Take Down 46

Another week in the life, and this week the FBI took down 46 guys from a number of families for various racketeering charges.  The names you will recognize, because these guys just never seem to learn.  

Jimmy Caci, who was the street boss of the Los Angeles family, told me a few months before he passed away that the life was not what it was supposed to be. It had gotten out of control and there was no honor or loyalty anymore. This was after my first book Breakshot had come out.  

So here we were, sitting at a diner and he is speaking to me.  I felt sorry for him because he was a relic from the past and his time had passed.  Jimmy was originally from Buffalo, New York and he knew the long time boss Stephan Maggadino.  He was on good terms with all the guys in the family when it was at it’s peak.  Jimmy grew up in a different time.  A time when Italians were looked down upon. Boxers used Irish names to get fights, and most policemen were Irish.  The mafia served a purpose then, but now it may be one more thing, like Sears, we do not need.

You can read more about Jimmy in Breakshot, which has been re-released.

Joey Merlino was the one time boss of the Philadelphia family.  He may still be boss, but he is in custody again. Merlino has spent more than half his life locked up. He is the son of former underboss Sal Merlino and is also nephew to soldier Lawrence Merlino, both of whom are now dead.  

Merlino has gotten away with murder but he just cannot seem to go straight.  Some guys just never get it.  

In better times Joey Merlino was out in Los Angeles with Johnny Fratto getting chased by TMZ. Merlino was out to speak about selling his life rights to a well known movie producer.  Maybe this story will go into the new Johnny Fratto book that Randazzo is working on.

The new indictment charges many of the guys with bookmaking.  They again used offshore websites, but did business here in the US under the name Costa Rican International Sportsbook. One of those charged was Daniel Marino Jr., a friend of Colombo Craig Marino and son of a Gambino heavy weight.  Many years ago Daniel was hiding out at Joe Dente's home in Los Angeles.

This time the indictment has a couple of crimes we have not witnessed in an indictment in a few years.  Healthcare fraud: where they had doctors prescribing an expensive compound and charging insurance companies.  They were also smuggling untaxed cigarettes into the New York area, where they were worth three million dollars.

They had a casino style gambling spot in Yonkers where they hosted poker and other card games.

John Lembo, a name that was well known to those around back in the stock fraud days, was busted for setting up credit card skimmers.  Lembo was a friend of Eddie Garofalo and Craig Marino.  

The FBI had an undercover agent deep inside that worked with Genovese guys and Joey Merlino.  They also had a cooperator wired up the whole time.  How many more will flip is still to be seen.  The majority of those arrested face up to 20 years, but this indictment seems to be missing the normal murders and other violence.  They are charged with assaulting a homeless man who was bothering patrons of a restaurant on Arthur Ave.  They did threaten to choke a guy out, but it does not read as bad as the others I have read.  I bet everyone pleads out for a lot less time.

One guy arrested is Ralph Balsamo, a Genovese guy.  Why he does not just run his family's funeral homes I have no idea.  I bet Balsamo has some more problems that are going to come up soon.  Stay tuned.

Danny Cutaia

I have written a lot about John Baudanza and people always want to know more.

John married a girl named Danielle Cutaia who had a father who was a Capo in the Luchese family.

Dominico "Danny" Cutaia

Domenico Cutaia aka Danny had come up in the Luchese family under the legendary Capo Paul Vario who will forever be known as Paulie from Goodfellas.  Paul Vario was a real gangster who had a vast criminal empire that even brought him to California where he had his hands in a porn business and a card club.  Danny was his trusty driver and served him well. So Paul did right by him and he was made into the family.  I’ve spoken to a few guys and they have no idea how or why he was made.  He was made and later he was made a Capo and he even served on the panel that ran the family.  Danny was a bookmaker and he had some scams, cash on the street, shylock but what did he do?   This was a question I asked some guys from Brooklyn and they had no idea.  They said either he was really good and had it going on or he was doing nothing.   Danny liked to drink and he used to be at  Turquoise in Bayridge getting his drink on while John Baudanza kissed his ass.   To be fair to Danny he had guys who brought in cash like Robert Arena, John Baudanza and his son Sal who was a bookmaker.  He was also close to some very rich legitimate guys.

