June 24, 2019

Another mobster scheduled for induction on that fateful December day was a heavyset fella by the name of Ilario Sessa, who was referred to as 'Fat Larry,' 'F.L.,' 'Fatso,' and, in one tape, "that fat fuck." At approximately 6'2 and 450 pounds, the nicknames were no understatement. When he was proposed for induction in 2010, Sessa was beset with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, blood clots in his legs resulting in painful swelling, gout, kidney disease, arthritis, swollen joints, and even lupus, all by the age of 45, according to a letter from his attorney in 2013. He walked with a cane, and was at constant risk of a "major stroke or a fatal heart attack," continued lawyer Vincent Romano. With all of that in mind, it's hard to see how the Colombo crime family saw him as a suitable candidate.

But on the streets, Sessa presented a different image to the one his medical notes portrayed. The embodiment of a "tough guy," Sessa's propensity for violence was frequently utilized by higher-ups in the Borgata. By 2010, his full-time job was as a debt collector, usually for the six-figure loanshark book of goodfella Little Dino Saracino, who was incarcerated two years prior. Fat Larry wasn’t paid much for his services, but his success and criminal prowess put him onto the radar of an ultraviolent Brooklyn-based acting captain named Big Anthony Russo. Tough, volatile and eager-to-kill, Russo was enamored by Sessa and brought him into his inner circle, along with Sessa’s longtime friend and criminal associate Thomas ‘Irish Tommy’ McLaughlin. Unfortunately, McLaughlin had secretly cut a deal with the FBI around the time Little Dino got pinched, and meticulously documented Russo’s blossoming friendship with Sessa, as well as the hulking debt-collector’s subsequent proposal for Colombo family induction.

Big Anthony was undoubtedly tough; he frequently bragged about his role in a 1993 murder and vowed to "chop the heads" of Mafia snitches, but he paled in comparison to Fat Larry Sessa's first introduction to organized crime. That man was the infamous double-crossing serial killer Gregory "the Grim Reaper" Scarpa Sr., who pushed the Mafia into a full-blown war during the 1980s while working as a paid FBI informant.

By the time he was 21, Sessa was a fully-fledged member of the “Wimpy Boys,” an ironically named group of vicious Mafia associates under the thumb of Greg Scarpa. The gang didn’t receive their name from any particular cowardice, but rather because they operated out of Scarpa’s “Wimpy Boys” social club in the heart of Dyker Heights. In fact, the Wimpy Boys were actually some of the most fearless and scariest Mafia associates in New York; drug dealers in Brooklyn & Staten Island were shaken down for protection money, and the Wimpy Boys were quick to murder anybody who didn’t pay.

Fat Larry joined the gang around 1987, helping to fill a power vacuum left by a sweeping racketeering & murder indictment against most of the core Wimpy Boy footsoldiers, including Scarpa’s own son Gregory Junior. A 26-year-old shylock named Joseph ‘Joe Fish’ Marra, who dodged the 1987 roundup, soon took the reins and became the de facto leader of the street-level Wimpy Boy racketeers; second only to Greg Scarpa Sr., of course, who had taken a back seat from day-to-day crime as he succumbed to the AIDS virus.

Larry was among a trio of other Wimpy Boys known affectionately around Brooklyn as the "Fatty Boys," consisting of Sessa, Fat Danny Capaldo, and ex-cop Fat Dean Gargagliano, according to autobiography "The Life: A True Story of a Brooklyn Boy Seduced Into the Dark World of the Mafia," written by fellow Wimpy Boy Larry Mazza. According to Mazza, who was Greg Scarpa’s right-hand-man, the Fatty Boys and other members of Joe Fish's crew had "good reputations" by 1988 and, even though Fish was not yet made, he played a significant role in his mentor Scarpa's operations. A prolific murderer, Scarpa schooled his crew in how to kill, despite spending most of his criminal career as a paid informer for the FBI. He seldom ratted out his own guys, since that would infringe on his criminal empire, but systematically dropped dimes on other higher-ups in all of New York's Five Families.

 According to Mazza, Joe Fish was helping to run Scarpa's multimillion-dollar shylocking book by the late '80s. The Grim Reaper's son, Greg Jr., had just been convicted of federal murder conspiracy & drug charges, so the elder Scarpa began to move out of the limelight and delegate his rackets to his crew. Other members of Joe Fish's entourage included Ronnie Calder, Irish Tommy McLaughlin, "Cuzin Joe," and "Ritchie."
"Unfortunately for (Marra's crew), they were all following the same road to destruction as the original Wimpy Boys had. But they all looked up to Joe Fish. After all, he was close to Greg (Senior). They all knew of Greg's feared reputation and dreamed of one day being "with him." They dreamed of the carte blanch they would all have - the respect, the power, the money. And they all fit right in. They did indeed become part of the Scarpa crew. They became arrogant and nasty, but not nearly as nasty as the old crew - the crew that had but two members left - me (Larry Mazza) and Jimmy (Delmastro)." - The Life, by Larry Mazza.
Larry Mazza described Fat Larry in his book;
"Fat Larry was a happy-go-lucky kid…
"I guess that's what I liked so much about Fat Larry. He spoke his mind, unlike the usual "yes" men. He was just arrogant enough to remind me of myself. I had been told, in a nice way, that I had a cockiness about me. Fat Larry seemed to have it too. He made a few moves of his own, just like me. He knew that the words "business is business" went for everyone."

By 1991, tension was brewing in the Colombo family, and Sessa would be caught in the middle. In June of that year, hitmen loyal to imprisoned-for-life family boss Carmine 'Junior' Persico attempted to ambush Persico’s “acting” boss, Vic Orena, outside his Long Island home. Little Vic, who had apparently been making moves to seize the family for himself, dodged assassination and threatened to go to war unless Junior Persico stepped down as boss and accepted him as the new godfather. During the summer of '91, Greg Scarpa "played the middle," according to Mazza. Although a mere soldier, Scarpa held considerable sway due to his fearsome crew and widespread rackets and, although he was slowing dying of the AIDS virus, was still a force to be reckoned with.

As the summer closed to an end, the Colombo family's "cold war" was still in effect. Fat Larry Sessa firmly pledged loyalty to Greg Scarpa who made clear whose side he was on in a meeting with powerful Orena-aligned caporegime William 'Wild Bill' Cutolo. The sitdown took place at Wild Bill's 11th Avenue club and regarded a dispute over who would inherit the numbers operation of a recently-deceased soldier, according to Mazza's book. Greg showed up at the club with a three-car entourage, and the "Fatty Boys" loaded down Danny Capaldo's 1991 Town Car. Over an hour, the sitdown slowly grew out of control. Most of the Orena faction’s top men, except for Little Vic, trickled into the club while Scarpa's guys - Fat Larry included - stood guard outside, armed with pistols and bulletproof vests. The meeting proved fruitless in solving the matter. The apparent attempt to strongarm Greg Scarpa into bowing to Wild Bill and the Vic Orena faction failed, and Scarpa exited the club with his chest puffed out. He was not going to be muscled or intimidated by anybody, and Cutolo soon became his rival, as did the rest of the Orena faction.

