Mob Expert Picks Top Mob Stories of 2011

Joseph Massino/gov photo

Mob Expert Picks Top Mob Stories of 2011- As New York mobster stories go, there seemed to be no shortage in 2011. Mob expert Jerry Capeci should know.
Capeci, a former New York Daily News reporter, runs the website Gang Land News. On Thursday, he picked the top mob stories of 2011.
Hands down, he writes, the top story was the Mafia Takedown arrests of 127 wiseguys and “various cohorts.”
Though Capeci picks the massive takedown in January as the top mob story of the year, he is not without some skepticism.
On the day of the announcement, Capeci writes that the “feds put on an overblown dog and pony show at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn in a pretty transparent effort to send a message to mobsters that they were still a top priority of the federal government.”


http://www.ticklethewire.com/2011/12/29/mob-expert-picks-top-mob-stories-of-2011/

Massino and Gorgeous Basciano death trial

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerry-capeci/death-trial-sets-up-gorge_b_757490.html

There was more than one shock wave in Gang Land last week after Attorney General Eric Holder issued his hard-nosed directive that the government will "continue to seek the death penalty" against Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano for the 2004 murder of mob associate Randolph Pizzolo.

First there was the surprisingly tough-guy attitude by the top fed: Basciano is already serving life behind bars, and even the judge in the case - Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis - had suggested that the government take things down a notch. More on that below.

The decision was also a bad sign for another top mobster: Colombo family mobster Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace, who is awaiting trial for the 1997 execution murder of police officer Ralph Dols. Holder has yet to rule on whether the death penalty is on the table or off for Joe Waverly, who is currently serving 20 years for four slayings - including the murder of an Administrative Law Judge.

But the even bigger news is that Holder's decision means that we will hear the first-ever testimony by a turncoat New York Mafia boss in the person of Joseph Massino, who wore a wire during two jailhouse talks and tape recorded Basciano explaining why his underlings whacked Pizzolo.

Massino is going to have a lot to say on the matter:

"I gave the order," Basciano told Massino, according to a transcript obtained by Gang Land. "You wanna know why? Because he's a fucking dangerous kid that don't fucking listen. He talks stupid... He's just an annoying fucking kid."

The six-year-old case, which includes allegations that Basciano plotted to kill Judge Garaufis as well as a former top federal mob prosecutor, is scheduled to begin in February. In addition to setting up an intriguing courtroom confrontation between Massino and his former acting boss, Holder's decision gives Massino a chance to score some brownie points with the feds, and perhaps gain their support for a release from the life sentence he is now serving.

Garaufis, who presided over two prior Basciano trials, and sentenced him to life, wrote Holder in May. He noted that Vinny Gorgeous was slated to live out his life at the harshest prison in the U.S. and that in addition to the substantial cost of the prosecution, more than $3 million in taxpayer funds had already been spent for the gangster's defense. Citing "current circumstances," the Judge asked Holder to conduct a "candid reappraisal" of the government's decision "to seek the death penalty."

Basciano, who was first arrested for racketeering and detained without bail on November 19, 2004, allegedly ordered the murder of Pizzolo by dispatching messages from his federal lockup in Brooklyn to Bonanno family cohorts who shot Pizzolo to death 12 days later, on December 1.

The following month, based on Massino-obtained tape recordings, Basciano was charged not only with Pizzolo's murder, but also with soliciting his Mafia boss to kill assistant U.S. attorney Greg Andres, the lead prosecutor in several cases against Bonanno wiseguys, including both Massino and Basciano.

Since then, Basciano, now 50, was convicted twice on other racketeering and murder charges. Seven co-defendants in the Pizzolo indictment, including two mobsters involved in his murder, took plea deals, leaving Vinny Gorgeous as the sole defendant.

Early this year, he won a small victory when the Second Circuit Court of Appeals tossed several charges from the indictment, including the alleged plot to whack Andres, ruling that they were all part of the same racketeering charge for which he had been tried twice before, and they were precluded by the double jeopardy statutes.

The current indictment also charges Basciano with murder conspiracy for allegedly plotting to whack a co-defendant in one of his prior trials, Bronx-based capo Patrick DeFilippo.

