Month: January 2016

Philip Rusty Rastelli – The man who controlled the Bonnano family from the prison

The early boss of the Bonanno Mafia family was Phillip Rastelli during the 1970s. He was the successor to Joseph Bonanno.  By occupation, he was a radio dispatcher working for a taxi firm, but got convicted and sentenced to 10 year imprisonment for antitrust violations. It is from prison that he directed the family’s operations, but his influence not being strong enough from behind the prisons, waned slowly.

His life as a mafia

On 31st January 1918, Rastelli was born in Maspeth, Queens and was among the five siblings Marinello, Carmine, Grace, Justina and Augustus. He got involved heavily in extortion, drug trafficking and loansharking before he became the member of the Bonanno Mafia family. He was close to Carmine Galante, Joseph Massino, Joseph Bonnano and Dominick Napolitano.

Along with an associate on 3rd December 1953 he had shot William Russo, but the latter survived, which made Raselli to go into hiding. On 13th December 1954, he got indicted on bribing charges. In 1962, Connie got killed after she had become Federal informer, after which her body never was found.

Rise in the family

The Commission for restoring the Bonanno family in 1969 had appointed 3-Man panel comprising of Natale Evola, Joseph DiFilippi and Rastelli to run the family. On 21st July 1971, he again got indicted on loansharking charges in the Riverhead neighborhood of New York. Evola died on 28th August 1973, following which the Bonanno family’s acting boss was Rastelli. He was made official boss by the Commission at a meeting held at Manhattan’s Americana Hotel on 23rd February 1974. However, the family’s real power was transferred to Carmine Galante, the underboss and rival to Rastelli.

On 6th March 1975, he was convicted for anti-trust violations and extortion and imprisoned in the federal prison of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. It is from here that he had ordered the murder of Galante in 1979 on the permission of the Commission, who also felt Galante was not suitable for their business. This way, he went on to become the family’s undisputed boss, although the acting boss until he was released from prison was Salvatore Ferrugia.

Later life of Rastelli

An internal war started within the Bonanno family in 1981, on Rastelli’s continuation as its boss. Several people were murdered which also included Alphonse Indelicato, the opposition Bonanno caporegime leader. Joseph Pistone, the FBI undercover remained witness to this power struggle.

Rastelli died due to liver cancer on 24th July 1991.

Owney Maddon – The English-American boss of Gophers gang

Owner Maddon was considered to be an anomaly among the underworld of New York City. The reason for this is not because, of his not being of Italian or Jewish origin, but being British.  He was popularly called in his circles as ‘The Killer’. He was the son of an Irish dockworker, bred and born as well as dedicated towards his homeland – England. Although he was regarded to be a notorious American mafia for about six decades, Maddon never thought of leaving his English passport until he got threatened with the consequence of deportation.

His early life

It was on 18th December 1891 at 25, Somerset Street, Leeds, England that Madden was born. His father to seek work had shifted base to Liverpool. At the age of 12 in 1903, his father expired, compelling his mother to relocate to the United States and to settle on Manhattan’s west side that was popularly known as ‘Hells Kitchen’, then a treacherous neighborhood.

His life as a mafia

It is here that he came across a rough gang called the Gophers and soon indulged in several types of criminal activities like labor racket beatings, muggings and robberies, in which he had become quite proficient. He also was an expert to use different types of weapons like the brass knuckles and slingshot. However, the lead pipe that was wrapped in newspaper which was his favor tie weapon. The ‘insurance business’ was his income source. The local merchants were sold with ‘bomb insurance’ by Madden to protect themselves from being bombed by Madden himself. He had been arrested about 44 times, as the Gopher’s member, however, was able to stay clear from being imprisoned.

