Tampa Bay, FL: "GoodFellas" character dies
Bat Child (Sue M.)
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Tampa `Goodfellas' Character Dies
By TOM BRENNAN tbre...@tampatrib.com
Published: May 4, 2002
TAMPA - To family and friends, Gaspar Ciaccio was known as ``Papa
Nerdo'' - a successful self-made businessman and generous giver to
charities.
But to movie buffs, he will always be the man in the movie
``Goodfellas'' who Ray Liotta's character threatened to toss into a
lion's cage if he didn't pay his gambling debts.
Ciaccio, 69, died Wednesday. His funeral service will be at 11 a.m.
Monday in the chapel of Gonzalez Funeral Home, 7209 N. Dale Mabry
Highway.
``My father possessed the unique ability to quickly make friends with
everyone,'' said Joe Ciaccio. ``He was a loving and caring
grandfather.''
Ciaccio and his brother Fano started Tampa Plastering and Stucco in
1952. He opened Temple Terrace Lounge, now named the Temple Terrace
Bar and Grill, in 1960. In 1983, he formed Color Concepts Commercial
Printing.
But it was a losing streak in betting baseball games that led to his
confrontation with Henry Hill, on whose life ``Goodfellas'' was based.
Joe Ciaccio said the film overstated what really happened to his
father. ``The movie is what I consider a typical Hollywood
interpretation that was completely exaggerated and not based on the
facts,'' he said.
In real life, Ciaccio was never threatened with lions.
Instead, he testified in state and federal court that he was forced at
gunpoint from his lounge on 56th Street by Hill and three associates
on the night of Oct. 8, 1970. He said he was taken to the Char-Pal
Lounge, near Busch Gardens, owned by brothers Luis and Raul
Charbonier.
Ciaccio was pistol-whipped on the trip and repeatedly beaten again in
a back storeroom at the Char-Pal Lounge.
Ciaccio testified that he owed the Charboniers $8,000 and had told
them he couldn't pay.
The Charboniers, testimony showed, had Hill and his fellow
``enforcers'' fly down from New York City to collect the debt.
Ciaccio was released after his brother promised the men that the money
would be forthcoming within a week.
The incident became a 30-second scene in Martin Scorsese's film.
Luis Charbonier died in June 2001. Raul Charbonier died in January
2000.
They, along with Hill and two of those who accompanied him were
convicted of extortion and gambling, and were sentenced to 10 years in
federal prison.
Hill's other associate died of a heart attack before trial.
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