William Cutolo
Encyclopedia
William Cutolo also known as "Billy Fingers" and "Wild Bill", was a Brooklyn
mobster in the Colombo crime family
who committed several murders and was heavily involved in labor racketeering. Cutolo play a key role in the 1991 to 1993 Colombo war.
in Basilicata
, Italy
. William Sr. was the brother of Gertrude, Barbara, and Geraldine Cutolo. He was related to Italian Camorra
mob boss Raffaele Cutolo
.
In 1970, Cutolo's first wife Penelope Cutolo produced his only son, William Cutolo, Jr. Cutolo had two daughters with his second wife, Marguerite: Barbara-Jean and Cristina. In 1990, Cutolo fathered a third daughter with Bette Ann Foxe, his mistress in Brooklyn. William Jr. followed his father into illegal gambling and loansharking and was eventually convicted of extortion
and racketeering.
Cutolo was also involved with several charities. He was a fundraising chairman and board member for the National Leukemia
Research Association in Garden City, New York
. Cutolo sat on the Medical Advisory Committee as Chairman of "Team Leukemia", and was associated with the New York chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma
Society. He helped raise $400,000 for Local 204 as well as many other locals over the years. In 1988, Cutolo was honored as the National Leukemia Association's Man of the Year. Cutolo paid for their holiday parties and dressed up every year as Santa Claus for the National Children's Leukemia Association as his son handed out gifts and posed for pictures with the stricken children.
Cutolo rose up the ranks of the Colombo family during the late-1980s under acting boss Victor Orena
. Originally a soldier in captain Pasquale Amato's crew, Cutolo soon became one of the family's more powerful leaders. Cutolo was successful because could make lots of money and commanded a crew of hitmen. Cutolo earned the nickname "Billy Fingers" because he was missing one finger and another one was mutilated due to an occupational accident at a hamburger store. In 1989, Cutolo earned his nickname "Wild Bill" after beating a man with a baseball bat.Cutolo was fond of cowboy boots and frequently wore a large brown ten-gallon hat. He operated Bill's Friendly Bocce
social club in the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn as his headquarters. Cutolo was the best man at mobster John "Jackie" DeRoss's wedding, the man who would eventually participate in his murder.
Unyielding in negotiations and harsh with his crew members, Cutolo made no secret of his ambition to become boss of the Colombo family.
Cutolo also gained control of District Council (DC) 37, a local of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Cutolo and his close friend mobster Thomas DiNardo used Council 37 to steer jobs to Colombo associates and spending towards Colombo-controlled vendors and resorts. Cutolo was not afraid to use intimidation to maintain power. In 1990, Cutolo sent thugs to beat up 72 year-old Vincent Parisi, the head of a Laborers Union local with colon cancer. During a meeting several days earlier, Parisi had cursed at Cutolo and thrown a paper ball at his face.
In 1998, New York City newspapers reported on links between Council 37 and the National Leukemia Research Foundation, Cutolo's favorite charity. Investigators questioned whether cash donations from union officials were actually being received by the Foundation.
During the 1990s Cutolo also became vice president of the new Local 400 of the Industrial & Production Workers Union, a city workers union. He was later accused of using the union's name to receive money from companies seeking to avoid union organizers.
.
In 1998, Cutolo and mobster Vincent Palermo
allegedly formed a secret partnership with German corporation Siemens
AG on a cell phone deal in Russia
.
had challenged Carmine Persico, still in prison, on the naming of his son Alphonse Persico as acting boss. Cutolo was one of Orena's strongest allies. On June 21, 1991, the bloodshed started with an unsuccessful assassination attempt by Persico on Orena. On November 18, 1991, in response to the Orena attack, Cutolo sent a team to ambush Persico loyalist Gregory Scarpa as he was driving with his daughter and granddaughter. Scarpa and his family managed to escape harm.
Five days after the Scarpa hit, Cutolo led a hit team that killed Orena loyalist Henry Smurra outside a Brooklyn doughnut shop. In another incident, Cutolo was driving away from a Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
social club when he spotted Persico loyalist Joel Cacace
. The two men traded shots on the street, wounding Cacace.
