In this episode of Gangland Wire, retired intelligence detective Gary Jenkins exposes the brutal fall of one of the Mafia’s most calculating figures—Louis “Bobby” Manna, the Genovese consigliere who wielded silent power until a single wiretap changed everything. I have to credit Stephen Popkin for much of the research in this show, thanks, Stephen.

From the mobbed-up docks of Bayonne to the smoke-filled offices of Queens Borough Hall, we follow the story of Irwin “The Fat Man” Schiff, a civilian fixer with deep Mafia and political ties. Schiff played both sides—until the feds flipped him. And when Manna found out, it sealed Schiff’s fate.

Bobby Manna’s Rise: From the 1950s onward, Manna ran the Genovese family’s New Jersey rackets—extortion, labor corruption, and construction scams. He was quiet, feared, and always in the background—until FBI bugs in Casella’s Restaurant picked up murder plots against Irwin Schiff and even John Gotti.

Irwin Schiff’s Double Life: A Jewish outsider in an Italian world, Schiff was the ultimate connector—tying mobsters, politicians, and union bosses together in backroom deals and rigged bids. But when he became a government informant, he became a marked man.

The Hit: On August 28, 1987, Schiff was gunned down in a Manhattan restaurant. Three bullets in under ten seconds—“clean, no mistakes,” just like Manna ordered. The killing shocked the city and became the linchpin in a massive RICO case.

The Fall of Manna: In 1989, Manna was convicted and sentenced to 80 years in prison. He died a frail old man after being granted compassionate release in 2025—but his downfall was sealed decades earlier, the moment the FBI pressed “record.”

Highlights of the Episode:

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[0:00] Hey guys, welcome back to Gangland Wire. This is your host, Gary Jenkins,

[0:03] retired Kansas City Police Detective Intelligence Unit. And today we’re going to dive into a deadly game of wiretaps, whispers, and betrayals and murder. This is the story of Louis Bobby Manna and really what brought him down. He was the feared consigliere of the Genovese crime family. And the one that was going to bring him down was the murder of Irwin, the fat man Schiff. He was a civilian fixer whose mouth got him killed. Now, from the mobbed-up docks in Bayonne to the backroom deals in Queensborough Hall, we’ll trace how power was wielded in silence until the tapes started talking. And once they did, they were going to bring down one of the Mafia’s most secretive tacticians, that’s Bobby Manna. Bobby Manna once held one of the most powerful positions in the American Mafia in the 70s and 80s. He was the consigliere of the Genovese crime family when Gigante was in charge. He was the third in command. He also ran all the family’s New Jersey operations, I mean, with some brutal efficiency. And he knew all the underworld’s most feared players in the New York City area and that whole area.

[1:13] And his influence stretched not only from the piers of Bayonne and the docks and the shipping industry, but also the political corridors of New York’s construction rackets, which as you guys know, we all know the New York construction industry was the playpen of the mob. It was the bank of the mob. I mean, they made so much money. I think they made more money out of the construction business than they did out of gambling, which is, that’s hard to believe, but they really made a lot of money out of that construction off the labor unions and the contracts and kickbacks and the concrete club, and they got a piece of every window that was sold to the New York City housing projects.

[1:56] And, you know, Bobby Manna, by the time he turns 95, he’s in prison. He’s frail and riddled with disease. And he was finally granted compassionate release from the federal joint just a couple of months ago. He served 36 years of an 80-year sentence. And that 80-year sentence was for murder, conspiracy, and racketeering. Let’s go back a little bit on Bobby Manna. His criminal career stretched back to the 1950s where he started as a longshoreman, of course. and he and his associates were arrested for assaulting a man that was trying to recruit for a rival union. So union racketeering, you know, stealing from the docks, all that kind of stuff that a young mobster in the 50s, you know, this is on the waterfront for real here. I mean, his street violence was his entry in a Genovese family, and you know anything about the Genovese family, one of the most violent families, I think, of all the five families.

