If you thought Dean Martin was the only Italian cowboy then read on my friends.
Seventy-two years ago today New Yorkers were reading about the capture of the “East’s Most Vicious Bank Bandit” Peter “Cowboy” Colavecchio. What makes the anniversary special is that Colavecchio boasted that he would never be taken alive. However once surrounded by a handful of well armed G-Men at Second Ave and 29th Street he began to sing a different tune (apparently one way or another all Italian cowboys sing) Yes, and the new cantata [That’s right, I said cantata] was titled, “I’ll tell everything if you don’t hurt me.”
And tell everything Colavecchio did. Cowboy and a pal, Guido D’Allesandro (possibly known as Hoss) who was arrested earlier, knocked over a number of New Jersey banks from 1935-1937. Cowboy admitted to the jobs and just to show the Feds what a good guy he was took them to an apartment and showed them the gang's arsenal which consisted of a Thompson machine-gun, a few sawed off shotguns, rifles, tear gas gun, and a .45 with an elongated clip that held thirty shots.
The other gang members Louis Scotti, Sam Curcio, Dan Guida, Tony Cutro (also known as the Four Seasons or the Belmonts depending on your musical taste) were subsequently picked up along with another guy named Dan Bloom. How Bloom got in with them who knows, maybe his mother was Italian.
"He must have done something. They don't kill you for nothing." - Chicago Gangster Ted Newberry. Rubbed out January 7, 1933
1 comment:
I think Bloom was originally hired by Sergio Leone to dub the gang's dialog into English.
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