the staff of the Ridgewood blog Saddle River NJ, If you want to be the “king” of all con men, you have to start young. So instructs local author Thomas Giacomaro, who penned his lauded memoir, The King of Con: How a Smooth-Talking Jersey Boy Made and Lost Billions, Baffled the FBI, Eluded the Mob, and...
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 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 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...
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...
the staff of the Ridgewood blog Saddle River NJ, If you try to Google-map it, the house is shrouded in shrubbery and leafy Northern Red Oak. But it’s still there, the 8,000 square-foot mansion on Fox Hedge Road in Saddle River, NJ—a potential upcoming shooting location this fall for the upcoming docuseries, The King of Con,...
the staff of the Ridgewood blog Saddle River NJ, Last week’s episode of The Walking Dead had pizza purists yelling molto bene when the show delivered a reprimand to ignorant Pizza Hut eaters: Never, ever, put pineapple on a pizza. During a scene where one of the characters is going for surgery, the patient’s brother promises him pizza when he...
