Bill Ferrante

I have been asked if Louis Ferrante is related to Bill “The Crusher” Ferrante.  The answer is No.

In the 1990’s I was hanging around Jerry Zimmerman, who was a close friend of both Bill Ferrante and Sonny Franzese.  Jerry was a huge man and one of the best con men that ever lived. I called him the gentle giant.  The name Sonny Franzese is thrown around by many people.  I never met him in person, only spoke to him on the phone.  Most of the people who drop his name have never laid eyes on the man.  

Back in the days I was hanging with Jerry, I was working as a criminal also and I was known as one of the people who could get x rated movies made.  Porn was an outlet we used to launder money from other crimes.

My “work” brought me to the right place at the right time, because Jerry and Bill decided to become partners in a wholesale porn warehouse. I was on parole at the time and my parole officer was on me about getting a job.  So when I was chosen to go to Fort Lauderdale by Jerry to meet his partner Bill, I was really happy.  It was a great way for me to get out of town and out of sight.

I met Bill and we hit it off immediately. Only a select few of us were allowed to call Bill “Billy,” including Jerry Zimmerman and Sonny and Michael Franzese. I also met Billy's younger sister Gina, who was the widow of Vinny Lynch.  Vinny was a bank robber and a suspect in over a dozen murders.

I would get to the porno warehouse early everyday before Bill or Gina arrived. I answered the phones a lot and more than a few times it was Sonny calling.  He often called not only to speak to Bill but to speak to Gina also.  Sonny and Gina were close and had been since the 1970s.  I quickly discovered Sonny and Gina had a long off-and-on relationship.  Bill never bragged or spoke about his criminal activity.  If anything, he played it down.  He is 30 years older than me and had quite a record.  Bill Ferrante, also known as “The Crusher” and his partner Vinny, aka “The Butcher” (not to be confused with Vinny Lynch the bank robber) were in Michael Franzese’s innermost circle. They were the two main enforcers for Michael during the gasoline scam. Bill had gas stations all the way from Long Island down to Florida.

Bill and Vinny (The Crusher and The Butcher) were partners involved with a multi million dollar counterfeit scheme that also included stolen bearer bonds. They were so slick that the agents from the secret service tried to infiltrate them. The undercover secret service guys went along on some of their deliveries. They met with the crusher and the butcher and gave them a downpayment of $10k on some paper and when they returned they were busted.  They were both given the maximum sentence that the judge could give them.  Immediately upon their release both men resumed their roles with Michael.

Soon Michael and his whole crew were in the gas business. To this day, the gasoline scam was the largest money maker in organized crime history. For years everyone was flying high.  The pressure became too much and a player in gas business, Larry Lorizzo, decided to flip in 1986. That was all the government needed, and they started falling like dominos. They started rolling up the whole operation and nobody was safe.  Most of the Russian criminals who had worked alongside them in the gas business also plead guilty.  

Bill was soon indicted by the state of Florida.  To make it worse, he was already out on $250k bond from the feds.  While in the Dade County jail he hired Jayne Weintraub and she represented him in his state RICO trial.  

One day during the trial everyone was asked to evacuate the courthouse. They all thought it was a bomb scare. When they all came back to the courtroom there was Larry Lorizzo in the witness box.  All 500 pounds of him.  He was sitting there surrounded by marshalls, ready to testify how Bill was part of the Colombo family, a collector for Sonny, and Michael’s enforcer.  A lot of guys testified against Bill in his state RICO trial in which he was facing 30 years.  Could it be a surprise that he got convicted? Bill was off to prison, once again, to do his time.  Bill hired Stanley Neustader to represent him on his appeal. 2 ½ years later  Neustader won Bill’s appeal. The Feds could not try him because the state found him guilty.

Michael Franzese never testified against Bill. Bill found out Michael became an informer while he was in prison.  One thing I must say about Billy, he is a stand up guy.  I miss him, his sister Gina and my late friend Jerry Zimmerman. Don’t ever think for a moment that Bill is related to that other Ferrante guy on TV who claims to be a former gangster (Louis Ferrante). I never met Sonny in person, only over the phone.

