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| Jul. 1993 |
Robert 'Bobby' Amuso (1933-1994) was a Captain in the Lucchese Family with interests in Brooklyn, Queens and possibly Florida.
Younger brother Vittorio 'Little Vic' Amuso has remained the Lucchese Family's Boss since late 1986 despite spending the last 35 years in Federal prison.
Robert was born May 15, 1933 in Brooklyn to Giuseppe (40y), a tailor, and Theresa Petrelli (39y). Parents from Jatrinoli (present-day Taurianova) comune of Reggio Calabria.
At the time of Robert's birth the family resided at 103-02 Glenwood Rd in the neighborhood of Canarsie.
By the 1940s father Giuseppe owned a tailor shop about four miles to the west in Park Slope.
Served in US Army from May 29, 1953 to April 26, 1955.
In May 1973 possibly one of the incorporators of Lando Building Corporation located at 777 Lancaster Rd in Orlando, Florida. Others were Florida resident Frank Macina as well as Patsy Spallone and Joseph Luccisano, both of Howard Beach, Queens.
By Fall 1977 owned or held a financial interest in the Cricket Motel located at 164-49 Cross Bay Blvd in Howard Beach.
In July 1978 included in FBI
list of approximately 80 identified Lucchese Family members. An asterisk next to the name indicated that Amuso's membership was suspected but not yet confirmed, a designation typically used when a newly inducted or previously unknown member had only been identified by a single source.
Both Robert and his brother Vic are believed to have been made around this time through the sponsorship of Captain Chris 'Christy Tick' Furnari (1924-2018).
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| C. Furnari |
Furnari, born 1924 to a Sicilian father and inducted by the late 1950s, supervised his crew from the 19th Hole bar located in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.
By the late 1970s made members of Furnari's crew included Robert Amuso, Vittorio Amuso, Frank Bellino, Anthony 'Gaspipe' Casso, Angelo Defendis, Nicola 'Nicky Edkins' DiCostanzo and Thomas 'Big Tommy' DiDonato. (Casso may have been reporting to Louis 'Louie Beans' Foceri for a time.)
Possible crew members included Victor Aita, Michael 'Mike the Cream' Jannotta, Saverio 'Sebby' Maimone and
John Trematerra. (Trematerra may not have been made at the time. Aita, Jannotta and Maimone were suspected members.)
On August 25, 1980 FBI CI reported: "
Source advised Christy Tick Furnari, Capo Lucchese LCN Family, meets with his crew every Wednesday evening at the 19th Hole, 1402 86th Street, Brooklyn."
By mid-to-late 1982 Furnari had been elected the Family's Consigliere and Robert's brother Vic took over the 19th Hole crew.
By October 1984 possibly resided on Conklin Ave in Canarsie.
By mid-1980s loanshark customers included Bonanno Associate Gasper 'Gary' Valenti, cousin of Bonanno Soldier Vincent Asaro. (Valenti subsequently left New York due to his mounting debts and decades later became a cooperating witness.)
Following the unsanctioned murder of Gambino Boss Paul Castellano in December 1985, the Amuso brothers became involved in a joint Genovese-Lucchese plot to kill Castellano's successor, John Gotti, as well as several of his supporters.
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| F. DeCicco |
Robert was an on-scene participant in the April 13, 1986 bombing murder of Gotti's Underboss Frank DeCicco.
The hit team detonated the explosive when they mistook 19th Hole crew member Frank Bellino, who was standing with DeCicco, for intended primary target John Gotti.
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| 1986 |
By July 1986 owned Surf Side III Motel located on Cross Bay Blvd in Howard Beach.
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V. Amuso
Gang Land News |
Around mid-November 1986 Lucchese Boss Antonio 'Tony Ducks' Corallo, facing impending conviction in the Commission case, met with other Family leaders and chose Vic Amuso as his successor.
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| A. Luongo (L) |
On November 18 Lucchese Captain Anthony 'Buddy' Luongo disappeared.
Luongo was believed to have joined with Salvatore 'Tom Mix' Santoro, Corallo's Underboss and Commission case co-defendant, in a plot to take over the Family.
Victim lured to a meeting with Vic Amuso, Robert Amuso and Anthony Casso, the 19th Hole's New Captain, at an apartment linked to Genovese Member Dominick 'Swaggy' Carlucci.
During the meeting, one of the Amuso brothers (sources differ on which) walked into another room, retrieved a pistol and shot Luongo to death. Body disposed of in undisclosed location and victim's car left parked at JFK International Airport in Queens.
