DiNunzio Brothers

The brothers DiNunzio have had a long history around the Mafia going back decades. Last week I wrote about the Boston Mafia or the Patriarca Family based in Providence, Rhode Island.

Carmen has long been thought to be the Underboss of the family, handling business out of his Cheese Shop in the North End.  Anthony DiNunzio is his younger brother who was the acting boss of the family until he became the sixth boss to be taken down in a very short time.

Carmen DiNunzio came out to Los Angeles when he was on the lam from things in Boston.  

He met a former Boston transplant Anthony Fiato in Los Angeles where he had done well in Organized Crime circles.  Anthony Fiato had hooked back up with Los Angeles Capo Mike Rizzi and they had gone to New York and met with the Administration of the Gambino Family.  They wanted to do their own thing in Los Angeles, start their own family.  Pete Milano the boss of Los Angeles would eventually bring Anthony into the family.  He was made and then he did his own thing.  Anthony would have over a million dollars in shylock loans on the street when Carmen hit town.  Anthony did not want to take Carmen in so he brought him to his old friend Joe Sica.

Joe Sica and his brothers were long time players in Organized Crime on the West Coast. That is why I find it very amusing when Hollywood makes movies about Mickey Cohen the so-called “Boss of Los Angeles.”  One of the guys that was close to Joe was Chris Petti who would end up in San Diego. Chris was close to Tony Spilatro and others in the Chicago Outfit.  Chris came up with a plan to get in on the ground floor of the Rincon Indian Casino. The Rincon Tribe was looking for groups to bid on, build and ultimately run a Casino on their reservation.  Chris had the perfect backers… The Outfit, and they had a long history of getting inside Casinos and skimming them.  

They had an inside man in the tribe, but the Outfit told Chris to find other investors because they had another casino that was losing money.  That is where the FBI came in with an Undercover Agent posing as a Colombian dealer looking to launder cash.  They would end up taking down Chris, the administration of the Outfit, Carmen DiNunzio and his brother Anthony.

Luigi Manocchio became the boss of the Boston Family in 1996 after many years of fighting inside the family.  In 2004 he made Carmen his underboss.  Anthony was a Capo in Boston using the Gemini Social Club as his base.

Carmen was soon involved in a scheme to sell the Massachusetts Highway Department 300,000 cubic yards of loam soil from a company he had an interest.  He then decided to bribe a man he thought was an agent of the Highway Department (who was actually an FBI Agent). The FBI had flipped the middle man in the deal and he set up Carmen.  Carmen gave the informant $10,000 to give to the agent and then he gave him another $5,000 in cash at another meeting.  Then they provided the agent with a sample of the loam that they would supply.  It would have been a great score getting a contract to supply loam to the Big Dig but the FBI took him down.

Manocchio was a greedy boss and his men did not like him and there started to be decent, so he would step aside for Peter Limone.  Peter Limone had been locked up for 33 years for a murder that the FBI and their informant Joseph Barboza set him up.  He was released after the FBI found “real” evidence and it only took 33 years. He was released and won a 26 million dollar settlement from the FBI.  He then got right back into the family and busted again.

In steps Anthony DiNunzio as acting boss of the family and what he finds makes him very unhappy.  He went right to work in Rhode Island to beef up their rackets and one of them was

the adult sex industry business (strippers, escorts, porn). The family had made big money from these businesses and Anthony wanted to bring that back to profitability. He had a Eddie Lato a Capo in the family start picking up from the businesses in Rhode Island.  Then he had sitdowns with senior members of the Gambino Family to let them know they would be hitting up a guy who ran stripclubs and adult Bookstores in Rhode Island.  They contacted the Gambinos because the guy was friends with some soldiers in the family.  In the 1980’s the guy was close to Chris Richichi a Capo in the family based in Las Vegas. The Gambinos gave Anthony the green light to shake the guy down.

