Ernest "Junior" Varacalli

Infobox Person
name=Ernest Varacalli, "Junior"
caption=Ernest "Junior" Varacalli on March 23, [1944] .
birth_date=Birth date and age|1944|3|23|mf=y
birth_place=Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

:Ernest Varacalli "Junior" (March 23, 1944 - present) is a New York gangster who belongs to the Genovese crime family, the largest of the five New York crime families. Vacarelli has used as many as nine different aliases during his criminal career.

Car Theft Ring

In May 2001, the FBI, in conjunction with the Brooklyn District Attorney's office, arrested Varacalli for insurance fraud, extortion, and other charges. Varacalli was the alleged ring leader of the biggest stolen car empire in New York City, which police say netted $2.5MM a year.¹

"Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik said that Mr. Varacalli, whom he described as a Genovese crime family figure, had made more than $2.5 million a year stealing cars to order and dispatching thieves to tear the delicate air bags from specific cars, based on orders from auto parts shops around the city that were in on the scheme. Sixty late-model cars were dismantled inside Angle in the last 10 months."¹

Federico "Fritzy" Giovanelli, a reputed Genovese family Capo and Vacarelli's alleged silent partner in the operation, was also arrested and indicted. In 1986, Giovanelli was tried several times for killing NYPD detective Anthony Venditti and wounding his partner outside a Queens diner. He was convicted in 1989, sentenced to 20 years in prison, but released in 1994 after an appellate court reduced the sentence.

Varacalli was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine. As of October 2007, Varacalli was still incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center Devens in Massachusetts. His projected release date is December 21, 2009.

Mob Wife

Camille Colucci, Varacalli's third wife, was also accused of falsifying business documents in connection with the stolen car ring. She pleaded guilty and was fined $400,000.

During the 1970s, Colucci became the center of a messy mafia "love triangle." Thomas Spero, the nephew of a Mafia Capo, was infatuated with Colucci, but she was already married (not to Varacalli then). According to Gambino family turncoat "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, Spero's uncle, Thomas "Shorty" Spero², arranged for him to kill Camille's husband. Gravano told the FBI this was his first hit. "I shot him twice in the head," Gravano said, "Then three more times when his body was dumped out of the car on Rockaway Parkway, (a street in Canarsie, Brooklyn)." Once Colucci became a widow, she married the younger Spero.

External links

* [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column287.htm Mob Wife Makes a Split Decision]
* [http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/May03/giovannelli.pdf Giovanelli Super Indictment]
* [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30917F63A5E0C7B8DDDAC0894D9404482&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fO%2fOrganized%20Crime NY Times:Big Car-Theft Empire Broken Up, Police Say]
* [http://www.supremecourtus.gov/orders/courtorders/012306pzor.pdf Order List--January 23, 2006]
* [http://www.ganglandnews.com/gangs05.htm Hearts, Flowers, Bullets title]

References

*¹New York Times: Big Car-Theft Empire Broken Up, Police Say. May 18, 2001
*²The New York Daily News: Hearts, Flowers, Bullets. Dec. 6, 1994