April 23, 2025 • 30 mins
Today we delve into the story of Genovese associate John "JR" Rubeo. Rubeo's father was connected to the Mob and he followed in his fathers footsteps. Eventually he was arrested for selling drugs and flipped to the side of the government where he agreed to wear a wire. His sights were set on members of the Genovese Crime Family as well as alleged Philly mobster Joey Merlino.
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Jeff Nadu is an American Mafia and organized crime researcher, podcaster and content creator. He has worked at Barstool Sports and was hired personally by Dave Portnoy. His podcast "The Sitdown" with Jeff Nadu has put out hundreds of biographies on various mobsters, gangsters and criminals. He's also interviewed personally mobsters like Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, Dom Cicale, Anthony Ruggiano Jr, Gene Borrello and others as well as US Prosecutor John Gleeson and FBI Agents Joaquin "Jack" Garcia and Michael Campi. He has been personally endorsed by former Gambino mob captain Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo, esteemed author RJ Roger, and former Colombo Crime Family captain Michael Franzese.
DISCLAIMER: My videos and podcasts are meant for entertainment and educational use. All material found in my videos reflect this use. ANY opinions and or statements of any guest is merely he/her's opinion.
If you enjoy our show, please hit the like button and make sure if you're new around here you subscribe as well!
GO CHECK OUT PROPHET X AND GET INVOLVED- www.prophetx.co
USE REFERRAL CODE- JEFFNADU
Jeff Nadu is an American Mafia and organized crime researcher, podcaster and content creator. He has worked at Barstool Sports and was hired personally by Dave Portnoy. His podcast "The Sitdown" with Jeff Nadu has put out hundreds of biographies on various mobsters, gangsters and criminals. He's also interviewed personally mobsters like Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, Dom Cicale, Anthony Ruggiano Jr, Gene Borrello and others as well as US Prosecutor John Gleeson and FBI Agents Joaquin "Jack" Garcia and Michael Campi. He has been personally endorsed by former Gambino mob captain Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo, esteemed author RJ Roger, and former Colombo Crime Family captain Michael Franzese.
DISCLAIMER: My videos and podcasts are meant for entertainment and educational use. All material found in my videos reflect this use. ANY opinions and or statements of any guest is merely he/her's opinion.
If you enjoy our show, please hit the like button and make sure if you're new around here you subscribe as well!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to The sit Down, a mafia history podcast. Here's
your host, Jeff Nado. What's up everybody, and welcome in
to another edition. I'll the sit Down as always. If
you enjoy this audio podcast, please make sure you leave
us a DCAD review at a five star rating. Also,
(00:33):
please make sure you tell your friends. We love when
we get new people, and it's the greatest way to
share this show. What's up, everybody? Welcome in. I am
your host, Jeff nay Doo, and this is episode two
hundred and seven of The sit Down. I hope everybody
had a great Easter Sunday. Easter always a good holiday,
you know, basically, you know, anytime you don't need to
(00:54):
buy gifts for people, it's a good one. So help
everybody had a good time with their family and whoever
you were with. And yeah, you know, now it's kind
of finishing out the last couple of days of April,
and uh, you know, Summer's don't I would say what
month or so away. That's kind of when the end
of summer Memorial or end of May is Memorial Day.
(01:14):
It's kind of when when summer unofficially starts. You know,
I was thinking the other day like, and it's already
been four months since Christmas. In four months from now,
it'll be the end of summer. It's just quick. It's
just crazy how time flies, man, you know, I know
I talk about that a lot sometimes on the show,
but it really is amazing, you know, as you get older,
how quickly time goes. You know. I'm coming up on
(01:36):
my twenty year high school graduate in high school twenty
twenty seven. I'm not there yet, but I'm getting closer.
But let's get to the show today. I got a
good one. We're gonna talk about a guy we've never
talked about before, a guy who was a cooperator over
the last ten years. We're gonna talk about his story
(01:56):
coming up in Yonkers, making the mantle of becoming a
mobster just like his father. And while he wasn't made Jr.
Rubio I definitely made a name for himself and the
mob connected to the Genevies crime family. He would then
attempt after being arrested, he flipped, decided to cooperate and
the Feds had a big fish for him to try
(02:17):
to reel in, and it didn't go so well for
Jed Rubio. And it really was a black Eye in
terms of the FBI as far as that's concerned. But
before we get into that today, I do want to
talk a little bit about some news that's come out.
And I got to put my hand up on this one.
You know, since I started this show back in twenty
twenty one, my goal is always to try to not
(02:38):
only talk about the Mafia from a current and historical standpoint,
but also when I get news to let you all
know about that. And I was quite wrong on this.
I was straight up wrong, and I did something that
I'm pretty disgusted with. About a month ago, I was
contacted by an individual who is connected to the federal
(02:59):
prison system. He's not an inmate, but he's connected to
the federal prison system. I had talked to this guy
before and he had some good information. He had contacted
me and said that he had heard over the last
day or two that former Genevieve Consiglieri Bobby Manna had
passed away at the age of ninety five. And it's
common knowledge that Bobby Manna has a myriad of health problems.
(03:20):
He's got cancer, he's got about forty other medical conditions.
I was in belief just due to the fact of
who I had heard it from, and I'd kind of
known that for a while. The Federal prison database does
an update, and I probably should have been a little
bit smarter with putting it out. But I was straight
up wrong on this. And we know that because over
(03:42):
the last seventy two hours, Bobby Manna has been given
compassionate release and according to the judge in this case,
he renders Manna a dying prisoner in his custodians' home.
