John (Peanuts) Manfredonia: The Odd Man Out

As the old saying goes - there’s always one. And in the case of John (Peanuts) Manfredonia, he was the one. He was a member of the Genovese Mob and came from a family with five World War II heroes in its ranks. But unlike his brothers, Peanuts seems to have been the odd one out.

John (Peanuts) Manfredonia - aka John Manfredonio, John DeMarco, Johnny Peanuts, and Giovanni Eugene Manfredonio TN) - was born on January 31, 1915, in Mount Vernon, New York. His parents were Eugene and Carrie (nee Caroline Annechiareco) Manfredonia, who immigrated to this country from Italy.

The Manfredonias had five other sons: Alfonso, Robert, Eugene, Samuel, and Rudolph. They all served in the Armed Forces forces during World War II. John did not.

The eldest Manfredonia brother, Alfonso, was a Marine. Robert was a bombardier in the Army Air Corps. Rudolph was in the radio communications unit of the Navy.

Samuel Manfredonia was in the Army Air Corps stationed in Pampa, Texas. But in July 1945, two days before he was to receive his wings as a second lietuenant, he was killed in a plane crash during a routine flight. He had a five-month old son at the time of his death whom he had never seen. His tragic death made all the local papers.

John Manfredonia

Just two months earlier in May 1945, Eugene Manfredonia, Jr. also made the papers. A Sergeant in the Army, Eugene was captured by the Germans and taken prisoner. Newspapers reported that he was sentenced to death by firing squad for possessing propaganda papers harmful to the Reich. He was locked up in solitary confinement for 93 days before he was liberated. After he was freed, he was given the key to the cell where he was held prisoner and told newspapers that it was his most prized possession. He made it home just in time to be there when his wife gave birth to their first son.

John Manfredonia also made the newspapers before and after 1945 - numerous times - but not for anything as admirable as his brothers.

Peanuts first hit the papers In March 1936 when he was only 21 years old. He was arrested along with three other men after a safe containing more than $15,000 in jewelry and cash was stolen from the Colony Hotel on Ocean Drive. Apparently, four men had held hotel employees at gunpoint as they stole the safe and took off.

Manfredonia and his friends were picked about five miles from the hotel after a cop noticed them fighting on a corner. But when the hotel’s bellboy couldn’t identify the four as the robbers, they were all released.

In September 1936, he was arrested for assault after a fight at the Palace Diner in Mount Vernon. An off-duty patrolman by the name of Joseph Murphy was trying to arrest him for creating a disturbance in the diner, but the two got into a fight and Manfredonia escaped. A warrant for his arrest was immediately issued but a controversy ensued after Murphy went to the hospital after suffering minor cuts on his face and didn’t report the fight to his superiors. Manfredonia was picked up a few days later and charged with third-degree assault. He pleaded innocent, telling the court he was defending himself. After an investigation, Murphy was suspended and the charges against Manfredonia were dismissed.

Since that time, Manfredonia had been arrested at least a dozen more times for disorderly conduct, operating a floating crap game, bookmaking, assault, perjury, and parole violations.

FBI # 106371

Authorities described him as one of the biggest bookmakers in Westchester County, and informants identified him as a “button guy” in the Genovese Crime Family by 1961.

John Manfredonia grew up, lived, and operated most of his life in Mount Vernon. By the 1940s, he had married Gladys Dabrowskie, a Massachusetts native. They lived with his parents at 15 N. Fifth Ave. in Mount Vernon.

His father, a barber by trade, owned the Sanitary Barber Shop in an adjacent building.

By the 1950s, John and Gladys were still living with his parents along with his brothers Alfonse, Robert, and Rudolph and his wife Lucy.

But in 1964, John and Gladys finally moved out. They purchased a home at 411 Collins Avenue in Mount Vernon from a Harlem Congressman named Adam Clayton Powell for $60,000. The five-bedroom, four-bath home is worth almost $900,000 today.

Manfredonia also owned a vacation home in Miami and a huge hunting lodge in Sandisfield, Massachusetts that he used as a vacation retreat.

