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| May 25, 2000 |
| By Jerry Capeci |
| Umberto's of Mulberry Street |
 It was a miserable, wet, rainy night in
Little Italy but Robert Ianniello was beaming amid the dark skies and thunder and
lightning last Thursday at the Grand Reopening of Umberto's Clam House.After years of fending off state and federal authorities trying to shut them down, Ianniello and Umberto's were back in business on Mulberry Street. The place was packed and everyone was having a good time, inhaling clams and calamari. Between bites, DJ Cousin Brucie Morrow, who's been playing hit music in New York City for four decades, spouted elaborate praises. Ianniello, with his wife and three children helping him pump up the family business, handed out bottles of their sweet, medium, and hot sauce to all the guests.
Robert's older brother, Matty the Horse Ianniello, a Genovese capo, was in the restaurant when it happened, at about 5 a.m., but didn't see a thing. Robert had gone home to sleep. Gallo had partied earlier that night at the Copacabana with actor Jerry |
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| Orbach, who today plays a
cop in NBC's hit series, "Law And Order."
In the wake of the hit, state authorities tried to use Matty the Horse's criminal notoriety to shut the place down. But Robert went to court and prevailed, until 1987, when the feds used a racketeering conviction against Matty to place Umberto's under the supervision of a federal monitor. That lasted until 1994, when the monitor -- who received a court-authorized $57,000 annual salary from the restaurant -- was removed. But a few days before Christmas in 1996, business was dead. Robert closed |
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| down, sold the
building, but retained ownership of the name, Umberto's, just in case. Two years ago, Ianniello, now 69, opened up Umberto's again, on Broome Street, near the corner of Mulberry Street. "I missed it," said Ianniello. "I'm in the restaurant business all my life." Recently, the corner store next door went out of
business, and Robert seized the opportunity to get back to Little Italy's most famous
street, which, while it no longer houses the Gambino
family headquarters of John Gotti, is still home to many fine
eateries
"He's really excited about this," said Robert Jr., who broke into a big grin, and whispered. "I'm excited. We're all excited. It's good to be back on Mulberry Street." |
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| Feds Nab Three Luchese Joes |
| Call it
the case of the Joes and the John Does. Three reputed Luchese mobsters named Joe were charged last week with making extortionate loans to three John Does over the past four years.
Capo Joseph (Joey Flowers) Tangorra, 50, of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, was the main source of the funds and headed a Brooklyn-based mob crew that operates throughout the metropolitan area, according to the indictment. Amuso's son-in-law, Joseph (Little Joe) DiBenedetto, 31, of Howard Beach, Queens, and Joseph (Joe the Ironworker) Fama, 34, of Staten Island, extended the loans and served as collectors, the indictment said. DiBenedetto and Fama also branched out on their own in 1998, extending a $5000 loan to a customer during a transaction worked out in Fama's home, according to U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch. The men pleaded innocent before Judge Leonard Wexler and were released on bail packages secured by properties posted by friends and relatives. If convicted, they face 20 years in jail and $250,000 in fines. Vincent Romano, lawyer for Tangorra, said his client denied any organized crime connections and would "address the specific charges in court." Lawyers for the other Joes could not be reached. |
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"We're hoping to market it across the country by the
end of the year," smiled Ianniello, who opened Umberto's at 129 Mulberry St. in
1972, a couple of months before 
The Gallo (left) killing may have been great theatre, but it
was bad for business.
as well as the 
The Luchese Joes -- a capo and two soldiers, one the son-in-law of