So essentially what that means is Manna, who served about
thirty six years and is of an eighty year sentence,
he is now under twenty four hour care from a guardian.
(04:07):
When I understand that is in New Jersey. Uh, he
will be under constant twenty four hour supervision and under
house arrest. So basically, he can't leave his home and
he is going to die in a in a bed
in a home that that he wants to live in,
which all in all is a pretty good end. You
can either die in a federal medical center up in Rochester, Minnesota,
(04:31):
or you know, die close to family and friends in
your your own and on bed. Per se. You know,
I feel kind of you know, I'm gonna be honest
and feel kind of disgusted that that this happened. You know,
it's obviously not what I want. This is not easy
sometimes to do because we're dealing with prison systems that
(04:53):
don't always update. But I should have been better with
you know, with with with double checking and getting tripped
sources on this, But did want to provide that didn't
want to kind of put the hand up on this one.
And yeah, so all right, guys, before we get into
the biography today, I do want to announce something pretty special.
(05:16):
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and get involved. Today, let's get to our biography. Today,
(07:47):
we're gonna talk about Genevie's associate and eventual government informant,
John Rubio on the sit Down. John Rubio was born
in what I would find as January nineteen seventy six,
and he would grow up in Yonkers, New York, or
near Yonkers, New York. Rubio's father, John Rubio Senior, was
(08:12):
said to be a longtime associate of the Genevies crime family,
and according to Rubio himself, his father was big and
not only gambling, but the numbers racket, and I would
find that it seemed like the Rubios lived quite well.
They lived in a very posh area on a country club.
At one point will learn that Rubio went to private
(08:34):
school throughout his life. And when looking into Rubio, you know,
generally when I talk about these people, there's very little
familial involvement in trying to make them better people. A
lot of the people their fathers are gangsters and they
want them to be gangsters too. It seems like Rubio's
father had no interest in him following in his footsteps,
(08:56):
but as any go father, he did what he did
to protect him and tried to either keep him out
of the life or if he were to get involved
in trouble, Rubio's father would try to help him. And
one thing I would find about Rubio is he was
a gambler and is a gambler his entire life. By
the age of fourteen, it was said that he inquired
a nearly two thousand dollars debt with a loan shark.
(09:19):
He wouldn't then have problems due to the fact that
that loan shark insisted a group of Albanians to collect
the debt. Rubio would go to his father and his
father would enlist an old pal, Patsy Parrello. Now, it
was said that Rubio's father and Parrello went way back
and they had been friends for years. Rubio Senior was
(09:40):
an associate under Parrello and essentially Parrello handled it. From
what we know about the FBI report, it would state
that the gangsters were looking to rough up Rubio Junior
and that's when the elder Rubio Senior brought Junior to
Pasquali's rigoletto to tell Patsy about it. Subsequently squashed threat
(10:02):
according to the FBI, and Prello, I guess liked what
he saw from the young Rubio and for the next
twenty years Rubio was around Parrello. The Rubio would eventually
graduate from Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle, New York. Now,
this diploma comes directly from mister Rubio's sentencing memorandum on Pacer,
(10:29):
which you know he tries to basically paint the story
that he was a good kid, and he was. It
seemed like his family, including his father, did everything they
could to keep him away from the life that his
father was involved in, but it never really seemed to work. Now,
upon graduating from high school where he was an honor student.
(10:50):
Even he was very smart, he had a GPA above
three point seven accluding according to school records. He would eventually, though,
go and work security upon leaving high school, but then
decided he wanted to go to college, and he did
exactly that. In his twenties. He would enroll at Mercy
(11:11):
College in Dobbs for New York, which is now known
as Mercy University. He would also, during his time Rubio
in college earn the Dean's List and graduate with a
degree in behavioral science in the two thousands. That said,
he still would not stay away from crime for whatever reason.
(11:32):
Mister Rubio always went and was involved in crime. Wanted
to be involved in crime, kind of probably could have
did a good thing with his life, had a pretty
high que from what I understand, why he wanted to
get involved with this life is beyond me. One thing
we also know about Rubio and that I found is
during his youth up through college, not only did he
(11:56):
play golf, but he was an accomplished bowler. Here be
seen with certain events that he participated in that he
was involved in, didn't make a whole lot of money
doing it, but it was said that he was a
quite accomplished bowler, and this is where he would also
decide to get involved with capers. He was regularly trying
to stick up bowling alleys. He was involved on robberies.
(12:19):
So he had this weird teetering between a normal upstanding
life involving going to college, but he also wanted to
be in the streets as well. Eventually, mister Rubio would
become an associate of the Geneviees crime family under Pascuale
Patsy Parello now Perello as well. In his crew, it
(12:40):
would include Buddy Torres, Ronald Ronnie the Beast, Mastro Vincenzo,
as well as a person called Anthony Tony mussels Vesano.
Now the crew was involved in everything from a card
games to illegal casinos, to book making and other illegal
(13:03):
and legal rackets. Now Parrello ran his operation allegedly out
of his restaurant on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, which
is called Pascuale Reguleto Restaurant, which from what I understand
is very good food. I will point out and early
on Rubio was a pretty decent earner. Not only was
he involved in a lot of the crimes that I
(13:24):
just talked about, but he was taking part in armed robberies,
he was selling narcotics, and at one point we would
find that it seemed like Perel even trusted him. At
one point, mister Parello would order not only Ronnie the Beast,
Master Vincenzo, but other members of his crew to assault
the panhandler outside of his restaurant who was bothering people. Eventually,
(13:49):
Master Vincenzo and CW One known as John Rubio would
catch up with this guy and beat him up. At
one Pointcenzo would tell another person called Anthony Zinzi, quote,
remember the old days in the neighborhood when we used
to play baseball, a ballgame like that was done, essentially
(14:13):
saying that they beat the panhandler up and we probably
won't see him anymore. We used a baseball bat on him.
