Ed Scarpo's Blog, page 19

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Long Island Mobster Buried Victims in Farmingdale

A young Dino Calabro, left, with Tommy Shots.
REVISED: High-ranking Colombo mobster Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli has always been of personal interest to me, perhaps owing to the fact that I was born and raised on Long Island, which is where Gioeli lived until his 2012 conviction in Brooklyn Federal court. He is probably one of the most powerful mobsters to have lived full-time on Long Island.

He and his wife Maureen raised a family in a modest house in Farmingdale. Tommy Shots' one-time right-hand man, Dino Calabro, moved next door with his family as well.

The former Colombo capo later testified against Tommy Shots, who taught him how to kill while also dazzling him with the "glamour" of the Mafia lifestyle, as "Big Dino" said on the stand. "I wanted what (Gioeli) had,” Calabro told Assistant U.S. Attorney James Gatta. “He had the power to get me in the family.”


“Tommy Shots” Gioeli was a staunch Persico ally during the 1991–93 war. He ran a crew of shooters who played a key role in the streets fights against the larger Orena faction.

On March 27, 1992, he was supposedly hit by gunfire in a Brooklyn shootout, though some sources say his wound was minor and he exaggerated it. Maybe a knowledgeable source out there would know about this.

An early tipoff that Gioeli was being targeted was a quote in a news story: “He’s got a crew of shooters who haven’t really gotten touched,” one police source was quoted saying.

The secret to Gioeli's importance for the Colombo family was allegedly his ability to serve as a link between the family's former factions. He was universally trusted by mobsters from each faction, who in the early 1990s were shooting at one another.

Gioeli was a sort of small-time version of Philadelphia mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi, who held together the deadly Scarfo-Merlino factions.

His acting capo Paul “Paulie Guns” Bevacqua had been an Orena loyalist. So was Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace, who supposedly paid Gioeli an historical compliment in 2000 when he told a Bonanno boss: “If you need to see me, tell Tommy. Talking to Tommy is just like talking to me.”

Gioeli advanced his mob career by supervising a crew of killers that included Calabro and Tommy Shots's co-defendant Dino "Little Dino" Saracino, prosecutors said during his trial.

Alphonse Persico, John “Jackie” DeRoss, Cacace and Andrew Russo, 70, a Persico cousin, all filled in as acting boss. Each was convicted and jailed when Gioeli rose in the ranks. (On an interesting sidenote, the U.S. Attorney General initially ordered prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Joe Waverly for ordering an NYPD cop's murder. But AG Eric Holder declined to seek the death penalty against Gioeli and soldier "Little Dino" Saracino, who also were charged in the shooting of officer Ralph Dols.)

His case still makes news. As reported last week Tommy McLaughlin, who also testified, was sentenced to no jail time.

Recounting his first murder — Bonanno associate Frank "Chestnut" Marasa in 1991 — Calabro said Gioeli gave him explicit advice.

“Tommy always said, ‘Shoot him in the body first. Then walk up and cap him,” he said.

Calabro recalled Gioeli ordering the death of Colombo associate Joe Miccio for stealing a Mercedes-Benz from a customer of the then-acclaimed Marco Polo Restaurant in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

A Gambino soldier had owned the car.

“Gioeli informed (the Gambinos) that he took care of the problem and no cars would ever be stolen out of that garage,” Calabro said.

Long Island Gangster
Tommy Shots used a bowling alley, the County Line Bowling Center, near his Farmingdale residence as his headquarters. The noisy place, replete with the explosive crack of bowling balls smacking into pins, blended with screaming children and laughing adults, was perfect, Tommy Shots thought. What better natural buffers were there for his conversations with his crew.

Those discussions covered a host of criminal activities, including murders. Gioeli also met with Colombo crew members in the establishment's parking lot prior to going on night missions to hunt people as far away as Brooklyn. They also met there in the alley before burying bodies. Usually they were dead gangsters. Gioeli seemed to have a preference to bury bodies in a wooded area in Farmingdale, near the bowling alley and his home.

Gioeli was known to routinely frequent and  pray in the garden of a Massapequa-based Catholic Church on Long Island, where he also discussed mob business. He allegedly plotted at least one murder there, in the church's garden, which was located not far from his Farmingdale home.

It was there Gioeli first mentioned a planned hit.

