Over the year the mafia has found itself under more and more pressure from law enforcement and watched its power diminish as more and more made guys got convicted and rackets effected.
But the downfall of the mafia today can’t only be blamed on the Justice Department it also has a lot to do with turncoats from with in the mob families themselves. Many of the cases being made against the mob these days are typically strengthened and made because someone has flipped and turned on their fellow mobsters.
There have now been quite a few infamous rats in mob history which even includes such high ranking members as bosses, underbosses, and more. We have seen mobsters turn from every major mafia family across the country including the New York Mafia and the trend seems to be growing. Here are some of the mob rats who have turned on their wiseguys pals and done some real damage helping the feds attempt to dismantle La Cosa Nostra.
Here we have outlined a few mob turncoats from the last several years from various mafia families around the country. Most mob rats have done their share of damage to the mob but some have definitely done a lot more then others and lead to many more convictions and turned over a lot more damaging information. Which of these mafia rats do you think has caused the American Mafia the most by turning and joining team America ?
Joseph Massino – Massino was known to many as one of the last old school bosses on the streets responsible for bringing the Bonanno family to power in the 1990’s after the death of then boss Carmine Galante. When he flipped in 2004 after being convicted of racketeering and murder he became the first sitting boss of a New York Mafia family to turn rat. He would go on to testify twice for the feds against fellow mobsters including acting boss Vincent Basciano. He also supplied the feds with tons of information on the inner working of not only the Bonanno family but the Mafia in general.
“Joseph Massino”
Gregory Scarpa – A powerful capo in the Colombo crime family Scarpa was known to many as “The Grim Reaper” as one of the chief enforcers for Carmine Persico the Colombo family boss. He would become a FBI informer in 1962 after being arrested for armed robbery and the relationship between the two would span approx 30 years. During the bloody Colombo wars of the 1980’s he supplied the feds with information about is organized crime enemies with in his own family. His relationship with the feds was one of the longest in mob history and also one of the most questionable as to the ethics and handling by federal authorities but there is no doubt he helped in the dismantling of the Colombo’s.
“Greg Scarpa”
Philip Leonetti – The then underboss of the Philadelphia mafia under his uncle and then boss Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo when he decided to turn on him and his mob family. At the time he was the highest ranking member of any mob family to turn rat after being convicted for multiple murders and other mob crimes. He supplied the feds with information that lead to convictions of multiple mobsters including members of Philly mob along with high ranking members from the New York mob. He ended the Scarfo era which many believe was when it all started to go down hill for the Philly mob family and they have yet to recover.
“Phil Leonetti”
Sammy Gravano – Perhaps one of the most infamous rats in the history of the American mafia Gravano was the underboss of the poweful Gambino crime family when he flipped. At the time he became the highest ranking member of any New York mafia family to become an informant. He turned back in 1991 and testified in one of the highest profile mob cases in history against mob boss John Gotti leading to his conviction and life sentence. He supplied the feds with information on the working of the Gambino family and all of the other New York mob families and would testify on other occasions on behalf of the feds.
“Sammy Gravano”
Alphonse D’Arco – The then acting boss of the Lucchese crime family became the first acting or other wise boss of a New York mafia family to turn government witness. He would go on to testify multiple times for the feds leading to indictments of multple mobsters including then acting Colombo family boss Victor “Little Vic” Orena, Genovese family boss Vincent Gigante, Bonanno family consigliere Anothony Spero, and many others. He also supplied information on and testified against Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito the duo known as the “Mafia Cops”. He is credited with almost single handedly destroying the Lucchese crime family which has struggled to rebuild ever since that time.
“Al D’Arco”
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Great article and a very interesting vote and discussion. I think Sal Vitale could be added here he helped convict a bunch of guys and basically led to Massino flipping.