And Rubio would even talk about this in an interview
that he did that I'm going to talk about down
the road. John Rubio was making hay and doing his thing.
He was making money and he was respected by people
in the genovies crime. Failing that said, he was selling narcotics,
(14:36):
which eventually twenty eleven would come to a head. He
was arrested by the DEA and hit with very serious
drug charges. Now, according to Rubio, he would state that
he was quote fasing twenty years and initially he would
stay quote he was fully ready to go to jail.
But by that point, Pirello, after hearing he was arrested,
(15:00):
essentially banished him from the Bronx and wouldn't allow him
anywhere near the crew because again Prelo felt that he
was Rubio hot with the law, which he was, he
had just been arrested, and wanted to keep him away. Now,
again Rubio would state initially that he planned to go
to jail, but like most of MOB informants, they would
(15:21):
then blame others, stating that presidentn't pay for anything, he
wouldn't assist him in anything, and he kind of just
got really annoyed and decided to cooperate. And over the
next five years, this was quite the tale. Rubio went
through wearing a wire on various people, including Genevi's people,
(15:43):
including Philadelphia people, and I'm gonna instruct some of the
really pathetic and downright low life behavior that Rubio would
be involved in over the course of the next several
years now, while cooperating and after making a deal with
the the FBI kind of realizes, you know, this guy's
around some pretty big people, including Patsi, Parello, Rooster Denfrio,
(16:07):
members of a Parello crew. Maybe he could get involved
with some bigger people. He then goes to the FBI.
Rubio in states that he wants to move to Florida.
And I think this is where the FBI starts in,
all right, go get Merlino, because we all know that
the main prize for the FBI over the last ten
years has been Joey Merlino. Rubio's approved to go to Florida,
(16:31):
and he does exactly that, settling near Miami in the
Boca Raton area. Now, I stated that, you know, again,
Rubio did get conversations that were pertinent, if you will,
that said, a lot of his behavior was absolutely apparent
over the time that he was an FBI in foremant.
(16:54):
One of the things though, that the government does involving
Rubio is they basically set up a dinner at Patsy's rigoletto,
where their goal was to get various mobsters, including several
seen in this photo, including on the far left, Genevieve's
captain Rooster Denofrio, as well as Joey Milino seen on
(17:14):
a phone in the photo. Now, the FEDS not only
you know, wire tapped and surveiled this, but they even
paid for Rubio to fly up from it from Boca
Ratan now an agent in the FBI known as Bill
and Zirillo would testify that the money for the party
(17:35):
was given directly to mob rat John Rubio, and it
was given to him to quote give the Parello as
a tribute. And also he was handed over cash from
Milino's airfare to the party. Quote. We gave Rubio five
k for the flight and transportation from Millino and his wife.
(17:59):
At one point during the questioning, Defenseler Eddie Jacobs asked
why the FEDS agreed to underwrite the exorbitant cost of
a cos and ulster Christmas party. We didn't want to
pay for it, but that was what Rubio needed, and
Zerrillo answered YoY said he was broke. The other twenty
k was one k per head for each gangster to eat,
(18:20):
drink and be married with their entourage. It was also
said that Melino would bring other people, including rising members
of the family defense attorney Jacobs, who in two thousand
and one helped Millino beat three murder Apps asked why
taxpayers footed the hefty bill from Merlino to attend. So basically,
the FBI, in normal FBI behavior, gives Ruby all this money,
(18:44):
they throw this lavish party, and I think initially it
probably helped their case. It's not that the FBI did,
I think initially anything wrong. They did what they normally do.
But it was Rubio's insane behavior that he would admit
to down the road. At one point, Rubio would state
that not only as an informant he was committing robberies,
(19:07):
he was gambling. He would also make it clear that
he quote didn't get along too well with the FBI,
and that he almost ruined the case by fucking up,
and that he could be a better criminal because he
was not being watched. We have to ask ourselves why
would the FBI not only do a deal with a
(19:27):
person like this, but allow this to happen while being
an FBI informant. He would also state Rubio that he
made approximately fifteen thousand dollars a month as an informant
and that he regularly didn't check in with the FBI.
He regularly deleted things that he was supposed to keep
(19:48):
and or send to the FBI. He was doing all
this while under the tutelage and the payroll of the FBI. Now,
Rubio would state that the money that he was getting
for and the FBI was something that went the bills,
which I'm not sure why that would matter. His lifestyle
was being funded by being an FBI informant, and we
(20:09):
would come to find out that he did other very
nefarious things, including factory resetting a phone and deleting evidence
off the phone. So the FBI has got some real
problems because the case that they're building is essentially being ruined. Now,
remember the champion of this indictment, the chief informant, was Rubio,
(20:32):
and you're now going to then have to put him
on the stand. At one point, the FBI had the
wool pulled over their eyes at Rubio, and his behavior
was that of a major scumbag at really every level.
We also found out that Rubio allegedly was involved with
domestic violence against his wife. There's been wiretaps played of
Rubio a threatening mentally unstable people over the phone while
(20:58):
being an FBI informant. And this is again some of
the very questionable people that these people are making deals with. Eventually,
though at least on the surface, maybe Rubio was getting
some work done. As we know. In twenty sixteen, forty
five mobsters were arrested in an East Coast mob bust.