Anthony Dilapi

Anthony Dilapi

Most people in Los Angeles have never heard of Anthony Dilapi.  When he was killed nobody had any idea why he was killed.

Dilapi was 53 years old and worked as a used car salesman while living just off Sunset Blvd in Hollywood.  Anthony had moved to Los Angeles from New York to start over just like so many others before him.  Anthony had a secret that not many knew, he was a soldier in the Lucchese Family.  Anthony had been a well respected earner in the New York Garment Center for the Lucchese Family.  

The old Lucchese Family under Tommy Lucchese specialized in Unions and labor racketeering.  The next crop of leaders learned their job well under Tommy and they controlled a vast empire in the Garment Center.  Anthony Corallo aka Tony Ducks knew what a man like Anthony Dilapi was worth.  Anthony was the kind of guy he wanted in his family.   Times changed in the world of the Mafia in the 1980's when the FBI stepped up their war and the US Attorneys learned how to use the RICO Act to crush the families.  Tony Ducks was caught up in the Commission case thanks to an FBI bug in Salvatore Avellino's Jaguar, which he used to chauffeur Tony Ducks around a couple of times a week.  

Gaspipe

Tony Ducks knew he would be convicted in the case so in order to keep the family going he appointed a new boss before he was locked up.  In 1986 he appointed Anthony Luongo as acting boss, but he soon disappeared and most think the powerful Capo Victor Amuso was behind it.  

Victor Amuso, known as Vic, was a heroin dealer who back in 1977 had been caught with 3 pounds of the drugs alongside his best friend Anthony Casso, who was also known as Gaspipe, or Gas.  He was known as Gaspipe because his father used to install gaspipes in homes so people could get free natural gas from the city that wasn’t metered.  His, son, who helped him, became known as Gaspipe, a name which he hated.  In reality, he should have just been known as “pipe” because for years, the word on the street was that he was smoking crack.  To demonstrate how crazy Gaspipe was, while locked up he tried to bribe a guard to help him escape, and when that failed, he then put together a team that was going to attack the transport van taking him to court and his idea was for his guys to murder all the guards in the van with him.  When the other families caught wind of his plan, they put a stop to it immediately, they could not accept the amount of heat this would draw to all the crime families.  

This type of character was not the kind of soldier that Tommy Lucchese had in mind to lead the family into the new century, but this was what they had to work with after the FBI took down the leadership.  These two cavemen did not respect or understand the Union racketeers, they wanted to work the street rackets and bring the family power base to Brooklyn.  

Anthony Dilapi was a power in the Garment Center who worked with Tommy Gambino who had married Tommy Lucchese's daughter and took over the Garment Center with his trucking and Union activities.  Dilapi made cash but in 1980 he received two 5 years sentences for labor racketeering and by the time he was released things had changed.  Dilapi was from the powerful Bronx based Lucchese Crew and Vic and Gaspipe did not like or trust them.  Dilapi was summoned to a meeting with with Vic and Gas but he knew that they were on a killing spree so he never went.  Anthony then picked up and left for Los Angeles where he intended to start a new life free of crime.  He just left and he was good at being secretive but that would not be enough.

Vic and Gas were petty vindictive guys who would go to extraordinary lengths to make a point and teach a lesson.  They also had a secret weapon, two NYPD Detectives on their payroll Louie Eppolito and Stephan Caracappa.  These two were tasked with the search for Anthony Dilapi and they searched all over for him.  They called other departments and did computer searches using their positions as Detectives.  You have to wonder why was it so important to Vic And Gas to get him. They were really into showing the others in the family they were in charge and had zero tolerance for subversion.  The two Detectives soon found out that Anthony Dilapi was living in an apartment off Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. 

They summoned Little Al D'Arco who gave the contract to his son.  They went out to Los Angeles and stayed with a porn producer that was close to the family.  This guy was the son of a well respected Lucchese soldier who had been shot and left for dead in New York.  He survived and was sent to live in Los Angeles where he had a duplication lab for porno.  The hit team stayed at his house and the pistol was sent to him via UPS.

