Talk:Palumbos

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[edit] Mob ties allegation

I am returning the mob ties allegation, deleted by an annonymous editor who called it a "non-referenced mafia reference that was offensive to my family".

My original wording did not do enough to emphasize that the rumored ties were speculative. Likewise, I did not cover how persistent the rumors were. In all likelihood, the rumors were the result of two factors: 1) Palumbo was: successful, Italian-American, in South Philadelphia and deeply involved in entertainment/nightclubs. This is the basic bigotry factor. I would love to find a reliable source that makes this claim, as I am confident this was a major part of the claim. 2) Palumbo was closely tied to Frank Sinatra who was even more often accused to be tied to the mob. With Sinatra, there was some meaningful evidence. Palumbo, in fact, is said to have helped Sinatra's efforts to control the damage from those allegations.

That the other editor finds the reference "offensive to (their) family" is somewhat confusing. While I can certainly see the ALLEGATION as offensive, reporting that there was an allegation does not strike me as comparable.

I hope to be able to add an article on Frank Palumbo the man. However, I am having difficulty finding more than passing references to him. I will at least put up a stub. The man was a force of mythic proportions for many years. I am uncertain if enough sourced material on his grandfather will turn up to merit his own article, so I'll probably fold most of that info into related articles on self-help societies, immigration, Philadelphia, the 9th Street market, etc.

Finally, I am toning down the other editor's somewhat lionizing comments as they are not born out by the source cited. The source the editor gave points to an unexplained page on Penn's site. The source it partially cites "(Morello, 1995)" is a bit of a mystery. She's certainly a reputable source, but I don't know what she published that year.

Mdbrownmsw 20:42, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Progress is great... keep it coming!

Thanks to Rpresser and Terrycarroll for some of the cleanups to this article. Growing up the name "Palumbo" seemed to bounce around as much as "Rizzo", but I never really knew much about the guy. It's great to finally have something (on its way to being) substantial about the guy.

While his various legitimate business interests, social-capital-power-brokering and philanthropy can certainly use some attention, it seems that the sources -- though scattered -- will withstand what little scrutany they will receive (little of that is contested). The allegations of mob ties, fight fixing (Jake LaMotta-Billy Fox), undue political influence, etc. are sore subjects and I am having a hard time finding solid sources. Since Sinatra seems to tie in with a lot of the harsher claims, I'm going to add a note the talk page there to see if anyone has anything solid to point to. Anyone here have anything? Mdbrownmsw 12:41, 12 October 2007 (UTC)