January 5, 2017 This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci

Gambino Soldier Joe Bilotti Cashes In His Chips, At Age 83

Joseph BilottiGang Land Exclusive!Joseph Bilotti, a tough Gambino wiseguy who became a community activist and a church worker after his brother Thomas and mob boss Paul (Big Paul) Castellano were both killed in the spectacular midtown Manhattan assassination that was orchestrated by John Gotti, died of natural causes at his home in Staten Island last week. He was 83.

Within a few days of his brother's Christmas-time slaying in 1985, Bilotti agreed not to retaliate for his younger brother's death during a tense session with Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano in the South Beach section of Staten Island, said a former FBI agent who spoke to both men about their meeting.

"He really had no choice," the retired G-man told Gang Land. "Sammy told us he had a sitdown with Joe at the old Country Club Diner and told him it wasn't personal, just business, and to mind his Ps and Qs and he'd be okay," recalled the former agent, who asked that his name not be used. "When we went to interview Joe, he told us he couldn't talk to us about it," he said, noting however, that he and his partner "always believed that Joe wanted to talk to us about it."

Joseph BilottiIn Underboss, the 1997 book by Peter Maas, Sammy Bull said that after he and then-underboss Frank DeCicco argued that Bilotti "would accept what happened and become a good loyal soldier," Gotti sent them to speak to Bilotti because if "he decided to strike back, I could be the first to go."

"Joe was obviously nervous," said Gravano. "I told him that our move was primarily against Paul but that given his brother's relationship with Paul, he had to go too. I pulled back my jacket and showed him the cannon I was carrying. I told Joe: 'You know me a lot of years. If we wanted you dead, you think you'd be dead already?' He looked at me and nodded his head."

Salvatore Gravano"I said, 'Joe, I give you my word that you got a pass. I'm gonna be your captain. Don't worry when I send for you. You're a friend of ours in good standing. If you need me to sit down for you, I will. You got a tough job. You have nine kids. Tommy had nine kids. You have 18 kids to take care of.' And Joe's still alive today.'"

Like Castellano's relatives, including family capo Thomas Gambino, who was at Sparks Steak House when his Uncle Paul was shot to death outside the restaurant, Joe Bilotti maintained his allegiance to the Gambino crime family, even when the feds hit him with extortion and loansharking charges in 1991. The conviction, the only one during his career, earned him 41 months in prison, and a violation of supervised release (VOSR) charge in 1997.

Law enforcement sources say Bilotti has been relatively inactive in family business in recent years, but up until his death was still a member in good standing of the family. Last year, the sources say, in Boca Raton, where he has a winter home, he represented the Gambinos in a meeting with George Borgesi, a top gangster in the Philadelphia mob.

Paul Castellano HitIn the last dozen or so years, Bilotti had turned his life around and was a caring, big hearted, teddy bear of a man, according to memorial tributes posted by scores of friends, neighbors and church workers on Facebook and the website of the funeral home where he was waked. The retired FBI agent who arrested him in 1991, also said some nice things about Bilotti, whom he happened to run into at St. Joseph's Church in Rosebank in June of 2010, when a newly ordained Jesuit priest, Father Robert Pecoraro, was saying his first mass.

"And who's the usher? Joey Bilotti! And when he saw me his wig almost flipped around," laughed the ex-G-man. "And after that, he was at the luncheon for the new priest and he says to me, 'Aspetta, (Italian for wait) come'ere,' and he takes me up to the front of the line and says, 'Father Bob, this is my friend. Can you give him your blessing please?' So I got a blessing from the priest because I was a friend of Joe Bilotti."

"I don't know where it came from but he really got religion," the former agent continued, recalling an incident when he and his partner, in one of several fruitless efforts to flip him, visited him in a federal lockup, and found Bilotti ready, willing and eager to vent, but not about the mob.

George BorgesiHe said Bilotti was "real upset that one of the guards took his scapular," which is a necklace of sorts that is worn under the shirt. It consists of two wool squares of cloth, each depicting a religious scene, connected by two strings so that one square rests on your chest and the other on your back. A blessed scapular is supposed to protect those who wear them from eternal damnation when they die, but church teachings stress that leading a good life is important too.

"He was really pissed. That was something that had become very important to him, and he was furious," said the retired G-man, stating that Bilotti eventually calmed down, but couldn't be cajoled into joining Team America.

Bilotti may have been religious, but he was not one to turn the other cheek, as the bible instructs.

While at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the ex-agent said: "He was making a phone call and a big young stud came up to him and said, 'Hey old man, get off the phone.' Joey dropped the phone, hit him a shot and knocked him out with one punch. He could hit like a mule."

Bilotti DovesFor the last four years, he said, "Joe was very involved in the Save Mount Manresa movement," a failed effort by residents to stop the redevelopment of a former Jesuit retreat on a 15 acre parcel of prime real estate right off the Staten Island Expressway about three miles from the Verrazano Bridge.

