Gangland 1/4/2024

[Dr031718]

Jackie Nose D'Amico, Sidekick & Close Pal Of Mafia Boss John Gotti, Checks Out. He Was 87.

It was impossible to miss John (Jackie Nose) D'Amico.

He was the good looking guy with a shock of steel gray hair, a ready smile and a prominent proboscis who seemed permanently affixed to the side of New York's most famous gangster. He eventually rose in the ranks to become an acting boss of the Gambino crime family. But his chief claim to fame — some might say infamy — was as close pal, gambling buddy, beard, appointments secretary, and chief trial strategist for John Gotti during the Dapper Don's brief but swashbuckling reign atop New York's Gang Land.

After those glory days, D'Amico, who cashed in his chips the other day at the age of 87, saw his own star fall in recent years, according to some in law enforcement. Sources say that at the time of his death he had been on the outs with family leaders and had even been put on the shelf by the crime family — with his rights and responsibilities taken away.

Others say the fierce Gotti loyalist whose close ties to the powerful Sicilian faction of the crime family helped put him atop the crime family after the boss's death behind bars in 2002, had simply moved into semi-retired status. He was placed in the crew of consigliere Lorenzo Mannino in 2014 and later moved to the crew of a Long Island based capo.

D'Amico had a long friendship with slain underboss Francesco (Frank) Cali and was always viewed as an ally and mentor of the powerful Sicilian faction of the crime family.

His last stretch behind bars ended in 2012 after his conviction for taking part in a Gambino plot to whack Fred Weiss, a former city editor of the Staten Island Advance as a favor for the DeCavalante family. Since then, D'Amico avoided all trouble with the law. Sources say Jackie still lived on the Upper East Side that has been home base for the Brooklyn born and raised wiseguy since his heyday as Gotti's constant companion.

During those glory years following Gotti's acquittal of racketeering and murder in 1987, Jackie Nose would be photographed by the Daily News at prize fights in Madison Square Garden alongside the smiling Mob Star. He dined out several nights a week with Gotti at Da Noi, the Upper East Side restaurant that became a favored eatery-watering hole for the Dapper Don.

The year 1990 was a heady one for Gotti and Jackie Nose. On February 9, Gotti was acquitted of assaulting carpenters' union official John O'Connor. Mulberry Street residents celebrated with a fireworks display that lit up the sky outside his Ravenite Social Club headquarters in Little Italy.

To celebrate that victory, Gotti took Jackie Nose, Da Noi up-front owner Carlo Vaccarezza, Joe Watts, and his just-in-case bodyguard, Bartholemew (Bobby) Borriello to Fort Lauderdale, where in an elegant joint they visited, "a well-spoken stranger asked D'Amico to introduce him to Gotti."

"I'd like to meet him, just say hello; I've heard so much about him," said a man who introduced himself as Brian Mulroney, as a man who was with him whispered in D'Amico's ear that Mulroney was the prime minister of Canada.

Jackie Nose, who served as Gotti's appointments secretary, was skeptical, but he asked. "As long as he ain't got no fucking Mounties with him," a beaming Gotti replied.

Gene Mustain and yours truly detailed that classic encounter between a lord of government and the lord of the underworld in our 1996 book, Gotti:Rise and Fall, about Gotti's short but exciting reign atop the Gambino crime family as he poked his thumb in the eye of the FBI and dared them to arrest him. "It was a funny line," we wrote, "and everyone at the Gotti table had a great laugh about it after the man claiming to be Mulroney came over, chitchatted about nothing, and left – leaving everyone convinced that he was who he said he was."

Jackie and John on a rainy dayA few months later, in May, 1990, Jackie Nose's role as Gotti's appointments secretary for his not-so-secret assignation with Lisa Gastineau began, a chore he repeated several times that year.

Gastineau was in Regines that night with Bo Dietl, the ex-cop private detective she was using in her breakup with her NY Jets football star husband. At Gotti's urging, as Mustain and I wrote, Jackie walked over to Gastineau, and whispered in her ear, "John would like to take you to dinner and dancing, alone, someday."

Gastineau handed D'Amico her phone number and said that would be fine, but when the call came, D'Amico was on the line, and he said: "The Rainbow Room. Ten o'clock. The reservation will be in your name. John will arrive a few minutes after you do."

