Surviving the Mob

by Dennis Griffin

  “So we switched our focus from robbing the armored truck in Brooklyn to taking down the bank in New Jersey. Our plan was for four of us—Paul, Tommy Scuderi, Joe Miraglia, and me—to do the robbery on the Thursday before a holiday weekend. I knew from doing bank burglaries that they usually brought in a hundred and fifty thousand or so more than usual then to fill the ATM machines for the long weekend. The next upcoming holiday with a three-day weekend was Labor Day.”

  The week before Labor Day, the four of them waited at a diner along the highway for the truck to pass and followed it to the bank to get the timing down. They then bought some tape the same color as the letters and numbers on their license plates so they could cover the real letters and numbers with fakes.

  The Wednesday before the robbery, they went to the bank for a final look. Paul explained everyone’s job one last time. He lived in a senior-citizen complex exactly 60 seconds from the bank. He’d drive Tommy and Andrew to the bank and park in the lot where they could keep an eye out for the Brinks truck. After it arrived, Tommy and Andrew would get out of Paul’s car and go inside to do the robbery. Paul would then drive around behind the bank and wait for them. Joe would be in a car across the street monitoring a police scanner. As the up-front man, Andrew would walk in first, followed by Tommy a few seconds later. Andrew would go straight to the counter, jump over, and grab the money bags on the floor next to the vault. Tommy would wait at the counter and help him carry the bags out and handle any uncooperative employees or customers. After they got the money, they’d hop in Paul’s car and drive to his place. Joe would follow close behind. Then they’d all wait there until the heat died down.

  “That night I sat in my apartment in Manhattan Beach and said a little prayer before I went to bed. A bank robber’s prayer. I said, ‘Lord, things haven’t been too good lately. And I would never pray for you to help me steal. But I’m going to do what I’m going to do tomorrow and I’m asking you to watch over me.’”

  The next morning, Andrew got up early, was picked up by Tommy and Joe, and drove to Paul’s. After doctoring the license plates, they left for the bank. They’d done a dry run of the escape route the night before and were ready to do the job. Like clockwork, the Brinks truck pulled in within an hour after the bank opened. And just like they figured, there were two extra bags of money for the holiday. The guard loaded the bags on a hand cart and wheeled them into the bank. Back outside in a couple of minutes, he got into the truck and drove away.

  “I exited Paul’s car followed by Tommy and we headed for the bank. I had on doctor’s-exam gloves and a sweatshirt that covered a bulletproof vest, sunglasses, and a New York Yankees ball cap. The bank had four or five customers at the time. I kept my head straight, went directly to the counter, and jumped over it. I heard a couple of screams, but kept my focus on the money bags. I grabbed the first two and threw them over the counter to Tommy. Then I took the other two bags and jumped back over the counter. Some guy decided to be a hero and made a move at me. Tommy pulled his handgun, grabbed the guy, and threw him on the floor. There must have been a lot of wax on the floor, because the guy slid quite a distance.

  “At that time, a female customer came in and saw what was happening. She started screaming and ran outside. Tommy and I followed her out and went behind the bank. We threw the bags into Paul’s car, got in, and laid down on the back seat. As Paul pulled away, he’d have looked to any passersby like a grandfather out driving around all alone. We were safely inside Paul’s house in just about a minute after the robbery and Joe was right behind us.

  “The traffic on the police scanner was that they were responding to a bank robbery and that roadblocks were being set up. They were also reporting that the robbers were a male and female team, because witnesses had seen me follow the screaming female customer outside. The cops pulled her over a block away and took her in for questioning. After a while, they figured out she wasn’t involved.

  “I’d worked out an arrangement with Charlotte for me to contact her by beeper to let her know how the score went. If it was successful, I was to beep her one-four-three. In beeper lingo, that meant ‘I love you.’ I sent her the message, then shaved and took a shower, and everybody changed clothes. We bagged up our robbery clothes and gear and Paul’s wife disposed of everything. After that we counted the loot. The take was just under a half-million dollars. We split it four ways. Tommy and Joe had to take care of Sal DeMeo [their crew boss] from their end. According to protocol, I was supposed to kick some of my share up to Nicky. I didn’t, though. At least not right away.

