Remember this Gang Land article? Several law enforcement and mob sources all said that Amuso remains the official boss. The idea that he's not come largely from conjecture and guessing by some posters on the forums.
Vic Amuso Begins His 24th Year In Federal Custody As Luchese Family Boss
Next Monday marks the 23d anniversary of the day when two young FBI agents standing at a shopping mall outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania made one of the great collars in mob history. The target was Vittorio (Vic) Amuso, the fugitive boss of the Luchese crime family who had been on the lam for more than a year. All agents Stephen Byrne and Cindy Peil had to go on were some old photos. But they also had listened to a recording of Amuso talking on a wiretap. So as soon as they heard the distinctive high-pitched voice of the man wearing shades and a baseball cap speaking on a mall payphone they knew they had their man.
The 79-year-old wiseguy has been behind bars ever since. But while the feds can take a gang land chief out of circulation, they can't take his Mafia crown away from him. And from that day forward, even though he's been in federal custody for nearly a quarter century, Vic Amuso has remained the undisputed boss of his crime family.
That's right, uninterrupted. Despite what you may have read earlier — right here in Gang Land — Amuso's reign has been continuous since he took over in 1986 after his predecessor, Antonio (Tony Ducks) Corallo, was convicted in the historic Commission case, sentenced to 100 years, and ceded his lofty post to Amuso. Despite pressure from some underlings, and the difficulty of running a crime family from cells in the multiple prisons where he's been confined since his 1992 conviction, Amuso has retained his spot atop the battered borghata.
In other words, scratch that erroneous report that appeared here back in February, 2012 that Amuso had been replaced by longtime acting boss Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea. Wrong. Maybe it was wishful thinking on the part of some otherwise usually reliable sources, but it turns out the rumors of Little Vic's alleged demise as Luchese boss were greatly exaggerated.
Don't get the wrong idea: Gang Land did not receive an official communique on the subject from Amuso, who is serving his life sentence these days at a medium security prison in Maryland. And neither Crea, 66, nor Matthew Madonna, 78, who sources say is Stevie Wonder's right-hand-man and serves as Amuso's "street boss," have contacted us either. Law enforcement authorities also offered no official comment on the matter.
But enough sources have since come forward to dispute the earlier claim about Amuso stepping down, that we now set the record straight: Vic Amuso remains the official boss of the Luchese crime family.
The closest thing to an official confirmation about Amuso's status came in April from the testimony by FBI agent Kenneth Terracciano at the racketeering trial of Luchese mobster Nicodemo Scarfo Jr. in Camden Federal Court. Terracciano, a Newark-based G-man, offered a simple declarative sentence on the matter: Amuso, he said, "is the boss of the Luchese family."
That claim has since been bolstered by several well-placed law enforcement and underworld sources, all of whom agree that Vic is still on top.
Not only is he still running the show, Amuso has no intention of giving up his post until he leaves the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons, "one way or the other," said one law enforcement official. Sources say Amuso's mindset is the same as two contemporary mob bosses who died in prison, John Gotti and Vincent (Chin) Gigante, as well as Colombo boss Carmine (Junior) Persico, who's been incarcerated since 1984.
"By now," added the official, whom we'll identify as LEO#1 (Law Enforcement Official #1), "Vic knows he's not walking out; he's getting out in a body bag."
"There is no doubt, Vic is the man, end of story," agreed a second longtime mob buster who's been making cases against New York wiseguys for more than 20 years. "Vic has always been the (Luchese) boss," said LEO#2.
The longtime mob buster, as well as a third official, LEO#3, noted that when Amuso's wife Barbara died two years ago, it was "standing room only" at the one-day wake at the James Romanelli-Stephen Funeral Home on Rockaway Boulevard in Ozone Park on March 2, 2012. Mrs. Amuso, 69, was laid to rest the following day at St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale.
Barbara Amuso, who was a vocal supporter of her husband at trial, and who got into a shouting match with prosecutor Charles Rose outside the courtroom after her husband was sentenced to life for ordering nine mob murders and numerous other crimes, died on February 29, 2012 — six days after Gang Land's faux pas that her husband had stepped down.
