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2024-03-28T21:23:44Z
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Colombo Mafia family soldier “The Mask” Difalco sentenced to 3 years in prison for racketeering
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/colombo-mafia-family-soldier-the-mask-difalco-sentenced-to-3-year
2020-08-07T10:46:01.000Z
2020-08-07T10:46:01.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/colombo-mafia-family-soldier-the-mask-difalco-sentenced-to-3-year" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237149685,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237149685?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-colombo-crime-family" target="_blank">Colombo Mafia family</a> soldier Vito “The Mask” Difalco (photo above) was sentenced to just over 3 years in prison for racketeering on Wednesday. The 65-year-old mobster ran <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Loansharking" target="_blank">loansharking</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambling" target="_blank">gambling</a> operations from his <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Brooklyn" target="_blank">Brooklyn</a> bar named The Tryst Lounge.</p>
<p>Working with Joseph Maratea, who ran a pawn shop out of the same Dyker Heights building where Difalco’s bar was located, Difalco operated a loansharking business, extending loans at exorbitant interest rates and the added threat that if a debtor did not make his payments in time, he would face violent consequences. Specifically, the Colombo gangsters charged $15 in weekly interest payments on every $500 extended, which amounted to 3% weekly interest payments or 156% annual interest.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-a-rat-brought-down-the-colombo-mafia-family-crew-of-fat-jerry" target="_blank">How a rat brought down the Colombo Mafia family crew</a> of “Fat Jerry,” “The Mask,” and “Mumbles”</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>To ensure both that they could locate their debtors and that their debtors understood that Difalco and Maratea knew where they resided, they required debtors to provide copies of their driver’s licenses and their contact information.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>"Put the Benz on fire"</strong></span></p>
<p>On April 19, 2018, Difalco and Matera had the following conversation about a debtor’s missed payments:</p>
<p><em>DIFALCO: Alright stretch out, ‘cause we are going to take a ride in a little while.</em></p>
<p><em>MARATEA: Alright.</em></p>
<p><em>DIFALCO: I’ll be here, then we’ll take a ride up there.</em></p>
<p><em>MARATEA: Where by [John Doe #8]?</em></p>
<p><em>DIFALCO: Yeah, we’ll go by [John Doe #8].</em></p>
<p><em>MARATEA: Did you call him?</em></p>
<p><em>DIFALCO: I called him, he didn’t pick up. I figure I’ll ring the bell and flood the house.</em></p>
<p>In another recording, Difalco was taped saying: “Good things happen to me when I stay calm. See, like, I was by your house the other day. Four years ago I would have put the Benz on fire.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-two-sides-of-new-york-mob-boss-joe-colombo-and-how-his-murder" target="_blank">The two sides of New York mob boss Joe Colombo</a> and how his murder remains unsolved for over forty years</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Difalco also earned illegal proceeds through his gambling business, which included illegal sports-betting and video gambling machines. He used a legitimate business – a bar called Tryst which he operated – to facilitate his illicit activities and limit detection by law enforcement. At the bar he could attract new loansharking customers and use his employees to collect loansharking payments. He also used the bar to operate and promote his illegal gambling businesses.</p>
<p>Maratea pleaded guilty to racketeering and was sentenced in April 2020 to time served and 2 years’ probation with the first 4 months to be served under house arrest.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-colombo-crime-family">Colombo crime family section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Genovese family mobster charged in 1997 murder-for-hire in Yonkers
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/genovese-family-mobster-charged-in-1997-murder-for-hire-in-yonker
2018-08-04T07:20:34.000Z
2018-08-04T07:20:34.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-family-mobster-charged-in-1997-murder-for-hire-in-yonker" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237115699,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237115699?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>A member of the Genovese crime family has been charged with a 1997 murder-for-hire. 61-year-old John Tortora Jr. was arrested Thursday morning in Yonkers by FBI agents and Yonkers PD detectives for his alleged role in the death of Richard Ortiz. </p>
