Gambino Cash & Escorts

Business on the street keeps moving no matter how many people go down.  There are always others waiting in the wings to step up and replace them.  I wrote before that crime does not pay.  A large number of people disagreed with me and argued that it does indeed pay.   One person posted an article claiming that a crime group made more than McDonald’s.  They missed my point.  It is the toll it takes on the person, I am talking about - the consequences for their family and friends.  It was not the balance sheet I was referring to, it was the fact that there are no real happy endings to the stories involving the Mafia.

Michael Rizzi an ex-NYPD officer who branched out into the lucrative business of escort services.   Rizzi went before a judge this week for sentencing.  He told the judge that he initially started off with a completely legal escort service, and it grew out of hand.  The judge laughed at him.  Rizzi has plead guilty to laundering money from the illicit sex workers and is awaiting his sentencing.  He had over two million dollars in credit card charges from October 2012 until May of 2016.

The escort girls went on dates for up to two thousand dollars an hour. The judge did not believe that anyone would pay that amount of money for dinner.  Rizzi is on a disability pension from the NYPD and he also owns an adult store.  Rizzi controlled over eighty adult websites and the parent company BJM-Manhattan Stakes and Entertainment.

There were some customers of the escort service that had spent over one hundred thousand dollars with the service. A few that paid in excess of twenty five thousand for one night.  In 2009, Rizzi was taken down in Queens because of his involvement with a mafia backed sportsbook.

Rizzi had married into the Gambino crime family.  His wife Jill is the daughter of Gambino soldier Richard Juliano Jr., and the niece of Gambino capo Joseph "Sonny" Juliano.

Sonny has a long history with gambling, loan sharking and adult businesses.  When I first began spending time in NYC, he was said to control some Manahatten stripbars.  He also had some large loans out, including some documented in a book that were photographed for the FBI.

Sonny was arrested in a 2003 gambling case was based in Albany, New York. The business had over ninety runners who picked up bets and paid out.  They also had a huge numbers business that was based on race track handles and state lotto numbers.  The business netted over three million dollars a year, yet Sonny claimed only one hundred and six dollars of income on his 2000 income taxes.

It is laughable that the Attorney General at the time was Eliot Spitzer, who served two terms in that office before being elected governor.  He had to step down as governor when he was caught paying for high end escorts.

It was alleged that he spent over eighty thousand dollars on the escort, including some campaign funds.

Sonny took a plea deal in his case and was given 1-1/2 to 4-½ years in state prison.  He forfeited $550,000 in gambling cash and paid $37,000 in taxes.

Richard plead guilty and face two to four years in prison.

Michael Rizzi will face up to four years next week.

So how does crime pay?

New Jersey Fun with the DeCavalcantes

The FBI still goes after Cosa Nostra or mafia families, and in the last few years they have hit the New Jersey-based DeCavalcantes pretty hard.

Last week a judge gave Charles “Beeps” Stango, a capo in the DeCavalcante family, ten years in a case that included murder-for-hire.  

The DeCavalcante crime family is the crime family that the show Sopranos was loosely based on.  Law enforcement now claims that they operate under the Gambino crime family. I laugh out loud when I think about the Sicilians, who run the Gambinos, actually wanting to deal with a bunch of American Cosa Nostra.

Beep’s crew engaged in everything from bookmaking, to loansharking, to selling cocaine and untaxed cigarettes.  The FBI was watching them and intercepted some good wire talk about their drug deals.  One of the conversations they were able to record was one of Beeps talking about the structure of the family and who did what.  It is a very damning recording.  He explains that he goes way back with Goombah Frankie, aka Frank Nigro, who was also taken down in the investigation.  Nigro also happens to be the consigliere of the family.  

Beeps explains to the informant who made the recording what place the consigliere holds in the family.  Equal with the underboss, but a representative of all the men.  

He goes on to explain that if you have a beef, you go to your capo, who takes it to the consigliere, who will settle the dispute.

This is where he tells the informant that the family is under the Gambinos now after being independant since the beginning.

Beeps brags about “planting the family flag,” or setting up crews, in New Orleans, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Beeps then had a beef with another capo and another made guy in his crew.  He told the informant that they were disrespectful to him and the underboss.  He wanted the guy hurt, acid thrown in his face or put in a wheelchair.  

