Ralph (Ronnie) Esposito: Disappointed Dunsky, But Accomplished Rat

Ralph (Ronnie) Esposito was a Colombo Family associate who reveled in his mob status, but quickly turned government informant when things soured for him.

Ralph (Ronnie) Esposito was born in Brooklyn in 1938. As a young boy, the Esposito family relocated to Long Island. Subsequently, Ronnie was raised in the town of Hicksville. By the early 1960s, he had gotten married and was now residing with his wife and their two small children at 55 Elm Avenue, in nearby Farmingdale. By 1971, he had relocated back to 15 Notre Dame Avenue in Hicksville.

During that same era Esposito was identified by both the Nassau County Rackets Bureau and the FBI as an active Colombo Family associate, serving in the crew of John (Sonny) Franzese .

Ralph (Ronnie) Esposito

Aside from Franzese himself, through the years, Esposito’s known underworld associates included Family boss Joseph Colombo Sr., Dominick Santoro, Joseph Napolitano, George Papageorge, Robert Mauro, and John Malizia .

It is believed that Esposito first came to the attention of Nassau County Rackets Squad detectives around 1964, when he was first surveilled in the company of a Family soldier named Robert (Bobby Green) Falvo, for whom he was believed to have served as a personal driver and aide.

Then, two years later, in 1966, he was arrested when United States Treasury agents and Nassau Vice Squad detectives conducted an early morning raid at the Tivoli Accent Room, which was then operating as a plush unlicensed “after-hours” club in Jericho.

Esposito was one of four suspects rounded up that evening and charged with violations of the Federal Alcohol-Tax Laws and Federal tax stamp conspiracy. Also taken into custody that night were Falvo, Santoro and Napolitano.

The men were each later allowed to plead out to reduced charges and paid fines. The 28-year old Esposito was allowed to plead out to serving minors. It was his first arrest and he served no jail term.

But two years later, in 1968, a Nassau judge sentenced him to attend a drivers clinic and to write a 300-word essay on his bad driving habits after he was arrested for speeding while attempting to elude several Nassau County Detectives who were tracking his movements.

Sonny's Aide

By 1969, local law enforcement officials were now describing Esposito as a close ally and sometime personal driver for Colombo Family underboss John (Sonny) Franzese.

That same year, Esposito was publicly identified in a Newsday series about the “Mafia” as a “key” figure in the Franzese regime’s gambling and loanshark operations.

By 1970, he had already been subpoenaed several times to appear before a Nassau County Grand Jury that was investigating the Joseph Colombo Family’s efforts to infiltrate legitimate businesses on Long Island and mob rackets in general.

Esposito was subsequently indicted on a charge of criminal contempt and held on a $10,000 bail package. At the time, this was considered a high bail, especially for a simple contempt charge, for which judges usually held defendants on bail ranging anywhere from $1,000 to $2,500.

$750,000 Jewel Theft

Then, only several months later, in early 1971, Esposito was one of five underworld figures indicted on charges related to the high-profile theft of over $750,000 in jewelry stolen three years earlier, in 1968, from the Long Island Diamond Exchange at Roosevelt Field Mall.

At a news conference held in Mineola announcing the indictments, then-Nassau County District Attorney William Cahn described the events that led up to the arrests as follows:

In 1968, Ralph Esposito was approached by an acquaintance named Robert (Bob) Aaron, who was then manager of the L.I. Diamond Exchange. Aaron proposed a plan to Esposito to stage a fake robbery at the jewelry exchange to cover up a theft of said business.

Aaron’s plan called for Esposito and several of his associates to walk into the exchange at closing time and announce a robbery, then handcuff Aaron and another employee before looting all the showcases and the company’s safe of diamonds, gold, precious stones, watches, and other jewelry.

Esposito quickly agreed to participate in the plan but then hesitated for several weeks, which caused the anxious Aaron to then seek out other participants to commit the robbery.

