B. wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 12:20 pm
The arrest of Francesco Rappa says he turned 81 in September which matches heroin trafficker Francesco Rappa who lived in Queens and associated with the Gambinos in the 1970s/80s, as he was also born in September of 1942. An Italian article also says it is the same guy. I wasn't sure before but this confirms it.
Rappa was listed as a Gambino soldier in that 1980s NJ Senate Hearing report but there are other member identification errors and it looks like Francesco was a Borgetto member affiliated with the Gambinos when he lived here, much like his son.
We’ve discussed Francesco Rappa before on one of the Chicago threads, as he seems to have been the same Frank Rappa cited by LE sources as a key player in narcotics trafficking there as well (as discussed, there were multiple Francesco Rappas in Chicago from Borgetto, presumably all cousins of some type). The Borgettano colonies in NYC/NJ and Chicago have been closely connected over the years via their active paesani societies.
Now that we can say for sure that, as we’ve previously assumed, Vito’s father Francesco Rappa, boss of Borgetto, was indeed the same guy busted for heroin trafficking in NYC, he was also evidently the same one tied to figures in Chicago and may have lived there for some time after arriving in the US (at the least he had close relatives there). From a 2005 Tribune article on the Chicago-Cìnisi Salamones:
"Hey, hey, hey — this is America, baby! Survival of the fittest.”
Frank Rappa was big player in heroin trafficking in the states during 1970's. The head of the Palermo flying squad Boris Giuliano investigated Rappa few months before he was killed by Corleonesi in 1979. Now Rappa was arrested by SCO which is directed by Boris Giuliano's son. Rappa is 81 and still in the game.
I don't know if he is related to Vincenzo Rappa, who was sentenced to four years in prison in 2007 for mafia association. Police in Italy seized assets worth $820 million from Rappa in 2014.
Last edited by Strax on Thu Nov 09, 2023 3:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Yeah AAA, he does have a light accent. His father was living in the US when he was born so I'm not sure if he was born here but he's said he was working at the family's US pizzerias by the time he was 12. His social media says he went to high school in NJ and the pizzeria website says he opened the first one in NYC in 1999 then one in NJ in 2002 when he would have been in his 20s.
He definitely grew up in a heavy Sicilian immigrant circle and no doubt his relatives spoke mostly Sicilian but maybe he did move back there for a while, just hard to tell when.
Website says his father came to the US after WWII and got into the restaurant business in Brooklyn. Francesco Rappa was born in 1941 so either the restaurant bio is written from the perspective of an older relative and is referring to someone else (otherwise it doesn't seem to be, and Vito is the figurehead of the company) or by "after WWII" he means way after WWII. I don't know when Francesco Rappa first came to the US but I'd guess it was along with the other second wavers in the 1960s.
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Along with Bonanno consigliere Filippo Rappa being identified as a Borgetto mafioso in 1923, a Francesco and Pietro Rappa were also identified. Filippo had a brother named Pietro so that might be him but I wonder if these ones trace back to the Francesco Rappa identified back then. Website refers to a great-grandfather Benedetto who ran a taverna in Borgetto but don't know if that was a Rappa.
Strax wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 3:44 pm
Frank Rappa was big player in heroin trafficking in the states during 1970's. The head of the Palermo flying squad Boris Giuliano investigated Rappa few months before he was killed by Corleonesi in 1979. Now Rappa was arrested by SCO which is directed by Boris Giuliano's son. Rappa is 81 and still in the game.
I don't know if he is related to Vincenzo Rappa, who was sentenced to four years in prison in 2007 for mafia association. Police in Italy seized assets worth $820 million from Rappa in 2014.
Francesco associated with Vincenzo Rappa but an Italian article said they weren't related.
There was an Antonino Rappa in Borgetto who killed a man named Erasmo Costa over a woman in 1848, so a Salvatore Rappa was killed in turn which started a longstanding vendetta of murders between the two clans. Much later in 1878 Antonino Rappa and a Nicola LoBue fired shots at the brother-in-law of Costa related to a dispute over political elections. A historian believed this was related to mafia activity.
