October 27, 2016 This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci

Mob 'Rat' Gets Knocked Down; But This Time He Stands Up

Joseph D'AmicoGang Land Exclusive!Like hundreds of thousands of metropolitan area residents and tourists from all over the world, former New Yorker Joseph (Joe Mook) D'Amico decided to attend the 90th San Gennaro Festival in Little Italy last month and partake in the food and other fun-filled festivities that honor the patron saint of Naples each year. He's probably sorry that he did.

That's because an eagle-eyed mob associate who grew up with him in Knickerbocker Village recognized D'Amico as a turncoat Bonanno wiseguy who broke his oath of omerta and flipped 13 years ago, helping to send several of his fellow mobsters to prison.

Said eagle-eyed mob associate loudly denounced Joe Mook as "a rat," and then proceeded to punch his lights out, according to Gang Land sources on both sides of the law.

The sources say that D'Amico underwent a "serious beating" that required him to be hospitalized for several days. But apparently the 61-year-old mob turncoat, who became the first Bonanno wiseguy to wear a wire, reverted to his old mob schooling and refused to finger his assailant to police.

Joseph MassinoNo arrests were made, and according to an NYPD spokesperson, there were no reports of any assaults against D'Amico, or any other "male in his 60s" that were reported to police during this year's San Gennaro Festival, which ran from September 15 to the 25th.

Neither the FBI, nor the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office, which used D'Amico as a trial witness in 2004 against former Bonanno crime family boss Joseph Massino, would discuss the matter.

And Gang Land could not reach D'Amico, who opted against relocating in the federal Witness Protection Program when he was released on bail following his testimony against Massino. Since that time, he has been spotted numerous times in the metropolitan area and on the Jersey shore.

But several usually reliable sources confirmed the assault.

"He got his clock cleaned really good," said one law enforcement source, adding that D'Amico was alone at the time and knew his attacker.

Peter DiChiara"I heard he was at the feast and got knocked out cold with one punch," said an underworld source.

A second underworld source reported that the assault occurred after D'Amico had been at the feast and that "he was really bloodied up, beaten pretty badly, like the guy was on a mission."

All three accounts ended with D'Amico being hospitalized. A spokesperson at Lower Manhattan Hospital on William Street, still called Beekman by many New Yorkers, said no one named D'Amico was admitted or treated at the hospital last month.

One knowledgeable source said the suspected assailant was a Genovese crime family associate who like D'Amico, was a former New York Post truck driver and a longtime member of the mob-tarred Newspaper Mail Deliverers Union. "He's with Petey Red's crew," said this source, referring to the crew headed by the aging capo Peter DiChiara, who has a social club on Market Street and whom sources identified in February as a "street boss" for Genovese family boss Liborio (Barney) Bellomo.

D'Amico, who admitted taking part in four mob rubouts as a Bonanno mobster, was inducted into the crime family on Halloween night in 1977 at the age of 22, according to an FBI report by his handling agents, Joseph Bonavolonta and Gregory Massa.

Joe Mook D'Amico in FBI surveillance shotThat same year, he ran into FBI agent Joe Pistone during his undercover stint as a jewel thief named Donnie Brasco. It happened while he was hanging around with his uncle, Anthony Mirra — the mobster who informed D'Amico he was going to made — at the Holiday Bar on Madison Street. D'Amico later earned a mention — and his picture — in Pistone's book as a guy "who went by the name Joe Mook."

He was still a true blue Bonanno in the 1980s when the feds, using info from Pistone's undercover work and tape recordings of D'Amico talking about mob doings, put him before a grand jury. True to his mob oath, he gave false testimony, resulting in a sentence of 18 months behind bars.

D'Amico also kept up on the latest Mafia news.

In September, 2002, D'Amico was spotted in Manhattan on Second Avenue, asking the vendor at the legendary Gem Spa newspaper and egg cream shop for a copy of The New York Sun, which, from 2002 until 2007, carried the almost equally legendary Gang Land column.

We did not identify him in that column, but D'Amico certainly knew he was the "Bonanno soldier from the Garden State" who jumped out of a "gleaming black 2003 Acura sedan" to buy a copy of the city's newest paper and discuss that day's column with his driver.

Richard CantarellaBack then, D’Amico cut an impressive figure. As we described him, the avid Gang Land reader was "a good-looking, middle-aged man with brown slacks with a razor-sharp crease and form-fitting sweater."

After reading about himself in the column, an incredulous D'Amico told several people about the mention and wondered how Gang Land had learned about it. "Was he there? Was he taping me? Everything he said I said, I said," D'Amico told one Gang Land source. "How the fuck did he know?"

Gang Land, of course, never tells.

