A Gambino mobster copped a plea that could get him 10 years in jail because otherwise prosecutors wouldn't cut deals with his buddies, his lawyer said Thursday.
"He's a standup guy," lawyer Gerald McMahon said of client Onofrio (Noel) Modica.
Modica, 48, pleaded to accessory to murder, gambling and attempted jury tampering in the 1992 trial of the late John Gotti.
His lawyer said he wanted to go to trial, but the government forced his hand by refusing to offer deals to a half-dozen other Gambino soldiers.
"The government made us an offer he couldn't refuse," McMahon said.
Modica was one of 14 mobsters busted in a gambling ring in April and charged with extortion, jury tampering and murder.
Plea deals with everyone - except Gambino boss Daniel Marino, who pleaded guilty last month - hinged on Modica taking a deal, McMahon said.
He admitted he agreed to hunt down the addresses of anonymous jurors for Gotti's 1992 trial. Gotti ended up calling off the juryfixing plan.
Thanks to Scott Shifrel
Monday, January 10, 2011
Once Upon a Time in America on Blu-Ray
Drama about the rise and fall of Jewish-American gangsters in New York at the beginning of the century through the 1960s.
Friday, January 07, 2011
Book Claims That Lucky Luciano, the Inspiration for The Godfather's Don Corleone, Was a Fake Gangster
The gangster who inspired 1970s blockbuster The Godfather was a "fake", a historian has claimed.
Experts believed Charles "Lucky" Luciano was the father of organised crime and hailed him as the model for legendary mafia boss Don Corleone
, played by Marlon Brando in the Francis Ford Coppola movie based on the Mario Puzo book.
Luciano was widely credited for running New York's notorious underworld, and was linked to extortion rackets, punishment attacks and gangland murders. But according to new research, his reputation was largely fabricated by the US government to justify the expense of tracking him down.
The revelations emerge in a new book, Lucky Luciano: Mafia Murderer and Secret Agent - 74 years after his imprisonment, and 48 years after his death. US author Tim Newark said the claims will shock other biographers who had painted Lucky as the archetypal gangster.
Mr Newark said: "The myth of Lucky Luciano is incredible. For decades, he has been portrayed as the father of modern organised crime, no less. "But after delving into the archives, I realised the real Lucky was in some respects, a fake."
Luciano was born in Sicily, in 1897 but moved to New York at the age of ten to dabble in crime. But Mr Newark said: "The sad truth is Lucky was a has-been without the money or power to pull off what he was said to. Even if he had, the Mafia wouldn't have worked with him because of his very public reputation."
Thanks to Raanan Geberer
Experts believed Charles "Lucky" Luciano was the father of organised crime and hailed him as the model for legendary mafia boss Don Corleone
, played by Marlon Brando in the Francis Ford Coppola movie based on the Mario Puzo book.Luciano was widely credited for running New York's notorious underworld, and was linked to extortion rackets, punishment attacks and gangland murders. But according to new research, his reputation was largely fabricated by the US government to justify the expense of tracking him down.
The revelations emerge in a new book, Lucky Luciano: Mafia Murderer and Secret Agent
- 74 years after his imprisonment, and 48 years after his death. US author Tim Newark said the claims will shock other biographers who had painted Lucky as the archetypal gangster.Mr Newark said: "The myth of Lucky Luciano is incredible. For decades, he has been portrayed as the father of modern organised crime, no less. "But after delving into the archives, I realised the real Lucky was in some respects, a fake."
Luciano was born in Sicily, in 1897 but moved to New York at the age of ten to dabble in crime. But Mr Newark said: "The sad truth is Lucky was a has-been without the money or power to pull off what he was said to. Even if he had, the Mafia wouldn't have worked with him because of his very public reputation."
Thanks to Raanan Geberer
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Photo of Lucchese Crime Family Tree
Lucchese Crime Family
Alleged Leaders, Members and Associates
(Click on Photo for Enlarged View)
Monday, January 03, 2011
George Barone, Mafia Hit Man Reputed to Have Killed Over 20, Dead
One of the Mafia’s most feared hit men has died at the age of 86.
