How Lucchese Soldier Teaballs Mancuso Met Joe Namath

Thomas (Teaballs) Mancuso was a soldier in the Lucchese Family who gained fame for his association with football legend Joe Namath .

Namath owned a nightclub in New York called Bachelors III, and it quickly became one of the most popular destinations and watering holes in the city.

Celebrities, top businessmen, beautiful women, and mobsters alike all converged upon its front doors. And so did the creme de la creme of New York’s underworld, including Carmine (The Snake) Persico .

Thomas (Teaballs) Mancuso - Early Life

Thomas (Teaballs) Mancuso - aka “Tommy Mancuso,” “T-Balls” and “Gaetano Mancuso” (TN) - was born in East Harlem in 1922. By the 1950s, he had relocated over the Whitestone Bridge into Queens County.

Once they visited the area, he and his wife decided to purchase a very nice home in Malba at 144-15 10th Avenue. Malba was widely considered to be one of the most upscale neighborhoods in New York City.

Malba is where the Mancusos would raise their children and reside for the next three decades. By the early 1980s, Mancuso was said to have relocated away from Queens and moved up to Pomona, NY.

Tony (Teaballs) Mancuso

By the late 1950s, Mancuso had been tied to the mob up in East Harlem. He was described as a “soldier” in the Tommy Lucchese family who was active in gambling rackets, strong-arming and dealing in narcotics.

Mancuso had a police record with three convictions including one for a federal narcotics rap and two for disorderly conduct. Considering his anti-social register, Tommy Mancuso managed to still generally keep a very low-key profile from law enforcement.

Teaballs also had the dubious honor of having been suspected by federal authorities of helping arrange the escape of Genovese soldier Anthony (Hickey) DiLorenzo to South America in 1972.

Carmine Tramunti

Mancuso was a longtime respected member of the Harlem crew. He knew everybody. But among his closest friends and associates in the mob were Carmine (Gribbs) Tramunti, Anthony (Tony Ducks) Corallo , Anthony (Tony Higgins) Castaldi , Anthony (Tony Moon) Ciccone, and Louis (Gigi) Inglese.

Then in June 1969, Mancuso became the focus of an investigation into the personal and business affairs of Jets football legend Joe Namath.

Hanging Out with Joe Namath

Football Commissioner Pete Roselle of the National Football League was made aware that many unsavory characters, not the least of which were many notorious members of the New York Mafia, were hanging around the Bachelors III.

The club, located at 62nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, was a trendy new hotspot the hotshot quarterback of the Jets held an ownership interest in.

Joe Namath as the Jets QB

Because of Namath's fame, Bachelors III quickly became one of the most popular destinations and watering holes in the city. Celebrities, top businessmen, beautiful women, and mobsters alike all converged upon its front doors.

Namath's well-publicized boozing and playboy lifestyle quickly gained Namath the nickname “Broadway Joe” as he strutted around town wearing a full-length white mink coat and oversized floppy hat. Namath clearly reveled in his role as “bon vivant and man about town.”

Among the more notorious mob figures said to be now palling around with Namath were no less than the creme de la creme of New York’s underworld.

They included such infamous hoods as Lucchese family boss Carmine Tramunti, top assistant Thomas (Teaballs) Mancuso, East Harlem narcotics trafficker John (Johnny Echoes) Compopiano, Harry (The Hawk) Bernow, and Colombo family captain Carmine (The Snake) Persico, among at least eight other mob guys or known criminals Namath was accused of associating with.

“Broadway Joe” rockin' a fur coat on the field.

After an intensive and highly publicized investigation into the matter, NFL Commissioner Roselle ordered the then 26-year-old star quarterback to divest himself of his fifty-percent interest in the nightclub or face immediate suspension from the League.

A defiant Namath refused to sell his interest and announced, instead, his intentions to retire from football.

He eventually acquiesced and sold his interest in the club but not before there was a firestorm of bad publicity. Two specific allegations made against Namath which first led to the ultimatum he sell was that Joe had become extremely close friends to both Persico and Mancuso.

Say Hello to Life

The 46-year-old “Teaballs” Mancuso was described in the investigative report as “serving in the role of an enforcer and trusted henchman to Carmine Tramunti.”

The report stated that Namath had first started hanging around a mobbed-up joint called The Pussycat, located at 49th Street and Second Avenue. The Pussycat had everything that Joe craved: great food, cheap strong drinks, easygoing friendly fellas, and tons of beautiful women.

The famous Bachelors III

Its clientele ran the gamut from the famous to the infamous. Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Jack Lambert, Billy Martin, and even Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin visited when they were in town. Politicians, celebrities, and business honchos all flocked to the place to rub elbows.

But there was one little problem. The Pussycat was also a hotbed of activity for the infamous Five Families. This was allegedly where Namath first befriended mob guys.

LIFE Magazine did an extensive story on Namath’s mob associations; in particular his relationship with Mancuso. Their news story called Tommy a mafia “soldier.” A reporter even traveled to the Pussycat Lounge to interview Mancuso one afternoon.

Broadway Joe happy as a clam behind the bar at his Bachelors III Club. Photo credit: Jnewsphotos

For his part, Teaballs told the report that “Namath’s a good kid. Everybody is crucifying him now. It’s a damn shame. He really ought to be left alone.”

Pushed further, Mancuso then went on to say, “Look-it here, one day I sat down for two hours with Richard Nixon. He didn’t know who I was. Just because I spent two hours with the guy, does that make him my friend?”

After reflecting on what he had just said, Mancuso added this about Namath, “Look. Let’s put it this way. For the record. I don’t know the kid!”

The Big Bust

In March 1981, Mancuso was among mafia figures and labor officials indicted by the Eastern District of New York on various counts of racketeering.

A Federal Grand Jury brought back indictments charging nine defendants with racketeering related to the Lucchese mob’s illicit control over the Blasters, Drillers, and Miners Union Local #29, based in Queens. Charged along with Mancuso was fellow Lucchese soldier Samuel F. (Big Sam) Cavalieri.

Others charged in this case included the union’s president Louis Sanzo. Sanzo was later convicted of tax evasion and conspiracy to commit tax evasion for receiving over $200,000 in under-the-table cash payments from a construction company. Amadio Petito, the secretary-treasurer of the local was convicted of criminal contempt and perjury.

Staying true to their code of Omerta, both Mancuso and Cavalieri had clammed up when asked a series of questions about mob infiltration of the local, union treasury embezzlement, labor extortion and shakedowns payments, kickbacks, and bribery.

In May 1981, the then 58-year-old Mancuso and 70-year-old Cavalieri were both convicted of criminal contempt of court for their repeated refusals to testify when subpoenaed to do so by the Federal Grand Jury probing the corrupt union.

They would each later be sentenced to serve jail time for essentially spitting in the face of lady justice.

But before Mancuso could hear his prison sentence declared by the court, he unexpectedly passed away. I’m not sure of the cause of death or even the exact date he died, but Thomas (Teaballs) Mancuso passed away in mid to late 1981…Teaballs was just 59 years old.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

How Lucchese Soldier Teaballs Mancuso Met Joe Namath

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How Lucchese Soldier Teaballs Mancuso Met Joe Namath

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The Eugene Catena Regime Leadership Chart

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