Genovese Capo Angelo Prisco Wiretap: Audio And Transcript
‟Everybody thinks "Our family is different." And they are, in a lot of ways. Say I gotta do something and I take you with me. That's it. Nobody else knows. The only one that knows anything is the boss. ... We were taught, if it's done --- the old timers tell you, if someone's gotta go, they become a cockroach. What do you do with a cockroach? You kill the cockroach, you step on the cockroach, and you go about your business. You don't go calling people up and say "Hey, I took on a cockroach last night...”
Prisco sounds good natured and easygoing, but the man you hear casually shooting the breeze was, at that very time, helming a violent home invasion crew that tied up its victims and beat them inside their homes. Not even other wiseguys were off limits. As the FBI later alleged: Prisco told his crew about his robbery "policy" -- specifically, that they should "play dumb" if it ever turned out that they had robbed someone with organized crime ties.
As the tape (and the car) rolls, Prisco casually tells Santini that he expects one of two things to happen at the meeting. Most likely, he'd get paid a lump sum that had been dangled before him previously, compensation for being in prison for years and losing his crew -- a development that didn't make Prisco happy.
Or, in lieu of the "lump," as he calls the payment, his cohorts in the Genovese crime family may have been planning to murder him. Neither option seems to faze Prisco much.
The prison-hardened, cool-as-a-cat wiseguy -- who had remained close pals with his old Bronx compadres Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano and Michael (Mickey Nose) Mancuso, alleged Bonanno boss today -- was ultimately taken down by Santini, who was wearing a wire (allegedly by choice) and making the recording from which we get this transcript.
At the time, Santini had just learned that he was the illegitimate son of John DiGilio, onetime leader of the Genovese crime family's New Jersey faction, who was killed and dumped in the Hackensack River in 1988 -- by none other than men working for Prisco, who was following orders from a man for whom Prisco had professed his love and admiration: Vincent (Chin) Gigante.
Prisco, described as "brutish" and "understated," later took control of Garden State operations.
The same year Prisco drove with Santini, a New Jersey State Commission Status Report on organized crime (PDF download) made note of him, describing him as "a capo from Yonkers, N.Y., (who) heads a crew with powerful influence in northern New Jersey."
It noted: "Prisco now resides in Atlantic County and is believed to have resumed control of his crew. The crew’s primary activity takes place in Hudson County, along the Bayonne/Jersey City Waterfront, but it also operates in Monmouth County and Florida."
The report also noted that Prisco, who was sentenced to 12 years for arson and conspiracy, had been paroled early "in violation of New Jersey Parole Board protocols" in August 2002.
His name was on the New Jersey Casino Control Commission’s Exclusion List.
While Prisco was incarcerated, Genovese member Joseph N. LaScala supervised his crew. In March 2002, several members and associates of this crew were charged with shaking down International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) dockworkers at various Hudson County waterfront shipping terminals. In December 2001, another soldier in this crew was convicted on federal charges of embezzling funds from ILA Local 1588 in Bayonne.
Santini testified that he first met Prisco in February 2004 at a birthday party in Jersey City. Santini was then working as a bail bondsman who earned extra pocket money by posing for the FBI as a wannabe wiseguy. Santini had been working as an undercover for the Fed's for about 18 months when he learned that Genovese big shot Angelo Prisco -- along with Michael Visconti, one of his soldiers -- was going to attend that party at the South City Grill in Jersey City.
A Bronx native, Prisco's crew operated in New York City and in New Jersey. He was probably at the pinnacle of power when he assumed control of the lucrative New Jersey waterfront for the Genovese family.
Following his controversial release from Trenton State Prison in 2002 -- Prisco had served only four years of a 12-year sentence -- Prisco was on parole and unable to leave New Jersey.
Remarkably, Prisco allegedly knew all along that Jeff was DiGilio's son yet seemed to implicitly trust him anyway. (However, Prisco later told the FBI that Santini was not DiGilio's son, and that he'd taken the young man under his wing because he felt sorry for him.)
Years after the recordings were made, in 2009, Prisco was found guilty after a two-week jury trial before United States District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of crimes including murder, racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, robbery, extortion, firearms crimes, property theft, and operating an illegal gambling business.
Prisco was sentenced to life in prison.
But he'd known the score from the jump. When FBI agents visited him at a South Carolina prison to discuss his impending RICO indictment, he acknowledged that he would "die in prison." Prisco said that while he suffered from diabetes and had been "taking good care of himself," he "intend(ed) to stop taking care of himself and eat whatever he want(ed) to eat."
Angelo Prisco died on June 21, 2017, at age 77.
