The Alto Knights, the film written by Nicholas Pileggi and directed by Barry Levinson, is named for a once-prominent Manhattan social club of the Genovese crime family. Social clubs were a home away from home for mobsters to fraternize with their partners in crime. They also were venues for discussing business, which meant anything from robbery and extortion to drug trafficking and murder. Individual crews often had their own hangouts, such as John Gotti’s Bergin Hunt and Fish Club in Queens. Gotti later took over the Ravenite Social Club in Manhattan after ascending to head of the Gambino crime family, as the ...