An Un-Happy Ending for Happy Maione
A gangster named Harold "Happy" Maione makes a brief appearance in "Return To Shepherd Avenue," and in real life he was a frequent visitor to my grandparents' house.
Not to their home, exactly - Happy was "keeping company" with a pretty young girl who lived upstairs from my grandparents.
And whenever he passed my grandmother on his way up the stairs, he stopped to greet her with a tip of his hat.
"A sharp dresser," my grandmother recalled. "A real gentleman."
Well, not always. Happy was a hit man employed by the legendary Murder, Incorporated.
He always carried a lucky gold piece, which he lost one day. My father, then just a kid, found it in the hallway and returned it to Happy.
But the luck had apparently worn off the gold piece. Happy died in the electric chair in 1942.
Not to their home, exactly - Happy was "keeping company" with a pretty young girl who lived upstairs from my grandparents.
And whenever he passed my grandmother on his way up the stairs, he stopped to greet her with a tip of his hat.
"A sharp dresser," my grandmother recalled. "A real gentleman."
Well, not always. Happy was a hit man employed by the legendary Murder, Incorporated.
He always carried a lucky gold piece, which he lost one day. My father, then just a kid, found it in the hallway and returned it to Happy.
But the luck had apparently worn off the gold piece. Happy died in the electric chair in 1942.
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I love Charlie Carillo's books, especially the ones about East New York, my birthplace and where I spent the first 14 years of my life. My best friend lived on Shepherd Avenue right before Pitkin Avenue. We'd take the A-train to downtown Brooklyn to do some shopping. I miss my old neighborhood.
I'd love to read another book about the old neighborhood written by Charlie Carillo.