Roger Touhy, Gangster: The Outfit: 1950 Ed Panczko Paul Panczko Steve Tomaras Lawrence SylvesterEdmund Gruszykowski 1952 Americo De Pietto.Chester Wrobel.Edward ...
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Roger Touhy, Gangster: The Outfit
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Guns and Glamour: The Chicago Mob. A History. 1900-2000: Sam Giancana
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Russian Mafia Gangster: Controversial Russian bankers target Crimea
Russian Mafia Gangster: Controversial Russian bankers target Crimea: by OCCRP Editor's Note: This investigation was done by the Washington, D.C.-based Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Proje...
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Leader of major yakuza gang arrested over vote-buying in Chiba
Kyodo
CHIBA – The leader of a major crime syndicate is under arrest on suspicion of entertaining voters in connection with the Chiba Prefectural Assembly election, police said.
Isao Seki, the 69-year-old chairman of the Sumiyoshi-kai and a resident of Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, and two others allegedly hosted voters at a restaurant in the city of Isumi in early March to reward them for gathering votes for a candidate the gang intended to back in the election the following month.
Seki was arrested Sunday. Entertaining individuals for votes and engaging in campaign-related activity before the official campaign period kicks off is against the public office election law.
More than 10 people, including voters, were allegedly wined and dined at the affair, providing entertainment worth several thousand yen to each person, the police said.
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Gotti, guns and gay bars: Inside NYC’s mob history
by: MICHAEL RIEDEL
The history of the mob in America begins here, at Ellis Island. Between 1899 and 1910, nearly 2 million southern Italians fled grinding poverty to arrive at the gateway to America — Giuseppe Masseria, Frank Costello and Salvatore Lucania (the future Charles “Lucky” Luciano) among them.
Their exploits and those of successors like Carlo Gambino and John Gotti inspired a slew of film and TV stories, some more glamorous than others. Now AMC’s “The Making of the Mob: New York,” an eight-part docudrama premiering Monday, takes a look at where these wise guys came from.
Let’s take our own little tour of Gangland to see where the boys plotted, gambled, ate, killed and were killed.
Just make sure men in long coats aren’t following you.
NYC authorities dumped liquor during Prohibition, and the mob took advantage. Photo: Buyenlarge/Getty Images Source: Supplied
As the series makes clear, the US government played a large, if inadvertent, role in the rise of the mob — with the great, failed experiment called Prohibition.
Starting Jan. 16, 1920, Americans were deprived of their liquor, but not for long. Bootlegging became one of the more lucrative rackets in NYC, much of it controlled by “Joe the Boss” Masseria, who — with crew members like Luciano — supplied millions of dollars of hooch to speak-easies.
One of them was Chumley’s, a popular spot in the West Village (closed since 2007) for literary tipplers Edna St. Vincent Millay, Eugene O’Neill and E.E. Cummings. No doubt they were battling writer’s block.
One of Luciano’s mentors was Arnold Rothstein, the strategic thinker nicknamed “the Brain.” During Prohibition, he helped transform the Mafia from a gang of street thugs into a vast, multimillion-dollar empire.
But Rothstein had a weakness for gambling. In October 1928, he lost $320,000 in a three-day poker game. He thought it was fixed, and refused to pay. A few weeks later, during a business meeting at the Park Central, he was gunned down.
He wasn’t the only mobster never to check out of that hotel: In 1957, Albert Anastasia was having a shave in the hotel barbershop — now a Starbucks, of course — when two men wearing aviator glasses shot him right out of the barber chair.
He was the most famous gangster since Al Capone and brutally murdered his way to the top of the most powerful crime family in America.
Beginning in the 1940s, when members of the mob’s Five Families — called the Commission — wanted to unwind, they went to the Copa, which was secretly owned by Frank Costello, of the Luciano family.
On any given night “there was someone from each family there,” C Alexander Hortis reports in his book, “The Mob and the City.” Here, men named Fat Tony, Joe Stretch and Frankie Brown drank with Joe DiMaggio, Ethel Merman, George Raft and every mobster’s favourite singer, Frank Sinatra.
