Joseph Brancato – “The Quiet Capo”

When Franzese was jailed for 50 years for federal bank robbery conspiracy in 1970, Joseph (Little Joey) Brancato took control of the regime - a very large crew active in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island.

Joseph (Little Joey) Brancato - aka “Peg-Leg Joey” - was born on February 12, 1917, in the Greenpoint-Williamsburg section of North Brooklyn. By the early 1950s, he had relocated with his wife and kids to nearby 61-26 75th Place in Middle Village, Queens.

Dating back to when Brancato was just a teenager, he had grown up with another young hoodlum who would one day catapult to the very pinnacle of organized crime. That man was John (Sonny) Franzese. They met in the neighborhood and became fast friends and tied their respective wagons to one another.

Joseph (Little Joey) Brancato

Side Note: Joe Brancato volunteered to serve in the United States Marine Corp during WWII. He was stationed in Europe and was said to have seen plenty of combat during his time in the marines.

In fact, he ended up leaving one of his legs behind on the battlefield as the result of one particular bloody engagement with the enemy. It’s said that Joey singlehandedly wiped out an entire platoon of enemy German soldiers, saving his own entire company in the process.

With his marine company pinned down, it was mob lore that Little Joey snuck behind enemy lines and knocked out a German machine-gun nest all by himself. He saved the lives of all the men in his platoon. Unfortunately, he lost his left leg while doing it. He ended up in a U.S. Military hospital where Joey was fitted with a wooden leg.

Returning home, Joseph Brancato became a highly-decorated war hero and was awarded a bunch of fancy medals for his heroism. So, although he might have been small in stature, hence his lifelong nickname of “Little Joey” - he had the heart and balls of a giant.

The Franzese Connection

Over the next several decades they would rise together as inducted members of what was then known as the Joseph Profaci family of Brooklyn. An original veteran member under Profaci named Sebastiano (Buster) Aloi took a liking to the two of them. He put them under his wing and within several years' time each was formally inducted into the family.

Buster Aloi

Sonny Franzese would quickly rise to become a caporegime himself. Little Joey Brancato was thought to have been named the “acting capo” for the Franzese regime and served as Sonny’s number two.

Within a few short years, the Franzese regime was to become arguably one of the most powerful crews, if not the most powerful crew in the entire Profaci family.

FBI #4939580, NYCPD #B-430316

Joey Brancato was identified by the authorities as Franzese’s closest associate and ally. For many years Brancato handled the shylock ledger “book” that recorded the names of various borrowers and their personal information, all monies loaned out on the street, the interest rates, amounts of weekly vigorish charged, as well as approved all loans requested.

He also supervised some local gambling around their Greenpoint neighborhood. In short, Joey was entrusted to watch over the money.

Sonny Franzese

Among Brancato’s closest Brooklyn-based associates in those early years was Sebastiano Aloi, and his sons Vinny and Benny, Joseph (Jojo) Vitacco, Modesto (Duke) Santora, Carmine (Tutti) Franzese, Carmine Scotti, Dominick (Mimi) Scialo, John (Johnny Irish) Matera, Gennaro (Big Jerry) Galtieri, Lazzaro (Larry) San Giovanni, and John (Johnny Tarzan) Lusterino.

Brancato generally kept a very low profile which helped enable him to operate with minimal exposure and interference from local law enforcement.

The Early Years

By the late 1960s, he was known to be employed by and hold an ownership interest in Timm Trucking Company of Maspeth, Queens. This firm was active hauling dresses in and out of New York City’s “garment district.”

During one 1960 arrest on disorderly conduct charges for being present at a floating crap game, Joey listed his occupation as “organizer” for Local #88, Amalgamated Production Workers Union (Independent).

When Franzese was jailed for 50 years for bank robbery conspiracy in 1970, Brancato took control of the regime - it was a very large crew active in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island.

In the early 1970s, after the shooting and attempted assassination of boss Joe Colombo, the low-key Brancato was elevated to the “acting boss” position over the entire family.

