George Barone

George Barone (born 1923) was a New York City mafioso and former high-ranking official in the International Longshoremen's Association. Barone was born in Brooklyn to an Italian father and an Irish-Hungarian mother. Barone grew up in Hell's Kitchen, a notorious neighborhood on the West Side of Manhattan. During World War II, Barone served his country in the Pacific, earning numerous commendations for his valor.

After the war, Barone returned to the West Side and went to work with his former street gang friends, which included Mickey Bowers, who controlled the ILA Local on the West Side, known as the "Pistol Local", Eddie McGrath, a notorious hitman, Harry Cashin, Johnny Earle, Eddie Flynn, Terry Flynn, Mike Ross, and Lawrence "Little Larry" Dentico. The group came to control the ILA Local on W.14th Street.

Barone's closest ally was Johnny Earle, and during their time on the West Side, were involved in gambling, loan sharking, and heists, including robbing and [...] Redmond "Ninny" Cribbins, of a $650,000 stash he scored on Long Island. Barone's gang known as the Jets became very powerful on the West Side, and would soon be reporting to mafia leader Vito Genovese, who they would report to at his Thompson Street social club. In 1958, the relationship between Barone and Genovese soured, when Jets gang dissidents hired K.O. Konigsberg to kill Earle, who Genovese took a special liking to.

Eventually though, Barone came under the rule of another Genovese family leader, Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, who ruled his rackets from a social club in East Harlem. Barone became Salerno's guy inside the ILA, and Barone steadily rose up the ranks of the ILA, and at times was called upon to do hits for the family. Barone supervised the [...] of West Side Irish gang leader and ILA racketeer Tom Devaney, who was shot to death inside a Midtown bar by Joseph "Mad Dog" Sullivan.

In the early 1970s, Barone was called in to a meeting at an East Harlem tenement apartment. The meeting was actually a ceremony, at which time Barone was formally inducted into the Genovese crime family, officially earning his "button". Soon after becoming made, Barone confronted Harold Daggett, a young ILA leader plotting against Barone's interests. Barone fired a shot at Daggett and threated to kill him if he didn't smarten up.

In 1967, the Waterfront Commission stripped Barone of his license to operate on The New York-New Jersey piers, and Barone was forced to relocate to Port of Miami. He continued to assert his power in Florida, and throughout the Southern ports, kicking up money back to New York. In 1979, Barone was convicted on 18 counts of labor racketeering, he got 12 1/2 years in prison.

Released in 1990, at the age of 67, Barone was broke and had to get back to earning for himself and the family. A former racketeer pal, Jack McCarthy, Delivered Barone $25,000 to get him started. Barone was called upon by the New York powers to line up jobs in Miami for Genovese gangsters and associates, which he obliged. He lined up a $160,000/year job for the brother of acting boss Liborio "Barney" Bellomo's girlfriend. Barone also delivered important news to ILA leader John Bowers, that the next ILA President must be Harold Daggett because the Genovese family said so.

Later on, Barone had a falling out with his mob superiors, after shutting down a Florida company owned by Andrew Gigante, the son of family boss Vincent Gigante. Soon after, Barone learned he was marked for death, and this was confirmed when the friend who was supposed to bring him back to New York (Jimmy Cashin) told him not to go back to New York. Not long after the warnings, Barone was arrested on extortion charges, and decided to become a "rat", to bring down the people who had marked him for death after all his years of loyal service.

Thus far, Barone has testified at two major racketeering trials. The first ended in convictions for Gambino crime family boss Peter Gotti and captains Richard V. Gotti and Anthony "Sonny" Ciccone, as well as a number of soldiers and associates. The second trial, that of John Bowers, Harold Daggett, and acting captain Lawrence Ricci (who was found shot to death before the case went to a jury), ended in acquittals for all three men.