PHILADELPHIA — It was a trip down underworld memory lane, a nostalgic look back by a couple of 70-something wiseguys talking about custom-made shirts and cops on the take and laughing about the time Tony Bananas wanted to whack Ol’ Blue Eyes.
Yeah, that Ol’ Blue Eyes. Frank Sinatra, the Chairman of the Board, the quintessential American saloon singer, a guy who had his own mob ties and whose career, many believe, was launched when a North Jersey wiseguy named Willie Moretti made bandleader Tommy Dorsey an offer he couldn’t refuse.
But that’s a story for another day.
Last week, jurors in the racketeering trial of Philadelphia mob boss Joseph “Uncle Joe” Ligambi and six co-defendants got the inside scoop on a 1968 dust-up that is part of underworld folklore.
The story was outlined for the jury by defense attorney Christopher Warren in his opening statement at the start of the trial Thursday. It is to resume Thursday after a three-day hiatus for a judicial conference.
Warren represents Joseph “Scoops” Licata, a 71-year-old north Jersey mob capo whose voice will be heard on several tapes made by the late Nicholas “Nicky Skins” Stefanelli, a mobster-turned-informant who recorded dozens of conversations for the FBI.
Prosecutors in the Ligambi trial have already filed documents indicating those tapes will be part of the evidence played for the jury.
Seems Licata and Stefanelli, 69, were breaking bread at the American Bistro in Belleville, N.J., in April 2011 with Louis Fazzini, 45, and Nicholas Mitarotunda, 74, according to a transcript of the meeting.
Licata said he and some other mobsters had planned a trip to Miami, intending to stay at the Fountainbleau Hotel. Antonio “Tony Bananas” Caponigro decided to go along.
“He said, ‘I’m going with youse,’ ” Licata said. ” ‘Cause he had to meet Angelo Bruno. … At that time, they were trying to do something in the Bahamas.”
Sinatra was performing at the Fountainbleau, Licata said, but Caponigro nixed plans to take in the show. Instead, he, Licata and several other wiseguys went to see Don Rickles at the Eden Roc.
“Tony hated Sinatra,” Licata said. “He left the next day, and we were right in that Fountainbleau. How could you bypass Sinatra? … That was Tony. … He just hated him, ’cause, you know why, a couple of years before at one of the shows … they were talking.”
Warren clarified for the jury that the talking was mid-performance.
“Sinatra was in the middle of a performance, and Caponigro was talking. Sinatra stopped singing and said, ‘People didn’t come here to hear you talk, they came here to hear me sing.’
“Tony wanted to … kill him,” Licata said on the tape of Caponigro, who himself was later murdered. “You know what I mean? He made a remark like, ‘I’m singing.’ “
Mitarotunda, a north Jersey-based capo in the Gambino family, said Ol’ Blue Eyes was “not the best entertainer I ever saw. … To me, the best I ever saw? Elvis Presley.”
From there, the wiseguys discussed their favorite singers. Bobby Darin and Tom Jones were praised.
Fazzini, the youngest mobster at the table, then weighed in with a comment that some in underworld and entertainment circles might consider sacrilegious.
“Elvis,” he said, “sings ‘My Way’ better than Sinatra.”
