Joseph Bruno's Blog, page 49

Joe Bruno on the Mob – Andrea Giovino – Part Five

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009CGA74M

There have been numerous instances where mobsters have killed their girlfriends rather than lose them to another man. In other cases, to remove the competition, the mobsters killed the other man.

However, after they were married, things quickly turned sour. Michael was an investment banker who worked in Manhattan. He made his money the hard way; he earned it legally. As a result, Michael scorned Andre’s previous lifestyle, and especially her former acquaintances: organized crime figures like Frank Lino.

Michael, although he provided for Andrea and her son as well as Lino did,  got into the habit of treating Andrea like dirt; when they were alone, and worse, in front of people. Soon, they had a son, John, and if anything, the birth of the new baby increased Michael’s animosity towards his wife. Michael’s scorn was so intolerable, their  sex life became extinct.

Andrea tried to spice things up sexually by dressing provocatively in the privacy of their own home. This affected her husband in the opposite way she had hoped. Instead of taking the hint, Michael snubbed her, and called her a slut. In 1983, after less than three years of marriage, Andrea had had enough. She filed for a legal separation, with the intention of finalizing their marriage with a divorce.

So much for a happy life with a legitimate guy.

The good news for Andrea was that Michael was so flush with cash, she got a nice divorce settlement. This allowed her to move her and her two kids into a lovely condo on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, complete with a uniformed doorman

By early 1985, Andrea decided to venture out again into the glitzy nightlife of Manhattan. It was Andrea’s birthday and she hadn’t hit the hotspots of Manhattan in 15 months. With her girlfriend Margo in tow, Andrea visisted Club A, a known mob hangout on Avenue A in the shadows of the Queensborough Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge.

The first night she entered the joint, Andrea was captivated by one of John Gotti’s best pals: a handsome drug dealer named Mark Reiter. When Andrea inquired what Reiter did for a living, he said was as an executive in the garment industry.

Well, not exactly.

During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, Reiter moved more heroin into Harlem than any other dealer, including Harlem kingpins Nicky Barnes and Frank Lucas. Reiter was Jewish, so he could not be elevated to a made made in the Gambino Crime Family. However, Reiter was smart enough to get tight with Gotti, and especially Gotti’s brother Gene. Also, Reiter kicked up a substantial amount of his profits up the Gotti ladder, until it reached the so-called Teflon Don, John Gotti himself. This afforded Reiter the same protection as being a made man, without having to do the heavy-lifting, like committing murders, which was previously required of all mobsters before they got  their “buttons.” (Starting in the 1970’s, Italian organized crime associates did not have to participate in a murder in order to become “made,” as long as they were “good earners,” and  kept shuffling the money up the organized crime totem pole.)

                From the moment their eyes first met, Andrea was smitten with the 38-year-old Reiter, who was married with children. Reiter appeared to have everything; breathtakingly good looks, and more importantly, plenty of cash which seemed like it flowed from a bottomless pit.

            In 1986, when Reiter was indicted, along with Gene Gotti and others, for selling heroin like it was flour, then U.S. attorney Rudy Giuliani said that Reiter was, “a major heroin distributor operating at a very high level with organized crime.”

            However, Andrea couldn’t see past Rieter’s good looks and the good times he provided. In the nightclubs of Manhattan, the duo were constant companions of John Gotti and his minions, some of them the most brutal killers in the annals of organized crime.

Hanging with such a tough bunch gave Andrea what street people call “beer muscles. One night, while sitting with John Gotti and his crew, and after downing enough drinks to give her an attitude, Andrea became perturbed with two women sitting at a nearby table.  

“I hear this woman talking about my girlfriend (Margo); saying she was a slut.” Andrea said. “I said to her, ‘Excuse me. You’re talking about my friend. Keep your mouth shut.’”

The two women put Andrea on their pay-no-mind list and continued to bad-mouth Margo.

“The woman continued to trash talk,” Andrea said. “So I turned to John Gotti and said, ‘Excuse me John, but these women are trash-talking my girlfriend.’ I pushed my table aside; rushed over to their table; picked up the champagne bottle and smashed one girl on the head with it. Then I went to work on them. As I was hitting them  I yelled, ‘I told you not to open your mouth.’ When I finished hitting them I went back to my table, and Gotti and his crew were impressed. From then on, nobody called me Andrea or Andy. They called me ‘Rocky.’ I was more stand-up then some of the guys around me.”

            Andrea was not only dating a drug dealer, but her younger brother, Johnny, who was 17 at the time, was also dealing babania on the streets, albeit at a much lower level than Reiter. One night while Andrea was in a Brooklyn social club with Reiter and John Gotti and his crew, her brother Johnny knocked at the front door of the club. He was stopped by the bouncer, but Andrea, seeing her brother in distress, hurried to the front door with Reiter in tow.

            Instead of addressing his sister, Johnny turned to Reiter.

            “Mark, did you hear anything about me,” Johnny said.

            Reiter told Johnny that the word on the streets was that another drug dealer, Johnny main turf competitor, Jimmy Dunn, was looking to eliminate the competition; meaning Johnny Silvestri.

            Reiter looked Johnny in the eye and said, “Now you know what you gotta do.”

