Gangland News summary of April 6, 2023

John "Bazoo" Ragano

Bonanno mobster John "Bazoo" Ragano was 16 years old when he saw his father lying dead on a Queens sidewalk, having been shot by NYPD officers following a dispute over a traffic accident.

That traumatic event back in 1978 helped set Ragano, who says he idolized his dad, on a life of crime, according to a court filing by Bazoo who is facing up to 87 months in prison at his sentencing next week for extortion and a $500,000 fraud.

Two cohorts in his fraud scheme, Colombo associate Domenick Ricciardo and John Glover, are among the six defendants whose plea deals can be revoked by prosecutors. So can the plea agreement for Colombo mobster Richard Ferrara, the only other wiseguy in the case who has pleaded guilty. Trial for the others is currently scheduled to begin in October.

Ragano, who turns 61 today, celebrated his 16th birthday a few weeks after his father Carmine, a welder, suffered smoke poisoning and other injuries while helping residents escape the early morning fire on March 9, 1978, and was treated for them at Brookdale Hospital, according to a Daily News story about the blaze that destroyed 13 homes on Pine Street.

Six months later, on September 16, Carmine Ragano, 44, was shot and killed in a confrontation with two Transit Cops who police said attempted to apprehend him after a traffic accident. In the incident at 103d Avenue and 89th Street in Ozone Park, police alleged that the elder Ragano hit one of the cops "repeatedly with a lead pipe" after they chased him, according to an unbylined story in Newsday.

"Although he did not witness the shooting," Bazoo's attorney wrote in the court filing, "Ragano arrived at the scene of his father's death shortly thereafter and observed his father's covered body on the ground." This was an "horrific incident" that "profoundly traumatized the boy that Mr. Ragano was at that time," the lawyer wrote.


Thomas "Sharkey" Carrube and his grandson's involvement on the waterfront

When the grandson of Bonanno soldier Thomas "Sharkey" Carrube applied for a well-paying job on the New York/New Jersey piers with the blessings of the International Longshoremen's Association, he got the full body inspection treatment from the Waterfront Commission's watchdogs.

After Sharkey's grandson, Tommy R. Carrube, submitted an application last year for a $165,000 a year longshoreman's gig, he underwent a videotaped interview regarding any friendships or affiliations he had with any reputed wiseguys or mob associates that would disqualify him from working on the docks.

This is the same up close and personal examination that Frank Giordano, the son of Gambino capo John "Handsome Jack" Giordano, underwent after he applied for his own handsomely paid union job on the docks.

Both men got thumbs down. Commission investigators found in both cases that they had associated with mobsters, and committed fraud, deceit or misrepresentation by making false statements about their acquaintanceship with organized crime. Those ties made them inimical to the policies of the Waterfront Commission Act, and unworthy of working on the docks.

The main allegations against Carrube involved his associations with his grandfather, and a former close pal of the elder Carrube, Bonanno mobster Louis "Louie the Leg-Breaker" Civello. Despite his nickname, Civello, 73, is a low-key Staten-Island based wiseguy who has managed to avoid any serious problems with the law over the years.

Sources say Civello, whose tenure goes back to the reign of the Mafia's first turncoat boss, former Bonanno chieftain Joseph Massino, has served as a captain, and as an acting capo. According to court records, he attended a Christmas time Captains Meeting at the Basilio Inn in Staten Island with acting boss Cammarano and more than a dozen other family members in 2014, including Ronald "Ronny G" Giallanzo and John "Johnny Skyway" Palazzolo.

The Commission alleged that Tommy R. Carrube "falsely testified" that he did not know Civello, that he did not recognize a picture of Louie the Leg-Breaker, that he didn't know that Civello and his grandfather Sharkey Carrube, 69, were associated with organized crime when he knew that both were inducted members of the Bonanno crime family.


Michael "Nose" Mancuso

The much adjourned guilty plea that was scheduled to take place next week by Bonanno boss Michael (Mikey) Nose Mancuso to a violation of supervised release (VOSR) stemming from a meeting or two he had with a wiseguy or two — you guessed it — has been put off again for the seventh, and allegedly, the last time.

No one's talking about it, but according to court filings, former Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Robert Capers, the current Chief of the U.S. Probation Department, is still slated to tell Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis why the government had decided to allow Mancuso to plead guilty to a lesser VOSR charge than the one that was first leveled against him.

The original charges were filed against Mancuso in March of last year, two days before Mikey Nose's three years of post-prison supervised release was slated to end.

According to a letter to the Court from Mancuso lawyer Stacey Richman, the government and the defense are still mired in exchanging so-called discovery material or evidence that each side is required to turn over to its adversary in preparation for any contested proceeding in the case.

The sentencing guidelines for a conviction of the VOSR, by the judge, or by a guilty plea, call for a return to prison for Mancuso of five to 11 months. The maximum he would face is two years.

Thanks for posting this Luan. That commission operates like a dictatorship. One man is disqualified for associating with his own grandfather! They get an accusation of fraud attached to them because they don't remember a person. Ido;t think this committee has ever passed anyone who had a hint of a mob friend or relative.

"You associated with your grandfather!!!" Unreal.