Saturday, May 30, 2009
Racketeering Indictment Nabs Reputed Mob Boss and Police Officer
A reputed mob boss, a police officer and five other men were charged Thursday in a sweeping racketeering indictment that alleges eight years of armed robberies, burglaries, jewel thefts and arson based in the western suburbs of Chicago.
Michael "The Large Guy" Sarno, 51, of Westchester allegedly masterminded much of the group's illegal activity, including a February 2003 pipe-bomb explosion that wrecked the storefront offices of a company distributing video poker machines.
Prosecutors say the bombing was a message from organized crime to stop intruding on its $13-million-a-year video poker gambling business.
Sarno, 51, went to prison in the early 1990s as a member of an organized crime family based in the western suburbs headed by Ernest Rocco Infelice.
Federal agents searched Sarno's home last July and also raided the headquarters and various hangouts of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. An alliance has developed between the violence-prone club and the Chicago mob, prosecutors say.
Sarno's attorney, Terence P. Gillespie, did not return a message for comment. But he said in a previous interview with The Associated Press that Sarno was not a mob member and was "a legitimate businessman."
Attorneys for the other defendants were not reached immediately. Messages were left at the offices of four defense attorneys whose names were learned.
Two men arrested the day of the July 2008 searches and later indicted, Mark Polchan, 41, an acknowledged member of the Outlaws, and Samuel Volpendesto, 85, were also charged in the fresh indictment. They are accused of setting off the bomb that demolished C&S Coin Operated Amusements of Berwyn, a video poker device distributor. At the time, a video poker distributing company controlled by members and associates of the Chicago mob had a grip on the market for the devices, experts say.
Video poker devices are legal in Illinois if they are not used for gambling, but bartenders often pay winners under the table in many places and experts say the mob frequently takes a healthy cut of what the machines take in.
Gov. Pat Quinn is deciding whether to sign a bill to make video poker gambling legal to finance public works _ something good government forces deplore. They say the machines are addictive and some breadwinners have gambled away their paychecks.
Also charged in the indictment:
_James Formato, 42, a former Berwyn police officer accused of serving as a courier for stolen money, taking part in an attempted robbery and other crimes.
_Mark Hay, 52, described as taking part in the robbery of jewelry stores.
_Anthony Volpendesto, 46, son of Samuel Volpendesto, who also is alleged to have taken part in robbing jewelry stores.
_Dino Vitalo, 40, a Cicero police officer since 1991, accused of searching law enforcement data bases and using the information to tip off criminals and searching for electronic surveillance equipment around a jewelry store operated by Polchan. Cicero officials on Thursday placed Vitalo on administrative leave.
Prosecutors are asking the court to force the defendants if convicted to forfeit $1.8 million _ a possible measure of the amount taken in the robberies.
Thanks to Mike Robinson
Michael "The Large Guy" Sarno, 51, of Westchester allegedly masterminded much of the group's illegal activity, including a February 2003 pipe-bomb explosion that wrecked the storefront offices of a company distributing video poker machines.
Prosecutors say the bombing was a message from organized crime to stop intruding on its $13-million-a-year video poker gambling business.
Sarno, 51, went to prison in the early 1990s as a member of an organized crime family based in the western suburbs headed by Ernest Rocco Infelice.
Federal agents searched Sarno's home last July and also raided the headquarters and various hangouts of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. An alliance has developed between the violence-prone club and the Chicago mob, prosecutors say.
Sarno's attorney, Terence P. Gillespie, did not return a message for comment. But he said in a previous interview with The Associated Press that Sarno was not a mob member and was "a legitimate businessman."
Attorneys for the other defendants were not reached immediately. Messages were left at the offices of four defense attorneys whose names were learned.
Two men arrested the day of the July 2008 searches and later indicted, Mark Polchan, 41, an acknowledged member of the Outlaws, and Samuel Volpendesto, 85, were also charged in the fresh indictment. They are accused of setting off the bomb that demolished C&S Coin Operated Amusements of Berwyn, a video poker device distributor. At the time, a video poker distributing company controlled by members and associates of the Chicago mob had a grip on the market for the devices, experts say.
Video poker devices are legal in Illinois if they are not used for gambling, but bartenders often pay winners under the table in many places and experts say the mob frequently takes a healthy cut of what the machines take in.
Gov. Pat Quinn is deciding whether to sign a bill to make video poker gambling legal to finance public works _ something good government forces deplore. They say the machines are addictive and some breadwinners have gambled away their paychecks.
Also charged in the indictment:
_James Formato, 42, a former Berwyn police officer accused of serving as a courier for stolen money, taking part in an attempted robbery and other crimes.
_Mark Hay, 52, described as taking part in the robbery of jewelry stores.
_Anthony Volpendesto, 46, son of Samuel Volpendesto, who also is alleged to have taken part in robbing jewelry stores.
_Dino Vitalo, 40, a Cicero police officer since 1991, accused of searching law enforcement data bases and using the information to tip off criminals and searching for electronic surveillance equipment around a jewelry store operated by Polchan. Cicero officials on Thursday placed Vitalo on administrative leave.
Prosecutors are asking the court to force the defendants if convicted to forfeit $1.8 million _ a possible measure of the amount taken in the robberies.
Thanks to Mike Robinson
Will Family Secrets Mob Attorney, "The Shark" Represent Drew Peterson?
Drew Peterson might want to give Joseph R. Lopez a call.
Lopez, a high-profile attorney, managed to hang a jury in his defense of Peterson at a Thursday night mock murder trial at Chicago-Kent College of Law. WGN Radio sponsored the event and will broadcast it June 14 and 21.
The jury only had a half hour to come up with a unanimous verdict and failed to do so. When asked how they voted, the panel revealed it split 6-6.
The attorneys involved in the mock trial based their cases on information reported through the press, as they do not have access to the state's evidence.
Peterson was unavailable for the mock trial. To get up to Chicago, he would have needed to come up with $20 million bail to get out of the Will County jail, where he is awaiting a real trial for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found drowned in a dry bathtub in March 2004.
Mock prosecutor Karen Conti, an attorney and co-host of WGN Radio's "Legally Speaking," pointed out the questionable death scene that state police found completely unsuspicious until Peterson's next wife, Stacy Peterson, vanished in October 2007.
"None of this makes sense," Conti said. "People don't die this way."
Peterson and Savio were in the midst of a contentious divorce when she turned up dead. She was only weeks away from taking a substantial amount of his assets in divorce court.
"Murders don't make sense," Conti said. "Don't try to make sense of this one."
Lopez, who apparently is nicknamed "the Shark" and is famous for representing alleged mob hit men and drug cartels, argued the murder makes no sense because it is not a murder at all.
"It's obvious that she slipped and fell in the tub," Lopez said.
That's exactly what the state police thought, at least until three and a half years later, when Stacy vanished and mounting public pressure prompted them to re-examine Savio's death.
The state police also are probing Stacy's disappearance. They consider her a "potential homicide" victim and have named Peterson their sole suspect.
While Stacy's case would have to be a mock trial for another day, Conti focused on a conversation the young woman supposedly had with her pastor, the Rev. Neil Schori, only weeks before she disappeared. In the actual trial, prosecutors will likely attempt to get these statements entered through recently passed hearsay legislation dubbed "Drew's Law."
"Drew said, 'I killed Kathleen. I killed Kathleen and made it look like an accident. I hit her in the back of the head and put her in the bathtub,'" Conti claimed Schori said. "Why would he lie?" Conti said. "He doesn't have a dog in this fight."
Lopez was dismissive of Schori's supposed testimony. "Here's another guy who jumped on the bandwagon and claimed Stacy Peterson made those statements," Lopez said, adding, "He lied to you."
He also questioned why Schori, upon supposedly hearing such a shocking revelation, took no action beyond telling Stacy to "go home and pray about it."
The mock trial actually consisted of nothing more than closing arguments — a small section of a real trial.
Lopez said during his argument that he would have called no witnesses during the testimony phase of the trial because "the state failed to prove its case."
Lopez did concede that "everybody hates Drew. There's no question about it." But he then went on to speak to all of his mock client's virtues.
Peterson, for instance, joined the Army. "He didn't have to do that," Lopez said. "He could have been a draft dodger. He could have gone to Canada and smoked pot."
And from the Army, Peterson went on to become a Bolingbrook police officer. "That's not something to sneeze at either," Lopez said. But it was while he was supposed to be protecting and serving that Peterson was storing away the knowledge that would help him plan the murder of his wife, Conti said.
"He was a student of crime," she said. "He was a student of crime scenes. Is it a surprise he didn't leave a trace? I'm not surprised by it."
Lopez maintained Peterson was the victim of a witch hunt conducted by authorities facing intense media scrutiny. And Peterson's public persona didn't help him any either. "People hate him because he likes young girls," Lopez said. "That doesn't make him a killer. They haven't even shown any evidence there was a homicide."
Peterson's real attorney, Joel Brodsky, was in the audience watching the mock trial, possibly hoping to glean ideas for how to defend his client after losing his first two challenges to the state — objecting to a change off judge and attempting to get Peterson's bond reduced.
Despite the spectacle of the mock trial, the gravity of the case was not lost on the participants. In fact, during the proceedings, Conti stressed the reality of Savio's death.
"This is not a book," she said. "It is not a movie. It's a real-life murder with someone executed in the prime of her life."
Thanks to Joe Hosey
Lopez, a high-profile attorney, managed to hang a jury in his defense of Peterson at a Thursday night mock murder trial at Chicago-Kent College of Law. WGN Radio sponsored the event and will broadcast it June 14 and 21.
The jury only had a half hour to come up with a unanimous verdict and failed to do so. When asked how they voted, the panel revealed it split 6-6.
The attorneys involved in the mock trial based their cases on information reported through the press, as they do not have access to the state's evidence.
Peterson was unavailable for the mock trial. To get up to Chicago, he would have needed to come up with $20 million bail to get out of the Will County jail, where he is awaiting a real trial for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found drowned in a dry bathtub in March 2004.
Mock prosecutor Karen Conti, an attorney and co-host of WGN Radio's "Legally Speaking," pointed out the questionable death scene that state police found completely unsuspicious until Peterson's next wife, Stacy Peterson, vanished in October 2007.
"None of this makes sense," Conti said. "People don't die this way."
Peterson and Savio were in the midst of a contentious divorce when she turned up dead. She was only weeks away from taking a substantial amount of his assets in divorce court.
"Murders don't make sense," Conti said. "Don't try to make sense of this one."
Lopez, who apparently is nicknamed "the Shark" and is famous for representing alleged mob hit men and drug cartels, argued the murder makes no sense because it is not a murder at all.
"It's obvious that she slipped and fell in the tub," Lopez said.
That's exactly what the state police thought, at least until three and a half years later, when Stacy vanished and mounting public pressure prompted them to re-examine Savio's death.
The state police also are probing Stacy's disappearance. They consider her a "potential homicide" victim and have named Peterson their sole suspect.
While Stacy's case would have to be a mock trial for another day, Conti focused on a conversation the young woman supposedly had with her pastor, the Rev. Neil Schori, only weeks before she disappeared. In the actual trial, prosecutors will likely attempt to get these statements entered through recently passed hearsay legislation dubbed "Drew's Law."
"Drew said, 'I killed Kathleen. I killed Kathleen and made it look like an accident. I hit her in the back of the head and put her in the bathtub,'" Conti claimed Schori said. "Why would he lie?" Conti said. "He doesn't have a dog in this fight."
Lopez was dismissive of Schori's supposed testimony. "Here's another guy who jumped on the bandwagon and claimed Stacy Peterson made those statements," Lopez said, adding, "He lied to you."
He also questioned why Schori, upon supposedly hearing such a shocking revelation, took no action beyond telling Stacy to "go home and pray about it."
The mock trial actually consisted of nothing more than closing arguments — a small section of a real trial.
Lopez said during his argument that he would have called no witnesses during the testimony phase of the trial because "the state failed to prove its case."
Lopez did concede that "everybody hates Drew. There's no question about it." But he then went on to speak to all of his mock client's virtues.
Peterson, for instance, joined the Army. "He didn't have to do that," Lopez said. "He could have been a draft dodger. He could have gone to Canada and smoked pot."
And from the Army, Peterson went on to become a Bolingbrook police officer. "That's not something to sneeze at either," Lopez said. But it was while he was supposed to be protecting and serving that Peterson was storing away the knowledge that would help him plan the murder of his wife, Conti said.
"He was a student of crime," she said. "He was a student of crime scenes. Is it a surprise he didn't leave a trace? I'm not surprised by it."
Lopez maintained Peterson was the victim of a witch hunt conducted by authorities facing intense media scrutiny. And Peterson's public persona didn't help him any either. "People hate him because he likes young girls," Lopez said. "That doesn't make him a killer. They haven't even shown any evidence there was a homicide."
Peterson's real attorney, Joel Brodsky, was in the audience watching the mock trial, possibly hoping to glean ideas for how to defend his client after losing his first two challenges to the state — objecting to a change off judge and attempting to get Peterson's bond reduced.
Despite the spectacle of the mock trial, the gravity of the case was not lost on the participants. In fact, during the proceedings, Conti stressed the reality of Savio's death.
"This is not a book," she said. "It is not a movie. It's a real-life murder with someone executed in the prime of her life."
Thanks to Joe Hosey
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Do the "Real Housewives of New Jersey" Have Mob Ties?
"Real Housewives of New Jersey" personality Danielle Staub 
is one of the only women on the Bravo show without rumored mob links - but those alleged mafia ladies may have nothing on her when it comes to crime ties.
Fans are all aflutter today over reports that Staub's mugshot may appear in a now out-of-print book called Cop Without a Badge: The Extraordinary Undercover Life of Kevin Maher.
The book, written by Charles Kipps, is described as the true story of an ex-conman turned criminal informant.
It was published in 1995 by Carroll & Graf, and is summarized on Amazon.com like this:
"Former FBI and Secret Service agent Kevin Maher describes the intervention that prevented him from following a life of crime and recounts his dangerous career in which he solved homicides, targeted the mafia, and fought in the drug war."
So where does Staub fit in?
Last night's show featured her throwing a spa party - the highlight for the Jersey gals was the free Botox injections - and sinking into a feud with rival housewife Dina Manzo, who talks trash about Staub's sexual history.
Next week's episode will apparently shed new light on Staub's connection to the book "Cop Without a Badge," which may or may not feature her mugshot, according to NJ.com.
Star Magazine has reported that Staub was arrested in early April at her home in Wayne, NJ in connection to financial issues surrounding her divorce settlement.
