Mafia Justice

This week I have three stories and three different takes on justice.  

The first one is takes us to Rhode Island where the former boss of the New England family, Frank Salemme, is facing charges for allegedly murdering Steven DiSarro, a nightclub manager, in 1993. DiSarro ran a Boston nightclub for Salemme and his son.  Frank and his son were worried that DiSarro would talk to the Feds.  They also believed he was stealing money from the club.  So Frank Salemme Jr. strangled him while Paul Weadick held his legs.  Salemme's son is dead now.  Paul Wedick and Salemme are facing charges of murdering a federal witness, which can carry the death penalty.  A former capo, Robert Deluca, and Steve Flemmi, a former partner of Whitey Bulger, both agreed to testify against the two men.  You have Robert Deluca telling the Feds that he told Salemme to get rid of him, only now coming forward after many years in the witness protection program. Steve Flemmi is also cooperating after being charged with murdering a lot of people.  

The next case is Colombo capo Luca Dimatteo.  His doctors claim he will be dead within the year due to cancer.  DiMatteo was charged with running an offshore bookmaking operation and shylocking.  He collected money from loans on a weekly basis once when he finished up his chemotherapy.  In 2004 he received a 57 month sentence for racketeering and went right back to the life within months of his release.  This time, Judge Leo Glasser did not want to hear about how sick he was.  DiMatteo was asking for home confinement, but the Judge gave him 33 months in prison.  The Judge told him, “You’ve done this to yourself.”

The third case brings us to New Jersey, where lawyer Cory Leshner helped Nicodemo Scarfo Jr. and other Lucchese family members loot a Texas mortgage company.  The lawyer helped them take over Firstplus Financial Group and steal 14 million dollars, which they then used to buy homes, yachts and a plane.  Before the case went to trial, Leshner agreed to cooperate and he testified against those he helped.  He agreed to a five year plea deal and admitted they stole millions.

Retired FBI Agent Joe Gilson testified last week at Lehshner’s sentencing hearing.  He told the court of a phone call he got from Leshner in the summer. Leshner told him he just wanted to call and thank him for saving his life. The Judge at the sentencing hearing gave him three years instead of five and three years of supervised release.  

The Judge has never lowered a sentence before, but he felt Leshner went above and beyond with his testimony and he had truly changed his life around. Nicodemo Scarfo Jr., on the other hand, was handed a 30 year sentence for his part in the fraud.

The Arrests Continue

The past has a way of catching up with you when you live the mafia life.  If you committed murder you are safe only when you are the last one alive. In the last two weeks the FBI arrested two men who were formerly the boss and a capo in the New England family.  

The FBI took down Robert DeLuca, now 70, at his Coral Springs home in Florida.  DeLuca was a capo in the family and started cooperating in 2011.  DeLuca was sentenced to one day in prison in 2014 for his cooperation.

Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme was arrested Wednesday at a Connecticut hotel.  The former boss of the New England family had flipped when he found out that Whitey Bulger and Stevie Flemmi were informants in 1999.  He agreed to cooperate against Flemmi, Bulger and their FBI handler John Connolly Jr.  Then Flemmi flipped and told the FBI about the time he walked in on Frank Salemme Jr. strangling Steven A. DiSarro. Flemmi told the FBI that DiSarro was murdered because he was close to someone who was an informant.  DiSarro was the front guy for Salemme and his son in the nightclub The Channel in 1993.

Cadillac Frank has already served 5 years for lying to the FBI during his debriefing about the DiSarro murder.  He has been living in Atlanta in the Witness Relocation Program as Richard Parker.

The FBI just recently dug up Steven DiSarro’s remains when they searched the property of Billy Ricci, a longtime New England family associate. Billy Ricci had a marijuana grow operation on the property and was busted this year.  

They are both charged with murdering a federal witness which can carry the death penalty.

Joey Merlino the one time boss of the Philadelphia family was granted his freedom after his wife and friends posted a 5 million dollar bond secured by property.

The thirty page indictment is really broad, so I am betting that there will be a superseding indictment coming down.  

They claimed at the bond hearing that Joey Merlino was caught on tape acting like a boss and that he was trying to put the Philly family back together again.

The FBI had an undercover agent and a cooperator that vouched for the agent who both made audio and video tapes of Merlino.  The cooperator had a casino style gambling club in Yonkers and he worked with a Genovese family gangster who gave him permission to move to Florida to work with Merlino.

This is how Merlino got sucked into the Healthcare fraud. It involves a compound that can cost up to 10k a tube and the crooked doctors prescribe it on a trial basis with 10 refills.  That means they can stick the insurance companies with a 100k bill.  It is the snake oil of our time. I am sure we have paid for this out of our taxes.

One guy who knows that you cannot keep a secret in today's mafia is Teddy Persico Jr., who is now doing 12 years for a few crimes including ordering the murder of renegade capo Joe Scopo when he was on furlough from prison to attend his grandmother's funeral. Teddy was doing 25 years for drug trafficking at the time.

The FBI had a few witness that told them about his part in the murder, but they were able to seize a picture from Rao’s and some letters Teddy sent to the guy from prison that helped their case. It helped a lot that the guy kept every letter.

Teddy who did 17 years in state prison for dealing drugs was already headed back within hours of his release, he just didn't know it. If you want to read about it, it is detailed in my book Breakshot. What does Teddy have to worry about next? Scooby.