Colombo Hood Robert (Bobby Blue Eyes) Mauro and the Gasoline Tax Scam

Bobby Blue Eyes had a well-deserved reputation as a tough kid, who was known to be fast with his hands and very tough. He was known to have busted guys up badly on more than one occasion.

Robert Salvatore Mauro - aka “Bobby Blue Eyes,” “Bobby Mauro” and “Jelly Belly” - was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1939.

By the time he was in his late teens during the 1950s, the Mauro family had moved out east to Long Island around the Hicksville area of Nassau County. Bobby Mauro would reside on Long Island for the next twenty-five years.

By 1984 or so, Mauro and his family would permanently relocate down to New Port Richey, Florida.

Bobby Blue Eyes

As a young man in his early twenties, he had met and married a local girl named Sandra (Sandy) Morgan. Together they would raise three children: a girl and two boys.

Over the years, he purchased several homes for his young family in the towns of Amityville and later Lindenhurst, both located in Western Suffolk on Long Island’s South Shore. The Mauro family resided for years at 4 Chadwick Court in Amityville.

By 1975, he had separated from his wife and law enforcement noted that he was now residing at 7 Clinton Lane back in his old neighborhood of Hicksville.

He subsequently later moved into an apartment complex with a new girlfriend at 216 Fulton Street, Apt 2F in Farmingdale.

After relocating down to Florida, they resided for the first few years at various condos and apartment complexes they leased until finally purchasing a home of their own at 8653 Sabal Way, Port Richie. This is reportedly where Bobby Mauro would reside for the remainder of his life.

Getting Groomed

Dating to the mid-1960s, both the Nassau County and Suffolk County District Attorney’s Offices had started carrying Robert S. Mauro in their intelligence files as a Joseph Colombo crime family “associate.”

Local law enforcement tied him into the regime of capo John (Sonny) Franzese after spotting him in the constant company of various known members of that crew.

Mauro was first identified as a close associate of a key Colombo family soldier named Robert (Bobby Green) Falvo by undercover Nassau Vice Squad Detectives that were investigating an unlicensed after-hours club in Jericho.

They had repeatedly spotted Mauro in the company of Falvo and later other local mob figures such as Dominick Santoro, George Papageorge , Ralph Esposito, John Malizia , and Franzese himself.

Subsequent law enforcement surveillance later identified Bobby Mauro as Falvo’s sometime driver and aide who would pick Falvo up at his split-level home in Jericho and drive him around the island to various appointments. He became a steady companion of Falvo for decades to come.

A Tough Kid

Police informants also told their handlers that “Bobby Blue Eyes” was utilized as a strong-arm man and enforcer.

Bobby Blue Eyes had a well-deserved reputation as a tough kid, who was known to be fast with his hands and very tough. He was known to have busted guys up badly on more than one occasion.

Mauro was said to also operate as a bookmaker in tandem with Falvo and other crew members in a lucrative Nassau-based gambling operation.

Over the next fifteen years or so, from approximately 1965 through 1980, Mauro was picked up and arrested numerous times by both Nassau and Suffolk Vice Squad Detectives on charges ranging from gambling to felonious assault.

He had at least four or five arrests for bookmaking and at least as many for various assaults and other offenses.

Side Note: During the early 1970s, Mauro became a possible suspect in the killing of a smalltime hoodlum who was found in the parking lot of a Massapequa tavern after closing hours.

The man had been badly beaten and shot to death. His body was left near the dumpster. No one was ever charged with the murder.

As a regular patron of a bar he was known to operate rackets out of, Mauro was later interviewed as a possible suspect. But with no witnesses ever coming forward, the case remained unsolved.

Booking Horses and Sports

In 1969, he was nabbed for bookmaking. Then in 1970, Bobby was charged once again as the operating head of a bookmaking wire-room run out of a second-floor apartment in Hicksville.

Nassau detectives said that Mauro oversaw a sports-gambling operation that grossed $1,000,000 a year. Arrested in that particular police raid was Bobby Mauro’s younger brother Donald who was caught in the “office” acting as the betting operation’s phone man as well as nine “runners” who solicited betting customers for the gambling ring.

Among those nabbed after the culmination of a three-month gambling investigation were suspects Harvey Sapperstein, Charles Catugno, Jerome (Jerry) Giangrasso, Stephen McLaughlin, Marilyn Baker, Michael DiStefano, his wife Laurene DiStefano, and Robert E. Gendron.

Bobby Mauro was also indicted in the case but had eluded detectives armed with an arrest warrant who had searched for him at his home and known hangouts. He later turned himself into the Nassau District Attorney’s Office to face the music.

The Nassau County Racket Squad had focused on the gambling investigation that targeted Mauro because of their belief that he was a member of organized crime.

