Mr. Neil Dellacroce: Paid FBI Informant?

A few days after his death, Time Magazine I believe it was ran a whole article on Neil Dellacroce, and claimed that he had been a voluntary paid FBI informant since around the 1960s, and even gave the name of his alleged handler with the FBI. A question: Does anyone feel there was ANY validity to the article?

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960415,00.html

I dont think this is truth although who knows. Whitey Bulger was a brutal killer yet he was also an informer. But Neil was a respected mobster and plus he was always under indictment it seemed

this rumor comes on discussion boards once every cpl years..

This is old news. But for what it's worth, I never believed it.

No way he is,i saw this topic on bunch of other forums.

One thing that is really interesting is how Castellano was ridiculed when it was discovered that the FBI had bugged his house. But many seems to forget that the FBI also bugged Dellacroce´s house. A bug had been placed in his bedroom. Does anyone know how that went down? And why haven´t there been any greater interest in the Dellacroce tapes?

Hell..We really need a good, solid book on Dellacroce. Ivy, are you interested?

Do you mean the tapes where he says something about "rolling it up and going to war" to John and Angelo?

Yeah! And there seems to be a lot of other stuff on the tapes that no author/writer has touched upon.

The transcripts are available in full . . . somewhere. I read them a few years ago but I don't remember if I downloaded them. Let me look around and I'll let you know.

Great! I will see if I can find anyting on the net!

I found the transcripts in bookform. So apparently I was wrong. It has already been done...

I guess simply because the agents monitoring the Dellacroce bug didn't write a book like O'Brien and Kurins.

It wouldn't be that suprising. High ranking guys like him are bound to have found themselves in a situation when they were coming up in the life where they would rather give info than serve time and have things put on hold.

How exactly can you be a VOLUNTARY PAID FBI INFORMANT? You call em and say hey for $1000 a month i will feed you info for free? Dont add up.

Think about it. You're a high up wiseguy. The Feds want people like that working for them. A guy goes to the FBI and basically takes out an insurance policy: "I give you guys some information once in a while and I don't do any hard time, capisce? And I get paid extra."

His name was Aniello Dellacroce, which in Italian means "little lamb of the cross," and he took pleasure in killing people. "He likes to peer into a victim's face, like some kind of dark angel, at the moment of death," a federal agent once said of the Mafia chieftain. As underboss of the Gambino clan, the most powerful of New York's five families, he was a member and chief enforcer of "the Commission," the 11-member council that reputedly oversees organized crime around the U.S. Occasionally disguised as a priest under the alias of Father O'Neill, a play on his first name, he traveled about the nation to impose edicts and settle disputes between rival Mafia clans. Few mobsters dared to argue with him. Dellacroce, who died in his sleep in a New York City hospital last week at the age of 71, played another role as well: for almost two decades he was an informant for the FBI.

Though Dellacroce was not very forthcoming about his own crimes, he offered the feds a wealth of information about those committed by his enemies and the Commission. After Carlo Gambino, the capo di tutti capi (boss of bosses), died in 1976, Dellacroce told the FBI that another would-be godfather, Carmine Galante, had been marked for death. Dellacroce had reason to know: plans for the Galante hit were hatched in his own headquarters, the Ravenite Social Club in Manhattan's Little Italy. The feds were able to isolate and protect Galante as long as he was in prison for parole violations, but after he was released in 1979 Galante was mowed down during an alfresco lunch in the backyard of a Brooklyn restaurant. Other information provided by Dellacroce gave the FBI leads on the still unsolved murder of Teamster Boss Jimmy Hoffa and helped break major narcotics cases, including the so-called Pizza Connection case against 22 U.S. and Sicilian mobsters for heroin trafficking.

Dellacroce's double life began one afternoon in the mid-1960s when a limousine swung up to the Ravenite Social Club. Out stepped a tall man in a somber suit carrying a Wall Street banker's briefcase. "Who's in charge here?" he demanded. Awed hoodlums ushered the uninvited guest to Dellacroce's table.

The bold stranger was an FBI agent named Pat Collins. Sitting down with Dellacroce, he began a slow courtship, gradually winning him over by convincing the wary Mafia leader that a private relationship with the federal authorities would not be a bad insurance policy in a high-risk career.

