Colombo Family: The Daily Grind

Last week I wrote about Joey “Caves” Compietello who gave such a valuable compelling look inside the Colombo Family. He has the classic tale of mob life that shows that the Mafia is far from dead.  The question is why in 2014 would anyone still strive to become a made guy?

Those who have reached middle management or at least stable status in the Mafia were born in the late 1960’s or the early 1970’s.  This was a time that the Mafia had a strong presence in many neighborhoods across the US.  The FBI was just starting to understand how it worked and how to use the RICO laws.

Many young up and comers never went past the 9th grade and dropped out of high school.  This does not mean they are stupid by any measure.  Many are smart but were bored by school and the lure of the streets was strong.

The 1980’s was a time in Brooklyn where many of those young men started stealing cars.  Many older Mafia members owned junk yards or auto repair places.  So these young high school dropouts could earn very good money by stealing and dropping off these cars to them.  

They would be chopped and parted out or tagged.  Tagging a car means they would buy a car that had been wrecked beyond repair that the insurance company sold as totaled. Once owning this frame they would remove the VIN ( Vehicle Identification Number) then steal the exact car and install the totaled cars “tags” on the stolen car. This was a huge money maker because they could buy a wrecked car for mere hundreds and sell the tagged car for thousands of dollars.

Once many of these young expert car thieves made some cash they would find their own spots to “Chop” or disassemble stolen cars. Many parts from a car are valuable and there is no way to trace them so they can sell the parts.

Money and greed are why many were killed by those around the Mafia.  The Mafia does not pay for killing.  Those around or inside the Mafia take part in murder to advance their position.

It is one of those unpleasant byproducts of the life.

Those who ran the Chop shops kicked up money to whatever Mafia guy they were “around” or “with”.  The more money they kicked up the more status they had.  They also wanted the cash so they could just live, so anyone stealing from them was literally taking food from their mouths.

Joe Meech or Joe Miccio was working with Joey Caves and others in a Chop Shop.  Dino Calabro was not made but he was “with” Tommy “Shots” Geoli, meaning he was kicking money up to him.  Joe Meech was selling parts from chopped cars and keeping the cash for himself.

Joe Meech was picked up by a guy nicknamed “Tigger” one day to take care of some car business when they stopped to also pick up Joey Caves.  Once in the car Joey Caves pulled out his pistol and shot Joe Meech in the head.  They drove to 17th and Shore Parkway where Joey pushed Joe Meech out of the car and shot him three more times to make sure he was dead.

In the book “Mob over Miami,” the author made it seem like Carmine Gargano was murdered by those around the Bath Ave Crew or Jimmy “Frogs” Galione cocaine crew.  Carmine was murdered because he was involved with Dino Calabro in a chop shop business and he wanted more money from it.  He was lured to a chop shop off MacDonald Ave where he was shot in the head and smashed with a hammer.  They buried him under the floor of the shop but his family came there looking for him.  They moved him out to the Colombo graveyard in Farmingdale Long Island where others would be buried.  The FBI would never find his body but they found hair and other traces of him in the MacDonald Ave chop shop.

The Colombo war in the 1990’s tore the family apart and life long friends were out looking to kill each other.  The older made Colombo members used the young thugs to scout out and kill others because they were not known.  The young guys would “Sit” on targets houses or businesses so they could get their routines down.  

Joey Caves “sat” on Joe Baudanza’s home and Joe Scopo’s home.  Joe Baudanza is a Colombo Capo who was part of the ruling panel that ran the family because boss Carmine “Gimpy” Persico is away for life.  Joe is also the brother of Carmine Baudanza a Colombo soldier and the Uncle of John Baudanza a Lucchese Capo.  Joe Baudanza was inducted, made or as the Colombo’s put it “Coming to the house” in a home on Long Island. I know because my friend Joe Campy was made at the same time and place.  

John Baudanza and Little Craig Marino were drivers and bodyguards for Joe Scopo.  They must not have been good because Joe was shot in front of his house after Teddy Persico Jr came home on a prison furlough for his grandmother's funeral.  Teddy was kneeling next to her body when he gave the order to murder Scopo.  Joey Caves did not murder Scopo but he sat on his house.  Joey would be made in Brooklyn by among others Joe Baudanza and at the same time as little Craig Marino.

The Colombo’s were aware that the FBI and others were always watching or listening to them so they adopted some new tactics. A thumb across the cheek was how they referred to a made guy and a thumb across the back was their way of indicating a Capo. All the families used methods close to this, in Los Angeles they would point to the chest for a soldier, the shoulder for a Capo and the sky for Pete Milano the Boss.  

The stories and the methods are the same all over the US in the Mafia families. Chicago is the same, just not as “Cowboy” as the rest of the families.  All the the families now have a good chance of continuing on because the FBI is busy with terrorists.  

The information they got from men like Joey Caves, Joey Massino, Sammy Gravano, Andrew DiDonato, Mikey Scars, Philip Leonetti, Al D’Arco and so many more is priceless and provides a glimpse into a secret criminal world that few on the outside can understand.

