Loved. Husband, Son, and loved and respected by friends and family. A real laid back man who never tried to be a tough guy. A man of respect.
Papa, along with his partners were actually the top importers of narcotics and heroin into the US through NYC in the 1960's & 1970's. His partners included Virgil Alessi, Anthony Loria and many mafia and underworld figures. His operations supplied moat of the heroin distributed in the United States during that time and up until his arrest and conviction in 1972.
He also masterminded the French Connection Scandal where 400 pounds of raw heroin was stolen from the NYPD property room and was replaced with flour and baking soda. The agents only noticed when there were little bugs in the bags, which the heroin would kill. By the time the scam was uncovered, 90 million dollars (in 1972) of the heroin from the infamous French Connection was already gone.
A young law prosecutor by the name of Rudy Guliani took interest in this and started making his bones by work8ng on thia case.
Papa, along with his partners Anthony Loria, Virgil Aleaai, Anthony Passero and the boss of the Luchesse Mafia Crime Family, Carmine Tramunti were all indicted and sent to prison. Although Papa. wae highly known as the one behind the theift of the heroin from having many inside men on the NYPD who made access to steal the drugs, by an officer Nunziatta, , none of the agencies or law departments are exactly sure how the scam worked, who all were involved and how high the corruption went up the ranks in the NYPD - although Papas Crew consisting of Loria, Alessi , Passaro and others were the culprits.
Papa went to serve his 20 year sentence in Atlanta Ferderal Prison. In 1977, he was stabbed by a cohort of inmates and left for dead. A fellow inmate, Herbie Sperling who was also a life time gangster was said to have set up and planned the assassination on orders from Mafia Columbo Family boss, Carmine "The Snake" Persico thinking that Papa might talk due to improper and illegal leaks from the US Attorneys office.
Papa was just one of the bodies that started to line up in the morgue after the operation was uncovered. Tommy Eboli, boss of the country's top La Costa Nostra crime family. The thought is that behind the scenes, Eboli borrowed 4 million dollars from Carlo Gambino to front a lot of the operation. When the Feds started breaking this borgata up they found over $1 million dollars in cash buried in the backyard of a Luchesse Member, Louis Cirillos' backyard.
When officer's arrested Vinnie Papa and Anthony Passero they had over $900K in the trunk in cash. That money could never be paid back, thus Eboli was murdered -- regardless that both Papa and Passero both said they had no idea how that money got in their trunk.
So basically, just like in Goodfellas or Casino, the bosses started whacking out any one who could bring them heat. Tommy Eboli got whacked, Detective Joe Nunziatta from the NYPD, whose badge number was on the slips that checked out and returned all that evidence, supposedly taking to court proceedings and returning it back. Although Detective Nunziatta denied any of these allegations and even had solid alibies, and his name was spelt wrong and his badge number was also wrong on many of the tines the drugs were taken from the property room. And they very day he was to appear in court for these allegations, he was found dead of an apparent suicide. It was under very suspicious circumstance.
So while they pinched Papa and Crew, and were quite sure that he was the mastermind behind of the operation, they never charged anyone with the crime of stealing 400lbs and over $100 million of narcotics right from under their own noses. The largest theft and heist in American history was this! And no one ever was officially charged or held responsible for the heist.
**In an intereting note, many years later, Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, boss of the Luchesse Mafia family, who was given a thousand years in Florence Lockdown, actually offered all of the information to the feds on all the Whos/Wheres/Whens/Hows, of what exactly happened., they "weren't interested...Obviously there are more things some people would like to bury and forget about - ON BOTH SIDES OF THE LAW!!
And this might explain why Papa was assassinated. During all the indictments and investigations, of course they wanted names. Papa was no rat. He was a man of honor in their world when at the time honor meant something. He would do a thousand years rather than rat out his people. But he did say he would give them the crooked cops who were on the inside taking bribes and all sorts of stuff unimaginable today! He had no loyalty to them...but give up his own people? Never!
So when sealed and confidential documents showing Papa was willing to give up the dirty cops, even though it's against the law to leak this information and went against the word and promises of a very young new ADA, Rudy Giuliani that the information was to be sealed. Well, in turn, this really only just signed Papas death sentence. When word got out, that was the last chapter in Vinnie Papa's life.
So with a case that has so many unsolved mysteries. and really no official answers has been left to fade away with the passing of time. They could've solved what exactly happened and made an official investigation, but in truth, they really aren't interested in knowing who was involved, on both sides, and its better left as a blemish on NYPD corruption and the heroin that American's just love to consume. Actually, the men who stole The French Connection, is a better and more intriguing story than The French Connection itself. And yet no big movie. No Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci...
Vinny Papa was truly a enigma. A soft spoken unassuming man from an ordinary house in Astoria was in charge of distributing heroin for all of NYC/Long Island/ basically from Maine to Miami.
He denied it until his last day. It was never proven and he went to jail on all sorts of separate tax issues and conspiracy charges. But never for masterminding the theft off all that heroin from the NYPD property room! That case is still officially not solved.
But I find it most disturbing and actually quite cringe that while Poppeye Doyle an Officer Frank King and a whole slew of them went out and wrote scripts about the occurrence, and went on to live long lives with a NYCPD pension and enjoyed their families, Papa was shanked and led to bleed out on a dirty jail yard concrete floor.
And it's because he knew he was busted and would take his tine like a man. But why is it fair that all those cooked cops get away clean and free? I will NEVER give anyone the details of what my partners may have done, but Ill give you the cops! Like it should be, you take care of them and clean your ship up just like the mafia member's will take care of their own as well....Remember Tommy Eboli??
A tragic story really. .But if anyone REALLY KNOWS ANYTHING and that person is a real guy with any street cred, then they know that years ago in the late 60"s and 70's, Vinnie Papa was the main man who even had the respect and fear of many high ranking skippers and family bosses. They all knew Vinnie Papa and his crew were the real deal. Kingpin Status for sure! Maybe that's why he now lays in everlasting peace on what is called "Boot Hill", in St. Johns Cemetery in Queens, NY. Just a small walk away from other such notables as John Gotti, Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino, and other mafia Hall of Famers.
*****A little true tidbit. Even though you were able to walk right by Papas house and you would never assume anything whatsoever about who lives there, it was quite a different story on the inside where it was furnished in Marble and the moat expensive surroundings one could imagine...
Vinny Papa.....A Legend!!!!
Anyone who knew Papa said he was a quiet unassuming Car Service Dispatcher. He lived on a regular Archie Bunker type of house in Astoria, Queens...He wasn't flashy, didn't drive a new car or dress in fancy suits or wear jewelry. He was fondly nicknamed "The Old Man" who could be found at Ditmars Car Service or The Astoria Colts Social Club reading the paper and having his coffee.
But Papa was one of the most prolific and successful narcotics Kingpins in the history of the USA. He was feared by those who tried to mess with his operation and had the utmost respect from some of the biggest Mafia bosses of all time - including Carlo Gambino who he was particularly close to.
Remember, these were the day's of NYPD corruption, the days of Serpico.
Daniel Pinna 
