“Mafia Takedown” by Mike Campi

[Louis_Brasi]

My copy’s arriving soon. Looking forward - Campi worked with D’Urso who flipped on the west side.

Anyone read already? Any interesting stories?

[chin_gigante]

Currently about two-thirds of the way through it. It's good, I'd recommend it. I'll share some things I thought were interesting when I've finished it.

I was worried when I saw at the front that some passages had been redacted by request of the FBI and some names had been changed. However, two thirds in the redactions seem minimal and, as fas as I can tell, intended to obscure details of surveillance methods. The only name that has been changed so far as well seems to be the FBI agent who D'Urso accuses of coercing him into sex and withholding funds from him.

There's lots of good excerpts of D'Urso's tapes too.

[JohnnyS]

It sounds really good. Looking forward to giving it a read.

[outfit guy]

I just started the book. When you skip the mafia history and mafia misperceptions/romanticized, you start at the history of the Oddfather - which I read. Then Mike's way into the FBI - I skipped. Overall, I started 20% in accounting for the same old rehash. Still, I'm optimistic for the remainder.

[Hailbritain]

Just ordered this , looking forward to reading it

[TSNYC]

I read first 2 chapters giving history of mob filled with same sloppy misconceptions and falsehoods constantly repeated. I’m hoping the parts about his investigations are better.

Luciano created the commission and named Tommy Gagliardi as boss of what would become Lucchese family … bleh. Always amazed by some of these sloppy typos/mistakes.

[NorthBuffalo]

My copy is also on the way - sounds similar to Ron Fino's book with the 'romanticized fake history of the mafia' BS in the beginning. What is interesting about this book is that the author the FBI agent was partnered on it with Cookie - then Cookie backed out bc he didn't like some things. So I'm interested to see what's in there that Cookie balked at - he's quite an interesting figure.

[chin_gigante]

My copy is also on the way - sounds similar to Ron Fino's book with the 'romanticized fake history of the mafia' BS in the beginning. What is interesting about this book is that the author the FBI agent was partnered on it with Cookie - then Cookie backed out bc he didn't like some things. So I'm interested to see what's in there that Cookie balked at - he's quite an interesting figure.

Campi says they were working on it together until D'Urso suggested putting something in it that was untrue. At that point Campi stopped collaborating with D'Urso on it.

[Cheech]

I skipped over all that to page 43. Im starting there

[Louis_Brasi]

Finished. Interesting once you get past the history and background stuff. Some info that caught my eye:

- campi alleges Sonny Franzese was involved in the DeCicco hit. He said that he had information that Barney, while in prison, told Sonny that Chin loved Sonny for helping on that hit.
- Allie shades at one point plotted to kill chin with Gotti’s help but they never went through with it.
- lots of people in the genovese inner circle were speaking out of turn around cookie (telling him things about the heirarchy, things about Barney’s money guy, etc). That being said cookie still never got access to Barney or quiet dom or Ernie or the other top guys, but he collected a decent amount of hearsay about them just from guys gossiping.
- cookie was involved in a hit on John borelli with Vito guzzo. I think this is actually Gene’s cousin and they just misspelled Borello to Borelli.
- there was at some point a plan among all the families to massacre a bunch of Albanians all on the same day. But that never materialized (sounds way too ludicrous to be true imo - I think they may be exaggerating there) bc the gambinos tried to smooth things over with that famous rudaj sit down at the gas station.

[chin_gigante]

- campi alleges Sonny Franzese was involved in the DeCicco hit. He said that he had information that Barney, while in prison, told Sonny that Chin loved Sonny for helping on that hit.

I've re-read that passage a few times and the wording is a little confusing but I don't think that's what Campi is claiming.

Screenshot 2024-11-23 at 14.48.44.png

To me this reads as Bellomo told Franzese in prison that he (Bellomo) had been involved in the DeCicco murder. Gigante loved Bellomo because of this and made him acting boss after the murder. Franzese then told this story to other Colombo members.

[chin_gigante]

Here are some things I found interesting. It’s by no means everything that’s in the book. I’ve bolded a couple of things that stood out to me in particular.

