Getting naked as an initiation ritual for fraternities we knew about—but getting naked as an initiation ritual for the mafia? Better than "wildings" on Easter, we guess. Gangland [sub. required] reports that recent court testimony has confirmed that the Genovese crime family started stripping their inductees back in 1989 after the feds had secretly taped one of the family's inductions.
The story comes from the testimony of Anthony “Bingy” Arillotta, 42, who told jurors in Massachusetts he'd stripped down to his underoos for The Family one morning in August, 2003, after meeting at the Nebraska Steakhouse in the Bronx:
He and another made-man hopeful were told to leave their jewelry, beepers and cellphones at the bar, and then were driven to an apartment building.
They were met by reputed Genovese soldier Steve Alfisi, who told Arillotta to wait his turn in a tiny bathroom.
About 15 minutes later, he said, “The door opened and Stevie said, ‘Ant, it’s your turn.’
“And he told me to undress, take all my clothes off, and put on a bathrobe,” Arillotta recalled.
“Then, after I was undressed, he said I could leave my underwear on. He gave me the bathrobe.”
“What was your understanding of why you had to undress and put on a bathrobe?” prosecutor Mark Lanpher asked.
“Make sure there was no wire — I wasn’t wearing a wire or listening devices or any type of something to record anything with,” Arillotta replied.
After the clothes were off, the ceremony was reportedly about what you would expect. The inductees were asked if they'd commit murder for La Cosa Nostra (they would) and then they were asked to promise they would never tell of the ceremony or face death.
We guess Bingy had his fingers crossed for that last bit though. In exchange for leniency in other charges brought against him last year, he's now snitching on the family for the feds.