            At this point, most loving sisters, especially those without deep roots in the streets, would have told their teenage brother to do anything to save himself, even if it mean disappearing for a while. But Andrea, again flexing those beer muscles inherent in her present environment, told  Johnny exactly what Reiter had said: “Do what you gotta do.”

Johnny and a pal, Gary Farmer, abducted Dunn off the streets of Brooklyn. They took him on a one-way ride, shot him in the back of the head, and dropped  his body in a secluded  area in Staten Island (real pros would have had an already-dug grave for Dunn’s disposal).

Johnny knew Dunn had friends, and until cooler heads prevailed, it wasn’t safe for him to be on the streets of  New York  City. Unsure of what to do, Johnny called for a summit meeting of the Silvestri family, with mother, Dolly, firmly in charge.

            Dolly decided it was best if Johnny “went into the wind” for a while until the heat cooled down. That cost money, and the only person in the Silvestri family well-heeled enough to finance Johnny’s  “lamsky” fund was Andrea.

            However, since Dolly first wanted proof that Dunn was indeed dead, she tabled that idea for a while.

She said to Johnny “You sure you put a bullet in his head?”

            Johnny insisted he had done the job right, but Dolly would not be mollified until she saw Dunn’s dead body herself. So Johnny took mom on a little family trip to the marshes in Staten Island, where he showed Dolly Dunn’s unbreathing corpse.

Satisfied, Dolly returned home, and she and her oldest son, Frankie, hammered Andrea with the idea that she should be the one to cough up the twenty grand for Johnny’s “vacation.”

             “Never mind that we were all complicit in the killing and the cover-up, that by asking me for money so that Johnny could flee, they were entangling me in this mess in ways which none of my considerable connections could extract me,” Andrea said.  “On top of that, I was faced with the ultimate reality – that I had condoned the killing of another human being.”

Although she was conflicted, Andrea gave Johnny the cash he needed to go into hiding. In a few months, when he returned from his self-imposed exile, Johnny “Bubblegum,” his moniker on the streets, had become known as a certified whacko, who would blow out your brains if you so much as looked at him cross-eyed.  

Things started to go sour for Reiter when an informant fingered him as a huge supplier of cocaine in New York City. Hearing he might be arrested soon, Reiter hurried to Andrea’s apartment. With him he lugged a large box loaded with cash — reportedly $350,000 — for Andrea to keep in case he needed to make a fast break from the law.

A few days later, Reiter discovered he would be arrested in a matter of hours (Gotti’s crew had moles all throughout law enforcement and especially in the New York City Police Department).  Reiter rushed to Andrea’s apartment, grabbed his get-away cash, kissed her farewell, and made a beeline for the West Coast.

Two months later, the FBI tracked down Reiter hiding in a Los Angeles Holiday Inn. He was extradited back to New York and charged with distributing $240,000 in heroin every other week from 1982 to 1987. Also arrested in the same case were nine other men, including Gene Gotti, John Carneglia, and Edward Lino, the cousin of Andrea’s old paramour, Frank Lino.

Andrea visited Reiter in jail, but he complained her visits were too sporadic. Andrea figured Reiter had a wife and children, and who knew how many other girlfriends, so where did she figure in the process?

Andrea did go to the courtroom for the opening arguments in Reiter’s trial, but that was the last time she saw Rieter.

She decided, “It was time to cut my losses and move on.”

Andrea did move on; never bothering to look in the rear view mirror.

In January of 1989, after nine months in court, Mark A. Costantino of District Court in Brooklyn, declared a mistrial in the trial of the ten alleged drug dealers, including Reiter. The reason for the mistrial was that someone close to the defendants was able to discover the identities of at least five jurors, whose names were supposed to be kept secret by the court. The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Andrew J. Maloney, told Judge Costantino that one juror had  “been approached and is now compromised. He was bought and paid for. He was in the bag.”

In addition to the in-the-bag juror, another juror, Gary Barnes, was dismissed from the case a week earlier. The original reason given for his dismissal was that Barnes was not a United States citizen, and therefore, was not qualified to be a juror.

However, according to sealed testimony, after Barnes had been dismissed from the  jury, he returned to work and was approached by a co-worker, Mel Rosenberg. Rosenberg offered Barnes a new car if Barnes would tell him “what the jury was thinking.”

A third problem surfaced when a man, known only as “Juror No. 4,” asked to be dismissed from the trial because he lived within “walking distance” of the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club, in Ozone Park, Queens, which was John Gotti’s headquarters and a frequent hangout the defendants, including Mark Reiter. Juror No. 4 did not say any threats had been made, nor had he been offered money by the defendants, or any friends of the defendants.

However, the  implication was clear. Juror No. 4 didn’t want anything to do with convicting a member of John Gotti’s crew. He clearly feared for his life.

Undeterred at the turn of events, United States Attorney Mahoney told the judge the Government was ready to proceed with a new trial “immediately.”

On August 26, 1988, five of the defendants, including Marv Reiter and Gene Gotti were convicted of racketeering and conspiracy, both of which carried a maximum 20-year sentence. In addition to the racketeering and conspiracy charges, Reiter was convicted under the so-called “drug kingpin statute” of running a continuing criminal enterprise, which carried a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life without parole.

In October, Reiter was sentenced to enough jail time to last several lifetimes: 260 years. Andrea had now lost one very rich boyfriend, and was in danger of having her lavish lifestyle reduced to those of mere mortals.

