Patsy Parrello: Genovese Oldfella

The mafia never stops delivering a story. I often wonder what to write about, but every week I have a few fresh stories to choose from.  This week is no different.  

The FBI really screwed up their big mafia takedown that was all the news last summer. They arrested 46 people from various east coast families, all interconnected.  They snared some big fish, like one time Philly Boss Joey Merlino and Genovese capo Pasquale (Patsy) Parrello.  The FBI had some issues with their informant and at least two special agents working on the case.  The majority of those picked up during the sweep have opted to take generous plea bargains offered by the US Attorney’s office.

Parrello is one of those who decided not to roll the dice and plea out this week. He copped to three counts of conspiracy to commit extortion for sending guys to collect his loanshark debts.  He will face between five and six and a half years in federal prison.  This deal is a far cry from the 60 years Parrello was facing for three racketeering counts he was charged with.

The FBI had a confidential human source who was close to Parrello and Merlino.  He recorded hundreds of hours of tape, but they failed to debrief him properly and some other problems came to light.  So rather than lose the case, they group was offered reduced charges.  

Merlino, who has spent a lot of time in prison, has not bitten on the deal as of yet.  Merlino was still on supervised release and did time for a violation while the FBI was making this case.

Parrello, a Genovese family capo and the owner of Pasquale's Rigoletto Restaurant on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, is no stranger to trouble.  In 2001 Parrello was charged in a 98 count indictment of embezzling funds that totaled more than one million dollars from Local 11 and Local 964 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters.

He and some other Genovese used S&F Carpentry, a unionized company based in Tuckahoe, N.Y., To pay and use non union workers.  They destroyed payroll records and threatened members of the union if they complained about non union workers on jobs.

He would end up doing a 7 year sentence for that case.  

This case involved having his guys attack a panhandler who was bothering people outside his restaurant. Threatening debtors, running gambling and other assorted scams.

Most people would be happy with just owning Pasquale's Rigoletto Restaurant.  The problem is, Parrello is no normal person, and I suspect if he lives till the end of this sentence it will not be the last we have heard of him.

For any of you who have not been to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, it is worth the trip.  It is the real Little Italy, unlike the three small blocks called that in Manhattan.  Stop by Pasquale's Rigoletto Restaurant, they put out a great plate.

Bonanno Capo Vincent Asaro, known for his involvement in the famous Lufthansa airlines heist made famous in the movie Goodfellas, is a degenerate gambler who lost what little of the loot he got from the robbery.

Last year he beat the case the government brought against him for the robbery and murder.

He is now locked up on another case.  This week the government claimed he wanted to have the federal prosecutor on his case murdered. The Feds do not want him released on bail because he reportedly told another defendant in this case, ‘we need to take care of this bitch,’ and not  to ‘f**k it up like Vinnie.’  He was referring to Vincent Basciano, the boss of the Bonanno family who was taken down by the former boss of the family who recorded him while they were locked up together.

Like I said, the mafia always delivers!

The Purple Gang and Michael Meldish

There have been few hits ordered or carried out by any of the five new york Families in the last few years.  They had a moratorium on murder because of all the heat it causes.

Vinny Basciano as temporary boss of the Bonanno family ordered  Randolph "Randy" Pizzolo murdered and it caused him all kinds of trouble.  The Boss Joey Massino wore a wire on him and got him to admit his part in it.

Michael Meldish controlled a group of crazy thugs called the Purple Gang that were aligned with the Lucchese, Genovese and Bonanno families.  They took their name from the Prohibition Era gang also known as the Purple Gang or the Sugar Gang that operated in the Detroit area. A lot of former members have been absorbed into some of the five families. They controlled a lot of the drug trade in Harlem and the Bronx during the 1970-80’s. Meldish was also believed to have carried out at least 10 hits during that time.  Others talk about his involvement in many more murders.