The crew would meet at a Chinese restaurant in Boston Billy Tse’s until they found out the whole place was wired up and the Feds had taped them.  The FBI then grabbed some of them after a meet and found cash from the stripclubs on them.  

Anthony was caught on tape speaking about his leadership of the family.  He said when he took over he changed everything and that anyone who did not toe the line was shelved (meaning they were no longer active members of the family) Then he told the guy that anyone who did not follow his rules would be buried alive until they died.  He also claimed that even if he was locked up he was still the boss.   He would continue to dig a deeper hole for himself when he was a senior Gambino guy he spoke about sponsoring a guy to be made and then afterward the guy telling him he is 100% with him.  

Anthony would end up pleading guilty and taking a 6 year sentence on November 14, 2012.  His brother Carmen took a 6 year plea deal in 2009 so they are for now off the streets.

Frank Cullota

“I liked Jewelry stores because they had a lot of cash.”  - Frank Cullota

Frank was the Leader of the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a very success crew that pulled scores in Las Vegas when the Chicago Outfit reigned supreme in Sin City.

Frank Cullota

Frank was born June 20, 1938 in Chicago.  He met the man who would become his best friend in his criminal career when he was 13 years old.  That man was Tony Spilatro.  Tony would work his way up from a street thug to the Outfit’s man in Las Vegas.  

I was speaking to Frank on the phone the other day and I asked him a few questions.

First, I wanted to know about Herbie Blitzstein.  I liked Herbie, I always felt he was a good guy who just did what he knew.  A lot of people refer to him as an enforcer but I never got that vibe when I was around him. The FBI was running Operation Button Down and Operation Thin Crust in 1995 in Las Vegas.  The LA Family was once more trying to regroup and Las Vegas was one of the places they were working on.  

Fat Steve Cino lived there along with a host of associates, so LA Capo Jimmy Caci and I would drive out there frequently.  Jimmy was out on an appeal bond for a Telemarketing deal gone bad, so we were trying to get things moving.  Jimmy and his brother Bobby Milano liked Herbie and so did Steve Cino.  

Jimmy would get picked up by LAPD because he was around an FBI informant named Ori Spado in Beverly Hills.  Ori had gone out on a collection in the Valley and Jimmy was in his car.  Ori went into this business and he started running his mouth selling wolf tickets, the guy had enough of Ori’s crap and he decked Ori with a tape dispenser.  Ori was on the ground and the guy had a pistol out when Jimmy came into the office and stopped the guy.  The guy knew Jimmy from the track so he chilled and he explained his situation.  The guy had a business that went bankrupt everything was in bankruptcy so he had nothing.  Jimmy helped Ori to the car where he dressed Ori down for acting so foolish.  Ori never told Jimmy what he was doing there or Jimmy would not have even gone with him.  

A week later I went to dinner with Jimmy and Ori at Frankie’s after dinner Jimmy went to Ori's apartment.  While there, Ori had to get something from his car.  The next thing Jimmy knew there was a knock at Ori's door.  Ori ran to open it, and it was the LAPD OC Squad.  

Ori lived in a secured building.  

Thanks to Ori,  Jimmy was away on January 6, 1996 when some wannabee low class robbers broke into Herbie’s condo and murdered him.

This was not a Mafia crime in anyway shape or form.  The only guys I heard that wanted him dead were the two FBI informants John Bronco and Fat Tony. They both owed Herbie money.  The FBI used it in a RICO case against Steve Cino and Bobby Panera but it was a joke.

Speaking to Frank about Herbie helped me learn some more about Herbie.

Herbie was a bookmaker in Chicago and he made juice loans but he was not a tough guy.  He was in too big to go on scores but he always had money on him.  He would carry 20k in his pockets because the IRS would take anything of value from him.  He owed them for unpaid taxes.  Frank was asked by his boss in Chicago to move out to Las Vegas to help Tony out in the 70's when he got out of prison. It was not an order just a nudge to go out to Las Vegas.  

