Anthony Raimondi on Being Mafia Enforcer, Killing 300+ People (Full Interview)

okay here we go today we have anthony salvatore luciano raymundi aka anthony shades aka anthony cigars aka the leg breaker who was once an enforcer for the columbo crime family thank you for joining us on glad tv today it's a pleasure well this is our first time sitting down so i want to get into the whole story yeah so you grew up in brooklyn right okay but before actually growing up in brooklyn your family came from sicily yes okay what made them move from from sicily to uh to new york my gran by both of my grandfathers they had cousins that were already over here and from the story that i got naturally was that they were making money over here that you couldn't make over there in sicily so both grandfathers took their families and says we're going to america and they came to america and they made a lot of money over here more they made more money over here than they would have made in italy at that time well from what you said in your book both your grandfathers were part of the black hand oh yeah now um me and probably a lot of other people got to know the black hand from the movie godfather 2. have you ever seen you ever seen the movie yeah the black hand was in godfather too and yeah i don't even remember that well yeah the um in in the godfather two you see a young uh vito corleone right right and as he was coming up in you know in new york there was a guy named don fannucci who was the head of the black hand and all right he was basically all the local italian businesses yeah so i forgot that yes you're right 100 right right and actually don fanucci became the victim of vito corleone's first uh assassination yeah so so that's where i was familiar with the black cam but i actually looked into it and uh the black hand was quite an organization and this was kind of like the mafia before the mafia well these are the guys you know black hands still exist to this day if you go back to the old country these are the guys you don't mess with in other words when i say you don't miss these guys you mess with them they'll kill you but no two ways about if they can't get you they'll kill your family end the story there's no questions they asked no nothing why they don't care from the oldest to the youngest they'll just take you right out they just don't care these are the guys you do not mess with even the italian mafia as you would call it or american mafia they don't mess with the guys from the black hand right because the black hand from what i understand uh in the the early you know late 1800s early 1900s right uh they basically extorted 90 of the italians that were working that were working and living in new york and when i say extorted kidnapping murder arson and dynamite was was regular in in what the black hand was doing in fact the police actually called the italian neighborhood in new york the bomb zone because so many bombs were going off from from the black hand extorting businesses i like that i wasn't born back then but i know from what my grandfather just told me what they used to do like one of my grandfathers worked in a coal yard supposedly my grandfather frank my mother's father and i used to see him in the morning when we lived on baltic street because he had an eight family building and it was nothing but family in there so he even get up because i'm going to work he used to go to oh he works in the cold yard and then he come back from the courtyard looking the same way he did when he left he's in the courtyard he's supposed to get dirty this guy then i see guys used to come to the house one time and we were in the backyard a bunch of guys came and they were handing them envelopes and i'm looking at them and i told my father so wait my phone says let it go said don't worry about it because you'll find out and as i got older i found out everybody was paying my grandfather they were giving him the envelopes the coal yard was his basis of operation out of there he would meet people have meetings over there you know and then he would conduct his business there and then when he went back to the house on baltic street because we had 575 baltic street was the house and then they would bring the envelopes everybody would bring them the envelopes every week there was like brook there was a truck a trucking company on the block called brook hatton the guy who was there i remember i was about 10. and i remember my grandfather getting into an argument with the guy if i told him don't worry about it it's okay no problem during that night the whole place went on fire then again the insurance paid and then the guys started coming up with an envelope we had chock full of nuts was accord to coffee company they opened up a factory on the block where they would roast the coffee every day my uncles and my grandfather they would get like two three hundred pound bags they would give them plus they would get an envelope my grandfather had a good racket going well i guess uh the black hand when it came to threatening people they would leave like a a piece of paper on someone's door and they would basically you know you mentioned cold they would basically like cover their hand in cold and leave like their hand print on the paper to let people know the black hand yeah has some sort of issue with them and then that basically scared everyone enough to do whatever they they said well see this my grandfather frank cassa that's my mother's father his real last name is costello him and frank costello were cousins the reason why he changed the name because we had cousin he had cousins named casa in the old country every time they came looking for frank costello they grabbed my grandfather my grandfather was only five foot six uncle frank was like six foot two six foot three how are you grabbing this guy this guy's small this guy's big but they were looking for frank costello so he made the name he adopted the name casa after our cousins in italy but still they still kept coming and bothering my grandfather anyway they always bothered him but he was some piece of work my grandfather he really was okay so here you are growing up in this family where everyone is essentially mob related and uh i guess your uncle is uh lucky luciano all right lucky was my grandmother's half brother my great-grandfather anthony because lucky's father was anthony his real name was anthony that's who i got the name from but i got it from him he had an affair with a woman and now the woman came my grandmother nancy auntie mary auntie lucy and anti cumberlina now my grandfather uh tony tony luciano remundi they called him tony the barber he was a cousin to lucky through blood now he turned around when lucky's you know unlucky sister which was my grandmother nancy my grandfather snatched her off the streets in italy and married her so now him and lucky not only their cousins not their brother-in-laws and that and that's how it went down and that's how it went down the line but that was my father's father he had a barber shop on columbia street in brooklyn and my grandmother and grandfather they owned the building it had two apartments above it and there was trophy's bakery on the bottom which was a very famous bakery back then and my grandfather had the barber shop across the street they called him tony the barber because he knew how to cut hair but i remember when i was growing up and i was always going down there i saw very few people going there for a haircut i mean once or twice people walked in there and you never saw them again my grandma and he was small too my grandfather these pictures in my book that's the one with the tall woman with the frizzy hair my grandmother he was only about five five i thought he was but my grandfathers were small but they were deadly they were deadly unbelievable these two guys were but yet you never heard them yell i never heard them yell they would get them okay they never get mad they argue okay don't worry about whatever you're saying they walk away and then guarantee something was gonna happen after that they never yelled i never seen them threaten anybody nothing growing up you know in your living room you would see people like frank concello that you mentioned all the time carmen uh gallante uhito genovese joe colombo uh carlo gambino meyer lansky maya was like maya was like an uncle to me bugsy siegel these would just be people that are in your living room i cannot see that was way before my time okay bugsy i didn't see it i was way before my time but everyone else yeah o'neil and neil delacroce used to come down because they were all related to my grandfathers they were all cousins from the old country all of them all the way around the board okay and your own father was in the mob as well my father was but my father wasn't made and i'll explain my father never wanted to be made but my father had a talent when he came home from world war ii and my father's talent was if there was a problem he'd give it to you and he worked for the national commission but my father had cob launch to do whatever he wanted in the in the city do anything he wants anyway he'd done work in connecticut he went to new orleans he'd done he worked for carlos marcelo they had they got in touch with the commission that they wanted him to come down and do a special piece of work matter of fact if you read the book my father did that piece of work up in connecticut i was telling you about because frankie piccolo who was the boss of the gambino family in connecticut went to the commission that this guy had to go he said but if he sees any of our guys walk in there they gotta know what's going on guy'll take off or whatever now my father walking in there hey how you doing i got to meet somebody else the guy didn't think twice about it that was his mistake because after him and my father exchanged hellos and nice of these my father walked maybe two three feet behind him just put three bullets in the back of his head and walked out the restaurant that's