Attorneys Disqualified from Organized Crime Bombing Case

A federal judge disqualified two lawyers Tuesday from representing a pair of defendants charged in a mob-related case with blowing up a coin-operated amusement company in suburban Berwyn.

Judge Ronald A. Guzman disqualified attorneys Alexander Salerno and Edmund Wanderling, saying they have "numerous and multifaceted" conflicts of interest.

Mark Polchan, 41, and Samuel Volpendesto, 84, are charged in the February 2003 bombing that ripped apart the Berwyn offices of C&S Coin Operated Amusements.

Prosecutors say the blast was a message from the mob to the company to quit horning in on its $13 million monopoly on gambling in Chicago's western suburbs.

The two men were arrested July 30 when federal agents fanned out across northern Illinois, raiding offices and hangouts of the Outlaws motorcycle gang. Polchan is a member of the Outlaws. The two have pleaded not guilty.

A call to Salerno and Wanderling at their offices late Tuesday was not immediately returned. A message was left with their answering service.

Salerno showed up at the home of an unnamed mob member who could become a defendant in the case when federal agents searched it on July 30, Guzman said. Wanderling apparently called Salerno and urged him to go to the home, he said.

Salerno also represented a key witness in the case and Wanderling had represented that witness's son, the judge said. He said Salerno previously served as an attorney for Volpendesto, who is now represented by Wanderling.

"These circumstances make it extremely difficult for the court even to admonish adequately Volpendesto or Polchan as to the many different ways that this prior relationship could result in prejudice to either during the course of these proceedings," Guzman said in a 15-page written opinion.

"Under these circumstances it is extremely difficult for the court to satisfy itself that either Volpendesto or Polchan understand fully the consequences of waiving their Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel," he said.

Thanks to Mike Robinson

Tweet

Bonanno Crime Family Associate Convicted

Earlier Monday, after a two-week trial, a jury convicted JOSEPH YOUNG of the March 29, 2005 murder of Robert McKelvey, racketeering, and numerous other crimes of violence.

The convictions were announced by Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Mark J. Mershon, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Division.

As established at trial, JOSEPH YOUNG was an associate of the Bonanno Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra, and was assigned to a Staten Island-based crew led by Bonanno soldier, Gino Galestro. Galestro ordered the murder of another associate in the crew, Robert McKelvey, in order to punish McKelvey for openly boasting of the crew’s criminal activities, and YOUNG agreed to do the murder in exchange for $10,000. On March 29, 2005, another associate of the crew lured McKelvey to a meeting at the historic Kreischer mansion in Staten Island, where YOUNG lived and worked as the mansion’s caretaker. When McKelvey entered the foyer of the mansion, YOUNG stabbed him. McKelvey escaped through the front door, and was tackled by YOUNG, who dragged McKelvey to a decorative garden pool in front of the mansion and drowned him. Following the murder, YOUNG and three associates of the crew disposed of McKelvey’s body by dismembering it with hacksaws, burning the pieces in the mansion’s furnace, and discarding the remaining ashes and bone fragments in the mansion’s septic tank system. Pursuant to searches of the septic tank and wooded area around the mansion, the FBI and personnel from the Medical Examiner’s Office of the City of New York recovered bone fragments and personal effects of McKelvey, and a spot of McKelvey’s blood was recovered from the stairs leading to the mansion’s basement.

In addition to the McKelvey murder, the jury convicted YOUNG of the following additional crimes of violence:

• the summer 2005 attempted arson of a vehicle whose owner had crossed Galestro;

• the September 2005 gunpoint robbery of the Pine Tree Holistic Center, an illegal massage parlor in Springfield, New Jersey, where YOUNG’s girlfriend worked at the time;

• the October 20, 2005 gunpoint extortion of an individual who owed tribute money to Galestro’s crew;

• the January 27, 2006 arson of a home in Staten Island while the residents were asleep inside, one of whom suffered a near-fatal heart attack while attempting to fight the fire;

• the autumn 2005 conspiracy to rob a pizza parlor in Coram, New York, by gunpoint;

• the May 12, 2005 assault in aid of racketeering of a mechanic who was a business rival of other mechanics connected to the crew; YOUNG and another member of the crew assaulted the mechanic at his place of business using a police-issue baton and a crowbar, resulting in a broken knee cap and other serious injuries; and

• the July 1, 2005 gunpoint carjacking of a BMW at the Menlo Mall in Woodbridge, New Jersey.

In addition, YOUNG was convicted of purchasing two firearms through false statements, and then obliterating the guns’ serial numbers and illegally transporting them from Pennsylvania to New York.

Galestro previously pled guilty to racketeering charges that included the McKelvey murder.

“We are gratified with the jury’s thoughtful and considered verdict in this case. The mafia continues to commit unspeakable acts of violence in our community, and we will not rest until we bring the criminals who commit those acts, including murder, to justice,” said United States Attorney Campbell.

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Mershon stated, “Once again the popular misconception of a more genteel and nonviolent mob is put to lie. Today’s La Cosa Nostra families may devise some schemes that are more sophisticated than their ancestors’. But they still commit murder and mayhem.”

YOUNG faces a mandatory minimum sentence of life imprisonment when sentenced Allyne R. Ross, United States District Judge, on January 27, 2009.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Winston Y. Chan, Jack Dennehy, and William Schaeffer.

Tweet

Rumors of the Kennedy Family's Ties to the Mafia

Rumors of ties between the Kennedys and the Mafia go back to John F. Kennedy’s father, Joe Kennedy, who reportedly earned much of the family fortune as bootlegger and had connections to mobsters like Meyer Lansky. When JFK faced Hubert Humphrey in the Democratic primary in 1960, many claimed that the Kennedy clan called on their mob connections to ensure a favorable vote, and similar accusations were made during the presidential election against Richard Nixon, which Kennedy won by a slim margin.

Several theories tie JFK’s assassination to the Mafia. Jack Ruby, the man who murdered Lee Harvey Oswald (JFK’s accused assassin), was a known mob associate. One theory attributes motive to the Mafia through the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. The Mafia reportedly hated that Cuba was in the hands of Fidel Castro, who had thrown them out of their lucrative Cuban casino businesses when he came to power. The invasion was an utter failure attributed by some to Kennedy’s refusal to approve air support.

Another theory points to JFK’s brother, Robert, whom JFK appointed to the position of attorney general after he was elected president. Once appointed, Robert Kennedy immediately began a Mafia crackdown. Robert also died from an assassin’s bullet.

Another rumor plays on suggestions that JFK kept several mistresses and girlfriends, some of whom were known to associate with mobsters. Some evidence, including federal wiretaps, shows that mobster Sam Giancana may have set JFK up with various women, all the while recording proof of the President’s extra-marital affairs. Conspiracy theorists have speculated that it was hit men sent by Giancana who murdered Marilyn Monroe, one of JFK’s supposed girlfriends. Giancana himself was murdered shortly before he was due to testify on the Mafia/Kennedy connections.

Thanks to Nicks Free Info

Tweet