Piney (n, colloq.)
Nickname of Joseph "Piney" Armone, an underboss or capo in the New York-based Gambino crime family, one of the original five Mafia organizations. Armone worked closely with Paul Castellano, the Gambino family capo assassinated in December 1985. Admitted into the mob as a young man, Armone earned his nickname by stealing pine Christmas trees from street dealers and selling them at a discount to the poorer residents of his neighborhood. He spent time in prison in the early 1970s for taking part in the French Connection heroin ring. Armone moved up the Mafia ranks after his release from prison, earning a position as a capo, or underboss to the family's boss. Armone also served as a consigliere (advisor) to Castellano prior to the latter's murder.
Armone allegedly agreed to go along with John Gotti's plan to assassinate Castellano, which eventually resulted in Gotti's promotion to boss of the Gambino family in 1986. In 1987, Armone was indicted and convicted of racketeering charges. The judge in the case offered the elder mafiosi the chance to walk away from the conviction with no jail time if he agreed to testify against other mobsters currently under indictment. Armone, an old-timer who beileved in the Mafia tradition of omerta, refused and accepted a ten year sentence. Armone died of natural causes in prison in 1992.
Unlike the
typical gutter-mouthed,
womanizing wise guys portrayed in the
media, Armone was a quiet man who rarely swore or lost his
temper, and who was
faithful to his
wife his entire life.