Rudolph (Rudy) Farone

Rudolph (Rudy) Farone was a key figure in Brooklyn’s mafia underworld tied to Frank Cocchiaro and the Decavalcante Family. Born in Brooklyn to Italian immigrant parents, Farone ran gambling rackets and had a well-earned reputation as a strong-arm man and mob enforcer. For more information, please see The DeCavalcante: "Brooklyn Crew."

Rudolph (Rudy) Farone -- aka Tootsie, Rudolph Edward Farone (TN), and, in later years, Uncle Rudy to fellow mafiosi -- was born in Brooklyn as Rudolph Edward Farone, on September 11, 1928, in Brooklyn to Italian immigrants Amilio (Emil) and Anna Farone, who were Italian immigrants. (Other documents list his date of birth as November 9, 1928).

The family first resided at 1428 7th Street and later moved to 109 Fifth Avenue, South Brooklyn.

Still later, they moved down the block to #423. After Rudy got married in 1950 to a childhood sweetheart, he and his wife soon gave birth to three children.

By the late 1950s, they resided on the first floor of a two-family residence at 1697 East 52nd Street, off Avenue O, in Brooklyn. His in-laws, who resided on the second floor, owned and shared this residence.

NYCPD B-227412, FBI #106192A, NYS-DCI #304517X

FBI agents who were surveilling Farone in 1965 noted that he owned a 1964 dark blue, 4-door Pontiac Bonneville. He later acquired a second automobile, a black 1965 Pontiac model.

In those early years, Farone’s nemesis was most often FBI Special Agent Mario J. Simeone, Jr., a young agent of Italian-American ethnicity who was assigned to Farone and who made it his mission to "clock" his suspect every chance he got to learn his moments and modus operandi.

Rudolph (Rudy) Farone (Photo Credit: lcnbios.blogspot.com)

For instance, they learned that Farone’s mother, Anna, had died when he was only six years old. He had a tattoo in honor of her on his right arm that was a picture of a Catholic cross, with an anchor and heart beneath it, with an inscription that read, “In Memory of My Dear Mother.”

Another intelligence tidbit was the circumstances surrounding Farone’s first arrest for attempted burglary. He and two accomplices were nabbed as they dropped into a welding shop through the skylight. A responding police officer shot and killed Frank Ireno, one of Rudy’s two burglary buddies.

The other kid, Nicholas Volpe, was arrested along with Farone. These little things helped with the psychological profiles of suspects when doing investigations that Simeone learned in his training at Quantico, Virginia, as a young agent.

It basically became a young Italian vs. a young Italian who happened to be on opposite ends of the justice system. Both men were trying to be the best at their chosen line of work.

The New York Police Department’s criminal record for Farone dated to at least the early 1940s and was documented as follows:

1942 -- juvenile delinquency (put on probation) 1944 -- wayward minor, burglary of a vacant building (probation) 1948 -- wayward minor (probation) 1948 -- attempted burglary and possession of burglar tools (dismissed) 1949 -- attempted burglary (2.5 to 5 years at Elmira State Prison) 1951 -- paroled 1959 -- policy (acquitted) 1959 -- consorting with known criminals (acquitted) 1960 -- bookmaking (disposition not recorded) 1967 -- illegal gun possession 1971 -- felonious assault 1971 -- promoting a gambling business, possession of policy slips 1986 -- RICO conspiracy, racketeering, gambling, extortion, narcotics trafficking

By the early 1960s, authorities described Farone as being active in the gambling rackets, especially policy-numbers. He was also said to be actively engaged as a "fence" for stolen goods heisted off the Brooklyn docks and the various trucking company warehouses that dotted the waterfront. For instance, in 1964, informants said he was selling two cases of Ronson-brand shavers for $10 each.

In 1962, he was known to operate his rackets out of a private neighborhood social club located at Carroll Street and Third Avenue in the South Brooklyn area around the Gowanus Canal. Augmenting his income, he was said to have bought into Club 18, located along 18th Street at 17th Avenue, as an undisclosed owner.

This neighborhood watering hole soon became another hangout for the fledgling Mafia "associate." He later opened another notorious mob social club between Second and Third Streets on Fifth Avenue. Farone was said to have also formerly been a hidden partner of both the 1717 Club, on 86th Street and 17th Avenue, and the Knock-Knock Club, on New Utrecht Avenue, both in Brooklyn.

