Mobster (Benny the Blimp) Barone of Nebraska

Bernard “Benny the Blimp” Barone was Omaha’s underworld heavyweight, literally and figuratively. A career criminal who never held a legitimate job, Barone spent his life bootlegging, robbing banks, running gambling dens, and trafficking stolen cars.

Connected to Mafia families in Chicago, New York, and Kansas City, Benny ruled the Midwest with an iron fist. His influence was undeniable whether behind bars or behind the scenes at an illegal after-hours joint.

This is the story of Nebraska’s most notorious mobster.

Bernard (Benny the Blimp) Barone Jr. -- aka Bennie Barone and Joe Nanzio -- was born on January 29, 1912, in Omaha, Nebraska. Benny was one of five children, four sons and a daughter, born to parents Bernard and Theresa (nee’Pistilla) Barone. His siblings were John, Louis, Joseph, and Marie.

The Barone children each attended Omaha’s public school system. Benny went as far as the eighth grade before dropping out.

Benny Barone

A lifelong bachelor, law enforcement authorities have described Barone as standing 5 feet 7 inches tall with a very stocky build at 265 pounds. As the years passed, Benny continued to gain weight to the point that he was considered obese -- weighing in at over 365 pounds.

By the time he reached his mid-fifties, Barone had become morbidly obese, hence, his underworld nickname. He had blue eyes, was mostly bald on top with thinning brown hair on the sides, and had a dark complexion. Cary Grant, he was not!

FBI #500634

In 1934, Barone was then living at 1110 William Street, Omaha. A year later, by 1935, he gave his address to authorities as 2450 South Twentieth Street.

1110 William St., Omaha

Some years later, after being paroled from one of his many prison stints, Benny resided at 1314 South 24th Street, Omaha. This was the home of his sister Margaret (Maria) and her husband, Samuel J. Pistillo.

1314 South 24th Street, Omaha

By 1970, he had moved out of his sister’s home and lived alone in an apartment nearby, at 2501 Harney Street, unit 12.

When Benny wasn’t home with his family or behind bars serving one of his many prison terms, the FBI reported he liked to hang out at the Carter Lake Social Club at Carter Lake, Iowa. This was a private mob social club and gambling den. Another Iowa spot he was known to often frequent was Pee-Dee’s Club, located at Council Bluffs.

Closer to home, federal agents mentioned two other favorite hangouts of his: Herman’s Cigar Store and the Rocket Bar & Grill, both in Omaha.

A Devout Criminal

Although occasionally listing himself as either a bartender or manager of various bars and grills, authorities noted that Benny was never gainfully employed in his entire life. Instead, they describe him as a devout criminal and hoodlum through and through.

And whether it was because of his huge girth and its resultant health problems that prevented him from getting a job or just his lazy outlook on life, Benny the Blimp reportedly never worked a day in his life.

He had a long police record listing many arrests for such offenses as reckless driving, DMV violations, causing bodily injury, liquor bootlegging (4 times), burglary tools, grand larceny, interstate theft, possession of stolen vehicles, criminally receiving stolen goods and accessory after the fact, possession of a gun, and Federal bank robbery (3 years).

He was convicted on numerous occasions in both federal and state court. He served at least four lengthy prison terms for violations of the National Prohibition Act, the Dyer Act (transporting stolen vehicles across state lines), possessing and fencing stolen property, gambling, and robbing a federal savings and loan bank.

Stolen Cars & Arson

On June 8, 1934, Benny Barone was one of five men arrested by the police regarding an investigation into the operation of an organized auto theft ring.

All five men pled not guilty after they were arraigned before a United States Magistrate for violating the Dyer Act, which makes it a felony to transport a stolen automobile over state lines. Each suspect was held on a bail bond of $1,500 apiece.

Besides Barone, others named in the indictment included Stanley Nowicki, Anthony Variano, Henry Hawk, and William Thomas.

On April 29, 1935, Barone and a friend were arrested after his buddy, Frank Beninato, reported his car was stolen. Shortly thereafter, the fire department was called about reports of an automobile ablaze at the corner of Jefferson and Eleventh Streets.

