Vincent "Marbles" Dragonetti

The Gambino Family is always a fun topic.  This week is a story about Vincent “Marbles” Dragonetti, Little Nicky Corozzo’s son in law.  

Vincent became known as Marbles when he was in his teens because of his bad skin.  He had big pimples and boils so the name stuck.  Marbles was not like most crime famimly guys, because he also had a regular job working in landscaping.  He worked with his father and brother in the business until his father passed away.  He then partnered up with his brother and they ran it together.

He was a regular guy in the crew who used to move cocaine with Mario, another crew member. Selling drugs is supposed to be forbidden, but this was before he was really close to Nicky.  The Sicilians who now run the family come from a deep heroin selling background, but I guess that does not count either.   

Gambino Capo Little Nicky Corozzo had a daughter. Little Nicky’s daughter Bernadette had been dating a man who was killed at Wheelers Bar in Sheepshead Bay.  She met Marbles and they started to get serious so Nicky brought him closer to him. Nicky started grooming him.  He still did a lot of credit card fraud and his first real pinch was credit card fraud on Long Island.  

Nicky set him with a lot of landscaping accounts in Howard Beach, John Gotti’s old neighborhood.  Then he helped Marbles open a nursery on Utica in Brooklyn.  Marbles moved up the ranks pretty quick without getting his hands real dirty.  Marbles used to sell slugs for parking meters and now he was taking care of a shylock customers of Little Nickys. One of the guys Little Nicky gave to him was a guy who had a 60k loan out.

Other guys in the crew started to stay away from Marbles because he would report everything about them to Little Nicky.  Marbles had stopped being one of the guys and became the ears and eyes of the boss.

It would not be long until Marbles was inducted into the Gambino Family.  It pays to marry the boss's daughter because it takes most guys many years of work to get inside.  Marbles was soon heavily involved in the labor racketeering, which is still a huge money maker for the Gambino Family.

One of the crimes the FBI went after him for took place in Brooklyn.  Here is how it went down.  Sitt Asset Management had a condominium complex on Ave P in Brooklyn. Marbles and some others had ACE, a Gambino controlled subcontractor, file a lien against another Gambino Controlled contractor named DURAMAX for work that they had never really done.  This was to force Sitt to pay so they could get bank financing without a problem.

Sitt, without knowing that it had been scammed, paid ACE $120,000 to remove the lien.  This is an old Mob trick called “Create and Alleviate.”  One Mob guy or company creates a problem and another steps in to fix the problem.  The problem is that it costs money and after paying once it never stops.   Marbles was able to get ACE to give him $40k of the $120k, not bad for doing nothing.  He used threats which were caught on tape that went like this.  “I dont know anyone who gets hurt unless they have to get hurt.”

The FBI caught Marbles walking out of his house in February 2008, and as soon as Bernadette saw this go down she was on the phone to Little Nicky. Little Nicky fled so fast that he left his wallet in the house. Little Nicky ended up turning himself in to the Feds.  Little Nicky would end up taking a 13 year plea deal.  Marbles lucked out with the judge and he ended up with 200 hours of community service because of Hurricane Sandy.  

A lot of people think the Mob is dead but they are still doing business as usual.

The Brothers Hydell

People romanticize the Mafia in movies, but the truth is very far from the picture on the big screen.  

Betty Hydell, the sister-in-law of Gambino capo Daniel Marino, has plenty of reason to know that the real Mafia is not a bunch of good natured hoods cracking jokes and eating cannolis.  Betty lost two sons to two different crime families.

James Hydell took part in the attempted murder of Gaspipe Casso, who would end up living and later became the Lucchese family underboss.  James and a few Gambino guys had waited outside a Bensonhurst Brooklyn restaurant named the Blue Ox.  They shot him numerous times, and he lived.  Gaspipe heard through the grape vine who had tried to kill him, and he unleashed his corrupt cops, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, to bring James Hydell to him.  He planned to torture him to find out who else had been part of the attempted hit.  They went by his mother Betty Hydell’s house looking for him.  Years later she saw Eppolito on TV and she knew he was one of those looking for her son James before he disappeared.  James was kidnaped by the Mafia cops, thrown in their truck, and dropped off to Gaspipe in a parking lot.  Gaspipe took him and then tortured him for hours to find out who was with him on the attempted hit.    Then Gaspipe made him disappear so the family would never know what happened to him.

