Joseph (Jojo) Vitacco: Sonny Franzese’s Stone Killer

As the years passed, Joseph (Jojo) Vitacco became known as a “stone killer” who had a well-deserved reputation as a top enforcer serving in a faction under Sonny Franzese and, by extension, the Joseph Profaci crime family of Brooklyn.

Joseph (Jojo) Vitacco was born in 1927 and grew up in a small apartment at 201 South 4th Street in the Williamsburg section of North Brooklyn.

Joseph Vitacco

He was raised and reared on the gritty streets around his Williamsburg neighborhood and the adjoining section of Greenpoint. This area would remain Jojo’s underworld stomping grounds and home for the rest of his life.

NYCPD #B-360668

As a teenager, Jojo met and quickly became friends with an older kid from the adjoining neighborhood of Greenpoint by the name of John Franzese who was eight years his senior.

Franzese, of course, would go on in future years to gain infamy as the notorious Mafia enforcer known as “Sonny” Franzese.

Quick Friends

The two young men quickly discovered they were simpatico in their view of life. They were both tough street kids through and through and they soon teamed up together.

At the time, Franzese was quickly gaining a reputation for himself around the North Brooklyn neighborhoods of Greenpoint, Williamsburg, and Ridgewood, as a tough no-nonsense young hoodlum and criminal.

His father Carmine (Turiddo di Leone) Franzese was a well-known Camorrista who owned a Greenpoint bakery and tavern that doubled as his base of operations.

Through his father’s underworld connections while growing up, the young Franzese was able to meet many members of the Neopolitan Camorra and Sicilian Mafia as well as other varied independent local racketeers. This greatly helped him to first gain acceptance among Brooklyn’s criminal element.

By the early 1950s, Jojo Vitacco had been brought aboard and put “on record” as one of Sonny’s close associates. The close friendship between the two young hoodlums and aspiring mafiosi would last a lifetime.

Appearances can be Deceiving

At 5-foot-3 inches tall and 135 pounds soaking wet, Vitacco didn’t look like much and made a very unassuming impression. Yet, sometimes looks can be very deceiving!

As the years passed, Jojo became known as a “stone killer” who had a well-deserved reputation as a top enforcer serving in a faction under Sonny Franzese, and by extension, the Joseph Profaci crime family of Brooklyn.

According to mob lore, the young hood had originally started out under the guidance of several friends of his father who were fellow Camorrista that were allied to what was then known as the Luciano/Genovese family.

At that point in time, the family’s Downtown Brooklyn faction was headed by such men as Generoso (Toddo Del) Del Duca and Anthony (Little Augie Pisano) Carfano.

The family underboss was Vito Genovese, a fellow Neopolitan and Camorrista who was also thought to have been an early mentor of sorts to Sonny.

But not long after starting his association with them, young Franzese ran into a problem - a serious problem. It was such a serious problem that it could have cost him his life.

So, at a sit-down “table” an accommodation was made between mafiosi to spare Franzese under an agreement that he could no longer remain affiliated with the Luciano/Genovese crew. Instead, it was agreed that the young hoodlum would be transferred to capo “Buster” Aloi.

From that time forward, Franzese and several of his young friends would all become “associates” of the Joseph Profaci family. Joseph Vitacco was among those young men.

"Making His Bones"

By the early-1950s, it was believed that Aloi had already sponsored Franzese to become a member of the family. Aloi also soon sponsored both Vitacco and another associate of theirs named Joseph (Little Joey) Brancato for formal induction as well.

These three men would serve under Aloi for some years until Franzese himself would later rise to a “capo di decina” status.

From that point forward, Brancato and Vitacco would form the nucleus of Sonny’s crew. As time went on, other men would be added to the ranks. But during their early years together Franzese, Vitacco, and Brancato were nearly inseparable.

Despite his demure size, Vitacco was well known to be knee-deep in many of the mob’s grittier street rackets.

His criminal pedigree included such sordid activities as armed robberies, warehouse loft burglaries, truck hijackings, cargo thefts, fencing stolen goods, shylocking, strong-arm extortions, restaurant and nightclub “shakedowns,” and contract murder!

