June 24, 2019

The youngest of the proposed inductees may not have garnered much of a "tough guy" image in the Mafia, but by 2010 the 36-year-old had the privilege of being close to influential people in high places. His father-in-law was the family's boss for the past thirty years, Carmine "Junior" Persico, and as such, Spata had special permission to meet the 76-year-old godfather at his prison digs in Butner, North Carolina. Beginning in the 21st century, Spata became one of the go-to guys to pass along messages from Persico to the rest of the family. Even though Junior had been behind bars since 1985, the organization was still under his command.

Spata networked his marital status by becoming a close personal assistant of Carmine Persico's loyal acting boss, the murderous Tommy Gioeli, during the 2000s. Testimony from mob turncoats indicates that Spata organized meetings and made calls for the elusive street boss until a grand-slam indictment from 2008 charged Gioeli with multiple homicides. By this time, Little Angelo was bringing home the bacon by running an illegal gambling club, various Joker-Poker machines, and a loansharking operation. His primary illicit income came from his control over various Italian feasts, one of which was the annual Figli di Santa Rosalia, held in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. The event was a Mafia cash cow, and Spata represented the Colombo family's significant interests as both he and his father had operated booths there for years. Each vendor at the feast was forced to give Little Angelo up to $2500 under-the-table for the right to work, and Spata leveraged his front company, Toy Store Amusements, to hook up dodgy rigged gaming machines.

Like a lot of Brooklynite gangsters, Spata's mob ties didn't begin with the Colombos. His father, Angelo Spata Sr., was with the Gambino family back in the 1980s, according to an exclusive Cosa Nostra News interview with turncoat gangster Michael 'Mikey Scars' DiLeonardo. Exclusive court documents obtained by thecolombomafia.com also allege that Spata Sr. was later proposed for induction into the Colombo family too, before his son. As noted by Cosa Nostra News, the elder Spata's claim to fame was less his organized crime ties, and more so the successful sausage-and-peppers stand he ran at just about "every feast" in New York City.

Mama Lucy's Sausage and Peppers, named after Angelo's proud wife, was a fixture at most of New York's Italian festivals, including (but not limited to); the Figli di Santa Rosalia in Bensonhurst, the San Gennaro Festival in Manhattan's Little Italy and the Our Lady of Pompeii Feast on Carmine St., Lower Manhattan. The cheffing couple spent most nights from May to September running their various booths throughout the summertime feasts, supplementing their day job of owning and operating a Dyker Heights butcher shop. The pair were a match made in heaven; Angelo Spata Senior was a butcher by trade, specializing in Italian meats & sausages, while Lucy was a third-generation sausage-and-peppers vendor at the Feast of San Gennaro. During peak festival season, the couple was up at 6:30 every morning, according to a Daily News article from September 8, 1993, where they toiled away "'til after midnight."

In a romance made for Hollywood, it was San Gennaro that brought the two lovebirds together. In 1967, 14-year-old Lucy was buying sausages with her mother for their stand. The man at the counter was Angelo Spata, six years her elder. He didn't know a word of English, having recently emigrated from Palermo. They didn't know it yet, but the two would later be married.
"When he wanted to ask me out," Lucy recalled in the Daily News article, "someone had to translate."

But where does the mob come in? Well, according to Cosa Nostra News, Angelo Spata Sr. had to kick up part of his profits from the age-old feasts to longtime Gambino capo Olympio 'Lilo' Garofalo. Quoting turncoat capo Mikey DiLeonardo, the report says Spata Sr. began reporting to capo Jackie D'Amico following Garafalo's death.
"Jackie gets him in 1986 - when Jackie became a captain," said Mikey Scars, who noted that Jackie "pocketed around $500 from Spata at the San Gennaro feast."

D'Amico quickly became a familiar face on news screens as a flunkey, right-hand-man and chauffeur for the romanticized boss of the Gambino family, John "the Dapper Don" Gotti. As the "Teflon Don" controversially beat cases in New York courtrooms, D'Amico was always by his side, playing the part of personal secretary. Meanwhile, the Spatas were neighborhood sensations for more positive reasons. In 1990, for instance, Lucy Spata was crowned "Queen of the Feast of San Gennaro," a title which she maintained for years. Every September, she rode through the streets of Little Italy, "carrying a bouquet of red roses and blowing kisses at the crowd from atop a spangled float," according to a Daily News piece from September 8, 1993.

In Dyker Heights, the Spatas were household names, and the Urban Gazette section of the Daily News gave Lucy a full-page article in the 1990s. At Christmastime, long after the busy summer feast season, the Spatas kept busy. "Every inch" of their home at 1146 84th St. was adorned with "tinsel, figurines and blinking bulbs, attracting visitors from all over the city," according to the Urban Gazette article, which noted that the extravagant home glamor was a month-long affair and enlisted workers from their feast stand to "dress up as elves, snowmen and cartoon characters."
"The San Gennaro brass band helps out too," Daily News Staff Writer Karen Avenoso reported, "playing Christmas tunes every Saturday on Spata's stoop."

In the Cosa Nostra News exclusive, Mikey DiLeonardo attested to the Spata's fame.
"Everyone in Bensonhurst knows about the Spatas (and) Lucy's Sausage," he said. In Mafia circles, however, Spata Sr. only started becoming a household name when he began getting closer to his new capo, Jackie D'Amico, says DiLeonardo and journalist Ed Scarpo.
"He was a carny guy," Mikey Scars said, although he was useful to D'Amico because of the Palermo-born Spata's links to the discontent faction of the Gambino family that hailed from Sicily. The rocky relationship between John Gotti and the Sicilian faction was revealed by Gotti himself as he spoke freely in bugged locations, such as his infamous Manhattan social club.
"Gotti had no use for Sicilians," a law enforcement source told GangLand News in an article from July 28, 2011, which quoted Gotti as calling them "sneaky" and "untrustworthy."

