Isabella Rossellini’s TV alter ego, brooding, larcenous Romani crime boss Rita Marks, paced around “Shut Eye” last season like a caged tiger waiting to strike — and now she’s been unleashed.
The Season 2 premiere of Hulu’s quirky drama, premiering Wednesday, finds Rita dealing with a murder rap and the possibility of turning against her vengeful family — as we finally learn what’s been fueling her simmering fury and how it will impact everyone in her orbit.
“Rita is an interesting character,” says Rossellini, 65. “We’ve developed more of her background [this season] and we show where she comes from and why she became that way.” The season opener focuses on Rita’s history back in her native Yugoslavia (now Serbia) vis a vis the violence and harshness that accompanied her Romani upbringing — and how that shaped her character. “I always knew who she was. She’s very cold and calculating,” Rossellini says. “But Rita has bloomed much more this season.”
For the uninitiated, “Shut Eye” revolves around Charlie Haverford (Jeffrey Donovan) and his wife Linda (KaDee Strickland), Vegas-trained con artists who work for an insular Romani crime syndicate run by Rita and her volatile son, Fonso (Angus Sampson). They oversee an empire of shady fortune-teller franchises in LA with one goal in mind: swindling their wealthy clients. At the end of Season One, Charlie, plagued by psychic visions (turns out he really can see the future), stole nearly $2 million from his employers in a bid to start a new life, leading to a murder implicating Rita — and setting her on a path of revenge.
“In the series we’re Romani, or gypsies, but they don’t like to be called ‘gypsies,’” says Rossellini. “But it could be the story of any ethnicity. What amuses me the most about going back to the ‘old country’ [with Rita’s back story] is that women do have power, but it’s not overt or declared. In Italy, where I come from, it’s the land of machismo and men, but women run it — everyone is terrified of the grandmother, the mother, the wife. If they speak, they speak with a very soft voice.
“And that’s the part I love the most about Rita,” she says. “She’s the boss of an organized crime family but she’s not hot-headed. To me, she’s completely ruthless and immoral and a criminal … but she’s also a grandmother [to Fonso’s teenage daughter, Drina, played by Havana Guppy]. I think that makes her much more interesting. She really loves her family and protects them. She’s dedicated and attentive and tender and warm and that makes it more difficult because she’s a criminal.”
“Shut Eye” marks Rossellini’s first regular TV role after years of guest spots on shows including “30 Rock,” “Treme” and “The Blacklist.” (She snared a 1994 Emmy nomination for her guest-starring role on “Chicago Hope.”) She says she’s avoided being a series regular for several specific reasons. “It’s partially because it’s a very big commitment,” she says. “It’s five-to-six months a year and when my kids were small and I was offered a series it was not often that it was shot in New York City where we live. I didn’t accept [the roles] because I didn’t want to be separated from my family for six months at a time. “But now my kids are grown up — one is 24 (son Roberto) and one is 34 (daughter Elettra) — and they’re happy that I’m out of the house,” she says. “I’m kidding, but they don’t need me on a daily basis.”
Thanks to Michael Starr.
Thursday, December 07, 2017
American Gangsters, Then and Now: An Encyclopedia - A Quality Work by @NateHendley
From the James gang to Nicky Barnes to John Gotti
, the American gangster has become an iconic outsized American archetype, with the real criminals sometimes rivaling their fictional counterparts—like the Corleones and the Sopranos—for their ability to captivate the public and attain genuine folk antihero status.
A detailed compendium of American gangsters and gangs from the end of the Civil War to the present day.
American Gangsters, Then and Now: An Encyclopedia, ranges from Western outlaws revered as Robin Hoods to the Depression’s flamboyant bootleggers and bank robbers to the late 20th century’s drug kingpins and “Dapper Dons.” It is the first comprehensive resource on the gangster’s historical evolution and unshakable grip on the American imagination.
