Friends of ours: Colombo Crime Family, Gregory Scarpa
Taxpayers are footing part of the mounting legal bills for an ex-FBI agent accused of helping a Brooklyn Mafia boss commit four murders, the Daily News has learned.
The Justice Department is helping fund retired agent Lindley DeVecchio's defense, which has cost more than $450,000 since his indictment last year by the Brooklyn district attorney's office. "It's an expensive litigation," said DeVecchio's lawyer Douglas Grover, who declined to comment further.
A highly informed source confirmed the Justice Department contributions, saying, "It's on an hourly rate. Not a top New York City rate, more like a federal public defenders' rate."
It could not immediately be determined how much the department is paying.
"There is a process in place by which employees or former [FBI] employees who are the subject of civil litigation or criminal charges can apply for coverage of their legal costs. The recommendation is forwarded to the Department of Justice, where a final determination is made," FBI spokesman John Miller said.
In a case that rocked New York law enforcement, DeVecchio, 66, was indicted last year for providing information on informants and mob rivals to Colombo family boss Gregory Scarpa before the murders. DeVecchio, who spent 33 years as an agent, is also charged with receiving payoffs from Scarpa totaling more than $66,000.
Now dead, Scarpa was DeVecchio's top secret informant for more than a decade, beginning in 1982. The murders occurred during the brutal Colombo family wars of the late 1980s and early '90s.
Grover, DeVecchio and numerous agents who worked with him maintain he is innocent of the charges and that the Brooklyn DA's prosecution is baseless and misguided.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Old Days: Mobsters Whacked for Revenge; Now: They Evict
If you can't settle a vendetta with blood, try real estate.
Burton Kaplan, a Mafia informant in the "mob cops" case, was getting back at his one-time ally, Luchese underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, when he sued to evict the capo's son from his Brooklyn home last year, court papers reveal.
"When asked why, after all these years, he was trying to take the premises . . . Kaplan stated that he's getting even for Anthony Casso Sr. ordering a contract on his [Kaplan's] life," lawyers for Anthony Casso Jr. claim in a countersuit to the eviction filed last week.
According to the countersuit, Kaplan sat down with Casso Jr., at a Brooklyn restaurant in late 2006 and admitted that he'd taken the deed to the house as part of a money-laundering scheme with the father.
It seems the Luchese underboss had "sold" the Mill Basin home to Kaplan in 1985, with the expectation that it would be transferred back to the Cassos at an appropriate time.
Kaplan allegedly told Casso Sr.'s late wife that he'd give the house back for $125,000. That demand was upped to $650,000 in 2006, the papers allege.
Thanks to Alex Ginsberg
Burton Kaplan, a Mafia informant in the "mob cops" case, was getting back at his one-time ally, Luchese underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, when he sued to evict the capo's son from his Brooklyn home last year, court papers reveal.
"When asked why, after all these years, he was trying to take the premises . . . Kaplan stated that he's getting even for Anthony Casso Sr. ordering a contract on his [Kaplan's] life," lawyers for Anthony Casso Jr. claim in a countersuit to the eviction filed last week.
According to the countersuit, Kaplan sat down with Casso Jr., at a Brooklyn restaurant in late 2006 and admitted that he'd taken the deed to the house as part of a money-laundering scheme with the father.
It seems the Luchese underboss had "sold" the Mill Basin home to Kaplan in 1985, with the expectation that it would be transferred back to the Cassos at an appropriate time.
Kaplan allegedly told Casso Sr.'s late wife that he'd give the house back for $125,000. That demand was upped to $650,000 in 2006, the papers allege.
Thanks to Alex Ginsberg
Mob Victim's Relatives Upset with "The Departed"
Friends of mine: James "Whitey" Bulger
While Martin Scorsese is feted by Hollywood for his Oscar-winning film "The Departed," relatives of people killed or tortured by the real-life Boston Irish mobster on which the movie is based are not applauding.
Some say they feel exploited by the film that won best picture and best director in last month's Oscars, or that it stirred up painful memories or glossed over crucial facts.
Others simply refuse to see Hollywood's version of the life of fugitive gangster James "Whitey" Bulger.
"The movie gives this hero worship to this creature," said Christopher McIntyre, 47, whose brother was murdered by Bulger's gang in 1984. He said he has not seen the film because it would be "very painful".
"For eight hours, they strapped him in a chair and cut pieces off him. He begged for a bullet in the brain," McIntyre said, adding that he personally still feels threatened by remnants of Bulger's gang and plans to leave Massachusetts.
Indicted for 19 murders, Whitey Bulger has eluded police since Dec. 23. 1994, when the convicted bank robber and government informer with ties to corrupt federal agents vanished and sparked a manhunt with unconfirmed sightings spanning nearly every continent.
He is listed alongside Osama bin Laden as one of America's most-wanted fugitives.
McIntyre's family filed a federal lawsuit in 2001 that alleges FBI agents at the top levels of the Boston office knew of Bulger's crimes but protected him from prosecution because they were informants against the local Italian Mafia.
The FBI has declined to comment on the case, saying its investigation into Bulger is ongoing.
Tim Connors, 32, whose father was gunned down by Bulger's gang in 1975, said he did not like the way Hollywood portrayed Bulger and his notorious Winter Hill gang which generated more than 60 convictions in about 30 cases. "It glorified things way too much," he said. "Everybody is just trying to cash in on that story."
Howie Carr, author of the "The Brothers Bulger
", said that although the movie was set in the insular Irish-American South Boston enclave where Bulger lived, it missed a few salient points in the Bulger story.
He said in real life there were few if any redeeming characters such as the policeman played by Leonardo DiCaprio who infiltrates the gang and forms a close relationship with the larger-than-life mobster played by Jack Nicholson. "There were no good guys in this saga," said Carr.
Carr's book explores how much state and city politicians knew about Bulger's gang, and whether they tolerated its years of bookmaking, drug peddling, extortion and murder while Bulger's brother, William Bulger, was a dominating force in state politics as Senate president.
David Wheeler, whose father was shot and killed by a hitman on Bulger's orders in 1981, criticized the film for glossing over the government's involvement in Bulger's gang. "In my opinion it's a revisionist history that protects the guilty," he said. "I cannot see this movie. It would just be too painful."
In a 21-minute documentary on Bulger included in the DVD version of the film, which was released by Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Pictures, Scorsese puts some distance between the character of Frank Costello played by Nicholson and the real-life Boston gangster.
"In no way do we say that Francis Costello is patterned after Whitey Bulger. But let me put it this way: We felt comfortable in the character and in the situation because we know it to be true," he said.
Thanks to Julie Masis
While Martin Scorsese is feted by Hollywood for his Oscar-winning film "The Departed," relatives of people killed or tortured by the real-life Boston Irish mobster on which the movie is based are not applauding.
Some say they feel exploited by the film that won best picture and best director in last month's Oscars, or that it stirred up painful memories or glossed over crucial facts.
Others simply refuse to see Hollywood's version of the life of fugitive gangster James "Whitey" Bulger.
"The movie gives this hero worship to this creature," said Christopher McIntyre, 47, whose brother was murdered by Bulger's gang in 1984. He said he has not seen the film because it would be "very painful".
"For eight hours, they strapped him in a chair and cut pieces off him. He begged for a bullet in the brain," McIntyre said, adding that he personally still feels threatened by remnants of Bulger's gang and plans to leave Massachusetts.
Indicted for 19 murders, Whitey Bulger has eluded police since Dec. 23. 1994, when the convicted bank robber and government informer with ties to corrupt federal agents vanished and sparked a manhunt with unconfirmed sightings spanning nearly every continent.
He is listed alongside Osama bin Laden as one of America's most-wanted fugitives.
McIntyre's family filed a federal lawsuit in 2001 that alleges FBI agents at the top levels of the Boston office knew of Bulger's crimes but protected him from prosecution because they were informants against the local Italian Mafia.
The FBI has declined to comment on the case, saying its investigation into Bulger is ongoing.
Tim Connors, 32, whose father was gunned down by Bulger's gang in 1975, said he did not like the way Hollywood portrayed Bulger and his notorious Winter Hill gang which generated more than 60 convictions in about 30 cases. "It glorified things way too much," he said. "Everybody is just trying to cash in on that story."
Howie Carr, author of the "The Brothers Bulger
", said that although the movie was set in the insular Irish-American South Boston enclave where Bulger lived, it missed a few salient points in the Bulger story.He said in real life there were few if any redeeming characters such as the policeman played by Leonardo DiCaprio who infiltrates the gang and forms a close relationship with the larger-than-life mobster played by Jack Nicholson. "There were no good guys in this saga," said Carr.
Carr's book explores how much state and city politicians knew about Bulger's gang, and whether they tolerated its years of bookmaking, drug peddling, extortion and murder while Bulger's brother, William Bulger, was a dominating force in state politics as Senate president.
David Wheeler, whose father was shot and killed by a hitman on Bulger's orders in 1981, criticized the film for glossing over the government's involvement in Bulger's gang. "In my opinion it's a revisionist history that protects the guilty," he said. "I cannot see this movie. It would just be too painful."
In a 21-minute documentary on Bulger included in the DVD version of the film, which was released by Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Pictures, Scorsese puts some distance between the character of Frank Costello played by Nicholson and the real-life Boston gangster.
"In no way do we say that Francis Costello is patterned after Whitey Bulger. But let me put it this way: We felt comfortable in the character and in the situation because we know it to be true," he said.
Thanks to Julie Masis
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Origins of the Mafia
For decades, gritty stories about the Mafia have occupied the pages of popular literature and dominated the big screens of Hollywood. And yet, few people know the real story behind how and when this formidable system of organized crime actually began.
This provocative and compelling 5-part drama from Granada International Television journeys back more than 400 years to 16th-century Sicily, where the small Italian island has fallen victim to corruption, intimidation, extortion, and brutality, all at the hands of the ruthless Gramignano family. The program then follows the development of succeeding Sicilian Mafiosos, illustrating the limitless power wielded by these fearsome and powerful men, and revealing the merciless atrocities which were carried out on any and all who dared to stand in their way.
Through dramatic reenactments filmed entirely on-location in Italy, "Origins of the Mafia" provides careful insight into how organized crime came to be known by the powerful images reflected in such popular films as The Godfather trilogy and in the more recent HBO television series The Sopranos.
This provocative and compelling 5-part drama from Granada International Television journeys back more than 400 years to 16th-century Sicily, where the small Italian island has fallen victim to corruption, intimidation, extortion, and brutality, all at the hands of the ruthless Gramignano family. The program then follows the development of succeeding Sicilian Mafiosos, illustrating the limitless power wielded by these fearsome and powerful men, and revealing the merciless atrocities which were carried out on any and all who dared to stand in their way.
Through dramatic reenactments filmed entirely on-location in Italy, "Origins of the Mafia" provides careful insight into how organized crime came to be known by the powerful images reflected in such popular films as The Godfather trilogy and in the more recent HBO television series The Sopranos.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Mob Money Pays for Judge's Wedding
Friends of ours: Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso
Friends of mine: Burton Kaplan
A Manhattan judge's lavish wedding was paid for by Mafia mass murderer Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso as a favor to the mobbed-up father of the bride, according to court papers obtained by the Daily News.
The shocking allegation is the latest embarrassment for acting Supreme Court Justice Deborah Kaplan, whose father, Burton Kaplan, had mob ties and was convicted of drug trafficking.
In a suit filed yesterday in Brooklyn Supreme Court, Anthony Casso Jr., the son of the jailed-for-life Luchese underboss, claims Burton Kaplan recently admitted to him that he borrowed $150,000 from the elder Casso to pay for the wedding.
"She has no knowledge of the allegations contained in the suit," said Bob Liff, a spokesman retained by Deborah Kaplan.
The loan was made around the same time as an alleged sham purchase by Kaplan of Casso's home on E. 72nd St. in Brooklyn as part of a "money laundering deal," the suit filed by attorney Bruce Baron contends.
Casso Jr., who still lives in the house with his wife and infant son, is fighting eviction proceedings started by Kaplan. His attorney Bruce Baron also is seeking a stay of the trial in Brooklyn Housing Court.
Kaplan allegedly fessed up about the wedding loan during a secret sitdown he sought with Casso Jr. at a barbecue restaurant in Brooklyn last October, just one month after Kaplan was sprung on bail as a reward for his testimony against the Mafia cops.
Kaplan, 72, guarded by two federal agents at the meeting, allegedly told Casso Jr. that he "partially repaid" the wedding loan, according to the suit.
Deborah Kaplan was elected to Civil Court in 2002 and promoted to the Supreme Court after her father's mob ties became public.
Thanks to John Marzulli
Friends of mine: Burton Kaplan
A Manhattan judge's lavish wedding was paid for by Mafia mass murderer Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso as a favor to the mobbed-up father of the bride, according to court papers obtained by the Daily News.
The shocking allegation is the latest embarrassment for acting Supreme Court Justice Deborah Kaplan, whose father, Burton Kaplan, had mob ties and was convicted of drug trafficking.
In a suit filed yesterday in Brooklyn Supreme Court, Anthony Casso Jr., the son of the jailed-for-life Luchese underboss, claims Burton Kaplan recently admitted to him that he borrowed $150,000 from the elder Casso to pay for the wedding.
"She has no knowledge of the allegations contained in the suit," said Bob Liff, a spokesman retained by Deborah Kaplan.
The loan was made around the same time as an alleged sham purchase by Kaplan of Casso's home on E. 72nd St. in Brooklyn as part of a "money laundering deal," the suit filed by attorney Bruce Baron contends.
Casso Jr., who still lives in the house with his wife and infant son, is fighting eviction proceedings started by Kaplan. His attorney Bruce Baron also is seeking a stay of the trial in Brooklyn Housing Court.
Kaplan allegedly fessed up about the wedding loan during a secret sitdown he sought with Casso Jr. at a barbecue restaurant in Brooklyn last October, just one month after Kaplan was sprung on bail as a reward for his testimony against the Mafia cops.
Kaplan, 72, guarded by two federal agents at the meeting, allegedly told Casso Jr. that he "partially repaid" the wedding loan, according to the suit.
Deborah Kaplan was elected to Civil Court in 2002 and promoted to the Supreme Court after her father's mob ties became public.
Thanks to John Marzulli
Gambino Mafia Crew Leader Gets Life
Friends of ours: Ronald J. Trucchio, Steven Catalano
A man authorities said was the leader of a Gambino crime-family crew was sentenced to life in prison Friday.
Ronald J. Trucchio was sentenced in federal court after a member of his crew, Steven Catalano, received a 16-year prison sentence. Both were convicted in November of conspiracy and racketeering.
Prosecutors said Trucchio formed a crew in Queens, N.Y., in the 1980s that reported to the Gambino crime family. They said the group committed a string of crimes -- including murder, robbery and extortion -- from New York to Miami.
A man authorities said was the leader of a Gambino crime-family crew was sentenced to life in prison Friday.
Ronald J. Trucchio was sentenced in federal court after a member of his crew, Steven Catalano, received a 16-year prison sentence. Both were convicted in November of conspiracy and racketeering.
Prosecutors said Trucchio formed a crew in Queens, N.Y., in the 1980s that reported to the Gambino crime family. They said the group committed a string of crimes -- including murder, robbery and extortion -- from New York to Miami.
Former Mobster Writes Book on Israeli Mafia in New York
A former mobster has written a tell-all book, for the first time ever exposing the inner workings of an Israeli gang that took over the New York drug trade for a brief period in the eighties.
Ron Gonen, who has spent the past 18 years in the US Witness Protection Program, has teamed up with author Dave Copeland to offer an insider's glance into a parallel universe of crime, murder and deceit.
