In case you've been taking a hiatus from your FarmVille, Mafia Wars, etc. over the holiday, you're going to notice some changes when you resume your regular Facebook gaming schedule.
The biggest difference? You might have problems sending in-game gifts to friends. However, it's not a problem at all, rather the result of Facebook setting limits on how many people you can send gifts to per game, plus an overall limit on gifting per day.
A Zynga rep had this to say about the changes, "Unfortunately since we do not control these changes we cannot provide "exact" details as there is no exact science as to how many requests you will be able to send on a per game/per day basis."
Of course, considering the millions of people who play these games (and send gifts), we're sure all of that activity taxes Facebook's backend resources, so we can understand why the social network decided to lay down the law.
Thanks to Libe Goad
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Vito Rizzuto, The Teflon Don, Seeks Attendance at Slain Son's Funeral
At Nick Rizzuto's wedding in 1995, RCMP and Laval police officers were so shutter-happy the guests might have taken them for official wedding photographers.
Now that the reputed Canadian Godfather's eldest son is about to be buried, all eyes — and lenses — will be focused on his funeral.
Gunned down Monday outside a real-estate developer's office in Montreal, no date has yet been set for Nick Rizzuto Jr.'s funeral.
Vito Rizzuto, the slain man's father, though previously known as the Teflon Don, is currently serving a 10-year sentence in the United States for racketeering, related to three murders that occurred in the 1980s. His sentence will end in 2012.
It will be up to the prison warden of a Colorado jail to decide whether he will be able to attend his son's funeral in the coming days. Rizzuto can request permission to leave the jail and cross the border, and if granted would have to pay for whatever travel expenses that would entail, as well as pass all security measures, said U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Felicia Ponce.
Ponce could not comment on whether the elder Rizzuto has made such a request, however.
Whether Rizzuto's grandfather and namesake, Nicolo Rizzuto Sr., will attend the funeral is also a matter of speculation.
He is the only one of six Mafia leaders arrested in Montreal in 2006 and sentenced for gangsterism-related charges who is not behind bars, but must obey the conditions of his probation — including not to associate with known criminals.
Whoever is able to attend the funeral will likely be under close scrutiny by both police and criminal elements assessing the strength of the once very powerful crime syndicate.
Adrian Humphreys, author of The Sixth Family: The Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto
— a Rizzuto biography — and an organized crime reporter for the National Post, expects the funeral to be a large affair with people coming from across Canada, the United States and Italy to pay their respects.
"The funeral will be a terribly sad affair featuring a large and loving family weeping for a young father cut down early in life," Humphreys said Wednesday. "It will also be seen as an occasion for criminal associates of all stripes to pay respects to a family who have dominated the criminal landscape of Canada for decades. Police will also be watching closely. Investigators look for signs of who is showing their respect to whom and who avoids whom."
Not since the murder of crime boss Paolo Violi in 1978 has someone as prominent as the son of the reputed head of the Mafia been the target of an assassination. Indeed, it was Violi's assassination that solidified the hegemony of the Rizzuto clan in Montreal.
Having immigrated to Montreal from Sicily in 1954 — when Vito was eight — Nicolo Rizzuto Sr. was a so-called "man of honour" among other Mafiosi until Violi was shot in the back of the head while having dinner at a restaurant.
Both Nicolo Sr. and Vito were out of the country when the killing occurred, but three men associated with the Rizzutos were later convicted of Violi's murder.
After the murder of three Mafia captains in New York — for which Vito Rizzuto was arrested in 2004 and pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in 2007 — Vito became known as the Godfather of the Canadian Mafia.
Nicolo Sr. and Vito both moved into palatial homes in the north end of Montreal that came to be known as "Mafia row" as other family members followed suit. But with Vito Rizzuto now behind bars, Nick Jr. has been said by police to be looking after the Rizzutos' financial dealings and allegedly acting as the point of contact between the Mafia and other criminal factions in Montreal.
He had no criminal convictions however, other than for impaired driving.
According to Humphreys, Nick Jr., as the eldest son of the reputed Godfather and the namesake of the family's patriarch: "was a tremendously powerful symbolic target. However, police did not believe he was next in line to lead the Rizzuto criminal organization. He was not the crowned prince."
Nick Jr. was revealed by construction company proprietor Tony Magi to have been involved with the real estate business of late.
Magi was the victim of an attempted murder last year.
Nick Rizzuto Jr. was 42 when he was shot dead just after noon on Monday not far from the offices of FTM Construction, owned by Magi.
Thanks to Catherine Solyom
Now that the reputed Canadian Godfather's eldest son is about to be buried, all eyes — and lenses — will be focused on his funeral.
Gunned down Monday outside a real-estate developer's office in Montreal, no date has yet been set for Nick Rizzuto Jr.'s funeral.
Vito Rizzuto, the slain man's father, though previously known as the Teflon Don, is currently serving a 10-year sentence in the United States for racketeering, related to three murders that occurred in the 1980s. His sentence will end in 2012.
It will be up to the prison warden of a Colorado jail to decide whether he will be able to attend his son's funeral in the coming days. Rizzuto can request permission to leave the jail and cross the border, and if granted would have to pay for whatever travel expenses that would entail, as well as pass all security measures, said U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Felicia Ponce.
Ponce could not comment on whether the elder Rizzuto has made such a request, however.
Whether Rizzuto's grandfather and namesake, Nicolo Rizzuto Sr., will attend the funeral is also a matter of speculation.
He is the only one of six Mafia leaders arrested in Montreal in 2006 and sentenced for gangsterism-related charges who is not behind bars, but must obey the conditions of his probation — including not to associate with known criminals.
Whoever is able to attend the funeral will likely be under close scrutiny by both police and criminal elements assessing the strength of the once very powerful crime syndicate.
Adrian Humphreys, author of The Sixth Family: The Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto
— a Rizzuto biography — and an organized crime reporter for the National Post, expects the funeral to be a large affair with people coming from across Canada, the United States and Italy to pay their respects."The funeral will be a terribly sad affair featuring a large and loving family weeping for a young father cut down early in life," Humphreys said Wednesday. "It will also be seen as an occasion for criminal associates of all stripes to pay respects to a family who have dominated the criminal landscape of Canada for decades. Police will also be watching closely. Investigators look for signs of who is showing their respect to whom and who avoids whom."
Not since the murder of crime boss Paolo Violi in 1978 has someone as prominent as the son of the reputed head of the Mafia been the target of an assassination. Indeed, it was Violi's assassination that solidified the hegemony of the Rizzuto clan in Montreal.
Having immigrated to Montreal from Sicily in 1954 — when Vito was eight — Nicolo Rizzuto Sr. was a so-called "man of honour" among other Mafiosi until Violi was shot in the back of the head while having dinner at a restaurant.
Both Nicolo Sr. and Vito were out of the country when the killing occurred, but three men associated with the Rizzutos were later convicted of Violi's murder.
After the murder of three Mafia captains in New York — for which Vito Rizzuto was arrested in 2004 and pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in 2007 — Vito became known as the Godfather of the Canadian Mafia.
Nicolo Sr. and Vito both moved into palatial homes in the north end of Montreal that came to be known as "Mafia row" as other family members followed suit. But with Vito Rizzuto now behind bars, Nick Jr. has been said by police to be looking after the Rizzutos' financial dealings and allegedly acting as the point of contact between the Mafia and other criminal factions in Montreal.
He had no criminal convictions however, other than for impaired driving.
According to Humphreys, Nick Jr., as the eldest son of the reputed Godfather and the namesake of the family's patriarch: "was a tremendously powerful symbolic target. However, police did not believe he was next in line to lead the Rizzuto criminal organization. He was not the crowned prince."
Nick Jr. was revealed by construction company proprietor Tony Magi to have been involved with the real estate business of late.
Magi was the victim of an attempted murder last year.
Nick Rizzuto Jr. was 42 when he was shot dead just after noon on Monday not far from the offices of FTM Construction, owned by Magi.
Thanks to Catherine Solyom
Holiday Dinner Plans for a Mobster
What does a reputed Chicago mob boss under house arrest do for holiday dinner?
First, if possible, get a judge to let you outside your house.
Next, don't waste the opportunity and get approval to go to the swanky Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab in downtown Chicago on Christmas Eve.
That's just what reputed Cicero mob boss Michael "The Large Guy" Sarno did.
A federal magistrate judge recently approved that trip for Sarno, 51, of Westchester, to have dinner with his extended family at Joe's Seafood, 60 E. Grand.
Sarno, out on $1 million bond, is typically allowed outside his home only to go to church, the doctor or court.
Sarno -- described in court documents as a made member of the Chicago mob -- is awaiting trial next year for allegedly overseeing the bombing of a Berwyn business that was competing against the mob in the lucrative video poker business.
Federal officials also believe that Sarno discussed putting out juice loans with an associate who is a reputed high-ranking member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang, records show.
In 1995, Sarno was sentenced to 6½ years in prison for his role in a mob racketeering case.
Sarno, also dubbed "Fat Ass" by some colleagues, has denied any wrongdoing in the current case. His attorney could not be reached for comment.
A manager at Joe's Seafood had nothing to say Tuesday about Sarno's choice of restaurant.
The good news for Sarno is that the restaurant's specialty, stone crabs, are in season. Jumbo stone crabs -- three per order -- go for $57.95, according to the restaurant's online menu.
If he has a taste for steak, the bone-in New York strip will run him $45.95. And he can wash it all down with a bottle of Chateau Pavie at $490 a bottle on the restaurant's reserve wine list.
Prosecutors wanted it made clear to Sarno that he could make no trips other than to the restaurant on Christmas Eve, and he could only mix with family members -- not his alleged crime family -- and the judge agreed.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
First, if possible, get a judge to let you outside your house.
Next, don't waste the opportunity and get approval to go to the swanky Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab in downtown Chicago on Christmas Eve.
That's just what reputed Cicero mob boss Michael "The Large Guy" Sarno did.
A federal magistrate judge recently approved that trip for Sarno, 51, of Westchester, to have dinner with his extended family at Joe's Seafood, 60 E. Grand.
Sarno, out on $1 million bond, is typically allowed outside his home only to go to church, the doctor or court.
Sarno -- described in court documents as a made member of the Chicago mob -- is awaiting trial next year for allegedly overseeing the bombing of a Berwyn business that was competing against the mob in the lucrative video poker business.
Federal officials also believe that Sarno discussed putting out juice loans with an associate who is a reputed high-ranking member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang, records show.
In 1995, Sarno was sentenced to 6½ years in prison for his role in a mob racketeering case.
Sarno, also dubbed "Fat Ass" by some colleagues, has denied any wrongdoing in the current case. His attorney could not be reached for comment.
A manager at Joe's Seafood had nothing to say Tuesday about Sarno's choice of restaurant.
The good news for Sarno is that the restaurant's specialty, stone crabs, are in season. Jumbo stone crabs -- three per order -- go for $57.95, according to the restaurant's online menu.
If he has a taste for steak, the bone-in New York strip will run him $45.95. And he can wash it all down with a bottle of Chateau Pavie at $490 a bottle on the restaurant's reserve wine list.
Prosecutors wanted it made clear to Sarno that he could make no trips other than to the restaurant on Christmas Eve, and he could only mix with family members -- not his alleged crime family -- and the judge agreed.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Organized Crime Continues to Flourish
Editor's note: Misha Glenny covered Central Europe for The Guardian and the BBC, writing about the end of the Soviet empire and the wars in the former Yugoslavia. He is the author of "McMafia: Crime Without Frontiers" and three books about eastern Europe and the Balkans. Glenny discussed international organized crime in his talk at the TEDGlobal conference in July and in the following interview by Antonia Ward for the September issue of "design mind" magazine, the publication of the global innovation firm, frog design.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, while chronicling the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and in the Balkan states, journalist and TEDGlobal speaker Misha Glenny gained a deep understanding of the influence of eastern European privatized law enforcement -- otherwise known as the mafia. This led him to write a book called "McMafia: Seriously Organized Crime," for which he traveled the world, talking to victims, criminals, and the police officers trying to catch them. Glenny speaks about his research and the risks he took to get the story.
Antonia Ward: At TEDGlobal, you mentioned the growth of counterfeit goods, the rise in fake malaria drugs and the threat to cyber infrastructure. Why are we seeing these kinds of atypical mafia activities?
Misha Glenny: Just like any other business in a recession, some of organized crime's main trading activities take a nosedive. But while sales of some commodities dwindle, other goods and services record significant increases. As the credit crunch started to bite last autumn, police forces throughout Europe noticed a shift in the focus of large criminal syndicates away from their traditional activities of drugs and prostitutes towards counterfeit and financial crimes.
According to the U.N.'s Vienna-based drug czar, Antonio Maria Costa, the mob is already acting as a banker not only to consumers but to banks themselves. His team has uncovered information that the mob's money "has been feeding the financial sector since the second half of last year. ... While hard to prove, there are nonetheless indications that some banks have even been saved from going under in this way."
Ward: What was the most frightening experience you had while doing the research for McMafia?
Glenny: I was sick with fear when going to meet representatives of the FARC in Cali, Colombia, largely because kidnapping journalists and holding them for years in appalling conditions in the jungle is one of the group's stock-in-trades. The meeting, when it happened, involved several moves from one part of Cali to another. I received a new text message each time to indicate our next destination. The FARC was clearly monitoring us to see if the police or the [Drug Enforcement Administration] had also come along for the party, but eventually they were convinced that my translator and I were alone. In the end, these interviewees were courteous, serious and more aware of their role in a global economy than most of those I interviewed.
The least pleasant meeting was with a gang boss in Odessa, Ukraine. It had taken me months of persistence to get him to agree to see me. When we met in a cafe, he was an archetype -- short, thuggish-looking, and sporting a permanent scowl. He had brought along two of his henchmen. He was extremely edgy, and whenever I strayed from the agreed topics of conversation, he reminded me of our prior agreement to avoid certain subjects.
Since the book was published, I have been sent two covert warnings about my writings by Balkan groups, and the book has been banned in Dubai -- something I wear as a badge of honor.
Ward: Why were so many of the people in your book willing to talk to you, an author and journalist, about the intimate details of their operation? Weren't they afraid they'd be found out?
Glenny: This depends on multiple factors. In the Balkans and eastern Europe for example, several people involved in the trade I spoke to were very open about their activities. But they pointed out that because in the early 1990s states had collapsed all over the region and the economies were in chaos, these gangsters were the only force that could actually ensure that people got food on their tables. Sure, they took the lion's share for themselves, but they were the essential "midwives of capitalism," as I refer to them. So they often felt quite proud about their role and were unwilling to express contrition.
In Japan, the yakuza were prepared to talk because they believe themselves to be an integral and legitimate part of Japanese society (not a sentiment shared by everyone). In Brazil, you can't stop anyone from talking -- victims, police, lawyers or gangsters. It is just in their culture -- they talk, talk, talk.
Ward: You talk about the systemic threat of organized crime. Just how much trouble are we in?
Glenny: Organized crime poses its greatest challenge to the developing world. Illicit trade flows from the south to the north: Drugs, trafficked women, counterfeit goods, migrant labor and the like move from the developing to the developed world. Therefore, the hubs of global criminal operations tend to be located in countries with weak economies and fragile state institutions.
With two glaring exceptions, Japan and Italy, organized crime groups maintain a low profile in the developed world, where state institutions are usually strong enough to contain the impact. However, as the United States has demonstrated since the 1920s, it can often be a long, hard struggle. But in general, organized crime groups do not like to advertise their presence in the developed world because, in contrast to the other markets, this disrupts their smooth operation.
Too much violence, for example, draws the attention of the media, the public, the police and politicians. So although organized crime is driven by consumer demand in the West, southern nations bear the brunt of the violence and instability which the business engenders.
Thanks to Antonia Ward
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, while chronicling the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and in the Balkan states, journalist and TEDGlobal speaker Misha Glenny gained a deep understanding of the influence of eastern European privatized law enforcement -- otherwise known as the mafia. This led him to write a book called "McMafia: Seriously Organized Crime," for which he traveled the world, talking to victims, criminals, and the police officers trying to catch them. Glenny speaks about his research and the risks he took to get the story.
Antonia Ward: At TEDGlobal, you mentioned the growth of counterfeit goods, the rise in fake malaria drugs and the threat to cyber infrastructure. Why are we seeing these kinds of atypical mafia activities?
Misha Glenny: Just like any other business in a recession, some of organized crime's main trading activities take a nosedive. But while sales of some commodities dwindle, other goods and services record significant increases. As the credit crunch started to bite last autumn, police forces throughout Europe noticed a shift in the focus of large criminal syndicates away from their traditional activities of drugs and prostitutes towards counterfeit and financial crimes.
According to the U.N.'s Vienna-based drug czar, Antonio Maria Costa, the mob is already acting as a banker not only to consumers but to banks themselves. His team has uncovered information that the mob's money "has been feeding the financial sector since the second half of last year. ... While hard to prove, there are nonetheless indications that some banks have even been saved from going under in this way."
Ward: What was the most frightening experience you had while doing the research for McMafia?