Joe Bruno on the Mob – Andrea Giovino – Part 4

Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks and Other Creeps-Volume 2 – New York City (Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps – New York City)

Joe Bruno on the Mob – Andrea Giovino Part Three

http://www.amazon.com/Mobsters-Gangs-Crooks-Creeps-ebook/dp/B006H99D1U/ref=zg_bs_11010_5

The Bagato incident transformed Andrea’s way of interpreting her sexuality. Her body was filling out, and she suddenly realized if she played her cards right, she would have men eating out of her hands. From this point on, Andrea stopped being a little girl and started acting like a world-wise woman. Andrea gradually changed from an innocent, to a conniver; albeit a conniver on a small scale. Men were there to be used by women, and if Andrea didn’t take advantage of this biological phenomenon, well then shame on her. The law of the streets is that you use whatever you can, to get whatever you can; legally, or illegally. Andrea wanted the better things in life, and now she knew the avenues she would have to travel to get what she desired.

However, Andrea didn’t comprehend how winding and fraught with dangers that road would surely become.

While still in her mid-teens, Andrea got a job at Bohack Supermarket, taking care of the cash register; and that she did. Although Andrea didn’t actually stuff her hands into Bohack register and pull out loads of green; the stealing was simple. Either her mother or one of her siblings would enter the supermarket, fill up their shopping cart, and slip over to Andrea’s cash register. Some items Andrea would ring up; other items bypassed the register.

Thievery of this magnitude  can only go undetected for so long, and soon Andrea was out of a job and her family went back to paying for their groceries. But not in Bohack.

By the  time she was sixteen, Andrea, or “Andy” as the nightclub crowd called her, was a regular in the local Brooklyn discos. Forget about the laws that said you couldn’t drink in joints with liquor licenses until you were eighteen. In Brooklyn in the 1970’s, and even in some neighborhoods in Manhattan and in the other boroughs, bartenders asked for I.D. as often as the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. The deal was this: if you were from the neighborhood, and especially if you were a girl who attracted male customers, it was like Bill Clinton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” police with gays in the military. The local cops were in on the deal, taking payoffs from the bar owners to look the other way, or maybe not to look at all.

It was at one of these clubs the 17-year old Andrea met her first love Toby, who at 25, was several years older than Andrea. As far as love affairs go, Andrea was still wet behind the ears when she fell for Toby, who wasn’t even a connected guy, much less a mobster, whom her mother desperately wanted Andrea attached to, for the sake of family pride; not to mention the cash benefits that come with the gig. The good news was that Toby’s parents had a few bucks themselves, and this mollified Dolly; just a little bit.

However, one thing led to another, and two years later Andrea was pregnant. When she told the now 27-year-old Toby about her delicate condition, Toby’s reply was something like, “I’m not ready to be a father.”

However, Dolly Silvestri would not let her daughter give birth in an unmarried condition.  She got together with Toby’s parents and laid down the law – Dolly style. As a result, instead in front of a priest in a Catholic Church, a shotgun marriage was performed by a minister in Brooklyn.

To Andrea’s dismay, Toby was right when he said he wasn’t ready to be a father. In fact, Toby wasn’t ready to be a husband either. In April of 1975, Toby Jr. entered this world, but being a father was the last thing on Toby Sr.’s mind. One thing led to another, and soon the married couple separated and were in the process of getting a divorce.

One bright Sunday afternoon, after Andrea had moved back with her parents and the final divorce decree was pending, Toby Sr., who wasn’t too bright to start with, stopped at 689, not to see his son, but just to cause trouble. Two of the more imposing Silvestri brood, Andrea’s brother Frank and her brother-in-law Billy, just happened to be there, awaiting Dolly Silvestri’s signature Sunday family meal.

Toby entered the home, busted past a surprised Frank and Billy, and rushed at Andrea, who was standing in the background. Toby threw an overhand right, that Andrea blocked with her forearm.

Frank and Billy rushed Toby and knocked him to the ground without much trouble. Frank picked Toby up like a rag doll, lugged him through the kitchen and threw Toby into the backyard; like a bouncer body-slamming a bum outside a bar.

Then the beating began.

By the time Frank and Billy were finished kicking, punching, and choking Toby, he looked like he had fallen from a plane.

Scratch husband No. 1.

Joe Bruno on the Mob – Andrea Giovino – Part 2

Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks and Other Creeps-Volume 2 – New York City (Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps – New York City)

Joe Bruno on the Mob – Andrea Giovino – Part One

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009CGA74M

Numerous women have been seduced by mobsters; have been nothing but eye candy to show off in front of other thugs, on booze and drug-fueled nights on the town. These women have been treated like Queens, then beat up and cast to the curb, without even a kind word or a penny compensation for months, and sometimes years of meritorious service to the cause.

Very few of these women have defied mobsters and lived to tell about it. One woman who did survive the mob world is Andrea Giovino, who endured not one, but three rocky relationships with notorious gangsters. When she was caught in a tangled web and facing big-time in the slammer, Andrea  successfully defied and bullied the New York Attorney’s Office.  Andrea is now living a secure life, prospering in the legitimate world.

This is her story.