On November 18, 1991, the cold war finally heated up after Scarpa was peppered with bullets as he left his Brooklyn home along with his daughter and one-year-old granddaughter. Joe Fish and Irish Tommy McLaughlin returned fire, with Fat Danny Capaldo as the wheelman, but in the end nobody was injured. Meanwhile, Larry Sessa had been waiting for Scarpa and Co. to arrive at a poolroom owned by Larry Mazza, as was his daily routine. The poolroom had become one of the crew's main hangouts during 1991 and, as he waited, Sessa noticed a Cutolo flunky drive past and flip the bird. Fat Larry was more confused than anything, but he later learned that the Cutolo goon - a cousin of Wild Bill’s named Vincent ‘Vinny Venus’ Fusaro - was part of the hit team on Scarpa, and had driven to Mazza's poolroom following the shooting as a show of victory. From Mazza's book;
"(Fusaro) had heard the gunshots as he blocked traffic from 13th Avenue leading to Greg's house. He didn't yet realize that his friends had failed."

Throughout the war, business as usual continued for Sessa. He and Fat Danny Capaldo now had hookups for cocaine, according to Mazza, which they moved by the kilo through Greg Scarpa's own house at 1243 82nd Street, right in the heart of Dyker Heights. It was an easy slide into the cocaine distribution business for Sessa since, according to court records, the rotund mobster and the rest of the Wimpy Boys' kids made their bread by shaking down area drug dealers in Brooklyn and Staten Island, apparently taking over the operation from Greg Scarpa Jr. and his crew when they were arrested in 1987.
But Sessa's dabble into cocaine distribution was quickly thwarted when Greg's other son, Joey, came up with his own coke connection and pushed the Fatty Boys out;
"This led to some unspoken hard feelings between Fish's kids and Joey. It was affecting their profits and they didn't think this was fair," wrote Mazza. Greg went further, apparently, when he forced his crew to buy their pot from Scarpa's other son, Frankie. According to Mazza, Fat Larry griped about the new arrangement;
"It's shit. I can't give it away," Sessa apparently told Mazza, while also complaining about the weed's price.

His attitude towards business would almost be Fat Larry's downfall. Even Greg Scarpa advised him to lay low as the portly associate continued to pick up and drop off money "as if he didn't have a care in the world," wrote Mazza. Court papers confirm that, during this time, Sessa also operated an ever-expanding loansharking business.
"I gotta pay my vig every week, don't I?" F.L. sarcastically replied to concerns laid out by Greg Scarpa, says Mazza. On November 29, 1991, he was at Bruno's Hair Salon, just off 86th St. and 20th Ave., doing just that:
"After making his collection from one of the haircutters," Mazza wrote, "Fat Larry went to use the pay phone, which was hanging on the wall. He beeped another of his customers and waited about 20 minutes for the return call that never came, so he left the shop."

Unfortunately, a soldier in the Cutolo crew named Vincent 'Chickie' DeMartino was eating lunch at the corner pizzeria. He quickly mobilized his men and ambushed Sessa as he left Bruno's, which was coincidentally where Billy Cutolo himself received a weekly haircut. Mazza wrote that Chickie and his team were waiting across the street for Larry, who recognized the white Lincoln of Cutolo associate Frank 'Franky Campy' Campanella. In it were Dominick 'Black Dom' Dionisio, Joseph 'Little JoJo' Russo, Frank 'Frankie Notch' Cutolo and Gabriel 'Gabe' Scianna.
"Without hesitation, Fat Larry pulled out his gun," Mazza recalled, hearing the story directly from Fat Larry afterward. 
"He carried a unique, high-caliber and large, scary-looking gun. It even had a scope on it with a laser beam that marked his target with a red dot. It was an impressive and intimidating piece like one from a James Bond movie."
Fat Larry apparently regaled to the Scarpa crew; "They stopped in the middle of the street. Black Dom turned white!"
"At that moment, Chicky came running out of the pizza joint screaming, 'Shoot 'em… Shoot 'em!' He couldn't believe his eyes. Now their bravado returned and they started firing…
"Fat Larry started running toward 86th Street, a sight I'd pay to see. I can't stress this guy's size enough. He was pushing 400 pounds and that's after a strict diet. What it boiled down to was a very large, slow-moving target with four guys shooting at him.
Amazingly he didn't even get grazed and his luck just continued.
As he was running, Ronnie Calder, a good friend and fellow crew member, heard the commotion from his car and spotted Fat Larry running, ducking and weaving.
Ronnie automatically jumped the red light, whipped a right and threw open his door for Larry. Larry dived into the car, still untouched, as Ronnie sped away."

According to the Daily News, Calder was driving back towards the killers. He was going the wrong way down a one-way street. Although Fat Larry, the largest target, remained untouched, Calder was shot in the shoulder and hand. He then lost control of the car and plowed into three people. The Cutolo crew escaped, although Sessa and Calder were pulled over by the police as they sped back to the poolroom hangout. Both were charged with weapons possession and reckless endangerment, for which Sessa received an indeterminate sentence of 16 months to four years.

Despite his close brush to death, Fat Larry jumped straight back into the Colombo warfare, and even joked about the Cutolo crew's sloppiness: "That's the gang that couldn't shoot straight… How the fuck did they miss ME!" Shortly after the attempted hit, Sessa was in the crash car for the accidental murder of Gaetano 'Tommy' Amato outside an Orena social club on December 3 and was in the crash car that was supposed to be present for the December 6 murder of Vincent 'Vinny Venus' Fusaro. Unfortunately, the Fusaro hit crash car returned back to the poolroom before Greg Scarpa saw Fusaro hanging Christmas lights outside of his home. Later, he was again in a crash car while Greg Scarpa and Co. engaged in the violent shootout of capo Joseph Baudanza.

Shortly after, Fat Larry was slated to "make his bones" in the murder of Louis 'Bobo' Malpeso according to Mazza. For an associate, making your bones means to murder somebody in the name of the crime family. Such a hit typically ensures an associate is put up for a membership spot, so the shooting of Malpeso would hopefully be Sessa's ticket into the Colombo crime family. A capo, shooter, and Vic Orena loyalist, Malpeso was expected to be on "Bath Avenue on an upcoming Thursday morning." Larry and Greg were stationed at one end of a shop Malpeso was scheduled to be in, while Mazza and Jimmy Delmastro would be at the other door. McLaughlin and Marra were driving the getaway car, while Capaldo and Gargagliano were in the crash car. The hit was well-orchestrated and was slated to be one of the most significant victories in the war.
"We were all armed with pistols, bulletproof vests and ski masks. For once, we actually had a set up. Each team even had walkie-talkies," Mazza wrote. As they waited for the powerful Orena capo, Larry Sessa threw his ski mask on.
"Now Larry is about 6 foot 2 and weighs about 370 pounds," Mazza humorously recalled in his book. "Jimmy laughed, "Ooohhh, he'll never recognize you now."'

Alas, Bobo would never arrive, and Sessa would never get to "make his bones." That was probably a blessing in disguise for the Scarpa crew. By the end of the war, most of the Scarpa crew's "hitters" were put away for life. Sessa managed to dodge any potential murder charges, and Bobo Malpeso was taken care of by the government; he was given a life sentence for his own murders and died in prison years later.

Larry Mazza wrote that Sessa got close to committing murder at one other time when two Gambino soldiers showed up unexpectedly at the poolroom during the war. As Danny Fama and Frankie Mariconda paid a visit, presumably to murder them on behalf of the Gambino crime family as a favor to Vic Orena, Fat Larry & Fat Danny "sat at a card table not five feet behind them with their friends Smith & Wesson in their hands, and pointed toward the back of the two wannabe hitmen, who wouldn't have been able to get their guns out."