He was little known outside of the underworld to the general public and the media. But among local law enforcement and his fellow hoodlum element, Jojo Vitacco was very well known. He had a well-earned reputation as a dangerous guy.

A Stone Killer

In 1956, Vitacco was arrested and held as a material witness in the double “ax slaying” murders of two known hoodlums and accused truck hijackers then under indictment.

Both men had been found in an abandoned automobile parked along a side street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side off of Houston Street not far from the Fifth Precinct. Upon arriving at the gruesome murder scene, detectives noted the car’s interior was completely soaked in blood.

Police found the two victims, who were later identified as Richard Langone and James Recereto, sprawled across the automobile’s back seat and floor. Each man had been repeatedly hacked so badly that several of the victim's limbs had been severed from their bodies.

The New York City Police Department later reported after an autopsy had been performed on the corpses by the New York City Medical Examiner's Office that both men had been repeatedly bludgeoned.

Langone and Recereto also had their skulls crushed and both men bore multiple hack wounds from what appeared to have been a hatchet.

One local homicide detective who was on the scene at the time described it as, “one of the goriest murder scenes he had ever witnessed.” This type of gangland murder was typically known in the underworld as a “buckwheats” killing where the victims are tortured mercilessly before death.

The Manhattan Homicide Squad subsequently conducted an intense murder investigation which included Jojo Vitacco being repeatedly grilled by detectives and the interviewing of numerous neighborhood witnesses and underworld informers alike.

But they turned up scant hard evidence of his involvement, and the police were eventually forced to release Vitacco from custody for a lack of evidence.

Langone and Recereto had been out on $30,000 bail each after their arrests for a Brooklyn fur heist.

At the time of their murders, both men were being sought by the FBI as bail jumpers after they failed to show up in court earlier that week. Little did the authorities know that both men hadn’t shown up because they had already been killed.

A Mafia-Style Vacation

In 1957, Vitacco was one of four men charged with the armed robbery of $60,000 in mink coats and jackets which were taken from a Manhattan wholesale furrier firm named the Bobby Brown Fur Company.

Vitacco’s codefendants included John (Johnny Tarzan) Lusterino, Langone, and an Irish hood from Elmhurst by the name of Johnny O’Connell.

After a subsequent investigation that later led to all the men getting arrested for the robbery, police revealed that they had first tracked the suspects all the way across the Atlantic Ocean while looking for evidence against the hoodlums.

The carefree thieves spent money freely and lavishly onboard a cruise ship while they sailed without so much as a care in the world toward Italy on their little vacation.

Police revealed that Vitacco had been given the “tail” because he had originally become a prime suspect in the sensational $350,000 daylight armed robbery of a Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Woodside, Queens.

At the time of the bank heist, it was highly publicized as one of the largest robberies in New York City history. The NYPD contacted Italian authorities who were waiting as the hoods docked in sunny Italy. The suspects were all arrested and extradited back to the States to face the music.

More Guys Get Whacked Out

In a semi-related investigation during the Langone and Recereto murder probe, a local Queens Detective was brought up on charges of aiding and abetting known mob guys.

This happened after a probe by the Internal Affairs Division discovered that a handgun then being held as police evidence in connection with another local gangland-style slaying had mysteriously disappeared from the New York City Property Clerk’s Office.

Another codefendant named Louie Musto had also disappeared, and the authorities feared he had met foul play.

Around this same time, the local police authorities were investigating several other homicides connected to members of the Brooklyn-Queens-based “Franzese Crew.”

But despite their growing interest in Sonny Franzese and his close associates, nothing would ever come from this particular investigation either.

Some Truck Hijackings

In 1958, a Brooklyn squad car on patrol became suspicious of a 10-ton tractor-trailer they spotted following a dark green sedan along an abandoned Williamsburg street early one morning. The cops decided to pull both vehicles over to investigate.

Police first ordered the two occupants out of the green sedan. They were later identified as Vitacco and a buddy named Pasquale DeRosa of Lower Manhattan.

Inside the tractor-trailer was Benjamin (Benny the Claw) Castellazzo of Manhattan, and a local neighborhood man from Greenpoint named Lazzaro (Larry) Sangiovanni. Like the two other young men in the sedan, both Castellazzo and Sangiovanni had prior criminal records.