It can be no surprise that Michael Meldish was murdered after getting out of prison and returning to his old ways.  He was found shot to death in his car in November 2013 in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx. He was in the passenger seat after being executed by a passenger.  

The list of people who wanted him dead is long because he pissed off many powerful people over the years.  It is being said that the underboss of the Lucchese family Matty Madonna may get wrapped up in this murder.  Michael Meldish was said to run errands for him, but they had a falling out.  I hear Michael Meldish didn't care what anyone said and he wanted to do his own thing.  It is all about cocaine and who controls Westchester and Bronx cocaine territory. It is being said that it was being mostly run by (westside) Genovese guys at this point.  

What I have heard is that the Lucchese family got the Genovese family's okay to take out Michael Meldish. The only problem is the guy who is charged, Christopher Londonio, killed him only a block away from where some Genovese guys like Ralph Balsamo, Patty Falcetti and others hang their hats.  The Genovese might have given their blessing, but no way did they want it around them.  Sounds like Londonio might have some problems if he gets out of this situation.  

Londonio is going to have to use all the good will he has with Matty Madonna if he is ever on the street again.

Londonio could always blame it on the guy who law enforcement claim pulled the trigger, Terrance Caldwell, an associate.  Caldwell is also charged with shooting a Bonanno guy,  Enzo “The Baker” Stagno, in the chest, but he lived.

These guys were active and brought in cash for the family.  Look at the price drugs cost everyone.  You deal with low lifes and loose cannons that go to guns and start slinging lead at the drop of a hat.

The future of the Mafia is with crimes like gambling, loan sharking and fraud.  

Crimes that draw less attention.  The headlines are not so big when it's just a gambling bust with no bodies.

A Capo Conversion and an Unchanged Boss

It would seem like every week there is something new in the papers about the mafia.  This week Joey Merlino was back in the news because the guy who wore a wire on him was revealed.

It turns out that the main informant was John Rubeo, a Genovese family associate who was with Genovese capo Patsy Parrello.  Rubeo found himself in trouble and was facing major time, so he went to team USA. In the age where bosses, capos and soldiers are flipping on those below, why wait to get flipped on?  He was kept busy because the government has over 800 hours of taped conversations.  He may have even taped Parrello looking to seek revenge on an Albanian gangster he thinks murdered his son.  

One thing is for sure: he recorded Joey Merlino a lot because they were together often.  Rubeo was sent by Parrello to work with Merlino in the prescription fraud, sham pain cream business.

Once again Merlino is done in by his own greed. He once told another associate that he would like to move to Florida not to get out of the Mafia, but to run a crew there.

The man he said that to was a criminal just like he was at the time.  Bobby Luisi Jr. was a capo under Merlino.  So much has changed in the decade since.  The two men both did prison time and yet they are now on different paths.

Luisi was arrested in a sting for selling 3 kilos of cocaine to an undercover agent in Boston, where he was running the Philadelphia family crew.  The informant was sent to Luisi from Philly by Merlino.  Luisi was running a large enterprise of gambling, shylocking and drug dealing.  He was kicking back $10k a month to Merlino from his Boston crew.

Some time in 1998 Luisi felt the needed for change in his life, and he found God. At the time what could he do? Tell the guys in the family, “Hey, sorry, I’ve had a change of heart.”  That would have put him on the fast track to a shallow grave.  As he was trying to figure out how to straighten out his life, he was arrested for selling cocaine and ended up in prison with a 15 year sentence.

It was while in prison he studied and earned his theology diploma.  He started a Bible study for inmates.  Once released, Luisi was relocated to Memphis Tennessee where he worked as a plant foreman until he became a full time minister.  Today he uses his experience as a criminal gangster to help others find a personal relationship with God.   

On the other hand, when Merlino was released he moved to Florida where he was charged for violating his parole for associating with a made member of the Philly family.  Merlino is looking at another decade in prison or at least a few hundred grand in legal bills and another case.  

