Colombo Family Associate: Frank (Frankie Vincent) DiVincenzo

Frank (Frankie Vincent) DiVincenzo was an associate of the Colombo Family under John (Sonny) Franzese , and was involved in the gambling rackets. He was also known as an enforcer, whom witnesses once described as a "scary-looking guy, like somebody out of 'The Untouchables'."

Frank (Frankie Vincent) DiVincenzo -- aka Frank Dante, Frank Vincenzo, Frank DeVencenzo, and Francesco DiVincenzo (TN) — was born in Brooklyn on August 4, 1919, one of three children born to Salvatore (Turiddo) and Adora DiVincenzo.

Salvatore was born in Girgenti, a small village located in Agrigento Province on the southwestern coast of Sicily. A barber by trade, he and Adora immigrated to the U.S. in 1911. One year later, the DiVincenzos gave birth to a daughter they named Costanzia, or Constance.

The DiVincenzos settled in Brooklyn and lived on Irving Avenue, off Troutman Street, in the borough’s Bushwick section. Frank and his siblings each attended New York City’s Public School system.

Frank (Frankie Vincent) DiVincenzo

By the time Frank was in his late teens, he had already quit school and had taken a local job in the neighborhood. By this point in time, DiVincenzo had also developed into a strapping, powerfully-built young man.

Over the next few years, he worked at various odd jobs to earn money, including work as a truckers helper, construction laborer, taxicab driver and nightclub bouncer.

By his early twenties, Frank was described in official government documents as standing 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing a trim, muscular 160 pounds. He had dark brown hair and eyes and a dark Mediterranean complexion.

In 1938, at the age of only nineteen, Frank married his childhood sweetheart from the neighborhood, Catherine Melillo, who came from an old-fashioned Sicilian family.

The newlyweds decided to start their life together by renting a small apartment for themselves right in the neighborhood near Catherine’s parents.

Those first years went smoothly, but by the mid-1940s, their life together would be upended when Uncle Sam came calling.

World War II was raging in Europe for over five years already, and the U.S. and its allies were up to their necks battling a crazy little German fellow by the name of Adolf Hitler who had been creating quite a bit of havoc over there.

So Frankie — like so many other young men in Brooklyn and elsewhere — was drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces. He formally enlisted on April 4, 1944, choosing to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps where he reportedly rose to the rank of a sergeant.

At the time of his enlistment, on intake forms, Frank stated he was 22 and that his birthdate was August, 6, 1918.

Frank also stated he was employed by the Parmelee Systems Cab Company, headquartered at 60th Street and York Avenue, Manhattan.

But, luckily, his military service lasted only a little over one year before he was discharged. This occurred because on May 8, 1945, World War II officially ended following Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender.

Subsequently, DiVincenzo was formally discharged from the Marines several months later, on September 21, 1945.

Catching Up

Back home in New York City, he resumed his private life, which included he and Catherine starting a family of their own. She soon gave birth to a son they named Salvatore, or Terry, after Frank’s father. Several years after that, in 1947, they had a second child, another son they named Frank Jr., after his father.

By at least the late 1940s or early 1950s, the DiVincenzos moved their family out of Brooklyn, over the bridge into Queens County, to the Long Island City section of the borough where they rented part of a two-story brick home at 12-22 31st Avenue. They resided there for several years before deciding to leave city life altogether for the bucolic wide-open spaces of suburban Long Island.

Frank and Catherine at a nightclub in the 1950s.

They bought a pretty Colonial-style home in the Massapequa Park section of Nassau County. Located at 20 Rugby Road, the home featured four bedrooms and was set on a spacious corner property.

It was around this same time period, the late 1940s to early 1950s, that Frank is believed to have started associating with local hoodlums and dabbling in criminal activity to help support Catherine and the kids.

20 Rugby Rd., Massapequa Park, L.I.

According to racket squad detectives from the Nassau District Attorneys office, by the mid-late 1950s, they had become aware of DiVincenzo and information had come to their attention that he was active in illegal gambling activity.

Their suspicions about him were soon confirmed when several police informants said DiVincenzo was operating as a bookmaker in the western part of the county.

So, Nassau authorities decided to investigate him further.

