Gangland News - 8/19/21

[Chucky]

This Week in Gang Land by Jerry Capeci

Triggerman Whose Gun Jammed In Front Of Sparks Steak House, Dead At 76

Vincent Artuso, who took part in the much-storied pre-Christmas murder of Mafia boss Paul (Big Paul) Castellano in 1985, has died of natural causes in Palm Beach, where he headed the Gambino crime family's South Florida crew for decades, Gang Land has learned. He was 76.

Artuso was one of four men wearing tall Russian-style fur hats and long overcoats who were staked out on a busy Manhattan street during the height of the Christmas shopping season on December 16, 1985. He allegedly took part in the spectacular assassination of Castellano and his key aide Thomas Bilotti.

When Big Paul opened the passenger door of the big black Lincoln that Bilotti had parked in front of Sparks Steak House, Artuso and mobster John Carneglia each moved closer to the mob boss and allegedly pulled the triggers of their handguns. But only Carneglia fired any bullets into Big Paul.

That's because Artuso's gun jammed, according to testimony by turncoat underboss Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano at the 1992 murder trial of John Gotti, the only defendant of the 10 gangsters Gravano fingered in the sensational killings to be convicted for the murders. Carneglia, who served 28 years for a 1989 heroin conviction, was released from prison in 2017.

Until Sammy Bull flipped in 1991, FBI agents and NYPD detectives who spent thousands of hours investigating the slayings, had no idea that Artuso was one of the designated shooters of Castellano. In fact, some investigators thought that Gotti, who had "salt and pepper hair" and a similar physical build as Artuso, might have been one of the gunmen in the slayings.

Gotti had been suspected of being on the street because one of the many interviewed witnesses stated he had heard one of the fur-hat-wearing men saying, "Where the hell are they? They're supposed to be here by now." This same witness had somehow noticed that he had "salt and pepper hair" under his fur hat.

Artuso, who grew up in the Belmont section of the Bronx, began working fulltime at age 14 at Artuso Pastry, the bakery his father, Vincent F. Artuso, opened in 1946 that has been at the same location on East 187th street for 75 years now, albeit three times the size it was when it first opened. The elder Artuso, a World War II veteran, was considered a local icon and had a street named after him after he died.

For many years, the younger Artuso worked at the family run business, and he helped school his three younger brothers Anthony, Joseph and John, who followed him into the bakery business. Artuso Pastry is now operated by brothers Anthony and Joseph, according to the company website.

But sources say that Vincent, who was known back then as "Vinny A" by his buddies, also gravitated to the world of organized crime under Bronx-based Gambino capo Frank (Frankie Loc) Locascio. The sources say that by time Gotti chose him as one of the four men to act as shooters in the slayings, Artuso had already been inducted into the crime family.

Vinny A spent 1980 and 1981 behind bars for a conviction in a 1976 multi-defendant federal drug dealing indictment. He then served parts of two years, 1994-1995, in prison on parole violation charges following disclosures about his alleged role in the Big Paul rubout.

In 1996, the same year that Artuso moved to Florida, New York City officially honored his father — he died in 1987, apparently unaware that his son was a player in the Castellano killing — by naming the corner where East 187th street meets Crescent Avenue, Vincent F. Artuso Sr. Way.

As the family pastry business flourished and grew over the years, Vincent Artuso did quite well for himself running the crime family's business in South Florida, making millions of dollars for himself, and his son John. But the bubble burst in 2008, when the father and son were hit with racketeering charges involving an $11 million real estate fraud scam.

Vincent and his son had the very bad luck to have offered Lewis Kasman, the self-anointed adopted son of John Gotti who doubled as an FBI informer against the Dapper Don and his family for years, a piece of the action. At the time, Kasman was wearing a wire for the feds, a three year long stint that lasted from 2005 to 2007. The father and son were both convicted at trial and sentenced to nine years behind bars.

