Oldfella, Lufthansa and John Gotti

Anyone who has seen the movie Goodfellas will know about what happened on Dec. 11, 1978.

That was when a group of masked men forced their way into the secured cargo building of Lufthansa Airlines and stole 6 million in cash and jewels.  One of the men who was part of the conspiracy was Vincent Asaro, the Bonanno family capo in charge of their airport rackets.  He received very little of the cash and what he did take home, he lost gambling.

He has taken down some big scores over the years and made money with the family.  He has been promoted, demoted and promoted again because of his habits.  He involved his son Jerome in the life - they are both capos.

Vincent Asaro took a huge gamble in 2015 and took his case to trial.  Despite his cousin Gaspare Valenti wearing a wire and testifying against him, he was acquitted in 2015.  He walked free until this week.

Here is one of the crimes Vincent Asaro was charged with this week. In April of 2012, Asaro was in Howard Beach, Queens when another motorist pulled in front of him at a stoplight.  This pissed him off so he chased him until he could figure out where he lived.  All one has to do is take a look at Asaro’s picture and you can imagine how he drives. Asaro drives an associate of the Bonanno family to where the car is parked in the Broad Channel section of Queens.  He then orders the associate to torch the car.  The associate then recruits two men to help him, Matthew Rullan aka Fat Mat and none other than John J. Gotti.  Can you believe the grandson of the former Gambino family boss, John Gotti, is going to torch a car for an aging Bonanno family capo?

The unnamed associate, whom I suspect as flipped, drove with John Gotti in his Jaguar to a service station where they filled up a container with gasoline.  They doused the car and Fat Matt ignited it.  The problem was, there was an NYPD officer in an unmarked car who watched them torch the car.  The NYPD car chased the Jaguar for a short distance before giving up the chase because it was dangerous.

Asaro then made the associate drive him the next day to the place where the burned out car was taken to confirm the job was done.  Imagine that you are a capo in one of the five New York Mafia families, and you are involved in torching a car for cutting you off in traffic.

It gets better.  Two weeks after the arson, John Gotti, Fat Matt and a man named Michael Giudici decide to rob the bank where John Gotti’s girlfriend is a teller.

On April 18, 2012 Michael Giudici walks into Maspeth Federal Savings and Loan Association at 5:45pm before they close.  He walks up to a teller and hands a note over that says, “I Have A Bomb.” The teller places $5,491 in cash on the counter, which Giudice takes and then flees the bank.  John Gotti and Fat Mat are waiting and they all drive away.

These master criminals walked away with only $1830 dollars a piece, that is, unless they also had to kick some of that up to someone above them.  They now face up to 20 years for that small payday.  John Gotti is already locked up in prison for eight years for being caught selling pills.  

Vincent Asaro is facing less time, but I suspect the Feds will be hitting him with more charges soon.  A Bonanno capo was unmasked as cooperating, and at this point nobody knows for just how long he’s been cooperating.

L&B Spumoni Garden Murder

Michael Persico has once again managed to delay his sentencing until 2017.  He was supposed to be sentenced on November 1 for a case that has been going on since 2012.  Michael was facing a case that included two murders. He was able to negotiate a great deal that would give him a maximum of five years, but the guidelines call for 36-48 months in Federal custody.  

Michael has lived a charmed life, but he should hope that he does not end up like his father Carmine “The Snake” Persico. Carmine had ongoing trials for Federal hijacking starting in 1960 but he did not get sentenced until 1971.  

In other mafia news: Georgia Gigliotti and his son Angelo, who ran a large drug smuggling empire out of their Queens Cucina Modi Mod restaurant, were convicted this past July for transporting more than 50 kilos of cocaine from Costa Rica and possessing seven guns. They face 15-20 years each.  They worked with guys in the New York Families, they were part of the Ndrangheta which is the Calabrian organized crime group.

The wife Elena was not able to participate in the trial because the judge ordered her into a psychiatric hospital because of a mental condition.  Just this week she was ruled sane, so now she also faces trial.

L&B Spumoni Gardens Pizzeria is a world famous place that serves a Sicilian square upside down pizza.  I went there a number of times with friends even though I do not eat pizza.  

