Newly-Freed Colombo Soldier Vito Guzzo, Jr. Being Recruited Hard By Mancuso’s Bonanno Mob


The Bonanno crime family is the leader in the clubhouse to acquire the mob rights to Vito Guzzo, Jr. as the recently-sprung-from-prison Colombo mobster has become the object of a bidding war for a requested transfer, per sources. Last week, news broke of multiple NYC crime families negotiating with the Colombo mob to take possession of Guzzo, Jr. in a de-facto free-agency recruiting blitz. The validity of Guzzo, Jr.’s button-status has resulted in debate in the days following him coming home from the feds on the heels of finishing a 28-year stint for racketeering and murder, but Guzzo, Jr. himself is viewed as an elite commodity in the modern-day LCN landscape.

Over the past month, Bonanno mob boss Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso and his underboss John (Johnny Joe) Spirito allegedly approached the Colombo crime family’s administration regarding transferring Guzzo, Jr. into their organization and the Colombos were receptive to the possibility, sources claim. Mancuso and Spirito are said to have grown close to Guzzo, Jr. during their respective bids in the feds for their own murder convictions. Back in the 1990s, the 60-year old Guzzo, Jr., 60, headed the Caffe Giannini Crew, a mafia farm team out of Ridgewood, Queens named after a restaurant once owned the Bonannos. Some sources speculate Guzzo, Jr. could immediately enter the fray as a capo, no matter what borgata he ends up with.

The Caffe Giannini Crew is alleged to be responsible for more than two dozen killings and acted as a breeding ground for future inductees to all of the NYC Five Families. Guzzo, Jr., personally admitted his part in the 1992 slayings of local dope boys John (Johnny Danger) Ruisi, Steve (Stevie Love) Pagnozzi and Ralph Sciulla and Colombo mob bodyguard Anthony Mesi in October of that year in an attempted revenge-murder targeting the man he considered responsible for clipping his dad five years prior. As part of his September ’98 plea deal, he also admitted to being a triggerman in the fall 1996 Maspeth, Queens murder of a Gambino mob affiliate and bitter street rival named John (Johnny Boy) Borelli, reportedly put into motion because Borelli was dating Guzzo, Jr.’s ex-girlfriend.

Ruisi and Pagnozzi were the victims of a drug and cash rip-off and a subsequent coldblooded execution. Sciulla was lured to a mutual friend’s basement and killed because he refused to pay the Caffe Giannini Crew tribute from his narcotics trafficking. Besides romancing Guzzo, Jr.’s girl, Borelli had allegedly fallen out of favor with his bosses in the Gambinos related to insubordinate behavior. Adding to his mob lore and reputation for fearlessness, Guzzo, Jr. has himself survived being shot 11 times.

Members of the Colombo and Genovese mob hierarchies allegedly contributed money to Guzzo, Jr.’s legal defense fund back in the day, per FBI intelligence memos. Colombo mob underboss “Wild Bill” Cutolo donated a cool 20k in cash to the cause and Genovese leaders chipped in a combined $50,000 to aid his and his big bro Anthony’s separate defense funds, according to confidential informants. Genovese mob brass in the Bronx are alleged to have once hired Guzzo, Jr. to do hits and even helped pay attorney expenses for his appeal effort more recently, sources claim. Cutolo would be slain gangland style in May 1999 in fallout from the Colombo Mob War.

Vito Guzzo’s Jr.’s older brother, Anthony, received a button from the Lucchese mob following serving state prison time for a 1989 machine-gun slaying carried out in a Queens parking lot and then another stint in the can for stabbing someone in the throat in a 2002 bar fight. The Guzzo brothers’ dad, Vito Guzzo, Sr., was a made guy in the Colombos before disappearing on a 1987 hunting trip amid a feud with Vincent (Vinnie Unions) Ricciardo, never to be seen nor heard from again. Anthony Mesi was shot to death driving “Vinnie Unions” to a funeral in a bullet intended for Ricciardo that went astray. Ricciardo died of cancer last August doing a prison bid for labor racketeering and extortion.

Guzzo, Jr. maintains ties to a number of high-ranking Genovese, Bonannos and Gambinos from his time on the street and behind bars, sources say, including current bosses in those borgatas, such as “Mikey Nose” and “Johnny Joe.” GR sources allege. While doing of his time on the inside, he grew to be one of the most powerful Italian inmates in the federal prison system. Locked up in the spring of 1997 before he could get made the traditional way, Guzzo, Jr. was allegedly inducted into the Colombo mob in an unconventional making ceremony held in a rec room at the Danbury Federal Correctional Institute in Connecticut at some point in the past dozen years or so, at least according to the BOP, federal prosecutors and the FBI. Guzzo, Jr.’s attorneys deny he took an oath behind bars and Guzzo, Jr. offered to undergo a polygraph exam for his judge to defend himself against the accusation. FBI surveillance units intercepted chatter within the top levels of the Colombos where Guzzo, Jr. was discussed and how other mob organizations needed to know Guzzo, Jr. held the weight of a full-fledged made man and spoke for them on the inside.

In addition to their father, Vito, Jr. and Anthony were mentored in the mafia by a collection of heavyweights in the Colombo and Bonanno crime families, including the Colombos’ Benny Aloi, William (Wild Bill) Cutolo, Dennis (Little Denny) Guzzardo and Pasquale (Fat Patty) Catalano and the Bonannos’ famous zip, Baldo Amato of his syndicate’s Brooklyn crew. Amato was the silent owner of the Caffe Giannini before his incarceration for killing his front man in the restaurant, mob associate Sammy DiFalco, for stealing from the establishment. The Guzzos launched their hit on Vinnie Unions in November ’92 as he traveled to pay his final respects to Little Denny Guzzardo at a Queens funeral home.

A wiseguy so feared and that made 28 years in the prison without flip is very rare today. Guzzo deserve to be made in a better family then the Colombos.

supposedly the Colombo's are trading Guzzo for 3 Bonanno soldiers and 1 associate. This is similar to baseball trades and seems to be common in LCN. I heard Guzzo actually has an agent.

agreed, 100%