Bilotti, an accomplished breeder and trainer of racing pigeons, found a way to use some of his champion pigeons in his work for the Committee to Save Mount Manresa, and for his church. He released a small flock of "white doves" at the end of a vigil at the site, according to committee members, and after the induction of the Jesuit priest in 2010, the retired G-man recalled.

"I'm sure they flew back to his coop after the mass, and that he used them again at Mount Manresa," he said.

Bilotti was front and center at a town hall meeting in 2015 when the Committee pressed Mayor deBlasio to have the city purchase the hilly wildlife enclave with tall Oak and Tulip trees for $15 million and convert it into a park. DeBlasio was receptive, but said the owners had no interest in selling, and they have pushed ahead with plans to build 250 townhouses. The area was razed this summer but development of the property has not yet begun.

Bilotti & Mayor deBlasio"Joe was a very special and loyal friend to all of us," said Jack Bolembach, president of the community group, which is now called the Friends Of Mount Manresa, and monitoring what it claims is overdevelopment of an already overcrowded area that is in need of more parks and schools than thousands more residents.

"Joe's incredible knowledge, experience, generosity, wisdom, perseverance, friendship and love will be missed," Bolembach told Gang Land, adding that "Joe was a fighter against injustice and helped many people in need" and that "the Friends Of Mount Manresa were privileged to be his friend."

Bilotti, who died December 27, was a longtime member of Local 15 of the Operating Engineers. He received a Rosebank Community Award for donating time and money to numerous charities over the years, according to his obituary on the website of the Staten Island funeral parlor where he was waked last week. He is survived by sons, daughters, grandchildren, and a four-month-old great-granddaughter, Charlize Nancy, who is the only named survivor in his obituary.

FBI Finally Nabs 'The Kid' Racketeer In The Five Family Case

Anthony CamisaFour months after the feds announced the blockbuster racketeering indictment of 46 mob-linked defendants from five families, the FBI finally arrested the last remaining fugitive in the case. He's a 24-year-old baby-faced gambler called — believe it or not — "The Kid." And Gang Land has learned that this isn't the end of The Kid's troubles: He's also a suspect in a 2014 kidnaping-extortion of a deadbeat gambler who owed him thousands of dollars.

Anthony (The Kid) Camisa was arrested at about 5:15 PM on City Island on December 28. Law enforcement sources say The Kid was already on the lam for a few months before the indictment was filed. He went missing after learning that he was a suspect in the Queens kidnapping and shakedown of a gambler who owed him money.

Camisa, who is charged with being part of a sports gambling venture with Genovese capo Pasquale (Patsy) Parrello, a reputed Luchese soldier named Vincent (Vinny) Casablanca and five others, was ordered detained without bail at his arraignment before Federal Judge Richard Sullivan.

Michael ResnickIn the other case, sources say The Kid is a suspect in the kidnapping of a gambler named Jasmin Lalicic who was terrorized at gunpoint on January 30, 2014 during a harrowing two hour car ride through the Astoria and Long Island City sections of Queens that included a high speed police chase. The abducted gambler escaped when the car slowed down to make a turn and he was able to open the door and jump out.

During his ordeal, the gambler was ordered to call friends and tell them to bring cash to three captors at various locations in Queens, according to the arrest complaint of the driver of the car, Michael Resnick, who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and is currently serving a state prison term of 15 years.

Resnick 46, who is also known as Michael Fillipone, collected a $5000 payment from one friend of the gambler at the corner of 43d Street and 25th Avenue, according to the complaint by police officer Mubashshir Tohfafarosh.

Vincent CasablancaDuring his telephone call with the terrified Lalicic, the friend agreed to deliver the cash when he heard one of the car's occupants shout "that he better have the money or they were going to pop the complainant," wrote officer Tohfafarosh.

Once they got the cash, Resnick and his two unidentified cohorts told Lalicic "that he needed to make more phone calls because he still owed more money," the complaint said. Camisa's name is not mentioned in the complaint, but sources identified him as the suspected recipient of the cash.

After a payoff from a second friend went awry, the friend called police, the complaint said. Minutes later, police responded with lights flashing and sirens blasting to the Chase Bank at the corner of Broadway and Steinway Street and attempted to stop the car, which fled, and escaped, hitting several parked cars in the process, officer Tohfafarosh wrote.

Resnick was arrested the next day, and pleaded guilty in September.

John RubeoLaw enforcement sources say The Kid's problems in the big racketeering case began when Parrello underling John (J.R.) Rubeo snared Camisa in a tape-recorded discussion with Vinny Casablanca, 49, owner of the Casablanca Pizzeria on Ampere Avenue in Pelham Bay. Mob associate Joseph Dimarco, 46, a worker at the pizzeria, is charged in the same gambling operation — one that uses online betting software to take bets and a wire room in Costa Rica to process and record them.

Camisa's attorney, Gerald McMahon told Gang Land that his client "never should have been charged in a racketeering case" and "categorically denies any involvement in any kidnapping." Regarding the current charges, the lawyer said: "He's a young fellow who had a difficult personal upbringing who's just trying to make his way in the world. In the end, I feel that justice will prevail."

