Thursday, May 31, 2012
The Latin Kings Sued by Kane County
The Kane County state’s attorney’s office has filed a lawsuit against 35 members of the Latin Kings who reside in Aurora, seeking to hold gang members accountable for past violence and give police another tool against organized crime.
After the lawsuit was filed Thursday, Aurora police officers and Kane County sheriff’s deputies began serving defendants with the suit and a summons to appear July 10 before Judge Thomas Mueller.
The lawsuit seeks to prevent the defendants from loitering together in public, possessing weapons or drugs, vandalizing surfaces with graffiti, showing gang signs, wearing gang colors or even being present in certain parts of town. Once the lawsuit becomes a verified complaint, if police find a gang member violating its terms, they can take action. “We expect that this injunction will significantly diminish the gang’s criminal activity by stopping the Latin Kings’ ability to freely operate within the Aurora community,” Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon said.
McMahon called the gang members targeted in the suit “the worst of the worst in Aurora.” A list of their previous convictions for crimes such as first-degree murder, unlawful delivery of a controlled substance, mob action and aggravated discharge of a firearm takes up 12 pages of the 18-page lawsuit.
Aurora police Chief Greg Thomas said violent crime in Aurora has decreased since its peak in 1996, when there were 357 reports of shots fired and 26 murders. By 2011 those numbers dropped to 60 instances of shots fired and two murders, but Thomas said work remains to be done. “When these violent crimes are reduced, police have more time to devote to other crimes like burglaries and theft,” he said.
Targeting gang members through the civil suit will help the city move further away from its previous image as an unsafe place, Mayor Tom Weisner said. “The initiative announced today is another tool our police officers can use to help ensure the city is safe from the violence of street gangs,” Weisner said.
Ross Bartolotta, a special assistant state’s attorney hired with $60,000 in federal grant money, spent several months researching gang members’ history of criminal activity to determine whom to sue first.
If defendants or their lawyers show up to their court dates, each case will go through a discovery process and trial to determine if the defendant will be prohibited from associating with other gang members. If a defendant doesn’t show up, McMahon said the gang member automatically will be held to the regulations of the injunction.
Violating the injunction could result in contempt of court or a misdemeanor charge punishable with up to a year in county jail and up to $2,500 in fines.
The lawsuit filed against Latin Kings members residing in Aurora isn’t the first of its kind. Kane County sued about 80 members of the Latin Kings in Elgin in 2010, and the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office has sued gang members four times since 1999, targeting groups that operated in Addison, Glendale Heights and West Chicago. “We did this again here in Kane County for one reason: We have a responsibility to take whatever lawful action we can to make this community safer,” McMahon said. “This lawsuit, which is a proven proactive tool, is another step in that direction.”
Thanks to Marie Wilson.
Christina Scoleri Profile from Mob Wives: Chicago
“I wanna get the story out there,” Christina Scoleri explains when she’s asked why she joined the cast of Mob Wives Chicago. And she definitely has a story to tell. With a dad who was “connected” and arrested over twenty times, she’s intimately familiar with the lifestyle, but she’s endured some of her own trials and…trivulations, too. She’s divorced but still living with her ex, and raising her daughter, and just fighting (figuratively and sometimes literally) to survive. Doing this show, she says, “Is therapy for me.”
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Should Blacks or Muslims Report Crimes Committed by Others of Their Race?
Thanks to Colin Flaherty
MSNBC’s new golden girl was in a pickle: If someone sees a black person committing rape or domestic violence, should he report it if it makes black people look bad?
Or if Muslims see wife-beating, genital mutilation and childhood sexual abuse, should they just keep it to themselves, because saying something gives ammunition to the “Islamophobes”?
The questions appear to be simple. But they posed a challenge for the host of the new “Melissa Harris-Perry” show when guest Mona Eltahawy talked about her Foreign Policy magazine cover story about abuse of women by men in the Muslim world.
Eltahawy speaks from experience: She had her arms broken in a demonstration in Egypt and was tortured and raped in an Egyptian jail cell.
So she seemed surprised to find Harris-Perry questioning her right to draw attention to “traditions” such as involuntary female circumcision, wife-beating and childhood sexual abuse.
“I start with a little bit of trepidation in this conversation,” the host said, “in part because I know some of the critiques of this. The very idea that Western press, those that are not from these nations, who are not Muslim ourselves, who are not part of these traditions can look at your article and say ‘ahhh, look at how horrible those men, or those societies, or that religion is.’ “And that is part of the reason why, for example, we have an under-reporting of rape and domestic violence in African American communities,” Harris-Perry continued. “Because we know the violence enacted on black men by police, so we often don’t call. Right?”
Then the MSNBC host brought in Harvard professor Leila Ahmed, who questioned whether Eltahawy should have written the article at all. Not because it was false, but because it made Muslims look bad.
“You began, Melissa, by noting that some things in the African-American community are not publicized precisely because of the racism,” said Ahmed as Harris-Perry nodded in agreement on a split screen.
