How the New York Mob Whacked Farace - Part 2

We pick up from where part one ended.

Gus Farace was hiding with friends and criminal associates in various places around the Greater New York area.

At one time during the confusion of the investigation into slain DEA agent Everett E. Hatcher, while the mob still sanctioned Gus's protection, Louis Tuzzio, a Bonanno associate who very much wanted to become made, was hiding Farace in Manhattan. The DEA-killing associate, who knew he would more than likely be dead soon, still went though the motions of disguising himself, dyeing his hair and beard.

Chilli went into action, figuring out the play. Since Chilli brought Gus in, he'd see to it that Farace was taken out. "He called a sitdown at Fellini's restaurant in Manhattan," an agent, who wishes to remain anonymous, told us. In attendance were Tuzzio and his brother Nicky, as well as Chilli's nephew, Joseph, who spoke for the Bonanno bigshot, and Mario Gallo. Bonanno consiglieri Anthony Spero also was in attendance.

"We vouchered the one bullet that finished Farace; the other rounds did practically no damage since he was big on steroids."

Chilli Jr. told Louis that Farace "had to go." It was decided that Farace would be killed the next time he made contact with Louis. Farace had Tuzzio's beeper number -- remember: late 1980s -- and beeped him from time to time.

In fact not long after the meeting, Farace beeped Tuzzio, who called him back immediately. Farace had

The made-for-TV movie about Farace.

written some letters -- as in letters on paper, before email; again, remember this was in the late-1980s -- and he wanted Tuzzio to give them to his, Farace's, wife.

A meet was set up; Tuzzio's next call was to Gerry Chilli for the final greenlight; he got it. Guns were loaded -- maybe cleaned and oiled. We do know one of the hitters was not so careful with his weapon.

Ramona's fiance Sclafani was with
Farace on the night he was whacked.

Ramon Rizzo

The hit team consisted of brothers Louis and Nick Tuzzio, Jimmy "Froggy" Galione and Mario Gallo. The meet had been set to take place in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, on 81st street off 18th avenue, near Tuzzio's home.

Farace showed up in a car (not a van, as we originally reported, according to our new source, the first NYPD blueblood to arrive at the scene, with partner). The “monkey in the wrench” was that the son of Big Gus Sclafani, Joseph Sclafani, then-24, was driving the car Farace was in. Gus Sclafani was a Gambino mobster working for John Gotti.

Boss Rizzuto Inducted Non-Italians into Montreal Mob

Fernandez

The National Post has revealed some stunning information: The boss of the Montreal Mob, Vito Rizzuto, inducted into his family men who were not of Italian descent.

Initially, both parents of a potential  member had to come from Italy; but when the ranks of viable candidates thinned too much, this edict was tweaked. Now, only one's father has to hail from the boot.

Vito, it would appear, has gone a little too far.

Old-time Cosa Nostra boss Albert Anastasia was slain in part for selling buttons; but he sold them to Italians. For this, bullets shattered his brains while he was relaxing in a barber chair, warm cloth covering his face.

Vito, it seems, was rewarded for his breaking of basic mob procedure by creating what would become a rebellious faction -- the one that would spark the ongoing mob war on his turf, which as was widely reported has now expanded into Italy.

The National Post noted that Rizzuto had broken "the fundamental, centuries-old rules of the Mafia by formally inducting non-Italians into his Mafia clan, including a French-Canadian and a Spaniard, according to conversations secretly recorded in Sicily.

"He may be regretting his multicultural approach."

Canadian Mafiosi Killed in 'Old-fashioned' Sicilian Hit

From the Guardian.co.uk:

Palermo found the bodies of two Canadian-Sicilian mobsters.

Two senior members of the Canadian mafia have been murdered in Sicily and their bodies incinerated, victims of what police suspect is a vicious turf war in Canada which has spilled over into the Cosa Nostra's Italian heartland.

After an anonymous tip-off, the bodies of Juan Ramon Paz Fernandez and Fernando Pimentel were discovered near a rubbish dump in the countryside outside Palermo on Thursday. Police described the double killing as an "old-fashioned" gangland hit.

Spanish-born Fernandez, 57, a notoriously tough enforcer for Montreal's Rizzuto clan, was expelled from Canada last year for the third time after serving a 10-year sentence for conspiracy to murder a fellow mobster. He resurfaced in Palermo, where he was suspected of teaming up with the Cosa Nostra to build drug-trafficking links between Sicily and Canada.