Salvatore (Sally Boy) Mangiamelli

Aaron then allegedly approached another hoodlum named Robert (Bobby V) Viggiano about his plan, who in turn introduced the jeweler to his brother-in-law, another Colombo associate from his Brooklyn neighborhood named Salvatore (Sally Boy) Mangiamelli , who immediately agreed to pull off the heist.

Days later, Mangiamelli, Viggiano and several associates successfully executed the staged robbery.

Later, court testimony revealed that the robbery crew then disposed of the load of gems and gold through an underworld “fence,” selling it in “a foreign market” -- paying Mangiamelli and company $160,000 in cash.

When Esposito found out about the robbery, he became enraged and accused Aaron of double-crossing him. He then threatened to kill Aaron unless he received a full share of the loot.

Concerned about Esposito’s threats, Aaron approached Viggiano, who then ran to Family Boss Joseph Colombo about the situation. Colombo instructed him to pay Esposito $2,000 in cash as a token of compensation.

Subsequently, a week or so later, Esposito met Viggiano at a local diner, where -- as per the boss’ instructions -- Viggiano handed Esposito an envelope containing the $2,000.

Esposito initially blew his stack, yelling at Viggiano, “Who the hell do you think you are?” But Ronnie quickly shut up when Viggiano explained, “This is Joe Colombo’s score, and this is what he said for me to bring you.”

Esposito reportedly wasn’t happy, but took the money and left the diner.

If at First You Don't Succeed

Not one to be easily dissuaded, only days later, Esposito approached Aaron with another idea to make some more money. After hearing him out, Aaron agreed to conspire with Esposito in another twist on the robbery plot, hoping to finally make that large score that had evaded them both.

The two men then approached Louis Savel, the owner of the diamond exchange. Savel told him that Esposito could retrieve the jewelry back for a $150,000 “finders fee.”

Side Note: Although the Colombo hoods netted $160,000 from the robbery, it’s believed that Aaron only received a paltry sum as his part in the scheme.

Lou Savel expressed interest in their plan but remained leery. So Esposito produced a small pouch that had many of the actual price tags that had been attached to the jewelry as proof of his sincerity and ability get back Savel’s jewelry.

Now convinced of the possibility of recouping his losses, Savel went ahead and called the business’s insurance company -- Lloyd’s of London -- with the proposal.

But the company flatly refused to deal with hoodlums or get involved with any criminal shenanigans.

Lloyd’s of London then quickly contacted United States law enforcement authorities, who just as quickly stepped into the case. The FBI then promptly fanned out and arrested everyone involved in the case, including boss Joe Colombo himself.

The following day, the arrest of the notorious Mafia boss and his underworld minions was splashed across the front-pages of tabloids throughout the country and was also reported on by all the major television news stations.

The suspects were arraigned before a Federal Magistrate the following day. Colombo, Esposito, Aaron, Viggiano, and Mangiamelli were each charged with possession of stolen goods, grand larceny, and criminal conspiracy.

The Boss Likes Him

Now out on bail bond and awaiting trial, Esposito went about his business the best he could. But things weren’t the same as they had been in previous years. Many of his former associates were away serving jail time for offenses ranging from gambling and loansharking to the criminal contempt of several ongoing grand juries investigating organized crime on Long Island and the New York City area.

Even his former superior, Sonny Franzese, wasn’t around. He had long since entered prison gates to start serving a 50-year term after being convicted on bank robbery conspiracy charges. Several other close associates had either faded into the woodwork or gone “on the lam” to evade the authorities.

Ralph Esposito with Sonny Franzese

Then, something really interesting happened.

Either through sheer fate or happenstance, stemming from their mutual plight, Ronnie became friendly with the Family boss himself. It seems that for whatever reason, Joe Colombo took a shine to the hapless hoodlum and instructed him to start coming around.

At the time, Joe Colombo’s pet project was the Italian American Anti-Defamation Civil Rights League, and with Colombo’s backing, the organization was now in full swing.

By the spring of 1971, the League was preparing for its second Italian-American Unity Day Rally at Columbus Circle in midtown Manhattan, which would be held that June.