Andrea, the sixth oldest of ten children, was born to Dolly and Frank Silvestri, at 689 Second Street (called by the family just “689”), between Avenue F and Ditmars Avenue in Brooklyn. Her father was a hard-working truck driver, who gambled heavily on three-legged horses and sports teams who inevitable came in last in their division. Andrea’s mother, Dolly, was a five-foot-three-inch spitfire, who gambled as much as her husband (maybe more), and cursed worse than a drunken sailor on leave in Times Square. The family gambling problem inevitably led to an incessant shortage of food in the Silvestri household. When Andrea was only five, Dolly forced her to become a sneak thief, which provided Dolly’s sizable family with their early morning nutrition.

These excursions started at 5 AM, when Dolly would wake her daughter, dress her properly, and then point her to, and out the front door. Andrea knew what to do next: steal whatever she could get her tiny hands on from outside the local businesses, and then run like the dickens back home.

Andrea wrote in her book Divorced From the Mob – My Journey From Organized Crime to Independent Woman, “My mother was smart. She knew something about these early morning raids. One: at 5 AM, the deliverymen had just made their rounds. That meant sitting out on the sidewalk in front of Friedman’s, the neighborhood corner store, were stacks of trays with bread, and donuts, milk and other food. Two: Since I was the youngest and a girl, sending me made the most sense. After all, who would want to see a little girl arrested for stealing food for her family?”

Always in the red, Dolly was eager to make an illegal buck any way she could. Using her parlor as a showroom, Dolly sold stolen goods, which she bought off neighborhood thieves for a small fraction of their numerical value, then resold them at  a nice profit. In addition, if a neighborhood thug needed a place to stow his guns, or his ill-gotten gains, Dolly’s happy home would accommodate him too; for a fair price, of course. Dolly also hosted illegal dice and card  games; under the control of various Brooklyn mobsters, including Crazy Joe Gallo (in 1972, Crazy Joe exited this earth in a hail of bullets, while dining at Umberto’s Clam House in Manhattan’s Little Italy).

When Andrea was seven, the local police raided 689. Her husband, Frank, was safe at work, but Dolly was led away in handcuffs; kicking, cursing, and screaming to the local lockup. Dolly continued her tirades at the precinct, and after the police had had enough of Dolly’s mouth, Dolly was not charged with any crime, and released from custody. Frank Silvestri was also not charged, but that ended Gambling Day at 689 Second St. in Brooklyn.

When Andrea was eleven, her parent’s lack of cash led to cold, harsh reality.

During the midst of an especially frigid winter, the furnace at 689 belched and coughed, and ceased to blow hot air. The city had just suffered a terrible snow storm, and when it snowed, truck drivers like Frank Silvestri were temporarily out of work. No work meant no money, which caused the Silvestri furnace to stay unfixed, until the streets were clear enough for Frank Silvestri to return to work. With the inside of 689 colder than a witch’s heart, Andrea and her siblings were sent to the scattered homes of assorted relatives. Andrea overheard discussions of which kids would go where, and for how long. And maybe for forever.

Andrea said, “We had no idea how long this exodus would last, and my parents seemed so indifferent about my welfare, I had no idea if they even wanted me back after this crisis was over, or if when the spring thaw came would I be back home. I was sure if my siblings voted on it, I would be out.”

Luckily for Andrea and her siblings, in a few weeks the  furnace was repaired, and all the Silvestri kids were back home in their cozy nest at 689 ruled by mother Dolly.

Angela was a decent student at St. Rosa Lima Catholic grammar school, and her favorite subject was Catechism. In Catechism class, the nuns taught Angela to be more like Jesus; to turn the other cheek when antagonized. The only problem was that Dolly Silvestri preached to her children to do the exact opposite thing. Going by the laws of the streets rather than the laws of the church, Dolly taught her ten children if someone abused them to punch with both hands, until their antagonists were bloodied, beaten, and forevermore – bulldozed. Dolly’s thinking was, if her children didn’t fend for themselves, they’d get abused every day and they might as well stay home; and Dolly didn’t need that.

Because of the Silvestri family’s economic condition, the kid’s clothes were sometimes little more than rags, and their shoes had more holes than a colander. The Jewish students at a nearby Yeshiva school did not have that same problem, and were quick to taunt the Catholic kids, who were were not in their same fiscal condition.

One day, while Angela was passing the Yeshiva neighborhood school, the taunts about her clothing and religion rained on her in two different languages. The English part Angela understood, and it did not make her happy.

So what was a young Catholic girl to do? Obey the nuns and walk away? Or listen to Dolly, and flail away at the odd-looking kids, who was dressed in depressing black, with yarmulkes dumped on their heads and comical-looking curls running down both cheeks.

This was an easy choice, and when Angela finished with her fists, one boy, the son of a Rabbi, looked like he had just gone ten rounds with Muhammad Ali.

This did not please the Rabbi too much. Imagine the nerve of those Catholics.

After discerning who had made minced meat of his son’s face, the Rabbi, with his son in tow, made a trip to 689.

Andrea said, “I was home when Ma opened the door, and I was afraid of what she would do to me as I was what she would do to them.”

The Rabbi had his say (well, most of his say), but it paled next to Dolly Silvestri’s tirade.

“You get the fuck out of here,” Dolly said. “Your son-of-a-bitch son was picking on my little girl.”

