Lucchese’s Brooklyn

[Mikeymike12]

Lucchese’s had some powerhouses coming from Brooklyn.... how does this guy Big John take the reign? And it Seems like all the Brooklyn guys were ok with him running it. Big John seems to get respect from sum serious guys. But from what Pennisi says it makes him look like he shouldn’t even gotten his button at times.
We all know they wanted to have another crew based in Brooklyn as well which makes sense , it seems like the numbers are low for Brooklyn ...it seems like they should have a HUGE crew.

Bronx has 2 crews and Brooklyn Staten Island has 1 crew shocking . Pennisi says 7/8 guys he never says that his crew was crazy in numbers either ....strange

[Dave65827]

By the 7/8 guys thing I’m pretty sure Penninsi means active and there are probably inactive guys “apart of the crew”

Also the New Jersey Report on organized crime in 2004 has the lucchese’s had 1,100 associates and 110 made guys. I’d assume the number of associates has declined but still with seven crews I thought there would be a lot more guys to each crew than the 7/8 active guys he described

Unless the initial number was heavily inflated if someone has any other info

[Mikeymike12]

We had a lot of talk on here about the numbers that Pennisi said ...and if you do the math it seems low , on this forum it’s been talked about it over and over. I just added that because he never says the Brooklyn crew is huge

[Mikeymike12]

Was 2 Brooklyn Crews Bensonhurst And Canarsie power house Vario Crew which was HUGE then Cutaia to over it

George Zappola, George Conte army of guys , Frank "Bones" Papagni, Louie ,Joseph Tangorra, Boopsie
Lastorino guys ,Peter Chiodo guys, all the guys coming up with Mikey flat top derosa and James "Froggy" Galione etc etc... And now it’s one crew ran by Big John??

[Wiseguy]

Lucchese’s had some powerhouses coming from Brooklyn.... how does this guy Big John take the reign? And it Seems like all the Brooklyn guys were ok with him running it. Big John seems to get respect from sum serious guys. But from what Pennisi says it makes him look like he shouldn’t even gotten his button at times.
We all know they wanted to have another crew based in Brooklyn as well which makes sense , it seems like the numbers are low for Brooklyn ...it seems like they should have a HUGE crew.

Bronx has 2 crews and Brooklyn Staten Island has 1 crew shocking . Pennisi says 7/8 guys he never says that his crew was crazy in numbers either ....strange

Some of the manpower may have also gone to Long Island, which has a couple crews as well.

[Lefty_Ruggiero]

Lucchese’s had some powerhouses coming from Brooklyn.... how does this guy Big John take the reign? And it Seems like all the Brooklyn guys were ok with him running it. Big John seems to get respect from sum serious guys. But from what Pennisi says it makes him look like he shouldn’t even gotten his button at times.
We all know they wanted to have another crew based in Brooklyn as well which makes sense , it seems like the numbers are low for Brooklyn ...it seems like they should have a HUGE crew.

Bronx has 2 crews and Brooklyn Staten Island has 1 crew shocking . Pennisi says 7/8 guys he never says that his crew was crazy in numbers either ....strange

Pennisi recently said that some other members do not think Big John was suited for the life. Pennisi basically states he should not have gotten his button, let alone be captain. Maybe it was already answered, but anyone know who proposed Big John?

[newera_212]

a lot has to do with attrition and consolidation. less active soliders. lots of guys have died, gone to prison, or grew old since the time of 3 or 4 functioning Brooklyn crews in the Luccheses. Wiseguy said it above, too... lots of that Brooklyn manpower, whatever’s still active, probably got spread out to some of the other crews too.

on one of the more recent episodes Pennisi himself didnt seem to know the genesis of the crew he was in, or the succession of crews which ultimately lead to one ‘Brooklyn’ crew. He was specifically asked what happened to the Vario crew and replied he didnt know, but also said with the same breath that Danny Cutaia had a crew and Big John took it over (which we know as Big John basically taking over a merged/consolidated form of all of the Brooklyn crews, including the crew he himself came up in, in Bensonhurst). Pennisi also said “that’s Big John’s crew. Our crew” when Tom mentioned Furnari and the 19th hole crew. So I’m guessing the consolidation happened long, long before Pennisi was around.

in regards to big john himself, hes been around a long time. supposedly he got close to DiNapoli in prison and saved his life during a heart attack, and that’s what ‘led’ to him being a Capo (according to Pennisi) but at the same time, his brother especially seemed to have some influence; wasn't his brother Capo of one of the Brooklyn crews going back almost 20 years ago? Not sure who proposed him but hes been around for well over 20 years

it made sense that there was more than one Brooklyn crew once upon a time, especially considering Canarsie is almost its own little world, and is a world apart from Bensonhurst. Why there were three separate Bensonhurst crews is kind of crazy. What i want to know is when it all became one. When people like Pagliarulo, Castellucci’s brother, etc. all got popped back in the day, it makes sense to maybe merge the Bensonhurst crews ‘back’ into one another...but why then merge it with the Canarsie crew?

I wonder what happened to Jon Baudanza. Canarsie crew guy living on Staten Island, but Pennisi never talks about him. I wonder if he ended up moving to a Long Island crew or is simply just not active and Pennisi was never around him

[Mikeymike12]

Pennisi recently said that some other members do not think Big John was suited for the life. Pennisi basically states he should not have gotten his button, let alone be captain. Maybe it was already answered, but anyone know who proposed Big John?
[/quote]

I was wondering the same thing ... who proposed Big John.... also who was he around , when was he made and with what crew.

[Shellackhead]

Pennisi recently said that some other members do not think Big John was suited for the life. Pennisi basically states he should not have gotten his button, let alone be captain. Maybe it was already answered, but anyone know who proposed Big John?

