Michael Salerno Crew

I am wondering if anyone may know who the members were in the Salerno crew back on the early-mid 80s. I am not entirely sure when Salerno became a captain, but other than Crea, who were the primary players in that arm of the Lucchese family when Ducks was still around?

Joey Giampa, Buddy Luongo, Joey DiNapoli, Tony Santorelli, Sally Bo DeSimone, TJ Gelardo, Johnny Hooks, the Mascias, Danny Squire, just to name a few of the made guys, and dozens of associates. That was some fucking crew, and that's why Casso's resentment and paranoia ran so fucking deep. Cocksucker deserves everything he got, and that includes getting fucked over by the government (which I usually wouldn't approve of).

How many of those guys in that crew got wiped out by Casso?

The two obvious ones would be Salerno and Luongo

Of the guys I just listed? Only Luongo and Salerno himself.

The one thing you have to realize about Salerno---and this is often overlooked---is that when Tom Mix got bumped up into the administration, Salerno inherited most of his Bronx and Harlem soldiers.

Salerno and Santoro were very close. And you have to give Santoro credit for being the one guy with the balls big enough to tell Ducks that he was making a huge mistake with Casso and Amuso. I personally feel that when Casso found out about it, he hit a lot of the Bronx/Harlem guys out of pure spite.

You also have to realize that by that time, Tom Mix was already doing life stemming from the Commission case. Because he likely would have just said fuck it and gone to war with those assholes.

Of the guys you listed, do you know whether Sally Bo, Gelardo, the Mascias or Squire are out of prison/still involved? Also, Squire seems like an interesting name for an Italian-American . . .

lotta big names up there. even my "sponsors" cousin

Squire was a nickname. Danny's last name was Latella. He's dead now. There's a story about him that's well documented in the media, so I'll tell it. You could probably find it with a Google search anyway. But he took a pinch about twenty years ago for smoking crack in a Super 8 motel with a Black hooker.

Now keep in mind that not only was he a made guy, but he was an acting captain himself for about five minutes. He was huge in Parkchester. He pretty much had that section of Westchester Avenue all to himself. Needless to say, it was pretty embarrassing for him. He got put on the shelf for awhile. And even afterwards, he was never the same.

The Mascias are dead. Sally Bo's son was an acting captain for awhile himself, but he got knocked down. He didn't do anything wrong. But like I said, he was just "acting" anyway. The DeSimones made a fortune in vending before it became so heavily regulated.

TJ was the boss of the Mount Vernon crew when there were still Italians in Mount Vernon lol. That entire strip of Gramatan Avenue is Brazilian now. All of the old coffee shops are Brazilian soccer clubs now, except for one.

Was it Bobby Amuso the triggerman in the Luongo hit? Or was it Vic? I remember from the Topmobs blog that is now gone where a user who said he is a retired policeman said that strangely the Luongo murder wasn't among those Amuso was indicted for.

P.S. Pizzaboy, could you please check your email later? You said earlier you would have continued the discussion about Lenny Simon through email.

Isn't mt Vernon mostly black nowadays, PB? Or is it mostky mixed?

Mount Vernon's about seventy plus percent Black today. But on the North Side it's mostly working class Blacks. The South side is where you'll run into people who, unfortunately, tend to live down to the stereotype.

Central Mount Vernon, which contains the heart of Gramatan Avenue, has one of the highest concentrations of Portuguese Brazilians in the entire country. It's been featured in several Brazilian documentaries.

Of course, Gramatan Avenue is also home to Sue's Rendezvous, where young (but legal) Brazilian girls make fine pole dancers .

Sue's Rendezvous...

Love Brazilian girls.

Back on topic, Gas and Casso were from Brooklyn. Were they affiliated with the Vario crew, or strictly through Tick?

It's common knowledge that the Bronx/East Harlem crews were always the power of the family, but it sounds like Brooklyn wasn't a non-entity, either. Do they still have crews out there? How about in the late 80s, was it the second biggest borough for them?

to clarify sponsor has nothing to do with mafia or whatever. he sponsors my softball team along with someone else. PB just happened to mention his cousins name. now me and him have spoke about it but i just didnt want anyone getting the wrong idea.

