Oldfella, Lufthansa and John Gotti

Anyone who has seen the movie Goodfellas will know about what happened on Dec. 11, 1978.

That was when a group of masked men forced their way into the secured cargo building of Lufthansa Airlines and stole 6 million in cash and jewels.  One of the men who was part of the conspiracy was Vincent Asaro, the Bonanno family capo in charge of their airport rackets.  He received very little of the cash and what he did take home, he lost gambling.

He has taken down some big scores over the years and made money with the family.  He has been promoted, demoted and promoted again because of his habits.  He involved his son Jerome in the life - they are both capos.

Vincent Asaro took a huge gamble in 2015 and took his case to trial.  Despite his cousin Gaspare Valenti wearing a wire and testifying against him, he was acquitted in 2015.  He walked free until this week.

Here is one of the crimes Vincent Asaro was charged with this week. In April of 2012, Asaro was in Howard Beach, Queens when another motorist pulled in front of him at a stoplight.  This pissed him off so he chased him until he could figure out where he lived.  All one has to do is take a look at Asaro’s picture and you can imagine how he drives. Asaro drives an associate of the Bonanno family to where the car is parked in the Broad Channel section of Queens.  He then orders the associate to torch the car.  The associate then recruits two men to help him, Matthew Rullan aka Fat Mat and none other than John J. Gotti.  Can you believe the grandson of the former Gambino family boss, John Gotti, is going to torch a car for an aging Bonanno family capo?

The unnamed associate, whom I suspect as flipped, drove with John Gotti in his Jaguar to a service station where they filled up a container with gasoline.  They doused the car and Fat Matt ignited it.  The problem was, there was an NYPD officer in an unmarked car who watched them torch the car.  The NYPD car chased the Jaguar for a short distance before giving up the chase because it was dangerous.

Asaro then made the associate drive him the next day to the place where the burned out car was taken to confirm the job was done.  Imagine that you are a capo in one of the five New York Mafia families, and you are involved in torching a car for cutting you off in traffic.

It gets better.  Two weeks after the arson, John Gotti, Fat Matt and a man named Michael Giudici decide to rob the bank where John Gotti’s girlfriend is a teller.

On April 18, 2012 Michael Giudici walks into Maspeth Federal Savings and Loan Association at 5:45pm before they close.  He walks up to a teller and hands a note over that says, “I Have A Bomb.” The teller places $5,491 in cash on the counter, which Giudice takes and then flees the bank.  John Gotti and Fat Mat are waiting and they all drive away.

These master criminals walked away with only $1830 dollars a piece, that is, unless they also had to kick some of that up to someone above them.  They now face up to 20 years for that small payday.  John Gotti is already locked up in prison for eight years for being caught selling pills.  

Vincent Asaro is facing less time, but I suspect the Feds will be hitting him with more charges soon.  A Bonanno capo was unmasked as cooperating, and at this point nobody knows for just how long he’s been cooperating.

Mafia Slip-and-Fall: A Prison Ping Pong Lawsuit

Life in the mafia is never boring and sometimes it is even humorous.  

There was a time when made Colombo soldier Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli was well respected on the streets. He is alleged to have participated in at least eight murders over the years, including that of of a police officer. The police officer’s name was Ralph Dols, and he was murdered because his wife’s ex-husband, Joe Cacace, was a jealous man.  

He also helped chase down one of the makers of the film Deep Throat, Joseph Peraino Sr., along with his son Joseph Jr. This confrontation took place in a Gravesend Brooklyn neighborhood.  Tommy Shots blasted the father and son, and also a former Nun named Veronika Zuraw who was completely innocent. As a result, Veronika and Joseph Jr. were both killed and Joseph Sr. was paralyzed.

Tommy Shots was rewarded for his lifetime of crime in 2004, when he was upped to Street Boss of the Colombo family.

In 2014 he was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison, where he has been crying ever since.  

He was given the nickname Tommy Shots because he survived getting a bullet in his shoulder and in his stomach.  The man who took two bullets is now suing the government for ten million dollars after slipping and falling while playing a game of ping pong in prison.

He filed the negligence lawsuit after his slip and fall, blaming the injury on a wet floor in the Metropolitan Detention Center.  The obese Tommy Shots slipped and fractured his kneecap.  

Here is another good one.  The grandson of the late Gambino boss John Gotti, was arrested last year twice for dealing drugs.  He was pulled over in what has been called a traffic stop for tinted windows.  He was caught with a couple hundred pills and over $7,000 in cash.  Then the police busted him in the former Howard Beach home where his grandfather used to live.

In that bust they confiscated over $200,000 and 800 pills.  They also caught him (just like his grandfather) on a bug, bragging he sold over a $100,000 a month in pills and $1.6 million overall.

This week the whole ordeal came to a conclusion when John Gotti took a plea deal for 8 years with 5 years of supervised release.  He also gave up any claims to the seized cash.