(21:22):
It would gain national attention and was known as the
East Coast Enterprise. Now, before we get into some of
the trial stuff, I mean, quite honestly, Rubio's agreement should
have been ripped up. I mean straight up, I mean,
in no way should this guy have been put on
this stand because nothing he did was believable. He was
(21:43):
constantly involved in screwing up. And though Rubio should have
had his agreement ripped up, the obsession with the federal
government and certain mobsters precluded that they allowed his bizarre
and scumbag to continue because their goal was they wanted
(22:03):
to get people like Joey Milino and Patsy Pirello off
the street. Now, in that indictment where the East Coast
mob buss happened, some of the suspects arrested included Joey Molino,
Patsy Pirello, as well as Eugene Rooster Donophrio. Now, one
(22:25):
thing that happened during this investigation is Rubio went to
meet Danofrio with a member of the FBI who he
called a high school friend that was driving for him.
One thing we find about these new mobsters, which is
surprising because Donofrio is not young. He should have known better.
You just have this random guy pop up and you're
(22:48):
just crowing and talking about mob business. Definitely was a
lack of responsibility there from mister Donophrio. But you know,
there was a lot of damning evidence against people in
this case. But the biggest fish in this case, Joey Mollino,
had a real case on his hands because he knew
that some of the behavior that Parrello Rubio was involved
(23:10):
and may actually get him off. That said, the evidence
against people like Patsy Parello was pretty strong, and in
the end, most of the defendants in this case, in fact,
all of the defendants in this case, including Pirello and
Dino Frio, would plead guilty. One person decided to go
to trial, and for the FEDS, it was the one
(23:33):
they wanted most, Joey Melino. And that's the issue with
Rubio and his behavior here. They had a pretty strong
case against most of the people here, But for whatever reason,
Rubio completely screwed and e ft this case up. Now,
was it that he just really liked Merlino and he
was just trying to stave him in a way? I'm
(23:56):
going to discuss a phone call that I've had with Rubio.
This was about a year or two ago. I don't
even remember. He had gotten in touch with me through
someone else. We had talked. He had stated to me
at one point that Joey should thank me for what
I did. That's kind of what he said. Whether or
(24:17):
not I agree with that, which I can't say I agree.
The real people with egg on their face was the
FBI because they got taken to school by John Rubio. Now,
Millino would fight this case and ultimately had a pretty
good go of it due to the fact that Rubio's behavior,
including factory resetting a phone questionable overset by the FBI
(24:41):
and their chain of custody. This was a complete mess,
and Eddie Jacobs, the attorney for Joey Milino, completely took
Rubio and the FBI to school. In the end, it
all worked out for Joey Milino. A mistrial was declared
in his racketeering case in New York. Now down the road,
Merlino would have a bullshit charge of essentially gambling on
(25:06):
his telephone, and he pled and did a short time
in prison. That said, it could have been way worse
for Joey and Molina. I mean, you look at someone
like Parello. Prelo pled and got seven years. We also
know that if Joey would have pled, I mean, it
probably would have been far longer. I mean generally, when
Joey gets sentenced, they hit him with the longest and
(25:26):
even higher than the longest sentence in guidelines. Now, Rubio
again stated that he completely fucked the case up for
the federal government. But this would not end with John
Rubio just being sentenced to a ridiculous fifteen months in
prison and some supervisor release keep him on all the
(25:47):
things he did. He admittedly said he robbed people, he
was gambling, He was running book making networks during his
time as an FBI and format, which you're not supposed
to do. That said, like again, John Rubio was not
an FBI agent. FBI agents can do what they have
to do to kind of blend in. But Rubio was
an FBI informat like he's not been doing this sort
(26:10):
of thing. Rubio would get out of prison and then
in years after that, would appear on a show called
The Johnny and Jean Show with John Alight and Jen Burrello,
as well as a person called Felix Lavine who could
be seen on them far right. In that interview, which
is nearly an hour and a half, Rubio details all
(26:30):
of this, like basically gloating about the fact that he
factory reset his phone and did all this stuff and
railed against the mafia. He would also state on Instagram
in an official Instagram post on his account Official Underscore Jr. Rubio,
when badgered about why he went on this when he
(26:52):
knew he wasn't allowed due to the fact that when
you were on Supervisor release, you cannot associate with noan felons,
which in this case these two individuals on the far
left were known felons. Rubio would state in that post. Next,
I got permission from Probation to go on the show
and reported it before I went on with the quote felons. Also,
(27:14):
I reported to Probation when I came home that my
profession was a professional gambler and it was approved and
I submit my records on a monthly basis. Anyone is
more than welcome to check with him. That wasn't true, though.
Rubio was then excoriated by the judge in this case,
where he would tell him, quote, you want to make
(27:37):
a monkey out of the FBI or a monkey out
of the government, that's fine, but you're not going to
make a monkey out of me or this court. John
Rubio was hit with six months of home confinement and
given an additional two years of supervised release after that
little stunt. So in all of this, Rubio, who never
(28:01):
should have went into the life to begin with because
he was a smart guy, came from a good family
and though his father was connected, he had all the
ability to go do something else with his life. Just
because your father is a gangster doesn't mean you have
to be. Rubio decides to go in. He decides to
do some very depraved things, robbing people, hurting people, stealing
from people. He then gets arrested for selling poison, becomes
(28:24):
an informant, and over the course of five years, continues
to be an even bigger scum bag by doing things
that go against every single thing that one of these
people is supposed to be, but are we surprised In
the end, I've interviewed these types of people. I do
it because this is what this genre is. These are
(28:46):
people that have a history in this life, but some
of them can be absolute scumbags today. John Rubio is
forty nine years old. He does live in the western
part of the United States, his wife and children. It's
unclear what he does today. At one point he had
claimed on social media that he was a sports betting
(29:07):
handicapper and was giving picks to people. I'm unclear what
he does for a living now. I have talked to Ruby.