I don’t think massmio caused much damge yearh he testified a few times helped convict Bascanio but because of his title it made it look worse Massimo could not testify against many mobsters because they had already flipped Sal Vitale should be there instead he caused the most damage
but i voted Alphonse D’arco he testified for 12 years straight and ripped the Luchese family apart no one else did as much damage.
If i did an order i would put
1. Alphonse D’arco
2.Sammy Gravno (took down alot of Gambios)
3.Philp Leonetii ( part of the reason Gravno flipped helped bring Gotti down)
4Joey Massimo
5.Greg Scarpa (not sure why he is on this list he never flipped a informer yes but did not flip and caused no wear near the damage the others caused)
Scarpa basically flipped when he was handing over info on guys in the family during the colombo wars although i guess he technically never took the stand.
I agree on Vitale and would probably replace him over Massino here as well although Massino being boss was bigger name but i don’t think he did as much over all damage as Vitale did to the Bonanno family and NY mob in general.
I would rank these:
D’Arco
Leonetti
Gravano
Scarpa
Massino
and add Vitale in the 2 spot if he was included.
Scarpa flipped during the Colombo war?? Try 1960, and he never “flipped.” He never testified… he was a paid informant before the world ever heard of Joe Cago. Vitale definitely should be on the list. Massino failed two lie detector tests. Vitale provided the go-to info. His testimony has proven to be rock solid. Massino in my opinion was a propaganda effort…. it was psych war to screw with members of Cosa Nostra.
Basically word play as per Scarpa i mean “flipped” or became a paid informant equals to a rat all the same , no ? I mean either way he supplied info on his fellow wiseguys at some point which ultimately led the feds to make arrests and convictions. Also Ed i agree as mentioned above on the Massino/Vitale switch if it wasn’t for Vitale then Massino likely doesn’t flip and he even though he did he really didn’t give the feds all that much they didn’t have already at least from what we know from reports.
Salvatore vitale . Al d’arco . Greg scarpa in that order for me , vitale is widly regarded by law enforcement as the greatest mob turncoat of all time , massino was flipped so the Feds could say they flipped a sitting mob boss , he did little to know damage . He testified against vincent basciano and anthony romanello , a genovese captain who he had no business dealings with . He was only called as an expert witness on the American mob . Romanello was acquitted . To my mind it was pointless flipping massino , once coppa , Lino , canterella tartaglione and vitale had flipped . The damage was already done
very true massmio did little damage i was very susprised at the time when he flipped because i thought he was old school and thought he would destroy the bonnano family but yearh he did not cause much damage vitale caused the most but the bonnanos are still here and strong again but still will never regain the stability they had under massimo
Great point on Massino i think for the feds it was more so for headlines and so they could say they got a sitting mob boss and one known as the last of the old school bosses to flip. By time he turned Rat Vitale had spilled the beans and given feds all they needed to dismantle the Bonanno’s and hit some of the other families hard as well.
I would rate Vitale and D’Arco pretty close to being the most damaging and then follow them with Gravano , Leonetti, and Scarpa.
I also find it fascinating that nobody mentions nick calabrese in Chicago , look at the damage that guy did
he did alot of damage to he outfit agree but compared to Vitale,Gravno or Al arco. jimmy frantnio should of been put on this list
Oh i never thought about NIck from the Outfit. Great add and your right he really dealt a blow to the Chicago mob and really it has been pretty much down hill for most part for them since.
Of all the life lessons that Salvatore Vitale took from a boyhood friend he idolized, two of them became practically second nature: as a child, he was taught how to swim; as an adult, he was instructed how to kill. The latter skill, he would later admit, was one he practiced regularly on behalf of the friend, Joseph C. Massino, who would marry Mr. Vitale’s sister, become the boss of the Bonanno crime family and eventually elevate Mr. Vitale to serve as the underboss.
Mr. Vitale’s criminal life story is laid out in sharp relief in a remarkable document that federal prosecutors in Brooklyn filed under seal last month. An inch thick, it contains a story that spans more than three decades and touches on 23 murders, 11 of which Mr. Vitale directly participated in, and many other crimes that he and other mob figures committed.
