Frank "Frankie California" Condo

Frank "Frankie California" Condo (August 1927-late 1990's) is a Soldato in the Genovese crime family. Condo, a longtime Greenwich Village resident whose nickname remains a mystery, was a staple at Sullivan Street's Triangle Social Club, the de facto headquarters of the Genovese crime family.

Condo, a Genovese soldier, worked in the gang's gambling and loansharking operations and, unlike his friend Federico Giovanelli, never did more than brief prison stretches. While in close proximity to Vincent Gigante, Condo's role with "Chin" was more protector, lookout, and security blanket than adviser. Condo would report nightly to the Triangle, where Gigante sat in his bathrobe playing cards. Condo joked that the club was the "Last Chance Saloon," since guests regularly found themselves roped into games of Continental, rigged affairs that always ended with Gigante pocketing a pile of cash.

As the tapes show, Condo often disparaged Gigante during his talks with Giovanelli an affront that might have cost Condo his life had it ever become known. At a time when he was preoccupied with his exercise regimen, diet, and vitamin intake, Condo railed AbOUT Gigante's late-night antics ("Chin" liked to wander the streets at 4 AM) and his evenings in the filthy, cold Triangle. In one memorable rant, Condo told Giovanelli that a selfish Gigante "takes the calcium from your bones." Before his death a few years ago, Condo split time at his West Houston Street apartment and the Tribeca home of his girlfriend Helen, a woman 20 years his junior. As with most Triangle wiseguys, Frank was laid out at Perazzo's funeral home on Bleecker Street, a block from the social club. As Condo was waked, detectives with the NYPD's organized crime division watched from across the street as various Mafia dignitaries paid their respects.