“Mona, I appreciate what you do,” continued Ahmed. “I would love it if – I understand if you want to get your message across. It’s an important message. But if possible [you should not] give fuel, fodder to people who simply hate Arabs and Muslims in this climate of our day.”
Eltahawy seemed taken aback.
“That’s the whole point,” she said. “It’s not me that makes Muslims look bad. It’s those atrocities that make Muslims look bad. And as a writer, it’s my job to poke the painful places.” Harris-Perry declined to respond to a subsequent email asking if she ever refused to report a violent crime because it would make someone look bad.
Eltahawy point out that deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak oppressed the nation for 30 years, until his removal last year. She said “Mubarak” still needs to be removed from Egyptian minds and bedrooms.
The society that emphasizes Islam, she said, continues to “oppress women,” citing a statement from Saudi Arabia on the day her article was released saying that 10-year-old girls are “ready for marriage.”
“That’s outrageous,” Eltawy said.
She explained she wanted to go “straight for the jugular” and reveal misogyny in religion, culture and the law, and demand an answer.
“What are we going to do about that?” she asked.
Former Iowa Republican Congressman Fred Grandy, now with the Center for Security Policy, described what life is like for women under Islamic law, or Shariah, in an interview with “PolitiChicks.”
Grandy said there are a number of cases in which Muslim women, even in the United States, have been abused under Islamic law.
They include a case in which a judge concluded it essentially was a Muslim man’s right to beat and assault his wife. In another case, a Muslim woman who had fled Pakistan was forced by a U.S. judge to send her child back to Pakistan, because the father claimed it was his right to have the child.
Further appeals, the judge ruled, would be in Pakistan. When the mother argued that she could be accused of crimes and sentenced to death if she returned to Pakistan to fight for her child, the judge concluded, essentially, that it was her problem.
Colin Flaherty is an award-winning reporter whose work has appeared in more than 1,000 media outlets around the world, including the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and WND. His critically acclaimed book, "The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It." is in its second edition and available in paperback and e-book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other popular outlets.
MSNBC’s new golden girl was in a pickle: If someone sees a black person committing rape or domestic violence, should he report it if it makes black people look bad?
Or if Muslims see wife-beating, genital mutilation and childhood sexual abuse, should they just keep it to themselves, because saying something gives ammunition to the “Islamophobes”?
The questions appear to be simple. But they posed a challenge for the host of the new “Melissa Harris-Perry” show when guest Mona Eltahawy talked about her Foreign Policy magazine cover story about abuse of women by men in the Muslim world.
Eltahawy speaks from experience: She had her arms broken in a demonstration in Egypt and was tortured and raped in an Egyptian jail cell.
So she seemed surprised to find Harris-Perry questioning her right to draw attention to “traditions” such as involuntary female circumcision, wife-beating and childhood sexual abuse.
“I start with a little bit of trepidation in this conversation,” the host said, “in part because I know some of the critiques of this. The very idea that Western press, those that are not from these nations, who are not Muslim ourselves, who are not part of these traditions can look at your article and say ‘ahhh, look at how horrible those men, or those societies, or that religion is.’ “And that is part of the reason why, for example, we have an under-reporting of rape and domestic violence in African American communities,” Harris-Perry continued. “Because we know the violence enacted on black men by police, so we often don’t call. Right?”
Then the MSNBC host brought in Harvard professor Leila Ahmed, who questioned whether Eltahawy should have written the article at all. Not because it was false, but because it made Muslims look bad.
“You began, Melissa, by noting that some things in the African-American community are not publicized precisely because of the racism,” said Ahmed as Harris-Perry nodded in agreement on a split screen.
“Mona, I appreciate what you do,” continued Ahmed. “I would love it if – I understand if you want to get your message across. It’s an important message. But if possible [you should not] give fuel, fodder to people who simply hate Arabs and Muslims in this climate of our day.”
Eltahawy seemed taken aback.
“That’s the whole point,” she said. “It’s not me that makes Muslims look bad. It’s those atrocities that make Muslims look bad. And as a writer, it’s my job to poke the painful places.” Harris-Perry declined to respond to a subsequent email asking if she ever refused to report a violent crime because it would make someone look bad.
Eltahawy point out that deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak oppressed the nation for 30 years, until his removal last year. She said “Mubarak” still needs to be removed from Egyptian minds and bedrooms.
The society that emphasizes Islam, she said, continues to “oppress women,” citing a statement from Saudi Arabia on the day her article was released saying that 10-year-old girls are “ready for marriage.”
“That’s outrageous,” Eltawy said.
She explained she wanted to go “straight for the jugular” and reveal misogyny in religion, culture and the law, and demand an answer.
“What are we going to do about that?” she asked.
Former Iowa Republican Congressman Fred Grandy, now with the Center for Security Policy, described what life is like for women under Islamic law, or Shariah, in an interview with “PolitiChicks.”
Grandy said there are a number of cases in which Muslim women, even in the United States, have been abused under Islamic law.
They include a case in which a judge concluded it essentially was a Muslim man’s right to beat and assault his wife. In another case, a Muslim woman who had fled Pakistan was forced by a U.S. judge to send her child back to Pakistan, because the father claimed it was his right to have the child.