Jimmy Ida

- Jimmy Ida’s parents were from the north of Italy
- Ida was proposed for membership by Ciro Perrone
- When Ida served as consigliere of the family, Gigante sent Nicky Frustaci to spy on him
- Gigante was close with Frustaci and trusted him more than Ida
- Campi bugged Ida’s social club on Mulberry Street and caught Tommy Cestaro talking about Genovese control of the Feast of San Gennaro
- They had to remove the bug after learning that the club was going to be renovated
- Campi and other agents went to the club and retrieved the device while pretending to look for explosives
- Campi used an ongoing beef between the crew and an Asian gang from Chinatown as an excuse for the fake bomb threat
- Cookie D’Urso (before he cooperated) caught a surveillance team reinstalling the device, so guys stopped using the club for meetings
- Campi suspected that Joey Ida was the shooter in the Hickey DiLorenzo murder but there was never enough evidence to charge him
- DiLorenzo’s brother Jerry was in the Ida crew
- Ida lost a dispute with the Lucchese family over the release of George Zappola
- Zappola’s father, also named George, was a Genovese member who was murdered
- Al D’Arco told the FBI that the younger Zappola was with Ida, who wouldn’t release him
- Ida wanted to keep Zappola to control him out of fear he could flip to get revenge for his father’s murder
- Benny Mangano ruled in favour of the Lucchese family and released Zappola
- D’Arco said that Ida and Chuckie Tuzzo were involved in the elder Zappola’s murder
- In 1999 Sammy Aparo told D’Urso that he continued to communicate with Ida over the phone
- Aparo also stated that Ida sends messages from prison through ‘Louie Black’ Casalini, a Genovese soldier

Carmine Polito

- One of the main factors that pushed D’Urso to cooperate was his desire to get back at Carmine Polito
- Polito had orchestrated the double shooting that wounded D’Urso and killed his cousin Tino Lombardi
- Polito, like his victims, was an associate in Ross Gangi’s regime, but he wanted to be with a bank robbery crew under Allie Malangone
- Polito saw joining Malangone as an opportunity to earn enough cash to pay off his gambling debts
- However, Polito wasn’t being released as an associate because he owed a significant amount of money to Lombardi
- By killing Lombardi, Polito could get out of paying the money he owed and clear the way to transfer to the Malangone crew
- If he was going to kill Lombardi, Polito would have to kill D’Urso too
- After the shooting, Campi observed the acting administration meeting with Gangi and Malangone
- Through Gangi, D’Urso requested permission to kill Polito but was told not to
- Sammy Aparo later explained to D’Urso how there was concern that Polito could flip if a revenge murder-bid failed
- Aparo also told D’Urso that Malangone was more influential with the acting administration and had the ear of Barney Bellomo and Mickey Generoso
- Acting on his own, D’Urso arranged for another associate, John Kirby, to kill Polito
- Kirby shot at Polito but missed
- Gangi gave D’Urso a warning from Bellomo that if they found out D’Urso was responsible they would kill him
- D’Urso continued to look for ways to kill Polito but took Kirby off the contract because he didn’t think he was reliable
- Despite being told not to proceed, Kirby eventually shot Polito in the head
- Like D’Urso, Polito survived the attempt on his life
- Kirby then committed suicide to avoid arrest, having previously told D’Urso he would never return to prison
- Before D’Urso cooperated law enforcement believed Polito’s shooting was related to the bank robberies
- Once he started cooperating, D’Urso recorded a conversation with Sammy Aparo in which they discussed the fact that Polito was telling people he would soon be straightened out
- Aparo and D’Urso agreed that if Polito was inducted it meant that the murder of Lombardi and the attempted murder of D’Urso had likely been authorised by Malangone and the acting administration
- This could also have contributed to why D’Urso wasn’t given permission to kill Polito
- In the same discussion, Aparo and D’Urso talked about how Carmine Russo and Elio Albanese (both members of the bank robbery crew) wanted to kill Polito because they viewed him as a weak link and likely to flip
- Polito later tried to get released to the Lucchese family because he had been in prison with Dom Truscello
- Petey DiChiara (who took over as captain when Gangi went to prison) was open to the idea because of the potential for a future favour from the Lucchese family
- As this transfer was being discussed, D’Urso recorded Vinny Aparo asking his father why they couldn’t kill Polito on the sneak

D’Urso: How do they even ask that? That’s a disgusting thing, I got to fucking ask.

Vinny: Can I say something that might be very stupid here. Can’t we just do it and end this stupid fucking thing?

Aparo: They didn’t give us permission to get this guy. So now you do anything they might say you were told, and you didn’t come and ask.

D’Urso: My fucking cousin got fucking killed.

Aparo: No, we know all this, they know all this.

D’Urso: Is this going to lay dormant forever?

Aparo: No.

- Trying to settle the beef between Polito and D’Urso, the Lucchese family proposed that the issue be dropped because they had both survived shootings
- To keep up the façade that he wasn’t cooperating, D’Urso said he’d be willing to kill Polito’s cousin John Imbrieco to even the score
- Ultimately Polito was never released to the Lucchese family