He was given the nickname since he had killed an unarmed Italian for no reason and to his credit had committed 5 other murders by the age of 23. On 6th November 1912, he was shot by 11 Hudson Dusters, rivals of Gophers that he survived. He had a gang member killed who had planned to usurp his position, which led to his being sentenced for 10 to 20 years. After being released early, he got into bootlegging business, moving up in class, he got compared to mobsters like Frank Castello, Lucky Luciano, Louis Lepke, Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. In 1932, he retired the life of a mobster and relocated to Arkansas, where he died at the age of 74 due to emphysema.

American Mobster – Nathan Kaplan – Kid Dropper

Nathan Kaplan: Paul Kelly’s Jewish successor
It was in 1891 at Manhattan’s Lower East Side that Nathan Kaplan was given birth. At a very young age, he hit the streets to get engaged in petty crimes, swindlers like the ‘dropper’ scheme. He would simply drop a wallet full of fake money and have an innocent, but greedy person to have it against half of the money as reward, which did click huge for Kaplan. It is for this reason, he had earned the name ‘Kid Dropper’.

His life as a mafia

His expertise led him to join the Five Point Gang of Paolo Vacarelli (Paul Kelly), something unusual for Dropper, since he was of Jewish origin, while the gang was of Italian descent. But he got arrested in 1911 for robbery, sent for seven year at Sing Sing Prison. Kelly’s gang had disbanded by the time of his release in 1917. He presumed himself to be the successor to Kelly and started to take over the latter’s labor racket business.

His rise as a mobster

He preferred to wear slovenly attire like dressing as a bum until his being imprisoned. But after becoming the boss of the gang, he dressed accordingly and started to wear loud checkered suits, shirts, ties having loud colors, pointed shoes, outlandish designs, straw hat and the like. He gathered low level gangsters, which he called ‘Rough Jack Dropper Riders’. But soon he had come cross roads with Joseph Weyler, a Kelly gangster of Spanish origin, who always wanted to control over Kelly’s rackets. But with his death, Dropper regained charge of the gang and the racketeering efforts.

He was held responsible for over 20 murders between 1920 & 1923. However, he had again to face competition from Jacob Orgen or Little Augie as he was nicknamed,  who was eager to control all the illegal activities of Doppler and had engaged the best killers in his gang like Gurrah Shapiro, Louis Buchalter and Jack Diamond. Manhattan from 1922 to 1923 was turning into a shooting arena for both the parties involved, resulting in 23 murders including that  of an innocent man.

He was charged for having concealed weapons and got arrested in 1923, but later he got released outside of Essex Market Court. He had provided with tight police security because of rumors of his being murdered, when released from Court. But, Louis Kushner, an aide of Little Augie shot him in the head twice and killed him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Allen – New York City’s most wicked mobster and pimp

John Allen is regarded to be a murderer, pimp, drunkard and con artist, who are known in American mafia history as one who had run the most obscene of all dance halls in New York. Due to his transgressions being huge, he had been nicknamed as “New York City’s Wickedest Man”.

His early life

It was in upstate New York in 1823 that he was born and was among the 8 siblings of his parents and the youngest of them all. His father had been a well known Presbyterian minister, while one brother had become Baptist minister, while two others had become Presbyterian ministers. The other brothers had ran away to the city of New York to become crooks,  confidence men and burglars, owning different bawdy bars located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

His entering into the crime world

His father wanted Allen to select the righteous path by sending him to Union Theological Seminary and not the path chosen by his other brothers. For few months, Allen studied religion, however, was more inclined towards leading the kind of life his other brothers were leading at New York. It is his brothers, who had introduced him to the world of crime making him proficient in the trade.

He came across Little Suzie, a well known criminal and married her in 1855. Her specialty was said to be rolling drunks, seduce clients and have knockout drops placed in their drinks. She carried her activities in 4th ward, waterfront district. Allen too got hold of a job for the waterfront crimp, where his work was to lure sailors to the establishment and drugging them, robbed of their money and valuables.