[2:48] They ruled a big chunk of New York and all of northern New Jersey there. Of course, he ascended through the ranks the usual ways and, you know, made his bones. And eventually he’ll become the consigliere. He oversaw, as I said before, all the Jersey wing’s activities, loan shark extortion, gambling, murder, theft from their docks. He was born and raised in Hoboken. He became a close associate with Vincent the Chin Gigante early in his mob career. He’ll rent an apartment in Greenwich Village just to be close to Gigante’s headquarters at the Triangle Social Club, and that’s where Gigante lived. That’s the streets that he walked around on acting like he was, you know, crazy. Surveillance reports noted that when Tony Salerno was supposedly the boss, he would be seen talking to Tony Salerno and Gigante together as they walked around the streets. He was a brother-in-law of a Genovese crime family mob associate, Gerald Durazzo.

[3:45] According to the New Jersey District Court, Bobby Manna’s crimes date back to 1952. He actually, he really ran his personal criminal operations out of an Italian restaurant in El Bucan called Casellas. It was at 615 First Street. He was kind of the lead man for the Genovese family. They had discussions with the Gambino crime family on how to divide that area equitably. And later on, you’ll see that he does not like the.

[4:17] Bobby Manna personally did not like the fact that John Gotti killed Paul Castellano without any approval by the commission. But also he’s going to be worried about Gotti and if Gotti’s going to try to move more into New Jersey and take something away from him after they had it all worked out between the Genovese’s and the Gambino’s. Now, one murder that he was responsible for kind of has a really long backstory to it. Gigante will assign this to him. It’ll come out that a guy named Erwin, the fat man Schiff, was probably an informant of the FBI, probably a top-ish line informant. He was a notorious political fixer. So let’s take a look at Schiff’s history with the New York mob and the construction industry all throughout the 50s and 60s and 70s. There’s an early surveillance memo with the NYPD Gambling Task Force.

[5:16] Subject Schiff, seen with known gambler Moe the Lip Seltzer and an Italian mail letter ID to Salvatore DiStefano. He was a Lucchese associate. Conversations indicate involvement in bookmaking, collection work, and payoff routes. Now, you got to see that Schiff, he’s connected to all the families in some manner over his lifespan. His real foothold from the mafia was not through any kind of violence, but through the construction and the garbage industry. because we know the mob also has their tentacles in the mob, I mean, in the garbage industry in New York City area. In the early 1960s, he began working with local trucking and sanitation firms that held contracts with the city and with those unions, and particularly the Teamsters Local 282. These firms were already under the influence of the Genovese-Lucchese families, and Schiff proved himself useful. He facilitated kickbacks. He helped rig bids. He bribed building inspectors, looked the other way. He had these really good contacts in the city bureaucracy, and he had good contact with other Brooklyn Jews from some of these neighborhoods, and these were all invaluable to help the mob get control of municipal construction. It’s a 1968 wiretap in a restaurant in Sheepshead Bay. Lucchese Captain says, you got that union prick off our back? Sheff says, he’s off. He’s got a brother-in-law in the Department of Buildings. He don’t want to make waves.

[6:45] Lucchese Captain says, You’re worth your weight in veal cutlets. You know that? That’s kind of interesting to say to a fat man, but they thought that was pretty funny. Well, the fat man became a trusted civilian go-between for all these mob guys, the kind of guy that could talk to mob captains in the morning, joining board members in the afternoon, and other politicians in the evening.

[7:03] He’ll arrange political contributions and those kinds of things. He arranged no-show jobs for mob associates, mob members. He brokered sweetheart deals with trucking companies and on trucking routes. He made sure that unions stayed a friendly union on major building site. You know, you don’t want an unfriendly union. You want a friendly union. He didn’t carry a gun, but when he walked into a restaurant, the wise guys pulled out a chair for him. He once was asked about carrying a gun. He said, I don’t carry a gun. He said, other guys carry guns for me.