in the book i'm writing a book on my father also after i get done with book two okay so your bo your father was basically a hitman for the mom yeah that's what my father liked to do and my father i'm gonna make you laugh my father was an animal lover my father i swear to god i'm not kidding you my father put a guy in a coma when we had the house on 12th street there was a guy walking up the block in the ad you ever see a sheltie collie the little dogs yeah the guy had a wire around the dog's neck and he's pulling the dog you heard the dog crying my father said listen he goes hey look give me the dog i'll buy him off you the guy turns around screws my leg tells my father [ __ ] you i'll hang this dog he picks the dog up dog is screaming i just come running out all of a sudden i see my father hit this guy the only time i fight he goes get the wire off the door get the dog to the vet i think my father put him in a coma cops came this is frankie what happened i'm outside the guy tried to hit me says frankie they're on your property don't worry about it the guy died i think about two months later but the cops all know he hit me he tried to attack my father quote unquote on my father's own property my father my father did not put up with he did not like harming animals or anything my father used to cry when lastly went off let me put it that way i'm telling i'm not kidding i'm telling you the truth they called my father quiet frank or the quiet guy they used to call him then they called him top and like i said if you read the book you understand how i found out why they called him top unfortunately i put that guy joe fisher in the hospital but they called him top because what he done was tops when he went to do something it was done there was no ques it was done boom home and everything's all over and done with my father had a talent that way let's put it that way do you know how many people your dad killed rough estimate yeah i'd say at least 40 or more wow well my father was one of the guys who killed out with anastasia oh really that's right maybe my father joe gallo and carmine persico my father was the last guy to put the last two bullets in joe gallo outside the restaurant because when sonny pinto made the call this is what i was told on yeah everybody told me on their deathbed you don't know what i'm saying all done on their deathbed when sonny pinto seen joe gallo and then walk in there he made the call everybody got who they were coming down they told my father short contract they went in they didn't shoot him in there they made sure he ran out my father was there my father popped him my he left meanwhile if you looked at the movie the irishman that was [ __ ] and i'm telling you because i wrote i've put out a lot of videos and then that i says to martin scorsese and to robert de niro if you want the truth here's my fax here's my uh email address is my phone get in touch with me i think well this guy robbed my father's life he may have known my father he may have known about my father but he robbed my father's life because this guy did not do anything like that and then there was the scene with um jimmy hoffa with tony pro i did business with tony pro for at least 20 years all types have been me him his brother nunzi the one scene where you see where jimmy hoffa is cursing at tony pro if that would have happened in real life tony pro would have cut his tongue out there would have been no two ways about it then the next scene that was a lot of bull was where you see jimmy hoffa goes over the table and starts choking tony propanzano tony would have killed him right there on the spot they would have killed the irishman and tony would have put somebody else in his place that was all bold i'll take a lie detector test to it and i can tell you what i'm saying and none of them ever got in touch with me because they don't believe they didn't check the story out because there was a lot of [ __ ] with that story well at 12 years old you started hanging out the diplomat lounge yeah which was a columbo hangout spot exactly and you started i guess cleaning up and and so forth and that kind of got you in the door with that family yeah well my cousin matt what happened was i was getting into trouble in school and i was getting into a lot of trouble so my father my uncle sal my uncle frank and i got my cousin mac they all got together said what are we going to do with him because there was other guys that was hanging out with a bunch of other guys that were in a different family but they were older than me but they liked me because you know you know if the fight came down i was 12 13 years old i was right in the middle of it i didn't care so they put me with my cousin mac to groom me and watch me maya lansky gave the okay also uncle lucky had already passed away and i was going down there and tom de bella is my father's godfather okay that's the guy who michael said made him was tom de bella he's my father's godfather when they heard that i was frankie's son they said don't even worry about it leave the kid alone there's a talk in front of me as soon as i was told they said because when they brought me down there they says who's this guy joe colombo didn't really know me he said he goes that's frankie's son he goes who frank he's just quiet frank don't worry about it there's a talk in front of me when tom debell has seen me there he went crazy when he seen me there forget about there's a talk in front of me all the time i was a kid they talked in front of me all the time because i was frankie's son okay so then at 14 uh joe colombo gave you some sports tickets to deliver that's right and that's sort of the start of your mob business yeah so to speak yeah okay and then by 16 uh joe columbo actually gave you your own spot in bay ridge that's right in the cadaver club i would go to the club and they would bring me all the money in the receipts for the the numbers the horses the sports the [ __ ] money i would get all that they would bring it to me i would have all the money together and then i would bring it downtown after i'd get in the car drive downtown and bring it downtown to scappy's club okay so at 16 you're making thousands of dollars a day i'm making a lot of money yeah okay but with the money in that life comes violence usually well it depends on the situation it depends on what you're doing well there's a situation where there was a shooting that happened with the salvatore sally burns that was a cousin it was a third cousin there was salvatore sally burns frankie burns and jimmy burns they were two of them were brothers generals their cousin then they had kids and they had kids this was their third cousin it was called i got the scar still right here from where he cracked me with the gun i still got the scar right here i'll never forget it he left me with that permanently but i left him with something too no head okay so a shooting happened you could put it that way okay uh and he ended up getting killed considering he had no head left i shot him in the head 13 times yeah he had no head okay so the situation escalated hit you with a gun you pulled out and you killed him no no no no he came into the cadabra club and he was asking who who's taking the action here that's why i said i am didn't think nothing of it pulled out a gunny pistol with me that he put me in the hospital i drove from down from third avenue between 85th and 86th street and bay ridge i drove all the way downtown to carroll street and the car that my cousin mac had given me was a big ass electric 225 limited i crashed into the world of diplomat everybody came out they thought i was shocked because i was bleeding all over the place and they took me up to metro's hospital where we had the doctors and they kept me there for about five six days something like that i was up there and then i told them what happened and then i was home i was home for a couple of days after that and then mac brought me down to the diplomat and then we went down to monty's restaurant and said joe colombo wants to talk to you and joe told me he says he was gonna have it taken care of it's okay you know nothing nothing about it and then what happened jeremy lang my cousin mac and everybody called me over says sit down i want to talk to you they told me if joe colombo takes care of this for you you belong to him meaning that whatever he says you got to do and if he don't want you made you never get made if you take care of it that means you belong over here with us it's a difference there's a big difference being with being joe colombo's guy if joe colombo owns you in plain english that means you're his [ __ ] let's put it that way as they would say on the street but you take care of it you belong here with us when it comes your time you will get straightened out so it's all right so he says i gotta take care he says that would be the best way so i agreed to take care of it and there was a friend of mine sally d his family and joey d and they had uh the uncles had a big bar on union street and third avenue called the union street bar you went in there with the bar then you had the basement and then you had a sub basement these guys were gun runners i mean they had a lot of businesses but their biggest thing was was guns so joey dia go and see him we would say mage and he says what's doing when i told him because i heard about what happened yesterday i said listen joe i want to get a gun i'm going to go see this guy but i want it just to scare him my honest opinion was that i was going to scare him when they took me downstairs he says pick out and they gave me a 380 beretta and i started firing the gun down there and i was hitting bull's eyes left and right i never fired a gun i just had a flare for it i guess you would say i took after my father so i got the gun i got in the bag and the uncle sal gives it to me he said it's a gift anthony and they gave me a box of bullets so i'm walking from union street to cal street with a brown paper bag with this gun in it