WHAT was the FEARED Neil Dellacroce REALLY Like? – HT

 

 

 

Was feared Gambino mobster Neil dero really as close with John Goty as we are led to believe? Let’s check it out. I’m James Gladwish and welcome to OC Shorts, bringing you detailed historical snapshots of the American Mafia and other organized crime. Feel free to subscribe if you like that sort of thing.

 I sat down with former Gambino Crime Family Associate Anthony Rigo Jr. son of respected Gambino family mobster Anthony Fat Andy Reiano to discuss what the relationships between several well-known mobsters was really like. Anthony Reiano Jr. has an excellent YouTube channel, Reformed Gangsters, which is well worth checking out. Thanks, Anthony, for coming on again.

Um, I’d like to talk a little bit about relationships between some of the mobsters that you know and obviously one of the most famous relationships that people talk about is the Delro and Goty relationship and that they were obviously they were very close is is what we all told. Was it always like that? I mean did did did they ever have fallings out? I mean what’s your understanding of it because you were around that quite a lot. Yeah.

 From when I first went to the Ravenite in the when I was a kid, he they were all, you know, it’s funny because they always talk about uh Neil as very stirring and these dead eyes and sharp eyes and everything. You know, he never he never appeared that way to me. He always was had a smile on. He was and you know, he was very close to guy, but he was close to a lot of guys.

 He treated a lot of guys back then in in the Ravenite, you know, very well. John, Angelo, Nikki, Lenny, Tony Lee, my father. He was he was very friendly in the and open in the Raven Night. He would always sit in the back and he always played pinole with a smile on his face there. Every Saturday they played pinole all day for $50 numbers.

 But he was very close to John as time went on. You could see they huddled a lot. He there was a lot more conversations that he had with John and Angelo. I would say like private conversations than he had with other members when I was at the Raven Night. I would he always had more private conversations with with John and Angelo than he had with let’s say even my old man or my father or Nikki, but he was close to everybody.

 But they had a special relationship. Don’t forget Angelo was related to him.  Yeah.  So, you know, so that made it a little special and John had a lot of potential. You know, John was very sharp, likable guy. You know, when Neil, if Neil told John, I needed I need to go get a suit. The next thing you know, there would be a guy coming into the Ravenite with a rack with 20 suits on it.

 You know, like it was or Neil would say, I got to replace the TV in the Raven Night. Boom. The next hour someone would come in with a brand new TV. You know, it was so, you know, John knew what he was doing.  But you’re right there because I think it was we got delicate. I think it was Ralph Seno, the the former NYPD detective who said that, you know, there’s only two two guys who’d really scared him.

 And he said it was Dela Croach and Galante with their eyes. But you’re saying, you know, obviously he was a very serious guy, but he was actually very affable as well with people, right? You just don’t see that side of it.  Yeah. And when he was in the Raven Night, he enjoyed being in the Raven Night. He enjoyed playing Pinole.

 He enjoyed drinking a little while. He used to I never He He used to go there was this place in Manhattan called Jimmy Wetson’s. It was like a piano bar. That’s where he went at night with his girl with, you know, Joe the cat would go with his girl and they would go there and and drink and listen to music.

 So he was a very he was he was fine at the Raven Night. He wasn’t scary to me. I mean, even though he threatened to break my fingers when when he had to sign all them tabs when me and Buddy got in trouble, but he was uh he was always well-dressed, stern, don’t get me wrong, you know, always great, good posture, very stern, but you know, playing cards, talking, laughing, you know, uh playing bet numbers.

 But you know when it was when but he would have serious conversations you would know like when Roy Deo would come he would come on a Saturday um he would come and talk to Neil Greg de Palmer would come and talk to Neil but a lot but most of the times when I but he did huddle a lot with Angelo and John more than anybody else outside the Ravenite like on mobile street that I that I would say that I saw him do that more so with them than other people.

 Well, that’s interesting you mentioned Deo because um obviously he he had to report in and everything like that like the others. What was the talk of him? I mean, what did your father was what did your father think of the Mayo? Did he have much knowledge of him at the time?  Yeah. I mean, we I I went to the Gemini bar with my father and Tony Lee a few times.

 My father was good friends with him. You know, he comes from a part of Brooklyn where there was this other guy Rocky was another maid guy and this other guy Danny Noles legs. He was another made guy. He actually lost his legs in World War II. Um, and that they had a whole crew there and my old man, my father and Tony were very friendly with them.

