The Big Heist by Anthony M. DeStefano

Author:Anthony M. DeStefano [DeStefano, Anthony M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2017-05-02T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE SHAKEDOWN GUY

THE EASIEST WAY TO BECOME A CRIME VICTIM in the Borough of Queens in the 1990s was to own a car. Auto theft was simply out of control in many parts of New York City. In 1990, over 145,000 vehicles were reported stolen, and in some parts of Queens cops would monitor shopping-mall lots and nearby streets with binoculars to get a jump on the car thieves. By 1994, things had improved somewhat with police logging in a reduced number of stolen cars, nearly 95,000 or almost 260 vehicles a day on average.

Auto theft had been a gravy train for the mob. Before he was assassinated, the late Gambino boss Paul Castellano lorded over a stolen car ring that from about 1977 to 1982 stole hundreds of cars per day. The vehicles were taken off the streets of Brooklyn and shipped to Kuwait. Castellano didn’t get his hands dirty, but instead reaped the cash from the operation, money that was brought to him in big wads at his palatial home known as the “White House” in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island.

Castellano was ultimately indicted on charges he ran the ring and was actually on trial in Manhattan federal court in late 1985 when he was gunned down on December 16 outside Sparks Steak House on 46th Street in Manhattan. Six of his associates, including Gambino captain Anthony “Nino” Gaggi, were convicted of being part of the car-theft conspiracy on March 1986. Thieves were paid $150 for each car, which had their vehicle identification numbers changed before they were taken to Port Elizabeth in New Jersey for shipment to the Middle East.

The profits in stolen cars were also attractive to the Bonanno crime family. One operation run in part by family associate Gaetano Peduto had stolen over 2,100 vehicles, retagged them, and resold them to an army of willing buyers. Investigators believed the cars had an estimated value of $20 million. Even Albanian gangsters got involved. According to testimony given by Peduto in federal court as a government witness during a racketeering trial, Bonanno crime family captain Vincent Basciano, got kickbacks of between $1,000 to $2,000 for each stolen car.

For Vincent Asaro, the benefits of stolen cars were in the steady stream of income he could get if he offered his protection to those who actually did the dirty work. By 1994, Asaro was one of the last denizens of Robert’s Lounge out on the street. Jimmy Burke was in prison and Henry Hill was living out west, courtesy of the witness protection program. Most of the others were dead or missing. As a member of the Bonanno family, Asaro had to keep his stature and earn money, for himself and his new boss Joseph Massino.

If truth be told, Asaro wasn’t the apple of Massino’s eye. Part of the problem was Asaro’s volatility and temper, which pushed him to almost uncontrollable fits of anger in which he abused the men working under him. He also threw

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.