Posted by ChasinDatPaper on September 14, 2009 at 10:00pm
NY Daily News Reports
HOUSTON - The guy named Vinny with the Vandyke and Brooklyn accent looked out of place in the leafy Texas neighborhood of gated mansions.
That's because this Vinny was Vincent Palermo - onetime Mafia star turned FBI informant - a guy who managed to vanish from the world of scungilli and Sinatra to recreate himself 1,400 miles away in the land of BBQ and the Texas two-step.
Palermo, with a new name, lives under a cloak created by the feds after testifying against the DeCavalcante clan, the Jersey-based Mafia family whose members believe they inspired "The Sopranos" TV show.
Of course, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Before he admitted taking part in four murders, extortion and a host of crimes, Palermo operated Wiggles, a strip club in Forest Hills, Queens.
The club was a kind of one-stop shop for drugs and prostitution, and then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani made it Public Enemy No. 1 in his drive to shut down sex clubs.
Today, Palermo controls the Penthouse Club and All-Star Men's Club in Houston - strip joints city officials say are hotbeds of prostitution and drugs.
Most of Palermo's Texas neighbors will learn his true identity today when his face and identity will be revealed on a local TV station, KPRC. At that moment, he will face a new reality - should he and his family disappear. Again.
Palermo's transformation began in 1999, after an FBI takedown of the DeCavalcantes.
He started out legit, working at the Fulton Fish Market in Manhattan, where he earned the nickname Vinny Ocean. By the mid-1960s, he was married to the mob, choosing a niece of the boss, Simone (Sam the Plumber) DeCavalcante, as his bride.
Before rising to acting boss, he made his name by eliminating suspected informant Fred Weiss as a favor for the late Gambino boss, John Gotti.
On Sept. 11, 1989, Palermo and another gangster walked up to Weiss on a Staten Island street and fired. Weiss was shot twice in the face; Gotti was delighted.
After his 1999 arrest, Palermo hired prominent criminal lawyer Gregory O'Connell, a former prosecutor. He quickly turned informant.
His testimony helped decimate the DeCavalcante family, New Jersey's only homegrown organized crime family. The entire hierarchy is now behind bars or cooperating with the FBI.
After pleading guilty in a sealed courtroom on Oct. 20, 2000, he grew a Vandyke beard. He wore sunglasses while testifying. His cooperation inspired several family gangsters to plead guilty.
He forgot to tell the feds he gave his kids $1.1 million, a lapse that earned him jail time. He agreed to pay $2 million in restitution and keep his nose clean. Soon - with a nod from the feds - he was released.
He and his family were allowed to sell their $2 million stucco mansion in Island Park, L.I., and enter the witness protection program with new names and Social Security numbers. They disappeared into America.
In 2002, Palermo surfaced in Houston with a new name.
The next year, he bought a $875,000 gated mansion complete with fountain and statues in the front yard. He followed up with several properties that became the Penthouse and All-Star Men's Clubs, a Mexican restaurant and a car wash - all next to one another in a gritty section of Houston.
In an interview outside his home, Palermo told the Daily News his son Vincent Jr. runs the clubs. He admitted owning the property and collecting rent.
"He pays me rent. That's how I get income," he said of his son, listed as sole owner of Herewearegain Inc., which owns the clubs.
Before July 2008, his wife, Debra, was listed as sole owner, though Palermo lists himself as company president in a 2007 donation to the Republican Party.
The City of Houston, using Palermo's new name, insists he controls the Penthouse Club. In court papers, it says the evidence "leaves no doubt that the Penthouse Club is controlled and operated by Vincent (Palermo) Sr."
In a sealed court hearing, a state investigator used an old photo to identify Palermo as the man who runs the business that controls the club.
Recordings made by a cooperating informant named Ralphie back in 1998 make clear Palermo has long wanted to run a Penthouse strip club.
In one April 1998 conversation, Palermo boasted of his negotiations with Penthouse founder Bob Guccione to open a club.
"He bought a gentleman's club. I said, but you know what? I said you know, we wanted to do one in the city. The first one. Penthouse Live."
Palermo formed a corporation to market Penthouse lingerie and discussed opening a Penthouse club in Russia.
In 2002, Herewearegain Inc. got a liquor license for a Houston strip club named Caligula XXI, renaming it Penthouse Club in 2005. The club repeatedly made headlines in Houston for all the wrong reasons.
From Jan. 5, 2006, through Aug. 8, 2007, Houston police launched seven stings that produced evidence of 10 prostitution offers and 10 drug sales. Cops reported strippers offering to perform sex acts inside a "Champagne Room."
The club was also repeatedly cited for violations of no-touch rules and regulations barring dancers from coming within 3-feet of customers. A neighbor reported being solicited outside the club on his way home.
After Houston began targeting Penthouse, the club claimed it wasn't a strip club because dancers covered their nipples with latex or body paint. Club managers admitted to occasional "wardrobe malfunctions," but insisted Penthouse Houston was really a "bikini club."
The city moved to shut Penthouse because it violated the law barring "sexually oriented businesses" from within 1,500 feet of schools and residential properties. The club was forced to shut for a year in September 2008.
Across the street is the All-Star Men's Club, also operated by Herewearegain Inc., in a building Palermo owns. In May, nine club employees were arrested on prostitution and drug charges in yet another police raid.
He refused to talk about how he acquired the properties, referring The News to his lawyer, who also declined to comment.
A year after the city shut it down, Penthouse Houston intends to reopen Sept. 17, again as a "bikini bar."
In a brief interview outside his home, Palermo looked unchanged and unfazed. His hair had a touch more silver, but his accent was pure Brooklyn.
He seemed entirely at ease, walking with a slight swagger and claiming that many Houstonians know who he is due to an A&E special on the DeCavalcante crime family.
"Everybody knows who I am," he said. "It was on A&E."
Read more…
}