[7:35] By the early 70s, he’d solidified himself as the most important civilian figure within New York City’s web of organized crime, particularly in the construction and waste hauling industries. He could bridge the criminal underworld and municipal bureaucracies, which made him invaluable to the Genovese and Lucchese families and the Gambino family. He was connected to all of them. I never heard that same thing about the Bonanno family. Maybe they didn’t do much in construction. They mainly did narcotics, if I remember right. You know, New York City, it’s a city where construction is as much about having the right connections as it is about engineering and pouring concrete and all the technical things, building the actual techniques of building the building. It’s about connections. He was a skilled fixer. He worked closely with contractors, building officials, union leaders. As I said before, the team was Local 282. All these contracts were highly lucrative. He also made sure that the demolition permits fell in the right hands.

[8:34] There’s a 1971 surveillance memo of the NYPD Organized Crime Task Force. Subject Schiff is seen frequently at meetings with Gambino associates Salvatore DiSavano and Thomas Tommy Bellotti. Their conversations indicate involvement in a variety of illicit business dealings, including bookmaking, loan sharking, and operations tied to the Gambino family. His greatest asset was his vast network. He knew all the mobsters. He knew all the zoning officers, all the city inspectors, all the union reps, all the lawyers, and everybody owed him a favor. And he owed them favors at times. He traded favors. I mean, that’s how it works. There’s a wiretap in 1973 with Teamster’s official. Schiff says, you want your truckers to keep rolling smoothly. We get those right permits and union stays in line, no problem. Teamster’s official said, I don’t know, Irwin. The city’s breathing down our necks. Schiff says, I’m the one who’ll make them blink. I’ve got connections in the mayor’s office. Don’t forget that. He wasn’t flashy. He didn’t flaunt his wealth. He stayed behind the scenes. He used conversations, quiet influence, you know, no violence, as I said before.

[9:41] Wiretap in 1974 Midtown Social Club. A Lucchese soldier says, you think that fat prick shifts legit? The Genovese Capo reply. A Genovese Capo replies, you ain’t one of us. He’s better than half our guys, though. He gets things done. Lucchese. Well, maybe he don’t have the muscle to back it up, the Genovese capo says. He don’t need the muscle. He’s got something more important, connections. Another 1974 wiretap in a private club at Midtown Genovese soldier. That fat bastard Schiff, he ain’t one of us, but he’s like he is. Some capo responds to him. It gets more done than half the button men I know. He’s a fucking bridge. By the late 1970s, he had woven himself into the very fabric of New York construction and waste hauling racket. FBI investigators would later call him a human Rolodex that mobbed up contractors, union reps, building department officials, crep lawyers. He wasn’t flashy. He didn’t travel around. He didn’t flaunt it. He just had a list of favors owed him.

[10:44] 1977 wiretap. Capo, you want to build in Brooklyn? You talk to Irwin. He’ll make it like the fireman never even saw it. My associate says, that fat prick, I thought he was a Jew. Capo says, he is, but he eats with us. 1979. field report, subject shift maintains regular contact with Genovese, Lucchese, and Colombo intermediaries. Subject shift maintains regular contact with Genovese, Lucchese, and Colombo intermediaries. He’s believed to broker illicit municipal contracts, no known violent history, but widely respected inside criminal infrastructure.

[11:20] He never forgot who he was or where the power really sat. He knew whose toes to step on and whose toes not to step on. He knew who to bribe. He knew who not to try to bribe. He was really slick behind the scenes the whole time. But he was also on the FBI’s radar, and they recognized what he was, a fixer, Lincoln mob bosses, and a really valuable guy. They didn’t realize how valuable until he actually flipped. He’s going to flip later on. And, you know, put the IRS after him, and, you know, once they put the IRS on you, you’re screwed. If you’re doing anything wrong at all, if you’re dealing any kind of bunch of kickbacks and bribes and all that, the IRS is going to get you. He’s facing potential federal charges, and he starts quietly, very quietly cooperating with the FBI around 1982.

[12:12] He provided a lot of information on corruption involving Local 282 of the teamsters, all the kickback schemes tied to the construction of the Jacob Javits Center.