Ross Gangi

- Before he agreed to cooperate, D’Urso wanted to kill Ross Gangi
- D’Urso had met with Gangi and Bonanno member Boobie Cerasani when Gangi asked to borrow money from D’Urso
- D’Urso worried that Gangi was planning to kill him and keep the money
- Gangi and Cerasani had previously confronted D’Urso about coming to meetings armed
- D’Urso carried a gun everywhere after his shooting and openly disobeyed Gangi’s order not to do so
- When Gangi asked to borrow money, D’Urso said he had to run it by Sammy Aparo first
- Cerasani questioned why D’Urso felt the need to do so when Gangi was Aparo’s captain
- D’Urso replied he should let Aparo know anyway since he reported directly to him
- Gangi asked hypothetically what D’Urso would do if he was asked to kill Aparo
- D’Urso refused to answer the hypothetical and went to see Aparo
- D’Urso told Aparo they needed to kill Gangi and volunteered to do it
- Aparo told D’Urso to hold off while he looked into the matter
- D’Urso then spoke with Vito Guzzo
- D’Urso, Guzzo, and Anthony Tabbita had previously killed John Borelli together
- Guzzo suggested killing Gangi and Cerasani and going to war, but D’Urso declined
- Around the same time, Campi told Aparo there was a threat to his life
- Campi doesn’t disclose what the nature of the threat was but says it wasn’t related to Gangi

Farby Serpico

- In 1997 D’Urso got into a dispute with a guy called Johnny Zero, who worked for bookmaker Matt Castellano
- D’Urso provided gamblers to Zero and received a portion of any of their winnings
- The gamblers mostly lost, so Zero didn’t register them with the book and kept all of the money for himself
- When the gamblers hit two weeks in a row however, Zero owed D’Urso $70,000 and couldn’t pay
- D’Urso then gave Zero a beating
- Because of Castellano’s surname, D’Urso assumed it was a Gambino operation and felt confident he could stand up for the Genovese family and win the dispute as Zero was obviously in the wrong
- D’Urso then received a call from an unidentified man who berated him for beating up Zero
- In response to this, D’Urso gave Zero another beating and called the number back to scream at the guy
- D’Urso didn’t know that the guy he yelled at on the phone was Genovese member Farby Serpico
- Alan Longo (described alternately in the book as an acting captain or a captain) was sent by Serpico to talk to Sammy Aparo
- Aparo was an acting captain at the time
- Longo was used as a messenger by the acting administration and told Aparo that Serpico wanted to kill D’Urso
- Longo also let Aparo know that Serpico had become the acting boss
- Most of the Genovese family didn’t know about Serpico’s promotion
- Aparo and Joe Zito argued to save D’Urso’s life
- D’Urso felt he did nothing wrong, and it was ridiculous that an acting boss would behave like that over the phone
- Johnny Zero also tried to calm the situation down to save D’Urso’s life
- Serpico told Zero that D’Urso was no good and not to talk to him
- Serpico told Zero about an incident when D’Urso beat up a bouncer at the China Club, a nightclub controlled by Barney Bellomo
- Bellomo instructed Ernie Muscarella to give a beating to D’Urso and others who had been involved
- D’Urso however stayed away from the club and tensions eventually eased
- Zero also talked to Matt Castellano to prevent D’Urso’s murder
- Zero was later recorded telling D’Urso about his conversation with Castellano

They were going to kill you. I swear to God…If I didn’t go that Monday you were gone…He told me point blank, how would you feel if you found out tomorrow this kid was history?

- Castellano also warned Zero that he could be killed over the issue too
- Serpico ultimately decided to spare D’Urso on the condition that he not step out of line over the next six months
- Aparo warned D’Urso not to come in if he was sent for, because it would likely be a set up for a murder
- Aparo later lied to Serpico that he hadn’t warned D’Urso about a threat to his life
- The dispute with Serpico was the final straw that convinced D’Urso to cooperate
- In September 1998 Aparo told D’Urso that Serpico finally gave permission to collect the money from Zero
- Serpico, who had been holding up D’Urso’s induction, also agreed to straighten him out
- Zero was living in Florida at the time, so D’Urso went down there to see him
- D’Urso appreciated that Zero stood up for him when things got out of control
- However, Zero revealed that he had already taken out mortgages to give the money to Serpico
- The acting boss told Zero he was going to give the money to D’Urso
- Serpico learned of this conversation in Florida and denied taking D’Urso’s money
- Serpico then said that D’Urso could only collect the money from Zero in New York
- He also resumed his opposition to making D’Urso a member
- D’Urso later recorded multiple conversations with people, including Patty Falcetti and Tommy Cafaro, who agreed that Serpico was in the wrong
- Cafaro agreed that Serpico kept D’Urso’s money for himself

