Michael (Big Nose Mike) Fiore: Stool Pigeon Hoodlum

Michael (Big Nose Mike) Fiore was an "associate" of the Lucchese Crime Family. But in truth, through the years, Fiore made it his business to try to mingle and associate with as many members of New York's infamous Five Families as possible, both to further his criminal affairs and to supply his law enforcement handlers with a steady flow of information.

Michael (Big Nose Mike) Fiore was born in 1914. He is believed to have been raised around Harlem and the Bronx. By the late 1950s, he had relocated to Nassau County on Long Island. He and his wife purchased a small Cape Cod-style house at 1 Field Place in the town of Hicksville.

By at least the mid-1960s, Fiore had gone into business for himself. Thereafter, he listed himself as the owner and operator of a car rental agency, which he ran off a small lot in Great Neck, Long Island. He named the business Rent-A-Rama Auto Rental Inc.

Michael (Big Nose Mike) Fiore

Dating to at least the late 1930s and early 1940s, his criminal career included such underworld rackets as gambling and bookmaking, policy numbers, narcotics sales, burglary and robbery.

Fiore had nine known arrests on record with the New York City Police Department for offenses such as possession of a dangerous weapon (twice), burglary, bookmaking (five times), and assault. He had been convicted six times. On one conviction, for possession of a weapon, the judge sentenced him to serve 19 months in a reformatory. He also had five convictions for bookmaking and promoting gambling.

Note: The above-listed police record for Fiore is most likely not a complete accounting of his full rap sheet. Over the years, law enforcement officials most probably kept certain more serious arrests quiet. They likely “sealed” the particulars of various criminal cases he faced to keep his informant status a secret.

Mafia Associate

Federal and local law enforcement authorities officially listed Fiore as an “associate” of the Lucchese crime family in their internal records.

But in truth, through the years, Fiore made it his business to try to mingle and associate with as many members of New York's infamous Five Families as possible, both to further his criminal affairs and to supply his law enforcement handlers with a steady flow of information.

During the years he lived on Long Island, he was known to specifically target key members and associates of not only the Lucchese mob but also focused on members of the Bonanno and Colombo groups.

To help maintain “Big Nose Mike” Fiore’s facade as a bonafide hoodlum, law enforcement would periodically publicly subpoena him to appear before various grand juries investigating the local underworld.

They would prominently list his name among dozens of other mafiosi and racketeers in all the local newspapers, including Long Island’s hometown paper, Newsday , as well as the New York Post and the New York Daily News during investigative “exposes” and multi-part series written about the mob. These articles were meant to help “validate” Fiore as a hoodlum in good standing among fellow mobsters.

A good example of this occurred in early 1969 and 1970 when several major local newspapers released extensive multi-part exposes delving into the mob’s infiltration of Long Island’s suburbs. Fiore was among many mob figures listed.

All the while, he was an undercover police informant and cooperator.

Side Note: Several years later, it was revealed that Fiore had, in fact, been a paid federal informant for many years, providing information to various law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Secret Service, Federal Bureau of Narcotics & Dangerous Drugs (FBNDD), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and both the Nassau County and Suffolk County District Attorneys Offices.

His modus operandi was to gather information, which Fiore would then relay to his “handlers” for dissemination and evaluation. Over time, once agents felt that enough pertinent evidence had been collected, he was told to go out and try to “entrap” and “set up” various Mafia figures as best he could for future arrest.

The Bonanno Clan

A good example of Fiore’s handiwork occurred in October 1970, when two members of the Joseph Bonanno Family’s Long Island faction were indicted for counterfeiting.

Working with an undercover agent of the United States Secret Service, Fiore was instrumental in first introducing the federal agent to Bonanno mob associates Pasquale (Pat) Cioffi and Eugene R. Ciuzio, and then “vouching” for him as a “solid” guy who could be trusted.

Fiore’s duplicity toward his two “friends” eventually led to both alleged mafiosi being charged with violations of the federal counterfeiting statutes. Refusing a plea deal, they decided to take the case to trial. They lost.

In His Own Words

Below are verbatim “word-for-word” excerpts from Cioffi and Ciuzio’s trial testimony, which their defense lawyers later used to appeal both men’s federal convictions. Michael Fiore got up on the witness stand and testified for the prosecution, while pointing a damning finger at his former “friends.”

“The Government’s evidence was as follows: On October 2, 1970, Michael Fiore, an acquaintance of Cioffi and Ciuzio, met them at Cioffi’s barber shop in Plainview, N. Y. Cioffi told Fiore he had some counterfeit stamps and money, then asked if Fiore knew anyone who could smuggle the contraband out of the country.“

“Cioffi then handed him a sheet of 100 6-cent stamps and a single $100 bill as samples, and told him to give the stamps to “your man” and see if he was interested.”

