Patsy Conte

[B.]

I was reading some talk about his crew in the charts section and it inspired this.

Would love to know more about Patsy Conte's life and crimes earlier in his mob career. His father Antonio/Antonino "Nino" was a high-ranking member, possibly underboss for a while, and is said to have set Patsy up in the grocery business.
Was Nino Conte a founding member of Key Food? I believe that Nino was born near Palermo but someone else here would know the specifics. Anything anyone knows about him would be great as well. Key Food's description of their own history sort of sounds mobbed up, but maybe I'm biased:

"In 1937, a few grocery store owners came together with the idea to use their combined size and strength to provide their customers the products they wanted at the low prices they needed. "

Patsy Conte was made a caporegime by Carlo Gambino in the 1960's and apparently kept the spot through the Castellano and Gotti regimes. He put his brother Anthony through college, but Anthony was a petty criminal who flipped and testified against Pat. Gravano claimed that Conte stopped kicking up heroin money when Gotti took over, so he met with him and told him to continue whatever arrangement he had with Castellano. He made it sound like Conte was coy about the whole thing and it's not hard to imagine why.

He was charged with ordering the shooting of Pizza Connection defendant Pietro Alfano during the trial, though never prosecuted to my knowledge. Anyone know more about this hit and what his relationship would have been to Alfano? I am not sure if Alfano was part of the Sicilian mafia, but he was connected... would the order/approval of this hit have come from Sicily or did Conte and the Gambinos have the final say?

[HairyKnuckles]

The FBI listed Patsy Conte as a captain going back to at least 1960. I can´t say if they were wrong or right but I assume the Gambino informants who talked to the feds in the 1960s knew about Conte.

B, I´m sure you have seen this document already, but for those who haven´t, here´s some interesting stuff on the Contes. It goes into the Spitaleris too a little bit (pages 102-109). Then it goes into some Angelo Bruno stuff.

https://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/arch ... PageId=102

[Doobeez]

I was reading some talk about his crew in the charts section and it inspired this.

Would love to know more about Patsy Conte's life and crimes earlier in his mob career. His father Antonio/Antonino "Nino" was a high-ranking member, possibly underboss for a while, and is said to have set Patsy up in the grocery business.
Was Nino Conte a founding member of Key Food? I believe that Nino was born near Palermo but someone else here would know the specifics. Anything anyone knows about him would be great as well. Key Food's description of their own history sort of sounds mobbed up, but maybe I'm biased:

"In 1937, a few grocery store owners came together with the idea to use their combined size and strength to provide their customers the products they wanted at the low prices they needed. "

Patsy Conte was made a caporegime by Carlo Gambino in the 1960's and apparently kept the spot through the Castellano and Gotti regimes. He put his brother Anthony through college, but Anthony was a petty criminal who flipped and testified against Pat. Gravano claimed that Conte stopped kicking up heroin money when Gotti took over, so he met with him and told him to continue whatever arrangement he had with Castellano. He made it sound like Conte was coy about the whole thing and it's not hard to imagine why.

He was charged with ordering the shooting of Pizza Connection defendant Pietro Alfano during the trial, though never prosecuted to my knowledge. Anyone know more about this hit and what his relationship would have been to Alfano? I am not sure if Alfano was part of the Sicilian mafia, but he was connected... would the order/approval of this hit have come from Sicily or did Conte and the Gambinos have the final say?

Good stuff, B. especially the info about Conte charged in the Alfano shooting. Been awhile since I read P.C., but I remember the tap where Alfano as well as Polazzalo(?) mentioned their concerns about retaliation from over there...

edit--after re-reading the other Gambino crew thread, you and felice answered the question i was asking about Conte & the Cherry Hill guys.

[B.]

The FBI listed Patsy Conte as a captain going back to at least 1960. I can´t say if they were wrong or right but I assume the Gambino informants who talked to the feds in the 1960s knew about Conte.

B, I´m sure you have seen this document already, but for those who haven´t, here´s some interesting stuff on the Contes. It goes into the Spitaleris too a little bit (pages 102-109). Then it goes into some Angelo Bruno stuff.

https://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/arch ... PageId=102

I actually hadn't seen that from what I can remember. Thanks, brother.

It says his hair was light brown and balding, but later pictures show him with a full head of dark hair and doesn't look like a rug.

If he was promoted as early as 1960, it sounds like he was one of the initial guys that Carlo Gambino promoted to captain when he took over. Interesting how Carlo Gambino's paper company had sold to Nino Conte and later Paul Gambino rented butcher knives to Conte's stores.