Thursday, August 23, 2012

Organized Crime Boss Matthew "Matty The Horse" Ianniello Dies At 92


Paul Vitello at the New York Times offers a report on the death of the New York organized crime figure Matthew Ianniello (seen in the above FBI mugshot)..

Matthew Ianniello, the low-key reputed Genovese crime boss known as “Matty the Horse,” who was convicted of rigging construction bids, skimming union dues and wringing protection money from bar owners, pornography peddlers and topless dancers during a half-century career that, among other highlights, helped transform Times Square into the dingy world capital of peep shows in the 1960s and ’70s, died on Aug. 15 at his home in Old Westbury, on Long Island. He was 92. His death was confirmed by his trial lawyer, Jay Goldberg of Manhattan. A death notice placed by his family in Newsday said Mr. Ianniello died “peacefully at home with his family.”

Mr. Ianniello — whose mob name derived from his powerful physique and his early career as an enforcer — served only two significant prison terms during his life: a nine-year term for racketeering and tax evasion involving Midtown topless bars that he owned, which he served from 1986 to 1995; and an 18-month sentence for his role in illegally controlling garbage-hauling companies in Connecticut, which he completed in 2009, at 89. 
      
Yet federal prosecutors considered him the mastermind of one of organized crime’s most lucrative profit centers in New York — the topless bar scene and pornography shops of Manhattan.
 
You can read the rest of the story via the below link:
 

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