“Gangs of New York” came to life in a federal courtroom as a 79-year- old stool pigeon with nearly 20 murders under his belt made his debut performance on the witness stand at the trial of reputed Gambino boss Peter Gotti.
George Barone spilled more than 50 years of secrets in encyclopedic detail last week as he traced his criminal career from founding member of the Jets – a gang immortalized in “West Side Story” – to disgraced Genovese soldier.
A self-described “survivor,” Barone is just the third “made man” in Genovese crime family history to become a rat.
The mob relic – who talks more like an historian than a gangster – said he joined the Jets as “down and out” dockworker in 1950s, and helped commit a dozen murders during a bloody turf war over control of the West Side piers.
Barone infiltrated the waterfront workers’ union and ingratiated himself with Vito Genovese – the late founder of the Genovese crime family.
After a stint as a mob hit man, Barone orchestrated an underworld agreement in the late 1960s that carved up control of the waterfront between the Gambino and the Genovese families.
Federal prosecutors have charged Gotti and his six co-defendants with reaping profits from the Mafia’s continued stranglehold on the piers.
Barone fingered a reputed Gambino capo and former waterfront union official, Anthony “Sonny” Ciccone, with running the scheme for his family.
Barone, who suffers from severe hearing loss, became a turncoat in April 2001, after he and 32 other reputed Genovese members were arrested on racketeering charges.