Gonen, who spoke with The Jerusalem Post from an undisclosed location, says he was kicked out of the program earlier this month because he violated the terms of his agreement by co-authoring the book. Undeterred, the Russian-born former drug dealer and burglar said that he is writing a second work - his memoirs - in Hebrew. He hopes that this book will lead to a movie deal.
After Gonen and his wife Honey published an advertisement on Craig's List in November 2004 seeking a writer to put his story into print, Copeland and Gonen began a collaboration that lasted more than two years and produced Blood and Volume, set to come out next week.
Copeland, who has never been to Israel, said that the book has earned attention prior to its release. "The pre-orders have been pretty good, 80% of first printing has already been sold," he said. But the book may cost Gonen more than he banked on. Beyond the risk of angering his old enemies, Gonen may soon find himself a persona non grata in the US.
According to Copeland, Gonen was given a permit that allowed him to work in the US as part of the Witness Protection Program, but the card is set to expire in May. Now, Gonen's work permit may not be renewed and he could be deported to Israel.
Although the book mostly concerns New York in the eighties, Gonen's story actually begins in the Soviet Union, four decades earlier, where his grandfather was in the black market. As a young child during the Stalinist period, Gonen says, he "grew up with the knowledge that the knock on the door could be a very serious knock."
When he was nine, Gonen's family moved to Israel. They were settled by the government in Beersheba, but later relocated to Holon. Eventually, he was sent to Kibbutz Ein Shemer. But Gonen says that he was expelled after two years for breaking into the kibbutz's storehouses and stealing clothing, which he distributed to his bunkmates.
Upon returning to Holon, the 15-year-old began to dabble in crime. He engaged in cat burglary and fenced the goods, denying that he was the thief. His small enterprise expanded until, in 1965, Gonen decided to forge documents that would allow him to join the Israel Navy despite being underage. Docked in Marseilles, the young Gonen realized that the world held more opportunities than tiny Israel had to offer.
While on leave from the Navy, Gonen continued his one-man crime wave, staging break-ins and robbing, among other things, parking meters. After he completed his mandatory military service, he returned to the streets, living high as a B&E man, and later branching out into auto theft.
After an unusually successful theft whose take totaled an estimated $20,000, Gonen says that he decided he "had no future in Israel" and searched for new horizons. "I wanted to rob Germans. I thought it was a good payback," he recalled.
For the next decade, Gonen's base of operations was western Europe, although he never lost his ties to Israel - or its burgeoning criminal underworld. At first he continued with break-ins, but - after being expelled from Germany - began to work in forged documents.
"I looked like a diplomat," Gonen said. "This was old school, not gaining a name," he said of his lifestyle. "It [was] better to be in the shadows, but to be very involved in the social, cultural life of the country in which I lived." This was a principle that he maintained after moving to London, where he managed a fictitious company as part of a pyramid scheme.
Gonen continued in London until he realized he was under surveillance, and then in 1981 fled to Spain, where he heard shortly later that Scotland Yard had raided his London office and arrested everybody. Deciding that Europe was now "too hot" for him, he fled to Guatemala, where he found himself in the midst of a series of coups. Only after he was warned for a second time that a death squad was after him did he flee, this time to the US.
After a brief time in the States, he returned for a short stay in Israel. There, he realized that among his old friends in the underworld, drugs were a hot industry. "Everybody was high on speed that they bought from Kalkilya pharmacies," he recalled. Gonen called in old contacts, and began to smuggle cocaine into Israel in small quantities. Unwitting flight attendants would bring in the drug, concealed in cigarette filters. "But after three or four trips, I got the name of "Candyman" and began to hear that they'd be on to me," Gonen said, explaining why he returned to the US later in 1982.
Meeting up with an old friend from Israel - Ran Efraim - Gonen began to buy coke from Efraim in LA and sell it in New York City, grossing about $50,000 a month. His business continued to grow, he found additional suppliers, and also met the woman who would become his third wife - Honey. The two were married in 1984, by which time, Gonen said, he was following her into a recurrent pattern of drug use. Gonen and Honey returned to Israel, but Honey was caught at the airport with almost 50g. of cocaine, and police used the arrest to try to convince Gonen to testify against his cronies in the Israeli underworld.
Returning to New York, Gonen tried to set up a fake company and run a pyramid scheme. But his briefcase containing all of his papers was stolen, he says, and he returned to drugs.
This time, his plans were altered by the unexpected arrival of old acquaintances from Israel - among them Eitan Hiya, Jonny Atias and Yisrael "Alice" Mizrahi. As then-District Attorney Rudy Giuliani had taken on the Italian mob, and the Soviet Union had not yet fallen, the New York drug industry was wide open. Apparently, even the criminal underworld abhors a vacuum.
The Israeli newcomers wanted help and turned to Gonen. He began to hold weekly meetings with Attias, but soon realized that they had a different business outlook. "Jonny said to me, 'Don't worry, if anybody sees us, we take down the witnesses,'" Gonen - who says he never killed anyone - recalled.
"Attias built his name on blood, on brutality, and on fear," Gonen said, adding that the violence was attracting too much attention and threatening his lifestyle. The situation became even worse after internecine war broke out between Mizrahi and Attias.
Then, the second shoe dropped. Gonen was caught by an anti-drug task force set up under new laws pushed through by the administration of then-president George H.W. Bush. After evading police for three days, Gonen was arrested on September 27, 1989.
When he saw police coming for him, he stopped at a corner store and bought four grapefruit juices and two coffees. If the police were trigger happy, he said, they would see that a man with his hands full of beverages couldn't reach for a gun.
According to Gonen, a detective on the task force, Sgt. John Guslavage, saved his life by arresting him, convincing him to turn state's witness, and putting him into the Witness Protection Program. Gonen later informed on Efraim, who in turn ratted out the others.
Almost 20 years later, Gonen is one of the few surviving members of what New York police called the Israeli Mob. Efraim, who served a sentence in the US, came back to Israel only to be gunned down last month in Tel Aviv. Hiya, one of the gang's most volatile trigger men, is back in Israel as well. But Mizrahi and Attias are now dead.
After 18 years in what he calls "the program," Gonen says that he is satisfied with his "civilian" life. His daughter - unlike Hiya's son, who was sentenced last week for a mob hit - is currently in college. "I sent my daughter to college, and he sent his son to do these horrible things. Maybe one day, my daughter is going to prosecute him," he laughs.
Gonen says that he is not overly concerned about his fate following the release of the tell-all book. "It's a lot less scary than what I went through 18 years ago. Not to compare. That is the price of doing business. I always knew that whoever stayed alive, their hate remained stronger than their logic," he said. "I sleep [well] at night. I never worry. It's not an option, because I know that if it happened, I wouldn't know about it. Nobody will torture me, just kill me." •
Thanks to Rebecca Ann Stoil
Ron Gonen, who has spent the past 18 years in the US Witness Protection Program, has teamed up with author Dave Copeland to offer an insider's glance into a parallel universe of crime, murder and deceit.
Gonen, who spoke with The Jerusalem Post from an undisclosed location, says he was kicked out of the program earlier this month because he violated the terms of his agreement by co-authoring the book. Undeterred, the Russian-born former drug dealer and burglar said that he is writing a second work - his memoirs - in Hebrew. He hopes that this book will lead to a movie deal.
After Gonen and his wife Honey published an advertisement on Craig's List in November 2004 seeking a writer to put his story into print, Copeland and Gonen began a collaboration that lasted more than two years and produced Blood and Volume, set to come out next week.
Copeland, who has never been to Israel, said that the book has earned attention prior to its release. "The pre-orders have been pretty good, 80% of first printing has already been sold," he said. But the book may cost Gonen more than he banked on. Beyond the risk of angering his old enemies, Gonen may soon find himself a persona non grata in the US.
According to Copeland, Gonen was given a permit that allowed him to work in the US as part of the Witness Protection Program, but the card is set to expire in May. Now, Gonen's work permit may not be renewed and he could be deported to Israel.
Although the book mostly concerns New York in the eighties, Gonen's story actually begins in the Soviet Union, four decades earlier, where his grandfather was in the black market. As a young child during the Stalinist period, Gonen says, he "grew up with the knowledge that the knock on the door could be a very serious knock."
When he was nine, Gonen's family moved to Israel. They were settled by the government in Beersheba, but later relocated to Holon. Eventually, he was sent to Kibbutz Ein Shemer. But Gonen says that he was expelled after two years for breaking into the kibbutz's storehouses and stealing clothing, which he distributed to his bunkmates.
Upon returning to Holon, the 15-year-old began to dabble in crime. He engaged in cat burglary and fenced the goods, denying that he was the thief. His small enterprise expanded until, in 1965, Gonen decided to forge documents that would allow him to join the Israel Navy despite being underage. Docked in Marseilles, the young Gonen realized that the world held more opportunities than tiny Israel had to offer.
While on leave from the Navy, Gonen continued his one-man crime wave, staging break-ins and robbing, among other things, parking meters. After he completed his mandatory military service, he returned to the streets, living high as a B&E man, and later branching out into auto theft.
After an unusually successful theft whose take totaled an estimated $20,000, Gonen says that he decided he "had no future in Israel" and searched for new horizons. "I wanted to rob Germans. I thought it was a good payback," he recalled.
For the next decade, Gonen's base of operations was western Europe, although he never lost his ties to Israel - or its burgeoning criminal underworld. At first he continued with break-ins, but - after being expelled from Germany - began to work in forged documents.
"I looked like a diplomat," Gonen said. "This was old school, not gaining a name," he said of his lifestyle. "It [was] better to be in the shadows, but to be very involved in the social, cultural life of the country in which I lived." This was a principle that he maintained after moving to London, where he managed a fictitious company as part of a pyramid scheme.
Gonen continued in London until he realized he was under surveillance, and then in 1981 fled to Spain, where he heard shortly later that Scotland Yard had raided his London office and arrested everybody. Deciding that Europe was now "too hot" for him, he fled to Guatemala, where he found himself in the midst of a series of coups. Only after he was warned for a second time that a death squad was after him did he flee, this time to the US.
After a brief time in the States, he returned for a short stay in Israel. There, he realized that among his old friends in the underworld, drugs were a hot industry. "Everybody was high on speed that they bought from Kalkilya pharmacies," he recalled. Gonen called in old contacts, and began to smuggle cocaine into Israel in small quantities. Unwitting flight attendants would bring in the drug, concealed in cigarette filters. "But after three or four trips, I got the name of "Candyman" and began to hear that they'd be on to me," Gonen said, explaining why he returned to the US later in 1982.
Meeting up with an old friend from Israel - Ran Efraim - Gonen began to buy coke from Efraim in LA and sell it in New York City, grossing about $50,000 a month. His business continued to grow, he found additional suppliers, and also met the woman who would become his third wife - Honey. The two were married in 1984, by which time, Gonen said, he was following her into a recurrent pattern of drug use. Gonen and Honey returned to Israel, but Honey was caught at the airport with almost 50g. of cocaine, and police used the arrest to try to convince Gonen to testify against his cronies in the Israeli underworld.
Returning to New York, Gonen tried to set up a fake company and run a pyramid scheme. But his briefcase containing all of his papers was stolen, he says, and he returned to drugs.
This time, his plans were altered by the unexpected arrival of old acquaintances from Israel - among them Eitan Hiya, Jonny Atias and Yisrael "Alice" Mizrahi. As then-District Attorney Rudy Giuliani had taken on the Italian mob, and the Soviet Union had not yet fallen, the New York drug industry was wide open. Apparently, even the criminal underworld abhors a vacuum.
The Israeli newcomers wanted help and turned to Gonen. He began to hold weekly meetings with Attias, but soon realized that they had a different business outlook. "Jonny said to me, 'Don't worry, if anybody sees us, we take down the witnesses,'" Gonen - who says he never killed anyone - recalled.
"Attias built his name on blood, on brutality, and on fear," Gonen said, adding that the violence was attracting too much attention and threatening his lifestyle. The situation became even worse after internecine war broke out between Mizrahi and Attias.
Then, the second shoe dropped. Gonen was caught by an anti-drug task force set up under new laws pushed through by the administration of then-president George H.W. Bush. After evading police for three days, Gonen was arrested on September 27, 1989.
When he saw police coming for him, he stopped at a corner store and bought four grapefruit juices and two coffees. If the police were trigger happy, he said, they would see that a man with his hands full of beverages couldn't reach for a gun.
According to Gonen, a detective on the task force, Sgt. John Guslavage, saved his life by arresting him, convincing him to turn state's witness, and putting him into the Witness Protection Program. Gonen later informed on Efraim, who in turn ratted out the others.
Almost 20 years later, Gonen is one of the few surviving members of what New York police called the Israeli Mob. Efraim, who served a sentence in the US, came back to Israel only to be gunned down last month in Tel Aviv. Hiya, one of the gang's most volatile trigger men, is back in Israel as well. But Mizrahi and Attias are now dead.
After 18 years in what he calls "the program," Gonen says that he is satisfied with his "civilian" life. His daughter - unlike Hiya's son, who was sentenced last week for a mob hit - is currently in college. "I sent my daughter to college, and he sent his son to do these horrible things. Maybe one day, my daughter is going to prosecute him," he laughs.
Gonen says that he is not overly concerned about his fate following the release of the tell-all book. "It's a lot less scary than what I went through 18 years ago. Not to compare. That is the price of doing business. I always knew that whoever stayed alive, their hate remained stronger than their logic," he said. "I sleep [well] at night. I never worry. It's not an option, because I know that if it happened, I wouldn't know about it. Nobody will torture me, just kill me." •
Thanks to Rebecca Ann Stoil
The Mafia Encyclopedia
A bestseller in its first edition, The Mafia Encyclopedia is a complete reference guide to the history of the most powerful and wellknown criminal organization in the world. Written by a veteran crime reporter, this "Who's Who" of crime gives readers the full flavor and substance of Mafia culture, customs, and characters presented in more than 400 entries. More than 95 blackandwhite photographs (12 new to this edition) help capture Mafia history from the birth of the brotherhood and the major underworld figures who created it, to the law enforcement agents and organizations who have tried—and failed—to destroy it.
The Mafia Encyclopedia includes biographical entries of both well and lesserknown wiseguys, their criminal specialties, career highlights, friends and enemies, eccentricities, and frequently dramatic demises.
The book traces the great Mafia dynasties up to and including the current heirs apparent. The second edition includes 56 new entries as well as updates on:
• John Gotti
• John Gotti, Jr.
• Sammy "The Bull" Gravano
• Vinnie "The Chin" Gigante
• Jimmy Coonan of Westies fame
• Donnie Brasco
• and many more.
Among the Mafia topics covered are:
• The major families, such as the Gambinos, Colombos, and Genoveses
• Sam Giancana's Youngbloods
• Spending habits of the Mafiosi
• Women and the Mafia
• Mafia prison life
• The "Parsley" racket
• Superstitions, such as "Dead Man's Eyes" and the "Green Chair Curse"
• Funerals of gangsters
• and more.
The Mafia Encyclopedia includes biographical entries of both well and lesserknown wiseguys, their criminal specialties, career highlights, friends and enemies, eccentricities, and frequently dramatic demises.
The book traces the great Mafia dynasties up to and including the current heirs apparent. The second edition includes 56 new entries as well as updates on:
• John Gotti
• John Gotti, Jr.
• Sammy "The Bull" Gravano
• Vinnie "The Chin" Gigante
• Jimmy Coonan of Westies fame
• Donnie Brasco
• and many more.
Among the Mafia topics covered are:
• The major families, such as the Gambinos, Colombos, and Genoveses
• Sam Giancana's Youngbloods
• Spending habits of the Mafiosi
• Women and the Mafia
• Mafia prison life
• The "Parsley" racket
• Superstitions, such as "Dead Man's Eyes" and the "Green Chair Curse"
• Funerals of gangsters
• and more.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Mobster Steps Down, Successor Unknown
Vincent Pastore, who played a tough-guy mobster in the early years of "The Sopranos,' has dropped out of "Dancing With the Stars" after a week of training.
