GL NEWS 3/19/2020

[Bklyn21]

This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci

Mob Stickup Artist Turned Snitch Keeps On Coming
Gene BorrelloGang Land Exclusive!Here's what we know for sure about Gene Borrello, the Bonanno associate turned-government-informant who has been regaling social media audiences with tales of his escapades as a fiendishly ruthless stickup artist.

Borrello's case is still sealed, but we know, because he says so on the podcast he recorded with Felix Levine on February 29, that he has a "real bad anger problem." And we know also that he pulled a daring, out-of-the-ordinary armed robbery back in 2005 in which he stuck up a Gambino gangster, dished out a beating to an unlucky victim and has enjoyed laughing about it.

But the specifics of how that previously unreported robbery went down are a matter of debate, with some usually reliable sources telling Gang Land that the facts are markedly different than how Borrello described them in his laugh-a-minute podcast last month.

According to various sources in the know, though, the stick up Borrello gleefully described in the podcast in which he says he robbed a Gambino associate of $130,000 in cash and jewelry was actually a hold up of a high-stakes card game at a Queens social club belonging to then-Gambino capo Alphonse Trucchio.

Alphonse TrucchioAnd the reason Borrello didn't pay the ultimate price for this effrontery, these sources say, is that no one knew he was allegedly part of the robbery crew. Until now.

According to Borrello, six hours after the robbery his mob supervisor, capo Ronald (Ronnie G) Giallanzo, showed up at his home and ordered him to give back $50,000 in cash and an $80,000 Masterpiece Rolex watch that he and his partner had stolen.

Borrello says that the reason he avoided any retribution for his deed was because he convinced Ronnie G that he didn't know his victim was a Gambino associate who was also a Giallanzo buddy.

But reliable sources say the reason why Borrello's legs weren't broken — or worse — is that no one ever knew that he was the culprit behind the mask who pulled off the heist. And they say that he and his similarly disguised partner didn't just rob a lone mob associate, they stuck up numerous patrons of a high-stakes card game at a Queens social club belonging to then-Gambino capo Trucchio.

Richard GiallanzoDuring his long-winded podcast, Borrello fingered two Giallanzo nephews, "Richie Boy" and "Bobby" as his accomplices. Richie was the one who "gives us the score," he said. "Me and Bobby" were the ones "who stick up the guy coming out of the place," he added. Warming to his story, Borrello said: "I pistol whip the guy. The guy was crying by the way. I was laughing about that, 'This guy's a gangster and he started crying.'"

"We're all happy," Borrello recalled, "Me and Bobby, we're like 20 years old. We got all this money. And we're celebrating. About six hours later Ronnie Giallanzo is ringing my doorbell. I'm looking outside saying, what the fuck is going on here?"

At the door, Ronnie G "tells me, 'Turn the fuck around, get the fuck upstairs, give me the money back and the watch.' I say, 'What are you talking about?' He says, 'You dumb motherfuckers, they found out it was you. They could kill you for this. You fucking rob a Gambino captain. I'm best friends with the guy."

Ronald TrucchioBorrello did not identify the Gambino capo, but sources on both sides of the law agree that he was referring to Trucchio, and that the scene of the crime, which, of course, was never reported to police, was in Astoria, at a social club that Alphonse had taken over from his father, Ronald, a.k.a. Ronnie One Arm, who was then awaiting trial for racketeering in Florida.

Borrello stated on the podcast, and has told the feds, sources say, that "Richie Boy" was in the club and called to alert him that the mark was coming outside. He said he and Bobby teamed up to rob him. Sources say Borrello claims he nailed his victim as he was entering a black Chevy Tahoe and grabbed the cash from his "fanny pack." Bobby, he said, served as the getaway driver.

The scheme went south, however, according to Borrello after Richie Boy, the caper's inside man, squealed to his friend Trucchio. Richie "did a weasel move," Borrello said on the podcast. He "dimed us out within two hours. I swear to god it's a real story," he continued. "I had to give everything back. I got reamed, yelled at. This is how things can go wrong. I could have been killed for that."

