Primo Cassarino

Primo Cassarino (born April 26, 1956) is a New York mobster who became an enforcer for Gambino crime family, and extorted money from actor Steven Seagal.

Foulest mouth in Brooklyn

Born in 1956 to first generation immigrants from Sicily, Italy, Cassarino was the son of a longshoreman. His cousin is Gambino soldier Mario Cassarino. As a young man, Primo Cassarino joined the Gambino family and eventually became a made man, or full member. Cassarino belonged to Gambino capo Anthony "Sonny" Ciccone's crew, soon becoming the leading "bagman" and extortionist on the Staten Island, New York waterfront. Cassarino's legitimate job was as a sanitation worker for the New York Department of Sanitation. In 1991, Cassarino was injured falling off a garbage truck. Over the next 15 years, he was involved in litigation with the City for a special disability pension.

Cassarino's own lawyer once observed that his client had "the foulest mouth in Brooklyn." At one point, law enforcement recorded Cassarino berating a debtor who was late on a loan payment:

a greaseball leeping bleep ... You're a greaseball no good leeper ... You're a leepingslimy leeper ... You better hope I don't see your leepingface . . .

In 1997, Ciccone started receiving extortion payments from Carmine Ragucci, a leader of the Conservative Party of New York State and a terminal owner. It quickly became Cassarino's job to transfer these payments from Ragucci to Ciccone.

In April 2001, Cassarino was tasked with delivering cash payments from Ciccone to Gambino boss Peter Gotti. The two mobsters would meet on a street in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens.

Steven Seagal

In January 2001, Cassarino participated in an extortion attempt against actor Steven Seagal, who had recently terminated a business partnership with Julius R. Nasso, a Staten Island movie producer who was friends with Ciccone. Allegedly at Nasso's request, Cassarino and other crew members picked up Seagal by car to bring him to a meeting with Ciccone. Cassarino had these comments about Seagal refusing to sit in the front seat:

How the xpletivedo you put him in the back, he's six-foot-what, five? He didn't want nobody to shoot him in the xpletivehead. If he was sitting in the front, I'm right behind him.

At the meeting, Ciccone bluntly told Seagal that he had a choice of making four promised movies with Nasso or paying Nasso a penalty of $150,000 per movie. If Seagal refused, Ciccone would kill him. Seagal, who later claimed that he brought a handgun to the meeting, was able to stall Ciccone and escape the meeting unharmed.

Conviction

On March 17, 2003, Cassarino, Peter Gotti, Ciccone, and Richard V. Gotti were convicted of labor racketeering, extortion, and 63 other counts under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Seagal testified for the prosecution about the mobsters' extortion attempt.

In August 2004, Cassarino received an 11½-year prison sentence. At his sentencing, Cassarino said that the mob life was finished. He begged his children to continue with their education and make decent lives for themselves. Soon after his sentencing, Cassarino became a government witness in hopes of reducing his sentence.

In 2005, Cassarino testified for the prosecution in the trial of Genovese crime family capo Lawrence Ricci."PRIMO CASSARINO AND HOMICIDE AS THE AMERICAN MAFIA'S ULTIMATE REPRISAL"
Gangster Inc. November 1, 2005

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassarino, Primo
1956 births
American gangsters of Italian descent
People of Sicilian descent
Gambino crime family
Living people
People convicted of racketeering
Incarcerated gangsters
People who entered the United States Federal Witness Protection Program
American prisoners and detainees
Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government
People from Dyker Heights, Brooklyn