Ed Scarpo's Blog, page 45

"The Clown" Didn't Surprise the FBI

No this is not Javier Bardem; it is "Joey the Clown" Lombardo.
We have always been fascinated by Chicago Outfit member Giuseppe Lombardi -- aka Joseph Patrick “Joey the Clown” Lombardo Sr. (born January 1, 1929), who is serving life in prison.

Gus Russo indicated Lombardo may have been the boss or part of a panel of bosses. However, the nice, neat and likely extensively inaccurate Wikipedia entry notes that from 1999 to 2007, "Joey the Clown" Lombardo was consiglieri. Actually, we have seen that title attached to Lombardo in many other stories.

Let's say he was a "high-ranking" member and be done with it.



The Clown came to mind thanks to a recent Gangland Wire story that offers audio of Lombardo in action, doing what mobsters do: forcing other guys to do their bidding by threatening to murder them.





As to that infamous nickname, it reportedly arose from the outlandish smile he'd plaster on his face whenever police took his mugshot, as well as humorous acts he committed (presumably when he was not killing men in front of their wives and children). According to one source (a friend of the high-ranking mobster's) Lombardo supposedly told Outfit guys to cool down the violence and killings in the early 1990s. Only six murders were attributed to the Outfit from 1990 to 1994 -- "and even that number might be exaggerated."
When Lombardo got out of prison in 1992, right amid the "peaceful" years, he hit upon a way to tell the public that he wasn't the gangster everyone thought he was (and that he indeed was).

He pulled this off by running a classified ad in the Chicago Trib:

 "I am Joe Lombardo, I have been released on parole from federal prison. I never took a secret oath, with guns and daggers, pricked my finger, drew blood or burned paper to join a criminal organization. If anyone hears my name used in connection with any criminal activity, please notify the FBI, local police, and my parole officer, Ron Kumke."

Actually the stuff about his not going through the typical induction ritual is likely accurate. In Chicago guys were made by being taken out to dinner by high-ranking members of the Outfit. (However these high-ranking mobsters not once -- not once pick up a bill.)

Al Capone was a Neapolitan and supposedly he didn't go for all that Sicilian crap like they did and still do in New York.

This is Joey the Clown...
Lombardo certainly made the FBI look like a bunch of clowns when he successfully evaded them in 2005. They came to arrest him but he was gone -- poof! -- on the lam.

Two years earlier agents visited Lombardo in his West Side-based machine shop armed with DNA swabbers and informed the elderly mobster that his life was in danger. Joey may have told a few jokes and did his juggling act for them. Then the Feds walked away without a care in the world. Or a thought in their head. Apparently it had not occurred to the local G-men to maybe slap a surveillance team onto the high-ranking Outfit member. When they are as old and as wealthy as Lombardo, they may choose to flee versus serving the mandatory life sentence. There's even a word for this: lamming it.
So when the Feds went around arresting the guys indicted as part of Operation Family Secrets, they found that Lombardo had split.
In fact, Frank "the German" Schweihs, the most notorious Outfit hitman, also said, "F-- it," and took off.

But it wasn't, like, a big deal....
This is Saddam Hussein....
The local G-men, realizing both Lombardo and Schweihs had split, then came up with the single best excuse we've ever heard for falling asleep at the wheel.

When interviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times (the article's headline: 'The Clown' wasn't fooling around) three months later, they didn't hesitate to make it known that while Lombardo and Schweihs, then ages 75 and 76, respectively, were both in the wind, ya know what?
It was no surprise to the FBI. Know why? Because all along the Feds knew these two old guys were going to skip town. The Clown didn't fool anybody. Neither did Schweihs.

The fact that the Feds did not physically stop the two geezer gangsters from fleeing does not mean that it surprised them. Let's get that straight from the beginning:

In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, FBI Supervisory Special Agent John Mallul and Michael Maseth, the lead FBI agent in the sweeping federal mob indictment known as Operation Family Secrets, said Lombardo and alleged hit man Frank "the German" Schweihs had fled well before an indictment was unsealed April 25. 

Lombardo, 76, of the Near West Side, and Schweihs, 75, of Dania, Fla., prepared for life on the lam, the agents said. The FBI believes the two are hiding separately. Before they fled, each set up a plan of where to hide, and their cat-and-mouse game has likely succeeded this long because other people are helping them out financially, the agents said. 

Mallul, who heads Chicago's Organized Crime Unit, bristled at reports that Lombardo and Schweihs got away because no one was watching, saying the reputed mobsters knew for more than a year an indictment was coming and made plans accordingly.... 

Not 'a surprise to the FBI' 

"We anticipated a problem with Joey Lombardo and Frank Schweihs [and did nothing about it]. ... This did not come as a surprise to the FBI," Mallul said. It was not a surprise. ...

So what do the G-men do?

They take a page from Lombardo's book.

They took out a classified ad of their own:

HAVE YOU SEEN THESE MEN?
The FBI's "wanted" notices include this information:


JOSEPH LOMBARDO
Aliases: Joey the Clown, Lumpy, Joe Cuneo, Joe Padula
Date of birth used: Jan. 1, 1929
Height: 5 feet 7 inches
Weight: 185 pounds
Occupation: Unknown
Scars and marks: Lombardo usually wears glasses
Should be considered armed and dangerous and an escape risk
FRANCIS JOHN SCHWEIHS
Aliases: Frank Schweihs, the German
Dates of birth used: Feb. 7, 1930, Feb. 7, 1932
Height: 6 feet
Weight: 180 pounds
Occupation: Retired
Remarks: Wears fishing-type floppy hats
Scars and marks: Slight limp
Should be considered armed and dangerous
In the end, it seems Joey may have had the last laugh.

After he was told he was imprisoned for life, according to an NBC Chicago report:

"Lombardo wasn't surprised by the verdict...."

2011 Report: Did Mobster Order Own Son's Death?

Some of you may have already heard or read this story. I assume many of you have not...

