A former Mafia associate who grew up surrounded by the New York underworld has described how the five families used street gangs as recruiting pools, with some crews functioning as unofficial “farm teams” for future made men. Frank Fiordelino, who had two uncles in the Bonanno crime family and later became a government witness in the early 2000s, said the practice of grooming young street toughs dates back decades. He credited capo Carmine “The Snake” Persico with popularizing the term “farm teams” to describe these neighborhood crews. Fiordelino said that during his time, there were at least ten such crews operating in South Brooklyn alone, including the Bath Avenue boys and the Bay Parkway boys, who frequently clashed with one another.
Every corner seemed to have its own crew, he recalled, with some being more significant than others. The tradition extended to some of the most notorious names in Mafia history. Sammy “The Bull” Gravano was part of a farm team known as the Ramperts, which also included Jerry Papa and Jimmy Emma, a volatile figure who was killed at a young age by mobsters who had grown tired of his behavior. According to stories Fiordelino heard, Emma and Papa were confronted and fled in different directions.
Emma reportedly tripped and was found with a gun pressed against his head before being killed. The crews were not limited to Brooklyn. The Rockaway Fulton boys were associated with the Gotti faction, and Carmine Persico himself was linked to the Garfield boys in the 1950s, when rival gangs engaged in what they called “rumbles. ”
Fiordelino noted that while these gangs often operated independently, they sometimes cooperated when members belonged to the same crime family.
He personally knew his cousin Dino Calabro, who was part of the Bay Parkway boys, and said it was not unusual for farm teams from different areas to work together if they shared family ties. The makeup of these crews varied significantly. The Bath Avenue boys, for example, were a mixed group of low-income and lower-middle-class kids, not all of them Italian. Fiordelino said one young member, a 12-year-old nicknamed Leadhead who sold marijuana for Tommy “Karate” Pitera, was shot and killed at a very young age.
The Bay Parkway boys, by contrast, tended to come from families with stronger connections to made members of the Mob. Tommy Joyelli, who was connected to the crew, had an uncle in the life, giving those members a more direct path upward. Fiordelino’s own group, the Gianini crew, operated in Western Queens and had roughly 40 to 50 members. He said the crew was unique because it seemed to be the only one in the area, and several members had relatives in the Mafia, which made it easier for them to advance.
Not everyone in these crews wanted to become a made man. Some members, particularly non-Italians, saw little reason to kick up money to the Mob when they were already earning on their own. Others, like Paulie Galina, actively pursued induction. Galina, who came from a non-mobbed family, was initially around Tommy Pitera and later came under the wing of Spiro after Pitera was imprisoned.
The path to membership was not always smooth. Fiordelino said that during the era of Bonanno boss Joseph Massino, the family was looking for compliant Sicilian moneymakers, not rebellious young men. Many of his friends did not fit that mold, and he believed they had little chance of being made during that period. The situation changed in the early 2000s, when many of those same associates finally received their buttons.
Fiordelino said that of the men around the Gianini crew, 16 are made members today, mostly within the Bonanno family. Fiordelino also discussed Vito Guzzo Jr. , a Gianini crew associate who went on to join the Colombo family. Guzzo had a mentor in Dennis Gazzara, who died of cancer, and his father was a made man in the family.
After his father’s murder, Guzzo took revenge, shooting two people and killing one in an ambush. Fiordelino explained that when a man dies in that life, his son is often left alone, but Guzzo was such an able up-and-comer that the family took him in. He later associated with Patty Catalano, and his reputation grew from there. The former associate said recruiting has changed in the modern era, with a greater emphasis on money-making ability.
He noted that his two cousins, who remain made members of the Bonanno family, are “money guys” who were inducted while other capable men were overlooked. Fiordelino acknowledged that a wide range of infamous figures emerged from these farm teams, from Gravano and Jerry Papa to Anthony Casso and the Lucchese family’s own crews, including the Polo and Cantis gangs, as well as the Tanglewood boys in the Bronx. The Male crew was also largely made up of associates who were not yet made men. He cautioned that entering that life means starting somewhere, and conflicts within crews often escalate as young men try to prove themselves.
He described how ambitious associates would pick targets they believed were weak, sometimes carrying out unsanctioned hits simply to build their reputations. “Have you heard of everyone who did unsanctioned hits? ” he said, noting that figures like Sammy the Bull often killed people who were marginal figures in the life.
“It’s a dick waving contest,” he added.