Dominic 'Donnie' Somma was a member of the Colombo Family.
Born April 8, 1937 at Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn to Pasquale and Lucy Servino. The family resided at 256 4th Ave in Park Slope, Brooklyn. His father listed occupation as chauffeur.
Somma's first arrest occurred in March 1954 when he was charged by the NYPD with possessing stolen property.
Residing in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn by the early 1960s, Somma was part of a violent and highly active crew of Colombo Family Associates that included John Coiro, brothers Frank and Robert Melli, Albert 'Gooch' Mugnolo, Gabriel San Felice and Gabriel Scianna. Coiro and Somma were particularly close and remained so over the next decade.
In June 1963 Coiro, Scianna and Somma were among those questioned in the murder of fifty-year-old Emil Colantuono, shot in the head as he drove from his residence at 7007 Narrows Ave in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The former owner of a coat factory in Gowanus, Colantuono was believed targeted after providing support to the Colombo Family's rebel Gallo faction. Press reports speculated the killer mistook him for one of the Gallo brothers. Coiro was suspected of being the shooter.
That summer Somma and Gabriel San Felice were part of a trio that shot up Mickey's Bar in Brooklyn and 'cut up' an individual whose identity is redacted.
Also around this time Somma, with John Coiro and two others not identified, reportedly assaulted Gambino Soldier Robert 'Bobby Red' Crapanzano for 'acting wise' at the Como Lounge in Brooklyn.
On August 23, 1963 Somma was arrested by the NYPD on a heroin possession charge. The disposition for this case isn't noted, but a similar arrest occurred one month later, resulting in charges for narcotics as well as consorting and criminal possession of a weapon (loaded gun / tear gas). Around November 1, 1963 he pleaded guilty to the drug charge and was given a term of eighteen to thirty-six months in New York State Prison.
Out on bail, Somma continued causing trouble in Brooklyn. That December he was joined by Gabriel San Felice and a third man in shooting up the Illusion Bar located on New Utrecht Ave. The incident was reported to the FBI by confidential informant and Colombo Soldier Gregory Scarpa, who identified the same trio as responsible for the Mickey's Bar shooting the previous summer. Scarpa also noted that Colombo Family Captains Joseph Colombo and John 'Sonny' Franzese were present at the Illusion when the shooting took place.
What repercussions, if any, were faced by Somma and his associates for the incident isn't known. On February 21, 1964 he was received at Sing Sing Prison to serve out his sentence for narcotics possession. Four days later John Coiro began serving a sentence of his own, nine months at Rikers Island for receiving stolen property.
No information is available on Somma's activity for the remainder of the 1960s.
He was arrested twice by the NYPD in 1970, once for possessing both stolen property and burglary tools and again for driving drunk in a car with an altered VIN.
By 1972 he had moved to New Jersey, residing at 12 Frederick Place in Old Bridge, and listed employment with Sonny's Transmission Service on Cropsey Ave in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
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| Coiro (1972) |
In late February of that year Somma and Coiro were stopped in a stolen car containing burglary tools.
In early April the pair were charged with the February 14 burglary of $35,000 from a Staten Island drugstore.
Two weeks later the pair were again arrested for a Staten Island burglary, this time accused of removing a safe containing $150,000 from a department store. The crime occurred eight days after the drugstore job.
On May 17, 1972 both Staten Island cases were thrown out.
By this point Somma, John Coiro and their associates were reporting to Colombo Soldier Dominick 'Mimi' Scialo. Scialo was a feared member of the crew headed by Joseph Brancato, successor to the imprisoned John 'Sonny' Franzese, and had previously served as Franzese's Acting Capodecina.
By May 1973 the Colombo Family's new leadership promoted Scialo to Capodecina over a newly formed crew. Coiro was described by informants as Scialo's right-hand man, and Somma was in turn described as Coiro's closest associate.
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| Scialo (1968) |
The Scialo crew frequented various Brooklyn hangouts, including the Ovington Social Club at 7024 New Utrecht Ave in Bensonhurst and the Italian-American Civic Association at 1502 Neptune Ave in Coney Island.
Their speciality was burglarizing banks, supermarkets and other businesses. One informant noted that Somma was also 'very-well connected' with multiple dispatchers working for freight companies at JFK International Airport in Queens, and that he should be considered the prime suspect for 'many of the high value thefts' that took place there.
Through 1973 the crew is believed to have carried out at least five additional burglaries, including the May 9 theft of a safe containing diamonds and precious metals from the M. A. Sherre Diamond Company in Lower Manhattan. According to the NYPD, that job was carried out in under fifteen minutes by a five-man team comprised of Somma and Coiro along with Frank 'Beansy' Melli, Harry 'Junior' McGuire and Pasquale 'Patty Box-Cars' Cosoleto. The estimated value of the property ranged from $150,000 to $400,000.
The crew is also suspected of having carried out several unsanctioned hits on Scialo's behalf, including the December 10, 1973 murder of thirty-three-year-old bookmaker Miguel Cosme at a Coney Island social club. Two ski-masked gunmen lined the patrons up, singled out Cosme and opened fire, killing him with two shots to the back and one to the head. The victim was on-record with Colombo Soldier Lawrence Lampasi, a member of Scialo's crew, but Lampasi was not consulted beforehand. He lodged a complaint with Colombo leadership.
Three days later, Lampasi was at a Brooklyn barbershop when a ski-masked gunman entered and shot him once in the chest. He was taken to Coney Island Hospital for treatment. Somma may have been the gunman.
