column ping
Sox, Pats do their part vs. organized crime
By Howie Carr | Sunday, May 11, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com
You want to know who really finished off the Mafia in Boston?
The New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox.
Oh sure, there were other factors, like the rats Whitey Bulger and Stevie Flemmi, and the local FBI, when its agents weren’t taking payoffs from the above-mentioned non-Mafia gangsters. Then there was white flight and the birth dearth, not to mention cocaine, which decimated hoods by the score.
But the final coup de grace came from the recent winning seasons of the local teams. Carmen “the Cheeseman” DiNunzio and his sad-sack crew relied on bookies for most of their income, and local bookies have had a bad run lately, a very bad run.
It turns out, the myth is reality. An Irishman did wreck La Cosa Nostra. But it wasn’t Whitey Bulger. It was Tom Brady.
So now you have a 50-year-old “underboss” who weighs 400-plus pounds and lives with his mom in East Boston. DiNunzio is the Gavone of Gorgonzola - more likely to be chased down the street by TV cameramen than Mob gunmen.
“I am thinking of filing a class-action lawsuit,” one local attorney said Friday, “on behalf of the New England Mafia, against the Patriots and the Red Sox, for winning too much and destroying the business.”
Sports wagering has always been a financially precarious proposition. Gerry Angiulo used to warn the guys from Winter Hill, if you want to handle sports, make sure you have a barrel of money. They didn’t listen and they went broke. Gerry took bets on games, but he always had a layoff man, both for games and for numbers - Doc Sagansky. These guys today have ... I.M. Bettor.
They figure, why lay off anything, when they can handicap better than Vegas? Hey, not for nothing, but Cheech and Buddy know what they’re doin’ - they watch ESPN Sportscenter and Hazel Mae.
The Cheeseman is broke. In federal court Thursday, DiNunzio’s lawyer Tony Cardinale was hinting at his client’s poverty, inquiring of the FBI agent about the “CW” - the cooperating witness, who set up the Gangster Formerly Known as the Big Cheese. The CW had been loaning money to the Cheeseman at 2 percent at week, which the Cheeseman was supposed to be putting back out on the street at 5 percent.
This would have been a good plan, except that every cent Carmen was getting, he was using to pay off his own gambling debts, or to backstop his bookies, who after the last few seasons owed money to, well, to just about every front-running dope sitting on a barstool and wearing a No. 12 Patriots jersey.
“Some of the bookies with half a brain tried to lay off the heavy local action on the Pats and the Red Sox,” one observer noted. “But after awhile, the guys you are laying off to get tired of losing too, and they won’t take any more action. So the local guys got left holding the bag. They say all politics is local. Same thing with sports gambling.”
If you want to know how pathetic the Cheeseman is, check out the 302 report where gets arrested and then spills all the beans on the family business:
“6:05 AM DiNunzio was allowed to use the restroom and inject himself with insulin for his diabetic ailment.”
Then they take him downtown, to the FBI offices. The Cheese Man starts yapping right after this entry:
“8:00 A.M. DINUNZIO was offered and accepted coffee and toasted bread.”
A piece of toast! That was all it took. The G-men gave him a crummy slice of toast and he wouldn’t shut up. Imagine if they’d given him a meatball.
Peter Limone’s a “good guy,” the Cheeseman tells the feds as he stuffs the toast into his mouth. He “respects” Bobby Carrozza and Vinny Ferrara, and oh by the way, Vinny don’t run the joint on Salem Street no more - it’s his wife. Blackie Padova “mostly plays dice games” and -
Do youse have some marmalade what I could put on my toast?
He tells them his sister Lois runs Carmen’s Kitchen. He didn’t mention how she also runs the kitchen at the Charlestown bus garage, that’s how good business is at the restaurant in Eastie. The MBTA reports no sightings of the Cheeseman at the garage, probably because if he tried to climb up the steps to get on a bus, it would tip over.
The only place the Cheese Man was making any money was at his shop, Fresh Cheese. But with gasoline at almost four bucks a gallon, who’s going to pay $19 a pound for Reggiano Parmesan? Fuhgeddaboutit. They’re buying Kraft in the little shaker jars.
The Cheeseman will be back in court Tuesday morning. By then he’ll have spent 10 days in the joint where the food is - well, check out today’s menu. All the feds need to have is a blueberry muffin and two chocolate crullers waiting for him in the holding pen, and they got the next Joe Valachi on their hands - a 400-pound canary.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1093163
Howie is the best. My only issue is that WRKO has him repeat the phone number so often that I find myself switching the channel