Join the Clark County Library in Nevada on Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. in January as they visit the multi-faceted culture of organized crime with ex-mobsters, law enforcement, authors, historians, and the witnesses who survived the Mob's expansive rise to power in 20th century America.
Clark County Library
1401 E. Flamingo Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
Room: Main Theater
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Did Richard Nixon Have a Gay Affair with Mob Connected Crony?
He carpet-bombed Cambodia, spewed out anti-Semitic slurs and crude misogynistic jokes in the White House and smeared his political opponents with ruthless 'dirty tricks' campaigns. And, of course, he lied to his country about his involvement in the Watergate scandal and went down in history as America's shiftiest, darkest President.
Given everything that Richard Nixon has been accused of, it's difficult to believe there could be any more skeletons left in his cupboard. But it seems there are.
A new biography by Don Fulsom, a veteran Washington reporter who covered the Nixon years, suggests the 37th U.S. President had a serious drink problem, beat his wife and — by the time he was inaugurated in 1969 — had links going back two decades to the Mafia, including with New Orleans godfather Carlos Marcello, then America's most powerful mobster.
Yet the most extraordinary claim is that the homophobic Nixon may have been gay himself. If true, it would provide a fascinating insight into the motivation and behaviour of a notoriously secretive politician.
Fulsom argues that Nixon may have had an affair with his best friend and confidant, a Mafia‑connected Florida wheeler-dealer named Charles 'Bebe' Rebozo who was even more crooked than Nixon.
The book, Nixon's Darkest Secrets: The Inside Story of America's Most Troubled President, is out next month — by coincidence at the same time as the UK release of a new film directed by Clint Eastwood about another supposed closet gay among Washington's 20th-century hard men. But while FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover, played in Eastwood's film by Leonardo DiCaprio, allegedly had an affair with his squeaky-clean deputy Clyde Tolson, Nixon's supposed secret paramour was a very different character.
Bebe Rebozo was a short, swarthy, good-looking Cuban-American businessman with a history of failed relationships with women and close alliances with Miami's Mafia chiefs.
The veteran TV newsman Dan Rather recalled how Rebozo 'transmitted the sense of great sensuality', paying tribute to his 'magnetic' personality and 'beautiful eyes'.
Fulsom uses recently revealed documents and eyewitness interviews — including with FBI agents — to shed new light on long-standing suspicions among White House insiders that Nixon may have been more than just good buddies with Rebozo.
He claims Nixon's relationship with Pat, his wife of 53 years, was little more than a sham. A heavy drinker whom his own staff dubbed 'Our Drunk', Nixon used to call his First Lady a 'f***ing bitch' and beat her before, during and after his presidency, says Fulsom.
The pair had separate bedrooms at the White House — and in Key Biscayne, the exclusive resort near Miami where Nixon holidayed, Mrs Nixon didn't even sleep in the same building. Rebozo, however, was in the house next door.
Fulsom claims one of Nixon's former military aides had a secret job 'to teach the President how to kiss his wife' so they would look like a convincing couple.
How much of this can we believe? Nixon died in 1994 and his reputation is pretty much irredeemable. As with Eastwood's Hoover film, there is no definitive proof, but plenty of 'supporting evidence'.
Fulsom quotes a former Time magazine reporter who, at a Washington dinner, bent down to pick up a fork and saw the two holding hands under the table. It was, the reporter judged, sufficiently intimate to suggest 'repressed homosexuality'.Another journalist related how, loosened up by drink, Nixon once put his arm around Rebozo 'the way you'd cuddle your senior prom date. Something was fishy there'.But who exactly was Bebe Rebozo, and how did a shady Florida businessman of unclear sexual leanings end up as the bosom friend of one of the most paranoid and buttoned-up political leaders of the 20th century?
Born two months before Nixon in 1912, Charles Gregory Rebozo was the son of a Cuban cigar-maker and, as the youngest of nine, was stuck with the nickname 'Bebe'.
He came from poverty but worked his way up through property speculation and then banking. According to the FBI, he had close links with Mob bosses such as Santo Trafficante, the Tampa Godfather, and Alfred 'Big Al' Polizzi, a stooge of Meyer Lansky, the Cosa Nostra's financial brains.
By the 1960s, an FBI agent was describing Rebozo as a 'non- member associate of organised crime figures'. He bought land in Florida with a business partner who was believed to be a front for some of the most powerful Mafiosi.
When Rebozo started his own bank in Florida in 1964, Nixon — then a lawyer — wielded a golden shovel at the ground-breaking ceremony and became its first depositor.
According to Mafioso Vincent Teresa, the bank was used by the Mob to launder stolen cash. It hardly seems possible that Nixon, who pledged to make fighting organised crime a priority of his presidency, could not have known of his best friend's Mafia links.
Nixon had just won one of California's U.S. Senate seats when he first met Rebozo in 1950. Fearing Nixon was facing a nervous breakdown, fellow Senator George Smathers suggested a holiday in Florida and enlisted his old school friend Rebozo to show the socially awkward Nixon a good time.
Their first jaunt together — in Rebozo's 33ft fishing boat — did not go well. Rebozo later complained that Nixon just sat reading papers and, according to his host, barely said half a dozen words to him.
Smathers said Rebozo later told him: 'Don't ever send that son of a bitch Nixon down here again. He's a guy who doesn't know how to talk, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't chase women... he can't even fish.'But Rebozo persevered — and according to a cynical Smathers, Nixon's rising stardom in Washington and the potential influence it offered 'had a lot to do with it'.
In months, the pair were inseparable, holidaying with Nixon's wife Pat — and without her. Rebozo became an 'uncle figure' to the Nixons' two daughters, Tricia and Julie. The dapper Cuban-American chose Nixon's clothes and even selected the films he watched at the White House.
On Nixon's solo visits to Key Biscayne, they swam and sunbathed, indulging in their shared passions for discussing Broadway musicals and barbecuing steaks.
Both men were also extremely secretive, and their relationship — described as the 'most important unsolved mystery in Nixon's life' — was kept so discreet that the New York Times did not mention it for nearly 20 years.
Observers noticed their intimacy became most apparent when they were drunk. An aide recalled them playing a game called King of the Pool at Key Biscayne: 'It was late at night, the two men had been drinking. Nixon mounted a rubber raft in the pool while Rebozo tried to turn it over. Then, laughing and shouting, they'd change places.'
They were seen together at the same British-themed hostelries in the Key: the English Pub, where they drank beer from tankards engraved with their names, and the Jamaica Inn, where they ate at a discreet booth.
Both spots were owned by another businessman with Mob links and the secret service asked Nixon to find another place to eat.
Why the President's minders didn't raise alarms about Rebozo's Mafia connections has puzzled experts, but they probably didn't dare. When a New York newspaper investigated Rebozo's Mob links in the 1970s, its staff suddenly found themselves under secret service surveillance.
A White House aide once dismissed Rebozo's role as 'the guy who mixed the Martinis', but he was far more important than that.
When Nixon became President, Rebozo got his own office and bedroom at the White House, and a security clearance that allowed him to go in and out without being logged by the secret service. Using a false name, says Fulsom, Rebozo even got into Nixon's hotel suite during a trip to Europe.
The President's closest colleagues complained at the way Rebozo monopolised Nixon's time. General Alexander Haig, his last chief of staff, is said to have imitated Rebozo's 'limp wrist' manner and joked that Rebozo and Nixon were lovers.
According to Fulsom, Henry Kissinger resented the way Rebozo would fly on Air Force One, the Presidential plane, wearing a blue U.S. Navy flight jacket bearing the President's seal and with his name stitched on it.
Away from Nixon's side, Rebozo surrounded himself with glamorous women and threw Miami parties that descended into orgies, but was it all a front?
Aged 18, Rebozo reportedly enjoyed an 'intense' affair with a young man, Donald Gunn. He later wed Gunn's teenage sister. The marriage lasted four years and, according to his wife, was never consummated.
Rebozo didn't marry again until middle age, when he entered what Newsweek magazine described as an 'antiseptic' alliance with his lawyer's secretary. 'Bebe's favourites are Richard Nixon, his cat — and then me,' the lady complained later. A fellow Miami resident told Nixon biographer Anthony Summers that Rebozo was definitely part of the city's gay community.
Summers and co-writer Robbyn Swan, however, question whether there is enough evidence to suggest Nixon was gay. 'They held hands on occasion, and both men had problems with consummating physical relationships with women, but we found no evidence that Nixon was actively homosexual,' Summers told me this week.
Physical or not, Nixon's attraction to Rebozo has struck many as politically reckless. Nixon expert Professor Fawn Brodie couldn't understand how he would be 'willing to risk the kind of gossip that frequently accompanies close friendship with a perennial bachelor'. After all, she added, Nixon was, in public, a virulent gay-hater.
When Walter Jenkins, a trusted aide to President Lyndon Johnson, was caught providing sexual favours to a retired sailor in a YMCA lavatory, Nixon denounced him as 'ill'. People who suffered this 'illness', he added, 'cannot be in places of high trust'.
Rebozo was certainly in a position of 'high trust', and not only because he was a key fundraiser. He was with Nixon when he announced his successful run for President and again in June 1972 when Nixon learned that five men hired by the White House to break into the Watergate building had been arrested.
'We were swimming at Key Biscayne in front of my house,' Rebozo recalled. 'They came out and told him. He said: "What in God's name were they doing there?" We laughed and forgot about it.'
Rebozo also ended up being investigated by the Watergate committee, which found that a £64,000 cash contribution from the industrialist Howard Hughes that was meant for the Republican Party was actually in Rebozo's safe deposit box.
It also emerged that both Nixon and Rebozo's personal wealth had soared during Nixon's first five years in the White House, Rebozo's rising nearly seven-fold from £432,000 to nearly £3million.
Rebozo escaped prosecution — allegedly because of a White House deal — and he stood by his disgraced friend. He was at Nixon's bedside during his final days.
When Rebozo died in 1998, he left more than £12million to the Nixon memorial library, whose executive director eulogised him as a 'consummate gentleman' on whose 'wise counsel, shrewd political insight and ready wit' Nixon relied.
Typically, Nixon had been rather less charitable — he always described Rebozo as just a 'golfing partner'.
Thanks to Tom Leonard
Given everything that Richard Nixon has been accused of, it's difficult to believe there could be any more skeletons left in his cupboard. But it seems there are.
A new biography by Don Fulsom, a veteran Washington reporter who covered the Nixon years, suggests the 37th U.S. President had a serious drink problem, beat his wife and — by the time he was inaugurated in 1969 — had links going back two decades to the Mafia, including with New Orleans godfather Carlos Marcello, then America's most powerful mobster.
Yet the most extraordinary claim is that the homophobic Nixon may have been gay himself. If true, it would provide a fascinating insight into the motivation and behaviour of a notoriously secretive politician.
Fulsom argues that Nixon may have had an affair with his best friend and confidant, a Mafia‑connected Florida wheeler-dealer named Charles 'Bebe' Rebozo who was even more crooked than Nixon.
The book, Nixon's Darkest Secrets: The Inside Story of America's Most Troubled President, is out next month — by coincidence at the same time as the UK release of a new film directed by Clint Eastwood about another supposed closet gay among Washington's 20th-century hard men. But while FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover, played in Eastwood's film by Leonardo DiCaprio, allegedly had an affair with his squeaky-clean deputy Clyde Tolson, Nixon's supposed secret paramour was a very different character.
Bebe Rebozo was a short, swarthy, good-looking Cuban-American businessman with a history of failed relationships with women and close alliances with Miami's Mafia chiefs.
The veteran TV newsman Dan Rather recalled how Rebozo 'transmitted the sense of great sensuality', paying tribute to his 'magnetic' personality and 'beautiful eyes'.
Fulsom uses recently revealed documents and eyewitness interviews — including with FBI agents — to shed new light on long-standing suspicions among White House insiders that Nixon may have been more than just good buddies with Rebozo.
He claims Nixon's relationship with Pat, his wife of 53 years, was little more than a sham. A heavy drinker whom his own staff dubbed 'Our Drunk', Nixon used to call his First Lady a 'f***ing bitch' and beat her before, during and after his presidency, says Fulsom.
The pair had separate bedrooms at the White House — and in Key Biscayne, the exclusive resort near Miami where Nixon holidayed, Mrs Nixon didn't even sleep in the same building. Rebozo, however, was in the house next door.
Fulsom claims one of Nixon's former military aides had a secret job 'to teach the President how to kiss his wife' so they would look like a convincing couple.
How much of this can we believe? Nixon died in 1994 and his reputation is pretty much irredeemable. As with Eastwood's Hoover film, there is no definitive proof, but plenty of 'supporting evidence'.
Fulsom quotes a former Time magazine reporter who, at a Washington dinner, bent down to pick up a fork and saw the two holding hands under the table. It was, the reporter judged, sufficiently intimate to suggest 'repressed homosexuality'.Another journalist related how, loosened up by drink, Nixon once put his arm around Rebozo 'the way you'd cuddle your senior prom date. Something was fishy there'.But who exactly was Bebe Rebozo, and how did a shady Florida businessman of unclear sexual leanings end up as the bosom friend of one of the most paranoid and buttoned-up political leaders of the 20th century?
Born two months before Nixon in 1912, Charles Gregory Rebozo was the son of a Cuban cigar-maker and, as the youngest of nine, was stuck with the nickname 'Bebe'.
He came from poverty but worked his way up through property speculation and then banking. According to the FBI, he had close links with Mob bosses such as Santo Trafficante, the Tampa Godfather, and Alfred 'Big Al' Polizzi, a stooge of Meyer Lansky, the Cosa Nostra's financial brains.
By the 1960s, an FBI agent was describing Rebozo as a 'non- member associate of organised crime figures'. He bought land in Florida with a business partner who was believed to be a front for some of the most powerful Mafiosi.
When Rebozo started his own bank in Florida in 1964, Nixon — then a lawyer — wielded a golden shovel at the ground-breaking ceremony and became its first depositor.
According to Mafioso Vincent Teresa, the bank was used by the Mob to launder stolen cash. It hardly seems possible that Nixon, who pledged to make fighting organised crime a priority of his presidency, could not have known of his best friend's Mafia links.
Nixon had just won one of California's U.S. Senate seats when he first met Rebozo in 1950. Fearing Nixon was facing a nervous breakdown, fellow Senator George Smathers suggested a holiday in Florida and enlisted his old school friend Rebozo to show the socially awkward Nixon a good time.
Their first jaunt together — in Rebozo's 33ft fishing boat — did not go well. Rebozo later complained that Nixon just sat reading papers and, according to his host, barely said half a dozen words to him.
Smathers said Rebozo later told him: 'Don't ever send that son of a bitch Nixon down here again. He's a guy who doesn't know how to talk, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't chase women... he can't even fish.'But Rebozo persevered — and according to a cynical Smathers, Nixon's rising stardom in Washington and the potential influence it offered 'had a lot to do with it'.
In months, the pair were inseparable, holidaying with Nixon's wife Pat — and without her. Rebozo became an 'uncle figure' to the Nixons' two daughters, Tricia and Julie. The dapper Cuban-American chose Nixon's clothes and even selected the films he watched at the White House.
On Nixon's solo visits to Key Biscayne, they swam and sunbathed, indulging in their shared passions for discussing Broadway musicals and barbecuing steaks.
Both men were also extremely secretive, and their relationship — described as the 'most important unsolved mystery in Nixon's life' — was kept so discreet that the New York Times did not mention it for nearly 20 years.
Observers noticed their intimacy became most apparent when they were drunk. An aide recalled them playing a game called King of the Pool at Key Biscayne: 'It was late at night, the two men had been drinking. Nixon mounted a rubber raft in the pool while Rebozo tried to turn it over. Then, laughing and shouting, they'd change places.'
They were seen together at the same British-themed hostelries in the Key: the English Pub, where they drank beer from tankards engraved with their names, and the Jamaica Inn, where they ate at a discreet booth.
Both spots were owned by another businessman with Mob links and the secret service asked Nixon to find another place to eat.
Why the President's minders didn't raise alarms about Rebozo's Mafia connections has puzzled experts, but they probably didn't dare. When a New York newspaper investigated Rebozo's Mob links in the 1970s, its staff suddenly found themselves under secret service surveillance.
A White House aide once dismissed Rebozo's role as 'the guy who mixed the Martinis', but he was far more important than that.
When Nixon became President, Rebozo got his own office and bedroom at the White House, and a security clearance that allowed him to go in and out without being logged by the secret service. Using a false name, says Fulsom, Rebozo even got into Nixon's hotel suite during a trip to Europe.
The President's closest colleagues complained at the way Rebozo monopolised Nixon's time. General Alexander Haig, his last chief of staff, is said to have imitated Rebozo's 'limp wrist' manner and joked that Rebozo and Nixon were lovers.
According to Fulsom, Henry Kissinger resented the way Rebozo would fly on Air Force One, the Presidential plane, wearing a blue U.S. Navy flight jacket bearing the President's seal and with his name stitched on it.
Away from Nixon's side, Rebozo surrounded himself with glamorous women and threw Miami parties that descended into orgies, but was it all a front?