When the war closed to an end, Greg Scarpa and top guys were locked up. Scarpa was then outed as a longtime FBI informer and was alleged to have conspired with the FBI in murdering rival goodfellas. According to Mazza, Joe Fish ended up assuming the bulk of Scarpa's rackets, including his sprawling shylock book and took his crew of up-and-comers with him. The war officially came to a close in 1993, long after most of the family had been locked up or gone into hiding. Little Vic Orena, in fact, was imprisoned way back in April of 1992, setting the stage for his faction's eventual demise. By '93, the Persico faction was also in disarray as their top members began informing on their old cohorts. Consigliere Carmine Sessa told the feds every detail about the Persico faction's various meetings and murder plots, and fellow capo John Pate, soldier Alan Quattrache, and Greg's right-hand men Larry Mazza and Jimmy Delmastro also agreed to testify against their accomplices.

For a couple of years, Joe Fish Marra and his crew delicately continued their operations, but unfortunately, Sessa was finally sentenced for firing eight rounds from a .380 semiautomatic handgun back when he was chased through the streets of Brooklyn by Chickie DeMartino. He began serving his state sentence of 16 months to four years but was moved into federal custody when a new indictment dropped on him, and the rest of the Scarpa crew, on October 26, 1994. The following members were arrested and charged;

• Joseph 'Joe Fish' Marra, 33, the new leader of the former Scarpa crew.

• Ronald 'Ronnie' Calder, 31.

• Daniel 'Fat Danny' Capaldo, 29.

• Dean 'Fat Dean' Gargagliano, 28.

• Thomas 'Irish Tommy' McLaughlin, 25.

• Joseph Santapaola, 33.

• Frank Scarpa, 31, the son of Greg.

• Ilario 'Fat Larry' Sessa, 27.

• Peter Tagliavia, 23.

As well as the following Wimpy Boy members who were already in prison since 1987;

• Gregory Scarpa Jr., 42, the acting capo of the crew and Greg Sr.'s son.

• Kevin Granato, 34, the right-hand-man of Junior.

• Joseph Savarese, 31.

• Robert 'Bobby Zam' Zambardi, 41.

The indictment alleged a racketeering enterprise that dated back to the 1980s and dabbled in murder, loansharking, extortion, and narcotics trafficking. The sentences handed down were remarkably mixed. Gregory Jr. is not scheduled to be released from prison until 2027, while Joe Fish Marra, Kevin Granato, and Bobby Zambardi were all given twenty-year sentences. Fat Larry Sessa made off relatively okay and took a plea for cocaine distribution. He was sentenced to 138 months, according to court records, and was released in March 2005.

Upon his release from prison, Sessa found it easy to slide back into the Colombo crime family. He hooked up with a recently-inducted soldier by the name of Dino 'Little Dino' Saracino and, according to court papers, became an "on-record" associate with him. Saracino's connection with Fat Larry came courtesy of Tommy McLaughlin, who was once pals with Little Dino back when the pair were part of a dangerous gang of hoodlums known as the "Bay Parkway Boys." When Sessa was released from prison, the Bay Parkway Boys' leader, Tommy Gioeli, was the street boss of the crime family, and Little Dino was an influential soldier.

Unfortunately, Sessa’s release couldn’t have come at a worse time. The FBI were knee-deep in an intrusive investigation into the affairs of Little Dino Saracino, as part of a probe into various 1990s murders committed by Saracino, Gioeli, and the rest of the Bay Parkway Boys. By early 2008, the feds had compelled one of Little Dino’s closest pals, David Gordon, to wear a wire for the FBI.

Gordon's backstory and criminal career is mostly a mystery, but tapes prove he was one of Little Dino's closest pals on the street. From the time Gordon wired up in February 2008, he gleaned incriminating information from Fat Larry on no less than six different occasions, including a sitdown with an influential Colombo old-timer named Vincent 'Jimmy Gooch' Febbraro. Fresh out of prison, the FBI got a front-row seat as Saracino employed Sessa as a full-time enforcer and debt collector for his six-figure loansharking book. If customers - ranging from indebted gamblers, desperate businesspeople, fellow criminals, and even Dino's relatives - failed to deposit their weekly vig into a plastic chicken on Saracino's Bensonhurst apartment porch, he called Sessa. Six foot two and fast-approaching 400 pounds, Fat Larry's appearance and his history with Greg Scarpa meant that he was adept at squeezing deadbeat customers for Little Dino Saracino.

Clearly enjoying his new job, Sessa lent his services to other Colombos in need of muscle. From prison, Tommy McLaughlin and Danny Capaldo had also loaned $10,000 to a 28-year-old Colombo associate named Giuseppe 'Pooch' DeStefano, whose history in the shylocking business earned him a 2000 pinch for extortion. Pooch, who was being charged three points a week in vig, lent the money to an associate of the Gambino family for an additional two points.

The unnamed Gambino associate soon began falling behind on his payments. This wasn't good for Pooch, who had to pay the money back to McLaughlin & Capaldo. On February 23, 2008, during a conversation with a cooperating witness, Larry Sessa discussed that McLaughlin's brother Jackie and Jackie's son, John, pistol-whipped the Gambino out in Staten Island over a loan extended to "Joseph Puccio," an apparent reference to Pooch DeStefano. Then, the loanshark victim went to a Gambino soldier for help; a Brooklyn-based mobster by the name of Ernest Grillo, whose wife allegedly harbored a lovechild to the legendary John Gotti. On behalf of his indebted associate, Grillo exploited a Mafia loophole that rendered the debt uncollectible. Wiseguys can "vouch" for an associate to protect him from harm and then hold a "sitdown" to settle the beef - in this case, the beef was a shylocking debt. But inducted members of La Cosa Nostra, in theory, shouldn't be meeting with an associate from another family unless the associate is accompanied by his higher-up. DeStefano was in a bind. He didn't have any made Colombo guy to vouch for him since Tommy McLaughlin or Danny Capaldo weren't made, nor were his other Colombo connections.

In the February 23 discussion, Sessa explained that some colleagues of Tommy McLaughlin approached him and asked if he would reach out to Little Dino Saracino, whose "made" status meant he could represent Pooch in a congregation with Grillo. A few weeks later, Sessa met with the cooperating witness again and boasted that Tommy Gioeli himself, the Colombo family's street boss, had reached out to help arrange the sitdown. The conversation indicated to the FBI that Sessa had some important people in important places, and they started keeping tabs on him. They spotted him meeting with Little Dino Saracino, which was a violation of his supervised release conditions. They arrested Fat Larry for this around the time they arrested Little Dino himself for multiple murders, including the 1997 hit on a cop.

Sessa was released from Brooklyn lockup in May of 2009. His stretch in the slammer did little to deter him from continuing his criminal activities, but Larry indeed started making more of an effort to lay low. For this, he hooked up with a 25-year-old pal named Anthony Durso, who became Larry's front-man on the street. In fact, Durso eventually took on the affectionate nickname "Baby Fat Larry" or "BFL" because not only was he Sessa's right-hand-man, but he also shared the same portly body type as his mentor. In a tape-recorded conversation, Fat Larry expressed his love for his new protégé;
"I said, "I got three felonies." The kid who drives me (Anthony Durso). The kid already told me, "(if) you get blown with this, I'm taking it away for you. I'll do 2 and a half years; you'll do 25 years if you're caught." Not a bad kid… He's a good guy. He said, "I'll do 20 something months."
Sessa promised that Durso was "here for the long term," implying that "the kid" had a future in the Colombo crime family.

