Gino DeSilva

Infobox Person
name=Gino DeSilva
birth_date=July 3, 1902
birth_place=Providence, Rhode Island, USA
death_date=December 9, 1973
death_place=Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Gino "Ginny Books" DeSilva (July 3, 1902 - December 9, 1973) was a Cosa Nostra enforcer for the Profaci crime family who, similar to Anthony Spilotro in Chicago, worked in Las Vegas, Nevada for much of his career, looking after the family's illegal casino income.

Early years

Born Ambrogino DeSilva in Providence, Rhode Island, his parents had only just emigrated from Calabria, Italy. His father was a shoe maker and Gino spent most of his early life helping run the family business, often missing school because of this. From an early age he was making deals with cloth and leather merchants to get the cheapest possible price. While he was a teenager he began to play poker with friends and gradually moved on to playing adults, winning most games and gaining a reputation as one of the best players. It was around this time that he began his fraudulent operations, which would eventually lead to his mafia career. DeSilva was rather fat, and had a large streak of grey hair from the front of his head to the back throughout his life, due to badly bruising that part of his head in early childhood. This feature made him look rather comical, and he would often fight with other children when they made jokes about it, once leading him to break another child's left leg and arm.

Move to New York City

By the 1920s DeSilva had become far richer than his parents, and his father had become suspicious of Gino. Because of this, Gino decided to move to New York City, a place where he believed he would be able to prosper. On arrival, he booked into a small, privately owned hotel and went to a nearby bar. Somehow discovering that there was a poker game that night, he managed to persuade the bar owner to allow him to play. The game went the way it usually did, and DeSilva won, but his success angered the fellow players, most of whom were small-time criminals. Later that night, he was attacked by two of the players, who were wielding knives. He managed to grab one of the knives and strike one of the men's eyes, which caused both to flee. DeSilva's actions drew attention from local Mafioso, who quickly got to know him. Joseph Gioelli, an associate of Joey Gallo, became good friends with DeSilva, and quickly brought him into the mafia world.

"Ginny Books"

DeSilva started doing mafia bookmaking, and it was his excellent bookmaking skills that earned him his nickname "Ginny Books". Gioelli mentored him and assisted him in moving up into the ranks of the Profaci family. Both men were "made" when they helped in a mob "hit". Gino became very drunk one night in a small bar, and began arguing with another man. The two men started to fight, and DeSilva struck his opponent many times and managed to pull his pistol out and shoot the man dead. On another occasion, Gino brawled with a man from the Bonanno crime family but the two men calmed down and no further action was taken. It was because of actions like this that Ginny Books became somewhat feared by other members of the mafia community. Gino was working well, and the family wanted to use him for a more profitable purpose. It was around this time that other mobs were sending men to Las Vegas, and the Profaci/Colombo family wanted in on the profits. They chose DeSilva, as he seemed to be the obvious choice: he was getting into too many fights in New York, but had excellent gambling and bookmaking knowledge. Moving him out of New York would not only solve one of his problems, but also earn the family a healthy sum.

Las Vegas

In 1960, DeSilva left New York for Nevada and quickly settled in the high life of 'Vegas'. With his sharp mind, DeSilva quickly learned the ropes of embezzlement, and was running more than one mafia-backed casino within a year. He sent most of his profits back to New York and the Profaci/Colombo family, but he still became very rich. Unlike Spilotro, it is not known which casinos were run by Profaci/Colombo, but their Las Vegas connection in DeSilva was certainly a large earner; after DeSilva died, the IRS looked into DeSilva's accounts and discovered that he had received over $500,000 supposedly from investments into casinos across the city.

Death

On the night of December 9th, 1973, DeSilva was walking home through a small alleyway he took as a shortcut. It was in this alley that he was found shot dead the next morning, it is commonly thought that the Chicago Outfit ordered his death, due to him and the Profaci/Colombo family's success in Las Vegas, a city that the Outfit hoped to gain hugely from, and they could not without having a monopoly on the casinos. Too little evidence was found to charge anybody with the death.

External links

* [http://www.carpenoctem.tv/mafia/profaci.html] Article on Profaci crime boss, Joseph Profaci.