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Biography
Frank DeCicco is the son of a Gambino crime family associate only identified as Joseph (Boozy) DeCicco from Benevento, Campania, Italy. Joseph (Boozy) DeCicco was a made man in the Gambino crime family that earned his peculiar nickname because of his reputation as being an alcoholic. As a child being raised by alcoholic Joseph, Frank was raised in an environment of violence and guile. Frank has one sister named Beatrice a.k.a. "Betty". Frank had two children including George DeCicco Jr, named after his uncle George DeCicco. Frank is a cousin to Gambino crime family capo Robert DeCicco born on July 27, 1950 and Gambino crime family mob associate Louis "Louie Electric" DeCicco March 9, 1946 and distant uncle of wrongfully convicted rapist Scott Fappiano. He had one sister named Marie who later married capo Frank Fappiano. His uncle George who later married Gail Lombardozzi, relative of Gambino crime family capo Carmine Lombardozzi. He is also an in-law to Gambino crime family capo turned turncoat Michael DiLeonardo, Colombo crime family capo Robert DiLeonardo, and Gambino crime family capo Michael Ricci. He is also a distant relative of Gambino crime family mob associate Joseph "Joey Boy" Orlando born on March 19, 1949. Frrank had been brought up as a child in an environment of violence and guile. He was said to have had balls the size of grapefruits, when discussing his bravery and courage.
Frank DeCicco joined the Gambino crime family and became a "soldier" sometime in the late 1970s-early 1980s and was very close to then boss Paul Castellano. Anthony Casso and Frank DeCicco teamed up together in 1973 and were ripping off diamond dealers all over New York State. Frank lived in Staten Island, New York. He was known as a stand-up guy from an early age and a stone cold killer if need by. When hijacking transport trucks with Anthony Casso he did not once ever use violence in hijacking trucks. Although he often had to use violence when collecting loan shark and bookmaking debts. Sammy Gravano later commented that Frank was an "awesome guy". Frank stood close to six feet tall and was big, tough and muscular. He had a nose that was a little smashed over to one side. He had a thick neck that when he became angry exposed thick arteries. Frank drove a non-descript Buick Electra and remained very low key compared to John Gotti. Under ordinary circumstances, John Gotti would not have paid much attention to DeCicco, who had never demonstrated the potential for criminal greatness, but he had one resounding asset to his credit: he was from Bath Beach, Brooklyn. This unremarkable fact of consequence, for that made DeCicco part of what was known as the "Bath Beach Mafia" within the larger Mafia; Castellano and other bosses from Bath Beach tended to bestow favor upon those similarly blessed to have been born in that Brooklyn waterfront community.
DeCicco became a protege of Castellano's, and he was elevated to am executive post in the Mafia-dominated cement workers' union. In the union, he functioned as a bagman for payoffs from the rigging of construction projects to Castellano. But with Castellano aging and Dellacroce near death, his future was becoming uncertain and he would not have a supporter. Although he was responsible for much of the union racketeering, Frank was a generally disorganized man who would keep dozens of business cards loose in his suit jacket instead of a wallet and kept the interior of his Buick Electra in disorder. Paul Castellano would later tell Gravano, when there was a business partnership that Gravano and DeCicco wanted to go in, about his thoughts on Frank, "Frankie? Frank's a gambler. He's a street dog Sammy." As a capo, his crew was one of the most powerful in the Gambino crime family who would send their men to the front lines, second to the crews led by Anthony Gaggi and Roy DeMeo.
Murder of Louis Milito
Sammy Gravano would later say in his autobiography, "Louie (Milito) had got pinched for something and was away for a short time when we made our move (the murders) of Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti. Frankie was steaming. Louie could have betrayed us if he wasn't in jail. He was playing both sides. As soon as Louie got out of jail, Frankie said he had to be killed. A guy like that was too devious. "I argued for Louie's life. I asked Frankie, who was now our underboss, to let Louie come under me (Gravano's supervision). After all, we had spared people before. I would tell Louie what we discovered. I would put him on the shelf. I tried to convince Frankie that we didn't have to kill him. But Frankie was adamant. Louie had to die. He had slapped us all in the face with his double-dealing. Even if Paul (Castellano)'s threat to kill me wasn't real, Louie didn't know it and he never tried to warn me. Then Frankie got blown up."
Labor racketeering
DeCicco became heavily involved in labor racketeering at Teamsters Union Local 282. The Union Local 282's members included truck drivers in the hauling industry, forklift operators, dock workers, warehouse workers and concrete inspectors. This local had jurisdiction over the entire concrete pouring industry could shut down the city's construction industry at will. DeCicco installed many Gambino members into the Local, including Salvatore Gravano ("Sammy the Bull"), Michael DiLeonardo, Louis Vallario ("Big Louie"), Frank Fappiano, and Liborio Milito. DeCicco was responsible for delivering payoffs from union bosses such as John Cody and Robert Sasso to the Gambino administration. DeCicco and would often attend meetings at Castellano's Todt Hill, Staten Island mansion, known to family members as the "White House". DeCicco was allegedly close to Castellano at this time.
Feelings about John Gotti
Sammy Gravano stated to Frank that he wanted him to be boss after the murders of Thomas Bilotti and Paul Castellano were carried out. Frank told Gravano, "John's fucking ego is too big. I could be his underboss, but he couldn't be mine. Look, he's got balls, he's got brains, he's got charisma. If we can control him to stop the gambling and all of his flamboyant bullshit, he could be a good boss. Sammy, I'll tell you what. We'll give him a shot. Let him be the boss. If it don't work within a year, me and you, we'll kill him. I'll become the boss, and you'll be my underboss, and we'll run the family right."