 But when he walked in the Raven, he always, it always was on a Saturday and he always had a suit on and he always came by himself. Whenever I saw him, he was alone. He would come in and actually you could feel like a little bit of the atmosphere changed. Everybody knew that he did a lot of work. Everybody knew he was, you know, my my father never actually said he’s a crazy killer, but my father did tell me that he did a lot of work and that meant, you know, he did do a lot of work meant killing people.

 But, uh, he always would come in alone. He was another guy would come in, go in the back, he would talk to Neil, and then he would leave. He would not stay long, maybe half hour, an hour tops, and he would go have a couple of espresso, talk to Neil, and and he would leave always by himself. always by himself, always dressed and always on a Saturday.

 When I was there on I only saw him there on Saturdays.  Okay. So, if we um kind of look at some of the kind of other relationships um your father and Goty, you know, they have a good close relationship.  Okay. That’s a that’s a that’s a good story. So, when John was a teenager, like I said earlier, he had friction with Nikki Karazza. Yeah.

 I mean, they had literally fist fights. I mean they they they threw down that John’s crew and Nikki’s crew did not like each other. There were stabbings. There were shootings. I mean they were like at a mini war because Nikki because of Nikki’s personality and John’s personality in East New York as teenagers who wanted to be the main guy.

So there was a lot of friction. And my father always said that if Nikki and John were friends, John, they would have been with Fat Andy and Tony Lee, not with Charlie. They only went with Charlie because they were beefing with Nikki.  Yeah.  So, there’s a whole big thing there. And and when they were when he was younger, his relationship was not good with my father.

 Genie got used to always tell me when him and he used to make me laugh. You say, “When me and my brother John were kids and we ran into your father, we didn’t know if we should shake his hand or duck.” He that’s what he used to tell me because, you know, you got to understand, fat Andy was the gangster in East New York back then.

 So, all these young guys, they looked up to him. But as the years went on, their relationship became very very good. I mean very very good. When John, you know, after John became maid, um I used to go to Richie’s, you know, Richie Gotti had a cafe around the corner from the Bergen. They used to always go in there, have you know, uh, you know, hang out.

 The their relationship totally changed as John got older. Um to and and and my f my father’s relationship with Angelo Quack was amazing.  Okay. They had a great rel. Angelo was my father’s main source of information. Angelo Angelo loved my father. So, it it it evolved. Their relationship evolved. It’s funny cuz after John became the boss, we would go visit my father in prison, me and Tony Lee, and Tony would tell him things that were going on in the family, how some things John did really well. And he was really, he was

an intelligent guy, John. I mean, you know, people don’t understand. This guy was was really intelligent. This guy used to read the dictionary. I mean, come on. You know, he was he was and Tony would tell my old man, my father something and my father would go, “Is this the same John Godi we’re talking about from East New York?” And they used to laugh about it.

 So they they had a good relationship at the end. Even to the point where when I was in school killed, a couple of wise guys came down from MCC from where John was housed when he was fighting the case after Sammy flipped. And John had commented to a couple of them and and they told me that John made comments that if Fat Andy was home, this wouldn’t have happened to me.

 Okay.  Yeah. Even in there’s a tape I just listened to the other day. someone sent me of John in prison with his son Junior because at one point John was on the verge of getting transferred before they diagnosed him with the cancer. Yeah. He So um because they weren’t going to keep him there forever in where he was in Illinois.

 And in on the visit, he’s actually tells his son, “Yeah, uh uh uh I I I I would like to go to Allenwood because Fat Andy’s there and and and and Arnold’s there and Funsy’s there, but my father’s name came out of his mouth first.” And another thing people missed, if you watch Get Gotti, there’s a tape they play in Get Gotti where John’s telling somebody, “I’m I’m I’m like 50 Andes.

” And there’s only one Andy he was talking about and that was fat Andy. I’m like 50 Andes. I’m like 50. This guy, you know, he’s he’s comparing himself to all these big gangsters. But you know, Andy was the first I’m like 50 Andes, you know, so he they had a good relationship.  Um, so obviously we we’ve discussed this before.

