News came down this morning about the FBI's largest organized crime bust in New York history, in which raids resulted in the arrest of over 100 alleged mobsters from all five crime families including the Gambinos, Genoveses, Luccheses, Bonannos and Colombos. Charges run the gamut from murder to gambling and the ol' standby, racketeering, and now WNYC has the full list of indictments. Digitally thumbing through the documents, two things are initially clear: this thing is huge (16 indictments in all) and none of them share my last name. The other thing that jumps out is that these dudes have great nicknames. Here are 20 of our favorites: 
 
 20. VINCENT AULISI, also known as "The Vet" 
 
 19. GIOVANNI VELLA, also known as "John Vella," "Mousey" and "Little John" 
 
 18. STEPHEN DEPIRO, also known as "Beach" 
 
 17. ANTHONY CAVEZZA, also known as "Tony Bagels" 
 
 16. JOHN BRANCACCIO, also known as"Johnny Bandana" 
 
 15. ANTHINO RUSSO, also known as "Hootie" 
 
 14. FRANK BELLANTONI, also known as "Meatball" 
 
 13. CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS, also known as "Burger" 
 
 12. VINCENZO FROGIERO, also known as "Vinny Carwash" 
 
 11. JOSEPH CARNA, also known as "Junior Lollipops" 
 
 10. DENNIS DELUCIA, also known as "Fat Dennis," "Little Dennis" and "the Beard" 
 
 9. LUIGI MANOCCHIO, also known as "Baby Shacks," "The Old Man," and "the Professor" 
 
 8. ANTHONY DURSO, also known as "Baby Fat Larry" and "BFL" 
 
 7. GIUSEPPE DESTEFANO, also known as "Pooch" 
 
 6. JOHN AZZARELLI, also known as "Johnny Cash" 
 
 5. ANDREW RUSSO, also known as "Mush" 
 
 4. VINCENT FEBBRARO, also known as "Jimmy Gooch" 
 
 3. BENJAMIN CASTELLAZZO, also known as "Benji," "The Claw" and "the Fang" 
 
 2. ANTHONY LICATA, also known as "Cheeks," "Anthony Firehawk," "Anthony Nighthawk," "Nighthawk" and "Firehawk" 
 
 1. JOHN HARTMANN, also known as "Lumpy," "Fatty" and "Fats" 
 
 [jcoscarelli@villagevoice.com / @joecoscarelli] 
 
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 On Friday, the convicted Chicago mobster Frank "Frankie Breeze" Calabrese pleaded innocent to a new charge of racketeering. Calabrese is one of 14 alleged mobsters who were indicted two weeks ago, at the conclusion of a long-running FBI investigation. Among those fingered are Frank "Gumba" Saladino, Paul "The Indian" Schiro, Frank "The German" Schweihs, and the apparent kingpin of the Chicago mafia, Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo. Where do mobsters get their nicknames? 
 
 From family members, childhood friends, business associates, newspaper reporters, or the police. Not every mobster has a nickname, and some have more than one. Chicago boss Anthony Accardo, for example, was known to his colleagues as "Joe Batters." He got the name from Al Capone after he dealt out a pair of savage beatings with a baseball bat: "This kid is a real joe batters," Scarface said. But the press called Accardo "Big Tuna," after seeing a photograph of him on a sport-fishing expedition. 
 
 "Joey the Clown" Lombardo earned his nickname from the press, thanks to his fondness for zany public behavior and cheesy jokes. At the conclusion of one of his trials, Lombardo attempted to elude newspaper photographers by converting a newspaper into a makeshift mask with eye-holes and racing out of the courtroom. At a subsequent trial, Lombardo explained to reporters that a piece of his jewelry was made from "canarly stone": "You 'canarly' see it," he said. 
 
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 Mobsters may not like the nicknames they get from reporters and cops. Tony "The Ant" Spilotro (whose murder almost 20 years ago plays a major role in the recent indictments in Chicago) got his from FBI agent Bill Roemer, who had tried to spread the longer and less polite nickname "Pissant" to his buddies in the press. New Yorker Carmine "Junior" Persico was given the unflattering name "The Snake" by a police officer. Persico hated it, especially after "The Snake" caught on among some fellow criminals. 
 
 Mobsters sometimes use nicknames with each other to avoid easy identification by the feds. The mob boss Vincent "Chin" Gigante (whose nickname was short for "Vincenzo") insisted that his name never be spoken aloud. His wiseguys were told instead to rub their fingers across their chin or, at one point, to refer to him as their "Aunt Julia." Meanwhile, the press dubbed Gigante "The Oddfather" after he began posing as a schizophrenic in the late 1960s. 
 
 Former head of the Gambino crime family John Gotti took pride in the fact that he had no nickname among his peers—everyone knew who you meant if you said "John." Members of the press called him the "Dapper Don," the "Teflon Don," and, following his conviction in 1992, the "Velcro Don." 
 
 Next question? 
 
 Explainer thanks Jerry Capeci of Ganglandnews.com and Allan May of AmericanMafia.com. 
 
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– The FBI pulled off the biggest mob bust in New York history yesterday. Maybe that’ll reduce mob crime. Here’s hoping. But one thing it will definitely do is acquaint us with some of the weird, straight-out-of-the-movies nicknames New York’s mobsters are using. The Village Voice pored over the indictment looking for juicy monikers, and dug up these gems: Anthony “Tony Bagels” Cavezza Joseph “Junior Lollipops” Carna Giovanni “Mousey” Vella Vincenzo “Vinny Carwash” Frogiero Luigi “Baby Shacks” Manocchio Dennis “the Beard” Delucia Anthony “Firehawk” Licata Benjamin “the Claw” Castellazzo Anthony “Big Fat Larry” Durso Of course, mobsters don’t always give themselves these wacky noms-de-guerre. Sometimes it’s police or the press, according to Slate. The press may have called John Gotti “Dapper Don,” but he was proud of the fact that on the street he had no nickname; if you said “John,” everyone knew who you meant.