Then Dolly started flapping her hands like a lunatic and cursing with words  the Rabbi hadn’t a clue as to their meaning. The Rabbi’s face reddened and his son’s knees turned to jelly. Luckily, the Jews were able to exodus the Silvestri residence without needing a trip to the hospital, and little Andrea was never taunted by the Jewish crowd again.

So much for the teachings of the nuns.

Book Reviews – “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks and Other Creeps-Volume 4″

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009CGA74M

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars BRUNO DOES IT AGAIN, February 20, 2013

By 

RJ Parker “Bestselling & Award-Winning Author” (Toronto) – See all my reviews

(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks and Other Creeps-Volume 4 (Kindle Edition)

Just when you think you’ve read everything there is about NYC mobsters and gangs, Bruno comes up with more. Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks and Other Creeps-Volume 4 is another must have for the true crime collector. Bruno is the real deal when it comes to historical crime in the big apple.

 

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great way to spend 99 cents…, January 17, 2013

By 

JldB – See all my reviews

This review is from: “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks and Other Creeps-Volume 4 (Kindle Edition)

“Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks and Other Creeps-Volume 4″ is a great way to spend 99 cents. Bruno makes some great points about the Feds going after the decimated Italian Mob in America, when they should be concentrating on terrorists.

Also, I didn’t realize there were so many crooked cops in New York City, but I know that tradition goes all the way back to the late 1800′s.

All in all this book is a fun read. But maybe not so much, if you are a NY City cop.

 

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Mobsters, gangs .crooks Vol.4, January 27, 2013

By 

ED – See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase (What’s this?)

This review is from: “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks and Other Creeps-Volume 4 (Kindle Edition)

The book was informative and fast reading, Joe Bruno did a great job. Read volums 1,2,and 3 already and looking forward to his next vol.

 

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Palermo, Godfathers, and the Squadra Antimafia, February 24, 2013

By 

Joyce Metzger – See all my reviews

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This review is from: “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks and Other Creeps-Volume 4 (Kindle Edition)

This is the history extention of crimes and criminals tied to the mafia. A detailed synopsis of the brotherhood of the Costra Nostra is not an engaging subject. Brought before the turn of the twentieth century into the United States from Sicily and Italy, the tentacles built of bones and blood were extremely fertile and ever greedy, able to entice and incorporate new members and victims.

We have learned of Castellano, Gambino, Genovese, Valachi, Riesel, DeLuca, Colombo, Franzese, Soprano, Johnny Dio, Jimmy Hoffa, Thomas Farese, Whitey Bulger and his girlfriend, Catherine Greig. These are only a few names attached to heinous crimes. Many became involved because of intimidation, threats, pitiful living conditions, pride, need and greed.

The twin desires of money and power overshadowed and trapped men who finally realize that the Blood Oath lasts a lifetime. And, the Secrecy Oath meant no talking ever, to law officials or anyone not associated with the brotherhood under penalty of death. Death for self, wife, daughters, sons, parents, cousins, uncles or even aunts. No one receives a “get-out-of-jail” pass.

The brotherhood would back and protect their own, but the price, after warnings of broken bones, was the ultimate. The web spread to incorporate much of the United States. The Capos and Godfathers could not be lenient. If they detected weakness, it was labeled as being traitorous. Originally, this life carried glamorous overtones. To penniless waifs, the seduction was irresistible. But, insatiable greed fosters cruel repercussions. The monsters maim, then slaughter weaker subjects. This fact has been verified many times in many horrific ways.

This book by Joe Bruno, and his insightful forerunner books, should act as clear preventive warnings. These are cutting edge, real life horror stories, not inventive fantasies. Swallow bitters, take the medicinal pill, go to bed, and try to ignore the fact, that evil does exist, and vendettas destroy everyone.

 

Joe Bruno on the Mob – Lynda Milito – Part Five

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009CGA74M

In 1980, Louie Milito, Sammy Gravano, and Stymie D’Angelo took a trip to South Jersey to kidnap and kill John “Johnny Keys” Simone, 69, a top Capo, and considered by his contemporaries a “man’s man.” This was right after the boss of Philadephia, Angelo Bruno, was shot and killed in his car by assassins unknown. Simone wanted to succeed Bruno as Philly and South Jersey mob boss, but the National Mob Commission settled on Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo as Bruno’s successor. Scarfo convinced the New York bosses that if Scarfo was to rise to the Philly throne unimpeded, Simone had to go. The contract was given to Gravano, and he took his two best buddies, Milito and D’Angelo, with him to do this “piece of work.”

Gravano said this was a job he regretted, but he had no choice.

“I felt terrible that a man with such balls had to be hit,” Gravano wrote in his book Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano’s Story of Life in the Mafia. “But this was Cosa Nostra. The boss of my family had ordered it. The entire commission had ordered it. There was nothing I could do.”

When the four men reached the spot of the execution, Milito had his gun ready.

Gravano wrote, “Simone took a couple of steps away from the van. Without a word, he lowered his head, quiet and dignified. The shot immediately leveled him to the ground. He died instantly. He died without pain. He died La Cosa Nostra.”

The Simone hit ingratiated Gravano to Castellano, but the feeling was not mutual. Gravano thought, as did other Gambino capos, that Castellano was too removed from the streets. Big Paul considered himself a well-read and well-bred aristocrat, but he had little in common with the guys in the trenches doing the grunt work.

