Author: James Foytlin (James Foytlin)

C-NOTES FROM HEAVEN
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C-NOTES FROM HEAVEN

the staff of the Ridgewood blog Saddle River NJ, Well, it was twenty years ago today…when a bunch of FBI guys got hit in the head with a million bucks, falling from the New Jersey sky. Until that moment, April 2002 had been going okay for NJ con master, Thomas Giacomaro, author of the 2018...

THE MAN WHO SAID NO TO “STREAKY” GATTO
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THE MAN WHO SAID NO TO “STREAKY” GATTO

the staff of the Ridgewood blog Saddle River NJ, Notorious NJ con artist and mob-associate, Thomas Giacomaro, refused to become a mafioso “made man” in the early Eighties. Why, you ask? He didn’t want to kiss the ring. “That’s right. Everybody was kissing Streaky Gatto’s ring,” says Giacomaro, “except me.” That’s Louis “Streaky” Gatto he’s...

THE LITTLE CASUALTIES OF WAR
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THE LITTLE CASUALTIES OF WAR

the staff of the Ridgewood blog Saddle River NJ, Childhood memories of spring are usually happy and bright: Icicles dripping, chocolate Easter bunnies, putting your sneakers on after a long, Jersey winter. For local anti-hero, Thomas Giacomaro, spring reminds him of the day he saw his father almost kill two men.  He was 5 and...

AND THE OSCAR FOR BEST PSYCHO PERFORMANCE GOES TO…
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AND THE OSCAR FOR BEST PSYCHO PERFORMANCE GOES TO…

the staff of the Ridgewood blog Saddle River NJ, in honor of last night’s Academy Awards—and actor Will Smith’s unhinged outburst—local bad-boy-turned good, Thomas Giacomaro, tells us his nickname was once “the Italian Hannibal Lecter.” The Anthony Hopkins drama, The Silence of the Lambs, swept the Oscars exactly 30 years ago winning five main categories—Best Picture, Best...