John "Peanuts" Manfredonia came from a family that produced five World War II heroes. He was the one who went a different way.
Born Giovanni Eugene Manfredonia on January 31, 1915, in Mount Vernon, New York, he was the son of Eugene and Caroline Manfredonia, both immigrants from Italy. The family included five other sons: Alfonso, Robert, Eugene, Samuel, and Rudolph.
All five served in the armed forces during World War II. John did not.
Alfonso was a Marine. Robert was a bombardier in the Army Air Corps. Rudolph served in the Navy's radio communications unit. Samuel was in the Army Air Corps, stationed in Pampa, Texas.
In July 1945, two days before he was to receive his wings as a second lieutenant, Samuel was killed in a plane crash during a routine flight. He left behind a 5-month-old son he had never seen. His death made all the local papers.
Two months earlier, in May 1945, Eugene Manfredonia Jr. also made the papers. A sergeant in the Army, he was captured by the Germans and taken prisoner. Newspapers reported he was sentenced to death by firing squad for possessing propaganda papers harmful to the Reich.
He was locked in solitary confinement for 93 days before he was liberated. After his release, he was given the key to the cell where he had been held. He told newspapers it was his most prized possession. He made it home just in time to be there when his wife gave birth to their first son.
John Manfredonia also made the newspapers before and after 1945, numerous times, but never for anything as admirable as his brothers.
His first appearance in the papers came in March 1936, when he was only 21. He was arrested along with three other men after a safe containing more than $15,000 in jewelry and cash was stolen from The Colony Hotel on Ocean Drive.
Four men had apparently held hotel employees at gunpoint while stealing the safe and then fled. Manfredonia and his friends were picked up about five miles from the hotel after a cop noticed them fighting on a corner. When the hotel's bellboy could not identify the four as the robbers, they were all released.
In September 1936, he was arrested for assault after a fight at the Palisades Diner in Mount Vernon. An off-duty patrolman named Joseph Murphy tried to arrest him for creating a disturbance, but the two got into a fight and Manfredonia escaped.
A warrant was issued immediately, but a controversy followed. Murphy went to the hospital with minor cuts on his face and had not reported the fight to his superiors. Manfredonia was picked up a few days later and charged with third-degree assault.
He pleaded innocent, telling the court he was defending himself. After an investigation, Murphy was suspended and the charges against Manfredonia were dismissed.
Since that time, Manfredonia had been arrested at least a dozen more times, for disorderly conduct, operating a floating crap game, bookmaking, assault, perjury, and parole violations. Authorities described him as one of the biggest bookmakers in Westchester County, and an informant identified him as a button guy in the Genovese crime family.
By 1961, John Manfredonia had grown up, lived, and operated most of his life in Mount Vernon. By the 1940s he had married Massachusetts native Gladys Dabrowski. They lived with his parents at 15 North Fifth Avenue in Mount Vernon.
His father, a barber by trade, owned a shop called the Sanitary Barber Shop in an adjacent building. By the 1950s, John and Gladys were still living with his parents, along with his brothers Alfonso and Rudolph and Rudolph's wife Lucy.
In 1964, John and Gladys finally moved out. They purchased a home at 411 Collins Avenue in Mount Vernon for $6,000 from Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell. The five-bedroom, four-bath home would later be worth almost $900,000.
Manfredonia also owned a vacation home in Miami and a large hunting lodge in Sandisfield, Massachusetts, which he used as a vacation retreat. He was never arrested in Massachusetts, but cops kept an eye on him.
His name came up in investigations beginning in the early 1960s, after the Berkshire Downs Racetrack in Hancock, Massachusetts, opened. Authorities reported that Manfredonia was an avid hunter who always had a lot of guests at his home during deer week, including jockeys and others associated with Berkshire Downs.
He apparently enjoyed plowing his fields with a tractor while a rifle-toting bodyguard stood guard on a nearby fence. Manfredonia was known for almost always traveling with a bodyguard. Authorities also reported that "Peanuts" was frequently visited by other alleged gangsters from New York and Springfield, Massachusetts, whenever he was in town.
His homes and his white Cadillac were all registered under his mother's name. Manfredonia had many legitimate interests, which included allegedly owning or holding hidden interests in multiple restaurants in the Westchester and upstate New York areas.
These included the Steers Den and the Sky View Club in Mount Vernon, the Barge Restaurant and Bar in Port Chester, and the Showboat in New Lebanon. He also had a hidden interest in the Black Angus restaurant in Yonkers, New York, as well as several other area restaurants and night spots over the years.
The restaurants were known to authorities as money laundries used to wash and convert illegal funds into usable money. Manfredonia's brother Robert managed the Barge, which was a known Mafia hangout, and his brother Rudolph worked there at one time before opening his own restaurant, the Federal Luncheonette, in Mamaroneck, New York.
