William Cutolo
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William Cutolo (disappeared 1999), also known as "Billy Fingers" and by the media as "Wild Bill", was a Brooklyn-born mafioso in the Colombo crime family. Cutolo rose up the ranks of the Colombo family and during the late-1980s, with acting boss Victor Orena at the helm, Cutolo became one of the family's more powerful leaders, both because of his money-making acumen and the crew of "hitters" he commanded. Cutolo was originally a soldier in captain Pasquale Amato's crew.
In 1990, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters permanently removed Cutolo from the union. However, the resourceful Cutolo formed Local 400 of the Industrial & Production Workers Union. Cutolo was surprisingly beloved by the union rank and file, although it was suspected that he had engaged in looting the union's treasury and using the union's name to receive money from companies seeking to avoid union organizers. In 1991, Orena sought to depose longtime family godfather Carmine Persico, who wished to install his soon to be released son Alphonse "Little Allie Boy" Persico as the family's head. While Orena had the backing of the majority of the family, the Persico faction came out victorious (quite likely with the help of a corrupt FBI Agent who provided information to Persico captain Greg Scarpa).
In 1991, Orena was nearly ambushed and killed outside his Long Island home by a group of hitmen dispatched by the Persicos. In response, On November 18, 1991, Scarpa (while driving with his daughter and granddaughter) was ambushed by a team of Orena shooters. Scarpa was able to speed away from the shooters, who jumped out of their cars and fired shots at Scarpa and family on a Brooklyn street. Five days later, Cutolo dispatched another hit team that succeeded in gunning down soldier Henry "Hank the Bank" Smurra outside a Brooklyn doughnut shop. Investigators suspect that out of the 12 men killed during the war, Cutolo was personally responsible for 3 of the bodies. In one incident, Cutolo, driving from a Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn social club, spotted Persico loyalist (who was originally an Orena loyalist) Joel Cacace. The two men fired shots at each other on a busy Brooklyn street.
The war ended in 1993 after family associate John Pappa fired shots that killed Orena captain Joseph Scopo, who was one of the City's most powerful labor racketeers. The war resulted in lengthy prison sentences for Orena and Cutolo's mentor Pasquale Amato. Amazingly, in 1994, Cutolo, his favorite shooter Joseph Campanella, and the rest of the Cutolo crew, were acquitted of charges related to the war.
As a result of his participation in the war and for calling Carmine Persico a rat for admitting the existence of La Cosa Nostra in his own defense at the Commission Trial, Cutolo was demoted to soldier. However, after Allie Boy Persico's release from prison, Cutolo would be promoted to underboss, and Joel Cacace would become the family consigliere. In May 1999, Cutolo was sent for to meet with Allie Boy Persico, but his body has never been seen again. In 2004, Allie Boy Persico and the family's underboss Jackie DeRoss were indicted for conspiring to murder Cutolo. Testifying against Persico was Cutolo's son, Billy Jr., and former Gambino captain Michael DiLeonardo, who explained that at a sitdown he was supposed to have with Cutolo, he was surprised to see Persico and DeRoss who told him that Cutolo was gone.