"Amuso sent out word that he wanted everyone to show up, and the place was packed," said LEO#2. "The Lucheses showed up en masse," added LEO#3, who noted that a "sprinkling" of Gambinos from the Howard Beach, Queens area, where both Gotti and Amuso lived, also paid their respects.
Sources say that like virtually the entire crime family, Crea, the Bronx-based former boxer who owned construction companies and made millions of dollars though bid-rigging, price-fixing and kickback schemes involving construction industry union officials, and Madonna, attended the wake.
All of that jibes with what one underworld source (call him UW#1) told us: "Vic is still in the chair, still running the show," he said. "They (Luchese mobsters) don't like the fact that he's still calling the shots, but he's not giving it up. He's the boss," said the mob associate, a longtime cohort of the Luchese and Bonanno crime families.
It all makes sense to former FBI supervisor George Gabriel, who spearheaded the investigation that ended with John Gotti being sentenced to life in prison.
Gabriel, who was on the FBI team that scooped up turncoat acting Luchese boss Alfonso (Little Al) D'Arco two months after Amuso was arrested, told Gang Land he is not surprised that Amuso is holding on to his official title. D'Arco later was the key witness against his old mob boss at trial.
"Amuso and John Gotti are both cut from the same cloth, or similar cloth," said Gabriel.
"They both have the kind of ego that wouldn't let them walk away from being the boss of the family even though the rules of Cosa Nostra dictate that they should step down when they get life incarceration, or even a very long sentence – for the good of the crime family," said Gabriel.
"And Vic knows, like John knew, that if you give it up, not only are you out of sight, you're out of mind," said Gabriel. "The only way to insure that their own family is taken care of is to hold onto the reins of the crime family, and maintain the access to the crime family's money."
Amuso went on the lam in May of 1990 when he learned he was about to be hit with racketeering charges. The plan was for him and his number two, Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso to lay low long enough so that they could learn from the trials of those they left behind the kind of evidence the feds had against them.
But that plan went awry at 11 AM on Sunday, July 28, 1991 when agents Byrne and Peil showed up at the Viewmont Mall just off of Interstate 81 in Dickson City, PA. Sources say the agents went there after the FBI received an anonymous letter pinpointing a specific pay phone where "a fugitive New York organized crime boss" would be receiving a phone call.
Like a kidnap ransom note, the missive consisted of letters cut from newspapers and magazines. It arrived at the Queens-based squad on the previous Friday. Considered a likely wild goose chase, rookie agents Byrne and Peil were selected to handle the Sunday morning assignment. The thinking was there was "little chance of success," recalled a former member of the Luchese family squad (dub him LEO#4).
In addition to looking at photos of Amuso, Byrne and Peil listened as one agent played them a tape recording of Amuso's voice that had been picked up on a wiretap. The older agent offered a comparison: Amuso, he said, "sounds just like the guy with the high-pitched voice on the Bowery Boys," referring to one of the characters in the slapstick movies about kids from the lower East Side, said LEO#4.
Matthew MadonnaAt the mall, the agents weren't sure they had their man. Amuso showed up wearing a cap, Aviator sun glasses, shorts, and a T shirt. He could have been any suburban dad stopping off at the mall on a family errand. Then they sidled up to him. As they drew near, they heard the same "high pitched voice" they had heard two days earlier. Bingo.
Amuso was placed under arrest. The boss clammed up right away. He didn't say a word to the agents, or anyone else for the next 24 hours, said LEO#4. It wasn't until Scranton Federal Judge William Nealon told him he would have to wait four days in a local jail for "an identity hearing," that he finally piped up. "I'm Vic Amuso," he said in his squeaky voice.
"All I remember about the arrest is that they did an excellent job," said John Kapp, a former supervisor of the FBI's Luchese family squad. "They gave up a weekend, they moved on a tip that the FBI had received, and they arrested the boss of the Luchese crime family."
Make that the still reigning boss of the Luchese crime family.
