Victor Amuso

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Vittorio Amuso
conspiracy to commit murder, extortion, racketeering (1992)
Criminal penaltyLife imprisonment (1992)

Vittorio "Little Vic" Amuso (born November 4, 1934) is an American

life sentence since 1992 and is currently located at the Federal Correctional Complex, Butner, in North Carolina, on murder and racketeering charges.[2]

Early life

Vittorio Amuso was born November 4, 1934, and grew up in Canarsie, Brooklyn. In the late 1940s, he was introduced to Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo, a prominent caporegime in the Gagliano crime family, a forerunner of the Lucchese crime family. Amuso acted as a bodyguard and chauffeur for Carmine Tramunti.

Vic Amuso was married to Barbara,[3] and the couple had one daughter, Victoria.[4] They live in Howard Beach, Queens.[5]

Enforcer for Gallo

He later became an enforcer for

Giuseppe "Joe" Profaci and the old Profaci faction of the family, because Profaci cut into Gallo's profits. Amuso would allegedly kill several members of the Profaci faction, but was sent to prison sometime in the early 1960s, along with Joey Gallo and a dozen others, for extortion
charges.

After Joe Gallo's release from prison in early 1971, he continued his war against the family on June 28, 1971, when boss

Christopher "Christie Tick" Furnari
.

Lucchese crime family

Associate

Amuso became of one of Furnari's top protégés along with Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso. On December 21, 1972, Amuso was arrested by police outside the "House on Morgan Avenue," a front for the "Bronx Connection" kickback scheme, selling prison paroles for as high as $20,000 to prison inmates. Presumably to meet with the building owner, Richard Curro, a city corrections officer and Lucchese family associate, who acted as liaison between inmates and the Luccheses, Amuso was in possession of a switchblade and a file folder of parole documents at the time of his arrest.

Made man to prison

In 1977, Amuso became a

Bangkok, Thailand. At the time of the Brooklyn mobsters' arrest, he had been found with three pounds of heroin in his possession. Reportedly, the heroin operation was headed by Amuso, his cooperator Casso, and two other associates of the Lucchese crime family
. They were all sent to prison.

Furnari was promoted to consigliere in 1980, and Amuso succeeded him as capo. Furnari wanted Casso to succeed him, but Casso preferred to become Furnari's aide-de-camp; a consigliere is allowed to have one soldier work for him directly.

Murder of Frank DeCicco

On April 13, 1986, the

Witness Protection Program
many years later.

Murder of Anthony Luongo

On February 15, 1985, Corallo, Furnari and underboss

Salvatore "Tom Mix" Santoro were indicted in the Mafia Commission Trial, along with the top major heads of the Five Families
. To replace him, Corallo put his protégé Anthony "Buddy" Luongo as acting boss sometime in early 1986. However, around December of that same year, Luongo disappeared. It was rumored that Amuso, then Luongo's driver and bodyguard, killed him to remove his last major opponent, with the assistance of Casso.

By late 1986, Corallo realized that he, Santoro and Furnari were headed for convictions that would send them to prison for life. To avoid internal war and keep up the family's tradition of a peaceful transfer of power, Corallo summoned Amuso and Casso to a meeting at Furnari's house, and decided that one of them would succeed him as boss. Furnari then met with his two protègés and told them to decide which one would take the mantle. They ultimately decided that it should be Amuso. He was named acting boss later in 1986, and the new official boss on January 13, 1987, when Corallo and others were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Boss of the Lucchese family

The Windows case

FBI
surveillance photograph of Amuso (left) with underboss, Anthony Casso (right).
FBI
surveillance photograph of Amuso, Casso, Gotti and Gravano
FBI surveillance photograph dated June 6, 1988 of Amuso and Gambino crime family underboss Sammy Gravano

From 1978 to 1990, four of the five crime families of New York, including the Lucchese family, rigged bids for 75 percent of $191 million, or about $142 million, of the window contracts awarded by the New York City Housing Authority. Installation companies were required to make union payoffs of between $1 and $2 for each window installed.[9][10][11]

Dispute with Accetturo

The bloodletting only increased after Amuso named Casso as his underboss in 1988. Toward the late 1980s, Amuso and Casso began arguing with

the Jersey Crew
's yearly take. When Accetturo refused, Amuso stripped him of his rank.