From the MailOnline, which published this in April 2011: It is a Mafia murder mystery that has remained unsolved for years.

But investigators finally believe they might have got to the bottom of what happened to family mobster Nicholas Cirillo, who vanished seven years ago and has not been seen since - his death may have been ordered by his own father.

Genovese gangster Nicholas disappeared on Mothers' Day 2004, two weeks after an altercation in the Bronx with fellow mob man Vincent Jr. Basciano and Dominick Cicale, part of the infamous Bonanno family.




The 41-year-old's body has never been found and his father, high-ranking Genovese mob boss Dominick Cirillo, known as 'Quiet Dom', is said to have refused to cooperate with police in trying to trace him.
Now it has been suggested that Quiet Dom may ruthlessly have ordered his son's murder, after a tape implicating him was played at the Brooklyn Federal Court trial of Joseph Massino, the Mafia's highest-ranking supergrass [a Britishism for "rat."].

The court heard a conversation in January 2005 between Massino and Vincent Basciano, or 'Vinny Gorgeous', the father of the gangster Nicholas was said to have rowed with in the Bronx.

Massino secretly recorded the discussion for the police.

When asked who 'whacked' the mobster's son, Nicholas, Basciano can be heard saying: 'That came from Dom, that came from Dom.'

When pressed in court by prosecutor Taryn Merkl to explain the comments, Massino said: 'I understand that he's telling me Quiet Dom killed his son.'

The footage also shows Massino gesturing with his hand like a gun while asking Basciano: 'Do we have anything to do with that [Nicholas Cirillo's murder]?'

Basciano replies: 'Absolutely not. C'mon.'

Basciano is then heard telling Massino that he met with Dominick Cirillo about the altercation with Nicholas. He said the Genovese family 'came back and apologised to me.'

It is thought Nicholas's death would have been ordered because of the fracas in the Bronx two weeks before his disappearance -  assaulting a made member of the Mafia carries the penalty of death.

While it seems incomprehensible that a father would order the murder of his son because of this rule, the two were estranged and, Massino explained to the court, Mafia codes are taken very seriously.

Massino described how in his days as a mobster, he gave the order to kill Bonanno capo Gerlando Sciascia even though they got on well - because Sciascia had murdered the son of a made man in Canada. [Anyone know anything about this?]

Nicholas's disappearance should have led to ramifications from his family - as the son of a Mafia boss, killing him would carry a death penalty.

Bonanno turncoat James Tartaglione said if you kill a Mafioso's son, 'you're liable to start a war between families.' But after Nicholas Cirillo vanished, there was no war.

Quiet Dom, who earned his nickname because he likes to keep a low-key profile, has refused to cooperate with police investigating the disappearance of his son.

"Five Families" Credited "Imaginative" Spero Incorrectly

By Ida Libby Dengrove
Boots, left, and his lawyer Klein.
We'd hate to hazard a guess as to how many Mafiosi are named in Selwyn Raab's excellent Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. But we do know one who is not mentioned.

Raab not only failed to name this Bonanno family gangster; the former New York Times investigative reporter also inadvertently credited onetime Bonanno consiglieri Anthony Spero for something that resulted from the innovation of this unnamed mobster.


The revelation of Raab's fumble is based on Sal Vitale's testimony. Antonio Tomasulo, also known as "Boots" or "Bootsie," is the mobster who built up and operated a highly lucrative Joker Poker slot machine gambling operation (one establishment outfitted by Boots reportedly served up $15,000 per week).

Yet, in Five Families, Raab gives full props to Spero, writing that the profitable racket was a product of "the family's imaginative consiglieri" who had "his gorillas" place the "gambling games in groceries, restaurants and candy and bagel shops, and shared the proceeds fifty-fifty with the proprietors." Turns out he was likely -- very likely -- referring to what Tomasulo had done, before dropping dead of natural causes: severe asthma.

Boots's son Anthony, who eventually assumed daily control and was a partner in the business, presumed he'd inherit the operation. But the Bonanno family claimed the racket for itself. Anthony objected -- and also made his own execution mandatory when he threatened the life of his mob superior.
Sal Vitale ordered the young man's 1990 murder so he could personally reap the profits of the illegal Joker Poker racket for which the Bonanno family became so well known. Other members operated video gambling machines, but Tomasulo had excelled in the business to the extent that the lucrative operation was worth killing over. Raab has got to be referring to Tomasulo. Spero was among those involved in the murder in that he allegedly advised Vitale, who already seemed pretty convinced. Control of this particular operation is known to have changed hands; likely Spero reaped the benefits of the racket at some point. But that is all.


 ------------------ 


"Boots" Tomasulo (whose nicknamed had to do with the fact that he wore boots) was a low-key member of the family who lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. One newspaper article described him as "wearing thick glasses and looking like the neighborhood shoe repairman." He was one of the mobsters indicted by the Feds as a direct result of Operation Donnie Brasco.


Sal, after he was "Good Lookin' Sal"
In the 1970s, he was inducted into the family and was a soldier in Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano's crew. He spent idle time at Napolitano's Motion Lounge social club in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which was located inside Sonny Black's apartment building. He lived on the third floor and had pigeon coops installed on the rooftop. The Motion Lounge was a key location in the Donnie Brasco investigation, for which Tomasulo was convicted on RICO conspiracy charges related to gambling and drugs. The conviction was overturned on appeal. 
According to a New York Times report, Tomasulo's lawyer, Irwin Klein, "did his best" to get his client "off the hook"... "even if that meant making Mr. Tomasulo look a little silly."

Had Marlon Brando known that these ''little fish'' were what the Mafia was all about, he never would have played ''The Godfather,'' Mr. Klein told the jurors in his summation.

According to Pistone's book, Boots owned an auto body shop called Capri Car Service that was located "across the street from the Motion Lounge." A "cluttered place," it was where Sonny Black made telephone calls and Boots carried out activities related to a numbers operation that he and Sonny Black operated.

