Genovese Wiseguy Sammy Meatballs, RIP

I will toast Salvatore (Sammy Meatballs) Aparo this weekend, probably tonight. The 87-year-old Genovese mobster died last month, as per this week's Gang Land News.
Sammy Meatballs

Sammy Meatballs, for many years, provided me with an important talisman of sorts, a representation of the physical embodiment of what the Mafia is, a relic I never tire of looking at. I'm referring, of course, to his face....



The ghastly countenance, I believe, captures the moral absurdity of Mafia life -- the contradictions, the subterfuge, the muscled toughness, and gift of gab, the subtle absurd menace..... I glimpse it all in that enigmatic visage, its heavily lidded eyeballs swallowed by liverish sacks, the full, fleshy Boris Karloffian, thickly lined face. But it's that smile, that hideously genuine smile that faintly illuminates the eyes, as if the cop with the camera had shouted "Say cheese!!"

Aparo was of the age and disposition to mentor young wiseguys. Unfortunately, Aparo mentored the wrong young wiseguy. As longtime readers will recall, Michael (Cookie) D'Urso was the snitch with the funny Rolex. And GLN reported that Aparo took it in the ass thanks to Durso's undercover operation.

As Jerry Capeci reported, "a lot of folks went to jail, including Aparo, thanks partly to his loose lips. But when Sammy Meatballs checked out last month at the ripe old age of 87, his old pals didn't appear to hold any grudges."

A one-day wake was held at the Flower Funeral Home in Yonkers. Among those spotted attending were Peter (Petey Red) DiChiara, allegedly the crime family's consigliere as well as street boss for Liborio (Barney) Bellomo, currently incarcerated  No Bellomo isn't imprisoned; I must've had a senior moment.....

"Basically," said one knowledgeable Gang Land source, "All the past and current members of Petey Red's downtown crew expressed their regrets to (Sammy Meatballs) family." What makes this odd is that Bellomo supposedly had shelved Sammy Meatballs for reasons unknown.

Aparo, his son, also a Genovese member, as well as "virtually his entire crew (were) indicted in 2001 on racketeering charges." Sammy Meatball pleaded guilty, and "served his time behind bars with no muss or fuss. Following his release from prison in 2006, the 76-year-old Sammy Meatballs resumed collecting his monthly $675 check from Social Security, and had no further confrontations with The Law."



Comments

  1. Sammy had a great apartment right off mulberry probably worth a million now.

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    Replies
    1. Really? Interesting... you knew him?

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    2. Durso really screwed those guys. They did shoot him in the head though, and killed his cousin, Tino, what I was thinking about "moral absurdities" and such....

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