Josepth Quartieri, Fugitive Who Attends Mobster Funerals, Leads to AMW Tips that Take US Marshals on Strange Ride

Joseph Quartieri: It looked as if AMW tips had heated up the cold case of a mobster accused of almost killing a cop in a botched robbery in 1979. But when the leads started to unfold, U.S. Marshals were in for a strange twist.

Esnel Jean: North Miami detectives will never forget the gruesome sight of a woman and two children killed and buried in a homemade crypt. They say the man behind the horrific murders is Esnel Jean, a Haitian voodoo priest. Jean remains the focus of an international manhunt and they need your help to help capture him.

Bradley and Luann Chase: Bradley Chase is back in Indiana after eight years on the run. Chase and his wife Luann were captured in October after appearing on Fifteen Seconds of Shame. It only took AMW viewers 12 hours to capture the duo after they got the publicity they never wanted.

Yaser Said: They say he killed his daughters. In a crime that shocked the nation, two young women were found shot to death in the back of a taxi, and their father is one of the nation's most-wanted men.

Lance Atkins: On Sept. 10, 2008, while attending a birthday party, cops say Lance Atkins got into a heated argument with his sister's boyfriend, Corey Bowman. Cops say Lance got angry, pulled a gun and shot Corey before fleeing the scene.

Anthony Thomas: The U.S. Marshals are hunting a man who they say has a terrible obsession: child pornography. Cops say Anthony Thomas, of Lafayette, La., looked at child pornography websites on his work computer, and a grand jury handed down an indictment against him, but now he's nowhere to be found.

Ricardo Rivera-Torres: Police are looking for Ricardo Juan Rivera-Torres, who they say killed a man in a botched Harrisburg, Pa. robbery. Police say they've rounded up Rivera-Torres' co-conspirators, and now they need your help to take down the last man standing.

Ronald Jackson: Cops in Henrico County, Va. say a brazen daytime break-in left one man seriously injured and another man on the run from law enforcement. Cops say Ronald Jackson is wanted for breaking into a neighbor's home and stabbing his victim seven times with a screwdriver.

Unknown Tim Edwards Killer: After just one visit to Montana Del Oso Ranch in New Mexico, Tim Edwards knew he had found a place to retire. Captivated by the scenery and sunsets, Tim and his wife Lynn moved to the ranch from Arizona, but the land was hiding a deadly secret.

Ramon Gaspar: Police say a 29-year-old woman was resting at a Los Angeles hospital after a surgery when a male nursing assistant, Ramon Eduardo Gaspar, entered her room and molested her.

Unknown Silver Nugget Shooter: On June 25, 2006, someone opened fire inside the Silver Nugget Casino in North Las Vegas, Nev. Cops need you to look at the surveillance video, and they need your tips to bring the shooter to justice.

Adji Desir: Adji Desir, a 6-year-old developmentally disabled Florida boy, has been missing since Saturday, Jan. 11, 2009. Police need your help to bring him home to his family.

Unknown “Cheerleader Letters” Author: Dozens of mysterious letters containing a powdery substance are popping up all over the country and federal agents, including the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspector, are on the manhunt for the sender -- who has been deemed a domestic terrorist.

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John Connolly, Former FBI Agent, Gets 40 Years in Prison for Role in Mob Hit

A judge sentenced a rogue FBI agent to 40 years in prison on Thursday for the 1982 mob-related killing of a witness who was about to testify against Boston mob members, court officials said.

Disgraced ex-FBI agent John Connolly Jr. "crossed over to the dark side," said Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Stanford Blake. The sentence will run consecutively to a 10-year racketeering sentence.

Connolly, 68, was convicted in November of second-degree murder in the death of businessman John Callahan, an executive with World Jai-Alai. Callahan's bullet-riddled body was found in the trunk of a Cadillac parked at Miami International Airport.

Connolly's fall from celebrated mob-buster to paid gangland flunky captivated a South Florida courtroom for weeks. In testimony at his sentencing hearing last month, he denied having any role in Callahan's death.

"It's heartbreaking to hear what happened to your father and to your husband," he told members of Callahan's family. "My heart is broken when I hear what you say."

He explained, in the face of vigorous cross-examination, that rubbing elbows with killers and gangsters and winning their confidence was part of his job. His attorney argued that Connolly did what the FBI wanted him to do, and now was being held responsible.

Connolly did not testify at his trial.

Prosecutors had asked that Connolly be given a life sentence, saying the 30-year minimum was not enough because Connolly abused his badge.

In a Boston Globe interview published last month, however, Connolly vigorously denied being a corrupt agent. "I did not commit these crimes I was charged with," Connolly told the newspaper. "I never sold my badge. I never took anybody's money. I never caused anybody to be hurt, at least not knowingly, and I never would."

During his two-month trial, jurors heard that Connolly told his mob connections that Callahan, 45, was a potential witness against them, setting him up for the gangland-style slaying.

According to testimony, Connolly was absorbed by the very gangsters he was supposed to be targeting -- members of South Boston's notorious Winter Hill gang. His story was said to be the inspiration for the character played by Matt Damon in the 2006 Martin Scorsese movie, "The Departed."