Legend has it that Betty hid some of Daniel Marino’s cash in a bank safety deposit. Frank Hydell, her other son, somehow stole it.  Betty had to give up her home to pay back the money her son had stolen.

I have been told that Frank Hydell was not like his brother, and had a big mouth.  He and some buddies were going to grab a score on 18th Ave Brooklyn from a night deposit at a bank.  Frank had a minivan that he had stolen from Long Island.  They were waiting in the minivan and that night it was cold.  They saw the man they were going to rob heading to the night deposit, but because of the cold, he ran instead of walking.  There was also an accident within sight on the corner, so there were a couple of cops close by and the guys called it off.  

The Gambinos began to suspect Frank, because a few times he should have been locked up for things but nothing happened.  A crew of bank robbers was taking down a score on 13th Ave Brooklyn and Frank drove his car. There was a snow storm that night and his car could not be moved.  The next morning he had to see his parole officer but nothing happened.

The Gambinos asked Marino, who was locked up at the time, if they could kill Frank.  He gave his blessing.

They used a Gambino associate named Eddie Boyle to murder Frank.  Frank’s own friend lured him to a Staten Island Stripclub where Boyle shot him in the back.

The Hydell brothers were no Saints. James was a bad guy who attempted to murder Gaspipe.  Frank was suspected of a murder, stole from his own uncle and was working with law enforcement.  In the end, they were murdered by their so-called friends.  

The Mafia is nothing funny or romantic, it is a deadly and serious criminal enterprise.

Mike Yannotti

Michael Yannotti was Gambino Capo Nicky Corozzo’s go-to guy on the street when he needed things done. Today Mikey Y is an inmate of Danbury FCI where he and some other Cosa Nostra inmates just put the beat down on some Albanian gangsters.  At age 51, Mikey Y is still a force to be reckoned with. Mikey Y still has 7 years left of his 20 year sentence for racketeering conspiracy.  Mikey Y is scheduled to be released 1-16-2022 when he is 58 years old.

Mikey Y had been a Gambino associate for years, when in August 1984  Albert “Albie” Lattanzi was murdered by a Lucchese Associate named Todd Alvino.  Nicky Corozzo was upset by the murder of a crew member and he wanted to send a message to the Lucchese Family.

Nicky first told everyone to sit tight, while everyone mourned Albie’s death.  Then Mikey Y and the others started looking for Todd Alvino all over but they could not find them.  Then after a while they started hearing from other crews that Alvino was going out hitting the usual spots like he had no care in the world.

Nicky took this as an embarrassment and a slap in his face because Albie had been with his crew.  Nicky really turned up the heat on the crew, telling them that the way they were going Alvino would live to be an old man.  Finally, in February 1985, Yannotti, Anthony Lattanzi, Anthony Gerbino, Richard Lapenna, and some other members of Corozzo’s crew found Alvino sitting in his car doing cocaine outside a nightclub.  Mikey Y told guys that they had hit him with shotgun blasts in his car.  Nicky really took Mikey under his wing after that killing.  Mikey was on his way up in the Gambino Family.  Mikey then shot Mario Cassarino in the leg when they got into a fight.  The fight was over the fact Mario was armed the night Albie was killed and he froze.

Mikey then shot a Colombo Associate named Robert Tarantola who was a Marijuana dealer close to Teddy Persico Jr.  Mikey had gotten into an argument with Tarantola at the Players Nightclub In Bensonhurst Brooklyn. Mikey confronted him in the parking lot and shot him in the chest when he was in his car.  Mikey reached out for Andrew Didonato early the next morning because Andrew was in the weed business with Tarantola.  Mikey told Andrew that he had to stick close to the crew because the Colombos might go to war with Nicky over the shooting.

