Strolling the streets of The Bronx with 55-year-old Curtis Sliwa, founder of The Guardian Angels, who is dressed in his iconic red beret and satin jacket, men and women, all ages and races, stop and thank him for keeping their streets safe. He is an iconic figure in these parts and the passion he exudes is intoxicating.
A little more than thirty years ago, Sliwa was managing a McDonald’s on Fordham Road in the Bronx. “I decided to take the neighborhood back from the Uzi-toting, narcotic sucking, psychopathic homicidal killing machines,” explains Sliwa fervidly. He founded the Guardian Angels in 1979 as a group of unarmed citizen crime patrollers. Today, this non-profit, international, volunteer organization has chapters in 140 cities in 13 countries.
His epic battle against crime has been tumultuous and he shares his triumphs and tribulations with audiences across the country as a corporate speaker. Customized based on the needs of the group, Sliwa’s specialties include empowerment, leadership, and how to make a difference.
Sliwa also takes groups to where he started, the South Bronx, during his “Underbelly of New York” tours. Not a part of New York many out-of-towners consider a must-see, combine Sliwa’s colorful personality with a walking tour, and you have the makings of an unforgettable afternoon. The tour was born when Sliwa was asked by the Young President’s Organization to take a group that was meeting in New York to the South Bronx. The tour price is negotiable, says Sliwa, though one group has paid $5,000 for an outing, which can be booked through the Underbelly Web site at
www.nycunderbelly.com. The proceeds will be used to support the Guardian Angels network.
He divides his time between The Guardian Angels and as a popular morning radio show host on 970 AM The Apple. His radio career began in the early Nineties with a show that featured him and his former wife Lisa.
“I made my enemies early. Here I was on the radio every morning criticizing John Gotti as his trial was going on. (Gotti, former head of the New York Gambino family, was convicted of racketeering in 1991. He was sentenced to life in prison where he died in 2002.) Little did I realize that he was in his jail cell listening and flipping out. He summoned his son, John A. “Junior” Gotti, the underboss at that time, and told him, ‘I don’t want to hear this freakin’ guy anymore. Do whatever you have to do to shut him up,’” according to Sliwa.
Gotti got a stolen yellow cab and took it to a mob-owned chop shop to have it customized for the hit. The handles in the back were removed and a compartment was created under the dashboard for the shooter to lay in wait, Sliwa says.
“They figured, we’ll fix him. He gets in here, he ain’t getting out. This will be his rolling coffin,” Sliwa explains. “They rode around my block waiting for me to hail that cab. One morning, two mornings, three mornings. They got me on the fifth day.”
In the predawn hours of June 19, 1992, Sliwa got into the back of the cab near his East Village apartment driven, unknown to him, by a mobster. “I got in and said, ‘Hey Mack! Madison Square Garden. Hit it. I’m running late.’ A bunch of blocks north instead of going toward Madison Square Garden he goes right toward the East River. I’m like, ‘Hey Mack! I thought you knew where you were going. Turn this hack around.’”
With intensity, Sliwa relives that horrific morning. “All of a sudden, the driver puts the pedal to the metal. I hear rustling up front under the dashboard. Unbeknownst to me it’s the gunman. He pops up. His butt is on the dashboard and he is aiming a 38 at my lower extremities. He says, ‘Take this, you son of a bitch.’ I see the sparks come out of the barrel of gun and, bam, where it goes, I don’t know. I don’t feel anything. Boom! He fires again. This time I feel it. Cramping. Bleeding. I can’t even breathe. My whole system is geared up. I have to get out of this car. I go for the handle but it comes off in my hands. Pow! He shoots a third time. It goes right through both legs like a hot knife through butter. I’ve been shot either twice or three times and I’m bleeding like a sieve.”
He continues, “I’m in the corner behind the driver, no partition. He’s trying to shoot me in my head. I’m fighting him with what little strength I have. I have the Guardian Angels radio, which I always have, it’s on the seat, and it’s on. I say, ‘Angel One, Code Red,’ which means, ‘Angel down.’ Lisa hears this and starts screaming in her radio, which throws the driver off. He makes a violent turn and I feel a gust of wind come in. I take a total risk and jump off the seat and dive into the direction of what I think is an open window. I go right past the gunman except I only make it halfway out. He catches me by my belt. I’m trying to hit the asphalt but he’s pulling me up. It’s like a seesaw. The driver sees this and smashes me into some parked cars. The shooter puts the gun in my back, pop, and pushes me out. They assume I’m dead.” They assumed wrong.
“I’m sucking the asphalt outside a biker bar on B and Sixth. All the bikers come out. They turn me over saying, ‘Don’t die on us.’ Cops arrive, meat wagon arrives, they cut off all my clothes in the street. They put me in body bag with a bicycle pump to try to suppress the bleeding. The pain is so intense. It was like someone dropped a baby grand piano on my rib cage. I’m screaming in the middle of the street. They take me to Bellevue where they do what they have to.”
Miraculously, Sliwa survived. “I’m in intensive care. A day-and-a-half later I wake up. The first person I see staring at me is Ed Koch, who had been my adversary. I thought I had died and gone straight to Hell. When I saw Lisa, I knew I had made it. The recovery was brutal. Colonoscopy bag, colon bag, intestinal bag, had to go back for reverse surgeries.”
Immediately following the shooting, Sliwa summoned all the strength he had to retaliate in the way he knew best. His radio show. Right from his hospital bed. He even started a daily “Mob Talk” segment slamming the Gotti family.
There was no question in Sliwa’s mind about who had done this to him. He did have a hard time convincing others. It took 12 years to have his suspicions confirmed. One of the attackers, Michael Yannotti, was arrested on other charges and as part of a plea bargain, shared details about the plot to kidnap, assault, and kill Sliwa that was masterminded by Gotti.
Gotti was never convicted for his role in the shooting, Sliwa says incensed. After four trials against Gotti ended in hung juries, the federal government recently announced that it will not seek a fifth racketeering trail.
When Sliwa was released from the hospital, a slew of strange women began calling his apartment looking for him, another plot masterminded by the Gottis, he says. This, to undermine his marriage to Lisa. It worked and the two divorced.
Today, Sliwa is remarried to Mary, COO and executive director of the Guardian Angels, and they have a son, Anthony. A vocal advocate and passionate supporter of Republican and Conservative principles, Sliwa would like to one day hold a political office. His chances are good as he does have a Guardian Angel on his shoulder.