Anthony (Fat Tony) Regina

Anthony Regina never made it home for the holidays. Neither did his older brother Vincent, or “Chico” as he was called. The brothers were associates of the Colombo Crime Family. And both were former members of Crazy Joe Gallo’s gang before they switched to the Profaci side during the First Colombo War of the early 1960s.

Fat Tony had recently been paroled from prison because of a gangland slaying related to that bloody conflict, and Chico had recently hosted an important meeting between bosses and key players of two major crime Families. Life seemed to be going pretty well for them.

But on November 23, 1983, the day before Thanksgiving, their good times turned into bad times that fateful evening in Coney Island.

Anthony Peter (Fat Tony) Regina was born in Brooklyn on January 26, 1934, to Paul and Angelina Regina. His father had immigrated to the U.S. from Sicily but his mother had been born and raised in Brooklyn. Aside from his brother Chico, Tony had three other siblings, two brothers named Peter and Jerry and a sister named Mary Ann.

In 1951, Tony enlisted in the United States Army and served during the Korean War. He even earned a Silver Star. But at some point, he went AWOL and was charged with deserting the Army and was officially discharged in 1956.

Anthony (Fat Tony) Regina

Something good did come out of his time in Korea, though.

He apparently met a young Korean girl named Mong NE Bae, who went by the nickname “Sue.” She joined him here in the U.S. and they married in 1960. After they tied the knot, the young Regina Family decided to make their home in Commack on Long Island, and they would eventually have three children together, a girl and two boys.

Commack is where Tony would reside for much of his life until he went to prison in 1964. After he and his wife divorced and he was paroled from prison, Tony moved to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

Law enforcement suspected Tony of being active in Brooklyn policy, gambling rackets, and cargo thefts, and they identified him and his brother Chico, as associates of the Profaci, later Colombo, Crime Family.

Wise-Cracking and Talkative

Newspapers once described Fat Tony as a “wise-cracking and talkative hoodlum,” but Tony was no joke. He was considered a strong-arm enforcer and gunman for the Family, and he had some very serious close associates.

One of them was a guy by the name of Carmine Persico, one of the toughest and deadliest mafioso to walk the streets of New York City. Tony and Carmine had grown up together and gone to school together. And in the early 1960s, they had fought in the Gallo- Profaci war together.

Tony, Carmine, and Tony’s brother Chico had been on the side of Larry and Joe Gallo until they all shifted their allegiance to boss Joe Profaci..

In fact. Persico was a central figure in the war. Profaci had tapped him to lead the troops in the effort to annihilate the entire Gallo gang. Assigned as the main executioner and first among equals, Persico would earn his notorious nickname, “The Snake,” for his duplicity, treachery, and sheer viciousness in the extermination of Larry and Joe’s followers, many of whom he had been the closest of friends with.

Persico, of course, would later rise to become Family boss.

Another associate of Fat Tony was John (Moose) Battista, who was also a Profaci Family enforcer. Battista’s cousin was a guy by the name of Gerry Langella, an aide and very close associate of Carmine Persico, who would later rise to a leadership position within the Colombo Family.

John (Moose) Battista

John was born back in 1917 and had an arrest record dating back to 1936 for burglary, grand larceny, assault, and gambling. During the height of the Gallo-Profaci War, both he and Fat Tony Regina were arrested for murder.

The First Colombo War, as it is commonly referred to, basically started over money. Boss Joe Profaci had lots of it and Crazy Joe Gallo wanted more of it. It was a pretty violent time in the streets of New York. While not the bloodiest of the three Colombo Family Wars, this particular conflict still claimed scores of lives and left many wounded.

The Gallo brothers and their gang were outnumbered five to one by Joe Profaci’s soldiers and associates. Profaci dominated the warfare to the point that the Gallo gang had holed up at their headquarters on President in the Red Hook. One entire block of President Street was cordoned off with cars and blockades.

The Gallo’s headquarters even had chicken wire on the windows to prevent Profaci forces from lobbing hand grenades through them, and guards armed with high-powered rifles watched the entire street from the rooftop 24/7 to prevent any attacks.

This was the mob landscape of 1961 through 1963. And it was in this atmosphere that carloads of gunsels from both factions would roam the streets searching each other out for assassination.

