rustbelter

Matthew Ianniello, the low-key reputed Genovese crime boss known as ‘Matty the Horse,’ who was convicted of rigging construction bids, skimming union dues and wringing protection money from bar owners, pornography peddlers and topless dancers during a half-century career that, among other highlights, helped transform Times Square into the dingy world capital of peep shows in the 1960s and ’70s, died on Aug. 15 at his home in Old Westbury, on Long Island.

Johnny Whitmire shuts off his lawn mower and takes a long draw from a water bottle. He sloshes the liquid from cheek to cheek and squirts it between his work boots. He is sweating through his white T-shirt. His jeans are dirty. His middle-aged back hurts like hell. But the calf-high grass is cut, and the weeds are tamed at 1900 W. 10th St., a house that Whitmire and his family once called home. ‘I’ve decided to keep the place up,’ he says, ‘because I hope to buy it back from the bank.’