https://themessenger.com/news/exclusive-reputed-bonanno-mob-boss-in-hot-water-over-gravy-talkEXCLUSIVE: Reputed Bonanno Mob Boss in Hot Water Over ‘Gravy’ Talk
Wiretap that caught the saucy exchange could send Michael 'The Nose' Mancuso back to prison.
Hope they used a razor to slice the garlic real thin because a conversation about cooking Italian "gravy" could land this alleged mob boss back behind bars.
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday revealed a secretly recorded phone call during which reputed Bonanno crime family kingpin Michael "The Nose" Mancuso may have chatted with a fellow gangster about his dinner plans for the following day.
“You gonna do the gravy today?” Mancuso, 67, asked.
Reputed Colombo family soldier Michael Uvino, 57, responded that he'd "make the sauce in the morning."
Mancuso allegedly got on the line after Uvino called the Real Eyes Optical Store in Great Neck, Long Island, and spoke with owner Laura Keller, his girlfriend, who sat in the front row for Tuesday's hearing in Brooklyn federal court.
Mancuso has been a widower since he fatally shot his wife, Evelina, in 1984, for which he pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and served a nine-year prison sentence.
He served another 15-year sentence for conspiring in the 2004 murder of a Bonanno associate, Randolph Pizzolo, who was fatally shot after Mancuso lured him to an industrial section of Brooklyn.
The triggerman in the hit, reputed Bonanno soldier Anthony "Ace" Aiello, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Michael 'The Nose' Mancuso was surveilled dining with other alleged wiseguys, including on Oct. 7, 2020 at a restaurant in Long Island. . (U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York)
The Bonanno boss at the time, Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano, allegedly gave the order to have Pizzolo killed. Turncoat ex-Bonanno boss Joseph Massino testified that Basciano told him in prison it was payback for a drunken rant in which Pizzolo demanded to be sworn into their crime family.
Mancuso was released in 2019 and the Oct. 24, 2020, call is among the evidence prosecutors presented Tuesday to try to prove he violated the terms of his supervised release by associating with known felons.
The feds also introduced surveillance photos that allegedly show Mancuso and other organized crime figures attending birthday dinners at Salvatore's of Elmont on Long Island on Oct. 7, 2020, and at Patrizia's restaurant in the Bronx on Oct. 24, 2020.
Michael Mancuso
FBI agents surveilled Mancuso leaving a Bronx restaurant alone after allegedly eating dinner with a cohort of mobsters. (U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York)
The Oct. 7 event honored reputed Colombo family captain Vincent "Vinny Unions" Ricciardo, 77, FBI Agent Jarryd Butler testified.
Ricciardo and Uvino were later busted during a 2021 roundup of what the feds called the entire "administration" of the Colombo family and they're now locked up awaiting trial.
Mancuso's defense lawyer, Stacey Richman, tried to downplay his contact with the reputed mobsters, noting that Uvino was a longtime friend of Keller's and that Ricciardo was being treated at her store by an eye doctor.
If found guilty of violating his supervised release, Mancuso would face two years in prison.
Judge Nicholas Garaufis gave prosecutors a May 26 deadline to submit written arguments and the defense until June 9 to respond, with a decision to follow.