In 1981, Sammy and Louie went partners in the “Plaza Suite Disco,” which became one of the most popular nightspots in the borough; a Brooklyn version of Studio 54. Gravano was the major “shareholder,” and Milito was his “junior partner.” The club featured popular entertainers, including Chubby Checker and The Four Tops.

The money was rolling in for Gravano and Milito, and all was right with the world. That is, until in June of 1982, when a shady businessman named Frank Fiala decided to wreck havoc on the joint.

On the surface, the 37-year-old Fiala was the owner of the Patterson Machine Company, a manufacturer of marine parts and supplies on the Brooklyn waterfront. However, in reality Fiala was raking in tons of dough dealing huge quantities of cocaine and  making more on the side distributing kiddie porn.

Fiala paid $40,000 to rent out the Plaza Suite Disco for a birthday party he was throwing for himself. For the forty grand, Fiala thought he had the right to trash the club and give the employees a hard time.

The next day, Fiala showed up in Gravano’s office.

“What do you want?” Gravano said.

Fiala took out a big knife and stuck it face down in Gravano’s desk. “I want to buy this place,” Fiala snarled. “How much do you want?”

Gravano smiled. “One million bucks, in cash.”

Fiala said that would be just fine.

The deal they agreed to was this: $100,000 in cash as a down payment (which Fiala immediately gave to Gravano), $650,000 in gold bullions under the table (which Fiala also gave to Gravano), and $250,000 cash at closing.

Gravano couldn’t believe his good fortune. He figured the place was only worth $200,000.

However, Fiala was either stupid or insane. Before the deal closed, Fiala acted like he was already the boss of the club. He started remodeling the interior, and he hired his own bouncers. The final straw was when Fiala entered Gravano’s office, and decided he wanted to break through a wall to make a bigger office. When Gravano and Milito strolled Gravano’s office, they saw Fiala sitting in the chair behind Gravano’s desk, with a lit cigar in his mouth, and his feet on Gravano’s desk.

“What do you think you’re doing?”  Gravano barked at Fiala. “This doesn’t belong to you till the closing. Get the hell out of here.”

Fiala smiled at the two mobsters. Then he reached into the bottom desk drawer, took out a Uzi machine pistol, and aimed it at Gravano.

“You ain’t so tough,” Fiala said, fingering the trigger. “What are you going to do now?”

Both Gravano and Milito stood speechless.

Fiala waved the gun menacingly at Gravano. “You fucking greaseballs! You do things my way!”

Gravano and Milito sneered at Fiala, and then exited the office.  

When Fiala left the club at 2 AM, he was surrounded by several men wearing ski masks and wigs; including Milito, Nicholas Mormando, and Michael DeBatt.

Mormando yelled, “Hey Frank, how you doing?”

As Fiala turned to Mormando, Milito rushed up behind Fiala and shot him in the back of the head. Then Louie stood over Fiala’s body, and fired a shot into each of Fiala’s eyes (that was for the kiddie porn).

A split second later, Gravano emerged from the crowd, and spat on Fiala’s dead body.

The killers rushed off, and even though the murder had been witnessed by several bystanders, no one was ever arrested for the murder of Frank Fiala. It was discovered later that Gravano had greased the palms of the so-called Mafia cop, Louie Eppolito and his partner Sal Carracappa, so that the Fiala murder case would disappear from the police blotter.

As for the cash and gold bullion Gravano had already received from Fiala, Gravano pocketed the entire amount, and Louie Milito got beans.

Later, Gravano bragged to Milito, “I just bought a horse farm; all cash. And I’m giving you 20 percent.”

Milito soon found out that 20 percent of nothing is nothing.

A few days after the Fiala murder, Lynda Milito found a fake mustache, a bottle of glue, a revolver, two ski masks and a pair of sunglasses, behind a bunch of handkerchiefs in a bedroom bureau.

When she confronted her husband about her bizarre discovery, Louie said, “They belong to Sammy; they have nothing to do with me.”

Lynda asked her husband if he had anything to do with the murder in front of the Plaza Suite Disco.

Louie sneered at Linda, “What do you know, you’re Jewish.”

When Sammy Gravano became an informant a decade later, in the trial of his boss, John Gotti, Gravano named Louie Milito as the Fiala shooter.

Book Reviews on Amazon.com – Murder and Mayhem in the Big Apple

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009CGA74M2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great one., October 22, 2012

By 

lcook0825 (New York City, USA) – See all my reviews

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This review is from: Murder and Mayhem in the Big Apple – From the Black Hand to Murder Incorporated (Kindle Edition)

Another great book by Joe Bruno on the Mafia in the United States.

Murder Inc. was an unbelievable group of men who got away with their crimes for some time. It is amazing to see how far police investigations have come since that time. I can’t wait to start the next book by Mr Bruno.

 

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Murder and Mayhem in the big apple, January 27, 2013

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ED – See all my reviews

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This review is from: Murder and Mayhem in the Big Apple – From the Black Hand to Murder Incorporated (Kindle Edition)

This was a bit of nostalgia and I remember my grandparents telling me of the Black hand when they arrived in New York in the early 1900′s, these thugs preyed on the poor and hard working ,they were all happy to see an end to the Black Hand.