He was never arrested in Massachusetts but cops kept their eye on him since the early 1960s when his name came up in investigations after the Berkshire Downs racetrack in Hancock, Massachusetts opened.

Authorities reported that Manfredonia was an avid hunter and always had a lot of guests at his home during “deer week,” including jockeys and others associated with Berkshire Downs.

And he apparently enjoyed plowing his fields with a tractor while a rifle-toting bodyguard stood guard on a nearby fence. In fact, Manfredonia was known for almost always traveling with a bodyguard.

Authorities also reported that Peanuts was frequently visited by other alleged gangsters from New York and Springfield, Massachusetts, whenever he was in town.

His homes and his white Cadillac were all registered under his mother’s name.

Manfredonia had many legitimate interests which included allegedly owning or having hidden interests in multiple restaurants in the Westchester and Upstate New York areas..

These restaurants included The Steer’s Den and The Skyview Club in Mount Vernon, The Barge Restaurant and Bar in Port Chester, and The Showboat in New Lebanon. He also had a hidden interest in the Black Angus Restaurant in Yonkers, NY., as well as several other area restaurants and nightspots he was suspected of holding an interest in over the years.

The restaurants were known to authorities as “money laundries” used to “wash” and convert illegal funds into usable money.

Manfredonia’s brother Robert managed the Barge Restaurant which was a known mafia hangout and his brother Rudolph worked there at one time before opening up his own restaurant called The Federal Luncheonette in Mamaroneck, New York.

The Barge had been cited numerous times by local authorities for allowing women to entertain their guests. Authorities reported that, over the years, Peanuts would bring prostitutes from New Lebanon, New York, to Sandisfield, Massachusetts, as entertainment for guests at his lodge.

Eventually, the Barge was demolished to make way for the New York Thruway.

In 1964, there was a suspicious fire at The Steer’s Den. Crowds flooded the streets to watch 80 firemen fight the three-alarm fire. It caused $40,000 worth of damage and five dentists and four food stores that were also housed in the building temporarily went out of business.

The Showboat was also destroyed by a fire in 1975. Back in 1952, there was an attempted kidnapping and assault of a 21-year-old dancer from Los Angeles who had performed at The Showboat as part of her tour across New York.

Interestingly enough, Manfredonia was suspected as the guiding force behind an arson fire that engulfed the Fleetwood Plaza Restaurant in Yonkers in November 1959. Following the fire, Manfredonia took Albert Maselli to a burn facility in Sandisfield, Massachusetts, where he received treatment for burns on his hands and face. Maselli was a convicted arsonist, burglar, and murderer who also hailed from Mount Vernon.

In 1963, Maselli confessed to setting the blaze and was convicted on a malicious mischief charge, fined $250, and sentenced to 6 months in jail.

Maselli also firebombed two lodges near Manfredonia's Sandisfield hunting lodge shortly after fleeing Mount Vernon. Manfredonia had previously attempted to purchase these lodges. Maselli was eventually convicted and served jail terms for these arsons as well.

Authorities called Manfredonia “one of those floating individuals” who traveled back and forth between Miami, NY, and Florida as associate of various organized crime figures.

He was known in Florida as a close associate of Arthur “Bambi” Palumbo, a Yonkers gambling figure who worked as a strong arm for Thomas Milo Sr., a soldier in the Genovese Family who operated in the crew of Jimmy Blue Eyes Alo.

Authorities also believed that at one time Manfredonia handled gambling operations for John Biello, a top Genovese Family capo originally based in New York City who later migrated to Miami, FL in the early 1950s era before he was shot to death in 1967.

In October 1943, Manfredonia was charged with assault for smashing a glass bowl over the head of a guy in a diner. The man required 13 stitches to close the wound. He was acquitted after the judge learned the fight was over a woman the man was with because she thought Manfredonia had insulted her and the guy had been the one to hit Manfredonia first. But the judge told Peanuts that his acquittal was not an endorsement of his actions. “You have been in trouble before,” he said. “You should watch your step.”