“He told me he had just left Pooch and Betty Boop,” said Calabro, using nicknames to refer to Persico and DeRoss.

Gioeli then made a hand gesture, covering up several fingers. Cutolo's other nickname, “Billy Fingers,” stems from the fact he was missing fingers on one hand.

“They wanted to kill him,” Calabro said of Cutolo, who was lured to “Little Dino” Saracino's house and killed.

Calabro testified, “I shot him in the head.”

Colombo turncoat Reynold Maragni wore a wire and recorded soldier Vincent Manzo Sr. telling him how Gioeli had showed him “where the hole was," then waited in a vehicle while the body of Wild Bill was carried to the grave and buried.

“Tommy didn’t even get out of the car,” Manzo quipped on the recording.

According to court testimony at the trial of Gioeli and Dino “Little Dino” Saracino, at least two mobsters — Colombo underboss Cutolo and associate Richard Greaves — were killed by Gioeli's crew and then dumped in graves in that wooded area in proximity to the bowling alley.

Greaves was shot dead on Aug. 3, 1995. Gioeli and other mobsters allegedly murdered the Colombo associate in Saracino's basement apartment. Greaves's fatal crime had been to ask the Colombo leadership for permission to leave the family; he'd wanted to move to the Midwest. However, the bosses feared that Greaves might become a government witness, so his death was ordered.

The body was driven to Farmingdale but never found.

Saracino’s cousin, “Big Dino” Calabro added that after meeting at the County Line, the crew then drove to Gioeli's ad-hoc graveyard to bury Greaves.

“[We] were in the lead car. We took the Belt Parkway to the bowling alley,” Calabro, testified.

“I took the pick and the shovel and the bag of lime, and then we carried the body over and started digging.”

Carmine Gargano was murdered in 1994 and buried on the grounds of a Brooklyn autobody shop located on McDonald Ave. Eventually, he too was buried in Farmingdale.

Gioeli sipped cocktails at the bowling alley while the body was reburied in the nearby wooded area.

The Gargano killing was particularly horrible in that he was only 21 and was attending Pace university. I have spoken with law enforcement sources who say he had no known mob ties. His body was never found.

"There was a lot of talk that he was supposedly an animal. But he wasn't connected," one NYPD source told me.

Carmine Gargano Jr. wouldn’t stay down even after he was shot twice, once in the eyeball.

Joseph "Joey Caves" Competiello eventually slammed Gargano's head with a sledgehammer to kill him, "Big Dino" Calabro testified.

The Sicilian-born Calabro's testimony "prompted sobs from a woman seated at the back of the courtroom — Gargano’s mother."

“I hope these people die burning in hell,” Rosa Gargano told the Daily News after hearing Calabro describe her son’s death. “They pierced my soul.”

Calabro said he had no clue why her son was killed.

"I don’t know. I just felt like it. I was upset," Calabro said Competiello told him.

Calabro said that, as was his practice, he told his mentor Gioeli about the murder.
“We dug a pretty deep hole and threw Carmine in there,” Calabro testified, explaining how he helped Competiello, another turncoat also was set to testify against Gioeli. They covered the remains with lime.

Gioeli's Counter-surveillance efforts
Gioeli was one of the more surveillance-conscious mobsters of modern times. He feared wiretaps and bugs like the plague -- and did all he could to avoid speaking anywhere near such devices.

He was known to go to great lengths to avoid all forms of surveillance, as prosecutors noted in court papers, explaining why Gioeli's voice was rarely caught on recordings.

“Members of organized crime tend to avoid talking about crimes over the telephone or in places that can be intercepted,” Brooklyn federal prosecutors wrote in a letter to the judge in Gioeli's 2012 case.

In previous testimony, prosecutors noted that Gioeli purposely spoke only on a Nextel cell phone via its walkie-talkie feature. (The model I linked to is only an example of the type of phones Gioeli may have used.) The Fed's explained the difficulty encountered while attempting to subpoena his Nextel records; Gioeli had obtained phones from a company "controlled by the son of co-conspirator.”

“In light of Gioeli’s close relationship with [the associate], it would have been futile for law enforcement to obtain such court authorization to intercept communications over such a device because Gioeli would likely learn of the authorization and alter his behavior,” prosecutors said.




