The Edcia Saga

Edcia was a company formed by “Mob Wives” Alicia Garofalo and Debra Specchio and operated under the name Big R Trucking.  It was listed the office at the same address as a porn company and later had its trucks at the Bonafide yard in Brooklyn. On February 11, 2005, Edcia filed an application for an exemption from licensing and a trade waste registration with the City of New York Business Integrity Commission.

If you look at the name you can see where they came up with Edcia.  Eddie and Alicia.

Debra Specchio is the wife of Steve Marcus who would later wear a wire against Eddie and the Persicos.  Steve was caught on tape by me and the FBI was able to go up on their phones.  Steve was confronted by the FBI and they made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Steve joined Team USA.  

On August 18, 2006, the Commission issued a 15-page recommendation that the application be denied.

Eddie and Steve Marcus were already doing business all over New York and parts of New Jersey.  

One of the reasons the Commission denied the company and exemption was Eddie’s friendship with Teddy Persico Jr.  Teddy was released from prison on April 28, 2004 after 16 years for dealing cocaine.  Eddie knew full well what Teddy was going to do when he got out.  Eddie arranged Teddy’s limo ride home. Eddie knew Teddy was going to eat at a restaurant in the city with other Colombos.  Eddie was supposed to keep Teddy out of trouble while he got acclimated to being free.  Eddie knew Teddy most of his life and after Eddie’s father was killed Teddy stepped up for him so he could make a living.  Eddie knew without a doubt that Teddy was in the Colombo family.  

Eddie was recorded by the Commission telling them he knew Teddy all his life and they were friends and that he did believe he was what they claimed.  The Commission used the tape I made in Eddie’s truck with Teddy yelling about Craig Marino and his brother Carmine having dirty bullets in his gun.

Eddie also claimed to the Commission that he was helping out Teddy because he had no family and his father was in prison.  Really?  Danny, Sean, Carmine and all the cousins?  

May 27, 2004 a month after Persico’s release and during the same time period Persico possessed the gun charged in the indictment, Persico incorporated T&E Leasing Corp. (“T&E”) which is for Teddy and Eddie.  Eddie had him buy some trucks and then lease them to him so he had something to show money coming in monthly.

Eddie told the Commission that he did not know Teddy was a member of Organized Crime until he got Teddy’s indictment from his brother and he read about Teddy.  

Even after Teddy took the plea deal Eddie still would not believe he was a Colombo.

The biggest farce is that Michael Persico loaned Eddie the money to start Edcia on a handshake and promise. Don’t most people get 100k on just a handshake from the boss of the Colombo family's son?  He had to go back and ask Michael for an extra 50k.

Eddie worked for Edcia for free and did not take a salary.  I wonder how he paid for his gambling and vacations?  He told the Commission that he was his wife’s “fire man,” “If there is a fire, I go put it out.”

Eddie is now free and back with his family.  Teddy is locked up and Michael is still awaiting sentencing.   He and his wife sure got off easy.

Lucchese Crime Family's New Jersey faction

Away from the mess that is New York, the New Jersey faction of the Lucchese family has been able to get some pretty good money making ventures going.  

Nicky Scarfo Jr. and his crew infiltrated a mortgage company and stole millions.  I think Nicky Jr. is down for the count this time. Who can tell because strange things happen in the mafia world these days.  

I hear that a certain spouse of a Mob Wives personality is free at home.  The strange thing is he no longer shows up on the BOP search.  They still have dead guys like Greg Scarpa, so this is strange.  Today guys get busted and there is no case and yet their partners go down.  You would have to be crazy to work with anyone today.  There was a murder on Staten Island last week which may be something, or not.

This is why I am writing about Ralph Perna Sr. and his three sons.  Ralph was a top capo that stepped in for Nicky Scarfo and was in control of a ultra lucrative bookmaking operation.  The operation pulled in 2.2 billion in bets.  Even if they were stupid, somebody took vig in the neighborhood of 220 million.  The State and Feds have not announced any huge seizures of cash.  