Rappa is a common name in Borgetto but seems the name has always been linked to the local mafia going back to the 1800s.
B. wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 3:51 pm
Francesco Rappa was born in 1941
Yeah, I wrote the wrong year. Point being, the website saying "after WWII" would have meant a young child came from Italy and started a restaurant in Brooklyn. If the restaurant bio is from the POV of Vito Rappa, as it seems to be, he is using post-WWII very broadly.
Also raises the question of whether Francesco Rappa was here legally when he did come given he was linked to many illegal immigrants in the pizza business.
B. wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 4:19 pm
Yeah, I wrote the wrong year. Point being, the website saying "after WWII" would have meant a young child came from Italy and started a restaurant in Brooklyn. If the restaurant bio is from the POV of Vito Rappa, as it seems to be, he is using post-WWII very broadly.
I would assume after WWII is ~5 years after it , not 20 years after it. I guess he came to the US in the late 60's. Still pretty young to be important player in drug trafficking.
Then my father continued the family tradition, and, like many Sicilians, moved to America after WWII. Along with his passion for culinary art, he had a mission: to give back, through traditional cooking, the flavors of Sicily to the community of immigrants in Brooklyn.
Looking at the site again ^^^, he doesn't say outright his father immediately started serving Italian food in Brooklyn after coming post-WWII but it seems to be implied. If nothing else it would mean Francesco Rappa came to NYC as a young child and stayed or was otherwise living in Brooklyn by adulthood which is not the impression we have of Rappa in the 1970s/80s.
But then again I'm analyzing the website bio of a restaurant owned by a mafioso whose father was a major heroin trafficker and expecting to get the full story.
B. wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 12:20 pm
The arrest of Francesco Rappa says he turned 81 in September which matches heroin trafficker Francesco Rappa who lived in Queens and associated with the Gambinos in the 1970s/80s, as he was also born in September of 1942. An Italian article also says it is the same guy. I wasn't sure before but this confirms it.
Rappa was listed as a Gambino soldier in that 1980s NJ Senate Hearing report but there are other member identification errors and it looks like Francesco was a Borgetto member affiliated with the Gambinos when he lived here, much like his son.
Adding to this, Vito Rappa runs pizzerias including one in NJ much as his father did when he lived here. His pizzerias are called Francesco Pizzeria.
Here is Vito Rappa in 2011:
A lot more photos of him on the pizzeria's website, including one with Steve Van Zandt:
Very involved in the community. Raised 40,000 to help a neighborhood fruit vendor who was having supply problems. Referred to as the "mayor" of his neighborhood.
Seems he's spent much of his life in the US going back to when he was a young kid. Wonder if he lived back in Sicily for a period or basically just went back there to get made.
Dave65827 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 6:09 pm
Per the detention memo they embezzled/tried to embezzle from laborers local 3 and Local 79. Have these unions had any previous mob ties ?
When they charge an embezzlement, they are charging an individual/company that is signed to a collective bargaining agreement (union shop) with using non union labor on certain jobs/projects and therefore not paying into the annuity, and other benefits funds. It’s not like they’re siphoning money from the union’s coffers per se …. But this often means they’re greasing a shop steward to look the other way.
Dave65827 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 6:09 pm
Per the detention memo they embezzled/tried to embezzle from laborers local 3 and Local 79. Have these unions had any previous mob ties ?
Didn't see LIUNA Local 79 initially. That local has a long established connection with the Gambino's. Edward Garafola's sons Mario and a business agent for Local 79 were all charged together in a scheme to use nonunion labor while charging MTA union rates in 2004.They bilked the MTA out of $10mm.
Local 3 and the New Jersey Council... I'm having trouble finding any links. Maybe someone else can enlighten us.
Edit: Local 3 in New Jersey is fairly new and was formed in 2012. Based on an obituary from a former member, it seems it was a successor or a rebranding of LIUNA Local 711 in New Jersey. That local historically also had connections to the Gambino's via Michael Mandaglio. He was busted in 1988 with a bunch of union officials and he was said to control the labor supply for 14 locals, which included Local 711.