Thanks to Lauren Johnston
is one of the only women on the Bravo show without rumored mob links - but those alleged mafia ladies may have nothing on her when it comes to crime ties.Fans are all aflutter today over reports that Staub's mugshot may appear in a now out-of-print book called Cop Without a Badge: The Extraordinary Undercover Life of Kevin Maher.
The book, written by Charles Kipps, is described as the true story of an ex-conman turned criminal informant.
It was published in 1995 by Carroll & Graf, and is summarized on Amazon.com like this:
"Former FBI and Secret Service agent Kevin Maher describes the intervention that prevented him from following a life of crime and recounts his dangerous career in which he solved homicides, targeted the mafia, and fought in the drug war."
So where does Staub fit in?
Last night's show featured her throwing a spa party - the highlight for the Jersey gals was the free Botox injections - and sinking into a feud with rival housewife Dina Manzo, who talks trash about Staub's sexual history.
Next week's episode will apparently shed new light on Staub's connection to the book "Cop Without a Badge," which may or may not feature her mugshot, according to NJ.com.
Star Magazine has reported that Staub was arrested in early April at her home in Wayne, NJ in connection to financial issues surrounding her divorce settlement.
Thanks to Lauren Johnston
Gambino Top Boss Deported to Italy
Italian authorities took into custody on Saturday a top boss from the Gambino Mafia clan who was deported from the United States after spending more than two decades in jail for drug trafficking.
The 67-year-old Rosario Gambino arrived at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport on a flight from Miami. Wearing a gray jumpsuit and looking frail he sat in a wheelchair as he was escorted out by police officers.
Gambino, an Italian-born New Jersey resident, was considered a top mobster in the New York-based crime family led by his late cousin Carlo Gambino.
In 1984 he was convicted in a multi-million-dollar conspiracy to sell heroin in southern New Jersey and sentenced to 45 years in jail.
Gambino was linked to the "Pizza Connection" probe, which broke a $1.6 billion heroin and cocaine smuggling operation that used pizzerias as fronts from 1975 to 1984.
He was released in 2007 and transferred to an immigrant detention center in California to await expulsion, Italian police said in a statement. It was not immediately clear why the sentence had been reduced.
Gambino has been wanted in Italy since 1980 on separate drug and Mafia-connected charges, and he is expected to face trial. Calls to a lawyer representing him in Italy were not answered Saturday afternoon.
Before being transferred to a Rome jail, Gambino was served the original 1980 arrest warrant signed by Giovanni Falcone, one of Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutors.
Falcone was killed by the Sicilian mob in a 1992 bomb attack, and Gambino's return coincided with the anniversary of the murder, which was being commemorated across Italy. Salvatore "Toto" Riina, then the Mafia's boss of bosses, was arrested in 1993 and later convicted with others of plotting the hit.
Thanks to AP
The 67-year-old Rosario Gambino arrived at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport on a flight from Miami. Wearing a gray jumpsuit and looking frail he sat in a wheelchair as he was escorted out by police officers.
Gambino, an Italian-born New Jersey resident, was considered a top mobster in the New York-based crime family led by his late cousin Carlo Gambino.
In 1984 he was convicted in a multi-million-dollar conspiracy to sell heroin in southern New Jersey and sentenced to 45 years in jail.
Gambino was linked to the "Pizza Connection" probe, which broke a $1.6 billion heroin and cocaine smuggling operation that used pizzerias as fronts from 1975 to 1984.
He was released in 2007 and transferred to an immigrant detention center in California to await expulsion, Italian police said in a statement. It was not immediately clear why the sentence had been reduced.
Gambino has been wanted in Italy since 1980 on separate drug and Mafia-connected charges, and he is expected to face trial. Calls to a lawyer representing him in Italy were not answered Saturday afternoon.
Before being transferred to a Rome jail, Gambino was served the original 1980 arrest warrant signed by Giovanni Falcone, one of Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutors.
Falcone was killed by the Sicilian mob in a 1992 bomb attack, and Gambino's return coincided with the anniversary of the murder, which was being commemorated across Italy. Salvatore "Toto" Riina, then the Mafia's boss of bosses, was arrested in 1993 and later convicted with others of plotting the hit.
Thanks to AP
11 Palm Beach and Broward County Residents Indicted on Organized Crime Charges with Reputed Connections to the Bonanno Crime Family
Eleven Palm Beach and Broward County residents were indicted Thursday after federal prosecutors outlined their alleged roles in an organized crime ring specializing in fraud, narcotics, gambling and mob-style shakedowns.
The crew operated out of South Florida, but regularly reported and paid tribute to the Bonanno family, a New York City-based mafia unit, according to the indictment from the U.S. attorney's office in Miami.
Boynton Beach resident Thomas Fiore, 46, is an associate of the Bonanno family and leads its South Florida operation, prosecutors said.
Each of the 11 were indicted on federal charges of Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, after a two-year undercover investigation.
The other defendants include Billie Robertson, 34, and Lee Klein, 39, both of Boynton Beach; Daniel Young, 57, and Guy Alessi, 81, both of Delray Beach; Kenneth Dunn, 44, and Nicholas Fiore, 49, both of Boca Raton; and Frank D'Amato, 48, of West Palm Beach.
The indictment also included Coral Springs residents Pasquale Rubbo, 43, Joseph Rubbo, 45, and Marc Broder, 42.
None of the defendants are ''made'' members of the Bonanno family.
According to prosecutors, an undercover FBI agent posing as a corrupt businessman infiltrated Thomas Fiore's group as part of a scam to convert fraudulent checks to cash.
With the agent in its midst, Fiore's crew laundered fake checks, acquired and planned to distribute illegal drugs and sold and purchased contraband cigarettes, stolen plasma televisions and identification documents to later be used in other scams, the indictment states. From September to January, authorities audiotaped conversations about alleged criminal activity using wiretaps on Fiore's and Pasquale Rubbo's phones.
Prosecutors also say Fiore set fire to his Royal Palm Beach gym to cash in on the insurance proceeds, then lied under oath about the fire and solicited the murder of someone to facilitate the fraud.
Prosecutors allege that members of the operation also:
• Submitted fraudulent claims to the Medicare program using illegally obtained patient records;
• Organized illegal high-stakes poker games for wealthy gamblers, although no players were named in the indictment;
• Manufactured fake checks using the names, addresses and account numbers of legitimate businesses and then cashed them at convenience stores or through foreign bank accounts and;
• Conspired to threaten business owners to extort illegal payments.
Other crimes include mail fraud, obstruction of justice and transporting stolen property across state lines, the indictment states.
Thomas and Nicholas Fiore and Pasquale and Joseph Rubbo were on either supervised release or probation after pleading guilty in recent years to engaging in criminal activities with leaders and associates of the Bonanno crime family.
At a hearing Thursday afternoon, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Seltzer set bail at $250,000 for Robertson, Joseph Rubbo and Young.
Seltzer allowed Robertson, who pleaded not guilty, to continue working at the medical offices in Boynton Beach and Boca Raton where she is employed. He ordered Jospeh Rubbo to live at a halfway house in Dania Beach and Young to live in home confinement in Delray Beach with electronic monitoring.
Fiore and the remaining defendants were being held in the Broward County Main Jail awaiting their bond hearings. The defendants could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey N. Kaplan and Paul F. Schwartz are prosecuting the case.
Thanks to Don Jordan
The crew operated out of South Florida, but regularly reported and paid tribute to the Bonanno family, a New York City-based mafia unit, according to the indictment from the U.S. attorney's office in Miami.
Boynton Beach resident Thomas Fiore, 46, is an associate of the Bonanno family and leads its South Florida operation, prosecutors said.
Each of the 11 were indicted on federal charges of Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, after a two-year undercover investigation.
The other defendants include Billie Robertson, 34, and Lee Klein, 39, both of Boynton Beach; Daniel Young, 57, and Guy Alessi, 81, both of Delray Beach; Kenneth Dunn, 44, and Nicholas Fiore, 49, both of Boca Raton; and Frank D'Amato, 48, of West Palm Beach.
The indictment also included Coral Springs residents Pasquale Rubbo, 43, Joseph Rubbo, 45, and Marc Broder, 42.
None of the defendants are ''made'' members of the Bonanno family.
According to prosecutors, an undercover FBI agent posing as a corrupt businessman infiltrated Thomas Fiore's group as part of a scam to convert fraudulent checks to cash.
With the agent in its midst, Fiore's crew laundered fake checks, acquired and planned to distribute illegal drugs and sold and purchased contraband cigarettes, stolen plasma televisions and identification documents to later be used in other scams, the indictment states. From September to January, authorities audiotaped conversations about alleged criminal activity using wiretaps on Fiore's and Pasquale Rubbo's phones.
Prosecutors also say Fiore set fire to his Royal Palm Beach gym to cash in on the insurance proceeds, then lied under oath about the fire and solicited the murder of someone to facilitate the fraud.
Prosecutors allege that members of the operation also:
• Submitted fraudulent claims to the Medicare program using illegally obtained patient records;
• Organized illegal high-stakes poker games for wealthy gamblers, although no players were named in the indictment;
• Manufactured fake checks using the names, addresses and account numbers of legitimate businesses and then cashed them at convenience stores or through foreign bank accounts and;
• Conspired to threaten business owners to extort illegal payments.
Other crimes include mail fraud, obstruction of justice and transporting stolen property across state lines, the indictment states.
Thomas and Nicholas Fiore and Pasquale and Joseph Rubbo were on either supervised release or probation after pleading guilty in recent years to engaging in criminal activities with leaders and associates of the Bonanno crime family.
At a hearing Thursday afternoon, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Seltzer set bail at $250,000 for Robertson, Joseph Rubbo and Young.
Seltzer allowed Robertson, who pleaded not guilty, to continue working at the medical offices in Boynton Beach and Boca Raton where she is employed. He ordered Jospeh Rubbo to live at a halfway house in Dania Beach and Young to live in home confinement in Delray Beach with electronic monitoring.
Fiore and the remaining defendants were being held in the Broward County Main Jail awaiting their bond hearings. The defendants could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey N. Kaplan and Paul F. Schwartz are prosecuting the case.
Thanks to Don Jordan
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Ed Burke's Palace: Powerful Chicago alderman gets zoning break, special parking
Ald. Edward M. Burke has ruled the 14th Ward for 40 years. He has used his clout to build himself a palace — right alongside the CTA’s Orange Line near Pulaski.
The house is part of a $4.6 million development that Burke and his partners built on a parking lot over the objections of Mayor Daley’s zoning administrators.
Daley’s zoning staff thought the development — one massive, three story house along with 13 town homes — wasn’t “compatible” with the Archer Heights neighborhood, where it would tower over the surrounding bungalows. But Burke, the city’s most powerful alderman, won permission from his colleagues on the City Council for the project anyway.
Then he got the city Zoning Board of Appeals’ OK to build the 4,400-square-foot house without having to leave space — as required by city ordinance — for a yard in the front or back.
The house does have an enormous rooftop deck, though, giving Burke and his wife, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne M. Burke, a bird’s-eye view of the L trains that rush by all day between the Loop and Midway Airport.
They moved in nearly four years ago.
Burke declined to discuss the project, which couldn’t have been built without City Council approval. Instead, he gave the Chicago SunTimes a copy of a June 24, 2004, letter that he sent to the Chicago Board of Ethics, assuring the city agency that he would abstain from voting on any matters involving the construction of his home and the rest of the project. And he promised he wouldn’t talk to any city officials about the development, either.
According to records obtained by the Sun-Times, Burke teamed with two of his campaign contributors — Anthony DeGrazia, a housing developer, and Eric Gonzales, a contractor whose company has worked on several projects for City Hall. They became equal partners in a new company — 51st Street Townhomes LLC — that paid $300,000 in late June 2004 to buy a little-used parking lot in the 3900 block of West 51st St. They bought it from someone who’d been a client of Burke’s law firm.
The triangular lot, about two- thirds of an acre, was zoned for businesses. Burke and his partners hired a lobbyist — Marcus Nunes, a law partner of Mayor Daley’s former chief of staff, Gery Chico — to get City Hall’s permission to build.
The city’s Zoning Department deemed the project “not recommended.” But the City Council went ahead and approved the project on Sept. 1, 2004 — with Burke abstaining.
On Sept. 10, 2004, Burke and his partners got a $480,000 construction loan from Cole Taylor Bank. They were free to begin building the town homes. But they still couldn’t build Burke’s new home unless the Zoning Board of Appeals agreed to drastically reduce the required size of the front and back yards. If the board wouldn’t agree, there wouldn’t have been enough room to build the house.
“Due to the unique shape of the property, it is impossible to place a home on it and meet the requirements for front, side and rear yard minimums,” according to documents Burke’s group gave the appeals board. “In the absence of such a variation, the property is likely to remain vacant or underutilized.’’
Shortly before Thanksgiving 2004, the appeals board gave Burke what he wanted: His house could be set back just three feet from the lot line, rather than the normal nine feet. And his backyard had to be just three feet deep, rather than the usual 30 feet.
Today, Burke’s home and three car attached garage fills the property. He has no backyard, just a paved driveway around his house. There’s no lawn, just a few flower beds.
Burke and his partners sold the home for $900,000 to the Anne M. Burke Trust on Oct. 10, 2005. The tax bills are mailed to the alderman, who paid $8,551.98 in property taxes last year.
After selling the house to his wife’s trust, Burke and his partners sold the 13 town homes for a total of $3.7 million. One of the biggest went for $280,000 to state Rep. Daniel Burke, the alderman’s brother.
Ald. Burke’s block is one-way, with a traffic barricade. And no one can park on the street without a parking permit. But there are two different permits required — one for the people who live across the street from Burke, another to park on the alderman’s side of the street.
The house is part of a $4.6 million development that Burke and his partners built on a parking lot over the objections of Mayor Daley’s zoning administrators.
Daley’s zoning staff thought the development — one massive, three story house along with 13 town homes — wasn’t “compatible” with the Archer Heights neighborhood, where it would tower over the surrounding bungalows. But Burke, the city’s most powerful alderman, won permission from his colleagues on the City Council for the project anyway.
Then he got the city Zoning Board of Appeals’ OK to build the 4,400-square-foot house without having to leave space — as required by city ordinance — for a yard in the front or back.
The house does have an enormous rooftop deck, though, giving Burke and his wife, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne M. Burke, a bird’s-eye view of the L trains that rush by all day between the Loop and Midway Airport.
They moved in nearly four years ago.
Burke declined to discuss the project, which couldn’t have been built without City Council approval. Instead, he gave the Chicago SunTimes a copy of a June 24, 2004, letter that he sent to the Chicago Board of Ethics, assuring the city agency that he would abstain from voting on any matters involving the construction of his home and the rest of the project. And he promised he wouldn’t talk to any city officials about the development, either.
