Updated news on the Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Lucchese and Colombo Organized Crime Families of New York City.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Love triangle spurred pizza slice-up


This one's messier than a slice with extra cheese.
A paroled night-deposit-box bandit accused hot-shot pizzeria owner Mark Iacono of trying to steal his girl -- sparking the knife fight that left both of them bleeding on a Brooklyn street, a source told The Post yesterday.
The woman allegedly at the center of the dispute, Annette Angeloni, 37, had started shacking up with the jealous Benny Geritano after she split with her husband, according to the source.
"They were fighting over the woman," the source said. "Benny said, 'Stay away from Annette! She's living with me now!' "
THAT'S AMORE! A source says the vicious knife fight last week between pizzeria owner Mark Iacono (below) and ex-con Benny Geritano was over a woman.
THAT'S AMORE! A source says the vicious knife fight last week between pizzeria owner Mark Iacono (below) and ex-con Benny Geritano was over a woman.
Mark Iacono.
Mark Iacono.
 
Then the two ex-friends went at each other on a Carroll Gardens street -- the brawl ending with both of them getting sliced more times than a large pepperoni pie.
All three work in the upscale neighborhood.
Iacono owns Lucali's Pizza, a restaurant that attracts celebrity customers like Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Geritano works in his uncle's bagel shop. Angeloni owns a greeting-card store.
The battle was the second confrontation between the two old friends last Friday.
Hours before blood was spilled, the men had argued over the woman inside a Carroll Gardens store, near the scene of the bloody brawl.
Iacono, 44, got the worst of the blade battle. He's still at Lutheran Medical Center, recovering from surgery. He suffered wounds to the throat, back and legs.
Geritano also went to a hospital -- as Angeloni picked him up off the street and rushed him there in her Lexus.
Prosecutors charged Iacono yesterday with attempted murder, assault and weapons possession.
Neither Iacono nor his lawyer returned calls for comment.
"I got arrested because of all the publicity," Iacono whined to a visitor before prosecutors added the attempted-murder charge, according to another source. "They think this is some kind of mob story. I was just trying to defend myself."
Geritano's lawyer had a similar defense days earlier when his client was arraigned on the same charges. He was held in lieu of $250,000 bail.
Sources said the two rivals might have been hit with similar charges in the hope that one would turn on the other.
Geritano, 39, told cops that the two weren't fighting over broken hearts, but a broken promise -- specifically a debt Iacono had failed to pay.
Paul DeFontes, who lives across the street from Lucali's, said the married Iacono was a one-woman man.
"He has a ton of girls that work in there, one prettier than the next, and I've never seen him fool around with any of them," DeFontes said.
Sources described Geritano as an ex-con with links to the Genovese crime family. Released from prison in September, he's on probation until 2013 for his role in a nationwide bank-robbery spree.
People in Carroll Gardens said Geritano and Iacono are "paisans" who have known each other for years but not bosom buddies.
Geritano's mob-connected family is angry at him for drawing attention with the stabbing stunt, people in the neighborhood said.
"They're making more money selling bagels than they ever would have in the mob," one said. "They're very upset. They have a good life in this neighborhood, and they no longer have to look over their shoulder."
 


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