Aged 18, Rebozo reportedly enjoyed an 'intense' affair with a young man, Donald Gunn. He later wed Gunn's teenage sister. The marriage lasted four years and, according to his wife, was never consummated.
Rebozo didn't marry again until middle age, when he entered what Newsweek magazine described as an 'antiseptic' alliance with his lawyer's secretary. 'Bebe's favourites are Richard Nixon, his cat — and then me,' the lady complained later. A fellow Miami resident told Nixon biographer Anthony Summers that Rebozo was definitely part of the city's gay community.
Summers and co-writer Robbyn Swan, however, question whether there is enough evidence to suggest Nixon was gay. 'They held hands on occasion, and both men had problems with consummating physical relationships with women, but we found no evidence that Nixon was actively homosexual,' Summers told me this week.
Physical or not, Nixon's attraction to Rebozo has struck many as politically reckless. Nixon expert Professor Fawn Brodie couldn't understand how he would be 'willing to risk the kind of gossip that frequently accompanies close friendship with a perennial bachelor'. After all, she added, Nixon was, in public, a virulent gay-hater.
When Walter Jenkins, a trusted aide to President Lyndon Johnson, was caught providing sexual favours to a retired sailor in a YMCA lavatory, Nixon denounced him as 'ill'. People who suffered this 'illness', he added, 'cannot be in places of high trust'.
Rebozo was certainly in a position of 'high trust', and not only because he was a key fundraiser. He was with Nixon when he announced his successful run for President and again in June 1972 when Nixon learned that five men hired by the White House to break into the Watergate building had been arrested.
'We were swimming at Key Biscayne in front of my house,' Rebozo recalled. 'They came out and told him. He said: "What in God's name were they doing there?" We laughed and forgot about it.'
Rebozo also ended up being investigated by the Watergate committee, which found that a £64,000 cash contribution from the industrialist Howard Hughes that was meant for the Republican Party was actually in Rebozo's safe deposit box.
It also emerged that both Nixon and Rebozo's personal wealth had soared during Nixon's first five years in the White House, Rebozo's rising nearly seven-fold from £432,000 to nearly £3million.
Rebozo escaped prosecution — allegedly because of a White House deal — and he stood by his disgraced friend. He was at Nixon's bedside during his final days.
When Rebozo died in 1998, he left more than £12million to the Nixon memorial library, whose executive director eulogised him as a 'consummate gentleman' on whose 'wise counsel, shrewd political insight and ready wit' Nixon relied.
Typically, Nixon had been rather less charitable — he always described Rebozo as just a 'golfing partner'.
Thanks to Tom Leonard
Monday, December 26, 2011
Are F.B.I. Staffing Levels Dedicated Fighting the Mob Not High Enough
Is the N.Y. FBI allocating far too little to fight the five Organized Crime Families?
The answer is a definite Yes, according to a story by mob expert Jerry Capeci, editor of Gang Land News.
The site reports that the number of agents investigating New York wiseguys is at an all time low. One agent, the site reports, calls it “dangerously low.”
Still, Gangland reports that “G-men and women from other federal agencies have jumped into the fray to fill the void against the thousands of wiseguys and associates of the infamous Five Families.”
An example, according to the site, were the arrests last week by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Diplomatic Security Services (DSS) agents with the State Department arrested three wiseguys and four associates of the Gambino and Bonanno crime families on racketeering charges.
Gang Land reported that the FBI has reduced the number of squads that investigate the Five Families to three and the number of agents trying to keep tabs and arrest 700 made men and 7000 associates to about 45.
“It’s pretty obvious that there are other people locking up people that we used to lock up,” one veteran agent who has worked on mob squads for more than a dozen years told Gang Land. The agent called the number of FBI agents going after the mob “dangerously low.”
“In terms that the numbers-crunching bureaucrats can understand,” said the agent, “it’s impossible for 45 agents to do the work that 65 or 70 – or even more – were doing without losing effectiveness.”
“Across the U.S. the mob’s influence and power is not what it used to be, even in cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. But New York is different,” the agent said, according to Gang Land News. “They are still a viable force here. But for some reason the organized crime emphasis here is on non-traditional OC, not the LCN,” which is FBI-speak for La Cosa Nostra.
FBI spokesman Jim Margolin told Gang Land News: “The FBI’s allocation of resources isn’t etched in stone. We continually monitor and assess how best to deploy agents and other resources. We’re continuing to address the threat posed by organized crime in New York, including the five La Cosa Nostra families. But we have to do that with finite resources, spread across all of our investigative programs.”
Thanks to Tickle the Wire
The answer is a definite Yes, according to a story by mob expert Jerry Capeci, editor of Gang Land News.
The site reports that the number of agents investigating New York wiseguys is at an all time low. One agent, the site reports, calls it “dangerously low.”
Still, Gangland reports that “G-men and women from other federal agencies have jumped into the fray to fill the void against the thousands of wiseguys and associates of the infamous Five Families.”
An example, according to the site, were the arrests last week by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Diplomatic Security Services (DSS) agents with the State Department arrested three wiseguys and four associates of the Gambino and Bonanno crime families on racketeering charges.
Gang Land reported that the FBI has reduced the number of squads that investigate the Five Families to three and the number of agents trying to keep tabs and arrest 700 made men and 7000 associates to about 45.
“It’s pretty obvious that there are other people locking up people that we used to lock up,” one veteran agent who has worked on mob squads for more than a dozen years told Gang Land. The agent called the number of FBI agents going after the mob “dangerously low.”
“In terms that the numbers-crunching bureaucrats can understand,” said the agent, “it’s impossible for 45 agents to do the work that 65 or 70 – or even more – were doing without losing effectiveness.”
“Across the U.S. the mob’s influence and power is not what it used to be, even in cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. But New York is different,” the agent said, according to Gang Land News. “They are still a viable force here. But for some reason the organized crime emphasis here is on non-traditional OC, not the LCN,” which is FBI-speak for La Cosa Nostra.
FBI spokesman Jim Margolin told Gang Land News: “The FBI’s allocation of resources isn’t etched in stone. We continually monitor and assess how best to deploy agents and other resources. We’re continuing to address the threat posed by organized crime in New York, including the five La Cosa Nostra families. But we have to do that with finite resources, spread across all of our investigative programs.”
Thanks to Tickle the Wire
Friday, December 16, 2011
Fifteen Chicago Men Charged in Gun-Running Probe
Fifteen Chicago men were charged in grand jury indictments or criminal complaints filed earlier this week in either U.S. District Court or Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago with violating state or federal firearms laws.
The charges were announced yesterday by Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), together with Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Garry F. McCarthy, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (CPD); and Anita Alvarez, Cook County State’s Attorney.
Thirteen of the defendants were arrested yesterday at various locations in and around Chicago, without incident, by members of the Chicago FBI’s Joint Task Force on Gangs and officers from the CPD. Two other defendants MARCUS JEFFERSON and TERRILL SMITH, avoided capture and are now the subjects of a nationwide manhunt.
Six of those arrested were charged in separate federal grand jury indictments with felon in possession of a firearm and/or distribution of a controlled substance. Those charged federally are identified as MARCUS JEFFERSON, age 31; MAURICE MARTIN, age 41; CARLOS MENDEZ, age 33; KEITH MURRAY, 45; TERRILL SMITH, age 23; and BRUCE WEATHERSPOON, age 30; all residents of Chicago. An additional defendant, RAMON FAVELA, age 38, also of Chicago, was arrested and subsequently charged in a criminal complaint with possession and distribution of a controlled substance.
Eight others were charged in criminal complaints filed in state court with unlawful sale of a firearm or unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. The state defendants are identified as AARON BASSETT, age 22; COREY BRAMLETT, age 19; TRIMELL COLLINS, age 27; GREGORY FREEMAN, age 23; DAVID HILL, age 22; CORNELIUS LEE, age 28; JAMES TOOMER, age 27; and CARLOS WILLIAMS, age 39, all residents of Chicago.
According to the grand jury indictments and criminal complaints, all of those charged were involved in the illegal possession or sale of firearms, including handguns, shotguns and assault rifles on Chicago’s west and south sides, since April of 2010. These weapons are alleged to have been purchased outside of Illinois, transported to Chicago where the defendants took possession of them, then eventually sold to undercover operatives for amounts ranging from $ 250.00 to $1600.00.
The investigation leading to the filing of the charges announced today is part of an ongoing and coordinated effort by the FBI and CPD’s Organized Crime Bureau and Gang Investigations Division to identify those responsible for illegally supplying firearms to Chicago’s criminal element, which are often used in street violence. During the course of this investigation, which incorporated sophisticated physical and electronic surveillance techniques and controlled undercover purchases, 48 firearms were recovered.
In announcing these arrests, Mr. Grant recognized the continued partnership with law enforcement at every level in combating violent street gangs. Said Mr. Grant, “The charges announced today reaffirm the FBI’s role in helping to stem the tide of violence in the City of Chicago and surrounding suburbs brought about by street gangs vying for control of lucrative drug trafficking locations.”
Additionally, the FBI is grateful for the assistance and support provided by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, the Illinois State Police Forensic Laboratory, the Cook County Sheriff’s Intelligence Unit and the Illinois Department of Corrections.
“Gun violence is one of the toughest problems we face in the fight against crime,” said Superintendent McCarthy. “Chicago Police will continue collaborative efforts with our law enforcement partners in order to stop the influx of illegal firearms onto our City’s streets, and to keep these deadly weapons out of the hands of criminals responsible for drug and gang related violence in our communities,” he added.
“Today’s arrests are crucial in our ongoing efforts to target and cut off the flow of illegal weapons onto our streets which is driving the violence plaguing so many of our communities,” said Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez. She added “The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office stands united with our partners in sharing all of our resources to continue to target and aggressively prosecute this type of gun trafficking.”
Those charged federally appeared in U.S. District Court in Chicago late Wednesday and Thursday, at which time they were formally charged. Two of the defendants were ordered held without bond, pending their next court appearance, which is scheduled for Monday, December 19. The remaining defendants were released on house arrest and electronic monitoring. If convicted of the charges filed against them, all seven federal defendants face a possible sentence ranging from 10 years to life in prison.
Those charged in state court appeared at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse yesterday, at which time they were formally charged. All eight defendants were ordered held on bonds ranging from $50,000 to $250,000 and all face sentences ranging from three to seven years in prison.
The Chicago FBI’s Joint Task Force on Gangs is comprised of FBI special agents and officers from the Chicago Police Department.
The public is reminded that a 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.
The charges were announced yesterday by Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), together with Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Garry F. McCarthy, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (CPD); and Anita Alvarez, Cook County State’s Attorney.
Thirteen of the defendants were arrested yesterday at various locations in and around Chicago, without incident, by members of the Chicago FBI’s Joint Task Force on Gangs and officers from the CPD. Two other defendants MARCUS JEFFERSON and TERRILL SMITH, avoided capture and are now the subjects of a nationwide manhunt.
Six of those arrested were charged in separate federal grand jury indictments with felon in possession of a firearm and/or distribution of a controlled substance. Those charged federally are identified as MARCUS JEFFERSON, age 31; MAURICE MARTIN, age 41; CARLOS MENDEZ, age 33; KEITH MURRAY, 45; TERRILL SMITH, age 23; and BRUCE WEATHERSPOON, age 30; all residents of Chicago. An additional defendant, RAMON FAVELA, age 38, also of Chicago, was arrested and subsequently charged in a criminal complaint with possession and distribution of a controlled substance.
Eight others were charged in criminal complaints filed in state court with unlawful sale of a firearm or unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. The state defendants are identified as AARON BASSETT, age 22; COREY BRAMLETT, age 19; TRIMELL COLLINS, age 27; GREGORY FREEMAN, age 23; DAVID HILL, age 22; CORNELIUS LEE, age 28; JAMES TOOMER, age 27; and CARLOS WILLIAMS, age 39, all residents of Chicago.
According to the grand jury indictments and criminal complaints, all of those charged were involved in the illegal possession or sale of firearms, including handguns, shotguns and assault rifles on Chicago’s west and south sides, since April of 2010. These weapons are alleged to have been purchased outside of Illinois, transported to Chicago where the defendants took possession of them, then eventually sold to undercover operatives for amounts ranging from $ 250.00 to $1600.00.
The investigation leading to the filing of the charges announced today is part of an ongoing and coordinated effort by the FBI and CPD’s Organized Crime Bureau and Gang Investigations Division to identify those responsible for illegally supplying firearms to Chicago’s criminal element, which are often used in street violence. During the course of this investigation, which incorporated sophisticated physical and electronic surveillance techniques and controlled undercover purchases, 48 firearms were recovered.
In announcing these arrests, Mr. Grant recognized the continued partnership with law enforcement at every level in combating violent street gangs. Said Mr. Grant, “The charges announced today reaffirm the FBI’s role in helping to stem the tide of violence in the City of Chicago and surrounding suburbs brought about by street gangs vying for control of lucrative drug trafficking locations.”
Additionally, the FBI is grateful for the assistance and support provided by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, the Illinois State Police Forensic Laboratory, the Cook County Sheriff’s Intelligence Unit and the Illinois Department of Corrections.
“Gun violence is one of the toughest problems we face in the fight against crime,” said Superintendent McCarthy. “Chicago Police will continue collaborative efforts with our law enforcement partners in order to stop the influx of illegal firearms onto our City’s streets, and to keep these deadly weapons out of the hands of criminals responsible for drug and gang related violence in our communities,” he added.
“Today’s arrests are crucial in our ongoing efforts to target and cut off the flow of illegal weapons onto our streets which is driving the violence plaguing so many of our communities,” said Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez. She added “The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office stands united with our partners in sharing all of our resources to continue to target and aggressively prosecute this type of gun trafficking.”
Those charged federally appeared in U.S. District Court in Chicago late Wednesday and Thursday, at which time they were formally charged. Two of the defendants were ordered held without bond, pending their next court appearance, which is scheduled for Monday, December 19. The remaining defendants were released on house arrest and electronic monitoring. If convicted of the charges filed against them, all seven federal defendants face a possible sentence ranging from 10 years to life in prison.
Those charged in state court appeared at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse yesterday, at which time they were formally charged. All eight defendants were ordered held on bonds ranging from $50,000 to $250,000 and all face sentences ranging from three to seven years in prison.
The Chicago FBI’s Joint Task Force on Gangs is comprised of FBI special agents and officers from the Chicago Police Department.
The public is reminded that a 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.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Top Ten Messages Left On Rod Blagojevich's Answering Machine
10.Hey, it's Conrad Murray. 14 years? I didn't get that for murder
9.This is your hairstylist. Make sure to condition after each delousing
8.Do you want the cell closer to the espresso machine or jacuzzi?
7.Congratulations, I hear you're going to Vail. Wait, nevermind
6.Hey, it's your cell mate. Do you like the top or bottom?
5.Sorry, I must have the wrong number. I was trying to reach Todd Blagojevich
4.Hey, it's Dave. Tonight's Top Ten List is about you. Nice work
3.It's 2011, why do you still have an answering machine?
2.This is President Obama. I'm granting you a full pardon. Nah, I'm just screwing with you
1.It's the warden. The inmates are asking how much you want for your seat
9.This is your hairstylist. Make sure to condition after each delousing
8.Do you want the cell closer to the espresso machine or jacuzzi?
7.Congratulations, I hear you're going to Vail. Wait, nevermind
6.Hey, it's your cell mate. Do you like the top or bottom?
5.Sorry, I must have the wrong number. I was trying to reach Todd Blagojevich
4.Hey, it's Dave. Tonight's Top Ten List is about you. Nice work
3.It's 2011, why do you still have an answering machine?
2.This is President Obama. I'm granting you a full pardon. Nah, I'm just screwing with you
1.It's the warden. The inmates are asking how much you want for your seat
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Chicago Mob Wives Rejected by Gene and Georghetti's
The owner of Gene and Georgetti's steakhouse apparently has a big beef with a new show.
The producers of VH1's "Mob Wives" recently approached restaurant owner Tony Durpetti to ask if they could film in his restaurant for a Chicago spin-off, reported the Sun-Times.
He gave them a big fat no.
Louis H. Rago, president of the Italian American Human Relations Foundation of Chicago, praised the decision, saying he is tired of negative stereotypes about Italians on television.
advertisement
Other Chicago restaurant owners also have said they would not participate with the show.
The producers of VH1's "Mob Wives" recently approached restaurant owner Tony Durpetti to ask if they could film in his restaurant for a Chicago spin-off, reported the Sun-Times.
He gave them a big fat no.
Louis H. Rago, president of the Italian American Human Relations Foundation of Chicago, praised the decision, saying he is tired of negative stereotypes about Italians on television.
advertisement
Other Chicago restaurant owners also have said they would not participate with the show.
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Michele Zagaria, Most-wanted Fugitive Reputed Mob Boss, Arrested in Underground Bunker
Police on Wednesday captured one of Italy's most-wanted fugitive mobsters, arresting the last major boss of one of Italy's bloodiest mafia clans.
Michele Zagaria, on the run since 1995, was found in an underground bunker in Casapesenna, in his hometown province of Caserta in southern Italy, the headquarters of the Casalesi clan of the Neapolitan Camorra.