According to records obtained by the Sun-Times, Burke teamed with two of his campaign contributors — Anthony DeGrazia, a housing developer, and Eric Gonzales, a contractor whose company has worked on several projects for City Hall. They became equal partners in a new company — 51st Street Townhomes LLC — that paid $300,000 in late June 2004 to buy a little-used parking lot in the 3900 block of West 51st St. They bought it from someone who’d been a client of Burke’s law firm.
The triangular lot, about two- thirds of an acre, was zoned for businesses. Burke and his partners hired a lobbyist — Marcus Nunes, a law partner of Mayor Daley’s former chief of staff, Gery Chico — to get City Hall’s permission to build.
The city’s Zoning Department deemed the project “not recommended.” But the City Council went ahead and approved the project on Sept. 1, 2004 — with Burke abstaining.
On Sept. 10, 2004, Burke and his partners got a $480,000 construction loan from Cole Taylor Bank. They were free to begin building the town homes. But they still couldn’t build Burke’s new home unless the Zoning Board of Appeals agreed to drastically reduce the required size of the front and back yards. If the board wouldn’t agree, there wouldn’t have been enough room to build the house.
“Due to the unique shape of the property, it is impossible to place a home on it and meet the requirements for front, side and rear yard minimums,” according to documents Burke’s group gave the appeals board. “In the absence of such a variation, the property is likely to remain vacant or underutilized.’’
Shortly before Thanksgiving 2004, the appeals board gave Burke what he wanted: His house could be set back just three feet from the lot line, rather than the normal nine feet. And his backyard had to be just three feet deep, rather than the usual 30 feet.
Today, Burke’s home and three car attached garage fills the property. He has no backyard, just a paved driveway around his house. There’s no lawn, just a few flower beds.
Burke and his partners sold the home for $900,000 to the Anne M. Burke Trust on Oct. 10, 2005. The tax bills are mailed to the alderman, who paid $8,551.98 in property taxes last year.
After selling the house to his wife’s trust, Burke and his partners sold the 13 town homes for a total of $3.7 million. One of the biggest went for $280,000 to state Rep. Daniel Burke, the alderman’s brother.
Ald. Burke’s block is one-way, with a traffic barricade. And no one can park on the street without a parking permit. But there are two different permits required — one for the people who live across the street from Burke, another to park on the alderman’s side of the street.
Drew Peterson Mock Trial to Feature Family Secrets Mob Lawyer Joseph Lopez
WGN Radio's Greg Adamski and Karen Conti will host a mock trial of the closing arguments in the murder prosecution of Drew Peterson for the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, on Thursday, May 28.
Chicago attorneys Greg Adamski and Karen Conti, hosts of WGN Radio's Legally Speaking, will host a mock trial of the closing arguments in the murder prosecution of Drew Peterson for the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, on Thursday, May 28 from 6-8pm at the IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. The event will be open to the public and taped for broadcast on WGN Radio on Sunday, June 14 and Sunday, June 21.
"The People v. Drew Peterson" will feature Greg Adamski as moderator, Karen Conti as prosecutor, and Family Secrets Mob Trial lawyer Joseph R. Lopez as Drew Peterson's defense attorney. Retired Cook County Circuit Court Judge Richard Neville will preside and a professional jury consultant will be present to quickly screen and select jurors who will be taken from the audience. The jury will be given a short period of time to deliberate and a verdict will be rendered before the night is over. The event is intended as an educational exposition, based solely on the facts that have been publicly reported.
The event will be taped and broadcast on WGN Radio on Sunday, June 14 and Sunday, June 21, prior to the Chicago Cubs broadcasts - the exact start times will be announced closer to air dates.
Drew Peterson was indicted by a Will County grand jury on two counts of murder in connection with Savio's death. Defense attorney Joel Brodsky entered a not guilty plea on Peterson's behalf on May 18. Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police sergeant, has maintained his innocence in the case.
Chicago attorneys Greg Adamski and Karen Conti, hosts of WGN Radio's Legally Speaking, will host a mock trial of the closing arguments in the murder prosecution of Drew Peterson for the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, on Thursday, May 28 from 6-8pm at the IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. The event will be open to the public and taped for broadcast on WGN Radio on Sunday, June 14 and Sunday, June 21.
"The People v. Drew Peterson" will feature Greg Adamski as moderator, Karen Conti as prosecutor, and Family Secrets Mob Trial lawyer Joseph R. Lopez as Drew Peterson's defense attorney. Retired Cook County Circuit Court Judge Richard Neville will preside and a professional jury consultant will be present to quickly screen and select jurors who will be taken from the audience. The jury will be given a short period of time to deliberate and a verdict will be rendered before the night is over. The event is intended as an educational exposition, based solely on the facts that have been publicly reported.
The event will be taped and broadcast on WGN Radio on Sunday, June 14 and Sunday, June 21, prior to the Chicago Cubs broadcasts - the exact start times will be announced closer to air dates.
Drew Peterson was indicted by a Will County grand jury on two counts of murder in connection with Savio's death. Defense attorney Joel Brodsky entered a not guilty plea on Peterson's behalf on May 18. Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police sergeant, has maintained his innocence in the case.
The Dark Side of Camelot
There are many Jack Kennedys in America's collective consciousness, even 46 years after his Friday lunchtime slaying under clearing Dallas skies. It was the most public killing in American history until the destruction of the World Trade Center on a sunny Tuesday morning.
A million bits of paper, freed through gaping holes in the burning Twin Towers, fluttered high over Manhattan. So did the president's brother and political keeper, Robert Kennedy, face a blizzard of paperwork as he secured safes at the White House, the Justice Department, the national security regimes and other offices around Washington. His goal: to hide his dead brother's sins and political missteps from a shocked and mourning American people.
Bobby wanted to protect his brother's legacy while denying the Kennedy family's political enemies their proof of JFK's complicity in the murder of Diem of South Vietnam; Lumumba of the Congo; Arbenz of the Dominican Republic and other excesses of presidential power; the failure of the Bay of Pigs; the secret deal with Khrushchev to remove nuclear missiles from Turkey to end the Cuban Missile Crisis and other details best kept from the public so soon after JFK's death.
Nor was there any love lost between Bobby and Lyndon Baines Johnson, the newly sworn-in president already in the air with the slain president on board. Bobby worked the phones the afternoon of the shooting, ordering longtime Kennedy family aides and political operatives to not discuss what they knew and to secure any letters, memos or notes of communications in which JFK took part.
In addition to changing the combination on the Oval Office safe to keep LBJ from discovering its contents until he could find a secure place for them, Bobby ordered the removal of the secret taping system that JFK had installed not only in the Oval Office but throughout the living quarters that the president, until two nights before, had shared not only with Jacqueline but with a woman whom Bobby himself had arranged for his brother to bed.
So opens "The Dark Side of Camelot," a 1997 classic by Seymour Hersh, the journalist who broke the My Lai story. Worth a revisit at this time, it's a thoroughly researched and hyper-revealing look not only at JFK's life and presidency but at the horrifying politics of the time. Politics so well hidden from a trusting public by a press corps that, by and large, honored an unwritten rule that certain things a powerful man does are best not reported.
Jack Kennedy was incapable of true partnership with people beyond Bobby and his father, Joe, whom he worshiped. He inherited his father's beliefs that other men were of lesser importance and were to be used for personal gain. Women, meanwhile, were a beautiful distraction that held little value beyond sexual pleasure.
Hersh personally interviewed many men and women who had known JFK since his days as a congressman from Massachusetts; his behavior hadn't changed since his carefree college days at Harvard.
For all that was at stake, JFK at times felt he was invincible, that nothing could touch him. Recklessness is a Kennedy trait and JFK brought it to the fore after he won the presidency.
Hersh quotes a longtime lover of Jack's who slept with him the night before his inauguration. She said the idea of betraying Jacqueline and his children was not on his mind, even though, had it been reported by an otherwise fawning press, his political career would have been over before his first 100 days in the White House.
She said, "I think somehow between his money, his position, his charm, his whatever, he was caught up in feeling that he was buffered. That people would take care of it. There is that feeling that you are not accountable, that the laws of the world do not apply to you. Laws had never been applied to his father and to him."
Yet JFK, described by former lovers as smooth, a charming man who laughed easily when among peers at the thousands of nights of parties and social events in his political years, kept the Kennedy aloofness at the same time.
Hersh interviewed Charles Spalding, who grew up with JFK: "Kennedy hated physical touching. People taking liberties with him," said Spalding. "Which I assume goes back to his mother [Rose] and the fact that she was so cold, so distant."
As president, JFK ignored the niceties of politics when he had to. He ordered the assassinations of world leaders and, like his father, had a working relationship with organized crime bosses in Chicago and New Orleans. JFK also regularly received graft while in the White House, Hersh writes. Over a period of years, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from California businessmen were delivered to the White House by operatives. Chicago mobster Sam Giancana's girlfriend on several occasions ran money from JFK's White House to the mob boss personally. She'd board a train at Union Station carrying a suitcase filled with cash and deliver it to Giancana himself, who would meet her at the Chicago train station. Not once, but several times, according to Hersh. The delivery of the money was set up by Bobby.
Was it money for Giancana's help in trying to kill Castro? A payoff for delivering votes in the 1960 election, which Kennedy won by a very slim margin? "That election was stolen," Hersh writes.
There is no understanding Jack Kennedy without investigating his grandfather, John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, an old Boston pol, bought a seat in Congress in 1912 but lost it after an investigation by the House.
Joe Kennedy played a big role in that scandalous election, hiring thugs to beat voters opposed to Fitz; Joe then used money and less-violent but just as effective means to get his son Jack elected president. The lessons were not lost on Jack.
Hersh's book is priceless in its bare-knuckled accuracy, from the origins of the Kennedy empire, the purchase of the 1960 presidential election, JFK's deadly international gamesmanship, J. Edgar Hoover's hatred of the Kennedys and father Joe's embracing of Adolf Hitler's politics.
The myth of the young idealist, the brave and courageous knight cut down early in life, still survives in the hearts of most Americans. In spite of the facts, JFK's role is that of the fair-haired American prince worthy of canonization.
Thanks to Hersh, history is properly recorded here for those willing to read it. "The Dark Side of Camelot" reveals a rogue's gallery of pimps, mobsters, right-wing military officers, ruthless political operatives, a fanatical FBI director and, of course, CIA spooks -- all the shadowy illegitimates of American politics who helped give JFK the presidency and who eventually decided to take it all away from him after the rain stopped falling in Dallas.
In a tragic twist of irony, Hersh connects JFK's inability to dodge the final head-blast from "Oswald's rifle" to JFK's amorous adventures. Because he'd strained his back while having a tryst in the pool belonging to his brother-in-law, the actor Peter Lawford, JFK had to wear a canvas and metal back brace from his neck to his waste. When hit by the neck shot, JFK tried to duck before the second (or third) shot -- but the brace limited his motion.
This book is as explosive as the bullet that sent JFK's skull flying.
Thanks to John L. Guerra
A million bits of paper, freed through gaping holes in the burning Twin Towers, fluttered high over Manhattan. So did the president's brother and political keeper, Robert Kennedy, face a blizzard of paperwork as he secured safes at the White House, the Justice Department, the national security regimes and other offices around Washington. His goal: to hide his dead brother's sins and political missteps from a shocked and mourning American people.
Bobby wanted to protect his brother's legacy while denying the Kennedy family's political enemies their proof of JFK's complicity in the murder of Diem of South Vietnam; Lumumba of the Congo; Arbenz of the Dominican Republic and other excesses of presidential power; the failure of the Bay of Pigs; the secret deal with Khrushchev to remove nuclear missiles from Turkey to end the Cuban Missile Crisis and other details best kept from the public so soon after JFK's death.
Nor was there any love lost between Bobby and Lyndon Baines Johnson, the newly sworn-in president already in the air with the slain president on board. Bobby worked the phones the afternoon of the shooting, ordering longtime Kennedy family aides and political operatives to not discuss what they knew and to secure any letters, memos or notes of communications in which JFK took part.
In addition to changing the combination on the Oval Office safe to keep LBJ from discovering its contents until he could find a secure place for them, Bobby ordered the removal of the secret taping system that JFK had installed not only in the Oval Office but throughout the living quarters that the president, until two nights before, had shared not only with Jacqueline but with a woman whom Bobby himself had arranged for his brother to bed.
So opens "The Dark Side of Camelot," a 1997 classic by Seymour Hersh, the journalist who broke the My Lai story. Worth a revisit at this time, it's a thoroughly researched and hyper-revealing look not only at JFK's life and presidency but at the horrifying politics of the time. Politics so well hidden from a trusting public by a press corps that, by and large, honored an unwritten rule that certain things a powerful man does are best not reported.
Jack Kennedy was incapable of true partnership with people beyond Bobby and his father, Joe, whom he worshiped. He inherited his father's beliefs that other men were of lesser importance and were to be used for personal gain. Women, meanwhile, were a beautiful distraction that held little value beyond sexual pleasure.
Hersh personally interviewed many men and women who had known JFK since his days as a congressman from Massachusetts; his behavior hadn't changed since his carefree college days at Harvard.
For all that was at stake, JFK at times felt he was invincible, that nothing could touch him. Recklessness is a Kennedy trait and JFK brought it to the fore after he won the presidency.
Hersh quotes a longtime lover of Jack's who slept with him the night before his inauguration. She said the idea of betraying Jacqueline and his children was not on his mind, even though, had it been reported by an otherwise fawning press, his political career would have been over before his first 100 days in the White House.
She said, "I think somehow between his money, his position, his charm, his whatever, he was caught up in feeling that he was buffered. That people would take care of it. There is that feeling that you are not accountable, that the laws of the world do not apply to you. Laws had never been applied to his father and to him."
Yet JFK, described by former lovers as smooth, a charming man who laughed easily when among peers at the thousands of nights of parties and social events in his political years, kept the Kennedy aloofness at the same time.
Hersh interviewed Charles Spalding, who grew up with JFK: "Kennedy hated physical touching. People taking liberties with him," said Spalding. "Which I assume goes back to his mother [Rose] and the fact that she was so cold, so distant."
As president, JFK ignored the niceties of politics when he had to. He ordered the assassinations of world leaders and, like his father, had a working relationship with organized crime bosses in Chicago and New Orleans. JFK also regularly received graft while in the White House, Hersh writes. Over a period of years, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from California businessmen were delivered to the White House by operatives. Chicago mobster Sam Giancana's girlfriend on several occasions ran money from JFK's White House to the mob boss personally. She'd board a train at Union Station carrying a suitcase filled with cash and deliver it to Giancana himself, who would meet her at the Chicago train station. Not once, but several times, according to Hersh. The delivery of the money was set up by Bobby.