Sammy Aparo

- D’Urso recorded several conversations in which Sammy Aparo discussed his criminal career
- Aparo told D’Urso that Lucky Luciano organised cosa nostra and put the commission together
- Aparo said that Frank Costello and Albert Anastasia wanted to take control of everything in the 1950s, and Costello did not want to give up his position to Vito Genovese
- Aparo told D’Urso that there was a change in the rules in 1957 and he was told not to deal in drugs, counterfeit money, or bonds
- Anyone dealing in the above activities was told to wrap them up
- Aparo was straightened out on a Sunday morning in 1957
- Sally Young Palmieri proposed Aparo and pricked his finger
- About fifty members were present, and Vincent Gigante was also inducted at the ceremony
- Aparo’s captain was Tommy Eboli
- Aparo described Eboli having a hundred guys in his crew
- The crew was later broken up, making ten new captains each responsible for ten guys
- Eboli may have been killed for disrespecting Jerry Catena
- Aparo said he had about five different captains and three to four acting captains
- One captain was Sally Palmieri, who slapped Gigante’s father-in-law when Gigante was a soldier
- Aparo grew up across the street from Gigante and had previously been on good terms with him
- After the slap, Gigante hated Palmieri and resented Aparo by extension
- Aparo described how corrupt NYPD officers smuggled seized heroin from the French Connection case out of evidence and sold it back to the mob
- Aparo’s case was dismissed because the presiding judge was connected
- Aparo told D’Urso that Tony Salerno was never the boss, instead he was ‘our consigliere’ and Gigante was the boss
- D’Urso hoped Aparo would cooperate because of his problems with Gigante and dislike for Farby Serpico
- Campi visited Aparo in prison after the case was wrapped up, and Aparo said he understood why D’Urso cooperated

James Soldano

- In 2000 Aparo ordered D’Urso to kill James Soldano
- Soldano was Aparo’s godson, but he was bipolar and violent
- Aparo feared Soldano would kill him
- D’Urso said he would take care of it and told Campi what he had been asked to do
- Campi was looking for ways to get Soldano off the street when he got arrested anyway
- It turned out Soldano’s mother called the police on him for threatening her
- To resolve this issue, Soldano agreed to enter a facility where he would receive treatment for his bipolar disorder
- With Soldano off the street, D’Urso told Aparo he couldn’t find him
- Once he received treatment for his condition, Soldano calmed down and Aparo backed off the murder plan

Inductions

- D’Urso was proposed for the membership in the early 1990s but the books were closed at the time because of defections of high-ranking members including Carmine Sessa
- Paul Geraci’s induction was delayed because of the books being closed but he later became a member in Barney Bellomo’s crew
- Geraci told D’Urso that Bellomo and Mickey Generoso inducted Joe Denti Jr and Bucky Carbone on the sneak while the books were closed
- Geraci stated that Peter Gotti inquired about Joe Denti, saying he would have remembered Denti’s name being on an induction list
- Geraci was held back because they were worried he might tell his father-in-law, Gaspipe Casso, if he was snuck in
- In February 1999 Alan Longo informed Sammy Aparo of a conversation he (Longo) recently had with Dom Cirillo about the need to induct younger members
- Aparo then filled D’Urso in on what Cirillo told Longo

We’d better get some fucking young kids. We got nobody. Who we gonna get to shake ‘em up? Nobody’s got no kids around…They’re going to do the induction in a month. He just told me don’t tell nobody nothing. He says next week I’m passing the list around to all the families. We wait two weeks for an answer, if they don’t answer us we just got ahead and do it. In order words, in case they want to knock a guy down, the families.

- On 7 September 1999 D’Urso recorded Aparo talking about an induction ceremony that had taken place the night before
- Ernie Muscarella, Larry Dentico, and Danny Leo presided over a ceremony to straighten out Vinny Aparo, Frank DeMeo, and Robert DeBello
- Sammy Aparo told D’Urso that Paul Geraci drove one of the cars used to transport people to the ceremony
- Geraci related to Aparo that it was his fifth trip taking people to inductions that day
- Vinny Aparo then also shared details of the ceremony with D’Urso
- The inductees were required to undress to make sure they weren’t wearing listening devices

’Do you know why you are here?’ I says no. He says, ‘Petey didn’t have a conversation with you?’ I says yeah. If he would have said, ‘What was the conversation?’ I would have said I’m supposed to be at a certain place at a certain time…You can’t raise your hands to another friend. You can’t fuck around with counterfeit money. No drugs. You can’t go off with another friend’s wife. You break any of these rules we’ll kill you and if we can’t get you we’ll go after your family…Nobody told me who’s who, not for nothing I don’t even know who’s who. They don’t even know themselves who they are.

