New year's Eve 1970, an African American husband and wife were hired to act as waiters/ servers at a house party thrown by Colombo guy Joseph "fatty" Russo. There was at least 30 people present.

At some point ol' Fatty became enraged at seeing the black guy ' dancing ' with a white woman ( which I personally doubt, bet just the sight of her talking to him was too much ), Russo grabbed a gun and killed BOTH the husband and wife. This was in front of everyone, I think.

Because, the bodies are found within a day, Russo hired a plane and took 30 of the party goers with him.(somewhere hot, Florida??).
Apparently he got in touch with DiBiase Pinto, he took it to Joe Yak and Yak took it to snake Persico. Who had a Meeting in Gallo death rat Luparelli's house.

All I know is that Russo wasn't convicted for some reason.( Had 2 mistrials)

Does anyone have any additional info?

Was he made?

Related to the Colombo Russo's ie Andy Mush?

Do we know what he did in his mob life?

Shame that he could get away with it.

I could be mistaken, but I don't believe this Russo was related to the "Colombo" Russo family.

DSD, I have seen this story before, in different version, and it is fiction. It comes from someone's imagination.

https://gangstersinc.org/2012/03/16/give-a-man-a-gun-the-story-of-carmine-dibiase/

By the end of the 1960s, DiBiase and his wife were living in an apartment in Southbridge Towers at 90 Beekman Street in the South Street Seaport District in Lower Manhattan.

He was also involved in a particular brutal and sordid double-murder that took place on the last night of 1970.

On New Year’s Eve, Joseph Fatty Russo held a party at his home on Packanack Lake, in Wayne County, New Jersey. An affluent crook, he was connected into the New York Mafia by an uncle who was a member of one of the five crime families. Fatty himself grew up around Mulberry Street and had allegedly generated his considerable wealth through drug trafficking. He had known Sonny Pinto most of his life.

Sometime after midnight, the party went badly wrong.

Russo had hired two black people to wait on his guests. One was Charles Shepard, a local man, thirty-one year old part-time musician and bar tender. The other, was his common-in-law wife, Shirley Green, who worked as a waitress, and lived in Manhattan. There were over thirty people attending, including children. The party was held in the large basement area of the property. By the end of the night, Russo was either drunk or stoned or a combination of the two, and he noticed that Shepard was drinking his booze, and even worse, dancing and trying to make out with the wife of his nephew.

Incensed, he stormed upstairs into his bedroom where he kept a loaded .38 calibre hand gun, came tumbling back down the stairs and in front of the entire party, emptied the gun into Shepard, killing him instantly. The chaos that erupted must have been electrifying. While some of the guests held a struggling and screaming Shirley, Russo then staggered back to his bedroom, found his ammunition box, re-loaded the gun and went back down to the basement where he shot Shirley six times in the head.

The guests were hustled away to their homes, and along with three of his remaining friends, Russo carried the two bodies to a car which was driven to Pine Brook Road in Montville about fifteen miles away, and the two dead bodies were dumped unceremoniously into snow drifts that lined the street. They were discovered there the first day of January, and the New Jersey police mounted an investigation.

By the time the detectives assigned to the enquiry had traced the shooting to Russo’s home, he had moved to Florida. As the police dug deeper, they discovered that all the guests present that night in New Jersey were also in Florida, on an expense-paid holiday, courtesy of Fatty. Also down for the sun and R & R was Sonny Pinto.

When Russo was finally arrested and charged with the murders of Shephard and Green, he turned to Carmine Persico, a powerful capo or crew boss in the Colombo family, who assured him that the case could be fixed through the family’s connections and control of crooked law enforcement and judicial officers.

Russo was in fact tried twice for the double murders, but was acquitted on both occasions. Federal Organized Crime Strike Force investigators had tapped telephone calls between Russo, Joe Yacovelli, and Carmine DiBiase, which indicated that Russo was being offered help and assistance to evade or avoid prosecution in the murders.

On August 8th, 1972, Federal warrants were issued against all three men on charges of conspiracy. On November the 13th, all of the men were indicted for conspiring to enable Russo to avoid prosecution for murder. In September 1973, a mistrial was declared in the case of Russo and Persico. By then, both Yacovelli and DiBiase were fugitives from justice.

So that is where the fake story comes from, Thom L. Jones. This part here is not believable:

Russo had hired two black people to wait on his guests. One was Charles Shepard, a local man, thirty-one year old part-time musician and bar tender. The other, was his common-in-law wife, Shirley Green, who worked as a waitress, and lived in Manhattan. There were over thirty people attending, including children. The party was held in the large basement area of the property. By the end of the night, Russo was either drunk or stoned or a combination of the two, and he noticed that Shepard was drinking his booze, and even worse, dancing and trying to make out with the wife of his nephew.

Incensed, he stormed upstairs into his bedroom where he kept a loaded .38 calibre hand gun, came tumbling back down the stairs and in front of the entire party, emptied the gun into Shepard, killing him instantly. The chaos that erupted must have been electrifying. While some of the guests held a struggling and screaming Shirley, Russo then staggered back to his bedroom, found his ammunition box, re-loaded the gun and went back down to the basement where he shot Shirley six times in the head.