Ralph Sr., Joseph Perna and John Perna each plead guilty to first degree racketeering, gambling and money laundering charges in June.  

They were part of a massive bust that took down 34 of their co-conspirators including some Blood Gang members in 2010.  Ralph Perna Jr. still has his charges pending at this time.  

Ralph Sr. will get 8 years while Joseph will get 10 years, but the charges against his wife were dropped.  John Perna was given 10 years also but all of them will be eligible for parole after serving half their time.  

They got a pretty sweet deal considering who they are and what they were charged with by the state.  

Their lawyers were able to get the judge to remove all references to violence from their pre sentencing reports.  Even the wiretap evidence of them making threats to collect debts had to be dropped because it was not in the plea deal.  

The Bloods Gang and Joseph Perna stuff had to be taken out because he did not plea to helping them smuggle cell phones and drugs into a prison.

There are still 20 others awaiting their time in court on this case.  The case has gone on so long that 3 men have died in the time since they were taken down.

This seems like a huge waste of New Jersey’s time.  They have casinos in the state and Lotto.  Nobody is ever forced to place a bet with a bookmaker.  Why do all the games have odds if they do not want you to bet?

The Check Cashing Murder

The TV Show Mob Wives is like watching a train wreck, and like a wreck, people watch it.  It may have a gotten a Gambino associate beaten up in prison.  It seems his prison mates didn't like what they were hearing about his wife being on Mob Wives.  Never mind that it not been confirmed.  What about Ramona Rizzo’s fiance Joseph Sclafani a Gambino who got 18 years?

Then we have Alicia DiMichele aka Garafalo, the wife of Eddie Garofalo.  She was the person who helped Eddie and Teddy dummy up Union papers, yet she got no time inside, unlike the two men.

Then we have Renee Graziano’s former husband Hector Pagan.  Hector, the great upstanding guy that he was on Staten Island, took part in the robbery of a man named James Donovan. James ran a shady check cashing business.  Hector not only took part in the robbery he is the person who fired a fatal shot into James Donovan’s thigh.  The crew was waiting in ambush outside an Auto Body shop for hours waiting for James Donovan to show up with a large sum of cash.  Hector Pagan not only killed the man, he also wore a wire on his father-in-law Anthony “TG” Graziano, a high ranking Bonanno Family man.  Hector then testified against the two guys in the crew that went with him on the robbery.  I guess it worked out pretty good for Hector Pagan, who made a deal and will have to serve very little time if any.

Who was James Donovan? James Donovan was no angel.  He is listed as a Lucchese Family associate.  He was arrested for threatening a man named John Ferris who claimed he gave James Donovan and Christopher Gargiulo $500,000 to hold for him.  When he asked for it back they refused and they threatened him.  What they did not know was that a little known law enforcement agency known as the Business Integrity Commission was already involved.  There were threats.  Cars and trucks were burned and in 2008 all three men, John, James and Christopher, were all arrested. When James Donovan was arrested they found $62,000 in cash and a ledger book along with checks and deposit slip from auto body businesses.  

This really got the  Business Integrity Commission’s attention and they opened an investigation on James Donovan.  They started to unravel what was a major source of his income.

The agents thought James Donovan was collecting insurance checks from the auto body shops, cashing them for a fee.  He would hand over cash with no paperwork so the shops could hide it from the taxman.  

The agents found that James Donovan was cashing more than a million dollars a year in checks and he was taking home over a $100k.  He was using his connection with check cashing places to get the checks cashed for the auto body shops, and keeping a portion as cash profit.

The law enforcement named the sting Operation Tax Grab.  Then something happened.  The agents had a camera set up that was filming James Donovan outside an auto body shop when four men approached him on July 2, 2010.  They tried to grab him, but he struggled and was shot in the thigh. They stole $90k in cash and $60k in checks from him as they fled and left him to die.  

The agents collected cigarette butts from the scene and were able to extract DNA, but the DNA was not in the system.  They then caught a break when some of the stolen checks were deposited in a bank and that camera picked up a suspect.  While he was in jail he made some calls to a Colombo family guy and then some wiretaps brought them to Hector Pagan, Richard Riccardi and Luigi Grasso.