The Barge had been cited numerous times by local authorities for allowing women to entertain their guests. Authorities reported that over the years, "Peanuts" would bring prostitutes from New Lebanon, New York, to Sandisfield, Massachusetts, as entertainment for guests at his lodge. The Barge was eventually demolished to make way for the New York State Thruway.
In 1964, there was a suspicious fire at the Steers Den. Crowds flooded the streets to watch 80 firemen fight the three-alarm fire. It caused $40,000 worth of damage, and five dentists and four food stores housed in the same building temporarily went out of business.
The Showboat was also destroyed by a fire in 1975. Back in 1952, there had been an attempted kidnapping and assault of a 21-year-old dancer from Los Angeles who had performed at the Showboat as part of her tour across New York.
Manfredonia was suspected as the guiding force behind an arson fire that engulfed the Fleetwood Plaza restaurant in Yonkers in November 1959. Following the fire, Manfredonia took Albert Meli to a burn facility in Sandisfield, Massachusetts, where he received treatment for burns on his hands and face.
Meli was a convicted arsonist, burglar, and murderer who also hailed from Mount Vernon. In 1963, Meli confessed to setting the blaze and was convicted on a malicious mischief charge, fined $250, and sentenced to six months in jail.
Meli also firebombed two lodges near Manfredonia's Sandisfield hunting lodge shortly after fleeing Mount Vernon. Manfredonia had previously attempted to purchase those lodges. Meli was eventually convicted and served jail terms for those arsons as well.
Authorities called Manfredonia one of those floating individuals who traveled back and forth between Miami, New York, and Florida as an associate of various organized crime figures. In Florida, he was known as a close associate of Arthur "Bambi" Palumbo, a Yonkers gambling figure who worked as a strongarm for Thomas Milo Sr., a soldier in the Genovese family who operated in the crew of Jimmy "Blue Eyes" Alo.
Authorities also believed that Manfredonia at one time handled gambling operations for John Bello, a top Genovese family capo originally based in New York City who later migrated to Miami, Florida, in the early 1950s, before he was shot to death in 1967.
In October 1943, Manfredonia was charged with assault for smashing a glass bowl over the head of a man in a diner. The man required 13 stitches to close the wound. Manfredonia was acquitted after the judge learned the fight was over a woman the man was with, because she thought Manfredonia had insulted her, and the man had been the one to hit Manfredonia first.
But the judge told "Peanuts" that his acquittal was not an endorsement of his actions. "You have been in trouble before," he said. "You should watch your step."
In August 1944, Manfredonia was arrested for horse bookmaking. He had been operating a phone book out of his father's barber shop. Eugene Sr. was also a reputed bookie who was allegedly connected with Carmine Denti, a well-known Bronx and Mount Vernon gambler.
The cops had tapped the phones and recorded callers making bets under the names Jimmy and L, except for one bettor who identified himself as "Sam Catz" and wanted 20 bucks to win on Pepe Miss.
In May 1945, the same year Manfredonia's brother Sam was killed and his brother Eugene escaped a German prison camp, he was among 12 men seized in a floating dice game in Mount Vernon. At trial, the cops could not prove there was any gambling for money or that anyone received a cut.
Even though cops testified that there was loud and boisterous noise, including what they called the sounds of gambling, the judge dismissed the case. One of the defense lawyers told the court that the men could have been playing with chips or matchsticks for all they knew.
In October 1965, Manfredonia was one of 26 people arrested during a raid on a floating crap game being held in the basement of a home owned by Joseph Napolitano, a former bootlegger and convicted bookmaker later identified as an associate of the Columbo crime family.
Manfredonia told the cops his name was John DeMarco, which was later found to be false. He told the court later that he had used the fake name because he did not want his mother to know he was playing dice. Napolitano claimed he was sleeping upstairs and had no idea the game was taking place. They all pleaded guilty and were fined $25 each.
In August 1966, Manfredonia was arrested along with Pasquale "Patsy" Caruso for operating a bookmaking ring. The two initially refused to allow themselves to be fingerprinted but acquiesced when they realized they would not be granted bail if they did not.
That November, they were charged in a six-count indictment for violating federal wagering tax laws. Caruso was president of Local 650, the Motion Picture Operators Union, which according to a government report was frequently criticized for its strongarm methods. He was also apparently a collector and payoff man for Manfredonia.
They were later convicted of receiving horse and sports wagers between 1964 and 1966 and doing so illegally by not registering their business or paying the wagering tax. They collected bets through an extensive use of wire rooms.
