It happened on Christmas Day, 1986. A mafia hit man shot and killed Nick Guido on a Brooklyn street. Except it was the wrong man. The address was supplied by two detectives on the mob payroll -- Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa.
On Friday they will be sentenced in federal court. But before then, the mother of Guido has broken her silence in an exclusive interview with CBS 2 HD.
"The door was open; the car door. He was just laying there. The blood just coming out the car," Pauline Pipitone said. "I touched his hand. I said, 'No, I want to touch him.' His fingers were cold.
Guido was showing his uncle his new car. The 26-year-old was a telephone installer, waiting to hear from the FDNY if he'd been accepted. When the killer walked up, Guido shoved his uncle down, and covered him with his own body.
"Nicholas got the whole, um, 10 bullets," Pipitone said.
Guido was killed on the orders of Anthony "Gas Pipe" Casso, then the underboss of the Lucchese crime family.
When asked if there is ever a day that goes by that she doesn't think about her son's death, Pipitone said, "No way. No way." She added that even though 22-plus years have gone by since the killing, "I cry every day and every night."
"I'm his mother. He was my whole life."
The killer was looking for another Nick Guido, but the mafia got the innocent man's address, the feds said, from two crooked New York City detectives at the time – Eppolito and Caracappa. Pipitone said she wants them to live long lives … behind bars.
"I want them to live a long time and know what I'm going through. That won't give me any peace, but still … I'll still be crying," Pipitone said.
A week after Guido was gunned down the letter came in the mail saying he had been accepted for training with the fire department.
When Eppolito and Caracappa are sentenced Friday, it will be for nine murders they either carried out or arranged for the mob.
Nick Guido was the only innocent man.
Thanks to Pablo Guzman
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Tampa Gambino Case to be Tried in New York
Five men who were arrested last year at the same time as John "Junior" Gotti will join him in New York after a judge today ordered their trial to take place there.
The men, including Tampa resident James Cadicamo, had asked that their racketeering case be moved to New York because the majority of the crimes they are accused of happened in or near that city.
The other defendants in the case, all from the New York area, are John A. Burke, David D'Arpino, Michael D. Finnerty and Guy T. Peden.
The prosecution argued that the case should be tried in Tampa because important aspects of the conspiracy were centered in Florida.
The prosecution contends the defendants were a faction of the Gambino organized crime family that tried to gain a foothold in Florida. The indictment, however, also detailed murders, robberies and drug crimes in New York and New Jersey.
U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday, who previously ordered Gotti's trial be transferred to New York, again sided with the defense and ordered the related case also be transferred.
In a 19-page order, Merryday wrote that New York and the surrounding areas are "the undoubted 'nerve center' of the enterprise and the locus of the enterprise's malefactions."
Thanks to Elaine Silvestrini
The men, including Tampa resident James Cadicamo, had asked that their racketeering case be moved to New York because the majority of the crimes they are accused of happened in or near that city.
The other defendants in the case, all from the New York area, are John A. Burke, David D'Arpino, Michael D. Finnerty and Guy T. Peden.
The prosecution argued that the case should be tried in Tampa because important aspects of the conspiracy were centered in Florida.
The prosecution contends the defendants were a faction of the Gambino organized crime family that tried to gain a foothold in Florida. The indictment, however, also detailed murders, robberies and drug crimes in New York and New Jersey.
U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday, who previously ordered Gotti's trial be transferred to New York, again sided with the defense and ordered the related case also be transferred.
In a 19-page order, Merryday wrote that New York and the surrounding areas are "the undoubted 'nerve center' of the enterprise and the locus of the enterprise's malefactions."
Thanks to Elaine Silvestrini
Al Capone Spaghetti Sauce
Italian-American gangster Al Capone’s favourite spaghetti sauce recipe has been found 62 years after his death.
The Sun has reported that Capone’s great-nephew Dominic Capone, 33, who played the “Scarface” gangster in a TV documentary, plans to market the mix.
He said: “It’ll make Chicago famous for something more than tommy guns.”
Alphonse Gabriel ‘Al’ Capone, commonly nicknamed Scarface, was a gangster who led a crime syndicate dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging of liquor and other illegal activities during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s and 1930s.