Pimentel arrived in Palermo a few weeks ago to join Fernandez, who was allegedly working as a martial arts instructor as cover for his mob activities. ...


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Q&A with Hit Man Ray Ferritto's Wife Susan

A COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Raymond W. Ferritto (1929 − May 10, 2004), an Italian American mobster from Erie, Pennsylvania, is best known for the 1977 murder of Irish mob boss Danny Greene.

In the 1970s, Danny Greene began competing with the Cleveland crime family for control of union rackets, resulting in a violent mob war. During this period, there were almost 40 car bombings in Cleveland and eight failed attempts to kill Greene. Finally, Cleveland family bosses Jack "Jack White" Licavoli and Angelo "Big Ange" Lonardo contracted Ferritto to assassinate Greene.

Upon hearing of Ferritto’s arrest for the hit, Licavoli put out a hit contract on Ferritto. When Ferritto learned that the Cleveland family wanted him dead, he became a government witness and testified against his co-defendants in the 1978 trial.

Ferritto served less than four years in prison for both murders. Ray Ferritto left the Witness Protection Program after one year and continued to stay in Pennsylvania.

There is much more to the story: What's past is prologue. He met Susan around this time, the two fell in love and married. Susan wrote a book about Ray -- "Ferritto: An Assassin Scorned" -- and answered some questions for us, below:

1.) Ray is known as the man who killed “The Irishman” then turned informant---that is true. But not many people know why. What was his motive?

Ray was well known as a highly respected underworld figure and member of La Cosa Nostra since the forties. His focus was to someday become boss of his own territory. Over the years, he had proven himself as a loyal soldier and was regarded as a mobster who could get things done, no matter what the job was. During 1976, Cleveland mob wars raged on killing several high profile gangsters and over thirty separate bombings had put the city in a tailspin. In eight separate failed attempts, different Cleveland hit men tried to kill Irish mobster Danny Greene who was stepping on their turf. The bosses were getting desperate and turned to Ray for help.

Update: How the New York Mob Took Out Gus Farace

COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Gotti's role following the Farace hit

wouldn't be revealed for decades.

Revised to include new information:

Costabile "Gus" Farace Jr., an enigmatic low-level Bonanno associate born and raised in Brooklyn (June 21, 1960 - Nov. 17, 1989) murdered a federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent in New York City, and was himself murdered a short time later. Call it Mafia justice; it was.

But what is not widely known is that, because Farace was driving along with Gambino mobster Joseph “Gus” Sclafani when he was murdered, and Sclafani was wounded, then arrested, John Gotti ordered a blood bathe: He wanted all the Farace shooters hit for wounding Sclafani, whose father was also a Gambino mobster – and tight with Gotti.

Farace’s story has been told and retold and was even the subject of a 1990s made-for-TV film (starring some actors who would become household names, such as Samuel L. Jackson and Frank Vincent, with TV's Taxi-alumnus Tony Danza playing the starring role of Farace).

But the entire story of the Farace killing has never been revealed officially by law enforcement, which means the version we are presenting here is probably the most accurate you will ever find. The basics are the same, but little twists here and there – like John Gotti’s connection – are new and revealing. We also have some very specific details about the crime scene where the shooting occurred, from the first officer who arrived on that night in 1989.

So many names are involved we are trying to keep the story to the bare minimum in terms of facts. We aren't looking to write a book here, though this story certainly warrants one.

Gus Farace started his “career” early – coming from a mob family, this is not really a surprise. He joined a street gang called 'the Bay Boys' and got into trouble with cops for minor violations. But in 1979 Gus hit the big leagues, committing his first murder: a 17-year-old boy and the near-killing of his 16-year-old companion by Farace and friends, who had first stalked the two boys in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.

Later that night, the police arrested Farace and his cohorts, and the survivor of the attack identified all of them in a police lineup a few days later.

On December 10, 1979, Farace pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to seven to 21 years in prison

Past is prologue, as they say. It was in prison that Farace met Gerard "Gerry" Chilli Sr., who "adopted" 20-something Farace as a protégé. To a guy like Chilli it made sense. Gus was a musclebound tough guy who knew a lot of people -- a good person to have watching your back, Chilli must’ve reasoned.

