Pasquale (Checko Brown) Fusco – Aide to Buster Aloi

Fusco would go on to become involved in several varied racket activities but as a core racket , “Checko Brown” would always be known as a sports and horse race bookmaker.

Pasquale (Checko Brown) Fusco was born in Brooklyn in 1926 and later resided at 84 Knickerbocker Avenue, Brooklyn. By the mid-1950s, he had moved to Ozone Park in South Queens to be near his direct mob superiors the Aloi family.

By the late 1950s, he had relocated again out to 393 Buckingham Road in the Cedarhurst section, the Five Towns area in southwest Nassau County, Long Island.

Pasquale (Checko Brown) Fusco

Dating to the early 1950s, Fusco had become a close associate of a top Profaci “capo di decina” named Sebastiano (Buster) Aloi and his two sons, Vinny and Benny.

Fusco would go on to become involved in several varied racket activities but as a core racket, “Checko Brown” would always be known as a sports and horse race bookmaker. He had a long string of gambling arrests and several related bookmaking convictions in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Beach.

Another type of criminal case was documented in November 1970 when Fusco was one of 16 mafia members and related mob associates indicted for operating a massive “over the counter” stock fraud. Another 10 men were named as unindicted co-conspirators.

The 72-count indictment alleged conspiracy to violate anti-fraud securities laws, selling unregistered stock, mail and wire fraud, and interstate transportation in aid of extortion.

The case involved a veritable who’s who of the New York Mafia. Those charged included Lucchese boss Carmine (Gribbs) Tramunti, one of his top capos John (Johnny Dio) Dioguardi, Colombo bigwigs Sebastiano and Vincent Aloi, James Burke and Vincent (Vinny the Sicilian) Gugliaro, and the Miami-based Vincent Lombardo, who was a son-in-law of the iconic underworld legend, Meyer Lansky.

The defendants were accused of strong-arming their way into gaining control of a worthless Miami shell company called Imperial Investment Corp. and then pumping up its worthless stock to $24 per share.

Their mobster tactics included threats, beatings, coercion, and infiltrating legitimate brokerage firms. Fusco and Burke were specifically accused of savagely beating the owner of a stock brokerage who they wanted to turn over ownership of, to them.

They then quickly sold off over 190,000 stock shares at that inflated price. The stock just as quickly plummeted again thereafter.

But after a jury trial in Manhattan Federal Court, all the top hoodlums including Tramunti, Aloi, Fusco, John Savino, and James (Jimmy the Gent) Burke won acquittals on all criminal counts. The elderly Buster Aloi had been severed from trial earlier for health reasons. The others were convicted.

In 1972, local law enforcement authorities nabbed Checko Brown again. Fusco was charged along with 18 others after 100 members of the Nassau Vice Squad and their counterparts in the New York City Police Department smashed a bookmaking ring that Nassau District Attorney William Cahn stated was doing over $300,000 per day in business.

Cahn said that the ring operated from 19 different bookmaking parlors, including five in Nassau, eight in Queens, and six in Brooklyn. The raiders smashed down doors with sledgehammers and authorized “no-knock” warrants so the suspects wouldn’t have time to destroy evidence.

They seized worksheets, policy slips, calculators, and an undisclosed amount of money. One parlor alone yielded $6,600 in cash. The betting operation accepted wagers on all sports, particularly horse racing. The ring also put out shylock loans for losing customers. Weekly interest rates ran from 2% to 5% vigorish.

Authorities named 52-year-old Checko Brown as the leader of the gambling ring. Police also believed that Buster and Vinny Aloi were behind Fusco’s operation.

Among 18 other professional bookies and “runners” nabbed were several known mob figures including a future Queens-based Colombo soldier later turned informer, Dennis Guzzardo.

Checko Brown numbered among his other criminal associates:

• Milton (Milty) Wekar • Charles (Charlie Lambchops) San Filippo • Stephen DePasquale Sr. • Michael Hellerman • Philip (Philly Rags) Yavonovich • Nicholas Botta

Most of the fellas above were known bookmakers and professional gamblers (KGs) like Fusco was.

Pasquale John (Checko Brown) Fusco died on January 14, 1986. He was just 59 years old.

Until next time...”The Other Guy!”

Pasquale (Checko Brown) Fusco – Aide to Buster Aloi

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Pasquale (Checko Brown) Fusco – Aide to Buster Aloi

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You May Also Enjoy

Frank (Bo Peep) Tumillo – A Colombo Family “Sleeper”

Joseph Brancato – “The Quiet Capo”

Albert Maione – “The KG”

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