American Gangsters, Then and Now: An Encyclopedia, tells the stories of a number of famous gangsters and gangs—Jesse James and Billy the Kid, the Black Hand, Al Capone, Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels, the Mafia, Crips and Bloods, and more. Avoiding sensationalism, the straightforward entries include biographical portraits and historical background for each subject, as well as accounts of infamous robberies, killings, and other events, all well documented with both archival newspapers and extensive research into the files of the FBI. Readers will understand the families, the places, and the times that produced these monumental criminals, as well as the public mindset that often found them sympathetic and heroic.
Features
Highlights
Nate Hendley is a freelance writer living in Toronto, Canada. His published works include Greenwood's Bonnie and Clyde: A Biography, Crystal Meth: North America's #1 Drug Problem, Al Capone: Chicago's King of Crime, Dutch Schultz: The Brazen Beer Baron of New York, and Edwin Alonzo Boyd: Life and Crimes of Canada's Master Bank Robber.
, the American gangster has become an iconic outsized American archetype, with the real criminals sometimes rivaling their fictional counterparts—like the Corleones and the Sopranos—for their ability to captivate the public and attain genuine folk antihero status.A detailed compendium of American gangsters and gangs from the end of the Civil War to the present day.
American Gangsters, Then and Now: An Encyclopedia, ranges from Western outlaws revered as Robin Hoods to the Depression’s flamboyant bootleggers and bank robbers to the late 20th century’s drug kingpins and “Dapper Dons.” It is the first comprehensive resource on the gangster’s historical evolution and unshakable grip on the American imagination.
American Gangsters, Then and Now: An Encyclopedia, tells the stories of a number of famous gangsters and gangs—Jesse James and Billy the Kid, the Black Hand, Al Capone, Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels, the Mafia, Crips and Bloods, and more. Avoiding sensationalism, the straightforward entries include biographical portraits and historical background for each subject, as well as accounts of infamous robberies, killings, and other events, all well documented with both archival newspapers and extensive research into the files of the FBI. Readers will understand the families, the places, and the times that produced these monumental criminals, as well as the public mindset that often found them sympathetic and heroic.
Features
- Comprises 50 alphabetically organized entries on American gangsters and gangs from the post-Civil War era to the present
- Offers a wealth of primary sources, including newspaper articles dating back to the 1880s and FBI files obtained by the author
- Includes photographs of prominent American gangsters and the aftermaths of their crimes
- Presents a glossary of gangster slang, past and present
- Provides a comprehensive index
Highlights
- Spans the whole history of the gangster in the United States, from the post-Civil War era to the present
- Features the insights and writing skills of an accomplished author of crime books
- Makes the connection between gangsters from different eras
- Dispels a number of misconceptions about gangsters and the destruction they cause
Nate Hendley is a freelance writer living in Toronto, Canada. His published works include Greenwood's Bonnie and Clyde: A Biography, Crystal Meth: North America's #1 Drug Problem, Al Capone: Chicago's King of Crime, Dutch Schultz: The Brazen Beer Baron of New York, and Edwin Alonzo Boyd: Life and Crimes of Canada's Master Bank Robber.
Tuesday, December 05, 2017
Two Brooklyn Men Charged in Violent Extortion Scheme
A criminal complaint was unsealed in federal court in the Eastern District of New York charging Ruslan Reizin and Mark Krivoi with extortion conspiracy. The charges stem from the defendants’ alleged extortion and violent assault of a teenage victim who started an awning-cleaning business in Brooklyn that competed with a similar business operated by Reizin.
Bridget M. Rohde, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), Leon Hayward, Acting Director, New York Field Office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and James P. O’Neill, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD), announced the charges.
“As alleged, the defendants sought to eliminate a business competitor by beating and intimidating him; they also lined their pockets with thousands of dollars in extortionate payments,” stated Acting United States Attorney Rohde. “This is no way to ensure a competitive edge. We will not abide this method of trying to assure a competitive edge.”
“This case illustrates a text book extortion, the suspects allegedly threatening violence because the victim decided to open his own business,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney. “Our country thrives on a free market, and the ability of people to go out and start their own company is part of the American dream. The FBI and our law enforcement partners will always pursue those who think to bully others into submission, and threaten free commerce.”