Busted in the Mustard

After several weeks of covert surveillance, on March 20, 1962, law enforcement finally struck when members of the Nassau Racket Bureau staged a surprise raid on a suspected bookmaking headquarters, catching their quarry completely off guard.

DiVincenzo and another man later identified as Arthur (Artie) Berk were caught red-handed as they sat at a table inside the apartment accepting horse bets over the telephone from customers.

At the time of the raid and arrests, a Nassau Police Department spokesman told news reporters the suspects were running a “very sophisticated” and extensive betting operation and that they were doing a lively business.

He then went on to describe the gambling ring this way:

“Yesterday, our police squads smashed their way into three alleged bookie telephone centers that were operating as clearing houses for about $7,500,000 in illegal bets each year. Three Long Islanders were among eleven suspects arrested in the far-flung operation.”

Arthur Berk

Authorities said they made sure the raids coincided with the opening days of Aqueduct Rack Track and Roosevelt Raceway in an attempt to disrupt the business of this “very sophisticated type of bookmaking operation.”

One detective who took part in the raids stated, “In each of the apartments raided, we found ‘clerks’ huddled over phones, taking bets for scores of “on-the-street” bookmakers who were using the telephone centers — better known in the trade as “wire-rooms” — as clearing houses.”

Police said gambling customers would call the telephone center, give their code names and the numbers of their respective bookies, and then place their bets. The phone clerks would then record the bet and credit the wager to that particular bookie.

At the end of the week, the telephone “wire-room” and the bookie would split 50-50 on any net profits or losses.

Nassau Police Inspector Salvatore Fiola, of the District Attorneys Rackets Squad, said that the original “thread” that led to the raids was developed by Nassau Police two months earlier when a routine check of two Long Island suspects, both of whom were arrested at their homes yesterday, uncovered the illegal operation.

“It was one of the biggest such gambling operations we ever uncovered,” Fiola said.

A Far-Flung Network

For their part in the undercover police investigation, a spokesman for the New York City Police Department said that the most spectacular of the raids came as members of his department, while dressed as workmen, traced telephone wires in the 20-story Skyview-on-the-Hudson luxury apartment house, 5700 Arlington Avenue, in the Riverside section of the Bronx.

Smashing in the door with axes, they arrested two Brooklyn men who were manning several telephones that reputedly serviced hundreds of customers for at least 30 bookies.

Assistant Chief Inspector Robert R.J. Gallati, who directed that particular raid, said the wire-room setup was a clearinghouse for over $20,000 in bets a day, or about $5,000,000 annually.

Gallati stated that earlier that same day separate police units had also raided two Queens apartments, one at 163-03 90th Avenue, Jamaica, the another at 45-34 40th Street, in Sunnyside.

He said both Queens locations were also operating as wire rooms and that each was booking about $4,000 in bets daily, or about $1,250,000 annually.

Authorities said they arrested Raymond Prisco in the Jamaica apartment. He was identified as one of three Long Island men taken into custody.

Nassau Police said the other two arrested were Frank DiVincenzo and Arthur Berk, both from Long Island, who were partners in the Nassau wire-room. They were taken into custody at their homes in Massapequa Park and Valley Stream, respectively.

Authorities also said it was the initial surveillance conducted on these two men that first led to the discovery of the interlocking telephone wire room operation.

Takin' Your Medicine

Realizing they had been caught dead-to-rights, two days later, Berk and DiVincenzo agreed to plead guilty and take their medicine. A third suspect also caught during the raid decided to also throw in the towel and plead out.

On March 22nd, the three gamblers stood before Nassau County Court Judge John Daly in First District Court in Mineola to plead guilty to several gambling-related charges.

Arthur Berk, of 95 Dartmouth Road, Valley Stream, pled guilty to three counts: bookmaking, maintaining a premises for bookmaking, and possession of betting slips. He was fined $750 and given a suspended one-year jail sentence.

DiVincenzo pled guilty to two counts: bookmaking, and possession of betting slips. He was fined $700 and sentenced to serve a one-year suspended jail term. Frank was 43 years old at the time of this case.

But the last defendant standing before Judge Daly that day, 61-year-old Raymond (Ray) Prisco, of 61 Crosby Avenue, Albertson, had his case postponed for a later date.

This postponement stemmed from Prisco having been arrested in Queens by federal agents assigned to the Internal Revenue Service. Subsequently, he was to be formally arraigned at a later date in Federal Court before a United States Commissioner.