Anti-mafia prosecutor Piero Grasso said it was likely Zagaria had spent his years as a fugitive nearby since mob bosses "can only exercise their power if they're in an environment that protects them."
"This was the nightmare: We knew he was there, but it was tough to find him, tough to get him out," he told Sky TG24. "Finally we did."
He noted that the Casalesi's well-known infiltration of local businesses and politics was similar to that of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.
Investigators contend the Casalesi family runs a lucrative illegal business in transporting and disposing of toxic waste, a murky world explored in the book and film "Gomorrah." Other moneymakers for the crime clan are rackets, extortion, drug trafficking, smuggling of illegal migrants and arms.
Police have seized about euro2 billion ($2.7 billion) worth of assets allegedly illegally gained by its members over the last few years.
Last year, another top Casalesi lieutenant, Antonio Iovine, nicknamed "'o ninno'" (dialect for "the baby") for his youthful looks, was arrested in a major strike against the Casalesi. His arrest left Zagaria as the last big fugitive lieutenant of the charismatic convicted Camorra boss Francesco Schiavone.
Nicknamed Sandokan after the hero of a series of pirate adventure books in Italy, Schiavone is believed to still control the Casalesi clan from behind bars.
Zagaria is wanted for murder, extortion, kidnapping, mafia association and other crimes.
In one of their bloodiest strikes, Casalesi gunmen gunned down six African immigrants in one swoop as they chatted on a town street in what police said was a warning to other Africans to stay away from drug trafficking in the area.
Thanks to Yahoo News
Michele Zagaria, on the run since 1995, was found in an underground bunker in Casapesenna, in his hometown province of Caserta in southern Italy, the headquarters of the Casalesi clan of the Neapolitan Camorra.
Anti-mafia prosecutor Piero Grasso said it was likely Zagaria had spent his years as a fugitive nearby since mob bosses "can only exercise their power if they're in an environment that protects them."
"This was the nightmare: We knew he was there, but it was tough to find him, tough to get him out," he told Sky TG24. "Finally we did."
He noted that the Casalesi's well-known infiltration of local businesses and politics was similar to that of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.
Investigators contend the Casalesi family runs a lucrative illegal business in transporting and disposing of toxic waste, a murky world explored in the book and film "Gomorrah." Other moneymakers for the crime clan are rackets, extortion, drug trafficking, smuggling of illegal migrants and arms.
Police have seized about euro2 billion ($2.7 billion) worth of assets allegedly illegally gained by its members over the last few years.
Last year, another top Casalesi lieutenant, Antonio Iovine, nicknamed "'o ninno'" (dialect for "the baby") for his youthful looks, was arrested in a major strike against the Casalesi. His arrest left Zagaria as the last big fugitive lieutenant of the charismatic convicted Camorra boss Francesco Schiavone.
Nicknamed Sandokan after the hero of a series of pirate adventure books in Italy, Schiavone is believed to still control the Casalesi clan from behind bars.
Zagaria is wanted for murder, extortion, kidnapping, mafia association and other crimes.
In one of their bloodiest strikes, Casalesi gunmen gunned down six African immigrants in one swoop as they chatted on a town street in what police said was a warning to other Africans to stay away from drug trafficking in the area.
Thanks to Yahoo News
Almost 1 Million Leave Mafia Wars 2
The sequel to one of Zynga’s most popular social games does not seem to be faring so well according to research firm AppData which estimates that Mafia Wars 2 has lost over 900,000 subscribers over the past four weeks.
The casual game that was launched back in October reached a peak of 2.5 million players but began losing out on players over the past month accounting to 36 per cent of its user base. If that was not bad enough, a Bloomberg report from an anonymous source says that the game has failed to generate expected sales.
Analyst Michael Pachter has pointed out that most of Zynga’s game witnessed at least 20 per cent of their users returning daily to play the game but Mafia Wars 2 falls short to 10 per cent on retaining its daily playing population. “All the old Mafia Wars guys who finished everything you could do came over here and said, ‘This is the same game with different missions.’ They are already tired of it, so they are dropping off. I think it’s a good case study for what can go wrong,” he explained.
The casual game that was launched back in October reached a peak of 2.5 million players but began losing out on players over the past month accounting to 36 per cent of its user base. If that was not bad enough, a Bloomberg report from an anonymous source says that the game has failed to generate expected sales.
Analyst Michael Pachter has pointed out that most of Zynga’s game witnessed at least 20 per cent of their users returning daily to play the game but Mafia Wars 2 falls short to 10 per cent on retaining its daily playing population. “All the old Mafia Wars guys who finished everything you could do came over here and said, ‘This is the same game with different missions.’ They are already tired of it, so they are dropping off. I think it’s a good case study for what can go wrong,” he explained.
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
The Citizen Leader: Be the Person You'd Want to Follow by Peter Alduino
Take a close look at the people around you who are in a position of leadership today or may be at sometime in the future. How do you know who will be a great leader?
In his new book The Citizen Leader: Be the Person You’d Want to Follow
, author and leadership expert Peter Alduino takes a critical look at what it takes to be an effective and highly regarded leader at home, in your community, in your place of worship and at work.
“A citizen leader is someone who brings their character and courage to making a contribution on behalf of the community and the common good,” says Alduino. “In an era when we are being assaulted by others’ agendas and tempted with profit, prestige and personal gain, it is our job to be solidly grounded in who we are and how we want to be in the world and have the courage to stick by that.”
The Citizen Leader is a step-by-step guide to help parents, teens, community leaders and corporate executives alike explore and then put into action the answers to the questions “Who am I?” and “How do I want to be in the world?”
Peter challenges each of us to address personal and professional issues we face in life and deepen our commitment to being authentic and courageous so we can say with conviction, "I am a person I’d want to follow." Alduino identifies three roles that a person must fulfill to be a citizen leader:
Character
Put into words who you are and what you stand for, and then get some feedback from the people around you. Commit to do whatever it is you need to be doing differently to be your person, and emerge as someone you’d want to follow.
Courage
Strengthen your resolve to do the right thing — not the popular, profitable, prestigious, pandering, politically expedient, placating or even the palatable thing but the right thing that serves your highest values and the common good.
Contribution
Put to use a practical framework that both integrates the forces of your mind, body and spirit to make a positive contribution in your community — be that home, school, work, worship or play — and keeps you moving and motivated, even when you confront obstacles.
In his new book The Citizen Leader: Be the Person You’d Want to Follow
, author and leadership expert Peter Alduino takes a critical look at what it takes to be an effective and highly regarded leader at home, in your community, in your place of worship and at work.“A citizen leader is someone who brings their character and courage to making a contribution on behalf of the community and the common good,” says Alduino. “In an era when we are being assaulted by others’ agendas and tempted with profit, prestige and personal gain, it is our job to be solidly grounded in who we are and how we want to be in the world and have the courage to stick by that.”
The Citizen Leader is a step-by-step guide to help parents, teens, community leaders and corporate executives alike explore and then put into action the answers to the questions “Who am I?” and “How do I want to be in the world?”
Peter challenges each of us to address personal and professional issues we face in life and deepen our commitment to being authentic and courageous so we can say with conviction, "I am a person I’d want to follow." Alduino identifies three roles that a person must fulfill to be a citizen leader:
Character
Put into words who you are and what you stand for, and then get some feedback from the people around you. Commit to do whatever it is you need to be doing differently to be your person, and emerge as someone you’d want to follow.
Courage
Strengthen your resolve to do the right thing — not the popular, profitable, prestigious, pandering, politically expedient, placating or even the palatable thing but the right thing that serves your highest values and the common good.
Contribution
Put to use a practical framework that both integrates the forces of your mind, body and spirit to make a positive contribution in your community — be that home, school, work, worship or play — and keeps you moving and motivated, even when you confront obstacles.
Monday, December 05, 2011
John Gotti Movie Back on Track and to Start Shooting Soon
John Travolta should start working on perfecting a thick New York Mafioso accent.
It sounds like cameras will finally roll on the much talked-about John Gotti movie...
"I think we've got the money sorted out now," Gotti: Three Generations' writer and director Barry Levinson told me at BAFTA LA's Britannia Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. "It's coming together."
Travolta is set to star as Gotti, the late Mafia crime boss who was nicknamed "the Teflon Don," alongside Ben Foster as his son and real-life wife Kelly Preston as his daughter, Victoria.
"It's not just him, but John Gotti Jr.," Levinson said. "The dynamic that is interesting to me is Gotti Jr. growing up in the shadow of his father and thinking he was supposed to step up as the next Don and then suddenly realizing that this is not a world he wants to be a part of and how do you deal with that ."
Levinson told me they may even shoot in my hometown of Howard Beach, N.Y. Yes, I grew up in the same neighborhood as the Gottis.
Thanks to Marc Malkin
It sounds like cameras will finally roll on the much talked-about John Gotti movie...
"I think we've got the money sorted out now," Gotti: Three Generations' writer and director Barry Levinson told me at BAFTA LA's Britannia Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. "It's coming together."
Travolta is set to star as Gotti, the late Mafia crime boss who was nicknamed "the Teflon Don," alongside Ben Foster as his son and real-life wife Kelly Preston as his daughter, Victoria.
"It's not just him, but John Gotti Jr.," Levinson said. "The dynamic that is interesting to me is Gotti Jr. growing up in the shadow of his father and thinking he was supposed to step up as the next Don and then suddenly realizing that this is not a world he wants to be a part of and how do you deal with that ."
Levinson told me they may even shoot in my hometown of Howard Beach, N.Y. Yes, I grew up in the same neighborhood as the Gottis.
Thanks to Marc Malkin
Sunday, December 04, 2011
Antonio C. Martinez Jr. Pleads Guilty to Racketeering and Related Charges for Involvement with Latin Kings Gang
Antonio C. Martinez Jr., 40, a former Chicago police officer, pleaded guilty today to racketeering conspiracy and related charges, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney David Capp of the Northern District of Indiana.
Martinez pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano to conspiracy to commit racketeering activity; conspiracy to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana; robbery; and using a firearm while committing these federal crimes. Martinez was charged, along with 14 additional defendants, in a third superseding indictment unsealed on Nov. 18, 2011. To date, 21 individuals, including Martinez, have been charged for crimes related to their membership or association with the Almighty Latin Kings and Queen Nation (Latin Kings) gang.
Martinez admitted that he committed a series of robberies from 2004 to 2006 at the direction of the Latin Kings, using his position as a Chicago police officer to facilitate the robberies. Martinez admitted that he was wearing his Chicago Police Department badge and department-issued weapon when he committed the robberies, which included those of drug traffickers in Rockford, Ill.; Chicago; and East Chicago, Ind. In one instance, Martinez admitted to participating in the armed robbery at the home of a deceased Latin Dragon gang leader in Hammond, Ind. In addition, Martinez admitted that he picked up and delivered packages of cocaine on multiple occasions for two Latin Kings leaders.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 14, 2012. At sentencing, Martinez faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The investigation of Martinez was conducted by the Chicago City Public Corruption Task Force, a Chicago Police Department-Internal Affairs and FBI Chicago law enforcement initiative. The investigation of the remaining defendants was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; FBI; U.S. Immigration and Custom Office of Homeland Security Investigations; the National Gang Targeting, Enforcement & Coordination Center; the National Gang Intelligence Center; the Chicago Police Department; the East Chicago Police Department; the Griffith, Ind., Police Department; the Hammond Police Department; the Highland, Ind., Police Department; and the Houston Police Department.
The cases are being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Joseph A. Cooley of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney David J. Nozick of the Northern District of Indiana.
Martinez pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano to conspiracy to commit racketeering activity; conspiracy to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana; robbery; and using a firearm while committing these federal crimes. Martinez was charged, along with 14 additional defendants, in a third superseding indictment unsealed on Nov. 18, 2011. To date, 21 individuals, including Martinez, have been charged for crimes related to their membership or association with the Almighty Latin Kings and Queen Nation (Latin Kings) gang.
Martinez admitted that he committed a series of robberies from 2004 to 2006 at the direction of the Latin Kings, using his position as a Chicago police officer to facilitate the robberies. Martinez admitted that he was wearing his Chicago Police Department badge and department-issued weapon when he committed the robberies, which included those of drug traffickers in Rockford, Ill.; Chicago; and East Chicago, Ind. In one instance, Martinez admitted to participating in the armed robbery at the home of a deceased Latin Dragon gang leader in Hammond, Ind. In addition, Martinez admitted that he picked up and delivered packages of cocaine on multiple occasions for two Latin Kings leaders.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 14, 2012. At sentencing, Martinez faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The investigation of Martinez was conducted by the Chicago City Public Corruption Task Force, a Chicago Police Department-Internal Affairs and FBI Chicago law enforcement initiative. The investigation of the remaining defendants was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; FBI; U.S. Immigration and Custom Office of Homeland Security Investigations; the National Gang Targeting, Enforcement & Coordination Center; the National Gang Intelligence Center; the Chicago Police Department; the East Chicago Police Department; the Griffith, Ind., Police Department; the Hammond Police Department; the Highland, Ind., Police Department; and the Houston Police Department.
The cases are being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Joseph A. Cooley of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney David J. Nozick of the Northern District of Indiana.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Strippers From Russia and Eastern Europe Allegedly Lured by Mob to Work in Gentlemen's Clubs Via Immigration Fraud
That New York’s strip clubs have been inhabited by entrepreneurial mobsters is nothing new. But the latest suspected criminal enterprise involving a band of Mafia members, soldiers and associates has expanded the business model to international levels, in a scheme the authorities say was designed to dominate an empire of strip clubs across Manhattan, Queens and Long Island.
At its core, the operation centered on men with nicknames like the Grandfather, Perry Como and Tommy D. pushing an enterprise to recruit women from Russia and other Eastern European countries to enter the United States illegally to work as exotic dancers.
In all, 20 people were arrested on Wednesday and accused of criminal activity that included racketeering, extortion and immigration and marriage fraud. The defendants included seven men said to be linked to the Gambino and Bonnano crime families, the authorities said.
The suspected enterprise helped the women fraudulently obtain non-immigrant visas, often provided housing and transportation, and then set them up to dance at the topless clubs in violation of those visas. The women — who worked at places including Cheetahs in Midtown Manhattan; Rouge in Maspeth, Queens; and the Scene in Commack, Suffolk County — became “personal profit centers” for the defendants, according to Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan.
An indictment outlined the accusations in four of the strip clubs, but did not name them. A federal law enforcement official said that nine strip clubs in the metropolitan area were involved, including Gallagher’s and Perfection, both in Queens.
At times, the enterprise drew money from the clubs by threatening violence, court papers said. At other times, they offered protection from others in the stripper industry or mob underworld, they said. Sometimes, the organized crime members, or others, were stationed at the clubs. The members of the enterprise also resolved disputes about which clubs the women would work in, the court papers said, and which members would control or receive payments from which clubs.
At times, “several of the defendants also arranged for many of the women to enter into sham marriages with U.S. citizens,” according to a statement from Mr. Bharara’s office.
The arrests were announced by Mr. Bharara and by the New York offices of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service.
“Today’s arrests bring to an end a longstanding criminal enterprise operated by colluding organized crime entities that profited wildly through a combination of extortion and fraud,” said James T. Hayes Jr., the immigration agency’s special agent in charge. “As alleged, the defendants controlled their business and protected their turf through intimidation and threats of physical and economic harm. Today, that business model has been extinguished.”
It was not immediately clear how many women were entangled with the enterprise, or what would happen to them. The defendants appeared Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan, officials said. The case, they said, had been assigned to Federal District Judge Victor Marrero.
Thanks to Al Baker
At its core, the operation centered on men with nicknames like the Grandfather, Perry Como and Tommy D. pushing an enterprise to recruit women from Russia and other Eastern European countries to enter the United States illegally to work as exotic dancers.
In all, 20 people were arrested on Wednesday and accused of criminal activity that included racketeering, extortion and immigration and marriage fraud. The defendants included seven men said to be linked to the Gambino and Bonnano crime families, the authorities said.
The suspected enterprise helped the women fraudulently obtain non-immigrant visas, often provided housing and transportation, and then set them up to dance at the topless clubs in violation of those visas. The women — who worked at places including Cheetahs in Midtown Manhattan; Rouge in Maspeth, Queens; and the Scene in Commack, Suffolk County — became “personal profit centers” for the defendants, according to Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan.
An indictment outlined the accusations in four of the strip clubs, but did not name them. A federal law enforcement official said that nine strip clubs in the metropolitan area were involved, including Gallagher’s and Perfection, both in Queens.
At times, the enterprise drew money from the clubs by threatening violence, court papers said. At other times, they offered protection from others in the stripper industry or mob underworld, they said. Sometimes, the organized crime members, or others, were stationed at the clubs. The members of the enterprise also resolved disputes about which clubs the women would work in, the court papers said, and which members would control or receive payments from which clubs.
At times, “several of the defendants also arranged for many of the women to enter into sham marriages with U.S. citizens,” according to a statement from Mr. Bharara’s office.
The arrests were announced by Mr. Bharara and by the New York offices of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service.
