Re: RARA-AVIS: Wise Guy origins?
rikke & hanne Kesten (rbkhbk@bcn.net)
Mon, 08 Feb 1999 18:08:36 -0400
I spoke with a former NYPD detective first class who was a
major player
with the organized crime unit in his day about the term "wise
guys." He
couldn't speak to the etymological origins but did agree with
me that it
was common usage on the city streets in the early Sixties.
He reminded me of a widely reported story in the early or
mid-Sixties
about some thieves who stole a statue or two from the Christmas
creche
at (I think it was) St. Anthony's Church on Houston and
MacDougal
Street. Everyone was outraged. So the local mafiosi put out the
word
in the neighborhood to cooperate with the NYPD. Sure enough, in
no
time, the vandals were nabbed by the cops. The local papers
reported
the story with a headline reading: "Wise Guys Help Cops Nab
Xmas
Thieves."
So...check with Pete Hammill, Jimmy Breslin, Nick Peleggi or
other
great New York journalists from that era -- if anyone on the
list knows
how to contact them -- and we'll get not just the entymology of
it all
but probably a few more good stories.
--steve kesten
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