
Frank "Geeky" Boccia (died June 1988) was an associate of the Gambino crime family. He was killed in 1988 for having assaulted his mother-in-law, the wife of Gambino capo Anthony Ruggiano.
Biography[]
Frank Boccia was born to an Italian-American family in Ozone Park, Queens, New York City, and he became a tough and feared mob enforcer. He was an armored truck robber and drug user and initially worked for Bonanno crime family capo Frank Bonomo during the 1970s. In 1979, he was part of a hit team to kill gambler Settimo Favia, who had insulted Bonomo. Boccia and others ambushed Favia outside his Brooklyn apartment and Boccia shot him to death before getting away. He was later arrested and convicted for armed robbery, serving a prison stint during the 1980s. After his release, he began working for the Gambino crime family and Anthony Ruggiano, eventually marrying Ruggiano's daughter. However, an unstable and drunken Boccia had an argument with his mother-in-law in 1988 over not paying expenses for his daughter's baptism, and he physically assaulted her, which was forbidden in mob circles. Upon learning of the event, Ruggiano's son Anthony Jr. and Gambino soldier Anthony Guerrieri asked boss John Gotti for permission to kill Boccia, which he granted. In June 1988, Boccia was lured by Anthony Jr. to Dominick Pizzonia's Café Liberty Social Club with the pretense of planning a drug heist, and was met by Pizzonia, Guerrieri and Alfred DiCongilio. Guerrieri took Boccia to the club's back porch, at which point, Pizzonia shot him repeatedly in the head. When Boccia wouldn't die, Pizzonia ran back inside the club, reloaded his gun, and finished Boccia off. His body was placed in a sleeping bag, taken to the Atlantic Ocean on a boat, and his lungs and stomach were punctured and cut so he would sink to the bottom. Boccia's corpse was never recovered.