At least this time he wasn't sent off to sleep with the fishes, the fate that befell his "Sopranos" character. "I didn't realize just how physically demanding it would be for me. Unable to put forth my best effort, I felt it appropriate to step aside and give someone else the opportunity," Pastore said in a statement Wednesday.
The 60-year-old actor had joined 10 other celebrities for the fourth season of ABC's 10-week dance competition, which returns March 19.
"ABC will be announcing a replacement shortly," said Conrad Green, executive producer of "Dancing With the Stars."
The new cast includes Olympic skater Apolo Anton Ohno, boxer Laila Ali, former 'N Sync member Joey Fatone, country singer-actor Billy Ray Cyrus and Paul McCartney's estranged wife, Heather Mills.
Mills, an activist for animal rights and the elimination of the use of land mines, will be the show's first contestant with an artificial limb. She told TV entertainment show "Extra" in an interview set to air Wednesday that "it's very unlikely" her prosthetic leg will "fly off." To prevent such an incident, she said she will wear a special strap. She lost her leg below the knee in a motorcycle accident in 1993.
At least this time he wasn't sent off to sleep with the fishes, the fate that befell his "Sopranos" character. "I didn't realize just how physically demanding it would be for me. Unable to put forth my best effort, I felt it appropriate to step aside and give someone else the opportunity," Pastore said in a statement Wednesday.
The 60-year-old actor had joined 10 other celebrities for the fourth season of ABC's 10-week dance competition, which returns March 19.
"ABC will be announcing a replacement shortly," said Conrad Green, executive producer of "Dancing With the Stars."
The new cast includes Olympic skater Apolo Anton Ohno, boxer Laila Ali, former 'N Sync member Joey Fatone, country singer-actor Billy Ray Cyrus and Paul McCartney's estranged wife, Heather Mills.
Mills, an activist for animal rights and the elimination of the use of land mines, will be the show's first contestant with an artificial limb. She told TV entertainment show "Extra" in an interview set to air Wednesday that "it's very unlikely" her prosthetic leg will "fly off." To prevent such an incident, she said she will wear a special strap. She lost her leg below the knee in a motorcycle accident in 1993.
Albert "The Old Man" Facchiano Pleads Guilty
Friends of ours: Albert "The Old Man" Facchiano, Genovese Crime Family
Albert Facchiano pleaded guilty Wednesday to racketeering conspiracy and other offenses prosecutors say he committed for the Genovese crime family, but its unlikely that the mobster will serve a day behind bars.
At 96, Facchiano, known in crime circles as "The Old Man," is in frail health and will likely be sentenced to house arrest, the Associated Press reports. Faces charges robbery, money laundering and bank fraud, the aged gangster pleaded guilty to a Florida charge of racketeering conspiracy and a New York charge of witness tampering.
Although Facchiano could have faced a maximum sentence of 30-years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines, under a plea agreement, prosecutors recommended that he be placed under house arrest, the AP reported. He's scheduled to be sentenced May 25.
Facchiano was among 30 alleged members of the Genovese crime family charged in a wide-ranging federal case.
What surprised some observers is that the charges against Facchiano stemmed from crimes committed late in his life. Prosecutors charged that from 1994 to 2006, Facchiano supervised associates who committed robberies, laundered money, engaged in bank fraud, and possessed stolen property. Prosecutors, defense attorneys and experts in organized crime say Facchiano may be the oldest racketeer ever prosecuted for crimes committed so late in life.
Facchiano's lawyer, Brian McComb told the AP that his client must see a doctor four times a week for back pain and other maladies, and "couldn't have stood trials in both Florida and New York."
Facchiano, who has an arrest record dating to 1932, walks with a cane and in court used a special headset to hear questions from the U.S. District Judge James Cohn.
A "made" man in the Genovese crime family, he spent eight years in prison on a 25-year sentence for racketeering after being arrested in 1979. The FBI, which monitors known members of organized crime, considers Facchiano a low-level figure.
Facchiano turns 97 on March 10.
Thanks to William Macklin
Albert Facchiano pleaded guilty Wednesday to racketeering conspiracy and other offenses prosecutors say he committed for the Genovese crime family, but its unlikely that the mobster will serve a day behind bars.
At 96, Facchiano, known in crime circles as "The Old Man," is in frail health and will likely be sentenced to house arrest, the Associated Press reports. Faces charges robbery, money laundering and bank fraud, the aged gangster pleaded guilty to a Florida charge of racketeering conspiracy and a New York charge of witness tampering.
Although Facchiano could have faced a maximum sentence of 30-years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines, under a plea agreement, prosecutors recommended that he be placed under house arrest, the AP reported. He's scheduled to be sentenced May 25.
Facchiano was among 30 alleged members of the Genovese crime family charged in a wide-ranging federal case.
What surprised some observers is that the charges against Facchiano stemmed from crimes committed late in his life. Prosecutors charged that from 1994 to 2006, Facchiano supervised associates who committed robberies, laundered money, engaged in bank fraud, and possessed stolen property. Prosecutors, defense attorneys and experts in organized crime say Facchiano may be the oldest racketeer ever prosecuted for crimes committed so late in life.
Facchiano's lawyer, Brian McComb told the AP that his client must see a doctor four times a week for back pain and other maladies, and "couldn't have stood trials in both Florida and New York."
Facchiano, who has an arrest record dating to 1932, walks with a cane and in court used a special headset to hear questions from the U.S. District Judge James Cohn.
A "made" man in the Genovese crime family, he spent eight years in prison on a 25-year sentence for racketeering after being arrested in 1979. The FBI, which monitors known members of organized crime, considers Facchiano a low-level figure.
Facchiano turns 97 on March 10.
Thanks to William Macklin
Everybody Pays
Friends of ours: Harry Aleman
Bob Lowe's father told him not to get involved. Just keep his mouth shut and forget everything he saw. But to the 25-year-old blue collar mechanic, husband, and father, that was entirely out of the question. How could he? While walking his dog he saw his acquaintance, Billy Logan, murdered on the street right in front of him. And more importantly, he held the triggerman's gaze for four frightening seconds, enough to easily identify him in a mug shot book, lineup, or court chambers. In Lowe's mind, it was his simple duty as a citizen to I.D. the guy and put a killer behind bars.
But Bob Lowe's seemingly straightforward decision to do that duty in 1972 provided the catalyst for a 25-year hellish personal odyssey, all while being constantly on the move and looking over his shoulder for the bullet with his name on it. That's because the face that Lowe saw didn't belong to any garden variety street thug, but that of Harry Aleman, the feared, proficient and very busy hit man for the Chicago mob. And Harry had a lot of powerful friends.
EVERYBODY PAYS is not the story of Logan or even Aleman, but of how Lowe's life began to spiral out of control after his agreeing to testify. Little did he know that larger forces were literally conspiring against him. Although he positively identified Aleman immediately following the shooting, the corrupt investigating cops buried the information for four years. At the eventual trial, the presiding judge had been bribed, deeming Lowe "a liar" in open court. Left dangling when Aleman was acquitted --- and in real fear for their lives --- the Lowes entered the Witness Protection Program, beginning a harrowing litany of changes in their residence, job, lifestyles, and even identities.
The constant pressure drove Lowe to extended flirtations with booze, cocaine, petty crime, and estrangement from his family. After years of bitter thoughts and second-guessing of his actions, Lowe eventually does crawl back. The book closes with Aleman's 1997 retrial --- a historic overturning of the Constitutional "double jeopardy" clause --- and ultimate vindication for Lowe, who as an older, grayer man found himself giving the same testimony that he had 20 years earlier.
Possley and Kogan --- both experienced journalists for the Chicago Tribune --- keep the narrative fast-paced, to the point and interesting. They also know their turf well, particularly in their discussion of the hierarchy of the Chicago Mafia and how it differs from its flashier, more storied New York counterpart. Drawing on historical material as well as fresh interviews from most of the participants (save the incarcerated Aleman, who refused to talk with them), the pair paint a sympathetic but even-keeled portrait of Lowe, who was not entirely blameless for his subsequent misfortunes.
Ultimately, the large and looming question that hangs throughout the book is this: Was it all worth it? Was it worth it for Lowe to go through his own seven circles of hell for doing what he initially felt would be a simple and just action, or should he have heeded his father's advice to go deaf, dumb, and blind? The reader is left to ponder that for themselves --- as well as think about what they'd do in a similar situation. In either case, the book's title stands as both a warning and a thesis: in crime, everyone does pay --- and not just the guilty.
Thanks to Bob Ruggiero
Bob Lowe's father told him not to get involved. Just keep his mouth shut and forget everything he saw. But to the 25-year-old blue collar mechanic, husband, and father, that was entirely out of the question. How could he? While walking his dog he saw his acquaintance, Billy Logan, murdered on the street right in front of him. And more importantly, he held the triggerman's gaze for four frightening seconds, enough to easily identify him in a mug shot book, lineup, or court chambers. In Lowe's mind, it was his simple duty as a citizen to I.D. the guy and put a killer behind bars.
But Bob Lowe's seemingly straightforward decision to do that duty in 1972 provided the catalyst for a 25-year hellish personal odyssey, all while being constantly on the move and looking over his shoulder for the bullet with his name on it. That's because the face that Lowe saw didn't belong to any garden variety street thug, but that of Harry Aleman, the feared, proficient and very busy hit man for the Chicago mob. And Harry had a lot of powerful friends.
EVERYBODY PAYS is not the story of Logan or even Aleman, but of how Lowe's life began to spiral out of control after his agreeing to testify. Little did he know that larger forces were literally conspiring against him. Although he positively identified Aleman immediately following the shooting, the corrupt investigating cops buried the information for four years. At the eventual trial, the presiding judge had been bribed, deeming Lowe "a liar" in open court. Left dangling when Aleman was acquitted --- and in real fear for their lives --- the Lowes entered the Witness Protection Program, beginning a harrowing litany of changes in their residence, job, lifestyles, and even identities.
The constant pressure drove Lowe to extended flirtations with booze, cocaine, petty crime, and estrangement from his family. After years of bitter thoughts and second-guessing of his actions, Lowe eventually does crawl back. The book closes with Aleman's 1997 retrial --- a historic overturning of the Constitutional "double jeopardy" clause --- and ultimate vindication for Lowe, who as an older, grayer man found himself giving the same testimony that he had 20 years earlier.
Possley and Kogan --- both experienced journalists for the Chicago Tribune --- keep the narrative fast-paced, to the point and interesting. They also know their turf well, particularly in their discussion of the hierarchy of the Chicago Mafia and how it differs from its flashier, more storied New York counterpart. Drawing on historical material as well as fresh interviews from most of the participants (save the incarcerated Aleman, who refused to talk with them), the pair paint a sympathetic but even-keeled portrait of Lowe, who was not entirely blameless for his subsequent misfortunes.
Ultimately, the large and looming question that hangs throughout the book is this: Was it all worth it? Was it worth it for Lowe to go through his own seven circles of hell for doing what he initially felt would be a simple and just action, or should he have heeded his father's advice to go deaf, dumb, and blind? The reader is left to ponder that for themselves --- as well as think about what they'd do in a similar situation. In either case, the book's title stands as both a warning and a thesis: in crime, everyone does pay --- and not just the guilty.
Thanks to Bob Ruggiero
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
After Winning Oscar, Scorsese to Direct "The Departed" Sequel?
The Academy Awards aired live from Hollywood Boulevard on Sunday. It was the most international awards show in Oscar history. Afterwards backstage, Martin Scorsese agreed to direct George Lopez, Carlos Mencia, and Paul Rodriguez in The Deported.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Goodbye Fellas
Friends of ours: Joseph Valachi, Bugsy Siegal, Frank Sinatra, Sam Giancana, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano, John Gotti
The perspective on organized crime that Thomas A. Reppetto developed from his career in law enforcement and more than 20 years as president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, tempered by a Harvard Ph.D., paid off handsomely in his 2004 book, “American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power
,” which described the mob’s growth to its pinnacle in the mid-20th century. The writing was lucid, concise and devoid of sensationalism, rare qualities in the plethora of books by turncoat mobsters and their ex-wives, journalists, cops and aged Las Vegas insiders. This equally well-written sequel, “Bringing Down the Mob,” chronicles the Mafia’s near demise over the past 50 years. Following this specific thread of American history, general readers will benefit from Reppetto’s cogent examples of how changes in the culture at large affected both the mob itself and the tactics employed by law enforcement. Organized-crime buffs will be familiar with much of the material, but unaccustomed to seeing it assembled into so big and coherent a picture.
In 1950 and ’51, the Kefauver Senate committee’s televised hearings on the Mafia introduced mobsters into American living rooms, the lasting images being close-ups of Frank Costello’s manicured hands — he did not want his face on camera. The public outcry was short-lived and the Mafia cruised comfortably until 1957, when, in Apalachin, N.Y. (population 350), more than 60 Mafia notables attended a conference that was raided by the state police. As Reppetto says, the media have often presented the raid as “some hick cops stumbling on a mob conclave.” He debunks that interpretation and shows how the publicity moved the resistant J. Edgar Hoover to action, so that “from Apalachin on, the United States government was at war with the Mafia.”
As attorney general, Robert F. Kennedy led the next sustained attack on organized crime. He focused obsessively and successfully on Jimmy Hoffa, who was allied with the Mafia while serving as president of the two-million-member Teamsters union. Kennedy also brought before the TV cameras Joe Valachi, a low-level Mafia soldier who, with some coaching, provided extensive information “without revealing that much of it had been obtained through legally questionable electronic eavesdropping.” A new name for the Mafia emerged from the hearings — La Cosa Nostra — which allowed Hoover to say he had been right all along: there was no Mafia; there was a Cosa Nostra organization, exposed by the F.B.I.
In the 1960s and ’70s, Las Vegas provided a battlefield on which the F.B.I., armed with bugging equipment (and caught using it illegally in 1965), defeated the mob, which had been involved from the start of significant gambling in Nevada in the 1940s. Bugsy Siegel put up one of the first casinos on the Strip, the Flamingo. Las Vegas was designated an “open city,” in which any mob family could operate. As Reppetto writes, mobsters “secured Teamster loans to build casinos that they controlled through fronts, or ‘straw men.’ ” (Frank Sinatra lost his license as owner of a Nevada resort for allowing the Mafia boss Sam Giancana, reputedly his “hidden backer,” to frequent the hotel.) These casinos had overseers appointed by the controlling family to run “the skim,” cash siphoned off before the casino take was put on the books for tax purposes. The poorly chosen overseers played a large role in bringing down the mob in Las Vegas, generally being far too violent and unsophisticated to operate in a milieu that demanded a veneer of respectability. Reppetto points out the factual basis of much of Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese’s script for the film “Casino
,” including the chilling scene of Joe Pesci squeezing a victim’s head in a vise until an eye pops out (although that incident actually happened in Chicago). The mob’s management of Las Vegas turned out to be “a disaster,” Reppetto says. “Once it was the Mafia that was well run, while law enforcement plodded along. ... The situation was now reversed.” In the 1980s, corporations began to take control of the casinos.
One of the great hurdles the government had to clear at the start of its war on the Mafia, Reppetto says, was that the approach required to bring down a criminal organization ran “counter to general principles of American criminal justice”: “The usual practice, investigating a known crime in order to apprehend unknown culprits, was reversed. Now the government was investigating a known criminal to find crimes he might be charged with.” The most potent weapon was developed in 1970 — the RICO statute, to which Reppetto devotes a full chapter, pointing out that it took its creator, G. Robert Blakey, a decade of proselytizing before prosecutors would employ it.
