Ed Scarpo's Blog, page 21

Considering the Mob's Sartorial Splendor

"This ultra-long and narrow point collar bucks convention and is a total stand-out," as Esquire noted.
Clothing is deeply associated with the Mafia for many of us. Films like Goodfellas are acclaimed, in part, due to their attention to detail. That includes the clothing the gangsters wore during the period when the film's events took place.

Those shirts with the big-ass, tapered collars worn in Goodfellas were cool; quite dated looking, but cool. Esquire, in an article on clothing the Goodfellas wore, agreed, calling the shirt, simply, The Point Collar Shirt,"a thoroughly old school look we'd love to see come back into fashion." I also liked the camel coat Ray Liotta as Henry Hill wore in the film, of which Esquire said: "The camel coat has long been a staple of the distinguished man's wardrobe, a luxury item that instantly denotes sophistication and refinement."

I read tons of blogs about every conceivable topic. Occasionally I come across one that covers an aspect of organized crime -- and one of the more refreshing twists on the topic (you will see this blog's link included in my Recommended list) is BAMF Style: Dress like a man. ...  I assume you all know that a BAMF is a bad-ass mother f---er, of course!! 

The blogger writes about the clothing worn by those cool cats on the big screen. Probably James Bond would be the blog's patron saint, but I'm a little older than the blogger so I'm not sure he'd agree. As the writer says in the blog's about section:

Part of being a straight man is that I am pretty clueless when it comes to knowing what to wear. Hate to stereotype, but it’s pretty much the truth. 

Luckily for us, there are BAMFs in movies and TV that people are paid to make look awesome. Naturally, the best way to attract women is to try and emulate these BAMFs down to the last detail....

Follow him on Twitter @BAMFstyle.

His latest post focuses on the the suit worn by Michael Imperioli as Christopher Moltisanti during his induction into the Mafia as a soldier in Tony Soprano's crew. The episode, Fortunate Son, ran on March 11, 2001. It's not just about the clothing either. This blogger knows his stuff and knows how to write. I enjoy the blog immensely. 
"Shoot ya cuffs," Paulie tells Christopher
before going for the ride of his life.

Here's a lead-in:

This suit had been requested a few weeks ago, and – as both a huge fan of The Sopranos and a kindred spirit of the tragic Christopher Moltisanti character – I was more than pleased to delve a little deeper into the suit and scene where Christopher finally “gets his button” for Mafia Monday. 

Christopher’s two passions – the Mafia and the movies – come to yet another head in “Fortunate Son” when he finally receives the call to look sharp and be ready in an hour… he’s getting made. Having decided a season earlier in “D-Girl” to pass up his dream of a career in Hollywood (although it’s dubious that his misspelled screenplays would have turned any heads), Christopher is finally given the opportunity to dedicate his life to the most infamous criminal organization in America. Despite his excitement, Chris’ habit for watching too many movies keeps him on his toes and especially wary of any of his fellow Mafioso riding behind him during the journey. 

Silvio chides him for it (“He sat on one asscheek the whole way over!”), but many real-life mob associates have been summoned to secret ceremonies only to never be seen alive again. 

Luckily for Christopher, this was a genuine summons and he soon finds himself happily embraced by Tony Soprano in a New Jersey basement....

Read entire story here

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Ed Scarpo

Why Was Mob Boss Tommy Eboli Really Killed?

Credits for this and next photo: Giovannina Bellino.From left, Al Pacino, Genovese capo Patsy Eboli and Al Lettieri. 
This was originally going to be included in a revision to a previous story. But I decided it was worth its own story.

I have to thank Truth be Told, a regular commenter on here, because I only found this while trying to research a question he's asked: where in Sicily did Al Lettieri's family arrive from. I couldn't find a reference to that but I did find interesting information about a former Genovese acting boss murdered gangland style in 1972. (His brother disappeared -- off the face of the earth -- a few years later.)

I'm not kidding when I say I got the chills today, after finding a story that seems to possibly substantiate a claim I'd heard from one of my street sources. He's from Manhattan's Greenwich Village and lived about one block away from the Triangle social club. As I mentioned, this source once told me that Thomas "Tommy Ryan" Eboli was whacked because of The Godfather film.

The Godfather film was released nationally on March 24, 1972.

Having no frame of reference with which to even approach such a nugget of information, I found his story difficult to believe. Then I read this, and it's clear (to me, anyway) that while we'll never know to a certainty why Eboli was whacked, my source's theory should be considered as one of the factors.

"Tommy Ryan" was killed by order of the Commission but Carlo Gambino is generally referred to as the lead decision maker in this case. What I am proposing here is another potential ulterior motive for that killing.

Eboli basically put his head on the chopping block, and Carlo Gambino, boss of his crime family and senior Mafia Commission member, gave the executioner the nod. During the 1960s Carlo Gambino was the official power because Joseph Bonanno imploded, was "kidnapped" and then exiled; Tommy Lucchese was dying of the cancer that finally killed him in 1967; and "Don Vitone" was arrested in 1959 and died of natural causes in 1969.

