Street gangs have always been the training ground for wannabe mobsters, but
there was nothing minor league about the Tanglewood Boys who aspired to
become Lucchese family wiseguys.
They took their name from the Tanglewood strip mall near Nathan's Famous in
Yonkers, New York and their direction from their mobster fathers, many of
whom were made members of the Lucchese family. Boys like John "Fat Face"
Petrucelli and the Mazzarella brothers, Darin and Nick, along with Freddie
Boy Santorelli and Tony DiSimone robbed, shylocked, muscled and generally
created a youthful crime wave wherever they went in the late 1980s and
early 1990s.
At one of the many trials of the Tanglewood Boys, Darin Mazzarella
explained what the gang was doing.
"It was more or less a stepping-stone to prove yourself and work your way
up," he testified.
Law enforcement agreed with Mazzarella's assessment of the Tanglewood Boys'
role.
"There were as big as an organized crime family," Yonkers Police Detective
Sgt. Timothy Hodges told the Yonkers Journal News. "They were fierce, feared."
At one time the Tanglewood Boys controlled a loansharking operation that
brought in $5,400 in vig each week on $180,000 outstanding. In addition,
they operated a full-scale bookmaking operation in Yonkers along with
assorted armed robberies and assaults.
John Petrucelli and Darin Mazzarella were best friends, but when Darin was
arrested in 1996 for a murder he didn't commit, he turned on his gang to
save himself.
"I was getting ready to fight for my life and I was more or less on my
own," Darin testified years later about why he turned informant.
He was covering for DiSimone, who had stabbed Louis Balancio in 1994, but
wasn't getting the high-powered lawyers the Lucchese family leaders
promised him. Darin had his girlfriend contact the FBI.
The Tanglewood Boys had a nasty reputation which helped keep people silent.
Authorities said 30 people witnessed Balancio's murder, but the Boys
managed to keep the eyewitnesses intimidated.
Darin and Nick Mazzarella revealed the extent of the Tanglewood Boys' acts
in a series of trials that gutted the gang and sent many of the members
away for long prison terms.
DiSimone went down for Balancio's killing, Fat Face Petrucelli was recently
convicted of the murder of Paul Cicero, a teenage cousin of Genovese family
associate Gene Gallo.
In addition, the Mazzarella brothers' testimony led to convictions of
two-dozen Lucchese gangsters and Tanglewood Boys' members, including
Salvatore "Sally Bows" DiSimone, Tony "Blue Eyes" Santorelli and his son,
Freddy Boy Santorelli.
Petrucelli is the third member of his family to go down on a homicide rap.
His father served 8 years for manslaughter and his brother, Joseph is well
into a 17-year-to-life sentence for a 1992 killing.
The elder John Petrucelli was whacked by the Lucchese family in 1989 for
defying mob bosses and helping his friend Gus Farace, who was fleeing
federal law enforcement.
Despite the fact that his father was murdered by the Lucchese family, Fat
Face still aspired to join the organization, officials said.
http://organizedcrime.about.com/library/weekly/aa031903a.htm