A minor quibble: I think the book gives short shrift to the effect of the witness protection program, without which far fewer mobsters could have “flipped” over the years. As to Reppetto’s belief that the Mafia is in serious decline? At any time in the past, asking an average American to name major mob guys might well have elicited several of the following: Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano, John Gotti. Who comes to mind today?
Thanks to Vincent Patrick whose novels include “The Pope of Greenwich Village
” and “Smoke Screen
.”
The perspective on organized crime that Thomas A. Reppetto developed from his career in law enforcement and more than 20 years as president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, tempered by a Harvard Ph.D., paid off handsomely in his 2004 book, “American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power
,” which described the mob’s growth to its pinnacle in the mid-20th century. The writing was lucid, concise and devoid of sensationalism, rare qualities in the plethora of books by turncoat mobsters and their ex-wives, journalists, cops and aged Las Vegas insiders. This equally well-written sequel, “Bringing Down the Mob,” chronicles the Mafia’s near demise over the past 50 years. Following this specific thread of American history, general readers will benefit from Reppetto’s cogent examples of how changes in the culture at large affected both the mob itself and the tactics employed by law enforcement. Organized-crime buffs will be familiar with much of the material, but unaccustomed to seeing it assembled into so big and coherent a picture.In 1950 and ’51, the Kefauver Senate committee’s televised hearings on the Mafia introduced mobsters into American living rooms, the lasting images being close-ups of Frank Costello’s manicured hands — he did not want his face on camera. The public outcry was short-lived and the Mafia cruised comfortably until 1957, when, in Apalachin, N.Y. (population 350), more than 60 Mafia notables attended a conference that was raided by the state police. As Reppetto says, the media have often presented the raid as “some hick cops stumbling on a mob conclave.” He debunks that interpretation and shows how the publicity moved the resistant J. Edgar Hoover to action, so that “from Apalachin on, the United States government was at war with the Mafia.”
As attorney general, Robert F. Kennedy led the next sustained attack on organized crime. He focused obsessively and successfully on Jimmy Hoffa, who was allied with the Mafia while serving as president of the two-million-member Teamsters union. Kennedy also brought before the TV cameras Joe Valachi, a low-level Mafia soldier who, with some coaching, provided extensive information “without revealing that much of it had been obtained through legally questionable electronic eavesdropping.” A new name for the Mafia emerged from the hearings — La Cosa Nostra — which allowed Hoover to say he had been right all along: there was no Mafia; there was a Cosa Nostra organization, exposed by the F.B.I.
In the 1960s and ’70s, Las Vegas provided a battlefield on which the F.B.I., armed with bugging equipment (and caught using it illegally in 1965), defeated the mob, which had been involved from the start of significant gambling in Nevada in the 1940s. Bugsy Siegel put up one of the first casinos on the Strip, the Flamingo. Las Vegas was designated an “open city,” in which any mob family could operate. As Reppetto writes, mobsters “secured Teamster loans to build casinos that they controlled through fronts, or ‘straw men.’ ” (Frank Sinatra lost his license as owner of a Nevada resort for allowing the Mafia boss Sam Giancana, reputedly his “hidden backer,” to frequent the hotel.) These casinos had overseers appointed by the controlling family to run “the skim,” cash siphoned off before the casino take was put on the books for tax purposes. The poorly chosen overseers played a large role in bringing down the mob in Las Vegas, generally being far too violent and unsophisticated to operate in a milieu that demanded a veneer of respectability. Reppetto points out the factual basis of much of Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese’s script for the film “Casino
,” including the chilling scene of Joe Pesci squeezing a victim’s head in a vise until an eye pops out (although that incident actually happened in Chicago). The mob’s management of Las Vegas turned out to be “a disaster,” Reppetto says. “Once it was the Mafia that was well run, while law enforcement plodded along. ... The situation was now reversed.” In the 1980s, corporations began to take control of the casinos.One of the great hurdles the government had to clear at the start of its war on the Mafia, Reppetto says, was that the approach required to bring down a criminal organization ran “counter to general principles of American criminal justice”: “The usual practice, investigating a known crime in order to apprehend unknown culprits, was reversed. Now the government was investigating a known criminal to find crimes he might be charged with.” The most potent weapon was developed in 1970 — the RICO statute, to which Reppetto devotes a full chapter, pointing out that it took its creator, G. Robert Blakey, a decade of proselytizing before prosecutors would employ it.
A minor quibble: I think the book gives short shrift to the effect of the witness protection program, without which far fewer mobsters could have “flipped” over the years. As to Reppetto’s belief that the Mafia is in serious decline? At any time in the past, asking an average American to name major mob guys might well have elicited several of the following: Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano, John Gotti. Who comes to mind today?
Thanks to Vincent Patrick whose novels include “The Pope of Greenwich Village
” and “Smoke Screen.”
Friday, February 23, 2007
Virtuous Trepidation: The Black Hand of the Mafia
Dive deep into the complicated world of an internationally connected Mafia in Carl E. Prichard's new fictitious book, "Virtuous Trepidation: The Black Hand of the Mafia".
When low-level hit man and thief Antonio Spinelli stumbles into the wrong job, he loses his partner and fatally wounds an FBI agent who is on a mission to arrest the drug dealer Spinelli was robbing. He is fortunate enough to escape with his life, though, and enough heroin to buy a new identity and five years in the French Foreign Legion.
Upon his return to the United States, he takes a new wife, the beautiful Ruthie, and a new moniker, "the Frenchman." He meets up with another criminal known as Shaggy Dog and his beautiful, high-class hooker girlfriend in Las Vegas. The two men go into business together and complete some very successful heists, but run into trouble when a job leads them to Italy and they kill the only son and daughter-in-law of Gus DePhillips, the most powerful Mafia don in the United States.
When Gus learns of the deaths, he vows revenge. He and his second-in- command, Frank Tomasino, begin a country-wide campaign to seek out the guilty parties and make them pay.
Forced into hiding, the Frenchman, Shaggy Dog, Ruthie and Nancy Jean hide out in Las Vegas. In the meantime, the Detroit Mafia begins to crumble and the national organization suffers when Gus is assassinated. The equally ruthless Frank is set to take over in the United States, but he is soon beckoned to Italy by the Italian don who offers him control of the entire organization. While the Frenchman and Shaggy Dog are given great opportunities to advance within the organization, their inability to resist beautiful women leads to their eventual downfall.
"Readers who like nicely tied-up stories of ribbons and lollipops may quickly toss this book aside, for this is a book that takes you deep into the life and death, the power and the fear that is organized crime," Prichard says. "The action is fast-paced and the storyline uncomfortably plausible."
This complex tale of connections and killings will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Don't miss this thrilling story of betrayal, deceit and murder.
Prichard lives in the Rocky Mountain region in the western United States where he writes full-time. He has written two previous books, "Silent Agony
" and "Fate's Left Hand
"
When low-level hit man and thief Antonio Spinelli stumbles into the wrong job, he loses his partner and fatally wounds an FBI agent who is on a mission to arrest the drug dealer Spinelli was robbing. He is fortunate enough to escape with his life, though, and enough heroin to buy a new identity and five years in the French Foreign Legion.
Upon his return to the United States, he takes a new wife, the beautiful Ruthie, and a new moniker, "the Frenchman." He meets up with another criminal known as Shaggy Dog and his beautiful, high-class hooker girlfriend in Las Vegas. The two men go into business together and complete some very successful heists, but run into trouble when a job leads them to Italy and they kill the only son and daughter-in-law of Gus DePhillips, the most powerful Mafia don in the United States.
When Gus learns of the deaths, he vows revenge. He and his second-in- command, Frank Tomasino, begin a country-wide campaign to seek out the guilty parties and make them pay.
Forced into hiding, the Frenchman, Shaggy Dog, Ruthie and Nancy Jean hide out in Las Vegas. In the meantime, the Detroit Mafia begins to crumble and the national organization suffers when Gus is assassinated. The equally ruthless Frank is set to take over in the United States, but he is soon beckoned to Italy by the Italian don who offers him control of the entire organization. While the Frenchman and Shaggy Dog are given great opportunities to advance within the organization, their inability to resist beautiful women leads to their eventual downfall.
"Readers who like nicely tied-up stories of ribbons and lollipops may quickly toss this book aside, for this is a book that takes you deep into the life and death, the power and the fear that is organized crime," Prichard says. "The action is fast-paced and the storyline uncomfortably plausible."
This complex tale of connections and killings will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Don't miss this thrilling story of betrayal, deceit and murder.
Prichard lives in the Rocky Mountain region in the western United States where he writes full-time. He has written two previous books, "Silent Agony
" and "Fate's Left Hand"
Thursday, February 22, 2007
The Goomba Diet: Living Large and Loving It Book
The Goomba Diet is the personal lifestyle guide from Steven R. Schirripa--Bobby "Bacala" Baccalieri from The Sopranos and author of "A Goomba's Guide to Life". Developed over decades of dreaming about and then living the high life, it's a how-to guide for happy living--how to duke a maître d', how to order a good meal, how to be a good father, a good husband and a good friend, and how to behave at a wedding, a funeral, and on the job.
The Goomba Diet is for everyone with an appetite for life, and for everyone who understands that the key to happiness isn't found in a smaller waistline but in a bigger heart. Like Steve says, "There's a lot of skinny actors wearing black turtlenecks and tending bar right now who'd kill for a part on The Sopranos. This fat goomba is doing all right for himself."
So relax! Stop worrying about how much youýre eating, and start worrying about how much you're enjoying it. Lose weight if you like--but live! Put a fork in your right hand, a hunk of bread in your left, and mangia like you mean it.
The Goomba Diet is for everyone with an appetite for life, and for everyone who understands that the key to happiness isn't found in a smaller waistline but in a bigger heart. Like Steve says, "There's a lot of skinny actors wearing black turtlenecks and tending bar right now who'd kill for a part on The Sopranos. This fat goomba is doing all right for himself."
So relax! Stop worrying about how much youýre eating, and start worrying about how much you're enjoying it. Lose weight if you like--but live! Put a fork in your right hand, a hunk of bread in your left, and mangia like you mean it.
Joey the Clown's Brother Gets Probation
Friends of ours: Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, Rocco Lombardo
Friends of mine: Rick Rizzolo
The brother of reputed mob boss Joey "the Clown" Lombardo was sentenced Wednesday to 60 months' probation for conspiracy in a tax fraud scheme centered at a strip club in Las Vegas.
Sixteen individuals, including Lombardo's brother Rocco, have pleaded guilty to the conspiracy scheme for underreporting cash they received while working at the Crazy Horse Too strip club.
The case stems from a lengthy federal investigation of the strip club and owner Ricky Rizzolo. Rizzolo formerly owned and managed a Chicago strip club also known as the Crazy Horse Too. He was paid as much as $240,000 to manage the club here, according to court records.
Joey Lombardo has pleaded innocent in Chicago to racketeering charges that accuse him of murder and extortion. He was arrested last year after nine months in hiding following his indictment.
Rizzolo and Rocco Lombardo would dine with Joey Lombardo when Rizzolo came to Chicago on business, court records show. And when Joey Lombardo disappeared, FBI agents went looking for him in Las Vegas.
In court filings, John Spilotro, the attorney for Rocco Lombardo, argued that a probation report linking him to his brother was unfair. He asked the court to delete a reference to Joey Lombardo as being the head of the Chicago Outfit and his arrest on the pending federal charges in Chicago.
Spilotro asked the judge for probation for Rocco, citing his lack of involvement in prior criminal activity, his age, and his deteriorating health.
Rocco Lombardo, 71, was known as a body builder and health-food advocate, according to lawyers. He once operated a restaurant in Melrose Park called "Rocky's" and served as a floor manager at the Las Vegas club.
Last month, Rizzolo was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for his role in the tax fraud. His plea agreement required him to sell the business and pay nearly $17 million in fines and restitution.
Thanks to Ray Gibson
Friends of mine: Rick Rizzolo
The brother of reputed mob boss Joey "the Clown" Lombardo was sentenced Wednesday to 60 months' probation for conspiracy in a tax fraud scheme centered at a strip club in Las Vegas.
Sixteen individuals, including Lombardo's brother Rocco, have pleaded guilty to the conspiracy scheme for underreporting cash they received while working at the Crazy Horse Too strip club.
The case stems from a lengthy federal investigation of the strip club and owner Ricky Rizzolo. Rizzolo formerly owned and managed a Chicago strip club also known as the Crazy Horse Too. He was paid as much as $240,000 to manage the club here, according to court records.
Joey Lombardo has pleaded innocent in Chicago to racketeering charges that accuse him of murder and extortion. He was arrested last year after nine months in hiding following his indictment.
Rizzolo and Rocco Lombardo would dine with Joey Lombardo when Rizzolo came to Chicago on business, court records show. And when Joey Lombardo disappeared, FBI agents went looking for him in Las Vegas.
In court filings, John Spilotro, the attorney for Rocco Lombardo, argued that a probation report linking him to his brother was unfair. He asked the court to delete a reference to Joey Lombardo as being the head of the Chicago Outfit and his arrest on the pending federal charges in Chicago.
Spilotro asked the judge for probation for Rocco, citing his lack of involvement in prior criminal activity, his age, and his deteriorating health.
Rocco Lombardo, 71, was known as a body builder and health-food advocate, according to lawyers. He once operated a restaurant in Melrose Park called "Rocky's" and served as a floor manager at the Las Vegas club.
Last month, Rizzolo was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for his role in the tax fraud. His plea agreement required him to sell the business and pay nearly $17 million in fines and restitution.
Thanks to Ray Gibson
Was Sam Giancana Murdered by Johnny Roselli over Marilyn Monroe?
Excerpt from the new book MY WILD WILD LIFE AS A NEW YORK PIN UP QUEEN, TRICK SHOT GOLFER & HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS!!!
"As the plump sausages were beginning to brown, there was a knock on the door. Chicago Mob Boss SAM GIANCANA showed no fear as he turned back the double locks on the heavy steel door of his fortress like home that protected him from the outside world. Sam looked his old friend JOHNNY ROSSELLI in the eye and invited him in. The men kissed on the cheek, exchanged pleasantries and shared a laugh.
Then "Mooney", as Johnny affectionately called Sam, heard the sausages sizzling in their pan and ran back to the stove to keep them from burning. While he was rolling them over, Johnny quietly crept up behind him and placed the muzzle of a .22 caliber handgun equipped with a silencer at the base of his skull and said "Sam, this is for Marilyn".
Sam hesitated a moment as he tended to the sausages. A split second passed. In that moment, an image of MARILYN MONROE, the quintessential Hollywood Goddess, platinum blond bombshell, orphaned child, cheesecake pin up girl, fantasy lover to thousands of men, supposed tragic suicide victim and lover of PRESIDENT JOHN F KENNEDY and his brother BOBBY, filled Sam's head.
Then Johnny pulled the trigger."
"As the plump sausages were beginning to brown, there was a knock on the door. Chicago Mob Boss SAM GIANCANA showed no fear as he turned back the double locks on the heavy steel door of his fortress like home that protected him from the outside world. Sam looked his old friend JOHNNY ROSSELLI in the eye and invited him in. The men kissed on the cheek, exchanged pleasantries and shared a laugh.
Then "Mooney", as Johnny affectionately called Sam, heard the sausages sizzling in their pan and ran back to the stove to keep them from burning. While he was rolling them over, Johnny quietly crept up behind him and placed the muzzle of a .22 caliber handgun equipped with a silencer at the base of his skull and said "Sam, this is for Marilyn".
Sam hesitated a moment as he tended to the sausages. A split second passed. In that moment, an image of MARILYN MONROE, the quintessential Hollywood Goddess, platinum blond bombshell, orphaned child, cheesecake pin up girl, fantasy lover to thousands of men, supposed tragic suicide victim and lover of PRESIDENT JOHN F KENNEDY and his brother BOBBY, filled Sam's head.