But four months later, in January of 2003, Joe Mook read some bad news about his cousin, Bonanno soldier Richard (Shellackhead) Cantarella. Shellackhead, who also worked for The Post, had cooperated and was sure to finger D'Amico for several murders they had committed together. Joe Mook quickly dialed the FBI and agreed to go to work for the government.

He proved an effective witness. At Massino's trial, D'Amico corroborated the testimony of other turncoats and linked the Mafia boss to several mob rubouts, including the murders of three rival Bonanno capos in 1981.

CasaBlancaOn the witness stand he disputed an old rumor, that his mother, who was a loanshark, had bought her son's way into the crime family by paying Carmine (Lilo) Galante $50,000.

"If my mother paid $50,000," he cracked, "I'd like the money back.

In court, the mob boss stared icily at Joe Mook when he linked Massino to the mob hits, and told how he used CasaBlanca, his pride and joy restaurant in Maspeth, Queens, as his headquarters.

One dining experience at CasaBlanca caused D'Amico considerable grief, when he ordered a veal chop and angrily plunged a knife into the steak the waiter brought him, leaving the knife standing in the bloody, uneaten steak.

Massino wasn't there when it happened, but the mob boss was furious when he learned about the incident, so D'Amico jumped in his car and drove to Queens and apologized. Massino accepted his apology, adding wryly that Joe Mook's actions the prior Sunday had been fine, "right up until you stabbed the steak."

Massino, of course, soon followed the same path as D'Amico, becoming an even more valuable cooperator against his old comrades.

D'Amico, who pleaded guilty to racketeering charges back in 2003, is one of two major Bonanno family turncoats who testified against Massino who are still awaiting sentencing. The U.S. Attorney's office declined to state when he, and James (Big Louie) Tartaglione, are expected to be sentenced. Like Massino and the others who testified against him, D'Amico and Tartaglione are expected to receive "time served" prison terms, whenever they are sentenced.

Like Godfather, Like Son

Michael PersicoWithin days of each other this month, long-imprisoned Mafia boss Carmine (Junior) Persico and his soon-to-be-sentenced businessman-son Michael each filed court papers challenging the government's contentions about their respective prison terms.

For dad Carmine, that's the 100-year sentence he was handed back in 1987 in the historic Commission case. For son Michael, it's a mere fraction of that penalty, but one he is fighting just as vigorously as his old man's bid to see the streets of Dyker Heights again before he dies.

In Brooklyn Federal Court, Michael Persico is arguing that his already sweet deal of 37-to-46 months that covers murder and other charges was excessive. The younger Persico insists that the 72 days he served back in 2010 while awaiting trial on extortion and other labor racketeering charges is sufficient punishment for the extortionate $100,000 loan he gave to three cohorts involved in carting debris away from Ground Zero.

Carmine PersicoHis trio of lawyers, Marc Fernich, Maurice Sercarz and Sarita Kedia, noted that this is Persico's first conviction, and that government tape recordings show that Michael received neither interest or repayment of the loan from the day it was made in June of 2009 to his March 2010 arrest. What's more, the lawyers say, their client uttered no expressed or implied threats regarding its repayment.

Sending him to prison, they add, would be a severe hardship for his two daughters, who lost their mom to cancer when they were 10 and 12. It would also deprive his 83-year-old mother, who "suffers from emphysema and severe rheumatoid arthritis," of Michael's "necessary emotional and financial support."

Nicole ArgentieriProsecutors say they are "extremely sympathetic" with the family's plight, but note that the daughters are "adults in the twenties" today, and that Michael's three siblings can help their aging and ailing mom. "The defendant's family circumstances are not sufficiently extraordinary" to warrant a "time served" sentence, say prosecutors Allon Lifshitz and Nicole Argentieri.

At a special sentencing hearing, prosecutors presented evidence they say shows that Michael Persico took part in the 1993 murder of Colombo family rival Joseph Scopo, along with numerous other racketeering crimes since the early 1990s. The prosecutors have asked for a prison term within the recommended 37-to-46 months in his plea deal, and a fine up to $75,000.

"A sentence below the Guidelines range," the prosecutors wrote, "would be inappropriate in light of the defendant's history and characteristics." Part of that history, Lifshitz and Argentieri wrote, was Michael's alleged help for the Scopo hit. After his father's faction of the crime family had failed to whack Scopo in their first try, they say, Michael supplied a hit team with a Mac 10 sub-machine gun that it used to successfully blow him away in front of his Queens home.

Judge Dora IrizarryPersico's plea deal covers that episode along with a slew of racketeering crimes including three murders the government claims he was involved in. He faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is slated to be sentenced next week by Chief Judge Dora Irizarry.

His dad's effort to reduce his sentence also revolves around murders: Citing FBI documents and other government filings, the mob boss claims the government wrongly blamed him in 1987 for three mob rubouts that helped convince a federal judge to give him an "illegal" 100-year sentence for a labor racketeering conviction.

