First Mob Burglary Crew Member Sentenced to Seven Years, Seven Months

The first member of a four-member bank burglary crew who pleaded guilty in federal court to burglarizing Maspeth Federal Savings’ 64-19 Woodhaven Blvd. branch in 2016 has been sentenced.
Kerrigan, Michael Mazzara, the alleged mastermind, and Anthony Mascuzzio
From left, Anthony Mascuzzio Charles Kerrigan, and alleged mastermind Michael Mazzara.

Staten Island resident Christopher Kerrigan was given a seven-year, seven-month prison sentence last Friday, and three years of post-release supervision, for his role in a number of heists in addition to the one on the Rego Park-Middle Village border.




His brother, Charles Kerrigan, will be sentenced next Friday. Michael Mazzara, the alleged mastermind of the operation, and Anthony Mascuzzio will be sentenced on April 13 and May 4, respectively.

Last December, Mazzara and Mascuzzio each copped to two counts of bank theft, while the Kerrigans each pleaded to two counts of bank burglary, one count of bank theft and one count of conspiracy to commit bank burglary.

Charles Kerrigan also admitted to one count of witness intimidation after — while on pretrial release — he assaulted someone he thought provided information about his activities to law enforcement.

Mazzara was the brains behind the "spectacular New York City bank heists that netted $5 million in cash and jewelry and other family heirlooms is an old-school mob associate who learned his trade with one of Brooklyn's most notorious Mafia crews," as Gang Land News reported.

Mazzara, a longtime Colombo associate, robbed banks with Bath Avenue crew members under Bonanno family consigliere Anthony Spero in the 1990s. His crew was a group of hardcore, hardworking bank robbers/consummate craftsmen who brought thievery to the level of fine art.

At their July 2016 arrests, then-police Commissioner William Bratton likened the burglaries to scenes from the movie “Heat,” calling the crews’ plan “well organized, meticulous and elusive to law enforcement.” The 1995 Michael Mann film starred Al Pacino as a Los Angeles major crimes detective, and Robert DeNiro as the head of a crew of professional bank robbers very much like Mazzara and his outfit. 

Some of the mobsters I've spoken with, who specialized in bank robberies, tend to identify a lot with Heat, perhaps because the crew in the film were portrayed as professionals at the top of their game. The film's tragedy was actually the DeNiro character's flaw of chasing his emotions. He could've escaped with the girl, the gold watch, everything, only he went back to murder Waingro, ignoring his carefully crafted escape plan for revenge.

Robert DeNiro as Neil McCauley.
Robert DeNiro as Neil McCauley.


A homicidal maniac who raped and murdered a young prostitute for no apparent reason, Waingro also raised homicidal tendencies among the crew. A last-minute fill in, he needlessly blasted all the armored guards who'd ridden in the hijacked truck from which the crew stole millions in bearer bonds. That was supposed to be Waingro's final fck up, because the DeNiro character, Neil McCauley, knocked Waingro to his knees in the parking lot of a dinner, whipped out a pistol and was poised to shoot him behind the ear , roll him in plastic, and dump his corpse -- only a squad car happened by, interrupting the hit. Waingro quickly makes his escape--and eventually runs to the law who protect him by putting him up in a four-star hotel. DeNiro interrupts his escape to put Waingro's lights out for good, which he does successfully, only he himself ultimately loses everything because of it. (Kevin Gage (born May 26, 1959) is the American character actor who portrayed the psychopathic Waingro in Heat.)

"The Grim Reaper's visiting with you."
~ Waingro to lady of the evening.


Back to reality ....

Anthony Mascuzzio was identified as a Gambino associate with roots going back to the John Gotti era. His father, a Gambino mobster under Gotti, was murdered in 1988 in what has to rank as one of the more unique gangland scenarios: Anthony "Shorty" Mascuzzio was in the process of pistol-whipping the co-owner of Manhattan-based Bedrox Disco for not paying up. That's when David Fisher, said co-owner, shot Mascuzzio to death in the nightclub's basement on West 49th Street.

Mascuzzio is also connected through marriage with the powerful Genovese crime family.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York reported in December that the crew pled guilty to participating in two bank burglaries in April and May 2016.

Mazzara, the Kerrigans, and Mascuzzio stole more than $5 million in cash, jewelry, collectables, and other valuables from the banks’ vaults and safe deposit boxes.

Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim said: “Like a scene from a movie, these defendants used blow torches to cut into bank roofs, and subsequently vaults and safe deposit boxes, to steal more than $5 million in cash and customer valuables. But the scene in court today was of guilty pleas under oath and the prospect of real-life prison.”

According to the Complaint and Indictments filed in Manhattan federal court, as well as previous court filings and statements made in public court proceedings:

In April and May 2016, they formed a crew that burglarized banks in Brooklyn and Queens, New York, by cutting into the banks’ vaults and the safe deposit boxes inside. Specifically, from about April 8 to April 10, 2016, Mazzara, Charles Kerrigan, and Mascuzzio, with the assistance of Christopher Kerrigan , burglarized an HSBC Bank branch in Brooklyn, and from about May 19 to May 22, 2016, Mazzara, Charles Kerrigan, and Mascuzzio, with the assistance of Christopher Kerrigan, burglarized a Maspeth Federal Savings Bank branch in Queens.

At Maspeth Federal Savings Bank branch, they shielded their activities with a plywood shed,
At Maspeth Federal Savings Bank , they shielded their activities with a plywood shed, seen on the roof of the bank.



Both times, the burglars used acetylene blowtorches to cut into the top of the banks’ vaults from the roof of the building. At the Maspeth Federal Savings Bank branch, they shielded their activities from view by constructing a plywood shed on the roof of the bank. The burglars then entered the vaults from above and took cash belonging to the bank and broke open customers’ safe deposit boxes, stealing the valuables inside. In total, the crew obtained more than $600,000 in cash and more than $4.3 million in valuables from both banks. Surveillance footage captured some of the burglars’ activities as they prepared for and executed the burglaries.

Financial records and video surveillance also showed Mazzara and Mascuzzio purchasing some of the supplies that appear to have been used in the Maspeth burglary.

Mazzara, 45, of Brooklyn, New York, pled guilty before Hon. Katherine B. Forrest on December 13, 2017, to two counts of bank theft, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Mazzara will be sentenced by Judge Forrest on April 13, 2017.

Charles Kerrigan, 42, of Brooklyn, New York, pled guilty before Judge Forrest on December 11, 2017, to one count of conspiracy to commit bank burglary and bank theft, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, two counts of bank burglary, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and two counts of bank theft, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Charles Kerrigan also pled guilty to one count of witness retaliation while on pre-trial release, in connection with his assault of an individual who he believed had provided information regarding the burglaries to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”). That count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and a mandatory consecutive term of 10 years in prison. Charles Kerriganwill be sentenced by Judge Forrest on April 6, 2017.


Mascuzzio, 38, of Brooklyn, New York, pled guilty before Judge Forrest on December 15, 2017, to two counts of bank theft, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Mascuzzio will be sentenced by Judge Forrest on May 4, 2018.

Christopher Kerrigan, 40, of Staten Island, New York, pled guilty before Judge Forrest on November 9, 2017, to one count of conspiracy to commit bank burglary and bank theft, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, one count of bank burglary, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of bank theft, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Christopher Kerrigan will be sentenced by Judge Forrest on March 30, 2018.

This case was handled by the Office’s General Crimes Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Benet J. Kearney and David W. Denton, Jr., were in charge of the prosecution.



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