and a box of bullets so my cousin him maggie's outside you're ready to go home i said yeah i get in the car he goes where he got in the bag so i open up the bag i pull out a gun he cracks me in the way you [ __ ] nuts he says you ain't got no permit for this it's like he goes what's that so i'm gonna go see the sally burns because he's in the club now creating all this havoc and i'm gonna you know scare him my cousin looked at me and he laughed he said you're gonna scare me yeah it's okay friday night friday night comes i'm down at monty's and i've seen everybody and i said i'm going i got in the car go there and when i walked in i remember dookie was outside the bartender he says you got to get out of here this guy's going to kill you he's creating havoc he's ripping off everybody on and on i just know i do because i'm going to sell i'm going to talk to him now when you walked into the cadaver club here was the door when you walked in the bar was on the left side and on the right side you had you know a lot of space you had the wall with a ledge then it made an l to the back where the bar is when i turned the ball i seen sally was sitting down with his back to me but he was talking to this girl karen schoozer who was from my neighborhood she was playing house with him you know so when the music went down i heard him say anthony's behind you as soon as i heard that i opened up my coat and i took the gun out of my in my hand for whatever reason i took it out this guy jumps up opens up his jacket i told you i'm gonna kill you your mother's gonna have a closed coffin blah blah blah he went to put his hand on the gun i just picked my hand up and i just started pulling the trigger and i killed him walked out of the place got back in the car got back in the car went down to third avenue i went to the diplomat and they said i said joe where's everybody that's the bartender joe blub he says they're in monty's i go down there i walk in everybody's looking at me oh i thought you were going out to be i said yeah this is what happened i went there and said well so and uh and jeffy language is like well what happened just tell me i said i went in and i told him what happened he said what'd you do i said i pulled out the gun and i shot him so they'll look at me they said you shot yeah shot him this is what happened to him is he dead i said i think so so they got little vincent joe columbo told a little avenging go out there and see what's going on vincent came back in an hour he says it's so chocolate there's the guy is the guy dead he says dead he goes i got no head he goes his head's completely gone he says he blew his head completely off because i had hollow point bullets they all looked at me and i'm sitting there you know whether or not did i really realize what i'd done yeah i guess i did but it didn't phase me one way or the other after that it was a totally different deal when i was down there after that well you were 17 years old see that happened 16 16. okay how did it feel to kill someone at 16 years old honestly it didn't phase me one way or the other i got to be honest with you the only thing i remember this guy saying he was going to kill me my mother was going to have a closed coffin and i seen the gun and he was going to pull the gun out of his waistband and that was it that was it okay so eventually you get arrested for the murder yeah okay and but you're still a minor at the time so you get sentenced to juvenile no what happened they have a statue it's the city state and feds have a thing it's called um uh uh what the hell was i told i got in the book uh that you're under 24 years old um i can't think of it now what the hell it's called now it was a special thing that you could only get seven years no matter what no matter what you do you defenders act that was it you defended zack so you or he will defend this act is whatever the crime is even murder they cannot give you more than seven years because you're a youth defender now the feds have it the city has it the state has it once you hit 24 and you're you're still covered up to 24. once you go over 24 that's it you go away so what it was was that um lawyer made a deal with the d.a he says you know what a year and a half uh possession of an unlicensed firearm and discharging an unlicensed firearm and city limits okay fine we got jerry lang's cat and there's lincoln that day and when i was going down to take the plea i was going to start my time and get it over with it was me matt jebby lange it was joe columbo little vincent and scappy we go we're on 43rd avenue we turned down on atlantic avenue to bournemouth place to go to the courthouse as soon as we made the turn like four cars cornered us pulling us out it was fbi joe colombo screaming and yelling over there we don't know what's going on they're saying we got him we got him we got him i'm looking [ __ ] they got me they charged me with the civil rights violation of salvatore granello or sally burns now here's where it comes down to the civil rights violation all the time people thought it's like a white against black or black and it's no don't work that way the civil rights violation the feds works this way i caused his debt so one he can't grow old he can't spend time with his wife he can't work and support his family he can't see his kids grow up can't see his grandchildren can't go on vacation no you can't do nothing because i caused his debt that's a 99 year sentence automatically so what happened i got convicted like that 99 years they shipped me right to atlanta this judge hated my guts they didn't waste no time with me usually they give you an area that you're supposed to go to first you know they put you in holding i was in mcc that night they shipped me out that night to atlanta when um when abraham gritz came to see me with the with the counselor that's when he had the papers he says if i would join the military army navy marines yeah marine sounds good he goes okay you have to serve two years and here was this phrase they says in the southeast asian conference southeast asian conference two years and what happens everything's wiped out it's expunged yeah sure why not southeast asian conference how bad could it be says conference okay they come with the papers i sign all the papers next day the mps come pick me up get in the car we can take off we'll go down to uh camp lejeune oh southeast asian conference this is cool that's where i got my training that's where i met captain bass that's what i got with captain bass and after all that then i hear we're going to vietnam vietnam i thought i'd tell myself captain i'm supposed to be going to the southeast asian conference because that's what vietnam is i said something that's still gotta be holy [ __ ] that says now what happened with this captain bass for some reason he hated me i caught beatings off this guy every day i was just practice dummy and everything one day i was up on the roof on the corrugated roof and i had to clean that he gave me a brush and a bucket clean the corrugated roof and the colonel comes by calls me down he's looking for captain bass i told him where he was grabbed me by my face looked at my face so he asked me who hit me as i fell off the ladder yesterday this guy knew something was up but anyway he went to get captain bass and i'm back on the roof about maybe five minutes later i hear them go away monday down front and center i turn around i see captain bass with this colonel i said oh [ __ ] at captain bass this guy never smiled but he looked like he even had a mean look as i'm dead i said this guy must have told him i hit him wherever he turns around he goes give this man one week of bed rest he goes he told me he fell off the ladder he's all right he says go to the barracks i went to the barracks i'm laying there maybe about an hour or so goes by door opens up i hear somebody walking i told her i see captain bass ah there we go i said there's nobody in here but me as i'm getting beaten today i get up he comes in i salute him he pretended to go sit down and want to talk to you all right well because why don't you tell the colonel what i did to you he says what are you talking about because when you tell the colonel you hit me i said captain no offense but you didn't hit me i fell off the ladder i said i don't know what you're talking about so he goes why didn't you tell him that i hit you he said you could have been out of here and says captain you never hit me you may have hit somebody but it wasn't me i said you never laid a hand on me i fell off the ladder he looked at me he was shook his head he says you got a weak bed rest you want to walk around and do whatever you want i'm giving you permission to do whatever you want stay here after that i became his best friend this guy personally taught me everything he taught plain english he taught me how to kill rifle gun knife wire a paper clip a pen anything this i was his price pupil this guy and i went to vietnam with this guy up until everything i went to everywhere with this guy i had no problem with him after that because i never opened up my mouth and i told him i could have gotten in a lot of trouble and i could have got out of the service too for that matter but i never ratted out on him i never said two words about him i fell off the ladder well it was your job to actually i guess go behind cambodian lines and assassinate uh various you know north vietnamese fighters yeah my job was to go there just killed that's it nothing else but the judge was hoping that i would die that's why they gave me that deal but there was a quite a bit quite a few other guys who had big sentences like i did that went there to you know get you know out from doing their time in prison and the judges would always hope that we would die but a lot of us fooled him we came back home okay how many people did you actually kill while in vietnam well let me put it this way here i got from my first 150 kills 150 people well at least 150 people that's the first one tell me when