Supposedly, he was killed because he owed Gambino $4 million. It's also been said that Gambino wanted Eboli out of the way to pave a path for Funzi Tieri, who assumed the acting boss slot once Eboli was gone.

Pasquale "Patsy Ryan" Eboli disappeared -- as in, forever -- in 1976.

According to my source, Eboli -- and probably his brother -- was killed because of The Godfather film.

Why do I suddenly believe this? I found the following story online; apparently it was a story meant for inclusion in “The Godfather Wars" story Mark Seal wrote for Vanity Fair's 2009 Hollywood issue. However, he had the lead but not enough to go to print with. Then, once the magazine was published and distributed, the writer got a phone call from a source and was able to eventually write the followup story, which the magazine later posted online titled Meadow Soprano on Line One!

It noted:

"The real Mafia played a significant—if hidden—role in the creation of Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece The Godfather, and Mark Seal’s story in the 2009 Hollywood Issue... detailed most of it. But one of the most remarkable anecdotes came to light only after the magazine was published, when the daughter of a reputed mobster told V.F. how her family befriended, tutored, and overfed the Corleones."

In his initial story, Seal "wrote briefly" how Al Lettieri had a relative who was a certified member of the Mafia. He'd also heard, from the actor’s ex-wife, that Lettieri had "brought Marlon Brando to dinner at this relative’s house in New Jersey so that Brando, in preparation for his role as Don Corleone, could “get the flavor.”

Seal tried like hell to locate this Lettieri relation but was unable to. When the magazine with his Godfather story was available nationwide, he got a phone call from a woman who said she had a friend who knew all about the alleged dinner.

Ultimately he was speaking on the phone with Giovannina Bellino, the daughter of Lettieri’s relative, who wanted to tell Seal the story of "how, on one incredible night in 1971, her family and the Corleones bonded over eggplant parmigiana and gallons of good red wine."

“I was 15, going on 16,” said Giovannina, who goes by Gio. Her father, Pasquale “Patsy Ryan” Eboli—“a reputed capo in the Genovese crime family,” according toThe New York Times—got a call from his brother-in-law Al Lettieri. “How about if I bring some of the cast over for a nice dinner?,” Lettieri asked. Eboli said sure; after all, his brother, Thomas “Tommy Ryan” Eboli, the head of the Genovese family, had granted permission for Lettieri to get involved with the film in the first place. So Gio’s mother, Jean (Lettieri’s sister), prepared some of her Italian specialties, set the table, and put on some music.

Pacino and Lettieri screwing around while taking a break from reading their lines. 

The doorbell rang at seven p.m. at the family house in Fort Lee, New Jersey, right across the Hudson River from Manhattan. “I opened the front door and there was Marlon Brando, James Caan, Morgana King [who played Don Corleone’s wife], Gianni Russo [who played Don Corleone’s son-in-law, Carlo], Al Ruddy [the film’s producer], and my uncle Al [Lettieri],” recalls Gio. “We all went downstairs into the family room, where the table was set and where we had the pool table and the bar.” 

Gio was shuttling between the kitchen and the family room, serving food and wine as the cast became acquainted with the family. “Marlon Brando loved my mom’s eggplant parmigiana,” Gio says. “I remember sitting with him on the basement steps and watching this little drip of olive oil going down his chin and him telling my mother, ‘Jean, this is the best eggplant I’ve ever eaten!’ [See the food page of Gio’s Web site, sexfoodrockandroll.com, for the recipe.] It was a wonderful, relaxed, and casual evening—I danced with James Caan all night.” She laughs. “I’m sure the Fed who was parked up the block­—this guy that was always tailing my father—got a big kick out of it.” 

A few weeks later, Gio’s mother made linguine with clam sauce for another special guest: the impoverished young actor Al Pacino. “I remember he was very quiet, and we had to pay his cab fare,” says Gio. The role of Michael Corleone required the New York–born Pacino to speak Italian in several scenes, and he had come to the Eboli house with Lettieri to work on his Italian for the famous sequence in which Michael guns down the double-crossing Sollozzo and the crooked police captain, McCluskey, played by Sterling Hayden. “My dad and Uncle Al spoke Italian fluently,” Gio says. “They drank plenty of wine that night. My brother joked at the time, ‘How’s this kid going to get the lines down after they go through six bottles?’”

That brother, Pat Eboli, was on the set later for the pivotal scene. “Pacino was definitely struggling with the Italian,” says Pat. “I remember Hayden saying, ‘If I have to eat any more of this spaghetti, I’m going to explode.’ Eventually, they decided to rework the scene.” Michael looks over at the cop—who’s busy with his spaghetti and obviously not paying attention—before turning to Sollozzo and breaking into English to tell him: “What I want, what’s most important to me, is that I have a guarantee: no more attempts on my father’s life.”

Pacino and Lettieri in (and Sterling Hayden in character for one of filmdom's most famous scenes.