Then Johnny pulled the trigger."
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Crime Boss Goes to New Orleans
Chilly temperatures did not deter the revelers who turned out Sunday to watch the parades roll through the city on the last weekend before Mardi Gras.
Bryan Young of Hammond hunched over a grill at a spot along Napoleon Avenue, a main parade route, cooking hamburgers and sausages in the 40-degree weather. Dressing in layers was the key to staying warm, he said. "It's part of what makes the city the city," Young said.
Several parades rolled Sunday, culminating with the Krewe of Bacchus, one of the most anticipated events of Carnival.
This year, the parade was led by actor James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos."
He was an immediate hit, posing with people for pictures and signing autographs before the parade began at dusk.
Clad in a black derby, a white tunic over white tights and black knee-high boots, Gandolfini threw doubloons to giddy spectators by the fistful. He was on the upper level of double-decked float where he sat on a half-crown throne.
It was because of Gandolfini that truck driver Andre Fos staked out a spot early. "Anything to do with the Mafia is my thing," said Fos, as he drained a beer before noon on nearby Magazine Street.
Earlier, the Krewe of Thoth put on a crowd-pleasing processional, including double-decker floats with costumed masked riders tossing beads, stuffed animals and other trinkets to revelers.
Leslie Petty of Slidell wore feathers and a necklace adorned with large plastic apples. She was with friends and family, feasting on a spread including barbecue and chicken. She said she had abandoned her diet until Wednesday. "We're going to party until Lent," Petty said.
Mardi Gras is considered a key to reviving New Orleans' tourism business following the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. The signs of the devastating storm are still obvious in swaths of the city but are largely unnoticeable to those who stay in the French Quarter and central business district.
Before the storm, about a million visitors came here over the four days capped by Fat Tuesday. Officials expect about 700,000 this year -- but as of Sunday, did not have any estimates.
Police spokesman Sgt. Joe Narcisse said there have been some instances of people drunk in public or disturbing the peace, but Carnival so far has been relatively uneventful.
Most were just trying to stay warm. Ron Wauters of the Krewe of Mid-City, one of Sunday's parade groups, said things warm up quickly for the costumed members on the floats once the action starts.
"When you're up there throwing the beads, you work up a good sweat," Wauters said.
Bryan Young of Hammond hunched over a grill at a spot along Napoleon Avenue, a main parade route, cooking hamburgers and sausages in the 40-degree weather. Dressing in layers was the key to staying warm, he said. "It's part of what makes the city the city," Young said.
Several parades rolled Sunday, culminating with the Krewe of Bacchus, one of the most anticipated events of Carnival.
This year, the parade was led by actor James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos."
He was an immediate hit, posing with people for pictures and signing autographs before the parade began at dusk.
Clad in a black derby, a white tunic over white tights and black knee-high boots, Gandolfini threw doubloons to giddy spectators by the fistful. He was on the upper level of double-decked float where he sat on a half-crown throne.
It was because of Gandolfini that truck driver Andre Fos staked out a spot early. "Anything to do with the Mafia is my thing," said Fos, as he drained a beer before noon on nearby Magazine Street.
Earlier, the Krewe of Thoth put on a crowd-pleasing processional, including double-decker floats with costumed masked riders tossing beads, stuffed animals and other trinkets to revelers.
Leslie Petty of Slidell wore feathers and a necklace adorned with large plastic apples. She was with friends and family, feasting on a spread including barbecue and chicken. She said she had abandoned her diet until Wednesday. "We're going to party until Lent," Petty said.
Mardi Gras is considered a key to reviving New Orleans' tourism business following the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. The signs of the devastating storm are still obvious in swaths of the city but are largely unnoticeable to those who stay in the French Quarter and central business district.
Before the storm, about a million visitors came here over the four days capped by Fat Tuesday. Officials expect about 700,000 this year -- but as of Sunday, did not have any estimates.
Police spokesman Sgt. Joe Narcisse said there have been some instances of people drunk in public or disturbing the peace, but Carnival so far has been relatively uneventful.
Most were just trying to stay warm. Ron Wauters of the Krewe of Mid-City, one of Sunday's parade groups, said things warm up quickly for the costumed members on the floats once the action starts.
"When you're up there throwing the beads, you work up a good sweat," Wauters said.
Does "The Departed" Show Martin Scorcese's Heart of Darkness?
In 1990, director Martin Scorcese’s “Goodfellas 
” examined gangster life from the inside. The film didn’t shy away from the downward spiral of its characters, as they were slowly consumed by their own culture of corruption. As in several of Scorcese’s well-known works, the characters here reap what they sow – they’re violent men who meet violent ends. Religion, in the form of Catholic rituals and iconography, is present but rarely redemptive.
Click Here
To many critics, the film’s violence and stylish camerawork were masterful in technique and execution, and represented an artistic high point for the filmmaker. “Goodfellas” soon took its place alongside “Mean Streets
” and “Taxi Driver
” among the director’s most acclaimed works.
Since “Goodfellas,” Scorcese has directed several films, including a remake of “Cape Fear
”; a romantic period piece ( “The Age of Innocence
”); another mob tale (“Casino 
”); a story about the dalai lama (“Kundun
”); and a couple of shots at earning an elusive Best Director Oscar (“Gangs of New York
” and “The Aviator
”). Each film had its rewards, but each was notably flawed in some way – too long, too impersonal, or too lacking in passion.
With “The Departed,” the passion returns in spades, but the film is, like so many other Scorcese-directed works, overly long, terribly profane, brutally violent and extremely dark. The cinematic technique, especially during the film’s first hour, is dazzling – a fluid mix of camera movement, Classic Rock, and Mob machinations that sets a grim and gritty tone for what’s to come. But the energy soon lags, and a sea of despair drowns most of the characters, while the law of diminishing returns takes hold of the film. It becomes one more look at the criminal mind, with big-name actors depicting desperation, savagery and duplicity.
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Billy Costigan, a cop from a troubled family who goes undercover to infiltrate the circle of Boston crime lord Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Costigan works closely with superiors Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) and Queenan (Martin Sheen) who protect his identity, but their efforts to arrest long-time crime boss Costello are stymied by Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a police mole who keeps Costello one step ahead of law enforcement. The parallels between Costigan and Sullivan carry over to their love lives, with both men falling for the same woman (Vera Farmiga). As the noose tightens around Costello, the two cops struggle to keep up their false fronts, while each seeks to expose the other.
“The Departed” is a remake of “Infernal Affairs
,” a Hong Kong film that clocks in at 1 hour and 41 minutes, but Scorcese, given the chance to work with Nicholson and his favorite actor of late, DiCaprio, can’t contain himself. He takes the efficient Hong Kong story and pads it significantly, resulting in a bloated, drawn-out story that grows punishing as the violence mounts. At 2 hours and 30 minutes, “The Departed” manages to be more confusing than the much shorter film on which it’s based. Even so, the morbid outcome still surprises – it provoked gasps among the audience watching an advance screening – but getting to that point is arduous.
For this viewer, the ending couldn’t have come sooner. “The Departed” is ultra-violent, and despite memorable performances from the iconic Nicholson and the scene-stealing Alec Baldwin, the end result is less than thrilling.
Scorcese has gone to this well too many times. That well is not yet empty, but “The Departed” is far from refreshing. It is, rather, soul-deadening. Better for Scorcese to make different films, even if flawed, than to rehash the bloodletting and tough talk he’s already proven he can do so well.
Thanks to Christian Hamaker
” examined gangster life from the inside. The film didn’t shy away from the downward spiral of its characters, as they were slowly consumed by their own culture of corruption. As in several of Scorcese’s well-known works, the characters here reap what they sow – they’re violent men who meet violent ends. Religion, in the form of Catholic rituals and iconography, is present but rarely redemptive.Click Here
To many critics, the film’s violence and stylish camerawork were masterful in technique and execution, and represented an artistic high point for the filmmaker. “Goodfellas” soon took its place alongside “Mean Streets
” and “Taxi Driver” among the director’s most acclaimed works.Since “Goodfellas,” Scorcese has directed several films, including a remake of “Cape Fear
”; a romantic period piece ( “The Age of Innocence”); another mob tale (“Casino ”); a story about the dalai lama (“Kundun”); and a couple of shots at earning an elusive Best Director Oscar (“Gangs of New York” and “The Aviator”). Each film had its rewards, but each was notably flawed in some way – too long, too impersonal, or too lacking in passion.With “The Departed,” the passion returns in spades, but the film is, like so many other Scorcese-directed works, overly long, terribly profane, brutally violent and extremely dark. The cinematic technique, especially during the film’s first hour, is dazzling – a fluid mix of camera movement, Classic Rock, and Mob machinations that sets a grim and gritty tone for what’s to come. But the energy soon lags, and a sea of despair drowns most of the characters, while the law of diminishing returns takes hold of the film. It becomes one more look at the criminal mind, with big-name actors depicting desperation, savagery and duplicity.
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Billy Costigan, a cop from a troubled family who goes undercover to infiltrate the circle of Boston crime lord Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Costigan works closely with superiors Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) and Queenan (Martin Sheen) who protect his identity, but their efforts to arrest long-time crime boss Costello are stymied by Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a police mole who keeps Costello one step ahead of law enforcement. The parallels between Costigan and Sullivan carry over to their love lives, with both men falling for the same woman (Vera Farmiga). As the noose tightens around Costello, the two cops struggle to keep up their false fronts, while each seeks to expose the other.
“The Departed” is a remake of “Infernal Affairs
,” a Hong Kong film that clocks in at 1 hour and 41 minutes, but Scorcese, given the chance to work with Nicholson and his favorite actor of late, DiCaprio, can’t contain himself. He takes the efficient Hong Kong story and pads it significantly, resulting in a bloated, drawn-out story that grows punishing as the violence mounts. At 2 hours and 30 minutes, “The Departed” manages to be more confusing than the much shorter film on which it’s based. Even so, the morbid outcome still surprises – it provoked gasps among the audience watching an advance screening – but getting to that point is arduous.For this viewer, the ending couldn’t have come sooner. “The Departed” is ultra-violent, and despite memorable performances from the iconic Nicholson and the scene-stealing Alec Baldwin, the end result is less than thrilling.
Scorcese has gone to this well too many times. That well is not yet empty, but “The Departed” is far from refreshing. It is, rather, soul-deadening. Better for Scorcese to make different films, even if flawed, than to rehash the bloodletting and tough talk he’s already proven he can do so well.
Thanks to Christian Hamaker
Fed Request Cloaked Jury for Chicago Mob Trial
Friends of ours: Joseph "Joey The Clown" Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr., William Dauber
Federal prosecutors in one of the most significant Chicago mob cases ever are moving to cloak the names of jurors in secrecy. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitch Mars told a federal judge last week prosecutors intend to ask for an anonymous jury -- a move defense lawyers in the case are likely to oppose. The request is considered rare and extreme. It's typically reserved for cases in which alleged mobsters, terrorists or drug kingpins are on trial.
Mars did not say in court why he wanted to keep jurors' names secret, but usually prosecutors make the move to reduce jury tampering. Also, the feds can ask for an anonymous panel when jurors would have a reasonable concern about their safety.
Some of the defendants on trial have a history of allegedly tampering with the judicial system.
Reputed top mobster Joseph "Joey The Clown" Lombardo is accused of killing a witness against him in another federal case in 1974.
Another defendant, brutal mob loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr., is accused of taking part in the murder of mob enforcer William Dauber and his wife, Charlotte, in 1980. William Dauber was cooperating with federal investigators when he was slain.
In the mob case, jurors are expected to have to fill out a questionnaire. But potential jurors would not even put their names on the questionnaire, instead only using their juror number, if U.S. District Judge James Zagel grants the prosecution's request.
Defense lawyers in the case have signaled they would object to an anonymous jury. Jurors may already be on edge hearing evidence in an organized crime case. To be told their identities are being kept secret could create bias or fear concerning the defendants, according to defense lawyers involved in the case.
Judges don't always grant a request for an anonymous jury. In the Chicago trial of two men charged with racketeering and allegedly tied to the terrorist group Hamas, prosecutors wanted an anonymous jury, but the judge denied the request. This month, the men were found not guilty of the most serious charge against them but convicted on lesser charges.
Federal prosecutors in one of the most significant Chicago mob cases ever are moving to cloak the names of jurors in secrecy. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitch Mars told a federal judge last week prosecutors intend to ask for an anonymous jury -- a move defense lawyers in the case are likely to oppose. The request is considered rare and extreme. It's typically reserved for cases in which alleged mobsters, terrorists or drug kingpins are on trial.
Mars did not say in court why he wanted to keep jurors' names secret, but usually prosecutors make the move to reduce jury tampering. Also, the feds can ask for an anonymous panel when jurors would have a reasonable concern about their safety.
Some of the defendants on trial have a history of allegedly tampering with the judicial system.
Reputed top mobster Joseph "Joey The Clown" Lombardo is accused of killing a witness against him in another federal case in 1974.
Another defendant, brutal mob loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr., is accused of taking part in the murder of mob enforcer William Dauber and his wife, Charlotte, in 1980. William Dauber was cooperating with federal investigators when he was slain.
In the mob case, jurors are expected to have to fill out a questionnaire. But potential jurors would not even put their names on the questionnaire, instead only using their juror number, if U.S. District Judge James Zagel grants the prosecution's request.
Defense lawyers in the case have signaled they would object to an anonymous jury. Jurors may already be on edge hearing evidence in an organized crime case. To be told their identities are being kept secret could create bias or fear concerning the defendants, according to defense lawyers involved in the case.
Judges don't always grant a request for an anonymous jury. In the Chicago trial of two men charged with racketeering and allegedly tied to the terrorist group Hamas, prosecutors wanted an anonymous jury, but the judge denied the request. This month, the men were found not guilty of the most serious charge against them but convicted on lesser charges.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
The Brothershood Mob Squad
Friends of ours: Frank Costello, Albert Anastasia, Joseph Valachi, John Gotti, Lucchese Crime Family, Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, Gambino Crime Family
Friends of mine: Soprano Crime Family, Louis Eppolito, Stephen Caracappa
The phenomenon of Mafia nostalgia is so ingrained in the American consciousness, one might think Frank Costello and Albert Anastasia were among the founding fathers. In fact, our fascination with modern Italian-American organized crime dates only to the early 1960s, when the traitor Joseph Valachi first laid bare its internal structures and codes. Interest in the Mafia has proved far more enduring than the syndicates themselves, which have never recovered from the jailing of John Gotti and so many other godfathers in the 1980s and early 1990s. All we have left are Tony Soprano, the best work of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, and our memories. Ah, the bad old days.
The Mafia has been very good for Hollywood producers and newspaper reporters, which explains the media circus that surrounded the trial earlier this year of New York’s two infamous “Mafia cops,” Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, who today remain in jail even though a judge has vacated their convictions. The now-retired detectives, dragged from their gaudy Las Vegas old-age homes to face the tabloid pack, were shown to have funneled sensitive intelligence and actually carried out murders for the crazed Luchese family godfather Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso back in the 1980s. The whole episode felt plucked from another era, as if these were the last two American turncoats to be prosecuted for cold war espionage.
Any number of books and movie projects are said to be in the works, and the first, “The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia,” by Guy Lawson, a veteran crime reporter, and William Oldham, a former New York Police Department detective who helped break the case, has now arrived. The good news, at least for Mafia aficionados, is that Lawson and Oldham have this material down cold. They seemingly had access to every Police Department document, every recorded conversation and every exhibit employed to convict Eppolito and Caracappa.
