Lucchese Crime Family's New Jersey faction

Away from the mess that is New York, the New Jersey faction of the Lucchese family has been able to get some pretty good money making ventures going.  

Nicky Scarfo Jr. and his crew infiltrated a mortgage company and stole millions.  I think Nicky Jr. is down for the count this time. Who can tell because strange things happen in the mafia world these days.  

I hear that a certain spouse of a Mob Wives personality is free at home.  The strange thing is he no longer shows up on the BOP search.  They still have dead guys like Greg Scarpa, so this is strange.  Today guys get busted and there is no case and yet their partners go down.  You would have to be crazy to work with anyone today.  There was a murder on Staten Island last week which may be something, or not.

This is why I am writing about Ralph Perna Sr. and his three sons.  Ralph was a top capo that stepped in for Nicky Scarfo and was in control of a ultra lucrative bookmaking operation.  The operation pulled in 2.2 billion in bets.  Even if they were stupid, somebody took vig in the neighborhood of 220 million.  The State and Feds have not announced any huge seizures of cash.  

Ralph Sr., Joseph Perna and John Perna each plead guilty to first degree racketeering, gambling and money laundering charges in June.  

They were part of a massive bust that took down 34 of their co-conspirators including some Blood Gang members in 2010.  Ralph Perna Jr. still has his charges pending at this time.  

Ralph Sr. will get 8 years while Joseph will get 10 years, but the charges against his wife were dropped.  John Perna was given 10 years also but all of them will be eligible for parole after serving half their time.  

They got a pretty sweet deal considering who they are and what they were charged with by the state.  

Their lawyers were able to get the judge to remove all references to violence from their pre sentencing reports.  Even the wiretap evidence of them making threats to collect debts had to be dropped because it was not in the plea deal.  

The Bloods Gang and Joseph Perna stuff had to be taken out because he did not plea to helping them smuggle cell phones and drugs into a prison.

There are still 20 others awaiting their time in court on this case.  The case has gone on so long that 3 men have died in the time since they were taken down.

This seems like a huge waste of New Jersey’s time.  They have casinos in the state and Lotto.  Nobody is ever forced to place a bet with a bookmaker.  Why do all the games have odds if they do not want you to bet?

Demolition Mafia

In New York City when a building goes up, they usually have to use a demolition company to take down the old buildings.  One of the keys to controlling the construction business is to control the trucking of materials.  The disposal of demolition and construction waste is a huge business in New York.   If a company wanted to dispose of the material legitimately, they would have to have it hauled very far from from New York City.  

The Mafia families have no problem with this.  They find a large piece of land that they can use as a dump and they start bringing in the trucks.  The more loads, the more they make.  If they had to haul the waste far away, it would cut into their profit.

The Gambinos had one dump site in an old rail yard in the Bronx where they brought in load after load of waste.

The Lucchese family found a landowner who owned land in Pennsylvania just 80 miles from the city who let them dump there.  They told them they were dumping clean waste. What they were doing was filling up a large impression with junk and covering it with dirt.  This dump brought in over $30k a week to the Lucchese family while it was open.

When I was in New York I went with Eddie Garafola to a dump site in New Jersey where he had trucks coming in, dumping, and a bulldozer covering the waste with dirt.  It was in some nice New Jersey swamplands.  I also know that they were paid on other occasions to take concrete to be recycled, and instead they just dumped it.  

They did it at every project including Shea Stadium and the World Trade Center site.

Eddie Garofalo Sr and his brother Manny were experts in this field.  The New York authorities called them the James brothers of the carting industry.  

Eddie G Sr. had demolished four buildings in Times Square before he was gunned down in front of his home by some Gambinos.  The State was looking into his activities just before he was murdered.

The Lucchese Family also had another dump with the Genovese family in Westchester County that was a huge money maker.  They turned it into a toxic waste swamp, the neighborhood started to complain and the State came in and seized trucks.  

They would end up murdering their guy Mike Salerno, but his illegal dumps were Lucchese owned property. That family did not care about anyone’s family. They felt that anything a wiseguy in their family owned or was working was Lucchese family property.

When Paulie Vario of Goodfellas fame died the new bosses Vic Amuso and Gaspipe Casso wanted to take his property for their own.  Never mind that Paulie had been earning his whole life, even before these men were inducted into the family.  

