Anthony Colombo Dies

Another one bites the dust.

This time it is the son of Joseph Colombo, the original man the Colombo crime family is named after. The one time boss of the Colombo crime family brought a lot of unwanted attention to the Mafia by forming a civil rights group. His son Anthony was the vice president of the Italian American Civil Rights League, which rallied Italians to the streets to protest the unfair treatment of Italians.  They were group that bullied the producers of the Godfather to remove the words “mafia” and “La Cosa Nostra” from the movie.

That all ended when Joseph Colombo was shot in the head and neck by a man named Jerome Johnson during the Italian Unity Day Rally. Johnson was wrestled to the ground and shot, but nobody was ever convicted of his murder.  Joseph Colombo remained paralyzed for the next seven years, until his death in 1978.

Anthony Colombo was a made member of the Colombo crime family, and when the war between the Persico faction and Vic Orena broke out in 1991, he choose to side with the Orena faction.  Carmine Persico was the boss of the family and Vic Orena was an acting boss who did not want to step down for Allie Boy Persico, who had been locked up.  

The war in the streets of Brooklyn and Staten Island left 12 people dead.  A number of associates also went missing.  The Colombos were barred from the Mafia Commission and most of its leadership was sent to prison.

After the war, Anthony Colombo and Gerard Clemenza, both Made members of the family, were put on the shelf by the Persicos. Which means that although they were still members of the family, they were to have no business with the family and other members were told to ignore them.

So Anthony, Gerard and Christopher Colombo formed the Colombo Brothers Crew in Orange County, New York. It was basically a traditional mafia crew that operated on its own.

Philippe Dioguardi, also known as “Fat Philly,” was a man I knew from Palm Springs, California.  He used to be with Jimmy Caci, a capo in the Los Angeles family.  He was involved with Jimmy and the guys so we used to see him a lot at the club on Palm Canyon Drive.  He was a long time friend of the Colombo brothers and Gerard Clemenza.

One day I was with Jimmy at a bagel place in downtown Palm Springs and Fat Philly came to sit down with us.  Vince Lupo ended up at the table too.  Philly explained that he was going to move to Queens.

Fat Philly became part of the Colombo brothers crew.  He was called a “bagman” by the prosecutors in the case.  Fat Philly would pick up cash in Manhattan and bring it to Anthony Colombo’s home. The problem was the organised crime squad was watching and listening to the crew.

They all ended up being charged with racketeering in the Southern District Federal Court.

The Indictment was the usual: gambling, extortion, loan sharking, etc, but they were also charged with defrauding the internet advertiser Doubleclick.

Anthony Colombo plead guilty to, among other things, getting Fat Philly a no show construction job with EDP Enterprises.  

He received 14 years.

He died at his home in San Diego, California at the age of 71 from complications due to diabetes on January 6.

Chickie DeMartino

The Colombo War did a lot of damage to the family.  Last week I told some of the Michael Persico story.  A lot of those crimes date back to the war and the FBI keeps getting these guys for their crimes.  One of those surviving a long sentence is Vincent “Chickie” DeMartino, but he went on trial with Wild Bill Cutolo and crew for their part in the war.  They were acquitted of the racketeering charges.   

Chickie had a long history of run ins with the law starting with his first prison stint.

In 1984 Jack Graziano, Gabe Scianna and Chickie were dealing in stolen cars. Jack Graziano was supposed to distribute the proceeds but he didn't do it quick enough so Chickie told him he would kill him.  The FBI had a wiretap and caught this on tape.  Chickie and Gabe went to Jack's home with baseball bats and smashed every window in his house along with his car.  One of Jack’s children was hurt by the flying glass.  

A five man hit team was waiting for Vic Orena, Boss of the rebel faction of the Colombo Family, Vic spotted them and was able to drive away before they could shoot him.  One of those on the hit team was a Persico loyalist named Hank “The Bank” Smurra.

Chickie was fresh out of prison for a bank robbery conviction and he had just been inducted into the family. He had decided to stick with the rebel faction and he became one of their most ardent supporters.  

When the rebels decided to hit one of the Persico’s most dangerous Capos - Greg Scarpa, Chickie was on the hit team.  Chickie was in the van that brought the shooters to Scarpa’s home.  He charged out with the others but one of the men was nervous and his gun went off when they were getting out of the van.  Greg Scarpa was able to drive away.

They decided to go after Hank Smurra who had been with the hit team that let Vic get away. Hank was in Sheepshead Bay getting some donuts with Mike “Black Mike” Calla when Chickie walked up to the car and blasted him.  Black Mike was able to run away without getting hit by the shots.  

He was in on a planned hit on two of Greg Scarpa’s men, but while they were waiting one of the team’s pistols misfired, so they called it off.  Chickie was running and gunning until he was arrested with a pistol along with others.  The whole time Chickie was running around blasting people he was on parole.  

