McPhee's New York City Gotti stories

NEWS
Crusader earned salutes, rebukes
ANITA DAVIS; MICHELE McPHEE
By ANITA DAVIS and MICHELE McPHEE
276 words
27 March 2007Boston Herald
All Editions
4
English
© 2007 Boston Herald Library. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
From subway crime fighter to target of the Mob, Curtis Sliwa has some riveting stories to tell.
Now, the Guardian Angels founder is making headlines as he declares war on Boston thugs.
Sliwa founded the Guardian Angels in 1979 mainly to thwart New York City subway crime. He later hosted radio talk shows, facilitated by his friend, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani.
Sliwa has supporters who believe in the Angels' mission, and critics, who said the group attracts trouble. Armed only with whistles and two-way radios, members were recognized for their quasi- military garb and red berets.
In 1981, the Angels had a Boston chapter that boasted 200 members.
In 1984, Boston police Commissioner Joseph Jordan said, "Each time (Guardian Angels) have gone into neighborhoods in Dorchester, in Charlestown and in South Boston there have been problems, and it seems their actions were provocative at best."
Yet Jordan admitted that the group's crime-fighting efforts were effective on the city's subways, and in 1982, Boston officials recognized the Angels for their work.
In 1992, Sliwa was shot and critically wounded by two Gambino crime family gangsters who picked him up in a stolen taxi cab outside his East Village apartment.
More than a decade later, John "Junior" Gotti Jr. was put on trial for the shooting for allegedly trying to get revenge on Sliwa for comments the Angel made about Gotti's father after he was convicted on racketeering charges.
Gotti Jr. was charged with Sliwa's attempted murder, but the case ended in a mistrial.
Document BHLD000020070327e33r0001b
NEWS
Oddfather mob capo dies in Mo. prison
MICHELE McPHEE
334 words
20 December 2005Boston Herald
All Editions
021
English
© 2005 Boston Herald Library. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
The Oddfather is sleeping with the fishes.
Legendary Genovese crime family boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante - who escaped prosecution for decades by wandering his native Greenwich Village neighborhood muttering incoherently while wearing a ragged bathrobe - died in a federal prison yesterday. He was 77.
Gigante, who one New York City detective called the "last of the gentleman gangsters," died at the U.S. Medical Center for federal prisoners in Springfield, Mo., the same hospital where Gambino boss John "Dapper Don" Gotti died of throat cancer in 2002.
"It's going to be interesting now to see who jockeys for position," said the detective, who has pursued the Genovese crime family for a decade.
Gigante was given his nickname as a child by his mother, who called him "Chin" because it was short for Vincenzo. It was a moniker that served the notoriously secretive mobster well, as his underlings were admonished never to utter his name out loud.
Instead, Genovese capos and soldiers would stroke their chins rather than say his name.
The secrecy extended to Gigante's Bronx clubhouse, not far from the Roman Catholic Church where his brother, Louis Gigante, is a priest.
In the clubhouse was a sign: "Don't talk. This place is bugged."
Gigante's insane antics, which he admitted two years ago were all an act, earned him another nickname in New York City: Oddfather.
The Genovese family is considered the strongest of New York City's five Mafia families. In recent years, the Genovese power base has infiltrated Western Massachusetts.
Last week, a reputed mobster was busted at his Westfield home and charged with a 2003 hit that took out Genovese capo Alfredo Bruno, 58. Bruno was executed in the church parking lot at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Springfield after a Sunday night card game.
He died clutching a cigar.
"The Genovese have essentially moved a lot of their action to Springfield," said the NYPD source.
Document BHLD000020051221e1ck0000z
NEWS
MOB DIGGERS HIT PAY DIRT HUMAN REMAINS FOUND AT REPUTED MAFIA CEMETERY
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF With Austin Fenner
471 words
12 October 2004New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
7
English
© 2004 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
FOUR HUMAN BONES were unearthed yesterday from the reputed Mafia burial grounds in Queens - the first significant find after a week of fruitless digging.
The bones - a tibia and fibula along with a hip or pelvic bone and a small foot or hand bone - were found clustered together in a marshy, wet area of the vacant lot on Ruby St. about 10:30 a.m. yesterday, said FBI Special Agent Joe Valiquette.
Agents were creating a dam around the site where the bones were found to preserve any other remains, Valiquette said.
"Now it's a matter of doing whatever the medical community can do to determine whose bones they are," Valiquette said.
The FBI began digging last Monday, searching for as many as five men believed to have been rubbed out by the Mafia and buried among the debris and ragged shrubbery in the desolate area of Ozone Park.
Investigators believe the site may contain the remains of four or more men killed by either Gambino or Bonanno mobsters.
Two, Philip Giaccone and Dominic Trinchera, were Bonanno upstarts killed in 1981 for plotting a takeover. The body of one of their cohorts, Alphonse Indelicato, was found in the makeshift cemetery weeks after he disappeared.
Also believed to be buried at the site is Thomas DeSimone, a tough mob wanna-be who vanished in 1978, and John Favara, a former neighbor of John Gotti who vanished in 1980 shortly after accidentally killing Gotti's young son Frank with his car.
"Based on the information that we developed over the past few months, we were certain we were going to find something. This discovery today just confirms the validity of the information," Valiquette said.
Until yesterday, a dog bone was the only artifact recovered.
"We expect we are going to find more," Valiquette said. "Obviously, the individuals we think might be buried there died in mysterious, to say the least, circumstances. We hope to answer a lot of questions for law enforcement and for the families themselves."
Late yesterday afternoon, swarms of FBI agents stood shoulder-to- shoulder around the spot where the bones were found, watching as a technician put the wet earth through large sifters. The search was assisted by two septic-tank trucks that pumped water from the hole.
As darkness fell, the FBI used floodlights from the NYPD's Emergency Service Unit to light the lot.
mmcphee@edit.nydailynews.com
Caption: JOHN TRACY Law-enforcement agents, many of them from the FBI, watch and wait at site of alleged mob graveyard at Ruby St. and Blake Ave. in Queens, as technicians sift soil hoping to unearth remains in addition to four bones already found.
Document NYDN000020041012e0ac0000d
NEWS
GAMBINO HIT MAN WANTS ALL TO KNOW HE'S NO RAT
MICHELE MCPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF
299 words
15 September 2004New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
12
English
© 2004 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
GAMBINO SOLDIER John Matera wants the world to know: He's a killer, he's a mobster - but he's no rat.
Matera, 34, who pleaded guilty to murder charges this month for whacking a government witness outside a Staten Island strip club in 1998, insists there's not truth to the talk that he'll testify against reputed Gambino boss Peter Gotti.
In a letter to the Daily News, Matera said he never even met Gotti, the brother of the late John (Dapper Don) Gotti.
"I am not cooperating against Peter Gotti," Matera wrote. "I'm going to jail for killing a rat. I'm not proud of this, I'm just proud I'm not a rat. I never was.
"All I have is my name left, and I'm going to prison for a long time," he wrote.
Peter Gotti was convicted on racketeering charges earlier this year in Brooklyn Federal Court, and is facing another trial in Manhattan on separate charges.
Matera admits to killing Frank Hydell - but unlike his victim, he never helped the feds, a claim several organized crime investigators confirmed yesterday.
In fact, police sources said, Matera has a massive tattoo etched across his entire back depicting a courtroom scene with a rat in the witness box next to a judge. The words - "12 Jurors, One Judge, Half a Chance" are scrolled over the image.
Matera is being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center facing 20 years in a federal prison on murder and racketeering charges.
He admitted to luring Hydell to Scarlett's, an upscale strip club, where the victim was gunned down on April 28, 1998.
mmcphee@edit.nydailynews.com
Document NYDN000020040915e09f0000j
NEWS
WHACKED WISEGUY A WACKO: WITNESS
MICHELE MCPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF
331 words
24 April 2004New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
8
English
© 2004 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
A Genovese crime family associate who cops say was slaughtered in the street by his brother-in-law had been acting crazy for weeks, the Daily News has learned.
Preston Geritano stormed into Amici's restaurant on Thursday swinging a bat at his brother-in-law, screaming, "I'm going to kill you!" according to a witness statement obtained by The News yesterday.
Defending himself from the blows inside his Bay Ridge eatery, reputed Genovese crime family bookmaker Andrew Gargiulo, 67, broke his left hand, fractured his right wrist, and needed stitches on his head.
"This is my place. No one does anything here without going through me," Geritano, 57, yelled as he swung the bat.
Despite his injuries, Gargiulo followed Geritano outside and stabbed him five times on the corner of 92nd St. and Fort Hamilton Parkway, cops say.
Gargiulo was expected to be arraigned on murder charges last night, police said. His attorneys, Arthur Aidala and Ronald Iaello, had no comment.
Geritano, a long-time drug addict who has been arrested numerous time for domestic violence and stalking women in Bay Ridge, had a long simmering resentment against Gargiulo, who is married to his sister, sources said.
"There has been bad blood between those two for a long time, even though they are family," said a Brooklyn man who knows both Geritano and Garguilo.
In recent weeks, Geritano had been stalking around Bay Ridge in a frenzy screaming "I own this city!" said a source close to the slain mob associate.
Geritano was once a suspect in the slaying of John Gotti's driver and bodyguard, Bartholomew (Bobby) Borriello, organized crime investigators said.
One organized crime investigator described Gargiulo, who owns a sprawling waterfront mansion in Bay Ridge, as a "zillionaire" and the "biggest bookie in Brooklyn."
"Now he'll do time for something that had nothing to do with the Genovese family," the investigator said.
Document NYDN000020040424e04o0000a
NEWS
WISEGUY SLAIN IN RED-SAUCE FEUD
JONATHAN LEMIRE, MICHELE McPHEE and TRACY CONNOR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
305 words
23 April 2004New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
4
English
© 2004 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
A long-simmering feud between two aging wiseguys erupted in violence at their Brooklyn restaurant yesterday, ending with one dead and the other facing murder charges.
Preston Geritano, 57, went after his brother-in-law and business partner, Andrew Gargiulo, 65, and got stabbed five times on the sidewalk outside Amici's in Bay Ridge, authorities said.
"There was blood everywhere," said Spencer Mara, 25, who lives down the block from the eatery, on Fort Hamilton Parkway at 92nd St.
Geritano, described by investigators as a Gambino crime family associate long suspected in an infamous gangland rubout, was dead on arrival at Lutheran Medical Center.
Gargiulo, a convicted bookmaker and reputed member of the Genovese mob clan, was under arrest at Coney Island Hospital, where he was treated for cuts and bruises.
Witnesses said Geritano, of Brooklyn, barged into Amici's around 2 p.m. with a bat. Minutes later, the fight spilled outside, with Gargiulo wielding a curved switchblade. "Stop, you're killing him!" a motorist shouted.
A relative said there was bad blood between the co-owners. "They've been fighting for years," said Pietro Callil, 57, a brother- in-law of Gargiulo. "Preston was sick in the head. He was a bad, violent man."
For years, Geritano was the prime suspect in the 1991 shooting of Bobby Borriello, Gambino chieftain John Gotti's driver and confidant, but was never charged. Gargiulo had his own legal problems. In 1995, he landed in prison for running a mobbed-up $86 million gambling ring.
The crime scene also has a colorful history. Before it was reopened as Amici's two years ago, the restaurant was La Tavol, a Gambino hangout where Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano held court.
Document NYDN000020040423e04n00004
NEWS
MOB LINK IN HOSP ARREST
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF
483 words
14 April 2004New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
8
English
© 2004 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
The Bellevue Hospital medical assistant busted for selling guns and drugs at the facility has ties to the Gambino mob, the Daily News has learned.
Sam (Baby) Perez, 38, along with his father, Samuel Perez Sr., allegedly sold dope for the Gambino crime family, several law enforcement sources told The News.
The Perez family lives in an apartment above a social club at 181 Columbia St. in Red Hook, Brooklyn, owned by reputed Gambino wiseguy Stephen Borriello, whose brother Bartholomew (Bobby) Borriello was the late mob boss John Gotti's bodyguard before he was gunned down in 1991.
The younger Perez allegedly used the apartment to sell automatic weapons and cocaine, according to a criminal complaint. He also allegedly sold his wares at his girlfriend's Fort Greene, Brooklyn, apartment and from his second-floor locker at Bellevue until his arrest last Wednesday.
Perez became the subject of a joint investigation of the NYPD and Brooklyn district attorney's office in January, when cops were tipped that he was a major supplier of guns and drugs.
Perez's father had served more than a decade in prison for selling heroin, a crime he was accused of committing on behalf of Gambino gangsters, several law enforcement sources said.
"We knew who his dad was, and we knew where this case could go. His father was connected to a lot of people," said one high-ranking organized crime investigator. "We just didn't know it would take us to a locker room at Bellevue Hospital."
Perez, who drew blood and performed other medical procedures at Bellevue for the past five years, pleaded not guilty Thursday and is being held without bail at Rikers Island.
A Bellevue Hospital spokesman, James Saunders, said Perez was suspended with pay but faces termination.
"We were outraged by the fact he was dealing out of the hospital," said Noel Downey, a Brooklyn prosecutor assigned to the rackets division. "He set the scene, saying, 'Why don't you come to my place of work and set up the deal?' When he told us where he worked and what he did for a living, we were almost in disbelief."
Downey said NYPD detectives along with another Brooklyn prosecutor, Shawn Mallon, bought a total of six handguns from Perez.
Armed with search warrants, detectives did not find guns or drugs in the locker at Bellevue Hospital or at the Columbia St. apartment. They did recover a bulletproof vest and ammunition, Downey said.
Stephen Borriello, the owner of the social club, could not be reached yesterday.
"Stephen hasn't been around for a while," a painter at the social club said yesterday. "It's Spanish here now, not Italian."
Caption: ANDREW THEODORAKIS Sam Perez, whose arrest was reported in News, below, is now linked to alleged mob social club (photo left).
Document NYDN000020040414e04e0000c
NEWS
CAPO, HIS YOUNG GUNS FACE NEW MURDER RAP
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF
375 words
5 December 2003New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
16
English
© 2003 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
Reputed Gambino capo Ronald (Ronnie One Arm) Trucchio, already in prison for running a Queens gambling ring, was indicted yesterday for allegedly overseeing a crew of mob wanna-bes that killed at least four people.
Trucchio, a one-time confidant of the late John Gotti, along with nine of his underlings who called themselves the "Young Guns" are facing murder, robbery and racketeering charges, NYPD police and prosecutors said.
The crew is suspected of killing one-time associate Martin Bosshart, 30, who was shot in the head while urinating outside his car in Howard Beach last February, law enforcement sources said.
Crew members also are charged with three 1995 slayings in Florida that were allegedly ordered by the Gambino crime family, police and prosecutors said. Sources said the victims were strip club bouncer Vincent D'Angola, 27; his dancer girlfriend, Jami Schneider, 24, and Mark Rizzuto, 25. The men, both from New Jersey, were Young Gun members who may have skimmed money from the crew, sources said.
A now-jailed former member of the Young Guns told the Daily News in an exclusive interview that the violent crew did the Gambino family's bidding.
"We answered right up to Junior [John Gotti] when it first started," he said. "There was a lot of murdering going on.
"Everybody answered to Ronnie One Arm, and Ronnie answered right to the top. He ran our whole neighborhood, and he knew there was big money down in Florida, so he sent us down there," he said. "A lot of people went down to Florida to hide out, and they were committing more crimes when they were on the run than they did in New York."
An indictment also charges the Young Guns with a daring 1995 armored car heist in Queens Village that netted the crew $2 million, and a $400,000 bank job months later in Howard Beach.
Trucchio was indicted along with Kevin (Capone) Antinuche, Gennarro (Gerry) Bruno, Edward (Eddie Wrecker) Callegari, Robert (Bucks) Bucholz, Joseph (Baby Face) Kondrotos, Darrin Sirrota, Valentino (Val) Nucci, Frank Roccaforte and Dave Prevete. Prevete was business partners with Carmine Agnello, Victoria Gotti's ex- husband.
Document NYDN000020031205dzc50000l
NEWS
BIRTHDAY WISHER HAS GOTTI NO IDEA
Michele McPhee
113 words
21 October 2003New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
7
English
© 2003 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
"Bill P." better get a new calendar - or maybe a Kevlar suit.
Yesterday, the unidentified mob aficionado paid for a Daily News in-memoriam ad for late Gambino crime family boss John Gotti reading: "You are deeply missed on your birthday. Bill P."
The only problem? He placed the ad a full week before what would have been the jolly goodfella's 63rd birthday.
Last Oct. 27, 4 1/2 months after Gotti died of throat and neck cancer at a maximum-security lockup, the Dapper Don's family placed in-memoriam ads on his birthday, vowing his "spirit" will live on through them.
Document NYDN000020031021dzal00031
NEWS
GALANTE NEPHEW IN HOT WATER OVER OIL
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF
394 words
4 October 2003New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
22
English
© 2003 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
The namesake of slain gangster Carmine Galante - imprisoned for life for killing a Brooklyn college student - was indicted for throwing hot cooking oil on his cellmate at Sing Sing, the Daily News has learned.
The 23-year-old victim in that attack, whose name is being withheld to protect his safety, is a reputed Neatas gang member who referred to himself as Gotti and may have stolen Galante's boots, sources said.
Galante retaliated by throwing a bucket of scalding oil at his cellmate's face and back Sept. 23, 2002, according to an indictment filed by Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro. Although Galante has been in solitary confinement since the attack, he was not indicted until the summer.
He is scheduled to appear in Westchester County Criminal court on assault charges Oct. 28.
"This is an ongoing investigation," said Anne Marie Corbalis, a spokeswoman for the Westchester County district attorney's office.
