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.

Breakshot Re-Release!

Breakshot Re-Release!

This week my first book Breakshot: A Life in the 21st Century American Mafia has been re-released.  The new version has some updated material and is also available for Kindle.  

It occurred to me when I was proofreading this version for typos, that many of those I wrote about are now dead.  The whole 1970’s Los Angeles mafia family is now gone.  

They tried hard to rebuild the family but the lack of a talent pool and the constant assault by the FBI made it an impossible task.  That part of my life is over now too, but I am thankful that I was able to sit with those men of a bygone era and hear their stories.  Soon the only record left will be those that learned from them.

The dream of having a casino on the Las Vegas strip that started with Jack Dragna and Jimmy Fratianno is dead.  Bobby Milano and Jimmy Caci wanted to have a Titanic themed casino but that died with Bobby and Paulie, the boss of the Denver family.

Jimmy Caci spent his whole life as a criminal, and yet if he gave you his word he would keep it.  If you were around Jimmy you could not swear if there were ladies present.  Jimmy had some great stories from Buffalo, New York.  One I was thinking about today. Jimmy and another guy were cutting into a safe at a clothing store when their lookout signaled to them that a cop was coming.  It was a beat cop on foot and Jimmy was in the display window.  Stores used to put their safes in the front hoping it would deter safe crackers. There was no way Jimmy could get out of the window in time so he posed like the other mannequins until the cop passed.  The cop never gave him a second glance and they soon cracked the safe and took off.  Jimmy would laugh when telling that story.

I wrote about Danny Persico in Breakshot because he was there at the time.  He has passed away and it is a shame.  He was harmless and he was a young guy.  I have no ill feelings toward him at all.  I hope when Teddy Persico gets out of prison he does something else with his life.

Some people just cannot learn from history so they keep repeating the same mistakes. Michael Mazzara, Charles Kerrigan and Anthony Mascuzzio are just those people.

They were part of a bank robbery crew that cut their way into bank vaults after bypassing the alarms.  They would break into buildings next door, or go through a roof and then cut their way into the vault.  They would then bust into safety deposit boxes, trashing sentimental items but taking cash and jewelry that totaled five million dollars at least.  A lot of people will not be reporting what was really in the boxes, so I am sure the haul was much larger.

Anthony Mascuzzio seems never to learn his lesson.  He had a father who was with John Gotti, but was shot dead trying to shake down a disco. Battista “Benny” Geritano a former of the “Night Drop Crew” is his stepbrother.  I wonder where Anthony got the idea to rob banks?  

The FBI and task force has been watching the crew. They installed a camera on a pole across from Michael Mazzara and Charles Kerrigan's home.  They also had a cooperator in the crew who gave up their cell phones.  They traced the phone near one of the banks they burgled.  It was pinged off towers within a block.  They caught them on video with the same red car that was used in the bank job pulling into a property next to theirs.  They also have video of them driving away with plywood in a truck that was later found at the bank.  They got them buying fire extinguishers and water buckets on a credit card. It should be noted that the red F-250 pickup truck is registered to a relative of Michael Mazzara.  They have video outside the banks with them and even though they wore hats and hoodies they were recognized.

The broke into Maspeth Federal savings bank in May where the haul was 296k in cash and 4.3 million out of the safety deposit boxes.

They hit the HSBC bank in Brooklyn in April and they are believed to have hit at least 8 other banks.  This is an unfolding story.  It will be interesting to see who the informant is and who goes down.

Colombo Family Mafia Take Down Day (Part II)

Official Complaint & Indictment

Why do the Feds use guys like me to infiltrate groups like the Colombo Family? They do it because guys like me can go places they cannot and we have a long record doing various crimes over the years. If they put an Agent into the situation they cannot fake guys knowing him since Juvenile hall days.  In the past before the RICO ACT and the use of Infiltrators, they would only take down those low on the totem pole.  If they got a boss like Vito Genovese or Al Capone it was groundbreaking.  The use of RICO, Infiltrators and electronic surveillance put an end to the Boss being untouchable.