Authorities suspected that Mauro was the general overseer and on-site operating partner in a gambling operation that included Falvo and a third partner of theirs named George (Georgie Blind) Casale, a well-known old-time Queens-based bookmaker.

Newspaper accounts of the gambling arrests described the ring as “a mob-linked bookmaking operation active in Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, and Westchester Counties.”

Deputy Chief Inspector Charles Spahr, commander of the department’s organized crime unit, also said that “those controlling the bookmaking operation were associated with the Joseph Colombo crime family as well as with jailed Cosa Nostra “lieutenant” John (Sonny) Franzese.

And Shylocking Too

Then five months later, on July 24th, 1970, in a coordinated effort by the Suffolk Vice Squad and Nassau Vice Squad, a second surprise raid was conducted on Bobby Mauro’s Amityville home after first obtaining a search warrant from a cooperating judge.

The follow-up investigation focused on allegations and evidence gleaned during the first search that authorities obtained. It showed that Mauro was still operating an extensive gambling business as well as a loansharking racket across Long Island.

Upon entering the Chadwick Court residence, police quickly discovered that Mauro was not at home. But they detained his wife Sandra and his brother Donald who was also inside the house while the police did an extensive search of the home for gambling and loanshark records and any other evidence of criminal activity.

The authorities retrieved various financial records but didn’t place anyone under arrest at that time in order to allow the investigation to continue so they could examine the confiscated records more closely back at police headquarters.

But by the following week, arrest warrants were issued for three people on criminal possession of usurious records after detectives determined that they had indeed found and documented loanshark records listing various transactions inside the Mauro household.

Placed under arrest was the main target of the probe, Robert (Bobby Blue Eyes) Mauro, 31 years old along with his younger brother, Donald A. Mauro, 27 years old, of 171 Blueberry Lane, Levittown.

Also arrested was Bobby Mauro’s wife, Sandra. They were arraigned in First District Court in Suffolk where each was charged with one misdemeanor count of possession of loan-shark records.

At the time of his arrest, the authorities publicly identified Mauro as a Cosa Nostra associate of the Joseph Colombo crime family.

On Thursday, March 6, 1975 - Robert Mauro was one of six suspects arrested by the Nassau District Attorney’s Office for heading up what a police spokesman described at the time as a large bookmaking ring that reportedly netted about $10,000,000 annually accepting bets from Queens and Nassau County residents on horse races and other sporting events.

According to the DA’s office, the three gamblers charged with felony counts of first-degree promoting gambling were identified as Robert Mauro, 36 years old at the time; Bernard Conti, 42, of Bethpage; and Harry Levy, 46, of Little Neck, Queens.

Three others were named as well including Anthony Naso, Robert DeLeo, and Gary Furio. They were each charged with misdemeanor counts of promoting gambling.

The men were arraigned in First District Court in Mineola. Mauro, Conti, and Levy were each held on a $5000 bail. Naso, DeLeo, and Furio, were held in $2500 bail each.

Fencing Some Stolen Goods

By 1975, Bobby Mauro’s name figured into yet another criminal investigation -a major federal investigation at that.

Senator John McClellan, who had gained prominence as the orchestrator of the now infamous 1960s “McClellan Hearings,” targeted hundreds of top mobsters with subpoenas for their command appearance before a U.S. Senate Subcommittee investigating organized crime in America, once again started a probe of the underworld.

But this time around, his focus was aimed at uncovering the mob’s deep penetration and fraudulent exploitation of the stolen securities industry.

His committee specifically targeted several dozen underworld figures named by two key convicted air-cargo thieves who had turned informant.

Heist men Jimmy Schaefer and Bobby Cudak both took turns naming those hoodlums and Cosa Nostra figures they said had “fenced” millions of dollars in stolen stocks and securities, jewels, diamonds, gold, furs, precious metals, credit cards, American Express Travelers Checks, bearer bonds, and other negotiable financial instruments for them over the years.

Jimmy Schafer and Bobby Cudak specifically spoke of two Nassau County-based Colombo hoodlums that they and William Ricchiuti all dealt with over the years named John Malizia and Robert (Bobby Blue Eyes) Mauro.

Mauro and Malizia were both named as being among the first mob figures the gang ever used for the disposal of their stolen loads.

Between 1968 and 1970, Mauro was said to have purchased many loads of expensive fur coats as well as gold, diamonds, various other expensive jewelry, and precious metals.

He and Malizia were said to have fenced most of the gang's early heists before they later made additional connections with other mob figures in Queens, Brooklyn, and New Jersey.

During the first year that Ricchiuti and Cudak and their gang operated at JFK Airport, a local bookie named Harvey Sapperstein became their conduit through which the gang sold Bobby Mauro most of their stolen loot which allegedly included furs, jewelry, diamonds, precious metals, and other heisted goods.