Listen to the audio below. It's around 12 minutes long. At the very least, listen to the last few minutes. Why?
Because you HAVE to hear Angelo Prisco enunciate the word "consiglieri," at least once in your life....
Transcript
Italicized lines are interpretations, as some audio is unintelligible.
On Christmas Eve day 2004, while heading to a meeting with the acting boss of his family—the Genovese crime family—capo Angelo Prisco relaxed and spoke candidly to his driver/presumed protégé Jeff Santini.
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| Genovese waterfront capo Angelo Prisco |
Prisco sounds good natured and easygoing, but the man you hear casually shooting the breeze was, at that very time, helming a violent home invasion crew that tied up its victims and beat them inside their homes. Not even other wiseguys were off limits. As the FBI later alleged: Prisco told his crew about his robbery "policy" -- specifically, that they should "play dumb" if it ever turned out that they had robbed someone with organized crime ties.
As the tape (and the car) rolls, Prisco casually tells Santini that he expects one of two things to happen at the meeting. Most likely, he'd get paid a lump sum that had been dangled before him previously, compensation for being in prison for years and losing his crew -- a development that didn't make Prisco happy.
Or, in lieu of the "lump," as he calls the payment, his cohorts in the Genovese crime family may have been planning to murder him. Neither option seems to faze Prisco much.
The prison-hardened, cool-as-a-cat wiseguy -- who had remained close pals with his old Bronx compadres Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano and Michael (Mickey Nose) Mancuso, alleged Bonanno boss today -- was ultimately taken down by Santini, who was wearing a wire (allegedly by choice) and making the recording from which we get this transcript.
At the time, Santini had just learned that he was the illegitimate son of John DiGilio, onetime leader of the Genovese crime family's New Jersey faction, who was killed and dumped in the Hackensack River in 1988 -- by none other than men working for Prisco, who was following orders from a man for whom Prisco had professed his love and admiration: Vincent (Chin) Gigante.
Prisco, described as "brutish" and "understated," later took control of Garden State operations.
The same year Prisco drove with Santini, a New Jersey State Commission Status Report on organized crime (PDF download) made note of him, describing him as "a capo from Yonkers, N.Y., (who) heads a crew with powerful influence in northern New Jersey."
It noted: "Prisco now resides in Atlantic County and is believed to have resumed control of his crew. The crew’s primary activity takes place in Hudson County, along the Bayonne/Jersey City Waterfront, but it also operates in Monmouth County and Florida."
The report also noted that Prisco, who was sentenced to 12 years for arson and conspiracy, had been paroled early "in violation of New Jersey Parole Board protocols" in August 2002.
His name was on the New Jersey Casino Control Commission’s Exclusion List.
While Prisco was incarcerated, Genovese member Joseph N. LaScala supervised his crew. In March 2002, several members and associates of this crew were charged with shaking down International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) dockworkers at various Hudson County waterfront shipping terminals. In December 2001, another soldier in this crew was convicted on federal charges of embezzling funds from ILA Local 1588 in Bayonne.
Santini testified that he first met Prisco in February 2004 at a birthday party in Jersey City. Santini was then working as a bail bondsman who earned extra pocket money by posing for the FBI as a wannabe wiseguy. Santini had been working as an undercover for the Fed's for about 18 months when he learned that Genovese big shot Angelo Prisco -- along with Michael Visconti, one of his soldiers -- was going to attend that party at the South City Grill in Jersey City.
Prisco -- once an alleged "Purple Gang" member -- was “made,” or inducted, into the Genovese crime family in the late 1970s. (Prisco's sponsors were Chin and brother Mario Gigante.)
Prisco would rise to captain within one of the most powerful Mafia families in America.
Prisco would rise to captain within one of the most powerful Mafia families in America.
A Bronx native, Prisco's crew operated in New York City and in New Jersey. He was probably at the pinnacle of power when he assumed control of the lucrative New Jersey waterfront for the Genovese family.
Following his controversial release from Trenton State Prison in 2002 -- Prisco had served only four years of a 12-year sentence -- Prisco was on parole and unable to leave New Jersey.
Years after the recordings were made, in 2009, Prisco was found guilty after a two-week jury trial before United States District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of crimes including murder, racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, robbery, extortion, firearms crimes, property theft, and operating an illegal gambling business.
Prisco was sentenced to life in prison.
But he'd known the score from the jump. When FBI agents visited him at a South Carolina prison to discuss his impending RICO indictment, he acknowledged that he would "die in prison." Prisco said that while he suffered from diabetes and had been "taking good care of himself," he "intend(ed) to stop taking care of himself and eat whatever he want(ed) to eat."
