Many times we get to read about who´s the toughest, nastiest or most crazy mobster in some of the threads found on this forum. Roy DeMeo, Mad Sam, Tommy Karate and a few others are often mentioned. Mimi Scialo is not. He should be. The fact that he is not mentioned in those kind of threads may be because he is not that widely known by posters on here, or by Mafia buffs writing on internet in general. On the internet, his first name seems constantly being confused with Carmine for some reason, although he is mentioned in newspaper clippings, FBI documents and reports as Dominick. Some of those clippings, documents and reports are the basis of my post right here.
To be fair, no book or documentary has been produced specifically on him that could inform us on his many misdeeds throughout his mobster career. But many times he was described by informants how ruthless, fearless and nasty he was. But also described by the same informants what a sweetheart of a man he was. A split personality, he certainly possessed and his reputation as a man of violence and danger was widespread throughout Brooklyn. The Mafia´s truely Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde easily turned himself into a monster, especially when booze entered his system.
Dominick Scialo was born in Brooklyn, on a Monday, July 11, 1927. He had two older sisters and a kid brother. The New York cencus of 1940 shows his mother as the head of the household so no father was present when he grew up. He seems to have had adopted the nickname "Mimi" at an early age, probably derived from his first name Dominick or his second name that may have been Michael. But I´m not sure on that. The family lived in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, in a modest home at 2827 West 15th street, located actually just a couple of blocks south of the Joe Masseria killing scene.
This is the house Mimi grew up in.
At an early age, he went to work as a longshoreman among the docks in South Brooklyn. Perhaps it was here he first came into contact with the various mobsters who controlled all kinds of rackets in that area. In August of 1951, Mimi first (to my knowledge) made the papers. He and a friend of his, Joseph Autori was reported being shot in a tavern. The shooter, a former jewish price fighter by the name of Alfred "Ally" Gordon, once arrested in a narcotics case, was quickly apprehended. The grand jury that indicted Gordon in this case, heard testimony that he shot Autori to death and wounded Scialo because they had repeatedly taunted him with anti semitic remarks.
On the eve of his own murder trial, Gordon was shot to death right outside his in law´s home in Coney Island. Police said that the shots had come from a moving car and later when the car was located, 10 shells spent from a 30 caliber carbine was found.
Mimi Scialo´s rapsheet grew. Between 1944 and 1959, he had been arrested 14 times on charges raging from felonious assault and rape to first degree murder. He was the main suspect in the Gordon murder but had never been sent to jail. He became a made men in the Profaci Family in the mid 1950s and I believe he was sponsored by Johnny "Bath Beach" Oddo, a powerful Profaci member.
On March 17, 1958, 17 year old Alexander Menditto was found shot in front of 2121 Avenue Z in Brooklyn. He was still alive when found. The next day, 24 year old Bartholemew Garofalo was found shot to death in a lot at East 70th Street near Avenue W in Brooklyn. Garofalo´s legs were broken and he had been shot six times. Both victims had been severly beaten with chains.
Menditto died a week later at the hospital. At first, he had refused to say anything about what had happened but at the urging of his mother, Menditto started to talk. He said that he and Garofalo had been paid 1 000 dollars by Scialo to burn down Hibernian Hall, a dance hall located in Boston´s Roxbury section. The young mobsters bungled the job twice. Scialo demanded the money back but Menditto and Garofalo refused the demand. Then Scialo and two others, took them for a ride, beat them severly, shot them and threw them out of the car. Menditto named Scialo as the triggerman.
Police booked Louis Esposito, 25 and Thomas Caiazzo, 30 for homicide. An alarm was issued for Mimi Scialo and a 53 year old mobster by the name of Angelo "Shelly" Pero who the police said was the reputed mastermind of the "gang". This Pero fellow, by the way, was later listed as a made member of the Genovese Family. Scialo and Pero were nowhere to be found though. Scialo was put at the top of New York Police Department´s 10 most wanted men and even made the FBI list of the nation's 10 most wanted fugitives. The FBI regarded Scialo as an extremely dangerous individual.
In the warrant, Scialo was described as 6 feet tall, dark complected and "likes flashy clothes". "He considers himself as a ladies´ man." Pero was described as "short, 5 feet 3 but weighs 180 pounds. He speaks slowly and has a mole in the center of his forehead."
It later came to FBI´s attentation that while these two men were being sought for homicide, a fund raising affair at the Club 13 in Brooklyn, probably instigated by Oddo, had collected a large sum of money in order to help Scialo and Pero evade the authorities. There were talks about 40 000 dollars been collected.
In July, 1959, after 16 months in hiding, Scialo gave up. When questioned by the police, he did not disclose anything more than his name and address and he pleaded innocent to the charges. An informant of the New York FBI Office said that a hoodlum known to him by the name of "Skee", reported that he had received information that Scialo was to have surrendered earlier and that he had stayed out approximately one month longer than was originally planned. The informant also reported that the other guy, meaning Pero, who was still at large, "is going to come in but that he wants to wait for approximately one month to see how Scialo fares as a result of his surrender". However, Pero never surrendered and was never apprehended. He didn´t need to. The case against Esposito and Caiazzo was thrown out before Scialo surrendered and during the Scialo trial, it was learned that Menditto´s signed deathbed statement had mysteriosly disappeared and couldn´t be found at the district attorney´s office. Therefore the case against Scialo and Pero was dismissed.