'Mob Wives’ Ramona Slams Carla for Being a Racist

From Radar Online, we get another "Mob Wives" exclusive, courtesy of Ramona Rizzo, who picks up where Karen left off... This is a systematic attack by two members of the cast who are defending Love -- either a.) out of loyalty, b.) to boost their street "creds" or c.) to keep the drama alive between seasons -- we can't tell which.

Oh, and one of Jenn Graziano's useful idiots is saying that the creator/queen of the reality show is denying these stories (and that I should quit the "coattail-riding").

We give this useful idiot the single-finger salute!

Season three of Mob Wives ended with a drama-filled reunion show, but castmate Ramona Rizzo claims certain parts were “conveniently” edited out, and RadarOnline.com has all the exclusive details of what was missed — including accusations of racism and homophobia!

According to Ramona, Carla Facciolo — who got into it withLove Majewski, causing her to be fired from the show and uninvited from the reunion after threatening a lawsuit — is the last person who should be crying bully, because she’s spewed a fair share of hatred herself.

“All season long, we repeatedly heard racist and homophobic comments from Carla,” Ramona revealed in an exclusive interviewwith Radar.

“During the reunion, she made more racist comments and attacked my family, which were largely edited out.”

Ramona wanted to speak out about the bully accusations made by Carla on the show because she felt it was unfairly skewed with important parts left out.

“I was not being a bully,” she explained.

“I was putting a dog that doesn’t know how to behave back in its cage.”

Cleveland Capo Joe Gallo Dies in Prison

From Cleveland.com:

Joe Gallo at court in 1976 -- when else would someone be
wearing a jacket that looked like that???

From his small business in Orange, Joseph Gallo ascended to the top of the Cleveland Mafia family and helped oversee a $15 million-a-year drug ring that killed seven people.

Gallo, a mob captain to boss Angelo "Big Ange" Lonardo, died April 3 in a federal prison medical center in Springfield, Mo., a spokesman said. He was 75. A cause of death was not released, and Gallo's immediate family could not be reached.

Thirty years ago, the city's mob wars played out daily on the front page, as bombings, indictments and slayings became routine. Today, the mob's story is written in the obituaries of its soldiers who ordered the executions and demanded payment.

"He was a very strong person," said James Willis, an attorney who knew Gallo well but did not represent him. "He was definitely a standup guy. He was very well respected."

Love Was Fired Because Carla Threatened to Sue VH1

Well, the other shoe has finally dropped and we finally know what happened -- or at least what Karen Gravano told her pals at Radar Online in an "exclusive" interview.

Love Majewski was both fired and uninvited to the reunion show taping because Carla Facciolo threatened to sue the network over a cat fight the two women had -- according to the celebrity gossip site, which seems to be Karen's preferred venue of choice for scoops.

“I think Love wasn’t invited because Carla pretty much spoke to VH1 about not showing up if Love was invited,” Karen told Radar.

So our restraining order was not on the mark; we were close, though. The bottom line is that the law was sicced on Love for her violent tendencies. Which is why Ramona and Karen seemed so furious at Carla -- she had deftly knocked Love out of the box and the two gangster-girls couldn't do anything against her for it.

But we were right in that none of this would've gone down unless VH1 was behind the decision; it wouldn't be left up to Jennifer Graziano.

“Carla’s threatening to sue and VH1 wanted to avoid any lawsuits,” Karen told the blog.

RockMetalTalk Inc. Interviews Love Majewski

Real Talk with Love Majewski from Mob Wives (EXCLUSIVE interview)

Love Was the Largest Presence Not at the Reunion

Love Majewski wasn't there in body, but she was certainly there in spirit, hovering over the set like a shadow, growing and shrinking, whirling about to touch different mob wives as if tugging at their soul to gain purchase.

And she did a few times -- primarily with Karen and Ramona, and to a lesser degree, Renee. Love's dusky spirit wasn't able to get anywhere near Drita and Carla, and even Big Ang.

Some pretty basic deductions can be made about the behind the scenes machinations that led to Love being tossed out on her ass. Having finally watched the reunion late last night I was able to spend occasional idle moments at work mulling over who said what. ("Mob Wives" took the zest from my day; I stayed up so late watching it, I was exhausted at my workstation, gulping down vat after vat of espresso-laced coffee staring at the computer screen bleary-eyed, as I am doing now at my home office. I am going to slip into a coma as soon as I finish dinner.)

Glancing at the yellow legal pad on which I scratched a few pages of notes, I think I can see the rough outline of what happened among the cast.