John Good Was The FBI Agent Behind American Hustle AND Donnie Brasco

John GoodThere was no mob bloodletting in 2016. But the always present Grim Reaper took out a bunch of mob guys, as he does every year. But he also called distinguished G-man John Good, whose work in starting up the investigation that led to hero FBI agent Joe Pistone infiltrating the Bonanno family in the so-called Donnie Brasco case is known by only a handful of people.

Good, a Bronx-born "street guy" who died in September at age 80, was the well-known architect of the FBI Abscam investigation that used a convicted con man named Mel Weinberg to bring down six Congressmen and a U.S. Senator on bribery and other corruption charges in the early 1980s. The 2013 film American Hustle is very loosely based on the spectacular case.

But Good, who began his career with the FBI in the early 1960s following a stint in the U.S. Navy, was the handler of the FBI informer whom Pistone used to ingratiate himself with Bonanno soldiers Anthony Mirra and Dominick (Sonny Black) Napolitano, according to several law enforcement officials who prefer to keep their names out of Gang Land.

Scott FappianoThe informer was one of many that Good developed while supervising a truck hijacking squad that he formed in the mid-1960s to combat the then-rampant hijackings of trailer loads of goods out of Kennedy Airport.

For years, Good, who retired in 1986, and Gang Land discussed getting together to tell the inside story of the Donnie Brasco case, but the cooler head in the mix (which belonged to Good) always prevailed and he passed away on September 28 at his home in Island Park before we ever had the chance — although it's doubtful it would have ever happened.

"He was a rare breed," said one former colleague. "He was one of the best of the good guys, who had the balls to back up his squad, and stand up to the bureaucrats in Washington. He did things the right way, and still got the job done."

Abe VigodaA rare breed indeed.

Last month, Colombo associate Scott Fappiano became another nonviolent casualty in Gang Land. Fappiano, who gravitated to mob activity after DNA evidence cleared him of a 1984 rape for which he served 22 years behind bars, died after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 55.

Fappiano passed away on December 15, a month after he completed a one-year sentence he received for making threatening phone calls to a mob informer in the waste hauling industry. The lenient sentence came after he refused to take a stiff prison term and prosecutors gave him a sweet deal rather than use a convicted pervert who pleaded guilty to soliciting sex with a minor as their key trial witness.

In addition to the seven wiseguys and associates listed below, whose passings were duly noted by Gang Land last year, another organized crime figure who is well known across the country, but whose name and mug have never appeared before in Gang Land, also cashed in his chips this year: Abe Vigoda, aka Salvatore (Sal) Tessio, who'll be known forever as the old pal of Don Corleone who was whacked for trying to arrange his son's demise at The Godfather's funeral.

Tessio's final words were a kind of Gang Land lullaby: "Can you get me off the hook, Tom, for old time's sake?"

"Can't do it Sally," comes Tom Hagen's wistful response.

Vigoda, whose death was erroneously reported in 1982 by People Magazine, died early last year at the ripe old age of 94.

Last year's dearly departed list also includes Gambino soldiers Joseph (Joe The Cat) Laforte and Jerome (Jerry) Brancato; Luchese capo-turned-government witness Peter (Fat Pete) Chiodo; Bonanno capo Gerald Chilli; Colombo family former acting underboss Joseph (Joe T) Tomasello, Genovese soldier Salvatore (Sallie) Larca, and Colombo associate Daniel Periso.

looks like what scott reported about joey Bilotti and Geogre Borgesi meeting was true

Thanks for posting this one. Joe Bilotti had always intrigued me since reading about him in Gravano's book.

Those guys,Scott,Capeci,They don't just post info,Or just throw it out there if they're sources,informants aren't up to par !! Usually if those guys make a mistake they come back and fix it,update it ! Thanks for the Ganglandnews gangsterreport

Read on here he punched out much younger and big dude and killer anthony capo from the decav family in the 90tys and had no reprocutions. At a bar on staten island some also posted he was won of the toughest guys in staten island. When he was busted in the 90tys it was with members from a few familys so he was well liked. An last his 9 kids and his brothers guy must have commanded a small army on staten island. Family within the family. Dam count the grand kids take over.

I didn't know Fat Pete Chiodo died.

Yea i didnt know Jerry Chili and Daniel Persico died too?

Those I knew about. With the age of most these guys will be seeing a lot more dying in the extremist couple of years. They seem to live longer than the average person for some reason though.

I didn't know he knocked out Anthony Capo ? Lol,doesn't surprise me,Decavs are controlled by Gambinos ,didn't Capo die of a massive heart attack years ago ? And wasn't Capo an informer,He flipped ? I used to see Bilotti quite often in Bensonhursr with Joey boy Orlando, joe device and a few others, I ran into him at Bruno' s barber shop/salon on 20th ave years back, Nice guy straight up gentleman !

*Joe Decicco* stupid auto correct