Affiliating with the Colombos and DeCavalcantes

Rudy most often hung around and operated out of Brooklyn. He ran rackets and associated with mob guys throughout Kings County but could usually be found in the South Brooklyn, Coney Island, and Bensonhurst sections.

He would eventually affiliate with a New York-based faction of New Jersey’s DeCavalcante Family . But early on in his underworld career, Farone mobbed up with members of the Joe Colombo Family.

He had grown up and gone to grade school with many young hoodlums like himself, most of whom would one day become soldiers in the old Joseph Profaci Family, the resident Cosa Nostra Family in control of Rudy’s neighborhood growing up. By the time he was knocking around in the underworld, this borgata was known as the Colombo Family.

But somewhere along the way, Rudy became friendly with Sam DeCavalcante’s crew out in Jersey, and he chose to tie his racketeer wagon to that borgata permanently. In truth, there was a well-established DeCavalcante crew in his neck of the woods. How this came to be is anyone's guess, but its resident Brooklyn-based capo di decina was known to be another up-and-coming South Brooklyn hood named Frank (Big Frankie) Cocchiaro.

During the late 1950s, the FBI documented Cocchiaro as overseeing a crew of young hoodlums that were based in Brooklyn and a few others in Queens as well. Aspiring hoods with names like Louie Telese, Umberto (Vadoo) Gallo , his brother Angelo Gallo , Robert (DB) DiBernardo, and Cocchiaro’s own younger brother Carmelo (Milio) Cocchiaro , who lived in the Jackson Heights section.

A smiling Frank Cocchiaro.

Except for DiBernardo, who later joined up with the Gambinos, years later, all the others would eventually become inducted members of the DeCavalcante Family.

Another fellow who originally came out of Brooklyn but later relocated to the Astoria section of Queens, where he helped develop a second regime for the DeCavalcante Family in Queens County , was Joseph (Uncle Joe) Giacobbe.

Giacobbe was born in 1923 and had been a soldier and borgata operative for decades. He resided at 1701 East 52nd Street, Brooklyn, before migrating to Queens with his mafioso brother Lenny, and their hoodlum nephews.

In those days, Joe Giacobbe had been installed through a mob "hook" at the Newspaper Workers & Delivery Union into a solid position at The New York Times , located at 229 West 43rd Street, on Manhattan’s Westside. It was a sweet no-show job with full union benefits.

A Very Active Hoodlum

In the mid-1960s, informants reported that although not yet a "button man," Farone was a very active hoodlum. One informer told his FBI handler that Farone was known around town as a bookmaker and shylock and operated out of his Oceanside Boys Social Club at 320 5th Avenue and a few doors down at Danny Jordon’s Bar and Grill, located at 299 5th Avenue.

This social club was a notorious mafia hangout. Numerous mafiosi were members and known to frequent the storefront daily. The bar and grill a few doors down was another known mob hangout. The owner-operator of the place was Daniel Jordon, a roly-poly of a man at 5 feet 3 inches tall, who tipped the scales at over 200 pounds.

Jordon had once been convicted of bookmaking and operating a dice game, and his tavern was thought by the local 11th Division of the NYCPD to house a bookmaking operation. Jordan was known to the NYPD as # B-14336, and they listed him as a “KG” (known gambler).

As they put Rudy under surveillance more and more, the FBI soon came to realize that Farone had the entire block of 5th Avenue on lockdown. He was also a near-daily presence at the nearby Rex Fish Market, owned by his mob buddies, Frank Betulia and Carlo Silinonte. The market was located at 278 5th Ave., only a few doors down from the Oceanside Boys Club and Jordon’s Bar.

The building that housed the bar was owned by Stephen Silinonte, Carlo's brother and a cousin of infamous family boss Joseph (Joe Bananas) Bonanno. Both Silinontes were considered mob associates, and the fish store was strongly suspected of being a numbers drop.

By that time, the FBI had decided to open up a full-blown anti-racketeering case on Rudy Farone, 92-Case # 8831. They also started coordinating with their FBI counterparts in their Newark, NJ, office.

This was done to tie into a growing investigation against boss Sam (Sam the Plumber) DeCavalcante. It would soon become a full-court press against the Garden State mobsters and their New York affiliates.

With this weekly surveillance, Farone was now being increasingly connected to other local hoodlums, such as Ignatius DeBella, a Gambino figure employed down at Pier #3 on the Manhattan docks.