Unlike Teamster Union Boss Jackie Presser, who escaped prosecution on charges of padding union payrolls this year because he was an FBI informant, Dellacroce's cooperation did not keep him out of jail. In 1972 he was sentenced to five years in prison for income tax evasion. Collins had expected that one day Dellacroce would demand payment for his information, but that never happened. The veteran FBI agent died of a heart attack in 1980 at the age of 51. This year Dellacroce was ordered to stand trial on racketeering and conspiracy charges, along with ten other accused members of the Commission. Whether he hoped the payment would come in the form of exoneration from those charges will probably never be known. Before the trial could begin, the bloodthirsty Little Lamb slipped from the grasp of federal prosecutors.

Not to be a ballbuster but Dellacroce has nothing to do with "lamb".

edit: forget it, I guess you're including the Aniello (agnello) part. All good.

I would have an easier time believing that tony accardo was a snitch since he never spent a day in jail.I jus don't believe this

rat?neil?lol.

in all honesty,i could sit here and write story after story about oneil. he used to come over to my uncles house to pick him up and they would go out after dinner every night. so anytime i was over there playing in the street we [kids] would see him. my father knew him well. an absolute gentlemen, never crude around women or children.take my word, hes no snitch. as far as money goes? 1970 he was brooklyns shylock. everyone owed him something.and if not money,a favor.

a story my father will tell about him is,they are stting around in a club and the subject of 'hits' came up. everyone at the lunch table goes around and is talking about the 'methods' to hit some one. the general consensus is popping the victim in the back of the head in a car or a club. one of them asks neil [who has the most 'experience'.lol.] if it is better to shoot a guy when hes not looking at you. neil says with a straight face,'i guess,but that takes the fun out of it'.lol.

thats the neil dellacroce ive always heard about.

If Tony Accardo was an informant, which i doubt he was. Why wouldn't the FBI just say he was? He's dead so it wouldn't harm anyone.

status quo. revealing an informants identity could discourage others who are 'on the fence'.

yeah but he's dead so why would it even make a difference?

Dellacroce was a rat as much as Paulie Strips D'Amico is real

nicky,the fbi can make the same arguement.

it would just look bad.his kids,grandkids. former friends,partners. why bismerch a mans name if he gave you valuable information?

A $1000 bucks a month DanielPerrygin thats not a lot of money for a high ranking mobster or the avg citizen

Nah, never, he was serious old school. Wasn't he in jail when Gambino died and when he got out Big Paul made him underboss. I think it was contempt of something...

Not many informants do jail time....

actually paul waited after carlo died for neil to get out of jail bc it was respectful. paul respected neil so much that he waited for him to get out so neil could make a 'run' for boss.if he was so inclined. obviosly neil didnt even try to be boss,he let paul have the stripes. shows what gentlemen they both were.

Exactly.

The only reason they "outed" Scarpa after he died was because they knew the shit was about to hit the fan with that crooked Fed.

If you break that trust, even after a guy dies, you run the risk of losing future informants.

hahaha!

Anyone who believes this is an absolute gullible idiot.

1) Dellacroce was probably taking in £100k a month as underboss, so why would he accept £1k as an informant.

2) If he was an informant he would have brought down more then half the family, including Don Carlo and under Castellano he could have took down the entire blue collar faction, Castellano and all the capo's in white collar faction, it's that simple.

3) Informants don't do numerous stretches in jail.

The most important of all, he was an old school vicious gangster and arguably the most loyal old timer left in the 70's.

If they slapped Neil with the death penalty he would have took it like a man.

The Media lie alot about certain things which aren't even true. The FBI haven't said that Dellacroce was an FBI informant so why would you believe Time Magazine? We may aswell just call William Hedgcock Webster a lier and say that The Newspapers are right on all matters.

+1 Good post TG.

Yeah, because people that have murdered and made tons of money have never been rats/snitches/informants.

Lot of people in this thread really want to not believe it. Keep the myth alive.

Did he? I don't know. But to outright think it's impossible because he was a tough guy, killed people and made tons of money is naive.

What do you mean? FBI have declined on stuff like this before so how on earth would Time Magazine know Neil Dellacroce better than the feds?

I mean that everyone in this thread is dismissing this because Neil was a tough guy, who killed people and he made alot of money. That's it.

They don't know him better than the FEDS but it's not outside the realm of possibility that they could be correct. That he could have been a paid informant.

A response could be "I doubt it. Never heard anything of that sort, but who knows." Not "Neil was rich, he was a tough guy. No way."

