Those who know him say he’s the main reason the Mafia survives in New York and is beginning to prosper again “The Genovese family has great influence,” says Mr Coffey. “It’s all down to Bellomo, he now has the respect of all the five crime families and he’s very difficult to tail.”According to Mr Coffey, there’s another reason the Genovese family has retained its power. “John Gotti and the Gambinos, plus the other families, they ran the drug trade and they became their own best customers and worst enemies.” Coffey remembers a confrontation from his days as a beat cop with the then Genovese godfather, “Fat Tony” Salerno. “The Genovese family are the Ivy Leaguers of organised crime,” says Joe Coffey, a senior task force agent “I think Gigante is sick, but it don’t matter.
They have Bellomo as acting boss and he’s real smart.”Barney Bellomo is just 35. He is restricted to an area 10 blocks square, but that allows him to meet with his deputy, Barney Bellomo. He has been charged with murder and racketeering but remains free. “To claim mental incompetence is a shocking break with the Mafia’s machismo culture.”For “Vinny the Chin”, the ploy has kept him out of jail. “He couldn’t run a candy store.” To promote this claim, New Yorkers in Greenwich Village often experience what prosecutors say is an elaborate act – the sight of Mr Gigante dancing down Bleecker Street in his bedclothes, singing in Italian.”If this is a ruse, it is a clever ruse,” says Professor Robert Kelly, a past president of the International Association for the Study of Organised Crime.
The exception is the Genovese family, which remains strong because its members have been relatively loyal.The official head of the family is Vincent “the Chin” Gigante. “Now, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll find some place else to stand.”New York’s five Mafia families have been through hard times. The Gambinos were severely damaged by the 1993 conviction of the “Dapper Don”, John Gotti. The Lucchese family was infiltrated by the FBI in the Eighties and has yet to recover its reputation.
The Colombo and Bonnano families have also lost their leaders to informants and now have fewer than 200 known members between them. For an organisation with an oath of loyalty or death, the New York Mafia has had a lot of stool pigeons. At 2am outside the Fair Fish Company, Frank the Fish is busy with his hook “I ain’t talking to you,” he says. In practice, market workers say, that means two vans now park at each end of Fulton Street full of city officials who spend the night drinking coffee and sleeping.Frank Fogliano is not an easy guy to talk with. By saying we’re the mob, he gets us out cheap.” He gives me a hard stare.
The Mayor, Giuliani, he’s tried this twice before, when he was a prosecutor The city wants us off this land, to sell it for a hotel. It is a bold move, designed to drive the Genovese family out of the fish business, but city watchers say that, like previous efforts to control the Mafia, it is destined to fail.The takeover means that the market’s rents will now be set and collected by City Hall, but only one-third of the market’s properties are rental buildings. The rest are largely owned by associates of the Genovese family. City officials are also supposed to patrol the market every night to enforce health and safety regulations.