How exactly did they get caught? An IRS undercover agent posing as a jewelry salesman was introduced to Manfredonia by someone who knew him. The agent supposedly told the contact that he was looking for a bookmaker big enough to take wagers between $5 and $800 on baseball games, and the introduction was made.
But Manfredonia pretty much convicted himself. Not only did he let the undercover agent in, he also explained how to place bets in his operation, giving him a code and phone numbers to various wire rooms where he could place his bets. One of those was a Mount Vernon housewife who let Manfredonia use her phone as an answering service.
The agent then placed six separate bets of $300 each and lost, but in the end he won, because both Manfredonia and Caruso were arrested. As it turned out, the man who made the introduction also testified against them at their trial, as did another bettor and the Mount Vernon housewife.
"Peanuts" got one year in prison and a $6,000 fine. Caruso got a three-month sentence and a $2,000 fine. Both were free on bail pending appeal.
In 1968, the convictions were overturned by a U.S. Court of Appeals, which ruled that requiring someone to admit to being a gambler is a violation of the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination. But that same year, a federal judge sentenced Manfredonia to 18 months in jail and fined him $4,000 for perjury in that case, because he denied he was a bookmaker when he took the stand.
He served another six months in prison in April 1972 for parole violations because he failed to pay the $4,000 fine.
Around 3 p.m. on November 28, 1978, Gladys Manfredonia came home after a day of shopping to find her 63-year-old husband lying dead on the floor in a pool of blood. He had been shot three times in the head and neck.
Police initially reported that he was killed in the master bedroom, which had also been ransacked, and that the home showed no signs of forced entry. His wife told authorities she had last seen him alive that morning at a local diner.
At the time of his death, Manfredonia was under investigation by several East Coast law enforcement agencies, and police believed his murder was a classic gangland slaying. They had numerous leads, but they all led nowhere.
At one point, they even tried to link Manfredonia's killing to the murder of Margaret Mavo, the ex-wife of Genovese family associate Joseph Mavo, who was the brother of Rosario S. Mavo, a powerful capo in the Genovese family. She was found shot to death in her car, parked outside her home, just two weeks before "Peanuts" was killed.
At the time of her killing, police said they were looking for an Italian-American older than 50 who had an unusual nickname. They even went so far as to say the two had been lovers, but that theory did not pan out either.
In fact, nothing panned out for authorities until three years later, or so they thought. In June 1981, police finally made an arrest. Joel Ash, who went by the nickname "Joe Sick," was arrested for the murder of John "Peanuts" Manfredonia.
He was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon, though no motive for the murder was given at the time. He was in prison at the Metropolitan House of Detention in New York City on federal weapons charges.
Police believed Ash had been hired to kill "Peanuts" by another mobster who was plotting on his own, because the hit would not be approved by higher-ups. Even though they claimed Manfredonia was an unpopular mobster, authorities also believed and feared that a mob war was imminent because of this unsanctioned murder.
Mount Vernon Lieutenant John Kelly told newspapers that he spent every moment of his time, both on and off duty, working on the case. "I took it as a hobby when I saw it was going nowhere," he said.
He added that the investigation took him to organized crime haunts, people, and hangouts on Mulberry Street, Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, and Fort Lee and Englewood Cliffs in New Jersey. Unfortunately for Lieutenant Kelly, a 28-year police veteran, he would eventually discover that his hobby was basically a waste of time.
Back on August 24, 1977, Ash had been arrested with Genovese soldier John "Gentleman Johnny" Masello and several others for involvement in an alleged interstate plot to defend $750,000 in stolen securities. Masello was considered one of the largest and most vicious loan sharks operating in the Westchester area. He was also a strongarm man involved in official bribery, extortion, and business infiltration.
Two days later, on August 26, 1977, Ash was indicted again with Masello and several others in an alleged plot to muscle in on a $35,000-a-week poultry business in the Bronx. According to the indictment, Masello's associates pistol-whipped two officials of the Westchester poultry company and threatened eight others with chopping off their heads and breaking their legs if they did not fall in line.
Ash and two others apparently entered the poultry firm and pistol-whipped one employee so badly he had to be hospitalized. Masello and another man forced two officials of the firm to sign promissory notes for $764,000 payable to Masello.
On October 29, 1980, Ash was one of 35 suspects arrested during a pre-dawn raid in which more than 200 federal agents and New York City cops fanned out across the city. They seized dynamite, machine guns, automatic rifles, silencers, narcotics, and hijacked cigarettes. This was the arrest that Ash was imprisoned for when he was arrested for Manfredonia's murder.
Reputed Columbo family hitman George Tropiano and Genovese capo Siro Peron were also arrested in this case. It took six months of undercover work by federal agents to finally secure enough evidence to conduct the raids.