As movie audiences all across America thrilled to the saga of the Corleone family, a real-life drama unfolded in the Eboli family. At one a.m. on July 16, 1972, four months after the premiere of The Godfather, Gio’s uncle Tommy Eboli was found dead on a Brooklyn street, having been struck by five bullets to the head and neck. The police said that he had probably been shot in or near his car and that he had staggered to the sidewalk before collapsing. “When I heard about it, I pictured the scene in The Godfather when Don Corleone got shot,” Gio says. 

As for her father, Patsy Eboli, he disappeared in 1976 and was never heard from again. The only trace he left behind was “a bill for long-term parking at Kennedy Airport,” where his Cadillac was found abandoned with the keys in the glove compartment. In addition to losing her father and her Uncle Tommy in the 1970s, Gio also lost her Uncle Al. 

The actor died of a heart attack in 1975, at age 47. Like so many of his co-stars, he contributed to the greatness of The Godfather not only with his performance but also with his connections.

So what do you think? Could there be something in The Godfather film that one of New York's Mafiosi didn't like -- and attributed it to the Eboli brother opening his home to Pacino and Brando?

Did Tommy Ryan go around bragging about his brother's dinner guests? Would Carlo Gambino or any other mob boss, for that matter, have approved of this?

Remember this is years before the Feds learned how to use the RICO statutes, years before the formation of the Witness Protection Program.

Would Eboli have gotten away with this if it was known by his cohorts in crime.

I will make an effort to contact Gio and ask for her thoughts on this... Or maybe I will get lucky, like Mark Seal did, and she will contact me based on this story...



Mark Seal is a Vanity Fair contributing editor.

He also is the author of The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Impostor.

Follow him on Twitter @MarkPSeal

Check him out on Longform (a fine site)

Sollozzo Profile in Mob Candy's Godfather Issue

Lettieri knew how
to speak Sicilian fluently. Lettieri was said to be  friends
with Colombo mobster Joe Gallo.Got a couple of longer stories in the works -- one of which will be posted tomorrow (perhaps both.) ...

Meanwhile, here's a story I wrote for Mob Candy's celebration of the Godfather's 40th Anniversary issue, a profile of Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo and the great actor who played him, Al Lettieri, who died too young. I link to a brief interview with him that mentions he was a writer before an actor. 
Also you have to see Lettieri in Sam Peckinpah's 1972 violent masterpiece "The Getaway," based on the brisk book written by iconic pulp writer Jim Thompson. 
The Getaway, in which Lettieri plays a hood named Rudy Butler, the film's "heavy," was somehow released with a PG rating; this was quickly corrected and replaced with an R rating. The actor, who spoke Sicilian, put on weight (you won't believe you're looking at the sleek, barrel-chested guy who played the Turk when you see the film).





He plays one of the most sadistic outlaws you've seen in a movie. Rudy needs transportation, so he kidnaps a young married couple to help him head off Doc. Sally Struthers plays the young bride (yes, All in the Family's Gloria) who seems to enjoy the beastly Rudy's lustful needs. However, Rudy will only take her sexually when her husband, played by Jack Dodson, a star of the 1960s Andy Griffith Show, is watching. He enjoys the man's humiliation and anger. Eventually, Dodson takes a bathroom break and commits suicide by hanging himself, and Rudy loses all interest in the woman.
Rudy hunts McQueen, playing Doc, to El Paso for the film's conclusion. Doc mistakenly thinks he'd whacked the villainous back-stabber -- only Rudy was wearing a bulletproof vest....



Clicking on image should make it larger; if you can't read let me know in comments;
I will prepare a copy for download....

Profile of Sollozzo in Mob Candy's Godfather Issue

Lettieri knew how
to speak Sicilian fluently. Lettieri was said to be  friends
with Colombo mobster Joe Gallo.Got a couple of longer stories in the works -- one of which will be posted tomorrow (perhaps both.) 

Meanwhile, here's a story I wrote for Mob Candy's celebration of the Godfather's 40th Anniversary issue, a profile of Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo and the great actor who played him, Al Lettieri, who died too young. I link to a brief interview with him that mentions he was a writer before an actor. 
Also you have to see Lettieri in The Getaway, in which he plays the "heavy." The actor, who spoke Sicilian, put on weight (you won't believe you're looking at the sleek, barrel-chested guy who played the Turk when you see the film) and plays one of the most sadistic rapist/outlaw you've seen in a movie. He hunts the one-and-only Steve McQueen who mistakenly thought he'd whacked the villainous back-stabber. 
Only Lettieri's character wore a bulletproof vest -- contrary to what he'd told "Doc" (MacQueen's character in the film) during a short debriefing before a bank heist that nearly went sideways....hope you enjoy:




Clicking on image should make it larger; if you can't read let me know in comments;
I will prepare a copy for download....

Bonanno Family Under Heavy Surveillance

Nicky Mouth's crew members when arrested couple years backKenji Gallo has a great story posted about the Bonanno crime family, which apparently has so many informants that if "four guys get together there is a good chance one or two has flipped and is giving intel to law enforcement."

