Steven Crea

Steven "Wonderboy" Crea, aka Herbie, (b. July 18, 1947), is a New York mobster heavily involved in labor racketeering who eventually became the acting boss of the Lucchese crime family.

Rise to power

Steven was born to first generation immigrants from Serralunga di Crea. He earned his nickname "Wonderboy" after the fictional Quality Comics character and superhero. Crea was inducted into the Lucchese family sometime in the 1980s, probably under the reign of boss Anthony Corallo. During the late 1980s, family boss Victor Amuso appointed Crea captain of his own crew in the Bronx. Crea specialized in labor rackets, such as gaining power over Carpenter's Local 608 and using it to extort New York City contractors. In 1993, with Amuso and Anthony Casso's support, Crea became Underboss of the Lucchese Family. Using his new clout, Crea shifted the family's power center away from the Brooklyn crews and back to the Manhattan and Bronx crews who had historically controlled the family for decades. In the early 1990s, several Amuso/Casso loyalists, including George Zappola and Frank "Spaghetti Man" Gioia, Jr. hatched a plot to kill Crea, and take over the family. They planned to lure Crea to a sitdown and then murder him. However, the plot fell through after Zapolla, Gioia, and the rest of Amuso/Casso regime were indicted and imprisoned.

Construction boss

During the mid-1990s, Crea served as the head of the "Lucchese Construction Group", which also included captain Dominic Truscello, head of the Prince Street Crew, and captain Joseph Tangorra, head of a Brooklyn crew. The mobsters brokered the bribe payments and the "mob tax" payments and settled disputes over who would dominate a particular construction site. Also, the mobsters were placed on the company payroll so they could report legitimate taxable income to the U.S Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In 1998, after acting Lucchese boss Joseph Defede was indicted on labor racketeering and extortion charges, Crea became the family's new acting boss.

Indictment

On September 6, 2000, Crea and other members of the Lucchese Construction Group were indicted for enterprise corruption, labor racketeering, extortion, and bid-rigging. The District Attorney charged that these schemes had systematically siphoned off millions of dollars from both public and private construction projects. Specifically, Crea used associates to extort building contractors who wished to receive rights to no-bid jobs or who wanted to reduce the number of union members on their payrolls. Truscello, Tangorra, and other family members went to prison. Tangorra suffered a nervous breakdown and eventually took a 16-year prison sentence deal. In 2006, Crea pleaded guilty to lesser state charges and was released later that year.

Family leadership

In 2006, the Lucchese family was allegedly headed by official boss Vittorio "Vic" Amuso, but day-to-day operations were being managed by a panel including Aniello Migliore, Matthew Madonna, and Joseph DiNapoli. Crea was released from prison with parole restrictions that prohibit him from associating with other mobsters or union officials. There is speculation that Crea will take control of the Lucchese family once these restrictions expire in August 2009.

Further reading

*Goldstock, Ronald, Martin Marcus and II Thacher. "Corruption and Racketeering in the New York City Construction Industry: Final Report of the New York State Organized Crime Task Force". New York: NYU Press, 1990. ISBN 0-8147-3034-5
*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

External links

* [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column69.htm This Week in Gangland: A Bronx Tale] by Jerry Capeci
* [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column193.htm This Week in Gangland: Athur Ave. Meets Pleasant Ave.] by Jerry Capeci
* [http://www.thelaborers.net/indictments/crea_sentencing_article.htm Judge Hands Labor Racketeering Kingpin a Soft Sentence, Over Prosecutors' Complaints] by Tom Robbins