‘Tony the Dessert Man’ identified as man killed by truck

BAY RIDGE — A BAY RIDGE pedestrian killed in a collision with a Department of Transportation truck last week has been identified as 86-year-old former mobster Antonio Conigliaro. Fox News reports. Conigliaro was decapitated Thursday as he crossed the street next to the work truck turning from 92nd Street onto Dahlgren Place — an intersection known to be dangerous, according to witnesses who told News 12 — after which the visibly distraught driver remained at the scene and cooperated with police. Conigliaro was accused of being a loan shark for the Genovese crime family in 2005 and served a 13-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to organized crime. Friends of Conigliaro told the New York Post that after serving his prison sentence, he became a wholesaler of cakes and Italian ice cream, earning the nicknames “Tony Cakes” and “Tony the Dessert Man.”

“He was constantly looking over his shoulder his whole life, but he forgot to look left and right before crossing the street,” a police source told Fox. His friend and attorney Matthew Mari told the Post: “He was a kind, gentle, soft-spoken, very quiet guy. He was always trying to help people.”

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