It is a good thing that Gaspipe’s front man took his home in Mill Basin after he went away.

Dumping waste is a huge business with a lot of cash at stake. The Mafia will always be in it, as long as there are corners to cut and cash to be made.

Local 580 & Murder

John  Morrissey was the business agent for Local 580 of the Architectural and Ornamental Ironworkers Union. He helped the Lucchese Family and three other New York families steal millions of dollars in kickbacks from replacing windows for the Housing Authority.  They would rig the bids so they controlled the millions of windows that required replacing every year.  The Mafia would get 1-2 dollars per window replaced by the companies they controlled.  If an outside company replaced windows they would break them or send unproductive Union workers to do the work.   The Mafia families all profited off this scam for over a decade until a Genovese associate named Peter Savino who handled the scam started working for the FBI.

John, also known as Sonny or Sonny Blue, was a tough Irish Union man.  He was a longtime Lucchese associate and helped his friend Vic Amuso, the new boss of Lucchese family, get up to speed with the scam.  The problem was that Sonny Blue worked closely with Peter Savino for years.

Savino had done more than a dozen hand-to-hand payoffs, all observed by the FBI, with Sonny Blue.  When I was working with the FBI and we had to exchange cash or payoff someone we would pick the place if possible.  If the target picked it, I would relay that to the FBI and they would thumbs up or thumbs down.  I would say can we meet someplace closer blah blah.  The FBI would ring the area with surveillance vehicles and agents.  Then they would get it all on tape.  If the area was too crowded they would use vehicles with remote cameras.  I would try to do the hand off in the open or in a place where they could get confirmation.  This would seal guys (like Uncle Manny Garafolo) fate.   Then again, he was only given a very light sentence.

Back to the Lucchese Family.  Under Vic Amuso and the crack head Gaspipe Casso, they operated the family through fear.  That is no way to run any business.  Nobody felt they were on solid ground. So when Vic and Gas got confirmation from the other families that Savino was an informant, they had to take action.  They could not get Savino because he was in WITSEC, so they started murdering people who they felt were weak and would lead to them.

This put the tough Irishman Sonny Blue in their sights, even though he was never close to flipping.   They gave the contract to Capo Fat Peter Chiodo, a man who could weigh between 450-550 lbs and was 6’5”.  They told him: Sonny is talking, make him disappear.

Fat Pete grabbed his associate Tommy Irish to drive Sonny Blue and himself way out to Morris County, NJ, where they were building a housing development to meet with Vic Amuso.  Sonny Blue was happy to see his friend, so he was very relaxed.  Once they arrived at the site they all walked into a model home they were using as an office. Once inside, Fat Pete left to find Vic and then another associate walked up behind Sonny Blue with a silenced pistol.  Sonny Blue turned and saw what was happening and he yelled, “I Am not a rat!”  The man fired and then the pistol jammed. Sonny Blue lay on the ground in pain saying it hurts, hit me again.  The backup shooter removed a snub nose pistol and fired 4 times but it did not kill Sonny Blue.  He was still in pain until the man cleared the silenced pistol and finally killed him.  They used a backhoe to dig a hole out behind the home and they dropped Sonny Blue in it.  He would not be found until Fat Pete flipped.  He missed the windows case.  

This is another example of the poor leadership of Vic and Gas.  The decline of the Mafia starts in the leadership and then trickles down.

Scores Gentlemen's Club & the Gambino Family

Scores, the famed Gentlemans Club in New York City in the 1990’s, was a prominent feature on the Howard Stern show.  It secretly added millions to Gambino Family coffers.  How did it all start?  It all started with the takeover of National Heritage Insurance Company in Orlando, Florida by three businessmen and a New York Lawyer named Michael Blutrich.

Opening a stripclub seems to be a strange choice of business for a white collar lawyer like Blutrich. After all, he had been a founding partner in Blutrich, Falcone & Miller.

Blutrich committed fraud to help with the takeover of the insurance company.  Blutrich opened a fake bank account and then wrote a four million dollar check for the company that was no good at the time.  Once they gained control over the company they used it to cover the check.  He then was given a $300k loan from the company for Scores.  David L Davies, the new CEO of the insurance company, then put in $700k to become a secret partner in Scores.  Blutrich did not want to open another “Jiggly Joint,” one of those small seedy clubs that used to pepper Manhattan.  He wanted to open a really upscale club, like those that Miami club King Michael Peter’s Pure Platinum and Solid Gold clubs.