- Muscarella instructed the new members never to tell anyone they were made
- Dentico added only to do so if an introduction was required to resolve a problem
- Vinny complained that the ceremonies were better in the movies
- Vinny stated that he wasn’t told who was on the administration or even formally introduced to DeMeo and DeBello at the ceremony
- After the initiation, Petey DiChiara introduced Vinny as a member to his father
- Vinny told D’Urso that his name was originally on the list, but Farby Serpico blackballed him so the spot went to DeMeo
- Vinny reassured D’Urso that he would be in the next ‘class’ of inductees
- Months after the above ceremony, Alan Longo told D’Urso about other upcoming inductions, including how Alex Conigliaro was going to be made
- Paul Geraci and Joe Zito also talked to D’Urso about straightening him out on the sneak behind Serpico’s back
- Al Bruno offered to induct D’Urso discreetly because he knew Serpico was holding things up
- D’Urso had helped Bruno’s nephew, Springfield associate Johnny Albanese, to collect a gambling debt
- Zito told Bruno to leave D’Urso alone and that he’d be made in New York
- Joe Todaro (it doesn’t specify which Joe Todaro) also offered to induct D’Urso in Buffalo, but D’Urso turned the offer down

Patty Falcetti and Tommy Cafaro

- The investigation eventually widened to include more of the Harlem crew
- D’Urso met Patty Falcetti at a December 1999 Christmas party held by Johnny Albanese
- Joe Zito invited D’Urso to attend and introduced him to Falcetti
- The two hit it off, and Falcetti went on to introduce D’Urso to Tommy Cafaro after the new year
- Cafaro was very talkative and D’Urso didn’t know if this was intended to impress him or lure him into a false sense of security so he could be murdered
- Cafaro told D’Urso a lot about Barney Bellomo
- Cafaro was one of the few people Bellomo permitted to visit him in prison
- Bellomo also did not want Cafaro to be criminally involved with anyone while he was away
- Instead, Cafaro was supposed to focus on Bellomo’s business
- When Bellomo went to prison, he put Cafaro with Chuckie Tuzzo because they were already working together at the ports
- Cafaro explained he would be in trouble if Bellomo knew he was still associating with people
- Cafaro also told D’Urso about Peter Tarangelo, an accountant who managed tens of millions of dollars for Bellomo in the Bahamas
- Bellomo didn’t want anyone knowing about Tarangelo
- With money provided by law enforcement, D’Urso asked Cafaro if the accountant could handle $130,000 in supposedly embezzled funds
- Cafaro said he had to check with Falcetti first, so Falcetti was offered a $70,000 fee to facilitate
- Campi followed D'Urso and Cafaro to the Bahamas and observed them handing the cheque to Tarangelo, who deposited it in a bank
- Through Falcetti and Cafaro, D’Urso also learned of disputes within the Harlem crew
- Scop DeLuca and Artie Nigro complained to Serpico that they had been insulted by Cafaro after he didn’t greet them at a wake
- Cafaro told D’Urso that both DeLuca and Serpico were ‘no fucking good’
- Cafaro believed he would have been killed had it not been for his relationships with Bellomo and Ernie Muscarella
- Falcetti also told D’Urso that he didn’t think Nigro or DeLuca belonged in the life
- D’Urso picked up on several other complaints and pieces of gossip
- Falcetti talked about how ‘the Bronx guys’ hated Butch Montevecchi
- Cafaro described Andrew Gigante as somebody who was abusive to others and got away with it as the boss’s son
- Cafaro also characterised Albert Facchiano as an abusive individual who felt he should have been made the boss
- Cafaro blamed Carmine Persico for killing ‘the life’ and couldn’t understand why he’d bring his son into it
- Cafaro tried to dissuade D’Urso from being straightened out
- On the other hand, Falcetti supported D’Urso becoming a member
- In March 2000 Falcetti revealed that he had spoken to Muscarella about D’Urso’s induction
- Muscarella’s message to D’Urso was to be patient because Serpico would not be acting boss forever
- Muscarella later replaced Serpico, who was in poor health
- Sammy Aparo also told D’Urso that Muscarella supported his induction

Alan even said they got to do it. Ernie said to us, yes. In other words, we’re going to get together with Dom and everything, set a time and do it.

- Petey DiChiara asked D’Urso to be his messenger with Falcetti so that Falcetti could deliver the messages to Muscarella
- When Muscarella was the acting boss, D’Urso got into a dispute with the Bonanno family over a construction accident
- Tony Green Urso and Tommy DiFiore got involved on the Bonanno side
- Tony Green talked to Larry Dentico and came up with a solution that involved D’Urso paying off a Bonanno-affiliated excavator
- D’Urso wasn’t happy with this solution and asked Falcetti to speak to Muscarella
- Muscarella sent word back supporting D’Urso’s position
- Uncomfortable about being caught in the middle, DiChiara asked D’Urso what he should do
- D’Urso replied, ‘No disrespect you’re my captain, but please let Little Larry know what Ernie decided’
- A sit down was arranged and D’Urso attended with DiChiara and Aparo
- Introducing D’Urso, DiChiara said, ‘He’ll get straightened out, so treat him as one of us’
- The meeting got heated as Tony Green and DiFiore insisted D’Urso pay the excavator
- D’Urso reiterated the Genovese position was that he wasn’t going to pay even if Jesus Christ told him to
- Any other outcome would require the Bonanno family talking directly to Muscarella and they dropped the dispute