The bad news is that it’s all here: every dull dinner between the two detectives and an F.B.I. informant, page after page describing a screenplay Eppolito once wrote, apparently every case Oldham ever worked. “The Brotherhoods” is a perfectly fine book that could have been much, much better had the authors only known when to clam up. One suspects that within this overstuffed, ultradense 511-page anvil is a lean, nimble 275-page claw hammer yearning to swing free, a sequel to breezy underworld page-turners like Howard Blum’s “Gangland
.” It’s not just that Lawson and Oldham throw in the kitchen sink. Like Gambino soldiers gleefully raiding a Canarsie warehouse, they haul out a refrigerator, 18 microwave ovens, 82 dinette sets, 994 Viking ranges and, still feeling a tad light, the entire inventory of the New Jersey Turnpike Ikea.
Part of the problem is that “The Brotherhoods” is not one book but two. The first is a straightforward if exhaustive narrative of the case, presumably written by Lawson. After putting down the galleys for the 15th time, unable to thrash my way through thickets of paragraphs so dense I began looking for hobbits, I took a hard look at his prose. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. His sentences are spare, his adverbs scarce, his name-pronoun exchanges are good, his transitions are functional if unspectacular. The trouble is Lawson’s use of detail. There’s a world of difference between “telling” detail and telling every detail. At one point I had to stop and shake my head when I realized he was actually explaining the brand name of a chair Oldham uses during a prison conference.
The second book really slows things down. This is Oldham’s lengthy interjections into Lawson’s prose, which come in paragraph after paragraph of quotation, sometimes five and six at a time. While Oldham’s views can be informative and entertaining, the effect is akin to a director’s commentary on a DVD film. Oldham strives to provide context, but too often serves up platitudes. To cite just one example of dozens: “In major organized criminal investigations there is not an obviously straightforward cause and effect. Conspiracies occur in parallel universes and timelines. What is the chronology of the crimes that are investigated? What happened? When did it happen? Where did it happen? Why did it happen?” This might be catnip for cops, but ahem, sir, could you please stop talking during the movie?
For those willing to wade through it, “The Brotherhoods” has its rewards. The authors do a stellar job of portraying the Police Department as a dysfunctional bureaucracy, making us see how Caracappa, who worked in the elite Major Case Squad alongside Oldham, was a much bigger fish than Eppolito, a blowhard toiling in deepest Brooklyn. They are adept at conjuring organized crime’s inbred world of social clubs and row houses; every cop in the book seems to have a cousin Joey “in the life,” and vice versa. Rarely have Mafiosi seemed like such losers as they do here, obese men in track suits debating whom to kill once they finish their ziti. Gaspipe Casso comes off as a cut above his knuckle-dragging peers, but his story was told just as well — and faster — in Selwyn Raab’s “Five Families
.”
Of the two cops, the pathetic, porcine Eppolito — whose cinematic ambitions peaked with a goombah cameo in Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” — is the most vividly drawn, this due to his mind-bogglingly wrongheaded memoir, “Mafia Cop
,” in which he boasted of his Mafia lineage, which included his father, Ralph Eppolito, known as Fat the Gangster, and an uncle, Jimmy the Clam. Caracappa remains a cipher throughout, a wary, watchful figure with the look, and apparently the personality, of an undertaker on downers. Both could have used additional reporting to flesh out their careers and back stories; there aren’t many clues in the text as to what a pro like Caracappa would see in a mook like Eppolito. But Lawson, presumably viewing Oldham as the Ken Jennings of criminalia, falls prey to the common trap of letting only the caged canary sing. Isn’t there anyone else who knew these two detectives?
The book also suffers from several factors out of the authors’ control. For one thing, they cannot tell the full story of what Eppolito and Caracappa actually did, because the two detectives have never publicly discussed, much less admitted, their crimes. So what we get is a narrative engine built around Oldham’s investigation. This is interesting if unremarkable material, in part because his probe was a whodunit only in its infancy. After Casso, in an abortive attempt to reduce a life sentence for murder, told prosecutors about Eppolito and Caracappa in 1994, the next 10 years of story line are purely an exercise in proving what the unreliable Casso claimed.
In the end, for all Oldham’s dogged work, the case is broken when Casso’s conduit to the cops, the aging fence Burton Kaplan, finally cuts a deal of his own after nine years in prison. The authors do their best to wring drama from Oldham’s jailhouse tango with Kaplan, but Kaplan is bland beyond belief. The narrative payoff, the eureka moment the authors spend 300 pages building up to, comes “after dozens of calls and six weeks of talking,” of which little is said. “I think we got a deal,” Kaplan’s attorney tells Oldham. Memo to: Ahab. From: Whale. I think we got a deal.
Thanks to Bryan Burrough
Friends of mine: Soprano Crime Family, Louis Eppolito, Stephen Caracappa
The phenomenon of Mafia nostalgia is so ingrained in the American consciousness, one might think Frank Costello and Albert Anastasia were among the founding fathers. In fact, our fascination with modern Italian-American organized crime dates only to the early 1960s, when the traitor Joseph Valachi first laid bare its internal structures and codes. Interest in the Mafia has proved far more enduring than the syndicates themselves, which have never recovered from the jailing of John Gotti and so many other godfathers in the 1980s and early 1990s. All we have left are Tony Soprano, the best work of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, and our memories. Ah, the bad old days.
The Mafia has been very good for Hollywood producers and newspaper reporters, which explains the media circus that surrounded the trial earlier this year of New York’s two infamous “Mafia cops,” Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, who today remain in jail even though a judge has vacated their convictions. The now-retired detectives, dragged from their gaudy Las Vegas old-age homes to face the tabloid pack, were shown to have funneled sensitive intelligence and actually carried out murders for the crazed Luchese family godfather Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso back in the 1980s. The whole episode felt plucked from another era, as if these were the last two American turncoats to be prosecuted for cold war espionage.
Any number of books and movie projects are said to be in the works, and the first, “The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia,” by Guy Lawson, a veteran crime reporter, and William Oldham, a former New York Police Department detective who helped break the case, has now arrived. The good news, at least for Mafia aficionados, is that Lawson and Oldham have this material down cold. They seemingly had access to every Police Department document, every recorded conversation and every exhibit employed to convict Eppolito and Caracappa.
The bad news is that it’s all here: every dull dinner between the two detectives and an F.B.I. informant, page after page describing a screenplay Eppolito once wrote, apparently every case Oldham ever worked. “The Brotherhoods” is a perfectly fine book that could have been much, much better had the authors only known when to clam up. One suspects that within this overstuffed, ultradense 511-page anvil is a lean, nimble 275-page claw hammer yearning to swing free, a sequel to breezy underworld page-turners like Howard Blum’s “Gangland
.” It’s not just that Lawson and Oldham throw in the kitchen sink. Like Gambino soldiers gleefully raiding a Canarsie warehouse, they haul out a refrigerator, 18 microwave ovens, 82 dinette sets, 994 Viking ranges and, still feeling a tad light, the entire inventory of the New Jersey Turnpike Ikea.Part of the problem is that “The Brotherhoods” is not one book but two. The first is a straightforward if exhaustive narrative of the case, presumably written by Lawson. After putting down the galleys for the 15th time, unable to thrash my way through thickets of paragraphs so dense I began looking for hobbits, I took a hard look at his prose. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. His sentences are spare, his adverbs scarce, his name-pronoun exchanges are good, his transitions are functional if unspectacular. The trouble is Lawson’s use of detail. There’s a world of difference between “telling” detail and telling every detail. At one point I had to stop and shake my head when I realized he was actually explaining the brand name of a chair Oldham uses during a prison conference.
The second book really slows things down. This is Oldham’s lengthy interjections into Lawson’s prose, which come in paragraph after paragraph of quotation, sometimes five and six at a time. While Oldham’s views can be informative and entertaining, the effect is akin to a director’s commentary on a DVD film. Oldham strives to provide context, but too often serves up platitudes. To cite just one example of dozens: “In major organized criminal investigations there is not an obviously straightforward cause and effect. Conspiracies occur in parallel universes and timelines. What is the chronology of the crimes that are investigated? What happened? When did it happen? Where did it happen? Why did it happen?” This might be catnip for cops, but ahem, sir, could you please stop talking during the movie?
For those willing to wade through it, “The Brotherhoods” has its rewards. The authors do a stellar job of portraying the Police Department as a dysfunctional bureaucracy, making us see how Caracappa, who worked in the elite Major Case Squad alongside Oldham, was a much bigger fish than Eppolito, a blowhard toiling in deepest Brooklyn. They are adept at conjuring organized crime’s inbred world of social clubs and row houses; every cop in the book seems to have a cousin Joey “in the life,” and vice versa. Rarely have Mafiosi seemed like such losers as they do here, obese men in track suits debating whom to kill once they finish their ziti. Gaspipe Casso comes off as a cut above his knuckle-dragging peers, but his story was told just as well — and faster — in Selwyn Raab’s “Five Families
.”Of the two cops, the pathetic, porcine Eppolito — whose cinematic ambitions peaked with a goombah cameo in Scorsese’s “Goodfellas
” — is the most vividly drawn, this due to his mind-bogglingly wrongheaded memoir, “Mafia Cop,” in which he boasted of his Mafia lineage, which included his father, Ralph Eppolito, known as Fat the Gangster, and an uncle, Jimmy the Clam. Caracappa remains a cipher throughout, a wary, watchful figure with the look, and apparently the personality, of an undertaker on downers. Both could have used additional reporting to flesh out their careers and back stories; there aren’t many clues in the text as to what a pro like Caracappa would see in a mook like Eppolito. But Lawson, presumably viewing Oldham as the Ken Jennings of criminalia, falls prey to the common trap of letting only the caged canary sing. Isn’t there anyone else who knew these two detectives?The book also suffers from several factors out of the authors’ control. For one thing, they cannot tell the full story of what Eppolito and Caracappa actually did, because the two detectives have never publicly discussed, much less admitted, their crimes. So what we get is a narrative engine built around Oldham’s investigation. This is interesting if unremarkable material, in part because his probe was a whodunit only in its infancy. After Casso, in an abortive attempt to reduce a life sentence for murder, told prosecutors about Eppolito and Caracappa in 1994, the next 10 years of story line are purely an exercise in proving what the unreliable Casso claimed.
In the end, for all Oldham’s dogged work, the case is broken when Casso’s conduit to the cops, the aging fence Burton Kaplan, finally cuts a deal of his own after nine years in prison. The authors do their best to wring drama from Oldham’s jailhouse tango with Kaplan, but Kaplan is bland beyond belief. The narrative payoff, the eureka moment the authors spend 300 pages building up to, comes “after dozens of calls and six weeks of talking,” of which little is said. “I think we got a deal,” Kaplan’s attorney tells Oldham. Memo to: Ahab. From: Whale. I think we got a deal.
Thanks to Bryan Burrough
Family Above All - The Black Donnelly's
From a promo for the new NBC Show called The Black Donnelly's. They are already being called the "Hunky" Mobsters".
Meet the Donnelly Brothers: Tommy, Jimmy, Kevin and Sean. There is nothing that these four Irish brothers wouldn't do to protect each other, and for them that means lying, cheating, stealing, and, occasionally, calling the cops. Narrated by wannabe gangster Joey "Ice Cream", this gritty series bears witness to the Donnelly brothers sudden involvement in organized crime, focusing on how they go from boys to mobsters, and showing how their new life affects their relationships with family, friends, and lovers.
Academy Award winners Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco ("Crash
") are the creators of this gritty new crime drama series loosely based Moresco's background. The ensemble cast includes Jonathan Tucker ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre"), Billy Lush ("Huff"), Thomas Guiry ("Mystic River"), Michael Stahl-David ("Uncle Nino"), Keith Nobbs ("25th Hour"), Olivia Wilde ("The O.C."), Kirk Acevedo ("Oz").
Meet the Donnelly Brothers: Tommy, Jimmy, Kevin and Sean. There is nothing that these four Irish brothers wouldn't do to protect each other, and for them that means lying, cheating, stealing, and, occasionally, calling the cops. Narrated by wannabe gangster Joey "Ice Cream", this gritty series bears witness to the Donnelly brothers sudden involvement in organized crime, focusing on how they go from boys to mobsters, and showing how their new life affects their relationships with family, friends, and lovers.
Academy Award winners Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco ("Crash
") are the creators of this gritty new crime drama series loosely based Moresco's background. The ensemble cast includes Jonathan Tucker ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre"), Billy Lush ("Huff"), Thomas Guiry ("Mystic River"), Michael Stahl-David ("Uncle Nino"), Keith Nobbs ("25th Hour"), Olivia Wilde ("The O.C."), Kirk Acevedo ("Oz").
Reputed Chicago Mob Boss 'Joey the Clown' Could Face Fresh Charges
Friends of ours: Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, Frank "the German" Schweihs
Reputed mob boss Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo and another man could face new charges for going on the lam after a major indictment against them was unsealed, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday.
"We may seek to add charges to the indictment based on their fugitive status," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitchell A. Mars told federal Judge James B. Zagel at a hearing in a racketeering case known as Operation Family Secrets.
Fourteen alleged mobsters and mob associates were charged in the indictment alleging that leaders of the Chicago Outfit were involved in 18 murders, including that of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, the mob's onetime top man in Las Vegas who was killed and buried in an Indiana corn field.
Joe Pesci played a character based on Tony Spilotro in the 1995 Martin Scorsese film "Casino."
Lombardo, 77, was captured by FBI agents in a suburban Elmwood Park alley in January 2006 after nine months on the run.
The other runaway defendant, alleged mob enforcer Frank "The German" Schweihs, 76, was captured by FBI agents in December 2005, hiding in the hills of Kentucky south of Lexington.
Lombardo attorney Rick Halprin said that an unlawful flight to escape prosecution charge would add little to the case compared to the racketeering count his client is charged with. "Given the breadth and scope of the case, I don't believe I'm going to lose any sleep over it," he said. Schweihs attorney Ellen R. Domph had no comment.
Zagel told attorneys Tuesday that he likely would order a hearing to determine exactly what jurors might hear from prospective government witness James Wagner, a former FBI mob investigator who now is president of the Chicago Crime Commission.
Prosecutors want Wagner to tell the jury the story of the Chicago Outfit based on his decades of experience investigating the mob.
Halprin has asked Zagel to limit what Wagner would be allowed to say. Zagel told Mars to provide the court with a written explanation of what the former agent would tell the jury.
Thanks to Mike Robinson
Reputed mob boss Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo and another man could face new charges for going on the lam after a major indictment against them was unsealed, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday.
"We may seek to add charges to the indictment based on their fugitive status," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitchell A. Mars told federal Judge James B. Zagel at a hearing in a racketeering case known as Operation Family Secrets.
Fourteen alleged mobsters and mob associates were charged in the indictment alleging that leaders of the Chicago Outfit were involved in 18 murders, including that of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, the mob's onetime top man in Las Vegas who was killed and buried in an Indiana corn field.
Joe Pesci played a character based on Tony Spilotro in the 1995 Martin Scorsese film "Casino
."Lombardo, 77, was captured by FBI agents in a suburban Elmwood Park alley in January 2006 after nine months on the run.
The other runaway defendant, alleged mob enforcer Frank "The German" Schweihs, 76, was captured by FBI agents in December 2005, hiding in the hills of Kentucky south of Lexington.
Lombardo attorney Rick Halprin said that an unlawful flight to escape prosecution charge would add little to the case compared to the racketeering count his client is charged with. "Given the breadth and scope of the case, I don't believe I'm going to lose any sleep over it," he said. Schweihs attorney Ellen R. Domph had no comment.
Zagel told attorneys Tuesday that he likely would order a hearing to determine exactly what jurors might hear from prospective government witness James Wagner, a former FBI mob investigator who now is president of the Chicago Crime Commission.
Prosecutors want Wagner to tell the jury the story of the Chicago Outfit based on his decades of experience investigating the mob.
