Johnny “Red” Russo

There to support the protagonist, side characters are naturally relegated to the sideline and often serve superficial roles of that of comedic relief, an exposition dumper, or as a vehicle to move the plot along. A few, however, rise above their station and become so interesting to the audience that they get a chance at their own spinoff. Just like Saul Goodman got his own show, I realized Johnny “Red” Russo, from the Joseph Pata piece, deserved his own chance at the limelight following some prodding and conversation with u/II-Norte-II. Although his own story is somewhat brief, it does serve as a vehicle for a memorable moment in Floridian law enforcement history and as a cautionary tale about putting associates on a pedestal as an information source just because they hung around “the life”. 

Born in 1939, “Red” Russo’s childhood was shaped by his upbringing in Manhattan’s Little Italy.[1] According to an interview done later in life, Johnny claimed that his father was an alcoholic, and this instability resulted in temporary homelessness for his family after they were evicted from their home when he was just 14 alongside his mother and sister. Lacking a support system at home, Russo did not excel in school and dropped out. As is often the case in situations like these, “Red” wound up in a street gang committing armed robbery for which he was arrested and convicted for at the young age of 17. He was given a five-year sentence for robbing 23 establishments, including supermarkets, jewelry, and liquor stores, but got out in just 30 months. Despite his first child being born a year after his release from prison, Russo remained steadfast in his criminal ways and by 1970 he was back in front of a judge, this time convicted of gunrunning. Luckily for him, the court was merciful on that day, and he was let go with just probation. In 1975, he left the hustle and bustle of New York for sunnier days in Florida. Before moving on to the Sunshine State, I do feel it is important to say that I couldn’t find contemporary newspaper accounts describing either the armed robbery conviction or the gunrunning one. While I’m sure they occurred as the Associated Press wouldn’t publish anything without fact checking, the downfall is that I can’t see who “Red’s” accomplices were and figure out when he started to associate with organized crime figures. Did his connection to the Genovese Crime Family sprout in New York or did he cultivate it in Florida with the arrival of Joseph Pata?

While Johnny “Red” Russo’s main saga in South Florida concerned the bust-out of Friendly Checker Cab company, he was evidently active in loansharking and other business ventures. For instance, in 1977, Mort Doppelt, owner of a medical center in Broward County, was seeking liquidity via a quick sale of his business to someone with cash on their hands.[2] Sheila Clevely, his bookkeeper, introduced him to Johnny Russo and over lunch at Bobo Chinese Restaurant in Hollywood, hashed out the details of the sale. Although Mort assessed the value of the business’s assets at $27,000, he merely asked Johnny for $10,000 to take it over. While Russo offered the full $27,000 amount, he ended up only paying Mort $1,000 before taking over the business and using it as a vehicle to incur debt from a local bank. In mid-1977, at the same restaurant, Russo met with Flagship Bank of Aventura VP and loan officer, Robert J. Oakie, to negotiate a $10,000 bank loan. Ultimately, Oakie exceeded his authority and over a series of transactions, extended $353,000 worth of credit to companies linked to Russo. With Johnny’s conviction in the cab bust-out case, the bank had to eat their loss after the medical center was taken over by new ownership. Oakie was forced to resign.

Although sentenced to serve five years in prison, Johnny only did about 14 months, and for six of those he was in federal custody, working on a special project with the Florida Division of Law Enforcement.[3] It is unclear what information he provided, but he went free and went back into business with Ed Wasco. What follows is a pretty bizarre but unique story about an ex-cop and his brother’s fake induction ceremony into the Genovese Crime Family orchestrated under the watchful eye of the police .

South Florida is known for its nightlife and there are establishments catering to almost every need. Serving those among a seedier crowd, stood VIP Men’s Club near Pompano Beach. Opened in 1979, the business presented itself as a gentlemen’s club, but behind closed doors in the four private bedrooms located in the back, nothing was off limits.[4] At the time, Broward County was full of houses of ill fame masquerading as legitimate businesses. This joint, in particular, was founded and ran by a Colombian and his partner Michael McNaboe, a man of ill repute who had numerous arrests from manufacturing and distributing PCP to managing bordellos.[5] The sheriff’s department knew exactly what was going on and even raided the place in 1984, leading to the unfortunate arrest of three women, instead of the owners responsible for this conduct. Yet, the police largely ignored the club and McNaboe attributed this to his policy of refunding a disgruntled customer’s money and offering his clientele free drinks, stating, “I always thought if nobody complained, [the Broward Sheriff’s Office had] no reason to come around”.[6]

