Things I’d Prefer Not to Know About

Things I’d prefer not to know about include the idea that the mob still exists:

From the city’s diners to the fanciest restaurants, from toy stores to department stores, the mob took its cut, according to evidence emerging in the trial of alleged Gambino boss Peter Gotti.

Yesterday, mob turncoat Anthony Rotondo testified that a JC Penney store and a Toys “R” Us on Staten Island were built with nonunion labor organized by the mob.

In the next few days, another organized crime canary, Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo, is expected to tell jurors the owners of the swank Rainbow Room even enlisted the mob to make a labor dispute go away.

The expected allegation by DiLeonardo, first reported in the New York Sun, was vehemently denied by Giuseppe Cipriani, whose family owns the landmark restaurant atop Rockefeller Center.

“I think they got the information wrong,” he said.

And it’s not just the Rainbow Room:

If the Rainbow Room’s owners did pay the mob off, they were far from alone, according to testimony already heard at the trial.

Catering halls across the city were under the thumb of the Gambino crime family, according to testimony from Rotondo, a former DeCavalcante family capo.

In Brooklyn, it was the El Caribe, and in Queens it was Russo’s on the Bay, he said.

“We were told Russo’s on the Bay was with the Gambinos,” Rotondo testified, telling the jury he attended the 1988 wedding of Peter Gotti’s daughter there. “They kicked up money to the Gambino family.”

It just begs the question: Who has Balthazar? Who has Le Cirque? Who has Teany? And where does it end? Sripraphai? 5 Stars Punjabi? The Tibetan Yak!?

Like I said, some things I don’t want to know about.