Cheech, everyone knows you're a made guy now!

Legal brazilians huh . Happy to hear that as a certain business has flourished

Salerno and Loungo were very well liked and respected. In fact, when Ducks went away, a lot of guys tapped Buddy as the new boss .
My take is when both those guys got clipped, everyone knew that no one was safe, it was the beginning of the end. t was a fucked up thing to do . Amuso and Casso would basically accuse someone of being a rat, order the hit, and then tell a crew memeber he woukd be rewarded by taking over as captain.

It was Ducks that ordered the hit on Loungo for being too greedy and trying to isolate Ducks from his troops and assets.

Vic just took advantage of the situation.

Sues rendezvous...lol. used to be a good cafe near there. .Cafe Aurora i think. .

Talk about a heavy crew! I had no idea.

thought that was obvious from the day i started posting

There were a few. Aurora was the big "legit" one all the way down by Hartley Park. They used to have nice Italian entertainment there many years ago. Umberto Tozzi actually made an unannounced appearance there one night. Nice memories.

Then there were three or four as you headed south towards Fourth Avenue and the Bronx Border. Those places were more like soccer clubs and had the occasional ziganette and brisque games going on. Scopa, too. Those were all TJ's.

Years ago Fourth Avenue was a beautiful shopping district. Today it makes Getty Square look like a Prada outlet.

And keep in mind that they were like this (fingers intertwined) with the Bronx and Harlem factions of the Westside.

Life is timing. If they didn't get caught, the day would have eventually come when Vic and Gas got put down in the street like dogs. Frankly, I'm glad things worked out the way they did. They suffered a much worse and befitting comeuppance by rotting in prison all these years.

Yeah, they would have been hit for sure, lucky they were inside, not just the Westside and BX/Harlem Luke's that wanted them dead, after what came out on the wiretaps about them wanting to kill Little Nicky, don't think he would have hesitated either. They were hated for sure.

What makes me laugh is the FBI fans who insist Amuso still calls the shots, after Daidone went away that was it imo, all the BK faction were in jail serving long sentences. I mean you had Migliore (who Vic tried to kill) Madonna and Dinapoli running the family, you can't tell me he put them in there 3 heavyweights loyal to the Bronx/Harlem. 10 years on and people still think he has say, it's crazy.

No sense in resurrecting that debate, Tommy. For as big of a pain in the ass that he can be , Ivy is our pal and a very dedicated researcher. He's an invaluable asset to this board, and he's entitled to his opinion.

What really made me laugh were the Brooklyn guys who swore, something like two years ago, that there would be Hell to pay and a blood bath when the two Georges came home. I'm still waiting to hear from the guys who made these bold predictions.

I think one of the Georges is working at Target in Starrett City .

Yeah, It's a never ending debate, shouldn't have brought it up again because no doubt it will derail the thread, Ivy's a great poster no doubt.

I remember that fan boy of Brooklyn, Bodies will be dropped!

Haha, that guy had to be a troll.

You don't know these guys! They don't care about money! Murder's all they know!

So do they even have a brooklyn crew now?

"Getto Square" .. what a shithole.. only time I'll ever go anywhere near there is if I have to pick up someone at the train station

Damn pb great info thank you sir..this may be a dumb question but the Desimone you mentioned is he at all related Tommy?

Without divulging too much has that Salerno crew recovered and is now fairly stable since the power shifted back to the Bronx faction?(I believe thats where Stevies at but dont kill me if thats wrong)

No.


There's nothing to divulge that's not readily available online. Mikey Salerno got off with Tom Mix. Stevie, Joey Gee, Joe Dee, Hooks, and virtually every other Bronx/Westchester Lucchese heavyweight who's over sixty and still active, cut his teeth under Mikey Salerno. And more than half of them are construction and/or concrete millionaires. Just do the math and follow the money.