During the intra Profaci Family war, Mimi Scialo was clearly on the Profaci side. He helped to plan and supervised the Larry Gallo hit. He was not present at the Sahara Lounge, where Carmine Persico, Salvatore "Sally D" D´Ambrosio and a third person, believed to be John Scimone, tried to garotte Larry Gallo to death.
In 1962, John "Sonny" Franzese was upped to captain. Mimi Scialo was put in his crew. When Franzese was indicted in 1967 on criminal charges, Mimi was selected to run Franzese´s crew on acting basis.
In 1970, Mimi was arrested together with 30 other high ranking NY Mafiosi. for refusal to testify before a crime probing Brooklyn grand jury. It was the biggest roundup of its kind since the Apalachin fiasco. Most of the guys went free, Mimi was one of them.
In 1971, Mimi was given his own crew and these guys (and perhaps a couple of others in addition) were assigned to him: Gaetano "Tommy" Barbusca (murdered in 1974 in a car parked outside 1717 Club in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn with Scialo associate John Coiro), Paul D´Amico, Harry Fontana (a former captain) and Fontana´s two brothers Philip and Salvatore. Franzese´s crew was taken over by Joey Brancato (on acting basis). It was said that Scialo handled all gambling and loansharking for the Colombos in the Coney Island area. His status and reputation grew and was, for awhile atleast, considered boss material.
Joseph Cantalupo offers the following on Mimi Scialo: "Mimi was by many called "The King of Coney Island". When he was sober, he was a piece of bread, the nicest guy you could ever meet. When he drank, he was hell on wheels, a man of incredible violence. He hated blacks, particularly when under the influence and if he saw them anywhere in his neighborhood when he was in that condition, he would think nothing of beating them up or killing them on the spot. He also headed up a vicious crew of enforcers for the Colombos, leg breakers and killers who were as tough as any in the Family, including those of Persico. He also had a reputation as a cop beater, and he got away with it. On more than one occasion, he beat up cops when he was drunk, actually broke some legs, and the charges against him were dropped. All that added to his reputation.
Mimi finally went too far one day in Garguilo´s restaurant in Coney Island, a popular Italian eatery where a lot of important people came to mangia. One of those people was Carlo Gambino, who walked in for dinner with some friends. Mimi was drinking at another table and he spotted Gambino and started to hassle him in front of his friends. "You fucking old man", he shouts "who the fuck do you think you are?"
He kept harrassing Gambino who, as always, kept his cool and tried to calm Mimi down. Carl was a peacemaker, a negotiator. He didn´t like fights or violence unless it was absolutely necessary. It took others to shut Mimi up and get him out of Garguilo´s, but it wasn´t long before the whispers started in the streets: "Mimi´s gone.""
In the middle of all this, Mimi found himself indicted for murder together with a certain Sammy "Bull" Gravano. Early on, Gravano was a Colombo associate before being released to the Gambinos. In this case, Mimi and Larry Martieri (one of Mimi´s associates) were indicted for the murders of the Dunn brothers (Arthur and Joseph). A cooperating witness, Michael Hardy, a self confessed hitman for the Mafia, implicated Gravano, Alley Cuomo and Louis Milito in the crime. In the winter of 1969, Hardy recounted, he was in Coney Island to discuss business with Mimi Scialo. Hardy claimed he found Mimi and Larry Martieri in a pizzeria on Neptune Avenue. After "paying the proper respect", Hardy swore he had sat with the two men and that he heard the two men discussing the Dunn brothers. Mimi said that one of them owed him money but didn´t want to pay up. Larry suggested to hit them and also suggested Sammy Bull and Alley Cuomo as the hitters. Mimi, according to Hardy, okayed it.
The defense produced the pizza owner, who swore that Martieri hadn´t been in his place for 18 to 20 years, They produced businessmen who swore that businesses hadn´t existed when Hardy said they had. They produced an ex-con, who swore he had been with Hardy in prison when Hardy said he was "going to get even with Martieri one way or the other". The jury took five hours before rendering the verdict of not guilty. Mimi was not in place to hear the not guilty verdict. In fact he was never at the trial. Just like in the Menditto/Garofalo case more than 10 years earlier, Mimi was labeled "a fugitive".
Informants started to report that Mimi was dead. and a CI claimed he knew where Mimi was buried.
On Oct 9, 1974, federal agents found remains of two persons in a shallow grave inside a Brooklyn social club. Mimi´s body had been "encased" in concrete according to some accounts. The grave was inside Otto's Social Club on President Street, in the Red Hook area of Brooklyn, only a few doors away from the headquarters of the old Gallo gang. It was said that Charlie "Moose" Panarella, a powerful Colombo captain was the one who had set Mimi up.
Like I posted in an earlier thread, Alphonse Persico, the Family consigliere at the time, informed Greg Scarpa that Scialo had recruited some young turks who secretly did dirty work for Scialo. Scialo refused to reveal the identities of these young turks which infuriated Persico. He suspected that Scialo was planning to take over the Family. And later, Scarpa informed the FBI that Scialo was hit because he had become a liability to the Family, when the bosses found out that Scialo was undergoing psychiatric treatment. In addition, Scialo had also shot Larry Lampasi Sr (who survived), a long time made member, during a sitdown when Scialo´s murder of a Colombo associate, named Miguel Cosmos, was being discussed.
Whatever the reason of Scialo´s murder, or perhaps it was a combination of all his transgressions mentioned above that did him in, Mimi Scialo, a very violent man indeed, met a very violent death.
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