Galante, nephew of the late Bonanno crime family boss who was gunned down at a Brooklyn restaurant in 1979 while smoking a stogie, is now housed at the maximum-security Southport Correction Facility in upstate New York. His victim is at Auburn Correction Facility, another upstate prison.
"Carmine understands he has a long road ahead of him, and he's not about to let anyone abuse or take advantage of him," said Galante's former roommate, a 27-year-old Brooklyn man who asked not to be named.
Galante, 26, has been in custody since April 16, 2002, a day after his mug shot appeared on the front page of The News under the headline "Worst of the Worst" while on the run for fatally stabbing St. John's University student Bill Manolis.
On April 4, 1999, Galante stalked into a Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, hot spot, the Bee-Kee-Nee Bar, and plunged a knife into Manolis' chest.
Manolis, who had been celebrating his 18th birthday, was killed because he had chatted up Galante's girlfriend, the daughter of alleged Luchese crime family capo Joseph (Joey Flowers) Tangorra.
While hiding out, Galante gained 80 pounds and lived in a dumpy studio in Mastic, L.I., under the name Vinny Bono. He was captured after News readers flooded detectives with tips about his whereabouts.
Caption: Carmine Galante
Document NYDN000020031004dza40000w
NEWS
FEAR QUEENS RAP WAR Streetcorner ambush 2nd slaying in 4 days
TOM RAFTERY, WARREN WOODBERRY Jr. and MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
977 words
6 September 2003New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
5
English
© 2003 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
A rapper on the Murder Inc. label was shot to death on a Queens street corner Thursday night, fueling fears of a new violent rap war.
The ambush of D.O. Cannon, whose real name is Gerard Fields, came four days after the strikingly similar fatal shooting of a less- accomplished rapper who ran with Murder Inc.'s rivals.
Fields, 26, was gunned down as he stood in front of an abandoned storefront at 177th St. and 104th Ave., a known drug location.
Police said a man in a gray sweat suit walked up to Fields just after midnight and let his gun do all the talking, hitting the rapper twice in the chest and once in the leg.
As the gunman fled in a cream-colored car, Fields' friends threw the bleeding rapper into a black Volvo and sped to the emergency room of Mary Immaculate Hospital, where they abandoned him before cops arrived, police sources said.
He died a few minutes later.
Police were not ruling out the possibility that Fields' slaying could be related to Monday's fatal shooting of Shadaha (Jah) Bey, who was often seen with rap superstar 50 Cent's crew, G Unit.
Bey, 26, was shot to death on the corner of Guy Brewer Blvd. and 104th Ave. in Jamaica - a few miles from where Fields was killed.
Bey's father, Yusef, said his son was a G Unit rapper who worked security for 50 Cent.
"This has to stop," Yusef Bey said from his South Carolina home yesterday. "It has to stop within the community." Public feud Yesterday, two memorials with votive candles and graffiti "RIP" scrawls marked the blood-stained sidewalks where Fields and Bey died miles apart.
Murder Inc. and 50 Cent have been involved in a fierce, very public feud.
Murder Inc.'s most popular artist, Ja Rule, has written lyrics mocking 50 Cent as a stool pigeon: "So on ya grave its gon' read: Here lie Fifty, who snitched on many."
50 Cent repeatedly has taunted Ja Rule in his lyrics and said the hit song "Wanksta" is about his nemesis.
"We have not made a connection, but we are investigating both shootings very carefully," said a police source.
The source said detectives say Fields may have been shot in retaliation for trying to shoot a man named Vincent last week. That incident was not reported to police.
"We believe the victim attempted to assault someone and was killed as an act of retribution," the source said.
Fields - who has served two prison sentences for armed robbery, including the stickup of a woman in 1994 and a gunpoint mugging of a man a year later - is featured as D.O. Cannon on Murder Inc.'s latest album, "The Inc."
In a biography filed on the Def Jam Web site, D.O. Cannon boasts that he "struggled in the streets of poverty."
"I got to say I love everybody: fat, slim, rich or broke," he wrote. "Music is life, that's what makes us function."
Mary Fields, 68, said that hours before he died, her grandson was blasting his latest lyrics. She raised Fields after his mother died of heart problems when he was 11 years old.
Fields became the father of a boy 10 months ago.
"He played it as loud as it would go, then he cut it off and went out," Mary Fields said, "and that was it."Graphic: The latest rap war - pitting Ja Rule and other rappers on the Murder Inc. label against Eminem and 50 Cent - began with inflammatory lyrics. Now it has escalated into violence. The main players: 50 CENT The multi- platinum rapper made a name for himself by making fun of others; his first hit was about robbing artists like Bobby Brown and Jay Z.He wrote a song about Ja Rule called "Wanksta." He was shot in Jamaica, Queens, in 2000 but did not cooperate in the police investigation.In January, he was arrested in Manhattan after cops found a gun in his car. Two weeks later, his manager's office was shot up by unknown gunmen.JAM MASTER JAY The slain hip-hop pioneer discovered 50 Cent. After Jay's murder, cops offered 50 Cent police protection, but he declined.EMINEM The preeminent rap king throws down on every album. He has 50 Cent on his Shady Aftermath label; both make fun of Ja Rule.IRV GOTTI Rapper became the founder and CEO of Murder Inc., a label overseen by Universal's Island Def Jam division. Gotti's label is under investigation for possible links to a crack kingpin named Kenneth (Supreme) McGriff.KENNETH MCGRIFF Has been implicated by federal prosecutors in the 2000 shooting of 50 Cent. McGriff, who is in prison on federal gun charges, is credited with starting the Supreme Team crack gang, which ruled south Queens.JA RULE His feud with 50 Cent started after he was robbed by one of 50 Cent's buddies. They have traded insults in their raps; in "Loose Change," Ja Rule called 50 Cent a snitch. "So on ya grave it's gon' read: Here lie Fifty, who snitched on many."The album also included this line - "An' Murda Inc. will send they deepest condolences and sympathies ta Aftermath, ta Shady, Interscope and Jimmy" - references to some of Eminem's alter-egos and music labels.
Caption: TARGET Murder Inc. rapper D.O. Cannon was shot to death Thursday night in front of an abandoned Queens storefront. GARY LISTORT SEARCH FOR CLUES Detective aids crime-scene unit officer after D.O. Cannon was shot at 177th St. and 104th Ave. Killing may be related to Monday's fatal shooting of another rapper.
Document NYDN000020030911dz960001h
NEWS
SHOOTING SUSPECT GIVES UP Standoff ends; cop on mend
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF With Martin Mbugua
499 words
29 August 2003New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
5
English
© 2003 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
A man wanted in the shooting of a police captain in Harlem held police at bay for three hours in Brooklyn yesterday before surrendering.
But ex-con Tyran (Tah-Tah) Moore, 32, was not immediately charged with wounding Capt. Kenneth Girven early Wednesday on W. 154th St.
"We know he was there, but we don't know yet if he was the triggerman," a police official.
Moore was holed up in his nephew's apartment on Paerdegat 11th St. in Canarsie yesterday morning when cops swarmed the block. Neighbors were evacuated as police sharpshooters took positions outside, and hostage negotiators tried to talk Moore out.
Moore refused to budge until 11:30 a.m., when a family member got him to leave, police sources said.
Cops first escorted a little girl, the daughter of Moore's nephew, Antwon Hambrock, 20, from the house. Then they rushed Moore as he emerged. He screamed at the officers, "Get off me! I didn't do nothing!"
Inside the home, police found a "damaged and dismantled" 9-mm. handgun.
Someone had tried to flush 9-mm. bullets down a toilet, a high- ranking police official said.
Girven was shot with a 9-mm. handgun early Wednesday morning after he spotted two men acting suspiciously and shouted, "Police! What's up?"
One man responded by squeezing off three rounds at Girven, hitting him once in the back with a bullet that split and exited his abdomen. Spotted on video Late Wednesday, Girven picked Moore's mug shot out of a photo array, police sources said. Moore also was captured on videotape on the block where Girven was shot, sources said.
Investigators said Moore admitted he was at a social club near where the captain was wounded but denied being involved in the shooting.
Investigators said Moore - who fathered a son, Tyran Jr., with Sandi Denton, who is Pepa of the Queens hip-hop sensation, Salt-N- Pepa - has been linked to convicted crack kingpin Kenneth (Supreme) McGriff.
McGriff is at the center of a rap industry investigation by the feds that includes allegations he laundered money at Murder Inc., a music label run by rapper Irv Gotti that features multiplatinum artists Ja Rule and Ashanti on its roster.
Moore has served three stints behind bars on drugs, weapons and vehicular manslaughter charges.
He beat a manslaughter charge in 1993 after he was acquitted at trial.
Rap artist 50 Cent refers to Moore in an autobiographical song about being shot nine times.
"Fifty, who shot ya?" 50 Cent wrote. "You think it was 'Preme, Freeze or Tah-Tah?"
Moore was traced to Canarsie early yesterday morning, and cops from the NYPD warrants squad were staking him out when the standoff began, sources said.
A second suspect is still being sought.
Girven remained at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in stable condition yesterday.
Caption: Capt. Kenneth Girven
Document NYDN000020030829dz8t00006
NEWS
2 indicted in S.I. rubout Mob snitch suspect was slain outside strip joint
MICHELE McPHEE and ROBERT GEARTY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
390 words
18 April 2003New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
20
English
© 2003 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
Two alleged Gambino family mobsters were indicted yesterday in the 1998 execution-style murder of a suspected Mafia snitch outside a seedy Staten Island strip club.
Thomas (Huck) Carbonaro and John Matera blew away 30-year-old Frank Hydell to keep him from divulging mob secrets, the indictment charges.
Hydell, an associate of the Bonanno crime family, was leaving the now-shuttered Scarlett's topless joint on April 28, 1998, when he met his demise.
He was shot numerous times in the head and chest after being approached from behind by thugs who took off in a light blue Lincoln Continental.
Prosecutor Michael McGovern said Hydell was killed to prevent him from cooperating with law enforcement.
Cops from the NYPD's elite intelligence division and federal prosecutors got a break in the five-year-old case from a Gambino capo who agreed to cooperate late last year, sources said.
Sources said Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo, a favorite of boss John Gotti, decided to squeal after prosecutors charged him last June with helping to kill a Brooklyn construction worker and a Staten Island businessman.
Before he met his end outside the strip club, Hydell was no stranger to mob violence.
A brother, James Hydell, was tortured and whacked 17 years ago by Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso, a Luchese underboss whom James Hydell had tried to kill.
Casso, who eventually became a turncoat, admitted to committing 36 murders.
Tattoos of brother
Frank Hydell's body was etched with tattoos commemorating his dead brother.
Frank Hydell was also a nephew of Danny Marino, a Gambino capo who was slated to replace John Gotti at the helm of the family before he was convicted of racketeering and murder.
Carbonaro was arrested yesterday morning at his Brooklyn home on a six-count racketeering indictment returned in Manhattan Federal Court.
In addition to murder, he was charged with loansharking and shaking down construction companies.
At his arraignment, Carbonaro sported a shaved head, a gray sweat suit and brand-new sneakers. He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail.
Prosecutors said Matera's arraignment will be held at a later date. He is in a federal prison serving time on unrelated charges.
Document NYDN000020030515dz4i000ea
NEWS
'SOPRANO' &44 IN DRUG SWEEP
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF
381 words
4 April 2003New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
31
English
© 2003 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
A crew of mob wanna-bes who spent their days lounging at tanning salons and expensive restaurants was busted in a massive Queens drug sweep that even snared an actor on "The Sopranos."
Operation Beach Boys - a year-long investigation into six armed crews that divvied up neighborhoods in Howard Beach and Ozone Park into around-the-clock drug supermarkets - resulted in 45 arrests.
One of those arrested is actor Richard Maldone, who plays fictional capo Albert Barese on the hit HBO show "The Sopranos."
Maldone allegedly bought ketamine, a club drug, and offered to share it with an undercover cop who had infiltrated the Beach Boys crews.
Christopher Carneglia, the son of a real Gambino crime family capo, also was busted in yesterday's takedown. Carneglia's father, Charlie, is serving a 50-year term for crimes committed while he oversaw the late John Gotti's crew as a capo.
The narcotics rings specialized in crystal meth, Ecstasy, cocaine, marijuana, steroids, Vicodin, steriods and Valium - selling the product primarily at nightclubs and rave parties, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday.
"These groups were unemployed mob wanna-bes who lived at home with their parents," Kelly said. "They had money and status, and seemed to get away with anything. Their days of drug dealing and easy money are over." No fear of the fuzz They were so brazen they boasted that they had no fear of law enforcement.
"We're not afraid of the cops," one suspect was overheard saying on a wiretapped cell phone. "We're afraid of him."
Kelly said "him" referred to alleged acting Gambino crime family boss Peter Gotti.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said each crew was pulling in about $500,000 to a million a year - money that prosecutors said was used to fund "vapid, self-indulgent lifestyles in expensive restaurants, nightclubs, health clubs and tanning salons."
The crews even gave their narcotics nicknames: Ecstasy pills were called "Cookies and Cream." Cocaine was dubbed "Platinum and Diamonds." And marijuana was referred to as "Emeralds."
Prosecutors were investigating whether any money was funneled to the upper echelons of the Gambino crime family.
Caption: MARIELA LOMBARD ARRAIGNED Actor Richard Maldone exits court yesterday.
Document nydn000020030404dz440006k
NEWS
POLICE DOUBTING PRODUCER'S RAP Probe tale of mystery bullet
MICHELE MCPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF
448 words
26 February 2003New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
2
English
© 2003 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
Police were investigating yesterday the mysterious shooting of a rap producer who took a bullet in the leg outside the Manhattan offices of a top hip-hop record label.
The producer, Chris Gotti, 39, told police he was hit in the left leg Monday night by a bullet that he said was fired from "50 feet away."
Gotti - who works for his music mogul brother, Irv Gotti, the head of record company Murder Inc. - told police he does not know who shot him.
But detectives were skeptical of Gotti's version of the shooting, which occurred about 8 p.m. after he left Def Jam Records on W. 49th St. near Ninth Ave.
Police sources said they were looking into whether Gotti shot himself accidentally.
No gun was found at the scene, but a high-ranking police official told the Daily News: "That shooting was up close and personal. If he didn't shoot himself, he had to know who did."
The gunplay was the latest in a spate of shootings that have rocked the hip-hop world and sparked a federal investigation that has focused on Irv Gotti's company.
Chris Gotti - who hours before the shooting had attended a hip- hop summit decrying violence - was treated and released at Bellevue Hospital.
"He's home and he's feeling okay," said Murray Richman, a lawyer for the Gotti brothers, whose real last name is Lorenzo.
Witnesses did not report seeing any gunmen on the packed midtown street.
But Richman said it was nonsense to think that Gotti's wound was self-inflicted. "It's a pretty rough neighborhood over there," Richman said. "Chris doesn't carry a gun. He has no gun."
Last month, The News reported that the offices of Murder Inc. were raided by police and federal agents because of Irv Gotti's ties to notorious drug kingpin Kenneth (Supreme) McGriff, who ran the Queens cocaine trade during the city's crack epidemic.
The feds have been investigating the rap business, quietly building a racketeering case against gangsta rappers for crimes including money laundering, drug dealing and gang violence.
The bullet that hit Gotti was the second Manhattan shooting incident involving the rap world this week.
On Friday, an SUV belonging to Grammy-nominated rapper Busta Rhymes was riddled with six bullets, minutes after he parked it to go into the W. 25th St. office of his management company, Violator Records.
Caption: SUSAN WATTS DAILY NEWS DAVID HANDSCHUH DAILY NEWS Rap producer Chris Gotti was shot at Worldwide Plaza complex on W 49th St. on Monday night.
Document nydn000020030226dz2q00051
NEWS
NO. 20, WITH A BULL-ET Gravano charged in 1980 slay of cop
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF With Austin Fenner an Greg B. Smith
720 words
25 February 2003New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
7
English
© 2003 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
Make that 20 murders for Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano.
The mob turncoat, who got a free ride even after admitting he whacked 19 people, has been charged with another murder - the slaying of a rogue New York City cop more than two decades ago.
The latest homicide was announced yesterday by authorities in Bergen County, N.J., who say Gravano, 57, arranged a hit on off- duty cop Peter Calabro in 1980.
Sources told the Daily News that the admitted hit man in the case fingered Gravano as the one who hired him.
Richard (Iceman) Kuklinski - who pleaded guilty to the Calabro killing last week after first revealing it in a TV interview - said that Gravano gave him a shotgun to carry out the hit, the sources told The News.
Calabro was gunned down on March 14, 1980, as he drove his Honda Civic near his Upper Saddle River, N.J., home.
The motive is still unclear. Calabro, who was assigned to the NYPD auto larceny unit in Queens, was under investigation for selling information to the Gambino crime family at the time.
On Saturday, Bergen County detectives visited Gravano at Maricopa County jail in Arizona, where he is serving time for running an Ecstasy ring.
Bergen County Chief of Detectives Michael Mordaga said the once- fearsome Gravano is now bald, pale and sickly. He is being housed in a prison where inmates must wear pink underwear under a black-and- white-striped prison jumper.
Gravano, whose testimony sent Gambino boss John Gotti to jail for life, refused to talk, Mordaga said.
"We have two of the most notorious hit men of the New York- New Jersey area charged with the same murder," Mordaga said. "These guys can't go down any further, but the bottom line is that [Gravano's] been charged, and what we plan to do is move forward to bring him back to New Jersey."
Kuklinski, who is serving four life sentences for murder, was a notorious hit man who killed using cyanide mist, crossbows, ice picks, hand grenades and bizarre firearms.
He got his nickname after he stashed a dead body in a Mr. Softee ice cream truck.
The Calabro case was reopened in May 2001 after Kuklinski confessed to the murder in a jailhouse interview for the HBO series "America Undercover." On the program, Kuklinski boasted of committing 100 gruesome slayings for the mob.
