Frank Cocchiaro was a caporegime in the DeCavalcante Family of New Jersey and headed a crew based out of Brooklyn, NY for the Family.
He was known to authorities as a local racketeer, but it wasn’t until the FBI placed a bug in boss Sam DeCavalcante’s office in early 1964 that they learned his true status. After that, Cocchiaro was repeatedly called before the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation, and when he had enough, he took a cigarette break and wasn’t seen again, at least for a short time.
Frank (Big Frankie) Cocchiaro – aka Frankie Coch, Frank Cacciatore, Frank Cocchairo, Frank Cocchiaco, Thomas Letter, Sam Cocchiaro, Frank Conte, and Frank Anthony Cocchiaro (TN) – was born on October 29, 1920, at 1179 Second Avenue in the Upper Manhattan section of East Harlem. He was raised at 1920 W. 7th Street in Brooklyn.
His parents were listed as Rosario and Frances Cocchiaro (nee’ Ibano) of Brooklyn, born in Palermo and Ribera, Sicily, respectively. Ribera was the hometown of most of the original members of the DeCavalcante crew.
Frank had a younger brother named Carmelo, aka Melio, who followed Frank into the rackets. They had another brother named Joseph who committed suicide in 1952 at the age of 22.
In 1938, when he was 18 years old, Frank married and moved to an apartment in Brooklyn. He later resided with his wife Millie in another apartment at 45-42 80th Street, Apt 3-K, in the Jackson Heights section of Queens.
After separating from Millie in 1950, Frank moved back to Brooklyn for a while, residing in apartments at 2626 Homecrest Avenue and 1020 West 20th Street. But as of 1959, he was back living in an apartment at 21-46 47th Street in the Astoria section.
Frank got married a second time and was also known to “keep” several paramours stashed in apartments he paid for around New York City.
He shared one of these apartments with a common-law wife at 2083 E. 53rd Street in Brooklyn. Frank also alternately stayed at other addresses from time to time, such as 1288 First Avenue in Manhattan.
FBI #4694212, NYCPD #B-243607, Chicago-PD #101530
Big Frankie
Frank Cocchiaro stood 6 feet 1 inches tall and weighed 210 pounds. He had dark brown hair and eyes and was a nice-looking fella who fancied himself a ladies’ man. In fact, it was his large frame that produced one of his mob nicknames, Big Frankie.
Big Frankie was known as a flashy hoodlum who liked to drive late-model Cadillacs and frequent the best nightclubs such as the Copacabana in midtown Manhattan.
He was also said to be an avid golf enthusiast who often awoke at 5 a.m. for a round of golf at a local course and would then go back to sleep for the rest of the day until he got dressed to go nightclubbing and conduct mob business in the nighttime.
Among the more popular hangouts of Cocchiaro were the Rumpus Room, The Sapphire Room, and The Orchid Room, all of Jackson Heights, Queens. When in Brooklyn, he liked to wet his whistle at The Barge Restaurant & Lounge at 8912 Emmons Avenue in the Sheepshead Bay section. Another favorite Brooklyn eatery was the famed Monte’s Venetian Room at 158 Carroll Street in the Red Hook section.
Cocchiaro also hung out at a notorious mob social club run by future soldier Rudy Farone known as the Oceanside Boys Club at 320 5th Avenue in South Brooklyn.
When visiting New Jersey, he was known to frequent DeMartino’s Lounge in Elizabeth, which was another known mob hangout.
In the early 1950s, Cocchiaro listed his employment as a bartender at Jean’s Bar on Mermaid Avenue in the Coney Island section. But authorities suspected he actually may have held a hidden interest in this licensed establishment.
The Bug in the Room
Frank Cocchiaro started off in the mid-1940s as a young hoodlum operating along the Brooklyn docks as a “checker” on the piers. But he augmented this income with his work as a cat burglar who specialized in robbing lofts and warehouses of their merchandise.
By the mid-1950s, he was a member of a highly publicized bank robbery gang that pulled off an April 6, 1955 robbery of the Woodside, Queens branch of Chase Manhattan Bank located at Roosevelt Avenue and 59th Street.
After an all-points bulletin for his arrest was splashed across the city newspapers, he was nabbed in conjunction with this robbery and released on a bail of $50,000.
By this time, both local and federal law enforcement authorities started taking a closer look at Cocchiaro.
He was already known as a local racketeer, but after the FBI had placed a listening device in the New Jersey office of mafia boss Sam DeCavalcante in early 1964, they soon learned the true status of Big Frankie from Brooklyn.
The “bug” revealed that Frank Cocchiaro was actually an inducted member of the Mafia serving as a caporegime in the DeCavalcante Family. In fact, Frank Cocchiaro was a top associate of the boss and the leader of one of two “New York Factions” of the borgata.