George Barone is suspected of personally murdering at least 20 people during his reign of terror on New York’s mob-run waterfront. But he eventually turned ‘rat’ to put many of his old organised crime colleagues behind bars.
The gangster became an informer after his own Genovese family put a price on his head. He was one of only three members of the ultra-secretive family ever to break ‘omerta’, the mob’s traditional code of silence.
It emerged today that Barone died of natural causes on Tuesday while in witness protection. The former Second World War hero, who served with the Marines on Iwo Jima, returned to become a founder member of the Jets - the street gang later immortalised in the musical West Side Story. But in real life Barone was more about killing than choreography.
When he was quizzed over how many people he had ‘whacked’, Barone famously told prosecutors: ‘I didn’t keep a scorecard. A lot. Many.'
Infamously gruff but co-operative at the same time, Barone last year said: 'I’m 85. I don’t remember the specifics. I was in a war [referring to the Second World War]... I killed a lot of people. 'And I was in a war on the West Side of New York. A lot of people were killed on both sides.'
He worked as an enforcer for the Genoveses and was said to have been a broker when the family split New York’s docks down the middle with the rival Gambinos.
The Gambinos received Staten Island and Brooklyn; the Genoveses got New Jersey and Manhattan, he later testified.
Barone helped bring untold millions into the Genovese coffers. He even landed the son of boss Vincent 'The Chin' Gigante a lucrative industry job
.
He was a man of terrifying brutality but also a man of honour - serving a seven-year jail term in the 1980s without spilling any details of the Mafia operations. But he decided to flip in 2001 after Mob boss and one-time friend Gigante put a contract on his head. ‘I went bad,’ he said.
Barone earned a grudging respect from his federal handlers. FBI spokesman James Margolin told the New York Daily News: ‘George Barone’s criminal conduct cannot be ignored, but neither can the immense value of his expert insight and testimony.'
Barone said he was edged out of the Mob by a new generation of gangsters who tried to strip him of his union control and then plotted to kill him
.
He said: 'They’ve been trying to kill me for years now. They haven’t made it yet and they’re not going to.' And he was right.
Thanks to David Gardner
George Barone is suspected of personally murdering at least 20 people during his reign of terror on New York’s mob-run waterfront. But he eventually turned ‘rat’ to put many of his old organised crime colleagues behind bars.
The gangster became an informer after his own Genovese family put a price on his head. He was one of only three members of the ultra-secretive family ever to break ‘omerta’, the mob’s traditional code of silence.
It emerged today that Barone died of natural causes on Tuesday while in witness protection. The former Second World War hero, who served with the Marines on Iwo Jima, returned to become a founder member of the Jets - the street gang later immortalised in the musical West Side Story. But in real life Barone was more about killing than choreography.
When he was quizzed over how many people he had ‘whacked’, Barone famously told prosecutors: ‘I didn’t keep a scorecard. A lot. Many.'
Infamously gruff but co-operative at the same time, Barone last year said: 'I’m 85. I don’t remember the specifics. I was in a war [referring to the Second World War]... I killed a lot of people. 'And I was in a war on the West Side of New York. A lot of people were killed on both sides.'
He worked as an enforcer for the Genoveses and was said to have been a broker when the family split New York’s docks down the middle with the rival Gambinos.
The Gambinos received Staten Island and Brooklyn; the Genoveses got New Jersey and Manhattan, he later testified.
Barone helped bring untold millions into the Genovese coffers. He even landed the son of boss Vincent 'The Chin' Gigante a lucrative industry job
.
He was a man of terrifying brutality but also a man of honour - serving a seven-year jail term in the 1980s without spilling any details of the Mafia operations. But he decided to flip in 2001 after Mob boss and one-time friend Gigante put a contract on his head. ‘I went bad,’ he said.
Barone earned a grudging respect from his federal handlers. FBI spokesman James Margolin told the New York Daily News: ‘George Barone’s criminal conduct cannot be ignored, but neither can the immense value of his expert insight and testimony.'
Barone said he was edged out of the Mob by a new generation of gangsters who tried to strip him of his union control and then plotted to kill him
.
He said: 'They’ve been trying to kill me for years now. They haven’t made it yet and they’re not going to.' And he was right.
Thanks to David Gardner
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