Tony opened up a jewelry store in Las Vegas called Gold Rush Ltd where they bought and sold Jewelry.  Tony told Frank that he was bringing out the Jew to help, that is what they called Herbie.  Herbie mostly worked in the back room removing jewels from settings and melting down the gold.  He bought hot merchandise.

Frank told me that Herbie was never a hard guy he just looked it.  

I asked Frank who he admired most in his criminal life and he came back with two answers.  One guy he liked was Sam Giancana who was tough and smart.  Sam used to tell him that he was too quick with his fists because Frank was young and angry.  He told him that it would get him in trouble someday.  The other guy is a criminal legend. Tony Accardo, Joe Batters the man who was in the Outfit since Al Capone and never spent a night in jail.  He would see Tony at the Golden Bear Pancake house and after the first time Tony saw him there he would say hello. Nobody got close to Tony but he knew who everyone was everywhere he went. If Tony would have been legit he would be a Billionaire today.

I cannot do justice to Frank’s story on this blog, you can read all about his life in his book Cullotta: The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster, and Government Witness. Frank has a lot to say and anyone who wants to gain a better understanding about the Life should attend Mob-Con Sept. 7 and 8 in Las Vegas at the Palace Station.  You can meet Frank and ask him any questions about the life.  Others I have featured on previous blog posts will be there also:

Andrew DiDonato

Andrew Didanato, Frank Calabrese, Tony Montana, Tim Redsull as well as Law enforcement speakers and authors.

Hear from Andrew about life in a crew where one wrong step could mean death and that went for the boss's son John Gotti Jr.

Frank Calabrese

Speak to Frank Calabrese about growing up in a Mafia house hold and then running his father street rackets.  

For more information check out the convention’s website:

http://mob-con.net/

Inside the Outfit: Frank Calabrese Jr Part Two

Frank Jr soon became fully involved with his father in the crew. The Outfit bosses had two crews that they called on when they need to have someone killed ASAP and right.  They would call on Frank’s fathers Chinatown Crew or Butchie Petrocelli's Wild Bunch Crew. Frank Sr was very good at killing and his preferred method was to strangle them and then cut their throats from ear to ear.

Frank Jr was half Irish and in Chicago that would preclude him from becoming a made man in the Outfit.  The Outfit has a long history of having non Italians in powerful roles so Frank Jr had a lot of upward movement available to him.  In 1988 Frank Sr decided it was time for him to make his bones or in layman's terms kill for the Outfit.  Once you kill for the Outfit, that is it, they own you. The plan was for Frank Jr to shoot his target in a car with his Uncle Nicky.   Nicky Calabrese was Frank Senior’s right hand man and he would later admit to 14 murders on behalf of the Outfit. It was strange that Nicky would speak to Frank Sr and get him to change his mind about Frank Jr doing a hit, but he did!  They never went through with the plan, and that was a huge milestone in Frank Jr's life.

Frank Sr was one of the Outfit’s go to killers because he was good at it.  He would take the order and get it done even when it was a friend like Tony Borsellino. Tony was a friend of Frank’s and a guy who many Outfit guys considered a man’s man.  But when the Bosses gave the order, Frank Sr did what he was told to do.  Frank Sr used a rope to choke the life out of his victims, and then used a knife to cut their throat ear to ear just to make sure they were dead.  

