Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. In this episode, Gary and his guest, Camillus “Cam” Robinson, talk about the turbulent life of Jimmy the Bomber Cataura, a figure whose name became synonymous with Chicago’s underworld. Known as Jimmy the Bomber,” Jimmy Cataura’s story is a complex web of crime, suspicion, and intrigue. In 1952, Jimmy the Bomber surfaced in the newspapers concerning bombings in the Chicago area. Two Teamsters Union officials’ homes and a gasoline station where employees had refused to join the union were targeted. Despite being questioned, Jimmy couldn’t be linked to the bombings and was instead charged with disorderly conduct.

Over the years, Jimmy’s alleged involvement in criminal activities continued to escalate. In 1967, he was linked to a murder investigation, but no charges were filed. 1972, Jimmy was among the men arrested on fraud and loan shark charges. The men had set up a fraudulent corporation that charged fees for financing loans totaling over one million dollars. Despite these brushes with the law, Jimmy the Bomber evaded conviction. A federal grand jury next indicted him for transporting a stolen vehicle across state lines, but the outcome of this case remains unknown. Jimmy’s reputation within the criminal underworld grew as the years went by. Jimmy the Bomber was rumored to be involved in various criminal activities, including stealing and selling stolen auto parts. However, his criminal empire began to crumble in the late 1970s as rival factions within the Chicago Outfit vied to control his chop shop rackets. South Side Boss Frank LaPorte died, and Al Pilotto took over. The new power wanted a piece of this chop shop racket.

In 1978, Jimmy’s life came to a violent end when he was gunned down while sitting in his car. His death marked the end of an era, leaving behind a legacy of crime and intrigue that fascinates today. Join us as we unravel the life of Jimmy the Bomber Cataara, a man whose name became synonymous with Chicago’s criminal underworld.

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To subscribe on iTunes click here. Please give me a review and help others find the podcast. Donate to the podcast. Click here! Transcript [00:00:00] Hey, welcome all you wiretappers. Good to be back here in the studio of gangland wire. I’ve got my good friend, Camillus Robinson, cam Robinson. Welcome cam. Good to see you. I haven’t talked to you for a while. Hey Gary. I can’t tell you how much it it means to me to be back and be back in the the studio with you. It’s such a, such a great time. And I’m glad to be here and I’m really excited about today’s show. Really good. Yeah, we’re going to do Jimmy the Bomb Jimmy “The Bomber” Catuara. Is that how you pronounce that, Cam? ? Catuara, yeah. Catuara? Okay. That’s how I would say, yes. You know, you know how everybody laughs about how I drag out my bowels up here. Not as bad, much as they laugh about me. Right. One guy said, well, that hillbilly Tw that guy’s, God, he said, man, he, he can’t be telling me about the mafia. . I had to get everybody to to help me out with Joey. I Joey Aiuppa Yeah, you can’t do that. And I, and I do. I’ve got no, I am Italian. I’ve got no excuse. Yeah. See, I’m full excuse anyhow, we’re going to talk about Jimmy the Bomber Couture, you know, and, and Cam, [00:01:00] he came over as a child, I believe from Sicily. Now, if I’m wrong on that, let me know guys, but it, it looks like he was naturalized after he got here, but probably as a young man or a child you know, he, he got married, had a couple of kids and, and, and we’re talking about the, the twenties. By 1929, he’s, he is in his early 20s, I believe, and, you know, the stock market crashes and, and he’s a young guy, got a couple of kids trying to scuffle out a living and kind of interesting note I found on that when the stock market crashed, banks weren’t lending out money. And you know what happened when the banks quit lending out money? That’s when the loan shark business started. I never put that together before. Did you, Cam? Do you ever think about that? You know, I didn’t in that, in that capacity, it’s, it’s interesting how there was such a conglomeration of so many different things that went into in that time period, like you said, the banks collapsed, the alcohol became illegal, all the immigrants started [00:02:00] pouring into the country. And that, that confluence of different things really is, is what, what blew up, what we came to. That was, is the mafia, you know, it was all, it was just the perfect storm that led to all these rackets that blew up. I mean, it really was the time and the place to start an organized crime empire. Really? And, and, you know, loan sharking, if you think about it, it had all those Sicilian immigrants and, and the banks were all ran by the English and the Germans, and they’re not going to loan anything to new newly arrived immigrant. Plus the immigrant can’t read the paperwork and probably can’t speak the language. So, you know, the loan sharking business, you know, was going to come up. It was really interesting. And with, with bootlegging and a variety of other things, of course, there were some narcotics business going on at the time coming out of. Cuba going up through the Midwest and, and, and in New York, and that was all by the mafia. So, you know, it was, it was a perfect storm for that. You know, he ends up being, you know, they list him in the sentence census [00:03:00] in the 1930 census as a presser and a trailer shop, tailor shop. But pretty few years later, he’s a retail meat market. then he’s an inmate in the Illinois State Penitentiary during this time. So he’s a real renaissance man, is a renaissance man, the man for all seasons. The census did indicate he had completed the fourth grade. So he wasn’t like most of these guys, you know, they didn’t go, if they went to high school, that was back then, especially hardly anybody went to high school, unless you were of a certain class, all the working class kids, you went to eighth grade, ninth grade, and then you were on, you were working. So that’s what he did, but he was maybe not a you know, a genius scholar, a Rhodes scholar or anything like that, but he learned the streets and he learned it from a guy, which is interesting, a guy named James Bellacastro, who was known as the king of bombers. So he learned from the king of [00:04:00] bombers and he will eventually become known as the. Jimmy the Bomber Catuara. So go figure that man. That’s right. And Belcastro was a big deal. There were a couple of guys who, who came after Belcastro who, who took that name, the bomber, but you know, they, he had a whole string of bombers that came after Belcastro. Matter of fact, one of his early arrests was he and a guy named William Palermo were apprehended with a bomb and that was in 1933. He even got a little description of it. He had seven sticks of dynamite and they were getting ready to go to trial and the defense would contend that the bomb was planted on them by the cops, which is, you know, I’m not sure how that works, but I guess, you know, I guess they were you know, it’d be possible they’d try to shake them down or something. Those same cops would testify that he had offered him a thousand dollar bribe while he was at the police station. So he was doing pretty good early on. Thousand dollars. Yeah, that’s a lot of damn money in [00:05:00] 1933. Jesus, I don’t know how, I don’t know how you could resist that in 1933. I couldn’t, I couldn’t bribe a cop for 1, 000 tomorrow. They charge you with attempted bribery and he ended up getting five to 25 years. I never understood those indeterminate sentences, but I think it’s, I think it is to, to keep. people, keep them better prisoners because they’ve got a chance of maybe getting out because you have this indeterminate sentence. So, you know, you could be a good prisoner and then have a chance at getting out early because, you know, there’s not a locked in time that you have to stay there, wouldn’t you say? Would you hazard a guess on that? That makes really good sense that I hadn’t thought about it. I’ve seen those sentences before, you know, in the reading that you and I do a lot and I never really got it. I thought, you know, that was sort of a broad outlining, but it really does make sense. And it is sort of a, you know, a reason that they should an incentive for, for, for good behavior. You know, and [00:06:00] he was in Chicago and it seemed like this is the thirties. But Capone had something to do with the dairy business at one time. And this was, this mom was. Arrest was something to do with a string of bombings in the dairy business. So somebody was trying to line up the dairy business back during the 30s, I would say. That was Curly Curly Humphreys had a lot to do with that. They figured if you could, if you could line up the milk and, you know, milk was everywhere. You had the, just like with everything, you had the, the milk unions and they delivered the milk around just like, you know, years later in, in Jersey, like you should have the garbage, but if you could line up the. The milk lobbies, that was one of the first unions that they were known for, for getting lined up was, was, was the the milk haulers. And that actually led to several types of legislation for how clean milk had to be and different things. I mean, it was really revolutionary how currently view the the unions and things. Yeah, he was, he was a genius. He was smart. He was an [00:07:00] organizer. He, he knew he didn’t need to go around beating people up and robbing stores and transporting narcotics. And booze was legal by now, but he knew to get into those unions and organize people and extort money from businesses. Guy was a, guy was a genius, really. He register for the draft they found out in, in you know, for World War II, but he never served. A lot of guys did serve in World War II whether you’re in the mob or not, but a lot of people served. It was kind of unusual if you didn’t. He was a little bit old actually, I think, to to be going in. The next time he gets questioned about bombings, it’s about bombing. the homes of some brothers that own a paper company, the Victory Paper Company. I’m not sure what that was all about, but it’s alleged that those, that paper company was supplying paper to the policy operators. You know, they had to have paper to write down the bets. You know, interesting thing when I was looking researching. The bomber, they [00:08:00] described the policy and said the name of policy came from the fact that there were, there are these insurance policies that people pay like 50 cents a week on or 25 cents a week on it. And, and I, they, they still have that. And so it was a little bit like that. You go, you’d write down their name and get their 25 cents for the, the wheel for the lottery. And so it looked a little bit like, you know, an insurance policy collector, the guys that went around and collected from all the. You know, 15, 25 cents, 50 cents a week from people to, they just want to, poor people just want a burial policy. I remember that’s been going on a long time. I think it’s still a certain business of that out there. Oh yeah. So anyhow, just a little aside there about the policy. You know, he was he was arrested and charged with and released, of course, for more bombings in Chicago area. They bombed a gas station trying to organize gas station employees to join a union. So the usual kind of [00:09:00] mob activities where you need to. To force people to intimidate people to join a union or to go on strike or not go on strike or solve a strike or, you know, whatever you need to be done. And then when an election, when an election, this guy would go around and do a little bombing for him. So he had that name righteously, but Jimmy, the bomber and he had it all along. Matter of fact, he he was questioned about that gas station bombing and the Teamsters, I guess, I don’t quite understand is what I read the Teamsters offered a reward for whoever was planting these bombs. I’m not quite, I don’t quite understand that, but you never know. You gotta look into it a little deeper sometimes. If you’re trying to cover up who did something, you run the Teamsters, you know, that’s, that’s, we’ll talk about a sort of a little sleight of hand of the mob later on, but that sounds like the kind of thing where, you know. If you are the one that does the bomb and you’re the one that puts out the reward, it kind of draws the attention [00:10:00] away from you. Here’s one of his first murders that they really tried to link to him, and it was a guy that worked for him as a part time, as in a collection agency that he had, you know, kind of his loan sharking, somebody’s loan sharking business, and he was like, he was going out doing some collecting for a loan sharker loan sharking business, and this guy worked for him, and that guy was found strangled to death, and then he’s trunk, you know, the old Chicago trunk music thing. I think they pioneered that, I don’t know. So that, that was one of his first murders. That he was charged or not charged with, but was questioned. So he was you know he did have somebody that came up early that challenged him and that was Albert Toko. And you know, he’s he was kind of South side guy. And, and so do you remember, remember when he was kidnapped? This is what we’re jumping on into the seventies. I mean, I don’t know if there’s anything else in between. So in between you get Al Toko [00:11:00] started into the stolen car racket in the late sixties, he goes into prison. So they’re both South side guys at this time. And you’ve got, is, he’s a, he’s a pretty heavy hitter. He’s been around for a long time. Pilato is, I’m sorry, Toco is an up and coming guy. He works under Pilato and he starts this. This racket, Indiana and parts of Illinois, really the Wild West, their, their laws regarding switching VIN numbers and, and, and keeping track of those records were so lax and, and security was just non existent as far as what was required to, to, for insurance purposes and different things. I mean, so that he discovered this and the racket really shot through the roof. It became eventually a 30 to 40 million a year racket, but Togo goes into prison late 60s. That’s it. At that point Jimmy Guitar comes and he takes over the racket. I mean, it’s, it’s sort of in his neighborhood. And so he decides he’s going to step up and he’s going to take over to go zone [00:12:00] racket. And he puts together a crew of guys He’s got a guy, Steve Ostrowski, who owns owns a chop shop. All his guys own chop shops, basically. Richie Ferraro and Joseph Theo, Earl Abercrombie. And his main muscle Adorino and obviously Billy Dauber. And Billy Dauber is a psychopathic murderer. And it’s always good to have one of those guys if you if you are a mob heavy hitter. So he puts together this band of guys. And Toko eventually gets out of prison. And this was around this time before Toko, really, Catuara was at loggerheads with Pallado. Toko thought that, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, there’s so many vowels, you know, I have a problem with my vowels. So, Catuara was at loggerheads with Pallado. He thought he was going to take over the Southside crew when Frank Laporte died. There’s a meeting at the back of the funeral home when LaPorte passed, and you’ve got you’ve got Paul the waiter, and you’ve [00:13:00] got you’ve got Tony Cardo, and they come to the conclusion that after Frank LaPorte, it is not going to be Jimmy Kitara who takes over the, the South Suburban crew, the Southside crew, it’s going to be it’s going to be, Who becomes their, the capo down there. And that really, really pushed that was a, a really bothersome thing for Qatar, who was an old guy, an old. school guy and thought that he really deserved it. And that was about the time that he started taking over Tocco’s rackets because Tocco was Pallado’s guy. And he steps into these, he builds up this crew of heavy hitters that we mentioned. Toko comes out of prison and Pallado is still having problems with with this Katara. And so, there was so much money in these chop shops. And all these guys own their own, their own junk yards and guitars guys around 1976. The damn broke a lotto and Tocco [00:14:00] decide they’ve had enough. And guitar has got to go, but they can’t just take him out because he’s got a lot of standing and believe it or not, there is a lot of respect in that world for the old Sicilian guys, you can’t even, you know, and I know that we don’t always understand the dynamics of what they consider respect. I mean, you know, Gary, it’s, it’s, it’s weird. His guys don’t hold the same. So they start taking them out one at a time. You know what? Almost you get, you get an October, this Ostrowski who was like his right hand man, and then in almost two a month in 1977, two in June, two in July, and then in August, and, and this is where you really see the wild bunch. This is, they were the real heavy hitters in taking these guys. Doubt until you get to San Manino. That was a real public murder and the cas grew in the wild bunch teaming up. Qatar’s watching all his guys die. But they can’t kill Qatar. So they kidnap him and they sort of warn him, see, [00:15:00] you’re done. You’re on the shelf. Interesting. So that was when they tried to shelf him. Let, let’s make sure that everybody understands. Now, this is all geographically, this is all in the southwest part of Chicago, and this is Chicago is gonna the Chicago Heights crew, right. Correct. The Chicago Heights Crew. The Southside Chicago Heights Crew. Yeah, correct. I should have called it the Chicago Heights Crew. Which was ran by Frank LaPorte, goes all the way back to Capone days. Correct. And this, this borders on to Indiana. And so then you’ve got these different guys out there that have junkyards and of course, chop shops you know, body shops and they’re stealing cars. I knew a guy here in Kansas City, steal cars. He’d take them out to a farm and he’d cut them up and then he had a series of body shops that he was connected to and they’d actually call him and they’d say, Hey, I need a, you know, I need a front clip for a blue Cadillac. Now this guy would go out and find a blue 72 Cadillac or [00:16:00] 82 Cadillac. Steal that car and and you’d have part of the parts sold many times and so then they do runs clear up through the mid all around the midwest and so that’s what these guys were doing after zoom was cutting them up and then selling them to other body shops. Anywhere else in the country was really strict on where did these parts come from? Yeah. You know, where did you get that front clip? Where did you get that tie rod? Where did you get these different that, that, that right from that door that, that, where did you get these parts? And Indiana and Illinois, they were so lax on their record keeping and their requirements that it was, it was literally the wild west, this specific geographic area, their record keeping methods. It really created the perfect storm. That was kind of what what set the stage for this kind of job shop activity. So when Blank Report dies, it’s the, the hierarchy, Paula Wader and Tony Ocardo, [00:17:00] Joe Batters, they meet, and you know, they appoint the next boss of the Chicago Heights crew, and that ends up being Al Pilato, who, so Jimmy Catuara was this old time guy, now he was, He was, I don’t think he was from down there because he got killed way up in the path. Right. Yeah. But he, he had been working down there and now he’s out in a way. So in the Al Tocco is in and out of jail who are going to be more important later on in the outfit. But so I, okay, now I understand. I never understood this chop shop wars because it was. Geographically so far away from the patch, from, you know, the, the guys downtown from Joy Lombardo and you know, Cicero and all that, that I, now I finally got my, my mind around that. I, I appreciate that. One reason I wanted to do this show to help me get my mind around this chop shop wars because it was so huge. God, they killed so [00:18:00] many guys. So I’m sorry. Yeah. You were at the point that they’ve kidnapped Jimmy Couture, held him in the trunk, I think more than a day or two, wasn’t it? Yeah. And that was, that was to let him know, I mean, when we say you’re shelved, you’re shelved. We’re not going to give you another warning. Not gonna, this is it, this is it, you know? And so, because otherwise they would have just killed him. But as, as, you know, we mentioned earlier, there is a strange sort of respect. For that it has to had to exist in that mob world where they didn’t just kill every guy that made a man. I mean, there were rules. They were obviously broken at times, but there were rules that protected guy is, you know in in their own way. I mean, there was a hierarchy and they didn’t just kill Qatar. He was an old, well respected Sicilian guy, and there was a lot of respect for the Sicilians in Chicago. I mean, if you look at what happened after a car note, basically all the leadership Going forward was always [00:19:00] Ilian. So they, they didn’t just kill him, they kidnapped him. They, you know, gave him his walking papers and that was that. For a while. Now, while this is all transpiring, Illinois decides they need to crack down on a lot of this chop shop activity. The Illinois State Police forms a special task force led by Lieutenant Vladimir Ivkovic and Ivkovic as his old guys. And they really start going after this chop shop activity in Illinois. I mean, statewide, it’s big. And if Kovich, one day in I believe it’s 78, he finds a bomb outside of his home police. And this is state police lieutenant. The bomb is right next to the gas you know, the gas hookups for his home. Yeah. I mean, you, you as a, it’s cold as an officer. That’s, that’s not done. It’s cold. That is not, that is not done, is never done. So, but what they. [00:20:00] And I think that there were some problems. The bomb wasn’t so, they said if it had gone off, but it was just sort of sitting there and I think it wasn’t active or whatever. It was just sort of sitting there. A bomb happened to be sitting at the, at the at the home of the police, the state police lieutenant in charge of the chop shops. Very shortly thereafter, Jimmy the Bomber Catuara is executed walking through Chicago. And then it’s not, you know, it was never known who planted the bomb or anything like that, but my theory has always been that. Katara wouldn’t lay down, wouldn’t remain shell, wouldn’t do what he was told, and so this was used as sort of a justification. There was only one guy in Chicago named The Bomber at that time. So they leave a bomb, a relatively inert bomb, dangerous but relatively inert, they leave it at the head guys. Place this guy who would really be going after Toko’s guys at the time because Toko had basically won the chop shop wars and was starting in with [00:21:00] Lombardo. That’s another story. So that justified. The execution of Jimmy the Bomber Katara, because, well, look guys, he’s clearly out of control, going after state police, so we had to take him out, and then they don’t have to worry about it, they found, they found a reason to kill him, to where they didn’t have to worry about the Sicilian respect and all that jazz, and that’s what I’ve always seen. That was always my guess, obviously it’s not written down, nobody’s talked about it, but I always thought that was a false front that they used to justify killing Katara. Yeah, heck Toko, you know, rather than keep dealing with him, he might’ve just put that bomb up there by the, he knew whoever put that bomb there, they didn’t intend on it going off. They didn’t want too much heat brought down on them, but they knew the, the heat was going to come down from that bomb. And, and who’s it going to come down on? It going to come down on Jimmy the bomber. I mean, that’s, that’s a, that’s a really good. I would say, I, I just can’t imagine that he would [00:22:00] do that. I mean, when you’re in that position, you don’t really care that much about the police state police and local police. You kind of worry about the FBI, but by the time you know, they’re there, it’s too late anyhow, they’re just serving search warrants and getting your records. He was, he was an old man at this time. I mean, no, you’ve seen so. Yeah, I, I would say, unless he was a senile old man that that thought, well, this is, you know, like he went back to the old days, he thought he was still working for Al Capone or something. Right, Pineapple Primary, you know. Really? Well, that’s in fact, my story, you know, it’s kind of interesting that they would they would import guys from another crew, like the Wild Bunch and, and Jerry Scalise and, and Harry Aleman and some of those guys, was it Nicole Nicoletti? Some of them would bring them down from the Taylor, was it the Taylor Street crew or was that the yeah, they, they were they were Cicero and then Cicero crew. The, the Cal. Yeah. There were 2, 2 2 murderous crews out there was the Calabrese crew. [00:23:00] Yeah. Oh yeah. The Wild Bunch. They were the two crews. But still, though, the Southwest is so geographically isolated from and it ran all the way to Gary, Indiana. I mean, they really covered a huge area. So they probably had I probably had a lot of body shots down in Gary, Indiana, more than likely. It was it was that was you. The Chicago Heights crew covered the largest geographic area. With the exception of, I mean, of course you can say that, that, you know, Grand Avenue went all the way out to Vegas, but the largest geographic area was definitely the Chicago Heights group. Or you could say some of them went down to Des Moines. That’s right. They had Louie Fratto down there in Des Moines. So that’s right. Jerry knows G. O. A. I don’t know who they were. Actually, I think they were like, Kind of their own capo of, of Des Moines, if you will. It was so different back then, you know, compared to what it would eventually evolve to and how, how things were changed. So yeah, they [00:24:00] were kind of independent operators, but yeah, once it became more structured, yeah, this was just geographically, it was just a massive area, you know, the outfit it’s I can’t believe there hasn’t been more. Some kind of movies, decent movies about the outfit. There’s so many stories, so many great stories. I keep hearing, and you know Bulldog Drummond told me that he had been consulted, and, and there were people working on, at one time, a movie on Ocado, but You know how movies are, you hear about one and then you just never hear about it again. I know two or three like that people, you find out, you know, they’ve, they’ve even like got people saying so and so’s playing this part. So and so’s playing this part. This director’s on board and all that. And then you just never hear from it. It falls through. Exactly. You just never know how that’s going to happen. But anyhow I really appreciate you helping me with this story. It’s just one of those. Little stories that I’ve always [00:25:00] been confused about and I, and I figure if I’m confused, there’s a lot of mob fans and, and mob scholars that, you know, are, are kind of call ourselves scholars. A lot of interested people is the outfit. Interested people have heard about all this, the chop shop wars and Jimmy the bomber, but I never really understood because like I said, just so geographically Disassociated from the rest of the outfit to me that I couldn’t quite get get it together. How that fit how that worked together. And I have to assume that whatever they made out there, the Al Pilato, then he was kicking back up to sure. Yeah, I put later on. You know, 30 40 million a year racket in total course. The mob wants to not lock down as much of that as possible. And so, in addition to what was going on between guitar and Toko, they were killing individual guys, just like when they were trying to lock down the street tax. They were doing basic. [00:26:00] The, the the car theft tax also, it was all part of the same citywide scheme that they were doing. And so it’s, it’s not always clear who was killed as part of an actual, the war and who was killed to get them in line. You know, it was a really messy time that was going on. And, and you’ve seen the lists. I mean, they were dropping bodies left and right. They were. Guys, I’ll put in the show notes, I’ll I’ll put a copy of that list. So go to the show notes and you can see all the people a little bit about how they died. It’s kind of interesting. It’s kind of frightening in a way that they were killing that many people, man. And Billy Dauber, of course, he was Couture’s ace number one guy. From what I heard you say, I didn’t really quite realize where he fit in. And that was one of the more, more famous mob murders, really, if you will, because again, Bulldog. John Drummond almost got to witness that. They were watching the Adam News crew that were filming Billy Dahmer coming out of the courthouse. It was one of the other northern county courthouses. Will [00:27:00] County, yeah. Will County. And he was coming out and they, Drummond wanted to follow him. And he didn’t because they had something else downtown. They, their producer told him, get on back down to the loop and do something, film something and Dobber and his wife drive away. And, and who, who was in that hit crew was Jerry Scalise. The Calabrese brothers. And, and I think he had Petrocelli and I mean, you had, you had everybody, it was a whole crew out there that followed them as they went out and they lived in a rural area and. Killed Billy Dauber. He must have. Billy and Charlotte. And his wife too. They must have really been scared of that Billy Dauber to go that far to get him. And I think they’ve said that. I think Frank Calabrese Jr. remembers his father talking and he said, oh, he is very dangerous. It was all of us. Huh. Interesting. All right, Cam, you got anything else we need to say about this? I, you know, the chop shop wars, it was one of the, I don’t know if you remember this, Gary, but you were, you did a [00:28:00] show about Harry Aleman and I got into the wild bunch and that was us, us doing Butch Petruccelli, but that really led me down the, led me down the Primrose path into the chop shop wars and, and that was. really what got me started us working together. And so this is sort of coming back full circle. I mean, this is one of the first deep dives that I did for you. And I really, I have so much fun coming on here. I really appreciate it. It’s been you know, and I I’ve had a, had a year and I, I really really love coming on. I’m gonna have to Start coming back. Alright, we, we’ll get you back more regular and do a few more Chicago stories. I kind of get caught up. Absolutely. Brother. Tried to do, I, I do a couple, did a couple of Kansas City things. I just put one up about the River Key War and then putting one up about the war between the Ellas and the Spiros. I did these a long time ago. I thought, well, I just, I’m gonna, I’m gonna redo ’em and, and put ’em back up again. So I just did them and kind of, I saw the one you did about Johnny. Green. Johnny Green. Yeah, I just, he was killed with two guys. I tell you what, these two guys, they do, [00:29:00] they wanted to take out Johnny Green. He lived about a block from Nick Zabella, the boss, and, and they wait for him to come home at night. He had a joint and he comes in late at night. And he has a garage door opener and he opens the garage door and they’re standing right around the sides of the garage where you can’t see him to this day when I pull in my garage, I go ahead and shut the garage door as soon as I get clear inside because they just step inside and blast him in the shotgun. I mean, you got him trapped right there inside of his car. He can’t do anything. Guys, that’s a scary thing. So yeah, I don’t know. I just did a couple. I’ve got two I just put up about Springfield, Massachusetts. There’s a guy named Nick Parisi that wrote a book. And then there was a lady, Pasqualina, about Pasqualina Albano, who was married to the guy who has a different name, the king of the bootleggers at one time. He got killed by, by this Nick Parisi who wrote his own book. He got killed by Parisi’s ancestor Joseph, I think, [00:30:00] Joseph Parisi. So I’m doing the spring, the old days of the Springfield mob here in the next couple of weeks. So Springfield’s really interesting. Yeah. Yeah, it is. And you know, I found out how come it’s still kind of influenced by the Genovese families because of this Pasquale, Pasquale, Pasqualina married a guy from the Genovese family, but he was a weak sister, but he brought some of his relatives out and he died actually of natural causes, I think, but the Genovese influence never left Springfield, Massachusetts. There’s a gal on the MobBeat reporter, I’ll talk to you offline, but yeah, it’s really, she does a great, yeah, does a great job on the MobBeat up there. I’ve recommended everybody, I’ll have to dig her name up, but that, you know, there’s some great mob, mob journalists that are still around. And if y’all, if y’all dig a little bit, you can find them. There’s some, there’s some good mob writing still, and it’s been going on for a while. Yeah, really. I’d tell you the guy that I’m always impressed by. [00:31:00] And he only does New York stuff. A guy, he writes under Ed Scarpo. Yes. He is really, really good and really detailed. He knows a lot of people. He’s the one that really hooked me up with Michael DeLeonardo out of the Gambino family when I got the chance to interview him, but this guy’s got sources like you can’t believe. I’m always impressed with him. Yeah. All right, Cam. All right, brother. I really appreciate you finish this off, guys. You know that I like to ride motorcycles. So be sure and look out for motorcycles when you’re out there. And if you have a problem with PTSD and you’ve been in the service get on the V. A. And Get that hotline number and hand in hand with PTSD comes problems with drugs and alcohol. Well, we’ve got Anthony Ruggiano, former Gambino soldier that is has a drug and alcohol. Well, he actually works in a drug and alcohol place down in Florida and he’s got a hotline on his Facebook or his website. So be sure to like and subscribe and give me a [00:32:00] review and do all that kind of stuff. Tell your friends about the podcast and you can’t check out the gangland wire podcast group anymore. So find me. On Facebook, if you’re interested, and I’ll invite you to join, we had to go private. We got too many, too many too much stuff going on. I just couldn’t take it anymore. It’s a big podcast group. It’s got a lot of really interesting discussions from people who were, you know, grew up in the neighborhoods or had relatives that were involved in different families, whether it’s Chicago or, or New York, Kansas City or whatever. I even had a Kansas City mob guy on there who ran another Kansas City guy that’s kind of a periphery guy off because he posted up some pictures. So I got a Kansas City mob guy on it too. Yeah. All right, Cam. Thank you. Let me do a quick plug. I’ve got my book Swan Song with Frank Calabrese Jr’s wife Swan Song, sort of a real Chicago mob wife. It’s a, [00:33:00] it’s a. Great, great great story of a different take on the story for Mob Wives telling how a strong woman dealt with a hitman as her father in law. And I really, I really think everybody should check it out. It’s a good look inside a mob family from from A view that you don’t see very often. So yeah, it’s a great book folks. I’ve read it. We’ve got, if you look up, I’ve got an old interview somewhere in the last year or two years. I don’t know. You can find it on the just search for Lisa Swan, Camillus Robinson, Gangland Wire. You’ll find that interview too. But yeah, it’s a really good book. I hear she might go out and do a show in Las Vegas with Frank Calabrese. Her husband, her ex husband is out there permanently. He’s pushing for it. I was out there last week. I went to the Ma Museum and you know, Gary, you, you hooked me up with the guys out there and I talked to them and they were there. All about it. And like I said, you know, Frank is their [00:34:00] mobster in residence. You know, universities have their writers in residence and the mob has their mobsters in residence. He’s out there and he’s pushing for it. And I talked to her and she would be really excited about going out there. So I think it’s a, I think it would really be a great opportunity to have this husband and wife talk about how they lived the life. And, and what went on behind closed doors in the, in the world of hit man, loan shark, all around horrible guy, Frank Calabrese senior. Yeah, I just, it’s, it’s her description of that guy. So I tell you what, I guess you just live through things. You don’t know when you live in that life, you don’t know the danger and, and what you’re really dealing with. I mean, she knew, but. You know, part of it, you know, it’s just, it’s a fascinating book and, and I hope they can get those guys together out there. Plus it’ll give them a big plug for your book too. So I always want to make that money, [00:35:00] you know, give me that money, baby, make that money. All right, Ken, thank you. Take care, Gary.