Was it money for Giancana's help in trying to kill Castro? A payoff for delivering votes in the 1960 election, which Kennedy won by a very slim margin? "That election was stolen," Hersh writes.
There is no understanding Jack Kennedy without investigating his grandfather, John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, an old Boston pol, bought a seat in Congress in 1912 but lost it after an investigation by the House.
Joe Kennedy played a big role in that scandalous election, hiring thugs to beat voters opposed to Fitz; Joe then used money and less-violent but just as effective means to get his son Jack elected president. The lessons were not lost on Jack.
Hersh's book is priceless in its bare-knuckled accuracy, from the origins of the Kennedy empire, the purchase of the 1960 presidential election, JFK's deadly international gamesmanship, J. Edgar Hoover's hatred of the Kennedys and father Joe's embracing of Adolf Hitler's politics.
The myth of the young idealist, the brave and courageous knight cut down early in life, still survives in the hearts of most Americans. In spite of the facts, JFK's role is that of the fair-haired American prince worthy of canonization.
Thanks to Hersh, history is properly recorded here for those willing to read it. "The Dark Side of Camelot" reveals a rogue's gallery of pimps, mobsters, right-wing military officers, ruthless political operatives, a fanatical FBI director and, of course, CIA spooks -- all the shadowy illegitimates of American politics who helped give JFK the presidency and who eventually decided to take it all away from him after the rain stopped falling in Dallas.
In a tragic twist of irony, Hersh connects JFK's inability to dodge the final head-blast from "Oswald's rifle" to JFK's amorous adventures. Because he'd strained his back while having a tryst in the pool belonging to his brother-in-law, the actor Peter Lawford, JFK had to wear a canvas and metal back brace from his neck to his waste. When hit by the neck shot, JFK tried to duck before the second (or third) shot -- but the brace limited his motion.
This book is as explosive as the bullet that sent JFK's skull flying.
Thanks to John L. Guerra
Monday, May 25, 2009
Mob Mull Threatens Lawsuit Over "Mafia Son"
The star witness in the ill-fated case against FBI supervisor Lindley DeVecchio is trying to cash in on a new book about the case -- claiming the author used her story without giving her a cut
.
Mob moll Linda Schiro -- whose testimony in 2007 was supposed to bring down DeVecchio for allegedly colluding with her murderous boyfriend, Gregory "The Grim Reaper" Scarpa -- has fired off several letters threatening a lawsuit against Sandra Harmon, author of "Mafia Son: The Scarpa Mob Family, the FBI and a Story of Betrayal."
"You had an agreement with Linda Schiro regarding a significant amount of material that you have included in the Work," wrote Schiro's lawyer, Quinn Heraty, in an e-mail dated last January.
Harmon met with Schiro years ago, but no book came of their interviews.
Thanks to Alex Ginsberg
.Mob moll Linda Schiro -- whose testimony in 2007 was supposed to bring down DeVecchio for allegedly colluding with her murderous boyfriend, Gregory "The Grim Reaper" Scarpa -- has fired off several letters threatening a lawsuit against Sandra Harmon, author of "Mafia Son: The Scarpa Mob Family, the FBI and a Story of Betrayal."
"You had an agreement with Linda Schiro regarding a significant amount of material that you have included in the Work," wrote Schiro's lawyer, Quinn Heraty, in an e-mail dated last January.
Harmon met with Schiro years ago, but no book came of their interviews.
Thanks to Alex Ginsberg
New Chicago Mob Order
Last week's death of an old-line Chicago Outfit boss reveals some changes in the way the crime syndicate does business.
As Chicago organized crime figures die off or go to prison, authorities tell the I-Team they are being replaced by far less flamboyant Outfit bosses, men who conduct mob rackets quietly and collect the proceeds with skilled efficiency.
The new mob order has never been more apparent than at last Wednesday's wake for high-ranking outfit boss Alphonso Tornabene, who died on Sunday at age 86.
It looked just like any other wake for any other man who'd lived a long life. The friends and relatives of Alphonso Tornabene streamed into pay their last respects all day on the northwest side.
A few mourners apparently didn't want to be seen at the wake for a man who recently headed the Chicago Outfit, according to testimony from a top underworld informant.
Mob hitman Nick Calabrese told the FBI that Tornabene administered the sacred oath of the Outfit to new members, a position reserved for only top capos. It's a ceremony that Calabrese described just as Hollywood has depicted over the years with a blood oath and a flaming holy card.
On Wednesday night, at Chicago's Montclair Funeral Home, the ceremony was less fiery. The holy card had Tornabene's name on it.
The attendees included Tracy Klimes, who says Tornabene was a great man who once cared for her family after her own father died, and knew little of his Outfit ties. "People always judge a book by its cover and I know there's things that people say about people but he had a wonderful heart," said Klimes.
The scene on Wednesday was far different than the crowds that turned out at Montclair more than thirty years ago after flashy Outfit boss Sam Giancana was assassinated and where attendance by Giancana's underlings was considered mandatory.
In 1986, mob bosses from other cities and a Hollywood actor showed up for the wake and funeral of Anthony and Michael Spilotro who had also been murdered by their Outfit brethren. But by 1992 at the Montclair wake for godfather Anthony "Joe Batters" Accardo, only a few top hoodlums dared to attend such a public event.
The Accardo funeral and Tornabene's wake on Wednesday are evidence that the new mob order calls for discretion in business and in life.
There was one notable mourner on Wednesday night: suburban nursing home owner Nicholas Vangel.
During the Family Secrets mob trial, Mr. Vangel was shown to be a confidante of one time mob boss Jimmy Marcello. Although Vangel wasn't charged, the government showed undercover video of Vangel visiting with Marcello in prison and discussing the FBI investigation.
Thanks to Chuck Goudie
As Chicago organized crime figures die off or go to prison, authorities tell the I-Team they are being replaced by far less flamboyant Outfit bosses, men who conduct mob rackets quietly and collect the proceeds with skilled efficiency.
The new mob order has never been more apparent than at last Wednesday's wake for high-ranking outfit boss Alphonso Tornabene, who died on Sunday at age 86.
It looked just like any other wake for any other man who'd lived a long life. The friends and relatives of Alphonso Tornabene streamed into pay their last respects all day on the northwest side.
A few mourners apparently didn't want to be seen at the wake for a man who recently headed the Chicago Outfit, according to testimony from a top underworld informant.
Mob hitman Nick Calabrese told the FBI that Tornabene administered the sacred oath of the Outfit to new members, a position reserved for only top capos. It's a ceremony that Calabrese described just as Hollywood has depicted over the years with a blood oath and a flaming holy card.
On Wednesday night, at Chicago's Montclair Funeral Home, the ceremony was less fiery. The holy card had Tornabene's name on it.
The attendees included Tracy Klimes, who says Tornabene was a great man who once cared for her family after her own father died, and knew little of his Outfit ties. "People always judge a book by its cover and I know there's things that people say about people but he had a wonderful heart," said Klimes.
The scene on Wednesday was far different than the crowds that turned out at Montclair more than thirty years ago after flashy Outfit boss Sam Giancana was assassinated and where attendance by Giancana's underlings was considered mandatory.
In 1986, mob bosses from other cities and a Hollywood actor showed up for the wake and funeral of Anthony and Michael Spilotro who had also been murdered by their Outfit brethren. But by 1992 at the Montclair wake for godfather Anthony "Joe Batters" Accardo, only a few top hoodlums dared to attend such a public event.
The Accardo funeral and Tornabene's wake on Wednesday are evidence that the new mob order calls for discretion in business and in life.
There was one notable mourner on Wednesday night: suburban nursing home owner Nicholas Vangel.
During the Family Secrets mob trial, Mr. Vangel was shown to be a confidante of one time mob boss Jimmy Marcello. Although Vangel wasn't charged, the government showed undercover video of Vangel visiting with Marcello in prison and discussing the FBI investigation.
Thanks to Chuck Goudie
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Historic Photo Links Al Capone to Chicago's Mayor
A Chicago professor thinks he has finally gotten the goods on Chicago Mayor William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson and Al "Scarface" Capone.
His key piece of evidence comes courtesy of a photo snapped long ago in La Salle County by an Ottawa photographer.
On Dec. 9, 1930, a panoramic shot was taken of about 300 people standing in front of and on top of St. Joseph's Health Resort, along the Fox River in Wedron. The occasion was William Hale Thompson Day, because Thompson was at the resort recuperating from appendix surgery.
Thompson was considered by some the best mayor money could buy, holding Chicago's highest office from 1915 to 1923 and again from 1927 to 1931 — smack in the middle of the Capone era. Many historians also believe Thompson was smack in the middle of Capone's pocket. However, the hard proof connecting the two was not there.
Until perhaps now
, according to John Binder, a professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago and a researcher into Windy City crime. In 2003, Binder penned a book, "The Chicago Outfit." He has also been interviewed about the Chicago underworld on such cable television channels as A&E, the History Channel and the Discovery Channel.
He recently bought a print of the Wedron photo from a man who worked for the gas company in Chicago. The man said he entered a vacant building on the North Side to disconnect gas lines and found the photo on top a garbage can.
"I asked him about the origins of the photo several times and he never waivered from his story," Binder said as to how the man claimed he came upon the photo.
Binder examined the approximately three-foot long photo. Thompson was easily identifiable, but determining if Capone was present among the sea of mugs was similar to playing the game "Where's Waldo?" One heavy-set Italian-looking gentleman smoking a cigar in the front row, has always been a favorite choice for Capone among La Salle County locals who examined the picture. But despite sharing a general similarity, the man is not Capone, husband of Mae, said Binder.
Binder went online to search for information about the picture, coming upon an excerpt about Thompson and Wedron in the book, "Capone's Cornfields: The Mob in the Illinois Valley." During the next few days, Binder kept studying the photo until it came time for him to yell, "Eureka!"
Binder said he is "99 percent plus positive" Capone is standing about dead center on the roof, diagonally from Thompson, who is below on the resort's steps. The man Binder tapped for Capone is smiling, clad in an unbuttoned overcoat and wearing a vest and pearl gray fedora, the same type fedora Capone wore in a 1929 mug shot taken by Philadelphia police.
Several men on either side of the possible Capone also sport pearl gray fedoras — a trademark among the Capone gang, Binder pointed out. One of the chaps near Capone is also built like a refrigerator. Another trademark. Binder is certain one of the men is Mike Spranze, an underworld gunsel who was close to Capone. Another one looks similar to a man visible in a newsreel of Capone leaving the federal courthouse in Chicago in 1931.
Capone was 31 years old at the time of the St. Joseph's photo, standing 5 feet 10 1/2 inches tall and tipping the scales at more than 220 pounds.
Binder showed the photo to two other Capone experts — Scarface scholar Jeff Thurston and Mars Eghigian, biographer of Capone chum Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti — and they agreed with him. Capone and Thompson in the same picture.
"It makes it undeniable there was a connection. This explicitly links them. This wasn't downtown Chicago, where they could have accidentally come together," Binder said. "This photo is historically significant."
Binder is also convinced this links well with La Salle County lore that says Capone visited the county, in particular the Wedron resort.
Binder also pointed out as a clue Thompson and Capone were in cahoots, was the fact the Chicago Tribune more than once ran stories accusing Thompson of accepting money from Capone, stories which Thompson did not deny and for which he did not try to sue. After Thompson went to his reward in 1944, almost $1.5 million cash was found in his safety deposit boxes. Thompson never earned more than $22,500 annually during his 12 years as mayor.
The man who possibly rewarded Thompson on Earth — Capone — followed Thompson into the hereafter three years later, dying in Florida from complications of syphilis. The man who shot the Wedron photo, Ottawa commercial photographer Richard Kuyl, died in his apartment at 805 1/2 Court St., Ottawa, in December 1958 at age 73.
Thanks to DAN CHURNEY
, who wrote this article. Dan is the author of "Capone's Cornfields: The Mob in the Illinois Valley."He was called by John Binder, and they discussed the merits of the historic photo, with Dan sharing information about the resort, Thompson's visit and local lore about Capone. Dan sees the resemblance, but would like to see more evidence. If you have any thoughts, email Dan at danc@mywebtimes.com.
Chicago professor and mob researcher John Binder is convinced infamous gangster Al Capone is present in this photograph of Chicago Mayor William "Big Bill" Thompson and others, which was snapped Dec. 9, 1930, at St. Joseph's Health Resort in Wedron. The man Binder believes is Capone, is standing on the roof, marked No. 2. The man third from Capone's left, marked No. 3, Binder identifies as Mike Spranze, a Capone henchman. This is a cropped version of the original photo, which shows more people.
The overall view of the Wedron photo. Chicago Mayor william Thompson is shown on or near steps at the left and is marked No. 1.
His key piece of evidence comes courtesy of a photo snapped long ago in La Salle County by an Ottawa photographer.
On Dec. 9, 1930, a panoramic shot was taken of about 300 people standing in front of and on top of St. Joseph's Health Resort, along the Fox River in Wedron. The occasion was William Hale Thompson Day, because Thompson was at the resort recuperating from appendix surgery.
Thompson was considered by some the best mayor money could buy, holding Chicago's highest office from 1915 to 1923 and again from 1927 to 1931 — smack in the middle of the Capone era. Many historians also believe Thompson was smack in the middle of Capone's pocket. However, the hard proof connecting the two was not there.
Until perhaps now
, according to John Binder, a professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago and a researcher into Windy City crime. In 2003, Binder penned a book, "The Chicago Outfit." He has also been interviewed about the Chicago underworld on such cable television channels as A&E, the History Channel and the Discovery Channel.He recently bought a print of the Wedron photo from a man who worked for the gas company in Chicago. The man said he entered a vacant building on the North Side to disconnect gas lines and found the photo on top a garbage can.
"I asked him about the origins of the photo several times and he never waivered from his story," Binder said as to how the man claimed he came upon the photo.
Binder examined the approximately three-foot long photo. Thompson was easily identifiable, but determining if Capone was present among the sea of mugs was similar to playing the game "Where's Waldo?" One heavy-set Italian-looking gentleman smoking a cigar in the front row, has always been a favorite choice for Capone among La Salle County locals who examined the picture. But despite sharing a general similarity, the man is not Capone, husband of Mae, said Binder.