  “We stayed at Paul’s for several hours, eating, listening to the scanner, and watching the news. When we felt it was safe, Paul’s wife drove me back to Staten Island. Tommy and Joe followed in Joe’s car with our money in the trunk. In Staten Island, I got in with Joe and Tommy and they drove me to my apartment in Manhattan Beach. I took my end of the score and we agreed to meet later that night and take Sal DeMeo out to dinner.

  “After they left, I went to a pay phone around the corner from my place and called my mother. I told her to take a cab straight from work and meet me. When she got there, we grabbed another cab to her house. I put almost all of my money—a hundred thousand dollars—into her clothes hamper. I only kept a few dollars for myself.

  “When the robbery crew met up later, we took Sal to a restaurant in Bay Ridge. Sal was a great guy and his guys really liked him. They chipped in five thousand apiece to him. We had a nice dinner and did some talking. Sal said he had a friend who owned his own armored-car service. He’d bid on a job and promised that if he got the bid, he’d provide us with the key to the vault and we could empty it out. We had our fingers crossed for the next two weeks that this guy would get the bid. But he didn’t, so we had to look elsewhere.”

  In late September, Andrew received a phone call from Mike Yannotti. He said they needed to meet, so he could relay some messages from Nicky Corozzo. When the two men got together, Andrew found that Yannotti seemed to have developed a slightly different attitude toward him and his situation.

  The first thing Mike told him was that the problem with Wild Bill Cutolo needed to be resolved. Mike and Nicky had heard about the New Jersey bank robbery and that Andrew had some cash. According to their thinking, it was time for him to settle the account with Wild Bill.

  Andrew told Mike that he didn’t owe Wild Bill all the money he claimed was owed. He refused to admit that his son had blown some of the stash he’d left and he was trying to get it back out of Billy’s friends. He wasn’t going to let Wild Bill shake him down and he didn’t care how pissed off he got.

  “The next day Mike called me again and said he needed to see me right away. I went to his house and he said that he thought it was better if we talked outside. We’d go out through the garage in case anyone was watching the house. As I followed him down the steps, I remembered our dry run when we were planning to kill my brother-in-law. My heart started to race. I pulled the gun from my waistband and held it inches from the back of Mike’s head. If I was about to meet the same fate as Robert Arena, Mike wouldn’t be around to brag about it. At the first sign of a trap, he was a dead man. But as we entered the garage, enough light came in from around the overhead door that I could see we were alone. I put my gun away. When Mike reads this book—and I know he will—it will be the first time he’ll know what could have happened that day.

  “After we got out to the back yard, Mike said that he and Nicky were considering killing Danny Cutaia. If they decided to do it, they’d want me to be a part of it. Then he went back to the Wild Bill situation and that it had to be taken care of.

  “And then he said something that confirmed what I already thought. My problems with the parole people were related to Robert Arena’s murder. Regina had been telling me things she heard from Robert’s family. The cops thought I was involved and it was said the two detectives that came to the parole office that day were from Homicide. Like it or not, I was a suspect. Mike suggested that I t
urn myself in. He figured when they questioned me, they’d tip their hand as to how strong their evidence was and what kind of case they were building against him.

  “I told him that I was doing better than I had in a long time. And I was. I had the cash from the bank score, was driving a brand new Mercedes, and I’d resurrected my deal with the marijuana dealer in California. Money was starting to come in on a regular basis. And because I was on the run, it gave me an excuse not to have to see Nicky as much. I said that law enforcement was going to have to earn their money and catch me.

  “When I left Mike’s, I figured he wasn’t very happy with what I’d told him. And I was pretty sure that trip down through the cellar was part of a setup. The next time, we wouldn’t be alone. I knew I had to take stock of what the future held and how much time I had before Wild Bill, Danny Cutaia, or Nicky made their move. Even that line about killing Danny could have been bullshit to keep me on the reservation. For all I knew, the three of them might be plotting together to get rid of me.”