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Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. In this episode, I delve into a fascinating tale involving corrupt individuals like Gaspipe Casso, a New York police cop named Vinny Albano, and a drug dealer named Herbie Pate. Albano, engaged in taking down the French Connection, conspires with Pate to steal French Connection heroin from the police property room. The duo starts selling the stolen heroin on the streets, making millions of dollars, with Gaspipe Casso taking a cut. However, tensions rise between Albano and Pate over money, leading to a lethal confrontation where Pate shoots and kills Albano in self-defense.

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Transcript [0:00] Hey, all you wiretappers out there, I got a fun little story here about Gas Pipe Casso, a corrupt New York police cop named Vinny Albano, not one of the two mafia cops, Caracapa and Esposito, and another Lucchese associate drug dealer named Herbie Potte. That’s P-A-T-E, I believe. Yeah, P-A-T-E, Herbie Potte or Potte.

[0:29] Albano was part of the crew he worked narcotics and was part of the crew that helped take down the French connection so he knew about the dope and they knew about it being in the property room there was like what uh 70 some kilos in the property room at one time and so he got this Herbie Pott they both had been involved in a lot of crooked stuff and and with Gas Pipe Castle So he instructed Herbie Pate just how to to put on a police uniform and got some forged papers and access the property room. Well, well, this Herbie Pate goes in, he’s cracking jokes and he’s making the property room clerk laugh and that kind of thing. And he goes in and he walks out with all this French Connection heroin. Well, he and Vinnie, Vinnie Albano, they start selling it on the streets over the next.

[1:17] Few weeks and months, and they’re making a lot of money. I mean, this was millions of dollars worth of heroin. Millions in Heroin and Betrayal

[1:23] I mean, millions of dollars worth. And Gaspipe Castle was getting a piece of that action all along because they were associates in the Lucchese family, and he helped facilitate all this. So he always gets the action. Well, Albano was kind of a, he had a bad temper, shall we say, and he was suspicious. And Pate, he was like, you know, know he was a crook he no there’s no honor among thieves in this world and so they get arguing about money and albano is accusing pate of stealing from him albano drives to pate’s work and tries to run him down the car one evening and i don’t know what the work was but there must not have been anybody around he avoids him they albano gets out and he’s a tough guy but so So says Pate. Pate had gone to gas pipe and said, you know, I’ve got this problem with this crazy ass cop.

[2:16] I need a gun. So gas pipe had given him a little 38, a little, I think it was a little chief air weight, I believe. And they’d given him a gun. So he’s got a gun stuck down his back pocket while they’re wrestling around. Pate was able to reach around and get that gun out and start shooting. Deadly Confrontation on the Street

[2:32] And he shoots and he kills Albano right there on the street. Well, he’s not really that guy particularly. you know he’s a heroin dealer and a drug dealer and an associate but he’s not really that guy and and so he calls gas pipe casso who is that guy and casso said okay just wait right there i’ll be there casso runs over to where they are together they take albano’s car and they put his body in it and one of them drives it down to by the ronzos underneath the veronzo bridge and leaves it down there with his body in the car knowing it’ll be found probably later that night or the next day and takes him back home and and they say caspo we know a lot of this because casso if you remember, He came in for a period of time, then he went back out. I’d have to do a whole story on that whole ending of Gas Pipe Castle career. But he did talk about this to the law enforcement and explained this story out. And so he said when he got back home, he said he felt really bad because Albano had really been a big help to him.

[3:38] Albano, this former, I think he’s a lieutenant or something, he had even taken a big magnet into the courtroom. A courthouse where they had some tapes stored that were going to be incriminating for Casso and ran this magnet over these stored tapes and you know that straightens out all the little little electrons in a digital tape or whatever kind of analog tape either one I think a big heavy magnet will ruin those tapes and he’d done that for him but you know he I mean, Casso was like he kind of could disassociate himself from any real personal feelings about this. He felt like he was kind of a CEO or a boss of a big organization. And whatever they did and whatever they needed to do to survive and to make money and to prosper was okay. Not unlike a lot of big corporations today. The tobacco corporations, think about that. They stand up there live like hell in front of the national media, in front of some Senate investigating committee. So, you know, not much difference, you know, two sides of the same coin there, I would say. So thanks a lot. Just a little story I happened to run across and I thought you guys would be interested in.

The post What Happened to the French Connection Dope? appeared first on Gangland Wire.

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins takes you on a riveting journey through the dark corridors of mob history. Step into the shadows with Gary as he sits down with an esteemed reporter and author, Larry McShane, to unravel the enigma that was Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, a man whose life reads like a gripping crime novel. Larry McShane, a seasoned veteran of the city beat, delves deep into his book “Chin: The Life and Crimes of Mafia Boss Vincent Gigante,” shedding light on the man behind the myth. Vincent Gigante’s story is one of intrigue and terror, a tale of a professional boxer turned merciless assassin whose very name struck fear into the hearts of his enemies. Handpicked by the notorious Vito Genovese to lead the Genovese Family, The Chin amassed a fortune of over $100 million, all while evading the relentless pursuit of federal investigators. But beneath the facade of power and wealth lurked a mind shrouded in darkness. Gigante appeared as a madman to the outside world, roaming the streets in a tattered bathrobe, playing games in storefronts, and hiding a second family from his wife. Despite his bizarre antics, Gigante’s cunning and ruthlessness knew no bounds, as he controlled an underworld empire of nearly three hundred made men. It took decades of intense FBI investigation by federal authorities to bring down the man who seemed untouchable finally. We learn they not only sent The Chin to prison but also forced him to admit he had been acting like he was crazy to avoid prosecution for many years. Join Gary Jenkins and Larry McShane as they peel back the layers of myth and legend to reveal the chilling truth behind one of the most notorious figures in mob history. Support the Podcast Subscribe to get new gangster stories every week.

Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee”

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To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. 

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To buy my Kindle book, Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos.