“Today’s arrests bring to an end a longstanding criminal enterprise operated by colluding organized crime entities that profited wildly through a combination of extortion and fraud,” said James T. Hayes Jr., the immigration agency’s special agent in charge. “As alleged, the defendants controlled their business and protected their turf through intimidation and threats of physical and economic harm. Today, that business model has been extinguished.”
It was not immediately clear how many women were entangled with the enterprise, or what would happen to them. The defendants appeared Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan, officials said. The case, they said, had been assigned to Federal District Judge Victor Marrero.
Thanks to Al Baker
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
The Man Who Saved Jimi Hendrix from the Mafia
Jon Roberts, the convicted cocaine trafficker who masterminded the Medellin Cartel's rise in the 1980s and the importation of as much as 15 billion dollars worth of cocaine for them, told a few stories that strained credulity when we first sat down for the interviews that would form the basis of our book, 'American Desperado' (Crown, published November 1st, 2011). Among them, he claimed that as a young New York Mafia soldier in the late 1960s – nearly a decade before he got into the "cocaine industry," as he refers to it – he rescued Jimi Hendrix from a kidnapping attempt. The tale seemed patently absurd until I began to look into the twisted history of the New York club scene in the late 1960s. Based on research and interviews I conducted, it turns out that not only does Roberts' story appear to be true, he solves a mystery that has intrigued Hendrix biographers for more than three decades.
Shortly after Hendrix's death in 1970, members of his inner circle revealed that about a year earlier, just after Woodstock, Hendrix had been abducted by Mafia gunmen and held in upstate New York in a dispute involving a recording deal. One version of the story named his abductors as "John Riccobono." As it happens, that was Roberts' name in the late 1960s (before he changed it and fled a murder investigation for which he was a prime suspect). As "Riccobono" he had served as point man in a successful Mafia effort to take control of Salvation, a top Manhattan nightclub. According to independent research for our book, far from kidnapping Hendrix, Roberts and his Mafia partner Andy Benfante, helped rescue him two times – not just from a bungled, amateurish kidnapping plot, but from an ill-advised rock star foray onto water-skis.
As Roberts relates it in 'American Desperado':
When you run a nightclub, you will always get heat from the cops. The liquor license gives them an automatic reason to come into your place and snoop. Within a year of getting into the business, Andy and I started to draw real heat – not from the New York cops, who could always be bought, but from the FBI. Two incidents made them nosy about us.
The first was the kidnapping of Jim Hendrix. Jimi and I were never great friends. He was so far gone, I don't think he was truly friends with anybody. Jimi was a bad junkie. Jimi had people around him all the time, too. He was suffocating from these hangers-on. After we met at Salvation, he came to our house on Fire Island so he could get away from it all. We'd make sure nobody would bother him except for his real friends. Jimi really liked [blues guitarist] Leslie West, and one night the two of them played our living room all night long. Jimi had to shoot speed in his arm to keep up with Leslie. That's how good Leslie West was. A few times, we took Jimi water-skiing off the back of my Donzi. He liked getting out and doing things physically, even when he was stoned.
He nearly drowned one time. Jimi's out there – no life vest on – and he falls off the skis. He's in the water thrashing around. I swing the boat past and throw him the rope. It's floating a couple feet from his hands, but he's waving his arms like crazy. Suddenly, I'm wondering if he can even swim. Andy has to jump in the water and swim the rope over to him, because Jesus Christ, if this guy dies while out with us, what a headache that would be.
I had some good times with Jimi, but he was a disaster on water skis.
I got involved in Jimi's so-called kidnapping after he was grabbed by some guys out of Salvation. Later on some people accused me of being involved in kidnapping him. They said I was involved with kidnappers who tied Jimi to a chair and forced him to shoot heroin. Please. Nobody would have had to force Jimi to shoot anything. Just give him the heroin and he'd inject it himself. It was Jimi going out searching for drugs that got him into trouble. Andy and I were the ones who helped get him out of it.
Jimi had people who would usually buy dope for him. But sometimes he'd get so sick, he'd come into our clubs looking for drugs on his own. One night two Italian kids at our club – not Mafia but wiseguy wannabes – saw Jimi in there looking for dope and decided, "Hey, that's Jimi Hendrix. Let's grab him and see what we can get."
These guys were morons. They promised Jimi some dope and took him to a house out of the city. I don't know if they wanted money or a piece of his record contract, but they called Jimi's manager demanding something. Next thing I knew the club manager called me and said Jimi had been taken from our club by some Italians.
It took me and Andy two or three phone calls to get the names of the kids who were holding Jimi. We reached out to these kids and made it clear, "You let Jimi go, or you are dead. Do not harm a hair of his Afro."
They let Jimi go. The whole thing lasted maybe two days. Jimi was so stoned, he probably didn't even know he was ever kidnapped. Andy and I waited a week or so and went after these kids. We gave them a beating they would never forget.
Here I was, the Good Samaritan, but unfortunately, when Jimi was grabbed, some of his people contacted the FBI. Even after he was safely returned, the FBI started poking around our business. This later led them to tie Andy Benfante and me to the murder of Robert Wood. That one good deed for Jimi Hendrix was resulted in me having to flee New York for Miami. Who knows? If it hadn't been for me saving Jimi Hendrix, I might never have hooked up with the Medellin Cartel and Pablo Escobar in Miami and started in the cocaine smuggling business. Wherever you are Jimi, thank you.
Reprinted from the book 'American Desperado: My Life--From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset' by Jon Roberts and Evan Wright.
Shortly after Hendrix's death in 1970, members of his inner circle revealed that about a year earlier, just after Woodstock, Hendrix had been abducted by Mafia gunmen and held in upstate New York in a dispute involving a recording deal. One version of the story named his abductors as "John Riccobono." As it happens, that was Roberts' name in the late 1960s (before he changed it and fled a murder investigation for which he was a prime suspect). As "Riccobono" he had served as point man in a successful Mafia effort to take control of Salvation, a top Manhattan nightclub. According to independent research for our book, far from kidnapping Hendrix, Roberts and his Mafia partner Andy Benfante, helped rescue him two times – not just from a bungled, amateurish kidnapping plot, but from an ill-advised rock star foray onto water-skis.
As Roberts relates it in 'American Desperado':
When you run a nightclub, you will always get heat from the cops. The liquor license gives them an automatic reason to come into your place and snoop. Within a year of getting into the business, Andy and I started to draw real heat – not from the New York cops, who could always be bought, but from the FBI. Two incidents made them nosy about us.
The first was the kidnapping of Jim Hendrix. Jimi and I were never great friends. He was so far gone, I don't think he was truly friends with anybody. Jimi was a bad junkie. Jimi had people around him all the time, too. He was suffocating from these hangers-on. After we met at Salvation, he came to our house on Fire Island so he could get away from it all. We'd make sure nobody would bother him except for his real friends. Jimi really liked [blues guitarist] Leslie West, and one night the two of them played our living room all night long. Jimi had to shoot speed in his arm to keep up with Leslie. That's how good Leslie West was. A few times, we took Jimi water-skiing off the back of my Donzi. He liked getting out and doing things physically, even when he was stoned.
He nearly drowned one time. Jimi's out there – no life vest on – and he falls off the skis. He's in the water thrashing around. I swing the boat past and throw him the rope. It's floating a couple feet from his hands, but he's waving his arms like crazy. Suddenly, I'm wondering if he can even swim. Andy has to jump in the water and swim the rope over to him, because Jesus Christ, if this guy dies while out with us, what a headache that would be.
I had some good times with Jimi, but he was a disaster on water skis.
I got involved in Jimi's so-called kidnapping after he was grabbed by some guys out of Salvation. Later on some people accused me of being involved in kidnapping him. They said I was involved with kidnappers who tied Jimi to a chair and forced him to shoot heroin. Please. Nobody would have had to force Jimi to shoot anything. Just give him the heroin and he'd inject it himself. It was Jimi going out searching for drugs that got him into trouble. Andy and I were the ones who helped get him out of it.
Jimi had people who would usually buy dope for him. But sometimes he'd get so sick, he'd come into our clubs looking for drugs on his own. One night two Italian kids at our club – not Mafia but wiseguy wannabes – saw Jimi in there looking for dope and decided, "Hey, that's Jimi Hendrix. Let's grab him and see what we can get."
These guys were morons. They promised Jimi some dope and took him to a house out of the city. I don't know if they wanted money or a piece of his record contract, but they called Jimi's manager demanding something. Next thing I knew the club manager called me and said Jimi had been taken from our club by some Italians.
It took me and Andy two or three phone calls to get the names of the kids who were holding Jimi. We reached out to these kids and made it clear, "You let Jimi go, or you are dead. Do not harm a hair of his Afro."
They let Jimi go. The whole thing lasted maybe two days. Jimi was so stoned, he probably didn't even know he was ever kidnapped. Andy and I waited a week or so and went after these kids. We gave them a beating they would never forget.
Here I was, the Good Samaritan, but unfortunately, when Jimi was grabbed, some of his people contacted the FBI. Even after he was safely returned, the FBI started poking around our business. This later led them to tie Andy Benfante and me to the murder of Robert Wood. That one good deed for Jimi Hendrix was resulted in me having to flee New York for Miami. Who knows? If it hadn't been for me saving Jimi Hendrix, I might never have hooked up with the Medellin Cartel and Pablo Escobar in Miami and started in the cocaine smuggling business. Wherever you are Jimi, thank you.
Reprinted from the book 'American Desperado: My Life--From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset' by Jon Roberts and Evan Wright.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Meet Frank Calabrese Jr in Person, Author of Operation: Familiy Secrets How a Mobster’s Son & The FBI Brought Down the Murderous Chicago Family
Chicago Celebrity Book Author Event
Mob-Writer Frank Calabrese Jr.
Author of the New York Times Best Seller
Operation: Family Secrets How a Mobster’s Son & The FBI Brought Down the Murderous Chicago Family
With Special Guests: jon-david Chicago author of Mafia Hairdresser, &, The Glow Stick Gods
Anthony Serritella Chicago author of Book Joint For Sale: Memoirs of a Bookie
Date of event: December 16, 2011 6-10pm
Place of event: Bella Luna Cafe 731 N Dearborn Chicago IL 312-751-2552
Producer: Dwana De La Cerna
Eventbrite Ticketing $35 Ticket includes Bella Luna Food and One Drink PLUS Signed Books from all 3 Authors. "Operation Family Secrets" http://operationfamilysecrets.eventbrite.com
A once in a lifetime event where Chicago gets to rub elbows with mob & mafia insider book authors. Picture ops, mingling, book signing.
Bella Luna Cafe is featured in in the book Operation Family Secrets, and the owner, Danny Alberga, stood up to mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr. which make Bella Luna the perfect historical old work Italy cafe to host this is the holiday with the mob event.
- Operation Family Secrets: How a Mobster's Son and the FBI Brought Down Chicago's Murderous Crime Family
--Frank Calabrese Jr’s inside story of a notable organized-crime prosecution, in which a son turned on his ferocious father. "This is an undeniably engaging tale, capturing the nitty-gritty of daily life in the “crews” of the Outfit." Kirkus Reviews
- Mafia Hairdresser
--jon-david’s 1st novel based on the author's experience as a hairdresser to a mob family in the 80s.“This is a fascinating story and an unbelievable provocative title.” - Rick Kogan WGN*Tribune*Chicago Live!*Sunday Papers with Rick Kogan
- Book Joint for Sale: Memoirs of a Bookie
--Anthony Serritella’s takes readers on a story about his childhood experience with a book-maker. From taking $2 horse bets at his uncle's newsstand in Chicago's downtown district as a nine-year-old in the 1940s, to taking $20,000 Super Bowl.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Mr. CSI: How a Vegas Dreamer Made a Killing in Hollywood, One Body at a Time by Anthony E. Zuiker
The creator of CSI delves into the mysteries of his father’s tragic death and his own unlikely rise in Hollywood using the very techniques he has honed by working on his hit shows, CSI, CSI: Miami, and CSI: New York. Deeply felt and insightful, Anthony Zuiker’s searing memoir of dreams and losses, successes and heartbreaks, is not only a behind-the-scenes look at television’s most-watched drama, but an essential guide for aspiring script writers and filmmakers, featuring practical tips and inspiring lessons to help tomorrow’s writers succeed today. Fans of crime dramas, anyone who dreams of unraveling the mysteries of their own story, and everyone who dreams of making it big will find themselves immediately drawn in by the one-of-a-kind story of the man who made it: Mr. CSI: How a Vegas Dreamer Made a Killing in Hollywood, One Body at a Time.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Meeting Frank Calabrese Jr.
It was a tattoo that almost got Frank Calabrese killed. He'd had it etched across his back while he was in Milan prison in Michigan: a large map of America over which prison bars have been superimposed with a pair of hands reaching out through them in handcuffs. He'd designed it himself, to make a point, he says, about "how you are free in America but somehow not free".
The tattoo was drawn by a fellow inmate, against prison regulations, with the connivance of a guard whom they bribed to look the other way.
Soon after he'd had it done, Calabrese was walking around the prison exercise yard. He was wearing a wire, his torso wrapped in recording equipment like a Christmas tree. Walking beside him was one of the world's most dangerous men – a killing machine from the Chicago mob whose preferred method of assassination was the rope and knife.
Calabrese had just succeeded in enticing the other man into telling him about a succession of murders he'd committed, including that of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro and his brother Michael, immortalised by the film Casino. The unwitting confession was captured by the wire and recorded for later analysis by the FBI.
Suddenly the older man stopped and asked to see Calabrese's new tattoo. "Why've you been covering it up? Let me see it," he said. It was an instant death warrant. If Calabrese lifted up his shirt and revealed the wire, the older man, who was shorter than him but immensely powerful, would know he had been betrayed and would kill him on the spot with his bare hands. It was 300 yards to the prison door and Calabrese calculated he wouldn't make it, deciding instead to stand his ground and bluff it. He pulled his shirt down and refused, saying it would get him into trouble. The older man looked puzzled for a second, then relaxed and backed off.
Should Calabrese have been exposed at that moment as an FBI informant, it would have put an end to the largest mafia investigation in American history. As it was, he went on to hold many more hours of taped conversations with the older man that helped to blow apart the Chicago mob. The Outfit, the organised crime syndicate of Al Capone that had terrorised the city for 100 years, had finally got its comeuppance.
That exchange in the prison yard was significant for another, more personal, reason. The older man whom Calabrese was secretly recording, condemning him in the process to spending the rest of his life in prison, had the same name as him: Frank Calabrese. Senior. His father.
Hollywood revealed to Frank Calabrese Jr the truth about his father. Until he saw his own domestic life play out on screen, he'd assumed he was from a normal family.
Home life in the heavily Italian and mafia-frequented neighbourhood of Elmwood Park was dominated by his father's Sicilian roots. Three generations of Italian-Americans – his grandparents, parents and uncles, brothers and cousins – were crammed into the house they called the Compound. Frank Jr was the eldest of three sons, and his father's favourite.
What his father did all day was a mystery to the young boy. When other kids at school asked him how his dad made a living, he was nonplussed.
"Tell them I'm an engineer," Frank Sr would say.
"What, like a choo-choo-train engineer?"
"No, tell them I'm an operating engineer."
Calabrese was 12 when The Godfather came out. The Corleone family it portrayed was strikingly similar to his own. Art was imitating life, or was it the other way round? His father was friendly with Gianni Russo, who played Carlo Rizzi, the Godfather's son-in-law, in the movie. One night, Russo was being interviewed on a show and pulled out a knife he said had been given to him by a mobster.
"I gave him that knife," Frank Sr said as they sat watching TV.
Years later, in one of the taped conversations Frank Jr had with his father, Calabrese Sr remarked that Mario Puzo's account in the original book of the initiation ceremony for "made men" was spot on. "Whoever wrote that book, either their father or their grandfather or somebody was in the organisation," said Calabrese Sr, who, as a "made man" himself, knew what he was talking about.
"So you mean they actually pricked the hand and the candles and all that stuff?" Frank Jr asked.
"Their fingers got cut and everybody puts the fingers together and all the blood running down. Then they take pictures, put them in your hand, burn them. Holy pictures."
A few years after The Godfather came out, Frank Sr began to draw his son into the family business. It was a slow, almost imperceptible process. "He started to involve me in little things," Calabrese said. "It was like, 'Hey, son, do this for your dad. Go take this envelope, go deliver this to a store.'"
Calabrese was encouraged to keep a low profile. "We were taught to blend, to fly under the radar. My father told me to drive Fords and Chevies, not Cadillacs or BMWs. Wear baseball caps, not fedoras, ski jackets, not trenchcoats."
At 19, Calabrese was allowed to take part in mob activities, starting with collecting money from peep shows and graduating into keeping the books. It was an education of sorts. "I learned all my maths through the juice loan business." As he became more central to his father's racketeering and gambling concerns, the lessons became more specific. Calabrese was shown by his father how to hug someone to see if they were carrying a gun or wearing a wire.
Calabrese embraced his new life. "When I bought into it, I bought into it strong. Whatever my father told me to do, that's what I did. I didn't fear law enforcement, or jail, or death. If my father told me to walk full-speed into that wall, I would."
