Ed Scarpo's Blog, page 37

Scarfo Jr. Sought to Retake the Philly Mob: Feds

Nicky Scarfo Jr was shot six times while dining here. He and walked out
of the hospital a week later, having suffered only flesh wounds.Nicodemo S. Scarfo and pal Salvatore Pelullo are slated to face the music next week for their efforts to steal around $12 million from FirstPlus Financial. Scarfo, 49, the son of imprisoned mob boss Nicodemo D. "Little Nicky" Scarfo, faces nearly life in prison, as does Pelullo, 47, an associate who helped loot the Texas-based mortgage company.

Also scheduled for next week: yet another meeting as per the defense's efforts to win a new trial by maintaining that the jury in the FirstPlus case never should've been exposed to any mob-related discovery material.


The trial of Scarfo and Pelullo did not involve the Mafia, defense attorneys contend. Therefore, the prosecution's references to the mob "prejudiced the jury and [served] to glamorize and sensationalize an otherwise mundane financial case, defense attorneys have argued," as George Anastasia noted on BigTrial.

However, U.S. Attorney Steven D'Aguanno acknowledged repeatedly "that references to the mob were relevant and that the multi-million dollar fraud was carried out in large part because of the fear and intimidation that Pelullo used by alluding to his mob ties to Scarfo."

In fact, the defense's theory is that the probe's origin was largely a result of an FBI effort to "track the younger Scarfo's attempt to retake control of the Philadelphia crime family his jailed father once headed."

His earliest parole date is 2033, when "Little Nicky" will be 103 years old.

This part of the case piques our interest much more than the financial fraud in Texas.
While siphoning some $12 million from the mortgage company, "Scarfo was also maneuvering to re-establish himself in South Jersey and align himself with mob figures who might support his underworld power grab."

The Feds presented little evidence to bolster this "story line" during the trial. They did highlight the fact that Scarfo Jr. was a member of New York's Luchese crime family (not the Philly Cosa Nostra family) and that Vittorio "Vic" Amuso, boss of the Luchese family, allowed Scarfo to join the New York crime family essentially to save the young man's life.

Scarfo Junior during FirstPlus Trial. He is to be
sentenced next week.
Amuso, at the time, shared a cell with Scarfo Senior. Both were supposed to get a piece of FirstPlus.

In fact Amuso and "Little Nicky" were named as unindicted co-conspirators in the FirstPlus case.

The jury also heard about the 1989 Halloween Eve hit on Scarfo Jr., who was shot and nearly killed while dining with others at Dante & Luigi's Restaurant.

The masked shooter had strode into the front dining room after 7 p.m. and fired six shots into Scarfo, who fell to the floor in a growing puddle of blood. (None of the bullets struck a vital organ and he was out of the hospital a week later.)
The gunman made his exit as the patrons and restaurant employees screamed and scrambled for cover. He leaped into a car that had pulled up and drove away. A semiautomatic MAC-9 machine pistol was found on a sidewalk near the restaurant.
At the time, Scarfo Jr. was supposedly trying to run the street for his imprisoned father, who is faulted for driving the Philly Cosa Nostra into the ground. About 20 mob figures were killed during his reign.
Law-enforcement officials noted there had been a history of hostility between the younger Scarfo and Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino, who was the shooter, according to informants.

"Skinny Joey," in a Florida prison until May 5, was said to have deliberately dropped the gun to send a message to “Little Nicky” Scarfo, who apparently loves the film The Godfather, especially the "restaurant scene" in which Michael Corleone dispatches two enemies of the Corleone family with the aplomb of a true WWII veteran.


Original Thrust of Fed's Probe
An affidavit "offers an intriguing look at the Philadelphia - South Jersey underworld in 2006," as Anastasia writes. The original thrust of the probe was the takeover of the Philadelphia mob by Scarfo Jr.
From his Atlanta prison cell, "Little Nicky" Scarfo backed his son's efforts to take control of the crime family from Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi, a former Scarfo ally.

New York's Luchese crime family backed Scarfo's play; in fact, Scarfo Jr. lived in North New Jersey under the protection of the Lucheses before moving to the Atlantic City area in 2006.

According to BigTrial:

Whether the younger Scarfo had a chance to retake control of the family is an open question. It is hard to imagine many mobsters lining up behind him in a clash with Ligambi. The FBI affidavit said that one confidential source indicated Scarfo had approached Joseph Ciancaglini Jr. , the son of then jailed Scarfo family capo Joseph "Chickie" Ciancaglini. The source, according to the affidavit, said Scarfo approached Ciancaglini and asked if "he wanted to be with" him in a power grab....

See complete story at BigTrial.... 

Ex-Mob Wife Threw Professional Sex Parties

The ex-Mob Wife in question.
This is more interesting than the reunion recap I am writing, believe me...
Lots of news stories in the summer of 2001 fell down the memory hole after the brutal 9/11 attacks.

A certain Gambino crime family associate who in his heyday was as powerful as an inducted member was likely quite pleased that one developing story from that summer was essentially shut down.

Largely know for being one of John Gotti's lieutenants, Joseph "Joe the German" Watts began his rise in the mob during Carlo Gambino's reign. Watts made a name for himself with the Gambinos under Paul "Big Paul" Castellano.


But he earned his fortune under the Dapper Don and was afforded the respect more typical of a capo.

Because Watts showed fealty to Gotti and his group of conspirators, collectively known as The Fist, which orchestrated the assassination of Castellano on the swanky upper East Side amid rush hour in December 1985 (Watts was a backup shooter), he was awarded Castellano's deputy's $30k per week loanshark book. Thomas Bilotti, Castellano's inexplicable underboss, also was whacked outside Sparks Steakhouse. By 2001, Watts had earned about $12 million from the loan business, according to the feds.

The Castellano hit in December of 1985.
Watts, "really a Welshman, not a Kraut," 72, is immersed in our penal system and will be for about 10 more years, though this may not be as punishing as it sounds to a wealthy gangster who was known to have once "bought" an entire prison tier.