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Transcript Welcome all you wiretappers. Good to be back here in studio gangland wire. I have a really interesting guy today. You may have all heard of him. He wrote the book on the chin Gigante. I have Larry McShane. Welcome Larry. Hey, good morning. Thanks for having me. Well, Larry, start out talking a little bit about your book, you know, how you got into it and, and, you know, because we can always get it on Amazon. I’ll have guys, I’ll have links to the book in the show notes. So tell us about getting into your book. Yeah, I’d covered a lot of organized crime stuff in New York. I worked for Associated Press for a long time. And You know, I guess it’s, it’s the kind of thing where I looked around at some point and, you know, there had been guys were writing their own books, right? Sammy the bull, for example, there was a whole book about little Al DiArco and yet nobody had really done any kind of a project involving a Gigante [00:01:00] who I found as kind of the most compelling mob figure. Out of that generation and that time when the mob was finally kind of brought down by the FBI. He was interesting. And guys, the name of the book is The Chin. Let me give you the tagline on it. It is The Life and Crimes of Mafia Boss, Vincent Gigante. So by Larry McShane, like I said, I’ll have the the title, I mean, the link to the Amazon and the show notes. So how did you start out? Writing this book, did you like go to the FBI to do FOIA? Did you get, did you have some mob sources or just agent sources? Tell a little bit about the process of doing a, on a guy that’s so secretive that he put on this act, this crazy act all those years and so secretive that we’ll get into later. He stayed in the background and pretended like fat Tony Salerno was the boss when he really was. I mean, this guy was an enigma. Yeah, there was I mean, by the time I started doing the book, [00:02:00] Giganti had been in jail for some time at that point. And, and so there was some, some lapse of time between the whole story and, and and my decision to try and find somebody to, to buy this book, which they did. And the timing was such that there were a lot of people still around who were involved in the whole prosecution. Lawyers. And I, I would say almost everyone I reached out to was, was eager to cooperate and gave me tons of stuff, you know because even though Giganti had been such a high profile boss, you know, his whole dodge of feigning mental illness for three decades and also made him a guy. Who was very mysterious, although the most powerful mafia boss in New York, he was, he was something else. So you know, let’s talk a little bit about this this [00:03:00] enigma of, of him and the Genovese family would go all the way back. I was doing a little research on him about how they had this. This habit of having a real boss and then a guy that’s out on the street that everybody seems to know is a boss and, and plus they had all the, like, just the fact that he pointed the chin, you know, you didn’t say his name, you pointed at your chin and, and some of the other guys had those same kind of codes to avoid their names being heard on a wire tap or anything. So talk a little bit about that out front boss and then the real boss back behind in the Genovese family. Yeah. When, when the chin took over I believe Tony Salerno was the boss at that time, fat Tony. And it was just agreed that he would be the face of the, of the family for lack of a better term. And Gigante would actually be running the family. You know, and it worked so well that Tony got indicted in the commission trial and convicted on that while, [00:04:00] you know, the chin avoided. Prosecution until 1997, you know, almost two decades later. That was that, that was pretty slick. And like I said, they pointed to the chin I believe quiet Dom Shrello, they pointed at the lips. There’s another guy that made the sign of like bull horns. And the pointing at the chin was always the big one. Don’t speak. Just, just point to your chin. I even, I even met kind of Periphery mob guy who connected back to New York. And I mentioned, I just kind of was trying to engage him. He was, we would, what you’d call associate and he was living in another city, but he connected back to New York. And I mentioned you to Gante and he just started pointing at his chin. So yeah, pretty well known. And apparently people were still obeying that order, huh? This guy did. [00:05:00] Yeah, right. That was just like two years ago. So interesting. That’s funny. You know, when, when he. As he came up, you know, we start off with the famous Frank Costello screwed up hit and he, I believe he was Vito Genovese driver at the time and, and, and, cause he could talk a little bit about, did you go back that far about that, those first years as, as he came on up the, the chain of command, shall we say? Yeah, well, he had been, he had been working as a, not working. He was fighting as a, as a professional boxer for a little while. And you know, he grew up in Greenwich village, which was you know, a place where there were a lot of guys who were in the life living around. And you know, he came into the family and then really, as, as you just referenced his, his big break, if you want to describe it, that was that he is he has given the Costello [00:06:00] shooting which was in May, 1957. Fido Genovese is looking to take over the family. And and so Chin gets the job and it’s in May of 1957, I believe. Costello has just come home to his apartment on the Upper West Side, he’s in the lobby after a night on the town, and Giganti shows up, pulls a gun, and he delivers his famous line, this one’s for you, Frank, and then misses. He just grazes, he just grazes Costello’s head, and Costello survives, and Chin goes. So, you know, I think that’s what’s interesting. Another interesting thing about the Chin Gigante is he bridges the mob from the Prohibition era, really, which Costello, Lansky, and everybody came out of the Prohibition era and the first organization. [00:07:00] He bridges that. Divide between there and he’s an important mafia figure all the way up to the commission. And after, you know, like you see 10 years after the commission case before he finally goes down. So he just, he is the mob in New York city, but he’s one of the lesser known guys. Everybody knows Gotti and Sammy the bull and all that, but they don’t know Gigante hadn’t really been that much written about him either. Yeah. I mean, Gigante. You know, it was not a guy who was a fan of, of bosses like John Gotti. You know, he was, he was not on board with the killing of Paul Castellano in 1985 you know, outside Sparks Steakhouse. That’s an unsanctioned hit of a mob boss, which, you know, the other mob bosses don’t want to see that become a trend, right? No. Yeah. And I mean, it’s funny that this just came up. I, that the first big mob story I covered was that murder, which was in December of 1985. It was [00:08:00] Christmastime and Castellano got killed by the Gotti hit squad outside Spark Steakhouse on 46th Street. And I got sent over from I worked at Associated Press at the time. I got sent over from our office to the steakhouse and you know, I’ve never seen anything like it before. Since the, the two bodies are laid out in the street, the doors of their, of their town car are wide open. The FBI has Klieg lights set up all over the place. I mean, I, I didn’t plan for this coming up, but I can recall almost every detail of it because it was I guess it’s one of the first big stories I got to cover and the scene itself was just so impossible to forget. I can imagine that was, I mean, right in the middle of Manhattan around Christmas time. Yeah. All those people on the streets. Did you look across the street and see Gotti and Sammy the Bull sitting there watching? We only learned about [00:09:00] that later. And then, of course. You know, now, if you want to speak to Sammy about something, you can just call him on the phone. He’s I know he’s available to chat. I’m sure you’ve spoken with him, right? Yeah. For 500 bucks. He’ll talk to you. Hey guys, I’ll talk to you for free. But that guy, he wants money. As they say, Sammy was always an earner, you know, He was always a nerder. He’s still a nerder. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Gigante, another thing I, I found interesting is the the music business. And, and he was kind of involved with that Morris Levy and Roulette Records. And, and it seemed like there’s a famous story where they held one artist out of a window, the mob guys did, and threatened to let him drop if he didn’t succeed to something. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Did you, could you touch on that in your book? Sure. Yeah, yeah. Horace Levy, as you mentioned, was the guy who who ran Roulette Records which was kind of [00:10:00] a smaller label, but still managed to have a lot of a lot of hit records back in that era. Now he was friendly with, with Chin’s brother, too. You know, his brother was a priest, and the two of them paled around a little bit. And, and it was certainly you know, they say an artist friendly label. This was an artist unfriendly label. You know what I mean? Yeah. When, when I wrote the book I got a chance to speak with Tommy James of Tommy James and the Shondells. They’re big. Well, you’re, you’re as old as I am. They’re a big, a big hit group in the sixties. You know what I mean? Had a lot of, a lot of hits. And You know, he basically told me that all the chart topping in the world did not change the arrangement financially, which was, you know, Morris Levy’s getting a lot and the performers are getting a little, you know what I mean? And the label hung around for a while when, when Chin took over, you know, it, it was still a, still an operation where they could get money [00:11:00] from. But you know, at that point the industry was changing and Morris Levy was an old guy. You know, his time, it’s sort of come and go, but he He made a lot of money almost to say he stole a lot of money from artists who deserved it for the work that they did and he profited from. Yeah, he did, and it was, I think Tommy James even has his own book out there. I tried to get him to give me an interview. I don’t know if I ever even got the message or not, but but I thought that would be interesting, you know, the, the movie, the was, I mean, the series, the Godfather of Harlem depicted the chin in that. Did you happen to see that? No, I haven’t seen it. And You know, I, I won’t comment. I won’t comment on it. It wasn’t even close to, okay. It wasn’t even close to reality. Did kind of touch on the music business a little bit, but but that I tell you what, this guy was one of the kind of rackets was, that he liked, that he seemed to [00:12:00] like, he being Gigante. Well, I mean, the, the Genovese family really had Had its hands into sort of everything. You know what I mean? There was a, they called it the concrete club in Manhattan, where the mob was getting a percentage of all the concrete used at different buildings under construction. You know, they were by all accounts, deathly against drugs, you know they had other businesses, other industries, construction and, you know, just kind of a steady flow of income from a variety of, of places, you know, they were, you know, with chin there, they were the number one operation. Although Giganti had a reputation as a fair guy who didn’t want more than his fair share, you know, Now, when, when did that whole act start, the whole crazy act? Was there like a genesis, there was [00:13:00] a, an event, I’m not, I’m not real clear on that. Was there an event that started that whole crazy act? Yeah, he’s he’s arrested, I should start at the beginning. He for a brief time in the early 70s. He’s married, and he moves out to suburban New Jersey. He leaves the village, and while he’s there, he sends Christmas cards to the local police officers with some money inside. Not, you know, not like a thousand dollars, like five bucks. Sort of like a Christmas gift more than a bribe. But then this becomes known, and now all of a sudden, you know, there’s, there’s a whole to do. And this is, this is when Giganti first brings out the crazy act. There was a 1971 meeting where he’s going to be interviewed with a psychiatrist. And he doesn’t like ease into it, you know, he just shows up the first day with the, the, you know, [00:14:00] the whole outfit, right? The ratty bathrobe, unkempt. Unshaven. The hair is sticking up. And, and when the the psychiatrist arrives, rather than sitting there to greet him, he’s lying asleep in his bed. So that’s kind of the first incident where, where this came out, you know what I mean? And then it, then of course, it just became You know, it’s like he won the Oscar every year for best mob fake sick guy. You know what I mean? Every day he’d go out and wander the streets of Greenwich Village in his bathrobe talking to himself. Well, I mean, that’s the thing is that you know, for a guy that had so much power and, and such a long reach within organized crime especially at first. But still even later on, you know, he didn’t really get out beyond the village much. You know what I mean? His, his social club was right across the street on Sullivan street in the, in the village [00:15:00] from where his mom’s apartment was, which is where he wound up living. And so you would see him wandering the streets or you would not see him once he got inside the the triangle social club, his operation down there. And you know, it’s, it’s funny. There was, I think one of the most famous stories is he was, he was walking through Greenwich village and the, the fed showed up. You know, they’re telling him to look and he sees the agents and immediately drops to his knees and folds his hands and begins acting as if he’s praying outside the church. You know what I mean? And the other, the other great one is, of course, he’s living with his mom and the feds come to arrest him. And when they come in that house, they can’t find him and they go into the bathroom and he’s. Buck naked in the shower with the water coming down. Yeah. So, I mean, he played the role to [00:16:00] the Hilton and to the end, right? Almost to the end. Almost to the end. We’ll get to that. Yeah. Let me tell you something, Larry. There’s nothing worse than to have to wrestle around and naked guy. Not absolutely nothing worse. I’ve had to do it. There is nothing worse. I’m just going to take your word for that. Especially if it’s three o’clock in the morning, it’s about still about 95 degrees. Yeah. So, you know, it’s interesting that Genovese. You know, he was big into narcotics. That was one of his things. By now, by this time, they’re, they’re, the Genoveses are really against it. Is that what I understand? Yeah, that’s right. Chin for sure was was an anti drug guy. You know, I think at that point they were pretty much Unquestioned at the top of the mob food chain in, in New York. And there were other ways to make money. [00:17:00] You know, they, they, again, they had a lot of power. They had a lot of connections and yeah, he just decided, you know, our family is not going to get involved in this. Yeah, he’s probably smart on that. Keeps a lot of heat off. You know, they Tony Salerno, that big moneymaker, they got in the construction business. They figured out that that’s where the money was. Just like Sammy the Bull did in the in Paul Castellano did. The Gambino, they got and figured that construction business. Manhattan was a huge moneymaker. And Tony Salerno, he fell on this windows case. Do you know any much about that windows case? Yeah, the windows case was well, as it sounds, the mob had figured out a way to take over the installation of windows in city housing developments, I guess, as they were being put up and, you know, like any other mob operation, the cost of the windows went up and then they skimmed off the top and that [00:18:00] was a really, really lucrative operation for the mob. You know I mean, it was, it was, when I say like, you know, this is a big deal, we’re talking about organized crime taking a cut of, you know, every window installed in every city housing project. You know, that’s how, how deeply involved federal prosecutors said they were in this operation, you know, wow, that took a lot of organization and management and paying people off. And so, but I understand they made a ton of money out of it. I was going to say, I think it really illustrates, you know, the, the grip that, that the five families still had on, on the city at that point. And you know, it really, I guess, started with. With Rudolph Giuliani taking over as U. S. prosecutor, you know, and then trial after trial after trial, and they won, they won them all, you know, yeah, they really want them all. Yeah, the mob can’t fight the [00:19:00] wiretaps and Rico. Right, exactly. And those draconian sentences that you could get on money laundering or a Rico case, you get these, you know, 40, 50 year sentences, you could. I used to say you, you can make anybody tell on their mother when you’re, when they’re like a 60 year old guy looking at a 50 year sentence or a 30 year sentence, even it’s just, you know, before, you know, like guy said, well, I can do a trace down in my head. I can do five years, you know, easy, but not 50. Well, I mean, everything started out with you know, two counts, 20 years each. And then they went from there. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yes. I knew that. Yes. They got tough. They really got tough. So talk about this. Let’s start talking a little bit about the beginning of the end here. He goes to the penitentiary on something and he continues to run his family through his son. I think his son’s name was maybe, was it Andrew? [00:20:00] Yeah. I believe that’s right. Was he like running messages back and forth then, I guess from the Yeah, he was more of a messenger as opposed to like the head of the family, you know what I mean? Right. I I didn’t mean you sound was running, I guess, but he was right. Relaying his dad stuff. And you know, it’s funny because this, this is not how the chin ever did things, you know? There, there’s sort of a famous. Mob story where, where John Gotti tells Gigante that John Jr. has just been a maid, become a maid guy. And Gigante’s response was, I’m sorry to hear that. Yeah. You know, he did not want his family involved, but. By the time we’re in the 2000s, right? He’s, he’s in prison. He’s going to die behind prison. He’s still trying to keep some level of his fingers in, in the pie back in Greenwich Village. And you know, the game had completely changed by then, you [00:21:00] know the mob had no leverage. If the government wanted to get you, they could get you. And in this case, there was There was a young mobster, a young Genevieve mobster who would flip and and start testifying against all sorts of, of people within the family. That was kind of the first for that family. One of the first guys that flipped then sounds like. Well, I mean, yeah. He, he was one of the I guess I should say this, the core group within the Genevieve family never, you know, never Did you know what I mean? Right. There was no gravano. Or D’Arco, or, or, you know, other families had bosses who flipped and testified, right? Yeah, I’ve seen them. Yeah, there’s a perfect example. That was that Cookie Durso, I believe, was a guy that, that flipped over some kind of killing of a relative, I can’t remember the exact story on that. Yeah, give me one second here. Okay. [00:22:00] Alright, I gotta just do one thing. I apologize, my computer froze up, which I had some notes on. Okay, alright. Yeah. I see you got an Elvis Presley Boulevard sign back in the up behind you. I used to have one of those in my, when I had a house in the driveway. Elvis Presley Boulevard. I went, I went down there, God, ages ago, ages ago. Had a great time. Memphis is a great city. Oh man, my son lived there. He was with the railroad down there and I went, I don’t know how many times I was in Memphis and did everything there was to do and then some. It was a great city. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it really was. But so yeah, the. The first prosecution or the second prosecution, I should say, of, of Gigante which is where he actually was compelled in court to acknowledge that, you know, [00:23:00] the whole Bathrobe Act and the other bizarre behavior was all phonied up, you know, to avoid prison. But that was in, in a lot of ways. engendered by a guy named named cookie Durso, Michael Durso who went inside the, the family and you know, recorded, I think it’s like thousands and thousands of hours of conversations with different guys in the family, which you know, basically at some point ends up leading to You know, Giganti giving up the ghost and, and taking this second plea after his, you know, other conviction. You know, I heard a story about him after nine 11, him calling some family members and, and dropping the crazy act. And they were able to to record that and confront him with that. You heard that story? Yeah. You know you know, the prison phones are [00:24:00] obviously, and yeah, he was certainly very rational. About what was going on in his hometown from his jail cell for sure. You know, and yeah, I guess, you know, it’s, it’s sort of odd too, that that that’s the thing that after all he’d been through that, that, you know, it was this thing that got him to break character. But on the other hand, you know, we, we think of these guys as mobsters. He’s also the father, the son, he’s got siblings. His mom lives in the village, you know, which is not far away from where from where the trade center was. You know, and he was, I guess on that day, he was just another guy concerned about his family. Interesting, you know, this guy was he illustrates what, what I find fascinating about the Mafia, the, the, the Cosa Nostra American Mafia families is that they have this dual existence almost, if you will. They, they. Go home to the [00:25:00] suburbs many times, or he didn’t go to the suburbs, but, but they go home and they have these families and the families go, you know, and they show up at the kids school plays and the kids school functions. And they have Sunday afternoon dinner, a bunch of extended relatives, maybe come in just like they showed on the Sopranos and they have this life. And then they go over to the city and they have this gangster life. So it’s, it’s fascinating to me. And he was, he was really the epitome of that. He was like what you, the story you told about the his son, he told Gadi and I’m sorry that your son, you know, is now in this thing of ours. But of course then Chin does the same thing himself eventually. Right. Yeah. You know, so what are you going to do? What are you going to do? Yeah. Yeah. You know, you would think hard to figure out. Yeah. Again, you know, this is a guy who had as we discussed, said to John Gotti wouldn’t do it. Then in the end, he wound up doing it you know, just so that he could keep his piece of, of [00:26:00] the Genevieve’s family income, you know, there, there was certainly no prestige in having the title when you’re in prison. Right. Right. No, no, it’s interesting. So you were in courtroom in the courtroom the day that he had, he, I understand he had to admit out loud in court and you were in courtroom that day. Can you, can you set that scene and describe that for us? And it had to be quite a, quite a scene that day. Yeah, it was quite a scene that day. You know I think it was in 2003, April, 2003. And so at that point, you know, if you want to go back to Castellano, You know, I’d been covering, covering organized crime for a long time, you know, and you know, I’d been to different hearings and different things, but, you know, this was completely unlike anything else. There was a, there was a big buzz beforehand because the word was sort of out that he was going to be saying this. And you know, [00:27:00] of course it’s on the court calendar. So, you know, you know, that at the very least, you’re going to see him in the courtroom at this point, which was increasingly rare. His son his son Andrew was in the courtroom as well. He was being sentenced on on his own charges. But yeah, I, I mean, I saw Giganti in court before and he would do even something as subtle as this. He would act like he had a leg tremor. And so he would just, his leg would twitch the whole time, you know what I mean? As part of the sick act and a federal prosecutor once told me that Giganti was doing the twitching thing with his, with his right leg. And at some point he looked over and he was, Giganti had switched to doing it with the left leg and the prosecutor said, he told him, Hey, wrong leg, but, but yeah, on, on the day of, of when he drops the act, he comes in, he elder enters a guilty plea, he’s seen chatting with his son Andrew, he’s sipping a glass of water at the defense label table you know, he’s shaking hands and [00:28:00] greeting his lawyers you know, at one point I believe he was kind of laughing a little bit at the defense table, you know and then Judge Glasser the federal judge out in Brooklyn I asked Giganti if it was true that he had you know, for more than a quarter century done this whole thing, misleading all these doctors simply to you know, assure his continued success within organized crime. And Giganti just says, yes, your honor you know and yeah, it’s funny after all those years, that’s just how it. Comes to an end, you know, federal judge answers a question and he just says, yup, that’s right. You know, I, he he also he also, when he showed up, you know, he didn’t show up in like a suit or tie, you know, it wasn’t like that kind of thing, you know, Gotti, the dapper Don, you know, he was still you know, the hair was a little out there and he had a prison pullover shirt over a t shirt. And he I mean, he’s an [00:29:00] old man at this point. He looked he was 75, I think, and you know, he looked like he was having a little trouble getting around, walking kind of gingerly as he came into the courtroom, you know? Well, he was he was an interesting guy. How much longer did he live? I can’t remember. I want to say he died in 2005 at a prison in Texas. Oh, okay. He must not have gone to Springfield to the medical place, so. No, he just, right, he did not, I mean, you know, I guess they all have health problems, but he wound up they had Gotti, I guess, is the one I always think of who wound up in the dying in the federal. Yeah, exactly. Down Springfield. Yeah. At one time I know a guy that was down there and kind of sent him down as a little bit of punishment. There’ll be a helper down there. And he had fat Tony Salerno was down there. And what’s his lefty Rogerio was down there. Oh God. Yes. They were all dying. Of course. Yeah. . All of a sudden, I forgot his first name. Carmine Benson. Benson Gigante. God, I can’t. I don’t know why all of a sudden I lost his [00:30:00] first name. Benson Gigante. He had quite a life. He was he was the ultimate Mafia boss. It seems to me like the life of secrecy, which there any other stories you remember particularly about him that kind of struck you? Well, I mean, I remember this one. One of the things about him was that there was a lot of loyalty to the chin in his neighborhood. You know, it was a heavily Italian neighborhood. In Greenwich Village and at one point the FBI came in and they went on the roof of of one of the buildings to set up a shed where they could do surveillance. And so they go up there at night in the dark and set this thing up and disappear. And when they come back the next day, it’s just been torn apart and left in rubble up there by, by the locals. You know what I mean? You know, that’s always one of my favorite ones, you know yeah, yeah. You can’t get away with anything in those neighborhoods, those Italian neighborhoods. I know, I know you gotta be so sneaky. [00:31:00] It’s just, you’re going to be seen whenever you’re a stranger in the hood. Shall we say, yeah, I mean, he was You know, like almost like having some Hollywood star pop into your neighborhood if the Hollywood star was dressed like a bum, you know what I mean? It’s crazy. All right. Well, Larry McShane, the book is. Chin, the life and times of mafia boss, Vincent Gigante. Look for that in the show notes, guys, you need to get that book. I know there’s not much out there on the social media and the articles and stuff about Gigante because he was so secretive. And I can imagine, Larry, it was really hard to get information. Were you able to get hold of like this cookie Durso? Could you talk to him by any chance? No The guys that I talked to were mostly people who flipped like Gravano, for example. Yeah You know, or there were I mean, he, he was a guy that left behind a trail of a lot of court cases too. And I was also able, I was working at the daily news [00:32:00] to go back into the archives and find like a lot of stuff about, for example, the Costello hit. So if you did a little digging, you could come up with a lot of stuff in spite of his efforts to ensure that nobody would hear much of this stuff. Interesting. So what are you doing now, Larry? You’re retired from being a newsman. I am. Chasing down sirens and ambulances, trying to get a story, running the scenes of mob hits. I’m trying I’m trying to finish up another mob book on the Colombo Family War of 1991 through 93, which was kind of New York’s last big mob war. Yeah a little something, not much. I have to get you back on for that when you get that book out. Let me know. Oh yeah, I’ll let you know for sure. I’ll let you know for sure. It’s my deadline is coming up, so. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. You know, but it’s been good. I, I, Vic Arena, who was the was the acting boss in one of the, the head of one of the [00:33:00] two families in this war his two sons are kind of cooperating and helping me with the book. So yeah, so far, so good. Hopefully I’ll get it done. And yeah, I’ll let you know. I’d love to come back on. Thank you so much for having me. All right. Well, thanks a lot for coming on. Larry, you you are one of the I don’t know, to me, you know, like one of the big names in this business, you got to get some bigger names. I had Gus Russo on one. See, there you go. I’m talking about like, like people that really take a legitimate. You know, newsman’s look at the mob, you know, kind of the whole thing, not just some guy that’s telling his personal life story from his, from his view, making himself look good. Look how generous and confident I was when I killed this guy all right. Well, guys, don’t forget, check the show notes. For links to get this book, you need to get this book. And don’t forget, I like to ride motorcycles. So watch out for motorcycles when you’re out there on the [00:34:00] streets. And if you have a problem with PTSD, you’ve been in the service. Be sure and go to the VA website and get that hotline number. Or if you happen to have a problem with drugs or alcohol, you don’t have to be in the former serviceman to get some help and. Former Gambino soldier, Anthony Ruggiano has a hotline number on his website and he’s a drug and alcohol counselor down in Florida. So maybe you could have Anthony Ruggiano be your drug and alcohol counselor. If you have a problem, let me know. If you do that, I’d really like to hear that story. I won’t reveal your name. I promise. So be sure and like, and subscribe and. Tell your friends about the show and share on social media and all those kinds of things. So thanks a lot, guys.

The post Beneath the Bathrobe: The Dark World of Vincent Gigante appeared first on Gangland Wire.

Gangland Wire host, retired Detective Gary Jenkins, reports on the life and legacy of Sam Mooney Giancana, a prominent figure in the Chicago outfit and the mafia world. Giancana’s enigmatic nature and shadowy dealings are explored, tracing his journey from a member of the 42 gang to the pinnacle of the Chicago outfit. Known for his ruthlessness and criminal prowess, Giancana’s rise in the criminal underworld during the Prohibition era is detailed, showcasing his involvement in illegal activities like gambling, liquor distribution, and political rackets.

The host sheds light on Giancana’s connections with influential figures like Al Capone, his alleged role in John F. Kennedy’s presidential victory, and his entanglement with the CIA in plots to assassinate Fidel Castro. The interview further brings to light Giancana’s partnership with Richard Cain, a corrupt law enforcement officer turned mob associate, expanding their operations to include gun smuggling, espionage, and international intrigues.

The narrative takes a dark turn as Giancana’s mysterious death in 1975 is analyzed, with several theories suggesting mob involvement, internal power struggles, and CIA conspiracies behind his assassination. The interview speculates on potential conspirators, including Tony Accardo, Santo Trafficante Jr., and even the CIA, reflecting the convoluted web of betrayal, power dynamics, and covert operations that characterized Giancana’s tumultuous life.

Ultimately, Sam Giancana’s legacy endures as a symbol of the murky intersections between crime and espionage, leaving behind a trail of unsolved mysteries, political entanglements, and violent retribution. The host encourages engagement from listeners, offering insights into mob history, sharing anecdotes, and inviting discussion on the complex and intriguing world of organized crime. Support the Podcast Subscribe to get new gangster stories every week.

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Transcript [0:00] Hey, all you wiretappers out there, back here in the studio of Gangland Wire. You know, I’m doing these little kind of short, down-and-dirty bios of major mob guys, because I got to realizing that everybody doesn’t know all the details that maybe I know or that I’ve read about. I know a lot of you guys know a lot of stuff. A lot of you know a lot more than I know. But everybody doesn’t know everything about all these different guys. And I may mention the name, you know, Tommy Lucchese, Three Finger Lucchese. You might mention Vito Genovese or just, you know, Genovese, the Genovese family. So putting out these shorties to say this is who these guys are is bonus episode. So today I’m going to deal with the life and legacy of Sam Mooney Giancana, unveiling the enigma. And he was an enigmatic figure, which I think means I’m using that $25 word there, aren’t I? Which I think means he was kind of a shadowy character, kind of hard to understand, had a lot of secrets. And he did. You know, he like went to Mexico for quite a while. He had business interest all around the world and gaming in casinos and gambling. And he wouldn’t share some of that, which some of that came back to bite him, I think, in the end.

[1:14] But he was born in 1908, May 24th in Chicago. He was he was a Chicago outfit guy. And he starts out. his journey into the crime world as a teenager in the 42 gang. Now, they say it wasn’t because they lived on 42nd Street. It was because it was Alibaba and the 40 Thieves. And with Alibaba, that made 41. And then so they wanted to say they had 42 members in their gang. So they called themselves the 42 gang. That’s a good story, isn’t it? Giancana’s Rise in Chicago Outfit

[1:45] But he’s going to go to the pinnacle of the Chicago outfit, but it’s a long tail woven throughout with intrigue, power, and a lot of clandestine activities, including stuff with the CIA. So as a young man, Giancana’s proudness as a getaway driver and a lethal force, I mean, he was a guy that would kill without hesitation.

[2:09] Earned him a reputation in a 42 gang that caught the attention of the Capone group, of course. And Capone was the man during that time. These were the young Turks and Capone was a guy running everything in Chicago. So they started taking a Cardo. He came out of the circus gang, Giancana and a couple others. I can’t remember their names came out of the 42 gang.

[2:31] But by the end of Prohibition in the 1930s, he was seamlessly integrated into the criminal web of the Chicago outfit. And they controlled all the illegal gambling and liquor distribution during Prohibition. They had gotten their clutches into any liquor distribution. Prohibition’s over. They’re not going to let that go. And political rackets. And they also had stuff going down all the way down the Midwest, Kansas City, and then down into Louisiana. Indiana. Giancana, he had a knack for finding profit centers for the outfit. He knew he could smell money. So during the 50s, they didn’t pay much attention to the South Side, to the Black community. There were Black gangsters earning huge sums from the lottery.

[3:17] Gen Cana befriended one of these guys and learned the business and then pretty soon forced him to retire. And then this This guy just said, OK, and he left the city. Well, there was another black policy baron named Theodore Rowe who then moved in on this black group that Jen Cannon was trying to take over. And they started a war. And Teddy Rowe would not back down. He would not back down. They had a shootout. I believe he shot and killed Johnny Roselli’s brother or another guy. Anyhow, he shot and killed one of the major mob guys brothers in a shootout. And but by the end, policy baron Theodore Rowe, Teddy Rowe, is killed.

[4:01] Sam Giancana will rise to the top of the outfit. And in 1957, he becomes the out front boss as Accardo, who has really been the boss since after the war. He and Paul The/Waiter Ricca had been the boss and Accardo had been kind of out front. Like now Sam Giancana is going to be out front. Cardo is going to take a step back. He still maintained a lot of power and a lot of say-so. Intrigue and Plots Unravel

[4:29] Now we’ll get up into the 60s. Here’s where we get into this intrigue and these different plots that are going on. There are whispers that Giancana had something to do with John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential victory and by getting out the vote for him in Chicago. Well, I never did buy that story particularly particularly because they could get out the Democrats were going to win in Chicago anyhow. So I don’t really understand that, but a lot of people say that Giancana believes that his influence put Kennedy over the top and handed him the presidential victory. There might be more to that story. Many claim that the mafia then would guide the political fate of any major candidate during those years.

[5:16] And also during the 1960s, Giancana became entangled with the CIA or the Central Intelligence Agency because they were frantically trying to kill Fidel Castro and their own little plots and plans with their own people was not coming to fruition, was not working. You know, they got hold of Santo Trafficante Jr., who was the mob boss down in Tampa, and Carlos Marcelo, who was down in New Orleans because they had a lot of connections to Cuba. And then JFK gets assassinated about this time. And as we all know, there’s tons of information out there that link Traficante and Carlos Marcelo to the murder of JFK. And this is all back to Cuba, the failed Bay of Pigs operation that Kennedy, like Kennedy, let him down. You know, it really is complicated. Well, also during this time, to keep it going.

[6:11] Giancana takes in a guy named Richard Cain, who is a Chicago, actually a Cook County deputy sheriff, had been a Chicago policeman. He was just corrupt as heck. And he was really the bag man for the outfit at one time to carry bribes back to sheriff’s detectives, to the sheriff’s office, was vice squad and different people on the Chicago Police Department. He also had a connection to the CIA. This is already, you know, web of different connections. And here we’ve got Richard Cain moving in. He’s side by side with Sam Giancana. His connections expanded way beyond the outfit and the outfits, gambling and smuggling operations. He really expanded out. He was involved with some the training of the Cuban people for the Bay of Pigs. He was involved in smuggling operations down through Central America, down to Panama, gambling in Iran, gambling casinos. He was Giancana’s man on a lot of that. Giancana got action out of this. When they engaged in activities that transcended conventional organized crime, Sam Giancana and Richard Cain, they got approached to do different things and probably had something to do with some of this. Some of it’s rumor, there was armed smuggling to the Middle East for the Israeli Mossad. And that went through Ponant Panama. That was their connections down to Panama. Intersection of Mafia and CIA

[7:36] The mafia and intelligence community really intersected when this plot came out to kill Castro. Richard Cain was all entangled in the middle of that. And Giancana supposedly made a claim that, yeah, he could get that done.

[7:52] Never did seem to get it done, but this was an elusive kind of a legacy that Giancana has left, one of the many elusive legacies that he’s left when being tied up with Richard Cain. Their partnership really exemplifies the blurred lines between crime and espionage, and you have to wonder what their influence was. What was the outfit’s influence on historical events? You know, the murder of JFK, the attempted assassination of Fidel Castro, smuggling guns for the Mossad through Panama and that kind of a thing. And these are really murky waters because you can’t nobody can find out about this intelligence stuff because it’s probably it’s going to be classified forever. And a lot of it they don’t ever write down. They just, you know, do it and go on. They also had, you know, he had promised he would eliminate Castro. And, you know, he was having an affair with a woman named Judith Exner, and she was having an affair with JFK at the same time. So now we got him back to JFK this course before he’s killed. So it’s all, I tell you, he is an enigma. He truly is. His aunt was an enigma. They had a grand jury going. In 1965, there was a grand jury going, trying to find out about this whole mob and Castro, killing Castro.

[9:12] And there was a church committee trying to see the intelligence abuses of the 60s and 70s. And of course, he wouldn’t talk. Giancana’s Return and Subsequent Events

[9:21] He left town. He went to Mexico. Mexico Richard Cain became this guy that would carry messages back and forth between Mexico and the United in Chicago Aiuppa Joey Dove’s Aiuppa will rise to be the out front boss while and Giancana is in Mexico and he gets called just before 1975 sometime in 1975 he comes back to the United States and he’s kind of trying to he’s making some moves to Two. To maybe move back into the outfit he’s been gone for a long time he’s also been subpoenaed to appear before what was known as the church committee and one night June the 19th 1975.

[10:05] There’s a lingering mystery from that that there’s been theories all swirling everywhere all around when that night somebody with a 22 caliber silenced pistol put several rounds in the back of Sam Giancana’s head as he was bending over a stove, cooking sausages and peppers. And there’s all kinds of mysteries and all kinds of whispers about this. Many, a lot of speculation. Most people agree that that night, one of the first mysteries, most people agree that night that police were usually outside Giancana’s house, kept him under constant surveillance.

[10:45] Surprisingly, the night that he was killed, the police were missing. One theory is Tony Accardo, who is now the outfit boss above, actually above Joey Aiuppa. So Aiuppa would have had a part in this. You don’t kill somebody like Sam Giancana without everybody agreeing, even maybe calling back to or going back to New York to the commission and getting their approval, laying out your case and getting their approval. Accardo really had been the one that sidelined him and made him go to Mexico. Or maybe he went on his own. See, we don’t really know for sure. A lot of speculation here. Mob politics often involves high stakes movements and things you don’t understand because they’re doing one thing over here to keep your attention from over there. And you got all these eyes on them and informants in them and newspaper men frantically trying to find out what’s going on and keeping making book on them, as we say, keeping everything they write down and they do in the book and then putting it together from a historical perspective, maybe in a year. So he was making these strategic maneuvers to get him back in. There’s also grudges in the underworld. You know, he probably stepped on some toes. That might have been an unsettled score.

[11:59] Now, one of the most talked about stories maybe is that Tony Spilotro did this because he lived close by. They claimed that he could walk over to Gen Conner’s house, kill him, walk back, and they found the gun along what might be that path. Giancana had had a little party earlier that evening. There’s a guy named one of his old compadres, Dominic Butch Blossie, was there at that party. Most serious students of the Chicago outfit, I think, will agree that his old friend and longtime associate, Dominic Butch Blossie, shot Giancana that night. The Ocardo story really came from a corrupt police chief that another mob guy went to right after this happened and said, you know, I think the old man really liked Tony Spilotro, kind of laying it out between the lines like they do. He said, you know, the old man really likes Spilotro. And so then this corrupt chief of police knows what his part of this is to then go around and spread the rumor that Tony Spilotro did it.

[12:59] Butch Blasi had been at this party earlier in that evening, and the story goes, and it’s been reported by decent sources, that he left and then came back. Giancana was in this downstairs kitchen that night and cooking up some sausage and peppers for whatever reason late at night, shot him in the back of the head, got back in his car and left. And, you know, one thing we can’t agree on, there wasn’t any surveillance out there that night. Now, there’s an outfit member named Nicholas Calabrese who was in the family secrets trial for his brother, Frank Calabrese, senior. And that whole crew that he ran had been killing a lot of people in Chicago.