During his tenure as head of the Colombo borgata, Brancato was suspected by the authorities of having approved and then ordering the gangland killings of both John Lusterino and Dominick Scialo. The FBI later stated that they had gotten word from several reliable informants that Brancato and Charles (The Moose) Panarella had personally handled the Scialo homicide themselves.

But in general, Brancato was a reluctant leader. So, when Carmine Persico and his regime came into power during the late 1970s, Little Joey was more than happy to step aside and allow The Snake to assume his role as “Official Representante” of the family.

It is said that Brancato “stepped down” from the boss position and was subsequently reassigned as a mere soldier to the regime of capo Jerry Langella.

Criminal Record

Dating to the 1950s, Brancato had a police record that included arrests for assault, gun possession, vagrancy, consorting with criminals, criminal contempt of court (twice), disorderly conduct regarding the operation of a dice game, and usury (shylocking). He had convictions for possession of a weapon, dice game, contempt of court (30 days - suspended), and criminal usury (60 days in jail, 5 years probation, and a $5000 fine).

In 1960, Brancato, Franzese, and Sonny’s nephew Carmine Franzese were indicted for refusing to answer questions before a Kings County Grand Jury probing gambling rackets in the borough. They were among twenty-five men arrested during a police raid on a high-stakes dice game taking place at the Cafe Royale, located at 8022 New Utrecht Avenue.

In 1966, he was charged with consorting with known criminals after being caught at a table inside a midtown Manhattan diner with crew member Gennaro (Jerry) Galtieri.

Galtieri was suspected of having just pulled off the armed robbery of the contents inside 70 safe deposit boxes from a secured vault inside a plush Miami Beach hotel named The Harbor Island Spa Hotel. Florida authorities later said the robbery allegedly netted the thieves over $2,000,000 in cash and jewels.

John Franzese and Carmine Scotti were also arrested in the diner that day. Police theorized that Galtieri had just flown back from Miami and was reporting to Franzese and Brancato about the success of the robbery. Other suspects later indicted for the actual hotel heist included John Matera and Alphonse (Big Funzi) Terricone.

Little Joey Plays it "D and D" - Deaf and Dumb

In 1970, and again on October 20, 1971, Joey Brancato had been repeatedly subpoenaed for his testimony before a Nassau County Grand Jury probing organized crime’s infiltration of legitimate business.

Specifically, Nassau District Attorney William Cahn’s office was looking into the Colombo family’s infiltration of businesses within the Long Island and Queens areas. Prosecutors had pointedly wanted to ask Brancato about his control over loansharking activity and about any knowledge he might have about Colombo figures under his control strong-arming their way into control of various businesses.

Brancato was one of dozens and dozens of Colombo figures brought before the grand jury. Although technically a Queens resident who had resided in the Middle Village area for many decades and primarily always hung out in Brooklyn, his status as a “crime captain” who had only recently taken over Sonny Franzese’s Long Island faction plus his most current elevated position as the suspected “acting boss” of the entire Colombo family made him a prime target for investigators.

For his part, Little Joey refused to answer any questions put to him whatsoever. He cited his constitutional privilege under the Fifth Amendment and completely clammed up.

Anticipating that would be Brancato’s reaction, the DA’s office immediately granted him an order of “immunity from prosecution” so as to compel him to speak to them. But if they had hoped immunity would loosen up the ex-marine’s mouth they were dead wrong.

The WWII veteran, a highly decorated tough little war hero at that, sat firm. Citied for “contempt of court,” Little Joey was then hauled before a Nassau County judge who then compelled him to testify under threat of being jailed for contempt…But no dice!

No Dice

Brancato now faced up to four years in prison if convicted of first-degree criminal contempt of court. Three other hoods were also cited for contempt that including Colombo soldier John (Mooney) Cutrone; Pasquale (Patsy) Zirpoli, described as a bodyguard for Bonanno mob captain Salvatore (Sally Fruits) Ferrugia; and Nicholas A. Castello, a bakery owner, and Bonanno associate.