Glenny: I was sick with fear when going to meet representatives of the FARC in Cali, Colombia, largely because kidnapping journalists and holding them for years in appalling conditions in the jungle is one of the group's stock-in-trades. The meeting, when it happened, involved several moves from one part of Cali to another. I received a new text message each time to indicate our next destination. The FARC was clearly monitoring us to see if the police or the [Drug Enforcement Administration] had also come along for the party, but eventually they were convinced that my translator and I were alone. In the end, these interviewees were courteous, serious and more aware of their role in a global economy than most of those I interviewed.
The least pleasant meeting was with a gang boss in Odessa, Ukraine. It had taken me months of persistence to get him to agree to see me. When we met in a cafe, he was an archetype -- short, thuggish-looking, and sporting a permanent scowl. He had brought along two of his henchmen. He was extremely edgy, and whenever I strayed from the agreed topics of conversation, he reminded me of our prior agreement to avoid certain subjects.
Since the book was published, I have been sent two covert warnings about my writings by Balkan groups, and the book has been banned in Dubai -- something I wear as a badge of honor.
Ward: Why were so many of the people in your book willing to talk to you, an author and journalist, about the intimate details of their operation? Weren't they afraid they'd be found out?
Glenny: This depends on multiple factors. In the Balkans and eastern Europe for example, several people involved in the trade I spoke to were very open about their activities. But they pointed out that because in the early 1990s states had collapsed all over the region and the economies were in chaos, these gangsters were the only force that could actually ensure that people got food on their tables. Sure, they took the lion's share for themselves, but they were the essential "midwives of capitalism," as I refer to them. So they often felt quite proud about their role and were unwilling to express contrition.
In Japan, the yakuza were prepared to talk because they believe themselves to be an integral and legitimate part of Japanese society (not a sentiment shared by everyone). In Brazil, you can't stop anyone from talking -- victims, police, lawyers or gangsters. It is just in their culture -- they talk, talk, talk.
Ward: You talk about the systemic threat of organized crime. Just how much trouble are we in?
Glenny: Organized crime poses its greatest challenge to the developing world. Illicit trade flows from the south to the north: Drugs, trafficked women, counterfeit goods, migrant labor and the like move from the developing to the developed world. Therefore, the hubs of global criminal operations tend to be located in countries with weak economies and fragile state institutions.
With two glaring exceptions, Japan and Italy, organized crime groups maintain a low profile in the developed world, where state institutions are usually strong enough to contain the impact. However, as the United States has demonstrated since the 1920s, it can often be a long, hard struggle. But in general, organized crime groups do not like to advertise their presence in the developed world because, in contrast to the other markets, this disrupts their smooth operation.
Too much violence, for example, draws the attention of the media, the public, the police and politicians. So although organized crime is driven by consumer demand in the West, southern nations bear the brunt of the violence and instability which the business engenders.
Thanks to Antonia Ward
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Reputed Mob Underboss Summoned to Court
Martin Taccetta, a reputed former underboss of the Lucchese crime family’s New Jersey faction, has been summoned to a Newark courtroom next week to possibly resolve the charges pending against him in a mob case that has resulted in the convictions of 19 others.
U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler signed an order last week directing the warden of New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, where Taccetta is currently incarcerated, to have him brought before the judge for a plea hearing on Tuesday. But Taccetta apparently has not signed off on a plea deal.
“All I can tell you is that there were plea negotiations and its Mr. Taccetta’s position at this point that he’s not going to plea guilty of anything,” his attorney, Maria Noto, said Thursday. “He maintains his innocence.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald D. Wigler, who is prosecuting the case, declined to comment Thursday on the negotiations or the scheduled plea hearing.
Taccetta, 58, of East Hanover, was among 23 reputed members and associates of the Gambino and Lucchese crime families indicted in May 2008 on charges of engaging in what the FBI called a “veritable smorgasbord of criminal activity” – illegal gambling, loan-sharking, extortion, identity theft, fraud and labor racketeering.
The defendants were accused of shaking down lunch truck operators, putting mobsters in no-show jobs, using union muscle to collect bribes to allow non-union workers on construction sites and raking in hefty profits from bettors who wagered more than $1 million a month.
The mob also allegedly targeted a Lowe’s home improvement store in Paterson, where conspirators bought high-ticket power tools and appliances by switching bar code labels from less expensive items and attempted to steal the identities of patrons who applied for Lowe’s credit cards.
Taccetta was charged in only three of the 30 counts in the indictment. He was accused of conspiring to use extortion to collect a loan from an unidentified debtor. He also charged with conspiring with the lead defendant, Andrew Merola, and others to demand and receive about $20,000 in unlawful labor payments to allow non-union labor on a construction project at a Morristown BMW dealership in 2007.
Merola, 42, of East Hanover, is among the defendants still in the case. He is identified in the indictment as one of the Gambino crime family’s highest ranking members in New Jersey and is accused of overseeing a mob crew that profited from gambling, loan-sharking, extortion and labor racketeering.
Also awaiting trial are Edward Deak, 45, of Secaucus, an alleged “gambling agent” charged with one count of operating an illegal gambling business, and Kyle Ragusa, 42, of East Hanover, an alleged associate and member of Merola’s crew, charged with racketeering, operating a gambling business, loan-sharking and wire-fraud.
Taccetta had been under house arrest until July when the New Jersey Supreme Court reinstated his sentence of life plus 10 years in prison in a 1993 state case in which Taccetta was convicted of racketeering and extortion but acquitted of murder in the golf-club beating death of an Ocean County businessman.
Noto said the reinstated life sentence was “the reason I was in negotiations at all, but at this point there is no plea agreement.”
Thanks to Peter J. Sampson
U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler signed an order last week directing the warden of New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, where Taccetta is currently incarcerated, to have him brought before the judge for a plea hearing on Tuesday. But Taccetta apparently has not signed off on a plea deal.
“All I can tell you is that there were plea negotiations and its Mr. Taccetta’s position at this point that he’s not going to plea guilty of anything,” his attorney, Maria Noto, said Thursday. “He maintains his innocence.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald D. Wigler, who is prosecuting the case, declined to comment Thursday on the negotiations or the scheduled plea hearing.
Taccetta, 58, of East Hanover, was among 23 reputed members and associates of the Gambino and Lucchese crime families indicted in May 2008 on charges of engaging in what the FBI called a “veritable smorgasbord of criminal activity” – illegal gambling, loan-sharking, extortion, identity theft, fraud and labor racketeering.
The defendants were accused of shaking down lunch truck operators, putting mobsters in no-show jobs, using union muscle to collect bribes to allow non-union workers on construction sites and raking in hefty profits from bettors who wagered more than $1 million a month.
The mob also allegedly targeted a Lowe’s home improvement store in Paterson, where conspirators bought high-ticket power tools and appliances by switching bar code labels from less expensive items and attempted to steal the identities of patrons who applied for Lowe’s credit cards.
Taccetta was charged in only three of the 30 counts in the indictment. He was accused of conspiring to use extortion to collect a loan from an unidentified debtor. He also charged with conspiring with the lead defendant, Andrew Merola, and others to demand and receive about $20,000 in unlawful labor payments to allow non-union labor on a construction project at a Morristown BMW dealership in 2007.
Merola, 42, of East Hanover, is among the defendants still in the case. He is identified in the indictment as one of the Gambino crime family’s highest ranking members in New Jersey and is accused of overseeing a mob crew that profited from gambling, loan-sharking, extortion and labor racketeering.
Also awaiting trial are Edward Deak, 45, of Secaucus, an alleged “gambling agent” charged with one count of operating an illegal gambling business, and Kyle Ragusa, 42, of East Hanover, an alleged associate and member of Merola’s crew, charged with racketeering, operating a gambling business, loan-sharking and wire-fraud.
Taccetta had been under house arrest until July when the New Jersey Supreme Court reinstated his sentence of life plus 10 years in prison in a 1993 state case in which Taccetta was convicted of racketeering and extortion but acquitted of murder in the golf-club beating death of an Ocean County businessman.
Noto said the reinstated life sentence was “the reason I was in negotiations at all, but at this point there is no plea agreement.”
Thanks to Peter J. Sampson
Junior Gotti's Job Program
Argus reported that Junior Gotti walked free Monday after a New York jury deadlocked for the fourth time over his racketeering charges. Nobody on the jury wants to incur the wrath of the Mafia. It's the only company that's still hiring and will never leave New York.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Reputed Mob-Backed Video Poker Machines Under Investigation
A federal investigation of mob-backed video poker machines is now under way in the Bridgeport neighborhood, sources have told the Chicago Sun-Times and NBC5 News. And tavern owners, in whose bars the poker machines were located, have been called to testify before a federal grand jury.
The raids, according to law enforcement sources, began over the summer.
“They hit several taverns, 10 or 12 of them maybe,” confirmed attorney Joseph Lopez, who said the FBI took all the circuit boards out of the machines.
One such raid, according to a knowledgeable source, took place at the Redwood Lounge at 3200 S. Wallace. Reached at home, the bar’s owner, Nick Spazio, declined to comment when asked if his tavern was the object of an FBI raid. “Sweetheart, I can’t really talk to you on the advice of my lawyer . . . we better leave it alone,” he told a reporter.
The bar is now closed.
Authorities believe the video poker machines, which produce illegal payouts, tie back to the operation of the late Joseph “Shorty” LaMantia, a top lieutenant in the 26th Street Crew.
LaMantia, in turn, worked under Frank Calabrese Sr., who was convicted in 2007 in the historic Family Secrets trial, involving 18 unsolved mob murders. Calabrese, Joseph Lombardo and three others were found guilty on racketeering and conspiracy charges.
A jury ruled that Calabrese, 72, took part in seven outfit hits and ran an illegal gambling operation. He was sentenced to life in prison.
At the end of the trial, Robert Grant, special agent in charge of the Chicago FBI office, said his agents’ work was not done. “It’s not the end of the Outfit,” he said. “I would declare to you right now we are actively investigating the Chicago Outfit.”
Video poker machines have long been a staple of Chicago taverns and a rich source of revenue for the Chicago mob.
Currently, it is the state that is desperate for revenue. And so in July, Gov. Quinn signed a bill to legalize video poker as a way to fund state construction projects. But those machines won’t be able to legally make payouts until the Illinois Gaming Board can hire sufficient staff to license them and enforce their operation. A Gaming Board official said the goal is to be up and running by the end of 2010.
The plans call for an estimated 45,000 to 60,000 legal video poker machines in bars and taverns statewide. So far, about 49 cities, town and counties, including Cook and DuPage, have opted to ban them. (The county bans apply only to unincorporated areas.)
The Legislature, according to the Gaming Board, allocated $3.3 million to the board in fiscal year 2009 and $4.7 million in fiscal year 2010, allowing it to double its existing staff. Half of the new hires will be dedicated to monitoring video poker machines.
Critics argue that even with additional personnel it will be a daunting, if not impossible, challenge to wire all the machines to a central location and ensure no criminal influence.
Then there is the question of what will the mob do? Jim Wagner, a former FBI supervisor and past head of the Chicago Crime Commission, believes video poker remains too lucrative for the Outfit to cede its profits to the state.
There’s “too much money to be made with those machines to turn their backs on it,” Wagner said. “They have their own equipment out there and that won’t change.”
The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment for this story.
Thanks to Carol Marin and Don Mosely
The raids, according to law enforcement sources, began over the summer.
“They hit several taverns, 10 or 12 of them maybe,” confirmed attorney Joseph Lopez, who said the FBI took all the circuit boards out of the machines.
One such raid, according to a knowledgeable source, took place at the Redwood Lounge at 3200 S. Wallace. Reached at home, the bar’s owner, Nick Spazio, declined to comment when asked if his tavern was the object of an FBI raid. “Sweetheart, I can’t really talk to you on the advice of my lawyer . . . we better leave it alone,” he told a reporter.
The bar is now closed.
Authorities believe the video poker machines, which produce illegal payouts, tie back to the operation of the late Joseph “Shorty” LaMantia, a top lieutenant in the 26th Street Crew.
LaMantia, in turn, worked under Frank Calabrese Sr., who was convicted in 2007 in the historic Family Secrets trial, involving 18 unsolved mob murders. Calabrese, Joseph Lombardo and three others were found guilty on racketeering and conspiracy charges.
A jury ruled that Calabrese, 72, took part in seven outfit hits and ran an illegal gambling operation. He was sentenced to life in prison.
At the end of the trial, Robert Grant, special agent in charge of the Chicago FBI office, said his agents’ work was not done. “It’s not the end of the Outfit,” he said. “I would declare to you right now we are actively investigating the Chicago Outfit.”
Video poker machines have long been a staple of Chicago taverns and a rich source of revenue for the Chicago mob.
Currently, it is the state that is desperate for revenue. And so in July, Gov. Quinn signed a bill to legalize video poker as a way to fund state construction projects. But those machines won’t be able to legally make payouts until the Illinois Gaming Board can hire sufficient staff to license them and enforce their operation. A Gaming Board official said the goal is to be up and running by the end of 2010.
The plans call for an estimated 45,000 to 60,000 legal video poker machines in bars and taverns statewide. So far, about 49 cities, town and counties, including Cook and DuPage, have opted to ban them. (The county bans apply only to unincorporated areas.)
The Legislature, according to the Gaming Board, allocated $3.3 million to the board in fiscal year 2009 and $4.7 million in fiscal year 2010, allowing it to double its existing staff. Half of the new hires will be dedicated to monitoring video poker machines.
Critics argue that even with additional personnel it will be a daunting, if not impossible, challenge to wire all the machines to a central location and ensure no criminal influence.
Then there is the question of what will the mob do? Jim Wagner, a former FBI supervisor and past head of the Chicago Crime Commission, believes video poker remains too lucrative for the Outfit to cede its profits to the state.
There’s “too much money to be made with those machines to turn their backs on it,” Wagner said. “They have their own equipment out there and that won’t change.”
The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment for this story.
Thanks to Carol Marin and Don Mosely
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Public Enemies Two-Disc Special Edition is Released
This week, among the outstanding, thematically diverse films coming to DVD is a period piece chronicling the exploits of famous gangsters and the legendary FBI inspector who captured them.
Michael Mann's Public Enemies (Two-Disc Special Edition) (Universal) spotlights both famous personalities and key events from the era when such characters as John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd and Alvin Karpis captured the imagination of the public despite their criminal exploits.
Mann's lengthy (140 minutes) work mainly focuses on Dillinger (Johnny Depp), his relationship with Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) and legendary FBI agent Melvin Purvis' (Christian Bale) long crusade to capture him.
The film divides its time equally between Bale's often stormy relationship with superior J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) and his searches for not only Dillinger, but also Floyd (Channing Tatum), Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi) and Nelson (Stephen Graham).
Bale plays Purvis in a more relentless, less folksy manner than some previous actors, most notably Dale Robertson, whose portrayal of Purvis in both films and television shows depicted him as a larger-than-life, rollicking type who loved gambling, fancy cars and women. This Purvis is a tough, serious type who doesn't have much tine for small talk or bureau politics.
Public Enemies sometimes veers off into the unusual relationship between Dillnger and Frechette, and also shows just how magnetic Dillinger's personality was during that time. He was also quite brilliant, and among the film's highlights is the depiction of his escape from a heavily guarded prison, one that was particularly embarrassing to both prison and federal officials at the time.
The movie was based in part on Bryan Burrough's comprehensive Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI and is far more detailed and realistic than many of its predecessors.
Thanks to Ron Wynn
Michael Mann's Public Enemies (Two-Disc Special Edition) (Universal) spotlights both famous personalities and key events from the era when such characters as John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd and Alvin Karpis captured the imagination of the public despite their criminal exploits.
Mann's lengthy (140 minutes) work mainly focuses on Dillinger (Johnny Depp), his relationship with Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) and legendary FBI agent Melvin Purvis' (Christian Bale) long crusade to capture him.
The film divides its time equally between Bale's often stormy relationship with superior J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) and his searches for not only Dillinger, but also Floyd (Channing Tatum), Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi) and Nelson (Stephen Graham).
Bale plays Purvis in a more relentless, less folksy manner than some previous actors, most notably Dale Robertson, whose portrayal of Purvis in both films and television shows depicted him as a larger-than-life, rollicking type who loved gambling, fancy cars and women. This Purvis is a tough, serious type who doesn't have much tine for small talk or bureau politics.
Public Enemies sometimes veers off into the unusual relationship between Dillnger and Frechette, and also shows just how magnetic Dillinger's personality was during that time. He was also quite brilliant, and among the film's highlights is the depiction of his escape from a heavily guarded prison, one that was particularly embarrassing to both prison and federal officials at the time.
The movie was based in part on Bryan Burrough's comprehensive Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI and is far more detailed and realistic than many of its predecessors.
Thanks to Ron Wynn
Monday, December 07, 2009
"Capone May Go Free"
Imagine being a kid whose father was Al Capone's attorney and being taken to school by Sam "the Cigar" Giacana.
