A Brooklyn federal judge agreed to resentence a Mafia boss Wednesday after the wiseguy whined that his hoodlum pals got lighter terms for the same crime.
Anthony Pipitone
Bonanno capo Anthony “Little Anthony” Pipitone was charged with violating his probation terms for attending a Christmas bash held by crime family members at a Staten Island restaurant.
Two other cons, busted at the same event, were sentenced to a year and day in prison by Judge Nicholas Garaufis. After scolding Pipitone, 43, for his stupidity, Garaufis shocked the gangster and his lawyer, James Kousouros, by giving him a two-year term.
Kousouros, noting the sentence discrepancy and claiming Pipitone has reformed, asked for a chance to be heard at a later date.
Garaufis agreed to an April 18 sentencing when he said, sarcastically, he wanted to hear more on the mobster’s supposed rehabilitation.
The FBI is digging at a site behind an old mill building, based on a
tip that the body of a South Boston nightclub owner who disappeared in
1993 may be buried there, according to two people familiar with the
investigation.
Federal prosecutors believe they know how and when
Steven A. DiSarro, 43, of Westwood was killed, but they have never
charged anyone with the slaying or located his remains.
Kristen Setera, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Boston office, declined
to comment on the ongoing investigation and would only confirm that the
FBI’s evidence response team was working at the site near Branch Avenue
and Woodward Road.
“I can tell you there is no threat to public safety,” she said.
A
backhoe and two police dogs were involved in the search Thursday.
WPRI-TV in Providence first reported the search behind the mill owned by
William Ricci, who recently reached an agreement to plead guilty to
federal drug charges.
The large backhoe was continuing to dig behind the building shortly
after 3 p.m., as uniformed Providence officers guarded the entrance to
the scene, which was sealed off with yellow police tape.
State Police and FBI agents were also at the scene.
One neighbor whose property abuts the crime scene declined to comment and chastised a television reporter for trespassing.
A
second neighbor, who would only give his first name, Kevin, said he
first moved into a group home on Woodward Street, several years ago, and
the area is generally quiet.
“Not really any problems as far as I know,” he said.
Told that investigators may be digging up human remains, Kevin said, “Oh man, it’s insane.”
The mill is located near a shopping plaza on Branch Avenue as well as a highway.
Notorious
gangster Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi told federal and state
authorities in 2003 that he walked in on the murder of DiSarro on May
10, 1993, at the Sharon, Mass., home of former New England Mafia boss
Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, according to a US Drug Enforcement
Administration report filed in federal court in Boston.
Flemmi
claimed that Salemme and two other men were watching as Salemme’s son,
Frank, strangled DiSarro, the manager of the now defunct Channel
nightclub. Flemmi claimed he quickly left the house, but later the
elder Salemme confided that he had helped his son dispose of DiSarro’s
body at a Rhode Island construction site, according to the report.
Salemme’s
son died of lymphoma in 1995. By the time Flemmi implicated the elder
Salemme in DiSarro’s slaying, the ex-Mafia don was already in the
Federal Witness Protection Program after cooperating against South
Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger and his corrupt FBI handler,
John J. Connolly Jr.
In 2008, Francis Salemme was sentenced to
five years in prison for lying and obstruction of justice for denying
any knowledge about DiSarro’s murder during plea negotiations in 1999
that resolved a prior racketeering indictment against him.
Salemme
denied the allegation that he watched his son strangle DiSarro, then
helped dispose of his body. Salemme, 82, remains in the Federal Witness
Protection Program.
Bonanno crime family capo Vincent Asaro was a member of the mob crew
that carried out the 1978 Lufthansa airport heist, says a mobster who
has penned a new book.
Frank Palmieri, a pseudonym for the mobster who claims he is a made
member of one of the city’s five crime families, says the jury screwed
up in November when they acquitted Asaro of the infamous crime.
“Vinny dodged a bullet,” Palmieri told the Daily News in an exclusive telephone interview. “I was very happy for him.”
Palmieri is the author of “Bugs, Bull, & Rats,” an anecdotal
recounting of some of the mob’s most notorious hits and hit men. The
Lufthansa caper — which netted about $6 million in cash and jewelry — is
not mentioned in the book. But Palmieri does implicate a Genovese
mobster in a Brooklyn social club murder in which he was twice
acquitted. He also predicts the Mafia will be gone in 15 years if
wiseguys don’t wise up.
“Call me the last of my kind,” writes Palmieri, who is in his 70s and a
legitimate earner these days after giving up bookmaking.
Palmieri said a “very close friend” of Asaro’s told him shortly after the Lufthansa robbery went down that Asaro was involved.
“I don’t know how much Vinny got from the robbery, but he hit the jackpot winning the case,” Palmieri said.
Asaro himself admitted after the verdict last year in Brooklyn Federal Court that he was shocked by the outcome.
“Vinny is a serious guy, a respectable guy,” Palmieri said. “He wasn’t bloodthirsty.”
Palmieri doesn’t have any use for rats like Henry Hill, whom he knew
slightly, saying the late hood’s popularity, as portrayed in the film
“Goodfellas,” was exaggerated.
Palmieri said he decided to write the book to set a few things straight about the mob and also make a few extra bucks.
He was also acquainted with Asaro’s cousin, Gaspare Valenti, another
Lufthansa alumnus who turned rat and testified against Vinny.
“He’s a piece of s---. It takes a real lowlife to do what he did, especially to his cousin. Karma will get him,” Palmieri said.
But Palmieri says he hopes that when Valenti is sentenced for the
Lufthansa robbery, he doesn’t do a day in jail, either. “I don’t want to
see nobody go to prison,” he said.
Asaro’s defense lawyer Elizabeth Macedonio dismissed Palmieri’s accusations.
“After a lengthy trial, Mr. Asaro was acquitted of all charges related
to the Lufthansa heist,” Macedonio said. “Anyone who claims the verdict
was erroneous has been misinformed.”
