Reputed mob hit man Joseph Meldisch walked up, swore & fired away, widow testifies
The widow of a Bronx man killed by an accused "ice-hearted" mob hit man gave chilling testimony Tuesday of the gunman's evil act.
"He walked up to us, pointed the gun and said, 'This is for you, motherf----r,'" Eileen Brown tearfully told jurors in the trial of reputed mob "button man" Joseph Meldisch, 54. "My husband threw me out of the way, and the man started firing shots at him."
Meldisch, wearing a ski mask and sweat suit, carried out the assassination in Frenchy's bar on E. Tremont Ave. in Throgs Neck in March 1999, pumping nine shots into city tunnel digger Joseph Brown, 35, prosecutors said.
After Meldisch fled, "I was trying to wake him up, but he was gone," Brown, a former paralegal with the Bronx district attorney's office, said of Joseph Brown's bullet-riddled body.
Law enforcement sources said Meldisch was longtime muscle for the Purple Gang, an independent crew originally affiliated with the Luchese mob, and later with the Genovese and Bonanno crime families.
Police believe the former heroin addict carried out roughly 70 contract killings before cops nailed him for Brown's murder in 2007, sources said. The killing was a case of mistaken identity, cops said. Meldisch was actually after Brown's brother Thomas, who got him busted for robbery.
"This guy was as ice-hearted as they come, so he didn't think twice about killing someone who looked similar," said a law enforcement source.
Also on trial is Kimberly Hanzlik, 45, who is charged with murder for allegedly helping Meldisch carry out the killing.
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