By Clarence Walker, Investigative Journalist, Houston Texas
If you was a cold-blood criminal how much you willing to pay a hitman to kill someone? Well maybe that depends on the amount of money you have and how much the assassin will charge to carry out a contract.
Throughout existence of mankind people have hired killers to murder others in exchange for sex, money, relationships, promise of marriage, favoritism, gold, pearls, diamonds, cars, and even high-tech video games. But if you had none of the above to offer and you are practially broke with less than $500 in your pocket and desperately needed someone murdered for whatever reason--- where in the U.S. or anywhere on foreign land can you find a professional hitman to execute a bloody job for a pitiless fee?
Thats a tough question, isn't it? Since you don't know here is the answer. According to a recent crime study if you need someone murdered in Australia you can find an assassin for as low as $380!
What a bargain. Life must really come cheap for contract killers in Australia. Assassins must be insane to snuff lives for such a pittance amount. Sounds too ridiculous to be true? Isn't it? Keep reading.
A recent study of 163 attempted and actual murders conducted between 1989-2002 by The Australian Institute of Criminology and South Australian's major crime investigation branch showed the average price for a 'hit' is $12,700, but, again, if your budget is tight as a drum a person can have a contract murder carried out for $300-$400.
This research is the first national study of the typology of contract killings in Australia.
The study further showed the majority of contract killings in Australia is usually done by angry spouses and jilted lovers. But evidence is clear the professional criminals involved with organized crime order the most successful 'hits'.
"The most common motive or reason for hiring the services of a hit man was in relation to the dissolution of an intimate relationship", Toni Makkai, acting director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, said in a statement to foreign news reporters.
Makkai pointed out the fact the most common motives ranged from preventing a person from pursuing another relationship, revenge for another having affair, eliminating a partner to shack up with a lover or gain custody of children.
Other motives were money, silencing a witness, revenge, drugs and organized crime rivalry.
The average pay of 'blood money' to a 'hitman' for a contract in Australia was $12,700, the lowest amount documented $380, the highest $76,000.
Based on the research evidence documented from crime cases indicated powerful weapons was used for the contract murders. In fact guns were five times more likely to be used in contract killings than in domestic type murders.
"If you want the job done you are going to use the most deadly weapon avaliable", Makkai said.
Among several types of homicides to go down in Australia contract killings make up only a small percentage of all murders. During the four-year study period 'hits' accounted for only two percent of murders. But the number of 'hits' is slowly rising with an average now of seven attempted murders and five carried out each year. In earlier studies of contract murders by Australian organized crime group it showed the OC groups were more sophisticated and willing to pay large amount of money for a 'hitman'.
The amount for a organized crime-type murder contract often varys based on the following factors:
Who is the hitman, his reputation for success and not being caught, fees, how many victims he'd eliminated in the past, availablitiy for future assignments. These kind of hitmen are in demand and they charge a hefty fee.
A professional hitman will take the following into consideration prior to accepting an assignment:
(1) Identity of the person to be killed, his/her background, where they are, their daily habits and routines, and,
(2) Any police or security available, news media attention, including whether the client wants the target killed in a specified manner(for example, to make the killing appear as robbery, accident or suicide).
(3) The difficulty and danger of successfully carrying out the 'hit'.
Other factors in carrying out a contract killing varys from one person to another whose desire to have a 'hit' done.
Australian Institute Criminology researcher Jenny Mouzos and South Australian police Detective Inspector John Venditto reported their findings out of 163 cases that 69 victims were killed(34 unsolved) and 94 where the attempt failed due to an informant.
Aside from organized crime contracts Mouzos and Venditto's investigation cited failed relationships between current or former spouses as motivation to find a contract killer. In this group, "63 percent of males were the instigators", says Venditto.
Both Venditto and Mouzos agreed the organized crime-related contract murders succeeded because of more money the groups have to spend to find professional hitmen which allows them to avoid the critical pitfalls that trap others with less money into most likely being caught early in the scheme by putting the word out among freinds, associates and total strangers.
