Stabbing of Pizzeria Owner Recalls Neighborhood's Gritty Past

The shocking day-time stabbing of a popular pizzeria owner last week in the quiet Brooklyn neighborhood of Carroll Gardens stunned many — but for others, the brutal attack hearkened back to an era of Brooklyn's grittier past.

Benny Geritano is accused of stabbing the owner of upper-crust pizzeria Lucali, Mark Iacono, when the pair got into a fight that left the pizza pioneer hospitalized with multiple stab wounds on Friday. Geritano said he was acting in self defense. Geritano was charged with attempted murder. Iacono is set to be arraigned on the same charges once he is discharged from the hospital, officials said.

Frank Surace, 64, has lived on President Street nearly all of his life. He described the neighborhood from the 1950s through the '70s as a "wiseguy" playground.

 "A lot of people were scared of this area because it was the black hand, they used to call it," he said. "The mafia."

Arguments often turned into fights, he said, though stabbings were less common. But people knew to watch how they spoke to each other and conducted themselves. Most of the old timers, he said, have moved away.

"Twenty years ago, 30 years ago it would be a normal occurrence, but today it's a surprise," said Buddy Hudson, who is retired and has lived in the neighborhood all his life. "It's probably nothing serious. It's probably just amongst friends that have a personal problem."

But more recent transplants to Carroll Gardens are stunned by the crime, especially patrons of Lucali's like Tiffany Mea.

"I definitely was shocked because he seemed like a very nice guy, and my boyfriend and I would always go there and he was very personable. I would never associate him with anything like that," she said.