He wanted the informant to use a crew from outside Elizabeth, New Jersey that would not be recognizable to the locals.  He considered throwing “pineapples” (grenades) to blow up the guy.

The informant found two unknown outlaw bikers who would do the job.   Beeps offered them fifty thousand dollars to handle the guy.  This time he wanted him dead and he told them.  He also told his son on the phone, and Nigro, while it was being recorded.

The recordings go on and on about setting up the murder and why.  They are between Beeps and Nigro, Beeps and his son and many with the informant. The two would-be hitmen would later turn out to be undercover FBI agents.  

They recorded a meeting at a bar with his son Anthony and two females, where they discussed starting a high end escort business.  They went over paperwork the girls would sign stating that they would not commit illegal acts.  Beeps wanted his son to open a bar as a front for the business.

The informant also did a couple of ‘buy walk’ cocaine deals.  A ‘buy walk’ is when law enforcement buys illegal drugs, pays for them, and lets the dealer go about business.  This is different when law enforcement does ‘buy busts’ and takes everyone down at the time of the deal.  They did a couple of deals with Anthony for two hundred grams of cocaine to strengthen the case against him.  Then the FBI upped the amounts to five hundred gram deals.

The informant got some great tapes of them discussing where they got the cocaine from and how it was brought into the country.

The six others arrested with Beeps Stango have all plead guilty and will be sentenced.

In the old days, a capo would be insulated from street dealings - and forget about having to “hire out” a killing.  The guys in any mafia crew would not get paid to murder - they just did what they were told to do.  Old age and repeated government assaults have weakened the family.

I doubt Beeps Stango will ever be a play on the street again.

Oldfella, Lufthansa and John Gotti

Anyone who has seen the movie Goodfellas will know about what happened on Dec. 11, 1978.

That was when a group of masked men forced their way into the secured cargo building of Lufthansa Airlines and stole 6 million in cash and jewels.  One of the men who was part of the conspiracy was Vincent Asaro, the Bonanno family capo in charge of their airport rackets.  He received very little of the cash and what he did take home, he lost gambling.

He has taken down some big scores over the years and made money with the family.  He has been promoted, demoted and promoted again because of his habits.  He involved his son Jerome in the life - they are both capos.

Vincent Asaro took a huge gamble in 2015 and took his case to trial.  Despite his cousin Gaspare Valenti wearing a wire and testifying against him, he was acquitted in 2015.  He walked free until this week.

Here is one of the crimes Vincent Asaro was charged with this week. In April of 2012, Asaro was in Howard Beach, Queens when another motorist pulled in front of him at a stoplight.  This pissed him off so he chased him until he could figure out where he lived.  All one has to do is take a look at Asaro’s picture and you can imagine how he drives. Asaro drives an associate of the Bonanno family to where the car is parked in the Broad Channel section of Queens.  He then orders the associate to torch the car.  The associate then recruits two men to help him, Matthew Rullan aka Fat Mat and none other than John J. Gotti.  Can you believe the grandson of the former Gambino family boss, John Gotti, is going to torch a car for an aging Bonanno family capo?

The unnamed associate, whom I suspect as flipped, drove with John Gotti in his Jaguar to a service station where they filled up a container with gasoline.  They doused the car and Fat Matt ignited it.  The problem was, there was an NYPD officer in an unmarked car who watched them torch the car.  The NYPD car chased the Jaguar for a short distance before giving up the chase because it was dangerous.

Asaro then made the associate drive him the next day to the place where the burned out car was taken to confirm the job was done.  Imagine that you are a capo in one of the five New York Mafia families, and you are involved in torching a car for cutting you off in traffic.

It gets better.  Two weeks after the arson, John Gotti, Fat Matt and a man named Michael Giudici decide to rob the bank where John Gotti’s girlfriend is a teller.

On April 18, 2012 Michael Giudici walks into Maspeth Federal Savings and Loan Association at 5:45pm before they close.  He walks up to a teller and hands a note over that says, “I Have A Bomb.” The teller places $5,491 in cash on the counter, which Giudice takes and then flees the bank.  John Gotti and Fat Mat are waiting and they all drive away.