After prosecutors indicted the capo in charge of the family's Sicilian-heavy 18th Avenue Crew in 1990, Gotti picked D'Amico to succeed him. Jackie was responsible for keeping close tabs on the mysterious Sicilians, commonly known as "Zips." This is what made Spata Sr., who raised his kids bilingual, so important. And, to dispel the notion that Spata Sr. was a victim of the Mafia's extortion instead of a willing participant, DiLeonardo told Cosa Nostra News that the sausage-maker relished in his newfound position;
"Now he's feeling his oats, going to social clubs. Jackie made him more important." Soon enough, says Scars, Angelo Sr. was getting exclusive access to coveted stands and concessions at the various mob-run Italian feasts, which only heightened his family's neighborhood fame.

By this time, Angelo Spata Jr. was reaching adulthood. He graduated from Xaverian High School in June 1992, and followed in the steps of his older brother, Vincent, by enrolling in St. John's University. By this point, Little Angelo was an unlikely candidate for a life of crime. A teacher described him as a "hard-working, very amicable individual who stood out amongst his peers" and even "volunteered to help clean up the Shore Road parks." But although Vincent Spata passed the bar exam and become a career attorney, Angelo Jr. didn't follow suit. He dropped out after only one semester, according to a letter Vincent wrote to a federal judge in 2013.

In his Cosa Nostra News interview, Mikey DiLeonardo detailed what Angelo Jr. did after dropping out of college. He pursued a career in the mob, something which he had been groomed for since he was born on June 13, 1974, when powerful Lower Manhattan Gambino capo Joseph 'Joe Butch' Corrao was made his godfather. Instead of paying protection money to the Mafia, as Angelo Spata Sr. had done, he hoped his son would grow up to be on the receiving end of such cash tributes.

Joe Butch Corrao was imprisoned in 1991 when Little Angelo, nicknamed due to his diminutive size, was only seventeen years of age. Corrao's son, 24-year-old Vinny Butch, was soon made acting capo and groomed to take over his dad's Lower Manhattan operations, including loansharking, gambling, and the shakedown of various legitimate businesses. To his father's delight, Little Angelo Spata quickly became the full-time driver for Vinny Butch after dropping out of college.
"Now, Joe Butch is taller than (Gambino boss Paul) Castellano," DiLeonardo told Cosa Nostra News. "He's the tallest Gambino.   And Joe Butch' son came onto the scene. Now, Vinny Butch also is tall - he's a big guy. Vinny Butch has the kid (Spata Junior) driving him around.
"He'd get a kick out of saying Joe Butch was his godfather," DiLeonardo is quoted as saying in the article.

Vinny Butch, and therefore Little Angelo, were under constant surveillance by the feds during this timeframe. The mob control over the San Gennaro feast was also under pressure after federal indictments unsealed in '95 & '96 charged the Genovese family with skimming rent money from vendors. After Mayor Giuliani threatened to close the feast altogether, Lucy Spata let the Daily News know what she thought of his allegations;
"It's ridiculous. Being Italian, or having something Italian - why does it always have to be mobbed up?"

Little Angelo's run in the Gambino clan ended up being a short one. In 1994, he started dating a girl from the neighborhood named Susan, a full-time public school teacher with a Master's Degree in Education. Susan also had one more selling point. She was the daughter of Carmine "Junior" Persico, the powerful and murderous godfather of the Colombo crime family. By the time they started dating, Persico had just won a vicious two-year-long power struggle from behind bars and pushed his son, Alphonse "Allie" Persico, who was released from prison in 1994, to head the family into the new millennium.

Little Angelo and Susan got married in November 1996. Technically, Angelo was on-record with the Gambinos, but his now-brother-in-law Allie Boy changed that. On Angelo's wedding day, Allie met with Mikey DiLeonardo, who told Cosa Nostra News that he became the de facto emissary between the Colombo and Gambino families. At their meeting, Mikey "spontaneously" released the groom from Gambino employment, allowing Spata to become an on-record associate with his brother-in-law mob boss.
"That's my wedding present to you," Mikey quoted himself as saying, to which Allie allegedly replied;
"Give him to me? I'll just fuckin' take him!"

With that, Angelo pursued a future in the Colombo clan. According to testimony from turncoat Florida capo Reynold Maragni, Spata could be found hanging out with Allie, his brother Michael, and other Colombo gangsters at Romantique Limousines in Dyker Heights. Due to Allie's post-prison supervised release restrictions, his hangout was Romantique, which is where he listed his occupation for the Probation Department. Owned by his brother Michael, the company was under constant surveillance by the FBI looking to trip up the acting boss and ship him back to prison on a supervised release charge. Luckily, Angelo Spata Jr. had no criminal convictions and was now related to the Persicos, so he was one of the few in the acting boss' inner circle.

It's unknown what crimes - if any - Angelo Jr. was involved with during this time but whatever the case, he certainly had money to splash around. On paper, Spata's only occupation was for a business his father owned in the Bronx, where he worked as a "concessions worker." I don't know too much about the pay grade of concessions workers, but before long Angelo had enough money to start his own company, "Piccolo Food Service," which delivered food to restaurants across Brooklyn. In 1998, his business portfolio expanded when he opened "Cafe D'Angelo" on 18th Avenue with his father. While owning and operating both of these businesses, the entrepreneurial Angelo started another company that same year, which coupled his ties to the Mafia with his connections to New York's various feasts and festivals. This company, Toy Store Amusements, provided rides and concession stands for seasonal celebrations and holiday fairs, as well as private events and fundraisers. TSA also had a second purpose; it became the Colombo family's main instrument for dominating the New York feast industry.