Under the front seat of the sedan, police found a fully loaded revolver. In the back of the trailer was $13,000 worth of stolen brand new rugs and carpeting.

All four suspects were subsequently charged with grand larceny and truck hijacking. Vitacco was additionally charged with possession of the revolver.

Side Note: All four men were associated with the Joseph Profaci family of Brooklyn. Some years later, the FBI reported that several of them went on to become fully “inducted” mafia members.

Notching Arrests and Making "Friends"

Joseph Vitacco had a lengthy criminal record with the New York Police Department which included such charges as vagrancy, felonious assault, armed robbery (twice), possession of hijacked goods, grand larceny, possession of a gun (twice), homicide, and homicide investigation.

Among his many underworld associates included such known hoodlums as Buster Aloi, Benedetto (Benny) Aloi, Franzese, Joseph (Little Joey) Brancato, Castellazzo, Sangiovanni, Louis Musto, Carmine (Tutti) Franzese, Langone, Recereto, O’Connell, Lusterino, George Papageorge, Frank (Big Frankie) Cocchiaro, Louis (Lou Curry) Arcuri, Pasquale (Paddy Mack) Macchiarole, and Vincent (Jimmy Jones) Potenza.

The Heat is On

From the early-1960s forward, Franzese and other key members of his crew would come under one of the most intense series of investigations ever undertaken by law enforcement.

Both the New York Office of the FBI and New York City Police Department, as well as the Nassau and Suffolk Police Departments out on Long Island, coordinated what amounted to an almost twenty-four-hour surveillance, seven days a week - for years - against Franzese and his key men.

After a series of failed indictments that either resulted in dismissals or acquittals, Franzese was finally convicted on Federal Bank Robbery conspiracy charges in 1967.

He was sentenced to serve a whopping fifty years behind bars but remained free on bail while appealing his conviction.

By 1970, he had exhausted all possible appeals and was finally shipped off to begin serving his term at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Getting Shuffled Around a Bit

With Franzese now behind bars, Vitacco and other crew members were now reassigned to Joey Brancato, who was elevated as the crew leader.

But within several years' time, Brancato was demoted back down to a mere soldier and Vitacco was subsequently reassigned to serve within the regime of capo Dominick (Donny Shacks) Montemarano.

Shortly after that, he was reassigned to capo Gennaro (Jerry Lang) Langella. Still later, he was reassigned and moved over to Andrew Russo.

By that time it really didn’t matter for the veteran hoodlum anyway.

Over the years, Vitacco had developed a drinking habit and by the 1970s, it was being reported by reliable sources to the FBI and mob guys alike that Vitacco was drinking very heavily on a daily basis.

By the late-1970s, Vitacco’s daily alcohol consumption had become a major problem for him. It started to consume him.

Fading Out

Several FBI informants had personally reported back to their federal handlers that they were witnessing Vitacco completely drunk by noontime nearly every day. Various FBI field agents themselves also documented in their 302 reports about Vitacco’s “out of control” alcohol consumption.

By the mid-late 1970s, it was not an uncommon sight for visitors to Jojo’s JV Lounge on Metropolitan Avenue to see him sitting at the bar completely drunk out of his head on whiskey by the late morning.

Both fellow mob guys and his direct Colombo family superiors alike were well aware of his alcoholic ways. So was the local office of the FBI.

Jojo’s drinking problem soon led to his growing unreliability regarding his obligations to the Colombo family. Higher-ups within the family started to view him as undependable and untrustworthy.

Vitacco also began missing appointments that he should not have been missing and conducting himself in ways unbecoming of a “good fellow.” It eventually led to him being called upon less and less, and him spending more and more time alone at the JV Lounge.

Joseph (Jojo) Vitacco died around 1980-1981 of failing health. All those years of self-abuse finally caught up with him.

Vitacco was waked in Greenpoint, just around the block from his old bar and stomping grounds. He was only 53 years old. But Vitacco will certainly be remembered as a loyal mob soldier and a “one of a kind” Damon Runyon character.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Jojo Vitacco on Mob Fireside Chat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5br6YZqCRcA&t

Joseph (Jojo) Vitacco: Sonny Franzese’s Stone Killer

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