Gang Land July 28 2022

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'Shelved' Wiseguy Assaulted At A Wake Allegedly On Orders From His Mafia Boss Turns The Tables On His Attackers And Leaves Several Bonanno Mobsters Battered And Bloodied

It was a Mafia-style, funereal smack down to wake the dead.

Standard mob protocol calls for mourners to park their grievances and rivalries at the funeral parlor door when attending a fellow mobster's wake. But that sensible old school rule was tossed aside last week when Bonanno boss Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso dispatched a trio of thugs to bust up the wake of the father-in-law of ex-acting boss Joseph (Joe C) Cammarano, Gang Land has learned.

The Bonanno tough guys triggered a major brouhaha at a Long Island funeral home when they attacked Cammarano as he approached the casket in full view of other family members of the deceased. The attack quickly went south for the Bonanno boys, however, when a swarm of bikers came to the aid of Cammarano, a longtime motorcycle enthusiast.

Sources say that Cammarano, 62, his brother Dino, 63, and the bikers who came to Joe C's aid, left at least a trio of Bronx-based mobsters, capos John (Johnny Mulberry) Sciremammano, 65, Ernest (Ernie) Aiello, 42, and soldier John Spirito, Jr. 40, bloodied and battered on the floor of the funeral parlor when they left.

Sources say the dispute goes back to 2019, when Mancuso got his nose out of joint about trial testimony disclosing that Cammarano had tried to get family capos to anoint him as "official" boss in 2017 while Mikey Nose was behind bars. The sources say Mancuso banned Joe C from showing up at the wake for his dad-in-law, Vito Grimaldi — and ordered a crew of loyalists to make him suffer the consequences if he didn't heed the boss's directive.

But when the dust settled at the Dodge-Thomas Funeral Home in Glen Cove, it was the Bonanno crime family that paid a heavy price for what was an unprecedented and hard to fathom move by an apparently insecure Mafia boss. Back in 2019, Cammarano was "shelved" by Mancuso — i.e. relieved of all his mob rights and privileges — for his efforts to take over the beleaguered bourghata in 2017. Mancuso, who took over as official boss in 2013, made Joe C his acting boss in 2015.

The late Vito Grimaldi, like his-son-in-law, was also shelved, essentially a defrocked mobster. But he was still a very valuable guy as far as Mancuso was concerned, sources say. That's because he opened Grimaldi's Home Of Bread, the legendary Ridgewood Queens bakery in 1959, and until he died at age 82, was paying a tribute to the Bonannos.

The bakery is operated today by Grimaldi's three children, Joseph, Margherita, and Angela Cammarano, their spouses, and his grandchildren, according to its website. Grimaldi' son Joseph is also an inducted soldier who was placed on a shelf in 2019 along with his dad, and Joe C, and former consigliere, John (Porky) Zancocchio, after Cammarano and Zancocchio were acquitted of racketeering charges. The Grimaldis did not return a Gang Land call, but the regular mob tribute is likely to continue.

Mancuso, who completed a 15-year sentence for a 2004 mob rubout a day before Cammarano and Zancocchio won a stunning acquittal on racketeering charges in March of 2019, "is still pissed that Joe C tried to take over the family when he was in prison," a law enforcement official told Gang Land. When Grimaldi died on July 15, the source said, "Cammarano was explicitly told, 'Do not come to the wake.'"

"I categorically deny the allegation" that Mikey Nose ordered a beating of Joe C, said attorney Stacey Richman, who represents Mancuso for violating his supervised release (VOSR) for meeting with two Colombo mobsters and Bonanno soldier John (Bazoo) Ragano several times between August 2020 and June 2021. That VOSR, which was lodged against him in March, is still pending.

Law enforcement and underworld sources each say the decision by Cammarano to openly defy the boss's order and retaliate the way he did, "cries out" for a violent response by Mancuso if he hopes to retain the loyalty of the mobsters who obeyed his orders, and if he wants to maintain any credibility with the rest of his bourghata as well as the other New York crime families.

That's especially true since Joe C "belligerently" disobeyed an order "by bringing outsiders, bikers, into the mix," said one underworld source. "That's like saying, 'Fuck you. I go where I want. And if you try to stop me, I'll kick you in the balls.' This is a very volatile and dangerous situation."