[13:36] He claims that Anthony Asscardo was part of this killing. He doesn’t really get in any more details, but he did claim that Capo Angelo La Pietra is one that got rid of the gun and the silencer after the murder, which doesn’t make sense. I mean, what do you do? Just go out and throw it along the side of the road? I mean, Blasey threw it out along the side of the road. That’s a deal with a mob murder. You do the killing, and as soon as you get away from the scene, you get rid of that gun. You know, make sure it’s clean of prints, and you get rid of a gun. You know, today, they don’t do that. Probably they make sure they melt it down and throw it in a river or something because of DNA. But back then, DNA was not a thing. All you needed was to get your fingerprints off of it. But Nick Calabrese claimed that his brother, Frank Calabrese, and a guy named Johnny, Ronnie Jarrett, which was part of their crew, made the suppressor. And they probably were making, you know, we served a search warrant on our guy, Tuffy DeLuna’s house here in Kansas City. And we found plans on how do you make a sound suppressor for a .22 caliber pistol. So I don’t know. I’m going with Butch Blasi. Your close friend is the one that’s going to do it, is pretty much…

[14:43] Tried-and-true theory. There is another kind of far-out theory that mob boss Santo Traficante Jr. From Tampa ordered his murder because he was afraid that Giancana was going to testify about the mob’s involvement in CIA plots to kill Castro, and Traficante was probably even more involved in this plot, but I don’t buy that either. If he had done it, it had got permission from Accardo and Aiuppa. But Giancana’s murder did coincide with the discovery of the decomposing remains of Johnny Rosselli, who was another outfit guy that was involved in this plot to kill Castro. He’d been shot and chopped up and put in an oil drum and dumped just off the coast of Florida, close to Miami.

[15:29] And most suspect that Traficante took care of that murder for him. Although it was a Chicago guy and they could easily send, you know, somebody like Frank Sweese down there to take care of that one or that any one of the, a number of other guys could go down to Florida and catch Roselli and catch him unawares and do him in. So I’m not sure if that would even be true or not. The Enigma of Sam Giancana

[15:51] The really far-fetched story is that the CIA directly had one of their agents kill Giancana because they didn’t want him talking about, you know, his links to the agency. But, you know, I don’t think they really ever had the guts to do anything like that. And of course, they do not have any knowledge of it. They’ve been under such a microscope off and on over the years that nothing officially has ever come out or even close.

[16:16] He was connected to him he was involved in the kill castro plots he was involved in a lot of stuff with him down there in that area but i i just don’t believe they did it the enigma of sam Giancana endures way beyond his death and and to this day you know leaves us to ponder these intricate threads of betrayal and international intrigue and gun running and killing political political enemies of the United States and power struggles within the Chicago outfit and different alliances within the outfit that he maybe made as he was trying to come back. And Richard Cain, his buddy, got killed, was a victim of, he was in a restaurant in Chicago and three guys came in. I think one of them they claimed was Harry Aleman. They were outfit killers. And you would have had to have been an outfit killer to do Richard Cain. But anyhow, they came in and And lined everybody in the restaurant up against the wall like they were going to do a hold up. And then one of them shot him right in the face with a shotgun and left everybody else standing there. Didn’t try to rob the place. Had a getaway car waiting right outside. You know, this is the life of Sam Giancana. So next time you hear me talk about Mooney or Sam Giancana or Giancana in another story, you’ll know a lot more about our friend Sam Mooney Giancana. So thanks a lot, guys. Guys, don’t forget to watch out for motorcycles when you’re out there. And if you have a problem with PTSD and you’ve been in the service, be sure and go to that VA website.

[17:45] And if you have a problem with drugs or alcohol, our friend Anthony Ruggiano, former Gambino man, is a drug and alcohol counselor down in Florida. And he has on his website, he has a hotline number or his YouTube page. Just Google or noodle around and find Anthony Ruggiano and you’ll find it. But be sure to like and subscribe and maybe give me a review if you’re on the app, on the audio app. Give me some comments. You got any ideas for stories? You want any particular mob boss you want me to cover pretty quick? And one of these shorties, why make a comment on the YouTube special? I really see those. And we’ve got our Facebook page, a gangland wire podcast group.

[18:24] I’ve got a page too, but that’s not quite the same. The group is a little more intimate. There’s a lot of activity on the group. So there’s a lot of interesting comments. So if you get on the group, be sure and scroll down and look at some of the different comments. You’ll see people arguing about things, and you’ll see people that are really connected to real-life mobsters back in the day, and you’ll see people telling stories. We’ll put up a picture of a restaurant or a bar that a lot of mob guys went to, and you’ll see people telling stories about, you know, what they remember about that place. So it’s really been an interesting, fun way to, you know, keep up with this mob history and help people experience, you know, relive the good old days, as we say, you know, as coppers get together and we tell stories about the good old days. Of course, we’re always much braver and better and faster and cooler than it really was back then. But, you know, that’s how it is. So thanks a lot, guys.

The post Underworld Enigima: Sam Giancana appeared first on Gangland Wire.

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. Gary and his regular contributor, Australian lawyer and mafia researcher Tony Taourk look into the intriguing story of Robert Simone, a Philadelphia lawyer with deep ties to the mob. We learn that he was born in South Philadelphia in 1933, and Simone’s career took a dramatic turn when he defended showgirl Lillian Rees in 1961. Rees was charged in connection with the theft of half a million dollars from a wealthy Pennsylvania millionaire. Despite his limited experience in criminal law at the time, Robert Simone overturned Rees’ conviction on appeal, gaining attention in the media and among criminals alike. Simone’s involvement with Rees also led him to cross paths with mobsters, as Rees’ boyfriend and co-defendant was a mobster himself. Simone’s heavy gambling and drinking habits further connected him to the mob, as he often frequented bars where he encountered mobsters and borrowed money from mob loan sharks. One such loan shark, Frank Sindone, recommended Simone to other mobsters and eventually became Simone’s client in a successful acquittal for loan sharking charges. Simone’s reputation grew within the criminal underworld, and he attracted the attention of Roofer’s Local 30, a corrupt union that provided him with a steady stream of criminal cases. He also represented John McCullough, the head of the union, who was later murdered on the orders of the Philadelphia mob. Simone’s big break came when he represented mob boss Nicky Scarfo in a murder trial. The government charged Scarfo, along with his nephew, Phil Leonetti, and another mobster with the murder of a cement contractor. Despite the testimony of an eyewitness, Simone’s skills as a lawyer shone during this trial, showcasing his ability to sway jurors and play mind games in the courtroom to achieve a not-guilty verdict. Despite his success in defending Scarfo, Simone’s ties to the mob ultimately led to his downfall. He was disbarred 1989 for his involvement in a money-laundering scheme with Scarfo and other mobsters. Simone’s story is a cautionary tale of the dangers of getting too close to the criminal underworld. Support the Podcast Subscribe to get new gangster stories every week.

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Transcript [00:00:00] Welcome back in the studio of Gangland Wire. Good to be back here with you guys. I have our good friend from down under, Tony Taouk. Welcome, Tony. Thank you for having me, Gary. Oh, as you guys know, Tony is our expert on mob lawyers. We have done God. How many have we done now, Tony? We’ve done Goodman and who else have we done? Roy Cohen, Well, it’s coming out. It’s coming out. We’re recording this guys today, January the what? The third or the fourth and Corsak is coming out in two weeks. It’ll be out. I think a week from this Monday, I believe I’d have to look. I know. I just put it in to released so I can stay about two or three weeks ahead. Anyhow, Corsak, Sydney Corsak. Frank Regano. Oh, Regano. Yeah. From Traficante down in down in Florida. So good. Yeah. Well, we’re moving right on through them, Tony. We’re going to be through them all one of these days. Oh, Cutler. We did Bruce [00:01:00] Cutler. And see. I don’t know what we’ve got left after this. There’s some more guys out there. There’s kind of boring guys out there. They’re back in New York, I know. There’s a lot, but they’re not, nobody is as colorful as these guys. These are the colorful ones, which is, that’s what we like is a colorful ones, right? They’re dying. Great. Yeah. Colorful people are a dying breed. It seems to me like any more like your sports figures buried cell once in a while, somebody I get in trouble, but not like they used to. And you know other personalities, they used to get in a lot more trouble than they do now. Everybody’s a lot more cautious now. Now they want us to have to make something up to make it look like somebody did something wrong or got them in trouble. Anyhow, today we’re going to talk about Robert Simone. He was a Philadelphia guy, Philadelphia lawyer, and I had kind of a little personal connection myself to one of those cases, which we’ll talk about later. But Robert [00:02:00] Simone, Tony, how did he get started in this mob lawyer business? Well, he was born in, excuse me, he was born in, Simone was born in South Philadelphia in 1933. He got his law degree from Temple University Law School and he became a lawyer in 1958. His big break as a lawyer came in 1961 when he defended a colourful showgirl called Lillian Rees. When she was charged in connection with a theft of around half a million dollars from the home of a wealthy Pennsylvania Colmogile. Funnily enough, Risa only retained Simone because she could no longer afford her original lawyer for her second trial because her first trial ended with a hung jury. Now at this point in his career, Simone was only about 28 years old and he was mainly doing civil cases. And he had hardly any experience in criminal law, so I don’t know why she would take that risk, but she did. He represented her in [00:03:00] her second trial, which ended with a conviction. However, he managed to overturn the conviction on appeal. She probably hired him because he was cheaper than anybody else. That would be my bet on that. He’d been a civil lawyer. They wanted to get in criminal law. Probably saw this as maybe something he could Parlay into something because it’d get headlines and get publicity out of it. I had a friend that did a murder case here in Kansas city when he was a young lawyer and he got a not guilty on the murder case. And they, cases started flooding into his office after that. So that is not lost on people out there. And you get some headlines and you get, especially if you get a win, but any kind of headlines interesting. So how did he get involved with the mob? That’s a long ways from this woman. Yes. Can you just repeat that? I want to go get some water. I’ll be back. Okay. Okay. Repeat that question. Okay. I will when you get [00:04:00] back. Sorry about that. I just keep coughing. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Yeah. Yep. So just ask me again. How did you get involved? Yes. So Tony, how did he get involved with the mob? It’s kind of a far step from this gal here and getting involved with the mob in Philadelphia. Well, the Lillian Rees case generated a lot of media coverage because she was so colourful. So, Simone, as you said before, became a familiar figure in local papers. Criminals tend to flock to lawyers who appear in the newspapers thinking they’re better than other lawyers. I don’t know if that’s always the case. But anyway, another reason was Reece’s boyfriend and co defendant in the case was a mobster. So he obviously witnessed first hand Simone’s legal maneuvers and probably recommended him to other mobsters. But there’s also another reason, Simone was a heavy gambler, a heavy drinker and a compulsive gambler. [00:05:00] So he inevitably stumbled across mobsters at bars and he borrowed money from mob loan sharks when he ran out of money. As compulsive gamblers do. One of the loan sharks that Simone borrowed money from was a guy called Frank Sindone, a senior figure in the Philadelphia mob. When Sindone was charged with loan sharking, Simone represented him and managed to get him acquitted by discrediting the FBI agents responsible for the investigation. Soon thereafter, he attracted the attention of a powerful and corrupt union called Rufus Local 30s. Now that union, its rank included a lot of tough men who always get into trouble with the law, and that gave him a stre steady stream of criminal cases. Now, the head of that union, John McCullough, who Simone also represented at one stage, he would later be murdered on the orders of the Philadelphia mob. What was the name of that union again? Ruffer’s Local [00:06:00] 30. Oh, Ruffer’s Local. Okay, I couldn’t understand that first word. Alright interesting. The Ruffer’s Union. Well, those mobsters, they’re not, they don’t care what union it is, if they can get involved in it. It’s the Labor’s Union in St. Louis, the Teamsters Union in Chicago and Detroit, and so they’re not really Picky as long as they get involved with with a union. So that would have set him on the on the path. I see right now how he got into an interesting, you know, kind of a parallel is a guy named Bob Cooley. He went in witness protection eventually and testified a lot against a lot of guys in Chicago. That was his deal. He was a heavy drinker and a gambler and a partier, and, and pretty soon he’s on the hook for money and, and pretty soon they’re using him for whatever they can use him for. So it, it sounds, I bet he carried a lot of money to judges and, and help bribe jurors and stuff too. So, Nicky Scarfo is going to come along. And now, did he do any work for the General Don, for Angelo Bruno? Personally, do you [00:07:00] remember? Not that I’m aware of. Okay. But he became acquainted with him at the acquittal. I believe he received a call from him. And he, he, he met him around that time. Now the Sedona Quiddle really boosted his stature in the Philadelphia underworld, as you’d expect. And eventually he caught the attention of Nicky Scarford, the man destined to become the head of the Philadelphia Mob, and ultimately the man most responsible for its downfall. In 1979, an Atlantic City cement contractor called Vincent Falcone was lured by Scarfo and some henchmen to a house in Margate, New Jersey. And they shot in the back of the, they shot him in the back of the head as he was preparing some drinks in the kitchen. Apparently Scarfo immediately ordered Falcone’s execution when he heard that he was talking trash about him behind his back. As we all know, it didn’t take much for Scarfo to pass a death sentence. Now, [00:08:00] a plumber called Joseph Salerno, he wasn’t a mobster, he was at the scene and witnessed the hit. In fear for his life, he became a witness for the prosecution. Scarfo and his nephew, Phil Leonetti, and another mobster were charged with murder. Simone was retained to act as lead counsel in that trial. It was Bobby Simone at his absolute best as a lawyer. He was great on his feet and he was a brilliant cross examiner. He also was an excellent courtroom tactician with exceptional, with an exceptional ability to play mind games with the jurors. For example, during the murder trial, Joseph Salerno testified that a big Black Cadillac was parked adjacent to the house at the time of the murder. However, a local police officer testified that he was in the area for about 20 minutes around the time Salerno alleged that the murder occurred, and he said that he didn’t see a big black Cadillac parked next to the house.[00:09:00] Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if the policeman was on Scarface payroll, but that’s another issue. Now, it’s a very shrewd move. Simone insisted that the defendants who were Scarfo, Leonetti, and another guy, I think it was Merlino, that they arrived every day at the courthouse in the same big black Cadillac, in full view of the jurors. The purpose was to emphasize that it would have been impossible for The police officer to miss such a big car. And if it had indeed been parked next to the house when the murder occurred. Now when it came to cross examination he conducted it, Simone conducted it in a way that was like boxing where it’s all about rhythm and wearing down your opponent. Simone had the chief witness Salerno admit under cross examination. that he was on the verge of bankruptcy and insinuated that he had entered the witness protection program to avoid paying the many creditors that were after him. [00:10:00] Salerno even admitted to borrowing money from the murder victim Vincent, Vincent Falcone and struggling to pay it back, giving him a clear motive to commit the murder and then blame it on someone else. Simone successfully cast Salerno The government witness as the real villain taking the focus of his client Salerno Salerno was also a arm wrestling champion and he admitted under cross examination to Simone that he had the strength to pick up carry and roll the victim’s body into the trunk of the car where it was later found. All three defendants were acquitted and Robert Simone became a superstar in the Philadelphia Underworlds. Yeah, I bet, I bet, because guys, this Salerno, the plumber, he actually wrote a book, I think it’s called The Plumber, he wrote it with somebody else. He’s still out there somewhere, by the way. I tried to send a message to find somebody that could find him. And a guy told me he’d see if he could and nothing ever came back. [00:11:00] But this Salerno, he was just a hang around guy. I read the book and I talked to a policeman that was involved in that case back during those times, during that time, because I had read the book. And you know, he was just a hang around guy. I and. Nobody understands why they allowed him to be at that house when they killed that guy Falcone. It just is beyond belief that they would allow basically a civilian who was unsteady at the time. I mean, he was a heavy drinker and a gambler himself at the time. And you know, why they let him be a witness, I don’t know. Because he was definitely a weak sister in that deal. I met this one prosecutor’s investigator for Atlantic City, and he was part of the babysitting crew that guarded Salerno during the trial and everything. And he said, you know, he was, he was pretty shaky, but you know, he, he wasn’t really that shaky on the stand, but you know, probable cause, I mean, a probable cause, reasonable doubt. Guys. All you need is just a scintilla, [00:12:00] just any kind of reasonable doubt that a jury can kind of hang his hat on that peg of reasonable doubt that, you know, he lied about the car being there, he was strong enough to do this, he had a motive himself to do this, you know, that would be enough to do a not guilty. So it’s a pretty interesting case, I thought, and I didn’t really realize it. That Simone really earned his bones, if you will, with the mob with this one case, but I can see why that was, that was a hell of a victory, wouldn’t you agree? Yeah, it was. It was quite good. And as a result of that Simone went on to defend Scarfo in numerous trials in the 1980s and over time they became good friends. And as a result, he was often turned up in surveillance footage, socializing with Scarfo and his cronies. And you have to remember, during Scarfo’s reign as the boss of Philadelphia, the bodies were piling up everywhere. Scarfo would pass a death sentence for the slightest infraction, real or imagined. Scarfo and anyone associated with him were full time [00:13:00] targets of law enforcement throughout the early to mid 1980s. And then, surprise, surprise, in 1984, Simone was indicted for tax evasion. Yeah. I tell you what, that’s the go to, that is the go to. If you can’t get them on anything else, you can get them on tax evasion. Going back to the days of Capone, yeah. Yeah, really. Yeah. The government alleged that he’d hidden assets and avoided payment of nearly 1 million in taxes. He’d lodged his tax returns, he just hadn’t paid them. You don’t usually get prosecuted for that. Apparently, Oh, really? He had filed his returns, but he just didn’t pay the money. That’s a civil case. It at the best. Crazy. It must have been simple where they could prosecute him for it. I’m not, I’m not familiar with tax laws in the United States. Well, that’d be a civil case. I promise you it’s the hiding of it. You know, if he put it on paper that I, yeah, I earned this money and I owe you this money and then just not pay it. That’s a civil case. He’ll come [00:14:00] after me, sue me. I’ll file bankruptcy, you know that’s the way to prosecute him. When he went on trial, he admitted he was a compulsive gambler and he said that he owed money to loan sharks and the IRS. And he thought the safer option would be to pay the loan sharks. Really? I have to agree with you on that one. Surprisingly, he decided to represent himself in the trial. Oh, really? And that was in the face of everything lawyers are taught. Yeah. He attacked the government for motives and methods and going after him and invading his privacy. Now, this is actually quite funny. To emphasize the invasion of privacy, He played to the jury, there was a popular song at the time, it’s called Somebody’s Watching Me by Rockwell. He played it to the jury and he suggested that the government, which he kept calling Big Brother during the trial, wasn’t interested in recovering the taxes he owed, [00:15:00] they just wanted him to stop practicing law and defending his colourful clients. After a three week trial, the jury was out for only 20 minutes and they found him not guilty. So much for the popular saying a lawyer who represents himself as a fool for a client. Yeah, he even won his own case. That’s pretty, that’s really pretty damn good actually. Especially when you got the government after you. These guys, they don’t realize what, when you bring the resources of the federal government, when you stand up in front of that judge and you hear the United States government versus Tony Taouk versus Gary Jenkins. When you hear that, you ask anybody that’s had to stand in front of a judge and hear that read out loud, just go, Oh no, because the resources are vast. And those U S attorneys are smart. They’re not, they’re not public defenders. They’re the best of the best out of law school. So it’s he did a heck of a job. They’re very, very [00:16:00] interesting guy. You know I noticed over my career. We’d have somebody that would defend mobsters continually, and among people that investigate the mob, you start getting this kind of a feeling start finding anything that makes it look like they must be part of it, and, and you start looking for ways to make them part of it in order to put a case on them because we don’t, you know, I found being, finally becoming a lawyer after being a policeman, I find that You just represent people, but law enforcement tends to think because you’re representing them that you must be part of it. And, and you know, being a lawyer yourself that you don’t have to be part of it to get put on a good vigorous defense. They just feel like that. I mean, we had in Kansas city, we had a Nick Civella. His lawyer was this John Patrick Quinn, and they used his office to do phone calls because he wasn’t ever in it. Or at least very much [00:17:00] unless you had a big case going they used his office to discuss the skim I got a bunch of wiretaps or bugged micro the microphone transcripts and wiretaps to from where they called out and they get calls in they felt like they were safe. At the lawyer’s office, found out they weren’t so safe, but you know, you, everybody thinks at the time that was John Patrick Quinn. He must be part of it, but, but he never was. He wasn’t even close to being part of it. So that’s I think they went after Oscar Goodman and some form trying to, to put a case on him. Well, I know they did out in Las Vegas, the FBI sent an undercover agent in with Somebody, I don’t think it was Oscar Goodman wrote about, or John Smith wrote about it in his book of mice and men sent this agent in asking for a defense. I think Frank Cullotta or maybe Tony Spilotro himself brought Brought him in himself and, and he was trying to get Oscar Goodman to implicate [00:18:00] himself in, in whatever it was the guy was and, and Goodman was, he was smarter than that and, and he, he didn’t get involved with anybody’s crimes anyhow. He’s making enough money without doing that. It’d be stupid getting involved with their crimes and you’re making good money not getting involved with their crimes. So mob lawyers are a really interesting thing. But I think Simone was a bit silly the way he went about it. He got a little bit too close because despite his brush with that whole tax evasion saga that we just spoke about, he kept associating very closely with members of the Philadelphia Mob. Yeah, you know, I mean, socializing, holidaying with them, gambling with them, and constantly turning up on surveillance footage. And these, these guys were constantly under surveillance because people were getting killed all the time. Bodies were dropping everywhere. So it was a bit silly. And Simone didn’t even charge Scarfo fees for the extensive legal services [00:19:00] he performed for him. He would, he considered him a friend, so we didn’t see the need to charge him. Now over time, as you’re saying the authorities formed the view that he was more than just a lawyer. He was an actual mob functionary of sorts. Now, Nick the Crow Caramandi, that was a Philadelphia mobster termed government witness. When he testified in the Salvatore Testa murder trial in the late 1980s, he said that Simone was on the verge of becoming a made member of the mob. Oh, really? Yes. But how much stock can you really put in Caramandi’s statement? Because in that trial, Caramandi couldn’t keep his facts straight. For example, he said that when he purchased the rope to bind Tester’s dead body from a certain hardware store in Philadelphia, it turned out that the owner of that hardware store never sold that kind [00:20:00] of rope. Then he said he made a phone call from a certain phone booth. Again, in Philadelphia Simone produced a statement of the owner of a cigar store where the booth was supposed to be located. And he said that the phone booth had been, had been removed from that place. At least five years before the murder. So, and unsurprisingly, Scarfo was acquitted of testis murder. Next, Scarfo and his cronies were charged with the importation and delivery of methamphetamine. However, the government couldn’t prove this because The defendants were not dealing drugs per se they were extorting money from the people who were dealing drugs. Now, I don’t, you sound very smart, these government attorneys, but why wouldn’t they just have charged him with extortion instead of drug dealing? That would have made more sense, but I don’t know. Everyone makes mistakes. Yes. On top of this, the defense managed [00:21:00] to discredit the witnesses who, quote, had violated every law and broken every commandment known to God, unquote. Scarfo and the other defendants were also included in all the charges. The government was clearly getting frustrated, so it was around this time that the federal government decided to indict Simone for racketeering and extortion, among other things, the federal government alleged that Simone was involved in a scheme by a, by the Philadelphia, about to shake down a Philadelphia, Philadelphia developer for 1 million. Prosecutors and investigators alleged that Simone had crossed the line in his association with the mobsters. He was offering way more than legal services. They said that he had become an advisor in a criminal enterprise. Now, Phil Leonetti, Scarfo’s nephew, who by now had turned government witness, corroborated earlier testimony by other mobsters that Simone was supposed to get 10 percent of the proceeds of the 1 [00:22:00] million extortion. Simone vehemently denied this. However, in 1992, he was convicted of racketeering and extortion, and he served nearly three years in a federal prison camp near Las Vegas. And he was also at the spot. So Leonetti brought him down too. I didn’t realize that. Crazy Phil. Well, that would be pretty powerful testimony, especially if if he had anything else to go to, to substantiate that, that he was, he was getting a piece of that action. If he, if he carried any messages to the extortion victim or anything, ever talked to the extortion victim, it would be, and then an insider to testify, that would, that would pretty well put you away, I would imagine. Yeah, that’d be interesting. The charge them with extortion of the drug dealers. But the problem is, then the drug dealers won’t cooperate with prosecution, so you might as well try to make a part of the the whole drug operation rather than extorting money from them. It’s a fine line. Are you [00:23:00] extorting money from them? Or are they giving you money because you’re one of their partners in that? Are they Fortune you to give money and with mob guys, you know, they’ll do that. They’ll go in and say, you know, you, you want to keep operating, give us a piece of the action. After he was released he wrote a memoir called the last mouthpiece. Yeah. I got that too. That’s a heck of a book. It’s really in detail. I’m kind of surprised. It’s an excellent book. He talks about his long And he really emphasizes that the government is abusing the system and making deals with criminal informants. He basically says that the government has created a system where a criminal can receive a get out of jail free card by testifying against another criminal. And he says that the government frees more dangerous criminals every year than defense lawyers do. Yeah. Well, you know, there’s some truth to that. I mean, I’ve seen some pretty shaky things where people will you know, we’ve got one, a guy just [00:24:00] got out on a compassionate leave. The last mob murder we had in Kansas city, a guy named Larry Strada. And there was a career criminal named Patrick McGuire who did hang out at this mob. Restaurant and bar and the guy that ran it, John Mandacina and this Larry Strada got killed. He was probably going to testify. And he was a gambler, he was a bookie, and he gets killed at his house. And this Patrick, nobody knows who does it, we know it’s a mob hit. There’s no doubt about it. And Patrick McGuire goes on and commits a bunch of other crimes. He was one of these guys that just lived to commit crimes. He went on a bank robbing spree, I think, up in the north central part of the United States. He goes to the penitentiary, well he’s in a cell with somebody, and then this guy, who he’s in the cell with, Goes to the U. S. Attorney wherever the, you know, calls them in or the FBI or whoever they called, he called them in and he said that [00:25:00] Patrick McGuire said that he killed Larry Strada and it’s because John Mandacina paid him to do it. And they went to trial on that and convicted John Mandacina and Patrick McGuire of that murder. And but everybody today. Even some in law enforcement would say, no, no, Patrick, Patrick McGuire did not kill Larry Strada. I don’t know who did, but Patrick McGuire did not. A lot of people will say that, even though it’s, it’s all done. It’s a done deal. You know, there’s no, you know, John Madacina has been convicted, gone in served like 30 years and come back out again. Patrick McGuire was already serving practically life on something else. Anyhow. So you know, I don’t know. I had one of the lawyers even tell me who did it. He said, yeah. So I’m not going to say it on air here, but yeah, so and so did it. And it was after a meeting at Grozov’s, which is a restaurant among the bosses here in Kansas city, not to the [00:26:00] one boss and under boss and a consigliere and a couple of other. Guys that were really important and they got together and they agreed that this guy, Larry Strada had to go and they sent a guy who was a made guy already out to do it, which really makes more sense. But you know, they convicted the guy just on that kind of testimony and they do it all the time. It’s I don’t know, you know, I mean, I was a policeman, I understand, you know, you do anything you can to, you know, support your case once you start going down that path. It’s a little different on the other side though, isn’t it? Yeah, very different. You kind of see the clouds from both sides now and once you become a lawyer. Eventually Simone got his law license restored, but shortly thereafter he became ill and he died in 2007. To the end. No regrets about the people defended. He, he maintained that he was targeted for successfully defending unpopular and notorious people, [00:27:00] and that he was the victim of a government vendetta. Some truth to that. But he should have, he should have kept a little more distance between him and the mobsters. Yes. Yes. I think that’s what, that’s what caused his downfall. It just got too close. Yeah, interesting. Well, anything else you think we ought to say about Robert E. Simone? I can’t really remember in the book. Did he talk much about bribing anybody, any judges or anything in his book? I can’t remember now. No, not that I recall. You would think he would have if he was really part of it like Bob Cooley. That’s, that was his main job up there in Chicago was a bag man that carried money to judges and find the policemen and potential witnesses and bribe them. But would you admit to something like that? There’s no statute of limitations on something like that. Yeah. Is there? I think it could be admitted to it because he was in witness protection because he had [00:28:00] to tell about all the crimes he committed, then he wasn’t going to be prosecuted for him. But now there’d be a statute of limitations on bribery. I think the only crime in the United States right now, there’s no statute of limitations is probably a murder and maybe some kind of sex crimes. They’ve extended those child sex crimes statute way out, but otherwise there’s statute of limitations on everything. Sooner or later you can’t be prosecuted for it for perverting the course of justice. I don’t know even that, you know, it’s still a statute on it after a period of time. He never became a government witness or he didn’t go into the witness protection program. So if he did bribe jurors or judges or whatever. I would have thought that he would have been incriminating himself. Yeah, he might, you know, he would not put that in his book. I think that’s why he’s, he’s very, he talks about his his labor maneuvers, his cross examination. Okay. [00:29:00] All right. Doesn’t talk about anything where anything of that nature. Okay. Corrupted anyone. Where’d he go to law school? I don’t remember if you said. Temple University. What temple? Oh yeah, you did say Temple University. So is that in Philadelphia? That’s in, I think it’s in Philadelphia, yeah. He’s a homegrown boy there, isn’t he? He’s from the Logan section. I’ve only passed through Philadelphia on my way to Washington D. C. so I’m not very familiar with the city. And Simone, that’s a Sicilian name. We’ve got some Simones here in Kansas City that were, have been involved. That’s a Sicilian last name. It was definitely Italian, but I don’t know if it was Sicilian, but most likely, yeah. Yeah, I think the Rigano was Sicilian too, wasn’t he? Yeah. I think his parents were from Sicily. I think that was something that we brought out about that. Well, all right, Tony, this has been great. Got anything, what else we got to say about [00:30:00] Robert F. Simone, the last mouthpiece. He was a really colorful, interesting guy. I guess it’s a cautionary tale. Don’t socialize and get on boats and all day with your murderous clients. Talks here about going to see a psychiatrist and his friend. He said he told me what I already knew. I was a compulsive gambler. Oh, I’m done gambling as well. Really, gambling gets you every time. All right, Tony. Well, I really appreciate you coming on and helping with these mob lawyers. We’ll have to plot out another one. I can’t even think what’s next, but we’ll, we’ll come up with something. I got a feeling. Now you were on another podcast. Have you been on that yet? Not yet, not yet. Not yet, okay. Well, we’ll have to mention, what’s the name of it so guys can look for that? It was members only, but he’s changed it to something else. Oh, okay. Well, [00:31:00] alright. Yeah, I’ll be going on soon. Alright, cool. So guys, don’t forget I like to ride motorcycles, so look out for motorcycles when you’re out there on the streets, and if you have a problem with PTSD and you’ve been in the service, be sure and go to the VA website and get that hotline number, and if you’ve got a problem that goes hand in hand with PTSD addiction, drugs or alcohol, a former Gambino soldier, Anthony Ruggiano, has got a You know, he works in a treatment center down in Florida. He’s got a hotline on his website and so give him a shot. If and if you do that, let me know about it. I’m curious how that went. He seemed, I interviewed him once. He’s a pretty good guy. And don’t forget to like and subscribe and share this and tell your friends about it. Go on the Facebook page, their Facebook group is up to 30, I think 37, 000 people now. A lot of great discussions, a lot of great pictures. These guys, I don’t know where they get some of these pictures [00:32:00] from. I even got an interview off of it. I had a guy named Amado, who is from Sicily. So I’ve got an interview. I haven’t put it out yet. And it might come out before this actually, but it’s, it’s really interesting. He tells about his childhood in Sicily and the mafia in Sicily. He grew up just outside of Palermo, came over when he was about 10 or 11 years old. And when he comes over, he falls right in with. Joe Massino and Sal Vitale and that Bonanno faction and, and gets involved with the lunch trucks and he has a lunch truck and, and does business with them and goes on and kind of a, a career low level mobster the rest of his life. And now he’s written a book about it. So I’ve got a, an interview with him coming up and, and I got him through our Facebook. That’s got those kinds of people coming on the Facebook page. Real mobsters on there, which is really interesting. So I suggest you get on that Facebook page and try it. And don’t forget to [00:33:00] subscribe to either the audio podcast or the YouTube channel. So you’ll get notified whenever I put a new one out. So I really appreciate y’all tuning in and Tony, I really appreciate you coming on. These, these, this series on mob lawyers has been fun. It’s something I wanted to do, and I just didn’t get the energy up to do it myself, but you’ve been a huge help for that. Thank you. Thanks a lot, Tony. Thank you Gary. Alright. See you guys

