Suspect in Mafia Associate's Slaying Discovered Dead of Apparent Suicide

A former Newark police officer, described as the "principal suspect" in a a mafia associate's 2002 murder, has apparently committed suicide, according to authorities.

Nicholas Baglione Jr., 48, was found dead Tuesday evening in a Hazlet parking lot, slumped over in the driver's seat of a limousine he drove for a living, according to local police. Baglione, who was reported missing Friday, died from a single gunshot would to the head. Authorities have ruled the death a suicide, pending results from an autopsy.

State authorities targeted Baglione during an investigation into the killing of Dennis Fiore, 50, an alleged small-time bookie who was fatally shot outside an Italian-American social club in Newark's North Ward in 2002.

John Hagerty, spokesman for the state Division of Criminal Justice, told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Thursday newspapers that Baglione was a "principal suspect."

Baglione's suicide ended the possibility of the investigation going to a grand jury, Hagerty said.

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Shot "Mobster" Refusing to Squeal

Friends of ours: Gambino Crime Family Bonanno Crime Family, Carmine Sciandra, John Gotti, Junior Gotti, Ronald Carlucci, Michael Viga
Friends of mine: Patrick Balsamo

A retired cop who allegedly shot a reputed Gambino capo in the gut may get off scot-free because the "wiseguy" won't snitch.

Carmine Sciandra, who was shot inside his Staten Island produce store during a tussle with former NYPD Officer Patrick Balsamo in December, has refused to cooperate with authorities investigating the gunplay, authorities said. Prosecutors for the Staten Island DA have been unable to present the case to a grand jury because they are still not sure who fired the gun.

Balsamo stormed into the Top Tomato store in Travis with two reputed members of the Bonanno crime family in a dispute involving his daughter, Maria. She worked as a cashier at the shop before being fired, and accused Sciandra's brother, Salvatore, of groping her, authorities said. An enraged Balsamo started smashing windows with a baseball bat, they said. Carmine Sciandra was shot after confronting the ex-cop with a bat of his own, authorities said.

Sciandra is still recuperating from the bullet that ripped through his stomach and lodged in his buttocks, said a person close to the store owner. The friend said Sciandra is slated to undergo another abdominal surgery in April.

The two alleged Bonanno members brought in as muscle, Ronald Carlucci and Michael Viga, quickly drove off. They were never charged in the incident. "There's a lack of witnesses as to who actually pulled the trigger," said one law-enforcement official, adding that store surveillance videos also don't show who fired.

If the DA's case continues to be stalled, it is possible that assault and weapons charges against Balsamo could be dropped. "It would be a difficult case to prosecute without [Sciandra] offering his account," the source said. A spokesman for DA Daniel Donovan declined to comment on the investigation, saying only that Balsamo, 49, will be back in court March 14.

The unauthorized attack on an reputed "made" Mafia big with members of a rival crime family on hand left authorities fearing a mob war was on the horizon. But sources say all has been quiet and Balsamo, who retired from the NYPD in 1993, has been "hiding out" at his father's home in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, since being released on $25,000 bail. "We haven't seen any repercussions here," the source said about gangland
retaliation.

Balsamo's father, Anthony, quickly hung up the phone when reached at home and the ex-cop's lawyer could not be reached. A lawyer for Sciandra, once considered a prime candidate to take over as boss of the Gambino family after John Gotti died and his son, John "Junior," was jailed, declined to comment.

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Bad Cops First, Then Mob Cops?

Friends of ours: Burton Kaplan, Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, Luchese Crime Family, Gambino Crime Family, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, John Gotti, Paul Castellano
Friends of mine: Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa

Before they were mob cops, they were bad cops. On top of eight murders, disgraced NYPD detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa are accused of other sordid deeds while wearing their shields - including drug use and robbing stores for extra cash.

Caracappa, 64, boasted to one witness expected to testify at their pending trial that he dabbled with cocaine while working as an undercover narcotics cop, according to court papers filed by the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office.

The ex-detective also admitted to Mafia turncoat Burton Kaplan - the go-between for the pair and Luchese family boss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso - he and Eppolito used to hold up local delis for spending money in the late '70s, when the two started working together.

Prosecutors also unveiled allegations that when Eppolito was getting ready to hang up his badge, he asked Kaplan for cash so he could use it to bribe doctors into lying that he had a bad heart.

The court document, which prosecutors hope the judge presiding over the case will allow into evidence, details the numerous shady dealings the cops had with the Mafia.

The two were busted in Las Vegas last March on charges that they acted as assassins and moles for the Luchese crime family in the '80s and '90s.