 

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Big Apple, December 22, 2012

By 

Mary J. George – See all my reviews

(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Murder and Mayhem in the Big Apple – From the Black Hand to Murder Incorporated (Kindle Edition)

Another Kindle purchase for my Mafia obbessed husband, he will read anything mob related, and he loves his kindle. !!

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

 

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What can I say!, October 17, 2012

By 

Rony Barbery (New York City) – See all my reviews

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This review is from: Murder and Mayhem in the Big Apple – From the Black Hand to Murder Incorporated (Kindle Edition)

What can I say, this is another typical Joe Bruno book, detailed,factual and written like if you were having a conversation sitting on the stoop of your house with him. He writes like if he was an old friend that I hung out with in Brooklyn. I have two more of his books on my shelf, and can’t wait to get to them. As with all of his other works, I highly recommend this book!

 

 

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, July 7, 2012

By 

catenacci – See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder and Mayhem in the Big Apple – From the Black Hand to Murder Incorporated (Kindle Edition)

Joe Bruno supplies us with a well written book that provides in depth treatments of some very interesting big time murder cases. Moreover it contains several entertaining and quite funny statements. I really enjoyed reading it.

 

 

5.0 out of 5 stars ANOTHER HISTORY LESSON, February 20, 2013

By 

RJ Parker “Bestselling & Award-Winning Author” (Toronto) – See all my reviews

(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Murder and Mayhem in the Big Apple – From the Black Hand to Murder Incorporated (Kindle Edition)

I love Joe Bruno’s books. I always say that he’s the NYC true crime historian. I never heard of the Black Hand until reading this book. NYC has had its share of murder and corruption over the past couple of centuries and the Author is a wealth of knowledge about it. A must read for any true crime book collector.

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Knock Out Punch, January 14, 2013

By 

Joyce Metzger – See all my reviews

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This review is from: Murder and Mayhem in the Big Apple – From the Black Hand to Murder Incorporated (Kindle Edition)

Joe Bruno delivers a hard punch, well researched, no nonsense book. People need to be reminded about dark periods of history. Murder and Mayhem in the Big Apple,

From Black Hand to Murder Incorporated uncovers the atrocities committed by men who had neither compassion nor conscience. They lived by power rule of the Corleonesi Mafia who made their bones by killing whomever the bosses said needed to be killed. That rule brought from Corleone, Sicily by Giuseppe Morello and Nick and Vincent Terranova became the Black Hand. Worldwide, in 1880 ,People noticed that the United States was the land of milk and honey. Added to this fact was the law that a three year Grace period existed after which an Italian immigrant became immune to deportation.

Fear, hatred,and brutality are brought to our awareness in a most convincing and stark manner. The reader is an observer as chills run up and down the spine. Joe Bruno gives us a glimpse loaded with facts. This history loaded portrayal includes Buggsy Goldstein, Harry Strauss, Happy Malone, Frank Abbandando, Lepke Buchalter,Albert Anastasia and Lucky Luciano. Joe Bruno brings full realism to play and bear upon our psyches.

Joe Bruno on the Mob – Lynda Milito – Part Four

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009CGA74M

There is no record of when it happened, but according to Lynda, Louie got his button in the Gambino Crime Family in 1977. Carlo Gambino had died in 1976, and the new boss was Gambino’s cousin: Paul Castellano.

 Louie Milito was induced into the crew of Capo Salvatore “Toddo” Aurello. At that time, Sammy Gravano had already been a made  man. However, for some reason, Aurello resigned as Capo (a made man is usually “resigned” with a bullet in the back of his head), and Castellano promoted Gravano as Milito’s new boss. Also in Gravano’s crew were Louis Vallario, Joseph Paruta, Joseph D’Angelo Sr., Nicholas Mormando, and Michael DeBatt.

With Louie in his crew, Gravano made frequent trips to Milito’s home. This did not please Lynda too much.

“Day after day he (Gravano) used to come to the house, and I didn’t want to answer the door,” Lynda said. “I just knew he was just no good.”

On August 16, 1977, Gravano and Louie Milito were driving on King’s Highway, near West 8th street in Gravesend, Brooklyn. Gravano had a cast on his right ankle, due to a mishap he incurred when his nightclub was robbed by Aldo Candito. Both Gravano and Milito, as usual, were packing heavy heat.

Suddenly,  Gravano told Milito, “Pull over! That’s the guy who robbed my place!”

Both men jumped out of the car, and blasted their victim several times in the head and chest. The only problem was, the dead man was not Aldo Candito, but, in fact, 16-year-old Alan Kaiser, who was just walking down the street minding his own business.

In 1978, Milito murdered again; this time at the command of  Gambino underboss  Frank DeCicco.

The victim was mob associate Nicholas Scibetta, who just happened to be the brother of Gravano’s wife, Debbie. DeCicco, as he was ordered by Castellano,  bypassed Gravano and gave the order directly to Milito and Joseph “Stymie” DeAngelo. Milito put up a beef, and Decicco finally decided, with Castellano’s blessing, that they should tell Gravano what was up their sleeve. Castellano made this concession with one stipulation: if Gravano vehemently opposed Scibetta’s killing, Gravano would get the same.

