Results tagged “mafia”

Could the fourth time be another charm? The jury deliberating the fate of John Gotti Jr.—whose past three federal trials have ended in mistrials—sent a note to Judge Kevin Castel yesterday reading, "We are unable to reach a verdict." Castel told the group to keep deliberating at first, but then sent them home for the weekend.

Yesterday, the NY Attorney General's Organized Crime Task Force and NYPD raided a number of homes and business in Staten Island, Brooklyn, NJ, Pennsylvania, and Nevada, arresting 22 people from two investigations dubbed "Operation Pure Luck" and "Operation Night Gallery." The charges, according to Cuomo's office, stem "from the operation of lucrative loan sharking and gambling activities closely controlled by organized crime"—the Gambino and Luchese crime families.

A gunman for the Gambino family has taken the unusual and dangerous step of outing himself as homosexual, as a gambit to obtain a lower sentence for killing a Queens bagel store owner in 2003. Robert Mormando had already confessed to the murder, and his decision to out himself in court was intended to show the judge that his cooperation was riskier than most, because, as we know from The Sopranos, the mob kills gay members. In fact, the NY Times even gets the actor who played a homosexual gangster on the series to weigh in!

">Post reports the Teflon Don's son shouted to John Alite during a break, "You’re a dog! You’re a dog! Did I kill little girls, you fag? You’re a punk. You’re a dog all your life — you always were. Do I strangle little girls in motels?"

Hey, New Yorkers, in case you needed to remember that NYC is full of mob wiseguys, check out this video from the NRA. It's airing in Virginia, to remind voters that gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell is fighting for their rights—rights that Mayor Bloomberg and his mobbed up, dese-dem-dose-talking constituents want to take away!

During the trial of an alleged Gambino mobster, the Daily News reports that a Brooklyn and S.I. bakery chain owner Giuseppe "Joe" Generoso told jurors how he stood up to "reputed mobsters Anthony (Todo) Anastasio and William Scotto - telling them he was his own 'strongman.'" However, "What jurors in Brooklyn Federal Court didn't hear was how nine months later, gunmen ambushed Generoso at his Staten Island home and shot him in the face."

After a two year investigation, the Manhattan DA has indicted 29 people accused of connections with the Lucchese crime family, and six of them worked as inspectors for the city Department of Buildings. Asked how the mobsters were able to rise to the level of supervisory positions in the department, DA Robert Morgenthau told reporters, "I’ll leave that for you to figure out...They had developed a small beachfront into this agency... This two-year joint investigation reminds us that the threat of traditional organized crime is not a thing of the past."

The 29-page questionnaire responses handed back from potential jurors for the John Gotti Jr. trial proved one of two things—that New Yorkers are still terrified at the idea of having a mob hit put on them or that people will go to great lengths and have no restraints to their salty humor in attempting to get out of jury duty. The News collected some of the more choice quotes from those who don't want to get stuck on the federal prosecution case of Gotti Jr. on for years of Gambino-related criminal activity, including three gangland murders. Jurors who were asked their familiarity with Gotti said things like "his fat family members are murders (sic)," "people involved with John Gotti have mysteriously 'disappeared'," and even "my brother-in-law chose to 'turn states evidence' against (the elder) Gotti and is currently in witness protection." The best line came from a juror who told the courts that a long trial would be difficult since they suffer from hepatitis C and couldn't deal with the fact that "Gotti has blood on his hands."

After the Post reported that at least six buildings inspectors were to be arrested, along with members of the Luchese crime family, for things like allegedly taking bribes and dealing drugs at sites, Mayor Bloomberg spoke out about the looming scandal. According to the Post, he said, "They have resigned... You can rest assured we're not going to tolerate any of this... This is an industry that obviously for a long period of time has had problems with lawbreakers. We keep working at it and working at it, and hopefully, someday, we'll get rid of everybody in the construction industry that breaks the law." Now the Buildings Department has to re-inspect those former inspectors' hundreds of sites!

The Post reports that at least six Department of Buildings employees "will be arrested later this month, along with about two dozen Luchese crime-family captains, soldiers and associates." Ooh, another mob sweep. Apparently the Buildings inspectors, two of whom are "full-blown Luchese associates," "were videotaped taking bribes at construction sites, and some were seen dealing cocaine and prescription pills while on duty" and "lined their pockets by ignoring violations or expediting construction and building work permits." And the revelations emerged from a 2007 case in NJ, where some members of the Luchese crime family "ran a staggering $2 billion-a-year gambling operation and supplied drugs and cellphones to Bloods gang members in state prisons." Guess the DOB's new code of conduct is coming in handy.