Napolitano supposedly ran the video poker operation first, then Massino before it was given to Boots, who then built it up into a big moneymaking operation. Tomasulo's innovation seems to have been expanding distribution of the machines: he supposedly placed Joker Poker machines in pizza parlors, bars and other shops across New York City. He gave proprietors half the revenue in return for placement. The machines ate quarters and dealt five-card hands of poker. Obviously, the players' chance of winning was slim.

Joker Poker among other illegal slot-machines became a huge moneymaker for Tomasulo. He even reached the point where he had difficulty collecting the money -- all of which was in quarters. That's a lot of coins--and quite heavy too.

As Tomasulo's slot machine empire grew, Boots's son, Anthony, an associate of the Bonanno family, took over the day-to-day business. Anthony visited the various establishments in which machines were placed to collect payment, half of which was given to the proprietor; the rest to his father.

After Sonny Black's murder, Tomasulo was placed under then-capo Massino, who took over Napolitano's gambling operations.
Tomasulo dropped dead from a sudden severe asthma attack. He'd been sitting on the front porch of his Bensonhurst, Brooklyn apartment building at the time. (He couldn't possibly have died in 2003, as a dubious, unsubstantiated Wikipedia entry claims; his son was murdered in 1990 -- Boots had to have died prior to the son's murder. I read Wikipedia for its footnotes; the Tomasulo article is the first I have seen without a single footnote.)
Around the time of Boots's death, Sal Vitale had been a powerful figure in the family and was eventually named underboss by Massino, who was in prison until 1992. When he was released, Massino still had two years of parole to get through and he was very much looking forward to benefitting from his ascendancy to the top of the family. For a while, he needed Vitale to be his face and buffer on the street.

Vitale finally had the power. After two decades of playing second fiddle to Massino, committing cowboy crimes such as arson, hijackings and robberies, Sal found himself carrying out the day-to-day affairs of the family. Vitale suddenly wore dark-colored tailored suits with wide lapels and sharp lines. On his finger he sported a fat gold ring as well as a gold bracelet on his wrist. He was "money hungry" and his rise in one of the storied five families went to his head. This is when Sal was indeed "Good Lookin' Sal." 
He was not particularly well liked by other members of the crime family.(This and his John Gotti-like ways were among the chief reasons why Vitale later fell into disfavor with Massino.)
After Boots was buried -- with "full Mafia honors" -- Vitale decided to assert his authority. By rights, Boots's poker slot-machine operation was to go into the Bonanno family's pocket (meaning Vitale's pocket). The crime family was entitled to "inherit" all of a wiseguy's rackets once he died, Vitale maintained.
Soldier Michael Cardello was ordered to inform Boots's son. Anthony was so angered upon hearing the news, he did something that made his position untenable. "If I have to, I'll kill you and I'll kill Sal!" he shouted at Cardello.

Anthony later informed another Bonanno capo of a revised plan. He was going to Vincent "The Chin" Gigante to arbitrate.
Vitale met with Spero to discuss the situation. Kill this kid, Spero advised. "You better do it. Get it behind you. God forbid he kills you. We all lose." 
In May 1990 Anthony Tomasulo's body
Yet somehow, Raab gives the credit for this operation to Spero and fails to acknowledge the existence of either Tomasulo, father and son warrant not a mention.
Anthony "Tony Green" Urso was among the Bonanno members who paid the piper for the Tomasulo murder. 
As Anthony DeStefano noted on his blog: 

In a little noticed letter he wrote in 2005 just before sentencing, former Bonanno acting boss Anthony "Tony Green" Urso, related how he thought turncoat underboss Sal Vitale, Joseph Massino's brother-in-law, got him involved in racketeering action so that if he refused Vitale could justify killing him.

As Urso explained it, Vitale was jealous of him because had a close relationship with Massino.

"Vitale was my biggest enemy within the family, so much so that on several occasions (sic) he (Vitale) attempted to have me killed by bringing false accusations against me. These accusations were dismissed as ridiculous by Massino because he knew of the jealousy on Vitale's part and he knew that I was a loyal friend to him."

Urso was Massino's driver. Because he is dyslexic and can't read or write, Urso had someone else write the letter to Judge Nicholas Garaufis in the hopes of getting a sentence less than 240 months, something Urso felt was a death sentence at his age.

"While I am not the shooter in this case, nor any other case for that matter, I still battle with my demons over this young man's death," said Urso in the letter, an apparent reference to the Vitale-ordered slaying of the son of Anthony "Boots" Tomasulo. (Something else we found: some reports give the father's nickname to the son, which is incorrect).

Vitale told the FBI in his debriefings that Urso had the victim follow him by car to a location where others did the killing. Massino didn't order the slaying, which was done because the younger Tomasulo was causing problems for the Bonanno gambling interests, according to Vitale....

The TimesLedger noted in June 2005: "Louis Restivo, 70, of Ozone Park, who Newsday reported suffers from diabetes, poor circulation and the early stages of dementia, pleaded guilty in February to the 1990 murder of crime family associate Anthony Tomasulo, whose body was found wrapped in a body bag in the back of a truck. Prosecutors said Restivo conspired to kill Tomasulo for withholding proceeds of the family's "Joker-Poker" gambling machines...."

DeStefano's Next Book Details Mafia in New York, Other Ethnicities

DeStefano's book, due next June.Due for a June 1, 2015 release, Anthony DeStefano's history of organized crime in New York City from the mid-19th Century until today is titled Gangland New York: The Places and Faces of Mob History.

An author we make it a point to read, DeStefano has noted on his blog that, in writing the book, he sorted through hundreds of archival and current photographs "but it was worth the effort."

"Gangland New York" deals not only with Italian organized crime but also "the gangs and criminal combinations of the Irish, Chinese, Jews, Russians, Albanians and many others, including the Greeks."