These master criminals walked away with only $1830 dollars a piece, that is, unless they also had to kick some of that up to someone above them.  They now face up to 20 years for that small payday.  John Gotti is already locked up in prison for eight years for being caught selling pills.  

Vincent Asaro is facing less time, but I suspect the Feds will be hitting him with more charges soon.  A Bonanno capo was unmasked as cooperating, and at this point nobody knows for just how long he’s been cooperating.

Operation Shark Bait & Salvatore DeMeo

The New York Attorney General's office just concluded an operation they called Shark Bait.

They targeted a group of mafia-connected online bookmakers that mostly took bets in the New York area. I understand that gambling is illegal unless state run (OTB, lotto) or on Indian land.

My question for you is, why do they waste so much money and time going after a few guys who are only providing what the public wants?  In my humble opinion, if they spent as much time and effort going after illegal aliens, who are costing the state 5.1 billion a year, the money and effort might be better spent.  Law Enforcement wastes an enormous amount of taxpayer money on something that really does not affect the rest of the citizens, only willing participants who seek out a loan and have connections.  The indictment says they loaned out cash to customers at outrageous weekly interest rates. Here it is again.  I can guarantee you that not one person who was loaned money was forced to take out a loan. They know the terms before they take the cash and they have to know somebody in the life to get it.  It’s not like they do a credit check.  I understand that it is against the law and that they use the cash to fund other enterprises, but how about all of the those people killed in shootings in high crime areas?  If less time, energy and money was spent chasing after loan sharks, maybe more time could be spent in high crime areas bringing down violent crime rates.

Well enough of me on my soapbox.

Anyway, they took down 13 people in the bust of 4Spades.org which is a Genovese family operation.  The man behind it is Salvatore “Sallie” DeMeo a made Genovese guy.  DeMeo has a long history of high profile criminal acts including bank robbery.  He was the head of a bank robbery crew in the late 1990’s.  He helped plan out a robbery in Manalapan N.J. where my buddy Andrew DiDonato jumped over the counter and they made off with over 400,000 dollars in cash.  Sallie received a full share of that robbery even though he was not one of the upfront guys because he was an integral part.  He is the real deal and very well respected by everyone in the life.  The crew also took down an armoured car in Manhattan.  He would later be charged by the FBI, but when they went to arrest him he had already gone on the lam.

In the old days his capo was Rosario “Ross” Gangi, another well respected Genovese guy.

They were not only charged with the bookmaking operation, but with loan sharking and selling bootleg cigarettes.

They did sell more than thirty thousand thousand untaxed cigarettes in the New York area.

They smuggled the cigarettes into the state and then used fake tax stamps so they could move them in bulk.

This is a pretty typical mafia operation which shows that the mafia is still alive and well in the country.

In other mafia news, New Jersey DeCavalcante Cape Charles Stango admitted to offering two undercover FBI agents fifty thousand dollars to murder a person he thought disrespected another family member.

He was on parole for another crime and living in Henderson Nevada at the time.

He will be doing a few years.

Papa Smurf vs. New Jersey

The state of New Jersey finally won a battle with a Genovese mobster in court.

The battle was with the family of Carmine “Papa Smurf” Franco over a 1.89 acre triangular piece of land.  The state sued for condemnation in 2009 and offered the family $990,000 for the land.

The state wanted the land for a twin train tunnel project between New Jersey and New York.

The program was called “Access to the Region's Core,” but it was canceled by Gov. Chris Christie.

Papa Smurf Franco is a Genovese Family associate who has for over thirty years controlled various carting companies.  He was convicted in the 1980’s and 1990’s for various felonies in the waste hauling business.  He was forbidden by law from owning any business or working in the carting business in New Jersey or New York.

That did not stop Papa Smurf Franco, because he continued to control various carting companies unit the Feds took him down in 2012 for a joint venture with the Gambino and Lucchese family.  

They formed a crew that asserted “Property Rights” over every property that they picked up waste from.  Once anyone in the crew had the rights no other crew could service the property.  This way, no matter what the company that picked up the waste was called the revenue still went into the same pockets.