When Fat Larry came out of prison in 2009, his pals Fat Danny Capaldo and Tommy McLaughlin were back out on the street too. At the time, things were looking good for the ex-Wimpy Boys, as more and more members piled onto the streets and continued their loansharking gigs. But something was different. Faced with new murder charges dating back to the early 1990s, Tommy McLaughlin was quietly compelled to start wearing a hidden microphone for the FBI. He even convinced his housemate and brother-in-law, Peter 'Squish' Tagliavia, to wire up too. Their initial target was Theodore ‘Skinny Teddy’ Persico Jr., their designated caporegime whom the FBI pegged as the “heir” to the Colombo family throne. Later, when Teddy was incarcerated on other charges, another big fish fell into the FBI’s lap; Big Anthony Russo. A self-proclaimed “tough guy,” Big Anthony was one of the fastest-rising members of the Colombo regime, taking over Skinny Teddy’s crew a year after his own induction and becoming one of the administration’s “most trusted” captains, according to court papers.

After rekindling their friendship, Savarese and Sessa were soon back to their old tricks, reminiscent of the Wimpy Boys days. According to a turncoat acting capo named Big Anthony Russo, Sessa and his "baby" Durso assaulted an unknown individual with baseball bats over a debt owed to Joey Savarese. Later, Fat Larry and Savarese agreed to team up in a sports betting operation of their own. As part of his new role as a soldier, Savarese went all the way up the chain to newly-promoted acting boss Andrew 'Andy Mush' Russo to get approval for his operation. Mush agreed under the condition that he would receive a cut of the profits, and the sports book launched in March of 2010.

Sessa & Savarese were able to catch up to the modern age of sports betting by using a website - bigactionsports.com - where customers could put down wagers on credit from the two Colombo mobsters. Bettors were given their own usernames and passwords to place bets on loan and check odds. Online gambling is the future of bookmaking, but the Mafia still had a niche in that customers could turn to the mob to place bets when they didn't have the money on hand, so they didn't actually need the cash to play.

In March, Fat Larry met with Peter 'Squish' Tagliavia to recruit him into his new business. At face value, Squish seemed like an excellent partner to have. He was a veteran in the industry and ran sports betting and card games stretching from Brooklyn and the Bronx. What Sessa didn't know was that all of Tagliavia's enterprises were done with the permission and oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

At their March meetup, Tagliavia was given a username and a password and instructed to get his bettors on-board. Bigactionsports.com was based in Costa Rica, and had "about 20 employees who took bets and processed wagers," authorities said in May of 2010. Tagliavia reported to the feds that John' Johnny Pizza' Porcello, an associate of the Genovese family who owned a Bronx pizzeria, operated the website himself and provided Tagliavia with a separate username and password in an April 12, 2010 rendezvous.
(Note; On May 28, 2010, a Buffalo-based man named Brian Cohen was arrested and charged with operating bigactionsports.com on behalf of the Lucchese crime family. This was part of Operation Heat, which saw dozens of Lucchese wiseguys arrested for running the online gambling empire, taking in $2.2 billion in wagers in the 2009-2010 period).

Unfortunately, the sports betting operation was one of the low points in Sessa's venturesome Mafia career. On April 13, 2010, he met again with Tagliavia at the Colonnade Diner on Staten Island and announced that he was shutting his websites' accounts down. Taking such a significant loss, Sessa admitted that he didn't even have the money to pay the winners. Fat Larry & Savarese had spent their criminal careers loansharking, selling drugs, and shaking down pot & coke dealers all over New York City, but bookmaking appeared to be a bit above their pay grade.

With his tail between his legs, Tagliavia now had a dilemma of his own. On April 17, he met with Porcello at a park in New Rochelle. He was accompanied by Neil Messina, an associate of the Bonanno family through his uncle, John 'Johnny Green' Faraci. Although he was a regular at the Bonannos' Bensonhurst headquarters, the Banner Social Club, Messina was tight with several Colombo gangsters. His partner-in-crime during the 1990s was longtime associate Nicky Lanza, and later on, he did business with capo Reynold Maragni and soldiers Joey Savarese, Danny Capaldo, Ralph Scopo Jr., and John Maggio.

At the get-together, Squish explained that one of his customers had won $4000. Confusingly, the customer had placed the bet through Porcello's website, with Tagliavia as his bookie, using the credit of Fat Larry Sessa, who had gotten so unlucky with his bookmaking venture that he couldn't afford to pay out the winners. Messina helped sort out an arrangement in which Tagliavia would take a $4000 loan from Porcello to pay the winner, at three points a week in vig. The two agreed to meet weekly in the Bronx to pay the $120 vig.

It's unknown why the burden to pay was on Tagliavia, as opposed to Sessa, but that's exactly how the FBI wanted it. The more Porcello & Messina hassled Squish for the money, the more extortion and loansharking charges the FBI could prepare. On September 29, 2010, Tagliavia wired up for a meeting with Porcello, after the Bronx bookie left a spate of angry voicemails on his phone. At the meeting, Porcello stressed that he was with the "West Side," a reference to the Genovese family, and demanded that Tagliavia keep paying his vig. Over eight months, Squish forwarded a total of $3130 to Johnny Pizza but that amount was all interest, and the debt remained at $4000.

Following his failed business venture, Sessa went back to what he knew best; working as muscle for more successful goodfellas. Up in the Bronx, a capo named Fat Dennis DeLucia was having trouble with a card game he operated. There was a rival neighborhood game operated by John ‘JP’ Praino, described in tape-recordings as "a friend of ours from Philadelphia." Despite being a made member of the Philly mob, the 75-year-old Praino lived and operated in the Bronx. In December of ‘95, Praino was indicted as the ringleader of a betting ring that handled more than $15 million annually, alongside 25-year-old Genovese up-and-comer Salvatore Arena.

On April 29, 2010, DeLucia discussed with another acting capo, Paulie Guns Bevacqua, how JP had told people not to go to DeLucia's games.
"JP, I had a little beef with him. I had to go in his club with two guys," Dennis said.
"What did he do?" Bevacqua asked.
"He told people don't come to my club."
"Yeah, that's what I'm saying," replied Bevacqua, referring to an earlier conversation he had about Praino.
"So I went in and I told him," DeLucia boasted, "I went in and I confronted him. I went and the game stopped. I went in with two guys that made me look like fuckin' midgets."

These two guys, according to court documents, were the 6'2 Larry Sessa and a longtime Colombo family associate named Phil Sciarratta.
"That's what I need," Paulie Guns laughed. DeLucia then told the story of what happened at the club;
"So I went in there and I told him, JP, let me talk to you. So I went outside. The guys stayed in the club. They wouldn't let nobody come out. "So, what's your problem? We've been friends for thirty fuckin' years, you tell people - why would you tell people not to come to my club?""

According to DeLucia, the reply was; "Well, you know, they run with you." Fat Dennis then apparently schooled him on free-market economics; "What's the difference? A guy can go play cards any place he wants to play cards. If I got a guy in my club, Matty runs my club, if he wants to go with you and go play cards when the club is closed, I don't give a fuck. That's his prerogative. (It) don't hurt me. And this guy is hurting you? You've gotta give him money to sit and play. You gave him 200 to come in here and you didn't get paid. But yet he can't come to my club? What are you talking about?" DeLucia bragged that Praino then changed his tune: "No, no, no, I didn't mean it," Praino allegedly said.

It was months later, on December 6, that Sessa told his version of events to Tommy McLaughlin in a tape recording. He said that he and "Phil" "went to the Bronx" for "Dennis." He and Sciarratta then blocked the doors to prevent anyone from exiting or entering, Larry boasted, and said; "If anybody moves… heart attack," and continued that he "started the bat around."