“U.S. Customs and Border Protection is proud of the expertise we provide in support of investigations that result in the takedown of criminal enterprises,” said CBP Acting Director Hayward. “It is through interagency partnerships and collaborative efforts, like the one leading to today’s arrests, that law enforcement successfully combats today’s criminal organizations.”
According to the criminal complaint and other court filings, in May 2017, Reizin learned that the victim—who formerly worked for Reizin’s awning-cleaning company—had started a similar business in Brooklyn. Reizin and Krivoi brought the victim to a secluded location in Sheepshead Bay where Reizin allegedly grabbed the victim by the throat, brandished a knife and gave him the choice of having his ear cut off or his throat slashed. Krivoi allegedly suggested that they should kill the victim. Reizin then demanded that the victim shut down his business and pay $10,000 to Reizin and a local motorcycle club to which Reizin belongs, and which Reizin claimed supported the extortion. When the victim replied that he could not afford to pay, Reizin instructed Krivoi to hit the victim, which Krivoi did, repeatedly. Reizin then offered the victim a “discount,” requiring him to pay $5,000 in monthly installments. Reizin also told the victim that he and his family would suffer if the victim reported the assault to law enforcement. Over the next several months, the victim made regular payments to Reizin. During that period, in a recorded call with the victim, Reizin spoke about “cut[ting] out” the ear of one of the victim’s family members and “forc[ing him] to chew and swallow it.”
Bridget M. Rohde, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), Leon Hayward, Acting Director, New York Field Office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and James P. O’Neill, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD), announced the charges.
“As alleged, the defendants sought to eliminate a business competitor by beating and intimidating him; they also lined their pockets with thousands of dollars in extortionate payments,” stated Acting United States Attorney Rohde. “This is no way to ensure a competitive edge. We will not abide this method of trying to assure a competitive edge.”
“This case illustrates a text book extortion, the suspects allegedly threatening violence because the victim decided to open his own business,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney. “Our country thrives on a free market, and the ability of people to go out and start their own company is part of the American dream. The FBI and our law enforcement partners will always pursue those who think to bully others into submission, and threaten free commerce.”
“U.S. Customs and Border Protection is proud of the expertise we provide in support of investigations that result in the takedown of criminal enterprises,” said CBP Acting Director Hayward. “It is through interagency partnerships and collaborative efforts, like the one leading to today’s arrests, that law enforcement successfully combats today’s criminal organizations.”
According to the criminal complaint and other court filings, in May 2017, Reizin learned that the victim—who formerly worked for Reizin’s awning-cleaning company—had started a similar business in Brooklyn. Reizin and Krivoi brought the victim to a secluded location in Sheepshead Bay where Reizin allegedly grabbed the victim by the throat, brandished a knife and gave him the choice of having his ear cut off or his throat slashed. Krivoi allegedly suggested that they should kill the victim. Reizin then demanded that the victim shut down his business and pay $10,000 to Reizin and a local motorcycle club to which Reizin belongs, and which Reizin claimed supported the extortion. When the victim replied that he could not afford to pay, Reizin instructed Krivoi to hit the victim, which Krivoi did, repeatedly. Reizin then offered the victim a “discount,” requiring him to pay $5,000 in monthly installments. Reizin also told the victim that he and his family would suffer if the victim reported the assault to law enforcement. Over the next several months, the victim made regular payments to Reizin. During that period, in a recorded call with the victim, Reizin spoke about “cut[ting] out” the ear of one of the victim’s family members and “forc[ing him] to chew and swallow it.”
John Ambrose, Ex-Deputy US Marshal, Who Leaked Info in the #FamilySecrets Mob Case is Punched by High School Wrestler
John Ambrose, the former deputy U.S. marshal convicted of leaking confidential information to a reputed Outfit associate, was punched out at a high school wrestling meet Friday after an altercation in the stands.