As I've stated, he's called me. I think in the end,
he kind of a lot of the time runs his mouth.
I've seen him in comments on my page. I've asked
him to come on the show and defend himself, which
(29:28):
he has declined multiple times. It seems like maybe he
learned his lesson from going on the Johnny and Jean Show.
In the end, he probably should have went a different
way with his life. As I said, John Rubio is
forty nine years old. I hope you enjoyed this video.
(29:50):
Make sure if you do, you hit that like button,
hit that super thanks icon and support our show underneath
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He's wrong. The sit Down
Welcome to The sit Down, a mafia history podcast. Here's
your host, Jeff Nado. What's up everybody, and welcome in
to another edition. I'll the sit Down as always. If
you enjoy this audio podcast, please make sure you leave
us a DCAD review at a five star rating. Also,
(00:33):
please make sure you tell your friends. We love when
we get new people, and it's the greatest way to
share this show. What's up, everybody? Welcome in. I am
your host, Jeff nay Doo, and this is episode two
hundred and seven of The sit Down. I hope everybody
had a great Easter Sunday. Easter always a good holiday,
you know, basically, you know, anytime you don't need to
(00:54):
buy gifts for people, it's a good one. So help
everybody had a good time with their family and whoever
you were with. And yeah, you know, now it's kind
of finishing out the last couple of days of April,
and uh, you know, Summer's don't I would say what
month or so away. That's kind of when the end
of summer Memorial or end of May is Memorial Day.
(01:14):
It's kind of when when summer unofficially starts. You know,
I was thinking the other day like, and it's already
been four months since Christmas. In four months from now,
it'll be the end of summer. It's just quick. It's
just crazy how time flies, man, you know, I know
I talk about that a lot sometimes on the show,
but it really is amazing, you know, as you get older,
how quickly time goes. You know. I'm coming up on
(01:36):
my twenty year high school graduate in high school twenty
twenty seven. I'm not there yet, but I'm getting closer.
But let's get to the show today. I got a
good one. We're gonna talk about a guy we've never
talked about before, a guy who was a cooperator over
the last ten years. We're gonna talk about his story
(01:56):
coming up in Yonkers, making the mantle of becoming a
mobster just like his father. And while he wasn't made Jr.
Rubio I definitely made a name for himself and the
mob connected to the Genevies crime family. He would then
attempt after being arrested, he flipped, decided to cooperate and
the Feds had a big fish for him to try
(02:17):
to reel in, and it didn't go so well for
Jed Rubio. And it really was a black Eye in
terms of the FBI as far as that's concerned. But
before we get into that today, I do want to
talk a little bit about some news that's come out.
And I got to put my hand up on this one.
You know, since I started this show back in twenty
twenty one, my goal is always to try to not
(02:38):
only talk about the Mafia from a current and historical standpoint,
but also when I get news to let you all
know about that. And I was quite wrong on this.
I was straight up wrong, and I did something that
I'm pretty disgusted with. About a month ago, I was
contacted by an individual who is connected to the federal
(02:59):
prison system. He's not an inmate, but he's connected to
the federal prison system. I had talked to this guy
before and he had some good information. He had contacted
me and said that he had heard over the last
day or two that former Genevieve Consiglieri Bobby Manna had
passed away at the age of ninety five. And it's
common knowledge that Bobby Manna has a myriad of health problems.
(03:20):
He's got cancer, he's got about forty other medical conditions.
I was in belief just due to the fact of
who I had heard it from, and I'd kind of
known that for a while. The Federal prison database does
an update, and I probably should have been a little
bit smarter with putting it out. But I was straight
up wrong on this. And we know that because over
(03:42):
the last seventy two hours, Bobby Manna has been given
compassionate release and according to the judge in this case,
he renders Manna a dying prisoner in his custodians' home.
So essentially what that means is Manna, who served about
thirty six years and is of an eighty year sentence,
he is now under twenty four hour care from a guardian.
(04:07):
When I understand that is in New Jersey. Uh, he
will be under constant twenty four hour supervision and under
house arrest. So basically, he can't leave his home and
he is going to die in a in a bed
in a home that that he wants to live in,
which all in all is a pretty good end. You
can either die in a federal medical center up in Rochester, Minnesota,
(04:31):
or you know, die close to family and friends in
your your own and on bed. Per se. You know,
I feel kind of you know, I'm gonna be honest
and feel kind of disgusted that that this happened. You know,
it's obviously not what I want. This is not easy
sometimes to do because we're dealing with prison systems that
(04:53):
don't always update. But I should have been better with
you know, with with with double checking and getting tripped
sources on this, But did want to provide that didn't
want to kind of put the hand up on this one.
And yeah, so all right, guys, before we get into
the biography today, I do want to announce something pretty special.