Lampasi survived the shooting but it cost Scialo, already on thin ice with Family leadership, his life. He was strangled the following month and buried in the basement of Otto's Social Athletic Club in Red Hook. His remains were recovered in an FBI dig nine months later. Scialo's former crew was placed with Capodecina Charles 'Charlie Moose' Panarella.
Under Panarella it was business as usual for Somma and his associates. On April 1 John Coiro and five others were caught during an attempted burglary of the J.C. Nordt Company in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. A seventh participant who fled on foot might have been Somma; the group was using his automobile at the time of arrest. All were released on $5,000 bond.
In early May Somma and John Pate accompanied Charles Panarella to Kingston, New York for arraignment in a gun possession case.
On the night of May 16, 1974 a meeting of the Panarella crew was held at FBI CI Gregory Scarpa's residence in Prince's Bay, Staten Island. Notified ahead of time, Agents observed Somma, Coiro and over a dozen others attend the four hour meeting. Topics of discussion included an attempt by Panarella to 'fix' the Cedar Grove burglary case.
During the early morning hours of June 22, 1974 John Coiro, Somma's closest associate, was shotgunned to death in Bensonhurst. Colombo Associate Gaetano 'Tommy' Barbusca was also killed, although from the outset Coiro was assumed to be the primary target. Somma and Frank Melli had been drinking with Coiro in the hours prior to the shooting. Multiple suspects in the double murder were named over the years, including long-time burglary associate Albert 'Gooch' Mugnolo. It wasn't until Lucchese Underboss Anthony Casso became a cooperating witness two decades later that further details emerged. Casso confirmed Coiro as the intended victim, and stated he and Vittorio 'Vic' Amuso, then Lucchese Associates, carried out the hit as driver and shooter respectively on orders of their Capodecina Chris Furnari.
In early 1976 the New York Families opened the books and inductions resumed. Each Family was initially allowed ten new members. Somma was made as part of the Colombo's first wave under Charles Panarella's sponsorship.
As an inducted member of the Panarella crew, Somma maintained close association with the former members of Scialo's burglary crew. He also worked for a crap game operated by Associate Joseph 'Minx' Livoti on New Utrecht Ave and another game in Manhattan.
On August 19, 1976 an FBI informant was shown a photograph of Somma: "He said Somma is 'with' Joe Yacovelli. He has done a lot of 'work', i.e. killing for the Colombo Family."
Around February 1977 he took over the Flip Side bar at 13th Ave and 70th St in Dyker Heights, a hangout for various Colombo members and associates.
Later that same month bank burglary associate Frank 'Beansy' Melli was also inducted under Panarella's sponsorship.
Around September 1977 Somma was transferred to newly promoted Capodecina Anthony 'Scappi' Scarpati. Scarpati was another of the Colombo Family's first wave of inductees brought in during early 1976.
Members of Scarpati's crew initially included Soldiers Salvatore 'Sally Buzzo' Fusco, Modesto 'Duke' Santoro, Vincent 'Jimmy Skee' Scianna, Dominic Somma and George Tropiano.
By February 1978 Somma was running poker games and handling numbers out of an after hours club at 18th Ave and 78th St in Bensonhurst.
On May 31, 1978 Gabriel San Felice, by then owner of a New Jersey waste disposal company, was found shot in the head at the town landfill in Old Bridge.
On July 28, 1978 Gambino Associate John Suarato was shot to death in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The murder was carried out by brothers Patsy 'Junior' Palermo and Vincent 'Vinny' Palermo, Soldiers in the Colombo and DeCavalcante Families respectively. Patsy Palermo was a Panarella crew member and another associate of the bank burglary crew.
Vincent Palermo became a cooperating witness in 2000. In detailing the murder, he identified himself and brother Patsy as the shooters and 'Big Donnie', believed to be Somma, as the driver.
On January 3, 1979 another long-time burglary associate, Harry 'Junior' McGuire, was shot to death inside his automobile on McDonald Ave in Brooklyn.
By Summer 1980 Anthony Scarpati's crew had grown to include additional Soldiers Vincent Aloi, Anthony Colombo, Joseph Peraino Jr. and recently reactivated FBI informant Gregory Scarpa.
In August 1980 Somma joined a team that included Carmine Sessa and Scarpa's son Gregory Jr. in the failed burglary of a Queens bank. Somma, on lookout with Scarpa Jr., later complained to crew leader Scarpati that the latter had allowed a security guard to walk in on the team. According to Sessa, who later became a cooperating witness, when the elder Scarpa learned of the criticism made toward his son he decided to kill Somma.
A contract against Somma's life had already been issued by Colombo leadership for his involvement in narcotics, according to Sessa, but word was out that the order would soon be retracted. Scarpa, Sessa later reported, sought to kill Somma before this was done.
Around August 20 Somma's presence was requested at the Wimpy Boys Social Club in Brooklyn. Upon entering the club's backroom he was promptly shot in the head by Scarpa himself. Others present in the room were Associates Carmine Sessa, Joseph DeDomenico, Costabile 'Gus' Farace and Robert Zambardi. Brothers John and Joseph Saponaro were playing cards in the club's front room. The body was rolled in a rug and dumped at the Arthur Kill landfill in Staten Island.
On August 26 Scarpa reported to his FBI handler that Somma was killed for planning an unspecified 'private move' not sanctioned by the leadership. It was neither the first nor last murder he committed during his time as an informant.
On September 11 it was reported that Somma, described as a close associate of Consigliere Alphonse 'Allie Boy' Persico, was the 'victim of internal power struggles that are taking place since Persico left the area'.
It wasn't until Carmine Sessa began cooperating in 1993 that the full details surrounding Somma's murder were revealed.