And upon learning of Cocchiaro’s true status, the FBI pulled out all stops in their effort to nail Big Frankie Cocchiaro.
A Wide Circle of Friends and Associates
Among Frank Cocchiaro’s closet associates in the New Jersey and New York City underworld were the following:
- Nicholas (Nicky Dell) Delmore – Late 1950s-early 1960s boss of what was later called the De Cavalcante Family of Elizabeth, NJ.
- Samuel (The Plumber) De Cavalcante – The official boss of their small borgata.
- Carmelo (Melio) Cocchiaro – The Astoria-based younger brother of Frank. Melio later became a soldier in the New York faction of the Family.
- Frank (Big Frank) Majuri – He was considered the underboss to Sam and attended the infamous 1957 Apalachin Meeting in Upstate, NY.
- Emanuel and John Riggi – Father and son soldiers. John was eventually elevated to a capo post and put in charge of Local # 394 – Hod Carriers & Laborers Union (AFL-CIO) which had previously been overseen by his father. In later years, Riggi became the boss of the Family.
- Salvatore Caternicchio – A veteran soldier pivotal to the Family’s control of the laborers union. Operated a shakedown racket involving Italian immigrants.
- Anthony (Tony Cassell) Cassella – NYCPD # B-207739 – A known Brooklyn hood and close associate of Cocchiaro active in fencing stolen goods, thefts, and the black market.
- Dominick (Mimi) Scialo – A notorious Colombo member and strong-arm man later found murdered.
- Larry Gallo – Oldest brother of the notorious Gallo brother’s gang of South Brooklyn.
- Albert J. Mugnolo – A Colombo hood and close associate of Scialo, he was arrested with Scialo for arson and insurance fraud which Cocchiaro was suspected of being involved in. Mugnolo was also a convicted bookmaker.
Frank Cocchiaro was also friendly with Genovese Family members Frank (Funzi) Tieri, Angelo (Shelly) Pero, and Ottoviano (Tommy) Lombardi.
In addition, Frank had a small personal crew of 1960s-era “recruits” that included Robert (DB) DiBernardo, Gaetano (Corky) Vastola, Angelo and Umberto (Vadoo) Gallo, Rudolph (Rudy) Farone, Jimmy (The Gent) Rotondo, and Louis Telese. All but DiBernardo would later be inducted into the borgata. DB later jumped to the Gambino Family.
Work Hard, Play Hard
By the late 1950s, Frank Cocchiaro was operating as a bookmaker in the policy rackets and floating crap games and as a shylock in the Queens, Brooklyn, and Northern New Jersey areas.
He was also known to engage in burglary, payroll and bank robberies, hijacking, fur and jewel heists, safe jobs, theft and sale of firearms, counterfeiting, strong-arm work, and extortion.
As if that wasn’t already enough, Big Frank was also allegedly partners in an illegal alcohol “still” based in New Jersey. In later years, he involved himself in business frauds and narcotics trafficking.
Cocchiaro quickly gained the reputation as a guy who would do anything and everything to generate a dollar.
Back in 1957, a federal informant told his handlers that Cocchiaro had two or three “swag” drops to stash stolen truckloads of merchandise that had been hijacked.
In the early 1960s, informants also reported that Cocchiaro may have been involved in a gangland murder.
The identity of the victim was never revealed, but it was suspected to have been Alfonso Colicchio, a tavern owner and small-time hood found shot to death in Elizabeth back in 1961.
In November 1962, Cocchiaro was allegedly involved in a dispute that turned violent. He was said to have been shot at on the corner of 5th Avenue and First Street in South Brooklyn, but police were never called. This locale was just a few blocks down from where Big Frankie was said to be partnered in a blackjack game with several Profaci members out of a social club at 3rd Street and 5th Avenue.
Criminal Record
Frank Cocchiaro’s criminal record started when he was 24 years old and included the following arrests and convictions:
- 1944 – criminally receiving
- 1946 – burglary, possession of burglar tools, grand larceny (1 year in jail at Rikers Island)
- 1948 – bookmaking ($75 fine)
- 1949 – fugitive from justice (turned over to Chicago authorities on a warrant)
- 1949 – operating a confidence game (3 years probation)
- 1950 – interstate transportation of stolen property (Amex money orders), forgery, conspiracy
- 1953 – burglary
- 1955 – criminal possession of stolen property (bank receipts)
- 1955 – federal bank robbery and conspiracy
- 1958 – bookmaking (horse bets)
- 1959 – intoxicated driver and assault
- 1960 – forged NYS driver’s license ($100 fine and probation)
- 1972 – unlawful flight, contempt of court
- 1980 – RICO conspiracy, loansharking, extortion, gambling, fraud, narcotics (20 years in federal prison)
Don’t Leave Home Without It
In June 1949, Cocchiaro was arrested by the FBI and charged with possessing and transporting $15,000 worth of forged American Express money orders from New York to New Jersey. He was held in lieu of $25,000 bail.