So Hector Pagan flipped and wore a wire when he was on Mob Wives.

To each his own. If Hector got a good deal then that is what he had to do.  James Donovan was no innocent businessman and if you lay down with dogs you will get fleas.

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

Recent Mafia Headlines

There was a lot of Mafia news in New York this week. A couple of the stories were funny and one of the best headlines was, “Canoli King sexually harassed waitress: Suit.”

That is correct, Reputed Gambino “Baby John” Delutro, owner of Cafe Palermo in Little Italy (where one can get the best Canoli in the US) has been sued by a former waitress.

Baby John is the son of Tony West Delutro, a respected Gambino Family man.  Baby John was busted back in 1984 for dealing drugs, and he was still on paper when he met with an informant who was wearing a wire.  Baby John was trying to negotiate the purchase of 50 Kilos of Cocaine and 50 Kilos of Heroin.  There were drug sales in Little Italy and other tapes were made, like when he spoke to the informant, telling him "I can only take 3 Kilos right now, my friends are fat from the feast".  He was talking about a big buy he and his gangster buddies bought during the Feast of San Gennero.   Baby John, what a guy!

In other headlines, Alicia Garofalo, who quit the reality show “Mob Wives” after finding out the judge does not find her reality stardom funny.    They keep talking about her crimes in the show like it is no big deal.  She stole money from hard working Union Members, their health and pension.  I was around Eddie Garofalo a lot and trust me he was no genius. In fact, the guy wrote like a 3rd grader.  She has claimed that she had no idea what was going on.  Really? The FBI has tapes of her.  In fact, she pleaded guilty to the charges before she took back her plea.

I can tell you this: her brother (who is in pictures with her going to court) knew what Eddie was about.  He was around a number of functions when I was around.  She goes on “Mob Wives” talking about how she had no idea about the criminal activity, and then talking about Eddie's dad being killed.  I did some work with a Tele Communication's company on Maiden Lane.  Eddie got about 500k from the guy who ran it and he started his trucking business.  The business had guys like Wild Bill Cutolo, George Tropiano, John Baudanza and Manny Garofalo involved.  Big R trucking was run out of Eddie's cousin’s porno business in Brooklyn with the trucks run out of the Bonafide Fuel truck lot in downtown Brooklyn.  Big R is named after Eddie and Alicia's son, and it moved to a Staten Island truck lot owned by his cousin Eddie G, a Gambino man who is locked away for life.

Big R was also a lot of other companies and he had a heavy equipment company called T and E as in Teddy and Eddie. That is right Teddy Persico was a part of the business and he was there a lot!  Yes Alicia is just a woman who has been duped into thinking her man was just a truck driving schlub who works hard.  Nevermind their home in Cherry Hill, the elaborate vacations or Eddie’s huge gambling problem.  He has pictures of himself with all these huge checks from casinos all over.  The problem?  Those pictures are of the times he won, and anyone who knows gamblers knows they lose more often than they win.

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Eddie had also been arrested before by the FBI for Pump and Dump stuff he did with others.  He went on the lam running to Las Vegas and as far as La Jolla, California, until he felt he would not go away for long.  Then there is his Uncle Manny, his father’s brother.  That man has been arrested with the “Who's Who” of the Mafia and yet now, miraculously, he gets no time?

Alicia took back her plea just this last week because the judge wanted her to pay for restitution because the Union is claiming a much larger loss.  The judge and prosecutors did not like that she lived it up on “Mob Wives” glamorizing the Mafia life.  She wanted Eddie to testify for her at her sentencing, yet she cheated on him?  She has stated that she is getting a divorce?  If she was not gaining from being around the Mafia why is she on TV, getting paid 8k an episode!

