How much weight do D’Arco’s claims have? Every time I see him in interviews he says some things that make me wonder if they are true or not. For instance, he said every time Sammy the Bull saw him he would be scared and duck him because they were plotting to kill him. He obviously has credibility in what he says because he lived it but I’m not too sure I fully believe some things that he says.

Side note: I also read somewhere that Cassio stated that gravano lied about never meeting Casso and Amuso when there is photo evidence of Gotti, gravano, casso and amuso all meeting. Wouldn’t this discredit Gravano’s whole testimony?

I've raised the same questions over the veracity of some of D'Arco's claims.

When he wasn't self-aggrandising - and remember, before he was promoted to head the old Vario crew he didn't really carve out any niches for himself - he was making some heady claims such as of his knockaround pals bitch slapping Venero Mangano without retribution.

It's been a while since I read his book but he did seem to overestimate his own importance in the grand scheme of things; you have to remember his rise in the eighties was a dramatic one. You have to question just how much he was privy to.

I'm sure everyone would agree in hindsight that giving D'Arco so much power was not one of Amuso and Casso's better moves. And it's not like he was an anomaly. They installed Joseph De Fede as acting boss not long after he flipped.

Amuso and Casso installed D'Arco as he was Casso guy. Many say D'Arco was only a force cause Casso was behind him, but then Al got big ideals and that was when the Lucchese administration decided D'Arco should go. In 70s and 80s D'Arco was a pushover and of it was not for Casso, he would have been killed along time ago. Al was an errand boy and was privy to what Casso was up to.

I wonder what would have happened if Heidel would have hit the target square in the head while enjoying his ice cream cone?

D may have been just waiting in the wings and get a smooth run of things.

al said sammy was afraid and ducking him?

Yeah bronx in his book. I call bs.casso maybe.

Yes. He says it in that documentary called manhattan mob rampage. I find it hard to believe. Based on Sammy’s reputation I don’t think he was ducking too many people if any at all. The Gambino’s were much stronger than the Luccehse’s as well.

I would think Casso would be a worthy adversary of Gotti and Gravano. All 3 were pretty tough. Casso and Gravano were calculated too, Sammy more so.

D’Arco also said that Tommy Ricciardi and his crew were scared when they came and met up with him at his restaurant. Idk how believable that is either.

Ricciardi said that Amuso and Casso sent for himself, Accetturo, and 2 others from New Jersey and then they tried to lure them to a different location but the 4 of them didn't go because they were worried they were going to get whacked.

They instead went and saw D'Arco at LaDonna Rosa restaurant.

I'm sure D'Arco exaggerated a lot to make himself sound more important but after the encounter with Amuso and Casso I'm sure he was scared going to see D'Arco. Especially when they took them in the basement and D'Arco was talking about there being rats in the family.

So Ricciardi probably was indeed 'shaking in his boots' like D'Arco said because of the whole situation they were in under Amuso and Casso and not so much that they were scared solely of D'Arco like he might have made it sound.

As for Gravano, D'Arco said they called him Sammy 'Bullshit' instead of Sammy the Bull and he said Gravano was ducking them cause he knew he was going to get whacked.

Probably all of it is about half true.

Captains really took a lot of shit during Amuso's reign. Amuso screamed at Fat Pete Chiodo in front of lots of people, humiliating him in front of everybody. There were genuine mitigating circumstances for Chiodo ratting, not just this incident; you also had the attempted hit on himself and his sister. So I'd have a bit more empathy for him than D'Arco. As much empathy as I could feel for a criminal.

D'Arco, like De Fede, used his promotion to steal family money. And D'Arco also used his newfound power to settle old grudges.

I'm sure he built quite a nest egg for himself with all the money he was pilfering that was supposed to go up the ladder.

Agreed! Also, I think Casso was going after Gotti and Gravano over the failed shooting of Casso set in motion by Angelo Ruggierio. The Genovese also wanted revenge for the Castellano killing, so the Westside reached out to the Lukes to plant the bomb to kill Gotti, which ultimately only killed Frank DeCiccio.

So Gravano was watching his back because he and Gotti had made a lot of enemies quickly. That’s the context of Sammy “ducking” D’Arco iirc.

I believe a lot of what D'Arco said in the book. Especially about his early childhood and mob apprenticeships.

But it gets strange as the book goes on. First, an older and much respected former poster on here once said that the Genovese in Little Italy hated D'Arco. Which contradicts Al's claims of being in the good graces of the downtown Genovese.

Also, the poster said that the Salerno hit was NOT going to go unpunished. So Steve Crea teaming up with D'Arco to take out Casso was probably a dubious claim, as Al was the messenger for the Salerno hit. He was also the primary participant in the Luongo hit.