In August 1944, Manfredonia was arrested for horse bookmaking. He had been operating a phone book out of his father’s barbershop. Eugene Sr. was also a reputed bookie who was allegedly connected with Carmine Dente, a well-known Bronx and Mount Vernon gambler. The cops had tapped the phones where they recorded callers making bets under the names Jimmy and Al - except for one bettor who identified himself as Sam Katz and wanted 20 bucks to win on Peppy Miss.

In May 1945, the same year Manfredonia’s brother Sam was killed and his brother Eugene escaped a German POW camp, he was among 12 men seized in a floating dice game in Mount Vernon. At trial, the cops couldn’t prove there was any gambling for money or that anyone received a “cut.” And even though cops testified that there was “loud and boistrous noise” including what they called “the sounds of gambling,” the judge dismissed the case. One of the defense lawyers told the Court that the guys could’ve been betting with chips or matchsticks for all they knew.

In October 1965, he was one of 26 arrested during a raid at a floating crap game being held in the basement of a home owned by Joseph Napolitano, a former bootlegger and convicted bookmaker who was later identified as an associate of the Colombo Family.

Manfredonia told the cops his name was John DeMarco which was later found to be false and told the court later that he had used the fake name because he didn’t want his mother to know he was playing dice. Napolitano claimed he was sleeping upstairs and had no idea the game was taking place. They all pleaded guilty and were fined $25 each.

In August 1966, he was arrested along with Patsy (PM) Colarusso for operating a bookmaking ring. The two initally refused to allow themselves to be fingerprinted but acquiesed when they realized they wouldn’t be granted bail if they didn’t do so. That November, they were charged in a six-count indictment for violating federal wagering tax laws.

Colarusso was president of Local 650 Motion Picture Operators Union that was, according to a goverment report, frequently criticized for its strong arm methods. He also was apparently a collector and payoff man for Manfredonia.

They were later convicted of receiving horse and sports wagers between 1964 and 1966 and doing so illegally by not registering their “business” or paying the wagering tax.

They collected bets through an extensive use of wirerooms. But how did they get caught?

An IRS undercover agent posing as a jewelry salesman was introduced to Manfredonia by someone who knew him. The agent supposedly told the guy that he was looking for a bookmaker big enough to take wagers between $500 and $800 on baseball games. And the introduction was made.

Manfredonia pretty much convicted himself because not only did he let the undercover agent in - he also explained to him how to place bets in his operation, giving him a code and phone numbers to various wirerooms where he could place his bets, one of which was a Mount Vernon housewife who let Manfredonia use her phone as an answering service. The agent then placed six separate bets of $300 each and lost but, in the end, won, because both Manfredonia and Colarusso were arrested.

And as it turns out, the guy who did the introducing also testified against them at their trial as did another bettor and the Mount Vernon housewife.

Peanuts got one year in prison and a $6,000 fine. Colarusso got a three-month sentence and a $2,000 fine. Both were free on bail pending appeal.

In 1968, the convictions were overturned by a U.S. Court of Appeals which ruled that requiring someone to admit to being a gambler is a violation of the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination. But that same year, a federal judge sentenced Manfredonia to 18 months in jail and fined him $4000 for perjury in that case because he denied he was a bookmaker when he took the stand.

In April 1972, he served another six months in prison for parole violations because he failed to pay the $4,000 fine.

Around 3 p.m. on November 28, 1978, Gladys Manfredonia came home after a day of shopping to find her 63-year-old husband lying dead on the floor in a pool of blood. He had been shot three times in the head and neck.

Police initially reported that he was killed in the master bedroom, which had also been ransacked, and that the home showed no signs of forced entry.

His wife told authorities that she had last seen him alive that morning at a local diner.

At the time of his death, he was under investigation by several East Coast law enforcement agencies and police believed his murder was a classic “gangland slaying.” They had numerous leads but they all lead nowhere.