The Outfit was at the top of its game.  Then came the burglary of Levinsons Jewelers on North Clark St just before Christmas in 1977.   The owner was a personal friend of Tony Accardo and he asked if Tony could help him get his jewelry back. Tony sent word to all his crews and since the Outfit has a long history of bringing burglars into the organization they quickly recovered the loot.  Tony stashed it in his home in River Forest while he went to Palm Springs for the holiday.  The buglers then did the stupidest move they could have made, they broke into Tony's home and stole back the loot.  Tony was made aware of what happened and he sent word out to kill every one of the buglers involved in the burglaries.  9 men would be murdered over the one Jewelry Store burglary before it was over. When the robbers were turning up dead the FBI began investigating what happened.  No one ever reported the burglary at Tony’s house and Tony would not admit that he ever had the stash or was robbed.  The caretaker of Tony’s home, and a  friend of 40 years, was questioned in front of a grand jury regarding the murders, and he made the mistake of admitting that the house had been robbed.  On his way to Tony’s house to work, he and his Honda both disappeared never to be seen again.   Frank Sr and his crew did a lot of the work required to dispose of the burglars.  As a result, they began killing every top burglar in Chicago because they were never sure exactly who all was involved and who had knowledge of what had happened.  The FBI devoted many men to bringing down Tony and the Outfit for this killing spree.  This is what started the downfall of Frank Sr and many others but it would be years before they felt the full impact.

Frank Jr  tried many ways to break away from the life.   It was all to no avail because his father would just drag him back into the crew.  Finally Frank Jr decided he needed to take money from his father’s stash spot and escape.  He took a duffel bad with 800 thousand dollars in it to start a few businesses.  Frank Sr tracked him down, stuck a pistol in his face, and threatened to kill him unless he became a slave to him.  

On July 28, 1995 Frank Sr, Frank Jr, Nicky Calabrese, And Kurt Calabrese were arrested after an investigation started at an Auto Repair shop.  They were all sentenced to relatively short stints in prison.  Frank jr had a plan to get his life back on track and make a better life for his family.  He was going to use the time in prison to change his life, kick his cocaine habit and move on to better things.  

The prison sentence was his chance to get away, have a few years off and make a clean break.  That was all true until Frank Jr got a transfer to the same prison as his father.  Once together, they talked it out and Frank Sr promised to make a fresh start and leave the Outfit behind.  Frank Jr wanted to believe this and he did until he started hearing about things his father was still doing out on the street.  Frank Jr then took the boldest and most deadly step he would ever take, he typed out a letter to the FBI.  The letter said that he wanted to help them keep his father off the streets and that he wanted no reduction in time.  The FBI followed up on this and soon Frank Jr was wired up in the yard.  They had a belt buckle wire and a headphone wire because everyone on the yard used to wear headphones around their necks.  The one time he came close to getting caught was when the FBI's other wires did not work so he was forced to wear an old school wire that was hidden in an underwear rig.  (I know this device well because one time I was forced to wear this kind of wire and after about an hour it got burning hot and I thought my balls were fried. I ran to the bathroom and that was it for that rig.)  Frank Sr asked to see Frank Jrs new Tattoo on his back, this would mean opening his shirt on the yard, which would mean his microphone would be exposed.  The FBI does not use broadcast wires, they record only.  So there was no back up and on a prison yard he would die quickly if found out.  Luckily, the wire was not discovered and Frank Jr lived.

Frank Jr got all he needed that day about the murders he did and other things.  The tapes would be the basis for the Family Secrets case against the Outfit's top guys.  It would also mark a first with Nicky Calabrese becoming the first made guy in the Outfit to testify in court.  Nicky was caught up after Frank Jr told the FBI about a hit he did where he lost a glove during a struggle for a pistol.  The FBI came to to his cell took his DNA and it was a match.  Nicky knew he was finished once he found out about the DNA, so he too went with Team USA.

People can judge and say what they will about Frank Jr, but they never walked in his shoes.  They have no idea the hell he had lived with as his father became more and more violent towards the family.  He suffered years of abuse and had his life ruined in the process.  He did the only thing he could do to escape the cycle of violence he was caught inside, he flipped on his father and on the Outfit.  

Read all about Frank Calabrese in his book Family Secrets.

