IN THE colourful annals of American criminal incompetence, there have been few plots as misconceived as Thomas and Rosemarie Uva’s demented spree of robberies against New York social clubs controlled by the mafia.

For a few months in the early 1990s the Uvas became known as a latterday Bonnie and Clyde for their brazen assaults on a series of drinking and gambling dens controlled by the Gambinos and other crime families.

Few New Yorkers were surprised when their bodies were eventually found in their car, each with three bullets in the head.

Fifteen years later the trial of one of the gunmen alleged to have carried out the Uva “hit” is turning into a mobster epic. Forget Tony Soprano and the other television gangsters – the real mafia is providing much more gripping entertainment in the Brooklyn federal court.

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BACKGROUND

• Accused FBI agent toasts Mafia trial collapse

• How the tentacles of the Calabrian Mafia spread

• Sorry judge, but they didn’t oughta rob the mob

• Man 'who crossed the Mafia' forced to watch his family die

• Mafiosi take over shops and cafés of Milan

The trial of Dominick “Skinny Dom” Pizzonia has featured a cast of characters that any screenwriter would be proud of – including such former Gambino henchmen as Mikey Scars, Vinny Gorgeous, Freddy Hot and Petey Boxcars. It may also mark a historic turning point in the government’s decades-long pursuit of the mob.

Joseph “Big Joey” Massino, former godfather of the rival Bonanno crime family, may this week become the highest ranking mafia turncoat to give evidence in a New York trial. Judge Jack Weinstein was told by Pizzonia’s lawyers last week that they intended to question Massino about an alleged meeting with John Gotti Jr, son of the legendary former Gambino godfather, about which family should take credit for murdering the Uvas.

Massino entered the US government’s witness protection programme three years ago. Although he has been cooperating with federal prosecutors, he has never appeared on the witness stand. The sight of a former godfather “ratting” on his family would mark a new low point for mafia traditions of loyalty and “omerta” – the mob’s now threadbare vow of silence.

When the Pizzonia trial opened last month, federal prosecutors described the Uvas as brazen robbers who had made a fatal miscalculation: they attacked mafia clubs because they believed the mobster owners would not report the hold-ups to the police.

Uva, 28, and his 31-year-old wife carried out up to 10 assaults in Manhattan’s Little Italy and other Italian-American neighbourhoods. Uva brandished an Uzi sub-machinegun while his wife collected wallets and jewellery. On several occasions they humiliated their victims by forcing them to drop their trousers.

The Uvas proved right about their victims’ reluctance to go to the police – prosecutors are still not sure exactly how many attacks were carried out – but the couple seemed oblivious to the danger of mafia reprisal, according to Joseph Lipton, a federal prosecutor.

“There’s virtually no greater insult than robbing the Gambino family where they socialised and hung out,” Lipton added. “You disrespect the mob and you get killed.”

The prosecution alleges that after a club run by Pizzonia was raided twice, he sought permission from his Gambino bosses to “whack” the Uvas. The couple were shot on Christmas Eve, 1992, as they sat in their car at a red traffic light in the New York borough of Queens. Pizzonia has denied any involvement.

Police investigating the killings were frustrated for years by a lack of evidence, but a stampede of mobster turncoats helped to reopen the case. Among those giving evidence against Pizzonia last month were Michael “Mikey Scars” DiLeonardo and Salvatore “Good Looking Sal” Vitale, former Gambino “soldiers” who are cooperating in return for lenient treatment in other cases.

DiLeonardo testified last month that Pizzonia was “very angry, as everybody else, that these guys [the Uvas] had the nerve to go around robbing clubs. It was like they were committing suicide. You’re gonna get clipped if you get caught”.

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