That day in court, the prosecutor explained to Judge Daly that the three gamblers were among eleven suspects arrested during a series of gambling raids by a joint task force of the Nassau and New York City Police Departments.

Post Valachi

Soon after legendary Mafia songbird Joseph (Joe Cagy) Valachi first spilled his guts to FBI agents in the early 1960s, spurred on by his later testimony before the McClellan Senate Committee in 1963, which was televised to living rooms across the country, law enforcement agencies from coast to coast started to conduct deep investigations into organized crime activity and the so-called menace of the Italian Mafia.

Feeding on this Mafia hysteria, months later in early 1964, Nassau Police Captain William Schuchman, head of the Vice Squad, provided statistical data during his testimony before another United States Senate Subcommittee Investigation relating to illegal gambling conditions as it then existed in Nassau County.

Schuchman also submitted into evidence an extensive list of gambling figures and underworld betting operations that his men had investigated and arrested in the years leading up to his testimony.

Among other information he provided the Senate Committee, Schuchman stated, “The above information is supported by evaluation of major bookmaking arrests in Nassau County, almost all of which had their origins in New York City.” The following are some examples:

“In March 1962, Frank DiVincenzo, also known as Frank Vincent, and his partner, Arthur Berk, were arrested by Nassau County Vice Squad Officials taking telephone bets, all of which were then played to anyone of seven New York City telephone numbers referred to collectively as ‘the office.' In connection with this arrest, officials determined that Lou Katz, of Birchwood Drive, Syosset, New York, a former heavy bettor, squared some of his bookmaking debts, or stalled for time in paying them, by ’steering’ various well-heeled horse players to DiVincenzo and Berk.”

Side Note: In early 1969, Nassau County District Attorney William Cahn told several investigative reporters that he considered Berk to be a Colombo Family associate and shylock operating under the control of crime captain John (Sonny) Franzese.

The Enforcer

Shortly after Nassau Police nabbed him for bookmaking, Frank became involved in another police investigation after he was observed regularly frequenting a local mortgage company that was suspected of serving as a "front" for what local authorities said was a lively shylocking business being conducted from a two-story office building at E. 100 Old Country Road, Mineola.

Police say that although 100 Capitol Corp., and another mortgage firm, Metro Capitol Corp., were fully licensed by the State of New York to provide private business loans and second-mortgages, information had come to their attention that these companies were actually being used as “fronts” for a fraud and illegal money lending operation — shylocking racket — being run by another local mob figure police later identified as Solomon (Solly the Fox) Richman.

Unnamed police “sources” advised that Solly Richman headed the loanshark operation, and that DiVincenzo, although not charged in the instant case, had been the ring’s primary collector and enforcer.

Later, after further investigation, Nassau authorities suspected that a third underworld figure, Robert (Bobby Green) Falvo, may have also been involved as a behind-the-scenes principal.

In November 1964, Richman was indicted on grand larceny and fraud charges in connection with these companies. At the time of his arrest, the Nassau District Attorney described him as a "high-ranking Long Island loanshark who dabbles in quickie loans to syndicate bookmakers.”

They said that in addition to making high-interest loans to small businessmen, Richman frequently lent money to bookmakers working in Nassau and Suffolk for Colombo Family Lieutenant John (Sonny) Franzese and such other underworld luminaries as Louis (Louie Beans) Foceri and Joseph (Joe Narrows) Laratro , both of the Lucchese Family.

Sun, Sand, and Schemes

Like so many other northeasterners drawn to its warmer climate and tranquil landscape, by the early 1960s, Frank and his wife decided to get away from New York altogether and relocate down south to sunny Florida.

They moved to Broward County, Florida around 1964, purchasing a modest ranch-style home with three-bedrooms and 2 baths in Hollywood, at 7880 Raleigh Street.

After settling into the area, Frank started to move around a bit, frequenting the local restaurants and nightspots to get better acquainted with the element and familiarize himself with this new territory.

Over the course of the next few years, Frank was known to hang around various bars and nightclubs in Fort Lauderdale and Miami, several of which were identified by local police as known hangouts for hoodlums and racketeers.

One such place, in particular, that DiVincenzo liked to frequent was a popular Italian dining spot in Miami Beach named Capra Restaurant, 8400 Biscayne Blvd.