The San Diego Crew

1975

The man seated at the table in front of the cafe did not fit the stereotype of a Hollywood Mafioso.  The roly poly man in the ill-fitting suit was Frank Bompensiero.  Frank Bompensiero was at one time the Capo in charge of the San Diego area for the Los Angeles Family. After being demoted, he later became a soldier in the family.  Frank lost everything when he was sent to prison in 1955 on bribery charges. He had been caught using his connections with the State Board of Equalization to get liquor Licenses for bars, which brought in big money.

On this particular day Frank was sitting, sipping on his coffee, a cigar stuck in his mouth, contemplating revenge.  Gone were his bars: Maestro Music, the Algiers, the Cadillac, his connections, and his position as Capo in the family.  

A smartly dressed man approached the table and Frank stood up and shook his hand.  The man sat and they begin to talk. There was another man in the car the man had emerged from, also taking in the situation.

The two men are Special Agents with the FBI and Frank is their informant.  What would lead this lifelong criminal, former Capo, a killer, to work for the FBI as an informant?  I am sure money was not the motive.  Maybe it was the fact that he spent 5 years in State Prison. It was during that time that nobody from the LA Family helped out his family. He was not given a cent for his wife, kids or himself. He was loyal to Jack Dragna, the boss, and he had killed plenty of people for the family. Jack Dragna had died of a heart attack while Frank was locked up.  Desimone had come to see Frank while he was locked up, trying to earn his vote for taking over the position as boss.  Frank told him he did not want him to become boss.  Desimone became boss anyway, and then demoted Frank to soldier.  

I am fascinated by this move by the bosses in the Cosa Nostra.  They demoted guys or put them on the shelf when they are away.  When they get out they do not help them. Where is the honor? I had a Capo say to me, “That a guy was a loser, a brokester.”   When I brought up the fact that the guy did 9 years for the family, he just laughed.  That Capo is now taking his turn “away” and is sick, so lets see how he does when he gets out.

Frank was giving the FBI tidbits of information, just enough so they would stay off his back.  One of the important things he failed to tell them about was Tamara Rand.

Tamara Rand was a wealthy business woman from her career in real estate.  She was married to a prominent doctor in San Diego.  She had also invested largely in Las Vegas Casinos before it became the corporate playground that it is today.  It was the playground of the Mob.  

She had loaned 500K to Allen Glick, the owner of Argent (which had received Teamster loans to buy 4 Casinos: the Hacienda, Fremont, Marina and The Stardust).  Tamara thought she was buying 5 percent of his Casinos.  When Glick did not honor his part of the deal, Tamara filed a lawsuit.  She was about to open the books of the Casinos.  That would have been bad because of the Teamster Loans and their corresponding Skim that was kicked back to Chicago, Kansas City, Detroit and Milwaukee.  

Frank Balistrieri, the boss of Milwaukee, went to Chicago to see the Bosses and told them about Glick’s problem.  They sent word to their man out West - Tony Spilatro.  

So, Tony enlisted his friend in San Diego, Frank Bompenseiro, and together they cased Tamara Rand’s home.  On the afternoon of November 9, 1975, Tamara had left work early to get ready for dinner with her husband.  Somebody was waiting for her inside her home.  When she came into the kitchen, they struck her with a 22.cal pistol with a suppressor. The sound would be like a cap gun not like the sounds made in the movies.  They shot her five times, including one shot under the chin.  Frank would later tell Jimmy Frattiano that he had driven Tony Spilatro to the Mission Hills home. Since both Frank and Tony were killed by their families we will never know the whole story.

Why would Frank do it?  He wanted to be transferred to Chicago but Sam Giancana did not take him.  More likely, he wanted to get his foot into Las Vegas be part of the skim or maybe get a gift shop.  Frank had hated Johnny Roselli because he did not help him get in the Chicago Family and he felt that Rosselli had gotten his reward for a killing.  Roselli had gotten a couple of gift shops in some Casinos. So Frank had decided in revenge to feed the FBI information.  The more the LA Family treated him badly the more he informed. That is until FOREX.