Carmine Paul "Mr. Gribbs" Tramunti (October 1, 1910 – October 15, 1978) was an Italian-born American mobster who was the boss of the

Lucchese crime family The Lucchese 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, in the United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon know ...

Biography

Operating in Harlem

Carmine Paul Tramunti was born October 1, 1910, in Naples, Italy to Rosa DeRosa and Luigi Tramunti. In 1913, his family immigrated to the United States and settled in

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 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Tramunti was raised in a

tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

on 107th Street in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

. He eventually ran the "Harlem Game", one of the major floating

craps Craps is a dice game in which players bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice. Players can wager money against each other (playing "street craps") or against a bank ("casino craps"). Because it requires little equipment, "street ...

games in New York. Tramunti was a beefy man who stood , had a triple chin, and bore a remarkable resemblance to

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolish (as in slapstick), or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audienc ...

Jonathan Winters. Tramunti's headquarters was The Stage Delicatessen in Manhattan. Tramunti lived in

Whitestone, Queens Whitestone is a residential neighborhood in the northernmost part of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood proper is located between the East River to the north; College Point and Whitestone Expressway to the west; Flushing and ...

and had a wife and two children. One of Tramunti's sons, Louis, died at age 14. In 1922, the 12-year-old Tramunti was sent to a Catholic

reform school A reform school was a penal institution, generally for teenagers mainly operating between 1830 and 1900. In the United Kingdom and its colonies reformatories commonly called reform schools were set up from 1854 onwards for youngsters who wer ...

due to truancy from school. On December 9, 1930, Tramunti was arrested on charges of robbing a rent collector. However, on December 26, a judge dismissed the charges due to lack of evidence. In July 1931, Tramunti was convicted of felonious assault and was sentenced to six to fifteen years at the

Sing Sing Correctional Facility Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about north of ...

Ossining, New York Ossining may refer to: *Ossining (town), New York, a town in Westchester County, New York state *Ossining (village), New York, a village in the town of Ossining * Ossining High School, a comprehensive public high school in Ossining village * Ossin ...

. He was paroled in 1937, then returned to prison for a violation.

Boss of Lucchese family

Bureau of Narcotics profile of Carmine Tramunit

In 1967, with the death of Lucchese boss

Tommy Lucchese Thomas Gaetano Lucchese (born Gaetano Lucchese; ; December 1, 1899 – July 13, 1967), sometimes known by the nicknames "Tommy", "Thomas Luckese", "Tommy Brown" or "Tommy Three-Finger Brown" was an Italian-American gangster and founding member ...

, Tramunti became the official boss of the Lucchese family.

Carlo Gambino Carlo Gambino (; August 24, 1902 – October 15, 1976) was an Italian-American crime boss of the Gambino crime family. After the Apalachin Meeting in 1957, and the imprisonment of Vito Genovese in 1959, Gambino took over the Commission o ...

, the head of the

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 th ...

, allegedly used his influence to make Tramunti the Lucchese boss. Other sources said that Tramunti was a compromise candidate who was acceptable to the different family factions. A common version is that the Mafia Commission designated Tramunti as temporary boss until Lucchese's preferred successor, Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo, was released from prison On November 19, 1970, Tramunti was indicted in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

on 14 counts of stock fraud and other charges. The government charged that Tramunti and other mobsters forcibly seized control of a

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

investment firm. On December 23, 1971, Tramunti was acquitted of all charges in the stock swindle case. At the time, Tramunti identified himself as a florist. On November 29, 1972, Tramunti was indicted on

criminal contempt Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...

charges for lying to a

grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a p ...

about calls he made to capo

Paul Vario Paul Vario (July 10, 1914 – May 3, 1988) was an American mobster and made man in the Lucchese crime family. Vario was a caporegime and had his own crew of mobsters in Brooklyn, New York. Following the testimony of Henry Hill, Vario was convi ...

. Tramunti was convicted and sentenced on August 6, 1973, to three years in state prison.

French Connection conviction

On October 4, 1973, as a result of "Operation Shamrock" (now known as the French Connection Case), Tramunti and 43 other mobsters were indicted on narcotics trafficking charges. Ultimately, Tramunti was convicted in the famous French Connection case for financing a huge

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and bro ...

smuggling operation. A former steward at an espresso cafe testified to hearing drug dealer Louis Inglese discuss a deal with Tramunti and seeing Tramunti nod his head in approval. On May 7, 1974, Tramunti was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison, with the judge stating that he was "dangerous." Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo succeeded Tramunti as head of the Lucchese family.

Death

On October 15, 1978, Carmine Tramunti died of natural causes in prison. He is buried in

Calvary Cemetery, Queens Calvary Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery in Maspeth and Woodside, Queens, in New York City, New York, United States. With about three million burials, it has the largest number of interments of any cemetery in the United States. Established ...

.Carmine Tramunti
Find A Grave

In popular culture

*Tramunti's conviction in the French Connection case is referenced in the 1990 movie, ''

Goodfellas ''Goodfellas'' (stylized ''GoodFellas'') is a 1990 American biographical crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and produced by Irwin Winkler. It is a film adaptation of the 1985 nonfiction book '' W ...

''. In the movie, Lucchese family

caporegime A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to capo or informally referred to as "captain" or "skipper", is a rank used in the Mafia (both the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia) for a '' made member'' of an Italian crime family who he ...

Paul Cicero (based on the real life counterpart

) warns the main character Henry Hill against drug dealing following Hill's release from prison in 1978; Cicero references "Gribbs" as an example of a mob boss who will die in prison "just for saying 'hello'" to an associate who was "sneaking behind his back selling junk". The film depicts Cicero experiencing a similar fate to Gribbs as a result of Hill's involvement with drug trafficking and subsequent co-operation as an informant and prosecution witness. *Tramunti may have been the inspiration for the Mafia character Dominic Cattano, played by the Sicilian-American actor

Armand Assante Armand Anthony Assante Jr. (; born October 4, 1949) is an American actor. He played mobster John Gotti in the 1996 HBO television film '' Gotti'', Odysseus in the 1997 mini-series adaptation of Homer's ''The Odyssey'', Nietzsche in ''When ...

, in the 2007 motion picture '' American Gangster''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tramunti, Carmine 1910 births 1978 deaths Bosses of the Lucchese crime family Lucchese crime family American gangsters of Italian descent American people who died in prison custody Italian emigrants to the United States Prisoners who died in United States federal government detention People from Whitestone, Queens