Out on bail for murder charge, reputed Lyndhurst mobster pens book
Last week, sitting in the Lyndhurst office of his close friend/publicist/legal adviser Michael O'Gorman, Paul "Doc" Gaccione has a wide smile on his face when discussing his e-book that was recently published by Brighton Publishing and made available at online stores like Barnes and Noble and Amazon. He is just as candid about how the federal government has labeled him.
"I've never killed anyone. I never gave the order to kill anyone. I'm not in the mafia," he says as his fists rattle the table in front of him. "I have friends who are politicians, medical doctors, law enforcement, movie stars…people from all walks of life. Do I have some people that I know that have been labeled members of organized crime, some that are currently incarcerated? Yes."
Last year, Gaccione was sitting in a Riker's Island jail cell; a second degree murder indictment lurking over his head for his alleged involvement in a mob-related hit that took place in the Bronx 19 years ago. It was last April when Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson made the announcement that Gaccione allegedly was the driver of a van that was used in a hit on 32-year-old Angelo Sangiuolo. Sangiuolo was shot for allegedly robbing the Genovese crime family gambling operations, according to prosecutors. Sangiuolo's cousin, Genovese capo Angelo Prisco, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 for ordering the hit and other federal charges. John Leto, the alleged triggerman, later pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the feds, according to published reports. Gaccione said Leto is the one that placed Gaccione at the scene that day and the only one to make such an accusation. He said he knows Prisco and Leto, but vehemently denies any involvement in Sangiuolo's murder.
Fast forward a year and out on $1 million bail, with the possibility of the 64-year-old Lyndhurst resident still spending 25 to life behind bars, Gaccione, through his "destiny," as he calls it, is a published author. He says he's ready to tell the world what life in and out of the headlines is like and how the forces of life after death and God's will have reached out to him along the way to guide him through his trials and tribulations.
Gaccione was just about a year into penning "Beyond the Beyond – My Journey to Destiny" when he was greeted at the door on April 20, 2010. It was the FBI, arresting him on the charge that could put him in jail for the rest of his life.
"As one agent cuffed me to the chair, another agent told me I was being arrested for murder," writes Gaccione in the book. "He mentioned a name – I had no idea who it was."
The story, although a memoir of his life, both living in Lyndhurst and behind bars in federal prison on previous drug charges, was written for a reason, which readers are not essentially greeted to until the last chapter. It was a Sunday evening in 2008 when Gaccione says he went to his bedroom, observed a tunnel with a bright shining light and several other lights. He walked toward the tunnel and heard his deceased mother say, "All our spirits live on, although we are accountable for our actions on earth. We can influence our destinies each and every day."
That reason, one of great spirituality and understanding of life after death is prefaced by diving deep into the life of a man that has been dubbed a "reputed mobster" and "Genovese enforcer" in the headlines, but started life as an awkward, skinny kid with thick glasses who was forced to stand up to his bullies with his fists.
"This is how my fighting began. The older kids would call my glasses Coca-Cola bottles, and I would get so mad that I would beat them up. Before you knew it, I was building a reputation around my town of being tough," writes Gaccione.
He soon beefed up and stood up for the other kids bullied in town. He excelled at sports; boxing being a passion, and he excelled through his teens in amateur bouts. In Lyndhurst High School, he played football and basketball and ran track. A fight on the courts ended basketball and an injury ended football. After junior college, he came home and got a job at a women's health spa. He soon asked for a $5,000 loan and using credit and workers from his father's fledgling construction business, he opened his own fitness center and turned it into a profitable operation.
Things soon began to spiral downward for Gaccione. It started just after junior college. He and a friend were entering the parking lot of the Lyndhurst Diner when a car backed up, almost hitting them. His friend honked the horn, words were exchanged, and three men came at Gaccione.
"That's when the guy closest to me began to throw the first punch. I blocked it and then threw a punch at him. He went down, hit his head on the ground, and died," writes Gaccione.