Further appeals, the judge ruled, would be in Pakistan. When the mother argued that she could be accused of crimes and sentenced to death if she returned to Pakistan to fight for her child, the judge concluded, essentially, that it was her problem.
Colin Flaherty is an award-winning reporter whose work has appeared in more than 1,000 media outlets around the world, including the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and WND. His critically acclaimed book, "The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It." is in its second edition and available in paperback and e-book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other popular outlets.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Mob Wives: Chicago to Scorch VH1 This Summer
"Mob Wives Chicago" follows the lives of five women allegedly connected to "The Outfit," Chicago's version of the Mob, as they bear the cross for the sins of their Mob-associated fathers. With lives that are right out of newspaper headlines, each woman has chosen her own way to live her life in the city that was once home to Al Capone, sometimes in spite of, and many times because of, who her father is. Along the way, these women battle their friends, families and each other as they try to do what's best for themselves and their children. But ultimately, it is the ghost of their fathers they battle, living and dead, as they try to overcome and persevere in the face of these men's notorious legacies.
Monday, May 14, 2012
FBI Releases 2011 Preliminary Statistics for Law Enforcement Officers Killed in the Line of Duty
According to preliminary statistics released today by the FBI, 72 of our nation’s law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty during 2011. By region, 29 victims were killed in the South, 21 in the Midwest, 10 each were killed in the West and the Northeast, and two were killed in Puerto Rico. The total number of officers feloniously killed in 2011 was 16 more than the 56 officers slain in 2010.
Of these 72 felonious deaths, 19 officers were killed during ambushes (14 during unprovoked attacks and five due to entrapment/premeditation situations); five were slain while investigating suspicious persons or circumstances; 11 were killed during traffic pursuits/stops; five of the fallen officers interrupted robberies in progress or were pursuing robbery suspects; and four died while responding to disturbance calls (one being a domestic disturbance).
Six officers died during tactical situations; one died while conducting investigative activity; one officer died while handling or transporting a prisoner; and 20 officers were killed while attempting other arrests.
Offenders used firearms in 63 of the 72 felonious deaths of law enforcement officers in 2011. By type of firearm, 50 officers were killed with handguns; seven with rifles; and six with shotguns. Criminals used vehicles to kill six officers; weapons such as hands, fists, and feet to kill two officers; and a knife or cutting instrument to kill one officer.
Of the 72 victim officers, 49 were wearing body armor at the times of their deaths. Seventeen of the victim officers fired their own weapons, and four were killed with their own weapons. Ten officers attempted to use their own weapons. Seven of the slain officers had their service weapons stolen.
There were 68 separate incidents that resulted in the deaths of 72 officers. Of those incidents, 67 were cleared by arrest or exceptional means.
In addition to the officers who were feloniously killed in 2011, 50 officers were killed in accidents. This is a decrease of 22 officers compared with the 72 officers who were accidentally killed in 2010.
The FBI will release final statistics on officers killed and assaulted in the line of duty in the Uniform Crime Reporting Program’s annual report Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, 2011, which will be published in the fall.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Samuel J. Spino, Cook County Sheriff’s Deputy, Arrested Following Sting Operation
Cook County Sheriff’s Deputy Samuel J. Spino was arrested yesterday on federal charges after allegedly stealing $1,100 from a residence at which he and others were executing a judicial eviction order. Unbeknownst to Spino, video cameras had been installed by FBI agents within the residence, along with cash left in a drinking glass in the kitchen of the residence. Video captured Spino allegedly reaching into the glass containing the cash and after Spino and the others left the residence, agents determined that the $1,100 was no longer in the residence.
Spino, 35, of Melrose Park, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court with one count of theft of government property. The charge and arrest were announced by Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Thomas Dart, Cook County Sheriff; and Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Spino will appear today at 3:00 p.m. before Magistrate Judge Michael T. Mason.
According to the complaint, Spino, a Cook County deputy sheriff since 2002, was assigned to the Evictions, Levies, and Warrants Unit and worked as part of a four-person team responsible for making entry into properties subject to eviction orders in order to clear the properties of any individuals. Once the properties are cleared, the eviction deputies leave the properties in the possession of the owners or owners’ representatives. According to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office of Professional Review (OPR), eviction deputies are not to confiscate or move personal property unless drugs or contraband are found in plain view. In that instance, the drugs or contraband are to be secured, photographed, and inventoried in accordance with Sheriff’s Department standard procedures.
The investigation was initiated in April of this year after the Cook County Sheriff’s Office of Professional Review brought several complaints against and allegations about Spino to the attention of the FBI. On May 3, 2012, Spino was sent with a team to execute a judicial eviction order at a residence on South Ingleside Avenue in Chicago. The owner of the property had previously allowed FBI agents access to the residence to install video cameras and to place $1,100 in a drinking glass in the kitchen of the residence. The video cameras recorded the actions of the eviction deputies within the residence as they cleared the property. In the video, Spino is seen in the kitchen after the other members of the team have left the room. Spino is then allegedly seen holding and reaching into the glass as he walks out of view of the cameras. Shortly thereafter, he is seen on camera placing an object into his pants pocket. The money placed by the agents was not found in the residence, and the Evictions, Levies, and Warrants Unit reported that no cash from the residence was inventoried with the Cook County Sheriff’s Evidence and Recovered Property Section.