Born in 1899 Brooklyn to Southwestern Italian immigrants Gabriele and Teresina Capone, Capone began his career in Brooklyn before moving to Chicago and becoming the boss of the criminal organization known as the Chicago Outfit.
By the end of the 1920s, Capone had gained the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation following his being placed on the Chicago Crime Commission’s ‘public enemies’ list.
Although never successfully convicted of racketeering charges, Capone’s criminal career ended in 1931, when he was indicted and convicted by the federal government for income-tax evasion.
Thanks to ANI
The Sun has reported that Capone’s great-nephew Dominic Capone, 33, who played the “Scarface” gangster in a TV documentary, plans to market the mix.
He said: “It’ll make Chicago famous for something more than tommy guns.”
Alphonse Gabriel ‘Al’ Capone, commonly nicknamed Scarface, was a gangster who led a crime syndicate dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging of liquor and other illegal activities during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s and 1930s.
Born in 1899 Brooklyn to Southwestern Italian immigrants Gabriele and Teresina Capone, Capone began his career in Brooklyn before moving to Chicago and becoming the boss of the criminal organization known as the Chicago Outfit.
By the end of the 1920s, Capone had gained the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation following his being placed on the Chicago Crime Commission’s ‘public enemies’ list.
Although never successfully convicted of racketeering charges, Capone’s criminal career ended in 1931, when he was indicted and convicted by the federal government for income-tax evasion.
Thanks to ANI
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Gotti Family and Police Embarrassed by Testimony of Star Witness at Reputed Mafia Assassin's Trial
The murder trial of a reputed Mafia assassin has become an embarrassment for both the family of late mob boss John Gotti and police, thanks to sensational testimony by the government's star witness.
John Alite has linked his former best friend John "Junior" Gotti to a series of gangland slayings, boasted that he slept with reality television graduate Victoria Gotti and claimed two police officers were in on another hit. The defendant, Charles Carneglia, has dismissed the testimony against him as a betrayal by "rats" and "canaries."
Most of the singing at Carneglia's ongoing trial in Brooklyn has been done by Alite, a Gambino organized crime family associate who grew up wanting to be a made member but wasn't allowed to because he's Albanian, not Italian.
In several hours on the witness stand, Alite, 46, explained he was breaking a sacred rule by testifying: "Don't do what I'm doing _ ratting."
He told jurors that he grew up in Queens wanting to be a mobster, and won the younger Gotti's admiration in the 1980s _ Gotti was best man at his wedding _ by dealing cocaine and kicking up a cut of the profits to Gotti, even though drugs were considered taboo in the family. He also described how he and Gotti's married sister were "seeing each other on the sneak" _ an allegation that prompted an angry denial by Victoria Gotti.
"He's an insect," the one-time star of "Growing up Gotti" told the Daily News. "He would hump a cockroach."
Alite also claimed that two lawmen _ a current Suffolk County officer and a retired New York Police Department detective _ gave him backup in the drive-by shooting of a rival drug dealer in 1988. He testified the NYPD officer was "involved in crimes for 20 years" and made millions of dollars. Suffolk County officials declined comment on Monday. The NYPD said it had no record of the officer named by Alite.
Alite's testimony at the Carneglia trial also offered a preview of the murder case against Gotti, who as pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he was involved in three slayings in the late 1980s and early 1990s and charges of possessing and trafficking more than 5 kilograms of cocaine.
Three previous trials in 2005 and 2006 ended in hung juries and mistrials after Gotti used the defense that he had quit the mob for good in the 1990s. His lawyers say the new allegations are based on cooperators who are lying to protect themselves.
Alite testified that a newly promoted Gotti drafted him for a hit on an associate who had dared to ignore one of his father's orders. The younger Gotti rose through the ranks while his famous father ruled the New York mob in the 1980s and '90s.
"It was his first job as a captain, and he wanted to get it right," the witness said.
Alite said he tried to track the target down in Atlantic City, N.J., but was pulled off the job when Gotti changed plans. Prosecutors say Carneglia gunned down the victim in the World Trade Center Parking lot in 1990.
The result left Gotti "elated," Alite said.