Ronnie Esposito was tapped by Colombo to serve as a league “organizer” to help promote various fundraisers and so forth. He was also instructed to join several marches at various protest rallies organized by the league.

Operation Flanker

But earlier that same year, or maybe even earlier, whatever qualities Esposito had seemingly possessed that first caused Colombo to take a shine toward him had quickly evaporated.

On February 25, 1971, while all these events were happening simultaneously, Esposito (desperate for cash) had allegedly gotten himself involved in several illicit narcotics deals involving the sale of heroin among various mob figures from several crime families.

And it appears that Ronnie jumped right into the mix dealing narcotics.

He was soon indicted during a nationwide federal takedown of narcotics organizations that the authorities dubbed “Operation Flanker” -- during which over 160 suspects from coast to coast were arrested and indicted in a sweeping series of takedowns of the country’s top narcotics traffickers.

Aside from New York City, along the East Coast and in the Midwest alone, over 54 people had been arrested. Among the cities involved were Chicago, IL., Hartford, CT., and New Orleans, LA.

Then United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell stated, “This is the largest crackdown ever on narcotics distribution by members of organized crime.”

Despite none of those named as defendants ever appearing on the 1969 Senate Permanent Investigation Subcommittee’s list of top-echelon leaders of regional Mafia Families, Mitchell continued, “A number of those arrested were high-ranking members of organized crime groups.”

In addition to the 54 arrests, warrants had been issued for 32 others.

Mitchell said that the latest arrests were part of Operation Flanker, which began five months earlier. Previous raids had taken place in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Detroit.

“By concentrating Federal Law Enforcement on importers, wholesalers and distributors, we believe we can cut the illicit supply lines.” Mr. Mitchell said, “This, in turn, will help reverse the addiction rate in this country.”

He stated, “One of those named in the warrants issued in New York is Anthony (Tony) Lis i, who has been identified as a lieutenant in the Mafia Family of the late Thomas Lucchese .”

Other notable New York City-based Mafia figures listed as having been nabbed in the takedown included several top-ranked Lucchese Family narcotics traffickers like Lucchese Family soldier Ralph (Raffie) Cuomo and associate Steven (Stevie the Bug) Puco, as well as mob associates Stephen Della Cava, Carmine (Beansie) Della Cava, John A. Rizzo, Anthony Rizzo, Victor Russo, Matthew Pretino, Gabriel Letterese, Kenneth Lazinsky,

U.S. Attorney General Mitchell stated that raids conducted during a five-month period alone had yielded a seizure of 71 pounds of heroin, 49 pounds of cocaine, and 256 pounds of marijuana, with an estimated street value of $12.8 million. In addition, he said, $431,341 in cash, 78 firearms, and 35 automobiles had also been seized.

Out on Long Island, Nassau County District Attorney William Cahn, whose office participated in the raids conducted locally said that most of the suspects arrested in the New York area were known members or associates of the Mafia Families led by Joseph Colombo and Joseph Bonanno.

The Stool Pigeon

The heavy draconian prison sentence Esposito now faced for trafficking, combined with the potential jail time he faced if convicted of the jewel robbery conspiracy, was probably when Ronnie Esposito decided to change sides and flip to the government.

Public records are sealed and under secrecy so Esposito’s exact cooperation agreement and the specific mob figures he helped implicate and get indicted and convicted by his testimony is not known. But this is when he was believed to have turned informant.

Word on the streets at the time of the arrests was that Esposito allegedly utilized his mob connections to approach several Lucchese Family hoods he knew regarding purchases of heroin.

These men were allegedly connected to captain Paul Vario’s regime. Subsequently, the authorities were thought to have used Esposito to set them up in several drug deals.

Paul Sciacca

Regarding “Operation Flanker” on Long Island, t he highest profile Long Island-based Mafia figure to be nabbed on charges of heroin sale and conspiracy was Bonanno Family boss Paul Sciacca . Nabbed along with Sciacca on heroin charges was his closest aide, Bonanno Capo Michael (Mike the Sailor) Casale .

