The Chicago Syndicate
The Mission Impossible Backpack

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

My Kiddo, Joe Batters

Tony Accardo, is, without a doubt, the most successful, the most powerful, most respected and the longest lived Boss the Chicago syndicate, or probably any criminal syndicate for that matter, has ever had. During his long tenure, Accardo's power was long reaching and frightfully vast.

He was so respected and feared in the national Mafia that in 1948 when he declared himself as the arbitrator for any mob problems west of Chicago, in effect proclaiming all of that territory as his, no one in the syndicate argued.

He was the boss pure and simple. Unlike Johnny Torrio, Frank Nitti or Paul Ricca, Tony Accardo looked exactly like what he was, a mob thug who could and did dispatch men and women to their death over money or the slightest insult. He was a peasant, even he said that. But he was a reserved man and a thinker, unlike Big Jim Colosimo or Al Capone or Sam Giancana and all those who came after Giancana.

Unlike the other bosses, Accardo knew his limitations. He consulted often with Ricca, Murray Humpreys and Short Pants Campagna because he recognized their intelligence and wisdom and he used it.

He admitted to not having the outward intelligence of Ricca or Nitti or Torrio or even the flare and occasional self-depicting wit of Capone or Giancana. Yet it was Accardo who expanded the outfit's activities into new rackets. It was Accardo who, recognizing the dangers of the white slave trade, streamlined the old prostitution racket during the war years into the new call girl service, which was copied by New York families even though they laughed at the idea at first.

Two decades after prohibition was repealed Accardo introduced bootlegging to the dry states of Kansas and Oklahoma, flooding them with illegal whiskey. He moved the outfit into slot and vending machines, counterfeiting cigarette and liquor tax stamps and expanded narcotics smuggling to a worldwide basis. He had the good sense to invest, with Eddie Vogel as his agent, into manufacturing slot machines and then placed them everywhere, gas stations, restaurants and bars. When Las Vegas exploded, Accardo made sure the casinos used his slots and only his slots.

Watching someone as clever as Paul Ricca and as smart as Frank Nitti go to jail over the Bioff scandal, Accardo pulled the organization away from labor racketeering and extortion. Under Accardo's reign the Chicago mob exploded in growth and grew wealthy as a result.

The outfit grew because, outside of the Kefauver committee, there wasn't a focused attempt on the part of any law enforcement agency to bust up the Chicago syndicate. The FBI was busy catching cold war spies and they didn't acknowledge that the Mafia or even organized crime existed anyway.

Under Accardo's leadership, the gang set its flag in Des Moines Iowa, down state Illinois and, Southern California and deep into Kentucky, Las Vegas, Indiana, Arizona, St. Louis Missouri, Mexico, Central and South America. Accardo's long reign highlighted a golden era for Chicago's syndicate. But it also ushered in the near collapse of the outfit as well. In 1947, as Tony Accardo took the reins of power from Paul Ricca, the outfit produced $3,000,000 in criminal business per year with Accardo, Humpreys, Ricca and Giancana taking in an estimated $40 to $50 million each per year.

Accardo pensioned off the older members of the mob and gave more authority to the younger members of the mob, mostly former 42 gang members like Sam Giancana, the Battaglias and Marshal Caifano.

The money poured in, in hundreds of thousands of dollars every day from all points where Chicago ruled. The hoods who had survived the shoot-outs, gang wars, intergang wars, purges, cop shootings, the national exposés and the federal and state investigations now saw what they had hustled so hard for.

They had more money then they knew what to do with. Like any set of super rich men they hired the best crooked investors money could buy, not the Jake Guzak-Meyer Lansky types either, real investment experts with law and accounting degrees from Harvard and Yale who taught them all sorts of legal tax loopholes to get their cash out of the rackets and into legitimate businesses.

By the time he died in 1992, Tony Accardo, the son of illegal immigrant parents from an Italian ghetto in a Chicago slum, had legal investments in transportation as diverse as commercial office buildings, strip centers, lumber farms, paper factories, hotels and car dealerships, trucking, newspapers, hotels, restaurants and travel agencies.

He dictated to his men that "when things are in order at home, it's easier to concentrate on business" so although he allowed them their mistresses and girlfriends, it was his rule that his men spend times with their wives and children. Accardo himself was said never to have cheated on his wife of many years, Clarice.

He declared that no one in the organization could ever threaten or harm a cop or member of the media, no matter how annoying they were. In so long as they were honest and doing their job, they were to be left alone. Yet when an honest Chicago beat cop named Jack Muller ticketed Accardo car for double parking outside the Tradewinds, a mob salon on Rush Street, Accardo made sure that officer Muller was made an example of by his superiors. From that day on, it became commonplace to see hoods park their cars whereever they pleased along Rush street and other places.

Like his mentor Paul Ricca, it was Accardo's firm belief that in order to avoid the tax men, that the outfit should conduct itself as meekly as possible to avoid public attention. Accardo decided that he would keep the lowest profile a mob boss could have and he directed his underbosses to follow the same route. They did, except for Sam Giancana.

Like Ricca, Accardo preached moderation, low profile and patience in all things but unlike Ricca, Accardo seldom practiced what he preached. His estate in exclusive River Forrest, outside of Chicago was extravagant. Far more extravagant then he would allow for any of his men.

Accardo bought the place in 1943 when he started to roll in wartime profits. It had twenty-one rooms, a built in pool...in the house...a black onyx bathtub that cost $10,000 to install in the fifties, and a bowling alley.

The baths were fitted with gold inlaid fixtures, the basement had a large gun and trophy room that sometimes doubled as a mob meeting hall. It had vaulted ceilings, polished wood spiral staircase, a library full of hundreds of volumes of books, pipe organ and a second bowling alley. In the rear of the house stood a guest house.

His backyard barbecue pit, a status symbol in gangdom, was the largest in the outfit only because nobody was stupid enough to build a larger one than the bosses. The half-acre lawn was surrounded by a seven foot high fence and two electrically controlled gates. "It was," wrote Sam Giancana's daughter Annette, "almost obscene the way he flaunted his wealth."

His penchant for showing the world his wealth was in contradiction to his self-effacing ways. In fact, Tony Accardo lacked any real personal flamboyance at all.

A powerfully built man, Accardo was taken with loud clothes, expensive white on white dress shirts, and conservative suits that cost $250, four and half times the average amount for the price of a good wool suit in 1959.

An ardent fisherman, he often spent long weekends fishing the waters off Florida or Bimini or Mexico, most of the time taking Sam Giancana along as his bodyguard.

Over time, he made real efforts to improve himself. He traveled with his wife, or Frank Nitti's son or sometimes alone to tour the great museums and churches of Europe. When Clarice joined a group of educators and traveled around the world to study the living customs of other societies, Accardo sometimes joined her.

Otherwise, Accardo's attempts at respectability were often bumbling. Once, friends managed to have him brought into a private and very exclusive golf club. Everything was fine until Accardo called his thugs to a general meeting on the links. The boys brought no clubs and instead sped across the course in golf carts, ramming into each other and had a picnic on the sixth fairway. The membership was appalled and requested that Accardo resign, which humiliated him no end.

Accardo was a compulsive gambler and was one of his own best customers at his club in Calumet city; the Owl Club. Even towards the end of his life, when he wasn't able to get around as freely, Accardo phoned in his bets. He once said that if he died at the crap tables, he would die a happy man.

He enjoyed his role as the big boss, he liked having his men gossip about him, having them bow and fall all over themselves trying to keep him happy. Accardo made no secret of the fact that he looked down on them and made sure they understood that they were subordinate to him. However he was careful not to act superior around Paul Ricca, the man who had trained him for his position.

Unlike any that came before him or after him, Tony Accardo was totally in charge of his organization, from top to bottom, in large measure due to the fact that Accardo was a feared man and he ruled by fear, and he delighted in his reputation for brutality. But his ruthlessness was probably unneeded, since he was seldom challenged in his position, in large part, because Chicago is ruled by one family, unlike New York, which is ruled by five families. As a result, the control of the organization was easier.

He could be extremely moody and sullen and took offense easily and seldom overlooked even the most delicate of slights against his powerful, and he was powerful, position. "Tony," said one of his acqaintances, "could have the disposition of a rattlesnake, it depended on his mood."

When he snapped, the most accurate way to describe his temper tantrums, the stone cold facade of a businessman, and the thin veneer of respectability dropped away and the world got a peek at the real Tony Accardo.

He could be charming when he had to be, in so long as it wasn't for long periods of time, but otherwise he was surly, rude, crude, and foul-mouthed. "Basically," an FBI report read, "Accardo is a rather simple and often crude and surprisingly cheap individual."

Once, when a teenage waiter was too slow to serve him his hamburger in a restaurant, Accardo sat and fumed. When the teenager arrived with the hamburger, Accardo grabbed a knife off the table and slashed the child's arm open.

On another occasion, Accardo ordered the death of a lawyer for the Chicago Restaurant Association to be killed when the two had an argument over disclosing to the IRS Accardo's $125,000 retainer.

