Results tagged “hitman”

An NYPD officer was in court yesterday, being charged with first-degree attempted murder for hiring a hitman to kill his ex-wife. Long Island native 42-year-old Anthony Battisti (pictured), a Queens cop who has been on the force for 17 years, is accused of paying his handyman $5,000 to kill his ex-wife Patricia. Timothy Gersbeck, the 37-year-old handyman from Levittown, was arrested in January for stabbing Patricia Battisti in the neck with a screwdriver multiple times, an attack outside the Battistis Franklin Square house that she survived. Prosecutors say that Anthony Battisti was jealous that his wife had begun dating a NYC firefighter.

Don Mattingly might not ever find his way into the Cooperstown, but his family is sure guaranteeing their spot in the Hall of Shame. Taylor Mattingly, the 24-year-old son of the beloved Yankee, was arrested in Indiana for allegedly shoving his mother Kim to the ground and spitting in her face. The one-time Yankee draft pick says that he flipped out when his mother sent him a text message insulting him, his girlfriend and his father. A deputy wrote, "Taylor advised he snapped, pushed Kim down and spit on her." He also admits to shattering a patio table, breaking a door and a window and throwing other furniture against the walls of his mother's pool house. Don Mattingly divorced Kim (pictured) in 2007; last year she was arrested for disorderly conduct after drunkenly refusing to leave the former Yankee great's front lawn. She claims that her son became angry after she threatened to turn off the cable at the ranch where Taylor is staying. The Daily News has already dubbed him 'Spitman,' so hopefully there is a goobered up white pinstripe suit Photoshop job not far behind.

A Bronx man accused of rape thought he could beat the charges if he could get rid of his alleged victim and a witness—the problem was that he hired an undercover cop to take care of it for him. Anthony Perez told the cop—who posed as a hitman—that he would pay him $100,000 to kill the woman who accused him of rape and a witness who was in the apartment where the incident allegedly took place in April 2006. The "hitman" met with Perez at Rikers Island where he's being detained and was provided a gun he could use, the name and address of one of the women and as well as a plan by Perez to lure the second intended victim to the first woman’s apartment. Perez also connected his hired gun to Tawana Leggett, who the undercover cop would call and signal his success in offing the two women with the code "get your suit and shoelaces ready.” Perez was arrested at Rikers for the new charges after the seven-month sting.

Dozens of agents from the FBI's Colombo crime family squad were at a Farmingdale industrial complex yesterday, looking for human remains. There are "at least three victims of the bloody wars" over control of the crime family buried on the grounds, according to Newsday, based on a tip about bodies the squad received. The dig was called off in the evening but is resuming today. Apparently one of the bodies might be of William Cutolo, aka Wild Bill, whose body was previously thought to be dumped in the ocean. And the Daily News adds that the Colombo street boss Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioelli who carried out that hit lives "not far from the possible mob burial ground."

Here's today's second instance of Asian weaponry used in a potential crime: A Brooklyn resident was arrested for plotting his wife's murder. The police are pretty sure Rockefeller Auguste was trying to kill his wife because he paid $5,000 to an undercover cop posing as a hit man. Captain James Coan explained, "He felt he had been wronged, and he wanted the 'hit man' he hired to follow his exact instructions - and gave him a samurai sword to be sure." According to the Daily News, Auguste "roughed up" his wife because he thought she was cheating, and when she "reported him for domestic abuse, and Auguste became enraged that she would turn on him." Auguste had requested that the "hit man" bring back her ring as proof she was dead. The wife has gone into hiding.

Who knew radio could be so dangerous? The Daily News reports that deejay Wendy Williams' husband (the two are pictured together) had plotted to kill one of Hot97's deejays, a rival who allegedly trashed his wife on the air.