Binder went online to search for information about the picture, coming upon an excerpt about Thompson and Wedron in the book, "Capone's Cornfields: The Mob in the Illinois Valley." During the next few days, Binder kept studying the photo until it came time for him to yell, "Eureka!"
Binder said he is "99 percent plus positive" Capone is standing about dead center on the roof, diagonally from Thompson, who is below on the resort's steps. The man Binder tapped for Capone is smiling, clad in an unbuttoned overcoat and wearing a vest and pearl gray fedora, the same type fedora Capone wore in a 1929 mug shot taken by Philadelphia police.
Several men on either side of the possible Capone also sport pearl gray fedoras — a trademark among the Capone gang, Binder pointed out. One of the chaps near Capone is also built like a refrigerator. Another trademark. Binder is certain one of the men is Mike Spranze, an underworld gunsel who was close to Capone. Another one looks similar to a man visible in a newsreel of Capone leaving the federal courthouse in Chicago in 1931.
Capone was 31 years old at the time of the St. Joseph's photo, standing 5 feet 10 1/2 inches tall and tipping the scales at more than 220 pounds.
Binder showed the photo to two other Capone experts — Scarface scholar Jeff Thurston and Mars Eghigian, biographer of Capone chum Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti — and they agreed with him. Capone and Thompson in the same picture.
"It makes it undeniable there was a connection. This explicitly links them. This wasn't downtown Chicago, where they could have accidentally come together," Binder said. "This photo is historically significant."
Binder is also convinced this links well with La Salle County lore that says Capone visited the county, in particular the Wedron resort.
Binder also pointed out as a clue Thompson and Capone were in cahoots, was the fact the Chicago Tribune more than once ran stories accusing Thompson of accepting money from Capone, stories which Thompson did not deny and for which he did not try to sue. After Thompson went to his reward in 1944, almost $1.5 million cash was found in his safety deposit boxes. Thompson never earned more than $22,500 annually during his 12 years as mayor.
The man who possibly rewarded Thompson on Earth — Capone — followed Thompson into the hereafter three years later, dying in Florida from complications of syphilis. The man who shot the Wedron photo, Ottawa commercial photographer Richard Kuyl, died in his apartment at 805 1/2 Court St., Ottawa, in December 1958 at age 73.
Thanks to DAN CHURNEY
, who wrote this article. Dan is the author of "Capone's Cornfields: The Mob in the Illinois Valley."He was called by John Binder, and they discussed the merits of the historic photo, with Dan sharing information about the resort, Thompson's visit and local lore about Capone. Dan sees the resemblance, but would like to see more evidence. If you have any thoughts, email Dan at danc@mywebtimes.com.Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Chicago Mob Boss Dies
One of Chicago's oldest, most powerful mob figures has passed away.
ABC-7's I-Team has learned that Alphonse Tornabene died on Sunday. ABC7 investigative reporter Chuck Goudie was the last reporter ever to question Tornabene.
In mob ranks Tornabene was known as "Pizza Al" because of the west suburban pizzeria that he'd owned for decades. But federal authorities say Al Tornabene was also into another kind of dough as an overseer of the crime syndicate's books.
By the time he died on Sunday at age 86, Pizza Al had risen to the upper crust of the Chicago Outfit.
When the I-Team first met the outfit octogenarian in 2007, he was a relative unknown to the public and even to federal agents. Authorities had been surprised to learn of Tornabene's high-ranking position in the mob hierarchy.
Former hitman and federal informant Nick Calabrese had told U.S. investigators that Tornabene was one of two men who administered the initiation rites of Outfit.
The so-called making ceremony was just like Hollywood showed it, complete with bloodmixing and burning holy cards, according to Calabrese, with Tornabene co-officiating the proceedings with Joey "Doves" Aiuppa, the late mob boss.
Such an assignment would have made Tornabene one of the mob's top men.
His house in Summit and a summer outpost in William's Bay, Wisconsin, were both modest by top hoodlum standards.
The pizzeria that Tornabene founded is open for business on Monday but a sign announces the sad news that "due to a death in the family" they will be closed Wednesday for the funeral.
Mobwatchers say Tornabene's true legacy is in another family, one that the ailing pizzaman laughed off in his final interview.
GOUDIE: "The Crime Commission is saying that you run the mob?"
TORNABENE: (laughs) "I can't even move..."
He managed to get around for almost two more years after we met him that day.
The wake for Al Tornabene will be Wednesday and his funeral will be Thursday morning.
With Tornabene gone and wisecracking mobster Joey "the Clown" Lombardo in prison for life, that leaves the reigns of the Chicago Outfit in the hands of just one man, according to federal agents: John "No Nose" DiFronzo.
Thanks to Chuck Goudie
ABC-7's I-Team has learned that Alphonse Tornabene died on Sunday. ABC7 investigative reporter Chuck Goudie was the last reporter ever to question Tornabene.
In mob ranks Tornabene was known as "Pizza Al" because of the west suburban pizzeria that he'd owned for decades. But federal authorities say Al Tornabene was also into another kind of dough as an overseer of the crime syndicate's books.
By the time he died on Sunday at age 86, Pizza Al had risen to the upper crust of the Chicago Outfit.
When the I-Team first met the outfit octogenarian in 2007, he was a relative unknown to the public and even to federal agents. Authorities had been surprised to learn of Tornabene's high-ranking position in the mob hierarchy.
Former hitman and federal informant Nick Calabrese had told U.S. investigators that Tornabene was one of two men who administered the initiation rites of Outfit.
The so-called making ceremony was just like Hollywood showed it, complete with bloodmixing and burning holy cards, according to Calabrese, with Tornabene co-officiating the proceedings with Joey "Doves" Aiuppa, the late mob boss.
Such an assignment would have made Tornabene one of the mob's top men.
His house in Summit and a summer outpost in William's Bay, Wisconsin, were both modest by top hoodlum standards.
The pizzeria that Tornabene founded is open for business on Monday but a sign announces the sad news that "due to a death in the family" they will be closed Wednesday for the funeral.
Mobwatchers say Tornabene's true legacy is in another family, one that the ailing pizzaman laughed off in his final interview.
GOUDIE: "The Crime Commission is saying that you run the mob?"
TORNABENE: (laughs) "I can't even move..."
He managed to get around for almost two more years after we met him that day.
The wake for Al Tornabene will be Wednesday and his funeral will be Thursday morning.
With Tornabene gone and wisecracking mobster Joey "the Clown" Lombardo in prison for life, that leaves the reigns of the Chicago Outfit in the hands of just one man, according to federal agents: John "No Nose" DiFronzo.
Thanks to Chuck Goudie
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Mob Tours of Niagara Falls Releases Schedule
The Mob ToursTM, a specialty sightseeing company based in Niagara Falls, New York, has released their summer schedule, which will mark the one year anniversary of the company.
This year marks the first full season of operations for the company, and they have ambitious plans. “We missed the beginning of last season,” stated company founder Mike Rizzo, “and have been working since late last year to make all the connections and develop partnerships that would allow us to grow accordingly this year. So far, everything is coming together nicely.”
For the remainder of May there are Saturday tours, as well as tours all Memorial Day weekend. “In June we are offering Friday evening tours, as well as Saturday and Sunday tours. The Friday night tour is something we haven't tried before. It puts a different perspective on it than in the morning when we usually run.” The company has open tours Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during July and August. The week of Independence Day the company is offering tours daily, and open tours Labor day weekend.
The company specializes in tours of the former mafia in Niagara Falls. The 90-minute bus tour visits about a dozen former mob sites in Niagara Falls and tells the story of the late Stefano Magaddino, a former mafia boss, through story, music and a stop at Little Italy Niagara, a small mafia museum. Tours can be booked by phone, online at the company's website themobtours.com, at niagara-usa.biz, or through various visitor centers and sales booths in Niagara Falls. Pick up point is usually at the corner of Rainbow Boulevard and Third Street.
AAA Show Your Card & Save
In an effort to give even more value to their customers, the company is now accepting AAA members Show Your Card & Save and offering a 10% discount.
About The Mob ToursTM
Meticulously researched by Michael Rizzo, a entrepreneur, historian, researcher, and author of two local history books, and developed with Michelle Rizzo, the tour debuted in June 2008. This is the only tour company in western New York offering tours of former mafia crime spots. Rizzo has become an expert on the Magaddino crime family. For further information or interview requests, please contact Mike Rizzo, 716-578-4939 or info@themobtours.com.
This year marks the first full season of operations for the company, and they have ambitious plans. “We missed the beginning of last season,” stated company founder Mike Rizzo, “and have been working since late last year to make all the connections and develop partnerships that would allow us to grow accordingly this year. So far, everything is coming together nicely.”
For the remainder of May there are Saturday tours, as well as tours all Memorial Day weekend. “In June we are offering Friday evening tours, as well as Saturday and Sunday tours. The Friday night tour is something we haven't tried before. It puts a different perspective on it than in the morning when we usually run.” The company has open tours Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during July and August. The week of Independence Day the company is offering tours daily, and open tours Labor day weekend.
The company specializes in tours of the former mafia in Niagara Falls. The 90-minute bus tour visits about a dozen former mob sites in Niagara Falls and tells the story of the late Stefano Magaddino, a former mafia boss, through story, music and a stop at Little Italy Niagara, a small mafia museum. Tours can be booked by phone, online at the company's website themobtours.com, at niagara-usa.biz, or through various visitor centers and sales booths in Niagara Falls. Pick up point is usually at the corner of Rainbow Boulevard and Third Street.
AAA Show Your Card & Save
In an effort to give even more value to their customers, the company is now accepting AAA members Show Your Card & Save and offering a 10% discount.
About The Mob ToursTM
Meticulously researched by Michael Rizzo, a entrepreneur, historian, researcher, and author of two local history books, and developed with Michelle Rizzo, the tour debuted in June 2008. This is the only tour company in western New York offering tours of former mafia crime spots. Rizzo has become an expert on the Magaddino crime family. For further information or interview requests, please contact Mike Rizzo, 716-578-4939 or info@themobtours.com.
Playstations Used by Organized Crime Bosses Behind Bars to Maintain Control of Their Empires
The Serious Organized Crime Agency in the U.K. says jailed crime bosses are using PlayStations and "interactive internet games" to maintain control of their criminal organizations from behind bars.
Bill Hughes, the director-general of the agency, said criminals are using coded messages in chat rooms to pass on their orders and that PlayStations are being used to play interactive games with people on the outside as well as to charge cellphones that were being smuggled into prisons.
"We know that one of the issues is that if you are locked up, how do you communicate with others? And we have been highlighting the fact it is not always with mobile telephones," Hughes said. "There is other technology used - people are using PlayStations to charge their mobile phones and are playing games interactively with others, so are able to communicate with them."
"The Prison Service is concerned that prisoners are using interactive games to talk to people outside the prison," he continued. "Communication is the name of the game and criminals are looking to exploit new technologies. Prisoners have rights and they have access to the internet."
The accusation resulted from a report by SOCA that it is currently monitoring 5000 "crime bosses" in the U.K. and elsewhere. "Many of the 5,000 are not in the U.K. but are impacting on the U.K. from overseas. Some are in prison running their organizations and we are working with colleagues in the Prison Service," said outgoing SOCA Chairman Sir Stephen Lander. "Recidivism among organized criminals is high. These are lifestyle choices for these people. They will go to prison and we need to find a way of making it more difficult for them to re-engage."
But Her Majesty's Prison Service strongly denied the allegations, claiming that prisoners did not have access to the "wireless enabled technology" available in some consoles. "A decision was taken some years ago that the then-current generation of games consoles should be barred because the capability to send or receive radio signals is an integral part of the equipment," a representative said.
I'm not sure which side of the console wars the U.K. prison system has taken but the use of the term "PlayStation" in this context sounds rather generic and not necessarily a reference to any of Sony's consoles. Regardless, it's comforting to know that even though I have no idea how to apply prison tattoos or make toilet wine, I now apparently possess a skill set that will help me survive if I ever land in the Big House.
Thanks to Andy Chalk
Bill Hughes, the director-general of the agency, said criminals are using coded messages in chat rooms to pass on their orders and that PlayStations are being used to play interactive games with people on the outside as well as to charge cellphones that were being smuggled into prisons.
"We know that one of the issues is that if you are locked up, how do you communicate with others? And we have been highlighting the fact it is not always with mobile telephones," Hughes said. "There is other technology used - people are using PlayStations to charge their mobile phones and are playing games interactively with others, so are able to communicate with them."
"The Prison Service is concerned that prisoners are using interactive games to talk to people outside the prison," he continued. "Communication is the name of the game and criminals are looking to exploit new technologies. Prisoners have rights and they have access to the internet."
The accusation resulted from a report by SOCA that it is currently monitoring 5000 "crime bosses" in the U.K. and elsewhere. "Many of the 5,000 are not in the U.K. but are impacting on the U.K. from overseas. Some are in prison running their organizations and we are working with colleagues in the Prison Service," said outgoing SOCA Chairman Sir Stephen Lander. "Recidivism among organized criminals is high. These are lifestyle choices for these people. They will go to prison and we need to find a way of making it more difficult for them to re-engage."
But Her Majesty's Prison Service strongly denied the allegations, claiming that prisoners did not have access to the "wireless enabled technology" available in some consoles. "A decision was taken some years ago that the then-current generation of games consoles should be barred because the capability to send or receive radio signals is an integral part of the equipment," a representative said.
I'm not sure which side of the console wars the U.K. prison system has taken but the use of the term "PlayStation" in this context sounds rather generic and not necessarily a reference to any of Sony's consoles. Regardless, it's comforting to know that even though I have no idea how to apply prison tattoos or make toilet wine, I now apparently possess a skill set that will help me survive if I ever land in the Big House.
Thanks to Andy Chalk
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Foreclosure for The Mafia Princess, Victoria Gotti?
The Mafia Princess may soon be thrown out of her castle.
Victoria Gotti is a deadbeat on the mortgage for her mansion in Old Westbury, L.I., which was prominently featured in the TV series "Growing Up Gotti."
The daughter of the late Gambino crime boss owes JPMorgan Chase about $650,000 and hasn't made a payment in two years, court papers say.
A four-judge panel of the Brooklyn Appellate Division has granted the lender's motion for summary judgment on the foreclosure and the appointment of a referee to report whether the six-acre property can be sold in one parcel.
Gotti blamed the financial mess on her ex-husband Carmine Agnello, who she says took a $856,000 loan against the home without her knowledge.
She became the sole owner of the home in 2004 and the mortgage went into default while she and Agnello "were involved in a bitter matrimonial action," court papers say. Agnello pleaded guilty to racketeering in 2004. "I won a house that was a booby prize riddled with debt," Gotti told the Daily News.