Connolly's tale was closely followed in New England, where he grew up in Boston's "Southie" neighborhood, the same area long dominated by the Winter Hill gang and its notorious leader, James "Whitey" Bulger. Sought in 19 slayings, Bulger is the FBI's second most-wanted fugitive.

During the first two decades of his FBI career, Connolly won kudos in the bureau's Boston office, cultivating informants against New England mobsters. Prosecutors said Connolly was corrupted by his two highest-ranking snitches: Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi.

Connolly retired from the FBI in 1990 and later was indicted on federal racketeering and other charges stemming from his long relationship with Bulger and Flemmi. He was convicted of racketeering in 2002 and was serving a 10-year federal prison sentence when he was indicted in 2005 in the Callahan slaying.

During testimony, jurors heard that Connolly was on the mob payroll, collecting $235,000 from Bulger and Flemmi while shielding his mob pals from prosecution and leaking the identities of informants.

The prosecution's star witnesses at the Miami trial were Flemmi, who is now in prison, and mob hit man John Martorano, who has admitted to 20 murders, served 12 years in prison and is now free.

Callahan, who often socialized with gangsters, had asked the gang to execute Oklahoma businessman Roger Wheeler over a business dispute, according to testimony. Martorano killed Wheeler in 1981 on a golf course, shooting him once between the eyes, prosecutors said.

After Connolly told Bulger and Flemmi that Callahan was going to implicate them in the slaying, Martorano was sent to do away with Callahan, prosecutors said. But one star witness did not testify -- the former FBI agent who inspired the 1997 film "Donnie Brasco." He refused to take the stand after the judge denied his request to testify anonymously.

Thanks to Rich Phillips

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Junior Gotti Witness, John Alite, Targeted in Planned Hit

Mobsters ordered the murder of a witness against John A. (Junior) Gotti days after he was indicted for three gangland slayings, prosecutors revealed Friday.

The contract on Gotti childhood pal John Alite circulated through a Florida prison in a handwritten note last summer, Manhattan Assistant U.S. Attorney Elie Honig said in court papers.

Honig said the feds have no evidence linking Gotti, 44, to the plot, but they raised it in asking a judge to reject Gotti's efforts to be freed on bail awaiting trial.

"The government mentions the contract here simply to show the Gambino crime family has many loyal followers and supporters who are willing to use extreme measures to protect Gotti and others from prosecution," Honig wrote. "Throughout his life in the Mafia, a simple word from Gotti has been enough to order the commission of crimes, including violent attacks and murder. The same is true now."

Gotti's lawyer, Charles Carnesi, had a different view: "It was put in [the bail motion] to be inflammatory," he said. "Even they acknowledge he had nothing to do with it."

In September, Florida prosecutors said they had uncovered a jailhouse plot by the Latin Kings to kill an unidentified witness. That witness appears to be Alite.

The note written on a rag was addressed to the "Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation" and added, "the [terminate on sight] is in lockdown now. How iz u gunna get to him now?! We know hes locked up in Pine County. Pep in da street is payin good to get the job done. So finish that [terminate on sight] ASAP."

In a 2003 jailhouse chat intercepted by the feds, Gotti said he had become so tired of mob life that he wished he was a member of the notorious Hispanic street gang. "I'm ashamed of who I am," Gotti said. "I'd rather be a Latin King."

Prosecutors confirmed that Alite, who ran Gambino crime family operations in Tampa, will be taking the stand against his old pal. He pleaded guilty to two mob slayings and has been cooperating since February 2007.

Gotti is expected in New York next week following a Florida judge's order transferring the case to Manhattan Federal Court. He's being held in an Atlanta federal lockup.

Gotti is scheduled to appear in Manhattan Federal Court on Thursday.

Thanks to Thomas Zambito

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"Tony Roach" Petitions to Exterminate the Rest of His Prison Sentence

The Roach just won't go away.

Anthony (Tony Roach) Rampino, a notorious hit man for late Gambino crime boss John Gotti, is getting a second shot at beating his 25-to-life sentence for heroin trafficking.

The reputed killer will appear in Manhattan Supreme Court on Jan. 29 for resentencing after a state appeals court overruled a judge who had rejected his bid for a reduced sentence.

Having served 10 years, Rampino conceivably could walk out a free man if Justice Arlene Goldberg gives him time served. Law enforcement officials say that would be a travesty of justice.

The Roach was more exterminator than pest for the Gambino crime family back in the day. Rampino was a backup shooter in the 1985 assassination of then-Gambino boss Paul Castellano outside Sparks Steakhouse in midtown, cops say.

He's also been fingered as a member of the hit team that murdered Gotti's neighbor John Favara in 1980 after Favara killed Gotti's young son in a traffic accident.

"He's a hard-core associate of organized crime," said Mark Feldman, a former federal prosecutor who supervised the 1987 narcotics case against Rampino for the Brooklyn district attorney's office. "He's as Mafia as a guy gets without being a made member,'" said Feldman, a managing director for BDO Consulting.

Rampino lived above Gotti's Bergin Hunt & Fish Club in Ozone Park. He was never inducted into the Mafia because of his heavy drug use. He reportedly earned the nickname 'The Roach' because he smoked every bit of a marijuana joint.