In the fall of 1988, the entire Jersey Crew was summoned to meet with Amuso in

hitmen to Florida to search for Accetturo. However, what Amuso didn't realize was that Accetturo was jailed in New Jersey for refusing to testify in front a state panel. Accetturo would later become an informant. Accetturo's former protégé and longtime rival, Michael "Mad Dog" Taccetta, who was also despised by Amuso, reputedly took over Lucchese's Jersey Crew, the nickname of their faction in Northern New Jersey
, toward his conviction in 1993, before Accetturo eventually agreed to become an informant.

Fugitives and convictions

FBI surveillance photograph of Amuso, Anthony Casso and Frank Lastorino

On May 30, 1990, Amuso and Casso were indicted as part of the Windows Case racketeering investigation. Acting on prior knowledge, Amuso and Casso went into hiding. Amuso named

Peter "Fat Pete" Chiodo was charged with violations of the RICO
act in 1991.

Suspecting that Chiodo had turned informer, Amuso decided to have Chiodo killed. On May 8, 1991, three gunmen shot Chiodo 12 times, but failed to kill him. A few weeks later, Amuso sent word to Chiodo's attorneys that his wife had been marked for death. This violated a longstanding Mafia rule that women are not to be harmed. Later, a hit team nearly killed Chiodo's sister. The move backfired spectacularly, as Chiodo became a government informant and agreed to testify against several major heads of the

drug trafficking operations around Queens
, Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx.

Amuso issued several other orders that led many inside and outside the Lucchese family to conclude he was no longer acting rationally. He and Casso crafted a list of 49 people that they wanted dead—half of whom were Lucchese made men. He also ordered D'Arco to bring in a bomb expert from the Philadelphia crime family as part of a plan to blow up Gambino boss John Gotti. Amuso then turned his wrath on D'Arco, whom he held responsible for the failed hit on Chiodo. He effectively demoted D'Arco by naming a four-man panel to run the family in his absence.

On July 29, 1991, FBI agents captured Amuso at a suburban mall outside Scranton, Pennsylvania.[14] There were strong indications that the FBI had been tipped off by someone with knowledge of the clandestine telephone system Amuso used to pass on orders.[15] Shortly afterward, D'Arco was set up to be killed at a meeting of top Lucchese leaders at a Manhattan hotel. D'Arco spotted a man carrying a gun under his shirt. The man later went to the bathroom — and when he came out, the gun was gone. Realizing that the next guy to come out of the bathroom would likely come out shooting, D'Arco fled for his life and turned state's evidence. His testimony, and that of Chiodo and many others, proved to be devastating to Amuso's case. In a separate racketeering trial, Amuso was convicted of all 54 charges on June 15, 1991, including nine murders.[16] On October 9, 1992, Amuso was sentenced to life imprisonment.[17]

Casso managed to remain free for two more years until he himself was apprehended in 1993. By then, Amuso had been seething over the circumstances of his arrest for some time, and had come to believe that Casso had tipped off the FBI in hopes of seizing the boss' mantle for himself. In late 1993, Amuso removed Casso as underboss and decreed that all Lucchese mafiosi should consider him a pariah–in effect, banishing his comrade of some three decades from the family. Casso responded by turning informer himself. After the incarcerations of both Amuso and Casso, the U.S. government learned that they each had, allegedly, ordered more than 10-12 slayings while they were fugitives and while on trial, using two corrupt

Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa
as their personal hit men.