The long-time gangster suffered a stinging indignity while on trial that fateful summer.

The excellent AmericanMafia website noted that as Watts "struggled to look pathetic for the jurors – looking sickly and using a cane to get around... his ex-wife Laurene Maron, a stunningly attractive platinum blonde, took the stand and wowed both jury members and spectators alike."
"The interest was not so much in her testimony at her ex’s trial, from which the jury returned deadlocked on the main charge, but rather in her new extra-curricular sexual activities as hostess of a high-class swinger’s club. Al Guart, a former AmericanMafia.com contributor, revealed in the New York Post on July 1 [2001] the new lifestyle of Watt’s former flame, to whom Watts was married from 1980 to 1996. She currently owns and operates Angel’s Couples, a wife swapping club that asks couples to donate $80 to attend its orgies."

Watts, please note, was already divorced from her when these revelations were made public.

On the Angel's Couples website, which no longer exists (and can't even be found on the Internet Archive WayBack Machine), there were "photos of a busty blonde riding on a man’s back. It advised potential members they “may meet judges, doctors, policemen and even school teachers” at her events.

Maron reportedly described herself on an AOL page as “5 feet 8, blond hair, brown eyes, athletic in stature, with legs up to there.”

The Post story related how "red-faced officials at a swanky Manhattan hotel booted a mobster’s ex-wife after learning she was planning a spouse-swapping sex romp that she insisted would be an innocent graduation party.

"Laurene Maron, former wife of John Gotti lieutenant Joseph Watts, also pulled the plug on her “AngelsCouples.com” Web site after Sunday’s Post revealed she used it to arrange sex parties on yachts and in her New Jersey mansion."

Maron, then 42, charged $80 per couple to attend a romp at an upscale hotel the month prior; another event was planned for a month later. "But execs at the Park Avenue hotel canceled Maron’s reservation... after reading the Post story."

“It was shocking for us to read in your newspaper what went on,” Joseph Kaminski, the hotel’s general manager, told the reporter. “They told us the [June 23] reservation was for a cocktail party.”

That earlier event took place in the Hotel Delmonico’s “Presidential Suite,” which included “three large romp rooms, dance floor, living room and dining room,” according to a flier distributed to promote the occasion.

The affair included “free shooters” of alcohol, a DJ,“3 lovely bartenders to wet you,” and “Big Don” for security.

Kaminski said that when he called Maron to cancel the next month’s reservation, she said the Post story untrue.

On the deleted website, Angelscouples.com, she advises potential members that they “may meet judges, doctors, policemen and even schoolteachers” at her events.


NO SINGLE MEN ALLOWED Joe the German is a Welshman...Men unaccompanied by a woman were barred from club parties, at which, it was further noted, "swinging does not always mean sex, but can include voyeurism, exhibitionism, soft touching and petting.”

The second Post story included the down-low from phone conversations between a female Post reporter acting like a prospective party-goer and Maron, who "spoke openly about upcoming club events and the rules of membership.

"Identifying herself as “Angel,” she acknowledged that she is Watts’ ex-wife, but she said she preferred not to have that widely known.

“I’m trying to stay incognito,” she confided.

She declined to discuss her marriage to Watts with the reporter; the article added. She was already remarried to another man, a dentist, the Post reported.
Maron admitted to having been a swinger for the past “five or six years" in the article.

She also had told the Post reporter about plans for an outdoor hot-tub party in the backyard of her West Allenhurst, N.J., home.

Love to do an update, if Laurene should read this....

The Most Powerful Labor Racketeer in America

Anthony Scotto, left, lawyer James LaRossa.
REVISED WITH ADDITIONAL INFOROMATION
The son of TV news anchor ­Rosanna Scotto made news last week when he was arrested on charges of swiping an expensive designer purse. What garnered our interest was a note at the end of the New York Post Page Six story:

[Rosanna] Scotto, 58, is co-anchor of WNYW/Channel 5’s “Good Day New York” ... [and] is co-owner of her family’s restaurant, Fresco by Scotto, on East 52nd Street. She is also the daughter of Anthony Scotto, a former boss in the Gambino crime family....

Scotto, while never the boss of the crime family, was a powerful figure in his own right. His story heralds an earlier era of America's Cosa Nostra, when mobsters were able to discreetly rise high in big business. Scotto is considered to have been the most powerful labor racketeer in the entire country in his heyday in the 1960s-70s. He earned two additional distinctions nearly unbelievable today: He once lectured at Harvard and was considered by a sitting American President for the powerful position of U.S. Secretary of Labor.




Anthony M. Scotto (born May 10, 1934) was a labor racketeer who ruled the Brooklyn waterfront. He had mayors and even a governor or two in his pocket at one time or another and -- at his peak, before his first and only conviction at age 45, which ushered in his early retirement -- he was a vice president of the International Longshoremen's Association, as well as the head of Local 1814 in Brooklyn.

Time magazine described Scotto as a "personable and articulate man who favored $500 pinstripe suits and expensive Manhattan restaurants."

A 1979 New York Times article revealed a great deal of biographical information about the low-profile gangster. Scotto, who was raised in the Red Hook-Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn, studied law and political science at Brooklyn College and, according to John H. Davis's Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family, graduated.


Lost in thought: Albert Anastasia (the "Lord High Executioner" himself)
with his wife at a social event.
In 1957, he married Marion Anastasio, whose father was Anthony Anastasio, then a capo in the Anastasia crime family under his brother, Albert Anastasia, the much-feared former organizer of Murder Inc.who assumed power by ruthlessly murdering Vincent Mangano, who'd been boss of the crime family from 1931 to 1951. Carlo Gambino launched his own coup against the "Mad Hatter" the same year "Young Tony," Scotto's then-nickname, married. (Appalachin took place as well.)
While Anastasio didn't mount a plot to avenge his brother's murder (as far as we know), he wasn't exactly on board with Gambino, either. "Tough Tony" even held back substantial sums of money from the wily new mob boss. Anastasio, as an officer of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and Local 1814 in Red Hook, wielded immense power because he effectively controlled the Brooklyn waterfront.
It wasn't until 1963, when "Tough Tony" died and Scotto -- who worked the docks with his father-in-law since Scotto's 1957 marriage to Marion -- took control of the ILA local that Carlo Gambino was truly in control of the Brooklyn waterfront. 
A grateful Gambino inducted Scotto into the family around the same time.
Scotto quickly rose in business and eventually counted politicians as part of his circle. His credo was to instill "harmony" on the waterfront. The press dubbed him a "new breed labor leader."

