Mafia Hit Man Trades Corpses for Art Canvas
February 5, 2010 by The Boss · 9 Comments
Mob Killer Emerges from Dismembering, Ratting and Witness Protection at Outsider Art Fair
When Dominick Montiglio was only 2, his “Uncle Nino” — captain of the notorious Gambino crime family — banished the boy’s alcoholic father from his home and took on the role of surrogate and godfather.
Anthony ‘Nino’ Gaggi and his crew, headed by Roy DeMeo, set an early example for Montiglio, reportedly murdering 200 people and dismembering their bodies at Brooklyn’s Gemini Lounge, also known as the “Horror Hotel.”
“I lived the life,” said Montiglio, now a 62-year-old struggling artist, who admits he was involved in scores of those killings, then testified against the family before entering the federal witness protection program in 1983.
“But I don’t make any excuses,” said Montiglio, whose mob nickname was “The Cape.”
Now, instead of cutting up corpses, the former hit man creates paintings, depicting the dark anguish caused by a life of organized crime.
And his work is starting to get the attention of collectors who are not only mesmerized by his haunting imagery, but his personal redemption.
This week, Montiglio will be showcased for the first time by the prestigious Olof Gallery at the Outsider Art Fair in New York City alongside other untrained artists whose shattered lives land them on the fringes of society.
“I used to go out with $10,000 in my pocket and drive a Ferrari. Now, I don’t have a car and I make minimum wage,” said Montiglio, who lives in an undisclosed location in the United States. “That’s the hand you’re dealt.”
Outsider art has its origins in France in 1920, when artist Jean Dubuffet described work created by insane asylum patients. Later, in 1972, art critic Roger Cardinal coined the term for those who are culturally marginized and have no contact with the mainstream art world.
“The art is by the uneducated, untrained and in some cases those who suffer problems and are not within this world,” said Sanford Smith, who founded the Outsider Art Fair 18 years ago. “People love the idea that it comes with a story.”
In New York, outsider art is showcased at the Center for Contemporary Art, which is part of the American Folk Art Museum. “Now, the outsider part is the tail wagging the dog of the museum” as interest in the genre is exploding, according to Smith.
“Part of the mystique is the people who created the art, the autistic who doesn’t speak, the mentally ill who have conversations with God,” he told ABCNews.com. “People can say Dominick was a hit man and killed people and went to jail.”
Montiglio not only killed for family, but he killed for his country in Vietnam, a Green Beret who survived the slaughter at Hill 875 in the 1967 Battle of Dak To.
Read more and watch videos of Domnick Paint over at : ABC News
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what a bser all these tough guys trying to make a buck by lyin about there lives sick
you deserve to be broke snitch
What more is there to say about a rat that hasn’t been already said here? More excuses? His uncle Nino, who raised him, died in MCC New York when he complained of chest pains and was denied medical attention. Instead of sending him to the infirmary when he asked for help, guards handcuffed him to a seat and told him to be quiet. He’s still quiet.
Another rat, telling even bigger lies. Even Montiglio said he has never killed anyone or been involved in Dismembering. Lazy article trying to glamorise the life of a junkie bum who was a weight on his uncles shoulders for all those years.
The story they talk about led to the guy getting hurt, not killed. Some time later, Montiglio served as a lookout while Uncle Nino and the one and only Roy Demeo took care of the guy but didn’t pull the trigger. In his defense, he probably whacked more people in ‘Nam than most wise guys ever do on the street.
It doesn’t help that the authors who write about these rats portray them as ok guys. Capeci and Mustain do it to Montiglio in Murder Machine, TJ English does it with Mickey Featherstone in Westies and Peter Maas did it with Sammy Bull in Underboss. Montiglio was probably the most harmless out of all of these guys in a street sense. Featherstone was crazy and Sammy was ruthless, but Montiglio should have been the craziest and most ruthless just because of what he went through in Nam. But he wasn’t, he was jealous his uncle never promoted him past errand boy.
Montiglio didn’t get promoted because he never deserved it. If my memory, which is losing effectiveness each day, serves me correctly, Montiglio was a junkie after his war experience. Nino had a warm spot for him as family, but was too smart to move him up. Also, just because he says he didn’t participate in any murders here doesn’t make it true.
As for Cliff’s point about authors portraying rats as okay guys, as much as these writers think they’re “experts,” they are still outsiders and don’t know all that much about how things really are once the onion is peeled. The rat relating the story will always include gratuitous, self-serving material, and the author won’t know the difference. I was approached by someone about doing a book about a mob boss turned rat. My answer was that I don’t do rat books, and that if he let the subject know it was me, he wouldn’t want to either. Why? Because he’d be embarrassed to face me and he knew he couldn’t tell me his lies.
well said.
Re-reading the article, the most laughable thing about it is the claim by Montiglio “I used to go out with $10,000 in my pocket and drive a Ferrari” But all the way through his book he was complaining about never making enough to money to live off. Same as Henry Hill to lie you have to remember what you said in your first lie, and neither of them can.
WHAT’S TO BET THAT JOEY MASSINO’S PROBABLY PENNING HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY AS WE SPEAK~~ WHAT A RAT F**K!