They decided who paid protection money, who could own a company and where those companies could work.  They loaned money to companies and they stole others’ equipment.

They controlled the carting business in most of New Jersey and New York.

Papa Smurf Franco was facing over 45 years in prison. He would plead guilty in 2013 to the charges.  One of them was illegally transporting stolen cardboard across state lines.

The judge fell for his story.  He had a hard upbringing, old age and health issues so he was sentenced to only a year, two $5,000 fines and was required to forfeit $2.5 million to the government.

The family took the NJ Transit to court over the land because they claimed it was worth far more than $990k they were offered.  

They hired an architect and an engineer to reimagine the property.  They came up with drawings and plans that showed a 13 story condominium high rise on the land.

The land around it had become valuable because of its proximity to the trains and views of New York.  

They took NJ Transit to court claiming the property was then worth 9.1 million.

A jury ruled that it was worth 8.1 million and ruled in the family’s favor.

The state of New Jersey had their own test run on the land and found that it was contaminated and it would cost 2 million dollars to clean up the contamination.

They appealed the jury award. On October 19th of this year, a three panel appeals court ruled that the value depended on getting the proper permits for building, so they remanded it back to a new trial.

Will they find a way to get the permits?

For now, the state has won.  

Gerard "Skeevy" Bellafiore: Bank Robber for Life

In July of 2016 a Martin County Sheriff's deputy responded to a burglary in progress at a Chase Bank in Jensen Beach Florida. When he pulled up to the bank he witnessed a man wearing a hoodie attempting to grab night deposit bags out of the box he had broken into.  The man turned and was holding a modified gaffing hook - a garden hoe sized tool used to bring large fish in off a line.  

The man had on a Freddy Kruger mask and advanced towards the deputy.  He was ordered to put down the hook but instead decided to charge.  The deputy fired several shots striking the man, who was still able to run to his car and make a brief getaway.  He then hit a lightpole before he made it out of the parking lot.

The sheriff would soon learn that Gerard Bellafiore was no stranger to car wrecks and bank robberies.

He once tried to escape from the North Miami Police.  He took them on a ten block chase that ended when he lost control of his Corvette, hit a light pole, launched in the air and landed upside down on some new SUV’s at a car dealership, where the Corvette exploded in flames.

One would think that someone who lived through that life threatening experience would decide to give up a life of crime, but he did not.

He was charged along with twelve others back in 2000 with racketeering for robbing a number of banks.  He flipped and testifedi at the trial of Edmund Boyle, a Gambino family connected guy.

He explained to the jury how they robbed banks.  He showed them how and the tools they used.

He would later turn down WITSEC but promises he would go straight.  

It didn't last long, because he was soon in Florida with another crew of guys robbing banks.  He used the same M.O. He would have lookouts with walkie talkies and police scanners watching the area around the bank as he used a saw to cut off the door to the night deposit box. He used a ten foot chain attached to a car to pull the deposit boxes out. He would then use the gaff hook to pull out bags of cash retailers had deposited.

He went away for that, and when he came out he vowed again to go straight.  It didn’t last, because here he was at Chase bank, working on a box.

I cannot believe he does not tire of living life locked up.

This time I am sure he will receive another decade or more of time behind bars.

The grandson of former Gambino boss John Gotti, who also shares the same name as his famous grandfather, is being held in protective custody.  It would seem the NYPD was listening in when John Gotti’s grandson was bragging about selling 4,200 Oxycodone a month pulling down over $100k a month. It also seems that Gotti learned to run his mouth like his grandfather.  He bragged that he kept his drug records and cash at an associate's house.  

He now faces up to 25 years. I wonder what he will do when he gets out.

Informants and Law Enforcement

The FBI has used informants and the RICO statute to rip the guts out of the mafia in recent years. Why do they need informants?

The mafia was almost untouchable until the 1980’s because they had a structure with a defined chain of command.  The FBI or the local police would make a case and they would mostly get the low hanging fruit: soldiers or associates, occasionally a capo.

Then they started using a four pronged attack plan to go after the mafia: 1) informants 2) electronic surveillance 3)RICO and 4) witness protection.