He now joins the ranks of his family before him, heading to prison.

Joe Bilotti: Old School Gambino

It was just before 6pm on December 16, 1985 when the black Lincoln pulled up and parked in front of Sparks Steak House in Manhattan.  The streets were busy, but four men dressed in trench coats and fur hats moved with purpose.  The passenger was Paul Castellano, the boss of the Gambino crime family.  As he stepped out of the car, the men opened fire on him. The driver emerged and ducked a little to look towards Paul before he was shot in the back.

The forgotten man was Tommy Bilotti, Castellano’s driver and the new underboss of the family.

Tommy had a brother named Joe that passed away last week.  Joe was real Cosa Nostra, not like the clowns that run around playing the role in Brooklyn and Staten Island.  Guys who were in the life consider Joe the ultimate wiseguy. He kept a low profile, both before his brother Tommy was murdered by John Gotti’s crew and after.

The Billotti brothers were both known as tough guys with their hands.  They used that fear to build up a massive gambling business.  This proved a natural segway into their next business, which was loansharking.  They both prospered because of their talent as businessmen.

One of the men on record with Tommy was a man named Joe Watts, a childhood friend who grew up with the Bilottis in the South Beach section of Staten Island.

Joe Watts was known as “the German” because he was part German.  He managed the loan shark business for Tommy until Tommy was gunned down outside Sparks Steakhouse.

John wanted to get rid of Paul Castellano and Tommy Bilotti because he was caught up in the web of a heroin trafficking case and pure greed. Gotti and a few others plotted to take over the family, but they were not sure when to do it.

One plan was to put plastic down in the Watts home and invite Tommy over and murder him.

Then another man would take Tommy’s place as Paul's driver and murder him.

Instead, they settled on the midtown Manhattan spectacle.

Once Tommy was murdered, Sammy Gravano, the man who would later become John Gotti’s underboss, met with Joe Bilotti at a diner.  He told Joe that his brother’s murder was just business.

Joe Watts was urging John Gotti Sr. to murder Joe also, lest he seek revenge.  Joe agreed that he would accept it and not cause trouble.

John Gotti rewarded Joe Watts with Tommy’s loansharking book/business and it made him a millionaire.  No wonder Joe Watts was in on the murder of the boss.  He was one of the shooters.  Joe Watts might have made some money and had a few good years but he has been locked up for years.

In 2011 Joe Watts was handed another prison sentence of 13 years for his participation in another murder. At 69 years old who knows if he will see freedom.

Joe Billotti outlived John Gotti.  He was able to see him go away after Sammy Gravano helped team USA put him away.  Gotti would die inside, never again a free man.

He continued to take part in Gambino family business.  He was seen meeting with members of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra family in Florida in recent years.

Joe was a successful guy who most people don't know had a cigar factory in the Dominican Republic.  

So we say goodbye to another old timer who lived the life.

Clinton Pay for Play with the Gambinos

So much is in the news about the presidential race, most of which is blasting Trump. One can easily forget that the Clintons have been enriching themselves at our expense for decades.

The big question is how Rosario “Sal” Gambino, a convicted heroin trafficker and a member of La Cosa Nostra - who with his brothers flooded the streets of America with over 600 million dollars in heroin, got on the pardon list in the last days of Bill Clinton's Presidency?

I decided to research this some more, and revisit my former post on the topic.  I found out that my blog on this subject no longer comes up on a google search about Gambino & Clinton.  It used to.  I also cannot find the Congressional testimony that used to be online as a PDF.  Strange.

Rosario Gambino was arrested on March 16, 1984 and they found a loaded .38 pistol and $20,000 in cash. Two of the bills were directly traceable to heroin deals made with agents, plus there was a small sample of 95% pure heroin found.  He was in possession of confidential reports from the NYPD that detailed surveillance of Cafe Milano in Brooklyn. The report was later found to have come from rogue policeman Louis Eppolito.

Rosario was one of the leaders of the Pizza Connection heroin ring.  In 1978 six kilos of heroin were seized at JFK Airport in New York.  It never made the news, so the traffickers suspected the airline employees of stealing it.  Some were threatened and others tortured.  Rosario came in as a mediator, and he believed the employees when they said that the kilos were seized.

Rosario was arrested for the kilos, but he was acquitted.  The fact remains he was high enough to step in to find the missing heroin.

When his relatives were dealing with the undercover agent to sell heroin, they made numerous calls to Rosario that were intercepted.  The relatives promised the agent that Rosario could provide 10 kilos of heroin a month to them.

The ATF had evidence of arson of pizza restaurants in New Jersey by Rosario and his brother.

It is clear to me that Rosario should not be on the presidential pardon list, so how did this come about?