It made the news a couple of years ago because Colombo family associate Big Frank Guerra along with Frankie “Notch” Iannaci went to the Square Pizza on Staten Island and slapped around the owner Eugen Lombardo.  They claimed Eugene stole the recipe for the pizza from L&B Spumoni Garden.  It turned into a family beef when Eugene ran to Bonanno family soldier Anthony Calabrese for help.  

Colombo Capo Anthony Russo was called in for a sit down and it was agreed that Eugene would make a payment of 4,000 dollars and the beef would be over.  

This whole incident came to light after Anthony Russo flipped and testified during Big Frank's trial.

L&B was again in the news this year on June 30 when Louis Babarti, one of the owners, was gunned down outside his Brooklyn home.  He was carry a loaf of bread and $15,000 in cash when he was shot.  Law enforcement were unsure if it was a hit or robbery because the cash was not touched.

Big Frank is away for many years so why did the FBI take up this murder case when there are so many murders everyday?  Murder is not a federal crime.

This week the FBI arrested a man named Andres Fernandez, also known as Andy.  He does not seem to have any Mafia connections and he is a known drug addict.  

The affidavit and complaint for his arrest warrant was written by an FBI Special Agent Chance Adams who handles Mafia investigations. It claims that Andy was at L&B Spumoni Gardens early and then was waiting in the Brooklyn neighborhood for Babarti to come home.  They were able to trace him via his cell phone usage.  They also have him on video hiding behind a tree with a glove on and a pistol in his hand. They have him walking towards Babarti and then immediately after the shooting running to a white Acura and driving away.  They brought him in and he asked for a lawyer right away.

I am sure there is more to this story.  If he was going to rob him, then why just blast him and take nothing?

The Gotti Follies

The name Gotti brings to mind the image of John Gotti as boss of the Gambino crime family, dressed in a two thousand dollar suit.  The public doesn’t understand the lasting negative effect John Gotti Sr. had on the Gambinos.  The truth is, John Gotti Sr. helped the feds weaken the crime family through his actions.

The Gambino family had a lot of crews in multiple states.  John Sr. started making all his capos check in every week at the Ravenite club in Little Italy. This made it easy for the law to keep tabs on who was doing what.  He held meetings inside an apartment above the club that the Feds had wired up.  He bragged, and they caught him on tape.  Sammy Gravano, the family underboss, flipped to team USA.

John Sr. went away for life and he left his son John Jr. as the acting boss.  Junior would later talk to the Feds when he had a proffer session.   He gave up guys for crimes.

Then his daughter Victoria had a reality show, “Growing up Gotti.” Today, they are shooting a movie about John Gotti.  I wonder if they will include anything about Gotti’s neighbor, John Favara, a hard-working man who “disappeared” after accidentally hitting and killing Gotti’s son Frank, who at the time he was hit was driving an illegal mini bike and not obeying basic traffic rules.

There is Gotti news in 2016.  John’s brother Gene, who did many years for dealing heroin, will be up for release soon.  

John Gotti Sr.’s grandson, John Gotti, the son of Peter Gotti, was arrested on June 30th for possessing 205 Oxycodone pills, Testosterone, Xanax, Marijuana and 18 methadone pills. He also had over $7k in cash on him along with the drugs, and was arrested while driving with a suspended license.  

On August 4th the NYPD concluded Operation Beach Party with the raiding of the former Queens home of John Gotti Sr., where his grandson John Gotti lived with his father Peter. The NYPD found a safe with $40k and over 500 Oxycodone pills inside.  They also raided the Rebel Ink Tattoo parlor and arrested seven other people involved in the drug crew.  The NYPD seized $200k from one of the players, who was said to be holding it for John Gotti.

Grandson John Gotti is now in a Rikers Island drug rehab where he awaits trial. A judge denied his bid to be freed on a $2 million bond because he is facing 25 years if convicted.

That is not all of the recent news in the Gotti saga. Victoria Gotti had her Long Island mansion raided by the IRS on September 14th. They also raided an Auto Parts store in Queens owned by her ex-husband Carmine Agnello, a made member of the Gambino family who is awaiting trial in Cleveland, Ohio where he ran some scrap yards.  The store is currently being run by Victoria and her three sons, who were all reality stars in her show.

