The Mob's Song - "Money, Money, Money"

Veteran organized crime reporter and author George Anastasia (seen in the above photo) offers a piece on organized crime's moneymaking schemes for Bigtrial.net.

It was the underworld's version of a full service financial operation.

It featured bookmaking, loansharking and money laundering. Most of the wheeling and dealing took place in a Newark check cashing business.

The numbers, detailed in an indictment unsealed this week by the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, were staggering. The loansharking business, according to the AG, generated $4.7 million in interest payments. The illegal check cashing business took in $9 million in fees while allowing customers to launder money and avoid federal tax reporting requirements. The sports betting operation, with an offshore wire room in Costa Rica, generated millions more.

"This case is a smorgasbord of mob schemes," said acting New Jersey Attorney General Robert Lougy in a news release that detailed the indictment of 10 alleged members and associates of the powerful Genovese crime family.

The charges stem from an investigation dubbed "Operation Fistful" that began in 2007. The probe was spearheaded by the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice and the Waterfront Commission. Among other crimes, the indictment alleges that several defendants took control of a trucking company that transported cars from the Port of Newark to dealerships throughout New Jersey. Authorities allege the trucking firm was a front for a series of mob scams, including forgery and tax evasion.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2016/04/the-mobs-theme-song-money-money-money.html

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of George Anastasia's latest book on organized crime, Gotti's Rules:

South Philly Wiseguys And Wannabes Back In Business

Veteran organized crime reporter and author George Anastasia (seen in the above photo) offers a piece at Bigtrial.net on the resurgence of organized crime in South Philly.

Ron Galati won't be taking part in the underworld renaissance currently unfolding in South Philadelphia.

Instead, the wannabe wiseguy and auto body shop owner, who is already serving a 23-year federal sentence for a murder conspiracy conviction, is due in Common Pleas in September to answer fraud and murder-for-hire charges.

A trial date of Sept. 7 was set this morning at a status conference hearing before Judge Jeffrey Minehart. Galati, his wife Vicki and his son, Ron Jr., are slated to be at the defense table along with several other defendants if that trial goes off as planned.

Galati has been off the streets for the past two years and has missed out on what law enforcement sources are describing as the resurgence of the local crime family. At his bail hearing two years ago, Galati, now 65, was described by Assistant District Attorney Dawn Holtz as having a "close personal relationship" with then mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and Ligambi's nephew, mobster George Borgesi.

Both Ligambi and Borgesi were back in the news this week. On Monday, reporter Dave Schratwieser on a Fox 29 television special report, offered an update on the local mob, noting that Ligambi, Borgesi and others are frequently spotted at a recently opened clubhouse at 11th and Jackson Streets and that Borgesi and others have branched out into the construction and home rehab business with an office on Passyunk Avenue.

"It's all legit," said one source familiar with the new business ventures. "They're not doing anything wrong."

The television report said as much, but that hasn't stopped some of the wiseguys, wannabes and sycophants now hanging out at the clubhouse from complaining about media coverage. 

"You have to admire their resilience," said one state investigator who, like several others, has been surprised at how quickly and easily the mobsters have fallen back into their old routines, hanging with the same individuals, congregating at a clubhouse to socialize and branching out into the business world. 

Both the FBI and investigators with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office and State Police have been tracking the activities. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2016/01/wiseguys-and-wannabes-back-in-business.html#more

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of George Anastasia's latest book Gotti's Rules below:

Organized Crime Reporter And Author George Anastasia On 'Black Mass' Film And Gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger

Former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter George Anastasia (seen in the below photo), author of Gotti's Rules, Blood & Honor and other books on organized crime, offers his view of the film Black Mass and the backstory of the FBI and Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger for BBC.com.

It’s sure to be compared to The Godfather and Goodfellas, but Black Mass is in a category all its own. It’s a dark character study – grim, sinister and brooding. And while there’s lots of talk about loyalty and honour, as there was in The Godfather and Goodfellas it isn’t about those things – Black Mass is really a story of seduction and betrayal. That doesn’t make the film better than the two underworld classics to which it will be compared but it does make it more realistic.

Director Scott Cooper has kept the story as close as possible to the book on which it is based. And that book, Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI, and a Devil's Deal, by Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill, is by far the best of nearly a dozen written about James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, the Boston wiseguy who used his role as an FBI informant to literally get away with murder. And drug dealing, gun running, loansharking and extortion.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150924-a-mobster-expert-separates-truth-from-fiction-in-black-mass

You can also read my interview with Dick Lehr, the co-author of Black Mass and Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss, via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/06/crime-beat-column-q-with-dick-lehr-co_17.html

And you can read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of George Anastasia's Gotti's Rules via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2015/02/my-philadelphia-inquirer-review-of.html 

Cops Or Criminals?: Jury Deliberations Begin In Philly Narco Cops Trial

George Anastasia, a veteran crime reporter and author of Gotti's Rules, is covering the Philly narco cops trial in Philadelphia for bigtrial.net.

Were they cops who bent the rules or criminals who broke the law?

That's the only question that matters for a federal court jury that began deliberations this afternoon in the corruption trial of six former Philadelphia Police Department narcotics officers.

The jury, primarily middle class suburban residents, got the case shortly after noon following a detailed two-hour explanation of the laws that applied to the case by Judge Eduardo Robreno. The judge's charge capped a six-week trial that included days of conflicting testimony from drug dealers (the prosecution's key witnesses) and law enforcement officials (called by the defense). The jury also got two days of highly charged and often vitriolic closing arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys.