Gene Borrello-Mount SnitchmoreTrucchio, who concluded a 10-year-bid for a racketeering conviction last month, could not be reached. His attorney, Gerald McMahon, declined to comment about the subject. Mum was also the word of prosecutors and Borrello's lawyer about the matter.

There's no question you can get killed for robbing Gambino family card games. There's even a movie, Rob The Mob, made in 2014 about Thomas and Rosemarie Uva, who paid with their lives for holding up mob clubs. But reliable sources insist the reason why Borrello avoided any payback wasn't because of his ignorance about his victim, but because no one knew he had anything to do with the robbery.

"Two guys, wearing masks, one of them probably was Borrello," said one source, "walked in and robbed the game and got away with it. Trucchio was there. They made him stand and watch as they made everyone else get down on the ground, and rob them. They took all the cash and fled. There was no retribution, no sitdown, no nothing, because no one knew the dirtbag did it."

"No one ever found out he did it, that's why he was able to skate on it," the source continued, noting that the two guys Borrello fingered were never charged with a crime. As for his alleged partners in crime, the source said, "it's known in the neighborhood that Gene had a hard on for them because he suspects them with posting all the stuff about him being a rat that's showed up online about him."

Gene BorrelloIn one Instagram post, a takeoff of the Mount Rushmore monument dubbed Mount Snitchmore, Borrello's face, and the mugs of three other reputed mob snitches, including John Alite, are superimposed over the faces of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Lincoln.

Borrello, by the way, was not in violation of his post-conviction supervised release restrictions for meeting up with Alite before, during and after several podcasts he's had since he burst on the social media scene after his release from prison in December. Sources say he had permission from probation officials to have contact with Alite, a convicted murderer, who has renounced his mob activities and now runs a Second Chance Program that tells kids to stay on the straight and narrow and not follow in his footsteps.

And as for the $60,000 Rose Gold Royal Oak Audemars Piguet watch that Borrello seemed to be sporting on last month's podcast and in a picture with Alite, the mob snitch insists that it's not a keepsake from one of the more than 100 home invasions or armed robberies that he's committed over the years.

Gene Borrello's WatchAnd it's not a knockoff either. No. The watch is the real deal, as an eagle-eyed Gang Land reader spotted and told us, and as we reported last week. It belonged to a friend of Gene's who loaned it to him for the show, Gang Land was told by a source who spoke to Borrello about it.

"A friend of mine let me wear it for the show," Borrello said. "I wanted to wear a watch, and he loaned it to me."

That may not ring true to you. It doesn't ring true to Gang Land either. But that was Borrello's explanation when he was asked about the Audemars Piguet watch that dressed up the otherwise drab look he had on the Where's This Going? podcast on February 29 when he wore a black turtleneck and black baseball cap.

Joe Gambino, A Son Of Mob Royalty Whose Trucking Firms Once Ruled Midtown, Has Died (Although Mum's The Word In Brooklyn)
Joseph GambinoJoseph Gambino, the easy-going son of Mafia Don Carlo Gambino who became a millionaire businessman thanks to his father's crime family clout but who steered clear of the rest of the family business, died of natural causes last month, Gang Land has learned.

Gambino, who was 83, long owned and operated numerous Garment Center trucking companies along with his older brother Thomas. The family's chokehold on the trucks that filled the West Side streets where the city's rag trade once thrived was so total that competitors who tried to park their own rigs risked flat tires or worse, according to local officials.

Unlike his brother, Gambino never became a made man. He dropped out of New York University in the 1950s and began working for Consolidated Carriers Corporation — the trucking company that would have a virtual monopoly on garment center deliveries until October of 1990 when the Gambino brothers were hit with state racketeering charges.

During a two year investigation by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, Joseph Gambino told an undercover police officer he was interviewing for a job that the company had two rules for its employees: no drugs and no stealing. And if he was caught stealing, Gambino warned him, "We don't call the police — we take care of it ourselves."

Robert MorgenthauFollowing an undercover probe, during which state police ran a sewing shop and planted a bug in the ceiling of Joseph Gambino's office, Gambino, then 54, and brother Thomas, 61, were charged with enterprise corruption and 52 counts of larceny, extortion, coercion and restraint of trade. The charges carried prison terms up to 25 years upon conviction.