Now while the cops may have looked the other way, criminal activity attracts mobsters like moths to a night lamp and by the mid 1980s, Michael was getting knocks on his door from some unscrupulous individuals. In what was likely a staged event to gain a foothold in the joint, some New York tough guys “threatened” violence upon the place unless they received a payoff. McNaboe told of this problem to his casual friend, Joseph “Boca Joe” Fofone (or Fafone), from New York, and suddenly Michael’s problems disappeared.[7] Subsequently, Fafone and his buddy “Joe Diamond” bought out the Colombian’s interest in the club and assured Michael that he would not have to fear any more strong-arm attempts again. Who were these guys? Well, “Boca Joe” was a Gambino associate, and he would be later indicted federally with his son, Fafone Jr., and Gambino soldier Frank “the Bear” Basto for conspiring to distribute cocaine and Oxycontin and by the state for running an illegal gambling ring based out of Costa Rica.[8] Diamond’s real name was Joseph Tole and he was part of a drug ring that smuggled more than a million pounds of marijuana into South Florida between 1980 and 1988.[9] By early 1987, McNaboe had effectively lost control of his club to his two new partners and the duo refused to buy him out or sell their half-interest.[10] At an impasse, one of VIP’s employees had a solution for Mike. He made the introduction to Anthony Finno and for a share of the profit, Anthony and his brother Ralph would help McNaboe regain control of the club.

Ralph Finno was a decorated lawman, a 27-year veteran of the Fort Lauderdale police department.[11] A graduate of the FBI academy, he was even the leader of the Broward County Anti-Racketeering Unit for 18 months. Retiring in 1986 to pursue a political career, Ralph was unsuccessful in being elected County Commissioner in 1986 or Sheriff in 1988 against Nick Navarro. This will be brought up later. His brother Anthony, on the other hand, was the city of Margaret’s chief electrical inspector.[12] He also friendly with organized crime figures and it is because of their perceived collective juice that McNaboe sought out their help.[13] Hilariously, when the trio was introduced, Anthony made it seem like he was an initiated member of the Gambino Crime Family, with John Gotti himself administrating the ceremony![14] This was probably not the only time he misrepresented himself as news of his supposed membership reached Gotti who was not too pleased with this situation. John DiGiorgio, the Dapper Don’s father-in-law, was a frequent visitor of VIP Men’s Club and his friendship with Anthony gave credibility to the latter’s claims of his organized crime connections according to the club’s former shift manager Pasquale Caprio. Rightfully skeptical of the claim, the manger phoned a mobster buddy of his in New York to verify Anthony’s claim. His contact confirmed that the Finno brothers had nothing to do with the Gambino Family and this whole ordeal even got DiGiorgio in trouble as he was put on the carpet for it. At one point there was even a rumor that Gotti put a contract on both brothers, but it later turned out to be false.

Anyways, McNaboe thought these two could help him with his problems. Michael offered the brothers a piece of the joint for $75,000 and on March 1^st, 1987, a sales agreement was signed.[15] No money, however, changed hands and on a subsequent meeting held on March 14^th with VIP’s corporate accountant and attorney, the brothers used their police clout and guns to seize financial records and take over the club for themselves.[16] Afterwards, the Finnos closed the club for eight days and to ensure a smooth grand re-opening, beefed up security by hiring four muscle-bound goons. Although Mike remained a nominal partner, a month into new management, he was thrown out because he complained he was not getting his fair share of the club’s proceeds, which generated $18,000 in its first three weeks. There were allegations of skimming on McNaboe’s part, but the bottom line was that he was out, and the club’s incorporation papers were forged to install a new president, Debbie Jordan, Anthony’s girlfriend. Control over the club proved lucrative, and the brothers were reportedly making over $30,000 a month.[17] The Finnos were making good money and enjoying life. The scorned parties, however, did not take their outsting too well and were plotting in the background. In the fall of 1987, Fofone was back and forged an alliance with Mike to take the club back. Their plan was simple. On a Friday night, they stormed the establishment and changed the locks. Ralph Finno heard about this situation through one of VIP’s managers, and phoned the Sheriff’s office who shut down the club until the dispute was resolved. Their plan was foiled. On Monday, the club reopened under the Finno banner once more. Their control, however, was not secure and they kept receiving threats from the Fofone faction which even made Anthony question the value of continuing to deal with the hassle that was the ownership of VIP Men’s Club. A month after their failed takeover, McNaboe threatened litigation. The brothers’ reply was simple yet brutal; Mike was doled out a vicious beating that sent him to the hospital. This conflict carried on until December 21^st, 1987, when the club was firebombed, never to operate again.