But the document, which was unsealed this week, also tells another story: how the Bonannos were decimated, in some measure through Mr. Vitale’s betrayal in 2003 of the crime family and his own extended family, as he became a star government witness. Using his testimony, federal prosecutors and F.B.I. agents have been able to imprison 51 mob figures, including Mr. Massino and the last four acting bosses of the Bonanno family.
Mr. Vitale, 62, is to be sentenced on Friday. Prosecutors have called his cooperation “groundbreaking by any measure,” and filed the 122-page document to seek a more lenient sentence than the mandatory life term set forth in the advisory sentencing guidelines.
In a 10-year assault on the Bonanno family, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecutors have convicted a total of 135 members and associates, making Mr. Vitale perhaps the most prolific mob turncoat since Salvatore Gravano, who testified against the Gambino boss John J. Gotti.
Prosecutors say Mr. Vitale has identified more than 500 organized crime members and associates in the United States and abroad, and information he has provided has led to prosecutions of high-ranking members of the Colombo, Gambino and Genovese families, in addition to Bonanno family figures.
He has also provided information that led investigators to uncover murder victims buried decades earlier, including in a mob graveyard in a swamp on the Brooklyn-Queens border where two men killed in 1981 were interred. But some see his cooperation, and the government’s effort to secure a more lenient prison sentence for him, possibly even one that would release him into the witness protection program, in a very different light.
David Breitbart, who defended Mr. Massino at his 2005 murder and racketeering trial, criticized the government’s handling of Mr. Vitale and its use of cooperating witnesses in general, noting that a half dozen admitted killers who testified against his client have been released into “the population at large.”
“I don’t want them living next door to me, and I don’t see how the government justifies that,” Mr. Breitbart said. “They take someone on and they use him and they file a 120-page motion in order that the individual can go home.”
Until 2002, the Bonanno family stood out among New York’s five Mafia clans in that it had never had a “made” member cooperate with the government and testify in court. That distinction was due in part to the obsessive fear of informants and infiltrators, borne of an undercover F.B.I. agent’s years-long penetration of the family in the 1980s, which cost two Bonanno figures their lives. (The case became the basis for the 1997 movie “Donnie Brasco.”)
But Mr. Vitale’s cooperation helped break the Bonanno family, leading to a historic event in organized crime in the United States: Mr. Massino’s own betrayal, nearly two years later, of the crime family he headed. An unprecedented act, it made Mr. Massino, an Old World stalwart known as the Last Don, the first Mafia boss in this country to cooperate with the F.B.I. and prosecutors.
Mr. Vitale thus helped create such an embarrassment of riches for investigators that it prompted one F.B.I. official to complain jokingly at the time that there were more insiders providing information on the crime family than agents on the squad assigned to investigate it.
Slender, soft-spoken and polished, Mr. Vitale, who grew up in Brooklyn and Queens and attended City College for a year, made an effective witness. Often, when he answered questions, he said “True,” rather than yes, giving his responses an air of authority.
He served in the Army as a paratrooper for two years, stationed in Mainz, Germany, and worked as a U.P.S. truck driver and a New York State correction officer before he began working for his childhood friend, Mr. Massino, driving a catering truck to sell coffee and pastries at factories and car dealerships on Long Island.
Mr. Vitale, whose silver hair always appeared carefully combed (he was known as Good Looking Sal), came to idolize Mr. Massino, who was nearly five years his senior.
During the course of his three decades with the crime family, his portfolio of crime was substantial and varied. He told agents and prosecutors of committing arson, burglary, hijacking, loan sharking, extortion, insurance fraud, illegal gambling, money laundering, obstruction of justice and securities fraud.
And then there were the murders. Mr. Vitale pleaded guilty in April 2003 to racketeering conspiracy and murder-in-aid of racketeering, admitting to 11 killings between 1976 and 1999.