Looks like the landmarked Kreischer Mansion in Charleston is up for sale again.
The mansion appears in the Staten Island Board of Realtors's Staten Island Multiple Listing Service as a single-family home at 4500 Arthur Kill Rd., and is listed for $9.5 million, five-acre property included.
The listing further describes the mansion as having 4,500 square feet
of living space, with seven bedrooms, three bathrooms, a formal dining
room and basement, and notes the Victorian-style home was built in 1899.
The site was previously approved for 120-130 condos, the listing notes.
The mansion, which was last on the market four years ago for $11.5 million, has a long history.
Ohio-based developer Isaac Yomtovian was already familiar with Staten
Island when he bought the five-acre estate in 1999 for $1.4 million,
with the vision of creating Kreischerville -- a 55-plus community that
gave a nod to the 19th century brick magnate who built the mansion and
for whom the town of Charleston was originally named.
Yomtovian succeeded in restoring the mansion itself, but delays in
obtaining permits coupled with an unstable market, led Yomtovian to make
the difficult decision to abandon the larger project, and put the house
and property on the market in 2012. He had only one potential buyer,
whose offer he rejected.
Yomtovian has held on to the property since, until placing the sales listing about 11 days ago, with Neuhaus Realty, New Dorp.
The Kreischer Mansion, which local lore says is haunted, was built by
wealthy brick manufacturer Balthasar Kreischer for his son Charles. A
second identical home built for his son Edward was demolished, and the
existing property was landmarked in 1968.
It fell into disrepair — a Victorian restaurant failed there in 1997 —
until Yomtovian, who built more than 200 custom-built homes and
townhouses across Staten Island, purchased the property.
The mansion also made headlines as the scene of a grisly 2005 murder
of a Bonanno crime family associate. The Bonanno hit man found guilty of
murder and sentenced to a mandatory life term in prison was a caretaker
hired by Yomtovian.
Parts of the pilot of HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" series were filmed on the property in 2009.
With continued retail development projects in Charleston, including the second phase of the Bricktown Center, and the newest development in the works, Riverside Galleria, Island Realtors agree the Kreischer site has "endless possibilities" and income-generating potential that could attract a buyer.
Supreme Court Justice Mark Dwyer this week denied alleged Bonanno
crime boss Nicholas Santora's release on home confinement, according to a
spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office.
Santora, along with his three alleged Bonanno associates -- Anthony "Skinny" Santoro, 52, of Great Kills, Vito Badamo, 53, and Ernest Aiello, 36 --
are currently on trial in Manhattan Supreme Court for enterprise
corruption, including loansharking, gambling and drug dealing, after
they were busted in July 2013.
Santora's attorney, Michael Alber, had previously asked the court for
bail and home confinement after the 73-year-old's family noticed a
deterioration in his health.
Santora, who has been incarcerated for almost three years, was
transferred to Bellevue Hospital two weeks ago before Dwyer heard
medical testimony and made an official ruling.
Nicholas Santora in file photo from 2007.
Last week, two medical experts testified
about the mob defendant's condition and, specifically, his history of
falls and whether that has led to a traumatic brain injury.
Dr. Alan Engelman, the expert for the prosecution, examined Santora,
and found him to be alert, aware, engaging, focused and even jovial. He
also noted that there were no signs of concussive injuries from the
falls.
"He was good-humored- he made some jokes," Engelman said. "His mental
status was normal. His memory was normal. There is no evidence of
psychiatric impairment or cognitive impairment. He has not hurt himself
irreversibly due to the falls — at least not to his brain."
Engelman had recommended Santora remain at Bellevue Hospital.
During court proceedings last week, Alber claimed his client has a
myriad of symptoms, including trouble concentrating in court, dizziness,
blurred vision and poor nutrition.
Santora has had at least a dozen falls, including two recently, the
lawyer said. Just last week, he claimed, Santora fell while at Bellevue
and was found face down. A couple of months ago, the defendant flipped
out of his wheelchair during a Department of Corrections transfer.
Dr. Jason Chamikles, a family practitioner, testified for the defense
after examining Santora earlier this month. It was his opinion, he
said, that the defendant had a "possibility of traumatic brain injury
based on the falls."
"Each fall can worsen the condition," Chamikles said. "The risk of
each concussion can cause possibility of brain injury. The falls have
persisted despite location -- including Bellevue."
The state claims Santora, who is nicknamed "Captain Crunch," is the
crime family's alleged ringleader. The prosecution says he was in charge
of an Internet gambling site, sold prescription drugs, such as
oxycodone and Viagra, on the black market, and the other three
defendants were his underlings.
Santora inspired the character played by the late Bruno Kirby in the 1997 film "Donnie Brasco."
One man is dead after a shooting on Terrebonne that has all the markings of an organized crime hit.
The Surete du Quebec is investigating after the man was shot in his car
around 10:45 a.m. as he was driving on de la Piniere Blvd. The victim
then took refuge inside a store that sells pool equipment, but two
masked men then entered the store and shot him several more times, then
fled.
The man was taken to hospital where he was later declared dead.
Shortly after, witnesses were able to provide a description of the
vehicle used in the attack. The minivan was found less a one kilometre
away – in flames. The suspects had disappeared.
According to the Journal de Montreal and La Presse, the victim is
Yannick LaRose, a man believed to have links to the Hells Angels.
During the biker wars in the 1990s, this was the Modus Operandi of
organized criminals. They would send a hit team wearing ski masks, use a
minivan for the attack, then set it on fire immediately afterwards.
The SQ has taken over the investigation from the Terrebonne police, but
said the Terrebonne police were not in any way implicated in the
shooting.
Supreme Court Justice Mark Dwyer could decide on Monday if alleged
Bonnano crime boss Nicholas Santora will be released on home
confinement, the judge said during proceedings Thursday in Manhattan
Supreme Court.