Scotto eventually attained the third-highest position in the labor union.

By the 1970s Scotto was considered to be one of the most powerful mafiosi in New York due to his political clout. He even enjoyed a friendship with U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, a man most mobsters considered a mortal enemy.

That same decade, Scotto was twice named as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. He also was said to have raised millions for Democratic candidate Hugh Carey's 1974 gubernatorial campaign. Scotto reportedly dealt with Carey several time regarding political appointments and labor issues.

Scotto, under Gambino's orders, closed the docks so the workers could participate in Joseph Colombo's Unity Day rally. Around 150,000 people showed up in Columbus Circle in New York City on that June day in 1970. The participants included U.S. Congressmen and several prominent entertainers. 
About one year later, Scotto kept the waterfront open, also under orders, as Gambino had withdrawn his initial reluctant acceptance of Colombo's "civil rights" effort. Colombo was shot in the head during the second rally and lingered on in a coma before finally dying in 1978.
President Jimmy Carter considered Scotto a candidate for the position of U.S. Secretary of Labor. Carlo Gambino had been planning to make Scotto president of the entire ILA as well.

Gambino died and Paul Castellano ascended to the top in the fall of 1977. Big Paul, who believed he was made from the same white-collar mold as Scotto, was planning to go forward with Gambino's wishes of promoting Scotto. "We're gonna have a president," Castellano boasted on tape, referring to Scotto's taking control of the entire ILA, according to Mafia Dynasty.

Criminal charges tainted the man before he could reach the lofty pinnacle, however. On January 17, 1979, Scotto was indicted on 33 federal bribery and racketeering charges, including pocketing some $300,000 over five years from two businessmen who employed his union workers.

Later that year, he was convicted on all charges.

At his sentencing US District Judge Charles E. Stewart, Jr. remarked that he was "extremely impressed" by letters from former New York City mayors Robert Wagner and John Lindsay, as well as major businessmen, and labor leaders -- all of whom had requested leniency for Scotto. On January 22, 1980, Stewart bypassed a 20-year imprisonment sentence and was handed five years instead.

Scotto was released in 1984 and has not been indicted since then. A reliable source told us he decided to retire. Still, turncoat Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano named Scotto as a member of the Gambino crime family in the 1990s.

After Castellano's assassination in 1986, John Gotti appointed Red Hook mobster Anthony Ciccone to be his chief on the Brooklyn waterfront. Ciccone was visibly in power until December 19, 1991, when he was compelled by the feds to resign his posts with the ILA.

He remained the "unofficial power" though for quite some time, in fact long after Gotti was off the streets. On June 4, 2002, Ciccone was indicted on charges of exerting illegal control over two ILA locals.

Ciccone, also accused of attempting to extort actor Steven Seagal, was released from prison on April 24, 2013.

PS: Former Rep. Michael Grimm obviously had no idea who that NY1 reporter was when he threatened to throw him from the US Capitol balcony and “break [him] in half. Like a boy.” The journalist, Michael Scotto, is Anthony Scotto's nephew.

The Mafia with Trevor McDonald Airs March 23, But.....

Former Philly mob boss Ralph NataleSir Trevor McDonald's two-part series The Mafia With Trevor McDonald, shines a "light into this brutal, unforgiving hierarchy" known as the American Mafia, writes the Daily Mail.

The program debuts Monday, March 23 at 9 pm -- however, of you're in the U.S. you'll probably have to watch it via your computer, tablet or cellphone, or on the company's website, more specifically, the ITV Player, 

We previously ran a trailer for the show.
Here is a story about the filming of the show:

"After spending three months travelling across New York, Miami, Philadelphia and Southern California, Trevor hears detailed accounts of life in the Mafia as he meets major figures at home, at work and in bars, as well as on the streets where they operated which, for some of them, were the scene of shocking acts of violence. But, as Trevor learns from those closest to them, huge wealth and notoriety have come at a cost to their families.
Sir Trevor, left, John Alite. (This caption necessary?)
Trevor begins his journey in Queens, New York, where he meets John Alite, widely known as “The Sheriff”. John grew up in the neighbourhood and became a killer in an area nicknamed Death Haven.

He says: “There were constant murders here, constant rivalries between different guys in the streets, different mob families. So we would kill almost at will, as someone given a beating.”

The mafia was built on fear and intimidation. For a man like John rising up through the ranks would depend on a willingness to carry out orders, however brutal. In the 1980s and 1990s Alite worked for John Gotti Senior, who was the Godfather of the Gambino crime family, the most powerful and feared mobsters in America.

John’s first hit was to kill a local drug dealer and he explains to Trevor how he lured him into a car and shot him in the back of the head twice.

The godfathers maintain their control by relying on men like John to kill on command. But their loyalty often turns into betrayal with gangsters doing deals with the FBI and testifying against their bosses to avoid long prison sentences. John’s boss John Gotti Senior appeared invincible in the 80s, until his most trusted lieutenant broke the code of silence.

Trevor then meets Michael Di Leonardo, also known as Mikey Scars, a former high-ranking member of the Gambino crime family. Mikey has single-handedly inflicted more damage on the mafia than anyone else in recent times, testifying against the men he worked with, to save himself from a life behind bars. His evidence consigned 80 of them to prison and he knows only too well the mob, known to its members as Cosa Nostra, will never forgive him.