George Barone

- Bitter about being pushed out of the ILA in New Jersey, George Barone got heavily involved in the piers in Miami
- Tommy Cafaro told D’Urso that the family received $25,000 a year from every individual they placed in a high-paying job through the ILA
- Instead of giving jobs to the Genovese family however, Barone kept them to his Cuban associates
- Cafaro proposed setting up some of the Cubans in fake drug busts to convince Barone they were dealing in junk and to bust them down from the high-paying union positions to the rank and file
- Problems came to a head over $90,000 Barone was owed by Umberto Guido
- As a favour to his father, Barone had previously put Andrew Gigante together with Guido
- Andrew wanted Barone’s help to get a contract with Maersk, but Barone would only do it if Guido paid him back
- Andrew and Guido got the Maersk contract and made hundreds of thousands of dollars out of it, but Barone still didn’t receive his money
- Guido came to Florida and gave Barone $3,000, saying it was a Christmas gift from Andrew for helping secure the contract
- Insulted, Barone told Guido that Andrew could stick the money up his ass
- Barone also got into a heated argument with Andrew about the money
- Barone thought that Andrew was a drunk and a junkie
- Barone started causing labour problems for the Maersk contract
- Ernie Muscarella and Patty Falcetti travelled to Florida to meet with Barone
- Muscarella was Barone’s captain at the time
- Muscarella told Barone he was shelved instructed him to stay away from the ILA
- Barone refused to step away from the ILA, saying he had 2,000 Cubans who supported him and were willing go to war
- Barone brought four armed Cubans to the meeting for protection
- Barone was upset that Muscarella hadn’t helped him with his money despite Barone asking for assistance on three occasions
- Barone had been friends with Muscarella’s father
- Barone was also angry with Falcetti because he got Falcetti his first job on the piers
- Barone continued to cause labour issues after the meeting
- Falcetti gave D’Urso the order to kill Barone, saying he was ‘getting out of hand with these Cubans’
- Cafaro also told D’Urso that Vincent Gigante hated Barone
- The plan was to lure Barone to New York and away from the protection of his Cuban friends
- Falcetti went down to Florida and gave Barone $45,000 from Guido
- The payment was made in exchange for Barone helping to install Harold Daggett as general organiser of the ILA
- Falcetti brought D’Urso to Florida with him so he could see what Barone looked like
- D’Urso watched as Falcetti met Barone and one of his Cuban guards and handed over the money
- Falcetti told Barone he would get the other half the next time he came to New York
- Barone knew he would likely be killed and was warned by another ILA figure not to come in if called for
- Around this time, Falcetti asked D’Urso how he’d feel if he started reporting to him instead of Sammy Aparo
- D’Urso said he loved Aparo but knew Aparo would want what was best for his career

Ralph Coppola

- Al D’Arco told the FBI that Ralph Coppola had previously been on record with the Lucchese family before being released to Barney Bellomo
- Tommy Cafaro told D’Urso that Bellomo saved Coppola from being killed by the Lucchese family
- Bellomo warned Coppola, ‘You were ready to be killed if it wasn’t for us…I put my neck out for you. You fuck up, you deal with me.’
- Cafaro described how Bellomo assigned Coppola to the Javits Centre and Coppola ‘screwed up there’
- Sammy Aparo was recorded telling D’Urso that Ralph Coppola should never have been straightened out or made a captain
- Alan Longo told D’Urso that Coppola was killed for badmouthing Farby Serpico and Chuckie Tuzzo
- Coppola felt he should have been made acting boss instead of Serpico

He was the closest guy to Barney in the street. When Barney went to jail they didn’t put Ralph, they put Farby there. Mario [Gigante] was very close to Farby when Mario went to jail. They put Farby there, that’s how he got there.

- Cafaro told D’Urso that nobody wanted to be the acting boss after Bellomo was arrested
- Cafaro said Bellomo put Michael Coppola in as acting boss, replacing him when he went on the lam with Serpico
- D’Urso asked if Bellomo had anything to do with Ralph Coppola’s disappearance
- Cafaro replied, ‘Nobody goes against him’
- Paul Geraci told D’Urso about Bellomo’s involvement in other murders

He was all about it. Don’t worry about that. That whole Harlem regime was doing all the work. He was doing all of it. How old do you think Barney was when he got straightened out? Nineteen.

