A geezer gangster who murdered nearly 20 men and ran the waterfront for the Genovese crime family showed he still has some fight in him as he testified against a fellow wiseguy yesterday.
George Barone, an 85-year-old turncoat who is deaf and walks with a cane, cursed out everyone from union officials to the feds as he told how he established the crime family’s tight grip on the shipping industry in New Jersey and Miami.
Asked by prosecutors whether the mob made much money by controlling the waterfront unions, an incredulous Barone bellowed, “A lot of money? Millions! Millions! Millions! End of statement.”
Barone testified in Brooklyn federal court, where reputed Genovese capo Michael “Mikey Cigars” Coppola, 63, is facing trial for racketeering, including the 1977 murder of mob associate John “Johnny Coca Cola” Lardiere and the waterfront extortion scheme.
The elderly turncoat, whose first outburst of the day involved threatening to throw a courtroom computer monitor on the floor, saved his choicest words for a union executive who allegedly double-crossed him.
“The no good f—ing bastard. I put him there and he was a traitor,” Barone said.