Breakshot: Story of "Marbles" and Little Nicky



Interesting story about a little-known figure who was around Little Nicky Corozzo.

Kenji Gallo's latest Breakshot Blog column:

The Gambino Family is always a fun topic. This week is a story about Vincent “Marbles” Dragonetti, Little Nicky Corozzo’s son in law.






Vincent became known as Marbles when he was in his teens because of his bad skin. He had big pimples and boils so the name stuck. Marbles was not like most crime famimly guys, because he also had a regular job working in landscaping. He worked with his father and brother in the business until his father passed away. He then partnered up with his brother and they ran it together.

He was a regular guy in the crew who used to move cocaine with Mario, another crew member. Selling drugs is supposed to be forbidden, but this was before he was really close to Nicky. The Sicilians who now run the family come from a deep heroin selling background, but I guess that does not count either.

Gambino Capo Little Nicky Corozzo had a daughter. Little Nicky’s daughter Bernadette had been dating a man who was killed at Wheelers Bar in Sheepshead Bay. She met Marbles and they started to get serious so Nicky brought him closer to him. Nicky started grooming him. He still did a lot of credit card fraud and his first real pinch was credit card fraud on Long Island.

Nicky set him with a lot of landscaping accounts in Howard Beach, John Gotti’s old neighborhood. Then he helped Marbles open a nursery on Utica in Brooklyn. Marbles moved up the ranks pretty quick without getting his hands real dirty. Marbles used to sell slugs for parking meters and now he was taking care of a shylock customers of Little Nickys. One of the guys Little Nicky gave to him was a guy who had a 60k loan out.

Other guys in the crew started to stay away from Marbles because he would report everything about them to Little Nicky. Marbles had stopped being one of the guys and became the ears and eyes of the boss....



ITEM:

We've got two exclusives up our sleeve. One interview, as mentioned, is a former Gambino capo, an old school wiseguy who tried to follow Cosa Nostra's codes. His forebears were among its founders here and in Sicily. He does fear mob retribution because he knows he is supposed to be killed for what he did. It's among the rules he signed onto on Christmas Eve 1988.

The other guy we spoke to is a former Colombo gangster with Luchese ties that extend to Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso. He's tied to five gangland hits and spent many years in prison for a crime everyone knew he didn't commit, though he did commit other crimes....

Comments

  1. Ed, did you land an interview with Michael D ? If so, should be an epic article.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I enjoy reading Breakshot, however he tends to get his facts a little mixed up sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was fascinated by Scars in the documentary by trevor macdonald....nice job Ed

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anyone think the Corozzo brothers will be a big factor in the Gambino Family again?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Miley Scars and Frank Smith

    ReplyDelete
  6. What happened to the Cowboys article?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I worked with one of the cowboys guy never talked had just gotten out on a 17 year sentence. Showed up to our job site one day worked with my crew. Cool guy, very serious about people messing eith his shit lol

    ReplyDelete
  8. He was part of thr crew that carried out the kidnappings, richie olivieri. He had some good stories

    ReplyDelete
  9. I worked eith him right after he served 17 years. Never talked. Standup guy, really cool. Did not like people messing with his shit lol

    ReplyDelete
  10. Cowboy Crew will be written, Frank Smith and Michael DiLeonardo story too.... I have a lot more work as per my day job and it's holding everything up. Michael first.... I was talking to John Alite and Michael's name came up. I told John "I'd love to speak to him" and he said hold on.... minutes later, I had Michael on the phone. I think I called him Mikey Scars once or twice and felt like an idiot..... He never cared though. Or never complained. A lot of stuff has been written about him but he's never spoken since testifying, except for Trevor McDonald. It'll be a good read. Also Alite puts me in touch with anyone and everyone he can. How does he know all these guys? I've heard stories about Alite by other guys that John himself never mentioned.... A TGIF's in Florida.... you won't believe that one! But it's all true, my friends.....

    ReplyDelete
  11. Interesting you used that name.... John?

    ReplyDelete
  12. The Cozzo's were a dynasty, a family in a family, once.... who knows what the future holds....

    ReplyDelete
  13. Im a nobody but i work nyc construction and he ended up working with our crew. only talked to a few of us, but he never ratted, hes the real deal - lives in the area. This was 09 or 10 for for most of thr year, ive seen him here and there but not mch lately.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I thought both John Alite and Mikey Scars came across really well in Trevor's doc. Love to hear more from them. I have to say, too, I like how Mikey's conscience is guilt at ratting...not at the crimes he committed. It's refreshing to hear that from someone who flipped.

    ReplyDelete
  15. He's really in fear. I thought he was acting the way he ducked down on the show. But he takes the situation as serious as cancer.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Yeah that surprised me too Ed, I thought it was just for dramatic purposes. My reaction is "they don't want the heat by killing government witnesses" but Mikey Scars lived that life and knows a hell of a lot more than me! That moment where he saw the Lucchese's was a great bit of television.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Answer is ..YES.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment