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.

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.