<p>29-year-old Ortiz was stabbed to death in Yonkers on November 11, 1997. At that time Tortora was an alleged associate of New York’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family" target="_blank">Genovese family</a> and looking to work his way up. According to the indictment, he was involved “a wide range of crimes, including <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murder</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Extortion" target="_blank">extortion</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambling" target="_blank">gambling</a>, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">narcotics trafficking</a>.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Profile of</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-genovese-family-underboss-venero-mangano" target="_blank"><strong>Genovese family underboss Venero "Benny Eggs" Mangano</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>In particular, prosecutors claim, the rising mobster nicknamed “Johnny T.” hired others to kill Ortiz in order to further the goals of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Genovese" target="_blank">Genovese family</a>, resulting in Ortiz being brutally stabbed multiple times, causing his death.</p>
<p>Ortiz was working as a police informant and “was drinking inside the Mill Tavern […] when he got into an argument with men inside the bar. The argument moved outside, escalated and Ortiz was stabbed multiple times in the stomach and left for dead under a Saw Mill River Parkway underpass less than 100 feet away,” the <a href="https://eu.lohud.com/story/news/crime/2018/08/02/fbi-makes-arrest-21-year-old-yonkers-mob-hit/891949002/" target="_blank">Rockland/Westchester Journal News</a> reported.</p>
<p>Tortora is charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering, murder in aid of racketeering, and murder for hire. He faces life in prison and the death penalty if found guilty.</p>
<p>Tortora’s lawyer, Murray Richman, told the <a href="https://eu.lohud.com/story/news/crime/2018/08/02/fbi-makes-arrest-21-year-old-yonkers-mob-hit/891949002/" target="_blank">Rockland/Westchester Journal News</a> that his client “unequivocally denies the allegations.” Adding: “He did not know this young man. He did not order him killed or do it himself or have anything to do with it. Apparently the government has acquired a person who, maybe to benefit himself, has cast aspersions on my client.”</p>
<p>“The arrest of John Tortora should remind everyone that justice delayed is not justice denied,” <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a> Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. said. “Whether a crime was allegedly committed decades ago or just days ago, the FBI will maintain the same tenacity and we will be relentless toward ensuring those who commit violent crimes be held accountable for their actions. The FBI New York Office never does these investigations alone, and we want to thank the Yonkers Police Department for their help in successfully solving a case from more than 20 years ago.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese crime family section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
Profile: Lucchese family capo “Fat Pete” Chiodo
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/profile-lucchese-family-capo-fat-pete-chiodo
2016-03-28T12:00:00.000Z
2016-03-28T12:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-lucchese-family-capo-fat-pete-chiodo"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237059100,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237059100?profile=original" width="144" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Never was a nickname more appropriate than the one of Lucchese crime family captain Peter Chiodo. They called him Fat Pete. Why? Well, his weight ranged from 400 to 500 pounds. Like I said, appropriate.</p>
<p>“Fat Pete” Chiodo was the quintessential street smart mobster. He was capable of violence, as one had to be in the Mafia, but he also saw the lighter side of “the life,” approaching it with a sense of humor.</p>
<p>Like the time he was asked in court if he had threatened a “kid” on behalf of a friend who had discovered that this kid was a thief.</p>
<p>Chiodo denied the accusation, saying “I just told him he was out. I know he was stealing money and… I might have growled at him as I told him that, but for the most part, I simply said, ‘You're out.’”</p>
<p>He was then asked: “You're physically bigger than this kid, I would imagine, right?”</p>
<p>“There are not too many people I'm not physically bigger than,” Chiodo said with a smile while he rubbed his hand over his huge belly.</p>
<p>And just like Paulie in Goodfellas, Chiodo didn’t have to move for anybody.</p>
<p>That is why other gangsters would often come to him, or the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family">Lucchese family</a> in general, for help in settling disputes. When Greek and Russian mobsters argued over a shopping center, Chiodo and the Luccheses helped out and interceded in a civil suit about the issue. Chiodo even stood in front of a judge to smooth things over.</p>