The post Philadelphia Mob Lawyer: Robert Simone appeared first on Gangland Wire.

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. Gary looks into the intriguing life of Michael “Spider” Gianco, a real-life figure known from the movie “Goodfellas.” Born in 1954 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, Gianco was associated with the Bonanno and Lucchese families and was a Jimmy the Gent Burke protege. Referred to as Spider due to his long limbs and excellent burglary skills, Gianco was a trusted member who could climb into hard-to-reach places. He was involved in organized crime from a young age, engaging in car theft and other illicit activities. Gianco was a crucial player in a car theft and smuggling ring, specializing in stealing cars from locations like JFK long-term parking. He would deliver these cars to a junkyard in Brooklyn, where they would be sold or shipped to Haiti. Gianco made money for every vehicle he stole and was involved in various criminal activities orchestrated by Jimmy the Gent and Paul Vario. However, his relationship with fellow mobster Tommy DeSimone was strained, leading to a fatal confrontation in July 1970. During a poker game at Robert’s Lounge, DeSimone fatally shot Gianco after an argument, with Jimmy the Gent instructing DeSimone to bury the body. The murder, reminiscent of a scene from “Goodfellas,” shocked those present, and despite the body never being found, Gianco’s fate was sealed. The aftermath of Gianco’s death further illuminated the ruthless nature of organized crime, showcasing the dangers and consequences of underworld disputes. The intricacies of mob life, rule-breaking, and allegiances are dissected, leaving listeners pondering the complexities of this dark underbelly of society. Support the Podcast Subscribe to get new gangster stories every week.

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Transcript [0:00] Wiretappers out there back here in the studio of gangland wire i want to take a look at kind of a short one again here about michael spider gianco michael spider gianco his he was spider in the movie goodfellas he’s the one that joe petty character shot in the foot and then later killed when when he bucked it back up to him let’s tell you a little bit as a real guy this really happened as you know you know everything really happened in goodfellas for the most part he was you have of a young guy back then, I guess. He was born in 1954. He was killed in 1970. That tells you anything. He was from Brownsville, Brooklyn, and grew up in the neighborhood, South Ozone Park, Queens area. He was a, you know, an associate of the Bonanno family and the Lucchese family, as all those guys around in that Roberts Lounge were, and there really was a Roberts Lounge, he was a protege of Jimmy the Gent Burke, he was a guy.

[0:59] Who would go out and do stuff. He was, and what’s interesting about him, he could be trusted. He was from Italy, but he was from Sardinia, which is another island like Sicily off the coast of Italy. He was born Michael Gianfranco. He shortened it to Gianco when he got over here. And then of course, everybody became, started calling me Spider. Now, the reason they called him Spider is because he had really long arms and long limbs and he was a great burglar. where he could climb up and get into places and things like that. His family brought him over here when he was a kid. They settled in Queens. He was a runaway. He was just a bad kid growing up, as most of these guys are that end up in that life. He had some cousins from his father’s side that had gotten involved with organized crime, as a lot of young guys do in Brooklyn like that. He was a low-level associate.

[1:53] He was a good car thief also. also. He was one of these guys that knew how to steal cars. He got to know Jimmy the Gent Burke, and he got to know Jimmy the Gent Burke. Jimmy the Gent put him into the Barrio family and made him an associate because, again, he was an earner. And Paul Barrio was a member of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, and he was hired by a bartender as a member of that union at Robert’s Lounge. A guy named, you never knew who owned that lounge was a guy named Casey Rosado. They had a restaurant named Bruno’s right there. And because of his mob connections, he didn’t have to pay his union dues. He probably wasn’t even old enough to drink when he first got that job there. By the time Spider was 16, he was probably an alcoholic, heavy, heavy drinker, just like Henry Hill and a lot of those guys are. He would become a made member because he was full-blooded Italian. And he became a made member of the Lucchese family. The Rise of Spider

[2:58] Jimmy the Gent nicknamed him Spider. He’s the one that gave him the nickname.

[3:02] Dropped out of school, of course. He spent all day at Robert’s Lounge, bartended. He collected numbers. He sold, you know, fireworks. He’s mob guys. I tell you, mob guys, if you’re listening out there, you love your fireworks. You love dealing fireworks. You love, like God, he had the free fireworks show every year. I know in Kansas City, some of the people who are involved in and around the mob have a fireworks stand. There’s a lot of money that could be made in a a firework stand in a short period of time. There must be some other scams in around it. I don’t know exactly what they were. They are. I’ve never known. He made coffee. They had a card game going in the basement, which is where he got killed. He would go down there and serve coffee and drinks to the guys down in the basement.

[3:48] When he got to be older and he could drive, he’s like a kid when he first gets started there in the Robert’s Lounge and with just like Henry Hill, really, they bring bring in these kids and groom them, bring them in, get them to do things for them. And when they got him to do the auto theft, this was during the late 60s and early 70s. They started getting these smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. And he specialized in going out to the long-term parking at JFK.

[4:16] Where they did the Lufthansa heist. It seemed to be their territory. Went out and stole cars from the long-term parking at JFK, plus the neighborhoods of Howard Beach and all around it in that area. at Ozone Park area. He would deliver these cars to the Bargain Auto Junkyard in Starrett City. Spider’s Criminal Activities

[4:35] Brooklyn on Flatlands Avenue. Any of you guys that live there in New York, after he would leave the car, they would take off the license plate, switch out the BIN number for one that would have been junked out, and now you got a new car. Either that or they would sell it for parts, depending on what they had many times his cars were stolen or were many times his cars were shipped out of new york and down to port-au-prince haiti and sold his new cars down there they had a eduardo’s sea and land services incorporated which is located in south ozone park and he’s the one that would handle that part of the auto the auto theft ring gen kanko gen gianco gianco spider gianco made a hundred bucks for every car he stole now this was actually henry hill’s chop shop and smuggling ring operation but you know jimmy the gent and paul vario got a big piece of this action all along he had kind of a hostile relationship with this tommy de simone all along it wasn’t just that one incident that popped this off he had a long-term hostile relationship like you will somebody at work you’ll have somebody that just rubs you the wrong way or you rub them the wrong way you both rub each other the wrong way we’ve all all been there he had to you know paul barrio and jimmy burke were like kind of the. Tommy DeSimone’s Influence

[6:00] The bosses and and they had to keep it under control when they were around but tommy d simone was he was he he wasn’t he he was more in and he because he had participated in other mob sanctioned murders for paul barrio and pulled off more successful crimes than gianco so he kind of in the pecking order he was on up in the thing and he was involved in the air france robbery the Lufthansa robbery, and he had a lot of praise, was really well-respected in the Lucchese family.

[6:33] Now, of course, what happened is basically what happened is what you saw in the movie. Tommy DeSimone likes to pull his gun and wave it around. He even had kind of a target practice down in the range. He had a new Colt .45 revolver, which is unusual. Those are great big guns and revolver, too. The Shooting Incident

[6:53] But and so he was jacking around and he did that he shot him in the foot and they took spider out and he saw a doctor the whole nine yards and came back with his foot all bandaged up back to work and he’s you know hustling coffees and doing things for people there the same as you know they was his name was his name michael impero impero they played the part and they did a good job i I understand. Sometime shortly after that, it’s July of 1970. We know that for sure. DeSimone, Tommy DeSimone is playing poker in the basement of Robert’s Lounge. Playing with Jimmy the Gent, Burke, and Angelo Sepp. Gianco served their players drinks, but he forgot DeSimone’s Crown Royal.

[7:39] Well, DeSimone, Tommy DeSimone was already drunk and he started berating him for it and berating him for it. And Gianco, Gianco then just turned around and said, you know, why don’t you go fuck yourself? Tommy DeSimone pulled out his Colt .45 and shot him three times in the chest. Right. You know, everybody’s sitting there just like in the movie. Everybody’s sitting there in shock. Doc, Jimmy Burke, James, Jimmy the Gent, he was enraged. And he made DeSimone do something with the body and bury him. And he buried him in an unfinished section of the basement in Robert’s Lounge. It was after this murder that Henry Hill considered DeSimone a psychopath and stayed away from him, just like in the movie. Now, they never found the body, so they must have dug it back up and reburied it or something, because they never found the body. Which is why when Henry Hill was on the Howard Stern show one time after he went into witness protection and came back out and became this kind of minor celebrity after the movie was released.

[8:43] He was on Howard Stern’s radio show one time, and Gianco’s sister called in, demanding to know from Henry Hill where the body was buried, but he never would say.

[8:52] So that might have been one that he had more of a part of than what he led on to the FBI. You don’t know. They have to admit all their crimes to the FBI. So that’s the story of Spider, Michael Gianco, who was Sardinian, came over to this country from the old country and was a made guy, supposedly. I don’t know if I buy that. I read this one place where it said he was a made guy because he was native born Italian. I don’t know if I really buy that or not, because if Tommy DeSimone, who is a made guy, if he kills another made guy, I don’t know. No, you know, the rules usually are, you know, you’re in huge trouble if you do something like that. But sometimes for a guy that’s making a lot of money and part of a crew that’s making a lot of money and this guy that he kills isn’t very important. I don’t know. What do you guys think?

[9:41] It’s, you know, never ending questions about the mob. You think you have a handle on what the rules are and who abides by the rules, then you don’t. Final Thoughts and Helpful Tips

[9:50] Then you think you do and somebody, you know, has to have, make sure they have permission permission to kill somebody then something like this happens so you just never know anyhow thanks a lot guys you know I like to ride motorcycles so don’t forget when you’re out there on the streets watch out in your cars watch out for motorcycles when you if you have a problem with PTSD and you’ve been in the service be sure and go to the VA website and get that hotline number if you have a problem with drugs or alcohol which goes hand in hand with PTSD our friend Anthony rugiano.

[10:22] Who had a social club somewhere around in this area, or his dad did. He has a, he didn’t have one. He is a counselor at an alcohol drug addiction treatment facility down in Florida. He has a hotline on his number. You could have him as your counselor, maybe. That would be cool. Don’t forget to like and subscribe. Tell your friends about us and keep coming back. Oh, and share it. Share this on your social media, too, if you think about it. I try. And check my social media page out. the gangland wire podcast facebook group we got a huge group on there almost 40 000 now and you get a lot of comments you got a lot of people on there that were connected at one time or grew up in the neighborhoods and and have a lot of make a really interesting comments about different things that are put on there sometimes there’s fights between people too but if you do get on there just remember no politics okay thanks a lot guys

The post Unmasking the Real Spider in Goodfellas! appeared first on Gangland Wire.

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. Dive into the world of Joseph Parisi, the man who murdered Carlo Siniscalchi. Gary interviews author Nick Parisi about his book Mafia Confessions, “King of Bootlegers” Murder. This book sheds light on organized crime during the Prohibition era in the Springfield, Massachusetts, area. Nick offers a glimpse into this city’s early Italian-American criminal groups and the surrounding area and how his ancestor killed Carlo Siniscalchi, the King of the Bootleggers.”

Mafia Confessions relies heavily on the diary of the author’s ancestor, Giuseppe “Joseph” Parisi, trial transcripts, and newspaper accounts. Nick Parisi provides a rare and intimate look into the thoughts, emotions, and connections of the man who murdered Carlo Siniscalchi, who was known as the “King of the Bootleggers.” We discuss the ensuing gang war and the trial, revealing the emotional turmoil of a high-level Italian criminal.

While not a traditional biography, the book focuses on Parisi’s murder trial rather than his entire life story. The author highlights the challenges of balancing Parisi’s criminal past with the audience’s empathy, akin to rooting for a criminal in “The Shawshank Redemption.”

Mafia Confessions fills a void in organized crime literature, particularly Springfield’s criminal history. The author emphasizes the importance of familial connections and heritage in understanding the rival factions and the impact of murders and revenge. Mafia Confessions’ authenticity and narrative captivate, making it a compelling read for anyone interested in Prohibition-era crime or Italian-American organized crime history.

Click here to get a copy of Mafia Confessions from Amazon.

Support the Podcast Subscribe to get new gangster stories every week.

Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee”

To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup, click here

To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. 

To rent Gangland Wire, the documentary, click here

To buy my Kindle book, Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos.

To subscribe on iTunes click here. Please give me a review and help others find the podcast. Donate to the podcast. Click here!

Transcript [0:00] Hey, welcome all you wiretappers out there. Good to be back here in the studio of Gangland Wire. We have a show about the Springfield, Massachusetts mob and the foundings of it from a relative who has written a really interesting book. I have Nick Parisi here with me. Welcome, Nick. Thanks, Gary. Great to meet you. Nick, it’s Mafia Confession, King of the Bootleggers. Let me read you guys a couple of the reviews. Very well written by author Nick Parisi, he takes readers back to the days of Prohibition seen through the eyes of a family member who was there.

[0:38] Here’s another one, one of the most gripping true crime stories I have ever read. Be warned, it is not for the fainthearted. This book will have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. I highly recommend it for true crime aficionados and fans of mob thrillers. From Reader’s Favorite Awards. Praise for “Mafia Confession, King of the Bootleggers”

[0:54] So you’ve got some pretty good praise there, Nick. Oh, yeah. I’m getting some good reviews. And even from some of the grandkids of the people that are in the book that are actually in the current mafia today in Springfield, they’re taking pictures with the book and telling me it’s so well done and they love it. Cool. I was actually expecting the opposite, to get some backlash from the other family, but they love it. They love it. They said I did it properly. I got the story right and they appreciate it. Cool. That says a lot in itself. I know these. It’s interesting. A lot of mobsters today, especially our legacy mob guys, follow these different mob channels and they pay attention to them. And if you get something wrong, you’ll get some kind of a comment or somehow you’ll learn it. Or I’ll see comments on other people’s channels that somebody gets something wrong. So it’s interesting how many of these guys are following the mob channels. Legacy of Mario Fiori

[1:54] You know, I had Mario Fiori. He was the oldest living member of the mafia.

[2:02] And it was his father and his uncle that got killed in my book and his aunt. And he read the book. And his son called me on New Year’s Eve saying, Dad loved the book. He was 10 years old when all these hits happened. And, you know, he’s a made member of the Genovese crime family. And he read the book and he says, you know, he loved it. You know, he, you got the story, right. You know, so that, that was the biggest compliment. Yeah. It was coming from him. It’s gotta be really satisfying for you and all your efforts that you put into it, because I know writing a book is hard. Good writing is hard. It’s really hard. Yeah.

[2:44] So absolutely. How did you get into this? Nick Parisi’s Background and Inspiration

[2:48] Did you, you know, just want to look at your family history and a little bit about your background, maybe a backup a little bit, tell the guys a little bit of your, about your background. Cause you’re not a career author. You didn’t spend your, your whole life writing articles and for the New Yorker and books and that. So tell us a little bit about your background. Yeah, far from it. You know, I’m a, I’m a, you know, straight D student student in school. And, you know, that was secondary. And, you know, you watch the beginning of Goodfellas, you know, I always knew I wanted to, you know, grow up and be a mobster. You know, that was me and that was all my friends. And, you know, because our fathers and our uncles and grandfathers, they were all in the current mafia at the time. So, you know, I grew up in a mob family, like, you know, most people, you know, with my background did. And, you know, I grew up in the same house that, you know, the story takes place, you know, back in the prohibition, still own that house and i grew up in that house and that neighborhood it’s a all italian neighborhood and you know i saw a lot of things and you know i was i was schooled by my uncles about the you know the inner workings of things in the mob and grew up with everybody that’s in the current mob today i grew up with all them as kids and you know all through life and yeah yeah i would just go on and on about you know how my childhood was but crazy things happened you know mob related when i was growing up so that was in springfield massachusetts. Origins of the Springfield Mafia

[4:10] Yes, it was. Which is that family is connected to the Genovese family, which goes way back. And you’re going to explain some of that, I believe, as we get into this, correct? Yeah, sure will. Which I find interesting that the Genovese family reached out that far. And I’m sure there is a link. I’ve read about it. I can’t remember exactly what it is, but you’re going to tell us about that. Yeah, I’ll explain it to you how it happened. But yeah, Vito Genovese, the guy who started the Genovese family, he got involved and sent sent his guys to Springfield and they are still running, you know, the family to Genovese family, is still the controlling family in Springfield, Mass. Genovese Family’s Influence in Springfield

[4:49] Interesting. So now how did you get into this? Was there some pivotal event or did you just kind of get interested as you got older and you got more disposable time with your life? Did you find some old manuscripts or newspaper articles? How’d you get into this?

