DeNiro Scares Stardust Actors

Director Matthew Vaughn had no need to instruct Charlie Cox and Claire Danes to "act scared" of Robert DeNiro's intimidating character in new movie STARDUST - because they were genuinely terrified of the star. Vaughn urged the stars to conjure an atmosphere of terror in a scene where De Niro takes the pair hostage, and this inspired the veteran actor to click straight into Mafia mode. Cox says, "Bob's a pirate and he has us tied up. He's doing his Mafioso intimidating stuff, and Matthew's going to us: 'This is scary, this is really scary.' "But by this time we're scared of Bob for real, so there's no need to act."

I had thought that this might be a movie about the soon to be extinct Stardust in Las Vegas. Instead it is about the award-winning fantasy novel Stardust by Neil Gaiman. The book tells the story of a young man who promises his beloved that he will bring her a fallen star. He goes into a magical realm and encounters all manners of mythic creatures.

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Feds: Indictment Targets Genovese Crime Family

Friends of ours: Genovese Crime Family, Renaldi "Ray" Ruggiero, Albert "Chinky" Facchiano, Liborio S. "Barney" Bellomo
Friends of mine: Joseph Dennis Colasacco, Francis O'Donnell, Charles Steinberg, Mitchell Weissman

A federal judge considered Friday whether five reputed South Florida members of the Genovese crime family should remain in jail pending trial on charges of extortion, robbery, money laundering and other acts of racketeering.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Seltzer was expected to decide whether Renaldi "Ray" Ruggiero, 72, whom federal prosecutors identified as a Genovese capo or captain, and four of his co-defendants should be released before trial.

Ruggiero and Joseph Dennis Colasacco, 54, Francis O'Donnell, 47, Charles Steinberg, 30, Mitchell Weissman, 54, and Genovese "soldier" Albert "Chinky" Facchiano, 96, were arrested June 30. Facchiano, of Miami, was released on a $100,000 bond on Friday.

The case, considered the latest blow to New York's most powerful Mafia family, deals with 10 years of alleged criminal activity, including murder. The family's reputed acting boss, Liborio S. "Barney" Bellomo, and 31 others were arrested in February in New York.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Kaplan told the court the investigation of the group began in 2001 and lasted mainly through 2003, when Internal Revenue Service agents searched Ruggiero's home. More than 130 undercover recordings of the men's conversations "bought out the violent nature of the defendants," Kaplan said.

Prosecutors alleged that Colasacco beat a man with a gun while Weissman held a baseball bat over him. The victim eventually escaped, covered in blood, Kaplan said. The men later met the victim at Ruggiero's Palm Beach restaurant, aptly named Soprano's, to again threaten him, prosecutors said.

Ruggiero's attorney, Michael Salnick, repeatedly stopped prosecutors who claimed his client was connected to the Mafia or that he was a dangerous person. Salnick asked the court that his client be released before trial, noting that Ruggiero suffers from serious health problems. Salnick noted that Ruggiero has no passport and has left the country only once in 20 years.

The indictment covered alleged illegal enterprises from 1994 to the present, with a few specific examples. In one instance in 2003, Ruggiero allegedly gave approval to Colasacco to extort a man identified as "Victim-1."

Prosecutors claimed the victim was lured to O'Donnell's office, where a gun was held to his head and he was ordered to pay $1.5 million. Prosecutors said Ruggiero feigned innocence when confronted by the victim and promised to intercede, but later agreed to split the money with other defendants.

The group is also accused of laundering money through as many as six companies. An undercover agent gave O'Donnell $250,000 in cash to launder and "made it clear the cash was from drugs," Kaplan alleged.

If convicted under the racketeering charges, Ruggiero could face up to 120 years in prison and fines of up to $1.75 million. Convictions would result in slightly lower maximum sentences for the other defendants.

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2 Palm Beach County Men Among Mafia Suspects

Friends of ours: Genovese Crime Family, Renaldi "Ray" Ruggiero
Friends of mine: Mitchell Weissman, The "Sopranos "

In the hunt to take down the legendary Genovese organized crime family, investigators nabbed two associates in Palm Beach County.

They found Renaldi "Ray" Ruggiero, a 72-year-old living in a modest suburban home in Palm Beach Gardens. He is described as the "capo" in charge of the family's South Florida operations.

They also found his alleged associate, Mitchell Weissman, 54, in Boca Raton. He is not a made man, but helped the mafia carry out its traditional work of extortion, robbery, money laundering, loan sharking, possession of stolen property and bank fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Both are transplants from New York.

The two men were arrested on Friday after a grand jury indicted them along with five others from Broward and Miami-Dade counties on multiple charges including racketeering.

Until now, Ruggiero had a clean criminal record in Florida. A woman answered the door at his home, but declined comment.

Weissman was arrested once in 1994 by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office on a domestic battery complaint by his wife, Sandra Weissman. At the time, she had an injured eye and told the deputy she feared violence would continue. The outcome of the case was not immediately available, but the couple is still married, state records show. Weissman did not return calls for comment.

The mafia's dealings in the indictment reads like a script for the mob drama, The Sopranos, except the scenes are set among South Florida's palm trees instead of northern New Jersey.

The cast of codefendants include those nicknamed "the Baker," "the Old Man," and "the Fat Man."

