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MY WRITERS SITE: Big Paulie

July 23, 2015, 2:17 pm
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MY WRITERS SITE: Crazy Konigsberg

July 23, 2015, 2:23 pm
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MY WRITERS SITE: Yasha

July 23, 2015, 2:33 pm
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MY WRITERS SITE: Yasha: Yasha By John William Tuohy Katzenberg Jacob: Narcotics dealer. AKA Yasha. Born 1888. Born in Russia, raised on the Lower East S...
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MY WRITERS SITE: Larry Bones

July 23, 2015, 2:36 pm
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MY WRITERS SITE: The Kevin Weeks Saga

July 23, 2015, 2:39 pm
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MY WRITERS SITE: Dove è Peter Pantos?

July 23, 2015, 2:46 pm
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MY WRITERS SITE: Billy Hanhardt’s Downfall

July 23, 2015, 3:06 pm
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MY WRITERS SITE: Old Joe Profaci

July 23, 2015, 3:09 pm
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MY WRITERS SITE: Louie the Lump

July 23, 2015, 3:26 pm
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MY WRITERS SITE: Origins of the New York Mafia

July 23, 2015, 3:35 pm
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Chicago-style gangster comes to Deerfield

July 24, 2015, 5:12 pm
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By Robert Nolin Sun Sentinel

Longtime gangster lived like retiree in Deerfield Beach until his murder
In the early '80s, James Tortoriello lived like a retired grandfather on a quiet Deerfield Beach street. But cops said he was really the South Florida muscle for the Chicago crime family headed by Sam Giancana. After all, his nickname was "Mugsy."
In 1982, two carloads of gunmen sprayed his house with bullets. A week later, the feds raided the same house, seizing guns and ammo from the convicted felon whose criminal record spanned 52 years. They found a pistol on a shelf under Mugsy's trademark derby.
Two years later, Mugsy, age 73, was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds in a warehouse near the Fort Lauderdale-Holywood International Airport. The murder was never solved.
Two of Mugsy's sons apparently followed in their father's profession. The youngest, Mark Tortoriello, was shot and killed outside a Tamarac home at age 29 during a drug deal. Another, James Tortoriello, also said to be connected to the Chicago mob, was sentenced to three years in federal prison in the early 1980s for theft of paintings that were later found to be forgeries.
Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report

rnolin@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4525
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Italian police seize Mafia assets worth $2.95b in gambling sting

July 24, 2015, 5:17 pm
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Italian police say they have seized assets worth $2.95 billion belonging to a powerful organised crime syndicate in the latest sting against the Mafia.
The assets snatched from the 'Ndrangheta Mafia, which controls much of Europe's cocaine trade, included more than 1,500 betting shops, 82 online gambling sites and almost 60 companies, as well as numerous properties, the police said.
Prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 28 people suspected of running the gambling empire and placed 23 others either under house arrest or ordered them to check in with the police.
The crew is believed to have been headed by mobster Mario Gennaro, who made his way up through the mob in the southern region of Calabria from local to regional chief because of the gambling ring's success.
The 'Ndrangheta is considered the most powerful crime syndicate in Italy, having surpassed Sicily's Cosa Nostra and the Naples-based Camorra, thanks to the wealth it has amassed as the principal importer and wholesaler of cocaine produced in Latin America and smuggled into Europe via north Africa and southern Italy.
Profits from the trade, which is worth billions, were laundered through the gambling empire.
The gang "recycled an enormous amount of 'dirty' money through the use of gaming accounts assigned to willing or unwitting people," police said in a statement.
"They bypassed the laws governing this sector, accumulating significant profits that were then reinvested in the acquisition of new companies and licences to further expand their activities."
Eleven of the companies seized were based abroad, in Austria, Malta, Romania and Spain.
Interior minister Angelino Alfano described the sting in Reggio Calabria as "a serious blow to the 'Ndrangheta".
The name 'Ndrangheta comes from the Greek for courage or loyalty and the organisation's tight clan-based structure has made it hard to penetrate.
In a triumph for anti-Mafia hunters, dozens of alleged mobsters linked to the group were detained at the end of last year in and around Milan, Italy's business capital, on charges of criminal association and extortion.
Police released secretly filmed footage of men undergoing initiation into "Santa" [holy] membership, whereby promoted mobsters swore allegiance to their new "wise brothers" and took an "oath of poison" under which they vow to kill themselves should they ever betray fellow clan members.
A separate sting in January led to the seizure of a notebook written in a hieroglyphic-style code which detailed the initiation rites and the 'Ndrangheta's hierarchical structure from "piciotto" [foot soldier] up to Godfather.
It also detailed the clan's own mystical account of how its structure and "code of honour" came into being as a result of three knights landing on an island off Sicily after being banished from Spain for avenging the honour of their raped sister.
The gambling operation came just two weeks after authorities seized goods worth $2.36 billion from a Sicilian mafia family, which included 33 companies, hundreds of houses, villas and buildings, 80 bank accounts, 40 insurance policies and over 40 vehicles.