  Shortly after his meeting with Mike Yannotti, Andrew decided to seek some stress relief by taking Charlotte and her daughter to Florida to visit Disney World. He figured a few days there would allow him to get his thoughts together and plan for the future. As he was preparing for the trip, he contacted his local marijuana connection to tell him he’d be out of town.

  The connection told him he had a buddy who might be able to help him out with false identification. When they got together, the friend told Andrew he had blank California birth certificates, blank Social Security cards, and a UPS photo identification card that could show Andrew was an employee.

  They filled out all the necessary information, then drove out to a Department of Motor Vehicles office on Long Island. Andrew applied for a driver’s license under the name of Joseph Conti, the name of his mother’s boyfriend. He took the written test and made an appointment for a road test. Before he left, they issued him a non-driver identification card.

  “My Mercedes was registered and insured in Joseph Conti’s name. To get by until my road test, I had Conti tell DMV he lost his license and needed a replacement. At that time they sent a non-photo license right away, followed a few days later by the real license. I took the non-photo license. It happened that I got stopped at a drunk-driving checkpoint. I showed my paperwork and got waved on with no questions asked.

  “Within a month, I had a brand new driver’s license as Joseph Conti. A lot of guys in the life who are on the run get caught for stupid things, like driving without a license or not having proper identification. That was one less worry for me. I gave my guy a couple hundred for the fake identification and put him to work in my marijuana business.”

  After the trip to Disney World, Andrew took another getaway jaunt to San Diego. While he was there, he just rested and didn’t conduct any business. However, back in New York, his marijuana partner came up with another way to enhance their operation and profits.

  Andrew’s associate had a friend who drove a tractor-trailer to California every 10 days. Their San Diego connection could load the truck and start sending product back that way. It sounded like a good deal and they entered into negotiations to set it up.

  While he was waiting to put the new delivery system into effect, Andrew snuck a visit to one of his sisters. He parked about a block and a half away and started walking toward her place. When he rounded the corner of 58th Street and Avenue N, he saw two guys standing on the street talking: Wild Bill Cutolo and Danny Cutaia.

  “Here I was on the run from the law and I bumped into my two biggest organized-crime enemies. What were the odds of bosses from two different families having a conversation on a street corner at the very same time a guy they hated walked by? Wild Bill saw me and said, ‘Well, look who just walked into the lion’s mouth.’ I answered that it would mean somethin’ if the fuckin lion had any teeth. An argument ensued.

  “Wild Bill said, ‘Listen, you motherfucker. You owe me money and I want it. I’m gonna go to Nicky and Lenny. If they don’t go to bat for you, you’re gonna have a big fuckin’ problem. Do you understand that?’

  “If I hadn’t been so stressed, I might have handled the situation differently. I had a lot of respect for Wild Bill and I loved Billy. Only a year or so earlier, I wanted to transfer to his crew. But on that day I said to him, ‘You listen to me and you listen good. I’ve got the FBI, the cops, and the parole people looking for me. And I’ve got this cocksucker’s [Danny Cutaia] family looking for me. You’re the last person I’m worried about.’

  “He said, ‘You’d better listen to what I’m sayin’ or I’ll put you in the fuckin’ ground.’

  “I told him, ‘I heard ya. You go to Nicky and Lenny. And if they don’t go to bat for me, do you think that makes me more dangerous to you or less dangerous? As far as puttin’ me in the fuckin’ ground, why don’t you try it right here and right now?’

  “At that point Danny Cutaia cut in. He warned me that I was out of line. He said, ‘You’re on thin ground here.’

  “I said, ‘Mind your own business, you motherfucker. You think I don’t know what your plan is? You couldn’t kill me on your best day, you bastard.’

  “As I walked away, Wild Bill was still hollering threats. I started laughing and kept on going. It wasn’t funny, though. I’d challenged bosses from two other families. And that wasn’t allowed. If I’d put my hands on either of them, Nicky and Lenny would have had to go along with my murder. That was the resolution required under Mob protocol. But a verbal confrontation didn’t mean an automatic death sentence.