Mikey lives in permanent fear of attack and until recently was in the US Government’s witness protection programme. However, after months of persuasion, he meets Trevor at a hotel in Miami to speak publicly for the first time.

He says of his fears: “Death for myself, but death for my family, that would be paramount. I have a son and a wife here now and some of these people, they may not take in to consideration who is sitting in the car with me, or who is walking in the street, or in my house, if they kick my door in and kill everyone in the house. That’s my biggest fear. My biggest concern and what keeps me up at night.”

Trevor also meets one of the most successful mobsters in history, Michael Franzese, who posed as a major Hollywood film producer so he could launder large amounts of stolen money. His brilliance for inventing sophisticated scams made the mafia over a billion dollars, until he was indicted on 65 counts of tax evasion, racketeering and grand theft. He struck a deal with the FBI and served seven years in prison.

Today Michael is trying to build a new life with his family in California. He has denounced the mafia but his father is still a major figure in the Columbo crime family in New York. Today, he is the oldest federal prisoner in the entire US, at the age of 93.

Trevor learns more about how the mafia survives today, by travelling to Miami to meet a low level street enforcer for the Bonnano crime family in Miami, whose identity is concealed. He has been in and out of prison all his life and explains his view that the Mafia has changed, with members now more likely than in the past to break their code of silence and testify against each other.

He says: “You can trust a dead man, it’s the only person you can trust, that’s my motto. I don’t trust nobody except my mother. You can’t even trust the boss no more, because they turn around and rat on you.”

Trevor’s final encounter with Mikey Scars is at a cemetery where his elder brother is buried. He was killed by the mafia in 1981.

Mikey says: “This is the life we choose, this is the life he chose, the path, and this is part of the end result. When you do something wrong in that life or are alleged to do something wrong in that life, your life is not your own. You’re property of this entity, this Cosa Nostra that goes back hundreds of years. Now when you get involved, you know what can happen. He killed people, he was involved in murders and ultimately he paid the price that he doled out to others.”

The Mafia with Trevor McDonald is on March 23rd at 9pm and March 30th at 9pm."

John Jr: The Life Somewhere Between Godfather, Goodfellas

Click below link for videos
John Junior Gotti says he never watched “The Sopranos,” and that the real truth of “the life" resides between “The Godfather” and “Goodfellas."

He said this as a guest, along with Peter Lance, on Coast to Coast AM, which aired on March 10th.

To access all segments of Junior's Michael Smerconish interview on CNN, during which he discussed the film adaptation of “Shadow of My Father," see Peter Lance's website.


Gotti Family/ MH-370 Mystery - Shows - Coast to Coast AM:

Gotti Family/ MH-370 Mystery
Date:Tuesday - March 10, 2015Host: George NooryGuests: Peter Lance, John A. Gotti
In the first half, investigative reporter Peter Lance along with John A. Gotti, the son of the infamous mob boss, discussed the true story behind the Gotti crime family and how Gotti's attempts to leave the mob life and raise a normal family were repeatedly hindered by the Justice Department. Gotti was motivated to tell his own story and that of his father's after numerous others, including journalists and government informants were publishing or about to publish accounts about the Gottis. According to law enforcement claims, Gotti served as the boss of the Gambino crime family from 1992 to 1999 after his father John J. Gotti was sent to prison. Gotti Jr. spent 77 months in a series of federal prisons after pleading guilty to racketeering charges and was released in 2005, and faced four additional racketeering trials, all which ended in mistrials.

Lance, who wrote the foreward to Gotti's book, was given access to his files and became convinced that the Feds mistreated and hounded him after he'd already served time. He was impressed that Gotti Jr. steadfastly refused to testify against anyone "in the life" even though he himself had dropped out of the crime family. Gotti Jr. recounted tales of his father, who died in prison at age 61. Known as the "The Dapper Don," he was said to have a genius IQ and never revealed the nature of his business to his family when they were growing up.
News segment guests' websites:
peterlance.comjohnagotti.comShadow of My Father
Deal with the Devil: The FBI's Secret Thirty-Year Relationship with a Mafia Killer
Someone is Hiding Something
UFOs, JFK, and Elvis: Conspiracies You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Believe
Dead Wrong: Straight Facts on the Country's Most Controversial Cover-Ups

Feds Bust DeCavalcantes, Confirm Sicilians in Charge

A total of 10 members and associates of the New Jersey-based DeCavalcante crime family were arrested today for running a prostitution ring, drug trafficking and plotting to kill a rival, according to U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.

The complaints confirm that the New Jersey family is run closely with the Gambinos in New York and that both have Sicilian members in leadership positions today.

Frank "Shipe" Nigro, 72, Paul "Knuckles" Colella, 68, Mario Galli, 23, and Anthony "Whitey" Stango, 33, all from New Jersey, were arrested this morning and face the bulk of the criminal charges cited in the complaints unsealed today. Also taken into custody today were Charles "Beeps" Stango, 71, of Henderson, Nevada, and John "Johnny Balls" Capozzi, 34, and Nicholas Degidio, 37, both from New Jersey.


According to the complaints, since at least as early as 2012, a law enforcement agent acting in an undercover capacity infiltrated the DeCavalcante crime family and gained the confidence of Stango and others.

Also arrested -- primarily for cocaine distribution -- were James Heeney, 35, Luigi Oliveri, 41, and Rosario Pali, 35, all of whom allegedly belong to a separate crew of the crime family.
All defendants arrested in New Jersey were scheduled to appear Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Falk in Newark federal court. Charles Stango was scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Koppe in federal court in Las Vegas.

Charles Stango, a capo, and son Anthony allegedly planned to operate a high-end escort service targeting white-collar businessmen and professionals. The plan called for establishing a legal nightclub to serve as a front. Galli also was involved.




Click on each link to obtain:
Stango, Charles Et Al. Complaint
Heeney, James & Pali, Rosario Complaint
Oliveri, Luigi Complaint

Nigro and Colella were charged along with Charles Stango for plotting to murder a rival member also living in New Jersey, authorities said. Charles Stango allegedly sought and received permission from Nigro, the family’s consiglieri, and other high-ranking members.

