Global Courant
“The Life We Chose, William ‘Big Billy’ D’Elia and The Last Secrets of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Family” tells the story of a little-known Pennsylvania mob mobster and his behind-the-scenes life in organized crime.
The former president has been fobbed off by a former reputable power in the mafia: Billy D’Elia.
In the new biography about him, D’Elia says he did business with former President Trump when he owned casinos in Atlantic City in the 1980s, and that Trump shaved $1 million off one real estate deal… by flipping a coin.
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The FBI says D’Elia, known as “Big Billy,” spent decades in charge of the Buffalino crime family, based in Pennsylvania. He worked alongside the family’s namesake, the legendary Russel Buffalino, whom Robert F. Kennedy called “one of the most ruthless and powerful Mafia leaders in the United States.”
D’Elia assumed leadership of the family when Buffalino died in 1994. It is said that he was so trusted and respected by the country’s mob families that in the 1990s he was asked to take over the Philadelphia crime family to quell its murderous power struggle. that left bloodstains in the streets of the city of “Brotherly Love”. He refused.
D’Elia says he was in business with Trump when he owned flashy casinos on the New Jersey coast, such as the “Trump Taj Mahal,” “The Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino,” and “The Trump Marina Hotel and Casino.”
“(He’s) just like he’s on TV now, arrogant. He doesn’t keep his word.”
The revelations about Trump are in the new book about D’Elia, “The Life We Chose, William ‘Big Billy’ D’Elia and the Last Secrets of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Family,” by veteran journalist Matt Birkbeck. Birkbeck covered D’Elia and the Buffalino crime family in northeastern Pennsylvania for decades, and is the author of the biography “The Quiet Don”, about the crime family’s namesake, Russell Buffalino.
Donald Trump portrait on 5th Avenue outside Trump Tower. New York 1987 (Getty Images)
“Trump, when he made deals, he didn’t want his lawyers to do it. He didn’t want anyone else to do it, he did it himself and he did it with mobsters,” says Birkbeck.
“Billy did business with a lot of people, including Donald Trump,” he says. “Trump knew exactly who he was, Trump knew exactly what he was doing and what they were negotiating about.”
Birkbeck says that during a negotiation that sold timeshares in Trump properties, the future president leaned on Billy to buy copies of his book “The Art of The Deal” en masse as part of a deal.
“They distributed these rewards and gifts to timeshare people, and one of the gifts would be a copy of the book. Only Billy had to buy the book. He had to buy 5,000 or 10,000 copies of the book to make the book the bestseller lists. Actually, Billy should have paid $100,000.”
In another deal, D’Elia says Trump agreed to buy a piece of property involving his “Trump Plaza” casino, but backed out of the deal to settle it with a coin…for $1 million.
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D’Elia says he attended a meeting with Trump and Philadelphia-based real estate brothers Barry and Ken Shapiro, who owned the property, and had agreed to buy the land for $8 million until Trump showed up and refused to pay the amount. pay promised.
“Trump said he couldn’t give him the eight million, he only had seven,” says D’Elia. “So what are you doing now, wait?”
“We’re at this meeting with Trump (says D’Elia) and Barry said, ‘Let’s flip a coin for the other million.’ Trump said fine, so they flipped a coin and Trump won.”
Barry Shapiro confirmed the story to Fox News about Trump flipping a coin to lower the sale price.
Shapiro, who is now 85 years old, says his group, including his later brother Ken, did indeed sell the Atlantic City estate to Trump for $1 million less than the price Trump agreed to, and the coin toss settled it.
“The Life We Chose, William ‘Big Billy’ D’Elia, and the Last Secrets of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Family,” by Matt Birkbeck. (HarperCollins/William Morrow)
“The sale price was actually $8 million, and Trump only paid $7 because he flipped a coin with my brother Ken to save a million,” Shapiro said.
“We gave him a 15-year mortgage and he paid it off.”
The proposals for the telephone card and timeshare never came to fruition.
Trump has never been charged with any criminal misconduct related to his casino dealings and he has complied with legal requirements for owning and operating Atlantic City casinos, which are regulated by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission and its Division of Gaming Enforcement.
A spokesman for the Trump campaign, Steven Cheung, disputes D’Elia’s claims.
ATLANTIC CITY, NJ – MAY 8: A sign marks the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino May 8, 2004 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, Inc., with debts of $1.8 billion, posted a first-quarter loss of $48 million as of April 30, 2004, double its loss from the year-ago quarter. The company said gambling take-up was down $6 million from the quarter last year at the Taj Mahal hotel and casino amid increasing competition. The Trump Plaza casino on the boardwalk reported a drop of $4.4 million, and Trump Marina profits fell by $300,000. (Getty Images)
In a statement to Fox News, Cheung said he “will not give a dignified response to a book that belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section.”
But this wasn’t the first time Trump allegedly relied on a coin toss in a business negotiation.
In 2017, a Wall Street investment banker, Ken Moelis, told Business Insider that in the middle of a heated negotiation, Trump “looks at me and he goes” — we’re a million dollars apart — and he said, “I’ll tell you something, I will turn you around for it.’ And he put his hand in his pocket and took out a coin”
Moelis says he examined the coin to make sure it was legit, and when he flipped it, it “flew across the table at Trump, which he immediately knew was a mistake…but before he made a glimpsed, Trump picked it up and said, ‘Head. You lose.'”
Moelis is now a billionaire investment banker, having been described as the businessman who “launched Trump’s casinos on the stock market” and has had a long association with the former president.
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In addition to recounting his dealings with Trump, D’Elia’s book also delves into his portrayal of superstar singer Michael Jackson, along with manager Frank DiLeo, who was known as “Tookie.” D’Elia says Trump offered $1 million for the singer to perform at one of Trump’s Atlantic City casinos, but Jackson declined to perform at a casino.
As for ‘Tookie’, although he was a longtime music industry executive and worked with stars from Prince to Ozzy Osborne, he is best known to the public for playing the heavyset mobster ‘Tuddy’ in the classic movie ‘Goodfellas’. ‘. He died in 2011.
Today, D’Elia has left his mafia life behind and is enjoying a peaceful retirement. He served five years in prison after pleading guilty in 2009 to money laundering, conspiracy and witness tampering. He was never a mob informant and never testified against a suspected member of organized crime.
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D’Elia sat down for an exclusive interview for Fox Nation’s series about Jimmy Hoffa, “Riddle: The Search for James R. Hoffa.” He can be seen in the series finale, issue #6, “The Last Suspect”, about the remaining FBI suspect in Hoffa’s disappearance, Gabe Briguglio.
Follow Eric Shawn on Twitter: @EricShawnTV