After interviewing several eyewitnesses and conducting an investigation of the incident, local police later charged Barone Beninato with arson and insurance fraud.

Eyewitnesses told police that they had seen two men strip a car and then push the car over an embankment, where it fell 250 feet into a ravine. The car was completely wrecked. The plate number of the car matched that of the auto Beninato reported stolen.

After questioning Beninato, he was taken into custody. They said he made several incriminating statements involving Barone in a plot to strip the car for parts to sell and then destroy the car and collect the insurance money.

A Murder in the Family

On December 17, 1943, Benny’s uncle Joe (his father's brother) was shot four times by an adversary after the two men had been in a long-standing conflict.

On December 29, Joseph (Nosey) Barone died at the hospital, where he had been rushed for treatment after being shot. His reputed assailant, Henry Sorkin, was later charged with his murder.

Police said that the shooting took place at the Cornhusker Cigar Store, where Sorkin and Joe Barone were partners in the operation of a combination cigar store and bookie joint. The two partners and former friends reportedly had a long-simmering dispute, which climaxed into the deadly violence.

Sorkin had first been arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and had been free after posting up a $5,000 bond on two charges of shooting with intent to kill and shooting with intent to wound. But after Barone died, police rearrested Sorkin and charged him with murder.

Homicide detectives handling the case said that Barone had passed without making a dying statement, which would have been admissible as evidence under Nebraska State law. They said for such a statement to be admissible, its giver has to believe he is dying, the authorities explained. They went on to say that Barone didn’t think he was dying until recently, and by that point in time, he was too weak to give a statement.

After an autopsy, the coroner’s physician said Barone’s death resulted from peritonitis, an infection resulting from his bullet wounds. He said Barone had been shot four times, with two of the bullets still lodged in his body.

Bootlegging & After Hours Joints

On September 28, 1946, Benny was one of two known hoodlums picked up for investigation after a load of illicit whiskey was found in their possession by policemen in Des Moines, Iowa.

The thirty-three-year-old Barone and a close hoodlum buddy -- thirty-four-year-old Sam Biase -- were caught red-handed as they were unloading liquor from an automobile in the rear alleyway of Babe’s Tavern. Officers also seized 75 bottles of whiskey while making the arrests.

Police later said that Samuel Biase’s record dated to 1924, when he was arrested as a juvenile delinquent. In 1931 and 1932, he was sentenced to three years after convictions for armed robbery. In 1945, he was convicted on liquor charges and fined $100. They also said his criminal record included 12 arrests for vagrancy.

Sam Biase later pleaded guilty to illegal possession of 75 fifths of whiskey, was fined $500, and placed on probation. The sentencing judge then condemned the liquor and ordered the automobile where the liquor was found for condemnation proceedings.

But Benny escaped prosecution after the judge released him from custody without pressing charges.

On October 11, 1955, local newspaper headlines read: “Persons whose names read like a who’s who of Omaha and Council Bluffs are in control of the ‘allegedly’ private Esquire and Capri Clubs in Pottawattamie County.”

That statement, made by then-Iowa Safety Commissioner Clinton Moyer, was released on the strength of evidence turned up during and after several police raids that had been conducted over the previous six days.

Benny Barone, then 43 years old, who Commissioner Moyer noted had been released from Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary just days earlier, on September 23rd, after having served a three-year sentence for criminally receiving money from a bank robbery.

Benny is well on his way to becoming “The Blimp.”

Charged along with Barone were Peter Bonacci, age 43, who had two previous convictions for bootlegging; Charles (Snooks) Hutter Jr., 42, whose record included time served in the Alabama Penitentiary for armed robbery; James (Jimmy Gallo) Gilio, 26, who had only been arrested only two months prior for possession of a loaded pistol; Robert (Bobby) Nelson, 31, who had a previous conviction for illegal possession of liquor; and Miss Terry McDonald, 30, who the Omaha Police Department said had at least five aliases and at least four different arrests in three different cities.

