Very interesting article by Kenji this past week. Claims Denver was active into 2000s and that Paul Villano was the boss. Also says there is a Sicilian faction in Los Angeles. Thoughts?


Monday, November 30, 2015
The End of an Era: John Vaccaro
When I find myself thinking back to the time I spent around the guys in the Los Angeles Mafia family, it makes me sad that they are all gone now. They were a link to a bygone era that can only be understood if you were there. The mafia does not publish books about the reign of each regime. All we had was the oral history passed down from one guy to another.

Some scholars working with law enforcement will write about the family but they will not understand how it worked or what the men were really like in person. The law enforcement version only contains what they know about the family from looking at them during various investigations. These scholars are just people that make things up to fit their theory of how they think it really worked.

John Vaccaro was the last of the active guys that were inducted into the family after Dominic Brooklier went away. He worked with the Boss Pete Milano when Pete was still a Capo. Pete was always big in the gambling and John was a gambler.

John spearheaded the takeover of the restaurant in the 9000 building on Sunset to use as a gambling joint. He was said to be in on the planning to get rid of John and Frances Dubeck, who were murdered before they could testify outside their Las Vegas apartment.

John passed away November 16, 2015 at just 75 years old. He had lived the last 12 years in Boulder City, Nevada where he enjoyed fishing.

He had done a long stretch for cheating casinos out of hundreds of thousand of dollars by fixing slots and games.

He was one of the few that knew and worked with the legendary New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello.

I never met John because he was away for so long. I can tell you that he was well respected in the family. Louie Gelfuso and his son Michael both spoke highly of him.

Jimmy Caci liked him and had nothing but good things to say about him.

The singing soldier Bobby Milano aka Charles Caci never had a bad word to say about him.

John was also in the Black Book in Nevada along with Steve Cino, Mike Rizzi and Louie Dragna. This means he was not allowed to set foot inside a casino.

The Mafia Families across the country are either dying off or going deep underground. A lot are going back to what they started as. Secret Societies that only induce people who are related. Some like what is left of Los Angeles are run by Sicilians who do not mix well with the Americans.

The old guys who are no longer around were from the 1970’s which was the end of the golden age of the mafia. Jimmy, Fat Stevie and Bobby Milano worked closely with the Buffalo family. When they came to Southern California they did the right thing and checked in with the boss.
Outsiders never understand it's not about the size of the family it's about respect. Every family was equal. Some of the Los Angeles guys did business with the Denver Mafia family and I'm talking about right up to the 2000’s. I was introduced to a guy named Paulie and his nephew from Denver. I was told that Paulie was just like Pete Milano meaning Paulie was the boss. The Los Angeles guy bought into a hotel in Las Vegas and they bought a piece of land on the strip in Las Vegas together with Paulie. I was told by the FBI that Denver had no family. Yet I met Paulie with Jimmy Caci, Steve Cino and Louie Gelfuso not at the same time and they all described Paulie the same to me. They all respected him.

Bobby Milano settled in Palm Springs and after Jimmy was released from prison he followed. Pete Milano wanted him in the family so Jimmy was in.

There were other guys like Mike Rizzi and the Fiatos. The Fiatos are still alive but Mike Rizzi is gone.

I am glad I got to know the Los Angeles guys, but it is my past. I value the information that I learned but I never want to live the way I did back then.

The passing of John Vaccaro is the end of the that era. There are a few guys left like Rocky Zangari who was a bad drunk and moved back east. He may be dead. Louie Caruso who is a lot younger. John DiMattia may still be around. Fat Bobby Paduano was alive in Orange County but he was never inducted.

Will the last Los Angeles Mafia guy please turn out the lights

Kenji has made that claim about Denver for some time now. The family was basically finished by the mid-1980's. By the early 2000's they had - at most - a few members still living.

I believe him. I think Villano was boss after Smaldone. Obviously the FBI was not tracking him. I think the same goes for other families like St Louis and Milwaukee. Who was Villano's nephew?

The feds weren't tracking him because there was nothing left to track. It would be like one of the 2 or 3 remaining guys in St Louis today calling themselves the boss. The boss of what?

Bruce Springsteen is more of a boss than these guys.

Well, cmon, he could outdo most of these guys. He's the boss!

I think Kenji knows more than you. FBI doesn't have the resources to track criminals like they use to. It's all tied up in terrorism like it should be. Paul Villano's nephew might be the boss of what's left

It's not about Kenji and me. It's about what he says compared to what the FBI says. Not to mention every mob expert out there. It's been about 35 years since the last mob bust in Denver. And the feds had written off that family LONG before 9/11. Anyone who thinks there's anything left there is delusional.

Things in Denver are supposedly run these days by Jimmy "The Saint" Tosnia and his crew of lethal street soldiers composed of Earl "Easy Win" Denton, Francis "Big Bear Franchise" Chiser, "Pieces" Olden and "Critical" Bill Dolittle..

These guys are no joke..

Neither is this thread.

This is serious stuff.

Seriously.