Alite also implicated Gotti in the other two killings prosecutors have charged he was involved in _ the slayings of two men in Queens amid drug turf disputes in 1988 and 1991. Alite said they were carried out on Gotti's say-so.
Carneglia was one of 62 people arrested last year in what authorities described as one of the largest roundups ever of suspected members and associates of a New York crime family. Since then, 60 have pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and one case was dropped.
Prosecutors allege Carneglia gunned down a court officer to prevent the officer's testimony against him in a 1976 weapon possession case. They say the trail of bodies also included that of a rival mobster stabbed to death in 1977 during a fight outside a diner, a Gambino associate killed in 1983 during an argument over money and an armored car security guard shot in the back during a heist in 1990.
The case has produced one of the gorier allegations to emerge recently in mob lore: that the body of John Favara _ a neighbor killed for accidentally running over the elder Gotti's 12-year-old son _ was dissolved in a vat of acid. Jurors have been allowed to hear testimony that Carneglia was involved in disposing of bodies, but not about the acid.
On Monday, a former NYPD detective who helped arrest Carneglia testified that the suspect ranted against cooperators saying, "I can't believe these rats and canaries," and fretted over possibly being put behind bars for life.
"I don't want to spend the next 30 years in jail," the witness quoted Carneglia as saying. "I'd rather get the needle."
Attorneys for Carneglia, 62, say the case against him hinges on flimsy, outdated evidence. They labeled cooperating gangsters such as Alite a collection of "thieves, murderers and liars."
The elder Gotti died behind bars in 2002, while serving a life term for racketeering and murder.
Thanks to Tom Hays
John Alite has linked his former best friend John "Junior" Gotti to a series of gangland slayings, boasted that he slept with reality television graduate Victoria Gotti and claimed two police officers were in on another hit. The defendant, Charles Carneglia, has dismissed the testimony against him as a betrayal by "rats" and "canaries."
Most of the singing at Carneglia's ongoing trial in Brooklyn has been done by Alite, a Gambino organized crime family associate who grew up wanting to be a made member but wasn't allowed to because he's Albanian, not Italian.
In several hours on the witness stand, Alite, 46, explained he was breaking a sacred rule by testifying: "Don't do what I'm doing _ ratting."
He told jurors that he grew up in Queens wanting to be a mobster, and won the younger Gotti's admiration in the 1980s _ Gotti was best man at his wedding _ by dealing cocaine and kicking up a cut of the profits to Gotti, even though drugs were considered taboo in the family. He also described how he and Gotti's married sister were "seeing each other on the sneak" _ an allegation that prompted an angry denial by Victoria Gotti."He's an insect," the one-time star of "Growing up Gotti" told the Daily News. "He would hump a cockroach."
Alite also claimed that two lawmen _ a current Suffolk County officer and a retired New York Police Department detective _ gave him backup in the drive-by shooting of a rival drug dealer in 1988. He testified the NYPD officer was "involved in crimes for 20 years" and made millions of dollars. Suffolk County officials declined comment on Monday. The NYPD said it had no record of the officer named by Alite.
Alite's testimony at the Carneglia trial also offered a preview of the murder case against Gotti, who as pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he was involved in three slayings in the late 1980s and early 1990s and charges of possessing and trafficking more than 5 kilograms of cocaine.
Three previous trials in 2005 and 2006 ended in hung juries and mistrials after Gotti used the defense that he had quit the mob for good in the 1990s. His lawyers say the new allegations are based on cooperators who are lying to protect themselves.
Alite testified that a newly promoted Gotti drafted him for a hit on an associate who had dared to ignore one of his father's orders. The younger Gotti rose through the ranks while his famous father ruled the New York mob in the 1980s and '90s.
"It was his first job as a captain, and he wanted to get it right," the witness said.
Alite said he tried to track the target down in Atlantic City, N.J., but was pulled off the job when Gotti changed plans. Prosecutors say Carneglia gunned down the victim in the World Trade Center Parking lot in 1990.
The result left Gotti "elated," Alite said.
Alite also implicated Gotti in the other two killings prosecutors have charged he was involved in _ the slayings of two men in Queens amid drug turf disputes in 1988 and 1991. Alite said they were carried out on Gotti's say-so.