List of murders committed/ordered by the Amuso administration

Name Date Rank Reason
Anthony "Buddy" Luongo November 1986 Captain Shot and killed by Casso and Amuso after either Corallo or Amuso and Casso feared Luongo was going to attempt overthrow of the Lucchese family.[18]
Nicholas Guido December 25, 1986 Civilian Mistakenly identified as being involved with the attempted hit on Anthony Casso.
Joseph Testa was the alleged shooter outside Guido's mother's house.[19]
Carmine Varriale/Frank Santoro September 3, 1987 Soldier & Associate Varriale was killed because he had tried to revenge his brother's murder. Varriale was killed outside a social club in Bath Beach, Brooklyn. Lucchese associate 51 year old Frank Santoro was also killed. The hit team consisted of Frank Smith Sr, Frank Smilth Jr and Michael Cilone.[20]
John Otto Heidel October 1987 Associate Shot to death in Oct 1987 while fixing a flat tire on his car after it was believed he was cooperating with law enforcement.[21]
Joseph Martino 1988 Associate Suffocated to death after suspected he was cooperating with law enforcement.[22]
Eustachio "Leo" Giammona June 1988 Soldier Shot to death while sitting behind the steering wheel of his car, driving along West 3rd Street in Brooklyn. He was a drug trafficker and related to John Gambino.
Sorecho "Sammy the Arab" Nalo October 25, 1988 Associate Associate of the Rochester crime family and Pierre Hotel robbery organizer,[23] shot to death in his travel agency office in October 1988 by several Lucchese soldiers after he was interfering in a Lucchese family-run illegal gambling racket.[24]
Thomas "Red" Gilmore February 6, 1989 Associate Associate of Lucchese captain Paul Vario, shot to death by former Lucchese acting boss Louis Daidone and Patty Dellorusso.[25]
Michael Pappadio May 13, 1989 Soldier Bludgeoned and shot to death by Al D'Arco and accomplice after keeping "kick-up" money to himself.[26] Pappadio was responsible for monitoring the Lucchese family's interests in New York City's garment centre.[27]
Robert Kubecka/Donald Barstow August 11, 1989 Civilian Two businessmen killed by Frankie "Pearls" Federico and Rocco Vitulli, the murders were approved by Casso and Amuso and the murder was tasked to Lucchese captain Sal Avellino who gave the murder to two of his soldiers within the crew. Kubecka testified against extortion attempts targeted at his business. Two gunmen opened fire on his property at his office and both were ultimately fatally shot.
John Petrucelli September 13, 1989 Soldier Shot to death after the hiding with Gus Farace, an associate of the Bonanno crime family who was suspected of killing a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, infuriated Amuso. Anthony Magana and Joseph Cosentino were in 1991 found guilty of this murder.[28][29]
Anthony DiLapi February 4, 1990 Soldier As he strolled into the underground garage of his Hollywood apartment, he was shot and killed as it was feared that he became an informant.[30]
Michael Salerno June 5, 1990 Captain His body was found in the trunk of his Jaguar car, with a gunshot wound to the chest and stabbed in the neck. He was suspected of being an informer.[31]

Imprisoned Lucchese Boss

New Lucchese Acting boss

Lucchese crime family - Chart 1991

After Amuso's

George "Georgie Neck" Zappola
, Frank "Bones" Papagni, Frank Gioia, Jr. and George Conte.

Fearing rivalry from Bronx

In early 1992, Amuso feared that rivalry was being developed in the

Aniello "Neil" Migliore, one of the most powerful capos of the family, was celebrating the birthday of a friend's granddaughter in a Westbury, New York restaurant on Long Island. During the party, a gunman in a passing car fired one or two shotgun blasts through the restaurant window, hitting Migliore in the head and chest. Despite his wounds, Migliore survived. The attempt on his life did not sway Migliore away from the crime family, though, as he kept operating throughout the 1990s.[32]

Bronx & Brooklyn rivalry

As Amuso allegedly attempted to kill

before he was apprehended. But due to massive indictments of the time, slashing all members of the three families involved in the conspiracy, the plot never succeeded, and Amuso continued to run the family from prison as most of the conspirators themselves were sent to prison.

Restructure of the family

During the mid-1990s, the majority of the Brooklyn faction leaders, many of whom were known Amuso's rivals, were sent to prison on various charges. To keep some sense of stability within the

Joseph "Joe C." Caridi
stepped up to run Daidone's former crew.

Joe DeFede's imprisonment

On April 28, 1998, DeFede was indicted on nine counts of racketeering stemming from his supervision of the crime family rackets in New York's Garment District from 1992 to 1997. The prosecution reported that since the mid-1980s the Lucchese crime family had been grossing between $40,000 and $60,000 per month from the Garment District rackets they controlled. In December 1998, DeFede pleaded guilty to the charges and received five years in prison. Angry at his guilty plea, Amuso became uncertain of DeFede's loyalty to the crime family and, in the future, Amuso would regard DeFede as a traitor and thief.