Agnello, now divorced from Victoria, is facing charges for his part in a stolen car ring.

The Gottis are not keeping a low profile, although that seems like the best thing to be doing in their situation. Last year a tape was played in the trial of Vincent Asaro, a Bonanno family capo.  Asaro was inside the auto parts store when one of the Gottis said hello to him.

To continue the life of crime with the Gotti name seems crazy.

30 years after the Rise of John Gotti

30 years is a long time, and on the street it is even longer.  Things change fast in the criminal world.  In 1985 the world was just starting to learn about Pablo Escobar and the Medellín Cartel. When most people thought of the mafia, Don Corleone came to mind.

There soon would be another name that everyone would know.  It was John Gotti, a gambling-addicted street thug from Queens, New York.  Gotti was a capo in the Gambino crime family, having taken over the crew of the Fatico Brothers.  The problem was, his brother Gene and his best friend Angelo Ruggiero were dealing heroin on a massive scale.  They had inherited the business from Angelo’s brother Sal, who died in an airplane crash while on the run from the Feds.  

The boss of the Gambino family was Paul Castellano, and he had a rule against dealing drugs.  It is funny because he still gladly took the cash from Gotti’s crew and other heroin dealers in the family. Paul was more of a white collar criminal and had made millions with his legitimate businesses.

Gotti was strictly blue collar, a meat and potatoes street guy.  He had been away for hijacking and murder.  He had a huge gambling habit and his headquarters were the Bergin Hunt and Fish club on 101st Avenue Ozone park Queens. A small place that probably never saw a hunter of animals in its membership rolls. The truth was, Paul Castellano was afraid of John Gotti and what he represented. Paul was what the mafia should have been and Gotti was its past.

John Gotti had big plans and Paul Castellano was standing in the way.  Paul was on trial and was facing a lot of time. Paul's underboss had died and he named his driver, Tommy Bilotti, as the new underboss.  This did not sit well with Gotti and the family.  So John Gotti put together a hit team that would deal with the Paul Castellano problem.

The hit team dressed in matching coats and Russian fur hats and as soon as Paul stepped out of his car they made their move.  It was over in seconds with Paul  Castellano and Tommy Bilotti lying dead in the street.  

John Gotti was watching as they were gunned down.  Thomas Gambino, a capo in the family and son of the late boss, watched as his cousin was gunned down in front of the steak house.

The hit changed everything for the mafia.  They stopped being a mythical criminal enterprise and they became front page.  

John Gotti soon held a meeting of all the capos and they voted him in as boss.  He had broken every rule of the mafia by killing his boss.  He did not have permission from the commission or any of the four other New York families.

The hit took place in Midtown Manhattan on a busy street as hundreds of people walked nearby the scene.  This made Gotti a household name. It also pushed the FBI to make an all out push to take down the mafia.  

They hit it hard and Gotti would die in prison.  The other families were hit just as hard.

Things had to change or they would not survive.  

Gotti had moved his headquarters from Queens to Little Italy.  He held court daily in the Ravenite Social club.  

I've spoken to guys in Nicky Corozzo’s crew and they used to disappear when Nicky went to the Ravenite. Nobody wanted the heat that came from a trip to the club.  Gotti made it easy for the FBI.  He had his capos come to the club on a weekly basis.

Today the Ravenite is no more.  It is now a high end shoe store.  Gotti died in prison and his son John Gotti Jr. went in and flapped his lips to the Feds when he was queen for a day.

The Bergin Hunt and Fish Club is vacant after a failed Italian Ice place took over.

The Gambino family is now run by secretive Sicilians that never meet at clubs.

The family uses diners at three in the morning for its meetings.  You will no longer see guys in 2000 dollar suits.  It's a jeans and t-shirt club that must stay secret if it is to survive.

The New Pizza Connection

The quiet, hardworking Queen's pizza maker Gregorio Gigliotti who owned Cucino A Modo Mio (I Cook My Way) was really a member of the blood thirsty Ndrangheta.

The Ndrangheta hail from Calabria and control a huge amount of the drugs in Europe.  They only allow those with blood or marriage ties into their organization.  This cuts down on turncoats.  They have intermarried with many other Mafia families so they have a lot of power.