Using TSA, Angelo Spata gained a stranglehold on the Figli di Santa Rosalia, a 10-day street festival that stretched along 18th Avenue between 68th Street and Bay Ridge Avenue. Named after the patron saint of Palermo, the Feast began in the 1940s and continued unabated through the 21st century. For those ten days, between 5pm to 11pm, residents of Bensonhurst could gorge themselves in delicious treats from over 100 vendors, including Mama Lucy's Sausage and Peppers stand. Dating back to the 1980s, however, the mob has always received its cut.

According to a 1990 indictment, 18th Avenue capo John Gambino initially controlled Santa Rosalia, as per his role as the "Boss of 18th Ave.," according to court papers. This control continued through the reign of Jackie D'Amico, according to DiLeonardo, who claimed Jackie helped Mama Lucy's Sausage and Peppers receive the best concession stands at New York's feasts. But Little Angelo, beginning at the turn of the millennium, began to "leverage his reputation as Carmine Persico's son-in-law" to push the Colombo family into receiving a majority stake at the Figli di Santa Rosalia, according to 2013 court papers obtained by thecolombomafia.com.

With Toy Store Amusements, as well as his longstanding connections to the Feast itself, Angelo Spata was slowly able to control the feast "on paper," as well as on the streets. His company was responsible for organizing the permits and controlling its financial books. Not only did this put him in prime position to squeeze and shake down the 100+ booths over ten days, but he also systematically undervalued the Feast's income to the council. For instance, in 2010, he reported a gross income of $43,000, which obliged him to give up $8600 to the City of New York. Although federal prosecutors never gave an official figure on how much Spata made through mob shakedowns, he could have easily earned over $250,000 in under-the-table, untaxed vendor fees alone.

On paper, Spata also had longstanding ties to other festivals in New York City. This should come as no surprise, given his family's history. But, in a small passage from 2013 court papers for Colombo underboss Benjamin Castellazzo unsealed by thecolombomafia.com, the FBI confirmed Spata not only conducts illegal operations in other feasts but also had enough power to command who could and couldn't run rackets.

It's easy to miss the short tidbit from the filing, but mainly it describes how Spata "arranged for the Genovese crime family," a much larger and scarier group than the Colombos, to place rigged carnival games in feasts other than the Figli di Santa Rosalia. Some context; rigged carnival games, particularly "Razzle-Dazzle," are apparently a valuable Mafia racket. During the late 2000s, Spata had a dispute with the Genovese family over Razzle-Dazzle territory and, after a sitdown, allowed the "West Side" (as the Genoveses are sometimes called) to place the games at the Figli di Santa Rosalia and New York's other feasts.

Specifically, Spata "arranged for the Genovese crime family to place the Razzle Dazzle game in the feasts, beginning with the 18th Avenue feast (i.e., Figli di Santa Rosalia)." Unless I'm mistaken, it appears the prosecutors' filing reports that Spata had Mafia authority over 18th Avenue, as well as other feasts, none of which were named. I've managed to put together a quick-and-dirty rundown of Spata's association, as well as other organized crime involvement, in New York's other festivals.

Williamsburg's' Our Lady of Mount Carmel Feast

Williamsburg's' annual shindig, sponsored by Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, features a 65-foot tower and a street full of Italian food over ten days in the summertime. The amount the festival rakes in isn't known, but an article from The Journal News in 1999 reported that the church earned $125,000, indicating a far more significant return from the Feast itself.

While I don't want to cast aspersions, Spata's role in the lucrative Feast is suspiciously similar to his role in the Figli di Santa Rosalia. According to the Our Lady of Mount Carmel's Church Reverend Monsignor, Joseph P. Calise, Angelo was the "supplier of vendors," meaning that he was the man in charge of organizing who could and couldn't score a booth, according to the letter penned by Calise on Spata's behalf for his 2013 sentencing for racketeering. In the Figli di Santa Rosalia at least, Spata's job as the "supplier of vendors" involves businessmen giving cash payments of up to $2500 under-the-table to score a stand.

The Bronx's Feast of St. Anthony

Angelo Spata's connections span up to the Bronx, to the Feast of St. Anthony which is again organized by Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

Although only a five-day affair, the Feast is run by the chairman of the Belmont Business Improvement District, Frank J. Franz, who spoke about how he "worked very closely with Mr. Spata" to coordinate the festival, "a year-long process which requires many meetings and discussions which are both business and pleasure in nature."

Again, without casting aspersions, Franz got specific in what Spata did for the Feast;

"Mr. Spata, and his family, are street vendors at these events and coordinate bringing other vendors and rides to the event."

Feast of San Gennaro

The mobbed-up Feast of San Gennaro, held in Mulberry Street, is probably the largest and most lucrative of New York's festivals. Not only is it a local sensation, but the 11-day Little Italy festival is also internationally famous and attracts tourists from elsewhere in the United States, and abroad. The Spatas, as mentioned before, have longstanding ties to the Feast, with Lucy Spata being crowned the "Queen" for several years running.

The Feast also has the distinction of being the most "mobbed-up," as far as the FBI is aware. On June 11, 1996, the FBI charged the acting boss and other members of the Genovese family with pocketing upwards of $20 million "through a catalog of crimes - right down to stealing bills from the Feast of San Gennaro statue," according to a Daily News article the following day.

That year, Mayor Rudy Giuliani declared the festival officially "mob-free," although, years later, Cosa Nostra rule has continued. The Genovese family was never entirely eradicated, but the power vacuum allowed the Gambino and Bonanno families to move in, according to various court documents and media reports. In '96, an independent watchdog selected by Mayor Giuliani handpicked a Bonanno soldier named Perry Criscitelli as the new president, in a move that was ironically supposed to replace the previous corrupt officials.

