The Mafia Encyclopedia (42 page)

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Authors: Carl Sifakis

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Page 112
described as having patterned himself after his idol, Albert Anastasia. Gotti held back striking at Castellano, it was said, out of fear and respect for Dellacroce.
Then on December 2, 1985, Dellacroce, who was suffering from cancer, died in a New York hospital. Two weeks to the day later Paul Castellano and one of his trusted capos, Thomas Bilotti, were gunned down outside a mid-Manhattan steak house.
There was speculation that Dellacroce's death made certain Castellano's demise. Castellano, who was likely to go to prison for a number of federal offenses, was planning to name Bilotti as underboss to take over as acting boss if need be. A police source was quoted, "When Dellacroce died, it left Gotti without a rabbi." It was a situation that forced Gotti to move with more than deliberate speed against Castellano. If he didn't, Gotti knew that Big Paul would tighten a death noose on him.
A curious story in
Time
magazine, datelined on the day of Castellano's murder but printed earlier, declared that Dellacroce had been an informer for the FBI for some two decades. Among other things, it claimed Dellacroce had tipped off the FBI when Carmine Galante, a would-be boss of bosses, was marked for death. He also was said to have given the FBI leads on the longunsolved murder of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa and that he helped to break some major narcotics cases. Perhaps the most stunning, or the most unbelievable, part of the story was that Dellacroce never asked for some kind of a payoffmost Mafia informers want legal clearance for themselves or money or both.
Not unsurprisingly the New York media seemed underwhelmed by
Time
's disclosures, ignoring the story pending some additional proof. It can be speculated whether the story would have appeared if Castellano's murder had become known first. Some observers looked on the story as a form of FBI disinformation. It was possible that the FBIclearly the source of
Time
's accountwas seeking to rattle the boys in general or quite possibly was intent on using the story as a ploy to cover up its real informers. There had been for many weeks some feeling in the underworld that Castellano might break or indeed might have already broken, that he was not tough enough to take a long prison term at the twilight of his life. Maybe the FBI was carrying out a "dirty trick" operation to plant suspicions on all the elderly dons it was bringing to trial? That could make them hit candidates and perhaps more interested in accepting a deal with the government.
The one thing that was certain was that Aniello Dellacroce, alias Father O'Neill, remained as enigmatic a figure in death as he had been in lifethe quintessential Mafia don.
Demeo, Roy (19411983):Assemblyline hit man
In the 1970s and 1980s hit man Roy DeMeo was the most feared man in the New York Mafia. It was not hard to understand why. According to some estimates he killed somewhere between 25 and 37 people. A leading FBI authority indicated the victim toll may have reached 200. That would make him a true competitor of Pittsburgh Phil Strauss, the fabled Murder, Inc., killer in the 1930s. In a sense DeMeo was the most inventive of serial hit men since he did his killing on an assemblyline basis.
A lot of DeMeo's income came from the stolen-car and stolen-parts racket, but Roy had another kind of chop shop, this one for dismembering bodies. In a special "horror clubhouse," fronted by a bar with a separate entrance at the side rear, victims could walk in and never come out, at least not in one piece, and often not even in 10 or 15 pieces.
One defecting member of DeMeo's crew of young punks explained what happened: "When the person would walk in, somebody would shoot him in the head with a silencer, somebody would wrap a towel around his head to stop the blood, and somebody would stab him in the heart to stop the blood from pumping.
"They would then drag him into the bathroom, put him in the shower, bleed him, pull him out, put him on a pool liner in the living room, take him apart, and package him."
DeMeo, a former butcher's apprentice showed his men how to take a body apart, limb by bloody limb and how to put the head through a compacting machine. It could be tiring work and sometimes the boys took a break for hot dogs and pizza, the gory job only half done. Some of the guys who could do the killings had trouble with the dismemberment work and paused to throw up, which made DeMeo giggle. He'd point out the work was like dismembering a deer.
DeMeo was a wise guy in the Gambino family, working under capo Nino Gaggi, who was said to be the only man DeMeo feared. At the same time, DeMeo was the only man Gaggi feared. It was truly a partnership made in hell. DeMeo's first hit for Gaggi was in 1972, killing a pornographer who could finger both of them as extortionists. From there on, there was no stopping DeMeo. He and his crew were said to murder for profit, or for revenge, and very often for the sheer fun of it.
Soon all the crime families in New York knew what an accommodating soul DeMeo was. Once some of his confederates entered the murder clubhouse to find three naked bodies hanging upside down in the bathroom. DeMeo told them to pay it no mind, that it was "something special" he was doing for another family who wanted the victims to disappear for good.
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Roy DeMeo (left), the most feared hit man in the Mafia in recent times, was a virtual assembly-line murder machine,
having killed somewhere between 25 and 200 victims. The only man he ever feared was
Nino Gaggi (right), his immediate superior in the mob. Actually, DeMeo was the only man Gaggi
ever feared. Gaggi finally screwed up his courage and killed Demeo after family boss
Paul Castellano ordered him eliminated.
Whenever the death chamber was not slated for murder or dismemberment, the crew brought in lady friends for all-night dates. To keep the place presentable, the flooring had to be redone repeatedly.
