Clyde Brooks

Clyde E. Brooks a.k.a. "Brooksie" a.k.a. "Bobby" "Brooks" (January 28, 1924 – November 13, 1994) was a Lucchese crime family mob associate who worked under capo Paul Vario. He was born in Painted Post, New York.

Biography

Clyde E. Brooks was not an Italian-American mob associate and front man for the Lucchese crime family. He was a veteran Paul Vario loyalist in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 813 and waste disposal business who was the "front man" for Paul Vario's waste management empire as the general supervisor for the Brooklyn district of the New York City Department of Sanitation. Clyde was involved in grand theft auto and was a close friend of Paul Vario. Clyde was the manager and front man of Paul Vario's "Bargain Auto Junkyard" (now "The Spring Creek Towers Composting Facility") located at 12720-B Flatlands Avenue in Starrett City, Brooklyn where he worked as a waste management supervisor responsible for the entire city of Spring Creek. The "Bargain Auto Junkyard" became Paul Vario's criminal headquarters from 1965 to 1972.

Trash Hauling Racketeer

Companies owned by Paul Vario paid a mob tax to Clyde. The payments were part of a scheme in which trash haulers carved out routes and agreed not to steal each other's customers. The mob influence stifled competition by preventing small independent companies from competing. If companies challenged the system the drivers were beaten, truck destroyed and refused entry int the waste transfer stations. In 1972 the Brooklyn District Attorney's Organized Crime Task Force successfully bugged Clyde's trailer. Paul used the office in Clyde's trailer to conduct his racketeering. Paul was subsequently sentenced to three years in prison. In addition He had been sentenced to three years in prison in 1972, as the result of a Brooklyn DA Squad investigation, resulting from the “bugging” of his trailer headquarters on Flatlands Avenue.Detective Douglas LeVien posed as a bribed police officer and had a meeting with Clyde Brooks and Carmine Tramunti, including forty other mobsters which were made up mostly of the Vario Crew and twenty-one corrupt policemen. In addition to the audio tapes recorded over the surveillance period, the FBI produced 54,000 telephoto photographs of Lucchese crime family mobsters and associates who went in and out of the trailer. They also successfully videotaped 36,000 feet of color movie film. This severely damaging evidence documented the fact that members from all the Five Families visited Clyde's office frequently. This included local politicians, businessmen, over a hundred policemen including two specific NYPD officers James Santos, John Savino and several Queens County district judges. This tip to the authorities was given by Gambino crime family mob associate Wilfred Johnson.

Bargain Auto Scrapyard Location

Clyde's "Bargain Auto Junkyard" automobile salvage yard was located close to the Belt Parkway and within driving distance of Robert's Lounge, JFK Airport Kennedy Air Cargo Center, Aqueduct Race Track and the Queens County, New York courthouse in Kew Gardens, Queens where the Vario Crew would receive their court trial postponements. His capo Paul Vario operated his illicit business transactions from inside a non-descript transport truck trailer located in the back of Brook's salvage yard away from the prying eyes of the FBI and NYPD. The facility became a hangout for
Stanley Diamond, brothers Anthony Stabile and Thomas Stabile, Francesco Manzo, Fredrick DeLucia, Edward Finelli, Peter "The Killer" Abbandante, Michael Franzese, Nicholas Blanda, Peter Morales, Frank Sorace, Edward Barberra, Steve DePasquale, Rich Perry, Anthony "The Baker" Catania, Edguardo Rigaud, Vincent "Vinny" Asaro, brothers Raimund Montemurro and Montague Montemurro, John Mazzolla, Bobby "The Dentist", Frank Sorace, Edward Barberra, Lawrence "Larry" Bilello, Richard Bilello, James Santos, Joseph Allegro, Charles V. Errigo.
Daniel Rizzo, brothers Alex Corcione and Michael Corcione, Bruno Facciolo, Louis Facciolo, Frank Abbandando Jr., Angelo Sepe, Robert McMahon and Joe Manri.

Grand Theft Auto

Clyde was responsible for disposing of the hijacked transport trucks after the trucks had been unloaded of their stolen merchandise and operated several chop shops for Paul Vario.He was a regular dinner companion of Paul Vario, Jimmy Burke, Henry Hill and Leonardo Vario. Clyde was a close friend of Henry Hill who was also involved in grand theft auto, Thomas DeSimone, Edguardo Rigaud and Jimmy Burke. As a teenager growing up Clyde was one of the countless Lucchese crime family mobsters and mob associates that he became associated with during his adolescence. After Henry Hill helped Jimmy Burke and Thomas DeSimone dispose of Gambino crime family sidewalk soldier William Devino for the second time, after the stink of William's decomposing body could not be distinguished, it was Brooks who crushed Henry's several month old 1970 Buick Electra at the lot.

The Attack at Don Pepe's

Clyde Brooks was ordered along with Henry Hill, Jimmy Burke, Thomas DeSimone and two carloads of Lucchese crime family side-walk soldiers to beat up the waiters and kitchen staff at "Don Pepe's Vesuvio Restaurant" located at 135-58 Lefferts Boulevard in Ozone Park, Queens, just a few blocks south of the Lucchese crime family hijacking headquarters, Robert's Lounge. He assisted in beating the employees with lead pipes and baseball bats as they left the restaurant at 11 P.M. Some of the employees fled the scene and scrambled into the cars, so Clyde and others had to chase them all around the neighborhood late into the night. Clyde and the others had been ordered to beat the staff after a certain waiter spilled a drink all over Paul Vario's wife, Phyllis and then sloppily tried to blot up the spilled drink on the front of her dress.

Missing Role in the Lufthansa Heist

After the robbery, mob associate Parnell Edwards was to take the panel truck stolen during the 1978 Lufthansa heist and drive it to a junkyard in New Jersey, where Clyde Brooks and some Lucchese crime family associates were to compact it and destroy the evidence. Parnell neglected his duty, got high on cocaine and marijuana, visited his girlfriend and fallen asleep in a stupor. Unfortunately for Parnell the police discovered panel truck, parked in a no parking zone, with a muddy boot print (matching a pair of shoes owned by Parnell) and fingerprints had been taken from the wheel. When the Lufthansa heist was successfully completed, Clyde was not informed of what kind of vehicle he was to dispose of, or why, for safety measures that were taken by the robbery team to avoid informants. On December 18, 1978 Parnell Edwards was found shot to death in bed in his Ozone Park, Queens apartment. Clyde Brooks was one of the fortunate who avoided the murderous aftermath that followed the Lufthansa heist. He was never implicated for his small role in the Lufthansa heist and avoided prosecution in 1985 after Henry Hill became an informant. He died in New York City, New York.

References

* "Wiseguy: My Life In A Mafia Family" by Nicholas Pileggi and Henry Hill
* "Gangsters and Goodfellas: Wiseguys . . . and Life on the Run" By Henry Hill & Gus Russo
* U.S. Social Security Death Index