I was wondering the same thing ... who proposed Big John.... also who was he around , when was he made and with what crew.
[/quote]

He got connected when he saved Joey DiNapoli’s life in prison & I guess that put him on the road to becoming a made guy, according to Pennisi.

[TommyGambino]

Pennisi hates him, I'd take anything he says about him with a pinch of salt.

[Shellackhead]

Pennisi hates him, I'd take anything he says about him with a pinch of salt.

He probably made it up or something, added a little bit of extra information out of spite. He was probably connected even before he went to prison, probably even did work too who knows. But to become a made guy after saving an old school wise guys life seems a little bit too easy especially with the amount of made guy that have ratted? Joey Dee would of known better.

[johnny_scootch]

it made sense that there was more than one Brooklyn crew once upon a time, especially considering Canarsie is almost its own little world, and is a world apart from Bensonhurst. Why there were three separate Bensonhurst crews is kind of crazy. What i want to know is when it all became one. When people like Pagliarulo, Castellucci’s brother, etc. all got popped back in the day, it makes sense to maybe merge the Bensonhurst crews ‘back’ into one another...but why then merge it with the Canarsie crew?

I'm pretty sure they never had enough guys to make 3 Bensonhurst crews. I think as the Bensonhurst crew changed hands several times we got it mixed up and it looks like several crews but is most likely just one. As for when they merged I believe it had to be sometime between when Joey Flowers goes down and when Danny Cutaia goes down or possibly right after the latter. Both of those crews got hit really hard so I think that's what caused the merger then Bronx guys took over and it makes sense for them to keep the Brooklyn crew as weak as possible.

But when all those heavy guys hit the street (Conte, Papagni, Argentina, Zappola) it changed the face of that crew and caused a problem because there was little to no chance they would answer to big john who was nothing more then an associate when they were running around killing people and doing decades worth of time for Vic.

So what happens is at the meeting where DeSantis became acting boss Patty red became a captain, they gave him all the guys that originally belonged to the Brooklyn crews leaving Big John with mostly newer guys and guys that didn't necessarily live in Brooklyn or staten island like Pennisi.

I presume that when Patty Red becomes acting underboss Georgie Neck got the Brooklyn crew.

So if these two crews continue to this day they have one Staten Island crew and one Brooklyn crew. Which makes perfect sense because everyone knows half of the Brooklyn italians moved to Staten Italy.

[Pogo The Clown]

Pennisi hates him, I'd take anything he says about him with a pinch of salt.

He probably made it up or something, added a little bit of extra information out of spite. He was probably connected even before he went to prison, probably even did work too who knows. But to become a made guy after saving an old school wise guys life seems a little bit too easy especially with the amount of made guy that have ratted? Joey Dee would of known better.

Castelluci was indicted as an Associate of the Bensunhurst Crew in 2000. Saving DiNapoli probably just fast tracked him in the family.


Pogo

[Mason76]

it made sense that there was more than one Brooklyn crew once upon a time, especially considering Canarsie is almost its own little world, and is a world apart from Bensonhurst. Why there were three separate Bensonhurst crews is kind of crazy. What i want to know is when it all became one. When people like Pagliarulo, Castellucci’s brother, etc. all got popped back in the day, it makes sense to maybe merge the Bensonhurst crews ‘back’ into one another...but why then merge it with the Canarsie crew?

I'm pretty sure they never had enough guys to make 3 Bensonhurst crews. I think as the Bensonhurst crew changed hands several times we got it mixed up and it looks like several crews but is most likely just one. As for when they merged I believe it had to be sometime between when Joey Flowers goes down and when Danny Cutaia goes down or possibly right after the latter. Both of those crews got hit really hard so I think that's what caused the merger then Bronx guys took over and it makes sense for them to keep the Brooklyn crew as weak as possible.

But when all those heavy guys hit the street (Conte, Papagni, Argentina, Zappola) it changed the face of that crew and caused a problem because there was little to no chance they would answer to big john who was nothing more then an associate when they were running around killing people and doing decades worth of time for Vic.

So what happens is at the meeting where DeSantis became acting boss Patty red became a captain, they gave him all the guys that originally belonged to the Brooklyn crews leaving Big John with mostly newer guys and guys that didn't necessarily live in Brooklyn or staten island like Pennisi.

I presume that when Patty Red becomes acting underboss Georgie Neck got the Brooklyn crew.

So if these two crews continue to this day they have one Staten Island crew and one Brooklyn crew. Which makes perfect sense because everyone knows half of the Brooklyn italians moved to Staten Italy.

I agree, in 2009 when Cutaia and his Canarsie-Long Island (Vario) crew were indicted the Bronx leaders probably used this to breakdown the original Brooklyn (vario) crew and moved members to other crews.

- The question is what happened to all of Danny Cutaia's top guys like Vincent Mancione, Carmelo Profeta, his son Sal Cutaia. I don't remember if Pennisi mentions Dellorusso in the Big John (Bensonhurst-Staten Island crew).

It is possible they Bronx leaders created the new Long Island crew (which is now controlled by Cafe Desena) that was made of a lot of the original Brooklyn (Vario-Canarsie) members. I dont known when Cafe Desena joined the Lucchese. But I think it was after 2010's? Pennisi referred to the Cafe Desena crew as a large crew.

I think when Dellorusso became capo in 2017 the family was recreating the "original Brooklyn (vario) crew. The new members for Dellorusso were from Valley Stream area.

[Pogo The Clown]

Joey Lubrano probably took over the Cutaia Crew or at least a part of it when he was a Capo.


Pogo