Hollywood Mafia Mobsters

1930′s Men’s Fashion – Influenced by Hollywood, Mobsters, & the Zoot Suit mafia today

2012-02-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

Hollywood life and cinema

The 1930s was an era that saw various changes in men’s fashions. One reason why of the sudden sartorial interest by more males was mainly because that Hollywood was beginning to have an impact concerning the right way fashionable clothing had become viewed. Having a modern and trendy appearance was starting to be crucial you both men and women

The 1930s was an era that saw various changes in men’s fashions. One reason why of the sudden sartorial interest by more males was mainly because that Hollywood was beginning to have an impact concerning the right way fashionable clothing had become viewed. Having a modern and trendy appearance was starting to be crucial you both men and women.

Restructured Matches
Men’s suits were being restructured in the 1930s to provide an exploration that featured a larger than normal torso and squared off, padded shoulders. This newly tailored effect gave men an imposing silhouette. Double breasted jackets with shiny buttons turned into a status symbol and men rushed to buy them. Even very inexpensive suits chose to give out these new, sharp lines that held like an appeal to males throughout the country.

Henry Hill: If Ferris is a wise guy he’ll leave the country when movie comes out.. in case he gets whacked

2012-01-06T13:56:00.000-08:00

GOODFELLAS mobster Henry Hill has warned former gangster Paul Ferris to FLEE Scotland after his movie biopic is released.
Legendary Mafia hood Hill reckons Ferris could face revenge attacks, just like he has since the hit movie about him was released in 1990.

Hill, 68, spent over a decade fearing that he would be whacked after his shady story became a Hollywood blockbuster.

Goodfellas told how 'wise guy' Hill — played by Ray Liotta — became an FBI grass and eventually brought down his own mob.

He had to be given a new identity and placed on the witness protection programme.

There was a whopping £1million contract out on Hill's head — and he's only recently started making public appearances.

Now Hill has advised Glasgow's former underworld enforcer Ferris, 48, to take time out for his own safety when controversial flick The Wee Man hits cinemas.

Speaking exclusively to The Scottish Sun, Hill said: "He'll have to be guarded for sure — he should come to America and live.

"It's important for him to stay on the straight and narrow path.

"That way, everything will be okay and it'll all work itself out.

"He has to be cool and not let it get to his head.

"It's going to be a strange process and he'll probably be able to tell you about it ten years from now.

"He should go and see the world after it comes out."

The Wee Man is currently being filmed in London after Strathclyde cops banned it from Glasgow. The flick, which stars Martin Compston as Ferris, chronicles the hardman's feuds with a string of notorious Glasgow gangland figures.

Hill, who now lives in Malibu, California, added: "Life changed immensely for me and it will for him, too.

"I went from being a gangster to a Goodfella, making movies. It was surreal what happened.

"People wanted to talk to me all the time, and get to know me.

"I don't consider myself a celebrity and at times it was a pain in the ass. But overall, it was cool."

There are similarities in the stories of Hill and Ferris — who are arguably their respective countries' most famous ex-cons.

And he reckons he's only safe to do so because most of his enemies from the time are now dead.

read more http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/scotlandfeatures/4042121/Mobster-Henry-Hill-warns-Paul-Ferris-over-film.html

Bulger Too Sick To Face Trial Maybe « Hollywood Goodfellla

2012-01-01T09:37:00.000-08:00

Dec 19, 2011 ... Whitey Bulger May Be To Sick For Trial–Michele McPhee for NewsCenter 5 reports about the poor health issues of former Boston mobster « Bulger Too Sick To Face Trial Maybe « Hollywood goodfella

Whitey Bulger Taken To Boston Hospital « Hollywood goodfella

2012-01-01T08:59:00.000-08:00

BOSTON — Former Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger spent a day at a Boston hospital last week, several sources told NewsCenter 5’s Michele McPhee The hospital visit raises more questions about Bulger’s health and whether it could affect the case against him;
Families of the alleged Bulger murder victima are worried, ”we are all feeling that justice it is not going to be served if he doesn’t make it to trial,” said Steve Davis, whose sister Debbie was allegedly murdered by Whitey Bulger and his Winter Hill mob associate Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi read more Here

Report: Whitey Bulger Has Incontinence - Friends of Ours

2012-01-01T08:44:00.000-08:00

Health issues may spare Irish mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger from trial for the nineteen murders he allegedly committed during his reign of terror in Boston, MA as reported by Michele McPhee for WCVB http://bitterqueen.typepad.com/friends_of_ours/2011/12/report-whitey-bulger-has-incontinence.html

Mob Character Actor Tony Darrow Sentencing Verdict

2011-12-20T11:50:00.000-08:00

Anthony Borgese, who goes by the stage name of Tony Darrow, has been a fixture in gangster films since his memorable role in the classic film Goodfellas.

In Goodfellas, Darrow portrayed lounge owner Sonny Bunz and in one of the film's most memorable scenes, Bunz was struck in the head with a bottle by Joe Pesci's character Tommy DeVito.While Goodfellas might have been the movie Darrow is most recognized for, he has appeared in several films such as, Bullets Over Broadway, Mighty Aphrodite, Analyze This, Mickey Blue Eyes, Small Time Crooks, Searching for Bobby D, Kill the Irishman and the soon to be released gangster film GOAT. Darrow also portrayed the character Larry Boy Barese on the hit HBO series The Sopranos
.
Borgese's legal troubles began after he admitted that he enlisted the help of some real life gangster friends to collect a debt. The vicim of the attack who apparantly owed $5,000 to a Borgese friend, suffered a broken jaw and ribs.

Since his arrest, Borgese has appeared in an anti-Mafia public service announcement and has visited schools such as The School of Visual Arts in Manhattan to warn students about the dangers of Mob life and breaking the law.

Under Federal sentencing guidlines, Borgese could have faced 41 months in prison for orchestrating the Mob shakedown. Due to Borgese's past record for helping raise millions of dollars for several charities and his public service announcement, Judge Eric Vitaliano sentenced Borgese to six months house arrest and 250 hours of community service.

Recently Borgese was roasted at a celebrity Sopranos roast in NJ where partial proceeds were donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. In attendence were several of Borgese's Sopranos castmates such as James Gandolfini, Tony Sirico, Vincent Pastore, Federico Castellucio and William DeMeo.
Borgese can be seen in the soon to be released film GOAT as Patsy Pirati.

http://www.examiner.com/gangster-movies-in-national/mob-character-actor-tony-darrow-sentencing-verdict

Bulgarian 'Killer' Testifies about PM Borisov's Mafia Ties

2011-12-01T18:18:00.000-08:00

The defendant in Bulgaria's high-profile organized crime case code-namedBulgarian 'Killer' Testifies about PM Borisov's Mafia links. Balkans, bugarian mafia, The Mafia Other&

: Milcho Bonev, Sreten Josic, Bay Mile, SIC, Petar Stoyanov, Chieftain, Killers, Shumen, court, Yuri Galev, Murder, plot, Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Yosif Yosifov, Pleven, US Embassy, Boyko, Borisov, Wikileaks, John, Beyrle, organized crime, Lukoil, Valentin, Zlatev, Regional Court, Dachi, Georgi Petkov, The Hook, Kamen Balbuzanov, Vasil Kostov, Ketsa, Konstantin Dimitrov, Kosyo Samokovetsa, Rumen Nikolov, Pashata Bulgaria, Organized Crime corruption

Police snap photos at Montreal mob boss's funeral

2011-11-28T22:06:00.000-08:00

alleged Mafia boss,Salvatore Montagna New York's notorious Bonanno crime family, --Police took photos of funeral-goers as about 70 people attended the service for reputed Montreal mafia boss Salvatore Montagna on Monday

Feds: Greig Lied About Bank Account, Wealth

2011-11-24T14:45:00.000-08:00

whitey-bulger.../feds-greig-lied-about-bank

Federal prosecutors are opposing bail for Catherine Greig, the girlfriend of former
Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger. ...

Greig has hidden funds, say Feds « Hollywood goodfella | Whitey

2011-11-24T14:31:00.000-08:00

James “ Whitey '' Bulger and gal pal Catherine E. Greig. Shelly Murphy for Boston globe writes about Jimmy “whitey” Bulgers' gangster-groupie gal pal who was ...

Greig has hidden funds, say Feds « Hollywood goodfella

: Whitey Bulger News- Anna Bjornsdottir, a former beauty queen from Iceland, has been outed as the one who dropped the dime on Irish mobster Whitey Bulger and ...

Beauty Queen Gave Up Whitey Bulger- Friends of ours

2011-10-11T09:56:00.000-07:00

Anna Bjornsdottir, a former beauty queen from Iceland, has been outed as the one who dropped the dime on Irish mobster Whitey Bulger and his gal pal Catherine Greig after recognizing the fugitive couple as Charlie and Carol Gasko who cared for a stray cat in their -Friends of ours bitterqueen.typepad Boston Feds Sleeping with enemy again « Hollywood goodfella -Friends of ours Mar 31, 2011 – Antonio Borrelli « Hollywood goodfella. Page 1 of 13. Hollywood. Just another WordPress.com weblog. Skip navigation. • Los Angeles Mob bitterqueen.typepad

Bean Town Boos for Whitey Bulger costume « Hollywood goodfella

2011-10-11T09:43:00.000-07:00

By Brendan Lynch–Dedham-based party supply retailer iParty is selling a particularly scary Halloween costume this year — a prison jumpsuit based on captured ...

Bean Town Boos for Whitey Bulger costume « Hollywood goodfella

Boston Feds Sleeping with enemy again « Hollywood goodfella

2011-08-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

Aug 17, 2011 – Sound familiar? It should. It's Whitey Bulger all over again. Except this time Mark Rossetti is Whitey Bulger.– It's Whitey Bulger all over again. Except this time Mark Rossetti is Whitey Bulger. And this isn't ancient history. ...

M.I.A.: Joe Pesci

2011-08-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

By Brian Salisbury , Hollywood.com Staff

Often times this column requires a good amount of weekly research. There are plenty of actors/filmmakers who haven’t worked in a long time, but among those myriad names, it becomes necessary to weed out those who have been unable to work due to being regrettably deceased, and those for whom little desired is harbored to see them return to the limelight.

But this week’s subject serendipitously fell into my lap while I was channel surfing. Snickers has been running ads of late featuring everyone from Aretha Franklin to Rosanne Barr as representations of the manner in which people’s personalities change when they are hungry. The latest one insinuates that one gentleman gets rather angry when famished as represented by none other than Joe Pesci. Suddenly I found myself wondering, where the heck has that guy been?

Why We Love Him

The soft spot in our hearts for Joe Pesci was one violently carved with a dull blade and widened by a closed fist. Pesci established himself as one of the preeminent gangsters in cinema. It began with Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America and was absolutely solidified with 1990’s Goodfellas. If there is one director who truly understands the art of the gangster film, it’s Martin Scorsese, and Pesci proved to be the embodiment of the most unhinged, sociopathic tendencies that can be fostered by organized crime—the partnership was perfect.

The role actually netted Pesci an Academy Award. He would later collaborate with Scorsese again to portray the similarly homicidal Nicky Santoro in Casino. If nothing else, Santoro taught us that a ballpoint pen in the wrong hands is as dangerous as a loaded gun.

As much as we love Pesci the gangster, the man has demonstrated his chops as a comedian on more than one occasion. Even before he bashed in heads as Tommy Devito in Goodfellas, he made a splash as Leo Getz in Lethal Weapon 2. Getz was a fast-talking, spastic con-man-turned-witness who proved to be a unique addition to the already stellar chemistry between Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. As the franchise progressed through two more sequels, Pesci turned out to be as indelible to fans as anyone else in the series. Pesci also enjoyed great success as one of the bumbling Wet Bandits in 1990’s Home Alone; he and Daniel Stern would reprise these characters in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

What Happened to Him?

A remarkable actor, an American gangster, and an Oscar winner, how could this guy possibly vanish from the spotlight? But somehow Pesci did seem to fade away. Right after Casino, Pesci made two comedies which both tanked commercially: 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag and Gone Fishin’. When Lethal Weapon enjoyed its fourth installment in 1998, it seemed that he was poised to bounce back. The movie was a smash hit that not only reunited all our old favorite cast members, but also added Chris Rock and martial artist Jet Li. But strangely, this would be the last anyone saw of Pesci for several years.

Where’s He Been?

In 2006, Pesci had a small part in The Good Shepherd; a film directed by his longtime friend and collaborator Robert DeNiro. This would mark the first time in nearly a decade that Pesci had appeared in a film. I am still a bit baffled as to where he went or what he was doing, but this resurgence again proved to be short-lived. It’s now been another five years and still we’ve not seen Pesci in a theatrically released movie. Was Pesci actually in the mafia? Had he turned informer for the FBI and been relocated through witness protection like Goodfellas’ Henry Hill? Probably not, but his disappearance is baffling.

What Now?

Though conflicting reports have surfaced regarding the character he will play, Pesci is set to appear in a biopic called Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father. The movie will, obviously, center on late mafia kingpin John Gotti and his relationship with his son. Rain Man director Barry Levinson is helming the project, and the cast already boasts Al Pacino, John Travolta, and Ben Cross. If this movie turns out to be Pesci’s glorious return to gangster cinema, I will be first in line to see it. But I also hope that Pesci makes a return to comedy because, despite his famous and chillingly brooding protest in Goodfellas, I do think he’s funny.

http://www.hollywood.com/news/Joe_Pesci_Career_and_Future/7829161

Old ghosts come back to haunt Whitey Bulger « Hollywood goodfella

2011-07-31T04:33:00.000-07:00

12 hours ago ... Among the multitudes of Whitey Bulger's alleged victims, Fred Weichel stands alone. Much like the skeletons pulled out of those unmarkedgraves in Dorchester and Quincy, Fred was buried almost 30 years ago - Old ghosts come back to haunt Whitey Bulger « Hollywood goodfella

Gorgeous will rot in prison

2011-07-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

Gorgeous will rot in prison. By MITCHEL MADDUX. Bye, bye, Vinny.

Former Bonanno Mafia boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano -- who dodged the death penalty for having a mob associate whacked -- was sentenced yesterday to spend the rest of his life in the SuperMax federal prison in Colorado.

FBI Paying Mobster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger’s Rent « Hollywood Goodfella

2011-07-24T05:59:00.000-07:00

While mobster James “ Whitey ” Bulger sits in a Massachusetts jail, RadarOnline. com has exclusively learned that the FBI is paying the rent on the Santa Monica, California apartment where he hid out for the last 16 years. FBIPaying Mobster James 'Whitey' Bulger's Rent « Hollywood goodfella--Crime | Whitey Bulger News

Boston Feds Sleeping with enemy again « Hollywood goodfella. By Boston mobster arrested - August 17 2011 - No Comments. Sound familiar? It should. ...

FBI Paying Mobster James 'Whitey' Bulger's Rent « Hollywood goodfella
Boston mobster arrested - July 19 2011
While mobster James “ Whitey ” Bulger While mobster James “ Whitey ” Bulger sits in a Massachusetts jail, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned that the FBI is paying the rent on the Santa Monica, California apartment where he hid out for the last 16 years ...

Whitey Bulger: Stone Cold Killer - Friends of Ours

2011-07-16T09:41:00.000-07:00

Tonight at 8 pm CNN will air a one-hour documentary on Winter Hill mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger which will explore his life of crime in Boston, MA and his relationship with dirty agents at the FBI who provided him with protection in exchange for information on the Patriarca family.-Friends of Ours. Whitey Bulger: Stone Cold Killer – Friends of Ours;James Bulger

'Whitey' Bulger makeshift cash and gun safes Hollywood Goodfella

2011-07-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

'Whitey' Bulger makeshift cash and gun safes « Hollywood goodfella |
POOR REFLECTION: The feds say fugitive mobster Whitey Bulger kept a cache of cash and weapons behind a mirror in his Santa Monica, Calif., apartment.
boston bulger business -ag Archives: friends of ours cosa nostra news. « Older posts · 'Whitey' Bulger makeshift cash and gun safes Hollywood Goodfella ...

Whitey Bulger's bio could bring in big bucks « Hollywood goodfella

2011-07-06T22:54:00.000-07:00

If convicted, accused mass murderer James “ Whitey ” Bulger could make a killing selling his blood-soaked biography to a publishing house or Hollywood studio, experts say, thanks in part to state lawmakers, who for yearJames J. "Whitey" Bulger. As. www.trutv.com. James whitey bulger « Hollywood goodfella. jpg - 315x275. James whitey bulger. af11.wordpresss-Hollywood Goodfella-

Feds Bust Mike The Butcher - Friends of Ours

2011-07-06T22:32:00.000-07:00

You might say he likes a little meat on the bone. The FBI arrested reputed Bonanno mobster Michael "Mike the Butcher" Virtuoso yesterday on The FBI arrested reputed Bonanno mobster

Originally posted here http://bitterqueen.typepad.com/friends_of_ours/2011/07/feds-bust-mike-the-butcher.html

Mafia wives break omerta for Mob TV show

2011-07-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

The ex-wives of eight notorious Mafia mobsters are to break the sinister crime syndicate's code of silence to tell all about life in the underworld for a new TV show.

The women, including the former partners of high-ranking members of the infamous Lucchese and Bonanno families in New York, lift the lid on gangster goings-on in interviews for the documentary I Married A Mobster.

The show, narrated by Oscar-nominated Goodfellas and The Sopranos star Lorraine Bracco, airs in the U.S. later this month.

Renee-graziano-hollywood-goodfella | Funny Images

2011-06-18T08:07:00.000-07:00

renee-graziano-hollywood-goodfella. 'Mob Wives' Renee Graziano's Son AJ: 'I'm Never Joining The ... Hollywood Life ... Mob Wives star Renee Graziano 's son

Feds arrest Philadelphia reputed mob head Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi

2011-05-23T13:59:00.000-07:00

The reputed boss of the Philadelphia mob, his alleged lieutenant and 11 others were hit with federal racketeering and gambling charges in an indictment unsealed Monday, a case that federal authorities said shows that organized crime

Hollywood Goodfella | Media Belajar Dan Berbagi

2011-05-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

Five Families of New York City · Flare Network · For Members Only - The Story of the Mob's Secret Judge · Friends of Ours · frontline: drug wars | PBS ..Tentang Hollywood goodfella atau kata kunci yang berhubungan dengan Hollywood goodfella Ataupun info tentang Hollywood

"Rats": Why Juries Believe Them

2011-05-17T15:36:00.000-07:00

Vinny "Gorgeous" Basciano has just been convicted of racketeering and murder in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York and faces the death penalty. His conviction was based in large part on the testimony of one of the most powerful and nefarious "rats" ever to get on a witness stand for the government -- the former boss of the Bonanno crime family Joseph "Big Joey" Massino. To be sure, Vinny "Gorgeous" unquestionably is among the worst society has to offer -- apart from his serial murders, he conspired to kill the presiding judge in his trial -- but is he any worse than "Big Joey"?

In finding Basciano guilty, the jury obviously believed Massino. There were also secretly recorded conversations by Massino, but his testimony was critical. Is it surprising, even an insult to one's intelligence, that a jury would believe Massino? The reality, however, is that jurors typically accept the testimony of these reprobates, even though to believe such testimony would seem to defy common sense. Why in a million years should or would anyone with half a brain believe that a witness is telling the truth when he has admitted to a life of ruthless, horrendous, murderous conduct? Such conduct, most normal people would argue, should land him in Dante's innermost circle of the Inferno, rather than a champion witness for the government. Indeed, Massino's long criminal history probably should disqualify him from testifying entirely.

But rats commonly are among the most celebrated and accomplished trial witnesses. Rats are those treacherous stool pigeons and spies who turn on family and friends with scathing accounts of their ruthless criminality, and juries routinely accept their accounts as dramatic, entertaining, and believable. The rat usually makes for great courtroom theater. Prosecutors who produce and direct the performance are adept at using the rat for a broad array of investigations and prosecutions, but none is as celebrated and consequential as trials against the Mob. Prosecutors in arguing to the jury boldly and easily justify the use of such miscreants: "Sure, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we would ideally have wanted to place before you as witnesses for the prosecution members of the clergy, distinguished judges, respected ministers of government. But men and women of such high standing do not reside in society's sewers. When you need to navigate your way through the sewer of crime and search through the muck and the garbage, you need a rat."

Added to the Honor Roll of famous Big Time rats -- i.e., gangster Sammy "The Bull" Gravano and drug-kingpin Nicky Barnes -- is Big Joey Massino. Unquestionably the most prominent mob figure ever to testify for the government, Massino appeared to be enjoying his moment. Sixty-eight years old, a huge belly, and a droopy countenance, he probably resembled to some of the jurors their uncle. Courtroom observers watched almost in disbelief as the jury listened raptly as Massino recounted his less than distinguished personal resume -- teenage thefts and burglaries, then graduating to murders, lots of murders, and finally culminating in the notorious "Three Captains" hit, in which Massino orchestrated and participated in the executions of the three heads of his rival faction by ambushing and slaughtering them in a Brooklyn social club.

What is it about Massino, and the other rats, that incline juries to believe them? There is virtually no empirical and anecdotal evidence from which to try to draw conclusions, even tentative ones. Mock trial experiments with fake juries have tried to diagnose how jurors react to a wide array of witnesses, including eyewitnesses, alibi witnesses, experts, and police witnesses, but there is no scientific data on rats. From our own courtroom experiences and observations, several important points stand out. First, to be believable the rat must make a full confession to the jury of all his nefarious deeds. He cannot hide them, minimize them, or ask forgiveness. Thus, Massino recounted calmly, almost matter-of-factly, the enormity of his wrongdoing. Apparently to jurors, his "confession" to big-time sin had a quasi-religious quality. Indeed, jurors find it fascinating to hear a person expose in such excruciating detail his own ruthless and despicable behavior. People don't generally say such things about themselves that are so disserving of their character and humanity. Thus, regardless of a juror's moral qualms about the witness's character, there is usually a very good reason for the jury to believe his testimony to be truthful.

Moreover, the preparation and rehearsal of the rat's courtroom performance should not be minimized. Prosecutors, like stage and film directors, over days and weeks of trial preparation, are adept at contriving the dramatic personae for their witness. Massino's courtroom demeanor obviously was artfully staged; his unassuming persona was carefully crafted, and his use of mob jargon ("clip," "brokester," "hit," "boob") was obviously orchestrated by the prosecutors to amuse the jury, which it clearly did, and give an air of authenticity to the role. Massino's crime stories were vivid and realistic and impressed the jury. And lest one forget, these rehearsals were not limited to the prosecutor's own direct questions to his witness. The prosecutors spent many hours, even days and weeks, with their rat, in mimicking the anticipated cross-examination by the defense, and this feigned interrogation effectively prepared the rat for almost every conceivable attack by the defense.