Eddie Garafolo

I would record Eddie and Teddy every time we met.  This paid off and continues to pay off today. I would meet at places like the Fuel Oil Truck lot in downtown Brooklyn that Eddie was using for his trucks.  My wire would record everything and I would make mental notes of the locations of where we spoke, where Eddie met guys, etc.  This way the FBI could go back and plant bugs or use other surveillance techniques.  I drew a diagram of the Fuel Oil Truck lot on a pad of paper right after I left it for the first time.  I did the same when I went to Big R Trucking on Staten Island the first time.  I would identify each person I caught on tape for the FBI and that is how Steve Marcus started to be watched.  I also went into Teddy’s home and his mother’s home with my wire and later drew diagrams.

As a result of my recording Steve Marcus, the FBI also turned Steve, and he started wearing a wire.  He then had Eddie ask Teddy to get him transferred from the Gambino Family to the Colombos.  Steve was on record with the Gambino Crew as an Associate.  Eddie was caught on tape speaking to Teddy about it and telling Teddy that Steve had better come up with cash for him.

Teddy Persico

Using my recordings and Steve Marcus’s recordings, the FBI started putting together a massive RICO Case that would be the center of Mafia Take down day.  One big fish that was caught on Steve’s recordings was Michael Persico. Michael is not a made guy in the Colombo family, but he is the son of Carmine, the boss.  Michael was always the smart business man who held the purse strings for the Colombo family.  He was never made, but he was a very important conduit between Allie Boy, Carmine the Snake, and the rest of the family.  He was still a very high level gangster who they felt they were protecting by not officially inducting into the family.

Thanks to Steve Marcus, the FBI was able to use the full complement of electronic surveillance on Michael, phone taps, video cameras, car taps, etc.  These bugs caught him conducting Colombo family business and collecting on six figure shylock loans.  The FBI was able to snare Michael in shylocking and in trying to rig trucking bids for large contracts.  Once again, Teddy was brought into these charges because he was a major participant in the trucking business.  In the indictment the FBI charged Teddy and Eddie with conspiracy to commit murder May 25, 2004.  That was a tape I recorded in a car heading to a Bay Ridge restaurant.  Another count of the RICO charges was the participation of many Colombos, minus Eddie, in the murder of Joseph Scopo.  The fact that Teddy was already well into his prison sentence when the murder took place did not prevent him from being involved.  He had been furloughed from prison to attend his grandmother’s funeral.  At the same time, the murder took place.  

That was not the only murder conspiracy charges that Teddy was facing.  The man who had put Teddy away for the murder charges in the first place, another informant, was shot in front of his house in Brooklyn while Teddy was locked up.  Teddy and one of his friends who was incarcerated at another prison enjoyed writing letters to each other.  In a number of the letters Teddy wrote, he mentioned the murder.  The FBI was unaware of the ongoing penpal relationship, until decades later, when Andrew DiDonato informed the FBI that the letters existed.  They went to the former pen pal (now a free man) and surprised him with a raid of his house, where they found every letter from Teddy perfectly preserved.  

Carmine Persico

Meanwhile, Teddy’s cousin Michael was also charged with participation in one more murder.  The victim was unfortunate enough to be dating Allie Boy Persico’s ex wife.  The Colombos warned the victim to back off, but he did not head the warning, so they shot him in his garage.  Michael took a global plea deal along with Teddy and Eddie.  Michael ended up getting less than 5 years.  Teddy got another twelve years to add to his previous two decades behind bars.  Eddie Garafolo pleaded guilty in order to spare his wife (who participated in the trucking business) a long sentence, and when he is sentenced he will likely receive a decade.  Crime does not pay.  What good are the millions hidden away when you are in prison?  The FBI still has a number of infiltrators working in the Colombo family.  As long as the crimes continue, so will the recordings, charges and prison sentences.  

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.

The LIFE BLOOD OF ORGANIZED CRIME.

So you would like to start your own Sports Book. That can be hard unless you live in Nevada, Atlantic City or on a Reservation.  Plus, you will need millions to get it started. The good news is you can still start your own Book, and it is being done everyday all over the country.   

The best advice I can give you regarding gambling is never gamble. Its a sucker's play, the house always wins. You may have a good run, but it will grind you down.  The best Bookies never play EVER.