Agnello was sprung from prison earlier this year after serving about eight years .
Gotti said he still hasn't paid court-ordered alimony or child support for his three sons although he's living large with his new wife in a tony suburb in Ohio. "He still owes the federal government nearly $10 million and yet they still allow him to live this way?" she said.
When their middle son expressed a desire to attend law school, Agnello responded, "'Wow, I'm proud of him, but I have no money,'" Gotti said.
The Long Island mansion, with six bedrooms and seven bathrooms, is on the market for $3 million - marked down from $4 million. It's an eyesore in the exclusive enclave, in need of a fresh paint job and landscaping. The yearly tax bill for the compound, which includes a stable and pond, is $92,000.
Gotti says she staved off a scheduled foreclosure sale in 2005 by agreeing to pay JPMorgan Chase $50,000 up front and $25,000 a month. Gotti made several payments and then stopped, which prompted the bank to declare her in default again.
The appellate court's decision reversed a lower court decision in 2007 that said foreclosure proceedings were premature at the time.
Agnello's lawyer, Scott Leemon, declined comment.
Victoria's brother John Jr., who is facing trial in the fall on murder and racketeering charges, is also beset by money woes. A federal judge shot down the mob scion's bid for taxpayer money for his legal defense.
Thanks to Lisa Colangelo and John Marzulli
Victoria Gotti is a deadbeat on the mortgage for her mansion in Old Westbury, L.I., which was prominently featured in the TV series "Growing Up Gotti."
The daughter of the late Gambino crime boss owes JPMorgan Chase about $650,000 and hasn't made a payment in two years, court papers say.
A four-judge panel of the Brooklyn Appellate Division has granted the lender's motion for summary judgment on the foreclosure and the appointment of a referee to report whether the six-acre property can be sold in one parcel.
Gotti blamed the financial mess on her ex-husband Carmine Agnello, who she says took a $856,000 loan against the home without her knowledge.
She became the sole owner of the home in 2004 and the mortgage went into default while she and Agnello "were involved in a bitter matrimonial action," court papers say. Agnello pleaded guilty to racketeering in 2004. "I won a house that was a booby prize riddled with debt," Gotti told the Daily News.
Agnello was sprung from prison earlier this year after serving about eight years .
Gotti said he still hasn't paid court-ordered alimony or child support for his three sons although he's living large with his new wife in a tony suburb in Ohio. "He still owes the federal government nearly $10 million and yet they still allow him to live this way?" she said.
When their middle son expressed a desire to attend law school, Agnello responded, "'Wow, I'm proud of him, but I have no money,'" Gotti said.
The Long Island mansion, with six bedrooms and seven bathrooms, is on the market for $3 million - marked down from $4 million. It's an eyesore in the exclusive enclave, in need of a fresh paint job and landscaping. The yearly tax bill for the compound, which includes a stable and pond, is $92,000.
Gotti says she staved off a scheduled foreclosure sale in 2005 by agreeing to pay JPMorgan Chase $50,000 up front and $25,000 a month. Gotti made several payments and then stopped, which prompted the bank to declare her in default again.
The appellate court's decision reversed a lower court decision in 2007 that said foreclosure proceedings were premature at the time.
Agnello's lawyer, Scott Leemon, declined comment.
Victoria's brother John Jr., who is facing trial in the fall on murder and racketeering charges, is also beset by money woes. A federal judge shot down the mob scion's bid for taxpayer money for his legal defense.
Thanks to Lisa Colangelo and John Marzulli
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Is the Mafia on the Rise or on the Run?
Two themes have emerged from recent media coverage of organized crime. On the one hand, protests like those held in Naples two months ago and sweeping arrests are said to signal the decline of the Mob. On the other, the international financial crisis is said to present new opportunities for mafiosi to take advantage of credit-constrained conditions to seize control of businesses and gain ground against the law.
As to the first point, this sort of give-and-take between the forces of order and disorder has been going on for most of a century. Mussolini near broke them but the US occupation put them back in business. Corruption is ingrained in certain parts of the world; see the municipal scandal in Naples and a medical scam in Sicily. As to the second, cash is king and the mafia has cash.
Stepping back, the larger issue is that organized crime is not a problem, for problems can be solved. It is a condition with which one deals. The last major round of globalization (1870-1914) saw the large local mobs — Sicilian Mafia, Neapolitan Camorra, Chinese Tongs, Corse Unione, etc. — all go worldwide. Today, as in the past, globalization offers new vistas for such groups. Two points:
1. Drugs and people are huge businesses for smugglers and illegal local dealers. The failure of the First World to be serious about either of these things creates quite rich transnational networks. Such networks can be used to move terrorists, weapons, restricted nuclear technologies, etc. The smart ones won’t do it — brings down too much scrutiny from the police — but enough of the players are undereducated thugs with attitude who will deal in anything for a short-term profit. As these crews tend to be linked but mostly independent, rather than the top-down Godfather-type empires, one can always find some wild boy who will do your deal.
2. Cultural “diversity” means demographic replacement in many areas. This, in turn, creates situations of social chaos and lack of cohension which, again, leave openings on the internal security front. Italy and Spain, for example, are both in the process of becoming national states that lack a clearly defined national population as immigrants with little interest in becoming genuine socio-cultural nations, dilute the native population.
Thanks to Bellum
As to the first point, this sort of give-and-take between the forces of order and disorder has been going on for most of a century. Mussolini near broke them but the US occupation put them back in business. Corruption is ingrained in certain parts of the world; see the municipal scandal in Naples and a medical scam in Sicily. As to the second, cash is king and the mafia has cash.
Stepping back, the larger issue is that organized crime is not a problem, for problems can be solved. It is a condition with which one deals. The last major round of globalization (1870-1914) saw the large local mobs — Sicilian Mafia, Neapolitan Camorra, Chinese Tongs, Corse Unione, etc. — all go worldwide. Today, as in the past, globalization offers new vistas for such groups. Two points:
1. Drugs and people are huge businesses for smugglers and illegal local dealers. The failure of the First World to be serious about either of these things creates quite rich transnational networks. Such networks can be used to move terrorists, weapons, restricted nuclear technologies, etc. The smart ones won’t do it — brings down too much scrutiny from the police — but enough of the players are undereducated thugs with attitude who will deal in anything for a short-term profit. As these crews tend to be linked but mostly independent, rather than the top-down Godfather-type empires, one can always find some wild boy who will do your deal.
2. Cultural “diversity” means demographic replacement in many areas. This, in turn, creates situations of social chaos and lack of cohension which, again, leave openings on the internal security front. Italy and Spain, for example, are both in the process of becoming national states that lack a clearly defined national population as immigrants with little interest in becoming genuine socio-cultural nations, dilute the native population.
Thanks to Bellum
Monday, May 11, 2009
Nobody Does a Funeral Quite like the Mafia
The local chapter of La Cosa Nostra may be a hapless shell of its former self. But when it comes to staging a funeral, nobody does it quite like the Mafia.
“Three flower cars, wow!” said a pilgrim from Wisconsin who was just about to chomp down on a chocolate cannoli from Mike’s Pastry yesterday morning. The cheesehead was momentarily spellbound by the stately procession of black Cadillacs gliding toward him up Hanover Street, coming to rest at the venerable gates of St. Leonard’s Church. “Wonder who that is?” the tourist said to his wife.
Standing within earshot was a slight gentleman wrapped in a tailored black suit, black tie, black sunglasses and a perfectly coiffed head of white hair that seemed to glow in the sun.
The dapper gent studied the rube for a moment, then made his way across Hanover Street, where he began kissing the family and friends of Donato “Danny” Angiulo, a capo regime in brother Jerry’s mob franchise, who expired Sunday night at the ripe age of 86.
Inside St. Leonard’s, a Franciscan Friar told the congregation that “death comes to all of us. Yes, we think we are going to live forever . . . that death will never touch us . . . it’s not a part of our future . . . but sooner or later . . .”
In a consoling gesture, the priest went on to remind the mourners that fate had actually smiled upon the old capo they called “Smiley.”
“Donato’s death was a peaceful death,” the priest noted, “whereas other deaths can be violent, horrible.” The words just hung in the incensed silence, floating among the statues of the saints and the chorus of angels swirling in vast murals across the domed ceiling.
“Danny was always the muscle in the (Angiulo) family,” recalled one law enforcement source, who studied the kid brother who enforced the Angiulo family will on the street.
“Where Jerry was always the yeller and the screamer, Danny was the guy who carried out the assignments. He was the brother that functioned where the rubber met the road. As result, he was respected on the street.”
There was a strange clash of cultures seeing that long black train of Cadillacs choke traffic in a North End where tourists and yuppie condo-dwellers now exert far more sway than bookies and leg-breakers.
Smiley Angiulo died peacefully surrounded by his family, which, in the end, is all any aging Mafioso could ask given the range of alternatives.
As the flower cars headed north, a certain nostalgia took hold. Could it be the end of an era? Or will there be four . . . maybe five flower cars, for brother Jerry, the tempestuous old don who stayed largely out of sight yesterday.
Thanks to Peter Gelzinis
“Three flower cars, wow!” said a pilgrim from Wisconsin who was just about to chomp down on a chocolate cannoli from Mike’s Pastry yesterday morning. The cheesehead was momentarily spellbound by the stately procession of black Cadillacs gliding toward him up Hanover Street, coming to rest at the venerable gates of St. Leonard’s Church. “Wonder who that is?” the tourist said to his wife.
Standing within earshot was a slight gentleman wrapped in a tailored black suit, black tie, black sunglasses and a perfectly coiffed head of white hair that seemed to glow in the sun.
The dapper gent studied the rube for a moment, then made his way across Hanover Street, where he began kissing the family and friends of Donato “Danny” Angiulo, a capo regime in brother Jerry’s mob franchise, who expired Sunday night at the ripe age of 86.
Inside St. Leonard’s, a Franciscan Friar told the congregation that “death comes to all of us. Yes, we think we are going to live forever . . . that death will never touch us . . . it’s not a part of our future . . . but sooner or later . . .”
In a consoling gesture, the priest went on to remind the mourners that fate had actually smiled upon the old capo they called “Smiley.”
“Donato’s death was a peaceful death,” the priest noted, “whereas other deaths can be violent, horrible.” The words just hung in the incensed silence, floating among the statues of the saints and the chorus of angels swirling in vast murals across the domed ceiling.
“Danny was always the muscle in the (Angiulo) family,” recalled one law enforcement source, who studied the kid brother who enforced the Angiulo family will on the street.
“Where Jerry was always the yeller and the screamer, Danny was the guy who carried out the assignments. He was the brother that functioned where the rubber met the road. As result, he was respected on the street.”
There was a strange clash of cultures seeing that long black train of Cadillacs choke traffic in a North End where tourists and yuppie condo-dwellers now exert far more sway than bookies and leg-breakers.
Smiley Angiulo died peacefully surrounded by his family, which, in the end, is all any aging Mafioso could ask given the range of alternatives.
As the flower cars headed north, a certain nostalgia took hold. Could it be the end of an era? Or will there be four . . . maybe five flower cars, for brother Jerry, the tempestuous old don who stayed largely out of sight yesterday.
Thanks to Peter Gelzinis
Six Indicted in Organized Crime Bust
The statewide Grand Jury has handed up an indictment Thursday naming six local men in connection with an organized crime bust.
Donald St. Germain , of West Warwick, Joseph Montuori, of Cranston, Michael Sherman of West Warwick, Michael Lillie of West Warwick, and Jeremy Lavoie also of West Warwick are charged with one count each of conspiracy and extortion. Police say the five men conspired together to extort money in West Warwick back in January. Officials also say the men threatened to injure someone with the intent of extorting cash.
St. Germain is facing several additional charges, including bookmaking, as well as drug possession and intent to deliver drugs, including Oxycodone and Hydrocodone. All of the incidents were witnessed by an undercover West Warwick Police officer.
Montouri is also named on one count of bookmaking, and involvement in an organized crime business. Sherman is named on four additional drug charges, as well as possessing a pistol while delivering a controlled substance.
Lillie and Richard Crowley are also facing charges involving the delivery of drugs.
All six men will be arraigned in Providence County Superior Court.
Thanks to Amanda Mathias
Donald St. Germain , of West Warwick, Joseph Montuori, of Cranston, Michael Sherman of West Warwick, Michael Lillie of West Warwick, and Jeremy Lavoie also of West Warwick are charged with one count each of conspiracy and extortion. Police say the five men conspired together to extort money in West Warwick back in January. Officials also say the men threatened to injure someone with the intent of extorting cash.
St. Germain is facing several additional charges, including bookmaking, as well as drug possession and intent to deliver drugs, including Oxycodone and Hydrocodone. All of the incidents were witnessed by an undercover West Warwick Police officer.
Montouri is also named on one count of bookmaking, and involvement in an organized crime business. Sherman is named on four additional drug charges, as well as possessing a pistol while delivering a controlled substance.
Lillie and Richard Crowley are also facing charges involving the delivery of drugs.
All six men will be arraigned in Providence County Superior Court.
Thanks to Amanda Mathias
On the Spot - The Only Regularly Published Magazine on Early 20th Century Crime and Crime Control Needs You!
Letter from Rick Mattix the force behind the excellent Early 20th Century Crime magazine - On the Spot.
First off, Thanks to all our loyal supporters who've kept this thing going for over two years! Thanks to our readers, Thanks to our advertisers, Thanks to those loyal subscribers who've chosen to stay with us, and another extra-special Thanks to our (unpaid) contributors who've furnished us with so many great historical articles!
Now, for the rest of you, On the Spot is ON THE SPOT! We're printing and mailing this -- THE ONLY REGULARLY PUBLISHED MAGAZINE ON EARLY 20TH CENTURY CRIME AND CRIME CONTROL -- out of our own pockets and, contrary to what some of you may think We Are Not Independently Wealthy! Virtually all money generated from sales of On the Spot Journal is spent printing and mailing it to our subscribers throughout North America, the UK, and Europe.
If you want to keep this thing afloat, or if you have any serious interest whatever in crime history, I urge those who haven't subscribed to do so and those subscribers who haven't renewed to do so. We simply can't keep going otherwise and that would be A REAL CRIME.
Authors and publishers, museums, event planners, etc.: We need advertisers. If you've got a book to sell, or other cops and robbers merchandise, stuff pertaining to Prohibition or Depression era, etc., write us for advertising rates (onthespotnewsletter@yahoo.com). Authors are again invited to donate promo books for new subscribers, which has aided our sales in the past.
Our planned move to MagCloud for future publishing and individual issue sales has been rescheduled to begin with our Fall 2009 issue, if we can keep going until then.