you ask show you the next one okay what the next one is 150 my first 150 this one here was on 300. this one here was 300 kills and there's only a certain group of us that have these here for for what we've done there's only certain guys who have this they're definitely over 200 you killed over 300 people way over 300 okay 300 people now let me explain this was during war time yeah so let me explain something not all of them did i shoot a lot of them i blew up like i had one area where i blew up uh there was a um there was what we called there was a hut and there was about maybe i don't know five six vietnam soldiers in there and i blew it up i took the i took the large rocket blew it up killed them all in there you know a lot of them would kill a lot of them i killed like that but a lot of them was with my rifle you know i was a sniper i used to get them two three four at a time okay was there any level of remorse over anyone you killed no either you kill me or i kill you end the story plus the judge was probably praying every day that i got killed and i didn't were there any civilians women and children whatever in the mix while while these bombs were going off or these bullets were flying there was always women and children that got killed in vietnam when bombs were going off i mean you bomb an area i mean they don't stop and say hey uh wait there's women and children here let's not bomb it they do it anyway but then again too what a lot of people don't understand we were in i'll tell you what we were in um in da nang the nang was supposed to be pretty much peaceful compared to some of them and we were told never pick up one of these kids these kids come running to you never pick up the kid do not pick them up why they're booby trapping their own kids are you full of [ __ ] well there was a guy who picked up the kid and him and the kid went up in one shot all right another time we were in dendon mao there was a kid coming towards the soldiers ceo says shoot him no i can't shoot the ceo turned around and shot when the ceo shot him and the kid hit the ground the kid blew up but they didn't give a [ __ ] about their own kids they will be trapped their own kids now if it came down to my life like with a kid that kid's going my life with his mother she's going i don't give a [ __ ] she's pregnant or not i'll kill her she's gonna kill me i'll take her out and i don't even give a damn i'm not here to die here i'm here to do what i got to do and go back home well then in 1975 you came back home yep and you got right back into the whole oh yeah you know organized crime racket now uh meyer lansky was like a mentor to you maya lansky used to come to my let's look this way when my mother gave birth to me in swedish hospital in 1953 maya was there uncle lucky came in uncle lucky used to come in four or five times a year i got news and so the united states when they're saying he was deported they're full of [ __ ] he came in four or five times a year he came in o'neal was there carl gambino they were all there when my mother gave birth to me all of them were there okay and and marlansky was really well number one was one of the richest mobsters ever yeah i would say so sure yeah he had his money in i mean casinos and cuba pretty much everywhere uh and he along with lucky luciano who was his partner kind of helped i guess nationalize the italian mafia i mean nationalized mean well meaning it just went from you know some local crews in new york to becoming a a nationwide well christian you had gangsters if you want to use another term for it or organize crime figures you had in other states but they weren't really organized what he'd done him and maya put it together and they made it into an organization they organized everybody so there's no bloodshed between everybody and if something was to go down there had to be a sit down the commission had to get involved and everything okay and originally you know mario lansky was part of the jewish mop and then you know but then they kind of integrated with the italian mob and he was known as the mob accountant basically yeah and uh and in your book you said uh lansky taught me so many ways of shaking down a guy but he also taught me a lot of ways to actually kill a guy because mario lansky was deadly don't let anyone fool you meyer killed a lot of men in history oh yeah definitely definitely maya taught me a lot of things okay how many people did marlenski kill that you know of i can't say that i know of personally you know what i'm saying but i figure estimate i think he killed about 30 men maybe or so give or take one you give or take one or two here over there yeah and ultimately with all the you know organized crime stuff that he was involved in they never caught him for any of that he ultimately i think he just got charged with illegal gambling but but that's it my my yeah maya used to tell me and i always said this he's tell me you can rob more money with a briefcase than you can with a gun you say remember those words but maya was maya was smart maya was a genius in my opinion he was a genius seriously maya maya was with us when we were in naples when my uncle died in the airport maya was there also with us and we uh brought my uncle lucky then uh they buried him but not buried in it but put him in the tomb there but then uncle frank costello on neal maya said screw that and they took him out and they brought him back to new york and they buried him in queens they paid to have the mausoleum built for him okay so here you are you're back in new york and i guess your cousin jimmy was one of the top enforcers for the columbo family so therefore you became an enforcer as well well jimmy i changed his name i changed his name to jimmy for uh for reasons with his daughter his daughter well forget about his daughter's daughter's another piece of work altogether you know but his real name was mack they would call them mac okay so then you become an enforcer uh for the columbo crime family yes so tell me about some of the early things you did for him well like i said i had clubs i had after hour clubs if there was a problem i went down and i took care of it no it's like if a guy came to the club argument's sake here you got two guys all right two guys are in the club and they just stay talking and again to a little bit of an argument now you're not supposed to put your hands on another guy now if you in our family you put your hands on the guy in our family all right now i go and i pay you a visit and i'll put my hands on you but i'll put you in the frigging hospital now if you're in our family and you put your hands on the guy then you're going to see me and i'll still put you in the hospital rules are rules you don't go against the rules all right you touch somebody's daughter in our family i don't care who you are daughter mother granddaughter uh god taught or whatever you touch somebody in our family then i pay you a visit and i don't care who's with you because whoever's with you they interfere they're going the same way and then if you beat me on money like if you beat us on money like like we have bookmakers okay that were robbing us like there we had this kid um ira he was sammy cash's nephew big 450 pound monster i've uh i i went after i went at it with him i just barely beat him because it was 450 pound but i put him in the hospital i almost killed him because you don't rob money from us and then he then i said then i told sammy cash now you got to pay us back the money and maya lansky interfered he said we want two hundred thousand gotta have it by tomorrow otherwise he's gonna take you out meaning me i was gonna bury him and you break one of the rules whatever the rule is you break the rule i'll pay you a visit okay so you're a mob enforcer so you would essentially you know you said in the book you know the boss told us exactly what was what and we made the decision on how to carry out the order uh how often was murder the order excuse me how often was murder the order that you got uh i never got ordered to murder nobody there you go there you go let me explain something to you mm-hmm stop every crime has a statue of limitations seven years ago except murder exactly so if you admit to i'm just hypothetically speaking now to you if you say oh yeah i got the order to murder oh five or six times you got to be a fool to say something like that because now you're putting light on yourself exactly and probably because ultimately you never stood trial for murder or never got convicted or anything else like that no except for the except for the case when you're sally barnes yeah got it okay so there's the lufthansa the heist uh which was actually depicted in the movie goodfellas played that movie was more more bold than anything else please i love when they make these movies and there's more garbage than anything else okay well uh so this whole scene was depicted you know with robert de niro uh you know being the mastermind of the whole lufthansa uh uh but you were actually involved in the real lufthansa high school listen to me jimmy burke had a guy around him named marty krugman marty krugman is the guy who played more who maury was supposed to be marty krugman years ago had a wig company and then he used to go like this was in hard to believe i'm bored and used to put his hand through his hand pull it and he used to jump in the pool his real name was marty krugman he had of numbers business numbers a sports business [ __ ] business but he spent more than he made he used to borrow money from jimmy burke all right and jimmy burke was sherlock him the money to be paying him the interest so what happened he got into jimmy for a lot of heavy money so he came up with this deal about lufthansa he brought it to jimmy burke jimmy burke had to bring it to pauli vario because he entered the paulie vario now they says well let's bring it to families and see what's going on they brought it to one two three families and i was listening one genius turns around and says oh well