(05:16):
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X when you sign up. Use my code Jeff may Do,
and get involved. Today, let's get to our biography. Today,
(07:47):
we're gonna talk about Genevie's associate and eventual government informant,
John Rubio on the sit Down. John Rubio was born
in what I would find as January nineteen seventy six,
and he would grow up in Yonkers, New York, or
near Yonkers, New York. Rubio's father, John Rubio Senior, was
(08:12):
said to be a longtime associate of the Genevies crime family,
and according to Rubio himself, his father was big and
not only gambling, but the numbers racket, and I would
find that it seemed like the Rubios lived quite well.
They lived in a very posh area on a country club.
At one point will learn that Rubio went to private
(08:34):
school throughout his life. And when looking into Rubio, you know,
generally when I talk about these people, there's very little
familial involvement in trying to make them better people. A
lot of the people their fathers are gangsters and they
want them to be gangsters too. It seems like Rubio's
father had no interest in him following in his footsteps,
(08:56):
but as any go father, he did what he did
to protect him and tried to either keep him out
of the life or if he were to get involved
in trouble, Rubio's father would try to help him. And
one thing I would find about Rubio is he was
a gambler and is a gambler his entire life. By
the age of fourteen, it was said that he inquired
a nearly two thousand dollars debt with a loan shark.
(09:19):
He wouldn't then have problems due to the fact that
that loan shark insisted a group of Albanians to collect
the debt. Rubio would go to his father and his
father would enlist an old pal, Patsy Parrello. Now, it
was said that Rubio's father and Parrello went way back
and they had been friends for years. Rubio Senior was
(09:40):
an associate under Parrello and essentially Parrello handled it. From
what we know about the FBI report, it would state
that the gangsters were looking to rough up Rubio Junior
and that's when the elder Rubio Senior brought Junior to
Pasquali's rigoletto to tell Patsy about it. Subsequently squashed threat
(10:02):
according to the FBI, and Prello, I guess liked what
he saw from the young Rubio and for the next
twenty years Rubio was around Parrello. The Rubio would eventually
graduate from Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle, New York. Now,
this diploma comes directly from mister Rubio's sentencing memorandum on Pacer,
(10:29):
which you know he tries to basically paint the story
that he was a good kid, and he was. It
seemed like his family, including his father, did everything they
could to keep him away from the life that his
father was involved in, but it never really seemed to work. Now,
upon graduating from high school where he was an honor student.
(10:50):
Even he was very smart, he had a GPA above
three point seven accluding according to school records. He would eventually, though,
go and work security upon leaving high school, but then
decided he wanted to go to college, and he did
exactly that. In his twenties. He would enroll at Mercy
(11:11):
College in Dobbs for New York, which is now known
as Mercy University. He would also, during his time Rubio
in college earn the Dean's List and graduate with a
degree in behavioral science in the two thousands. That said,
he still would not stay away from crime for whatever reason.
(11:32):
Mister Rubio always went and was involved in crime. Wanted
to be involved in crime, kind of probably could have
did a good thing with his life, had a pretty
high que from what I understand, why he wanted to
get involved with this life is beyond me. One thing
we also know about Rubio and that I found is
during his youth up through college, not only did he
(11:56):
play golf, but he was an accomplished bowler. Here be
seen with certain events that he participated in that he
was involved in, didn't make a whole lot of money
doing it, but it was said that he was a
quite accomplished bowler, and this is where he would also
decide to get involved with capers. He was regularly trying
to stick up bowling alleys. He was involved on robberies.
(12:19):
So he had this weird teetering between a normal upstanding
life involving going to college, but he also wanted to
be in the streets as well. Eventually, mister Rubio would
become an associate of the Geneviees crime family under Pascuale
Patsy Parello now Perello as well. In his crew, it
(12:40):
would include Buddy Torres, Ronald Ronnie the Beast, Mastro Vincenzo,
as well as a person called Anthony Tony mussels Vesano.
Now the crew was involved in everything from a card
games to illegal casinos, to book making and other illegal
(13:03):
and legal rackets. Now Parrello ran his operation allegedly out
of his restaurant on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, which
is called Pascuale Reguleto Restaurant, which from what I understand
is very good food. I will point out and early
on Rubio was a pretty decent earner. Not only was
he involved in a lot of the crimes that I
(13:24):
just talked about, but he was taking part in armed robberies,
he was selling narcotics, and at one point we would
find that it seemed like Perel even trusted him. At
one point, mister Parello would order not only Ronnie the Beast,
Master Vincenzo, but other members of his crew to assault
the panhandler outside of his restaurant who was bothering people. Eventually,
(13:49):
Master Vincenzo and CW One known as John Rubio would
catch up with this guy and beat him up. At
one Pointcenzo would tell another person called Anthony Zinzi, quote,
remember the old days in the neighborhood when we used
to play baseball, a ballgame like that was done, essentially
(14:13):
saying that they beat the panhandler up and we probably
won't see him anymore. We used a baseball bat on him.
And Rubio would even talk about this in an interview
that he did that I'm going to talk about down
the road. John Rubio was making hay and doing his thing.
He was making money and he was respected by people
in the genovies crime. Failing that said, he was selling narcotics,
(14:36):
which eventually twenty eleven would come to a head. He
was arrested by the DEA and hit with very serious
drug charges. Now, according to Rubio, he would state that
he was quote fasing twenty years and initially he would
stay quote he was fully ready to go to jail.
