Manhattan Mafia Guide (26 page)

K
NOTTY
P
INE
S
OCIAL
C
LUB

221 Mulberry Street (Lower East Side)

This was a popular members-only club through at least the 1980s, frequented by Peter DeFeo and Genovese boss Alphonse Frank “Funzi” Tieri.

L
A
D
ONNA
R
OSA
R
ESTAURANT

19 Cleveland Place, between Kenmare and Spring Streets

This restaurant was owned and operated by former Lucchese crime family acting boss Alphonso “Little Al” D’Arco before he turned on the mob in 1991 and became a witness in several high-profile trials that sent many of his old friends to prison, including Vincent “Chin” Gigante. The storefront space, ironically overlooking Lieutenant Petrosino Square, today hosts a Mexican restaurant.

L
OMBARDI
’
S
R
ESTAURANT

53 Spring Street, between Mulberry and Lafayette Streets

This former local eatery was a favorite hangout for men like Thomas Eboli and Peter DeFeo. It is now home to a 1920s retro-style sports bar and lounge.

L
ONGCHAMP
’
S
R
ESTAURANT

19 West Fifty-seventh Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues

In April 1942, mob kingpin Meyer Lansky met two men at Longchamp’s for a breakfast meeting: New York assistant district attorney Murray Gurfein and Moses Polakoff, a lawyer who represented Charlie Luciano in his 1936 trial. According to legend, the pair requested the mobster’s help in urging Luciano, who was serving time in prison, to assist U.S. Naval Intelligence in the war effort. This is now the site of a multi-lot, mixed-use, glass skyscraper.

L
UNA
’
S
R
ESTAURANT

112 Mulberry Street, between Canal and Hester Streets

This one-time neighborhood favorite was frequented by mobsters like “Crazy” Joey Gallo, who, according to controversial New York columnist and author Jimmy Breslin, walked in one evening with a live lion on a chain.
¹²⁹
Operating in the space today is a gift shop geared toward tourists.

L
UXOR
B
ATHS

121 West Forty-sixth Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

This was a favorite spa for later twentieth-century Mafioso to hold business meetings—in the steam room, where bugs could not be transmitted. Today, a high-rise office building occupies the address.

M
ANFREDI
’
S
R
ESTAURANT

331 East 108
^th
Street, between 1
^st
and 2
^nd
Avenues

Manfredi’s was owned by Joseph Manfredi, a key East Harlem–based mobster who served seven years in the 1960s for narcotics laws violations. The address, close to First Avenue and the East River at the edge of a gentrifying Hispanic neighborhood, hosts an apartment building today.

M
ILADY
’
S
B
AR

167 Bleecker Street, Corner of Sullivan Street

This 1950s mob hangout was frequented by Innocenzio “Johnny the Bug” Stoppelli, as well as Jewish mobster and convicted heroin smuggler Nathan Behrman (Berman). It is now the site of a nightclub.

The southwest corner of Elizabeth and Prince Streets today.
Courtesy of Shirley Dluginski
.

M
USICAL
C
LUB

18 Prince Street, Corner of Elizabeth Street

This former social club, located on the corner of Elizabeth Street, was another Genovese hangout frequented by Bonanno family boss Carmine Galante in the mid-twentieth century. A retail store recently moved into the space.

N
APOLI E
N
OTTE
C
AFÉ

165 Thompson Street, between Bleecker and West Third Streets

This is where high-ranking Mafiosi like Jerry Catena, Thomas Eboli and Michael Miranda sipped espresso and made no bones about it. A sign on the door once said, “This is not a club. Don’t hang around.” As of this writing, the storefront is under renovation.

P
ALMA
B
OYS
S
OCIAL
C
LUB

416 East 115
^th
Street, between 1
^st
and Pleasant Avenues

This was the East Harlem headquarters of Genovese crime family boss Anthony Salerno. By 1985, the FBI had gathered enough information from a bug on the premises—like business conversations between Salerno, Mattie Ianniello and Anthony Corallo—to help indict several members of the Mafia in what became known as the Mafia Commission trial. Today, the four-story building hosts a small retail space.

P
ANEL
S
OCIAL
C
LUB

208 Thompson Street, between Bleecker and West Third Streets

This was another Genovese hangout during the reign of Vincent “Chin” Gigante. An unassuming yet popular Italian restaurant has occupied the address for the last few decades.