Tape-recordings of the Bonanno family discussing the Feast forced the disgraced Criscitelli to resign in 2004. Even as federal prosecutors emphasized that the Feast was mob-free, reports conclusively prove that Mafia control is still ongoing. GangLand News, in an article from April 30, 2009, noted that the festival was administered "in recent years by the Genovese and Bonanno crime families," and indictments of various Genovese capos back that up.

In the last few years, the FBI has been forced to concede, again, that the Feast is still a hotbed of racketeering activity. This revelation came when an undercover FBI agent working for Genovese capo Eugene 'Rooster' Onofrio attended the wake of John 'Cha Cha' Ciarcia, "a legendary Mulberry Street figure known as the "Mayor of Little Italy,"" according to a GangLand News article from July 6, 2017. The section further reports that, in the wake, Onofrio fingered Ciarcia as a Genovese family associate and, said Onofrio; "was involved in everything with the feast." Furthermore, Onofrio gleefully affirmed that he was the designated successor to manage the San Gennaro festival, and the multimillion-dollar scams that came with it.

Spata, on the other hand, has the distinction of having never being linked to San Gennaro's Mafia-side. Yes, he and his father were longtime Colombo & Gambino associates. Yes, the elder Spata paid tributes to the Gambinos that later propelled his son into the Life. But the Spatas, including the Festival Queen herself, have never come under scrutiny by the media or prosecutors. In 1996, the same watchdog that elected a Bonanno soldier as the festival's new president also picked a company named Mort and Ray Productions to "produce" the Feast itself, handling the day-to-day tasks. In 2013, in a letter to a federal judge, the company's owner Mort Berkowitz gave Spata a glowing recommendation, even after the pint-sized businessman was outed as a valuable associate of the Colombo crime family:
"(Spata) has been helpful to the Feast in a variety of ways, including distributing Feast applications to vendors at events he attends, alerting me to potential problems at the Feast, helping to mediate vendor disputes, lending chairs and tables to other vendors when needed and even repairing a door on the Feast office trailer."

Spata's "charitable" work is again reminiscent of his not-so-charitable activities during the Figli di Santa Rosalia, in which he extorted potential vendors, promised to hook up Mafia members with lucrative booths, and "mediated" a dispute between himself and a Genovese soldier regarding rigged carny games.

As well as his “tireless” work in New York’s Italian feasts, Spata’s philanthropy made him an even more revered figure in Brooklyn. After his racketeering arrest in 2011, Spata was given glowing recommendations by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn’s Chamber of Commerce President Carlo Scissura, Brooklyn Assemblyman Peter J. Abbate, Councilman Domenic M. Recchia Jr., as well as various other local politicians, church pastors, and business leaders in the community.

Spata’s shining moment came in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, when he provided food and generators to thousands of displaced families from Coney Island to the Bronx, earning him an article in New York’s “Metropolis” newspaper.
“It really is a natural disaster that you thought would never hit the NYC area,” Spata said after serving over 1000 hungry Coney Islanders in one afternoon.
“It feels good to help out. I said, ‘we have to give back to the community,’” Spata told reporters.

With his carnival rides and festival equipment from Toy Store Amusement, Spata has also played an active role in organizing community fundraisers and charity events, particularly for the St. Athanasius Church in Bensonhurst. Little Angelo even hosted his own neighborhood feast, the “3rd Avenue Festival,” as well as the famous Bay Ridge “Haunted Halloween Walk,” Easter Egg Hunts, Santa Workshops, and High School “Senior Barbeques.” Says longtime friend and community activist Chip Cafiero;
“All without hesitation and never asked for anything in return and never wanting praises or recognition for his good deeds.”

At any given carnival, Spata made sure to provide rides for the disabled, and he donated “various concession stands to the Annual Juvenile Diabetes Christmas event,” according to more 2013 letters of support, and helped host the annual “Dyker Lights” Christmas celebration in his neighborhood.

Ironically, Little Angelo even lent a hand to Brooklyn’s police force, which included donating food and entertainment at Bay Ridge’s “National Police Night Out.”

In fairness, the FBI has only been able to link Spata to crimes regarding the Figli di Santa Rosalia, and not New York's other feasts. Spata's bread-and-butter in the weeks and months leading up to the 18th Avenue festival was shaking down proprietors seeking to establish a coveted spot. Back in the 1990s, Little Angelo's dad had to pay a $500 mob tax to operate at Little Italy's San Gennaro festival, which was (and continues to be) controlled by the Genovese crime family. But the tiny Colombo associate went even further;
"At one point, (Spata) was extorting as much as $2500 per booth," exclusive court papers alleged in 2013.

Spata soon recognized the potential of running scams in the feast itself. As well as installing carnival rides & food stands, Spata used his company as a front to install rigged carnival games, the most famous being the previously-discussed Razzle Dazzle game. For this, the player rolls eight marbles onto a game board with holes numbered from 1 to 9. The goal is to accumulate ten points to win prizes but, according to "Gambling Scams" author Darwin Ortez, the game was impossible to win.
"But here's the step that's the key to the game," Ortiz said. "The number added up by the marbles is not really your score."
"People never win," Ortez told the Daily News on January 17, 2013. "It's a virtual mathematical impossibility."  '

Spata then partnered up with a longtime Colombo associate named Louis 'Louie Ices' Venturelli to get illegal video-gaming machines (commonly known as Joker-Poker) installed. A full-time gambling club administrator and Joker-Poker tycoon, Venturelli worked with at least three Colombo capos during the 2000s to control the gambling scene in New York City.