No one knows. You could say Carlo Gambino was a dry snitch, Paul Castellano, etc, etc. And it all could be true or none of it could be true. We don't know, but to dismiss it because we have heard stories or read books about Neil is ridiculous.

neil wouldnt call the cops if his house was on fire. hes more 'cosa nostra' than lucky luciano. to say hes a 'voluntary informant' because theres no evidence he isnt,thats the poorest attept at logic i have seen in a while. according to that logic jimmy hoffa is still alive because we have no proof hes dead.lol. and call me naive,but im guessing im probably twice your age.

Since this came back up, I vaguely remember in Gotti: Rise and Fall Paul Castellano insinuating to Sammy Gravano that Neil was a rat. Was Time's source related to this? I got a vibe Paul would be above that sort of stupid intrigue.

Than again, my recollections of R&F were that Tony Roach was an informant.

Let me tell you something, Time Magazine study the movie business on La Cosa Nostra meanwhile the feds are more correct than a bunch of 16 year old newspaper reporters who just wanna make headlines all day.

You're right. There's no way Neil could have been a rat. Because? You say so? Come on.

Gravano hated the cops too. So did all those other guys that flipped. So did Giancana.

My "flawed" logic is the same as yours. You say he couldn't be because "he would never call the cops even if his house was on fire" or because you heard stories about him being a tough guy. That's great evidence.

I have no idea if he was or not. But to outright dismiss it is naive and crazy.

pp,my logic is flawed? im going off the same 'guesses' you are? no offense here, but i could tell you more about neil than you could read in any book. dont get on your computer out in wyoming and tell me you know more than a man whos eaten dinner with my family?ive forgot more about 'oniel' than you will ever know. when i say 'hes not a rat'.i dont mean it,i know it. read my posts here,i know what im talking about. ive lived in the same neighborhood for fifty four years. where the fuck do you live? who did you 'come up' with?you dont know jack shit about this 'thing',and thats fine.you dont want to believe what i say. fine.but to say im 'naive' or an idiot for stating what i know.about a man i know? thats fucking stupid. this is the internet.i realize you can say what you like,but id recomend working on your fucking 'people skills'.

ive said what i have to say. i wont respond anymore in this thread. if you sincerely disagree with me feel free to message me.i wont be a party to some internet-'beef'.

Wyoming!!

I keep thinking of "Dog Day Afternoon." Sonny (Pacino) asks Sal (Cazale) what country he wants to flee to after the robbery. Sal says Wyoming .

Yeah, that exchange reminds me of Lefty Guns Ruggiero insisting to Donnie Brasco that Lake Michigan was the Atlantic Ocean during their visit to Milwaukee.

Lefty went through Yale. He was in a car, of course . . .

I didn't say you were an idiot. You are the one getting upset. I have no internet beef. We just have a difference of opinion. I have never stated that I know Neil or have some great insight into his life. You say you do, great. It seems you have a strong affinity for Neil, great. No need to get so upset.

Any mobster could be an informant for the FBI. Any one. Because you say you knew for so long does nothing do dispute the fact that he could have been.

I'm not saying he was, but because you say you knew him, doesn't make it impossible.

Enjoy Idaho. Heard it's beautiful this time of year.

I highly doubt mr.neil was an informant for the fbi. If he was the feds would have loved to rubbed that in johns face. plus wasnt he carlo's underboss for years. IF he was informing he could have brought the gambinos down alot quicker then gotti did.

It doesn't make sense at all. If he was an informant, he did a lousy job considering the FBI couldn't touch Carlo before he died, and they struggled immensely to pin anything on Gotti.

Dellacroce being an informant? Absolute rubbish. He was as hard as they come and his loyalty to Cosa Nostra should never be questioned.

Why? Because the books said so?

No one is suggesting he was a rat and telling the FBI everything he knew. The suggestion was that he was an informant. Perhaps telling the FBI, IMO, info about other families or other crews he didn't like.

I don't think anyone is suggesting he was a rat for his entire life.

there only 2 dead guys i read of, that it came out that they were fbi informant after they died. jimmy the bear flemmi cause of the massive scandal in boston, it had to come out since his murders were pinned on everyone else but the real weird one was frank lefty rosenthal(deniro).what the hell was the purpose of america findind out in the press that his was a top e-infornmant since the 60tys and if i remember the article it kinda said alot of people in chicago were awhare, but kinda let him go. it came out he was long time rat like 2 weeks after he died what 2yrs ago. scarpa they let people know before he died flemmi, bulger,even that blue eyes guy in brooklny killing people well informing and rosetti up in boston. i cant picture any of the old bosses being rats, but maybe sam giacanna and roselli.they talked to openly with the cia i guess. and neil being paid informant you think that guy ever needed a few bucks he got tax evasion for blowing like 100k on a craps table at some casino in one night in the early 70tys. thats a million today. i see a guy put a hundred in chips on the rouleete table at foxwoods i got to watch you always loose.