Other prosecutorial tactics invite the jury to make a favorable assessment of the rat's credibility. Every rat makes a deal with the prosecutor, and enters into what is known as a "cooperation agreement." This agreement is like a contract. It stipulates that the rat agrees to testify fully and truthfully, and the prosecutor in turn agrees to consider the rat's cooperation with respect to the rat's punishment, and in his case to help Massino avoid the death penalty and maybe, someday, as Massino put it, "to see a light at the end of the tunnel." Sometimes the terms of the agreement are explicit, sometimes unspoken but tacit. The lawyer for the defendant may actually spend days cross-examining the rat on this deal, in the hope that the jury will conclude that the rat is lying to save his own skin.

But this endeavor by the defense lawyer is usually futile. The cooperation agreement misleadingly invites the jury to see it as the prosecutor's method to bring out the truth from the witness, with the unspoken message that the prosecutor knows what truth is, and through this agreement is assuring its revelation. Jurors thereby get the impression that the prosecutor is carefully monitoring the testimony of his rat to ensure that the jury gets only the truth. The prosecutor in this way effectively buttresses his witness's credibility by vouching for its accuracy, and in a trial featuring as the cast of characters the prosecutor, the rat, the defendant, and his mob lawyer, the prosecutor stands head and shoulders above everybody else for honesty, integrity, and the vindication of the law. And paradoxically, given the rat's association with the defendant, the more the defense lawyer attempts to paint the rat as the evil person he assuredly is, the more the jury sees the paint as staining the defendant as well, usually terminally.

But given the fact that the jury typically is willing to believe men such as Massino and his ilk, as the jury did here, what does this say about the criminal justice process when, unlike the defense lawyer's role, the prosecutor's most important duty is to dispense truth and do justice? How careful should prosecutors be in using rats to catch rats? Should prosecutors simply throw a rat on the witness stand in the hope the jury will believe him?

Despite Massino's horrific past and his probable motives to "cooperate" with the authorities in giving testimony (although he testified that such motives did not include his own desire to avoid the death penalty), it is our experience that the overwhelming majority of prosecutors offer "rat" testimony only if they actually believe it themselves. In many respects, jurors, even though they are lay persons, arrive at their decisions on witness credibility in the same way that prosecutors do -- they bring to their decisions their ordinary life experiences, common sense, and good judgment. Decisions that we make every day require us to use our skill sets in accepting or rejecting the word of persons who represent to us certain facts, or vouch for things, and ask us to rely on their word. Juries do it the same way.

We are long past the day when the law imposed the paternalistic rite of disqualifying certain witness as "incompetent" to testify, for example, for having a criminal record. The majesty of the jury system is that it affords the defendant's peers, meaning jurors -- euphemistically the "man in the street" -- the task of deciding if a witness is telling the truth. Jurors most likely believe "rats" when most other people would believe them, although one has to swallow hard in doing so. And maybe that's the way it should be.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-cohen/rats-why-juries-believe-t_b_862752.html

Vinny Gorgeous Basciano guilty of mob murder

2011-05-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

The jury of seven men and five women will return Monday to decide whether Basciano should die by lethal injection or get life in prison for ordering the murder of mob associate Randolph Pizzolo.

Basciano turned his chair to face Judge Nicholas Garaufis, not the jury forewoman, as she read the verdict on the fourth day of deliberations in Brooklyn Federal Court.

He showed no reaction and later stood as the jury filed out of the courtroom, took a deep breath and sighed.

I think we're all disappointed," defense lawyer Richard Jasper said outside court.

Basciano, 51, is already serving a life sentence for the shotgun murder of Bronx junkie Frank Santoro in 2001.

The flamboyant gangster was buried under the weight of testimony from six cooperating witnesses, including another former Bonanno boss, Joseph Massino, the highest-ranking New York gangster to sing for the government.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Taryn Merkl and Stephen Frank told jurors Basciano's big mouth proved he was a murderer.

Basciano - who was in jail when Pizzolo was executed Nov. 30, 2004, on a deserted street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn - told Massino in a taped jailhouse conversation he gave the order to kill Pizzolo.

"His own words are on tape telling you the murder was his idea, he selected the hit team and explaining why it had to be done," Frank said in closing arguments.

Pizzolo had committed numerous mob indiscretions and the hit was meant to send a "wakeup call" to the rest of the Bonanno crime family, already reeling from the defections of several high-ranking gangsters.

"Even though justice has been served, there isn't anything that can or will replace the lifetime sentence of emotional void my family and I serve, without my dad," Pizzolo's daughter Connie told the Daily News.

"If capital punishment is what is next for Vinny, then my

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/05/16/2011-05-16_mob_boss_vincent_vinny_gorgeous_basciano_found_guilty_of_murder.html

Mob Boss Ordered Son Whacked On Mother's Day

2011-04-23T19:05:00.000-07:00

The FBI is again pursuing the 2004 disappearance of Genovese boss Dominick Cirillo's son, Nicholas, after ex-Bonanno boss Joseph Massino testified that Cirillo ordered his drug-addicted son killed...on Mother's Day, of all days! One source said Nicholas was high on crack during a fight just before his disappearance: "There was concern the kid [Nicholas] was out of control and he was going to cause problems for the [Genovese] family."

Nicholas disappeared on Mother's Day 2004, two weeks after getting into an altercation with Bonanno family associates Vincent Jr. Basciano and Dominick Cicale in the Bronx. His body was never found, and now it's believed that "Quiet Dom" ordered him killed after a tape implicating him was played during Joseph Massino's trial. According to the News:

That came from Dom," Bonanno acting boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basicano Sr. told Massino in a secretly taped 2005 jailhouse chat.
"Did we have anything to do with that?" asked Massino, waving his hand like it was a gun.

"Absolutely not," Basciano replied.

It's thought that the altercation in the Bronx led to the hit, given that attacking a "made man" carries the penalty of death. Cirillo is on supervised release for a racketeering conviction, and when daughter Ann Marie Caggiano was asked about the possible hit, she replied, "I really don't want to talk about that

The Women of Mafia Families TV series « Hollywood goodfella

2011-04-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

Mafia Turncoat Sammy “The Bull” Gravano.

So much for family secrets. Several women related to men serving time for mob-related crimes are now.

“I think we’re brave,” said Karen Gravano, one of the stars of the new VH1 series “Mob Wives.” “I think there’s so much out there about the mob and it’s so glorified. I just thought it was time to bring people behind closed doors and see what the families go through.”

Elderly Mob Associate Charged Again

2011-04-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

Nicole Melia, a reputed associate of the Gambino crime family, faces 20 years in prison on a loan-sharking charge

The mob life could land a 78-year-old man in prison for the second time.

Prosecutors in Bridgeport say Nicola Melia, a reputed associate of the Gambino crime family, made high-interest "street loans" in Fairfield County and threatened violence if the debts were not paid.

His arraignment is scheduled for Friday.

In 2005, Melia was sentenced to 33 months in prison for what was considered a minor role in a loan shark operation. He and 18 other mob members and associates were accused of racketeering, extortion and illegal gambling.

Joseph 'Big Joey' Massino recordings reveal delusions of grandeur

2011-04-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

The Bonnanos think they’re the Corleone family, but not even Mario Puzo could have made up these clowns. Based on recordings former boss-turned-rat Joseph "Big Joey" Massino made of his successor Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano while wearing a wire, the "Godfather" character he and his crew most resemble is not Vito or Michael. It’s Fredo. "[Anthony] Ace Aiello is like a Luca Brasi," Basciano said, comparing the Bonnano associate to the Corleone’s loyal hitman, on one of the recordings played in Brooklyn Federal court today. He’s your Luca Brasi," Basciano said. After playing the recording, prosecutors asked Massino – the first mob boss to spill his guts on the stand – if he was familiar with "The Godfather" movies. "Yes, I am," he replied. Asked to describe the significance of a Luca Brasi?" Massino exlained, "if they sent him out to kill someone, he’d do it." The Bonnanos do apparently share the Corleone’s flair for the dramatic. "Did your wife get the money, by the way," Basciano asks on the recording. "I sent your wife money." Massino replied that she did in fact receive the $50,000 tribute, which was stuffed inside a bottle of Dom Perignon. "A bottle of Dom Perignon. $50,000. It came from Vinny," Massino explained on the stand. Prosecutors played the recordings Massino made in prison as he and Basciano stood six inches apart in adjacent exercise cages to prove that Basciano was behind the murder of associate Randy Pizzolo, for which he faces the death penalty. "Randy — you OK’d it?" Massino asked Basciano. "I gave the order," Basciano replies. "Randy was a f—-ing jerkoff." Massiano then pushed him further. "Did it warrant the clip?" Basciano explained that Pizzolo went to meet a made man while carrying a pistol – a major Cosa Nostra no-no. "Randy went into Villa Sonoma. He went with a gun, he got drunk and he says he’s the only one capable of killing anybody — in this family He says he was an ex-SEAL," Basciano said. Rather than just shun him from the family, Basciano said he had him whacked to set an example. "He’s a a f——ing dangerous kid, who don’t listen. He’s just an annoying kid," Basciano said. "These guys were out there doing whatever the f—- they want," he added, referring to the behavior of other Bonnano members. "I thought this kid would be a good wake up call for everybody." Massino, who turned informant in 2005 to avoid the death penalty after getting convicted of seven murders and facing charges on an eighth, complained that Basciano didn’t clear the hit with him first, "Why didn’ you ask me?" Massino asked. "It was already in the works, bo," Basciano said. "This kid though...this kid deserved it. This kid was a f—-ing thorn. He didn’t listen to no f——ing body." Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/mob_boss_confirms_hit_while_wearing_aCKVAsMuK1eCNxWf8j6YIP#ixzz1JTG5HT6z

Mafia turncoat: Joseph Massino, ex-Bonnano boss, testifies against fellow mobster Vinny Gorgeous

2011-04-13T21:11:00.000-07:00

Mafia turncoat: Joseph Massino, ex-Bonnano boss, testifies against fellow mobster Vinny Gorgeous. So much for Omerta. Highest ranking Mafia Rat Fingers “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano for murder. Ex-Bonnano heavyweight Joseph Massino made Mafia history Tuesday, becoming the first crime boss to take the stand as he testified against his successor. As mob legends turned in their graves, Massino fingered Vincent [/Vinny Gorgeous\] Basciano in the killing of a crime family associate. Asked if there was anyone in the room who was a fellow member of his crime family, the turncoat boss pointed directly at Basciano. “That man in the gray suit sitting there,” he said. Massino then described how he secretly taped Basciano in prison talking about killing mob associate Randolph Pizzolo in 2004. “He told me that he had him killed,” Massino explained to the jury. “He said he was a scumbag, a rat, a troublemaker, a bad kid.” Taking the stand in Brooklyn Federal Court, Massino wore a blue, two-toned warm-up jacket, zipped-up halfway to reveal a white undershirt and bowling ball sized gut underneath. The 68-year-old Massino, who has been jailed since 2004 in eight gangland murders, said he had been a member of the Bonnano family for 33 years. When asked what his last title was, Massino replied, “I was the boss – official boss.” “Was anyone above you?” assistant U.S. Attorney Taryn Merkl asked. “Nobody,” Massino replied. Massino described what he did for the crime organization as, “murders, responsible for the family, make captains, break captains.” Massino became the highest-ranking Mafia rat when he agreed to cooperate to avoid the death penalty in the slaying of a Bonnano capo. This is the second trial for Basciano on charges of killing Randolph. In 2007, a mistrial was declared in the murder case because of a hung jury, although Basciano was convicted of racketeering charges. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

Out-of-jail mobster 'Vinny Gorgeous' enjoys 'slow go' in court

2011-04-05T17:53:00.000-07:00

Out-of-jail mobster 'Vinny Gorgeous' enjoys 'slow go' in court
Jury selection continues at a snail's pace in the capital-murder mob trial of reputed Bonanno boss Vincent Basciano -- and the well-dressed wiseguy known as "Vinny Gorgeous" seems to relish every moment. A month into the painstaking and often tortuous process at Brooklyn federal court, only 59 prospects have been chosen. That's out of a pool of 1,000, nearly twice as many as most high-profile Mafia trials, court experts said. But, animated and smiling, Basciano confers with his legal eagles -- George Goltzer, Richard Jasper and Ying Stafford -- occasionally and discretely whispering in their ears. And why not? Every day the selection process drags on is another day away from his solitary confinement in prison. With all the intensity of a coach sending in plays to the quarterback, he'll often grab a pen, jot messages on Post-it notes and then pass them to various members of his legal team. And all the while, he looks sharper than anyone else at the defense table -- or anywhere else in the courthouse. His suit, shirt and tie match with fashion-conscious precision. And he brings his own expertise, as former owner of the "Hello Gorgeous" beauty salon in The Bronx -- where he earned his mob tag -- to his gelled, combed-back 'do. When the daily proceedings begin, Basciano settles back into the best seat in the house for often gripping entertainment, like the time a bemused Judge Nicholas Garaufis, who often poses hypothetical questions, was interrupted by a prospective juror who proposed a hypothetical of his own. "If I planned to kill my wife . . . ," the man began before the judge cut him off. "Let's leave your wife out of it," Garaufis advised. His trial was scheduled to begin today, but opening arguments now appear to be at least a week away. Before being interviewed by the judge, candidates for the Basciano jury first must complete a 60-plus-page questionnaire that asks about a wide range of issues, including their views on crime, the Mafia and capital punishment. The identities of the jurors are kept secret as a precaution against potential tampering. Eventually, the serious business of justice will begin. Basciano is standing trial on charges that while in prison he ordered the rub-out of mob associate Randolph Pizzolo, who was killed in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in 2004. Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/it_all_goodfella_8DypfQLOZyKhPH4fFDg4XL#ixzz1IhSo98vR

'Gangster Squad' Gets Green Light With Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling

2011-03-31T10:49:00.000-07:00

By Eric Sundermann , Hollywood.com Staff Thursday, March 31, 2011 Hey, ... Casino and Goodfellas which, if my uncle has anything to say about Hey, look at that -- another mob movie is headed our way. According to Deadline, Warner Bros. just green lit Gangster Squad, a crime drama written by Will Beall and to-be-directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland).

100-plus ex-FBI agents want review of Boston colleague's mob convictions; it may be his last chance

2011-03-24T20:33:00.000-07:00

MIAMI - More than 100 former FBI agents, including the one whose undercover work inspired the movie "Donnie Brasco," are fighting for the release of a colleague convicted of corruption and of helping Boston's Irish-American mob murder a South Florida gambling executive.

It's a long shot, and maybe the last shot, for 70-year-old John Connolly, who will spend the rest of his life in prison, barring a successful appeal.

The former G-men, who provided documents relating to the case to The Associated Press, say Connolly was prosecuted for essentially doing what his Justice Department superiors wanted: to secretly use mob bosses James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi as informants against Italian-American gangsters in New England.

The retired agents have filed two petitions with Attorney General Eric Holder demanding appointment of a special counsel to investigate Connolly's prosecution, raising a grab-bag of claims spanning many years, some of which have been previously rejected by courts and aired in congressional hearings. They include allegations of questionable tactics by prosecutors, evidence that a key witness lied during Connolly's 2002 federal corruption trial and contentions there was a rigged result in his 2008 Florida murder case.

"I've never seen them go after a gangster like they have John," said former agent Joseph Pistone, whose infiltration of New York's Bonanno and Colombo crime families as "Donnie Brasco" in the late 1970s was made into the 1997 film starring Johnny Depp and Al Pacino.

"He was dedicated as an FBI agent. He got all kinds of commendations. All of a sudden he goes wrong? That's kind of hard to believe."

Connolly's own saga also made its way to the big screen: It formed the blueprint for the 2006 Academy Award-winning film "The Departed."

Prosecutors say Connolly permitted Flemmi and Bulger, who ran the notorious Winter Hill Gang, to commit crimes, accepted tens of thousands of dollars and other favors from them, tipped them about a pending indictment and, most seriously, passed them sensitive information about snitches in gang ranks that led to several murders. Connolly was convicted of racketeering and obstruction of justice and handed a 10-year federal prison sentence.

In Miami, Connolly was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1982 killing by a mob hit man of John Callahan, the gang-connected president of World Jai-Alai. Connolly did not have any direct role in the slaying, but was accused of tipping Flemmi and Bulger that Callahan was likely to finger them in another slaying.

So far, the Justice Department has refused to act on the ex-agents' complaints, citing Connolly's ongoing appeals of his Florida murder conviction. The ex-agents are pressing Holder to act, particularly with Connolly staring at an additional 40-year prison sentence in the Florida case that would begin as soon as his federal term ends in June.

"I feel John was wrongfully convicted," said William Reagan, a retired agent from San Francisco who posed as a long-haired radical inside the Weather Underground for eight years in the 1960s and '70s. "I don't think it amounted to a malicious prosecution. I simply think he was screwed over."

Prosecutors say Connolly is grasping at straws.

"Connolly had his trial. He got convicted. They attacked it with new evidence, and they lost that one, too," said Michael Von Zamft, an assistant state attorney in Miami who helped prosecute Connolly in the Florida case. "The concept that he is this innocent guy is just ridiculous."

Connolly, in one of several exclusive interviews with The Associated Press from a North Carolina federal prison, said his ex-FBI allies are probably his only hope.

"I'm fighting for my life here," Connolly said. "If it weren't for these ex-agents ...

"Guys who knew me know I never did any of this. I did my job."

Connolly and his allies contend he was singled out as a rogue agent responsible for mishandling Bulger and Flemmi to shield senior federal prosecutors from blame. Bulger disappeared in 1995 shortly after he and Flemmi were indicted on racketeering charges and has been on the FBI's 10 most wanted list for years.

Connolly insists he was made the fall guy because he wouldn't falsely testify that other agents were taking bribes or feeding information to the Winter Hill Gang.

"They wanted me to lie for them. I wouldn't do that," Connolly said. "The whole thing is absurd."

The former agents have no smoking gun, nothing that irrefutably proves Connolly's innocence. They provided documents about a lying witness in his first trial, government suppression of evidence and trial tactics that they say raise questions about his guilt.

The agents contend that Miami prosecutors used an improper legal maneuver to overcome a four-year statute of limitations that existed in 1982 for second-degree murder.

They persuaded a jury to discard the statute of limitations because Connolly was almost certainly armed — the presence of a firearm is a waiver to the statute — when he tipped the mobsters about Callahan's FBI cooperation. Connolly's attorneys contend the law requires that Connolly had to possess the actual murder weapon, which was impossible because he was 1,500 miles away at the time.

Connolly, however, lost his appeal in the murder case March 2; his attorney is asking for a rehearing. Absent a legal turnabout, chances are Connolly will have to report to a Florida prison after his federal term ends June 28.

Another central claim by the ex-agents is that a former New England mob boss, Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme, lied repeatedly during Connolly's 2002 corruption trial about Salemme's involvement in several murders. That alleged perjury became known to prosecutors in 2003, when Flemmi began cooperating and described participating with Salemme in some of the killings, but Connolly's attorneys weren't aware of it until just before his 2008 trial on the Florida murder.

During his testimony, Salemme flatly denied participating in at least four killings, such as the 1968 strangulation of crime associate Thomas Timmins in Salemme's home in Sharon, Mass.

"I have no idea ... I don't even know that he's dead," Salemme testified.

To the ex-FBI agents supporting Connolly, the suppression of the Flemmi statement is a clear violation of Connolly's rights. They also say the Justice Department should immediately renew investigations of the murders linked to Salemme, which have never been solved. Flemmi told authorities where some of the bodies are buried, but no one has attempted to exhume them.

The agents also say that the Flemmi evidence would have strengthened one of Connolly's appeals, which were based partly on a statement from a Philadelphia mobster who became friendly with Salemme in prison.

That mobster, Roger Vella, told the FBI in 2004 that Salemme bragged about how he lied to frame Connolly. Vella is identified as "CS," short for confidential source, in the FBI document.

"Salemme told the CS that he had 'spun' the prosecutors, outslicked them, and that he had been doing this for 50 years," the report says. "Salemme said he and his family had suffered for years and now it's Connolly's turn."

Prosecutors disclosed Vella's statement under seal to a federal judge and to Connolly's defense team, which used it to argue for a new trial.

A federal appeals court ruled against Connolly in 2007, and its decision suggests that Flemmi's testimony might not have swayed it. The court said the Vella evidence about Salemme's perjury wasn't enough to warrant a second trial, because it didn't go to the heart of the case against Connolly.

The fact that prosecutors held on to Flemmi's testimony for years before sharing it with Connolly's attorneys might not help him win his freedom, either.

Prosecutors are required before and during a trial to disclose to the defense any evidence that might exonerate a defendant. But after a trial, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that requirement is not so stringent, former Miami U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey said.

"If they weren't aware of the information during the time of the trial, they would not be required to disclose it post trial," said Coffey, who has no connection to Connolly's case and is now in private practice. "There are a number of cases where courts have said if you look at all the other evidence, you can't find a reasonable probability that this would have been a game-changing play."

The Justice Department declined to comment on the Connolly case beyond its terse written responses to the ex-FBI agents' two petitions. The two main federal prosecutors — John Durham and Fred Wyshak — also declined to comment.

Von Zamft said the Salemme perjury evidence wasn't an issue in the Florida case because he wasn't part of that trial.

Salemme was prosecuted for lying about one of the murders and pleaded guilty in 2008 to obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to five years in prison, given credit for time served and is believed to be in the federal witness protection program. Salemme denied committing that murder in his 2008 plea agreement and only admitted he had falsely told the FBI that someone else might have been responsible.

Among the other players in this decades-long saga, Flemmi is serving a life prison sentence. Wyshak is still a Boston federal prosecutor and Durham, whose base is Connecticut, was chosen recently by President Barack Obama's administration to investigate whether harsh CIA interrogation methods amounted to crimes.

Casey Szaflarski poker king

2011-03-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

Hollywood Goodfella Chicago Outfit Video poker king target of federal investigation. Casey Szaflarski allegedly runs a multimillion-dollar video poker business for the Chicago mob Casey Szaflarski allegedly runs a multimillion-dollar video poker business for the Chicago mob. But he's the first to tell you he has

Irish mob legend Danny Greene

2011-03-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

“Irish mob legend Danny Greene it follows Greene's tough rise from the streets to crooked union boss, mob enforcer and finally gang boss who took on New York's Gambino crime syndicate. Greene's criminal circle included local gangster John Nardi (Vincent D'http://www.cleveland.com/moviebuff/index.ssf/2011/03/danny_greene_legendary_clevela.html

Four Indicted in $1.9 Million Embezzlement Scheme from Wakefield Business

2011-03-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

Reputed New England mob capo Mark Rossetti--The scheme is allegedly part of a larger operation with ties to Mark Rosetti, an East Boston resident and reputed mafia capo. According to law enforcement officials, Rosetti and his associates were involved in robberies, drug trafficking, ...
A Massachusetts grand jury has returned indictments against four men on charges that they were all involved in a conspiracy to steal money from a Wakefield employment firm in order to allegedly pay off gaming and loan sharking debts, according to the Essex County District Attorney’s office.
Joseph Giallanella, 62, of North Andover; Michael Petrillo, 56, of Peabody; Charles Davis, 44, of Salem, N.H.; and Charles Toomajian, 53, of Malden were all indicted for their separate roles in

'Mob Talk' looks at John Veasey, a mobster-turned-government witness.