Joseph Brancato was brought into the county lockup at East Meadow while his attorney argued for and was granted bail so he could fight the charges. He was immediately released from the holding pen until the final disposition of the case. It would not be the first nor the last time that the wily little hoodlum would be citied for contempt of a court that was probing his beloved Cosa Nostra.

As it turned out, Joey’s attorney was able to convince the jurist to not hold his client in contempt. Maybe it was Brancato’s exemplary record as a war hero that swayed and convinced the judge to go easy on him. But whatever the reason, the judge eventually dismissed the contempt citation against Little Joey. It saved him from a certain jail bid.

Like Old Home Week

But had he been jailed, it wouldn’t have been all that bad even had he been locked up. In fact, it would have been like old home week for the Colombo veteran. The Nassau DA had made it a top priority to go after organized crime in his county over the last four or five years or so.

Hundreds upon hundreds of crime figures from all the families had been hauled before his grand jury to face the same underhanded tactics. Grants of immunity were being handed out like confetti for the sole purpose of jailing wise guys.

District Attorney William Cahn, and his chief assistant Norman Levy, knew damn well that most of the hoodlums and mafiosi they subpoenaed would never speak to them. After all, it was a solemn steadfast rule of Cosa Nostra to never talk to the authorities, regardless of whether they were granted immunity or not. They knew that 99.9% of these mafiosi would never crack.

So, offering these men immunity from prosecution was essentially nothing more than a “trap” by which to jail them. Granted, initially “contempt of court” only carried a 30-day sentence and a $250 fine. But many of these same men who were jailed for 30 days were hauled right back before that same grand jury time and again as they hit their 30 day release date from jail.

William Cahn

By the time Brancato was cited for contempt in 1971, the law had been changed. Criminal contempt of court now exposed the defendant to up to four years imprisonment upon conviction. It was an underhanded tactic that many jurists and prosecutors say was unconstitutional on its face not to mention unethical in its usage.

Yet, the DA’s office was happy as a clam applying this tactic. The end result was that the Nassau Jail became packed to the brim with hoodlums, racketeers, and mafiosi of every size, shape, and stripe. Bookmakers, policy racketeers, shylocks, labor union goons, strong-arms, and truck hijackers were all now shoulder to shoulder in the lockup.

It became so crowded in the Nassau lockup with wiseguys practically tripping over each other that it was almost a fucking joke. A bad joke for sure that the wiseguys were not laughing about, but a joke nonetheless.

Squeezed in like sardines, they bunked together, ate and showered together, hung out in the recreation yard together, played cards all day and shot the shit with one another until their time was up. Then many of them were brought before a judge to see if any of their tongues had been loosened by their little stint in the can.

Most were sent right back to jail when they still refused to talk. It became like a revolving door. Some guys ended up doing six months, nine months, one year behind bars, or two years behind bars. All from revolving, never-ending 30-day bids.

A Prosecution's "Brain Child"

With what he viewed as his great success and brainchild, by the late 1960s William Cahn had feverishly petitioned the New York State Legislature to increase the penalties even more for contempt of court from a mere 30 days in jail (a misdemeanor) up to four years imprisonment (making it a felony) - for simply not speaking to a court.

By that point in time, Bill Cahn had become a very powerful politician and his request was quickly granted.

From that point forward, the gloves came off. Over the next year or so, his office would jail many top mobsters for long periods when they got convicted of contempt. A perfect example of this was the notorious Lucchese capo Paul Vario Sr., who spent years in the Nassau County Jail. It soon became more commonplace for many others mob figures to get slammed with one or two years' terms behind bars.

Little Joey would have been in real good company during his little “vacation” at the Nassau lockup. A solid majority of the mob serving time there were Colombo “oriented” figures, many of them either soldiers or top associates of his personal regime - men like Felice (Philly Cigars) Vizzari, Nicholas Botta, Dominick (Mimi) Scialo, Anthony (Tony the Gawk) Augello, John (Mooney) Cutrone, and Lawrence Messina.

