Actors, cameramen and the curious went into Staten Island's William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge Friday in search of spirits of the dead snuffed by the mob. Searches for "Ghostfellas" is the concept of a possible new reality show whose pilot was shot in the sanctuary known to be a favorite gangland graveyard.
James McBratney, a 48-year-old Staten Island, NY private eye and the brains behind the project said "I call what I have intuition, I've always had the ability to read people, know what they're thinking and tell them to watch out for this or that. It's like this fortune cookie opens up in my mind and tells me things."
He avoids the word psychic and admits he has yet to talk to any of the departed, although he hopes to. He believes he's especially suited to do what he does because his dad James was gunned down in a Staten Island bar called Snoope's, allegedly by John Gotti and two cohorts when McBratney was just ten.
McBratney said he never really knew his dad. "He was in jail for four years, out for two and then they killed him." But with research and his "intuition," McBratney said he learned "all about my father, what he did, who he was, what his choices were." To a lot of people, he was a tough guy, a hoodlum. But he took me swimming, crabbing, on picnics. I can still see him at the dinner table as big as life, happy, smiling and covered with tattoos. He was like a God to me, and no matter what, I loved him. And now I believe he's resting peacefully."
Who'll be first to commune with McBratney?
"I'd welcome the chance to chat with Jimmy Hoffa's son," said McBratney, and Crazy Joe Gallo's stepdaughter has already talked to me. So who knows?"
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