Known for her larger than life personality, Angela "Big Ang" Raiola shot to stardom on
VH1's reality series Mob Wives.
Her sense of humor made her a star, but Raiola's highs came with plenty of lows - right up
to the end.
This is the tragic story of Big Ang.
"I got nothin’ to hide, so go for it.”
In 2012, The Smoking Gun uncovered that Raiola was arrested in 2001 for selling cocaine - as
part of a larger undercover investigation by the DEA.
Raiola, whose handbag reportedly contained 14 small plastic bags of cocaine at the time
of her arrest, was later indicted on six felony counts and sentenced to three years' probation
and four months of home arrest after pleading guilty to one of the counts.
Her sentence was subsequently modified to include a quote "outpatient and/or inpatient
drug treatment or detoxification program," according to the report.
"Listen, I've survived it all.
House arrest, wise guy after wise guy, and I'm still standing.”
As for why she became a drug dealer in the first place, Raiola confessed in her book
Bigger Is Better,
"I was a single mom, supporting my family, paying $3,000 in rent.
I did it for the money.
I wouldn't do it again and haven't since.
I learned my lesson."
Big Ang's Staten Island bar, Drunken Monkey, was infamous.
"You better bring yourself to the Drunken Monkey on Staten Island so we can party.”
But things turned deadly in 2014.
The Daily News reported that a 47-year-old man was killed after quote, "[falling] backward
and [cracking] his skull on the pavement," early in the morning, while trying to break
up a fight.
Two men reportedly fled the scene immediately after.
The tragic death hit Raiola hard.
She tweeted,
"[The victim] was not just a customer, but a gentle giant that I loved.
I personally share my heartfelt condolences to his loved ones, and we too are feeling
this loss in our Drunken Monkey family."
The man who allegedly threw the punch was later sentenced to three-to-nine years in
prison.
If you recently watched a marathon of Mob Wives and felt the urge to rush out and visit
Drunken Monkey, well, you can't.
That's because the bar got shut down by the New York State Liquor Authority in 2015.
According to Staten Island Live, the shutdown was ordered after the state discovered that
Raiola was a silent owner of the bar.
Apparently, because she pleaded guilty to a felony back in the day, Raiola cannot quote
"own a bar without some form of special permission from the state."
But it's not all bad news.
SILive reported in January 2016, that the bar rebranded as the Funkey Monkey and reopened.
Big Ang was even there to celebrate, with the paper reporting there was
"[…] A dual grand opening and Mob Wives premiere viewing party.
She packed the house with her family, friends, fans, sponsors and media."
The hearts of Mob Wives fans were broken into pieces when it was revealed that Raiola had
been diagnosed with stage four lung and brain cancer in December 2015.
"The doctor recently told me I have stage 4 lung and brain cancer, so I guess I have
a long fight ahead of me.”
According to her final interview on Dr. Oz, by January 2016, it was apparent that her
chemotherapy treatments had been unsuccessful.
"I f---ing hate cancer.”
A few weeks after her sit-down with Dr. Oz, Raiola passed away on February 18th, 2016,
after contracting pneumonia, at the age of 55, according to The New York Times.
Raiola was reportedly first diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in her throat in March 2015.
At the time, she underwent two extensive ten-hour surgeries on her road to recovery, telling
People magazine in 2015,
"I'd smoked for 40 years.
No one could tell me what to do.
[The tumor] was blocking my airway.
I quit smoking the day I found out."
"I try to stay positive.
I look at my kids and my grandchildren and I know how much they need me.”
Unfortunately, her recovery would take a turn for the worse.
TMZ reported the return of Raiola's cancer in December 2015, claiming that doctors had
told her a few months earlier that she had been quote "cancer free."
According to Hollywood Life, fans only got the official word about the fatal diagnosis
just days before Raiola's death when the revelation was featured during an episode of Mob Wives.
While live-tweeting along with the episode, Raiola broke her silence on the matter, writing,
"Not looking forward to reliving this moment right now.
But it is part of my journey and people need to be educated on it for their health."
Fans of Big Ang's stint on Couple's Therapy already knew that her marriage to husband
Neil Murphy wasn't on solid ground, with Raiola describing their union as quote, "rocky" in
her memoir.
"Neil is truly the laziest person I know, and my whole family will verify it.”
She revealed to Radar Online just one month before her death that she and Murphy had recently
separated, adding,
"I don't need to be with somebody who doesn't support me and I don't need him.
[…] I learned that you're better off by yourself because you really don't need a man
in your life."
But Murphy saw the situation differently.
After Raiola's death, Murphy told Entertainment Tonight,
"I never left her side, I was there for every procedure even though she didn't want me,
I went.
I was there at the hospital for the last two days with her.
So I wouldn't call it 'estranged.'"
In the end, however, Murphy still had kind words for his late wife.
He said,
"It was kind of a crazy life being married to her, but it was good.
I would never change anything."
And her adoring children felt the same way.
"I try to celebrate my mom's life every day.
She loved showing the world who she was, really, and everybody loved her.”
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