Artuso suffered the ignominy of being the only wiseguy to be convicted at least in part on the testimony of Kasman, a lowlife snitch who tape recorded Gotti's widow Victoria in 2007 while she was recovering from a stroke. Artuso also had to hear himself referred to as "Vinny Jam" in a talk that Kasman had with then-boss Peter Gotti about Artuso's failure in carrying out his assignment on December 16, 1985.

Throughout the years Artuso spent in Florida, both before and after his conviction — he was released from prison in 2016, his son John got out in 2015 — Vinny A maintained close ties with his old crowd from the Belmont section, as well as his family members who have since opened up two more Artuso Pastry locations, one in Mamaroneck and another in Mount Vernon.

On Artuso's behalf, his brother Joseph, and his daughters, Phyllis and Vinni Ann each wrote letters on behalf of the father and son, who were both remanded after they were convicted. They shared a two-man cell at the federal lockup in Florida from October of 2008 until 2009 when they were transferred to other facilities to serve out their prison terms.

In addition to his brothers and his children, the twice-married Artuso is survived by seven grandchildren. He was cremated, and interred following a private ceremony, according to friends from the old neighborhood. Only one Artuso family relative responded to email and telephone requests from Gang Land, and she declined to comment.

Artuso died nearly a year ago, on October 14, after a long battle with bone cancer, say current and former denizens of East 187th Street who still remember him fondly.

"He was a really good guy," said one old pal who kept in touch with him through thick and thin. "All of his friends had a ball when he was in their company," the friend continued. "It was always the best of times when Vinny A was around."

Turncoat Podcaster Sprays Verbal Shots All Around, Then Shuts Down His One Man Show

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn shut down turncoat gangster turned podcaster Gene Borrello pretty quickly this time around. They clamped down on the cooperating witness for violating his supervised release just two weeks after he went on the air with his latest podcast, boasting about his often violent mob-tied hijinks.

The feds were a lot slower to move last year, when they waited a year before confronting Borrello about his shows with fellow cooperating witness John Alite that began back in February 2020.

Even so, Borrello was able to blast some new mob pundits on the social media scene during his house arrest podcast as "nobodies" and rip them, along with the son of his old mob superior, Bonanno wiseguy Ronald (Ronnie G) Giallanzo, for falsely claiming that they had run him out of his old Howard Beach haunts.

"Let's just be honest here," a grinning Borrello teased in his last one-man show that he did from his home, where he'll be confined four more months. "I was living in Howard Beach and I still would be if they (with the help of federal prosecutors in Brooklyn) didn't get me banned from Howard Beach because they were so scared of me."

The focal point of Borrello's angst was a video of a 15-month old confrontation in which he is seen walking backward towards his car that is double parked on 90th street with its driver's side door open, as Ronald Giallanzo Jr. is heard yelling at Borrello, according to Borrello's own play-by-play account of the videotaped incident.

Borrello's rant was triggered by a handful of newcomers — with no known mob connections — who have joined the already crowded field of ex-mobsters and other cooperating witnesses in the social media mob scene in the last two months.

They pushed Borrello's buttons by stating that he is little more than a boastful punk by posting and/or talking about the 40-second long video, which like Borrello's one-man podcast, has since been taken down.

Several associates of Giallanzo have told Gang Land that Borrello, who is seen waving his right hand over his head as he returns to his car, had a knife in his hand. If he did, it couldn't be seen in the video. In his rant, Borrello noted that Giallanzo and his buddies claimed he had "something" on him, but he laughed away that taunt, saying that even if he did, he was outnumbered 15 to 1, and "they were scared," not him.

"Fifteen on one," he said. "It don't matter what that person has. You want to get him, you could get him, 15 on one. They was scared. They didn't know what to do. They don't know what real beef is. They were just trying to scream and look cool. And didn't realize I wasn't going to allow that."

Snatches of several young men are seen in the video, but not Ronnie G's 27-year-old son. But someone is heard yelling at Borrello and calling him a "rat" throughout the video, and Borrello insisted that "the one kid that was screaming" was Giallanzo Jr. "And I'd protected him his whole life."