 Amazon offers this description:

Get a taste of New York’s underworld by seeing where mobsters lived, worked, ate, played, and died. From the Bowery Boys and the Five Points Gang through the rise of the Jewish “Kosher Nostra” and the ascendance of the Italian Mafia, mobsters have played a major role in the city’s history, lurking just around the corner or inside that nondescript building. Bill “the Butcher” Poole, Paul Kelly, Monk Eastman, “Lucky” Luciano, Carlo Gambino, Meyer Lansky, Mickey Spillane, John Gotti—each held sway over New York neighborhoods that nurtured them and gave them power. As families and factions fought for control, the city became a backdrop for crime scenes, the rackets spreading after World War II to docks, airports, food markets, and garment districts. The streets of Brooklyn, swamps of Staten Island, and vacant lots near LaGuardia Airport hosted assassinations and hasty burials for the unlucky. The bloodlettings, arrests, and trials became front-page fodder for tabloids that thrived on covering Mulberry Street. Chinese, Russian, and Greek mobsters rose to prominence and wrought bloody havoc as well. Each of the book’s five sections—one for each borough—traces criminal activities and area exploits from the nineteenth century to now. Everyone knows about Umberto’s Clam House in Little Italy, but now you can find Scarpato’s restaurant in Coney Island where Joe Masseria was killed by henchmen of Salvatore Maranzano, who in turn died in a Park Avenue office building at the hands of “Lucky” Luciano a few months later. From the Bronx to Brighton Beach, from New Springville to Ozone Park, here is a comprehensive, on-the-ground guide to mob life in the Rotten Apple.

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It is available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Next year is shaping up to be a good year for those with an interest in the Mafia. DeStefano's book will be available. Also, next month, George Anastasia's book, Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia, ships.

Wonder What John Gotti Junior Has Been Doing?

Junior is... the conceiver...Mafia Series Based on True Events in Development From 'Mortal Instruments' Producer (Exclusive) - TheWrap: A new scripted series about a mafia war that spanned U.S. and Canadian borders is in development from Don Carmody Television, Suzanne DeLaurentiis Productions and Triplicity Entertainment.

Conceived by former New York mobster John A. Gotti (pictured above), the scripted period series is inspired by true events that took place in a power struggle between the New York mafia and two rival mafia families in Canada.


The series will span events that took place during World War II when two Italian soldiers became friends and then bring their families to Montreal where they ultimately end up in a battle for dominance.

The series is slated to go into production in 2015 in Canada and Italy. Don Carmody, David Cormican, Suzanne DeLaurentiis, Tony D'Aiuto and Vincent Prezioso are set to produce.

A division of Don Carmody Productions (“Pompeii,” “Resident Evil: Retribution,” “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones”), DCTV's current productions include “Between” for Netflix and “Marilyn” for Lifetime.


Sounds horrible to us; all the Mafia stories to tell and they pick this one....

Gambino "Underboss" Arrested -- But Who Is He?

Palmeri is underboss?U.S. and Italian law enforcement officers arrested Francesco Palmeri, 61, early today in his Brooklyn apartment. Also arrested were seven other gangsters, two in the U.S. and five in Italy.

According to the Italian arrest warrant, the Sicilian-born Palmeri is the underboss of New York City’s Gambino family.

However, Frank Cali supposedly holds that title.

So who is Francesco Palmeri?

Jerry Capeci has never once written about a gangster with that name. We couldn't find any relevant information about Palmeri, aside from the flood of reports regarding his arrest today.




An argument could be made that the Italian arrest warrant is simply incorrect and that Palmeri is, say, a member or associate of the crime family. Gangsters Inc. in fact refers to Palmeri as a "a high-ranking member of the Gambino family." A source of ours who we trust implicitly has told us the Italian police incorrectly identified him and that he could be an underboss in one of Sicily's many Mafia families. However, the arrests today are said to be related to a Ndrangheta-Gambino ring that law enforcement previously smashed apart.

We called the FBI and while we finally got a person on the phone, once we made our inquiry we were told to email our question. The FBI has not offered a response to Italian assertions. 
Bottom line: If the Italian arrest warrant is correct it means Frank Cali is the boss of the Gambino family. 
Is Cali the boss?An argument also could be made that Palmeri is consiglieri, as the family's previous consiglieri, Bartolomeo "Baboots" Vernace, was this year sentenced to life in prison for the 1981 "Shamrock murders," a double homicide. (Vernace, however, may get another crack at trial -- thanks to recent revelations about an ex-Bonanno associate who was a key witness at Baboots's trial.)
Joseph "Jo Jo" Corozzo was consiglieri prior to Vernace; he remains in prison until 2016.

As was widely reported,
Who issued the correction?

Some in law enforcement have said that the story about Domenico Cefalu, who Jerry Capeci very recently named as Gambino boss, stepping aside for Cali was indeed true and that the Mafia was seeking to confuse the Feds about Cali's true role by asserting that the newspaper reports were false.

“Why would he turn down a job where all the other captains want him?” a skeptical veteran mob hunter asked. “If they thought he would not take it, they would not have picked him.”

Sources say Cefalu wanted Cali to take his place, as did other captains who preferred to have a vigorous young earner control the family.

In Gotti's day, Cali operated all over New York City, in Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey. According to the FBI, he officially became the Gambino "ambassador to the Sicilian Mafia" when Gotti and Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano were still in power. Cali had married into the Inzerillo family, a Sicilian Mafia family. Cali also is the nephew of John and Joseph Gambino, who made up the "Cherry Hill Crew," named for their home base in New Jersey. They were the Gambino family's "Zips" who were implicated in the drug smuggling case known as the Pizza Connection.

No doubt about it: Cali has the chops to be boss.

Palmeri, the "underboss" arrested today, and his group used tactics similar to those employed by the early-20th century extortion crime ring known as the Black Hand, to blackmail an Italian businessman for $1.23 million

Palmeri traveled twice to Italy last year to confront the businessman over a 1980s loan, according to Italian officials.. The businessman had received letters inquiring about payment -- all of which were signed by "friends in Brooklyn."