After the death of his boss, he was employed by Jane the Grabber of Hester Jane Haskins, which runs numerous ill reputed houses. His job was to lure young girls to provide them with good paying jobs, get them drugged and work at Jane’s brothels.

He had the opened up a Dance Hall in 1858 that went on to become the most shameless establishments of the city. It is this that had prompted Oliver Dyer a journalist to state in an article for Packard’s Monthly as John Allen being the city’s wickedest man, which was gracefully accepted by Allen and had it proudly displayed on his business card and had become the city’s richest pimp. However, his plan to introduce semi-religious sentiments within the dance hall to earn more money simply backfired.

Jack Diamond – The invincible Gangster

Jack Diamond had a nickname called ‘Legs’. He had been shot several times and injured badly. It was on 10th July 1897 that he was born to Irish parents, who belonged to Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland. Most of his early years were spent in Philadelphia. At the age of 13, his mother died due to viral infection, after which along his brother, he had joined ‘The Broiler Gang’, a local group of toughs. On charges of mayhem and robberies, he had been arrested dozen times and had to spend few months at a juvenile reformatory. He was drafted to the army, which did not suit him and left within a year and absconded. Being caught, he got sentenced to 3-5 years of imprisonment at Federal Penitentiary, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

His career as a mafia

In 1921, he got released from prison after which he moved to New York to make some fortune. Along with his brother Eddie, he got relocated to Lower East Side of Manhattan and came across Lucky Luciano, for whom he performed numerous odd jobs, which included bootlegging. He married Florence Williams, but it lasted just few months. He was introduced to Arnold Rothstein by Luciano after his fortunes changed. Rothstein was a financial wizard and notorious gambler.

His rise to popularity as a mafia

He worked as Rothstein’s bodyguard and was made his partner to carry out heroin business. Once he had accumulated sufficient money, he along with his brother had ventured on their own. They hijacked other mobsters’ bootlegging trucks like Big Bill Dwyer and Owney Madden, which proved to be a bad idea making him target of all mafias.

His later life

He escaped being ambushed in October 1924. Soon, he befriended Little Augie and became his chief bodyguard, for which he got as a reward share of Augie’s narcotics and bootlegging business. But with the gunning down of Owen, even Diamond was injured. On his release from hospital, he befriended Shapiro and Lepke and got a share of narcotics and bootlegging business from them.

He was noticed regularly at few clubs and as well as his pictures in leading newspapers, which portrayed him as handsome man-about-town and not a gangster. He then owned clubs. However, 13th July 1929, his fortunes turned down. In December 1931, he got shot at Kenmore Hotel, Albany, apparently by two unidentified gunmen, putting an end to the otherwise, ‘invincible man’.

Dutch Schultz – The lunatic mob boss

One certified lunatic mob boss that existed in the opening of the 20th century was Dutch Schultz. He was born in the Bronx in 1902 to Jewish/German parents and his original name was Arthur Flegenheimer. At a very early age, his father had abandoned the family and this made Arthur to take up variety of jobs, which included working at Schultz Trucking Company. Although he was into legitimate work, still he was influenced by the crooks, who were into bootlegging during the Prohibition time.

His life as a mafia

As he got caught by the police  officials for the initial time, he stated his name to be ‘Dutch Schulz’ that was the boss’ son’s name, to which he later confessed that this name appeared in the headlines much better than that of his own name ‘Arthur Flegenheimer’.

Quitting this job, he planned to join numbers racket at Harlem, where about $35,000 was bet in a day by the locals. He established a gang, including Otto Berman alias Abbadabba – a mathematical genius, Lulu Rosenkrantz and Bo Weinberg. The black gangsters were invited by the crew to a meeting as the former had control of the Harlem numbers racket and became a partner.

His rise to fame

Schultz was eager to do something else besides Harlem numbers. He took the help of Abbadabba for rigging the numbers game for achieving the goal, the money from which would be diverted to new rackets. He became popular as a mobster who could bear insult of his girlfriend, even spitting on his face, but not anyone stealing from his account. If done, then that person is sure to be dead.