Despite working for Fat Dennis, Larry Sessa would soon fall under the wing of another Colombo captain. Anthony 'Big Anthony' Russo was promoted to "acting capodecina" in June of 2010, commanding over a Dyker Heights-based crew. Sessa soon became a regular member of Russo's entourage, as did the rest of the ex-Wimpy Boys, including Joey Savarese, Tommy McLaughlin and Peter 'Squish' Tagliavia. Sessa's duties included helping out other members under Big Anthony Russo collect on loansharking and bookmaking debts but, in one dispute that took place on August 5, Sessa instead played the role of mediator.

Apparently, Sessa was close to an influential Sicilian Gambino captain named Lorenzo Mannino. It's unknown how exactly the pair knew each other, although both had long been based in the same neighborhood in Brooklyn. During the 1980s, Sessa and Mannino were both orchestrating wholesale narcotics deals in Bensonhurst - Fat Larry with coke, Mannino with heroin. Both mobsters were imprisoned in the '90s and may have crossed paths in federal prison until Mannino was released in 2004, and Sessa in 2005. Whatever the case, Sessa was not only pals with the bigwig Gambino capo. He "loved" him, quoted Big Anthony Russo in a tape-recorded conversation with Irish Tommy.

Big Anthony explained to McLaughlin that a bookie under him named Roger Califano, 30, had seized a car owned by a deadbeat debtor. Then, the victim reached out to the Gambino crime family's 18th Avenue crew to get his car back and settle the dispute, which brought Fat Larry into the mix through his connection with Lorenzo. Big Anthony told the tale of the stolen car the following day, August 6, in a chat with Mclaughlin;
"Last night Roger took a guy's car… He calls me. "Can I talk?" I say, "Is it bad talk? If it's bad talk, no; if it's normal talk, yeah. If you're gonna talk like an idiot."

According to Russo, Califano told him;
"This guy I've been chasing around for a while, for a month, he just jumped out of his car to get cigarettes so I took his car." Russo replied; "What the fuck do I care what you did?"
Califano said; "No, because somebody probably from 18th Avenue is going to get in touch with you." According to court papers from 2013, this "somebody" was a reference to the Gambino family, who had a crew based on 18th Avenue, in Bensonhurst.

Russo told him; ""They can get in touch with me. I'm not gonna answer the phone. Goodbye. Don't worry about it," I said. I hung up. Half hour later, Fat Larry calls me: "Anthony, what's up buddy?" I said, "What's up, Yogi?"" This elicited a chuckle from Tommy McLaughlin, and Russo continued his story;
""What's up, Bobo?" I said. "What's a matter." He said, "Your friend from 18th Avenue is looking for you." "I’m not around. I'm with somebody.""

McLaughlin then clarified; "Lorenzo or Lanni?" Apparently, 18th Avenue could have referred to two people; Lorenzo Mannino, the Gambino family's 18th Avenue capo, or Joe Lanni, another Gambino soldier from the neighborhood.
"Lorenzo," Big Anthony replied, and then imitated Sessa again; ""You gotta get him, he's my friend. He'll come right now, please. I love him." I go, "You tell him, I need him right now, he'll be here right now."… He might not be here a month. He (Sessa) goes, "No, he's gotta come out." Then he told me what happened. "So what happened was…" "Larry, I already know." I said, "Larry, I already know. Tell him, I'll deal with it tomorrow.""

According to Russo, he received a call later that night indicating that Roger had sorted out the debt without his help;
"So then, he called up, when I got in, about 12:30, I stopped in Brooklyn. I see Fatso (Sessa). "Call up tomorrow,"" is what Russo told him. "But they gave the car back already. They made a deal with the guy, from the café, the guy Sal. "What do you want from me," he goes. "I want my money." "Alright, we'll make a deal." The kid's father's gonna pay. So I call up today. No, they called him up last night. "Listen, Anthony's on it right now." He goes, so what they said that, I wasn't on it. "Just tell him I'm on it, I'll take care of it." They gave the car back. They called me up this morning saying, "Tell Anthony, thank you very, very much. We appreciate from the bottom of our hearts." He goes, "You're a hero and you didn't even do nothing."

Aside from assisting Big Anthony Russo and Fat Dennis DeLucia in their criminal endeavors, Sessa was also given his own shylocking book to manage. When Little Dino Saracino went to prison in December of 2008, he selected his top associates to manage his operations, including a loansharking gig with over $100,000 on the street. He made his wife, April, an active participant in tracking down debtors, along with Tommy McLaughlin, Larry Sessa, and the 28-year-old Gaetano 'Tommy' Gallo.

As part of Sessa's duties, he sent between $200 to $300 in Little Dino's commissary account on the 21st every month under the alias of "Wally Donchange." In fact, unlike many others in the Colombo family, Sessa helped out the incarcerated soldier without asking for anything in return. His tribute payments were out of respect, and Sessa supposedly wasn't getting anything from breaking legs to collect Dino's debts. He told McLaughlin that although he couldn't "earn" anything from Little Dino, he hoped to "get something down the road if I can."

Sessa's generosity ended up getting him a pretty sweet reward. That September, he was put up for membership in the Colombo crime family. This was revealed by turncoat Florida capo Reynold Maragni, who testified that he was shown a list of prospective inductees in September of 2010, consisting of; "Joey Petillo, Fat Larry, Big Jerry, Philly, and BF." Ren was shown the list by the Colombo family's septuagenarian consigliere, Richie Fusco, during one of Ren's frequent jaunts to the Big Apple.
"Richie asked me if I had a problem with anybody that was on the list," Maragni testified in 2012. "I said I don't have a problem with anybody. I don't know who Philly is, I said, but everybody else on here is good with me."

It's unknown if Sessa ever received word that he was lined up for a Mafia inauguration, but for him, it was business as usual. He continued to roam the streets of Brooklyn collecting debts for the incarcerated Little Dino, who was dealing with his brother and two of his closest friends agreeing to testify against him. Sessa bragged to his peers that he wasn't a "legitimate guy" and was happy to answer his phone any time of the day to handle Colombo family business.

Unfortunately, Sessa's duties didn't earn him much in the way of payment. He lived a modest, lower-middle-class lifestyle in a rental Bensonhurst apartment, with his wife, whom he married in 2003 while still serving time in federal lockup. According to a 2013 letter from the Probation Department, Sessa “does not have any assets, does not own any property and does not have any money in any banking institution.”

In fact, Sessa's brag that he never held down a legitimate job isn't strictly true; upon his release from prison in 2005, he worked as a laborer for a construction company. It's unknown how effective he was at this job, given his 450-pound girth, but he later picked up another short-lived occupation as a driver for a delivery service. Then, building from his connections to both Brooklyn and the "old country" of Sicily, he started his own small business, an Italian food distribution company. He named it "Maria Rosa Distributors," after his eldest daughter, who was born in 2007 (Sessa had another daughter, Valentina, in 2009, just as he got out of prison for his parole violation). It's possible that Larry's Bensonhurst-based company originally put him in contact with the 18th Avenue mobsters from the Gambino family's Sicilian faction, many of whom have their own import-export businesses serving Italian foods and beverages. Lorenzo Mannino, the Gambino capo whom Sessa claimed he "loved," is a prominent Bensonhurst restaurateur, and his close criminal associate and onetime Gambino acting boss Frank Cali also owned a leading Italian importing firm.

His entrepreneurial activities aside, Sessa's day job of cracking skulls for loansharking debts ended up earning him some headaches along the way. One of these was when he butted heads with his longtime pal Tommy McLaughlin over cash owed to Little Dino by a longtime Colombo associate named Frank' Buzz' Senatore. On September 17, McLaughlin met with Sessa at the Colonnade Diner, where the Irish associate berated Fat Larry for abusing Buzz since, he claimed, Buzz was "on-record" with him, even though McLaughlin wasn't, and could never be, inducted due to his Irish heritage.