2011-03-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

Philadelphia Daily News By George Anastasia Inquirer Staff Writer It's been a rough few months for reputed Philly mob enforcer John Veasey-Marty Angelina First back in
'Mob Talk' looks at John Veasey, a mobster-turned-government witness.
http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/070209_john_veasey_mob_talk

Kenny Gallo's friends of ours :Genovese Family Is Coming Apart

2011-03-17T07:22:00.000-07:00

For decades the Genovese family has evaded significant disruption to its rackets by keeping its troops together. The Women of Mafia Families TV series « Hollywood goodfella. Today in History for March 27th · South American drug cartel Trafficking in Motown suberb · Racketeering rap doesn't faze "Little Rico" Ponzo · Widow of Staten Island Gambino mob victim blasts book deal for daughter of Sammy "Bull" .The Women of Mafia Families TV series « Hollywood goodfella Kenny Kenji Gallo, Kenny Gallo ,Ken gallo, boston mob, crime syndicates, DOJ, Edward Brian Halloran, fbi, fbi informant, friends_of _ours, gangsters, Hollywood celebrities, hollywood goodfella, irish american mobster's, italian american mobsters, James “Whitey” Bulger, John “Zip” Connolly, Johnny Martorano., la cosa nostra, Mafia, mafia organized crime, Michael Laurano, mob, mob bookie, mob murder, mob rat, mobsters, organized crime”, Patriarca crime family, Rat Pack", ratfellas, Richard "Richie " Castucci, Rodney Dangerfield., Sammy Davis Jr, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi., underworld figures, winter hill gang, winter hill mob, wiseguys. Anthony "the Animal" Fiato, anthony "tony rome" Fiato, Anthony kenny gallo Fiato, boston mob, crime syndicates, DOJ, Edward Brian Halloran, fbi, fbi informant, friends_of _ours, gangsters, Hollywood celebrities, hollywood goodfella, irish american mobster's, italian american mobsters, James “Whitey” Bulger, John “Zip” Connolly, Johnny Martorano., la cosa nostra, Mafia, mafia organized crime, Michael Laurano, mob, mob bookie, mob murder, mob rat, mobsters, organized crime”, Patriarca crime family, Rat Pack", ratfellas, Richard "Richie " Castucci, Rodney Dangerfield., Sammy Davis Jr, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi., underworld figures, winter hill gang, winter hill mob, wiseguys
Ken gallo, Kenny Kenji Gallo,kenny gallo ,titles from Hollywood as "Goodfellas" and "Caddyshack" american mafia Anthony Arillotta Big Al Big Al Bruno Bonanno Crime Family Bonanno Family Bonanno family boss Colombo Crime Family Colombo Family Family Boss Gambino Crime Family Gambino Family genovese crime family Genovese Family John Gotti Joseph "Big Joey" Massino Joseph Massino la cosa nostra Life Sentence mafia mafia 2011 Mafia Boss Mafia Families mafia news mafia today mob Mob Boss Mobster Mobsters Murder Trial Nbsp new england mafia new york mafia organized crime Patriarca Crime Family Plea Deal Randolph Pizzolo the mafia the mafia today Vincent Basciano vincent basciano trial Vincent Vinny Gorgeous Basciano Vinny Gorgeous Basciano,Hollywood as "Goodfellas" and "Caddyshack",Hollywood as "Goodfellas" and "Caddyshack",Hollywood as "Goodfellas" and "Caddyshack",
Hollywood as "Goodfellas" and "Caddyshack",Adolfo Big Al Bruno american mafia Big Al Bonanno Crime Family Bonanno Family Bonanno family boss Colombo Crime Family Colombo Family Extortion Family Boss Feds Gambino Crime Family Gambino Family genovese crime family Genovese Family Joe Massino John Gotti Joseph "Big Joey" Massino Joseph Massino la cosa nostra Life Sentence mafia mafia 2011 Mafia Boss Mafia Families mafia news mafia today Metropolitan Detention Center mob Mob Boss Mobster Mobsters Nbsp new england mafia new york mafia organized crime Plea Deal Randolph Pizzolo Randy Pizzolo the mafia the mafia today Vincent Basciano vincent basciano trial Vincent Vinny Gorgeous Basciano Vinny Gorgeous Basciano

Mobsters Hollywood Goodfella Chicago Mexican drug kingpin
CHICAGO – The alleged leader of a major Mexican drug cartel has pled not guilty in a Chicago courtroom, to trafficking millions of dollars worth of heroin ...

Source : http://jrrusso.blogspot.com/2010/02/hollywood-goodfella-chicago-mexican.html

Hollywood Goodfella Chicago Al Capone lived here Hollywood
(CHICAGO) (WLS) — Al Capone and Chicago. Chicago and Al Capone. It’s an image the city has been fighting for years. But now a sign proudly proclaims that ...

Source : http://af11.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/hollywood-goodfella-chicago-al-capone-lived-here/

Mobsters Tommy De Simone goodfella Mobsters
Thomas Anthony "Two-Gun Tommy" DeSimone (May 24, 1950 – January 14, 1979) was an Italian-American gangster and associate of the Lucchese crime family.Thomas ...

Source : http://jrrusso.blogspot.com/2009/03/tommy-de-simone-goodfella.htm

However, in a stunning moment which may become a turning point in mob history, flipped capo Anthony "Bingy" Arillotta yesterday testified in a Manhattan federal courthouse at the . http://bitterqueen.typepad.com/friends_of_ours/2011/03/genovese-family-is-coming-ap
art.html

Reputed North Jersey mobster Stephen "Beach" Depiro ordered released on bail

2011-03-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

Reputed North Jersey mobster Stephen 'Beach' Depiro a family man of contradictions the highly lucrative rackets along the North Jersey waterfron for the Genovese crime family

"Cadillac Frank" Salemme

2011-03-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

Francis P. Salemme [Salemone], also known as "Cadillac Frank" and "Julian Daniel Selig" (born August 18, 1933), is a Boston, Massachusetts mobster who became a hitman and eventually the boss of the Patriarca crime family of New England before turning government witness.

Hollywood Goodfella: Mafia hitman ties Berlusconi to cosa nosta bombings

2011-03-12T07:04:00.000-08:00

– A jailed Mafia hitman linked Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to the Cosa Nostra on Friday Crime He said that Graviano, who with his brother Giuseppe Graviano ran

Friends of Ours Colombo

2011-03-12T06:52:00.000-08:00

Friends of Ours: Colombo
Joe Colombo was shot by Jerome Johnson, a black mobster wannabe, who was attempting to become involved with the porn rackets through his friend Gambino .
http://bitterqueen.typepad.com/friends_of_ours/colombo/

Gangsters flip on '92 mob 'killer' Neil Messina

2011-03-07T09:02:00.000-08:00

Mob Killer Testimony from two flipped mobsters has led to charges in a 20-year-old murder case, newly filed court papers reveal.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn accuse Bonanno crime-family associate Neil Messina of killing a man in a failed August 1992 home-invasion robbery

One of the government witnesses is Nicky Lanza, who was Messina's accomplice in the crime, according to defense lawyer Gerald McMahon.

Lanza is a reputed former Bonanno associate who has been a cooperating government witness since his house was firebombed several years ago, McMahon said.

Investigators probing the murder also tried to catch Messina discussing his recollection of the crime by sending another government informant to talk to him, McMahon wrote.

Peter Tagliavia, a Colombo-family associate, wore a wire and taped Messina saying he had done some "bad thingInvestigators probing the murder also tried to catch Messina discussing his recollection of the crime by sending another government informant to talk to him, McMahon wrote.

Peter Tagliavia, a Colombo-family associate, wore a wire and taped Messina saying he had done some "bad things" in the past with Lanza, according to court documents and a source.

McMahon argues that the evidence provided by both informants is weak and should not be used to keep Messina from getting bail while awaiting trial on racketeering and murder charges. The feds want to keep him behind bars.

Bronx man behind 'Godfather'-inspired move to intimidate star witness aquitted of murdering bouncer

2011-03-04T15:04:00.000-08:00

A Bronx man who orchestrated a "Godfather"-inspired witness-intimidation campaign was acquitted of murder Thursday.

Daniel Carbuccia - who plotted to steal a scene from the iconic mob movie to terrify a star witness out of testifying - was cleared in the Jan. 2004 murder of bordello bouncer Robert Quintana, 25.

Carbuccia's two alleged accomplices, Carlos Santos and Robert Rivera, were also acquitted.

"It's disgraceful that a movie gangster's plan worked for these fools," said Quintana's pal David Hernandez, 33. "I can't believe the jury knew Carbuccia tried to silence a witness and still voted not guilty."

Jurors in the six-month trial heard tapes of Carbuccia calling friends from Rikers Island, urging them to pack the courtroom to scare the prosecution's key witness.

In one call, Carbuccia and his uncle agree to mimic Michael Corleone's plan to intimidate a mob rat by inviting his brother to the proceedings.

The death threats didn't stop the the real-life witness from eventually testifying against Carbuccia and his pals.

Jurors said the men were no real-life Corleones.

"We looked at all the evidence and there were some doubts," one juror said.

mafia jailbird says Meredith Kercher was killed by his brother, not Amanda Knox

2011-01-18T16:37:00.000-08:00

Foxy Knoxy” was framed.

That’s the tune an Italian mobster Luciano Aviello,a jailbird is singing, claiming his Mafia organized crime figure brother brutally murdered a female British college student, not American Amanda Knox.

Luciano Aviello, who is currently serving a 17-year sentence for his mafia ties, told Knox’s lawyers his brother Antonio slaughtered Meredith Kercher and asked him to hide the bloody knife and Kercher’s keys, the Daily Mail reports.

Aviello said his brother showed up to his house wearing a bloodstained jacket the night of the murder saying he broke into a house and killed a woman. He then asked Aviello to hide the knife.

“I had everything under a little wall behind my house and covered it with soil and stones. I am happy to stand up in court and confirm all this and wrote to the court several times to tell them but was never questioned,” he said.

Aviello claims he wrote to the court three times to give his testimony, but was ignored.

Last year, an Italian court convicted Knox and her then-boyfriend her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. She got 26 years, he got 25 years. A third man, Rudy Guede, was also convicted.

Aviello swears all three are innocent. However, Antonio is nowhere to be found.

In 2007, Kercher’s half-naked body was found, her throat slit in the bedroom of the house she shared with Knox in Perugia.

Aviello, who is from Naples, said he and his brother were living in Perugia the year Kercher was killed. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/06/09/2010-06-09_amanda_knox_is_innocent_jailed_italian_mobster_says_his_brother_killed_meredith_.html

Hollywood Mafia Mobsters: The italian american Mobsters

2010-10-11T10:52:00.000-07:00

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Behind the scenes in Louise Russo sandwich shop shooting deal
• January 30. 2011 - 2:09 pm
• Posted in Canada, crime and courts, general, mafia & organized crime, Sicilian mafia
• Tagged Antonio Borrelli, Bob Runcirnan, Compensation, crime victim, Defence lawyers, dirty money,
disabled, finacially, financial support, gambling debt, Hells Angels, In cash, innocent bystander, Louise
Russo, Mafia, Mark Peretz, Michele Modica, mobsters, Ontario, organized crime, Paris Christotbrou,
perpetrators, Peter Scarcella, plea deal, pleaded guilty, Raffaele Delle Donne, restitution., sandwich shop,
shooting, The Crown, The Deal, The Money, victims rights

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Antonio Borrelli « Hollywood goodfella Page 11 of 13
average amount per charge is $5,500.
Judges can make stand-alone restitution orders, issued as an addition to a sentence, and also order payments as a
condition of probation or a conditional sentence. Victims must pursue unpaid restitution through the civil courts.
There is no criminal enforcement system.
Ontario Criminal Injuries Compensation Board
With a full-time staff of 64, the board receives about 4,000 applications from crime victims each year. Lump sum
payments are capped at $25,000. Periodic payments of up to $1,000 a month are also available, up to a total of
$365,000.
In the fiscal year 2009-2010, the board paid out $32.2 million. The average lump sum award was $9,200 and
average waiting time, 23 months.
Other provinces have varying victim compensation programs.
Ontario Victim Quick Response Program
Designed to provide immediate support for crime victims with no financial means, the four-year-old program
provides money for counseling (maximum $1,000) and funds to cover funerals (up to $5,000) and emergency
expenses, such as crime scene clean-up (up to $1,500) and other incidentals (up to $1,000).
Last year, the program doled out $1.5 million. Click here: Behind the scenes in Louise Russo sandwich shop
shooting deal — lhestar.com

Petor Soarcella, who was 55 at the time of sentencing in April 2006, is an underworld survivor.
He had lunch with mob boss Paul Volpe in a Woodbridge mall hours before Volpe turned up dead in the trunk of
his wife's BMW in the parking garage at Terminal 2 of Toronto International (now Pearson) Airport in
November 1983.
He was godfather to a child of Enio Mora, who was found in the trunk of his gold Cadillac in September 1996.
The remains of his New York associate Cesare (Tall Guy) Bonventre were discovered in two separate drums in a
New Jersey warehouse after his 1984 murder.
Ontario associates Eddie (Hurricane) Melo, Johnny (Pops) Papalia, Carmen Barillaro and Gaetano (The Discount
Casket Guy) Panepinto also met violent ends at the hands of gunmen.
For his part, Scarcella dodged a murder contract on his head in the early 1980s from a York Region mob family,
and another from Sicilian Mafioso Modica in 2004, who plotted to kill him at soccer's World Cup in 2004.
The agreed statement of fact in the Russo shooting notes that Scarcella didn't become involved in a plot to
murder Modica until after Russo was shot.
While in prison for his role in the Russo case, the father of three has fought hard — and unsuccessfully —
through his lawyer, John L. Hill, to keep from being labelled a mob boss. He blames the designation on old and
fuzzy information.
He has been married to the same woman for almost 40 years, and his legitimate jobs have included parking lot
attendant, construction trades union organizer, cheese and ceramic tile distributor.
His underworld activities have included gaming for decades.
Those who know him say he can be arrogant and cold, and that he values survival far more than popularity. And
while he's capable of violence, his lasting strength comes from his connections and his ability to mediate and
accumulate information.
Immediately after his arrest in the Russo shooting, Scarcella was visited by a Montreal lawyer who has
represented members of the crime family of imprisoned boss Vito Rizzuto.
Rizzuto's now in an American prison for his role in three gangland slayings.
A half dozen men connected to the Rizzuto crime family have been murdered in Montreal over the past year, and
some police wonder if Scarcella might be another likely target, should the violence spread to the GTA.
"He's better off staying inside (prison)," one police officer says.
Scarcella got a nine-year sentence on top of a year in custody.
Financial support for crime victims
Restitution
In 2006, restitution orders were made in only three per cent of 242,988 criminal cases where there was a finding
of guilt in Canada. Four out of five of those orders were made in cases involving property crime. Canada does not
track the value of the orders.
In Ontario, there are about 7,000 charges a year in which a sentencing judge makes a restitution order. The
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* Joel Cacace, "Waverly"
* Thomas Cacciopoli, "Tommy Sneakers", "Cacci"
* Vincent Caci, "Jimmy"
* Marshall Joseph Caifano, [Marcello Giuseppe Caifano]
* Vincent Cafaro, "Fish"
* Richard Cain;Colombia Mafia

* Frank Calabrese, Sr., "Frankie Breeze"
* Frank Cali, [Francesco Paolo Augusto Cal�], "Franky Boy"
* Joseph Cammarano, "Joe Saunders"
* William Cammisano, "Willie the Rat"
* Louis Campagna, "Little New York"
* Paul Cantarella
* Richard Cantarella, "Shellackhead"
* Anthony Capo, "Tony"
* Al Capone, [Alphonse Capone], "Scarface", "Big Al" (1899-1947)
* Frank Capone, [Salvatore Capone]
* Louis Capone
* Ralph Capone, "Bottles"
* Antonio Caponigro, "Tony Bananas"
* John Capra, "Johnny Hooks"
* Frankie Carbo, [Paul Carbo] "Frank Tucker", "Mr. Fury", "Mr. Gray"
* Anthony J. Cardarella, "Tiger"
* Sam Cardinelli, [Salvatore Cardinella]
* Anthony Carfano, "Little Augie Pisano" (d. 1959)
* Louis Cafora II, "Fat Louis", "The Whale",
* Joseph Caridi, "Joe C"
* Sam Carlisi, "Black Sam", "Wings" (d. 1997)
* John Carneglia, "Johnny Carnegs"
* Sylvestro Carolla, "Sam"
* Charles Carrollo, "Charlie the Wop"
* Frank Carrone, "Buzz", "Buzzy"
* Robert Carozza, "Bobby Russo"
* Frank T. Caruso, "Skids"
* Primo Cassarino
* Anthony Casso, "Gaspipe"
* Paul Castellano, "PC"
* Eugene Castelle, "Bubsie", "Boopsie"
* Richard Castucci
* Salvatore Catalanotte, "Sam Sings in the Night"
* Dominick Cataldo, "Little Dom"
* Anthony Catania, "The Baker"
* Gerardo Catena, "Jerry"
* Domenico Cefalu, "Italian Dom" (b. 1947)
* Dino Cellini
* John Cerrella, "Johnny Sideburns"
* Jackie Cerone, "Jackie the Lackey" (1914-)
* Dominick Cersani, "Remo"
* John Cersani, "Boobie"
* Peter Chiodo, "Fat Pete"
* Anthony Ciccone, "Sonny"
* Dominick Cirillo, "The Quiet Dom"
* Anthony Civella, "Tony Ripe"
* Carl Civella, "Corky"
* Nicholas Civella, [Giuseppe Nicoli Civella]
* Michael Clemente, "Mike Costello", "Big Mike"
* Frank Colacurcio, Sr.
* Eco James Coli
* Joseph Colombo
* James Colosimo, "Big Jim"
* Louis Consalvo, "Louie Eggs"
* George Conte, "Georgie Goggles"
* Pasquale Conte, "Patty", "Patsy"
* Frank Coppa
* Michael Coppola, "Trigger Mike" (d. 1965)
* Anthony Corallo, "Tony Ducks"
* Joseph Corrao, "Joe Butch"
* Vincent Corrao, "Vinny Butch"
* Anthony Cornero, "Admiral", "Tony the Hat"
* Joseph Corozzo, "JoJo"
* Nicholas Corozzo, "Little Nicky"
* Vincent Corrao, "Vinny Butch", "Vinny the Shrimp"
* Vincent Corrao, "Vinny the Blond"
* Samuel Corsaro, "Little Sammy"
* James Cosmano, "Sunny Jim"
* Frank Costello, "The Prime Minister"
* Steven Crea, "Stevie Wonder", "Herbie"
* Perry Criscitelliamerican mafia Bonanno Family Colombo Crime Family Colombo Family crime family Drug Trafficking Extortion Family Boss Fbi Informant Feds Gambino Crime Family Gambino Family gambino family boss Genovese Crime Family Informants italian mafia John Gotti Joseph 'Uncle Joe" Ligambi Junior Gotti la cosa nostra latest mafia news Loan Sharking Mafia mafia boss mafia in New England mafia news mafia news 2011 mob Mob Boss Mobster mobsters Nbsp New England mafia new england mob new york mafia organized crime Patriarca Crime Family Patriarca family Philadelphia Mafia Philly mafia philly mob recent mafia news State Police Uncle Joe WiretapLink
: Albert Cernadas, Albert Cernadas alias The Bull, andrew "Andy Mush" Russo, Andrew Russo, Andy Mush, Anthony "T.G." Graziano, Anthony Graziano, Arnold "Squiggy" Squitieri, Arnold Squitieri, arrested mafia group, arson, associates, barroom quarrel, Bartolomeo Vernace, Bartolomeo Vernace alias Glasses, Bonanno Crime Family, Bonanno Family, bos, burglar, capos, Carmine "Junior" Persico, Carmine Persico, Christopher Reynolds, Christopher Reynolds alias Burger, Colombo Crime Family, Colombo Family, consigliere, Crime Family, criminal enterprises, cultivating a crop of mob figures, Dennis Deucia, Dennis Deucia alias The Beard, DiNapoli, dirty work, Dominick "Quiet Dom" Cirillo, Dominick Cirillo, don, double murder, drug dealer, enforcement agents, extortion, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Gambino Crime Family, Gambino Family, gangsters, Genovese Family, illegal gambling, Indictments Organized Crime Sweep, Indictments Unsealed Against More Than 100 Accused Mobsters, investigations and arrests, investment banker, Jackie "Jackie the Nose" D'Amico, Jackie D'Amico, January 20th 2011, John "Sonny" Franzese, John Franzese, John Porcello, John Porcello alias Johnny Pizza, Joseph "Big Joe" Massino, Joseph "Joe C." Caridi, Joseph "JoJo" Corozzo, Joseph Caridi, Joseph Carna, Joseph Carna alias Junior Lollipops, Joseph Corozzo, Joseph Massino, LA NA Mob Busts, LA Times, labor racketeering, latest mob cases, lawyer, Liborio "Barney" Bellomo, Liborio Bellomo, lieutenant, linked crimes to suspects, loansharking, Lucchese Crime Family, Lucchese Family, M. Madonna, mafia, Mafia Families, mafia group, Mafia Group Infographic, mafia soldiers, Migliore, murder, murder conspiracy, narcotics trafficking, NBC New York, New York mob bust, New York Mob Bust Infographic, NY mob bust, Peter "One Eye" Gotti, Peter Gotti, police officer former head Baby Shacks Extortion Charges New England Mafia leader of Louis Manocchio La Cosa Nostra of New England on behalf additional indictment New England Richard Bonafiglia Thomas Iafrate Mark Rossetti in Florida shaking down owners adult entertainment businesses Satin Doll Cosa Nostra ri Cadillac Lounge St Laurent Luigi "Baby Shacks" Manocchio extortion conspiracy shaking down bookmakers Plead Guilty moved to Miami Prison Luigi Manocchio FBI informant Edward "Eddie" Lato Raymond "Scarface" Jenkins Albino "Albi" Folcarelli Theodore "Teddy" Cardillo Capo Regime Anthony St Laurent Jr Providence Racketeering Organized Crime on Robert Dorothy St Laurent DeLuca moved to The Saint in Rhode Island Alfred "Chippy" Scivola Mafia Indicted failed hire returned to RI tagged w/ Patriarca Crime Family
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* Domenico Cutaia, "Danny"american mafia Bonanno Family Calabrian Mafia Colombo Crime Family Colombo Family crime family Drug Trafficking Extortion Family Boss Fbi Informant Feds Gambino Crime Family Gambino Family gambino family boss Genovese Crime Family Informants italian mafia John Gotti Joseph 'Uncle Joe" Ligambi Junior Gotti la cosa nostra latest mafia news Loan Sharking Mafia mafia boss mafia in New England mafia news mafia news 2011 mob Mob Boss Mobster mobsters Nbsp Ndrangheta New England mafia new england mob new york mafia organized crime Philadelphia Mafia Philly mafia philly mob recent mafia news