Nicholas Santora seen here in 2007.
Santora, who has been incarcerated for almost three years on enterprise corruption charges, was transferred to Bellevue Hospital last week.
The defendant, along with his three alleged Bonanno associates -- Anthony "Skinny" Santoro, 52, of Great Kills, Vito Badamo, 53, and Ernest Aiello, 36 -- are on trial for enterprise corruption after they were busted in July 2013.
Santora's attorney, Michael Alber, had previously asked the court for
bail and home confinement after the 73-year-old's family noticed a
deterioration in his health.
During a hearing Thursday, two medical experts testified about the
mob defendant's condition and, specifically, his history of falls and
whether that has led to a traumatic brain injury.
Dr. Alan Engelman, the expert for the prosecution, examined Santora
last week, and found him to be alert, aware, engaging, focused and even
jovial. He also noted that there were no signs of concussive injuries
from the falls.
"He was good-humored- he made some jokes," Engelman said. "His mental
status was normal. His memory was normal. There is no evidence of
psychiatric impairment or cognitive impairment. He has not hurt himself
irreversibly due to the falls — at least not to his brain."
The defense argues otherwise. Alber claims his client has a myriad of
symptoms, including trouble concentrating in court, dizziness, blurred
vision and poor nutrition.
Santora has had at least a dozen falls, including two recently. This
week, the lawyer said, Santora fell while at Bellevue and was found
face down. A couple of months ago, the defendant flipped out of his
wheelchair during a Department of Corrections transfer.
Dr. Jason Chamikles, a family practitioner, testified for the defense
after examining Santora earlier this month. It was his opinion, he
said, that the defendant had a "possibility of traumatic brain injury
based on the falls."
"Each fall can worsen the condition," Chamikles said. "The risk of
each concussion can cause possibility of brain injury. The falls have
persisted despite location- including Bellevue."
The state claims Santora, who is nicknamed "Captain Crunch," is the
crime family's alleged ringleader. The prosecution says he was in charge
of an Internet gambling site, sold prescription drugs, such as
oxycodone and Viagra, on the black market, and the other three
defendants were his underlings.
Santora inspired the character played by the late Bruno Kirby in the 1997 film "Donnie Brasco."
Testimony resumes Monday.
A Staten Island man with alleged ties to the Bonnano crime family was recorded making references to a union local and the sale of prescription sex pills, both of which are connected to illegal activity within the organized crime crew, prosecutors charge.
Anthony "Skinny" Santoro, 52, of Great Kills, is accused of using his position within the Bonanno organization to promote one of his crew, Nicholas Bernhard, to president of Teamsters Union Local 917, which Bernhard then used to assist in the enterprise's loansharking and gambling operations, according to the indictment.
Union members, the state claims, allegedly borrowed money from and placed bets with the Bonanno crime family.
"If I get caught doing this, I'm gonna have a problem with my job," Bernhard says in audio recording from 2011 played during the Bonnano crime family trial Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Santoro and his three co-defendants - Nicholas Santora, 73, Vito Badamo and Ernest Aiello, 36 - are charged with enterprise corruption, including extortion, gambling, drug dealing and loansharking.
In a June 2011 recording, Santoro and Richard Sinde, another alleged Bonnano associate, are heard discussing the sale of 300,000 Viagra and Cialis pills, NYPD Det. Angelo Barone testified.
According to the indictment, the crew conspired to sell the medications for between $5 and $20 a tablet. Two dozen manufacturer-boxed tablets of Viagra were recovered from Santoro's Staten Island home, police said.
In his testimony Wednesday, Barone said Santoro was recorded several times using code words and phrases referencing illegal drugs and gambling activities.
Before Thursday's testimony, Supreme Court Justice Mark Dwyer signed an order allowing Santora, who is confined to a wheelchair, to be transported to Bellevue Hospital until he makes his final bail ruling.
Michael Alber, Santora's lawyer, had previously asked the court to release his client on bail and restrict him to home confinement. But the prosecution and the defense couldn't agree on a bail amount.
The defendants were busted in July 2013 when authorities sought to dismantle the nine-man Bonanno family crew, which allegedly included Bernhard and Sindae.
The state claims Santora, the crime family's reputed ringleader, was in charge of an Internet gambling site, sold prescription drugs, such as oxycodone and Viagra, on the black market, and the other three defendants were his associates.
Santora, who authorities call the "Captain" or "Capo," inspired the character played by the late Bruno Kirby in the 1997 film "Donnie Brasco."
Testimony resumes Friday.
The trial began in early February and is expected to last until at least April.
The party's over for a Bonanno gangster who was caught mingling with mobsters in violation of his supervised release.
Ronald Giallanzo, a made man and the nephew of acquitted Lufthansa airport robber Vincent Asaro, was sentenced Friday to a year and one day behind bars.
The jail term was an early Christmas present for Giallanzo, 45, who was caught on surveillance camera attending the Bonanno crime family's holiday party at Bocelli's restaurant on Staten Island in December as well as three other prohibited meetings with fellow gangsters, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay Gerdes.
Giallanzo, convicted of racketeering and extortion in 2007, admitted that he was meeting with people on his "do not associate list" under the terms of his prison release. Vincent Asaro, Giallanzo’s uncle, was found not guilty last year of charges stemming from the infamous Lufthansa heist of 1978.
Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis, who has presided over the criminal cases against scores of Bonannos, said he understands full well what goes on at mob get-togethers.
"Doesn't everyone have parties in December where they pass around envelopes of money?" he said sarcastically. "You think I just got off the boat from the South Sea islands and I don't know what's going on?"
Giallanzo and his infamous Uncle Vinnie both sport the same "Death Before Dishonor" tattoos.