Finding the Target

In the early afternoon hours of August 9, 1963, Cadillac Louis Mariani and Francis Anthony Getch, both Gallo Gang members, decided to take a drive to Port Jefferson Station on Long Island. They had just left the South Setauket home of Mariani’s sister-in-law Louise Mangiamelli, who was accompanying them on the drive and was sitting in the back seat of the car. Mariani was driving and Getch was in the passenger seat.

Louise’s husband was a Gallo Gang leader and enforcer by the name of Salvatore (Sally Boy) Mangiamelli. Sally Boy had gone into hiding in July because he had heard through the grapevine there was a “contract” out on his life.

Salvatore (Sally Boy) Mangiamelli

Authorities suspected that Mangiamelli was one of the leading players in the attempted murder of Junior Persico and Alfonse “Funzi D” D’Ambrosio back in May of that year.

The two had been ambushed by Gallo gunmen in the early morning hours of May 19 while they were driving down a Brooklyn Street. A flat paneedl truck swerved in front of them and opened fire. Persico was shot three times and seriously wounded. Funzi was shot twice. Both survived.

This is the incident that started the mob legend that Persico caught a bullet in his teeth and spit it out, which isn’t true, of course. One bullet just happened to ricoshet from his shoulder through his body into his neck and settled in his mouth.

The only thing Junior spit out, we’re sure, was vengeance, which might have come to pass on this particular August afternoon.

As Cadillac Louis was waiting at a stoplight on Nesconset Highway near Port Jefferson Station, a dark sedan with its radio cranked up pulled up alongside them. In that car was Fat Tony Regina, John Moose Battista, and a third man - who was never identified.

Before Mariani and company had a chance to react, guns were raised and shots were fired. And after unleashing the deadly bullets, Fat Tony and his friends sped away.

Mariani was shot in the head and died instantly. Getch was also shot but had ducked under the dashboard when the shooting began and survived. Louise had scrambled to the floor of the backseat and walked away unscathed.

Just a few hours prior to the Mariani shooting, there was another shooting back in Brooklyn. A guy by the name of Joseph “Joe Bats” Cardiello was shot four times while sitting in his car. Cardiello had left the Profaci Family for the Gallo Gang but then dumped the Gallo Gang and joined none other than Carmine Persico’s faction of the Profaci side of the War.

Police didn’t believe there was a connection between the two shootings. But later, they suspected that Mariani’s killing was a case of mistaken identity - that the target was really Sally Boy Mangiamelli. If you think about it - in a highly charged situation such as this - with the adrenaline at the highest level - it’s easy to see why Fat Tony and Battista would think Mariani was Mangianelli. They look almost identical AND Sally Boy’s wife was in the car.

But a Gallo Gang member is a Gallo Gang member so it was win for the Profaci side.

The Investigation Begins

After the shooting, authorities didn’t know who the shooters actually were. Fat Tony Regina and John Battista weren’t even blips in their investigation. Not yet anyway.

As a side note, immediately after the shooting police went to the Mangiamelli home to search for clues. The news media followed and interviewed some of the Mangiamelli’s neighbors. Not surprisingly, several had something to say.

One neighbor told reporters, "To tell the truth, I wasn't surprised to see police here today because something didn't look kosher over there. The guy was home all day long, and yet they did a lot to their home."

The Mangiamelli’s had recently bought their $13,000 house in a new development in South Setauket and had apparently made many additions that raised the eyebrows of their neighbors - or so they said after the police showed up.

Both Louise Mangiamelli and Getch were later held as material witnesses. Louise had nothing to say and told authorities she didn’t know who shot at them. Getch, however, was on parole for a conviction for assault and robbery, and by consorting with known criminals - ala Cadillac Louis Mariani - he was now a parole violator.

He didn’t like the idea of having to return to Elmira prison, so he decided to talk, and in October 1963, 29-year-old Fat Tony Regina and 47-year-old John Moose Battista were indicted and arrested for the murder of Louis Mariani and the attempted murder of Anthony Getch.

Anthony Getch

After the arrests, Sally Boy Mangiamelli came out of hiding. The Suffolk County police department was looking for him to see what he knew about the shooting. He showed up with his bodyguard Frank “Punchy” Illiano and his lawyer, but he refused to talk after intense questioning by authorities.

As a side note, October 1963 was also when Joe Valachi spilled the beans about Cosa Nostra to the entire world via television. Regina and Battistta had the dubious distinction of being the very first Cosa Nostra figures to be indicted after Valachi started singing.

As another side note, back in August, Nassau County District Attorney William Cahn had called in several mobsters for questioning about racket activities in Long Island, including Carmine Persico and Tony Regina. Apparently, Cahn was “shocked” at Persico’s refusal to answer his questions.