The authorities said they had raided six Pottawattamie County nightclubs masquerading as so-called private "key clubs" but were really nothing more than illegal speakeasies and "after-hours" joints . The police raiding parties hit the locations on October 5th and again on October 9th.

The Capri Club was raided both times, resulting in charges of maintaining an unlicensed drinking establishment and the sale of untaxed whiskey against Bonacci.

Miss McDonald was arrested at the Last Chance Cafe on charges of "being an inmate of a disorderly house" for engaging in prostitution. Gilio was also arrested at the club on a charge of disorderly conduct.

Although he wasn’t present during the raid, police identified Benny Barone as being connected “behind the scenes” to the operation of the Last Chance Cafe.

Hutter was nailed at the Capri Club, along with Peter Bonacci and Paul Servo, who served as the doorman and admitted patrons inside the club.

Gambling, Booze, Gunshots & Informants

On November 30, 1955, Barone was detained after local police raided the Last Chance Cafe, at 3760 West Broadway, Omaha, which was ostensibly run as a legitimate business but in the basement of the building housed a private gambling club and unlicensed after-hours speakeasy named the Esquire Club.

Although he did no work, at the time of the raid, Barone was said to be listed as the "manager" of the cafe. However, because police could not directly tie Barone into the club downstairs, he was taken into custody, but he was later released instead of arrested.

But Barone’s buddy Louis Nesci, who was named by police as the actual operator of the Esquire Club, was arrested on charges of running policy-numbers and of selling alcohol without a valid liquor license.

On May 19, 1957, three separate Iowa night spots were raided in coordinated strikes shortly after midnight by police officers of the Iowa Bureau of Investigation. Chief Inspector R.W. Nebergall and Special Agent R.D. Blair led the raiding parties.

The Sixty-Four Club, The Riviera Club, and the Lakeview Steakhouse were hit in lightning-fast raids.

State Agents reported they found over two hundred bottles of illicit liquor at the Riviera and arrested three operators: Leonard Killon, Jack Sahling, and Benny Barone. All three men were charged with criminal investigation.

At the Lakeview Steakhouse, raiders discovered 13 bottles of liquor and arrested Sebastian (Benny) Lombardo. He was booked for illegal possession of liquor.

Then, on the morning of June 28, 1960, local newspaper headlines read: “Authorities Hunt Six; Dope Tie-Up Hinted.”

Federal agents and Omaha police officers went on the hunt for six mobsters when an investigating Kansas City Grand Jury handed down command subpoenas after a federal witness was gunned down.

Law enforcement took action as a result of the June 20th ambush shooting in Kansas City of Kenneth Bruce Sheetz, a police informant and important witness in an ongoing Omaha narcotics case. Police reported that the victim was shot three times and badly wounded during the attempted gangland execution.

The thirty-nine-year-old Sheetz had previously testified in secret grand jury proceedings that led to the indictment of Omaha mafioso Anthony Biase on eight counts of sale of narcotics and conspiracy to sell narcotics.

Kenneth Bruce Sheetz

Obviously, it didn’t take too long for the mob to figure out who was spilling the beans.

Several women on the street at the time who witnessed the shooting called police, who then immediately came to the scene. In turn, police called for an ambulance and rushed the victim to the emergency room to save his life. Authorities said that Sheetz remained in the hospital in critical condition under tight police guard for weeks.

Almost simultaneous to the attempted "hit" on their informant, authorities reported that a combined team of Federal Bureau of Narcotics Agents, U.S. Marshalls, and several deputies, the Omaha Police Department’s Vice Squad led by a police captain and six of his men began scouring the city for Biase and his three brothers and one of their closest associates.

In short order, all six suspects were served. They were identified as Anthony Biase, Louis Biase, Samuel Biase, Benjamin Biase, and Benny Barone. Police reported that a sixth unidentified man was also subpoenaed in the case.

They were reportedly part of a police roundup of 41 witnesses in various Midwest cities who received grand jury subpoenas regarding an investigation into narcotics trafficking and the Sheetz shooting.