* William Cutolo, "Billy Fingers", "Wild Bill" (d. 1Years, american mafia, arkansas mobster, Baggett, Boss, Boston Massachusetts, cary gaines, City Alderman, Cocaine, Colombo Crime Family, Colombo Family, colombo family street boss, Corruption, Crime Family, Deleo, Drug Trafficking, George Thompson, george wylie thompson, Gun Charges, la cosa nostra, Law Enforcement, mafia, mafia families, mob, mobster, Mule, new york mafia, Organized Crime, Prosecutors, Ralph Deleo, Ralph Francis Deleo, sam baggett, Testimony, tri cam le, Wiretaps, wylie thompson The Bonnano family is the one New York City LCN family whose boss is not a member of ... The DECAVALCANTE family which is headquartered in northern New Jersey and .... "Criminal Associate of the New England organized crime family" per FBI-1994. ...... then the boss of the Buffalo LCN family, to run for the office. ...

alphonse persico, american mafia, Anthony Aiello, anthony donato, anthony frascone, anthony furino, Anthony Indelicato, anthony navarra, Anthony Rabito, Anthony Urso, baldassare amato, Bonanno Crime Family, Bonanno Family, bonanno family rat, bonanno family underboss, bonnano family boss, Colombo Family, daniel mongelli, Decavalcante Family, dominick "sonny black" napolitano, dominick cicale, Dominick Pizzonia, Donnie Brasco, emanuel guaragna, emanuel guarrgna, Family Boss, Firepower, Frank Lino, Gambino, Gambino Family, generoso barbieri, Genovese Family, giacomo bonventra, gino galestro, Good looking Sal, Government Informant, james tartaglino, Jerome Asaro, john deross, john palazzolo, johnny joe spirito, josep pistone, joseph cammarano jr, joseph cammarano sr, Joseph Desimone, joseph distefano, joseph masino, joseph pistone, joseph torre, la cosa nostra, Lawrence Dentico, Louis Attanasio, louis decicco, Louis Restivo, mafia, mafia boss, Mafia Family, Mafia History, Mafia Members, mafia rat, Masino, Member Of The Family, michael cardello, Michael Mancuso, mobster, new york mafia, nicholas santoro, Organized Crime, paul spina, peter calabrese, peter cosoleto, philip navarra, richard riccardi, robert attanasio, Robert Lino, Salvatore Vitale, sandro aiosa, steven LoCurto, super rat, Underboss, Vincent Basciano, vito borelli, Vito Rizzuto, Witness Protection Program

american mafia, Anthony Zizzo, Burglars, Chicago Mafia, Chicago mob, Chicago Mobsters, Chicago Outfit, Entrepreneurial Spirit, Fire Bombing, Frank Calabrese Sr, Gofer, italian mafia, James Marcello, Jewelry Stores, Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, Joseph Lombardo, la cosa nostra, Loan Sharking, mafia, Mafia Family, mafia in Chicago, Michael "The Large Guy" Sarno, Michael Sarno, mob in Chicago, mobster, New Faces, Nicholas Calabrese, organized crine, Outfit, Pawnbroker, Poor Reflection, Professional Criminal, Prosecutors Claim, Racketeering Charges, Robert Salerno, Streets Of Chicago, Video Poker american mafia Cocaine Colombo Crime Family Colombo Family Court Documents crime family Criminal Organization Drug Trafficking Extortion Family Boss Fbi Fbi Informant Feds Gambino Crime Family Gambino Family Informants italian mafia Joseph 'Uncle Joe" Ligambi Joseph Ligambi la cosa nostra latest mafia news Loan Sharking Mafia mafia in New England mafia news mafia news 2011 Mark Rossetti Mark Rossetti fbi informant Mob Boss Mobster mobsters Nbsp New England mafia new york mafia organized crime Philadelphia Mafia Philly mafia philly mob Philly mob boss Philly mobsters recent mafia news Rossetti State Police Uncle Joe Wiretap.criminals, crooks, FBI, FBI, Gangs, gangsters, mafia, mobs, Mobsters, murder, organized crime, police, Uncategorized Bill Mc-Greal, Billy .... The one-time acting head of the Genovese crime family was sentenced to life ..... Steve Brodie was born in New York City on Christmas Day 1861. ...Introduction: La Cosa Nostra (hereafter referred to alternatively as "the LCN," "the mafia," or The mob"), which name is based on a phrase which translates into English from the Italian language as "this thing of ours" or "our thing," is a nation wide criminal organization which operates in various cities throughout the United States. The LCN is composed of groups of men of Italian descent who are organized into units which are referred to as a "family," or, in the Italian language, "il borgata." A person becomes a member of an LCN family through a ceremony which is conducted in a manner designed to keep it, and the existence of the family, secret from persons who are not members of the LCN. Each family of La Cosa Nostra is headed by a "boss" who is assisted by an "underboss" and a "consigliere," or counselor. The family conducts its criminal activities through entities known as "crews. "A crew is headed and supervised by a person referred to variously as a "street boss," a "crew boss," a "caporegima," a "capodecina,"a "capo" or some other such name. (Such persons are here after referred to collectively as "capon," or individually as a "capo"). Each crew consists of formally inducted members of the family who are commonly referred to as "soldiers" or "made members" and persons who are The Commission's "Conservative Faction" began its decline and loss of power in La Cosa Nostra with the 1951 alliance of Bosses Frank Costello, Albert Anastasia and Anthony Accardo. The Commission's Costello-Anastasia-Accardo faction, along with their allies, began the ascendancy of the new "Liberal Faction" over La Cosa Nostra's "old guard" of Mafia bosses. The old guard Mafia bosses consisted of mafiosi born in Sicily who were determined to obtain power, influence and profit by following the Old World traditions and principles of the Mafia, while the new "Liberal Faction" was made up of the Americanized bosses whose sole purpose was Pittsburgh crime family. The DeCavalcante family runs New Jersey and the Buffalo crime family handles northern New York state. Italian crime family

Acoustics, american mafia, Consigliere, Conversations, dapper don, Fbi, Fbi Tapes, Fingers, frank "frankie loc" locascio, frank lacascio, Frankie Loc, Gambino Crime Family, Gambino Family, Gambino Family Boss, Innocence, italian mafia, John Gotti, la cosa nostra, Lawyer, Leo, Long Time, Louis DiBono, mafia, mafia boss, mobster, new york mafia, Organized Crime, Prison Sentence, Prosecutors, Ravenite Social Club, Segments, Showcase, teflon don, Wire Tap the Black Hand gangs, the Five Point gang, Al Capone’s Syndicate American Mafia or the La Cosa Nostra isNew England,ChicagoandDetroit, the La Cosa Nostra has roots inItaly

Bonanno Family (NY), Camorra Mafia, Canadian Mafia, Chicago Mafia (Outfit), Chinese Mafia, Colombo Family (NY), Gambino Family (NY), General Mafia Info, Genovese Family (NY), Lucchese Family (NY), Ndrangheta, New England Mafia, New Jersey Mafia, New Orleans Mafia, Philadelphia Mafia, Russian Mafia, Sicilian Mafia, Various Mafia Families
criminals, crooks, Gangs, gangsters, mafia, mobs, Mobsters, murder, New York City, New York City murder, organized crime, Uncategorized with tags criminals, gangland, gangs, Gangsters, Italian restaurant, Joe Columbo, joe Gallo, killer, killers, Little Italy, lower east side, mafia, mob, mobster, Mobsters, Mulberry Street, murder, New York City, organized crime, Time Magazine, umbertos Posted in New York City, Gangs, labor unions, mafia, organized crime, criminals, crooks, murder, New York City murder, mobs, gangsters, FBI, biography, Cosa Nostra with tags Mobsters, Gangsters, gangs, mafia, New York City, mob, murder, organized crime, lucky luciano, meyer lansky, Thomas E. Dewey, killer, Salvatore Maranzano, Vito Genovese, Owney Madden, FBI, bugsy Siegel, Frank Costello, killers, J. Edgar Hoover, Joe Masseria, Castellammarese War, bootlegging, Tommy Lucchese., Cosa Nostra, Big Bill Dwyer on August 2, 2011the La Cosa Nostra or the LCN
In 1891, Frank Costello was Prior to being subdued by terrorism, the American society had been plagued by the organized crime groups, known as the La Cosa Nostra or the Mafia. A nexus of criminals scattered in various parts of America, the La Cosa Nostra or the LCN, as the FBI has named it, is involved in organized racketeering activities. Mostly active in the Philadelphia,New York,New Jersey, New England,ChicagoandDetroit, the La Cosa Nostra has roots inItaly. However, its operations and activities have been concentrated in America and it has been working as a separate unit since the past many years.FBI has named it, is involved in organized racketeering activities. Mostly active in the Philadelphia,New York,New Jersey, New England,ChicagoandDetroitcriminals, crooks, Drug dealers, Drugs, FBI, FBI, Gangs, gangsters, mafia, mobs, Mobsters, murder, organized crime, police with tags Anthony Cardinale, Beantown, Ben Affleck.Boston, Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob, Brutal: The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger’s Irish Mob, Dick Lehr, Ed harris, Eddie mack, Edward Mackenzie Jr., Francis “Cadillac Frank" Salemme, Gerard O’Neill, HBO's Nurse Jackie, Jack Nicholson, James "Whitey" Bulger, Kevin Weeks, Martin Scorsese, Matt Damon., Peter Facinelli, Producer Graham King, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, Street Soldier: My Life as an Enforcer for Whitey Bulger and the Boston Irish Mob, The Departed, Tommy Donahue, Twilight Movies, Winter Hill Gang on November 30, 2011 by Joe Bruno's Blogs

The first immigrant to theU.S.from the Italian organized crime group was Giuseppe Esposito when he emigrated along with six other Sicilians after the murder of a Chancellor, his deputy and eleven wealthy landowners. Some years later,New Orleansbecame the site for a major Mafia incident in which the Police Superintendent ofNew Orleanswas brutally murdered. Although 19 Sicilians were indicted for the murder, their acquittal outraged the citizens, who killed 11 of the defendants by organizing a lynch mob. Since then, the evolution of the American Mafia began and there were several groups claiming supremacy.

Posted in New York City, Gangs, labor unions, mafia, organized crime, criminals, crooks, murder, New York City murder, mobs, gangsters, FBI, biography, Cosa Nostra with tags Mobsters, Gangsters, gangs, mafia, New York City, mob, murder, organized crime, lucky luciano, meyer lansky, Thomas E. Dewey, killer, Salvatore Maranzano, Vito Genovese, Owney Madden, FBI, bugsy Siegel, Frank Costello, killers, J. Edgar Hoover, Joe Masseria, Castellammarese War, bootlegging, Tommy Lucchese., Cosa Nostra, Big Bill Dwyer on August 2, 2011 by Joe Bruno's Blogs
In 1891, Frank Costello was
'Ndrangheta New England Camorra Canada Patriarca Bonanno Gambino The EU Colombo Genovese Sacra Corona Unita Global Entertainment of interest Lucchese Anti Mafia Motorcycle Club Russian Mafia The Outfit Winter Hill Gang Rizzuto Crime Family Historical DeCavalcante Rant Israel Opinion Philadelphia crime family Press Release Gaming Yakuza Mafia Wars transnational organized crime Armenian Power Mexican Mafia Bufalino Kansas City mob Mexikanemi Ireland Bruno crime family Humor Transcript China Good Looking Sal", "The Chief" Rocco Vitulli Alessandro Vollero, "Sandro" Joseph Vollero, "Joey V", John Gambino Gotti,the Chicago family. the New York F.B.I. office,” the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese families. New York

Former New England mafia boss Manocchio to face mob rats at trial - The former boss of the Patriarca crime family in New England Luigi “Baby Shacks"-Morello crime family-The Mafia is Today
Joseph Abate, "Joey" * Frank Abbandando Jr., "Fingers" * Frank Abbatemarco, "Frankie Shots" * Philip Abramo, "The King of Wall Street" * Settimo Accardi, "Big Sam" * Tony Accardo, [Antonino Accardo], "Big Tuna" * Anthony Accetturo, "Tumac" * Carmine Agnello * Diesel * Thomas Agro, [Ambrosiano], "T.A", "Tipp" * Anthony Aiello, "Ace" * Joe Aiello, [Giuseppe Aiello] * Joseph Aiuppa, "Ha Ha", "Joey Doves" (1907-1997) * Felix Alderisio, "Milwaukee Phil" * Harry Aleman, "The Hook" * Joseph Allegro, "Joey" * Vincent Alo, "Jimmy Blue Eyes" * Benedetto Aloi, "Benny" * Vincenzo Aloi, "Vinny" * William Aloisio, "Smokes" * Willie Altieri, "Two-Knife" * Giacomo Amari, "Jake" * Frank Amato * Joseph Amato * Samuzzo Amatuna, "Samuel", "Samoots" * Victor Amuso, "Little Vic" * Albert Anastasia, [Umberto Anastasio], "Mad Hatter", "Lord High Executioner" * Anthony Anastasio, "Tough Tony" * Antonio Anatuppi, "The Toothpick" * Joseph Andriacchi, "Joe the Builder" * Donald Angelini, "The Wizard of Odds" * Albert Anselmi * Anthony Antico, "Tico" * Ignacio Antinori * Salvatore Aparo, "Sammy Meatballs" * Vito Arena * Fargo * John Ardito, "Buster" * Joseph Ardizzone, [Giuseppe Ernesto Ardizzone] * Joseph Armone, "Joe Piney" * Stephen Armone, "14th Street Steve" * Vincent Artuso, "Little Vinnie" * Jerome Asaro, "Jerry" * Vincent Asaro, "Vinnie" * Louis Attanasio, "Louie Ha Ha" * Alphonse Attardi, "The Peacemaker" (1892-1970) * Salvatore Avellino, "Sal", "The Golfer" * Frank Balistrieri, "Frankie Bal," "Mr. Big" d. 1993 * Anthony Baratta, "Bowat" * Joseph Barbara, "Joe the Barber" * John Barbato, "Johnny Sausage" * Edward Barberra, [Barberro] * Vincent Basciano, "Vinny Gorgeous", "Vinny from the Bronx" * Sam Battaglia, "*****" * James Belcastro, "Mad Bomber" * Liborio Bellomo, "Barney" * Nicholas Bianco, "Nicky" * Anthony J. Biase * Sledgehammer70 * Lawrence Bilello, "Larry" * Richard Bilello, "Richie" * Thomas Bilotti, "The Wig", "The Doberman," "Zombie Bilotti", "The Pitbull", "Tommy", (1940-1985) * Charles Binaggio (1909-1950) * Joseph Biondo, "Joe Bandy", "Joe the Blonde", "Little Rabbit" * Attilio Bitondo, "Tillio" * Ferdinand Boccia, "The Shadow" * Richard Boiardi, "Richie the Boot" * Frank Bompensiero, "Frankie Bomp" * Joseph Bonanno, "Joe Bananas" (1905-2002) * Salvatore Bonanno, "Bill" (1932- 2008) * Cesare Bonventre, "The Tall Guy" (d. 1984) * Giovanni Bonventre, "John" * Vito Bonventre * Henry Borelli, "Dirty Harry" * George Borgesi * Rosario Borgio * SpinningArtillery (?) * Bartholomew Boriello, "Bobby" (d. 1991) * Nicholas Botafuoco, "Coco" * Anthony Brancato * Dominic Brooklier, [Domenico Brucceleri], "Jimmy Regace" * Adolfo Bruno * Angelo Bruno, "The Gentle Don" (1910-1980) * Fiore Buccieri, "Fifi" * Frank Buccieri, "The Horse", "Frank Russo", "Big Frank" * Russell Bufalino, "McGee", "The Old Man" * Joel Cacace, "Waverly" * Thomas Cacciopoli, "Tommy Sneakers", "Cacci" * Marshall Joseph Caifano, [Marcello Giuseppe Caifano] * Vincent Cafaro, "Fish" * Richard Cain * Frank Calabrese, Sr., "Frankie Breeze" * Frank Cali, [Francesco Paolo Augusto Calì], "Franky Boy" * Joseph Cammarano, "Joe Saunders" * William Cammisano, "Willie the Rat" * Louis Campagna, "Little New York" * Paul Cantarella * Richard Cantarella, "Shellackhead" * Anthony Capo, "Tony" * Al Capone, [Alphonse Capone], "Scarface", "Big Al" (1899-1947) * Frank Capone, [Salvatore Capone] * Louis Capone (1896-1944) * Ralph Capone, "Bottles" * Antonio Caponigro, "Tony Bananas" * John Capra, "Johnny Hooks" * Frankie Carbo, [Paul Carbo] "Frank Tucker", * Anthony J. Cardarella, "Tiger" * Sam Cardinelli, [Salvatore Cardinella] * Anthony Carfano, "Little Augie Pisano" (d. 1959) * Louis Cafora II, "Fat Louis", "The Whale", * Joseph Caridi, "Joe C" * Sam Carlisi, "Black Sam", "Wings" (d. 1997) * John Carneglia, "Johnny Carnegs" * Sylvestro Carolla, "Sam" (1896-1972) * Charles Carrollo, "Charlie the Wop" * Frank Carrone, "Buzz", "Buzzy" * Robert Carozza, "Bobby Russo" * Frank T. Caruso, "Skids" * Primo Cassarino * Anthony Casso, "Gaspipe" * Paul Castellano, "PC" (1915-1985) * Eugene Castelle, "Bubsie", "Boopsie" * Richard Castucci * Salvatore Catalanotte, "Sam Sings in the Night" * Dominick Cataldo, "Little Dom" * Anthony Catania, "The Baker" * Gerardo Catena, "Jerry" * Domenico Cefalu, "Italian Dom" (b. 1947) * Dino Cellini * Wurd77 * John Cerrella, "Johnny Sideburns" * Jackie Cerone, "Jackie the Lackey" (1914-) * Dominick Cersani, "Remo" * John Cersani, "Boobie" * Peter Chiodo, "Fat Pete" * Anthony Ciccone, "Sonny" * Dominick Cirillo, "The Quiet Dom" * Anthony Civella, "Tony Ripe" * Carl Civella, "Corky" * Nicholas Civella, [Giuseppe Nicoli Civella] * Michael Clemente, "Mike Costello", "Big Mike" * Frank Colacurcio, Sr. * Eco James Coli * Joseph Colombo (1914-1978) * James Colosimo, "Big Jim" (1877-1920) * Louis Consalvo, "Louie Eggs" * George Conte, "Georgie Goggles" * Pasquale Conte, "Patty", "Patsy" * Frank Coppa * Michael Coppola, "Trigger Mike" (d. 1965) * Anthony Corallo, "Tony Ducks" * Joseph Corrao, "Joe Butch" * Vincent Corrao, "Vinny Butch" * Anthony Cornero, "Admiral" * Joseph Corozzo, "JoJo" * Nicholas Corozzo, "Little Nicky" * Vincent Corrao, "Vinny Butch", "Vinny the Shrimp" * Vincent Corrao, "Vinny the Blond" * Samuel Corsaro, "Little Sammy" * James Cosmano, "Sunny Jim" * Frank Costello, "The Prime Minister" (1891-1973) * Steven Crea, "Stevie Wonder", "Herbie" * Perry Criscitelli * Domenico Cutaia, "Danny" * William Cutolo, "Billy Fingers", "Wild Bill" (d. 1999) * William Daddano, Sr., "Willie Potatoes" (1912-1975) * Louis Daidone, "Louie Bagels" * John D'Amato, "Johnny Boy" * Alphonse D'Ambrosio "Funzi" * Salvatore D'Ambrosio "Sally" * John D'Amico, "Jackie Nose"' * Joseph D'Amico, "Joe Mook" * Anthony D'Andrea, [Antonio D'Andrea] * Leo D'Angelo, "The Mad Hatter" * Ralph Daniello, "The Barber" * Salvatore D'Aquila, "Toto" * Alphonse D'Arco, "Little Al" * Angelo DeCarlo, "Gyp" * Sam DeCavalcante, [Samuel Rizzo Decavalcante], "Sam the Plumber" (1913-1997) * Frank DeCicco, (d. 1986) * George DeCicco, "Butterass" * Joseph Defede, "Little Joe", "Joe D" * Peter DeFeo, "Philie Aquilino" * William D'Elia, "Big Billy" (1946-) * Patrick DeFilippo, "Patty from the Bronx" * Andrew Thomas DelGiorno, "Tommy Del" * Aniello Dellacroce, "Neil", "The Lamb" (1914-1985) * Frank DeLuca, [Francesco DeLuca] * Joseph DeLuca, [Giuseppe DeLuca] * Vincent DeMartino, "Chicky" * Frank DeMayo, "Chee-Chee" * Roy DeMeo, [Roy Albert Demeo] (1940-1983) * Lawrence Dentico, "Larry Fab", "Little Larry" * John DeRoss, "Jackie", "Jackie Zambooka" * Gino DeSilva, "Ginny Books" * Anthony DeSimone, "Tony D" * Franky DeSimone * James DeSimone * Joseph DeSimone, "Joe Desi", "Joe Black" * Rosario DeSimone, "The Chief" * Thomas DeSimone, "Two-Gun Tommy" * Sam DeStefano, "Mad Sam" * William Devino, "Billy Batts" * John DiGilio, "Johnny Dee" * Michael DiLeonardo, "Mickey Scars" * Paul DiMarco, "Paulie Stripes" * Leonard DiMaria, "Lenny" * Joseph DiNapoli, "Joey Dean" * Louis DiNapoli * Vincent DiNapoli * John Dioguardi, "Johnny Dio" * Joseph DiStefano, "Joe Shakes" * Joseph DiVarco, "Little Caesar" * Jack Dragna, [Antonio Rizzoti] * Vincent Drucci, [Vittorio D'Ambrosio], "Schemer" (1898-1927) * Thomas Eboli, "Tommy Ryan" (d. 1972) * Albert Embarrato, "Al Walker" (d. 2001) * James Episcopia, [Giacomo Episcopia], "Jimmy Legs" * Joseph Esposito, "Diamond Joe" * Natale Evola, "Joe Diamond" * Albert Facchiano, "*****", "The Old Man" * Louis Facciolo, "Louie" * James Failla, "Jimmy Brown" * Skinny+Teddy)+Persico+Jr.* Costabile Farace jr., "Gus" * Carmine Fatico, "Charley Wagons" * Anthony Federici, "Tough Tony" * Steve Ferrigno, [Stefano Ferrigno] * Louis Ferrante * Theresa Ferrara * Vincent M. Ferrara,"vinny nip", "The Animal" * Joseph Ferriola, "Oscar", "Joe Nagall"* Anthony Fiato,"hollywood Goodfella" * Ray Ferritto * *Anthony Fiato,"The Animal", *Anthony Fiato,"Tony Rome" * Bill Fischetti, [Guglielmo Fischetti], "William" * Rocco Fischetti, "Ralph Fisher", "Rocky" * Tino Fiumara, "T", "The Greek" * Stephen Flemmi, "The Rifleman" * Vincent Flemmi, "Jimmy The Bear", "Vinnie the Butcher" * Steven Franse * John Franzese, "Sonny" * Michael Franzese * Christopher Furnari, "Christy Tick" * Jimmy Fratianno, "The Weasel" * Louis Fratto, [Luigi Tomaso Anthony.Michael Zaffarano, "Mickey
John Zancocchio, "Porky"
Ilario Zannino, "Larry Baiona"
George Zappola, "Georgie Neck"
Anthony Joseph Zerilli, "Tony Z."
Joseph Zerilli, [Giuseppe Zerilli], "Joe Z.", "The Old Man"
Frank Zito
Joe Valachi, "Joe Cago" (1903-1971)
Rocco Valenti, [Umberto Valenti] (d. 1922)
Louis Vallario, "Big Lou"
Ernest Varacalli, "Junior"
Paul Vario, "Paulie" (1914-1988)
Gaetano Vastola, "Corky", "The Big Guy"
Anthony Veranis, "Mickey White", "Tony"
Stefano Vitabile, "Steve the Truck Driver"
Anthony Vitale
John Vitale
Salvatore Vitale, "Good Looking Sal", "The Chief"
Rocco Vitulli
Alessandro Vollero, "Sandro"
Joseph Vollero, "Joey V", "Joe Andrews"
Rocco Racco
Gregory Rago, "Georgie"
Joseph Rao, "Joseph Cangro", "Tough Joey"
Vincenzo Rao, "Vincent"
Phillip Rastelli, "Rusty" (1918-1991)
Marco Reginelli, "Little Man", "Small Man"
Tom Reina, [Gaetano Reina] (1889-1930)
George Remini, "Fat Georgie", "Big George"
Paul Ricca, "The Waiter" (1897-1972)
Lawrence Ricci, "Larry"
Louis Ricco, "Louie Bracciole"
Harry Riccobene, "Harry the Hump", "The Humpback"
Frank Rio, "Frank Cline"
Salvatore Riina "short one" "the beast"
Michael Rizzitello,"Mike Rizzi",Anthony Fiato
Carmine Romano, "Fish"
John Roselli, "Handsome Johnny", "John Rosselli", "John F. Stewart"
Benjamin Ruggiero, "Lefty" (1923-1995)
Angelo Ruggiero, "Quack Quack"
Anthony Russo, "Chucky"
Aladena Fratianno,
* Andrew russo,"Andy Mush"*,*Luigi Manocchio,"Baby Shacks" *

