Posted on 01/16/2005 11:41:20 AM PST by nickcarraway
From Gotti to Gigante, the names atop today’s Mafia org charts are old ones. But the times have certainly changed for New York’s biggest families—and not for the better. Mob expert Jerry Capeci, who writes the “Gang Land” column for the New York Sun, looks at the state of the four other clans in the city’s infamous Five Families, plus the Newark-based DeCavalcantes. All have bookmaking, loan-sharking, and extortion rackets. The Genovese family and, to a lesser degree, the Luchese family (like the Gambinos) also have viable labor-racketeering endeavors that let them invest and launder their ill-gotten gains in “legitimate” industries. Every clan has declined of late, some more than others.
The Bonanno Family
130 to 145 members
Boss: Joseph Massino, 62
Underboss: Vacant Consigliere: Vacant
Last year was a bad one for the Bonanno family—probably the worst in its history. Its boss since 1991, Joseph Massino, was convicted of seven murders dating from the eighties, and the Feds decided to try to execute him for a 1999 mob hit. Two dozen family members and associates, including three capos he selected to coordinate things while he battled the law from prison, were all indicted and jailed on racketeering and murder charges. This fall, Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, the capo he chose to replace the convicted trio and serve as acting boss, was himself socked with murder charges. Since November 19, Basciano, 45, has been awaiting trial at the same federal lockup in Sunset Park as his boss and the men he replaced. In the new millennium, more than 40 family wiseguys and associates have been convicted and imprisoned, including a former acting boss, Anthony Spero, 71. On top of all that, Joseph Massino, the Last Don, a wiseguy who surely amassed millions during his decade on top, says he can’t afford a lawyer and has told a federal judge that he needs a court-appointed attorney.
Meanwhile, Massino is expected to tap an old cohort, capo Anthony “Fat Anthony” Rabito, as his “street boss.” On his mob résumé, Rabito, 70, has a drug rap, a few dead bodies, and a keen business sense, according to FBI documents. He has owned a bakery, a café, and several nightclubs, all on Manhattan’s East Side. Unlike a Las Vegas business venture that failed—a New York–style pizzeria called Fat Anthony’s—his local endeavors were said to be moneymakers.
The Colombo Family
75 to 85 members
Boss: Carmine “Junior” Persico, 71
Underboss: John “Jackie” DeRoss, 67
Consigliere: Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace, 63
For nearly twenty years—since he was arrested on February 15, 1985—Carmine Persico has run the Colombo family from behind bars. Convicted of racketeering twice—once in the historic Commission trial, when he represented himself—Persico has guided his clan through a bloody two-year war that cost the lives of ten combatants and two bystanders. Housed in a federal prison in faraway Lompoc, California, he has maintained control through a string of acting bosses, including his college-educated son Alphonse, 50.
In recent years, however, Alphonse, John “Jackie” DeRoss, Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace, and Andrew Russo, 70, a Persico cousin who filled in as acting boss for a time, have themselves been convicted and jailed. These days, the family’s “street boss” is Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli, 52, of Farmingdale. Gioeli was a staunch Persico ally during the 1991–93 war. He’s had chronic back problems for decades, but they didn’t deter his effort against rebels aligned with Victor “Little Vic” Orena. On March 27, 1992, he was wounded in a wild car chase–shootout in Brooklyn. “He’s got a crew of shooters who haven’t really gotten touched,” says one police source. The last time Gioeli saw the inside of prison was in 1980, for robbery. A key factor for his strength has been his ability to bridge the gap that exists between mobsters who were shooting at each other a decade ago. His top aide, acting capo Paul “Paulie Guns” Bevacqua, was an Orena supporter, as was Cacace, who paid Tommy Shots the highest compliment in 2000. “If you need to see me, tell Tommy,” he told then–Bonanno underboss Salvatore “Good Looking Sal” Vitale. “Talking to Tommy is just like talking to me.”
The Genovese Family
His genes give him a good shot. His brother Mario, believed by some to function as Chin’s acting boss, is active at 81. Their mom, whose calls of “Cinzini” out her Greenwich Village apartment window gave Vincent his nickname, lived to 95.
Until then, he has a committee of three serving as his eyes and ears: Mario, who ended three years of supervised release in June following a 42-month term for labor racketeering, and two longtime allies who hail from his downtown, or West Side, base: Lawrence “Little Larry” Dentico, 81, and Dominick “Quiet Dom” Cirillo, 75.
“Mario is a gangster in his own right,” says one law-enforcement expert. “He’s Chin’s blood-family connection. Larry and Quiet Dom are trustworthy old-timers who do his bidding with little fear of opposition from within or outside the family.”
As Gigante told a prison guard who wondered if younger inmates were bothering him: “Nobody ***** with me.” Or his disciples.
The Luchese Family
120 to 130 members
Boss: Vittorio “Vic” Amuso, 70
Underboss: Vacant
Consigliere: Vacant
Since 1991, the Feds have convicted five Luchese leaders, including Vittorio “Vic” Amuso and acting bosses. Two stand-in leaders, Alphonse “Little Al” D’Arco and Joseph “Little Joe” Defede, became turncoats. Another, Louis “Louie Bagels” Daidone, is serving life for murder.
The fifth, Steven Crea, 57, is serving three years for labor racketeering and due out of federal prison in August 2006. Crea, 57, who operates several construction companies, is viewed as the likely successor to the jailed-for-life Amuso. Currently, the Lucheses have a trio of veteran capos functioning as a ruling committee: Aniello “Neil” Migliore, 71; Joseph DiNapoli, 69; and Matthew Madonna, 69.