When criminals operate through low-level channels to find a hitman on the streets they run the risk of having an informant contact police for reward money or gain favors in the criminal justice system.
Venditto and Mouzos exclusive study identifed three class of hitmen (1) amateurs (2) semi-pros (3) professionals
"The amateurs, Venditto says, typically are hired to kill a spouse or intimate partner". He characterised amateurs as "impulsive and disorganized and frequently caught".
Professional 'hits' were carefully planned and the assassins left few clues behind. But some were caught. Many victims of drug-related 'hits' may simply disappear without trace thereby this type of crime could be significantly higher than statistics indicated, the study concluded.
In closing as a veteran crime journalist I've written many stories about contract murders. The lowest amount was a October 1981 case in Houston Texas at the La Quinta Inn Motel involving Tommy Dunn. Dunn needed a hitman to kill his father named A.D. Dunn over a relationship the elder was having with his son's ex-girlfreind.
Famous Texas death row inmate Thomas Miller EL now awaiting a new trial in Dallas Texas had introduced Tommy to a desperate guy who can only be characterized as an amateur 'hitman'.
When Dunn asked the 'hitman' how much he charged to kill his father, the 'hitman', paused for seconds, then said, "$800.00" Dunn looked puzzled. This guy fee was dirt cheap.He thought...."something fishy".
He asked him again. Are you sure thats your price? The 'hitman' said, "yes". Dunn was stunned. He looked at the 'hitman' and said, "Hell, $800, isn't bad, even if you missed him! He didn't missed. He killed A.D. Dunn and multiple errors befelled him. He was soon captured. While in jail the 'hitman' committed suicide and Tommy Dunn was sentenced to 99 years in Texas prison.
The irony in the Dunn 'hitman' case and the amateur 'hitmen' in Australia who is desperate and willing to charge $380 to do a hit-- this is for those who needs a 'hit' done You get what you pay for.... A bumbling criminal who may not shoot straight and hard prison time.
Any comments: Journalist Clarence Walker can be contacted at Mafia101@myway.com or 713-616-0385.
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology & South Australian Major Criminal Investigation
Saturday, March 29, 2008
The Lost Gotti
Meet the lost Gotti.
Banished from Gambino crime family activities by his infamous brothers John and Gene - and relegated to being a house-husband while his wife brought home the money - Vincent Gotti's crime career was mired in drug abuse and petty arrests. But times have changed, mostly for the worse for the Gambinos, and Vincent Gotti has finally hit the big time, sort of.
Six years ago, after the death of his boss brother John - and just before he turned 50 - Vincent, the black sheep of the Gotti family, finally became a Mafia soldier, authorities say.
The career surge came with a burgeoning loansharking business and the right to order at least one murder, the feds said.
Unfortunately, finally getting on the mob radar meant he got caught up in the recent massive indictment that Brooklyn federal prosecutors say has nearly decimated the Gambinos.
"Because the crimes for which [Vincent] Gotti has been charged constitute crimes of violence and narcotics offenses for which the maximum term of imprisonment is life," Assistant U.S. Attorney Evan Norris argued in court papers, prosecutors asked that he be jailed without bail.
Magistrate Robert Levy and Federal Judge Jack Weinstein denied him bail this month in hearings that divulged many new details about this virtually forgotten Gotti.
"I can't sleep," Gotti told Weinstein last week in court after the judge asked if he was being treated well at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Defense lawyer Scott Leemon jumped in, saying that some inmates in the prison dormitory are up until 3 a.m.
The judge chuckled. "It might be a question of age," Weinstein said. "I'm sure at one time he could have slept through that."
Vincent Gotti's rap sheet starts in 1973, when he pleaded guilty to petty larceny. Over the next two decades, he was collared for robbery, criminal impersonation and indicted in 1980 for selling cocaine.