Then, at the age of 26, Calabrese was invited to take part in an initiation ceremony all of its own – his first gangland murder.
For a key prosecution witness in a massive mob case that took down 14 top mafia bosses, Frank Calabrese Jr comes across as remarkably relaxed. He's not in a witness protection scheme, lives under his own name, and when I visit him in a condo apartment outside Phoenix in Arizona, he readily opens the door and welcomes me in without so much as a frisking. How does he know I'm not a hit man sent from Chicago to exact revenge? "I don't," he says.
Calabrese looks the part of a Chicago hard man. His head is shaved, accentuating his large ears and piercing blue eyes. He's wearing a sleeveless vest and slacks, which display the product of hours spent pumping iron. When he speaks, though, Calabrese does so with a surprising softness and introspection. It's a bit like listening to Tony Soprano talking to his therapist (Calabrese is a big Sopranos fan – he watched the whole series with his mother and ex-wife, wincing at the parallels with his own family).
Hanging on the wall of his apartment is a framed photograph of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Sammy Davis Jr from the original Ocean's 11. His father, he explains, was friendly with Sinatra's bodyguard.
Frank Calabrese Sr – aka Frankie Breeze – was born in 1937 into a poor Italian family on the west side of Chicago. He left school at 13 and could barely read and write. By 16 he had begun to make money as a thief and later developed a "juice" loan business, extracting exorbitant rates of return. It was a lucrative enterprise: at its peak he had $1m out on loan with collections of up to 10% per week. After the trial ended and the elder Calabrese was given multiple life sentences, the FBI searched his home and found $2m-worth of diamonds and almost $800,000 in bills and property deeds.
In 1964, Calabrese Sr was "whistled in" to the Outfit by a much-feared mafia underboss called Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra. The nickname came from what LaPietra would do to anyone who fell behind with their loan repayments: hang them on a meat hook and torture them with a cattle prod or blowtorch. Cause of death – suffocation from screaming. The younger Calabrese grew up thinking of LaPietra as "Uncle Ang".
Together with LaPietra and his own brother, Nick, Calabrese Sr developed a specialist role as the Outfit's murder squad. Calabrese Jr was given an insight into that as a teenager one night when his father came home and hurried him into the bathroom. With the fan on and the water running so no one else could hear, he breathlessly recounted a hit he'd just carried out. "We got 'im… Our guy wasn't listening to the rules, so we shotgunned him."
Those who were "retired" by Calabrese Sr and his brother included Michael "Bones" Albergo; John Mendell, who rather foolishly robbed the home of the Outfit's consigliere, Tony "Big Tuna" Accardo; a business rival called Michael Cagnoni, who was blown up in his car; rogue mobster Richard Ortiz; and Emil Vaci, a Las Vegas-based gangster the Outfit feared might inform against them. Then there were the Spilotros of Casino fame. Tony Spilotro was head of the Outfit's Vegas arm, running a gambling and "skimming" business (skimming off casino profits without telling the tax authorities). He got too big for his boots, and when the bosses found out he was having an affair with another made man's wife, they wanted him gone.
Tony Spilotro and his brother Michael were lured to Chicago under the pretext that Michael would be "made" and Tony would be promoted to capo. Instead, they had ropes thrown around their necks and were strangled – the legendary "Calabrese necktie".
The younger Calabrese's own brush with murder came in 1986 when he was chosen to take part in a hit on John "Big Stoop" Fecarotta. He was to sit in the back seat of the getaway car. "I was ready to murder for my dad," Calabrese says. "You always need two guys in the car, and I was to go with my uncle Nick. If I'd crossed that line, there would have been no coming back. But my uncle talks me out of it. He tells me, 'This ain't for you. You don't want this life.' He saved me."
That was a turning point for Calabrese, in both his relationship with the mob and, by extension, with his father. When he was young, his father was loving towards him, always ready with a hug. But as Calabrese Sr came increasingly under the influence of the murderous LaPietra, he changed, growing colder and more brutal towards his son. "His temper became shorter, he would be quicker with his hands, more controlling. He didn't think twice about cracking you in the face."
The younger Calabrese came to see how manipulative his father was, switching personalities at the click of his fingers. "If you were sitting with him here right now, you'd love him. He'd charm you. But when you'd gone, he'd turn into his second personality – a controlling and abusive father. And his third personality was the killer."
To try to wriggle out of his father's tight embrace, Calabrese set up in business on his own. He opened Italian restaurants, and later began dealing cocaine. He kept that hidden from his father, knowing that if he was found out "the old man would have killed me". He also kept secret his own intensifying addiction to the drug. In a desperate move to break free and to keep his habit fed, Calabrese began stealing from a cache of about $700,000 in $50 notes his father had tucked behind a wall in his grandmother's basement.
Not a good idea. When his father discovered the losses, and who was responsible, he issued a decree. "From now on, I own you," he told his son. "The restaurants are mine, your house is mine, everything is mine."
A few months later his father asked Calabrese to join him for a coffee. They met at a lock-up garage used by the crew. "As I opened the door I realised, oh shit! He's setting me up. He slams the door, turns and sticks a gun in my cheek. Then he says: 'I would rather have you dead than disobey me.'"
Calabrese started sobbing and begging for forgiveness. "Somehow I got out of that garage. As we got back in the truck, he started punching me and back-handing me in the face. My tears were rolling down and all I could think about was how I could never trust this man again. From that day on, I have never trusted anybody. Nobody."
The decision to turn informant against his own father was taken in 1998 inside Milan prison where both Frank Calabreses were sent after being found guilty of racketeering and illegal gambling. Imprisonment was the best thing that happened to the younger man. It allowed him to kick his cocaine addiction, and to become healthy once again. Most important, it freed him from his father's control.
He became determined that as soon as he was released he would make a new life for himself. "I decided that I was going to quit the Outfit. I'd wound up in prison, on drugs. That wasn't what I wanted any more. I had to find a way to go straight when I came out."
But he knew a huge hurdle stood in his way: his father. He had a choice. Either he could wait until they were both out, then confront his father and tell him he wanted to leave the family business, in which case there would almost certainly be a showdown and one of them would end up dead. Or he could cooperate.
The FBI called their investigation Operation Family Secrets. The 2007 trial lasted three months and took into account 18 murders. In addition to his father's life sentences, long prison sentences were eventually handed out to seven other Outfit bosses. It was an extraordinary result given the history of the Chicago mob. In its 100 years, the Outfit had committed more than 3,000 murders, yet before this only 12 convictions had been secured. Until Calabrese took the stand, backed up by his uncle Nick, who had also turned prosecution witness, not a single made member had been held accountable.
During the trial, the younger Calabrese gave evidence against his father standing just feet away from him in the courtroom. "The one thing I wasn't ready for was the emotional part. I walk into the courtroom and it's the strangest feeling I've ever had. There was my dad. Part of me wanted to go over to him and hug him and say, Dad, I'm going to take care of you. It's going to be OK. Man, I wasn't prepared for that."
As he left the courtroom at the end of his testimony, "the tears just started streaming. An agent asks me, 'Are you OK?' And I say, 'No, I've just realised that's the last time I'll ever see my dad.'"
He was right about that. The elder Calabrese, now 74, is being held in a maximum security institution in Missouri where he has been kept for the past two years in almost total isolation. He is permitted no visitors, nor any contact with other prisoners in a regime reserved for a handful of the most serious terrorists and serial killers.
Calabrese left Chicago after the trial and moved to Phoenix, partly to get away from his past and partly because the hot, dry air of Arizona is good for his health. A few years ago he discovered he had MS and though he keeps it at bay with exercise, it causes him to limp.
He lives with his two children, Kelly and Anthony, and makes a living as a motivational speaker, telling law-enforcement conferences and self-help groups how he has turned his life around. He is unmarried, but his former wife Lisa lives nearby and they remain close. She is still deeply afraid, he says, that his father will seek retribution and she has pleaded with him to enter witness protection. But he continues to refuse. As he writes in his book: "I'm pragmatic. If people can kill presidents, they can kill me. Nobody is invincible and completely safe in today's world."
When I ask to see the tattoo that nearly got him killed, he pulls up his shirt to reveal that his back carries not only the drawing of the map of America with prison bars, but also seven small tattoos depicting bullet holes – like the ones you get on cowboy posters. "I feel I'm always going to have to watch my back," he explains, "so those bullet holes are a reminder to me to be alert every day."
Regrets, he has a few. He still finds it difficult to come to terms with the fact that he committed the mobster's ultimate sin by ratting on another. And though he is convinced he made the right decision, he is still deeply troubled by the outcome. "At this stage in his life, as my dad gets old, I wanted to be there for him. I wanted to be his protector, not his executioner."
Can there be forgiveness between them, the Frank Calabreses? "I can forgive him. I love my dad to this day, I just don't love his ways. But I don't think he can forgive me. I really don't. I wish he could."
Calabrese says he's resigned to the grip his father has, and will for ever have, over him. "I know in my heart that the day my father dies he'll haunt me," he says. "This will go on for eternity. I don't know what to expect in the next life, but I do know that wherever it is he will be waiting there for me. And he's not going to be happy with me."
Thanks to Ed Pilkington
The tattoo was drawn by a fellow inmate, against prison regulations, with the connivance of a guard whom they bribed to look the other way.
Soon after he'd had it done, Calabrese was walking around the prison exercise yard. He was wearing a wire, his torso wrapped in recording equipment like a Christmas tree. Walking beside him was one of the world's most dangerous men – a killing machine from the Chicago mob whose preferred method of assassination was the rope and knife.
Calabrese had just succeeded in enticing the other man into telling him about a succession of murders he'd committed, including that of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro and his brother Michael, immortalised by the film Casino. The unwitting confession was captured by the wire and recorded for later analysis by the FBI.
Suddenly the older man stopped and asked to see Calabrese's new tattoo. "Why've you been covering it up? Let me see it," he said. It was an instant death warrant. If Calabrese lifted up his shirt and revealed the wire, the older man, who was shorter than him but immensely powerful, would know he had been betrayed and would kill him on the spot with his bare hands. It was 300 yards to the prison door and Calabrese calculated he wouldn't make it, deciding instead to stand his ground and bluff it. He pulled his shirt down and refused, saying it would get him into trouble. The older man looked puzzled for a second, then relaxed and backed off.
Should Calabrese have been exposed at that moment as an FBI informant, it would have put an end to the largest mafia investigation in American history. As it was, he went on to hold many more hours of taped conversations with the older man that helped to blow apart the Chicago mob. The Outfit, the organised crime syndicate of Al Capone that had terrorised the city for 100 years, had finally got its comeuppance.
That exchange in the prison yard was significant for another, more personal, reason. The older man whom Calabrese was secretly recording, condemning him in the process to spending the rest of his life in prison, had the same name as him: Frank Calabrese. Senior. His father.
Hollywood revealed to Frank Calabrese Jr the truth about his father. Until he saw his own domestic life play out on screen, he'd assumed he was from a normal family.
Home life in the heavily Italian and mafia-frequented neighbourhood of Elmwood Park was dominated by his father's Sicilian roots. Three generations of Italian-Americans – his grandparents, parents and uncles, brothers and cousins – were crammed into the house they called the Compound. Frank Jr was the eldest of three sons, and his father's favourite.
What his father did all day was a mystery to the young boy. When other kids at school asked him how his dad made a living, he was nonplussed.
"Tell them I'm an engineer," Frank Sr would say.
"What, like a choo-choo-train engineer?"
"No, tell them I'm an operating engineer."
Calabrese was 12 when The Godfather came out. The Corleone family it portrayed was strikingly similar to his own. Art was imitating life, or was it the other way round? His father was friendly with Gianni Russo, who played Carlo Rizzi, the Godfather's son-in-law, in the movie. One night, Russo was being interviewed on a show and pulled out a knife he said had been given to him by a mobster.
"I gave him that knife," Frank Sr said as they sat watching TV.
Years later, in one of the taped conversations Frank Jr had with his father, Calabrese Sr remarked that Mario Puzo's account in the original book of the initiation ceremony for "made men" was spot on. "Whoever wrote that book, either their father or their grandfather or somebody was in the organisation," said Calabrese Sr, who, as a "made man" himself, knew what he was talking about.
"So you mean they actually pricked the hand and the candles and all that stuff?" Frank Jr asked.
"Their fingers got cut and everybody puts the fingers together and all the blood running down. Then they take pictures, put them in your hand, burn them. Holy pictures."
A few years after The Godfather came out, Frank Sr began to draw his son into the family business. It was a slow, almost imperceptible process. "He started to involve me in little things," Calabrese said. "It was like, 'Hey, son, do this for your dad. Go take this envelope, go deliver this to a store.'"
Calabrese was encouraged to keep a low profile. "We were taught to blend, to fly under the radar. My father told me to drive Fords and Chevies, not Cadillacs or BMWs. Wear baseball caps, not fedoras, ski jackets, not trenchcoats."
At 19, Calabrese was allowed to take part in mob activities, starting with collecting money from peep shows and graduating into keeping the books. It was an education of sorts. "I learned all my maths through the juice loan business." As he became more central to his father's racketeering and gambling concerns, the lessons became more specific. Calabrese was shown by his father how to hug someone to see if they were carrying a gun or wearing a wire.
Calabrese embraced his new life. "When I bought into it, I bought into it strong. Whatever my father told me to do, that's what I did. I didn't fear law enforcement, or jail, or death. If my father told me to walk full-speed into that wall, I would."
Then, at the age of 26, Calabrese was invited to take part in an initiation ceremony all of its own – his first gangland murder.
For a key prosecution witness in a massive mob case that took down 14 top mafia bosses, Frank Calabrese Jr comes across as remarkably relaxed. He's not in a witness protection scheme, lives under his own name, and when I visit him in a condo apartment outside Phoenix in Arizona, he readily opens the door and welcomes me in without so much as a frisking. How does he know I'm not a hit man sent from Chicago to exact revenge? "I don't," he says.
Calabrese looks the part of a Chicago hard man. His head is shaved, accentuating his large ears and piercing blue eyes. He's wearing a sleeveless vest and slacks, which display the product of hours spent pumping iron. When he speaks, though, Calabrese does so with a surprising softness and introspection. It's a bit like listening to Tony Soprano talking to his therapist (Calabrese is a big Sopranos fan – he watched the whole series with his mother and ex-wife, wincing at the parallels with his own family).
Hanging on the wall of his apartment is a framed photograph of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Sammy Davis Jr from the original Ocean's 11. His father, he explains, was friendly with Sinatra's bodyguard.
Frank Calabrese Sr – aka Frankie Breeze – was born in 1937 into a poor Italian family on the west side of Chicago. He left school at 13 and could barely read and write. By 16 he had begun to make money as a thief and later developed a "juice" loan business, extracting exorbitant rates of return. It was a lucrative enterprise: at its peak he had $1m out on loan with collections of up to 10% per week. After the trial ended and the elder Calabrese was given multiple life sentences, the FBI searched his home and found $2m-worth of diamonds and almost $800,000 in bills and property deeds.
In 1964, Calabrese Sr was "whistled in" to the Outfit by a much-feared mafia underboss called Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra. The nickname came from what LaPietra would do to anyone who fell behind with their loan repayments: hang them on a meat hook and torture them with a cattle prod or blowtorch. Cause of death – suffocation from screaming. The younger Calabrese grew up thinking of LaPietra as "Uncle Ang".
Together with LaPietra and his own brother, Nick, Calabrese Sr developed a specialist role as the Outfit's murder squad. Calabrese Jr was given an insight into that as a teenager one night when his father came home and hurried him into the bathroom. With the fan on and the water running so no one else could hear, he breathlessly recounted a hit he'd just carried out. "We got 'im… Our guy wasn't listening to the rules, so we shotgunned him."
Those who were "retired" by Calabrese Sr and his brother included Michael "Bones" Albergo; John Mendell, who rather foolishly robbed the home of the Outfit's consigliere, Tony "Big Tuna" Accardo; a business rival called Michael Cagnoni, who was blown up in his car; rogue mobster Richard Ortiz; and Emil Vaci, a Las Vegas-based gangster the Outfit feared might inform against them. Then there were the Spilotros of Casino fame. Tony Spilotro was head of the Outfit's Vegas arm, running a gambling and "skimming" business (skimming off casino profits without telling the tax authorities). He got too big for his boots, and when the bosses found out he was having an affair with another made man's wife, they wanted him gone.
Tony Spilotro and his brother Michael were lured to Chicago under the pretext that Michael would be "made" and Tony would be promoted to capo. Instead, they had ropes thrown around their necks and were strangled – the legendary "Calabrese necktie".
The younger Calabrese's own brush with murder came in 1986 when he was chosen to take part in a hit on John "Big Stoop" Fecarotta. He was to sit in the back seat of the getaway car. "I was ready to murder for my dad," Calabrese says. "You always need two guys in the car, and I was to go with my uncle Nick. If I'd crossed that line, there would have been no coming back. But my uncle talks me out of it. He tells me, 'This ain't for you. You don't want this life.' He saved me."
