He
asked me what I thought of John Gotti. I didn't think about John
Gotti so I asked if we could rephrase the question as: what do you
think about the mafia mentality? and he said that worked just fine
but I didn't have thoughts about that either. "I just don't
know." I was only there to watch the basketball game.
So
he told me a story, I think it took place in the 70's. He and some
some friends went to Howards Beach for a BBQ. they rode their bikes
into John Gotti's block party so John Gotti walked up to them with a
body guard and asked them why they were there and did Steven know who
he was? Steven did not so John Gotti said, 'I'm John Gotti.' Steven's
hot headed friend Hector behaved like a saint and Jon Gotti liked how
respectful everybody was so he got them plates of food to eat. When
they finished, John Gotti suggested they get the fuck off his block
and they did.
The
telling of that story must have reminded Steven of the story he told
next: back in middle school he'd been good friends with a girl named
Antionette - just friends - he ate dinner at her house sometimes. At
some point her crazy brother Timmy got out of jail (for killing
people) and so he'd be at the table too. One day some girls beat up
Antionette at school. Timmy said he would handle it. The parents
said, 'No Timmy! Let us handle it!' but Timmy went to the middle
school the next day (he was about 25 years old) and he brought a
bullhorn. He said, 'I wanna know who beat up my sister!' several
times until a teacher came out. This was in Bay Terrace, by the way,
Steven tells me. Timmy said, 'are you the principal of this school?'
she said no, so he said 'get her out here right now or I'm gonna blow
this whole school to kingdom come!' so she got the principal but then
someone called the police! So the principal was out there with Timmy
and then a million cop cars arrived. They tried to re-arrest Timmy
but he said 'if anybody shoots, I'll kill the principal!' so... just
like that... all the cop cars drove away. "They all drove away?"
"Yup."
Steve laughed and sipped his beer. "So he got away?" "MOST
of the cop cars drove away, but some stayed." So what happened?
"Timmy used the principal as a hostage until he got into his car
and drove away." "Did they ever get him?" "I'm
sure they probably did."
Later
Steven told me about the time he met Stevie Wonder. It was at a music
festival. Stevie came out to talk to the fans. It was great! and then
someone tapped Steven on his shoulder while he was mid conversation
with Stevie. She said 'do you know who i am?' and Steven was so
amazed, he said 'Yes! you are Diana Ross!' and that was how he met
Diana Ross, right before he met Gladys Knight.