During this time he was also abusing drugs himself, leading to the exile imposed by older brothers John and Gene. Law enforcement sources said Vincent Gotti was banned from John Gotti's social club scene, the Ravenite in Little Italy and the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club in Ozone Park, Queens.
Although John Gotti did not disapprove of drug dealing and Gene Gotti remains in prison for heroin trafficking, Mafia rules prohibit drug use. "John abhorred drug users," a source said. "Not for moral reasons, but for security reasons. The security of the family."
Former FBI agent George Gabriel summed up Vincent Gotti's situation in a 1992 interview with his parole officer: "Vincent has no place within the family organization. He was chased away as an embarrassment due to the stupid things he has done in the past," he said in a document in the parole file.
Even behind prison walls, though, the surname Gotti still carried some weight. A prison superintendent at the Queensboro Correctional Facility was demoted for asking Vincent to "pull strings" with executives at a construction company about a prison project, the Albany Times Union reported.
Vincent Gotti was once a shop steward in Local 23 of a construction union, but doesn't appear to have worked for some time except for a job in a phone store. His lawyer described Vincent in court as a "homemaker" whose wife of 24 years, Carmela, brings home the bacon from her job at a subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange.
The Gottis reside in a modest home in Hewlett, L.I., with their daughter, 16, and a son, 10.
The bail motion states that Vincent coaches his son's baseball team, "never misses his daughter's softball games" and is "very active" in a charity called Bless the Kids Foundation. The foundation's Web site lists an address in Ozone Park; the phone number is disconnected.
John Gotti died of throat cancer in prison in June 2002. Five months later, with eldest brother Peter Gotti running the Gambinos, Vincent was inducted into the family.
Prosecutors allege Vincent has gotten into loansharking and ordered the murder of Howard Beach bagel store owner Angelo Mugnolo in 2003.
A former law enforcement official said he was "surprised" to learn of Vincent Gotti's emergence from obscurity. "I guess it's the passing of years and the [Gambino] ranks have gotten thinner," the official offered as an explanation
Thanks to John Marzulli
Banished from Gambino crime family activities by his infamous brothers John and Gene - and relegated to being a house-husband while his wife brought home the money - Vincent Gotti's crime career was mired in drug abuse and petty arrests. But times have changed, mostly for the worse for the Gambinos, and Vincent Gotti has finally hit the big time, sort of.
Six years ago, after the death of his boss brother John - and just before he turned 50 - Vincent, the black sheep of the Gotti family, finally became a Mafia soldier, authorities say.
The career surge came with a burgeoning loansharking business and the right to order at least one murder, the feds said.
Unfortunately, finally getting on the mob radar meant he got caught up in the recent massive indictment that Brooklyn federal prosecutors say has nearly decimated the Gambinos.
"Because the crimes for which [Vincent] Gotti has been charged constitute crimes of violence and narcotics offenses for which the maximum term of imprisonment is life," Assistant U.S. Attorney Evan Norris argued in court papers, prosecutors asked that he be jailed without bail.
Magistrate Robert Levy and Federal Judge Jack Weinstein denied him bail this month in hearings that divulged many new details about this virtually forgotten Gotti.
"I can't sleep," Gotti told Weinstein last week in court after the judge asked if he was being treated well at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Defense lawyer Scott Leemon jumped in, saying that some inmates in the prison dormitory are up until 3 a.m.
The judge chuckled. "It might be a question of age," Weinstein said. "I'm sure at one time he could have slept through that."
Vincent Gotti's rap sheet starts in 1973, when he pleaded guilty to petty larceny. Over the next two decades, he was collared for robbery, criminal impersonation and indicted in 1980 for selling cocaine.
During this time he was also abusing drugs himself, leading to the exile imposed by older brothers John and Gene. Law enforcement sources said Vincent Gotti was banned from John Gotti's social club scene, the Ravenite in Little Italy and the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club in Ozone Park, Queens.
