Peter DeFeo

Peter DeFeo (March 4, 1902) aka Philie Aquilino was a New York mobster who became a caporegime with the Genovese crime family.

DeFeo's Early Days Downtown

Growing up in New York's Little Italy, DeFeo became a soldier in the Genovese crime family under boss Vito Genovese. DeFeo rose within the ranks as a close associate of Genovese, as well as Genovese's closest allies Michele "Mike" Miranda, Eli Zeccardi, Anthony LaRocca and Anthony "Tony Bender" Strollo. When DeFeo was inducted into the family, he was placed in the Miranda crew, which had operations in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. DeFeo was part of a group of family members and associates who supported the violent and ruthless Vito Genovese over the family's Godfather Frank Costello; included in this group were Mike Miranda, Gerardo "Jerry" Catena, Michael "Trigger Mike" Coppola, Anthony "Tony Bender" Strollo, Joseph "Socks" Lanza, the Eboli brothers Tommy and Patty, Philip "Benny Squint" Lombardo, and a young but rising Vincent "the Chin" Gigante.

Promotion to Caporegime of Genovese Little Italy Crew

DeFeo would later serve under Thomas "Tommy Ryan" Eboli, who would become the family's acting boss with Genovese in prison, and who was killed in Brooklyn in 1972. DeFeo was a member of Patty Ryan Eboli's crew, and would eventually become the crew's captain. DeFeo operated much of his business from the Alto Knights Social Club, located at Kenmare and Mulberry in Little Italy. DeFeo would also conduct business from other neighborhood social clubs, as well as the Cuomo Cheese Corp. located on Mulberry Street. DeFeo's top button-men were Alexander "Black Alex" Morelli and the diminutive Lorenzo "Larry Chappie" Brescio. DeFeo was one of the main bosses of the Lower East Side Italian lottery, and also controlled bookmaking operations in the area.

Carpenters' Union Rackets & Extortion Activities

DeFeo's crew was involved in the N.Y.C. District Council of Carpenters during the 1970s. Mobster Vincent Cafaro testified that DeFeo's interests in the Carpenters Union were represented by Morelli and associate Marcello Svedese, a union official with Local 17. DeFeo's crew was also involved in extorting money from construction and construction-related trucking companies. As an example, DeFeo was receiving between $8,000 to $10,000 per year from P. Chimento Trucking during the 1980s. DeFeo also received payments from Ross Trucking, and controlled Pier 13 in Manhattan, which was known as "the Banana Pier".

Later Years

In 1974, Peter DeFeo found himself in the news after the Amityville horror murders in Amityville, New York. Defeo's grand-nephew, Ronald DeFeo, had murdered his father, mother, two brothers and two sisters in their suburban house. There were reports that the police originally considered Peter DeFeo as a suspect. The theory was that Peter ordered the family killed because he feared they were going to talk about him and his brother Rocco DeFeo (Ronald DeFeo's grandfather) to law enforcement. However, there was no proof to support this theory.

In 1981, DeFeo's influence within the family began to wane as Vincent Gigante and the West Side faction took control of the Genovese family. Captains Liborio Bellomo and Vincent DiNapoli whittled away most of DeFeo's influence.

In 1987, DeFeo and Bellomo got into a dispute over control over Carpenters Local 17 in the Bronx. Consigliere Louis Manna gave the local to Bellomo.

Further reading

*Jacobs, James B., Coleen Friel and Robert Radick. "Gotham Unbound: How New York City Was Liberated from the Grip of Organized Crime". New York: NYU Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8147-4247-5
*Osuna, Ric. "The Night The Defeos Died: Reinvestigating the Amityville Murders". Nevada: Noble Kai Media, 2003. ISBN 1-59109-586-7
*United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field. "Investigation of Improper Activities in the Labor Or Management Field". 1959. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=0l7dFSlTiMGjlr2Dr1MJho5&id=4XYqm3FLdrUC&q=%22Peter+DeFeo%22&dq=%22Peter+DeFeo%22&ie=ISO-8859-1&pgis=1]
*United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. "Waterfront Investigation: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce". 1953. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC04716491&id=97dOXY_9unsC&q=%22Peter+DeFeo%22&dq=%22Peter+DeFeo%22&ie=ISO-8859-1&pgis=1]

References

*Bureau of Narcotics, U.S. Treasury Department, "Mafia: the Government's Secret File on Organized Crime, HarperCollins Publishers 2007 ISBN 0-06-136385-5