They would use RICO to enhance sentences, seize assets and take down members who for a long time were almost immune to prosecution.  Decades long sentences made guys think twice about keeping their mouths shut.  

There are two kinds of informants. One flips when he is already awaiting trial.  He will testify at the trial of his co-defendants and others.  Another is an informant that agrees to help law enforcement gather proof of crimes by wearing a wire and gathering intelligence.  Both kinds of informants can be of immense help to law enforcement because of their historical knowledge and unique access to the group. They can give valuable insight into the types of crimes and the M.O. of the people being investigated.  They can can give layouts and details about places that will be bugged.  They can get and give up cell phone numbers that are used for crimes.

Then law enforcement began to master electronic surveillance.  They use pen registers to figure out what numbers are frequently called by a target.  With that knowledge and other information from informants they can obtain a wiretap and begin listening in on criminal conversations.  In the old days they would have to put a device in the phone or tap into the actual wires.  Most of the wires they use are not transmitters but recorders that last 10 hours or more. They are so small they can fit inside a watch.  They had remote video cameras all over because they are cheap and small. Today they just serve a warrant to your carrier and its done.  

Then comes RICO, which allows them to charge people with crimes that they may have already served time for in the past.  All they have to prove is that you committed them in concert with the organization.  They can seize assets that you gained or were used in crimes. This hit the mafia hard because guys would do the time and come back to economic ruin.

All of this would have not been so effective if not for the WITSEC or witness relocation program.  If you would just be left on street to be killed you might as well do the time.  The program offered a new life, new name and a new place to call home.  This is one of the most effective tools in law enforcement's arsenal against organized crime.

They do let some bad guys off with short sentences but they believe the long term good for society more than makes up for it. There are some bad apples that return to a life of crime, but most just live out their lives.  This aspect of law enforcement is very different in the United States than it is in Europe where they rarely use informants.  When they do, they refer to them as infiltrators and they do not provide WITSEC.

This week in Florida Governor Rick Scott and the clemency cabinet agreed to commute Kevin Bonner’s sentence.  Bonner had cooperated against the Gambino family in the Florida case 10 years ago.  He testified that John Gotti Jr. stabbed Danny Siva to death at the Silver Fox bar in Queens in 1983.  The jury chose not to convict Junior Gotti for that crime or a host of others.  

The FBI and the US Attorney's office went to bat for Bonner.  They all sent letters and some testified.  One of his letters was from Loretta Lynch, the Attorney General of the United States.

Bonner did not commit the murder with the Gambinos, but he was around them.  

You decide, are informants good?

The Gotti Follies

The name Gotti brings to mind the image of John Gotti as boss of the Gambino crime family, dressed in a two thousand dollar suit.  The public doesn’t understand the lasting negative effect John Gotti Sr. had on the Gambinos.  The truth is, John Gotti Sr. helped the feds weaken the crime family through his actions.

The Gambino family had a lot of crews in multiple states.  John Sr. started making all his capos check in every week at the Ravenite club in Little Italy. This made it easy for the law to keep tabs on who was doing what.  He held meetings inside an apartment above the club that the Feds had wired up.  He bragged, and they caught him on tape.  Sammy Gravano, the family underboss, flipped to team USA.

John Sr. went away for life and he left his son John Jr. as the acting boss.  Junior would later talk to the Feds when he had a proffer session.   He gave up guys for crimes.

Then his daughter Victoria had a reality show, “Growing up Gotti.” Today, they are shooting a movie about John Gotti.  I wonder if they will include anything about Gotti’s neighbor, John Favara, a hard-working man who “disappeared” after accidentally hitting and killing Gotti’s son Frank, who at the time he was hit was driving an illegal mini bike and not obeying basic traffic rules.

There is Gotti news in 2016.  John’s brother Gene, who did many years for dealing heroin, will be up for release soon.  

John Gotti Sr.’s grandson, John Gotti, the son of Peter Gotti, was arrested on June 30th for possessing 205 Oxycodone pills, Testosterone, Xanax, Marijuana and 18 methadone pills. He also had over $7k in cash on him along with the drugs, and was arrested while driving with a suspended license.  