Although John Gotti did not disapprove of drug dealing and Gene Gotti remains in prison for heroin trafficking, Mafia rules prohibit drug use. "John abhorred drug users," a source said. "Not for moral reasons, but for security reasons. The security of the family."
Former FBI agent George Gabriel summed up Vincent Gotti's situation in a 1992 interview with his parole officer: "Vincent has no place within the family organization. He was chased away as an embarrassment due to the stupid things he has done in the past," he said in a document in the parole file.
Even behind prison walls, though, the surname Gotti still carried some weight. A prison superintendent at the Queensboro Correctional Facility was demoted for asking Vincent to "pull strings" with executives at a construction company about a prison project, the Albany Times Union reported.
Vincent Gotti was once a shop steward in Local 23 of a construction union, but doesn't appear to have worked for some time except for a job in a phone store. His lawyer described Vincent in court as a "homemaker" whose wife of 24 years, Carmela, brings home the bacon from her job at a subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange.
The Gottis reside in a modest home in Hewlett, L.I., with their daughter, 16, and a son, 10.
The bail motion states that Vincent coaches his son's baseball team, "never misses his daughter's softball games" and is "very active" in a charity called Bless the Kids Foundation. The foundation's Web site lists an address in Ozone Park; the phone number is disconnected.
John Gotti died of throat cancer in prison in June 2002. Five months later, with eldest brother Peter Gotti running the Gambinos, Vincent was inducted into the family.
Prosecutors allege Vincent has gotten into loansharking and ordered the murder of Howard Beach bagel store owner Angelo Mugnolo in 2003.
A former law enforcement official said he was "surprised" to learn of Vincent Gotti's emergence from obscurity. "I guess it's the passing of years and the [Gambino] ranks have gotten thinner," the official offered as an explanation
Thanks to John Marzulli
The Sopranos Coming to the Big Screen?
Hold the poles! Is a Sopranos movie in the works?
The real-life manager of the strip club that fronted for the Bada Bing on HBO's "The Sopranos" thinks there might be. Satin Dolls manager Nick D'Urso says he's holding off on renovations to the strip club in Lodi, N.J., after getting a tip that a movie would be made. He wouldn't name the tipster.
An HBO spokeswoman says there's no truth to the rumor that plans are in the works for a film about Tony Soprano and his mob crew.
As first reported in The Record of Bergen County, D'Urso says he'll wait until after the summer to renovate in case the tip pans out.
Satin Dolls has already auctioned off its bronze-colored stripper poles and replaced them.
The real-life manager of the strip club that fronted for the Bada Bing on HBO's "The Sopranos" thinks there might be. Satin Dolls manager Nick D'Urso says he's holding off on renovations to the strip club in Lodi, N.J., after getting a tip that a movie would be made. He wouldn't name the tipster.
An HBO spokeswoman says there's no truth to the rumor that plans are in the works for a film about Tony Soprano and his mob crew.
As first reported in The Record of Bergen County, D'Urso says he'll wait until after the summer to renovate in case the tip pans out.
Satin Dolls has already auctioned off its bronze-colored stripper poles and replaced them.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Nicholas Corozzo: Wanted by the FBI
Nicholas Corozzo is wanted by the FBI for EXTORTION; EXTORTION CONSPIRACY; ILLEGAL GAMBLING; MONEY LAUNDERING; MONEY LAUNDERING CONSPIRACY; RACKETEERING CONSPIRACY; CONSPIRACY TO MURDER; and MURDER.
Nicholas Corozzo is wanted for his alleged participation in a variety of illegal activities, including racketeering, extortion, and murder. Corozzo has been a member of the Gambino Crime Family since the early 1980s, and reportedly became a capodecina in the family in 1992. He has been charged with ordering the January 26, 1996, murder of a man who had robbed marijuana from Corozzo's crew and who was also thought to have participated in the murder of a Corozzo crew member. This individual was killed along with another man who was with the primary victim at the time.
