The great-nephew of a legendary gangster immortalized in “Goodfellas” is suing the crane operators union for barring him from membership because of his family ties.
Thomas Vario comes from a long line of mobsters in the Luchese crime family — most notably his great-uncle, the late capo Paul (Paulie) Vario, who was played by Paul Sorvino in the classic film expertly slicing garlic in prison while cellmates cooked the tomato sauce and grilled steaks.
His uncles Peter (Jocko) Vario and Peter (Rugsy) Vario and father Peter A. Vario were all arrested by the feds, which has created something of an image problem for Thomas
Vario, who describes himself as strictly blue collar, and not the snazzy starched-collar type prevalent among Mafia bosses.
He can’t even get an application to join Local 14-14B of the International Union of Operating Engineers because of his alleged “Italian connections,” his Brooklyn Federal Court suit says.
“It’s ridiculous,” Vario, 45, told the Daily News. “I’m not responsible for anyone’s sins but my own, and I don't have any.”
“Where does it end?” he continued. “This guy [Paul Vario] is dead 25 years already.”
“I want to know how do I fit into a category of these people?”
Vario is an experienced crane operator whose résumé includes the Verizon building in midtown, the JPMorgan Chase Tower, the reconstruction of the train trestle in the Rockaways and more than nine months working at Ground Zero after 9/11.
The suit names as a defendant former federal prosecutor George Stamboulidis, who serves as a court-appointed “ethical practices attorney” tasked with keeping the mob out of the union local.
Vario even had a sitdown with Stamboulidis about his ban.
“He told me himself, ‘Mr. Vario, I have a lot of respect for you. You could have chosen any route and you chose to work. If I give you a [union\] book I have to give John Gotti Jr. and Nicky Scarfo Jr. books tomorrow,’ ” Vario recalled of the conversation, which referred to the sons of the late Gambino boss John Gotti and Nicodemo Scarfo of the Philadelphia mob
Thomas Vario said his only brush with the law was an arrest for auto insurance fraud in 2007. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to community service.
He said he has no recollection of
his Uncle Paulie’s East New York, Brooklyn, cabstand hangout re-created in the Martin Scorsese film.
“If I was there, I was wheeled out in a baby carriage,” Thomas Vario said.
He said he was 16 when he bade goodbye to Paulie, who wound up in federal prison, where he died in 1988. Paul Vario, who had greenlighted the infamous Lufthansa heist at Kennedy Airport, was ratted out by mob weasel Henry Hill.
Thomas Vario’s lawyer Anthony Colleluori said besides getting his client union membership, he’s challenging what he called ethnic profiling by the government that targets Italian-Americans — profiling that he says other ethnic groups don’t suffer.
“Someday Bernie Madoff’s grandson is going to get a job anywhere he wants,” Colleluori said. “Even John Dillinger’s descendants could get a union job.”
Stamboulidis did not return a call seeking comment.
A union member suggested Vario legally change his surname.
“I would never change my last name,” Vario said. “I am who I am, and I’m not running because I have no reason to run.”
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