Curtis Sliwa: Tour Guide

Guardian Angels founder, radio talk show host, mob target, and champion pickle eater Curtis Sliwa recently added a new feather to his red cap: he's now a tour guide.

In a video on the site dedicated to his new venture, "Underbelly Tours," Sliwa explains how his three-hour tours begin in the subway, or the "belly of the beast," as he calls it, and proceed to the South Bronx on the 4 train, aka the "mugger's express."

Once on the ground, Sliwa promises to point out the "Uzi-toting, dope-sucking, psychotic killing machines," hanging out on the corner.

Unlike a Soweto bus tour, these guided visits are on foot, and while Sliwa promises to point out active chop shops, drug houses, and money laundering fronts, in addition to those Uzi-packers, he swears it will all be done under the protection of beefy, red-jacketed Guardian Angels. In Sliwa's words, if anyone is "eye-balling you, you think they gonna thug you or mug you, but the Guardian Angels, we're gonna make you safe and secure."

In an interview with the Voice earlier today, Sliwa stressed the less-sensational side of the South Bronx -- one of industrious immigrants and the beauty of Claremont Park. "I show the way it used to be and the improvements," he said. The cost for all this adventure isn't clear. "We leave it open to whatever groups can generously donate," Sliwa said. The proceeds, he said, go to the Angels.