A horrific video captured the moment an elderly man was struck by a New York City Department of Transportation truck and decapitated as he crossed the street.
The man was later identified as a former member of the Genovese crime family and known as “Tony Cheesecake,” according to law enforcement sources who spoke to the New York Post.
‘He spent his life looking over his shoulder …’
Anthony Conigliaro was 86 years old and living by himself in a small Bay Ridge apartment when a city truck plowed into him as he walked across a crosswalk in Brooklyn on Wednesday at about 3:30 p.m.
Gruesome video surfaced on social media and TMZ showing the man being struck and then his decapitated head lying the street afterward.
The Post then reported that the victim had a criminal past tied to the Genovese crime family.
“He spent his life looking over his shoulder but he forgot to look both ways before crossing the street,” said a police source to the Post.
Conigliaro worked in the wholesale cheesecake industry before he was convicted of racketeering conspiracy after the feds accused him of being a loan shark for the crime family in 2005. He received a 13-month sentence after a guilty plea. He was also arrested for criminal usury in 1999 and for grand larceny in 2009.
People who live in the area of the accident said the crosswalk was a dangerous one.
“Especially the walk sign. It turns on but by the time you’re in the middle of the road, then it’s gone. Somebody who is disabled or somebody who cannot walk fast- it’s really really dangerous for them,” said Samia Haq to News 12 Brooklyn.
A mob lawyer who represented Conigliaro and also called him a friend said that he focused on the dessert business after his time in prison.
“Later on in life he became known as Tony the Dessert Man,” said Mathew Mari. “He was a kind gentle soft spoken very quiet guy. Always trying to help people.”
A neighbor who didn’t know about the man’s criminal past remembered him as a nice person.
“We miss him. Everybody misses him,” the man said.
The driver of the truck, who is 31 years old, appeared to be completely devastated by the incident, and the video captured him rocking back and forth as one bystander tried to console him.
“Now we know why that DOT guy was crying … he’s probably asking for witness protection,” one source said to the Post.
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