Sessa gave McLaughlin a rundown on what happened when he saw Buzz. Senatore, a longtime associate connected to Big Dino Calabro, had apparently "ducked" Sessa during their first encounter, and then ran to McLaughlin for help. In their Colonnade Diner meeting, McLaughlin reprimanded Sessa for not checking with him first. Perhaps McLaughlin's familial relationship with onetime acting boss Tommy Gioeli, and his long association with the Wimpy Boys gave him the clout and authority of a "made member," despite his non-Italian heritage.

Sessa snapped at McLaughlin, saying that Big Anthony Russo and Joey Savarese - both inducted Colombos - had given him the green light to "do what I got to do" to collect all the debts that were on a list given to him by April Saracino. Sessa told McLaughlin;
"I met Joe the whole time with this," referring to Savarese. "I never approached the kid by myself," he continued, explaining that he never approached Senatore without the backing of the Colombo crime family. "I never, ever. I was nice to the kid. Did the kid tell you I was nice to him? I said, "You know what, Frank, I won't come back, but I want to do the right thing." I said, Joe, "this is what he said." I said, "Joe, what are you so nice to him for?" I go back to Joe. "Joe, what do you want me to do? Abuse the kid with you?" He doesn't want to do the right thing, fine; he does, fine. He's a scumbag; he doesn't answer, said he was a fuckin' mutt with the phone. The kid's a jerkoff. I don't like the kid, Tommy. I'm just doing it out of my way for him 'cause I gave him my word and he asked me to, Dino. I'm risking my fuckin' freedom on a shylocking pinch here for this fuckin' April, who's a fucking… lights the can on both ends… we'll get to that point though."

But while Fat Larry was forced to be "nice" to Senatore, he got a chance to let out his anger only three nights later. This time, he and his protégé Anthony Durso gave a beating to another of Little Dino's customers - Saracino's own cousin, Joseph ‘Joe T’ Tomasullo (Don’t get Saracino’s brokester cousin confused with the Colombo family’s former acting boss Joseph ‘Joe T’ Tomasello, who was happily retired in Florida at the time).

In a tape-recorded conversation from the following day, September 21, 2010, Big Anthony Russo raved to McLaughlin about what Sessa did to Tomasullo, who hadn't made any payments on his vig and, family or not, had to suffer.
"Larry gave the kid a beating last night," Big Anthony said. "Joe T. Massive beating."
"Uh, the cousin or something?" McLaughlin clarified.
"Yeah, yeah. Gave him a massive beating."
"The cousin, right?"
"I told him, do whatever you gotta do. Yeah. That girl (April Saracino) never got a dime," Big Anthony said, referring to April Saracino. "And he told somebody I got the money. Whoever wants to come get it, I got it."
"Joe T said that?"
"Yeah. So they went and got it last night."
"But meanwhile - " Tommy began to say, before Big Anthony interrupted him.
"How about this one? As he was getting beat down, you know what he says?"
"What?"
"I gave it to the father," Russo quoted the kid as saying, referring to Little Dino's dad, Tomasullo's uncle. The elder Saracino is not known to be associated with organized crime other than through his son.
"Meanwhile, this kid, they gave him a beating last night, a massive beating last night," Russo continued with his story. "Gave him a massive beating, Joe T. He walked in, he goes "Hey Lar, what's up?" Bing! They started goin' to work on him! They went to work on him. Giovanni was there too."
"Who? Just Fatso?" McLaughlin asked, using an affectionately rude nickname for Fat Larry Sessa.
"Giovanni, I told Giovanni, you can't put your hands on him," Russo explained, referring to Lucchese associate and bookmaker Giovanni Galluzzo, who was the brother-in-law of Colombo associate Roger Califano.
"No, because - " McLaughlin said, before being interrupted once again.
"I said, Giovanni, you're there, you get satisfaction by seeing him get his head cracked in for fuckin' robbing your cousin for… As he was getting beat down, he turns around, says, "I gave it to the father." Oh, at first you gave it to the wife, now you gave it to the father? Then, Larry passes by the house, the Benz is in front of the house," Russo said, explaining how Fat Larry happened to see Tomasullo's Benz outside of April Saracino's Bensonhurst apartment as he drove through the neighborhood. Russo continued; "He texts the girl, he goes, "Is everything alright?" She goes, "(Tomasullo's) downstairs with my father-in-law. He's downstairs. He's beat bad." He went to cut him, I stopped him, I sliced him up a little bit."
"Fatso went to work on him by himself?" McLaughlin asked.
"Him and that other fat fuck."
"Oh, Baby FL."
"Baby FL."

Fat Larry met with McLaughlin nine days later, September 30, where he bragged about what went down that night with Tomasullo.
"She just texted me too, what's her name, uh? April texted me," Fat Larry said.
"What'd she want?"
""Need to see you, it's important." I guess she wants to find what happened with Joe T," Sessa theorized, eliciting a chuckle from McLaughlin.
"He's a douchebag, bro," Larry griped. "Fuckin' douchebag, that kid."
"Yeah."
"More shit came out on him -"
"Oh yeah?"
"Fuckin'… Let me tell you something -" Sessa tried to say, until he was interrupted by Tommy.
"What about this Tommy and Jack?" McLaughlin asked, referring to two associates of Dino Saracino named Gaetano 'Tommy' Gallo and Jack 'the Whack' Rizzocascio. "I don't like them either."
"That's being worked out," Sessa said, brushing of Tommy's concerns. "Listen to me, Tommy. Let me explain one thing to you about Joe. Just so you know, when (unintelligible) and Giovanni called (Joe T) up: "Hey, Joe, come see my guy." (That was) what he told him. You know me, I got it, I got you, I got it," Sessa said, rambling on about what happened that night. "Then he tells Jack and Tommy. (The) other kid (a reference to Giovanni Galluzzo) just stood there," Larry complained, complaining about how Galluzzo didn't partake in the assault. "Me and Anthony were fuckin' terrorizing that kid (Joe T). (Giovanni's) a lollipop." Apparently, Sessa didn't know that Big Anthony had told Galluzzo prior to the assault that he wasn't allowed to lay a finger on Tomasullo. In Sessa's eyes, the Lucchese associate was simply a wimp without the stomach for violence.
"This Tommy and Jack are two fucking -" McLaughlin began to say.

Sessa then grumbled about how neither Tommy Gallo or Jack the Whack took part in the assault either. "They didn’t do nothing. Anthony was fuckin' kicking him and punching him."
"Yeah, but see these kids, they didn't - what about the money they owe?" McLaughlin asked.
"They're making arrangements with (unintelligible) to get 500 in two weeks." Rizzocascio and Gallo didn't have the stomach for loansharking like Sessa did and, in fact, Gallo had been the first person assigned to collect the debt from Little Dino’s cousin Joe Tomasullo. But Gallo, after a nonviolent confrontation, reported back that Joe T didn't have the money, so Fat Larry pushed him to lure Tomasullo to "Benny's Club," according to court papers, so he could be beaten there.