Angelo Prisco died on June 21, 2017, at age 77.
Listen to the audio below. It's around 12 minutes long. At the very least, listen to the last few minutes. Why?
Because you HAVE to hear Angelo Prisco enunciate the word "consiglieri," at least once in your life....
 |
| Longtime Genovese wiseguy from the Bronx Angelo Prisco going back in.... |
Transcript
Italicized lines are interpretations, as some audio is unintelligible.
Angelo Prisco
Drop me off at the Glen Rock (Inn, a restaurant in Glen Rock, New Jersey in Bergen county). And Rocky's gonna take me someplace. I don't know what they want. I think it's to give me money, Jeff, I'm not sure.
Other than that, I wouldn't have even went. But what else could it be on Christmas Eve, it couldn't even wait. They want to give me something for the holiday.
Remember I said something about the lump I was supposed to get? I don't know if I told you; this might be it. Like the guys that were around me when I got pinched. They're not around me. It was absorbed.
But I'm a good man, so I don't make no big thing out of it. Hey, when I was away and (I told them) if this guy (Chin) was home, this never would've happened. I'm a good man, know what I mean? I didn't do nothing wrong. I'm no fucking rat. I did my time. I did my 12 years when I was 58 years old. I'm a man.
So why should I have to lose these fucking guys.
Know what I told them? "Oh we thought you gave them up." No, I didn't give nobody up. Even if I'm not having them make no money, I don't give nobody up.
Jeff Santini
I'm gonna drop you off? Mike told me not to leave your side.
Angelo
Well, listen, Rocky is gonna be there.
Jeff
Mike said don't leave you alone for a second.
Angelo
He gets paranoid. I said, Mike I didn't do nothing wrong; if they want me, I ain't got no dirty mind. There's no deep dark secrets where they're gonna say you did this, you did that.
Jeff
Who is this guy?
Angelo
It's my family. Matter of fact, matter of fact, he's one of the guys I put in.
Jeff
We can't let nothing happen to you.
Angelo
No, I don't think it's anything like that. But, hey, it's my life, that's my life -- there's nothing you can do about it.
Angelo
Let me explain something to ya. Everybody thinks, "Our family is different." And they are, in lots of ways ....Say I gotta do something and I take you with me. That's it, nobody else knows. The only one that knows anything is the boss. These guys (the Gambinos), the whole family, they all know something happened.
We were taught, if it's done --- the old timers tell you, if someone's gotta go, they become a cockroach. What do you do with a cockroach? You kill the cockroach, you step on the cockroach, and you go about your business. You don't go calling people up and saying, "Hey, I took on a cockroach last night." They had to make it that way, but that's the way it is.
------
Angelo
Couple of months before I made parole, I thought they were gonna slam me with something else.
Jeff
The skeleton in your closet.
Angelo
Angelo
He wants to see me, but I'm not -- he ain't a bad guy, and when it happened, Jeff, I told them, "Listen, you're pushing this fcking guy to the wall. He's an actor. He's a Jewish actor."
Jeff
Jewish, I didn't know that.
Angelo
He's a Jewish actor, he's not a fcking tough guy. They sent word back to me, "We'll do whatever we want with him. He's our piece of cheese, and we'll cut him up anyway we want." I said, OK. Then he came to see me, I said, "Steven, I can't help you." So he ratted, and now once he ratted, all their lawyers -- one guy named Larry Bronson, he's a Jersey lawyer. (In 2008, Bronson was slammed for financial shenanigans.)
Drop me off at the Glen Rock (Inn, a restaurant in Glen Rock, New Jersey in Bergen county). And Rocky's gonna take me someplace. I don't know what they want. I think it's to give me money, Jeff, I'm not sure.
Other than that, I wouldn't have even went. But what else could it be on Christmas Eve, it couldn't even wait. They want to give me something for the holiday.
Remember I said something about the lump I was supposed to get? I don't know if I told you; this might be it. Like the guys that were around me when I got pinched. They're not around me. It was absorbed.
But I'm a good man, so I don't make no big thing out of it. Hey, when I was away and (I told them) if this guy (Chin) was home, this never would've happened. I'm a good man, know what I mean? I didn't do nothing wrong. I'm no fucking rat. I did my time. I did my 12 years when I was 58 years old. I'm a man.
So why should I have to lose these fucking guys.
Know what I told them? "Oh we thought you gave them up." No, I didn't give nobody up. Even if I'm not having them make no money, I don't give nobody up.
