Rooster

[johnny_scootch]

Good article from Scott's site.

PORT CHESTER PRIDE: BEEF WITH ‘GREASEBALL NICK’ MELIA LED TO ‘ROOSTER’ O’NOFRIO JUMPING FROM GAMBINO TO GENOVESE MOB FAMILIES

East coast wiseguy Eugene (Rooster) O’Nofrio switched from New York’s Gambino crime family to the Genovese crime family in the late 1990s after a blowup with a Gambino higher-up at his headquarters located on the border between New York and Connecticut. The change in organizations allowed the 75-year old Goodfella to finally receive his button and get inducted into the mafia.

O’Nofrio is currently awaiting trial on racketeering charges out of New York City. He’s alleged to be a Genovese syndicate captain overseeing activity in his home base of Connecticut as well as in Western Massachusetts and Manhattan’s Little Italy neighborhood.

Throughout the 1990s, O’Nofrio ran his rackets out of Café Roma in Port Chester, New York, a city resting on the Connecticut border, just east of Greenwich. At that time, he was a part of the Gambino regime and worked under capo Louis (Louie Bracciole) Ricco. His mob portfolio included bookmaking, loans sharking and drug operations and he paid both Ricco and the Gambino’s then-Connecticut territory chief Anthony (Tony the Genius) Megale a tribute.

In the early part of 1997, per sources and FBI records, O’Nofrio got into a heated altercation at Café Roma with Megale’s second-in-command, native Sicilian Nicola (Nick the Greaseball) Melia over a demand by Melia that O’Nofrio raise his tribute amount. According to people present at Café Roma that day, the pair had to be separated and Melia threw an ashtray at O’Nofrio in disgust when O’Nofrio balked at the order to increase tribute payments.

According to sources in the New York underworld, Melia told Gambino administrators that O’Nofrio, a known “hitter” and prospective mob initiate, shouldn’t get made into the Gambino clan. Shortly thereafter, Ricco and Megale arranged for O’Nofrio to be transferred to the Genovese crime family and placed in the crew of Matthew (Matty the Horse) Ianneillo, who sponsored him for induction at his making ceremony in March 2003, along with a half-dozen other mobsters, per federal documents. Ianniello and Megale are both deceased.

O’Nofrio was convicted of manslaughter in the gangland-style murder of Jimmy Cotter in Connecticut in 1972, however, had the case tossed on appeal after seven years behind bars. Besides the Cotter hit, O’Nofrio has been nailed for bank robbery and narcotics trafficking during his career in the mafia.

http://gangsterreport.com/port-chester- ... e-borgata/

[Snakes]

Good info but spelling his name "O'Nofrio" is bordering on sacrilege.

[antimafia]

Thanks for posting, johnny_scootch.

If the FBI records and the sources (people) are correct about what happened in early 1997 and what Melia apparently told Gambino "administrators" (the admin.?) regarding Onofrio, this may shed some more light on Nick Melia's status, which we have only questions about: Has he been a longtime Gambino associate? an associate who eventually got made into the Gambinos? an associate who couldn't get made into any American LCN family because he was already inducted into the 'ndrangheta?

Melia has Calabrian ancestry, not Sicilian.

East Bronx/pizzaboy has written before that he has heard that Melia couldn't be made into the Gambinos because he was already made over there (Italy). EB/PB knows that Melia's brother, Vincenzo, was a 'ndranghetista. What most people don't know is how powerful and influential Vincenzo was in the 'ndrangheta in North America and, later on, when he returned to Italy some 47 years after he left the country.

Vincenzo was born in Platì, in Reggio Calabria, on April 20,1929. Based on the ages that Nick Melia has been assigned in newspaper articles over the years, with the ages of course correlating with the article dates, I have estimated his year of birth as 1932; I'm also guessing he was born in Platì.

I've done some research about Vincenzo Melia--I hope to do much more if there's more information available--and he strikes me as one of those journeymen mafiosi whose travels we've all read about. The places he lived, apart from Platì, include Sainte-Marie, Quebec; Stamford, CT; Toronto, Canada; in the Montreal area (when he was shot in the eye in 1998 on the day of Paolo Cotroni's funeral, he was in a café/bar in Rivière des Prairies); and toward the end of his life, in Ardore (also in Reggio Calabria) until he was arrested and imprisoned. He died in February 2015 while awaiting trial.

