genovese,,, Grandson pays for family trespasses

Gettysburg Times
October 26, 1988

Grandson pays for family trespasses
by Jimmy Breslin

... Through those years in high school and at the start of college, at Villanova in Pennsylvania, Gene Genovese, a lanky dark-haired guy, dated a girl called Nancy from Long Branch, New Jersey.
... One day, Nancy's father said to her, "I don't want you going out with him anymore. He is related to the big gangster Genovese."
... Nancy called Gene Genovese and told him, "My father says I can't go out with you. You run the world heroin trade."
... Gene is.the grandson of Vito Genovese, who was the boss of the whole Mafia in the 1940s and 50s. He was in jail for years and died of cancer at Leavenworth prison in 1969. Yet in New Jersey, this girl Nancy's father read in the paper about the "Genovese Crime Family."
... "I guess you are right," Gene said. "I am the new boss of the whole family. I believe in setting a good example for my workers. You know what I do for the family? I do all the killing."
... Gene also has memories about a girl named Liza who left him when her family told her that the Genovese young man was an international criminal. "She moved in with a gay."
...Gene's father is an accountant. Gene works for an insurance company in New Jersey. The rest of the family consist of everything from engineers and wives of doctors to real estate salesman, financial analysts and one bartender. Nobody is in crime.
... "I was only 5 when Vito Genovese went to prison," Gene says. "I never knew history about him until the kids in school started making fun of me. I've graduated from high school, college and have been working in insurance for a living. Do you call it fair that they can keep ruining my name?"
... Gene, now 33, says he is going to sue the Genovese clubhouses on both Sullivan and Thompson Streets in Greenwich Village, and also their New Jersey outposts, to force them to drop the name. Today, 19 years after Vito's death, the full 28 years after he was taken off the streets of New York, never to be seen again, they still use the Genovese name.
... "Let the new boss get a chance to have some real recognition on his own," Gene says. "I'm also suing the FBI to make them stop using the Genovese name in their news announcements. When I was a lifeguard, I had a fight in a bar over girl. The guy slugged me good. I got mad and I said, 'I'll kill you.' The guy found out my name and ran to the district attorney and said the Genovese Mafia family was going to kill him."
... A few years ago, his aunt, a schoolteacher in New Jersey, came over to Greenwich Village, looking quite out of place, and complained bitterly in a restaurant about the name still being used. Gene, however, steps out publicly to end the outrage of retaining names of the dead.
... Two segments of organized crime perpetuate such a thing. One is the law of business. Big law companies such as Simpson, Thatcher and Bartlett has no such names on its staff. The same for Sullivan and Cromwell. Both Sullivan and Cromwell are dust in the air, but the names remain emblazoned on all bills.,
... The second area of organized crime that follows this practice is the gangsters. The five organized gangster families in New York area are called Gambino, Lucchese, Bonnano, Colombo and Genovese.
... Carlo Gambino died some years ago. The outfit now is run by John Gotti. Thomas Lucchese has been dead for a long time, but is alive in crime stories. Old Joe Bonnano is alive, but he is in ancient and wasting away in the Arizona sun. The Bonnano name lives in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.. Joe Colombo was shot in Columbus Circle and has been dead for some time. I know if this group has a boss worth putting on a chart anymore..
... These black crack kids with their Uzis are threatening to replace the entire Mafia. But this is a whole other story, and we remain here with the subject of this story, the Genovese family.
... When Vito Genovese died in prison in 1969, one Tony Bender took over, only to suffer a disappearance. Mike Miranda reluctantly took the title Boss, and at his Forest Hills house he loved receiving all these Christmas cards saying, "Merry Christmas,.Godfather." Yet he held sudden-death in such low esteem that he was thrilled retire. Next to ascend was Tommy Ryan, who then took a wrong step while emerging from his girlfriend's house in Brooklyn, a wrong step being one takes you into the line of fire. Now the boss was Funzi Tieri, who died on his own. Fat Tony Solano was next. He at least had the class to say that he liked to make Sauce Genovese. "First you got to get good neckbones and don't even bother tryin' it," he said. Now Tony, 76, just are a sentence of 170 years in federal court. "You ought to see a psychiatrist!" He told the judge. The new boss appears to be Vincent (The Chin) Gigante.
... "I don't even know who is the big shot now, and I don't care," Gene Genovese says.
... Vito Genovese had a brother, Mike, moved to Italy and died recently. The body was flown back to New York and was buried at St. John's Cemetery in Queens. Gene Genovese says his father attended the funeral, but Gene and his mother did not.
... "My grandfather," Vito Genovese, left $1000 in a will. My Aunt Nancy got $750 and my father got $250. That's it. Go check. I own a house in Monmouth County that lists for $143,000. I bought it with $20,000 down. I pay the mortgage every month. I read that my grandfather had a second wife who blew money while he was away. Or maybe the other gangsters took it. He was a bum and they're all bums. I know that he died in jail and had nothing."
... By way of proof, Gene left on the desk a picture of himself at age 5 with his brothers and his grandfather, Vito Genovese. It sure is old Vito in the picture. Gene then went back to his office to go to work, of which the grandfather never did a day's worth in his whole life.

" Made It Ma... Top - O' - The - World! "