That was a turning point for Calabrese, in both his relationship with the mob and, by extension, with his father. When he was young, his father was loving towards him, always ready with a hug. But as Calabrese Sr came increasingly under the influence of the murderous LaPietra, he changed, growing colder and more brutal towards his son. "His temper became shorter, he would be quicker with his hands, more controlling. He didn't think twice about cracking you in the face."
The younger Calabrese came to see how manipulative his father was, switching personalities at the click of his fingers. "If you were sitting with him here right now, you'd love him. He'd charm you. But when you'd gone, he'd turn into his second personality – a controlling and abusive father. And his third personality was the killer."
To try to wriggle out of his father's tight embrace, Calabrese set up in business on his own. He opened Italian restaurants, and later began dealing cocaine. He kept that hidden from his father, knowing that if he was found out "the old man would have killed me". He also kept secret his own intensifying addiction to the drug. In a desperate move to break free and to keep his habit fed, Calabrese began stealing from a cache of about $700,000 in $50 notes his father had tucked behind a wall in his grandmother's basement.
Not a good idea. When his father discovered the losses, and who was responsible, he issued a decree. "From now on, I own you," he told his son. "The restaurants are mine, your house is mine, everything is mine."
A few months later his father asked Calabrese to join him for a coffee. They met at a lock-up garage used by the crew. "As I opened the door I realised, oh shit! He's setting me up. He slams the door, turns and sticks a gun in my cheek. Then he says: 'I would rather have you dead than disobey me.'"
Calabrese started sobbing and begging for forgiveness. "Somehow I got out of that garage. As we got back in the truck, he started punching me and back-handing me in the face. My tears were rolling down and all I could think about was how I could never trust this man again. From that day on, I have never trusted anybody. Nobody."
The decision to turn informant against his own father was taken in 1998 inside Milan prison where both Frank Calabreses were sent after being found guilty of racketeering and illegal gambling. Imprisonment was the best thing that happened to the younger man. It allowed him to kick his cocaine addiction, and to become healthy once again. Most important, it freed him from his father's control.
He became determined that as soon as he was released he would make a new life for himself. "I decided that I was going to quit the Outfit. I'd wound up in prison, on drugs. That wasn't what I wanted any more. I had to find a way to go straight when I came out."
But he knew a huge hurdle stood in his way: his father. He had a choice. Either he could wait until they were both out, then confront his father and tell him he wanted to leave the family business, in which case there would almost certainly be a showdown and one of them would end up dead. Or he could cooperate.
The FBI called their investigation Operation Family Secrets. The 2007 trial lasted three months and took into account 18 murders. In addition to his father's life sentences, long prison sentences were eventually handed out to seven other Outfit bosses. It was an extraordinary result given the history of the Chicago mob. In its 100 years, the Outfit had committed more than 3,000 murders, yet before this only 12 convictions had been secured. Until Calabrese took the stand, backed up by his uncle Nick, who had also turned prosecution witness, not a single made member had been held accountable.
During the trial, the younger Calabrese gave evidence against his father standing just feet away from him in the courtroom. "The one thing I wasn't ready for was the emotional part. I walk into the courtroom and it's the strangest feeling I've ever had. There was my dad. Part of me wanted to go over to him and hug him and say, Dad, I'm going to take care of you. It's going to be OK. Man, I wasn't prepared for that."
As he left the courtroom at the end of his testimony, "the tears just started streaming. An agent asks me, 'Are you OK?' And I say, 'No, I've just realised that's the last time I'll ever see my dad.'"
He was right about that. The elder Calabrese, now 74, is being held in a maximum security institution in Missouri where he has been kept for the past two years in almost total isolation. He is permitted no visitors, nor any contact with other prisoners in a regime reserved for a handful of the most serious terrorists and serial killers.
Calabrese left Chicago after the trial and moved to Phoenix, partly to get away from his past and partly because the hot, dry air of Arizona is good for his health. A few years ago he discovered he had MS and though he keeps it at bay with exercise, it causes him to limp.
He lives with his two children, Kelly and Anthony, and makes a living as a motivational speaker, telling law-enforcement conferences and self-help groups how he has turned his life around. He is unmarried, but his former wife Lisa lives nearby and they remain close. She is still deeply afraid, he says, that his father will seek retribution and she has pleaded with him to enter witness protection. But he continues to refuse. As he writes in his book: "I'm pragmatic. If people can kill presidents, they can kill me. Nobody is invincible and completely safe in today's world."
When I ask to see the tattoo that nearly got him killed, he pulls up his shirt to reveal that his back carries not only the drawing of the map of America with prison bars, but also seven small tattoos depicting bullet holes – like the ones you get on cowboy posters. "I feel I'm always going to have to watch my back," he explains, "so those bullet holes are a reminder to me to be alert every day."
Regrets, he has a few. He still finds it difficult to come to terms with the fact that he committed the mobster's ultimate sin by ratting on another. And though he is convinced he made the right decision, he is still deeply troubled by the outcome. "At this stage in his life, as my dad gets old, I wanted to be there for him. I wanted to be his protector, not his executioner."
Can there be forgiveness between them, the Frank Calabreses? "I can forgive him. I love my dad to this day, I just don't love his ways. But I don't think he can forgive me. I really don't. I wish he could."
Calabrese says he's resigned to the grip his father has, and will for ever have, over him. "I know in my heart that the day my father dies he'll haunt me," he says. "This will go on for eternity. I don't know what to expect in the next life, but I do know that wherever it is he will be waiting there for me. And he's not going to be happy with me."
Thanks to Ed Pilkington
Friday, November 25, 2011
Salvatore Montagna's Body Found in River North of Montreal, Reputed Boss of Bonanno Crime Family
The body of an alleged Mafia boss, who U.S. authorities said once led New York's notorious Bonanno crime family, was fished out from a river north of Montreal on Thursday.
Reports identified the body as Salvatore Montagna, although police wouldn't immediately confirm or deny the identity.
The FBI once called him the acting boss of the Bonanno crime family — prompting one of New York's tabloids to call him the "Bambino Boss" because of his rise to power in his mid-30s. Nicknamed "Sal The Iron Worker," he owned and operated a successful steel business in the U.S.
Montagna's death is the latest in a series of Mafia-related killings and disappearances over the last two years. He was considered a contender to take over the decimated Rizzuto family.
A provincial police spokesman said Thursday that a private citizen called after seeing a body along the shores of the L'Assomption River. The same person also reported that he heard gunshots, but Sgt. Benoit Richard said he couldn't confirm how the victim died. "When (police) arrived, they saw a man lying near the river, they took him out of the water and started doing CPR with the help of the emergency personnel," Richard said.
Richard said police will await the results of an autopsy, scheduled for Friday, to determine the cause of death.
Montagna was born in Montreal but raised in Sicily and, although he moved to the United States at 15, he never obtained U.S. citizenship.
The married father of three was deported to Canada from the United States in 2009 because of a conviction for refusing to testify before a grand jury on illegal gambling.
He pled guilty to the minor charge, but it made him ineligible to stay in the U.S. Montagna had no criminal record in Canada and re-entered without trouble.
His arrival in Montreal occurred just months before members of the Rizzuto family began being killed.
The FBI had called Montagna the acting boss of the Bonanno crime family, an allegation his lawyer denied.
The Bonanno crime family is one of the five largest Mafia families in New York — one of the notorious criminal gangs that formed the original Commission, along with Al Capone and Lucky Luciano.
There had been speculation that Montagna had been part of the new Mafia leadership in Montreal and was trying to reorganize the leaderless group.
His death comes just two months after another man with Mafia ties, Raynald Desjardins, narrowly escaped death in a shooting in a suburb north of Montreal. Desjardins had close ties to Vito Rizzuto, the reputed head of the Montreal Mafia who is currently imprisoned in the United States.
A rash of killings and disappearances in late 2009 and early 2010 decimated the operation and have robbed him of many of his closest family members. Rizzuto's father and son were gunned down, as were other friends, while his brother-in-law simply vanished.
Montagna became the latest name on the list.
Thanks to Yahoo
Reports identified the body as Salvatore Montagna, although police wouldn't immediately confirm or deny the identity.
The FBI once called him the acting boss of the Bonanno crime family — prompting one of New York's tabloids to call him the "Bambino Boss" because of his rise to power in his mid-30s. Nicknamed "Sal The Iron Worker," he owned and operated a successful steel business in the U.S.
Montagna's death is the latest in a series of Mafia-related killings and disappearances over the last two years. He was considered a contender to take over the decimated Rizzuto family.
A provincial police spokesman said Thursday that a private citizen called after seeing a body along the shores of the L'Assomption River. The same person also reported that he heard gunshots, but Sgt. Benoit Richard said he couldn't confirm how the victim died. "When (police) arrived, they saw a man lying near the river, they took him out of the water and started doing CPR with the help of the emergency personnel," Richard said.
Richard said police will await the results of an autopsy, scheduled for Friday, to determine the cause of death.
Montagna was born in Montreal but raised in Sicily and, although he moved to the United States at 15, he never obtained U.S. citizenship.
The married father of three was deported to Canada from the United States in 2009 because of a conviction for refusing to testify before a grand jury on illegal gambling.
He pled guilty to the minor charge, but it made him ineligible to stay in the U.S. Montagna had no criminal record in Canada and re-entered without trouble.
His arrival in Montreal occurred just months before members of the Rizzuto family began being killed.
The FBI had called Montagna the acting boss of the Bonanno crime family, an allegation his lawyer denied.
The Bonanno crime family is one of the five largest Mafia families in New York — one of the notorious criminal gangs that formed the original Commission, along with Al Capone and Lucky Luciano.
There had been speculation that Montagna had been part of the new Mafia leadership in Montreal and was trying to reorganize the leaderless group.
His death comes just two months after another man with Mafia ties, Raynald Desjardins, narrowly escaped death in a shooting in a suburb north of Montreal. Desjardins had close ties to Vito Rizzuto, the reputed head of the Montreal Mafia who is currently imprisoned in the United States.
A rash of killings and disappearances in late 2009 and early 2010 decimated the operation and have robbed him of many of his closest family members. Rizzuto's father and son were gunned down, as were other friends, while his brother-in-law simply vanished.
Montagna became the latest name on the list.
Thanks to Yahoo
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
If You Like The Sopranos: Here Are Over 150 Movies, TV Shows, and Other Oddities That You Will Love by Leonard Pierce
Of all the classic takes on the Mob, be them in the movies or on television - The Sopranos holds a special place. The show revolutionized both the way the Mafia is presented, and the very nature of TV itself. If You Like The Sopranos: Here Are Over 150 Movies, TV Shows, and Other Oddities That You Will Love (If You Like Series)
is part of the If You Like series from Limelight Books. As the title suggests, this is book contains a number various films and shows that fans of The Sopranos may be interested in.
That description is the short version of what this book is all about. What If You Like The Sopranos really provides is something of a timeline, which traces the evolution of the media’s treatment of the Mafa through the twentieth century and beyond. We begin with the early movies such as Little Caesar (1931) and the original Scarface (1932). Author Leonard Pierce draws the parallels between Tony Soprano, and the characters played by Edward G. Robinson, and James Cagney in these pre-Code films.
The rise of Film Noir is next discussed, and as Pierce points out, the show had plenty of Noir-ish moments - especially in the dream sequences. The code of an outlaw family was the next big development, played out in movies such as Bonnie and Clyde (1967), and of course The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), not to mention GoodFellas (1990).
The developments in television are also scrutinized, from the obvious The Untouchables, to the rise of the nighttime soaps. The rise of the running “story-arc” of such hits as Dallas and Dynasty in the eighties was a huge factor in establishing the format of The Sopranos. Perhaps most importantly was the development of HBO itself, without which - a series like The Sopranos would never have existed. As Pierce sees it, a perfect storm came together to spawn the show, and the timing of the debut in 1999 could not have been better.
After a discussion of The Sopranos itself, Pierce goes on to explore serial television post-Tony. These include such critical favorites as Deadwood, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad. The final chapter is titled “Welcome To America: Crime Drama For A New Millennium.” This intriguing section concerns other media, such as games (Grand Theft Auto), music (A Prince Among Theives by Prince Paul) and even books (the Underworld USA trilogy by James Ellroy).
As advertised, If You Like The Sopranos talks about a great number of films and TV shows (for the most part) that fans of the program should find interesting. There is a lot of good information packed into this relatively concise book.
Thanks to Greg Barbrick
is part of the If You Like series from Limelight Books. As the title suggests, this is book contains a number various films and shows that fans of The Sopranos may be interested in.That description is the short version of what this book is all about. What If You Like The Sopranos really provides is something of a timeline, which traces the evolution of the media’s treatment of the Mafa through the twentieth century and beyond. We begin with the early movies such as Little Caesar (1931) and the original Scarface (1932). Author Leonard Pierce draws the parallels between Tony Soprano, and the characters played by Edward G. Robinson, and James Cagney in these pre-Code films.
The rise of Film Noir is next discussed, and as Pierce points out, the show had plenty of Noir-ish moments - especially in the dream sequences. The code of an outlaw family was the next big development, played out in movies such as Bonnie and Clyde (1967), and of course The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), not to mention GoodFellas (1990).
The developments in television are also scrutinized, from the obvious The Untouchables, to the rise of the nighttime soaps. The rise of the running “story-arc” of such hits as Dallas and Dynasty in the eighties was a huge factor in establishing the format of The Sopranos. Perhaps most importantly was the development of HBO itself, without which - a series like The Sopranos would never have existed. As Pierce sees it, a perfect storm came together to spawn the show, and the timing of the debut in 1999 could not have been better.
After a discussion of The Sopranos itself, Pierce goes on to explore serial television post-Tony. These include such critical favorites as Deadwood, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad. The final chapter is titled “Welcome To America: Crime Drama For A New Millennium.” This intriguing section concerns other media, such as games (Grand Theft Auto), music (A Prince Among Theives by Prince Paul) and even books (the Underworld USA trilogy by James Ellroy).
As advertised, If You Like The Sopranos talks about a great number of films and TV shows (for the most part) that fans of the program should find interesting. There is a lot of good information packed into this relatively concise book.
Thanks to Greg Barbrick
Monday, November 21, 2011
Mafia Rico Laws Could be Used Against Cyber Rings Next
The set of laws that has allowed federal prosecutors to bring down traditional organized crime gangs should be applied to international cyber crime rings, a top Department of Justice official told a congressional committee on Nov. 15.
The recommendation was one of several DoJ Deputy Section Chief Richard Downing said should be made to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) during a House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security hearing on cyber security’s new frontiers. The committee is considering updating the law.
Downing said the CFAA should be modified to allow offenses to be subject to Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) statutes. RICO extends penalties for crimes performed by organizations and allows the leaders of organized crime groups to be tried for the crimes they order subordinates to do.
The move, said Downing, is needed because advancing computer technology has become a substantial tool for organized crime. Downing said “criminal organizations are operating today around the world to: hack into public and private computer systems, including systems key to national security and defense; hijack computers for the purpose of stealing identity and financial information; extort lawful businesses with threats to disrupt computers; and commit a range of other cyber crimes.” The organizations, he added, are closely tied to traditional Asian and Eastern European crime organizations.
Downing said RICO has been used successfully over the years to bring down “mob bosses to Hells Angels to insider traders” and would be effective in the fight against organized cyber criminals.
Downing also recommended the CFAA’s complex sentencing provisions be streamlined and simplified and some maximum sentences be increased to reflect the severity of some cyber crimes.
Prosecutors should also be given more latitude in pursuing the theft of passwords, user names and login credentials. Downing proposed that CFAA not only cover password theft, but other authentication methods, including those that confirm a user’s identity, using biometric data, single-use passcodes or smart cards. It should also cover login credentials used to access to any “protected” computer (defined in the statute quite broadly), not just government systems or computers at financial institutions, he said.
Thanks to Mark Rockwell
The recommendation was one of several DoJ Deputy Section Chief Richard Downing said should be made to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) during a House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security hearing on cyber security’s new frontiers. The committee is considering updating the law.
Downing said the CFAA should be modified to allow offenses to be subject to Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) statutes. RICO extends penalties for crimes performed by organizations and allows the leaders of organized crime groups to be tried for the crimes they order subordinates to do.
The move, said Downing, is needed because advancing computer technology has become a substantial tool for organized crime. Downing said “criminal organizations are operating today around the world to: hack into public and private computer systems, including systems key to national security and defense; hijack computers for the purpose of stealing identity and financial information; extort lawful businesses with threats to disrupt computers; and commit a range of other cyber crimes.” The organizations, he added, are closely tied to traditional Asian and Eastern European crime organizations.
Downing said RICO has been used successfully over the years to bring down “mob bosses to Hells Angels to insider traders” and would be effective in the fight against organized cyber criminals.
Downing also recommended the CFAA’s complex sentencing provisions be streamlined and simplified and some maximum sentences be increased to reflect the severity of some cyber crimes.
Prosecutors should also be given more latitude in pursuing the theft of passwords, user names and login credentials. Downing proposed that CFAA not only cover password theft, but other authentication methods, including those that confirm a user’s identity, using biometric data, single-use passcodes or smart cards. It should also cover login credentials used to access to any “protected” computer (defined in the statute quite broadly), not just government systems or computers at financial institutions, he said.