"D'Amico arranged all of Gotti's and Gastineau's dates over the next several months," including a double date with Jackie Nose and Vaccarezza. As we wrote in Gotti: Rise and Fall, both men were to serve as "beards" for the Dapper Don. Carlo would be Lisa's date, and Jackie would be John's, at a December 12, 1990 Frank Sinatra concert on his 75th birthday, and her 30th birthday.

Their plans were abruptly canceled when Gotti was arrested the day before and jailed for the rest of his life.

But Jackie Nose wasn't a fair weather friend. At Gotti's trial two years later, he arranged for celebrity cheerleaders like Anthony Quinn, Roy Inness, heavyweight boxer Renaldo Snipes, and actors John Amos, Al Lewis and Mickey Rourke, singer Jay Black and New York Post columnist Cindy Adams to show up in court and make sure jurors saw their support for the Dapper Don.

During a break in the action, he joined Vaccarezza in praising Gotti to Mustain. "A John who comes along once in a Life," he said. "They broke the mold with John; he's original."

Asked what made Gotti such an original, D'Amico laid it on thick, with feeling: "John had two things going for him. He was loved and feared. He's the only person I've seen with both. You call it charisma. He has that, but love and fear was what counted. People don't cross a man they love and fear."

"His friendship with Gotti was huge for D'Amico," a law enforcement source told Gang Land. "Gotti hooked him up with Joe Watts and he made a ton of money in the phone card business with Joe Watts and Frank Cali in the 1990s when they were selling phone cards for five and ten bucks a piece and making ten to 20 million a month," the source continued.

According to court filings, the trio formed a company, CNC, which distributed major company phone cards, making sure to pay their bills to boost their credit rating. They got more and more cards on credit, until they eventually "stopped paying their bills" and bankrupted two major phone card firms. "It was a simple bust-out scam that made them millions," the source said.

In papers filed in 2008, federal prosecutors asserted that Cali was inducted into the family in the late 1990s and was placed under then-capo D'Amico, who became the family's acting boss in 2005. When D'Amico was elevated to acting boss, then-prosecutor Joey Lipton wrote, Cali was promoted to acting capo and began serving as Jackie Nose's gate keeper.

Domenico (Italian Dom) Cefalu, who had been D'Amico's underboss, stepped up to the top spot in 2011 after serving a two year prison stretch stemming from a vast 80-count racketeering case that charged a total of 62 Gambino wiseguys and associates with a slew of racketeering crimes.

Jackie Nose also had a great gig, and a classy automobile that went with it, as an employee of Big Geyser, the big New York-based distributor of non-alcoholic drinks and snacks, a company that was founded by Irving Hershkowitz, who attended New Utrecht High School in Bensonhurst with D'Amico until Jackie quit in his first year.

Hershkowitz stated in a 2008 filing with the feds that D'Amico began working for Big Geyser in 1991, for $24,000 a year, and by 2008, was earning $71,000 a year as a salesman.

We know his company car was a bright shiny red Jaguar, because Jackie was driving it back in 1993 near the entrance to the Queens midtown tunnel on Second Avenue when he stopped it to talk to Gene Mustain and commiserate with him about the Gotti trial when he spotted him in a walk talk with Tom Robbins, another Daily News colleague, and Gang Land co-author.

As D'Amico chatted with Mustain — and ignored the angry horn-blowing drivers who were stopped behind him — Robbins couldn't help but notice what he called a "lustrously ruby-red Jaguar" that Jackie Nose was driving, and subsequently learned from Hershkowitz that it was indeed registered to Big Geyser and it was the company car that D'Amico used.

Robbins never was able to get any other info from Hershkowitz, except that his moniker was Hal Irving, and that's what he should call him. And Robbins and Mustain couldn't recall anything that Jackie Nose talked about at the mouth of the Midtown Tunnel three decades ago. But Mustain shared a few thoughts he had about the man.

"Jackie D'Amico was the only gangster I ever met who played the role of gangster as well as John Gotti, his sidekick and mob boss for many years," he said. "When you look at the old news clips and photos of Gotti, in a corner of them someplace, tugging at Gotti's elbow, guiding him to the limo, shielding him from the media mob, or holding an umbrella over his head, you'll see 'Jackie Nose,' sly, slinky and shiny, straight out of central casting, as they say."