Colella’s role was to obtain permission for the planned hit, which Charles Stango discussed with an undercover agent. Two outlaw bikers were allegedly hired to commit the murder.

Ironically, the target (not named in the complaints) was a made member of the DeCavalcante crime family who had voiced a belief that an undercover agent had infiltrated the family. On December 15, 2014, in Las Vegas, Stango told the undercover agent that the intended target had insulted an acting boss of the crime family at a social gathering. There was also a dispute regarding whether the intended target had gotten his button properly.

Stango added that he thought the other member was "out of control" and that he "had to meet death."

"Milk, Milk [referring to the family's street boss who was not charged in this case] his whole f**kin', Milk's family was the root of the tree. Oh he started this whole thing. [lt's been around a while now]. See his uncle the underboss of consiglieres since the beginning of time. They come right from Sicily to here. 

"This is Sii- ... okay this proves he's the oldest crew in the country. They start, they originated the five families. Okay? And now we run under the f**kin' Gambinos."

Stango wanted the undercover agent to maim the target or find someone to do it. "You gotta maim him or you just gotta put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life or somebody's gotta get a f**kin ' jar of acid and throw it in his f**kin' face ... "

When the agent asked Stango how the crime family's administration would react if the man were killed, Stango said: "Listen I don't give a f**k. If he gone gone I'll see ya later. They might give you fifty medals. They might give us fifty medals ... whatever happens it came from me."

"[B]ut this guy has to get maimed. He ain't gotta get killed... I wanna blow him up" and that "this gotta be ended. This gotta be ended alright? And I don't want you there. No way around it."

Then, in February, Stango seemed to give permission for a hit.

Charles Stango: You know the mindset you had and still have?

Undercover agent: Yeah.

CS: Ok. That's the one they got and I got. Ok?

UC: Ok. Good. Ok.

CS: Alright, you understand?

UC: Yeah.

Several times from Dec. 12, 2014, to March 9, 2015, Stango and various conspirators were recorded on video and audio conducting drug transactions with an undercover law enforcement officer.

Anthony Stango, Galli, Capozzi and Degidio were involved with the cocaine ring, according to the complaints.

Heeney and Pali were recorded selling cocaine to undercover agents between Aug. 29, 2012, and March 14, 2013. The two received cash and counterfeit goods for the drugs.

Oliveri was charged with possession of contraband cigarettes. He'd purchased multiple cases of untaxed cigarettes from undercover law enforcement officers between June 6, 2013, and Nov. 6, 2013.

New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said the arrests were a signal that  the mob continues to operate in New Jersey. 
“As today’s complaint shows, members and associates of a long-standing organized crime family continue to ply their illegal trade, selling dangerous drugs and illegal cigarettes, promoting prostitution and threatening to settle internal scores with violence and death,” he said.

The crime family operates closely with New York's Gambino crime family, according to the FBI. Also, both the Gambino and DeCavalcante families are run by Sicilians, Stango confirmed in conversation with the agent.

"Milk, Milk [referring to the family's street boss who was not charged in this case] his whole f**kin', Milk's family was the root of the tree. Oh he started this whole thing. [lt's been around a while now]. See his uncle the underboss of consiglieres since the beginning of time. They come right from Sicily to here.

"This is Sii- ... okay this proves he's the oldest crew in the country. They start, they originated the five families. Okay? And now we run under the f**kin' Gambinos."

DEVELOPING...

Emails from Wiseguys Who Read Cosa Nostra News

These are personal letters I've received from various mob sources. I can vouch for all of them save the very first one. I doubt it's a hoax but you can never know for certain... These are just too good not to share. They've been slightly edited to remove some details.....


On this blog in general:

 Hi Ed, just sending this e-mail to thank you for looking at the other side of why many of us flip and join team America, my name is Al, (not my real name) and I was a associate of the Bonanno family, my mentor was James" Big Louie" Tartaglione, and I was very dear friends with Mike Scars..., I was always in Queens (Astoria crew) I spent most of my adult life in the world of LCN, I just wanted to thank you for showing the other side of why guys flip, I had to flip or die, I would of done a 100 years in prison but I stopped buying into the life when I witnessed so many double dealings with stand up guys getting the shaft, me being one, this life became more about the dollar than honor, I've seen so many very smart guys flip from crews in all of the 5 families, that's why I made the move, again thank you, Keep the Blog going...

The Alite-Junior thing:

It's too much of a personal food fight that doesn't hold much interest for me, but has to be great for your site. I've always said that sons of wiseguys should be banned from ever getting made, so I don't put much stock in what Jr. says. Alite is a grunt who is too bitter to make his great wealth of information interesting. They need to shoot it out at 20 paces and get it over with or get married. Only married couples usually hate each other that much.

On John Junior Gotti:

Junior Gotti: "They don't see my mother, 23 years without my father. They don't see my wife without me. They don't see houses and buildings that were taken from me. Businesses that were taken from me. They don't see the price that we had to pay, the tolls that were taken on my children. They don't see any of it."

What a sniveling piece of shit. How did he get the houses and buildings and businesses in the first place. What does he think, life is finders keepers; possession 9/10 of the law? And the tolls taken on his family? Real men know that anything that happens is because of choices they made, and DO NOT whine like a little girl...

On public perception of famous turncoats:

(They) will tell lies to make themselves look better and the other guy look worse. It's hard for the average guy to wade through the bullshit. Michael Franzese, for example, says, "I never ratted out a mob guy," but doesn't mention that he testified against Norby Walters, who was with his stepfather, Sonny, and was like an uncle to him. Henry Hill never mentioned that most thought he was a punk and potential rat, and used the statement, "You respect a dog for his master," when referring toward him because Paulie loved him. Pete the Greek (Joe Gallo's "bodyguard" who took a bullet in the ass) never mentioned he ran out on a score because he was scared and left me and another guy in the place. They're all full of shit.