There was also a respectable contingent from both the Bonanno and Lucchese mobs, with Rosario (Sally Burns) Morale, Carmine (Gribbs) Tramunti, and his close aide Vario leading their respective troops.

The New Regime

By the time the two most notorious capos in the family, Carmine (Junior) Persico, and John (Sonny) Franzese were each released from federal prison in the late 1970s, Brancato had already taken a backseat in the borgata. Joey was already in his sixties and was reportedly a very wealthy guy.

By his choice, Little Joey was slowing up. Always a very circumspect and quiet guy to begin with, he had been through enough in his lifetime. He now preferred to just lay low and quietly do his own thing and stay out of Colombo family “politics.”

He had always preferred to hang around and operate from his old boyhood neighborhood of Greenpoint and Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Joey continued that same trend in his later years. It was a comfortable fit for him. Joey knew the area like the back of his hand and all the neighborhood denizens knew and respected him.

Brancato was known to hang out and conduct his shylock business from a local Italian restaurant named Crisci’s. It was an old neighborhood eatery that was one of the most famous and popular Napolitano-styled Italian restaurants in the entire city.

Crisci's Restaurant

Located on the corner of Lorimer Street, only two blocks off the main thoroughfare of Metropolitan Avenue, Little Joey could be found there like clockwork every Wednesday night after 6 to 7 p.m. or so.

Anybody wanting to speak with him didn’t even have to telephone him to set an appointment. Everybody who was anybody knew Brancato would be there typically sitting at a table in the back of the restaurant near the open glass-walled kitchen.

Little Joey Brancato was primarily a shylock and a very good shylock at that. Through the years, the loanshark racket had served him well. It had always been Brancato’s main source of income. He augmented this income with some gambling income.

Over the years, Joey had acquired a few guys who he absorbed into his personal crew who were bookmakers. In his senior years, he still received several small but steady envelopes from their gambling activities which helped augment his income.

For the most part, Brancato had always stayed in the shadows. He wasn’t big on making new friends or rubbing elbows with guys he didn’t know extremely well.

Piling Up the Cash

Dating back to the early 1960s, the New York City Police Department viewed Brancato as a sort of “caretaker” of Sonny Franzese’s shylock book. As Sonny’s oldest friend in the rackets, the quiet, prudent, and circumspect Little Joey was entrusted to hold and keep track of the bankroll and the interest rates they charged for safekeeping.

Sonny didn’t have the patience or focus for such mundane matters. Franzese was way too busy making himself into what has arguably been described as ”the most notorious hoodlum in the city, if not the country.”

But Brancato was very different. In fact, he was the complete opposite of Franzese. While Sonny became the biggest target for federal and local law enforcement around. The low-key, nondescript Brancato remained in the shadows.

By 1970, Sonny’s federal appeals were all exhausted and he went off to serve a whopping, unprecedented 50 years behind bars for bank robbery conspiracy. While the mostly anonymous Little Joey comfortably remained on the streets operating, as usual, piling up the cash.

Side Note: When top boss Carlo Gambino passed away in 1976, all the news reporters and all those in law enforcement turned out to see who in fact would attend Gambino’s wake and funeral. Despite his exalted position, not nearly as many top mobsters showed up at the funeral parlor as law enforcement had imagined would have.

Times had changed and the mob was attempting to maintain a low profile. Of those recorded as having paid their respects were three Colombo family figures: Joseph Brancato, Joseph LaRosa, and Carmine Franzese. The FBI made sure to take note of that fact.

Parting Ways

With Franzese’s eventual parole in October 1978, the two old friends were no longer as close as they once were. It seems that over the years Sonny and Joey had had a falling out of sorts between them.