Wonderboy's enormous profit

After the imprisonment of Joe DeFede in 1998, Amuso handpicked Bronx faction leader, Steven "Wonderboy" Crea as the new acting boss of the Lucchese crime family. Crea, a loyal Amuso underboss, began sending a larger amount of the crime family's profits to the imprisoned boss, which convinced Amuso that DeFede had been skimming profits from the crime family the whole time he was acting boss. Amuso decided to put out a contract on DeFede's life in late 1999. On September 6, 2000, Crea and seven other Lucchese members were arrested and jailed on extortion charges. Crea was eventually convicted in 2001 and sentenced to five years in prison. Steven Crea was released from prison in 2006.

Daidone, DeFede and D'Arco

Following the imprisonment of Crea in 2001, influential consigliere,

Joseph "Little Joe" DeFede. DeFede did not know that Amuso had placed a contract on his life but, during DeFede's imprisonment, he was demoted from capo to soldier and this alerted him to the possibility that he had fallen out of favor with boss Vic Amuso and could be in serious trouble. Upon DeFede's release from prison on February 5, 2002, it was reported that the former Amuso ally immediately turned to the government for help and became an informant. Federal witnesses Joe DeFede and Alphonse "Little Al" D'Arco
gave the U.S. government information regarding Lucchese controlled racketeering operations based around New York City, which helped the federal government continue their decimation of the old Amuso-faction.

Both D'Arco and DeFede also provided information about rackets such as gambling, loansharking, extortion and even information about some old

life sentence
in 2003 on racketeering and murder charges, while more than a dozen other prominent Lucchese crime family members were sent to prison during that same year on various charges.

The Committee/Ruling Panel

After the conviction and imprisonment of acting boss Louie Diadone in 2003, Amuso instituted a new ruling panel/committee of influential capos to oversee and run the crime family's day-to-day activities. Prominent and senior Lucchese capos

Joseph "Joey Dee" DiNapoli
were handpicked by Amuso to lead the crime family. These senior capos were chosen as street bosses to work in tandem. Instead of placing one particular member in the official underboss position, Amuso divided the power between three influential capos. Migliore, a former Corallo loyalist and Amuso rival, is now said to be one of the most powerful mobsters in the Lucchese crime family.

Crea returns to leadership

In 2006, former acting boss Stephen "Wonderboy" Crea was released from prison, and the ruling panel/committee continued to run day-to-day activities of the crime family. In late 2009, ruling panel members Madonna and DiNapoli were indicted on labor racketeering, illegal gambling and extortion charges. In 2009, Steven Crea took over as acting boss of the crime family.

As of July 2014, Amuso remains the official boss of the Lucchese crime family.[33] Amuso is serving his life sentence at Federal Correctional Institution, Cumberland, a federal correctional facility in Maryland on murder and racketeering charges. His Register Number is 38740–079.[2] According to another Mafia historian, Selwyn Raab, Amuso's bloodthirsty tactics resulted in the loss of more than half the family's made members — either as a result of being killed, imprisoned or turning informant.

Brooklyn's DeSantis

In May 2019, government witness and former Lucchese soldier John Pennisi testified in the trial against Eugene Castelle and revealed the current leadership of the crime family.[34][35] Pennisi testified that in 2017, imprisoned for life boss Vic Amuso sent a letter to Underboss Steven Crea which stated that Brooklyn based mobster Michael "Big Mike" DeSantis would take over as acting boss replacing Bronx based Matthew Madonna.[34] The testimony from Pennisi stated that if the Bronx faction refused to step aside, imprisoned boss Amuso had approved of a hit list that included a captain and several members of the Bronx faction.[34][35] During Pennisi's testimony, he revealed that the Lucchese family operates with a total of seven crews - two in The Bronx, two on Long Island, one in Manhattan, one in New Jersey, and Castellucci's-Brooklyn crew (formerly Amuso-Casso's old crew) which is now based in Tottenville section of Staten Island.[34] Law-enforcement agents have stated that Brooklyn based mobster Patty "Red" Dellorusso is the new acting underboss and that The Bronx-based mobster Andrew DeSimone is the new Consigliere.[34]