Last week, Basciano's defense team filed papers indicating it would try to recuse Garaufis from presiding over the trial because if Basciano were ultimately found guilty, the defense would move to submit the Judge's letter to Holder as a mitigating factor in the death penalty phase of the trial and that Garaufis would have difficulty ruling on that issue.

Contacted by Gang Land, lead defense attorney George Goltzer said his client's three-lawyer defense team was "disappointed" by Holder's decision, adding: "We have already reacted, and will continue to react accordingly and defend him to the best of our ability."

Prosecutors declined to comment.

Massino's lawyer, former mob prosecutor Edward McDonald, rejected an assertion by Gang Land that the government's decision to seek the death penalty made his client the big winner, since it would be the only time he would get a chance to show his worth, and earn a get out of jail pass from his federal handlers.

"He has provided information that has led to countless convictions, whether people have gone to trial or not," said McDonald. "On the steps of the courthouse, lawyers have stated that their clients pleaded guilty after my client had agreed to testify against them. They saw no chance of winning their cases."

Genovese crime family figure Frank Schwamborn pleads guilty gets 11 years

Vincent "Chin" Gigante in photo
A longtime associate of the Genovese organized crime family has pleaded guilty to securities fraud for selling $2.1 million of worthless stock, according to federal officials.

Frank Schwamborn, 48, of Farmingdale, took over a Ronkonkoma company, called World Cyberlinks, which had been set up to produce docking stations for Palm Pilots, but which did not actually make any products, officials said.

Schwamborn had the company transfer stock to a number of companies he had bought or set up in return for services, officials said. He took control of these companies using money he made selling cocaine, federal prosecutors said.

The companies never performed any services for the Cyberlinks company, officials said. But the stock transfers were backdated to get around the rule requiring that stock used to pay for services had to be held for a year before they could be resold, officials aid.

Among the companies, which prosecutors say are now out of business: Burdette Ltd., on the Isle of Man; Puritan Management of Bay Shore; FRF Holding of North Babylon , and Candles, a restaurant in Bay Shore that also was known as Park 70 Bistro and Giovanna's.

Schwamborn has been held in jail without bail awaiting trial on the charges because of a history of threats made against agents, police officers and state and federal prosecutors involved in the case and other investigations, officials said.

A postal inspector said in an affidavit at the time of Schwamborn's arrest that he was an associate of organized crime who had his own crew, which was "a collection of thieves, drug dealers, prostitutes, 'leg breakers,' and stockbrokers."

A number of stock investors, who were possible witnesses against Schwamborn, had been asked to move ...

John 'Junior' Gotti was afraid 'every day' of getting whacked

John "Junior" Gotti feared he'd be whacked when he was a member of the Gambino crime family.

"Every day it's a possibility," Gotti told CBS's "60 Minutes" in an interview that will air on Sunday. "It's a possibility that something can happen to you every day of your life. And you know something, when you hang out in the streets, you're hanging with a different type of a person. ... Who knows? Everything is possible. It's a volatile experience."

Gotti, 46, said the best part of that volatile existence was the actual moment he joined the mob.

He said the "proudest moment" of his life was when he was "made" as a member of the Gambinos -- the Mafia's way of formally inducting someone into a crime family.

After the secret ceremony, Gotti said his father, the late John "Teflon Don" Gotti who was the family boss at the time, hugged him.

"I was slowly becoming like [my father]. ... I think he was very happy," said Gotti.

The interview comes four months after the Teflon Don's son scored a fourth hung jury that eventually led the feds to drop the case against him


Gotti had spent more than a year behind bars waiting for his last trial, but was sprung on $2 million bond after the jury deadlocked this past Dec. 1 after 11 days of deliberations.

The case against Gotti involved a laundry list of mob crimes that grew even longer after the feds flipped former Gambino associate John Alite. Gotti was also accused of ordering a 1992 attack on radio talker and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa.

The jury didn't entirely buy it.

As for Gotti, he never used the words mob or Mafia during the "60 Minutes" interview when talking about his role as a member of the Gambinos, saying instead that he was "a street guy."

"I was in the streets," he added.

Gotti said his induction was a lifelong dream for him after growing up on the streets of Howard Beach, Queens.

"I'd go to the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club all the time and I would just watch ... they'd be playing cards ... hanging out … breaking balls … and laughing and commiserating," he recalled, "And you're right there and you’re saying, 'This is where I belong.'"

