Filmmaker sees softer side of 'Shacks'

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Filmmaker Michael Corrente said he wrote a letter of support on behalf of the accused former mob boss of New England because the two are friends, and he said he has visited him many times in prison since his arrest.

“I’ve known Louis Manocchio for a very long time and I visit him [at the Wyatt Detention Center] as any friend would,” Corrente said in a telephone interview with the Target 12 Investigators.

As Target 12 first reported, lawyers for Luigi “Baby Shacks” Manocchio filed a motion on Tuesday asking that he be released on bail pending trial. They also submitted 18 letters from Rhode Islanders who expressed their support for Manocchio, Corrente among them.

“All I ever heard Louis say was ‘get a job, go to work and go home,’” Corrente said. “All of the misconceptions or the appearance of what everyone thinks, if they really know Louis Manocchio, would know it’s just not true.”

Manocchio was arrested in January as part of a national crackdown into organized crime. He and seven others are accused of shaking down area strip clubs for protection money and prosecutors say he ran La Cosa Nostra in New England for more than a decade.

While Corrente said he was “shocked and saddened” when he learned of Manocchio’s arrest in January, he’s not surprised.

“It’s what one would expect based on the impressions and what everyone hears, but it’s just not the man I know as a friend,” Corrente said. “I just don’t see Louis Manocchio ever extorting or threatening anyone with bodily harm. That’s not the man I know.”

Corrente said he has talked to Manocchio about teaming up with him to write a book. He said it would be about dispelling the myths that surrounds Manocchio and Italian-Americans in the mob.

“Whatever that was, that mystique of whatever that whole thing was, it’s been gone for 30 or 40 years, its over,” Corrente said. "The sad fact that 'The Sopranos' perpetuate that stuff is troubling"

When asked if he was concerned about how others may perceive his public show of support for a man accused of being a high-ranking mobster, Corrente said he didn’t think about that.

“If I was running for public office I might be worried about my name,” Corrente said. “I feel comfortable enough to tell people how I honestly feel about Louis Manocchio.”

twhite@wpri.com