That's why I honestly don't mind these government reports that say that Vic is still calling the shots. Because it's just semantics. If you're in that life, who would you rather be?

Yea I got ya makes alotta sense let vic have his name on the charts doesnt mean dick, appreciate the response just thought if ask bout the Desimone name..im guessing joey gee is skipper of that crew based on the names u just said and the fact that dinapoli is not in good health..im pry way off but just goin off what u said, feel free to correct me

There's about to be bodies dropping everywhere!!!

This is why I onced asked if there was a beef or rift in the Bronx Luchesse faction, there just have to have been, maybe not in the crew but at the top, the hits just dont make any sense otherwise...

No offense, and you can ask anyone here about me. The last thing I am is a troublemaker. But you're looking for boogeymen where there aren't any. Because with the possible exception of the Uptown Genovese Crew (116th), there wasn't a tighter crew in the '80s than the Bronx/Harlem/Westchester faction of the Luccheses. If they were guilty of anything, it was following orders. And as I've alluded to a hundred times here over the years, if Amuso and Casso didn't get caught, the Bronx/Harlem Luccheses would have finally gone on the offensive with the complete backing of the Genovese family.

They were in business together all over the Bronx, Manhattan and Westchester County. And with millions of dollars at stake in construction and concrete, the Westside would have stood right next to them. And aside from the money aspect, Chin was looking for an excuse to rid himself of Casso for years to cover his tracks in the DeCicco car bombing.

Casso didn't just envy the money that the Bronx/Harlem faction made, he resented how close knit they were as a crew, and how close they were to the Bronx/Harlem faction of the Westside. My personal opinion is that Ducks was losing it at the end. He should have listened to Tom Mix and put those two to sleep like a couple of rabid dogs. Because that's basically what they amounted to.

People love to talk about Gotti--and don't get me wrong, the man had plenty of faults--but those two did as much damage to LCN in the late '80s as Gotti did.

They have a couple, at least. John Castellucci and Danny Cutaia were the last known captains, Cutaia is senile apparently so he's done, a lot of Brooklyn guys got out in the last few years.

The BK guys must be having a hard time getting rackets up and running after falling in-line with Vic-Gas .
I would think most would keep them at arms distance.
Then it is always possible that the life has passed them by ,coming out to a different world..

As far a the feds putting the old bosses at the top is done for a few reasons .
They have not herd different, and if they did and it was not front page news the feds don't want to get caught with there pants down.
They will call the old boss the boss,the new boss the underboss,the guy that is probably the real boss the streetboss WHO KNOWS !
They do not want to be wrong,just like the weather man ,on a sunny day they say sunny with passing clouds .The other guy will say partly sunny with full sun at times.

They don't want to be wrong ! why ?
All the talk it makes ,they must laugh...

the chin was shrewd and I agree , Amuso and casso served there purpose getting rid of a couple of gotti loyalists as revenge for castellano , I think the westside was using Amuso / casso as scapegoats if the did eventually get gotti , then u would have prob seen Amuso and casso in the trunk of cars like caponigro and Salerno

Well in fairness, Amuso & Casso knew e.g. Savino was a rat when everyone doubted them.

It doesn't matter. When you look at the big picture, neither of them could scrape a pimple off Vince's ass, even with the Savino gaffe.

Vince had a 35 year run as a capo, then boss. He had the Village all to himself, and was arguably one of the five or six most powerful wiseguys ever. Casso is a lunatic rat, and Amuso suffered from some kind of warped co-dependency that told him to go along with that maniac.

Vince had 35 years at the top, those assholes had five or six. No comparison. Not even in the same ballpark, let alone the same league.

Agreed. Gigante was light years ahead of those clowns.

When you talk Gigante, the argument is possible best boss of all time...that is his category

When you talk of Amuso and Casso, the conversation is for worst boss, that did the most damage to their own family.

Look at how each boss left the family when they were gone.

I've often been under the impression that if Vic & Gas never were in authority of the family, the Luccheses would be considered second-tier to the Genovese in terms of stability and prestige, as opposed to the much larger Gambinos.

This.



And this.