Nobody does nicknames better than the mob.
And nobody, except maybe the tabloids, loves mob nicknames more than the feds.
The organized crime indictment released yesterday by the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn reads like the cast of characters in a James Cagney movie.
John “Jackie the Nose” D’Amico and Thomas “Tommy Sneakers” Cacciopoli were just two of the people charged after a 5-year investigation of the Gambino crime family. Illegal acts outlined in the indictment include murder, racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, loansharking and embezzlement.
Among the 60 other defendants were Joseph “Joe Rackets” Casiere, Anthony “Cheeks” Licata, Mario “Lanza” Cassarino, Vincent “Vinny Hot” Decongilio and John “Johnny Red Rose” Pisano.
Some of the accused have earned multiple nicknames. According to the indictment, Domenico Cefalu is known not only as Dominic, but also “Italian Dom,” “Dom from 18th Avenue” and “The Greaseball.” Joe Corozzo is both “JoJo” and “Miserable.” Leonard DiMaria is “Lenny,” “L,” “The Conductor,” “Uncle,” “Nike (not to be confused with Tommy Sneakers)” and “Fatso.”
It’s a longstanding tradition. The late Gambino chief John Gotti was known as “The Dapper Don” and “The Teflon Don.” Then there was Gambino underboss-turned-informant Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano. Gambino capo Carmine “Charlie Wagons” Fatico was so-called because of his talent at hijacking trucks.
Still, you have to be skeptical about the nicknames in organized crime indictments. We suspect they sometimes have as much reliability as the DEA’s estimates of seized narcotics’ street value.
From the prosecution’s standpoint, a good nickname might be halfway to a conviction. How could someone called Russell “Dead Eye” Ferrisi possibly be up to good?
A recently published book, titled “Mafia,” replicates 1960s Treasury files about suspected members of La Cosa Nostra. The files indicate that noses were prominent long before Jackie the Nose D’Amico. Federal agents tracked Lawrence “Larry Nose” Iarossi, Anthony “Tony Nose” Mancuso, Salvatore “Sal the Beak” Speciale and Carmelo “Schnozzola” Sansone.
The number of crime figures in the book with epithets ending in “the Wop” - as in Edward “Eddie the Wop” D’Argenio and Joseph “Joe the Wop” Cataldo - is startling.
These are nicknames coined by the family? That’s brutal.
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