This all came about through his son Tommy.  According to the US Congressional report, Sal's son Tommy Gambino is a made man in the Los Angeles mafia family and maybe even an underboss.  I was introduced to Tommy once by Jimmy Caci, and was told he was “the same as him.”  Sal Gambino set up a meeting between Tommy and I in Beverly Hills and when I was at Joe Isgro's ( Gambino family soldier) Raging Bull Records, Joe had Anthony Gambino, Tommy's brother, working in the office.  

Tommy was running a payphone business called Progressive Telecom, and guess who is a partner: none other than Colombo Capo Donnie Shacks.  This is where things get good, because Tommy Gambino would soon become friends with Roger Clinton, the brother of then-President of the United States Bill.  Tommy Gambino met Roger Clinton in a Beverly Hills Club when he was with introduced by Gino Vannelli, a music industry manager.

Roger Clinton would later tell authorities that he knew that he was meeting Tommy Gambino because his father was seeking parole, but that after meeting him he realized what a close family Tommy Gambino came from.

Tommy Gambino gave Roger Clinton his father’s files, and after Roger reviewed them he felt that Sal Gambino had not gotten a fair deal.  Where was it that Roger went to law school? According to Roger, he then agreed to contact the US Parole Commission for Sal Gambino as long as they held nothing back concerning the case. Roger Clinton would later tell investigators that Tommy Gambino told him that if he helped get his father out of prison they would take care of him.

Roger made calls to members of the Commission and even had a meeting with one of them on behalf of Sal Gambino.  To be completely fair to Roger, he also sought help for two other prisoners.  The FBI wanted to set up a meeting between Roger Clinton and another "Parole Commission Member,"  really an undercover agent, but the Parole Commission would not cooperate.  Roger Clinton and Tommy made a trip to Washington DC in March of 1999 for who knows what.  Roger Clinton was playing golf with four people in Los Angeles when Tommy Gambino drove up on a golf cart and handed Roger a box with a gold Rolex watch in it.  Roger told the men he was playing with that the man was Tommy Gambino and he was helping his father.  Two of the men were US Air force Intell Officers and they were uncomfortable with what they saw, so they reported what they saw to the FBI.

On September 27, 1999 Tommy Gambino's sister Anna wrote a $50,000 check to Roger Clinton’s company. This money came from Lisa Gambino in Staten Island, New York, and both women frequently received deposits from Antonio Genovese (partners with John Gambino in G&G Concrete in New York).

Roger Clinton would later tell the FBI that money was a loan so he could buy a house and that all he took was existence money.  Sal Gambino would then apply for a pardon from the president in 2000.  The first call Roger made on January 20, 2001 was to Tommy Gambino's cell phone, and that was the day his brother was no longer president and Sal Gambino had gotten no pardon.

Sal Gambino was paroled to an Immigrant Detention Center in 2006, and he was deported to Rome, Italy on May 23rd, 2009.

It should be clear to anyone who reads this that Rosario Gambino had no business applying for a pardon.  It clearly shows that that those that can pay have a different justice than those that can’t.  This was not just some scam for Roger to get paid.  The White House received a petition for commutation for Rosario Gambino. Documents indicate that the White House lawyer responsible for clemency matters requested a criminal background check on Gambino, which is normally done when some serious consideration is being given to a grant of clemency.

The FBI had a plan to plant an undercover agent in the parole board but they were sabotaged by parole board members.  There is so much more to the pay to play.  If you want to read more read United States Congressional Serial Set, No. 14778, House Report No. 454 and The Goodfella Tapes Book about the John Stanfa War against Joey Merlino for control of the Philly Mob.  There is a great part of Tommy Gambino speaking to John Stanfa.

The Gotti Follies

The name Gotti brings to mind the image of John Gotti as boss of the Gambino crime family, dressed in a two thousand dollar suit.  The public doesn’t understand the lasting negative effect John Gotti Sr. had on the Gambinos.  The truth is, John Gotti Sr. helped the feds weaken the crime family through his actions.

The Gambino family had a lot of crews in multiple states.  John Sr. started making all his capos check in every week at the Ravenite club in Little Italy. This made it easy for the law to keep tabs on who was doing what.  He held meetings inside an apartment above the club that the Feds had wired up.  He bragged, and they caught him on tape.  Sammy Gravano, the family underboss, flipped to team USA.

John Sr. went away for life and he left his son John Jr. as the acting boss.  Junior would later talk to the Feds when he had a proffer session.   He gave up guys for crimes.

Then his daughter Victoria had a reality show, “Growing up Gotti.” Today, they are shooting a movie about John Gotti.  I wonder if they will include anything about Gotti’s neighbor, John Favara, a hard-working man who “disappeared” after accidentally hitting and killing Gotti’s son Frank, who at the time he was hit was driving an illegal mini bike and not obeying basic traffic rules.

There is Gotti news in 2016.  John’s brother Gene, who did many years for dealing heroin, will be up for release soon.  