No offense Sit, but PP is not stating YOU are naive. He is stating that dismissing the thought of Dellacroce been informant, COULD be naive.



Well, Scarpa was tough as nails too. Who would have thought him being an informant before it was revealed?

Don´t get me wrong. I´m not saying Neil was an informant, neither should my reply to these two posts be considered leaning towards this an inch. But to dismiss somebody being/been an informant because the dude was tough and hard, is naive.

First off i agree with you as per Hairy. Sit - i disagree with how you responded to pp (good guy). But just like PB you know what you're talking about. So i hope you continue to contribute your knowledge to this site

Dellacroce or Tony Accardo being rats is just not even realistic. Dellacroce,a true Sicilian lived and breathed mafia. Accardo,a boss's boss,say no more.

Neil's parents were from Veneto, in the North of Italy.

I don't believe for a second that he was a rat, I'm just letting you know for the sake of clarity.

Fair point, Hairy. I just don't believe it. Not just because he was a tough guy and well respected and was the underboss, but because Neill already showed how loyal he was to Cosa Nostra when he refused to make a move on Paul. It showed how loyal he was to the rules of Cosa Nostra. Hard to imagine a guy like that flipping, but who knows. I think it's bullshit.

PP, Firstly I love the way you keep calling people naive for thinking Dellacroce was definitely a stand up guy..

Are we really naive to believe a man who is the number two man of arguably the biggest crime family in the country was a voulantry FBI informant?

Neil had been a made guy for 30 years, had multiple hits under his belt.. you keep saying 'because the books say Neil was a loyal guy' It's pretty much fact that Cosa Nostra was Aniello's life, he was arguably the top caporegime in the family under Anastatia, Genovese/Gambino eliminated Anastasia and Neil soon pledged alleigance to Don Carlo, that's how old school LCN guys work.

So after all the murders and years of loyal service to his crime family, he decides one day he's going to become a volountary FBI informant for a measly 1,000 a month, why would he do it? Guilty conciense? You must be crazy to even think it.

The story of the FBI agent walking into the Ravenite social club and syaing 'who's in charge here' is laughable, firstly the FBI don't work like that and after a short conversation he managed to sway an old timer out of 'the life' it makes good headlines, but makes no sense.

So who's really naive in this debate? You are.

I completely agree Neil wasn't a rat but to be fair to pp he only said it once and he was talking about outright dismissing the possibillity.

I've heard rumors about this on forums before,no way he was rat!

Excatly. That smells of yellow journalism. Sounds like something straight out of a movie. Journalists tend to write like that. It sells.

Neil being a rat isn't even a possibility.

NO WAy neil was a rat!

Oh,well i guess i was wrong about the sicilian part lol. But the man was solid as a rock til his last breath I'd be willing to bet that.

Agreed. No doubt in my mind.

Didn't Neil try to depose Gambino a couple of times? I heard he hated Gambino after Gambino killed Tommy Rava and another capo who were part of his faction. It was in a bid to remove the Anastasia loyalists. Anyone remember this? I know Hairy has discussed it before.

Considering the large size of the Gambinos at the time, it´s not really surprising that the Family split in different factions after Anastasia´s death. For a short period of time, the Family was not cohesive. The Commission stepped in and made Carlo Gambino, who at the time held the highest rank within the Family, the provisional boss until order was restored. However, two captains (Tommy Rava and John Robilotto with Dellacroce under Rava) opposed the appointment. Either they were pissed off because they believed the Anastasia murder had not been sanctioned, or they simply went for a power grab, fooled by Gambino´s humble and soft appearance. In late 1957, Tommy Rava simply vanished. Nobody have seen him since. In 1958, Robilotto was shot to death while playing cards in a Brooklyn social club. Order was restored and in 1960, a year and a half after the Robilotto murder, Gambino was made the official boss by the borgata.

More than likely, Dellacroce had been part of the Rava/Robilotto push, but by the time of 1960, he was clearly back in the fold. Some few years later, Gambino made him his underboss.