The investigation was the launching pad for a then little-known assistant DA named Eliot Spitzer.

It was not a penny ante case. By the end of 1989, according to evidence compiled by the DA's office, the brothers controlled at least a dozen trucking concerns that had grossed about $70 million in the previous three years. About $50 million of that revenue came from deliveries to and from sewing shops, of which some $22 million was profit.

In November of 1989, when the DA's office had obtained enough evidence for a search warrant, the ceiling bug picked up Joe Gambino's opinion of what investigators would conclude when they went through CCCs books and records: "They're going to say to themselves, 'Do you want to know something? These fucking Mafia guys really run a solid business.'"

Carlo GambinoThree years later, in February of 1992, after three weeks of trial, the Gambino brothers threw in the towel and walked away with a pricey — for most folks but not for them — no-jail plea deal. They pleaded guilty to a single count of illegal restraint of trade, agreed to pay a $12 million fine, and get out of Garment Center trucking business forever.

Unlike his older brother, who lived in an Upper East Side mansion during those heady days, Joseph lived in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and could often be seen in Nightfalls, a restaurant that was owned by Al Nahas, the so-called unofficial Mayor of Bay Ridge at the time. The city's official Mayor, Ed Koch was a fairly regular patron of the eatery.

On weekends, if you were a friend of Nahas, or you brought a large party of guests into the place, you could often got an introduction to "my friend Joe Gambino," who dabbled as the restaurant's pastry chef on weekends, and would visit and chat amiably with diners along with Nahas.

Thomas GambinoUnlike his brother Thomas, who was indicted along with John Gotti in December of 1990, and convicted at a separate trial in 1993, Joseph had no further trouble with the law.

Gang Land never ran into Joe Gambino in Bay Ridge, or Nightfalls, but we once ran after him — in downtown Brooklyn. That was when lawyer Mike Rosen snookered a horde of newsmen and women after a pre-trial hearing for Thomas Gambino. When Rosen quickly walked past us and out the door of the federal court building arm-in-arm with someone we thought was Thomas — we chased after them.

When we caught up with them, we realized that we'd been had. The smiling Gambino on Mike's arm was his look-alike brother Joseph; Tommy had given us the slip.

At this point in a look back at the life of a prominent Gang Land figure who's no longer with us, Gang Land often informs readers when he died, where he was laid to rest, and lists his family members who will miss him, or her. We also try to get a friend or relative to say something nice about their departed loved one since like Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan often says when imposing sentence, Gang Land thinks all folks "have some good qualities."

Michael RosenBut the manager of the Aievoli Funeral Home, who declined to give his name, took a vow of omerta about all things pertaining to the death of Joe Gambino. We know he is survived by his brother Joseph, 90. We're not sure about his other siblings, a brother Carl and sister Phyllis, or any other relatives — children, grandkids or great grandchildren.

Longtime Gang Land pal Tom Robbins offered one reminiscence from his own brief encounter at Nightfalls with Gambino. Robbins and late fellow Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett were there to report on how city housing funds intended for low income residents had been used to rehab the restaurant owned by the mayor's friend.

When Gambino emerged from the restaurant kitchen, owner Nahas introduced them to the smiling garment center magnate. "He was friendly and open, talking about his recipes," said Robbins. "When Nahas told him we were reporters, the smile got wider. Then he crooked his finger like a pistol and aimed it at us, with a wink. How could you not like the guy?"

Wiseguy Cites The Deadly Coronavirus Crisis To Win His Freedom Before Sentencing
John TortoraDon't let that Coronavirus get me! That's the plea from a 63-year-old Genovese wiseguy locked up in a dank and overcrowded hell hole of a jail since August 2018.

Citing his advanced age and ailments, including diabetes, that make him a ripe target for the deadly COVID-19 disease inside the Metropolitan Detention Center, Genovese mobster John (Johnny T) Tortora asked his sentencing judge to release him on bail until he is slated to face the music in three months for obstruction of justice and illegal gambling on his sentencing day.