One night I went out with John Baudanza, his buddy Nicky, Dayton, Belladonna and Keith (Eddie Garafolo's cousin). We were in the city and we hit a few clubs and while at one John had a little problem, so Nicky and I took the guy down.  We left the club and headed to the Westin Times Square where we had two rooms.  Nicky and John were so drunk they had no idea how to get there, so I drove us all there.  It was John and Dayton, Belladonna and me, Nicky was just there for the ride.  When we got there John made me check the room to make sure it was okay. Then they started drinking in Dayton’s room and John was trying to get rid of Nicky. I left to chill with Belladonna next door.  This was at about 3am on a weeknight.  I started getting calls about 5:30am from George Fenelli, Craig Marino and then Eddie Garafolo asking where John was and to get him home.   John's wife was calling everyone and at this time Danny was doing a short stretch for a gambling beef so his wife was living at John's home.  I finally went next door and pounded on Dayton’s door but I got nothing.  I was called again by Eddie and this time I kept pounding on the door until Dayton opened it.  John was passed out but I told her that he had to get home.  She woke him and I went downstairs to get him some hair gel so we could put him in a town car.  I caught a lot of shit from the Colombo's for John's mess, but I just laughed it off.

Dominico "Danny" Cutaia 

A month later John was holding Court at his place Plush in Bayridge on a Wednesday night.  He had his whole crew there and even his father Carmine came by the place.  Dayton was the only female present and I was surprised that the now free Danny was also there!  John was no longer bringing in the big bucks from his Pump and Dump stuff or the Phone company scam.  He had a party store and they were trying to get a new weed business going.

Steve "Wonder Boy" Crea

Danny had come along way from being  Paul Vario's driver.   After Paul passed away Little Al D'Arco took over the crew and he became Danny's boss.  Little Al had done time for Heroin dealing but now he was a huge shylock with over a million dollars on the street.  He was a rising star in the family because his friend Vic Ammuso had stepped up as the boss of the Lucchese Family.  The Commission Case had taken out the top leadership in all the New York Families.  They lost not only their leaders but the brains behind the incredible run of the Mafia in America.  Little Al was soon dealing with the Unions and Danny was learning first hand how to deal with them. Steve Crea was the main guy in the family that worked the construction trade and this brought in the most cash.  Vic Amusso and Gaspipe Casso were soon on the run and Little Al was now the acting boss, so he appointed Danny to help run the families construction panel.  He also had Danny take over a Brooklyn crew and now Danny was a Capo. He was always jealous of Brooklyn Gambino Capo Nicky Corrozo because Nicky was a stone cold gangster.   The family went through some really bad times with Vic and Gas soon Danny was the main guy who gave orders from Vic to the rest of the family. I guess this was Danny's stroke of luck.

Things do not look good for Danny.  He is finishing up his sentence in a Federal Medical Facility where he has suffered a stroke, advanced MS and Alzheimer's but we all know about Mobsters and their health problems. I suspect this one is for real, it is all the years of hard drinking and hard living catching up to him.  He will be free in October of this year.

Dominico "Danny" Cutaia

John Baudanza better hope he lives long enough to set him up in something good.

FBI Surveillance Photo

John & Craig

John Baudanza and Craig Marino are two badged guys in the Mafia.  John Baudanza is a Lucchese Soldier and Craig Marino is a Colombo Solider.

They started out hanging around Bruno Facciolo and Joe Scopo at Bruno's horse stable.   Bruno had some horses and he would meet guys down at his stables.  John and Craig were just kids but they were already trouble.  John had been in a tagger crew called BPB or Bay Parkway Boys. Craig was from Mill Basin so he was with the Mill Basin Boys.  They were both close to future Gambino Family murder victim Robert Arena.

