Gangland News September 16, 1996

[Teddy Persico]

This Month In Gang Land; 25 Years Ago
By Jerry Capeci

*As we stated last week, Gang Land took a slide this week. But in The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same Department, Gang Land wrote about some very familar wiseguys in its first month as a weekly online column about organized crime 25 years ago this month.



Feast Washout For Tony Waterguns; September 16, 1996

CROWDS of smiling people were enjoying sausage and peppers, deep fried calamari and a host of other Italian goodies as they strolled up and down Mulberry Street over the weekend. But the San Gennaro Festival in Little Italy just ain't what it used to be.

Gone are the Big Six Wheel, the under-and-over table and other gambling booths that Tony Waterguns allegedly controlled for the mob. Also missing from The Feast — which runs this year through September 22 — is Tony Waterguns.

With 17 others, he awaits trial on racketeering charges stemming from the mob's alleged ripoffs of hundreds of thousands of dollars supposedly earmarked for charity.

Tony's given name is Anthony Pisapia but everybody calls him Tony Waterguns. Even in an official court affidavit the FBI called him Tony Waterguns when G-men were looking for court approval to raid his home last year to get the goods on him.

"Tony Waterguns is the Genovese Crime family's representative who controls The Feast and other New York City feasts," said FBI agent Michael Campi. "A stand operator cannot participate in one of these feasts without Tony Waterguns' approval."

Armed with a warrant, agents raided the Waterguns home and seized records linking him to the San Gennaro Feast and other feasts in the New York Metropolitan area. The raid also indicated that the old saying that most rich businessmen still have the first dollar they earned, surely applies to Pisapia, 57.

In addition to nine bankbooks with deposits of $940,263, agents seized many thousands of dollars wrapped and packaged in safes, plastic bags and envelopes indicating there was some sentimental value attached to them.

For example, found in several safes were $100 and $50 bills, 25 rolls of "silver" dimes, one $10 bill, one ripped $1 bill, four $1 silver certificates, one "gold" John F. Kennedy silver dollar, one 1971 $1 bill and a white box of 15 gold coins.

In one yellow envelope, agents found 14 dimes, five pennies, two nickels and two quarters. In a white envelope, they found a $1 bill, five silver dollars, three dimes and two pennies.

Agents also found, and seized, the tools of his trade: four green money aprons and a box containing 15 waterguns - the kind you still see at the San Gennaro festival and street fairs everywhere.

ANOTHER familiar Mulberry Street figure missed the 70th annual San Gennaro Festival. For the sixth straight year, John Gotti couldn't make it. (That's a recent shot of him in his cell at Marion Federal Penitentiary, as seen on Larry King Live, courtesy of Gotti-pal Lewis Kasman.)

In front of Gotti's old clubhouse, the Ravenite Social Club, guys were hawking "Free John Gotti" T-Shirts for $14. They featured a smiling picture of the once Dapper Don — a photo similar to the one that's on the cover of Gotti: Rise & Fall, the book by yours truly and Gene Mustain. We couldn't resist the temptation and picked up a couple, which have tags saying they were "made in Russia."

Barney Beats The Machine; Wants Out Of Jail; September 23, 1996

THE boss of the Genovese Crime family may be loony tunes but the acting boss can pass a lie detector test with flying colors.

While Vincent (Chin) Gigante was supposedly watching cartoons at the home of his 94-year old mom, his acting boss Liborio (Barney) Bellomo was taking — and passing — lie detector tests at a federal lockup in upstate New York.

Bellomo took the tests about one issue — a 1991 gangland-style slaying — in an effort to convince a federal judge that he had nothing to do with the only violent crime he is accused of in a massive racketeering indictment and should be freed on bail.

The murder victim, Ralph DeSimone, was found shot to death in the trunk of his car at a LaGuardia Airport parking lot in June, 1991. He was killed because Genovese mobsters suspected he was an informer, according to federal prosecutor Nelson Boxer.

Vincent GiganteBut Bellomo was judged truthful in two separate lie detector exams when he denied knowing DeSimone or having anything to do with the planning or the commission of the murder, the polygraphists stated in court papers filed by Bellomo's attorney, Benjamin Brafman.

One, Richard O. Arther, is a noted polygraphist who has testified six times in New York State Supreme Court cases, half for the prosecution. The other is a former NYPD organized crime detective who has been a lie detector specialist for 20 years.

"I don't believe he participated in any plot with any of the individuals who killed DeSimone," Nat Laurendi told The Daily News.

Sources say that former Luchese acting boss Alfonso (Little Al) D'Arco has told the feds that Bellomo, whom Gigante designated as acting boss role in 1990 when Gigante was hit with racketeering charges, had authorized the DeSimone killing.

Alfonso D'ArcoBut usually reliable Gang Land underworld sources dispute that and say that the Genovese hierarchy had nothing to do with the hit. At the time, police reports listed DeSimone as a drug dealer associated with the Gambino family.

Bellomo's main thrust for bail are his lie detector results, but pressing family problems at home — his wife is under psychiatric care and his son has juvenile diabetes — and his inability to help solve them while in jail also mandate his release, says Bellomo.

Prosecutor Boxer was scheduled to respond last week, but sources said Boxer and Brafman were engaged in discussions aimed at an agreement that would include some kind of house arrest situation while Bellomo awaits trial.