They stalked Anthony Dilapi and on the afternoon of February 4th with the backdrop of a little rainfall in Los Angeles, Anthony walked into the darkness of his underground garage.  A masked gunman who was waiting jumped out and shot him in the face 4 times and then the body four more times.  He left the pistol and took off back to the porn guys home. LAPD had the pistol but they never charged anyone with the murder even though everyone knew who did it.  When Little Al D'Arco flipped he made the deal for his son so the FBI never went after him for murder.  They could have gone after the porn guy.  Now that the Mafia Cops story is known why haven't they gone after the porn guy?  Oh I hear they lost the pistol.

Today, both Vic and Gas are locked up for life for racketeering.  One last note: Gas became what he most despised: a rat.  Unlike the rest of the guys who flipped, he could not ever tell the truth so he was never given any consideration or a reduced sentence.

Danny Cutaia

I have written a lot about John Baudanza and people always want to know more.

John married a girl named Danielle Cutaia who had a father who was a Capo in the Luchese family.

Dominico "Danny" Cutaia

Domenico Cutaia aka Danny had come up in the Luchese family under the legendary Capo Paul Vario who will forever be known as Paulie from Goodfellas.  Paul Vario was a real gangster who had a vast criminal empire that even brought him to California where he had his hands in a porn business and a card club.  Danny was his trusty driver and served him well. So Paul did right by him and he was made into the family.  I’ve spoken to a few guys and they have no idea how or why he was made.  He was made and later he was made a Capo and he even served on the panel that ran the family.  Danny was a bookmaker and he had some scams, cash on the street, shylock but what did he do?   This was a question I asked some guys from Brooklyn and they had no idea.  They said either he was really good and had it going on or he was doing nothing.   Danny liked to drink and he used to be at  Turquoise in Bayridge getting his drink on while John Baudanza kissed his ass.   To be fair to Danny he had guys who brought in cash like Robert Arena, John Baudanza and his son Sal who was a bookmaker.  He was also close to some very rich legitimate guys.

One night I went out with John Baudanza, his buddy Nicky, Dayton, Belladonna and Keith (Eddie Garafolo's cousin). We were in the city and we hit a few clubs and while at one John had a little problem, so Nicky and I took the guy down.  We left the club and headed to the Westin Times Square where we had two rooms.  Nicky and John were so drunk they had no idea how to get there, so I drove us all there.  It was John and Dayton, Belladonna and me, Nicky was just there for the ride.  When we got there John made me check the room to make sure it was okay. Then they started drinking in Dayton’s room and John was trying to get rid of Nicky. I left to chill with Belladonna next door.  This was at about 3am on a weeknight.  I started getting calls about 5:30am from George Fenelli, Craig Marino and then Eddie Garafolo asking where John was and to get him home.   John's wife was calling everyone and at this time Danny was doing a short stretch for a gambling beef so his wife was living at John's home.  I finally went next door and pounded on Dayton’s door but I got nothing.  I was called again by Eddie and this time I kept pounding on the door until Dayton opened it.  John was passed out but I told her that he had to get home.  She woke him and I went downstairs to get him some hair gel so we could put him in a town car.  I caught a lot of shit from the Colombo's for John's mess, but I just laughed it off.

Dominico "Danny" Cutaia 

A month later John was holding Court at his place Plush in Bayridge on a Wednesday night.  He had his whole crew there and even his father Carmine came by the place.  Dayton was the only female present and I was surprised that the now free Danny was also there!  John was no longer bringing in the big bucks from his Pump and Dump stuff or the Phone company scam.  He had a party store and they were trying to get a new weed business going.