Certain comments made by various cast members lead me to believe something like a small civil war -- not even; call it a minor verbal uprising -- broke out once Jenn announced the intent to fire Love. I believe this was done because of Carla -- perhaps she had taken out a restraining order against Love, which would've made it illegal for them to be in the same room. [Other bloggers have called this out already, I know -- I am trying to piece together my version, once and for all.]

What brought me in line to surmise there was legal activity involved was something one cast member shouted on the reunion show.

Ramona [to Carla]: You cop-caller!

I also think that maybe Karen and Ramona tried to stand up for Love, perhaps saying to Jenn something like: "Why don't you let Carla go? We'd rather have Love here than Carla!"

"English" Shaun's Adventures in Maricopa County Jail Presented on NatGeo Show This Week

"English" Shaun

From Phoenix New Times: "Sammy the Bull had the name, and his ride on the ecstasy merry-go-round made headlines around the nation when the former hit man was arrested. The drug, and the rave scene that favored it, had sprung up seemingly out of nowhere. The quantities of pills he brought into the Valley at the time were unheard of. But law enforcement sources now agree that while Gravano had muscle and flash, he was no English Shaun. Gravano lacked Shaun's intelligence, organization, and diverse array of products, they say. They also claim that Attwood easily moved millions of dollars' worth of meth, ecstasy, pharmaceuticals and marijuana through parties and raves in the Valley over the past few years, and they are careful to qualify that estimate as conservative. English Shaun was bigger, in other words, than Sammy the Bull."

Fresh from NatGeo, we present the trailer for Locked-Up Abroad "Raving Arizona," which will air on April 24. It is about the "penal" experiences of one Shaun Attwood, a familiar character on this blog whom regular readers should recognize—and a good friend of mine. (I recommend reading the New Times article linked to above; it is filled with half-truths -- Shaun said he was never as rich or as powerful as the article makes him out to be -- but makes for fascinating reading.)

The episode, to air on National Geographic, cinematically showcases scenes from Shaun's book Hard Time (the prequel, Party Time, is due out in April but can be pre-ordered now; both books are available via links on Shaun's blog. I heartily recommend Hard Time, and even though I haven't been able to read it yet, I did pre-order Party Time, which I also strongly recommend).

Attwood is a Brit who came to America, Arizona specifically, to seek his fortune and ended up getting busted for selling drugs. He spent a couple of years in one of America’s toughest jails—the one run by who else but the self-described toughest sheriff in America, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County.

Mobsters, Aryan skinheads, bikers, transvestites and assorted other colorful criminals would soon count among Shaun's friends.As I wrote earlier, "True-crime buffs will eat Hard Time up like M&Ms," and no doubt will enjoy the television version of Shaun's experiences behind bars.

Self-described toughest sheriff

in America, Joe Arpaio. 

Sheriff Joe Says.....

.....Check these links out:

Party Time with Free Worldwide Delivery

Party Time Kindle USA

Webpage for Party Time with videos

With No Explanation, AG Holder Nixes Death Penalty for Former Colombo Boss Joe Waverly

Joe "Waverly" Cacace, back

in the day.

Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace, former acting boss of the Colombo family, no longer need concern himself about being put to death by the state.

Cacace is charged with putting a contract on Officer Ralph Dols after the cop married his, Cacace's, ex-wife. Dols was off duty when he was gunned down outside his home in Brooklyn in 1997.

Earlier this week, the feds took the death penalty off the table, as per an announcement by US Attorney General Eric Holder, who "issued the course-reversing directive -- made public today -- without citing a rationale for his shift," according to the New York Post.

However, the decision may have something to do with the fact that Team America already tried to pin the murder of Dols on Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli and Dino Saracino in an earlier trial, and both men were cleared, a fact that Cacace's attorneys no doubt would get a lot of mileage out of during Cacace's upcoming trial.

Murder Inc. chief Lepke would

not be smiling so brightly in 1944,

when he was executed at Sing Sing.

From the beginning, the decision to include the death penalty struck many pundits as fortuitous. It is rare for 

the feds to seek the death penalty against a mafioso, but with Cacace, they had considered the lethal needle based on the premise that Dols was killed because he was a cop -- and not because he was involved in a mob dispute.

The last "mob boss," using the title loosely, to be executed was Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, who met the Grim Reaper (the real one, not Greg Scarpa!) on March 4, 1944, in the electric chair in Sing Sing, after two of his confederates met their own end in the chair.