I think if given the chance, Al would have been terminated on his very next visit to the Bronx if he hadn't run to the FBI first. Brooklyn wanted him dead. But so did Crea Im sure.

I don't feel like going back find the old posts but go back and type in "pizzaboy" in the search engine and you'll get tons of D'Arco dirt.

Pizzaboy doesn’t post on here anymore? Always seemed like a good guy. Very knowledgeable. I’ve seen him dispute some stuff D’Arco has said in the past as well.

I read both Gravano’s and Casso’s books so both are pretty interesting characters. Both are somewhat similar but Casso seemed to be a lot more impulsive when it came to ordering murders. Both made a lot of money.

Pizzaboy and me had our beefs, mainly because of my crotchety, moralist ways, but the forum was certainly a more valuable resource for having guys like him, Ivy League and Sonny Blackstein around. For that matter, where is Billy Brizzi these days? He hasn't commented in a long time.

I think gotti and sam was scared of anthony.

i think gotti and sam was scared of anthony.

Gravano was not scared of Al. Casso and Gravano went way back in the 70s and did some business together. Most notably the Florida job when both were just associates in their families. It was Casso that saved Gravano from being put on the hit list after Castellano was killed. After the failed hit on Casso, that was put through the Bergin crew, Gravano then was ducking Casso cause he knew what Casso was and could do. This is one where I dont think Gravano was involved as he was preoccupied with all the constructions, scams and big money coming in fast and worrying about the Genovese crime family.

Ricciardi summary of events is most reliable then D'Arco. New Jersey was afraid of Amuso and Casso, not Al. D'Arco claims of him and his pals slapping Mangano around did not happened, even two of his former pals and a Genovese soldier has said that the group was being unruly and disrespecting the place unaware that Mangano and a Genovese Capo was off to the side in a corner, and Mangano got up, walked over to Al, slapped him and told D'Arco to apologize to their hosts and to get lost, and he did not care who Al was with. If that person had a problem to come over and see him.

Think al should of stayed a soldier wasnt meant to be a capo you had better people in that crew. If they gave him a decent racket he wouldnt even be on the radar.

thanks, did not read sam's or al's book..not sure what al meant by sam ducking him, different families, if al walked down mulberry st. , sam would see him and hide in a store or run away..? or have a meeting and sam would say he was ill. ? very silly for al to say that.ask louie debono about made guys ducking..

Ivy was a great researcher. Pizza's knowledge of the streets was surreal. I was actually able to piece together tidbits from pizza's old posts to find creas old social club on bronx river road, cirillos old club under the 6 train, and a bunch of luchesse spots in parkchester, priscos westchester square club, etc.

I am still trying to figure out who " the guy from locust point" is. Pizza would talk about him like he was the new bronx genovese powerhouse. Its not danny pagano.

Anyway, these guys arenr coming back around i guess but they were great contributors. Alfanos girl as well. Helen wheels. Eastharlemitalian...

I remember all those guys, really good stuff.

Just out of interest has darco ever commented on Henry hill or jimmy Burke?

Eastharlemitalian was really great. Wish he was still on here. He was good to me ever since I got on here and always supported my stuff. I was surprised and saddened when he was banned. Was Alfanos girl the one with the Brittany Spears profile picture? And why aren’t any of them coming back around again?

Not sure. He was in Vario’s crew so I’m sure they had several run ins.

That says a lot about Casso. Because Gotti and Gravano never seemed to back down from anybody.

Had no idea eastharlemitalian was banned. Anyway, i didnt mean to hijack the thread...i was just thinking out loud

Looking over Manhattan Mob Rampage, D'Arco claims they ordered a hit on Gravano due to his association with Gotti, since they assumed Gotti sanctioned the hit on Casso. Strangely, I couldn't find anything about this in D'Arco's book, which makes the whole thing suspicious.

D'Arco seems to have a tough guy complex and can make some dubious claims, but I would still recommend his book. He was the acting boss of the Lucchese family so there is still plenty of great information. I'll put up with fake stories about beating guys up and lies about why he turned rat in exchange for info on all the rackets the Lucchese family was involved in




D'Arco said he helped mediate a dispute between Burke and some other hijackers over a load of Bic lighters. He got the other hijackers down to a third of the profits. But this wasn't good enough for Burke, they showed up dead not long after.

Yeah,I can't remember if Bruno Facciolo was actually talking or not. But I have read he had a loyal crew and money. Facciolo was a made member of Vario's crew too and probally more capable than D'Arco. I may be wrong but it seems some of his crew were killed because they were saying they were going after Amuso and Casso because they had Facciolo killed