When you walk into a prison and the door clangs shut behind you, if you can't say, "This isn't as bad as where I grew up," you shouldn't be there.....

On Mob Wives, the VH1 show:

That whole Mob Wives crew is a waste. I have never watched the show because I resent the images they represent, which are the worst of the women in our lives, but don't show the best, our mothers, good wives, sisters, and daughters, which were the majority. On the other hand, I realize that we have brought a lot of pain to those women, and if some, like those on Mob Wives, could capitalize on that and get financial rewards because of it, good luck to them. From what I see, they have gone from bad to worse in the real world instead of using the success to improve. Fuck'em.

On banning boss's kids:

From when I was a teen I firmly believed that bosses' kids should be banned from the mob. When I was stealing they were strutting; when I was shooting they were playing gangster; when the bullets were coming my way they were nowhere to be found. Those guys wind with positions they haven't earned, and like a hollow chocolate bunny shatter when they get hit. The truth that mob guys never understood is that conditions make toughguys, NOT ethnicity or genetics. When you walk into a prison and the door clangs shut behind you, if you can't say, "This isn't as bad as where I grew up," you shouldn't be there.....

Wiseguys or Stupidguys?

Have mob guys traditionally been known as "wiseguys" or "stupidguys?" When the shit hits the fan, the wise clicks in and they instantly review all the guys who have rolled over and are out on the street without worry of being killed. They ask themselves why they should be morons and spend the rest of their lives in prison or get to the table first and beat guys who will only roll on them. They look at a co-defendant and wonder if he's already working on a deal to betray them. So they decide to dip a toe in the water and see what deal is swimming around there first. A proffer is the way they go. If they don't get what they want they go back to prison; nothing gained, nothing lost. What they don't think about is that the promise the Feds give them that the proffer will never be made public or be used is a lie. Everything comes out. The bigger name they are, the more pointed the questions, the lesser the deal offered them (supply and demand), and the thought of what life will be like afterward depending on their age and how many years they think they have left. Better to die a hero or a scumbag? If they were offered the key they'd have jumped, but no key was instantly in view.

Onetime "Shooter and Gentleman" Gene Gotti Embittered by Prison

courtesy of Wikimedia Commons 

In this life, there’s a lotta hypocrisy that you just learn to live with—like there’s a rule against dealing drugs, and Gene Gotti [another Gotti brother], is doin’ a long bit for that; you’re not supposed to go with other goodfellas’ wives—happens all the time; you’re not allowed to kill a big boss without the other families’ permission—John Gotti and Sammy whacked Nasabeak [Beak-nose Paul Castellano] and almost started a war.

--Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo 

Ah, Christ on the fucking cross. Right now I'd give my fucking life just to have fucking Buffalo win one.

--John Gotti

A Brooklyn-based Bonanno crime family associate who served time with Gene Gotti took issue with the headline to this story today and contacted us accordingly.

He strongly disagrees with our use of the word "Gentleman."

"You're losing your touch. Don't get it twisted: I would never bow down to Gene Gotti. Gene was a blabbermouth that talked about every wiseguy he ever knew. Don't give him the benefit of the doubt: He truly was a punk."

He is one of several people we've spoken with about Gene Gotti.



An ex-Gambino associate, an Italian who was formerly a member of the "Cowboy crew," which kidnapped drug dealers for ransom and murdered some of them, expressed a similar point of view.

He was born into the life. "When I was 16 years old I carried a .357 Magnum and worked as a bouncer at a mob nightclub.

"I'm 53 now. I just completed a sentence in another racketeering extortion case."

Our source has served some serious prison time, at places like McKean and Allenwood penitentiaries, in Pennsylvania.

"I was around all these guys," he said. "I walked the track with Gene Gotti every day."



------

Gene became a made member of the Gambino crime family in 1976, working with brother John who ran the South Ozone Park crew. By the early 1980s, Gene operated a huge illegal drug operation along with Gambino mobsters John Carneglia and Angelo Ruggiero. John Gotti invested cash into the operation but was forever distancing himself from it.

Gene was involved in several mob hits -- and was given one of the highest compliments one gangster can give another. While on the street, Gene was a "shooter and a gentleman."

Gene killed for the crime family. On a recorded conversation he can be heard describing himself as a "workhorse" while he considered his brother John a big shot.
Gene Gotii
(Interestingly, while John Gotti was convicted for ordering the deaths of others -- there's no documented reference to John Gotti ever personally killing anyone that we can think of.)

Gene also was a successful gambler; unlike his brother who was widely known for being a degenerate gambler who never won.  John Gotti gambled away hundreds of thousands of dollars in one weekend -- betting on anything from football to the horses to basketball to two cockroaches running up the wall (depending on who you ask).
When Gene beat two trials related to his drug business (before he was finally convicted following the third trial) the New York Times ran a story in 1988 that described Gene as having boss potential. (Though saying he could have pulled off the coup his brother did is a stretch; John Gotti was the consummate mob politico.)

"Gene Gotti, a younger brother of John Gotti, is carving a niche for himself as an imposing figure in the Gambino organized-crime family, law-enforcement officials say."

The Times also highlighted the problems John's excessive gambling habit was causing.

"In June 1981, Gene Gotti and a close friend, Angelo Ruggiero, complained to each other that John Gotti had lost $60,000 one night in an illegal dice game in the Little Italy area of Manhattan. The Gambino family, according to Queens detectives, was running the game, and Gene Gotti was upset that his brother's gambling loses would cost him a percentage of the profits."

"Quack-Quack Ruggiero"The book Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti highlights one conversation that could have taken place that very night, or halfway through it.

Angelo Ruggiero was recorded speaking to Gene Gotti:

"We gotta see how we can close this fucking joint in New York."

"What happened now?"

[Referring to John using worst profanity imaginable]: "He lost thirty dollars last night." [Meaning $30,000.]

"We were on top sixty balloons! I left there one-thirty, we were on top for sixty balloons! We didn't need him in the fucking game!" Gene said.