After Orena's imprisonment in 1962, the Colombo war ended in October 1993 with a Persico victory after the murder of Orena captain Joseph Scopo. Investigators concluded that Cutolo was personally responsible for three of the 12 murders committed during this conflict. To punish Cutolo for his support of Orena, Carmine Persico temporarily demoted him from capo to soldier. Carmine Persico was also angry that Cutolo had called him "a rat" for admitting the existence of the Cosa Nostra at the 1985 Mafia Commission Trial
.
Despite his demotion, Cutolo and DeRoss attempted a reconciliation with Persico after the war. The family had been decimated, but the Mafia Commission would not allow the induction of new members until the two warring factions made peace.
In early 1993, Cutolo and six of his crew members were arrested and held without bail on racketeering murder charges from the Colombo war. In September 1994 they went on trial, but were all acquitted. The main reason for the verdict was just-revealed information about Scarpa's role as an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI).
on a gun possession charge. The Persicos and DeRoss were afraid that Cutolo would seize control of the family in Alphonse Persico's absence and decided to murder Cutolo.
On May 26, 1999, Alphonse Persico summoned Cutolo to a meeting. Cutolo's mechanic dropped him off in a Bayside park to meet with Persico. After Cutolo arrive at the park, Thomas Gioeli, Dino Saracino, and Dino Calabro allegedly transported Cutolo to the basement of Saracino's house, where they murdered him. Gioeli then allegedly buried Cutolo at an industrial park in Farmingdale, New York
. A few years later Gambino captain Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo testified that when he arrived at this meeting, Alphonse Persico and DeRoss told him that Cutolo was gone.
The day after the Cutolo murder, DeRoss unsuccessfully ransacked Cutolo's home office for Cutolo's loansharking records and a $1.5 million cash stash (hidden in a stove vent). During that visit and succeeding ones, DeRoss warned Cutolo's family not to make any statements to police that linked Persico or the Colombo family to the shooting. DeRoss became the new underboss.
In 2001, Cutolo's family formally joined the Witness Protection Program. William Jr. would be removed from the program in 2006 due to an extortion conviction.
In a 2002 hearing in Surrogate Court
, a judge pronounced Cutolo to be legally dead.
and no body.
On November 7, 2007, the second trial began.During this trial, the Cutolo family finally disregarded DeRoss' threat and testified that Cololo told them he was meeting Persico in the park that day. On December 28, 2007, Persico and DeRoss were convicted of Cutolo's murder. The evidence in the second trial now included undercover recordings of Persico and DeRoss made by William Jr. for the FBI as well as crucial testimony by William Sr.'s wife Peggy.
In December 2008, Gioeli, Saracino, and Calabro were also indicted in the Cutolo murder.
On February 27, 2009, Persico and DeRoss were sentenced to life imprisonment
for the Cutolo murder.
In February 2010, Dino Calabro became a government witness. It is likely that he will testify against Gioeli and Saracino in the Cutolo murder trial.
. They soon unearthed a body wearing Italian loafers wrapped in a blue tarp
that was missing a finger. A forensic dentist
later confirmed that the man was William Cutolo Sr.
In 2008, nine years after his murder, Cutolo was interred at the Cemetery of the Resurrection, Staten Island
.
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
mobster in the Colombo crime family
Colombo crime family
The Colombo crime family is the youngest of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia ....
who committed several murders and was heavily involved in labor racketeering. Cutolo play a key role in the 1991 to 1993 Colombo war.
Biography
William Cutolo, christened Guglielmo Cutolo, was born in PotenzaPotenza
-Transportation:Potenza is a rail junction on the main line from Salerno to Taranto, managed by FS Trenitalia; it has also a connection to Altamura, served by the Ferrovie Appulo Lucane regional company...
in Basilicata
Basilicata
Basilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. William Sr. was the brother of Gertrude, Barbara, and Geraldine Cutolo. He was related to Italian Camorra
Camorra
The Camorra is a Mafia-type criminal organization, or secret society, originating in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 18th century.-Background:...
mob boss Raffaele Cutolo
Raffaele Cutolo
Raffaele Cutolo is an Italian crime boss and the charismatic leader of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata , an organisation he built to renew the Camorra. Cutolo has a variety of nicknames including "'o Vangelo" , "'o Principe" , "'o Professore" and "'o Monaco"...