Bellomo, who awaits trial with 17 others on charges including extortion, labor racketeering, bookmaking and the systematic ripoff of moneys generated by the Genovese family's control of the San Gennaro Festival, which ended yesterday.

Barney: I Don't Like That Picture

Bellomo is very upset about the picture of him that graces today's Gang Land column. Along with 200 pages of legal briefs and exhibits that addressed his bail request, he complained about the "unauthorized release" of the FBI photo to the News, which appeared in a 1993 article about Bellomo by yours truly and reporter Tom Robbins.

Bellomo charges that the photo — which looks like a mug shot taken after an arrest and makes him look like a bad guy — was in fact taken by the FBI after a grand jury subpoena involving a civil matter and should not have been leaked to The News, which has printed it many times.

Normally we would not disclose how we got such a photo, but this time we'll confess. We got it from a document filed in a federal civil suit.

FBI Mob-Buster Packs It In

An FBI supervising agent suspected by other agents of leaking government secrets to a top mob informer will pack it in next month after 33 years.

The decision by Lindley DeVecchio to resign comes three weeks after the Justice Department decided not to prosecute him after a two-year investigation of his long and controversial relationship with mobster/informer Gregory Scarpa Sr.

DeVecchio's lawyer, Douglas Grover, said the decision was a "long overdue vindication'' for his client.

But a top federal prosecutor said the investigators had not "exonerated DeVecchio." They merely determined that "they do not believe they have proof [of a crime] beyond a reasonable doubt,'' said Brooklyn Assistant U.S. Attorney Valerie Caproni.

The inquiry began in 1994 after other agents began to suspect that DeVecchio was leaking FBI secrets to Scarpa during the bloody Colombo mob war.

Scarpa, who killed four mobsters during the 1991-92 war, was portrayed at three racketeering trials as an FBI operative with a license to kill by defense lawyers for 15 defendants who won acquittals in 1994 and 1995.

The investigation has triggered several hearings to determine if convicted Colombo mobsters, including acting boss Victor (Little Vic) Orena, should get new trials.

DeVecchio, who testified at Orena's trial, invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege and refused to testify at any hearing.

"If DeVecchio had a clean conscience, he would come in here and testify," Orena's lawyer, Gerald Shargel told Daily News reporter Helen Peterson.

Countered Grover: "Lin has done nothing wrong, but under the circumstances, I don't believe he should testify."

Garbage Boss Gets No Respect; September 30, 1996

Andrew RussoTHE feds wasted little time picking off the latest mobster to reach the top of the Colombo crime family — nailing Andrew Russo on racketeering charges.

Russo, a cousin of longtime boss Carmine (Junior) Persico, was arrested and charged essentially with being the mob muscle for a private carter who allegedly collected garbage from a Long Island town under "false and fraudulent pretenses."

Law enforcement sources say Persico, recently stepped down to bring an end to a long feud with rival mobsters loyal to former acting boss Victor (Little Vic) Orena.

Russo, 63, is not charged with any violent acts in a 30-count indictment that lists crimes of mail fraud, labor racketeering and money laundering. But federal prosecutors have managed to send him directly to jail while he awaits trial.

That's because the FBI spotted Russo meeting last May with reputed Colombo underboss Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace and Russo was also hit with violating parole restrictions against associating with organized crime figures.

The charges in the racketeering indictment are by no means penny ante but normally they would not have resulted in Russo, 63, being jailed to await trial. In fact, a federal judge set bail at $3 million — which Russo was ready to post — but the parole warrant made the issue of bail a moot point.

The indictment alleges that Russo, who was in federal prison from 1986 to 1994, has been the power behind private carter Dennis Hickey, who has earned about $3 million a year picking up garbage in the town of Islip, L.I.

The feds claim that Hickey's been doing that illegally since 1987 when he pleaded guilty to bribing town officials to use the Islip town dump without paying the required fees and should forfeit $15 million is assets.

And Russo, who is identified in the indictment as an acting boss, is cooling his heels in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn with no official recognition that he's the Boss of the Colombo family.

MEANWHILE, Genovese boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante, who is charged with ordering eight murders and plotting to kill rival mob boss John Gotti, awaits his racketeering trial in the relative comfort of his mother's Greenwich Village apartment.

Gigante, who is due to appear in court for a status conference Oct. 4, is being prosecuted by the same U.S. Attorney's office, the one that's based in Brooklyn and handles federal cases in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island.

As Gang Land followers know, Gigante was arraigned this month on racketeering charges that were lodged in 1990. That indictment came a decade after Gigante took over as Genovese boss. Then it took prosecutors six years to convince a federal judge that Gigante had been feigning insanity for 30 years and was competent to stand trial. After all that, you'd think his prosecutors would seek to remand him, but they didn't.

In Manhattan, federal prosecutors broke off discussions with lawyers seeking bail for reputed Genovese acting boss Liborio (Barney) Bellomo and received more time to oppose a bail motion by Bellomo, who has been incarcerated since June.

Bellomo has passed two lie detector tests concerning the only act of violence he is charged with — a 1991 gangland style slaying — and argues that a substantial bail package with strict house arrest provisions should be sufficient to insure his appearance at trial next year.

Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan has scheduled a hearing on Bellomo's motion for next week.