Lucky turncoat had secret supporter
Dino Calabro was a lucky man, in more ways then one. The Fed's apparently weren't so certain they wanted him.

In Calabro's case, his wife, Andrea Calabro, helped to boost her husband's bid for a cooperation agreement with the Fed's by offering her own personal assistance.

She provided a detailed layout of the inside of Gioeli's colonial home in Farmingdale, L.I.

She also revealed that Gioeli's wife had a massive collection of photographs of both Gioeli's blood family as well as his crime family, which blended at some events, such as weddings, Sweet 16 parties and block parties.

Andrea told investigators how Tommy Shots's wife, Maureen, enjoyed photography and tended to bring her camera to these social events, where she'd snap to her heart's content. She'd store these photos in albums (as well as in bags kept in the basement.)

The Fed's love photographs, even more than authors and bloggers (and wannabes). These preserved moments in time, are a strong credible way to prove links between mobsters at racketeering trials.

It's been claimed that "FBI agent Scott Curtis said Calabro's wife was instructed to ask Maureen Gioeli if she could borrow some of the photographs - and she agreed."

The Fed's however didn't seem to turn down an address book that Andrea fortuitously snagged from a tabletop   when Maureen left her alone in a room.

But Maureen's largest faux pas was telling her friend how, upon arresting her husband, the foolish FBI agents hadn't found Tommy Shots' "man purse," where the mob boss kept cell phones and various assorted papers.
A former federal prosecutor said the tactic of flipping a mobster's wife was unusual and put her life in danger.

Calabro and his wife are in the witness protection program, sources said.

Deep Throat murders
Prosecutors claimed that Gioeli was involved in the 1982 murder of former Catholic nun. He wasn't charged with the killing however. That's because of the testimony of a jailhouse snitch who lied on the stand.

As noted, Colombo shooters lured a father and son into a trap to kill them. Their crime was skimming from the proceeds generated by Deep Throat, the famous porn film the Colombos had financed.


The porno film was one of the most successful of all time. The Colombos were not pleased when they learned that family soldier Joseph Peraino, Jr., and his father, Joseph, Sr., had stolen from them. The twist is another Peraino had tipped Carmine Persico off to the theft.

Accidentally marked for death that night was a former nun who lived in the Gravesend, Brooklyn house used to lure the Perainos. The large front porch offered a means to trap the two men when Colombo shooters opened fire.

Veronica Zuraw, 53 when murdered, was a social worker with the Italian Board of Guardians, though she'd been a nun for the Brooklyn Catholic Diocese before she married her husband in 1974. Zuraw, who was known as Sister Mary Adelaide, had run a Bensonhurst outlet that provided assistance to Italian immigrants.

Veronica and Louis Zuraw had moved into the house, their first as a married couple, only 10 weeks prior to the hit.

It's not known who actually fired the blast that killed Zuraw, but it bothered Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli to the extent that he implicated himself in the shooting, telling his confederates that he was going to hell for her death.

Salvatore "Fat Sal" Miciotta said he'd been ordered to hit the Perainos, who for years had been stealing from the Colombo administration's share of the growing piles of cash accumulating from Deep Throat, the x-rated classic that went from porno theaters to main street cinemas.

The story of Gioeli's involvement is primarily based on his confession to an informant as has been widely published, including by the U.K.'s Mail Online.

According to an FBI debriefing report, Miciotta, when he originally told law enforcement about the 1982 hit, named as members of the hit team Joseph "Jo Jo" Russo, John Minerva, Vincent "Jimmy" Angellino, Frank Sparaco, and Anthony "Chucky" Russo.

The murders were planned at Joseph "Joe T" Tomasello's Avenue U social club, where a pair of sawed-off shotguns had been delivered for use by Miciotta and Angellino.

Tommy Shots and several others weren't mentioned in testimony. Then in that church garden, Gioeli made his “I’m going to hell” confession to Calabro.
Tommy Shots was "definitely" at the house when the Peraino's were shotgunned, an NYPD homicide detective told me, adding that Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace was likely to have been onsite as well. 
Gioeli beat the top-line murder charges in his case but was still slammed on other charges. He is now incarcerated at Butner Low FCI in North Carolina. His projected release date is September 9, 2024.

Old Mob Business Mars Big Ang's Memorial

Big Ang is making drinks at that big bar in the sky....
It was the kind of thing Big Ang would'nt have condoned....

