Louis Arcuri – “A Born Trickster”

A humorous side note was that Vitacco and O’Connell notified the ship’s captain that they wished to buy the entire ship of passengers a round of drinks to celebrate. The captain did make the announcement over the PA system, and so they did indeed buy the round of drinks!

Louis (Lou Curry) Arcuri was born in 1910. By 1950, Lou Arcuri had moved from the city out to Nassau County on Long Island. He resided at 167 Jerome Avenue in Mineola.

By 1966, he had moved again, to 124 Brown Street, in the same neighborhood during the building boom of that era.

He was a veteran Colombo associate who was very active in the streets. Originally active in the Brooklyn/Queens area, he was a “dyed in the wool” thief-trickster who was into truck hijacking, armed robberies, burglary, and cargo theft.

Criminal Associates

Arcuri’s known criminal associates over the years included:

• Sebastiano (Buster) Aloi - said to have been his mob supervisor.

• Vincenzo (Peg-Leg Jimmy) Giordano - a top loanshark Arcuri was thought to work with.

• John (Sonny) Franzese - a top capo thought to have been behind the hijack-robbery ring.

• Joseph (Jojo) Vitacco - a key mob member, hijacker, enforcer and prime suspect in a double homicide.

• Alfonso Palma - a Queens hood and hijacking co-defendant of Arcuri.

• John (Johnny Tarzan) Lusterino - a young hood who was part of their robbery team. Lusterino would be murdered “gangland-style” years later.

• Charles Rehn - another Queens hood and criminal partner of Arcuri.

• Richard (Richie) Langone - an up-and-coming Queens hoodlum and gang member, who would later fall afoul of the mob and be murdered.

• Jimmy Surago - Langone’s partner in crime and future mob victim.

• George Papageorge - key mob associate, hijacker and thief who later became a top official of a New Jersey Bartender’s Union.

• John O’Connell - well-known Irish hood from Queens, hijacker, and prime suspect in the 1955 heist of $305,000 from a Woodside Bank.

• Dominick Santoro - another key mob associate, race fixer, and Arcuri buddy.

• Louis Sylvestri - hijacking partner of Arcuri and later co-defendant.

• Frederick (Fat Freddy) DiGregorio - mob associate, suspected of being active in credit card rackets with Arcuri.

• Joseph (Joe Bella Nap) Vito - LI restaurateur who was jailed for extortion for the systematic shakedown of Long Island barber shops during a terror campaign of threats and arsons.

Armed Robberies and Hijackings

In 1955, Arcuri was one of nine hoods seized for a series of major armed robberies and truck hijackings in the New York City area.

Forty cops were said to have worked diligently for over four months to gather enough evidence to take down the Queens-based robbery gang. Detectives were even said to have tracked several participants to Europe in an effort to crack the case.

Among the thefts was the $22,000 truck hijacking of 5,000 canned hams, the $9,000 truck hijack of a load of prime beef, a $100,000 robbery of mink coats, jackets, and various other furs from the Bobby Brown Fur Shop in Midtown Manhattan, and the brazen $305,000 armed robbery of the Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Woodside, Queens.

Undercover detectives had tracked Vitacco, O’Connell, and several others of the gang’s members, following them on a cruise line to Italy for their version of a “hoodlum” vacation.

Joseph Vitacco

A humorous side note was that Vitacco and O’Connell notified the ship’s captain that they wished to buy the entire ship of passengers a round of drinks to celebrate. The captain did make the announcement over the PA system, and so they did indeed buy the round of drinks!

In the meantime, the undercover detectives watched the hoodlum's antics. When the ship docked in Italy, Italian and American police were there surreptitiously recording their every movement gathering the evidence they needed for the arrests to come.

Also involved in the bank robbery case was DeCavalcante hood Frank Cocchiaro.

In the same era, another major case involving Arcuri was the arrest of four people by the Secret Service for the forging and cashing of $600,000 in stolen U.S. Treasury Bonds.

These securities were alleged to be among over $2,000,000 worth taken in several burglaries of Manhattan safes.

Frank Cocchiaro

Before long, he was directing the operations of two safecrackers later killed in a stakeout by police. He came under surveillance, at that time, by Nassau law enforcement.

Soon, police found him in meetings with top shylocks such as Vincent (Peg Leg Jimmy) Giordano and Sebastiano (Buster) Aloi, who Arcuri is believed to have reported to.

He was also named as the source of stolen credit cards that were being “busted out” by a gang through restaurants and stores on Long Island.

He had arrests for assault, robbery, grand larceny, forgery, possession of a gun, and burglary. He also served two related jail terms (2 to 3 years) and (3 years).

By the mid to late 1970s, Arcuri faded from the scene and died not long after.

Louis Arcuri – “A Born Trickster”

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Louis Arcuri – “A Born Trickster”

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