Attilio Bitondo (born June 20, 1928), also known as "Tillio", was a New York City labor leader and an associate in the

Genovese crime family The Genovese crime family, () also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American M ...

in the crew of powerful

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

captain

Vincent DiNapoli Vincent DiNapoli (June 21, 1937 – November 16, 2005) was a caporegime in the Genovese crime family, involved in labor racketeering. DiNapoli is best known for creating a cartel in the 1970s that controlled the price of drywall in New York Ci ...

. As Vice-President of Carpenters Union Local 257, Bitondo had jurisdiction over construction on the East Side of Manhattan. Bitondo and Local President Eugene Hanley systematically extorted New York City

drywall Drywall (also called plasterboard, dry lining, wallboard, sheet rock, gypsum board, buster board, custard board, and gypsum panel) is a panel made of calcium sulfate dihydrate (gypsum), with or without additives, typically extruded between thick ...

contractors for the Genovese family. The two union leaders also engaged in bid rigging and bribery. In the mid-1980s, Judge Stephen Crane authorized the New York State Organized Crime Task Force to wiretap the Local 257 Office telephones located at 157 East 25th Street in Manhattan. The resulting intercepted telephone calls would be used as evidence against Bitondo, Hanley and other union and organized crime figures, and also demonstrated the grip the men had over the City's construction industry. In on telephone call, contractor Mario Marsillo indicated to Bitondo and Hanley that he was using non-union workers on an East Side job because he had "given a cup of coffee" to Local 608 official John O'Connor, however, the East Side was Bitondo's jurisdiction, and the Genovese crime family was not happy. Marsillo asked to "have a cup of coffee" — apparently a euphemism for a bribe — with Bitondo, but Bitondo refused, saying "This here we shoulda done two months ago had a cup of coffee." After Bitondo and Hanley discussed with Marsillo the picketing at his site because of his failure to sign the union agreement, Marsillo said "I tried to reach, reach out ", Hanley replied "You reached out to the wrong people Mario." Ultimately, Mario smartened up and paid the Local 257 bosses.

Mob corruption crackdown

On October 13, 1987, Bitondo, Hanley and three other Carpenters Union leaders, were indicted for

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

. They were accused of taking more than $100,000 from Manhattan contractors wanting to avert labor problems. One of the cooperating contractors testified that Bitondo approached him at a construction site with another man and threatened to throw him off the roof of the building if he didn't comply with his extortion demands. The affected projects included the World Financial Center at

Battery Park City Battery Park City is a mainly residential planned community and neighborhood on the west side of the southern tip of the island of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by the Hudson River on the west, the Hudson River shoreline on the north ...

, Pier 17 at the

South Street Seaport The South Street Seaport is a historic area in the New York City borough of Manhattan, centered where Fulton Street meets the East River, and adjacent to the Financial District, in Lower Manhattan. The Seaport is a designated historic district, ...

, the

Equitable Life Assurance Building The Equitable Life Assurance Building, also known as the Equitable Life Building, was the headquarters of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, at 120 Broadway in Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, ...

, and exhibits at the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

. The

Manhattan District Attorney The New York County District Attorney, also known as the Manhattan District Attorney, is the elected district attorney for New York County (Manhattan), New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws ...

Robert Morgenthau Robert Morris Morgenthau ( ; July 31, 1919July 21, 2019) was an American lawyer. From 1975 until his retirement in 2009, he was the District Attorney for New York County (the borough of Manhattan), having previously served as United States Attorn ...

stated that the indictments documented only about 10 percent of the payoffs that 17 cooperating contractors said they made; corroborative evidence could not be obtained to support all the allegations. The indictment came from information provided by

Gambino crime family The Gambino crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Ame ...

associate turned informant,

Dominick LoFaro Dominick "Big Dom" LoFaro (1928-2003) was a small-time gambler who later became a government undercover informant. Lofaro worked in the New York area, and was arrested for drugs. He agreed to testify against John Gotti. He had claimed to be part ...

. LoFaro wore a wire during meetings with Bitondo at the

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

social club of Gambino captain Ralph Mosca. LoFaro also wore a wire while sitting in during extortion meetings attended by Bitondo and another Local 257 officer and Gambino soldier,

Carmine Fiore Carmine ()also called cochineal (when it is extracted from the cochineal insect), cochineal extract, crimson lake, or carmine lake is a pigment of a bright-red color obtained from the aluminium complex derived from carminic acid. Specific code na ...

. LoFaro testified that the Local 257 officers laundered, or disguised, illegal payments by making numerous deposits of $6,000 each at

Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company Manufacturers Hanover Corporation was the bank holding company formed as parent of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, a large New York bank formed by a merger in 1961. After 1969, Manufacturers Hanover Trust became a subsidiary of Manufac ...

branch. Also providing evidence was Genovese family turncoat Vincent "Fish" Cafaro, who knew Bitondo as a close underling of Vinny DiNapoli and a labor racket partner of Liborio "Barney" Bellomo, and explained that each month Bitondo would deliver an envelope to the Genovese higher-ups in East Harlem. In 1990, Bitondo was convicted of Enterprise Corruption charges and sentenced to 1½ to 4½ years in prison. Despite being incarcerated, Bitondo's influence remained, because he appointed organized crime figures like Anthony Fiorino, Ralph Coppola, and Anthony Simon to important labor posts, ensuring that the Genovese crime family would continue to reap profits from extortion and labor racketeering. Bitondo and Hanley were convicted of

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and of ...

charges. They received a short prison term and were banned from union business.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bitondo, Attilio 1928 births Possibly living people American gangsters of Italian descent Genovese crime family Gangsters from New York City American trade union officials convicted of crimes American people of Italian descent

Mob corruption crackdown

Further reading

References