Although this one was made in court filings, it is the second alarmed outburst from the gangster who shouted out his innocence of a 1997 murder in the court room when he copped a plea deal last month to unrelated charges. "I am innocent of the murder. I want everyone to know that I had nothing to do with that murder," shouted Tortora after the judge informed him that prosecutors could cite his alleged involvement in the stabbing death of Richard Ortiz, an informer for the Yonkers Police Department.

Actually, as Tortora learned on Tuesday, a day after his desperate plea, the government, as well as Manhattan Federal Judge Sidney Stein, have gone along with his request for strict home confinement until he is sentenced on June 4.

Barry LevinJohnny T, who faces up to seven years for the gambling and obstruction charges he pleaded guilty to, is still behind bars at the MDC. But he could be at home in Yonkers as early as next week, according to the agreement worked out by prosecutors and Tortora's attorneys.

Tortora suffers from Type II diabetes, asthma and heart disease. On Monday, his lawyers asked that the mobster be released on home confinement to await sentencing because he has "an exponentially greater risk of contracting COVID-19 and possibly dying" if he remains locked up in the MDC, where he has been since August of 2018.

Arguing that CDC warnings that all "adults over 60 years old and people with chronic medical conditions" have a "higher risk" of contracting the deadly virus than others apply even more so to sickly inmates like Johnny T who are confined at the MDC, attorneys Barry Levin and Richard Levitt wrote in asking Stein to set bail for Tortora.

In their filing, the lawyers noted that the World Health Organization had "officially classified COVID-19 as a pandemic" and that Mayor de Blasio had "declared a state of emergency" in the city and that the Bureau of Prisons had suspended all legal and social prison visits throughout the country to guard against the spread of the deadly virus.

Judge Sidney SteinPrisons are an "ideal environment for the transmission of contagious disease," they wrote, stating that the MDC has a "track record of severe overcrowding, understaffing and dysfunction in the face of crises, such as the black-out last year when many were denied food, sanitation and medications," according to a Department of Justice report by the Office of the Inspector General.

At home, the attorneys wrote, Tortora would be able to "quarantine himself if necessary and have access to proper medical care both for his pre-existing conditions and should he contract the disease."

Before that can happen, prosecutors Lauren Potter, Justin Rodriguez and Christopher Clore wrote that Tortora must agree to electronic monitoring, post a $2 million bond that is signed by three financially responsible people and secured by property with at least $2 million in equity.

In addition, Pretrial Services, which will be available to visit Tortora's home tomorrow, will have to inspect and approve the conditions there, and install the "location monitoring equipment" that will be required before Johnny T can be released, the prosecutors wrote.

Tortora still faces the possibility that prosecutors will cite his alleged role in the old murder when he is sentenced. But attorneys Levin and Levitt insist that the defense will prove Johnny T's innocence if the government makes that allegation. Tortora has maintained his innocence in the killing since his arrest in August of 2018

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for the post Bklyn.

The Borrello story confused the f out of me.
No one knew it was him yet Giallanzo rocked up on his door 6hrs later?
It was an Gambino ‘associate’ yet it was capo Trucchio?
They hit the guy getting into a black car or inside the club and everyone had to lay down except Trucchio who stood.

Lost me.

[AntComello]

Thanks for the post Bklyn.

The Borrello story confused the f out of me.
No one knew it was him yet Giallanzo rocked up on his door 6hrs later?
It was an Gambino ‘associate’ yet it was capo Trucchio?
They hit the guy getting into a black car or inside the club and everyone had to lay down except Trucchio who stood.

Lost me.

Yea reading about that robbery got me all fucked up too. Would love to have some clarification on this subject lol

[bert]

Borrello has been conning people. I'm glad Capeci called him out on it. He is also falling in love with being interviewed, like Alite. Unklike Alite (Who has lied his ass off for years and skipped being called on it) Borrello is not getting away with it.

[bert]

What an obnoxious delusional fuck:

Gene Borrello In one Instagram post, a takeoff of the Mount Rushmore monument dubbed Mount Snitchmore, Borrello's face, and the mugs of three other reputed mob snitches, including John Alite, are superimposed over the faces of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Lincoln.