Two law enforcement sources told Gang Land that even though the Commission has essentially banned mob rubouts since the mid-1990s, they say a violent response against Joseph and Dino Cammarano by the Bonanno family "is a real concern." Mancuso has stated, said one law enforcement source, that but for the Commission edict, Joe C would have been whacked for what he did in 2017.

"If there is a Bonanno family," the underworld source cracked, "the administration is in a pickle."

But this source, as well as others on both sides of the law, voiced surprise that Mancuso ordered Cammarano to be beaten since he was paying his respects to his father-in-law, and they have both been on the "shelf" since 2019.

"This kind of conduct by a boss is unheard of — telling a guy he can't come to his father-in-law's wake. They should have worked it out diplomatically to avoid this kind of a fiasco," the source continued.

This source opined that Mikey Nose has to shoulder much of the blame for the beating his guys took for ordering the "unheard of" assault against a wiseguy at a wake, and he may be pressured to forget about it by his Cosa Nostra peers.

"Since Joe C was told not to come and still came, this is a direct challenge though, and it's a big problem for the Administration," he said. "The way it stands now," he said, "their guys were beaten up for enforcing an order from the boss against a shelved guy, so something has to be done. If nothing is done, it's a disgrace. And if something is done, it's a federal case."

"It's hard to predict whether there will be retaliation," said one law enforcement source. "A violent reaction would have been a knee-jerk response a few decades ago, but the mob has stopped whacking people these days," the source said. "But that is still a fear," he added.

The last so-called "sanctioned" mob hit, of former Purple Gang leader Michael Meldish, took place nine years ago, in 2013. Just last week, former FBI supervisor Bruce Mouw stated in a New Yorker piece that mobsters are "still doing the beatings and the strong-arm stuff. But, as far as mob hits, they're not happening.”

A veteran mob lawyer who has represented mobsters from all five families said a "sensible" solution would be for the Commission to "put the whole Bonanno crime family on the shelf," similar to what the Commission did in 1981 when it took away the family's Commission vote when FBI agent Joe Pistone posed as a jewel thief and ran with them for five years.

But "sensible" doesn't always come into play when Cosa Nostra is concerned.

Like their late wiseguy father, the Cammarano brothers are both motorcycle aficionados, and longtime riders. But sources say that most of the bikers who came to Joe C's aid were buddies of Dino Cammarano, a longtime member of the Crazy Pistons Bikers Club of Brooklyn, which is not alleged to be one of the scores of so-called "outlaw" motorcycle clubs across the country.

Sources say that when Joe C approached the casket where Grimaldi was laid out on Tuesday July 19, Spirito Jr., backed up by a handful of mobsters, "punched him in the mouth and knocked him down," and began to pummel him when bikers wearing suits who accompanied Joe C into the wake immediately came to his aid when the fisticuffs began and pulled Spirito off him.

"In a flash, another dozen bikers who were outside in a truck rushed in and started beating the crap out of all the Bonannos who were in the funeral home," said one longtime mob associate who told Gang Land he got the details from "someone who was there."

"I don't know if they (the bikers outside the Dodge-Thomas facility) saw or heard or were called in by Joe C or Dino but they charged in and wiped the floor with the Bonannos, and then they walked out," said the source.

Guy Minutoli, the funeral director who owns the Dodge-Thomas funeral home told Gang Land that he "heard about" the fisticuffs but was "in an out" of the funeral parlor during the one-day, 4 PM to 8 PM wake for Grimaldi and "wasn't there for that."

"It wasn't my funeral. I didn't handle it," said Minutoli, explaining that the Grimaldi family "called this other director who they were friends with" and "they just rented my building. I'm out of it."

He declined to identify the director, he said, "because he told me to keep it confidential." Minutoli also declined to describe the damage to the place, before he stated, "I heard about it, it was squelched right away. How did you find out about it," and hung up the phone.

Grimaldi was laid to rest on July 20 at St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale following a funeral mass as St. Rocco's Church in Glen Cove, where he lived for years, and where his son-in-law still resides.