Joseph Abate, "Joey"
Frank Abbandando Jr., "Fingers"
Frank Abbatemarco, "Frankie Shots"
Philip Abramo, "The King of Wall Street"
Settimo Accardi, "Big Sam"
Tony Accardo, [Antonino Accardo], "Joe Batters", "Big Tuna"
Anthony Accetturo, "Tumac"
Carmine Agnello
Thomas Agro, [Ambrosiano], "T.A", "Tipp"
Joe Aiello, [Giuseppe Aiello]
Joseph Aiuppa, "Joey Doves", "Joey O'Brien" (1907-1997)
Felix Alderisio, "Milwaukee Phil"
Harry Aleman, "The Hook"
Joseph Allegro, "Joey"
Vincent Alo, "Jimmy Blue Eyes"
Benedetto Aloi, "Benny"
Vincenzo Aloi, "Vinny"
William Aloisio, "Smokes" Lucky Luciano; Vito Genovese; Al Capone; Carlo ..... Carlo Gambino was a member of the American Mafia
Willie Altieri, Joe"The Animal" Barboza, Joe Pesci La Cosa Nostra United States, Al Capone, Lucky Lucia american mafia, Capo, Clien, Close Ties, Conflict Of Interest, Crimes, Gaetano Napoli, gambino capo, gambino consigliere, Gambino Crime Family, Gambino Family, Gambino Family Members, gambino house counsel, gambino lawyer, Joseph Corozzo, Judge Lewis Kaplan, la cosa nostra, mafia, Mafia Members, Manhattan, michael scarpaci, mob, Mobsters, Napoli, new york mafia, nicholas corozzo, Organized Crime, Prosecutions, Prosecutor, Prosecutors, Relatives, Scarpaci

Prostitution In Spain Dominated by Mafia

2010-07-23T08:59:00.000-07:00

though prostitution is legal in Spain the industry … head of the Madrid-based Federation for Progressive Women, told AOL News today that newspapers that publish the prostitution ads are contributing to the exploitation of women. ‘Very simply, they are accomplices to the Mafia,’ Besteiro said. ..
http://www.aolnews.com/article/proposed-ban-on-prostitution-ads-stirs-uproar-in-spain/19564273

Experts differ on what mob infiltration of the ports means in a post-9/11 security climate, or how large and influential organized crime syndicates remain after decades of law enforcement

Former mafia boss Michael Franzese sounds warning over match-fixing

2010-06-08T13:25:00.000-07:00

When that former Mafia capo regime is Michael Franzese, who, according to federal records, generated more money for organised crime than anyone since Al Capone, the urge to shut up and simply digest what he is saying becomes positively overwhelming.

The subject is match-fixing and, while the location of Coventry Cathedral might appear unlikely for an ex-mobster, albeit a man dubbed "The Born Again Don", his testimony is compelling. Indeed, for lovers of sport, Franzese's warning is as chilling as any story he might care to tell about his previous life with the Colombo crime family.

"Those who believe gambling is not affecting our sports are wrong," he says. "I spent 17 years on the street dealing in this business. We certainly did target athletes, we certainly did have athletes gambling with us and at times we forced them to compromise the outcome of a game when they couldn't pay a debt.

" I don't care if it was a chess match – if we could influence it in some way, we would have. I've been on both sides of it and I can tell you it's there. If fans believe that matches are rigged or fixed, nothing will chase people away quicker. They will walk away and leave the sport to die. There would be more outrage than any kind of doping."

In Britain, the authorities are waking up to the threat of match-fixing amid a steady stream of investigations in sports as diverse as football, tennis, horse-racing, cricket and snooker. For football, the emerging danger is the potential co-operation between criminal gangs in Asia and Britain who target players in this country while placing their money in the Far Eastern gambling markets.

"The impression I get is that in England it is not looked at as a major problem," Franzese said. "In the States, the governing bodies in major sports see it as a major issue; there is enforcement and education. Gambling is accepted today, it's no longer done in the closet. I have more emails and communications with players who have got themselves in trouble today than ever. Just about everyone is corruptible if you do not have a policy in place."

At the peak of his criminal career during the 1980s, Franzese was rated by Fortune magazine among the top 20 most wealthy and powerful Mafia bosses and ran businesses that were generating a weekly turnover of about $7 million. With 12 bookmakers reporting directly to him, gambling contributed significantly.

So how does it happen? How do athletes become entangled in the web of organised crime? Franzese explains a typical scenario.

"I would get a call, 'Hey Mike, this certain player is in for us, $10,000, $15,000, $20,000, do you want me to stop him?' I would say, 'Of course not. Let him get into you for more, $100,000, $250,000. Let him bet'. We used to purposefully put him in the situation that we wanted.

"Before you know it this guy has nowhere to go. Finally, you say, 'OK this is exactly how we are going to work this out. Tomorrow night, you are favourites to win by 10 points, you make sure you win by six. I don't care how you do it – do whatever you have got to do. If you do this a couple of times, we're even. If you don't do this a couple of times then don't worry, you don't have to call me any more, I'll find you'."

According to Franzese, the competitive nature of sportsmen draws them to betting. Footballers in Britain certainly have a long culture of gambling while, in America, the issue was brought into sharp focus when basketball's Charles Barkley revealed losses of $10 million. The big danger, though, is when the money becomes owed to the wrong people.

"These guys are sophisticated in the sport that they play but, when it comes to their knowledge on the street, believe me they are babes in the woods," Franzese said. "When I speak to these guys, I say, 'I don't want to mess with you on the field, you would eat me up but, I tell you what, you come into my business, the business of gambling and I'll make a sissy out of you.

"We don't play by rules. There's no guy blowing a whistle'."

Franzese first became involved in organised crime at a time when his dad, Sonny, the Colombo family underboss, had been sentenced to 50 years in jail. The memory of taking his oath and becoming a sworn "made man" on Halloween 1975 remains vivid. "Money and power were the driving forces," he says. "I witnessed a lot of things that were unpleasant."

Franzese, though, was successful and being groomed to become the 'boss' of the entire Colombo organisation when, in 1984, he met his present wife, Camille. Eventually he decided to take a plea, do some jail time and left the mob in 1993. "All hell broke loose," he says.

"My dad disowned me, a contract was put out on my life. I should either be dead or in prison for the rest of my life, that's certainly what I earned. For some reason I got a second chance."

He did spend almost eight years in prison and, during that time, was visited by FBI agents with the proposition that he took part in an anti-gambling video with some of the major sports' governing bodies.

"I said, No'. They said, 'If you agree to do this, we will film outside the prison, we will put you in a hotel. I said, 'I've been in the hole [solitary confinement] for three years. You get my wife in that room with me and I'll make a video on anything that you want'."

Franzese has since spoken to athletes at more than 400 colleges and also accepted an invitation by the Association of Tennis Professionals to pass on his experiences to tennis professionals. Since that talk in 2006, he has been contacted in confidence by as many as 12 tennis players.

"They opened up and told me they had been approached," he says. "I think that the easiest sport [to fix] would be tennis. One player controls the game."

In Coventry this week, Franzese certainly captivated the 'Play The Game' conference and he says he would willingly travel back to England to outline the dangers of a gambling and match-fixing to participants of any sport, including football.

"I make athletes understand there is no upside whatsoever to get involved with these gamblers – none, it's only going to do them harm," he says..
Michaels father, Sonny Franzese, was a regular at the Copacabana nightclub, where he hobnobbed with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr.and boxing legend Jake LaMotta. It was also claimed he once had a stake in the classic porn film Deep Throat.

The environmental mafia

2010-06-06T19:20:00.000-07:00

ROME — The mafia's waste disposal and illegal dumping business in Italy continued to flourish in 2009, defying the global economy's woes, environmental organisation Legambiente said on Friday.

Circumventing environmental regulations is "the only business that is immune from crises," Legambiente said in a statement, estimating the crime syndicates' turnover in 2009 at 20.5 billion euros (24.5 billion dollars), virtually unchanged compared to 2008.

"The environmental mafia proves again to be solid and powerful holding," said Legambiente President Vittorio Cogliati Dezza.

The biggest growth in revenues (from 3.9 to 5.2 billion euros) came from the handling and disposal of trash, such as spent computer parts which were sent to Africa or East Asia.

The value of its substandard cement business, the eco-mafia's bread and butter, saw a slight drop, from 7.499 to 7.463 billion.

"It is a very lucrative business for clans, which basically control all of the cement production line in the country and because of that they are awarded national and local contracts to build public and private works," Legambiente said.

Another thriving sector in 2009 was crimes involving animals, such as dogfighting, smuggling of endangered species, clandestine butchering and illegal horse races. The business is now worth some three billion euros.

In geographical terms, the southern Campania region around Naples, home to the Camorra syndicate remained the main hub for eco-mafia business, accounting for 17.1 percent of ascertained crimes committed.

Rome's region of Lazio was second, accounting for 12.1 percent.

Renowned Italian writer and journalist Roberto Saviano, whose hard-hitting bestseller on the Camorra, "Gomorra", was turned into a film, said in an introduction to the Legambiente report that "trash has become one of the most profitable businesses over the years".

"Using Italian land as a mine where you can bury trash is more profitable than cultivating the same land," Saviano said. The veteran Mafia informer's farewell gift was an indictment, accusing him in the kind of crime he long helped prevent – a $1 million murder for hire

"Through their environmental businesses crime groups make annual profits that exceed those of Fiat (...) or Benetton," he added.

Saviano is living under police protection after mafia threats.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jPrMvAgIPFVKrUayiOHtHIwiUvjw

Pasquale Claudio Locatelli Camorra Boss Arrested in Madrid ...

2010-06-01T14:51:00.000-07:00

MADRID — Spain’s Interior Ministry says it has arrested a leading drug lord belonging to the Italian Camorra organized crime syndicate.

The ministry says Spanish police in collaboration with Italian counterparts captured 58-year-old Pasquale Claudio Locatelli as he arrived at Madrid’s Barajas international airport to meet his son who had flown in from Italy.

Locatelli had been on the run since he escaped from a French jail in southeastern Grasse in Sept. 1989 while on a visit to a hospital.

The Neapolitan mafia leader had been serving a prison sentence and is wanted by French and Italian authorities. The ministry said Saturday that Locatelli is an important conduit into Europe for cocaine from South America and hashish from north Africa.

Montreal Mafia figure presumed kidnapped

2010-05-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

A Montreal Mafia player closely linked to the Rizzuto clan is believed to have been kidnapped after his car was found abandoned and unlocked with open windows.

Paolo Renda, 70, was last seen Thursday afternoon in Montreal's northwest Cartierville district in his car while running errands.

His wife Maria grew worried as the afternoon grew late and Renda didn't come home. She went to look for him, retracing his regular route along Gouin Boulevard.

She later told police she spotted Renda's Infiniti model sedan parked on the road near Albert-Prévost Avenue. The car was unlocked, with its windows rolled down and keys in the ignition. The family decided to call police around 6 p.m.

Investigators say preliminary evidence suggests Renda was kidnapped, but did not shed light on any possible motive.

Former crime reporter Michel Auger said it's difficult to guess what happened to Renda, but ransom kidnappings have targeted various members of the Montreal Mafia in recent years. What's different is none of those abductions were ever reported to police.

"The victims of those kidnappings simply reappeared at their home a few days or a few weeks after the kidnapping," Auger told CBC. "So it is possible the same thing will happen with Renda and we will never know if someone paid the ransom."

Renda part of tight-knit family

Renda is believed to be the right-hand man to Nicolo (Nick) Rizzuto, presumed elderly patriarch of Canada's most well-known Mafia clan.

Renda's wife Maria is Nicolo Rizzuto's daughter and his brother-in-law, Vito Rizzuto, is Montreal's alleged Mafia boss, now serving time in a Colorado prison on racketeering charges related to a trio of Brooklyn cold case homicides in the '80s.

Renda himself was released from prison several months ago after he pleaded guilty to gangsterism-related charges. But after reaching a plea bargain with the Crown, Rizzuto pleaded guilty to possession of proceeds of a crime, and possession of the proceeds of crime for the benefit of a criminal organization.

He is believed to have handled finances for the Rizzuto family and was one of dozens arrested during massive sweeps in 2006 part of Operation Colisée, a drawn-out investigation authorities described as a major crackdown on organized crime.

Renda was also uncle and godfather to Nicolo (Nick) Rizzuto Jr., Vito's son, who was killed in broad daylight last December in what crime watchers described as a targeted attack on the Rizzuto clan.

mafia drug baron’ arrested outside Rome:

2010-05-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

Lucca, 20 May (AKI) – Italian police on Thursday arrested fugitive Neapolitan mafia drug baron Michele Chierchia at a villa near Fiumicino airport outside Rome. The felon was listed among the country’s 100 most dangerous fugitives, and anti-mafia prosecutors in three different regions had issued arrest warrants for him on drug trafficking charges.

Fifty-eight year-old Chierchia reportedly congratulated the anti-drugs police from the central Italian city of Lucca when they arrested him, marvelling at how they had found his hideout. He was taken to police headquarters in Rome.

His arrest followed a police investigation that began in April in the area of Tuscany surrounding Lucca, where two of Chierchia’s two children lived.

Last weekend, Lucca police managed to track Chierchia to the suburb of Fiumicino.

Chierchia had been living in the villa for some time, only making occasional trips to the Campania region surrounding Naples, where he was a local mafia boss in the southern city’s Torre Annunziata district.

Arrest warrants against Chierchia were issued by anti-mafia prosecutors in Lucca, Naples and in the Sardinia region’s capital, Cagliari.

Earlier on Thursday, Italian police arrested seven people near Rome with suspected links to the Naples’ mafia or Camorra.

Police also seized property worth 4 million euros in the early morning operation in the Rome and Latina provinces near the Italian capital.

Those arrested in that operation are believed to be members of the Naples mafia’s powerful Casalesi clan. Fugitive Pasquale Noviello was reported to be among those arrested
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.1.419534202.

Mob-star Lilo Brancato, prison pals with Plaxico

2010-05-11T14:53:00.000-07:00

Lillo Brancato — the star of “A Bronx Tale” (1993) who is doing 10 years for a 2005 burglary in which an off-duty cop was killed — has never been in better shape. He has made friends in prison with former Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress — who is doing two years for gun possession — in the protective custody unit at the Oneida Correctional Facility in Rome, NY. “They are buds. They work out together,” nightlife impresario Noel Ashman, who talks to Brancato every week, told Page Six. Brancato, who was able to kick his drug habit behind bars, has gotten a lot stronger and healthier. “He earned his GED [high school diploma], and now he’s taking college courses,” Ashman said. “He’s clean. He sounds great. He’s excited. In a horrible away, he’s almost grateful.” While Burress is due to get out early next year, Brancato isn’t eligible for parole until 2014.

http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/jail_can_be_good_for_health_xlsr42CVTMzK5VYLiZzeSM

Imprisoned actor Lillo Brancato beats up inmate who wouldn't cut short phone call
New York Post
... about getting high once he's sprung and obsesses over the mob -- reading book after book about organized crime. "He got this fetish with the Mafia. ...

After the mob, Joe DeFede ex-Lucchese mafia boss is barely getting by

2010-04-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

A SATURDAY, 11 a.m. Seniors’ hour at the diner.

An old man with a hearing aid butters his toast. Two Jamaican nurses help a woman with a walker through the door. An elderly mother and her daughter share a stack of pancakes, the mother guiding her fork past the oxygen tube in her nose.

Sitting in one booth with his wife, the former acting boss of the Luchese crime family tucks into his $4 plate of scrambled eggs. He wears a pink Hawaiian shirt, a gold medallion, a brand-new pair of therapeutic sneakers. He is talking about the old days: everything he had, everything he lost.

“How much money?” he asks, responding to the question with a question.

“Awww, tons of money,” he answers. “It’s hard to say how much.”

This is Joe DeFede, a retired New York gangster who oversaw the rackets in the city’s garment district in the 1990s, a perch that provided him with a Cadillac, a driver, three horses stabled at Aqueduct and a home entertainment system columned in the style of ancient Greece. Like many mobsters, he walked through life with dignity and pride and, usually, with several thousand dollars in his pocket.

These days, though, he walks with a faltering step of age and with the weight of financial worry. After a five-year prison stint, legal fees and the crushing costs of creating a new identity — he entered but then left the witness protection program — the boss is almost broke. He and his second wife, Nancy, live on an annual income they said was not much more than $30,000: Social Security, a modest annuity and her pension from 20 years of working in a bank.

“That’s the fear we got,” said Mr. DeFede, 76, a slight man with a bookmaker’s grin who is known as Little Joe. “We try to keep our payments up” — for the car, the house, a recent hip replacement — “but sometimes we can’t hack it.”

Or as Mrs. DeFede, 74, explained, “We’re just scraping by.”

It might be hard to muster sympathy — especially in the midst of a recession — for a guy who once earned his living shaking down businesses and taking illegal bets, even if he served his sentence and testified at several federal trials that helped put his former Mafia colleagues behind bars. But there is no such thing as a Gangster I.R.A., so the DeFedes are living check to check (and under assumed names) on the hard edge of a sharp financial knife.

They are hardly the first to struggle in their golden years when the years that went before were lived outside the law. Before the film “American Gangster” revived his finances, Frank Lucas, who earned — then lost — millions as a heroin dealer, was living in a public housing project in New Jersey. (He is now trying to start his own fashion line.) Henry Hill, a Luchese family associate whose story formed the basis for the movie “Goodfellas,” sells signed posters as well as his memoirs and cookbooks at the Web site goodfellahenry.com.

“These people wind up as desperadoes in a sense,” said Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote, among other things, the screenplay for “Goodfellas.” “They come up with different schemes to survive without a 401(k). Don’t forget, they were hustlers to begin with.”

The DeFedes fit that mold: friendless, jobless and, faced with an uncertain future, living on their wits. Mrs. DeFede has sold jewelry — a ruby necklace, an emerald bracelet — to help support the household and has even written a book about her trials, “Life With Little Joe.”

It is a love story, sort of, opening with a startling scene of a young Mr. DeFede slapping her face. The manuscript encompasses their lives together: from obscurity to opulence, from the bulletproof vest she once found in her husband’s closet to their nervous flight into the federal government’s arms. While one might think a mob moll’s tell-all would make for an easy sale, that has not been the case. Mrs. DeFede’s agent spent an unsuccessful year shopping the book around. The couple still hopes the manuscript will provide them a nest egg. Publish or perish, Mafia style.

Last year, Mrs. DeFede took a job as a cashier at a clothing store. It paid $7.50 an hour and required cleaning toilets. She lasted three days.

As for her husband, she is apt to say, “There’s not a lot of ads out there saying, ‘Wanted: Ex-crime boss of a Mafia family. Ten years’ experience required.’ ”

Not unlike their law-abiding counterparts, they are filled with rage and bitterness — and violent apprehension — at their economic prospects. Mr. DeFede is so suffused with anxiety he sleepwalks and, in that state, literally punches the walls.

“Joe has fights in his sleep, cursing at some shadowy figure from the past,” Mrs. DeFede wrote one evening, jotting down thoughts for a reporter. “He has hit me several times during these episodes. Of course, he didn’t mean to harm me, but after one really bad incident, I was trying to calm him down and

Mr. DeFede was nearing 70 when he got out of prison and discovered that a contract had been taken on his life. He was accused — wrongly, he insists — of stealing nearly a million dollars of Luchese family money. “If I did what they said I did,” he reasoned one night at the dismal bar of a chain restaurant, “you think that I’d be here?”