Scores would cater to the high end customer with huge TVs, plush lounge areas and the hottest girls.

In 1991, while building Scores, Blutrich was approached by a Gambino Associate named Mikey Hop, aka Michael Sergio.  Mikey Hop told Blutrich that he would have to pay to open a club, or he would be bombed.  Blutrich took it seriously so he started with a $1k weekly cash payoff.  The Gambinos wanted the coat check concession, the right to put in their own bouncers and the right to run the valet parking.  The coat check alone would bring in more than $200k a year for the Gambinos and the then acting boss Baby Gotti.   The coat check was run by Stephan Sergio, the son of Mikey Hop, who had the great nickname “Sigmund the Sea Monster.”  

The first year the club ran in the red, so Davies wanted out.  The Gambinos let Blutrich bring in another guy named Pfeiffer to buy out Davies and run the club.  

Meanwhile, the Gambinos had taken over almost every aspect of the club.  They decided who hauled the garbage and who sold supplies like toilet paper and booze to the club.  They got a cut from the door and they partied for free.

In 1996 Blutrich and Pfeiffer were indicted for looting the insurance company in Orlando, Florida.  The FBI raided Scores and their office in New York in another investigation into the Gambino family.  Blutrich and Pfeiffer decided to cooperate with the FBI and wore wires when meeting with the Gambino Family.  

Scores was grossing more than a million a year despite the payoffs.  The FBI placed hidden cameras in the Scores offices and they wired up everything including their cars.  They would get over 1000 hours of tape during the investigation.  They caught made Gambino soldier Craig DePalma in their net.  Craig was the son of Gambino Capo Greg DePalma and he was bringing Baby Gotti his end from Scores.

The FBI brought the hammer down on Baby Gotti and  39 others with the Gambino family in 1998 based on the evidence gathered by Blutrich and Pfeiffer.

Danny Marino, Gambino Capo

Danny Marino has lived a charmed life as mafia royalty.  Danny was born into the Gambino crime family.  Danny’s uncle was Gambino family Capo Carmine Lombardozzi, known as the “King of Wall Street.”   Carmine brought in a huge amount of money for the Gambinos through stock fraud and shylock loans.  He had been one of those arrested, along with Paul Castellano, at the meeting in Apalachin.  

Danny was arrested in 1963 at the funeral for Carmine's father, when he punched an FBI agent.  Danny has a track record for punching people.  Later in life he would be thrown out of a casino for punching a guy in the face.

Danny played the Mafia game very well, and when John Gotti took over the family he was a well respected Capo.  He was also working with the Genovese and Lucchese family to topple Gotti.

Gaspipe Casso claimed that he was in on the car bombing that killed Gambino Underboss Frank DeCicco.  A few years later when Sammy Gravano turned against Gotti and other Gambinos, Danny helped Gotti.

Danny and a few others had someone tap Sammy’s wife and kid’s phones illegally before the Gotti trial.  It failed to stop Sammy from taking the stand.  

I've written about Danny and Frank Hydell but he was not the only guy he tried to silence before they gave up family secrets. Danny conspired to murder Thomas Spinelli with other Gambinos, because they feared he would tell the truth to a Federal Grand Jury.

Danny was into construction racketeering, gambling, shylocking, extortion and murder.  He has had a few rough years since the FBI came down on the Gambinos.  It is well known that Junior Gotti had a proffer session with the Feds and during that meeting he gave up Danny Marino because he hated him.  

I know guys who were locked up with Danny and they all say the same thing about him.  He kept to himself and he was cheap.  The guy would never go for anything, he never helped new arrivals, Wiseguys or not.  Danny would never help himself, he would workout and walk around afraid.  Danny was not afraid of anyone there, he was afraid he would catch another case.

He was close to Jojo and Chuckie Russo but behind his back they called him Ricochet because he would bounce off the walls anytime he was called by the guards.

Danny is free now, and what role he plays in the family is not known.  He is old and he has money, so maybe he will just fade into the background or Florida where old mob guys often retire.

