Updated news on the Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Lucchese and Colombo Organized Crime Families of New York City.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Turncoat Colombo capo makes debut on witness stand in Brooklyn


He was a Mickey Mouse mobster who impressed reputed Colombo crime boss Thomas Gioeli with a Disney World scam and brokering a mob sitdown in a Barnes and Noble bookstore.
Reynold Maragni became a goodfella with Gioeli's blessing. On Wednesday, he repaid his old boss by implicating him in a gangland murder while on the witness stand.
“That gentleman in the green sweater,” Maragni, 60, said in Brooklyn Federal Court, nodding in Gioeli’s direction.
Maragni, who began secretly informing for the feds shortly after his racketeering arrest in January 2010, is a self-described “tough guy” from Bensonhurst who met Gioeli in the 1970s at Monte’s Venetian restaurant in Brooklyn.
In those days, Maragni dabbled in loansharking, beatdowns and passing messages for the Colombos before moving to Florida for new crime opportunities.
He was busted for one scheme that netted him $100,000 by using bogus credit cards to buy three-day passes to Disney World.
The scam put Maragni on Gioeli’s radar. Upon his release from jail, Maragni was rewarded with a supervisory position of Colombo associates in the Florida crew.
The goodwill was gone Wednesday when Maragni explained how in December he wore a wire when he met with Colombo soldier Vincent Manzo Sr. The two discussed Gioeli’s role in the 1999 murder and burial of underboss William "Wild Bill" Cutolo, he said.
“Tommy was there,” Manzo can be heard on the tape, which was played in court. “(Tommy) showed me where the hole was.
And that’s the way it was.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mobster-reynold-maragni-implicates-thomas-gioeli-gangland-slay-article-1.1048670#ixzz1ppA6HbAP


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