A Mafia boss who turned informant on one of New York's notorious five families - and pleaded guilty to 11 murders - has been sensationally sentenced to 'time served' today.
Salvatore Vitale, 63, immediately cooperated with the FBI and prosecutors after his arrest and imprisonment in January 2003.
He identified more than 500 gangsters and helped convict more than 50 - including his brother-in-law and former Bonanno chief Joseph Massino.
Today's sentence will mean that Vitale will have served around 18 months for each of his 11 murders.
It is expected that he will immediately enter the witness protection programme
.
'Quite simply, Vitale has likely been the most important cooperator in the history of law enforcement efforts to prosecute the Mafia,' said Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, of United States District Court in Brooklyn, when he meted out the sentence today.
Judge Garaufis noted that the criminal justice system was 'dependent on the cooperation of criminals in the prosecution of other criminals'. He added: 'This cooperation does not come without a cost.' The judge noted that he was under no illusion that Vitale had become a government witness for any reason other than self-preservation, noting that he did so only when he realised that the crime family had come to see him as a liability.
The judge said: 'It is unfortunate that law enforcement must, of necessity, obtain the cooperation of felons to address the pernicious crimes committed by organised crime,' the judge said. 'But without the benefit of cooperating witnesses like the defendant, the government’s ability to prosecute the secretive and rule-bound world of organised crime would be greatly impaired.'
In October 2004, information he gave to federal officers led to the discovery of three bodies in Ozone Park, Queens.
Vitale’s lawyers, Kenneth Murphy and Brian Waller, had pushed for the sentence to be 'time served'.
Vitale had been facing life in prison.
In a bid to put Vitale away for good, prosecutor Greg Andres read aloud letters sent to the judge from the wife and daughter of one of the victims. Robert Perrino was a Bonanno associate who was the superintendent of deliveries at The New York Post and who was slain in 1992. Vitale ordered the killing based on the fear that Perrino might cooperate with the authorities. Perrino’s body was not found until Vitale himself began cooperating with police. Perrino'd widow Rosalie wrote: 'As a result of Salvatore Vitale’s criminal inhuman behaviour, my grandson never knew his grandfather, and he and our granddaughter have grown up without this special man. 'Salvatore Vitale caused my own life to unravel and the colour in my life to drain away.'
Vitale alternately stared at the table before him and watched the judge as Mr Andres read the letter.
At the end of the hearing, the judge asked the people in the gallery to remain seated so deputy United States marshals could escort Vitale out of the courtroom. He left through the courtroom’s rear door, beside the judge’s bench, and did not look back.
It is not the first time Mafia informants have been given lesser sentences for information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of their bosses. Salvatore Gravano, an underboss for the Gambino family known as 'Sammy the Bull', admitted to 19 murders in 1991 in exchange for a lesser sentence and served just five years.
As part of his testimony, notorious gangster John Gotti was jailed for life.
Vitale, wearing a blue suit and silver pattered tie, twice dabbed tears from his eyes during the court proceeding - and exhaled sharply just before the judge read out the sentence.
The former paratrooper - known as Good Looking Sal' during his three decades committing countless crimes on behalf of the Bonanno family - read from a statement where he apologised to the families of his victims.
He said: 'I would say to them that I pray daily for my victims’ souls and I’m truly sorry. I stand in front of you, your honour, ashamed of the life I used to live. 'I disgraced my father’s name, my name, my sons’ name.'
Vitale operated at the highest levels of organised crime while a member of La Cosa Nostra, and knew many of the Bonanno secrets - including quite literally where bodies were buried.
Monday, November 01, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
County Legislator, Frank Sparaco, Denies Organized Crime Ties
Rockland County Legislator Frank Sparaco on Tuesday vehemently denied any connection to organized crime and accused the Democratic leadership in Albany of being behind media reports about mob ties among his campaign donors.
"They have attempted to plant in the media the despicable and preposterous idea that somehow I am linked to organized crime," said Sparaco, who is running for the Assembly. "I wish to make the following perfectly clear: I vehemently deny any knowledge that political contributions to my campaign came from companies with alleged ties to organize crime," he said at a news conference outside Rockland Republican Party headquarters off Route 304.
He is running on the Republican, Conservative and Working Families lines to unseat 94th District Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski, who is on the Democratic and Independence lines. The election is Tuesday.
The news conference followed Saturday's publication of an article in The Journal News about Sparaco's campaign donations.
An investigation by the newspaper of county, state and federal records showed that at least $11,500 from reputed Colombo crime family members and associates and their businesses went into Sparaco's campaign coffers since 2007, including donations to his county Legislature and Assembly races.
"There's not one contributor who has been proven guilty of one act of organized crime," he said.