This case was worked jointly with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office of Professional Review.
The charged count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. If convicted, the court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
The public is reminded that a criminal complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Spino, 35, of Melrose Park, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court with one count of theft of government property. The charge and arrest were announced by Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Thomas Dart, Cook County Sheriff; and Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Spino will appear today at 3:00 p.m. before Magistrate Judge Michael T. Mason.
According to the complaint, Spino, a Cook County deputy sheriff since 2002, was assigned to the Evictions, Levies, and Warrants Unit and worked as part of a four-person team responsible for making entry into properties subject to eviction orders in order to clear the properties of any individuals. Once the properties are cleared, the eviction deputies leave the properties in the possession of the owners or owners’ representatives. According to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office of Professional Review (OPR), eviction deputies are not to confiscate or move personal property unless drugs or contraband are found in plain view. In that instance, the drugs or contraband are to be secured, photographed, and inventoried in accordance with Sheriff’s Department standard procedures.
The investigation was initiated in April of this year after the Cook County Sheriff’s Office of Professional Review brought several complaints against and allegations about Spino to the attention of the FBI. On May 3, 2012, Spino was sent with a team to execute a judicial eviction order at a residence on South Ingleside Avenue in Chicago. The owner of the property had previously allowed FBI agents access to the residence to install video cameras and to place $1,100 in a drinking glass in the kitchen of the residence. The video cameras recorded the actions of the eviction deputies within the residence as they cleared the property. In the video, Spino is seen in the kitchen after the other members of the team have left the room. Spino is then allegedly seen holding and reaching into the glass as he walks out of view of the cameras. Shortly thereafter, he is seen on camera placing an object into his pants pocket. The money placed by the agents was not found in the residence, and the Evictions, Levies, and Warrants Unit reported that no cash from the residence was inventoried with the Cook County Sheriff’s Evidence and Recovered Property Section.
This case was worked jointly with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office of Professional Review.
The charged count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. If convicted, the court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
The public is reminded that a criminal complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Current New England Mob is Not Your Father's Mafia
Anthony DiNunzio, the alleged don of the New England Mafia, sat in a federal courthouse in Rhode Island last week, draped in tan prison garb, nodding as a federal judge said he faces a lengthy prison term if convicted of racketeering and extortion.
Luigi Manocchio, DiNunzio’s 84-year-old predecessor, will go before a judge in Rhode Island on Friday to be sentenced for extorting protection payments from strip clubs. And Mark Rossetti, one of the most feared captains in the New England mob, is being held in Massachusetts on state charges of extortion and bookmaking. He has been cooperating with the FBI as an informant. Meanwhile, Robert DeLuca, a notorious captain from Rhode Island, has disappeared from the area and is widely reported to be cooperating with authorities against his fellow made members.
This is the leadership of the New England Mafia, a skeleton of the organization glorified in novels and in Hollywood. No more than 30 made, or sworn-in, members make up an organization that in its heyday was more than 100 strong, law enforcement officials say.
Investigators, legal observers, and court records describe an organization that continues to erode, as made members and associates abandon the code of silence and cooperate with investigators. The younger crop is addicted to drugs, and the older, wiser members have either died or have gone to jail, officials said.
“This is not your father’s Mafia,’’ said Massachusetts State Police Detective Lieutenant Stephen P. Johnson, who oversees organized crime investigations as head of the Special Service Section.
He said the arrest of the 53-year-old DiNunzio by federal authorities from Rhode Island on April 25, about two years into his reign as boss, also shows that law enforcement has been able to suppress the workings of the Mafia to the point their crimes are minimal.
DiNunzio is the sixth consecutive head of the New England Mafia to be charged: His predecessors have all been convicted, and the area has not seen a don hold as much power as Raymond L.S. Patriarca, the longtime head of the Patriarca crime family, did until his death in 1984.
Patriarca, who died at the age of 76, controlled an empire in the 1960s that stretched from Rhode Island to Maine, specializing in loan sharking, illegal gambling, and profiting on stolen goods, according to FBI documents released after his death. "In this thing of ours,’’ Patriarca once told an associate while under electronic surveillance, “your love for your mother and father is one thing; your love for The Family is a different kind of love.’’
Johnson and other investigators still expect someone will take DiNunzio’s place, knowing that, for some, the thought of living the “Sopranos’’ lifestyle is too attractive to ignore. “If it wasn’t for the Sopranos, we’d be able to suppress it even more,’’ Johnson said. “You’ve got to continually prune at the mob, because if you don’t it will grow like a weed.’’
Anthony Cardinale - a Boston lawyer who has represented a Who’s Who of Mafia figures including former bosses Francis “Cadillac Frank’’ Salemme and the late Gennaro Angiulo - said that as long as there are criminals who need protection, there will be organized crime. “As long as there’s drugs going on, and bookmaking, there will always be a mob,’’ he said. “Even with all the risks involved, there will still be somebody policing the bad guys, and that’s what the mob guys do.’’
