Memo to Mobsters: Don't "Adopt" Anyone - He May Turn Out to be a Rat

John A. (Junior) Gotti learned that the hard way with "adopted" son Lewis Kasman, who taped Gotti family meetings for the feds.Reputed killer Charles Carneglia is about to get a taste of the same medicine with "adopted" kid brother Kevin McMahon.Both mob turncoats are to testify in Carneglia's ongoing murder trial in Brooklyn Federal Court.Kasman, a former Long Island garment exec who wormed his way into Gotti's inner circle and called himself the adopted son of the late Gambino crime boss, wasn't close to Carneglia.McMahon was as close as you can get without being a relative. "When Kevin walks into that courtroom I would expect Charles will want to jump over the table and strangle him," a law enforcement official said.McMahon was not only a member of Carneglia's crime crew, he was like a member of the Carneglia family.In 1980, McMahon was a 12-year-old Irish kid from Howard Beach "at the beginning of his long and extraordinarily close relationship" with Charles Carneglia and his brother John, court papers show. McMahon is 20 years younger than Charles, 62, and John, 64.On a fateful day in March, McMahon lent his minibike to mob scion Frank Gotti who was accidentally hit and killed by neighbor John Favara as he drove home from work. Favara was slain on Gotti's orders and, prosecutors say, Charles Carneglia dissolved his body in a barrel of acid.Before the incident, McMahon had been "informally adopted" by John and Charles Carneglia. Charles Carneglia promised to protect the lad from retaliation for his role in Frankie's death.McMahon was treated as a member of the Carneglia family, living with them for long stretches, attending family dinners and going on Carneglia family vacations, Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Burlingame said.Former capo Michael DiLeonardo has testified that McMahon was a "goofy kid" who taunted FBI agents, running up to them and grabbing his crotch.McMahon had jobs with Local 638 steamfitters union and Local 52 motion pictures mechanics union, but those paid only $40,000 a year, chump change for a wanna-be Gambino associate with an ailing wife and two kids.Prosecutors say he and Carneglia took part in extortions, art fraud and robberies, including the stickup of an armored car at Kennedy Airport in 1990 in which guard Jose Rivera Delgado was shot to death. McMahon dropped a baseball cap at the scene. DNA tests linked him to a strand of hair in the hat.Shortly after he was arrested in 2005 on an indictment charging him with racketeering for the Gambinos in Tampa, McMahon sent a "thank you" letter to Brooklyn Magistrate Robert Levy for releasing him on bail."As I was leaving the courtroom you said to me, 'Don't let me down.' I assure you I have not," he wrote. "As soon as I'm acquitted I'll write you again."McMahon turned on his adoptive mob family after he was convicted and faced 20 years behind bars. He is cooperating in hopes of winning a lesser prison term.Thanks to John Marzulli

Hitting the Hitman

Hitting the Hit Men

Even alleged killers can be beaten up by a gang of thugs.
by Brendan McGarvey
Two reputed Mafia hit men got their asses kicked in a bar brawl on Delaware Avenue two weeks ago. The brawl started inside a Delaware Avenue club on a Thursday night when younger members and associates of the Philly Mafia started mouthing off to members of a gang from 10th and Oregon.
The men badly beaten in the brawl are both suspects in the murder of Raymond "Long John" Martorano. Martorano was gunned down in his car during rush hour Jan. 17 and died several weeks later. The two alleged hit men are brothers.
According to underworld sources, the brothers were in the club with several of their friends when they got into a verbal disagreement with members of an Italian-American drug gang known as the 10th and Oregon crew.
"The older brother was mouthing off and the 10th and O guys just started swinging," said one mob source. "The brothers and another friend got their asses kicked. Both brothers were knocked out, and one lost a piece of his ear in the brawl. The brothers were beaten so badly that they're still walking around with black eyes and swollen lips."
Underworld sources claim the young mobsters feel they have to retaliate to save face.
"Something bad is coming," another Cosa Nostra source told City Paper in an interview earlier this week. "Somebody is going to get killed over this."
The two brothers had been riding high since the murder of Martorano. "People have been treating them like mob royalty," said the source. "Everybody on the street knows they killed Long John."
The older brother has been openly dating the wife of a high-ranking gangster who is serving a sentence for racketeering. According to police and mob sources, the brother and the gangster's wife have been seen at several trendy restaurants in Old City over the last two months.
The 10th and Oregon crew responsible for the beatdown of the Mafia goodfellas are themselves new neighbors in South Philadelphia.
The former leaders of the 10th and O crew had numerous run-ins with the Mafia and with the Pagans motorcycle gang, but they've recently relocated to South Jersey, hanging out at a restaurant near the Deptford Mall.
The 10th and O crew is now under new leadership and appears to be as violent and as fearless as the previous generations of crew members, who sometimes worked hand in glove with the local Mafia and sometimes waged war against them.
In a related story, a former member of the Northeast Philly mob, also known as the K&A gang, claims that no one in the underworld wants to buy Martorano's Lincoln Towncar -- the car he was riding in when he was shot three times.
Last week the source told City Paper in an interview in Cosí in Old City that the Martorano-murder car is spooking potential buyers.
According to the source, the former head of the K&A gang was given an opportunity to buy Martorano's car. The former crime boss was once best friends with Godfather Angelo Bruno and had worked closely with Raymond Martorano.
"Look at that car," the retired K&A gangster told a friend. "Long John died in that thing. There's still cigarette butts in the ashtray. It's scary. I don't wanna buy it. It's too weird. It feels like Long John is still there."
Coincidentally, Martorano may have been killed in part because of his friendship with members of the old K&A gang.
Underworld rumors were rampant, according to both law enforcement and gangland sources, that Martorano was planning to take over the local Cosa Nostra with the help of North Jersey gangsters and with local muscle provided by the K&A gang.
"Martorano thought it was his turn to be boss," one mob insider told City Paper. "But the current boss disagreed. Martorano lost that argument Goodfellas he ain't. ."