Migliore, who served briefly as underboss to Antonio “Tony Ducks” Corallo decades ago, “is the biggest influence on the street,” says one law-enforcement official. “He’s more equal than the others,” says another investigator.
DiNapoli got out of federal prison in 1999 after 29 months for fraud and loan-sharking. Madonna was a major heroin trafficker who supplied notorious Harlem drug kingpin Leroy “Nicky” Barnes in the sixties and seventies. He was “made” following his release from federal prison in 1995, after serving twenty years for drug dealing.
The DeCavalcante Family
40 to 50 members
Boss: Giovanni “John” Riggi, 79
Underboss: Vacant
Consigliere: Vacant
Six years ago, after decades as the ugly stepchildren of the New York mob, DeCavalcante mobsters thought they had finally achieved proper respect from the vaunted Five Families. They had killed a suspected informer for John Gotti and had joint rackets with New York wiseguys.
As a crew of the Garden State gangsters drove to a sit-down with New York mobsters, they were taped by the FBI talking about their newfound status—a rise in fortunes that seemed to be reflected on TV.
“Hey, what’s this ******* thing, Sopranos. Is that supposed to be us?” asked soldier Joseph “Tin Ear” Sclafani.
“What characters. Great acting,” responded capo Anthony Rotundo.
Unlike Tony Soprano, the DeCavalcante leader has been in prison since 1990. In 2003, John Riggi pleaded guilty to ordering murders both before and after his incarceration, agreeing to take ten more years in prison. Since 1999, nearly three dozen wiseguys and wannabes, including the family’s consigliere and seven capos, have bit the dust on racketeering, murder, and other charges.
The federal onslaught has been helpful for one old soldier, Joseph Miranda, whose family ties go back to patriarch Simone “Sam the Plumber” DeCavalcante. Decades ago, after Miranda robbed another wiseguy, Sam the Plumber spoke up for him at a sit-down and saved his life, according to FBI documents. Miranda, 81, a family loan shark, owns a bar on First Avenue. For years, he’s been griping about not being promoted to capo. Recently, sources say, he jumped a few spots and was elevated to acting boss. He didn’t have much competition, and he doesn’t have much to lead, but, as one law-enforcement official says, “this week, he’s the boss. Next week, who knows?”
Shouldn't the FBI forget about these old Italian guys and concentrate on the Russians, Albanians, and Mexicans?
I know it's traditional to give criminals a forty year head start before bothering to investigate them, but maybe that's the problem.
First there were the Irish and Jewish mobs, then the Italians, now the Russian and Eastern Europeans.
So9
bookmarking
Hire some more Spanish-speaking agents and go after MS-13 and the various syndicates operating out of Juarez and other parts of Mexico. If they are interested in cracking down on prostitution, get more Russian and Chinese speaking agents, as those two groups seem to have the largest part of that trade.
"Nobody on the street listens to the Italians anymore. The GAY MAFIA has more street cred than the Gambinos!" --- Keith Robinson
L
LOL
This is just silly. Why are they concerning themselves with these families that have lost most of their former power when all across the nation the Mafiya (Russian mafia) and various Chinese triads and tongs are taking over? The Russians, for example, have already taken away a lot of the territory that the Italians used to control. Infact it could easily be said that the Italians have been forced to go mostly legal in order to avoid any encounters with Mafiya.
My fellow Mezzo-Paisan da Borg weighing in. Do you ever leave your computer?
.
Meanwhile, in Naples and Calabria, the Albanians are out-muscling the local families for control of criminal enterprises. Things are tough all over for the "men of respect." By the way, I have NEVER had ANY respect for these thugs!
Never :-)
From "The Dumbest Don" (http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/crimelaw/features/10869/index.htm) ln the same issue:
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“What’s gonna happen to the Gambinos? They’ll go on in some little half-assed ways, but the other mobs—the spics and slants and Russians—have the balls now. The Albanians are taking all our [card] games and [numbers] rackets in Queens! Jesus Christ!”
I ask what would happen to informers like Gravano and Mikey Scars, Fat Sal Mangiavillano and Frankie Fap, who’ve all gone into Witness Protection:
“I hear the Bureau’s gonna turn ’em into special agents,” my old soldier laughs.
“But I’ll tell ya who I really feel sorry for. These young prosecutors like Hou and McGovern? It’ll be harder for them to get jobs at Cravath, Swaine now, after the last Gottis are gone.
“Who’s gonna give you prime time or front page for a name like DiLeonardo? Or Mangiavillano? Nobody even remembers Gravano. . . It’s you guys who finished the mob.”
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And there's the rub. Don't bother to break out the champagene, people, because as old Nicky Corozzo makes clear above, crime like nature, abhors a vaccuum. These old goombahs are easy to chase but the gangs taking over their turf are a lot meaner, smarter and harder to penetrate. The cops and prosecuters had better relearn how to work for a living if they're going to make headway against the Russians or Albanians.
Hey, what about the Sopranos?
NEEDS repeating,redundantly,repetitively.
On another note, the Albanians, Pakis, and Arabs own most of the pizzerias in New York now. Of course, they staff them with Mexicans.
Dittos. I had more respect for Rodney Dangerfield.
there are no book or movie deals for them breaking up the Russian and Latin gangs - so they focus on the italians, they get to hang out in front of better restaurants that way.
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