On February 6, 2008, a warrant was issued for Corozzo in the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, charging him with extortion, extortion conspiracy, illegal gambling, money laundering, money laundering conspiracy, racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to murder, and murder. The investigation is being conducted jointly by the FBI, the New York State Organized Crime Task Force, the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, the New York Police Department, and the United States Department of Labor.
IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS PERSON, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL FBI OFFICE OR THE NEAREST AMERICAN EMBASSY OR CONSULATE.
SHOULD BE CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS
Nicholas Corozzo is wanted for his alleged participation in a variety of illegal activities, including racketeering, extortion, and murder. Corozzo has been a member of the Gambino Crime Family since the early 1980s, and reportedly became a capodecina in the family in 1992. He has been charged with ordering the January 26, 1996, murder of a man who had robbed marijuana from Corozzo's crew and who was also thought to have participated in the murder of a Corozzo crew member. This individual was killed along with another man who was with the primary victim at the time.
On February 6, 2008, a warrant was issued for Corozzo in the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, charging him with extortion, extortion conspiracy, illegal gambling, money laundering, money laundering conspiracy, racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to murder, and murder. The investigation is being conducted jointly by the FBI, the New York State Organized Crime Task Force, the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, the New York Police Department, and the United States Department of Labor.
DESCRIPTION
| Date of Birth Used: | March 17, 1940 | Hair: | Gray |
| Place of Birth: | Brooklyn, New York | Eyes: | Brown |
| Height: | 5'5" | Sex: | Male |
| Weight: | 170 pounds | Race: | White |
| NCIC: | W5938496320 | Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Unknown | ||
| Scars and Marks: | None known | ||
| Remarks: | Corozzo may wear glasses. | ||
IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS PERSON, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL FBI OFFICE OR THE NEAREST AMERICAN EMBASSY OR CONSULATE.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Reward Offered on Murder Case from Mob Burial Ground
Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 
and John E. Zaruba, DuPage County Sheriff, are asking for the public's help in solving the 1997 murder of ROBERT CHARLES CRUZ. In appealing to the public for help, they have also announced that a reward of up to $10,000 was being offered for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person or persons responsible for this crime.
CRUZ, age 50, was last seen in Kildeer, Illinois on December 4, 1997. His body was unearthed by a construction crew working on a site in unincorporated DuPage County on March 20, 2007. He had been shot twice in the head and wrapped in a roll of carpet. The site where CRUZ' body was discovered was just yards away from an area where two other bodies were found in 1988, in what became known as the "Mob Burial Ground".
CRUZ was released from prison in Arizona in 1995. He had a lengthy criminal record and was a known associate of members of the Chicago LCN and other criminal elements. It is possible that this association led to his death, although no claims of responsibility have ever been received by law enforcement.
Anyone having any information about CRUZ' murder is asked to call the Chicago FBI at (312) 421-6700
and John E. Zaruba, DuPage County Sheriff, are asking for the public's help in solving the 1997 murder of ROBERT CHARLES CRUZ. In appealing to the public for help, they have also announced that a reward of up to $10,000 was being offered for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person or persons responsible for this crime.CRUZ, age 50, was last seen in Kildeer, Illinois on December 4, 1997. His body was unearthed by a construction crew working on a site in unincorporated DuPage County on March 20, 2007. He had been shot twice in the head and wrapped in a roll of carpet. The site where CRUZ' body was discovered was just yards away from an area where two other bodies were found in 1988, in what became known as the "Mob Burial Ground".
CRUZ was released from prison in Arizona in 1995. He had a lengthy criminal record and was a known associate of members of the Chicago LCN and other criminal elements. It is possible that this association led to his death, although no claims of responsibility have ever been received by law enforcement.
Anyone having any information about CRUZ' murder is asked to call the Chicago FBI at (312) 421-6700
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