There was also Colombo news this week because a judge hit Dino "Little Dino" Saracino with a 50 year sentence for his part in the racketeering case that took out many Colombos.   Little Dino was part of Capo Tommy Gioli's crew, and he killed for him.  He walked on the biggest charges like killing NYPD Cop Ralph Dols or Wild Bill Cutolo, but he was convicted of enough.  It didn't help that he bragged to a wired up informant that he could do 17 years of a 20 year sentence and come out with a smile.

The judge gave him 50 years and this time, he wasn't smiling.  He killed real people.  He is no hero, and he could ease the pain of his victim’s relatives.  He is done.  Why not tell the family of victim Carmine Gargano where his body is hidden?

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.

Reality vs. Fiction: Mob City's Mickey Cohen vs. Today's Colombo Family

Hollywood never tires of making movies about the Mafia.  The problem is they don’t know the way it works.  So they claim they are telling true stories, yet they make up the facts.  Every person from the writer to the studios has to put their spin on it, throw in their ideas of how it may have happened, yet not one of them knows a thing about the life or bothers to talk to anyone who actually does.  They do research by reading books written by people who also don’t know anything.  They “learn” by watching other poorly done movies.  Or, they might even speak to a copper, who knows very little about the whole story.  Once in awhile, they might find some old guy who was somehow “part of the life” in a farfetched stretch of reality, for example their “insider” was maybe a bartender at a watering hole a few mobsters frequented.

Reality Vs Fiction: MOBCITY

This is what they say about the show. “Mob City is a television series created by Frank Darabont for TNT. It is based on real-life accounts of the L.A.P.D. and gangsters in 1940s Los Angeles as chronicled in the book L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City by John Buntin.”  

I see billboards all over the city calling Mickey Cohen the “Godfather of LA”.  That is an incredible feat for a one-time “Never Contender” Boxer who was not part of any organization but his own.  They will continue to credit him with murders that real Gangsters from the Dragna Family, The Outfit and other families back East committed.  The Cosa Nostra Family, that at Mickey Cohen’s time was headed by Jack Dragna, was already 50 years old by the time of Cohen’s run as LA's “Newspaper Gangster.”

Mickey Cohen (the little guy) and his "bodyguard" who was also conveniently a California Highway Patrol Officer

Yes, Mickey was a tough guy and he did shoot a guy in his wire room off La Brea.  But, he never killed one guy in the Dragna Family.  During the time of his so-called reign as the Godfather of LA, the Dragna Family had over 60 inducted members.  Mickey Cohen was a Bookmaker.  The Dragna Family had huge shylock loans all over the city, they also had their own wire rooms.  Dragna himself had his office downtown in the produce area, where he imported bananas and other fruit.  He had at least two freighters that came up from South America.  Now who here thinks all they brought from South America was fruit?  

Mickey Cohen in a hospital bed after being shot by Dragna's men.  LA's first Reality TV mobster seen here talking to reporters and police.

Many others in La Cosa Nostra were also in the importing business.  They ran the garment district because Tommy Lucchese, a relative of Dragna, was huge in the Garment Unions.  The Chicago Outfit was big in LA because they ran the Unions that extorted the Studios.  

The control of Unions in Hollywood still was going on in the 1980's.  I knew a guy who was the head of the Projectionist Union and they were important because no movie could be shown at a theatre unless a Union guy was in the booth.  This all changed with Digital because there is no need to change film reels.

I love how they get cops to tell us how Mobsters act.  They only know what they hear by rumor.  They were never in a crew, never inside.  It is like those talking heads on those TV show “documentaries” on gangsters that say things like Carmine Persico was a ruthless guy who only wanted power.  Yet they never met Carmine, or any made guy for that matter.  They read about it in books written by others who did not know, from their safe office.

Los Angeles was never an "Open" city for the Cosa Nostra.  It always had a family, since before 1900.  The rules of Cosa Nostra as set forth by the formation of the Commission in 1931 are that every family is equal.  That means no family can come into another family’s area and just set up shop.  When New York came to Los Angeles, they made arrangements with Jack Dragna.  When the Chicago Outfit came and did their extortion of the Movie Studios, they gave the LA Family a piece.  They let them in on their Wire service when they brought it to Los Angeles. People have to understand how the Cosa Nostra works. Lets say guys from The Patriarca Family came to Los Angeles to open up a porn studio.  They would clear it with LA and give them a small piece.  LA would not expect a large share unless they used their people as enforcers or workers.