So ever since then, they've been giving me, like, $1,000 to $1,500 a month. They said they were gonna give me a lump -- this might be it, you know. What couldn't wait til Monday if it was something else?
Jeff Santini
I'm gonna drop you off? Mike told me not to leave your side.
Angelo
Well, listen, Rocky is gonna be there.
Jeff
Mike said don't leave you alone for a second.
Angelo
He gets paranoid. I said, Mike I didn't do nothing wrong; if they want me, I ain't got no dirty mind. There's no deep dark secrets where they're gonna say you did this, you did that.
Jeff
Who is this guy?
Angelo
It's my family. Matter of fact, matter of fact, he's one of the guys I put in.
Jeff
We can't let nothing happen to you.
Angelo
No, I don't think it's anything like that. But, hey, it's my life, that's my life -- there's nothing you can do about it.
Jeff
Shut up. I'll be right there. I'll run them all over.
Angelo
I'm too good a man in everyone's eyes. There's no reason for this.
Jeff
Forget about the lump sum; what about the continuation?
Angelo
What I told them was, this guy was around, yes, but this guy's not with me no more. So, OK, fine, I'm a good soldier. But they knew, they knew, I said, look, I'll take care of my own shit, nobody has to do anything for me. They've been doing the right thing by me so far, and this might be, who knows..
Jeff
How come they didn't give you the car.
Angelo
They had to give him a name.
Jeff
It's his place ....
Angelo
This guy is with the Gambinos. I didn't like them and I ....but anytime they needed something from me, or whatever, they would send him to me because they knew he was my friend. We'd be hugging and kissing and I'd say, what do you want? "Ang, what can I tell you, they sent me." Of course they sent you -- they're not gonna send someone I don't like. They got so many fcking rats in that group.
Jeff
Sammy got what was coming to him. He got that pinch for ecstasy. And then he's got a hold in New Jersey here because of the Ice Man. The Ice Man didn't give him up, but kind of implicated him....
Angelo
Oh.
Jeff
And look at the son -- he was getting out in September.
Angelo
What kid?
Jeff
John Junior (Gotti).
Angelo
I don't think Sammy the Bull had anything to do with that. That was something else -- that was Mikie Scars. "He's my right-hand man," he told me. He talked to me inside about him. "You should've made him your left hand man." He ain't a bad kid that kid.
Jeff
But he's caught in the mix. I don't know if he could handle that.
Shut up. I'll be right there. I'll run them all over.
Angelo
I'm too good a man in everyone's eyes. There's no reason for this.
Jeff
Forget about the lump sum; what about the continuation?
Angelo
What I told them was, this guy was around, yes, but this guy's not with me no more. So, OK, fine, I'm a good soldier. But they knew, they knew, I said, look, I'll take care of my own shit, nobody has to do anything for me. They've been doing the right thing by me so far, and this might be, who knows..
Jeff
How come they didn't give you the car.
Angelo
They had to give him a name.
Jeff
It's his place ....
Angelo
This guy is with the Gambinos. I didn't like them and I ....but anytime they needed something from me, or whatever, they would send him to me because they knew he was my friend. We'd be hugging and kissing and I'd say, what do you want? "Ang, what can I tell you, they sent me." Of course they sent you -- they're not gonna send someone I don't like. They got so many fcking rats in that group.
Jeff
Sammy got what was coming to him. He got that pinch for ecstasy. And then he's got a hold in New Jersey here because of the Ice Man. The Ice Man didn't give him up, but kind of implicated him....
Angelo
Oh.
Jeff
And look at the son -- he was getting out in September.
Angelo
What kid?
Jeff
John Junior (Gotti).
Angelo
I don't think Sammy the Bull had anything to do with that. That was something else -- that was Mikie Scars. "He's my right-hand man," he told me. He talked to me inside about him. "You should've made him your left hand man." He ain't a bad kid that kid.
Jeff
But he's caught in the mix. I don't know if he could handle that.
Transcript continues below YouTube clip...
Angelo
Let me explain something to ya. Everybody thinks, "Our family is different." And they are, in lots of ways ....Say I gotta do something and I take you with me. That's it, nobody else knows. The only one that knows anything is the boss. These guys (the Gambinos), the whole family, they all know something happened.
We were taught, if it's done --- the old timers tell you, if someone's gotta go, they become a cockroach. What do you do with a cockroach? You kill the cockroach, you step on the cockroach, and you go about your business. You don't go calling people up and saying, "Hey, I took on a cockroach last night." They had to make it that way, but that's the way it is.
------
Angelo
Couple of months before I made parole, I thought they were gonna slam me with something else.
