Ralph Cuomo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ralph (Raffie) Cuomo (born in 1936) is a restaurateur who founded the first Ray's Pizza in New York City in 1959 and who has served time as member of the Lucchese crime family.
Cuomo opened the restaurant at 27 Prince Street in Little Italy, Manhattan in 1959 three years after being caught red-handed during an armed robbery of a swank Park Avenue eatery. He was arrested and pistol whipped by cops who shot and killed his partner.
In 1969 he and three cohorts were convicted of trafficking after being nabbed with 50 pounds of high quality heroin.
In 1998 he confessed to discussing heroin drug sales in the basement of the pizzeria after former Lucchese soldier Frank "Spaghetti Man" Gioia, Jr. provided information into the heroin business taking place in Cuomo's pizzeria. He was sentenced to four years because of poor health (although the prosecutor said he had visited the New Jersey Meadowlands Race Track the night before sentencing.
Now out of jail he still runs the restaurant.
