![]() ![]() “I am now a member of Vic Amuso’s crime family,” Gioia told jurors in 2004. A three-member panel controlled the organization. Immediately after giving his oath, Gioia was taken to another room and introduced to the other made guys. Gioia said talk at the time was about how to shore leaks, restructure and get back to business. Acting captain George “Neck” Zapolla was on the lam and had been profiled on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted.” Capo “Fat” Peter Chiodo was also talking. He would be the highest-ranking Mafioso ever to defect, prompting others to make their own deals. Ambition or perceived disloyalty could get you killed.īy the time Gioia was ushered into the Queens basement in 1991, the family was fractured.Īcting boss “Little” Al D’Arco, appointed by Amuso to head the family while he was on the run, was missing and suspected of flipping to the feds. The pair went to ground, evading authorities and ordering hits on members of their own crime family. By 1990, the war had turned into an internecine bloodbath. “Their books have to be open for them to take in new members them being the Genovese family, were not making any new guys for about 15 years.” “The Genovese crime family had their books closed for many years,” Gioia said. The Five Families of New York: How the Mafia divides the cityįrank Gioia Jr.: Years of crime, a new identity and allegations of fraud Not with the Genoveses.įrank Gioia Jr.'s Mafia associates and their crimes, fates And it didn’t look like he was going to get a chance. He bought and sold guns, wholesale in “packs of tens and fives and stuff.” He was earning, living The Life. Gioia dealt drugs, starting with marijuana and then moved up to cocaine and heroin. “After I shot him, he is on the floor, I reached over, put the gun in his mouth, told him next time I was going to kill him.” “I went, got a gun, went up to Westchester, hang out a little bit, walked up to the kid with an umbrella … walked up, shot him in the leg,” Gioia said. Department of Justice declined to answer a detailed list of questions about the Gioia case. Top federal prosecutors, including former FBI Director James Comey, built cases on Gioia’s cooperation and testimony. He helped clear several unsolved murders. His cooperation with law enforcement led to the conviction of more than 70 Mafia soldiers, captains, capos and bosses in the 1990s and 2000s. ![]() Media accounts in New York described Gioia as a star witness, one of the most important turncoats in mob history. Mafia lawyers, former prosecutors, organized-crime researchers, private investigators and business associates provided details of his life before and after witness protection. PART 3 - Who protects the public from protected witnesses? PART 1 - A mob soldier turned Phoenix businessman The Republic pieced together Gioia’s transformation from New York mobster to Phoenix developer and restaurateur through court and business documents, background searches and interviews. The developer of Mesa Riverview agreed to pay Capri cash up front in exchange for a long-term lease. A year later, he signed a contract to build his first Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill. Capri and his companies were sued for breaking leases.īy 2007, as the housing market began to collapse, Capri was trying to get into the restaurant business. The owner said Capri told him bluntly that his primary concern was signing as many leases as he could before his credit went bad. In one of his early ventures in the Phoenix area, Capri discussed opening franchise locations with a businessman who owned an indoor playground. His businesses closed within months of opening and sometimes didn’t open at all. In case after case documented in court records, Capri or his companies were accused of taking money from developers to build businesses in exchange for signing long-term leases that later were broken. Allegations of fraud soon followed Capri’s chain of broken businesses.
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