The DeFedes met in 1958 and married 12 years later, each with a divorce in the rear view. A couple of years ago, they settled here in a 55-and-older community— they insisted its name be withheld for security reasons — and have built a pleasant, albeit precarious, life.

Family is far away: Mrs. DeFede’s son is in New York, in the throes of a recent divorce. Mr. DeFede’s daughter is on Long Island, but visiting is difficult — she lives with his former wife.

They have grandchildren in San Diego but cannot afford the plane ticket. “It’s lonely living alone,” said Mrs. DeFede, a classic tough cookie with an Irish-American wit. “Holidays are the worst. You see other people with their families and it totally breaks your heart.”

A few years ago, her oldest friend from Brooklyn moved into the neighborhood to be with her. But there was drinking, petty fights and eventually unkind words; part of the problem was the friend started dating a retired cop. The two have parted ways, potentially forever. How does one explain oneself to the neighbors, after all?

“We don’t have a life,” Mrs. DeFede said.

What they do have is each other. Mrs. DeFede carries her husband’s glasses and double-checks his payments on the bar bill. Mr. DeFede cleans the gutters — he did, at least, until his hip went bad. She makes suggestions of what he ought to order from the menu. He drives her to the beauty parlor and waits until she is done. She back-seat drives from the front seat of the car.

When evening comes, they watch television together — the History Channel, “Divorce Court,” “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Mr. DeFede plays solitaire. He visits the barbershop, not to have his hair cut, but for company. “They’re Cubans, so they don’t speak too much English — it’s difficult,” he said.

One recent Saturday, they visited a flea market. Mr. DeFede pulled into a spot and hung his disabled parking permit from the mirror. He stepped outside and observed his front bumper, scratched like a scabbed shin.

“Five years old,” he said. “I never drove a car five years old before.” He put his hands together, palms up, and shook them back and forth in disbelief. “Remember that song?” he asked. “ ‘If My Friends Could See Me Now’?”

Inside the bazaar, Mrs. DeFede looked at several items she could not afford. A patterned blouse. A yellow purse. Shoes.

“You see what I’ve done to her?” asked Mr. DeFede, looking on. “You see this? She could’ve had anybody. Anybody. She ended up with me.”

Michael Franzese ;mafia talk in utica

2010-04-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

UTICA —
Former Mafia boss Michael Franzese knows he probably should be dead by now.

He knew too much about the inner workings of organized crime, and his decision to walk away from the Colombo mob family did not sit too well with those who put loyalty above all else, Franzese explained Friday.

So when faced with threats on his life while in prison during the late 1980s and pressured to snitch on other mobsters, the son of Colombo family underboss John “Sonny” Franzese chose to leave behind a lifestyle that made him one of the richest Mafia bosses since Al Capone.

“Anybody in that life has to realize that the life is destructive to families and to the people that you love … it’s just not what it’s cracked up to be” said Franzese, now 58.

Prompted in the late-1980s by his love for a born-again Christian who would become his wife, Camille Garcia, Franzese took steps to set himself on a path to redemption. Now, Franzese tours the country to encourage people to make the same positive changes in their lives.

This weekend, Franzese will return to Utica to speak at the Redeemer Church at 931 Herkimer Road about a life that brought him prestige and wealth, as well as many haunting regrets. The nondenominational church is headed by Pastor Michael Servello Jr.

As Franzese will tell those who gather to hear him speak, he became an official “made” member of the Colombia Mafia family Halloween night in 1975 at age 24. While Franzese said he initially jumped into organized crime in an attempt to get his father, “Sonny” Franzese, out of prison on trumped-up charges, he soon found himself rising in the ranks to a Mafia “capo,” or captain.

“Once I get into something, I’m going to be the best possible soldier, and that’s what happened,” Franzese said “Quite honestly, the life took hold of me. If you’re not into it with your heart, mind and soul, then you won’t survive.”

As Colombo soldier Joseph “Joe-Joe” Vitacco mentored Franzese into the underworld, Franzese said he would accompany Vitacco to Utica for business during the 1970s. It was here that Vitacco had ties with brothers Salvatore and Joseph Falcone, who reportedly ran organized crime rackets in the Utica area.

Franzese also heard of Dominic Bretti over the years, a Utica man who would join forces with Donato “Danny” Nappi and John Anthony D’Amico to kill Dawn Grillo in 1979. Like Franzese, Bretti claimed to be a born-again Christian, but Bretti later admitted that his phony conversion was only a scam to build a Utica-based crime empire.

While Franzese wouldn’t get into the details of his most serious regrets, he does admit that the lifestyle required him to turn a blind eye to many things.

“Yes, there were things I did that were distasteful and that bothered me,” Franzese said. “But I did it anyway, and that’s what you have to do in that life in order to survive.”

But once Franzese decided to step back from all that tragic unpleasantness, he knew that he could find himself in serious trouble if he made any wrong steps. So Franzese never snitched on anyone, he never “sold anybody short,” and he outlived all the people who might have wanted to harm him.

“Did I live in fear? No, because you pretty much know what fear is all about in that life,” Franzese said. “But I was never 100 percent confident that I would survive all of this.”

Despite the repeated death threats, Franzese did survive, and that is the message he tries to share with everyone else.

“For me, the bottom-line in all of this is that God had a different purpose for me in my life, and if He didn’t I don’t think I would have succeeded in anything,” Franzese said. “It’s pretty hard to deny that God didn’t have a hand in this.”

Gambino Sanitaion boss Grimaldi, Pleads Guilty:

2010-04-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK—A top Department of Sanitation official pleaded guilty on Tuesday on bribery charges in connection with the Gambino organized crime family.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office said that New York City Department of Sanitation Deputy Chief Frederick Grimaldi, 44, was involved in a scheme where he obtained illegal kickbacks for a construction project.

Grimaldi apparently got the kickbacks while overseeing a Department of Sanitation contract on building blocks that were supposed house road salt. His father-in-law, an alleged Gambino crime family member Michael Murdocco, orchestrated the deal, said Cuomo’s office.

“This corrupt Sanitation manager betrayed the public and the city agency where he held a coveted, well-paid position,” said Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn. “Fittingly, he stands convicted of a felony, his fate sealed by his own greed, incriminating words, and conduct,” said Hearn.

Another man, William Cosidente, 45, also had connections with Murdocco, pleaded guilty on the same day on extortion charges.

Cosidente was the apparent “muscle” in an illegal sports betting ring controlled by an organized crime syndicate operating out of Staten Island. According to Cuomo’s office, Murdocco had Cosidente strong arm various people to collect gambling debts.

Grimaldi pleaded guilty on bribe receiving in the third degree and will receive somewhere between 2-7 years when sentenced. He is expected to be sentenced on July 14. Cosidente will be sentenced on May 27 for grand larceny and will receive between 1.3 to 4 years.

Murdocco pleaded guilty last year on Enterprise Corruption charges and will be sentenced on June 22.

The gambling ring was run by the Gambino family, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars. Gamblers bet on horse races, professional football, baseball, hockey, and basketball games. If the gambler didn’t pay up, the crime family would use threats of violence to get their money.

“My office will continue to work closely with our colleagues at all levels of law enforcement in our ongoing efforts to combat organized crime in our neighborhoods and corruption in our government,” said Cuomo.

The attorney general’s Organized Crime Task Force along with the NYPD obtained evidence via wiretaps and traditional investigative techniques, said Cuomo’s office.

Back in November, Gambino crime family captain Carmine Sciandra pleaded guilty on enterprise corruption and grand larceny for his role in the crime syndicate, which included loan sharking and illegal gambling. He is forced to give up $1.2 million and will be sentenced to 1.5 to 4.5 years in prison starting on June 22. http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/33319/

Gambino-organized-crime-family chared with teenage sex trafficing

2010-04-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

The Mafia is alive and kicking – and pimping out teenage girls for sex on Craigslist

Authorities on Tuesday charged seven reputed members of the Gambino Crime Family with running an interstate sex-trafficking ring – calling it a “new low” for the mob.

Another seven wiseguys – including the family’s current boss, Daniel Marino - were also busted for a litany of crimes, some dating back to the era when John Gotti was in charge.

Authorities said the prostitution service was a first for an organized crime crew.

“No crime seems too depraved to be exploited if it was a money-maker, including the sexual exploitation of a 15-year-old,” said FBI Special Agent-in-Charge George Venizelos.

Aleged Gambino soldier Thomas Orefice is accused of hatching the scheme to recruit young women from various strip clubs to work as prostitutes.

Prosecutors say Orefice advertised the girls, ranging in age from 15 to 19, on Craigslist with ads that included the phone number of Gambino madam Suzanne Porcelli

Porcelli set up the appointments, and Orefice’s crew members drove the women to their bookings, waited for them and took half the cash, prosecutors say.

As a sideline, Orefice made these same women available to gamblers who played poker at his illegal high-stakes games, prosecutors charge.

The indictment also includes charges of murder, narcotics trafficking, loansharking, extortion and an aborted jury tampering scheme for Gotti’s 1992 trial.

“Rumors of the Mafia’s demise are greatly exaggerated,”Manhatten US Atorrney Preet Bharara said.

Remains believed to be those of Gary Westerman may hold many clues, says forensic expert Dr. Michael Baden

2010-04-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

Organized-crime investigators likely found a fully-clothed skeleton when they uncovered in Agawam 10 days ago what are believed to be the remains of an ex-convict missing since 2003, a renowned forensic pathologist says.

Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno- Even years after their demise, the dead can talk, says Dr. Michael M. Baden. Baden has served as the forensic expert in high-profile criminal investigations, including the O.J. Simpson case and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

“The dead can say a lot. They can tell us what happened to them and who it is who may have killed them,” Baden said during a telephone interview this week.

FBI agents and State Police organized crime investigators on April 5 closed in on a wooded area behind a home at 160 Springfield St. in Agawam, bringing with them excavation equipment and other tools.

They remained there for four days, working into the night under blazing lights towards the end of the search. A medical examiner’s van ultimately carted away what are widely believed to be the remains of Gary D. Westerman, a 49-year-old Springfield man who vanished in late 2003.

Dr. Michael BadenThe dig came seven years after Westerman’s whereabouts had been labeled a missing-persons case. Westerman, who had a string of criminal convictions dating back to his teen years and strong ties to organized crime, was believed to have been killed by rival gangsters. However, his body had never surfaced.

The excavation in Agawam came just days after reputed Genovese crime family captain Anthony J. Arillotta – charged in federal court in Manhattan with the 2003 murder of his predecessor Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno – dropped out of sight in the federal prison system.

That particular vanishing had all the marks of a turncoat, but law enforcement officials have refused to confirm or deny it.

Authorities also have refused to officially say they were searching for Westerman, but sources close to the investigation say they were led there by someone with knowledge of Westerman’s whereabouts.

Sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said it appears Westerman was shot twice in the head at the site, and then buried a short distance away in a hand-dug grave approximately 8 feet deep.

Baden said that, depending on the quality and dampness of the soil, there could be a complete loss of soft tissue but that investigators would likely find bones, bullets, hair, teeth and some personal effects of the deceased.

“Of everything in the body, the teeth stay the longest,” explained Baden, who still acts as a forensic consultant to the New York State Police in addition to his cases across the country and around the world. He is not a consultant in the Westerman case.

“If they were looking for somebody in particular they probably could make an identification within minutes from dental records,” he said

Baden also said most clothing holds up well, particularly cottons and other natural fibers. So Westerman could have, for example, been unearthed in the same jeans and sneakers he was wearing on the night he was allegedly killed.

“The nature of the clothing can be important if they had a snitch who told them what kind of clothing he was wearing when he died,” Baden said.

At such exhumations, Baden said, a forensic anthropologist is typically summoned to the scene. The digs are painstaking and mostly done through gentle sifting by hand of the soil around the remains.

Ballistics tests will ensue, according to Baden, along with an examination of entrance and exit wounds if the victim was, in fact, shot to death.

“They’re also looking for any other kind of information in the area . . . fibers of clothing on the surrounding brush .¤.¤.One time we found a boot print in a grave that was helpful in identifying the digger,” Baden said.

He added that though identification through dental records is quick and decisive, investigators will almost certainly send the remains for DNA testing also.

“They may not make any official announcements until they get the DNA results back, which usually takes about a week,” Baden said. “It’s not even really necessary but juries expect DNA evidence.”

The final step will be a criminal prosecution of those believed to have been involved in the killing. Prosecutors have refused to say when charges might come in connection with the Westerman case. However, federal court filings have stated investigators believe that at a minimum, Arillotta, who also was Westerman’s brother-in-law, and Arillotta enforcers Fotios and Ty Geas, brothers, had a hand in Westerman’s death.

Gary Westerman arrives at Springfield District Court September 13, 1974, to be arraigned on a burglary charge.Fotios Geas, 43, is Arillotta’s codefendant in the Bruno murder case – part of a broad racketeering indictment out of U.S. District Court in New York. Ty Geas lives in the area since he was released from jail in 2007 after an assault conviction.

State Police investigators have said previously that Arillotta, backed by the brothers, went on a short but violent reign to unseat Bruno as the region’s mob boss and that Westerman may have been part of that campaign.

Westerman served a 10-year state-prison sentence beginning in 1988 for his involvement in a Florida-to-Massachusetts cocaine trafficking ring that was tied to organized crime. A witness at his trial said Westerman used to tote kilos of cocaine stuffed in the legs of baggy pants.

While out on parole, he was convicted of a 1996 truck heist with Fotios Geas, when the two made off with furniture and computers. The Geases and co-defendant Arthur “Artie” Nigro, the reputed onetime head of the Genovese crime family – which mob investigators label the most feared of ...

Even at 19, Westerman was in 1973 charged along with two others with robbing Eastfield Mall vendors for jewelry, fur and leather coats, $28,000 in prescription drugs. Police said the men crawled in through the roof and slithered into the stores through air conditioning vents.

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/remains_believed_to_be_those_o.html

Genovese organized crime family Capo, Joseph 'The Eagle' Gatto, dies

2010-04-16T17:41:00.000-07:00

Joseph “The Eagle” Gatto of Paterson, a reputed captain in the Genovese Crime Family who allegedly inherited his legendary gangster father’s lucrative North Jersey gambling rackets, died last week in Hackensack.

The cause of death of the 65-year-old son of the late Louis “Streaky” Gatto was not made public.

The brief notice announcing his death, published April 10, was in stark contrast to the reams of newspaper stories connecting Gatto’s name to gambling and loan-sharking investigations.

The notice stated that he was born in Paterson, lived in Hawthorne from 1960 until 2001 when he moved back to Paterson, and served in the Army in Vietnam.

Most relatives could not be reached for comment, or would not speak on the record.

“He was a nice guy, a business guy,” said one relative, who didn’t want to be identified. “We’re just working people.”

Tall and heavy set, Gatto took over the crew once run by his father, who reportedly controlled a multimillion-dollar gambling empire, when the elder Gatto was sentenced to 65 years in prison June 1991 for racketeering and murder conspiracy.

At the time, Louis “Streaky” Gatto, a captain in the North Jersey Genovese family, was said to be a favorite of imprisoned Genovese boss Vincent “Chin” Gigante.

“Streaky” Gatto died in prison in 2002, after a battle with prostate cancer.

Joseh Gatto’s brother, Louis Gatto Jr., died in 2000 while serving in federal prison.

At a New Jersey Commission of Investigation hearing in 2003 on organized crime in the state, Joseph Gatto was identified as a capo, or crew leader, of one of five main Genovese crews in New Jersey.

The Genovese family has long been the dominant crime family in Bergen, Passaic and Hudson counties, running the largest bookmaking and loan-sharking rings in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area.

Gatto’s death came nearly one year after a grand jury declined to indict him in a case that authorities had dubbed “Operation Jersey Boyz,” a joint probe by the State Police and Bergen County.

Gatto, and 43 alleged mobsters and associates, were rounded up in December 2004 on racketeering and gambling charges in connection with a vast offshore gambling operation by the Genovese crew that took in millions of dollars in illegal wagers for the Genovese, Lucchese, Bonanno and Gambino crime families.

Also arrested was Frank Lagano, 67, of Tenafly, an alleged Lucchese soldier who was shot and killed in April 2007 in what authorities said they believe was a hit outside a diner he owned in East Brunswick.

In well-publicized raids, investigators seized 25 guns and nearly $1.3 million in cash.

Gatto, who had been released from Ray Brook federal prison in upstate New York in October 2003 after serving 53 months of a 61-month federal gambling and loansharking conviction, was accused of controlling a wire room in Costa Rica, known as Catalina Sports.

Prosecutors said the gambling venture had 12,000 customers nationwide and raked in about $300,000 a week for the family.

Federal agents arrested Gatto a day after he was charged in the “Operation Jersey Boyz” investigation, charging him with violating terms of his release from federal prison.

The “Jersey Boyz” case began unraveling in late 2005 amid concerns over the handling of informants and other legal issues.

The probe was compromised after an investigator with the state Division of Criminal Justice tipped off one of the targets — a mobster-turned-informant — that he was under scrutiny by another agency and promised to protect him, a recorded conversation that was withheld from a state judge, The Record reported in 2008.

A state judge vacated pleas from 10 defendants in the case and opened the way for 33 others to be cleared and suppressed all the wiretap and search warrant evidence. The Bergen Prosecutor’s Office appealed the judge’s ruling.

Some of the wiretaps were reinstated, and Superior Court Judge Marilyn C. Clark of Passaic County, who authorized the electronic surveillance in the case, notified defense lawyers that the prosecutor’s office was going to proceed with charges against 22 of the defendants.Also assigned to the Lucchese crime family will be with am Eastern crime But the Gambino and Genove

The grand jury’s no-bill in May 2009 meant that Joseph Gatto died a free man.

By Justo Bautista. http://www.northjersey.com/obituaries/Joseph_The_Eagle_Gatto_reputed_captain_in_Genovese_crime_family_dies.html

Camorra-Mafia boss, Nicola Panaro captured after 7 years -Hollywood Mafia Mobsters

2010-04-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

ROME – POLICE on Wednesday arrested the boss of the Naples-area Camorra mafia, Nicola Panaro, considered one of Italy’s 30 most dangerous fugitives, the ANSA news agency reported.

The 41-year-old head of the most powerful Camorra clan the Casalesi had been on the run for seven years, ANSA said.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni hailed the arrest as ‘another extraordinary success by the state against the Camorra.’ Late last month police arrested 12 alleged members of the Casalesi clan including the father and brother of Michele Zagaria, a boss who has been on the run for 15 years.

Last week authorities seized land and buildings worth more than 700 million euros ($1.3 billion) from suspected Camorra mafia members in what Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called the biggest operation of its kind.

The Camorra are one of Italy’s four organised crime syndicates

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_514777.html

Michael Franzese:Colombo,Mafia boss to meet with Calgary's top cop

2010-04-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

Michael Franzese (born May 27, 1951), is a former New York mobster with the Colombo crime family who was heavily involved in the gasoline tax rackets

Anyone who’d want to come after me is either dead or in prison.”

Maybe so, but when former Mafia boss Michael Franzese sits down in a restaurant, he still has a reputation for choosing a seat where he can keep his eye on the door.

You can’t blame him. Once named the world’s 18th richest gangster and notorious enough to be featured as a character in the mob movie Goodfellas, Franzese did the one thing no made man ever does — he quit the Mafia.

“I certainly had my share of contracts and death threats on me, and that went on for years. For a long time, I was looking over my shoulder everywhere I went,” said Franzese.

“But I know the life, and I also know what people would do to come after me and what they wouldn’t.”

Franzese’s strategy for staying alive after stepping down as heir-apparent underboss to New York’s Colombo crime family apparently works.

Two decades after Franzese pulled the plug, no one has pulled the trigger.

The 53-year-old New Yorker remains the highest-ranking Mafia boss to ever leave a crime family without resorting to protective police custody.

It’s all the more remarkable given the high-profile life of a man once said to be the biggest Mafia money-earner since Al Capone, earning five to eight million dollars a week on an illegal gasoline racket.

“I make a little less than that now,” laughs Franzese.

His racket now is trying to steer kids and petty criminals away from organized crime, while offering advice to police forces on how deal with the mob.

Franzese arrives in Calgary late next month, on a tour promoted by After-Care Ministries.

His four-day itinerary includes an anticipated meeting with Calgary Police Chief Rick Hanson, as well as speeches at four prisons, two churches and a high school.

Hanging out with high-ranking cops and voluntary visits to jail is hardly the life Franzese anticipated, on the day in 1975 when a Mafia boss sliced his thumb, sealing his blood oath as a newly made man.

Franzese’s father is notorious mob enforcer John (Sonny) Franzese, the 93-year-old Colombo underboss who reportedly bragged, “I killed a lot of guys ... you’re not talking about four, five, six, ten.”

The family connection resulted in Michael being brought into the family business — exactly how closely he followed in dad’s footsteps remains lost in a murk of rumour and innuendo.

What is clear is Franzese’s acumen with shady financial business, and he is credited as the mastermind behind a multitude of lucrative scams, involving gas taxes, car dealerships, and sports.

Prosecutor and future New York mayor Rudy Giuliani once went after Franzese, vowing to jail him for a century, but failing miserably, as did the next four indictments.

Franzese was a powerful captain with a bright future — but then the mob boss had a change of heart, literally, falling in love with a Mexican dancer he met on a film set.

Camille Garcia convinced her besotted Mafia suitor to embrace God, while giving up his life of crime.

Franzese copped a plea, announced he was quitting the Mafia, and then he cut a deal which saw him give evidence against two non-mob crime contacts, earning an early release.

Now, he tours the U.S., writing books and giving lectures on organized crime and his faith.

Franzese says his planned meeting with Calgary’s police chief is more than a handshake — he believes Chief Hanson and his officers can learn plenty from his Mafia past.

“Organized crime is organized crime, and I know you have issues up there in Calgary,” said Franzese.

“I can give the chief and his detectives insight into how the mob operates — they’re not exactly the same, but if you know one organized crime group, you know them all.”

Just as important, says Franzese, will be his talks at places like the Calgary Remand Centre and James Fowler high school, where his reputation earns him respect — and open ears.

“Credibility is everything, and I have that,” said Franzese.

“You don’t realize it when you’re in the life, the fascination people have with it — but people want to hear the mob guy, and I use that respect to get my message across.

“Hopefully, it’s helping people make the right choices

Colombo family turncoat's wife Andrea Calabro helps feds with info on mob boss Tommy Shots Gioeli

2010-04-08T21:31:00.000-07:00

She went from moll to mole.