The document methodically maps out the various aspects of Mr. Vitale’s work with the government. It is known as a 5K motion, for section 5K1.1 of the sentencing guidelines, under which prosecutors can argue for a term shorter than that set out under the advisory guidelines if a defendant has provided “extraordinary cooperation.”
In some ways, the lengthy document adds little new information to what the government has already said in court papers and what Mr. Vitale has said from the witness stand at six trials in United States District Court in Brooklyn, where he will appear before Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis in his own case on Friday afternoon. But it weaves together the various narrative strands, trials and cases that were brought, in part, on information Mr. Vitale provided.
Two of the prosecutors who led the assault against the Bonannos, Greg D. Andres and John Buretta, prepared the 5K motion, and, with other submissions, argue for a sentence far shorter than the mandatory life term he faces.
Judge Garaufis, who has presided over cases against scores of Bonanno figures, including four of the trials at which Mr. Vitale testified, will consider the motion, along with a companion document that remains sealed.
Betrayed by a Mafia Underboss
Salvatore Vitale, a former underboss of the Bonanno crime family, helped put away 51 organized-crime figures through his testimony as a government witness, 38 of them for murders.
Name Nickname Rank Sentence
Joseph Massino* Joey Bonanno boss Life Imprisonment
Vincent Basicano* Vinny Gorgeous Bonanno boss/acting boss Life Imprisonment
Anthony Urso* Tony Green Bonanno acting boss/acting consigliere 20 Years
Michael Mancuso* Michael Nose Bonanno acting boss 15 Years
Alphonse Persico* Allie Boy Colombo acting boss Life Imprisonment
Lawrence Dentico* Little Guy Genovese acting boss 51 Months
Louis Attanasio* Louis Ha Ha Bonanno acting underboss/captain 15 Years
Joseph Cammarano Sr. Joe C Bonanno acting underboss 15 Years
Nicholas Santoro Nicky Mouth Bonanno acting underboss 36 Months
Anthony Rabito Fat Anthony Bonanno acting consigliere 33 Months
John DeRoss* Jackie Colombo acting underboss Life Imprisonment
Jerome Asaro Jerry Bonanno captain 30 Months
Peter Calabrese* Peter Rabbit Bonanno captain 15 Years
Dominick Cicale* Donnie Bonanno captain Facing Life Imprisonment
Louis DeCicco Louie Electric Bonanno captain 40 Months
Joseph DeSimone* Joe Desi Bonanno captain 12 Years
Frank Lino* Curly Bonanno captain Facing Life Imprisonment
Robert Lino* Little Robert Bonanno captain 27 Years
Daniel Mongelli*
Bonanno captain 24 Years
James Tartaglione* Big Louie Bonanno captain Facing Life Imprisonment
Michael Cardello* Mickey Bats Bonanno soldier/captain 10 Years
Louis Restivo*
Bonanno soldier/captain 10 Years
Baldassare Amato* Baldo Bonanno soldier/captain Life Imprisonment
Anthony Indelicato* Bruno Bonanno soldier/captain 20 Years
Dominick Pizzonia* Skinny Dom Gambino captain 15 Years
Robert Attanasio* Bobby Ha Ha Bonanno soldier/acting captain 10 Years
Generoso Barbieri* Jimmy the General Bonanno soldier/acting captain Facing Life Imprisonment
Joseph Cammarano Jr.* Joe C Jr. Bonanno soldier/acting captain 27 Months
Anthony Furino Anthony Black Bonanno captain/acting captain 24 Months
Anthony Aiello* Ace Bonanno soldier 30 Years
Sandro Aiosa
Bonanno soldier 12 Months
Giacomo Bonventre Jack Bonanno soldier 9 Months
Peter Cosoleto* Petey Boxcars Bonanno soldier 10 Years
Joseph DiStefano Joe Shakes Bonanno soldier 24 Months
Anthony Donato*
Bonanno soldier 25 Years
Anthony Frascone Anthony Stutters Bonanno soldier 12 Months (and 1 Day)
Gino Galestro*
Bonanno soldier 24 Months
Emanuel Guaragna Manny from the Bronx Bonanno soldier 20 Months
Steven LoCurto* Stevie Blue Bonanno soldier Life Imprisonment
Anthony Navarra
Bonanno soldier 3 Years Probation
Philip Navarra
Bonanno soldier 21 Months
John Palazzolo*