Most of DeMeo's victims were errant mobsters, including at times even members of his own crew. But there were also some innocent bystanders, such as a young vacuum-cleaner salesman, mistaken by a paranoid DeMeo for an assassin out to kill him. If a person was even suspected of being an informer, DeMeo had him clipped. A 19-year-old girl named Cherie Golden fell into that category. She was a new girlfriend of a criminal tied to DeMeo who might decide to turn snitch to save himself from a long prison term.
When Nino Gaggi was tried on racketeering charges, DeMeo and his boys whacked out three government witnesses, including a New York housing police officer.
DeMeo carried out personal killings at the behest of godfather Paul Castellano, including that of Big Paul's son-in-law. The son-in-law had been fooling around with other women and beating his pregnant wife, who suffered a miscarriage as a result. The son-in-law was never seen again after that.
By the early 1980s Castellano had become disenchanted with his brutal hit man. He knew that federal agents were investigating DeMeo's murder crew. The trial would lead to Gaggi, and from Gaggi to Castellano himself. But no one could slow down DeMeo. He became erratic, doing kills that did not seem necessary. DeMeo took to expounding on the great joy of killing people. "It is like having the power of God," he told an associate. "Deciding who lives, who dies."
In late 1982 Castellano ordered the stone killer to report to his Staten Island mansion. DeMeo didn't show. Perhaps it was arrogance, or perhaps he felt Castellano planned to dispose of him.
Shortly thereafter a bug in Castellano's home revealed indications that Castellano was talking to John
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Gotti about rubbing out DeMeo. Another bug in Gotti headquarters indicated that John and his brother Gene discussed the fact that DeMeo had killed 37 peopleall the victims they knew about. Apparently Gotti demurred on the contract.
Big Paul then turned to Nino Gaggi. "Take care of him, Nino," the crime boss was heard saying on the tap. Gaggi could get close to DeMeo, who still trusted him, and that was it. On January 10, 1983, DeMeo was no longer a problem to the Gambino family. His body was found in the trunk of his own car.
Ironically, after DeMeo's death, Gaggi was arrested and would have faced prosecution, but he suffered a fatal heart attack while being held in jail. Still, the noose was tightening on Castellano, and he faced almost sure conviction. Gotti and his crew saved the boss from that fate by whacking him out.
See also:
Dracula; Women as Mafia Victims
.
Demotions in the Mafia
As in big business, promotions in the Mafia are normal operations based on a prescribed ladder, from buttonman or soldier to capo to underboss. New openings are created through retirement, illness, jailings, natural death or violent death. And a successor to a syndicate post is held to exceptionally high standards of performance. Mafiosi who can't cut the mustard are quickly replaced, whether willingly or unwillingly.
Within the Honored Society, certain behavior (although, as in many other organizations, the rules tend to be applied selectively) automatically leads to demotion in rankif not more serious retribution. Carmine Lombardozzi, a high-ranking member of the Gambino family, fell into disfavor for all sorts of misdeeds, including bringing dishonor on the organization when, although a married man, he took up with the daughter of another member of the crime family; for punching a policeman and above all failing to prevent his brothers and other relatives from assaulting an FBI man at the funeral of his father. This last misdeed, it was ruled, brought the organization too much bad publicity at a time when the mob was going all out to prove there was no such thing as the Mafia. Eventually Lombardozzi won his way back into mob good graces by purging himself of his bad habits (for instance, divorcing his wife and marrying the young lady in question), and demonstrating his "class" by making the mob millions in shady Wall Street operations. Being a moneymaker remains the most convincing way to expiate one's sins within the Mafia.
Sometimes a man is put in a certain job to obtain certain results, and failure means dismissal. Gaspar DiGregorio was installed by the national commissionor at least the four other New York crime familiesto replace Joe Bonanno as head of that family. This followed Bonanno's promise to quit following his aborted attempt to dispose of a number of other leaders, including Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese. Bonanno sought to have leadership passed to his brother-in-law Frank Labruzzo and his own son, Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno, but the other families refused to buy that, realizing the pair would just be fronts for the elder Bonanno. DiGregorio was assigned to eradicate Bonanno influence, and he tried to do so in what became known as the Troutman Street Shootout in Brooklyn in December 1966. A great number of DiGregorio gunners sought to ambush Bill Bonanno. Apparently 100 or more bullets were fired, but there were no casualties and not a single wound was inflicted, not even on an innocent victim. Naturally the commission was infuriated by the fiasco, evidently feeling somebody should at least have been scratched. DiGregorio was consigned to the doghouse, and the commission installed Paul Sciacca in his place. Sciacca himself was demoted back to the ranks in 1970.
A mafioso held in awe by the public if not by his fellow gangsters, Ciro Terranova was likewise demoted in the 1930s by Lucky Luciano. Terranova was assigned to drive the murder car in 1931 when Joe the Boss Masseria was murdered under Luciano's plans. The four killers marched calmly out of the Coney Island restaurant where they had dispatched Masseria, but the trembling Terranova was so shaken he could not get the car in gear. Contemptuously, Bugsy Siegel shoved him away, took the wheel himself, and sped off. Later Luciano had Dutch Schultz killed, and Terranova, who had been Schultz's No. 2 in the Harlem numbers racket, moved to take over. Luciano and Vito Genovese then informed Terranova he was now in retirement, replaced by Trigger Mike Coppola. Generally, such displaced crime leaders are assassinated for fear they will go to war to retain their rights. Luciano correctly judged that Terranova would do nothing.