On August 4th the NYPD concluded Operation Beach Party with the raiding of the former Queens home of John Gotti Sr., where his grandson John Gotti lived with his father Peter. The NYPD found a safe with $40k and over 500 Oxycodone pills inside.  They also raided the Rebel Ink Tattoo parlor and arrested seven other people involved in the drug crew.  The NYPD seized $200k from one of the players, who was said to be holding it for John Gotti.

Grandson John Gotti is now in a Rikers Island drug rehab where he awaits trial. A judge denied his bid to be freed on a $2 million bond because he is facing 25 years if convicted.

That is not all of the recent news in the Gotti saga. Victoria Gotti had her Long Island mansion raided by the IRS on September 14th. They also raided an Auto Parts store in Queens owned by her ex-husband Carmine Agnello, a made member of the Gambino family who is awaiting trial in Cleveland, Ohio where he ran some scrap yards.  The store is currently being run by Victoria and her three sons, who were all reality stars in her show.

Agnello, now divorced from Victoria, is facing charges for his part in a stolen car ring.

The Gottis are not keeping a low profile, although that seems like the best thing to be doing in their situation. Last year a tape was played in the trial of Vincent Asaro, a Bonanno family capo.  Asaro was inside the auto parts store when one of the Gottis said hello to him.

To continue the life of crime with the Gotti name seems crazy.

Mafia Drugs & Gambling Busts Continue

The Waterfront Commission of New York and New Jersey began decades ago and is still making cases against the mafia in 2016.  This new case grew out of a broader investigation into mafia activities along the waterfront.  They write that they will announce more developments at a later time.

This week they took down a multi family crew that distributed marijuana and oxycodone as well as ran an online sportsbook.  

The operation worked like this. John Kelly and Richard Sinde were the ringleaders and coordinated the business.  They would buy marijuana from legal farms in California and have it shipped to New York, where it is still illegal and can command a higher price.  

California is the wild west of weed.  They have laws that say you can grow it for medical and personal use.  Yet you can also grow as a collective.  You can get a marijuana card for as little $25 for a doctor visit.  You can get a card from the state for $100.  It’s only for medical use, but that is a joke. There are so many stores and growers, why bother arresting anyone anymore. The whole business is in a grey area because it is not legal for recreational use, but that is what many people use it for on a daily basis.  So it is a highly unregulated business.  They could just make it legal and tax the actual business, or they could make it illegal.  

Destiny Saetern and Michael Giammarinaro worked on some of the grow operations in California.  They would purchase marijuana from different growers and pack 5-15lbs into boxes to mail or ship UPS or Fedex to New York.  Often they would pack 100-150lbs into boxes and it would be driven to New York in a van.

Stephen Gallo would pick up the packages in New York and then take them to various warehouse or homes to repackage for distribution.

Michael “Mickey Boy” Paradiso, a Gambino capo who did a long stretch for dealing heroin, was taken down in the investigation.  

Lawrence Dentico, the grandson of Genovese capo “Little Larry” Dentico, ran part of the operation from his home in California.

The marijuana part of the operation brought in $350k a month in sales.  Over a 21 month period they sold $15 million in marijuana.  

They also particiapated in an online gambling operation Bklynsportscenter.com, which brought in millions.  This was run just like all the other mafia operated sportsbooks.  A better can bet online or call a wireroom.  He can bet his limit or what he has posted with a local connected bookie. He is paid on Tuesdays or Wednesdays by the local bookie.  

They also had another profitable side business selling oxycodone pills.  They made an $18k profit just on the pills they sold to an undercover agent at the end of the operation, but it is unknown how much they made on oxycodone deals that were not caught.

This was a pretty well set up business.  They took in the cash in New York and New Jersey. They collected it and it was laundered through Regional Food Brokers Inc.

They ended up taking down about two dozen members and associates of all five New York mafia families. After all the work law enforcement did on this case, have people stopped gambling, smoking weed or taking pills? No.

Bartolomeo "Bobby Glasses" Vernace : The Gambino Capo

Bartolomeo “Bobby Glasses” Vernace struck out recently with his appeal.  The US Court of Appeals upheld his conviction for the murder in the Shamrock Bar during Western Night in 1981.