John Gotti Sr.’s grandson, John Gotti, the son of Peter Gotti, was arrested on June 30th for possessing 205 Oxycodone pills, Testosterone, Xanax, Marijuana and 18 methadone pills. He also had over $7k in cash on him along with the drugs, and was arrested while driving with a suspended license.  

On August 4th the NYPD concluded Operation Beach Party with the raiding of the former Queens home of John Gotti Sr., where his grandson John Gotti lived with his father Peter. The NYPD found a safe with $40k and over 500 Oxycodone pills inside.  They also raided the Rebel Ink Tattoo parlor and arrested seven other people involved in the drug crew.  The NYPD seized $200k from one of the players, who was said to be holding it for John Gotti.

Grandson John Gotti is now in a Rikers Island drug rehab where he awaits trial. A judge denied his bid to be freed on a $2 million bond because he is facing 25 years if convicted.

That is not all of the recent news in the Gotti saga. Victoria Gotti had her Long Island mansion raided by the IRS on September 14th. They also raided an Auto Parts store in Queens owned by her ex-husband Carmine Agnello, a made member of the Gambino family who is awaiting trial in Cleveland, Ohio where he ran some scrap yards.  The store is currently being run by Victoria and her three sons, who were all reality stars in her show.

Agnello, now divorced from Victoria, is facing charges for his part in a stolen car ring.

The Gottis are not keeping a low profile, although that seems like the best thing to be doing in their situation. Last year a tape was played in the trial of Vincent Asaro, a Bonanno family capo.  Asaro was inside the auto parts store when one of the Gottis said hello to him.

To continue the life of crime with the Gotti name seems crazy.

Low Crime, High Profit Mafia Scam

Before the internet became an international staple with its easily available pornography, there were 1-900 phone numbers or 1-976 phone numbers set up.  Someone would dial up the toll number and reach a menu of choices.   These choices were prerecorded sexual fantasies. Later they developed to become live women or men that would talk out your sexual scenarios.  People would receive huge phone bills from their kids or others who dialed the 900-numbers from within their home.

The Gambino family was heavily involved in the phone sex racket.  In fact, they might have perpetrated the biggest consumer fraud at the time.  The mastermind behind the scheme was Richard Martino, a Made Gambino Soldier in Capo Tore Locascio’s crew.  The combined theft from phone sex which developed into internet porn was a staggering 650 million dollar haul.  This was the gross amount stolen.  Even after you subtract the operating costs for the necessities of doing business, it's still a huge amount of cash.

Richard Martino kicked up 8 million dollars alone to Locascio during his run and another 40 million to other Gambinos.  

Richard Martino and company built a web of 64 different companies to keep their scam going.  

They were hit with so many charge backs that they had to keep moving their processing banks.   They moved to offshore banks to stop Visa fraud detection from shutting them down quickly.  

They eventually bought their own bank and phone company.

Richard Martino gave a straw buyer $3 million to buy Garden City Bank in Garden City, Missouri, so they could process their own credit card payments.  

He also purchased a small telephone company, CassTel, or Cass County Telephone Company, with just 8,000 customers so they could continue their phone “Cramming” scam.

Cramming was what it was called when they would sucker consumers into using one of their now free 1-800 numbers, and then they would place a charge on the user's phone bill for voice mail services and it would be recurring. They did the same thing for their Porn websites.  They would guide people to the sites and then offer a free preview of the websites.  The catch was the user would have to have a credit card to verify their age, but the site told them they would not be charged. They would get each customer for about 90 dollars each in that scam.

They then set up another billing company they named USP&C to place these charges on customer’s bills.  USP&C had their own call center to handle customers who wanted a refund and then they were instructed to only refund less than half of the original fraudulent charge.

They stole another 9 million dollars from a Federally supervised program run by the Universal Service Administrative Co. and the National Exchange Carriers Association by grossly overbilling.

John Gotti was caught on tape praising these young soldiers in a meeting above the Ravenite Club in Little Italy.  He said he wanted more young guys like them inducted into the family.  Guys who could do more than kill.  

The whole scheme blew up, but they all pled out and Richard Martino and Tore Locascio both took pleas for 10 years. They had to give up a lot of cash (which was only a small percentage of their profit) but both are free today.

It was a very profitable crime that was pulled off without a lot of violence.  They did kidnap and beat up one worker in one of their scams that ripped off a million dollars from them, but no guns were pulled and no one died in this line of profitable mafia business.

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 last of the Old Time Gambinos

Arnold “Zeke” Squitieri and Alphonse “Funzi” Sisca go way back to the days before John Gotti was made in the Gambino Family.  They worked with Gene Gotti, Sal Ruggiero and Angelo Ruggiero selling heroin.  They were given long sentences just like Gene Gotti, so they missed most of the John Gotti mess.   Zeke was made Underboss in 1999 by John Gotti and in 2002 when Peter Gotti went away he was bumped up to Acting Boss.  Zeke was still on parole for his 1989 heroin conviction so he relied heavily on Funzi to be his eyes and ears on the street.  He would use him to pass orders to the lower ranks.  

