Netflix Features Nicky Barnes In "the Council" With Matty Madonna

The year is 1959, the place is GreenHaven maximum security prison in upstate New York. This is where an unlikely friendship amongst3 young gangsters: one from Brooklyn, one from the Bronx, and one from Harlem.This unholy trinity would have more effect on the day to day living of "the streets" of the Rotten Apple, than probably anyone during the 60's and 70's.Their names were Joey Gallo, Matty Madonna, and Leroy Barnes and for the most of the following 20 years they helped keep the streets of New York full of the most soul enslaving drug ever. The Big H. Joey Gallo was a soldier in the Profaci family, and when Barnes met him he was fresh off being a triggerman in one of the most infamous gangland hits ever, the barber chair job on Albert, the "Mad Hatter" Anastasia of Murder Inc. As the story goes, Joey Gallo schooled Barnes on the structure and practices of La Cosa Nostra whose institutional strength is such that is now well over 100 years old. Madonna’s friendship with Barnes blossomed in the 1960’s and into the 70’s, as he became, possibly, the single largest Heroin connect in the country for the Italians. After their release from prison, Madonna started supplying large quantities of heroin to Barnes. Madonna would drop off a car with a trunk full of heroin at a Manhattan parking lot. Barnes would pick up the heroin later and exchange it for cash. A few days later, Madonna would return to pick up the car with the cash. Madonna and Barnes continued this arrangement until 1975, when Madonna was arrested for attempting to deliver 10 keys of H from Bangkok in New York City, mostly likely destined to Leroy “Nicky” Barnes. On December 21, 1976, Madonna was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. In December 1981, while still in prison, Madonna received a summons to testify before a grand jury about narcotics activity in the New York area. In two appearances before the grand jury, Madonna refused to testify, even after being granted immunity from self-incrimination. The judge finally held Madonna in contempt of court. Madonna received an extra 528 days added to his sentence.