[5:07] Yeah. Well, like I told you before, I retired early by the government. I was involved in the cannabis industry and they decided it was time for me to retire. So that happened. I had some of time on my hands between golf and playing poker. So I started getting into my genealogy and, you know, went all the way back to the 17, 1800s on my, on my family. But my one uncle, my, my grandmother’s brother, there was so many newspaper articles that were, you know, about him during the prohibition days. I, and I knew, you know, from talking to my family that, you know, some, you know, some people get older, you know, they’re retaliated in the machine gun, my my grandmother and my uncle. But I knew that story, but I never knew the exact details. The Influence of Mob Genealogy

[5:53] So when I’m doing the research on the genealogy, all these newspaper articles start popping up, and I go, there’s good stuff here. And while I’m doing this, I come across a guy, he’s got a website called the Mob Genealogy. Nice guy, Justin Cascio, does a really great, great researcher for for Mafia Genealogy. And I started reading some of his stuff and he was talking about my family. And he was doing a story on the other family that was part of the assassination.

[6:25] And he was really biased to the other family. You know, he was more telling their side of the story and making my family look really bad. And I took offense to it. You know, I’m an Italian with a lot of pride and I called him up.

[6:40] And I was like, what the hell you think you’re doing? And I’ve been on his show and I told him, I thanked him. I go, you were my inspiration. He goes, what do you mean? I go, well, you pissed me off. You really pissed me off with that story you wrote about my family. And we started talking and I just say, you know what? I can get mad or I can just write the real story. story. Impact of Prohibition on Organized Crime

[7:05] So I started to do a little project. It was just going to be a history, historical type story I was going to do. And I showed it to a few friends and they’re like, this is a great story. This could be a documentary, they said.

[7:20] So that’s when I made it into a readable story and I turned it into the book that it is today. And people are loving it. It came out the number one new new release and organized crime when I released it three months ago and it’s still up there, I think, in the top 20 for organized crime books, which is pretty good for a new book. And yeah, I’m getting some good reactions for it. Interesting. So let’s set the scene back in the prohibition or pre-prohibition days. Where did your family come from? And name the two families. There’s an opposing family. So name the two families. And then where did your family come from?

[7:56] So the two families, it’s my family, the Parisi family. The Rivalry Between Parisi and Siniscalchi Families

[8:00] And we’re in West Springfield, Massachusetts. And then on the other side of the bridge and on the other side of the river is the Siniscalchi family. But it’s really the Siniscalchi and the Albano family because the Siniscalchis married the Albano family. The Albano family, they can be considered the first Italian gang, we’ll call them, because they weren’t really organized crime yet when you’re talking early 1900s. They didn’t become organized until 1930 when they had the big meeting in Atlantic City. But the two families, the Parisi family, along with the Pagliano family, which are still well known in the mob circles in Springfield today, they ran West Springfield. And the Albano, the Senescalchi family, the Scavelli, the Fiore families, they all ran the Springfield family on the other side of the river.

[8:51] But, you know, basically, you know, they’re basically Italian gangs back then, nothing organized until Prohibition hit in 1920.

[8:59] And, you know, you can you can credit Prohibition for creating the American mafia. You know, Prohibition, if anything, will usually, you know, create crime, as you know, as a law enforcement person. You tell somebody they can’t do something, you can’t drink, you can’t do, you know, you can’t have your marijuana, you can’t, you know, you can’t bet on sports. courts, stuff like that. Once you say you can’t do it, well, you’re going to have an L pop up the supply of that service to you. The Era of Bootlegging and Mafia Expansion

[9:28] So when Prohibition hit, there’s a lot of money to be made. Al Capone, he’s made millions. And so did a lot of the other Italians all across the country, and not just the Italians, the Irish, everybody. And so my family, they got into the bootlegging really big in West Springfield, Massachusetts. And they started branching out across the river to Springfield. And there was some fighting going back and forth, this Siniscalchi family.

[10:00] And my family, they got ripped off on a liquor deal. And my uncle, Giuseppe Joseph Parisi, he found the guy that was called in the newspapers, the king of the bootleggers, the guy who ran everything in Springfield. He was sitting in the back of his limo, On Main Street, three days before Christmas, hundreds of people, you know, Christmas shopping, went up to the car. They had some words and my uncle ended up emptying his gun into his chest and killing him right in front of a huge crowd of people. And got caught by the police within about five minutes because I guess he wasn’t a fast runner.

[10:41] So, and that kicked off a war that went on for 13 years, you know, between the families. Yeah. Interesting. The kind of the river runs through it here from both sides of the river. Yeah. Yeah. And so the Senesquenzi family, they were they were on the what would be the greater Springfield area, the downtown area where all the government buildings were in that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. It was called Water Street back then. It’s been renamed Columbus Ave. And we call it the South End, but it’s the little Italy of Springfield. Okay. And my family actually started off over there, and then they moved across the river. I guess like moving to New Jersey, you’re considered a farmer over in the suburbs. Yeah. You know, like three minutes away over a small bridge. But that river is a huge dividing line, and it’s still a line. It was a line all the way through to the 80s. That line divided the mafia families. You know, you got, you know, you got the Pachiaka family, you know, you got the Boston family, and then you have, you know, the Springfield family, which was the Genovese family. The Rise of Pascalina Siniscalchi

[11:52] And that’s basically what happened next. You know, Carlo Siniscalchi gets killed by my uncle and his widow, Pascalina Siniscalchi, becomes the first lady boss. Boss. She became the queen of bootlegging. She kept that business going along with all her brothers.

[12:10] And she had a big figure in the town and she retaliated. My family was going, visiting, my uncle in jail, waiting for his trial for murder. And my aunt, my grandmother, a couple of my uncles, and my uncle, who at the time was only four years old, also went to visit, little Pasquale Marvici and when they came out of York Street jail visiting my uncle they got followed down the street and a car pulled up alongside of them and machine gunned the car, went to the end of the street turned around came back machine gunned it again trying to kill my grandmother and my aunt and my my uncles the only person that was shot was my you know my but he was four years old he got shot in the arm fortunately he lived but the only person to get hurt was a little four-year-old and it ended up being the nephew of carlos siniscalchi, and he was driving pascalina skinnescalchi’s car when he did it so he got picked up right away.

[13:16] Trial of course my family went and when it was time to identify you know you know my my brother you know who shot at you oh no c no c no can see no c acting like she can’t speak any english at at all, and they all refused to identify who shot them. And they decided to, you know, take it streets and deal with it themselves instead of involving the police.

[13:42] And, you know, that that led on to, you know, it just continued. Then the little boy’s father was also driving the car at the time. They followed him about a month later after the trial. They followed him into Connecticut and they machine gunned him. And John Mussolino, while they’re doing some business down in Connecticut, they got being gunned going down the side of the highway. Anyway, the car pulled up again and machine gunned them. And unfortunately, my uncle, Joe Marvici, he was married to one of my aunts, Lucharisi. I’m sorry, Agata Parisi.

[14:16] And he died. He got shot, you know, in the neck and in the face, and he died. Retaliation and Ongoing Conflict

[14:22] This was in retaliation of my uncle Joe killing Carlos Nascalchi. And this order was put out by Pascalina, the queen of the bootleggers. Well, it’s quite a story. That is, man. You got a lady involved. Yeah, especially having a lady involved. That’s really unusual. We had a similar mob war where people were killing each other over about a year’s time. There was about five murders. But that’s kind of how they develop. It seemed like once they get started, they just start going back and forth. So each one has to retaliate for the most recent atrocity. Challenges Faced by Bootleggers

[14:58] So it’s crazy. Crazy. What was the bootleg business like at that point in time? Were both of them, was there business for both of them? Or was the Senescalchi family kind of dominant in that? Or the Parisi’s? Well, the Parisi family, along with the Pugliano family, they were dominant in West Springfield. And the Senescalchi Albano family, they were dominant in Springfield. And they were trying to take over each other’s territory and expand. There’s plenty of business, you know. But in that, everybody just wants more and more. There’s tons of money to be made.

[15:35] So after this retaliation hit and they killed my uncle, Joe Marvici, now it’s time for the Parisi family to retaliate. And they end up shooting Carlo’s brother, Durante Siniscalchi. He lived.

[15:51] And Pascalina realized she needed some help. You know, she, you know, the Parisi family wasn’t going away. Yeah. So she ends up marrying Antonio Miranda. Now, I don’t know if you know that name, Antonio, the Miranda name, but his brother was Michael Miranda, the consigliere to Vito Genovese and best friends with Frank Costello. Right.

[16:19] So this is where the Genovese family gets its feet in Springfield, Massachusetts. But Consigliari’s Vito Genovese’s brother marries Pasqualina Siniscalchi. The Entry of the Genovese Family in Springfield

[16:35] So now she’s got the Genovese family backing her back in New York. But that didn’t stop anything. He died a year later, natural causes. As um you know mike uh antonio miranda did um i guess he had a simple callus on his foot went in for injury and he ended up having a you know bleeding out they gave him a blood transfusion and it was gonorrhea or syphilis or something you know from the blood transfusion from a college student and he died from that so so you know he died and then she starts running around with Michael Fiore. Now, Fiore is a big name in my area. His nephew is today the oldest living made member of the Genovese or any crime family, Mario Fiore. He’s a legend in the Northeast. He’s 99 years old.

[17:35] He still holds court every day at the Italian pastry shop in Springfield with his espresso um the current you know he he’s people go to him for advice still the current members um he’s he’s supposedly inactive but he’s a wise man very very nice man i’ve met him many times friends with his son louis and um he’s still holding court and um his family you know, very active in the current mob to this day. Wow. So the Genovese, once they got their hooks into Springfield and whatever money and power that you could derive out of that, they did not let go, I don’t imagine, did they? No, not at all. I mean, they were the big bootleggers in New York at the time, and they had the stronghold in Springfield. And then, you know, Antonio dies of a blood infection and Michael Fiori steps in and he decides he’s going to take over Pasqualina’s bootlegging business. And the Genovese family back in New York were not happy about this.

[18:49] So Michael Fiori and Pasqualina, they were over at a friend’s house one evening and they, They come out, and a car was sitting up the street. And for some reason, Michael Fiore lingered at the doorstep talking to the people they were just visiting while Pascalina went and got in the car by herself. And he lingered at the door, and a car pulled up alongside her car, and six gunmen emptied their weapons into her car and into her. A very brutal assassination. The first mob hit of a lady ever made national news. I have newspaper articles from every state in the country on this mob hit on a woman. She was called put on the spot back then. And yeah, it was a brutal, brutal assassination of this lady. And he came out, he got some glass fragments in his shoulder and in his elbow, and that was it. So, you know, this angered the Genovese family. They knew it was a setup. He wanted to take things over. They feel he was involved in that hit. Legacy of Michael Fiori

[20:03] My grandfather, I’m sorry, Michael, he just got out of prison. They’re wondering if he was involved in it. Nobody knows.

[20:15] And he went and had a sit down with the Genovese family and they agreed, listen, enough people are dying on both sides. We want to run Springfield. My uncle and my grandfather and everybody, they just wanted West Springfield. So they made an agreement that, listen, we’ll stay on our own sides of the river. Let’s quit this mob war, which was, my uncle was happy. And I mean, they killed his brother-in-law. They tried to kill his wife. They shot the little four-year-old boy. People in Springfield are getting killed. Women are getting killed. So they held the truce and they had an agreement that we’ll keep West Springfield and Springfield separate. The Brutal Assassination of Pascalina Siniscalchi

[20:53] Separate but michael fury didn’t you know didn’t you know keep to that he was a career criminal when he came to america he’s i think he he was in america for 20 years 17 years of that was in prison, so you know he wasn’t he wasn’t a smart guy he was a thug you know he wasn’t a racketeer he’s more of a muscle man and he had a habit you know every wednesday he’s at a barber shop and and got a you know trim and a shave and you know two guys walked in they they stood on both sides of them said you know hey mike how you doing and i’m doing good and the next thing you know they’re they’re you know filling him with lead and it was a barber shop slang the old albert anastasia.

[21:36] Yeah the old famous barber shop slang just like the anastasia hit yeah and that put that put the end of the whole mob or that was the end of that and i would say six months later prohibition ended, so they almost made it out they almost made it out okay that’s a hell of a story now tell me you found as it was a diary or some a journal or something that joseph parisi had kept and and where he kind of reflects a lot of self-reflection about this murder that he was involved in.

[22:07] Yeah. So he was in, he was in the local jail waiting for trial and it was a huge trial, you know, two thousand people were surrounding the courthouse every day for this trial. You know, you didn’t have TV back then. And when he was in jail, he was keeping, you know, he’s writing his diary and, you know, reflecting back to his childhood, how he met his, you know, how he met his wife, my aunt. And, you know, I got ahold of this diary. It was given to me by his grandson son, and I got permission to use it. And that’s when the story of my book really changed. It was first just a historical, true crime, mafia story about people killing each other, what everybody likes to read. And then after I read this, I just said, I’m going to change this book a little bit. If you read this diary, and he was so intelligent, he was such a loving guy. He loved his wife, He loved his kids.

[23:08] And it was really an incredible diary to read. Reflections on Joseph Parisi’s Diary

[23:12] You know, he could have been a poet. The stuff he was writing to his wife was incredible. This is supposed to be, you know, an immigrant off the boat that can’t, you know, he can’t speak English really well. And he could have been a writer himself. And, you know, so I really, I really added that. I put that into the book and, you know, now I’m getting comments from a lot of women that wrote the book. I mean, that read the book and, you know, how they just love the story and, you know, how they could really, you know, see what kind of guy that he was and the person he killed.

[23:49] Was such an evil person. I mean, he, he, the person that he shot, Carlos Siniscalchi, before he shot him, you know, they were, you know, they were like grabbing police officers and holding their hands behind their back and slicing their necks. And, and they were, they were going after the police. They were, they were a crew, the Siniscalchi Albano crew.

[24:08] And, you know, and then I have my, my uncle and I’m portraying him from his diaries of this, you know, this loving family family man. So many people are telling me, I found myself rooting for a murderer to win this court case. Because my uncle was looking at the electric chair back then. I play golf with some police officers and they’re like, I hate to say this, but I was rooting for your uncle to win the trial. I’m a cop and I don’t usually root for the bad guy, but I really wanted to see him win. And that’s quite a story in itself, too. The Court Case and Pardon of Joseph Parisi

[24:45] The court case was, you know, an incredible story that Joseph Eli, Joseph Eli was his attorney and, you know, super high profile guy. You know, he’s kind of like, you know, like having Cutler and Gotti. But while he’s defending my uncle, he’s running for governor of Massachusetts and he wins. He was governor eight years. So once he got into office, so my uncle ends up going to prison, but he ends up going for manslaughter. The jury convicted him, you know, because he confessed to doing it. He said, you know, I feared for my life. I thought he was going to pull a gun on me. He reached in his back pocket. And when he did, I grabbed my gun and I shot first.

[25:34] And he confessed to it. That’s why it’s called Mafia Confession. I have his full confession from the police in my book. So I forgot where I was going with this. His lawyer had became governor after the case. He’s in prison for manslaughter. Did the governor, I have to guess, did the governor community sentence or? He sure did. He did. He sure did. He pardoned him. he pardoned him and and and he was actually the governor went to his hearing for both his pardon to make sure everybody voted to let him out and then he went to his hearing to get his american citizenship citizenship papers wow and made sure everybody voted that he can be an american citizen so that that made huge paper you know paper stories you know you know the governor or taking a special interest in a mob murderer to make sure he gets pardoned and make sure that, you know, he gets his American citizenship papers, you know, it was a big uproar over that. He must have personally been a real likable guy too. He must have had just one of those personalities that it was a likable guy. So that’s interesting. I think he inherited that personality. Family Reflections on Joseph Parisi

[26:47] You know, back when I had hair, you know, the picture that’s on that I use in the book of my uncle. I look just like him. When I had hair, I looked just like that picture of him in the cage. When we went to court back then, if you were a murderer, they put you in a cage in the courtroom. In the courtroom, wow. A little box cage, like a little prison cell to make sure you didn’t run away, I guess. But I think I look just like him in that picture. Interesting. But he was a jovial guy. When I wrote this book, you know…

[27:22] A lot of my family, like they didn’t realize how deep he was into the mob back then. They just remember he was just, you know, this, this likable guy, funny guy. He owned the Parisi market at the end of my street, the Italian deli. And they’re like, wow. You know, I didn’t realize grandpa or I didn’t realize uncle Joe was, you know, such a hardcore killer. And I go, yeah, that’s, that’s the true story, you know? And they just couldn’t believe it. He used to walk me to school and hold my hand and little man. I go, yeah, that’s how he turned out. But that’s not how he started. The Dual Lives of Mobsters

[27:57] You know, Nick, that’s what I’ve always found fascinating. Even back when I worked, Bob, so to speak, as a from the police viewpoint, I’d see these guys and they’d have, you know, family and kids and they’d go home. They’d be, you know, I may go back out in the evening, but they’d go home and they’d go to their kids events at schools. And and they had this whole separate two separate lives, almost like gangster over the city. You know, dad, grandpa, uncle, you know, a family member at home. That’s that’s one thing I really found interesting about this whole subculture of the Italian mafia. Yeah. You hear that a lot. And it’s interesting. You know, I don’t know. Maybe it’s an atonement type of thing where they’re doing such bad things on one side that maybe they feel that that, you know, They have to have such an extreme on the other side. You know, they went to church every Sunday, and they felt because they did that, they were absolved from all their bad deeds.

[28:59] Most of the mobsters were heavily religious. Really, I think part of it is they came over as immigrants because of lack of opportunity back in Sicily and southern Italy. A lot of no opportunity so they come to america and they’re greeted with the irish and and the germans and the english we’ve already got everything sewed up and so you guys can speak english right we can speak english so here you guys you got all the government jobs right you guys come in and we’re not gonna open it up we’re not gonna let you have anything you know we’re gonna keep you down in a way and so then you’ve got these bright people bright young men aggressive You know who, if you let them into business right away, they do well and, but they won’t let you in. So, you know, there’s a business that’s open and that’s the business of crime and the band bootlegging just played right into that. Parallels between Bootlegging and Marijuana Business

[29:49] That was like a real organized kind of, you could be like a real businessman, you know, organizing, organizing routes, transportation routes, and, and having a lot of people working for you and, and you had collection and, and you had all kinds, all the things of a regular business. So that’s to me, that’s, and you know, the, the aggressiveness and the, the murders and, and beatings and things that just was part and parcel of that business. So I, that, that would be, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And you look in the Northeast and, you know.

[30:21] Back in that time, you know, the firemen, the police department, all the politicians, all Irish. Yeah. And in German. Yeah. And it was the language barrier, you know, because, you know, they came over, they could speak the English language and the Italians couldn’t. So, you know, the Italians back in, you know, 1900, 1910, when the big, you know, mass dysphoria happened of the Italians, I think half the population of Italy left, you know, during that earthquake and tsunami that happened and wiped out Southern Italy. But, you know, the Italians were said, go to America. The streets are paved with gold. Yeah. You know, and, you know, they get here. And first of all, the streets weren’t paved with gold. They were dirt. and second of all the italians guess what you guys are going to build the new roads because that’s the only job we’re going to give you.

[31:13] It’s the immigrant story it’s it’s a story of overcoming great odds the italian community it’s a story of overcoming huge odds and like he’s the language barrier a lot of people don’t understand that i hear people they say well how’d they just learn english you You know, have you ever tried to learn a foreign language? It’s hard. I’ve tried. I’ve worked on a couple of them. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It’s impossible almost to really become fluent in it. It’s just, it’s really tough. So it’s a difficult one. See, I had one more question. Oh, okay. Let’s end up with this. I have a question. You being involved in the illegal cannabis business, the marijuana business at one point your life and your relatives being involved in the illegal alcohol business. Can you, what kind of, can you make some, draw some parallels just off the top of your head, the parallels between the two? Oh, I was a modern day bootlegger. Yeah. Exact same thing. You know, liquor was prohibited back at 1920. So somebody provided a, you know, source for it. And I did the same thing. I, you.

[32:26] You know, I saw an opportunity and, you know, marijuana was illegal, but it’s, you know, it’s, I think it’s a pretty much harmless, you know, drug it’s legal now. So, um, it’s much more safe than drinking alcohol. You know, you don’t hear about, you know, people getting in accidents being intoxicated from marijuana like you do with you know alcohol yeah you know it’ll probably be a five mile per hour collision but i you know i consider myself a modern day a modern day bootlegger just like my family what about some of the services some of the problems that bootleggers had was somebody trying to hijack your loads and the secrecy that you needed to maintain and and the problems with people that were your distributors and that kind kind of thing. Is there any, did you notice those similar kinds of problems? Oh yeah. I mean, everything was the same, you know, you had the, you had the bootlegging stills back then we had the, you know, we had the grow houses, you know, we rent houses in these bad neighborhoods and try to make it look like somebody was living there was actually.

[33:25] You know, every single room in the house was, you know, had, you know, a couple hundred plants in it and, you know, indoor light, you know, special indoor lighting for grow. And, you know, you got grow houses you got people that are you know driving in their car with 40 50 pounds in the trunk and you of course you got people that want to try to rob them and you know they’re easy targets you can’t go to the police if you get robbed with you know you know about a hundred thousand dollars you know in a drug deal yeah you know because it’s still federally illegal today even though it’s legalized by the state in many places so yeah you know you have people you know You know, hackers trying to steal from you, try to rob your grow houses. Just it’s the exact parallel with prohibition back in the 20s, the marijuana industry today. Yeah, that’s what I always thought. So that’s been a heck of a story, Nick. Teaser for Nick Parisi’s Next Book

[34:13] I really appreciate you coming on and telling my guys your stories and guys go out and snag this book. I’ll have a link to it on Amazon. It’s Mafia Confession, King of the Bootleggers. So nick parisi do you have any final words that you want to say to anybody out there, Yeah. Just let you know that I’m currently writing another book and it’s about the current day mafia in Springfield, Mass. We had a big mob hit in 2000 of Big Al Bruno. And the man who took his place was Anthony Arilotta, very well known. He became the boss under the Genovese family.

[34:53] And when they got caught about seven years later for killing Big Al Bruno, Bruno, the captain of the Genovese family became an informant and he testified against, everybody that was under him. So he was a big mob boss in our town and he becomes an informant and he puts two of my high school buddies in prison that were with him, Ty and Freddy Gias. I grew up with them since a little kid. And people probably know, heard the name Freddy Gias while he was in prison, he killed Whitey Bulger. So I’m writing a new book. It’s about the current day mafia, the big Al Bruno hit all the way to right up to Whitey Bulger. And I’m talking with current members of the mafia, former members, and I’m actually talking with Anthony Arilotta since he can talk to me with immunity. Fairy tales about all the crimes that happened during the 90s all the way up to 2010. So it’s going to be a great book. I I can’t wait for people to get it. Oh, man, that’ll be a heck of a book. It’s basically when you tie that Freddie Bulger murder into it, too. That’s oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That’s that’s going to be a heck of a book. You got to come back on the show when you get that book out there. Closing Remarks and Resources

[36:04] Oh, yeah. Thank you. Sure. Well, all right. Sure. Well, Nick, it’s been great talking to you. Don’t forget, guys, if you have a problem with PTSD and you’ve been in service, go to the VA website and get that hotline number. If you have a problem with drugs or alcohol, which goes hand in hand with PTSD, you know, our friend Anthony Ruggiano, who had been a Gambino soldier, is a drug and alcohol counselor down in Florida. And he has a hotline on his website, reformmonsters.com or something like that. And he has a YouTube site. Just Google his name. And don’t forget, I like to ride motorcycles. So watch out for motorcycles when you’re out there on the street. And like and subscribe and give me a review once in a while. And I’m going to have a link to Mafia Confessions, King of the Bootleggers in the show notes, guys. So click on that. So thanks a lot, Nick, for coming on the show. Thank you, Gary. I had a great time talking with you. I love your show. I love watching all your other shows. You do a great job. Thank you. You hear that, guys?

The post Mafia Confessions with Nick Parisi appeared first on Gangland Wire.