Calabro was killed on a snowy night as he made his way home, where his second wife and 4-year-old daughter were waiting.
"As he approached and passed the van, I stepped out and fired," Kuklinski told a New Jersey judge last week after pleading guilty to Calabro's killing as the cop's widow and adult daughter sobbed.
Some veteran defense attorneys said yesterday that Gravano's newest alleged murder could open the door for gangsters he put away to demand new trials.
"You can make a really strong argument that there's a reason [Gravano] didn't tell about killing a cop. Then the government couldn't kiss him on the lips," said Manhattan lawyer Isabelle Kirschner.
.SIDEBAR
.SAMMY'S HIT LIST
. Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano has admitted his involvement in 19 murders. "Sometimes I was a shooter," he said during the 1992 trial of Gambino crime
family boss John Gotti. "Sometimes, I just talked about it."
Louis DiBono, 1990, Manhattan
Edward Garafalo, 1990, Brooklyn
Thomas Spinelli, 1989, Brooklyn
Wilfred Johnson, 1988, Brooklyn
Francesco Oliverri, 1988, Queens
Liborio Milito, 1988, Brooklyn
Robert DiBernardo, 1986, Brooklyn
Michael DeBatt, 1987, Brooklyn
Nicky Mormando, 1986, Brooklyn
Paul Castellano, 1985, Manhattan
Thomas Bilotti, 1985, Manhattan
John Santiago, 1983, Brooklyn
Jackie (no ID), 1983, Brooklyn
Frank Fiala, 1982, Brooklyn
Frank Stillitano, 1981, Philadelphia
John Simone, 1980, Staten Island
Nick Scibetta, 1978, Brooklyn
Alan Kaiser, 1977, Brooklyn
Joseph Colucci, 1970, Queens
Caption: PETER CALABRO RICHARD KUKLINSKI SALVATORE GRAVANO Daily News Convicted killer Richard Kuklinski told N.J. court Salvatore Gravano gave him a shotgun to carry out 1980 hit or NYPD Officer Peter Calabro. The off-duty officer was slain while driving his Honda Civic (below) near his home in Upper Saddle River, N.J.
Document nydn000020030225dz2p000hi
NEWS
NO. 20, WITH A BULL-ET Gravano charged in 1980 slay of cop
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF With Austin Fenner and Greg B. Smith
769 words
25 February 2003New York Daily News
CITY FINAL
7
English
© 2003 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
Make that 20 murders for Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano.
The mob turncoat, who got a free ride even after admitting he whacked 19 people, has been charged with another murder - the slaying of a rogue New York City cop more than two decades ago.
The latest homicide was announced yesterday by authorities in Bergen County, N.J., who claim it was Gravano, 57, who arranged a hit on off-duty NYPD Officer Peter Calabro in 1980.
Sources told the Daily News that the admitted hit man in the case recently fingered Gravano as the one who hired him.
Richard (Iceman) Kuklinski - who pleaded guilty to the Calabro killing last week after first revealing it in a TV interview - said that Gravano gave him a shotgun to carry out the hit, the sources told The News.
Calabro was gunned down on March 14, 1980, as he drove his Honda Civic down a rural road near his Upper Saddle River, N.J., home.
The motive is still unclear. Calabro, who was assigned to the NYPD auto larceny unit in Queens, was under investigation for selling information to the Gambino crime family at the time. Looking ill On Saturday, Bergen County detectives visited Gravano at Maricopa County jail in Arizona, where he is serving time for running an Ecstasy ring that used his wife and two adult children as dealers.
Bergen County Chief of Detectives Michael Mordaga said Gravano - once a feared, muscled mobster in the Gambino crime family - is now bald, pale and sickly-looking. He is being housed in a prison where all the inmates are forced to wear pink underwear under a black-and- white-striped prison jumper.
The mob turncoat, whose testimony sent Gambino boss John Gotti to jail for life, refused to talk about the cop killing, Mordaga said.
"We have two of the most notorious hit men of the New York- New Jersey area charged with the same murder," Mordaga said. "These guys can't go down any further, but the bottom line is that [Gravano's] been charged, and what we plan to do is move forward to bring him back to New Jersey."
Kuklinski, who is serving four life sentences for murder, was a notorious Mafia hit man who rubbed out victims using cyanide mist, crossbows, ice picks, hand grenades and bizarre firearms.
He got his nickname after he stashed a dead body in a Mr. Softee ice cream truck.
The Calabro case was reopened in May 2001 after Kuklinski confessed to the murder in a jailhouse interview for the HBO series "America Undercover."
On the program, Kuklinski boasted of committing 100 gruesome slayings for the mob.
Calabro was killed on a snowy night as he drove down a narrow road toward the suburban home where his second wife and 4-year-old daughter were waiting for him.
"As he approached and passed the van, I stepped out and fired," Kuklinski told a New Jersey judge last week after pleading guilty to Calabro's killing as the cop's widow and adult daughter sobbed.
Some veteran defense attorneys said yesterday that Gravano's newest alleged murder could open the door for gangsters he put away to demand new trials.
"You can make a really strong argument that there's a reason [Gravano] didn't tell about killing a cop. Then the government couldn't kiss him on the lips," said Manhattan attorney Isabelle Kirschner.
. .SIDEBAR
.SAMMY'S HIT LIST
. Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano has admitted his involvement in 19 murders. "Sometimes I was a shooter," he said during the 1992 trial of Gambino crime
family boss John Gotti. "Sometimes, I just talked about it."
Louis DiBono, 1990, Manhattan
Edward Garafalo, 1990, Brooklyn
Thomas Spinelli, 1989, Brooklyn
Wilfred Johnson, 1988, Brooklyn
Francesco Oliverri, 1988, Queens
Liborio Milito, 1988, Brooklyn
Robert DiBernardo, 1986, Brooklyn
Michael DeBatt, 1987, Brooklyn
Nicky Mormando, 1986, Brooklyn
Paul Castellano, 1985, Manhattan
Thomas Bilotti, 1985, Manhattan
John Santiago, 1983, Brooklyn
Jackie (no ID), 1983, Brooklyn
Frank Fiala, 1982, Brooklyn
Frank Stillitano, 1981, Philadelphia
John Simone, 1980, Staten Island
Nick Scibetta, 1978, Brooklyn
Alan Kaiser, 1977, Brooklyn
Joseph Colucci, 1970, Queens
Caption: PETER CALABRO RICHARD KUKLINSKI SALVATORE GRAVANO Daily News Convicted killer Richard Kuklinski told N.J. court Salvatore Gravano gave him a shotgun to carry out 1980 hit or NYPD Officer Peter Calabro. The off-duty officer was slain while driving his Honda Civic (below) near his home in Upper Saddle River, N.J.
Document nydn000020030225dz2p000jo
NEWS
'BRASCO'S' LONG WAIT After 20 years, ex-agent applauds mob bust
MICHELE MCPHEE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
1016 words
19 January 2003New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
10
English
© 2003 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
On a November day in 1981, Bonanno crime family capo Dominick (Sonny Black) Napolitano pulled off his diamond pinky ring and slapped it down alongside his money clip and house keys atop the worn bar at Brooklyn's Motion Lounge.
"Hold onto these, Charlie," the aging wiseguy told the bartender at the Greenpoint gin mill. "I'm going to a meeting and I don't think I'll be back."
Napolitano knew he had incurred the Mafia's wrath after he unwittingly allowed an undercover FBI agent to infiltrate the Bonanno family. For six years, Napolitano had a man he knew as Donnie Brasco under his wing, and had even proposed the lawman for membership in La Cosa Nostra.
But before Brasco could become a made man, he was ordered to carry out a killing. The FBI pulled him out, and Napolitano's death warrant was sealed.
Seventeen days after he left the Motion Lounge, a body bag containing Napolitano's decomposing corpse with a bullet hole in the head was found under the Verrazano Bridge on the Staten Island shoreline.
On Jan. 9, more than two decades later, Bonanno family leader Joseph Massino was charged with ordering the killing.
The indictment of Massino, 60, thrilled Joseph Pistone, also 60, who played the role of Brasco.
"I would have liked someone to get charged with it before, but it was well worth the wait," Pistone told the Daily News last week. "All these years, it was on my mind about Sonny getting killed.
"My intention in all of this was to put people in jail, not get them killed. His murder was the result of my undercover operation, no doubt about it. But that's the risk you run when you're a mob guy.
"This guy knew he was going to his death. What wiseguy would do that today?"
Rising mob star
Pistone had posed as a low-level jewel thief in the 1970s. For six years, he lived a double life, committing crimes with his Bonanno cohort, Benjamin (Lefty Guns) Ruggiero, even as he reported to his FBI superiors.
At the time, Massino was a rising mob star who often committed crimes alongside his good friend, John Gotti.
"He [Massino] was a hijacker. He used to hijack everything: coffee, shrimp, pharmaceuticals," Pistone said. "He wasn't a flamboyant type guy. He was like Sonny Black. They knew what they did and they did it well. They didn't try to impress people."
Massino - who was dubbed Big Joey because of his girth - quickly rose through the ranks of the family and was promoted to captain.
When Pistone's identity was revealed, Massino went on the run, but was eventually caught and charged with participating in the murders of three Bonanno rivals. He was acquitted.
In 1986, he was charged with racketeering and convicted in part because of Pistone's testimony.
During that trial - three years before the book "Donnie Brasco" was released - Pistone passed by Massino's defense table.
"Hey, Donnie. Who's gonna play me in the movie?" Pistone remembered Massino asking.
"Well, that's the problem we're having, Joey," Pistone replied. "We can't find anyone fat enough."
"He was always a funny guy," Pistone said. "He knew who he was, and he knew who I was. I had a job to do."
Massino was served six years of a 10 year sentence, and took over as Bonanno boss while incarcerated.
Released in November 1992, he avoided further prosecution by shunning the flashy ways of his pal Gotti.
In 1997, the movie "Donnie Brasco," starring Johnny Depp and Al Pacino, became a hit.
But Massino remained at the helm, spending most of his time in Queens, either at his Maspeth restaurant, Casa Blanca, or at his Howard Beach home.
Until his recent arrest, he was the only Mafia boss on the streets.
He was brought down when two trusted lieutenants, Richard Cantarella and Frank Coppa, began cooperating with the government, sources said.
"If it wasn't for those guys becoming rats, Joey might have lived the rest of his life never getting charged with Sonny's murder," Pistone said. "I guess Joey was true to what he believed in. He believed in the Mafia and he stayed true to it. He was the last of the gangsters."
Assumed name
Pistone's testimony has helped put away dozens of wiseguys; a $500,000 contract was placed on his head.
But with the Mafia's decline, Pistone acknowledged, the number of people around to collect on that contract has dwindled.
"The mob is not dead as far as criminal activities, but the traditions and the loyalties of the old-timers is dead," Pistone said. "Now it's a band of guys looking out for themselves."
Pistone is still careful, traveling under an assumed name and living in a small, undisclosed town. He remains active in law enforcement, consulting for the FBI and lecturing on undercover work.
Pistone also has a career in books and movies.
He is at work on a book with Bill Bonanno - the son of Joseph Bonanno, the crime family's founder - along with a tongue-in-cheek guide to applying the skills he learned on the streets as a wiseguy.
He's also producing a movie called "Tenth and Wolf" with Chazz Palminteri.
Still, sometimes he pines for the old days.
"These new guys don't have the smarts or the wherewithall to cultivate politicians, law enforcement, union officials. Drugs have been the mob's major downfall," Pistone said. "That world ... it's over."
Caption: MIKE ALBANS DAILY NEWS " His murder was the result of my undercover operation, no doubt about it. But that's the risk you run when you're a mob guy." Joe Pistone, former FBI agent, who went undercover as Donny Brasco Bonanno family leader Joseph Massino Johnny Depp (r.) as Donny Brasco in the 1997 movie, with Michael Madsen, who played Dominick (Sonny Black) Napolitano.
Document nydn000020030120dz1j00075
NEWS
One Arm bandit busted Ran $30M gambling ring: cops
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF
476 words
10 December 2002New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
8
English
© 2002 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
Ronnie (One Arm) Trucchio was a rising star in the Gambino crime family under the late Dapper Don John Gotti.
Trucchio's son, Alphonse, 25, is reputedly the youngest soldier in the New York City Mafia.
Together, investigators said, the father-and-son team became organized crime's biggest earners as the masterminds of a $30 million-a-year sports betting ring based in south Queens.
Yesterday, the lucrative operation was shut down after detectives from the NYPD's organized crime investigation division busted both Trucchios - along with 15 other members of their crew - on racketeering charges.
"Trucchio and his cohorts made millions of dollars through an illegal sports gambling ring, and now they will pay the price in prison," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday.
The Trucchio crew's betting ring was a sophisticated one, investigators said.
Ronnie Trucchio, an alleged Gambino capo, oversaw the operation but relinquished control of the bookmaking to his son, a reputed Gambino soldier who investigators call the youngest made member of the mob. One-armed 'Fagin' The elder Trucchio - who earned his nickname after he lost his right arm in a childhood car accident - came up in the Gambino family under the watchful eye of alleged Gambino consiglieri Joseph (JoJo) Corrozzo, the heir apparent to Gotti, investigators said.
In more recent days, investigators said, Trucchio had become the Gambino family's Fagin, cruising Howard Beach in his silver Cadillac to recruit young thugs to become the mob's new blood. "He surrounded himself with kids who wanted nothing more than to be part of this life," said one veteran organized crime investigator.
Prosecutors say the betting operation was run out of two Ozone Park locations - one a third-floor apartment on North Conduit Ave., the other in the basement of a tidy brick home on 122nd St.
It was dismantled after a 7-month investigation that involved undercover detective work and dozens of wiretaps that intercepted placed bets, including an $11,000 wager on a Miami Dolphins football game.
Another alleged Gambino associate, Anthony Moscatiello, 32, was the money man, recording wagers on computer-generated controller sheets, cops say.
"These huge profits from illegal sports betting and other forms of gambling are the oil which lubricates organized crime's powerful engine of corruption and greed," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
He said prosecutors have filed a civil suit to collect illicit revenues from the ring. "This crew was making $600,000 a week."
Caption: BILL TURNBULL DAILY NEWS VIG IS UP Ronnie (One Arm) Trucchio (left) and his son Alphonse (below), alleged members of the Gambino crime family, were arrested with 15 others on charges of running a sports betting ring in Ozone Park that brought in $300,000 a week.
Document nydn000020021210dyca00016
NEWS
GOTTI CLAN SENDS B'DAY WISHES TO DADDY DON
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF
525 words
28 October 2002New York Daily News
CITY FINAL
4
English
© 2002 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
He was a jolly goodfella.
Yesterday, the late John Gotti's family wished him a happy 62nd birthday with a series of "In Memoriam" ads placed in the Daily News - including one from his daughter, columnist Victoria Gotti, who vowed to show the world her family is not a "one-horse show."
"Daddy. I miss you truly. Not a day goes by without tears," Victoria Gotti wrote, signing her name alongside those of her three sons, Carmine, John and Frank. "It is the first celebration we are apart and the pain is immeasurable. Happy Birthday Dad and yes, I'll go on to show the world we are not a one-horse show!"
John (Junior) Gotti - who briefly stepped into his father's Guccis as the alleged acting boss of the Gambino crime family before being imprisoned on racketeering charges in 1999 - sent his love from behind bars.
"Dear Dad. Happy Birthday in Heaven. We will keep you close to our hearts through the memories we shared with you. You are a man with great honor that we all admired and loved so much," the ad read. "We are proud to have had a father &grandfather like you. Your strength will never be forgotten and your spirit will live through us."
It was signed, "Your son John, Kim &Grandchildren."
Gotti's elder daughter, Angel, showed a bit of her old man's defiance with her message.
"They can write what they want about you, we all know the truth," she said. "You were a great father, &an amazing grandfather. I'll always be nothing but proud to have you as my Dad."
Death of a son
The ads also remembered the Dapper Don's son, Frank Gotti, who was only 12 when a neighbor in Howard Beach, Queens, accidentally killed him in a car accident on March 18, 1980. Every year, on Frank's birthday, the Gottis take out an In Memoriam ad in The News.
John Favara, the neighbor who ran over Frank, was tortured and killed on orders from the Dapper Don, prosecutors charged.
"Have a Happy Birthday with Frankie Boy," Angel Gotti wrote to her father. "My heart is with you both today and always."
John Gotti died of throat and neck cancer on June 10, a decade after he was sentenced to life in prison on murder and racketeering charges.
After a two-day wake in Maspeth, Queens, Gotti was buried next to his son and father.
The Gotti grandkids also wrote messages to their "Pop-pop."
"Dear Pop-pop. We miss you so much. Our hearts are broken. There will never be a better grandfather than you," wrote Frankie and Victoria, Angel's children. "We love you dearly. Have a Happy Birthday with Uncle Frankie."
Junior's kids, John, Frankie and Peter Jr., wrote: "We will never forget you. . . . Kiss my Uncle Frankie for us."
The briefest message to the colorful mob boss came from his widow, Victoria.
"We, You and I, Are Forever," she wrote. "Love You Honey, Victoria."
Document nydn000020021028dyas00066
NEWS
GOTTIS SEND LOVE ON DON'S BIRTHDAY
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF
512 words
28 October 2002New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
4
English
© 2002 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
He was a jolly goodfella.
Yesterday, the late John Gotti's family wished him a happy 62nd birthday with a series of "In Memoriam" ads placed in the Daily News - including one from his daughter, columnist Victoria Gotti, who vowed to show the world her family is not a "one-horse show."
"Daddy. I miss you truly. Not a day goes by without tears," Victoria Gotti wrote, signing her name alongside those of her three sons, Carmine, John and Frank. "It is the first celebration we are apart and the pain is immeasurable. Happy Birthday Dad and yes, I'll go on to show the world we are not a one-horse show!"