"But he wasn't on trial for multiple murders or whatever back in 1992, and during trial recesses and hallway encounters with we anecdote-seekers and quote-chasers, he was approachable and witty," Mustain recalled. "That's how he and I got as friendly as a wiseguy and a news reporter can: I knew his game and he knew mine. Happy for you and your family, 'Jackie Nose,' that you made it to 87. Adios."

Oldster Wiseguy Can Pack a Punch — But Would Rather Not Do Jail Time For Now

Genovese wiseguy Anthony (Rom) Romanello is so old — and his one punch assault of Manhattan restaurateur Bruno Selimaj took place so long ago — that the octogenarian mobster should not be detained to await sentencing for extortion, his lawyer is arguing to a federal appeals court.

Romanello is 86 years old and served up his knuckle sandwich nearly seven years ago, attorney Gerald McMahon told the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in his bid to get his client out of jail for the time being. Both are "exceptional reasons" that should permit him to remain free on the same bail conditions the feds agreed to when they arrested him last year, McMahon stated.

The veteran gangster also suffers from heart disease, high blood pressure and liver function problems — none of which are likely to receive the needed treatment in the scandal-plagued Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where Romanello will be housed for months before his sentencing and transfer to a designated facility to serve whatever prison term he receives, the attorney asserts.

Noting that the appeals court has defined "exceptional reasons" as a "unique combination of circumstances giving rise to situations that are out of the ordinary," McMahon argued that prison statistics about the ages of the more than 157,000 federal inmates made it "crystal clear" that remanding his aging client before sentencing was "exceptional" and should be reversed.

Statistics show Romanello is already in an exceptional age bracket, McMahon wrote. Only 2.9% of federal Bureau of Prisons inmates are over 65, he pointed out. In 2021, only 428 inmates were over the age of 70, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. While the BOP and the Commission had no breakdown of inmates over the age of 85, McMahon wrote, "It no doubt is less than 1%, if measurable at all."

In his filing, McMahon argues that the BOP stats and the Sentencing Commission's report back up the argument he made to Brooklyn Federal Judge Eric Komitee that Romanello's "advanced age was exceptional, if not unique" and that "remanding" him was "not only 'rare,' as the district judge conceded, but it was virtually unprecedented."

"Circumstances that are 'rare' and 'unprecedented.' are, by definition, 'exceptional,'" wrote McMahon.

"The lengthy time lapse between the date the crime was committed (May 2017) and the date of remand (December 12, 2023)" was a "second exceptional circumstance" that permits his client to remain free pending sentence, McMahon argued.

"In particular," the lawyer stated, because Rom "had spent 19 months on bail without any violations." He noted that even the trial prosecutors who sought his remand, "did not argue here that Mr. Romanello was a danger to the community."

Romanello about to punch SelimajThey would have been hard pressed to do so, McMahon argued.

"The punch (which was captured on videotape) did not injure Mr. Selimaj in any way," the lawyer wrote. "In fact, when he went to file a complaint with the police within hours of the incident, they told him 'that there was absolutely no mark on your face, no bruise, no redness, no nothing.'"

"The lack of any injury was not surprising," McMahon wrote, "considering that the complainant was 3 inches taller, 30 pounds heavier, and 15 years younger than Mr. Romanello."

The lawyer also included a somewhat redacted transcript of tape recorded excerpts of phone call messages that Selimaj left for Romanello later that same night, May 11, 2017, that Judge Komitee would not allow him to play at trial: "Hey Rom, you f-ing pussy. You motherf-ing . . . You c-ksuc-ng motherf--er. Come over here if you have f-ing balls. You have no balls, you motherf--er . . . . You go f-k yourself, you motherf-ing scumbag."

In their response, prosecutors insisted there was nothing exceptional about being old. They pointed out that Rom "was 79 years' old" when he punched Selimaj. Neither was Romanello "prejudiced" by the years of delay between the punch and the conviction. The "passing reference" to Rom's adherence to his bail conditions before and during the trial were irrelevant, they wrote.

"Romanello," wrote prosecutors Amy Busa, Dana Rehnquist, Irisa Chen and Rebecca Schumer, "has not met his burden to establish that 'exceptional reasons' exist to justify his release, much less that the district court erroneously concluded otherwise."