He added, however, “as far as I’m concerned, it’s a dying occupation, in a sense that anyone who’s out there should realize that if they look to the left or look to the right, they should realize someone is working with the FBI or wearing a wire . . . which is unheard of.’’
According to prosecutors, at least two Mafia figures have cooperated against DiNunzio: One of them is a senior member of the New York-based Gambino crime family who has reportedly committed suicide, and the other is said to be DeLuca.
DiNunzio can be heard in wire recordings saying, “You get no shot today, no shot at all.’’
DiNunzio is the younger brother of convicted mobster Carmen “The Cheeseman’’ DiNunzio, the former underboss who was jailed for trying to bribe an undercover agent posing as a state highway worker, and separately for extortion and gambling.
Both brothers started their careers in organized crime with the Chicago Mafia, and were convicted in 1993 of extorting gamblers in Las Vegas for a Chicago Mafia crew based in Southern California. They served several years in prison before making their way to Boston.
Anthony DiNunzio became acting boss of the Patriarca family in early 2010, following the arrests of his brother and predecessors Peter Limone, who is in his late 70s, and Manocchio.
Limone is serving probation for bookmaking. Manocchio and several members of his crew have pleaded guilty to extorting strip clubs in Rhode Island.
Soon after becoming boss, Anthony DiNunzio allegedly demanded 50 percent of the strip club payments that were going to Manocchio’s crew, a demand that would prove to be his downfall. He faces up to 20 years on some charges, and a judge has ordered that he be held without bail.
Longtime Mafia observers said the arrest of DiNunzio was disappointing, embarrassing even, given that the once-proud organization has resorted to shaking down strip clubs.
“It’s just not glamorous now,’’ said Arlene Violet, a former Rhode Island attorney general and radio personality who has written a musical about the mob lifestyle. She recalls the days when made members ran businesses and matched wits with Wall Street.
“When your scheme is shaking down strip clubs, oh brother,’’ she said. “It’s so sleazy. Their crimes aren’t as sexy anymore.’’
Even in Boston’s North End, where prosecutors said DiNunzio showed up regularly at the Gemini Club, a small, members-only social club on Endicott Street, locals said the Mafia’s working was virtually non-existent.
“I’ve never heard of anybody being pressured here,’’ said Joanne Prevost Anzalone, former president of the North End Chamber of Commerce. “I think it’s always been a little exaggerated here to begin with. . . . You don’t walk down the street here and see anything you don’t see in any other neighborhood in the city.’’
But according to prosecutors, DiNunzio wanted power, and he sought to define his reign as soon as he took the helm. He explored ways to extort new businesses, and used the threats of violence to keep his underlings in order. He had questioned whether any of his members were cooperating with the FBI, and he suspected Salemme, who is in a witness protection program, was talking. He sent someone to look for the former boss.
DiNunzio had also worked quickly to reestablish a crew in Rhode Island, following the arrest of Manocchio and the arrest of his crew in September 2011.
He named an existing made member captain, so that he could continue the extortion of strip clubs, according to prosecutors. But the new captain, prosecutors said in court last week, wanted to install his own crew, to replace everyone he knew to be under investigation.
“They’re all in trouble up there, they ain’t coming home,’’ the new captain reportedly said.
Thanks to Milton J. Valencia
Luigi Manocchio, DiNunzio’s 84-year-old predecessor, will go before a judge in Rhode Island on Friday to be sentenced for extorting protection payments from strip clubs. And Mark Rossetti, one of the most feared captains in the New England mob, is being held in Massachusetts on state charges of extortion and bookmaking. He has been cooperating with the FBI as an informant. Meanwhile, Robert DeLuca, a notorious captain from Rhode Island, has disappeared from the area and is widely reported to be cooperating with authorities against his fellow made members.
This is the leadership of the New England Mafia, a skeleton of the organization glorified in novels and in Hollywood. No more than 30 made, or sworn-in, members make up an organization that in its heyday was more than 100 strong, law enforcement officials say.
Investigators, legal observers, and court records describe an organization that continues to erode, as made members and associates abandon the code of silence and cooperate with investigators. The younger crop is addicted to drugs, and the older, wiser members have either died or have gone to jail, officials said.
“This is not your father’s Mafia,’’ said Massachusetts State Police Detective Lieutenant Stephen P. Johnson, who oversees organized crime investigations as head of the Special Service Section.
He said the arrest of the 53-year-old DiNunzio by federal authorities from Rhode Island on April 25, about two years into his reign as boss, also shows that law enforcement has been able to suppress the workings of the Mafia to the point their crimes are minimal.
DiNunzio is the sixth consecutive head of the New England Mafia to be charged: His predecessors have all been convicted, and the area has not seen a don hold as much power as Raymond L.S. Patriarca, the longtime head of the Patriarca crime family, did until his death in 1984.