The Copa polished the gangster’s image. No longer a spaghetti-slurping street thug, he was now a dapper, silk-suited man about town who mixed with celebrities, left $100 tips and appeared in the gossip columns.
There’s no record of anyone being killed at the Copa, though legend has it a few guys were carried out the back exit in the early morning hours — the hangover from which no one recovers.
A few weeks after Castellano was murdered, a parade of wise guys went into the Ravenite Social Club in Little Italy to pay their respects to John Gotti, the new head of the Gambino crime family. Gotti spent a lot of time at the Ravenite, playing cards and talking about sports.
The feds bugged the place, so Gotti would go to a widow’s apartment two flights up to conduct business. The FBI found out, and planted a bug in her VCR. “They heard him talking about three murders, and that spelled his doom,” Capeci says.
Today, the Ravenite is high-end shoe store Cydwoq New York. The only thing Italian in it is the leather.
The White House, Todt Hill, Staten Island
Paul Castellano succeeded Carlo Gambino as the head of the Gambino crime family in 1976. He ruled his empire from a white mansion atop Todt Hill, the highest point on Staten Island. Because it had pillars and a portico, the feds called it “the White House.”
“Its location made it difficult to bug,” says Jerry Capeci, editor of ganglandnews.com. “It was up on a big hill. There was no place around where they could hide and break in. And there was a maid who was always there.”
Eventually, FBI agents posing as TV repairmen managed to plant a bug, and caught Castellano and his associates in action. They discovered something else as well: Castellano was having an affair with the maid.
Sparks Steak House, 210 E. 46th St.
In 1985, Castellano, then 70, was on trial for stolen cars and conspiring to commit murder. An emboldened John Gotti feared Castellano was about to take him out for dealing heroin, so he struck first.
On Dec. 16, as Castellano stepped out of his black Lincoln in front of Sparks Steak House, he was gunned down. Gotti watched the hit he ordered while in a car across the street.
The Stonewall Inn, 53 Christopher St.
The Genovese family, whose turf included Greenwich Village, ran a lot of gay bars.
Throughout the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, police regularly raided these establishments, charging costumiers with “lewd and lascivious activities.” With a little help from the mob, who had plenty of cops on the payroll, the raids could be kept at a minimum.
Now known as the landmark that sparked the gay rights movement, the Stonewall Inn was controlled by “Matty the Horse” Ianniello without incident until June 28, 1969, when the new head of the vice squad — a cop who wasn’t on the take — ordered a raid looking for evidence of mob activity. Stonewall’s customers fought back — and a movement was born.
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Alleged Outfit associate convicted of extortion by federal jury
A longtime associate of reputed Outfit bosses Peter and John DiFronzo was convicted Monday of extortion for threatening a deadbeat suburban businessman and then hiring a team of goons to break the victim's legs months later when he still wouldn't pay up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt..
"How are your wife and kids doing? Are you still living in Park Ridge?" prosecutors said Michael "Mickey" Davis asked the victim during a January 2013 confrontation at a Melrose Park used car dealership, according to trial testimony. "Does your wife still own that salon in Schaumburg?"
After two weeks of testimony, a federal jury deliberated about nine hours before convicting Davis, 58, on two extortion-related counts. He faces up to 20 years in prison on each count.
As the verdict was read, Davis, dressed in a light gray suit with his hair slicked back, raised his eyebrows, turned to whisper something to one of his lawyers, sat back in his chair and shook his head.
Prosecutors sought to immediately jail Davis pending sentencing, but U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan allowed Davis to remain free for now so he can go to a doctor's appointment. Davis could be taken into custody when he is scheduled to return to court next week.
In the lobby of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, Davis' attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, vowed to appeal, telling reporters he was "disappointed that the jury could conclude from nothing but circumstantial evidence that it was proof beyond a reasonable doubt."
