Gangsters Today versus Gangsters In the 20's

Lately I have been very interested in the Mafia. I play Mafia Wars on Facebook and I have started watching The Sopranos. I was thinking about how badass the Mafia was and still is (but also very scary). They were the ultimate gangsters. Gangsters today don't even compare.

Before I go on let me just say that some of the following pictures are graphic so read on at your own discretion. 

When I think gangster I think of guys wearing pin strip suits and fedoras and carrying Thompson Submachine guns or sawed off shotguns. It is a plus when they have that thick Italian accent or even better the Italian look and the Brooklyn accent. Gangsters today wear baggy clothes, baseball caps, hoodies, lots of "bling" and sometimes carry handguns. This to me is not gangster. I think they looks stupid. They aren't badass. I think, that they think, they are badass but their not. I never really thought about any of this until I saw this painting by Mike Shinoda called "Follow The Leader":

I do like that he had The Godfather as the oringial gangster because members of the Mafia were the original gangsters. And I am pretty sure that most gangsters today were influenced by this, but I still don't think that today's gangsters are that impressive. As you can see all the guys in the background are/were rappers and I will admit that some 90's rappers were pretty gangster but today's rappers are not. I know that there are rappers that have been shot and it is tragic. But I don't these attacks are as brutal as the attacks the Mafia carried out. 

Most people today think of this when they hear "gangster":

But this is what I think of:

And this is the kind of things that those gangsters did:

These are real gangsters. These gangsters are a lot more brutal then today's gangsters. And they are the original gangster. They are the definition of the word "gangster".

As a side note I am, in no way, trying to offend anyone. This is just my opinion and my Italian heritage talking. I mean no disrespect. So please don't take this too seriously.