[12:21] There’s a lot of bribery through the Queensborough President’s Office. There was a particular president of the Queensborough named Donald Maynes that was totally corrupt at the time, and he had connections all over the city, too. FBI will describe him in 1983 as a credible source, active in target operations. I’ll tell you, this guy lived dangerously. He rubbed elbows with mob captains while he was feeding intel to the government. His influence in the New York construction industry was not just confined to job sites or, you know, like concrete contractors, building contractors. It extended deeply into the corridors of political power. And his most critical relationship in this network was this Donald Maynes, a longtime Queens political boss who had become the Queensborough president.

[13:12] Means was a really skilled operator dealing with local government, and particularly when it came to zoning permits, which are, that’s invaluable. The zoning can just kill you. And projects, development projects, new developments and all that, because they need all kinds of, have all kinds of regulation, need all kinds of help. You know, as borough president, he had significant control over a lot of public land use, gave him a lot of leverage in the city where real estate is power. You know, in New York City, real estate is power. Asked Donald Trump. That was his thing. He wanted to get into Manhattan because that’s where the power is in real estate. Schiff found that Maines was a perfect partner in his world of concrete, steel, and mob-connected unions. He could guarantee labor peace, expedite permits, and move money all while insulating himself with political cover. Of course, their arrangement was mutually beneficial. Maines offered protection from regulators and bureaucratic green lights. Schiff delivered cash, political contributions, control, quiet, no union problems, all those kinds of things. Whenever the developers or union bosses needed something done in Queens, whether it’s a permanent rezoning or a strategic delay, Schiff was a man to call. He could smooth over issues with all the inspectors, handle any troublesome union leaders, make inconvenient delays disappear.

[14:34] It was just a little bit of money passed. All that efficiency just took a little corruption. It was just the cost of doing business.

[14:43] 1977, there was a federal wiretap came in from the Queensborough office that really kind of set it all. They got Irwin Schiff on this telephone. He said, we’ve got a couple of union guys down here who need a favor. They’re looking for permits to start a few new projects on the east side. It’ll grease some wheels and make things smooth. Some other voice said, well, you’re always in the middle, Erwin. You’re sure you’re not going to get burned? Chef says, nah, I got mains backing us. He’ll push it through. Just make sure the inspectors get their cut.

[15:15] It wasn’t idle bragging. Schiff wasn’t really operating back in the shadows. He was totally embedded in the system. And the line between organized crime and municipal government was non-existent, really. It was blurred. This relationship really worked. A project moved. Unions cooperated. And political donations flowed quietly in all directions. By the 1980s, pressure began to mount. Investigative reporters and federal agents were closing in on city hall corruption.

[15:43] 1986, Maine’s world collapse and scandal after scandal with a wave of bribery investigations implicating him in kickback schemes involving parking meters, cable television contracts, and construction contracts. Over the next few weeks, a torrent of corruption allegations poured in. You know, once it’s kind of like once something comes out, then somebody else says, oh, we got this going on over here. And then it just, the blocks just start falling. The core of the scandal really centered around the New York City Parking Violations Bureau. In 1978, Mainz had appointed a guy named Jeffrey Lidenour as deputy director of the Parking Violations Bureau, which steered contracts to companies that paid bribes to both men. So Mainz, Lidenour, and Bronx. By 1982, Mainz, Lidenour, and a Bronx Democratic Party boss named Stanley Friedman held shares in CitySource. That’s a firm that secures city contracts for handheld ticketing devices. You ever seen those handheld ticketing devices? They go around, you get your ticket, they just click your license number in and it prints out a ticket and put it on the windshield wiper and it sends all the computer information into a central computer.

[16:57] They found out Mainz was taking bribes from another company, collecting on tickets, overdue tickets, and that owner became a cooperating witness. And in January 23rd, 1986, there was a columnist named Jimmy Breslin. You may have heard of him. He wrote a famous book called The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight about one of the Columbo Wars with Joey Gallo. Anyhow, he published a story that quoted the owner of another company who claimed to have paid Mainz $36,000 in bribes. So investigators expanded their probe into this other company and then looked at cable TV franchises, other zoning variances, and no-bid contracts. Mainz will resign just a month later in February.