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Former Gambino family boss dies in Stamford

July 24, 2015, 5:32 pm
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Former Gambino family boss dies in Stamford

By John Nickerson

STAMFORD — City resident Anthony “The Genius” Megale, who rose to be the underboss of the Gambino crime family during the reign of John Gotti, died at Stamford Hospital Tuesday night.
An employee at the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Farmington said Wednesday that Megale’s body had not yet been examined, and therefore a cause of death was not known.
A local law enforcement source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Megale died of a heart attack at 9:30 p.m. on his 62nd birthday. Megale was released from a Pennsylvania federal prison in December after being indicted on 38 extortion charges in 2004.
Megale’s Stamford attorney, Stephan Seeger, confirmed the cause of death was an apparent heart attack.
Megale was sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison in September 2006 for his part in a tri-state racketeering enterprise centered in New York State.
Seeger said that in the 15 years he had known and represented Megale, he was always a gentleman.
“This whole mafia folklore is what the public wants to believe, but it detracts from some of his more noteworthy qualities,” Seeger said. “He was a kind man who took care of his wife and kids and he contributed greatly to Stamford and surrounding area communities.”
Seeger said he had spoken to Megale’s family and they they were taking the news hard. He requested privacy to allow them to grieve.
“There has always been a lot more to Tony than any alleged mafia folklore,” he insisted.
Although Megale denied membership in the Gambinos, he was accused by federal prosecutors and police of becoming the second-in-command of the crime family in the early 2000s. The Gambinos, one of the five alleged New York mafia families, has traditionally made Fairfield County, especially Bridgeport, its Connecticut turf. In 1989, Megale admitted to being Gotti’s top man in Connecticut, a confession Seeger said he never meant to make.
Megale was handed a 135-month sentence for extorting thousands of dollars from the owner of a Greenwich restaurant named Valbella, a New Jersey trucking company and a Westchester County, N.Y.-based construction company.
He was among 32 members and associates of the Gambino crime family who were arrested by the FBI in 2005 during a New York crime sweep that involved a decade-long racketeering scheme of violent assault, extortion, loansharking, union embezzlement, illegal gambling, trafficking in stolen property and mail fraud.
Authorities said the crimes were exposed during a three-year investigation, in which an undercover FBI agent infiltrated the Gambinos and made hundreds of secret tape recordings of high-ranking members at sites throughout the Bronx, N.Y., and Westchester County, including the United Hebrew Geriatrics Home in New Rochelle, N.Y.
Former Connecticut Post and Stamford Advocate reporter Frank Fedeli, who wrote dozens of articles about Megale while covering the organized crime beat, said Megale was given his mob moniker in a back-handed way.
Fedeli said Megale was dubbed “The Genius” on a federal wiretap by an upset and angry Gotti, who apparently thought Megale was anything but a genius.
Fedeli, now Stamford’s customer service supervisor, said in the late 70s and early 80s Megale ran Tony’s Italian Restaurant on the corner of State and Atlantic streets. While it wasn’t known for its ambiance, the place had a well-respected fra diavolo sauce and was a favorite place for the Gambinos to catch up with their New York brothers. Federal officials and Stamford police knew about the arrangement and kept close tabs on the eatery.
Fedeli said Megale had great help rising through the mafia’s ranks through his uncle, Cosmos Sandalo, who was a very well-liked and low-profile gentleman mobster. Megale, who was a street soldier and known to be a good mob earner, was also helped by a pitched mob war from 1978 to 1981 that rubbed out many of the older established mafia bosses.
“The vacuum was created and he walked into it,” Fedeli said.
Megale’s health declined in the months surrounding his sentencing on federal charges in Connecticut in early 2006. He suffered two heart attacks and underwent two heart surgeries in the spring of that year.

jnickerson@scni.com; stamfordadvocate.com/policereports
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Mobster Agnello sues City of Cleveland for illegally seizing property

July 24, 2015, 5:40 pm
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Kim Wendel 
6:32 p.m. EDT July 23, 2015

Agnello 55, of Bentleyville, has ties to the Gambino crime family in New York City and is the ex-son-in-law of the late mobster John Gotti.
CLEVELAND -- Attorneys Roger Synenberg and Ian Friedman, representing Carmine "The Bull" Agnello, filed a civil suit against the City of Cleveland to get returned the equipment that was confiscated in a raid Friday from Eagle 1.
Although first filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, the civil right suit was moved to U.S. District Court Wednesday (July 22) at the city's request.
The suit claims that police illegally seized property during the raid, according to court records.
The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office sent the following statement: "Agnello's claim that America's Civil Rights Act was written to protect Mafia enterprises is ridiculous and self-serving, coming from a violent ex-con who is a made member of the New York Gambino crime family. Next, bank robbers will claim the Civil Rights Act allows them to keep their guns pending trial."