Hollywood will keep churning out their mindless gangster flicks with stars who carry a new pistol with designer gloves on their hands. Most of these will fall short of the life but all you have to do is look at the trials of the real deal.

Joey Caves should get a sentence like Sammy Gravano or any of the others that came before.  He has helped team USA in the fight against Organized Crime.

A "Secret" Criminal Organization?

The FBI has downsized its Mafia Squad in New York.  They used to have a squad for every family but today they only have two squads, about twenty five agents for all the families.  One keeps tabs on the Gambino and Lucchese and the other handles the Genovese,Colombo and Bonanno.  I was working with the C-38 squad or the Colombo Squad, now they are gone.  The mob squads used to be a sought-after assignment for Agents but today its all about Terrorism, so any Agent who wants to move up in today’s ranks gets in one of the terrorism squads.


So what does this mean?  Could this be the end of the Mafia?  That is doubtful.  They need to return to their roots of operating as a secret organization. John Gotti took over the Gambino Family at the wrong time.  The FBI was determined to step up their assault on the Mafia Families.  John shot his way to the top of the family.  He basically thumbed his nose at the Mafia Commission by killing Paul Castellano without the okay from them. He really thought he was smarter than the old men on the commission, guys with 50 years of experience.  John wanted to guide the family into what he thought was a good direction.  Big Paul was much better suited for the job.  He operated on another level by using the Unions to consolidate the construction, waste and concrete business. John Gotti and his brother, on the other hand, were moving heroin and shylocking.  

John Gotti

Big Paul operated a very profitable poultry business called Dial Poultry that sold wholesale chicken all over the East Coast.  He even worked with Frank Perdue from Perdue Chicken.  John Gotti takes over and he makes his Capo's show up every week at his club The Ravenite in Little Italy and this circus made it easy for the FBI to Identify all the guys in power.  Then he strolls around in his 3,000 dollar suits when he has no job.  He was a Capo who beat up a guy honking at him and then stole a few hundred dollars. That is not boss material.  They want to make a movie about him?  So lets celebrate a guy who kills a neighbor for accidentally running into his young son.  The kid was on a non street legal mini bike and did not observe basic traffic laws and got himself killed.  So the big Mafia guy John Gotti had his men kidnap the neighbor and make him disappear so his family can not have closure. John Gotti was not a good boss and he was no Al Capone.  

The Gambinos will grow and become bigger on a worldwide scale but we will not hear about it because the new bosses will not be some hotheaded crooks from Brooklyn.  They will be men who can operate on an international level.

Tony Accardo aka "Joe Batters"

Al Capone consolidated the Outfit in Chicago and streamlined it, but his kind of flashy rule wore out its welcome.  The new bosses knew that to much publicity was bad for business.  They knew that the politicians would take their money for gambling but not drugs, so they stopped it.  Tony Accardo or Joe Batters would rule the family for many decades without spending a night locked up.  He would die a free man but his Outfit would face many problems in the future.  The new leaders would forget some of the lessons they had learned from the past.  They still have some guys on the streets but can they rebuild the family? 

The LA Family has maybe 7 or 8 guys left but how active are they?  They could go the way the Gambinos are headed, but they would need some solid men to step up.  The major problem with all the Mafia Families is where they find recruits.  Contrary to what is written in the media, it is not pressure from new criminal groups at all that holds back the mafia families.  Most of these groups will not even be around in 10 years. No criminal group controls the drug trade or things like prostitution, that is bullshit.  The old boss Peter J Milano came from another time when Italians were looked down on and many were poor.  Today this is not true, they have assimilated into American society.  

I used to talk with Jimmy Caci for hours in Terminal Island and he would talk about how messed up things had become.  Jimmy gave his life to the Mafia and at the end he told me it was a waste.  Jimmy did about half his life in prison for the Mafia. In the end Jimmy had just his family and real friends.

Hollywood will keep churning out Movies like The Gangster Squad or any number of TV shows about Mickey Cohen or Whitey Bulger but it will be the same stuff.  Guys dressed in suits screaming at their underlings. Bad writing and they wonder why people don't watch their work.

I never saw Jimmy or Teddy Persico raise their voice at a single guy in their Crew,  Hang arounds or guys who were chased, sure they would dress them down, but they would also really hurt someone, not just bark.The truth is Sammy The Bull lied out in the open and nobody really went after him.  Sure they made some moves and pretended to go after him but it was his own drug dealing that brought him down.Once you flip and join Team USA you are safe.

The Mafia will be around for a number of years but I believe that you will be hearing less about them.  The smaller families will disappear because who in their right mind would want to join them?  The bigger families will go international and it will be years until we find out what they did.

All we have to do is look at history. For many years there were no real stories.  They found out about Murder INC from Abe Reles and he spilled his guts on how it worked but he was limited.  Then you had Joesph Valachi and he had a good understanding about the structure of the Mafia.  Then it was Jimmy Frattiano from Los Angeles and he really put it on the map.  Its been one book after another and we had an actual boss flip!  Joey Massino of the Bonanno family is the biggest to flip up to today.  Why would a lowly Soldier keep his mouth shut when bosses flip.

