Frank Lino


Frank "Curly" Lino is a Sicilian-American caporegime in the Bonanno crime family who later became an informant.

Biography

Early life

Lino was born in a house on West Eight Street in Gravesend, Brooklyn, New York City. The marriage of his mobster father Robert A. Lino, Sr. and his mother was arranged by Genovese crime family patriarch and founder Vito Genovese during the 1930s. Frank attended Brooklyn's Lafayette High School but dropped out in tenth grade. His father died in 1989, according to what Michael DiLeonardo said during testimony against John A. Gotti. Almost every male member of his family was involved in La Cosa Nostra.
After dropping out of high school in the 1950s he joined a violent street gang called the "Avenue U Boys". As a member of the "Avenue U Boys" Lino was involved in robberies. Lino first became associated with the La Cosa Nostra at the age of seventeen, and operated the local floating card games controlled by a Genovese crime family made soldier. He was a close business associate of Rosario Gangi.
His cousin Edward Lino and brother Robert A. Lino, Jr. are both capos in the Gambino crime family. He is the father of successful New York City Wall Street stockbroker Michael, and father of Joseph, who became a made member of the Bonanno family. He is cousin-in-law to Grace Ann Scala-Lino, the sister of Gambino crime family capo Salvatore Scala and father of Colombo crime family mob associate Robert X. Grace Ann Lino was a customer of drug dealer Michael Aiello. Frank was enraged over Aiello selling drugs to her and arranged for his murder, which he was supposed to witness, but the murder attempt was botched.
He is the father of two sons, one Joseph Lino born c. 1961 who became a made member of the Bonanno family and Michael Lino. He is a son-in-law to Genovese crime family mob associates Francis Consalvo and Carmine Consalvo and distant uncle to Louis Consalvo. He is a first cousin of Bonanno family capo Robert Lino, Sr. and a paternal uncle of Bonanno crime family capo Robert A. Lino, Jr. He is the godfather to Michael Lino and Frank Coppa, Jr., the sons of former Bonanno family capo and childhood friend Frank Coppa. He is a cousin-in-law to Gambino crime family capo Salvatore Scala. He is a close friend of the New York Mets pitcher John Franco and an avid baseball fan.
Frank had dark brown hair, and a round face with a ruddy complexion and later a bald head that "looked like a dirty tennis ball". He had a toothy smile and droopy eyes that were set too close together. Frank was a no-show school bus driver for the Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union and employed by a mob-owned bus company Atlantic Express Transportation Corporation in located at 7 North Street in Port Richmond, Staten Island which is still in operation.
He became a made man of the Bonanno crime family on October 30, 1977, on Elizabeth Street in Little Italy, Manhattan at his capo Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato's apartment. It was his 40th birthday. As he grew older Frank became more and more obese. He gained a tremendous amount of weight and began to suffer from high blood pressure. During his 40-year career in organized crime he was under the Genovese family in 1956, switched to the Colombo crime family in 1962 and switched to the Gambino family in 1969 before in 1977 his friend Frank Coppa helped him join the Bonanno crime family.

Police brutality

On May 18, 1962, he was arrested for the shootings of two Brooklyn police detectives, Luke J. Fallon and John Finnegan from the 70th Detective Squad. The detectives, aged twenty-eight and fifty-six, were shot dead during the holdup of a tobacco store, where Lino and the robbers netted $5,000. Lino was charged in the murders after he supplied a getaway vehicle for one of the stickup men so he could flee to Chicago, and was one of the five men charged after being taken to the 66th Precinct for an interrogation.
During the interrogation Lino claimed the police drove staples into his hands and a broomstick up his rectum. He was left with a broken leg and arm. Lino was let off with three years' probation after he threatened to sue the city for police brutality. One of his eyes blinked uncontrollably which he claimed was the result of injuries that occurred during the 1962 police beating at the hands of the NYPD. His two accomplices were convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. Their death sentences would later be converted to life imprisonment by governor Nelson Rockefeller in 1966. One suspect died in prison while the other remains in prison as of 2006.