That's the early life of Donald "Donnie" Parrillo, who has written and self-published a book, "Capone May Go Free," about his family's connections to the Chicago mob. Parrillo served as councilman in Chicago's notorious First Ward, which has been credited with swinging the presidential election in favor of John F. Kennedy.
"It's about an era that's never going to happen again," Parrillo said. "Today, organized crime is very little. It's more of a myth."
Parrillo, who will be 79 on Dec. 13, had a heart attack while visiting Michigan City about a month ago. He's recovering from quadruple bypass surgery at his Chicago home. He spoke to The News-Dispatch by phone about the book he worked on for nearly a year.
In the book's prologue, Parrillo assures the reader, "Every word you are about to read is true. This is truly a true story based on my own experiences, from growing up in Chicago's 'Little Italy' where I saw 'Taylor Street Justice' administered with an iron hand, to that truly frightening moment when I was approached at my father's grave by the leader of the Chicago Outfit, Sam 'the Cigar' Giancana, and asked to run for alderman of Chicago's legendary First Ward."
The book's title comes from a newspaper headline about Parrillo's father, William "Billie" Parrillo, who found a legal loophole to get the infamous Al Capone free from prison. Capone had already served more than four years of an 11-year sentence at Alcatraz for tax evasion. Capone was released on parole and, ultimately, was done in by brain syphilis he got from actress Jean Harlow. He died at age 48.
William Parrillo also died at 48, and his son has never gotten over the early death. His father graduated from Kent College of Law in Chicago and became an assistant U.S. district attorney. William Parrillo left to start his own law practice with partner Joe Roach. Soon, his son said, "they became the go-to lawyers in Chicago for gangsters...," including Capone, Giancana and Frank Nitti.
Parrillo makes a point of saying his father worked for the organized crime syndicate, but he wasn't connected to them.
"They never could order him what to do," Parrillo said. "He was never in a position where he had to say yes."
The author devotes an entire chapter to Giancana, commonly referred to as "Mo." He knew Giancana "from the day I was born," he said. The Chicago mob boss occasionally took him and his brother to school.
"Mo loved the limelight," Parrillo recalled.
He writes about being asked to go to his father's grave, where he was met by a man dressed like a cemetery caretaker. The man turned out to be Giancana, and he asked Parrillo to run for alderman of Chicago's First Ward, one of the most politically influential wards in the city.
"The government was breathing down the First Ward's back because gambling was running wild," Parrillo said. "They knew I was a legitimate businessman."
Parrillo served as alderman from 1964 to 1968 and said he benefitted financially from it.
"The $11 million deposit bank I owned went to a $36 million bank," Parrillo said. "I also inherited a lot of money."
Parrillo spent summers at his family's lake house in Long Beach, starting at age 3 until his late teens. He lived full time in Long Beach with his wife and two children from 1979 to 1989. His daughter, Kimberly, graduated from Elston High School in 1986, and son Timothy is a 1987 Elston graduate.
"I loved Long Beach and the area so much, I wanted them to experience it, too," Parrillo said.
He considers the mobsters he knew as men who treated each other honorably.
"The lesson I learned from the big shots was, if you're an honorable person, you can never be stopped," Parrillo said. "When you make a commitment, you follow through with it."
Parrillo is distributing the book only in Michigan City. He has contracted with local resident Alan Harvey to stock the books in the three Al's Supermarkets and at The Bookstore at Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets. Visit www.caponemaygofree.com or call (877) 874-6220 for more information.
Thanks to Laurie Wink
That's the early life of Donald "Donnie" Parrillo, who has written and self-published a book, "Capone May Go Free," about his family's connections to the Chicago mob. Parrillo served as councilman in Chicago's notorious First Ward, which has been credited with swinging the presidential election in favor of John F. Kennedy.
"It's about an era that's never going to happen again," Parrillo said. "Today, organized crime is very little. It's more of a myth."
Parrillo, who will be 79 on Dec. 13, had a heart attack while visiting Michigan City about a month ago. He's recovering from quadruple bypass surgery at his Chicago home. He spoke to The News-Dispatch by phone about the book he worked on for nearly a year.
In the book's prologue, Parrillo assures the reader, "Every word you are about to read is true. This is truly a true story based on my own experiences, from growing up in Chicago's 'Little Italy' where I saw 'Taylor Street Justice' administered with an iron hand, to that truly frightening moment when I was approached at my father's grave by the leader of the Chicago Outfit, Sam 'the Cigar' Giancana, and asked to run for alderman of Chicago's legendary First Ward."
The book's title comes from a newspaper headline about Parrillo's father, William "Billie" Parrillo, who found a legal loophole to get the infamous Al Capone free from prison. Capone had already served more than four years of an 11-year sentence at Alcatraz for tax evasion. Capone was released on parole and, ultimately, was done in by brain syphilis he got from actress Jean Harlow. He died at age 48.
William Parrillo also died at 48, and his son has never gotten over the early death. His father graduated from Kent College of Law in Chicago and became an assistant U.S. district attorney. William Parrillo left to start his own law practice with partner Joe Roach. Soon, his son said, "they became the go-to lawyers in Chicago for gangsters...," including Capone, Giancana and Frank Nitti.
Parrillo makes a point of saying his father worked for the organized crime syndicate, but he wasn't connected to them.
"They never could order him what to do," Parrillo said. "He was never in a position where he had to say yes."
The author devotes an entire chapter to Giancana, commonly referred to as "Mo." He knew Giancana "from the day I was born," he said. The Chicago mob boss occasionally took him and his brother to school.
"Mo loved the limelight," Parrillo recalled.
He writes about being asked to go to his father's grave, where he was met by a man dressed like a cemetery caretaker. The man turned out to be Giancana, and he asked Parrillo to run for alderman of Chicago's First Ward, one of the most politically influential wards in the city.
"The government was breathing down the First Ward's back because gambling was running wild," Parrillo said. "They knew I was a legitimate businessman."
Parrillo served as alderman from 1964 to 1968 and said he benefitted financially from it.
"The $11 million deposit bank I owned went to a $36 million bank," Parrillo said. "I also inherited a lot of money."
Parrillo spent summers at his family's lake house in Long Beach, starting at age 3 until his late teens. He lived full time in Long Beach with his wife and two children from 1979 to 1989. His daughter, Kimberly, graduated from Elston High School in 1986, and son Timothy is a 1987 Elston graduate.
"I loved Long Beach and the area so much, I wanted them to experience it, too," Parrillo said.
He considers the mobsters he knew as men who treated each other honorably.
"The lesson I learned from the big shots was, if you're an honorable person, you can never be stopped," Parrillo said. "When you make a commitment, you follow through with it."
Parrillo is distributing the book only in Michigan City. He has contracted with local resident Alan Harvey to stock the books in the three Al's Supermarkets and at The Bookstore at Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets. Visit www.caponemaygofree.com or call (877) 874-6220 for more information.
Thanks to Laurie Wink
Junior Gotti Visits Father's Grave After Released from Fourth Mistrial
Freshly free after his fourth mistrial, the Teflon Son went to pay his respects to the original Dapper Don on Sunday.
John A. (Junior) Gotti arrived at the gangster-packed St. John's Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens, at 1:15 p.m. and spent about a half-hour alone with his departed dad.
The elder Gotti, who headed the Gambino crime family before his son, was sentenced to life behind bars after skating on three previous trials. He died in a Missouri prison in 2002. Junior, a 45-year-old father of six, spent the past 16 months behind bars until last Tuesday, when his own fourth racketeering trial ended in a hung jury.
Gotti made a point last week of saying he looked forward to visiting the graves of his father and brother. Junior's little brother, Frank, who was accidentally run over at age 12 by a neighbor who soon vanished without a trace, is also interred at the cemetery's five-story mausoleum.
Wearing a striped black track suit and white sneakers, Junior first went to noon Mass at the Church of St. Dominic in Oyster Bay, L.I., with two of his daughters.
He told reporters he planned to spend the rest of the day enjoying family time. "I'm going to cook. I always cook on Sundays," he said.
Junior made similar pilgrimages to his dad's grave after previous mistrials.
During his most recent murder and racketeering trial, Gotti said he felt his father communicated with him through specific songs that played on the radio at 10:27 p.m.
"1-0/27 is my father's birthday," he explained last week. "To me it's like a message."
Others buried at St. John's include such storied mobsters as Carlo Gambino, Carmine Galante, Vito Genovese, Joe Profaci, Joe Colombo and Lucky Luciano.
Thanks to Helen Kennedy
John A. (Junior) Gotti arrived at the gangster-packed St. John's Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens, at 1:15 p.m. and spent about a half-hour alone with his departed dad.
The elder Gotti, who headed the Gambino crime family before his son, was sentenced to life behind bars after skating on three previous trials. He died in a Missouri prison in 2002. Junior, a 45-year-old father of six, spent the past 16 months behind bars until last Tuesday, when his own fourth racketeering trial ended in a hung jury.
Gotti made a point last week of saying he looked forward to visiting the graves of his father and brother. Junior's little brother, Frank, who was accidentally run over at age 12 by a neighbor who soon vanished without a trace, is also interred at the cemetery's five-story mausoleum.
Wearing a striped black track suit and white sneakers, Junior first went to noon Mass at the Church of St. Dominic in Oyster Bay, L.I., with two of his daughters.
He told reporters he planned to spend the rest of the day enjoying family time. "I'm going to cook. I always cook on Sundays," he said.
Junior made similar pilgrimages to his dad's grave after previous mistrials.
During his most recent murder and racketeering trial, Gotti said he felt his father communicated with him through specific songs that played on the radio at 10:27 p.m.
"1-0/27 is my father's birthday," he explained last week. "To me it's like a message."
Others buried at St. John's include such storied mobsters as Carlo Gambino, Carmine Galante, Vito Genovese, Joe Profaci, Joe Colombo and Lucky Luciano.
Thanks to Helen Kennedy
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
ABA Journal's 3rd Annual Blawg 100
The ABA Journal's online directory has invited readers to vote for their favorite blogs from among their annual ABA Journal Blawg 100 in each of 10 categories. Every year, the list has occasioned great debate about the state of the blawgosphere, terrific legal blogs that didn't make the list, and how lawyers can benefit from the news and analysis being produced online every day by their colleagues nationwide.
Voting ends December 31. Winners will be featured in the February issue of the Journal.
Voting ends December 31. Winners will be featured in the February issue of the Journal.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Rudy Fratto Seeks to Delay Federal Sentencing
Chicago Outfit bosses have devised some shrewd excuses to stall justice, from feigning heart attacks and strokes to babbling incoherently as if possessed by an evil spirit.
About the time most people were starting to thaw the Thanksgiving bird last week, Rudolph C. "Rudy" Fratto of Darien was filing a motion to put off his federal court sentencing for a while.
The reason?
His lawyer needs a vacation in a sunny place. And then after the vacation his lawyer needs eye surgery.
Most people would take a break after an operation, but maybe the attorney needs to rest up for the surgery.
Regardless, by syndicate standards Fratto's delay tactic - laying it off on his lawyer - deserves a C at best. But as lame as the motion may be, the occasion allows me to revisit Mr. Fratto, whose well-cleansed and affluent suburban lifestyle has allowed him rapid upward movement in the Outfit, according to mob investigators.
As the omnipotent overseer of Outfit rackets in Elmwood Park, according to mobologists, for years Fratto has flown just below the fed's radar. Then, the lanky and birdlike Fratto committed the same mistake that eventually brings down all crooks: tax charges.
The feds finally got Al Capone that way. They caught Rudy Fratto when he neglected to ante up more than $141,000 in taxes on about $835,000 in income. So, the government got him indicted by a federal grand jury.
Now I know that federal prosecutors could get a hamburger indicted, as Joey "the Clown" Lombardo said recently in the Family Secrets mob murders case. But after they are indicted, nobody makes them plead guilty as Fratto, 65, did last month.
The kindly U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly set sentencing for Jan. 12, which allowed Fratto to spend the holidays with his family.
Last Thursday Mr. Fratto no doubt gave extra thanks for his timely fortunes and took an extra helping of mashed potatoes. And he will be able to enjoy a very merry Christmas and a blissful New Year with his loved ones before the judge considers handing him 12 to 18 months, which is the term called for in his plea bargain.
A year and a half isn't the kind of stay at the Crossbar Hotel that "Scarface" was given for breaking federal tax laws, but it no doubt is an unwelcome cold spell for a late-budding mob boss.
Now though, Mr. Fratto's sentencing may be delayed even further due to his lawyer's vacation plans and untimely cataract surgery.
The Fratto motion, to be heard on Wednesday morning in federal court, asks for a delay in sentencing to Feb. 12 for the convenience and pleasure of Fratto's attorney, Arthur N. Nasser.
"The defendant's attorney had made plans to visit with his family during Thanksgiving weekend in McLean, Va., and Christmas in Charleston, W.V." states the motion. "Thereafter, he has reservations to travel to Palm Springs, Calif., for 12 days departing Dec. 28, 2009 and returning to Chicago on Jan. 9, 2010. Upon his return to Chicago he is scheduled to have a cataract removed from his right eye ... on Jan. 14, 2010."
Such an excuse might have been better suited for Fratto's dearly-departed crime syndicate relative, Luigi Tomaso Giuseppi Fratto, who was a gangland boss and labor racketeer from the 1930s into the '60s.
Fratto was also known as "Cockeyed Louie" due to his off-kilter eyeball. Modern surgery could have fixed the problem.
"Cockeyed" is just one of Fratto's blood relatives who toiled in the trenches of the mob when it was in its infancy during the 1920s.
Rudy's public behavior certainly befits that of a smart-aleck Outfit boss. Federal records first reported by the ABC 7 I-Team revealed that Fratto was considered a major threat to major mob witness Nicholas Calabrese, a reformed hitman.
Calabrese' compelling testimony helped put away top hoodlums during the Family Secrets trial. Fratto was not charged in that case. Also, he was photographed over the years by federal surveillance teams during meetings with mob leaders. In 2001, he was seen at a secret Outfit summit where the takeover of video-poker turf in the suburbs was being hatched.
On another occasion, Fratto was observed meeting with former Chicago Police Chief of Detectives William Hanhardt. The duo was plotting of a proposed gangland hit, according to testimony in 2002 during a sentencing hearing in Hanhardt's jewel theft case. The hit did not occur and Hanhardt is serving a federal prison sentence. But getting a sentencing extension because your lawyer needs a Palm Springs vacation? Wimping out like that surely will not earn Rudy Fratto a place in the Outfit's Hall of Famous Ploys, Tricks and Tactics.
Thanks to Chuck Goudie
About the time most people were starting to thaw the Thanksgiving bird last week, Rudolph C. "Rudy" Fratto of Darien was filing a motion to put off his federal court sentencing for a while.
The reason?
His lawyer needs a vacation in a sunny place. And then after the vacation his lawyer needs eye surgery.
Most people would take a break after an operation, but maybe the attorney needs to rest up for the surgery.
Regardless, by syndicate standards Fratto's delay tactic - laying it off on his lawyer - deserves a C at best. But as lame as the motion may be, the occasion allows me to revisit Mr. Fratto, whose well-cleansed and affluent suburban lifestyle has allowed him rapid upward movement in the Outfit, according to mob investigators.
As the omnipotent overseer of Outfit rackets in Elmwood Park, according to mobologists, for years Fratto has flown just below the fed's radar. Then, the lanky and birdlike Fratto committed the same mistake that eventually brings down all crooks: tax charges.
The feds finally got Al Capone that way. They caught Rudy Fratto when he neglected to ante up more than $141,000 in taxes on about $835,000 in income. So, the government got him indicted by a federal grand jury.
Now I know that federal prosecutors could get a hamburger indicted, as Joey "the Clown" Lombardo said recently in the Family Secrets mob murders case. But after they are indicted, nobody makes them plead guilty as Fratto, 65, did last month.
The kindly U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly set sentencing for Jan. 12, which allowed Fratto to spend the holidays with his family.
Last Thursday Mr. Fratto no doubt gave extra thanks for his timely fortunes and took an extra helping of mashed potatoes. And he will be able to enjoy a very merry Christmas and a blissful New Year with his loved ones before the judge considers handing him 12 to 18 months, which is the term called for in his plea bargain.
A year and a half isn't the kind of stay at the Crossbar Hotel that "Scarface" was given for breaking federal tax laws, but it no doubt is an unwelcome cold spell for a late-budding mob boss.
Now though, Mr. Fratto's sentencing may be delayed even further due to his lawyer's vacation plans and untimely cataract surgery.
The Fratto motion, to be heard on Wednesday morning in federal court, asks for a delay in sentencing to Feb. 12 for the convenience and pleasure of Fratto's attorney, Arthur N. Nasser.
"The defendant's attorney had made plans to visit with his family during Thanksgiving weekend in McLean, Va., and Christmas in Charleston, W.V." states the motion. "Thereafter, he has reservations to travel to Palm Springs, Calif., for 12 days departing Dec. 28, 2009 and returning to Chicago on Jan. 9, 2010. Upon his return to Chicago he is scheduled to have a cataract removed from his right eye ... on Jan. 14, 2010."