They committed all the usual crimes that gangsters commit, like extortion of construction companies, restaurants and nightclubs.  One that I had not heard about in a long time was the illegal numbers business.  Numbers or Policy games are an illegal lottery that used to be played in poor or immigrant neighborhoods.  In Florida the Cuban version was called Bolita.

The other term policy came from old time cheap life insurance policy that was seen as a long term gamble.  To play the game a bettor would pick a three digit number and at the end of the day the operator would take the last three digits of the “Handle” the amount of the total bets at a racetrack that was published in the racing form everyday.  These Gambinos ran a numbers game up to 2005 where they took in 2k a day in bets.  

The Sportsbook they ran made them 155k just on the Superbowl one year.  This goes back to what I've written in the past about gambling being the lifeblood of the Mafia.  

They didn't stop there either.  They were stealing money from the Union and extorting trucking companies.  

Shylocking was a huge earner for them as it always made money.  It is very similar to the way today’s payday loan places operate.  As long as shylockers who call themselves payday loan businesses give the government their cut, they are free to operate.

Things were moving along and the family seemed to be recovering from the succession of Gottis that held the top spot.  Junior Gotti had not yet gone in for his proffer session. The session that he now claims he lied during.  He wants us to forget that he broke Omerta the number one rule of Cosa Nostra.  He needs to accept that he is the same as John Alite, Mikey Scars and all the rest of us.  The only problem?  All those guys built their success in the mafia themselves and were not born with a Mafia silver spoon in their mouths.

Enter Joaquin “Jack” Garcia or as he was known on the street: Jack Falcone.   In the FBI it was known as Operation Jack Falcone.  Jack was an undercover FBI Agent who posed as Sicilian drug dealer and jewel thief from Miami. It seems a bit close to the Donnie Brasco Operation but if it isn’t broken, why fix it.  Jack hooked up with Greg DePalma a long time Gambino Soldier who was a sometime Capo.  DePalma became famous in the 1970s when he and the Gambinos infiltrate the Westchester Premier Theater.  There is a famous picture that includes DePalma, Carlo Gambino, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Fratianno and others.  

DePalma liked to talk and that was good for Jack because he was a good listener.  The operation would end in 2005 when FBI supervisors shut it down.  This was after DePalma wanted to make Jack Falcone a Gambino.  

Today Alphonse Sisca is the Boss of the New Jersey Faction of the Gambino Family.  

The family is run by the Sicilians and most of the Gotti Era guys are locked up or laying low.

Joe Watts

The rule for a long time was that you had to be 100% Italian to be inducted into a Mafia Family.

The rules were changed by the Commission in the 1980’s to include those who had an Italian father.  That way, guys like John Gotti Jr. could be inducted into the Gambino family. Some of the toughest, most loyal and biggest moneymakers are the non-Italians that were close to the Mafia. One man served the Gambino family from the days of Carlo Gambino to the dark days of Junior Gotti.  The man? Joseph Watts, a German who was one of John Gotti Sr.’s most loyal men.

When John Sr. barked, it was Joe Watts that would bite.  He was so trusted that he was in on the planning and the hit of Gambino Boss Paul Castellano.  The spectacular murder took place in midtown Manhattan during rush hour.  Joe Watts was a back up shooter wearing a fur cap and trench coat.  It has been said that Joe took over Tommy Bilotti’s Shylock loans after the murder.  Joe was known as a Shylock’s Shylock who gave out huge loans.

Frederick E. Weiss ran a real estate company but his real money maker was carting.  He made a fortune with others dumping solid waste.  Frederick leased an 80 acre site known as Port Ivory on Staten Island which bordered a protected area.  He would haul asbestos and medical waste and then dump it in the landfill illegally.  It was a huge money maker that pulled in a reported 7 million dollars.   On September 11, 1989 Weiss was on trial for RICO when he walked out of his apartment towards his car at 8:30am.  The shooters were waiting for him and they opened fire killing him before he hit the ground.  Weiss had sealed his own fate when he dropped his Gambino family lawyer.  John Gotti Sr. suspected that he was cooperating with the Feds so he ordered a hit on him.  Joe Watts was given the contract and he put together a crew to carry it out.  He had guys dig a hole and they had a house set for where the murder was to take place.  Weiss was supposed to come to the house and Joe Watts was waiting in the garage with a pistol but he never showed up.  It really didn't matter because three shooters from the New Jersey DeCavalcante family murdered him the next day.  