Davis' trial featured some of the biggest names in the depleted ranks of the Chicago Outfit, including the DiFronzo brothers and Salvatore "Solly D" DeLaurentis, all reputed leaders of the notorious Elmwood Park crew. While none of the aging bosses was charged with any wrongdoing, their names and photos were shown to jurors as evidence of Davis' purported connections to the highest levels of the mob.
The alleged victim of the extortion plot, R.J. Serpico, testified that he was well aware of Davis' friendship with the DiFronzo brothers and that he often saw Davis and Peter DiFronzo cruising past his Ideal Motors dealership in DiFronzo's black Cadillac Escalade. Serpico, who is a nephew of longtime Melrose Park Mayor Ronald Serpico, said he also had heard that Davis was partnered with DeLaurentis, a feared capo convicted in the 1990s of racketeering conspiracy in connection with a violent gambling crew run by Ernest Rocco Infelice.
Durkin said Davis has known the DiFronzo brothers since childhood and that for years he has maintained a business relationship with them through his landfill in Plainfield, where two DiFronzo-owned construction companies have paid millions to dump asphalt and other construction debris. Davis and Peter DiFronzo were also golfing and fishing buddies, Durkin said.
"As many witnesses testified, growing up in Melrose Park, or growing up in Elmwood Park as Mickey did, you come to know those people," Durkin said Monday. "I don't think at this point Peter DiFronzo is anything but a businessman. I think it's unfortunate that he gets tarred with the same brush, but the government seems hellbent on continuing to put the Outfit out of business, and I don't begrudge them that, but I do begrudge them the means that they go about doing it."
Prosecutors allege that within months of the ominous January 2013 confrontation at Ideal Motors, Davis, infuriated that Serpico had still failed to pay back a $300,000 loan, ordered his brutal beating, enlisting the help of a well-known Italian restaurant owner in Burr Ridge to find the right guys for the job. The restaurateur went to reputed mob associate Paulie Carparelli, who in turn hired a team of bone-cracking goons to carry out the beating for $10,000, according to prosecutors.
Unbeknownst to everyone involved, however, the beefy union bodyguard tasked with coordinating the assault, George Brown, had been nabbed months earlier in an unrelated extortion plot and was secretly cooperating with the FBI. In July 2013, agents swooped in to stop the beating before it was carried out, court records show.
jmeisner@tribpub.com
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The New England Mafia: Court to hear Boston mobster 'Whitey' Bulger's app...
The New England Mafia: Court to hear Boston mobster 'Whitey' Bulger's app...: By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - Former mobster James "Whitey" Bulger will get a chance next month to argue against a 20...
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Bayonne man involved with Genovese crime family sentenced on racketeering charges
Ben Shapiro | The Jersey Journal By Ben Shapiro | The Jersey Journal
BAYONNE — After pleading guilty nearly one year ago to involvement with the Genovese crime family in connection to an illegal online betting site, a Bayonne resident was sentenced yesterday on one count of racketeering conspiracy, according to a statement released by the United States Department of Justice.
Eric Patten, 38, of Bayonne, and Dominick J. Barone, 45, of Springfield, were sentenced to 18 and 22 months in prison, respectively. The duo assisted in the running of the illegal online sports betting site based in Costa Rica, beteagle.com, where Patten acted as a bookie for the website, and Barone helped carry out the day to day activities of the operation, according to the statement.
In addition to the prison terms, District Judge Claire C. Cecchi ordered both men to serve three years of supervised release and pay a $5,000 fine, while Barone must also forfeit $100,000 as part of his plea agreement, the release stated.
According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court, Joseph Graziano, 78, of Springfield, was the principal owner of beteagle.com. Along with Barone, Graziano conspired with the Genovese Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra in the operation of Beteagle.
Adding to its unlawfulness, Beteagle did not accept payments or credit online, and therefore relied on its employees to use threats of violence to pressure users to pay their debts.
Graziano has pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme and is scheduled for sentencing on June 25.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, members of the Bayonne Police Department Special Investigations Unit and other members of local authority agencies for aiding in the arrest and yesterday's sentencing.