Such an excuse might have been better suited for Fratto's dearly-departed crime syndicate relative, Luigi Tomaso Giuseppi Fratto, who was a gangland boss and labor racketeer from the 1930s into the '60s.
Fratto was also known as "Cockeyed Louie" due to his off-kilter eyeball. Modern surgery could have fixed the problem.
"Cockeyed" is just one of Fratto's blood relatives who toiled in the trenches of the mob when it was in its infancy during the 1920s.
Rudy's public behavior certainly befits that of a smart-aleck Outfit boss. Federal records first reported by the ABC 7 I-Team revealed that Fratto was considered a major threat to major mob witness Nicholas Calabrese, a reformed hitman.
Calabrese' compelling testimony helped put away top hoodlums during the Family Secrets trial. Fratto was not charged in that case. Also, he was photographed over the years by federal surveillance teams during meetings with mob leaders. In 2001, he was seen at a secret Outfit summit where the takeover of video-poker turf in the suburbs was being hatched.
On another occasion, Fratto was observed meeting with former Chicago Police Chief of Detectives William Hanhardt. The duo was plotting of a proposed gangland hit, according to testimony in 2002 during a sentencing hearing in Hanhardt's jewel theft case. The hit did not occur and Hanhardt is serving a federal prison sentence. But getting a sentencing extension because your lawyer needs a Palm Springs vacation? Wimping out like that surely will not earn Rudy Fratto a place in the Outfit's Hall of Famous Ploys, Tricks and Tactics.
Thanks to Chuck Goudie
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Will 4th Junior Gotti Trial End in Another Stalemate?
John Gotti Jr. sat at the defense table, the weight of his family history and whatever we have learned from countless movies and TV dramas about the Mafia, swirling around him.
This was the fourth time in the last four years that prosecutors have brought a case against him, this time for murder and racketeering, and just like the previous three trials in the ornate federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, a jury of 12 ordinary citizens have not been able to decide if he is guilty of the crimes charged.
"They have exhibited strength, intelligence, compassion and truthfulness and should be doubly commended for standing tall and firm for their beliefs and disbeliefs," Victoria Gotti, John's sister, told Fox News, acknowledging the proceedings have been a "difficult and exhausting trial." That slow journey will continue after the Thanksgiving holiday, with the jurors returning for more deliberations next week.
The jury announced it was deadlocked, just as the last three juries have since 2005, potentially handing federal prosecutions a stalemate. The U.S. government has so far been unable to convince 48 people that Gotti continued to follow his father's line of work. He has said he quit, in 1999, when he plead guilty to racketeering charges and went away for six years. At the time he said he thought that plea, and the sentence, would wipe the slate clean, but he was slapped with new charges when he left prison four years ago.
Prosecutors have ridiculed the claim that he quit.
"This defendant has lived the Mafia life," declared Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Trezevant, "and he never, never quit that life." They say the claim was concocted as a legal strategy and tried to show you just can't give the mob walking papers.
They presented the testimony of Bonanno Family Capo Dominick Cicale, who said you can only leave the Mafia by cooperating with the federal government or by dying. But others have walked away and lived to tell about it.
The most noted examples were the founder of the Bonanno crime family, the late Joseph Bonanno, and his son, Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno. Bill told Fox News in 2006 that he thought John Gotti Jr. had indeed left what they call "the life," in 1999, seeing what the world glamorized by "The Godfather" had really become.
In his book, "A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno," Bonanno wrote: "The world I grew up in is gone and what is left is in ruins. The Mafia stories continue, however, regardless of the emptiness behind them."
Bonanno wrote those words in 1999, not only the same year Gotti, Jr. claims he dropped out, but the year that the "The Sopranos" debuted on HBO, giving America a new, fictional mob fascination.
"The Sopranos" ended with the famous, and controversial, black-out scene. No Tony in handcuffs, no Tony walking away. Just Tony eating with his family. We think he's still out hustling in New Jersey and then dining at the Vesuvio with Carm. But in real life, organized crime careers have voluntarily ended with the finality viewers were denied by "The Sopranos" nebulous ending.
"You can quit the mob, I've done it," former Columbo crime family Capo Michael Franzese told Fox News.
The 58-year-old Franzese is the son of John "Sonny" Franzese, "a kingpin of the Columbo crime family," as Michael's Web site, MichaelFranzese.com, puts it. But after being released from prison, he became a born-again Christian, motivational speaker, producer and author. His latest book, "I'll Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse," applies what he learned in the mob to the business world - legally.
"You've got to be crazy to stay in the life," says Franzese. "Like me, John wasn't destined for this life and neither was I. I was going to school to become a doctor. I question my own self at times. I did this for my dad. At one point I wanted him to be proud of me, and I think John shares a similar feeling like that. So we got into it for one reason and realized what it was all about, and maybe had second thoughts."
The most intriguing, and surprising evidence of precedent for departing the ranks of wise-guys and not being stuffed in a barrel and dumped in the ocean, was a 1985 F.B.I. wiretap of Aniello Dellacroce. The then 71-year-old mob patriarch suffered from terminal cancer, and as the reputed underboss of the Gambino Crime Family at the time, he actually explained how the Gambinos had kicked someone out.
Dellacroce, who was the mentor of John Gotti Jr.'s father, was secretly recorded talking about a dismissed crime family member on June 9, 1985, in his home on Staten Island, New York, six months before he died.
"We threw him out of the Family," Dellacroce explained.
"So, youse knocked him down," responded a listener, meaning the man in question was demoted.
"No,"responded Delleacroce. "He's out of the family."
"He's out?" asked his friend, incredulously.
"Yeah," said Dellacroce. "We threw him out. Out."
"You threw him out?"
"Out. He don't belong in the Family no more. Any friend of yours, any, any friend of ours in the street...that you see...you tell them. This guy, he ain't in the family no more. You don't have nothin' to do with him. That's it."
Four days later, another FBI wiretap heard the group discussing their lawyers, and their visit to one lawyer's office.
"My God, what a layout he's got. They got more customers... Michael Franzese was there," noted one speaker, impressively.
During that tape, they resumed discussing the banished former Gambino.
"This guy is out, We threw him out," the group was reminded and then they start arguing about that possibility.
"I heard (this guy) was just taken down, he wasn't thrown out." said one.
"This guy was thrown out. Ya understand?" Dellacroce snapped. "Nobody's gonna bother with him...I wouldn't bother with him and nobody else would...I'll explain to him a little better this time…Maybe he didn't get the message right... Threw him out, that's, that's right. We threw him out...They don't understand English," said Dellacroce, trying to finally get his message through.
Even Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, who later served as the Gambino Underboss, quit by agreeing to testify against the senior Gotti in 1992. Gravano wrote in his book, "Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia," that he when he walked in to meet Gotti's prosecutor, he declared: "I want to switch governments," meaning from the Gambinos to Uncle Sam. He later was caught running a drug ring in Phoenix after he served five years for 19 murders, and is now back in prison.
The current, active members of Cosa Nostra may not agree, but history shows that even their leaders, at the highest levels -- including the bosses of two crime families- have walked away. And now a jury, once again, is trying to determine if John Gotti, Jr. did just that.
"I can tell you, unmistakably, that he has left that life," John's sister, Victoria, told Fox News. "We're not talking about a guy that is being paraded out there and there are videotapes or audio tapes of John with present day mob members," she notes, indirectly alluding to the avalanche of wiretaps and surveillance videos the Feds used as evidence against her father.
"John is no part of that life anymore," she adds. "I believe they know that deep in their hearts and in their brains."
Meanwhile, John Gotti, Jr. waits for a verdict -- if there is one.
Thanks to Eric Shawn
This was the fourth time in the last four years that prosecutors have brought a case against him, this time for murder and racketeering, and just like the previous three trials in the ornate federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, a jury of 12 ordinary citizens have not been able to decide if he is guilty of the crimes charged.
"They have exhibited strength, intelligence, compassion and truthfulness and should be doubly commended for standing tall and firm for their beliefs and disbeliefs," Victoria Gotti, John's sister, told Fox News, acknowledging the proceedings have been a "difficult and exhausting trial." That slow journey will continue after the Thanksgiving holiday, with the jurors returning for more deliberations next week.
The jury announced it was deadlocked, just as the last three juries have since 2005, potentially handing federal prosecutions a stalemate. The U.S. government has so far been unable to convince 48 people that Gotti continued to follow his father's line of work. He has said he quit, in 1999, when he plead guilty to racketeering charges and went away for six years. At the time he said he thought that plea, and the sentence, would wipe the slate clean, but he was slapped with new charges when he left prison four years ago.
Prosecutors have ridiculed the claim that he quit.
"This defendant has lived the Mafia life," declared Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Trezevant, "and he never, never quit that life." They say the claim was concocted as a legal strategy and tried to show you just can't give the mob walking papers.
They presented the testimony of Bonanno Family Capo Dominick Cicale, who said you can only leave the Mafia by cooperating with the federal government or by dying. But others have walked away and lived to tell about it.
The most noted examples were the founder of the Bonanno crime family, the late Joseph Bonanno, and his son, Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno. Bill told Fox News in 2006 that he thought John Gotti Jr. had indeed left what they call "the life," in 1999, seeing what the world glamorized by "The Godfather" had really become.
In his book, "A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno," Bonanno wrote: "The world I grew up in is gone and what is left is in ruins. The Mafia stories continue, however, regardless of the emptiness behind them."
Bonanno wrote those words in 1999, not only the same year Gotti, Jr. claims he dropped out, but the year that the "The Sopranos" debuted on HBO, giving America a new, fictional mob fascination.
"The Sopranos" ended with the famous, and controversial, black-out scene. No Tony in handcuffs, no Tony walking away. Just Tony eating with his family. We think he's still out hustling in New Jersey and then dining at the Vesuvio with Carm. But in real life, organized crime careers have voluntarily ended with the finality viewers were denied by "The Sopranos" nebulous ending.
"You can quit the mob, I've done it," former Columbo crime family Capo Michael Franzese told Fox News.
The 58-year-old Franzese is the son of John "Sonny" Franzese, "a kingpin of the Columbo crime family," as Michael's Web site, MichaelFranzese.com, puts it. But after being released from prison, he became a born-again Christian, motivational speaker, producer and author. His latest book, "I'll Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse," applies what he learned in the mob to the business world - legally.
"You've got to be crazy to stay in the life," says Franzese. "Like me, John wasn't destined for this life and neither was I. I was going to school to become a doctor. I question my own self at times. I did this for my dad. At one point I wanted him to be proud of me, and I think John shares a similar feeling like that. So we got into it for one reason and realized what it was all about, and maybe had second thoughts."
The most intriguing, and surprising evidence of precedent for departing the ranks of wise-guys and not being stuffed in a barrel and dumped in the ocean, was a 1985 F.B.I. wiretap of Aniello Dellacroce. The then 71-year-old mob patriarch suffered from terminal cancer, and as the reputed underboss of the Gambino Crime Family at the time, he actually explained how the Gambinos had kicked someone out.
Dellacroce, who was the mentor of John Gotti Jr.'s father, was secretly recorded talking about a dismissed crime family member on June 9, 1985, in his home on Staten Island, New York, six months before he died.
"We threw him out of the Family," Dellacroce explained.
"So, youse knocked him down," responded a listener, meaning the man in question was demoted.
"No,"responded Delleacroce. "He's out of the family."
"He's out?" asked his friend, incredulously.
"Yeah," said Dellacroce. "We threw him out. Out."
"You threw him out?"
"Out. He don't belong in the Family no more. Any friend of yours, any, any friend of ours in the street...that you see...you tell them. This guy, he ain't in the family no more. You don't have nothin' to do with him. That's it."
Four days later, another FBI wiretap heard the group discussing their lawyers, and their visit to one lawyer's office.
"My God, what a layout he's got. They got more customers... Michael Franzese was there," noted one speaker, impressively.
During that tape, they resumed discussing the banished former Gambino.
"This guy is out, We threw him out," the group was reminded and then they start arguing about that possibility.
"I heard (this guy) was just taken down, he wasn't thrown out." said one.
"This guy was thrown out. Ya understand?" Dellacroce snapped. "Nobody's gonna bother with him...I wouldn't bother with him and nobody else would...I'll explain to him a little better this time…Maybe he didn't get the message right... Threw him out, that's, that's right. We threw him out...They don't understand English," said Dellacroce, trying to finally get his message through.
Even Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, who later served as the Gambino Underboss, quit by agreeing to testify against the senior Gotti in 1992. Gravano wrote in his book, "Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia," that he when he walked in to meet Gotti's prosecutor, he declared: "I want to switch governments," meaning from the Gambinos to Uncle Sam. He later was caught running a drug ring in Phoenix after he served five years for 19 murders, and is now back in prison.
The current, active members of Cosa Nostra may not agree, but history shows that even their leaders, at the highest levels -- including the bosses of two crime families- have walked away. And now a jury, once again, is trying to determine if John Gotti, Jr. did just that.
"I can tell you, unmistakably, that he has left that life," John's sister, Victoria, told Fox News. "We're not talking about a guy that is being paraded out there and there are videotapes or audio tapes of John with present day mob members," she notes, indirectly alluding to the avalanche of wiretaps and surveillance videos the Feds used as evidence against her father.
"John is no part of that life anymore," she adds. "I believe they know that deep in their hearts and in their brains."
Meanwhile, John Gotti, Jr. waits for a verdict -- if there is one.
Thanks to Eric Shawn
The Other Chicago Mob: The True Story of Gary Cohen Man in Blue
The Other Chicago Mob the story of Officer Gary Cohen, a cop from 1966 to 1988. He and his brother officers were almost universally opportunists, crooks, and in some way on the take in a police department set up to facilitate dishonest activity. This is the story of a crooked cop in a dishonest system that is part of a dysfunctional city government. It describes a forty-year cover-up as Gary crosses the thin blue line and breaks the code of silence to set history right. The Other Chicago Mob is the police department, and the story explains how it works, names individuals, takes you on the streets and down in the subways in this never before told true police story. Walk the streets and alleys of Chicago and see what being a cop was really about.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Gomorrah DVD
Matteo Garrone's GOMORRAH is a dense, sprawling exposé of the corruption plaguing the communities of Naples and Caserta in modern-day Italy. all-powerful Camorra syndicate influences the lives of even the most innocent citizens. In a manner similar to THE WIRE, Garrone tells his story from many different angles, resulting in a complicated narrative that often feels novelistic. In many cases, the revolving stories never overlap or intersect. While that may be jarring to those viewers who are used to having their strings tied neatly for them by a film's conclusion, Garrone's decision results in an experience that feels much more honest and true. We witness the syndicate's impact from the top down and from the inside out, following a cavalcade of characters who are all trying in their own ways to escape the deadly world in which they live.
Based on the book by Roberto Saviano, Garrone's crime epic is a powerful indictment of the corruption that is running rampant in Italy. His decision to present such a wide spectrum of characters enables him to show just how deeply everyone is impacted by this terrifying, unchecked display of criminal power. Cinematically, he employs a dizzying array of styles in order to further establish the frighteningly ungoverned atmosphere that pervades this community. GOMORRAH succeeds as both visceral entertainment and thoughtful social commentary. (2 hrs. 17 min.)
Based on the book by Roberto Saviano, Garrone's crime epic is a powerful indictment of the corruption that is running rampant in Italy. His decision to present such a wide spectrum of characters enables him to show just how deeply everyone is impacted by this terrifying, unchecked display of criminal power. Cinematically, he employs a dizzying array of styles in order to further establish the frighteningly ungoverned atmosphere that pervades this community. GOMORRAH succeeds as both visceral entertainment and thoughtful social commentary. (2 hrs. 17 min.)
Friday, November 20, 2009
Mario Rainone, Reputed Chicago Mobster, Pleads Guilty to Residential Burglary
A reputed member of the Chicago mob was sentenced to 71/2 years in prison Monday when he pleaded guilty to burglarizing a Lincolnshire house.
Mario Rainone, 54, pleaded guilty to residential burglary during a hearing before Lake County Associate Judge George Bridges.
At the time of the Feb. 12 burglary, Rainone was on parole for a racketeering and conspiracy conviction in federal court for his activities as a member of the Leonard Patrick Street Crew.
Assistant State's Attorney Marykay Foy said Rainone, of Addison, and Vincent Forliano, 39, of Bloomingdale, were under surveillance by a task force of police from several jurisdictions in northern Illinois.
Police watched as the pair drove from Bloomingdale to Trafalgar Square in Lincolnshire, walked into a condominium complex and emerged a few minutes later with property under their coats.
Officers followed them to an intersection in Addison, where their car was stopped and they were arrested after a purse, cash and jewelry taken from the Lincolnshire house was found in the vehicle.
Both were charged with residential burglary, which Foy said carries a mandatory prison sentence of four to 15 years upon conviction.
Foy said Rainone was convicted of residential burglary in 1972, and in 1992 pleaded guilty to the federal racketeering charge in exchange for a sentence of 171/2 years in prison.