The suit wants the city to immediately return the following property:
•           Three (3) front loaders
•           Three (3) fork lifts
•           One (1) automobile crusher
•           One (1) 2008 Cadillac Escalade vehicle
•           All computers, monitors, DVR systems and servers seized
•           The briefcase, wallet and papers of Mr. Agnello
•           $20,000 in U.S. currency seized from the property of Eagle I
•           $5,038 in U.S. currency seized from the person of Mr. Agnello
•           $21,310 in U.S. currency seized from the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Agnello
•           $3,675 in U.S. currency seized from Anthony Giangrande, an employee of Eagle I.
Agnello 55, of Bentleyville, has ties to the Gambino crime family in New York City and is the ex-son-in-law of the late mobster John Gotti.
Agnello was arrested last week at the auto towing business on E. 116th Street and Harvard Avenue in Cleveland following an 18-month investigation dubbed "Operation Goodfella."
He was released on a $100,000 personal bond and is required to wear a GPS monitor and cannot visit Eagle 1.
Charity Towing/Eagle Auto Parts is registered in the name of his wife Danielle. Danielle is the daughter of mobster Mourad "Moose" Topalia.
Agnello was arrested for theft, money laundering, conspiracy, and corrupting sports.
Officers uncovered multiple weapons during a search of Agnello's Bentleyville home, as well as evidence of illegal dumping at Agnello's East 116th Street scrap metal operation.
Agnello, who has a prior record of federal convictions, is precluded by law from owning or possessing firearms.
These crimes were uncovered during an extensive covert investigation conducted by the Cleveland Division of Police Intelligence Unit, with assistance from the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office Public Corruption Unit.
Cleveland police also said that, within the last three years, they observed a spike in auto thefts with no recovery of the stolen vehicles. As a result, an investigation was initiated and multiple scrapyards were identified as likely participants in illegal activity.
The investigation focused on Agnello due to the scale of Agnello's scrap metal operation and the amount of cars processed at Agnello's scrap yards.
The investigation revealed that, between 2014 and the present; Agnello systemically defrauded a regional scrap metal processing facility for more than $3 million.


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Judge says reputed mob member can return to work in Cleveland

July 26, 2015, 9:12 am
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A Cuyahoga County judge says a reputed member of New York’s Gambino crime family and former son-in-law of John Gotti can resume working at the scrap yards he operates in southeastern Cleveland.
Cleveland police arrested Carmine “The Bull” Agnello, 55, of Bentleyville, on July 15 for what authorities say was a $3 million scam involving stolen cars and scrap metal. A common pleas judge freed Agnello on bond but ordered him to stay away from his scrap yards. A different judge on Thursday said Agnello can return to work.
Agnello hasn’t been formally charged. Prosecutors said they’ll seek charges at a grand jury. Agnello was married for 17 years to reality TV star Victoria Gotti, the daughter of the late crime boss. They divorced in 2002.

 — From wire reports
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Feds charge alleged Mafia capo

July 28, 2015, 10:24 am
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Federal grand jury indicts Merokean for extortion and loan-sharking

A federal grand jury last week charged Luca DiMatteo, 70, of Merrick, with extortion, loan-sharking and racketeering conspiracy. The indictment accuses DiMatteo of serving as an acting captain in the Colombo crime family, one of New York’s five Mafia families.
DiMatteo was charged alongside his nephew, Luca “Lukey” DiMatteo, 46, of Brooklyn, and another man, John Shields, also known as Scott Greco, 46, of Atlantic Beach. The DiMatteos extorted a business owner for more than 10 years, squeezing him for $100 to $200 every other week until he closed the business in June, said Kelly Currie, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. The indictment covers January 2009 to June 2015. Uncle and nephew also engaged in loan-sharking and racketeering conspiracy, Currie said.
Lukey and Shields were also charged with running an illegal gambling club in Brooklyn, Currie said.
Luca and Shields were arraigned on July 16 at a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, where Lukey was also scheduled to be arraigned on July 17.
A news release from Currie’s office described the elder DiMatteo as a long-time Colombo soldier who “for several years” has been acting captain of a crew of Colombo associates.
In a letter to the court, federal prosecutors said that a cooperating witness recorded 2011 conversations with Luca and Colombo members Joseph Carna and Vincent Manzo that indicate Luca’s status as an acting captain.
“We are committed to defeating organized crime,” Currie said in the release. “We will not tolerate the use of violence or threats of violence to extort local businesspeople, and we will shut down illegal gambling businesses in our neighborhoods.”
Diego Rodriguez, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York office, echoed Currie. “As alleged, Luca DiMatteo and Lukey DiMatteo picked up a check every couple of weeks from a local business for more than 10 years, but it wasn’t a paycheck — rather, they picked up a shakedown check,” Rodriguez said in the release.
Flora Edwards, Luca DiMatteo’s attorney, did not return a call for comment.

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RECIPES WE WOULD DIE FOR: Italian potato salad

July 28, 2015, 10:54 am
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RECIPES WE WOULD DIE FOR: Tagliatelle with chickpeas

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