Joliet police wouldn’t identify the man who was struck, but Ambrose told the Tribune he was “the victim of an aggravated battery attack” at the meet. He declined to comment further.
According to Joliet Police Deputy Chief Al Roechner, a visiting fan in the stands was being “very vocal” during a match at Plainfield South High School and was confronted by the parent of a Plainfield South wrestler. Providence Catholic was the visiting team, witnesses said.
The wrestler, who is 17, saw his parent arguing and ran into the stands, punching the visiting fan in the face, Roechner said.
Police arrested the student, Roechner said. Though the visitor was bleeding, Roechner said he declined medical treatment.
The boy was released to his parents, Roechner said. Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis said his office, which covers Plainfield South, has not yet received a referral for prosecution on the matter.
Tom Hernandez, spokesman for Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202, said the district was aware of an "incident" that took place at Friday's meet.
He declined further comment but said the district was looking into whether any student would be disciplined.
“We are doing our own investigation, as we always do,” Hernandez said Sunday. “We will take appropriate steps as warranted.”
In 2009, a federal judge sentenced Ambrose to four years in prison after he was convicted of telling a reputed mob associate that hit man Nicholas Calabrese was secretly cooperating with authorities.
Ambrose’s attorney said the decorated former deputy U.S. marshal was just bragging to a family friend about being in Calabrese’s security detail, but prosecutors said Ambrose knew the information would be relayed to the mob.
Calabrese’s testimony in the 2007 Family Secrets trial helped convict five alleged organized crime members, including his brother Frank Calabrese Sr.
Thanks to By John Keilman and Alicia Fabbre.
Joliet police wouldn’t identify the man who was struck, but Ambrose told the Tribune he was “the victim of an aggravated battery attack” at the meet. He declined to comment further.
According to Joliet Police Deputy Chief Al Roechner, a visiting fan in the stands was being “very vocal” during a match at Plainfield South High School and was confronted by the parent of a Plainfield South wrestler. Providence Catholic was the visiting team, witnesses said.
The wrestler, who is 17, saw his parent arguing and ran into the stands, punching the visiting fan in the face, Roechner said.
Police arrested the student, Roechner said. Though the visitor was bleeding, Roechner said he declined medical treatment.
The boy was released to his parents, Roechner said. Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis said his office, which covers Plainfield South, has not yet received a referral for prosecution on the matter.
Tom Hernandez, spokesman for Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202, said the district was aware of an "incident" that took place at Friday's meet.
He declined further comment but said the district was looking into whether any student would be disciplined.
“We are doing our own investigation, as we always do,” Hernandez said Sunday. “We will take appropriate steps as warranted.”
In 2009, a federal judge sentenced Ambrose to four years in prison after he was convicted of telling a reputed mob associate that hit man Nicholas Calabrese was secretly cooperating with authorities.
Ambrose’s attorney said the decorated former deputy U.S. marshal was just bragging to a family friend about being in Calabrese’s security detail, but prosecutors said Ambrose knew the information would be relayed to the mob.
Calabrese’s testimony in the 2007 Family Secrets trial helped convict five alleged organized crime members, including his brother Frank Calabrese Sr.
Thanks to By John Keilman and Alicia Fabbre.
Monday, December 04, 2017
Irish Godfather, "Dapper Dan" Hogan, killed by car bomb #OnThisDay
“Dapper Dan” Hogan, a St. Paul, Minnesota saloonkeeper and mob boss, is killed on this day in 1928 when someone plants a car bomb under the floorboards of his new Paige coupe. Doctors worked all day to save him–according to the Morning Tribune, “racketeers, police characters, and business men” queued up at the hospital to donate blood to their ailing friend–but Hogan slipped into a coma and died at around 9 p.m. His murder is still unsolved.
Hogan was a pillar of the Twin Cities underworld. His downtown saloon, the Green Lantern, catered to (and laundered the money of) bank robbers, bootleggers, safecrackers and all-around thugs. He was an expert at defusing petty arguments, keeping feuds from getting out of hand, and (the paper said) “keep[ing] the heat out of town,” which made him a friend to many lawbreakers and a valuable asset to people (like the crooked-but-well-meaning police chief) who were trying to keep Minneapolis and St. Paul from becoming as bloody and dangerous as Chicago.