       

When the NY Times wrote about The Hole back in 2004, they said, "It is the closest thing New York has to a border town... an isolated neighborhood that straddles the Brooklyn-Queens line. The five blocks at the junction of Conduit Avenue and Linden Boulevard have all the characteristics of a frontier town in the Old West." Now, years later, Nate Kensinger has visited the almost-ghost town and come back to tell the story with plenty of gorgeous images of the decay. He says, "The Hole is literally a hole. It is 30 feet below grade... sunken down from the busy roads around it. The neighborhood floods often and is only a few feet above the water table, so its homes are 'not incorporated into the city sewer system. They all have cesspools.'"

Despite his claim that he had kidney stones that were more painful than going into labor, John Gotti Jr. was denied bail yesterday as he awaits his racketeering trial to start this September. A judge in Manhattan federal court yesterday said that there was no amount he could set bail at that "can reasonably assure the presence of the defendant and the safety of persons in the community." The Daily News said that Gotti showed up in court "in greenish prison garb that resembled hospital scrubs" and the paper agreed with Junior's claim that stones were more painful than childbirth. Also taking Gotti's side was arch-nemesis Curtis Sliwa, who nonetheless seemed to take glee in knowing how much pain the mob boss was in. Sliwa said, "I'm hoping they come at a prolific rate ... He can't have enough pain." Gotti's lawyer said that they do not plan to appeal the bail denial and that he believes his client has now fully passed the stones while he's been behind bars.

Guardian Angels founder and NY1 personality Curtis Sliwa claims that Junior Gotti threatened to kill him while the two were in Manhattan federal court yesterday. Right as Gotti's pre-trial hearing for racketeering conspiracy was breaking, Sliwa claims Gotti turned to the radio host who was in attendance and said, "You're going down." Sliwa shot back, "F*ck you!" But Gotti's lawyer told reporters that his client was saying, "He's going down" to a nearby friend that he was meeting downstairs. Capice? Sliwa may have been a little on edge (even for him) as he mentioned that Friday is the anniversary of the 1992 incident where he was shot twice and kidnapped, only to escape out of a speeding cab. He thinks it was set up by Gotti due to Sliwa's AM onslaughts against the Gambino crime family. Gotti might really be smirking widely now since a judge told prosecutors they need to present some new evidence to dispute Gotti's claim that he gave up a life of crime in 1999.

Victoria Gotti, daughter of the late Teflon Don John Gotti, is "bitter" about the foreclosure of her Old Westbury mansion. A panel of judges allowed Chase to start foreclosure proceedings; Gotti says that her ex, Carmine Agnello, took out a $700,000 mortgage behind her back (Chase says she never paid all the $25,000 monthly payments that were owed). Her mother told the Post that her daughter was "not in the mood to talk to anybody" and offered her own thoughts on her former son-in-law, calling him a creep. But Victoria Gotti did tell Newsday, "The house, all the marital assets, are part of a divorce package (settlement) I have never seen yet." The white brick, five-bedroom, and five-and-a-half bath home was seen on the A&E reality series Growing Up Gotti—in the past few years, Gotti has listed the home on the market for $4.8 million, $3.995 million, $3.899 million and most recently, between $3.2 million and $3.5 million.

John Gotti Jr., on trial yet again (he's been tried three times before, each time ending in mistrials) for murder and drug trafficking charges, was defended by his mother yesterday. Victoria Gotti, widow of the Teflon Don, unleashed torrent of words at her son's pretrial hearing. She yelled, "Excuse me, your honor, may I speak? I am his mother!" to which the judge said no. But that didn't stop her: She shouted "How do you feel about perjury?" "Why don't you just hang him now?" "The government is suborning perjury. This trial is rigged," "They're trying to kill him before trial. These are the good guys? God help us!" and that the feds were "fighting like little b----es, instead of men." Unsurprising, the judge ended the hearing. In spite of being in jail, Junior told his lawyer he was feeling good, though his lawyer pointed out Gotti needs treatment for kidney stones. Curtis Sliwa, Guardian Angels founder who was the target of a hit, told the Daily News, "I'd be more than happy to break up his kidney stones with a nice therapeutic massage."

