America's Most Wanted: Usama bin Laden
The reward for information that will lead to Usama bin Laden has risen to $50 million. After more than a decade of directing terror around the globe, the search for bin Laden continues. He's the world's most-wanted man, and authorities say there's nothing that they won't do to find him. Let's catch this son-of-bitch and bring him to justice!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
FBI's Chicago Field Office to Celebrate 100th Anniversary of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Saturday, July 26th, will mark the 100th anniversary of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). 
Established in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) with just 34 Special Agents, it was officially renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935. Since then, the FBI has grown to over 30,000 employees, including more than 12,000 Special Agents and nearly 18,000 professional support employees in 56 field offices and 70 legal attache' offices worldwide.
The Chicago Office, along with New York City, is one of the two oldest in the FBI, having opened shortly after the establishment of the BOI. Today, the Chicago office is the fourth largest with over 800 employees occupying a new stand-alone building in the Illinois Medical District and satellite offices in Lisle, Orland Park, Rockford, Rolling Meadows, and at both O’Hare and Midway airports.
Given the notable record of accomplishments and the storied past associated with the Chicago office, this milestone will be recognized on Friday, July 25th, with an anniversary celebration at Navy Pier. The event will be held on the Lakeview Rooftop Terrace and will feature remarks by FBI Executive Director Stephen Tidwell; U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald; David Grange, President of the McCormick Foundation; Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Documentary Host and Producer Bill Kurtis. WLS Radio talk show host Roe Conn will serve as Master of Ceremonies, with live entertainment provided by the Ides of March, often referred to as “ Chicago’s Band”.
The event will be open to local media outlets. Doors open at 5:00 PM and the official ceremony and remarks are scheduled to begin at 6:45 PM. The Lakeview Rooftop Terrace is located on the third level of Navy Pier adjacent to the Grand Ballroom. Entrance to the venue can be gained through the “Lobby 3 – Festival Hall” entrance. Proper media accreditation will be required.
Established in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) with just 34 Special Agents, it was officially renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935. Since then, the FBI has grown to over 30,000 employees, including more than 12,000 Special Agents and nearly 18,000 professional support employees in 56 field offices and 70 legal attache' offices worldwide.The Chicago Office, along with New York City, is one of the two oldest in the FBI, having opened shortly after the establishment of the BOI. Today, the Chicago office is the fourth largest with over 800 employees occupying a new stand-alone building in the Illinois Medical District and satellite offices in Lisle, Orland Park, Rockford, Rolling Meadows, and at both O’Hare and Midway airports.
Given the notable record of accomplishments and the storied past associated with the Chicago office, this milestone will be recognized on Friday, July 25th, with an anniversary celebration at Navy Pier. The event will be held on the Lakeview Rooftop Terrace and will feature remarks by FBI Executive Director Stephen Tidwell; U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald; David Grange, President of the McCormick Foundation; Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Documentary Host and Producer Bill Kurtis. WLS Radio talk show host Roe Conn will serve as Master of Ceremonies, with live entertainment provided by the Ides of March, often referred to as “ Chicago’s Band”.
The event will be open to local media outlets. Doors open at 5:00 PM and the official ceremony and remarks are scheduled to begin at 6:45 PM. The Lakeview Rooftop Terrace is located on the third level of Navy Pier adjacent to the Grand Ballroom. Entrance to the venue can be gained through the “Lobby 3 – Festival Hall” entrance. Proper media accreditation will be required.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Did Mobster Gregory Scarpa Beat and Threaten a Witness for the FBI to win a KKK Murder Conviction?
Edgar Ray Killen, 84, was convicted in 2005 of ordering the Klan killings of the trio 41 years earlier, a crime that was dramatised in the film Mississippi Burning.
His lawyers have appealed against his life sentence for triple manslaughter
, citing new evidence that the FBI used Gregory Scarpa - known as The Grim Reaper - to put pressure on Klan members to reveal where the bodies had been hidden.
The lawyers also say that his conviction was tainted by the fact that a defence lawyer in a previous trial over the killings in 1967 was an FBI informant who had been providing prosecutors with information about the defence case. The court transcript from 1967 - in which Killen was acquitted on civil rights charges - was allowed to be used in the later trial because many of the witnesses had since died.
Rob Ratliff, Killen's lawyer, said the evidence included crucial information from a Klan member who revealed where the bodies had been buried. It was now clear that the informant had been kidnapped by Scarpa and an FBI helper, and subjected to "typical Mafia-type behaviour", he said. The "behaviour" may have included a severe beating but certainly included death threats to his family and having a gun barrel inserted into his mouth, he added.
Killen's lawyers argue that his rights to a full and fair trial, and the right to confront witnesses against him, have been violated.
If the 1967 trial had known that the location of the bodies had been discovered unlawfully, it would not have been allowed as evidence, said Mr Ratliff.
The FBI has always declined to comment on whether Scarpa was involved in the case. Scarpa was a senior member of the Colombo crime family and an FBI informant for three decades.
