‘I am ready, able and willing to defend my family’: A Genovese mob turncoat whose testimony helped convict 70 mafioso pens an open warning letter to the crime family after hearing they have discovered his new identity
- Michael ‘Cookie’ D’Urso, 49, wrote an open letter to the Genovese crime family
- He said he has ‘very capable ex-law enforcement friends with gun permits’
- Former mobster officers convict more than 70 mobsters and their associates
A Genovese mob turncoat whose testimony helped convict 70 mafioso has penned an open warning letter to members of the crime family after he heard they had discovered his new identity.
In the note, Michael ‘Cookie’ D’Urso said he had been informed by ‘law enforcement folks’ that associates of the crime family were discussing his new name and whereabouts in an Upper East Side steakhouse over Christmas.
‘I am ready, able and willing to defend my family and myself’, he warned in the letter first seen by Gang Land News. ‘A bat and a knife won’t help you so you will have to use a gun’.
The former mobster added he hopes ’20 years later, no one would be so stupid as to get himself into very serious trouble over me’, before warning he has ‘very capable ex-law enforcement friends with gun permits who are with me all the time’.
D’Urso, 49, survived a bullet to the head during a predawn card game in a Brooklyn social club in 1994. The gunfire, over a gambling debt, killed his cousin who the New York Times reported was as close to him as a brother.
Michael ‘Cookie’ D’Urso helped police convict more than 70 mobsters including former Genovese boss Vincent ‘The Chin’ Gigante (right) and current leader Liborio ‘Barney’ Bellomo
The former mobster also claims in the letter that Frank ‘Farby’ Serpico was ‘going to have me killed’, which he said gave him ‘no choice but to reach out to the government’ and begin wearing a wire in 1998.
In the letter, he writes: ‘I was extremely loyal until my life was in danger for the SECOND time. The people that got in trouble because of me can thank Farby for threatening me on the phone and putting me in the position that led to me cooperating.
‘When Sammy Meatballs [Salvatore Aparo] came to me with tears in his eyes and said, ‘If I send for you don’t come,’ I knew that Farby was going to have me killed. I had no choice but to reach out to the government. Those of you who truly knew me know that I would have done 100 years for the right people and the right reasons’.
In 2003, D’Urso testified at Brooklyn federal court against two men, Carmine Polito and Mario Fortunato, who went on trial for planning the shooting at the Williamsburg club.
In the note, Michael ‘Cookie’ D’Urso said he had been informed by ‘law enforcement folks’ that associates of the crime family were discussing his new name (stock image)
The former mobster also claims in the letter he learned from Salvatore ‘Sammy Meatballs’ Aparo (left) that Frank ‘Farby’ Serpico was ‘going to have me killed’
At the time, D’Urso – who now uses a different name – was considered one of the most productive of the government’s informants, the New York Post reported.
His testimony has helped officers arrest and convict more than 70 mobsters and their associates, including former Genovese boss Vincent ‘The Chin’ Gigante and Liborio ‘Barney’ Bellomo.
In the letter, D’Urso added that ‘no real man can ever accept being told not to seek retribution’ for the death of his beloved cousin.
He then goes on to claim he knows why ‘people have to act like tough guys’ when his name is mentioned, before asserting he is ‘not running’ and doesn’t need a weapon to protect himself.
The former mobster also writes that he is a black belt in Brazilian Ju-Jitsu and has been ‘training in mixed martial arts for over 14 years’. ‘A bat and knife won’t help you so you will have to use a gun’, he said.
D’Urso ends the letter by urging those in the Genovese family to ‘focus on their families, their well-being, and staying out of jail’, before signing off the note with his former moniker ‘Cookie’.
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