Joe Watts ended up getting taken down in a number of cases so he was locked up for a long time.  Junior Gotti hated Joe Watts because he thought Joe had made sure he was not able to kill Daniel Marino the Gambino Capo.  Junior Gotti has a book out now, which I am sure is a self serving pile of shit.  The guy went in and flapped his mouth to the prosecutors and he still pretends he is a stand up guy.  I do not care that he is a rat but I do care that he talks bad about those that have also cooperated.  He is no different.

There is a new book out by John Alite that gives the inside details of the Gotti family and their rule over the Gambino Family.  One of the things included in the book is a word for word transcript of John Jr.’s talk he had with the Feds.  He gave up Joe Watts and Daniel Marino for a murder.  He also told the Feds about a murder his father committed.  Too bad he won't tell them where they buried the poor man who worked at Castro Convertibles.

Joe Watts never killed Weiss but he pleaded guilty to murder because it was the best deal he could get. Weiss was a Government witness who was murdered so he could not testify.  The Government wanted to send a message that they would not let anyone murder their witnesses.  Joe Watts was able to plead out to 13 years and a 250k fine.  He will be 82 years old when he gets out.

Joey D'Angelo

Joey D’Angelo Jr. grew up in the world of the Gambino Family.  He was the son of Joseph “Stymie” D’Angelo, the best friend of former Gambino Family Underboss Sammy the Bull.

He started driving Sammy around after his father was killed in a Brooklyn bar.  He became close to Sammy and even after Sammy started cooperating with the Government he remained a loyal Gambino Associate.  He was in Lou Vallario’s crew as an associate when he was sent for by John Gotti Jr.  Mikey Scars, a Gambino Capo, found him and brought him to a diner in Queens where he was paired with Mikey Yannotti to abduct and beat Curtis Sliwa, the outspoken radio host and founder of the Guardian Angels.  Joey was the driver of the stolen taxi cab that was waiting for Curtis to exit his apartment. He picked up Curtis and as soon as he was in the backseat Joey locked the doors. Then without warning an overzealous Mikey Y popped up from the front seat and ended up shooting Curtis  instead of beating him. Curtis was able to jump out of the moving cab despite being wounded.  The blunder must not have mattered much to John Gotti Jr. because in 1994 Joey D’Angelo became a made member of the Gambino Family.  He had taken part in a successful hit in Brooklyn in August of 1990 on a Gambino Associate named Edward “The Chink” Garofalo.  Joey had been one of the shooters on this hit.  The Chink was suspected of being an informant for the FBI but it is more likely Sammy just wanted his business. The Chink is the father of Eddie Garofalo, the Colombo Associate that has his wife Alicia on the show Mob Wives. The Chink was also the brother of Manny Garofalo a guy who was taken down on Mafia take down day but got no time.

Joey had come to learn the construction business but he had never actually worked a day in life. He had a series of no show jobs or job on construction sites where he sat around and read magazines.  He was later in Mikey Scars crew, who sat on the Gambino family Construction panel.  The so called construction panel was made up a few Gambino members who knew the business and knew how to make money from it.  They decided who got what jobs and how much the companies had to pay. They would also deal with the other crime families and their Unions.  This panel would bring in millions of dollars for the Gambinos.  Joey was busy picking up payments, kickbacks, making threats, extorting and if necessary committing assaults if the Gambino family needed it to keep the construction money flowing.  

I found out some new information when I was going through some of Joey’s files (court and FBI records).  Joey agreed to participate in a murder in the late 1980s for John Gotti Sr.  The target was a Colombo Family Capo named Greg Scarpa. Greg Scarpa, who was also known as “The Grim Reaper” was a tough earner who was very loyal to Carmine “The Snake” Persico.  Greg Scarpa had also been a long time FBI informant who used his government contacts to expand his power base. Scarpa was no ordinary informant, it has long been rumored that in 1964 when three civil rights workers disappeared and were murdered that the FBI put Scarpa on plane and he forced the burial information from one of the Ku Klux Klan members.  John Gotti Sr. wanted Greg Scarpa killed because he said he was a rat, which I find funny because look at what his own Underboss would do.  Fast forward and look what his own son John Jr. would do.  Maybe Gotti Sr. just wanted to get rid of Greg so he could control the Colombo Family.  Joey did sit on Greg Scarpa a few times but Gotti Sr. called off the hit.  Gotti Sr. told Gravano to let the Colombo Family handle their own business.

Joey would end up flipping in 2004 and he would help the FBI make cases on over 40 Gambino family members and associates.

The Massino Family: The Last Boss

There are five Mafia families in New York. Of the five families, only one boss was left on the street, the rest were all locked up, with “acting bosses” or panels running in their absence.  

The last one left on the street was Joey Massino, boss of the Bonanno family.  Joey Massino had been in prison when Rusty Rastelli, the previous Bonanno family boss had passed away. The captains voted him in as boss and he inherited a family that had been in constant conflict for 25 years.  The ranks had been thinned and the remaining family was about 80 made members strong.