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. Learn about the shadowy world of crime from the life of Danny Greene, also known as the Celtic warrior. If you haven’t seen it, watch “To Kill the Irishman,” a film featuring Christopher Walken and Paul Sorvino. Danny Greene was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1933, orphaned three days after birth, and raised by paternal grandfather and aunt in Collinwood. Danny’s rebellious spirit and tumultuous relationship with his father and stepmother led to a challenging adolescence. Military Service and Union Involvement: After being expelled from high school, Danny Greene enlisted in the Marine Corps, where he excelled as a boxer and earned the rank of corporal. After military service, he became a longshoreman and quickly rose to become the president of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). Double Life as an Informant: Danny Green became a top informant for the FBI, navigating the worlds of labor racketeering and organized crime. Criminal Activity and Conflicts: Formed the Celtic Club and allied with figures like John Nardi and Alexander Burns, leading to conflicts with the Cleveland Mafia. He was involved in bombings, violent clashes, and assassination attempts, solidifying his reputation as a formidable force. Downfall and Legacy: Despite his cunning intellect and adaptability, Danny Green’s luck ran out when he was killed by a car bomb in 1977. His death exposed a criminal conspiracy involving mafia families from Cleveland, New York City, and Southern California. Support the Podcast Subscribe to get new gangster stories every week.

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Transcript [00:00:00] Well, hey, all you wiretappers out there. Welcome to gangland wire. This is Gary Jenkins, retired intelligence detective, and this is your portal into the shadowy world of crime. Today we’re going to take a deep dive into the tumultuous life of Daniel John Patrick Green, a. k. a. Danny Green, the Celtic warrior. You may know him from To Kill the Irishman. Well, no movie, Christopher Walken was in it. I think, , Paul Cervino maybe was in it. My friend, Rick Perrello from Cleveland wrote the book and did a documentary and was involved in making the movie. Anyhow, Danny Green, he was a figure whose legacy is etched into the annals of organized crime, especially in Cleveland and the Midwest. Really? Now, so join me and we’re going to unravel the intricate details of Danny Green’s journey through power, betrayal, and the criminal underworld of Cleveland, Ohio. Danny Green was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1933. His early life was a saga of [00:01:00] hardship, aren’t they all? Don’t they all these organized crime guys grew up in some kind of hardship? He was orphaned three days after he was born, and he got the nickname Baby Green until his mother’s burial and his paternal grandfather and aunt took him in and raised him and named him His gave him his name and they were in the blue collar neighborhood of Collinwood in Cleveland. Danny’s tumultuous relationship with his father and stepmother later on in life set the stage for a really challenging adolescence if you can imagine that. Growing up in Collinwood, Danny developed a rebellious spirit and was always running away from home and you know he hit the streets and you know what happens when these young guys hit the streets. What is there out there? There’s crime and there’s stuff, bad stuff to get into. His grandfather, who was living with for a part of this time, had a evening work schedule. And of course, this gave Danny free reign to go out and explore the streets at night. Did any of [00:02:00] your parents work at night? And when you were a teenager, you know, you’re out at night all the time. Got expelled from St. Ignatius High School, and then he went to public school, Collingwood High School. Danny was a really good athlete and liked sports, and even especially basketball. He was a good basketball player, and that gave him a place on the team, but you know, he couldn’t stay in school. Got expelled from high school in 1951. Danny then what a young man do back in those days, especially he enlisted in the Marine Corps. Marine Corps is the toughest section of the service. And that’s where Danny Green’s going to go. During his time in the Marine Corps, he was a boxer and he obtained a sharpshooter’s badge and even obtained the rank of corporal, which is not always easy to do. And the Marines got an honorable discharge in 1953 and went back to, he went back to civilian life. But He had this rebellious streak. He did not like to give in to any kind of authority over it. Got in the union. He’s longshoreman. And, by the 1960s, Danny found [00:03:00] employment as a longshoreman at the Cleveland docks, his rise to the international longshoreman’s association, or the ILA was swift. And he ends up being as a young guy. Elected president, you know, he must’ve really been charismatic. You know, those young guys, I worked with them and they went right on up. Now, Danny’s life will take a turn during this time. He’s trying to play both ends against the middle, which many people do. You know, the smart ones will play both ends against the middle. He became a top echelon informant for the FBI. They even had a code name, Mr. Patrick. This double life will allow him to navigate these treacherous waters of the union and. illegal activities and organized crime because organized crime is all involved in labor racketeering as you might well imagine. his ability to straddle both these worlds or all these worlds, three worlds really, showed that he had a really cunning intellect and he was adaptable. He could adapt to anything. Now his entry into the criminal underworld intensified, [00:04:00] and he formed a crew, and they had a club, they called it the Celtic Club, and this was like his crew. And he had allies like Cleveland Mafia member John Nardi, and then there was a Jewish guy who was a really high level of Cleveland. Associate that made a lot of money for the mob named Alexander Burns. This will propel him into some conflicts with the Cleveland Mafia family. There’s going to be a series of bombings and violent clashes during this time. This is the 1970s. And Danny Green’s reputation as a formidable force is going to be solidified. This guy was one tough dude. If you saw the movie, Kill the Irishman. Now Danny Green saw the film on the waterfront. You know, I once knew a guy, he was a policeman, and he saw Superfly, and after that he wanted to become a pimp, and he did. He ended up quitting. He became a pimp, , after he saw on the waterfront, he saw himself as this tough doc boss. I think it was, George C. Scott maybe was in the [00:05:00] movie and, , who was the one that Marlon Brando was the boxer, who was the guy that played the Charlie. I could have been somebody. I can’t think of his name now. Anyhow, go and see on the waterfront. There’s a pretty good mafia movie. It’s not really. Bill does a mafia movie. He’d use his workers that are his and his Celtic club to beat up under union, other union members who didn’t come in line with what he wanted, but he had a gift of gab or the Blarney, as they say, and his members idolized him. This guy was, he was one of these, union bosses, reps that would. Just to show the company and the men like this, as long as they didn’t lose too much work, he would declare work stoppages. Just, you know, he declared as many as 25 in a day, just to show the company owners that he had the, he was the authority on the docks. He knew how to play a hard ball. Like on one occasion, even threatened to murder the children of one owner, to the FBI and he put them. Officers on the man’s house and put the family under protection. [00:06:00] There’s a Cleveland investigative reporter during this time. He’s creating a lot of stir. So people know there’s something going on. And he collected a bunch of affidavits, which supported charges of extortion. And, , you know, the national, like they were after him at that time. And the government goes after him and he’s convicted of embezzlement from the union. This conviction is later overturned on appeal and rather than have a second trial, Danny Green pleads guilty to a lesser charge and gets fined 10, 000 and got a suspended sentence. So he went right back into the union and he never did pay the fine and he didn’t do any time. Once he returned to the rackets, a met and befriended teamsters boss, Cleveland teamsters, boss, Louie Trescaro, who introduced green to Jimmy Hoffa at one time when it kind of, Hoffa, he had this sixth sense, I guess, cause he, it was a friendly meeting, but Hoffa later on reportedly told Trescaro, stay away from this guy. There’s, there’s something wrong. There’s something wrong with this guy. Stay away from him. Well, in the 70s, again, Cleveland’s [00:07:00] mafia boss dies and a war breaks out between the successor, John Scalise appointed James Licavoli as his successor, and John Nardi, who was Danny Green’s associate, wanted that job, felt like he should have the job, and now we’ve got a war breaking out. And Danny Green’s Celtic club, his crew is, are right deep in the middle of this and with the Lickavole faction and their bombings assassinations, there was like six, I think there’s five or six, assassination attempts on Danny Green himself. And he even got in a gun battle with a guy who was out jogging and some guy shows up and tries to shoot him. Danny’s carrying a gun, ended up in a shootout and he shoots a guy and he, you know, he gets off for self defense. There was a bomb that went off and he wasn’t quite in his, Celtic club and, and he poses for the cameras in front of the exploded Celtic club, the damaged Celtic club. And, you know, I said, Hey, he said, you know, I got the luck of the [00:08:00] Irish. You can’t get me he had some strategic alliances. But you know, this bloody and chaotic underworld landscape that he’s going through, you know, it’s just really hard to survive that because the mafia, particularly, they can look outside of their own people and Danny Green did not have that national network and Lickavole did. Danny Green’s luck of the Irish finally ran out October 6, 1977, gone to the dentist, and this was after several attempts, somebody planted a bomb right next to his car in another car. And when he got in his car, they set that one off and took him out. And they could sit and watch it so that, you know, they didn’t have any, collateral damage there, which is a good mark of a good mob bomber is not to have any collateral damage. That’s the mark of a good mob bomber to not have any collateral damage when the bomb goes off and gets his target too. This explosion will mark the end of a turbulent journey that left a really an [00:09:00] indelible mark on Cleveland’s criminal history. I mean, this guy cut a wide swath through Cleveland during these years. And even in death, the aftermath of Danny Green’s death exposed a criminal conspiracy involving mafia families from Cleveland, New York City, and Southern California even. The government will learn that the bomber was assisted by a Los Angeles Mafia member named Jimmy the Weasel Fraudiano. Jimmy the Weasel, you know, he learns about this and he says, okay, he’s already been informing a little bit. He says, I’ll come in. He goes into witness protection program and dominoes from Jimmy Fraudiano start falling all over the United States. He testifies in front of Congress. After that other defections back, you know, turning state’s evidence, federal prosecutions, the unraveling of a mafia intricate network followed that from Jimmy Fraudiano on this really is all come. From this attempt to get Danny green. It left a lasting impact [00:10:00] as Jimmy Friday, I know. And what he talked about was a lasting impact on the organized crime in the whole United States. So there you have it, an overview of the gripping saga of Danny green, the Celtic warrior. He was a guy who’s man. He was a guy whose life embodied the complex interplay of power, loyalty, and betrayal. So. Come back again and see so don’t forget like and subscribe and give me a review if you’re on the on the app and tell your friends about us and don’t forget I like to ride motorcycles so watch out for motorcycles when you’re out there and if you have a problem with PTSD and you’ve been in the service be sure and go to the VA website and hand in hand with PTSD usually comes drug and alcohol dependents. , if you’ve not been in the service, we have our friend Anthony Ruggiano down there in Florida, who has a hotline on his website, anthonyruggiano. com or his YouTube page. So guys, there you have it. [00:11:00] Another little short bio. I’m going to continue to do these little short bios of Bob guys. You know, a lot of times we talk about people, unless you have some contacts to put it in a little bit about their history and everybody can’t know everything. I’m going to keep putting out these mob bios in order to help people get more grounded and have a base knowledge of these different significant characters, whether it be members of mafia or important associates like Danny green. So thanks a lot, guys.

The post Danny Greene: Celtic Warrior appeared first on Gangland Wire.

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. In this episode of Gangland Wire, we talk with the niece of the Bootleg Queen of Springfield, MA, Gina Cunningham, and Justin Cascio of Mafia Geneology about the mafia in Springfield, Massachusetts. We explore bootlegging during Prohibition, Pasqualina Albano’s rise to power, rivalries with other mafia groups, and the unique presence of women in the male-dominated subculture. We learn how she married a man from the NYC Genovese family and how this led to the Genovese Family’s continuing presence and influence in Springfield. We discuss Pasqualina’s assassination, the impact of the documentary about her, and the importance of open conversations about family history. Support the Podcast Subscribe to get new gangster stories every week.

Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee”

To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup, click here

To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. 

To rent Gangland Wire, the documentary, click here

To buy my Kindle book, Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos.

To subscribe on iTunes click here. Please give me a review and help others find the podcast. Donate to the podcast. Click here!

Transcript [0:00] Welcome all you wiretappers out there back here in the studio of Gangland Wire. I really appreciate y’all tuning in every week or maybe twice a week sometimes. You know, I’ve got a show today about Springfield, Massachusetts. Now, I’ve gotten several inquiries. I think it was on my YouTube question and then on the Gangland Wire podcast Facebook page, which you guys ought to get on because we’ve got a huge, we’ve got 50,000 people on that thing with all Sharon Motley information. But about Springfield and I didn’t know a lot about it and and then I happened to see I think maybe on Justin’s Justin Cascio’s website or he made it into a post or somehow I saw about this new documentary that our other guy other guest had Gina Cunningham who is a great niece of an early.

[0:48] Mob couple if you will a mob power couple in Springfield and so I thought you know let’s go go into this. She has a documentary. Gina is a great niece of Albano, who was the bootleg queen of Springfield during Prohibition. And Justin, of course, you guys know, runs the Mafia Genealogy Facebook page and website. And he has a ton of great Mafia family connections stretching back to Sicily on his website. And he’s a real expert in that. He has this great, I have to apologize to you on air here, Justin, that guy that stole your picture and wiped out your attribution to it and put it on my Facebook page or group. So, you know, we took it off and then I posted a link to it and I noticed you’ve updated it. I think we’re all square on that, but he has a lot of great information. And there’s this one photo he’s got that he made showing the five families in Manhattan and greater New York area and what their geographic outlines of the other domain would, as it were, would be. So welcome, guys. I really appreciate y’all coming on the show. Thank you, Jerry. So Gina, tell us a little bit about yourself personally and how you made this happen to make this documentary. Gina Cunningham’s Personal Journey and Documentary Creation

[1:59] Okay, so my name’s Gina Cunningham. And obviously, when you hear Cunningham, you don’t think of an Italian American, but I’m half Italian American. But I grew up in a totally 100% Italian American family. And everything in my family was always a mystery, especially the the story of Pasqualina. We knew that we had a great aunt Pasqualina, but we didn’t know anything about her. My mother would take me to her grave where she would ask me to pray for Pasqualina. But when I asked why I was praying for Pasqualina, I never got an answer.

[2:34] And as I went on in life and, you know, I kind of ran away from this life as soon as I could. I went to New York City and kind of never came back. And I’ve lived between New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, all of my adult life. And I really never came back to Springfield because the life was a little confusing to me. And it wasn’t the most creative feminist environment that I could be in. But the story of pascalina was always something that i was thinking about and as i was growing up a lot of my relatives knew her now the only relative alive who knew pascalina was my uncle mario fiori who will turn 100 in june but i was able to get stories about pascalina from Mario, Uncle Mo, I call him. And about 15 years ago, I started doing research in the Springfield Library, microfiche, microfilm. I soon transferred my research to the internet and interviewing more distant relatives.

[3:45] And I realized there was a story and as Justin would put it, a cautionary tale here. Yeah, it is. Anytime one of your relatives kind of strays over, you got the inside scoop on, strays over onto the dark side. It’s a cautionary tale for the younger relatives. Like, you know, you may not want to repeat some of this behavior, but anyhow. But now it’s kind of romantic, that whole prohibition and gangsters and, you know, Al Capone and Lucky Luciano and all that is pretty romantic right now. It’s just kind of some interesting turn of events.

[4:21] You know, Springfield, Massachusetts. So that’s not a place where we think of the mafia. We think of the outfit in Chicago. I even think of over in Little Italy, Columbus Park area here in Kansas City, you know, Boston, Providence, Rhode Island, New York City, New Orleans. The Mafia’s Presence in Springfield and Overview of Prohibition

[4:37] But don’t think about Springfield, Massachusetts. So Justin, tell us a little bit about an overview of the mob in Springfield, you know, up to getting into prohibition. Okay, sure. There was a mafia presence, or at least a proto-mafia presence everywhere in the United States that Italians went. And of course, we didn’t just go to the big cities. We went to little coal mining towns. We were in farming. And Springfield was a part of the steel belt. It was a part of the chain of northern factory towns. And so they were making paper and they were making guns and other things here in Springfield, dictionaries. And so they needed a lot of labor. and Italians came here to find those jobs. And a lot of people came to Springfield from the country outside of the city of Naples. And so Gina and her family and a lot of the people that I study in the Springfield Mafia trace their roots back to these few little towns outside of Naples, Kingici and San Giuseppe Vesuviano and a few other little towns that are all kind of clustered together. gather.

[5:44] And one of the people who I think was responsible for that was the uncle of Pasqualina Albano. He was one of the earliest settlers in this area, and he became very successful.

[5:56] The family, as I said, became very successful. And the story then kind of segues into that of Pasqualina’s story during Prohibition. And that story culminates in a connection to the Genovese family in New York City, which still is part of the mafia today. The mafia in Springfield is still a thing, and it’s still controlled by the Genovese family. Interesting. Yeah, the quintessential story, the story for every major city where there was a large influx of Italians from southern Italy and Sicily was that the black handers got here first, and I assumed they had black hand type type guys in Springfield before they got organized during Prohibition, is that it would have the same history? I would talk about the early history in terms of Padroni, people like John Albano, Pasquina’s uncle. He wasn’t a black hand. He wasn’t extorting people. He was helping them, you might say. And he took a, as the papers put it, a strong interest in all of the Italians in the community. He got to know everybody and he had such a powerful network that he could make himself useful to everyone and that was how he enriched himself and became powerful is because he had helped everybody find jobs find housing etc.

[7:14] Gina, what did you learn about this Padrone kind of society, if you will? And I know that goes back to the old country. And I talked to a guy from Ireland that’s buying a house in rural Sicily right now. And he had to go to the local guy who was kind of the fixture and knew everybody and would, you know, line him up with craftsmen and all that even today. So what did you dig up about that? Yeah, I think it exists in Springfield to this day. And most of my family lives in Springfield, and I still think that they know people that they can go to that will help ease their lives quite a bit. And I think it’s another reason why a lot of people never left.

[7:58] It was something that did not attract me in the 1970s when I left Springfield, but I do think it exists today. And I know that the early people that Pasqualina’s family, her first husband, who was assassinated, were dealing with what they call black handers. And they because they were black handers, there were no rules and regulations. They were not they didn’t have a hierarchy. They were just they were wild people. And, you know, that exists still today. You know, there’s people that are gangland associates, which you gentlemen probably know more about that than I do. So Pasqualina Albano, you said her husband was killed. Her first husband was murdered.

[8:47] Yes, she lost two husbands at before the age of 41 years old. So what time frame is this? Is this just prior to Prohibition or were one of the husbands starting to get involved in bootlegging? Because that was for an immigrant community, that bootlegging thing was a godsend. I mean, it was like it was a godsend because it was kind of illegal. It’s illegal enough to make that extra profit, but not so illegal that there was a huge community outrage about getting involved in. So tell us about that, if you would. Well, Pasqualina was born in the 1890s. Like any woman of her day, she married young and had a bunch of children. She had six children herself. She died at the age of 41. What I thought was interesting, not only did she lose her two husbands, but the last person after her second husband died, who was a very important mafia figure, which is the person, Miranda, who tied Pasqualina to the Genovese family forever, which tied my relatives forever and in this present day to the Genovese family in New York. But then she took up with a…

[10:03] Relative, my mother’s uncle on her father’s side, on another side of the family. So she actually had a paramour. She actually had a lover after she lost her second husband, which did not happen to Italian Catholic immigrants in 1930. So I found that really interesting. She must have been one strong personality is the only thing I can say. I kept hearing that. Bootlegging. How did she get into that? Was this, I can’t think of his first name, Miranda. He was a relative of someone in the Genovese or a relative of Vito. What was that connection? Pasqualina’s Early Life and Marriage

[10:49] Pasqualina was born in the 1890s. She married a gentleman who was probably a second, third cousin. That’s my feeling. Came from the same region outside of Naples. And his name was Carlos Sinascouchi. And he got into bootlegging as soon as prohibition was declared in 1919. But he was soon killed by a rival bootlegger. So there she was, a widow with a bunch of kids and she had to start, she took over her husband’s business. She didn’t like leave it to the men. She just started doing what Carlos Sinascouchi, who was assassinated in 1921, she started doing what he was doing. And she started ordering men around and she had her own gang. And then from what I gather is that the Genovese family sent Miranda down to marry her because she was in charge of the operations in Springfield, Massachusetts. So she married Miranda.

[11:59] Yeah. Antonio Miranda, her first husband, Carlos Inescouchi, second husband, Antonio Miranda. And together, as you said, they were a power couple. Correct, Justin? Oh, very much. All of us would play in his relationships with our couples.

[12:14] Yeah. So then they became well off. They bought a couple of very big houses on the other side of town. That was not the Italian immigrant enclave. It was described as a mansion. I’d been there several times. They were little mansions. But the interesting thing was everybody said, and some people have told me, they heard about it from their parents. Their parents played there. There was a tunnel between the two mansions and there was an arsenal in that tunnel. They kept their guns there. The Tunnel and Arsenal Between the Mansions

[12:50] Interesting. But, you know, prohibition now seems a little bit silly. Yeah. And what Pasqualina did, she mainly sold alcohol. I spend most of my time in L.A. and there’s a weed store every few blocks. And it’s no longer a criminal activity like it was 20 or 30 years ago. So these people that sell weed are entrepreneurs now. They’re no longer pushers. And that’s what Pascalina did. She was an immigrant mom who would do anything for her kids like most moms would. And she took what opportunities were available to her.

[13:31] So she had a connection back to New York and they would have more of a connection to like the rum runners that people would bring big boatloads over from England of legitimate booze. But then in the western Massachusetts like this, were there hills around there? Did they have stills? Did they make their own whiskey or how did that work? Were they making wine and whiskey or were they importing it in from smugglers? Yes, they were in the Berkshire Mountains. mountains, and not far from where Justin is. And of course, again, I visited those places, found springs, never found any stills, of course, but it was a rural place at the time, and they weren’t that far from Canada. And Justin lives in that area now, so he might have something to add. Justin, you know anything about the supply line? Go ahead. When they show up in the papers, anyway, Pasquina and her associates, they were involved in commercial-sized stills. And a lot of them were just over the border in Connecticut. Commercial-Sized Stills and Small-Scale Operations

[14:33] Springfield’s like a half an hour from Connecticut. And so I believe that mostly they were suppliers. And what I hear in Springfield and in other small towns, Utica was one, is that people were, they would have a little still in their house or in their barn or in their garage. Like Jane was saying, it was a pretty rural place. So people People had a bit of space on their properties where they could stick a still. And it was sort of like 10 years ago, selling weed at your kitchen table. It was illegal, but nobody was outraged about it. And even though it was sort of small and entrepreneurial, you could get in with very little. You were ultimately feeding a much larger machine because where are you going to sell your alcohol? It went right back into the syndicate. So it could be sold anywhere.

[15:18] So she was more like the wholesaler. Did she have a string of speakeasies like Al Capone? You know, he controlled all the speakes, all the speakeasies. And so, well, as a source of supply, or did she just, like, get the supply and then sell it to somebody else who had the speakeasies? Because you know how mafia people are. They’ve got to line everything up. Everybody’s got to be under somebody’s control. So do you remember how that worked? Do you know how that worked in Springfield? In relation to her? I think we have to collaborate on this one, Justin. So I’ll tell you what I know. Apparently, my grandmother and my other great aunts were part of her system.

[16:01] And they sold the alcohol out of her house. Pasqualina’s Criminal Activities and Housewives’ Involvement

[16:06] She commanded the stills. It was said that she also robbed shipments. I don’t have any proof of that. And she was in charge of the system where housewives sold alcohol that was hitting in their living room, you know, to cops, to judges, to police people, to other Italian Americans. And what they were proud of is that they didn’t have alcohol that would kill you or poison you. They were proud of that. They came from a winemaking region of Italy, as Italy is a winemaking country, and they made the good stuff. And, you know, it was just a crazy law prohibition. So that’s what I know of their supposedly criminal activity.

[16:59] Justin, what else was going on in Springfield during that time, mafia-wise? I mean, was there another? Well, there was a challenging gang right across the river in West Springfield. In fact, I’ve had the really interesting experience of talking with Gina and her family members, who are all related to Pasqualina and Carlo. But then on the other side of the river, we have the guy who killed Carlos and Escalchi, Joseph Parisi. And I’ve been talking with his grandnephew, who has written a book about his family’s sight of basically that story. They were small-time bootleggers. They were doing a lot of the same things that were happening over in Springfield with Pascal Wiemann and Carlos Nascalchi. But I think that they were a little smaller scale and they didn’t have the same kinds of connections because when Joseph Parisi got cut off, he killed Carlos Nascalchi. He didn’t go buy it from somebody else. That book is called Mafia Confession, king of the bootleggers murder my sister sent me said you need to buy this book because our relatives are in it so they’re all connected the hatfields and the mccoy’s on up to modern day yeah so he comes from west springfield wc justin. Joseph Parisi and the Challenging Gang in West Springfield

[18:14] Okay. So I’m from Springfield and Nicholas Parisi is from West Springfield. Okay. So it’s very provincial. Okay. Yeah. I was going to say it’s West Springfield, like in Kansas city, we have Kansas city, Kansas, which is very provincial. And we think of course, and then St. Louis, you have East St. Louis. You’ve got the lower end of the social spectrum. I’m going to let Justin answer that. Don’t throw that one at me. I think we know more about this growing up in the area. Yeah i’m 20 miles away and i didn’t go to school there so i don’t really know the culture as much culture well we can let we don’t want to offend anybody they threw me out of the catholic school i i think i inherited a bit of pascalina spirit so by the time i was a very young teenager i was kind of out of that whole world because everyone else was in the catholic school but they didn’t want me. So I really, I really had to distance to do my life’s work as an artist and an activist. I had to distance myself from the culture. Yeah. But it’s come back on me and very happy and proud to give people the message that none of us can choose our family.

