Joseph Tangorra
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Joseph "Joey Flowers" Tangorra (b. 1950) was a New York mobster and capo of the Lucchese crime family. Tangorra grew up in Little Italy, Manhattan, and quickly gravatated to a life of violence and illegality. He is also one of the few known mobsters to have ever seen a therapist.
In 1992, Tangorra was accidentally shot in the back by Lester Ellis (who would later testify against him) while trying to collect a gambling debt and reportedly suffering from numerous ailments resulting from the shooting.
In 1996, Tangorra and Eugene Castelle took over the Brooklyn/Bensonhurst faction of the family, which was previously ran by George Conte, Frank "Frankie Bones" Papagni, and George Zappolla, who were close associates of Vittorio Amuso and Anthony Casso.
In 1999, one of Tangorra's crew members, a mob associate named Carmine Galante, the godson of the former Bonanno crime family boss, killed 18-year old Bill Manolis inside a Bay Ridge, Brooklyn bar. Galante dealt drugs, performed minor shakedowns and stole cars, kicking up money to Tangorra's Bensonhurst crew. Manolis was talking to Tangorra's stepdaughter inside the bar, a woman whom Galante had been dating, and later that evening Galante walked into the bar and plunged a knife into Manolis' chest without saying a word.
In May 1999, Tangorra was indicted in Brooklyn on loan sharking charges.
On November 28, 2000, Tangorra and soldier Joseph Truncale were indicted for the 1988 murder of Victor Filocamo, cocaine trafficking, extortion, arson to intimidate business owners and loan sharking. Amuso and Casso ordered the Filocamo hit because they thought he was cooperating with the government. Joseph Truncale and George Conte lured Filocamo to Tangorra's social club located at 78th Street and 13th Avenue in Brooklyn. Conte sprayed a machine gun equipped with a silencer at Filocamo, killing him. Truncale and Tangorra loaded the body into the trunk of Filocamo's white BMW, and dropped the car off in a parking lot. Informants stated that after the hit, Tangorra was on his hands and knees trying to clean the blood off the floor, and eventually replaced the club's tile floors. After the murder, Truncale and Conte became made members of the crime family. Also, the indictment also charged Tangorra and Lester Ellis with shooting Henry Motta in the back in a stairwell in 1992 for owing the two men money. Tangorra would eventually cop a plea deal and receive a 16-year sentence.
Alongside mafiosos Steven Crea and Dominic Truscello, Tangorra was a member of the Lucchese construction group, which was active in labor racketeering and extortion activities in the Carpenters and Laborers Unions. By 2001, while in federal custody on racketeering charges, Tangorra complained to prison psychiatrists and medical staff of depression and followed by severe panic attacks. It is possible that Tangorra had a nervous breakdown from being indicted three times in less than five years.
Shortly after his indictment, his behavior became increasingly erratic as, in one reported incident; he was observed a block away from his home in Brooklyn waving a copy of his indictment.
His lawyers claimed Tangorra's mental condition was deteriorating and was in need of a psychiatric evaluation. Moved to the New York Metropolitan Detention Center, Tangorra was continually harassed by inmates who often taunted him as a rat. He was later put in isolation, as Tangorra feared being returned to the general population. Tangorra was observed by prison guards covering himself with fecal matter.
While federal authorities claimed Tangorra was faking his condition to avoid prosecution, the court granted additional time for Tangorra. Both state and federal investigators suspect that Tangorra has been shelved as a result of his nervous breakdown and erratic behavior.
[edit] References
- Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
- Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2005. ISBN 0-8160-4040-0