Killen's lawyers officially requested on Thursday that the FBI hand over its files relating to Scarpa and to the defence lawyer, who was named as Clayton Lewis. Lewis, the former mayor of Philadelphia, is also now dead. "If it's OK to torture witnesses to get a conviction against Killen, then it's OK to torture witnesses to get a conviction against anybody," said Mr Ratliff.
Scarpa's involvement in the investigation had long been rumoured but was confirmed last year by a New York judge who had seen his FBI file while trying an unrelated murder case involving the mobster's former FBI handler.
The judge said: "That a thug like Scarpa would be employed by the federal government to beat witnesses and threaten them at gunpoint to obtain information regarding the deaths of civil rights workers in the south in the early 1960s is a shocking demonstration of the government's unacceptable willingness to employ criminality to fight crime."
Linda Schiro, Scarpa's former girlfriend, said a few months ago that she had accompanied him to Mississippi in 1964. She said she believed he had been brought in because J Edgar Hoover, the FBI chief, was under heavy pressure to get results in the case.
She told ABC's Eyewitness News: "When we we walked into the hotel, I saw a bunch of guys and I saw Greg wink, and he says, 'Those are FBI agents'."
"We went up to the room, knock on the door, an agent came in and handed him a gun."
Mississippi Burning alluded to the FBI's use of nefarious tactics, introducing a black FBI agent who is brought in to rough up witnesses when conventional methods fail.
Thanks to Tom Leonard
His lawyers have appealed against his life sentence for triple manslaughter
, citing new evidence that the FBI used Gregory Scarpa - known as The Grim Reaper - to put pressure on Klan members to reveal where the bodies had been hidden.The lawyers also say that his conviction was tainted by the fact that a defence lawyer in a previous trial over the killings in 1967 was an FBI informant who had been providing prosecutors with information about the defence case. The court transcript from 1967 - in which Killen was acquitted on civil rights charges - was allowed to be used in the later trial because many of the witnesses had since died.
Rob Ratliff, Killen's lawyer, said the evidence included crucial information from a Klan member who revealed where the bodies had been buried. It was now clear that the informant had been kidnapped by Scarpa and an FBI helper, and subjected to "typical Mafia-type behaviour", he said. The "behaviour" may have included a severe beating but certainly included death threats to his family and having a gun barrel inserted into his mouth, he added.
Killen's lawyers argue that his rights to a full and fair trial, and the right to confront witnesses against him, have been violated.
If the 1967 trial had known that the location of the bodies had been discovered unlawfully, it would not have been allowed as evidence, said Mr Ratliff.
The FBI has always declined to comment on whether Scarpa was involved in the case. Scarpa was a senior member of the Colombo crime family and an FBI informant for three decades.
Killen's lawyers officially requested on Thursday that the FBI hand over its files relating to Scarpa and to the defence lawyer, who was named as Clayton Lewis. Lewis, the former mayor of Philadelphia, is also now dead. "If it's OK to torture witnesses to get a conviction against Killen, then it's OK to torture witnesses to get a conviction against anybody," said Mr Ratliff.
Scarpa's involvement in the investigation had long been rumoured but was confirmed last year by a New York judge who had seen his FBI file while trying an unrelated murder case involving the mobster's former FBI handler.
The judge said: "That a thug like Scarpa would be employed by the federal government to beat witnesses and threaten them at gunpoint to obtain information regarding the deaths of civil rights workers in the south in the early 1960s is a shocking demonstration of the government's unacceptable willingness to employ criminality to fight crime."
Linda Schiro, Scarpa's former girlfriend, said a few months ago that she had accompanied him to Mississippi in 1964. She said she believed he had been brought in because J Edgar Hoover, the FBI chief, was under heavy pressure to get results in the case.
She told ABC's Eyewitness News: "When we we walked into the hotel, I saw a bunch of guys and I saw Greg wink, and he says, 'Those are FBI agents'."
"We went up to the room, knock on the door, an agent came in and handed him a gun."
Mississippi Burning alluded to the FBI's use of nefarious tactics, introducing a black FBI agent who is brought in to rough up witnesses when conventional methods fail.
Thanks to Tom Leonard
Growing Up as A Gambino
When it comes to the Mafia, there are five infamous surnames: Lucchese, Colombo, Genovese, Bonanno and the best known—my own—Gambino. And that name inevitably provokes two words that I've heard more times than I can count, so I might as well just spare you the breath: Any relation?
Truth is, I don't entirely know. Some details lend themselves to speculation. My father was born in Ozone Park, Queens, which was the stamping ground of John J. Gotti, who seized control of the Gambino Family in the 1980s. And when my dad and the rest of the family (that's "family," not "Family") moved to Long Island in 1960, it was James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke, the true-life Robert De Niro character in GoodFellas, who bought our house. Then too, my uncle goes by the name "Choppy" and is in the construction business. But despite the circumstantial evidence, this branch of the family tree is clean. (Choppy is "Choppy" because his sister couldn't pronounce Charles, his given name, when she was young.) If we're related to the crime family, it's distant.
Blood relative or not, Gambino is a hefty weight to carry. I'm actually a mutt when it comes to ethnic background—more Irish than Italian—but the Italian in me trumps all. As a toddler, I had a T-shirt blazoned with "Bambino Gambino."