John Baudanza (locked up)

Bruno Facciolo was a badged member of the Lucchese Family in a crew headed by Paul Vario of Goodfella's fame.  It has been said that he was one of the guys who did away with Tommy DeSimone on the day he was told he would be inducted into the family.  Bruno was one of Paul Vario's heavy guys who put in a lot of work for the family.  Bruno would later be murdered by some fellow Lucchese Family Mobsters after the corrupt so-called “Mafia Cops” told the family he was an informant.  He was lured to a garage in Brooklyn and stabbed to death.  He was then stuffed into the trunk of his car with a canary in his mouth.  It would come out later that the Mafia Cops lied and he was never an informant.

Bruno Facciolo

Joe Scopo was a rising star in the Colombo Family because he knew how to make money.  He learned how to work the Unions from his father Ralph Scopo, a made guy in the family, and the guy who took care of the bosses in the Concrete Club.  The Concrete Club was really just members of the Commission who took 2% from any concrete job in New York that paid over 2 Million Dollars.  This was also part of the Commission Trial (the trial in the late 80s when all of the NY bosses were convicted of being part of a commission that oversaw mafia corruption across the country).  Ralph was hit with a 100 year sentence and he would die in prison.  Joe Scopo followed in his fathers footsteps and handled the Unions for the family.  When the Colombo war started he was a Capo on the rebel side.

John Baudanza and Craig Marino were his drivers and bodyguards. They were over at Wild Bill’s house during the war with Joe. So they were in the mix with the Colombo's. They were not with Joe when he was gunned down in front of his home October 22, 1993.

Joe Scopo's murder was again part of Mafia take down day.  A couple of Persicos were charged with conspiracy to murder Joe.

John and Craig were also very close to Anthony Casso Jr, the son of Lucchese boss Gaspipe Casso who would himself flip and become an informant. There are rumors of a fight in a diner where a guy confronted Casso Jr and when he went outside John or Craig blasted the guy 9 or so times.  The guy lived and Gaspipe was pissed about the whole thing, that they would shoot someone over nothing serious.  They had another friend named Freddy D who asleep on his couch after a long night and was shot dead.  Robert Arena their friend was killed and they did nothing.  

Things would change for John after Joe Scopo was killed.  He was locked in with the Colombo's because of his Uncle and his father Carmine who was a long time Colombo Associate who I hear was badged.  John fell in love with Danny Cutia’s daughter (Cutia is a Capo in the Lucchese family) and soon they were married.  Cutia, who was on the panel that ran the family, had John placed in his crew.  John had things going for him for awhile.  He had an auto body shop and then he moved on to stuff on Wall St.

Craig had gone with the Colombos and he was close to Joe “Waverly” aka Cacace who would be underboss for a minute.  

Craig Marino

Craig Marino's name was placed on a list that was handed out to other famlies to see if there were any objections to getting their badge. One problem: Craig was written down as “Graig” Marino.  The other problem was that the FBI got a hold of the list after a drunken Persico left it laying around.  Craig was inducted into the family, but some people still had bad feelings for him because of the war.  Craig was soon in control of a number of brokerage firms around the city, Brooklyn and Staten Island.  One of the guys who ran them for him was his younger brother Lance who ran Barron Chase on Maiden Lane.  Lance would prove how stupid he was by climbing on top of a drunk friend’s Range Rover and then letting him drive off “car surfing.”  The ride was short for Lance, and that was end of him.  

Craig would get involved with a golf course and that all went bad after the FBI started looking into the deal.  

When I was in Brooklyn, he was involved in Zone Chefs a company that delivers healthy food to customer’s doors.  They did well, but Mafia business never takes a back seat and he soon turned back to criminal enterprise.