The day after Luongo's disappearance Corallo, Santoro and Consigliere Chris Furnari were convicted in the Commission case; each subsequently given 100 years.
By February 1987 Anthony Casso had moved up to Acting (?) Consigliere and Robert Amuso was designated Captain.
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| P. Chiodo |
That month 19th Hole crew associate Peter 'Fat Pete' Chiodo was inducted into the Lucchese Family. Robert and Frank Lastorino drove Chiodo to the ceremony, which was presided over by Boss Vic Amuso and held above a Brooklyn funeral parlor.
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| C. Furnari Jr. |
By the spring Chris Furnari's son, Chris 'Jumbo' Furnari Jr., had been inducted and named Acting Captain of the Amuso crew.
Furnari Jr. was soon demoted and shelved on Boss Vic Amuso's orders. CW
Burt Kaplan, a long-time Furnari associate who flipped in 2005, later testified: "
Furnari's son was given a position when Furnari went to prison, but he didn't get along with Anthony Casso...Casso told me that Chris's son was visiting him and when he came back, he would tell Vic and Gas, My father said this and my father said that, and there was no truth to it. The father never sent any messages like that." (Furnari Jr. also ordered a beating that he falsely claimed was authorized by Robert Amuso, according to a summary of CW Thomas Carew's testimony
posted on The Black Hand Forum.)
By April 1987 Robert owned the Walnut Bar at E 92nd St and Flatlands Ave in Canarsie, later described by Former Lucchese Acting Boss turned CW Alfonso 'Little Al' D'Arco as the 19th Hole faction's headquarters.
Around late 1987 Alfonso D'Arco, then a Soldier, was ordered by Vic Amuso to pass along a message for Lucchese Captain (?) Anthony 'Curly' Russo to meet with Robert at the bar. (It was while relaying this message that D'Arco was first introduced to Lucchese Soldier Anthony 'Bowat' Baratta; D'Arco and Baratta would later serve in the Family's administration as Acting Boss and Acting Underboss respectively.)
By 1988 made members of Robert Amuso's crew believed included Frank Bellino, Peter Chiodo, Angelo Defendis, Nicola DiCostanzo, Frank Lastorino, John Petrucelli and George Zappola.
Associates included Oscar Ansourian, Thomas 'Tommy Irish' Carew, Michael DeSantis, Corrado 'Dino' Marino, James 'Jimmy' McCann and Richard Pagliarulo. (Carew and Dino Marino later became CWs.)
Amuso operated as loanshark for other high-ranking Lucchese Family members. Alfonso D'Arco later testified: "[Bobby]
would lend out to all the captains 100,000 and up or 200,000, whatever they need. If they needed money, to go to him. He would charge certain guys, very few, a quarter of a point. Which was like -- they would re-lend this money or use it for their scheme, at up to three points."
Around late May-June 1988 Vic Amuso promoted both Peter Chiodo and Alfonso D'Arco to Captains at a meeting held inside the basement of a residence near the Walnut Bar.
Chiodo is believed to have been given a piece of Amuso's crew, including Associates Thomas Carew, Michael DeSantis and Richard Pagliarulo; Chiodo sponsored the latter two for membership the following year.
Robert attended the August-September 1988 ceremony where six new members were formally inducted.
Ceremony, presided over by Vic Amuso and Consigliere Anthony Casso, held in basement of residence owned by Genovese Member Dominick Carlucci. Others present included Captains Robert Amuso,
Salvatore Avellino and Alfonso D'Arco.
Those inducted were:
- Anthony 'Big Tony' Calagna (50y)
- George 'Goggles' Conte (28y)
- Joseph D'Arco (32y)
- Anthony Senter (33y)
- Joseph Testa (33y)
- Joseph 'Jo Jo' Truncale (57y)
Alfonso D'Arco's debriefing report states that Conte, Senter, Testa and Truncale were all assigned to the Amuso crew.
The ceremony is further described in the 2013 book
Mob Boss: The Life of Little Al D'Arco, the Man Who Brought Down the Mafia.
The book notes that Robert, using a 'big, nasty-looking' safety pin, left 'blood all over' by nearly punching 'right through' the inductees' trigger fingers.
In late 1988 Vic Amuso and Consigliere Anthony Casso summoned the Family's New Jersey regime to a meeting in Brooklyn. The crew members were supposed to meet up at the Walnut Bar and then be taken to the site of the meeting in the basement of a nearby residence.