Still, "the Bonannos have come back a few times after they were written off as finished."

In the story (which disagrees with mine about who is the official boss) he notes that the family's new street boss, Joseph Cammarano, is trying to consolidate power under the watchful eyes of FBI agents (who do work on Sundays; apparently, the Bonannos thought otherwise, according to Breakshot Blog.)

Some highlights of the story:

Plagued by internal fights, they were kicked off the Mafia Commission in New York. 

Then Joey Massino consolidated power and set the family on the right track. They were proud of the fact that no made family member had flipped. They closed their social clubs and made all kinds of rules to avoid detection. The FBI was busy with others, and they grew in the shadows. Joey became known as “the last godfather” because he was the only family boss free. He even threatened death to anyone who said his name. It all came apart when his capos and his brother-in-law underboss turned. He went through trial and was found guilty. He then not only made a deal but also wore a wire on the acting boss Vinny Basciano while they were locked up. Joey Massino became the first sitting boss to flip.  

The new street boss was once a teamster-working foreman who had a great job on sites checking driver’s union cards for local 282. He was pulling down a cool $100k a year when he was 25 years old. The FBI spoke to the teamsters, and he was out.

Joseph Cammarano Jr. has moved to consolidate power. He had a number of capo meetings that were closely watched by the Feds and the NYPD. 

The largest meeting took place on a Sunday inside a Staten Island Barber shop. All the movers and shakers in the family showed up. They called it on a Sunday because they figured the FBI would not be working. They even tried to run counter surveillance, but to no avail.

Its really hard when the FBI has sources in your crew. 

He then called a Christmas party at Bocelli's Restaurant on Staten Island that lasted for 6 hours.

Check out the full story on Breakshot Blog

Bonanno Crime Family Under Heavy Surveillance

 “Fat Anthony” Rabito, longtime Bonanno member.
Kenji Gallo has a great story posted about the Bonanno crime family, which apparently has so many informants that if "four guys get together there is a good chance one or two has flipped and is giving intel to law enforcement."

Still, "the Bonannos have come back a few times after they were written off as finished."

In the story (which disagrees with mine about who is the official boss) he notes that the family's new street boss, Joseph Cammarano, is trying to consolidate power under the watchful eyes of FBI agents (who do work on Sundays; apparently, the Bonannos thought otherwise, according to Breakshot Blog.)

Some highlights of the story:

Plagued by internal fights, they were kicked off the Mafia Commission in New York. 

Then Joey Massino consolidated power and set the family on the right track. They were proud of the fact that no made family member had flipped. They closed their social clubs and made all kinds of rules to avoid detection. The FBI was busy with others, and they grew in the shadows. Joey became known as “the last godfather” because he was the only family boss free. He even threatened death to anyone who said his name. It all came apart when his capos and his brother-in-law underboss turned. He went through trial and was found guilty. He then not only made a deal but also wore a wire on the acting boss Vinny Basciano while they were locked up. Joey Massino became the first sitting boss to flip.  

The new street boss was once a teamster-working foreman who had a great job on sites checking driver’s union cards for local 282. He was pulling down a cool $100k a year when he was 25 years old. The FBI spoke to the teamsters, and he was out.

Joseph Cammarano Jr. has moved to consolidate power. He had a number of capo meetings that were closely watched by the Feds and the NYPD. 

The largest meeting took place on a Sunday inside a Staten Island Barber shop. All the movers and shakers in the family showed up. They called it on a Sunday because they figured the FBI would not be working. They even tried to run counter surveillance, but to no avail.

Its really hard when the FBI has sources in your crew. 

He then called a Christmas party at Bocelli's Restaurant on Staten Island that lasted for 6 hours.

Check out the full story on Breakshot Blog

Philly Cosa Nostra Is A-Rockin and A-Rollin...

Uncle Joe and his nephew...looking like they are on the early-bird special.line.

Philadelphia is seeing a "resurgence of the local crime family," George Anastasia noted on BigTrial.
Which may be why there's been talk about known members of New York's Gambino crime family showing up in Philly very recently. As we know from the dear departed Nicholas "Nicky Skins" Stefanelli, the Gambino crime family was known to break bread with the Philly guys. A soldier who flipped and was wired for sound by the FBI for two years, Stefanelli was 69 when he whacked himself in March 2012. Stefanelli — who operated in New Jersey but reported to the crew run by jailed New York capo Nicholas "Little Nicky" Corozzo — secretly taped countless cronies after he was nabbed in a drug-dealing operation with his son and decided to cooperate to get his kid off the hook.
He made lots of tapes, however, and the recordings live on. (He even caught Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino in a conversation, though Merlino, saying he sensed something was up, was able to safely duck "Nicky Skins.")
Stefanelli recorded that five-hour lunch meeting that occurred on May 2010 at LaGriglia, a restaurant located in Kenilworth, NJ. A contingent of Philly guys, including Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi, Anthony Staino and Joe Licata, met with a Gambino crew that consisted of Gambino brothers Joe and John Gambino from New York.