At a later news conference with reporters, United States District Attorney William C. Spire described Tony Biase as “one of the major distributors of narcotic drugs in the Midwest.”

During a further police probe into the shooting, two Kansas City Mafia figures were subsequently arrested for the attempted murder of Kenneth Sheets. After hearing all the evidence, the County Grand Jury later indicted Civella Family soldiers Felix (Little Phil) Ferina and Anthony (Tiger) Cardarella on attempted murder charges.

Anthony (Tiger) Cardarella

Sheetz later testified that he was shot after returning home from driving his wife to work. “As I placed the key in the lock of the front door and started to enter, I noticed someone behind the door. About that time, somebody shot me in the stomach. I attempted to pull the door closed, and I don’t know how far I got it closed, but I turned around and tried to run off the porch -- the screened-in porch-- and about that time, I got shot in my back, in the center of my back.”

He continued, “That twisted me around, I don’t know why, and I started to run towards the door where the shots were coming from, and that’s when I got shot in the head, and I went down on the porch, and then I got shot again through my kidney.”

Sheetz later identified the two mafiosi as his assailants when the police brought the suspects to his hospital room.

At Biase’s later criminal trial for attempted murder and narcotics trafficking, Sheetz was brought into the courtroom in his wheelchair and testified that during the shooting, one of the gunmen said to him, “Tony sent this” or “This is from Tony.”

Sheetz also said he first met Biase in Omaha two years earlier in a local tavern. Asked if they ever had any business dealings together, Sheetz replied, “Yeah, I bought some stuff from him.” Asked by the prosecutor what kind of stuff, he said, “Narcotics.”

Tony DiBiase (right)

Sheetz went on to testify that he — in the company of a Federal Narcotics Agent whose undercover name was ‘Tony Benedetti’ — bought morphine from Biase on at least three separate occasions.

He also said that after testifying before the grand jury that previous March, he started receiving a series of threatening anonymous telephone calls at his home.

The Assistant County District Attorney then asked, “As a result of your testimony up in Omaha before the grand jury, were you in fear of physical harm to yourself?”

“Well, eventually, yes,” Sheetz replied. “I mean, I figured that eventually there would be some trouble about it, yes.”

At that point, the wounded witness, who was not initially expected to recover from his injuries, was scheduled to be discharged from the hospital later that same week. The authorities said he was to be taken under police guard by the Federal Narcotics Bureau to an undisclosed destination for safekeeping.

Anthony Biase was subsequently convicted at trial on all charges. The judge sent him away to serve a 15-year sentence in a federal penitentiary.

Felix Ferina and Anthony Cardarella were also convicted at a separate trial for conspiring to intimidate a Federal Grand Jury witness by shooting him in Kansas City on June 20, 1960. They each received 10 years in prison. During their District Court trial, held in Kansas City, Ken Sheetz identified Cardarella as the actual gunman and said Ferina was standing next to Cardarella when he was ambushed.

Felix Ferina

Biase was also convicted in this case and sentenced to an additional five years in prison. But his lawyers were successful in having that conviction overturned on appeal.

In FBI and Federal Bureau of Narcotics files, Tony Biase was described as follows: “Anthony Biase is an interstate narcotics trafficker, bookmaker and gambler and an influential member of the Mafia at Omaha, Nebraska."

Regarding Benny Barone, the bureau wrote: “Barone is considered a contact man and Mafia leader in the Omaha area. He is primarily a gambler and liquor violator but is known to be associated with narcotics traffickers from New York City.”

Some of the drug paraphernalia nabbed along with Tony Biase.

During a follow-up to the same investigation, on July 14th, 1960, the Federal Grand Jury returned another ninth-count indictment accusing Tony Biase of using a telephone on December 7, 1959, between Kansas City and Omaha to complete a narcotics transaction and sale.

Biase was arraigned once again before a U.S. Magistrate and held on another $15,000 bond. This was in addition to the $35,000 bail package he had posted after the first indictment.