Patriarca, who died at the age of 76, controlled an empire in the 1960s that stretched from Rhode Island to Maine, specializing in loan sharking, illegal gambling, and profiting on stolen goods, according to FBI documents released after his death. "In this thing of ours,’’ Patriarca once told an associate while under electronic surveillance, “your love for your mother and father is one thing; your love for The Family is a different kind of love.’’
Johnson and other investigators still expect someone will take DiNunzio’s place, knowing that, for some, the thought of living the “Sopranos’’ lifestyle is too attractive to ignore. “If it wasn’t for the Sopranos, we’d be able to suppress it even more,’’ Johnson said. “You’ve got to continually prune at the mob, because if you don’t it will grow like a weed.’’
Anthony Cardinale - a Boston lawyer who has represented a Who’s Who of Mafia figures including former bosses Francis “Cadillac Frank’’ Salemme and the late Gennaro Angiulo - said that as long as there are criminals who need protection, there will be organized crime. “As long as there’s drugs going on, and bookmaking, there will always be a mob,’’ he said. “Even with all the risks involved, there will still be somebody policing the bad guys, and that’s what the mob guys do.’’
He added, however, “as far as I’m concerned, it’s a dying occupation, in a sense that anyone who’s out there should realize that if they look to the left or look to the right, they should realize someone is working with the FBI or wearing a wire . . . which is unheard of.’’
According to prosecutors, at least two Mafia figures have cooperated against DiNunzio: One of them is a senior member of the New York-based Gambino crime family who has reportedly committed suicide, and the other is said to be DeLuca.
DiNunzio can be heard in wire recordings saying, “You get no shot today, no shot at all.’’
DiNunzio is the younger brother of convicted mobster Carmen “The Cheeseman’’ DiNunzio, the former underboss who was jailed for trying to bribe an undercover agent posing as a state highway worker, and separately for extortion and gambling.
Both brothers started their careers in organized crime with the Chicago Mafia, and were convicted in 1993 of extorting gamblers in Las Vegas for a Chicago Mafia crew based in Southern California. They served several years in prison before making their way to Boston.
Anthony DiNunzio became acting boss of the Patriarca family in early 2010, following the arrests of his brother and predecessors Peter Limone, who is in his late 70s, and Manocchio.
Limone is serving probation for bookmaking. Manocchio and several members of his crew have pleaded guilty to extorting strip clubs in Rhode Island.
Soon after becoming boss, Anthony DiNunzio allegedly demanded 50 percent of the strip club payments that were going to Manocchio’s crew, a demand that would prove to be his downfall. He faces up to 20 years on some charges, and a judge has ordered that he be held without bail.
Longtime Mafia observers said the arrest of DiNunzio was disappointing, embarrassing even, given that the once-proud organization has resorted to shaking down strip clubs.
“It’s just not glamorous now,’’ said Arlene Violet, a former Rhode Island attorney general and radio personality who has written a musical about the mob lifestyle. She recalls the days when made members ran businesses and matched wits with Wall Street.
“When your scheme is shaking down strip clubs, oh brother,’’ she said. “It’s so sleazy. Their crimes aren’t as sexy anymore.’’
Even in Boston’s North End, where prosecutors said DiNunzio showed up regularly at the Gemini Club, a small, members-only social club on Endicott Street, locals said the Mafia’s working was virtually non-existent.
“I’ve never heard of anybody being pressured here,’’ said Joanne Prevost Anzalone, former president of the North End Chamber of Commerce. “I think it’s always been a little exaggerated here to begin with. . . . You don’t walk down the street here and see anything you don’t see in any other neighborhood in the city.’’
But according to prosecutors, DiNunzio wanted power, and he sought to define his reign as soon as he took the helm. He explored ways to extort new businesses, and used the threats of violence to keep his underlings in order. He had questioned whether any of his members were cooperating with the FBI, and he suspected Salemme, who is in a witness protection program, was talking. He sent someone to look for the former boss.
DiNunzio had also worked quickly to reestablish a crew in Rhode Island, following the arrest of Manocchio and the arrest of his crew in September 2011.
He named an existing made member captain, so that he could continue the extortion of strip clubs, according to prosecutors. But the new captain, prosecutors said in court last week, wanted to install his own crew, to replace everyone he knew to be under investigation.
“They’re all in trouble up there, they ain’t coming home,’’ the new captain reportedly said.
Thanks to Milton J. Valencia
Friday, May 04, 2012
Infamous Players: A Tale of Movies, The Mob (And Sex)
In 1967, Peter Bart, then a young reporter for the New York Times, decided to upend his life and enter the dizzying world of motion pictures. "Infamous Players" is the story of Bart's remarkable journey at Paramount, his role in its triumphs and failures, and how a new kind of filmmaking emerged during that time.
When Bart was lured to Paramount by his friend and fellow newcomer, the legendary Robert Evans, the studio languished, its slate riddled with movies that were out of touch with the dynamic sixties. By the time Bart left Paramount, in 1975, the studio had completed an extraordinary run with such films as The Godfather, Rosemary's Baby, Harold and Maude, Love Story, Chinatown, Paper Moon, and True Grit. But this new golden era at Paramount was also fraught with chaos and company turmoil. Drugs, sex, runaway budgets, management infighting, and even the Mafia started finding their way onto the Paramount back lot.