"When he got beat up by the Albanians," said Borrello, "Who do you think they call? Me. And I had to get on the phone with daddy from jail. They have it on actual wiretap. It's hysterical, they knew about it. And Ronnie goes, 'What happened to my son?' I says, 'Oh, don't worry about it, the Albanian kids got them but I handled it. I talked to Sammy Two-Guns and he squashed it. They didn't know that was your son.'"

"You know," laughed Borrello, "I still talk to a lot of people on Howard Beach and everybody makes fun of that video. They tell them, don't put that out. You're making these kids look stupid. That's all you're doing — 15 on one. All they're going is RAHH! RAHH! RAHH! The fucking mad screamers. If that was me and my friends" back in the day, said Borrello, "That person that was standing there would be in a fucking coma."

"I'm not glorifying, I'm not trying to be a tough guy. It just is what it is," said Borrello. "Don't listen to fake stories. Okay. Ronnie G ran Howard Beach. And guess what, I ran it for him while he was gone. I done everything for that man."

After belittling one social media antagonist as a "nobody" with a "partner who looks like he works out of a convenience store," Borrello laughed and said, "You did say one thing right about me," as he pointed to his head, "I'm not all there, I'm not."

Borrello stated that he "was a bully" back then, but insists that he is "a better person now" who has changed his ways and is "trying to get better."

But when people "poke" at him, he said, "I poke back. I don't sit there and take abuse. I never did, I never will," he said, stating that's what happened on May 30 of last year when Giallanzo Jr. and his pals surrounded his car and began calling him a "rat" as he looked for a parking space to attend a birthday party for his eight year old brother.

"And that's just the truth," said Borrello. "All you hear is a bunch of screaming, girl screaming. And from what I've heard, and I'm just saying, when I supposedly got out of the car, they ran. That's what I'm being told," he continued, "because that's what it looked like."

"They won't show that part, the beginning," he said. "When they're all trying to jump around the car and I hopped out, they ran. They ran. That's how we ended up down the block. They ran. All 15 of them. Like it's just little old me. Come on now guys. Give it a rest."

Not long after that podcast, on July 30, according to court records, the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office told Borrello to take a rest. He wasn't arrested, but he was hit with two violations of supervised release (VOSR) regarding his one-man podcasts about organized crime that he did from his home.

On Friday, Borrello pleaded not guilty, and was permitted to continue his house arrest sentence that ends on December 21, without any further sanctions under an unspecified agreement "between the government and the defendant," according to prosecutor Matthew Gallioti.

Ronnie G Doesn't Want Compassion; He Wants The Prison Term He Agreed To Take

Bonanno skipper Ronald (Ronnie G) Giallanzo has been sitting quietly behind bars while his two top mobsters have tried in vain to convince their sentencing judge to grant them compassionate release amid the COVID-19 crisis.

But Ronnie G is quiet no more. He isn't asking Brooklyn Federal Judge Dora Irizarry for compassion. Not at all. The once powerful Howard Beach gangster is now contesting the 14-year prison term he received on the basis that it was five years longer than the one he signed on for in his plea agreement with the government.

The wiseguy claims the feds used "improper tactics" to induce him to accept a plea deal and then "breached the plea agreement" by not advocating for a prison term within his recommended sentencing guidelines. The government also "fail(ed) to honor its promise" that he would be imprisoned "in close proximity to his family and within the region of his residence" if he took the deal, says Ronnie G.

Giallanzo, 51, is currently housed at the low security prison in Allenwood Pennsylvania. His current release date is March 2, 2029.

In his court filing, Giallanzo also claims that he did not receive "effective assistance of counsel" from his former lawyers, Elizabeth Macedonio and the late Charles Carnesi because they failed to seek a special sentencing hearing and failed to object to numerous actions by prosecutors at his sentencing that violated his constitutional rights.

Actually, the two veteran defense counsels did pretty well for their client, all things considered.

In the plea agreement that Macedonio and Carnesi worked out with the government, Giallanzo faced up to 97 months for racketeering conspiracy and 18 months for committing the crime while on supervised release (VOSR.) But during his sentencing Irizarry reduced the numbers to 87 and 18 months, lowering the high end of his recommended prison term to 105 months.