[19:29] That’s true. That is true. Well, that whole and she had her was it her sisters or aunts, other female relatives involved in this endeavor. It’s so unusual. It’s such a male-dominated subculture, if you will, the mafia or organized crime and prohibition bootleggers, whether they were Jewish or Italian or whatever they were, it’s such a male-dominated thing. And for those women to be able to survive and even thrive in that is just amazing, amazing story.

[20:04] Pardon me. My grandmother sold alcohol under the rule of Pasqualina. To me, there’s always been a feminist aspect to this story, although Justin was very quick to remind me on camera that the mafia is neither a democratic or a feminist organization. Neither. either. You guys know more about that than me. But to me, the story of Pascalina of Springfield is the story of a woman that when she was assassinated, seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Pasqualina’s Assassination and Criminal Prey

[20:37] Her assassins only shot up the driver’s side of the car.

[20:42] She was assassinated at 41 in the prime of her life with her boyfriend in the car. But I believe the assassins and And I think we kind of figured out who they were, but I think they really thought it was a man driving the car out at midnight in a big car, a 1930 car. And they didn’t expect Pascalina to be driving that car. Back in those days, and this goes into modern times, there’s always a subset of criminals that prey on drug dealers now, but back then would prey on bootleggers. People that they thought had money would prey on those and would try it like she did. Pasqualina, she stole loads from other people. People were always trying to steal loads from her and maybe thinking she had a cash hoard somewhere. They always had to watch out for those other criminals. And were there any competing kind of gangs going on at the time? Was that part of some, wasn’t part of some, not revenge, but some part of some competition murder to try to eliminate her take over a business because that’s really common in this world.

[21:49] I think they tried to eliminate her boyfriend, her paramour. So her boyfriend was also my great uncle. So she was from the Albano, as Justin says, side of the family. But there was the other side of the family, Fiori side of the family, all immigrants from the same area outside of Naples. And she took up with her brother-in-law, so to speak. and nobody liked that. Nobody liked that she was living with him. And he was a career criminal. He was an immigrant from Italy, but as soon as he came to the United States, he was involved in being a bookie, the numbers games that were very popular back then. And he spent time in federal row prison for cutting up a police officer who brutally attacked him, apparently. So this was a guy that had lots and lots of enemies.

[22:53] And I think the powers that be wanted to see this guy eliminated. The Genovese Family’s Influence in Springfield

[23:00] And I do believe this was a woman that was in the wrong place. So she was kind of a cog in a bigger machine, it sounds like. She wasn’t like the mafia boss of all of Springfield. There must have been something else going on. And did the Genovese family, did they get a piece of this action or were they just interested in the numbers and the gambling? How did that work? Did you ever uncover any of that? It’s hard to find out that kind of stuff. up. Justin?

[23:30] Sure. Well, Tony Miranda married Pasqualina in 1926. They had a small wedding in Connecticut. And from what I can pick up from the Parisi side of the story, it looks like the blood feud between the Parisi and Albano families, because they had been shooting at one another. They’ve been having some drive-by shootings. People had already died in this. That they were the main competitors. I think that we’re looking at a time before you could say that there was one true boss of Springfield, but that time was about to arrive. With the introduction of that Genovese protection, they have an investment now in Springfield. I don’t know what the details of that were, but that’s when the pressure from West Springfield seems to have backed off. And what you see today is that the gang of teenagers in West Springfield, the They are a little bit separate, but ultimately they’re all on the same side.

[24:32] Interesting. This is quite a story, Gina. Documentary Premiere and Impact on the Family

[24:37] This is a heck of a story. So now, what are you doing with this documentary? You’ve been at some film festivals? I have, yeah. I’ve been to more than a dozen film festivals. I’ve won a few awards. It’s a very humble documentary.

[24:53] I made most of it on my iPhone. It wasn’t funded by anybody in particular. I spent a lot of time with my editors, which is Evan and Yadily, and they were young people who knew what to do technically. You know, I’m a little behind on things, but I spent a lot of time getting it up to cinematic quality. Quality and fortunately it was selected by a film festival and I was actually able to premiere it at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California. It screened there twice actually, but I think the best screening was the one that both Justin and I participated in in October of 2023 because the The family in Springfield and the surrounding areas came to see this documentary. And there must have been more than 50 people who very personally identified with the story in our audience. And they were just including Pascalina’s granddaughters.

[26:04] And they were so happy to see this woman champion. Fabian and we we had a party for her and she was it was out in the open and now people talk about her and they talk about this film and you know hopefully it will go someplace my daughter’s a director she’s a Hollywood director she knows people it’s not an easy thing to take an idea and a small film from a film festival and turn it into it wouldn’t be a documentary by the time it it got to a bigger film, better produced film, and a film that, you know, had financial backing. But that’s always possible. I know the feeling. I’ve been down that path myself. Documentary filmmakers, they throw money in a hole. We all know that. Yeah, I’ve been able to break even on every project I’ve done, so…

[27:03] Which is pretty damn good, I think. Well, maybe I’ll have to call you after we finish. Well, it’s a lot of work, I’ll tell you what, to get ready to go do programs in every little library that you can find and all kinds of things. We showed it in the library. It was a grand event, wasn’t it, Justin? Yes. It was really amazing. And I have, sorry?

[27:24] It was just amazing. The room was totally packed and everybody was so engaged in it. And it was like being at a big family intervention in a way, because there was all these people who related to the people on screen. They all came to see this movie. I felt like the therapist at a big intervention, because you’ve seen the movie, so you know that you see young members of Gina’s family, this young woman sitting on her car, and she’s all kind of, yeah, sure, I would totally marry a gangster. And I just want to shake this girl and be like, I have to save you from this week. You can’t follow the rest of your family into this. Listen to their stories. And so now they were all in this room listening to the story together. And I think that that was so critical. I can’t imagine that the family is going to be the same again after this, because now they’ve all seen the story together and they have to talk about it. Yeah, I agree. And I have to say, you know, every time I kind of talk to people in Springfield in in the years preceding making this documentary, which came out in 2022, people would mention Justin’s name. And, you know, I just, he’s very well respected with my family and with others that are attached to these kinds of stories in the Western Massachusetts area and beyond.

[28:42] And, you know, Justin, the work you do is hard work and it’s work that requires a lot of discipline? Could you really delve into these stories? And just a shout out to Justin right now. I agree. My brother was very brave. My brother was, you know, you’re never a made person if you’re not an Italian American. But my brother was Genovese family associate, both of my brothers. But my youngest brother, Bob, he came forward and he spoke very candidly on camera about being shot, off about, you know, being a wise guy. And, you know, he was in the audience. He got up on the stage in Hollywood on the, you know, the stage of the Chinese theater. And we answered questions together. And the whole family dynamic has changed. I bet I can imagine. I get a lot of locally in Kansas City, especially because I was a police officer here and worked on the mob. I get get a lot of emails and comments and messages from.

[29:46] Descendants of some of the different mob people here but they always they have one thing in common they say the family won’t talk about any of this can you tell me any more about this relative’s murder or no nobody talks about it you know can you tell me more about you know what he was doing back then my my reality was doing and then they’ll tell me some other stories it’s like oh my God that life you know you you know I raise your kids in that life but you know it’s one big huge secret that everybody has until somebody can bring it out. And it’s a hard thing to do, those family dynamics in that, from that life. Yeah, I can imagine, you know, because the mafia, that’s what always interested me about the mafia was they have this family life. Mob guys, you know, criminals, professional criminals, they have this family life, extended family. Some of them are criminals. Some of them are just business people. They have kids. They go to their kids here in Kansas City. They go to St. Pius, to all the games that their kids and their grandkids play in or participate in. And yet they go over in the city and there are these gangsters over the city to have this whole other life. And it’s just it’s it’s amazing. It’s it’s it’s unbelievable sometimes.

[31:01] And we and I think we have to remember that that whole other life that you just mentioned is not glamorous. And we have as Americans and as an Italian Americans, we have made mafia stories, mafia lore, mafia movies, our form of entertainment. And it’s kind of bizarre explaining that to an Italian.

[31:29] Some of the Italians don’t they don’t understand that that’s our entertainment in this country. You’re a purveyor of that entertainment. Yes, we are. We are. Even no matter how academic we try to do, and I try to look at it beyond just the shoot-em-up stories, the murders, but no matter how academic you try to be, it’s still a certain form of entertainment. I understand that. I know. And I’ll say this right now that I’ve never condoned any gun use. I’ve never held a gun. I’ve never seen a gun except on a cop. You know, that world is not my world. And, you know, I’m very strongly against any kind of violence and any kind of violence against women. And ultimately, Pasqualina was a victim of violence against women, and gun violence is not anything I would glorify ever. Uncovering Family Secrets

[32:25] But unfortunately, it’s part of my family history. Yeah, it’s a fact. All right, guys, I really appreciate y’all coming on the show. It’s been a really a little bit different show because we can go really go easily go beyond the shoot them up, the thrilling kind of things that we find thrilling about the underworld we just talked about and talk about these family connections. And I hope that there’s other I know I’ve got a lot of family members that that listen to the show or watch it on YouTube. And so I think maybe it might, you know, stir them to say, hey, maybe I ought to talk to my cousin about this. You know, we have this family secret. We ought to talk about it. That’s kind of what what I’m hoping for, especially as we get done with our show here. So I really appreciate y’all coming on. How can people see this movie? Is it available any any place or you got it should be available on Amazon. On, but I’ll have to put a message on your Facebook page. Okay. Do that.

[33:22] Because I don’t have the facts at this point, but I have a question for you before we go. How many women do you deal with, you know, in your, in your work? How many women have been on your show? Oh, is it all male relatives? Is it, is this the purview of male relatives? primarily my demographics are about 90% men between 30 and 75 or so. And I’ve had all about, let’s see, one other woman had a book, Andrea Diogevini.

[33:58] She had been married to a guy, but she was part of a whole drug thing, was connected to Gotti Gambino’s. And I think that’s the only other woman I’ve had. I had another one, I forgot who it was, I guess. Well, you know, I lived near Mulberry Street in New York’s Little Italy for a long time. And I used to see John Gotti all the time.

[34:22] Just coincidence. I don’t know. I lived in New York’s Little Italy because it was cheap as hell back then in the 70s. But I always saw those guys. So it’s interesting that it’s just still a predominantly male fascination, as I might say. The Male Dominance in Crime Fascination

[34:40] I don’t know. It was a male operation, if you will, male participants, about 99%, 98% male participants. And it’s primarily male fans, if you will, or aficionados or whatever you want to call it. But, you know, I noticed they just did a movie about this Mexican, Griselda, I think is her name, kind of a kingpin down in Mexico in the drug business. So, you know, women are kind of coming back into their own. But, you know, as a policeman. Every violent crime we ever ran into, except for domestic, was men. Every one of them was a man. Women do not commit armed robberies. Women do not get to heist and are not professional burglars for the most part. So, you know, I don’t know what it says about our society, but it may say something good about it. I don’t know. I think that’s the last word. All right. Guys, you know that I ride motorcycles. cycle. So watch out for motorcycles when you’re out there on the streets. And if you have a problem with PTSD and you’ve ever been in the service, go to the VA website and get that hotline number.

[35:48] And with PTSD, drugs and alcohol really are usually part of it. So if you have a problem with drugs and alcohol, doesn’t matter whether you’ve been in the service or not, go see former Gambino soldier, Anthony Ruggiano. He’s got a website out there and he’s got a hotline and he’s a drug and alcohol counselor down in Florida. Maybe you could go have former Gambino soldier be be your counselor. Wouldn’t that be cool? So watch my YouTube page, do a like and subscribe and all that and give me a review and go to the Gangland Wire podcast Facebook group because it’s big and there’s a lot of people going on that and there’s a lot of great stories and pictures. You’ll really like it. So once again, Justin and Gina, I really appreciate y’all coming on the show and look for a a link. I’ll find out where you can get that documentary on Amazon and I’ll have a link in the show notes. So thanks a lot, guys. Bye.

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Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. Joseph Barboza, aka the Animal, was born September 20, 1932. His criminal career went on from being a young thug and boxer to becoming a notorious mob hitman for the Patriarca crime family of New England during the 1960s. Starting his criminal life as a Mafia enforcer in Boston’s underworld, Barboza ended his criminal career as an FBI informant in 1967 and entered the Witness Protection Program. He was a star witness in the trial of six men convicted in the 1965 murder of Edward Deegan; a court sentenced four of the accused to death, and another two were sentenced to life imprisonment. Eventually, facts surface that Boston FBI agents helped set up these innocent men and used Barboza to frame the six defendants in a case of wrongful conviction for the Deegan killing. Barboza, himself, and Boston Mafia hitman Vincent Flemmi did this murder. Listen to learn about this case of corrupt FBI agents and more. Support the Podcast Subscribe to get new gangster stories every week.

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transcript Buckle up as we navigate the shadows of organized crime and betrayal in this in-depth exploration of Joseph the Animal Barbossa’s life. , [00:00:00] well hey all you wiretappers out there. Guys, I’m back here in the studio, retired intelligence detective Gary Jenkins. Join me as we navigate the twists and turns of Boston mobster Joseph the Animal Barbossa. His life, well, goes from the boxing ring to the criminal underworld and an unexpected role as a key witness in a gangland murder. Gangland Wire is the podcast that brings you an in depth exploration of these hidden stories that helped shape the American Mafia. Now buckle up, buckle up, I say, as we delve into the shadows of organized crime and betrayal. And I’m going to tell you the story of Joseph the Animal Barbossa. Joseph Barboza was born September 20th, 1932. His criminal career will go from a young thug and boxer to become one of the most notorious mob hitmen for the Patriarca crime family in New England. Starting as a mafia enforcer in the Boston’s underworld, he will end [00:01:00] his criminal career as an FBI informant in 1967 and enter the witness protection program. He was a star witness at the trial of six men convicted of a 1965 murder of a burglar named Edward Deegan. Four of these accused men were sentenced to death and two others were given life in prison. Eventually facts will surface that the Boston FBI helped set up these innocent men and used Barboza to help frame these defendants and they’ll become a case of wrongful conviction later on. But not after these guys spend most of their life in the penitentiary. Barbosa himself and Bo Boston Mafiaa hit man. Vincent Fleming actually did this murder.. Now Joseph Barbosa Jr’s early life, seemed destined for a different path. He was raised by Portuguese immigrants. His father, Joseph Barbosa Sr., was a middleweight boxer. His mother, Pamelda Camil, was a seamstress. He was fluent in Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish.[00:02:00] Young Barbosa, the animal, hadn’t got his nickname yet, but he follows in his father’s footsteps, and he trained as a boxer. He was ranked as a professional light heavyweight boxer and a member of the United States Boxing Association. He fought under the moniker of the Baron. Barbosa’s first boxing match was in April of 1949 against a guy named Rocky Lucero down in El Paso, Texas. His last fight was up in Boston, September of 1961. He fought against a man named Don Bale. They say he fought an unorthodox stance and was known for his powerful punches. Barbosa’s boxing records show that he won 8 out of 11 matches and he had 5 knockouts. During one of his early brushes with the mob, he sparred with Patriarch, a crime family associate, Americo Sacramone. I don’t know if I’ve got that right or not, but Sacramone. Unable to make a living as a boxer, he will start working as a longshoreman, and a general [00:03:00] laborer, as a clerk in a fruit store, and he was a small time criminal, of course. Aren’t these guys all that at one time? Now, Barbosa’s journey into the criminal underworld begins to unfold. During the 1960s, he will become a prominent enforcer and contract contract killer for the patriarchal crime family, but his story goes beyond the dark alleys and criminal enterprises in the back streets of New England beyond the ring. Barbosa’s criminal career saw this early thing, 1953, he was in the penitentiary, I’m not even sure what for, but he led the largest prison break in Massachusetts Correctional Institute Concord history. They had a 75 year perfect history of no escapes at this Concord Correctional Institution. A wild escapade involved contraband whiskey, amphetamine tablets, and adhering dice to the streets of Boston. Joseph Barboza, and six other fellow [00:04:00] inmates guzzled contraband whiskey, took amphetamine pills, overpowered four prison guards, and raced away in two separate cars, they commandeered. During this short stretch of freedom, They beat random people on the street, cruised the bars in Boston’s downtown red light district, and they were finally apprehended by cops at the subway station in East Boston. This little skate party barely lasted 24 hours, but it created a wide swath and some headlines. You know, and, and three months later, he’s waiting trial at a, at a jail for this prison break, he slugs a guard in the cafeteria. A few months after that, he tossed a table at a guard’s chest when he entered his cell. I mean, this guy, he earned his name, the animal. Now, his entry into the actual organized crime circles and his association with the patriarchy crime family is a tale of dark alliances and blood ties. Despite never being officially inducted [00:05:00] because of his non Italian ancestry, Joseph the Animal Barbossa earned a reputation of one of Boston’s most prolific contract killers and sidewalk soldiers. He was a street warrior, man. He was like Danny Green down in Cleveland. He was a street warrior. He first became trusted by Boston organized crime members during his time in Walpole prison. You know, many of these guys, they like, you know, you make your bones in a way, not by killing somebody, but by going to prison and not, you know, talking about anybody and then how you conduct yourself in prison. A prison is, is like a training ground for a lot of guys and mob will swatch these guys and see how they conduct themselves in prison. And then, you know, then when you get out. You know, they see that you can, you can be of use. He had to, Joseph Barboza had such a strong personality that a bar he frequented when he was out was called Barboza’s Corner. He was part of a crew supervised by Stephen the [00:06:00] Rifleman Flemmy for the Winter Hill Gang, and, and if you remember, Stephen the Rifleman Flemmy was, was Whitey Bulger’s buddy. As a Winter Hill gang member and a patriarchy crime family associate, he became one of Boston’s most infamous contract killers within the next eight years. They’re pretty sure, law enforcement authorities are pretty sure several of his contract murders were for Raymond L. S. Patriarca himself. One time he was faced with legal troubles. He got a six month sentence for assaulting a police officer. He pretty much stayed out, you know, the mob kept him out of these smaller scrapes. So you know, this Winter Hill gang is involved with Bulger and Vincent Flemming and his brother Stephen Flemming. And these were, these Flemming brothers, really his big allies. An unusual side story, Barbosa drove a 1965 Oldsmobile Cutlass, which law enforcement called the James Bond car. Because it had a real sophisticated alarm system for the times, and also had some kind [00:07:00] of a device that he could kick out thick black smoke out of the tailpipe if somebody was after him. I don’t know. First I’ve ever heard of that outside of James Bond. But this is the early 60s, by 1966. Barbosa’s turbulent position in the Boston underworld included surviving some assassination attempts, and he challenged traditional La Cosa Nostra roles, and he was Portuguese after all, but he was in, in confrontations with authorities, but he also was demanding Protection claimants from a lot of people and that’s strained some of his relationships within organized crime. For example, one time he tried to extort some protection money from a bar owner who was already paying protection, protection to Gennaro Angelo and he was like the underboss of the Boston part of the New England crime family. In October 1966, there was a falling out between different guys and the Boston mob was kind of like, this [00:08:00] guy was such a loose cannon, they weren’t really Too big on him right now. He had a weapons charge of some kind, and he claimed later that he learned the Patriarca guys tipped off the police that led to his arrest. He had some accomplices with him. They got out on bail. He had his bail set at 100, 000, which of course he couldn’t afford. And nobody from the Patriarca crime family came down to help him post his bond or get your friendly bondsman to go ahead and Put down the bond for you. So he, he is not happy with the patriarchy crime family. Stays in jail. He’s isolated from his association for any of these guys. He’s heard that they’ve set him up and, and this, this is when his journey takes on a web of connections and betrayals 1967, the Bureau has recruited him to be an informant for a while and end up going into witness protection program. Now, if you remember, I said that he testified against the [00:09:00] Mafia Associates for the murder of a burglar named Edward Deegan. And this was at the behest of the FBI agent John Connolly and Paul Rico, both of whom will eventually be really implicated and arrested. Connolly spent most of his, rest of his life in the penitentiary. Rico died while in custody. Marbosa helped send five innocent men to prison for murder. When, in fact, he and Vincent Fleming had done this murder. This revelation will unravel a web of deception and wrongful convictions by the Boston FBI. It was a hell of a mess, or a mellow of a mess, up in the Boston FBI office for quite a while. It’s taken them a long time to live that down. So he’s in witness protection. They give him a one year sentence, usually, like, for some of your old crimes, they give you some kind of sentence. You go to a snitch prison, as they call it. The U. S. Marshals will then relocate Joseph Barboza in [00:10:00] 1969 under the name of Joseph Bentley to Santa Rosa, California. He had cooking experience, so he enrolled in a culinary arts school. He tried cooking on a ship. That didn’t last very long. I think that probably the rules on the ship were were a little bit too rigorous for our friend the animal. Back in Santa Rosa, he met a 26 year old criminal named Clayton Rickey Wilson, young guy, you know, trying to make a name for himself. This pair ended up stealing as much as 100, 000 together, put that together. Wilson’s widow testified that these two men had clandestine meetings, kept small stockpile of dynamite, a machine gun, other guns, bulletproof vest, and a tin box that supposedly had over 100, 000 in stocks and bonds. They just went out with wife went along with them and another woman, the four of them, couples were out for a walk and then Barboza. Got Wilson to walk away from everybody, they heard a gunshot and he come back, came back and he said, okay, let’s go. [00:11:00] And they didn’t question anything for a while until finally the, the body got found and then one of the women came forward and, and he took a conviction for that. He got five years in Folsom prison under a second degree murder charge. Probably had to bargain it down, you know, you know, your whole conviction was based on this one woman who wouldn’t actually an eyewitness. And You know, so he, he, he copped a plea and it’s a pretty good plea, five years for a murder. That’s pretty good. You know, interesting thing about Barbosa, while he was in prison, he wrote poems. Go figure. They had, they had titles like Boston Gang War, Mafia Double Cross, Cat’s Lives, The Gang War. I mean, this guy, he was a piece of work, wasn’t he? Certainly after his release from this five year sentence. 1976, the Boston Mob, of course, they’d located him. Everybody knew who he was by then. He’d come out of witness protection. He did take on another pronoun as we call it nom de [00:12:00] plume, nom de war, nom de gear, nom, name of war, Joseph Donati. And He’s living in San Francisco under that and February 11, 1976, Joseph the animal Barbossa is walking to his car and the hit team found him. They’d been watching for a while and he was hit by four shotgun blasts at close range. They. He was armed with a Colt 38 at the time, but he didn’t have a chance to get it out. They caught him. They caught him unawares. Now, find out later that Gennaro Angelo dispatched his hit team from Boston. And actually they picked it up on another wire where Angelo’s remarking about one of the hit men, his last name was Russo. And, and what a good job he did taking out Joseph the Animal Barbossa. So that’s the story of Joseph the Animal Barbossa. It’s a heck of a story. And I really appreciate y’all tuning in. You know, I highly recommend if you’ve been in the service and you have any problems with PTSD, you go to the VA website and get that hotline number. You [00:13:00] know, I always say this Alcohol and drug abuse go hand in hand with PTSD, so if you’ve got a problem with that, go to see our friend Anthony Ruggiano down in Florida, former Gambino soldier, he’s a drug and alcohol counselor down there now, he’s got a hotline number on his website, or his YouTube channel, let me know if you ever do that don’t forget, I like to ride motorcycles, so watch out for motorcycles when you’re on the streets, and like and subscribe, and give me a review. Don’t forget, I’ve got movies out there on Amazon, so check them out. Gangland Wire, the story of behind the story of the skimming from Las Vegas. From the Kansas City viewpoint. The war between the Civella brothers and the Spiro brothers called Brothers Against Brothers. I’ve got a book called Leaving Vegas. That’s, that’s the story from the Kansas City view of The skimming investigation in Las Vegas casinos. So thanks a lot guys keep coming back.

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