Bart reflects on the New Hollywood era at Paramount with insider details and insightful analysis; here too are his fascinating recollections of the icons from that era: Warren Beatty, Steve McQueen, Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood, Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Polanski, and Frank Sinatra, among others.
Peter Bart, author of Infamous Players: A Tale of Movies, the Mob, (and Sex), spent seventeen years as a film executive (at Paramount, MGM, and Lorimar Film Co.), only to return to print as editor in chief of Variety. Along the way, he was responsible for seven books, including Shoot Out, written with Peter Guber. He is now the host of Movie Talk, a weekly television show broadcast here and abroad.
When Bart was lured to Paramount by his friend and fellow newcomer, the legendary Robert Evans, the studio languished, its slate riddled with movies that were out of touch with the dynamic sixties. By the time Bart left Paramount, in 1975, the studio had completed an extraordinary run with such films as The Godfather, Rosemary's Baby, Harold and Maude, Love Story, Chinatown, Paper Moon, and True Grit. But this new golden era at Paramount was also fraught with chaos and company turmoil. Drugs, sex, runaway budgets, management infighting, and even the Mafia started finding their way onto the Paramount back lot.
Bart reflects on the New Hollywood era at Paramount with insider details and insightful analysis; here too are his fascinating recollections of the icons from that era: Warren Beatty, Steve McQueen, Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood, Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Polanski, and Frank Sinatra, among others.
Peter Bart, author of Infamous Players: A Tale of Movies, the Mob, (and Sex), spent seventeen years as a film executive (at Paramount, MGM, and Lorimar Film Co.), only to return to print as editor in chief of Variety. Along the way, he was responsible for seven books, including Shoot Out, written with Peter Guber. He is now the host of Movie Talk, a weekly television show broadcast here and abroad.
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Chicago History Summer Tours
This summer, explore Chicago at a discount with an action-packed assortment of city tours. From pub crawls and bus tours, to neighborhood walking excursions and Chicago River expeditions, the Chicago History Museum tours have something for everyone.
Check out all of their upcoming events here.
Check out all of their upcoming events here.
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Rita Crundwell, Former Dixon Comptroller, Charged in Federal Indictment with $53 Million Fraud Since 1990
The former comptroller of the city of Dixon, Illinois, Rita A. Crundwell, was indicted today for allegedly fraudulently obtaining more than $53 million from the town since 1990 and using the proceeds to finance her horse breeding business and lavish lifestyle. A federal grand jury returned a single-count indictment charging Crundwell with one count of wire fraud, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Since Crundwell was arrested on April 17 and accused of misappropriating more than $30 million since 2006, further investigation resulted in the indictment’s expanded allegation that the fraud exceeded $53 million and spanned more than two decades.
Crundwell, 59, of Dixon, who served as comptroller since 1983 and handled all of the city’s finances, was released on her own recognizance on April 18. She will be arraigned at 10:30 a.m. on May 7 before U.S. Magistrate Judge P. Michael Mahoney in U.S. District Court in Rockford.
The indictment seeks criminal forfeiture of $53 million as well as numerous assets that were seized from Crundwell when she was arrested. On a parallel track, the United States today filed a civil lawsuit alleging that 311 quarter horses owned by Crundwell are subject to civil forfeiture because she purchased and/or maintained them with criminal fraud proceeds. The government will seek eventually to sell the horses and apply the proceeds toward restitution to the city of Dixon.
“The government is pursuing both criminal and civil forfeiture proceedings to ensure that every available tool is being used to recover proceeds of the alleged fraud in order to recoup as much money as possible for the city of Dixon, its residents, and taxpayers,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. The investigation is continuing, he added.
Dixon, with a population of approximately 15,733, is located about 100 miles southwest of Chicago.
Crundwell owns RC Quarter Horses, LLC, and keeps her horses at her ranch on Red Brick Road in Dixon and at the Meri-J Ranch in Beloit, Wisconsin, as well as with various trainers across the country. In addition to 311 registered quarter horses, dozens of foals are expected to be born this spring. As part of the civil lawsuit, the government requested a pretrial restraining order that will secure the government’s interest in the horses and allow officials to take necessary steps to ensure the animals’ health and well-being, including veterinary and dietary care, which has been ongoing. The U.S. Marshals Service is expected to hire a contractor to manage the horses.
The indictment seeks criminal forfeiture of two residences and the horse farm in Dixon; a home in Englewood, Florida; a $2.1 million luxury motor home; more than a dozen trucks, trailers, and other motorized farm vehicles; a 2005 Ford Thunderbird convertible; a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette roadster; a pontoon boat; approximately $224,898 in cash from two bank accounts; and other assets allegedly purchased with fraud proceeds. Many of these assets were seized when Crundwell was arrested, and the government today requested a restraining order on the real estate that is allegedly subject to criminal forfeiture.