John (Junior) Gotti - who briefly stepped into his father's Guccis as the alleged acting boss of the Gambino crime family before being imprisoned on racketeering charges in 1999 - sent his love from behind bars.
"Dear Dad. Happy Birthday in Heaven. We will keep you close to our hearts through the memories we shared with you. You are a man with great honor that we all admired and loved so much," the ad read. "We are proud to have had a father &grandfather like you. Your strength will never be forgotten and your spirit will live through us."
It was signed, "Your son John, Kim &Grandchildren."
'Nothing but proud'
Gotti's elder daughter, Angel, showed a bit of her old man's defiance with her message.
"They can write what they want about you, we all know the truth," she said. "You were a great father, &an amazing grandfather. I'll always be nothing but proud to have you as my Dad."
The ads also remembered the Dapper Don's son, Frank Gotti, who was only 12 when a neighbor in Howard Beach, Queens, accidentally killed him in a car accident on March 18, 1980. Every year, on Frank's birthday, the Gottis take out an In Memoriam ad in The News.
John Favara, the neighbor who ran over Frank, was tortured and killed on orders from the Dapper Don, prosecutors charged.
"Have a Happy Birthday with Frankie Boy," Angel Gotti wrote to her father. "My heart is with you both today and always."
John Gotti died of throat and neck cancer on June 10, a decade after he was sentenced to life in prison on murder and racketeering charges. After a two-day wake in Maspeth, Queens, Gotti was buried next to his son and father.
"Dear Pop-pop. We miss you so much. Our hearts are broken. There will never be a better grandfather than you," wrote Frankie and Victoria, Angel's children. "We love you dearly. Have a Happy Birthday with Uncle Frankie."
Junior's kids, John, Frankie and Peter Jr., wrote: "We will never forget you. . . . Kiss my Uncle Frankie for us."
The briefest message to the colorful mob boss came from his widow, Victoria.
"We, You and I, Are Forever," she wrote. "Love You Honey, Victoria."
Document nydn000020021028dyas00005
NEWS
SLAYING SUSPECT GIVES UP AFTER MUG MAKES NEWS
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF
323 words
3 October 2002New York Daily News
CITY FINAL
24
English
© 2002 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
His street name was Gotti, but he was hardly a gangster.
Shatell Spurgeon, 22, who has been on the lam since April 2001, wanted on charges of shooting a bystander in the head after a dispute over a woman, surrendered yesterday - three months after his mug shot was on the front page of the Daily News.
Spurgeon, who had eluded capture for more than a year - even as detectives from the violent felony squad shadowed his visits to relatives and girlfriends - showed up at the 100th Precinct stationhouse in Queens to give himself up.
"We had put a lot of pressure on him. His picture was in the Daily News, we were visiting his family, his baby's mother," said Sgt. Jimmy Letteiri of the felony squad. "We were getting close, we had all his exits covered, and he had enough."
Spurgeon went on the run after he began arguing with a man in front of 85-02 Rockaway Beach Blvd. over a woman.
The man he was having the dispute with got into a Toyota with tinted windows and was about to speed off when Spurgeon allegedly fired a single round through the rear window.
The bullet missed his target and ripped through the head of another man in the passenger seat, Damon Waiters, 19, a Kingsborough Community College student.
Police sources said Spurgeon told detectives he shot Waiters by accident.
Spurgeon is the third fugitive captured since July, when The News ran a front-page story about the NYPD's most wanted felons - a rolling list of 150 suspects on the lam. When one case is closed, another is immediately added to the list.
The News has highlighted the city's top 10 "worst of the worst" three times, plastering the mug shots of the sought-after suspects on the front page.
Caption: Shatell Spurgeon
Document nydn000020021003dya30003e
NEWS
MURDER IN MIND? Abe questioned in hit list probe
MICHELE MCPHEE DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF
876 words
2 August 2002New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL REPLATE
3
English
© 2002 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
Abe Hirschfeld is out of jail, but authorities fear he still has murder on his mind.
Officials suspect the eccentric millionaire paid jailed cop- shooter Larry Davis more than $100,000 to arrange the killing of seven people, including the businessman's daughter and a judge, the Daily News has learned.
A hit list, which law enforcement sources say state correction officials obtained last week, targets Rachel Hirschfeld, who is embroiled in a bitter court fight with her father, according to the sources.
The list also includes Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ira Gammerman, who presided over the family squabble, and five of Hirschfeld's business associates, the sources said.
Gammerman told The News that detectives warned him yesterday that he was among the people Hirschfeld targeted for assassination.
"Yes, I was contacted," the judge said, adding that the alleged involvement of a notorious criminal like Davis made the incident "much more unpleasant."
Gammerman had recused himself from the civil case in March when investigators first informed him they were looking into an allegation that Hirschfeld wanted him dead.
Asked if the latest allegation had prompted new security precautions, the veteran jurist said, "I do not want to discuss it any further. I'm letting the experts make the decisions."
On Wednesday, the state Department of Correctional Services, acting on a tip, intercepted Davis' mail and found a check made out to him for $109,000. It was written on an account belonging to one of Hirschfeld's businesses and bore his signature, according to three law enforcement sources.
The real estate mogul and the murderer were until recently both inmates at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, N.Y. Davis, 37, is serving a life term for the murder of a Bronx drug dealer and a weapons offense stemming from a 1986 incident in which he shot six cops.
He allegedly acted as Hirscheld's protector in prison, sources said.
Hirschfeld, 82, was paroled last Friday after serving two years of a three-year sentence for criminal solicitation. The oddball parking garage magnate was convicted in June 2000 of trying to hire a different hit man to rub out his ex-business partner, Stephen Stahl, who died of natural causes in 1999.
Denies allegations
It was unclear whether Hirschfeld would be hit with any new charges. Investigators questioned the parolee at his posh Fifth Ave. home last night and he denied the allegations, sources said.
Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office, would neither confirm nor deny that Hirschfeld was under investigation again.
"We have no comment," Thompson said.
The six-figure check, which Davis never received, was believed to be the first installment for the convicted killer to get henchmen outside prison to eliminate Hirschfeld's enemies, sources said. They said it's not clear whether Davis intended to carry out the plot.
It was also unclear yesterday how correction officials got the hit list. But when they confronted Davis with the check, he refused to answer any questions, the sources said.
Hirschfeld could not be reached for comment. His longtime attorney, Theodore Kupferman, was not available last night.
Hirschfeld walked out of prison sporting a long white beard and rimmed glasses. He spent his time in lockup shedding extra weight and paying Davis to keep him safe from other inmates, sources said.
They said they believed Hirschfeld began making payments to Davis shortly after he was moved to the Fallsburg facility from Rikers Island on March 11.
Slippery reputation
Davis, who has been in prison since 1988, made his reputation as a slippery suspect who beat two murder raps and an infamous case in which he was accused of wounding six cops in a wild gun battle in 1986.
The shootout turned Davis into a criminal folk hero, and he gained national attention at his trial when the late civil rights advocate William Kunstler argued that "black rage" justified shooting the cops.
Jurors bought it and acquitted him of attempted murder, but he was found guilty of gun possession and sentenced to five to 15 years in prison.
Then in 1991, a Bronx jury convicted him of killing a drug dealer.
As a judge sentenced Davis to life in prison, the killer snarled, "I ain't afraid of you," over and over, like a mantra. He is eligible for parole in 2016.
SIDEBAR TALE OF THE TAPE
ABE AND LARRY TALE OF THE TAPE
HIRSCHFELD
Occupation
Parking lot magnate
Age
82
Rap sheet
Plotted to kill ex-partner
Sentence
Just paroled
Biggest career mistake
Took over New York Post
Wackiest publicity stunt
Offered Paula Jones $1 million to settle Clinton suit
Novel legal defense
"I wanted him murdered, so what?"
DAVIS
Occupation
Street hustler
Age
37
Rap sheet
Shot six cops, killed rival drug dealer
Sentence
Doing 25 to life
Biggest career mistake
Hung around the Bronx during massive manhunt
Wackiest publicity stunt
Claimed to have John Gotti's home phone number
Novel legal defense
Afflicted by "black rage syndrome"
Caption: AP RUNNING Abe Hirschfeld, with wife, Zipora (r.), and daughter Rachel in 2000. Officials suspect he plotted to kill daughter and others.
Document nydn000020020810dy8200005
DAILY NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
NEWS
FUHGEDDABOUD THE OLD MOB After Gotti, Mafia ordered to clean house
MICHELE MCPHEE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
1677 words
7 July 2002New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
4
English
© 2002 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
The death of John Gotti has prompted the reputed leader of the Mafia Commission to order all five New York city organized crime families to clean house, the Daily News has learned.
Bonanno family head Joseph Massino, whom law enforcement sources say is the most powerful of all the city crime bosses, has spread the word that he wants a shakeup.
"Massino wants everyone to get their house in order," said an organized crime investigator. "Now that John's dead, he wants to set up a strong power structure."
Said organized crime expert Jerry Capeci, a spokesman for John Jay College, "Massino is the power right now. He's the only legitimate boss who is a free man. He is looking to assert his power over the rest of the families."
Massino is said to be most concerned about the Colombo family, which currently is barred from a seat on the Commission because of an internal war that left 12 gangsters dead and 50 more imprisoned in the early 1990s, sources said.
Organized crime investigators, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Massino wants the Colombos to permanently replace sometime acting boss Alphonse (Allie Boy) Persico - who took back a guilty plea on racketeering charges in Brooklyn Federal Court last month, claiming prosecutorial misconduct - with current acting boss Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace.
"They want somebody new to take over," one investigator said. "Cacace still has to be approved by the acting bosses of all five families, but for now, he's in charge."
Cacace made his bones in the Colombo family by showing loyalty to Victor (Little Vic) Orena during the war. Orena became acting boss when Perisco's father, Carmine, the boss at the time, was locked up.
Carmine Persico was a rough-and-tumble boss who was once shot in the mouth, an associate said, only to spit out the bullet.
In 1986, during the commission trial of several Mafia leaders, the elder Persico was ridiculed for representing himself. At one point during the trial he blurted, "Without the Mafia, there wouldn't even be no case here."
He was sentenced to 139 years in jail on murder and conspiracy charges, but investigators believe he held a firm grasp on the family through his eldest son, the college-educated and charismatic Alphonse Persico.
Then, in December, Alphonse Persico came under fire from his brethren for admitting his leadership role in the Colombos.
Stood silent
While entering a guilty plea in a racketeering indictment, Brooklyn Federal Judge Reena Raggi asked the younger Persico what "enterprise" he belonged to, and whether it was the Colombo family.
Persico at first stood silent. His lawyer, Barry Levin, told the judge that Persico would not answer the question.
But Raggi pressed.
"You were not an errand boy? You had a high-ranking role in the enterprise, you had the discretion of your own actions?"
"Yes," Persico answered. "I had discretion."
Some mobsters felt Persico's answer was a violation of La Cosa Nostra's code of silence, and investigators believe it may have prompted other families to want the Colombos to make a change at the top with Cacace.
But Cacace, who survived several assassination attempts, including a 1992 shooting that left him near death and minus a testicle, has his own problems.
Law enforcement sources said he is being eyed in the Aug. 25, 1997, slaying of off-duty cop Ralph Dols, who was ambushed by masked gunmen outside his home at E. 19th St. and Avenue U in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.
Dols, 28, a four-year NYPD veteran was shot seven times and died of his wounds the following morning. Dols had married Cacace's ex- wife, Kim Kennaugh, and the couple had a child, facts that law enforcement sources believe enraged Cacace.
Kennaugh, 41, had also been married to two other Colombo crime family figures: Thomas Capelli and Enrico Carini, who was shot dead, gangland-style, in 1987.
"Cacace is not currently facing jail time, and he has so far been a real survivor, so he is standing in for Allie Boy," an investigator said.
Close to John Gotti
Organized crime experts are also waiting for the Gambino crime family to make a move.
Massino was close to John Gotti and lives in Howard Beach, Queens, not far from the home of the the late crime boss. Massino did not attend Gotti's wake or funeral last month but did send his brother and other representatives of the family.
Massino was largely seen as the protector of the Gottis' control over the Gambino family, one investigator said. It is believed Massino would support the late don's brother Peter Gotti remaining at the helm - despite his upcoming trial on racketeering and money- laundering charges - with parolee Arnold (Zeke) Squitieri acting as underboss.
"You're probably going to see people come out of the woodwork to take over the helm of the Gambinos," the investigator said. "The only reason the Gottis were still in the mix was because of John."
Massino, a quiet, unassuming leader who has avoided prosecution since he was released from federal prison in November 1992 after a racketeering sentence, is said to have closed ranks in his family while increasing its membership.
Massino shuns the flashy ways of his pal Gotti, which has helped him remain the only old-time boss left on the streets.
At 58, he leads a fairly reclusive life, investigators said, splitting his time between a Maspeth eatery, Casablanca Restaurant, and his Long Island home.
Before Massino, the most powerful member of the Commission was reputed Genovese boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante, who is serving a 12- year sentence for racketeering and extortion conspiracy in a Fort Worth, Tex., prison hospital after avoiding prosecution for several years by claiming mental illness.
Filled the void
Although organized crime investigators believe Gigante still controls the Genovese family by sending messages to underlings from prison, his power has waned.
Massino has filled that void. But, as the strongest member of the Commission, Massino has his work cut out for him.
Many wiseguys are reluctant to get bumped up to high-ranking positions within the Mafia structure because of the intense police scrutiny that comes with the promotions, investigators said.
"Massino does have the built-in advantage of being the only boss who is free and clear. He's got a big edge over the bosses of the other crime families," Capeci said.
"The Commission itself, with [Massino] in a major role, has cut down on the violence, cut down on the killings. There have only been a handful of mob hits, and in the few killings there were, the bodies have never been found."
When the Commission was created in 1931 by Genovese family founder Charles (Lucky) Luciano and Jewish underworld kingpin Meyer Lansky, mob bosses from around the country were called to conclaves.
But now, the Commission has essentially gone underground. Instead of a conglomeration of bosses - as in the the famous Apalachin conference in 1957 when New York State police raided Joseph Barbara's stone mansion near Binghamton and arrested 58 mobsters - now underbosses or even capos meet secretly to discuss the business of all five families.
"They are not doing it as a unified sitdown," said one law enforcement official. "There are so many bosses in jail, they have to use underlings to govern."
Sources say the last known Commission meeting occurred in early 2000 at Massino's behest. Also attending were Peter Gotti, as well as representatives for Carmine Persico, Gigante and Vittorio (Vic) Amuso, then the imprisoned head of the Luchese family.
But one law enforcement official cautioned that a Commission meeting is supposed to be the most safeguarded secret of La Cosa Nostra, and could be more influential than the FBI believes.
"There could have been a meeting last night in someone's basement, for all we know," said an investigator. "The Commission is still acting. They are still the governing body of organized crime. They still make the decisions."
Graphic: THE FIVE MOB FAMILIES OF NEW YORK
GAMBINO CRIME FAMILY
Fewer than 200 members
Acting boss: Peter Gotti, the late Dapper Don's brother, who was arrested last month.
Acting underboss: Parolee Arnold (Zeke) Squitieri
Founding father: Carlo Gambino, who orchestrated the Oct. 25, 1957, assassination of Albert Anastasia in a barbershop to take over the family that still bears his name.
COLOMBO CRIME FAMILY
About 120 members, but without a seat on the Commission.
ACTING Boss: Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace, a charismatic old-timer who has survived several assassination attempts.
Acting underboss: Tommy (Tommy Bop) Gieoli
Founding father: Joseph Profaci was a charter member of the Commission.
LUCCHESE CRIME FAMILY
Fewer than 120 members
Acting boss: Louis (Louie Bagels) Daldone
Acting underboss: Steven Crea
Founding father: Gaetano Lucchese. With strongholds in East Harlem and the Bronx, Lucchese, aka Three Fingers Brown, died in 1967, when his family had about 200 members.
GENOVESE CRIME FAMILY
The largest family, with about 250 members.
Boss: Vincent (The Chin) Gigante, 73.
Acting underbosses: Ernie Muscarella, 79, who sits on family leadership panel along with Dominick (Quiet Dom) Cirillo.
Founding Father: Charles (Lucky) Luciano, who made millions as a bootlegger during the 1920s.
BONANNO CRIME FAMILY
The strongest family.
Boss: Joseph Massino, 58, lives in Howard Beach, Queens, and is the only original crime family boss to remain indictment-free.
Underboss: Sal Vitale, Massino's brother-in-law.
Founding father: Joseph (Joe Bananas) Bonanno, who had a role in the creation of the Commission.
Caption: POWER STRUGGLE Alphonse (Allie Boy) Persico (left) faces replacement as Colombo boss by Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace.DAPPER DON John Gotti's death sparked Mafia Commission call for shakeup. IN CHARGE Bonanno family head Joseph Massino, pictured in 1986. IN JAIL Vincent (Chin) Gigante, reputed Genovese boss and formerly most powerful member of Commission. Carlo Gambino Joseph Profaci Gaetano Lucchese Lucky Luciano Joseph Bonanno
Document nydn000020020708dy770009r
NEWS
12 LINKED TO GOTTI COLLARED Roundup follows recent arrest of 17
ROBERT GEARTY and BILL HUTCHINSON DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS With Michele McPhee
429 words
21 June 2002New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
8
English
© 2002 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
John Gotti's loved ones may still be grieving, but that didn't stop the feds from giving his mob family something else to cry about yesterday.
In predawn raids around the city, the feds rounded up a dozen alleged members and associates of the Dapper Don's Gambino crime family on a litany of charges - including murder, extortion and loansharking.
Many of those nabbed attended Gotti's closely watched wake and funeral last week, government officials said.