Gregorio ran the US part of a large Ndrangheta smuggling ring that imported cocaine from Costa Rica in shipments of cassava and yucca. They would pack the drugs in the roots in Costa Rica and they would be sent to Philadelphia or Delaware.

They would repackage them and hide them in the walls of cardboard boxes and they would be shipped to the Netherlands, Spain and Italy.  

Law Enforcement intercepted  shipments totaling 125 lbs of cocaine over the last year headed to both Philly and Delaware.  The FBI working with Italian authorities started watching the Queen's Pizzeria.  They soon had wires on all their phones and inside the restaurant.  They had them in their cars and homes and they started paying off.

The FBI soon came up with a name, Operation Columbus, and it went on for 10 months.  They picked up a lot of Gregorio and his violent temper. He wanted to dissolve  two Mafia debtors in acid or use baseball bats on them.  He was mad at Franco and Pino Fazio for them not paying on a consignment of drugs. They were two brothers who worked with as couriers between Costa Rica, United States and Italy.   The FBI watched as Franco, known as the Ambassador, dropped off 170k in payment to South American drug traffickers.

Even as the FBI was closing on them Gregorio sent his wife to Costa Rica with 400k to give to the suppliers. They intercepted some of the cocaine shipments to another New York business that Gregorio owned.  Fresh Farms Export Corp was started to handle the shipments from Costa Rica and to Europe.  

The FBI took down a shipment of 40 kilos of cocaine secreted inside boxes of cassava bound for Fresh Farms in October of 2014.

That didn't slow down Gregorio because the Ambassador, Franco Fazio, made two more money trips to Costa Rica before they seized another shipment of 15 kilos of cocaine.  It was again headed to Fresh Farms but this time it was hidden in produce.

This shows how these Mafia connected groups have sprung up again.  They are all similar to the Pizza Connection back in the 1980s.  Keep in mind that most of the guys from the Pizza Connection are now free men. The FBI is busy working terrorism now, so it gives them a lot of time to grow.  Since they do not take part in a lot of the family business in the US like bookmaking and shylocking, they do not get the same attention the Cosa Nostra gets.  

The central hub for this group was the Pizzeria in Queens.  The family worked there and the place served a great pie.  The FBI raided it last month and they got over 100k in cash, 7 guns and a pair of brass knuckles. They found more cash in their homes and they are now moving to seize up to 12 million in assets.

This is where the Cosa Nostra is headed.

The Mafia Lives On

One of the things that makes the Mafia so dangerous when compared to drug trafficking groups or other criminal groups is their ability to keep doing business no matter what.   The Bonanno family has been hit hard in the recent years.  The FBI went after them with a vengeance and they took down the administration.  The Bonanno family had been the only one of the five families in New York that had never had a made guy turn rat.  That all changed when underboss Sal Vitale flipped on the family and his brother in law the boss Joey Massino.  Then Joey Massino did the unthinkable: he flipped.  Joey not only flipped, he also wore a wire on acting boss Vinny Basciano and took him down.  One of the guys caught up in the prosecution was John Palazzolo.

Palazzolo was inducted into the Bonanno family in 1977 just like Massino, during that time it was under the leadership of boss Rusty Rastelli.    Palazzolo was tasked with killing another made guy named Anthony Coglitore, who was involved in blowing up another member.  

In 1991 Palazzolo was called again to take part in another murder.  This time it was another made guy, Russell Mauro.  Mauro had been involved in selling drugs, but when everyone else went down and he did not, the Bonannos figured he was cooperating.  They decided to murder him and Palazzolo was the guy to lure him to the murder site.  Mauro was killed, stuffed into a body bag and placed in the trunk of a 1985 Lincoln that was left on a street in Queens.

The body was badly decomposed by the time the cops found it and there were few clues.

Palazzolo, as you can see, has a long criminal history that included fraud, theft of interstate shipments, loansharking and extortion.  When he was picked up in the big Bonanno family take down, he had just finished parole.  He ended up pleading guilty to conspiracy to murder Mauro in aid of racketeering in April of 2006, and he was sentenced to 10 years.  

