Primo Cassarino (born April 26, 1956) is a New York mobster who became an enforcer for

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 ...

, and extorted money from actor

Steven Seagal Steven Frederic Seagal (; born April 10, 1952) is an American actor, screenwriter and martial artist. A 7th-dan black belt in aikido, he began his adult life as a martial arts instructor in Japan and eventually ended up running his father-in-l ...

Foulest mouth in Brooklyn

Born in 1956 to first generation immigrants from

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, Cassarino was the son of a

longshoreman A stevedore (), also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes. After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the number ...

. His cousin is Gambino soldier Mario Cassarino. As a young man, Primo Cassarino joined the Gambino family and eventually became a

made man In the American and Sicilian Mafia, a made man is a fully initiated member of the Mafia. To become "made", an associate first must be Italian or of Italian descent and sponsored by another made man. An inductee will be required to take the oa ...

, or full member. Cassarino belonged to Gambino capo Anthony "Sonny" Ciccone's crew, soon becoming the leading " bagman" and extortionist on the

Staten Island, New York Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and ...

waterfront. Cassarino's legitimate job was as a sanitation worker for the New York Department of Sanitation. In 1991, Cassarino was injured falling off a

garbage truck A garbage truck is a truck specially designed to collect municipal solid waste and transport it to a solid waste treatment facility, such as a landfill, recycling center or transfer station. In Australia they are commonly called rubbish truck ...

. Over the next 15 years, he was involved in litigation with the City for a special disability pension. Cassarino's own lawyer once observed that his client had "the foulest mouth in Brooklyn." At one point, law enforcement recorded Cassarino berating a debtor who was late on a loan payment:

a greaseball leeping bleep ... You're a greaseball no good leeper ... You're a leepingslimy leeper ... You better hope I don't see your leepingface . . .

In 1997, Ciccone started receiving extortion payments from Carmine Ragucci, a leader of the

Conservative Party of New York State The Conservative Party of New York State is an American political party founded in 1962 following conservative dissatisfaction with the Republican Party in New York. Running on the Conservative Party line, James L. Buckley won election to the U ...

and a terminal owner. It quickly became Cassarino's job to transfer these payments from Ragucci to Ciccone. In April 2001, Cassarino was tasked with delivering cash payments from Ciccone to Gambino boss

Peter Gotti Peter Arthur Gotti (October 15, 1939 – February 25, 2021) was an American mobster. He was the boss of the Gambino crime family, part of the American Mafia, and the elder brother of the former Gambino boss John Gotti. Early life Gotti was bor ...

. The two mobsters would meet on a street in the Howard Beach neighborhood of

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 ...

Steven Seagal

In January 2001, Cassarino participated in an extortion attempt against actor

, who had recently terminated a business partnership with

Julius R. Nasso Julius R. Nasso (born October 19, 1952) is an Italian-American film producer, pharmacologist, and businessman. Personal life Julius R. Nasso was born in a small village called Terranova, Calabria, Italy. In 1976, Nasso graduated from St. Joh ...

, a Staten Island

movie producer A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, dir ...

who was friends with Ciccone. Allegedly at Nasso's request, Cassarino and other crew members picked up Seagal by car to bring him to a meeting with Ciccone. Cassarino had these comments about Seagal refusing to sit in the front seat:

How the xpletivedo you put him in the back, he's six-foot-what, five? He didn't want nobody to shoot him in the xpletivehead. If he was sitting in the front, I'm right behind him.

At the meeting, Ciccone bluntly told Seagal that he had a choice of making four promised movies with Nasso or paying Nasso a penalty of $150,000 per movie. If Seagal refused, Ciccone would kill him. Seagal, who later claimed that he brought a handgun to the meeting, was able to stall Ciccone and escape the meeting unharmed.

Conviction

On March 17, 2003, Cassarino, Peter Gotti, Ciccone, and

Richard V. Gotti Richard V. Gotti (born 1942) is an American mobster in the Gambino crime family. Gotti was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1942. He was one of 13 children (two had died at birth) of John Joseph Gotti Sr. and Philomena "Fannie" DeCarlo. Gotti's br ...

were convicted of labor

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 ...

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 63 other counts under the

Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. RICO was en ...

. Seagal testified for the prosecution about the mobsters' extortion attempt. In August 2004, Cassarino received an 11½-year prison sentence. At his sentencing, Cassarino said that the mob life was finished. He begged his children to continue with their education and make decent lives for themselves. Soon after his sentencing, Cassarino became a government witness in hopes of reducing his sentence. In 2005, Cassarino testified for the prosecution in the trial of

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 Ame ...

capo

Lawrence Ricci Lawrence A. Ricci (June 17, 1945 – October 2005) was a reputed Genovese crime family acting capo. Officially a dairy products salesman, Ricci was allegedly a major mob figure. In 1979, Ricci was sentenced to prison for attempting to extort $4,8 ...

."PRIMO CASSARINO AND HOMICIDE AS THE AMERICAN MAFIA'S ULTIMATE REPRISAL"
Gangster Inc. November 1, 2005

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassarino, Primo 1956 births American gangsters of Sicilian descent Gambino crime family Living people People convicted of racketeering Incarcerated gangsters People who entered the United States Federal Witness Protection Program American prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government People from Dyker Heights, Brooklyn