Bookmaking & More

Aside from their earlier days bootlegging liquor -- similar to other organized crime outfits all across the country -- illegal gambling became a mainstay for the local mob. And Omaha’s underworld was not bashful about it either. Through the years, the local boys operated various gambling rackets, including horse and sports bookmaking, numbers, slot machines, roulette wheels, football parley sheets, cards, and dice.

More often than not, these bookie joints operated out of small businesses that served as fronts for their gambling operations. Favored outlets were often camouflaged as little cigar and tobacco shops and neighborhood taverns but were, in reality, gambling dens.

Bell Cigar Shop fronted a betting parlor.

Layout of the gambling den’s interior.

From these locations, Omaha’s mob ran major bookmaking hubs that accepted sports bets on baseball, football, basketball, and horse racing. Some of these locations also offered local gamblers lively dice and card games that took place daily in the backrooms of these storefronts.

What follows below is just a short list of the many dozens and dozens of locations they used as gambling ‘blinds’ as well as some of the principal hoodlum operators behind these gambling businesses:

Owl Cigar Store, 610 So. Sixteenth Street (Biase brothers)

Farnam Gift Shop, 2411 Pacific Street (Fred Abboud)

Turk’s Billiards, 2419 Leavenworth Street (Fred Abboud)

Turf Cigar Store, 610 So. Sixteenth St. (Sam Biase)

Hug Cigar Store, 708 So. 24th Street (Vincent Digilio)

Crosstown Cigar Store, 703 So. Twenty-fourth St. (Vincent Digilio)

Park Avenue Smoke Shop, 2922 Leavenworth St. (Mike Glayer)

Harvard Smoke Shop, 216 So. Thirteenth St. (Carl DeBord)

Alex News Stand, 304 No. Sixteenth Street (Alex Marino)

Sam’s Cigars, 208 So. Fourteenth Street (Samuel DeGeorge)

Playmore Billiards, 1516 Harney Street (Charles LaFerla)

Capitol Billiard Parlor, 1308 Douglas Street (James Prohaska)

Model Billards, 1322 Douglas St. (James Kortsos)

Omaha Billiards, 606 So. Sixteenth St. (Benny Biase)

Cornhusker Cigar Store, (Henry Sorkin)

Herman’s Cigar Store, 1916 Farnam St. (Mike Scavio)

Wright Cigar Store, 318 No. Sixteenth Street, (Alex Marino)

International Cigar Store, 216 So. Fourteenth St. (Joe Digilio)

Al’s Smoke Shop, 304 No. Sixteenth St. (Alex Marino)

The Cigar Store, 318, No. Sixteenth St. (Jasper Bua, Alex Marino)

Paul’s Smoke Shop, 2227 Jones St. (William Heinbach)

Snooker Cigar Store, 2518 Farnam St. (Herbert Riddle)

Q-Street Billards, 2719 Q Street (Clarence Matya)

J & P Cigar Store, 215 So. Fourteenth St. (Joe Fink)

Paramount Coffee Shop, 2006 Farnam St. (George Volker, Leo Imolati)

Bell Cigar Store, 109 So. Fifteenth St. (Charles LaFerla, Fred Weyerman)

C & C Billiards & Recreation, 422 S. 15th Street (Max Abramson, Fred Barnes)

Bell Cigar Store, 109 S. 15th Street (Fred Weyerman)

The Riviera Club, Council Bluffs (Eddie McDermott)

As mentioned above, this is just an abbreviated list. Biase and Barone and their associates operated hundreds of other storefront bet-taking locations through the years.

Local bookies also sometimes operated from studio or one-bedroom apartments they’d rent out to take phone bets. “Wire rooms” such as these were designed to handle bettors wagering larger amounts of cash on games.

On one occasion, three detectives with the Omaha Police Department Vice Squad raided one such wire room on March 2, 1959, and caught Tony Biase and his partner Benny Cohen red-handed. Inside the Near North Side apartment, located at 2107 North Eighteenth Street, they interrupted the two bookies as they were sitting at a table taking bets over the phone.

The officers later stated they found 90 betting slips, a large amount of racing forms, and other gambling paraphernalia, as well as two telephones on the table.