Palazzolo was released in 2012 at the age of 80, and he was right back to work with the Bonanno family. He was on parole and was not supposed to associate with felons.  Palazzolo was soon the street boss of the Bronx faction of the Bonanno family. Things were not going well and the Bronx faction was losing power to the others in Queens, so Palazzolo decided to make his move.

He started meeting with various men in the family.  One of those he met with was Fat Anthony Rabito. Fat Anthony is the Consigliore of the family and is a long time member of the family.  Fat Anthony had taken part in the murder of the three Capos during the internal war and had pleaded guilty to Racketeering.    

The problem is the FBI was watching when Palazzo and Fat Anthony had a lengthy meeting outside a Bayside Queens Diner parking lot.   Palazzo then met with another family man who was close to the boss Mikey “Nose” Mancuso.

The FBI decided they needed to make a move because they believed that Palazzo was going to make a move and it would cause more violence in the family.

Last week they took him down, which is surprising because the last time Palazzo was sentenced, back in 2006, he claimed that he had prostate cancer, Crohns disease and that he had to take 12 pills a day.  Today he is 82 years old and a veteran of the mafia.  Guys like him are the most dangerous because they have the years of knowledge.

The judge who was on his last case back in 2006 was the same judge on his case this week. The judge asked the US Attorney. “Is there still a leadership of the Bonanno family?” and she replied  “Unfortunately, yes.”  No matter who is locked up, or who dies, there is always someone else willing to step up and take the role.  

Domenico Cefalu and the Gambinos Today

The FBI and the press claim that Domenico Cefalu is the boss of the Gambino Family.

Domenico was born in Palermo, Sicily, a traditional Mafia stronghold and he was involved in the importation of heroin in the 1980’s.   He did his 6 years for the heroin beef and went right back to work.  John Gotti inducted him into the family in 1991 and he was placed in the “Sicilian Faction” based in Queens and Brooklyn headed by Pasquale Conte.  He kept his head down but took a few hits because he refused to testify during some grand jury inquiries.

Most people hear the Gambino Family and they think of John Gotti parading around in his $2,000 suits in Midtown Manhattan. Meeting at the Ravenite Social club in Little Italy and taking walk talks around the block.  John Gotti was everything that Gambino Family's namesake Carlo Gambino hated.  He was loud, flamboyant and brought a ton of heat down on ALL the Families.

John Gotti made the FBI’s job easy because the Mafia is supposed to be secret. If any of you want a look inside the family read or listen to some of the stuff he said in the apartment above the Ravenite.  John Gotti was in love himself and his image that the public saw in the papers.

This is not Domenico Cefalu, who lives with his mother and works at a bakery as a salesman.

The family is now much more secretive and more family oriented as seen by the FBI that was looking into Domenico’s family. Domenico has a first cousin who is a Capo in the family named Dominic and could bring in the cash because the FBI picked up some key conversations on its bugs about his shylock business.  

Dominic and his brother Joseph gave out a loan to guy for 150k at a rate of 1k a week in interest. The guy then borrowed another 250k bringing his weekly payments or Vig up to 3k a week.  This is something I've never understood and I might never get.  The guy came to them for a loan, he got the loan and agreed to the terms. So why do the FBI and other Government agencies get involved?  These payday loan places and pawn shops are much more predatory.  They take from the poorest of the poor, working people who get in way over their heads.  In many States the Government has private companies collecting its fines and even probation fees and they have the power to lock people up.  So much for no debtors prison.

The fact is the Government says these Shylocks break the Usury Laws so it can be included in a RICO case.  

Dominic also had two large bookies paying him for protection. The same borrower also had a bad gambling problem and he ended up owing the bookies another 500k. This is the bookie’s fault for not putting a limit within reason on their customer.  They all bled the customer and made him sell some of his property to pay down the loan that they had collected interest on for over a year.  He paid a lump sum of 75k in order to bring down some of the principal amount.  The debtor still had a hard time paying the loan down so they resorted to threats.

The two bookies ran a sports book where they took bets in person and on the web.  A player could call in or login to www.betswi.com.  They had a lot of runners and others working for them and they brought in more than 2k a day in bets.

It is not just his two cousins but also their father Ricardo Cefalu is a made guy in the Gambino family and they were all involved in the heroin business at one time.