go in there with a helicopter put the cable down have guys there break into the place connect it to the state pull it out and take off with the helicopter and i sat there i started laughing so the guy goes what [ __ ] you laughing about he goes you wake up so so they so the old man tom says let him talk i said you're in an airport wait how are you going to get away you come with a helicopter and do that they call the jets they come in from jersey they shoot you right out of the sky how are you going to get away with that another genius comes up but we're going to come in with uh big heavy duty trucks we're going to smash through the wall take the safe and get and how you're going to get out of there with all the police and everybody around you're not you okay so everybody started going back and forth what ideas do you got so jimmy burke we met with him and i says i got one person that i can go to i said if he can't put it together nobody can do this i'll go see maya lansky i went down to miami i called myra because i'm coming down for a couple of days come on he picked me up the airport and i ran the whole thing to him he says let's relax a couple of days i'm going to come up he says and then i want to look at it he goes show me what's going on it's all right i went down relaxed i came up i came up first and then he came up later on that day so when he came up we all got together me him my cousin mack and jimmy burke got in the car went to the airport and we're driving around and outside and there was the uh went into the terminal and then there was the main office where their safe was in next to it there were two containers they were about three feet tall three feet wide they had a check mark in there black check mark in the orange circle maya says there's something in those containers i don't mind wait what i'm telling you there's something in those containers okay p.s we made three trips all together before he put it together when he put it together he put a crew together he put three different crews together one went into the office where the safe was and each one worked on either one of those containers because every time he came in and we went there those containers were still there so he said there's something in there okay when the heist went off one crew went in through the safe they took the cash and some jewelry out of there the other two crews went in and worked on the were outside rather excuse me and they worked on those two containers one container after we after we uh fenced everything five million dollars in jewelry the other one 30 million dollars in bearer bonds all slated to go to germany to germany with the names and the manifest of everybody on that who owned it so maya came up and he said you know what we done i said no what he goes the crooks just robbed the crooks that's what he talked about somebody robbed them they were sticking to germany and we robbed them the crooks robbed the crooks and i used to bring this stuff back and forth to florida for him to fence and bring the money and everything up now one thing one thing one thing good everybody some people tell you oh maya wasn't here go check with the fbi maya was under surveillance in 1978 and they got surveillance pictures of him coming into new york but you know what the funny thing about it is you know what the real funny thing is what's that you got surveillance pictures of him coming into new york in 1978 in brooklyn at the airport all right so you know something's going on right right you got all these all these gangsters or whatever the heist still went off with no problem and nobody got caught if henry hill didn't open up his mouth if jimmy burke didn't open up his mouth to henry hill nobody would ever got caught nobody would ever known about it well according to news reports 5.875 million dollars got stolen with five million of it in cash and 875 000 in jewelry which at the time made it the largest cash robbery committed on u.s soil no that was the last the largest cash robbery was when they opened up those two containers and got 30 million in bearer bonds and 5 million in jewelry because everybody ate on that everybody every family that was involved in it all the families were involved in it and they all got big money all the way around the board right because i guess all the families came in all the bosses and you guys just spent hours and hours just giving millions of dollars to all the different bosses well the first five million that was split up right away then i took the jewelry down to florida maya got rid of it down there he took his cut i brought it back up then i had to drive the bearer bonds down there i went down there with the bearer bonds i had a buick uh i had a buick grand national at the time it's a muscle car and when i was loading up the car with the money me and my cousin i had to rip out my back seat and take out the springs and i was pounding the money and then i had to put just the material over it and then i had money underneath the uh in the way the trunk was i had money underneath the ties and everything and what we used to do was to drive in drive during the day at night time we'd find a motel park in front of it i'd be in the car my cousin would be in the room sleeping four hours he comes out i go and sleep he stays in the car because during the day i told him i said if we get caught with this money i said you know it's going to happen they're going to confiscate it and then we're dead they'll kill us it says there ain't no two ways about it but there's no other way to bring the money in you talk about all the all that cash that we brought in well we brought it in i went down to honey's a lot on cattle street and that's where we started dividing it up but on that part of the money the bosses themselves came down they didn't send their captains down the bosses came down themselves with the underboss to get their end evidently they didn't want nobody know how much they got yeah well i mean well just like in goodfellas i guess everyone was told you know to keep low a low profile not to make any big purchases but some guys went and started you know buying a lot of stuff and they got they got killed yeah they and paulie vario gave the okay for he had to give the okay for it because jimmy burke was the one that was having the killings done but uh the guy who joe pesci who played uh tommy he got whacked couple year or years later he got whacked what happened with him he had a lot of money and he was living in bensonhurst on uh i think it was around 20th avenue and he started making things that he was running out of money now he had an uncle i believe who was in the gambino family and when they said they were going to whack him the uncle put a stop to it can't touch him my nephew okay fine a couple of years later the guy is all acting up acting up i'm gonna tell everybody but i want money i need another million dollars you guys got hundreds of millions of dollars so they set up a deal all right look we're gonna bring you a million dollars all right now i was already in prison at the time they said we're gonna bring you a million dollars two guys went to his apartment up in bensonhurst on 20th avenue gave him a release that was supposedly had a million dollars in when he went to open it up they whacked him they popped they shot him in the back of the head then they went into the bedroom and they killed joni his wife meanwhile and i says i can't see that they use silences on them this girl didn't know what was going on but this son of a [ __ ] killed him anyway but the guy who killed her he wound up getting killed because he wasn't supposed to kill her okay so then in 1979 uh ali boy persico wanted you to be made in the colombo crime family yes uh but i guess at the time the books were closed the books were closed the books were cl well they were closed and they weren't there was on the columbo family they were closed because one of their cousins who was a captain and me and him don't get along let's put it that way he made like about 15 guys that year and the commissioner said what are you doing you're trying to make a you're trying to make a conglomerate over what are you trying to do build up your family bigger bigger and bigger and bigger than all the restaurants and take over so they says can't make nobody at least two or three years so what he done he went to see carmen galenti he went to carmen galentin he told carmine he says he wanted to make me he said he wanted carmine to make me now it was a it was a practice that if they weren't going to make guys in your family that year or whatever they could take you to another family have you made and they shipped you over so carmine agreed but he had to go get the okay from my grandfather because he was my grandfather's cousin because i got to go make sure that uh that uh antonio says it's okay he says this is great this is his grandson so they went to see my grandfather and he calls me in him and carmine were talking my grandfather calls me and he says you know what you're here for he says yeah he's talking to you but he goes all right he's talking to you about straightening me out he goes do you want this i said yeah more than anything he goes you sure i said papa i said yeah i said of course he goes okay tell carmine he says go ahead you got my blessings they straightened me out on good friday 1979 in cozabella's restaurant upstairs and that was uh what this name had at the time um mike sabella had it they had a little get together for me up there after that he shipped me over to the columbos and ali boy had a party for me that night okay so now you're a maid man in the columbo crime family what type of work do you start doing at that point well i had after hour clubs going i had a couple of uh you know what they were called like a casinos where guys would go in play cards you know we would cut the pot i had blackjack in there i had a crap table i had a roulette table at the after hour clubs going i had a couple legitimate clubs i was