Thanks to Mark Rockwell
Sunday, November 20, 2011
David Schwimmer Joins Cast of Movie About Mob Killer Richard 'The Iceman' Kuklinski
Former 'Friends' star David Schwimmer is all set to play a mafia contract killer in new film about Richard 'The Iceman' Kuklinski.
The 45-year-old, who played nice guy Ross Geller in the hit sitcom, will portray Jack Rosethal opposite Ray Liotta's Mafia's boss in the film.
The titular character will be played by 'Revolutionary Road' star Michael Shannon, reported Ace Showbiz.
Kuklinski claimed to have killed more than 250 people between 1948 and 1986.
'Crazy Heart' actress Maggie Gyllenhaal will also be a part of the film.
The 45-year-old, who played nice guy Ross Geller in the hit sitcom, will portray Jack Rosethal opposite Ray Liotta's Mafia's boss in the film.
The titular character will be played by 'Revolutionary Road' star Michael Shannon, reported Ace Showbiz.
Kuklinski claimed to have killed more than 250 people between 1948 and 1986.
'Crazy Heart' actress Maggie Gyllenhaal will also be a part of the film.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Kefauver Hearings Hit Las Vegas
On Nov. 15, 1950, the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce held the seventh in a series nationwide hearings in Las Vegas. Commonly referred to as the Kefauver Hearings, the televised hearings kept an estimated 30 million Americans on the edge of their seats as they watched with rapt attention a parade of crime bosses, bookies, pimps, and hit men discuss a salacious topic that had never before been publicly exposed or discussed. Held in 14 cities across the country, the hearings were led by U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver (Democrat-Tennessee) to expose and control organized crime.
Yet, ironically, historians generally credit the hearings with cementing Las Vegas as the gaming capital of the country since the crackdown on illegal gambling that followed the hearings drove operators to Las Vegas and Nevada – known as the "open city," and the only city/state in the country where gambling was then legal.
The hearings were also significant for revolutionizing the then new medium of television as a source for news and current events. Twice the audience of the 1950 World Series flocked to restaurants, bars and neighbors' homes to watch the all-day hearings. Some school systems even dismissed students early so they could watch with their parents.
As The Mob Museum prepares to open in just three months on Valentine's Day 2012, final touches are being put on the restoration and rehabilitation of The Museum's centerpiece - the courtroom where the Las Vegas Kefauver hearings occurred. Soon you'll be able to explore this notorious piece of Mob history for yourself.
Yet, ironically, historians generally credit the hearings with cementing Las Vegas as the gaming capital of the country since the crackdown on illegal gambling that followed the hearings drove operators to Las Vegas and Nevada – known as the "open city," and the only city/state in the country where gambling was then legal.
The hearings were also significant for revolutionizing the then new medium of television as a source for news and current events. Twice the audience of the 1950 World Series flocked to restaurants, bars and neighbors' homes to watch the all-day hearings. Some school systems even dismissed students early so they could watch with their parents.
As The Mob Museum prepares to open in just three months on Valentine's Day 2012, final touches are being put on the restoration and rehabilitation of The Museum's centerpiece - the courtroom where the Las Vegas Kefauver hearings occurred. Soon you'll be able to explore this notorious piece of Mob history for yourself.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Reputed Mob Boss, Thomas Gioeli, to Miss Daughter's Wedding
A reputed Mafia boss won't be trading his prison stripes for a pinstripe suit on his daughter's wedding day.
Brooklyn Federal Judge Brian Cogan rejected on Wednesday Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli’s request for a prison furlough to attend his oldest daughter’s nuptials.
Cogan stated that he "conferred with the U.S. Marshals Service and with other judges in the courthouse and concludes such a release is not feasible."
Prosecutors opposed the wedding pass, arguing it would be impossible for the feds to prevent Gioeli from slipping messages to underlings at the ceremony and reception, endanger cooperating witnesses scheduled to testify against him.
Cogan cited security issues and the serious charges against Gioeli in denying the request. The alleged Colombo family boss is on trial for six gangland killings.
Earlier this year Cogan approved a plan to have U.S. Marshals escort Gioeli from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to the Long Island Federal Courthouse to view the casket containing his deceased father. Gioeli apparently objected to paying his last respects in the courthouse garage and refused to leave his prison cell.
Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis allowed Bonanno associate Patrick Romanello to leave prison to attend his two daughters’ weddings in 2004 and 2005. But sources said the Romanello situation was different because he was not a high-ranking mobster who could order acts of violence as Gioeli is capable of doing.
Gioeli's lawyer, Adam Perlmutter, said the father of the bride deserved to give his daughter away. "I find it sad that in America an individual who enjoys the presumption of innocence can be denied the right to attend his father's funeral and walk his daughter down the aisle," defense lawyer Adam Perlmutter said.
Thanks to John Marzulli
Brooklyn Federal Judge Brian Cogan rejected on Wednesday Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli’s request for a prison furlough to attend his oldest daughter’s nuptials.
Cogan stated that he "conferred with the U.S. Marshals Service and with other judges in the courthouse and concludes such a release is not feasible."
Prosecutors opposed the wedding pass, arguing it would be impossible for the feds to prevent Gioeli from slipping messages to underlings at the ceremony and reception, endanger cooperating witnesses scheduled to testify against him.
Cogan cited security issues and the serious charges against Gioeli in denying the request. The alleged Colombo family boss is on trial for six gangland killings.
Earlier this year Cogan approved a plan to have U.S. Marshals escort Gioeli from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to the Long Island Federal Courthouse to view the casket containing his deceased father. Gioeli apparently objected to paying his last respects in the courthouse garage and refused to leave his prison cell.
Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis allowed Bonanno associate Patrick Romanello to leave prison to attend his two daughters’ weddings in 2004 and 2005. But sources said the Romanello situation was different because he was not a high-ranking mobster who could order acts of violence as Gioeli is capable of doing.
Gioeli's lawyer, Adam Perlmutter, said the father of the bride deserved to give his daughter away. "I find it sad that in America an individual who enjoys the presumption of innocence can be denied the right to attend his father's funeral and walk his daughter down the aisle," defense lawyer Adam Perlmutter said.
Thanks to John Marzulli
Twenty Defendants, Including Five Allegedly Tied to the Zetas Cartel, Indicted on Federal Narcotics Charges
Twenty defendants are facing federal narcotics charges, including five alleged members of a Chicago-based cell of the Zetas Mexican drug cartel who were responsible for transporting millions of dollars in drug proceeds between Chicago and Mexico, federal law enforcement officials announced. A joint investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation resulted in the charges, as well as accumulated seizures during 2010 of more than $12.4 million cash and approximately 250 kilograms of cocaine in the Chicago area. An additional $480,000 cash and two kilograms of heroin were seized yesterday.
Federal agents executed simultaneous arrests in the Chicago area and in Laredo, Tex., of defendants stemming from the multi-jurisdiction investigation of drug-trafficking and the flow of its narcotics proceeds. Twelve of the 20 defendants indicted in Chicago were arrested in Chicago and a 13th in Laredo.
The 20 Chicago defendants were charged in five separate indictments that were returned by a federal grand jury on Nov. 2 and unsealed following the arrests. The 12 Chicago defendants arrested appeared in U.S. District Court and remain in federal custody pending detention hearings. Five defendants remain fugitives; one was already in federal custody and another is hospitalized.
The seizures of cash and heroin occurred during the arrests and execution of search warrants at the residence of one defendant in Bellwood and another defendant’s residence in Bolingbrook, as well as a safe deposit box.
All 20 Chicago defendants were charged with various narcotics offenses, including conspiracy to possess and distribute quantities of cocaine and using a telephone to facilitate narcotics trafficking. The five alleged members of the money transportation cell were also charged with conspiracy to transfer narcotics proceeds outside the United States. If convicted, 12 defendants face a mandatory minimum of 10 years to a maximum of life in prison and a $10 million fine, while the remaining eight defendants face a mandatory minimum of 5 years to a maximum of 40 years in prison and a $5 million fine. The money transportation conspiracy carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and fine of twice the value of the money involved. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
“One indictment in this group signals the first federal prosecution in Chicago of defendants allegedly tied to the Zetas drug-trafficking cartel, and the seizures of cash represented a significant blow to the operation of this alleged money transportation cell,” said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. He praised the dedication and teamwork of the local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in Chicago that worked tirelessly to disrupt these alleged drug-trafficking conspiracies.
Mr. Fitzgerald announced the charges together with Jack Riley, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration; Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Gary J. Hartwig, Special Agent-in-Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Chicago; Alvin Patton, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago; and Garry F. McCarthy, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department.
“DEA’s commitment to hitting alleged drug trafficking organizations from all angles is especially evident when you consider the impact of the seizure of over $12 million in suspected drug proceeds. In the specific indictment that alleges affiliation of some of the defendants with the Zetas, the influence of Mexican criminal organizations in the wholesale Chicago drug market is apparent. The severing of those ties is of the upmost importance to the DEA,” Mr. Riley said.
Mr. Grant said: “The extensive cash seizures made during the course of this investigation illustrates how lucrative the illicit drug trade can be. Combined with the apparent presence of the Zetas in the Chicago area, the charges announced today should serve as a wake-up call to law enforcement throughout the state.”
The prosecutions were coordinated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, and federal prosecutors in the Western District of Texas also assisted in the investigation. The Illinois Attorney General’s Office conducted a separate but related investigation that resulted in the arrest of eight defendants on state narcotics charges last week in Galesburg, Ill. The federal investigation was conducted under the umbrella of the U.S. Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) and the Chicago High-Intensity Drug-Trafficking Area Task Force (HIDTA).
One indictment alleges that defendant Eduardo Trevino, a fugitive believed to reside in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, directed a money transportation network for the Zetas from Nuevo Laredo, and that this network coordinated the transfer of money from places such as Chicago to Laredo, and then from Laredo to Mexico. At the direction of the Zetas, defendant Salvador Estrada allegedly collected, processed and concealed cash from the sale of drugs so that the narcotics proceeds could be transported by truck drivers, including defendants Miguel Arredondo and Vicente Casares, from Chicago to Laredo, knowing that the proceeds would be transported to the Zetas in Mexico. Defendant Juan Aguirre allegedly worked with the others to coordinate the delivery of cash proceeds to truck drivers.
Estrada allegedly identified and maintained safe houses where drug proceeds were secretly collected, packaged and concealed, such as 1241 South Wenonah Ave., Berwyn, and 3800 West 24th St., Chicago.
According to the indictment, the following seizures, totaling $12,452,685, were made during the course of the investigation:
The 14-count indictment against Trevino and the five alleged Chicago cell members seeks forfeiture of approximately $13 million, including the $12.45 million seized previously. Five of the six (named above) were charged with conspiracy to transport narcotics proceeds outside the United States. Together with defendant, Aureliano Montoya-Pena, all six were charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and various other narcotics offenses.
The other four indictments charge the remaining 14 defendants with various narcotics distribution offenses.
The government is being represented by Assistant United States Attorneys William Ridgway, Gregory Deis and Heather McShain.
The public is reminded that indictments contain only charges and are not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Federal agents executed simultaneous arrests in the Chicago area and in Laredo, Tex., of defendants stemming from the multi-jurisdiction investigation of drug-trafficking and the flow of its narcotics proceeds. Twelve of the 20 defendants indicted in Chicago were arrested in Chicago and a 13th in Laredo.
The 20 Chicago defendants were charged in five separate indictments that were returned by a federal grand jury on Nov. 2 and unsealed following the arrests. The 12 Chicago defendants arrested appeared in U.S. District Court and remain in federal custody pending detention hearings. Five defendants remain fugitives; one was already in federal custody and another is hospitalized.
The seizures of cash and heroin occurred during the arrests and execution of search warrants at the residence of one defendant in Bellwood and another defendant’s residence in Bolingbrook, as well as a safe deposit box.
All 20 Chicago defendants were charged with various narcotics offenses, including conspiracy to possess and distribute quantities of cocaine and using a telephone to facilitate narcotics trafficking. The five alleged members of the money transportation cell were also charged with conspiracy to transfer narcotics proceeds outside the United States. If convicted, 12 defendants face a mandatory minimum of 10 years to a maximum of life in prison and a $10 million fine, while the remaining eight defendants face a mandatory minimum of 5 years to a maximum of 40 years in prison and a $5 million fine. The money transportation conspiracy carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and fine of twice the value of the money involved. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
“One indictment in this group signals the first federal prosecution in Chicago of defendants allegedly tied to the Zetas drug-trafficking cartel, and the seizures of cash represented a significant blow to the operation of this alleged money transportation cell,” said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. He praised the dedication and teamwork of the local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in Chicago that worked tirelessly to disrupt these alleged drug-trafficking conspiracies.
Mr. Fitzgerald announced the charges together with Jack Riley, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration; Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Gary J. Hartwig, Special Agent-in-Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Chicago; Alvin Patton, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago; and Garry F. McCarthy, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department.
“DEA’s commitment to hitting alleged drug trafficking organizations from all angles is especially evident when you consider the impact of the seizure of over $12 million in suspected drug proceeds. In the specific indictment that alleges affiliation of some of the defendants with the Zetas, the influence of Mexican criminal organizations in the wholesale Chicago drug market is apparent. The severing of those ties is of the upmost importance to the DEA,” Mr. Riley said.
Mr. Grant said: “The extensive cash seizures made during the course of this investigation illustrates how lucrative the illicit drug trade can be. Combined with the apparent presence of the Zetas in the Chicago area, the charges announced today should serve as a wake-up call to law enforcement throughout the state.”
The prosecutions were coordinated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, and federal prosecutors in the Western District of Texas also assisted in the investigation. The Illinois Attorney General’s Office conducted a separate but related investigation that resulted in the arrest of eight defendants on state narcotics charges last week in Galesburg, Ill. The federal investigation was conducted under the umbrella of the U.S. Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) and the Chicago High-Intensity Drug-Trafficking Area Task Force (HIDTA).
One indictment alleges that defendant Eduardo Trevino, a fugitive believed to reside in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, directed a money transportation network for the Zetas from Nuevo Laredo, and that this network coordinated the transfer of money from places such as Chicago to Laredo, and then from Laredo to Mexico. At the direction of the Zetas, defendant Salvador Estrada allegedly collected, processed and concealed cash from the sale of drugs so that the narcotics proceeds could be transported by truck drivers, including defendants Miguel Arredondo and Vicente Casares, from Chicago to Laredo, knowing that the proceeds would be transported to the Zetas in Mexico. Defendant Juan Aguirre allegedly worked with the others to coordinate the delivery of cash proceeds to truck drivers.
Estrada allegedly identified and maintained safe houses where drug proceeds were secretly collected, packaged and concealed, such as 1241 South Wenonah Ave., Berwyn, and 3800 West 24th St., Chicago.
According to the indictment, the following seizures, totaling $12,452,685, were made during the course of the investigation:
- $9,428,950, from the 24th Street stash house on April 30, 2010;
- $2,000,010, also on April 30, 2010;
- $999,310, on May 27, 2010; and
- $24,415, on Dec. 18, 2010, along with a Mosberg 100 ATR .308 rifle and a Colt .22 semi-automatic handgun.
The 14-count indictment against Trevino and the five alleged Chicago cell members seeks forfeiture of approximately $13 million, including the $12.45 million seized previously. Five of the six (named above) were charged with conspiracy to transport narcotics proceeds outside the United States. Together with defendant, Aureliano Montoya-Pena, all six were charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and various other narcotics offenses.
The other four indictments charge the remaining 14 defendants with various narcotics distribution offenses.
The government is being represented by Assistant United States Attorneys William Ridgway, Gregory Deis and Heather McShain.
The public is reminded that indictments contain only charges and are not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Mike Sarno to be Sentenced 2/8/12
Chicago mob boss Mike ''The Large Guy'' Sarno will find out on February 8, 2012, how long he will spend behind bars.
Sarno was supposed to be sentenced Friday but one of his attorneys is dealing with a family emergency and asked for the hearing to be delayed. The sentencing has been put off a number of times already.
It's been almost a year since Sarno was convicted of running a racketeering enterprise in connection with a suburban gambling business. The six-week trial proved Sarno had carved an alliance between the Chicago Outfit and the Outlaws motorcycle gang.
Outlaw biker members Anthony and Samuel Volpendesto, Mark Polchan and Casey Szaflarski were also convicted in the case punctuated by the 2003 bombing attack of a Berwyn video poker machine company. The firm had been competing with Sarno's Outfit-run video poker business.
Federal prosecutors are asking that Sarno receive the maximum sentence. Last month, the government submitted to the court a 2003 I-Team report to support their argument that Sarno be sentenced to the longest possible term in prison.
ABC 7's broadcast in June 2003 focused on a restructuring of the Chicago mob ordered by imprisoned outfit leader James Marcello. "Little Jimmy," as he is still known, was doing time for racketeering, gambling violations and extortion, and still running the outfit's business from the barbed-wire Hilton.
Included in the June 3, 2003, I-Team report was this information about who had been tapped to oversee the Chicago outfit: "This mob heavyweight, 350-pound Michael 'Fat Boy' Sarno, whom Marcello has just installed, according to U.S. law enforcement source."