Mob Wives cast members Brittany Fogarty and Karen Gravano were asked not to attend Angela "Big Ang" Raiola's funeral yesterday.

A source with friends who attended the memorial service and funeral have said that a third  Mob Wife, Drita D'Avanzo, who showed up with two bodyguards, was asked to leave one of the memorial services.

However she can plainly be seen crying (accompanied by two big burly bodyguards wearing ear pieces) at the funeral.

With Britanny and Karen, what happened stemmed from "a decades-long feud between their fathers and other members of the organized crime ring," the New York Daily News's Confidenti@l noted.

This past weekend's memorial events, as well as yesterday's funeral were off limits to them ostensibly because their fathers flipped and testified against other mobsters decades ago.
Drita at funeral.
"There are going to be some people going to the service whose fathers may have been killed, or put away by their cooperation (with authorities)," Andrea Giovino told the News.
Brittany, 25, was reportedly extremely distraught over the news that she wasn't invited because she had felt close to Big Ang on the show.
"She's very upset," Giovino said. "She can't even talk on the phone. She's just been crying."

"They had a great relationship," she added. "Big Ang treated her like a daughter."
According to the Daily News, "Fogarty and Giovino were on their way to Saturday's visitation when producer Jennifer Graziano called to tell them that Big Ang's ex-husband didn't want them there, mostly because many of the other attendees were likely afflicted by their fathers' past actions."
Giovino said Ang's ex was likely influenced by others.
And although  she understood the context of the situation, her daughter "doesn't have a relationship with her father whatsoever" and is upset.
Big Ang died last Thursday at 55 after a battle with brain cancer.
"It's about Ang," Giovino said. "It's the respect for her. I feel bad (we) couldn't respect her and her family by going."

Giovino says she and her daughter will visit Big Ang's gravesite later this week.
A source told the News that the incident shows mob feuds such as these don't disappear.
"Its a bigger story than just them not going to funeral as it's a higher up mob order from the mafia code of a blood feud," the source said. "Brit and Karen are being rejected because of the sins of their fathers that ratted out other mobsters."

This source seems to be attempting to give  the show a "mob-approved" veneer with these remarks that simply isn't consistent with what's been reported.

The New York crime families have rejected the show, Jerry Capeci reported on Gangland News. In fact at least one Gambino capo was lauded for threatening to disown his daughter if she continued to appear on the show.
Another mobster was reportedly nearly beaten to death in prison because of an association with a cast member.

Anthony TG Graziano, father of Jennifer and Renee Graziano, was even shelved over his daughter's reality show.

Reported Gangland News:

"Anthony (TG) Graziano, a longtime Mafia powerhouse and the father of two of the show’s major players, has been stripped of all his mobster rights and responsibilities by irate Bonanno family leaders. In Mafia lingo, TG has been 'put on the shelf,' sources say."

Made Guys Who Flip Are Still Made, Until Death

James Tartaglione
REVISED: At the Nicholas "Nicky Mouth" Santora trial, a former Bonanno capo offered testimony regarding his current mob status, noting that even if a made man flips and testifies for the government, he's still an inducted member of the Mafia.

Anyone who is officially made a “soldier” keeps that title for life no matter what. Even if he flips, he's still a member, only he's considered "shelved," said James "Big Louie"Tartaglione at Santora's enterprise corruption trial.

Tartaglione's testimony is corroborated by former Gambino capo Michael "Mikie Scars" DiLeonardo, who said the same during his own testimony. "The family can not make another person to take your spot until you are dead," he told Cosa Nostra News.
The 78-year-old key witness for the prosecution, "Big Louie" Tartaglione, debuted this past week in the enterprise corruption trial of Vito Badamo, Ernest Aiello, Anthony “Skinny” Santoro and “Nicky Mouth” Santora, nullifying my theory that Joe Massino would play this role. Apparently, Massino no longer is testifying for the Fed's, even though he's done nothing more by testifying than humiliate the mob and help put Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano away for life. 

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Gary Galperin sought to rebuff claims that Tartaglione was not a reliable witness and that he was responsible for murdering several “made men” in the Bonanno crime family. Among his alleged victims: Cesare Bonventre in 1984, as well as the Sonny Red trifecta, also known as the 1981 “Three Capos murders."