- A reliable source told Campi about an interaction Bellomo had in prison with Sonny Franzese
- Bellomo explained to Franzese that he played a role in the Frank DeCicco murder and was made acting boss after it
- Franzese then shared details of this conversation with other Colombo family members

Allie Malangone

- From Alan Longo, D’Urso learned about a plot to kill Vincent Gigante in the 1980s
- John Gotti wanted to take over and made a deal with Allie Malangone
- Malangone and Gotti grew up together
- Gaspipe Casso however couldn’t be convinced to join the conspiracy, so it was never carried out
- If Gigante had been murdered, Malangone would have taken over as the boss
- Longo told D’Urso that he and the entire crew hated Malangone because he was abusive
- Longo and Paul Geraci told D’Urso about an incident where Malangone tried to impress Elizabeth Hurley by telling her about the structure of the Genovese family and his role as a captain

Colombo Family

- Sammy Aparo told D’Urso about conversations he had with Vinny Aloi
- Aloi told Aparo how members of the Colombo family were asking Bill Cutolo’s widow for money he owed them
- Aparo intended to lie to Jackie DeRoss about how a company Cutolo controlled owed him $37,000
- Aloi also told Aparo that there were concerns a few years ago that DeRoss was a rat before he became the family’s ‘top guy’
- Frank Campanella told D’Urso about a recent dispute between the Colombo and Gambino families
- DeRoss attended a sit down and had fifteen armed guys waiting outside
- DeRoss told his entourage, ‘If I come out pissed off, you’re going in’
- D’Urso also picked up information about ongoing factionalism within the Colombo family
- Aparo recalled that John Gotti didn’t like Carmine Persico and was always on Vinny Aloi’s side during the war
- In November 1999 Aparo spoke to D’Urso about a recent meeting he had with Jimmy Clemenza
- Aparo told Clemenza he had been informed by Alan Longo that the Genovese family was backing the Persico faction in the dispute
- Clemenza meanwhile told Aparo he personally met with Joe Massino, who claimed to be backing his faction and wanted to resolve the dispute in their favour
- Clemenza also claimed to have the support of someone close to Ernie Muscarella
- In February 2000 D’Urso recorded a conversation with Aparo and Clemenza
- At this meeting D’Urso learned that Richie Fusco was the new boss of the Colombo family
- (I believe this may be a mistake, as other sources have said Sally Fusco was the acting boss in 2000)
- Clemenza met with Fusco, who wanted him to join the Persico faction
- Fusco reassured Clemenza that the Persico faction didn’t want to harm him and only wanted to kill Vinny Aloi
- Clemenza told Aparo and D’Urso that half of Aloi’s faction have already defected to the Persico side
- Clemenza would rather transfer to another family and believed he would be killed if he joined the Persico faction

Albanians

- In November 1999 Sammy Aparo told D’Urso how Albanian gangsters had broken Benji Castellazzo’s legs
- The Albanians were around Torre LoCascio
- Patty Falcetti once told D’Urso he always brought a gun to meetings with Albanians

If you have a beef with them, you have to kill them right away. There’s no talking to them. They respect you if they know you, but if they don’t know you, they do what they got to do and see who’s coming out of the woodwork. But believe me, they ain’t gonna be around forever. I hate these fucking Albanians. I hate them.

- In early 2001 Alan Longo asked D’Urso to participate in a war with the Albanians
- A group of Albanians had taken over a social club in the Bronx and beat up members of the Lucchese and Colombo families
- Longo was recorded saying the families were all going to select five guys each to retaliate

We’re going to pull together. You’ll be one of them. We go to the guys we can trust. We ain’t going to put guys on the line who are going to become rats one day.

- The hit teams would be sent with machine guns to five clubs owned by the Albanians
- The shooters were to kill everyone inside, and Longo estimated fifty to a hundred people would be killed
- The massacre was scheduled to take place in about mid-2001, to let the Albanians think hostilities had died down
- The investigation was wrapped up before this plan could be put into effect

Miscellaneous

- Joe Zito told D’Urso the Genovese family didn’t demote or break captains, ‘we kill them’
- The book then states the reason the Genovese family has so many acting captains is because they can demote acting captains without killing them
- It’s unclear however whether Zito told D’Urso that or if it was a comment from the author
- Paul Geraci feared he would be killed because Casso cooperated
- D’Urso had a conversation with Patty Falcetti and Tommy Cafaro about Longy Zwillman’s apparent suicide
- Falcetti said, ‘We (the Genovese family) killed him’
- Cafaro said Zwillman killed himself because he was depressed
- Falcetti said, ‘Let me tell you something. If I’m depressed, I am going to kill a whole bunch of people before I kill myself.’
- Falcetti was originally around Tony Salerno
- Campi identifies a Michael Bove as a Genovese soldier
- Johnny Sideburns, then a Genovese associate, told D’Urso in 1998 that Danny Pagano didn’t want Jimmy Tenaglia to be made
- Anthony Palumbo sponsored Tenaglia, who was part of Dom Cirillo’s crew
- Alan Longo recalled that Danny Pagano told him he didn’t like Barney Bellomo
- Larry Dentico is alternately described in the book as an acting underboss, acting consigliere, or just as an administration member
- Gigante supposedly wanted to kill Sally Dogs Lombardi after he was arrested in 1992
- Gigante was upset that Lombardi had been caught dealing heroin
- Campi visited Lombardi in Rikers Island to try to convince him to cooperate because of the threat to his life

[Louis_Brasi]

- campi alleges Sonny Franzese was involved in the DeCicco hit. He said that he had information that Barney, while in prison, told Sonny that Chin loved Sonny for helping on that hit.