The prosecutors were seeking a two year term while Giallanzo's lawyer argued for the same year-and-a-day sentence that capo John Palazzolo got last year for a similar violation. But Palazzolo got a break from Garaufis because the 77-year-old mobster was afflicted with a medical condition that rendered him unable to stop urinating.
The South Philly rowhome of slain ex-mafia don Angelo Bruno — who was shot and killed right out front of the place in 1980 — has apparently been deemed not historic by the city's Historical Commission.
According to Newsworks, the commission disagreed with historian Celeste Morello's nomination of the property at 10th and Snyder streets joining the city's Register of Historic Places. Per the report, commission members felt Bruno's impact on how the feds fight organized crime wasn't enough to deem his old home "historic."
Morello made the nomination in February. The report adds that commission members felt that Philadelphia already has a number of mob-related landmarks and even infamous gangster Al Capone's former Chicago home failed to gain a similar title.
A mafia landmark?
The former South Philly rowhome of the "Gentle Don" could get even more recognition.
Bruno — known as the "Gentle Don" was 69 at the time of his death. The hit, which took place out front of the South Philly rowhome along Snyder Avenue near 10th Street, occurred as in-fighting amongst the city's organized crime family continued.
Infamous photos of the hit showed Bruno mouth agape while seated shotgun in his car that was parked out front of 934 Snyder Ave.
A real estate agency marketing the property told NJ Advance Media at the time that the nomination wasn't likely to affect the sale. According to the report, there are currently 16 bidders vying for the 1,200-square-foot property.
The grandson of the late Dapper Don John Gotti appeared before a grand jury in Brooklyn federal court Thursday to answer questions about a Queens car arson, his lawyer told The Post.
John Gotti, 22, the son of the late Gambino boss’ brother, Peter Gotti, is not a defendant in the case and opted to plead the fifth, attorney Gerard Marrone said.
Last month, restaurant staffer Gino Gabrielli, also 22, was charged with torching a Mercedes Benz belonging to the owner of a rival pizzeria because they beat them out for a catering gig.
Gino Gabrielli outside Brooklyn Federal Court on Feb. 17.
Marrone insisted that Gotti had no connection to the case other than dating Gabrielli’s sister.
“He heard about what happened,” Marrone said. “That’s it. If his last name wasn’t Gotti I don’t think he would have been called in. This is just harassment.”
The lawyer added that he doesn’t expect any charges to be brought against his client. “He has nothing to add here,” he said.
Prosecutors threatened to slap the young mob scion with a contempt of court charge if he didn’t show up, Marrone said. “They pushed hard to get him in here.”
Gotti – who came to court with his father – is in the process of opening up a Howard Beach tattoo parlor named Rebel Ink.
Gabrielli – who was indicted on Wednesday – managed to light himself on fire during the arson and was caught on video sprinting away from the scene in flames.
He later told investigators he singed himself while cooking chicken soup. But records showed that he sought treatment at Jamaica Hospital after the incident and reeked of gasoline.
The late Gambino crime boss’ so-called “adopted son” Lewis Kasman is claiming credit for the FBI raiding the Florida home of a former deputy sheriff on Monday.
A spokesman for the Miami office of the FBI confirmed a search warrant was executed, but declined further comment.
But Kasman, 59, bragged to The Daily News that he had secretly recorded the ex-deputy, Mark Dougan, for the authorities in Florida.
“I did it because it was the right thing to do,” Kasman said, claiming that he suspected Dougan might be planning to harm the current sheriff and deputy sheriff of Palm Beach.
Dougan laughed off Kasman’s assertions.
“He’s a f-----g wack job,” Dougan told The News. “I knew he was recording me. That was seven months ago. He kept setting his phone on the table with the microphone toward me. He's a moron.”
Dougan said the feds and the local authorities are after him because someone hacked the personal information of law enforcement officers and dumped it on a website he previously owned.
“Kasman doesn’t know what he’s talking about," he said.
Several years ago, the feds revealed that Kasman had been a deep undercover mole, passing along information to the FBI about the Gambino family and wearing a wire that picked up Gotti’s widow Victoria, his daughter Victoria, Jeffrey Lichtman, the lawyer for Gotti’s son John, and assorted mobsters.
Licthman was amused by Kasman's latest claim of fame.
“Lewis Kasman is the kind of guy who takes credit for the sun rising every morning," Lichtman said. “He’s also the kind of guy who secretly taped and attempted to entrap me, his own lawyer, at a courthouse urinal in the middle of a trial. ... My only regret in even providing this comment is that I'll be forced to decline ten of his phone calls tomorrow."
Kasman said he helped the Florida feds to "save lives," just as he did in the past when he heard the Gambinos were going after journalists and the warden of the prison where John Gotti was serving a life sentence.
“John Gotti wouldn't be spinning in his grave for me,” Kasman insisted. “He would be spinning because of his children and their behavior.”
Former Gov. Mario Cuomo was targeted for assassination by the Mafia during a trip he took to Italy in 1992, according to a report Friday.
Mob hitman Maurizio Avola, 54, told the Guardian that Sicilian mobsters with assault rifles and explosives planned to take out Cuomo — but called off the ambush after being spooked by the governor’s large security detail.
Avola, who is serving life for his role in 43 murders and 40 armed robberies, told the paper that Cosa Nostra bigs sought to turn the heat on the Italian state and its allies, an offensive that included the assassination of two anti-Mafia judges.
“The aim was to target politicians or members of institutions in order to send out a clear message,” he said.
Avola’s godfather, Aldo Ercolano, told him that Cuomo would be an “excellent target.”
“Cuomo was a symbol of America, which during those years hosted collaborators who wanted out of Cosa Nostra and then got their bosses arrested. His death would have sent a strong signal to New York. It would have made them understand what happens to those who stand in the Mafia’s way,” he said.
A reporter for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera asked Cuomo after his arrival on Nov. 19, 1992, if an Italian last name was a liability for an American politician.