Here are some great articles scheduled for the near future that may never see
publication without your help:
Crime in the Catskills: The Capture of Waxey Gordon
by John Conway
Margaret Collins -- “The Kiss of Death Girl”
by Rose Keefe
Roy Gardner: The Last of the Old West Badmen
by Robert E. Bates
Eastern State Penitentiary: A Bastion of Solitude
by Gregory Peduto
Last Days of the Brady Gang
by Richard Shaw
Whiskey Women, Moonshining Mamas and Bootlegging Babes
by Kate Clabough
Plus book reviews, news of upcoming events, etc.
We need help to keep this thing going.
Yerz,
Rick Mattix
www.onthespotjournal.com/journal.html
First off, Thanks to all our loyal supporters who've kept this thing going for over two years! Thanks to our readers, Thanks to our advertisers, Thanks to those loyal subscribers who've chosen to stay with us, and another extra-special Thanks to our (unpaid) contributors who've furnished us with so many great historical articles!
Now, for the rest of you, On the Spot is ON THE SPOT! We're printing and mailing this -- THE ONLY REGULARLY PUBLISHED MAGAZINE ON EARLY 20TH CENTURY CRIME AND CRIME CONTROL -- out of our own pockets and, contrary to what some of you may think We Are Not Independently Wealthy! Virtually all money generated from sales of On the Spot Journal is spent printing and mailing it to our subscribers throughout North America, the UK, and Europe.
If you want to keep this thing afloat, or if you have any serious interest whatever in crime history, I urge those who haven't subscribed to do so and those subscribers who haven't renewed to do so. We simply can't keep going otherwise and that would be A REAL CRIME.
Authors and publishers, museums, event planners, etc.: We need advertisers. If you've got a book to sell, or other cops and robbers merchandise, stuff pertaining to Prohibition or Depression era, etc., write us for advertising rates (onthespotnewsletter@yahoo.com). Authors are again invited to donate promo books for new subscribers, which has aided our sales in the past.
Our planned move to MagCloud for future publishing and individual issue sales has been rescheduled to begin with our Fall 2009 issue, if we can keep going until then.
Here are some great articles scheduled for the near future that may never see
publication without your help:
Crime in the Catskills: The Capture of Waxey Gordon
by John Conway
Margaret Collins -- “The Kiss of Death Girl”
by Rose Keefe
Roy Gardner: The Last of the Old West Badmen
by Robert E. Bates
Eastern State Penitentiary: A Bastion of Solitude
by Gregory Peduto
Last Days of the Brady Gang
by Richard Shaw
Whiskey Women, Moonshining Mamas and Bootlegging Babes
by Kate Clabough
Plus book reviews, news of upcoming events, etc.
We need help to keep this thing going.
Yerz,
Rick Mattix
www.onthespotjournal.com/journal.html
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer Join Cast of Big Screen Adaption of "To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia"
Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer will play the leads in "The Irishman," a crime story that Jonathan Hensleigh will direct.
Code Entertainment is producing the action movie, which is based on the real story of mobster Danny Greene (Stevenson). Hensleigh and Jeremy Walters ("Dali") wrote the script, inspired by the book "To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia" by Rick Porrello.
Greene was a violent Irish-American gangster who competed with the Italian mob in 1970s Cleveland and ended up provoking a countrywide turf war that crippled the mafia. Walken will play the loan shark and nightclub owner Shondor Birns, and Kilmer is a Cleveland police detective who befriends Greene.
Code's Al Corley, Bart Rosenblatt and Eugene Musso are producing, along with Dundee Entertainment's Tommy Reid and Tara Reid, who brought the property to Code. Jonathan Dana, Peter Miller and Porrello are exec producers, with George Perez serving as co-producer.
The production has also hired cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub, production designer Patrizia von Brandenstein and editor Douglas Crise. Principal photography begins May 19 in Detroit.
Lightning Entertainment will shop the project to international buyers at Cannes, while ICM and Dana handle domestic sales.
The ICM-repped Hensleigh co-wrote and directed "The Punisher." The writer or co-writer of "Die Hard With a Vengeance" and "Jumanji" has the crime story "Nine Lives" in development with Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
Walken and Kilmer are repped by ICM and Affirmative Entertainment. Stevenson is repped by Endeavor.
Code last produced "You Kill Me" and "Spring Breakdown.
thanks to Jay A. Fernandez
Code Entertainment is producing the action movie, which is based on the real story of mobster Danny Greene (Stevenson). Hensleigh and Jeremy Walters ("Dali") wrote the script, inspired by the book "To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia" by Rick Porrello.
Greene was a violent Irish-American gangster who competed with the Italian mob in 1970s Cleveland and ended up provoking a countrywide turf war that crippled the mafia. Walken will play the loan shark and nightclub owner Shondor Birns, and Kilmer is a Cleveland police detective who befriends Greene.
Code's Al Corley, Bart Rosenblatt and Eugene Musso are producing, along with Dundee Entertainment's Tommy Reid and Tara Reid, who brought the property to Code. Jonathan Dana, Peter Miller and Porrello are exec producers, with George Perez serving as co-producer.
The production has also hired cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub, production designer Patrizia von Brandenstein and editor Douglas Crise. Principal photography begins May 19 in Detroit.
Lightning Entertainment will shop the project to international buyers at Cannes, while ICM and Dana handle domestic sales.
The ICM-repped Hensleigh co-wrote and directed "The Punisher." The writer or co-writer of "Die Hard With a Vengeance" and "Jumanji" has the crime story "Nine Lives" in development with Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
Walken and Kilmer are repped by ICM and Affirmative Entertainment. Stevenson is repped by Endeavor.
Code last produced "You Kill Me" and "Spring Breakdown.
thanks to Jay A. Fernandez
Mafia Cops Sent to Separate Prisons
Mafia cops Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were partners as detectives, partners in crime, neighbors in Las Vegas - and cellmates after being convicted as mob hit men.
Now, their illicit partnership has been broken up forever.
Caracappa, 67, who requested a prison on the East Coast, has been shipped out to Victorville Penitentiary in California to serve his life-plus-80-year sentence.
The high-security prison 86 miles northeast of Los Angeles was once home to notorious inmates John Walker Lindh - the so-called American Taliban - and Ingmar Guandique, suspected of killing Capitol Hill intern Chandra Levy.
Two prisoners have been slain there since it opened in 2004, and a bomb exploded in the prison in February. "It's not a good place to be, but it's better than where he was," said Caracappa's lawyer Daniel Nobel.
Sources said the laconic Caracappa was miserable having to spend every waking moment with a loudmouth like Eppolito in the Brooklyn federal lockup in Sunset Park.
Because they're ex-cops, they were locked down 23 hours a day as a safety precaution and kept away from other inmates.
"If you have two persons together in a small cell that is the size of a closet for some New Yorkers, most marriages would dissolve under those circumstances," Nobel said of their time at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Eppolito, 60, is still awaiting word from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons as to which cinder-block tomb he will be sent to die.
"It was very peculiar to me that they were housed together," said Eppolito's lawyer Joseph Bondy. "The alternative was solitary confinement."
Eppolito and Caracappa are appealing their convictions, arguing that their trial lawyers were incompetent.
In a letter to Judge Jack Weinstein, Eppolito's daughter Andrea wrote, "The rest of my life will be dedicated to bringing him home where he belongs."
Thanks to John Marzulli
Now, their illicit partnership has been broken up forever.
Caracappa, 67, who requested a prison on the East Coast, has been shipped out to Victorville Penitentiary in California to serve his life-plus-80-year sentence.
The high-security prison 86 miles northeast of Los Angeles was once home to notorious inmates John Walker Lindh - the so-called American Taliban - and Ingmar Guandique, suspected of killing Capitol Hill intern Chandra Levy.
Two prisoners have been slain there since it opened in 2004, and a bomb exploded in the prison in February. "It's not a good place to be, but it's better than where he was," said Caracappa's lawyer Daniel Nobel.
Sources said the laconic Caracappa was miserable having to spend every waking moment with a loudmouth like Eppolito in the Brooklyn federal lockup in Sunset Park.
Because they're ex-cops, they were locked down 23 hours a day as a safety precaution and kept away from other inmates.
"If you have two persons together in a small cell that is the size of a closet for some New Yorkers, most marriages would dissolve under those circumstances," Nobel said of their time at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Eppolito, 60, is still awaiting word from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons as to which cinder-block tomb he will be sent to die.
"It was very peculiar to me that they were housed together," said Eppolito's lawyer Joseph Bondy. "The alternative was solitary confinement."
Eppolito and Caracappa are appealing their convictions, arguing that their trial lawyers were incompetent.
In a letter to Judge Jack Weinstein, Eppolito's daughter Andrea wrote, "The rest of my life will be dedicated to bringing him home where he belongs."
Thanks to John Marzulli
Reputed Genovese Made Member and Associated Arrested on Sports Betting Charges
A Dover man is among more than 30 people arrested Thursday in connection with a $1 million-a-week, multistate sports betting operation related to prominent organized crime families.
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office said 36-year-old Dulo Bolijevic of Dover was charged with promoting gambling and conspiracy to promote gambling in connection with this week’s raids, which spanned Bergen, Essex, Somerset and Monmouth counties.
The was no immediate word, however, on what role Bolijevic, who works at Villa Pizza in Rockaway, played in the betting ring.
Authorities from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, the FBI and other agencies began executing search and arrest warrants beginning Tuesday night. More than 30 arrests were made and more than $1.3 million was seized.
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office said the North Jersey investigation began in September 2008 and focused on money-laundering. Undercover detectives infiltrated the bookmaking operation being run by Thomas Conforti of Hawthorne and John “Blue” DeFroscia of Saddle Brook.
DeFroscia is a documented “made” member of the Genovese organized crime family, and Conforti is a high-level associate, authorities said. Each ran separate bookmaking and money-laundering enterprises. and passed a portion of their earnings to Genovese Family.
Conforti and DeFroscia had a large network of agents, who were paid a commission on their profits. Mid-level members were responsible for numerous gambling packages and would meet with the individual agents or package holders and then pass the proceeds to DeFroscia and Conforti.
Investigators found that hundreds of bettors used a system of code names and passwords to place bets on sporting events each week. It was the agents who collected losses from or paid winnings to bettors. The wagers were placed via toll-free telephone numbers or the Internet.
The actual wire room providing betting lines and accepting the wagers is located in Costa Rica — a common practice employed by organized crime families to avoid apprehension of those running the wire room, authorities said.
The investigation revealed that DeFroscia and Conforti used “middle men” as a buffer between themselves and their agents to insulate themselves from law enforcement detection. In the case of Thomas Conforti, an individual identified as Michael Cirelli of Belleville helped run the operation for him. John DeFroscia employed Paul “Shortline” Weber of Aramark, Pa., and Gerald “Jay” Napolitano of Summit, among others, to help run his network of agents.
Napolitano would deliver weekly profits to DeFroscia by dropping envelopes of cash at Racioppi’s Taralles, a store on Bloomfield Avenue, Bloomfield. Nicholas “Pigeon” Restaino of Bloomfield would temporarily hold the cash at the store until DeFroscia picked it up.
Weber, Napolitano and other ranking members would meet with agents in parking lots, bookstores, diners and on the street to exchange cash. Napolitano was seen several times meeting one of his agents, Louis Orangeo of Newark, in various parking lots in Clifton. Orangeo, a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, would meet with Napolitano while on duty in his mail truck. They would exchange an envelope through the mail truck window as if it were ordinary mail.
In addition, Weber, who is employed as a vendor at both CitiField and Yankee Stadium, arranged meetings and drop-offs in each stadium while working. Detectives who conducted surveillance of Weber at the stadiums with the assistance and cooperation of Major League Baseball security, observed him exchange cash proceeds from this enterprise with various co-conspirators.
Thanks to Daily Record
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office said 36-year-old Dulo Bolijevic of Dover was charged with promoting gambling and conspiracy to promote gambling in connection with this week’s raids, which spanned Bergen, Essex, Somerset and Monmouth counties.
The was no immediate word, however, on what role Bolijevic, who works at Villa Pizza in Rockaway, played in the betting ring.
Authorities from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, the FBI and other agencies began executing search and arrest warrants beginning Tuesday night. More than 30 arrests were made and more than $1.3 million was seized.
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office said the North Jersey investigation began in September 2008 and focused on money-laundering. Undercover detectives infiltrated the bookmaking operation being run by Thomas Conforti of Hawthorne and John “Blue” DeFroscia of Saddle Brook.
DeFroscia is a documented “made” member of the Genovese organized crime family, and Conforti is a high-level associate, authorities said. Each ran separate bookmaking and money-laundering enterprises. and passed a portion of their earnings to Genovese Family.
Conforti and DeFroscia had a large network of agents, who were paid a commission on their profits. Mid-level members were responsible for numerous gambling packages and would meet with the individual agents or package holders and then pass the proceeds to DeFroscia and Conforti.
Investigators found that hundreds of bettors used a system of code names and passwords to place bets on sporting events each week. It was the agents who collected losses from or paid winnings to bettors. The wagers were placed via toll-free telephone numbers or the Internet.
The actual wire room providing betting lines and accepting the wagers is located in Costa Rica — a common practice employed by organized crime families to avoid apprehension of those running the wire room, authorities said.
The investigation revealed that DeFroscia and Conforti used “middle men” as a buffer between themselves and their agents to insulate themselves from law enforcement detection. In the case of Thomas Conforti, an individual identified as Michael Cirelli of Belleville helped run the operation for him. John DeFroscia employed Paul “Shortline” Weber of Aramark, Pa., and Gerald “Jay” Napolitano of Summit, among others, to help run his network of agents.
Napolitano would deliver weekly profits to DeFroscia by dropping envelopes of cash at Racioppi’s Taralles, a store on Bloomfield Avenue, Bloomfield. Nicholas “Pigeon” Restaino of Bloomfield would temporarily hold the cash at the store until DeFroscia picked it up.
Weber, Napolitano and other ranking members would meet with agents in parking lots, bookstores, diners and on the street to exchange cash. Napolitano was seen several times meeting one of his agents, Louis Orangeo of Newark, in various parking lots in Clifton. Orangeo, a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, would meet with Napolitano while on duty in his mail truck. They would exchange an envelope through the mail truck window as if it were ordinary mail.
In addition, Weber, who is employed as a vendor at both CitiField and Yankee Stadium, arranged meetings and drop-offs in each stadium while working. Detectives who conducted surveillance of Weber at the stadiums with the assistance and cooperation of Major League Baseball security, observed him exchange cash proceeds from this enterprise with various co-conspirators.