As for Cacace, he has the distinction of allegedly ordering the hit of a police officer, as well as a prosecutor, although the latter hit was botched. The Colombo hit team had fired lethally upon a judge who happened to be the father of the intended target, a NYC prosecutor who Carmine Persico wanted hit.

Preview: Revisiting the Whacking of Gus Farace

Memorial to DEA agent Everett Hatcher.

Here is an example of what the magic of blogging means to me: It means a retired NYPD cop reads my blog, notices my year-old story about the Gus Farace hit, and sends me an email.

In that email, he tells me he was on the force back in the early 1990s when the Farace hit went down. In fact, he was at the scene where Farace was found shot. In fact, he was the first police officer to arrive at the scene of the Farace hit; Farace was still breathing, in fact -- that is how fast this police officer had arrived at the scene.

He emailed me some details I had missed, even sent me copies of the pages from his notebook with the notes he took that very night back in 1989. I find it fascinating staring at these notes, which slowly go from a generic "shots fired" to eventual mention of the name "Farace."

As a result, I took the Farace story down and am reworking it; I hope to post it this week.

As for those of you wondering: who is Gus Farace?, he was a low-level criminal with the Bonanno crime family who murdered a federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent in New York City, Everett Hatcher.

"Assisted by law enforcement agencies in the New York City area, DEA instantly spearheaded a massive manhunt in an attempt to apprehend Farace. The search ended on November 18, 1989 when Farace was found shot to death on the streets of Bensonhurst Brooklyn, murdered by members of his own organized crime family."

He was a man without a home -- a true outlaw, who had both the mob and all of law enforcement hunting him down. He made the mistake of trusting a "friend," which led to his doom. What I am wondering is what the hell was Gus Sclafani -- yes, Ramona's to-be betrothed -- doing with Farace? He arrived in the car with Farace, and was in fact wounded when the shooting started.

Are We Watching the Sad Downfall of Dr. Drew?

Dr. Drew Pinsky is to host Mob Wives

reunion -- in the name of god, why?

Occasionally, I find a blog story and have to gasp -- it's like the author had read my mind and took the time to put my very own thoughts on paper. As I mentioned below, why the hell is Dr. Drew hosting the reality show Mob Wives' reunion? 

From Jezebel:

"Dr. Drew will be hosting the Mob Wives Season 3 reunion. Something about that just seems ridiculous. What purpose does it serve to have a board-certified internist rehash a season's worth of gossipy bullshit and infighting that occurs on shows like this? (The job was previously held by talk show host Wendy Williams and comedian Joy Behar.) Maybe Dr. Drew's increasingly ubiquitous presence in pop culture—which has always been rationalized by the pretense of medical expertise, however flimsy—has finally become inexcusable.

"Let's review how this was a long time coming... "


READ THE COMPLETE STORY

Uh-oh: Does Carla 'Out' Ramona's Dad on Reunion?

Regarding the VH1 Sneak Peek video clip below: Right off the bat, Karen surrounds us with her sheer dimension as she sinks solidly into full-blown shock-and-awe psycho mode. She proclaims to Carla -- victim of her wrath -- from right out of the clear blue: "You should respect me."

These girls still don't know the meaning of the word "respect."

(And what the hell is Dr. Drew doing there? Ratings game that rough?)

From this brief clip, it appears Carla says something about Ramona's dad -- regular readers of this blog know how great the feud is between Ramona and her father, a Gambino capo; probably the only reason Ramona is on "Mob Wives" and still able to breathe sweet precious air is because she has cleverly managed to avoid mentioning her father in any way, shape or form. She was able to deflect attention away from daddy by using dear, departed grandpa -- Lefty Two-Guns, aka HorseCock, aka Benjamin Ruggiero -- to fill her personal mob quota.

Get More:
Mob Wives (Season 3), Mob Wives 3

According to Jerry Capeci, the Gambino family has in fact given kudos to her father for "keeping his name, as well as his crime family affiliation, off the show since [Ramona] joined the cast in its second season on VH1... " Capeci wrote in a ganglandews.com column.

An underworld source quoted in the same story said: “[Ramona's father] doesn’t have anything to do with his daughter, for years, but he laid the law down to her and told her 'don’t you dare mention my name on that show.' He probably didn’t have to. She knows better."