Only the pleading of the always level headed Murray Humpreys saved the lawyer from Accardo's gunners.

Accardo was born to Francisco and Maria Accardo, Sicilian immigrants, on April 28, 1906. He was baptized at the infamous Holy Name Cathedral, seven blocks away from his home on 1353 West Grand Avenue, near Ogden, on the West side.

However, there is some evidence that he may have been born in Italy, in or near Palermo, Sicily. His mother would later file a delayed birth affidavit with the federal government stating that Tony was born in 1904 in Chicago, a full year before she arrived in the United States.

One of six children, Accardo dropped out of the Holy Name Cathedral School in the fifth, or possibly the sixth grade, and took to petty street crime, working mostly in the loop.

While still only a child, he came to the attention of Vincenzo de Mora, AKA Machine Gun Jack McGurn, who was then the leader of the Circus gang, which was run out of the Circus Café at 1857 North Avenue. Both operations, the gang and the café, were owned by Claude Maddox. Maddox would later play a pivotal role in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Among the tens of thousands of young and impressionable poor Italian boys who survived in the teaming slums of Chicago, Jack McGurn had an almost godlike stature, so, when McGurn chose Accardo to act as his Gofer, it was an honor.

On March 22, 1922, a young Tony Accardo was arrested for the first time, just six weeks before he turned sixteen, for a motor violation. Several months later, in 1923, Accardo was arrested for disorderly conduct inside a pool hall. He was fined $200 plus court costs. According to court records, Accardo said that he was still living with his parents, which is doubtful, and that he was employed as a delivery boy for a grocery store in Little Italy and later as a truck driver which apparently was true.

Most professional crooks kept a full time job, if in name only, to appease any judge that they might stand before. At that point in his very long criminal career, Accardo was restricted to muggings and pickpocketing inside the loop during the day and stalking on drunks and old people at night.

Like so many other Chicago mobsters who came up through the ranks, Accardo drove a Capone beer truck part time. He graduated to look-out status and then burglaries in the west side.

In 1923, when McGurn left the circus gang to join the Capone operation, Accardo was 17 years old and already an experienced and reliable full time criminal and a big time member of the Circus gang.

By 1925, Tony Accardo had been promoted from daylight muggings to driving for Jack McGurn around town. It signaled to everyone that Accardo was on the way up.

In the summer of 1926, when Al Capone was locked in yet another beer war, he told McGurn the operation needed new gunmen and to "go out and find somebody." The somebody that McGurn got was Tony Accardo who now had a first rate reputation as an enforcer due to a bloody incident that had happened at the start of the year.

In January of 1926 that year the Circus gang, almost exclusively Italian in its makeup, was having a problem with an equally tough Irish street gang called the Hanlon Hellcats, which made its headquarters at the Shamrock Inn. The Hellcats were creeping in on the Circus gang's territory and Accardo was dispatched to take care of the problem any way he saw fit.

At midnight on January 20, Accardo and at least three others blasted the hellcats to kingdom come with shotguns as they left the Shamrock. A police squad from the Austin district was nearby and gave chase but Accardo was shrewd enough to know the law, he ordered the guns to be tossed away just a few minutes before the cops collared him. They were released on bail and eventually the case was dropped, due to lack of evidence.

Now McGurn rushed Accardo over to Capone's office at the Lexington Hotel. Capone, still in his fire-engine-red pajamas at five in the afternoon looked Accardo over and said, "McGurn likes you, so I make you. So you are now one of us, if you fuck up, we take it out on McGurn. He is your sponsor. Fuck up, it's his ass. You work in his crew, he is your capo."

Accardo was assigned to be a hall guard for Capone, spending most of his time in the Lobby at the Lexington, a shotgun on his lap covered by a newspaper.

Capone took a liking to Accardo. Once, the story goes, after Accardo beat a Capone enemy senseless with a baseball bat, Capone saw him in the lobby of the Lexington and yelled, "There's my kiddo, Joe Batters!"

Joe Batters. The name stuck and Accardo loved it. Even years later when he was running the mob, Accardo, who insisted on being called "Mr. Accardo" by his people and their families, allowed a select few to always refer to him as Joe Batters.

Accardo was eventually assigned, with his partner Tough Tony Capezio, whom Accardo had brought into the organization, to kill Hymie Weiss of the Moran gang. Accardo knew Weiss from his childhood. They had attended the same schools and were both regular parishioners of the Holy Name Cathedral and that was where, on October 11, 1926, Accardo and Capezio killed Weiss as he entered his headquarters at 740 North State street near the Holy Name Cathedral.

Right after that Capone decided that it was time for Mike the Pike Hietler, a pimp from the old days of the Levy, to go too, after Capone learned that Hietler had been talking to the authorities.

On April 29th 1931, Heitler was found in the town of Barrington, his car still on fire and the only way they identified Mike the Pike was by his dental remains. He had been strangled and shot before he was set afire. Tony Accardo on has long been considered one of Mike the Pike's killers.

Accardo is also strongly suspected of having been the trigger man behind the Jake Zuta murder as well. It was Accardo who killed gangster Teddy Newberry after Newberry made an attempt to corner organized crime in Chicago.

Accardo may also have been assigned to the St. Valentines Day hit squad. Authorities believe that Accardo was the killer dressed as a Chicago policeman and armed with a double-barreled shotgun.

It was Accardo who set up and supervised the hit on union hustler Tommy Maloy. When Frankie Yale, Al Capone's old boss from back in his days as a Brooklyn thug, tried to take over the powerful Sicilian Union, it was again Accardo who was called in for his firepower.

By early 1940, Accardo was a power in Chicago and in the national Mafia.

Tony Accardo managed to have a 1944 arrest for gambling withdrawn, when he told the court that he intended to join the army. Accardo's lawyer, the legendary mob mouthpiece, George Bieber, told the court: "This young man is eager to get into the fight, don't deny him that right."

The judge released Accardo on the agreement that Accardo would report to his draft board, which he did. But, by then, Accardo was running the Chicago outfit since Paul Ricca was in jail. He already had a 21-room mansion, and an estimated income of $2,000,000 a year, and he wasn't about to give it up for the $21 a week paid to an army private.

Two days later Accardo appeared before the draft board, explained his background in crime, his position in the organization and was summarily rejected by the Army as morally unfit.

The gambling charges were dropped because Accardo had done as he was ordered by the court. In 1945, after he was instrumental in the release of his boss, Paul Ricca, from federal charges for his role in the Willie Bioff scandal, Ricca resigned as the outfit's leader, and promoted Accardo to the top spot.

Accardo held the position, off and on, for the next forty years but in 1958, Big Tony called the boys together at the Tam O'Shanter restaurant and introduced Sam Giancana as the new boss with the simple sentence: "This is Sam, he's a friend of ours."

Thanks to John William Touhy

The Bloody Vendetta of Southern Illinois By Milo Erwin & Jon Musgrave

The Bloody Vendetta of Southern Illinois covers the deadly family feuds and Ku Klux Klan activities during the decade following the Civil War focused in the counties of Franklin, Jackson and Williamson.

Milo Erwin wrote the first major account of the Vendetta during its immediate aftermath in 1876 as part of his History of Williamson County, Illinois.

Now, Jon Musgrave takes Erwin's account and expands upon it with additional material from surrounding counties and further research into the characters who left such a mark on the region.

The Week that Frank Sinatra Performed at the Villa Venice for the Chicago Mob

In 1962, at the height of his fame, Frank Sinatra gave a benefit performance at the behest of a British princess. He gave another for the head of the Chicago mob.

In February, he sang at a ritzy London fundraiser for a children's charity favored by Princess Margaret. Later that year, he did a week's gig at the Villa Venice, a gaudy but financially ailing nightclub near Northbrook in which mafioso Sam Giancana had a piece of the action.

Will Leonard, the Tribune's nightlife critic, reported that Sinatra and his pals, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., "croon, carol, caper and clown to the biggest cabaret audiences this town has seen in years." And no wonder.

Gossip columnists had bestowed the honorific "Chairman of the Board" on Sinatra, whose 100th birthday on Dec. 12 is opening a floodgate of nostalgia. Giancana was the flamboyant face of the Chicago Outfit. The linking of the two luminaries turned those seven days in November and December into a requiem for an older show-biz era.

Chicago's entertainment scene was changing. Comedian Lenny Bruce had brought his obscenity-leavened act to the Gate of Horn, a hip club where the Chad Mitchell Trio also appeared. Their kind of folk music was already sufficiently popular for the Smothers Brothers to satirize it at the State-Lake Theater. The Rat Pack, Sinatra and his friends, were strictly old-school but still a magnetic draw to nightlife veterans of a time when Rush Street was home to celebrated nightclubs, not dating bars.