At one point, they even tried to link Manfredonia’s killing to the murder of Margaret Mogavero, the ex-wife of Genovese Family associate Joseph Mogavero who was the brother of Rosario “Saro” Mogavero, a powerful capo in the Genovese Family.

She was found shot to death in her car which was parked outside her home just two weeks before Peanuts was killed. At the time of her killing, police said they were looking for an Italian-American older than 50 who had an unusual nickname. They even went as far as saying that the two had been lovers. But that theory didn’t pan out either.

In fact, nothing panned out for authorities until three years later, or so they thought.

In June 1981, police finally made an arrest.

Joel Asche who went by the nickname “Joe Sick” was arrested for the murder of John “Peanuts” Manfredonia. He was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon though no motive for the murder was given.

At the time, he was in prison at the Metropolitan House of Detention in New York City on federal weapons charges.

Police believed that Asche had been hired to kill Peanuts by another mobster who was plotting on his own because the hit wouldn’t be approved by higher ups, even though they claimed that Manfredonia was an “unpopular mobster.”

Authorities also believed and feared that a mob war was imminent because of this unsanctioned murder.”

Mt. Vernon Lieutenant John Kelly told newspapers that he spent every moment of his time, both on and off duty, working on the case.

“I took it as a hobby when I saw it was going nowhere,” he said, and added that the investigation took him to organized crime haunts, people, and hangouts on Mulberry Street, Arthur Ave in the Bronx, Fort Lee and Engelwood Cliffs in New Jersey.

But unfortunately for Lt. Kelly, a 28-year police veteran, he would eventually discover that his hobby was basically a waste of time.

Back on August 24, 1977, Asch was arrested with Genovese soldier John (Gentleman Johnny) Masiello and several others for his involvement in an alleged interstate plot to fence $750,000 in stolen securities. Masiello was considered one of the largest and most vicious loansharks operating in the Westchester area. He was also a strong-arm man, involved in official bribery, extortion, and business infiltration.

Two days later, on August 26, 1977, Asche was indicted once again with Masiello and several others in an alleged plot to muscle in on a $35,000 a week poultry business in the Bronx. According to the indictment, Masiello's associates pistol whipped two officials of the Westchester Poultry company and threatened eight others with "chopping off their heads" and "breaking their legs" if they didn’t fall in line.

Apparently, Asche and two others entered the poultry firm and pistol whipped one employee so badly he had to be hospitalized. Afterward Masiello and another guy forced two officials of the firm to sign promissory notes for $764,000 payable to Masiello.

On October 29, 1980, Asche was one of 35 suspects arrested during a predawn raid i which more than 200 federal agents and New York City cops fanned out across the city. They seized dynamite, machine guns, automatic rifles, silencers, narcotics, and hijacked cigarettes. This was the arrest that Asche was in prison for when he was arrested for Manfredonia’s murder.

Reputed Colombo Family hitman George Tropiano and Genovese capo Ciro Perrone were also arrested in this case.

It took six months of undercover work by federal agents to finally secure enough evidence to conduct the raids. The main undercover agent in charge puchased about 40 weapons and was introduced to the suppliers by an informant who was supplied to the government by New York City detectives - one of which was none other than the legendary Joe Coffey.

The informant had been in the witness protection program and was described as a man so well connected that he was able to meet with Frank Tieri on a regular basis in a Brooklyn restaurant.

Interestingly, while most of the men arrested were listed by law enforcement as alleged members of organized crime, federal authorities refused to use the words “organized crime" when describing the arrests.

Chief of Detectives James Sullivan told reporters at a news conference, "You can draw that conclusion on your own, but we are not going to say anything that would prejudice subsequent prosecutions."

This was 7 years after Joe Colombo had formed the Italian American Civil Rights League and demanded the government immediately cease using the term organized crime in any indictment or arrests. And It was a policy that U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell put into place after the heat the government was getting because of the work of the IACRL . And even though Colombo was still in a coma after being shot in 1971, it seems that the government wasn’t yet ready to test the waters.