"At least we have new surveillance pictures of them for the trial," one law enforcement source quipped.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney James Comey said yesterday's collars - coupled with the June 10 arrests of 17 alleged Gambino mobsters, including Gotti's brother Peter - affirm the government's dedication to "rooting out and destroying the organized crime families of this city."
Comey announced three separate indictments against the suspects, including one that names alleged Gambino capos Louis (Big Louie) Vallario and Michael (Mickey Scars) DiLeonardo, who were considered close to John Gotti.
Also indicted were reputed Gambino soldiers Frank Fappiano and Edward (Eddie the Chink) Garafola, who are already behind bars.
The indictments accuse all four men of the 1997 slaying of Brooklyn construction worker Frank Parasole and the 1989 murder of Frederick Weiss, a recycling executive and former city editor of the Staten Island Advance.
Prosecutors said the Weiss hit was ordered by John Gotti, who wrongly believed Weiss was in cahoots with the FBI. Seven members of New Jersey's DeCavalcante crime family already have been convicted in the Weiss slaying.
Comey and New York FBI boss Kevin Donovan said yesterday's arrests further deflate the once-powerful Gambino crime family.
The G-men displayed a 1991 chart of 28 Gambino members, with Gotti at the top. They said all but two people on the chart, George Decicco and Joe Arcuri, are either dead or incarcerated.
But Comey warned the mob "ain't dead." Many crimes in the indictments have occurred in the past two years, including the extortion of two women's apparel businesses in Manhattan's Garment District and the hijacking of produce trucks to stock a mob- controlled grocery store, the Top Tomato, in Bronx.
"Folks who think that organized crime is a thing of the past in New York are kidding themselves," Comey said. "These people are out there, and they are struggling to revive and to maintain these organized crime families."
Document nydn000020020621dy6l0000c
NEWS
RIGHT OUT OF 'GODFATHER' Wiseguys and oversize tributes at mob boss' w ake
MICHELE McPHEE and CORKY SIEMASZKO DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS With Mike Claffey and Fernanda Santos
828 words
14 June 2002New York Daily News
CITY FINAL
3
English
© 2002 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
An ink drawing of a smiling John Gotti sat on top of his closed coffin, beaming out at mourners and mobsters who filled a Queens funeral home yesterday to pay their respects to the Gambino godfather.
The bronze coffin, engraved with the dates of Gotti's birth and death, was accompanied by floral monuments that filled three rooms in the funeral home.
Gotti's daughter Victoria, clad in a black dress, sat in front of her father's coffin, near a bulletin board filled with pictures of the Dapper Don from his heyday as king of the New York mob.
"This is an important day, a somber day for John Gotti," said his lawyer Bruce Cutler. "I know what the government says, but this was a truly remarkable person."
Mourners got a prayer card that said, "Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there, I do not sleep. Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there, I did not die."
The wake for the Mafia kingpin yesterday played out like a scene from "The Godfather." And as in the classic Francis Ford Coppola film, the mobsters didn't like it one bit when intruders tried to crash.
"This is for the family," Gotti's brother Richard told a reporter who managed to get inside, his voice firm but polite.
"No respect," huffed a hulking man with slicked-back hair and a pinky ring as he passed a gray Ford Explorer where two G-men were videotaping the mourners.
The Gambino godfather was 61 when he died Monday at a Missouri prison hospital after a long battle with throat cancer. He was in the 10th year of a life sentence for murder and racketeering. Cops get early start Long before the mourners arrived at Papavero's Funeral Home, city cops were casing the Maspeth, Queens, neighborhood, which Gotti haunted during his time at the helm of New York's most powerful Mafia organization.
They set up barricades along Grand Ave. across from the funeral home to keep the crowd of gawkers from getting too close. They jotted down the license plate numbers of arriving cars.
A short time later, they were joined by FBI agents and undercover cops in vans and SUVs with tinted windows, stationed in strategic spots.
By midmorning, the street was choked with vans delivering extravagant flower arrangements. Several were symbolic of Gotti's favorite vices.
One was in the shape of a racehorse with lucky number seven on the saddle. Another was a royal flush. A third was a horseshoe. All were huge.
"To the chief," read the card on one wreath. Another bore the name of Gotti's old Queens hangout, the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club.
As the cops' videotape rolled and cameras snapped, the Gottis started arriving at 1 p.m. Children Victoria, Angela and Peter escorted their mother, also named Victoria, inside.
The Brooklyn Diocese denied Gotti a funeral Mass, but he will be buried tomorrow at St. John's Cemetery in Queens. Can't make it Gotti's son John A. (Junior) Gotti and brother Peter - both behind bars - won't be going to the funeral.
"Young John and Peter, his brother, did not make applications to come here," Cutler said. "Neither would ask the government for anything."
But Gotti's other brother, Richard, made the wake with Frank Scollo, vice president of Local 1814 of the longshoremen's union. They were arrested last week, along with Peter Gotti, for allegedly plundering the docks and are out on bail.
The Gotti family was followed by a steady stream of burly men in tight-fitting suits and molls in sunglasses. The wiseguys greeted each other with kisses on the cheek but averted their faces from the undercover cameras.
A law enforcement source said they spotted more than three dozen made men at the wake, including Gotti consiglieri Joseph Corozzo, reputed capos Joe Acuri and Sal Franco, and soldiers such as Joe and Charlie Marino.
"This is the only family who does this," the source said. "It's supposed to be a secret society.
"We have pictures of dozens and dozens of wise guys," said the source, adding that cops shot more than 20 rolls of film.
Civilians who came to watch the mob procession said they wanted to see some geniune gangsters.
"I wanted to see what kind of mobsters are coming here and what they dressed like," said Julie Quincy, 41, who works in the neighborhood. "It's a curiosity thing."
Caption: TARA ENGBERG WIDOWED Victoria Gotti, the Dapper Don's sorrowing wife, leaves her Howard Beach, Queens, home yesterday. Her late husband had been in prison 10 years. ANDREW SAVULICH DAILY NEWS ROYAL FAREWELL Floral display is delivered to Maspeth funeral home.
Document nydn000020020614dy6e00085
NEWS
NO FUNERAL MASS FOR GOTTI, CHURCH SAYS
This story was reported by TRACY CONNOR, AUSTIN FENNER,GREG GITTRICH, ROBERT INGRASSIA and MICHELE McPHEE in New York and BRIAN HARMON in Springfield, Mo. It was written by CORKY SIEMASZKO
894 words
13 June 2002New York Daily News
CITY FINAL
3
English
© 2002 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
Even in death, John Gotti keeps creating controversy.
The Diocese of Brooklyn flatly turned down the Gotti family's request for a Catholic funeral Mass yesterday - as the body of the Gambino godfather was being flown back home.
The church said the family will have to bury the mob boss first.
"The diocese has decided that there can be a Mass for the dead sometime after the burial of John Gotti," the Rev. Andrew Vaccari, chancellor of the Diocese of Brooklyn, said in a one-sentence statement.
Asked later to elaborate, Vaccari told the Daily News "we just think in this situation it would be better."
"We think it would allow for more privacy and more of a dignified service," he said.
Brooklyn Bishop Thomas Daily, who is under fire for mishandling the priest sex scandal, could have okayed the Mass.
But church sources said Daily feared a backlash from angry Catholics if he would have allowed a church service for a convicted killer with the blood of at least five men on his hands.
"I would rather not get into that," Vaccari said when asked the reason for the church's decision to not approve the Mass.
But the diocese has given Gotti's family permission to hold a Catholic wake and a graveside service - where a priest would officiate.
Paul Castellano, the crime boss whose death Gotti engineered, also was denied a funeral Mass.
In that case, Castellano died before he could receive the Last Rites of the Catholic Church.
Gotti, 61, who had battled throat cancer at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo., for several years before he died Monday, presumably had time to make a final confession and square things with the church.
But prison officials would not divulge whether Gotti received the sacrament of the church.
Neither would Lewis Kasman, who considers himself Gotti's adopted son and was in Missouri collecting his body.
"That's private," he said.
Gotti will be buried in the family mausoleum beside his beloved son Frank at St. John's Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens - a Catholic cemetery where several other mobsters are permanent tenants.
Mum on details
The Gotti family was being very secretive about their plans for the wake, which was expected to be held at a funeral home near Gotti's Howard Beach, Queens, home.
In New York, a spokesman for the family called a press conference where daughter Victoria was expected to make a "substantive statement."
Victoria Gotti was a no-show, and the spokesman later read a statement in which she called her father a "lion" whose "roar would never go unheard."
"My heart is broken, but in this period of profound grief, we are comforted by all the generous and genuine support of those that loved this 'lion,' " the statement read.
There was no mention of the church's decision to deny her father a funeral Mass.
Before leaving Missouri with his father's body, Peter Gotti staged a ruse to make sure nobody got near it. He drove off with Kasman in a limousine followed by a hearse trailed by carloads of cops and photographers.
Meanwhile, Gotti's body was taken to the airport in an unmarked van.
Kazman and Peter Gotti appeared shaken after they saw Gotti's body at a funeral home in suburban Springfield for the first time since he died. The cancer had ravaged and distorted his famous face.
"This was the first time I saw John in 10 years," Kasman said. "He looks like he was very ill."
Peter Gotti, dressed from head to toe in black, rubbed his eyes as he emerged from the Adams Funeral Home and steered clear of the reporters.
Days before he died, Gotti was visited by his wife, Victoria, and his daughters, Angela and Victoria. His successor, John A. (Junior) Gotti, is halfway through a six-year prison term for bribery and extortion and was unable to see his dying dad.
The morning he died, Gotti spent an hour with his other son, Peter. The once-mighty mafioso was unable to speak or write, and Kasman would not say whether he was able to impart a last message to his son.
Permission needed
Gotti "was in and out of consciousness," Kasman said.
Hordes of mourners are expected to attend Gotti's wake. If Junior Gotti goes, he'll be wearing shackles.
Gotti did not go to the funeral when his father died in 1992. And so far, Gotti's son, who is incarcerated at the Raybrook federal prison, which sits near the New York-Canada border, has not made a formal request to attend his dad's wake.
Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Prisons, said it would be up to the warden if Junior made the request.
"Each warden would look at the totality of the picture and the security needs of the particular institution with regard to that inmate," Billingsley said.
Caption: BILL TURNBULL DAILY NEWS TRIBUTE Flowers and notes of condolence at Bergin Hunt and Fish Club in Ozone Park, Queens, a John Gotti hangout. John Gotti
Document nydn000020020613dy6d0007z
NEWS
THE LAW'S TAILING DON TO GRAVE
MICHELE McPHEE and JOHN MARZULLI DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
572 words
13 June 2002New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
2
English
© 2002 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
John Gotti's wake and funeral should be a real mob scene - of cops.
A small army of law-enforcement officials has been assigned to surveillance duties at the sendoff - their presence as much a tradition at Mafia funerals as pinky rings and flower-laden limousines.
Some of them will be in plain view - but many will not.
The massive law enforcement contingent will include cops, FBI, investigators from the state Organized Crime Task Force, the Brooklyn district attorney's office and the Waterfront Commission.
"The main purpose is to observe the pecking order. You try to find out who kissed who, who is receiving respect, who is holding court," said retired NYPD Detective Joseph Coffey, a mob expert who had locked up Gotti in the past.
Sources told the Daily News that the NYPD is planning to mount cameras on poles around the Queens funeral home where Gotti will be waked.
There will also likely be at least one windowless van parked nearby with a periscope camera and a cramped cop inside.
'Out of control'
License plate numbers will be jotted down from a safe distance by agents peering through telescopic lenses.
And lots of other still and video cameras will be clicking. "Everyone will be trying to find parking spots and a good spot to get pictures," one investigator said. "It's going to be out of control."
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly confirmed there will be a large turnout of cops and feds, but declined to provide further details.
But some officials say the Gotti service may turn out to be a bust with the curiosity-seekers far outnumbering the gangsters.
"The smarter wiseguys will avoid it," said a law enforcement official who is involved in the surveillance operation.
Any wiseguy who skips the wake or funeral would be dissing the Gotti family, but it merely makes you a "punk," the official said. It is not an offense punishable by death.
Don't expect a show of respect from the Genovese crime family. Reputed boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante hated Gotti and reportedly put out a contract on him after the Dapper Don whacked Gambino boss Paul Castellano without permission.
Follow the rules
But reputed Bonanno boss Joseph Massino should be there. He and Gotti were boyhood friends and later became neighbors in Howard Beach.
Although it's a given the wake and funeral will be watched, there are still some rules of engagement.
Retired NYPD Lt. Remo Franceschini, a veteran of numerous mob funerals, including that of former mob boss Carlo Gambino, recalled that an FBI agent who got too close to the hearse got smacked around for his transgression.
Franceschini said his men would never try to get into the funeral parlor to observe what was going on.
"You have to use common sense because emotions are very high," he said. "You're not trying to antagonize people at a time like that."
But Coffey, a legend in the NYPD, recalled an undercover detective who got into the Brooklyn funeral parlor where former Genovese boss Frank (Funzi) Tieri was being waked - by posing as an employee.
"We even tried to squeeze in a cop as one of the pall bearers," Coffey said. "There's much more intelligence gathering at the wake than the funeral. You want to try and overhear the whispering."
Document nydn000020020613dy6d00001
NEWS
NO FUNERAL MASS FOR GOTTI, CHURCH SAYS
This story was reported by TRACY CONNOR, AUSTIN FENNER, GREG GITTRICH, ROBERT INGRASSIA and MICHELE McPHEE in New York and BRIAN HARMON in Springfield, Mo. It was written by CORKY SIEMASZKO
1017 words
13 June 2002New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
3
English
© 2002 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
Even in death, John Gotti keeps creating controversy.
The Diocese of Brooklyn flatly turned down the Gotti family's request for a Catholic funeral Mass yesterday - even as the body of the Gambino godfather arrived at a Queens funeral parlor.
The family will have to bury the mob boss before there can be any church service, diocese officials said.
"The diocese has decided that there can be a Mass for the dead sometime after the burial of John Gotti," the Rev. Andrew Vaccari, chancellor of the Diocese of Brooklyn, said in a one-sentence statement.
Asked later to elaborate, Vaccari told the Daily News "we just think in this situation it would be better."
"We think it would allow for more privacy and more of a dignified service," he said.
Brooklyn Bishop Thomas Daily, already under fire in the priest sex scandal, could have okayed the Mass.
But church sources said Daily feared a backlash from angry Catholics if he would have allowed a church service for a convicted killer with the blood of at least five men on his hands.
"I would rather not get into that," Vaccari said when asked the reason for the church's rejection of the funeral Mass.
But the diocese has given Gotti's family permission to hold a Catholic wake and a graveside service - where a priest would officiate.
Paul Castellano, the crime boss whose death Gotti engineered, also was denied a funeral Mass.
In that case, Castellano died before he could receive the last rites of the Catholic Church.
Gotti, 61, who had battled throat cancer at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo., for several years before he died Monday, presumably had time to make a final confession and square things with the church.
But prison officials would not divulge whether Gotti received the sacrament of the church.
Neither would Lewis Kasman, who considers himself Gotti's adopted son and collected his body in Missouri yesterday.
"That's private," he said.
Gotti will be buried in the family mausoleum beside his beloved son Frank at St. John's Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens - a Catholic cemetery where several other mobsters are permanent residents.
Mum on details
The Gotti family was being very secretive about their plans for the wake.
But the press was out in full force when Gotti's body arrived by Lear jet last night at Republic Airport in Farmingdale, L.I., at 9:01 p.m., two minutes behind schedule.
Before touching down, the pilot asked air traffic controllers for permission to land "in a quiet part of the airport."
"Is there any press there?" the pilot asked.
"We don't know," a controller was heard saying. "But we'll keep it private."
Moments after the plane was on the ground, a green station wagon and a black sedan with tinted windows were seen leaving the airport.
The station wagon later pulled up in front of the Papavero Funeral Home in Maspeth, Queens.
Suddenly, eight brawny tough guys guarding the funeral parlor entrance approached a pack of reporters and photographers camped out across 72nd Place.
"Give the guy some decency," said the Dapper Don's brother, Richard Gotti.
Earlier, a spokesman for the family called a news conference where Victoria Gotti was expected to make a "substantive statement" about her father.
Victoria Gotti was a no-show, and the spokesman later read a statement in which she called her father a "lion" whose "roar would never go unheard."
"My heart is broken, but in this period of profound grief, we are comforted by all the generous and genuine support of those that loved this 'lion,' " the statement read.
There was no mention of the church's decision to deny her father a funeral Mass.
Before leaving Missouri with his father's body, Peter Gotti staged a ruse to make sure nobody got near it. He drove off with Kasman in a limousine followed by a hearse trailed by carloads of cops and photographers.
Meanwhile, Gotti's body was taken to the airport in an unmarked van.
Kasman and Peter Gotti appeared shaken after they saw Gotti's body at a funeral home in suburban Springfield for the first time since he died. The cancer had ravaged and distorted his famous face.
"This was the first time I saw John in 10 years," Kasman said. "He looks like he was very ill."
Peter Gotti, dressed from head to toe in black, rubbed his eyes as he emerged from the Adams Funeral Home and steered clear of the reporters.
Days before he died, Gotti was visited by his wife, Victoria, and his daughters, Angela and Victoria. His successor, John A. (Junior) Gotti, is halfway through a six-year prison term for bribery and extortion and was unable to see his dying dad.
The morning he died, Gotti spent an hour with his other son, Peter. The once-mighty mafioso was unable to speak or write, and Kasman would not say whether he was able to impart a last message.
Permission needed
Gotti "was in and out of consciousness," Kasman said.
Hordes of mourners are expected to attend Gotti's wake. If Junior Gotti goes, he'll be wearing shackles.
