I Married A Mobster: Recap Angela Calvacante “No Way Out”

“No Way Out” is the story of Angela Calvacante who was born into a world of violence in 1963. Her family lived in Howard Beach, Queens, in NYC and the neighborhood was heavily populated by mobsters. She came from a working class family and her father was very controlling, yet she was never told to stay away from anyone. John Gotti, boss of the Gambino crime family, was a celebrity in the neighborhood and mobsters were role models they looked up to. Growing up with these people taught Angela to be tough. Her brother Joey joined the Gambinos and did time in prison. Her sister dated John Gotti Jr.

Angela hung out with bad boys, but decides to move to Maspeth, Queens to get away from the mob influences. She was looking for a better life, but even in Maspeth she was attracted to bad boys, like Sal Bonina, the son of Nick Bonina. Sal drove a Cadillac, he was flashy, reckless and he carried a gun. Her head tells her to run, but her heart makes her stay. She just couldn’t say no to him. She meets Sal’s father, Nick, at a mafia restaurant. She says the waiter was petrified as he served the table, as though if he made a mistake he would be shot on the spot. Nick Bonina was an important member of the Lucchese crime family.

Nick is a powerful guy and Angela soon learns that Maspeth is no better than Howard Beach. Nick pressures Sal to join the family business. Angela decided to back away and not date him any more. But Sal isn’t going along with that. He stalks her, he asks everyone at the body shop where she is, and when they say they don’t know, he shoots up the place. Everyone blames Angela because her boyfriend did all this damage. Against her better judgment, Angela goes out with Sal again.

There was an attraction for Angela, but it came with a price tag. No one would talk to her any more or protect her, they were afraid of Sal. One year later she was pregnant and Sal wants to get married. He gives her a taste of the good life, he buys her a nice car. She thought it was great. She doesn’t ask where he gets his money. He is supposed to be working, but he never leaves the house to go to a job. Sal has a bad temper. He starts drinking. One day he beats her and nearly severs her toe. At the hospital they sew her up without anesthesia because she was four months pregnant.

Angela doesn’t want this life, she doesn’t want to marry Sal. Her mother begs her to marry him. She tells Angela that she has no education and no money, how else will she be able to raise her child. She tells her Sal loves her and he is sorry, marry him. So under all the pressure, Angela marries Sal. A huge wedding was planned by Sal’s family, Angela had no say in it at all. They took over.

The wedding was held in 1982, and according to Italian tradition, everyone brings an envelope for the couple. Angela says she felt like a princess. She opens one of the envelopes and inside was $10,000! She thought she was rich. But her father in-law came along and took all the envelopes from her. He told her that money belonged to him.

Angela grew up with the Gambinos, but married into the Lucchese crime family. It was like she defected. The Gambinos would have nothing to do with her now. She had a baby boy, she had to stay with the other mob wives, there was no life outside the crime family.

Angela was trapped in an abusive marriage with no way out. Three months into the marriage, Sal had to step up in the crime family. He wasn’t really cut out for it. One night Angela gets out of bed to find Sal in the kitchen snorting cocaine. She tells him he doesn’t need that stuff. He puts a gun to her head and tells her to go back upstairs. Angela says she came close to death many times. She couldn’t take it and she couldn’t leave because she knew too much. No one would help her or take her in. She accepts the reality of the situation and thinks she just may have to die in this life, she has no choice.

In 1984 she gets a call from the FBI telling her to get out. They were coming down on the family for drugs. The family, specifically Nick, tests Sal’s loyalty. They tell him to take the wrap for Nick. Sal chickens out and Nick goes to jail.

In 1985 Angela files for divorce. She escapes the marriage but it forced to fend for herself and her son. She works and gets welfare, but it’s a struggle. She asks her in-laws for help for their grandson, but they blow him off even though he is the only grandchild carrying the family name. Sal becomes a drunk, a bum on the street. In 1987 he ends up dying in his sleep from a brain aneurism.

Angela’s wish is that she could forget everything that ever happen to her in that life. She feels that would be the only way for her to have a normal life now, but she can’t.

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