Others caught up in the Long Island portion of the drug sweep included two more Bonanno Family associates. A labor-union official named Pasquale (Pat the Barber) Cioffi and his strong-arm enforcer, Eugene (Gene) Ciuzio.

Another local hoodlum caught up in the dragnet was John Malizia, who Nassau authorities identified as a Colombo Family associate.

Still another local mob figure who ostensibly figured into Operation Flanker was alleged Lucchese Family associate Michael (Big Nose Mike) Fiore . But it later came to light that Fiore was another longtime government stool pigeon who was used by the “junk agents’ to set various mob guys up.

Side Note: Long Island’s resident daily tabloid, Newsday, released a multi-part Pulitzer Prize-winning expose titled, “The Heroin Trail” (which was later turned into a paperback book) in which Esposito, Sciacca, Malizia and several others were listed as being among the top Long Island Mafia figures involved in heroin trafficking.

The Boss Gets Shot

On June 28, 1971, Joseph A. Colombo Sr. was shot and incapacitated in an attempted assassination plot executed during the second annual Italian-American Unity Day Rally, which was being held at Columbus Circle, in Midtown Manhattan.

Colombo’s attempted assassination would eventually lead to all hell breaking loose within New York’s underworld. But for Ronnie Esposito, none of what was to come would matter anyway because the die had already been cast by that point in time.

Joe Colombo was paralyzed from the shooting and would die in 1978.

In the months following the Columbus Circle incident -- and after several more of his associates were arrested -- Ronnie’s role as a police informant started coming to light.

Whatever cooperation he did provide to the police met with the satisfaction of his law enforcement handlers because shortly thereafter, despite being buried under three serious separate criminal indictments pending against him, Esposito was able to leverage his undercover informant status and subsequent cooperation to wiggle free from it all.

To this day, the particulars of whatever plea deals he may have taken remain sealed. But one thing is certain: Esposito never served a single day behind bars.

All charges lodged against him for conspiracy and grand larceny regarding his involvement in the $750,000 jewelry heist, the criminal contempt charges stemming from his appearance before the Nassau County Rackets Grand Jury, and the Federal heroin trafficking conspiracy case were dismissed.

Shortly thereafter, he simply disappeared forever off Long Island and the New York Metropolitan area. He left behind his young wife and their two small children, a boy and girl.

Ronnie seemingly never looked back.

Into the Woodwork

Sometime later, word filtered back to his former associates in New York that he was living in Orlando, Florida with a new girlfriend. A year or so later, they had reportedly moved further down to South Florida to the City of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County.

As the weeks and months passed with no negative repercussions from the underworld, Esposito must have felt emboldened, thinking he was in the clear. Subsequently, he started to move around town with a bit more confidence.

And, inevitably, before long, he also started bumping into various local mob figures, some of whom were old friends who had also relocated from the New York area.

Initially in the dark about their friend’s new “rat” status, they happily welcomed Ronnie to town with open arms.

But as time went on word got back to New York about where Esposito was now living after he was spotted in the company of several unwitting fellow mobsters.

New York immediately sent word down to their brethren that, indeed, Ronnie Esposito had become an informant -- better known in underworld vernacular as a rat!

Esposito was quickly confronted about his informant status and his duplicity in trying to once again rub elbows and get close with his former friends. He was also reportedly slapped around and chased.

This rodent then did what rodents do best. He quickly packed up his bags and completely disappeared once again from the area.

A few years later, word once again filtered back to New York that Esposito had fled from Florida altogether. There was word that he may have moved to the State of Ohio, around Cincinnati. The year was 1972.

Mob rat Ralph (Ronnie) Esposito was never heard from again.

As is typical of government cooperators, there is generally no available follow-up data relating to their whereabouts or any official death notice. Esposito just faded into the woodwork like he never existed.

This is just another colorful tale of the underworld.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Ralph (Ronnie) Esposito: Disappointed Dunsky, But Accomplished Rat

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Ralph (Ronnie) Esposito: Disappointed Dunsky, But Accomplished Rat

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