NYDN Article Nov. 22 '04: Gagliano

My life as a real mob rat - From the New York Daily News

BY GREG B. SMITH DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Monday, November 22nd, 2004

The story of the Bonanno crime family already is the stuff of Hollywood best sellers. The family patriarch, Joseph Bonanno, was the model for Don Corleone in Mario Puzo's "The Godfather." FBI Agent Joseph Pistone's daring infiltration of the Bonannos led to "Donnie Brasco." Now the Corleone family is back in "The Godfather Returns," a novel by Mark Winegardner that has gotten tepid reviews.

Perhaps Winegardner should have consulted Frank Lino, the man whose FBI confessions are the real book on the Bonannos.

At the end of his long Mafia career, Frank (Curly) Lino faced a terrible dilemma - die in prison or turn on his own son and his extended mob family.

He decided prison was not an option. Lino became an FBI informant, spilling his guts on the son, Joseph, and several cousins - as well as his Bonanno buddies.

The result: A 200-plus page chronicle of a crime family whose real-life exploits are as bloody, bizarre and captivating as any work of fiction.

Over the course of a year, Lino, 67, spent hours at undisclosed locations telling all to FBI Agents Christine Grubert and Jay Kramer. The agents' notes, obtained by the Daily News, offer a glimpse into mob life - as well as a litany of betrayals.

All in the family

Frank Lino took the agents back to his childhood on W. Eighth St. in 1950s Gravesend, Brooklyn, where the mob was as much a part of life as Spaldeens and the Dodgers.

Lino made it only to 10th grade at Lafayette High School before dropping out to hijack trucks with a mob farm team known as the Avenue U Boys.

After impressing local wiseguys, Lino was inducted into the Bonanno crime family on his 40th birthday, Oct. 30, 1977.

It was a natural progression for a son of a family long shadowed by the Mafia. Lino's parents' marriage was arranged in the '30s by the boss of the Genovese crime family.

Cousin Eddie Lino was a Gambino crime family soldier. Cousin Bobby Lino Sr., a Bonanno soldier, insisted on his deathbed that his son, Robert Jr., become a soldier, too.

Frank told the FBI that his own son, Joseph, followed the same path, becoming a soldier in his crew. Then Frank Lino proceeded to implicate all of the La Cosa Nostra Linos.

He told the FBI about his son the loanshark and extortionist. He described how his son's bus company, Streetsmart Transportation, linked up with a Bonanno-controlled union so it could come in low on public bids.

He even called Joseph unlucky, stating he "is a big gambler and has lost a significant amount of money." Sometimes Lino used the mob to protect his own. In 1980, he learned that a Colombo associate, Michael (Mikey Bear) Aiello, sold drugs to a cousin, Grace Ann Lino.

He says he sought and received permission to kill the associate, and watched as Aiello was shot on Ocean Parkway. Somehow Mikey Bear survived.

Donnie Brasco Donnybrook Then there was his family's involvement in the Donnie Brasco fiasco. Dominick (Sonny Black) Napolitano, a trusted Bonanno capo, made a mistake that would cost him his life: He brought FBI Agent Joseph Pistone - aka Donnie Brasco - into the family.

Before dying, Napolitano said, "Hit me one more time, make it good," as he lay wounded.

When Lino learned that mob associate Ronnie Filicomo had assigned Lino's son, Joseph, to dig a hole for Sonny Black, he got "angry at Filicomo for soliciting his son's participation in the plan and for not asking [Lino's] permission."

Lino later confronted his son, who admitted he dug the hole. But on the night of the murder, the killers could not find the hole and dumped the body under some rocks.

And for the Bonanno family, getting rid of a corpse proved harder than creating one on more than one occasion.

On the night of a May 1992 slaying of a suspected mob turncoat, Lino left the getaway car on the street around the corner from the spot where the victim was to be dispatched - a bar above a nail salon in Bensonhurst.

Lino entered the bar after the associate had been shot in the head. To make sure the victim was dead, one of Lino's cleanup crew stuck an icepick in the victim's ear.

The body was wrapped in a rug and then Lino stood outside, making sure no one exited a nearby subway. In the dark, they brought the body down.

The carefully parked getaway car would not start. The gang then scrambled around with a very bulky rug in the dark to find another car that would.

The Drunk Who Couldn't Shoot Straight

There were the odd times when Lino tried to play the Mafia version of pacifist.

Bobby Lino Sr. once really wanted to kill associate William (Cappy) Capparelli for allegedly extorting a Lino relative. He even got permission from the bosses to carry out the hit.

But Frank Lino "put a stop to killing Capparelli, saying it was not right to kill a person over such an argument."

Once, a crew member known as Patty Muscles infuriated the Colombo family by shooting at that family's acting boss.

Lino explained that Patty was too drunk to recognize whom he was shooting at, so the Colombo gangsters reasoned that Patty deserved only a broken arm.

But Lino outsmarted the Colombos: He sent Patty Muscles to a hospital where the family knew people who would put a fake cast on his arm.

Lino was consistently practical. During an internal Bonanno war in the early 1980s, he feared getting whacked, so he insisted on meeting fellow gangsters beyond the metal detectors at Kennedy Airport's Delta Terminal.

That way, nobody could bring a gun. Pitching Stories Many of Lino's statements to the FBI were instrumental in the successful Brooklyn federal prosecution of Bonanno family boss Joseph Massino, who was found guilty of seven murders.

But not everything Lino told the FBI has led to arrests - even though it makes for interesting reading.

Lino claimed that Mets pitcher John Franco got him and other mobsters free tickets to a Mets game in Montreal - even allowing crime figures to visit him in the clubhouse at times.

In a statement, Franco declined to address "the specifics" but said he is "proud to be an Italian-American."

While in Canada, Lino claims he met Alfonso Gagliano, a former minister in Canada's cabinet. At the meeting, Lino contends Bonanno gangster Joseph Lopresti introduced Gagliano to him as a made man in the family.

Gagliano vehemently denied Lino's allegation - which was first revealed in The News last week.

Gagliano was dismissed as ambassador in February after his name surfaced in a corruption scandal.

The Sins of the Father

So far, Joseph Lino has not been charged, and sources speculated that the father agreed to cooperate only if the son would be spared.

But two weeks ago, cousin Robert Lino Jr., 38, was not so lucky. A judge sentenced him to 27 years in federal prison based in large part on Frank Lino's testimony.

"The betrayal of your family is the worst thing you can do in your life," said a Lino cousin shortly after Robert Lino got his heavy-duty prison sentence. "There is nothing worse that I can think of."

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