Jeff
The skeleton in your closet.
Angelo
Whatever, ya know. But they didn't. But they let me go, then they were gonna put me back because of that Steven Seagal.
Jeff
He didn't send you the Christmas cards, did he?Angelo
He wants to see me, but I'm not -- he ain't a bad guy, and when it happened, Jeff, I told them, "Listen, you're pushing this fcking guy to the wall. He's an actor. He's a Jewish actor."
Jeff
Jewish, I didn't know that.
Angelo
He's a Jewish actor, he's not a fcking tough guy. They sent word back to me, "We'll do whatever we want with him. He's our piece of cheese, and we'll cut him up anyway we want." I said, OK. Then he came to see me, I said, "Steven, I can't help you." So he ratted, and now once he ratted, all their lawyers -- one guy named Larry Bronson, he's a Jersey lawyer. (In 2008, Bronson was slammed for financial shenanigans.)
Jeff
Hackensack.
Angelo
He came to see me. I says, "Yeah, Larry, what's up?" He says, "you know who sent me here, don't ya?" I said, "who?" He says, "I can't tell ya." "You can't tell me?" I grabbed him by his throat and I twisted his tie and he was turning purple -- I says, "You can't tell me, you motherfcker?" Like I got insulted. "You wanna come and talk to me and you don't tell me who's" -- and I twisted his fcking tie and he says, "SONNY CICCONE!"
I said, what does he want? He said maybe you could talk to Steven, he's ratting. I said, when I sent the message that you're pushing this guy to the wall, I was told to mind my fcking business -- you know what? Get the fck out of here -- tell him to go fck himself. I'm minding my business.
I couldn't stop it, you know what I mean? I'm looking to go for parole in another six to eight weeks, and you want me to tell the guy to drop a lawsuit -- a case against them? They'll never let me out of here! Get the fck out of here! I hate them fcking guys. I don't do nothing for the Gambinos -- as soon as I hear them, my asshole goes like this......
They think who the fck they are. They think they're the number one in the world, ya know? Everybody else is shit on their shoe.
Jeff
Peter (Gotti) just got convicted.
Angelo
Who?
Jeff
Peter
Angelo
Fcking imbecile. Jerk off.....You wanna send two guys to kill a guy who ratted on your brother... Kill him before he rats! You know what I mean, Jeff?....Kill him before, don't kill him after! That's compounding the felony! Stupid, ya know? He wasn't the sharpest knife in the draw, anyway.
All of them -- I hate them fcking gangsters -- they singlehandedly destroyed this whole life.
Jeff
You think it was his downfall the flashiness? I mean, I don't wanna bring up --
Angelo
His downfall was his ego. That was his downfall. All the tapes they got of him in the woman’s apartment. OK, he didn’t know they were being taped, but you got Sammy the Bull there who’s your underboss – you got this other guy, Frankie Loc, who’s your consiglieri.
You gotta explain to them the life? He put himself in there. You gotta explain to them about this life? About this is ours and our thing? You don’t talk to underlings -- you don't talk to a boss -- an underboss and a consiglieri like that. Why, they don’t know?
Jeff
How did they get their rank?
Angelo
He did it. That’s neither here nor there. I said, look, I don’t want to see anyone (unintelligible). I feel bad for them. They throw rocks at the (??) to draw attention to themselves. Stupid. What are you gonna do, that’s life.
Without guys like us they wouldn’t need the FBI, the cops – surveillance and all that. Who they gonna watch?
Jeff
Terrorists.
Angelo
Yeah.
All of them -- I hate them fcking gangsters -- they singlehandedly destroyed this whole life.
Jeff
You think it was his downfall the flashiness? I mean, I don't wanna bring up --
Angelo
His downfall was his ego. That was his downfall. All the tapes they got of him in the woman’s apartment. OK, he didn’t know they were being taped, but you got Sammy the Bull there who’s your underboss – you got this other guy, Frankie Loc, who’s your consiglieri.
You gotta explain to them the life? He put himself in there. You gotta explain to them about this life? About this is ours and our thing? You don’t talk to underlings -- you don't talk to a boss -- an underboss and a consiglieri like that. Why, they don’t know?
Jeff
How did they get their rank?
Angelo
He did it. That’s neither here nor there. I said, look, I don’t want to see anyone (unintelligible). I feel bad for them. They throw rocks at the (??) to draw attention to themselves. Stupid. What are you gonna do, that’s life.
Without guys like us they wouldn’t need the FBI, the cops – surveillance and all that. Who they gonna watch?
Jeff
Terrorists.
Angelo
Yeah.
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