Carneglia was one of 62 people arrested last year in what authorities described as one of the largest roundups ever of suspected members and associates of a New York crime family. Since then, 60 have pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and one case was dropped.
Prosecutors allege Carneglia gunned down a court officer to prevent the officer's testimony against him in a 1976 weapon possession case. They say the trail of bodies also included that of a rival mobster stabbed to death in 1977 during a fight outside a diner, a Gambino associate killed in 1983 during an argument over money and an armored car security guard shot in the back during a heist in 1990.
The case has produced one of the gorier allegations to emerge recently in mob lore: that the body of John Favara _ a neighbor killed for accidentally running over the elder Gotti's 12-year-old son _ was dissolved in a vat of acid. Jurors have been allowed to hear testimony that Carneglia was involved in disposing of bodies, but not about the acid.
On Monday, a former NYPD detective who helped arrest Carneglia testified that the suspect ranted against cooperators saying, "I can't believe these rats and canaries," and fretted over possibly being put behind bars for life.
"I don't want to spend the next 30 years in jail," the witness quoted Carneglia as saying. "I'd rather get the needle."
Attorneys for Carneglia, 62, say the case against him hinges on flimsy, outdated evidence. They labeled cooperating gangsters such as Alite a collection of "thieves, murderers and liars."
The elder Gotti died behind bars in 2002, while serving a life term for racketeering and murder.
Thanks to Tom Hays
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Did the Terrorism of 9/11 Result in a Free Ride for Organized Crime in America?
There is a feeling that permeates the law enforcement community that organized crime gangs are getting a free ride in post-9/11 America. While most of the focus of federal law enforcement is on counterterrorism, counterintelligence and cyber crime, federal police agencies must still contend with more traditional anticrime operations including emerging organized crime gangs.
Criminal enterprises represent a near and long-term threat to our nation. The criminal activities of these enterprises are increasing in scope and magnitude as they network with each other to expand operations worldwide. The geopolitical and technological changes of the last decade have allowed these enterprises to flourish globally, and their impact on the United States is expected to increase over the next five years.
Organized crime groups from Russia and other former members of the Soviet Union are engaged in racketeering activity, and are deeply involved in large scale white collar crime. They are skilled in the use of monetary systems to funnel and conceal the proceeds of their criminal activity, employing state-of-the-art encryption to safeguard their communication networks against traditional forms of detection. Asian criminal enterprises are composed of US-born citizens and immigrants. They are multi-crime organizations that, like other ethnically-based criminal enterprises, often victimize their own ethnic immigrant communities.
These communities are typically hesitant to report victimization to authorities. As the immigration of Russian, former Soviet Union, and Asian populations into the United States increases in the next five years, so too will related ethnic organized crime. La Cosa Nostra and Italian organized crime enterprises still pose a significant threat and will continue to influence the political and economic structure of the United States through engagement in racketeering-related activity.
Alien smuggling and human trafficking will continue to pose significant threats to the national security, as transnational criminal enterprises expand their activities in this area for economic profit. In addition, the ability to facilitate the entry of illegal aliens into the United States could potentially be used to increase the membership of these criminal enterprises.
An emerging crime problem is Balkan criminal enterprises, specifically Albanian transnational organizations or clans. They are rapidly expanding their criminal activities to include loan sharking, weapons trafficking, alien smuggling, stock market manipulation, human trafficking, and drug trafficking. Additionally, these clans are forming partnerships with La Cosa Nostra crime families, as well as challenging traditional organized crime enterprises for territory.
Major theft rings account for billions of dollars in losses suffered by our nation's businesses, with corresponding price increases passed on to the US consumer. Loss prevention and asset protection are top priorities for corporate America as increasingly sophisticated and highly organized criminal enterprises engage in cargo theft, high tech theft, vehicle theft, jewelry and gem theft, organized retail theft, art and cultural antiquity theft, and other major theft activity.
Drug trafficking remains a significant problem. The impact of illegal drug abuse is estimated to be over $160 billion in US economic losses each year, including costs associated with health care, violent crime, and lost productivity. Colombian criminal enterprises are the largest source of cocaine in the world, and are also major heroin suppliers to the US market. Mexican criminal enterprises manufacture and supply much of the methamphetamine available in the United States, and transport the majority of cocaine and heroin into our nation.