While this conflict was taking place, the police were closing in on Johnny “Red” Russo and his partner Ed Wasco on wire fraud charges.[18] The two ran a phony Hallandale firm that sold goods such cars and stereo equipment to overseas businessmen who were getting swindled out of millions in the process.[19] When the Feds informed Russo about his upcoming indictment, he asked the agents if they knew a man by name of Ralph Finno. Red informed the authorities that he first met Ralph when the latter came by his business to seek donations for his 1988 bid for Sheriff. The political aspirant expressed his dislike for Nick Navarro and wondered if there was a way to get rid of him. With this nugget of information, Russo and Wasco began to work with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the nefarious activities of the Finno brothers. The duo posed as members of the Genovese Crime Family and began to introduce undercover agents to the brothers who they were eager to enter into loansharking deals with, accepting their cash at a usurious rate of 260% per annum (or 265% depending on the source).[20] Their criminal involvement would deepen and at some point Finno was caught on tape giving the fake mobsters a gun with instructions on how to use it without getting caught. Although the potential murder of Nick came up several times, the conversations were always initiated by Russo and Wasco, and the brothers were careful enough with their words for this talk to never cross the line to become a criminal charge.[21] However, Ralph made it clear that if Navarro was “gone”, he’d be the next Sheriff and that he would not turn his back on guys like Russo and Wasco.[22] Later on, law enforcement would make it seem that with a hypothetical ascension to Sheriff, Ralph would make it open season for mobsters to operate in Broward County.[23] To see how far the Finnos would go with the ruse, investigators raised the stakes and orchestrated their induction into the Genovese Crime Family with the help of Russo. And it was all videotaped to boot.

On May 22^nd, 1989, Anthony Finno became a wiseguy in the Genovese Crime Family.[24]  One of the informants told Anthony, “What I’m doing now is very rare… because of what you’re doing now… you have no other family than us”.[25] Both Anthony and one of the informants slit their respective fingers and mixed their blood together as part of swearing a blood oath.[26] Classically, there was a gun on the table that one of the informants said would be used on Anthony if he ever talked about the ceremony. He also explained to him about a 30-day probation period for new mob members. A second sort-of ceremony was held on June 9^th, whereby Anthony selected his brother Ralph to become his consigliere. The elder brother was made to swear allegiance to the Genovese Crime Family and bite down on a bullet. “This is your bullet, capisce? If you double cross us or hurt us, this will be the bullet that kills you”.[27] What a farce!

The charade came to an end on August 10^th, 1989, when Ralph and Anthony Finno were arrested on racketeering, extortion, loansharking, and a slew of other charges.[28] The case was marred with trouble and legal setbacks for state prosecutors. The first time the case was brought to trial in 1990, jurors had trouble discerning grainy surveillance footage and a key witness for the prosecution made damaging remarks that eventually led the judge to declare a mistrial.[29] Then the state attorneys tried to divide the trial into two, breaking down the initial indictment piecemeal, with one focusing on the brothers’ alleged takeover of VIP Men’s Club and the other on their loansharking ring. To add to their woes, Johnny Russo could not keep out of trouble and was indicted in August 1992 for defrauding a man into investing $257,000 into a phony scheme to export Harley-Davidson motorcycles to Germany.[30] He was arrested alongside Joseph Philbin and Joseph “Joey” Crapella. Interestingly, Joey Crapella would go on to have a flourishing criminal career in Florida and at one point be involved in a time-share scheme that had connections to a Sicilian Mafia contact and the Gambino Crime Family.[31] With one of their chief witnesses compromised, the case was all but ready to fall apart. The final coup de grace came when a Broward judge dismissed a series of racketeering and loansharking counts in the indictment, concluding that the brothers were improperly entrapped in a flawed scheme by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and that the slew of video and audio recordings “depict a situation of a lot of talk, abject stupidity and other ramblings”.[32] The state’s case against Ralph Finno finally fell apart completely on June 14^th, 1994 as the judge dismissed the last counts against him, while Anthony went to trial and was found guilty for aggravated battery.[33] The government did get their pound of flesh when both were convicted for illegally possessing a silencer for a gun in federal court; both were sentenced to 21 months behind bars.[34] Throughout the ordeal, the brothers maintained that they knew the initiation ceremony was fake and played along to recover some $30,000 owned to them by Russo and Wasco.[35]  

Well, this was certainly a strange blip in Floridian organized crime history. Importantly, this story outlines that we should always be cautious about taking information from associates at face value just because they “hung around” that life and personally knew of made members. Despite committing crimes with Genovese soldier Joseph Pata and being allegedly linked to Vito Genovese, Meyer Lansky, and Santo Trafficante, by the design of the two-part ceremony, it is clear Red Russo had no idea what a real initiation ceremony looked like. There was no probation, no biting bullets, and certainly no appointment of a consigliere for a newly minted member.

Thank you for reading and until next time.

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[1] For the story of his youth, please see the following article: John Platero, “Racketeer aims to try to talk kids out of crime”. The Grand Rapids Press (reprint from the Associated Press). August 24^th, 1987. Page C6.