.
In 1970, Cutolo's first wife Penelope Cutolo produced his only son, William Cutolo, Jr. Cutolo had two daughters with his second wife, Marguerite: Barbara-Jean and Cristina. In 1990, Cutolo fathered a third daughter with Bette Ann Foxe, his mistress in Brooklyn. William Jr. followed his father into illegal gambling and loansharking and was eventually convicted of extortion
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
and racketeering.
Cutolo was also involved with several charities. He was a fundraising chairman and board member for the National Leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
Research Association in Garden City, New York
Garden City, New York
Garden City is a village in the town of Hempstead in central Nassau County, New York, in the United States. It was founded by multi-millionaire Alexander Turney Stewart in 1869, and is located on Long Island, to the east of New York City, from mid-town Manhattan, and just south of the town of...
. Cutolo sat on the Medical Advisory Committee as Chairman of "Team Leukemia", and was associated with the New York chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma
Lymphoma
Lymphoma is a cancer in the lymphatic cells of the immune system. Typically, lymphomas present as a solid tumor of lymphoid cells. Treatment might involve chemotherapy and in some cases radiotherapy and/or bone marrow transplantation, and can be curable depending on the histology, type, and stage...
Society. He helped raise $400,000 for Local 204 as well as many other locals over the years. In 1988, Cutolo was honored as the National Leukemia Association's Man of the Year. Cutolo paid for their holiday parties and dressed up every year as Santa Claus for the National Children's Leukemia Association as his son handed out gifts and posed for pictures with the stricken children.
Cutolo rose up the ranks of the Colombo family during the late-1980s under acting boss Victor Orena
Victor Orena
Vittorio "Little Vic" Orena is a New York City mobster who became the temporary acting boss of the Colombo crime family. When an attempt by Greg ScarpaVittorio "Little Vic" Orena (born August 4, 1934) is a New York City mobster who became the temporary acting boss of the Colombo crime family. When...
. Originally a soldier in captain Pasquale Amato's crew, Cutolo soon became one of the family's more powerful leaders. Cutolo was successful because could make lots of money and commanded a crew of hitmen. Cutolo earned the nickname "Billy Fingers" because he was missing one finger and another one was mutilated due to an occupational accident at a hamburger store. In 1989, Cutolo earned his nickname "Wild Bill" after beating a man with a baseball bat.Cutolo was fond of cowboy boots and frequently wore a large brown ten-gallon hat. He operated Bill's Friendly Bocce
Bocce
Bocce is a ball sport belonging to the boules sport family, closely related to bowls and pétanque with a common ancestry from ancient games played in the Roman Empire...
social club in the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn as his headquarters. Cutolo was the best man at mobster John "Jackie" DeRoss's wedding, the man who would eventually participate in his murder.
Unyielding in negotiations and harsh with his crew members, Cutolo made no secret of his ambition to become boss of the Colombo family.
Labor racketeer
During the 1980s, Cutolo became the president and business agent for Teamsters Union local 861 in New York. However, in 1990, Cutolo resigned his positions the day before the Teamsters Union was planning to expel him for organized crime ties.Cutolo also gained control of District Council (DC) 37, a local of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Cutolo and his close friend mobster Thomas DiNardo used Council 37 to steer jobs to Colombo associates and spending towards Colombo-controlled vendors and resorts. Cutolo was not afraid to use intimidation to maintain power. In 1990, Cutolo sent thugs to beat up 72 year-old Vincent Parisi, the head of a Laborers Union local with colon cancer. During a meeting several days earlier, Parisi had cursed at Cutolo and thrown a paper ball at his face.
In 1998, New York City newspapers reported on links between Council 37 and the National Leukemia Research Foundation, Cutolo's favorite charity. Investigators questioned whether cash donations from union officials were actually being received by the Foundation.
