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

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Mobster's slay charges play second fiddle to alleged pizza feud at cheesy bail hearing


L&B Spumoni Gardens in Bensonhurst.
L&B Spumoni Gardens in Bensonhurst.

A Colombo mobster defended the honor of his in-laws' famed Brooklyn restaurant by extorting a rival pizza guy accused of stealing the family recipe, the feds said Tuesday.
Francis (BF) Guerra is also charged with two gangland murders, but his bail hearing was dominated by the pizza hostilities.
The 45-year-old mafioso is charged in a beatdown last year of Eugene Lombardo outside the victim's Staten Island pizzeria, The Square.
Apparently, his slices tasted much like those at L&B Spumoni Gardens.
Lombardo's two sons had previously worked at L&B in Bensonhurst, and the eatery is a perennial contender for the city's best pizza.
"That was considered disrespectful to Frank Guerra's wife's family," FBI agent Scott Curtis testified in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Lombardo acknowledged to a private investigator working for Guerra that the owners of L&B "weren't happy" about the situation.
"It's like Burger King and McDonald's, they're right next to each other," Lombardo told the investigator on a tape recording played in court. "Leave it to the Italians to f--- something up."
But he denied he was assaulted by Colombo associate Frank (Frankie Notch) Ianacci as Guerra watched or made a cash payment to the Colombos to settle the food feud.
In a phone interview with the Daily News, Lombardo expanded on what he claims never happened.
"Nobody laid a hand on me," he said. "If they did, they better have a gun."
Lombardo, 59, continued, "This is no secret recipe. There's no patents on pizza. Why are we even having a conversation about pizza? We had an earthquake today. Why don't you ask me about that?"
Defense lawyer Gerald McMahon argued the feds are relying on the word of mob rat Anthony Russo and didn't even interview Lombardo.
Magistrate Cheryl Pollak reserved decision on whether to release Guerra on $2 million bail.


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