What action will you take?  The old Mafia Bookies took bets on Horses.  Today unless they are huge races, don't waste your time. There are four races: the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes, the Preakness and the Breeder’s Cup. Those you can take action on, but use track odds and you will also take in some smaller bets but it will be easy and it pays. In New York they had the OTB (Off Track Betting) and somehow they lost money!  It is kind of like the Lottery.  For years Organized Crime made a ton of cash in the Numbers games.  Now that states run them, they cost millions and they do not give as much to schools as they say.

In America, Football is king.  That goes for NFL and College games. Then there is Baseball. I love to take action on Baseball because the game is slow and I enjoy it.  A lot of Bookies close up shop for Baseball season. Hockey is a game not many people bet on in Los Angeles, but hey, why not, and if you live in a cold climate take the action.  Boxing is another sport that has few bettors unless it is a big pay-per-view fight.  Where you live will determine how much boxing action you should take.  The new fast growing sport of MMA is great for bookies.  It is fast paced and there is a clear winner.  You can take action on many aspects not just a knock out, but a Submission a kick etc...Then you also have Golf, Soccer and Nascar.  

What types of Bets?

The Straight Bet- The most basic of bets.  Lets say it is the Los Angeles Lakers vs San Antonio Spurs. Who cares who wins the game.  If I bet a straight bet, I only care who covers. The Lakers score 102 and The Spurs score 98.  Whoever took the Spurs wins! The Lakers did not cover the spread! The Lakers need to score 103 to win by 4.5 points. Some of your bettors may want to buy for 10 dollars on every 100 on top of the vig.  This would have paid off in this case.

• San Antonio -4.5 -110
• LA Lakers +4.5 -110

Moneyline- This means you just bet the team that wins.  It is simple but it does not pay off well.

• San Antonio   -190
• LA Lakers   +160

Over/Under- This is very simple. It is the total scores combined.  

• Over +187.5 -110
• Under

Parlays- This means the player will bet multiple games and teams and all his picks must win.  It pays off big but it is difficult to win.  It will make you money.

Teasers are great because again the player has to win both games he plays and pay juice!

Exotics-These are bets like who wins the coin toss, first round knock out etc.  

There are many more types of bets. Things to remember regardless of what action you decide to take: the gambler will always lose.  The edge is always with the house.  If a player is on a roll and wins 50k in a week, pay him. My rule as a bookie was always pay, no matter what.  When I give him that payout, I will put anything on it I would soon earn it right back, plus double, because he will keep chasing that big win.

I liked to settle up on Tuesdays.  I was taught that way, so I did it.  Most action was taken over the weekends. If someone lost, he will want to recoup some of his lost money, hence Monday Night Football is so popular!

I would only have my guys meet players if we were owed a thousand or more or if we owed it.  Some smaller books have different numbers, those were mine.

Today gambling has changed so much. There is no need to get a bunch of hardlines or a telephone system for a room.  You can get an 800 number for cheap and have it forwarded to a cell phone and then roll over to another.  A lot of guys use Offshore rooms, I did use those but sometimes the people working were hard to understand and were not that good.  

Getting set up Online combined with local Agents is the best for what I needed. I had a site and I had other bookies as Agents they would get their clients to post (deposit)  Then I would credit their account or they would tell me what to credit their clients. That way the could go online and bet whenever they wished.  If they lost or won they would meet their guy on settlement day and collect.  It is the same as a regular local bookie only now they have an option.  Plus with the service they can see the lines for all the games.  You used to have to call and ask what the line was at the time.  The papers print it but it may change.

Book Making is easy and it makes huge money.  You just have to balance your books and you will never lose because you get the vig no matter who wins, that is the fee you take for the bet.  If you are a Bookie it is up to you to look over your players.  If you have a guy who is a waiter and is married to a waitress you cannot allow him to bet more than a hundred or so.  If he gets in over his head its lost.  If a guy owns a couple of used car lots he can bet up to 10k because he can pay.  If someone gets in over their head, cut their debt and get a payment.  It is stupid to threaten players for a debt. Its all "Air" money anyway.  In other words you are not out any product.  If you sell cocaine, you bought it so you are out that money.  If you front it and do not get paid then you are out real hard money.  So if a player does not pay just write it off.  I used to just say oh well now you cannot bet with us or anyone I know.  The business is real small and if you let people know a player is a deadbeat it works!  A Gambler that cannot gamble is lost.  Gambling is a great business and it supplies the cash for so many things.  It also goes hand in hand with my other former favorite way to make money, Shylocking or Loan Sharking.  The funny thing is, even today I see these payday loan places and they charge the same rates! Usary!  More on this another time.