In their tape-recorded chat, McLaughlin continued to badmouth the two mild-mannered loansharks, hinting that they were trying to get protection from the Gambino borgata. "They're two little sneaks, them kids. They think they're going to be up Lorenzo's ass," referring to Mannino.
"No, no, no," Sessa said, cutting McLaughlin short. "I told them that, and we'll get to that part in a minute, but let me fill you in…"

Sessa then turned the radio up as he tried, in vain, to avoid any potential bugs in his car.
"In other words, Anthony got this or he told them, he gave it to April," Fat Larry said. But, as Sessa said, Tomasullo never gave the money to April, so the crew laid the beatdown on him. "It was all fucked up and I caught him in his shin. I was up in his face." Sessa continued to describe, in grueling detail, about how Tomasullo "scratched my hand, like, caught right here."
"I said, "Don't touch my hand." I said, "Stand still, like this." I fuckin' smacked him. Anthony (Durso) hit him again and I pointed at him, like this."

But even though Sessa's loyal apprentice Durso was eager to get a few smacks in on Joe T, the rest of the team wasn't so keen. "He wanted to get out of there, Tommy," Sessa said, referring to Tommy Gallo, who was apparently "all wet." Then, after the assault, Gallo and Rizzocascio made excuses as to why they didn't join in.
"They just stood there. "Oh, we didn't get a chance." Said, "But I called him, I set him up. I got him here.""
"Who said that, the retard?" McLaughlin laughed.
Sessa, himself laughing too, replied; "Something about this kid getting hit."
"Yeah?"
"I feel it. I don't care. I told her, "Listen to me, I don't give a fuck,"" Sessa said, quoting what he told April Saracino about abusing Tomasullo.

But Fat Larry wasn't just meeting with Tommy McLaughlin to brag about his work on the streets. They were meeting with their captain Big Anthony Russo to discuss another debt, and Irish Tommy was tagging along to record it for the FBI. After their chat about Tomasullo, McLaughlin and Sessa drove to Staten Island mall to discuss longtime Colombo associate Anthony 'Tony the Arab' Sayegh, who had been "on-record" with ultraviolent soldier Vincent' Chickie' DeMartino since the 1990s. First, Sayegh was an associate under Michael Sessa, and then Bobby Zambardi, and was an active participant during the Third Colombo War for the Persico faction. There, he brushed shoulders with the Wimpy Boys but later hooked up with soldier Chickie DeMartino, a member of the William Cutolo crew, for unknown reasons.

In 2004, when Chickie was indicted for the attempted murder of another Colombo soldier, he offered to relieve Sayegh of a $10,000 debt if he testified on Chickie's behalf - and lied - at trial. Now, six years later, Tony the Arab was in trouble with a shylock debt yet again; this time, to the tune of a staggering $100,000, which he owed to Little Dino Saracino. Sayegh spent his days working at a strip club on 2nd Avenue and 39th Street, Brooklyn, according to court papers, which is where Big Anthony Russo, at their Staten Island mall meeting, recommended McLaughlin and Sessa "grab" him.

The wiseguys didn't collect Tony Sayegh's debt until a month later, on October 21, 2010. McLaughlin rendezvoused with Sessa at his Brooklyn house and drove up to Tony's strip club, where they confronted him about his six-figure debt. During the confrontation, Sayegh not only denied owing Little Dino any money, but he also claimed that he had been "released" by Chickie DeMartino as an on-record associate. Chickie, who was six years into a twenty-five-year stretch attempted murder sentence, obviously couldn't be reached for comment. Sayegh then bragged that he was now on-record with the Genovese crime family, meaning that neither Fat Larry or Irish Tommy could assault him until a sit-down took place.

They left that confrontation with their tail between their legs. Two days later, on October 23, they tried again with Dino Saracino's cousin, Joseph Tomasullo, by pulling up at his house. Fat Larry Sessa was accompanied by the wired-up McLaughlin and the "retard" Gaetano 'Tommy' Gallo, as Irish Tommy had called him in an earlier conversation. When they reached Tomasullo's house, the two Tommys went inside. Fat Larry stayed in the car, figuring that Joe T probably didn't want to see him after their last violent encounter. There, Tomasullo dropped some news that came as a shock to Sessa, but perhaps not to Tommy McLaughlin; Joe T had been subpoenaed by the FBI as the "victim of an assault." The subpoena came after the feds listened to Sessa on tape raving about what he did to the cousin of Little Dino.

The two Tommys, who had both been designated the successors of Little Dino's shylocking book before Big Anthony Russo took it over, then listened as Tomasullo complained that Larry Sessa hadn't given him a chance to explain why he didn't have the money. Apparently, if Sessa had given Joe T the opportunity, he would have learned that Tomasullo's father (Little Dino's uncle) had the money for the loan. But even after Joe admitted Sessa held a knife to him, he promised he would never testify against the heavyset leg-breaker, or anyone else in the Colombo crime family, despite the subpoena.

Following their meeting with Joe T, Sessa started fretting about the subpoena. He pestered McLaughlin; "Did you tell (Tomasullo) we could help him any way we could?" This marked a complete 180 from when Larry was bragging to Tommy about "terrorizing" the beleaguered Saracino cousin. Larry and Irish Tommy then went over to Big Anthony Russo's house, where they told the acting capo about Joe T's subpoena, and also about the other loansharking victim, Anthony 'Tony the Arab' Sayegh. Russo was furious that Sayegh had not only refused to be in debt to Saracino but also that Sayegh was now claiming that imprisoned soldier Chickie DeMartino had released him. Russo raved that the Colombos never released their associates, and then pointed to a list of loansharking customers that Little Dino had passed along from prison. Russo was sure that Sayegh must have owed the $100,000; otherwise, his name wouldn't be Dino’s record. Big Anthony then made it clear that if nobody from the Genovese family contacted him by Friday (a week from that conversation), he would drive up the strip club with Larry and Tommy to collect the money.

Two days later, on October 25, McLaughlin met again with Sessa. Apologies if you're head is spinning with all these different shylocking customers of Little Dino Saracino, but McLaughlin brought up the debt owed by Frank 'Buzz' Senatore who, if you remember, was the associate who claimed to be "on-record" with Mclaughlin. Sessa relayed to Irish Tommy that he had met Senatore in the car. Although he hadn't been violent, McLaughlin advised Sessa that Buzz was "panicking" about the money he owed to Little Dino, and Sessa promised he was trying to arrange a sitdown with him. According to court papers, McLaughlin was attempting to incite Sessa into violence to get more evidence against his longtime cohort for the FBI. McLaughlin, who had taken over the role of debt-collector for Buzz’s loan, claimed that payments weren’t being made in a timely fashion. Buzz, apparently, was dodging his debt, even though he was knee-deep his own loansharking and gambling business. Court papers filed in 2013 indicate that this was a lie; while he was working for the FBI, McLaughlin apparently collected $16,000 from Buzz without telling his cohorts. 

A day later, Sessa and McLaughlin kept themselves busy handling all the different shylocking customers. They drove to the house of their acting capo, Big Anthony, to receive word on Tony the Arab's status. Big Anthony had spent the past few days figuring out whether Sayegh had indeed been "released" from the Colombo family. Russo eventually decided that he hadn't been, although he may be being represented by a Genovese wiseguy named "Harpo." Russo told his two underlings that "Harpo" owned the strip club that Tony the Arab worked at, and also owned Aurora Car Service on Kings Highway. He then doubled down that Sayegh had to pay the $100,000, but Russo noted that he would keep half of the debt to himself. This was a stark contrast to Larry Sessa's modus operandi, which was that he would help Little Dino collect debts for free, without expecting any money in return.

