The Mafia is a degenerate organization which exploits human misery for criminal profit, and even children are not beyond the reach of its dirty hands. For decades the Mafia has been the principal producer and distributor of kiddie porn, and according to recently released FBI documents among the key figures in this racket was Gambino capo Robert DiBernardo who was a top lieutenant to family boss Paul Castellano. The pair would meet each Friday at Castellano's Staten Island mansion to gloat how filthy rich they were getting from their ungodly alliance.
In 1986 federal postal inspectors discovered cartons of magazines seemingly depicting underage boys "engaged in sexually explicit conduct" at smut shops in Times Square and Greenwich Village which allegedly were distributed by DiBernardo, and during a subsequent March 1986 raid on DiBernardo's office seized alleged "child pornography and financial records." As "a result of the Postal Inspectors seizures [a federal prosecutor] is attempting to indict DiBernardo on child pornography violations" according to an FBI memo dated May 20, 1986. Since at least 1979 DiBernardo was "a well known pornography distributor also dealing in child pornography" according to a July 28, 1981 FBI document. Indeed, the FBI's New York field office had been monitoring DiBernardo's role in the smut trade since 1968 when he was arrested by the NYPD on his first obscenity charge for distributing a porno mag entitled Young Stuff which, of course, was later dismissed.
Among those who may have supplied DiBernardo with material was Michael Umbers who was a suspected front for a Gambino gay bar or two on Christopher Street during the 1970s. The Gambino family through reputed soldiers Eddie DeCurtis and Paul DiBella allegedly had silent interests in a number of Greenwich Village gay bars. In addition to running gay bars Umbers produced boy-on-boy porn. For example, a Dec. 23, 1971 article by Arthur Bell for The Village Voice states that "a couple of years ago, Umbers was arrested along with two other men and indicted on charges related to violation of the state obscenity law":
According to an official assigned to the case, the men conspired to conduct a pornography operation soliciting young boys of 16 and under. They'd have them participate in 'deviate sexual acts' which they’d film and distribute. Umbers procured the kids.
Unfortunately, the feds were precluded by intervening events from indicting DiBernardo on the child pornography charges. In a power play for control over the Gambino family John Gotti whacked Castellano on December 16, 1985, and only months later whacked DiBernardo on June 5, 1986. A September 22, 1986 article ("Gotti OKd Hit On Porn Czar Rival") by Philip Messing for the New York Post states:
[DiBernardo's] alleged involvement with porn had nothing to do with his death, law enforcement authorities say. Instead, DiBernardo is thought to have been slain after he sought to fill a slot in the family hierarchy left by the April 14 mob execution of Frank DeCicco.
Indeed, according to FBI sources Gotti had no intention of giving up the crime family's interests in the smut trade after DiBernardo's death. For example, in April 1987 an informant told the FBI that "Gotti realizes the enormous profits to be made in the pornography industry and will certainly not be turning his back on a possibility of sharing in these profits," and Gotti recently had visited Florida to meet some "pornography dealers aligned with the Gambino family."
Of course, notwithstanding his suspected heinous crimes DiBernardo wasn't all bad. The Gambino capo was a well-liked little league coach in the community. No word on whether any of his players ever became any of his models.
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