90-year-old Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau is retiring Thursday after a 35 year reign, and he's not pulling any punches in his exit interviews with the media. Morgenthau's still lashing out at federal bureaucracy—"they ought to burn it down and start all over again"—for, most recently, interfering in his case against Credit Suisse. After copping to aiding Iran and other rogue nations in violation of economic sanctions, the bank coughed up $536 million. (The feds wanted only civil penalties.) But Morgenthau, naturally, saved his nastiest criticism for his "chickenshit" nemesis Mayor Bloomberg.
Morgenthau Goes Out Swinging at Bloomberg
Bloomberg Calls Truce With Morgenthau, But Some Hear Threat
Long-simmering tensions between Mayor Bloomberg and undead District Attorney Robert Morgenthau boiled over last week when the mayor's office accused the DA of quietly keeping $83 million in settlements, fines and forfeitures in 62 "secret" bank accounts. One official said Morgenthau's office kept "two sets of books" in order to bypass the city’s financial review process. But Morgenthau's camp insisted the city has known about the accounts for years, and speculated that Bloomberg was actually retaliating against Morgenthau because he's frustrated that 40% of the DA's settlement money still gets kicked up to the state. Bloomberg wants it all, and Morgenthau called his tactics "chickenshit." But that was last week!
Mafia and Bloods Gang Linked in Crime Co-Op
New Jersey police have arrested a number of members of the Lucchese crime family. In the process of breaking up a multi-billion dollar betting organization, cops discovered that the old school mafia family had also teamed up with the more street-level gang the Bloods. The two groups were working together to smuggle things like iPods, cell phones, and drugs into the East Jersey State Prison. The betting ring was fairly sophisticated, utilizing Internet sites, an 800 phone line, and personal interaction to process more than $2 billion in wagers annually. The smuggling ring was facilitated by a corrections officer who worked at the prison.