“No,” replied Tartaglione of those murders. “I was there, that’s it.”
Big Louie, as Tartaglione is known.

In the mid-90s, Tartaglione said he put the word in to have Charles “Crazy Charlie” Tervella murdered, but he later changed his mind.

Tartaglione next described how he met Badamo in the late 1990s, and Santora, in the 1970s.

Badamo was an associate with aspirations.

“Vito said his father was a made man,” Tartaglione said, describing their first meeting in 1998. “He said he would like to get straightened out,” meaning inducted into the crime family.

As for Santora, Tartaglione said, “I was there when he was inducted. I was at the ceremony.”

He added, “Sal gave him things to be concerned about, and then we all held hands and said a prayer.”
He also explained how he ultimately chose to become a federal informant after Vitale's 2003 arrest. He feared Vitals “would tell all my mortal sins."

The former capo is expected to be back on the witness stand on Wednesday for the defense’s cross-examination.

Gravano in Talks with Production Companies

Sammy Gravano's mugshot.
Salvatore "Sammy The Bull" Gravano is talking with production companies about debuting his own television show when he departs prison.

The former Gambino mobster pleaded guilty to 19 murders in an agreement to testify against John Gotti.

And his reality star daughter Karen is helping him negotiate with television executives. (Last week I slated this story for today; it was not my intention to publish this on the day Karen's co-star, Big Ang, died of cancer.)
"There are production companies out there that are very interested in producing something on his life story," Karen told the New York Daily News.

"They have contacted me and we're in - I don't want to say we're in any kind of deal-making situations yet - but we're into bouncing around a couple of ideas."

"He's very infamous and famous and now I'm famous," Karen said.

"Publicly, at this point he can stand up for what he did and be accountable and maybe he could set the record straight on a lot of what happened between him and John Gotti," said Karen.

However, Gravano Sr. won't be following his daughter into the reality TV business.

Sammy “The Bull” Gravano was jailed in 2002 for his part in an Ecstasy-dealing ring in Arizona. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison for masterminding an Ecstasy drug ring.

"I think we're open for discussion on a lot of things, but no," said Karen, "he doesn't want to make a mockery of himself and go out every day and be followed and fight and argue. That's not who he is."

"There are a couple of ideas that have been thrown out to him that I really can't speak of it," she added.

She said one possible scenario would be her producing a television show about her father's life.

Gotti's daughter, Victoria, and grandchildren Frank, Carmine and John, famously starred in the reality show Growing Up Gotti.

Some writers have a proclivity to compose sentences like: Gravano decided to become a government witness and testify against John Gotti , as if the lifelong gangster just woke up one morning and said, "ah what the hell!"

I can assure you that Gravano had no intentions of doing anything but continuing to steal and live the Mafia life. It was John Gotti's incessant need to not only talk and talk and talk, but pin specific murders to Sammy, in addition to calling him greedy, that got them both, along with Frank Locascio, arrested.

If there is anyone perhaps unfairly treated in wake of the FBI's Ravenite raid it most certainly is Frank "Frankie Loc" LoCascio (born 1933) who is still serving that prison sentence.

Locascio is 79 years old this year and is hooked to an oxygen tank. He has exhausted all his appeals and his last gambit (that I am aware of) was his effort to prod the FBI to enhance a December 12, 1989 audiotape he claims will exonerate him. The tape was recorded inside the apartment above the Ravenite -- and  Frankie Loc claims that there's a garbled inaudible section during which he told Gotti that Louie DiBono was coming to see him with $50,000 and that Gotti should just take it and let the man alone. (However, even saying on tape, "Hey, I don't think you should kill this guy" still doesn't get you off because, as per the law, it means you were aware of a murder conspiracy to be able to formulate such an opinion in the first place.

Sammy later claimed in his book Underboss that he and Frankie Loc were planning on killing Gotti if they beat the case. They never did. Sammy flipped and Frankie Loc went down with Gotti.

Mob Wives Star Big Ang, 55, Died While Fighting Cancer

Big Ang prior to plastic surgery, pre-Mob Wives....
Angela "Big Ang" Raiola, star of the VH1 reality series "Mob Wives," died early Thursday morning as she was fighting lung and brain cancer. She was 55.

Widely known for her raspy voice, larger-than-life personality (plus humongous bustline), and of course her apparent propensity for plastic surgery, she was one of the very few Mob Wives stars to be universally loved by fans.