"The old Chez Paree crowd has yanked itself loose from the TV sets just once more," Leonard observed in another account of the goings-on at the Villa Venice. "The old waiters and doormen are back, showing the same old palms of the same old hands. There's a great big band on the stand, playing great big music. The chairs are pushed so closely together you can't shove your way between them. Flash bulbs pop in the audience during the show. All that's missing is the girl selling the Kewpie dolls and giant sized postcards."

Herb Lyon, the Trib's gossip columnist, proclaimed the hordes of screaming fans "Madness at the Villa." He quoted Sinatra and his buddies (or perhaps their publicist) as saying: "We've never seen anything like it anywhere — Vegas, New York, Paris, you name it."

Indeed, the Villa Venice had been tricked out in a style imported from Las Vegas. Giancana reportedly spent upward of $250,000 to restore it and its canals plied by gondolas. The showroom seated 800, was furnished with satin ceilings, tapestries, and statuesque, lightly clothed showgirls. Nearby was the ultimate accouterment of a Vegas-like operation: a gambling casino in a Quonset hut a few blocks from the Villa. High rollers were whisked between the supper club and the dice and roulette tables in a shuttle supervised by Sam "Slick" Rosa, identified by the Trib as "the syndicate's chief of limousine service," and his assistant, Joseph "Joe Yak" Yacullo.

The Tribune reported that among the mobsters on hand for Sinatra's opening night were Willie "Potatoes" Daddano, Marshall Caifano, Jimmy "The Monk" Allegretti and Felix "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio. It was noted that "Sinatra's gangland fans from other cities appeared too." For a week, the Rat Pack's presence turned Milwaukee Avenue at the Des Plaines River into the hottest address in show biz.

Shortly before the Sinatra show closed, the casino shut down under belated pressure from law enforcement authorities who told the Tribune that the gambling operation had grossed $200,000 in two weeks. That threw a monkey wrench into Giancana's business plan, which depended on recouping his investment by attracting gamblers with a parade of big-name acts. But how could he hope to book stars like Sinatra and his buddies into a scarcely known venue in the hinterlands of Chicago? What kind of money did he dangle in front of them? Wondering if there might have been a nonmonetary enticement, the FBI interviewed the Rat Pack during their engagement. Perhaps the feds took a clue from Dean Martin's rewording of the old standard "The Lady is a Tramp":

I love Chicago, it's carefree and gay

I'd even work here without any pay.

According to James Kaplan, author of the recently published "Sinatra: The Chairman," the question was put to Davis. "I got one eye, and that one eye sees a lot of things that my brain tells me I shouldn't talk about," Davis told the agents. "Because my brain says that, if I do, my one eye might not be seeing anything after a while."

Kaplan's verdict was that it was unclear whether the Rat Pack got paid. As a favor to Giancana, Sinatra had previously persuaded a reluctant Eddie Fisher to play the Villa Venice, reportedly for chicken feed. Sinatra owed Giancana for lending his muscle in the critical state of West Virginia when John F. Kennedy ran for president in 1960, according to Giancana's daughter Antoinette's memoir "Mafia Princess: Growing Up in Sam Giancana's Family."

Still, the Rat Pack's Villa Venice appearances were wildly successful, as the Tribune's Lyon reported: "It is now estimated that the total Villa loot for the seven-day Sinatra-Martin-Davis run will hit $275,000 to $300,000, a new night club record." But Dinah Shore, the next scheduled performer, canceled at the last minute, and Sheilah Graham, a nationally syndicated columnist, wrote: "I've been told that Sinatra picked up the hotel tab for his group, to the tune of $5,000. The whole business sounds somewhat odd."

In fact, the Villa Venice never again hosted big-name stars, operating thereafter as a catering hall, with a new management taking over in 1965. Two years later, it was destroyed by a spectacular, if mysterious, fire. The spot is now a Hilton hotel.

Giancana was gunned down in his Oak Park home in 1975.

To the end of Sinatra's days, he sang the Windy City's praises. But fellow Rat Packer Peter Lawford reportedly said the song was an encomium not to the city but to Giancana, calling the song "his tribute to Sam, an awful guy with a gargoyle face and weasel nose."

Either way, "Chicago" was Sinatra's theme song:

I saw a man and he danced with his wife in Chicago

Chicago, Chicago that's my hometown.

Thanks to Ron Grossman.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Universal Aryan Brotherhood Member "Dirty Red" Pleads Guilty to Racketeering Charges

A member of the Universal Aryan Brotherhood (UAB) prison gang pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of conspiracy to conduct a racketeering enterprise, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and two charges of violence committed in aid of racketeering, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Danny C. Williams Sr. of the Northern District of Oklahoma.

Ronnie Dean Haskins, aka Dirty Red, 43, of Oklahoma, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank H. McCarthy of the Northern District of Oklahoma.

In connection with his guilty plea, Haskins acknowledged his membership in or association with the UAB, a violent, “whites only” prison-based gang with members and associates operating inside and outside of state prisons throughout Oklahoma.

As alleged in the indictment, Haskins conspired in racketeering activities to advance the UAB enterprise, including possessing and selling 500 grams or more of methamphetamine.  Haskins also admitted that he orchestrated and participated in the kidnapping and maiming of a former UAB member who violated the UAB by-laws.

Monday, December 28, 2015

DarkMarket: How Hackers Became the New Mafia

In this fascinating and compelling book, DarkMarket: How Hackers Became the New Mafia, a must-read for anyone who owns a computer, Misha Glenny exposes our governments’ multi-billion-dollar war against an ever-morphing, super smart new breed of criminal: the hacker.

The benefits of living in a digital, globalized society are enormous; so too are the dangers. We bank online, shop online, date, learn, work, and live online, but have the institutions that keep us safe on the streets learned to protect us from the deadly “new mafia” of cybercriminals? To answer this question, Glenny offers a vivid examination of the rise of the criminal hacking website DarkMarket and its ultimate fall. Along the way, he presents alarming and illuminating stories about both the shadowy individuals behind its scenes and the organizations tasked with bringing them to justice.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

The Mafia Hit Man's Daughter

“A riveting look at life inside a Mafia familyThe Mafia Hit Man's Daughter.”—New York Times bestselling author George Anastasia

The Mafia Hit Man's Daughter.

The world called him a killer. She called him Dad . . .

“We were always worried. Always looking over our shoulders . . .”

Linda Scarpa had the best toys, the nicest clothes, and a close-knit family. Yet classmates avoided her; boys wouldn’t date her. Eventually she learned why: they were afraid of her father.

A made man in the Colombo crime family, Gregory Scarpa, Sr. was a stone-cold killer nicknamed the “Grim Reaper.” But to Linda, he was also a loving, devoted father who played video games with her for hours. In riveting detail, she reveals what it was like to grow up in the violent world of the mob and to come to grips with the truth about her father and the devastation he wrought.

“An amazing story of jealously, duplicity, hatred and betrayal.”—Sal Polisi, author of The Sinatra Club

“Touching, shocking, revealing—Linda Scarpa’s memoir is more than a mob book; it’s a family book.”—John Alite, subject of Gotti’s Rules

 “An edge-of-your-seat page turner—jaw-dropping, raw, and real.”—Andrea Giovino, author of Divorced From the Mob

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

What is the DEA's #360Strategy?

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration announced Pittsburgh as the pilot city for a comprehensive law enforcement and prevention “360 Strategy” to help cities dealing with a heroin and prescription drug abuse epidemic, and its associated violent crime. DEA Special Agent in Charge for the Philadelphia Division, Gary Tuggle made the announcement along with United States Attorney David J. Hickton of the Western District of Pennsylvania and several local and federal agencies and organizations working in the fields of law enforcement, pharmacology and substance abuse prevention and treatment.

“The work of law enforcement to remove the traffickers and the work of our partner agencies doing treatment and prevention in Pittsburgh has already had an impact on the city’s drug problem,” said Tuggle. “The 360 strategy brings together for the first time, the agencies that have dealt with this problem separately, into a comprehensive and sustained effort to not only fight drug traffickers but also to make communities resilient to their return.”

The DEA 360 Strategy comprises a three-fold approach to fighting drug traffickers:


  • Provide DEA leadership with coordinated DEA enforcement actions targeting all levels of drug trafficking organizations and violent gangs supplying drugs in our neighborhoods, as we have been doing with ongoing law enforcement operations.
  • Have a long-lasting impact by engaging drug manufacturers, wholesalers, practitioners and pharmacists to increase awareness of the heroin and prescription drug problem and push for responsible prescribing and use of these medications throughout the medical community.
  • Change attitudes through community outreach and partnership with local organizations following DEA enforcement actions to equip and empower communities with the tools to fight the heroin and prescription drug epidemic.

“We are grateful that DEA, through its 360 initiative will contribute to the significant efforts already underway in Western Pennsylvania to reduce heroin and opioid overdoses,” said Hickton.  “Pittsburgh has the opportunity to lead the nation due to the strong commitment and cooperation among our leadership, law enforcement and citizens.”