I wasn't aware that my last name connected me with a surly underworld until I was old enough for people to ask me about it. In high school, my history teacher warned boys they might find themselves wearing concrete shoes at the bottom of a lake if they messed with me. But I took everything in stride. In fact, I soon learned the name has its benefits.
A couple of years ago, I drove from Vermont to Boston with a few friends from college. While navigating my way through the Big Dig, I mistakenly drove down a street restricted to government vehicles and got pulled over. The officer took my driver's license, stepped away from the car to write up the ticket—then hastily returned. He said he didn't want any trouble; I could barely suppress a smile, as my slack-jawed friends looked on. My boyfriend, who happened to be in the car that day, hadn't met any I-talians before me. But now even he gets comments by association. When Gambinos made headlines this past February with the largest Mafia takedown in memory, his Swedish-American godfather asked him just what he had gotten himself into.
The power of the name grows stronger the closer I get to the Big Apple. (I've found the speed with which I can get a pizza delivered to be a good gauge of its clout.) Not long ago, my family made a reservation at Gallagher's Steak House in Midtown Manhattan. When we got there, the entryway was lined with the entire kitchen and wait staff; as we walked the gantlet to our table (far from any windows), I heard one waiter ask another, "Which one is Mr. Gambino?" But regardless of where I am, whenever a hostess, bouncer, retail worker, librarian or whoever else asks about my family ties, I tend to say "Nah" with a half-smile, to leave some room for doubt. And if any readers have any smart ideas about sending me less-than-complimentary letters about this piece, you might want to reconsider. Hey, you never know.
Thanks to Megan Gambino of the Smithsonian Magazine
Truth is, I don't entirely know. Some details lend themselves to speculation. My father was born in Ozone Park, Queens, which was the stamping ground of John J. Gotti, who seized control of the Gambino Family in the 1980s. And when my dad and the rest of the family (that's "family," not "Family") moved to Long Island in 1960, it was James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke, the true-life Robert De Niro character in GoodFellas, who bought our house. Then too, my uncle goes by the name "Choppy" and is in the construction business. But despite the circumstantial evidence, this branch of the family tree is clean. (Choppy is "Choppy" because his sister couldn't pronounce Charles, his given name, when she was young.) If we're related to the crime family, it's distant.
Blood relative or not, Gambino is a hefty weight to carry. I'm actually a mutt when it comes to ethnic background—more Irish than Italian—but the Italian in me trumps all. As a toddler, I had a T-shirt blazoned with "Bambino Gambino."
I wasn't aware that my last name connected me with a surly underworld until I was old enough for people to ask me about it. In high school, my history teacher warned boys they might find themselves wearing concrete shoes at the bottom of a lake if they messed with me. But I took everything in stride. In fact, I soon learned the name has its benefits.
A couple of years ago, I drove from Vermont to Boston with a few friends from college. While navigating my way through the Big Dig, I mistakenly drove down a street restricted to government vehicles and got pulled over. The officer took my driver's license, stepped away from the car to write up the ticket—then hastily returned. He said he didn't want any trouble; I could barely suppress a smile, as my slack-jawed friends looked on. My boyfriend, who happened to be in the car that day, hadn't met any I-talians before me. But now even he gets comments by association. When Gambinos made headlines this past February with the largest Mafia takedown in memory, his Swedish-American godfather asked him just what he had gotten himself into.
The power of the name grows stronger the closer I get to the Big Apple. (I've found the speed with which I can get a pizza delivered to be a good gauge of its clout.) Not long ago, my family made a reservation at Gallagher's Steak House in Midtown Manhattan. When we got there, the entryway was lined with the entire kitchen and wait staff; as we walked the gantlet to our table (far from any windows), I heard one waiter ask another, "Which one is Mr. Gambino?" But regardless of where I am, whenever a hostess, bouncer, retail worker, librarian or whoever else asks about my family ties, I tend to say "Nah" with a half-smile, to leave some room for doubt. And if any readers have any smart ideas about sending me less-than-complimentary letters about this piece, you might want to reconsider. Hey, you never know.
Thanks to Megan Gambino of the Smithsonian Magazine
Mobster's Bones Found at Haunted Mansion?
An FBI search team descended on a famous "haunted" Staten Island mansion, locating possible remains of 2005 mob hit victim and Bonanno associate Robert McKelvey, sources said.
Bonanno capo Gino Galestro is awaiting trial on charges of ordering the hit; mob underling Joseph "Joe Black" Young is accused of carrying out the murder.
It was the second search for the feds at the mansion, once owned by brick baron Balthazar Kreischer.
The feds arrived with a dozen vehicles, including a truck from a septic-tank repair company.
The bone fragments must now be tested to confirm they belonged to McKelvey.
Bonanno capo Gino Galestro is awaiting trial on charges of ordering the hit; mob underling Joseph "Joe Black" Young is accused of carrying out the murder.
It was the second search for the feds at the mansion, once owned by brick baron Balthazar Kreischer.
The feds arrived with a dozen vehicles, including a truck from a septic-tank repair company.
The bone fragments must now be tested to confirm they belonged to McKelvey.
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