The main undercover agent in charge purchased about 40 weapons and was introduced to the suppliers by an informant who was supplied to the government by New York City detectives, one of whom was none other than the legendary Joe Coffey. The informant had been in the witness protection program and was described as a man so well connected that he was able to meet with Frank Tieri on a regular basis in a Brooklyn restaurant.
Interestingly, while most of the men arrested were listed by law enforcement as alleged members of organized crime, federal authorities refused to use the words "organized crime" when describing the arrests. Chief of Detectives James T. Sullivan told reporters at a news conference, "You can draw that conclusion on your own, but we are not going to say anything that would prejudice subsequent prosecutions."
This was seven years after Joe Columbo had formed the Italian-American Civil Rights League and demanded the government immediately cease using the term "organized crime" in any indictments or arrests. It was a policy that U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell put into place after the heat the government was getting because of the work of the league. And even though Joe Columbo was still in a coma after being shot in 1971, it seemed the government was not yet ready to test the waters.
Ash manufactured 55 of the silencers seized during the raids. They were ordered by an undercover ATF agent, who then arrested Ash when he delivered the weapons. Authorities said all the weapons seized were top quality. One official told reporters, "When we test-fired the machine guns, all you could hear was the bullets hitting the wall."
Apparently, Ash told the undercover ATF agent he was dealing with during several meetings over the course of two months that he was the one who murdered "Peanuts" Manfredonia. He told the agent that a mobster who was having a business disagreement with Manfredonia was the one who had given him the contract. The agent tape-recorded every conversation.
Ash went to trial in November 1982. His lawyer, Lester B. Adler, told the jury that Ash was only boasting about murdering Manfredonia because he wanted to impress the mob in hopes they would see him as a worthy hitman.
Ash believed that the undercover agent was close to the mob and that he would share this juicy information with his friends, Adler said. He said Ash had a big mouth but was no murderer.
"There sits a boisterous, stupid braggart whose big mouth has gotten him into a big mess," he said. "But stupidity is not a crime. Murder is."
District Attorney George Bolan told the jury, "Joel Ash aspired to be a hitman. He was a hitman and he hit Peanuts."
During the trial, more details were revealed about Manfredonia's murder, including the fact that he had been killed in his kitchen, not the bedroom as previously reported by police. He had apparently been sitting at the kitchen table and was found lying on his back with a toppled kitchen chair near his body. There was also a bullet hole and smeared blood on the wall.
The medical examiner testified that Manfredonia probably did not die right away after he was shot the first time. He had apparently stood up and stumbled to the wall before falling to the floor, where Ash then made the kill shot, a bullet straight to the brain. It was two upstairs bedrooms that had been ransacked, not just the master bedroom as had also been reported back in 1978.
But the only evidence against Ash was the tape recordings made by the ATF agent, even though Ash had known details that only the killer would have known. As was known, the police did not reveal all the information they had about Manfredonia's murder and even put misinformation out there in hopes of catching his killer.
The ATF agent was the prosecution's star witness and shared with the jury all the gory details Ash told him about Manfredonia's murder. At one point, Adler blamed the killing on Ken Masello, the son of "Gentleman Johnny" and a friend of Ash.
He claimed that Masello had picked up Ash at Manfredonia's house just 20 minutes after the fatal shots had been fired. He even suggested that Masello was the one who had actually done the deed and relayed the details to Ash.
But all of it was a convenient argument, because Masello was shot to death in March of that year in front of a Howard Johnson's restaurant in Yonkers. He was shot in the head as he walked to his car in the restaurant's parking lot.
Masello, by the way, had been arrested and convicted in 1981 on weapons charges in connection with the same case in which Ash admitted to murdering Manfredonia. He had been released from prison just 10 days before his murder.
After a two-week trial, Ash was acquitted of the murder. The jury deliberated for 90 minutes before returning its verdict.
After the acquittal, Adler told reporters, "I have faith in the jury system. My client and I always knew it works, and we're extremely gratified by the jury's verdict. We believe justice was done."
As is the case with many underworld murders, the mystery of who killed John "Peanuts" Manfredonia is one that may never be solved. Masello's murder has also never been solved.
As a side note, there was another John Manfredonia who, along with two of his brothers, including one named Richard, was involved in an extortion and kidnapping scheme back in 1934. There was also a Richard Manfredonia, a member of the Genovese family and a convicted drug trafficker who was associated with Johnny "the Bug" Staluppi, Vincent "Vinnie Bruno" Morrow, and Joe Vachi.
It is unclear if Richard Manfredonia the drug trafficker was the Richard Manfredonia from the 1934 kidnapping scheme, as the dates of birth do not match. Nevertheless, these Manfredonias and the John Manfredonia discussed here are not related.