Made Guys Who Flip Are Still Made

At the Nicholas "Nicky Mouth" Santora trial, a former Bonanno capo offered testimony regarding his current mob status, noting that even if a made man flips and testifies for the government, he's still an inducted member of the Mafia.

James "Big Louie" Tartaglione, debuted this past week in the enterprise corruption trial of Vito Badamo, Ernest Aiello, Anthony “Skinny” Santoro and “Nicky Mouth” Santora.
James Tartaglione



Anyone who is officially made a “soldier” keeps that title for life no matter what. Even if he flips, he's still a member, only he's considered "shelved," said James "Big Louie" Tartaglione at Santora's enterprise corruption trial.

Former Gambino capo Michael "Mikie Scars" DiLeonardo said the same during his own testimony.

"The family can not make another person to take your spot until you are dead," he told Cosa Nostra News.

The 78-year-old key witness for the prosecution, "Big Louie" Tartaglione, debuted this past week in the enterprise corruption trial of Vito Badamo, Ernest Aiello, Anthony “Skinny” Santoro and “Nicky Mouth” Santora, nullifying my theory that Joe Massino would play this role. Apparently, Massino no longer is testifying for the Fed's, even though he's done nothing more by testifying than humiliate the mob and help put Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano away for life. 

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Gary Galperin sought to rebuff claims that Tartaglione was not a reliable witness and that he was responsible for murdering several “made men” in the Bonanno crime family. Among his alleged victims: Cesare Bonventre in 1984, as well as the Sonny Red trifecta, also known as the 1981 “Three Capos murders."

“No,” replied Tartaglione of those murders. “I was there, that’s it.”

Big Louie, as Tartaglione is known.


In the mid-90s, Tartaglione said he put the word in to have Charles “Crazy Charlie” Tervella murdered, but he later changed his mind.

Tartaglione next described how he met Badamo in the late 1990s, and Santora, in the 1970s.

Badamo was an associate with aspirations.

“Vito said his father was a made man,” Tartaglione said, describing their first meeting in 1998. “He said he would like to get straightened out,” meaning inducted into the crime family.

As for Santora, Tartaglione said, “I was there when he was inducted. I was at the ceremony.”

He added, “Sal gave him things to be concerned about, and then we all held hands and said a prayer.”

He also explained how he ultimately chose to become a federal informant after Vitale's 2003 arrest. He feared Vitale “would tell all my mortal sins."

The former capo is expected to be back on the witness stand on Wednesday for the defense’s cross-examination.

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