Uncle Manny

I thought I would write this week’s blog about Emmanuel "Manny" Garofalo or “Uncle Manny” as he is known to close friends.

Manny has been in the news a lot in the past year. I especially loved last week’s article in the New York Papers where Manny claimed  he was selling his house because of the notoriety of his Nephew’s wife Alicia Garofalo on the reality show Mob Wives.  Manny said he was putting his Seagate Brooklyn Palace on the market to move someplace where people had no idea he was connected with the Organized Crime likes of Alicia.

I will make a couple of observations about this joke of an excuse that Manny is making up. I have found written stories about Manny as far back as 1979 when he ran a Carting/Dumping/Demolition Company and here is a quote from the New York Times, "Commissioner Steisel identified two companies as ‘probably the worst’ offenders. He said they were both owned by Emanuel Garofalo."  He was written up again as an illegal dumper in the New York Times, February 1983.  Did it bother Manny? Apparently not, because in 1985, once more the New York Times reports Kevin Smyley, inspector general of New York City's Sanitation Department, refers to three brothers named Garofalo who operate waste hauling companies in Brooklyn as ''the James brothers of garbage.''  

In September, 1994, Manny again made the papers as a  known “Organized Crime Figure” who was around some of the legends of the underworld.  This time it was the Los Angeles Times his name was printed in.  A man named Harold Glantz was arrested for a massive scam where he bilked investors out of 30 million dollars in a "Prime Bank Note and Roll Program Scam."  I gave Harold the nickname "Scissors Man" after he got into an argument with Manny in Manhattan and Manny stabbed him in the leg with a pair of cheap scissors he bought at a near by store.  Manny told me that Harold owed him a Million dollars.  It really bothered Manny because he told me to go see Harold’s son who lived just off Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles.  The good part is, I was wired up and when I went back to Los Angeles, the FBI was there to watch.  I just told the kid to have his father get in touch with Manny.  That is a Federal Crime, because Manny had me cross state lines to deliver a threat.  

Manny was next arrested by the FBI with a real upstanding crowd of people. John Gammarano; Salvatore Lombardi; Dominick Truscello; Barry Nichilo; Gaetano Vastola; Steven Long and Steven Crea.

I will start with John Gammarano aka Johnny G.  He was a member of Danny Marino's crew but he would be appointed to the Gambino Family Construction Panel which would include Cousin Eddie Garafolo, Delmonico, Frankie Fappiano,, Richie Gotti, Thomas Carbonaro, and Mikey Scars.  All the Crime Families in the area put together these panels to oversee their construction and Union Rackets in order to avoid problems.

The next upstanding citizen is Salvatore Lombardi , aka “Sally Dogs” a one time Genovese Capo who was heavily into drugs such as Quaalude and Heroin.  He is a also the Uncle of Big Ange on Mob Wives.  

Barry Nichilo was a Gambino associate who Sammy Gravano put away.  Steven Crea aka “Wonder Boy” would first be appointed to the Luchese Family Construction Panel and later became and is still the Boss of the family.  Dominick Truscello aka “Crazy Dom” was also on the Construction Panel for the Luchese Family and later he would become a Capo in charge of the Prince Street Crew.  

The last notable Felon in his close circle is Gaetano Vastola aka “Corky” Vastola, the Underboss of the DeCavalcante Family in New Jersey. He was a very big player in the record business and later in construction racketeering. He spent time locked up with John Gotti who was convinced he would flip, so he asked the Boss of the Family to kill him.  That blew up and they were charged with attempted murder.  Corky was locked up for a long stretch after that.

So all of these “friends” of his cannot be worse than being associated with Alicia Garofalo on Mob Wives.  Manny has even been in the papers five times since his last arrest, where he was crying about Sandy and his losses.

I used to meet him early and run around all day with him.  He is a user and a criminal, and the FBI has it all on tape, so why would the Judge release him with time served?  Community service?  This guy threatened my life, the lives of my family, stole money from me, but he is now free?  Maybe one day he will have his own TV show and run around Las Vegas and Hollywood.

Mafia Media Today

The media shapes our perception of events in life.  What the media does today is outright make up stuff. I've written about a number of movies and TV shows that just make up or never bother to even google their subject.

Edward Garafalo ran a trucking company that had a lot of different names, one of which was “Big R Trucking” after his son Rocco. Teddy Persico was a partner in the company with Eddie as far back as 2003 when Eddie ran Big R out of the Bonafide Fuel Oil lot in downtown Brooklyn.  

Now that Eddie's wife Alicia is a cast member on the "Reality” show Mob Wives, she is claiming that she did not know her husband was doing all that stuff.  