During the 1990s Cutolo also became vice president of the new Local 400 of the Industrial & Production Workers Union, a city workers union. He was later accused of using the union's name to receive money from companies seeking to avoid union organizers.
Businessman
Cutolo also extorted money from companies such as Embassy Terrace, a Brooklyn caterer, and Gallo Wine. Both companies were in severe financial trouble when they approached Cutolo for help. In return for investing tens of millions of dollars in both companies, Cutolo gained control over them. Cutolo also controlled several restaurants and nightclubs In New York and Miami, FloridaMiami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
.
In 1998, Cutolo and mobster Vincent Palermo
Vincent Palermo
Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo is a former de facto boss of the New Jersey DeCavalcante crime family who eventually became a government witness. Fictional mob boss Tony Soprano is said to be loosely based on Palermo.-Background:...
allegedly formed a secret partnership with German corporation Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
AG on a cell phone deal in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
Persico-Orena Colombo war
In 1991, Cutolo became emmeshed in a bloody war for control of the Colombo family. Acting boss Victor OrenaVictor Orena
Vittorio "Little Vic" Orena is a New York City mobster who became the temporary acting boss of the Colombo crime family. When an attempt by Greg ScarpaVittorio "Little Vic" Orena (born August 4, 1934) is a New York City mobster who became the temporary acting boss of the Colombo crime family. When...
had challenged Carmine Persico, still in prison, on the naming of his son Alphonse Persico as acting boss. Cutolo was one of Orena's strongest allies. On June 21, 1991, the bloodshed started with an unsuccessful assassination attempt by Persico on Orena. On November 18, 1991, in response to the Orena attack, Cutolo sent a team to ambush Persico loyalist Gregory Scarpa as he was driving with his daughter and granddaughter. Scarpa and his family managed to escape harm.
Five days after the Scarpa hit, Cutolo led a hit team that killed Orena loyalist Henry Smurra outside a Brooklyn doughnut shop. In another incident, Cutolo was driving away from a Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
Sheepshead Bay is a bay separating the mainland of Brooklyn, New York City from the eastern portion of Coney Island, the latter originally a barrier island but now effectively an extension of the mainland with peninsulas both east and west...
social club when he spotted Persico loyalist Joel Cacace
Joel Cacace
Joel J. Cacace Sr. also known as Joe Waverly is a New York City mobster and acting head of the Colombo crime family. He was convicted of murder and is currently on trial for a second murder.-Career:...
. The two men traded shots on the street, wounding Cacace.
After Orena's imprisonment in 1962, the Colombo war ended in October 1993 with a Persico victory after the murder of Orena captain Joseph Scopo. Investigators concluded that Cutolo was personally responsible for three of the 12 murders committed during this conflict. To punish Cutolo for his support of Orena, Carmine Persico temporarily demoted him from capo to soldier. Carmine Persico was also angry that Cutolo had called him "a rat" for admitting the existence of the Cosa Nostra at the 1985 Mafia Commission Trial
Mafia Commission Trial
The Mafia Commission Trial was a criminal trial in New York City, USA. Using evidence obtained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, eleven organized crime figures, including the heads of New York's so-called "Five Families," were indicted by United States Attorney Rudolph Giuliani under the...
.
Despite his demotion, Cutolo and DeRoss attempted a reconciliation with Persico after the war. The family had been decimated, but the Mafia Commission would not allow the induction of new members until the two warring factions made peace.
In early 1993, Cutolo and six of his crew members were arrested and held without bail on racketeering murder charges from the Colombo war. In September 1994 they went on trial, but were all acquitted. The main reason for the verdict was just-revealed information about Scarpa's role as an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI).
Disappearance
In early 1999, after Alphonse Persico was released from prison, Carmine Persico promoted Cutolo to underboss as a peace gesture. However, the situation changed when Alphonse Persico was sentenced to prison in FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
on a gun possession charge. The Persicos and DeRoss were afraid that Cutolo would seize control of the family in Alphonse Persico's absence and decided to murder Cutolo.