He would not identify the Democratic leaders he blamed for the reports or answer questions after his statement. "This type of insidious racial politics" has been seen before in attacks against other politicians, he said, citing Geraldine Ferraro, Rudy Giuliani and Mario Cuomo. "I will not stand for it," Sparaco said. "I will bring an independent voice to Albany, and there are those that are petrified of that."
He said he had no relationship with his biological father, Frank Sparaco Jr., a reputed Colombo member who pleaded guilty to federal murder charges in 1993 and was sentenced to prison for 24 years. The younger Sparaco said his father abandoned his mother when he was 9 months old.
"In this country, unlike others, we do not tell people to live in the shadows and stay on the margins of society because of what family they come from," Sparaco said. "I am standing up today for the millions of children across this country that are a product of a broken home. Are we worth less? I say no."
Rockland County Republican Party Chairman Vincent Reda backed his candidate.
"We stand behind Frank Sparaco and we reject the media story orchestrated by the Albany Democrats, who have increased taxes by $14 billion over the past two years and chased families and small businesses out of the state," Reda said. "We can no longer afford that."
Reda said the Democrats he was referring to were those cited in an Oct. 21 report by the state inspector general. The report found Senate leaders, including Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, and Gov. David Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, complicit in steering a contract for video lottery terminals at Aqueduct Race Track in Queens to Aqueduct Entertainment Group. In exchange, the report said, lobbyists and AEG officials pumped more than $100,000 into lawmakers' campaign coffers.
Requests for comment from the state Democratic Committee were not returned Tuesday.
"My candidacy is clearly a threat to those that represent the special interests, the status quo in Albany," said Sparaco, who lives in Valley Cottage. "So much so that they have generated these rumors to deter the good people of Rockland County from achieving the reform that they deserve ."
Diane Holland of West Nyack, who attended the event, said she would continue to support Sparaco.
"Frank is a man of integrity," Holland said. "I've known him for many years. ... He would stand behind me and I would stand behind him."
Thanks to Laura Incalcaterra
"They have attempted to plant in the media the despicable and preposterous idea that somehow I am linked to organized crime," said Sparaco, who is running for the Assembly. "I wish to make the following perfectly clear: I vehemently deny any knowledge that political contributions to my campaign came from companies with alleged ties to organize crime," he said at a news conference outside Rockland Republican Party headquarters off Route 304.
He is running on the Republican, Conservative and Working Families lines to unseat 94th District Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski, who is on the Democratic and Independence lines. The election is Tuesday.
The news conference followed Saturday's publication of an article in The Journal News about Sparaco's campaign donations.
An investigation by the newspaper of county, state and federal records showed that at least $11,500 from reputed Colombo crime family members and associates and their businesses went into Sparaco's campaign coffers since 2007, including donations to his county Legislature and Assembly races.
"There's not one contributor who has been proven guilty of one act of organized crime," he said.
He would not identify the Democratic leaders he blamed for the reports or answer questions after his statement. "This type of insidious racial politics" has been seen before in attacks against other politicians, he said, citing Geraldine Ferraro, Rudy Giuliani and Mario Cuomo. "I will not stand for it," Sparaco said. "I will bring an independent voice to Albany, and there are those that are petrified of that."
He said he had no relationship with his biological father, Frank Sparaco Jr., a reputed Colombo member who pleaded guilty to federal murder charges in 1993 and was sentenced to prison for 24 years. The younger Sparaco said his father abandoned his mother when he was 9 months old.
"In this country, unlike others, we do not tell people to live in the shadows and stay on the margins of society because of what family they come from," Sparaco said. "I am standing up today for the millions of children across this country that are a product of a broken home. Are we worth less? I say no."
Rockland County Republican Party Chairman Vincent Reda backed his candidate.
"We stand behind Frank Sparaco and we reject the media story orchestrated by the Albany Democrats, who have increased taxes by $14 billion over the past two years and chased families and small businesses out of the state," Reda said. "We can no longer afford that."
Reda said the Democrats he was referring to were those cited in an Oct. 21 report by the state inspector general. The report found Senate leaders, including Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, and Gov. David Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, complicit in steering a contract for video lottery terminals at Aqueduct Race Track in Queens to Aqueduct Entertainment Group. In exchange, the report said, lobbyists and AEG officials pumped more than $100,000 into lawmakers' campaign coffers.
Requests for comment from the state Democratic Committee were not returned Tuesday.
"My candidacy is clearly a threat to those that represent the special interests, the status quo in Albany," said Sparaco, who lives in Valley Cottage. "So much so that they have generated these rumors to deter the good people of Rockland County from achieving the reform that they deserve ."
Diane Holland of West Nyack, who attended the event, said she would continue to support Sparaco.
"Frank is a man of integrity," Holland said. "I've known him for many years. ... He would stand behind me and I would stand behind him."
Thanks to Laura Incalcaterra
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