[2] Al Messerschmidt, “Bank drops suit to recover $353,000 lent to swindler”. The Miami Herald. January 17^th, 1981. Page 2B.

[3] “Parole OK’d for prisoner who aided mob probe”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. August 26^th, 1982. Page B1.

[4] Stephen Wissink & David Uhler, “Despite ads, arrests in ’84, prostitution thrived at club”. Fort Lauderdale News. August 27^th, 1988. Page 4B.

[5] Tracie Cone & Fawn Germer, “Candidate for Broward sheriff is target of probe”. The Miami Herald. August 28^th, 1988. Page 7B.

[6] Larry Keller, “Finno case keeps club in news”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. December 26^th, 1989. Page 5B.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Monica Rhor, “Reputed mobster gets 65 months in BSO drug sting”. The Miami Herald. May 25^th, 2002. Page 3B.

[9] Tom Dubocq, “BSO figure in hot seat at drug trial”. The Miami Herald. January 6^th, 1991. Page 4B.

[10] Larry Keller, “Finno case keeps club in news”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. December 26^th, 1989. Page 5B; Tracie Cone & Fawn Germer, “Candidate for Broward sheriff is target of probe”. The Miami Herald. August 28^th, 1988. Page 7B.

[11] Stephen Wissink & David Uhler, “Sheriff’s candidate investigated in extortion”. Fort Lauderdale News. August 27^th, 1988. Page 4B.

[12] David Uhler, “Experience failed ex-officer held in plot”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. August 12^th, 1989. Page 14A.

[13] Tracie Cone & Fawn Germer, “Candidate for Broward sheriff is target of probe”. The Miami Herald. August 28^th, 1988. Page 7B.

[14] Larry Keller, “Finno case keeps club in news”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. December 26^th, 1989. Page 5B; Larry Keller, “Mob reportedly gave warning”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. December 16^th, 1989. Pages B1 & B8.

[15] Stephen Wissink & David Uhler, “Sheriff’s candidate investigated in extortion”. Fort Lauderdale News. August 27^th, 1988. Page 4B.

[16] Tracie Cone & Fawn Germer, “Candidate for Broward sheriff is target of probe”. The Miami Herald. August 28^th, 1988. Page 7B; Larry Keller, “Finno case keeps club in news”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. December 26^th, 1989. Page 5B.

[17] Larry Keller, “Finnos’ lawyers criticize police as trial opens”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. March 14^th, 1990. Page 9B.

[18] Scott Higham, “After two years, Finno case limps back into court”. The Miami Herald. August 11^th, 1991. Page 5BR.

[19] Scott Higham, “Racketeering case features mob, money”. The Miami Herald. March 14^th, 1990. Page 6BR.

[20] Ibid; Larry Keller, “Finnos’ lawyers criticize police as trial opens”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. March 14^th, 1990. Page 9B; David Uhler, “Experience failed ex-officer held in plot”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. August 12^th, 1989. Page 14A.

[21] David Uhler, “Experience failed ex-officer held in plot”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. August 12^th, 1989. Page 14A.

[22] David Uhler, “Bail denied for 2 held in extortion”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. August 16^th, 1989. Page 10B.

[23] David Uhler, “Ex-sheriff candidate, brother charged with racketeering”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. August 11^th, 1989. Page 8B.

[24] Michael Casey, “Videotape shows Finno oath-taking”. Hollywood Sun. March 16^th, 1990. Page 1A.

[25] Ibid.

[26] David Uhler, “Bail denied for 2 held in extortion”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. August 16^th, 1989. Page 10B.

[27] Ibid; Michael Casey, “Videotape shows Finno oath-taking”. Hollywood Sun. March 16^th, 1990. Page 1A.

[28] David Uhler, “Ex-sheriff candidate, brother charged with racketeering”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. August 11^th, 1989. Page 8B; Scott Higham, “After two years, Finno case limps back into court”. The Miami Herald. August 11^th, 1991. Page 1BR.

[29] Scott Higham, “After two years, Finno case limps back into court”. The Miami Herald. August 11^th, 1991. Page 1BR.

[30] Lisa Ocker, “Finno case informant faces fraud rap”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. August 7^th, 1992. Page 2B.

[31] Jon Burnstein, “Timeshare resale a ‘naked fraud’, feds say”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. September 4^th, 2011. Page 5A.

[32] Joseph Williams, “Racketeering cases dismissed against ex-police captain”. The Miami Herald. March 19^th, 1993. Page 1BR.

[33] Trevor Jensen, “Ex-police captain cleared of remaining state charges”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. June 15^th, 1994. Page 5B.

[34] “Ex-city official sentenced”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. February 7^th, 1995. Page 3B.

[35] Scott Higham, “After two years, Finno case limps back into court”. The Miami Herald. August 11^th, 1991. Page 5BR.