Meet Giacomo Episcopia.



Born in 1928, Jimmy Episcopia was a Italian-American Bonanno crime family mobster from Brooklyn. He served under capo Carmine Galante and later Dominick Napolitano. He was a major player in the “Bananna Wars” and sided with rival Bonanno faction leader Gaspare DiGregorio. Later on, Episcopia worked as Galante’s bodyguard and chauffeur until his death in 1979.

Episcopia built a friendship with Joseph D. Pistone. However, his life was spared when Operation Donnie Brasco ended while Dominick Napolitano, Anthony Mirra and Nicholas Forlano were murdered.

Jimmy Legs died on February 15th 1997. He was 68 years and 3 months old.
Does anybody know how he died or have any other photos of him?

Thank you.

During the Bananas War, Jimmy Legs was a constant companion of Frank Mari, the up and coming Bonanno member who did most of the shooting on the DiGregorio/Sciacca side. The police suspected the two of them were behind the Sam Perrone murder in 1968. Jimmy Legs was also a suspect in the "Troutman Street shootout", where several rounds of ammunition were fired but no bullet hit the intended targets.

According to Pistone (and this is in the Donnie Brasco book), Episcopia got his nickname due to his physical appearance. He had a big potbelly, but skinny legs. No hips or butt. During the problems the Bonannos were having when the three captains were murdered, Sonny Black had instructed all his crew members to be armed at all times. When Jimmy Legs walked around, his gun kept falling down through his pants legs. He came up with an idea to sew a pocket on the inside of his pants at the small of his back and carry the gun in that pocket.
Once, when the crew was sitting around and bullshitting, they talked about killing people with poison just like the KGB. [the Russian spy organisation at the time]. Jimmy Legs suddenly took off for the john. When he came back, he was dangeling his gun from his thumb and forefinger. "I had to shit so bad I forgot about my gun pocket, and when I took down my pants and began, the gun fell in the bowl so I had to fish it out. Hey, if we had to go to war [against another country] and I had to kill somebody, I´d just leave a little shit on it that´d get on the bullet, and I´d kill them with that poison just like the fucking KGB!"