Forget about the pizza connection this was the pansy connection. Miniaci supplied slot machines in the 1930s to Frank Costello, and had dined with the mob boss on the night he was shot. Jukebox king Alfred Miniaci funded dozens of gay bars and other joints controlled by the Mafia in the 1950s and 1960s including the Peppermint Lounge.
For example, the establishments often were financed through mob-tied coin-op vendors and their related loan companies. Crawford illustrates how the gay bars historically were integrated into the Mafia rackets. Crawford illustra The Mafia and the Gays meticulously documents how the mob controlled gay bars for decades in New York and Chicago due to their once illicit status, and relies upon an extensive collection of primary sources including FBI files many of which were not publicly available until acquired by author Phillip Crawford Jr. The Mafia and the Gays meticulously documents how the mob controlled gay bars for decades in New York and Chicago due to their once illicit status, and relies upon an extensive collection of primary sources including FBI files many of which were not publicly available until acquired by author Phillip Crawford Jr.