  “Wild Bill didn’t waste much time makin’ his beef. Within five days, I got word that Mike Yannotti was looking for me to tell me I had to come in for a meet with Nicky. I called Mike and told him I was out of town and would be away for a couple of weeks.

  “In early December, I arranged to meet with Nicky, Lenny, and some of the crew at a diner on Flatbush Avenue. When I got there, I bullshitted with the guys. They seemed glad to see me and said they couldn’t believe how long I’d been able to stay on the run. I made a joke of it. I said that if I’d known life on the run was going to be so good, I’d have done it years earlier.

  “After about five minutes of that, Nicky got down to business. He said he called the meeting because there were a lot of things to discuss. The first thing was the Wild Bill situation. He told me to explain to Lenny what was going on. I went through the whole deal, right up to the thing on the street corner.

  “When I finished, Lenny reminded me that if I ever touched Wild Bill or Danny, there was nothin’ he or Nicky could do for me. They’d have to give me up—I’d have to die.

  “I said Wild Bill treated me like a fuckin’ mutt. If he was doin’ that to me, what was he sayin’ about them?

  “Lenny thought it over a few seconds. Then he said he liked my story better than Wild Bill’s. He wanted me to pick him up later that afternoon and we’d go to Wild Bill’s social club and resolve the matter once and for all. I said okay.

  “After that, Nicky asked me about the bank robberies. I said I didn’t know what he was talkin’ about. He said he knew about the New Jersey job and wanted to know where his money was. I told him I was on the run and needed every dime I could get my hands on. But I promised to send some money to him the next week. That seemed to satisfy him.

  “Next he said he was gonna make some changes. He wasn’t sure what to do with me. He was thinking about having me work directly with Mike Yannotti or Lenny. He said he was leaning toward Lenny. I remember thinking how great it would be if I went with Lenny. You could talk to him like a friend. With Nicky, it was all Mob all the time. He was like a machine. Getting away from him would be the best thing that could happen for me.

  “I asked him why he was making these changes. He said he was stepping up. That meant he was taking over as boss of the Gambino family. And in the life, the boss can’t have his own crew, because it would show favoritism. So he said he was putting me with Lenny and Mi
ke would be my go-between.

  “With that out of the way, Nicky said he had some serious law-enforcement problems. The feds were after him and his taking over the family would double the speed of their investigation. He expected to be arrested at any time. But even with that hanging over his head, the door was open for him and he had to grab the opportunity. After all, that was what every gangster who came up from the streets dreamed of being some day: the boss of the family.

  “Nicky turned to me and made the sign of a gun with his thumb and finger. He said if he did get arrested, there’d be a lot of work [killing] to do. Then he looked around at everybody and he said, ‘Do you hear me? I said if I get arrested, there’s gonna be a lot of fuckin’ work to do.’

  “Nicky grabbed my hand and said, ‘And we’re gonna start with that fuckin’ Baby Huey in Queens.’ Baby Huey was what we called Junior Gotti. Nicky looked at me and Mike Yannotti. He said, ‘Okay. Start gettin’ familiar with this guy.’ Mike nodded. I said sure, whatever had to be done would be done. Nicky said he’d contact me later by beeper and we’d get together. Then the meeting ended.

  “Two hours later, Lenny and me drove to the sit-down at Wild Bill’s social club. Lenny told me to wait outside while he went in and talked with Wild Bill. He said he was going to settle the problem, but not use his new position in the Gambino family to abuse him. That meant to me that with Nicky’s rise to boss, Lenny was probably going to be the underboss.

  “Lenny was gone for about an hour. When he came back he said, ‘You know, this guy hates your fuckin’ guts. But he agreed to settle your debt for seven thousand. Get it to him as soon as you can. So as of now, this thing is squashed. You watch out for yourself anyway, though.’

  “I asked him if this was squashed, why I had to still be careful. I mean, for the time being Nicky and Lenny were two of the most powerful gangsters in New York. Wild Bill was just a crew boss. If they said the beef was squashed, it should have been squashed.