He shot Vincent Cole and Jack Diamonds, which propelled him into big time, after which he had become equal in position to mafia gangsters like Louie Lepke, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Joe Doto and Albert Anastasia. Although he raked in millions of dollars, he spent very less on his suit and shirt.

His later life

His erratic ways only made his crew to become weary of him. An instance was his conversion to Catholicism for evading tax in Malone, New York, which helped him to get acquitted. But it was after his murdering Thomas E. Dewey, the special prosecutor of New York City, going against the syndicate that made him unpopular with them. A conspiracy to kill him was executed on 23rd October 1935, in which he was killed.

AML Gunned Down!

Greetings American Mafia. We are reporting some recent events that have happened lately. Mr Benny Noodles one of the infamous contract killers and leaders of the league of shadows has murdered an American Mafia Legend in cold blood!

Gunnz_Lucchese was gunned down early one morning on January 10th, 2016. It was about 2:00am as Gunnz was exiting a strip club in Brooklyn, New York. The legend made his way to his bulletproof limousine, staggering as he tried to shake off the alcohol.

He entered his limousine and motioned the driver to take him home. As the alcohol kicked in Gunnz began to fade away in a deep sleep.

The limousine made its way down a dark ally and slowly came to a stop.

The driver locked the doors. Gunnz who was startled when the doors locked quickly opened his eyes. He seen Mr Benny sitting across from him in the limousine.

Benny had his 45 pointed at Gunnz before he had awoke. As Gunnz opened his eyes Benny fired three shots hitting his target in the chest, neck and head. Benny had the limousine loaded up into a tractor trailer and Gunnz was never seen again.

The Kingpin of The Lucchese Crime Empire was pronounced dead after an extensive search for his body was conducted and came up with no leads. Mr. B also killed a few low ranked Lucchese members basically wiping them out completely.

Afterwards Benny had taken his wife Tatiana Noodles on a vacation to the Virgin Islands. The two spent 30 days in paradise watching the ocean.

 

Show Down In American Samoa 

 

The National Crime Syndicate Boss StephenT who was thought to have been dead made his return to the scene on January 14th, 2016. Benny had set it up so that the Kingpin/Supervisor of The Yakuza could take a little trip to pay YungLean a visit in American Samoa.

The American Mafia Chairmen sat next to a pool at a hotel. He was sunbathing his pale white butt cheeks before the sun went down. StephenT made his way from the airport to the hotel. He walked right up to the chairmen. The two had agreed to a duel.

YungLean was surprised to see the man he was just talking over the phone with was right in front of him. Starring his target down StephenT quickly pulled his weapon and fired several bullets into his target, leaving him facedown and motionless.

StephenT not wanting YungLeans buns to burn kicked him into the pool, cooling them butt cheeks. It was between 7:30pm and 8:00pm when YungLean was murdered. StephenT denied him his last meal as he killed him just before he could have dinner.

StephenT made a phone call to Mr Benny and The Joker letting them both know the job had been successful. Not wanting to waste his trip StephenT made the most of it as he went surfing and went sight seeing around American Samoa.

 

The League Strikes Again!

 

The League strikes again as FadeFrenzy a National Crime Syndicate Boss attacks The Barzini Crime Empire. FadeFrenzy arranged a meeting with Mr. Benny. He was ordered to visit the states to kill some low ranked members of the Barzini. The main target was Barzini’s Federal Boss Xylophone-Barzini.

After the meeting Fade left Benny’s compound in a good mood. He got the authorization he needed. Fade found out that Xylophone-Barzini was in Maine. He quickly paid Xylo a visit and after gunning his target down he drove off on his Kawasaki motorcycle laughing. Fade drove all over the United States killing about ten low ranked mobsters of the Barzini Empire total.

