Anthony DeSimone

Anthony "Tony D" DeSimone (Ozone Park, Queens July 24, 1934 - February 1984 ) was an Italian-American Lucchese crime family associate who was the middle child and brother of Tommy DeSimone, Robert DeSimone, Phyllis DeSimone and Dolores DeSimone born in South Ozone Park, Queens. He is a nephew of Frank DeSimone related to James DeSimone, Rosario DeSimone, Joseph DeSimone and Ralph DeSimone. He was hired as a "no-show" construction worker by Thomas Agro for a while in New York City.

Biography

Anthony was a close family friend of Jimmy Burke, like his brother and was a Lucchese crime family associate who also conducted business with the Colombo crime family and Gambino crime family. He was very close to his brother Tommy DeSimone when growing up. Joseph Iannuzzi met Anthony once and thought he was a "couldabeen" [sic] , in otherwords, he thought that Anthony should have been successful in a life of crime and thought that he would eventually become a "made man" in the La Cosa Nostra. Anthony is said to have demonstrated the same psychopathic behavior as his brother Tommy. His brother Tommy DeSimone would later be murdered in 1979 for his senseless need for violence at the age of twenty-nine. Anthony DeSimone served under Francesco Manzo and was involved in the Manzo-Davidoff-Calise combine. The Manzo-Davidoff-Calise combine held all the air freight firms situated in John F. Kennedy Airport at their mercy for extortion.

JFK Airport Extortion

Strike Force prosecutors established that DeSimone and Manzo's other street soldiers collected at least $1.25 million between 1979 and 1986. A majority of the money was funneled to Manzo and Calise by Heino Benthin, an entrepreneurial West German immigrant who had built a thriving pickup and delivery service at John F. Kennedy Airport. Benthin, first got involved with DeSimone and Manzo because he didn't consider a little bribery so bad as long as it was between friends. In 1980 when Benthin discovered that the firm Schenkers International Forwarders was seeking a new trucker, he looked up an acquantance, slipped him $1,000, and was given the business. A few days later, however, Lucchese crime family mobster Frank Calise appeared and warned Heino that he had "stepped on somebody's feet," and summoned him to a Sunday meeting with Frank Manzo at the Sherwood Diner located at 311 Rockaway Turnpike in Lawrence, Nassau County, New York. It was here that Benthin explained to Manzo that he wanted to hire more non-union workers. Heino Benthin fell into difficulty when Union Air Transport, a West German firm operating at John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK), was struck by Calise's Teamster Local 295 a few months later following their discussion. The company offered Benthin a $4,000-a-week trucking contract if he could find a way to get rid of the pickets. He called Calise, who set up another meeting with Manzo at the Sherwood Diner. This time Benthin brought along Anthony DeSimone to help convince Heino. An argument flared when DeSimone spoke up about wanting to get in on the actual extortion scheme with Manzo and be promoted from his bagman position, instead of just collecting and pointed a finger at Frank Manzo. The capo was infuriated at his public display of disrespect, he lunged across the table and impaled DeSimone's hand with a fork. "Don't ever do that again," said Manzo. "I'll kill you."

Becoming an informant

Anthony was convicted on a hijacking indictment where he was labeled a habitual criminal and was faced with a long prison sentence. He became an informant and testified against several Colombo crime family, Gambino crime family and Lucchese crime family members who were associates of his brother Thomas DeSimone, which successfully landed several convictions of several "made" men including Frank Manzo. After becoming an informant he still wanted to work as a gangster. His mentor and close friend Thomas Agro, a soldier in the Gambino crime family sneaked him out of New York City to Florida for a while, and then called him back under the ruse that they were going to have a "sit-down" to discuss his readmission into the Gambino crime family. The murder was handed down by Carlo Gambino and Aniello Dellacroce. Thomas Agro would later became the mentor of Tommy and Anthony's youngest brother Robert DeSimone. No one was ever convicted of his murder. Thomas Agro would actually dodge the murder charge because Joseph Ianuzzi who was working as an informant with the FBI at the time, did not have his wire transmitter turned on. The details revealed about Anthony's actual time of death are sketchy as news articles report him to have been alive up to 1984, but in Nicholas Pileggi's Wiseguy: A Life in A Mafia Family that Anthony was murdered before 1979 and in Joe Dogs: The Life and Crimes of a Gangster by Joseph Iannuzzi state that he was dead before 1975.

References

* Ianuzzi, Joseph, "Joe Dogs: The Life and Crimes of a Mobster" Simon & Schuster (June 1993) ISBN 0671797522
* "HOW THE MAFIA LOOTS JFK AIRPORT More than $59 billion of freight and 27 million passengers a year are irresistible pickings for mobsters, who have made it a hotbed of stealing, smuggling, and extortion" by Roy Rowan and Christopher Knowlton June 22, 1987 Fortune Magazine
* Wiseguy: A Life in A Mafia Family by Henry Hill and Nicholas Pileggi
* On the Run: A Mafia Childhood by Gregg and Gina Hill

* US Social Security Death Index