Gravano hemmed and hawed (after all Schibetta was Gravano’s brother-in-law), but he finally relented. Gravano knew that an order from the top could not be overruled, and if he offered any resistance, he would be offering up his own life as a sacrifice.

Milito and D’Angleo whacked Scibetta in an unknown manner (a few shots to the head is a good guess). Scibetta’s body was never found (his right hand did turn up later), and he was declared legally dead in 1985.

With Louie Milito using his Staten Island home as a meeting place for his pals, and a place to throw holiday parties, Lynda settled in with Louie’s crew the best she could. She liked most of Louie’s friends; except one – Sammy Gravano. This was an especially ticklish situation, since Gravano, whom Louie had known since they were kids, was now Louie’s best bud.

Lynda wrote in Mafia Wife, “I didn’t like Sammy Gravano. I didn’t like Sammy’s face.  I didn’t like his voice. I didn’t like the way he sucked up to Louie, and I couldn’t understand why he didn’t look me in the eye for more than a split second. I can’t explain it, but I felt from the beginning that he resented Louie and could in some way hurt him. Even now, finding his name in the papers, or hearing it mentioned on TV, makes me sick to my stomach.”

In 1979, Lynda decided to get involved in real estate. She took the required state test and got her real estate license. Soon afterwards, Gravano decided he wanted to move from a smaller home on Staten Island to Todt Hill, the most exclusive section of Staten Island, and where Paul Castellano lived in a joint derisively called “The White House.”

Soon after she got her real estate license, Louie told her of Gravano’s wishes, and he asked Lynda if she could find Sammy a house on Todt Hill. Lynda didn’t like the idea, but she finally relented, telling her husband, “I’ll do it, but I’m not doing Sammy any favors. I want my full commission.”

Softening a bit, Louie agreed. “Go ahead, do what you gotta do. People have to pay for your services. I don’t expect you to have to do it for nothing.”

Lynda found Gravano a house for $375,000; half cash, half mortgage. Gravano bought the house, then immediately tore it down. On the site he built a mansion, almost as big as Castellano’s. People called it “Sammy’s Shrine to Sammy.”

Joe Bruno on the Mob – Book Reviews – “Joe Bruno’s Mobsters – Six Volume Set”

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009CGA74M

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Five-Star Book and a Bargain to Boot!, September 21, 2012

By 

GinaBeena “Gina” (Sarasota, FL) – See all my reviews

This review is from: Joe Bruno’s Mobsters – Six Volume Set (Kindle Edition)

Joe Bruno’s Mobsters – Six Volume Set” is a definitive history of American mobsters, dating as far back as the early 1820′s and continuing until the mid-1900′s.

The first three books “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks and Other Creeps – Volumes 1, 2 and 3″ contain bios of scores of gangsters, both male and female. These three books also include famous murders (The Murder of Sanford White) and disasters like the General Slocum Paddleboat Fire.

The fourth book – “The Wrong Man: Who Ordered the Murder of Gambler Herman Rosenthal and Why” details a famous murder than took place 100 years ago. Bruno maintains the wrong man, NY City Police Lieut. Charles Becker, was executed, while the real killers testified against Becker and walked away free men.

“Murder and Mayhem in the Big Apple” focuses on the exploits of the murderous Black Hand, The Boys from Brownsville, and Murder incorporated.

And Finally “Mob Wives – Fuhgeddaboudit!” is Bruno’s way of saying that the TV program “Mob Wives” is such an embarrassing abomination, no intelligent person should ever watch the show. And I wholeheartedly agree.

All in all, $2.99 is a cheap price to pay for so much information in one six-volume book.

Highly recommended!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Joe Bruno’s Mobsters-Six Volume Set, February 13, 2013

By

Joseph S. Salerno – See all my reviews

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This review is from: Joe Bruno’s Mobsters – Six Volume Set (Kindle Edition)

Book is very informative about the most famous mobsters and how they rose to power, and how the fell. Also, how people were very poor and what they had to endure to survive.

 

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Bruno’s Mobsters, February 5, 2013

By

W. S. Nunn (Milleville, NJ USA) – See all my reviews

(REAL NAME)

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This review is from: Joe Bruno’s Mobsters – Six Volume Set (Kindle Edition)

This a fun entertaining read for anyone interested in organized crime or criminal history. I would not recommend the volumes indidvidually, but I really enjoyed the set. It was repetative at times but even this I did not mind because it helped me to recall the various relationships that existed amongst the players.

 

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a great value for under 3 bucks…, November 12, 2012

By

JldB – See all my reviews

This review is from: Joe Bruno’s Mobsters – Six Volume Set (Kindle Edition)

When I saw it was only $2.99 for six books in a boxed set on ‘Mobsters’, I was first skeptical that the quality would not be great. But, boy was I wrong! The entire book is well-written and quite informative. Highly recommended!

 

 

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST FOR THE TRUE GRUE COLLECTOR, February 20, 2013

By

RJ Parker “Bestselling & Award-Winning Author” (Toronto) – See all my reviews

(TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Joe Bruno’s Mobsters – Six Volume Set (Kindle Edition)

JOE BRUNO’S MOBSTERS – SIX VOLUME SET is a collection of three Mobster’s books and with just under 700 pages, a true history book of murder and mayhem. I love Mr. Bruno’s books. He is the go to guy when you want information on gangs and mobs. A must have for the true crime collector.