Fade was stopped in his tracks when he was shot by a Barzini National Crime Syndicate Boss by the name of bigshow. A new face on the scene he has been operating the Barzini Delta Force for awhile. After Fade fired on the man he fired back, striking Fade with a bullet or two. Fade fell off his motorcycle and laid on the pavement motionless after a violent crash into a parked car.

Bigshow left immediately witnesses said to police. Fade was seen by witnesses fleeing and was no where to be found when law enforcement and medics arrived. An extensive manhunt for Fade and bigshow was issued by the FBI. Anyone who has any info or details leading to an arrest is urged to come forward.

Until next time American Mafia.

Be safe out there.

 

 

Dominick Napolitano – The successful crew leader and right hand man of Philip Rastelli

Dominick Napolitano had a nickname called Sonny Black. He was born on 16th June 1930 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He started his life as petty thief. Although, his family belonged to Naples, Italy, he had a blond hair during birth, which he dyed black once he grew up, thereby earning that nickname.

His personal life

He is regarded to be an avid enthusiast for pigeons and had them kept at the apartment building’s rooftop. The pigeons were said to be prized coming from pedigree bloodlines from Russia, Germany and France. He often used to visit his coop, which according him made him to feel peace of mind and to help think better. He befriended Brasco, who actually was a FBI undercover and explained him the activities and functions of the Mafioso.

As a mafia

He had controlled parts of Florida and Pasco County after getting the approval of Santo Trafficante Jr. and the Trafficante Mafia Family. Orlando at that point of time was considered to be a developing gambling district, which prompted Napolitano to start a bookmaking operation here. He is known to have owned Motion Lounge – a social club and apartment building in New York. His lounge had become his headquarters for his crew to get involved in numerous illegal activities such as robbery, burglary, loansharking, bank robbery, bookmaking, and hijacking, drug trafficking, casino operations, extortion, etc. His crew was regarded to be the leading in the family and a successful one.

After the murder of Carmine Galante in 1979, he got promoted to the rank of a capo, while Michael Sabella, his mentor was demoted, on whose place he came. He took over the crew of Sabella and had become a confidante and close aid of Phillip Rastelli, the Bonanno Mafia Family’s boss. But the Bonanno family got split into two groups, with one behind Rastelli and the other by Alphonse Indelicto, with both fighting for the top position. It was the responsibility Napolitano and Joseph Massino to have the power struggle to be ended and their task was cut to killing three capos namely Alphonse Indelicato, Philip Giaccone and Dominick Trinchera.

According to Pistone, Dominick was much more disciplined and observant and also had watchful eye. When it came for personal loyalty to sidewalk soldiers, he simply had a wonderful reputation.

On 17th August 1981, he was shot to death for allowing FBI agent to be in his crew.

Boss Tweed – New York’s elected crooked politician and mobster

William Tweed is regarded to be an outlandish crooked politician, who is known to have proved to be devilish to the city of New York, upon his being elected in office. He was popularly called by his associates as the ‘Boss’. By 1870, he had stolen plenty of cash from the coffers of the city of New York, using which he had become the city’s 3rd largest land owner.

His early life

It was on 3rd April 1823 at Lower East Side, Manhattan’s Cherry Street that William Tweed was born. He was the 3rd generation Irish-Scottish descendant. His father worked as chair maker. When young Tweed followed his father’s footsteps, however, the streets did lure him a lot. He went on to join ‘Cherry Street Gang’, a juvenile delinquent crew, who were said to have created problems for the local merchants. They stole wares and had them sold on the black market. He became the gang’s boss and joined numerous volunteer fire companies that were regarded to be the perfect platform for those having political aspirations. He also assisted in establishing the No. 6 American Fire Engine Co., called popularly the Big Six, where he befriended people from all communities and ancestries, those who could help him propel to public services with a motto to steal big.

