“He’s got a number.” That’s Philadelphia police speak for saying that someone has a criminal record. The “number” in question is the identifier shown in an arrestee’s mugshot. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. This is a mugshot of a relatively young Angelo Bruno who went on to become the so-called “Gentle Don” of the Philadelphia Mafia. His “number” is 85869. (19 years after this picture was taken, his purported gentleness notwithstanding, Bruno was killed by a shotgun blast to the head as he sat in his car in front of his Snyder Avenue home.) Anyhow, the featured […]