[Wiseguy]

This is a low-level game, guys. All you're going to get here is practice.

[Pogo The Clown]

This is a low-level game, guys. All you're going to get here is practice.

Just give it to him Sunshine.


Pogo

[kasparoza]

Borrello has been conning people. I'm glad Capeci called him out on it. He is also falling in love with being interviewed, like Alite. Unklike Alite (Who has lied his ass off for years and skipped being called on it) Borrello is not getting away with it.

Capeci knows Alite is full of shit too. He doesn't call him out on it (any longer) because it was his buddy Anastasia who wrote his book. In 2009 Capeci wrote how Alite was exposed in all kinds of lies testifying at the Gotti trial. How he was revealed as a fraud basically, a low level nobody lying that he was once a somebody on the stand. Anastasia also covered the trial for Gang Land and saw this. Yet skip a few years later, Anastasia gets a fat $100,000 book advance and they credit Capeci on page 2 of the Alite book as "the dean of mob reporters" or something and then Capeci promotes that ludicrous book on his site without mentioning that he wrote how Alite was a delusional liar a few years earlier.
Anything Borrello says should be taken with a grain of salt. This is a guy who claims he was doing home invasions in Howard Beach on orders of a "mob captain." Which is ludicrous. No mob boss is going to order an underling to tie up women and invade homes in their own neighborhood.
Whatever's left of the mob would probably kill that captain, shelve and chase him at the least, not to mention violent robberies like that would bring unwanted FBI/NYPD pressure to the neighborhood and all kinds of bad blood from everyday civilians in the neighborhood... but, that's the basis of Borrello's story.
Maybe he really does want to help kids and be a changed man and if so that's a good thing. But it isn't gonna happen hanging with Alite because Alite is still dealing drugs, committing frauds, etc, and the FBI looks the other way as he still tries to position himself as a "motivational speaker for kids" because he's still providing information on whatever boneheaded criminals end up in his web... plus, the Feds don't want to come out and say they knowingly let that lowlife commit perjury on the witness stand.
Ask anyone in Howard Beach and they'll tell you Borrello was a "rogue" and those home invasions he did, he did on his own. They weren't "sanctioned" and he was "chased" from the neighborhood. So it's no wonder he's bonded with Alite who also got chased years earlier for being a rogue and doing unsanctioned robberies and drug dealing (and more) etc.

[thegunners]

Victory has a hundred fathers but defeat is an orphan

[Extortion]

Borrello has been conning people. I'm glad Capeci called him out on it. He is also falling in love with being interviewed, like Alite. Unklike Alite (Who has lied his ass off for years and skipped being called on it) Borrello is not getting away with it.

Capeci knows Alite is full of shit too. He doesn't call him out on it (any longer) because it was his buddy Anastasia who wrote his book. In 2009 Capeci wrote how Alite was exposed in all kinds of lies testifying at the Gotti trial. How he was revealed as a fraud basically, a low level nobody lying that he was once a somebody on the stand. Anastasia also covered the trial for Gang Land and saw this. Yet skip a few years later, Anastasia gets a fat $100,000 book advance and they credit Capeci on page 2 of the Alite book as "the dean of mob reporters" or something and then Capeci promotes that ludicrous book on his site without mentioning that he wrote how Alite was a delusional liar a few years earlier.
Anything Borrello says should be taken with a grain of salt. This is a guy who claims he was doing home invasions in Howard Beach on orders of a "mob captain." Which is ludicrous. No mob boss is going to order an underling to tie up women and invade homes in their own neighborhood.
Whatever's left of the mob would probably kill that captain, shelve and chase him at the least, not to mention violent robberies like that would bring unwanted FBI/NYPD pressure to the neighborhood and all kinds of bad blood from everyday civilians in the neighborhood... but, that's the basis of Borrello's story.
Maybe he really does want to help kids and be a changed man and if so that's a good thing. But it isn't gonna happen hanging with Alite because Alite is still dealing drugs, committing frauds, etc, and the FBI looks the other way as he still tries to position himself as a "motivational speaker for kids" because he's still providing information on whatever boneheaded criminals end up in his web... plus, the Feds don't want to come out and say they knowingly let that lowlife commit perjury on the witness stand.
Ask anyone in Howard Beach and they'll tell you Borrello was a "rogue" and those home invasions he did, he did on his own. They weren't "sanctioned" and he was "chased" from the neighborhood. So it's no wonder he's bonded with Alite who also got chased years earlier for being a rogue and doing unsanctioned robberies and drug dealing (and more) etc.

