MAFIA DON FRANK COSTELLO AND COACH JOE PATERNO Honesty is like pregnancy you can’t just be a little honest. When it was revealed that Penn State Coach Joe “the sleazebag” Paterno covered up for a serial homosexual rapist named Coach Sandusky it was time to take another look at Paterno. (Paterno was definitely part of a cover up because he transferred his house to his wife after he heard a Grand Jury was hearing evidence against Sandusky). I wouldn’t be surprised if Paterno was into point shaving for the mob. Joseph Vincent Paterno, AKA “Joe” Paterno, sold peanuts at Ebbitt’s Field. The lights from Ebbitt’s Field kept me awake during Dodger night games. He went to school on Carol Street I went to Public School 241 a block from Carol Street. Paterno, a few years older, came out of the same world I did --- a time when the Mafia genius Frank Costello controlled not only Brooklyn and Italian Harlem but all five boroughs of New York City. Coach Paterno was the grandson of Mafia associate Vincente Paterno: Vicente Paterno (son of Francisco Paterno and Nucenza Lauritto) was born 1869 in Macchia, Albanese, Cosenza, Italy. The Calabrian mafia, known as 'Ndrangheta, is one of Italy's major criminal organizations and is located in Cosenza. Frank Costello was born there. Vicente Paterno married Rose Mascaro in 1893 in Italy. Vicente Paterno and Rose Mascaro came to America on their honeymoon (that is a nice way of saying they became illegal immigrants by overstaying their tourist visas). They then moved to an English speaking neighborhood allegedly so their children would not be brought up in the Italian ghetto. In other words they lived in Italian Harlem then got some money to move out. Vincente had become a barber allegedly “to meet people” (to take bets for the mob). When the New York Times interviewed him, Paterno told the reporter, “I look like a Mafia thug.” He was pointing to a photograph of himself from the 1950's in which he was wearing a double-breasted topcoat that could conceal a Thompson submachine gun. He was a beefy, thick-necked, sullen-looking youth with narrow eyes and pouty lips. The kind of guy I would have avoided in the old neighborhood. Vicente died February 10, 1930 in Brooklyn, NY. Children of Vicente Paterno and Rose Mascaro are: