Big Freddy Bertolotti - A New York City Public Enemy

Big Freddy Bertolotti was a notorious underworld gunman and hoodlum with a long arrest record. He was affiliated with not only the Italian Mafia in New York but also several Jewish gangsters as well.

It seems Bertolotti was active in nearly any given racket where he felt he could turn a buck. And he was involved with many, including loansharking and murder.

So much so that during Fiorello LaGuardia’s long tenure as Mayor of New York City, he went so far as to declare Big Freddy Bertolotti a habitual criminal and a Public Enemy of the city.

Big Freddy Bertolotti - Early Life

Frederico (Big Freddy) Bertolotti - aka “Frederick Bertolotti,” “Fred Bertolotti,” and “Fred Bartalotti” - was born in 1907. He grew up in New York during the 1910s and 1920s generally residing and operating from Queens County.

As a kid, he lived with his family at 114 Judge Street, Elmhurst. Into adulthood, over the years, he lived variously at 45-35 44th Street, in the Sunnyside section (1950), and at 39-20 Greenpoint Avenue, Long Island City (1962).

Fred (Big Freddy) Bertolotti

Bertolotti was a notorious underworld gunman and hoodlum with a long arrest record.

Starting by at least the year 1925, at the tender age of only seventeen, he was nabbed for a murder. He beat that case but soon began chalking up more arrests.

And Extensive "Yellow Sheet"

Over the years, he accumulated an extensive “yellow sheet” with a laundry list of offenses for such crimes as homicide, assault, grand larceny, felonious assault, possession of a loaded revolver, disorderly conduct, assault and robbery, federal bank robbery, vagrancy (twice), usury and conspiracy (twice), extortion (twice), gambling, criminally receiving stolen goods, and income tax-evasion investigation.

It seems that Big Freddy Bertolotti was active in nearly any given racket where he felt he could turn a buck.

Over the years, he was connected to a major armed robbery at the Ambassador Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

For that little foray back in 1927, he was convicted and received a sentence of 2.5 to 5 years that he later served at Sing Sing State Penitentiary up in Ossining, New York.

Waterfront Hoodlum

Then in 1942, he was identified by Manhattan District Attorney Frank Hogan as a major waterfront hoodlum who was operating a thriving loanshark racket on the Lower East Side piers by loaning shylock money to needy longshoremen.

Again, he was convicted, and again, he was jailed for one year as a result of this usury and extortion case.

Back to back with his usury arrest, under a specific directive from then NYC Mayor Fiorello La Guardia himself, city police detectives started a vigilant campaign to get “Big Freddy” on any charge they could make stick regardless of how minor the charge might be.

So, that same year of 1942, he was picked up at least three more times. Once on a vagrancy charge.

Next, on a charge of criminal receiving and criminal possession of stolen property for acting as the “fence” who disposed of a stolen diamond ring that was traced back to him.

And lastly, Freddy was picked on for “criminal investigation” regarding a tax evasion case the Mayor was trying to make against him.

The Public Enemy

Through their continuing criminal probes of Bertolotti and his activities in 1942, the New York Police Department discovered something interesting.

Although he was generally a Queens-based gangster, Freddy was found to be residing in a fashionable (and expensive) Upper East Side townhouse apartment with a lady friend.

During La Guardia’s long tenure as Mayor of New York City, he went so far as to declare Freddy Bertolotti a habitual criminal and a Public Enemy of the city.

Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia

“The Little Flower” (who was often referred to by wiseguys as “The Little Stinkweed”) officially banished Big Freddy from New York City for several years after he was put on a “purge list” drawn up by the mayor.

The Mayor gave direct orders to his police department to arrest Bertolotti “on sight” if they should ever spot him within the city limits.

The Loanshark

In 1951, he was named as one of five hoodlums indicted for yet another criminal case regarding his activities as a loanshark.

The five defendants were charged with multiple counts of criminal usury, conspiracy, violations of the NYS banking laws, and extortion.

Authorities in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said that Bertolotti and his buddies ran a huge $250,000 loanshark racket from a trucking business “front” that served as the ring’s headquarters.

District Attorney Frank Hogan named the Abrams Delivery Service, at 308 W. 44th Street, Manhattan, as the usury ring’s base and headquarters.

Notorious Ex-Convict

Hogan described Bertolotti at the time of this arrest as a notorious ex-convict, gunman, and strong-arm man for the New York underworld.

During several initial police raids in coordination with these arrests, the authorities discovered extensive usury records and other incriminating notations of loanshark activity in various ledger books they seized.

The books were seized as evidence when they raided the Mahopac residence of one of Bertolotti’s trucking partners, Abe Abrams, in Upstate New York.

Abrams was accused by authorities of maintaining the loan shark ring’s ledger of its extensive illegal loan accounts and the “vigorish” payments due each week.

On The List Again

More than a decade later, in 1963, Bertolotti’s name made another dubious list again.

This time around it was the Queens County District Attorney who included Bertolotti among 32 mafiosi he released on a list made public to the daily tabloids.

The D.A said the list represented the “top hoodlums” operating within his county. He considered Big Freddy Bertolotti to be among those top hoods.

Back in those days law enforcement authorities never actually mentioned which particular “crew” or “family” they believed Bertolotti was specifically a member of.

But judging from the neighborhoods he grew up in and the circles he operated in, my opinion is that “Big Freddy” was most likely an “official” member of the Genovese or Gambino families.

And if not an official inducted soldier, one thing is for sure, Freddy was definitely an important “associate member” of a Mafia crew.

A Fair Share of Notoriety for Big Freddy

Although he was a known Italian gangster and mafioso through and through, during his lifetime, Freddy seems to have often gravitated and closely allied himself with various Jewish hoodlums, for the most part, as his criminal partners and daily associates.

The men included a convicted shylock and ex-convict named Maximillian (Maxie) Rothman, Abraham (Abbey) Abrams, Israel (Jack Rosen) Schiff, known bookmaker Sidney (Little Sid) Bornstein, Samuel Lenf, and George Yates.

No more was heard from Big Freddy after the mid-1960s. At least not publicly that could be ascertained.

There was also no official listing of an obituary for him.

It seems that after making such a splash across newspapers for decades, by the time he was in his sixties, he had either slowed down or quietly passed away.

Regardless of his final outcome, during his time as a mobster, Frederick (Big Freddy) Bertolotti had more than his fair share of notoriety and action.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

The Top Hood Declared A Public Enemy – Frederico (Big Freddy) Bertolotti

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