Chickie’s run came to an end after the Colombo War.  He had a long time beef with Joe “Joe Campy” Campanella so after Wild Bill Cutolo disappeared, he lobbied for the death of Joe Campy.  The Persicos gave him the hit.  So he had his associate borrow his wife’s blue mini van and they caught up with Joe Campy on the beach.  Joe was placing a beach chair in his trunk when the blue van stopped and the door slid open.  Chickie let his hate for Joe Campy overcome his common sense so he yelled “Joe Campy” before firing, and this gave Joe time to raise his arm and run.  He only wounded Joe Campy and there were a lot of witnesses, so it was not to hard to track the men down.

Chickie will be released from Butner FMC on January 1st, 2025 and he will be 69 years old.  Maybe age will slow him down.  Chickie was beaten up in prison by John Baudanza and a friend, but knowing John, he “Japped him”

Colombo War: A Father-Son Story

I write about the Mafia in its true form.  You can read it and see for yourself what is true, or you can choose to believe what some know-nothing Hollywood scribe churns out.  I love to read and laugh at books by a newspaper writer or a scholar, who has never lived the life.  They only know what they read or are told.  How many crews were they with?  I write about what I know and my information comes from who I know.  

The Colombo Family I know and the players I know.  Wild Bill Cutolo aka Billy Fingers or just plain Dad to Bill Cutolo Jr was a charismatic Colombo family Mobster who shot to the top by playing it right. Nobody knew him better than his son Bill Jr. Bill Cutolo Sr disappeared on May 26, 1999 in Bayridge Brooklyn.  

The main players on the dark side of his life story were Allie Boy Persico (the son of Carmine “Gimpy” Persico, aka The Snake), Jackie DeRoss, Tommy Geoli and Dino Saracino.   

Jackie DeRoss

Allie Boy Persico

In 1999, Bill Cutolo Sr was the underboss of the Colombo Family. The signs began showing in early May of that year when Jackie DeRoss was making rounds in Brooklyn asking guys what they had going with Bill Sr.  This was a move by the then Capo Jackie to try and get a grip on some of the rackets Bill Sr controlled.  Joe Campanella or Joe Campy (a made member of Bill Cutolo Sr’s crew) saw what Jackie was doing and spoke about it to Bill Jr.  Joe Campy was reluctant to share his thoughts with Bill Sr because Bill Sr had been best man at Jackie DeRoss’s wedding.  Joe didn’t want to stir trouble between two friends, so he went through Bill’s son instead of directly to Bill Sr.

Bill Jr also had a bad feeling when he heard the news from Joe Campy.  Bill Jr had been at his fathers place playing pool when he saw an old fashioned popcorn machine he had never seen before, and asked his father about it.  Bill Sr told him Allie Boy Persico the Colombo Family Boss had sent it over as a gesture of good will.  This did not sit well with Bill Jr who had never liked Allie Boy and felt that he could not be trusted because of his weak girl like handshake.

Earlier in the same decade (1191-1993) Vic Orena and Bill Cutolo Sr had led a civil war for control of the Colombo Family but had lost.  A lot of the men sided with them in this fight against the ruling Persico clan because many felt the Persicos had run the family into the ground.  The Persico's, led by the imprisoned-for-life Carmine Persico, had benefited from their murderous Scarpa Crew faction led by Greg Scarpa.  Joe Campy had been with a team of shooters that had failed to murder Greg Scarpa after the opening shots of the war.

Bill Cutolo Sr aka Wild Bill

The war lasted two years until the violence became so bad the FBI and NYPD stepped up prosecution on the family. By that point twelve people had been murdered and sixteen others had been wounded.  The other four Crime Families in the City asked the Commission to end the war because of the added heat from law enforcement it was drawing.  The Persico's had won overall, but at a huge cost.  The family was in shambles and no one was making any money because they were all spending their time fighting.  Contrary to popular Hollywood mythology, the soldiers in the war were not taken care of by the higher ups, and most families were given less than $200 a week and had to resort to survival on food stamps, as they had no life skills to get regular jobs.  The Persico's moved Bill Cutolo Sr to the number two position of Underboss as a “gesture of peace”.  In reality, they were following the old adage of keep your friends close and your enemies closer.  

Bill Cutolo Jr

On the day Bill Sr disappeared he had last spoken to his son that morning.  He planned to get a haircut and go to his union office.  When Bill Sr. walked into his union office, his personal secretary, Kitty, received a call from a man whose name she did not recognize, but Bill Sr. said to go ahead and put through to him.  A few minutes later Bill Sr walked out telling Kitty he had to attend a meeting, and gave her no other details.  Later the same afternoon, Bill Jr beeped his dad several times and got no response.  Bill Jr instantly realized something was not right, so he called his mother who had spoken to Bill Sr. earlier and he had told her he was on his way to a meeting.  Bill Jr knew his dad’s schedule of meetings, and was aware of a big Colombo family administration meeting the following day, but knew there were no meetings scheduled that day.  He continued to beep his dad all afternoon and evening, and tried his mother again around midnight and found she had still not heard from his dad but was not too concerned.  

To be continued....