Bobby’s lawyers argued that the killings were over a personal dispute and not part of the Gambino Crime Family business.

Bobby Glasses had beat a state case for murder in the killings.  The Feds took another bite at the apple by charging him with racketeering.  It's really a catch all because they just have to prove that he is guilty of the predicated acts listed in the indictment and then he gets a big sentence.

The murders went down like this.  April 10, 1981, Gambino associate Frank Riccardi was in the Shamrock  when someone spilled a drink on the girlfriend of a friend.  He started arguing with the guy.  Bar owners  John D'Agnese and Richard Godkin approached Frank and tried to calm him down.  They exchanged words and Frank grabbed a bottle of vodka from the bar and slammed it down and said, “No, I run this place.”   Frank left and went to a Gambino social club where he asked Bobby and Ronald Barlin to help him.  They returned to the Shamrock and shot D’Agnese and Godkin.  They both died the next day.  The bar was full of people that night, but everyone was afraid.  Bobby went on the lam until years later.  He was acquitted in state court for the murders and then inducted into the Gambino family.  

The government claimed that it was part of the Gambino crime family crimes that he was charged with in the indictment.  They claim the two murders were to enhance the Gambino crime family.  They played a tape in court when one of his associates referenced the two murders to scare a loan shark debtor into paying what he owed.

Bobby had done well since the murders.  He had gone from associate to capo on the ruling panel of the family.  He ran lucrative Baccarat games at cafes and coffee shops.  He had a lot of money on the street in shylock loans.  He also ran a lot of “joker poker” machines in cafes that brought in more than 2,000 dollars a day.

They used some old convictions for heroin trafficking to show that he was committing crimes on behalf of the Gambino family.  Robbery also became another predicated act.

To pile on counts they also charged him with possession of a firearm when he went into the Shamrock bar.  The jury found him guilty of nine predicated acts of racketeering.

Another highlight of his trial was Linda Gotti, the daughter of Peter Gotti, former boss of the Gambinos and brother of John Gotti.  She testified that her father and uncle talked her into recanting her identification of Bobby, Ronald and Frank that night in the Shamrock.  Her boyfriend was John D’Agnese and she was present that night.  

It took the FBI 33 years but they served up some justice.

Gambinos: Still Making Book.

The Brooklyn District Attorney's office just spent 17 months, and I'm sure millions of hard earned taxpayer dollars, to take down a bookmaking operation.

The operation was run in New Jersey by Patrick Deluise, a bookmaker, Illegal fireworks seller and a shylock debtor.

The Brooklyn D.A. may have some problems of its own now. Detective Investigator Nicole Byrd, who was in charge of the 24 hour command center for the investigation, was fired for falsifying records so she could get overtime pay when she was not even on the job.

Four other investigators are being looked at by law enforcement for possible padded hours on the job.

Now it may have really blown up in their faces, because Patrick Deluise shot himself after he was approached to flip on his co-conspirators.

I understand that they were trying to shut down a mafia run book making operation.  We know they will use the cash to fund other operations.  The government now picks and chooses which crimes to go after.  Betting on football, basketball and baseball is a joke.  Everyone bets and that is why they have so many viewers on Superbowl Sunday.

They cannot stop the million plus illegal immigrants pouring across our southern border, but they pour tax money into shutting down a bookie in New Jersey?

Tons of heroin is coming across the border but they can’t bother to secure our border.  Something is wrong here.

Patrick Deluise is considered a “victim” because “he borrowed cash from a shylock.”

He borrowed $50,000 to pay for an experimental cancer treatment in Germany for his wife.  He agreed to the terms and took the cash.  He was not forced to take a loan.  

Most people could not borrow from a shylock and would just lose their homes, cars etc., paying for medical care.

He borrowed the cash from Anthony Vallario at a rate of $2,400 a month interest.  He had paid $129,600 interest on it.  He knew what it would cost when he took the cash and he knew it was an interest loan, not a knockdown loan, which means he had to pay back the $50,000 all at once.  