In a longshot motion, Carmine Persico asked a federal appeals court to order his resentence because government documents withheld by prosecutors at his sentencing show he had nothing to do with the 1984 murder of mob moll Mary Bari, the killing of Colombo soldier Thomas (Shorty) Spero in 1980, or the storied execution slaying of Carmine (Lilo) Galante in 1979.

Mary BariIn a 49-page legal brief, attorney Anthony DiPietro asked the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the June ruling by Manhattan Federal Judge Kevin Duffy that dismissed Persico's contention that his sentence was "illegal." The appeals court has denied every prior effort for relief by Persico or six codefendants who were hit with 100 year terms.

"Instead of fulfilling its ethical and legal obligations," DiPietro wrote, "the Government allowed, for the last 30 years, Mr. Persico to remain publicly accused and sentenced for murders that he did not commit" by failing to disclose "the exculpatory information it gathered regarding the murders of Galante, Bari, or Spero."

"A review of the sentencing record," the lawyer concluded, "reveals that the Government's actions tainted Mr. Persico's sentencing proceeding, and prevented the sentencing court from basing its sentence upon truthful and mitigating factors."

Judge To Patsy: You're A Danger; It's Back To The MCC For You

Pasquale ParrelloThe Genovese capo at the heart of an FBI sting that nailed 46 defendants tied to five crime families was kept behind bars as a danger to the community this week. At the same time, gangsters and other mob-connected figures around town are wondering if they're on the short list of names the feds are likely to add to the monstrous racketeering case.

Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Sullivan ordered Pasquale (Patsy) Parrello — whom prosecutors linked through tape recordings and a mob turncoat associate to gun trafficking, two assaults and four extortions, including $400,000 from one victim — detained without bail on Tuesday.

During the proceeding, assistant U.S. attorney Amanda Kramer made no mention of the tape recorded evidence that the FBI obtained during its five year investigation that links Parrello and three other defendants to an alleged plan to kill a reputed Albanian gangster who was acquitted at trial of the 1993 killing of Parrello's son Pasquale Jr.

Judge Richard SullivanLast month, Gang Land disclosed that tape recordings made by undercover operative John (J.R.) Rubeo in the summer of 2014 linked Patsy and codefendants Israel (Buddy) Torres, 66, Anthony (Anthony Boy) Zinzi, 73, and Bradford Wedra, 61, as well as a longtime Parrello crony who died last year, Ronald (Ronny The Beast) Mastrovincenzo, to the alleged murder plot.

But even without mentioning those tapes, the feds had plenty to persuade the judge to keep Patsy locked up.

Sullivan agreed with prosecutor Kramer's arguments that the charged crimes that Parrello committed while under strict post-prison supervised release restrictions in 2011 established that no amount of bail would deter the recidivist 72-year-old gangster from further criminal activity even if he were confined to his home.

In court papers, Kramer and her co-prosecutors noted that Patsy went right back to his criminal ways after serving 88 months behinds bars for a 2003 racketeering conviction, and that in the past he had used the telephone and "in-person visits" to order "people to commit violence on his behalf."

Amanda KramerThe judge rejected a $2 million bond secured by $1 million in property by 37 friends, business associates and relatives that was proposed by Parrello attorneys Mark DeMarco and Kevin Faga, who declined to identify any of the dozens of potential co-signors who had agreed to post collateral for their client.

Meanwhile, sources say there is some high anxiety in mob circles that there are more charges and arrests in the case to come. Several defendants, the sources say, fear they may soon face additional charges when federal prosecutors proceed with plans they stated last month to present "additional evidence to the Grand Jury." Prosecutors also vowed to seek "indictments against presently uncharged individuals."

John RubeoLaw enforcement sources tell Gang Land that prosecutors have enough evidence to charge "a dozen or more" suspects with fraud, money laundering, extortion and other crimes but declined to provide any specific timetable about the planned new charges. The sources say it's likely that the new charges will be part of a new indictment.

"The rumor is that the BOP has cleared out a whole floor for the new arrivals that they're expecting any day now," said one underworld source, using familiar shorthand for the Bureau of Prisons, which runs the two federal lockups in the city. For the record, five of the seven detained defendants — three are doing time for other convictions — are housed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan; two are at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

If Joseph D'Amico was in italy will be dead for the bravery to turn back to an high mobbed up fest, in the US was lucky that was only beaten up.Who known if in 2003 when d'amico flips if the mother understand that had wasted 50,000 $.

Good read. So i take it damico mothers brother was tony mirra that must have fucked the family up good when damico admitted shooting his uncle wow. The guy who punched him must get his button soon how could they not give it to him. After all the rats walking around one finally gets his ass whooped the guy must be a hero in mob circles and i bet the feds are dying to find out who he is and build a case on him. But i think this happens more often then we here about. A rat goes back to his old hood or maybe a bar and a fight goes down.

