The Tanglewood Boys was an

Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...

recruitment gang or "

farm team In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

" for the

American Mafia The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian American criminal society and organized crime group. The organization is often referred to by its memb ...

, specifically 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 ...

.Garcia
p. 220
/ref> The gang frequently operated from the Tanglewood Shopping Center in

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as en ...

History

Crimes committed

In the 1990s, the gang began to rise in the public eye as a "farm team" led by

Anthony Santorelli Current members Ray Argentina Ray Argentina is a soldier in the Brooklyn faction. His younger brother Peter Argentina is an associate in the family. In 1992, Argentina along with Louis Daidone, Alan Taglianetti and Robert Molinelli were found gu ...

for the Lucchese crime family. Many members of the gang were sons of

made men 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 ...

, who grew up north of

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 ...

. The gang was involved in murders, assaults, armed robbery, arsons, and bookmaking operations in Westchester,

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

and the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

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 ...

. On March 6, 1992, two members, Darin Mazzarella and Joseph Petrucelli got into a racial argument and shot Kasiem Merchant, a 16-year-old to death in

New Rochelle New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state o ...

. Joseph Petrucelli received a life sentence for the murder. Joseph's brother John stabbed a random African-American to death in the Bronx to "avenge" his brother's imprisonment, after separately killing an Albanian gangster who insulted him. On February 4, 1994, the Tanglewood Boys murdered Louis Balancio, a 21-year-old Mercy College student outside the Strike Zone Bar after he was mistaken for a rival Albanian gangster. The same day, an FBI agent observed Anthony Santorelli dumping something into a garbage can, which turned out to be clothes covered in blood. A DNA check was conducted on the clothes and the blood belonged to Louis Balancio. Anthony DiSimone, the son of Lucchese family capo Salvatore DiSimone, went into hiding after the murder of Balancio. In 1994,

Joseph Lubrano Current members Ray Argentina Ray Argentina is a soldier in the Brooklyn faction. His younger brother Peter Argentina is an associate in the family. In 1992, Argentina along with Louis Daidone, Alan Taglianetti and Robert Molinelli were found gu ...

was wrongfully sent to prison for beating a black police officer and was released four years later. During the trial, it was alleged that Lubrano was a member of the Tanglewood Boys. In May 1995, Alfred "Freddy Boy" Santorelli and Darin Mazzarelli had a sit-down with brothers Joseph and Adam Consentino over bookmaking operations in the Bronx. The sit-down took place in a Pelham Parkway bar that was owned by

Bonanno crime family The Bonanno 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, and in the United States, as part of the criminal phenomenon known as ...

soldier

Vincent Basciano Vincent John Basciano (; born November 14, 1959) is an American mobster who became boss of the Bonanno crime family after the arrest of boss Joseph Massino. Basciano was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in 2011 ...

. After drinking, Santorelli and Mazzarelli began hitting the brothers with bottles and shot at them as they escaped. In June 1995, Darin Mazzarelli and John Petrucelli got into an argument with Gene Gallo in Loreto Park. Gallo left and got his friend Michael "Mike" Zanfardino, a hitman who worked for

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 Barney Bellomo's crew in Pelham Bay. Zanfardino pulled out a gun and shot Mazzarelli and pointed the gun at Santorelli before leaving the scene. Petrucelli and others came back that night and stabbed Paul Cicero, Gallo's cousin, to death. In December 1996, Darin Mazzarella was charged with the 1994 murder of Louis Balancio and Anthony Santorelli was charged with throwing the bloody clothes into the dumpster.

Downfall

After his imprisonment, Darin Mazzarella agreed to become a government witness in 1997. He provided information that is credited with leading to significant disruption of the Tanglewood Boys and the Lucchese family. Mazzarella gave information for investigators and prosecutors on the Lubrano assault; he admitted participating in the assault with Alfred Santorelli, the son of Anthony Santorelli, and asserted that Lubrano was not a Tanglewood member. In 1999, Anthony DiSimone turned himself in to the police and was sentenced in 2000 to 25 years to life for the murder of Louis Balancio. Anthony DiSimone served seven years in prison before the conviction was overturned, the defense never reviewed the evidence, he later pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2010, and served no additional time. In October 2002, Darin Mazzarella testified against John Petrucelli, in the murder trial of Paul Cicero. Petrucelli had murdered Cicero in retaliation for Mazzarella being shot early by Cicero's cousin Gene Gallo, a Genovese crime family associate. In February 2003, John Petrucelli was sentenced to life in prison for the 1995 murder of Paul Cicero. In 2005, the leader of the gang Michael "Chunk" Londonio opened fire on police officers searching his apartment, wounding two, before he was shot and killed. Five others were arrested. In 2016, it was revealed by government informant Anthony Zoccolillo that both

and Steven Crea Jr. started their criminal careers in the Tanglewood Boys.

In popular culture

In 2005 and 2006, a fictionalized version of The Tanglewood Boys was featured on ''

CSI: NY ''CSI: NY'' (''Crime Scene Investigation: New York'', stylized as ''CSI: NY/Crime Scene Investigation'') is an American police procedural television series that ran on CBS from September 22, 2004, to February 22, 2013, for a total of nine season ...

'', in episode 1.13 "

Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the ...

" and in episode 2.20 "

Run Silent, Run Deep ''Run Silent, Run Deep'' is a novel by Commander (later Captain) Edward L. Beach Jr. published in 1955 by Henry Holt & Co. The story describes World War II submarine warfare in the Pacific Ocean, and deals with themes of vengeance, endurance, ...

".Huntley, Kristine (April 20, 2006)
"''CSI: New York''–'Run Silent, Run Deep' review"
CSI Files. Retrieved October 29, 2012. In the series, the gang is led by Sonny Sassone ( Michael DeLuise) and one of the most notorious members of the gang is Louie Messer (

Larry Romano Lawrence John Romano (born July 31, 1963) is an American film and television actor. Born in Mount Vernon, New York, he was a regular on ''NYPD Blue'' and the sitcom ''The King of Queens'', on which he played Richie Iannucci. He played First B ...

Danny Messer Detective Daniel "Danny" Messer is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama series '' CSI: NY'', portrayed by actor Carmine Giovinazzo. Background It has been implied that Danny grew up on Staten Island, New York (like the actor), in a family ...

's (

Carmine Giovinazzo Carmine Dominick Giovinazzo ( ; born August 24, 1973) is an American actor, writer, painter and musician, known for his role as Detective Danny Messer in '' CSI: NY''. Early life Giovinazzo was born and raised in the Port Richmond neighborhoo ...

) older brother.

Notes

References

*Garcia, Joaquin and Levin, Michael. ''Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family.'' New York: ''

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publi ...

'', 2009. . *Abadinsky, Howard. ''Organized Crime.'' Cengage Learning, 2010. .

External links

John Petrucelli v. United States of America
(December 15, 2009) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanglewood Boys Lucchese crime family American Mafia gangs Gangs in New York (state) Former gangs in New York City Street gangs Italian-American gangs