MARCH’S DEADBEAT OF THE MONTH: RICHIE MADANO.

[NOTE: DEADBEAT-OF-THE-MONTH is an ongoing saga giving thanks and praise to a chosen deadbeat character each month. To see the rest of em’, go here]

Our choice for March is without a doubt the deadliest deadbeat in our monthly feature thus far. Folks, it’s time to sit back and rejoice in the life of Brooklyn’s most intimidating crack addict of 1991, Richie Madano.

Rather than regurgitate the entire plot of Out for Justice, i’ll stick to the cold hard facts. Richie came into this world (late eighties Brooklyn) the son of two sweet Italian immigrants. He was the brother to seedy Italian pool hall manager Vinnie and his local bed-hopper of a sister, Patti. According to local historian and cop Gino Felino, Richie was “always into bad stuff”, even in his younger days. Once drugs came into play, his viciousness took to new levels. Killing innocent people, murdering cops, smoking crack and teasing the handicapped are just some of the fun & games that Richie brought to the ol’ neighborhood during his rampage.

Richie: “What about you, Paulie? You got the fuckin’ balls?”

Paulie: “Yea, yea I got the balls.”

[tosses him a wad of cash]

Richie: “Good, now you’ve got the bread!”

After he kills a cop in broad daylight, Richie goes on a complete shitstorm, tearing through anyone and anything that comes in his path. Both the police and the mob have contracts out for his head. Knowing this only fuels Richie’s rage, prompting him to commit more senseless violence and even take advantage of a shy prostitute-turned-video-store-clerk named Rica.

The madness continues as Richie and his henchmen decide to pay a visit to an old friend they call “Chas the Chair”, a poor disabled guy in a wheelchair that runs a chop-shop.

After passing around the tequila for a few minutes, Richie’s crack-infused paranoia kicks into full gear as he suspects Chas could be an informant for the police, so he shoots him dead in his chair.

“No Richie please, God no blaahhdeeyyaaarr!!!”

I suppose Richie would eventually deserve to get his ass handed to him by a New York cop that makes a beret and sleeveless t-shirt look very menacing, which is exactly what happens in the final moments of Out for Justice. Detective Gino Felino party crashes Richie’s girlfriend’s house and takes out each of Richie’s mamalukes one by one. Then using his black-belt aikido moves and every kitchen appliance available, he kills Richie by putting a corkscrew bottle opener through his head.

So what has TNUC learned from this late-great Deadbeat? Well, to this day if someone cuts me off while driving and I feel an urge to yell at them out my window, I first make sure it’s not Richie in his IROC-Z! (see consequences below).

MEGA-BONUS: Majeure (1/2 of Zombi) put together this cover of David Michael Frank’s ‘One Night in Brooklyn’ from the Out for Justice soundtrack. Being a big fan of Majeure and obviously the movie, when I found out this existed I pretty much exploded in my beanbag chair.