The future is in their hands!

Colombo Family - Mafia Take Down Day (Part I)

Teddy Persico Jr aka "Skinny"

I had taken the trip to Spencer Street many times to see Eddie Garafolo at the Big R truck yard, but this particular day when I pulled into the lot I never reached the trailer that doubled as the office. Standing near a truck cab covered in grease was Teddy Persico Jr, who at the time was street boss of the Colombo Family.  Teddy quickly walked over to my truck and we started talking.  Teddy wanted to know what was going on, what I had going with a Manhattan company that sold phone time.  Teddy was trying to get a handle on how much money his other associates were making from the business.  Teddy Persico Jr had just gotten out of State Prison after 17 years on a drug charge.  Prior to prison, Teddy was a mover and shaker, a soldier who ran his own crew.  His crew specialized in drug dealing and robbing drug dealers. As we talked, he had no idea I was wearing a wire that was going to send him back behind bars.  Unlike most of the mafia associates I dealt with in New York, I liked Teddy.  He was a straight shooter, he didn’t bullshit, he did what he said he would do, and he was tough as hell.  I enjoyed being around him.   But I always kept in the back of my mind that he was a Persico.  

Eddie "the tall guy" Garafolo

Teddy was not one of my original targets, He was lucky (or unlucky) enough to get his sentence reduced after they changed the drug laws in New York State. My main target was Eddie Garafolo and his Uncle Manny.  Eddie was the son of the Edward Garafolo Sr who Sammy the Bull Had killed so he could take over his business. Teddy fell into the investigation because he was a partner in Eddies Big R trucking. Teddy Persico Jr was the Nephew to the long time Colombo boss Carmine "Gimpy" Persico Aka The Snake.  Teddy was cousin to the Acting boss “Allie Boy” Persico and son of Capo Theodore Persico Sr.  Teddy’s father, Capo Theodore Persico Sr was on the panel that ran the Colombo family.

That kind of pedigree doomed Teddy from birth and made the FBI very interested in what he was up to within the family.  Teddy was living on borrowed time the minute his trip home from prison was planned because Eddie and Teddy's brother Danny "The Town Drunk" Persico put me in charge of the entertainment for his four hour trip home from upstate New York.  The FBI knew that he was going to a meeting as soon as he arrived in Manhattan. Teddy's first stop was at the Bruno Magli store where he was upset that they no longer carried pointed toe dress shoes.

Edward "The Tall Guy" Garafolo was an active associate of the Colombo Family who had done a lot of things for them. He had done some Pump and Dumps on Wall St for the Family and when the indictments came down he was in the wind.  He spent a lot of time in Las Vegas because he loves to gamble.  While there, he hung out at the Crazy Horse Too with Johnny “Greens” Faraci’s son.  Eddie even made it to La Jolla California where he hid out in a luxury beach community.  He came home and was given some house arrest and parole, so he went to work for one of his relatives in the porn business in Brooklyn.  He would also become involved with the same phone business as I would later work with in the city.  Eddie took a large sum out of the business and started Big R trucking, which was named after his son Rocco.  He ran it out of Bonafide Fuel Oil’s truck lot in Downtown Brooklyn.

Eddie once told me that he was living in Florida when he had the worst day of his life.  He got word his father had been gunned down in Brooklyn. Eddie liked to talk and I was there with my wire to get it all on tape.  I used to head out to Big R trucking in Staten Island a couple of times a week to see Eddie after he moved the company there. I would have my devices running and I would capture all those who joined in our conversation. One of the men I would capture was Steve Marcus who was a partner in the trucking business with Eddie, and also a Gambino family associate on record.. Steve Marcus had been friends with Eddie’s father, and had known Eddie for over 30 years.  Because of these conversations with Eddie and Steve, the FBI was also able to tap their phones and do other surveillance on them.  I left Brooklyn in 2005 after I had gotten plenty of tapes on Teddy, Eddie, Steve and Uncle Manny but the FBI did not take down Eddie or Uncle Manny at that time.  They did choose to take down Teddy, his brother and his cousin.  Teddy was becoming increasingly violent and erratic.  Strangely enough, Eddie skated on charges when we were in his truck headed to take care of Craig Marino.  I wondered about how he was able to get away from all I recorded because he was with us when we were in Teddy's mothers house discussing Craig and George who was Craigs lackey. He helped plan the limo ride home for Teddy and he helped his Uncle Manny with stuff in the phone company in the city. The FBI takes its time and they make great cases after they give you enough rope to hang yourself.

You would think that Eddie would have been smart enough to stop for awhile after I left Brooklyn but greed and arrogance has that effect and he kept it up.  When I was in Canada and no longer going back to Brooklyn, Eddie called me and wanted to know where I was staying. Eddie actually told me that he was thinking about taking a ride up there to see me.  How stupid did he think I was?  Eddie was going to drive to Toronto from Brooklyn to see me.  

Next week more on Teddy & Eddie’s demise.