Robert DiBernardo

One of the very few thought to have become made in the Mafia without committing a murder, DiBernardo, at that time allegiant to the DeCavalcante crime family, bought the soft core business Star Distributors in the late 1960s, and used it to sell hard core of all types and media to adult industry businesses around Times Square, which had long been seen as an insalubrious if not actually dangerous district where police did not prevent flouting of obscenity and other laws. To many, the proliferation of such businesses in the early 1970s made the area a symbol of the city's decline.[1][2][3] By the mid-1970s, hard core child pornography was being openly sold in New York and other US cities, sparking outraged calls for the banning of all pornography and drawing police attention to DiBernardo. These films were imported, usually from Denmark or Holland; they were viewed in peep show booths.[4][5][6]

DiBernardo became associated with the Gambino crime family through his acquaintanceship with fellow pornographer and Gambino capo Ettore Zappi. Zappi allegedly sponsored DiBernardo for membership in the Gambino family.

DiBernardo directly commissioned the production of much of the so-called Golden Age of Porn era hardcore films made in New York; rivals were intimidated out of business or co-opted into his network. Independents such as the West-coast Mitchell brothers who were immune to pressure due to their location or other reasons had their films pirated. In his relationship with the largest US porn seller, Reuben Sturman, it is unclear whether DiBernardo was extorting or collaborating. However, FBI bugs caught DiBernardo telling another pornography magnate, Michael Thevis, that "the family" was in charge of his businesses.[4][7]

DiBernardo and his associate Theodore "Teddy" Rothstein – the co-owner of KED Productions Inc. with DiBernardo – were among 44 people indicted as a result of an undercover FBI investigation of all major publishers and distributors of adult films and magazines throughout the United States which began in 1977. DiBernardo became the prime target of the operation following the death of Michael "Mickey Z" Zaffarano, a Bonanno crime family capo who suffered a fatal heart attack as FBI agents served a warrant for his arrest at his Times Square adult movie theater on February 14, 1980.[8] Bernardo and Rothstein were convicted in Miami of conspiracy, transporting obscene materials for the purpose of sale and distribution, and three counts of using a common carrier to transport obscene materials across state lines on June 12, 1981 and each sentenced to five years in prison.[9] A federal judge then overturned the convictions of DiBernardo and Rothstein and ordered the indictments against them dismissed on grounds that FBI agent Patrick Livingston – who posed as a dealer of adult materials in Miami and purchased allegedly obscene films and videotapes from KED Productions – may have lied to a grand jury. Livingston was arrested for shoplifting in November 1981, and there was evidence he was experiencing psychiatric problems involving an inability to distinguish between his real and undercover identities.[10]

Although ostensibly only ranking as soldier in the Gambino crime family, he reported and paid financial tribute directly to Paul Castellano. DiBernardo complained that he got little respect from Castellano, who despised the porn business, but that Castellano took a hefty percentage of the returns nonetheless. One of the first to support John Gotti's plot to kill Castellano and supplant him as boss, DiBernardo was rewarded with the status of 'captain' although he did not actually head a 'crew' of his own.[11]

New York police routinely surveilled DiBernardo as an organized crime figure, but he only became widely known through his name coming up in publicity surrounding the 1984 Democratic candidate for United States vice president.[5][12] The Mondale campaign was wrong-footed shortly after choosing Geraldine Anne Ferraro for the ticket when the personal finances of Ferraro and her husband, real estate developer John Zaccaro, were made an issue and it emerged DiBernardo rented his premises from Zaccaro's company.[13][14][15] The issue removed early momentum the Mondale–Ferraro ticket had gained, and diverted the campaign.[16] DiBernardo was not mentioned during the 1984 vice-presidential debate, though questions over Ferraro's separate tax filing, which were widely seen as carrying implications about her husband's business, put her on the defensive. The Mondale-Ferraro ticket, always a heavy underdog, lost the general election.[17] In 1992, the now-deceased DiBernardo was brought-up with more effect to discredit Ferraro, seriously damaging her fortunes in a Senate primary that she had been front-runner for.[18][19]

Sammy Gravano said he was told by the only Mafia member allowed to see Gotti in jail, close friend Angelo Ruggiero, that DiBernardo was being subversive and consequently, boss John Gotti wanted DiBernardo dead. In his memoir, Gravano said he was reluctant to carry out the order failing to understand how DiBernardo, without soldiers that would be necessary for any power play, could or would be posing a threat to Gotti's leadership. Believing Ruggiero would not have dared fabricate the instructions, Gravano decided he had to obey the boss's order. On June 5, 1986, DiBernardo was lured to the basement offices of Gravano's drywall company on Stillwell Avenue in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Acting as if it were a regular business meeting, Gravano told Joseph Paruta to get DiBernardo a cup of coffee. Paruta, who "Gravano regarded as his Luca Brasi" got up, but instead of getting the coffee, took a .380 with a silencer from a cabinet behind DiBernardo and shot him in the back of the head. Without his closely guarded knowledge, DiBernardo's pornography business interests became less profitable, although Gravano would help himself to the deceased man's control of Teamsters Local 282, which dovetailed with Gravano's construction racket.[20]