Hogan and the police both worked to make sure that gangsters would be safe in the Twin Cities as long as they committed their most egregious crimes outside the city limits. If this position made him more friends than enemies–“his word was said to have been ‘as good as a gold bond,'” the paper said, and “to numbers of persons he was something of a Robin Hood”–it also angered many mobsters who resented his stranglehold on the city’s rackets. Police speculated that some of his own associates might have been responsible for his murder.
As the newspaper reported the day after Hogan died, car bombs were “the newest form of bomb killing,” a murderous technology perfected by New York gangsters and bootleggers. In fact, Hogan was one of the first people to die in a car bomb explosion. The police investigation revealed that two men had entered Dapper Dan’s garage early in the morning of December 4, planted a nitroglycerine explosive in the car’s undercarriage, and wired it to the starter. When Hogan pressed his foot to that pedal, the bomb went off, nearly severing his right leg. He died from blood loss.
The first real car bomb–or, in this case, horse-drawn-wagon bomb–exploded on September 16, 1920 outside the J.P. Morgan Company’s offices in New York City’s financial district. Italian anarchist Mario Buda had planted it there, hoping to kill Morgan himself; as it happened, the robber baron was out of town, but 40 other people died (and about 200 were wounded) in the blast. There were occasional car-bomb attacks after that–most notably in Saigon in 1952, Algiers in 1962, and Palermo in 1963–but vehicle weapons remained relatively uncommon until the 1970s and 80s, when they became the terrifying trademark of groups like the Irish Republican Army and Hezbollah. In 1995, right-wing terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols used a bomb hidden in a Ryder truck to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
Hogan was a pillar of the Twin Cities underworld. His downtown saloon, the Green Lantern, catered to (and laundered the money of) bank robbers, bootleggers, safecrackers and all-around thugs. He was an expert at defusing petty arguments, keeping feuds from getting out of hand, and (the paper said) “keep[ing] the heat out of town,” which made him a friend to many lawbreakers and a valuable asset to people (like the crooked-but-well-meaning police chief) who were trying to keep Minneapolis and St. Paul from becoming as bloody and dangerous as Chicago.
Hogan and the police both worked to make sure that gangsters would be safe in the Twin Cities as long as they committed their most egregious crimes outside the city limits. If this position made him more friends than enemies–“his word was said to have been ‘as good as a gold bond,'” the paper said, and “to numbers of persons he was something of a Robin Hood”–it also angered many mobsters who resented his stranglehold on the city’s rackets. Police speculated that some of his own associates might have been responsible for his murder.
As the newspaper reported the day after Hogan died, car bombs were “the newest form of bomb killing,” a murderous technology perfected by New York gangsters and bootleggers. In fact, Hogan was one of the first people to die in a car bomb explosion. The police investigation revealed that two men had entered Dapper Dan’s garage early in the morning of December 4, planted a nitroglycerine explosive in the car’s undercarriage, and wired it to the starter. When Hogan pressed his foot to that pedal, the bomb went off, nearly severing his right leg. He died from blood loss.
The first real car bomb–or, in this case, horse-drawn-wagon bomb–exploded on September 16, 1920 outside the J.P. Morgan Company’s offices in New York City’s financial district. Italian anarchist Mario Buda had planted it there, hoping to kill Morgan himself; as it happened, the robber baron was out of town, but 40 other people died (and about 200 were wounded) in the blast. There were occasional car-bomb attacks after that–most notably in Saigon in 1952, Algiers in 1962, and Palermo in 1963–but vehicle weapons remained relatively uncommon until the 1970s and 80s, when they became the terrifying trademark of groups like the Irish Republican Army and Hezbollah. In 1995, right-wing terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols used a bomb hidden in a Ryder truck to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
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