He told newspapers that Carmine “wouldn’t even say ‘no’ to questions.” And that any time Cahn asked a question, the only thing Persico would say was “I refuse to answer that.”

He also refused to say if he knew Fat Tony or if he had gone to school with him. So, Cahn told Carmine that Regina admitted the two had gone to school together.

Persico’s response? “I can’t help it if his lawyer improperly advised him.”

They both had the same lawyer, by the way.

And one more side note, Louis Mariani’s girlfriend Paula Servase was also questioned about the shooting. At the time, she was free on bail because she had been charged with carrying a loaded gun after she was part of an arrest of Gallo gang members and their female friends several weeks prior.

The Trial

In March 1964, Fat Tony and John Moose Battista went on trial. The prosecution’s main witness and only witness to testify about the shooting on the government’s behalf was Anthony Getch.

Getch had been sitting in jail on a $50,000 bond because while he was in protective custody and hidden for months, living at what authorities called “Ponderosa Pines,” Getch decided he couldn’t deal with the pressure anymore. His wife and family had left him and he was bored with the detectives who were guarding him keeping him entertained by taking him to the movies, bowling, and out for drinks.

So, one day he decided to take one of the detective’s car keys and went to visit relatives on President Street - the same President Street where the Gallo Gang headquarters was. Cops found him ten hours later in a relative’s apartment, and he was promptly taken to county jail and kept there until the trial was over.

“I just had to get away,” he told authorities. While he was on the lam from the people who were trying to protect him, he engaged in the same activities he was doing with the detectives back at Ponderosa Pines that he was so bored with - he went bowling and then went somewhere else for a few drinks.

The detectives in charge of protecting him were demoted because of this little stunt.

Initially, Getch's wife and kids were also in protective custody but she had had enough and packed up the kids and went back to New York City.

During that time when all the bowling and drinking and taking care of the family was taking place coupled with the cost of security, the government via taxpayers dollar through something called the welfare rehabilitation program was footing the bill. The WITSEC program had yet to be created.

As a side note, Newsday had learned that Getch was the secret witness to the shooting back in September, a month before Regina and Battista were arrested but they decided to keep his name quiet.

Suffolk County District Attorney James Catterson Jr. praised the newspaper saying, "The newspaper and its staff deserve recognition and credit for their public-minded action. Premature release of the witness' identity could have materially hurt our case."

Fat Tony and John Battista were on trial for four weeks. It was highly charged and highly publicized.

Anthony Regina and John Battista

Anthony Getch testified for two days and several witnesses were called to testify on Regina and Battista’s behalf including co-workers of Battista who claimed he was at work on the docks in Brooklyn the day of the shooting.

One witness was a guy by the name of Jerry Aloi, a co-worker of Battista’s who testified he clearly remembered seeing Battista on the docks that day because a “guy” had just been killed a block away from his home. That “guy” was Joseph (Joe Hat) Cardiello.

Fat Tony also had several witnesses testify on his behalf, including his wife Sue who told the jury he was at home during the time of the shooting.

"He was in the home with my children in front of me," she testified. "I would cut off my arm if this was not true."

Even Louise Mangiamelli appeared in court, but not for the prosecution. The defense called her to testify after prosecutors deemed her a hostile witness and refused to put her on the stand. She didn’t say much but she did refute something that Getch had testified about earlier.

Getch had told the jury that at some point during the ordeal, she had said, “That fat bastard. Shooting with me in the car.” But she denied ever saying such a thing and testified that she did not see the faces of any shooter.

Despite the contradictory testimony and despite the witnesses who claimed Fat Tony and Battista were nowhere near the scene of the shooting, the all-male jury came back with a guilty verdict. It took them four days.

Fat Tony and John Battista were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Regina also received an additional 5-10-year sentence for first-degree assault for shooting Anthony Getch. And Battista got 5-15 years for the same count.

Regina and Battista head to court.

Anthony Getch was released from prison three months after the trial ended. And not too long afterward, he found himself in trouble again.

In 1970, he was one of 16 people arrested by the FBI for being part of an East Coast auto theft ring. He was charged with transporting and receiving stolen cars and with conspiracy. The ring stole about 45 cars and sold them to individuals and used car dealers in Florida. He was released on $250 bail but no disposition could be found on the case.