Asch manufactured 55 of the silencers seized during the raids. They were ordered by an undercover ATF agent who then arrested Asch when he delivered the weapons.

Authorities said that all the weapons seized were top quality. One official told reporters, “When we test fired the machine guns, all you could hear was the bullets hitting the wall.”

Apparently, Asche told the undercover ATF agent he was dealing with during several meetings over the course of two months that he was the one who murdered Peanuts Manfredonia. He told the agent that a mobster who was having a business disagreement with Manfredonia was the one who had given him the contract. The agent tape recorded every conversation.

Asche went to trial in November 1982.

His lawyer, Lester B. Adler told the jury that Asche was only boasting about murdering Manfredonia because he wanted to impress the mob in hopes they would see him as a worthy hitman. Asche believed that the undercover agent was close to the mob and that he would share this juicy information with his friends.

Adler said that Asche had a “big mouth” but was no murderer.

"There sits a boisterous stupid braggart whose big mouth has gotten him into a big mess...But stupidity is not a crime. Murder is,” he said.

D.A. George Bolen told the jury that "Joel Asch aspired to be a hitman. He was a hitman...and he hit Peanuts."

During the trial, more details were revealed about Manfredonia’s murder, including the fact that he had been killed in his kitchen, not the bedroom as previously reported by police. He had apparently been sitting at the kitchen table and was found lying on his back with a toppled kitchen chair near his body. There was also a bullet hole and smeared blood on the wall.

The medical examiner testified that Manfredonia probably didn’t die right away after he was shot the first time. He had apparently stood up and stumbled to the wall before falling to floor where Asche then made the kill shot - a bullet straight to the brain.

And it was two upstairs bedrooms that had been ransacked, not just the master bedroom as had also been reported back in 1978.

But the only evidence against Asch was the tape recordings made by the ATF agent, even though Asch had known details that only the killer would have known. And as we know, the police did not reveal all the information they had about Manfredonia’s murder and even put misinformation out there in hopes of catching his killer.

The ATF agent was the prosecution’s star witness and shared with the jury all the gory details Asche told him about Manfredonia’s murder, which we’re not going to get into here.

At one point, Adler blamed the killing on Ken Masiello, the son of Gentleman Johnny and a friend of Asche. He claimed that Masiello had picked up Asch at Manfredonia’s house just 20 minutes after the fatal shots had been fired. He had even suggested that Maseillo was the one who had actually done the deed and relayed the details to Asche.

All of it was a convenient argument because Masiello was shot to death in March of that year in front of a Howard Johnson's restaurant in Yonkers. He was shot in the head as he walked toward his car in the restaurant’s parking lot.

Masiello, by the way, had been arrested and convicted in 1981 on weapons charges in connection with the same case where Asche admitted to murdering Manfredonia. He had been released from prison just 10 days prior to his murder.

After a two week trial Asch was acquitted of the murder . The jury deliberated for 90 minutes before returning their verdict.

After the acquittal, Adler told reporters, “I have faith in the jury system. My client and I always knew it works, and we’re extremely gratified by the jury’s verdict. We believe justice was done.”

As is the case with many underworld murders, the mystery of who killed John “Peanuts” Manfredonia is one that may never be solved.

Side note: Masiello’s murder has also never been solved.

Side note: There was another John Manfredonia, who along with two of his brothers, including one named Richard, were involved in an extortion and kidnapping scheme back in 1934. There was also a Richard Manfredonia, a member of the Genovese Family and a convicted drug trafficker, who was associated with Johnny the Bug Stopelli, Vincent Vinny Bruno Mauro, and Joe Valachi. It’s unclear if Richard Manfredonia, the drug trafficker, was the Richard Manfredonia from the 1934 kidnapping scheme as the dates of birth don’t match, but nevertheless, these Manfredonias and our John Manfredonia are not related.

John Manfredonia on Mob Fireside Chat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItQJe3X7rgg

John (Peanuts) Manfredonia: The Odd Man Out

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Genovese Capo Frank Iaconi and His Worcester, Massachusetts Regime

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