“Of course, any Italian-American politician risks being associated with the Mafia, not least because the media continuously plays on this image,” Cuomo replied.
Meanwhile, about a dozen Kalashnikov-toting gunmen were plotting to kill the governor in the Sicilian city of Messina — but Ercolano called off the daylight strike a few days before Cuomo arrived.
“The American politician arrived with extremely tight surveillance, lots of bodyguards and a bulletproof car. It made the execution impossible,” Avola said. “Reluctantly, Aldo Ercolano ordered the men of honor to withdraw.”
Known as “Occhi di Ghiaccio” or Ice Eyes, Avola is believed to have killed about 80 people before becoming an informer. Authorities acting on a tip collared him in 1993, a day after he killed a former friend and fellow Mafioso, the paper reported.
A senior source at Palermo magistrate’s court told the Guardian that Avola’s allegation of a plot against Cuomo was being investigated but said the details were confidential.
Cuomo died of heart failure on Jan. 1, 2015.
The Guardian said that a spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the late governor’s son, did not respond to a request for comment.
The "Thanks John" hats were given away at a Gotti July 4th block party, but found their way to Judge John Gleeson after he put the mob boss away.
Thanks John!
From the courthouse chambers of outgoing Brooklyn Federal Judge John Gleeson has emerged an authentic relic of Gambino boss John Gotti.
It’s a red and white baseball cap with the words “Thanks John” printed across the front and an illustration of a Roman Candle fireworks rocket.
In the early 1990s, the hats were handed out to neighborhood revelers at Gotti’s July 4th block party and fireworks show outside the gangster’s Bergin Hunt and Fish Club in Ozone Park.
The annual event helped create Gotti’s image as a Robin Hood figure who gave out free food and entertainment to the community while he was being persecuted by law enforcement.
The cap, in pristine condition, was bestowed to Gleeson as a gift by an FBI agent who apparently obtained it while working undercover at the party.
Gleeson did not doff the hat at courthouse party in his honor, but Magistrate Judge Steven Gold did and said the “Thanks John” message showed how everyone felt about their colleague who is resigning to join a top Manhattan law firm.
Judge Gleeson is resigning from the bench to work for a Manhattan law firm, but still has a momento from one of his greatest achievements.
But mob scion John A. "Junior" Gotti, the former acting boss of the Gambino family after his father went away to prison, had a different take on the hat’s meaning.
“That hat is to ‘Thank John’ just like the people who wore it back in the day to thank him for the July 4 celebrations, except Gleeson wore it to thank John (Gotti) for giving him his career,” Gotti Jr., told The Daily News.
Gleeson was the federal prosecutor who put Gotti away for racketeering and murder, shattering the legend of a “Teflon Don” who couldn’t be convicted.
He rose to greater heights in the Justice Department, and was named a federal judge in 1994 by President Bill Clinton.
Former Gambino associate John Alite recalled that the hats were provided by a neighborhood guy named “Steve.”
But Gotti didn’t deserve any thanks for the block party, said Alite, who left the mob to cooperate with the feds against other Gambinos.
The Daily News recounted the Teflon Don's July 4th bash in 1990.
“We all had to reach in our pockets to buy the food and the fireworks, not John,” Alite recalled.
A spokeswoman for the Mob Museum in Las Vegas said there are some Gotti artifacts in the permanent collection, including a white linen suit he wore to court, and a Jaguar sports car given to him by capo Greg DePalma.
The items were donated to the museum by Gotti’s family, she said.
The museum said they would gladly accept the “Thanks John” cap if the judge ever decides to part with it.
Gleeson was unavailable for comment.
Last week, though, Gleeson sounded a little bit like a Gotti when he described how graciously his law clerks had received the news that he was bailing out on them.
“If that was me, I would have been waiting in the park outside with a baseball bat,” Gleeson quipped.
A cousin of late "Mob Wives" star Angela "Big Ang" Raiola was sentenced to 20 years to life in his Manhattan weapons case Wednesday.
Luigi Grasso, aka Ronnie Petrino, was issued a hefty sentence for transporting a cache of weapons and other potential robbery tools in a shady fashion in 2012, although it will run concurrently with the 38-year federal prison term he’s already serving in another case.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ellen Biben, who presided over Grasso's trial last year, said that "extended incarceration and the lifetime supervision are warranted to protect the public interest."
Another one of Grasso's cases was the subject of a story line on the VH1 reality show.
Grasso, 48, was convicted in Brooklyn in 2014 for his role in a fatal robbery.
During that trial, one episode depicts Raiola on camera railing against Junior "Hector" Pagan, the ex-husband of her explosive co-star Renee Graziano. Another one of Grasso's cases was the subject of a story line on the VH1 reality show, which starred the late Angela "Big Ang" Raiola.
Pagan, who cooperated against Grasso and their affiliate to get a reduced sentence, was established as the gunman but was getting a sweet deal for "ratting out" his accomplices.
"My cousin did do something wrong — trying to do a robbery — but he might be facing more time than Junior, the rat that killed the guy," Raiola said in front of Brooklyn Federal Court on the show.
Grasso is also serving time in Staten Island for a weapons case. Grasso's lawyer, Alex Grosshtern, said his client would appeal his conviction.
Raiola, a larger-than-life personality who owned a bar in Staten Island, died on Feb. 18 after a battle with lung and brain cancer.
In October 2014, Grasso was praised by a different judge for helping to save a suicidal inmate in a holding area at the 111 Centre St. courthouse before one of his own court appearances.
The man was hanging and Grasso untangled him from a noose and got him down.
The ex-boyfriend of a porn star was cleared of criminal charges Tuesday because of an extended trial delay caused by the X-rated actress's bad deeds.
Charges against Thomas Gelardo, 33, were dismissed on speedy trial grounds after Trista Geyer, of “Naughty Athletics” and “Housewives Need Cash 5,” gave a fake excuse for being unavailable to testify.
