John Gotti and the Crazy Refrigerator Mechanic: The Start of the "Teflon Don" Era

It all started harmlessly enough. A refrigerator mechanic trying to navigate his work van through a crowded and congested Brooklyn, New York, side street, Romuel Piecyk - pronounced "pie-check" - was a New York native who was used to the less-than stellar New York traffic flow. But this was different. Some knucklehead had double-parked in front of a small curbside diner, blocking Piecyk's forward advancement. It was late in the day; he was tired after a long day's work and eager to get home. Piecyk leaned on his horn and kept at it until a man emerged from the diner. "Just hold on," the unidentified man said. But Piecyk was tired of waiting. "Move this car," Piecyk insisted. And he blew the horn some more. Piecyk, all six-foot-two inches and two-hundred-plus pounds of him, thought himself something of a tough guy, and he wasn't about to let some jerk with poor parking skills impede his forward direction. And that's when the trouble started!

Annoyed by this horn-blowing van driver who had the nerve to protest his parking style, the unidentified man - later identified as one Frank Colletta - rushed towards Piecyk's van and slapped him across the face through the open driver's side window. And, to add further insult, Colletta, spying a wad of money protruding from Piecyk's front shirt pocket, reached in and swiped it; apparently a form of "tax" for being aggravated and inconvenienced! Piecyk was furious. He exited his van and he and Colletta started to tussle. Colletta, much smaller than Piecyk but quite handy with his fists, more than held his own, and as a second man exited the storefront diner to investigate the brewing commotion out on the street, the "incident" took a new turn that would have a far-reaching effect not only on Piecyk, but for all parties involved.