When it wasn't feast season, Little Angelo continued to be a valuable man on the streets. The more the Persico clan found themselves behind bars, the more Spata was entrusted to pass high-profile messages to the ruling leadership of the family. By the time he married Susan, Carmine Persico was in there for life, alongside his capo-brother Theodore and Theodore's son Skinny Teddy. In 1999, acting boss & brother-in-law Allie began serving a gun charge rap, and prosecutors would ensure he stayed there as they hit him with loansharking, and then murder, charges. Very soon into the turn of the millennium, more sons were serving time, as were Carmine's trusted cousins Andrew, JoJo, and Chuckie. Although the Persicos were firmly in charge, it was a rule entirely facilitated through the Bureau of Prisons. The ruling management was loyal to Don Carmine, but prison officials made sure none of them could meet him in his federal digs in Butner, North Carolina. That's where Spata came in.

After Y2K, Spata was commuting to North Carolina on an almost monthly basis to see Junior Persico & convey orders to and from the family's new acting head, Thomas 'Tommy Shots' Gioeli. Court papers indicate that over time, Little Angelo was responsible for organizing meetings and acting almost as the Long Island-based street boss' "secretary." Gioeli's delegation of responsibilities to his underlings, Spata included, may have served the murderous mobster well, considering he was able to avoid prosecution while he was helping to run the family during the 1990s, all the way through his reign as acting boss until his eventual arrest in 2008.

Gioeli's job was to rebuild the Borgata, whose numbers had dwindled due to a 10-year hiatus on inducting new members. One of the men Gioeli wanted to bring back into the family was Reynold 'Ren' Maragni, a former Brooklynite and Colombo associate who had since migrated to Florida in pursuit of burgeoning new business. Maragni testified about how Gioeli called the Floridian to New York in 2007 after he had slowly drifted from the Colombo sphere when his pal Allie Persico was locked up.
"I was asked to come to New York. Tommy Gioeli wanted to see me," Maragni told a Brooklyn courthouse. According to him, it was Little Angelo Spata, whom Maragni remembered from his time hanging with Allie during the 1990s, that made the call. Catching the quickest available flight to the Big Apple, Ren was picked up at the airport by Spata, who drove him to the Hilton Hotel in Huntington, Long Island. Angelo then introduced him to Gioeli, as well as powerful Colombo wiseguys Jimmy Padulla and Dennis DeLucia, who facilitated Ren's re-entry into the organization, and his rapid induction and promotion to capo.

Although Ren may have been inducted relatively quickly after meeting Gioeli (in March of 2008), this was an exception to the rule. Tommy Shots had been proactive in catching up on made members during the early 2000s when the family needed them most. But by 2007, the FBI was closing in on the acting boss and restricting his movement across the Big Apple, and he temporarily closed the books. Onetime acting capo and FBI cooperator Big Anthony Russo discovered this when he was released into a halfway house that year. According to Russo, he was paid a visit by his pals, Carmine L. Persico (a nephew of the namesake boss) and Andre D'Apice, a second-generation soldier, who reported to him that, while awaiting a retrial on murder charges, Allie Persico was trying to push for Russo's induction.

Russo told prosecutors that, despite Alphonse Persico's imprisonment and looming life sentence, he still considered him to be the "acting boss." But on the streets, where Tommy Gioeli was running things, all planned inductions were put on hold as the FBI ramped up their investigation into multiple murders committed by Tommy Shots and his crew during the 1990s. Exclusive court papers reveal that as well as Big Anthony, Allie Persico was pushing for Angelo Spata to be inducted too, way back in the early 2000s. Even Angelo's father, the Sicilian sausage-and-peppers pal of the Gambinos, was "considered for induction into the Colombo crime family," despite being a full-time butcher. According to Spata's 2013 sentencing memorandum, obtained for the first time by thecolombomafia.com, Spata's father also traveled to North Carolina regularly to confer with Don Carmine.

According to those documents, Angelo Spata Sr.'s proposal wasn't based on his abilities as an "earner" or as a "tough guy." But according to the Presentence Investigation Report of Angelo Jr., it stemmed from a dispute over Spata Sr.'s role in the Figli di Santa Rosalia. The Gambinos, in an apparent tug-of-war for control, were apparently "harassing" the elder Spata at the Feast for unstated reasons. For Spata Sr., a mostly-legitimate vendor, to be inducted would protect him from harassment and potential shakedown. Prison records show that the elder Spata visited Carmine Persico in North Carolina in the late 2000s. After that year's Feast was over, however, the Colombos put the idea on the backburner, and Senior soon retired from his sausage-and-peppers stand while he was in his mid-60s.

Russo's testimony regarding his induction indicates a sort-of logjam between Alphonse Persico and Tommy Gioeli. Persico, as mentioned before, wanted to get Big Anthony Russo inducted, as well as the father-and-son Spatas, Reynold Maragni, and Francis 'BF' Guerra. When Andre and Carmine L. visited Russo at a halfway house, Andre said;
"Dino (Calabro, Colombo capo) said right now Tommy can't do nothing for you because they got a lot of heat on them and it would be a bad time."

In the end, the only one of Persico's proposed inductees to be inducted was Reynold Maragni, at a private ceremony that took place in a "makeshift Bronx social club" in March 2008. But, proving his point, Gioeli couldn't make it that day. A pesky FBI tail had followed him from Farmingdale to the Bronx, and it would be too dangerous to preside over the induction. Instead, his acting underboss Benji Castellazzo and consigliere Richie Fusco presided over the sole inductee, who was promoted only mere months later to the position of capo.

Gioeli was indicted in June of 2008, and later in December, charging him with six underworld slayings. Recorded conversations filed in court documents reveal that his arrest, as well as the arrest of official underboss Sonny Franzese, caused turmoil up-and-down the Colombo Borgata. Initially, acting underboss Benji Castellazzo swooped into the role of acting boss and started aggressively shaking down his family's low-level associates for protection payments. Castellazzo even garnered the moniker "the Claw" or "the Fang" for a reputation of "clawing" into underlings' rackets, according to his 2013 sentencing memo.