According to the MailOnline, the loan "likely came from international drug traffickers connected to deceased New York mobster Cesare Bonventre, who was born in the same Sicilian town as Palmeri, Castellammare del Golfo," according to Italian officials.

The MailOnline further noted that the extortion plot "emerged during a separate investigation into a trans-Atlantic drug smuggling and money laundering ring that involved members of the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta mob family and the Gambinos."

The Gambino and Bonanno families have long-established ties to the Sicilian Mafia, but the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta syndicate in recent years has come to dominate its Sicilian competitors, as well as the Neapolitan Camorra.

The Gambinos are believed by law enforcement to have the strongest ties to Sicily.

Palmeri faces a maximum sentence of 20 years if convicted of criminal conspiracy to commit international extortion as part of the Mafia. He carried out the plot using the others, who were involved throughout.

What Variations of the "Teardrop" Jailhouse Tat Mean

Photo of "English Shaun" from an
over-the-top newspaper story.
From Jon's Jail Journal -- Prison Tattoos: What Teardrop Means In Jail: See video below in which Shaun Attwood explains what the teardrop tattoo means, as well as different variations of it....

English Shaun, who was featured on a NatGeo program, spent six years in one of America’s toughest jails—run by Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County. (I incorrectly reported in a previous story that he had served a "few" years; it was more than a few.)

This blog features a few stories about "English Shaun," a good friend. One of my personal favorites is about an old-school mobster with whom Shaun had done prison time. Shaun is an author and he recently released a new version of his book "Hard Time: Life with Sheriff Joe Arpaio in America's Toughest Jail ."

The 2nd Edition of the book is free via whichever link is appropriate:
UKKindle, USAKindle, iTunes, Kobo, Smashwords, (download to any computer, phone or device).




I previously ran a detailed except from Shaun's book regarding how he brushed up against the crew of Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, who was out in the Midwest starting life over. Shaun had first acquired protection from The Mexican Mafia...

Also check out this over-the-top article about Shaun that painted him as this evil psychotic Charles Manson-type guru. Though crap, it helped Shaun while in prison by making him seem more powerful than he was. However, it also made the prison guards think he had a secret stash of millions buried somewhere.

Evil Empire | Phoenix New Times:

"Investigators say he was bigger than Sammy the Bull. His minions say he ruled the drug trade in the Valley's rave scene. Now, authorities have "English Shaun," the man they claim reigned over a nighttime empire of ecstasy, meth, violence and excess.

Ethan, Will and others who were there still talk about the scene that night. Two girls — a stripper and her friend — walked arm in arm through the living room of a villa at an East Valley resort hotel. Braless in matching bright halter tops, the girls wove their way through the crowd, sharing balance among their four feet. They wore naive, synthetic grins, eyes lolling about the room. Near the kitchen, their gazes landed on a six-foot-tall bald man. He was, Ethan recalls, crushing and chopping pills, spilling the granules into a pile of powder on the smooth glass of a picture frame that had been taken off the wall.

The tall guy, 30 years old but younger-looking than that, was the host of the party: English Shaun.

It was the fall of 1998, days after Halloween. Afternoon sun poured into the villa, which was rife with the smell of cigarette smoke and chemical sweat. Hunched over the picture frame, English Shaun and Ethan — who ran drugs for Shaun back then — combined powdered ecstasy, Xanax and ketamine into a large pile. "Zek lines," Ethan calls them. After enough mixing, the two aimed rolled-up hundred-dollar bills into the middle of the pile and snorted. Moments later they both slumped on the couch, eyes slightly open but quite literally unconscious.".... READ REST

Lowdown on TG, Father of "Mob Wives" Gals Renee and Jen

“TG is a captain,” Gerlando said, alarmed. “You’re supposed to be representing your family and you’re walking around high? You’re going to other, outside families and making a fool of yourself? It reflects on the family. Every time I see this guy, he is stoned.”


TG Graziano had five acting capos around him.EXPANDED: One of the first things Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano did as acting boss of the Bonanno family was bust down the five acting capos that Anthony "TG" Graziano had around him, according to our colleague and former Bonanno capo Dominick Cicale.

"What is this? The Bonanno family or the Graziano family?" Basciano complained to Dom, referring to the Staten Island-based capo who reportedly has since been shelved by the family because of "Mob Wives," the reality show that was the brainchild of TG's daughter Jennifer; Renee, one of the show's stars, is another of his daughters.

Print version now available!We also learned from Dom that TG had Junior Pagan around him because Junior did all his heavy lifting on the street. TG was not personally a violent man.

TG Graziano is one of the mobsters mentioned in our book, Vol. One, which reminds us to mention that finally -- finally, we can reveal that our ebook, written with Dominick Cicale, is available in a  print version . At 62 pages long, it is priced at $6.99 ($6.29 if you belong to Amazon's Prime program and free for members of  Kindle Unlimited).

The print edition of Cosa Nostra News: The Cicale Files, Vol. 1: Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire has a slightly different cover. We couldn't use the ebook version because of the resolution -- and Dominick needed to take a new photograph.

Those wondering why the print version took so long to debut:

Reenactment:

Ed: Dom, you get a chance to take that picture yet? You know, the one we talked about?

Dom: Tonight! Definitely tonight!


TG, as we note in the book, was among the background guys involved in the murder of Gerlando "George from Canada" Sciascia, a respected capo of the Bonanno family's Bronx-based faction. George was tight with Vito Rizzuto, the former boss of the Montreal Cosa Nostra. In fact, the two were lifelong friends having both grown up in the same Sicilian town. George also was the mob's chief supplier of drugs; that was his background. He was a key player in a Corsican-based smuggling operation in which the Sicilian Cosa Nostra supplied the New York crime families with heroin through Montreal, Canada.

TG didn't play a direct role in the hit, which then Bonanno boss Joseph Massino tried to cover up, meaning he didn't want the Bonanno family to be implicated -- not only by law enforcement. He also didn't want Vito in Canada to know.