The San Diego Crew

1975

The man seated at the table in front of the cafe did not fit the stereotype of a Hollywood Mafioso.  The roly poly man in the ill-fitting suit was Frank Bompensiero.  Frank Bompensiero was at one time the Capo in charge of the San Diego area for the Los Angeles Family. After being demoted, he later became a soldier in the family.  Frank lost everything when he was sent to prison in 1955 on bribery charges. He had been caught using his connections with the State Board of Equalization to get liquor Licenses for bars, which brought in big money.

On this particular day Frank was sitting, sipping on his coffee, a cigar stuck in his mouth, contemplating revenge.  Gone were his bars: Maestro Music, the Algiers, the Cadillac, his connections, and his position as Capo in the family.  

A smartly dressed man approached the table and Frank stood up and shook his hand.  The man sat and they begin to talk. There was another man in the car the man had emerged from, also taking in the situation.

The two men are Special Agents with the FBI and Frank is their informant.  What would lead this lifelong criminal, former Capo, a killer, to work for the FBI as an informant?  I am sure money was not the motive.  Maybe it was the fact that he spent 5 years in State Prison. It was during that time that nobody from the LA Family helped out his family. He was not given a cent for his wife, kids or himself. He was loyal to Jack Dragna, the boss, and he had killed plenty of people for the family. Jack Dragna had died of a heart attack while Frank was locked up.  Desimone had come to see Frank while he was locked up, trying to earn his vote for taking over the position as boss.  Frank told him he did not want him to become boss.  Desimone became boss anyway, and then demoted Frank to soldier.  

I am fascinated by this move by the bosses in the Cosa Nostra.  They demoted guys or put them on the shelf when they are away.  When they get out they do not help them. Where is the honor? I had a Capo say to me, “That a guy was a loser, a brokester.”   When I brought up the fact that the guy did 9 years for the family, he just laughed.  That Capo is now taking his turn “away” and is sick, so lets see how he does when he gets out.

Frank was giving the FBI tidbits of information, just enough so they would stay off his back.  One of the important things he failed to tell them about was Tamara Rand.

Tamara Rand was a wealthy business woman from her career in real estate.  She was married to a prominent doctor in San Diego.  She had also invested largely in Las Vegas Casinos before it became the corporate playground that it is today.  It was the playground of the Mob.  

She had loaned 500K to Allen Glick, the owner of Argent (which had received Teamster loans to buy 4 Casinos: the Hacienda, Fremont, Marina and The Stardust).  Tamara thought she was buying 5 percent of his Casinos.  When Glick did not honor his part of the deal, Tamara filed a lawsuit.  She was about to open the books of the Casinos.  That would have been bad because of the Teamster Loans and their corresponding Skim that was kicked back to Chicago, Kansas City, Detroit and Milwaukee.  

Frank Balistrieri, the boss of Milwaukee, went to Chicago to see the Bosses and told them about Glick’s problem.  They sent word to their man out West - Tony Spilatro.  

So, Tony enlisted his friend in San Diego, Frank Bompenseiro, and together they cased Tamara Rand’s home.  On the afternoon of November 9, 1975, Tamara had left work early to get ready for dinner with her husband.  Somebody was waiting for her inside her home.  When she came into the kitchen, they struck her with a 22.cal pistol with a suppressor. The sound would be like a cap gun not like the sounds made in the movies.  They shot her five times, including one shot under the chin.  Frank would later tell Jimmy Frattiano that he had driven Tony Spilatro to the Mission Hills home. Since both Frank and Tony were killed by their families we will never know the whole story.