This blog often referred to her as the show's conscience, as well as its raspy voice of reason. In January 2012, we first noted her presence on the VH1 reality show, calling her The Surprise Hit of the show:

In a way, we are -- and we are not -- surprised by all the attention flowing Big Ang's way since the Sunday night debut of the second season of "Mob Wives." It's sort of ironic that this woman, on the show for a mere seconds at the very end, should steal the limelight! If you enjoy 'Mob Wives,' you will most likely love 'Big Ang,' a new addition to the 'Mob Wives' Season mix. She has exactly the kind of personality you would expect from a 'mob moll,' she's warm and loving, has a great sense of humor and is a good cook.

"I like the wise guys," she'd rasp. "They know how to treat women. They bought me nice houses, gorgeous furs, diamonds, cars. They're very generous... and they're very good lookin..."

Angela Raiola aka "Big Ang" is the niece of Salvatore "Sally Dogs" Lombardi, a deceased captain of the Genovese crime family. Angela, a single mother of 2 was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY with her two sisters and four brothers.

"I am saddened to say that at 3:01 a.m., Ang lost her battle with cancer," said Jennifer Graziano, creator and executive producer of "Mob Wives." "She passed peacefully surrounded by friends and family."

Raiola's death was reported by various news outlets as well as via her confirmed Twitter account in a message posted "on behalf of the family" from Vinnie Medugno, who appeared on the show.
The VH1 series began in 2011, the same year Cosa Nostra News debuted. Some of my early Mob Wives stories remain among my all time top-read postings.
She was a mob moll who became a proprietor of several reputed mob hangouts. In 2001 she was one of 15 defendants ensnared in a DEA case. She was caught selling cocaine in an undercover probe targeting a mob-tied drug ring operating in New York City and was sentenced to four months of house arrest.




VH1 even gave her her own spinoff show, "Big Ang," which focused on her life as the Drunken Monkey bartender and at her beauty salon, both of which were located on Staten Island, where Big Ang was filmed in one Mob Wives episode moving into a stately  Todt Hill estate.
In February, Raiola's sister, Janine Detore, appealed to fans to help raise funding for alternative treatment for the reality star.

Raiola also is survived by her son, Anthony Donofrio; her daughter, Raquel Donofrio; and two grandchildren.

Big Ang, 55, Died This Morning Fighting Cancer

Big Ang prior to plastic surgery, pre-Mob Wives....
Angela "Big Ang" Raiola, star of the VH1 reality series "Mob Wives," died early Thursday morning as she was fighting lung and brain cancer. She was 55.

Widely known for her raspy voice, larger-than-life personality (plus humongous bustline), and of course her apparent propensity for plastic surgery, she was one of the very few Mob Wives stars to be universally loved by fans.

This blog often referred to her as the show's conscience, as well as its raspy voice of reason. In January 2012, we first noted her presence on the VH1 reality show, calling her The Surprise Hit of the show:

In a way, we are -- and we are not -- surprised by all the attention flowing Big Ang's way since the Sunday night debut of the second season of "Mob Wives." It's sort of ironic that this woman, on the show for a mere seconds at the very end, should steal the limelight! If you enjoy 'Mob Wives,' you will most likely love 'Big Ang,' a new addition to the 'Mob Wives' Season mix. She has exactly the kind of personality you would expect from a 'mob moll,' she's warm and loving, has a great sense of humor and is a good cook.

"I like the wise guys," she'd rasp. "They know how to treat women. They bought me nice houses, gorgeous furs, diamonds, cars. They're very generous... and they're very good lookin..."

Angela Raiola aka "Big Ang" is the niece of Salvatore "Sally Dogs" Lombardi, a deceased captain of the Genovese crime family. Angela, a single mother of 2 was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY with her two sisters and four brothers.

"I am saddened to say that at 3:01 a.m., Ang lost her battle with cancer," said Jennifer Graziano, creator and executive producer of "Mob Wives." "She passed peacefully surrounded by friends and family."