When police were in the apartment making the arrests, they said the phones rang nonstop. Patrolman Benjamin McAdams took one call from a patron wanting to bet on the “fifth at Hialeah.” When the patrolman asked the horse's name, the caller replied, “Who is this?” The patrolman then gave a phony name, and the caller retorted back, “You don’t know me!” And then he hung up.

Omaha Mafia Leader

Over the years, agents for the FBI discovered Benny Barone’s name continuously popping up in various organized crime investigations they conducted in Omaha and Iowa. Several key informants also identified Barone as a top underworld leader in that section of the country -- one with Mafia connections.

Upon deeper investigation into their quarry, the FBI labeled him within their internal files as follows: “Benny Barone is the contact man and Mafia leader in the Omaha area. He is primarily engaged in gambling and illicit liquor rackets but is also known to be associated with various narcotics traffickers from New York City.”

Authorities said that over the years, they investigated and prosecuted Barone and his associates for operating and controlling various interlocking bookmaking, card game, and pool-selling rings (policy numbers) in the City of Omaha as well as in adjoining areas such as Sarpy County, Grand Island, Des Moines, Council Bluffs, the City of Denver and several other locations in a variety of cases.

Although the names of most of his Mafia associates have been redacted in his criminal files, federal agents say that aside from Barone’s aforementioned racket contacts in the New York City area, he also maintained close contact with numerous other mafiosi and racketeers in such cities as Chicago, Illinois ; Los Angeles, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Kansas City, Missouri; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

But two of Barone’s known contacts included Chicago mobster Luigi (Lou Farrell) Fratto, who had since relocated to Iowa where he became a rackets boss, and Chicago hood Ralph Pierce.

Benny Barone

Other mafiosi whom Barone and his associates were known to work closely with on a semi-steady basis were Kansas City mafiosi Anthony F. Marcella and Samuel Carrollo and other members of that city’s underworld.

Barone and Biase were also known to occasionally interact with the notorious Smaldone brothers of Denver, Colorado.

Closer to home, Barone was known to conduct criminal activities in tandem with such fellow hoodlums as the aforementioned notorious Anthony (Tony Biase) DiBiase — who was considered another top Nebraska mafioso as well as Tony’s three brothers, Benny, Louis, and Sam.

Back in 1960, when Tony Biase was nabbed for selling narcotics, the authorities stated that Barone was also considered active in trafficking.

Another close associate was hoodlum Louie Nesci, who was considered a subordinate of Barone. Other known criminal associates included a notorious local bank burglar known as Kenneth Allen Kitts, with whom Benny was said to be very close. Others included local hoods like William (Willie) Slankard, John J. Salanitro, Pasquale (Patty Bell) Belcastro, Max (Little Giant) Abramson, Sam (Peggy) Nocita, Anthony Porchello, Charles J. Fazio Jr., Anthony Higgins, Paul A. Cappellano Sr., Ross (Johnny) Mauro, Anthony Scavio, and Joe Gillespie.

Barone’s former bank robbery partner, Johnny Francis Quinn, also became his partner in The Last Chance Cafe.

Aside from whatever other criminal proclivities they may have had, most of the above-named men also figured into the local gambling rackets as bookmakers and gambling club operators.

Side Note: In 1951, Barone and Quinn, together with Anthony Porchello and Patty Belcastro, were arrested after they teamed up to pull an armed robbery of a Laurens, Iowa Saving & Loan Bank.

It Seemingly Never Ends, Yet it Always Does

In March 1970, Barone figured into yet another criminal investigation when he became one of 37 people subpoenaed to testify before a Federal Grand Jury probing allegations of wide-open gambling operations and official corruption in the State of Omaha. He was put on the grill again.

But only four years later, almost to the day, Benny would never again have to worry about being harassed by the cops, or, for that matter, any other law enforcement agency. Mobster Bernard B. Barone Jr. died on March 19, 1974.

“Benny the Blimp” was only 62 years old.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Mobster (Benny the Blimp) Barone of Nebraska

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