Francesco (Frank Casino) Cucola

Francesco (Frank Casino) Cucola figured prominently in the 1957 Queens double gangland-slayings of capo Anthony (Little Augie Pisano) Carfano, and his date that evening, a former beauty pageant contestant named Mrs. Janice Drake.

Francesco (Frank Casino) Cucola - aka “Little Casino” and Francesco Joseph Cucolo - was born on December 12, 1903, at 2109 First Avenue in Upper Manhattan, to Fiore and Savina Cucolo. He had a stepfather named Pasquale Casino. This is how Frank earned his nickname.

Manhattan was his home borough where Cucola would reside and operate in for the rest of his life. Some years later he lived in the Little Italy neighborhood off Mott Street. Years later he resided in at a high-rise apartment house in unit 6H, at 765 Riverside Drive, for years.

By the late 1950s, he also owned a summer house at 118 11th Street, in Beach Haven, New Jersey.

NYPD #63338, FBI #228626

At 5 feet 8 inches tall and a slender 150 pounds, Cucola had black hair, dark brown eyes, and a ruddy complexion.

He married a non-Italian girl named Kathryn (nee’ Nelson), and during their marriage, they would have no children together.

He had a criminal record of six arrests in New York City as follows:

1925 - grand larceny auto (5 years in Elmira)

1929 - robbery

1932 - felonious assault

1935 - vagrancy, criminal investigation

1936 - criminal registration (Miami)

1942 - policy ($25 fine)

1957 - criminal contempt, bench warrant

In the late 1930s, he figured into a highly publicized extortion case that accused hoodlums of ‘shaking down’ wholesale vegetable vendors by charging a premium on the price of all the Artichokes coming into New York City.

The notorious Harlem-based mafioso Ciro (The Artichoke King) Terranova allegedly headed this extortion ring.

Formally, Frank Casino was a ‘made’ member in the Genovese Family under capo Vincent (Jimmy Blue Eyes) Alo.

But he went back so far in the mob by having grown up with all the bosses that Casino often associated with top hierarchy members of the borgata like Frank Costello, Salvatore (Little Sally) Celembrino, Angelo (Gyp) DeCarlo, and Alfred (Poggy) Toriello.

Frank Cucola was said to be heavily engaged in the shylock racket with a considerable amount of money out in loans.

He operated in loan-sharking for decades. An associate named Joseph (Joe Bolo) Boliciotti worked closely with Cucola lending out his money at shylock rates for years. Boliciotti was said to have operated primarily in the Bronx.

Cucola also earned a share of a numbers policy ring active in the Harlem section of Upper Manhattan.

‘Frank Casino’ also figured prominently in the 1957 Queens double gangland slayings of capo Anthony (Little Augie Pisano) Carfano, and his date that evening, a former beauty pageant contestant named Mrs. Janice Drake.

They were both found shot to death in the front seat of Carfano’s Cadillac which was found parked in a dark secluded spot across from La Guardia Airport in Elmhurst, Queens.

In 1963, Mafia songbird Joe Valachi implicated Cucola as the man who had called Carfano and lured the aging mafioso to his death that evening.

Nothing would ever come from Valchi’s testimony but it put Cucola in the hot seat for a while with investigators.

His name was also repeatedly publicly mentioned in all the local newspapers, raising his previously quiet profile.

Francesco (Frank Casino) Cucola was believed to have passed away in South Florida, where he had retired to some years earlier. He died on June 16, 1975. He was 72 years old.

Until next time..."The Other Guy"

Francesco (Frank Casino) Cucola

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Francesco (Frank Casino) Cucola

Often Imitated. Never Duplicated. Button Guys of The New York Mafia...There's Only One!

Tour the Underworld with Button Guys

Dive Deeper into the Underworld

BG Presents: The Genovese Family Capo Who Had New Jersey in His Pocket – Angelo (Gyp) DeCarlo

BG Presents: The Most Treacherous Mobster in Mafia History – New Jersey’s Ruggerio (Richie the Boot) Boiardo

The Vellucci Family: Cousins in Crime

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