"I'm by the club now."

"We were on top sixty balloons--what, is he kidding somebody or what, this guy? Who the fuck needed him there? So what is he looking to do now? Just take advantage of people or what?"

Still, Gene Gotti stayed in his brother's shadow. In public, he showed deference outside the Bergen Hunt and Fish Club on 98-08 101st Avenue in Ozone Park. When it rained, Gene held the umbrella over his brother's head.

While John Gotti was known for strutting around in custom-tailored $1,000 suits, Gene tended toward simple blue or gray suits, with basic white shirt and tie -- and he dressed that way only when appearing in court.



Unfortunately the third trial was the charm: On May 24, 1989, he was convicted of running a multi-million dollar heroin smuggling ring. Two jurors were dismissed from the third trial, including an alternate. A few months later, he was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison. After his sentencing, the Gambino family demoted Gene from capo to soldier (due to his confinement in prison). His projected release date is September 14, 2018, when he will be 72 years old.

Ironically, Gene Gotti was given an opportunity to accept a plea deal that would've permitted a prison sentence of around 10 to 15 years; meaning he would've been free to celebrate the Millennium. However, John Gotti "adhering to the mob dictum that forbids admitting guilt urged them to go to trial. Gotti, then the newly coronated king of the Gambino family, then tried to fix the jury, according to prosecutors. But things did not go according to plan...."

Gene could be viewed as the key to power for John Gotti. The 1985 assassination of Paul "Big Paul" Castellano was ostensibly over Gotti's decision not to provide Castellano with transcripts related to Gene's drug trial, which involved others.

ANTHONY PESCATORE/NEW YORK DAILY NEWSRuggiero, Gotti and Carmine Fatico outside the Bergin back in the day.The South Ozone Park Crew included additional members and even an "unofficial" member: drug kingpin Sal Ruggiero, Angelo's brother. Sal's multi-million-dollar drug operation purred smoothly until it didn't. He lammed it in the late 1970s, facing an indictment. On May 6, 1982, a plane he was on crashed. Two days later, his remains where found.

Ruggiero's death had a profound impact on the Gambino crew -- it also indirectly impacted the entire American Mafia.
Kenji Gallo, who writes Breakshot Blog, provides interesting perspective in a story he posted on Sept. 14, 2014 in which he noted:

The new Gambino family is run by the Sicilian faction, but maybe Gene will fit in with them. Gene has maintained a steady stream of visitors who speak to him on many family topics including his brothers and nephews. Many of these men were heroin dealers like Gene, and some continue to push their poison to the masses. Gene Gotti, Angelo Ruggiero, John Carneglia and Sal Ruggiero ran a multimillion dollar heroin empire and it was running smooth until Sal was indicted and had to go on the run.

------

Even after he went away, GangLand News reported in December 2002 that Gene Gotti was still playing a major role in the crime family’s rackets, basing this on court documents related to a trial involving then-boss Peter Gotti.

The report further referenced "an unusual joint loansharking operation" that Gene shared with Colombo capo Joseph Scopo, a "hijacking buddy of Gene and John Gotti back in the early 1970s." 
Scopo was killed in 1993, the last victim of the bloody Colombo crime family war.

"Scopo, though in another mob family, had remained close to the Gottis, maintaining a “loanshark book” with Gene until his murder," the article noted.

At the time the article was published the book was said to be "booming."
Joseph's brother Ralph, a Colombo soldier, took over his brother’s share of the loanshark operation, "valued at $500,000... but which sources say today has more than $1 million “on the street” earning from 100 to 200 per cent interest a year." That was in 2002.

------
A Luchese crime family member was Gene Gotti's cellmate at McKean. The Luchese member also was close with Louis DiBono, a member of the Gambino crime family murdered in October 1990. Shot three times in the head, his body was found in a car in an underground parking garage at the World Trade Center. John Gotti Senior was convicted of ordering the hit.

"Gene would badmouth everyone," our source said.

Our source walked with Gene every morning -- and once he was off for the rest of his day, Gene warned his cellmate (not knowing his cellmate was friends with our source): "Patty, you better be careful, he was kidnapping guys."

"Patty put him in his place – he told Gene, 'It was one of our kind who gave him the orders.'"

The source noted that John Alite saved his life in Allenwood.
Michael Spinelli was made via a "bathroom
induction ceremony."
"He [Alite] was there before me. There were a lot of guys from Philly mob there, and guys from different families. But John was the man on the compound.

Our source soon encountered a problem with members of the Philadelphia mob family in Allenwood at the time. He didn't want to get involved in some kind of ongoing dispute between the Philly mob guys and some Muslims. The feud was supposedly caused by a loudmouth Philly mobster who was jumped. Called Joe Mecca, he wasn't on record with the Philly Cosa Nostra family but he hung around Johnny "Gongs" Casasanto.
"I didn’t get involved because I didn’t like the situation," the source explained. "The guys from Phillly weren’t too happy with me."

We noted in Three Unsolved Hits Haunt Mob Boss "Uncle Joe" that Johnny Gongs was killed in 2003, after he was angling to join the Gambino family. He'd met John Junior Gotti in prison and was meeting with Alite following his 2002 release when he was slain, most likely for sleeping with a mobster's wife. Casasanto was viewed as a mob outsider who had sided with John Stanfa in the mid-1990s.
Ronald Turchi was the ranking Philly member in Allenwood at the time. The younger guys stayed close to him. (Turchi also was slain -- in a brutal 1999 gangland hit. His naked body was found in the trunk of his wife's car in South Philadelphia. He had been shot twice in the back of the head. His hands and feet were tied with white rope.) Turchi was the ranking guy in Allenwood.
The Philly gangsters wanted our source, who wouldn't join in the prison battles, murdered and moved to put a contract on him, which Alite nixed.

The Philly guys also were abusing some older Luchese gangsters, men in their seventies, the source said.

