Greg Scarpa Jr. and the Homegrown Terrorist

February 26, 1993 was the date when Muslim terrorists drove a truck bomb weighing 1300lbs into the North Tower garage of the World Trade Center. It opened a 98 foot hole going down 4 levels and cut the power to the WTC.  This was the first strike on American soil by Al Qaeda.  The bomb maker Ramzi Yousef  was the nephew of  Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Ali Fadden who would be the mastermind behind 9-11.  Ramzi would be caught in the Philippines when his apartment caught on fire while making bombs to blow up planes in the air.

Ramzi was incarcerated while awaiting trial in 1996 in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC). One of his fellow inmates was Greg Scarpa Jr., a Colombo crime family member.  Scarpa Jr made a deal with prosecutors and the FBI to help gather information from Ramzi and his fellow terrorists.  He convinced them that the Mafia was rooting for the terrorists.

On July 17, 1996 Ramzi asked to use Scarpa Jr.’s smuggled cellphone.  Ramzi had no idea it was part of the FBI sting and he called Khalid and they spoke about TWA 800 that had been destroyed.  In May, Scarpa Jr had told the FBI that Ramzi wanted to blow up planes to show they were serious.  The FBI and the US Attorney would later claim the Scarpa Jr. had pulled a scam and hoax on them and his information was worthless.

They convicted Scarpa Jr. on racketeering charges and he was given 40 years at Supermax in Florence, Colorado.  Scarpa Jr. was given a very long sentence and sent to Supermax which is strange because bosses like John Gotti did not even go there.  Vinny Basciano, who tried to have a prosecutor murdered, was sent there but he has been downgraded.

Once in Supermax, Scarpa Jr. was locked down for all but about 90 minutes a day.  It was during this time that he met Terry Nichols, who along with Timothy McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma City Federal Building on April 19, 1995 using a 4800 pound bomb inside a rental truck.  It killed 168 people and injured 600 more.

The US government had convicted Timothy McVeigh of being the mastermind and the one who detonated the bomb.  This, despite the fact they found a leg that did not belong to anyone in the building rubble after the blast.  They convicted Terry Nichols as a conspirator and one man testified against them.  Michael Fortier along with his wife had knowledge beforehand that they were planning the bombing.  

Scarpa Jr. gained Terry Nichols’ trust, and he ended up giving Scarpa Jr. the location of some explosives.  It was in Nichols’ old home in Herington, Kansas, and he told him it might be retrieved and used to mark the tenth anniversary of the Oklahoma City blast in 2005.

He gave Scarpa written directions in a handwritten note, which can be seen online.  Scarpa went to the FBI and they flew out a polygraph expert, who concluded he was lying.  The FBI was sure the house was clean because they had searched it a number of times.

Scarpa contacted his own investigator who contacted members of Congress who went to the FBI.  The FBI finally got around to searching the old home and they found explosives just like Scarpa had told them.  They found Nitromethane and Kine-Stik wrapped just like Scarpa had told them.  They would not reduce his sentence and they claimed they had developed the information on the explosives from another source.  

This week, a Federal Judge ruled in Scarpa Jr.’s favor, and reduced his sentence by 10 years.  It may not help, because Scarpa Jr. is suffering from cancer. Buried in the transcripts, the Judge says, “It was my view and remains my view that Lin DeVecchio provided information to Scarpa Sr. that got people killed.”  The Judge is referring to the former FBI Agent DeVecchio, who was Greg Scarpa Sr.’s handler while he was murdering people on information he claimed he got from the FBI.

This all makes you wonder if the evidence Scarpa Jr. got on the Oklahoma Bombing was all true.   He was told they had help the Government did not know about.

JoJo Corozzo - Gambino Racketeer

This will be the last blog for 2014, so I thought I would end it with the Gambino Consigliere JoJo Corozzo.  I am reading over his court documents and find it amusing to see the full page of medication that JoJo has to take every day.  How does this 71 year old man have the time or the health to commit crimes.  Well, JoJo made time for crime, and he has been at it since the 1980s when he was one of John Gotti Sr.’s most loyal and biggest moneymakers.  He ran large parts of Queens and Howard Beach for the Gambinos. In October of 2005, JoJo was picked up on tape by a confidential witness (CW) talking about why John “Baby” Gotti did not like him.  John Sr would tell JoJo to tell Jr not to do this or do that.  Then all guys in Queens would go to JoJo instead of Jr.  This made Jr. crazy and it made him hate JoJo.  

During the 1980s and 1990s JoJo built up a power base and brought in a number of young up-and-comers including Ronald Trucchio, Alphonse Trucchio and Louis Mastrangelo who all later became Capos in the family, and Bartolomeo Vernace who became a Capo and also served on the panel and many others that are soldiers or associates in the family.  

JoJo used to take the whole neighborhood to the movies to encourage others into the life.  A prime example is Howard Santos who JoJo met when he was in his 40s and Santos was a teenager.  He made Howard who became his driver and was later put in charge of his social club and other rackets that were run out of the club.  Santos was well thought of and trusted until he flipped in 2009.

JoJo Corozzo has the Mafia distinction of being convicted of racketeering in 3 decades: the  1990s, 2000s and 2010s.

 

JoJo has been the boss of a sports betting business for many years and raked in untold millions in profit both for him and the Gambino family.  The bookmaking business is a huge money maker for organized crime because it does not take a lot overhead, unlike other crimes like drugs or stealing.  When taking bets the bookie gets the vig or 10% win or lose.  The main thing, unlike drugs or anything else criminal, is that it is all just numbers on a page.  What I mean is that they are not out any physical thing so If someone skips out they just lose numbers in a ledger.  Its not real cash.  

I am sure that JoJo has no intention of going straight or retiring from the Gambinos. He has put in the time and work to reach the pinnacle of the mafia.  This is what JoJo and his brother Nicky have worked so hard for all their adult lives.  Nicky also ran a vast gambling enterprise like the one Andrew DiDonato wrote about in his book, “Surviving the Mob.”  Andrew details his time around Nicky from his teens until well into manhood.  

If anyone would like a look inside the Gambino family, especially the Corozzo crew, they should read Andrew’s book.  The show Mob Wives will have a new edition this season named Natalie DiDonato who is related to or married to someone. The DiDonato name is not common but Andrew is the real deal.

One of the best stories in Andrew's book is when Andrew was driving one night with JoJo’s son Joseph and they got into a traffic altercation with another car. At a stop light the two cars stopped and a guy got out with a butcher knife and came out of the car.  Andrew was asleep and Joseph started screaming like a girl to shoot him.  So Andrew shot him in the groin and they drove off.  This was huge trouble for Andrew because not only was it JoJo’s son, but also his car.  They found out who the guy was and what hospital he was in and they sent some guys over there to see him.  They offered the guy 10k to forget what happened or die so the guy accepted. This would come up later because Joseph later became a lawyer who represented mafia guys including his father and uncle.  It is all in Federal court records.  He represented Teddy Persico Jr. when I got him some more time.  Joseph had nothing good to say about me, in fact he ranted about me for an hour to another lawyer.  The funny thing is he never called me in to ask about the tapes I made.

JoJo will be locked away until 2016 when he will be released under supervision.  He will have to pay 8k installments to the government to pay his forfeiture.  Nicky is now locked up in SuperMax in Florence, Colorado until 2020 and for the sake of the citizens lets hope he never gets released.