But by that point, Pirello, after hearing he was arrested,
(15:00):
essentially banished him from the Bronx and wouldn't allow him
anywhere near the crew because again Prelo felt that he
was Rubio hot with the law, which he was, he
had just been arrested, and wanted to keep him away. Now,
again Rubio would state initially that he planned to go
to jail, but like most of MOB informants, they would
(15:21):
then blame others, stating that presidentn't pay for anything, he
wouldn't assist him in anything, and he kind of just
got really annoyed and decided to cooperate. And over the
next five years, this was quite the tale. Rubio went
through wearing a wire on various people, including Genevi's people,
(15:43):
including Philadelphia people, and I'm gonna instruct some of the
really pathetic and downright low life behavior that Rubio would
be involved in over the course of the next several
years now, while cooperating and after making a deal with
the the FBI kind of realizes, you know, this guy's
around some pretty big people, including Patsi, Parello, Rooster Denfrio,
(16:07):
members of a Parello crew. Maybe he could get involved
with some bigger people. He then goes to the FBI.
Rubio in states that he wants to move to Florida.
And I think this is where the FBI starts in,
all right, go get Merlino, because we all know that
the main prize for the FBI over the last ten
years has been Joey Merlino. Rubio's approved to go to Florida,
(16:31):
and he does exactly that, settling near Miami in the
Boca Raton area. Now, I stated that, you know, again,
Rubio did get conversations that were pertinent, if you will,
that said, a lot of his behavior was absolutely apparent
over the time that he was an FBI in foremant.
(16:54):
One of the things though, that the government does involving
Rubio is they basically set up a dinner at Patsy's rigoletto,
where their goal was to get various mobsters, including several
seen in this photo, including on the far left, Genevieve's
captain Rooster Denofrio, as well as Joey Milino seen on
(17:14):
a phone in the photo. Now, the FEDS not only
you know, wire tapped and surveiled this, but they even
paid for Rubio to fly up from it from Boca
Ratan now an agent in the FBI known as Bill
and Zirillo would testify that the money for the party
(17:35):
was given directly to mob rat John Rubio, and it
was given to him to quote give the Parello as
a tribute. And also he was handed over cash from
Milino's airfare to the party. Quote. We gave Rubio five
k for the flight and transportation from Millino and his wife.
(17:59):
At one point during the questioning, Defenseler Eddie Jacobs asked
why the FEDS agreed to underwrite the exorbitant cost of
a cos and ulster Christmas party. We didn't want to
pay for it, but that was what Rubio needed, and
Zerrillo answered YoY said he was broke. The other twenty
k was one k per head for each gangster to eat,
(18:20):
drink and be married with their entourage. It was also
said that Melino would bring other people, including rising members
of the family defense attorney Jacobs, who in two thousand
and one helped Millino beat three murder Apps asked why
taxpayers footed the hefty bill from Merlino to attend. So basically,
the FBI, in normal FBI behavior, gives Ruby all this money,
(18:44):
they throw this lavish party, and I think initially it
probably helped their case. It's not that the FBI did,
I think initially anything wrong. They did what they normally do.
But it was Rubio's insane behavior that he would admit
to down the road. At one point, Rubio would state
that not only as an informant he was committing robberies,
(19:07):
he was gambling. He would also make it clear that
he quote didn't get along too well with the FBI,
and that he almost ruined the case by fucking up,
and that he could be a better criminal because he
was not being watched. We have to ask ourselves why
would the FBI not only do a deal with a
(19:27):
person like this, but allow this to happen while being
an FBI informant. He would also state Rubio that he
made approximately fifteen thousand dollars a month as an informant
and that he regularly didn't check in with the FBI.
He regularly deleted things that he was supposed to keep
(19:48):
and or send to the FBI. He was doing all
this while under the tutelage and the payroll of the FBI. Now,
Rubio would state that the money that he was getting
for and the FBI was something that went the bills,
which I'm not sure why that would matter. His lifestyle
was being funded by being an FBI informant, and we
(20:09):
would come to find out that he did other very
nefarious things, including factory resetting a phone and deleting evidence
off the phone. So the FBI has got some real
problems because the case that they're building is essentially being ruined. Now,
remember the champion of this indictment, the chief informant, was Rubio,
(20:32):
and you're now going to then have to put him
on the stand. At one point, the FBI had the
wool pulled over their eyes at Rubio, and his behavior
was that of a major scumbag at really every level.
We also found out that Rubio allegedly was involved with
domestic violence against his wife. There's been wiretaps played of
Rubio a threatening mentally unstable people over the phone while
(20:58):
being an FBI informant. And this is again some of
the very questionable people that these people are making deals with. Eventually,
though at least on the surface, maybe Rubio was getting
some work done. As we know. In twenty sixteen, forty
five mobsters were arrested in an East Coast mob bust.
(21:22):
It would gain national attention and was known as the
East Coast Enterprise. Now, before we get into some of
the trial stuff, I mean, quite honestly, Rubio's agreement should
have been ripped up. I mean straight up, I mean,
in no way should this guy have been put on
this stand because nothing he did was believable. He was
(21:43):
constantly involved in screwing up. And though Rubio should have
had his agreement ripped up, the obsession with the federal
government and certain mobsters precluded that they allowed his bizarre
and scumbag to continue because their goal was they wanted
(22:03):
to get people like Joey Milino and Patsy Pirello off
the street. Now, in that indictment where the East Coast
mob buss happened, some of the suspects arrested included Joey Molino,
Patsy Pirello, as well as Eugene Rooster Donophrio. Now, one
(22:25):
thing that happened during this investigation is Rubio went to
meet Danofrio with a member of the FBI who he
called a high school friend that was driving for him.
One thing we find about these new mobsters, which is
surprising because Donofrio is not young. He should have known better.