John Baudanza made some money with stocks and he soon got involved with the same telephone business that I was part of on Maiden Lane.  John also became an acting Capo around this time.  He then decided that he could do better than the company and he and some of his guys took some equipment and the account for St Marten.  He ended up blowing it and the whole deal went bad.  

John Baudanza

Things had gotten so bad that John asked his friend Georgie to hide his truck at his grandmothers house.  Georgie had the truck hidden but the repoman still found it. So an acting Capo had no car for sometime.  He then had a party store and was doing driveways in Staten Island.

John even tried to get into the Mortgage Business with his friend Jerry Degerolamo but that failed.  Jerry D was another long time Lucchese associate whose father is also a long time associate.  They robbed an armoured car for 3.7 million dollars in 1989 and after Gerard Degerolamo was sent to a Federal Prison where he walked away with help from his son Jerry.  They then planned to rob a cash filled depot by shipping a small associate in a box to the depot.  It seemed to go well but the guy in the box had recently been busted for a small crime and had already flipped.  The FBI took them all down.

Jerry, along with John Baudanza, started a fake hedge fund that was called America's Hedge Fund, L.P. in Eltingville. It was a nothing but a fake fund where they just stole people’s money.

When I was with Teddy Persico Jr and Eddie Garafolo in the truck headed to 4th ave to get Craig Marino, Teddy was talking and my wire was on.  He told me that Craig had done some bad things in the Colombo war and that he was on the wrong side, but now he was with good people.  He also said Craig was all good now meaning he was an inducted member.  We were going to deal with Craig (who I liked - but when asked by a Persico to do something you have to do it).  Eddie and Teddy both pled out to this charge earlier this year.

John Baudanza took a plea for the pump and dump and other charges he received 7 years. He is now in Allenwood Medical Facility where he is sick and will be released in 2015.  A lot of guys in the family do not like him and if his father-in-law dies, who knows what he will do.

Craig Marino took a plea for everything, including the pump and dump that got him 10 years. He is in Fort Dix until 2016.  Craig had moved to Florida before his case so who knows where he will go when he is released.

Andrew Didonato: Life in the Gambino Crew Part 2

Bank Robbery is a full time job. If anyone tells you it is not it is because they have no idea. Andrew, no longer able to work with the same guys he had always worked with now that he was wanted for absconding on his parole, hooked up with a serious crew.  These were Genovese guys and they would take their time looking for a big score so they didn't have to step out more than once a year on a job.

And rew would get up early and go watch an armoured car depot. The crew had a tipster inside that gave them the truck to follow. They watched it make its scheduled drop at the bank they were studying.  They learned that the bank employees, busy when the cash delivery arrived, would store the bags of cash behind the counter until later when they would move it into the vault.

The members of the robbery crew were friendly with an old guy who lived a few miles from the bank.  On the day of the robbery, they staged at the old guys house. The getaway car was parked in back of the bank and the driver was the old guy.  Andrew went in, jumped over the counter and grabbed four bags that had been dropped off earlier that day and had not been moved to the safe.  While they were inside a women saw them and ran screaming outside. They walked past her and got into the car and ducked while the old guy calmly drove away.  They knew the police would set up roadblocks.  They heard later that they were looking for the crew and a woman.  They thought that the woman was part of the crew!

They would hide out at the old guys house until the heat died down.  They opened the four bags and only two of them had cash.  There was still over 400,000 dollars to be split up amongst them.

Andrew’s world was getting smaller by the day. He was wanted and Nicky Corrozzo was having guys reach out to the Genovese Crew to see how much cash he was making.  Nicky was not happy that one of his men was pulling in cash and not giving him a cut.  No matter what Andrew was facing or how much he needed, Nicky wanted his end.

This is the way the Mafia works: money flows up, never down.  Back when Andrew needed $5,000 to pay his Lawyer he had asked Nicky for a loan and what do you think Nicky said to him?  Nicky said "You are not a good investment at this time" That is always nice to hear from a guy you have been loyal to for many years.