Conspirator
Even though DeCicco could quite possibly have been looking at a future spot in the Gambino ruling administration as a result of the commission case, he would eventually turn against Castellano and plot his death along with John Gotti, Joseph Armone, Gravano, and Frank Locascio. On December 16, 1985, Castellano and his newly appointed underboss Thomas Bilotti were shot to death while exiting their Lincoln Town Car outside of Sparks Steakhouse in Midtown Manhattan. DeCicco had arranged the meeting at the restaurant, setting up his boss and underboss for the assassination. Soon after Castellano's death, Gotti became the new family boss; he rewarded DeCicco by making him his underboss. DeCicco was now in charge of all of the "white collar" rackets that once belonged to the Castellano faction of the family. This caused tension between Gotti and his friend Angelo Ruggiero.
Victim
On April 13, 1986, while approaching his car after leaving a meeting at the Veterans & Friends Social Club on 86th St. in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, Frank DeCicco was killed by a Improvised explosive device explosion placed underneath his black Buick Electra. The day of the hit, Anthony Casso and Victor Amuso parked on 86th Street in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn across from a lumber yard near the 19th Hole, the Lucchese crime family criminal headquarters. Herbert Pate drove up to the social club in a gray Oldsmobile Toronado and parked near Scarpaci's Funeral home. He had two bags filled with groceries. He walked toward DeCicco's car, carrying the bags, under the guise of just being an innocuous shopper. Near the car he dropped one of the bags. Groceries spilled out all over the street. As he was picking them up, he quickly stuck the bomb on the bottom of the car using a magnet. He put the groceries back in the bag and went on his way. When DeCicco exited Jimmy Brown Failla's social club, Herbert drove toward DeCicco's car. They crossed the street and got into the car. He opened the door of his Buick Electra and slid into the passenger side. He was looking through the glove compartment with Lucchese crime family soldier Frank "Frankie Hearts" Bellino standing nearby on the sidewalk. They crossed the street and got into the car. After the doors closed, Pate detonated the bomb. The bomb literally tore Frank DeCicco apart. His body was strewn all over Eighty-sixth Street. Anthony and Victor all met up shortly thereafter at Caesar's Bay Bazaar, a store on the Belt Parkway. The bomb exploded and DeCicco was killed instantly, Bellino lost several of his toes on both feet but survived. However, the intended target, John Gotti, was not there. Turncoats and informants would later reveal that the order for the hit came from Genovese crime family boss Vincent Gigante, who did not like Gotti or approve of him killing Castellano without approval from the Commission, and conspired his murder with Lucchese crime family leaders Victor Amuso ("Vic") and Anthony Casso ("Gaspipe"). Sammy Gravano would later say in his biography, "Frankie Hearts [Bellino] goes flying backwards. The blast blew his shoes off. And his toes. I go flying across the street. And there's Frankie Hearts with the blood shooting out of his feet. I saw Frankie DeCicco laying on the ground beside the car. With the fire, it could blow up again. I tried to pull him away. I grabbed a leg, but he ain't coming with it. The leg is off. One of his arms is off. I got my hand under him and my hand went right through his body to his stomach. There's no ass. His ass, his balls, everything, is blown completely off. I was wearing a white shirt. I looked at my shirt, amazed. There wasn't a drop of blood on it. The force of the blast, the concussion, blew most of the fluids out of Frankie's body. He had no blood left in him, nothing, not an ounce."
After death
Supervising agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Edward Magnuson testified that a confidential informant had told him that Gotti was, "very angry relative to the murder of Frank DeCicco, and when he was out on bail, or when the trial was over, there was going to be a war, and John would take his revenge."
After the murder of Frank DeCicco, John Gotti was concerned about Thomas Gambino. His concern was related to the political manuevering aimed at Gotti that took place shortly before Castellano's death. Gotti had heard reports that Castellano intended to name Thomas Gambino as his chosen successor, and fretted even after Castellano's death that Gambino would attempt to make some kind of move. But Gambino told Gotti he had no such ambition, and when he appeared with Gotti at the funeral of DeCicco, the political signal was very clear: Gotti and Gambino had made some kind of arrangement. At the same time, Gotti determined that Carlo Gambino's three other sons would not place any obstacles in his way. In the wake of his murder, Gotti appointed Sammy Gravano as underboss and Angelo Ruggiero as an acting co-underboss while still active as capo of the Bergin crew and co-consigliere with Joseph Armone due to Armone's ailing mental capacity.
In November 1997, Jerry Capeci of the New York Daily News reported that Casso, now a government witness, had revealed that Herbert "Blue Eyes" Pate, a drug dealer and Genovese family associate, detonated the bomb. Casso told authorities, "The plotters reportedly used a bomb to divert suspicion toward Sicilian hoods, who often use explosives. Pate, who had no links to the Gambino family and was unlikely to be recognized by mobsters while staking out DeCicco."
Unfortunately for the plotters, Gotti had changed his routine and Pate had mistook Bellino who had an uncanny physical resemblance Gotti. Five days after the murder, Pate was in court on a tax evasion charge. He was later sentenced to 12 years in prison and released in November 1996.
In popular culture
In the made for television HBO autobiographical movie Gotti, Frank is portrayed by actor Robert Miranda.
External links
- Frank DeCicco at Find-A-Grave
- http://www.nypost.com/seven/10072006/news/regionalnews/dna_miracle_clue_springs_man_wrongly_jailed_for_83_horror_rape_regionalnews_alex_ginsberg_________and_marsha_kranes.htm?page=0