His rise to fame

He got elected as alderman in 1851.  Although having unlimited power, he had brokered a deal for purchasing land for new potters field with asking price being $30,000 and Tweed paying $103,450 for the land from the city’s money. The excess money had been distributed among him and other corrupt elected civic officials.

He got elected to elections’ city board in 1855 that saw more cash flow. For making profits, he sold teacher’s jobs and city textbooks. He got appointed as Supervisor in the City Country Board that helped him to thieve much more, by creating a Tweed Ring, thereby controlling every work permit and job of the city. Every merchant, artisan and contractor had to pay up in plenty to do business here. He had amassed immense wealth by 1865. He had a great reputation for eating and stood 5” 11” tall and weighed 320 pounds and flouted tremendous wealth. Over $200 million were stolen from the treasury between 1865 and 1871.

It was in late 1869 that problem arose for Tweed, when a cartoon was published in Harper’s Weekly prompting Samuel J. Tilden, the future Presidential candidate to investigate the financial documents, leading to his arrest. Being convicted in over 200 counts, he was sentenced to imprisonment, where he died on 12th April 1878.

Aniello Dellacroce – Nicknamed Father O’Neil

It was on 15th March 1914 that Aniello Dellacroce, popularly called Neil was born to American-Italian immigrants named Antoinette and Francesco Dellacroce. He had a younger sibling named Carmine and grew up in Manhattan’s Little Italy. At times, he would wear the uniform of a priest to throw the law enforcement officials off the track. In his career as a mafia, he climbed to great positions to become the Gambino Mafia family’s underboss, as well as mentor to John Gotti.

His early life

As a teenager, he had worked as an assistant to a butcher, however, as work had become scarce, he took to the life of a mafia. He was 5’ 10” tall having broad shoulders. He had joined the Mangano Mafia family during the 1930’s under the leadership of Vincent Mangano. Under Albert Anastasia, he had rose to the  rank of a capo by the 1950s after the death of Mangano.

He purchased Ravenite Social Club that was located in Little Italy that later become popular as Gambino Social Club. He was regarded to be a fierce follower of Anastasia and carried out numerous murders on his behest. But he followed the mafia tradition, since he was a devoted Cosa Nostra mobster and remained quiet as Anastasia got murdered on 25th October 1957. The family was then taken over by Carlo Gambino, the then underboss, after which the family got renamed to Gambino Mafia family.

He preferred to live a low profile when in public and was nicknamed ‘Neil’ that was regarded to be ‘Aneillo’s’ Americanization form. As he had a square shaped face, few of the family members nicknamed him as ‘the Polack’.

His personal life

He got married to Lucille Riccardi and gave birth to two sons, Ronald and Armand, as well as a daughter called Shannon. They resided in Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan, however, moved onto Staten Island’s Grasmere region. Moreover, Dellacroce was John Ruggeiro Jr.’s great uncle as well of Salvatore Rugeiro Jr. and Angelo Ruggiero Jr., who had become the associates of the Gambino mafia family.

Dellacroce is known to have remained aloof and made use of body double when it came to attending public events. He also dressed as priest had killed a man and hence, had earned another nickname called ‘Father O’Neil’. He got promoted to becoming underboss in 1965. On 2nd December 1985, he died due to lung cancer.

Alphonse Indelicato – The man who failed to become the boss of the Bonanno Mafia family

Alphonse Indelicato was popularly called as Sony Red. It was on 25th February 1931 that he was born in the city of New York. He had never visited his paternal city of Siculiana, Agrigento, Sicily and was Salvatore Valenti, the Bonanno associate’s father in law. Indelicato was also Charles Ruvolo, the Bonanno capo’s ex-son in law. Moreover, he had relations with the education advisor of Michael Dukkakis’, the Massachusetts Governor named Gerald Thomas Indelicato and Giuseppe Indelicato, the global heroin trafficker.  He got married to Margaret Elizabeth McFadden. They had a son called Bruno, who also was introduced the Mafia ways at a very young age.