Gotti, who claims he quit the mob in 1999, also said he never got angry when the city's newspapers mocked him.

"Every time [we] were in the tabloids on the first page, the sales would go up about eight percent. ... Who cares? I don't really care. 'Dopey don!' Who cares? Have fun with it."

Gotti's mom unleashes tirade after jurors released

NEW YORK — John "Junior" Gotti's mother unleashed a profanity-laced tirade Wednesday after a judge dismissed two anonymous jurors at her son's racketeering trial, saying he was being cheated of a fair trial as his father had been.
"They're railroading you!" Victoria Gotti shouted as she stood in the spectator section several feet behind her son. "They're doing to you what they did to your father."
John Gotti Sr. was convicted of racketeering in 1991 after several previous trials had ended in deadlocked juries. He died in prison in 2002.
Mrs. Gotti's outburst came as the two-month trial nears its end and after several notes from jurors over a period of weeks indicated there were personality issues bothering some of them.
The trial is the fourth for Gotti in the past four years. The others ended in hung juries.
Even before the latest trial began, seven jurors asked to be relieved of the jury duty. Five complained of issues such as damage it would cause to their jobs or personal finances, but two suggested that they feared being on a jury for an organized crime trial.
Several weeks ago, the judge revealed that he had received an anonymous letter to the court purportedly from a juror who was angry that one juror seemed to be fawning over the defense lawyer's presentation. As a result, the judge questioned each juror about any concerns but none arose. Castel dismissed the two jurors Wednesday after one complained this week that a fellow juror had made her feel "very uncomfortable."The juror told Castel that the woman told her at one point: "I'd rather phony people not speak to me at all."
The juror added: "I don't need that. I should be spanking her."
Castel said he decided to release the two jurors from duty after receiving a letter from the government. The contents of the letter were not revealed.
The judge said judges have wide latitude to release jurors from duty before deliberations start. Three alternate jurors are left.
"This is a railroad job. Enough now. Enough," Mrs. Gotti said after the judge made his announcement outside the presence of the jury.
Gotti, seated at the time, turned his head around to look at his mother and said: "Ma. Ma. Please."
Later, he told his mother: "I can deal with it. I'm OK. Don't worry about it. I'm fine."
At one point, Mrs. Gotti shouted as she pointed toward prosecutors and the judge: "They're the gangsters, right there! ... Put your own sons in there. You bastards."
Still shouting, Mrs. Gotti was ushered out of court by her family and court security officers.
Gotti's lawyer, Charles Carnesi, objected to the dismissal of the jurors, saying the judge should have been more concerned about the anonymous letter he had received weeks ago from a juror who "objected to the fact that a juror was paying particular attention to the defense case and somehow found that to be offensive."
Closing arguments are expected next week.

Bonanno wiseguy Vito Pipitone arrested on honeymoon goes to court with wife

She's got a big rock on her finger, and he's wearing an ankle bracelet

.Reputed wiseguy Vito Pipitone and his new wife, Paula, made their first appearance Thursday in Brooklyn Federal Court since he was arrested on their Hawaiian honeymoon.

Read The Full Story

Junior Gotti mob trial : Joseph Fusaro gripe

There were no hair-raising tales Thursday at the Junior Gotti trial - although the judge and a mob witness both could have used one.
The unlikely pair commiserated in court over their balding domes, providing a light moment in the mob heavyweight's trial.
Joseph Fusaro, called by the defense for John A. (Junior) Gotti, testified that he met the second-generation gangster in a prison barber shop 11 years ago.
Judge Kevin Castel, listening from the bench, eyed the 66-year-old witness' shiny skull and posed a question.
"You use a barber shop frequently?" Castel asked.
"No, not me," replied Fusaro, who turned to take a look at the judge's pate.
"Don't think you do, either," the witness continued.
"Quite right, sir," said Castel.
"I know the feeling," said Fusaro.
The back-and-forth came before Fusaro testified that he wanted to approach Gotti inside the prison at Valhalla about collecting $180,000 in loan-sharking money.
Fusaro testified that when he did meet with the ex-Gambino boss, Gotti quickly turned him down.
"He was done with that," Fusaro testified. "He said, 'If you have any brains, and I think you do ... do your sentence because this is over."