Really? I wore a wire when I was in the car with Eddie and Teddy many times.  Once we were on our way to get guns at Teddy's mothers home (so Teddy could get to some wayward Colombos).  It is funny because everyone screamed that I was lying about that happening, but this will be the second time Teddy is going away for what I recorded that day.  Just a few weeks ago Alicia’s husband Eddie also pleaded guilty to attempted murder for that attempted hit.  They all pled out even Teddy's brothers, and they had some good lawyers, yet not one of them called me in to cross examine me.  

Alicia and Eddie Garafalo

One lawyer, who thinks a lot of himself, called me every name in the book, yet even with his legal expertise he never crossed me or even challenged the tapes.  That lawyer is a funny guy who once yelled for a Gambino associate to shoot someone during a road rage incident (which they did).  So how could Alicia not know her husband was knee deep in crime? All she would have to do is pick up a newspaper or do a google search and she would know the truth about the name Persico.

Manny Garafalo

They had another equipment company called T&E for Teddy and Eddie, and she did the billing just like she did for Eddie's other shady companies. On Monday, January 6th she will face another judge, and she has already pleaded guilty in the court while claiming to the media she was not aware of The Life.  She has made a lot of money from The Life.  Even now she is living it up.  She has two clothing stores in New Jersey and she still lives in a luxury Cherry Hill home and she went on a cross country party spree while waiting for her sentencing date tomorrow.  According to the NYPOST she is also cheating on Eddie who took all the blame for the fraud with a Philly restaurant to save her from that.

 

So what exactly did she do?  Alicia helped Eddie and Teddy, and that means she helped the Colombo Family to steal hard working Union Member’s Benefits.  Alicia not only conspired but has admitted to stealing the money from the Local 282 of the Teamsters between June 2003 and June 2005.  Alicia submitted a false invoice in November of 2004 to a Long Island company on behalf of Big R Trucking and then submitted a false Shop Steward report to the 282 Local for DM Equipment for a week in November.  All this to defraud the Union Health plan and their retirement plans.  This is really low because they messed with normal hard working people while they went on gambling sprees, drove fancy cars and took vacations on their dime.  

Then I read that "Sources said Garofalo is slated to appear on the smash VH1 series himself — via recorded prison phone calls from the penitentiary to his wife."  Well that is pretty funny because I thought Mafia guys were supposed to keep a low profile.  So Eddie will call in and I am sure he will be paid if not it will come to Alicia.  The Garofalos live a charmed life because Eddie’s Uncle Manny got off with no time because of Super Storm Sandy and all the work he did to help (that is the BS reason given by the judge to cover up the real reason he got off with a slap on the wrist).  I personally laundered money with Manny, and after I left Brooklyn he threatened me and tried to have me sign a paper that said the cash was a loan.  Manny actually sent me a fax with a Fugazi loan document back dated.  This guy was bleeding a Telecommunications company based in Manhattan for hundreds of thousands of dollars.  He even leased cars through them.  He threatened a guy and then stabbed him in the leg with scissors for not paying a debt to his brother.  He also skimmed from construction jobs and has even done time for construction crimes before. If someone looks up Manny they can see what a great guy he is from the people he committed the crimes with in the past.  Names like Steve "Wonder Boy" Crea dot the pages of the indictments.  Manny is without a doubt someone who is trying to do the right thing.  Lets hope the judge in Alicia's case fines her what she owes: 96k and 20k to the Union and that means she will be zeroed out from what she made with Mob Wives.  Then lets see what Teddy Persico has to say when Eddie gets out early and he sits in the can.  Rule 35 hearing is coming for Eddie!

It is crazy that many channels claim to bring factual programs to their audience yet none of them can do simple fact checking. I just watched a show on Discovery ID about Chris Paciello and they claimed more than once that Chris was in the car theft ring on Staten Island called The Untouchables, which the movie Gone in Sixty Seconds was based on.  They actually aired this pile of crap without some basic search attempts because Gone in Sixty Seconds was shot in Carson California in 1974!  Chris Paciello was born in 1971. Was that movie about toddler car thiefs?

Chris Paciello was a member of the Bonanno Crime Family?  He was "with" the Gambinos and then had Wild Bill Cutolo get him transferred to the Colombo family. FYI "with" means you are an associate of the family not an Inducted member.  

A good Mafia movie is fun to watch and I understand that they need to streamline the story to make it exciting, but why say its a true story when they just make up stuff that is easily looked up and proved wrong.  

I've never glamorized the Mob life because there is nothing glamorous about the life. The actual guys in the crews are bad enough without their wives or sisters etc.. living off their bad deeds being glorified.