It was Robert Amuso, along with others not identified, who subsequently brought the news to the waiting administration members that the Jersey crew members, after arriving at the bar, refused to go to the second location and abruptly left. This was the first of multiple aborted meetings that resulted in murder contracts being issued on Jersey Captain Anthony 'Tumac' Accetturo and others; the contracts were still open when Alfonso D'Arco became a cooperating witness three years later.
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| T. Gilmore |
Around the same time D'Arco met with Vic Amuso at a restaurant in Queens, where Amuso ordered the murder of D'Arco crew Associate Thomas 'Red' Gilmore. According to D'Arco, Amuso suspected Gilmore of being an informant and of having robbed Robert Amuso's residence.
In early February 1989 members of D'Arco's crew shot Gilmore to death outside his residence in Ozone Park, Queens.
Also around this time Lucchese Associate
Burt Kaplan, who acted as the intermediary between Consigliere Anthony Casso and two corrupt NYPD Detectives, was informed by one of the cops that the pair had been approached by Lucchese Associate Julio 'Red' Calder. Kaplan was told that Calder had attempted to enlist the pair in a plot to burglarize Robert Amuso's home. Calder was murdered later that year.
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G. Zappola
Gang Land News |
By the spring of 1989 Robert stepped back due to health and George Zappola was named the crew's Acting Captain. CW Alfonso D'Arco later testified: "[Bobby]
had cancer and it was pretty serious...Vic removed him. He didn't remove him, he just gave him that nobody should bother him and Bobby was told to like take it easy. They appointed an Acting Captain in his place [meaning]
George Zappola."
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F. Lastorino
Gang Land News |
Amuso remained an official Captain but several of his men were transferred to Frank Lastorino, who was promoted to Captain of a new crew around the same time. (It appears that by 1989 the original 19th Hole crew under Furnari had been split up three ways among Amuso, Lastorino and Peter Chiodo.)
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J. Petrucelli
FBI Wanted Poster |
In September 1989 Lucchese Soldier John Petrucelli, an Amuso crew member, was shot to death in White Plains, New York for harboring fugitive Gus Farace.
Alfonso D'Arco, tasked with supervising the murder, left the ailing Amuso out of the plotting.
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| J. DeFede |
In October 1989 visited
Joseph 'Little Joe' DeFede, an Associate direct with Robert's brother Vic, at The Liberty Lounge in Ozone Park. DeFede later testified: "[Vic]
put me on what we call on his list, I was proposed, and I didn't know exactly when [until Bobby]
called me to come down...[Bobby]
told me to get dressed. This was on Saturday, to get dressed, on Monday somebody will pick you up, which they did, they dropped me off at a Canarsie restaurant, met a few other people there, in turn we went into Brooklyn."
DeFede was driven by Lucchese Associate James McCann to The Pier restaurant in Canarsie. From there he and others were taken to a residence on Farragut Rd where the ceremony occurred. (The house was owned by Lucchese Soldier Peter 'Rugsy' Vario's son-in-law, named by CW D'Arco as [FNU] Albanese. This may be Lucchese Associate Anthony 'Tony Shape' Albanese.)
Ceremony presided over by Boss Vic Amuso and Consigliere Anthony Casso.
Others present included Captains Robert Amuso,
Salvatore Avellino, Anthony Baratta, Peter Chiodo, Alfonso D'Arco and Soldier John Conti.
Others inducted in addition to DeFede (55y) were Michael DeSantis (34y), Frank 'Frankie Pearl' Federico (61y), Richard Pagliarulo (40y) and Frank 'Frankie Bones' Papagni (32y).
D'Arco's
debriefing on the ceremony states that DeFede and Papagni were assigned to the Amuso crew after induction.
During his court appearances DeFede made no mention of being in Amuso's crew and instead testified that he was placed with Captain Frank Lastorino.
In late May 1990 Vic Amuso and Anthony Casso fled New York to avoid indictment in the Windows case.
They remained fugitives until their captures in July 1991 and January 1993 respectively.
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| A. D'Arco (L) and P. Modica |
Around late 1990 Alfonso D'Arco was tasked with collecting on a $100,000 loan made by Amuso to Philip Modica, a Gambino Soldier in James 'Jimmy Brown' Failla's crew. D'Arco later testified:
"
Shylock money, I went and collected for [Bobby] that was owed by another Gambino member, Soldier named Phil Modica. [I] also collected some jewelry from Philip Modica, his son...The payments from Philly Modica went to Frankie Lastorino to pass on to [Bobby] Amuso. The $100,000 was lent by Bobby to Philip Modica and he was sick and Philly Modica wasn't paying.