In their filing, Ronnie G's new attorneys Brendan White and Anthony DiPietro, who asked for, and received an okay to file their final papers seeking to vacate the sentence until October 1, noted that Giallanzo received a 168-month sentence, 144 months for racketeering and 24 months for VOSR.

Meanwhile, the fully briefed, compassionate release motions that The Two Mikes, Michael Palmaccio, 50, and Michael Padavona, 53, filed last year, are still awaiting a ruling by Irizarry.

Palmaccio, who is serving a seven year term in Terre Haute, Indiana, is slated for release on March 20, 2023. Padavona, who is doing an eight-year stretch at the Fort Dix prison compound in New Jersey, isn't due for release until January 20, 2024.

[Tonyd621]

"Ronald "Ronnie G" Giallanzo, 44 — a "soldier" with the Bonanno crime family since at least 1998..."
If the above article is true from 2006; Ronnie was made at 36? Fairly young? And probably made even earlier...it says "at least"
I can't believe they made Ronnie's guy forfeit the All American Deli, how do you expect someone to attempt to to straight after that

[Shellackhead]

Thanks for posting

[JohnnyS]

Thanks for posting Chucky.

[newera_212]

Great article this week. Hootie had said on one of his streams a few weeks...maybe even a month ago... that Gene's YouTube account was hacked and he was unable to get back in, and that since the account had already been created before his supervised release, it was fine to use - he just couldn't create a *new* account now, moving forward. Sounds like that was probably bullshit and the kid Gene got his card pulled again by the Feds. That's crazy.

Awesome write up on Artuso. Don't know a whole lot about him, LoCascio, or the Bronx Gambinos in general. Always kind of forget that they had a presence up there. I think of 187th and Crescent as Lucchese (and Genovese) territory. Not my favorite bakery but the place is a powerhouse, always busy. I like Egidio down the street a lot better

[Pogo The Clown]

The Gambinos have been dropping like flies over the past 2 years. I count at least 16 members who have died in that time.


Thanks for posting this weeks column.


Pogo

[funkster]

Is there a link to this video of Ronnie G's kid yelling at Borello?

[Tonyd621]

I don't get how Ronnie G with all money he earned and how tactfully put it back out on the street and all that there how can he not even be aware of the most basic irs laws

[Ivan]

Chucky once again I wanna say that I appreciate how you break up the column and put the headings in bold to make it readable, that helps my retarded ass keep from getting confused like I do whenever it's all smashed together. Thanks!

[Ryan98366]

Good column Chucky. I have been a 25 + year reader of Ganglandnews. Anyone else remember when it was good? Has Jerry Capeci really sunk so low as to post social media fights between a douchebag like Gene Borrello and Ronny G’s kid? Say it ain’t so Jerry…

Which is why I quit my Gangland subscription. It’s a waste of money.

[Chucky]

Chucky once again I wanna say that I appreciate how you break up the column and put the headings in bold to make it readable, that helps my retarded ass keep from getting confused like I do whenever it's all smashed together. Thanks!

No problem, buddy!

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks Chucky. Appreciated.

Am I reading it right that Giallanzo's plea was 105 months and he got 168? Surely he could successfully appeal?
Do we know who is in the Gambino's Sth Florida crew?

[NYNighthawk]

I always liked Vinny "jam" Artuso but he should have been bagged somehow in the Castellano hit when Gravano testified. I still say they can get Carneglia and Genie Gotti as well as Joe Watts at this late date for that double homicide.

[elasticman]

Thanks Chucky. Appreciated.

Am I reading it right that Giallanzo's plea was 105 months and he got 168? Surely he could successfully appeal?
Do we know who is in the Gambino's Sth Florida crew?

The judge understood that Giallanzo is a career criminal who will go back to cracking heads as soon as he's released from prison. The plea deal is just a recommendation.

[Dave65827]

Society isn’t missing much with Giallanzo in prison