June 22, 2000

by Kitty Caparella
Daily News Staff Writer

The last real mafioso in Philadelphia has died.

Harry "the Hunchback" Riccobene, the legendary 4-foot-11 mobster who once wrestled a gun out of the hands of an assassin who shot him five times, died Monday of cancer in the state prison hospital in Dallas, Pa. He was 89.

Riccobene, known as "little Harry" until a cop dubbed him "Hunchback," was the youngest mafioso ever "made" at 16 in 1927. He remained true to the "old school" Mafia code to the end.

Asked by counselor William Dobson what he did outside prison, Riccobene replied he was "in sales."

How much did he make? "It varied," he answered.

Among his many ailments was a bladder tumor and osteosclerosis (unusual hardening of the bones). He told the Daily News he had so many ruptured discs in his back, his rib cage had fallen on his hips. He walked with great pain. His esophagus at one point compressed, and had to be stretched two or three times a year so he could eat.

About three months ago, he fell and broke his hip, which was replaced, said prison spokesman George Matthews. But he never left the prison hospital again. Doctors diagnosed him with cancer earlier this year, the reason for internal bleeding of the past year.

His attorney, Sam Stretton, petitioned to get him released on a special medical hardship. Riccobene was serving a life sentence for the May 13, 1982, murder of mob consigliere Frank Monte. Yesterday there was to be a hearing before Common Pleas Judge Anne E. Lazarus.

"It's sad," said Stretton. "He wanted to die at home."

Born on July 27, 1910 in Enna, in what he called the "belly-button of Sicily," Riccobene was the only child of Mario and Anna Riccobene. His father worked in West Virginia coal mines before his wife and 4-year-old son arrived in 1914.

His family moved to Philadelphia so his father could work as a stone mason in the building boom in Delaware County. His father adopted his brother's two children, orphaned by the 1918 flu epidemic. Harry left home in fifth grade to "work." At 15, his mother died.

Three years later, his father remarried and had eight more children. Harry remained close to his stepmother, Jennie, nine months older than he, until her 1996 death. "She was a good woman," he said.

In Sicily, his father joined the Mafia as a "Man of Honor." If his father committed crimes, he didn't tell his son. Harry didn't tell his father that mob boss Salvatore Sabella initiated him in 1927. His father found out and was "very proud," he said.

Yet, Riccobene would not allow any relatives to join the mob, including his half-brother, Mario. "I know what it was, and what it is," he said.

Considered "pretty smart" and a "risk-taker" by the mob, Riccobene diversified in the criminal world before it became fashionable "because of the competition."

He was in it all. Gambling, loansharking, bootlegging, stock thefts, hijacking, bookmaking, drug trafficking. He even had legitimate businesses - trash hauling, ticket agencies, jukeboxes and cigarette vending. Considered tight with a buck, he downplayed his wealth. "I'm not as wealthy as they think I am," he said.

Dubbed a "career criminal, a professional hoodlum and racketeer" in 1971, Riccobene was described as "beyond rehabilitation" by Richard Briggs of the U.S. Organized Crime Strike Force. "He is never going to reform."

Always independent, he learned from the best gangsters of each era, especially in Meyer Lansky's financial empire. He cut his teeth on numbers under the infamous Jewish mobster, Harry "Nig Rosen" Stromberg. He sold booze through the biggest bootlegger of Prohibition, Max "Boo Boo" Huff. In the 1960s, he did business with Harold Konigsberg, one of the nation's biggest loansharks.

His specialty remained drug trafficking. His narcotics arrests date back to 1932. Everyone wanted a piece of him, from the corrupt "Little Mob" within the police department, to the infamous Capt. Clarence Ferguson in the 1950s, to the FBI in the late 1970s when he was a kingpin in the meth business with the Pagan Motorcycle Club, which he denied. Yet he refused to take drugs himself, even painkillers during his excruciatingly painful final years.

"They're addictive," he said. "If two months from now, I stop, I'll have another problem," addiction. Always a soldier - with status - each successive mob boss named him to his inner circle and assigned him members of other crews - until 1981.

Mobsters often sought his advice. On Nov. 4, 1977 inside the Tyrone DiNittis talent agency, then mob associates Phillip Testa, Frank "Chickie" Narducci Sr. and Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo asked Harry about how a new consigliere would be chosen.

The FBI wiretap, considered a "classic," captured mobsters talking about La Cosa Nostra and its transition of power for the first time. Riccobene said he had "no respect" for Scarfo, after he stabbed a sailor, Joseph Dugan, for no reason inside the Oregon Diner in 1963.

"Not only didn't I respect him," said Riccobene, "but I didn't approve of him" when he became mob boss in 1981.

The two despised one another. Their hit lists split the mob. Scarfo even tried to get Harry's half-brother, Mario, to set him up. Mario told Harry about the plot, which led to the Riccobene wars from 1982 to 1984.

Several attempts were made on Harry's life. "I never felt safe until I came to jail," he said.

On June 8, 1982, the 72 year-old mobster was seated in a phone booth talking to his 22 year-old girlfriend, when the beefy 5-foot-10 Wayne Grande jogged up to the booth and shot Riccobene five times. Riccobene, tough as a bull, charged out of the booth, wrested the gun out of his assassin's hand before he collapsed. Grande fled.

"I put Grande's photo on his bed so when he awoke, he would see it," recalled Frank Friel, a former mob expert with the Police Department, last night. "I told him how brave he was. . .to find the gun and still not use it."

Harry's response: "He was done with it. It was empty."

At another assassination attempt on Aug. 21, 1982, gunmen shot up Riccobene's car, missing him, as he waited in it for his girlfriend. Friel located him at home and asked him about it. Harry told him his head was cut coming in the door. His car? "Probably neighborhood vandals."

Law enforcement was flabbergasted when Riccobene testified in his own defense in the Monte killing. Under cross-examination by prosecutor Arnold Gordon, Harry admitted he went to New York. The government thought he was seeking permission to kill Scarfo. But Riccobene said he wanted to know if Scarfo got permission to kill him.

"Usually when the boss or a member of the family wants to kill somebody, he has to get permission. My reaction was to get in touch with the commission and find out if there was approval," he added. "There wasn't."

Riccobene felt betrayed when his closest associates, Joseph Pedulla, whom he regarded as a son, Victor DeLuca and others testified against him. "They were weak, or they wanted to get out of jail," he said.

Later, DeLuca had a tracheotomy to remove his cancerous voice box. Riccobene said he sent him a message:

"You should have lost it a long time ago."

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