[17:39] He’ll kind of withdraw from public view, and I have growing exposure about his longtime alliance with Irwin Schiff. Now, Schiff, if you remember earlier in wiretaps, it reassured people that now I got Mainz backing us. Just make sure the inspectors get their cut. But Mainz is gone. So Schiff’s not, he’s losing a lot of power here too. You know, Mainz, a couple years later, he’s on to tell kind of an interesting story. He’s on his phone with his psychiatrist and his wife’s on the upstairs extension. I don’t know what that’s all about, but I guess that’s how they do it in New York. Said the psychiatrist briefly stepped away. mains couldn’t take it anymore he walked in the kitchen opened up the door pulled out an eight inch long kitchen knife and drove it into his chest his wife and daughter heard them collapse and fall and they ran down into the kitchen and pulled a knife out of his heart called 9-1-1 but he was dead a lot of reports that he shot himself but they believe that he stabbed himself in the heart with a knife i mean go figure i never heard of that before you know after his death i tell you the investigations really took off then. They knew there was a lot more to be uncovered here. They must have had a lot to hide.

[18:51] Schiff, all his protections, political protections gone. Federal prosecutors are paying a lot more closer attention to him. He’s informed of the FBI. This life that he’s been leading starts to crack. Some court filings and press leaks expose his role as an informant. And, of course, the Genovese family is, you know, he’s their guy. You know, Bobby Manna, he’s really close to Irwin Schiff, and, you know, they don’t know for sure, but it looks like he’s been informant.

[19:24] 1982 FBI briefing says Schiff has established a rapport with top-ranking figures in the Genovese family and is believed to facilitate major money laundering schemes involving both the construction industry and the illegal gambling operations. He’s considered an integral asset to the family’s financial operations. Well you know that’s and they start using an informant about that time and that’s what they’re using him for.

[19:52] He keeps providing information to the FBI, and he’s also working with the Genovese family. They didn’t question his loyalty for quite a while, but eventually they’re going to start questioning his loyalty, and things are going to come out. 1985, there’s a hidden FBI microphone at Casella’s Restaurant in Hoboken. It’s a Genovese stronghold. It’s where Bobby Manna really operates out of. He’s talking about Schiff. Manus says, he talks to the suits, meaning the FBI, and then breaks bread with us. That’s not loyalty. Casella, the guy that owns the restaurant, says, he’s not even Italian. Who’s going to cry? Manus says, that fat bastard’s a problem. He talks too much. Casella says, you want it done? Manus says, make it clean. No mistakes. You know, during these conversations, they refer to Schiff as CC for construction coordinator. That’s a company that Schiff was affiliated with.

[20:47] Casella later on will say, I’ll bring it up in a meeting. We’ll discuss it. Unidentified voice. You want to hit him? Other voice says, we’ll do him good at night. Probably 1986, latter part of 86, 87. They’re monitoring. They notice that Manna and his associates are discussing Schiff’s movements, which means they’re plotting his murder. A guy named DeSiccio says, Schiff was at Bravo last night with some blonde. I was with a blonde. Maybe she’s wired too. Another voice says, we know the exit. We just walk in and bang. FBI keeps telling him, you know, you’re going to have to do something. They’re after you, and I’ve seen this before. One Friday afternoon, Irwin Schiff arrived at a lunch at a familiar east side restaurant, dressed in his usual gray suit and fedora is really dapper. Sits down, opens a menu. About 10, 15 minutes later, 1, 12 p.m., a man enters the side door, just walks directly up to Schiff and fired three rounds at close range. .38 revolver hit him in the neck, chest, and head. He slumps forward onto his plate. Gunman calmly walks out. The murder’s over.