In one case, Ruggiero lured a victim to a codefendant's Coral Springs office, where a gun was held to the man's head in an effort to extort $1.5 million from him. Ruggiero later feigned that he was going to help the victim, even though he had already cut a deal to split the victim's money with the assailants, according to the indictment.

In another, Ruggiero was part of the conspiracy to rob a Boynton Beach bookie of $39,000, the indictment says.

The government is also trying to take up to $3 million of money and assets the seven men have acquired — including the three-bedroom homesteaded Palm Beach Gardens house Ruggiero bought in the Siena Oaks development in 1990 for $157,900.

Weissman lives at a house in Boca Raton he acquired from Ruggiero in 2003, county property records show.

Thanks to Rochelle Gilken

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'Mafia Cops' Judge to Rule on Bail After Vacation Cruise

Friends of ours: Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, Lucchese Crime Family
Friends of mine: Louis Eppolito, Stephen Caracappa

'Mafia Cops' Judge Jack Weinstein tossed the convictions of the two retired New York City detectives that have been dubbed the 'Mafia Cops' on Friday. But now, the judge may make them wait until he finishes his vacation cruise before allowing them to make a bid to get out of jail.

Ex-NYPD detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa will certainly file for bail but according to a report in Newsday - they may have to wait for an answer until the judge returns from a vacation cruise.

Newsday reports that along with his momentous ruling Friday, which overturned the conviction of both men for racketeering conspiracy, Brooklyn federal Judge Jack B. Weinstein issued a terse order that any requests for bail be made to him as "presiding" justice in the case.

That means that any attempt by Eppolito, 57, and Caracappa, 64, to win release from the federal detention center in Brooklyn won't be decided until Weinstein returns from a vacation cruise later this month. However, defense attorneys may file bail requests as early as this week for both men.

On April 6, a jury found Eppolito and Caracappa guilty of 70 counts of racketeering in one of the most sensational cases of police corruption in New York's history. In a month long trial, witnesses testified that the two friends had formed a partnership with Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, an underboss with the Lucchese family, reports the LA Times.

In exchange for a shared $4,000 monthly retainer, they would pass along police information about mob figures and occasionally act as hit men themselves.

The men were each sentenced to life in prison for their crimes.

The United States attorney's office in Brooklyn said it would appeal the judge's decision to overturn the convictions.

Thanks to Jim Roberts

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Mob Gal Pal Becoming Key Witness to FBI Case

Friends of ours: Gregory Scarpa Sr., Colombo Crime Family

When Linda Schiro was just 16, the Brooklyn teen was already a mistress to a hardened mobster. Her lover, Gregory Scarpa Sr., was a veteran of the Colombo crime family who eventually was convicted of murder and racketeering.

A dozen years later, Schiro has emerged as a key witness against a former FBI agent who allegedly fed Scarpa inside information that led to four mob slayings. But attorneys for R. Lindley DeVecchio say the longtime mistress lacks the credibility to implicate the ex-FBI agent. Her story has changed drastically over time, the defense says.

Authorities insist that Schiro's initial reluctance to detail the relationship between the agent and the mob capo was motivated by fears for her life. Only recently was she persuaded to tell the truth, they say.

Schiro met Scarpa in 1966 when she was 16. They quickly moved in together and shared the same home for 28 years -- except when Scarpa was behind bars. The couple had two children.

DeVecchio was the head of the FBI's Colombo crime family squad and became Scarpa's handler when the mobster turned informer. During Scarpa's time as a mole, DeVecchio put together a 700-page informant file detailing their relationship, court papers showed.

Allegations about possible leaks from DeVecchio to Scarpa first surfaced after the mobster's June 1994 death in a Minnesota prison from AIDS, contracted when he received a tainted blood transfusion. But the Department of Justice declined to prosecute DeVecchio following an internal investigation.

DeVecchio, now 65, retired to Florida in 1996. The former agent has pleaded not guilty to murder charges and is free on $1 million bond.

A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation remains open, said authorities approached Schiro two years ago after a private investigator turned up fresh evidence against DeVecchio.

Prosecutors persuaded Schiro to come clean about the relationship between the agent and Scarpa by promising relocation and police protection. "It was a matter of making her feel safe, telling her, 'You're not going to get whacked,"' the official said.

Court papers filed by the prosecution present a sinister relationship between Scarpa and DeVecchio. The pair met once a week at Scarpa's home, where the agent accepted a roll of bills bound with a rubber band -- the payoff for DeVecchio's tips from inside the FBI, according to an affidavit from Assistant District Attorney Ann Bordley.

The prosecutor maintains that Schiro has direct knowledge about the 1990 slaying of Patrick Porco, who with Scarpa's son Joey and two other suspects murdered a man outside a church in Brooklyn on Halloween 1989.

In May 1990, Schiro answered a phone call from DeVecchio, asking for Scarpa. The mobster had Schiro drive him to a pay phone, where he spoke with DeVecchio for about 10 minutes before returning to the car. "I can't believe this (expletive) kid," Scarpa allegedly told Schiro. "Patrick is going to rat on Joey. We got to do something about this."

Porco, 18, was found the next morning on a Brooklyn street corner with a bullet in his head.

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