Lottery Lawyer Guilty In $80 Million Fraud Scheme Against His Clients

At the big Lottery Winners Ripoff trial, the jury was convinced that attorney Jason (Jay) Kurland was guilty — even without hearing from DrBFixin, the cosmetic surgeon whose specialty is the Brazilian Buttlift.

The feds decided correctly last week that their case against Kurland had gone so well that they didn't need to call the Lottery Lawyer's tax-evading brother-in-law, Dr. Scott Blyer, to testify that he was warned not to invest any more cash with Kurland as the FBI closed in on him and his cohorts.

The jury took less than a day to find Kurland guilty of all charges stemming from the theft of $80 million from three Lottery winners he represented.

The prosecutors didn't need Blyer, the self-described Brazilian Buttlift expert, to tell the jury that he gave Kurland shoeboxes filled with cash to invest in the same lending companies that his clients did, without being told that Kurland owned the companies and was also getting a 1% kickback on the millions of dollars they were investing.

The prosecutors put three Lottery winners who had been fleeced by Kurland on the stand. Also testifying for the government were two of Kurland's mob-connected codefendants, including Frangesco (Frankie) Russo, the grandson of the late Colombo mob boss, who detailed how the lottery lawyer stole $19.5 million from one client and gave it to Genovese soldier Christopher Chierchio to invest in another scam.

And courtesy of the FBI, which began investigating Kurland and his cohorts in 2019, the prosecutors had oodles of texts and taped phone calls between the Lottery Lawyer and his two business partners in the scheme, Russo and security broker Francis (Frank) Smookler that they were able to introduce into evidence.

Dr. Blyer, who promotes himself as DrBFixin on his website and on Instagram, was prepared to testify that he invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash with Kurland, and that at the same time that Kurland was investing his clients' money in his lending companies in 2019, he returned $300,000 in cash to Blyer, and warned him, according to a court filing, "that it was not a good time to invest in the company."

Kurland and his codefendants were arrested two years ago following an investigation by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn. Last year, the prosecutors flipped Smookler, and he pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate. But because Kurland's lawyer, Telemachus (Tim) Kasulis, is married to a top official in the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office, Manhattan federal prosecutors handled the trial.

In his summation, Kasulis argued that the government's "star witnesses," Russo and Smookler, lied on the witness stand "to finish off a plan that they hatched years ago to steal from Jason Kurland's clients, to lie to him about it, and then to put the blame on him." The lawyer asked the jurors to give Kurland "his good name back" and "send Jason back to his family" by acquitting him on all charges against him.

But the jury was unconvinced. They found Kurland guilty of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, honest service wire fraud, conspiring to engage in unlawful monetary transactions, and actually engaging in them.

Kurland, who faces up to 20 years in prison, remains free on bail pending his sentencing in November. When he faces the music, his sentencing guidelines, based on a quick Gang Land analysis, should be in the 12 to 15 year range based on the huge amount of money involved.

Not that it helped his case, but Kurland and his cronies lost most of some $80 million that they took from his clients and invested it in a Ponzi scheme that was operated by Greg Altieri, a Long Island gem merchant.

Judge Tells The Undertaker To Stay Home And Forget About Working As A Mason

It seemed like a reasonable request. At home since April awaiting trial on racketeering charges involving gambling and loansharking, Genovese capo Ralph (The Undertaker) Balsamo wanted to go back to work as a cement mason to feed the Balsamo family coffers. But after hearing what the feds had to say about that, the judge told him to enjoy his stress-free days at home.

Noting that Balsamo has worked as a mason "as a member of Cement Masons' Local Union 780," and that he and his wife (and their two minor children) have monthly expenses (not including attorney's fees) of $5,750, and that his wife earns $2,000 a month," attorney Gerald McMahon had stated, "It is obvious that Mr. Balsamo needs to return to work."

But the feds countered that Balsamo is a much convicted mobster who reverts to his gangster ways as soon as he completes a prison term. They claimed to have evidence that in 2020 The Undertaker was working as a mason on a Long Island City "jobsite a few hours a day" and getting paid union wages for a full day's work while he was off overseeing a lucrative but illegal business for the mob.