“The community outreach aspect of this program may be the most important to long-term success,” added Tuggle. “The 360 Strategy brings to bear the concerted efforts of substance abuse and prevention experts to addresses four key groups by engaging in dialogue, providing information and resources to educate young people about the consequences of drug abuse and trafficking:


  • Parents/caregivers in the home
  • Educators and the classroom
  • After school organizations such as Boy and Girl Scouts and athletic associations
  • The workplace.”

In the short term, the goal of the 360 strategy is to provide as much information as possible in many different forms to reach young people. Officials will work to form a “Community Alliance” that will comprise key leaders from law enforcement, prevention, treatment, the judicial system, education, business, government, civic organizations, faith communities, media, social services and others, to form the core of a long-term group that will cross disciplines to help carry the prevention and treatment messages to the local population during the critical post-operation timeframe.

In the future, DEA and its partners also plan to host multi-day summits to bring community leaders together to look for sustainable, impactful efforts to address drug abuse, addiction, trafficking and the violence that accompanies it. Other partners will include the Department of Justice Violence Reduction Network, Health and Human Services, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Centers for Disease Control, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, and many others.

“DEA’s 360 Strategy recognizes that we need to utilize every community resource possible to reach young people and attack the heroin and prescription drug epidemic at multiple levels,” said Tuggle. “This three-sided strategy brings together everyone who has a stake in the successful outcome of this pilot program.  This could be a model for many other communities.”

Monday, December 21, 2015

Crime and Immorality in the Catholic Church

Written by a well-known former Franciscan priest, the stories in Crime and Immorality in the Catholic Church, about what some priests were doing in the 1950s could come from today's front pages. But the focus is not so much on the priesthood, as on the parishioners.

To investigate his theory that the Catholic religion promotes criminal behavior rather than preventing it, McLoughlin conducted a survey of all the prisons in the country in 1960. In every state, the percentage of Catholic inmates was greater than the state's percentage of Catholics in the population, even using the church's inflated figures. Then he did a similar survey of institutionalized mental patients, exploring the theory that Catholic beliefs drive people crazy, and came up with the same results. This was not the most scientific research, but no one else was doing anything better.

He argued that crime and poverty are worse in countries with a long history of Catholic control of religious institutions.

In this and other books, McLoughlin criticized how priests were trained, and how Catholic children were trained, especially those who attend parochial schools. If the Church today is somewhat more enlightened, perhaps he should be given some of the credit.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Former Corrections Officer, John Grosso, Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison for Accepting Cash Bribes in Exchange for Smuggling Contraband into County Correctional Facility

A former Essex County corrections officer was sentenced to 24 months in prison for accepting bribes in exchange for smuggling contraband, including cell phones and tobacco, into the Essex County Correctional Facility, a federal pretrial detention facility, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

John Grosso, 42, of Belleville, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler to an information charging him with one count of conspiring to commit extortion under color of official right. Judge Chesler imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

According to the documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Grosso, a former corrections officer at the Essex County Correctional Facility, admitted that in December 2013, he agreed to accept cash bribes in return for his assistance smuggling cell phones and cigarettes to an inmate. Grosso met with the inmate’s relative in Secaucus, New Jersey, to accept the contraband and bribe before delivering the items to the inmate.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Chesler sentenced Grosso to one year of supervised release.

John Hamilton, Former Business Manager of Operating Engineers Local 324 Indicted for Extortion and Embezzlement Schemes

The former top elected official of the 18,000 member Operating Engineers Local 324, International Union of Operating Engineers, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of extortion, embezzlement, money laundering and conspiracy, United States Attorney Barbara McQuade announced today.

McQuade was joined in the announcement by James Vanderberg, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Labor, Office of Investigations, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, Special Agent in Charge David Gelios, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Division, Ian Burg, District Director of the Department of Labor, Office of Labor Management Standards, Special Agent in Charge Jared Koopman, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations, and Regional Director Joe Rivers of the Employee Benefits Security Administration.

Indicted was John Hamilton, 61, of Rivera Beach, Florida.

The nine-count Indictment alleges that Hamilton used his position as Business Manager of Local 324 to personally enrich himself through a series of illegal schemes. Local 324 represents heavy equipment and crane operators throughout Michigan, and Hamilton served as the union’s top elected official from 2003 through 2012. Hamilton is charged with extorting business agents and other employees of Local 324 to each pay $5,000 of their salaries per year into what was called the “Team Hamilton Slate Fund.” Ostensibly, the slate fund was to be used for union election campaign expenses. However, Hamilton instead used a significant portion of the money that was extorted from union business agents for his own personal benefit. Hamilton threatened union employees with termination if they complained about the payments to his slate fund. In fact, in 2010, Hamilton fired one business agent who had complained about the payments to Hamilton’s fund. Hamilton used some of the money that he extorted to pay for meals and liquor, as well as $5,000 to his daughter as a wedding present. After losing re-election in an August 2012 membership vote, Hamilton then took for himself $71,000 from the slate fund, as well as distributing more than $35,000 each to Steven Minella and David Hart, two other top Local 324 officials. Hamilton structured and laundered this money by distributing it in a series of seventeen checks with false dates, all for amounts under $10,000. Minella and Hart, the former President and Chief of Staff of the union, respectively, both pleaded guilty earlier this year to felonies for helping to conceal Hamilton’s extortion scheme.

In another scheme, Hamilton is charged with embezzling union funds by giving himself a $97,000 per year raise in October 2009. When a former President of Local 324 raised objections to the $97,000 raise, Hamilton terminated the President. In addition, Hamilton created fraudulent minutes of the union’s Executive Board in an effort to justify the raise.

Hamilton also is charged with embezzling Local 324 funds and Local 324 pension funds by spending more than $50,000 on special rims for his own union-issued Cadillac DTS, as well as expensive meals and liquor at restaurants for little or no union business purpose.

Finally, Hamilton is charged with an honest services fraud conspiracy, in which Hamilton accepted work worth thousands of dollars on his personal residence by a union contractor in exchange for Hamilton’s directing more than $300,000 in Local 324 business to the contractor.

Upon conviction, Hamilton would face a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each of the four counts of extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit honest services mail and wire fraud in the Indictment. He also faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each of five counts of conspiracy to embezzle union funds, conspiracy to embezzle pension funds, embezzlement of union funds, and attempted structuring of financial transactions.

An indictment is only a charge, and a defendant is presumed not guilty unless he is convicted at trial by a jury.

“Labor unions exist for the benefit of their members, not to line the pockets of the union leaders,” McQuade said. “Hard-working union members deserve honest representation, and leaders who exploit their positions for personal gain will be brought to justice.”

David Gelios, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Division said, “The betrayal of the trust of union members and the working public cannot be tolerated at any level. Mr. Hamilton’s embezzlement of union funds was a disservice to the labor union movement and the 18,000 hard-working members of Local 324 of the Operating Engineers Union.”

“Union leaders who misuse their positions to enrich themselves at the detriment of the hard-working men and women for whom they serve will be held accountable for their actions. The fact that Mr. Hamilton concealed his activities and used the very jobs he was elected to protect as leverage to obtain money makes this case even more egregious,” stated Jarod Koopman, Special Agent in Charge of the IRS- Criminal Investigation. “IRS- Criminal Investigation will continue to root out individuals who corrupt labor unions by working with its law enforcement partners.”

The case was investigated by agents of the Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, the Office of Labor Management Standards, the Employee Benefits Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service—Criminal Investigations, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys David A. Gardey and Dawn N. Ison.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

New York @Giants Super Fan, @LicensePlateGuy, Joe Ruback Arrested on Loan Sharking Charge

Joseph Ruback, the athletic director at Biondi School in Yonkers and former Spring Valley High School football coach, was arrested Thursday morning as part of an investigation into organized crime gambling rings and those who use violence to collect debts, authorities said.

Joseph Ruback, 46, a New City resident who has received acclaim as the "License Plate Guy" Giants fanNew York Giants License Plate Guy Super Fan Joe Ruback, and Luigi Sessa, 63, of Suffern, face felony charges. Ruback, who has a previous conviction for stealing, faces fourth-degree grand larceny, while Sessa is charged with second-degree criminal usury and has a history of gambling-related charges.

Ruback, the athletic director at the Biondi School in Yonkers,  is charged with running his own loan-sharking operation, lending money and collecting at illegal interest rates, using violence and threats at times, authorities said.

Sessa has been connected to a large-scale gambling enterprise in Rockland and Westchester counties, New York City, Long Island, Pennsylvania and Florida, authorities said. His arrest was part of a 16-month undercover investigation into illegal loansharking and gambling linked to organized crime.

Eight other alleged players were arrested in June by the Rockland District Attorney's Office Organized Crime Unit through "Operation Rock Bottom," which focused on an Internet off-shore gambling website. Investigators seized illegal gambling records, computers and more than $750,000. The unit comprises district attorney's detectives, Clarkstown police, state police, and the FBI.

District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said Thursday that Ruback and Sessa separately "used threats, intimidation and even physical force to collect debts and charged usurious interest rates on outstanding debts." Ruback was being arraigned in Clarkstown Town Court. Sessa was scheduled to surrender Thursday, Zugibe said.