involved in also there was a club we had on east 15th street in brooklyn between avenue l and locust avenue richmond poorman club i had a piece of that i had a piece of 2001 odyssey which originally was the 802 club my friend is the one who i got to get them to contract the film saturday night fever my friend phillip esco and i gotta had a piece of that place i had a piece of maximus club with michael bolino who was ali boy bicycles bodyguard and chauffeur and that was on 77th street just below 13th avenue and then i had a piece of an after-hour club on 5th avenue 57th street a friend of mine jimmy boyle had the bar it was called the green island at night time like about four in the morning we used to pull the license in and had after hours cops never bothered that's what they were getting their envelope every week so i had a couple and i had a piece of the desiree club also okay now during this time uh carmine persico is the boss but he's in and out of prison for years and years he gets out gets goes back in for a few years gets out for a few months and goes back in and so forth so it's it's fairly chaotic in the family yeah okay so at the time that you were made was there an acting boss oh yeah sure there was who was that tom de bella was the acting boss aha okay so thomas de bella was the acting boss from 73-79 he stepped down to become a consigliere right then from 81-83 ali boy persico became uh the acting boss oh and jerry lange also who you called him jerry langella which his real name is jerry langella i don't know how come uh what's his name saying that he knew jerry so good michael francis should have corrected you and said the real name is langella not langella no offense my apologies no it's not apology but if the guy's telling you something the guy should be accurate okay cause when you came in uh there was a you know the second family war happened from 71 to 75 in the columbus right so then you came in there was some peace time and then years later in 91 93 there was another family war that triggered were you still with the colombos during that time yes okay i came home i came home from prison in uh 87. i and i was with uncle buster estriano we called him gunga din he was in the family and there was rumblings at that time guys were checking out guys who are you going to be with what's going on but there was no war that actually took place yet let's put it that way 1988 i'm with uncle buster and we heard that there's it's gonna be there's a problem coming and it's coming real quick so you know everybody be prepared i'm talking with uncle buster and two guys i know pull up hey anthony how you doing good how you been how you hear what's going on yeah one thing led to another he says well what are you gonna do are you gonna come on a little vic site or you're gonna be with the junior side as well so i didn't want to i just looked at these guys i knew something was up and me and uncle bus were there i said you know what as i really didn't make up my mind yet i gotta look at both ends i told them guys okay he said okay we'll see you later pulled out a gun he shot me in my sight over here i was the first one to get shot uncle buster got me to the hospital and that was really the beginning and then every now and then a body would show up here body would show up over there but then in the 90s is when it really like 91 92 93 is when it really got started right because before then i guess uh vic arena was the boss from 87 to 91 uh before then was uh anthony scappy scarpetti heirloom right so you know what number one what were you imprisoned for uh before then loan shock and extortion conspiracy organized crime and racketeering okay how much did you get i got a good deal i got five well that one i got uh eight years all together because i got a violation from my other parole officer but i got out but i had a well this important in book two i could tell you there was a kid in there name in danbury when they put me in danbury i was waiting for him to send me back to the prison but dan berry was like a freaking boy scout camp there were more rats in that place than anything else i met a guy named rufo gonzalez and he was filipino guy and he had connections with mild demarcos and her husband ferdinand and me and him got closer to prison i said you know we were talking he says anthony says you know i could get you out early how are you going to get me out early trust me i couldn't do it because i represent you at your uh parole hearing because i can get you out early i said what does it cost me it says ten thousand i just i'll give you ten thousand and the money will be in the account i'll they won't uh parole me and you'll be taken out of the prisons no no he goes pay me after you get out after you get you after you get out i gave him all the paperwork everything i had on the case he said in six months we're going to go before the parole board i went before the parole board he represented me he walked in they said oh mr gonzalez how you doing they all knew him they spoke with me i spoke with them he schooled me on what to say they granted me parole i looked at him and said he's gotta be [ __ ] kidding me he said cause you're out i got out uh in 87 i got out i sent 10 000 to ruffo's wife no problem this guy got a lot a lot of guys out of there you know a lot of guys that had the prison but he had a lot of big political connections well i guess in the book you said that the way you actually avoided getting you know arrested over the years was because you and your crew actually paid millions of dollars to the mayor at the time ed koch that was caught [ __ ] that well that again but that would catch it that was like when we used to do all the uh contracts we used to get from them oh yeah we put them in we're the ones who put them in office because we started the fundraisers it was called the chairs royale benny kirkhorada had it he was a captain in one of the families and it was me dominic rayon who was the deputy commissioner of veterans affairs carmella sapio politician from staten island there was mike dinacola who was a captain of corrections officers hank velez who was another captain in the correctional offices dominic barbarino he was a retired i think an inspector or something and he had a private detective agency and they told me about him i told him i spoke to my father my uncles i said listen we get this guy in we're made we got to run in the city we got him in we got all the unions to go from we got him in he would give us contracts they gave us we did a contract on 210th street and morningside drive we put the bid in we were like maybe four million dollars higher than anybody else and we got the bid best meyerson was the bag lady because we used to meet her i used to meet her at dominic grayon's house on avenue oh he lived on the avenue oh and i used to bring the money there in the past it's a big like a plastic bag or a shopping bag she used to get it open up a playlist and put it in there and close it but anytime she you know we would give her a contract she would say you can get it this is what ed wants two million dollars here a millionaire three percent of this two percent of this just give him a flat fee like that and we always had it with them always had it with him he had his hand out he had to find out just like carmilla sapio i mean come on the biggest one the biggest politicians going he was involved with us come on yeah we all made we all made money that 12 years was the best 12 years even though i was in prison they were still making money they were still making money because what happened when i went away when i went away then dominic would be the one doing the talking he would do he would again touch with best smiles and say listen this is what we got and i would send the guys to matter of fact ralph scorpo who he passed away now he was at the head of sna concrete he either come up with me with jobs they should say ralph i get a few no problem i had a job i got for i'll tell you right now you see the west side highway here in new york i had a friend of mine that i got to uh shall beldeo taro he was with the uh lucasy family he was bobby feldman's rabbi for feldman lumber which is in brooklyn i'm touching greenpoint he introduced me to a guy leo daruba who was the business agent for olympia and york today i think the biggest or the second biggest construction outfit in the world they're based in canada leo told me about this job with the west side highway that's all right lee i said let me go see what's what i spoke with bess meisten she turned him and says ed wants two million all right and give him i think it was true or five percent of the job but after the job is done but anything you do for like maintenance that's all this i told leo he said i'll go talk to my people i didn't hear from him for about two days so one day about the third day he comes calls me so i'm coming to your house it's all right because i got to see you okay didn't discuss nothing he comes walking there with a big release with a big uh suitcase as you're going away he says no what we're doing with the suitcase he goes open it up to two million dollars he says they want the job they got the job olympia like that they got the job that job was so overpriced and high priced you have no idea how much money everybody made and then once all that money was done olympia and york had the uh the maintenance on it all the money they made under maintenance went to them kotz didn't want nothing on that he was being fair about that well uh ultimately after the third uh colombo war uh i mean a lot of people got killed um yeah a lot of a lot of people went to prison it was it was a mess it was an absolute mess yep was was ori spado somehow involved in in this situation i never met or spato until recently right man and i met him like over the phone like that so i never saw a spade down there with us with anything like that and just to clear something up with you so i hope and i don't think that i'm picking on anybody but uh