John & Craig

John Baudanza and Craig Marino are two badged guys in the Mafia.  John Baudanza is a Lucchese Soldier and Craig Marino is a Colombo Solider.

They started out hanging around Bruno Facciolo and Joe Scopo at Bruno's horse stable.   Bruno had some horses and he would meet guys down at his stables.  John and Craig were just kids but they were already trouble.  John had been in a tagger crew called BPB or Bay Parkway Boys. Craig was from Mill Basin so he was with the Mill Basin Boys.  They were both close to future Gambino Family murder victim Robert Arena.

John Baudanza (locked up)

Bruno Facciolo was a badged member of the Lucchese Family in a crew headed by Paul Vario of Goodfella's fame.  It has been said that he was one of the guys who did away with Tommy DeSimone on the day he was told he would be inducted into the family.  Bruno was one of Paul Vario's heavy guys who put in a lot of work for the family.  Bruno would later be murdered by some fellow Lucchese Family Mobsters after the corrupt so-called “Mafia Cops” told the family he was an informant.  He was lured to a garage in Brooklyn and stabbed to death.  He was then stuffed into the trunk of his car with a canary in his mouth.  It would come out later that the Mafia Cops lied and he was never an informant.

Bruno Facciolo

Joe Scopo was a rising star in the Colombo Family because he knew how to make money.  He learned how to work the Unions from his father Ralph Scopo, a made guy in the family, and the guy who took care of the bosses in the Concrete Club.  The Concrete Club was really just members of the Commission who took 2% from any concrete job in New York that paid over 2 Million Dollars.  This was also part of the Commission Trial (the trial in the late 80s when all of the NY bosses were convicted of being part of a commission that oversaw mafia corruption across the country).  Ralph was hit with a 100 year sentence and he would die in prison.  Joe Scopo followed in his fathers footsteps and handled the Unions for the family.  When the Colombo war started he was a Capo on the rebel side.

John Baudanza and Craig Marino were his drivers and bodyguards. They were over at Wild Bill’s house during the war with Joe. So they were in the mix with the Colombo's. They were not with Joe when he was gunned down in front of his home October 22, 1993.

Joe Scopo's murder was again part of Mafia take down day.  A couple of Persicos were charged with conspiracy to murder Joe.

John and Craig were also very close to Anthony Casso Jr, the son of Lucchese boss Gaspipe Casso who would himself flip and become an informant. There are rumors of a fight in a diner where a guy confronted Casso Jr and when he went outside John or Craig blasted the guy 9 or so times.  The guy lived and Gaspipe was pissed about the whole thing, that they would shoot someone over nothing serious.  They had another friend named Freddy D who asleep on his couch after a long night and was shot dead.  Robert Arena their friend was killed and they did nothing.  

Things would change for John after Joe Scopo was killed.  He was locked in with the Colombo's because of his Uncle and his father Carmine who was a long time Colombo Associate who I hear was badged.  John fell in love with Danny Cutia’s daughter (Cutia is a Capo in the Lucchese family) and soon they were married.  Cutia, who was on the panel that ran the family, had John placed in his crew.  John had things going for him for awhile.  He had an auto body shop and then he moved on to stuff on Wall St.

Craig had gone with the Colombos and he was close to Joe “Waverly” aka Cacace who would be underboss for a minute.  

Craig Marino

Craig Marino's name was placed on a list that was handed out to other famlies to see if there were any objections to getting their badge. One problem: Craig was written down as “Graig” Marino.  The other problem was that the FBI got a hold of the list after a drunken Persico left it laying around.  Craig was inducted into the family, but some people still had bad feelings for him because of the war.  Craig was soon in control of a number of brokerage firms around the city, Brooklyn and Staten Island.  One of the guys who ran them for him was his younger brother Lance who ran Barron Chase on Maiden Lane.  Lance would prove how stupid he was by climbing on top of a drunk friend’s Range Rover and then letting him drive off “car surfing.”  The ride was short for Lance, and that was end of him.  

Craig would get involved with a golf course and that all went bad after the FBI started looking into the deal.  

When I was in Brooklyn, he was involved in Zone Chefs a company that delivers healthy food to customer’s doors.  They did well, but Mafia business never takes a back seat and he soon turned back to criminal enterprise.

John Baudanza made some money with stocks and he soon got involved with the same telephone business that I was part of on Maiden Lane.  John also became an acting Capo around this time.  He then decided that he could do better than the company and he and some of his guys took some equipment and the account for St Marten.  He ended up blowing it and the whole deal went bad.  

John Baudanza

Things had gotten so bad that John asked his friend Georgie to hide his truck at his grandmothers house.  Georgie had the truck hidden but the repoman still found it. So an acting Capo had no car for sometime.  He then had a party store and was doing driveways in Staten Island.

John even tried to get into the Mortgage Business with his friend Jerry Degerolamo but that failed.  Jerry D was another long time Lucchese associate whose father is also a long time associate.  They robbed an armoured car for 3.7 million dollars in 1989 and after Gerard Degerolamo was sent to a Federal Prison where he walked away with help from his son Jerry.  They then planned to rob a cash filled depot by shipping a small associate in a box to the depot.  It seemed to go well but the guy in the box had recently been busted for a small crime and had already flipped.  The FBI took them all down.

Jerry, along with John Baudanza, started a fake hedge fund that was called America's Hedge Fund, L.P. in Eltingville. It was a nothing but a fake fund where they just stole people’s money.

When I was with Teddy Persico Jr and Eddie Garafolo in the truck headed to 4th ave to get Craig Marino, Teddy was talking and my wire was on.  He told me that Craig had done some bad things in the Colombo war and that he was on the wrong side, but now he was with good people.  He also said Craig was all good now meaning he was an inducted member.  We were going to deal with Craig (who I liked - but when asked by a Persico to do something you have to do it).  Eddie and Teddy both pled out to this charge earlier this year.

John Baudanza took a plea for the pump and dump and other charges he received 7 years. He is now in Allenwood Medical Facility where he is sick and will be released in 2015.  A lot of guys in the family do not like him and if his father-in-law dies, who knows what he will do.

Craig Marino took a plea for everything, including the pump and dump that got him 10 years. He is in Fort Dix until 2016.  Craig had moved to Florida before his case so who knows where he will go when he is released.