He is currently charged with violating his parole in that case and faces another federal charge of possession of a weapon by a felon based on a handgun that was discovered in his house after his arrest in the Lincolnshire case.
In addition, Foy said Rainone faces federal charges of bribery in Wisconsin for having contraband food smuggled into the prison where he was serving time.
Forliano has pleaded not guilty to charges in the Lincolnshire case and is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 27.
Thanks to Tony Gordon
Mario Rainone, 54, pleaded guilty to residential burglary during a hearing before Lake County Associate Judge George Bridges.
At the time of the Feb. 12 burglary, Rainone was on parole for a racketeering and conspiracy conviction in federal court for his activities as a member of the Leonard Patrick Street Crew.
Assistant State's Attorney Marykay Foy said Rainone, of Addison, and Vincent Forliano, 39, of Bloomingdale, were under surveillance by a task force of police from several jurisdictions in northern Illinois.
Police watched as the pair drove from Bloomingdale to Trafalgar Square in Lincolnshire, walked into a condominium complex and emerged a few minutes later with property under their coats.
Officers followed them to an intersection in Addison, where their car was stopped and they were arrested after a purse, cash and jewelry taken from the Lincolnshire house was found in the vehicle.
Both were charged with residential burglary, which Foy said carries a mandatory prison sentence of four to 15 years upon conviction.
Foy said Rainone was convicted of residential burglary in 1972, and in 1992 pleaded guilty to the federal racketeering charge in exchange for a sentence of 171/2 years in prison.
He is currently charged with violating his parole in that case and faces another federal charge of possession of a weapon by a felon based on a handgun that was discovered in his house after his arrest in the Lincolnshire case.
In addition, Foy said Rainone faces federal charges of bribery in Wisconsin for having contraband food smuggled into the prison where he was serving time.
Forliano has pleaded not guilty to charges in the Lincolnshire case and is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 27.
Thanks to Tony Gordon
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Patrick Tuite Settles Lawsuit Over Double Deal
The Reader received the other day a nearly blank sheet of paper passing itself off as a press release. At the top of the sheet PRESS RELEASE had been typed, and beneath that heading this message:
"The case of Tuite vs. harper Collins, Michael Corbitt and Sam Giancana has been resolved. All terms of the settlement are confidential. The reference to Patrick Tuite was removed from the paperback edition of the book Double Deal prior to its publication in 2003."
There was a cover letter, equally terse.
"Dear Sir or Madam: In that your publication previously reported on the litigation for defamation brought by Patrick Tuite, the enclosed Press Release may be of interest to your readers. The release is self-explanatory and no additional information is available."
It was signed by Paul M. Levy of the Loop law firm Deutsch, Levy & Engel.
The press release was self-explanatory in the sense that it said why it said nothing. Because the terms are confidential, that's why. I called Levy and, chancing an immediate hang-up, asked who he was. He said he represented Tuite. Why are the terms confidential? I asked. He did not have to answer such a prying question, but he did.
"By agreement of the parties," he said. "We felt it was an appropriate element of the settlement."
The Tuite suit was major litigation. I wrote about it frequently for the Reader, and at some length. Tuite is a prominent criminal defense attorney who believed he was slandered in Double Deal, a 2003 book written by a mobbed-up ex-cop, now dead, and by the godson of the former Chicago mob godfather. In the book, Corbitt, the cop, told a story about making a run out to Salt Lake City to pick up $1 million stuffed into a couple of duffel bags. Corbitt said he understood the money was needed to hire a "big-shot lawyer" — Tuite — to defend mob boss Joey Aiuppa against federal charges.
"After Tuite was on the case, all the guys were sort of semijubilant. Everybody figured Tuite had it all handled..." Corbitt wrote. "So you can imagine their reaction when they were all found guilty the following January...
"And what about Tuite? What kind of explanation could he possibly have given for this result? I can't think of one that would've satisfied me--not after advancing him a million bucks for his legal fees. And I guess that's why, for the life of me, I've never understood why Pat Tuite didn't get whacked. Go figure."
The theory Tuite advanced in his lawsuit for why he didn't get whacked was that there was no million dollars and he didn't even represent Aiuppa. His suit failed at the circuit court and appellate levels on the grounds that Illinois' "innocent construction rule" required the courts to measure arguably slanderous language by its most benign interpretation, which in this case was simply that the mob thought Tuite was one crackerjack attorney. Tuite appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court. He went beyond arguing that the lower courts had misapplied the innocent construction rule. He called the rule an "anachronism" and asked the supreme court to abolish it.
First Amendment attorneys leaped to the rule's defense. The Reader, the Tribune, the Sun-Times, ABC, CBS, WLS, Crain Communications, the Copley Press, the Illinois Broadcasters Association, and Simon & Schuster joined in an amicus brief that called Tuite's request "profoundly ill-advised." The brief argued that the innocent construction rule "preserves writers, publishers and broadcasters from the chilling effect of having to mount a lengthy and expensive defense of marginal and abusive cases." If, occasionally, it's misapplied, "that...does not mean you throw it out; that is what appellate review is for."
I first wrote about Tuite's suit in 2006, when Tuite took his suit to the supreme court. A few months later I examined what was to me the tortured logic by which that court both ruled for Tuite but managed to keep the innocent construction rule alive. When defense attorneys asked the court for a rehearing, I wrote about the Tuite suit a third time. And that was that. A rehearing wasn't granted and Tuite's suit returned to circuit court for trial. But in the end — I was able to find this out — the two sides agreed to let a mediator work out terms everyone could live with.
Those are the terms that are none of our business.
The note from Levy wasn't quite as succinct or dramatic a message as a dead fish dropped on your doorstep. But it came close. The message: It's over; Fuhgeddaboutit!
Which I'm afraid I and the various parties to the amicus brief had begun to do as soon as the innocent construction rule was saved. It was unpleasant of Levy to tell us so little. But it was nice of him to remember that we once cared.
Thanks to Michael Miner
"The case of Tuite vs. harper Collins, Michael Corbitt and Sam Giancana has been resolved. All terms of the settlement are confidential. The reference to Patrick Tuite was removed from the paperback edition of the book Double Deal prior to its publication in 2003."
There was a cover letter, equally terse.
"Dear Sir or Madam: In that your publication previously reported on the litigation for defamation brought by Patrick Tuite, the enclosed Press Release may be of interest to your readers. The release is self-explanatory and no additional information is available."
It was signed by Paul M. Levy of the Loop law firm Deutsch, Levy & Engel.
The press release was self-explanatory in the sense that it said why it said nothing. Because the terms are confidential, that's why. I called Levy and, chancing an immediate hang-up, asked who he was. He said he represented Tuite. Why are the terms confidential? I asked. He did not have to answer such a prying question, but he did.
"By agreement of the parties," he said. "We felt it was an appropriate element of the settlement."
The Tuite suit was major litigation. I wrote about it frequently for the Reader, and at some length. Tuite is a prominent criminal defense attorney who believed he was slandered in Double Deal, a 2003 book written by a mobbed-up ex-cop, now dead, and by the godson of the former Chicago mob godfather. In the book, Corbitt, the cop, told a story about making a run out to Salt Lake City to pick up $1 million stuffed into a couple of duffel bags. Corbitt said he understood the money was needed to hire a "big-shot lawyer" — Tuite — to defend mob boss Joey Aiuppa against federal charges.
"After Tuite was on the case, all the guys were sort of semijubilant. Everybody figured Tuite had it all handled..." Corbitt wrote. "So you can imagine their reaction when they were all found guilty the following January...
"And what about Tuite? What kind of explanation could he possibly have given for this result? I can't think of one that would've satisfied me--not after advancing him a million bucks for his legal fees. And I guess that's why, for the life of me, I've never understood why Pat Tuite didn't get whacked. Go figure."
The theory Tuite advanced in his lawsuit for why he didn't get whacked was that there was no million dollars and he didn't even represent Aiuppa. His suit failed at the circuit court and appellate levels on the grounds that Illinois' "innocent construction rule" required the courts to measure arguably slanderous language by its most benign interpretation, which in this case was simply that the mob thought Tuite was one crackerjack attorney. Tuite appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court. He went beyond arguing that the lower courts had misapplied the innocent construction rule. He called the rule an "anachronism" and asked the supreme court to abolish it.
First Amendment attorneys leaped to the rule's defense. The Reader, the Tribune, the Sun-Times, ABC, CBS, WLS, Crain Communications, the Copley Press, the Illinois Broadcasters Association, and Simon & Schuster joined in an amicus brief that called Tuite's request "profoundly ill-advised." The brief argued that the innocent construction rule "preserves writers, publishers and broadcasters from the chilling effect of having to mount a lengthy and expensive defense of marginal and abusive cases." If, occasionally, it's misapplied, "that...does not mean you throw it out; that is what appellate review is for."
I first wrote about Tuite's suit in 2006, when Tuite took his suit to the supreme court. A few months later I examined what was to me the tortured logic by which that court both ruled for Tuite but managed to keep the innocent construction rule alive. When defense attorneys asked the court for a rehearing, I wrote about the Tuite suit a third time. And that was that. A rehearing wasn't granted and Tuite's suit returned to circuit court for trial. But in the end — I was able to find this out — the two sides agreed to let a mediator work out terms everyone could live with.
Those are the terms that are none of our business.
The note from Levy wasn't quite as succinct or dramatic a message as a dead fish dropped on your doorstep. But it came close. The message: It's over; Fuhgeddaboutit!
Which I'm afraid I and the various parties to the amicus brief had begun to do as soon as the innocent construction rule was saved. It was unpleasant of Levy to tell us so little. But it was nice of him to remember that we once cared.
Thanks to Michael Miner
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Chicago's Bloody Gang War of the 1920's
On this day in 1924, Dion O'Banion, the Irish-American leader of North Side Gang is assassinated in his flower shop by members of Johnny Torrio's gang, sparking the bloody gang war of the 1920s in Chicago.
O'Banion, who had a thriving bootlegging and floral business, was the main rival of the Chicago outfit, led by Torrio and his henchman, Al Capone.
When O'Banion learned there was going to be a raid on his brewery, he offered to retire to Colorado if Torrio bought out the business. Torrio wound up in jail and O'Banion kept the $500,000 for the padlocked brewery.
O'Banion was in his floral shop fixing flowers when three gangsters came in. When O'Banion reached out with a handshake, one of the men held it in a death gripe, while the other two shot O'Banion twice each in the chest, cheeks and throat.
The O'Banion killing sparked a five-year war that culminated in the killing of seven North Side gang members in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929.
Thanks to Scott McCabe
O'Banion, who had a thriving bootlegging and floral business, was the main rival of the Chicago outfit, led by Torrio and his henchman, Al Capone.
When O'Banion learned there was going to be a raid on his brewery, he offered to retire to Colorado if Torrio bought out the business. Torrio wound up in jail and O'Banion kept the $500,000 for the padlocked brewery.
O'Banion was in his floral shop fixing flowers when three gangsters came in. When O'Banion reached out with a handshake, one of the men held it in a death gripe, while the other two shot O'Banion twice each in the chest, cheeks and throat.
The O'Banion killing sparked a five-year war that culminated in the killing of seven North Side gang members in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929.
Thanks to Scott McCabe
Monday, November 09, 2009
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Chicago Gangster Arrested in Wisconsin
Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced the arrest of DANIEL BONILLA, age 26, whose last known address was 2544 North Harding in Chicago. BONILLA was arrested on November 2, 2009, by members of the Milwaukee U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. BONILLA had been the subject of a nationwide manhunt, coordinated by the Chicago FBI’s Joint Task Force on Gangs (JTFG) since October of 2008, when he was charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago with violation of Federal drug laws.
BONILLA, an alleged member of the Spanish Cobras street gang, was among 30 gang members and associates charged last year as the result of an investigation, codenamed “Operation Snake Charmer”. His arrest earlier this week was the result of an anonymous tip to the Chicago Office of the FBI. The tipster indicated that he/she had seen BONILLA’s wanted flyer on the internet and knew of his whereabouts in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He was arrested without incident.
BONILLA was transported back to Chicago, where he appeared in U.S. District Court to face charges. He is being held without bond until his next scheduled court appearance.
The Milwaukee U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force is comprised of Special Agents from the FBI; U.S. Marshals; Officers of the Milwaukee Police Department; and Deputies from the Milwaukee and Waukesha County Sheriff’s Departments.
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
BONILLA, an alleged member of the Spanish Cobras street gang, was among 30 gang members and associates charged last year as the result of an investigation, codenamed “Operation Snake Charmer”. His arrest earlier this week was the result of an anonymous tip to the Chicago Office of the FBI. The tipster indicated that he/she had seen BONILLA’s wanted flyer on the internet and knew of his whereabouts in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He was arrested without incident.
BONILLA was transported back to Chicago, where he appeared in U.S. District Court to face charges. He is being held without bond until his next scheduled court appearance.
The Milwaukee U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force is comprised of Special Agents from the FBI; U.S. Marshals; Officers of the Milwaukee Police Department; and Deputies from the Milwaukee and Waukesha County Sheriff’s Departments.
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
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Muslim Mafia Authors Barred From Publishing Documents
A federal judge yesterday granted a request by the Council on American-Islamic Relations to block the authors of Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that's Conspiring to Islamize America from publishing any of the documents taken by Chris Gaubatz while he was posing as an intern during a "counterintelligence operation" for the book.
Separately, Muslim Mafia author Dave Gaubatz and his son Chris are now being represented by the lawyer who represented shock jock Michael Savage in his 2007 copyright infringement suit against CAIR. We'll have more on this soon.
Besides barring publication of the docs, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered in her opinion yesterday that the authors return to CAIR any of the files that contain donor, attorney-client, or confidential employee information. She ruled CAIR is likely to succeed in its claim that Gaubatz violated the confidentiality agreement that CAIR alleges he signed when he became an intern at the group's Washington office.
"This is the first step," CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper tells TPMmuckraker. "This is going to be a long legal battle and we won the first skirmish." He adds that CAIR has not yet received the documents, and that it is mulling further legal action on issues including defamation.
Kollar-Kotelly writes in her opinion:
Of course Muslim Mafia, published last month by WorldNetDaily, makes use of those documents and sparked a request by four House Republicans for an investigation into alleged Muslim intern spying on Capitol Hill. And it's worth noting that at least a few of the documents are already in wide circulation, including a CAIR "strategy" memo released by the members of Congress.
Kollar-Kotelly also writes in her ruling that the information she has seen suggests Gaubatz took information from CAIR -- including, they say, 12,000 pages of internal files -- unlawfully:
Gaubatz told WND that research for the book "was conducted professionally and legally."
Thanks to Justin Elliot
Separately, Muslim Mafia author Dave Gaubatz and his son Chris are now being represented by the lawyer who represented shock jock Michael Savage in his 2007 copyright infringement suit against CAIR. We'll have more on this soon.
Besides barring publication of the docs, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered in her opinion yesterday that the authors return to CAIR any of the files that contain donor, attorney-client, or confidential employee information. She ruled CAIR is likely to succeed in its claim that Gaubatz violated the confidentiality agreement that CAIR alleges he signed when he became an intern at the group's Washington office.
"This is the first step," CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper tells TPMmuckraker. "This is going to be a long legal battle and we won the first skirmish." He adds that CAIR has not yet received the documents, and that it is mulling further legal action on issues including defamation.
Kollar-Kotelly writes in her opinion:
The Court shall therefore GRANT CAIR's request for a temporary restraining order enjoining Defendants from making any use, disclosure or publication of any (a) document (including emails and other electronic documents) or copy thereof obtained by Defendant Chris Gaubatz from CAIR's offices or facilities, or (b) recording (or copy thereof), whether audio or video, of meetings or of conversations involving CAIR officials or employees.
Of course Muslim Mafia, published last month by WorldNetDaily, makes use of those documents and sparked a request by four House Republicans for an investigation into alleged Muslim intern spying on Capitol Hill. And it's worth noting that at least a few of the documents are already in wide circulation, including a CAIR "strategy" memo released by the members of Congress.
Kollar-Kotelly also writes in her ruling that the information she has seen suggests Gaubatz took information from CAIR -- including, they say, 12,000 pages of internal files -- unlawfully:
[T]he record now before the Court supports a finding that Defendants have unlawfully obtained access to, and have already caused repeated public disclosure of, material containing CAIR's proprietary, confidential and privileged information. Although Defendants have not yet appeared before the Court in person, CAIR has provided sworn declarations detailing apparent admissions made by Defendant Paul David Gaubatz in his book, Muslim Mafia, in which he admits that his son, Defendant Chris Gaubatz, obtained an internship with CAIR under the "nom de guerre" of "David Marshall," and "routinely load[ed] the trunk of his car with boxes of sensitive [CAIR] documents and deliver[ed] them into the custody of investigative project P. David Gaubatz who in turn stockpiled them at his office in Richmond, Virginia."
Gaubatz told WND that research for the book "was conducted professionally and legally."
Thanks to Justin Elliot
Victoria Gotti Explodes in Court with Profane Tirade
She's one bad mother.
