Angelo Ruggiero
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Angelo "Quack Quack" Ruggiero (1941 - 1989) was a New York mobster and member of the Gambino crime family
Ruggiero was a nephew of Gambino underboss Aniello Dellacroce and a cousin to Gambino associate Armond Dellacroce and a childhood friend of boss John Gotti. Ruggiero was the brother of drug trafficker Salvatore Ruggiero, killed in a 1982 plane crash, and the father of John Ruggiero and Angelo Ruggiero, Jr., convicted of grand larceny in May 1998 and sent to prison for to one to three years. [1]
Ruggiero was involved in the 1973 murder of James McBratney with Gotti and Ralph Galione. Ruggiero also participated in the 1985 slaying of Gambino leader Paul Castellano. Finally, Ruggiero was suspected in the 1980 disappearance of John Favara, a neighbor of Gotti who had killed Gotti's 12 year-old son Frank in a car accident. [2]
Ruggiero was later the subject of a government undercover investigation. Mobster turned government informant Wilfred "Willie Boy" Johnson provided investigators with the layout for Ruggerio's home so that they could install for bugs and wire taps. Investigators monitored Ruggiero's activities in narcotics [3]. Investigators later recorded conversations between Ruggiero and Gene Gotti that implicated the two men in Castellano's murder.
In 1989, Angelo Ruggiero died of cancer in Howard Beach, Queens. He was 48 years old.
[edit] In popular culture
Ruggiero is portrayed in the television movie Gotti by actor Vincent Pastore.
[edit] Further reading
- Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2
- Davis, John H. Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. ISBN 0-06-016357-7
- Jacobs, James B., Christopher Panarella and Jay Worthington. Busting the Mob: The United States Vs. Cosa Nostra. New York: NYU Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8147-4230-0
- Maas, Peter. Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997. ISBN 0-06-093096-9
- Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8
- Willis, Clint (ed.) Wise Guys: Stories of Mobsters from Jersey to Vegas. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003. ISBN 1-56025-498-X