(Yes, Anastasia kicked off that AARP piece with this meeting.)

Straight-up, here's some interesting details from Anastasia's BigTrial story:

Law enforcement investigators are also aware that back in October there was a mob initiation ceremony in which five associates were formally inducted into the crime family. Traditionally, a making ceremony is overseen by the crime family boss and the initiates are individuals who have sworn a blood oath of allegiance to Cosa Nostra and who have proven that allegiance by having taken part in a murder.

But this is Cosa Nostra 2000 and individuals are often "made" because of their blood relationship to another member or because they are good earners. Money trumps murder in the modern American Mafia, at least in South Philadelphia.

So many guys are back in the City of Brotherly Love, that it seems there was such a growing hankering for a place where old friends could gather and talk over an espresso with a modicum of privacy that a bona fide Mafia social club opened its doors.

Law enforcement and the media were jolted awake once they learned that the Philly mob had taken such a brazen step, as Anastasia notes, referring to a a special report by Fox29's Dave Schratwieser.

Among the joint's habitues: Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi, his nephew, George Borgesi, and others -- all of whom "are frequently spotted" going to the clubhouse, located at 11th and Jackson Streets.

Borgesi and some others also have worked their way into a new business venture that has something to do with the construction and home rehab sectors. They even opened a Passyunk Avenue office. This apparently isn't a racket, according to Anastasia's sources.

"It's all legit," said one such source with knowledge of the new business ventures. "They're not doing anything wrong."

Yet, as Anastasia noted: "It has not been lost on law enforcement... that the ventures into home rehab, construction and mortgage refinancing are exactly what mob informants Louis "Bent Finger Lou" Monacello and Anthony Aponick testified about at Borgesi's last two racketeering trials."

And to think it wasn't that long ago that Borgesi was requesting permission to whack someone. He was declined but the supposed target was not an obvious target for him, a source told me. In other words, it was someone in Borgesi's own circle, not one of his supposedly "known" enemies.

Location of infamous Gambino, Philadelphia mobsters' luncheon.

The Mob Clubhouse, Lauded, Lamented, Gone... 
Most Mafia clubhouses in New York and it would seem, most of the rest of the U.S., have long since closed and disappeared.

You know why they closed? Social clubs are where mob guys hang out. Places where mob guys hang out tend to attract the attention of law enforcement as well as the media. (Unless your social club looks like it is something else... for example, I know of a certain cigar shop in Tottenville, on Staten Island. It's not a social club per se.... Anyway, a source told me: "The wiseguys live so f--kin openly out there, it's f--kin ridiculous."

You open a social club, the Feds and other law enforcement members, never mind the media, will start to show up. At first, maybe just to stare long enough to get it through their thick head that, yes, they are staring at an actual mob social club.

But it's a certainty that soon enough they will set up surveillance posts, with cameras and recorders capturing as much as possible....

"Both the FBI and investigators with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office and State Police have been tracking the activities," Anastasia notes. Of course. That's their job.

Another, higher up the food chain but retired, offered a more cautionary note. "It doesn't bode well for their rehabilitation if they are hanging out with the same people with whom they committed crimes." A retired head of the Organized Crime Strike Force for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia, he added that any business ventures and of the fellas are involved with "bear watching.

The reason, according to Anastasia, several mobsters who have returned home and are on the streets are believed to be unconvicted murderers. "None of the murder or attempted murder charges that were part of a 2001 racketeering case against mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino, Borgesi and five other defendants were proven," as Anastasia noted.

Then there's the three homicides that Philly lawmen were seeking to link to Uncle Joe and some of his top associates. Anthony Nicodemo, who a year ago pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, conspiracy, and weapons charges in the 2012 shooting death of Gino DiPietro, for which he was sentenced to 25 years minimum, was identified as a suspect in the 2003 murder of John "Johnny Gongs" Casasanto.

That hit is among several allegedly linked to "Uncle Joe" Ligambi. The other murder victims are Ronnie Turchi, who was hit in 1999, and Raymond “Long John” Martorano, who reached the end of the road in 2002.

Ligambi is one of the more successful modern bosses. He is credited with cooling down the Philly underworld following decades of unrest. Departing jail after being held without bail during the time it took two mistrials to run their course, Ligambi started talking about retirement. It looks like he's still around the streets and was last considered to be a sort of co-consiglieri.

New Boss Deftly Eluded High-risk Hit Order

Cammarano Junior's "modest" house on Long Island's Glen Cove section.
Joseph Cammarano Jr. is "the top banana on the street for the beleaguered Bonanno crime family — or what’s left of it," as the Daily News reported.

(A source pointed out the odd timing of the new Bonanno boss story, arriving about a month or so following this blog's own story about New York having only three operational Mafia families, the Bonannos not being one of them. "... It seems that the families able to ... show power on the street ... are helmed by powerful and accessible bosses -- meaning they are out of prison," as we noted.)