Based on his organized crime stature, the government will ask that Sarno's sentence be enhanced to 25 years.
Defense attorneys dispute the contention that Sarno is a crime boss. They have submitted 100 letters from Sarno's friends, neighbors and relatives that portray him as a good family man and a fine American. They also cite his numerous health problems that they say could be compromised by a lengthy stay in prison.
Thanks to Chuck Goudie and Barb Markoff
Sarno was supposed to be sentenced Friday but one of his attorneys is dealing with a family emergency and asked for the hearing to be delayed. The sentencing has been put off a number of times already.
It's been almost a year since Sarno was convicted of running a racketeering enterprise in connection with a suburban gambling business. The six-week trial proved Sarno had carved an alliance between the Chicago Outfit and the Outlaws motorcycle gang.
Outlaw biker members Anthony and Samuel Volpendesto, Mark Polchan and Casey Szaflarski were also convicted in the case punctuated by the 2003 bombing attack of a Berwyn video poker machine company. The firm had been competing with Sarno's Outfit-run video poker business.
Federal prosecutors are asking that Sarno receive the maximum sentence. Last month, the government submitted to the court a 2003 I-Team report to support their argument that Sarno be sentenced to the longest possible term in prison.
ABC 7's broadcast in June 2003 focused on a restructuring of the Chicago mob ordered by imprisoned outfit leader James Marcello. "Little Jimmy," as he is still known, was doing time for racketeering, gambling violations and extortion, and still running the outfit's business from the barbed-wire Hilton.
Included in the June 3, 2003, I-Team report was this information about who had been tapped to oversee the Chicago outfit: "This mob heavyweight, 350-pound Michael 'Fat Boy' Sarno, whom Marcello has just installed, according to U.S. law enforcement source."
Based on his organized crime stature, the government will ask that Sarno's sentence be enhanced to 25 years.
Defense attorneys dispute the contention that Sarno is a crime boss. They have submitted 100 letters from Sarno's friends, neighbors and relatives that portray him as a good family man and a fine American. They also cite his numerous health problems that they say could be compromised by a lengthy stay in prison.
Thanks to Chuck Goudie and Barb Markoff
Thursday, November 17, 2011
2010 Hate Crime Statistics
The Federal Bureau of Investigation released Hate Crime Statistics, 2010 based on information submitted by law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. These data indicate that 6,628 criminal incidents involving 7,699 offenses were reported in 2010 as a result of bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or physical or mental disability.
Hate Crime Statistics, 2010 includes the following information:
Hate Crime Statistics, 2010 includes the following information:
- Of the 6,624 single bias incidents, 47.3 percent were motivated by a racial bias, 20.0 percent were motivated by a religious bias, 19.3 percent were motivated by a sexual orientation bias, and 12.8 percent were motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias. Bias against a disability accounted for 0.6 percent of single-bias incidents.
- There were 4,824 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons. Intimidation accounted for 46.2 percent of these crimes, simple assaults for 34.8 percent, and aggravated assaults for 18.4 percent. In addition, seven murders were reported as hate crimes.
- There were 2,861 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property; most of these (81.1 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism. The remaining 18.9 percent of crimes against property consisted of robbery, burglary, larceny theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses.
- Of the 6,008 known offenders, 58.6 percent were white and 18.4 percent were black. For 12.0 percent, the race was unknown, and the remaining known offenders were of other races.
- The largest percentage (31.4 percent) of hate crime incidents occurred in or near homes. Another 17.0 percent took place on highways, roads, alleys, or streets; 10.9 percent happened at schools or colleges; 5.8 percent in parking lots or garages; and 3.7 percent in churches, synagogues, or temples. The location was considered other or unknown for 14.3 percent of hate crime incidents. The remaining 16.9 percent of hate crime incidents took place at other specified locations or multiple locations.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
"Mob Wives" Season Two Starts January 1st, 2012, "Mob Wives: Chicago" Coming This Spring
There’s no better way to start off the New Year than with ‘the family.’ “Mob Wives” is back and the drama has gone to a whole new level. The highly-anticipated second season premiere of VH1′s hit reality television series premieres on Sunday, January 1 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. Viewers will also be introduced to a new group of ‘Syndicate Sisters’ with the debut of the franchise’s first spin-off “Mob Wives: Chicago” this Spring, where the legendary home of Al Capone will serve as the backdrop. Both shows are produced by TWC, Electus, Left/Right and JustJenn Productions.
The second season of “Mob Wives” picks up where the first left off – with each cast member dealing with major personal life issues. The rift between Karen and Drita is far from over – will they ever be able to ‘bury the hatchet’? Renee goes under the knife for major plastic surgery that may have some unexpected consequences, while also contemplating her future with her ex-husband Junior. Drita is considering her options when it comes to leaving her husband Lee – while Carla’s relationship with her estranged husband Joe may take an unexpected twist. And, of course, everyone wants to know what’s in Karen’s soon-to-be-released book – the one she moved back to New York to write!
Last season,”Mob Wives” gave viewers an unfiltered look into the closed-door society of Renee, Karen, Carla and Drita, four struggling “allegedly” associated women who have to pick up the pieces and carry on while their husbands or fathers do time for Mob-related activities. United by a bond which few understand, the women are all struggling with their identities and their futures as they raise their kids as single parents in the New York City area.
The franchise expands as VH1 announced the pickup of “Mob Wives: Chicago.” A spin-off from the original east coast-based series,”Mob Wives: Chicago” will introduce a new cast of women suffering the stronzi and agita of their Mafiosi connections. The series will air in Spring 2012.
“Our viewers connected so strongly with our New York cast that we were skeptical about trying to repeat that success, said Jeff Olde, Executive Vice President, Original Programming & Production. “But once we met these ladies from Chicago and heard their truly unbelievable stories, we knew that viewers would become just as captivated as we did. These women’s life experiences may be far different from our own, but their current struggles to stand on their own two feet are relatable to everyone.”
“After a terrific first season, Electus is incredibly proud to partner once again with The Weinstein Company, JustJenn Productions and VH1 to bring the second season of Mob Wives to air so that audiences can see how the ladies’ compelling stories progress,”said Jimmy Fox, Executive Producer and Head of Creative Development for Electus.”We are equally thrilled that Mob Wives will be coming to Chicago, a town that was once home to some of the mob’s most notorious gangsters. Audiences will be blown away by the larger-than-life characters with their own unique stories to tell.”
“The first season of “Mob Wives” pulled back the curtain on a much-discussed yet mysterious world inhabited by four fascinating and strong-willed women,”stated Meryl Poster, TWC’s President of Television.”The viewer response to the genuine and gripping storylines that unfolded on the show was immediate and passionate, and we are grateful to these extraordinary ladies for inviting the cameras back into their lives for season two. We know that the viewing audience will feel a similar connection to the cast of “Mob Wives Chicago” and look forward to bringing their remarkable stories to the small screen this spring.”
“The furs, the money, the parties, the respect – it’s all part of the intrigue of the world I grew up in,” said series Creator and Executive Producer Jennifer Graziano of JustJenn Productions. “But at any time, the other shoe can drop and these women find themselves going on prison visits. I have long thought that this was a story that needed to be told, and am so thankful that we can continue this journey with the original “Mob Wives” – as well as expanding the franchise to Chicago. I have always heard the legends about Al Capone and Chicago, but it wasn’t until I actually went to the city that I became enamored with the rich mob history there. These women’s lives are right off the pages of a storybook!”
The second season of “Mob Wives” picks up where the first left off – with each cast member dealing with major personal life issues. The rift between Karen and Drita is far from over – will they ever be able to ‘bury the hatchet’? Renee goes under the knife for major plastic surgery that may have some unexpected consequences, while also contemplating her future with her ex-husband Junior. Drita is considering her options when it comes to leaving her husband Lee – while Carla’s relationship with her estranged husband Joe may take an unexpected twist. And, of course, everyone wants to know what’s in Karen’s soon-to-be-released book – the one she moved back to New York to write!
Last season,”Mob Wives” gave viewers an unfiltered look into the closed-door society of Renee, Karen, Carla and Drita, four struggling “allegedly” associated women who have to pick up the pieces and carry on while their husbands or fathers do time for Mob-related activities. United by a bond which few understand, the women are all struggling with their identities and their futures as they raise their kids as single parents in the New York City area.
The franchise expands as VH1 announced the pickup of “Mob Wives: Chicago.” A spin-off from the original east coast-based series,”Mob Wives: Chicago” will introduce a new cast of women suffering the stronzi and agita of their Mafiosi connections. The series will air in Spring 2012.
“Our viewers connected so strongly with our New York cast that we were skeptical about trying to repeat that success, said Jeff Olde, Executive Vice President, Original Programming & Production. “But once we met these ladies from Chicago and heard their truly unbelievable stories, we knew that viewers would become just as captivated as we did. These women’s life experiences may be far different from our own, but their current struggles to stand on their own two feet are relatable to everyone.”
“After a terrific first season, Electus is incredibly proud to partner once again with The Weinstein Company, JustJenn Productions and VH1 to bring the second season of Mob Wives to air so that audiences can see how the ladies’ compelling stories progress,”said Jimmy Fox, Executive Producer and Head of Creative Development for Electus.”We are equally thrilled that Mob Wives will be coming to Chicago, a town that was once home to some of the mob’s most notorious gangsters. Audiences will be blown away by the larger-than-life characters with their own unique stories to tell.”
“The first season of “Mob Wives” pulled back the curtain on a much-discussed yet mysterious world inhabited by four fascinating and strong-willed women,”stated Meryl Poster, TWC’s President of Television.”The viewer response to the genuine and gripping storylines that unfolded on the show was immediate and passionate, and we are grateful to these extraordinary ladies for inviting the cameras back into their lives for season two. We know that the viewing audience will feel a similar connection to the cast of “Mob Wives Chicago” and look forward to bringing their remarkable stories to the small screen this spring.”
“The furs, the money, the parties, the respect – it’s all part of the intrigue of the world I grew up in,” said series Creator and Executive Producer Jennifer Graziano of JustJenn Productions. “But at any time, the other shoe can drop and these women find themselves going on prison visits. I have long thought that this was a story that needed to be told, and am so thankful that we can continue this journey with the original “Mob Wives” – as well as expanding the franchise to Chicago. I have always heard the legends about Al Capone and Chicago, but it wasn’t until I actually went to the city that I became enamored with the rich mob history there. These women’s lives are right off the pages of a storybook!”
Chicago Version of VH1's "Mob Wives" in the Works?
This one should set tongues to wagging from Bridgeport to Chicago Heights and along Grand Avenue to Elmwood Park.
The folks behind “Mob Wives,” VH1’s hit reality television show following the lives of four tough-talking, loud-living Staten Island women with personal ties to New York mob figures, plan to start filming a new Chicago spinoff within the next month.
Talk about your Operation Family Secrets.
The biggest secret is which Chicago women have been signed up by the network to participate.
Jennifer Graziano, the show’s producer, is keeping that information within the family, so to speak, despite numerous scouting trips here over the last several months to lay the groundwork for a series that is expected to air in the spring.
I’ve heard a couple of names, including one you can bet wouldn’t be doing this if her father were still alive, but both women angrily hung up on me.
Television gossip isn’t my normal turf, but it’s been too hard to resist this story since Graziano’s co-producer called this summer looking for Chicago mob insights.
Apparently, big city daily newspaper columnists are supposed to have lots of sources inside the mob, and I hate to break it to my readers, but unfortunately I’m fresh out.
Still, I know a spit storm brewing when I see one. I can’t tell you about New York, but in Chicago, mob wives — and daughters and girlfriends — are still supposed to stay out of the public eye.
Chicago lawyers who have represented mob clients were beyond skeptical when asked if they were aware of the project. “It’s inconceivable,” one said. “I just don’t think it would meet with approval here.”
I tried to make the same point to Graziano when she stopped by the office around Labor Day between meetings with prospects. But Graziano, whose father is Anthony “The Little Guy” Graziano, reputed consigliere to the Bonnano crime family, just gave me a knowing look as if to indicate she had her bases covered.
“I’ve got some family contacts here, people that have known my family and friends of mine,” said Graziano, whose sister Renee is one of the stars of the show along with Karen Gravano, daughter of Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, the mob hit man who became a government witness and took down John Gotti and the Gambino crime family. “One of the selling points is we don’t write about anything that hasn’t been in the news,” Graziano said. “We don’t divulge any secrets.”
While hoping to land a recognizable mob family name or two for the Chicago cast, Graziano said it was more important that the characters “pop” on television.
I suggested they pay a visit to former Cicero Mayor Betty Loren-Maltese. That was the weekend Betty happened to be having a garage sale, so it seemed pretty obvious she could use the money. I also assured them Betty “pops” on television. But they weren’t certain Betty fit the demographic they were seeking, in other words, too old. Sorry, Betty. I tried.
I’ve never watched “Mob Wives” myself. “Wives” shows give me the heebie-jeebies. But my wife assured me “Mob Wives” was the best show on television during its first season, and I can attest she is a connoisseur of a certain kind of TV — the trashy kind.
“Mob Wives,” as I understand it, is way more raw, more intense, more real, than any of those “Housewives” shows. When these women have a fight, as they often do, you fully expect somebody to get hurt.
My wife’s favorite character is Drita D’avanzo. She is particularly impressed with how effortlessly Drita slips off her high heels while charging headlong into battle. You’ve got to admire that in a woman.
This embrace of mob stereotypes has received its share of criticism in New York, and anticipating the same here, I called Dominic DiFrisco, president emeritus of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans. “I wish them nothing but failure,” said DiFrisco, who hasn’t seen the show but knows the type. “I think it’s a very ugly continuation of the long-standing slandering and defaming of the Italian-American people.”
If the characters pop, I can’t imagine it will be a failure. But this being Chicago, you still have to wonder if somebody will get popped.
Thanks to Mark Brown
The folks behind “Mob Wives,” VH1’s hit reality television show following the lives of four tough-talking, loud-living Staten Island women with personal ties to New York mob figures, plan to start filming a new Chicago spinoff within the next month.
Talk about your Operation Family Secrets.
The biggest secret is which Chicago women have been signed up by the network to participate.
Jennifer Graziano, the show’s producer, is keeping that information within the family, so to speak, despite numerous scouting trips here over the last several months to lay the groundwork for a series that is expected to air in the spring.
I’ve heard a couple of names, including one you can bet wouldn’t be doing this if her father were still alive, but both women angrily hung up on me.
Television gossip isn’t my normal turf, but it’s been too hard to resist this story since Graziano’s co-producer called this summer looking for Chicago mob insights.
Apparently, big city daily newspaper columnists are supposed to have lots of sources inside the mob, and I hate to break it to my readers, but unfortunately I’m fresh out.
Still, I know a spit storm brewing when I see one. I can’t tell you about New York, but in Chicago, mob wives — and daughters and girlfriends — are still supposed to stay out of the public eye.
Chicago lawyers who have represented mob clients were beyond skeptical when asked if they were aware of the project. “It’s inconceivable,” one said. “I just don’t think it would meet with approval here.”
I tried to make the same point to Graziano when she stopped by the office around Labor Day between meetings with prospects. But Graziano, whose father is Anthony “The Little Guy” Graziano, reputed consigliere to the Bonnano crime family, just gave me a knowing look as if to indicate she had her bases covered.
“I’ve got some family contacts here, people that have known my family and friends of mine,” said Graziano, whose sister Renee is one of the stars of the show along with Karen Gravano, daughter of Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, the mob hit man who became a government witness and took down John Gotti and the Gambino crime family. “One of the selling points is we don’t write about anything that hasn’t been in the news,” Graziano said. “We don’t divulge any secrets.”
While hoping to land a recognizable mob family name or two for the Chicago cast, Graziano said it was more important that the characters “pop” on television.
I suggested they pay a visit to former Cicero Mayor Betty Loren-Maltese. That was the weekend Betty happened to be having a garage sale, so it seemed pretty obvious she could use the money. I also assured them Betty “pops” on television. But they weren’t certain Betty fit the demographic they were seeking, in other words, too old. Sorry, Betty. I tried.
I’ve never watched “Mob Wives” myself. “Wives” shows give me the heebie-jeebies. But my wife assured me “Mob Wives” was the best show on television during its first season, and I can attest she is a connoisseur of a certain kind of TV — the trashy kind.
“Mob Wives,” as I understand it, is way more raw, more intense, more real, than any of those “Housewives” shows. When these women have a fight, as they often do, you fully expect somebody to get hurt.
My wife’s favorite character is Drita D’avanzo. She is particularly impressed with how effortlessly Drita slips off her high heels while charging headlong into battle. You’ve got to admire that in a woman.
This embrace of mob stereotypes has received its share of criticism in New York, and anticipating the same here, I called Dominic DiFrisco, president emeritus of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans. “I wish them nothing but failure,” said DiFrisco, who hasn’t seen the show but knows the type. “I think it’s a very ugly continuation of the long-standing slandering and defaming of the Italian-American people.”
If the characters pop, I can’t imagine it will be a failure. But this being Chicago, you still have to wonder if somebody will get popped.
Thanks to Mark Brown
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)