Gelardo had been charged with breaking into Geyer's apartment in 2013.
Prosecutors said Geyer, 30, who advertises herself as Kendall Brooks, was unavailable to travel to the city from Florida due to "exceptional circumstances," according to court papers.
Her excuse was that she "had to care from a sick family member," the papers say.
"Based on exhibits submitted by both parties, it cannot be credibly argued that the complainant was unavailable to testify during the entire period," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon wrote in a decision issued Tuesday afternoon.
"Any claims by the complainant to the contrary are belied by her conduct, which included narcotics use, arrest, incarceration and limited participation in the family member's care during the period in question," the judge continued.
Gelardo's lawyer recently submitted proof that Geyer was arrested five times in Florida since November 2014.
In one bizarre ordeal, she was charged with breaking into the home of her former lawyer, who she was also seeing romantically.
Gelardo's trial for allegedly breaking into Geyer's apartment in 2013 was derailed last year when prosecutors said Geyer could not appear.
Trista Geyer, also known as porn star Kendall Brooks, gave a fake excuse for missing the trial. The charges against her ex-boyfriend were then dismissed.
The case dragged onuntil Tuesday,when it was tossed because she lied, at least in part, about her situation.
Gelardo, the erotic performer's bulky ex-boy toy, wore a snug long sleeve T-shirt to court.
"I'm just glad it's over," said Gelardo, a construction manager who has family ties to the Lucchese crime family.
"I ain't got nothin' to say about Trista," he added. "I just want to get on with my life."
Gelardo's lawyer Vincent Martinelli said he was happy with the outcome but that justice was delayed.
“While I am grateful to the court for now dismissing this matter in its entirety and accepting all of my arguments, I am disappointed my client unnecessarily spent 18 months in pretrial jail before I entered the case,” Martinelli said.
"I feel much of that jail time was completely avoidable with a proper investigation of this matter by the people," the lawyer added.
Thomas Gelardo was on trial for allegedly breaking into the apartment of his ex-girlfriend porn star Trista Geyer. But the charges were dropped.
The daughter of mob rat Sammy "Sammy Bull" Gravano hopes Donald Trump ends up in the White House and makes her dad an offer he certainly wouldn’t refuse.
Karen Gravano, talking about the GOP front-runner’s alleged ties to organized crime, said Tuesday her father would be happy to see Trump call 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. home.
“All I can say is maybe he can give his old friend Sammy a f---in’ pardon,” the VH1 “Mob Wives” star told the Daily News.
Karen Gravano says Donald Trump is an "old friend" of her father, Sammy Gravano.
Gravano’s 70-year-old dad is serving a 20-year term for running an Ecstasy ring in Arizona while in the Witness Protection Program.
The one-time Gambino underboss turned FBI snitch, who got off on 19 murder charges, helped jail dozens of his former Mafia associates, including boss John Gotti.
He is due to be released in 2019. "Mob Wives" star Karen Gravano hopes Trump, as President, gives her dad a pardon. Sammy Gravano helped jail dozens of his former Mafia associates, including boss John Gotti (r.).
Trump, who has long faced allegations of connections to mob bosses running the construction racket in the city, denied knowing Gravano.
“I don’t know Sammy Gravano and to my knowledge I have never met him,” Trump said in a statement.
But Gravano’s reality star daughter said the two may have crossed paths in the past.
“Listen, at the end of the day, he was in construction in New York and the mob ran construction,” she said. “I’m sure at a certain point and time he had to have some sort of interactions with people who were in that lifestyle.”
Sammy Gravano is serving a 20-year term for running an Ecstasy ring in Arizona. He is due to be released in 2019.
Gravano said she didn’t want to overstate Trump’s possible involvement in gangland, but said facetime with her father would have been unavoidable in the 1980s.
“That doesn’t make him a made man or connected,” Gravano said. “But I’m sure if you’re in the construction industry in New York City and that you’re involved in building, you come across certain people in your life.”
Trump’s Republican rivals have seized on his possible link to unscrupulous underworld bosses.
“There have been multiple media reports about Donald’s business dealings with the mob,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last month. “Maybe his taxes show those business dealings are a lot more extensive than has been reported.”
Trump’s construction and casino interests raised eyebrows regarding his alleged ties to organized crime long before he launched his White House bid, including his relationship with Felix Sater — who pleaded guilty in 1998 to racketeering in a scheme involving the Genovese and Bonanno crime families.
Trump, who has long faced allegations of connections to mob bosses running the construction racket in the city, denied knowing Gravano.
Sater played a role in a number of high-profile Trump projects and carried a Trump Organization business card with the title “Senior Advisor to Donald Trump.”
Video obtained by ABC News in December showed Trump denying his relationship with the Russian émigré under oath.
Author Wayne Barrett explored the real estate magnate’s shady schmoozing with crime bosses in his 1992 book “Trump: The Deals and the Downfall.”
The book alleges numerous dealings that Trump had with the likes of Gravano, Sater and others in charge of mob-controlled concrete firms, construction companies and unions.
Trump issued a statement at the time of the book’s release calling Barrett “a second-rate writer who has had numerous literary failures.”
“The book is another example of Mr. Barrett’s personal prejudice and animosity towards me,” Trump said in the statement. “The book is boring, nonfactual and highly inaccurate.”
But Gravano himself insinuated a relationship with Trump during a 1997 interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer.
“I literally marvel at the sight of Manhattan when I see it, because I controlled it,” Gravano said. “I literally controlled Manhattan. When I see it at night — those lights and everything about it — I think of Donald Trump and Tishman and everybody else who couldn’t build a building if I didn’t want them to build it. That got me off. Plus, I made a lot of money with it.”
The
daughter of a reputed New Jersey mob figure says her late father had a
longtime relationship with Donald Trump that included gambling millions
of dollars at one of his casinos, flying on his helicopter and partying
aboard his private yacht.