<p>Years later, he was asked whether he had told the judge he was a legitimate businessman, Chiodo replied: “I could have. I probably did. I mean, I surely didn't tell him that I was a captain in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family">Lucchese family</a>. What I do remember is that when it was all said and done, I had the judge convinced to give us the time we needed. We told him that we would make the repairs within a certain amount of time. We did and everybody was happy.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237059491,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237059491?profile=original" width="210" /></a>As is evidenced by Chiodo’s lines, he has a witty comeback. One he perfected in the early 1980s when he owned the Home Bar on Manhattan's Upper East Side.</p>
<p>The Home Bar was a small, quiet, neighborhood watering hole. Chiodo (right) bought it as a place to call home. “I had a place to hang out,” he said. “The bartender took a salary, he was happy. I had a place to hang out in, drink for free. I was happy with that.”</p>
<p>The intimate atmosphere attracted a special kind of clientele. The Beatles star John Lennon liked coming by for a drink before he was murdered in 1980, Chiodo said. “In fact, in one of his album covers, he's wearing a T-shirt from the Home Bar,” he added.</p>
<p>Near the bar, there was the Comic Strip, where standup comedians practiced their routine. After they finished, they’d visit Chiodo’s joint for a relaxing drink. Guys like Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, and Sam Kennison all were frequent guests.</p>
<p>“Eddie's my friend, and I loved him,” Chiodo said. Adding, “Eddie knew my reputation and who I was, though I never involved him in any way in any of that stuff. I think the reason Eddie and I became such good friends is because I didn't want anything from him. I didn't want to be in show business, I didn't want a job, I didn't want his money, and he kind of appreciated that. He told me once, ‘Petey, you the only guy that ever picks up a check for lunch around me. I'm the one always paying all the time.’”</p>
<p>Several years later, in 1987, he expanded his circle of friends when he became a made guy in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family">Lucchese crime family</a>. Unfortunately for Chiodo, not everyone there was as fond of him as Eddie Murphy was.</p>
<p>By the late 1980s and early 1990s, power in the mob family had shifted to boss Vic Amuso and underboss Anthony Casso. The ruthless duo established their presence with intimidation and violence.</p>
<p>Always paranoid that someone might flip and turn government witness, Amuso and Casso <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-new-jersey">began whacking anyone</a> they deemed at risk of becoming a rat. In 1991 Chiodo had come under their deadly suspicion.</p>
<p>On May 8 of that year, Chiodo was at a Staten Island gas station getting his Cadillac checked when all of a sudden he heard a popping sound and saw something impact the cement floor. It was a hit! Chiodo immediately pulled out his gun and began firing shots at his two assailants.</p>
<p>One of the two hitmen was Joseph D’Arco, the son of Lucchese acting boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lucchese-acting-boss-alphonse">Alphonse D’Arco</a>, who was eager to please and impress his mob father with his involvement in this high-profile hit. D’Arco’s shots kept coming at Chiodo as he was hit by a total of 12 bullets. Lying on the ground, a bleeding heap of 500-pound flesh, Chiodo waited for the final shot as D’Arco came closer.</p>
<p>Then, nothing.</p>
<p>D’Arco’s gun jammed and the two hitmen fled the crime scene thinking they had done enough to send the mob capo to the other world. But Chiodo was a lot more resilient than one would expect from looking at his obese frame. He survived.</p>
<p>Two months later he became the highest ranking New York mobster to become a turncoat. He would lose that distinction to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lucchese-acting-boss-alphonse">the father</a> of the man who tried to kill him and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview">Gambino family</a> underboss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-underboss-salvatore">Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano</a> several months later.</p>
<p>If he thought his decision to become a turncoat would end the violence against him and his family, he was wrong. In an unprecedented move, Amuso and Casso ordered a hit on Chiodo’s sister, an innocent civilian and the first female relative to be targeted for death by the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">American Mafia</a>. Lucchese <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-lucchese-family-soldier-michael-baldy-mike-spinelli">gangsters stalked her</a> for a month before shooting her after she arrived home from dropping her kids off at school on March 10, 1992. She too survived, but the tone was set.</p>
<p>It only motivated Chiodo more to do his former partners-in-crime some serious damage in court. And he succeeded, his testimony meant the end for two bosses, two underbosses, and 18 other wiseguys, who were sentenced to long prison terms. Including Vic Amuso, the man who ordered the hit on his sister, and is now spending the rest of his life in prison.</p>