That information was "based on surveillance, license plate reader records, pole camera footage, and cell-site data" and was also "consistent with another longtime (Cosa Nostra) practice: no-show and no-work jobs," assistant U.S. attorney Celia Cohen wrote in asking Manhattan Federal Judge John Koeltl to turn down Balsamo's request.

Celia Cohen"Balsamo's decades-long affiliation with the Genovese family" and his "undeterred criminal conduct" for the mob "make plain that Balsamo cannot be trusted to comply with court directives" and "raises further concerns" about the "work" that the Undertaker "would be doing while out of his home," Cohen wrote.

In addition, Cohen argued, the Undertaker was far from indigent. She noted that "Balsamo stated that he earned $10,000 per month from a restaurant in Staten Island called Baci" during his interview with pretrial services following his arrest. The prosecutor added that the government believes "Balsamo is a part-owner of the restaurant (whether or not he is an owner on paper.)"

"This monthly income further undermines Balsamo's claimed need to be at a job-site in the Bronx for 8.5 hours per day," Cohen wrote.

"The government is simply wrong," that Balsamo could make "undetected" meetings with organized crime figures going to and from work or off the job site, McMahon countered. "It would certainly be noted by the electronic bracelet that he wears and his bail would be quickly revoked," he wrote.

The Balsamo family does "receive money from Baci Restaurant based on Mrs. Balsamo's investment (of inherited money after the death of her mother) in that business," McMahon wrote. But "the loss of construction income has left defendant and his family in a precarious financial situation, especially since his widowed mother has moved into his household."

In agreeing with the government, Koeltl wrote that the "seriousness" of the crime, along with the tape-recorded evidence that the feds have against Balsamo "argue strongly for protective conditions of pre-trial release."

The judge noted Balsamo has had four convictions involving drug dealing and other organized crime related crimes, and wrote that the Undertaker working "as a mason which would necessarily be a major exception to the conditions of home confinement and would render the no contact provision difficult, if not impossible, to monitor."

Editor's Note: Tom Robbins took a ride to Blooming Grove and spent some time in the house that Mafia Boss Joe Colombo built talking with his son Chris about his father and a bunch of other things and wrote about them in a New Yorker piece that might be of interest to Gang Land readers.

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Good article this week. That first Bonanno story is shocking

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Cross-posted the mugshots for Spirito Jr. and Dino Cammarano. First time I've seen them:

viewtopic.php?p=234410#p234410

[JohnnyS]

Thanks for posting.

How the hell did Mancuso think that Joe C wouldn't show up for his own father in law's wake? He's a nutcase and you can see why he's reportedly hated by guys in his own family and the other families. They will have to retaliate against the Cammarano's and the bikers, two capos and the son of a well respected and capable member left beaten, bloodied and embarrassed in front of a whole room. This is about to get even more interesting.

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https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/na ... d=35814821

Grimaldi's obituary

[Little_Al1991]

“Law enforcement and underworld sources each say the decision by Cammarano to openly defy the boss's order and retaliate the way he did, "cries out" for a violent response by Mancuso.”
Surely Mancuso has to respond to this but i don’t think he will kill Cammarano

[B.]

I had to make sure it wasn't April 1st. Who had this one on their bingo card for 2022? Suddenly Bonanno factionalism goes Bronx Tale at Vito Grimaldi's wake, with bikers making a cameo. Vito Grimaldi dying is just a footnote in this crazy story, but that's big in its own right.

Can't imagine what the other Families are thinking about Mancuso. Just an unnecessary way to draw heat, lower morale, and divide the Family even further. It will be amazing if someone doesn't get murdered in all of this. Some big egos at play.

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Mancuso doesn't have a great track record. Almost started a war with the Lucchese Family in 2012. Almost had a Bonanno civil war in 2015. Now potentially starting one in 2022.

[Ivan]

I had to make sure it wasn't April 1st. Who had this one on their bingo card for 2022?

I've been predicting for a while that Mancuso was going to do actual violence eventually, which will delight mob forum posters of course. Do I win something?

Of course I didn't see the "this shit would look ridiculous if you saw it in a movie" elements coming, but I never do get those.

Probably important to remember that these sixtysomething cosa nostra guys are the same people they were 30-40 years ago when they were ambitious young mobsters on the streets at the time the mob was still offing people right and left.