Just because the city has blacklisted construction and utility companies due to their alleged ties to organized crime hasn't kept the Mets and Yankees from using them in putting together their new ballparks. The Times reports on the use of companies Petrocelli Electric and Interstate Industrial, brought on to work on Yankee Stadium, and Breeze National, hired to do demolition for Citi Field. Executives of the companies have done time for bribery charges in the past, prompting the city to avoid doing business with them. An NYU law professor told the paper, “We’re talking about the nature of the whole construction industry, which affects public construction, private construction, not-for-profit construction and the whole economic viability of the city. So there ought to be a commitment to do what we can to purge corrupt influences out of that industry.” But a Mets marketing VP stood by the selection of the controversial company. He said, “The deconstruction was done on time, on budget and without incident or injury.”

Bizarre: A book claims that a hitman was actually dispatched to the Hamptons home interviewer Charlie Rose, who shares the same name as a prosecutor with the same name. The Post has that scoop from Friends of the Family, a book about convicted "Mafia Cops" Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, who were sentenced to life for helping the mob carry out hits while working for the NYPD. Eppolito and Caracappa allegedly "gave bad information to their benefactor, Luchese underboss Anthony 'Gaspipe' Casso...[who] was furious with Mafia-busting prosecutor Charles Rose, believing that Rose embarrassed him by leaking a story about Casso having killed his former architect for having an affair with the mobster's wife." The hitman apparently left because TV's Rose never showed up and Casso was arrested before he could off Rose the prosecutor (Rose died in 1998 of cancer). When the Post told the talk show host, Rose, whose close calls involve self-inflicted injuries from saving his gadgets, said, "It's a surprise it's all new to me."

Saying no to John Gotti proved deadly for one man, as federal prosecutors claimed that a hit was ordered because he "ignor[ed] Gotti's invitation to his social club." The feds say that Gambino soldier Charles Carneglia shot the man four times in the head at the World Trade Center parking lot in 1990. Carneglia is also accused of four other murders, but the crime he is most notoriously associated with (but not charged with) is the 1980 murder of Gotti's neighbor John Favara. Favara fatally struck Gotti's bike-riding son with his car; Carneglia allegedly dumped Favara's body in a vat of acid. Now feds say Carneglia "did not choose an appropriate type of acid," which upset his boss Anthony Ruggiero because getting rid of Favara's body was taking too long. Apparently Carneglia's second try worked out better and he threw one of Favara's finger bones in Ruggiero's soup to prove he got the job done.

John Gotti Jr. returned to the NYC court scene —his past three trials have ended in mistrial, but the feds are still going after him—and was remanded without bail. The Daily News reports, "Manhattan Federal Judge Kevin Castel cited government claims that Gotti ordered three murders and oversaw a multimillion dollar cocaine trafficking network in Queens as reason for keeping the mob scion locked up ahead of his Sept. 14 trial date," and added Gotti "might have had a better shot if he stole $50 billion." Well, Gotti did manage to have the trial moved from Florida to NYC, so you win some, you lose some. The Teflon Don's son told Castel he was feeling "pretty good" except for a kidney stone issue. Junior also apologized, via his lawyer, to Castel for wearing prison garb and showing off a tattoo, but the judge said, "I'm familiar with the dress code of the place where he resides."

An informant says that Gambino family soldier Charles Carneglia killed John Gotti Sr.'s Howard Beach neighbor and got rid of the body by dumping him in a vat of acid. Carneglia, who has been behind bars since the feds' big sweep of the Gambinos last year, is accused of being part of a group of men who targeted Gotti neighbor John Favara, who fatally struck Gotti's bike-riding 12-year-old son Frankie in 1980. The Daily News explains that Favara "found the word Murderer scrawled on his auto and was attacked with a bat by Gotti's wife, Victoria, but failed to heed repeated warnings to move out of the area." The Post reports the feds originally thought Favara's body (in a barrel of concrete) was thrown off a Brooklyn pier, but "Carneglia's love of acid and his use of it in Favara's case came to light thanks to new information from the cooperating witness." Carneglia allegedly kept vats of acid in his basement and had asked the informant for help in moving them.

