Liborio Bellomo

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Liborio "Barney" Bellomo (b. January 8, 1957) is a member and acting boss of the Genovese crime family, originally from Corleone, Sicily.

In the early 1980s, Vincent Cafaro sponsored Bellomo into the Genovese family, and Bellomo became a made member of Saverio Santora's East Harlem 116th Street Crew. The crew was involved in heroin trafficking and labor racketeering, specifically in the NYC District Council of Carpenters.

In the mid-1980s, Bellomo took over the Santora 116th Street Crew, and with fellow Harlem captain Vincent DiNapoli became the pre-eminent racketeer in the NYC District Council of Carpenters and extremely influential in the NYC construction industry. During the late 1980s, Bellomo moved the crew's center base to the Bronx, where it has always maintained important rackets up until Bellomo's most recent indictment. In or about 1987, Bellomo won a jurisdictional dispute against Genovese Little Italy captain Peter DeFeo, in which consigliere Louis Manna awarded Bellomo exclusive control over Bronx Carpenters Local 17, removing all of DeFeo's influence. Furthermore, Bellomo became dominant in the rackets at the Jacob K. Javits Center on the West Side of Manhattan by installing crew members in important union positions at the center, including soldier Ralph Coppola and his Genovese associate brother-in-law and Carpenters Local 257 shop steward Anthony Fiorino. Bellomo was also close to Genovese associate Attilio Bitondo who was Local 257's Vice-President, and involved in shaking down NYC contractors and businesses operating at the Javits Center.

In 1990, after Vincent Gigante's indictment in the Windows Scam, Bellomo was appointed acting boss of the Genovese family. In 1996, after serving effectively as Gigante's acting boss while Gigante was dodging indictments by faking mental illness, Bellomo was indicted on RICO charges, including murder, extortion and labor racketeering. He took and passed three lie detector tests about a murder he has steadfastly denied, had his head shaved by FBI agents looking to find evidence that Bellomo had used drugs to beat the polygraph machines, and was left sitting in prison even though no evidence of drugs was found in his system. In late 1997, Bellomo pleaded guilty to lesser charges and accepted a 10-year prison sentence.

In 2001, while Bellomo was due out of prison in 2004, he was indicted on money laundering charges related to the Genovese family's involvement in the waterfront rackets and control of the ILA. Bellomo was accused of hiding money stolen from the ILA's members pension fund account. Bellomo pleaded guilty to lesser charges once again pushing back his scheduled release date. While in prison, on February 23, 2006, Bellomo and over 30 other Genovese crime family members and associates, including nearly 90-year old Bronx captain John Ardito and Bellomo's attorney Peter Peluso who decided to cooperate with federal investigators. Bellomo is charged with ordering the 1998 murder of Ralph Coppola, the acting captain that ran Bellomo's crew in his absence. Peluso pleaded guilty to his role in the murder, specifically, he admitted to passing the murder decree from Bellomo the Genovese mobsters who actually carried out the hit [1].

[edit] Further reading

Butler, Gregory A. Disunited Brotherhoods: Race, Racketeering and the Fall of the New York Construction Unions. Lincoln: iUniverse, 2006. ISBN 0-595-39143-5
Jacobs, James B., Coleen Friel and Robert Radick. Gotham Unbound: How New York City Was Liberated from the Grip of Organized Crime. New York: NYU Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8147-4247-5
Milhorn, H. Thomas. Crime: Computer Viruses to Twin Towers. Boca Raton, Florida: Universal Publishers, 2005. ISBN 1-58112-489-9
Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8
Theoharis, Athan G. (ed.) The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1999. ISBN 0-89774-991-X
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi: Hearings Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. 1988. [2]