
Manocchio's mug shot
So earlier this week, Andrew Phelps of Boston NPR station WBUR was hashing out the old debate about Luigi Manocchio’s nickname with me on Twitter.
Based on Tim White’s reporting, as well as law enforcement sources and this week’s indictment, I always go with “Baby Shacks.” The usual story says “Shacks” is some sort of reference to Manocchio’s successes “shacking up” with the ladies. The Projo’s Bill Malinowski sided with us, and explained why using this great anecdote in a story earlier this week:
[In the late 1990s,] The Journal had learned from an organized-crime source that the mobster had mistakenly been called “Baby Shanks” for years. His rightful nickname was “Baby Shacks,” for having a baby face in his younger years and a reputation for “shacking up” with various women. …
After Manocchio was arrested for the stolen appliances, State Police Col. Brendan P. Doherty, then a mob investigator asked Manocchio whether it was “Baby Shanks,” or “Baby Shacks.”
Manocchio, always the gentleman, provided the detective with a calm response.
“Brendan,” he said. “What does it really matter?”
(Love that story.)
WBUR’s Phelps, on the other hand, is – or at least was – a confirmed “Shanks” guy. After I chimed in by tweeting my usual support for “Shacks,” Andrew replied: “Our reporting says that’s incorrect. (Seriously.) Baby shanks refers to his short legs.”
That was a new one to me. The rationale Tim had heard for “Shanks” was that it could be a reference to the small makeshift knives prison inmates make with whatever materials they can get their hands on.
Either way, I told Andrew I was unconvinced and planned to stick with “Shacks” until someone convinced me otherwise, particularly since that’s the iteration the feds used this week.
Phelps followed up with a blog post yesterday afternoon that cited his colleague David Boeri, whom I grew up watching on Channel 5 in Massachusetts. Boeri told Phelps that Tim, me, Bill Malinowski, The Associated Press, and the federal government were “all wrong.”
However, when Phelps called the Justice Department here in Rhode Island, they told him in no uncertain terms the nickname was “Shacks,” not “Shanks.” A search of Lexis Nexis turned up a 1984 reference to “Shanks,” and no mention of “Shacks” until 1998 – but that reference turned out to be the Projo article cited by Malinowski that explained how “Shanks” was a mistake that people had been making for years.
“Regardless of whatever the ‘right’ name is, Justice ought to list ‘Baby Shanks’ as an aka,” Phelps concludes. Maybe. On the other hand, is the fact that the press spread an error far and wide really a good reason for the FBI to follow suit?
Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr, for his part, is in mourning over the Shanks switcharoo. “He’ll always be ‘Baby Shanks’ to me,” Carr wrote in a column today. He called up a mob wiseguy nicknamed The Kid, who claimed he’d always referred to Manocchio as “Baby Shanks,” not “Shacks.” Carr also mentioned that he once called Manocchio’s old restaurant on Federal Hill and asked whether “Baby Shanks” was available. “Who wants to know?” came the reply.
All I know is, I’m looking forward to the day we have Manocchio as a guest on “Newsmakers” and I get to put the question to him once and for all.
(photo: Broward County Sheriff’s Office)