He’s the kicking capo.
Manhattan prosecutors have charged a reputed Gambino crime-family captain with grand larceny for allegedly extorting $50,000 from a construction-company official — by threatening, punching, slapping and kicking the poor victim until he couldn’t refuse.
The accused Mafia boss, Joseph “Joe the Blond” Giordano, 63, grew up as Gambino royalty. He is nephew to former John Gotti Sr. underboss Joseph “Joe Piney” Armone, and his brother, John “Handsome Jack” Giordano, was Gotti Sr.’s one-time right-hand man.
Joseph Giordano served on the Gambinos’ ruling commission three years ago, according to sources. The ruling panel of three elder capos was initiated after the Dapper Don was locked away for life in 1992.
In the current grand-larceny case, Giordano used his status as a Gambino captain to further intimidate the victim, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. said in announcing the indictment.
Giordano, of Deer Park, LI, pleaded not guilty and was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 bail.
The reputed mob boss was caught on video extorting his victim through actual and threatened violence, lead prosecutor Eric Seidel, chief of the DA’s rackets bureau, told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro in successfully asking for the high bail.
“This is the most violent way for someone to steal,” the judge said of the allegations.
“The force of the threat must have been really strong for the victim to give him the money.”
The victim’s name was not revealed.
Defense lawyer James Pascarella insisted Giordano was innocent, not involved in organized crime, and in precarious health.
“I take exception to his being called a capo in the Gambino crime family,” Pascarella told the judge. “He does carry an Italian name, but aside from that there is no proof.”
Giordano suffers from the autoimmune disease lupus and a heart condition and has had two recent knee operations, the lawyer said.
He also has a criminal record stretching back through the ’80s and early ’90s, officials said.
As rising young gangsters, the two brothers, “Handsome Jack” and “Joe the Blond,” hung out together at DeRobertis Pasticceria and Caffe in the East Village, allegedly learning the business at the knee of their uncle, Gotti underboss Armone, who used the bakery shop as a headquarters.
Armone was sent to prison in 1988 for racketeering — incriminated in large part by secret wiretaps at the bakery — and “Handsome Jack” would soon be busted for taking over.