In 1950, Cocchiaro was convicted on two counts of passing stolen money orders and received three years probation.
As stated earlier, in the mid-1950s, he was investigated and later charged in the highly publicized Woodside, Queens bank robbery that netted several hundred thousand dollars. It was a major haul, especially for that era, circa 1955.
Charged with him were a rag-tag group of hoods, among them several members of what was notoriously known as “The Arsenal Mob” or the “Irish Mob” of Manhattan’s Westside docks led by Irish mob boss Eddie McGrath.
By the late 1950s, Frank Cocchiaro had become a formally inducted soldier in the Family under then-boss Nicky Delmore of Elizabeth, NJ. But Cocchiaro was most active in the Brooklyn and Queens sections of New York City, at that time.
He interacted with many varied Queens hoodlums from different crews as well as fellow regime soldiers such as the Giacobbe brothers of Astoria, especially Lenny and Joseph (Uncle Joe) Giacobbe, Virgil Alessi, and Larry Schiro.
He was also known as very friendly with Tony Carubia and Big Tony Vanella. The “two Tonys” were hair-trigger Gambino soldiers who also lived and operated out of that same Queens neighborhood.
By the mid-1960s, Cocchiaro had gone partners with his boss Sam DeCavalcante and several of their mob associates in the Imperial Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Co., a service and repair firm located at 762 Fairfield Avenue in Kenilworth, NJ. Cocchiaro was listed as president, Bernie Furst as secretary, and soldier Robert (Bobby Basile) Occhipinti as treasurer. Sam, of course, was a hidden partner.
The Nomad
Always the nomad, by the late 1960s, the FBI recorded that Frankie had relocated again. He had moved to New Jersey where he was living at the Tivoli Gardens Apartments, located at 364 Westwood Avenue in Long Branch. By this point, Frankie had already been bumped up to a capo di decina post.
It was around this time that the FBI and the local strike forces were applying renewed pressure on mob families across the region. Cocchiaro was repeatedly called before a state grand jury in New Jersey.
After repeatedly pleading the Fifth Amendment while being grilled in the witness chair, the jury panel paused for a coffee break. Cocchiaro stepped outside the courthouse building telling everyone he was going out to smoke a cigarette. But Frank never returned after the 15-minute recess was over.
He immediately took it on the hop, going “on the lam” to avoid what surely looked like an impending contempt of court citation for his refusal to speak to investigators. He flew down to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he rented an apartment under an assumed name. He also had a set of phony identification papers made for himself to help him avoid the authorities.
Frank Cocchiaro lived down in South Florida quietly for over three years until one faithful afternoon in 1972 when he was driving a rented car in Miami and had a slight fender bender with another automobile who blew a stop sign and hit Big Frank’s car. The other driver insisted on calling a cop.
When the cop arrived and asked Cocchiaro for his license, Frank had three in two different names, one under his true name of Frank Cocchiaro of Jackson Heights New York, a chauffer’s license under the name of Frank Anthony Pagnotta of Brooklyn New York, and a Florida permit also under the name of Frank Pagnotta.
It immediately raised a red flag to the Florida policeman, especially when Big Frank gave an evasive explanation about why he had so many different licenses.
Soon, authorities realized who they had in front of them. The slippery 52-year-old mafioso was immediately arrested, detained and soon hauled back to New Jersey to face the music. He was sentenced to one year at the Mercer County Correctional Center.
And to think Big Frank wasn’t even going to get a ticket for the accident
Down to the Sunshine State for Good
A few years later, Frank decided to permanently relocate to Florida as had his boss Sam DeCavalcante and several other of their borgata members several years earlier.
As a capo, Frank continued overseeing his crew along with his brother Melio. Within a few years, the Cocchiaro regime was firmly entrenched in the South Florida underworld.
They were operating a large loansharking operation, gambling, and other rackets. Frank was also suspected of dealing in narcotics. They ran wild for a few years making good money until approximately 1980 or so when the FBI finally caught up to them.
The entire “Cocchiaro Crew’ was indicted on RICO charges which included conspiracy, extortion, fraud, usury, gambling, narcotics violations, and the usual. Former Detroit Tigers pitcher Denny McLain was also indicted in this highly-publicized case.
All defendants were convicted after trial and received lengthy jail sentences. Frank got slammed with a 20-year prison term and was immediately remanded to prison while filing his appeal. Other DeCavalcante soldiers and associates would quickly step into the void left by Frankie, his brother Melio, and their crew members to continue operating in Florida.
But for the Cocchiaros it was all over. Frank never hit the street again. On November 5, 1985, Frank (Big Frankie) Cocchiaro died while still behind prison walls serving out his sentence. He was only 65 years old.
Until next time…”The Other Guy!”