From prison, Allie Persico stepped up his role in regrouping the family, relying on Spata to run around Brooklyn ferrying messages. He issued a proclamation to shift Castellazzo back down to acting underboss and promoted an old pal from Boston, who had barely any connections to New York, to serve as the figurehead acting boss. Gang Land News, quoting sources, said Persico's strategy was to prevent dissident chapters from seizing control.

Following DeLeo's surprise promotion to "street" boss, the FBI was onto him right away. They spotted Angelo Spata traveling to Boston with two unnamed Colombo members (most likely a reference to capo Theodore Persico Jr. and high-ranking associate Michael) at least twice to confer with the mostly-telecommuting Bostonian. It's unknown what they discussed during these meetings, and prosecutors haven't linked Spata to any direct crimes with DeLeo, but prosecutors later uncovered a scheme with Angelo's brother-in-law Michael, his cousin-in-law & capo Teddy Persico Jr., and DeLeo, to shake down a Massachusetts-based demolition company.

Don't let Allie's integral role in running the family fool you. Carmine "Junior" Persico was still the official boss, and testimony from Mafia turncoats infer that he still had the final say. When Reynold Maragni wanted to begin a lucrative marijuana-trafficking scheme with DeLeo in 2009, he insisted he receive permission from Carmine first. Instead of Little Angelo, Reynold discussed this with Michael Persico, who agreed to get the message to Butner. According to Reynold, Carmine Persico was still attempting to enforce the often-broken Mafia edict against dealing in narcotics, and Ren didn't want to face any repercussions, even though the marijuana-trafficking scheme was with his supposed "street boss."

During DeLeo's year-long reign that ended with his arrest on multi-state drug-trafficking charges, he only visited New York twice, once in February and once in July. His first visit, which DeLeo retold in vivid detail to his sister over the phone, was to hold a sacred induction ceremony during which five new members were straightened out. For one reason or another, the 35-year-old Spata was not an attendee, nor was his proposed father, possibly because Little Angelo's potential sponsors - Carmine & Allie Persico, or Tommy Gioeli - were all in prison.

For all of his clout and family ties, it's possible Spata's omission from the 2009 ceremony could have something to do with his growing unpopularity within both his own crime family and the Gambinos. Although Mikey DiLeonardo was mostly positive of the neighborhood-famous Spatas in his interview with Cosa Nostra News, tapes reveal that Little Angelo was starting to rub people the wrong way. The government got their first inkling that he wasn't as important as he seemed on August 12, 2009, during which Big Anthony Russo, one of the five attendees in the February ceremony, discussed the miniature mob associate with Gioeli's cousin Tommy McLaughlin, who was wearing a wire for the feds.

During the recording, Anthony insisted that "he don't listen to this fucking kid (Angelo)," an apparent reference to a row from earlier that year involving Spata. According to Russo, himself and longtime associate Francis ‘BF’ Guerra opened a shop selling car detailing products in late 2009, with longtime Colombo associate Scotty Reback lending some of the start-up money. Reback's father-in-law happened to be one of New York’s wealthiest mobsters, car-dealing magnate and Colombo soldier John Staluppi.

Michael Persico gave them a garage for the car business, which they had to share with Angelo Spata, who presumably housed equipment from his carnival business there. This wasn’t a problem for either of them; there was enough space to go around. The dispute actually arose from a complicated situation with Reback’s ultra-rich father-in-law. Russo, he testified, had been trying to get Staluppi to sell Russo's car-detailing products in Staluppi's dealerships, of which there were hundreds across the East Coast, Florida, Nevada, and elsewhere. For this, Russo had to go through Michael, who met with Staluppi to sort it out.

Innocently enough, Russo eventually decided to go straight to the source and asked Reback to arrange a meeting with Staluppi. When Michael found out, he took it as a slap to the face and a breach of protocol. Russo gave scant details on exactly why Michael was mad, but apparently, the mob prince was angry that Russo didn't go through Michael first to arrange a meeting with Staluppi.

Michael Persico’s capo-cousin Teddy Jr. shared the news with Russo;
“Michael took it as I was going behind his back,” Russo testified on August 10, 2016.
“I got a phone call from his brother-in-law Angelo and told me to come down, meet him in Greenpoint. They were at one of the feasts there.
“I went to meet him, I met Angelo. We went to a little restaurant in the back, and I didn’t know Teddy was there. When I got there, Teddy Boy was there. Me and BF was there.
“We started talking. Teddy told me, “What did you do?” I said, “I don’t know. I do a lot of things. What did I do?” And he said, “You went behind my cousin’s back and tried to reach out to Staluppi.” And I was like, “How did I do that?” He says, “You went to Scotty.” I said, “Scotty’s our friend. How am I going behind his back by going to Scotty? It’s his father-in-law.” And he made a big thing out of it.”

Teddy warned him that “the only body reaches out to Staluppi is my cousin Michael,” and Spata, feeling his oats, piped up with his own two cents. Russo testified;
“Spata. Spata said, I remember right, he said something about to the effect that, “You know you only listen to my father-in-law, Allie Boy, and my cousin Michael - my brother-in-law Michael.” And I turned around and I said, “I listen to Teddy Boy.””

This crack by Spata ended up being the basis of bad blood between the two that would last for years. Then, Spata started to get bullied and harassed by the Gambino family “because of his diminutive size,” according to Spata’s 2013 sentencing memo. When Angelo Spata Sr. was being tormented, the problem went away when the Colombos made moves to induct him. Spata Jr. hoped the same would apply to him, and he asked Big Anthony Russo to spread a rumor among his 18th Avenue Gambino pals that Little Angelo was on the list to be “straightened out.”