i have an issue with a couple of things with you and michael francis in some of your videos and okay first one was when michael francis was talking about the colombo war like he was talking about it like he was there then he says oh well i was in prison okay and then he was talking about his crew none of his crew or qualco crew was on the street i was he wasn't his crew wasn't i didn't see nobody in his crew on the street and i didn't hear anything from any of his crew being on the street and i do take exception with that the reason why because a lot of guys did get killed okay so don't be saying something because i was there and he used to say that he used to go down to cabell street all the time down to the diplomat i was in the diplomat seven days a week i never seen him there i met him twice once when i was coming out of montes i got introduced to him once when i was going into montes or hello goodbye and that was it okay so don't say you were going into diplomat all the time which he wasn't i was there seven days a week i was there that was our hangout and jerry lang was in there seven days a week also and ali boyd bicycle and my cousin mac and all of us i do take exception to certain things because you're saying something maybe you don't think anybody i was there now i knew his father very well and his father knew my father and his father sonny was very close with my cousin tien tony napoli and my father my cousin tony just passed away like about i think it's just about a year after sonny did so there are quite a few things well how many people died in that war excuse me how many people got killed in that war i think about 14 something like that i'm not exactly sure 14 15 maybe more because guys got killed out of state off and you guys shot yourself i got shot in 88 yeah yeah that was just when it was starting to come to a head oh the two guys who shot me they wind up both getting killed well at one point you actually distanced yourself from the columbo mafia i just started i started staying up in the bronx and i was with my uncle danny celente up there because what happened all the uh well here's basically what happened i was called down that there was a crew they wanted me to take care of they operated a whole new crew because everything started changing all the bosses were in prison all their fathers their uncles it's okay let me see the guys but it turned out it was a drug crew i said i want no part of that i want no part of drugs at all i always said if i'm gonna kill you i'm gonna kill you not your whole family meaning this that you start dealing with drugs you get somebody hooked on drugs you kill their whole family meaning that the heartache that the mother goes through the father the wife the children don't i want no part of that if i'm gonna do something to you i'm gonna do it to you directly i'm not getting your whole family in there i want no part of drugs whatsoever no so with that i decided i got in touch with my uncle danny and well it really was my grandfather's cousin and i started going up to the bronx over there but i was still belong to the colombo family but i wanted no part of the drugs then i seen the way it was going everything became drugs drugs everything was going on the sideline then they're making guys left and right in my day when you got made you had to do a piece of work otherwise you didn't get made all right and to get made know what to say they said they were going to make you now i'm already a made guy i go with you to make sure you can do the work because if you didn't do the work and i had to do it then i killed you also because then you can't be trusted but if the guy does the work they come back the guy's good he did the work like that he didn't think flinch twice you're gonna get made they're making guys who never did a piece of work they're making guys who never proved themselves because of oh yeah well i'm going out with a sister so i'm bringing these two brothers in we're gonna straighten them out uh my sister's going out with this guy we're gonna straighten him what are you kidding me it's a [ __ ] joke this whole thing became a joke all these new guys i'm a dinosaur to these new guys all right these new guys don't know me and i don't care to know them but everything with them is drugs and they're making guys left and right all over the place it's not the way it was yeah i mean the book you said all the old guys either went to prison or they died or they went into witness protection right it's not what it was like i said too if it would have been like it was years ago in the 70s and the 80s like that even in the early 90s i would have never wrote the book but i left i said that he said before i even wrote the book i spoke to my friends who were in prison all of them their answer to me was this don't make us look like animals if you put us in the book make your book and get out of here because these kids are going to put you away for life right because you came out with a book when the bullet hits the bone exactly the reason why because when i got shot over here if you can see over here this part of the bullet is still in me over here i got shot in the chest over here i got the hole over here and the bull came up in here and i was outside my cousin's house i got shot they tried to kill me and my cousin and that was over the deal with saturday night fever when they tried to rob it for me how many times did you get shot in your life three times three times yeah once in the side here once here and once a situation over saturday night fever the start of the colombo war another time excuse me you know you mentioned the the situation with the saturday night fever uh shooting there was the start of the whole colombo war and there was a third time as well what was the third time about third time was i got shot in the lake i got shot through the lake from my car a guy came thought he was going to make a name for himself take me take me down no he was going to take me he's always gonna take anthony cigars down guy comes over wish i didn't like all let's make friends likes make friends i said you know what that's okay but i already knew in my head what i was gonna do so i go reach out my hand like this he puts his hand in he shoots me i stepped on the gas pedal took off the bullet went in here came out here i had to go to the hospital i was in the hospital for five days because they had to clean it out and pack it out but once i was able to like i said i could show them the holes and everything but once i got better you know and i said nah don't worry about it and then one day this guy got in his carbon somebody shot him in the head in his driveway karma and they didn't use the silence of either they used a loud gun they made everybody know this guy got popped things happen things happen well are you officially out of the columbia mafia i've been out for quite a few years i've been out i left i don't i don't associate with all those guys don't associate with any of them anymore well like you said the majority of people and when you look down you know the line of all the bosses and the under bosses and everything else like that you know most people either got killed had to do life in prison or ultimately had to go and witness protection like you said what do you think kept you from going that route what do you mean well the fact that you're still alive you you could write a book you're living your life what what kept you from getting killed or doing life in prison or having to basically testify against everybody i never ratted on anybody i never gave up information on anybody i never talked about anybody and anything that's in my book it doesn't even have anything to do with any of these new guys none of these new guys or any of these other guys have anything to do with it they weren't even around and what am i saying i'm saying things that happened in the book you know there's statute of limitations on everything statute of limitations expired that's it i never threatened anybody never did anything like that at all well with all the things that you did over the years uh all the people that you beat up uh all the the various shootings that happened all the violence and so forth are you ever worried about revenge repercussions a person's family you know sons daughters cousins best friends whatever else not really no honestly no because this is what we chose to do when you when you enter into this life or as they say or whatever you know what to expect so you know that if god forbid a habitable speaker you're into this life you got a brother your brother gets killed okay there's a reason why he got killed it's business it's all it is it's always business when you make it personal then you're gonna get killed because if you kill a man if you kill a man for a personal reason now understand me when i say personal reason maybe you don't like him or uh let's say he screwed you on money or he's going out with your girlfriend or whatever you'll kill him you're going to get killed but now if a guy harms a member of your family you'll kill him they're not going to touch you see there is personal and personal you follow what i'm saying so somebody harms a niece of yours you go out and you kill them they're not going to bother you even though it's personal that's a different story but if you kill a guy oh he's going out with my ex-girlfriend and you go to kill him you're in you're in trouble or the guy beat you on money you're in trouble you kill him you gotta put it you got to bring it to your guy you gotta bring it to your skipper you sit down you straighten it out or whatever and then whatever judgment has passed is passed well you're now one day 68 years old huh you're now 68 years old i'll be 68. you'll be 16. you're 67 years old when you look back on your life when you look at getting shot three times all the present time that you did uh and then all the things that we can't really talk about because the statute of limitations and so forth uh you know do you feel any