He asked me what I thought of John Gotti. I didn't think about John Gotti so I asked if we could rephrase the question as: what do you think about the mafia mentality? and he said that worked just fine but I didn't have thoughts about that either. "I just don't know." I was only there to watch the basketball game.
So he told me a story, I think it took place in the 70's. He and some some friends went to Howards Beach for a BBQ. they rode their bikes into John Gotti's block party so John Gotti walked up to them with a body guard and asked them why they were there and did Steven know who he was? Steven did not so John Gotti said, 'I'm John Gotti.' Steven's hot headed friend Hector behaved like a saint and Jon Gotti liked how respectful everybody was so he got them plates of food to eat. When they finished, John Gotti suggested they get the fuck off his block and they did.
The telling of that story must have reminded Steven of the story he told next: back in middle school he'd been good friends with a girl named Antionette - just friends - he ate dinner at her house sometimes. At some point her crazy brother Timmy got out of jail (for killing people) and so he'd be at the table too. One day some girls beat up Antionette at school. Timmy said he would handle it. The parents said, 'No Timmy! Let us handle it!' but Timmy went to the middle school the next day (he was about 25 years old) and he brought a bullhorn. He said, 'I wanna know who beat up my sister!' several times until a teacher came out. This was in Bay Terrace, by the way, Steven tells me. Timmy said, 'are you the principal of this school?' she said no, so he said 'get her out here right now or I'm gonna blow this whole school to kingdom come!' so she got the principal but then someone called the police! So the principal was out there with Timmy and then a million cop cars arrived. They tried to re-arrest Timmy but he said 'if anybody shoots, I'll kill the principal!' so... just like that... all the cop cars drove away. "They all drove away?"
"Yup." Steve laughed and sipped his beer. "So he got away?" "MOST of the cop cars drove away, but some stayed." So what happened? "Timmy used the principal as a hostage until he got into his car and drove away." "Did they ever get him?" "I'm sure they probably did."
Later Steven told me about the time he met Stevie Wonder. It was at a music festival. Stevie came out to talk to the fans. It was great! and then someone tapped Steven on his shoulder while he was mid conversation with Stevie. She said 'do you know who i am?' and Steven was so amazed, he said 'Yes! you are Diana Ross!' and that was how he met Diana Ross, right before he met Gladys Knight.