Joey started to change things for the better right away.  He suggested that his men close the Social Clubs because they made easy targets for the FBI.  The feds could set up surveillance and watch 50 men very easily at once.  Joey’s logic was simple, if his men were scattered the FBI could not be in 50 places at once.  

He also dropped the mandatory attendance of weddings, wake and other family events for the same reason.  Then he changed the rules on being made, he wanted anyone proposed for membership be around the crew for a minimum of 8 years.  After Donnie Brasco he decided there was no way the FBI would keep a Special Agent undercover for 8 years just to be made.

Joseph Bonanno, the founder of the modern Bonanno family had written a book.  The book spoke about the Cosa Nostra and even the Commission.  Joey felt that this was huge breach of Omerta and it was an embarrassment.  Joey changed the family name internally to the Massino Family.  He then started building up the family after so many years of neglect.  Each family was allowed to fill positions of those who had died and they were also allowed 10 new members a year. A list would be passed among the families of those proposed. The family would swell to 190 made members and 17 capos with people in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Canada.

Joey decided to break up his Massino family, so he put Sal Vitale in charge of so many capos, TG aka Anthony Graziano in charge of others and Tony Green Urso in charge of the rest.  He made this move for a number of reasons, but a main reason was that his brother-in-law, Sal Vitale, and John Gotti had plotted to get rid of him and take over the family in 1993.  Joey has stated that it was a good thing John Gotti had been away when he got home or he would not be on the stand testifying.

Joey called a meeting of the heads of the 5 families in the year 2000 and told the men to only come if they could make decisions.  Louie Bagels attended from the Lucchese Family, Joe Waverly came representing the Colombos, Peter Gotti came for the Gambinos and Skinny Larry attended for the Genovese.  They were to set important policy for the mafia across the country. They wanted guys who came home from prison to have to wait 10 years before they could be made.  They didn't want guys who took drug beefs still doing the same thing in the families.  They finally settled on a 5 year waiting period.  He told the other families at the meeting that the Massino family would only be inducting full-blooded Italians.  That was the only big meeting of all the five families while Joey was the boss.  

Early January 2003 Joey could see that the FBI was all over him.  They watched him day and night.  No matter where he went they followed him and they had guys outside of his house all night.  He knew that they were going to arrest him.  He knew that they had gotten his accountant to turn over all his records.  The noose was tightening, so on January 7 he slipped the FBI and met Bruno and Vinny Basciano at a diner close to his house.  There he told them he was going away and that he was leaving a panel to run the family.  He had found out from a lawyer on New Years’ Eve that Frank Coppa had flipped so he knew he was finished.  Vinny wanted to kill Sal Vitale before he was arrested, but Joey squashed it.  On January 9th the FBI came and took Joey away.  He asked them if they had gotten Sal and they said yes.  Joey knew that it was over and soon he found out how many guys had flipped on him.  It would turn out to be 7 guys who flipped on him, including his brother-in-law Sal Vitale.   

In January of 2004 the FBI came down with another massive indictment and took down the Bonanno family’s panel.   Joey sat through the trial where all his closest friends testified against him and he was convicted and facing life.  It was then he learned that the Feds were putting together a death penalty case against him for the murder of George from Canada. They said it was because George had accused TG Graziano of being on cocaine but it was because he murdered a wiseguy’s son in Canada.

Joey decided to flip but not until he saw what happened with the trial.  He was in his 70’s at the time, and he learned that the FBI was going to go after his wife.  He had married Josephine Vitale in 1960 and he had worked hard first in a factory and then on a food truck to provide for her.   He had built up his food truck business branching out to stocking other peoples trucks.  He had a deli and a catering business and he had saved this cash.  He had won the lotto 4 times and put that money away.  He had invested heavily in real estate for his family.  The FBI was going after his wife for money laundering.  The Bonannos had stopped giving him money from his book and shylock on the street.  Vincent Basciano had made himself acting boss and told people that the Commission okayed it.  Vinny took Joey’s money guys and placed them in his crew.  He made guys and broke and promoted Capos.  Then he had Randy Pizzola killed to show people he was boss.  The Genovese wanted to kill Vinny because they said he was like John Gotti in his suits but Joey told them no.  Joey went to a proffer with Edward McDonald as his shadow council. When the Government decided against the death penalty he started wearing a wire.

Vinny Basciano now locked up with him and was running his mouth.  He had made Michael Mancuso the acting boss but the rest of the family wanted to hear from Joey.  The Family was split into factions again.   Then it came out that Joey had flipped, the first official boss in the Cosa Nostra to flip and wear a wire.  Josephine gave the FBI 7 million in cash, over 500 gold bars and 5 properties to satisfy the forfeiture judgement against him.  She was allowed to keep 6 properties including her home, his mother’s house and four rental properties.  The rentals gave his wife an income of 270k a year.  

Joey would be sentenced to time served in 2013.