The ability of Mexican enterprises to corrupt public officials in Mexico and the United States has enhanced their capability to transport and distribute these illicit drugs. Caribbean-based criminal enterprises specialize in the transportation and smuggling of drugs into Puerto Rico and the US mainland. Over the next five years, South American and Mexican drug trafficking organizations will continue to maintain their dominance, and Caribbean-based groups will provide alternate importation routes.
A rise in homicides from 1999 through 2002, and continued incidence of other violent crimes have been attributed to the resurgence of violent street gangs in major metropolitan areas, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, which average approximately 600 homicides per year. Over the next five years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation must continue to focus the resources of Safe Streets Task Forces to combat those violent street gangs having major impact in our communities.
Thanks to Jim Kouri
Criminal enterprises represent a near and long-term threat to our nation. The criminal activities of these enterprises are increasing in scope and magnitude as they network with each other to expand operations worldwide. The geopolitical and technological changes of the last decade have allowed these enterprises to flourish globally, and their impact on the United States is expected to increase over the next five years.
Organized crime groups from Russia and other former members of the Soviet Union are engaged in racketeering activity, and are deeply involved in large scale white collar crime. They are skilled in the use of monetary systems to funnel and conceal the proceeds of their criminal activity, employing state-of-the-art encryption to safeguard their communication networks against traditional forms of detection. Asian criminal enterprises are composed of US-born citizens and immigrants. They are multi-crime organizations that, like other ethnically-based criminal enterprises, often victimize their own ethnic immigrant communities.
These communities are typically hesitant to report victimization to authorities. As the immigration of Russian, former Soviet Union, and Asian populations into the United States increases in the next five years, so too will related ethnic organized crime. La Cosa Nostra and Italian organized crime enterprises still pose a significant threat and will continue to influence the political and economic structure of the United States through engagement in racketeering-related activity.
Alien smuggling and human trafficking will continue to pose significant threats to the national security, as transnational criminal enterprises expand their activities in this area for economic profit. In addition, the ability to facilitate the entry of illegal aliens into the United States could potentially be used to increase the membership of these criminal enterprises.
An emerging crime problem is Balkan criminal enterprises, specifically Albanian transnational organizations or clans. They are rapidly expanding their criminal activities to include loan sharking, weapons trafficking, alien smuggling, stock market manipulation, human trafficking, and drug trafficking. Additionally, these clans are forming partnerships with La Cosa Nostra crime families, as well as challenging traditional organized crime enterprises for territory.
Major theft rings account for billions of dollars in losses suffered by our nation's businesses, with corresponding price increases passed on to the US consumer. Loss prevention and asset protection are top priorities for corporate America as increasingly sophisticated and highly organized criminal enterprises engage in cargo theft, high tech theft, vehicle theft, jewelry and gem theft, organized retail theft, art and cultural antiquity theft, and other major theft activity.
Drug trafficking remains a significant problem. The impact of illegal drug abuse is estimated to be over $160 billion in US economic losses each year, including costs associated with health care, violent crime, and lost productivity. Colombian criminal enterprises are the largest source of cocaine in the world, and are also major heroin suppliers to the US market. Mexican criminal enterprises manufacture and supply much of the methamphetamine available in the United States, and transport the majority of cocaine and heroin into our nation.
The ability of Mexican enterprises to corrupt public officials in Mexico and the United States has enhanced their capability to transport and distribute these illicit drugs. Caribbean-based criminal enterprises specialize in the transportation and smuggling of drugs into Puerto Rico and the US mainland. Over the next five years, South American and Mexican drug trafficking organizations will continue to maintain their dominance, and Caribbean-based groups will provide alternate importation routes.
A rise in homicides from 1999 through 2002, and continued incidence of other violent crimes have been attributed to the resurgence of violent street gangs in major metropolitan areas, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, which average approximately 600 homicides per year. Over the next five years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation must continue to focus the resources of Safe Streets Task Forces to combat those violent street gangs having major impact in our communities.
Thanks to Jim Kouri
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