John (Cha Cha) Ciarcia hopes to bring some of the city's old gangland history back to life with a new bus tour."Everybody loves the mob," said Ciarcia, a restaurateur, radio host and actor who had a bit part in "The Sopranos." "We'd like to give them a taste of history in the mob."There are plenty of Mafia walking-tour guides - famed mob rat Henry Hill himself wrote "A Goodfella's Guide to New York."Bus tours of "Sopranos" filming locations in New Jersey are still popular nearly three years after the TV show's finale.Ciarcia's bus tour of blood-soaked Manhattan will be the first of its kind, say organizers, who were surprised by the lack of competition.
"There's a lot of things that are hidden in plain sight," said tour guide Moses Gates, 34, who intentionally looked the part in his black gloves and heavy gold chain.The gory front-page photos of the executed executioner ensured the hit went down in history.The Dapper Don's Mulberry St. den, where the FBI recorded damning tapes, is now a store that hawks $300 minimalist leather shoes to oblivious hipsters.
Most people rushing through Columbus Circle have no idea that Colombo crime-family boss Joe Colombo was shot there just before addressing an Italian Unity Day rally in 1971.The New York City Mob Tour (nycmobtour.com) offerings will include newsreels and film clips showing the way the locations once looked. The tours also will show tourists where famous fictional mob scenes were filmed.Ciarcia came up with the idea for the mob bus tour with his childhood pal Vinny (Skinny) Gione.They plan to charge $50 per person for a two-hour tour leaving from Ciarcia's Mulberry St. café, Bocca al Lupo, and driving through Little Italy to midtown and back.
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