<p>After testifying, Chiodo disappeared into the Witness Protection Program. He remained there, hidden and anonymous, somewhere in America, until his death of natural causes in January of 2016. He was 65.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family">Lucchese crime family section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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<p> </p></div>
Mob boss Junior Gotti stabbed in parking lot
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/mob-boss-junior-gotti-stabbed-in-parking-lot
2013-11-12T12:30:00.000Z
2013-11-12T12:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mob-boss-junior-gotti-stabbed-in-parking-lot"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237037696,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237037696?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in…? After having spent the last couple of years living in relative anonymity, former Gambino mob boss John “Junior” Gotti is back on the front pages of New York City’s tabloids. The reason is typical of the lifestyle he claims to have said farewell. He was stabbed in a parking lot.</p>
<p>Details are still scarce, but yesterday the New York Daily News <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/gambino-scion-john-gotti-jr-stabbed-source-article-1.1513259" target="_blank">reported</a> that Gotti claimed “he was stabbed in the stomach while trying to break up a fight between two strangers in the parking lot of a CVS store in Syosset on Sunday.”</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9237038267,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237038267,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237038267?profile=original" width="101" /></a>For those mob fanatics worried Junior broke the code of silence, no need. After <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-boss-john-junior-gotti">Junior Gotti</a> arrived at the hospital to treat his wounds, personnel there called the police due to the nature of the wound. When cops questioned Gotti about the incident they were met by the type of stonewalling the Gotti family is (in)famous for. “He wasn’t very cooperative,” one investigator told the New York Daily News.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/nyregion/gotti-former-mob-boss-is-stabbed-on-long-island.html?_r=0" target="_blank">New York Times</a> quoted a spokesman for the Nassau County district attorney as saying, “I can confirm for you that the district attorney’s office is investigating, in conjunction with the Nassau County Police Department, an alleged stabbing of John (Junior) Gotti in Syosset on Sunday.”</p>
<p>The CVS Pharmacy store on Long Island is located near Junior Gotti’s home and thus isn’t an unusual place for him to be at. But breaking up a fight between two strangers? His <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-boss-john-gotti-sr">father</a> would’ve probably let the strangers sort out their beef like real men do. Perhaps take a few bets from bystanders. But step in and go John Lennon on them? I never met John Gotti Sr. but it just does not sound like the man we came to know via wiretaps, testimony, and books.</p>
<p>I could very well be wrong though.</p>
<p>His son has made a successful break from the mob after all. It was his main defense when prosecutors tried him four separate times on racketeering charges and each time the jury could not reach a decision. The government may have had a big hard on for the Gottis, but after four mistrials they decided to call it quits and let Junior live out the remainder of his life as he wished.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9237038282,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237038282,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237038282?profile=original" width="108" /></a>Since then Junior has been quiet. And he’s certainly not behaved like he did as a young tough in the 1980s when he went clubbing around New York City while invoking the notorious reputation of his father. And, when that didn’t work, allegedly resorting to violence by stabbing another partygoer to death during a bar fight in 1983.</p>
<p>That incident from decades ago now sneaks its way back to the forefront as authorities look for answers regarding the stabbing of Junior this past Sunday.</p>
<p>Was it pay back for something Junior did, or had ordered done, years earlier when he ruled the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview">Gambino crime family</a>? Or was it just two strangers who didn’t take too kindly to a good Samaritan trying to get them to make peace?</p>
<p>Whatever the case, the year isn’t 1983. It’s 2013 and the NSA is monitoring everything we do. No doubt CVS Pharmacy is monitoring its parking lot with a few cameras that might be able to give more information as to what happened. If not, maybe a drone was flying overhead?</p>
<p>If Omerta continues to hold up those might be our only options.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview">Gambino crime family section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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