Sentencing Of Ringleader In $600,000 Labor Union Shakedown Put Off Til Next Month

Colombo capo Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo, the architect of the 20-year-long extortion of more than $600,000 from a construction workers union was slated to face the music this month. But that day of reckoning for the 78-year old mobster has been delayed until February as a result of an allegedly minor but undisclosed mishap that recently befell him behind bars.

Ricciardo's recommended prison term of between 63 and 78 months is the longest of any of the 14 defendants in the case. He has also agreed to forfeit $350,000 of the monthly payoffs of $2600 he received from the union president he began shaking down in 2001. Brooklyn Federal Judge Hector Gonzalez rescheduled his sentencing for February 28.

Ricciardo's lawyers, Elizabeth Macedonio and Karloff Commissiong, blacked out the specifics of the mysterious problem that triggered their request for the adjournment, one they filed after the judge called them on the carpet for having failed to submit their sentencing memo on time.

Ricciardo was jailed without bail as a dangerous ex-con after he was hit with racketeering charges in September of 2021. In July, he pleaded guilty to shaking down the president of Local 621 of the United Construction Trades and Industrial Employees Union. He is currently detained at the Hudson County Correction Center in Kearney.

Ricciardo's girlfriend, Erin Thompkins, has her own sentencing date in February. She is slated to face the music two weeks before Vinny Unions. Thompkins admitted conspiring with him and other Colombos to steal $10,000 a month from Local 621's benefit funds with the help of fellow scammer, Andrew Koslosky, a longtime Ricciardo pal. Koslosky later flipped and fingered his cohorts in the long running extortion, as well as the benefit fund embezzlement scheme.

Thompkins, 56, is expected to receive three years probation. That's the same sentence that two other associates who pleaded guilty to the same crime, Albert Alimena, 69, and Joseph Bellantoni, 42, each received.

[NYNighthawk]

Did Jackie have children - wife? Will the Gambinos come out to the wake or avoid it?

[TommyGambino]

Any ideas on who the gambino capo based in Long Island is, Dominick Cefalu maybe?

[OcSleeper]

Thanks for posting

Gotta wonder what led to D'Amico being shelved, if it's true. It was just in the summer of 2022 he was in Sicily meeting with Giovan Battista Badalamenti.

[NYNighthawk]

Getting shelved is a pretty serious move within the life. It could mean death as well. Someone posted in another forum when Johnny boy sr. sees Jackie - the first question he'll ask him is - did you get clipped?

[johnny_scootch]

Jackie Nose also had a great gig, and a classy automobile that went with it, as an employee of Big Geyser, the big New York-based distributor of non-alcoholic drinks and snacks, a company that was founded by Irving Hershkowitz, who attended New Utrecht High School in Bensonhurst with D'Amico until Jackie quit in his first year.

I remember Mikey Scars telling a story that when Jackie became captain of 18th Ave Mikey took him down there to show him around and it was like a whole new world to Jackie that he didn’t know existed. How the hell is that possible if he went to New Utrecht High School? He must have lived over there and even though he went for only one year there’s no way he went to that school in those days and had no idea about 18th Ave. Maybe I’m reading into it too much but it just doesn’t make sense to me.

[Cheech]

Jackie Nose also had a great gig, and a classy automobile that went with it, as an employee of Big Geyser, the big New York-based distributor of non-alcoholic drinks and snacks, a company that was founded by Irving Hershkowitz, who attended New Utrecht High School in Bensonhurst with D'Amico until Jackie quit in his first year.

I remember Mikey Scars telling a story that when Jackie became captain of 18th Ave Mikey took him down there to show him around and it was like a whole new world to Jackie that he didn’t know existed. How the hell is that possible if he went to New Utrecht High School? He must have lived over there and even though he went for only one year there’s no way he went to that school in those days and had no idea about 18th Ave. Maybe I’m reading into it too much but it just doesn’t make sense to me.

He didnt go to new utrecht. Mikey cleared that up in the live today

[johnny_scootch]

He didnt go to new utrecht. Mikey cleared that up in the live today

And there you have it, thanks Cheech.

Capeci copy and pasting from Wikipedia!

[Blunts]

Thanks for posting.