In
1991, Trump first faced questions about his dealings with Robert
LiButti, a plump, balding and nationally famous horse breeder with an
explosive temper who would later be banned from New Jersey casinos for
his ties to Mafia boss John Gotti. At the time, New Jersey state
regulators had launched an investigation into allegations by nine
employees of one of Trump’s Atlantic City casinos, the Trump Plaza, that
the hotel had repeatedly removed African-Americans and women from craps
tables after LiButti, one of the highest-rolling gamblers in the city’s
history, loudly complained about their presence when he was playing.
Robert
LiButti, top left, and Donald Trump.
The
probe resulted in a $200,000 fine against the Trump Plaza by the New
Jersey Casino Control Commission for violating state anti-discrimination
laws. Investigators found that LiButti had, on multiple occasions,
berated blacks and women using what one state official described as the
“vilest” language — including racist slurs and references to women in
obscene terms — and that the Trump Plaza, in order not to lose his
substantial business, sought to accommodate him by keeping the employees
away from his betting tables, according to commission documents
recently obtained by Yahoo News under the New Jersey Open Public Records
Act.
“It
was a substantial fine at the time,” said Mitchell A. Schwefel, then a
New Jersey assistant attorney general who brought the state’s case
against the Trump Plaza on behalf of the state Division of Gaming
Enforcement. “That was a red-flag issue for us because that was conduct
[by the hotel] that was not going to be tolerated.”
Trump
was not held personally liable for the violations of his hotel, and
there is no indication that he was ever questioned by state officials as
part of their investigation. When asked about LiButti by a reporter,
the casino mogul suggested he barely knew the foul-mouthed gambler. “I
have heard he is a high roller, but if he was standing here in front of
me, I wouldn’t know what he looked like,” Trump told the Philadelphia
Inquirer in February 1991.
But
Edith Creamer, LiButti’s daughter, told Yahoo News in two recent
telephone interviews that Trump’s account was false and that Trump and
her father knew each other quite well. “He’s a liar,” said Creamer. “Of
course he knew him. I flew in the [Trump] helicopter with [Trump’s then
wife] Ivana and the kids. My dad flew it up and down [to Atlantic City].
My 35th birthday party was at the Plaza and Donald was there. After the
party, we went on his boat, his big yacht. I like Trump, but it pisses
me off that he denies knowing my father. That hurts me.”
Asked
for comment for this story, Trump, through his spokeswoman, sent this
email to Yahoo News: “During the years I very successfully ran the
casino business, I knew many high rollers. I assume Mr. LiButti was one
of them, but I don’t recognize the name.”
Trump’s
response to questions about LiButti underscores what critics say is a
recurring theme in his career — a tendency to minimize or deny
associations with unsavory characters with whom he has done business.
Indeed, throughout his career as a real estate mogul there have been
frequent allegations of interactions with reputed mob figures —
something that may have been inevitable given the mob’s influence in the
New York construction industry during that era. (Trump has consistently
denied ever knowingly doing business with organized crime.)
However,
in the case of LiButti, Creamer’s account of direct dealings between
her father and Trump would appear to be corroborated by a 1991 book
written by John R. O’Donnell, the former president of the Trump Plaza
casino. In the book, “Trumped!: The Inside Story of the Real Donald
Trump — His Cunning Rise and Spectacular Fall,” O’Donnell recounts a
meeting between Trump and LiButti aboard Trump’s private helicopter, a
Super Puma, in the spring of 1988. Trump, according to O’Donnell, agreed
to pay $500,000 for a racehorse named Alibi after LiButti showed him
color photos of the “luxurious brown colt” and assured him he was going
to be “another Secretariat.”
O’Donnell
doesn’t use LiButti’s name in his book but describes him in
unmistakable terms, calling the seller of Alibi a world-famous “horse
broker” who was “our most lucrative player” at Trump casinos. O’Donnell,
in a phone interview, confirmed to Yahoo News for the first time that
the broker in question was LiButti. “Bob [LiButti] was selling him the
horse, for sure,” O’Donnell said. “Everything in the book is true.”
John
Gotti on trial and documents pertaining to Robert LiButti from the
attorney general in New Jersey.
Trump,
according to O’Donnell’s account, then “insisted” that the horse be
renamed D.J. Trump. But the deal blew up after the stallion grew lame
from illness and Trump sought to renegotiate the purchase price,
enraging LiButti and causing him to temporarily boycott Trump’s casinos,
according to O’Donnell. Trump “reneged on the deal when the horse came
up lame,” said O’Donnell in the phone interview. (“Mr. Trump never owned
a racehorse,” said Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks in an email. “He
vaguely remembers someone naming a racehorse after him.”)
Yahoo
News has also obtained the full transcript of a Sept. 4, 1990,
undercover New Jersey State Police tape of a conversation between
LiButti and Trump’s top Atlantic City executive, Edward M. Tracy, that
appears to lend further credence to Creamer’s account.
The
New Jersey police had secretly wired Tracy after two reputed bookmakers
for the Gambino crime family told an undercover officer that LiButti
was “in Trump’s pockets.” That, police investigators concluded, was a
reference to a highly lucrative contract at the Trump Plaza that LiButti
had secured for his brother-in-law, Jimmy Roselli, a popular crooner once considered a rival to his childhood Hoboken neighbor, Frank Sinatra.
According
to the transcript of the September 1990 meeting, LiButti makes multiple
references to conversations he claimed to have had with Trump, telling
Tracy, “I’m very close with him” and recounting how he had been advising
Trump to unload one of his Atlantic City casinos to resolve his then
highly public business problems. “I told him this right in the
helicopter with, ah, Ivana and my daughter one night,” LiButti said to
Tracy, according to the transcript. (Although portions of this
conversation were reported on at the time, the full transcript — which
was recently provided to Yahoo News by a confidential source — includes
these and other references to Trump that have not been previously
reported.)