So far, Gotti's son, who is incarcerated at the Raybrook federal prison, near the New York-Canada border, has not made a formal request to attend his dad's wake.
Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Prisons, said it would be up to the warden.
"Each warden would look at the totality of the picture and the security needs of the particular institution with regard to that inmate," Billingsley said.
Caption: RYAN HASLER SAD DUTIES Peter Gotti, son of John Gotti (l.), and Lewis Kasman, Gotti family spokesman, walk into a Missouri funeral home where John Gotti's body was being prepared yesterday.
Document nydn000020020613dy6d00003
NEWS
GOTTI WILL REST WITH GODFATHERS It's burial place for infamous
970 words
12 June 2002New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
4
English
© 2002 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
John Gotti is heading for the gangster graveyard in Queens.
When the feds give up his body, the Gambino godfather will be flown to St. John's Cemetery in Middle Village, where some of New York's most infamous mobsters are buried.
Salvatore (Lucky) Luciano, Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino and Carmine Galante are permanent residents.
So are Salvatore Maranzano, Joe Colombo and Wilfred Johnson - a mob rat who was gunned down after informing on Gotti.
Gotti will be a bit removed from the other deadfellas - he'll spend eternity in the family mausoleum where his beloved son Frank is interred.
Gotti's son Peter was in Springfield, Mo., waiting to collect the remains of his father, who died Tuesday at age 61 after a long battle with throat cancer.
But it still was not clear whether Gotti would get a Catholic funeral because of his notorious criminal career.
Family members are believed to be seeking permission from Brooklyn Bishop Thomas Daily for a funeral Mass.
"The only thing that's finalized is the burial," Sister Jane Scanlon, vice chancellor of the diocese, told the Daily News yesterday.
As for the Mass, Scanlon said: "I'm sure there are a number of factors, but I'm not in a position to know what that is. Ultimately, Bishop Daily would make that decision.
"There's been a conversation today, but it's not resolved," she said. "It's pending.
Daily, who was attending a conference of bishops in Dallas, is under fire for mishandling the priest sex scandal and said to be caught between the demands of his religion - and his desire to avoid further controversy. Rules for church funeral "The church believes in redemption," said Robert Blakey, a professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School and a mob expert, of whether Gotti could receive a Catholic funeral. "If you go to confession, you can receive absolution and be buried in consecrated ground."
But, Blakey said, "the church can deny a funeral Mass if saying one would cause a public scandal - and notorious criminals could cause a scandal."
Msgr. Peter Finn, who heads St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers, said a funeral Mass is not a ticket to heaven. "If the person is not truly repentant, we believe that a person goes directly to hell," Finn said.
Paul Castellano, the mob boss who was gunned down on Gotti's orders in 1985, was denied a funeral Mass in part because he had not received Last Rites.
The feds would not say whether Gotti received Last Rites of the Catholic Church - and made his peace with God.
In Missouri, doctors - over the objections of family members - performed an autopsy on the mobster to confirm throat cancer was the cause of his death.
"They're doing whatever the normal course for the Bureau of Prisons is," Gotti lawyer Bruce Cutler said. "They don't tell you much. It's a pretty forbidding and foreboding place."
Afterward, Gotti is to be taken to the Adams Funeral Home in nearby Ozark, Mo., where undertakers will prepare the body for the trip home. Prison officials said that should take place by the end of the week.
Funeral home operators in south Brooklyn reported being deluged with phone calls from mourners wondering where the wake would be held.
There were also rumors that the service would be held at a Maspeth, Queens, funeral parlor around the corner from a former Gotti haunt.
But the family has not chosen a place, Cutler said.
Wherever it's held, there will be undercover officers from the NYPD - and cops from mob strongholds such as Chicago, Miami and Las Vegas - staking out the funeral parlor.
"It's going to be like trying to get into the Academy Awards," a police source said. "The wise guys are going to have to sleep over to get a spot in the pews."
Cutler said his co-counsel, Joseph Corazzo, broke the news of Gotti's death to the mobster's brother Peter at the Metropolitan Detention Center. Peter Gotti was arrested last week along with his brother Richard and 16 other reputed Gambino family members on racketeering charges.
Cutler said Peter Gotti would not seek dispensation from district court to attend the wake or funeral.
A lawyer representing Gotti's son John, who is doing a six-year prison stint for racketeering, did not return a call for comment on whether he would seek permission to attend the wake. Gathered at old haunt Gotti's brother Richard, who is out on bail, joined other relatives and friends at the Bergin Hunt &Fish Club in Ozone Park, Queens, where the Dapper Don once held court. Outside, well-wishers left flowers and votive candles, and taped handwritten notes to the battered metal door.
"The whole family's down," said Danny Messina, 32, after he emerged from the club. "They're sobbing."
Pat Keohane, former warden of the prison hospital where Gotti died, met the gangster there - and kept tabs on him until he died.
"He was very sick, but he was very tough," Keohane said. "He played that tough guy role to his dying breath."
This story was reported by CHARLES W. BELL; MIKE CLAFFEY;TRACY CONNOR; ROBERT INGRASSIA; JOHN MARZULLI; MICHELE McPHEE; FERNANDA SANTOS and RALPH R. ORTEGAin New York and BRIAN HARMON in Springfield; Mo. It was written by CORKY SIEMASZKO
Caption: WILLIAM MILLER GRIEVING DAUGHTER Victoria Gotti is seen leaving her home on the day her father, John Gotti, died in prison at 61.BILL TURNBULL DAILY NEWS SPECIAL DELIVERY Flowers are brought to Queens home of John Gotti's family yesterday. HONORING JOHN Brian Sacco (l.) and Mike Fauci place bouquet outside Gotti home in Howard Beach, queens, yesterday.
Document nydn000020020612dy6c0005l
WRAP
GOTTI'S RULE SEEMS OVER Family likely to give way
MICHELE McPHEE and JOHN MARZULLI DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
730 words
11 June 2002New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
15
English
© 2002 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
So now, who's the boss?
The death of John Gotti probably means the end of the Gotti clan's reign over the Gambino crime family, experts said yesterday.
Though Gotti's brother Peter Gotti is listed as the boss, he is already in jail after his indictment last week by feds just six weeks after gaining that prize.
Gambino family underboss Arnold (Zeke) Squitieri and consigliere Joseph (Jo Jo) Corozzo are cited as likely successors if family capos long loyal to the Dapper Don decide to make a move at the top.
"With [Gotti's] death, you will now see a shakeup," predicted Robert Mintz, former deputy chief of the federal Organized Crime Strike Force Division in New Jersey.
Despite his life sentence and the ravages of cancer, the Dapper Don still wielded considerable influence over the crime family.
Before Peter Gotti took command, Gotti's son John A. (Junior) Gotti, served as acting boss, only to be dethroned by a conviction on racketeering charges.
"Being a La Cosa Nostra loyalist, John wanted his immediate family to hold onto the Gambino family," said Bruce Mouw, the former FBI supervisor of the Gambino squad.
"That succession reflected the unique position John Gotti occupied even until his death," Mintz said.
But Peter Gotti's arrest along with that of another brother, Richard Gotti, and an assortment of Gambino mobsters and associates seems to exhaust the family's line of succession. 'They find a way' An FBI agent testifying at Peter Gotti's bail hearing on Friday offered a peek at the Gambino leadership that is not in jail.
Special Agent Greg Hagarty identified acting underboss Squitieri for the first time and said Corozzo was consigliere.
Amazingly, Squitieri holds the No. 2 rank in the crime family despite being on federal parole after serving more than 11 years for drug trafficking, Hagarty said.
Asked how he manages to perform his crime-family duties while under federal supervision, Hagarty said, "They find a way."
Squitieri, 59, of Englewood Cliffs, N.J., was a major heroin trafficker, hit man and most importantly, a Gotti loyalist.
He was inducted into the Gambino family in 1986 shortly after John Gotti rose to power after orchestrating the assassination of former boss Paul Castellano, according to mob expert Jerry Capeci, a spokesman for John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the author of the ganglandnews.com Web site.
Squitieri also allegedly participated in the murder of Louis Milito in 1988, Capeci said.
That's one more murder than Peter Gotti ever committed. The fact that Peter Gotti was promoted to captain and now boss without a notch on his gun shows that some mob rules are meant to be broken.
Corozzo, the other Gotti loyalist, is also in the wings.
Officially, Peter Gotti remains in charge - unless he is challenged or decides to relinquish his power
"I'm sure if Pete was told in a nice way that he should step down, he would," Capeci said. "I don't foresee any war or bloodshed."
Then it would fall to the crime family's captains to select a new boss. In the 15 years of Gotti rule, there is no question that the crime family's leadership is stocked with his people.
But none of them would want a boss who loves the limelight as John Gotti did. The Don's legacy includes talking his way into a life sentence as the FBI listened.
Peter Gotti learned from his brother's mistakes and evaded electronic surveillance. But he was brought down by the relentless heat from law enforcement that comes with the title of "boss."
Mouw doubts Junior Gotti will remain a player when he gets out of prison. Veteran wiseguys resented his elevation to acting boss, and that view is made stronger now that John Gotti is no longer around.
"John Gotti did a lot of bad things, but one of the worst things he did was when he made his son the acting boss of the family, knowing his [son's] future was to go to jail or get killed," Mouw said.
Caption: GANG LAND NEWS CONTENDER Gambino family underboss Arnold (Zeke) Squitieri is cited as a likely leadership successor following the death of John Gotti yesterday.
Document nydn000020020611dy6b00003
NEWS
WISEGUY GUILTY OF TAX EVASION
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
376 words
24 July 2001New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
23
English
© 2001 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
Accused Gambino loanshark Joseph Watts was found guilty of tax evasion yesterday, but the jury deadlocked on charges that he laundered $2 million in illegal loansharking loot.
Jurors in Brooklyn Federal Court announced they were "hopelessly deadlocked" on two counts of money laundering that could have put Watts, 60, behind bars for 45 years.
The white-haired wiseguy was accused of funneling illegal earnings into a posh Florida waterfront estate prosecutors said he secretly owned.
But after a five-week trial and just two full days of deliberations, the anonymous jury told Judge David Trager that further discussion would be "fruitless."
Watts hugged his attorneys and grinned at family members after the judge declared a mistrial on two counts of money laundering.
The tax evasion conviction carries a maximum penalty of five years behind bars.
Watts was indicted in January, just days before he was to be released after serving six years on a federal murder-conspiracy conviction.
"The prosecutors were not able to prove the more serious charges," defense attorney Gerald Shargel said yesterday. "The prosecution cannot be happy with this verdict, and if they're not happy, I'm happy."
But Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dan Dorsky and Andy Genser applauded the verdict as a victory against tax cheats, and vowed to retry the money-laundering case.
"We're gratified that the jury saw through the smoke and mirrors of the defense and perceived Mr. Watts' deceitful scheme for what it was," Genser said.
Prosecutors said Watts funneled more than $2 million in loansharking loot into a mansion along Florida's Gulf Coast that was kept in the name of his pal, Staten Island businessman Jack Pietruszka.
Watts' alleged illicit income came from a $30,000-a-week loanshark racket allegedly awarded to him by crime boss John Gotti for his role in the 1985 hit on Gambino boss Paul Castellano, prosecutors said.
The slaying of Castellano outside Sparks Steak House in midtown propelled Gotti to the top of New York's mob hierarchy.
Prosecutors said Watts was "accorded the respect of a captain in the Gambino family" after he acted as a backup shooter at the Castellano rubout.
Caption: Joseph Watts
Document nydn000020010724dx7o0005q
NEWS
GOTTI PALS GUILTY IN X-SHOP SQUEEZE
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
283 words
25 May 2001New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
4
English
© 2001 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
Two alleged Gambino family operatives close to John Gotti were convicted yesterday on extortion charges stemming from the shakedown of a Long Island porn store owner, prosecutors said.
Reputed Gambino capo Salvatore (Fat Sally) Scala and alleged soldier Charles Carneglia are each facing 20 years in prison for conspiring to extort money from Daniel Melendez, the owner of Cherries Adult Entertainment Center in Ronkonkoma.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Genser and Leonard Lato, who prosecuted the case, described Cherries as a playground of lap dancers, peep shows and porn video rooms.
According to Genser, Scala was one of Gotti's accomplices in the execution of then-Gambino boss Paul Castellano and his driver, Thomas Bilotti, outside Sparks Steak House in midtown Manhattan in 1985. Scala was never prosecuted in the Castellano case.
Law enforcement sources said Carneglia was involved in the retribution murder of John Favara, who killed 12-year-old Frank Gotti, Gotti's youngest son, in a car accident in 1980.
Carneglia and Scala were convicted of collecting $300 a week from Melendez, who agreed to work with federal investigators and wore a wire to record his conversations with the alleged Gambino wiseguys.
The government also tapped the cell phones of Carneglia and Scala's underlings, Genser said.
In one of those wiretapped phone conversations, a Carneglia underling identified as Carl Klein told Melendez he had to pay for a number of reasons.
"Think of it like this," Klein said. "You gotta pay LILCO. You gotta pay your . . . electric bill, right? You gotta pay your phone bill. You gotta pay your . . . rent? And you gotta pay us."
Document nydn000020010712dx5p00e2m
MEDIA
Business/Financial Desk; Section C
A Cyberspace Reading Room for Wise Guys
By PAMELA LiCALZI O'CONNELL
1149 words
7 May 2001The New York Times
Page 10, Column 1
English
(c) 2001 New York Times Company
Carmine Galante, a murder suspect, may have been on the lam, but he was not about to lose track of what was going on in New York City crime circles. So every week Mr. Galante, a nephew of the former boss of the Bonanno crime family, ducked into a public library, found an idle computer and read GangLandNews.com, a weekly chronicle of the city's organized-crime scene.
He revealed his habit to a Daily News police reporter, Michele McPhee, when he was captured in April after eluding the police for two years.
''The funny thing is, the first thing I do every Thursday morning is read Gang Land News, too,'' Ms. McPhee said.
The site has become the equivalent of an online chat room for mobsters. It was created in 1996 and is written by Jerry Capeci, the former organized-crime columnist at The Daily News and the co-author, with Gene Mustain, of three books on the mob. It is the place where those interested in the Mafia, including current members, go for the latest underworld news.
''My stuff is read every week by reporters, F.B.I. agents, cops and wise guys, including those away at college, so to speak,'' Mr. Capeci said proudly. He said many of them had their lawyers or girlfriends mail them printouts.
Mr. Galante is not the only person with Mafia ties who has bookmarked the site.
Albert C. Arrone, who some consider the godfather of New York mob lawyers, said he bought a computer specifically to read Mr. Capeci's weekly online column (''I know everyone in it,'' he said). And when James (Froggy) Galione, an imprisoned member of the Lucchese crime family, wanted to spread the word last December that he thought he had been wrongly accused of cooperating with the federal authorities, he told his mother to call Mr. Capeci.
The result was an item sporting the tabloid-ready headline ''Mom: My Son Is Not a Rat.''
Mr. Capeci's site fills a void created when his print column was discontinued by The Daily News in 1995. Since then, no New York daily newspaper has published a regular column devoted exclusively to organized crime. There is a widespread perception that successful prosecutions have decimated the famed New York crime families.
Some may argue that the popularity of Mr. Capeci's site contributes to the glorification of the mob -- charges also leveled against ''The Sopranos.'' And his online column, with its heavy dose of head shots and boldface names, does possess a passing resemblance to a gossip column. But Mr. Capeci said he had not lost his perspective. ''Interest in gangsters is as American as apple pie,'' he said. ''We follow their careers, but they're killers.''
Now mob stories are making something of a comeback in the dailies, including Mr. Capeci's alma mater. In March, The Daily News asked to reprint one of Mr. Capeci's online columns for the first time. The piece, an exclusive about the 20-year-old murder of a neighbor who accidentally killed John J. Gotti's 12-year-old son, was featured on Page 1. A few weeks later, another column, about a mobster who is seeing a psychiatrist a la Tony Soprano, made it to Page 3.
Mr. Capeci, who left the paper in 1999, was jubilant to be back in print. But he resisted the urge to become nostalgic. ''It was great, but I wouldn't want to go back to print,'' he said. ''I like having the freedom I have now with the site.''
Gang Land News appeals to more than just mobsters and prosecutors. It has gradually built an online audience that topped 185,000 unique visitors and one million hits (of the Web, not lethal, variety) in March, both monthly bests. Advertising sales make the site self-supporting, allowing Mr. Capeci to joke that he has one of the few content Web sites in the black. As perhaps the only Mafia site based on original reporting, it has also caught the attention of other online outlets. Both Salon.com and APBNews.com, now defunct, made overtures to him about reproducing content, Mr. Capeci said, but neither discussion proved fruitful.
Mr. Capeci, short, dark-haired and fast-talking, could be a Sopranos extra. ''He grew up with mobsters in Brooklyn and he talks like them,'' said Hap Hairston, a friend who used to edit Mr. Capeci at The Daily News and now edits Mr. Capeci's Gang Land copy.
But for many Mr. Capeci, 56, is also the consummate crime reporter. ''Jerry is the last of that breed,'' said Ms. McPhee of The Daily News. ''He's a walking anecdote in himself.''
Gang Land News is not just a labor of love, however. It has helped Mr. Capeci, now the communications director at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, maintain his presence as a top Mafia expert. As such he is often interviewed and offered freelance writing and the occasional lecture.
Writing online has also made him more accessible than the average print reporter. His readership within the mob has proved particularly chatty. He sometimes hears from mobsters themselves, but more often he receives electronic messages from their wives, children and girlfriends.
''At least 25 percent of Jerry's stories are the result of people who e-mail him to complain,'' jokes Mr. Hairston, the editor.