Raiola's death was reported by various news outlets as well as via her confirmed Twitter account in a message posted "on behalf of the family" from Vinnie Medugno, who appeared on the show.
The VH1 series began in 2011, the same year Cosa Nostra News debuted. Some of my early Mob Wives stories remain among my all time top-read postings.
She was a mob moll who became a proprietor of several reputed mob hangouts. In 2001 she was one of 15 defendants ensnared in a DEA case. She was caught selling cocaine in an undercover probe targeting a mob-tied drug ring operating in New York City and was sentenced to four months of house arrest.




VH1 even gave her her own spinoff show, "Big Ang," which focused on her life as the Drunken Monkey bartender and at her beauty salon, both of which were located on Staten Island, where Big Ang was filmed in one Mob Wives episode moving into a stately  Todt Hill estate.
In February, Raiola's sister, Janine Detore, appealed to fans to help raise funding for alternative treatment for the reality star.

Raiola also is survived by her son, Anthony Donofrio; her daughter, Raquel Donofrio; and two grandchildren.

Bookie's Suicide "Blew Up" Brooklyn DA's Mob Probe

Patrick Deluise killed himself.
A New Jersey bookie known to suffer from panic attacks was found dead in his car in Holmdel, N.J., at 2 a.m. in late January, as reported last month.

Patrick Deluise fatally shot himsef on Jan. 22, two days after Brooklyn DA investigators had executed a search warrant on his property following a 17-month probe of an alleged illegal sports-betting and loan-sharking operations tied to the Gambino crime family, specifically associate Anthony "Butchie" Vallario, Gambino capo Louie Vallario's brother.

It was later reported (on Feb. 4) by the New York Post that investigators from the Brooklyn D.A.'s office had approached him with a cooperation deal.
Most news articles implied that Deluise committed suicide over the loan to Vallario, though the DA's office that released the information, including the wiretap transcripts, apparently had a motive to lay the blame at Vallario's feet. 
He loaned Deluise $50,000 -- and Deluise had paid back nearly triple the original amount of the loan over a four-and-a-half year period. But he'd only been paying the vig, $2,400 a month.
However, another suicide -- in February 2015, Arthur Mondella, owner of one of the country’s largest maraschino cherry companies, fatally shot himself -- who hadn't borrowed a cent from anyone, as far as is known -- also had a link to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, which along with the DEP claimed they were searching for waste-dumping violations inside his facility (though that wasn't their true motive for the search). When investigators discovered a secret panel were marijuana was stored, Mondella disappeared into a restroom and killed himself, sources said.

Then there's the fact that The New York Post, in a Feb. 4 report, noted how the DA's investigation "blew up" after Deluise fatally shot himself. 

A supervising investigator in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office has been fired for skipping out on work she was getting paid for — and five other investigators are now being probed over possible overtime fraud during a lengthy, mob-tied gambling probe...  

Detective Investigator Nicole Byrd, who oversaw the DA’s 24-hour command center, got caught tampering with records to show she spent “multiple” Sundays there when she was actually off doing other things, sources said.

Byrd, 46, who earned $77,226 in 2014, either left work early or never showed up at all, said sources.

“She had a hearing with a union rep, and she conceded she falsified the log books but denied ever missing work. She couldn’t explain how she wasn’t on video surveillance [at the command center],” one source said. 

Byrd may have spent the time instead on her side job with the semi-pro New York Court Kings basketball team, which her LinkedIn page says she owns.

The American Basketball Association team plays on Sundays.

The five other investigators are being “looked at” by an outside law-enforcement agency for hefty OT payments — up to 40 hours a week — that four of them received during a probe of illegal sports-betting and loan-sharking operations tied to the Gambino crime family, sources said.

The fifth investigator is a supervisor who’s not entitled to extra pay, sources said.

A spokesman for DA Ken Thompson refused to discuss Byrd’s firing and denied there was a probe about overtime related to the Deluise investigation.
The bottom line here is that it seems possible that Deluise may not have committed suicide over the loan. Or it may have been a number of reasons that led him to suicide.
However, it's worth noting this strange coincidence of two suicides committed following, or during, raids by the Brooklyn DA's office.
Deluise was deep in debt to reputed Gambino associate Anthony Vallario, who loaned him $50,000 for experimental cancer treatments in Germany for his wife, who later died, according to court papers filed by the Brooklyn DA.
Vallario — whose brother, Louis, is a reputed Gambino captain and former aide to the late John Gotti — allegedly charged Deluise $2,400 a month in interest. Vallario's loan to Deluise funded experimental cancer treatment for Deluise’s terminally ill wife in Germany.
Deluise is believed to have paid $129,600 in interest on the loan to Vallario in the past four-and-a-half years, prosecutors said in the court documents, yet he still hadn't touched the principal. He was basically paying the monthly vig only.