The hit was made to look like a street crime, unconnected to Cosa Nostra.

The Bonanno family hierarchy, including capos, soldiers and associates attended the funeral, sending the message that the Bonanno family had nothing to do with the killing. To the savvier who had a special interest in what happened to George, a category that included Vito Rizzuto, it meant that the Bonanno family was doing all it could to make other crime families believe they were not involved when they were.

If it had been a sanctioned hit, the Bonanno family wouldn't have attended.

Boss Massino didn't attend, in any case. He stopped going to all the usual haunts where he knew Feds hid in trees with video cameras and lipreaders.

Killing George was probably a big mistake for Massino. It was the one murder that enabled the Feds to seek the death penalty against Massino, which was only among the many reasons he flipped.

So the question arises -- if Massino wanted to distance himself so much from the hit, why did he do it in the first place?

It appears Massino committed this murder out of ego. George was not a threat to him or the family. In fact, Sciascia, five years prior to his death, was seeking to move to Canada, but Canadian border officials denied him.

We go into the details of the hit on George from Canada in the book. One of the apparent reasons that George from Canada was taken out was because he made certain allegations against TG Graziano that were actually true -- but Graziano was then in Massino's good graces, so it was a coin toss that George lost.

George had been pressing his luck for some time. He once threatened to go to war with Philip "Rusty" Rastelli's brother, who once claimed that George owed him a lot of money.

"You got nothing coming to you," George told the brother, adding he'd go to war "tomorrow" before he'd pay.

It's likely that the more immediate reason Massino decided to whack George was because he accused Graziano of dipping into his own supply.

As we wrote in the book:

Sciascia, always known for his outspokenness, had charged that the Staten Island-based mobster was liberally dipping into his own drug supply. This happened after one meeting involving Sciascia, Vitale and Graziano. Sciascia noticed that a glassy-eyed Graziano was unable to follow the discussion and was also unsteady on his feet. Sciascia was literally stunned. 

He talked about it with Vitale afterward, when the two were alone.

“TG is a captain,” Gerlando said, alarmed. “You’re supposed to be representing your family and you’re walking around high? You’re going to other, outside families and making a fool of yourself? It reflects on the family. Every time I see this guy, he is stoned.”

Vitale told Massino of Sciascia's concern, probably not realizing he was sealing George's fate (Sal was fond of George, as he said in testimony).
Still, George's concerns about TG did arouse Massino’s suspicions enough for him to actually make inquiries of Graziano, who swore on his “children’s eyes” that what George had said was untrue. Rather, Graziano told Massino, Sciascia had merely witnessed side effects of prescription medication that Graziano was taking for stomach problems. Massino decided to believe Graziano, a member of his inner circle.
Dominick Cicale never met TG Graziano but due to his closeness to Vinny Basciano and other members of the family, he knew quite a bit about TG.
Dom said that it was widely known that TG used cocaine (Dom refers to TG's actions in the 1990s and earlier; we are not saying this is the case today.)
"He always used to sniff coke. In fact, Vinny told [TG] to slow down," Dom added. "He would party -- he was heavy into hanging out and doing coke and drinking. One time [TG] was in a club and he had the white all over his nose and he was all wired up. It was an embarrassment."

Regarding Graziano's response to Massino over Sciascia's claims, Cicale added, "Massino was a jerkoff. He just lied to protect TG."

It is the hypocrisy that bothered Dom. Many of the old timers in the family never ceased to criticize a young man in Dom's crew back in his street days, accusing him of drinking and doing drugs. Many of these same old timers, Dom knows, had done lots of drugs themselves. He didn't consider the flack the guy was getting to be fair.
Dom noted that a key reason why TG  was close to Hector "Junior" Pagan (other than their family ties) was that Junior handled things on the street for him. He did TG's violence because TG himself "was not a violent man."
As we reported in a September story, Junior Pagan Slated for 2020 Prison Release: Brooklyn Federal Judge John Gleeson doled out to Hector "Junior" Pagan an 11-year prison term for a criminal career overflowing with drug dealing and the violence of armed robberies and kidnapping.
Pagan also was the shooter who killed Luchese associate James Donovan during a street heist for which two of Pagan's former cohorts have gone away for 36 years each, due in part to Pagan's own testimony.
Cicale not only met Junior, but knew Junior quite well.
"He was someone I would not have around me on the street. Look who he was with: Nicky DeCarlo," Cicale told us when we asked for his impression of Junior.
Nunzio "Nicky" DeCarlo, a long-time drug abuser, died three months following the Donovan murder at age 46. He was released from prison in 2003 -- he'd served decades for a 1986 murder committed while Nicky was a member of Greg Scarpa Jr.’s crew.
As noted in The Truth About the Murdering Mob Rat: "Weeks later detectives [investigating the Donovan murder] followed a trail from a bank surveillance camera to find a man spotted depositing the stolen checks—and who was subsequently arrested on an unrelated narcotics charge—placed calls from Rikers Island that were ultimately traced to a parolee, Nunzio "Nicky" DeCarlo. 
Federal prosecutors identified DeCarlo as a member of the Colombo crime family when he was arrested in 1987 on racketeering charges. He was later convicted and served 18 years in prison. Those calls plus other clues, including DNA from discarded cigarette butts that Detective McMahon had collected from the scene and phone taps—another almost unheard-of tactic for the Business Integrity Commission—led investigators over the following months to three other men: Hector "Junior" Pagan, Richard Riccardi and Luigi Grasso.
DeCarlo died in October 2010 at his Staten Island home from an overdose of drugs, including heroin, according to the New York City Medical Examiner's office.
Junior is on pills, Dom said. "That's how he does his bit [prison time]. He gets high and he sleeps. They [prison administrators] give him pills."