Before Russo flat-out refused, it appears Spata made a few hasty promises so that Russo would spread the rumor. The first of which was that Big Anthony would get a sought-after booth at the 18th Avenue Feast. The second was Angelo would give Tommy McLaughlin, a close friend of Russo, the startup money to kickstart his own shylocking business. But, after Russo refused to spread false rumors, Spata never followed through. Russo met with Spata at his Feast sausage-and-peppers stand on August 31, 2009, where he learned that Angelo wouldn't be getting him a coveted spot at the festival.

On September 21, McLaughlin and Russo agreed when they labeled Little Angelo a "nightmare" and a "jerkoff." I should note that the pair's opinion of the pint-sized mob associate might not fully represent the consensus on the streets. The hatred between Spata and Russo seems to stem from a few ill-natured interactions their pair had, so you should take these tape-recordings with a grain of salt. After all, according to a GangLand News law enforcement source, Big Anthony "tended to make mountains out of molehills."

One of the pair's beefs stemmed over the shakedown of a longtime, second-generation Colombo associate named Roger Califano. Throughout most of his underworld career, Califano would give a $5000 tribute to Tommy Gioeli at Christmastime from his extensive bookmaking rackets. In the year before Gioeli's arrest, Califano generously forked over $10,000. It was the year before the Global Financial Crisis, and people had apparently been splashing their money around on gambling. A couple of years later, the economy had tanked, Gioeli was behind bars, and the Colombo family had experienced a dynamic change in leadership. Now, the money-hungry Benji Castellazzo, as well as Gioeli's successor as capo Joe Carna, demanded the $10,000 tribute remain intact.

Roger Califano soon became an "on-record" associate of Big Anthony Russo, who attempted to stick up for the bookmaker in sitdowns with Castellazzo and Carna. Califano tried to get the wiseguys to contact Tommy Gioeli in the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center but, unsurprisingly, they failed to do so. Instead, Angelo Spata visited Allie Persico in 2009, who had just received a life sentence for murder. He reported back that Allie was on board with the $10,000 payment. The reasoning was simple; half of the ten grand was given to Spata to distribute to the Persico brood, according to exclusive court documents obtained by thecolombomafia.com

During this time, Spata was also in charge of a poker room on 84th Street alongside Louis Venturelli who, if you remember from earlier, was also in business with Spata with Joker-Poker machines, which Venturelli serviced and managed. Court papers allege that Spata was the hook-up for the devices, although Venturelli was the technical expert behind them. In a consensual recording from December 17, 2010, soldier Joey Savarese told Anthony Russo that "Angelo was going up there and splitting up the machines, the numbers, and everything. It was going to be 12 and 1500 a month off of that." On another occasion, Venturelli told Big Anthony and Savarese that he had just given Angelo $3900 from the machines. Interestingly, a pre-sentencing report from 2013 wrote that "any money given to Mr. Spata from the joker-poker machines was then distributed by him to various incarcerated members commissary accounts."

In what appears to be a common theme for the Colombos, Little Angelo reinvested his criminal proceeds into the fruitful business of loansharking. Tape-recordings portray an image of Spata as a Colombo family laughing stock, but prosecutors conceded that the implicit threat of violence was ever-present during his shylocking business. Anthony Russo told the FBI that, in 2010, Spata and Colombo soldier Salvatore ‘Sally Boy’ Castagno had given a high-interest loan to an associate of Russo’s who had fallen behind in his repayments. Benji Castellazzo, representing Castagno, brought this up with Russo, who agreed to look into it.

Exclusive court papers allege that Spata also approached Big Anthony Russo that year and "demanded that Russo provide him a portion of the extortion/protection money collected from “Richie Cap” as part of the Christmas payment." I'll note that the papers never specify what "the Christmas payment" is referring to. Given Spata's history, it might be an annual Christmas payment given to the ruling Persico brood. Since the so-called “demand” wasn’t caught on tape, we’ll never know for sure how it went down. But tapes of Russo himself seem to indicate that Spata didn't just fear Big Anthony - he made every effort to avoid him, and it’s doubtful the miniature associate would have the gall to “demand” anything from him.

For example, on the same September 21, 2009 tape, Big Anthony bragged that he "pulled (Angelo's) ear from behind" and McLaughlin piped up saying that Angelo "ran away from" him. Hardly the attitude expected from a shylock. On October 23, Anthony advised McLaughlin to borrow money from Angelo, which Tommy could then extend onto the streets for more vig. But McLaughlin said he couldn't even if he wanted to;
"(Angelo) runs away from me. I don't know how to get in touch with him," and he complained the following month that Spata never returned his calls.

The pair were sick of Spata's antics. He was then paid an unannounced visit by Big Anthony, who warned him that he couldn't keep promising to give McLaughlin money and then failing to return his calls and follow through, according to Russo's tape-recorded retelling of the occasion on January 4, 2010. A month later, Spata was still at the front of their minds, with Russo grumbling that "Angelo makes us look like fools" by not giving them money. All while he was wearing a wire for the government, McLaughlin doubled down on his anger, bragging that he would "choke Little Angelo and snap his windpipe."

The talks of violence against the detested Persico in-law only continued, with the pair discussing that they should "grab" Spata and force him to "go partners" with Russo in his businesses. Russo tried to get fellow soldier Joey Savarese to push for the loansharking proposal, but Savarese, a partner of Spata's gambling club, reported back that Angelo wouldn't budge.

If you believe Russo, Spata's reputation wasn't limited to just him: "Half of us want to beat him up," he said, with 'us' referring to the Colombo crime family. Russo concluded that, after a year of broken promises and failed negotiations, he wanted nothing to do with "this kid Angelo." If given a chance, Russo would make sure to "kick Angelo in his balls and send him from here to Hong Kong."