Eppolito began taking bribes for leaking information to mobsters as early as 1979, the papers say, while Caracappa joined five years later, and the two were put on a $4,000-a-month retainer.

Some of the jobs prosecutors say the pair took on:

• In 1982, Eppolito tried to get a $5,000 bribe from Gambino big-turned-rat Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano to not investigate a murder Gravano was suspected of committing. Prosecutors did not say if he ever received the cash.
• In 1990, Casso offered to pay them to assassinate Gravano to avenge the murder of Paul Castellano by John Gotti. The pair declined the contract.

The documents go on to describe a conversation Caracappa had with Kaplan. Caracappa said he would "keep an eye on Eppolito, because both feared Eppolito would cooperate against them," the court papers say.

"Caracappa was the real thing - a hero," said his lawyer, Ed Hayes. "I look forward to confronting these human monsters who say otherwise in court."

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Lombardo Claims He Has No Money - Feds To Pay Attorneys For Joey "The Clown"

Friends of ours: Joey "The Clown" Lombardo

Lawyers for Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo got permission Thursday to collect their fees from the government, while federal prosecutors got the green light to do whatever it takes to prove that the reputed mob boss isn't as broke as he claims to be. Lombardo, 77, who claims he can't pay his lawyers because he has no money, appeared in court in an orange prison jumpsuit, wore his usual puzzled expression and said nothing.

U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel granted defense attorney Rick Halprin and an associate permission to represent Lombardo at public expense but said he might change his mind if federal prosecutors can prove that there has been "a fraud or a bad-faith exchange of assets." "The government is free to investigate to its heart's content," Zagel said.

Prosecutors noted that Lombardo was carrying $3,000 in cash the night of Jan. 13 when an FBI organized-crime squad caught him in a suburban Elmwood Park alley after eight months on the run. Lombardo is among 14 reputed mob figures charged in April 2005 with a racketeering conspiracy that included plotting at least 18 murders as far back as 1970.

When agents went to arrest him on that charge, Lombardo had vanished and immediately became the target of a high-profile manhunt. Lombardo claims to have had no income since May 2005. He was convicted and sent to prison along with former International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Roy Lee Williams in a 1982 bribery-conspiracy case.

Prosecutors said in court papers that "the FBI has obtained information that after the completion of his parole status on June 15, 2002, the defendant traveled to France for approximately 10 days, arriving in Paris on July 11, 2002, and continuing on to Nice."

"The defendant flew back to Chicago from France on July 21, 2002," prosecutors said. "The government respectfully submits that these facts including a 10-day trip abroad are not consistent with the need for a court-appointed lawyer."

Prosecutors said that after being indicted in the 1982 case Lombardo transferred "substantial assets" to a trust that benefits his children, Joseph and Joanne, "in an apparent attempt to put funds beyond the reach of the government." His ex-wife, Marion, is the trustee.

Prosecutors said Marion Lombardo appears to have sold three parcels in Florida held by the MJJ Trust for more than $4.5 million in 2003. They said there is a May 1992 dissolution of marriage record but that it appears the Lombardos lived together until the latest indictment. They said two warranty deeds recording the sale of the Florida property referred to Marion Lombardo as "a married woman."

Halprin scoffed at the government's claims, telling Zagel that the assets had been placed in "an irrevocable trust" for Lombardo's family. He said that if the government thinks Lombardo has money prosecutors should prove it. He did acknowledge that the trust might revert to Lombardo if his wife, son and daughter all died. But he said that considering his client's age, "That is worth about the same as 5,000 shares of Enron stock."

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Is The Clown too broke to hire lawyer?

Friends of ours: Joey "the Clown" Lombardo

Does The Clown have the cash? That's the question facing a federal judge this morning in Chicago as he determines whether reputed top mobster Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo has the money to pay his prominent defense attorney Rick Halprin, or whether the public will pay for his defense. Halprin said his client is all but broke, receiving only $652 a month in Social Security before he went on the lam about eight months ago.

Lombardo, 77, charged in the most significant mob racketeering case in Chicago history, was arrested last month hiding out in Elmwood Park.

Prosecutors, though, put The Clown in Paris, not poverty. Prosecutors Mitchell A. Mars and John J. Scully note Lombardo traveled to France in July 2002 for 10 days, shortly after his parole ended in another criminal case.

Even though Lombardo was divorced from his wife in 1992, prosecutors suggest it was nothing more than a ruse to hide his assets, noting his wife sold $4.5 million in Florida property in 2003. And when Lombardo was arrested, the prosecutors said, he had $3,000 in cash, suggesting he had ready access to cash.

Thanks to Steve Warmbir

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