Halprin has asked Zagel to limit what Wagner would be allowed to say. Zagel told Mars to provide the court with a written explanation of what the former agent would tell the jury.
Thanks to Mike Robinson
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The Departed is Released
'The Departed' is set in South Boston, where the state police force is waging war on organized crime. Young undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate run by gangland chief Costello (Jack Nicholson).
While Billy is quickly gaining Costello's confidence, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the police department as an informer for the syndicate, is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit.
Each man becomes deeply consumed by his double life, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operations he has penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the gangsters and the police that there's a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin are suddenly in danger of being caught and exposed to the enemy -- and each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save himself.
While Billy is quickly gaining Costello's confidence, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the police department as an informer for the syndicate, is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit.
Each man becomes deeply consumed by his double life, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operations he has penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the gangsters and the police that there's a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin are suddenly in danger of being caught and exposed to the enemy -- and each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save himself.
Monday, February 12, 2007
The Unfinished Business of Donnie Brasco
The only real mobster I ever met was a funny little guy named Fred. He was short, stooped and rumpled, with basset-hound eyes and pallid skin. A wise-cracking, kewpie-doll of a guy with a cigarette hanging out of the side of his mouth. Maybe you remember him. Fred Roti, former alderman of the old mobbed-up First Ward. The representative, as Harper's Magazine once described him, of the "Italian business interests" in City Hall.
Freddy liked to hang out at the City Hall press room and share coffee and jokes with the beat reporters. In fact, he was the Art Linkletter of the city council
. Freddy thought reporters, just like kids, say the darnedest things!
I happened to be there on the day he asked his legendary question: "So, boys, what should my campaign slogan be this year?"
"Vote for Roti," Bob Davis said without skipping a beat, "and nobody gets hurt!"
Furtive glances. A pause. A long pause. It seemed to get awfully hot all of a sudden, too. And then that old Linkletter look spread slowly across Roti's gnarled face. "You're baaaad," he chortled to relieved laughter all around.
If we're lucky, that's as close as most of us will ever get to an honest-to-goodness wiseguy. But Joe Pistone, a k a Donnie Brasco, has lived in the belly of the beast.
Pistone is the former FBI agent who went undercover as a Mafia soldier for six years and helped cripple the Five Families of New York. He told his story in a best-selling book that later became a movie starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp.
Now, Pistone is back with a sequel. Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business promises to reveal the tales that he couldn't disclose earlier. Unfortunately, it seems more like a ploy to cash in one more time on the Donnie Brasco brand. The book has all the drama of a night out with the boys, reliving the glory days. And it reads with all the charm of a 300-page federal indictment.
And that's a shame, since if you can endure the self-congratulation, insufferable stories about being on the set with Al and Johnny, and a Jack Webb -- just the facts, ma'am! -- style of storytelling, there are some fascinating insights here into what mobsters are really like, and what it takes to bring them down.
The best stories illuminate the moral ambiguity inherent in the double life of an undercover agent. In the name of the law, he has to be ready to break the law. To catch a criminal, he has to risk becoming one.
For the first time, Pistone admits to crimes that would have ended the Donnie Brasco operation if his superiors in the FBI had known about them -- hijackings, burglaries, armed robberies and beatings. "I had to gain the trust of criminals and gangsters," he says, "and there is only one way to do that. You got to do what you got to do."
Pistone tells a chilling story about a capo -- his boss -- ordering him to kill a mob enemy. It's a wiseguy's ultimate test. "The people I had been assigned to infiltrate engaged in murder the way a cabbie goes through a yellow light," Pistone writes. "I had long ago made my decision of what to do when this predictable occasion arose. If Bruno's there, he's gone. If I have to put a bullet in his head, I will."
There is a nagging conflict between what Pistone thinks he can achieve and what his FBI superiors think is reasonable -- and safe.
After blowing one assignment for his mob bosses, Pistone is called to a summit to face the music. He knows the FBI would rather pull the plug on the operation than risk his life. Pistone also knows the basic rule of mob life is "not to rat, and not to run." So he goes, without telling the FBI. "I was finally in so deep I was lying to the FBI by omission," he says. "Because of my job I lied regularly in my personal life to those I was closest to. I was finally in the mud at the deep end."
One reads on in anticipation and, finally, irritation, waiting in vain for more stories packing this kind of tension. The closest he comes is a brief description of how Donnie Brasco was ordered to abort his undercover pose just as he was on the verge of becoming a "made member" of the Bonnano crime family, a decision he describes as having "the keys to the vault and suddenly throwing them away." But there's no elaboration, no sense of what the debate was like, and what was really lost.
Instead, an interminable, mind-numbing timeline of recent mob cases descends into a tirade on a trial in which Pistone claims everyone involved -- wiseguys, investigators and prosecutors -- are angling ineptly for book deals. The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight winds up as The Gang That Couldn't Write Straight.
Thanks to Joe Kolina, a Chicago journalist with a long-standing interest in what Bonnano family soldier Lefty Ruggiero described as "the underworld field."
Freddy liked to hang out at the City Hall press room and share coffee and jokes with the beat reporters. In fact, he was the Art Linkletter of the city council
. Freddy thought reporters, just like kids, say the darnedest things!I happened to be there on the day he asked his legendary question: "So, boys, what should my campaign slogan be this year?"
"Vote for Roti," Bob Davis said without skipping a beat, "and nobody gets hurt!"
Furtive glances. A pause. A long pause. It seemed to get awfully hot all of a sudden, too. And then that old Linkletter look spread slowly across Roti's gnarled face. "You're baaaad," he chortled to relieved laughter all around.
If we're lucky, that's as close as most of us will ever get to an honest-to-goodness wiseguy. But Joe Pistone, a k a Donnie Brasco, has lived in the belly of the beast.
Pistone is the former FBI agent who went undercover as a Mafia soldier for six years and helped cripple the Five Families of New York. He told his story in a best-selling book that later became a movie starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp.
Now, Pistone is back with a sequel. Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business promises to reveal the tales that he couldn't disclose earlier. Unfortunately, it seems more like a ploy to cash in one more time on the Donnie Brasco brand. The book has all the drama of a night out with the boys, reliving the glory days. And it reads with all the charm of a 300-page federal indictment.
And that's a shame, since if you can endure the self-congratulation, insufferable stories about being on the set with Al and Johnny, and a Jack Webb -- just the facts, ma'am! -- style of storytelling, there are some fascinating insights here into what mobsters are really like, and what it takes to bring them down.
The best stories illuminate the moral ambiguity inherent in the double life of an undercover agent. In the name of the law, he has to be ready to break the law. To catch a criminal, he has to risk becoming one.
For the first time, Pistone admits to crimes that would have ended the Donnie Brasco operation if his superiors in the FBI had known about them -- hijackings, burglaries, armed robberies and beatings. "I had to gain the trust of criminals and gangsters," he says, "and there is only one way to do that. You got to do what you got to do."
Pistone tells a chilling story about a capo -- his boss -- ordering him to kill a mob enemy. It's a wiseguy's ultimate test. "The people I had been assigned to infiltrate engaged in murder the way a cabbie goes through a yellow light," Pistone writes. "I had long ago made my decision of what to do when this predictable occasion arose. If Bruno's there, he's gone. If I have to put a bullet in his head, I will."
There is a nagging conflict between what Pistone thinks he can achieve and what his FBI superiors think is reasonable -- and safe.
After blowing one assignment for his mob bosses, Pistone is called to a summit to face the music. He knows the FBI would rather pull the plug on the operation than risk his life. Pistone also knows the basic rule of mob life is "not to rat, and not to run." So he goes, without telling the FBI. "I was finally in so deep I was lying to the FBI by omission," he says. "Because of my job I lied regularly in my personal life to those I was closest to. I was finally in the mud at the deep end."
One reads on in anticipation and, finally, irritation, waiting in vain for more stories packing this kind of tension. The closest he comes is a brief description of how Donnie Brasco was ordered to abort his undercover pose just as he was on the verge of becoming a "made member" of the Bonnano crime family, a decision he describes as having "the keys to the vault and suddenly throwing them away." But there's no elaboration, no sense of what the debate was like, and what was really lost.
Instead, an interminable, mind-numbing timeline of recent mob cases descends into a tirade on a trial in which Pistone claims everyone involved -- wiseguys, investigators and prosecutors -- are angling ineptly for book deals. The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight winds up as The Gang That Couldn't Write Straight.
Thanks to Joe Kolina, a Chicago journalist with a long-standing interest in what Bonnano family soldier Lefty Ruggiero described as "the underworld field."
Capone, Mobsters, Relaxed in Pingree Grove
What would the world’s most famous mobster want with little Pingree Grove?
Well
, there were no police, few people were around and everyone in town minded their own business, locals say, making the little village an ideal place for Al Capone to relax.
Resident Alice Thurnau, 86, says Al Capone was even rumored to have owned a house in Pingree Grove. That house no longer stands.
Alice’s husband, Kenneth, 92, also known as “Shorty,” is the oldest resident in town to have been born and raised in Pingree Grove.
He says that when he was 12, he once had a personal encounter with the mobster. One day in 1927, Capone brought his car to the Thurnau Garage, opened by his father, Jack, a one-time mayor of Pingree Grove. Capone had a flat tire and asked Shorty if he’d change it. And after he did, Capone rewarded him with a tip. “It was pretty big,” Shorty said.
But Capone isn’t the only mobster thought to have cooled his heels in Pingree Grove.
Various residents say Sam “Teets” Battaglia, a member of the Chicago Outfit and close associate of Sam Giancana, who died in prison in 1973
, maintained a house and farm on Damisch Road. But in Pingree Grove, Battaglia was known for furnishing all of the children with free pop, Alice Thurnau said.
“He wanted to make a good name for himself,” she said.
Thanks to Lenore T. Adkins
Well
, there were no police, few people were around and everyone in town minded their own business, locals say, making the little village an ideal place for Al Capone to relax.Resident Alice Thurnau, 86, says Al Capone was even rumored to have owned a house in Pingree Grove. That house no longer stands.
Alice’s husband, Kenneth, 92, also known as “Shorty,” is the oldest resident in town to have been born and raised in Pingree Grove.
He says that when he was 12, he once had a personal encounter with the mobster. One day in 1927, Capone brought his car to the Thurnau Garage, opened by his father, Jack, a one-time mayor of Pingree Grove. Capone had a flat tire and asked Shorty if he’d change it. And after he did, Capone rewarded him with a tip. “It was pretty big,” Shorty said.
But Capone isn’t the only mobster thought to have cooled his heels in Pingree Grove.
Various residents say Sam “Teets” Battaglia, a member of the Chicago Outfit and close associate of Sam Giancana, who died in prison in 1973
, maintained a house and farm on Damisch Road. But in Pingree Grove, Battaglia was known for furnishing all of the children with free pop, Alice Thurnau said.“He wanted to make a good name for himself,” she said.
Thanks to Lenore T. Adkins
Friday, February 09, 2007
The Untouchables
A depiction of the mob warlord who ruled Prohibition-era Chicago . . . and the law enforcer who vowed to bring him down. Stars Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness, Robert De Niro as gangland kingpin Al Capone and Sean Connery as Malone, the cop who teaches Ness how to beat the mob: shoot fast and shoot first.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Chicago Crime Commission Raises Concern Over Expanded Gambling in Illinois
Today, the Chicago Crime Commission said that Illinois State Representative Lou Lang's (D-Skokie)recent proposal to expand gaming in Illinois, which would add four gaming licenses and slot machines at horse race tracks, would have a significant negative impact to the integrity of gaming in Illinois. To address these concerns, the Chicago Crime Commission is suggesting a pay-as-you-go solution to keep gaming in Illinois honest and not place the financial burden on taxpayers.
The Chicago Crime Commission is concerned the Illinois Gaming Board is ill-equipped to facilitate the expansion of gaming outlined in Representative Lang's proposal. "From what we have seen, the proposal to expand gaming in Illinois does not appear to address the need for required suitability investigations to be conducted by the Illinois Gaming Board on the potential investors in these new gambling operations," according to Jim Wagner, president of the Chicago Crime Commission. "To even consider expanded gambling, I think the citizens of Illinois must be assured that the companies and employees who provide gaming services, gaming equipment and other ancillary services are beyond reproach," Wagner continued.
Unfortunately, even at current levels of gaming in Illinois, the Illinois Gaming Board has had difficulty reviewing applications for investments and conducting thorough background investigations on companies providing gaming equipment, in a timely manner. "As the former top investigator at the Illinois Gaming Board, I will tell you we have never had sufficient staffing to routinely review all vendor contracts that provide services to the gaming industry in Illinois," Wagner added.
"Budget restrictions imposed on the Illinois Gaming Board by the State of Illinois have left Illinois Gaming Board staff with concerns about appropriate due diligence or comprehensive background investigations over all aspects of gaming in Illinois," said Wagner. "Adding four new casino licenses and slot machines at horse race tracks would, potentially, completely overwhelm the ability of the Illinois Gaming Board to provide complete, competent and independent oversight of the industry," he added.
Arguments have been made that increasing the budget of the Illinois Gaming Board in order to improve their ability to investigate and monitor the gaming industry would decrease the revenue generated by taxes on gaming. "The answer to this concern can be found in the business model provided by the gaming control operations in both Nevada and New Jersey. Both states utilize variations of a pay-as-you-go investigative requirement. They require companies and individuals to pay, in advance, the cost of each investigation. Refusal to pay ends the licensing process," Wagner said.
To further defray costs to the taxpayers and increase the integrity of gaming, each casino could also be required to pay for the cost of Illinois Gaming Board Agents who are required to be on-site during gaming activity but should be on-site at all times. "While these steps would not remove the need for state budget appropriations, the overall costs of operating the Illinois Gaming Board would shift significantly to the companies and individuals that benefit from owning and operating Illinois gaming facilities and their ancillary businesses," he concluded.
The Chicago Crime Commission is concerned the Illinois Gaming Board is ill-equipped to facilitate the expansion of gaming outlined in Representative Lang's proposal. "From what we have seen, the proposal to expand gaming in Illinois does not appear to address the need for required suitability investigations to be conducted by the Illinois Gaming Board on the potential investors in these new gambling operations," according to Jim Wagner, president of the Chicago Crime Commission. "To even consider expanded gambling, I think the citizens of Illinois must be assured that the companies and employees who provide gaming services, gaming equipment and other ancillary services are beyond reproach," Wagner continued.
Unfortunately, even at current levels of gaming in Illinois, the Illinois Gaming Board has had difficulty reviewing applications for investments and conducting thorough background investigations on companies providing gaming equipment, in a timely manner. "As the former top investigator at the Illinois Gaming Board, I will tell you we have never had sufficient staffing to routinely review all vendor contracts that provide services to the gaming industry in Illinois," Wagner added.
"Budget restrictions imposed on the Illinois Gaming Board by the State of Illinois have left Illinois Gaming Board staff with concerns about appropriate due diligence or comprehensive background investigations over all aspects of gaming in Illinois," said Wagner. "Adding four new casino licenses and slot machines at horse race tracks would, potentially, completely overwhelm the ability of the Illinois Gaming Board to provide complete, competent and independent oversight of the industry," he added.
Arguments have been made that increasing the budget of the Illinois Gaming Board in order to improve their ability to investigate and monitor the gaming industry would decrease the revenue generated by taxes on gaming. "The answer to this concern can be found in the business model provided by the gaming control operations in both Nevada and New Jersey. Both states utilize variations of a pay-as-you-go investigative requirement. They require companies and individuals to pay, in advance, the cost of each investigation. Refusal to pay ends the licensing process," Wagner said.
