Local 580 & Murder

John  Morrissey was the business agent for Local 580 of the Architectural and Ornamental Ironworkers Union. He helped the Lucchese Family and three other New York families steal millions of dollars in kickbacks from replacing windows for the Housing Authority.  They would rig the bids so they controlled the millions of windows that required replacing every year.  The Mafia would get 1-2 dollars per window replaced by the companies they controlled.  If an outside company replaced windows they would break them or send unproductive Union workers to do the work.   The Mafia families all profited off this scam for over a decade until a Genovese associate named Peter Savino who handled the scam started working for the FBI.

John, also known as Sonny or Sonny Blue, was a tough Irish Union man.  He was a longtime Lucchese associate and helped his friend Vic Amuso, the new boss of Lucchese family, get up to speed with the scam.  The problem was that Sonny Blue worked closely with Peter Savino for years.

Savino had done more than a dozen hand-to-hand payoffs, all observed by the FBI, with Sonny Blue.  When I was working with the FBI and we had to exchange cash or payoff someone we would pick the place if possible.  If the target picked it, I would relay that to the FBI and they would thumbs up or thumbs down.  I would say can we meet someplace closer blah blah.  The FBI would ring the area with surveillance vehicles and agents.  Then they would get it all on tape.  If the area was too crowded they would use vehicles with remote cameras.  I would try to do the hand off in the open or in a place where they could get confirmation.  This would seal guys (like Uncle Manny Garafolo) fate.   Then again, he was only given a very light sentence.

Back to the Lucchese Family.  Under Vic Amuso and the crack head Gaspipe Casso, they operated the family through fear.  That is no way to run any business.  Nobody felt they were on solid ground. So when Vic and Gas got confirmation from the other families that Savino was an informant, they had to take action.  They could not get Savino because he was in WITSEC, so they started murdering people who they felt were weak and would lead to them.

This put the tough Irishman Sonny Blue in their sights, even though he was never close to flipping.   They gave the contract to Capo Fat Peter Chiodo, a man who could weigh between 450-550 lbs and was 6’5”.  They told him: Sonny is talking, make him disappear.

Fat Pete grabbed his associate Tommy Irish to drive Sonny Blue and himself way out to Morris County, NJ, where they were building a housing development to meet with Vic Amuso.  Sonny Blue was happy to see his friend, so he was very relaxed.  Once they arrived at the site they all walked into a model home they were using as an office. Once inside, Fat Pete left to find Vic and then another associate walked up behind Sonny Blue with a silenced pistol.  Sonny Blue turned and saw what was happening and he yelled, “I Am not a rat!”  The man fired and then the pistol jammed. Sonny Blue lay on the ground in pain saying it hurts, hit me again.  The backup shooter removed a snub nose pistol and fired 4 times but it did not kill Sonny Blue.  He was still in pain until the man cleared the silenced pistol and finally killed him.  They used a backhoe to dig a hole out behind the home and they dropped Sonny Blue in it.  He would not be found until Fat Pete flipped.  He missed the windows case.  

This is another example of the poor leadership of Vic and Gas.  The decline of the Mafia starts in the leadership and then trickles down.

Michael Persico and the Colombo Family

Michael Persico is the son of Carmine Persico and the brother of Allie Boy Persico.  Michael was always known as the straight son.  Michael was never inducted into the Colombo Family but he didn't need to be because he was the son of the boss and the brother of the acting boss.

Michael Persico has lived with all the perks of being a Mafia Boss without the exposure.  He has watched as his father went away for a hundred years, his brother for life and many relatives.  Never has Michael been in trouble until recently and that is mostly because of a man named Steve Marcus.  I met and recorded Steve and his son Jeremy while I was wearing a wire.  Jeremy was the part paper owner of D.M. Equipment Leasing with Eddie Garafolo's wife Alicia and he was a bouncer at a Mob run stripclub in Manhatten.

Michael took a really good plea deal where he would plead out to one count of extortionate extension of credit, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371.  This was a great deal considering what he was charged with at the time.  Michael gave Anthony Preza $100,000 for a shylock loan and he gave it to Teddy Persico Jr, James Bombino and a Cooperating Witness.  Michael did this to disguise the fact that he was giving the loan.

The Feds claim in the indictment and his sentencing memorandum that he took part in the murder of Joseph Scopo. They claim that he passed on the order for the murder along with his cousin Teddy Persico Jr for the hit.   They also write that Michael assembled the team of shooters to carry out the job.  They were Frank Guerra, Eric Curcio, Johnnie Pappa, Anthony Russo and John Sparacino.  He then provided the guns that would be used for the hit.  

They would murder Joseph Scopo and not long after Eric Curcio and John Sparacino would be murdered.  Johnnie Pappa would murder John Sparacino and then with the help of Anthony Russo they would cut off his penis, place it in his mouth before setting his body on fire.

These are wonderful people and they are what helped Michael Persico live the life of a Mafia Prince.  He ran a number of businesses thanks to his father and brother.  I was told by his cousin Teddy Jr that he would bring word from Carmine who was in Lompoc Federal Penitentiary.

