Among the powerful mobsters who oversaw vast interests in LGBT nightlife were Gambino underboss Aniello Dellacroce, Genovese capo Matty Ianniello, Colombo underboss Sonny Franzese in New York, and Joseph DiVarco, who ran the Rush Street crew on the Near North Side for the Outfit in Chicago. Gay bars were profit centers for all the Mafia families. Club 82 in New York's East Village was a popular club with drag revues, and in the 1950s also was part of the distribution network in the Genovese family's heroin trade for which boss Vito was convicted in 1959. Forget about the pizza connection this was the pansy connection. Miniaci supplied slot machines in the 1930s to Frank Costello and had dined with the mob boss on the night he was shot. Jukebox king Alfred Miniaci funded dozens of gay bars and other joints controlled by the Mafia in the 1950s and 1960s, including the Peppermint Lounge.
For example, the establishments often were financed through mob-tied coin-op vendors and their related loan companies. Crawford illustrates how the gay bars historically were integrated into the Mafia rackets.