Mob matriarch Victoria Gotti unleashed a foul-mouthed fusillade at a federal judge Wednesday, exploding in fury as he booted a purportedly pro-defense juror.
"F----- animals!" screamed the seething mother of defendant John A. (Junior) Gotti. "They're railroading you! They're doing to you what they did to your father!"
Junior Gotti turned from the defense table to soothe his mother, but the wife of late mobster John (Dapper Don) Gotti ignored her 45-year-old son - and escalated her profane tirade.
"They're doing to you what they did to your father," the volatile Mafia mom ranted. "You f------ liar! You bastard!"
Junior interrupted: "I can deal with it. I'm okay. Don't worry about it. I'm fine." But his mother kept blasting with both barrels.
"They're the gangsters, right there!" she yelled. "The f------ gangsters! You son of a bitches! Put your own sons in there. You bastards!"
Federal Judge Kevin Castel was in the middle of dismissing contentious juror No. 7 when Victoria Gotti - who has a history of histrionics - sprung from her seat in full maternal meltdown.
She was hustled from the courtroom by three of her children before a scowling Castel continued, cutting loose the pro-defense juror. Prosecutors had sought her dismissal.
He also dismissed No. 7's nemesis, juror No. 11. The jury was out of the courtroom when Castel made his ruling - and when Victoria Gotti erupted.
"I don't know the source of the friction between the two jurors," Castel concluded after Victoria Gotti left. "It may be that one is a difficult personality or that both are difficult.
"Accordingly, I am striking both jurors."
The blowup came as the defense was wrapping up its case in Gotti's fourth racketeering trial in five years. The first three ended with hung juries and mistrials.
The jury rift opened last week, after a letter to the judge from an anonymous fellow panelist.
The juror ratted out No. 7, a 34-year-old mail carrier, as sweet on defense lawyer Charles Carnesi and giving her "undivided attention" to the defense case.
The letter raised hopes in the Gotti camp of a fourth mistrial. Then more problems emerged this week, with juror No. 11 accusing No. 7 of taunting her.
Castel attempted to calm the divided jury with sweet talk and sweets - a jar of Twizzlers. Neither worked. And nothing could calm Victoria Gotti, who had verbally assaulted Castel after a hearing in May.
"Why don't you hang him now?" she asked sarcastically at the time. "These are the good guys? God help us!"
Three years ago, in another Junior trial, she shouted at a federal prosecutor. "Who the hell do you think you're talking to?" she snapped.
Thanks to Alison Gendar and Larry McShane.
Mob matriarch Victoria Gotti unleashed a foul-mouthed fusillade at a federal judge Wednesday, exploding in fury as he booted a purportedly pro-defense juror.
"F----- animals!" screamed the seething mother of defendant John A. (Junior) Gotti. "They're railroading you! They're doing to you what they did to your father!"
Junior Gotti turned from the defense table to soothe his mother, but the wife of late mobster John (Dapper Don) Gotti ignored her 45-year-old son - and escalated her profane tirade.
"They're doing to you what they did to your father," the volatile Mafia mom ranted. "You f------ liar! You bastard!"
Junior interrupted: "I can deal with it. I'm okay. Don't worry about it. I'm fine." But his mother kept blasting with both barrels.
"They're the gangsters, right there!" she yelled. "The f------ gangsters! You son of a bitches! Put your own sons in there. You bastards!"
Federal Judge Kevin Castel was in the middle of dismissing contentious juror No. 7 when Victoria Gotti - who has a history of histrionics - sprung from her seat in full maternal meltdown.
She was hustled from the courtroom by three of her children before a scowling Castel continued, cutting loose the pro-defense juror. Prosecutors had sought her dismissal.
He also dismissed No. 7's nemesis, juror No. 11. The jury was out of the courtroom when Castel made his ruling - and when Victoria Gotti erupted.
"I don't know the source of the friction between the two jurors," Castel concluded after Victoria Gotti left. "It may be that one is a difficult personality or that both are difficult.
"Accordingly, I am striking both jurors."
The blowup came as the defense was wrapping up its case in Gotti's fourth racketeering trial in five years. The first three ended with hung juries and mistrials.
The jury rift opened last week, after a letter to the judge from an anonymous fellow panelist.
The juror ratted out No. 7, a 34-year-old mail carrier, as sweet on defense lawyer Charles Carnesi and giving her "undivided attention" to the defense case.
The letter raised hopes in the Gotti camp of a fourth mistrial. Then more problems emerged this week, with juror No. 11 accusing No. 7 of taunting her.
Castel attempted to calm the divided jury with sweet talk and sweets - a jar of Twizzlers. Neither worked. And nothing could calm Victoria Gotti, who had verbally assaulted Castel after a hearing in May.
"Why don't you hang him now?" she asked sarcastically at the time. "These are the good guys? God help us!"
Three years ago, in another Junior trial, she shouted at a federal prosecutor. "Who the hell do you think you're talking to?" she snapped.
Thanks to Alison Gendar and Larry McShane.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Mafia Wars is Profitable
At least one company is making money off of social networking. The game developer behind 'FarmVille' and 'Mafia Wars' has seen its web-based games take off – and deliver profits.
On any given day 500,000 tractors are sold on the Internet. But don't start buying stock in John Deere or Caterpillar just yet. These are $20 "virtual" tractors that belong to the 50 million players of FarmVille, the largest and fastest-growing social game on the Internet.
Social games are free online applications accessed through sites such as MySpace and Facebook. If you've spent any time on either site you're probably familiar with titles such as FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and Caf World. All three games, which rank among the top five games played daily on Facebook, were developed by San Francisco-based Zynga, one of the tech sector's most talked-about companies these days.
Behind the buzz: Annual revenue at the two-year-old firm is likely to surpass $100 million this year, prompting speculation that the company — backed by the likes of LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman and PayPal cofounder-turned-investor Peter Thiel — will soon go public. The software company also has managed to do something that other hot online brands such as Twitter and Facebook have not: Zynga has found a way to make social networking profitable.
Zynga was founded in 2007 by Mark Pincus, 43, who also started social-networking site Tribe.net and software company SupportSoft (SPRT), which eventually went public. (The name Zynga is a misspelled tribute to his deceased American bulldog, Zinga.) While many of his Web 3.0 peers rely on advertising and sponsorship for revenue, Pincus makes its money by getting gamers to buy virtual goods, like tractor fuel or land in the case of FarmVille, that enable players to build bigger farms at a faster rate.
By developing games on social networks, Zynga is able to capitalize on the viral nature of the platform. (Zynga estimates it has 70 million monthly unique visitors.) Gamers can invite friends to join them in the game, and they can send updates on their progress to their friends, stoking interest.
Once hooked, Pincus says, players spend real money on virtual goods to help them advance to higher levels — thereby enriching Zynga. And although playing requires only short spurts of time, the game never ends, as Zynga's designers keep adding levels so that players come back for more.
"For me it's just relaxing and fun. I don't have to think hard about it, and I can do it while watching TV," explains Lauren Kohn, 37, a mother of three in San Jose who has spent more than $100 on virtual goods since she started playing FarmVille four months ago.
Pincus won't reveal his margins, but he acknowledges that the company has been profitable every month since September 2007.
By contrast, Twitter doesn't even have meaningful sales, and Facebook only recently claimed to be cash-flow positive. And if online reports are to be believed, Zynga spends millions each year marketing itself on Facebook, thereby providing the social-networking site with a chunk of its revenue. Talk about the tail wagging the dog.
Thanks to Jessica Shambora
On any given day 500,000 tractors are sold on the Internet. But don't start buying stock in John Deere or Caterpillar just yet. These are $20 "virtual" tractors that belong to the 50 million players of FarmVille, the largest and fastest-growing social game on the Internet.
Social games are free online applications accessed through sites such as MySpace and Facebook. If you've spent any time on either site you're probably familiar with titles such as FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and Caf World. All three games, which rank among the top five games played daily on Facebook, were developed by San Francisco-based Zynga, one of the tech sector's most talked-about companies these days.
Behind the buzz: Annual revenue at the two-year-old firm is likely to surpass $100 million this year, prompting speculation that the company — backed by the likes of LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman and PayPal cofounder-turned-investor Peter Thiel — will soon go public. The software company also has managed to do something that other hot online brands such as Twitter and Facebook have not: Zynga has found a way to make social networking profitable.
Zynga was founded in 2007 by Mark Pincus, 43, who also started social-networking site Tribe.net and software company SupportSoft (SPRT), which eventually went public. (The name Zynga is a misspelled tribute to his deceased American bulldog, Zinga.) While many of his Web 3.0 peers rely on advertising and sponsorship for revenue, Pincus makes its money by getting gamers to buy virtual goods, like tractor fuel or land in the case of FarmVille, that enable players to build bigger farms at a faster rate.
By developing games on social networks, Zynga is able to capitalize on the viral nature of the platform. (Zynga estimates it has 70 million monthly unique visitors.) Gamers can invite friends to join them in the game, and they can send updates on their progress to their friends, stoking interest.
Once hooked, Pincus says, players spend real money on virtual goods to help them advance to higher levels — thereby enriching Zynga. And although playing requires only short spurts of time, the game never ends, as Zynga's designers keep adding levels so that players come back for more.
"For me it's just relaxing and fun. I don't have to think hard about it, and I can do it while watching TV," explains Lauren Kohn, 37, a mother of three in San Jose who has spent more than $100 on virtual goods since she started playing FarmVille four months ago.
Pincus won't reveal his margins, but he acknowledges that the company has been profitable every month since September 2007.
By contrast, Twitter doesn't even have meaningful sales, and Facebook only recently claimed to be cash-flow positive. And if online reports are to be believed, Zynga spends millions each year marketing itself on Facebook, thereby providing the social-networking site with a chunk of its revenue. Talk about the tail wagging the dog.
Thanks to Jessica Shambora
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Jury Infighting at the Gotti Trial?
There's more infighting on the Gotti jury than at a gangland sitdown - and they're not even deliberating yet!
A tattling juror revealed the bad blood in a letter to the judge - ratting out a foul-mouthed, lunch-stealing fellow juror who isn't in a hurry to convict the mob scion.
"She announced that we the jurors better be prepared to be deliberating until after the Christmas holiday because ... she is not going to allow any f------ body to rush her," the two-page letter said.
The missive - signed "A Concerned Juror" - also accused juror No. 7 of ogling "defense attorney Mr. Charles Carneglia," apparently confusing defense lawyer Charles Carnesi with mob hit man Charles Carneglia.
The seventh juror allegedly found him "very handsome" and gave her "undivided attention" to the defense team, the letter said.
The mixup brought laughter from the defense table. "Hey, Frank," Gotti said to radio producer Frank Morano out of the jury's earshot. "The juror thinks the guy who represents me is a five-time murderer! What shot do I have?"
The letter contained other complaints about juror No. 7:
- She loudly announced plans for a book "regarding sitting in a jury room with jurors and their f------ attitude."
- She constantly spewed obscenities.
- She charged a takeout order of fried calamari to the court's tab when the panel visited a local restaurant.
Gotti supporters said juror No. 7 seemed to be an independent spirit but called for Judge Kevin Castel to give the letter writer the heave-ho. Castel did neither - but he did interview each panel member about the allegation that the juror, a 34-year-old postal worker, violated orders and yapped about the trial.
The judge asked each of the 16 jurors whether juror No. 7 had violated her oath by talking about the case, reading about it or getting information from outside sources.
"Maybe," said one juror, a 52-year-old retired teacher. "I think if someone talks to her about it on the outside, they may bring information to her about what they heard."
The judge did not ask who wrote the letter, and it was unclear if it might lead to a fourth mistrial in the federal racketeering case against Gotti.
The letter wasn't the only surprise yesterday: A woman called Castel's chambers to say she was approached by people saying, "John Gotti is on your side!" Out of the jury's presence, Castel asked the U.S. marshals to speak with the woman, who left her name and number, but dismissed it as a prank.
Thanks to Alison Gendar and Larry McShane
A tattling juror revealed the bad blood in a letter to the judge - ratting out a foul-mouthed, lunch-stealing fellow juror who isn't in a hurry to convict the mob scion.
"She announced that we the jurors better be prepared to be deliberating until after the Christmas holiday because ... she is not going to allow any f------ body to rush her," the two-page letter said.
The missive - signed "A Concerned Juror" - also accused juror No. 7 of ogling "defense attorney Mr. Charles Carneglia," apparently confusing defense lawyer Charles Carnesi with mob hit man Charles Carneglia.
The seventh juror allegedly found him "very handsome" and gave her "undivided attention" to the defense team, the letter said.
The mixup brought laughter from the defense table. "Hey, Frank," Gotti said to radio producer Frank Morano out of the jury's earshot. "The juror thinks the guy who represents me is a five-time murderer! What shot do I have?"
The letter contained other complaints about juror No. 7:
- She loudly announced plans for a book "regarding sitting in a jury room with jurors and their f------ attitude."
- She constantly spewed obscenities.
- She charged a takeout order of fried calamari to the court's tab when the panel visited a local restaurant.
Gotti supporters said juror No. 7 seemed to be an independent spirit but called for Judge Kevin Castel to give the letter writer the heave-ho. Castel did neither - but he did interview each panel member about the allegation that the juror, a 34-year-old postal worker, violated orders and yapped about the trial.
The judge asked each of the 16 jurors whether juror No. 7 had violated her oath by talking about the case, reading about it or getting information from outside sources.
"Maybe," said one juror, a 52-year-old retired teacher. "I think if someone talks to her about it on the outside, they may bring information to her about what they heard."
The judge did not ask who wrote the letter, and it was unclear if it might lead to a fourth mistrial in the federal racketeering case against Gotti.
The letter wasn't the only surprise yesterday: A woman called Castel's chambers to say she was approached by people saying, "John Gotti is on your side!" Out of the jury's presence, Castel asked the U.S. marshals to speak with the woman, who left her name and number, but dismissed it as a prank.
Thanks to Alison Gendar and Larry McShane
GANGSTERS OF MIAMI: True Tales of Mobsters, Gamblers, Hit Men, Con Men And Gang Bangers from the Magic City
Rising from a swampy flatland a little more than a century ago, Miami has grown to become a trend-setting metropolis known for tourism, fashion, nightlife and style. Miami is also the city of Hollywood's "Scarface" Tony Montana, television's Miami Vice and popular culture's "Cocaine Cowboy." Ron Chepesiuk's Gangsters of Miami (Barricade Books, November 2009) digs beyond the headlines and fantasy to provide a close up look at the real role that mobsters, gamblers, hit men, drug lords, con men and other gangsters have played in making America's youngest city also one of its most fascinating.
Known as the Magic City, Miami has always been the home for a colorful variety of gangsters. They include the notorious smugglers of the Prohibition era, such as Gertrude Lythgoe, Bill McCoy, James Horace Alderman, the Ashley Gang, and Red Shannon; famous mobsters like Al Capone and Meyer Lansky who helped make Miami a gambling Mecca, the Cuban Mafia and its syndicate, La Compania, led by godfathers Jose Battle Sr. and Jr.; the marijuana traffickers of the early and mid 1970s, most notably the legendary Black Tuna Gang; drug lords of the Medellin and Cali cartels and master minds of the cocaine explosion, such as Griselda Blanco, the so-called Black Widow Blanco, Pablo Escobar, the "King of Coke" and Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela; the Russian Mafia with colorful characters like Ludwig "Tarzan" Feinberg, who came to America after the fall of the Soviet Union; and the street gangs that plagued Miami after the advent of crack cocaine in the mid 1980s, led by such vicious gang bangers as Anthony "Little Bo" Fail and Corey "Bubba" Smith.
The book also provides details of headline making cases and characters like the tourist murders of the early 1990s, the Operation Swordfish money laundering investigation; the Yahweh Ben Yahweh investigation, the Don Aronow and James Callahan murders, the Andrew Cunanan murder of noted fashion designer Gianni Versace, and the rise and fall of Chris Paciello, the so-called "King of South Beach." Gangsters of Miami also investigates the police and governmental corruption that has plagued the Magic City since its early days.
Gangsters of Miami is a lively and well-documented account of Miami's gangs and gangsters, showing that fact can be more riveting than fiction. The praise for the book has been lavish:
Ron Chepesiuk, an award-winning investigative journalist, has been described as "the master of high octane journalism." He is the author of Gangsters of Harlem and Black Gangsters of Chicago, Drug Lords, a Fulbright Scholar, an adjunct professor in the journalism department of UCLA's Extension Division and a consultant to the History Channel's Gangland documentary series. He has also been interviewed by the Biography Channel, Discovery, the History Channel, Black Entertainment Television, and NBC's Dateline.
