Many Italian-Americans have long bristled at their tribe’s portrayal in popular culture as consisting primarily of Mafia bosses, thugs, goons and Frank Sinatra. The Mulberry Street Bar in Little Italy is not actively courting the business of those progressive sorts.

The bar is an unapologetic bastion of gangster lore, from the poster showing the “Sopranos” cast in a Last Supper arrangement to the framed “Godfather” and “Goodfellas” cast photos to the wiseguy-fantasy-league image of characters from all three stories playing cards together.

But a scene that played out one May night in front of the Manhattan bar left blood on the sidewalk that was quite real. One man was stabbed seven times with a four-inch blade. His attacker ran away. The police quickly identified the suspect as Frank Caserta, a 54-year-old convicted murderer who served nearly 28 years before being released in December 2013.

Today, he remains at large. An examination of his life recalls a neighborhood’s more violent past.

“Where did you grow up?” Mr. Caserta was asked in 2013 at a parole hearing before his release, according to a transcript.