I went to explain, you either have to pay the money fully, because he was a member, or pay it all up at once or pay the back payment which was $500 a week, which was the interest. And he did start commencing. I had another member take the money, myself first in the beginning, to Lastorino to give it to Bobby. I wouldn't go to Bobby because he was too hot. (Likely due to brother's fugitive status.)
"
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| B. Borriello |
Suspected co-conspirator in the April 1991 murder of Gambino Acting Captain Bartholomew 'Bobby' Borriello.
Victim, shot to death outside his Bath Beach, Brooklyn, residence, killed for his involvement in an attempted hit on Anthony Casso nearly five years earlier.
In July 1991 Vic Amuso was apprehended in Scranton, Pennsylvania and held without bail to await trial on Federal racketeering charges. (He has remained incarcerated since.)
Two months later Former Acting Boss Alfonso D'Arco became a Cooperating Witness.
The following summer he testified against Amuso, who was convicted and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.
Other witnesses included Former Captain Peter Chiodo, who flipped a couple of months before D'Arco.
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| Jul. 1993 |
On July 27, 1993 Robert appeared under subpoena at FBI's New York Office where fingerprinted and photographed.
Claimed ownership of the Surf Side Motel and also described himself as the former office manager for Paul Fire Protection Inc. in Astoria, Queens.
By the end of the summer it was learned that Underboss Anthony Casso, Acting Consigliere Frank Lastorino and others had been plotting to kill Robert Amuso and Associate Oscar Ansourian.
Casso and Lastorino were later demoted; Casso then made a failed attempt at cooperating with the government.
Around September 1993 multiple Lucchese Family Captains called in for questioning to ensure loyalty to the imprisoned Boss. Those involved in questioning included Captain Robert Amuso, Soldier
Joseph DeFede, Soldier
Frank Gioia Jr. and Associate Oscar Ansourian. Gioia Jr., who defected the following year, later testified:
"
The original structure with Vic and Gas, the Boss and Underboss, both of them had to go on the lam...Vic gets arrested, Gaspipe's on the street. Eventually, Gaspipe gets arrested. Then there's all kinds of things on tapes and stuff that there might be a demise in the Family. So Vic went to the other Families for help, and basically he broke everybody down and put Joe D [DeFede] as Acting Boss of the Family.
...To protect Joe D, we knew there was Big Frank [Lastorino] and Anthony Gaspipe on the tapes. There were a couple of other people involved in the tapes, but we couldn't pin exactly who they were. So as we're trying to figure it out, it's Vic's brother [Robert], Oscar Ansourian and Joe D and myself. [We're] meeting them trying to figure out who are the guys trying to plot...Vic said, Call in all the captains. I want you to ask them all a question: Am I still your Boss? And I call the captains. A lot of captains showed; two didn't show: George Conte and George Zappola. [Zappola] used the excuse he was on the lam. Conte was paranoid. And we figured out who the guys were, and then we were plotting to have them killed...I was arrested right after [the initial plotting]. Bones [Frank Papagni] was relaying messages to me, telling me that basically all the captains came in. [Zappola and Conte] was shelved [and] they were worried for their lives. And everything came out [about the plot].
"
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O. Ansourian
Press |
Lucchese Associate Oscar Ansourian made a suggestion during one of the meetings: "[Oscar]
was a longtime friend of Vic Amuso -- wasn't a made guy because he was Lebanese or Syrian, whichever the case was -- and he says, Hey, look, let's get them all together in a club. He says, I got a rocket launcher. We'll just drive by and rocket-launch the place. We can get them all at once...I didn't believe that he had a rocket launcher on him. And when I walked away, I says, How can he -- he's talking about missiles and rocket launchers and stuff like that. Meanwhile, about a year and a half, two years later, I'm in the can, and ultimately he got arrested for it, you know, rocket launchers, all the stuff he was talking about using, he got arrested for. So obviously, he was serious about it."
The following April Vic Amuso named
Joseph DeFede as his new Acting Boss. (DeFede, like his predecessor Alfonso D'Arco, later became a cooperating witness.)
Robert Amuso died September 5, 1994.
FBI video surveillance was conducted during his wake at Towers Funeral Home in Oceanside, Long Island.
Buried in Saint Charles Cemetery in East Farmingdale, Long Island.
More Lucchese Family posts can be found in the
Index.