So the DA will charge Anthony Vallario with Loan Sharking, a guy who ran a 10 million dollar online bookmaking business.  Patrick used wagersport.com and other sites for his customers in Brooklyn.  They would bet online or call in and his guys would pay in Bay Ridge Brooklyn.  Patrick involved his two sons in his operation.  

Anthony Vallario is a big fish for the Brooklyn DA because his brother Louis Vallario is a capo in the Gambino family.

Still, one has to wonder is the time and money worth taking down a bookmaker who will be replaced before I'm done writing this blog?

Sonny Franzese still a threat at 98 years old

The name Sonny Franzese was much better known on the street to those who were in the life, than the name John Gotti.  Sonny was very respected and feared by everyone, including the government. This distinction has caused him many years of grief.

Sonny has now earned the title of the oldest inmate in the federal prison system, and, if he lives to his release date, he will be released just after his 100th birthday in 2017.  Sonny has spent the last 40 years in and out of prison, much of the time a result of his bank robbery conviction in 1970 for which he was given 50 years.  The case was a obviously a set up by the prosecutors because they had Sonny working with a crew of junkie bank robbers who didn't even know him.

Sonny has been released many times by the parole board, only to be violated for associating with known felons. He would be out for enough time to be given his position of capo in the Colombo family back, and then he would be sent back.

When Colombo family underboss Jackie Deross went away for life, the family upped Sonny to underboss.  The position was short lived because the government already had its sources in place.  Sonny finally caught a new case after a guy wearing a wire caught him on tape.  The case was backed up by his son John Franzese.  Sonny was sentenced to 8 years in 2011 for the new case, and that should by all means be the end of his story.

The government is now going after the wheelchair-bound incarcerated man's prison commissary account.  It would be funny if it were not true.  

The same government who let the wife of con man Bernie Madoff keep $2.5 million of their stolen cash.  Unlike Ruth’s stolen loot, the money in Sonny’s account was given to him by relatives for his use to live.

They want to seize his $10,089 in the account that he uses to buy cup-o-noodles and hygiene items like soap, shampoo and shower shoes.  He buys ice cream every once in awhile and the rest he uses for phone calls.  The US wants to seize the cash to pay on his judgement that was part of his sentencing.  They claim that neither Sonny nor his co defendant Joseph DiGorga have paid a dime of what they owe. I would like to point out that Sonny is locked up in federal prison, so it would be pretty hard for him to earn money to pay anything and this is why inmates have accounts. They want to take his money and leave him with $250 to last the next two years.  Joseph DiGorga was release in 2014 and I am sure he is on parole.  He would have to pay back something every month even if it was 25 dollars a month.

How is it that the federal government has the resources and time to go after Sonny, when our southern border is open with millions of people crossing illegally every year.  It is a federal crime to come into the United States without going through immigration.  Everyone of these people costs us far more every year than a Sonny Franzese.

When I was still on the street, Teddy Persico Jr. had a guy in his crew that worked at the Hustler Club in Manhattan that Sonny was convicted of shaking down.  Teddy had to go to a couple of sitdowns over two brothers that others wanted to kill because of the club.  The brothers were sons of Gambino family guy who was in Las Vegas for many years. The brothers lived but the Feds never did much about that whole deal.  

If they just released Sonny now, what harm would it do? He can’t walk. he can't see well and he cannot hear.  The glory days are behind him.  They should let him go home for his final days to die.

A note on last week's story.  Mr New Orleans:

The traditional Second Line parade in celebration of Frenchy Brouillette's life will take place beginning at 4PM on SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13th in the French Quarter outside of Felix's Oyster Bar off Bourbon and Iberville. Attendees are invited to start collecting around 3:50.

Led by MR. NEW ORLEANS author Matthew Randazzo, the parade will be joined by the Storyville Stompers brass band and Pastor Ray Cannata, who will say a benediction as we begin. The parade will travel to some historic places in Frenchy's life before ending with a memorial toast at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop. In addition to Frenchy's friends and fans, all Mardi Gras Indians, baby dolls, Saints fans in full costume, rolling Elvi, and other manifestations of New Orleans are invited to come out and honor Mr. New Orleans with the wildest, most flamboyant second line in French Quarter memory.

It sounds like a great send off!