There was a man named Michael Devine who lived on Staten Island and he owned a nightclub.  Michael never had anything to do with the mafia, never wanted to have anything to do with them.

Michael fell in love with a woman named Tori Persico and that would be his bad luck.

Tori Persico was the estranged wife of Allie Boy Persico who was locked up at the time.

Allie Boy was very jealous of the relationship so he had some of his men wait outside Michael’s condo complex on Staten Island.  When he pulled into the garage they were there and they shot him twice in the head and twice in the groin.  The next morning Michael was found in his still running 1991 Pathfinder dead.

The FBI had a tape of Michael Persico speaking with his brother Allie Boy about Michael Devine. Michael Persico was able to get the recording suppressed but that does not mean that he was not part of it.  

The Cosa Nostra or Mafia was never supposed to be about settling personal scores but the Persicos have broken every rule in the Mafia. They had Law Enforcement murdered, sold drugs and committed many other off-limits crimes.  

Carmine Persico was charged a long time ago in a hijacking case but he kept fighting it long after everyone else took their time which was not bad.  The case started in 1960 and it took five trials and 8 years for Carmine to be found guilty.  He ended up getting sentenced  to 8 years in Federal Prison.  Lets hope they grant Michael the right to a new trial and he gets a long time!

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.

Bonanno Family

The best inside secrets come from the guys who turn.  Nobody was a bigger coup for the government than Joey Massino.  Joey was Boss of the Bonanno family and not just any boss but the man who built it back up.  The Bonanno family had been decimated by internal strife and embarrassed by Donnie Brasco aka Joseph Pistone infiltrating the family.

Joey shut the social clubs and made a secret gesture where they tugged on their ear lobe to signify the Bonanno family.  He was able to get the family back on the Commission and he brought new blood into the family.  

Joey Massino wanted to flip even before his conviction.  He had attended a couple of proffer sessions in prison and the Government was still on the fence about a deal or no deal.  

Vincent Basciano, aka Vinny, had been in charge on the street as acting boss of the Bonanno family while Joey was behind bars.  He was able to make Captains or break them if necessary, and was the last word on the street for the Bonanno family.  Then Vinny was also arrested and housed at Brooklyn MDC. In November of 2004 Joey called a family meeting by using lawyers to set up co-defendant meeting so they could go over family business.

It was at one of these prison meetings that Joey Massino wore a wire for the FBI.  He got Vinny to talk about Randy Pizzolo, a guy who was an associate of his crew who was found murdered in Brooklyn.   Vinny spoke freely to Joey because, after all, he had been boss for over 13 years.  

Vinny had sent Joey’s wife 50k in a bottle of Dom while he was locked up.

Vinny told Joey that he had given the order to kill Randy Pizzolo because the kid was a rat and scumbag that he had brought a pistol to a meeting at Villa Sonoma with a made Bonanno family guy.  He had then gotten drunk and started running his mouth.  Vinny had chased him and he was told to go to Florida.  Randy would not leave New York and this bothered Vinny a lot.

Randy was lured to Greenpoint Brooklyn early one day and he was shot seven times by Anthony “Ace” Aiello, a made Bonanno man.  Vinny had told Joey on tape in MDC that Ace was his Luca Brasi, a fictional character from the The Godfather.  

Joey Massino also gave up how the Bonanno family inducted new members.  A Capo would place a guy who had been around them for a number of years on a piece of paper and give it to Joey.  Joey would then at his leisure look into the guy to see if he was “stand up.”  If he passed, Joey would put his name next to the name of a soldier who had died or gone away and that would be passed among the other five families.  If they had no objections he would induct them into the family.  He told the FBI that he personally attended 60-70 induction ceremonies over the years.

The Bonannos would bring a guy or two or even three into the room and say something along the lines of, “This is the life you chose. If not, there is the door, you can leave now.  If you choose this life, you are here until you die.” Once they say yes they start the ceremony.  They then go over the rules: you dont mess with a Wiseguy’s wife or daughter, you don’t sell drugs (which is a joke because they all make money this way), never bring a gun to a meeting, and you put everything on record with your Capo.

Then he said they would tell them if your wife is dying, your kids, your mother and you are called you must come. The Family, the Mafia comes first. They tell you to murder, your brother is dying, your kid, you have to murder, the Bonanno family always comes first.   They then told them that if they were told to kill their brother or best friend they had to right away.  After that they swear allegiance to the family and Omerta.  Then they are put with a Capo.  If it was a Capo who proposed them, then they are put with him.  If it was a soldier that proposed them, they are instead put with a Capo who needs another guy.

Frank "Curly" Lino

Born on October 30th, 1938 in Gravesend Brooklyn Frank "Curly" Lino had his life's path already mapped out for him.   Frank's mother married Frank Lino Sr in a marriage arranged by the boss of the Genovese Family, Vito Genovese.  Frank would never get past the 10th grade at Lafayette High School in Brooklyn because he started running with a Mafia farm team: the Avenue U Boys.  He used to pull off robberies with the Avenue U Boys but he was soon running a floating game for a made Genovese Soldier.