To further defray costs to the taxpayers and increase the integrity of gaming, each casino could also be required to pay for the cost of Illinois Gaming Board Agents who are required to be on-site during gaming activity but should be on-site at all times. "While these steps would not remove the need for state budget appropriations, the overall costs of operating the Illinois Gaming Board would shift significantly to the companies and individuals that benefit from owning and operating Illinois gaming facilities and their ancillary businesses," he concluded.
Battle of Thieves?
Friends of ours: Frank Cullotta, Tony Spilotro
Friends of mine: William "Slick" Hanner, Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal
Since 1995, George Knapp has been the chief reporter on the Las Vegas Channel 8's I-Team investigative unit. In that capacity, he has earned two regional Edward R. Murrow awards and a national Edward R. Murrow award for his investigative stories on the voter registration fraud in the Clark County election of 2004. Knapp has won eleven Emmy Awards. Seven were for his "Street Talk" commentaries and one was for an investigative story. Seven times, he has won the Mark Twain Award for best news writing from the Associated Press. Recently Knapp ran a series (Part 1 and Part 2) that covered his interview with Frank Cullotta, a former thief/mob hitman who turned government informant.
Slick Hanner has shared with me an email that he has sent to Knapp in which he challenges the credibility of Cullotta. In addition to providing examples, Hanner proposes a sitdown in which Knapp moderates a discussion between the Cullotta and Hanner as a "Battle of Thieves". It is a compelling idea and one that I hope that Knapp embraces. Below you will find Hanner's email to Knapp. Feel free to pass along your thoughts on this to both myself and directly to Knapp.
Friends of mine: William "Slick" Hanner, Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal
Since 1995, George Knapp has been the chief reporter on the Las Vegas Channel 8's I-Team investigative unit. In that capacity, he has earned two regional Edward R. Murrow awards and a national Edward R. Murrow award for his investigative stories on the voter registration fraud in the Clark County election of 2004. Knapp has won eleven Emmy Awards. Seven were for his "Street Talk" commentaries and one was for an investigative story. Seven times, he has won the Mark Twain Award for best news writing from the Associated Press. Recently Knapp ran a series (Part 1 and Part 2) that covered his interview with Frank Cullotta, a former thief/mob hitman who turned government informant.
Slick Hanner has shared with me an email that he has sent to Knapp in which he challenges the credibility of Cullotta. In addition to providing examples, Hanner proposes a sitdown in which Knapp moderates a discussion between the Cullotta and Hanner as a "Battle of Thieves". It is a compelling idea and one that I hope that Knapp embraces. Below you will find Hanner's email to Knapp. Feel free to pass along your thoughts on this to both myself and directly to Knapp.
Dear Mr. Knapp,
The last couple of nights I watched your show on Frank Cullotta with my mouth open in disbelief. This guy is trying to whitewash every lousy thing he did. I admit to being a thief all my life. But I was an honorable thief, meaning I never snitched on my friends or turned states evidence against anyone. You will see that I'm telling the truth when you read my life story in my newly released non-fiction book, Thief! The Gutsy, True Story of an Ex-Con Artist(Barricade Books.) In the book, I reveal my life of crime with the mob, prostitution and gambling when I lived in Chicago (Outfit headquarters,) Miami and Las Vegas. And I hold nothing back about what kind of a guy I was. I wrote THIEF to straighten out the public on Cullotta and Rosenthal's lies (Pileggi's main informants) in the book Casino
.
Cullotta was the worst kind of thief. He thought nothing of betraying his friends and even turned on his brother in order to save his own neck. Now he's on your program telling so many lies, which I will be happy to refute.
For instance, Cullotta said Tony Spilotro brought him to Las Vegas to be in his Hole in the Wall Gang. But the truth is that Cullotta came to town as a pimp for his girlfriend, Debbie, who worked at the Dunes. Then Cullotta hooked up with his boyhood friend, Tony Spilotro, and asked Tony if he could bring his own burglary crew to Las Vegas. Tony said yes as long as he got a piece of Cullotta's action.
Mr. Knapp, this is only one example but there's much more. I can recite chapter and verse on the truth about Frank Cullotta. I also have a friend who is willing to step forward with more evidence of Cullotta's lies, and he was in a position to know. Together, we have an arsenal of information that has never come out previously. Should you want more information from me or care to have me on your show, I will be happy to give names, places, dates, etc., as would my friend.
Why would I even bother to do this? Cullotta makes the Hole in the Wall Gang seem like Robin and his merry men, just a bunch of innocent pranksters. What a joke! Let's get some facts on the table. Maybe you could have me and Cullotta on your show together in a "battle of the thieves?"
William "Slick" Hanner
Is a Mob Hitman Revealing Family Secrets?
Friends of ours: Frank Cullotta, Tony Spilotro, Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo
Friends of mine: Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal
The Mafia bosses who once controlled Las Vegas are long gone, but their ghosts are about to be resurrected. Federal prosecutors in Chicago are working on one of the largest, and perhaps last, trials of organized crime kingpins in America, targeting some of the men who pulled the strings in Las Vegas during the darkest days of mob influence in the city.
At least 18 unsolved gangland murders could finally be solved. One former Las Vegas mobster says he's ready to tell the court what he knows about those crimes. Frank Cullotta has been in hiding for 25 years but he surfaced long enough to give an exclusive interview to the I-Team's George Knapp. (Part 1)
George Knapp: "Do you think of yourself as a hitman?"
Frank Cullotta: "Not really. I guess if you kill one person you're a hitman. I don't think of myself as a hitman."
But hitman or not, Frank Cullotta did kill people on orders from the mob. He murdered a man named Jerry Lisner in this house on Rawhide and left the body in the swimming pool. Cullotta won't say how many others he may have killed, but it's more than just Lisner.
When things began to unravel for the mob in Las Vegas, everyone was expendable, even the other members of the Hole in the Wall Gang, like Ernie Devino and Joe Blasko, both of who were slated for death. And the boss himself, tough Tony Spilotro, who was beaten to death in front of his brother Michael and then both were dumped in a cornfield. Even though Spilotro okayed a hit on his pal Cullotta, Cullotta still winces when he thinks of the brutal way Spilotro died.
Frank Cullotta said, "I know that Tony was a violent person himself and that he killed a lot of people and hurt a lot of people, but I grew up with this guy. I just don't think if I had to kill him, I could kill him that way. I'da just shot him."
The murder of the Spilotro brothers is one of the charges now facing 14 Mafia figures in Chicago, including longtime mob kingpin Joey The Clown Lombardo, the boss to whom Spilotro reported. Cullotta thinks Lombardo had to okay the Spilotro murders, as well as the murder of the mobster who botched the burial of the bodies. He's pretty sure a Mafia soldier named Al Tocco was also in on the hit and that the upcoming trial just might be the end of the line for the Chicago mob.
Frank Cullotta said, "I would think it's the end. I don't think it will ever be as strong or as organized as it was."
What about certain Las Vegas mysteries? Who tried to kill Frank Lefty Rosenthal by planting a bomb under his car on Sahara Avenue?
Contrary to law enforcement suspicions, Cullotta says it wasn't Spilotro for the simple reason that if Tough Tony had done it, Lefty wouldn't have escaped. What about their former lawyer, now Mayor Oscar Goodman? Might he have anything to fear from a tell-all book by Cullotta? Did he ever cross the line?
Cullotta said, "Nah, he's just got a big mouth. I got nothing to say about him. He's got the right job. He likes everyone to see him and hear him."
For the record, the mayor is no fan of Cullotta's either and says the former gangster is a notorious liar. Former strike force prosecutor Don Campbell who helped turn Cullotta from killer to witness says Cullotta's testimony was critical in the conviction of numerous mob figures, but he scoffs at Cullotta's suggestion that the Hole in the Wall members were modern Robin Hoods who only stole from other crooks.
Don Campbell, former federal prosecutor, said, "Like hell. They were absolute scum of the earth. They would turn on anyone. Themselves. They would rob their own mother. They were despicable human beings."
Cullotta says he's a much different person since going straight. He owns a business in an undisclosed town and says some of his new neighbors have figured out who he is from seeing old TV footage.
Cullotta said, "They know I'm a changed guy. I live a legitimate life. I don't harm nobody. They don't feel uncomfortable around me. As a matter of fact, they feel protected. Don't ask me why."
Cullotta's tell-all book is slated for release in late April. The Chicago mob trial is expected to begin in May.
Thanks to George Knapp
Friends of mine: Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal
The Mafia bosses who once controlled Las Vegas are long gone, but their ghosts are about to be resurrected. Federal prosecutors in Chicago are working on one of the largest, and perhaps last, trials of organized crime kingpins in America, targeting some of the men who pulled the strings in Las Vegas during the darkest days of mob influence in the city.
At least 18 unsolved gangland murders could finally be solved. One former Las Vegas mobster says he's ready to tell the court what he knows about those crimes. Frank Cullotta has been in hiding for 25 years but he surfaced long enough to give an exclusive interview to the I-Team's George Knapp. (Part 1)
George Knapp: "Do you think of yourself as a hitman?"
Frank Cullotta: "Not really. I guess if you kill one person you're a hitman. I don't think of myself as a hitman."
But hitman or not, Frank Cullotta did kill people on orders from the mob. He murdered a man named Jerry Lisner in this house on Rawhide and left the body in the swimming pool. Cullotta won't say how many others he may have killed, but it's more than just Lisner.
When things began to unravel for the mob in Las Vegas, everyone was expendable, even the other members of the Hole in the Wall Gang, like Ernie Devino and Joe Blasko, both of who were slated for death. And the boss himself, tough Tony Spilotro, who was beaten to death in front of his brother Michael and then both were dumped in a cornfield. Even though Spilotro okayed a hit on his pal Cullotta, Cullotta still winces when he thinks of the brutal way Spilotro died.
Frank Cullotta said, "I know that Tony was a violent person himself and that he killed a lot of people and hurt a lot of people, but I grew up with this guy. I just don't think if I had to kill him, I could kill him that way. I'da just shot him."
The murder of the Spilotro brothers is one of the charges now facing 14 Mafia figures in Chicago, including longtime mob kingpin Joey The Clown Lombardo, the boss to whom Spilotro reported. Cullotta thinks Lombardo had to okay the Spilotro murders, as well as the murder of the mobster who botched the burial of the bodies. He's pretty sure a Mafia soldier named Al Tocco was also in on the hit and that the upcoming trial just might be the end of the line for the Chicago mob.
Frank Cullotta said, "I would think it's the end. I don't think it will ever be as strong or as organized as it was."
What about certain Las Vegas mysteries? Who tried to kill Frank Lefty Rosenthal by planting a bomb under his car on Sahara Avenue?
Contrary to law enforcement suspicions, Cullotta says it wasn't Spilotro for the simple reason that if Tough Tony had done it, Lefty wouldn't have escaped. What about their former lawyer, now Mayor Oscar Goodman? Might he have anything to fear from a tell-all book by Cullotta? Did he ever cross the line?
Cullotta said, "Nah, he's just got a big mouth. I got nothing to say about him. He's got the right job. He likes everyone to see him and hear him."
For the record, the mayor is no fan of Cullotta's either and says the former gangster is a notorious liar. Former strike force prosecutor Don Campbell who helped turn Cullotta from killer to witness says Cullotta's testimony was critical in the conviction of numerous mob figures, but he scoffs at Cullotta's suggestion that the Hole in the Wall members were modern Robin Hoods who only stole from other crooks.
Don Campbell, former federal prosecutor, said, "Like hell. They were absolute scum of the earth. They would turn on anyone. Themselves. They would rob their own mother. They were despicable human beings."
Cullotta says he's a much different person since going straight. He owns a business in an undisclosed town and says some of his new neighbors have figured out who he is from seeing old TV footage.
Cullotta said, "They know I'm a changed guy. I live a legitimate life. I don't harm nobody. They don't feel uncomfortable around me. As a matter of fact, they feel protected. Don't ask me why."
Cullotta's tell-all book is slated for release in late April. The Chicago mob trial is expected to begin in May.
Thanks to George Knapp
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Sequel for The Departed?
Screenwriter William Monahan is working on a treatment for a sequel to The Departed, reports Variety, and he's even passed the notion by the director of the first film, Martin Scorsese.
Without getting too spoilery, anyone who has seen Warner Bros.' The Departed might wonder how a sequel to the Oscar-nominated crime drama could even be possible judging by how things end up in the picture. But then again, the film is based on the Hong Kong flick Infernal Affairs, which of course went on to spawn two follow-ups.
Mark Wahlberg, who co-stars in the film, recently said that he may be back for a sequel, and that Robert De Niro was in talks to appear in the picture as well -- if it were to happen. Of course, as Variety points out, there's no sign that Scorsese would return for a Departed 2 or that Warner Bros. would even want to produce the sequel.
The Hollywood Reporter, however, claims that "Scorsese would need to approve any take before development was to move forward. A prequel is not being ruled out, either." THR also adds that Warners' deal had option rights to the two Infernal Affairs sequels, but that it is uncertain how the next Departed film might figure into that since Monahan could be fashioning an original tale.
Without getting too spoilery, anyone who has seen Warner Bros.' The Departed might wonder how a sequel to the Oscar-nominated crime drama could even be possible judging by how things end up in the picture. But then again, the film is based on the Hong Kong flick Infernal Affairs, which of course went on to spawn two follow-ups.
Mark Wahlberg, who co-stars in the film, recently said that he may be back for a sequel, and that Robert De Niro was in talks to appear in the picture as well -- if it were to happen. Of course, as Variety points out, there's no sign that Scorsese would return for a Departed 2 or that Warner Bros. would even want to produce the sequel.
The Hollywood Reporter, however, claims that "Scorsese would need to approve any take before development was to move forward. A prequel is not being ruled out, either." THR also adds that Warners' deal had option rights to the two Infernal Affairs sequels, but that it is uncertain how the next Departed film might figure into that since Monahan could be fashioning an original tale.
Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia
Joseph P. Macheca served as a street warrior for the intensely corrupt New Orleans Democratic machine, as a pioneer of the Crescent City’s fruit trade, as a Confederate privateer in the Gulf and, according to legend, as the “godfather” of the first Mafia organization to germinate in American soil.
Macheca lives on in New Orleans legend as the criminal overlord whose 1891 lynching death atoned for the assassination of city Police Chief David C. Hennessy. However, Macheca’s death was less a spontaneous lynching than a cold-blooded murder. The gang leader's old political and underworld allies sacrificed him so their own roles in local intrigues might not be discovered and so they could assume control of his assets.
Deep Water is the historical biography of Joseph P. Macheca. It establishes the factual details of Macheca’s epic life story and sets them against the vivid backdrop of Gilded Age New Orleans.
This biography of Joseph Macheca—merchant, smuggler, Mafia “godfather”—documents the early New Orleans underworld, explains Police Chief Hennessy’s assassination and the largest American lynching.
Set in the Gilded Age of New Orleans, the historical biography Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia establishes the factual details of Macheca’s epic life story, the assassination of Police Chief David Hennessy and the Crescent City lynchings.
Macheca lives on in New Orleans legend as the criminal overlord whose 1891 lynching death atoned for the assassination of city Police Chief David C. Hennessy. However, Macheca’s death was less a spontaneous lynching than a cold-blooded murder. The gang leader's old political and underworld allies sacrificed him so their own roles in local intrigues might not be discovered and so they could assume control of his assets.
Deep Water is the historical biography of Joseph P. Macheca. It establishes the factual details of Macheca’s epic life story and sets them against the vivid backdrop of Gilded Age New Orleans.
This biography of Joseph Macheca—merchant, smuggler, Mafia “godfather”—documents the early New Orleans underworld, explains Police Chief Hennessy’s assassination and the largest American lynching.
Set in the Gilded Age of New Orleans, the historical biography Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia establishes the factual details of Macheca’s epic life story, the assassination of Police Chief David Hennessy and the Crescent City lynchings.
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