The June arrests and those made Thursday came on the heels of similar operations late last year that led to 21 people charged in connection with multimillion-dollar operations. In March, a Rockland investigation led to federal charges against a mob captain, Daniel Pagano of Ramapo, and Michael Palazzolo of Suffern. Pagano, the son of late mob kingpin Joseph Pagano, has pleaded guilty in the case and has been sentenced to federal prison.

Ruback has gained local notoriety as a New York Giants super fan, called the “License Plate Guy” for wearing Giants-themed placards to Big Blue games. Ruback, who claims to have not missed a game in 14 years, recently took part in a friendly wager on the Giants-Patriots game with the Rockland Jewish Community Center executive to provide Thanksgiving turkeys to People to People.

Ruback has experienced both sides of the law.

On Dec. 9, 1998, he pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny, a felony, and was sentenced Feb. 3 to five years probation and 6 months of community service. Ruback and a former Spring Valley High School quarterback, then 19, were charged with the theft of about $14,000 from the J.C. Penney at the Palisades Center mall.

In 1999, Ruback, while on probation, helped chase some suspects involved in an afternoon robbery at Marty's Sporting Center in Clarkstown. On March 27, 1997, he spotted someone breaking into his truck and gave chase. He tackled and held the suspect for police.

Ruback was hired as the Spring Valley High varsity football coach in May 1996, after coaching the school's junior varsity team for five years. He was then a physical education teacher at Hillcrest Elementary School. He led the Spring Valley team to a 10-1 record in 1997 and the state semifinals.

He had resigned two months before his 1998 arrest, stating he was about to get married and wanted to return to school to further his education.

Thanks to Steve Lieberman.

Cosa Nostra "Godmother", Teresa Marino, is Arrested for 'Running Mafia Gang's Cocaine Smuggling Network

Italian police have arrested a woman who is accused of taking over the infamous Cosa Nostra mafia after her husband was jailed.

Prosecutors claim mother of five Teresa Marino, 38, seized control of the gang's drug trafficking network and managed its cocaine shipments after her husband was arrested in April last year. With Tommaso Lo Presti behind bars, Marino is said to have become a more central part of the mafia, at a time when women are controlling more prominent roles in the crime family.

Traditionally, only men become 'mafioso' but there is believed to have been a seismic shift in the way the Cosa Nostra is run.

Marino 'directed all criminal activities of the mafia group', said police, who admitted her husband may still be leaking orders to her from prison. She is also accused of acting as its treasurer and dishing out cash gifts to other wives whose husbands were also in prison, the Telegraph reported.

She and the other 37 people arrested across Italy were charged with extortion, mafia association, drug trafficking, trading in weapons and fraud associated with the bidding of public work contracts.

Palermo prosecutor Leonardo Agueci said: 'The role she assumed as head of the clan shows that times have changed. 'These days there is equality of the sexes even within Cosa Nostra. But this is certainly not the first case of its kind.'

Marino is also accused of being a confidant to other mafia wives who had to give evidence in court. 'She would tell them not to cry in the court room, telling them: "show them you're proud Mafiosi, you must only show your pain at home",' said police colonel Giuseppe De Riggi who was part of the investigation that brought her down.

He added: 'Teresa Marino is an important figure in Cosa Nostra. She exercised power with great authority.'

Police seized around 10kg of cocaine during the arrests made in Palermo, Rome, Naples and Milan.

With Italy cracking down on the Cosa Nostra mafia in recent years, and dozens of senior members now in prison, it has been left to their wives to keep the gang running. Women are also a more dominant force in the country's other big organised crime families, the Naples based Camorra and 'Ndrangheta in Calabria. In 2009, police arrested 11 women who were alleged members of the Camorra and involved in drug trafficking.

Police general Gaetano Maruccia said at the time: 'There is a growing number of women who hold executive roles. 'They are either widows or wives of husbands who have been put in prison. They hold the reins. They're very good at mapping out strategy, even sharper (than the men).'

Thanks to Jay Akbar.

Mafia Fugitive, Pasquale Brunese, Arrested while Running Pizza Parlor

Officers on Wednesday arrested 44-year-old Pasquale Brunese who is originally from Naples, home of the Camorra, one Italy's biggest mafia groups, a local police spokesman said.

Brunese was detained in May 2007 in Italy for possession of cocaine and heroin but the authorities lost track of him. He was then sentenced in absentia to nine years and nine months in jail for drug trafficking, extortion and membership in an organised crime group.

Italy issued an international warrant for his arrest and has requested his extradition.

Brunese will on Friday appear before Spain's top criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional.

Italy's three main mafia groups the Camorra, Sicily's Cosa Nostra and Calabria's 'Ndrangheta, have a joint annual turnover of €116 billion ($126.8 billion), according to a United Nations estimate.

Spanish police announced last week they had detained one of Europe's most wanted drug lords, 44-year-old British national Robert Dawes, in his luxury villa on the Costa del Sol after an eight-year probe that allegedly linked him to the Italian mafia and South American cartels.

He was arrested at the "A mi Manera" pizzeria restaurant in Puerto de Segunto, Valencia, which he owned under an assumed name.

Thanks to The Local.

29 Members of the #TexasSyndicate Sentenced to Federal Prison

In Del Rio, a federal judge sentenced 29 Uvalde/Hondo-area Texas Syndicate (TS) members over the past two weeks to federal prison, including four defendants to life imprisonment, for various racketeering and drug trafficking offenses committed in Uvalde, San Antonio and the surrounding areas announced United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr., and Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs of the FBI’s San Antonio Division.

United States District Judge Alia Moses sentenced TS members and Uvalde residents George “Curious” Sanchez, age 40; Raul “Fatboy” Rodriquez, age 42; Mike “Big Mike” Cassiano, age 39; and, Cristobal “Little Cris” Velasquez, age 37, to life in federal prison for conspiracy to violate the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) statute.

On April 2, 2015, jurors in Del Rio convicted Sanchez of conspiracy to violate the RICO statute. Evidence presented during his trial revealed that Sanchez, along with fourteen other TS members and associates, conspired since 2002 to commit three murders and distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, 100 kilograms of marijuana and three ounces of methamphetamine. Jurors also found Sanchez guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering and murder in aid of racketeering for the murder of Rogelio Mata on October 13, 2002, in Uvalde. Mr. Mata was murdered for his failure to follow TS rules.

On July 1, 2013, in a separate jury trial in Del Rio, Sanchez’s co-defendants Raul Rodriquez, Mike Cassiano and Cristobal Velasquez were convicted of conspiracy to violate the RICO statute. Rodriquez also was convicted of the substantive charge of violent crime in aid of racketeering for his role in the murder of Rogelio Mata. Velasquez was found guilty of conspiracy to commit violent crime in aid of racketeering and the substantive charge of violent crime in aid of racketeering for the murder of Jose Guadalupe de la Garza on December 25, 2005 in Uvalde. Cassiano also was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to commit violent crime in aid of racketeering for his role in the murder of Jose Guadalupe de la Garza and the November 9, 2009, murder of Jesse James Polanco in Uvalde. Judge Moses sentenced the remaining ten defendants, all of whom pleaded guilty prior to jury selection to conspiracy to violate the RICO statute, to prison terms ranging from five years to life. A 15th defendant, Inez Mata, pleaded guilty to the RICO conspiracy charge prior to jury selection. He died of natural causes in Uvalde in March 2015 while awaiting sentencing in this case.

In addition to the RICO defendants, 15 other TS members and associates were sentenced to federal prison for their roles in a drug trafficking enterprise. Eli Torres, age 39, of Uvalde, and Alfredo Tapia, III (aka “Naco”), age 44, of Hondo, were sentenced to 300 months and 240 months’ imprisonment, respectively, after a jury convicted them of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.

Jurors found that Torres participated in this drug distribution ring as a member of the TS prison gang using the gang’s drug distribution connections to aid him in obtaining cocaine to sell on the streets of Uvalde from August 1, 2009, until September 28, 2011. Torres was also found guilty of possession with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine within 1,000 feet of the Sacred Heart Parish School in Uvalde.

Jurors also found Tapia guilty of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana during that same time period. Drug transactions were conducted at Tapia’s home and on one occasion a person was held at gun point in Tapia’s backyard until that person paid his drug debt. Tapia was associated with members of the Texas Syndicate prison gang and facilitated their distribution of cocaine and marijuana.

The remaining 13 defendants, including former Bandera County Sheriff’s Deputy Thomas Cuellar, pleaded guilty prior to trial to conspiring to distribute controlled substances in the Uvalde and Hondo areas. In addition to the narcotics charges, Cuellar also pleaded guilty to unlawfully accessing a police department computer in order to obtain law enforcement information regarding the co-conspirators. Judge Moses sentenced Cuellar to 40 months’ incarceration while sentencing the others to federal prison terms ranging from 48 months to 151 months.