Frank has lived a charmed life.  It may not have been the best life but he lived it to the max.  In May of 1962 he got involved with two other men to pull off a robbery of a tobacco store in Brooklyn.  While it was going down two NYPD Brooklyn Detectives were shot and killed.  Frank was picked up soon afterward and beaten severely in the station house by other detectives who he claimed stapled his hand and shoved a broomstick up his ass.  He did have a broken leg and arm.  The NYPD has put broomsticks up others asses, so who knows.

The court placed him on 3 years probation after he threatened to sue the city.  The other men were given the death penalty that was later commuted to life in prison.

This was not the last time Frank would be a torture victim due to his criminal activity.  During the heyday of the Mafia, the real life “Luca Brazi” for Junior Persico, a man named Hugh "Apples" Macintosh (or just Mac) grabbed Frank out of a bar. Mac brought him to a basement where he beat him and tortured him for two days trying to make him give up the names of his friends that had a beef with Persico.  He never gave up their names even after he was beaten so badly he suffered a weird eye twitch - a blinking twitch that remained for the rest of his life. So Mac let him go after telling him 'the reason you are being let go is because you didn’t rat. If you did we would have killed you"  Frank was so afraid he never looked back until he was well away from that place.

He was made on his 40th Birthday in 1977 in Little Italy.  It has been said it was because of his cousin Eddie Lino who was with John Gotti and a major drug dealer.  Gotti was very close to Joey Massino at this time.  

Frank was asked by his Capo Sonny Red Indelicato to drive him to a peace meeting at a social club in Brooklyn. Sonny Red decided to have Frank drive him to the meeting instead of his son Bruno because he did not really trust the other Capos. He told his son Bruno to kill all the Zips and the rest of the Capos if he did not return. There was a lot of internal strife in the Bonanno Family at the time because the self proclaimed boss Carmine Galante had been murdered by Bruno and others on orders from the Commision. Rusty Rastelli was the real boss but he was locked up, so his most trusted Capo Big Joey Massino was working hard to keep the family together.  The Zip Faction, The Canadian Faction, Sonny Black and Joey Massino all lined up against the other three capos.  Sonny Red, Dominick Trinchera and Philip Giaccone were all opposing Rusty but they were called into this last ditch peace offering.  Things seemed to be going fine when Frank saw three hooded come down the stairs into the club.  He saw Joey Massino hit Sonny Red in the head with something and another man jump out of a closet with a gun.  He saw Giaccone thrown up against a wall and shot before he fled so fast that nobody on the hit team could stop him.

He then went into hiding but the powers that be did not want him dead.  They wanted Bruno who had escaped the massacre.  Frank was close to him and knew where he was hiding out.  He met with the Underboss of the Gambino Family who gave him a chance to live, if he murdered Bruno.  Frank pretended to be looking for Bruno, when he really already knew where he was.  The Bonanno Family powers gave the contract to Sonny Black who then gave it to Lefty Ruggiero and Donnie Brasco.   Things went downhill from there because Donnie Brasco was an undercover FBI Agent and the Commission's case came down and Bruno was picked up.  

Frank was then asked to bring Sonny Black to a meeting because it had come out that Donnie Brasco was an FBI Agent and he was vouched for by Sonny Black.  Sonny knew he was not long for this world so he left his jewelry at home for his wife.  They got to the house where the meeting was to take place and Frank showed him to the basement.  Sonny went first and a few steps down Frank shoved him and when he fell the shooter fired into his body but the gun jammed.  Sonny Black told them to "Hit him one more time, Make it good"  They did.  They would cut off his hands because he shook them with an FBI Agent and Frank Lino's son helped dispose of Sonny Black.  The world of the Mafia is crazy because years later when I was at BaMontes in Brooklyn a guy wearing a black over coat was walking back and forth smoking a cigarette.  I was watching him and Nicky Santoro a Bonanno Capo told me that he was Sonny Black’s kid.  So Sonny's kid is still around those guys.

Frank did it all on the street, from drugs, robbery, pump and dump, extortion to Gambling.  He made money from Family Union contracts with school buses.  He had conspired with the Lucchese Family to kill a Gambino associate until Sal Vitale the Underboss had a sitdown with Nicky Corrozzo who told him I dont care what the kid did, what he stole its done, we have big plans for him.  So that was it for that hit.  Good for Frank because when he was locked up later he was going to get shanked in the yard of a prison.  When the huge Bonanno family indictments came down he learned that Sal Vitale had flipped and he knew it was over.  He flipped becoming the first of many Bonanno's to testify for the Government.  He would implicate his own relatives in many Mafia crimes and for that he was rewarded with just 8 years by the judge and is now out and a free man.

I hope he lives a good life and enjoys his freedom.  He is older and he knows what he did.