Why would Frank do it?  He wanted to be transferred to Chicago but Sam Giancana did not take him.  More likely, he wanted to get his foot into Las Vegas be part of the skim or maybe get a gift shop.  Frank had hated Johnny Roselli because he did not help him get in the Chicago Family and he felt that Rosselli had gotten his reward for a killing.  Roselli had gotten a couple of gift shops in some Casinos. So Frank had decided in revenge to feed the FBI information.  The more the LA Family treated him badly the more he informed. That is until FOREX.

Los Angeles 1970's

Gambling Racket in LA

The gambling plot started while Nick Licata was still boss of the LA Family.  He was sick at the time and he would die in October of 1974 in a hospital in Santa Monica.  The Underboss Dominic Brooklier was running the family day to day so he was in fact the acting boss.  They wanted to get some more gambling places up and running.  

John Vaccaro and John Ludlow Dubeck came from Las Vegas to run a restaurant on Sunset Blvd.  It was in a well known high rise office building.  John Vaccaro had a long history in gambling that could be traced all the way back to begninnings in New Orleans. In fact, he would later serve time for cheating slot machines in Las Vegas.  They opened an after hours gambling spot on Sunset Blvd at the restaurant Forget about the fact that the house always wins, they decided to hedge their bets.  They had card games and table games like craps. They also had John DocJon Deems.  DocJon was a wizard with cards and dice.   

They set up the games and the split went like this.  Luigi "Louie" Gelfuso and Pete Milano would get 20% of the profit.  Gelfuso the guy who worked at Nick Licata’s bar and now in Milano’s would later find locations for the games which included a house in the San Fernando Valley.   I met Gelfuso later in life and I liked him. He came to los Angeles from Providence, Rhode Island and he fell right in with the guys.  He was very close to Pete and Carmen Milano but he was a loyal guy.   Gelfuso's job was to provide security and collect markers from those who didn't have enough to cover their losses. John Vaccaro was to get 50% and he was supposed to cut in Dubeck and a lawyer named Calaway.  Vaccaro would run the game and the lawyer would provide legal services.  

Everything of course went bad because being Mobsters they were short sighted and greedy.  People started to complain about being cheated at the tables and that is a bad thing when you have an illegal casino.  They had enough problem just getting people to the games.  This was a Milano crew game and Milano was in charge because it was his crew.  Louie's son Michael Gelfuso told me about setting up the tables and the games. Being in his twenties at the time he found it exciting and fun.  The problem with Gambling in LA is that the LAPD Vice Squad knows everyone and when people get cheated they complain to LAPD Vice Squad and they come down on the guys running the games.  Soon LAPD and the FBI raided the games. Milano had a bail bonds business and he posted bonds for those guys who were picked up at the games.  

Things soon became even worse for the LA Family because the Feds took down everyone for running the gambling business and they had a star witness.  The star witness was John Ludlow Dubeck and he knew more than enough to put everyone away.

Things do not always work out for the good guy in life.  Sometimes they turn out bad.  Early in the morning of March 19th 1974 in Las Vegas John and Francis Dubuck returned from working the late shift at their jobs in a casino.  John was a shift manager and Francis was a cocktail waitress.  They were tired when the parked their car in their space and began the short walk to their apartment.  They had just walked into the garden courtyard when a man dressed in dark clothing stepped out of the shadows and let loose with two shots from a sawed off shotgun. He was so close he could not miss either person and they were both killed. They were scheduled to testify in the upcoming gambling trail of the LA Family.  They had been offered Witness Protection and refused. They had probably felt safe in Las Vegas since there had been no mob killings in the town.  It was against the commission rules to kill in Las Vegas because it would bring heat and unwanted attention to the Gaming Capital.  So the LA Family must have gone to the commission for the okay.  It was probably through Chicago because LA and the Cleveland family were close to Chicago.  This was the first of the major killings in gangland done with a shotgun. This is a big deal because there would be a large number of people killed with 22 Cal pistols.  The other killing would come two years later in California and that was when two men in a van blasted turncoat killer Joseph Barboza with a shotgun.

This is just the start of the killings that would come and be connected with the LA Family. The LAPD gave them the name the Mickey Mouse Mafia but they could kill. Louie and Michael Gelfuso have passed away.  Pete Milano passed away.  I just found out that Docjon Deems passed away.  Docjon contacted me years ago and sent me a dvd that he made. He was a facebook friend and his page is still up.