Frank Alphonse "Funzi" Tieri (; born Francesco Tieri, ; February 22, 1904 – March 29, 1981) was an Italian-American New York

mobster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

who eventually became the front boss of 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 ...

Early life

Tieri was born on February 22, 1904 in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, to Carmela Tofano and Augustino Tieri, and had two sisters, Assunta and Antonietta. He immigrated from

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

to New York City with his family in 1911. Tieri was denied US citizenship twice living as a

resident alien In law, an alien is any person (including an organization) who is not a citizen or a national of a specific country, although definitions and terminology differ to some degree depending upon the continent or region. More generally, however, ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Tieri lived in a modest home in the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn with his wife and two granddaughters. His mistress, a former opera singer from Italy, lived in a house a few blocks away. Tieri claimed to be an employee of a sportswear manufacturer.

Boss

In 1972, after the murder of Genovese acting boss

Thomas Eboli Thomas "Tommy Ryan" Eboli (June 13, 1911 Scisciano, Italy – July 16, 1972 Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York) was a New York City mobster who eventually became the acting boss of the Genovese crime family. Early life Born in Scisciano, in the P ...

, Tieri became the boss of the Genovese family. At that time, it was speculated that Gambino crime family boss Carlo Gambino had ordered Eboli's murder because Eboli owed him $4 million. According to this theory, Gambino wanted Tieri to be boss of the Genovese family. However, most experts now believe that Tieri was merely a front for the Genoveses' actual boss, Philip "Benny Squint" Lombardo. Luigi Angelo Martino, "the architect" for money laundering for the Genovese family, served directly under him. Tieri was considered a low-profile and diplomatic mobster, a good earner for the family who believed in sharing the wealth with his capos and soldiers. He was convicted of

armed robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

when he was aged twenty but avoided further indictments until the end of his life. Given that Tieri was a front boss, it is unknown how much power Lombardo allowed him. However, Tieri did have a reputation as orderly and smart manager who used violence only as a last resort.

Bruno assassination

In 1980, Tieri played a key role in the assassination of

Philadelphia crime family The Philadelphia crime family, also known as the Philadelphia Mafia, the Philly Mob or Philly Mafia, the Philadelphia-South Jersey Mafia, or Bruno-Scarfo family is an Italian-American Mafia family based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formed and ...

boss

Angelo Bruno Angelo Bruno (born Angelo Annaloro; ; (May 21, 1910 – March 21, 1980) was a Sicilian-American mobster, notable for being boss of the Philadelphia crime family for two decades until his assassination. Bruno was known as "the Gentle Don" due to ...

and the opening of Atlantic City, New Jersey to the New York crime families. The State of

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

had announced the introduction of legal casino gambling in Atlantic City and the New York families wanted to open operations there. However, Atlantic City belonged to the Philadelphia family and Bruno wasn't willing to share it. In March 1980, Tieri sent a message to Philadelphia capo Antonio Caponigro that the Mafia Commission would support him as boss if he assassinated Bruno. What Caponigro didn't know was that the Commission had no intention of sanctioning Bruno's murder. On March 21, 1980, Bruno was murdered in his car on a Philadelphia street. The Commission immediately summoned Caponigro to New York for a meeting; two weeks later, his body was discovered in New York with $20 bills stuffed in his orifices. However, the New York families did achieve access to Atlantic City.

Conviction and death

Federal prosecutors eventually charged Tieri with being the head of a crime family that was involved in racketeering,

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, ...

and

illegal gambling Gaming law is the set of rules and regulations that apply to the gaming or gambling industry. Gaming law is not a branch of law in the traditional sense but rather is a collection of several areas of law that include criminal law, regulatory law, ...

. On January 23, 1981, the ailing Tieri, using a wheelchair and an oxygen tank, was convicted of violating the RICO act. At the sentencing, Tieri's lawyers argued for leniency, saying that he was dying. Prosecutors told the judge it was an act, and the judge sent Tieri to prison for ten years. Two months later, on March 29, 1981, Tieri died of natural causes at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He is buried in

Saint John's Cemetery, Queens St. John Cemetery is an official Roman Catholic burial ground located in Middle Village in Queens, a borough of New York City. Although it is mainly located in Middle Village, the southern edge of the cemetery runs along Cooper Avenue in Glendale ...

, New York.

References

External links