I've re-read that passage a few times and the wording is a little confusing but I don't think that's what Campi is claiming.


Screenshot 2024-11-23 at 14.48.44.png


To me this reads as Bellomo told Franzese in prison that he (Bellomo) had been involved in the DeCicco murder. Gigante loved Bellomo because of this and made him acting boss after the murder. Franzese then told this story to other Colombo members.

Ah yes I misinterpreted that. Your interpretation makes much more sense.

[chin_gigante]

The book also details some of what George Barone told Campi after he started cooperating. I thought it was worth discussing this in its own section. Again, I’ve highlighted the pieces of information I found the most interesting.

- Barone was half Italian and part Hungarian and Irish
- Raised in an Irish neighbourhood, Barone didn’t even know he had Italian heritage until he was eight years old because his father abandoned the family
- After serving in the Navy during WWII, Barone returned to New York and got involved with the ILA
- He became friends with Johnny Earle in the mid-1950s
- Barone and Earle killed Redmond ‘Ninny Cribbens and stole approximately $650,000 from him
- Cribbens was part of a bank robbery crew, so Barone and Earle got rid of his body to make it look like he ran off with the gang’s earnings
- Earle had been in prison with George Scalise and Vincent Gigante, who put him in touch with Vito Genovese
- Barone and Earle did a favour for Genovese by getting a union contract for a company he owned while allowing him to hire non-union workers
- For a little over a year, Earle was involved in shaking down bookmakers in Boston
- One of the bookmakers was Jerry Angiulo
- Angiulo was a Genovese associate at the time on record with Jimmy Alo
- Alo wanted Earle to leave Angiulo alone, but Genovese ruled in favour of Earle
- Genovese told Earle and Barone that Frank Costello and Albert Anastasia were looking to kill him
- Anastasia and Costello met with Mike Miranda to recruit his help in killing Genovese
- Miranda played along only to tip Genovese off to the plot
- Sonny Franzese observed Anastasia and Costello’s meeting with Miranda and corroborated the story to Genovese
- Barone says Anastasia, Costello, and Genovese were in a dispute over money in Las Vegas
- Barone says Genovese was the boss at the time and Costello was trying to usurp him
- Obviously, we know this is incorrect but it’s interesting that this is how Barone perceived things at the time as a non-member who dealt with Genovese
- After being tipped off by Miranda, Genovese sent Gigante to shoot Costello
- Earle was killed in 1958 by members of his own gang but Barone wasn’t involved
- Genovese was fond of Earle and didn’t want to be involved with the gang after his murder
- Anticipating someone else would try to control him and the ILA, Barone wanted to align himself with Tony Salerno
- Salerno’s captain at the time was Benny Lombardo
- In 1967 Salerno instructed Barone to kill Johnny Foto Biele in Florida
- Salerno and Biele didn’t get along and had been involved in a dispute shortly before the murder
- Barone shot Biele and Louie Rotunda was the driver
- Lombardo became boss of the family after Jerry Catena, who succeeded Genovese
- (It’s a little hard to tell if Barone identified Catena as the boss or if that’s something Campi added)
- Salerno succeeded Lombardo as the captain
- Lombardo’s administration included Eli Zeccardi as underboss and Tommy Eboli as consigliere
- Vincent Gigante was a captain and Bobby Manna was his acting captain
- In 1975 or 1976 Barone was instructed to murder a Black guy in Kentucky who interfered in a Genovese gambling operation
- An associate named Screw, originally from New York, ran numbers in Covington, Kentucky
- Barone lured the victim into a car to discuss a scheme to fix horse races and shot him
- This murder preceded Barone’s induction into the family
- Eli Zeccardi conducted Barone’s ceremony because Funzi Tieri couldn’t remember how to do it
- As Barone was inducted, Tieri explained that he was the ‘decoy’ boss and Lombardo was the ‘real boss’
- Barone says at the time he and ‘Joe Massi’ (a guy from Detroit) were the only members who were not fully Italian
- After the ceremony Barone went to a breakfast with fifty to sixty other members of the Harlem crew
- Gigante did not get along with Salerno
- Lombardo sided with Gigante and got Salerno taken down form the underboss position after his stroke
- Lombardo instructed Salerno to stay at his farm
- Gigante then became the boss with Salerno as the decoy boss
- After Barone flipped he refused to enter the Witness Security Program because he was confident his Cuban friends could protect him
- Barone’s lawyer committed suicide in 2007, but Campi and others suspect he may have been murdered for helping Barone to cooperate

[Snakes]

Great write-up, Chin