Pagano

Daniel Pagano, also known as Danny, was taken down this week by Rockland County Law Enforcement and the FBI for shylocking and Illegal gambling.  Danny has lived the mafia dream,  something like the American dream.  Danny was born into Mafia royalty because his father Joseph Pagano and his brother Pasquale Pagano were inducted into what would later become the Genovese Family back in the 1940's.  

They would be in Anthony Strollo's crew, which at the time was one of the biggest heroin and cocaine crews on the East Coast.  They also had a member of the crew that would become famous as the first Mafia turncoat to give up the name of the organization and its structures.  That man, Joseph Valachi, gave up everything to the FBI after he committed a prison murder.

Joseph Pagano was not just a Bronx gangster.  He branched out as far as England where he worked with the Famous Gangster twin brothers, the Krays, and Joey Pyle.  The U.K. had made gambling legal and the US Gangsters were ready to get a piece of that action via junkets from the East Coast to London.  One of the Kray brothers traveled to the US where he had dinner with Joseph and a young Danny.  Later, the younger Pagano would branch out into the record business where he again worked with London gangsters.

One of the old Genovese gangsters, who is still alive in New York City, once spoke about it over calamari in Columbus Circle.  He recalled the Krays and Joey Pyle, the music business and the Paganos.  When Danny was away for his part in the Gas Tax scam, the old guy would visit him often.  Danny was able to get one penny out of every gallon of gas sold during the years of the gas tax scam and one of the groups he worked with stole at least 77 million dollars. He would stop a hit by other Genovese against a Russian gangster who was involved in the Rasputin Restaurant in Brighton Beach. Danny would get a 9 years sentence for his part in the Gas Tax scam.

Danny is a class guy as many who knew him well have told me.  When one of my friends who was away with him in the Hudson Valley Correctional Center got home, there was an envelope with a grand waiting for him from Danny.  The Genovese have always had a big hand in the boxing game and Danny was one of those who kept it going.  He got close to the Reverend Al Sharpton, who the FBI caught during an investigation they dubbed “Crown Royal.”  According to the New York Times, the FBI had an audio tape of Al Sharpton and this convinced him to become an informant.  It has been said that he gave the FBI information about meetings in Joe Pagano's basement.  He did meet with Danny Pagano, Michael Franzese and an undercover FBI operative in order to get a meeting with Don King.  Danny never returned the favor and when he was summoned to a Congressional Hearing on corruption in Boxing he never said a word, so the Feds gave him dose of Bus or Diesel Therapy.  This meant that they moved him all over in buses instead of flying him.  When he left his hair was dark and when he returned to prison his hair was all gray.

In the latest indictment, which seems thin at a mere 11 pages (maybe there is more to come), they have him running a bookmaking business for the Genovese in Rockland County. The DA first got a wire on him and then went to the FBI which got him paying guys in his crew from their bookmaking business.  The racketeering charge also includes some threats by a guy in his crew to an unnamed man because he ripped off a marijuana load.  Seems kind of a waste for bookmaking when we have major problems in the US that could use the attention.

The Paganos have the same problem as a lot of infamous gangsters, people use their name to gain.  A few weeks ago I wrote about the murder of Irwin Schiff.  Irwin was using the Pagano name before he was murdered by another Genovese crew.   Out here in California there was a guy I used to write about in Orange County, Pat "Mumbles" Fonderella, who used to drink and snort so much coke he peed on himself, that would drop Danny's name like he owned him.  Pat was full of shit, but some of the bad guys he hung around with weren’t.  I think those guys saw through Pat’s bullshit because Masterblaster aka Mike and JD are still out there doing their shylocking and bookmaking.

Extra:

Susan DeSantis Ferritto, real mob widow and author of "Ferritto: An Assassin Scorned knows something about the satisfaction of revenge in its highest form. Her late husband Ray Ferritto was responsible for brutal bombing death if the infamous Danny “The Irishman” Greene and the downfall of the Cleveland regime as the public knew them.