He was a mountainous man, standing 6’6” tall, tipping the scales at 235 pounds. He started his wrestling career at age 27, calling himself the “Zebra Kid.” He went on to wrestle under several other stage names, including Chief Chewacki, and eventually, under his real name.
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His wrestling career waned in his late thirties, so he took a job as a bouncer. From there, he got into the “muscle” end of the Colombo crime family—his specialty being arson. He once dipped a tampon in kerosene, tied it to a mouse’s tail, lit it, and turned it loose in the establishment of his target. Another of his ploys was to use a wind-up cuckoo clock as a timer. He’d scatter kerosene soaked rags on the floor, place a lit candle in front of the door of the cuckoo clock, so that when the door opened, it would knock over the candle and the Rube Goldberg contraption incinerated the entire building.
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The law finally caught up with him. He was found guilty of multiple charges and sent up to Riker’s Island in the Bronx, where he rubbed elbows with other “goodfellas” from all over New York. Upon his release, he went back to the Colombos, where he worked as a bodyguard for the Caporegimes of the Colombo family.
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Eventually, he left the world of organized crime and decided to try his hand at acting. He mostly did bit parts here and there in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, until he finally got his big break.
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His real name was Lenny Montana. He died in 1992, not known as a wrestler or as a mafia punk, but as an actor. The actor who played Luca Brasi.
Lindner usually writes interesting stuff, but what's with this paean to scum?
Posted by: Joel | July 01, 2021 at 08:33 AM
Well I thought it was interesting and I thought I knew a lot about The Godfather. Thank you again Lindner.
Posted by: Tom | July 01, 2021 at 02:07 PM