Genovese family New York mobster 'Tony Cakes' identified as man decapitated by truck

The 86-year-old man who was struck by a truck and decapitated at a Brooklyn crossing was a former acting captain for the Genovese criminal organization, first revealed by The New York Post According to his attorneys and law enforcement sources, Anthony Conigliaro, a former mafioso known by the nicknames "Tony Cakes," "Tony the Dessert Man," and other nicknames related to desserts, died on June 12 as a result of an unintentional strike by a local Department of Transportation truck.

“He spent his life looking over his shoulder but he forgot to look both ways before crossing the street,” one police source said. Conigliaro seemed to have led a solitary life in a small Bay Ridge apartment complex on Dahlgren Place before to his horrific demise.

A neighbor said that Conigliaro, a father of two, was always considerate of others. “We miss him. Everybody misses him,” he said. However, the neighbor was unaware of Conigliaro's background, which includes a nearly two-decade-old racketeering prosecution in addition to a mafia link.

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According to court documents, Conigliaro worked for years in the wholesale cake industry, selling candies around the New York City region and operating an Italian ice and gelato stand in Little Italy. In 2005, Brooklyn federal prosecutors accused Conigliaro of being a soldier in the Genovese crime family.

Conigliaro was employed by the Genovese family as a loan shark, according to a four-count indictment filed by the FBI. In the end, he entered a guilty plea to a charge of racketeering conspiracy, for which he was sentenced to 13 months, according to court documents.

Conigliaro was previously detained in 2006 in connection with a grand larceny case that has since been sealed and in 1999 for criminal usury, according to sources.

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Conigliaro was a friend and client of Mathew Mari, a veteran mafia lawyer, who said that after serving time in prison, the man known as "Tony Cheesecake" ventured successfully into the dessert industry. “Later on in life he became known as Tony the Dessert Man,” Mari said.

He was a quiet, quiet man who was nice and polite. Always attempting to assist others.” At the scene of the alleged former good samritan's death, on Dahlgren Place and 92nd Street, a tiny monument consisting of two candles and four bouquets of flowers was erected on Friday.

Brutal film from the collision showed Conigliaro's head torn several yards from his crumbling body, along with a distraught-looking DOT driver who was operating a city truck when the elderly man ran a red light to cross the street.