Alphonse Malangone



Alphonse "Allie Shades" Malangone (born December 2, 1936) is a New York City mobster and caporegime in the Genovese crime family. Malangone controlled a good portion of the Genovese interests in the Fulton Fish Market, while dabbling in pump and dump stock scams on Wall Street and controlling Brooklyn's garbage hauling industry for his boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, head of one of the most powerful crime families in the United States.

Early days
Allie Malangone was born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He was inducted into the Genovese crime family sometime between the mid-to-late 1970s, most likely 1976 or 1977 when New York's Five Families opened their membership books once again after more than 20 years. He became a soldier in the crew of Genovese capo Thomas "Tick" Contaldo, but at the same time Malangone became the protégé of Genovese capo Gaetano "Toddo" Marino. He also became an associate of Genovese soldier Vincent "Fish" Romano, who had been a protégé of Joseph "Socks" Lanza, former czar of the Fulton Fish Market. Lanza and the Romano brothers, (Vincent and Carmine) controlled the Fulton Fish Market in downtown Manhattan. Malangone went to work in the Fish Market and soon he began accepting payoffs from vendors and trucking companies, and continued to run his own fish company with his son, Alphonse Jr.

He got his nickname for always wearing aviator style tinted sunglasses, even at night.

Promotion
As he rose through the ranks of the Genovese crime family, Malangone became one of the family's biggest earners and most respected members. It was not unusual to see Allie associating with men from all the Five Families. Malangone was a close friend of Bonanno crime family consigliere and onetime acting boss, Anthony Spero, who came to Allie for advice. Despite tension between New York's two most powerful crime families, the Genoveses and Gambinos, and even while Allie's own boss, Vincent "The Chin" Gigante despised Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, Allie was known to be close to the Gambino boss and frequently visited with Gotti at his Ravenite Social Club on Mulberry Street.

By the mid-to-late 1980s Allie controlled a significant portion of the Genovese crime family's interests in the Fulton Fish Market. In 1989, family boss Chin Gigante promoted Malagone to capo of his own crew. Allie set-up his headquarters in Pastels Nightclub located in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. He often preferred to conduct business and handle his affairs outside instead of inside the building where a bug might possibly be planted. Allie could often be found in the company of Rocky Cimato, an old-time Genovese soldier and Allie's chauffeur. Tough, feared soldiers like Elio "Chinatown" Albanese, John "Johnny Geech" Giangrandi, Gerardo "Fat Gerry" Guadagno and Carmine "Baby Carmine" Russo ran the rackets overseen and controlled by Allie and from time to time handle the enforcement of debt collections and heists like burglaries or bank jobs. Allie could also count on Pastels manager Michael "Mikey" Rosenbaum to run the nightclub.

Malangone's right-hand man was a six-foot-five, balding, paunchy, near-sighted man named Alan "Baldie" Longo. Longo was a Carroll Gardens mobster who involved in loan sharking, bookmaking, stock frauds, and labor racketeering and was allegedly a degenerate gambler, who at one time himself owed more than one million dollars to various members of New York's Genovese, Gambino  and Colombo crime families.

Private sanitation
By the 1990s Allie Malangone was one of the Genovese crime family's most important and powerful caporegimes. He was involved in law enforcement surveillance, frequently meeting at Pastels and other places around the city with such heavyweight Genovese crime family leaders like acting underboss Michele "Mickey Dimino" Generoso. Malangone was overseer of the crime family's private sanitation rackets through his control of the Bensonhurst, Brooklyn based Kings County Trade Waste Association and the Greater New York Waste Paper Association located at 511 Canal Street in Brooklyn. Genovese boss Vince Gigante had inserted young, up and coming Genovese associate Frank Giovinco into the Greater New York Waste paper Association as the Genovese crime family's on-site authority and to take care of any problems that might arise with carters or customers.

The New York Mafia has controlled the city's garbage hauling industry since the 1940s from the days of Anastasia crime family caporegime James "Jimmy Jerome" Squilante, also known as Vincent Squillante, the nephew of boss Albert "The Mad Hatter" Anastasia. In 1957 boss Albert Anastasia was murdered and in 1960 Squillante disappeared, but the Gambino crime family continued to control their fare share of the city's garbage rackets through their control of the Association of Trade Waste Removers opf Greater New York, overseen by Gambino family capo and former Carlo Gambino driver, James "Jimmy Brown" Failla. Through their co-operation and the creation of various garbage hauling cartels, the Genovese and Gambino crime families wielded near absolute power within New York City's garbage hauling industry, netting their families millions of dollars each year in protection and tribute money. One of the most important men in this operation was Allie Malangone.

Indictment and prison
On June 22, 1995, Genovese caporegime Allie Malangone was indicted on charges of controlling New York City's private waste industry through his close associate Frank Giovinco. The indictment resulted from an undercover operation that targeted Malangone and others involved in the New York Mafia controlled carting cartels, including Angelo Ponte, a Genovese crime family associate and prominent New York City businessman, who headed one of the city’s largest and most successful carting firms, "V. Ponte & Sons." The wide New York City law enforcement sting also snared Genovese associates Frank Giovinco, Frank Allocca and Philip "Phil" Barretti, one of New York City's wealthiest garbage executives. The investigation and subsequent indictments also targeted former Gambino crime family caporegime and the New York Mafia's waste hauling czar, James "Jimmy Brown" Failla, as well as his successor, Joseph "Joey Cigars" Francolino.

Malangone chose to go to trial and on October 21, 1997 he was convicted and eventually sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was released to parole supervision on April 5, 2010.