You just have this random guy pop up and you're
(22:48):
just crowing and talking about mob business. Definitely was a
lack of responsibility there from mister Donophrio. But you know,
there was a lot of damning evidence against people in
this case. But the biggest fish in this case, Joey Mollino,
had a real case on his hands because he knew
that some of the behavior that Parrello Rubio was involved
(23:10):
and may actually get him off. That said, the evidence
against people like Patsy Parello was pretty strong, and in
the end, most of the defendants in this case, in fact,
all of the defendants in this case, including Pirello and
Dino Frio, would plead guilty. One person decided to go
to trial, and for the FEDS, it was the one
(23:33):
they wanted most, Joey Melino. And that's the issue with
Rubio and his behavior here. They had a pretty strong
case against most of the people here, But for whatever reason,
Rubio completely screwed and e ft this case up. Now,
was it that he just really liked Merlino and he
was just trying to stave him in a way? I'm
(23:56):
going to discuss a phone call that I've had with Rubio.
This was about a year or two ago. I don't
even remember. He had gotten in touch with me through
someone else. We had talked. He had stated to me
at one point that Joey should thank me for what
I did. That's kind of what he said. Whether or
(24:17):
not I agree with that, which I can't say I agree.
The real people with egg on their face was the
FBI because they got taken to school by John Rubio. Now,
Millino would fight this case and ultimately had a pretty
good go of it due to the fact that Rubio's behavior,
including factory resetting a phone questionable overset by the FBI
(24:41):
and their chain of custody. This was a complete mess,
and Eddie Jacobs, the attorney for Joey Milino, completely took
Rubio and the FBI to school. In the end, it
all worked out for Joey Milino. A mistrial was declared
in his racketeering case in New York. Now down the road,
Merlino would have a bullshit charge of essentially gambling on
(25:06):
his telephone, and he pled and did a short time
in prison. That said, it could have been way worse
for Joey and Molina. I mean, you look at someone
like Parello. Prelo pled and got seven years. We also
know that if Joey would have pled, I mean, it
probably would have been far longer. I mean generally, when
Joey gets sentenced, they hit him with the longest and
(25:26):
even higher than the longest sentence in guidelines. Now, Rubio
again stated that he completely fucked the case up for
the federal government. But this would not end with John
Rubio just being sentenced to a ridiculous fifteen months in
prison and some supervisor release keep him on all the
(25:47):
things he did. He admittedly said he robbed people, he
was gambling, He was running book making networks during his
time as an FBI and format, which you're not supposed
to do. That said, like again, John Rubio was not
an FBI agent. FBI agents can do what they have
to do to kind of blend in. But Rubio was
an FBI informat like he's not been doing this sort
(26:10):
of thing. Rubio would get out of prison and then
in years after that, would appear on a show called
The Johnny and Jean Show with John Alight and Jen Burrello,
as well as a person called Felix Lavine who could
be seen on them far right. In that interview, which
is nearly an hour and a half, Rubio details all
(26:30):
of this, like basically gloating about the fact that he
factory reset his phone and did all this stuff and
railed against the mafia. He would also state on Instagram
in an official Instagram post on his account Official Underscore Jr. Rubio,
when badgered about why he went on this when he
(26:52):
knew he wasn't allowed due to the fact that when
you were on Supervisor release, you cannot associate with noan felons,
which in this case these two individuals on the far
left were known felons. Rubio would state in that post. Next,
I got permission from Probation to go on the show
and reported it before I went on with the quote felons. Also,
(27:14):
I reported to Probation when I came home that my
profession was a professional gambler and it was approved and
I submit my records on a monthly basis. Anyone is
more than welcome to check with him. That wasn't true, though.
Rubio was then excoriated by the judge in this case,
where he would tell him, quote, you want to make
(27:37):
a monkey out of the FBI or a monkey out
of the government, that's fine, but you're not going to
make a monkey out of me or this court. John
Rubio was hit with six months of home confinement and
given an additional two years of supervised release after that
little stunt. So in all of this, Rubio, who never
(28:01):
should have went into the life to begin with because
he was a smart guy, came from a good family
and though his father was connected, he had all the
ability to go do something else with his life. Just
because your father is a gangster doesn't mean you have
to be. Rubio decides to go in. He decides to
do some very depraved things, robbing people, hurting people, stealing
from people. He then gets arrested for selling poison, becomes
(28:24):
an informant, and over the course of five years, continues
to be an even bigger scum bag by doing things
that go against every single thing that one of these
people is supposed to be, but are we surprised In
the end, I've interviewed these types of people. I do
it because this is what this genre is. These are
(28:46):
people that have a history in this life, but some
of them can be absolute scumbags today. John Rubio is
forty nine years old. He does live in the western
part of the United States, his wife and children. It's
unclear what he does today. At one point he had
claimed on social media that he was a sports betting
(29:07):
handicapper and was giving picks to people. I'm unclear what
he does for a living now. I have talked to Ruby.
As I've stated, he's called me. I think in the end,
he kind of a lot of the time runs his mouth.
I've seen him in comments on my page. I've asked
him to come on the show and defend himself, which
(29:28):
he has declined multiple times. It seems like maybe he
learned his lesson from going on the Johnny and Jean Show.
In the end, he probably should have went a different
way with his life. As I said, John Rubio is
forty nine years old. I hope you enjoyed this video.
(29:50):
Make sure if you do, you hit that like button,
hit that super thanks icon and support our show underneath
the video, and please go check out my friends at
profit X. You could find a link to sign up
right now in the pit comment we'll see you next week.
He's wrong. The sit Down
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