The FBI sent the wife of a turncoat Colombo capo on a secret mission to "borrow" evidence from the unsuspecting wife of the crime family's boss, the Daily News has learned.

Andrea Calabro, married to gangster Dino Calabro, was trying to boost his bid for a cooperation agreement with the feds when she agreed to become a squealer last spring, sources and court papers say.

She provided investigators with a detailed layout of the inside of former Colombo street boss Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli's modest colonial home in Farmingdale, L.I.

She also tipped off the feds that Gioeli's wife, Maureen, had a trove of photographs of Colombos at weddings, Sweet 16 bashes, communions and block parties.

A search warrant affidavit, which identifies her as "Confidential Source-1," reveals she told investigators the boss' wife always brought her camera to social events and was a "hoarder" who stored the photos in albums, bags and bins in the basement.

Such photos are a gold mine for federal prosecutors who can use them at racketeering trials to prove links between wiseguys.

FBI agent Scott Curtis said Calabro's wife was instructed to ask Maureen Gioeli if she could borrow some of the photographs - and she agreed.

She even grabbed an address book that was lying on the table when Maureen Gioeli left the room.

"The FBI instructed [Andrea Calabro] only to obtain photographs depicting [Dino Calabro], Gioeli and other members of the Colombo family, and to only obtain those photographs with the consent of Gioeli's wife," Curtis noted.

Maureen Gioeli even blabbed to Andrea Calabro that FBI agents had failed to seize her husband's "man purse" with cell phones and papers when he was busted in January.

Gioeli's lawyer declined to comment.

A former federal prosecutor said the tactic of flipping a mobster's wife was unusual and put her life in danger.

Another lawyer familiar with the case called the FBI's strategy a low blow: "It's sleazy and smacks of desperation," the lawyer said.

Calabro and his wife are in the witness protection program, sources said.

law enforcement looks for body of Genovese mobsters associate

2010-04-06T22:42:00.000-07:00

Adolfo Bruno (1945 – November 23, 2003), also known as "Big Al", was a Massachusetts mobster with the Genovese crime family who ran an organized crime ...

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By late morning on Tuesday, a small platoon of law enforcement officials had arrived to begin combing a residential parcel at 160 Springfield St., believed to be the site of a search for the remains of a long-missing Springfield man. Gary D. Westerman, a convicted drug dealer with ties to organized crime, went missing in 2003. According to filings in U.S. District Court, investigators believe he was murdered by rival gangsters, but they have yet to turn up a body. The search of the property here commenced quietly starting early Monday night, just days after jailed regional crime boss Anthony J. Arillotta virtually dropped out of sight in the federal prison system. Arillotta, 41, of Springfield, was arraigned in federal court in Manhattan on March 24, named along with several other organized crime figures in a sweeping racketeering indictment alleging extortion and gaming conspiracies in addition to charges for the 2003 murder of Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno. Arillotta was listed as “released” by the federal Bureau of Prisons the next day. Prison officials refused to report where he had gone, and investigators would not comment on whether he has begun cooperating with authorities. Arillotta, along with onetime enforcer Fotios “Freddy” Geas, and former acting New York Genovese crime boss, Arthur “Artie” Nigro, have been accused in an alleged murder-for-hire plot to remove Bruno, the then-regional boss of the New York crime family in late 2003. Admitted triggerman Frankie A. Roche, who disappeared into the federal witness protection plan two years ago, said Geas recruited him and paid him $10,000 to shoot Bruno. He told investigators he pumped six bullets into the mobster as Bruno left his regular Sunday night card game at a South End neighborhood club on Nov. 23, 2003. Westerman disappeared just days before the Bruno slaying, believed to be the victim of a spike of violence in organized crime circles, law enforcement officials have said. FBI supervisor Mark S. Karangekis confirmed federal, state and local investigators are at the Agawam site in an official capacity but would not provide further details. However, sources familiar with the investigation say the hunt is for Westerman’s remains. Investigators, some toting evidence markers, headed in and out of a narrow, curved driveway leading to a small home surrounded by woods and a field owned by a utility company. State Registry of Motor Vehicles records show the resident of the house is Joseph Iellamo, a friend of Arillotta. Sources with knowledge of the probe say Iellamo is not believed to have been involved in Westerman’s disappearance. The house is scarcely visible from the road, but was surrounded with crime scene tape by Monday evening. The stream of law enforcement officials on Tuesday included familiar faces in organized crime investigations: Karangekis and a handful of other FBI agents; State Police Lt. Thomas Murphy; trooper Liam Jones; and assistant U.S. attorney Paul H. Smyth, who was handling the Bruno prosecution here before it was transferred to New York. Stephen Bonesteel, a highway foreman with the Agawam Department of Public Works, said he was met by city police officers early Tuesday morning. He said police requested that a crew clean a vacant parking lot across the street from the search site so law enforcement officials could park there. “We’re doing it as a courtesy,” Bonesteel said of the cleaning of the privately-owned parking lot. “It’s kind of hard to say no to the FBI.” Investigators will be at the site around-the-clock for at least one more day, Karangekis said. By Stephanie Barry, The Republican http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/federal_state_and_local_invest.html

Jessica Biel Is A Mob Girl

2010-04-05T22:52:00.000-07:00

Jessica Biel’s stepping up to produce and star in Mob Girl, based on the real-life story of a mafia mistress, and now An Education’s Lone Scherfig is attached to direct it.

Mob Girl, which will be based on Teresa Carpenter’s book, follows Arlyn Brickman, who spent her life around racketeering types, with her grandmother and father as early examples. She ended up running packages and letting mobsters use her home as a safe haven, and even bedded a few.

But years of abuse at the hands of her Mafia associates eventually led her to become a government witness.

This one is still in the early stages – the project doesn’t even have a writer yet, so chances are Scherfig will make Anne Hathaway rom-com One Day first.

JFK, FRANK, & MARILYN: THEIR SECRET LAIR OF SEX & DRUGS

2010-04-04T15:24:00.000-07:00

Revealed! Secrets of the Rat Pack lair, Cal-Neva, where Frank Sinatra, JFK and Marilyn Monroe consorted with the mob and partied like unrepentant hell spawn.

The Lake Tahoe den of iniquity was said to have been bought by frequent client Joseph Kennedy, Patriarch of the Camelot clan, through an alleged front.

In 1960 when JFK was running for President it was bought by crooner Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and others. Dino joked "Frank got the Nevada side with the gambling and the booze. I got the California side. It's got six pay toilets and a picture of Richard Nixon."

But Sinatra biographers insist the casino was secretly owned by Chicago Outfit Mafia kingpin Sam Giancana, the one-time heir to Al Capone, and protected by Johnny Roselli

Sinatra and pals reportedly built a complex labyrinth of tunnels beneath the carnal house where Giancana could visit Cal-Neva secretly after being banned by the Nevada gaming authorities.

The tunnels were also used by President Kennedy and Monroe to sneak to and from their respective rooms unseen for sex romps.

After Marilyn was dumped by both John AND Robert Kennedy, the sex symbol was visibly depressed, boozy and popping pills when she was snapped by a photog with crime lord Giancana.

"Marilyn (was) on all fours," the photogapher revealed. "She looked sick. Astride her, either riding her like a horse or trying to help her up - I couldn't make out which - was Sam Giancana."

Partying for three straight nights at Cal-Neva, Marilyn returned to Hollywood and was found dead a few days later.

Now on the verge of shuttering its doors forever, many of Cal-Neva's secrets remain shrouded in the notoriety of the past.

JFK and Giancana also shared mistress Judith Exner
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/68426
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/jfk_marilyn_monroe_sinatra_giancana_calneva_secrets_/celebrity/68426

Godfather actor James Caan celebrates 70th b'day in Vegas

2010-04-04T12:47:00.000-07:00

James Caan downed shots of tequila and was swarmed by girls as he celebrated his 70th birthday in Vegas. Caan, most famous for playing Sonny Corleone in "The Godfather," was joined by 15 friends for dinner at Yellowtail before heading to The Bank at the Bellagio the other night. A spy said, "He showed he was still light on his feet." At 3 a.m. he moved to the casino where "his table was swarmed by so many fans, they had to provide extra security." Oddly he also brought along his soon-to-be ex-wife, Linda Stokes, who didn't appear to be having fun. "They didn't speak much," said our spy

Dimitar Berbatov: The Godfather

2010-04-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

FOR a man who models himself on a big screen Mafia Don, today's showdown with Chelsea is 'nothing personal, it's purely business'.

Dimitar Berbatov has had a life that could make a film.

And there have already been offers for the Bulgarian to move from the glamourous world of football to another in cinema.

For now, he is happy being at Manchester United.

But off the pitch you could be forgiven for mistaking him for Andy Garcia in The Godfather: Part III... or so he thinks.

Berbatov, 29, said: "Lots of people tell me that I look like him.

"He has actually influenced my choice of hairstyle and I have even studied the way he smokes so I can hold my cigarette in the same way."

Berbatov learnt English from watching The Godfather trilogy as he made his way from the dark mean streets of Communist Bulgaria to the bright lights of the Premier League.

The young Don Corleone himself was brought up on the streets of Little Italy in New York.

For Dimitar, life was tougher in the bleak mining town of Blagoevgrad and as a kid and he was reduced to kicking an old dusty basketball to hone his talents as there was no money for a proper football.

This came after he queued for bread for anything up to eight hours.

He said: "We would get in line at six in the morning and, if you lost your place, you had to go to the back.

"I don't know many footballers who will have experienced what it was like being a child in a communist country."

As a rising star, the mob KIDNAPPED him after training with CSKA Sofia.

Gangland chief Georgi Iliev wanted him to play for his club Levski Kjustendil.

Berbatov managed to make a call to his dad Ivan, who was also a professional footballer, who did a deal to free his son.

Understandably, it is not a subject Berbatov talks about at length.

He said: "It was an horrific ordeal but a long time ago now."

Then, in November last year, he had to evacuate his wife Elena and daughter Dea from Bulgaria when his mother Margarita was warned of a kidnap plot against them.

Berba is understood to have struck an agreement to keep all his family safe.

All this is perhaps why the striker is different and something of a loner at Old Trafford.

While others indulge in usual football banter he can often be seen standing alone in his own thoughts at airports on United's travels.

He has never forgotten his roots and gives money to five children's care homes and has his own football foundation.

Even when he was starting out as a player in 2001, he saved the life of a sick Bulgarian girl by paying for her liver transplant operation.

For him, the streets of Blagoevgrad have not been eclipsed by the leafy lanes of Cheshire.

He once admitted: "I miss it in some ways. I had my friends, and the conditions united and strengthened you. My personality has been shaped by my upbringing. I know what a crisis is."

His mother Margarita says her son finds strength from his faith in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

She once said: "When he left for England, he carried a Bible I gave him. I pray for him before every game."

Those prayers will be offered as Berba faces Chelsea today.

And all eyes will be on him for the next couple of weeks with Wayne Rooney sidelined.

The time for talking about style over substance is over - the Ј30.75million man must deliver.

He needs to be more prolific than the 12 goals in 36 appearances he has contributed in his second season at Old Trafford.

As a kid, he wanted to be Marco van Basten, as a teen he idolised Alan Shearer and would go to bed in a Newcastle shirt.

He once painted a mural of his favourite players from Pele to Michael Owen, now his own team-mate.

While Berbatov is adored at home, his recent performances for his country have been criticised after Bulgaria failed to qualify for the World Cup finals.

His response to that on his blog was Cantona-esque: "I have this to say to all who envy, I am too high up to see you. And even if I fell, I would not fall so low.

"I am the dog you love to hate because I am a big success.

"In Bulgaria, everyone is an expert on football even though most of them have probably never kicked a football. But this is my blog and I can say anything I like."

If he can now also play like Eric Cantona until the end of the season there will be no criticism.

Chicago family bank loans to mobsters draw fire

2010-04-02T17:01:00.000-07:00

U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk quickly pounced on more news Friday of multimillion dollar loans to organized crime figures from the family bank of Alexi Giannoulias, as the Democratic candidate's past continues to dog his political ambitions.

The Highland Park Republican claimed Giannoulias has "misled Illinois voters" about his role at Chicago's Broadway Bank and the institution's loans to reputed mobsters.

Giannoulias has said he wishes the bank would have done background checks on the men before making the loans. He has also sought to distance himself from those loans. At the time, Giannoulias was a senior loan officer at the bank, before he ran for state treasurer in 2006.

The latest revelations came in a Chicago Tribune report Friday detailing loans totaling more than $20 million and tied to properties across the country.

The bank is now trying to recoup much of the money from Michael Giorango and Demitri Stavropoulos as it teeters on the brink of collapse, according to the reports.

The lending came at a time both men were set to serve prison sentences. Stavropoulos had a two-year sentence for running a bookmaking ring across several states, according to reports, and Giorango served six months intermittent confinement for promoting a nationwide prostitution scheme.

Broadway Bank's loans to Giorango and Stavropoulos have been publicly known for years, frequently confronting Giannoulias on the campaign trail. But the details behind them have not previously been revealed.

Broadway Bank loans to Tony Rezko, an insider of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration convicted of influence peddling, as well as the institution's solvency have also been political issues for Giannoulias. But he has overcome some of these problems before, albeit in races that drew far less attention - his campaign for treasurer in 2006 and the latest Senate primary.

Chicago Outfit::video poker kingpin of Chicago mob made bail

2010-03-06T23:08:00.000-08:00

The alleged video poker king of Chicago, who once said he wasn’t sure who owned the Bridgeport home he lives in, saw that home pledged to make his $250,000 bond Friday for his release from jail.

Casey Szaflarski, 52, is charged with helping run a video gambling operation for the Chicago Outfit. His sister put up the house, which is held in a trust.

Szaflarski was equally vague when questioned by a court official on his finances, leading Assistant U.S. Attorney T. Markus Funk to say “there are more questions than answers as to his income. We believe he has provided false information.”

Szaflarski’s attorney, Catharine O’Daniel, said Szaflarski wasn’t being dishonest, just cautious, because he did not know what he should say because his lawyer wasn’t present during the interview on his finances.

The bond hearing turned into a family affair when it was revealed that Szaflarski illegally had two guns. His ex-wife, who still lives with Szaflarski, handed them over to a relative, Chicago Police officer Mary Versetto, who said she is keeping them in her home.

Szaflarski is the son-in-law of the late Chicago mobster Joseph “Shorty” LaMantia. Versetto is LaMantia’s niece.

When Funk questioned her, Versetto had few details about Szaflarski’s guns.

She said she didn’t actually know whose guns they were.

She said she didn’t know where the guns had been stored.

But she did believe they weren’t stored in the house where Szaflarski and his ex-wife live.

Versetto, who was not in court but questioned over a speakerphone, sounded impatient with the prosecution’s questioning, at one point asking, “Is that it?”

Szaflarski is accused of sharing profits of his video gambling business with Michael Sarno, who is also charged in the case and is the reputed head of the mob’s Cicero crew

written by STEVE WARMBIR

Genovese crime family: Genovese mob boss indicted on racketeering charges

2010-02-18T19:01:00.000-08:00

Anthony "Bingy" Arillotta

reputed former acting boss of the Genovese crime family was indicted today on racketeering charges that include the 2003 murder of Massachusetts mob captain who was believed to have turned rat.

Arthur Nigro, who's currently doing time for extortion, could face the death penalty in the gangland slaying of Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno, who was gunned down in the parking lot of a social club in Springfield, Mass.

Genovese associate Frankie Roche pleaded guilty in 2008 to serving as the triggerman -- for a reported $10,000 payment -- and is cooperating with the feds.

At the time of Roche's guilty plea, prosecutors said Bruno -- who led the Genovese family's "Springfield crew" -- was whacked after he fell out of favor "because he was not sending sufficient tribute payments to New York."

Today's Manhattan federal court indictment adds allegations that Bruno was rubbed out "to prevent his communicating to a law enforcement officer and judge of the United States information relating to the commission and possible commission of federal offenses."

Those offenses included "crimes committed by members of the Genovese organized crime family," the indictment says.

The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office said Nigro -- whose nicknames include "Short Guy" and "Little Guy" -- and fellow mobster Anthony "Bingy" Arillotta also helped arrange the hit to "increase their position" in the Genovese crime family.
The Genovese family represented most of the eastern families on the Commission.

Montreal Mafia: Mafia boss Paolo Renda to be freed from prison

2010-02-14T20:09:00.000-08:00

Paolo Renda, one of six men who acted as leaders in the Montreal Mafia while the organization was under investigation in Project Colisée, is expected to be released from a penitentiary next week.

The 70-year-old brother-in-law of Vito Rizzuto will soon reach his statutory release date on the two-year sentence he received in October 2008. Renda's release date is set for sometime around Feb. 16.

Federal inmates who are not previously granted parole by the time they reach the two-third mark of their sentence automatically qualify for a release unless they are deemed to be potentially violent offenders. Renda turned down a chance at a parole hearing last year for reasons that were not made public.

In Renda's case, the National Parole Board could only decide whether or not to impose conditions on his release.

Renda pleaded guilty to possession of the proceeds of crime and a related gangsterism charge and received the equivalent of a six-year sentence. But with the time he served behind bars awaiting the outcome of his case in Project Colisée, he was left with only a two-year prison term.

According to a written summary of a recent National Parole Board decision, Renda will not be allowed to communicate with anyone with a criminal record until the end of his sentence which expires on Oct. 16.

Renda, described in the summary as "one of the leading members of the Mafia in Montreal," is also required to supply information about his income and expenses to his parole officer on a monthly basis.

The parole board determined the conditions were necessary to "assure that you keep your distance from the criminal world and the Mafia."

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Mafia+boss+freed+from+prison/2553155/story.html#ixzz0fZgU84KI

inside the Mafia: Saint,’ family face extortion charges

2010-02-06T15:37:00.000-08:00

PROVIDENCE — Jailed mobster Anthony M. “The Saint” St. Laurent Sr., his wife and son were charged Friday in U.S. District Court with conspiring to commit extortion involving several bookmakers in the Taunton, Mass., area.

The family is charged with extorting “protection” payments from 1988 through Feb. 3, 2009, with St. Laurent Sr. functioning “as the overall leader of this conspiracy,” according to an FBI affidavit, based on bookmakers turned federal witnesses.

Dorothy St. Laurent, 73, was described in the affidavit as the “primary collection agent of the cash extortion payments.” Her son, Anthony St. Laurent Jr., 44, sometimes by verbal threat, sometimes by force, made sure bookmakers stayed in the business and kept payments coming, authorities say.

St. Laurent Sr. is serving a five-year sentence at Federal Medical Center Devens, Mass., for a 2006 conviction on a separate extortion case. He is charged in a pending federal case with trying to hire someone to kill a mob rival, Robert P. DeLuca. St. Laurent Sr. has pleaded not guilty to the murder-for-hire charge.

A short time after they were arrested, Dorothy St. Laurent and her son were brought before federal Magistrate Judge Lincoln D. Almond. He set $10,000 surety bail for St. Laurent Jr., of Cranston, and ordered him to surrender his passport. St. Laurent Jr., who has a previous extortion conviction, was also ordered by Almond to be electronically monitored on home confinement and to not leave the state.

Dorothy St. Laurent was released and cannot leave the state without permission.

An arraignment date for St. Laurent Sr. has not been set.

One of the bookmakers-turned-federal-witness said, according to the FBI affidavit, that he first met St. Laurent Sr. in the 1970s and made payments to, and later, collected payments for St. Laurent Sr. The witness said St. Laurent Sr. once warned that if the bookmaker did not continue payments and was caught taking bets, St. Laurent Sr. would “cut his hands off.”

The bookmaker said that in the 1990s, when the Twin River slot parlor in Lincoln was called Lincoln Park, St. Laurent Sr., banned from there because he was on the Nevada Gaming Commission’s “Black Book” of people barred from Vegas casinos, would sit in the car while his wife did business. He said she would wait inside Lincoln Park for bookmakers who handed her the payments that bought protection for their illegal activities, according to the affidavit. Sometimes, with her husband in prison, she collected payments in a Johnston Stop & Shop parking lot and more recently traveled to Rehoboth to make collections, according to the affidavit.

Typically, the affidavit says, one bookmaker was an intermediary collecting payments from other bookmakers to deliver to St. Laurent Sr.

A second bookmaker turned witness recounted that in the late 1980s he told an intermediary that he was going to stop bookmaking and ended payments to St. Laurent Sr. for about three weeks. St. Laurent Jr. and an unknown male came to the bookmaker’s Taunton business, waited for a customer to leave, and allegedly began hitting the bookmaker with various items on the head and body, the affidavit says.

By September 2008, according to the court document, one of the bookmakers was collecting and paying $4,100 in cash to Dorothy St. Laurent every two weeks in what authorities say was routine practice after St. Laurent Sr. was imprisoned in 2006. In the fall of 2008, the witness agreed to wear a recording device for interactions with Dorothy St. Laurent and St. Laurent Jr. The FBI says it recorded and conducted surveillance of 12 meetings and numerous phone calls between the witness and the mother and son.

On Nov. 25, 2008, the bookmaker, as directed by authorities, told Dorothy St. Laurent in a Rehoboth Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot that other Taunton bookmakers wanted to shut down. Dorothy St. Laurent expressed concern that her husband would “get something going” to see that payment continued and, in doing so, risk “getting in … trouble while he’s in jail,” according to the court document.

The next day, under surveillance, the bookmaker and St. Laurent Jr. met at the Raynham Dog Track near Taunton, and the witness provided names of four bookmakers who the witness said wanted to stop paying protection money. St. Laurent Jr. asked him to get their phone numbers, to “let them know I want to see them” and set up a meeting so “they know I’m visible.”

Flemmi- Bulger: Boston Judge awards $1M to Davis family

2010-02-01T13:47:00.000-08:00

A judge slammed “arrogant” and heartless investigators yesterday as he handed out $1 million more to the family of a woman murdered during the reign of Southie mobster James “Whitey” Bulger.

U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young wrote that the family of Debra Davis was abandoned by rogue FBI agents.

The judge ruled the Davis’ estate should be awarded $1 million more from the feds, for a total of $1.35 million for her estate. The government has 60 days to appeal.

“I’m surprised, in a very good way,” said attorney Paul Griffin, who represents the Davis family.

Davis, 26, was murdered in 1981 after Bulger became enraged over her dating his partner in crime, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi.

