Next stop is the Brooklyn Cruise terminal where we will board the Queen Mary and make our way very slowly but in great style to England. But first we have one night to spend at JFK Airport.

I have searched Google for a good restaurant near to our Hotel. It doesn’t take long to realise that I need to downgrade the search to an OK restaurant. The only choices are in a neighborhood of Queens called Howard Beach. Sounds lovely, but unfortunately it is next door to the airport and directly under the flight path. But it is already 7.30 so Howard Beach it will have to be. The only restaurants that come up are Italian, which seems a little odd. So I google Howard Beach and discover that the suburb is basically an out post of Italy. Or to be more exact, Sicily. A small alarm goes off. I research a little more.

It seems that The Mafia recognised early on that the JFK Airport was ripe for their picking. A “cash cow” as one member called it. And John Gotti, head of the Gambino family, and one of the most powerful and dangerous crime bosses in the United States, liked to live near his workplace, so he moved to Howard Beach and used a club house in the local park as his headquaters

This man was so ruthless and so famous that there were films made about him and the people he arranged to have “eliminated”. His home is literally a short walk from Bruno’s Restaurant where I am thinking of going for dinner. And his grandsons still live in the neighborhood. Is this really where I want to spend an evening?

Mmm!

But that is ridiculous. John Gotti is long dead, and I have not heard anything about his grandsons.

But I do a little more research.

I really shouldn’t have.

I come across this article in a paper called The Queens News, dated just 6 weeks ago. For a moment I think it must be a gay paper and I am going to discover that Howard Beach is now a gay resort. But, no. Instead it is an update on the Gambino Family.

“Two grandsons of the late Gambino mob boss John Gotti were arrested Monday for dishing out some street justice against an associate”

I stop reading. This is ridiculous. I am worrying about nothing. Bruno’s restaurant looks pretty nice, and the reviews are good.

And we will only there for a couple of hours. What could possibly happen………………………………