His personality

Indelicator was considered to be opinionated, charismatic, ruthless and dangerous. He had a tattoo of two hearts within a dagger carved on the left arm, and on the right arm having another tattoo stating “Holland 1945”, whose meaning is unknown. He preferred wearing bright clothing, striped track suits, orange T-shirts, garish casual clothing and multicolored socks. Also he used huge tinted sunglasses including a swagger in customized pair of red colored leather cowboy boots, the reason why he got the nickname of ‘Sonny Red’.

He is regarded to be a violent person as he had killed a man with an ice pick and got involved in numerous murders. He got sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment at the Sing Sing Correctional center on 26th December 1951 for shooting at the social club, killing a man.

His life as a mafia

He had become a caporegime of the Bonanno Mafia family and was one of the mafia members to dislike the leadership of Phillip Rastelli. Since he had a good support from the other capo’s of the family, he often disrespected Rastelli, including capos Dominick Napolitano and Joseph Massino, who had been aligned with him.

With the imprisonment of Rastelli in 1974, Carmine Galante tried to push him aside and become the ultimate boss of the Bonanno Mafia Family. But his antics did not go well with the other members of the Commission. On his declaring war with the other mafia families like Gambino and Genovese, a contract was issued to kill Galante that was successfully carried out. The creation of a vacuum tempted Indelicto to attempt becoming boss of the Bonanno family. But Rastelli’s loyalist Sonny Napolitano prevented such moves. Even though Indelicto enjoyed the support of soldiers and caporegime of the family, on 5th May 1981 at the Embassy Terrace of Brooklyn, he got killed by the loyal aides of Rastelli.

Tommy DeSimone – Who depicted killings from the movie ‘The Goodfella’

It was on 24th May 1950 that Thomas DeSimone was born. He is well known as an American-Italian mobster having worked for New York’s Luchesse Mafia Family as an associate. DeSimone was popular with the other and had several nick names like Tommy D and Two Gun Tommy as he always carried with him two guns.

His early life

Tommy was among the three siblings to his parents, with two brothers Anthony and Robert (got life imprisonment) and a sister called Dolares. Anthony and Robert had worked for the Gambino Mafia Family as associates. In 1979, Anthony had been killed. His grandfather Rosario DeSimone was the mob boss of Los Angeles, way back in 1922, while Frank DeSimone, his uncle was mob boss of Los Angeles Mafia family in 1956.

His life as a Mafia

It was under Capo Paul Vairo that Tommy got engaged with the Luchhese Mafia Family in 1965. He was considered to be naïve, skinny and just 15 years old. A family friend named Jimmy Burke guided him to participate in few rackets and trained him to become a successful mafia.

DeSimone had a huge appetite and quick temper and could drink every day gallon of milk. Henry Hill, his fellow associate and friend had described him as pure psychopath. It was at the age of 18 that Tommy killed Howard Goldstein.

He had several kills to his credit, including Gambino Mafia Family’s made man called ‘Billy Batts’ Devino in 1970. Devino was regarded to be among the most feared gunmen, who had killed many people. He insulted DeSimone by reminding his earlier life as shoe shine boy that went on to be shown in the movie Goodfella. It was the reason behind Devino’s murder.

Another murder of DeSimone got played in Goodfella movie, where DeSimone had murdered Michael ‘Spider’ Gianco, by putting three bullets in the chest. The different murders carried out by DeSimone were done in Hollywood style, the reason why, he was better known among his friends and associates as Tommy Goodfella.

His other significant criminal activities

DeSimone is said to have participated in the JFK International Airport, Lufthansa Heist of December 1978, after which he had killed Parnell ‘Stacks’ Edwards due to his failure in having the delivery truck to be hidden. Upon this, DeSimone had risen to the ranks of a made man. However, on 14th January 1979, according to his wife, Angela,  Tommy went missing and presumed to have been killed probably on 6th January 1979, the reasons cited for the same being several.