Domenico still had his hands in other Gambino business like the Concrete industry.  The Gambinos still control the industry in the New York area and when a guy wanted to start a business there was a number of sit downs that gave the guy a right to open a cement business.

He agreed that after a one year grace period his company would pay the Gambinos 15% or a dollar a yard on every job. They collected over 60k in a year collected by Nicky Corrozzo and Lenny DiMaria.  In the spring of 2007 another company wanted to buy this company so the Gambino’s “allowed” the man to sell his company as long as he paid 100k to the Gambino’s.

Lenny got the cash and he was in charge of dispersing it to the Gambino administration.

Recine Trucking was one of the companies that Domenico controlled on Staten Island and he was able to negotiate some great jobs because of his position.

The Gambino Family is moving along fine without the Gottis and now that the Sicilians are running it, it maybe be a secret organization once again.

Jerry Bruno & the Young Guns

The Young Guns were a sort of farm team for the Gambino Family in the 1990’s and they were with Gambino Capo Ronald Trucchio who ran Ozone Park Queens.  It was during this time that Genaro “Jerry” Bruno was part of the Young Guns crew.  They were dedicated to making money any way they could, and that meant extortion, bank robbery, narcotics and murder. They moved thousands of Valiums in Queens for many years, bringing in millions of dollars to themselves and the Gambino Family.

Martin Bosshard was another member of the Young Guns crew.  The crew was importing thousands of pounds of marijuana from Canada.  Martin decided that he wanted to cut out from the marijuana business Gambino soldier Michael Rocca Forte.  The higher ups in the Gambino Family were not about to let this happen.  The order was given and passed down to the Young Guns Crew.  Just a few weeks after Martin Bosshart was released from prison, Todd LaBarca and Jerry Bruno lured him to 155th Street and Lahan in Queens.  He was taking a piss against a fence on the North side of the street around 9:30 pm, when Jerry allegedly fired one shot into the back of his head.  Martin would be found face up dead a short time later.

This did not slow down Jerry and Todd because they were soon hooked up with the Tony Piccolo Carting Company based in Rockaway, Queens and Deer Park.  They were working as enforcers for the company, scaring away competitors.  Tony Piccolo then bought  J.B. & Sons Carting Corporation and the Rags Contracting Corp and Jerry and Todd were soon shaking down other carting companies for the right to pick up from their customers.

The Tony Piccolo company and the two new companies would bring in 2.3 million in a year.  Their biggest customers were Brooklyn, Brookdale and Kings County Hospitals and they would bribe employees up to 1,000 a month to sign off on phony invoices.  

Everyone involved in the shakedown was arrested.  Both Jerry and Todd plead guilty in October of 2002 and they would serve their time.  Jerry Bruno would be in a new crew under JoJo Corozzo which the FBI calls the Corozzo Faction and Todd Labarca would be in a crew under Louis Mastrangelo. In 2011 Todd LaBarca was purposed for membership in the Gambino Family, his name was passed around to the other families and his induction was set. The FBI threw a wrench into his plans when they swooped in and arrested everyone.  Todd would end up pleading guilty to racketeering and murder including Martin Bosshart and be sentenced to 23 years.  

Jerry Bruno fared a little better until just a few days ago. Jerry had gotten married and moved out to Las Vegas to get some things started out there when the FBI came and picked him up for Racketeering including moving more than a 1000 kilos of Marijuana, Thousands of Valiums, Carting Extortion and the murder of Martin Bosshart.

The Mafia is alive and well.

SunCruz Casinos

A Greek sailor, a Washington Lobbyist, A Mattress Salesman and a few Gambino Associates.  It sounds like a crazy low budget film, but its the real life cast of characters in today’s blog.

Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis was born in a small Greek fishing village where he never made it past the 6th grade. He studied to be a mechanic and then joined the Merchant Marines. He later jumped ship in Halifax, Canada.  Gus then made his way to Toronto where he found work as a dishwasher in a sandwich shop named Mr. Submarine. Within 5 years he was a partner and was given shares when they began

to franchise. At the age of 25 he headed to Miami to retire as a millionaire.