Federal prosecutors did not charge him with the Castellano or Favara murders because he was serving a life sentence for selling a kilo of cocaine to an undercover cop.

Although Rampino never appealed his conviction, he filed a petition seeking a reduced sentence in 2004 after state lawmakers overturned severe drug terms known as the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said the revised penalties are not intended for thugs like Rampino. "Rampino's sentence reflected who he was and the violence he was involved in," Brennan said.

Even behind bars Rampino has been incorrigible, losing more than 500 days of "good time" for misbehavior.

Thanks to John Marzulli

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Oscar Goodman Supports the Federal Stimulus Package Funding Mob Museum

After taking a hail of bipartisan bullets in recent days over the suggestion that a federal stimulus package should help pay for a proposed $50 million museum here on the history of organized crime, the project’s godfathers are returning fire, complaining that Washington pols are scapegoating the museum and the city.

The planned Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, a k a “the Mob Museum” on its own Web site, is to include interactive exhibits where visitors can snap their mug shots, stand in police lineups and wiretap one another. Such a center, Mayor Oscar B. Goodman said in an interview Thursday, is “absolutely falling within the four corners of what President-elect Obama is trying to achieve.”

“This is a project where all the plans are in place and we can start it within 30 days,” said Mr. Goodman, a former criminal defense lawyer who represented several Mafia figures in the 1970s and 1980s.

Citing studies showing that 250,000 tourists a year would visit the attraction and noting that tourism is to Las Vegas what car sales are (or were) to Detroit, the mayor continued: “I don’t know why Mitch McConnell would take on this project. It’s a great project.”

Senator Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican and the minority leader, attacked the museum this week as a kind of localized earmark project that does not belong in legislation Congress passes to jumpstart the flailing economy.

Jon Summers, a spokesman for Senator Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat and the majority leader, said Mr. McConnell’s statements were “moot because Senator Reid has been clear that there will be no earmarks” in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, as President-elect Barack Obama calls it. Instead, Mr. Summers said, the money is likely to go to federal agencies for disbursement based on criteria not yet decided.

Slated to open in 2010, the museum would occupy the entire 42,000 square feet of a three-story neoclassical building that was the first federal courthouse in Clark County and one of the sites of the 1950 hearings into organized crime led by Senator Estes Kefauver, Democrat of Tennessee.

The creative director of the planned museum, Dennis Barrie, who also curated the International Spy Museum in Washington and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, said the structure was the second-oldest in Las Vegas and needed a $26 million restoration.

So far, $15 million has been raised, including about $3.6 million in federal grants and a nearly equal amount in state and local money, since 2001. A full-throttle fund-raising effort is to begin later this year. The federal government deeded the building to the city for $1 in 2000 with the stipulation that it be put to a cultural use. Restoration has begun.

“I’m sure it’s good fodder for politicians,” Mr. Barrie said, “but the interesting thing about the mob museum is that it’s a real look at the history of organized crime in America that goes back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the mob came out of the various ghettos and how it influenced America. A lot of people, what they know about the topic is what they learned from Hollywood.”

That said, Tony Soprano and Michael Corleone would get their due in a room about the Mafia’s influence on popular culture, and visitors would be exposed to unvarnished tales of the exploits of law-enforcement and mob figures, said Ellen Knowlton, a retired special agent in charge for the Federal Bureau of Investigation who is the museum’s chairwoman.

“We’re trying to make sure this project is as accurate as possible,” Ms. Knowlton said, “so there are people involved who have had organized crime in their life or family. I don’t want to go beyond that to say who is participating. But it’s interesting that a number of people want their family’s side of the story told accurately.”

Even within Las Vegas, though, the project is controversial. The mayor acknowledged that some Italian-Americans were so alarmed when he first hit upon the idea in 2002 that he backed off quickly, joking that he had actually proposed a “mop museum.”

The F.B.I. supports the museum and has agreed to lend records and other artifacts to be exhibited. But among those opposed is a former federal prosecutor, Donald Campbell, who had a hand in breaking the mob’s hold on Las Vegas in the 1980s. “I don’t think we should ever romanticize a criminal activity,” Mr. Campbell said.

A spokesman for Senator McConnell, Don Stewart, said the senator was not attacking the idea of the museum so much as Mayor Goodman’s inclusion of it on the list of projects he would jumpstart with stimulus money. “The parameters for this bill need to be, does it create jobs, is it a waste of the taxpayers’ dollars, is it something that will help us long-term, not just a temporary thing, ” Mr. Stewart said.

Supporters say the museum will do just what the bill intends.

“This project exactly meets the criteria," said Alan Feldman, a museum board member and senior vice president of the casino giant MGM Mirage, the state’s largest private employer. “It is a construction project. It’s a legacy project; it’s a project that stimulates the economy by putting a wonderful tourist attraction downtown.”

Either way, Mr. Goodman is clearly enjoying the national attention the museum financing plan has prompted. “This is $1 million worth of publicity for us,” he said. “I love it. Just spell my name right.”

Thanks to Steve Friess

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