The Luchese members had started to lord it over the Philadelphia gangsters, who finally got tired of it. Johnny "Gongs" was among the first to stand up to the older Luchese gangsters.

"They're old, they're doing 30-year sentences and they were getting abused by these kids from Philadelphia."

Back at McKean, Alite also stuck up for Joe Gambino "because Gene was abusing him," our Gambino source said. "You don’t run in that life and not know every move on the compound. I saw a lot of it. Gene was abusing his own fucking guys – the Gambino brothers. He wants everyone to kiss his ass because of his last name.

"Backstabbing treacherous fucking people... The loyalty don’t run deep with them."

The list of guys at McKean badmouthed by Gene Gotti included George Conti and George Zappola, formerly Luchese capos, and Michael "Baldy Mike" Spinelli "who got straightened out in prison and was there also. Gene was talking bad about him.too because he was working in Unicor  where he was making about 35 cents an hour," said our Bonanno source.
Johnny Gongs.
It reached the point where Gene was eventually confronted at McKean and abused by many of the guys he'd badmouthed -- most of whom were members of the Luchese family (which had worked with the Genovese clan to take out John Gotti Senior in the late 1980s, recall.)

The Luchese members at McKean first reached out to a heavyweight capo in their crime family to tell him what was happening with Gene.

He told them:  "Don't worry about the Gottis. They are no one to worry about."

Trailer for High-Profile UK Documentary on the Mafia

Sir Trevor McDonald (considered England's Walter Cronkite) interviews a bevy of former wiseguys in an ITV documentary titled "The Mafia with Trevor McDonald."

See an excellent trailer here (we are unable to embed, so you must click the link): WATCH TRAILER

As we noted, the veteran broadcaster wants to show viewers the "reality" and not the "mythology" of the mob in the show. Trevor will look at the day-to-day lives of men within the secret crime organisation as well as undercover law enforcement figures, the Radio Times reported.

Guercio Audio Played for Drita on Mob Wives....

   
Certainly sounds like Natalie Guercio... certainly sounds like a very personal conversation.

The boyfriend certainly sounds like a gangster....

But does this really make Natalie Guercio a rat?




One finale recap we recommend: The Natalies meet, a gun is fired and now the show is over | SILive.com:

We were promised ambulances. 

VH1's "Mob Wives" season five ended Wednesday night, not with a bang but a whimper, if I may be so bold as to use a T.S. Eliot reference in the same sentence as the "Mob Wives." 

We were promised a showdown between the two Natalies of South Philly -- Natalie Guercio and Natalie DiDonato. The two women have divided the Staten Island wives over the course of the season. Now, the jury has spoken and all but one of the wives have decided that Natalie Guercio is a rat and has got to go. 

Last episode: Drita hears a recording that changes her mind about Natalie G, to say the least. Something about her tattling on her ex boyfriend. She feels used and betrayed that she ever believed Nat. G. So naturally, last night's episode begins with Drita warming up in the boxing ring. She's practicing her punches, presumably for the impending showdown. 

Natalie DiDonatoThe punches are mere child's play compared to Natalie D.'s warm-up at the shooting range.
Here's the setup: After her spiritual cleanse, Renee (naturally) decides to have a party and invite all the people who made her want a spiritual cleanse to begin with: The natalies and all the wives and their boyfriends. Oh but don't worry guys, there won't be any fighting, Renee says, clairvoyantly.

"I'm bolting the tables to the floor," she promises. 

Before the party, both Natalies express their desires to fight one another. So they put on their tightest dresses, highest heels and finest jewelry. I would rather they wore some comfortable exercise clothes to avoid the cringe-inducing wardrobe malfunctions that typically happens during these battles -- but hey, I don't write the show. A team of very talented screenwriters does. 

So here we are at Staten Island's Edgewater Hall, celebrating violence and cattiness and a perpetuation of mob mentality -- I mean Renee's newly refreshed faith in God. 

Drita emerges from the boxing ring and enters the party. She tells the Mob Wives of her newly acquired intel: the recorded conversation between Natalie G and her ex-boyfriend presented by Natalie D. 

Let's just keep in mind, Natalie G previously admitted to calling her ex's parole officer to get him back into jail because he was abusing her. 

Natalie GuercioBack to the party though. We didn't actually hear the recording from last week that somehow proved Natalie G was a "rat." We just saw Drita drop everything and head to the boxing gym, so presumably, it was incriminating. 

But then she describes what Natalie said in the recording. It's weak sauce if you ask me.
The conversation is between Natalie and her ex-boyfriend starts with him asking her, "How could you do this to me?" He also calls her a rat. Why, he asks? 

Her response: "I don't know, because I am." 

What was she supposed to say? That he was violating his parole and putting her life in danger so she called the police? Sure, sounds like a safe, non-triggering thing to say to someone who's on parole. 

Now, I know you don't want to hear this, my loving and compassionate readers, but Big Ang is truly the voice of reason in this episode -- maybe not in real life, but in this scenario. She's the only one who doesn't give a rat's butt about the new "evidence." She doesn't buy it.

And Ang makes a good point -- "Where did Nat D. even get the tape? Cause that sounds like a rat move to me anyway." 

Excellently put, Big Ang. Natalie D. has spent this entire season trying to prove that the other Natalie is a rat. In doing so, she's become pretty ratty herself. Natalie D. is the ultimate self-fulfilling prophesy.

Anyway back to the showdown. Everyone's real tense and then Drita notices a bunch of mystery faces. She calls it to the attention of St. Renee, who asks the bouncer to kick them out. And they quietly leave. Natalie G admits to everyone that she did, in fact, invite some of her friends because "I'm not walking into a lion's den alone." Smart move. But also, it's not your party, Natalie G. So Natalie G goes with them. 

And that's all. It's over. Season five ends not with ambulances or blood or wardrobe malfunctions, but with Natalie G. just up and leaving. For the first time this whole episode, the Mob Wives are at peace with one another. 

And they lived happily ever after. Until next season. Cue JAWS theme sung by Bill Murray."