[Cheech]

hmmmm
a few things
Onofrio had a an in w Gambinos early on thru Perrotti.
he never ran any rackets out of Port Chester. hes from New Haven. Port Chester over an hour away. EVERYONE knows he was at B&M deli almost every day for the last 25 years.
he didnt rob a bank. he tried to steal the ATM machine
his driver used to be Johnny AA or Johnny A&A cause he owned a variety store on Dixwell Ave a lot of ppl hung out at called A&A Variety. i have to ask my dad what his last name is.
he knew matty long time ago again thru perrotti/galante and carting. follow that connection.

im surprised what scott wrote has never come out thru our researchers like HairyKnuckles or B. (referring to arguments at cafe roma and melia being 2nd in command. certainly there is fbi docs that have this info???

[Cheech]

Good info but spelling his name "O'Nofrio" is bordering on sacrilege.

who knows why he does that. he called him D'Onofrio earlier

its Onofrio not D'Onofrio

Cheech, thanks for checking me on misspelling Rooster's last name in my Gangster Report article (I edited it). Don't know why I was writing D'Onofiro lol

Scott

[johnny_scootch]

an associate who couldn't get made into any American LCN family because he was already inducted into the 'ndrangheta?

Melia has Calabrian ancestry, not Sicilian.

It sounds like he is def a made guy from the way scott wrote it. Cheech what say you?

[Cheech]

Not made IMO

[johnny_scootch]

Not made IMO

Interesting...thank you for the reply.

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

hmmmm
a few things
Onofrio had a an in w Gambinos early on thru Perrotti.
he never ran any rackets out of Port Chester. hes from New Haven. Port Chester over an hour away. EVERYONE knows he was at B&M deli almost every day for the last 25 years.
he didnt rob a bank. he tried to steal the ATM machine
his driver used to be Johnny AA or Johnny A&A cause he owned a variety store on Dixwell Ave a lot of ppl hung out at called A&A Variety. i have to ask my dad what his last name is.
he knew matty long time ago again thru perrotti/galante and carting. follow that connection.

im surprised what scott wrote has never come out thru our researchers like HairyKnuckles or B. (referring to arguments at cafe roma and melia being 2nd in command. certainly there is fbi docs that have this info???

Is A&A Varity in New Haven the one that burnt down recently?

[Cheech]

know. B&M Deli burnt down. that was his hang every day. Bobby who owned it was under him.

[Cheech]

re melia made?: forget my opinion for a second. no fbi has ever reported melia as made. he was just indicted as an associate. all the people mentioned above ricco, megale all have been tailed and investigated at length yet it never came out he was made.

[Stroccos]

re melia made?: forget my opinion for a second. no fbi has ever reported melia as made. he was just indicted as an associate. all the people mentioned above ricco, megale all have been tailed and investigated at length yet it never came out he was made.

I belive melia was offered A button and turned it down . At least so he claims to a wired ci

[Cheech]

re melia made?: forget my opinion for a second. no fbi has ever reported melia as made. he was just indicted as an associate. all the people mentioned above ricco, megale all have been tailed and investigated at length yet it never came out he was made.

I belive melia was offered A button and turned it down . At least so he claims to a wired ci

Thanks. Ive never seen that. I dont think he was made. CT guys dont get made as much as NJ and same proximity. Dean not made. Carmelongo not made.

Melia and Carmelongo got robbed same time almost. Not kicking up?

[Stroccos]

re melia made?: forget my opinion for a second. no fbi has ever reported melia as made. he was just indicted as an associate. all the people mentioned above ricco, megale all have been tailed and investigated at length yet it never came out he was made.

I belive melia was offered A button and turned it down . At least so he claims to a wired ci

Thanks. Ive never seen that. I dont think he was made. CT guys dont get made as much as NJ and same proximity. Dean not made. Carmelongo not made.

Melia and Carmelongo got robbed same time almost. Not kicking up?

Did the gambino operate in providence ?


I am not sure about them getting robbed but according to what I remember reading it may of been tied to a loan shark debt

[Cheech]

I do not think they have anything to do with Providence.
But its unteresting how it happenened to both.

https://www.nhregister.com/news/article ... 620055.php