In
the conversation, LiButti also offered personal advice, telling Tracy
that Trump needed to “get rid of the broad” — a reference to his then
publicized affair with Marla Maples. And he lamented the toll that both
the business and personal issues were taking on Trump at the time.
“He’s
lost that aggressiveness. … Walks around like a f***ing banana. I can’t
believe it’s Donald Trump. I don’t understand it,” LiButti says.
“Yeah, I know you were shocked when you saw him,” Tracy replies.
“Yeah,” says LiButti. “I can’t believe it. My hero. Broke my f***ing heart. My f***ing idol. I wanted to grow up like him.”
LiButti
recounts how on one occasion, when he had blown $350,000 at the Plaza
craps tables, Trump personally handed him a check — apparently as a
so-called comp to keep him coming back. “As I’m checking out … they call
Donald. He goes in his pocket and takes out the f***ing check and goes,
‘I want to present this to you myself.’” (When questioned about that
claim at the time by reporter David Cay Johnston, then with the
Philadelphia Inquirer, Trump denied it, saying, “I never gave him a
check at all.”)
The
secret tape recording proved to be LiButti’s undoing — but because of
other comments he made that day. The gambler was then trying to pressure
Tracy to pay an additional $250,000 for Roselli’s services by
repeatedly invoking the name of Gotti, the head of the Gambino crime
family. LiButti referred to Gotti as “my boss.” He talked about meetings
he had had with Gotti and suggested that he bring him down to Trump’s
Atlantic City casinos. Calling LiButti’s statements “sinister and
chilling,” Assistant Attorney General Schwefel filed a motion before the
Casino Control Commission to bar LiButti from all New Jersey casinos on
the grounds that he was a Gotti “associate” — a request that was
approved by the commission on Aug. 21, 1991.
At
the time, the Casino Control Commission was also moving to fine Trump
Plaza for its past efforts to placate LiButti by keeping blacks and
women away from his craps tables. According to the commission’s
documents on the case, LiButti flew into fits of rage whenever he lost
money at the craps tables, flinging dice and gaming chips around the
casino and grabbing the stick from a stickperson’s hand and breaking it
in half.
He
also made it clear that “he did not want women, blacks or other
minorities dealing or supervising his games,” according to one filing by
the state Division of Gaming Enforcement. He referred to one Trump
Plaza floor person as a “dumb c***” and “dumb bitch,” another as a “Jew
broad” and an African-American dealer as a “black bastard.” Finding
himself playing with an African-American at his craps table, LiButti
shouted, “Shoot the f***ing dice. Shoot the f***ing dice like you’re
f***ing some n*****,” according to testimony in the case.
State
officials argued that, rather than removing some of its employees from
LiButti’s craps tables, the hotel should have removed LiButti from the
casino. But it didn’t, the officials contended, because Trump’s casino
had put profits above following the state’s laws against racial
discrimination.
“Certainly,
it would have been so much better if the casino itself had thrown
LiButti out at the time that he committed these acts, but they didn’t
because he was a very high roller, obviously,” Schwefel argued at a
March 13, 1991, hearing on the case. “If LiButti had been a five- or
10-dollar customer, they would have thrown him right out, literally
without asking any questions. The problem again is that the casino did
not want to get rid of a high roller of his dimension.”
Trump’s
lawyers aggressively challenged the charges of discrimination, seeking
to discredit the testimony of its employees who filed complaints and
arguing it had had “no formal policy” of removing African-Americans and
women from LiButti’s craps tables.
“Trump
Plaza is being found in violation based only on an aura of
discrimination,” said Brian Spector, the lawyer for the Trump hotel.
“Something may look like discrimination, feel like discrimination and
even smell like discrimination, but you need discriminatory intent. It
simply hasn’t been proven.”
But
Casino Control Commission officials didn’t buy it, and on June 5, 1991,
they doubled the gaming division’s recommended $100,000 fine to
$200,000 to reflect what one commissioner contended was the “gravely
serious” nature of the offense. Three months later, the commission
leveled another $450,000 fine against the Trump Plaza — this time for
buying LiButti nine luxury autos, including Ferraris, Bentleys and
Rolls-Royces worth $1.6 million, that he then exchanged for cash, a
violation of state laws at the time that barred cash comps for high
rollers. Documents from the case show that the Trump Plaza also provided
LiButti with other “comps” that included paying $104,338 for five
European vacations and one to California; $279,978 for tickets to the
Super Bowl, boxing matches and other sporting and theater events;
$121,712 for jewelry; and $40,020 for Champagne that included 178
bottles of Cristal Rosé, valued at $225 a bottle.
It
was only the start of LiButti’s legal problems. He was tried and
convicted in 1994 for tax fraud in what federal prosecutors described as
the largest case of federal income tax evasion in New Jersey history. A
federal judge sentenced him to five years in prison. He died in 2014.
Creamer,
LiButti’s daughter, said her father blamed Trump in part for some of
his problems, apparently because Tracy agreed to be wired for the
conversation in which he had invoked Gotti’s name. She declined to talk
about her father’s alleged Mafia associations. “That is something I
don’t want to talk about,” she said. But she strongly insisted that her
father was not a racist. “He was a character,” she said. “He had a heart
of gold.” While acknowledging that her father “did have a foul mouth,”
she added that derogatory comments were made to everybody. “He loved
black people,” she said. “He used to throw them money all the time” when
he won at the craps table.
And
while keenly disappointed that Trump denied knowing her father, Creamer
said she is still backing him for president. “I’m voting for Trump,”
she said. “He’ll change the world — I think we need that.” In fact,
Creamer added, before her father died — and Trump was talking about
running for president in 2011 — he expressed similar sentiments. “I’m
going to vote for the SOB,” she recalled him saying.
Robert
LiButti, top left, and Donald Trump.