In 1957 Mickey Cohen was on TV being interview by Mike Wallace.  Now what kind of Gangster would do that?  All Mickey was doing is living off his past exploits. In 1957 The Commission met in up State New York at the home of mobster Joseph Barbara in Apalachin, New York on November 14, 1957.  Over 58 Made Guys were arrested but not one from the so-called Jewish Mafia. Los Angeles was represented by the REAL BOSS Frank DeSimone and his Underboss Sam Scozzari.  Why were there no other guys from other ethnic groups?  Only Italians were inducted into families and many are related.  

Mickey Cohen died broke in a little one bedroom apartment.  The families of the LA Family owned huge garment center businesses, trucking firms, wineries, vast tracts of land in what is now Ontario California, Apartment buildings etc.

Reality TV meets real life.  Mob Wives has a new cast member Alicia DiMichele Garofalo and her claim to fame?  She is the wife of Edward Garafalo Jr aka Eddie, whose father was murdered by Sammy Gravano (because Sammy was greedy).  Eddie Garofalo Jr ran his Big R Trucking and Equipment (T&E), and another trucking business, from a truck yard in Staten Island that used to be owned by his cousin Eddie Garafola, a Made Gambino guy and a relative of Sammy Gravano.  He ran it before out of a yard in Downtown Brooklyn.  I started wearing a wire and taping Eddie when he was still at the fuel oil lot in Brooklyn.  I even drew the FBI a layout where they would talk about important things.  Eddie is a big guy.  Mostly, a fat guy.  And yes, just like all big guys he likes to push around guys who are smaller.  He would fight guys who were smaller with no skill. 

Fat Eddie and Alicia.  Eddie introduced me to people as his cousin, and you can see here why people may have believed him.

 Yesterday, Eddie was sentenced by a Federal Judge for his crimes, which included ripping off the Union for employee benefits, things like health insurance and retirement.  Alicia used to help him, so she was also charged and has plead guilty. Big R trucking was named after their child.  

Eddie also plead out to a murder conspiracy.  I was there with the wire running. Eddie egged the whole thing on and he is the one who brought it up in front of Teddy Persico Jr.  Yet when we got to Teddy’s mothers house to pick up "the gear" aka guns, Eddie had to run inside to use the bathroom. After they handed out their really crappy "gear," and all I had was a knife, Eddie told me to duck if they started shooting.  Once we were at the spot, the Cops and paramedics were also there. Then Eddie Uncle Manny drove by and stopped. Strange.  Today the headlines in the New York Daily News read:

“Mafioso husband of 'Mob Wives' star sent to prison for 7 years in extortion case.”  They called him “Reputed Colombo enforcer Edward (Tall Guy) Garofalo, Jr.”  Now that is a strech, according to a number of my friends who knew them when they were all young.  And I quote " If the Colombos needed an enforcer, Eddie Garofolo is the last guy they would call."  End Quote.  

People around him felt sorry for him because his father was killed by Sammy the Bull for no reason, and he didn’t do anything in retaliation.  Not that he could do anything.  

Now Eddie is going to be calling in on the reality show from prison.  I wonder what Teddy Persico, his Capo, thinks about that?  Just like the real mafia guys in LA would never have been on TV like Mickey Cohen, every mob guy knows mob guys don’t go on TV.  It’s a secret society.

To top it all off, according to the New York Post, Eddie’s Wife Alicia has been carrying on a 3 year affair with a married restaurateur. That is how she thanks her husband, after he plead out so that she would get no time.

Do we see a rule 35 hearing coming up in the future?

For more details on the affair, click here.

That is the real Mafia, full of honor.  

Eddie's Uncle Manny, today a free man.  He received zero jail time from the judge, even though he plead guilty and had plenty of clear evidence stacked against him.  Makes you wonder why they let him off...???