A trial declared the death self-defense on Gaccione's part. The fitness center was doing well. He and his wife would have four kids. In the midst however, he found gambling, drugs, failed business ideas and other women. He left his wife. He lost thousands on sports games and in Atlantic City casinos. He brought cocaine from the wrong people. He met them while he was operating a deli at the Harmon Cove towers in Secaucus. He just wanted small amounts to feed his addiction. His dealers sold large amounts and the DEA was onto them. Surveillance caught Gaccione on tape ordering coke. After trial, he would spend four years in federal prison.
"The problem was that when the jury heard 50 different people calling, saying 'Give me one or give me two or three,' there was no way to know if they were referring to kilos or ounces," writes Gaccione.
But the powers of "Beyond the Beyond" are what Gaccione wants readers to take away from the book. They appear frequently throughout; premonitions in a way. It happened as young as when he was in grammar school when he had a dream his music teacher had died. An announcement over the loudspeaker the next morning announced her death. He remembers getting the chills and realizing he had been to the "Beyond the Beyond" the night before for the first time. It happened after his mother's passing when he invited his two brothers on a trip to Atlantic City. Losing miserably, he heard his mother say "play my birthday." He played six on roulette and even when he told the croupier to not hit six, the number kept coming up. "Beyond the Beyond" came to Gaccione at two of his major court appearances. First was the trial on drug charges and then at a bail hearing for his murder charge. Something told him at the last minute to write to the judge from the heart. Eight years was cut to four in the drug case and a bail was granted in his murder case, a rarity for a murder charge.
Even how the book was published was destiny, said Gaccione. He sent a paper manuscript when Brighton only takes them electronically. The regular mailman at the company was out that day and would have discarded it. It made the way to acquisitions.
"Writers like this—and books like this—are very rare, not only because of who he is, but because of the scope of what he has written," said Kathie McGuire, director of Brighton Publishing.
Gaccione, expecting a trial on his murder charge in the spring of 2012, said the outcome will all be a part of his destiny. He feels his destiny will let him bring his writings to the masses, in an effort to help people with his message of "Beyond the Beyond."
"What He [God] has done in my life with the special occurrences He has given me, I have been chosen to be given them to spread them to the world," says Gaccione.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/132219723_Out_on_bail_for_murder__reputed_mobster_pens_book.html
Lyndhurst resident Paul Gaccione has authored a book that looks back on his life in and out of the headlines as well as dives deep into the spiritual connection he says he has with the forces of life after death. A reputed mobster, Gaccione is out on $1 million bail for a charge of second degree murder in connection to a gangland hit 19 years ago.
Last year, Gaccione was sitting in a Riker's Island jail cell; a second degree murder indictment lurking over his head for his alleged involvement in a mob-related hit that took place in the Bronx 19 years ago. It was last April when Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson made the announcement that Gaccione allegedly was the driver of a van that was used in a hit on 32-year-old Angelo Sangiuolo. Sangiuolo was shot for allegedly robbing the Genovese crime family gambling operations, according to prosecutors. Sangiuolo's cousin, Genovese capo Angelo Prisco, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 for ordering the hit and other federal charges. John Leto, the alleged triggerman, later pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the feds, according to published reports. Gaccione said Leto is the one that placed Gaccione at the scene that day and the only one to make such an accusation. He said he knows Prisco and Leto, but vehemently denies any involvement in Sangiuolo's murder.
Fast forward a year and out on $1 million bail, with the possibility of the 64-year-old Lyndhurst resident still spending 25 to life behind bars, Gaccione, through his "destiny," as he calls it, is a published author. He says he's ready to tell the world what life in and out of the headlines is like and how the forces of life after death and God's will have reached out to him along the way to guide him through his trials and tribulations.
Gaccione was just about a year into penning "Beyond the Beyond – My Journey to Destiny" when he was greeted at the door on April 20, 2010. It was the FBI, arresting him on the charge that could put him in jail for the rest of his life.
"As one agent cuffed me to the chair, another agent told me I was being arrested for murder," writes Gaccione in the book. "He mentioned a name – I had no idea who it was."
