Former acting Luchese boss Joseph “Little Joe” Defede is testifying against the mob for the first time, at the murder trial of a Bronx gang member who killed a 17-year-old to prove he was tough enough to become a made man, a federal prosecutor said yesterday.
Defede, who was acting boss for jailed chieftain Vittorio “Vic” Amuso for four years, until his arrest in 1998, decided to become a turncoat early this year – only six months before he was due to get out of prison, the jury was told during opening arguments in Manhattan federal court.
He is taking the stand at the trial of John “Fat Face” Petrucelli, 32, who is charged with murdering Bronx teen Paul Cicero in 1995 while running wild with the notorious Tanglewood Boys gang through The Bronx and Westchester.
Petrucelli aspired to become a made man in the Luchese crime family, and stabbed Cicero to avenge the shooting of fellow Tanglewood Boys member Darin Mazzarella, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Raskin said.
Only two hours before Cicero’s stabbing near PS 108 in The Bronx, Mazzarella was shot nine times – mainly in the legs and in the groin – by a friend of Genovese crime-family associate Gene Gallo, who was Cicero’s cousin, the jury was told.
Petrucelli “buried the knife deep into Paul Cicero’s abdomen and told him, ‘Give this to your cousin,’ ” Raskin said.
He said Defede, who sources say feared being killed after his release from prison, would testify that the Tanglewood Boys were essentially a farm team for the Lucheses.
“They [Petrucelli and his gang mates] used the Tanglewood Boys to show they had what it took to be Luchese soldiers and to be made guys,” Raskin said.
Petrucelli’s lawyer, David Breitbart, said Mazzarella, who is also testifying against Petrucelli, is “a born con man without a conscience” who would say anything to stay out of jail.