The guests were hustled away to their homes, and along with three of his remaining friends, Russo carried the two bodies to a car which was driven to Pine Brook Road in Montville about fifteen miles away, and the two dead bodies were dumped unceremoniously into snow drifts that lined the street. They were discovered there the first day of January, and the New Jersey police mounted an investigation.

30 women and children, no witnesses, and the black man is forcing a woman to kiss him in front of everyone, including his own wife!!!!! No way. Considering how LE goes after mob cases, those people, including the grown up kids, would have been tracked downed questioned. It's an over the top story that may have some basis in fact, but cannot be anywhere near the truth. Thank you Furio for providing us with the source for the fictional tale.

Doesn't say the African American guy was " forcing" a ( white ) woman to kiss him, how'd you come to that?

What I've read is they were ' dancing ' together and I'm dubious that even happened.

How is it complete fiction , went to trial twice. And just because a mobster got off in 1970s New Jersey doesn't mean much.

Is anything more known about Fatty Russo. @NYMafia or anyone else

A little bit off topic...the biggest Mafia racist that I ever came across while researching the US mob, was Mad Sam. The retard forced his own wife to have sex with a black dude under a gun point, while he was watching in his pajamas with his "how do you do" hanging out

Dsd, as you mentioned, these were real events that took place. Not make believe or fantasy.

Joseph “Fatty” Russo was a reputed hoodlum, and he was said to have committed the double murders of two black people, Charles Sheppard and Shirley Green, who he had allegedly hired to serve as bartenders at a 1970 New Year’s Eve party he threw for guests at his NJ home.

About a year after the killings, in 1971 or so, he was arrested and charged with their murders. I don’t remember the exact particulars of the case, but I think he may have gone on the lam and was later recaptured.

During the course of the investigation, at one point it was also alleged that several Colombo Family figures, namely Joseph “Joe Yak” Yacovelli and Carmine “Sonny Pinto” DeBiase, helped to hide and protect Russo in the aftermath of the killings.

It says in the story he was trying to make out with her, I took that as him trying to force her to kiss (Make out) I agree the story sounds fake, the Black man's wife was there, and to try that would be crazy anywhere,. The silly part is Perscio being used to fix the case. Perscio spent almost his entire life in prisons or on trial, he could not help himself in cases.

How would you know?

There were so many stories put out to portray the Mafia as racist to an extreme, that may be one. In the version that goes around the most he drove to a bus stop and kidnapped a Black man who was waiting for the bus, then took him to his home. He took the man inside and had him rape his wife. It's way over the top, but people like that type of story.
I have never seen any mention of him driving the man back to the bus stop, or giving him carfare to get home.

Because I am old enough to remember this particular case, and I also remember reading about it.

Thats "How" I would know. Lol.

....How's that?

PS: Those were the allegations. Those were the criminal charges brought. As far as guilt or innocence, thats another matter. Thats for the courts, judge, lawyers, etc. But this "WAS" a "REAL" event that happened, as per the allegations....and a real criminal case.

Serious question, was the black guy also forced by gun?

Bet the wife still didn't leave or flee to the Western parts of the US.
Always wondered if this story came out to the media at the time or only when Sam was murdered? What an absolute monster. Bet he didn't have problems picking up his payments.

Sam was a psychopath and back then there were no DNA or Forensics for that matter to worry about. You fuck him he would come to your house , chop you up after torturing you and you would be fucking dead. He probably would have fucked you in your ass as well just for fun so people knew this and made sure he got paid on time.

Yeah, can't believe they brought the " boss" into this situation. Persico could of said kill the guy(Russo) he's a headache.

Then again, the case had two mistrials, maybe Persico did interfere.

I believe that Junior Persico was already behind bars by this time, serving out a long hijacking sentence.

Yup, he was allegedly kidnapped by Mad Sam and when the black dude later went to the cops, nobody allegedly believed him at first but later the cops found the victim's lunchbox in Sam's car.




I agree but we must not forget that Sam was original lunatic, meaning racism wasnt much of a big deal to him. In fact, I really dont remember if Sam had any black associates. For example on the other hand, Skids Caruso, Prio, Sam Hunt and Pierce had many black runners and business associates.

Not gonna mention any names but I do have a couple very close friends who were raised in Mafia families. I have met plenty of old school mob guys due to this over the years.

Some of them hate blacks with a passion and don't have any good things to say about them. Referring to them as Chimpanzees and shines they just don't like them and are blatantly racist.

I'll share a story. One of the guys ran into a black guy who he disliked and was mouthing off to him. So he proceeded to dunk him head first into a boiling pot of water in the kitchen of the restaurant that they ran into eachother at. He just went up to the guy first beating the fuck out of him, then picked him up and turned him upside down and the rest is history. Guy ended up with severe 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his face and upper body and just left him there on the middle of the kitchen floor screaming.

Btw can't forget the black kid Leonard Clark who got beat up in the Chicago neighborhood of Bridgeport for riding his bike through the neighborhood. The only thing the media won't tell you is that the kid would taunt the neighborhood guys who were playing football in the park. He got his ass kicked because he stole their football and tried to run off with it.