Steve "Wonder Boy" Crea

Danny had come along way from being  Paul Vario's driver.   After Paul passed away Little Al D'Arco took over the crew and he became Danny's boss.  Little Al had done time for Heroin dealing but now he was a huge shylock with over a million dollars on the street.  He was a rising star in the family because his friend Vic Ammuso had stepped up as the boss of the Lucchese Family.  The Commission Case had taken out the top leadership in all the New York Families.  They lost not only their leaders but the brains behind the incredible run of the Mafia in America.  Little Al was soon dealing with the Unions and Danny was learning first hand how to deal with them. Steve Crea was the main guy in the family that worked the construction trade and this brought in the most cash.  Vic Amusso and Gaspipe Casso were soon on the run and Little Al was now the acting boss, so he appointed Danny to help run the families construction panel.  He also had Danny take over a Brooklyn crew and now Danny was a Capo. He was always jealous of Brooklyn Gambino Capo Nicky Corrozo because Nicky was a stone cold gangster.   The family went through some really bad times with Vic and Gas soon Danny was the main guy who gave orders from Vic to the rest of the family. I guess this was Danny's stroke of luck.

Things do not look good for Danny.  He is finishing up his sentence in a Federal Medical Facility where he has suffered a stroke, advanced MS and Alzheimer's but we all know about Mobsters and their health problems. I suspect this one is for real, it is all the years of hard drinking and hard living catching up to him.  He will be free in October of this year.

Dominico "Danny" Cutaia

John Baudanza better hope he lives long enough to set him up in something good.

FBI Surveillance Photo

The Mafia and Porn

The Mafia and Porn

The majority of porn made in the US comes from the San Fernando Valley just over the hill from Los Angeles. Porn is another business (like gambling) that is convenient for the Mafia to exploit.

The Mafia often gets into businesses that exploit human weakness or Vices.  

Early porn films were known as Smokers, Loops or Stag Films.  They were short sex scenes shot on 8mm or 16mm film usually with no sound.  They started the so called "Money Shot" or "Pop Shot" then so people could see that there was real intercourse going on.  Then some small cheap theatres started to show only adult films. They were able to stay open by arguing they had a first amendment right to show the films.  This is the same argument they use for stripclubs.

The Mafia gained control of these theatres. They also controlled the distribution of these films.  The laws in the United States at the time for obscene material were based on community standards.  That is all good in Los Angeles or New York but when you get into the Bible Belt it is not so good.  States like Utah, if you have pornography you will go to jail.  The Government used to get the Porno guys if they used the US mail to send it across state lines. Reagan had the Meese Commission and it did a lot to expose the role of the Mafia in Pornography.  A lot of the Meese Commission was work for the Christian groups.  After a long time in Porn and having a first hand look at what it does to people, I can say that it is a bad business.  While I would never tell anyone what to do in their own homes, it is not for me.  There are no happy endings, nothing good comes from the business.

Porn was the perfect business for the Mafia to get into.  It was much like Gambling.  Gambling had always been a grey area business.  It has been around since the beginning of time just like porn.  It was all done mostly on a small scale until Prohibition time.  Then large gambling establishments started popping up, followed by the gambling scene in Las Vegas.  It was only later, by the 90’s that the corporations took over Vegas when the Mafia lost its stranglehold on the gambling scene.

Joseph, Anthony, and Louis Peraino all became millionaires as a result of their movie "Deep Throat" which was the first porno to get national attention.  They were with the Colombo Family and they had offices in the San Fernando Valley.  Years later I would see Big Tony often at his film and video office Arrow, or with Mike Esposito and Tommy Sinapoli.

They used profits from that film to build a vast financial empire in the 1970s that included ownership of garment companies in New York and Miami, investment companies, a sixty-five-foot yacht in the Bahamas, "adults only" pornographic theaters in Los Angeles, and record and music publishing companies on both the east and west coasts. From 1973 to 1976, their corporate empire included Bryanston Distributors, Inc., a motion picture company that earned twenty million dollars in its first year. The Perainos never really enjoyed the money because the money caused the whole family to go crazy and fight with each other.  I’m not sure what happened to Louis, but Joseph and Anthony hated each other.

