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News and Features about Organized Crime, Mafia and La Cosa Nostra taken from National and Local News Sources. In an attempt to get you this type of coverage in a timely manner we can not be responsible for the content of the following material. |
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12-26-99 Gangland central.
Staten Island Advance From Scarface and Lucky to Sammy the Bull and Big Paul, Staten Island has hosted mobsters and hidden their victims Staten Island has long been known as a bedroom community for the mob. With its suburban affluence and isolated anonymity, large immigrant population and close proximity to grittier city neighborhoods where gangsters could direct gambling, prostitution, bootlegging, hijacking, loansharking and other rackets, it's no wonder the city's most legendary gangsters -- from Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and Albert Anastasia to Paul Castellano, John Gotti and Sammy Gravano -- have lived on the Island or had formative experiences here. The most infamous faction of organized crime, called
At the time, Staten Island was a sparsely populated outback, and proved a safe dumping ground for mob victims. Members of "The Black Hand," as the early mob was called, often stuffed the bodies of their victims into barrels and then disposed of the grisly cargo on Island farms or in Bergen Beach, Brooklyn. The killings became known as the barrel-murder cases and later mob gangs, such as Murder Inc., came to use the same techniques on the Island. As the Island developed, mob figures found new uses for the borough. Extortion, payroll-padding, bootlegging, loansharking, gambling, drug-dealing and smuggling emerged on the North Shore docks. A hot spot for rival mob gangs and gambling, once-legitimate waterfront businesses became immersed in mob activity. The Island waterfront belonged to Irish gangsters before 1920. Known as the "White Hand Gang," their last prominent leader, Richard (Peg Leg) Lonergan, was murdered in 1925 personally by Capone, making it possible for the Italian underworld to wrest control of mob dealings in St. George and Stapleton. Don Vincenzo Mangano and his brother Phillip became bosses of the Island waterfront with Albert Anastasia of Murder Inc. serving as their underboss. Tired of waiting for his chance at the top, Anastasia figured a few fancy funerals would speed up his succession, and he eventually got rid of the Manganos in order to control the piers himself. The heaviest Mafia hitters often traveled to the Island, even when they didn't want to. Charles (Lucky) Luciano, a pioneering Mafia upstart disliked by old-school gangsters called the "Mustache Petes," was taken for a ride here on Oct. 17, 1929. His attempts to Americanize the Mafia angered his Sicilian elders, so he was beaten, bloodied and left for dead on Hylan Boulevard, allegedly by Salvatore Maranzano and his cronies. But Luciano was fortunate. He was found wandering the boulevard at about 1 a.m. by a patrolman and was treated at the 123rd Precinct stationhouse in Tottenville and the former Richmond Memorial Hospital in Prince's Bay for lacerations to the neck and throat. The attack branded him with a permanent droop in his right eye and his famous moniker. Capone was taken for a different kind of ride here -- a pony ride at the stables in Clove Lake. Capone was 8 years old at the time, and was brought by his older brother, Vincenzo, a horse enthusiast who often traveled to the Island to ride. The elder Capone later changed his name to Richard Hart, after the silent-film cowboy star William S. Hart, and became a deputy sheriff in Homer, Neb. A Prohibition officer and one-time bodyguard for President Calvin Coolidge, he was a proud lawman who never spoke of his infamous brother. Toward the middle of the century, the Island became more than a mob graveyard and stronghold; it became a bedroom community for Mafia dons and their henchmen. While some owned summer bungalows and others year-round mansions, they all sought the same thing -- seclusion from the law and murderous rivals. Some estimates put the number of Mafiosi who lived here as high as 200. In the 1980s, law enforcement officials estimated the number of made Mafia members living on Staten Island at around 60. From godfathers and capos to soldiers and chauffeurs, here are some mobsters with links to the borough:
More "businessman" than gangster, Castellano was considered greedy and out of touch by some of his henchmen, most notably then-captain John Gotti, who orchestrated his assassination outside Sparks Steak House in Manhattan in 1985. Castellano's bodyguard, Tommy Bilotti of Eltingville, was also killed in the hit.
Gotti often visited the Island to confer will fellow gangsters and dine in local restaurants (as FBI surveillance photos attest). "The Teflon Don" was arrested and convicted a second time here for a Nov. 11, 1984 drunken driving rap.
As an identified haven for mobsters, FBI forces began to crack down on the Island's organized crime in the 1980s. Federal investigators operated a sting out of Great Kills Harbor in 1984. Two agents, posing as married yacht owners, put the word out that they were interested in purchasing stolen goods. They were eventually hooked up with members of the Colombo organization. Known as the "Star Quest Sting," the operation had agents entertaining mob leaders on board a rented yacht for months. Colombo family business was often discussed and recorded by hidden bugs and led to the arrest of noted Colombo associates. A bug inside Castellano's home implicated him in federal racketeering and conspiracy charges. Recorded conversations provided information on how the New York mob takes a cut from the garbage business, construction, labor unions, loan sharking, drugs, pornography and stolen cars. The mob's influence has diminished in recent years in Staten Island and across the city, but the Island's reputation as a Mafia stronghold -- a perception aided by the filming here of noted Mafia movies "The Godfather," "Goodfellas" and "Donnie Brasco" -- persists. December 26, 1999
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