Nonetheless, Franzese sent a message to the Colombo administration that he wanted all his own men returned back into the fold and transferred back to his “crew.” But for their part, the administration was resistant to that request. In addition to this hesitation was the fact that nearly to a man, nobody really wanted to come back to him.

It has been reported by very reliable sources that through the years Sonny had not treated his soldiers and top men very well. He had the well-known reputation of a “cheapskate” who regularly coveted their racket operations and any resultant profits for himself always making sure he ended up on top while his minions ended up with the short end of the stick….most of them grew tired of it.

During the near-decade that Sonny was away serving his time, many of his former men had been placed in other crews. They had since forged close relations with other “skippers” and former buddies who had since been elevated within the ranks of the Colombo family.

These men realized that they were now being treated much better than they had ever been under Sonny, and they didn’t wanna go back “under” him.

Joey Brancato was one of those men. As it was, the operating styles of the two men couldn’t have been any more different if they tried. Whereas Franzese had always exhibited an “Al Capone” styled approach to things, Brancato was more along the lines of a shadowy “puppeteer” who much preferred staying behind the curtain in the background, so to speak.

That’s one of the reasons why he was chosen to become the family’s “acting boss’ in the first place.

At that point in time, after the assassination of boss Joe Colombo and the subsequent assassination of Crazy Joey Gallo the following year, the borgata needed a man at the helm who was a virtual unknown to the police, so as to allow for the family to quietly reconstitute and stabilize itself again. Little Joey Brancato had been that man.

Back in the Spotlight

By 1979, the last thing that the now aging Joe Brancato either needed or wanted was to be catapulted back into the law enforcement spotlight. From approximately 1970 until 1978 he had been in all the local newspapers multiple times.

The FBI had started focusing on Brancato soon after he was elevated as the “skipper” over the Franzese regime. The federal pressure only steadily increased over the next few years as he was elevated yet again to fill the “boss seat” of the family.

After all that hoopla and unwanted exposure he had sustained over the last seven or eight years, he was more than happy to be demoted back to a mere “soldier” within the crew of capo Gennaro (Jerry Lang) Langella.

Brancato was still a very respected guy. He also had a ton of money. Some mafiosi jokingly used to say that Little Joey still had the first dollar he had ever made. So what more did he need?

Of the dozen or more soldiers who had formerly been under Franzese over the years, the only man who actually requested to come back to Sonny was another old boyhood friend from back in Greenpoint named Joseph (Jojo) Vitacco. But boss Carmine Persico flatly refused Vitacco’s request.

Little Joey Brancato

Side Note: Law enforcement later learned that even Sonny’s own nephew Tutti Franzese had requested that he not be put back under his uncle. It seems that when the books opened up again in 1975, Little Joey was nice enough to put Tutti “up” for induction, but Sonny had attempted to knock own his nephew down from getting made into the family.

Brancato and the administration ignored Sonny’s request and went ahead and “made” Tutti anyway. From that moment forward, Tutti wanted nothing to do with his uncle. For that matter, it also caused additional bad blood between Sonny and Joey…such is the Machiavellian machinations of daily life in Cosa Nostra…vanity, jealousy, and envy often carry the day.

The Persico regime respected Sonny, but “The Snake” was not about to allow him to become the powerhouse he’d once been during the 1960s era. Junior Persico was gonna do his very best to keep Franzese down and make sure to keep him “barefoot and pregnant” as the old saying goes. The fact that so many of his former confederates didn’t wanna return to Franzese anyhow suited Persico just fine.

The Loansharking Arrest

By the time he was in his mid-sixties, he was in semi-retirement. Little Joey continued to operate in the same low-keyed fashion he always had, albeit a little bit less.

He still maintained a nice-sized shylock “book” that brought him a solid and steady weekly income. He also had a few other sources of racket and legitimate income that benefited him without having to place himself on “front street.”

Nonetheless, he had still been a well-known mafioso for over forty years and was still viewed by the FBI as an important Colombo family soldier. The feds continued to keep an occasional eye on Brancato despite him having retreated to the trenches.