The three capos murder

Frank had done everything from selling illegal pornography to running pump and dump schemes on Wall Street. Over the years he had been a loanshark, bookmaker, drug trafficker and contract killer for which he took part in the gangland slayings of six men including his cousin's drug dealer Michael "The Bear" Aiello and the notorious murders of Bonanno captains Alphonse Indelicato, Dominick Trinchera and Philip Giaccone. On May 5, 1981, Massino loyalists shot and killed Giaccone, Trinchera, and Indelicato in a Brooklyn night club. On the pretext of working out a peace agreement, Massino had invited them to meet with him at the 20/20 Night Club in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. However, Massino's real plan was to assassinate the capos. The ambush was set in the club store room, with Salvatore Vitale and three other gunmen wearing ski masks hiding in a closet. One of the gunmen was mobster Vito Rizzuto, who came from Montreal, Quebec, Canada with another Canadian mobster to help Massino. Massino told the men to avoid shooting so that bullets wouldn't spray around the room. Massino also brought drop cloths and ropes for disposing of the bodies afterwards.
When the capos arrived at the 20/20, Massino and Bonanno mobster Gerlando Sciascia and Lino escorted them to the store room. As the men entered the room, Sciascia brushed his hand through his hair, giving the prearranged signal. Vitale and gunmen rushed out of the closet, with Rizzuto yelling "it's a hold-up". Massino immediately punched Giaccone, knocking him to the floor, and also stopping Indelicato from escaping. Giaconne got up and tried to run out of the room, but was blocked up against a wall with Trinchera. The gunmen killed Giaccone with a volley of submachine gun fire. The three capos were unarmed, as was the rule when attending a peace meeting. Lino, who had escaped, was brought instead of Indelicato's son, but was quickly won over to Massino's side.
After the killings, the Bonanno gunmen transported the three bodies to a lot in Lindenwood, Queens, in an area known as The Hole.
The lot was a Gambino mob graveyard; Gambino crime family capo John Gotti arranged for his men to bury the bodies there as a favor to Massino. A few weeks later, on May 28, authorities discovered Indelicato's body and removed it from the lot.
In October 2004, after some children reported finding a body in the Lindenwood lot, FBI agents excavated the property and discovered the bodies of Giaccone and Trinchera. Among the personal items they unearthed was a Piaget watch that had belonged to Giaccone's wife. In December 2004, the bodies were positively identified as Giaccone and Trinchera.
On June 23, 2005, Massino, then a government witness to avoid the death penalty, pleaded guilty to several murders including those of Giaccone, Trinchera, and Indelicato. He received two life sentences in prison. On May 4, 2007, after being extradited to the United States, Rizzuto pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn court to reduced charges in the murder of three capos and was sentenced to ten years in state prison.

Informant

In September 1999, Lino began serving a 57-month sentence in prison. In 2003, Lino was arrested along with Massino, underboss Salvatore Vitale, and fellow capo Daniel Mongelli on a sweeping RICO indictment. A few days after the arrests, Vitale turned informer after learning that Massino had put a contract on him.
Vitale's decision to flip unnerved Lino. While he was charged with Sonny Black's murder, that charge was initially based solely on the word of former Bonanno soldier Frank Coppa. However, Vitale could not only corroborate Coppa's testimony, but could also implicate him in three other murders. Lino quickly realized that Vitale's testimony could potentially send him to prison for life. When the Bonnano defense team told Massino and Lino about Vitale's defection, Lino recalled thinking, "This meeting is a funeral and I'm dead." He secretly got word to prosecutors that he was willing to flip as well, though he feared Massino could order his children and grandchildren killed if word got out.
After 81 days in solitary confinement for his own protection, Lino formally agreed to become an informant. As part of the deal, he revealed everyone he knew was either a made man or an associate—including his own son. Lino's dramatic testimony implicated Massino in four homicides and featured the first full eyewitness account of the murder of the three captains.