Michael Franzese: Ex-mobster heads for court date

2010-01-23T18:23:00.000-08:00

Self-proclaimed reformed mobster Michael Franzese, 58, posted bond and is out of jail after allegations of passing bad checks landed him behind bars, according to Williamson County Circuit Criminal Court. Read Full Story

Nikolay Marinov :Lawyer Advises Wanted Bulgarian Crime Boss to Surrender

2010-01-07T17:17:00.000-08:00

Lyudmil Rangelov, lawyer of alleged crime boss Nikolay Marinov who is wanted over the murder of journalist Bobi Tsankov, has called on his client to turn himself in to the police.
The police have been after Marinov, aka the Little Marguin, as his brother Krasimir Marinov is already arrested and charged with ordering the murder of Bobi Tsankov.
Speaking on Nova TV Thursday, Rangelov said he did not think his client was hiding from the police. Yet, the lawyer stated he had not seen his client since a court hearing in December.
He made it clear he was going to advise Nikolay Marinov to surrender because he had no reason to be worried as he had nothing to do with the latest gangland murder in Sofia.

Gotti IV Mistrial the Top Mob Story of 2009

2010-01-04T20:27:00.000-08:00

With spectacular Mafia assassinations pretty much a thing of the past – it’s been 24 years since John Gotti & Company whacked Big Paul Castellano in front of Sparks Steak House – the biggest mob stories of recent years were usually blockbuster indictments or convictions.

read full story

Calabrian mafia mobster linked to hit

2009-12-14T19:37:00.000-08:00

Vincent Paul Latorre (on the right

A MURDER suspect who revelled in his reputation as a feared Calabrian mafia mobster has been convicted of blackmailing and standing over fellow Italians.

Prominent Victorian fruiterer Vincent Paul Latorre's violent reign of terror included running a profitable extortion ring for years. He is due to be sentenced. read Full Story

Mafia boss appears in court amid tight security

2009-12-13T19:25:00.000-08:00

Palermo, 11 Dec. (AKI) - The Sicilian mafia's alleged second-in-command, Giovanni Nicchi, appeared in court in Palermo for the first time on Friday since his highly publicised arrest last week. Nicchi appeared at an appeals court where hearings are taking place in two trials in which he was sentenced in absentia to a total 18 years in jail for extortion and mafia links read Full Story

Chicago outfit Rudy Fratto Jr

2009-12-03T18:36:00.000-08:00

Rudy Fratto Jr. Courtesy the Chicago Sun Times.

December 2, 2009 (CHICAGO) BY: Chuck Goudie and Barb Markoff (WLS) — An admitted tax cheat and reputed boss of the Outfit’s feared Elmwood Park crew won’t have quite as much time as he thought to pack for his upcoming stay in the Crossbar Hotel.
The attorney for Rudolph C. “Rudy” Fratto of Darien had filed a motion to put off his Fratto’s sentencing until February read full story

Drug smuggler arrested with kilo of cocaine in stomach

2009-11-14T18:57:00.000-08:00

Customs officials at a Moscow airport have arrested a Columbian man accused of smuggling a record amount of cocaine inside his stomach.The man was reportedly transporting over a kilo of cocaine to Hong Kong via Russia’s Sheremetievo-2 airport. The Columbian approached a customs officer and told him he was not feeling well and asked for medical help read with video

Italian news agency says Naples killer has been identified

2009-11-02T23:02:00.000-08:00

(CNN) -- Police have identified the man whose shooting of another man outside a store in Naples, Italy, was captured by a surveillance camera, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Saturday.
The announcement came two days after police released the video of the brazen daylight shooting in hopes it would lead someone to come forward. Police did not release the man's name.
The video, shot May 11, shows a man wearing jeans, a dark jersey and a baseball cap, walking into the store and looking around, turning and walking back out.
Passersby appear unfazed. One woman tries to lift up the victim's head in an apparent attempt to see if she knew him; a man steps over the body.
Police said they had been without any clues before the release of the video. A source who was not identified publicly said the killer was a man in his 30s from Naples' northern Sanita district who had recently left the city.
A third man seen in the video was thought to have been an accomplice, but he told Il Mattino newspaper that he had nothing to do with the killing.
"I am the man of the film, but I have never been a lookout, and now I am afraid," the 39-year-old man said. "I was taking a breath of air, waiting for my daughter to go shopping."
The man said he had been living "in terror" since acquaintances called him from Germany to tell him they had seen him on the video.
Police said they knew of no motive for the killing, which took place in the poor neighborhood of Rione Sanita, where Camorra, the name for organized crime in Naples, is strong.
The victim was a bank robber, the spokesman said.
A police spokesman said Camorra has been blamed for about 60 killings this year in Naples and its surrounding

John “Junior” Gotti's Mob trial

2009-10-29T21:54:00.000-07:00

Talk about a get-out-of-jail-free card.
A defense witness for John “Junior” Gotti testified yesterday that an FBI agent offered to help spring him from the slammer in exchange for evidence against the mob scion.
Joseph O’Kane said Special Agent Ted Otto appeared unexpectedly last year at the Canaan federal pen in Waymart, Pa., where O’Kane is serving life plus 15 years for racketeering charges including murder.
O’Kane, 42, said the fed told him: “I understand you’re doing a life sentence and we want to give you a number,” meaning a reduced-sentence offer.
The admitted killer and drug dealer said, “I’d probably be home with my wife and family right now” if he’d coughed up information on the Gambino boss.
But O’Kane insisted he didn’t have any dirt, and never learned the details of Otto’s offer because “I told him to go ‘eff’ himself

Jeffrey Castardi,Guilty plea in Gin Rummy club illegal gambling case

2009-10-26T23:36:00.000-07:00

Jeffrey Castardi

A man who ran a high-stakes poker business in Denver catering to Denver media figures and sports personalities and allegedly had ties to the New York mob, has pleaded guilty to violating Colorado's Organized Crime Control Act, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers announced today.

The man, Jeffrey Castardi, 48, who ran the Gin Rummy Club, 2380 South Broadway, faces up to 24 years in prison when sentenced on Dec. 14 in Jefferson County district court

According to an indictment returned by the state grand jury, Castardi was the ringleader of an organization that involved gambling, bookmaking and loan sharking - all of which Castardi learned during his youth and early adult years when he lived in the New York City area

Investigators said that Castardi told people who engaged in Castardi's high stakes poker and sports-betting or bookmaking activities that the Gin Rummy Club was a Mafia or mob-affiliated establishment.

Castardi's use of this tactic was designed to strengthen the intimidating influence of Gin Rummy Club and also to further the success of the club's illicit business methods, according to investigators.

Among the people who frequented the club were former Broncos fullback Reggie Rivers; former Broncos running back Rod Bernstine; Francois Safieddine, president of the Monarck nightclub in Denver; and John Sacha, a pain medicine doctor who teaches poker strategy on a "Dr. Poker" instructional video.
In announcing Castardi's guilty plea, Suthers said that Castardi's operation allegedly collected significant amounts of money between May 2003 and late 2008 through a "complex, persistent and intimidating system of individual debt collectors, front businesses and various bank accounts."

Castardi and his associates were suspected of violating numerous laws including running an illegal professional gambling and bookmaking business, loan-sharking, money laundering, tax evasion, theft and unlawful debt collection.

A key to the enterprise, said the grand jury, was a system established at the Gin Rummy Club where poker players and those betting on sports played on credit.
The system was referred to as playing on the "book."

The existence of the book often led players to accrue significant financial debt to the Gin Rummy Club and Castardi. Some players and others then felt it was necessary to take out "street loans" that were usually orchestrated and financed by Castardi.
Ralph Gagliardi , an agent with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, said the club would take in as much as $750,000 in a single year.

In 1988, Castardi was arrested on Long Island for promoting gambling. Also involved in the gambling operation was Richard Giordonello, a member of Gambino captain Nicholas "Little Nicky" Corozzo's crew

Sammy Gravano may testify for Junior Gotti in racketeering, murder trial

2009-10-19T23:24:00.000-07:00

His testimony put former Gambino boss John "Dapper Don" Gotti behind bars for the rest of his life, but Sammy "Bull" Gravano could emerge as the star witness in the defense of John "Junior" Gotti.
The former mob turncoat testified for the feds against Gotti in 1991 -- finally sinking the Teflon Don, who was sentenced to life behind bars where he died in 2002.
In an ironic twist, Junior's defense team, led by lawyer Charles Carnesi, said today that it is looking to use Gravano to the younger Gotti's advantage.
Carnesi said he plans to interview Gravano about the murder of soldier Louis DiBono -- a gangland slaying the feds claim Junior was involved in -- and how he has testified at past trial about it without ever mentioning the younger Gotti's involvement. "I'll interview him and I'll see what we do," said Carnesi.
The move was revealed by the judge during the course of Gotti's trial.
Gravano, who testified during the John Gotti trial that he was involved in 19 murders, is currently in Arizona state prison after opting out of the federal Witness Protection Program in 1995. Since 2002, Gravano, now 64, has been serving a 19-year sentence for his role in a drug-trafficking ring.
Gravano has testified in the past that his last murder was the whacking of DiBono in October 1990.
The feds claim Junior helped put together the hit while working as a captain for the Gambinos.
Gotti is on trial for a fourth time in Manhattan federal court on racketeering charges and for his involvement in five murders. The other three ended in either a mistrial or hung jury

Reputed mob boss D'Elia seeks reduced sentence

2009-10-17T22:48:00.000-07:00

SCRANTON - The reputed boss of a northeastern Pennsylvania crime family is asking a federal judge to cut his nine-year sentence by four years, citing ailing health and his cooperation with prosecutors William D'Elia, 63, pleaded guilty last year to witness tampering and conspiracy to launder drug money. He has been in prison since 2006 and could be released as early as next year if the request is granted. Federal prosecutors are already seeking a 21-month reduction in the sentence of D'Elia, citing his help in the prosecutions of former casino owner Louis DeNaples and businessman Robert Kulick.
D'Elia's attorney said in yesterday's motion that his client's health has been poor since hernia surgery this year and he now must use a cane.
Prosecutors this year dropped perjury charges against DeNaples in an agreement that required him to turn over the business to his daughter. Kulick was sentenced last month to 37 months on a weapons charge.

Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli:Prison is hazardous to my health

2009-10-15T21:49:00.000-07:00

Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli, alleged acting head of the Colombo crime family, is unhappy with jail and wants out. He says the food is bad and his mattress is uncomfortable.

To hear Tommy Shots tell it, jail is for the birds.No toenail clippers. Too many potatoes. And those mattresses are so hard.

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Joseph "Mousie" Massimino

2009-10-11T23:39:00.000-07:00

Joseph "Mousie" Massimino, the reputed underboss of the Philadelphia mob, is coming home after serving more than five years of a 10-year sentence on a New Jersey racketeering charge.

Judge Anthony Pugliese reduced Massimino's sentence to time served during a sentence reconsideration hearing today in Camden County Superior Court.

In issuing what amounted to a get out of jail card to the 57-year-old mob leader, Pugliese accepted the arguments of Massimino's lawyer who said "he's done more than enough time considering the nature of the crime." Read The Full Story Read The Full Story

Mob turncoat 'cheated on wife every day'

2009-10-06T22:25:00.000-07:00

Former Gambino associate John Alite may have been a member of a mob family -- but he was no family man.

The star witness in the John "Junior" Gotti trial said today he repeatedly cheated on his wife and "wasn't a good guy" as he helped the Gambinos sell drugs and kill people.

The mob turncoat said in Manhattan federal court that he has two kids -- one with his wife and a second with a girlfriend -- and that he only pays them $137.50 each a week in child support payments.

Alite, 46, said his marriage to a woman identified only as Carol fell apart because he "cheated on her every day." That was it," he added.

He said he keeps both families in different houses in New Jersey and that his ex-wife and girlfriend, a woman he later married named Claudia DiPippa, are aware of -- and hate -- each other.

DiPippa is the sister of a Gambino associate.

With Gotti staring straight at him, Alite said he made $1million a year from 1984 to 1994 trafficking drugs for the mob. He said he made another $1 million a year over roughly the same period as a result of 30 home invasions he had committed.

A cool and composed Alite, who avoided eye-contact with Gotti and mostly faced the jury, also said he gave money to his family -- but not always.

Alite said he "very rarely" gave his father any of the illicit cash.

"He was a degenerate gambler," said Alite.

'Junior' Gotti ordered hit on dealer, says mobster

2009-10-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

Mob turncoat John Alite testified Wednesday that he shot a Queens cocaine dealer in the head in 1988 on orders from John "Junior" Gotti because the man was bragging about his Gotti family connections, and he was told to make no effort to hide the body because the Gottis wanted to "send a message."
Alite, appearing at Gotti's murder-racketeering trial in federal court in Manhattan, said Gotti was particularly incensed at coke dealer George Grosso not only because the drug business is supposed to be off-limits for the mob, but because Grosso touted a link to "John Gotti" - making people think that Gotti's father, Gambino capo and future boss John J. Gotti, was involved.
"John Gotti Jr. threatened him, told him to stop using his father's name," Alite, a top Gotti lieutenant and friend of his family during the 1980s, said of a meeting he attended with Gotti and Grosso. "He told him if he does it again, he's not going to warn him again."
Gotti, 45, of Oyster Bay, was tried three times in 2005 and 2006 on racketeering charges, with each case ending in a hung jury after Gotti's lawyers claimed that he withdrew from the mob in the 1990s, before the five-year statute of limitations on racketeering.
Alite's testimony could mark a critical departure from the earlier cases, because the former confidante did not begin cooperating with the government until last year, and the slaying to which he tied Gotti is not subject to a statute of limitations or the withdrawal defense. Gotti has been separately charged with the murders of Grosso and a second man, Bruce Gotterup, in 1991.
Testifying for nearly six hours on his 47th birthday as Gotti and Gotti's mother, sisters and two nephews watched, Alite said that while he administered plenty of beatings as part of Gotti's crew and for his own drug business, he never killed anyone before Grosso. But Gotti, he testified, ratcheted up the pressure in the fall of 1988.
"He pushed the issue. John Gotti Jr. kept saying, 'You didn't kill this kid yet,' trying to say I didn't have enough -- to do it," said Alite, who pleaded guilty to racketeering last year in Florida and is hoping for leniency on his sentence.
"He's telling me it's got to get done. 'I'm telling you to do it now, if you're going to be around.' " he said. "Otherwise, I go if I don't execute his orders."
Alite said he recruited a four-man team to help with the hit, lured Grosso to a bar in late December 1988 and then into a car by feigning friendship - a trick he said he learned from the Gotti family. He pumped "two or three bullets" into Grosso's head, he said, and dumped the body beside the Grand Central Parkway.
The means of disposal was specified by Gotti, Alite testified: "Don't bury him, don't hide him. Put him out on the street so people know what you did. Send a message: Don't use our names."
Alite said the team that helped him included Nicholas Tobia, who became a Suffolk County police officer in 1995. He said Tobia was not in the car where Grosso was shot, but in a trailing car. Tobia, of Wantagh, whose name first surfaced when Alite testified at the trial of mobster Charles Carneglia earlier this year, is on leave from the Suffolk force. Yesterday his lawyer, William Petrillo of Rockville Centre, again denied wrongdoing.
In other testimony Wednesday, Alite gave more details about two deaths that he linked to Gotti. He said Gotti frequently took credit for fatally stabbing a Queens man named Danny Silva in a 1983 bar fight, and said that his father had gotten bodyguard Mark Caputo to take the fall for him. Caputo was charged by police, but the case was dismissed.
He said that Gotti also told him that John Cennamo, a Queens man who fingered Gotti for the Silva stabbing and was found hanged behind a Laundromat in 1984, had been killed by a Gambino family team on the elder Gotti's orders. The death was ruled a suicide at the time, and family and friends said Cennamo had been depressed about losing a job and a girlfriend.

Junior Gotti's ex-best friend John Alite says Gotti helped in three slays, spoke of four others

2009-09-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

John A. (Junior) Gotti once stood up as best man for John Alite, but Tuesday Alite stood against him, tearing down the ex-mob boss as a merciless killer behind seven murders. "John Gotti Jr. was my boss," the turncoat mobster said flatly to open his damning Manhattan Federal Court testimony.

The veteran Gambino family associate, the feds' star witness, testified Gotti collaborated with him on three killings and told him about four others.

The second-generation gangster was one of the drivers when the Gambino family whacked informant Wilfred (Willie Boy) Johnson in August 1988 for ratting on his dad, "Teflon Don" John, Alite testified.

Gotti and ex-brother-in-law Carmine Agnello killed another man and crushed him in a car chopper at Agnello's Queens junkyard, he testified.

And as Gotti stared him down, Alite also told jurors that Junior admitted to him that he killed Daniel Silva in a 1983 barroom brawl and an eyewitness later found hanging from a tree. A pair of drug dealers and another mob murder brought Gotti's total to seven bodies, he said

.
The gruesome testimony was greeted angrily by the Gotti contingent in the courtroom. Alite was once Junior's best friend and asked Gotti to serve as best man at his wedding.

Prosecutors showed photos of the pair at the wedding of Junior's sister Victoria, along with a shot of Gotti holding Alite's 18-month-old son.

Since flipping in 2007, Alite has implicated his buddy and claimed that he had an affair with Victoria Gotti. She, along with sister Angel and mother Victoria, glared at Alite as he recounted a decade of running with Junior - pricey cars, $500 shoes, Rolex watches.

Alite recalled a wild trip in the 1980s to Las Vegas, where he and Junior Gotti lost $30,000 at the craps and blackjack tables and had to play the "nickel slot machines."

"All lies," said a subdued Gotti's mother, her eyes red from crying, outside the courtroom. "Mom, don't even bother," said daughter Victoria, who last year passed a lie-detector test after denying Alite's claim.

Alite, in a gray sweatshirt that bared a neck tattoo, said he had shot about 35 men - mostly on orders from Junior.

Before Alite testified, another prosecution witness took the stand to describe Alite as a heartless hit man who once cursed and spit on the still-warm corpse of one victim.

"Motherf-----," a remorseless Alite snapped after the December 1988 slaying of George Grosso. Corrupt ex-NYPD Detective Philip Baroni, 57, recounted Alite's point-blank execution of the Queens drug dealer. Gotti became a made man four days later.

Grosso was hit for running his mouth about Gotti's drug dealing, the feds charge.Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/09/30/2009-09-30_junior_exbest_friend_says_gotti_helped_in_3_slays.html#ixzz0Sf6L6pPC

Cops: Witness fingered Junior Gotti and wound up dead

2009-09-26T23:11:00.000-07:00

The NYPD didn't question John A. (Junior) Gotti in a barroom slaying despite an identification from a witness who was soon found hanging from a tree, two cops testified Thursday.Within hours of the March 1983 slaying in the Silver Fox, witness John Cennamo was in Jamaica Hospital shouting at police that Gotti fatally stabbed Daniel Silva, retired Detective James McKinley testified. Read More Read The Full Story http://cftaf1234.wordpress.com/prime-time-ratfellas/

Gotti's former pal testifies that he saw Jr. stab a man - and that his dad paid to make case go away

2009-09-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

John A. (Junior) Gotti sat placidly in a nearby apartment after brutally stabbing a man to death in a wild 1983 barroom brawl, a drug-dealing ex-pal testified

The knife-wielding killer "showed no emotion at all" after leaving a gorespattered Daniel Silva to die on an Ozone Park barstool, career criminal Kevin Bonner told a Manhattan federal jury.

Gotti avoided prosecution for the vicious slaying in the Silver Fox when his mob boss father paid an NYPD detective $10,000 to make the case disappear, Bonner claimed.

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Kevin Bonner

Dapper don 'bribe' says mob rat Bonner

2009-09-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

John "Junior" Gotti fatally stabbed a man during a Queens bar brawl in 1983 -- but his father paid an NYPD detective $10,000 to make the investigation "go away," a former member of Gotti's crew testified yesterday.
Kevin Bonner said the up-and-coming mob scion "went to work" after 24-year-old Danny "Elf" Silva wouldn't stop drunkenly pestering Gotti one night at the Silver Fox Bar in Queens.
Gotti's youthful gangsters surrounded their 19-year-old leader as he savagely beat Silva on March 12, 1983, but all hell broke loose after someone tossed a glass that shattered on Bonner's forehead. It just became a big brawl," Bonner, 45, said during a day of highly detailed testimony at Gotti's racketeering and murder trial in Manhattan federal court. "As I was tussling, I looked over at John and I seen he stabbed this kid."
Other patrons dragged Silva onto a bar stool, where he moaned in pain.
"He had blood all over," Bonner said. "He got stabbed in the belly."
Gotti and his group hightailed it to a woman's apartment in the Lindenwood section of Howard Beach, where Bonner said Gotti showed "no emotion" after washing off Silva's blood in the bathroom.
"It was a little awkward at the table. Nobody said nothing," said Bonner, who then coldly headed off with his girlfriend for a late-night dinner in Manhattan.
But Bonner said neither he nor any other crew members were ever questioned by the cops afterward, with crew member John Gebert explaining that Gotti's father -- at the time a "very feared" captain in the Gambino crime family -- "was taking care of the investigation" by paying off a detective.
"He paid him money to kind of, I guess, make it go away," Bonner said, without naming the rogue cop.
The testimony marked the latest claim of police corruption tied to Junior Gotti's case, following a leaked FBI report last week that detailed allegations from former Gambino thug John Alite about cops in league with the mob.
Bonner -- who turned rat after being hit with a 25-year sentence for a string of armed robberies in Florida -- also pinned a mid-'80s shooting on Gotti, saying he opened fire during a fight that erupted at a Queens disco after a bouncer demanded proof of Gotti's age.
The victim, Bonner said, turned out to be connected to the Bonanno crime family, and everyone present was later summoned to the elder Gotti's Bergin Hunt and Fish Club in Ozone Park to help settle the matter.

John (Junior) Gotti painted as mob killer by prosecution

2009-09-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

A young John A. (Junior) Gotti with mob turncoat John Alite (on Gotti's right) in the 1980s.

John A. (Junior) Gotti is a vicious thug who once taunted a man he had stabbed - doing Porky Pig's "th-th-that's all folks!" as the man bled to death, prosecutors charged yesterday. Moments before the Gambino heir's fourth racketeering trial got underway in Manhattan Federal Court, the judge said seven of the 18 jurors and alternates had made a last-minute appeal to be dismissed
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Former Patriarca mob underboss to be sentenced

2009-09-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

Published : Monday, 21 Sep 2009,

Carmen DiNunzio pleaded guilty to bribery

BOSTON (AP) - The former underboss of the New England mob is scheduled to be sentenced this week for bribing an undercover FBI agent posing as a state official in an attempt to win a $6 million contract on the Big Dig highway project.
Carmen "The Cheeseman" DiNunzio, pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges, as well as separate state charges for extorting $500 per month from a Boston bookmaker.
Under the terms of a plea agreement with prosecutors, DiNunzio would serve six years in federal prison. The agreement covers both the state and federal cases.
DiNunzio is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court.
Prosecutors say DiNunzio, who owned a cheese chop in Boston's North End, had been underboss of the New England branch of the Mafia since 2004.