Michael "Spider" Gianco

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Michael "Spider" Gianfranco-Gianco ((1954 - 1970), Brownsville, Brooklyn – South Ozone Park, Queens), was a Lucchese crime family and Bonanno crime family associate who was a protegee of Jimmy Burke. Michael was a bartender who was employed at Jimmy Burke's Robert's Lounge. He is portrayed in Goodfellas by Michael Imperioli.

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[edit] Early life

He was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn to Sardinian-Italian emigrants from Olbia and christened as Michele Gianfranco. His surname is an Italian compound name composed of Gianni "God is gracious" and Franco meaning "free." When his parents arrived from charter to New York City his name was Anglicized to "Michael Gianco." His family eventually settled in Queens. In his adolescence he became a runaway youth. Several of his cousins from his father's side pursued a career in organized crime (it is thought that they were low-level associates that served in the Bonanno crime family). They were subsequently arrested by the authorities while involved in minor crimes and became informants. For becoming informants and betraying the La Cosa Nostra oath that they had made to their respected crime families, they were executed. This gave their relative Michael much hardship when growing up. His troubled family life involving organized crime shows many similarities with his executioner Thomas DeSimone's family.

He was introduced into the Vario Crew by Jimmy Burke sometime in the 1960s and later became associated with the Bonanno crime family, performing jobs for the powerful Bonanno capo Vincent Asaro. Vario made him an official member of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union and was hired on as a bartender by Casey Rosado at Robert's Lounge and Bruno Facciolo's restaurant 'Bruno's'. Because of his mob connections, he was not made to pay his union dues, and received the position even though he was not old enough to drink. By the age of 16, he was an alcoholic who drank Sambuca in the morning while working. Unlike Burke, Gianco could become a "made member" of the Lucchese crime family because he was a full-blooded Italian. Burke nicknamed him "Spider" for his long, gangly arms and legs, as well as his skill as a burglar.

[edit] Criminal career

Gianco dropped out of school at an early age to pursue a life of crime. He spent all day around Robert's Lounge collecting numbers and selling fireworks, credit card fraud, selling beer to minors and preparing coffee and sandwiches for high-stake card games. He was abandoned by his parents and slept in the basement on days he had nowhere to go. He was well liked by Henry Hill and Burke. Gianco was considered a "miniature fence" for stolen goods by the other adolescents in Queens.

He was also involved in grand theft auto with Hill, Clyde Brooks and Edguardo Rigaud. In the 1970's, he started stealing cars; He would hot wire pre-selected small compact fuel efficient cars from the long term parking lots around JFK Airport and in the neighborhoods of Woodmere, Howard Beach, Woodhaven, Ozone Park, Jamaica, Ridgewood, Maspeth and Floral Park, as well as Bergen Beach, Brooklyn and Elmont and Valley Stream, New York. He would deliver them to Brooks at the Bargain Auto Junkyard in Starrett City, Brooklyn on Flatlands Avenue. After Gianco left the car, Hill and Rigaud would change the license plate and vehicle identification number with a scrapped automobile from the yard. The stolen vehicles would then later be shipped from the New York Harbor to Port-au-Prince, Haiti through Edguardo's Sea-Land Service Inc. situated in South Ozone Park, Queens. Gianco would be paid $100 dollars per car on delivery. He was never convicted of his part in Hill's chop shops and smuggling ring.

[edit] Relationship with Tommy DeSimone

Gianco had a hostile relationship with Tommy DeSimone because of the respect he had among the elder mobsters like Vario, Burke, Carmine Tramunti, Vincent Asaro, Bruno Facciolo and Fredrick DeLucia. By this time DeSimone had committed more mob-sanctioned murders for Vario and had pulled off more successful crimes than Gianco, including the 1967 Air France Robbery with Hill, but had not earned much praise from the Lucchese family. DeSimone was angered by the notion that the young Gianco would be promoted in the Lucchese crime family before him. DeSimone later told Hill that he was using Gianco for "target practice", testing out his new Colt .45 revolvers. After DeSimone shot Gianco in the foot, Anthony Stabile personally took him to see a doctor.

[edit] Murder

Sometime before July 1970, DeSimone was playing poker in the basement of Robert's Lounge with Angelo Sepe and Jimmy Burke. Gianco served the players their drinks but forgot DeSimone's Crown Royal, for which the very inebriated gangster berated him. Gianco then told DeSimone to "go fuck himself." DeSimone pulled out one of his Colts and shot him three times in the chest.

Burke, enraged, made DeSimone bury Gianco in the unfinished section of the basement in Robert's Lounge. It was after this murder that Henry Hill considered DeSimone a psychopath.[citation needed] DeSimone was never convicted of murdering Gianco, whose corpse was never discovered.

[edit] References

  • Pileggi, Nicholas, Wiseguy: Life In A Mafia Family, Corgi (1987) ISBN 055213094X