Known as the Magic City, Miami has always been the home for a colorful variety of gangsters. They include the notorious smugglers of the Prohibition era, such as Gertrude Lythgoe, Bill McCoy, James Horace Alderman, the Ashley Gang, and Red Shannon; famous mobsters like Al Capone and Meyer Lansky who helped make Miami a gambling Mecca, the Cuban Mafia and its syndicate, La Compania, led by godfathers Jose Battle Sr. and Jr.; the marijuana traffickers of the early and mid 1970s, most notably the legendary Black Tuna Gang; drug lords of the Medellin and Cali cartels and master minds of the cocaine explosion, such as Griselda Blanco, the so-called Black Widow Blanco, Pablo Escobar, the "King of Coke" and Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela; the Russian Mafia with colorful characters like Ludwig "Tarzan" Feinberg, who came to America after the fall of the Soviet Union; and the street gangs that plagued Miami after the advent of crack cocaine in the mid 1980s, led by such vicious gang bangers as Anthony "Little Bo" Fail and Corey "Bubba" Smith.
The book also provides details of headline making cases and characters like the tourist murders of the early 1990s, the Operation Swordfish money laundering investigation; the Yahweh Ben Yahweh investigation, the Don Aronow and James Callahan murders, the Andrew Cunanan murder of noted fashion designer Gianni Versace, and the rise and fall of Chris Paciello, the so-called "King of South Beach." Gangsters of Miami also investigates the police and governmental corruption that has plagued the Magic City since its early days.
Gangsters of Miami is a lively and well-documented account of Miami's gangs and gangsters, showing that fact can be more riveting than fiction. The praise for the book has been lavish:
Steve Morris, Publishers of the New Criminologist web site, said "Chepesiuk's aptitude for revealing the inner workings of organized crime within a community is once again on display here as the reader is cast into Miami's bloody underbelly. A remarkable achievement by the author."
Scott M. Dietche, author of The Silent Don: The Criminal Underworld of Santo Trafficante Jr. calls the book "one of the most complete looks at crime in South Florida."
Lew Rice, Former Special Agent in Charge, DEA and author of DEA Special Agent: My Life on the Front Line hailed Gangsters of Miami as a "must read for anyone interested in an historical and colorful account of crime in the Magic City."
Ron Chepesiuk, an award-winning investigative journalist, has been described as "the master of high octane journalism." He is the author of Gangsters of Harlem and Black Gangsters of Chicago, Drug Lords, a Fulbright Scholar, an adjunct professor in the journalism department of UCLA's Extension Division and a consultant to the History Channel's Gangland documentary series. He has also been interviewed by the Biography Channel, Discovery, the History Channel, Black Entertainment Television, and NBC's Dateline.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
John Ambrose, Former U.S. Marshal, Sentenced to Prison
A deputy U.S. marshal who was convicted of leaking secret information about a mob witness was sentenced today to four years in prison — a punishment a judge said is designed to deter others in law enforcement from ever contemplating similar crimes.
The marshal, John Ambrose, sat motionless as U.S. District Court Judge John F. Grady handed down the sentence to a courtroom filled with his family, friends and onetime colleagues.
Ambrose, who was convicted in April, had sought probation. His lawyer said his client lived for his job and his conviction has likely stripped him of any future in law enforcement.
Prosecutors had recommended he spend more than six years in prison.
Federal sentencing guidelines called for Ambrose, a 41-year-old father of four, to spend between 12 and 18 months behind bars, but Grady said that wasn’t nearly enough time. “There is really no mitigating circumstance in this case as far as the evidence is concerned,” Grady said. “What we’re dealing with here is a very serious crime . . . that has virtually no likelihood of detection.”
Ambrose in 2002 and 2003 worked stints in the federal witness protection program guarding mob turncoat Nicholas Calabrese, whose testimony in 2007 helped convict several mobsters in the landmark Family Secrets trial.
Ambrose was convicted of leaking information about Calabrese to a family friend, William Guide, who had done prison time with Ambrose’s late father after their convictions in the “Marquette 10” police corruption trial in 1983. In a twist, Grady was the judge in that case.
Prosecutors have said that Guide, who was never charged with any crimes regarding the younger Ambrose’s case, had known mob ties.
Authorities linked the leaks to Ambrose based on video surveillance of two mobsters talking at a federal prison in Milan, Mich., and overhearing the words “Marquette 10.”
They also say Ambrose’s is the only security violation in the history of witness protection program.
Ambrose’s lawyer, Frank Lipuma, told Grady that his client did have talks with Guide and even “shot his mouth off,” but that “there was never any intent” to harm the program.
After court, Lipuma said he will ask that Ambrose stay out of prison pending appeal. If Grady rejects that, Ambrose is to report to prison Jan. 26.
“I think he relied a little too heavily on the deterrence factor,” Lipuma said of Grady’s sentence. “Mr. Ambrose is not sorry for what he did because what is claimed that he did has been, from day one, overstated.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney T. Markus Funk said prosecutor took no joy in sending a law enforcement officer to prison. “It’s obviously a sad day,” Funk said. “However, we want to emphasize from our perspective the judge’s sentence was fair and just.”
Thanks to Chris Fusco and Natasha Korecki
The marshal, John Ambrose, sat motionless as U.S. District Court Judge John F. Grady handed down the sentence to a courtroom filled with his family, friends and onetime colleagues.
Ambrose, who was convicted in April, had sought probation. His lawyer said his client lived for his job and his conviction has likely stripped him of any future in law enforcement.
Prosecutors had recommended he spend more than six years in prison.
Federal sentencing guidelines called for Ambrose, a 41-year-old father of four, to spend between 12 and 18 months behind bars, but Grady said that wasn’t nearly enough time. “There is really no mitigating circumstance in this case as far as the evidence is concerned,” Grady said. “What we’re dealing with here is a very serious crime . . . that has virtually no likelihood of detection.”
Ambrose in 2002 and 2003 worked stints in the federal witness protection program guarding mob turncoat Nicholas Calabrese, whose testimony in 2007 helped convict several mobsters in the landmark Family Secrets trial.
Ambrose was convicted of leaking information about Calabrese to a family friend, William Guide, who had done prison time with Ambrose’s late father after their convictions in the “Marquette 10” police corruption trial in 1983. In a twist, Grady was the judge in that case.
Prosecutors have said that Guide, who was never charged with any crimes regarding the younger Ambrose’s case, had known mob ties.
Authorities linked the leaks to Ambrose based on video surveillance of two mobsters talking at a federal prison in Milan, Mich., and overhearing the words “Marquette 10.”
They also say Ambrose’s is the only security violation in the history of witness protection program.
Ambrose’s lawyer, Frank Lipuma, told Grady that his client did have talks with Guide and even “shot his mouth off,” but that “there was never any intent” to harm the program.
After court, Lipuma said he will ask that Ambrose stay out of prison pending appeal. If Grady rejects that, Ambrose is to report to prison Jan. 26.
“I think he relied a little too heavily on the deterrence factor,” Lipuma said of Grady’s sentence. “Mr. Ambrose is not sorry for what he did because what is claimed that he did has been, from day one, overstated.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney T. Markus Funk said prosecutor took no joy in sending a law enforcement officer to prison. “It’s obviously a sad day,” Funk said. “However, we want to emphasize from our perspective the judge’s sentence was fair and just.”
Thanks to Chris Fusco and Natasha Korecki
Monday, October 26, 2009
Il Divo - A Compelling Real Life Mafia Tale
You don’t have to understand the intricacies of Italian politics to wholeheartedly enjoy Il Divo (on DVD 10/27), a fascinating and thrilling portrait of seven-time Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.
Written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, the film stars a superb Toni Servillo, and won the jury prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. From the moment we first meet Andreotti (for some, his nickname is “Beelzebub”), with acupuncture needles sticking out of his face, hoping to cure his headache, you’ll want to try and understand this enigmatic figure who seems to always be at the center of power, corruption, scandal, and the mafia. There’s something downright Scorsese-like about this film, from its beautiful camera work to its deft use of music. We can guarantee you’ll never think of the Trio song “Da Da Da” quite the same way again.
Written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, the film stars a superb Toni Servillo, and won the jury prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. From the moment we first meet Andreotti (for some, his nickname is “Beelzebub”), with acupuncture needles sticking out of his face, hoping to cure his headache, you’ll want to try and understand this enigmatic figure who seems to always be at the center of power, corruption, scandal, and the mafia. There’s something downright Scorsese-like about this film, from its beautiful camera work to its deft use of music. We can guarantee you’ll never think of the Trio song “Da Da Da” quite the same way again.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that's Conspiring to Islamize America
An undercover, six-month penetration of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, (CAIR) by a former federal agent under the guise of converting to Islam, is the subject of a book that came out on October 15, 2009.
Author P. David Gaubatz is a trained U.S. Department-trained Arabic linguist and counterterrorism specialist who as a federal agent had the government's highest security clearance. His co-author is Paul Sperry, a media fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, a former Washington bureau chief for Investor's Daily, and author of Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington.
The allegations in the book are supported by 12,000 pages of confidential CAIR documents and hundreds of hours of video captured during the undercover operation. In Muslim Mafia, the authors claim to reveal the well-funded efforts of the Brotherhood under the nonprofit guise of CAIR to support the international jihad against the U.S.
Gaubatz writes that his son gained the trust of CAIR's inner sanctum, working undercover as a devoted convert to Islam and exposed the entire factory fueling the wave of homegrown terrorism plaguing America.
U. S. lawmakers have called for an investigation into CAIR, citing evidence that the group is attempting to infiltrate congressional offices with interns. They include Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., Rep Trent Franks, R-Ariz., John Shadegg, R-Ariz., and Paul Broun R-Ga., are calling on the Department of Justice to share with Congress an executive summary of the findings that led the FBI to officially sever ties with CAIR.
Thanks to Martha R. Gore
Author P. David Gaubatz is a trained U.S. Department-trained Arabic linguist and counterterrorism specialist who as a federal agent had the government's highest security clearance. His co-author is Paul Sperry, a media fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, a former Washington bureau chief for Investor's Daily, and author of Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington.
The allegations in the book are supported by 12,000 pages of confidential CAIR documents and hundreds of hours of video captured during the undercover operation. In Muslim Mafia, the authors claim to reveal the well-funded efforts of the Brotherhood under the nonprofit guise of CAIR to support the international jihad against the U.S.
Gaubatz writes that his son gained the trust of CAIR's inner sanctum, working undercover as a devoted convert to Islam and exposed the entire factory fueling the wave of homegrown terrorism plaguing America.
U. S. lawmakers have called for an investigation into CAIR, citing evidence that the group is attempting to infiltrate congressional offices with interns. They include Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., Rep Trent Franks, R-Ariz., John Shadegg, R-Ariz., and Paul Broun R-Ga., are calling on the Department of Justice to share with Congress an executive summary of the findings that led the FBI to officially sever ties with CAIR.
Thanks to Martha R. Gore
Friday, October 23, 2009
The Mafia Episode on "The Office"
It seems there are two types of The Office episodes: the story-based type that takes a plot progression and sprinkles comedic jokes throughout, and then the joke-based type that uses a wafer-thin story to hold up its nonstop array of irreverent gags. "Mafia" definitely falls into the latter category. The episode delivers rapid fire doses of buffoonery from start to finish, resulting in a number of genuine laugh-out-loud moments. And on the heels of the saccharine sweet wedding special, this type of ridiculousness is just what the doctor ordered.
"Mafia" begins with probably the weakest of this season's cold openings, but there's still a giant laugh to be had out of hearing Meredith describe her son's latest disgusting prank. From there, the episode dives into its main dilemma: Michael is visited by a pushy Italian-American insurance salesman (the always enjoyable Mike Starr), and Dwight and Andy immediately convince him he has just been shook down by the mafia. Although he's typically slow to catch on, Michael eventually becomes concerned and turns to his two moronic lieutenants for advice. Andy's is simple – give in and pay the Mafioso whatever he wants. Dwight urges Michael to stand up to the mob.
With Jim and Pam off on their honeymoon, Oscar is left as the office's sole voice of reason. Or, as he puts it, "the coalition of reason is extremely weak." Not sure how to save Michael from himself and his two idiotic advisers, he calls Jim in Puerto Rico and asks how to handle the situation. Part of the fun of the episode is seeing different characters each call Jim for advice at different times, reaffirming that he's the glue that keeps the dysfunctional office together. Being on his honeymoon, he's of course not thrilled by the interruptions.
The episode's subplot also delivers some hilarious moments. With Jim away, Kevin begins sneaking into his office to break wind, and then decides to stick around and set up shop there full-time. His plan runs into a speed bump when Jim's credit card company calls and asks about all the unusual spending going on in Puerto Rico. Watching the dimwitted Kevin try to handle the situation – Brian Baughgartner's deadpan delivery is always a treat – is hysterical, and it only gets funnier when Oscar warns him of the consequences of identity fraud. In short, Kevin remarks that he wouldn't have as much fun in prison as Oscar would.
But the highpoint of the episode comes from watching Dwight, Andy and Michael try to deal with their mob problem at a sit down with the insurance salesman. For reasons I won't get into here, Andy attends the meeting dressed as a mechanic, and his attempt at deception doesn't so much blow up in his face as it does the face of an innocent mother. And Michael trying to order "gabagool" had me in stitches.
"Mafia" isn't one of the show's greatest episodes, but it is a highly enjoyable one. By the time Dwight and Andy convinced Michael to finally stand up to the pushy salesman, I realized I had been giggling practically nonstop since the episode started. It's one of those episodes that's just too silly not to love.
Thanks to Dan Phillips
"Mafia" begins with probably the weakest of this season's cold openings, but there's still a giant laugh to be had out of hearing Meredith describe her son's latest disgusting prank. From there, the episode dives into its main dilemma: Michael is visited by a pushy Italian-American insurance salesman (the always enjoyable Mike Starr), and Dwight and Andy immediately convince him he has just been shook down by the mafia. Although he's typically slow to catch on, Michael eventually becomes concerned and turns to his two moronic lieutenants for advice. Andy's is simple – give in and pay the Mafioso whatever he wants. Dwight urges Michael to stand up to the mob.
With Jim and Pam off on their honeymoon, Oscar is left as the office's sole voice of reason. Or, as he puts it, "the coalition of reason is extremely weak." Not sure how to save Michael from himself and his two idiotic advisers, he calls Jim in Puerto Rico and asks how to handle the situation. Part of the fun of the episode is seeing different characters each call Jim for advice at different times, reaffirming that he's the glue that keeps the dysfunctional office together. Being on his honeymoon, he's of course not thrilled by the interruptions.
The episode's subplot also delivers some hilarious moments. With Jim away, Kevin begins sneaking into his office to break wind, and then decides to stick around and set up shop there full-time. His plan runs into a speed bump when Jim's credit card company calls and asks about all the unusual spending going on in Puerto Rico. Watching the dimwitted Kevin try to handle the situation – Brian Baughgartner's deadpan delivery is always a treat – is hysterical, and it only gets funnier when Oscar warns him of the consequences of identity fraud. In short, Kevin remarks that he wouldn't have as much fun in prison as Oscar would.
But the highpoint of the episode comes from watching Dwight, Andy and Michael try to deal with their mob problem at a sit down with the insurance salesman. For reasons I won't get into here, Andy attends the meeting dressed as a mechanic, and his attempt at deception doesn't so much blow up in his face as it does the face of an innocent mother. And Michael trying to order "gabagool" had me in stitches.
"Mafia" isn't one of the show's greatest episodes, but it is a highly enjoyable one. By the time Dwight and Andy convinced Michael to finally stand up to the pushy salesman, I realized I had been giggling practically nonstop since the episode started. It's one of those episodes that's just too silly not to love.
Thanks to Dan Phillips
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Will Sammy the Bull Testify on Behalf of Junior Gotti?
John Gotti Jr.’s lawyer is considering making a star defense witness out of the mob rat whose testimony consigned Gambino crime family boss John Gotti Sr. to a life prison term, but this time he may be asked to save the Dapper Don’s son from a similar fate.
The defense is expected to begin presenting its case next week and Charles Carnesi, chief defense counsel for Gotti Jr., said he first wants to question Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano before deciding whether he will bring Gravano into the trial of Gotti Jr. in Manhattan federal court. “I plan to interview him, then we’ll see,” Carnesi said.
Gravano testified against Gotti Sr. in the 1992 trial that convicted the man that up to then had also been known as the Teflon Don for having avoided conviction in three earlier trials.Gravano was a high-ranking member of the Gambino family.
Gotti Sr., a Howard Beach resident, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison where he died in 2002.
As with most convicted criminals who testify for the prosecution, Gravano was put into the federal Witness Protection Program. Gravano was relocated to Arizona, but sentenced to a 19-year prison sentence after he was convicted of operating an Ecstasy-selling drug ring.
The defense in Gotti Jr.’s trial is interested in questioning Gravano about the 1990 rub-out of Louis DeBono, whose body was discovered in a Cadillac in a World Trade Center garage. Federal prosecutors have been trying to establish that Gotti Jr. was involved in DeBono’s slaying.
Gotti Jr. is on trial for the fourth time since 2005 on charges of racketeering and two murders.
Federal Judge Kevin Castel, meanwhile, announced he had relieved of duty a second member of the jury, a 39-year-old equities manager, who complained that serving at length on the panel could come at a heavy cost to him.
The juror, who manages a portfolio, told the judge his work required unceasing supervision and if he was not allowed to have access to a computer, “then I have no choice but to respectfully ask that I am relieved.”
