Name Tony Rampino | ||
 | ||
Died December 20, 2010, New Hartford | ||
"Tony Roach" Rampino | The Heroin Addicted Killer For John Gotti
Anthony J. Rampino (c. 1939 Ozone Park, Queens – 20 December 2010, St.Luke Hospital, New Hartford, NY), also known as "Tony Roach", was a Gambino crime family mobster who was involved in truck hijacking and drug trafficking.
Contents
- Tony Roach Rampino The Heroin Addicted Killer For John Gotti
- Biography
- Drug bust and arrest
- Death
- References
Biography
He earned the nickname "Tony Roach" or simply "Roach" because of his vague physical resemblance to the insect, the cockroach, the name assumed a double meaning not too long afterward when Rampino started smoking copious amounts of marijuana. He was involved in drug trafficking. He became a close friend of John Gotti, Angelo Ruggiero, Nicholas Corozzo , Leonard DiMaria and Pavle Stanimirovic. Anthony's passion was stickball and being a successful thief. He was a cadaverous looking man with huge hands and long arms that seemed to reach down past his knees, and an odd rubbery-looking face. He liked to contort his face into all kinds of horrible grimaces in front of a mirror, years of practice allowed him, at a second's notice, to shape his face into something like The Phantom of the Opera. He firmly believed that such faces would frighten any enemy.
He had been troubled with a severe heroin addiction in the 1960s which was well known among his criminal associates but had successfully kicked the drug habit by 1979. Former friend Sammy Gravano later said, "I was all around amongst us that people with John were heavy, heavy in drugs, personally I don't believe John ever did it himself. But he had to know what was going on. I mean, there's Genie (Gene Gotti), his own brother, Angelo Ruggiero, who he grew up with - the other guys with him - John Carneglia, Edward Lino Tony Roach (Anthony Rampino), who not only had a reputation for drugs but was an ex-junkie." Anthony and Wilfred Johnson served as John Gotti's chief loan collectors for the crew.
Drug bust and arrest
On June 28, 1987 he was arrested for selling $30,000 worth of heroin to an undercover police officer in Ozone Park, Queens. He received a fifteen-year sentence in a federal prison for the criminal sale of a controlled substance in the first degree, a charge that typically carries a sentencing range from fifteen years to life imprisonment. His bail was established at $150,000.
Death
Rampino was admitted to St. Luke's Hospital in New Hartford on Dec. 4., 2010. The colorful mob character had been suffering from heart and respiratory ailments, according to court filings. He died on 12/20/2010 in the same hospital.
