Surviving the Mob Read Free

into the chop-shop business and start making some real money.”

 

    3
Making Connections
    Andrew was ambitious and made a commitment to advance his criminal career. He dropped out of school to allow himself more time on the streets. However, before he fully implemented his bold plans, an event took place that had unintended consequences. Although it resulted in his first arrest, it also brought him to the attention of Gambino crew boss Nicky Corozzo and catapulted him from an unaffiliated street tough into the world of organized crime.
    In November 1982, Andrew and a friend learned that a couple of neighborhood boys working in a bagel shop at East 81 st Street and Flatlands Avenue were stealing up to $1,500 a week from the place. Andrew and his pal saw this as an opportunity to make some easy cash.
    “The owners weren’t around that much, especially at night. The night-shift workers made the bagels, served customers, and handled the cash register, pocketing a lot of the money for themselves. Both were in their late teens. The word was that they had serious gambling problems and needed the money to pay off their gambling debts.
    “My buddy Tommy and I figured we might as well cut ourselves in on the action. We told them we wanted four or five hundred a week or else. They said okay and didn’t resistat all. They started making their payments right away with no problem.
    “But the first sign of trouble came quick. This neighborhood guy named Mike Yannotti had a talk with Tommy and me. Mike, who was known on the streets as Mikey Y, was a couple years older than us and was already connected with Nicky Corozzo’s crew. He had a reputation as a tough guy and he was. In fact, I met a lot of dangerous guys over the years and in my opinion, Mikey Y was the most dangerous of them all.
    “Mike told us that the bagel-shop guys we were shaking down owed Nicky Corozzo a lot of money from gambling. If we continued making them pay us, they couldn’t pay him too. We better back off.
    “After that conversation, Tommy and I had to make a decision. We were a little pissed off that we were told to stop the shakedown without being offered some other way to replace that income. We said to hell with Nicky Corozzo; we weren’t backing down.”
    That decision would probably have led to another less friendly visit from Mike Yannotti. But something else happened first.
    A couple of weeks later, one of the teens got caught by the owners of the bagel shop with his hand in the register. He told his boss that Tommy and Andrew had forced him into stealing the money and giving it to them. The owners called the cops, then headed across the street to the park where Tommy and Andrew hung out to confront them.
    “At that time we carried brass knuckles. When the brothers grabbed us, the knuckles came out and the fight was on. We beat one of them up pretty good. I think he ended up needing about a hundred stitches in his head. During the heat of things, a cop grabbed me from behind and spun me around. Tommy and I threw the brass knuckles, but the cops found one set of them. We were arrested, taken to the station,and charged with assault. We were never charged or even questioned about the extortion scheme.”
    Andrew hired a lawyer who argued that the owners initiated the fight. In fact, Andrew and Tommy pressed assault charges against them and the whole thing ended up in a draw. All charges were dropped and everyone walked away clean.
    After that, Andrew started spending more time with Mikey Y and some other guys in Corozzo’s crew. Even though he wasn’t part of them yet, they did a lot of stealing and some other things. They all made money, some of which went to Nicky.
    A couple of months later in early 1983, Andrew met Nicky in person. At that time Nicky hadn’t been made an official capo yet. He was an acting capo. Nicky and his friend Leonard DiMaria ran the crew together as co-captains. Andrew already knew Lenny. He’d taken his daughter to