Years before when Andrew had gotten out of prison he had asked permission to whack out a guy who was really bad to a relative. Nicky had given the okay, so his friend and fellow Gambino Crew member Mikey Yanotti came up with a plan.  They would call the guy, who was a plumber, and they would tell him that Mikey had a problem in his place.  Mikey lived in a three story apartment home and his place was in the middle.  There was a stairway down to the garage from his place so it was private.  They would have him come up through the garage and when he did they would kill him.  They decided against it in the end for whatever reason.

Around the time of the bank robbery, Mikey Yanotti called him and asked him to come by his place.  Andrew went to Mikey’s place.   They were upstairs and just when they started to talk Mikey put his finger to his lips and pointed at the ceiling (Meaning his place was wired) He motioned for Andrew to follow him down to the garage.  Andrew could not help notice the lights were off, so as he walked behind Mikey he fingered his pistol in his waistband.  He thought for sure that someone was waiting to pop him in the dark, but as he got towards the ground there was some light and he could see the place was empty.  They went outside and Mikey talked about what they would do to the Luchese Crew that was after him.  Mikey was talking about Danny Cutia, Sal Cutia, John Baudanza and Craig Marino (who was a Colombo).  John and Craig had asked Robert Arena where Andrew lived on Staten Island like they were going to do something to him.  I personally know both of those guys and the only thing they are capable of is shooting their friends in the back. As Andrew stood talking to Mikey, the only thing going through his mind was that this entire conversation is window dressing, and Mikey had just pulled a dry run on him to see if he would play along.  The next time he was invited over to “talk” the real hit would take place.  It reminded him a lot of their old plot to hit the plumber.

Andrew went out on a score with another crew soon after this incident, he was hoping to raise some cash fast.  This was not an armed robbery but a bank burglary.  They went and stole a piece of heavy equipment from a construction site to bust out a night deposit box and chute.  The bank was in the Bronx and they had cased it good. They went there on the night of the burglary and the idiot kid driving the machine accidentally drove it through the wall!  He didn't use the scoop to bust open the chute as planned, and pretty soon the building collapsed.  They had to make a run for it! No cash on that job.

Andrew laid low from the cops better this time than he did after a previous shooting he had done on the streets.   The previous time he had flown to Los Angeles and then taken a plane to Las Vegas and from there a bus to Laughlin. This was in 1988 and Laughlin was a small dusty town with only a few hotels.  Andrew was there with his dad hiding out and had just gotten to sleep when there was a loud pounding on the adjoining door to his room. Andrew was sure it was the Feds coming to grab him and take him back to New York.  The pounding grew louder and a voice was screaming,”What are you doing in there!”  Andrew jumped out of the window and started running down the street in his underwear.  It didn’t take long for his father to yell at him to get back in the room.  Andrew was already pretty far away and people started looking at him in his underwear with bare feet. It turns out that an elderly couple had the room next to their room and maybe the guy had never been in a hotel before because he thought the door was another part of his own room.

The more experienced on-the-run Andrew stayed low in the tri-state area.  Nicky would have meetings at diners at 3am or later in out of the way places in order to avoid the Feds.  This was a good idea because the FBI likes to work 9 to 5 Monday through Friday.  He sent for Andrew one night and they met at a diner.  Nicky wanted cash from the Bank jobs to pay some legal bills.  They spoke about the Lucchese Family problem and his troubles. Nicky was pissed because of the headache Andrew had caused him, and he didn't even make anything from it.  Then Nicky wanted Andrew to bring the kids he had been getting cash from drug deals to meet the crew.  Andrew knew right then that they were going to kill him because in all the years Nicky had never asked him to meet anyone.  He never needed to meet them, because he had Andrew to be the middle man.  Andrew knew that it was only a matter of time before the Genovese crew would have to give him up to the Gambino's (Nicky) so that was the end of his run on the street as a bank robber with the Genoveses.