On January 4, 1982, gunmen (one of who was said to be Tommy "Shots" Geoli) chased down Anthony's brother Joseph and nephew Joseph Jr. in a residential area of Gravesend Brooklyn.  Joseph "The Whale"  was paralyzed and Joseph Jr. was killed. The shooter also accidentally shot and killed a Nun who did a lot of charity work. I guess people forget about that death.  Jimmy Caci was close to both of the Peraino brothers (even though they hated each other) and we used to regularly hang out with Tony, and his son Louis "Butch.”  Jimmy also went to see The Whale in Florida a couple of times.

Deep Throat really opened up the gates for the big money in Porn.  The Mafia controlled the film labs that printed the loops and the 35 mil prints to be shown in theatres.  They would rent out their 35mm film and they would be paid by the showings. some of these films would be taken to multiple places to be shown a night.  Checkers would keep the owners of the theatres honest.  A checker would be on the theatre to ensure that the theatre would only show the movie as many times as they had paid to play it.

The Mafia had the muscle and the network to distribute the porn. They first came out to California in the 1960's and by the 70's they had the porno business locked down.  I suspect that Los Angeles was the perfect place because you had so many "Real" film productions going on in LA.  They had the people who knew production, lighting etc.  It is easy to find someone who needed cash and the equipment was also available. Another bonus was that so many women flock to LA to become movie stars and many of them were very beautiful.  In reality few of them ever make enough to make ends meet, so porn, stripping and hooking pay the bills.  Having an all-cash production model also allowed the mafia to avoid paying any taxes.

The LA Family was heavily involved in the business for a long time.  Mike Rizzi was close to Jack Molinas who was deep into the porn game.  Molina's supposedly had Mike Rizzi clip his business partner to collect 500k insurance money.  Mike Rizzi got 50k and was looking for more when Molina's was clipped.

The films were worth so much that if you duped a film or made a copy you could be killed.  It is funny because many of those Mafia or connected guys in the business owned or ran duplication labs and they all duped movies.

Pete Milano, a Capo at the time, was from Cleveland and the biggest pornographer in the world was also from Cleveland.  His name was Rubin Sturman and he ran General Video of America or GVA.  Rubin started as a Comic Book distributor and turned it into a porn empire.

1979 is when it all changed and what changed it was the Video Cassette.  Movie studios in Hollywood had not realized the potential of home video but the porn guys did right away.  They had the perfect product for home use. The cassettes had to be duplicated in real time so you would go into these cool warehouse with hundreds of industrial machines recording a film. It cost under 3 dollars to copy, package and ship a film that could bring 90 dollars retail.  In New York City they sold thousands a week alone  in Times Square.  

Jimmy Frattiano was business partners with Mickey Fine, who was close to Rubin Sturman.  Later Mickey would be sent to prison for his part in blowing up Adult Bookstores in Chicago.  Rubin Sturman was a very savvy business man.  He controlled the Arcades in most of the Adult Video stores in the country.  He would furnish the arcades at no charge to the establishment, but take 50% of the profits - and it was huge.

The Gambino's guy who held a stranglehold on porn was Robert "Debe" DiBernardo he was a huge money earner until the not so smart Boss of the Gambino family had him killed.   Why would you kill a man who made your family millions and who posed no threat?  John Gotti punched himself in the face with that one.

The Colombo guy in the porn biz was Andrew "Andre" D'Apice and that name is one that would come back in my life. I put away Andre D'Apice (junior, Andre senior’s son), along with Teddy Persico.

There were and still are Lucchese guys in the business.  They were close to the Taccettas in NJ and those in New York. They had duplication places in the valley. There were some Kansas City guys with them but now who knows.  

The Bonanno's had their guys, Mickey Zaffarano and Tommy Sinapoli in Los Angeles.  Mickey would die of a heart attack in New york. Tommy would go on to own Visual Images with Mike Esposito.

The last Gambino guy in the business was Big Chris Richichi a Capo in the family who controlled porn all the way to Rhode Island.

The business changed and there was no need for these regional distributors. The price of the equipment went way down. There was no more need for Labs to process the film.  Then the internet put the nail in the coffin for the Mafia.