The bookie was so worried about the loan he sought financial assistance from friends, as well as advice on securing a legitimate second mortgage.

Transcripts of wiretaps installed by Brooklyn DA investigators caught Deluise complaining about Vallario.In a Jan. 25, 2015, phone conversation, the bookie told a friend: “I just can’t pay it anymore. I can’t. The f------ guy. He don’t want to give me a break and I can’t catch up,”

The friend asked Deluise if Vallario was someone he knew well enough to reason with.

“I don’t know. I thought he was, I, but, you know, he’s, he’s a f------ wiseguy.” 

The Wiseguys' Take on Deluise, VallarioA few sources spoke about Deluise and the Vallario brothers, including Michael "Mikie Scars" DiLeonardo, the only one who went on the record.
Noting he hadn't known Anthony's first name, Michael said, "He was called Butchie."
He was described as a successful bookmaker his whole life. He's still an associate supposedly because his brother didn't want him made, which DiLeonardo said was "strange."
Butchie stayed with bookmakers from other families.
DiLeonardo said that Butchie wasn't violent, "I never heard of him even getting into a fight."

Mikie Scars in the 1980s

A snappy dresser, Vallario was known in the life for being respectful.
Asked why Vallario wouldn't give Deluise a break on payments, the sources unanimously said that everyone is different and handles their business differently.
Mikie Scars, for one, said, "I would go to a guy and say, hey, let's start knocking this down. If he's been paying a long time, then a year is maximum. Later in life (Mikie Scars started lending money at the age of 16) I would only lend to guys who shy-locked at half a point and collect once a month so it really came to less than half a point. I was an easy shylock." 
Michael also asked if I knew the origin of the term "shylock," noting that he did.
My understanding is the term came from a fictional character named Shylock in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. Shylock was a Venetian-Jewish moneylender -- and also the play's principal antagonist. 
What do you say? I will discuss this with Michael -- I am sure he will see the comments, if anyone has anything to add.

Brooklyn D.A.'s reponse 
"We are aware of the death Mr. Deluise in New Jersey and that incident is being investigated by the local police," a spokesman said.

“Any allegation that these hard-working detective investigators inflated their overtime reports is completely baseless, and there isn’t any investigation into this matter,” DA spokesman Oren Yaniv said.
Deluise was to be indicted on felony charges for running a $10 million gambling ring, court documents revealed. Brooklyn prosecutors claimed in court filings that within the next three months they planned to arrest Deluise’s two sons and three of his associates for their involvement in the ring.

Vallario and an associate, Joseph Mancuso, also face charges for running two illegal betting rings that earned nearly $5 million in proceeds. Vallario, his wife, his daughter and his son-in-law face felony loan-sharking charges for forcing Deluise to pay $2,400 a month in interest on a $50,000 loan, Brooklyn prosecutors said in the court documents.

Vallario, 76, of Staten Island, is the brother of Louis Vallario, a reputed Gambino captain and a onetime aide to John Gotti.


Gambling Ring Under InvestigationDeluise’s ring used online gambling sites set up offshore, including one called Wagerspot.com (which is now for sale). But Deluise, who lives in Hazlet, N.J., and his associates also faced charges for taking bets from locals over the phone and via text.

Deluise and associates collected payments and paid winnings to bettors at bars in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge section. A Dyker Heights Nathan’s restaurant parking lot was another place they used to meet up.

One Deluise associate, Pasquale Marrone of Bay Ridge, is accused of running a similar illegal-gambling ring connected to Deluise that took in more than $2 million.

Vallario, who drives a Cadillac and lives in Staten Island's Charleston neighborhood, has a history of loan-sharking, according to prosecutors.

To avoid surveillance, Vallario had his son-in-law Stephen Cucich collect payments from Deluise.

Aside from shaking down Deluise, Vallario is believed to have lent exorbitant sums to other unnamed victims, according to the court documents.

In 2005, in Brooklyn Federal Court, Anthony pleaded guilty to one count of making extortionate extensions of credit and earned two years of probation.

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