In 1997, authorities raided a property linked to Gambino Crime Family acting boss John A. “Junior” Gotti and discovered handwritten lists detailing mobsters proposed for Mafia membership in three rival New York crime families. The find was considered highly damaging, both legally and within the mob itself. The property had previously belonged to Junior Gotti, son of imprisoned Gambino boss John Gotti, and was then owned by Michael McLaughlin, an associate of Junior Gotti.
Inside a well-hidden jewelry box, investigators found seven sheets of carefully folded paper containing the names of proposed members and deceased mobsters from the Lucchese, Genovese, and Bonanno families. The lists dated back to 1991, which puzzled authorities. Traditionally, when a family proposes new members, the names are circulated among other New York crime families for approval, and the lists are supposedly destroyed afterward. Keeping them for years was a serious breach of Mafia protocol.
“This is really dumb,” one federal law enforcement official told the Daily News. “Prosecutors usually have to go through hell and high water to prove mob affiliation. Now, in any case we make against any of these named guys, Junior has done it for us. ”
Bruce Mouw, retired head of the FBI’s Gambino squad, which had brought down Junior Gotti’s father, said the other families would be irate.
“There’s no reason to keep these lists,” Mouw said. “Once the proposed members pass muster, the list is supposed to be destroyed for obvious reasons. It is supposed to be a secret society. ”
The 1998 Daily News headline that followed the discovery called Junior Gotti “Dumbfella.
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The lists were structured in a similar way across the three families. On one side were mobsters who had died, with numbers indicating the year of death, and on the other side were proposed replacements. For the Bonanno family, the list included deceased mobster Robert “Bobby” Lino Sr. , who died on June 7, 1989, and Jerome “Jerry” Asaro, son of the well-known Vincent Asaro, as a proposed member.
The Genovese family’s list was written differently from the others. Some names were disguised as wedding guests, with “Mr. ” and “Mrs. ” added before each mobster’s name.
The newspaper reported that this extra caution reflected the Genovese family’s reputation for secrecy, though keeping the list for six years undermined that effort. Among the proposed Genovese members was Lawrence Ricci, who would later become an acting captain in the family’s New Jersey faction. Ricci was murdered in 2005 while on trial. Others on the list included Anthony Vulpe, born in Italy in 1932, who became a Connecticut-based made man, and Michael Tannascoli, a New Jersey mobster close to the feared Genovese figure Tino Fiumara.
The list of deceased Genovese mobsters included a name at the bottom that contradicts common accounts: Paul “Frankie” Carbo. Many books and internet sources describe Carbo as a made man in the Lucchese family, but this Genovese list, provided to Junior Gotti, indicates he was actually made in the Genovese family. Carbo was a powerful figure in boxing during the 1940s and 1950s, and some sources suggest he was the gunman who killed Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel in 1947. The Lucchese family list showed proposed members on the left under the heading “new.
” Among them was Patty Testa, brother of the infamous Joey Testa, who had been part of the feared Gemini crew under Gambino soldier Roy DeMeo. After DeMeo was murdered, Joey Testa switched families and was inducted into the Lucchese family in the late 1980s. He was sent to prison in 1989 and remained there for over 30 years until his release in 2024. Patty Testa was inducted into the Lucchese family in 1991 while his brother was in prison, and was murdered under mysterious circumstances in 1992.
Another notable name on the proposed list was Patrick “Patty Red” Dellorusso, who according to some reports later became acting underboss of the Lucchese family. The deceased side of the Lucchese list included Samuel “Big Sam” Cavalieri, a Harlem-based mobster who had served as a soldier in the 107th Street crew under Vincent Rao. After boss Tommy Lucchese died in 1967, Cavalieri was seen by the FBI paying his respects, and some sources list him as captain of the family’s Harlem crew until his death around 1988. The Lucchese list also included the name of Bonanno family mobster Vincent Asaro, supporting the long-held belief that he was inducted into the Bonanno family around 1991.
The discovery raised an obvious question that investigators and observers could not answer with certainty: why Junior Gotti kept lists of proposed mob members from 1991 until they were found six years later.