The judge had previously dismissed a female juror, who said she was too frightened to continue after a car grazed her near Union Square.
Federal prosecutors said Gotti Jr. was a Mafia mogul who presided over an empire of racketeering and ordered people killed.
The defense maintains that while Gotti Jr. may have once been a La Cosa Nostra higher up, he abdicated and turned his back on organized crime by 1999.
His first three trials ended in hung juries.
Thanks to Phillip Newman
The defense is expected to begin presenting its case next week and Charles Carnesi, chief defense counsel for Gotti Jr., said he first wants to question Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano before deciding whether he will bring Gravano into the trial of Gotti Jr. in Manhattan federal court. “I plan to interview him, then we’ll see,” Carnesi said.
Gravano testified against Gotti Sr. in the 1992 trial that convicted the man that up to then had also been known as the Teflon Don for having avoided conviction in three earlier trials.Gravano was a high-ranking member of the Gambino family.
Gotti Sr., a Howard Beach resident, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison where he died in 2002.
As with most convicted criminals who testify for the prosecution, Gravano was put into the federal Witness Protection Program. Gravano was relocated to Arizona, but sentenced to a 19-year prison sentence after he was convicted of operating an Ecstasy-selling drug ring.
The defense in Gotti Jr.’s trial is interested in questioning Gravano about the 1990 rub-out of Louis DeBono, whose body was discovered in a Cadillac in a World Trade Center garage. Federal prosecutors have been trying to establish that Gotti Jr. was involved in DeBono’s slaying.
Gotti Jr. is on trial for the fourth time since 2005 on charges of racketeering and two murders.
Federal Judge Kevin Castel, meanwhile, announced he had relieved of duty a second member of the jury, a 39-year-old equities manager, who complained that serving at length on the panel could come at a heavy cost to him.
The juror, who manages a portfolio, told the judge his work required unceasing supervision and if he was not allowed to have access to a computer, “then I have no choice but to respectfully ask that I am relieved.”
The judge had previously dismissed a female juror, who said she was too frightened to continue after a car grazed her near Union Square.
Federal prosecutors said Gotti Jr. was a Mafia mogul who presided over an empire of racketeering and ordered people killed.
The defense maintains that while Gotti Jr. may have once been a La Cosa Nostra higher up, he abdicated and turned his back on organized crime by 1999.
His first three trials ended in hung juries.
Thanks to Phillip Newman
Russian Mobster More Powerful Than John Gotti
Semion Mogilevich may be the most powerful man you've never heard of.
The FBI says Mogilevich, a Russian mobster, has been involved in arms trafficking, prostitution, extortion and murder for hire.
"He has access to so much, including funding, including other criminal organizations, that he can, with a telephone call and order, affect the global economy," said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Peter Kowenhoven.
Mogilevich's alleged brutality, financial savvy and international influence have earned him a slot on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, though he has lived and operated from Moscow, Russia, for years.
"He's a big man. He's a very powerful man," FBI Special Agent Mike Dixon said. "I think more powerful than a John Gotti would be, because he has the ability to influence nations. Gotti never reached that stature."
He is accused of swindling Canadian and U.S. investors out of $150 million in a complex international financial scheme. It centered on a firm called YBM, which purportedly made magnets at a factory in Hungary.
Authorities say the scheme involved preparing bogus financial books and records, lying to Securities and Exchange Commission officials, offering bribes to accountants and inflating stock values of YBM, which was headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania.
In a raid in 1998, FBI agents found a treasure trove of documents -- purchase orders, invoices, shipping orders, even technical drawings -- everything a legitimate business would produce. But there was one thing missing.
"There were no magnets," Dixon said.
It was all a sham, investigators say.
"In essence, what his companies were doing was moving money through bank accounts in Budapest and countries throughout the world and reporting these to the investment community as purchases of raw materials and sales of magnets," Dixon said. And because the company was publicly traded, anyone owning the stock would have made a lot of money. "And of course Mogilevich controlled large, large blocks of stock from the outset, and he made a substantial amount of money in this process," Dixon said.
Investors lost millions into the pockets of Mogilevich and his associates. He and his associates were indicted in 2003 on 45 counts of racketeering, securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.
Russian authorities arrested him last year on tax fraud charges, but because the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, he remained beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement. He is now free on bail.
The FBI believes Mogilevich moved on after YBM and began manipulating international energy markets, giving him a large influence on other nations.
Dixon noted that Mogilevich had control or influence over companies involved in natural gas disputes between Russia and Ukraine.
Authorities say Mogilevich, who has an economics degree from Ukraine, is known for his ruthless nature but also for his business acumen, which led to his nickname "the Brainy Don."
"He has a very sophisticated, well-educated, loyal group of associates that he works with," Dixon said. "He hires top-notch consultants, attorneys, risk management firms to assist him and protect him in his criminal ventures."
Louise Shelley, an organized crime expert from George Mason University, says Mogilevich is a new kind of criminal.
"The major criminal organizations in Russia have not only tapped into people with economics degrees," Shelley said. "They've tapped into people with PHDs in finance and statistics who assist them."
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The FBI hopes Mogilevich will eventually travel to a country that has an extradition treaty with the U.S. But, in case he doesn't, his wanted poster will be distributed all over Russia.
Thanks to Jeanne Meserve
The FBI says Mogilevich, a Russian mobster, has been involved in arms trafficking, prostitution, extortion and murder for hire.
"He has access to so much, including funding, including other criminal organizations, that he can, with a telephone call and order, affect the global economy," said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Peter Kowenhoven.
Mogilevich's alleged brutality, financial savvy and international influence have earned him a slot on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, though he has lived and operated from Moscow, Russia, for years.
"He's a big man. He's a very powerful man," FBI Special Agent Mike Dixon said. "I think more powerful than a John Gotti would be, because he has the ability to influence nations. Gotti never reached that stature."
He is accused of swindling Canadian and U.S. investors out of $150 million in a complex international financial scheme. It centered on a firm called YBM, which purportedly made magnets at a factory in Hungary.
Authorities say the scheme involved preparing bogus financial books and records, lying to Securities and Exchange Commission officials, offering bribes to accountants and inflating stock values of YBM, which was headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania.
In a raid in 1998, FBI agents found a treasure trove of documents -- purchase orders, invoices, shipping orders, even technical drawings -- everything a legitimate business would produce. But there was one thing missing.
"There were no magnets," Dixon said.
It was all a sham, investigators say.
"In essence, what his companies were doing was moving money through bank accounts in Budapest and countries throughout the world and reporting these to the investment community as purchases of raw materials and sales of magnets," Dixon said. And because the company was publicly traded, anyone owning the stock would have made a lot of money. "And of course Mogilevich controlled large, large blocks of stock from the outset, and he made a substantial amount of money in this process," Dixon said.
Investors lost millions into the pockets of Mogilevich and his associates. He and his associates were indicted in 2003 on 45 counts of racketeering, securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.
Russian authorities arrested him last year on tax fraud charges, but because the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, he remained beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement. He is now free on bail.
The FBI believes Mogilevich moved on after YBM and began manipulating international energy markets, giving him a large influence on other nations.
Dixon noted that Mogilevich had control or influence over companies involved in natural gas disputes between Russia and Ukraine.
Authorities say Mogilevich, who has an economics degree from Ukraine, is known for his ruthless nature but also for his business acumen, which led to his nickname "the Brainy Don."
"He has a very sophisticated, well-educated, loyal group of associates that he works with," Dixon said. "He hires top-notch consultants, attorneys, risk management firms to assist him and protect him in his criminal ventures."
Louise Shelley, an organized crime expert from George Mason University, says Mogilevich is a new kind of criminal.
"The major criminal organizations in Russia have not only tapped into people with economics degrees," Shelley said. "They've tapped into people with PHDs in finance and statistics who assist them."
advertisement
The FBI hopes Mogilevich will eventually travel to a country that has an extradition treaty with the U.S. But, in case he doesn't, his wanted poster will be distributed all over Russia.
Thanks to Jeanne Meserve
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Newest Weapon for Gangsters: Blackberrys
Police often say organized crime in B.C. is big business. So perhaps it was only a matter of time before gangsters adopted the device of choice among corporate workaholics: the BlackBerry.
It has become so popular among B.C. gang members that an internal RCMP "threat assessment" on organized crime produced this year devotes an entire section to the device.
"It's something we've seen increasing over the last three to four years," Staff Sgt. Bruce Imrie, head of the RCMP's Vancouver Integrated Technological Crime Unit, said in an interview. And that poses a big challenge for law enforcement, because encryption and security features make the devices much harder to wiretap than land lines or cellphones.
"The BlackBerry (server) was created with corporate data security in mind," states the RCMP report, obtained by The Vancouver Sun through the Access to Information Act. "Until recently, this system was only affordable by companies such as Telus, CIBC, and the like; they are now more affordable and it is easy for individuals to set-up a network."
Imrie confirmed when police get a warrant for a criminal's BlackBerry messages it can be difficult to intercept them.
"The use of BlackBerries may allow them to circumvent lawful access ... (with) the encryption involved in the transmission," said Imrie.
Even when police confiscate a criminal's actual BlackBerry, he said, cracking its password to view the messages stored on it can be a challenge.
BlackBerries are most popular among a gang's highest-ranking members, said Imrie.
"Your general street-level criminal doing organized shoplifting is not as likely to have a BlackBerry as your high-end drug trafficker," he said. "(And) depending on the sophistication of the criminal organization, the use of the BlackBerry seems to increase."
However, as BlackBerries become more affordable, that distinction is starting to blur, he said, with the devices becoming more prevalent among all types of criminals.
RCMP Insp. Gary Shinkaruk, head of biker gang investigations in B.C., said BlackBerries are "extremely common" among the criminals his unit investigates.
"For a lot of groups, it's standard practice," he said.
Research In Motion, the Canadian company that makes the BlackBerry, did not respond to a request from The Sun to comment on its security measures.
However in June, Scott Totzke, RIM's vice-president of global security, told The Times of London that its encryption is virtually unbreakable.
"Every message that is sent via a BlackBerry is broken up into 2Kb (kilobyte) packets of information, each of which is given a 256-bit key by the BlackBerry server," said Totzke. "That means to release the contents of a 10Kb e-mail, a person would have to crack five separate keys, and each one would take about as long as it would for the sun to burn out - billion of years."
The 500-page RCMP report, titled the Integrated Threat Assessment on Organized Crime, is produced each year.
Thanks to CanWest
It has become so popular among B.C. gang members that an internal RCMP "threat assessment" on organized crime produced this year devotes an entire section to the device.
"It's something we've seen increasing over the last three to four years," Staff Sgt. Bruce Imrie, head of the RCMP's Vancouver Integrated Technological Crime Unit, said in an interview. And that poses a big challenge for law enforcement, because encryption and security features make the devices much harder to wiretap than land lines or cellphones.
"The BlackBerry (server) was created with corporate data security in mind," states the RCMP report, obtained by The Vancouver Sun through the Access to Information Act. "Until recently, this system was only affordable by companies such as Telus, CIBC, and the like; they are now more affordable and it is easy for individuals to set-up a network."
Imrie confirmed when police get a warrant for a criminal's BlackBerry messages it can be difficult to intercept them.
"The use of BlackBerries may allow them to circumvent lawful access ... (with) the encryption involved in the transmission," said Imrie.
Even when police confiscate a criminal's actual BlackBerry, he said, cracking its password to view the messages stored on it can be a challenge.
BlackBerries are most popular among a gang's highest-ranking members, said Imrie.
"Your general street-level criminal doing organized shoplifting is not as likely to have a BlackBerry as your high-end drug trafficker," he said. "(And) depending on the sophistication of the criminal organization, the use of the BlackBerry seems to increase."
However, as BlackBerries become more affordable, that distinction is starting to blur, he said, with the devices becoming more prevalent among all types of criminals.
RCMP Insp. Gary Shinkaruk, head of biker gang investigations in B.C., said BlackBerries are "extremely common" among the criminals his unit investigates.
"For a lot of groups, it's standard practice," he said.
Research In Motion, the Canadian company that makes the BlackBerry, did not respond to a request from The Sun to comment on its security measures.
However in June, Scott Totzke, RIM's vice-president of global security, told The Times of London that its encryption is virtually unbreakable.
"Every message that is sent via a BlackBerry is broken up into 2Kb (kilobyte) packets of information, each of which is given a 256-bit key by the BlackBerry server," said Totzke. "That means to release the contents of a 10Kb e-mail, a person would have to crack five separate keys, and each one would take about as long as it would for the sun to burn out - billion of years."
The 500-page RCMP report, titled the Integrated Threat Assessment on Organized Crime, is produced each year.
Thanks to CanWest
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Where Were the Spilotro Brothers Killed?
For 23 years, it's been a mystery just where Chicago mob boss Tony Spilotro and his younger brother, Michael, were killed.
CBS 2's John "Bulldog" Drummond got the very first look at a home in unincorporated Bensenville where neighbors and others believe the Spilotros may have met their violent end.
No, the killing of the infamous Spilotro brothers didn't happen the way it was depicted in the movie "Casino." They were not beaten in an Indiana cornfield and buried alive.
Instead, the Spilotros met their demise in the basement of a home in unincorporated Bensenville, where they had been lured to their deaths with a promise of career advancement.
The brothers had worn out their welcome within the Chicago Outfit.
On June 14, 1986, Tony and Michael Spilotro met mob lieutenant Jimmy "The Little Guy" Marcello at a motel parking lot in Schiller Park.
The brothers got into Marcello's car in what amounted to a death ride. The Spilotros, however, were concerned about treachery. Michael told his wife, "If we aren't back by nine o'clock, something very wrong has happened."
The federal government's key witness, Nick Calabrese, testified in the "Family Secrets" trial that he was waiting as Marcello drove the car into an attached garage.
Ed Muniz, who bought the home in question in 2000, gave Drummond a tour of the house, where neighbors and friends say the Spilotros were slain.
"You could just see the layout of the house was perfect" and secluded for the Spilotro killings, said one acquaintance of organized crime figures, who asked that his identity be concealed.
It's not certain if Muniz's home is the location where the Spilotros were killed. But it's understood the fatal beatings occurred in a basement in the same area.
Marcello led the two brothers down to the basement. By the time they got into the cellar fists were flying; so were the knees. The Spilotros were met by a host of their former colleagues. They were beaten unmercifully. Tony Spilotro asked if he had a chance to say a prayer. The killers said no.
Although Muniz has his doubts about whether his home was the scene of the slayings, friends and family are concerned that something terrible happened in the basement.
"I had a friend who went down there, and he got a really weird aura," the owner said. "To my daughters, it kind of creeps them out a little bit."
Even his next-door neighbor -- now deceased -- was haunted by goings-on at the house.
Was this the house or not? Calabrese, the federal witness, couldn't find it for the feds.
CBS 2 shared its information with the FBI. Agents indicated they'll be looking into it.
Thanks to John Drummond
CBS 2's John "Bulldog" Drummond got the very first look at a home in unincorporated Bensenville where neighbors and others believe the Spilotros may have met their violent end.
No, the killing of the infamous Spilotro brothers didn't happen the way it was depicted in the movie "Casino." They were not beaten in an Indiana cornfield and buried alive.
Instead, the Spilotros met their demise in the basement of a home in unincorporated Bensenville, where they had been lured to their deaths with a promise of career advancement.
The brothers had worn out their welcome within the Chicago Outfit.
On June 14, 1986, Tony and Michael Spilotro met mob lieutenant Jimmy "The Little Guy" Marcello at a motel parking lot in Schiller Park.
The brothers got into Marcello's car in what amounted to a death ride. The Spilotros, however, were concerned about treachery. Michael told his wife, "If we aren't back by nine o'clock, something very wrong has happened."
The federal government's key witness, Nick Calabrese, testified in the "Family Secrets" trial that he was waiting as Marcello drove the car into an attached garage.
Ed Muniz, who bought the home in question in 2000, gave Drummond a tour of the house, where neighbors and friends say the Spilotros were slain.
"You could just see the layout of the house was perfect" and secluded for the Spilotro killings, said one acquaintance of organized crime figures, who asked that his identity be concealed.
It's not certain if Muniz's home is the location where the Spilotros were killed. But it's understood the fatal beatings occurred in a basement in the same area.
Marcello led the two brothers down to the basement. By the time they got into the cellar fists were flying; so were the knees. The Spilotros were met by a host of their former colleagues. They were beaten unmercifully. Tony Spilotro asked if he had a chance to say a prayer. The killers said no.
Although Muniz has his doubts about whether his home was the scene of the slayings, friends and family are concerned that something terrible happened in the basement.
"I had a friend who went down there, and he got a really weird aura," the owner said. "To my daughters, it kind of creeps them out a little bit."
Even his next-door neighbor -- now deceased -- was haunted by goings-on at the house.
Was this the house or not? Calabrese, the federal witness, couldn't find it for the feds.
CBS 2 shared its information with the FBI. Agents indicated they'll be looking into it.
Thanks to John Drummond
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