Another was top Profaci hoodlum Carmine (Junior) Persico , who, of course, would rise to the top of the Colombo Family in later years. Farone was also seen with rebel faction leaders Larry and Joey Gallo on several occasions.

Carmine Persico

Another friend of the Colombos was soldier Jerome D’Agati. The FBI also noted that Farone had become extremely close to Frank Cocchiaro, who, by this time, had been well documented as a capo with the DeCavalcantes.

They started logging additional meeting places of the mobsters and the various social clubs and locations where they did their business. One was the Garfield Glass Corporation in Red Hook, at 31 Garfield Place.

By 1967, the 37-year-old Farone was listing his employment with Rex Fish Market. He was there daily, so his constant presence seemed like a normal occurrence to anyone paying attention. An official check of company records revealed that Rudolph Farone was listed as the vice president of the company

Additionally, the FBI documented that by August 1967, Rudy was collecting a paycheck of $100 weekly gross earnings from the Garfield Glass Company.

But his alleged employment at Garfield Glass was only a front for income tax purposes so he could show good 'ole Uncle Sam that he was gainfully employed to substantiate his lifestyle and cover up his illegal activities.

Rudy would allegedly go to Garfield monthly to collect his check, sign the back of it, and hand it right back to the company.

A Jewish friend named Nathan Stern owned Garfield and did Rudy a favor. From 1962 through 1966, Farone declared between $4,000 and $5,200 a year on his tax return.

Upgraded by the FBI

By this time, the feds had upgraded their criminal file on Farone.

They documented his expanding involvement with bookmaking, policy, card and dice games at gambling clubs, shylocking, extortion, various heists and thefts off the waterfront piers, the fencing of those stolen and hijacked goods, and labor union racketeering along the Brooklyn and Manhattan waterfronts. He was a very ambitious hoodlum, to put it mildly. The feds also noted that Rudy Farone had the supposedly well-earned reputation of a strong-arm man and mob enforcer.

By this time, Farone was becoming more deeply involved in pier thefts at the South Brooklyn docks, which were located only a few blocks away from his social club and were considered within his general purview as a racketeer and up-and-coming mafioso.

Several other important members of the DeCavalcante crew were actually employed as longshoremen and were card-carrying members of the International Longshoreman's Union, Local # 1814 (Independent).

DeCavalcante soldiers that doubled as longshoremen included Angelo and Umberto (Vadoo) Gallo, and their son Umberto Jr. Family capo Vincent (Jimmy the Gent) Rotondo , who led the Brooklyn faction in the 1980s, would later rise even higher in the borgata as underboss. Rotondo also doubled in his "official" job as "organizer" for Longshoreman's Local #1814.

Other ‘associates’ included Giovanni Pugliese, who was employed by the Pittston Stevedoring Company, and Dominick Perrone, who was a stevedore and checker on the docks.

In 1968, the FBI started probing the March 1967 theft of three cases of .22 caliber Luger automatic pistols stolen off the docks from the Eastern Express Company of Akron, Ohio. Because it was a "theft from interstate shipment," it gave the feds automatic jurisdiction over the case. Rudy had been arrested by the NYCPD along with three others on August 17, 1967, in possession of a .22 caliber Luger.

They had all been picked up inside the Rex Fish Market. At the time the cops swooped in, they discovered the gun.

The case started when detectives of the Patrol Borough Brooklyn South, connected to the 78th Precinct, entered the fish market with a search warrant. They were looking for policy slips, bookmaking bet records, and other gambling paraphernalia.

During the search, they came upon the following weapons hidden in a wall panel: one .22 caliber Ruger pistol, one .22 caliber Marlin rifle, one .12 gauge shotgun, two boxes of .22 caliber ammunition, and twelve shotgun shells.

The suspects were subsequently arrested, and each charged with violation of NYS-Penal Law #1897, illegal possession of a handgun and other weapons. But because they were found inside the store itself and not on anyone per se, the case was eventually dismissed on November 16, 1967, in Brooklyn Criminal Court because of a lack of evidence as to who the weapons actually belonged to.

But a month later, Silinonte was rearrested on various promoting gambling charges for records they later also found during that search. The FBI decided to probe deeper into this interstate theft case to determine who was involved, but eventually, they were told by FBI higher-ups to drop the matter because it was a weak case.

