Still going strong in their 80's: Exhibit A, Exhibit B

A few weeks ago, there was a cute little article in The Boston Globe about a cute old guy - Jim "Caino" Cain - who, at the age of 80, is still fast at work at F.W. Webb, a plumbing supply company. Caino apparently knows how to locate every part in Webb's "labyrinthine" storeroom in Watertown, making him the ultimate plumber's helper. (F.W. Webb is a local - throughout the Northeast - supplier and showroom, and I know personally that they have everything. When I did my reno 10 years ago, I picked out my plumbing stuff for two bathrooms and my kitchen at F.W. Webb and could barely wrap my mind around the choices.)

One of Caino's specialities is apparently finding ancient parts for ancient fixtures. 

To those he's rescued, he's a hero "who can help a plumber or a homeowner eke another decade out of a faucet or toilet."

“Caino?” said a plumber who, on a recent morning, was being helped by the man himself. “One of my instructors said, ‘If you ever have a question you can’t answer, there’s a guy in Watertown.’”

“Caino?” said that instructor, Nicholas Nocifora, of Wakefield’s PLUMR, when reached later by phone. “He’s a [expletive] legend.”

“Caino?” said Drew Pilarski, a 48-year-old colleague. “A lot of stuff he knows predates the internet. AI has not yet been trained on his brain.” (Source: Boston Globe)

So I was reading along about Jim Cain, smiling to myself, what a great old geezer. If I were the type who said "God love 'im," well, I'd be saying that about Caino.

And then I had the 'wait just a darned minute' moment when I realized that Caino may be an old geezer still doing what's he's long done - and doing it extraordinarily well - but he's pretty much an age peer.

I'm "only" 75, so 80 still sounds sort of old. But realistically, I'm a geezer. An awful lot of my friends are in their 70's. A few are in their 80's. We old. If my husband were alive, he'd be 81. By anyone's definition, an old man. (Can't imagine. When he died, he was the youngest 70-year-old I've ever known. And that still holds.)

A few days after I read about Jim Cain, there was another article about another local old geezer still plying his trade. 

So let's make Jim Cain Exhibit A for how to be a geezer who keeps going. And let's make Ralph DeLeo Exhbit B on a geezer still at it. Only DeLeo is an example of how you can be an old geezer who's still got his boots on, but is hardly anyone that you'd say "God love 'im" about.

No, Ralph DeLeo may still have his boots on, but, watch out, there's a shiv shoved in that boot.

DeLeo, who's 82, ran a crew that was part of the Colombo crime family. In May 2024, he was released from prison, on probation, after serving a 15-year "bid" - did I get the criming lingo right? - on racketeering and gun charges. As with Caino, retirement is apparently not DeLeo's thing. In May of this year, he was arrested at his condo in Watertown, of all places. (Not far from where Caino works.)

Caino is old school, relying on his memory to take care of business, but DeLeo is a more tech savvy old geezer.

Former Mafia “street boss” Ralph F. DeLeo tried to delete his text messages and browsing history, but evidence of his alleged plot to kill a federal judge, prosecutor and retired FBI agent was recovered from his cell phone, according to testimony Thursday by a Massachusetts State Police trooper.

The 82-year-old Mafioso’s phone revealed Google searches for where to buy spy gear and lock-picking kits, as well as a schedule of upcoming gun shows in New Hampshire and Maine, said Trooper Elvis Nguyen, who is assigned to an FBI task force.

DeLeo allegedly shopped for “door breaching power tools” on Amazon, and for handmade silicone masks with “real hair” on Etsy.

The phone also allegedly revealed repeated internet searches for the addresses of a judge, prosecutor and agent who played a role in the 2009 federal racketeering case that sent him to prison for 15 years, according to Nguyen.

“Mr. DeLeo was actively planning to kill multiple individuals,” said Nguyen, who testified during a hearing in federal court in Boston. (Source: Boston Globe)

I know they say you're better off staying active in your old age, but YIKES!

DeLeo is looking to be released from custody, his lawyer maintaining that DeLeo "is no longer dangerous" and has serious health issues. Cough, cough. 

There is no indication of his continued association with the Mafia “and the members of his crew are also too old,” [attorney Kevin] Barron wrote.

But the Feds have counter-argued that DeLeo is still in contact with local gangsters, even if they're not members of his old old crew. And in their search of his home:

Agents also recovered a handwritten note regarding silicone masks; a “burglary kit” containing a pry bar, mini crow bar, bolt cutters, and a lock-picking kit; small amounts of marijuana and several vials of apparent steroids, according to the filings.

Sounds like Ralph DeLeo, like Jim Caino, is still going strong in his old geezerhood. Unlike Caino, who's doing good and making a lot of plumbers happy, Ralph DeLeo is the bum he's always been. I won't be surprised if he pulls an Uncle Junior Soprano, pretending he's senile. Or, for a real life example, do a Vincent "The Chin" Gigante and avoid prison by wandering around the streets of Little Italy in a filthy bathrobe acting out mental illness. Anyway, I bet Ralph DeLeo be back in the stir, and it sound like that's where he belongs. 

Meanwhile, if it's what he wants to do, I bet Jim Cain has plenty of years left at F.W. Webb, remembering just where to find the right thingamajig. Go, Jim Cain! You're making your fellow old geezers proud!

--------------------------------------------------------------------Image Sources: Etsy, Mob Museum