Venturing down one of the 'Jewel' streets (Emerald, Amber, Ruby, and Sapphire) leads one into a pit, one of which is 30 feet below grade. | A five-block triangular plot of land along the Brooklyn-Queens boundary is known as the Hole. Partially flooded streets, vacant and overgrown lots, abandoned cars with bullet holes and shattered windows, motorhomes, numerous real estate signs, bulldozers, and even chickens can be found there. The neighborhood has long been abandoned and neglected. |
![]() | The Hole is most famous as the site of a mafia graveyard in the early 1980s. John Gotti and his crime family favoured the neighborhood to dispose of bodies. Gotti hid the remains of two high-profile murders there. John Favara was Gotti’s neighbor who accidentally struck and killed Gotti’s youngest son Frank with his car in 1980. The second victim is Tommy DeSimone, a Lucchese family associate who was immortalized by Joe Pesci in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas. In 1981, children playing on 78th Street (Ruby Street) came across the hand of Bonanno crime family capo Alphonse 'Sonny Red' Indelicato. |
Gerlando Sciascia, Vito Rizzuto, Giovanni Ligamarri and Joseph Massino in 1981. |