Sonny Franzese: Still Going Strong

Sometimes you can read transcripts and get a feel for what is going on in a courtroom, and sometimes you can tell from what is going on that somebody is cooperating.  Sonny Franzese was on another level.   At one time, he was seated in the courtroom a wheelchair and and needed a fresh battery for his hearing aid.  An FBI Agent from the C-38 Colombo Squad was about to testify.

The FBI Agent started to speak about John Franzese Jr who is a proactive source for the FBI.  He agreed to wear a wire for the FBI against his father.  Sonny found out that his son John was working for the FBI in October 2006.  The FBI found out from another proactive source, Gaetano Fatato, who was wearing a wire when Sonny found out.  Gaetano wore a wire from 2005-2007 and made 242 recordings over 1000 hours for the FBI.

Sonny was very upset and worried that John might say something about Tommy Gioeli, who was the street boss of the Colombo Family.  He feared that it would make it look like he condoned what his son had done.  Sonny was so upset that he went to Gaetano’s home to speak to him right after he visited his parole officer. Sonny had thought that he would be picked up but now he felt the FBI was leaving him on the street to make it look like he was also cooperating.

Sonny told Gaetano that there may be a time when he would have to call in his son in and then they would... (Sonny then made a pistol with his finger) Gaetano agreed that he would help.

Sonny had asked him a year before if he would be willing to kill if asked and he agreed.

Sonny spent a lot of time with Gaetano and one time he started talking about the old days and he told him he had taken part in possibly 60 murders.  At the time, Sonny was the 92 year old acting Underboss of the Colombo Family.  He had never had real job in his life.  John Franzese Jr. would live to testify against his father and other Colombo figures, and told of flying around in a lear jet with tons of cash when his dad was younger.

In some ways I feel bad for Sonny because his own son John testified against him.  I knew John when he was in California and lived at a drug rehab place.  The guy was always a loser and was always supported by his family.  Sonny’s other son Michael had been a Capo in the Colombo Family, but had successfully walked away from the life.  Michael would later become a Christian speaker.

In other ways, I do not feel bad for Sonny because he lived his whole life dedicated to the Mafia.  He lost two daughters, really his whole family because of the Mafia.  He made a life out of shaking people down.  The saying on the street was “His pockets are sewn shut,” meaning he would never go into his pocket for anyone or anything.  He always used his connections or someone around him to pay for things, every meal, every tank of gas, every little thing.  

The Government blamed him for glamorizing the Mafia in the media because he was spoken about in at least 15 books as a Legendary Mobster.  The glamorization comes from those in Hollywood who have never held a pistol, never struck a person, yet feel the need to make up Hollywood versions of the truth.  The truth is, he’s an old man who has lost his family, who committed many violent crimes against others in the same small crime world, spent over 50 years in prison, retains the respect of some, but the love of few.  I once asked a former Colombo capo friend of mine, “Do you know of any happy endings in the mafia?”  He thought about it for a minute, looked at me, and said, “None.”  You can can glamorize Sonny all you want, but its not a happy ending or a happy life.

Sonny is 98 years old today and has a release date of 2017 when he will be 100 and still owe 3 years of parole.

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 War: A Father-Son Story (Part II)

Bill Sr (Wild Bill)'s Club

Later on the same night that Bill Cutolo Sr disappeared, Joe Campy was at Bill Sr’s club.  When Bill Sr never showed up to his own club where he was known to never miss an evening mingling with his own crew, Joe knew right away that he was never coming back.

Later that evening Jackie DeRoss made an appearance at Bill Sr’s club.  From the way he was acting he confirmed Joe Campy’s worst suspicions.  Jackie began by asking various people if they had seen Bill Sr, and then he did something that seemed even stranger and out of place.  He began asking guys for their cell phones.  He would page Bill Sr from their cell phones. Joe Campy knew this was not a sincere move, because two months earlier, Jackie DeRoss, along with another Colombo higher up, had approached Campy and asked him if he would participate in the murder of Bill Sr.  This put Joe Campy in a very precarious situation.  He did not know if it was a trick, where he would go back and tell Bill Sr, or if it was a trick for the Persicos to get him to do it, and then kill him anyways.  He never committed either way and just kept his mouth shut.  The Persicos, after not getting an answer from Joe Campy, came up with another plan.  Allie Boy was getting ready to do an 18 month prison sentence for a problem he had in Florida.  So they informed Bill Sr that he would be appointed acting boss.  Bill Sr believed it.  He even told a few people about it.  So, the important Colombo administration meeting scheduled for the next day, was not only to make a few guys into the family, it was also supposedly to appoint Bill as acting boss while Allie Boy was away for 18 months.  Bill Sr was put completely at ease by believing this news, and didn’t question any of the strange signs that had been happening.  