But he hadn’t been convicted because, in February 1975, Francis Anthony Getch was gunned down outside his Brooklyn home. As he was getting out of his car, which just happened to be a stolen vehicle, another car rolled up alongside him and shot him three times in the head.

Getch was 38 years old.

Fast forward six years later.

Bad Times in Coney Island

One late night in May 1981, Fat Tony’s brother Chico held a very important meeting in his home in Brooklyn. Authorities called it a “Mini Apalachin.”

About a dozen important members and bosses from the Colombo and DeCavalcante Families met there to discuss mob business.

One of the attendees was Carmine Persico who was on probation from a hijacking conviction. Others attending the meeting included Sam DeCavalcante, John Riggi, Vincent Rotundo, Gerry Langella, former Colombo boss Tom DiBella, and Sonny Franzese’s former bodyguard and chauffeur, John Matera, and a few others.

At the time, authorities were looking for Carmine’s brother, Alphonse after he went on the lam after being convicted for loansharking.

Chico Regina

Clearly, Regina’s home was under surveillance but the cops didn’t have a warrant to enter the premises or any reason to enter the premises or to arrest anyone for anything. But they were intensely curious about what was going on inside Regina’s house.

So, they did the next best thing. They called up Carmine Persico’s parole officer, John Orandello, and told him what Junior was doing. And shortly thereafter, the cops raided Chico’s home.

For his part, Persico told his parole officer that he was only there to apologize to Regina for not inviting him to his daughter’s wedding nearly a year earlier. Apparently, had had been given permission by the court to invite five well-known hoodlums to the wedding, so there wasn’t any room for Chico Regina.

In addition, and probably much to his embarrassment, Persico had to tell his parole officer the name of everyone who was in the house. They were all in the basement at the time of the raid, and Orandello called them up one by one so that Persico could identify them.

Nobody was arrested. But Carmine went back to jail for a couple of years because of this. His brother Alphonse, by the way, wasn’t at this meeting.

Authorities were giddy about the raid. One law enforcement official told newspapers, "It was one of the biggest meetings where the mob was caught-flat-footed since Little Apalachin.”

Little Apalachin was the meeting at LaStella restaurant in Queens in 1966 that was attended by some other big-name mob figures including Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficante Jr., Neil Dellacroce, and several others.

Some sources state that meeting at Regina’s house was held to discuss a merger to expand rackets in NY and NJ. Others say it was to settle a dispute over narcotics operations in Florida and to carve out territory in Florida for narcotics and money laundering operations. And still others state the mob bigwigs were meeting to find ways to revive the narcotics ring.

Soon after the meeting, 49-year-old John Matera disappeared and was never seen again. Authorities suspected he was killed because Persico believed cops had followed Matera to Regina’s home, thus discovering the secret meeting.

Throughout the years, Fat Tony and John “Moose” Battista had made several appeals to overturn their convictions. But a doozy came in June 1981, six years after Anthony Getch was gunned down. His mother, Jean Morello, came forward to say that her son had lied.

She claimed that Getch told her, “Mom, I did a bad thing. Those two men are innocent. But I had to do it. It was my scalp.”

Judge Harry Seidel quickly denied the request for a new trial, saying that he couldn’t believe Morello kept this huge secret for six years. He said he found her statement "incredible and totally unworthy of belief."

Sometime thereafter, Fat Tony Regina was finally released on parole. He seemed to have kept a fairly low profile. He apparently had gotten divorced from his wife and he had said in a previous appeal that his daughter had died and he had lost contact with his two sons.

He also claimed to have suffered six strokes and a heart attack while in jail and was confined to a wheelchair.

But something else wasn’t right in Tony Regina’s world.

On the evening of November 23, 1983, firefighters were called to an isolated area around 15th and Hart Place in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn. Someone had called in to report a car on fire. When firefighters arrived, they quickly extinguished the flames but made a gruesome discovery. Inside the burnt-out car were two charred bodies.

One was Fat Tony. He was in the backseat and had been shot twice in the head. His brother Chico was found stuffed in the trunk. He was also shot twice, once in the head and once in the body.

Nobody was ever arrested for their murders, but authorities later suspected Carmine Persico of being behind the killings. Supposedly Persico believed one of the Regina brothers was stealing money from one of his gambling operations.

Anthony Peter “Fat Tony” Regina was 49 years old. His brother Vincent “Chico” was 53.

Watch the Anthony Regina Story on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u43W5Qq8124&t

Anthony (Fat Tony) Regina

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John Malizia: The Race Fixer

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