Your your father and Delro were very close, you know, pretty much they came up together similar times, but did they ever have fallings out at all?  Yes, they had a big falling out, I think. And I so when after Neil became the under boss, um the underboss of Chicago came to New York and Neil took him out for dinner and he was with a couple of his guys and Neil took Frankie Martin, my father, um I think Charlie might have been there, a couple of guys were there and and now my father’s and Neil’s relationship was really good. like like they you know

came up together. They put their lives on the line together after Albert Anastasia got assassinated. So they had they had a really good relationship and and um so they were out with the under boss of Chicago and um they were drinking of course and my father started like breaking balls like you know [ __ ] around you know talking you know and this and he hated and he always cursed this guy and he as he’s telling the story he goes and this freak effing bum from Chicago turns around and tells Neil that’s how you let your guys talk

to you and Neil got embarrassed and he reprimanded my father at the table and they embarrassed my father at the table like shut your mouth, you know, and and and they and when they went outside the the the restaurant and the guys from Chicago left, they my they started my father told Neil like, “What do you, you know, how did you say that to me?” And they actually went nose tonose and Frankie Martin broke it up  like they actually almost had a fist fight.

 They went nose ton-nose and and Frankie Martin broke it up and they left. The next morning, my father got up early and he went to this Ravenite by himself and he was standing and Neil lived across the street at the time with his wife and buddy and uh and and my father waited for Neil to come out of the house.

 And when Neil came out of the house, my father said, you know, what are we going to do? You know, my father went there to die. Like he said, what are we going to do? and Neil put his arms around him and said, “Forget it. I’ll always be your captain.” And and they went inside and that was the end of it. But my father always told me that Neil always had that in the back of his head.

 That was the that outside of that, their relationship was was good.  Okay.  Well, sticking with Delo a bit. I mean, there’s a famous photo of I think it’s Joe Watts, Frankie Deico, and Paul Castellano. Obviously, Joe Watt’s a very powerful kind of associate. Um, what was his relationship like with Dela Croach? I mean, you don’t hear too much about that.

 You know, I Joe Watts, you know, I he very rarely was around Neil in my presence. I mean, he he sort of became really prevalent when John became the boss. I mean, he I don’t even remember seeing him much in the Ravenite when Neil was alive. I mean, he was around. He was in Staten Island. I mean, we all knew he had a ton of money.

 Um, you know, when John became a captain, he was, you know, he was making money, you know, with the phone cards and all that other stuff. He had he had a he had a lumber yard. I know that he had a big multi-million dollar lumber yard, but he he actually started he was more around more when John became the boss.

 And Tony Lee never liked him.  Okay.  Joe Watts because Tony Lee was very old school. And when they killed when they killed um Joe Butch’s cousin, Tony Lee was very close to to Joe Butch’s cousin and Joe Watts was in on that hit. And Tony Lee always felt, as crazy as it as it sounds, that made guys, if they hadn’t died, they should have died at the hands of made guys or guys that were going to be made, like up like high-end associates that were under  Yeah.

 But he always felt that it was a a slight Joe Watts being allowed to kill made guy. So he never really liked Joe and he didn’t like the fact that Joe Watts had permission to sit down with the with the captains, but that was all John’s doing. John loved Joe Watts cuz don’t forget Joe Watts was giving John big fat envelopes like that full of money.

 So you know he loved Joe Watts and he he and he actually put word out that Joe Watts was supposed to be respected like a captain. And when you went to weddings, so when you went to a wedding, they always had one big table for the captains. And John and Joe Watts sat at the table with the captains and Tony Lee would curse under his breath.

Look at this guy sitting with the captains. He would, you know, it would bother them. But, you know, I like Joe Watts. He always treated me well. The last time I saw Joe Watts was there was a club in Manhattan called Rouge. You know, not it was I didn’t own it, but it was called Rouge. And uh it was right before I went to prison and he was in there with tough Tony Corona from from uh Parkside.

 That’s another guy that was up and coming that I knew was going to be big. Tough Tony. Tough Tony. He was a really good guy. They were together drinking martinis and I sat with them for a little while and that was the last time I saw Joe Watts. But he was a he was very capable. Some guys liked him, some guys didn’t. Feared.

 But you know um he was very tight with John. very tight.  Anthony Rigano Jr. has a book about his life coming out soon and you can register your interest in this book at anthony rio.com. How’s the um the book stuff coming along with the  Yes. So the we’re almost ready to go to print. It’s called Reformed Gangster, My Life Inside the Gambino Crime Family.

Um, a matter of fact, I have a meeting today at four o’clock with the with the with the author and and Pastor Gro, my manager. It’s all coming It’s all coming together right now on my website, anthony.com. We we have a form that people could fill out. Um, and uh, soon as the book is ready to go, we’re going to notify the first hundred people and send them, you know, copies of the book.

 So, there’s a form they could fill out and everything’s moving forward. It’s looking really good.  In the comments below, let me know your thoughts on the topic covered in this video. I hope you found that interesting. Thanks for watching.