No sympathy for sick mobster Domenico Cutaia

A once-powerful Lucchese crime capo now suffering from an advanced stage of multiple sclerosis was sentenced on Friday to three years in prison for bank fraud.
Domenico (Danny) Cutaia, 72, hobbled into Brooklyn Federal Court with a walker hoping to get off with a sentence of home confinement.
Federal Judge Brian Cogan noted that the gangster is a “pretty hardened criminal,” but acknowledged that he was looking at a man who was seriously ill and clinically depressed.
“What kind of message are we sending if we allow someone to commit crimes for 40 years, and when they get caught, they say, ‘I’m too old and in poor health’ to go to jail,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Goldberg argued. “He should not be able to use health and age as a sword and a shield.”
Cutaia reportedly had held a position on the Luchese crime family’s ruling panel in the past.
The judge reluctantly agreed.
“He’s a tough guy. … That’s who he is and who I have to sentence,” Cogan said.

Three busted building inspectors - all with apparent ties to Lucchese family - had prior raps

Three of the six city building inspectors busted in a recent corruption sweep were hired even though they had rap sheets, a Daily News investigation found.

The issue has become more important in the wake of allegations that corrupt inspectors took cash to overlook violations or speed permits

All Buildings Department job applicants must disclose any previous arrests and submit to background investigations that include fingerprinting and criminal database searches, spokesman Tony Sclafani said Read The Full Story

'Junior' gleeful when describing murder: witness

A gleeful John "Junior" Gotti, joking and "creeping like the Grinch," described how a murder witness was forced to hang himself, the prosecution’s star witness testified today.
Mob turncoat John Alite said that in 1984, Junior came to visit him in Jamaica Hospital, where he was recovering from serious injuries after a fight.
The scion of Teflon Don John Gotti began talking about the death of John Cennamo, who was found hanging from a broken tree branch after bragging he saw Junior stab a man to death in a vicious bar brawl.
"Junior started joking around by the window, saying, ‘Hey, look he’s hanging from the tree," Alite recalled. "He was creeping like the Grinch, joking around. " ‘Look you can see him hanging. Let's see if we can help him,’" Junior quipped, according to Alite.
Alite said Cennano had been a witness to the killing of Daniel Silva in the Silver Fox bar in Queens on March 12, 1983, and on the orders of John Gotti Sr., a team of three hitmen was sent to rub him out.
"There was more joking how he (Cennamo) got helped to be killed. And he was persuaded to put something on his neck," Alite recalled.
"Junior did the creeping thing. Let’s help put that (a noose) around there and then jump," he quoted the reputed mob boss as saying.
A medical examiner, James Gill, testified yesterday that Cennamo, with a piece of clothing around his neck, was found hanging from a broken branch of a tree behind a Queens laundromat on May 27, 1984.
Cennamo’s knees were on the ground, he said. There were no signs of a struggle.
In testimony yesterday, Alite said he and Junior were directly involved in the murders of George Grosso and Bruce John Gotterup, two drug dealers, and Louis DiBono, a wiseguy who ignored John Gotti Sr.’s orders to meet with him.
Alite said Junior told him he was involved in four other killings, those of Silva, Cennamo, Wilfred "Wille Boy" Johnson, an informant, and an unidentified man who was killed and then crushed in a car chopper at a junkyard owned by Junior’s ex-brother-in-law, Carmine Agnello. http://cftaf1234.wordpress.com/prime-time-ratfellas/

John Alite ,Gotti Rat

Mob turncoat John Alite has had a lot to say about his old buddy John (Junior) Gotti -- but he's also found time to tell the feds some amazing stories about corrupt cops and detectives.Alite -- set to be a key witness at Gotti IV -- has given the FBI names and details regarding rogue cops who he claims helped him deal drugs and murder a possible dozen victims who dared to cross him over the years.
Since he began talking to the FBI in 2007, law enforcement sources say Alite has fingered more than a dozen men in blue for crimes ranging from bookmaking to murder. Two allegedly had roles in a drug-related Queens rubout -- one of three slayings that Gotti is charged with in the racketeering indictment that goes to trial today.Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerry-capeci/gotti-turncoat-we-had-lot_b_292863.html