level of regret if you had if you could go back to your 15 year old self and take it a different route would you have taken it no or are you happy with the life that you lived no i don't think i would have taken it i don't think i would have taken it no this is the way i was brought up this is the way i was raised i didn't know any other life yeah this is what this is what was around me seven days a week 365 days a year is there anything you regret at all about the life the only thing i regret about my life is that truthfully that i couldn't save my mother and father because they all died from diseases from cancer and heart and everything it's the only thing i wrote that and i couldn't save my animals and i'd be perfect common animal lover i'll be honest with you that's the only day that's the only regrets i have that's the only regrets i have anything i ever done in my life i done to the same people who were in the same life that i was in doing the same thing that i was doing i never messed with legitimate people never did because legitimate people don't understand something you want to be with me every week you better have that envelope for me i don't give a damn well you got to have that envelope for me every week because legitimate people all they know is they like the idea of oh this guy is this and this guy's that and i'm with him but they don't realize you still got to come up with it every week there's no there's no excuse over here yeah there's no excuse whatsoever no they think i clarify like i do on my tapes i wrote my book you're right i never ratted on anybody and you can look to all the records you want i never signed a profit like michael did excuse me but he did and there's proof on that i never went into court and testified on anybody i never gave information on anybody nobody ever went to prison on me nobody ever got into any trouble for me i got into trouble twice because why what people said about me i wasn't even on the tapes i got two convictions against me two different cases because of what people said about me not even what i wouldn't they don't even have me on tape talking and i kept my mouth shut all the time but you know what this is the end of my life so the speakers who knows how many years i got before i go i'm telling my story now because everybody's telling these stories that are all out of bs they know about this they know they don't know half of what they're talking about they don't now is it going to buy me a one-way ticket to heaven i doubt it very much let's put it that way but i'm telling my story now well uh over the years i've interviewed a lot of ex-mafia guys um you know from anthony arlotta to bobby luisi to larry mazza uh to anthony russo uh the list goes okay which anthony what are you talking about anthony russo from brooklyn yeah the one that uh teddy prestige made and then when he got pinched he gave him up uh part of the gambinos right oh no no no this guy was with the columbos no his name was anthony russo they called him a different guy well uh i mentioned all the all the people i just mentioned because i've interviewed them and at one point in their story they talk about how they cooperated with the feds and they gave various reasons uh one reason was that their family was threatened another reason was was their partner found you know they found out their partner was cooperating there's always you know and i've asked them flat out do you consider yourselves rats most people say no you know there's various reasons and so forth right but ultimately most people i interview have cooperated which is why they're they could say you know when i could ask them stories you know about murders and so forth they could actually lay out you know the stories you know people like john a light and stuff like that uh so when you look at people from your point of view that were mob affiliates and some of these people i don't know if you know them or you know of them or whatever else but when you look at people who ultimately were in the mafia who were made men and cooperated what are your thoughts about them oh i looked this way one they didn't rat on me i looked that way or guys that i knew but like i said there had to be a reason i'll give you for instance carmine persico was hiding out i was in prison at the time and he was hiding out in a cousin's house and the fbi caught him there now michael bellino who was ali boy pricing goals bodyguard and chauffeur and everything i think uh michael was still in prison he wasn't out yet a couple of guys went to michael bellino's house told his wife and his daughters your father's a rat this that and whatever he's no good and then we're on and on and on we're gonna get even we're gonna get even you come to court so michael molino's wife went to court they threatened her and they threatened the daughters to harm them so they went to court the trial was going on and there was a uh what do you call you know they took a break in the trial and they were going to have the witness and the informant who gave up come my personal so when it comes back on who comes working out this guy freddie the christopher who was a cousin to carmine to a maverage carmine was staying at his house he gave him up for fifty thousand dollar reward yeah meanwhile the guy afraid to christopher his wife who was another wise who her brother's a big wise guy he was a cousin today to carmine and ollie boy bicycle she fainted michael bellino's mother of michael bolino's wife and daughters walked out they sent back an apology to michael molino and from what i understand carmine told michael anything you want we'll give you we'll give you we'll take care of it michael says i appreciate i don't want nothing to do with anyone anymore when he came out of prison he went to florida yeah they went and threatened his wife a couple of other times they went and they threatened guys actually like uh say like that guy's got his wife he's got his grammar okay so he dumps on he picks up another one a gramata so this one here starting in guys we're going there and beating up the girl come on let's be freaking see if he's here we didn't do that in my day in my day you're not supposed to do something like that but they're doing that i got no use for them i know you shouldn't whatsoever so there are reasons why guys do turn around and give up information let me tell you another another another [ __ ] story they had was hey i'm going to make you laugh with this one if you wore a beard or a mustache that meant you was a rat well you know what no no listen now i'm going to give you a couple of names joe valachi all right jimmy frantiano the weasel and just follow me what i'm saying sally michiana anthony russo from the columbos okay uh there's so many guys oh frankie leno joe messina the head of the of the bonanno family joel messina's brother-in-law these are just a couple that i'm mentioning every one of them became an informant but guess what they all had in common not one of them ever had facial hair funny so how are you telling me a guy with a beard or a mustache he's going to be a rat when all the informants that you ever see throughout history they're all clean shaven they've never had facial hair uh well anthony i appreciate you sharing your story uh quite a life uh quite a life of ups and downs oh there's a lot more to it believe me when i tell you oh yeah i mean there's the whole vatican story which we didn't get into which is going to be part of a documentary that you're working on yeah you know uh as long as well as uh you know the whole lufthansa heist and um you know really uh association there's more to delve into with the little towns with the lufthansa heist about who who got rid of the jewelry and where we got rid of it and how the the bonds were changed over and everything was washed that's that's that's another story yeah i bet well uh we'll have links to your book when the bullet hits the bone yes uh below if you want to check it out it's quite a read uh you know and i appreciate you sitting down and my pleasure yeah man anytime you want to interview me again there's no problem with that they've got quite a few things absolutely i think michael michael i don't mean to interrupt but i'm about to hop up i think michael might be mad at you because of what i'm saying because i corrected him on a couple of things uh well listen uh at the end of the day whoever sits down in this chair has the right to say whatever they want and uh you know well there's quite a few other things i can tell you about but you know we could let that go for another time if you ever want to interview me again sure i have other stories michael's always welcome to sit down and uh and respond to you as well yeah you can sit down with me together because i'll sit down with them together i don't care sure sure i mean at one point we interviewed uh spato who said a few things about michael and michael responded and so forth so yeah you know at the end of the day everyone has their own point of view uh every situation has multiple angles uh and you know people are allowed to say their piece yeah well i got uh things in book two that if you ever interview me again i can tell you about it because there's no problem with that a lot of other things what is book two coming out hopefully it should be out between march and june and it picks up from where book one left off but in book two i go back to with the vatican i give you the rest of the story on the vatican and with the assassination of the pope oh yeah looking forward to it i'm looking forward to a lot more too anthony appreciate you coming in my pleasure thank you peace

Channel: djvlad

Views: 925,210

Keywords: VladTV, DJ Vlad, Interview, Hip-Hop, Rap, News, Gossip, Rumors, Drama

Id: uhB3UK-S2dU

Length: 84min 34sec (5074 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/delete_this_post]

This guy strikes me as a liar just trying to sell his book.

Certainly his claim to have personally helped assassinate Pope John Paul I seems absurd.