According to testimony at trial, the Texas Syndicate is a violent prison gang that has spread its influence into Texas cities and towns. Members of the Texas Syndicate are bound by a set of rules that ensure loyalty and participation in the enterprise’s criminal activities and are subject to strict and harsh discipline, including death, for violating the rules. The rules require that a member continue his participation in the organization even after his release from prison. Membership is for life and the gang comes first above all else, to include family.

The case resulted from a joint investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the Texas Department of Public Safety—Criminal Investigations Division, San Antonio Police Department, Medina County Sheriff’s Office and the Bandera County Sheriff’s Office. Also assisting in the investigation was the 38th Judicial District Adult Probation Gang Unit, Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. The U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Customs and Border Protection and the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Department assisted in making the arrests. Assistant United States Attorneys Patrick Burke, Ralph Paradiso, Erica Giese and Matthew Watters handled this matter on behalf of the Government.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Star Wars Fans: History of the Force: New York Times Headlines From Far, Far Away

Star Wars Fans: History of the Force: New York Times Headlines From Far, Far Away.

This special collection takes you on a journey from the release of the first “Star Wars” movie in 1977 to the saga’s newest installment, “Episode VII: The Force Awakens,” set to be released later this year. Completely personalize it with a name on the cover and a choice of three different colors options.

The phenomenally successful series has captured the imaginations of sci-fi buffs for generations, and this keepsake book chronicles the public and critical reception of the film and its historical and cultural impact.

This comprehensive book includes New York Times article about the “Star Wars” films and their legacy, from reviews, news articles, graphics, photos and behind-the-scenes exclusives to profiles of director George Lucas and key actors. There are more than 25 color pages.

An epic gift for the diehard Star Wars enthusiast, the hardcover book is bound in a stately leatherette binding that is personalized with the recipient’s name. On the slate gray cover, you get to choose from three foil stamp colors and edition names.

- Green & Gold is the Light Edition
- Black & Red is the Dark Edition
- Slate Gray & Silver is the Master Edition

The contents are the same for each edition and each one has a companion “Star Wars” wallet -- Stormtroopers, "Star Wars" logo or Hans Solo and Chewbecca. Each wallet is made of DuPont™ Tyvek®, a plastic micro fiber that is tear resistant and water resistant. Super strong and compact, the wallets expand to hold everything you need.

Friday, December 11, 2015

Blues Brothers Original Movie Poster - 1980 #OnaMissionFromGod

Blues Brothers Original Movie Poster - 1980.

The Blues Brothers" is a 1980 comedy movie based on the Blues Brothers characters that John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd played on Saturday Night Live." This is a fully original 1980 one-sheet poster that features a fantastic image of Belushi and Aykroyd as the title characters. This 27" x 41" poster is in excellent condition. A great piece of movie memorabilia.



Thursday, December 10, 2015

The Godfather Original Movie Poster With Linen Back - 1972 - Only One Available!

The Godfather Original Movie Poster With Linen Back - 1972.

All serious movie fans search to find this classic popular poster. The Godfather" is often considered one of the greatest movies of all time and certainly the most influential gangster movie. It starred Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the leaders of a New York crime family. The movie also featured stars like James Caan, Robert Duvall and Diane Keaton. It was a huge success at the box offices as it is still ranked among the Top 25 highest-grossing films in America. The movie was also critically acclaimed. The Godfather" won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. In 1990, the movie was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress.

This is an authentic, original poster not a reprint or a reproduction. It was distributed by the studio when the film was released and was intended for theatrical display. This is a fully original 1972 one-sheet poster that features the original movie logo. This poster is in excellent condition and it has been professionally linen backed to 30" x 44" in order to preserve the condition. A great piece of movie memorabilia. Only one available. Ships rolled. Comes with a certificate of authenticity from Brigandi Coins & Collectibles of New York, a leader in collectibles since 1959.



My Daddy was a Mafia Killer!

A beautiful Mafia princess is breaking the underworld code of silence to reveal the violent hell of being raised by a ruthless hit man — who would pound her boyfriends to a pulp and rub out any man who disrespected her!

As a kid growing up in New York, Linda Scarpa had no idea her father Gregory “The Grim Reaper” Scarpa was the Colombo crime family’s most feared and vicious enforcer. But when she started dating, Linda learned the truth the hard way!

In her book “The Mafia Hit Man's Daughter,” Linda, now 46, details how her father and his wiseguy pals tracked down her first boyfriend, Greg Vacca, after she came home from a date stoned on marijuana.

“They just friggin’ pulverized me,” said Greg, who wound up with a broken nose, a concussion and two fractured ribs. “My head was so swollen, I looked like the Elephant Man.”

Daddy’s wrath proved more deadly after cab driver Jose Guzman attacked Linda when she was 16. “He ripped my shirt open,” recalled Linda. Scarpa and his crew tracked down Guzman and shot him. Afterward, Scarpa told his daughter he’d actually saved other girls from being raped.

If “you hurt his family or anyone he cared about” or violated Mafia rules, “it was his job to bring you death,” said Linda. But sometimes Scarpa — who stopped counting his murders after he iced his 50th victim — landed on the wrong side of a gun.

Once, Linda and her 8-month-old son were caught in a shoot-out as “men in black ski masks” opened fire on her father’s car and hers while they were pulling out of the family’s driveway. A gunman stopped the onslaught when he saw the baby in Linda’s car. “You saved my life,” the unharmed Scarpa told his daughter.

However, his luck didn’t last. He was eventually convicted of a slew of crimes and died in jail in 1994.

His son, Joey, was whacked by rival racketeers in 1995, said Linda.

“I’ve often thought about the people my father murdered and the families he destroyed, and it’s very painful and disturbing,” Linda wrote. “I knew what that felt like because my brother was murdered, too!”

Wednesday, December 09, 2015

The Manchurian Candidate Original Movie Poster, Linen Backed, - 1962

The Manchurian Candidate Original Movie Poster, Linen Backed - 1962.

Vintage movie posters were normally printed in very limited quantities, often making them hard to find. The posters were not meant to be saved. After their initial use to promote the movie, they were supposed to be returned to the studio or destroyed. Almost all old posters before the mid-1980s were issued folded from the back to minimize fold lines. Folds are not considered defects. Accompanied with a certificate of authenticity from Brigandi Coin & Collectibles of New York City, a leader in collectibles since 1959.



Juan "Cruzito" Garcia, Former #Top10MostWantedFugitive and Member of #MS13 Gang to Spend Life in Prison

At the federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York, Juan Garcia, also known as “Cruzito,” a member of La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the MS-13 street gang, was sentenced to life by United States District Judge Joseph F. Bianco. Garcia and two other MS-13 members, Adalberto Ariel Guzman and Rene Mendez Mejia, shot and killed 19-year-old Vanessa Argueta and her two-year-old son, Diego Torres, in Central Islip, New York, on February 5, 2010. Garcia and Mejia shot Argueta in the chest and head, respectively, and Guzman shot Torres twice in the head. After committing the murders, Garcia and his co-conspirators fled to El Salvador. Guzman and Mejia were arrested in May 2010, but Garcia remained a fugitive for four years until March 2014, when, after being placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List, he surrendered to law enforcement authorities in Nicaragua, waived extradition, and was returned to the United States for prosecution. He pled guilty on October 15, 2014.

The sentence was announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Diego Rodriguez, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office.

“The MS-13 is infamous for committing senseless and brutal acts of violence, but, even for the MS-13, the murders of Vanessa Argueta and Diego Torres were particularly depraved and callous,” United States Attorney Capers stated. “However, as a result of the tenacious investigation and prosecution jointly conducted by this Office and our law enforcement partners, Garcia and his co-conspirators have been captured, convicted, and justly sentenced for cold-bloodedly executing a young mother and her two-year-old child.” United States Attorney Capers expressed his sincere gratitude to the members of the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force, the FBI’s Violent Criminal Threat Section, and the FBI’s Legal Attaches for El Salvador and Panama, for their unwavering commitment to bring Garcia and his co-conspirators to justice for the Argueta and Torres murders.

“Today’s sentencing is the final chapter in the government’s commitment to get justice for the victims. Garcia and his fellow MS-13 members senselessly and callously murdered a young mother and her toddler five years ago. The FBI is committed to working with our partners to not only root-out gangs in our communities but also bring their crimes to justice,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Rodriguez.

Garcia and other MS-13 members, including MS-13 leader, Heriberto Martinez, Guzman, and Mejia plotted to kill Argueta because they believed she had disrespected the MS-13 by sending rival gang members to attack Garcia.

Martinez was convicted in March 2013, following a six-week trial, in connection with the Argueta murder, as well as the March 6, 2010 murder of Nestor Moreno in Hempstead, New York, and the March 17, 2010 murder of Mario Alberto Canton Quijada in Far Rockaway, New York, and later sentenced to life in prison, plus 60 years. Guzman was convicted on charges relating to the Argueta and Torres murders in September 2013, following a three-week trial, and later sentenced to life in prison, plus 35 years. Mejia pled guilty to the Argueta and Torres murders and is pending sentence.