Joe Campy

The following day, Bill Jr  located his dads’ car at a repair garage.  He wanted to get inside it and have a look.  The first thing he noticed in the car was a bunch of scuffs and foot marks that seemed to point towards a struggle in the front seat.  Bill Jr also wanted to get into the car to take a look inside a secret compartment where he believed his dad was carrying 50K in cash.  He couldn’t figure out how to open the compartment, so he would need to come back.  In the meantime, Jackie DeRoss told everyone to stay away from the car.  By now, the FBI and the police were also on the lookout for Bill Sr.  The day of his dissapearance the NYPD organized crime task force had been following Bill Sr, but had lost him over by the repair shop where his car was found.  The whereabouts of Bill remained a mystery.

The Persico’s were very afraid of Bill Sr because he was well liked by the rank and file and he made cash.  Bill Sr was also very well liked by the other Crime Families in the Tri State area.

The Gambino Family backed him in the war, they wanted Carmine to step down as boss.  They would much rather have done business with Bill Sr than the Persico’s.

Bill Jr had a Long Distance Phone card business with Vinnie Oceans from the Decavalcante Family. One backstabbing Persico friend was also in the business and that was George Tropiano.  A couple years later I would be in the next generation of the same business and the FBI raided it and took boxes of material pertaining to Bill Sr.  I boxed up George Tropiano’s crap in his desk and I’m sure it was thrown out.  George hated Bill Sr behind his back, but when I was there George had cancer.  Maybe he did the world a favor and kicked it.  

There is no honor in the Cosa Nostra it is a fairy tale. There is a saying in Brooklyn that the quickest way to get clipped is to have a Persico owe you money.

Carmine Persico

There were rumors in Brooklyn that Bill Sr had skipped town because of a pending indictment, that he was in Italy or on an Island.  Bill Jr knew this was crap and soon he was approached by the FBI.  

Many people do not understand what it is like to be in his situation and they call him names and figure he is weak.  Bill Jr would have been the next one in the Cutolo Clan to disappear.

Jackie DeRoss had said something off-hand a month before Bill Sr had vanished.  He asked Billy Jr when he was going to get straightened out or made into the family.  This was a way for the Persico’s to get rid of him much quicker.  Bill Jr went to see Jackie DeRoss at his Flower Stand and Jackie knew he was very angry. I am sure Jackie figured he was ready to sling some iron.  

Jackie pleaded ignorance but Bill Jr Knew he was full of crap because Jackie was the guy who took his fathers place.

Jackie had done a long stint and came back broke and he coveted what Bill Sr had put together while he was away.  He became very jealous of Bill Sr as evidenced by his going to his wife’s home and demanding Bill Sr’s cash. He even looked under floorboards.  Bill Jr had started wearing a wire by this time and this was all caught on tape.

One day Bill Jr went to his father’s Union office and Kitty told him that someone was in the office.  What Bill Jr saw when he walked into the office was a grossly obese sweating Persico named Frank.  Bill Jr exploded and started yelling at him.  Frank “Piggy” Persico told him to relax that he was just doing what he was told by those higher up.  Bill Jr told him to leave, so he made a call and then he left.  I am glad to report that Piggy Persico is now where he belongs and that is in the ground.

So Bill Jr did what was best for him and his family, Most people will never know how hard a choice it is to break every rule that you ever knew.  When guys make the choice to flip it is not just a spur of the moment thing.   People who look down on people who do should put themselves in the shoes of those who do.  Most people who read this blog will never have faced death or being around these treacherous people.  Billy Jr made the only choice he could make.

I was around a guy who had his father killed by the Gambino’s for nothing but greed on Sammy The Bull’s part.  The guy was around the Colombo’s and he was in the life.  He knew who did the hit and yet he never did a thing.  

You cannot beat these people like that.  Next week we will close out the Father Son Columbo story with Part 3.

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....