The story, although a memoir of his life, both living in Lyndhurst and behind bars in federal prison on previous drug charges, was written for a reason, which readers are not essentially greeted to until the last chapter. It was a Sunday evening in 2008 when Gaccione says he went to his bedroom, observed a tunnel with a bright shining light and several other lights. He walked toward the tunnel and heard his deceased mother say, "All our spirits live on, although we are accountable for our actions on earth. We can influence our destinies each and every day."
That reason, one of great spirituality and understanding of life after death is prefaced by diving deep into the life of a man that has been dubbed a "reputed mobster" and "Genovese enforcer" in the headlines, but started life as an awkward, skinny kid with thick glasses who was forced to stand up to his bullies with his fists.
"This is how my fighting began. The older kids would call my glasses Coca-Cola bottles, and I would get so mad that I would beat them up. Before you knew it, I was building a reputation around my town of being tough," writes Gaccione.
He soon beefed up and stood up for the other kids bullied in town. He excelled at sports; boxing being a passion, and he excelled through his teens in amateur bouts. In Lyndhurst High School, he played football and basketball and ran track. A fight on the courts ended basketball and an injury ended football. After junior college, he came home and got a job at a women's health spa. He soon asked for a $5,000 loan and using credit and workers from his father's fledgling construction business, he opened his own fitness center and turned it into a profitable operation.
Things soon began to spiral downward for Gaccione. It started just after junior college. He and a friend were entering the parking lot of the Lyndhurst Diner when a car backed up, almost hitting them. His friend honked the horn, words were exchanged, and three men came at Gaccione.
"That's when the guy closest to me began to throw the first punch. I blocked it and then threw a punch at him. He went down, hit his head on the ground, and died," writes Gaccione.
A trial declared the death self-defense on Gaccione's part. The fitness center was doing well. He and his wife would have four kids. In the midst however, he found gambling, drugs, failed business ideas and other women. He left his wife. He lost thousands on sports games and in Atlantic City casinos. He brought cocaine from the wrong people. He met them while he was operating a deli at the Harmon Cove towers in Secaucus. He just wanted small amounts to feed his addiction. His dealers sold large amounts and the DEA was onto them. Surveillance caught Gaccione on tape ordering coke. After trial, he would spend four years in federal prison.
"The problem was that when the jury heard 50 different people calling, saying 'Give me one or give me two or three,' there was no way to know if they were referring to kilos or ounces," writes Gaccione.
But the powers of "Beyond the Beyond" are what Gaccione wants readers to take away from the book. They appear frequently throughout; premonitions in a way. It happened as young as when he was in grammar school when he had a dream his music teacher had died. An announcement over the loudspeaker the next morning announced her death. He remembers getting the chills and realizing he had been to the "Beyond the Beyond" the night before for the first time. It happened after his mother's passing when he invited his two brothers on a trip to Atlantic City. Losing miserably, he heard his mother say "play my birthday." He played six on roulette and even when he told the croupier to not hit six, the number kept coming up. "Beyond the Beyond" came to Gaccione at two of his major court appearances. First was the trial on drug charges and then at a bail hearing for his murder charge. Something told him at the last minute to write to the judge from the heart. Eight years was cut to four in the drug case and a bail was granted in his murder case, a rarity for a murder charge.
Even how the book was published was destiny, said Gaccione. He sent a paper manuscript when Brighton only takes them electronically. The regular mailman at the company was out that day and would have discarded it. It made the way to acquisitions.
"Writers like this—and books like this—are very rare, not only because of who he is, but because of the scope of what he has written," said Kathie McGuire, director of Brighton Publishing.
Gaccione, expecting a trial on his murder charge in the spring of 2012, said the outcome will all be a part of his destiny. He feels his destiny will let him bring his writings to the masses, in an effort to help people with his message of "Beyond the Beyond."
"What He [God] has done in my life with the special occurrences He has given me, I have been chosen to be given them to spread them to the world," says Gaccione.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/132219723_Out_on_bail_for_murder__reputed_mobster_pens_book.html
0 comments:
Post a Comment