The pornography trade is attractive to organized crime because "it's a fast way of making a buck". It was risk and reward, the risk was low and the reward great.  Today there is no way to control porn anyone with a computer can access it.

The last San Diego Crew.

FOREX was an FBI sting set by the Los Angeles FBI office to snare the LA Family guys.  It all started when an FBI Special Agent, staying with his wife in Murrieta Hot Springs Hotel, noticed Frank Bompenseiro, Jimmy Frattiano and Louie Dragna going into the hotel’s restaurant.  

The FBI Agent and his wife were able to get a booth near their table.  He overheard part of their conversation and one thing that was clear from the part he heard was that Jimmy Frattiano wanted a piece of the porno business. Frattiano was acting boss of the family along with Louie Dragna.  Frattiano had transferred back from the Chicago outfit in order to help run the family.  The real acting boss should have been Louie Dragna, but since he was running a multi million dollar garment center business, he had little interest in taking over the day to day dealings of his Uncle’s former family.  The LA Family had another reason for wanting Frattiano back with the family.

Frank Bompenseiro had been one of the heavy guys back in the Jack Dragna days.  He had buried a lot of guys.  Frattiano had been another one of the workers Jack used to carry out LA Family business. The powers in the LA Family had now grown tired of Bompensiero because even after the busted him down to soldier he kept doing whatever he wanted in San Diego. To make matters worse Bompensiero had been bad mouthing the family to anyone who would listen. The Family now wanted Bompensiero dead and the only guy who could carry out the hit was Frattiano.  They knew Frattiano was close to him and they knew he could see it through.  This is Cosa Nostra, they always have those that are closest to you take you out.

Frattiano and Dragna came up with a plan to put Bompenseiro at ease.  They upped him to the Consigliere position and that made him happy.  Bompensiero had been an FBI informant for ten years at this point, but the FBI, like the Cosa Nostra, can be ruthless. They knew that Bompensiero had not been giving them all the information on the family activities. So, the FBI set up the FOREX sting.

They let Bompensiero know that a Porno outfit was operating out of the San Fernando Valley.  They told him that FOREX was buying Porno and shipping it to Mexico.  Bompensiero then let the LA Family know about them and they sent in some guys.  The Crew that the family sent in was a misfit bunch.  Anyone interested in knowing more should read The Animal in Hollywood by Anthony Fiato.

The guys running FOREX were FBI Agents and they got the whole thing on tape.  The family was soon brought before a Grand Jury and they knew right away that Bompensiero had set them up.  Bompensiero was very careful and rarely went out after dark.  One habit he had was to leave his Pacific Beach Apartment at night to use a payphone to make calls.  He figured that his home phone was bugged by the FBI or the State.  Someone would call him at his place and he would tell them he would speak to them later.  Bompensiero would then walk to the phone booth and make his calls.  

So here is what went down. The LA Family had Frattiano call Bompensiero one night and they just watched him walk to the payphone take the call and walk home. This was just to see what he did.  I am sure that they watched him a few other nights.  The Cosa Nostra does not like to go off and kill like a cowboy they like to plan it so they get away with it.  

So one night Bompenseiro is told that the boss would like to speak with him.  He walks from his apartment to the phone booth and while he is there dialing, a car pulls up.  Tommy Ricciardi, a Rhode Island transplant, jumps out with 22.cal with a suppressor on it.  Tommy walks over and fires into Bompenseiro’s head 4 times and this is where urban legend takes over.  

When the police find Bompensiero he has some dimes scattered near him. They say it was because he was dropping a dime on guys but maybe he was carrying them because that is what payphones took at that time. It was not about sending a message "drop a dime" and die.

It is also a wonder that Tommy was able to pull it off without keeling over himself because he had a pacemaker.  Tommy fires into Bompenseiro and jumps back into the car driven by Jack LoCicero and they are gone into the night. The pistol would not be tossed but would continue to make its rounds in the LA Family.  Read more about it in this book: