Mike “The Butcher” Virtuoso seems to be a rather literal-minded guy. For one, he is actually a butcher, at Graham Avenue Meats & Deli in Williamsburg. He is also (allegedly) just about the most organized possible participant in organized crime. FBI agents found The Butcher’s immaculately kept Rolodex, which was full of names of convicted and suspected mobsters — no pseudonyms, real telephone numbers.
“For example, a slip of paper within one Rolodex contained the handwritten entry ‘Capo Lucchese’ and the names ‘Johnny Sideburns Cerello’ and ‘Glenn the Wheel Guadagno,’ ” Assistant US Attorney Stephen Frank wrote to a judge.
“Both men are convicted felons associated with the Lucchese organized crime family, and John Cerrella, also known as ‘Johnny Sideburns,’ is a captain in that family,” Frank wrote.
Now me, when I want to reach Sideburns or Glenn the Wheel to just hang or whatever in the ‘Burg, maybe see what’s good at Union Pool, I look them up in my Gmail or send a text. But why move on from the technologies of the eighties? The Butcher is an old-fashioned kind of guy. That probably explains his other hobby, “Mafia scrapbooking.” You know, just newspaper clippings, Family pics, that kind of thing.