Finally, by August 2010, Russo had a sitdown with Spata, during which he "yelled at" and "snapped out" at him. When Russo confirmed to McLaughlin that he was "taking" money from him, McLaughlin warned; "If this Little Angelo lies to you this week and doesn't give you the money… I am gonna punch him in the face." Surprise, surprise, Spata never did. The pair continued to vent, calling Angelo (among other things) "a little weasel." At one stage, Russo vented that he might have to whack the scaredy-cat mob associate.

Big Anthony may not have liked him, but clearly, somebody in the Colombo family saw potential in Angelo. Court records indicate that by 2010, Spata was close to Benji Castellazzo, the fast-rising acting underboss of the Borgata. In the February 2009 ceremony, two of the five inductees were from The Claw's crew, and it appears Benji wanted the trend to continue. During their violent chats about "this fuckin' kid Angelo," Russo mentioned that Spata was finally going to be "straightened out" in a ceremony presided over by Castellazzo and the family's newest street boss, Andrew 'Andy Mush' Russo (no relation to Anthony).

Spata's induction would naturally stop his abuse at the hands of both Colombo and Gambino mobsters, and Castellazzo probably figured it would also give the crime family the upper hand in the Figli di Santa Rosalia. Although Spata had seized control over the festival single-handedly, he couldn't attend sitdowns on his own with other Mafia clans and had to use Big Anthony Russo as his sponsor. This is due to one of the mob's official rules, which states that an associate can't have a sitdown with an official Mafia member on his own. Naturally, this didn't sit well with Spata. He frequently dodged Anthony and refused to return his calls, but nevertheless had to bring him along to sitdowns as his official "sponsor."

One of these sitdowns occurred in the summer of 2010, around the same time Big Anthony was discussing "grabbing" Angelo and shaking him down for money. A Genovese family soldier had complained to Russo that Spata was preventing his brother from placing Razzle-Dazzle games in the Feast. Such a move would infringe on Angelo's operations, even though the West Side were entitled to a stake. Russo arranged for a sitdown at the Salty Dog, a Bay Ridge sports bar/restaurant on 3509 Third Avenue between the soldier, whose name was omitted in court filings, Spata, and Russo. Spata's excuse was that more Razzle Dazzle games would create unnecessary law enforcement heat, to which the Genovese retorted that Spata was installing his own wherever he could.

No progress was made, so Russo pushed the complaint further up the chain to Spata’s pal Benji Castellazzo, who was one of the few Colombo gangsters on the street Spata was close to. But on this occasion, Castellazzo wasn’t on his side. He informed Russo that his right-hand-man, soldier Emanuele ‘Manny’ Favuzza, was a partner of the Genovese family in the Razzle-Dazzle venture, and received a cut of the proceeds. Castellazzo's answer was quick and final; whether or not Spata made money wasn’t on his mind, but if Manny wasn’t earning, neither was The Claw.

Russo organized a follow-up meeting with himself, Castellazzo, Spata, and the Genovese soldier at a sushi restaurant on 4th Avenue. Castellazzo arranged for the West Side to operate Razzle-Dazzle in the 18th Avenue Feast, as well as the rest of the festivals that Spata controlled. In exchange, both Spata and the Genovese soldier would receive $7500 from the soldier’s brother as a tribute. As a display of gratitude, Russo was given $1000 from the soldier for arranging the sitdowns and ironing out the debate. Staying true to his nickname, Spata later confided in Russo that he was forced to share his $7500 cut with “The Claw,” for no reason other than Benji’s attendance at the meeting.

The Razzle-Dazzle battle is the only known hiccup in 2010's otherwise successful Figli di Santa Rosalia, which earned the Colombos (particularly the Persicos) hundreds of thousands of dollars. Prosecutors have never given this figure an actual number, but they unsealed documents which gave an indication of how much the Feast was really worth. In a 2011 detention memorandum, prosecutors alleged that the Colombo family unanimously agreed to "tax" $100,000-$150,000 from the Gambino family's "share" of the Feast's spoils. This, say court papers, would cover medical bills for a Colombo associate who was stabbed by a Gambino wiseguy.

Spata was proposed for induction in August, just as the successful festival came to a close. His net worth, according to court papers, had grown to $2 million, and he was continuing to act as a valuable ambassador for Carmine & Alphonse Persico since the arrest in June of the last remaining Persico kid on the streets, Michael. A September 28, 2010, phone call between Tommy McLaughlin and Joey Savarese proved this. Savarese reported that Spata had just been in contact with Allie Persico through a letter sent to him by Allie's attorney. Persico, who was apparently still involved with the nitty-gritty of the organization's street-level operations, had "authorized" Spata to give McLaughlin the start-up money for his loansharking business. Yes, this is the same loansharking business which had been delayed for over a year, culminating in death threats against Little Angelo. That very same day, Joey delivered the $10,000 cash to McLaughlin's brother-in-law, Peter Tagliavia.

Big Anthony Russo, in his 2011 debriefing with the FBI, said that he learned of Spata’s impending induction that August from the underboss, Benji Castellazzo. The affair was long overdue since court records allege that he was proposed way back in the early 2000s, just after the arrest of his brother-in-law Allie. Perhaps Castellazzo figured that, with Spata inducted, he would be able to hold his own in sitdowns with the Gambino and Genovese crime families, without having to bring Big Anthony Russo or Benji to represent him. Or, perhaps the Colombos figured that, with Michael Persico gone, Spata was the only person able to pass messages from Carmine & Allie. Whatever the case, the ceremony was scheduled for December 7, 2010. Castellazzo told his right-hand-man Manny Favuzza to make sure Spata was “around” on that date, so he could be called upon to swear a pledge of allegiance to the Colombo "regime" and finally become a fully-fledged member.

TheColomboMafia.com will cover Spata’s arrest, his subsequent fall from Mafia grace in a following blog post. Stay tuned!