Has Denver ever had more than 10 guys?

http://mafiamembershipcharts.blogspot.it/search/label/Colorado?m=0

In 1959 There are 49 made men
In 1989 21 made men
Today Rip denver family
The smaldone Brothers was the bosses until the Last Brother died in 2006.

Ive lived in Denver for 8 months now and dont think I have met or heard of one italian person since i have been here.. And I went to Smaldones old restaurant Gaetanos.. They dont own it anymore but it has pictures all over and in bathroom has a fbi or some kind of police chart with all members. loansharks, bookmakers, enforcers and all that.. Its a pretty cool place though. New owners, not italian.

I highly doubt there were 21 members in 1989. In fact, I'd be willing to bet there wasn't even half that.

I listed the men but mostly was very old and inactive so few of the was active in the 80s.

Where is it at Stevie? I'd like to check it out next time I come up your way. My buddy just moved from Englewood to Littleton. I know Englewood fairly well by now.

I don't believe they ever had 49 made men. Maybe that includes associates. By 1989, they were probably as dead as the Dallas family. I'm sure there's still an Italian-American underworld in many cities where the mafia once existed, but it's not a hierarchical organization. As long as people want to gamble, there will be bookies and some will be of Italian descent.

"Some of the Los Angeles guys did business with the Denver Mafia family and I'm talking about right up to the 2000’s. I was introduced to a guy named Paulie and his nephew from Denver. I was told that Paulie was just like Pete Milano meaning Paulie was the boss."

Seems to sound like this "Paulie and his nephew from Denver" were just low level criminals and that's it. More than likely made up some bullshit about being wiseguys....from Denver of all places.

Kenny Gallo has always been a bullshit fucking liar.

He's from Orange County; half of the guys here are full of tall tales just like his punk ass.

Is he still blabbing about his MMA career and how he found himself fighting in the ring/octagon?

Guy's a fucking walking Pinocchio. Thank God Hollywood was never foolish enough to make a movie from his "exploits", the closest he ever got was a Nat Geo documentary; or maybe it was the Discovery Channel?

Woody's Wharf is an awesome restaurant I might add.

North Denver on Tejon Street... yea my dad was living in Littleton but now there in Castle Rock.. Its so nice here man

does this ivy league guy know everything or? pretty sick of his arrogance to be honest. Your a mob fanboy, not an expert....

First, anyone who knows me on these forums will tell you the LAST thing I am is a mob fan boy.

Second, you don't have to take my word for it. There was no LCN family in Denver recognized by the FBI or any mob experts in the 1990's or early 2000's.

Third, by the early 2000's it had been 20 years since the last mob bust there.

Kenji can claim whatever he wants and you're free to believe it. But you're ignoring all the contradictory evidence for anecdotal evidence by one guy.

THAT is the sign of a mob fanboy.

but you only go off what you can find online? your only taking educated guesses. For all we know denver would be a real powerhouse....thats what im trying to say.

But you must be fascinated with the mob, that is why most of us are here. A part of you is in love with that life. There is nothing wrong with admitting that. Could you be friends with a mobster? Of course you could. I'm not saying you're a fanboy, but someone who talks and thinks about mobsters every single day doesn't exactly seem to hate mobsters. There is something about them we admire.

7700 posts tells us all we need to know. You need to get laid

Denver bust from 09 notice local cops even say no more LCN
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_11848265

But you have to admit, if Denver was a real powerhouse in terms of LCN presence, and there hasn't been a mob related bust in 20+ years. That must mean then Denver has master criminals, and a stronger, better led family in places like NY, Philadelphia & Montreal, where actual mob busts have occurred in last past decade and less. I don't know, man.

There's no smoke without fire...but there's no fire without smoke either.
And to me the air around Denver seems to be quite smokeless.

If the info is from the feds and mob experts, as well as the mob cases in Denver (or lack thereof), so what if it's online? Facts are facts. Denver wasnt even a powerhouse at its peak. In fact, it was basically a glorified gambling ring. But you want to ignore it all, not to mention common sense, because Kenji says so? It's like you WANT to believe him. Well go ahead. But anyone who believes there was still an active family in Denver in the 1990's or early 2000's, I have some swampland in Florida to sell them.



Speak for yourself, pal. Fascinating? Yes. In love with that life? Heck no. Believe it or not, unlike many on these boards, there are some of us who have the mentality above a 15 year old. Not to mention a moral compass that actually works. One doesn't have to lose sight of who and what mobsters are to study or talk about them.



It doesn't tell you anything other than I've been on this forum a while and post regularly. There are many posters that have far more posts than I do. Do they need to get laid too?



Yup, the only mob connection there was to the Gambinos and it was a loose one.

Why do you find them so fascinating? There must be something about them that you find appealing. The first time you started reading about this, wasn't there a part of you that thought this stuff was cool? If you truly despised the mob and you found them to be nothing more scumbags and thugs with no moral compass then you probably wouldn't spend all day talking about them, now would you? It doesn't make any sense.