Nicholas Marangello
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Nicholas Marangello aka "Nicky Glasses" and "Nicky Cigars and "Little Nicky", was the underboss of the Bonanno crime family under boss Phillip Rastelli, the father-in-law of Robert Perrino and grandfather of Nicola Langora. It is unknown if he is related to Gambino crime family mobster brothers Santo Marangello and Peter Marangello.
[edit] Biography
Nicholas Marangello was born on the Lower East Side, Manhattan in Knickerbocker Village and lived for a long time until his incarceration in the 1990's. He passed away December 30th, 1999. He was a small man with slicked back hair, thick glasses and a sharp nose. Because of his thick prescription glasses, it gave people the impression that he was always staring. Marangello was identified as a made member of the Bonanno crime family by the FBI since the 1960's. He operated a large scale prosperous bookmaking and gambling operation in Brooklyn and later expanded to Manhattan. After Carmine Galante became boss of the Bonanno crime family Nicholas was promoted as consigliere. He associated himself with the Sicilian faction of the Bonanno crime family and operated out of the Toyland Social Club located at 94 Hester Street on the outskirts of Little Italy and Chinatown. He used Toyland as his personal office. He never had anyone visit the social club unless it was concerning business. He occupied the club from 12:30 to about 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon from Monday to Friday. Mobsters would come and take care of their business and then leave. He was underboss from 1974 to 1979 until Carmine Galante was murdered. Undercover FBI agent Joe Pistone got to meet Marangello regularly to report the figures of Benjamin Ruggiero's weekly bookmaking operations. In the 1990's Marangello and long time friend and Bonanno crime family caporegime Michael Sabella were given a sentence of four to eight years stemming from RICO charges. After Marangello retired, he was replaced by Stefano Cannone. As of 2006 he is still alive. His most notorious loan shark customer was Bonanno crime family street soldier Benjamin Ruggiero. Benjamin Ruggiero was a degenerate gambler and by 1977 was indebted to Nicholas Marangello for $160,000 from the horse races at the Aqueduct Racetrack. Ruggiero's gambling addiction was such that it delayed his induction into the mafia as "made man." Until he could pay his debt, Ruggiero could not be "made" and was therefore "put on the shelf." By the summer of 1977, Benjamin successfully paid back a majority of his debt to Nicholas and was finally initiated into the Bonanno crime family. Unfortunately, however, by the following year in 1978 he had fallen back into debt again from his addiction. As a result, Nicholas Marangello arranged to have a portion of his criminal operations to be directly applied to Ruggiero's enormous debt.
[edit] References
- Crittle, Simon, The Last Godfather: The Rise and Fall of Joey Massino Berkley (March 7, 2006) ISBN 0425209393
- Pistone, Joseph D. and Woodley, Richard, Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia Random House 1990 ISBN 5552531299