Then, the trio of mobsters drove out to the Stop N' Shop on Hylan Boulevard, S.I., where they rendezvoused with soldier Joey Savarese. There, they had a strategy meeting regarding the subpoena served on Little Dino's cousin, Joe Tomasullo. Savarese, who had spent the most prison time out of all the mobsters present, advised that he didn't believe the feds could make an extortion case against Fat Larry Sessa, despite the fact that Joe T was subpoenaed as the "victim of an assault." Savarese said that as long as Tomasullo never agreed to testify, there would be no case. Little did he know that one of the meeting's own attendees was the one who had caused the subpoena to take place, and was tape-recording the whole session.

It would be over a week later until the Genovese family surfaced to represent Tony the Arab over his $100,000 debt. In a November 9 conversation, Big Anthony Russo informed McLaughlin and Sessa that Sayegh had first ran to "Harpo" for protection until he discovered that Harpo wasn't actually an inducted Genovese member. But Harpo instead put him in contact with a low-key Genovese soldier named Rocco DiPietro, who arranged a sitdown with Big Anthony. Despite the Genovese family being much larger and more formidable than the Colombos, Big Anthony held his own in the sitdown. He furiously made it clear in his sitdown that Tony the Arab had never been released from Chickie DeMartino, despite the latter's long sentence for attempted murder in 2004. Russo doubled down that Sayegh owed $100,000, and there was no other wiseguy that could stop it.

It would be until November 28 that Big Anthony would finally let McLaughlin - and therefore the FBI - know what was happening with the $100,000 debt. Apparently, Big Anthony had given the Genovese family until the end to come up with an answer about Sayegh. McLaughlin would never find out what happened after that but, on December 6, Fat Larry Sessa quietly let McLaughlin know that Joey Savarese, a muscleman with a reputation for violence, was handling the loanshark debt himself.

Sessa didn't limit himself to strictly business-related violence. As a member of Big Anthony Russo's entourage, he accompanied the violent acting captain and his crew when they hit the streets of Bensonhurst to drink and party. On the night of October 29, Sessa was on his way to a Chinese restaurant to meet with Big Anthony Russo and others in the crew for dinner. As he drove, Russo called him up and told him that there had been a change of plans. According to Tommy McLaughlin, who was also called by Russo that night, the feared acting capo had gotten rough with a convicted coke dealer who had been out of state prison for only seventeen days. Christopher 'Chris Duck' Bantis, whom Gang Land News claimed had a history of "engaging in fisticuffs with the Colombos" had been "feeling (Russo's) oats" that night, said sources, while the two were having drinks at the Silhouette Lounge, on 7201 16th Avenue, Bensonhurst. According to the Gang Land article dated June 23, 2011, citing law enforcement sources, Russo had excitedly told McLaughlin he had an "issue" at the bar, and ordered Tommy to come and help "straighten it out."

Law enforcement sources for Gang Land, who provided a different account to defense lawyers in 2011, said that McLaughlin then called Tagliavia to inform him of the change of plans. One source mentioned in the article; "Big Anthony tended to make mountains out of molehills, and Tommy didn't have an inkling of what was up." When the two cooperating witnesses arrived in separate cars, they saw Sessa and Durso there with bats, said law enforcement. Then, Tagliavia called his FBI control agent, Scott Curtis, to frantically let him know what was about to take place.

Minutes later, the assault took place. According to a 2013 sentencing memo, Sessa and Durso carried out the beating while the two cooperating witnesses watched and recorded. According to Gang Land, Bantis received a vicious beating but was still able to drive off, and there were no medical records about it from area hospitals. On the tape recordings, Russo was heard saying; "Larry, go put that bat away" and, later, Sessa told Squish; "That's why I wanted this kid to come," referring to Durso. "He brought three bats with him, nice and ready."

Defense lawyers speaking to Gang Land News, however, provided a different account. They claimed that Tagliavia never called his control agent, and one attorney noted that Fat Larry Sessa "weighs 450 pounds and walks with a cane. He's the furthest thing from the main player here. In typical fashion, the government wants to blame the defendants for the violent conduct of its stool pigeons." Whether or not Sessa & Durso were indeed to blame, neither of them were ever actually charged with the assault. It was only cited in detention & sentencing hearings under "Other acts of violence not alleged in the indictment."

But whether or not Sessa was so heavy that he needed a cane to walk, he was still healthy enough for the Colombo crime family's administration to see a future in the 450-pound associate. After being on the list of proposed inductees for about three months, acting boss Andrew 'Andy Mush' Russo and his underboss, Benjamin 'the Claw' Castellazzo, began making preparations for the age-old initiation ritual, as part of Russo's attempts to "rebuild" the family, according to court papers.

On December 5, 2010, Sessa was first informed that he would be "straightened out" in two days, on December 7. Unfortunately, Tommy McLaughlin was tape-recording the whole thing and caught wind of the impending ceremony when he drove with Big Anthony Russo to Sessa's house. There, Russo and Sessa had a private conversation away from Irish Tommy's hidden microphone, but this secrecy was abandoned when the two mobsters both told McLaughlin, separately, when Fat Larry was going to be made, and where.

At the meeting, Tommy also watched as Fat Larry gave his acting captain two plastic bags, one of which McLaughlin later learned contained the gun to be used in the ceremony. Then, Big Anthony ignorantly drove Tommy to the home of soldier Emanuele 'Manny' Favuzza, where he dropped off the pistol Sessa had given him. Russo kept McLaughlin abreast of what was going on, even though it was none of his business since, as an Irishman, Tommy could never be "made" himself.

On December 6, Tommy eagerly met with Fat Larry to chat with him about the upcoming event. Larry was just as keen to talk to McLaughlin as his captain had, and he openly complained about his embarrassment for having to "bring his own" gun for the affair. Then, without any provocation, Sessa bragged about having "three of these things… (unintelligible), .357, and a .38."

That very evening, however, the upper echelon of the Colombo family canceled the ceremony. Underboss Benji Castellazzo had been at the house of Manny Favuzza, a longtime crew member of Castellazzo, that very day. There, the pair spotted various unmarked surveillance cars keeping tabs on Manny's home. Prudently, Castellazzo let his pals in the crime family know that something was up, and the ceremony had to be canceled until further notice. Acting on Tommy McLaughlin's tapes, the FBI had all but fortified around Favuzza's house to ensure that they didn't miss the momentous occasion, which would be the first time the FBI were to catch an induction ceremony mid-way through. But Favuzza and Castellazzo, who had both dealt with law enforcement scrutiny over the years after the feds conducted a two-year operation on the pair's gambling operations in the 1990s, could spot the poorly-disguised cars a mile away. 

That evening, Fat Larry received a call from Big Anthony, who sheepishly told him to pick up his gun from Manny's house. He did so and subsequently caught up with Tommy McLaughlin to let him in on the bad news. After the cooperating witness asked what happened, Sessa let loose;
"What do you think happened, the whole thing's dead! I had to back and get my thing… the whole thing is dead, everybody… I don't know, it came from Anthony… Anthony comes meets me in Brooklyn, says I gotta tell you something… I figure he's gonna tell me what time, find out what time… dead hand… 'that things no good, go get it…'  'Pistol, you want a different one?'… 'The whole thing's dead, no good…' It's coming from this guy who he met… mumbling something about this guy… I don't know…" Sessa grumbled, apparently referencing the fact that Anthony Russo got a message from acting boss Andy Mush to cancel the ceremony.
"(Anthony) makes me go all the way back to the place to get the pistol… I didn't want to start… I got three felonies too… I went back there, took care of that… didn't say it was postponed or anything, said it's dead… didn't say postponed or dead, said 'go back and get the gun'… I said 'what's happening'… this guy shut it down, closed down or stopped it completely."