But Mr. Capeci is also inundated with questions and requests from, for lack of a better term, Mafia hobbyists. He receives more than 300 such e-mail messages a month. One recently suggested that Mr. Capeci persuade Mr. Gotti, who is ill with cancer at a prison hospital in Springfield, Mo., to try an herbal cure. Another asked for help in establishing that the sender was related to a well-known gangster. And who else gets e-mail with subject lines like ''Can you help me find a sexy ny mob boyfriend?''
Although Mr. Capeci oversees the site and can express glee at adding a new bit of found code, ''he has not embraced cyberspace,'' Mr. Hairston said. ''The site is archaic in terms of its design,'' he added. ''The search function stinks. He's got to modernize it for it to take the next step.''
But Mr. Capeci, ever the journalist, still thinks of Gang Land News in simple terms. ''It's about me talking,'' he said. ''That's why there's no discussion boards or anything like that. I deal with it as a reporter covering a beat -- one that just wouldn't go away''
Photos: Jerry Capeci, upper left, the former organized-crime columnist at The Daily News, started the GangLandNews.com site in 1996 and has since made it the place to go for news of the underworld.
Document nytf000020010712dx5700o2z
NEWS
JAILED GAMBINO WISEGUY FACES NEW CHARGES
MICHELE MCPHEE and MIKE CLAFFEY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
414 words
5 January 2001New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
27
English
© 2001 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
Federal prosecutors yesterday moved to torpedo the cushy retirement plans of a jailed associate of Dapper Don John Gotti.
Longtime Gambino associate Joseph Watts, 59, was hit with a two- count money-laundering indictment just weeks before his scheduled release from a West Virginia prison.
For good measure, the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's office is seeking forfeiture of a $3.25 million nest egg that Gotti's silver-haired pal allegedly socked away from a loansharking operation he is charged with running since 1984. The indictment charges that the scheme continued even after Watts was locked up in 1996.
The feds want to seize a Swiss bank account and a plush waterfront estate on the Gulf Coast in Sarasota, Fla. The case is being prosecuted by assistant U.S. attorneys Andrew Genser and Daniel Dorsky.
The flashy, rugged-looking mobster - known in his heyday for matching Gotti's flair for finely cut suits - is completing a six- year federal prison term. He pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court in 1996 to murder conspiracy in the slaying of Thomas (Tommy Sparrow) Spinelli.
He also had been charged in that same case with acting as a backup shooter in the Gotti-ordered murders of former Gambino boss Paul Castellano and capo Thomas Bilotti.
Watts was acquitted by a Staten Island jury in 1997 of the kidnapping and torture slaying of William Ciccone, a deranged man who fired a gunshot at Gotti outside the mob boss' Ozone Park social club in 1987.
Despite his status as a longtime associate of the jailed-for- life Gambino crime boss, Watts was barred from becoming a made member of La Cosa Nostra because of his ethnicity, according to sources.
Defense attorney James LaRossa, who won the acquittal in the Staten Island case, said he plans to seek a quick trial for Watts on the new charges.
"It's not surprising that this indictment was returned in an effort to keep him from being released," LaRossa said.
He declined to comment on the assets the feds are seeking to seize, and the seven-page indictment contains no details of the alleged loansharking and money-laundering operation.
Watts is scheduled to be released from prison in early February, but prosecutors here could seek to have him detained, pending trial, on the money-laundering charges. He is expected to appear for arraignment before his release date.
Document nydn000020010712dx15000hj
NEWS
DRUGS POISON TO MOB Narcotics traffic opened door to feds
MIKE CLAFFEY and MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
938 words
10 December 2000New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
37
English
© 2000 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
In the upstate home of mobster Joseph Barbara, a watershed event for the Mafia was about to take place.
It was Nov. 14, 1957, and all the bosses and top luminaries of all five crime families were at Barbara's stately stone house in Apalachin. The Dapper Don of the '50s, Joseph Bonanno, was there. So were Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino.
They were there to lay down an edict: La Cosa Nostra and drugs should never mix.
Nearly a half-century later, modern-day mobsters are ignoring their no-drugs decree - a trend that is slowly killing the Mafia.
Drug trafficking prosecutions are gutting four of the five major crime families in New York, sweeping scores of wiseguys off the streets.
Law enforcement - which for decades had been frustrated in attempts to nail even the most ruthless of mobsters - was suddenly making significant arrests, and drugs were the key.
Federal prosecutors have been "extremely successful in using the drug laws as a tool to break the back of these LCN [La Cosa Nostra] families," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Walden, a veteran mob prosecutor. "As long as mobsters continue to peddle drugs openly on our streets, they make it easier for us to catch them."
Last week, reputed Luchese underboss Eugene (Bubsie) Castelle and his alleged capo, Joseph (Joey Flowers) Tangorra, were busted along with five underlings and accused of running a cocaine network that flooded south Brooklyn with drugs.
Tangorra, 51, allegedly had been selling drugs since 1987 out of a flower shop on 13th Ave., earning him his nickname. Assistant U.S. Attorney William Gurin charged at a bail hearing last Thursday that Tangorra sold quantities of more than 5 kilos at a time, moving into a supervisory role in the Luchese family following the busts of other leaders.
Castelle, 40, started off as a small-time pot dealer in the neighborhood but also moved quickly up through the Luchese ranks due to the vacancies created at the top by law enforcement action.
Both men have been ordered held without bail.
The Mafia always had dabbled in the drug trade, but it didn't become a major player until the 1980s, experts said.
The first major bust involving the mob and drugs was the infamous Pizza Connection case in the early 1980s that snared mobsters for dealing heroin out of city pizzerias.
Since then, virtually every don has quietly okayed drug dealing - as long as the bosses were getting a cut.
"It's always been done with a wink and a nod," said a veteran mob lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It was always, 'Don't do it, I don't want to know about it.' [Gambino boss Paul] Castellano just winked. [John (Dapper Don)] Gotti just winked."
The one exception is the Genovese family, which mostly has abided by Vincent (Chin) Gigante's old-school beliefs, law enforcement sources said.
And lately, the mob has deepened its ties to drugs, law enforcement sources said. To wit: In 1998, alleged Gambino family soldier Frank Fapiano was busted along with 20 other low-level gangsters on federal drug charges. All pleaded guilty.
In 1999, alleged Colombo soldier Frank Guerra pleaded guilty to drug charges. Guerra allegedly dealt drugs for Theodore Persico Jr., a nephew of the former Colombo boss.
Last Wednesday, alleged Bonanno soldier Joe Chilli was among six reputed mobsters busted on drug conspiracy charges. Last year, more than two dozen members of a Bonanno-affiliated organization, the Bath Avenue Crew, were arrested for drugs in a sweep that also snared capo Anthony Spero on murder conspiracy charges.
And arrests frequently lead to more arrests.
Because of the Rockefeller drug laws and stiff federal racketeering statutes, gangsters who deal drugs almost always are assured of hefty sentences behind bars - giving them an incentive to sing for the feds.
"When the hats drop on these guys for a drug sale charge, the first words out of their mouth is, 'Officer, what can I do for you?' " said one law enforcement source.
A 1996 Luchese case - in which 38 Luchese gangsters and associates, including reputed soldier James (Froggy) Galione, pleaded guilty to drug charges - eventually helped authorities get enough evidence to nail Castelle and Tangorra last week.
In that case, two of Galione's underlings, Ronald (Messy Marvin) Moran and Michael (Mikey Flattop) DeRosa, began cooperating with the government, giving up enough information to lead to last week's indictment, sources said.
And when mobsters and drugs mix, it makes law enforcement's job easier. All of the Mafia drug crew takedowns over the last five years started on the streets with investigations by NYPD detectives, prosecutors said.
"Drugs are going to break the mob," said Special Agent Lewis Rice, who heads the Drug Enforcement Agency's New York office.
"The NYPD, DEA and FBI is a strong and unstoppable team, and drugs are always going to help us bust down the mob," Rice said.
Caption: Eugene (Bubsie) Castelle, latest alleged wiseguy to be arrested on drug raps. Below, James (Froggy) Galione began singing after his arrest in 1996. Joseph (Joey Flowers) Tangorra allegedly ran drug business out of a Brooklyn flower shop. THE OLD GANG JUST SAID NO AP It was in Joseph Barbara's (l.) stately stone house in Apalachin (below) an agreement was made - a Cosa Nostra and drugs should never mix. DAILY NEWS Vito Genovese. AP The Dapper Don of the '50s, Joseph Bonanno, was there. DAILY NEWS Carlo Gambino
Document nydn000020010808dwca00vip
NEWS
DRUGS POISON TO MOB Narcotics traffic opened door to feds
MIKE CLAFFEY and MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
989 words
10 December 2000New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
37
English
© 2000 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
BECAUSE OF AN EDITING ERROR, A CAPTION IN SUNDAY'S DAILY NEWS INCORRECTLY STATED THAT JAMES (FROGGY) GALIONE AIDED AUTHORITIES AFTER HIS ARREST IN 1996. GALIONE HAS REFUSED TO COOPERATE WITH AUTHORITIES AND HAS PLEADED GUILTY TO MURDER, RACKETEERING AND DRUG CHARGES. THE NEWS REGRETS THE ERROR.).
In the upstate home of mobster Joseph Barbara, a watershed event for the Mafia was about to take place.
It was Nov. 14, 1957, and all the bosses and top luminaries of all five crime families were at Barbara's stately stone house in Apalachin. The Dapper Don of the '50s, Joseph Bonanno, was there. So were Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino.
They were there to lay down an edict: La Cosa Nostra and drugs should never mix.
Nearly a half-century later, modern-day mobsters are ignoring their no-drugs decree - a trend that is slowly killing the Mafia.
Drug trafficking prosecutions are gutting four of the five major crime families in New York, sweeping scores of wiseguys off the streets.
Law enforcement - which for decades had been frustrated in attempts to nail even the most ruthless of mobsters - was suddenly making significant arrests, and drugs were the key.
Federal prosecutors have been "extremely successful in using the drug laws as a tool to break the back of these LCN [La Cosa Nostra] families," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Walden, a veteran mob prosecutor. "As long as mobsters continue to peddle drugs openly on our streets, they make it easier for us to catch them."
Last week, reputed Luchese underboss Eugene (Bubsie) Castelle and his alleged capo, Joseph (Joey Flowers) Tangorra, were busted along with five underlings and accused of running a cocaine network that flooded south Brooklyn with drugs.
Tangorra, 51, allegedly had been selling drugs since 1987 out of a flower shop on 13th Ave., earning him his nickname. Assistant U.S. Attorney William Gurin charged at a bail hearing last Thursday that Tangorra sold quantities of more than 5 kilos at a time, moving into a supervisory role in the Luchese family following the busts of other leaders.
Castelle, 40, started off as a small-time pot dealer in the neighborhood but also moved quickly up through the Luchese ranks due to the vacancies created at the top by law enforcement action.
Both men have been ordered held without bail.
The Mafia always had dabbled in the drug trade, but it didn't become a major player until the 1980s, experts said.
The first major bust involving the mob and drugs was the infamous Pizza Connection case in the early 1980s that snared mobsters for dealing heroin out of city pizzerias.
Since then, virtually every don has quietly okayed drug dealing - as long as the bosses were getting a cut.
"It's always been done with a wink and a nod," said a veteran mob lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It was always, 'Don't do it, I don't want to know about it.' [Gambino boss Paul] Castellano just winked. [John (Dapper Don)] Gotti just winked."
The one exception is the Genovese family, which mostly has abided by Vincent (Chin) Gigante's old-school beliefs, law enforcement sources said.
And lately, the mob has deepened its ties to drugs, law enforcement sources said. To wit: In 1998, alleged Gambino family soldier Frank Fapiano was busted along with 20 other low-level gangsters on federal drug charges. All pleaded guilty.
In 1999, alleged Colombo soldier Frank Guerra pleaded guilty to drug charges. Guerra allegedly dealt drugs for Theodore Persico Jr., a nephew of the former Colombo boss.
Last Wednesday, alleged Bonanno soldier Joe Chilli was among six reputed mobsters busted on drug conspiracy charges. Last year, more than two dozen members of a Bonanno-affiliated organization, the Bath Avenue Crew, were arrested for drugs in a sweep that also snared capo Anthony Spero on murder conspiracy charges.
And arrests frequently lead to more arrests.
Because of the Rockefeller drug laws and stiff federal racketeering statutes, gangsters who deal drugs almost always are assured of hefty sentences behind bars - giving them an incentive to sing for the feds.
"When the hats drop on these guys for a drug sale charge, the first words out of their mouth is, 'Officer, what can I do for you?' " said one law enforcement source.
A 1996 Luchese case - in which 38 Luchese gangsters and associates, including reputed soldier James (Froggy) Galione, pleaded guilty to drug charges - eventually helped authorities get enough evidence to nail Castelle and Tangorra last week.
In that case, two of Galione's underlings, Ronald (Messy Marvin) Moran and Michael (Mikey Flattop) DeRosa, began cooperating with the government, giving up enough information to lead to last week's indictment, sources said.
And when mobsters and drugs mix, it makes law enforcement's job easier. All of the Mafia drug crew takedowns over the last five years started on the streets with investigations by NYPD detectives, prosecutors said.
"Drugs are going to break the mob," said Special Agent Lewis Rice, who heads the Drug Enforcement Agency's New York office.
"The NYPD, DEA and FBI is a strong and unstoppable team, and drugs are always going to help us bust down the mob," Rice said.
Caption: Eugene (Bubsie) Castelle, latest alleged wiseguy to be arrested on drug raps. Below, James (Froggy) Galione began singing after his arrest in 1996. Joseph (Joey Flowers) Tangorra allegedly ran drug business out of a Brooklyn flower shop. THE OLD GANG JUST SAID NO AP It was in Joseph Barbara's (l.) stately stone house in Apalachin (below) an agreement was made - a Cosa Nostra and drugs should never mix. DAILY NEWS Vito Genovese. AP The Dapper Don of the '50s, Joseph Bonanno, was there. DAILY NEWS Carlo Gambino#CORRECTION_DATE(1)=20001211
Document nydn000020010808dwca00vcj
NEWS
CLUB KING PLEADS GUILTYMob-linked Paciello cops to murder,rackets charges
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
548 words
14 October 2000New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
15
English
© 2000 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
The mobbed-up king of Miami nightlife shocked government prosecutors yesterday by pleading guilty to racketeering, murder and robbery charges just days before the start of his trial.
Chris Paciello, who climbed from Staten Island gutter thug to the millionaire club king of Miami's trendy South Beach, once boasted he would never "go down" like jailed mob boss John Gotti.
But he folded under the weight of a federal indictment after several co-defendants pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against him.
Paciello, 29, whose gal pals included Madonna and supermodel Niki Taylor, confessed to being the getaway driver at a push-in robbery in 1993 in which Judy Shemtov, a Staten Island mother of three, was shot to death.
He also admitted orchestrating the armed robbery of the Chemical Bank in the Staten Island Mall a year earlier.
Flanked by his attorney, Benjamin Brafman, a somber Paciello entered his plea before Magistrate Joan Azrack in Brooklyn Federal Court.
"I know these crimes were part of a large criminal enterprise," he said, reading from a yellow legal pad.
He added, "I participated in the attempted robbery of the Shemtov family," but then took a long pause before blurting out, "which resulted in the death of Mrs. Shemtov."
Paciello, whose legal name is Christian Ludwigsen, faces up to 33 years and seven months in prison and must pay a $400,000 fine, according to prosecutors.
He committed the crimes under the umbrella of a ragtag group of brutal mobsters and mob associates who called themselves the Bath Ave. Crew, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney James Walden.
The crew allegedly reported to Bonanno crime family captain Anthony Spero and took its name from the Brooklyn thoroughfare where Spero's social club, The Pigeon, is located.
But Paciello stepped up to a new life in Miami, allegedly using mob money and strong-arm tactics to launch his career in South Beach.
He was crowned South Beach nightclub king because of his two celebrity hot spots, Liquid and Bar Room.
He also owned an Italian bistro, Joia, where his business partner was Madonna intimate Ingrid Casares, the daughter of a rich Cuban family.
"I love Chris, and I always will," Casares said through her spokeswoman yesterday. "Chris has decided to close this chapter of his life and accept responsibility for crimes he participated in many years ago."
Paciello's past caught up with him in December 1999, when he was busted just days before the grand opening of his fourth nightclub, West Palm Beach Liquid Room.
He has been under house arrest at his mother's Staten Island home with two around-the-clock guards since March.
The townhouse - which overlooks the Fresh Kills landfill - is a far cry from Paciello's palatial waterfront estate on Miami Beach.
Brafman had insisted throughout the case that his client is a changed man with a violent past. In his plea, Paciello did not admit any mob affiliation.
"The saddest part of this case is that the Chris Paciello that is going to be sentenced," Brafman said, "is a far different person than the one who committed these crimes 10 years ago."
Caption: Chris Paciello
Document nydn000020010808dwae00p18
NEWS
MOB BOSS A SOLE SURVIVOR Reputed Bonanno leader keeps low profile
MICHELE MCPHEE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
1488 words
17 September 2000New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
6
English
© 2000 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
It's lunchtime at the Casablanca Restaurant in Maspeth, Queens, and reputed Bonanno crime family boss Joseph Massino occupies a table near the door, enjoying a meal of homemade linguine and sauteed roasted peppers with his pals.
After a waiter in a tuxedo serves him from a gleaming brass cart, Massino, 57, banters lightly with his sidekicks, trading jokes and picking ponies.
From the outside, the Casablanca appears to be a non-descript storefront pizzeria. But its regulars know the restaurant serves some of the best Italian cuisine in the city. The Daily News reviewed Casablanca in 1998 and gave it "three stars."
Its walls are festooned with framed pictures of celebrities who have dined there - Johnny Depp, Hugh Grant, Elizabeth Hurley - alongside posters of Humphrey Bogart. There is also a life-sized statue of the tough-guy film icon.
