Antonio Tomasulo

Antonio Tomasulo

Antonio Tomasulo-Tommasulo a.k.a. "Bootsie" (1917 - June 23, 2003) was an Italian-American mobster who served in the New York Bonanno crime family running a highly lucrative illegal slot machine gambling operation.

Biography

Born in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Tomasulo became a "made man", or full member of the Bonanno family. Tomasulo earned the nickname "Bootsie" because he always wore boots, no matter the occasion. He worked in the Bonanno gambling operation run first by Dominick Napolitano and later Joseph Massino. He was a regular habituate of The Motion Lounge. Not surprisingly, Tomasulo was a life-long asthma sufferer. Antonio was not a relative of Colombo crime family mobsters Joseph Tomasello and Joseph Tomasello-Orapallo.

Joker Poker

Tomasulo's gambling empire consisted mainly of "Joker Poker" slot machine games. Instead of the spinning wheels of fruit in a traditional slot machine, "Joker Poker" involved a five-card poker game. The better the player's hand, the bigger the payout. However, the odds were stacked heavily in the machine's favor. One of his machine's generated up to $15,000 in revenue each week. Tomasulo owned a gigantic fleet of Joker Poker machines placed in pizza parlors and dive bars across New York City.

As Tomasulo's slot machine empire grew, he soon delegated responsibility for collecting the slot machine revenues to his son Anthony, a Bonanno family associate. Anthony would visit each establishment hosting a machine, get the money out of the machine, and give the store or bar owner half the money.

Donnie Brasco case

In the 1970's, Antonio was introduced to Donnie Brasco, a new family associate who was a friend of Napolitano. Unknown to Tomasula, Napolitano, and everyone else in the Bonanno family, Brasco was really Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent Joseph D. Pistone, a Sicilian-American who had infiltrated the mob. When the FBI finally announced the Brasco indictments, the entire family was stunned. Many Bonanno members and associates would go to prison. In 1985, Tomasula was himself convicted of racketeering, but the verdict was overturned on appeal. As for Napolitano, he paid with his life for bringing an FBI agent into the family business. Although Tomasula had also been friends with Brasco, the family spared his life.

After Napolitano's death, Tomasula continued to work with his slot machines under Massino. Then one day, while sitting on the stoop of his apartment building in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, Antonio Tomasula suffered sudden asphyxia brought on by a fatal asthma attack and died.

Death of Anthony

After Antonio's death, his son Anthony Tomasulo assumed that he would inherit his father's slot machine empire. However, Salvatore Vitale, the new acting boss of the family, ruled that when a deceased mobster's rackets automatically revert to the family boss or acting boss. When informed of Vitale's decision by family soldier Michael Cardello, Anthony was livid. He then threatened to murder both Cardello and Vitale to take back the slot machines. Anthony later told another Bonanno capo that he was going to take the matter up with Genovese crime family boss Vincent Gigante.

Upset with Anthony's threats, Vitale went to Bonanno consigliere Anthony Spero. Spero gave Vitale permission to kill Anthony, "You better do it. Get it behind you. God forbid he kills you. We all lose." In May 1990 Anthony Tomasulo disappeared and his body was never been found. Vitale inherited Antonio Tomasulo's gambling empire.

Murderers Indicted

The Bonanno crime family acting boss Anthony Urso was indicted on charges of extortion, loansharking, illegal gambling and conspiracy to murder Antonio's son, Anthony Tomasulo. Urso faced life if convicted, and pled guilty. In 2004, Urso was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

References

*Pistone, Joseph D. and Woodley,Richard "Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia" Signet (January 3, 1989)ISBN 0451157494
*Crittle, Simon, "The Last Godfather: The Rise and Fall of Joey Massino" Berkley (March 7, 2006) ISBN 0425209393
* http://www.real-3d-games.com/video-poker-joker-poker.html
* http://www.geocities.com/OrganizedCrimeSyndicates/BonannoFamily.html
* Social Security Death Index


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