A recently demoted top Mafia boss, according to an FBI report, was Jerry Angiulo, the top man in Boston, who with the death in 1984 of New England boss Raymond Patriarca, moved to take over the entire area. However, Angiulo was never held in very high esteem by New England mafiosi, and a full-scale revolt developed. Even his underboss, Ilario Zannino, opted, the FBI said, for Patriarca's son, Raymond J. Patriarca, who then took over. Angiulo was removed as boss in Boston, and reduced to the rank of a mere soldier. In theory Angiulo did not have to take it, but as he faced massive federal racketeering prosecutions that could put him
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away for 170 years if convicted, chances were excellent that Angiulo would simply take being cut down.
Of course the streets of many big cities have been littered with corpses of mafiosi who did not take their demotions with the good grace Mafia rules require.
Dentists: Latest in mob musclemen
There was a time when mob musclemen were noted for being "legbreakers," as a result of their efforts on behalf of bookmakers and loan sharks who had clients slow in paying their debts. The muscleman art has since become a bit more sophisticated. Mayhem, beyond the mere threat of such action, has come to be regarded as self-defeating since a hobbled victim can hardly hustle up money. Punching has come into vogue with good hitters being known as "dentists" for their ability to always knock out teeth. Debtors, or as the mob prefers to view them, "welchers," who lose some teeth develop an urgent fondness for keeping the others still in their mouth. As a result underworld dentists are now considered the debt collectors of choice.
Deportation of Mafiosi
Over the years scores of mafiosi and other members of organized crime have been deported, but very few deportations have been successful against top-ranking criminals who put up a fight. The government struggled to deport such syndicate leaders as Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky and Paul Ricca, the longtime head of the Chicago Outfit. None were deported.
In the case of Lansky a bizarre situation developed after he voluntarily left this country to live in Israel, claiming his rights as a Jew to immigrate there under that nation's Law of Return. Up until then the United States had failed to have Lansky deported; in a reversal, it now pressured Israel to deport him so that he could be brought back to America for criminal prosecution. Eventually Lansky gave up the battle to stay in Israel, tried to find refuge in a number of Latin American countries but finally was returned to the United States. Ironically, the government lost its criminal case against Lansky. He lived out his 10 remaining years in retirement in Florida.
The government proved less than a match for the wily Paul Ricca as well. In 1957 Ricca was stripped of his citizenship and in 1959 he was ordered deported. A minor gangster would not have been able to fight, but Ricca had the resources to put up all sorts of legal appeals and delaying actions. He obtained a court stay on the deportation to Italy by bringing an action before an Italian court, insisting that his Italian citizenship be dropped. In turn, the Italian government said it did not want such an unwholesome character in the country, one who had behaved in such terrible fashion in America, even though there was an old murder sentence outstanding in Italy. Apparently, journalists observed, the Italians were afraid Ricca would contaminate their prisons.
Frustrated immigration authorities then told Ricca he would have to find a country to which he could be deported. Ricca promptly obeyed instructions and sent applications to no fewer than 60 countries. Apparently he was so overwhelmed with a desire for full personal disclosure to potential host countries that he included in each application a packet of news clippings that made clear why the U.S. government found him so undesirable. Somehow no country developed any interest in accepting him. When Ricca died in 1972 at the age of 74 he was despite fits of senility still successfully fending off the government's deportation efforts.
When the United States sought to ship Frank Costello back to Italy in 1961, the Italian government again balked. They pointed out that Costello had been brought to America at the age of four, two years after his father had gone across and saved up the $8-a person fare for Costello's mother and sister (Costello was young enough to go free and slept in the huge iron pot his mother had used for cooking in Calabria). A spokesman for the Italian government said, "Italy should not be expected to carry the burden of a man who was born in Italy, lived here only a short time, and then spent most of his life in the United States. It's not blood that makes a man a criminal; it's society, and we definitely do not want to pay for such men."
There is much to be said for the Italian government's position that what we are really doing is trying to export our American criminals by merely citing their places of birth.
The U.S. government had stripped Costello of his citizenship for concealing his bootlegging activities when he was naturalized in 1925. At first the Costello deportation was upheld by the Supreme Court but Costello's lawyer, Edward Bennett Williams, took note in a minority opinion by Justice William O. Douglas that bootlegging itself was not a ground for denying naturalization to an alien in the 1920s. Eventually, on further appeals the Supreme Court by a six-to-two vote overturned the deportation order. After eight years of legal battling, the government threw in the towel.
Carlos Marcello, the Mafia boss of New Orleans, arrived in this country as a babe in arms in 1910. Eventually the government tried to get rid of him. Marcello was born of Italian parents in Tunisia, which was at the time under French rule. The United States was singu-

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