Why who beaten up damico dont followed and shooted him ?
Killing a rat will give him a green light to be made.

assulting someone in public these days especially at that feast sends more than enough of a message. following him a few blocks in either direction and you'd still be in a traffic locked extremely busy area of the city, possibly one of the worst places to do a hit. unless you did not care about getting away

i wonder if d'amico ever goes back "home" at all... it sounds like thats where the guy who assulted him was from. its funny how history repeats itself or how things never change. that place was a mob stronghold 40 years ago and now its heralded as being kinda one now, again

It was ballsy enough to assault him at the Feast. I went to the Feast this year after work on the Friday and the place was swarmed and overwhelmed with NYPD officers. NYPD everywhere you turned.....

Last time I was there, a Church charged me to take a piss. Two festivals ago.

I think you can definitely find places with less cops, Dante, the problem is also security cams everywhere. But if the guy doesn't report it, who cares?

This was just to brazen to ignore...A rat walking around Little Italy, seemingly with out a worry in the world !!

the feds will push for an arrest..no doubt.. joe should not have been in their faces..for me..he got what any sane person would think..lucky he was not killed. think what scars said in his interview..

So joey mooks mother maiden name must be mirra why tony mirra was his uncle. I know when he fliped vinny gorgeous wanted to whack his mom and dad who were alive and may both still be. Crazy question how do you thinm she dealt with her son killing her brother crazy if thats the case. He was made in 77halloween shit his 40yr anversery would be next year you know it must still burn in his head kid was made at 22 probaly same age as the zips who killed galante caesar and baldo. Also from reading frank lino was made the same night he said it was on his bday oct31 77 with like 11 other dudes. To furio its almost smarter the dude only beat him with hands the bosses probaly be pissed if he stabbed or shot then its the full force on there ass and death penalty threats. They made a point rats dont come back around or your going to the hospital. Its not the old days were they leave them in the street. Who knows maybe a boss will be pissed nah probaly not. But theyll build a case if they can.

Nice one. Thanks gangstereport.

I hope to know the name of how beaten d'amico.

That's nothing. Last time I was there, a priest offered me a hundred bucks to watch me take a piss.

Lol good one

I always get this rat confused with Sammy Gravano's protege who ratted on the Gambino's.

What's that guy's name again?

Joseph D'Angelo. I believe he was the one who tried to intimidate Gravano on the witness stand (his dad was good friends with Sammy) then ended up turning himself.

I read that D'Angelo killed 2 men for the family and was made in 1994 and flipped in 2003 and drove the cabe where yacovelli shot to Curtis Sliwa but junior gotti instead this made d'angelo and appointed him under Mikey scar on the Gambino construction panel. Anyone know why flipped ?

Yanotti was his name Fur

This was a good GL column in my opinion... crazy to think Carmine is still paying lawyers to appeal but he may have a legitimate legal issue that warrants re-examining?

I gotta admit it's amusing reading that D'Amico got his ass kicked.. i mean the balls on him ratting and then thinking he was above reproach strolling around the fuckin feast, imo he deserved an ass kicking... i wonder if Barney is pissed that his name and his street boss were dragged into the nees bc of this hot headed associate or if hes pleased simply by the message it sends? My guess is the former hes too smart and secretive to care about some low level Bonnano rat but just my opinion....

Gangsterreport- damn the rules, thanks for sharing this pal, much appreciated

Lawyer's taking him for a ride !!

He got knocked out by a cop, not a wiseguy. That's just just Gangland throwing in the Genovese family to sell subscriptions.

How do you have any idea?

Sorry Billy, any idea of why d'angelo flipped ?

Found the reason

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/nyr...ti-soldier.html


Mr. D'Angelo was arrested in the Sliwa case in July 2004. He pleaded guilty to kidnapping, murder and other crimes before turning state's witness, hoping for leniency.

He said he had spent about $600,000 during his life as a mobster, on "clothes, cars, dinner, drinks." After his arrest, he testified, he, his girlfriend and his mother paid $212,000 to a lawyer who he said refused to represent him when he began cooperating with the government. He was left with $259 to his name, he said. He is represented by a court-appointed lawyer for the poor.

What's the matter Fur, you got a fuckin' eye problem? You look like Stevie Wonder with your eyes rolling around

you have no idea what happened so stop pretending you know if capecis lying how do you know he was knocked out by a cop? you were not there wheres your source of info then? why would a cop knock him out?





+1

Billy you're the man.

Thanks furio. I had no idea he had flipped.

Jerry's name is at the top, but he did not write that article. Where was I for a month? Bronx, checking in some people. If it wasn't a cop, then two were paid to stand guard.

Yes MightyDR for the same old reason: He was in their 30s and dont want to face life or a long sentence and waste his life.