Lawrence "Larry" Bilello

Lawrence "Larry" Bilello

Lawrence "Larry" Bilello (December 16, 1927 - February 17, 2004) was a former New York city police officer and mobster who was part of the Lucchese crew run by Paul Vario.

From cop to criminal

Born in New York City, Bilello grew up to become a police officer for the New York Police Department (NYPD). He soon gained a reputation as a "Meat Eater", an officer looking for illegal financial gain. Bilello was eventually convicted of murdering a police officer who was testifying against police corruption in Queens, New York. The murder was likely an execution ordered by Vario. Bilello was removed from the force and sent to Sing Sing prison for 25 years.

Released from prison, 1956, Bilello had no income and a criminal record. He soon joined Vario's crew and became involved in extortion, robbery, hijacking and murder. As a former police officer, Bilello could never become a made man, or full member, of the Lucchese family, even though he was Italian-American. Instead, Vario hired Bilello to work as a pastry chef at his pizzeria, "Presto Pizzeria". Vario used the pizzeria as a front for a bookmaking operation in the basement. Bilello used his cover job at the pizzeria to hide his unreported criminal earnings from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). During his adolescence in the 1950s, future mob informer Henry Hill worked with Billelo under Vario.

In popular culture

In Martin Scorsese's 1990 film adaption of "Wiseguy", Goodfellas, Lawrence's role in Hill's life is attributed to a more dominant character from Hill's life - Theodoro "Tuddy" Vario - upon whom the "Tuddy Cicero" character (played by actor Frank DiLeo) was based. A scene that vividly reenacts the first time Hill sees a person suffer a gun wound portrays an event that actually occurred while Hill was working for Billelo at Preston's Pizzeria, DiLeo's character fills the role that the real Billelo was a part of at the time. This was most likely done by Scorsese due to time constraints and confusion among the characters in the biography.

References

*Pileggi, Nicholas, "Wiseguy: Life In A Mafia Family", Corgi (1987) ISBN 055213094X
* US Social Security Death Index


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