On May 15, 1985, Joseph Patrick Brancato was finally indicted for what was arguably the first major criminal case of his lifetime.

The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office brought a state indictment against the then 68-year-old Brancato and a close associate of his named Joseph Vescia for loansharking. The two men were accused of operating a lively shylock business out of an Elmont, Long Island meat and butcher shop named J.V. Meats, Inc.

The 66-year-old Joe Vescia, who resided out in Huntington was a butcher by trade and a longtime trusted associate of Brancato.

Brancato was accused of acting as the “banker” who had the bankroll and supplied the money for the various usurious loans, which authorities say ranged from $1000 to $15,000 each. The men charged interest rates that calculated to 2% or 3% weekly. A hefty 104% to 156% annually, depending upon who was doing the borrowing.

For instance, the shylocks would typically charge anywhere from $200 to $300 in weekly interest on a $10,000 loan. They quietly ran their loanshark racket from the meat store for years. Potential loan customers would first negotiate and then receive the shylock loans right at the store. Borrowers were then told to drop off their weekly vigorish payments to the J.V. Meat Market each week without fail.

Both men were arrested one afternoon while inside the J.V. Meat Market, which was located on Hempstead Turnpike in Elmont. Vescia was charged with seven counts of first-degree criminal usury. Brancato was charged with one count. Each man faced up to 15 years in jail if convicted.

The indictments stemmed from an investigation that began the previous Fall.

“We had received information indicating that loan-sharking activity was going on at that location,” Assistant Nassau District Attorney Dan O’Brien said.

A third person was charged with refusing to cooperate with the investigation. The man was identified as 59-year-old Anthony Cascio of Elmont. Described as a part-time employee of the market, Cascio was charged with first-degree criminal contempt for refusing to speak before a grand jury.

The investigation was conducted by the Rackets Bureau and included visual surveillance and court-authorized electronic eavesdropping equipment, investigators said. Nassau County Court Judge Paul Lawrence ordered Brancato held on $20,000 bond or $15,000 cash bail. Vescia was held on $20,000 bail as well. Cascio was released in his own custody.

After the DA tried playing hardball with the veteran mafioso, Little Joey and Joe Vescia eventually decided to go to trial with the case. After a two-week jury trial in Nassau County Court, each man was convicted of second-degree criminal usury as opposed to the original counts of first-degree usury, which carried a heavier maximum sentence of fifteen years behind bars.

Judge Raymond Harrington set the sentencing date for November 11 but allowed both defendants to remain free on $20,000 bail each. They now each faced up to four years in prison.

Lucky Star

All I can say is that the wily old mafioso must surely have had a lucky star over his head. County Court Judge Ray Harrington ended up sentencing the retired mob soldier to only 60 days in jail and 5 years probation on his conviction for second-degree criminal usury. Joey was also fined $5000.

Brancato’s defense attorney, a well-known and noted law counselor who had political connections named Stephen Scaring said he would immediately appeal the conviction, saying that “there was no evidence of loansharking activity.”

For their part, Edward Grilli, a spokesman for the Nassau County District Attorney, said Brancato was listed as a soldier and one-time head of the Colombo crime family. But Scaring said, “That’s pure, unadulterated hogwash… He was only a soldier during the war, and he was a damn good one!”

Every Wednesday Night

Over the next few years, Little Joey continued to slow down. He still operated as he always had but maybe with an extra glance over his shoulder every once in a while.

He continued to hold court and entertain friends every Wednesday night at Crisci’s as he always had in his old stomping grounds of Greenpoint.

The retired mafia soldier was now most often in the company of his longtime “comare” who was devotedly by his side.

Joseph Patrick Brancato passed away in 1989. Little Joey was 72 years old.

Until next time…”The Other Guy!”

Joseph Brancato – “The Quiet Capo”

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Joseph Brancato – “The Quiet Capo”

Unlock This Door to the Underworld

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