Gus wasn’t happy sitting idle in retirement.  Soon after moving he started Miami Subs and then started

developing commercial property. He was hugely successful and in 1994 he founded SunCruz Casino in Key West Florida.  SunCruz was a floating casino or a  “Cruise Ship to Nowhere” ship.  SunCruz ships were not old rust buckets.  They were opulent cruise ships with every luxury aboard.  They would cruise into international waters and then the gambling would begin.  They were a huge success until the Anti-Gambling Florida Attorney General started an invstigation.  Gus was forced to sell because he was not yet a US Citizen when he bought some of the ships. It was an obscure maritime law, but much like what our Government does to anyone sucessful, they used a loophole to put him out of business.

Gus was forced to sell and this is where things started to go bad. Adam Kidan used to own Dial-A-Mattress and some Bagel Bakeries.  He had attended Brooklyn Law School and he was very active in Republican Politics.  One of the people he met in school was Jack Abramoff, who would go on to become a bigtime Lobbyist in Washington DC.

They decided to purchase SunCruz Casinos from Gus for 147.5 million with a 23 million dollar down payment.  They didn’t have the down payment, so Gus carried the note.  They faked a wire transfer so they could get a loan from a bank for the remainder of the balance.

Enter Big Tony Moscatiello, a man once indicted with Gene Gotti and Angelo Ruggiero for helping them with their heroin organization.  Angelo's brother Sal was living as a fugitive when the private jet he was on crashed and killed all aboard.  Angelo immediately took charge of his brothers business and started hiding assets, and Big Tony helped him.  There was a mistrial and the Feds dropped the charges against Big Tony.

Adam Kidan was threatened by Gus after Gus began to realize how shady they were being.  Adam was afraid so he sought out Big Tony because of his Gambino Connections.  Big Tony was hired as a catering consultant by SunCruz and Adam Kidan soon issued checks of more than 245,000 to a company run by Big Tony's daughter.

Big Tony lived in Howard Beach, Queens and still has a home there. John Gurino Jr was another Howard Beach associate of the Gambino's with deep ties to the Gotti's.  John's cousin Anthony Gurino owned Arc Plumbing, the firm that John Gotti Sr worked for until his incarceration.  John Gurino Jr.’s father John Gurino Sr. owns Ragtime Newsstand Dairy a popular meeting places for the Gambinos. John Gurino Sr. most recently put his Deli as collateral for John Gotti Jr.’s bail.  John Gurino Jr. shot a man named John Vulcano in front of his girlfriend’s home.  While Volcano was on the way to the hospital, he identified John Gurino Jr. as the shooter, and then died. His girlfriend also identified John Gurino Jr. as the shooter.  John Gurino Jr. retained Bruce Cutler who was yet to shoot to fame as John Gotti Sr.’s lawyer. The girlfriend of Vulcano later recanted her statements and claimed that Volcano lied about who shot him.  As a result, John Gurino Jr. was acquitted of murder.  He soon moved to Florida where he continued his gangster ways.

On February 6, 2001 Gus left his office in Florida in a BMW.  Another car pulled in front of him and on a narrow road, it stopped.  A black Mustang pulled up alongside the BMW and a shooter fired a 380 Auto into Gus.  Gus was mortally wounded and his car continued on, striking a pole. The Police immediately suspected Adam Kidan, but he was not even in town.  After they went over the financial records of SunCruz Casinos, they started seeing the checks going to Big Tony.  There was also $10,000 in casino chips given to some other men.

Adam Kidan finally told the Police that Big Tony had Gus killed and the shooter was John Gurino Jr.  The theory is that Big Tony wanted the gravy train to continue and Gus would have stopped it by taking back control of SunCruz Casinos.  So Big Tony reached out for someone to put in work, and that is where John Gurino Jr. came into the picture.  John Gurino Jr. had bragged for years that he got away with murder before and he was recommended by another Gambino drug dealer. John Gurino Jr. will never face justice because he was killed by a deli owner in Florida who he was shylocking after he threatened the man while the man was armed.  Two other men have been convicted of taking part in the murder, but Big Tony still has yet to go to trial because of a mistrial in his first trial.  The whole truth may never come out but its a hell of a story!