Also, Dom noted, when TG Graziano was once arrested [we have to check with Dom which arrest he refers to; it has to be prior to the Pagan-related arrests), it was learned that he had appointed five acting capos to be around him.
"He thought it was his crime family," Dominick told us. "Vinny knocked them all down."
Asked for their names, Dom didn't want to reveal that information.
Cicale also noted that the reason TG had five acting capos -- usually, a capo has one, maybe two -- had more to do with money than power.
"TG figured, let me put all these guys in an acting position so they send me more money.
"Junior said he's all about the money."

UPDATED: Mob Wives Season Five: Reality Check

Natalie is smokin'...From Enstars:

The new season of VH1 hit reality show Mob Wives should be called World War III because the woman on the show are at war, literally, and the drama doesn't look like it's dying down anytime soon.
Season 5 of the reality series made its debut on Wednesday and by the looks of the show, it's clear that the women may be not be in a jolly mood this holiday season.
During the season 5 premiere of 'Trust No One,' viewers quickly learn that cast mates Angela Raiola (Big Ang) and Drita D'avanzo are now opening up to Natalie Guercio (Renee Graziano's sworn enemy) and of course that wasn't going to sit well with Graziano.
Luckily for Graziano, she didn't cast all of her trust in one basket, and her BFF Karen Gravano is back and the two are not a force to be reckoned with; Guercio is going to learn this lesson the hard way.
In addition to the dynamic duo being the best of friends, their fans have their backs, and after the premiere episode, viewers immediately took to Twitter to support the wives [meaning Gravano and Graziano].

Yes, I agree. World War III is a much, much better name for Mob Wives. Any episode now Big Ang is gonna be driving a tank right up Renee's liposucted ass; Drita and Natalie will cover her flanks with Uzis, but Karen Gravano is gonna zip across the sky in her own Blackhawk -- because, hey, they are "literally" at war!!

And most certainly the drama will live, because without it there is no show.




The "looks of the show" do indeed warrant concern. Whatever the hell that means.

Drita and Big Ang actually started opening up to Natalie for most of season four until..... Natalie tweeted!! Then Big Ang and Drita rejoined Team Psycho in the final minutes of season four. Apparently that's not the preferred storyline so they're back on Team Delicious.

Karen has so much free time she flies right into New York to protect Renee, because, hey, Natalie tweeted!!!! It's not like Karen left her husband and kids behind, abandoned them.... wait a sec. That's actually what she did, right?

Renee is the boss though!!! Why would she need backup? Certainly the tough as nails Renee doesn't need any backup! (Actually she does; she is all talk (all bullshit, I mean) but it doesn't matter.) Karen is simply giddy -- and ripe with fury at Natalie, a person who couldn't care less about her, Karen, or Renee -- and Karen's giddiness is real because she's just grooving that the bitch is back!! Her lawsuit blew up on her because the videogame company used the truth to defend itself. " She really is fat ," they noted in court papers. So... the bitch is back!!!


BONUS CLIP ADDED:



Get More: Mob Wives 5

NOTE: Who the fuck goes to work and gets 50 calls in a row from their kids,  begging them to come home? Drita can't though!! She's TOO BUSY!!! She has to race all over Staten Island to be in her stores so the cameras can film her walking around and talking on the phone!! 


She's too damn busy for that shit!!!!!
So she hangs up and makes a beeline out the front door, probably for a smoke. Why didn't she just run home and visit the kids? And, presumably, Mr. Lee?

 And what was that shit about overbooking - "we overbooked -- we have two clients coming in at the same time today..." OK, we don't know what the hell goes on in that shop but wouldn't that be a good thing, to have more business? They can only cater to one client per frigging day?

I know, I know -- you're not supposed to take a reality show seriously. Silly me!!

We will give the show props for its expert hand at exploiting social media. They are using tweets instead of press releases -- and blogs and websites run photos of the things and write entire stories around these phoney messages. It's all a great idea, actually, as long as you remind yourself -- it's all bullshit. We watch Mob Wives for the entertainment we used to get by watching midnight wrestling on channel 9 on Saturday night.


ALSO SEE: What Lee "Mr. Lee" D'Avanzo's Doing These Days


NOTE: We believe Renee did poorly in show testing and that is probably why she's been promoting herself nonstop since the end of season four (it also certainly helps if your sister is, like, the show creator). The current season will be devoted to repairing Renee's image as a raving drug addicted psychotic.... In fact they appear to be loading the cast with anyone they can get their hands on as long as they kiss Renee's ass... (Some dynamics on the show are probably much more true-to-life than we'd guess. And we're just guessing -- but sometimes they can't hide their true colors.)

NOTE: Victoria Gotti? Really???  



One final observation about that blog post quoted above, at the top of the story...  it sounds more than a bit biased. It'd be fun to see who owns that site. Anyone out there got any inside dope??? We are always looking for chatty insiders -- or tipsters -- and we offer total anonymity.

Referring back to that opening quote: Read the last part of the last sentence of the second to last paragraph again.

Guercio is going to learn this lesson the hard way.
Natalie, watch your back...Not "it looks like" or "it appears that".... Rather, the simple declarative statement that Guercio is going to learn this lesson the hard way. 

Does anyone get it?

[BTW: Luckily for Graziano, she didn't cast all of her trust in one basket, and her BFF Karen Gravano is back and the two are not a force to be reckoned with; Guercio is going to learn this lesson the hard way. -- "now" maybe? We agree with "not," actually.]

But also notice that all fans' tweets included in the story are pro Renee/Karen....

Anyone notice Karen's storyline? RumorFix: "The VH1 star also reveals she’s starting a medical marijuana business and her struggles will play out on the reality TV show."

Mob Hitman Who Likely Killed "Tony Bender" Dies

"Kayo was an animal on a leash for [Bonanno capo Joe]  Zicarelli and others.  All they had to do was unsnap the leash and he'd kill for the fun of it."  -- Federal agent
"Kayo" Konigsberg struggles with detectives.
An 89-year-old mob hitman who was probably responsible for the murder of Anthony "Tony Bender" Strollo, a high ranking Genovese crime family capo, died in late November, about two years after finishing a 50-year prison sentence.