Bonanno soldier 10 Years
Richard Riccardi* Big Richie Bonanno soldier 10 Years
Vito Rizzuto* Vito from Canada Bonanno soldier 10 Years
Johnny Joe Spirito* Johnny Joe Bonanno soldier 20 Years
Paul Spina* Fat Paulie Bonanno soldier 106 Months
Joseph Torre
Bonanno soldier 24 Months
Frank Ambrosino*
Bonanno associate Facing Life Imprisonment
Anthony Basile*
Bonanno associate Facing Life Imprisonment
Ronald Filocomo*
Bonanno associate 20 Years
Patrick Romanello* Patty Muscles Bonanno associate 10 Years
No doubt about it he crippled that family and ever since Vitale they have been struggling it seems to get back on an upward path.
They are on the way to recovering but yearh he caused huge amounts damge leaving unstable even now nearly 12years since he cooperated
All the listed turn coats did significant damage to their respected families. In my opinion I would say Joseph Valachi is the one who really exposed the mafia existence wich led the government to act.
Without question, in my opinion for the mafia rats mentioned it is between Sammy “The Bull” Gravano and Greg Scarpa. It depends on how you look at it. Gravano decimated the Gotti regime of the Gambino crime family and absolutely weakend not only the Gambinos but the whole of the New York mafia from the early 1990s to the present with his information. So Gravano did a number on the Gambinos and hurt the NY families over the better part of the last 3 decades.
That lowlife piece of shit Scarpa not only did to the Colombos what Gravano did and a whole lot more, he wad a federal informant for more than 30 years. He decimated the Colombos not only during the 1991-93 war, but clearly had a direct hand in the feds launching investigations and being able to indict, prosecute and imprison various Colombofamily members from various crews and the Persico regime over a period of decades. Don’t forget, this prick gave the feds serious info concerning the four other NY families, their leadership and various members over the years and without a doubt outlined all the New York mafia history he himself had been directly involved in and everything his mentors, superiors and associates told him about concerning tje NY families, other families and general American Cosa Nostra history. Can you imagine how many wiretaps and bugs were placed because of his info, along with surveilance photos and the shake-down and harrassment of NY family members and associates, who names, affiliations, affairs and operations were unknown or at least not deeply known by law enforcement before Scarpa began to inform. This guy really did a number on the whole of the NY mafia for years and was one the leading, if not the leading informer and direct cause of some serious break-down within the Colombos and the other 4 families, along with loss of power, influence and wealth because of members that were compromised or lost to prison and operations that were dismantled. Can you imagine outside of what little we know just how many machevellian type plots and intrigues he caused within the Colombos and the other 4 families? Nobody, not even Scarpa himself could ever determine exactly how many people were murdered directly because of his plots and schemes or indirectly because of his intervention and cooperation with the feds over the decades.
For me, as far as the NY mafia is concerned, Greg Scarpa is the biggest, dirtiest, scumbag rat of them all. Don’t get me wrong, all true gangsters are scumbag criminals, ferocious, vicious, black-hearted criminals who prey on the weak and innocent. I am a realist and I know that “True or Real Gangsters” and mafiosi are vicious and hurt anyone from associates, friends and even family to accumulate power and wealth and do not just prey on other criminals and the wealthy institutions, businesses and persons they deal with or control, but Scarpa was in a class all his own as a fuckin, lowlife traitor and rat.