Nick the Blade’s pop-culture claim to fame is that he was the infamous “Pittsburgh connection” from the Oscar-nominated film Goodfellas (1990), supplying wholesale cocaine to real-life New York Lucchese mob associates Henry Hill, James (Jimmy the Gent) Burke and Thomas (Two-Gun Tommy) DeSimone, portrayed by Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, respectively, in the cinematic classic hemmed by the legendary Martin Scorsese.
The Lucchese crew got hooked up with Gesuale via a former prison cellmate of Hill’s and Pittsburgh mafia affiliate named Paul Mazzei. Known to hang around Chucky Porter and his younger brother Billy, Mazzei was partnered with Nick the Blade in a variety of drug operations, moving coke, heroin and marijuana. Mazzei, like Hill, went on to become a federal informant and was also implicated with the Luccheses in the notorious late-1970s Boston College men’s basketball program point-shaving scandal, piloted on the court by B.C. power forward and Pittsburgh-native Rick Kuhn.
The indictment that eventually brought down Gesuale was filed in January 1985 and included his right-hand man and fellow Pittsburgh wiseguy John (Johnny Three Fingers) Leone and local motorcycle gang boss Daniel (Danny the Deacon) Zwibel of the Pagans. Gesuale went on the lam and wasn’t arrested until over a year later hiding in Jamaica.