P
ARNELL
S
OCIAL
C
LUB

224 East 112
^th
Street, between 2
^nd
and 3
^rd
Avenues

Now the site of an apartment complex, this address once hosted a popular club frequented by several East Harlem mobsters in the 1950s, including one Mafioso with the peculiar name Theodore Roosevelt Orzo.

P
ATRISSY
’
S
R
ESTAURANT

98 Kenmare Street, between Center and Mulberry Streets

This former neighborhood staple, opened in 1906, was a favorite of Charlie Luciano. The gangster was said to have regularly dined with the likes of Second Assembly District leader (and New York county clerk) Al Marinelli, whose offices were close by at 225 Lafayette Street (curiously, in the same building as “Jimmy Doyle” Plumeri’s Five Borough Truckmen’s Association). Marinelli was a powerful Tammany politician who shielded much of the mob’s operations in the 1930s, before being brought down by Thomas E. Dewey in 1938. The corrupt politico became close with Johnny Torrio as a young man in the 1910s during their days running various illegal rackets in Little Italy and was said to have been propped up by Torrio and “Socks” Lanza in his 1931 State Assembly election. Today, you can order “fresh homemade” kebabs and falafel from the restaurant on the premises.

R
AVENITE
S
OCIAL
C
LUB

247 Mulberry Street, between Prince and Spring Streets

247 Mulberry Street today.
Courtesy of Shirley Dluginski
.

Perhaps the most famous Mafia social club in America, 247 Mulberry will forever be associated with the “Dapper Don,” John Gotti Sr.—the Gambino boss who spent much of his time at this address through the early 1990s. However, the criminal history of this building goes back many decades.

Originally known as the Alto Knights Social Club dating back to 1926, when it is said Charlie “Lucky” Luciano was a patron. The title was changed in the 1950s by Carlo Gambino, who renamed it the Raven Knights Social Club—supposedly after his favorite poem, “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe. By the time Gambino’s underboss, Aniello Dellacroce, was running the crew in the 1970s, the name had morphed into “Ravenite.” When Dellacroce passed away in 1985, Gotti Sr. would inherit this Mafia landmark by assuming control of the Gambinos after Paul Castellano was murdered.

By 1992, federal authorities had gathered enough evidence on Gotti to indict him on several charges. Surveillance on the Ravenite, where he was recorded discussing family business, contributed to the case against Gotti.

In October 1997, the FBI finally seized control of the building, ending a seventy-year run of remarkable Mafia history. Today, the storefront hosts a retail store.

R
ENO
B
AR

168 Elizabeth Street, between Spring and Kenmare Streets

What has been a Chinese laundry for several years was at one time a mid-century dive bar and regular haunt for Mafiosi like the Beck (Di Palermo) Brothers.

S
HOREVIEW
S
OCIAL
C
LUB

413–15 East Twelfth Street, between First Avenue and Avenue A

This was the longtime headquarters for mob boss Joseph Bonanno. The unassuming ground floor-locale was fortified with a steel door, and its storefront windows were lined with plasterboard to prevent curious eyes from peeking inside. Outside on the curb was a fire hydrant that served no other purpose than to ensure parking for VIPs (let’s just say that it wasn’t placed there by the city).

According to Bill Bonanno, Joseph’s son, “Someone told me once that the quality of a social club could be measured by the availability of food and quality of the complaints. By that standard the Shoreview was a good place to belong.”
¹³⁰
The storefront has been completely renovated and hosts one of the few remaining vinyl record stores in the city.

S
KYLINE
M
OTOR
I
NN

725 Tenth Avenue, between West Forty-ninth and West Fiftieth Streets

This decades-old economy motel was said to be the 1960s/’70s Manhattan headquarters for Brooklyn-based Gambino soldier Roy Albert DeMeo.

S
PRING
V
ALLEY
P
LEASURE
C
LUB

238 Elizabeth Street, between Prince and East Houston Streets

This very secret, second-floor, members-only club was frequented by Carmine Galante in the early twentieth century. The Albanese Meat Market on the ground floor has been in operation since 1924 and is one of the last traditional mom-and-pop businesses in the neighborhood. Director Martin Scorsese, who grew up across the street at 253 Elizabeth (next door to my father), filmed a scene here for his first full-length feature film in 1967, titled
Who’s That Knocking at My Door
.

S
QUEEZE
I
NN

57 East Fourth Street, between Bowery Street and Second Avenue

This bar, owned by Ralph Polizzano, was one of several key distribution points for the international heroin-trafficking ring that sent Polizzano, Carmine Galante and several others to prison in 1961. The building is now entirely residential.