Cammarano, meanwhile, is around to hold the top slot because of his ability to diplomatically get out of an order from Vinny Basciano to whack a Genovese associate, Cosa Nostra News learned. Cammarano did this by reminding Vinny B of another more-pressing hit the Bonanno boss had wanted done at the time.







At an arraignment hearing in Brooklyn Federal Court this month regarding three Bonanno gangsters sent back to prison for attending the Bonanno Christmas party, and violating their strict parole orders, a federal prosecutor revealed that Cammarano was named acting underboss and was also serving as acting street boss.

"Cammarano’s promotion has the blessing of the Bonannos’ jailed official boss, Michael "Mikey Nose" Mancuso," sources told the Daily News. Well, Cosa Nostra News sources say that Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano would've done the blessing, not "Mikey Nose."

That's because the jailed-for-life Basciano is the Bonanno family's official boss. "Michael is gonna take over because of Vinny," a Queens-based street source said. "He’s Vinny’s puppet." 
"This goes back to the Bronx. Vinny put Michael in the acting underboss position, not Joe Massino. Law enforcement wants to say it's Michael, that he's the boss -- that way it puts more pressure on Michael."

Mancuso served time in the 1980s for killing his wife. He was arrested after stepping off a plane in Las Vegas in February of 2006

As recently noted, "Vinny Gorgeous" was released from Colorado's Supermax prison and moved to the less restrictive high-security U.S. penitentiary in Colorado. He's serving a life sentence.
Vinny B didn't hesitate to whack people, on or off the record.
One source referred to him as being a "maniac."

Vinny Basciano: A Gangster's Gangster 
Bonanno boss Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano was an exception to the norm in gangland in that he was both a prodigious earner and a fearless shooter.

(Here's a lesson in Mafia dialect 101: The word "shooter" has a very specific meaning. It is not killer, hitter, hit man or assassin -- a mobster is either a shooter or not a shooter. And shooters generally are feared -- non-shooters are not. When a mobster says, "He's never done a fucking thing in his life" he means one thing only. The HE is not a shooter and has never killed anyone. Here endeth the lesson...)

He earned his life sentence the old-school way, by blowing a man's head off with a shotgun on Dec. 14, 2001, in the Bronx's Throgs Neck section. Basciano's victim was a low-level street operator named Frank Santoro.

Basciano, along with Dominick Cicale and others, ambushed Genovese associate Santoro while he was walking his Doberman pinscher in the Bronx's Throgs Neck section. His wife was home preparing dinner for him -- and would see his body laying on the ground, the head shattered from a point-blank shotgun blast delivered by "Vinny from the Bronx".

With a 12-gauge shotgun, Basciano had shot Frank Santoro "once, twice, three times, four times, not stopping even after [he’d] collapsed to the ground, leaving behind [his] lifeless, shotgun-riddled body just steps away from his home and his family,” a prosecutor said at trial.Cicale himself had fired several shots at Santoro, but not a single bullet had touched its mark, according to the coroner's report.Prosecutors said Basciano clipped Santoro because he’d heard a rumor that Santoro was planning to kidnap one of his sons.

On May 16, 2011, Basciano also was convicted of ordering the 2004 murder of Randolph "Randy" Pizzolo. On June 1, 2011, a jury rejected the death penalty and instead sentenced Basciano to life in federal prison.
In December 2008, Mancuso was sentenced to 15 years after he copped to a murder conspiracy charge related to the 2004 Pizzolo slaying.  Anthony “Ace” Aiello was sentenced to 30 years in prison for shooting Pizzolo.
Basciano ordered the hit "because Pizzolo had botched a construction job," as The Daily News reported, though that topic is open to debate.

Mancuso also faced life in prison under the original indictment, but following his plea deal, Judge Nicholas Garaufis had to max out the sentence at 15 years. Mancuso is slated to depart prison on March 12, 2019, and is currently housed at Texas's Seagoville FCI.

The Santoro and Pizzolo murders put so many guys away, it's easy to see why the mob doesn't go around blasting people today with shotguns.
But I digress.
Cammarano Junior did play a role amid the carnage, though it's an indirect one -- and certainly not a violent one.

Cicale, former Bonanno capo (with whom I wrote an ebook), said Cammarano had been in his, Dom's, crew.

"He was a nice kid," Dom said of him. "I liked him." Dom doesn't like the notion of holding a very public Christmas party.

"They are stupid," he snapped. "How are you gonna have a Christmas party in the middle of Staten Island! That’s like John Gotti going to the Ravenite (in Little Italy) and having all his guys report to him."
"Go where they don’t know you," Dom offered. "And don’t hang around out in front of the place."



Of the pictures taken of the party, see above, Cicale said of Cammarano Junior, "Now he wants to act all big and showboat."
Our source from Queens said that Vinny Basciano, as boss of the family, had given Cammarano an order to hit a Genovese associate -- and Cammarano was able to wiggle out of it.

"Vinny gave the order to whack Joseph Bonelli.and Cammarano never followed through."