U.S. Owners of Costa Rica Sportsbook Sentenced to Prison
• By Jaime Lopez –
• NEWARK, NJ (US Attorney Press Release) —Two members of a racketeering conspiracy involving the Genovese Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra and an online sports betting operation were sentenced today in federal court, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Dominick J. Barone, 45, of Springfield, New Jersey, and Eric Patten, 38, of Bayonne, New Jersey, were sentenced to 18 and 22 months in prison, respectively. Barone and Patten previously pleaded guilty before District Judge Claire C. Cecchi to separate informations charging them with one count of racketeering conspiracy. Judge Cecchi imposed both sentences today in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Joseph Graziano, 78, of Springfield, was the principal owner of Beteagle.com, a website located in Costa Rica and used to facilitate illegal online sports betting. Barone worked with Graziano in carrying out the daily activities of the website and both men conspired with the Genovese Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra in the operation of Beteagle.
Joseph Lascala, 80, of Monroe, New Jersey, was the alleged “capo” and a made member of the Genovese family operating in northern New Jersey. He directed the criminal activities of a smaller group of associates, referred to as a crew, whose activities included illegal gambling and the collection of unlawful debt.
Associates of the crew were given access to Beteagle and were considered “agents.” Before the advent of computerized betting, these agents would have been referred to as “bookmakers” or “bookies.” The agents had the ability to track the “sub-agents,” under them and the wagers placed by their bettors. The agent or sub-agent maintained a group of bettors (the “package”) and were responsible for those bettors. Patten was a one of the sub-agents who assisted in the illegal gambling business conducted through the website.
To place bets online, the agent or sub-agent issued the bettor a username and password to access Beteagle. This access was not given online and no money or credits were made or transferred through the website. Associates of the crew paid out winnings or collected losses in person. If a bettor failed to pay his gambling losses, the crew used their La Cosa Nostra status and threats of violence to collect on these debts.
The agent or sub-agent paid a fee to the website for each bettor added to a package. Barone and others made weekly collections of cash in furtherance of the scheme.
In addition to the prison terms, Judge Cecchi ordered Barone and Patten to each serve three years of supervised release and pay a $5,000 fine. As part of his plea agreement, Barone must forfeit $100,000.
Graziano has pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme and is currently scheduled for sentencing on June 25, 2015.
Charges against Lascala are still pending. The charges and allegations against him are merely accusations and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Richard M. Frankel in Newark; the Bayonne Police Department, Special Investigations Unit, under the direction of Chief Drew Niekrasz; IRS-Criminal Investigation under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jonathan D. Larsen; the N.J. State Police, under the direction of Superintendent Rick Fuentes; and the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Acting Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Moscato of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.
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I swear I hate to brag and I’m not really, I’m sharing my joy and wonder with all of you.
No Time to Say Goodbye: A Memoir of a Life in Foster Care
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #88,132 Paid in Kindle Store
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Guns and Glamour: The Chicago Mob. A History. 1900-2000: What's left of gangster Johnny Roselli after being...
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The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob : Vincent Mangano
The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob : Vincent Mangano: The legacy of Vincent Mangano, the original boss of what would eventually become the Gambino Family, is not as legendary as t...
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The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob : Joseph "Big Joey"Massino
The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob : Joseph "Big Joey"Massino: Joseph "Big Joey" Massino's current residence is located in Howard Beach, Queens. His home is within close wa...
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The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob : Anthony "Tony Bender" Strollo
The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob : Anthony "Tony Bender" Strollo: The business dealings and interaction of gangsters are built upon double crosses and betrayals, but even by underworld st...
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The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob : Frankie the Fixer Carbo
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The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob : Gangsters Nicholas Lucciani, Eddie Capobianco of t...
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The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob : Your murderers come with smiles.
The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob : Your murderers come with smiles.: “Your murderers come with smiles. They come as friends, people who have cared deeply about you all your life, and they always come at a tim...
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The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob : wiseguys Giuseppe Gambina (left) and Ralph Sciulla...
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The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob : Tommy Eboli
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The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob : William Cutolo
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The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob : Umberto's
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