Mob Wives just announced a new cast member by the name of Natalie DiDonato, from Philadelphia.  Could she be related to Andrew DiDonato?

Andrew DiDonato: Surviving the Mob

Big Joey Massino (Part I)

Joey Massino went on record with Rusty Rastelli, the boss of the Bonanno family in 1973, and Rusty put him in for induction when he opened the books in 1975 after 19 years of remaining closed.  Joey passed because he felt he didn't need it at the time.  Joey had been involved in killing a Family associate named Tommy Zummo.  The killing had not been authorized, Joey had done what is known as “Cop A Sneak” a killing not okayed by the family.  Rusty would have killed him if he found out that Joey had done the hit.  Instead, Rusty thought highly of him. So, on June 14, 1977 he was inducted into the Bonanno Family in a bar along with some others.  Carmine Galante, the acting boss, Stevie Beef the Consigliere, Nicky Glasses, Capo and Al Walker ran the ceremony.  Those along with Joey to be made that day were Joe Chili, Joe Indelicato, Anthony Spero and Manny from the Bronx.    

Joey was soon back to work after the Boss of the Gambino Family, Paul Castellano, asked the Bonanno boss for a favor.  Paul’s daughter had been dating a man named Vito Borelli and Vito had been going around talk bad about Paul.  The Gambinos were having trouble setting him up for a hit so Paul reached out for Rusty for help.  Joey ended up helping the shooter, John Gotti, take him out.  This helped him become even closer to the Gottis during their reign.  He was also highjacking cargo out of JFK and he did well at that.  

One of his arrests came after he and his crew had taken a truck and they were driving it down the street.  Joey was following behind it when he saw an FBI Agent following the truck.  Joey pulled up next to up to the truck and told them the FBI was behind them.  Joey was recognized by the FBI and he was arrested.  Joey’s defense in the trial was simple: the truck had cut him off and he was yelling at the men.  The jury bought his story and he was found not guilty.

One of the most storied hits in the Mafia is the shooting of Carmine Galante in the rear of Joe and Mary’s Italian restaurant.  The picture of Carmine dead with a cigar clenched in his teeth is a classic.  Carmine was made acting boss while Rusty was away but it went to his head.  He stopped listening to Rusty’s directions and started making his own moves.  He angered the other families and the Commission with his actions.  Carmine felt safe because he had imported a bunch of Sicilians or “Zips” but he thought wrong.  The Zips sided with Rusty.  Cesare Bonventre, one of his bodyguards, turned on him during the hit.   Cesare was made a Capo after the hit but he would not last long.  

Joey had gone into hiding in Pennsylvania because the FBI had built a case on him.  While he was there, Rusty sent word that he was going to kill Cesare and Baldo Amato.  Joey went to bat for Baldo because he was listening to his Capo and doing what he was told.  Cesare was another story, he had been shaking down drug dealers but he forgot to kick up the cash.  Cesare had taken 10-15 kilos of heroin from Anthony Aiello Sr (roughly 600k) and he had not kicked up a cent.  Anthony was friends with Rusty and told him what went down, so Rusty sent for Cesare.  Cesare came to the meeting at Marty Rastelli’s home with John Ligamatti, another Capo.  Rusty questioned Cesare and Cesare denied it.  He turned to John and said, “Come on, lets go.” That is the type of attitude you cannot use when dealing with the Boss of the family.  And that is why Cesare was found in two 55 gallon drums in a warehouse.  

Joey turned himself in rather than staying low, and he got a short sentence. But, in 1986 while he was away, Rusty died.  He was voted in as boss while he was still away.   He made Sal Vitale, his brother-in-law, his underboss but he ran the family most of the time by panel.  Joey started closing the social clubs.  He also made it a rule that you had to be a full Italian to be made, and he also required that a guy be around them for 8 years before he could be proposed to be made.  Everyone was forbidden to mention his name, you instead had to tug your ear.  He told guys they no longer had to go to weddings and wakes, it was up to them.  He built the family back up and he had 17 Capos that reported to Sal Vitale, Tony Green and TG  Graziano.

 

He got about 4k a month from his Capos.  They had a book that he and Sal Vitale split.  Joey and Sal also 500k in Shylock cash on the street that they made a couple grand a week from.  He got 30k a year from the Feast Of San Gennaro because a Bonanno was the president of the Feast.  If anyone wanted a good booth or lights they had to pay.  The family had a Baccarat game they split with the Gambinos for the last 60 years that was held in coffee shops from November through mid-January.  Everyday at noon all the coffee shops would close and the one that was open hosted the game.  For a while he was getting 10k a month from a trucking company at JFK until changing times caught up and it dropped to 800 a month.  Every year at Christmas he got about 160k from his Capos, so Joey Massino was doing pretty well.  He used to meet Capos in the “weeds” in Queens, a street that had weeds on it. The FBI was playing catch up until it all came down.   Next week more on Joey Massino.