[chin_gigante]

2012 - Coddington Club incident
2022 - Dodge-Thomas Funeral Home incident

Ernie Aiello and John Spirito Jr in the middle of both. The Forrest Gumps of the Bonanno Family.

If this happened 20 years ago we would've seen Little Carmine getting some bikers to beat up Johnny Sack over Opus Dei.

[B.]

Mancuso may have authorized the Seccafico hit in 2009. Spirito Jr. was involved in the events leading up to it and it seems like Mancuso was already the defacto power by then. It being an issue within the Bronx crew that concerned the Spiritos makes it likely Mancuso weighed in -- his people did it if nothing else and it directly preceded him becoming official boss.

Based on what we're seeing of this guy's MO, it shouldn't be a surprise if we come to find out Mancuso encouraged Montagna's actions in Montreal. Wants to make bold, crazy statements and feels entitled to control everyone.

With high-ranking guys like DiPilato moving to Arizona and Jack Bonventre to Upstate New York, you wonder if they're looking to get away from this regime. I think DiPilato was with the Cammarano faction so maybe he got demoted or shelved.

[Ivan]

The guy offed his wife, too.

[B.]

Shelved or not, why support a boss who disrespects a multi-generation Bonanno clan like the Grimaldis, abusing their relatives at Vito's wake? Bad politics all around.

The Cammaranos' biker ties are new to me, how Dino is both a Cosa Nostra member and part of an MC. Capeci pointed out they're not "outlaws" but sounds like a tough group of guys. Curious if they're friendly with any outlaw clubs.

[JohnnyS]

Mancuso may have authorized the Seccafico hit in 2009. Spirito Jr. was involved in the events leading up to it and it seems like Mancuso was already the defacto power by then. It being an issue within the Bronx crew that concerned the Spiritos makes it likely Mancuso weighed in -- his people did it if nothing else and it directly preceded him becoming official boss.

Based on what we're seeing of this guy's MO, it shouldn't be a surprise if we come to find out Mancuso encouraged Montagna's actions in Montreal. Wants to make bold, crazy statements and feels entitled to control everyone.

With high-ranking guys like DiPilato moving to Arizona and Jack Bonventre to Upstate New York, you wonder if they're looking to get away from this regime. I think DiPilato was with the Cammarano faction so maybe he got demoted or shelved.

"This Johnny P does not go away, and he gets another four to six months' run. It's done. Everybody would just walk away."

[chin_gigante]

Mancuso may have authorized the Seccafico hit in 2009. Spirito Jr. was involved in the events leading up to it and it seems like Mancuso was already the defacto power by then. It being an issue within the Bronx crew that concerned the Spiritos makes it likely Mancuso weighed in -- his people did it if nothing else and it directly preceded him becoming official boss.

In the Madonna trial, Peter Lovaglio was asked on cross-examination if he had ever described Spirito Jr. as "capable" (Peter Lovaglio testimony notes). The question was objected to and sustained before he could answer, but it's an interesting tidbit. We know Lovaglio gave the FBI information about the Seccafico murder and tied it to the Bronx crew, so I think it's likely this question was a reference to that (Capeci, 2017). If this is the case, it's possible Spirito was on that hit team, either as the shooter or in another role.

Based on what we're seeing of this guy's MO, it shouldn't be a surprise if we come to find out Mancuso encouraged Montagna's actions in Montreal. Wants to make bold, crazy statements and feels entitled to control everyone.

Always important to remember when this comes up that in September 2012, Capeci reported that Mancuso's "underlings" were "paying close attention to developments north of the border".

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References:

2022. Peter Lovaglio testimony notes (Madonna trial). The Black Hand Forum. 2 June. Available from: viewtopic.php?p=230535#p230535.

Capeci, J., 2012. Vito Rizzuto Set To Go Home; Mikey Nose Pulls The Strings; Vinny TV Gets His Sweet Deal. Gang Land News. 27 September. Available from: https://www.ganglandnews.com/members/column811.htm.

Capeci, J., 2017. Feds Act Quickly On New Mob Turncoat's Info. Gang Land News. 4 May. Available from: https://www.ganglandnews.com/members/column1051.htm.