“Shortly thereafter, Fiore met with Secret Service Agent Daniel Marchitello and two other investigators. He told Marchitello that Cioffi and Ciuzio were selling counterfeit stamps and showed him the 100 stamp sample. Marchitello took 50 and gave the other 50 back to Fiore.“

“That evening Marchitello and Fiore met Cioffi and Ciuzio outside the barbershop. Fiore introduced Marchitello as “my man here from Cuba,” and the defendants agreed to speak with him.

"Cioffi said he had $500,000 worth of counterfeit 6-cent stamps and then asked if Marchitello could obtain a perforating machine.“

“After a brief negotiation over the price, Ciuzio agreed to a price of 1.5 cents per stamp, if Marchitello would agree to buy a large number and take them out of the country. "

" During the discussion, Cioffi indicated that in addition to the stamps, he could produce between $5,000,000 and $15,000,000 of good quality counterfeit U.S. currency. If Marchitello would agree to purchase the stamps, Cioffi told him, he would not require him to put up any “front money” for the currency. Marchitello then asked Cioffi for a sample sheet to try on his perforating machine. Cioffi then sent Ciuzio to pick one up.”

“Cioffi told Marchitello he wanted a commitment on the stamp purchase as soon as possible; Marchitello agreed to contact his own people and get back to Cioffi later."

" Ciuzio then returned, handed Marchitello a sheet of 400 counterfeit 6-cent stamps, and demanded an answer by 11 a.m. the next day. Because he feared possible interference with another agent’s ongoing investigation, Marchitello never reestablished contact with either Cioffi or Ciuzio.”

Operation Flanker

Based on Fiore's testimony, Cioffi and Ciuzio were eventually indicted, tried, and convicted.

They had attacked Fiore’s testimony because there was bad blood between Cioffi and Fiore because Fiore had refused to repay $2,000 that Cioffi had lent him. But they were convicted anyway by the court.

A Nationwide Narcotics Sweep

Around this same time period -- 1970 and 1971 -- it also came to light that Fiore had been very instrumental in assisting federal narcotics agents with a major coast-to-coast drug investigation they were working on.

By the time the indictments hit, over 160 suspects were rounded up across the country for their purported involvement in a multimillion-dollar-a-year heroin trafficking operation. And it soon became clearly evident that good ole “Big Nose Mike” Fiore had been a major rat in the case.

He helped the “junk agents” indict several important New York area mobsters to the cross for narcotics trafficking conspiracy, one of whom happened to be a top Mafia boss.

It turns out that Fiore provided key information to his federal handlers that helped lead to the highly publicized “Operation Flanker” indictments of 1970-71.

Dope raid.

Among the higher profile mobsters who were arrested on sealed indictments were several known associates of the Colombo Family, including a notorious race-fixer and gambler named John Malizia and Ralph (Ronnie) Esposito , who was described by the authorities as a key mob operative. Both men were believed to be affiliated with capo John (Sonny) Franzese’s crew .

But the authorities announced that they had also nailed two men they described as being even higher up the mob ladder. They were identified as Bonanno Family Boss Paul Sciacca and his top assistant, Family capodecina Michele (Mike the Sailor) Casale .

The mafiosi were each hit with a count of heroin conspiracy and several lesser charges. These were charges that, upon conviction, could bring a sentence of life imprisonment.

The charges were no laughing matter; they were very serious indeed.

Now You See It, Now You Don't

But something very interesting -- and very suspicious and fishy -- suddenly happened shortly after these high-profile indictments were announced to the public.

Almost miraculously, within several months of their arrests, every single charge made against Sciacca, Casale, Malizia, Esposito, and several others was then completely dismissed. Their defense attorneys were each notified that their clients were in the clear and that no further prosecution would be forthcoming relating to the case.

In other words, the widely publicized “Operation Flanker” case was dead in the water -- at least as far as the New York Mafia’s operatives were concerned.

Side Note: It was later suspected that the government’s case went south because they discovered that their “star witness,” Michael Fiore, was anything but a “stellar” prosecution witness.

After catching him in a number of falsehoods and outright lies, the feds decided that Fiore was not a credible witness, and to move forward with any type of criminal cases that he had supplied information would have been a foolhardy measure. So, they chose to dismiss the cases instead to save face.

Into the Woodwork

By this point, word of Fiore’s cooperation was well known among members of the underworld. The government’s would-be star witness had long ago disappeared from his usual haunts and the New York Metropolitan area altogether.

Fiore had most likely entered the Witness Protection Program. Or maybe the feds had just cut him loose, and the rodent was forced to disappear into the woodwork on his own. Either way, he was never seen again.

Michael “Big Nose Mike” Fiore was another scurvy low-life “rodent” who crawled back into the woodwork where all rats should stay!

Postscript: As far as can be determined, each of the mob guys Fiore helped implicate -- to the best of our knowledge-- were later exonerated. Their cases were dismissed outright or later thrown out of court. As far as Cioffi and Ciuzio are concerned, court records were murky. But they may have also had their convictions overturned on appeal. Hopefully, for their sake, they did!

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Michael (Big Nose Mike) Fiore: Stool Pigeon Hoodlum

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