References

Notes

  1. ^ Marriott, Michel (May 27, 1992). "Government Witness Tells Chilling Story of Murder and Life in the Mob". New York Times. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
  2. ^ a b Federal Bureau Prison Inmate Locator: Vittorio Amuso Archived 2013-12-07 at the Wayback Machine (Serving Life)
  3. ^ Mob boss 'Vic' Amuso given life sentence
  4. ^ Mafia Sons Play For Reel Cash by Jerry Capeci
  5. ^ Lubasch, Arnold (May 19, 1992). "Man Said to Rule Mob Family With Terror". New York Times. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  6. ^ Michael Codella and Bruce Bennett. Alphaville: 1988, Crime, Punishment, and the Battle for New York City's. 2010. View
  7. ^ Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss by Philip Carlo (pg. 296)
  8. ^ a b Jerry Capeci. The complete idiot's guide to the Mafia. view
  9. ^ Lubasch, Arnold H. (October 19, 1991). "Windows Jury Finds 3 Guilty And Acquits 5". New York Times. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
  10. ^ "2 Men Sentenced In 'Windows Trial'". New York Times. March 28, 1993. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
  11. ^ a b Suspected New York Mob Leaders Are Indicted in Contract Rigging (May 31, 1990) New York Times
  12. ^ Bruno, Anthony. "The story of the Lucchese, one of the 5 NY crime families — Off With Everyone's Head — Crime Library on truTV.com". Crimelibrary.com. Archived from the original on 2014-04-03. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  13. ^ "Feature Articles 335". AmericanMafia.com. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  14. ^ "Fugitive In Mob Case Is Arrested". The New York Times. 30 July 1991. Archived from the original on 16 December 2014.
  15. ^ Raab, p. 498-499.
  16. ^ "Crime Boss Is Convicted in Rackets Trial". The New York Times. June 16, 1991. Archived from the original on December 2, 2010.
  17. ^ "NEW YORK MOB BOSS GETS LIFE SENTENCE, NO PAROLE". orlandosentinel.com. October 10, 1992.
  18. ^ Raab, Selwyn (5 August 1990). "2 Mob Fugitives Hiding In New York, Police Say". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  19. ^ Capeci, Jerry. "A Murderous Case of Mistaken Identity". The New York Sun. Archived from the original on 30 January 2022. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  20. ^ "1987 mob murders". Daily News. 3 November 1987. p. 5. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  21. ^ Purdum, Todd (10 October 1987). "Puzzle of Gangland-Style Killings Eludes Brooklyn Police". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  22. ^ "OFFICIALS: MOBSTERS". Sun Sentinel. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  23. . Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  24. ^ "Set up execution, ex mobster says". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  25. ^ Mangan, Dan (13 January 2004). "GRUESOME TALE OF MOB 'CANARY' KILLER". The New York Post. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  26. ^ Capeci, Jerry (29 September 2013). "First flipped mob boss' bloody beginnings". The New York Post. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  27. ^ Marriott, Michel (27 May 1992). "Government Witness Tells Chilling Story of Murder and Life in the Mob". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  28. . Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  29. ^ Mcalary, Mike. "Breaking the code". New York Magazine. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  30. ^ Getlin, Josh (15 July 2005). "A Detective Story Alleging Hit Men in Blue". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  31. ^ "Reputed Lucchese mobster found dead in Jaguar trunk". UPI. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  32. ^ "Rick Porrello's AmericanMafia.com - Mob Hits, Misses, Disappearances, and Deaths In America". Americanmafia.com. 1999-05-20. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  33. ^ Capeci, Jerry (July 24, 2014). "Vic Amuso Begins 24th Year In Federal Custody As Luchese Family Boss". Gangland. Retrieved July 27, 2014.
  34. ^ a b c d e Capeci, Jerry (May 30, 2019). "Lucheses leadership changed hands in bloodless coup orchestrated from prison". New York Post. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  35. ^ a b Annese, John (31 July 2023). "Ailing Luchese mobster Vic Amuso insists he's no longer boss in push for compassionate release". New York Daily News. New Paper. Retrieved 10 December 2023.

Sources

External links

American Mafia
Preceded by Lucchese crime family
Boss

1986-present
Succeeded by
Incumbent