[newera_212]

He didnt go to new utrecht. Mikey cleared that up in the live today

And there you have it, thanks Cheech.

Capeci copy and pasting from Wikipedia!

Came in to ask / wonder about the same thing and I see you guys already beat me to it. Nice. Gonna try to track this Scars video down. IIRC , Jackie grew up in the East Village like Avenue A or 1st Ave area, basically all the Lower East Side back then to old timers. Wonder what high school he actually went to then.

I'm from the UES and spent a good part of my life there until I crossed the east river 7'ish years ago for greener...well, more like multi-colored pastures . I used to see Jackie holding court on 3rd ave around 85th street all the time, mostly in the late afternoons he'd be hanging outside shooting the shit with people. Probably getting take out from the diner or chipolte. I never spoke to the guy but would see him frequently. I always thought he lived in that big highrise on the corner of 86th and 3rd, if it wasn't that exact building it was another building right there I'm pretty sure. If I wasn't such a LCN nerd and knew these guys like most people know athletes, he'd be easy to miss. Looked like a regular old guy.

[SonnyBlackstein]

SERIOUSLY think its unlikely Jackie was shelved.
He was Cali's mentor, down with that crew who became the power. At best semi-retired. Spread the word he's inactive to draw off heat and send him to Italy. My guess.
Loved by alL. Power under JG, did his time, Capo 18th, mentored Cali, who was 'the power' on the street until his death Mar 2019 then in 2022 he's an envoy to Sicily?
Shelved? Bullshit IMO.


""Hey Rom, you f-ing pussy. You motherf-ing . . . You c-ksuc-ng motherf--er. Come over here if you have f-ing balls. You have no balls, you motherf--er . . . . You go f-k yourself, you motherf-ing scumbag.""

HOW is this guy still walking?!

[Blunts]

""Hey Rom, you f-ing pussy. You motherf-ing . . . You c-ksuc-ng motherf--er. Come over here if you have f-ing balls. You have no balls, you motherf--er . . . . You go f-k yourself, you motherf-ing scumbag.""

HOW is this guy still walking?!

It's crazy stuff like this isn't allowed as evidence during trial. That sounds like he was really asking for the situation to be escalated. And he got what he wanted then ran to the cops. This is such a strange case.

[Cheech]

He didnt go to new utrecht. Mikey cleared that up in the live today

And there you have it, thanks Cheech.

Capeci copy and pasting from Wikipedia!

Came in to ask / wonder about the same thing and I see you guys already beat me to it. Nice. Gonna try to track this Scars video down. IIRC , Jackie grew up in the East Village like Avenue A or 1st Ave area, basically all the Lower East Side back then to old timers. Wonder what high school he actually went to then.

I'm from the UES and spent a good part of my life there until I crossed the east river 7'ish years ago for greener...well, more like multi-colored pastures . I used to see Jackie holding court on 3rd ave around 85th street all the time, mostly in the late afternoons he'd be hanging outside shooting the shit with people. Probably getting take out from the diner or chipolte. I never spoke to the guy but would see him frequently. I always thought he lived in that big highrise on the corner of 86th and 3rd, if it wasn't that exact building it was another building right there I'm pretty sure. If I wasn't such a LCN nerd and knew these guys like most people know athletes, he'd be easy to miss. Looked like a regular old guy.

Scars did an hour and a half on Jackie yesterday. Its on the patreon.

[JohnnyS]

Any ideas on who the gambino capo based in Long Island is, Dominick Cefalu maybe?

That's my best guess too based on the captains we know that are Long Island based. D'Amico was quite close to Domenico Cefalu.

Could be a lot of reasons why D'Amico ended up on the shelf. Guys get shelved and taken off all the time these days. It would be interesting if his power in the family diminished since Cali was killed. Maybe D'Amico didn't get along with Mannino and that's why he switched crews.

[OcSleeper]

""Hey Rom, you f-ing pussy. You motherf-ing . . . You c-ksuc-ng motherf--er. Come over here if you have f-ing balls. You have no balls, you motherf--er . . . . You go f-k yourself, you motherf-ing scumbag.""

HOW is this guy still walking?!

It's crazy stuff like this isn't allowed as evidence during trial. That sounds like he was really asking for the situation to be escalated. And he got what he wanted then ran to the cops. This is such a strange case.

Except that took place after the punch