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Elizabeth stevedore company; he pleaded the Fifth and refused to answer any questions.
    On December 15, 1981, Cinquegrana did plead guilty to “conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the United States” and was sentenced to a five-year suspended sentence. 19
    His last known address was 57 Sherwood Avenue in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, where he passed away in August 2002 at eighty-nine years old.
    C IRAULO , V INCENZO J AMES
88 Second Avenue, Manhattan, 1950s
Alias: Jimmy Second Avenue, Jimmy Ninety-two, Jimmy East, Jimmy Fischetti
Born: September 8, 1919, New York City
Died: September 26, 1997, Palm Beach, Florida
Association: Lucchese crime family
    The FBN identified Ciraulo as a “trusted and important member” of a Lucchese crew headed by Carmine Locascio. He operated the Stage Bar on East Fourth Street in the 1950s while living at 88 Second Avenue.
    By the 1970s, Ciraulo was a respected Mafia veteran on the lam from New York authorities for outstanding loan-sharking warrants. While a fugitive in Florida, he used the name Jimmy Fischetti and worked closely with Tampa mob boss Santo Trafficante Jr. Ciraulo’s luck ran out when he was arrested by FBI agents on a holiday visit to New York City on January 22, 1980. 20 This arrest caused a small rift between the New York and Florida FBI offices, since Ciraulo was at the center of a long sting operation called Coldwater, in which undercover feds established a gambling casino called King’s Court in Pasco County, Florida.
    In the summer of 1986, sixty-eight-year-old Ciraulo pleaded guilty to conspiracy and extortion in connection with the Coldwater operation and was sentenced to two years in prison. His codefendant, Santo Trafficante, refused a plea deal and died during a lengthy trial just hours after receiving open heart surgery on March 17, 1987.
    Ciraulo died at age seventy-eight while living in Royal Palm Beach, Florida. His funeral was held in the Bronx.
    C OSTELLO , F RANK
115 Central Park West, Apartment 18F, 1950s
Born: January 26, 1891, Calabria, Italy (b. Castiglia, Francesco)
Died: February 18, 1973, New York City
Association: Luciano/Genovese crime family
    Frank Costello was one of the most successful gangsters in U.S. history and partial inspiration behind Marlon Brando’s role in The Godfather . This crime kingpin lived in a luxury building at 115 Central Park West when, on May 2, 1957, he was shot in its lobby by Vincent “Chin” Gigante. He survived but got the message sent by Gigante’s boss, Vito Genovese: it was time to retire.
    Born in a small Calabrian village, the young Costello immigrated to New York City in 1900 at about nine years old. He arrived with his mother and older brother, to join their father, Luigi, who had established himself as a small grocery store proprietor in East Harlem before sending for the family back in Italy.
    The future criminal icon skipped school and got into trouble early, racking up a slew of petty charges as a youth. He worked for the Morello-Terranova gang in Harlem and made friends with other rising street thugs across the city as teen. By the time Prohibition hit, Frank Costello had made a name for himself in certain circles of the underworld and joined forces with Charlie Luciano, Vito Genovese, Meyer Lansky, Benjamin Siegel and others running booze locally in an operation funded by Arnold Rothstein.

    Mug shot of a young Frank Costello.
    In 1929, he played an important role in establishing the National Crime Syndicate, and during the Mafia restructuring of 1931, Costello earned the consigliere position in the new Luciano crime family, making him third in command behind Luciano and underboss Vito Genovese. Costello proved to be one of the most business-minded gangsters of the era, and he made the Luciano family a fortune in the slot machine, race wire, loan-sharking and casino rackets.
    By 1937, with boss Luciano behind bars and underboss Genovese in Italy evading murder charges, Costello became acting boss