I know supposedly Joe Columbo warned Gambino about Joe Bananno plotting against him but are there any other instances where wiseguys warn their friends to get outta Dodge because the order is out?


Thank you for your time.

The way I heard it was Joe Magliocco relayed the order to colombo because Gambino and Luchese didnt want him to be boss of Profacis and while relaying the order to hit gambino and Luchese He was seen with Bill Bonanno(who claimed to have nothing to do with the plot nor his father but admitted being with Magliocco and only found out later what the Colombo meeting was about Bill was married to Magliocco`s cousin Joe profaci`s brothers daughter) which by implication meant joe Bonanno was in on the hit and after colombo betrayed Magliocco the commission called them(Bonanno and Magliocco) in only Magliocco went because Joe Bonanno feared death but this is a widely debated event There`s two main school`s of thought one being Bonanno and Maglioco`s conservative wing as the agressors and the other is Luchese and Gambino progressive wing as the agressors.
Lucky Luciano was warned by Tommy Luchese that Maranzano( Luciano`s Boss) had ordered him dead by Mad Dog Coll. But he didnt leave town he pulled a coup D`etat.

I remeber reading in the Valachi papers that Joe Valachi had a friend that was in another faction of the crime family they were in and that Joe told his friend to move out of his apartment if they were going to hit him and vice-versa, and this would be a non-verbal signal that he should have his head on a swivel. Don't remember if that's exactly what happened but it's more or less the gist.

I think you're referring to "The Gap". I remember reading The Gap giving Valachi advice that would keep him alive during the early years, especially after the Maranzano murder. There was a contract on Valachi because he was one of Maranzano's personal guard. IIRC, Tom Lucchese intervened on his behalf to keep him alive.

Also, prior to being made, he was asked by a crime boss to murder a friend but Valachi flat out refused.

didn`t the Gap get neutered by Tony Bender in valachi`s restaurant because he had an affair with Vito Genovese`s wife while he was on he lam in Italy.

Hanging around Vinny too much?

It's not Petrilli. 1986 paperback printing - page 194: Valachi only told him to flee to Cuba at their last meeting.

Incidentally, the Valachi article on wikipeida seems a bit less daunting than Gotti to fix up, but does anyone have any other books they could recommend for additional sources or should I just hit up Time's archives?

Al D'Arco said he warned Michael Pappadio a couple times that they were gonna clip him if he didn't start kicking up more money or give up whatever he had going on in the garment district completely . Pappadio ignored it - D'Arco eventually ended up setting him up

Sound more like an everyday wiseguy threat that was followed through on than a kindness of the heart and legitimate desire to save a life on D`arco s part.

Very true, I guess the way he described it (on his interview on that "Manhattan Mob Rampage" special) it kinda sounded like a warning. who knows though the guy is a rat and career crook/liar/scumbag... probably was more like a threat than warning

I have always wondered WTF Pappadio was thinking when he thought it a good idea to ignore D'Arco's warning. Vic and Gas were not exactly diplomatic leaders.

exactly, al d'arco said he told pappadio when he warned him to leave the garment district or he was going to get whacked and they were going to send him to whack him

if i was mikey i would have obliged 100% vic and gas at that point already had a well established rep of keeping their promises in terms of murder, i understand pappadio its hard to give up a racket especially if was in charge of it for a long time and its a cash cow.

Yah IIRC, the bodies were already starting to drop when Vic and Gas told Pappadio to get out of the garment district. Does anyone know if Pappadio just flat out refused to leave or if he tried to negotiate by offering them a % or something like that? Stupid move either way to defy those two.

There is a good article on the Pappadio murder, he was either a dumb guy or extremly naive, his brother was whacked years earlier in front of his wife I believe. I always thought the way Pappadio was cremated was an excellent way of getting rid of a body, and why it wasn't used more often by the mafia.

I found a fascinating page on Pappadios murder on the Smoking Gun site. It consists mostly FBI documents dealing with his disappearance and murder, the last set of documents under the title "The Surprise Ending" are one of the best reads I've come across describing the nuances of a mafia murder, taken directly from the words of Alphonse "little Al" D'arco. Imagine your last second on earth are walking into a room with a psychoes like littl Al and Georgie "Neck" Zapolla waiting to bash your head in and blow your brains out.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/metro-murder-mystery-1

Thanks for posting the link Gerry. BTW, do you know the genesis of the nickname "Neck"??