Vincent Alo

Born: May 26, 1904, New York City
Died: March 9, 2011, Miami
Nicknames: Jimmy Blue Eyes
Associations: Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, Tommy Eboli

Vincent “Jimmy Blue Eyes” Alo was a longtime member of the Genovese crime family, and perhaps best known as a close confidant of Meyer Lansky. Alo was also the inspiration for the characters Johnny Ola in The Godfather: Part II and Victor Tellegio in American Hustle. He started his underworld career with Lansky and Lucky Luciano, and far outlived them both. All the while he managed to steer (mostly) clear of law enforcement and underworld politics.

Carole Cortland Russo, Alo’s niece and author of Jimmy Blue Eyes: The Last of the Gentleman Gangsters, said her uncle was “respected and loved because he was also very fair, especially in disputes. Fair, logical, and calm. But you wouldn’t want to get on his bad side.” Russo spent most of her life with Alo, who had no children of his own.

Alo was born in 1904 in East Harlem, at the time one of the largest Little Italy communities in New York City. Vestiges of the neighborhood remain today, most notably the famous Rao’s restaurant. His first job was on Wall Street at age 14. His advancement in the industry was hindered by anti-Italian bias endemic in the financial firms at that time, so he decided to try another line of work: robbery. His first gig netted his first arrest in 1923 for a jewelry store robbery.

After serving five years at Dannemora prison in New York, he returned to the streets where he met his lifelong friend and criminal compatriot, Lansky. Lansky and Alo developed a particularly strong relationship, business and personal. That partnership would continue for more than 50 years.

Alo was active with Lansky during Prohibition and partnered with other well-known mobsters, including Luciano, to supply a thirsty public with bootlegged whiskey. After Prohibition, Alo set his sights on an up-and-coming region of the country that was ripe for exploitation: South Florida. He moved to Hollywood, Florida, but also kept a residence in New York City. There he began running gambling operations and setting up underground casinos and nightclubs, such as La Boheme, Club Greenacres, The Plantation in Hallandale Beach and the Colonial Inn in Broward County. In addition to those operations, in 1959 an FBI informant suggested that “the Hilton Hotel Chain is fronted by Conrad Hilton on behalf of Frank Costello and Vincent Alo.”

Law enforcement corruption was one way the Mob maintained a major presence in South Florida at that time, although Jimmy Blue Eyes occasionally ran afoul of the law. In 1952, he pleaded guilty to running a casino in Broward County and was fined $1,000. But that was a minor roadblock, and by 1956, the FBI considered him a “big-time gambling operator.”

Federal agents who followed Alo in South Florida also noted that he “plays golf on a daily basis” and liked to pamper himself at the Carlsbad Spa, owned by Lansky’s brother, Jake. While Alo was active in Florida, he still controlled a number of gambling and loansharking operations back in New York. His control of the Bronx rackets was described as “in the style of absent feudal lords,” employing other members and associates to run the day-to-day operations.

Alo’s power and respect extended throughout the hierarchy of the Genovese family. When boss Tommy Eboli wanted to see a recently released Genovese mobster in Miami, he reached out to Alo: “So I got a hold of Jimmy Blue Eyes. I said Jimmy find a way, how you gonna find it I don’t know, but I says when am I gonna see Mikey.” Alo set up the meeting within a couple of hours.

Las Vegas was a big moneymaker for the Mob, and Alo was deeply involved. By 1962, Alo was taking part in the skim at the Flamingo, along with Lansky and New Jersey-based Genovese power Gerardo “Jerry” Catena. Alo also had a hidden interest in the Sands Hotel, which he and others sold to Howard Hughes when the enigmatic billionaire started buying Las Vegas casinos in the late 1960s.

After Lansky died in 1983, Alo’s name faded from law enforcement reports and surveillance logs. He was still receiving money for his Bronx rackets and some other investments, but his involvement in the day-to-day affairs of the Genovese family was over. Alo lived the last year of his life with his niece in Miami. He died at age 96, long outliving his underworld contemporaries.