On one occasion, Cudak remembered that they had fenced a carload of full-length fur coats to Mauro for $3000 cash right on the spot.

Nothing would ever come from this Senate investigation though. It had been years since these criminal events had taken place and without any other supporting evidence Mauro, Malizia, and the other alleged “fences” were never prosecuted for these alleged activities.

Spending Time in the Can

During the late 1960s through the late 1970s, Bobby Mauro served a number of jail sentences mostly related to his activities as a gambler and shylock.

He was convicted a half-dozen times for bookmaking and usury and was imprisoned at the Suffolk County or Nassau County jails for short bids ranging from several months up to one year behind bars.

On several occasions, he made a deal with prosecutors through his longtime attorney Ernest J. Peace to serve his time on “weekends” so that he could ostensibly still be available to run his “legitimate” business during the week.

So, every Friday evening at the previously agreed upon time, of say 6 or 7 p.m., Mauro would turn himself in to the Sheriff at the Nassau County Correctional Facility in East Meadow.

He’d spend the rest of Friday night, all day and night Saturday and Sunday behind bars, then first thing each Monday morning at 7 a.m., Mauro would be released again under the guise of heading to his legitimate job of employment that his lawyer had previously listed with the court.

Over the years, he allied with many additional fellow Long Island mob figures including Colombo associates Rocco (Rocky the Rug) Lauria, Nicholas ( Nicky Iron-Shoes ) Botta, Frederick (Fat Freddy) DeGregorio, Robert (Bobby D) D’Andrea, and Jesse Smith.

After Franzese was imprisoned in 1970, and Falvo moved off the island and was away on business in Europe from the late 1960s until approximately 1975, Mauro started to become closer with several Gambino members such as soldiers Anthony (Tony) Zappi , Frank (Frankie Dap) Dapolito, and capo Carmine ( Charlie Wagons ) Fatico. He allegedly became especially close to Tony Zappi.

When Falvo reappeared on the scene by 1976, Mauro once again realigned with his old mentor and friend. Over the next decade or so, authorities would take note of their continued close affiliation.

Trying to Go Legit...or Semi-Legit

In 1977, Mauro and Falvo were said to have partnered in a gasoline station and repair shop in the town of Bethpage. Within a year, they also went into the retail produce business with a storefront they named Last Chance Farmers Market.

During this same time period, Mauro had taken over an Italian restaurant along Sunrise Highway in Wantagh named the Villa Chiara after the previous owner fell behind on a shylock loan. This became his new place of business and new daily hangout.

While operating the gasoline station in early 1978, the Nassau Rackets Squad obtained indictments and conducted yet another gambling sweep across the metropolitan area.

Picked up in the raids were numerous “KG,s” or known gamblers, including such well-known bookmakers as Vito Loiacono of Plainview and other professional gamblers in Queens and Brooklyn, including an old-time Gambino Family mafioso and gunman named Anthony (Tony) Carubia.

Nassau Detectives later noted that as they drove up to the General Gas Station to arrest Mauro, they observed him in the parking lot in deep conversation with Falvo, Bonanno soldier Sereno ( Bobby T ) Tartamella, and Colombo associates Robert (Bobby D) D’Andrea and Rocco Lauria, and several others hoods.

They immediately cuffed Mauro and placed him under arrest in the presence of his friends.

Both the gas station and produce market did poorly and were soon closed. But his next venture was a complete home run.

In partnership with various other investors, over the next several years, Bobby opened up a chain of Pudgie’s Fried Chicken shops.

Similar to a Kentucky Fried Chicken-styled fast-food takeout restaurant, within several years' time, Pudgie’s Chicken boasted over ten successful locations throughout Nassau, Suffolk, and Queens.

Originally named for Bobby’s brother-in-law, George Morgan, whose nickname was Pudgy, the partners ended up later selling the entire fast-food chain at a nice profit to a nationally known food company.

A Little Gasoline Tax Evasion

By the early 1980s, a brand new and very lucrative racket started to quickly develop on Long Island. It would later become national in scope. But during its early years, Long Island was its genesis and base.

Gasoline bootlegging was to become one of the most profitable underworld rackets since liquor bootlegging in the Roaring Twenties. The evasion of local, state, and federal taxes on the sale of gasoline would generate untold profits for New York’s Five Cosa Nostra Families.

But at the very heart of the racket was the Colombo mob. And within the Colombo family itself, the Franzese regime was the first to ever truly capitalize on the potential profits to be made.

Eventually, the other four families would all grab their piece of the pie, but first and foremost, the Colombo’s reined supreme.

The original illegal operators of this excise and sales tax-evasion scheme first approached Sonny Franzese for his help in keeping the wolves away from their door.