The shooting was resolved with a sit down because Tarantola did not die.

Mikey would get made, despite protests from Capos like Mikey “Scars” DiLeonardo who felt that Mikey Y’s shooting and kidnapping of radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa made the family look bad.  Junior Gotti went ahead with the induction but told Mikey Scars that Mikey Y was a secret member of the Gambino Family.  Junior Gotti told him that if anyone introduced Mikey Y as a made guy, they would be shot.  That lasted until John Gotti Sr’s wake, at which Mikey Y was introduced as a made guy.

Mikey also shot and killed Robert Arena and Thomas Maranga, but those events have been covered a few times before in this blog.

I am sure some people who read this will look at Mikey Y as some kind of hero.  Bottom line is that the guy is a murderer, and should remain behind bars a lot longer than the seven remaining years of his sentence.

Sonny Franzese: Still Going Strong

Sometimes you can read transcripts and get a feel for what is going on in a courtroom, and sometimes you can tell from what is going on that somebody is cooperating.  Sonny Franzese was on another level.   At one time, he was seated in the courtroom a wheelchair and and needed a fresh battery for his hearing aid.  An FBI Agent from the C-38 Colombo Squad was about to testify.

The FBI Agent started to speak about John Franzese Jr who is a proactive source for the FBI.  He agreed to wear a wire for the FBI against his father.  Sonny found out that his son John was working for the FBI in October 2006.  The FBI found out from another proactive source, Gaetano Fatato, who was wearing a wire when Sonny found out.  Gaetano wore a wire from 2005-2007 and made 242 recordings over 1000 hours for the FBI.

Sonny was very upset and worried that John might say something about Tommy Gioeli, who was the street boss of the Colombo Family.  He feared that it would make it look like he condoned what his son had done.  Sonny was so upset that he went to Gaetano’s home to speak to him right after he visited his parole officer. Sonny had thought that he would be picked up but now he felt the FBI was leaving him on the street to make it look like he was also cooperating.

Sonny told Gaetano that there may be a time when he would have to call in his son in and then they would... (Sonny then made a pistol with his finger) Gaetano agreed that he would help.

Sonny had asked him a year before if he would be willing to kill if asked and he agreed.

Sonny spent a lot of time with Gaetano and one time he started talking about the old days and he told him he had taken part in possibly 60 murders.  At the time, Sonny was the 92 year old acting Underboss of the Colombo Family.  He had never had real job in his life.  John Franzese Jr. would live to testify against his father and other Colombo figures, and told of flying around in a lear jet with tons of cash when his dad was younger.

In some ways I feel bad for Sonny because his own son John testified against him.  I knew John when he was in California and lived at a drug rehab place.  The guy was always a loser and was always supported by his family.  Sonny’s other son Michael had been a Capo in the Colombo Family, but had successfully walked away from the life.  Michael would later become a Christian speaker.

In other ways, I do not feel bad for Sonny because he lived his whole life dedicated to the Mafia.  He lost two daughters, really his whole family because of the Mafia.  He made a life out of shaking people down.  The saying on the street was “His pockets are sewn shut,” meaning he would never go into his pocket for anyone or anything.  He always used his connections or someone around him to pay for things, every meal, every tank of gas, every little thing.  

The Government blamed him for glamorizing the Mafia in the media because he was spoken about in at least 15 books as a Legendary Mobster.  The glamorization comes from those in Hollywood who have never held a pistol, never struck a person, yet feel the need to make up Hollywood versions of the truth.  The truth is, he’s an old man who has lost his family, who committed many violent crimes against others in the same small crime world, spent over 50 years in prison, retains the respect of some, but the love of few.  I once asked a former Colombo capo friend of mine, “Do you know of any happy endings in the mafia?”  He thought about it for a minute, looked at me, and said, “None.”  You can can glamorize Sonny all you want, but its not a happy ending or a happy life.

Sonny is 98 years old today and has a release date of 2017 when he will be 100 and still owe 3 years of parole.