The convictions of Garcia and his codefendants are the latest in a series of federal prosecutions by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York targeting members of the MS-13, a violent international criminal organization. The MS-13’s leadership is based in El Salvador and Honduras, but the gang has thousands of members across the United States, comprised primarily of immigrants from Central America. With numerous branches, or “cliques,” the MS-13 is the largest and most violent street gang on Long Island. Since 2003, hundreds of MS-13 members, including dozens of clique leaders, have been convicted on federal felony charges in the Eastern District of New York. A majority of those MS-13 members have been convicted on federal racketeering charges for participating in murders, attempted murders and assaults. Since 2010 alone, this Office has obtained indictments charging MS-13 members with carrying out more than 25 murders in the Eastern District of New York, and has convicted dozens of MS-13 leaders and members in connection with those murders. These prosecutions are the product of investigations led by the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force, comprising agents and officers of the FBI, Nassau County Police Department, Nassau County Sheriff’s Department, Suffolk County Probation, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department, Rockville Centre Police Department, and Suffolk County Police Department.

17 Years in Federal Prison, to be Followed by Deportation, for Sinaloa Cartel Member, for Cocaine Drug Conspiracy

Acting United States Attorney Donald Feith announced that Rafael Humberto Celaya Valenzuela, 40 of Hermosillo, Mexico was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison after being convicted by a jury of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine.

A grand jury for the District of New Hampshire originally charged Celaya Valenzuela and seven coconspirators including Joaquin Guzman-Loera, a/k/a “Chapo” with the drug conspiracy in June 2011. A grand jury returned a superseding indictment in July 2012; shortly before Celaya Valenzuela’s arrest in Spain on August 7, 2012 conspirators Samuel Zazueta Valenzuela, Jesus Gonzalo Palazuelo Soto, and Jesus Manuel Gutierrez Guzman arrived there to monitor the delivery of 346 kilograms of cocaine to Algeciras, Spain. The cocaine was delivered to a European port for eventual redistribution in Europe and the United States. The delivery resulted from negotiations between members of the Sinaloa Cartel led by Chapo and undercover agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation posing as members of an organized crime syndicate.

During the period of the negotiations there were numerous meetings with members of the conspiracy in the United States, including an April 2011 meeting in New Castle, New Hampshire, and a March 2011 meeting in Madrid, Spain to finalize the terms of the first delivery. During this time, three “test” deliveries of fruit were made to provide assurance to the conspirators that they were not dealing with law enforcement. The success of the test deliveries led to the ultimate delivery of the cocaine.

“This case illustrates that drug cartels based in foreign countries will go anywhere to distribute their deadly products,” stated Acting United States Attorney Donald Feith. “Mr. Celaya Valenzuela served as a representative of one of the world’s wealthiest and deadliest drug organizations. Without the work of dedicated agents from the FBI, the Boston Police Department, and the Spanish National Police, this long term investigation would not have been successful. I commend these agencies for their determination to bring these individuals to justice.”

Celaya Valenzuela will be deported to Mexico upon his release.

Monday, December 07, 2015

Frank Cullotta is At Peace with His Past

Frank Cullotta keeps reaching toward his face, trying to adjust something no longer there. His glasses.

Cullotta just finished a series of Lasik surgeries to right his vision. Gone are his recognizable, oversized frames. He now sees clearly but continues to focus his memory in the long-ago past.

Cullotta was a famous hit man for the Chicago Outfit, a self-described former “gangster, burglar, murderer, extortionist, arsonist” who admitted to the 1979 killing of con man Sherwin “Jerry” Lisner in Las Vegas. As was customary in those days, Cullotta acted on the order of Chicago Outfit overlord Tony Spilotro. The murder scene was depicted in the film “Casino.”

Cullotta was a consultant on the film, as he edged his way back into society while living under an assumed name. He spent two years in the federal witness-protection program after cutting a deal with the federal government in exchange for information about his former associates.

Today, the 76-year-old Cullotta earns a legal living as an expert in the culture that led him underground. He works as a guide for the Mob Museum, leading “Casino” tours of the primary points of interest featured in the 20-year-old mob movie, most of which was set in Las Vegas. The tours begin at the Mob Museum with a private walk-around hosted by mob historian Robert George Allen and include a bus tour of the city’s famous mob locations. The five-hour tours run monthly and cost $180, including a champagne toast and pizza dinner.

Guests visit such locations as the Casino House, where Cullotta carried out the Lisner murder; the setting for the Frankie “Blue” death scene in the film; the Las Vegas Country Club clubhouse where Spilotro and Moe Dalitz used to play cards; and the site of the Hole in the Wall Gang’s botched Bertha’s Household Products robbery on July 4, 1981, which led to Cullotta’s arrest. The bus also pulls into Piero’s Italian Cuisine, also used in “Casino.”

You see, too, the spot at Tony Roma’s on Sahara Avenue where in 1982, Lefty Rosenthal was nearly killed in a car-bomb explosion, spared by the hard-metal plate under the driver’s seat of his ’81 Cadillac Eldorado.

“I tell people that Lefty was a creature of habit,” Culotta said. “He always liked to have his ribs at Roma’s, once a week. He was an easy target.”

Cullotta is introduced to those on the tour by “Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas” book author Nicholas Pileggi. “He brags about me, saying there would have been no book or movie ‘Casino’ if it was not for me,” Cullotta said.

Cullotta considers the obvious: He is the rare (hopefully) person taking these tours who actually has committed a murder.

How does it feel to be walking around with that experience, even more than 35 years later?

“Honestly, it never wakes me up,” Cullotta said. “If you do think about it, it’ll put you in the (effing) nuthouse. When I do these tours, then everything pops up into my head; people want to know if it bothers me. Of course. But if I thought about it 24 hours a day, I’d wind up in my car with a gun in my mouth.”

Cullotta says he compares his experience to that of a serviceman carrying out an order for his government.

“It’s like fighting a war,” he said. “I hate to use the military as a comparison, but that’s how it felt; I was carrying out an order.

“People are fascinated by me, and I understand that, but there’s a big difference in me today than there used to be. I mean, I used to be surrounded by celebrities, showgirls, politicians, a lot of money, people wanting to attach themselves to you. But it came at a price.”

Which was?

“I lost my freedom,” Cullotta said. “I had to change my life completely. But I have paid my debt to society. I’m under no pressure. I used to have headaches all the time, from tension, and I don’t have headaches anymore. I’m clean today. I’m very clean.”

Thanks to John Katsilometes.

The Untouchables in Blu-Ray

They don't make movies like The Untouchables, any more. Brian De Palma's gripping tale of a Chicago police team trying to take on Al Capone is one of the best crime movies ever made. With stellar writing, superb directing, and an all-star cast, The Untouchables feels both modern and timeless.

Kevin Costner stars as Elliott Ness, a Treasury Department agent tasked with cutting down on alcohol bootlegging (this was during Prohibition, mind you). And Robert De Niro is Al Capone, the man behind the illegal alcohol trade, as well as many other things besides. Ness tries and fails to rally local law enforcement to his cause. It's only when he teams with veteran cop Malone (Sean Connery, in an Oscar-winning role) and forms a small squad of his own, dubbed "the Untouchables" because they are the only people in the city who cannot be bribed by the mob.

The Untouchables is fantastic on many different levels. It all starts with the script, written by famous playwright David Mamet. Mamet is known for his fast-paced, overlapping dialogue and his sharp, memorable lines. Here he eases up on the rat-a-tat rhythm of the dialogue, instead allowing each character to showcase a set of very memorable lines.

Brian De Palma adds another level. De Palma's career jumps from confident and assured (Sisters, Carrie, Mission: Impossible) to downright embarrassing (Snake Eyes, Mission To Mars), but here he knocks the ball right out of the park. He lets the material speak for itself, and then adds a cinematic touch to make the whole piece move. And, of course, he's responsible for the famous Battleship Potemkin homage during the climax that still provides edge of your seat tension to this day.

The cast bring it all to life. Kevin Costner is eager and sincere in this role, playing Ness with his heart on his sleeve. It's a reminder of how good of an actor he used to be. Sean Connery is an incredible presence, world-weary but not without hope. It's one of his most nuanced and brilliant performances. Andy Garcia and Patricia Clarkson are memorable, but don't get enough screen time to really show how talented they are. And then, of course, there's De Niro, playing Capone to the hilt, making himself felt throughout, even when he's not on the screen.

And the final piece of the puzzle is the haunting score by Ennio Morriconne. Morricone, most famous for penning the scores for A Fistful Of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, is one of the world's most versatile composers and provides a tense, lingering soundtrack that perfectly complements the image on the screen.