Several small-time hoodlums were attempting to shakedown and extort the original architect of the scheme, a conman named Larry Iorizzo, for a piece of his profits.

Franzese agreed to help, but before he could get started, the parole board revoked his federal parole for consorting with known criminals.

So, he did the next best thing. Sonny instructed his son Michael to step into the picture. The rest is mob history.

Over the next several years, Iorizzo and the Franzese regime used varying front men and phony “burn” companies to create a dizzying maze of interlocking “paper companies” in order to shuffle around the phony sale of millions upon millions of gallons of gasoline. They made breathtaking money!

Bobby Mauro also got involved in the bootleg gasoline business, albeit not on the same massive scale as Franzese and some others.

He dealt with a series of mob-connected gasoline distribution companies including OK Petroleum which was run by an associate of the Gambino and Lucchese mobs named John Mussachio and another mob-backed firm connected to a Genovese soldier.

Bobby Mauro eventually partnered in a gasoline distribution firm called Lebo Petroleum Company of Plainview. His frontman and partner allegedly included a local Jewish hoodlum associate of Mauro’s named Lenny Sudler.

The company name of Lebo was allegedly called that because the “Le” was for Lenny and the “Bo” was for Bobby.

Federal authorities suspect that the “Bo” also stood for Bobby Falvo. It was later thought that Mauro had approached his old friend and offered Falvo into the mix as a hidden partner if he would agree to be Mauro’s emissary and mob representative to help access the gasoline supply chain available only through the Franzese network.

After several years of operating in this manner, by mid-1984, the shit was really starting to hit the fan as the feds started closing in on the racket.

Federal excise-tax agents, IRS investigators, the combined resources of the Nassau-Suffolk District Attorney’s Offices, and the FBI had formed a special Gasoline Task Force to better investigate these multimillion-dollar tax-fraud schemes.

They started to dig deep into the true ownership of dozens of gasoline front companies used in the tax-evasion scheme.

Lebo Petroleum had dealt with a variety of fraudulent “burn” companies for the wholesale supply of gasoline over several years time not the least of which was CMC Distributors, a Franzese-backed front company that had as its principals a Colombo associate and future soldier by the name of Frank (Frankie Camp) Campione.

Fearful that he would now be pulled into this growing criminal investigation, Bobby Blue Eyes decided to take an extended hiatus down to Florida in order to make himself scarce.

Several federal grand juries on Long Island and another in Brooklyn were starting to subpoena hundreds of people for testimony. Mauro hightailed it down south and kept his head low.

Within several months' time, dozens upon dozens of tax-evasion suspects started getting indicted in a series of ongoing prosecutions by either the state or federal government or both.

Numerous members and associates of the Franzese crew as well as members and associates of the Genovese, Gambino, and Lucchese crews were arrested over the next several years time. Most were eventually tried, convicted, and jailed.

Hittin' a Home Run in the Florida Sun

As it turned out, neither Bobby Mauro nor any of his partners were ever pulled into the mix. They remained unscathed by the series of bootlegging indictments that came down the pike.

But by that point in time, Mauro had grown so accustomed to Florida that he actually preferred it to New York which he’d grown tired of over the years.

He had since divorced his first wife and had since remarried, so they decided to permanently relocate to the New Port Richey area of the Sunshine State. His grown children had also relocated down to Florida years earlier. So, it was a comfortable fit for him.

Bobby Blue Eyes

Once established in New Port Richey, Bobby was said to have first gone into the wholesale gold business down there. He would buy various type designs of gold rope chains in bulk by the pound that he then resold wholesale at various flea markets and jewelry stores around Florida.

He later parlayed his considerable success into several retail jewelry stores of his own, operating under the name of Rossi Gold, Inc., located at 10919 US Highway 19, Port Richey.

He later further expanded this growing business by opening up several lucrative pawn brokerage shops that provided short-term loans to needy borrowers at extremely high-interest rates, all backed up with jewelry as solid collateral.

He named the company Premier Pawn & Jewelry Exchange, Inc., one of which he operated from 10606 Devco Drive, Port Richey.

The interest rates Mauro charged actually exceeded those he had been once been sent to prison for years earlier…But the big difference this time around was that the state of Florida allowed lending laws with such legally high-interest rates.

It was all “nice and legal” as they say. He did very well.

Robert (Bobby Blue Eyes) Mauro comfortably remained in Florida for the remainder of his life. He was believed to have passed away around 2012-2013 or so. Mauro was approximately 73 years old.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Colombo Hood Robert (Bobby Blue Eyes) Mauro and the Gasoline Tax Scam

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Colombo Hood Robert (Bobby Blue Eyes) Mauro and the Gasoline Tax Scam

Unlock This Door to the Underworld

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