Court documents claim Basciano wanted Bonelli gone because Bonelli tried over-zealously to collect a debt from a mobster’s son in 2004. Bonelli "went berserk," the Post reported.

Wiretaps of the alleged hit order are contained in paperwork filed in February 2007 as part of a then-ongoing federal case against several Bonnano crime members.
Basciano was heard detailing the story of how Bonelli violently attacked someone at the Villa Sonoma, a restaurant then run by Paul “Fat Paulie” Spina.
Cammarano never made a move against Bonelli. After around three weeks, he was confronted about the fact that the Genovese associate was still breathing. Cammarano was quick thinking enough to bring up another guy Basciano wanted hit even more than Bonelli, Randy Pizzolo, who also was still walking around long past his assigned expiration date.
"He threw that it in Vinny’s face," said the Queens-based Bonanno source. "Randy is acting up and carrying guns," Cammarano told Basciano, according to the source.
"It's funny how when Dom was given a mission he managed to take care of it without anyone knowing it. In fact, the Feds thought the Genovese family had killed him. Then Vinny, while in jail, threw Dominick's name around," the source said.

Bonelli survived Basciano's tenure on the street but was arrested in 2006 on drug and weapons charges.

Facing a 25-year sentence, Bonelli claimed that a mutual friend introduced him to the ADA, who told him he’d get a sweetheart deal for hiring her boyfriend. Veteran Queens Assistant District Attorney Barbara Wilkanowski was embarrassed by the mobster's claims that she'd promised him a no-jail deal on drug and weapons charges if he hired her lawyer boyfriend for $20,000.

Bonelli took his allegations to Wilkanowki’s bosses. 
She was placed on an extended leave because of a pending internal investigation.
Two years later, however, the Genovese cocaine merchant confessed he'd made the whole thing up, noting in a sworn statement that he'd "misstated, exaggerated and falsely characterized" his tale about Assistant District Attorney Barbara Wilkanowski.

"As a result of information I obtained through mutual friends, I had personal information about ADA Wilkanowski and knew of her kind nature and took advantage of this information," Bonelli wrote in the statement filed in Queens Supreme Court. 

Bonelli recanted all earlier claims that Wilkanowski promised to intervene in his 2006 coke bust case on condition that he hire Manhattan defense lawyerRobert Kelly. He also withdrew his claim that Wilkanowski and Kelly were romantically involved. 

"The recantation absolves Mr. Kelly and Ms. Wilkanowski of any impropriety," said Kelly's lawyer Marvin Ray Raskin. "They are not now and never have been boyfriend or girlfriend. They know each other from court, nothing more."

Bonelli submitted his statement with his guilty plea to the 2006 drug bust and an assault charge that occurred outside a Whitestone bar on Dec. 28, 2007. He was sentenced to five years.

New Acting Boss/Underboss
Known as Joe C. Jr., the 56-year-old Cammarano grew up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, joined the Navy after graduating from high school and served on a nuclear submarine in an elite patrol unit that conducted classified missions.

His wife, Angela, is the daughter of Bonanno soldier Vito Grimaldi, who owns Grimaldi Bakery in Queens.

Cammarano Jr. “is a unique man,” defense lawyer Elizabeth Macedonio wroten a 2007 extortion case. “He is defined by his sense of selflessness, his strong commitment to family and his endless contributions to his country and community.” And he is known for strong-arming a Colombo wiseguy, for which he served 27 months in prison.

Apparently unencumbered by any murders, Cammarano's reign may prove to be a long and potentially prosperous one, at least until Mancuso is released and the klieg lights are trained on him.

The Cammaranos live in a "modest home" located on Long Island's Glen Cove in Nassau County.

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Read an ebook excerpt centered on a hilarious story about Anthony "Tony Green" Urso, a former acting Bonanno boss actually well liked by the rank-and-file despite certain personal pecadillos, like hitting on any woman with a heartbeat and reclining in tanning salons a tad too long.... Word is Tony was a truck driver who stopped at Joe Massino's roach coach for his morning coffee...

Bonanno's New Acting Boss Played Santa Too....

Bonanno members at recent holiday gathering at Staten Island restaurant
All happy Mafia crime families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.*

While I don't know to any degree of certainty whether that holds true, I can say that it certainly seems that, whatever else they have in common (such as the desire to generate lots of cash) crime families develop their own personalities over time.

Here's an overly simplistic analysis: The Gambinos were the high-profile guys, the mobsters with flash and dash and lots of drug cash. The Genoveses (aka The West Side) are viewed as the silent but deadly ones who live far off the radar screen while accruing vast fortunes. The Luchese family is somewhat difficult to characterize. I think of junkyards and auto repair shops (aka "chop shops"), though under Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso they were basically killers of rats (and anyone unlucky enough to be viewed by Casso with disfavor). The Colombos, thrice in "declared" wars, killed their own; and over their lifespan, anyone else, including cops. They're also considered inbred deadly misfits.

The Bonannos make me think of one thing in particular: their great renown for Christmas parties.
An interesting story could be written about Bonanno family Christmas parties and all the events the Feds believe happen during them -- but never seem to happen during them.