According to the indictment, on Dec. 18, 1990, Crundwell opened a bank account in the name of the city of Dixon and RSCDA, known as the RSCDA account. Between December 1990 and April 2012, Crundwell used her position as comptroller to transfer funds from the Dixon’s Money Market account to its Capital Development Fund account, as well as to various other city bank accounts. Crundwell allegedly repeatedly transferred city funds into the RSCDA account and used the money to pay for her own personal and private business expenses, including horse farming operations, personal credit card payments, real estate, and vehicles.
As part of the fraud scheme, Crundwell allegedly created fictitious invoices purported to be from the state of Illinois to show the city’s auditors that the funds she was fraudulently depositing into the RSCDA account were being used for a legitimate purpose. To conceal the scheme, Crundwell told the mayor and city council members that the state was late in its payments to the city, when, in fact, she knew that she had fraudulently transferred the funds for her own use, the indictment alleges.
Wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and a $250,000 fine, or an alternate fine totaling twice the loss or twice the gain, whichever is greater. If convicted, the court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
The government is represented in the criminal case by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph C. Pedersen, and in the civil case by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Paccagnini.
The public is reminded that an indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to an indictment by a federal grand jury and a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Crundwell, 59, of Dixon, who served as comptroller since 1983 and handled all of the city’s finances, was released on her own recognizance on April 18. She will be arraigned at 10:30 a.m. on May 7 before U.S. Magistrate Judge P. Michael Mahoney in U.S. District Court in Rockford.
The indictment seeks criminal forfeiture of $53 million as well as numerous assets that were seized from Crundwell when she was arrested. On a parallel track, the United States today filed a civil lawsuit alleging that 311 quarter horses owned by Crundwell are subject to civil forfeiture because she purchased and/or maintained them with criminal fraud proceeds. The government will seek eventually to sell the horses and apply the proceeds toward restitution to the city of Dixon.
“The government is pursuing both criminal and civil forfeiture proceedings to ensure that every available tool is being used to recover proceeds of the alleged fraud in order to recoup as much money as possible for the city of Dixon, its residents, and taxpayers,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. The investigation is continuing, he added.
Dixon, with a population of approximately 15,733, is located about 100 miles southwest of Chicago.
Crundwell owns RC Quarter Horses, LLC, and keeps her horses at her ranch on Red Brick Road in Dixon and at the Meri-J Ranch in Beloit, Wisconsin, as well as with various trainers across the country. In addition to 311 registered quarter horses, dozens of foals are expected to be born this spring. As part of the civil lawsuit, the government requested a pretrial restraining order that will secure the government’s interest in the horses and allow officials to take necessary steps to ensure the animals’ health and well-being, including veterinary and dietary care, which has been ongoing. The U.S. Marshals Service is expected to hire a contractor to manage the horses.
The indictment seeks criminal forfeiture of two residences and the horse farm in Dixon; a home in Englewood, Florida; a $2.1 million luxury motor home; more than a dozen trucks, trailers, and other motorized farm vehicles; a 2005 Ford Thunderbird convertible; a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette roadster; a pontoon boat; approximately $224,898 in cash from two bank accounts; and other assets allegedly purchased with fraud proceeds. Many of these assets were seized when Crundwell was arrested, and the government today requested a restraining order on the real estate that is allegedly subject to criminal forfeiture.
According to the indictment, on Dec. 18, 1990, Crundwell opened a bank account in the name of the city of Dixon and RSCDA, known as the RSCDA account. Between December 1990 and April 2012, Crundwell used her position as comptroller to transfer funds from the Dixon’s Money Market account to its Capital Development Fund account, as well as to various other city bank accounts. Crundwell allegedly repeatedly transferred city funds into the RSCDA account and used the money to pay for her own personal and private business expenses, including horse farming operations, personal credit card payments, real estate, and vehicles.
As part of the fraud scheme, Crundwell allegedly created fictitious invoices purported to be from the state of Illinois to show the city’s auditors that the funds she was fraudulently depositing into the RSCDA account were being used for a legitimate purpose. To conceal the scheme, Crundwell told the mayor and city council members that the state was late in its payments to the city, when, in fact, she knew that she had fraudulently transferred the funds for her own use, the indictment alleges.
Wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and a $250,000 fine, or an alternate fine totaling twice the loss or twice the gain, whichever is greater. If convicted, the court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
The government is represented in the criminal case by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph C. Pedersen, and in the civil case by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Paccagnini.
The public is reminded that an indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to an indictment by a federal grand jury and a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Family Secrets Mob Trial Convictions Upheld
An appeals court has upheld the convictions of several reputed mobsters in a landmark trial credited with delivering a body blow to Chicago's mob. But Tuesday's opinion cited at least one trial error. And a dissenting judge argued two defendants' convictions should have been reversed.
The defense asked the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals for a do-over of the 2007 Family Secrets trial. Their grounds included that Judge James Zagel talked to a panelist privately who told him she felt threatened. He later dismissed her.
The court said Zagel should have told attorneys about the comment but found the error was harmless.
Dissenting in part, Judge Diane Wood said she would have overturned Frank Calabresse, Sr., and James Marcello's convictions on grounds they'd been tried previously for the same crimes.
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