I know you know gotti jnr but this shit with alite you are making up in this internet war is so ridiculous. I highly doubt Alite is dealing. What proof do you have of this anyways? You come up with some of the most bizarre shit tbh and Alite definitely seems a lot more of a stand up guy even though alite and junior both ratted. Whole thing is petty as fuck.

[Extortion]

Borrello has been conning people. I'm glad Capeci called him out on it. He is also falling in love with being interviewed, like Alite. Unklike Alite (Who has lied his ass off for years and skipped being called on it) Borrello is not getting away with it.

Capeci knows Alite is full of shit too. He doesn't call him out on it (any longer) because it was his buddy Anastasia who wrote his book. In 2009 Capeci wrote how Alite was exposed in all kinds of lies testifying at the Gotti trial. How he was revealed as a fraud basically, a low level nobody lying that he was once a somebody on the stand. Anastasia also covered the trial for Gang Land and saw this. Yet skip a few years later, Anastasia gets a fat $100,000 book advance and they credit Capeci on page 2 of the Alite book as "the dean of mob reporters" or something and then Capeci promotes that ludicrous book on his site without mentioning that he wrote how Alite was a delusional liar a few years earlier.
Anything Borrello says should be taken with a grain of salt. This is a guy who claims he was doing home invasions in Howard Beach on orders of a "mob captain." Which is ludicrous. No mob boss is going to order an underling to tie up women and invade homes in their own neighborhood.
Whatever's left of the mob would probably kill that captain, shelve and chase him at the least, not to mention violent robberies like that would bring unwanted FBI/NYPD pressure to the neighborhood and all kinds of bad blood from everyday civilians in the neighborhood... but, that's the basis of Borrello's story.
Maybe he really does want to help kids and be a changed man and if so that's a good thing. But it isn't gonna happen hanging with Alite because Alite is still dealing drugs, committing frauds, etc, and the FBI looks the other way as he still tries to position himself as a "motivational speaker for kids" because he's still providing information on whatever boneheaded criminals end up in his web... plus, the Feds don't want to come out and say they knowingly let that lowlife commit perjury on the witness stand.
Ask anyone in Howard Beach and they'll tell you Borrello was a "rogue" and those home invasions he did, he did on his own. They weren't "sanctioned" and he was "chased" from the neighborhood. So it's no wonder he's bonded with Alite who also got chased years earlier for being a rogue and doing unsanctioned robberies and drug dealing (and more) etc.

I know you know gotti jnr but this shit with alite you are making up in this internet war is so ridiculous. I highly doubt Alite is dealing. What proof do you have of this anyways? You come up with some of the most bizarre shit tbh and Alite definitely seems a lot more of a stand up guy even though alite and junior both ratted. Whole thing is petty as fuck.

Also junior is a joke and nobody respects him in the life. He doesnt hang around mob guys not because he is out or wants out of the life its because they all dont like him.

[bluehouse]

Shut up shut up

Stop fucking looking at me

[bronx]

the n.j guys were doing home invasions ,they tied up an old woman in one robbery. they did plenty of them.palermo ,capo, rotundo ,others in their 302's

[Philly d]

Thanks for the post Bklyn.

The Borrello story confused the f out of me.
No one knew it was him yet Giallanzo rocked up on his door 6hrs later?
It was an Gambino ‘associate’ yet it was capo Trucchio?
They hit the guy getting into a black car or inside the club and everyone had to lay down except Trucchio who stood.

Lost me.

Me too.

[Flushing]

the n.j guys were doing home invasions ,they tied up an old woman in one robbery. they did plenty of them.palermo ,capo, rotundo ,others in their 302's

Those are all decavalcante guys. Must have been the 90's.