Around this same time, in 1968, informants reported to the FBI that Rudy Farone had become a "made" guy and was now operating and being afforded the respect on the streets of a formally "inducted" soldier of the Simone DeCavalcante Family.

The agents noticed this as they watched him interact at the May 20, 1968, wake for Larry Gallo at Bensonhurst’s Prospero Funeral Home, 2444 86th Street, Brooklyn.

Informants also said that Rudy was now active in a large card game he operated on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings inside a private home on 5th Avenue, around Garfield Place. The exact location could not be determined.

He was said to also be so big in the numbers business that he had about 40 to 50 runners. Some of his numbers locations where policy slips were sold were said to be the Picture Box Bar on McDonald Avenue, the Key Food Store, and an ice cream factory in that same area. He also became a regular at another mob watering hole, the Intermission Bar, on New Utrecht Avenue.

The feds also learned from their street sources that Carmine Persico and Rudy didn’t get along. In fact, they actually hated each other. It was said that Persico would have loved to clip Farone, but his hands were tied because he was a made guy connected with another crew.

Still in the Cross Hairs

Over the next several years, the feds would continue to keep Farone in their crosshairs. The Brooklyn Strike Force made him a prime target. He was considered to be the principal operator of a large numbers and horse bookmaking ring based out of the Rex Fish Store, which was thought to be used at the primary drop-off and bank for the network’s runners.

In December 1971, they nabbed him again. In a funny twist of an arrest, Brooklyn District Attorney Eugene Gold’s office picked up and charged Rudy for heading what was described as a $4,000,000-a-year policy ring.

The 43-year-old mafia soldier was charged as the overall "kingpin" and hit with several counts of gambling and felonious assault. The affair started with a weird incident on a Brooklyn street corner.

A 19-year-old man named Tommy Clementi spotted three men roughing up another older guy at 3 a.m. inside a White Castle Restaurant. He approached them, coming to the aid of the older gentleman. When he tried intervening, the three fellas chased him down the block and proceeded to give him a beating. After they left, Clementi called the police.

After a cop showed up, the two started combing nearby streets, looking for the assailants. The kid soon spotted Farone stepping into his Cadillac a few blocks away, and the cop arrested him for the assault.

But this was only the start of Rudy’s problems. After learning who they had in custody, a grand jury was convened to investigate the incident. It eventually led to the unraveling of Farone’s gambling operation, which was operating in the Bay Ridge/Bensonhurst sections of the borough.

Rudy Farone

Rudy would continue operating as a valued DeCavalcante soldier in the coming years. He remained one of their key operatives in the New York City regime under Cocchiaro.

After Big Frank relocated down to South Florida, Brooklyn native Jimmy Rotondo was elevated to serve as caporegime over the crew and became Farone's direct superior.

Farone also started operating more in Staten Island, which had become more developed over the years as more and more Brooklynites relocated there.

By the 1980s, the FBI learned that Farone had also been elevated to a "capo" position. Informants reported that he had expanded his rackets to the neighboring sections of Park Slope, Coney Island, and Staten Island. He was also suspected of engaging in criminal activity (narcotics) in the states of Utah and California through several of his crew associates.

He was now associating weekly with such DeCavalcante heavyweights as capos Charles (Charlie Ears) Majuri, Louis (Fat Lou) Larasso, consigliere Steve (The Truck Driver) Vitabile, and boss John Riggi Sr., himself. But he essentially always remained a street hood active in the more blue-collar rackets of the underworld.

He was never a "finesse" guy who cared to engage in more white-collar type operations. During this same time period, the feds came-a-calling again.

In 1986, he was charged along with soldier Gaetano (Corky) Vastola and 19 others in a sweeping 119-count federal RICO indictment alleging “a classic racketeering case of gambling, loansharking, extortion, and narcotics trafficking.”

A highly-placed mob informant named Anthony Rotondo, the son of murdered capo Jimmy Rotondo, who himself had become a mafia member and risen to a capos post implicated Farone in a mob hit that was allegedly performed in the basement of his Mill Basin home in 1989.

The victim was DeCavalcante associate Joseph Garofano. But because of rules of evidence or the lack thereof, Farone was never charged with this homicide.

Rudy Farone died in 1997 at the relatively young age of 68.

Until next time..."The Other Guy"

Rudolph (Rudy) Farone

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