Massino is part-owner of the restaurant, and on this day he is the only New York Mafia boss free to savor the rewards of hard work, authorities say.
With the Sept. 6 arrest of
acting Luchese crime boss Steven Crea in a massive construction scam roundup, four of the five organized crime leaders are behind bars.
Massino, tall and robustly built, is known as an electronics whiz with a penchant for secrecy and discretion. He lives modestly with his wife in Howard Beach, Queens, a few blocks from the home of his friend, the imprisoned-for-life Gambino crime boss John Gotti.
"He's careful. He's a very smart guy," said one NYPD organized crime detective. "He's wise to surveillance, and he lives by the old- school rules. He believes in keeping La Costra Nostra secret."
Another co-owner of Casablanca, who declined to be identified, characterized his partner as "just one of the owners of the restaurant who comes in for lunch once in awhile."
Massino has denied any involvement in La Costra Nostra and has accused the federal government of bias against Italian-Americans. He did not return phone calls for this story.
His principal source of legitimate income, authorities say, is King Caterers, a Farmingdale, L.I., business that provides food to street vendors.
But according to law enforcement sources, he began his
career as a truck hijacker and quietly rose in rank.
He became the Bonanno boss in 1993, months after he was released from federal prison, sources said, just as
the crime family was near
extinction.
Its members, considered mob "outlaws," did not have a seat on the Mafia's fabled Commission, the governing group that oversees the city's five crime families. An internal war left several members dead. And rampant drug dealing in the family brought intense pressure from the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
For six years in the early '80s, FBI agent Joseph Pistone immersed himself in the workings of the Bonanno family by posing as jewel thief "Donnie Brasco." During that undercover assignment, he knew many gangsters, including Massino.
Johnny Depp, whose image now graces Massino's restaurant, played Pistone in the movie "Donnie Brasco."
Pistone's undercover work was a factor in Massino's 1986 conviction on charges stemming from the Bonannos' control of Teamsters Local 814, the union that represents furniture movers.
During his trial, when Pistone walked past Massino on his way to the witness stand to testify against him, the adversaries eyed each other.
"Hey Donnie," Massino reportedly said. "Who'd you get to play me in the movie?"
While Massino was in prison, Manhattan prosecutors accused him and his brother-in-law
Sal Vitale of racketeering and murder.
The two were leaders in a bloody inter-family war that erupted after the 1979 murder of Bonanno boss Carmine Galante, according to testimony. Massino was allied with the winning faction headed by Philip [Rusty] Rastelli, prosecutors said.
The losers were Alphonse (Sonny Red) Indelicato, Philip Giaccone and Dominick Trinchera, three Bonanno captains who were slain in 1981.
Both Massino and Vitale were acquitted on charges of murdering the three men during their 1987 trial.
"Joey Massino was aligned with Rusty Rastelli during the Bonanno War. Rusty won, and when he died in 1991, Massino was obvious choice for boss," said a law enforcement source.
Massino was seen as the level-headed leader who could stem the erosion of the family power. He promptly shut the Bonanno social clubs, and avoided other situations that might invite surveillance.
"He's a very low-key guy," said a law-enforcement source. "He only surrounds himself with close allies."
Though Massino's allegiance to Gotti solidified his power, law enforcement sources say the Gambino boss played no part
in his neighbor's ascension to family don.
"The Bonannos picked Massino because he was friends with Gotti and the family was obsessed with getting a seat back on the Commission," a law enforcement source said. "But like everything the Bonannos do, it backfired.
"Gotti was p--- that he was not consulted before Massino was bumped up to boss."
Despite that initial tension, Massino's reign has been a successful one, run with tight fists and tight lips. The Bonanno family has regained its seat on the Commission and its crews have beefed up longtime interests in narcotics, unions, loansharking, gambling and Joker Poker machines, sources said.
And even as "made" members of the other four families have taken the witness stand against their bosses, not one Bonanno mobster has broken omerta - the vow of silence all gangsters take when they are inducted into the Mafia.
But high-profile drug trafficking by Bonanno crews still brings heat.
Last week, two Bonanno soldiers - Fabritizio DeFrancisci, 30, and Joseph Benanti, 66, - along with an associate, Tommy Reynolds, 30, pleaded guilty in federal court to murder and drug dealing conspiracies stemming from charges they ran a crack cocaine ring in South Brooklyn.
In a related case, the family's elder statesman, capo Anthony Spero, 73, has been indicted with South Beach club baron Chris Paciello, a Miami celebrity and alleged mob associate who dated supermodel Niki Taylor and counts Madonna as a friend.
Spero will go on trial in February on murder and obstruction of justice charges. Paciello's trial for murder, racketeering and burglary begins Oct. 17.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Walden, who is prosecuting Spero and Paciello, refused to comment on whether Massino himself is under investigation.
"Our policy is to not confirm or deny any ongoing investigations," Walden said.
The Bonanno organization, however, has shown remarkable resiliency and staying power, perhaps best demonstrated by the family's namesake, 95-year-old Joseph Bonanno, long retired and living in Arizona.
"When a crime boss runs a tight ship and keeps himself out of the limelight, it becomes much harder for law enforcement to penetrate and obtain damning evidence," said Prof. Robert Castelli, an organized crime expert at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
"In the case of the Bonanno crime family, it has regrouped since the late 1970s. The boss is well insulated, his second-in-command is reputedly his brother-in-law, and there are no known cooperating witnesses. It's a much tougher nut to crack."SIDEBAR: CRIME BOSSES 2000Luchese Crime Family
Less than 120 members
Acting Boss: Steven Crea, facing state charges of enterprise corruption in Manhattan after he was arrested this month in a construction rigging scam. Jailed in Rikers pending bail hearing. Presides over a family in increasing disarray.Colombo Crime Family
About 120 members
Boss: Carmine Persico, serving 139-years for murder and racketeering.
Acting Boss: Alphonse (Allie Boy) Persico (far r.), serving an 18- month sentence for illegal gun posession in Miami. His hold on his father's organization is said to be tenuous.Gambino Crime Family
Less than 200 members
Boss: John (Dapper Don) Gotti (l.), serving life sentence for murder and racketeering. His son, John (Junior) Gotti, was a short- lived acting boss before he pleaded guilty and was imprisoned for six years on extortion conspiracy last year.
Acting Boss: Peter Gotti (far r.), the boss' brother.Genovese Crime Family
About 250 members
Boss: He once wandered Greenwich Village in a bathrobe, now Vincent (The Chin) Gigante, 72, is serving a 12-year sentence for racketeering and extortion conspiracy in a Fort Worth, Tex., prison hospital. He has delegated many duties but still controls a large and influential organization.Bonanno Crime Family
About 130 members
Boss: Joseph Massino, 57, lives
in Howard Beach, Queens.
Underboss: Salvatore A. Vitale, of Dix Hills,
L. I. - Massino's brother-in-law.
Caption: Reputed Bonanno crime family boss Joseph Massino Joseph Pistone Philip [Rusty] Rastelli (above), allegedly formed alliance with reputed Bonanno boss Joseph Massino. At right, Miami club baron Chris Paciello has been indicted on murder, racketeering and burglary charges. BILL TURNBULL DAILY NEWS Casablanca Restaurant in Maspeth, Queens
Document NYDN000020030515dw9h000eh
NEWS
PAL OF GOTTI SON-IN-LAW NABBED IN CAR-THEFT STING
MICHELE McPHEE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
236 words
17 May 2000New York Daily News
SPORTS FINAL
7
English
© 2000 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
The reputed mobster who has escorted novelist Victoria Gotti to her husband's court appearances was arrested yesterday for masterminding a stolen car ring in Queens, authorities said.
Charles Marino - a boyhood pal of John Gotti's son-in-law Carmine Agnello - was busted in a predawn raid with 21 other men. Officials said Marino, 45, was a leader of a $2.5 million auto theft, auto dismantling and insurance fraud ring.
Marino and his underlings unwittingly chopped up stolen cars at a Jamaica garage owned by the NYPD and run by undercover detectives as part of a 13-month sting code-named Operation Vanish, cops and prosecutors said.
The undercover officers sold the vehicles to a scrap metal operation that passed them on to Agnello, who was busted on racketeering charges in January following another sting operation, officials said.
Marino, described by Police Commissioner Howard Safir as an associate of the Gambino crime family, has been Victoria Gotti's frequent companion at Agnello's hearings in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Yesterday's "arrests constitute yet another crushing blow leveled upon organized crime and the auto crime industries operating in Queens," Safir said.
If convicted on charges of criminal possession of stolen property and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, Marino faces 2 1/2 to seven years in prison.
Document nydn000020010808dw5h00bp1
NEWS
MAFIA LINKS EYED IN S.I. SLAYING
MICHELE McPHEE
483 words
29 April 1998New York Daily News
36
English
© 1998 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
Cops are investigating whether the execution-style slaying of a Bonanno associate outside a Staten Island strip club yesterday is related to the killing of a mob-linked man whose body was found Saturday.
Frank Hydell, who was linked to a killing in the late '80s, was shot "numerous times in the head and chest" as he left Scarlett's on Sand Lane in South Beach, cops said.
The brazen killing of Hydell whose uncle Daniel Marino was a Gambino capo once slated to replace John Gotti raised fears of retaliation.
"Heads are going to start rolling," one high-ranking law enforcement source said. "No one is stupid enough to whack Dan Marino's nephew without permission, so who knows what he did?"
Marino was imprisoned on racketeering and murder convictions before he could step into Gotti's shoes.
Hydell's killer approached the unsuspecting 30-year-old from behind at 12:15 a.m., blasted him and then fled in a light blue Lincoln Continental, cops said.
The slaying came on the heels of the gangland-style killing of reputed Colombo associate Francisco Sarascino.
Sarascino, 23, was shot in the neck and set ablaze on a desolate road behind a Staten Island shopping center. His body was found Saturday.
"They are investigating it {Hydell's murder} as a retaliation for the hit on Sarascino," another high-ranking police source said.
It was unclear what the connection was between the two men, if any, sources said.
"Hydell was a real bad guy," a law-enforcement source said.
In addition to Marino, other members of Hydell's family also had mob ties.
His brother, James, was tortured and murdered 12 years ago by Anthony {Gaspipe} Casso, a Luchese mobster.
Casso believed James Hydell was one of three men who had attempted to kill him a month earlier in a botched ambush that left him with two bullet holes in his left shoulder.
Frank Hydell pleaded guilty in 1988 to attempted manslaughter in the killing of a Staten Island man. A source said a former transit cop, Richard Bering, hired Hydell to murder Joseph Trinetto, his girlfriend's husband, in 1987.
He pleaded guilty when he was 19. Since then, he has been arrested several times, sources said.
An investigator said Hydell had a series of tattoos on his back that paid tribute to his slain brother and spewed invective at Casso, who is now a government informer.
Sarascino did not not have a rap sheet. But law enforcement sources called him a "young punk" involved in drug dealing and stolen-car chop shops.
In the 1980s, Scarlett's was linked to the Gambino and Genovese crime families, sources said.
According to State Liquor Authority records, the place paid a $6,000 fine two years ago to settle charges and complaints from 1991 to 1994.
Document nydn000020010918du4t00a52
Sunday Extra
I'VE GOT A SECRET IDENTITY / LOTS OF PEOPLE START A NEW LIFE IN NEW YORK--SOMETIMES, MORE THAN ONE NEW LIFE
MICHELE MCPHEE
1413 words
19 April 1998New York Daily News
50
English
© 1998 Daily News, New York. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
Christopher Robin doesn't want a new life. He just wants a new identity.
He's a millionaire real estate mogul who dates models and wears handmade Belgian shoes. He lives in a lavish loft in Manhattan and drives a custom-made truck.
But even the wealthy can wind up with a bad credit rating. So Robin is buying himself a new identity, and clean credit, from a terminally ill AIDS patient.
Robin (not his real name, of course) is one of a growing number of New Yorkers who have buried the past and reinvented the future as another person one without a psychotic spouse, bad credit rating or a rap sheet.
"If you are willing to pay {for} the end years of a terminally ill man's life, you can just take over his identity," Robin says. "Why wouldn't they let you run around with their name for ten or fifteen thousand dollars?
"Buying a name from a dying man is just an avenue for creating a new identity that a lot of people have not thought of yet."
With the help of some cash and a new birth certificate, driver's license, Social Security number and passport, almost anyone can create their own witness-protection program.
The reasons for obtaining a new identity are as eclectic as the names people assume.
Teenagers use fake IDs to pass as legal drinkers. Illegal aliens use them to secure jobs. Schemers use them to kite checks and defraud state welfare agencies. Fugitives and terrorists allude authorities with new names.
No matter what the reason, experts say, New York is the perfect place to be reborn.
"New York is ideal for people seeking anonymity because you can come and go and no one will know," says former homicide detective Bo Dietl, who now runs the city's largest private investigative firm.
"You never meet your next-door neighbor," he says. "No one notices you on the street. It's very simple to disappear here."
Robin was born Christopher Lynch in 1952 to wealthy Manhattan parents.
When he was seven, his parents went through a bitter divorce, and his mother, who was awarded custody, insisted her son use her maiden name. Throughout his childhood, he was known as Christopher Raven.
But when he was a teenager, his father died, and as a sign of respect, Christopher began to call himself a Lynch again.
Then, when he was in his 30s, he and his wife were divorced. It was an ugly, expensive breakup that left him with a scarred credit history and a bitter taste in his mouth whenever his ex-wife spit out his name.
So he changed it again this time with the help of a lawyer, who opened a checking account and secured a credit card under the name Christopher Robin. After a few months of mail coming to one of his homes addressed to Robin, he managed to get a Social Security number and then a driver's license with his new name.
He said what he is doing is all on the up-and-up he pays taxes on all of his identities.
"You can use any name you want, you can call yourself Halami Salami," Robin/Lynch/Raven said. "Just pay your taxes, all your taxes, and whatever debt you have, and you are not defrauding anyone."
For decades, gangsters have shed their old lives for new ones with the government's help after ratting out their criminal cronies. However, the government is notoriously close-mouthed about how they execute each disappearace.
Workaday types obtain new IDs the old-fashioned way, by scouring graveyards looking for dead people who were born around the same time they were. They take the name and date of birth to the nearest county clerk's office and say they need a duplicate birth certificate. Then they use the birth certificate to apply for a Social Security number, making sure all these new documents are mailed to the same address. Next, they apply for a driver's license. Finally, with all of the other documents in order, comes the ultimate new ID card: a U.S. passport.
"There is no cross-reference for all of these documents," Dietl says. "When I am looking for someone, I usually find they have two or three Social Security cards."
Lovell Brigham, a spokeswoman for the Social Security Adminstration, says getting a fake ID number is not as easy as people think. She says more than 86 percent of the agency's criminal convictions in 1997 were based on Social Security number fraud.
"There is a lot of fraud going on with Social Security numbers," Brigham says. "But it's not as simple as it used to be."
Replacement cards, Brigham says, are now made with specially designed pre-printed banknote paper, which is more difficult to duplicate.
For those with less time and cash, Times Square used to be a viable resource for buying fake IDs, but those stores were swept out with the rest of the sleaze as part of Mayor Guiliani's quality-of- life initiative.
"The traditional sources for buying bogus documents, like sleazy novelty stores, are gone, but the rise of the computer age has made it easier to fabricate documents," says Manhattan chief of detectives for the NYPD, Kevin Farrell.
He's right. A scan of the Internet found companies such as Global Money Consultants of Greece, which claims it can help you bury your past and create a new, "tax-free" future. Elite International Services of Canada goes a step farther: It says it can get you a diplomatic appointment.
"People should remember, though, that assuming a new identity sounds very exotic, and it can be done without too much of problem, but it would be hard to make it stand up," Farrell warns.
But that's not stopping an influx of how-to books from appearing on bookshelves all over the country. The most popular one, a manager at the Chelsea Barnes and Noble says, is "How to Create a New Identity."
The author? Anonymous.
For those working the other side of the street, there are also books on how to find lost souls, like "Find Them Fast, Find Them Now: Private Investigators Share Their Secrets for Finding Missing Persons."
Cops didn't need to consult the book when they found Aubrey Cox hiding out in Harlem last month. They just followed the trail of his disability checks.
Cox, a 75-year-old grandfather and former Manhattan building superintendent who escaped from a Virginia chain gang in 1956, was a fugitive living in New York for more than 40 years under the assumed name Curtis Brown.
Even his wife, who married him two years after he bolted from the chain gang, didn't know her husband's real name.
"His brother and sister used to call him Aubrey," Elizabeth Brown says. "Me being young and from the South, I thought it was a nickname."
For cops, it was better than a nickname: It was the name on those disability checks that "Curtis Brown" was cashing.
Not everyone who assumes another identity is trying to buck the system. Battered women often go underground to escape their tormenters. Immigrants often "Ellis Island-ize" their names simply because Americans have trouble pronouncing them.
But for almost everyone who disappears for a suspicious reason, there is a common thread that binds them loneliness. That loneliness usually blows their cover.
"Everyone wants to talk to their mommies," Dietl says. That's usually how we find them, when they make contact with friends or family."
But no new identity is foolproof. Even Sammy (The Bull) Gravano, who took down Dapper Don John Gotti by ratting him out, could have his government-issued cover blown.
"Sammy the Bull is wearing a disguise and has changed his physical appearance, and of course he is law-abiding," Farrell says. "But if he went back to his criminal ways and was picked up by local authorities, or even if he got into a car accident, he is going to raise some eyebrows.
"There are a lot of people who do disappear," he adds. "The trick is to stay disappeared."
Caption: PHOTO PAT CARROLL DAILY NEWS; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BARBARA BARNETT DAILY NEWS JON NASO DAILY NEWS
Document nydn000020010918du4j00804