The Blu-ray Disc:

The Image: Paramount Pictures presents The Untouchables in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 in an AVC/MPEG-4 encoded 1080p transfer. I was quite literally shocked to see how good this movie looked in high definition. The film came out in 1988, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone told me it had come out in 2007. The colors are rich, bright, and solid. Shadow delineation is excellent. Detail level is off the charts. This is not only the best The Untouchables has ever looked, but it also better-looking than a good majority of HD discs of movies from any time period. The image quality alone demands that this Blu-ray be purchased and enjoyed over and over.

The Audio: Nothing's perfect, and in the case of The Untouchables, it's the Dolby Digital-EX 5.1 and DTS 6.1 mixes. Morricone's score sounds great in the high end, but the bass is lacking. Gunshots are often muted and lacking power, and for a surround mix, there's not much directionality. This is the one aspect of the disc that could use a serious overhaul.

The Supplements: Paramount has ported over all of the special features found on the latest special edition DVD. All but the theatrical trailer are in high definition.

The Script, The Cast: Brian De Palma discusses the origin of the film, mentioning that he took the job to get in good with a studio so he could finance his preferred projects. There was a lot of talk of moving away from the television series and making the movie its own beast. There are also some vintage interviews with the cast.

Production Stories: A look at the film's sets, vehicles, costumes, and designs.

Reinventing The Genre: A discussion of how Brian De Palma's cinematic techniques shaped the film.

The Classic: A wrap-up look at the post-production process and release. Morriconne's score, the film's release, success, and legacy are all highlighted here.

The Men: A short vintage featurette.

Theatrical Trailer: In HD, but not very good-looking.

The Conclusion: The Untouchables is an undeniable classic, and this Blu-ray disc does it justice with reference picture. The sound and extras aren't as good, but still far from bad. This is a must-see movie on a must-own disc. Highly Recommended.

Thanks to Daniel Hirshleifer

Full Statement from Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch on Investigation into @Chicago_Police

Good morning and thank you all for being here. I am joined today by Vanita Gupta, head of the department’s Civil Rights Division, and Zachary Fardon, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

The Department of Justice is committed to upholding the highest standards of law enforcement throughout the United States. Every American expects and deserves the protection of law enforcement that is effective, responsive, respectful and most importantly, constitutional  – and each day, thanks to the tireless dedication of men and women who wear the badge, citizens from coast to coast receive just that. But when community members feel they are not receiving that kind of policing – when they feel ignored, let down or mistreated by public safety officials – there are profound consequences for the well-being of their communities, for the rule of law and for the countless law enforcement officers who strive to fulfill their duties with professionalism and integrity.

Today, I am announcing that the Department of Justice has opened an investigation into whether the Chicago Police Department has engaged in a pattern or practice of violations of the Constitution or federal law. Specifically, we will examine a number of issues related to the CPD’s use of force, including its use of deadly force; racial, ethnic and other disparities in its use of force; and its accountability mechanisms, such as its disciplinary actions and its handling of allegations of misconduct. This investigation has been requested by a number of state and local officials and community leaders and has been opened only after a preliminary review and careful consideration of how the Justice Department can best use our tools and resources to meet Chicago’s needs.

In the coming months, the investigation will be conducted by experienced career attorneys from the Civil Rights Division with the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois. They will conduct a thorough, impartial and independent review of the allegations. The team will meet with a broad cross-section of community members, city officials and law enforcement command staff and officers to explain our process and to hear from anyone who wishes to share information relevant to the investigation. We will examine, with our experts, policies, practices and data. And at the end of our investigation, we will issue a report of our findings. If we discover unconstitutional patterns or practices, the Department of Justice will announce them publicly, seek a court-enforceable agreement with the Chicago Police Department and work with the city to implement appropriate reforms.

Our goal in this investigation – as in all of our pattern-or-practice investigations – is not to focus on individuals, but to improve systems; to ensure that officers are being provided with the tools they need – including training, policy guidance and equipment – to be more effective, to partner with civilians and to strengthen public safety. We understand that the same systems that fail community members also fail conscientious officers by creating mistrust between law enforcement and the citizens they are sworn to serve and protect. This mistrust from members of the community makes it more difficult to gain help with investigations, to encourage victims and witnesses of crimes to speak up, and to fulfill the most basic responsibilities of public safety officials  And when suspicion and hostility is allowed to fester, it can erupt into unrest.

Building trust between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve is one of my highest priorities as Attorney General. The Department of Justice intends to do everything we can to foster those bonds and create safer and fairer communities across the country. And regardless of the findings in this investigation, we will seek to work with local officials, residents and law enforcement officers alike to ensure that the people of Chicago have the world-class police department they deserve.

At this time, I’ll be happy to answer a few questions.

- Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch

Justice Department Opens Pattern or Practice Investigation into the @Chicago_Police

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced today that the Justice Department has opened a civil pattern or practice investigation into Chicago Police Department (CPD), pursuant to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.  The department’s investigation of CPD will seek to determine whether there are systemic violations of the Constitution or federal law by officers of CPD.  The investigation will focus on CPD’s use of force, including racial, ethnic and other disparities in use of force, and its systems of accountability.

“Building trust between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve is one of my highest priorities as Attorney General,” said Attorney General Lynch.  “The Department of Justice intends to do everything we can to foster those bonds and create safer and fairer communities across the country.  And regardless of the findings in this investigation, we will seek to work with local officials, residents, and law enforcement officers alike to ensure that the people of Chicago have the world-class police department they deserve.”

During the course of the investigation, the Justice Department will consider all relevant information, particularly the CPD’s policies, training and practices related to using, reporting, investigating and reviewing force.  The Justice Department will also look into CPD’s practices related to disciplinary and other corrective action; and its practices related to intake and handling of allegations of misconduct.

"The Justice Department's investigation – opened with currently available, preliminary information – seeks to determine whether the Chicago Police Department's use of force practices and accountability systems comply with constitutional standards necessary to effectively serve its community and productively support its police officers,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division.  ”In the coming months, we look forward to engaging directly with all stakeholders in Chicago – including the city's residents, law enforcement officers and public officials – as part of our fact-driven and thorough review.”

“Today's launch of this investigation marks an important and positive opportunity for Chicago and its police department," said U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Fardon for the Northern District of Illinois.  “The U.S. Attorney's Office is fully committed to doing everything in our power, in partnership with our colleagues in the Civil Rights Division, to ensure that this process is a success.”

As part of the investigation the department will gather information directly from police officers and local officials; community members, and other criminal justice stake holders, such as public defenders and prosecutors.  The department will also observe officer activities through ride-alongs and other means; as well as review documents and specific incidents that are relevant to the investigation.  Pattern or practice investigations of police departments do not assess individual cases for potential criminal violations; instead they look at incidents for patterns created by systems and practices.

The Justice Department has taken similar steps involving a variety of state and local law enforcement agencies, both large and small, in jurisdictions throughout the United States.  When investigations result in findings of systemic violations of federal law and the Constitution they have in many instances resulted in comprehensive, court-overseen agreements to fundamentally change the law enforcement agency’s police practices.  When the department’s investigations do not result in findings of violations of federal law and the Constitution the department will close the investigation without an agreement.

This matter is being investigated by attorneys and staff from the Civil Rights Division with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.  They will be assisted by experienced law enforcement experts.  The department welcomes the views of anyone wishing to provide relevant information.

Friday, December 04, 2015

Star Shark @RobertHerjavec of @ABCSharkTank On How Hackers Became The New Mafia

Robert Herjavec is best known as a star on ABC’s Emmy Award-winning hit show Shark Tank. But that only requires 17 days a year of filming, according to Herjavec – who spends most of his time as founder and CEO running his namesake cybersecurity firm.

Toronto-based Herjavec Group is Canada’s largest pure-play information security services company. Over the past couple of years they have expanded in to the U.S., Europe, and Asia-Pacific, through organic growth and a few small but strategic acquisitions of MSSPs (managed security service providers).

Herjavec’s firm recently did some of its own filming — “Hackers are the New Mafia: Breakfast and Security Roundtable with DarkMarket author Misha Glenny" — a video broadcast which discusses cyber crime with one of the top minds on the topic.

Misha Glenny is an international bestselling author who has written several books including his 2012 paperback “DarkMarket: How Hackers Became the New Mafia”. In this book, he exposes our governments’ multi-billion-dollar war against an ever-morphing, super smart new breed of criminal: the hacker.

Herjavec Group’s video was shot at their corporate headquarters and features Glenny recounting his experiences across 200 plus hours of research & interviews with the key players in the game of cybercrime including criminals, international security experts, politicians and fraud victims.

Cyber crime is on the rise. The British insurance company Lloyd’s estimates that cyber attacks cost businesses as much as $400 billion a year, which includes direct damage plus post-attack disruption to the normal course of business. Some vendor and media forecasts put the cybercrime figure as high as $500 billion and more.

If you are a consumer, business owner, corporate executive, IT or cybersecurity expert looking for some unique insight in to what Glenny calls the “new mafia” of cyber criminals – then you ought to watch Herjavec’s video.

Thanks to Steve Morgan.

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