In fact, two undercover detectives connected to the Dade County Police Department Intelligence Unit surveilled Frank one evening in the company of several couples at the restaurant’s bar.

They noted that one the people Frank was chatting with was none other than Pasquale (Little Patsy) Erra , a veteran Genovese Family soldier, and major Miami Beach racketeer, who had also migrated down to Florida back in the 1940s from East Harlem, New York.

They wrote in their surveillance log that DiVincenzo, who they identified at the time as “Frank Dante,” had spent several hours in the company of Erra and his wife and another couple before then departing the establishment.

Nothing would come from this particular incident, but it made local authorities aware of DiVincenzo’s presence in Florida and put him back on the police radar screen for future reference.

Old Habits are Hard to Break

From that time forward, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department kept periodic tabs on DiVincenzo and his activities. But, to his credit, generally speaking, Frank was a low-keyed guy who usually stayed under the radar.

That said, according to local authorities and the FBI, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, it’s alleged he continued serving as a strong-arm man and all-around hoodlum for several transplanted organized crime figures from New York.

DiVincenzo was also suspected of engaging in a number of other criminal activities which included his involvement as part of an organized theft ring that systematically stole cranes, backhoes, tractors, dump trucks and other types of expensive heavy equipment from construction sites in Dade and Broward Counties.

It was a well-coordinated theft operation whose members would visit building sites late at night to steal expensive heavy equipment and then “fence” them off to various prearranged buyers — presumably, to rival construction companies.

During this time, possibly tied to these activities, DiVincenzo is reported to have served several years behind bars for an unspecified conspiracy conviction.

In 1977, he once again became a person of interest, and later a potential prosecution target, for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which had started investigating a massive international fraud scheme that was allegedly being operated in a number of cities across the United States and several countries in Europe.

During the course of their investigation, several FBI informants told their handlers that this fraud scheme was being backed and financed by organized crime figures.

Upon further investigation, FBI agents determined that this operation was indeed connected to members of organized crime, specifically to several members and associates of New York’s Colombo Family.

Subsequently, the focus of the probe shifted and intensified as the FBI uncovered the full scope and breadth of the fraud scheme. Roma Theus, the lead prosecutor with Miami’s Federal Organized Crime Strike Force was appointed to head up the investigation. In turn, he quickly impaneled a federal grand jury in Miami to start hearing witness testimony.

Over the course of the next several years, scores of witnesses were subpoenaed to testify, including several dozen individuals who later become criminal targets, and a dozen or so who were later indicted for their participation in the fraud.

During the course of the probe, members of the grand jury heard from a number of different witnesses who testified under oath that a man they only knew as Frank, whom they described as “a scary-looking guy, like somebody out of ‘The Untouchable’ had threatened and intimidated them.”

It would take seven more years, but by the mid-1980s, this particular grand jury investigation would bear fruit after a number of people were federally indicted on racketeering charges.

But none of that would matter to Frank because he wouldn’t live to see it.

A Quick, Quiet Ending

After a short illness, Francesco (Frankie Vincent) DiVincenzo died on November 25, 1983. The official cause of death was listed as cancer.

Frankie was only 64 years old.

Frank DiVincenzo

At the time of his death, he was living at 9150 North West 38th Drive, Coral Springs.

Frank was survived by his second wife Thelma, her 2 daughters, Jody and Paula, and his sons Frank and Terry.

Frank had five grandchildren, one brother, and one sister.

9150 N.W. 38th Dr., Coral Springs

A one day wake was held at the Dyke and Gill Coral Springs Funeral Home, 10630 Wiles Road, followed by a Christian Mass at Saint Andrew R.C. Church.

Side Note: Although they had technically been estranged and living separate lives for years, Frank and his first wife Catherine didn’t officially get divorced until 1977, which they did in Broward County Court on November 15th of that year. They had been married for 39 years.

Born September 28, 1919, his first wife Catherine died on May 10, 2010, at the age of 90.

Frank’s mother, Adora, born 1885, died in 1976. She was still living in Brooklyn at the time of her death. There was no confirmed date of death for his father, Salvatore DiVincenzo, born 1885.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Colombo Family Associate: Frank (Frankie Vincent) DiVincenzo

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Colombo Family Associate: Frank (Frankie Vincent) DiVincenzo

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