before he knew it, found himself keeping watch outside while Vito and his chums carried out a contract murder.
In June 1981, Vito and Joey were pulled over whilst driving a stolen Chevrolet. Officer Friedman found gloves, a knife, an ice pick, 3 bullets and a red photograph album in the car. The album contained photos of Vito and Joey in a variety of sexual embraces.
order your bullet ice cube tray here
“I realised then I’d met my first gay hit man. I didn’t even know they existed” said Friedman.
Vito offered to do a deal and bartered information for leniency for Joey. Vito got 18 years, but Joey only got one. The plea baragin also included fixing Joey’s overbite.
get your overbite fixed here
By July 1983, Joey had served 13 months. He might have stayed longer had prison authorities not realised they had the first convict on record to stay voluntarily past his term. Vito continued to make demands. He asked for a radio, Bruce Springsteen records and more hot water.
Bruce found here
He insisted on the return of his red photo album and requested a barber’s chair for his cell block. He also asked for an operation to have the fat sucked from his face. When asked why, he said “I felt my appearance was awful.”
gimcrack hospital (PG) 
You’ve been watching the Sopranos???
No, it’s a series I’ve always wanted to see but never got round to it. Is there a gay hitman in it? Does he have a boyfriend with an overbite?
Sopranos was extremely absorbing – stunning television!
You didn’t answer the question about Vito and Joey though….. is there a gay man with a much younger boyfriend who goes to jail with him?
So – just how long DID he serve?
It must have been less than 10 years because he was out on the street when he was shot in 1991.
A few days ago they rounded up 132 mafia boys in Brooklyn, New York so all the”singing” that will follow will result in hundreds more arrests over the next few weeks. Syndicates from Vietnam, China and Russia have petty much replaced all the old Italians here.
Ooh! Maybe that’s why helicopters were hovering.I did wonder what was going on…
Guns don’t kill people; ice cubes kill people.
They also save them. An ice cube suppository was credited with bringing Gram Parsons back to life after one of his drug overdoses.
I must have missed your post on that one.
I can’t decide whether or not this true crime story is romantic.
Well, let’s see — you’ve got this Italian guy, Vito, who falls in love with someone his “family” probably doesn’t approve of (both because he’s gay and because Joey is Irish). And Joey’s family probably doesn’t approve of Vito, either, because he’s in the Mafia. But they get together anyway, and then there are some murders and Vito sacrifices himself for Joey (by making the leniency deal), and Joey sacrifices himself for Vito (by staying in prison after his sentence was finished), and then in the end, everyone dies. So basically, it’s the same story as Romeo and Juliet.
the assin’ assassin
you crack me up John
Sounds like Vito got a bum deal.
Kyk, you crack me up too 😉
If Vito sang like a canary I am not surprised that Joey felt it safer to be inside!
I do think there was a gay hit guy in the Sopranos. You should rent the series.
I think I’m going to get put in jail so I can have some liposuction.
I’m certainly glad I didn’t have to go to prison to get my overbite fixed. I just spent those early grade-school years with a retainer.
i’m sure i had some sort of snarky comment coagulating in my brain… but then i encountered that picture of ‘skinny punk half-nekkid bruce’ (pre-muscleboy) and i’ll never be the same again… [swoons]
I swoon for a skinny boy too. Did you notice he dresses to the right?
I don’t understand why people take photos of themselves in sexual embraces. Isn’t it rather narcissistic? Isn’t the pleasure of the moment enough? Yours, puzzled.
I’d request Elton John records if I were in jail. That’s the difference between me and a hit man.
The pice of Bruce is kind of shocking. It smacks of homo-eroticism, don’t you think? Maybe he had a brief period of experimentation.
The gay mobster was one of the most interesting story threads in the Sopranos. Johnnycakes!
How close is the script to the story of real life gay hit man Vito?
Not close at all. It doesn’t involve a young boy. The gay mobster hooks up with a gay biker who runs a diner.
I thought that they just made up the name “Vito” for TV.
Ahhhh Fuggetabouuut it.
you know you’ve *arrived* when the daily news shows your butt on the front page.
Not the sort of “arrival” I want to make 🙂
it obviously sells newspapers– especially, i would think, yours.
I’ve actually read about those two before. I can’t get enough of the Costra Nostra. A bunch of my childhood friends were related to the Genovese family in Pittsburgh. We got to hang out with the real goodfellas when we were growing up.
How Good were they?
Not very.
Interesting visuals and content as usual!
I hope they practised safe cracking …. [Just to save you time Nursey “You crack me up DP”] …. you’re welcome
It’s about time you got cracking on those Match of the Day drawings daddyp. I miss them.
I’m illustrating my soonish to be published book ….. I can’t multi-task!
Lol, what a story.
Crazy what happens around us really. lol
All mobster are gay, didn’t you see the Sopranos
All mobsters are gay, didn’t you see the Sopranos
The Sopranos was one of my favorite shows. I miss it sometimes. Not that it matters.
Love expresses itself in many ways – you know a guy’s into you if he’s willing to do 13 years for you!
I’m going to order a cartridge ice cube tray right now. (Those are cartridges pictured. Case+powder+primer+bullet=cartridge.)
Well there was a storyline in the Sopranos that dealt with one of the key hit men being gay. Funny storyline too.