In this latest round, it's federal prosecutors 0, and John Gotti Jr. 1. A federal judge denied the feds's attempt to try Gotti in Florida and ordered the trial be moved to NYC. Judge Steven Merryday said the case, which includes three murder charges, against the supposed Gambino crime family boss is "unmistakably the same" as the, um, three trials Gotti went through in Manhattan in 2005 and 2006. Those NYC trials ended in mistrial, and the feds were hoping that a change of turf to Florida could change their luck. The feds had no comment, but Gotti's mother groused to the Daily News, "They can't find Osama Bin Laden but a Gotti at any given moment is a sure thing. ... The bruised egos from three hung juries will ensure [my son] will never, ever live his life in peace again."

trials against Gotti Jr. ended in mistrial. The two sides await the judge's decision.

A forensic dentist confirmed a body found at a Long Island site is that of William "Wild Bill" Cutolo, former Colombo crime family underboss. Newsday reports that Cutolo, who led the Local 400 and lived in Staten Island, "disappeared in 1999 and was believed to have been a victim in a war for control of the Colombo family...which resulted in more than a dozen murders." And the Staten Island Advance recounted a previous attempted hit on Cutolo: "the assassins dressed as Hasidic Jews, hoping to execute Cutolo as he sat in a restaurant in Borough Park." The FBI has been digging at the East Farmingdale site for a week--based on a mob informant's tip--and may recover two other bodies also believed to be buried there.

After days of digging and only finding dog bones, a source tells Newsday that the FBI seems to have found human remains buried in East Farmingdale, Long Island yesterday afternoon. The FBI has been at the industrial complex ever since a tipster said three bodies were buried there and, by last evening, "FBI agents were chopping down tree branches so a large set of floodlights could illuminate the baseball diamond-sized dig area through the evening." The Daily News reports that agents think the remains are of former Colombo underboss William (Wild Bill) Cutolo--"the corpse was found in a tarp cocoon - the traditional way mob hit men dispose of their kills - with shoe-clad feet sticking out."

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."

John Gotti Jr., who was recently arrested by the feds on charges of murder and drug running, pleaded not guilty in a Florida court. Though the murders were allegedly in NY, he is being prosecuted in Florida because prosecutors say the Gambino crime family was "trying to gain a foothold" in Tampa. Which his lawyers are trying to change, saying, "The events happened in New York, and it's a disadvantage to transfer everything here." Prosecutors have unsuccessfully tried Gotti Jr. in NYC three times, and some suggest NYC-area jurors are too impressed by the mob. Still, the AP described Gotti as "looking upbeat and waving confidently to his family."

In the latest case against John Gotti Jr., federal prosecutors claim the Teflon Don's son orchestrated three mob hits in NYC and ran a huge coke ring in Florida. A U.S. Attorney said, "This indictment captures a lifetime of criminality." The Daily News has a timeline (time horizon?) of cases brought against the two John Gottis and also details crimes of the friend who ratted Junior out (the friend had once smuggled another mobster's sperm out of jail). And Gotti Jr.'s alleged would-be hit victim, Curtis Sliwa, says he'd be happy to testify in this next trial.

John Gotti Jr. is like the FBI's Great White Whale! After his three recent trials ended in mistrial--prompting a prosecutor to say that going after Junior "was above his pay grade"--the feds are at it again, arrested the former Junior don of the Gambino crime family at his Oyster Bay home this morning.

Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada has filed suit against his Times Square business partner, Show World owner Richard Basciano, claiming that he has been shaken down by the mob-connected adult theater owner. Masada alleges to have been threatened with a gun, coerced into contracts and even says that the club was told that "somebody could be killed" if a certain comedian was booked again. The suit pits the new, cleaned-up Times Square against its seedier past. Basciano has Gambino crime family associates and is the brother Bonanno crime family boss "Vinny Gorgeous." Masada, on the other hand, was personally asked to bring the Laugh Factory to New York by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in the wake of 9/11. "I thought, 'Yes, New York needs some laughs,'" Masada said when he agreed to bring the club to Times Square in 2003.

Twelve members of the Colombo crime family, including its acting boss, were charged with 17 counts brought forth by the U.S. Attorney's Office, including "racketeering, murder, robbery, extortion, narcotics trafficking, and loansharking." Nine were arrested during Wednesday morning raids.