[21:55] The diners are just like stunned, and that’s the way to do it. You just walk in, shoot somebody, and walk out. NYPD will remark, well, this wasn’t random. This wasn’t a random shooting. This was some kind of a message. A couple days later, another conversation was recorded at Casellas. Daniello. Place was jammed. All the people ran out. Bobby picked this kid out. Casella, stone killer.

[22:19] This was a strategic, surgical, and symbolic act. You know, there was a guy, an associate, that had crossed the line, and the mob responded with what we’d say lethal clarity. Schiff’s killing will become central to the federal government’s racketeering case against Bobby Manna with these wiretaps where he’s discussing this. They also were discussing killing John Gotti and his brother Gene Gotti at this same time, and the same at Casellas. Manna was so enraged by Gotti’s unsanxioned 1985 murder of Paul Castellano and he wanted to retaliate, but he also wanted to neutralize any threats from the new Gambino boss, John Gotti, if you remember. They had some kind of mutual territory, mutual things going side by side down in New Jersey.

[23:13] 1989, using these tapes as evidence and some other people that turned government-convicted Manna of conspiring to murder Schiff, conspiring to murder John Gotti and Gene Gotti. And they also claimed, but it was never confirmed, and I couldn’t find any real evidence they had, but some informants claimed that Manna had discussed potential hits on the judge, Mary Ann Trump-Berry, Donald Trump’s, President Trump’s sister, and U.S. Attorney Samuel Aliotto, now on the Supreme Court, and Michael Chertoff, who was the actual prosecutor on the scene. Manor ended up getting an 80-year sentence from Judge Barry at several appeals claiming that a lot of misinterpreted conversation at the government withheld witness, but everything stood. One of the most damning pieces of evidence, they said, was Manor’s directive regarding Gene Gotti. Make it clean, no mistakes.

[24:12] These tapes didn’t just convict Bobby Manna, they exposed a rip between the old school Genovese leaders and the rising flashiness of the gaudy regime.

[24:23] Manna was a traditionalist, and he viewed this as a betrayal. Despite any legal challenge that he had, Manna stayed in prison until 2025, just this last month, and at age 95, he got a compassionate release. Supposedly under house arrest in Bayonne, New Jersey. You know, if you think about it, all those families of the people silenced by man’s orders and the consequences still echo. That bullet ended Schiff’s life. Those cold calculating words captured at Casellas. Still in the official record, it’s a lasting reminder of a time, kind of a long gone time when the mafia would reach out and kill anybody who ever betrayed them. Doesn’t seem like they do that so much anymore. All these guys out here doing podcast and living out in the open of some here in Kansas City. I mean, it’s like, I don’t know. Yeah.

[25:15] It’s just different than it once was. You know, murder somebody just for revenge is not worth it. You know, you just either got to do your own thing, keep your mouth shut, and somebody testifies, you know, they testify.

[25:27] So that’s the story of Bobby Manna and the case that brought him down. You know, Vincent Gigante, he went down about this time. They really brought down that whole Genovese family. I mean, can you imagine that from the most powerful, most dangerous, most feared mafia outfit in the country to basically nothing today, it seems like, or not very much. Anyhow, thanks a lot, guys. I appreciate y’all tuning in. Don’t forget to like and subscribe if you’re on YouTube. Remember, I like to ride motorcycles, so watch out for motorcycles when you’re out there on the street. If you have a problem with PTSD, you’ve been in the service, go to the VA website, get that hotline number, PTSD. You know, lots of times you have problems of drugs or alcohol. Anthony Ruggiano has a hotline number on one of his, on his YouTube channel or his website. One, he’s a drug and alcohol counselor down in Florida. If I have problems with gambling, there’s 1-800-BETS-OFF in Missouri or other, every other state will have some, if you have gambling, they’ll have some kind of a hotline number. I got a lot of stuff for sale. I always want to sell something. If you want to get a copy of one of my books, you know, You can go on my website or you can go to Amazon.com. Just Google my name and Mafia books and Mafia documentaries. Got a couple of documentaries out there. You can rent them streaming. Anyhow, thanks a lot, guys. I probably sold it up. Thanks a lot, guys.

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