A while back there was some discussion about Gianni Russo. I came across this information and it reminded me of this topic. So I thought that I would bring back the topic with this information :
MOB, GOFER, AND NOW A CROONER
International Herald Tribune
By Andrew Jacobs
The New York Times
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
NEW YORK Start spreading the news. Gianni Russo, best known for his role as
Carlo Rizzi in "The Godfather," is back in old New York with his pinstriped
Brioni suits, startling white teeth and perma-tan.
.
The reluctant killer, who in real life was once a delivery boy for the mob
boss Frank Costello, has a publicist and a new dream: to be a big-name
crooner, the kind who makes women swoon.
.
"At 62, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve," he said one recent night
after belting out a string of Sinatra tunes at Nino's, an Italian
restaurant on New York's Upper East Side where he is treated like Sicilian
royalty. "I'm like a cockroach. You can't kill me."
.
In recent months he has appeared on the reality show "Growing Up Gotti" and
has had a tell-all chat with Howard Stern. He stars in a series of cooking
DVDs. His coming autobiography is called "Godfathers, Popes and
Presidents," a reference to some of his dearest acquaintances. As he
explains it, "I've known three popes, five presidents and every Mafia boss."
.
His stories sometimes defy credulity. Past lovers, he says, included
Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minnelli and Zsa Zsa Gabor.
.
"Gianni tells a lot of tales, but they're all true," said the lawyer Barry
Slotnick, who met him in the early 1970s when Russo was mediating a dispute
between the producers of "The Godfather" and the mob boss Joe Colombo, who
had threatened to shut down the film, which he thought would slander
Italian-Americans.
.
Russo, who had never acted before, was given the part of Carlo as a reward
for his peacemaking role. Since then he has appeared in 40 films, doing
small parts that show off his Little Italy-rooted bravado.
.
Over the years he has owned a Las Vegas casino, dated Dionne Warwick for
more than a decade and beat 23 federal indictments, he said. But Russo is
best known for his role in "The Godfather," playing the backstabbing,
wife-beating thug who marries Don Corleone's daughter, is beaten badly by
Corleone's son Sonny (played by James Caan) and ends up with piano wire for
a necklace.
.
Russo's singing act leans heavily on his "Godfather" past, with cheeky
references to Marlon Brando.
.
To spend a few days with Russo is to step into a vanished world of
omnipotent gangsters, shady politicians and spangled showgirls. Although he
was on a first-name basis with men like John Gotti, Russo says he was never
a made man. Even when he worked as a gofer for Costello, Russo says, he
remained detached from his employer's criminal enterprises. "I could have
gotten involved and hit the jackpot, but it's a terrible life," he said. "I
mean, all the guys I grew up with are dead or in jail."
.
He has had his share of run-ins with the law, but he has never been
convicted of any crime, and was not charged
in a 1988 killing that took place at his Las Vegas club and casino, GIanni Russo's State Street. .
According to Russo, the victim, who turned out to be a member of the
Medellmn drug cartel, was harassing a female patron; when Russo tried to
intervene, the man plunged a broken wine bottle into his stomach. As the
man tried to lunge again, Russo pulled out a handgun and fired twice.
.
The Clark County prosecutor ruled the killing a justifiable homicide, but
the family of the victim dispatched a hit man, Russo said, and he decided
that it would be best to disappear in Miami and Sicily for a few years. He
lost the casino but still kept interests in a dizzying array of businesses,
from deli meats to diamond exporting.
.
With most of the Mafia largely moribund, Russo has decided to go public
with the details of his life, partly in the hope that his colorful past
will fuel interest in his various endeavors.
.
On a recent stroll in Manhattan, Russo stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral
to pray at the shrine of St. Anthony, the patron saint of miracles. No
matter where he is, he says, he visits a church to fulfill the promise he
made as a child, when he was partly paralyzed by polio. "I made a novena
that if I ever walked again, I'd light five candles for St. Anthony every
day," he said.
.
Russo was 7 when he got polio and spent five years in a state hospital. He
said his father, a longshoreman and musician, was ashamed that his only son
was a cripple and refused to acknowledge him on the street. To earn his
keep, Russo sold ballpoint pens on Fifth Avenue.
.
It was on a Fifth Avenue street corner that he met Costello, who would stop
almost daily to give him a $5 bill. When he learned that Russo was Italian,
Costello offered him a job picking up bets from barbershops that doubled as
numbers parlors. By the time he was 16, Russo was hanging out at the
Copacabana and traveling across the United States picking up and delivering
envelopes.
.
Despite his long association with the underworld, Russo resents being
called a mobster. After singing a few tunes at Nino's and drinking in the
adulation of fellow diners, Russo gestured to a table where his cousin,
Vinnie Russo, sat with Charles Gargano, the chairman of the Empire State
Development Corp., and other Italian-American businessmen.
.
The men waved from afar, but none of them approached his table, which both
amused and annoyed him. The men, he explained, were afraid to be seen with
him. "After all these years, they still think I'm mobbed up," he said
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Don Cardi
![[Linked Image]](http://www.littleitalynyconline.org/images/Christmas2004/Gianni-Russo-CD-Cover_small.jpg)
Knowing real mob bosses, brushes with the law and I didn't know he was a singer. Actually it might be an interesting book.