Harold "Kayo" Konigsberg died five days after his 89th birthday and was buried in Florida, where he'd been living in a nursing home and terrorizing his fellow residents.

Konigsberg had been convicted for committing a 1961 hit ordered by Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano. The target was a popular Teamsters official named Anthony "Three Fingers" Castellito who posed a threat to Tony Pro’s control of the union. On June 6, 1961 Konigsberg and others committed the murder. Salvatore Briguglio, a member of the hit team, was killed while under indictment for the murder. In 1978, Provenzano was sentenced to life for his part in the Castellito murder..
Kayo is alleged to have killed as many as 20 others, including Strollo, as a member of Bonanno capo Joe Zicarelli’s Bayonne, New Jersey-based crew.
According to a story published in the August 9, 1968 edition of Life magazine, both police and federal agents considered Kayo "the most dangerous uncaged killer on the East Coast."

"Kayo was an animal on a leash for Zicarelli and others. All they had to do was unsnap the leash and he'd kill for the fun of it," a federal official told Life Magazine.
Konigsberg shot and/or strangled his victims with his bare hands. He created a specialized business for himself, taking over deadbeat loans from loan sharks. He "joyfully went about squeezing cash from the borrowers, sometimes by beating them with ball bats and chairs." 
Kayo didn't like being arrested.
Eventually, he went on trial for extortion and was convicted. He initially tried to plead insanity, but a psychiatrist testified that Kayo was quite sane.
In 1964, while in prison, Kayo hinted that he'd be willing to talk to the Feds about Cosa Nostra business. One year later, he did, telling Justice Department officials he could bring them to a Mafia "cemetery" in New Jersey. He told them that he himself was responsible for a dozen bodies buried there. The long-missing Anthony "Tony Bender" Strollo was among them.
Strollo, a legendary member of the Mafia from its formative years, was named a capo for Lucky Luciano and underboss Vito Genovese. He took over the Greenwich Village Crew, which operated illegal gambling in New York's Greenwich Village and in other parts of Lower Manhattan. On June 18, 1936, Luciano was arrested and put away. Vito Genovese became acting boss and named Strollo as his underboss. This lasted only a year because Genovese, facing a murder indictment, fled to Italy.
Vito had wanted Strollo to assume control of the family for him, but Frank Costello took over and designated Willie Moretti as underboss.
Decades later, in 1959, Strollo -- who'd supported Genovese when he returned from Italy with a deadly focus on retaking his position from Costello -- joined in a conspiracy against Genovese. After a secret meeting with boss Carlo Gambino, Strollo allegedly participated in a plot to set up Genovese on a drug trafficking conviction. In 1959, Genovese was sent to prison for 15 years on narcotics trafficking charges.

The imprisoned Genovese allegedly decided to kill Strollo. One theory is that Genovese learned that Strollo had betrayed him -- although it also has been alleged that Genovese may have believed that Strollo had cheated him out of his share of the proceeds from narcotics trafficking.

On April 8, 1962, Strollo disappeared after leaving his Fort Lee, New Jersey home. His remains were never recovered and no one was ever charged in his disappearance.
The Strollo murder may have been solved thanks to Kayo -- however, the Feds did not take him up on his offer at the time due to his "outrageous demands for concessions and leniency." Federal officials decided Kayo had made up the story to try to talk his way to a pardon.
However, certain mobsters who learned of Kayo's offer took steps that indicate Kayo's info was on the money.
As Life reported:

"...the gangsters knew precisely what Kayo could reveal--and what to do about it. Accordingly, on April 5, 1964, a man named Joe Celso, 50, took note of an ad placed by a farmer who wanted to sell a frontloader - a sort of mechanical scoop. Celso drove to the farmer's yard in a black Cadillac. With Celso was a swarthy, well-dressed man who remained in the car. Celso asked the price of the frontloader. Expecting that he would have to dicker with the buyer, the farmer said, "$1,000." Without a word, Celso returned to the Cadillac, whispered to the swarthy man and returned to the farmer to drop ten $100 bills into his hands. Celso asked that the frontloader be delivered the next day to his chicken farm north of Lakewood. "Come along and show me how to run it," said Celso. The farmer did so.

Almost three years elapsed before Kayo was brought from prison in New York, in February 1967, to be tried for extortion. He was convicted and faced additional sentences of up to 174 years.

Again he sought leniency by offering to talk about the gang cemetery. It was, he said, on Celso's chicken farm - at the site of an illicit whisky still once operated by Zicarelli. The bodies, said Kayo, were in the wooden mash pit of the still. One, he said, was that of Strollo.

Kayo led FBI agents to the mash pit. Close by he pointed out the graves of two more victims, Angelo Sonessa and Kenneth Later, whose bodies were indeed unearthed and identified by the agents. But in the pit itself the diggers found no bodies. Authorities are now convinced that the corpses of Strollo and the others had been disinterred and buried in other places at about the time Celso bought the frontloader. But they did turn up one piece of evidence at the pit: a pair of orthopedic shoes. These were traced to the Jerry Miller I.D. Shoe Company of Brockton, Mass. Officials of the company said the shoes had been ordered by Dr. Leon Linsen, of Bayonne. And Dr. Linsen said he had obtained them for Bernard O'Brien.

Kayo, around time of his release.
Kayo was released in June from Mohawk Prison in Rome, N.Y., where he'd been held for nearly a half-century after being sentenced for the Castellito killing. The former Teamsters official's body was allegedly buried in New Jersey but never found.

[To read a transcript of Kayo's parole hearing, click here.]

He had been locked up since 1963, and was denied parole seven times since 1998. He  had been housed in the prison hospital for nearly two years, which likely allowed for the decision for his release.

The octogenarian showed no regrets at a parole hearing.

“This is over 50 years old. When does it end? I mean you can’t keep holding it against somebody for 50 years, 60 years, and say the crime was this or that,” he said.