On May 26, 1999, Alphonse Persico summoned Cutolo to a meeting. Cutolo's mechanic dropped him off in a Bayside park to meet with Persico. After Cutolo arrive at the park, Thomas Gioeli, Dino Saracino, and Dino Calabro allegedly transported Cutolo to the basement of Saracino's house, where they murdered him. Gioeli then allegedly buried Cutolo at an industrial park in Farmingdale, New York
Farmingdale, New York
The Village of Farmingdale is an incorporated village on Long Island within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York in the United States...
. A few years later Gambino captain Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo testified that when he arrived at this meeting, Alphonse Persico and DeRoss told him that Cutolo was gone.
The day after the Cutolo murder, DeRoss unsuccessfully ransacked Cutolo's home office for Cutolo's loansharking records and a $1.5 million cash stash (hidden in a stove vent). During that visit and succeeding ones, DeRoss warned Cutolo's family not to make any statements to police that linked Persico or the Colombo family to the shooting. DeRoss became the new underboss.
In 2001, Cutolo's family formally joined the Witness Protection Program. William Jr. would be removed from the program in 2006 due to an extortion conviction.
In a 2002 hearing in Surrogate Court
Surrogate Court
A probate court is a specialized court that deals with matters of probate and the administration of estates....
, a judge pronounced Cutolo to be legally dead.
Murder trials
In 2004, Alphonse Persico and DeRoss were indicted for conspiring to murder Cutolo. However, on November 4, 2004, the first trial ended as a mistrial because the jury deadlocked over a case with just circumstantial evidenceCircumstantial evidence
Circumstantial evidence is evidence in which an inference is required to connect it to a conclusion of fact, like a fingerprint at the scene of a crime...
and no body.
On November 7, 2007, the second trial began.During this trial, the Cutolo family finally disregarded DeRoss' threat and testified that Cololo told them he was meeting Persico in the park that day. On December 28, 2007, Persico and DeRoss were convicted of Cutolo's murder. The evidence in the second trial now included undercover recordings of Persico and DeRoss made by William Jr. for the FBI as well as crucial testimony by William Sr.'s wife Peggy.
In December 2008, Gioeli, Saracino, and Calabro were also indicted in the Cutolo murder.
On February 27, 2009, Persico and DeRoss were sentenced to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
for the Cutolo murder.
In February 2010, Dino Calabro became a government witness. It is likely that he will testify against Gioeli and Saracino in the Cutolo murder trial.
Recovery of body
In October 2008, acting on an informant's information, federal agents started searching a field in East Farmingdale, New YorkEast Farmingdale, New York
East Farmingdale is a hamlet and a census-designated place in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population of the CDP was 5,400 at the 2000 census...
. They soon unearthed a body wearing Italian loafers wrapped in a blue tarp
Tarpaulin
A tarpaulin, colloquially tarp, is a large sheet of strong, flexible, water-resistant or waterproof material, often cloth such as canvas or polyester coated with urethane, or made of plastics such as polyethylene. In some places such as Australia, and in military slang, a tarp may be known as a...
that was missing a finger. A forensic dentist
Forensic Dentistry
Forensic dentistry or forensic odontology is the proper handling, examination and evaluation of dental evidence, which will be then presented in the interest of justice. The evidence that may be derived from teeth, is the age and identification of the person to whom the teeth belong...
later confirmed that the man was William Cutolo Sr.
In 2008, nine years after his murder, Cutolo was interred at the Cemetery of the Resurrection, Staten Island
Cemetery of the Resurrection, Staten Island
Cemetery of the Resurrection is a Roman Catholic graveyard on the southern shore of Staten Island.-Notable burials:*William Cutolo, Sr. , mobster*Dorothy Day Catholic Social Activist*Costabile Farace , mobster...
.
Further reading
- Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2
- Fitch, Robert. Solidarity For Sale: How Corruption Destroyed the Labor Movement and Undermined America's Promise. New York: PublicAffairs, 2006. ISBN 1-891620-72-X
- Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8
- Willis, Clint, ed. Mob: Stories of Death and Betrayal from Organized Crime. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2001. ISBN 1-56025-324-X
External links
- http://lukeford.net/blog/?p=9125