Lenny & Little Nicky: Then & Now

Little Nicky

"I am living the life that I wanted." - Little Nicky

Those were his words to his associate one day in the nineties in Brooklyn, New York. That was then: when he was on the street as a Capo in the Gambino Family, soon to be acting Boss. Fast forward to today: he is 73 years old living in the FCI Loretto with 9 more years inside. It has been a long run for Nicky who was born in the East New York, Brownsville area of Brooklyn in 1940. He and his brother Joseph aka JoJo made their name and money in gambling. JoJo is rumored to be a street craps whiz who made the Gambino craps games profitable. The games lost money until JoJo stepped in and ran them right.




Nicholas became known as Little Nicky because of his diminutive size 5 foot 5 inches tall and weighing a soft 170lbs. But he was no push over. Little Nicky was always in gangster mode, he was gangster 24/7. He was proposed to be made in the late 70's but he told the powers-that-be that he could not do it unless they made Lenny DiMaria because he would not be where he was without Lenny. So they made them both and soon Little Nicky had a vast gambling network in Brooklyn and Queens that included bookmaking, numbers, a horse room and shylock. He became a huge earner for the family and when his Capo Fat Andy went on the lam and joined a biker gang, he and Lenny reported directly to Neil Dellacroce, the legendary underboss of the Gambino Family. This made those in power take notice of what he was doing and the cash he was able to generate.He liked to recruit young guys, guys that he saw some criminal spark inside. So he gathered a good crew of capable guys like Mike Yannotti and he was soon a powerhouse in the family that the higher ups looked to when they needed work done.

Lenny

Leonard "Lenny" DiMaria has been Little Nicky's right-hand man for 30 years. He started off not as a criminal but as a train conductor working on the Long Island Railroad. He soon became a trusted Gambino associate along with Little Nicky. Lenny was the opposite of Little Nicky who was always gangster, Lenny is more gregarious and likeable. When Lenny and Little Nicky were on trial in 1985 with John Gotti, Lenny would stand up and thank each witness for coming to the trial. They were ultimately acquitted of all charges but years later turncoat Sammy Gravano would tell the Feds that he bribed the jury Foreman to secure an acquittal.When Gene Gotti, the drug dealing brother of John Gotti, went away on Heroin dealing charges, Little Nicky and Lenny started running his crew. Lenny was always more well-liked than Little Nicky among the rank and file.They built up their gambling network and soon they had a huge shylock business thriving in New York. Little Nicky sent Lenny and two other Capos down to Florida where they formed the South Florida Crew. They were huge earners and did well until it all came crashing down.
A lot of guys in the Mafia like to claim they have nothing to do with drugs and a lot of the public buys this load of crap. Little Nicky had guys all over the five Boroughs shaking down drug dealers. He used to have them give cash as a Christmas gift or throw it into the kitty for the crew but he knew exactly where the cash was coming from. When dealers who had been ripped off or extorted came to him he would get back their drugs from his guys and get a taste of the cash. He liked to play both sides against each other. One thing he did know was the rules of La Cosa Nostra and he knew how to use them to his advantage. When his guy Mikey Y shot a guy with the Lucchese Family and left him for dead in a Brooklyn parking lot, he had a sitdown with the Lucchese family. It was during that sitdown that he told the Lucchese guys that if they couldn’t get a hold of their guys to call them off, they would be dead. If you were in his crew and he didn't like you, he would still go to bat for you because he didn't want to appear weak or wrong. He would close his social clubs and take a meeting late at night off parkways around New York. He used to drive by his guys’ places and check up on them at night.

Mikey Y

Little Nicky ordered the killing of Lucchese associate Robert Arena because he said Robert had something to do with the killing of one of his crew members. Robert also stole a large amount of marijuana from a dealer associated with his crew and when ordered to give it back he refused. Robert Arena would be gunned down in his car in the Mill Basin area by Mikey Y along with a friend named Tommy Maranga. Nicky would plead guilty to taking part in planning the killing. Nicky became a Capo after John Gotti went away. He was on the ruling panel for awhile and then he was tapped as boss. He finally had made it to where he dreamed of being, but it was not to last. He had befriended a trucking guy named Joey V while locked up, but when Joey V was faced with new drug charges he decided to wear a wire. Nicky was boss for a week. When he gets out he will find that the family has changed and he will be in his 80's, Lenny today is free and completing his parole.