The Bonannos have a new acting boss. Apparently, based on his Daily News exclusive "coming out" story, John Cammarano Junior was named acting underboss, as well as street boss, which the DN views as "a sign that the beleaguered family is trying to rebuild after the prosecutions and defections of its members in recent years."
Cammarano Junior's father was responsible for pulling off a hit that brought directly into the Bonanno family's fold a highly lucrative video gambling operation. Cammarano Senior also made a pointed remark (and apparently held a strong opinion) regarding what some Bonanno bosses were saying years back about murdering the families of informants. Cammarano Senior didn't agree.

New Boss Threw Holiday Shindig 
The next big story is that this new acting boss threw the crime family's annual Christmas party at a Staten Island Zagat-approved Italian eatery. "The six-hour food fest was held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Dec. 16 at Bocelli Restaurant on Hylan Blvd. under the watchful eyes and cameras of the FBI and the NYPD, according to papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court."
Attendance, of course, was mandatory and in attendance were more than a dozen capos and soldiers, the court filings said.




At the Christmas party, coincidentally enough (not) underlings handed over fat envelopes to the family's boss, Joseph Cammarano Jr.When Joseph Massino was boss, he threw the holiday party at his Casablanca restaurant in Queens. Cammarano, 56, controls the family's "day-to-day criminal activities," according to court papers.
Since that news arose, a federal judge summed up his feelings about the new Bonanno crime family boss hosting this Christmas party by quoting Yogi Berra and Forrest Gump.

"In the words of the great Yogi Berra, it's déjà vu all over again," Judge Nicholas Garaufis said, "somewhat sadly, in Brooklyn Federal Court," one report editorialized.

"And that's all I'm going to say about that, in the words of Forrest Gump," he added.

Garaufis presided over multiple prosecutions of Bonanno mobsters since 2002.

"This was a modern day version of what happened in Apalachin, New York," Garaufis said.

The judge, meanwhile, refused to release three gangsters on bail who violated their federal supervised release by associating with their fellow mob members. Cammarano was not among the charged. Joseph Desimone, Anthony Pipitone and Ronald Giallanzo were charged with violated the terms of their federal release by attending the Bonanno holiday fest. They also were denied bail.
Joseph Cammarano Sr. died on Sepember 3, 2013. A Bonanno capo who was part of a ruling panel that led the family when Massino was arrested, Cammarano died of respiratory arrest at the federal medical center at Butner, North Carolina at the age of 77.

Cammarano, known as "Joe Saunders" and "Joe C,"was serving a 10 year sentence for murder conspiracy involving the killing in 1990 of the son of Anthony "Boots" Tomasulo as this blog has reported on in great detail.. .


"Boots" Tomasulo, Joker Poker King....
Antonio Tomasulo, also known as "Boots," built up and operated a highly lucrative Joker Poker slot machine gambling operation (one establishment outfitted by Boots reportedly served up $15,000 per week)....

Boots's son Anthony, who eventually assumed daily control and was a partner in the business, presumed he'd inherit the operation. But the Bonanno family claimed the racket for itself. Anthony objected -- and also made his own execution mandatory when he threatened the life of his mob superior.

Sal Vitale ordered the young man's 1990 murder so he could personally reap the profits of the illegal Joker Poker racket for which the Bonanno family became so well known. Other members operated video gambling machines, but Tomasulo had excelled in the business to the extent that the lucrative operation was worth killing over. Anthony Spero was among those involved in the murder in that he allegedly advised Vitale, who already seemed pretty convinced.

After Boots was buried -- with "full Mafia honors" -- Vitale decided to assert his authority. By rights, Boots's poker slot-machine operation was to go into the Bonanno family's pocket (meaning Vitale's pocket). The crime family was entitled to "inherit" all of a wiseguy's rackets once he died, Vitale maintained.

Soldier Michael Cardello was ordered to inform Boots's son. Anthony was so angered upon hearing the news, he did something that made his position untenable. "If I have to, I'll kill you and I'll kill Sal!" he shouted at Cardello.

Anthony later informed another Bonanno capo of a revised plan. He was going to Vincent "TheChin" Gigante to arbitrate.

Vitale met with Spero to discuss the situation. Kill this kid, Spero advised. "You better do it. Get it behind you. God forbid he kills you. We all lose."

In May 1990 Anthony Tomasulo's body
As for Cammarano Senior, he was caught on surveillance tapes chasing James Tartaglione out of New York in late 2003 after Tartaglione, who was on federal probation, used to travel up from Florida.


Sal Vitale wanted the joker poker business from Boots. 

Cammarano told Tartaglione to stay in Florida until his probation was over. Only then could he return, Tartaglione was told. [Tartaglione at that point was secretly taping the conversation with Cammarano]


On one tape, Cammarano offered his response to what another mobster had said about killing the family of rats and informants: It was something that could not be done.

Cammarano was waked in Brooklyn and reportedly cremated.


*With apologies to Count Lev Nikolayevich.