Kin of "Mafia Cops" Victims Sue NYPD

Friends of ours: Luchesse Crime Family
Friends of mine: Louis Eppolito, Stephen Caracappa

The families of two Long Island garbage carters - rubbed out by the mob 17 years ago - are suing the NYPD, charging the department failed to "control" two rogue cops.

The widows of Robert Kubecka and Donald Barstow charged the police with "failure to supervise, discipline or otherwise control" detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa while they were working for the Luchese crime family, and allegedly passed on information about the victims.

Kubecka, who ran a sanitation business with brother-in-law Barstow, refused to go along with crooked carters.

Thanks to Dareh Gregorian

Tweet

Accused Mobster Wants Out of Jail Before Trial

Friends of ours: Frank Calabrese Sr., James Marcello, Nick Calabrese, Frank Calabrese Jr.
Friends of mine: Robert Cooley

Frank Calabrese Sr. has been accused of killing 13 people in mob hits, but his attorney swears he's not a danger to society. So attorney Joseph Lopez is asking a federal judge to release Calabrese Sr., 69, from the Metropolitan Correctional Center while he awaits trial as one of the top mobsters charged in the most important recent criminal case filed against the Chicago mob, called Family Secrets.

Calabrese Sr. was in prison for running a loan-sharking operation when he was indicted last year in the Family Secrets case. With his sentence up in the old case, Calabrese Sr. wants out. He has been ordered detained on the current case.

In a filing submitted Thursday, Lopez points out that the murders charged in the current case are more than 20 years old. He argues that "there's no indication he will commit any crimes in the future." And Lopez says Calabrese Sr. has been an exemplary inmate while inside, including completing a GED program and parenting classes, receiving a diploma for attending Alcoholics Anonymous and getting an award from the warden of the federal prison in Milan, Mich., as well the town's chief of police and its mayor for taking part in a program that warns youths of the perils of a criminal life.

The filing by Lopez also points out that there are several other mob cases across the nation where alleged top mobsters were let out on bond. And he contends that another government witness used by federal prosecutors in the past, Robert Cooley, has pinned one of the murders charged against Calabrese Sr. on four other men, not Calabrese Sr.

Calabrese Sr.'s chances to get out appear slim. When a fellow defendant, alleged Chicago mob leader James Marcello, charged with three murders in the case asked for bond, the judge denied the request. And the evidence appears extensive against Calabrese Sr. His brother, Nick, is cooperating with the federal government and has admitted to committing multiple mob killings. Calabrese Sr.'s son, Frank Calabrese Jr., is also cooperating with the feds and put his life on the line by secretly recording his father in prison allegedly talking about participating in various mob hits.

The U.S. attorney's office declined to comment, but prosecutors are expected to oppose releasing Calabrese Sr. at a detention hearing.

Thanks to Steve Warmbir

Tweet

Best gift for ‘Sopranos’ fans? End season with a bang

Friends of mine: Soprano Crime Family

Now that everyone has had their midlife crisis, maybe we can get back to some bloodshed on "The Sopranos."

As HBO's top drama ends its sixth season, it seems obvious the show's writers fell into a funk. HBO is not releasing screeners of the finale, but the hour will have to be one heckuva caper to redeem the last three months. OK, there was that belated whacking last episode, a fitting cap to the "Brokeback Mafia" saga that should have ended at least six episodes earlier, for Goomba's sake.

Everyone suffered from existential crises. Tony (James Gandolfini) struggled to regain face after being shot by his uncle; Vito (Joseph Gannascoli) was yanked out of the closet by his leather chaps; Artie (John Ventimiglia) festered as his restaurant floundered; Paulie (Tony Sirico) learned his aunt, the sister, was his mother; and Carmela (Edie Falco) had an epiphany in Paris yet was back to folding laundry in New Jersey. As Tony complained to Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), every day is a gift, but does every gift have to be socks?

It was hard to escape the sense that the writers were marking time until the show's final season (eight episodes in 2007). Two episodes with Tony in a coma - in a 12-episode season?

Only a show like "The Sopranos" could make a gay mobster seem so perverse yet get away with two hetero hoods, Tony and Christopher (Michael Imperioli), declaring their love for each other as they bonded over the memory of Tony’s decision to whack Christopher’s fiancee, Adriana. But let's hold off on the lime; there's still life in this body.

David Chase began this series as a triangle between a middle-aged mobster, his therapist and his psycho mama, Livia (Nancy Marchand). Marchand's death in 2000 prompted major revisions, but fans may yet get a payoff that resonates with the show's themes of family and betrayal - one starting to seem obvious yet deviously brilliant.

The key to the end may lie in Tony's increasingly tense relationship with son A.J. (Robert Iler). As the show's writers have underlined this season, A.J. is Livia: The Next Generation, self-absorbed, hateful and incapable of feeling compassion for anyone. As Tony told Melfi in the last episode, he hates his son. On some level, Tony recognizes the family resemblance.

Who to bring Tony down but family? Family has gotten him almost killed more than once.

One can imagine A.J. committing some petty crime and being collared by the feds. As instincts kick in, A.J. saves himself by giving the government all the evidence they need to put away his father.

It would be the ultimate coda to this novel-like series about one mobster's efforts to keep himself and his families - criminal and biological - afloat on an ever-shifting tide of blood.

How perfect would it be for A.J. to do what no Soprano ever has - finally sing?

Thanks to Mark A. Perigard

Tweet

Capo "Convicts Himself"

Friends of ours: Gregory DePalma, Gambino Crime Family

A prosecutor told a jury in closing arguments yesterday that an ailing Gambino captain has all but convicted himself of racketeering by bragging about the family and its crimes as he cozied up to an undercover FBI agent. Gregory DePalma, 74, breathing through a tube connected to an oxygen tank and holding a blanket in front of him, sat with his eyes closed as Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Conniff berated him as a "violent and cunning criminal."

"In the end, it was Gregory DePalma's love of Mafia life that did him in. He could not stop talking about it. He has literally convicted himself in this case," Conniff said in Manhattan federal court.

The government has cited one audiotape in which the defendant bragged he should win an Academy Award for winning leniency with his frail appearance. The prosecutor said DePalma welcomed undercover FBI agent Joaquin Garcia into the Gambino family because he thought Garcia could provide stolen jewelry.

Tweet

Jimmy Hoffa

Jimmy Hoffa, one of the most controversial labor leaders of his time, helped make the Teamsters the largest labor union in the U.S., and was also known for his ties to organized crime. His son, James P. Hoffa, has been a general president of the Teamsters since 1999.

• 1913: Born February 14 in Brazil, Indiana
• 1928: Leaves school to work as a stock boy
• 1940: Becomes chairman of the Central States Drivers Council
• 1942: Elected president of the Michigan Conference of Teamsters
• 1952: Becomes international vice president of the Teamsters
• 1957-1971: Elected international president of the Teamsters
• 1967: Starts 13-year sentence for jury tampering, fraud and conspiracy
• 1971: President Richard Nixon commutes Hoffa's sentence
• 1975: Disappears on July 30 from a restaurant in suburban Detroit, Michigan
• 1982: Legally declared "presumed dead"

Source: Encyclopedia Brittanica

Tweet