Thanks to Daily Record
Victoria Gotti Shouts Out in Court
The mother of John "Junior" Gotti interrupted a hearing on her son's racketeering case Friday by telling a federal judge that the government is trying to kill him before he even gets to trial.
"Why don't you just hang him now!" Victoria Gotti shouted from the spectator section of a room in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
She spoke out after Judge Kevin P. Castel asked lawyers at the end of the pretrial hearing whether there were any other matters to address.
"Excuse me, you honor, may I speak?" she asked as she stood up. "I'm his mother." The judge asked if she was a party to the proceedings. When she said she was not, he told her she could not speak.
Still, she asked him what he thought about perjury - a reference to claims a mob turncoat made that he had slept with her daughter, also named Victoria, the former star of the reality TV series "Growing up Gotti."
Then she made the reference to the hanging of her son and added: "They're trying to kill him before trial!"
Outside court she passed out copies of a lie detector test in which the younger Victoria Gotti said she never slept with the turncoat, John Alite, a Gambino organized crime family associate.
She also told reporters that the government was trying to ruin her daughter's reputation in pursuit of a conviction of Gotti, 44. "This trial is rigged before he sets foot in it," she said.
Before Victoria Gotti's outburst, the judge had rejected Gotti's request to have a public defender added to the case to assist his lawyer, Charles Carnesi. Castel said his review of Gotti's assets left him doubting he would qualify for a lawyer at taxpayer expense.
Carnesi said three trials for Gotti had taken a toll on the family's finances, forcing him to take out a $250,000 loan at 14 percent interest. Carnesi explained the high interest rate, saying: "Mr. Gotti's name, for better or worse, is a well known name which causes lenders pause before they're willing to make a loan to him."
He said Gotti had to spend $75,000 of the loan toward credit cards that have been used to pay the family's living expenses.
Carnesi told the judge he will file papers asking that the latest indictment be thrown out. He said the charges brought in August were "from my view, basically the same indictment" as Gotti's previous three trials. Prosecutors have said Gotti assumed control of the powerful Gambino family after his father's 1992 conviction on racketeering and murder charges. His father died in prison.
The current indictment accuses Gotti of involvement in three slayings in the late 1980s and early 1990s and of possessing and trafficking more than 5 kilograms of cocaine.
Gotti is being held at a federal lockup in Brooklyn. He has been tried three times in Manhattan on racketeering charges for an alleged plot to kidnap Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa. Trials in 2005 and 2006 ended in hung juries and mistrials after Gotti's lawyers argued he had long since retired from organized crime.
Federal prosecutors announced after the third trial that they were giving up.
The hearing Friday was attended by Sliwa, who wore his red Guardian Angels jacket.
Sliwa, who testified at the earlier trials about the kidnapping attempt, which left him with bullet wounds and continuing injuries, said he won't be satisfied until Gotti "follows his father to hell without an asbestos suit."
He noted that Castel is different from the judge who presided over Gotti's earlier trials and suggested it will make a difference in the outcome.
"He's got a tough judge, a no-nonsense judge," Sliwa said. "He's been stripped of his Guardian Angel."
Thanks to TBO
"Why don't you just hang him now!" Victoria Gotti shouted from the spectator section of a room in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
She spoke out after Judge Kevin P. Castel asked lawyers at the end of the pretrial hearing whether there were any other matters to address.
"Excuse me, you honor, may I speak?" she asked as she stood up. "I'm his mother." The judge asked if she was a party to the proceedings. When she said she was not, he told her she could not speak.
Still, she asked him what he thought about perjury - a reference to claims a mob turncoat made that he had slept with her daughter, also named Victoria, the former star of the reality TV series "Growing up Gotti."
Then she made the reference to the hanging of her son and added: "They're trying to kill him before trial!"
Outside court she passed out copies of a lie detector test in which the younger Victoria Gotti said she never slept with the turncoat, John Alite, a Gambino organized crime family associate.
She also told reporters that the government was trying to ruin her daughter's reputation in pursuit of a conviction of Gotti, 44. "This trial is rigged before he sets foot in it," she said.
Before Victoria Gotti's outburst, the judge had rejected Gotti's request to have a public defender added to the case to assist his lawyer, Charles Carnesi. Castel said his review of Gotti's assets left him doubting he would qualify for a lawyer at taxpayer expense.
Carnesi said three trials for Gotti had taken a toll on the family's finances, forcing him to take out a $250,000 loan at 14 percent interest. Carnesi explained the high interest rate, saying: "Mr. Gotti's name, for better or worse, is a well known name which causes lenders pause before they're willing to make a loan to him."
He said Gotti had to spend $75,000 of the loan toward credit cards that have been used to pay the family's living expenses.
Carnesi told the judge he will file papers asking that the latest indictment be thrown out. He said the charges brought in August were "from my view, basically the same indictment" as Gotti's previous three trials. Prosecutors have said Gotti assumed control of the powerful Gambino family after his father's 1992 conviction on racketeering and murder charges. His father died in prison.
The current indictment accuses Gotti of involvement in three slayings in the late 1980s and early 1990s and of possessing and trafficking more than 5 kilograms of cocaine.
Gotti is being held at a federal lockup in Brooklyn. He has been tried three times in Manhattan on racketeering charges for an alleged plot to kidnap Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa. Trials in 2005 and 2006 ended in hung juries and mistrials after Gotti's lawyers argued he had long since retired from organized crime.
Federal prosecutors announced after the third trial that they were giving up.
The hearing Friday was attended by Sliwa, who wore his red Guardian Angels jacket.
Sliwa, who testified at the earlier trials about the kidnapping attempt, which left him with bullet wounds and continuing injuries, said he won't be satisfied until Gotti "follows his father to hell without an asbestos suit."
He noted that Castel is different from the judge who presided over Gotti's earlier trials and suggested it will make a difference in the outcome.
"He's got a tough judge, a no-nonsense judge," Sliwa said. "He's been stripped of his Guardian Angel."
Thanks to TBO
Monday, May 04, 2009
Unseen Victims from Mob Killings
Deputy U.S. Marshal John Ambrose -- convicted last week of passing information to the Chicago Outfit about a top mob witness -- was only 7 years old when Joe the janitor was found dead.
So he probably didn't read the small 1975 Tribune story about the body of the 33-year-old janitor found in the basement of Chalmers Elementary School on the West Side. Chicago detectives said the janitor suffered a massive heart attack. But a mortician at the Daniel Lynch Funeral Home in Evergreen Park made an amazing discovery along The Chicago Way.
There was a hole in the back of Joe the janitor's head. A heart attack didn't make that hole. A .22-caliber bullet was found lodged in the brain of the janitor.
His name? Joseph Lipuma.
A couple of weeks later, Lipuma's friend and alleged stolen-goods dealer Ronald Magliano, 42, was found shot to death in his South Side home. The home had been set ablaze, an Outfit practice to destroy evidence. Detectives figured the two murders were related, but no arrests were made.
Two years later, a friend of Joe's and Ronnie's was killed in a sensational daytime Outfit hit. Mobster Sam Annerino was chewed up by three men with shotguns outside Mirabelli's Furniture store in Oak Lawn. The Outfit had sway in Oak Lawn. The town's motto? "Be prudent, stay safe."
A few miles to the east in Evergreen Park lived Joe Lipuma's young nephew. A top student at Evergreen Park High School, an excellent athlete, he was so impressive that he was accepted as a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. But he didn't like the military life, came home after a year, went to law school, and became a federal prosecutor before becoming a criminal defense attorney.
Recently, at John Ambrose's trial, I met that man. He was John Ambrose's attorney, Francis Lipuma, Joe's nephew. I disagree with him about Ambrose, but I couldn't help admiring his skill in the courtroom.
"I was just a kid -- a freshman -- when my uncle was killed," Frank Lipuma told me the other day after the Ambrose guilty verdict. "All I really remember about it was pain. Pain and sadness throughout my house, throughout my family."
Just in case you think I'm drawing some nefarious inference about Frank Lipuma, let me be clear: I'm not.
Lipuma was an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago. To become a federal prosecutor, applicants must undergo a rigorous FBI background check.
They reach back into your childhood, interview your friends from elementary school and scrub your family. If there were anything there, the FBI would have found it. But what they did find was a young man who felt the pain of his Uncle Joe's death but never learned why he was killed.
"I do remember the funeral home found he'd been shot, and that police thought it was a heart attack, but someone had put a gun behind his ear," Frank Lipuma told me. "It was terrible, all that pain in the family then. He was involved with people. There was just speculation. He knew Annerino, they said. I was just a kid playing baseball, trying to get to college."
Through weeks of testimony in Ambrose's trial, we heard about the Outfit informant he was supposed to protect: the deadly hit man turned star government witness in the historic Family Secrets case, Nicholas Calabrese.
Calabrese was in the federal witness protection program. Ambrose was convicted of leaking information to the mob about what Calabrese told the feds concerning dozens and dozens of unsolved Outfit murders.
One of the murders involved Annerino, the friend of Joe Lipuma and Ronnie Magliano who was known as "Sam the Mule."
The leaked information was contained in the FBI's 2002 threat assessment detailing Nick Calabrese's cooperation, a document prosecutors alleged was read by Ambrose before he leaked details of it to the mob through an Outfit messenger boy:
"Nicholas Calabrese will testify that he, along with Joseph LaMantia, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Frank Saladino, planned and attempted to murder Samuel Annerino. Ronald Jarrett, who is deceased [murdered], also participated in the planning. ... Though the attempt was unsuccessful, Nicholas Calabrese later learned that the murder was later carried out by Joseph Scalise. William Petrocelli and Anthony Borsellino also participated in the murder, but are deceased."
I asked Frank Lipuma if he became a federal prosecutor in part to find out who killed his Uncle Joe, but he wouldn't say: "I couldn't find any hard facts. I deal in facts."
The Chicago Outfit has many victims, and some might consider Ambrose to be one of them. He wanted to ingratiate himself with the bosses. He'll soon be fired from federal service and may even serve prison time. Joe Lipuma was a victim, too, and so was his family.
Murder isn't just between killer and target, especially Outfit murders. The victims are found among living survivors, legitimate folk spaced apart, often unknowing, as if on a vine reaching back through time, remembering.
Thanks to John Kass
So he probably didn't read the small 1975 Tribune story about the body of the 33-year-old janitor found in the basement of Chalmers Elementary School on the West Side. Chicago detectives said the janitor suffered a massive heart attack. But a mortician at the Daniel Lynch Funeral Home in Evergreen Park made an amazing discovery along The Chicago Way.
There was a hole in the back of Joe the janitor's head. A heart attack didn't make that hole. A .22-caliber bullet was found lodged in the brain of the janitor.
His name? Joseph Lipuma.
A couple of weeks later, Lipuma's friend and alleged stolen-goods dealer Ronald Magliano, 42, was found shot to death in his South Side home. The home had been set ablaze, an Outfit practice to destroy evidence. Detectives figured the two murders were related, but no arrests were made.
Two years later, a friend of Joe's and Ronnie's was killed in a sensational daytime Outfit hit. Mobster Sam Annerino was chewed up by three men with shotguns outside Mirabelli's Furniture store in Oak Lawn. The Outfit had sway in Oak Lawn. The town's motto? "Be prudent, stay safe."
A few miles to the east in Evergreen Park lived Joe Lipuma's young nephew. A top student at Evergreen Park High School, an excellent athlete, he was so impressive that he was accepted as a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. But he didn't like the military life, came home after a year, went to law school, and became a federal prosecutor before becoming a criminal defense attorney.
Recently, at John Ambrose's trial, I met that man. He was John Ambrose's attorney, Francis Lipuma, Joe's nephew. I disagree with him about Ambrose, but I couldn't help admiring his skill in the courtroom.
"I was just a kid -- a freshman -- when my uncle was killed," Frank Lipuma told me the other day after the Ambrose guilty verdict. "All I really remember about it was pain. Pain and sadness throughout my house, throughout my family."
Just in case you think I'm drawing some nefarious inference about Frank Lipuma, let me be clear: I'm not.
Lipuma was an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago. To become a federal prosecutor, applicants must undergo a rigorous FBI background check.
They reach back into your childhood, interview your friends from elementary school and scrub your family. If there were anything there, the FBI would have found it. But what they did find was a young man who felt the pain of his Uncle Joe's death but never learned why he was killed.
"I do remember the funeral home found he'd been shot, and that police thought it was a heart attack, but someone had put a gun behind his ear," Frank Lipuma told me. "It was terrible, all that pain in the family then. He was involved with people. There was just speculation. He knew Annerino, they said. I was just a kid playing baseball, trying to get to college."
Through weeks of testimony in Ambrose's trial, we heard about the Outfit informant he was supposed to protect: the deadly hit man turned star government witness in the historic Family Secrets case, Nicholas Calabrese.
Calabrese was in the federal witness protection program. Ambrose was convicted of leaking information to the mob about what Calabrese told the feds concerning dozens and dozens of unsolved Outfit murders.
One of the murders involved Annerino, the friend of Joe Lipuma and Ronnie Magliano who was known as "Sam the Mule."
The leaked information was contained in the FBI's 2002 threat assessment detailing Nick Calabrese's cooperation, a document prosecutors alleged was read by Ambrose before he leaked details of it to the mob through an Outfit messenger boy:
"Nicholas Calabrese will testify that he, along with Joseph LaMantia, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Frank Saladino, planned and attempted to murder Samuel Annerino. Ronald Jarrett, who is deceased [murdered], also participated in the planning. ... Though the attempt was unsuccessful, Nicholas Calabrese later learned that the murder was later carried out by Joseph Scalise. William Petrocelli and Anthony Borsellino also participated in the murder, but are deceased."
I asked Frank Lipuma if he became a federal prosecutor in part to find out who killed his Uncle Joe, but he wouldn't say: "I couldn't find any hard facts. I deal in facts."
The Chicago Outfit has many victims, and some might consider Ambrose to be one of them. He wanted to ingratiate himself with the bosses. He'll soon be fired from federal service and may even serve prison time. Joe Lipuma was a victim, too, and so was his family.
Murder isn't just between killer and target, especially Outfit murders. The victims are found among living survivors, legitimate folk spaced apart, often unknowing, as if on a vine reaching back through time, remembering.
Thanks to John Kass
Sunday, May 03, 2009
"Family Secrets: The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob" Mafia Book Signing
Jeff Coen, the author of Family Secrets: The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob, will be at Centuries and Sleuths Bookstore in Forest Park on Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 2:00 PM to sign copies of his first rate book on the historic Operation Family Secrets Mafia Trial.
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