The six former members of the Police Department's Narcotics Field Unit are charged in a 26-count indictment with stealing more than $500,000 in cash, drugs and other valuables from narcotics dealers they had targeted and with fabricating police reports and arrest records to cover their crimes.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2015/05/cops-or-criminals-jury-deliberations.html#more

Philly Narco Cops Trial Heads To The Jury

Veteran crime reporter and author George Anastasia (seen in the above photo) is covering the "rogue cops" federal trial for bigtrial.net.

The government wasn't interested in finding the truth, but merely in making a case.

That was the message delivered again and again today in closing arguments for the defense in the racketeering corruption trial of six Philadelphia Police Department narcotics investigators.

The jury, which is expected to begin deliberations sometime tomorrow, heard a steady stream of defense arguments built around attacking the government's case and the credibility of its witnesses, including more than a dozen admitted drug dealers and one dirty cop.

One defense attorney after another fired verbal shots at the prosecution.

It was, the jury was told, a "flawed" case built on "fables" not facts. Testimony came from "a parade of witnesses that looked like an audition for the Jerry Springer Show." The prosecution was "disingenuous in the extreme" and the six-week trial was an example of "innocent men being accused by guilty men."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Wzorek, who had the final word in the government's rebuttal closing late this afternoon, shrugged off the criticism, telling the jury the defense strategy was to "attack and distract" and that despite the emotional claims and high octave rants, the defense still was faced with one hurdle it could not overcome.

How was it possible, Wzorek asked, that Jeffrey Walker, the former narcotics cop turned government witness, told the FBI after his arrest in 2013 virtually the same stories of corruption that drug dealers  had recounted five or six years earlier?

The six defendants, all former members of the Police Department's Narcotics Field Unit, are charged with stealing more than $500,000 in cash, drugs and other valuables from drug dealers they had targeted and then fabricating police reports and arrest records to cover their tracks. The corruption extended from 2006 through 2012, the indictment alleges.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2015/05/narco-cops-trial-heads-to-jury.html#more

Ex-Mobster John Alite: Gotti Family Ordered Cyber "Hit" On Me

Gary Busio at the New York Post reports on a new kind of mob war.

He’s no Facebook friend of ours.

Instead of using brickbats or Berettas, relatives of notorious Mafia boss John Gotti are delivering a beatdown to a former Gambino enforcer the 21st-century way — on the Internet.

“U go to war with one of us u go to war Witt [sic] all of us simple as that,” declared John “Junior” Gotti’s son John Gotti Jr. on Twitter March 25.

The tweet is just one example of an escalating and bizarre online barrage — which includes phony Twitter accounts, altered Wikipedia pages and doctored YouTube videos — targeting John Alite, who says the Gottis have relentlessly bullied him online ever since he was featured in a book titled “Gotti’s Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia,” which came out Jan. 27.  

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://nypost.com/2015/05/03/ex-mobster-gotti-family-ordered-cyber-hit-on-me/

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of George Anastasia's book on John Alite via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2015/02/my-philadelphia-inquirer-review-of.html

More Witnesses, More Stories Of Corruption, More Questions About Credibility In Philly Rogue Cops Case

Veteran crime reporter and author George Anastasia (seen in the above photo) is covering the so-called Philly rogue cops case for bigtrial.net.

They came dressed in black, waving their guns and hiding their faces behind ski masks.

They wanted to know where the drugs and money were and when he didn't tell them he said they threatened to take his five young children away from him.

He spent the night in a police lockup without being charged and then, he said, he was literally held hostage over the next five days in a hotel near the airport, forced to give up the names of drug dealers he knew and to set up buys so that they could be arrested.

That was the story, told through a Spanish interpreter, that Rodolfo Blanco told a federal jury today in the trial of six Philadelphia Police Department narcotics cops accused of stealing more than $500,000 in cash and drugs from targeted dealers in what Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey has called one of the worst cases of police corruption in the city's history.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2015/04/more-witnesses-more-stories-of.html#more

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of George Anastasia's Gotti's Rules via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2015/02/my-philadelphia-inquirer-review-of.html

Philly Rouge Cops Case: Dirty Cop Fingers Brothers In Blue

Veteran crime reporter and author George Anastasia (seen in the above photo) is covering the federal trial of Philadelphia narcotics officers for bigtrial.net

They broke all the rules, Jeffrey Walker told a federal jury, but they made big arrests, so their supervisors looked the other way.

"It was nothing but a dog and pony show, that's all that it was," Walker said of the headline grabbing arrests and the enhanced status his unit had within the Philadelphia Police Department. All the while, he said he and other members of the Narcotics Field Unit were routinely stealing cash and narcotics from drug dealers and falsifying police reports to cover their tracks.

Asked how many times during his 10 plus years in the unit that he had robbed drug dealers and submitted false reports, Walker calmly replied, "Can't count them there were so many times."

Testifying today in the ongoing corruption trial of six other members of that narcotics squad, Walker, 46, said lying and stealing were a routine part of the job in the squad run by Thomas Liciardello, who has emerged as the lead defendant in the corruption case.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2015/04/dirty-cop-fingers-brothers-in-blue.html#more

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of George Anastasia's Gotti's Rules via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2015/02/my-philadelphia-inquirer-review-of.html

Philly Rogue Cops Case: "You're Not John Gotti, Buddy"

Veteran organized crime reporter and author George Anastasia reports on the federal trial of the Philly narcotic cops accused of a number of crimes for bigtrial.net.

He was a college-educated marijuana dealer with $80,000 stashed in a safe in his high-rise apartment and a framed picture of mob boss John Gotti hanging on the wall.

The cops, he said, stole the safe and seven pounds of marijuana he had in the apartment and then taunted him about the picture.

"You're not John Gotti, buddy," Robert Kushner said he was told in a cell phone conversation with Thomas Liciardello, a narcotics investigator who, authorities allege, was the leader of a rogue group of Philadelphia police officers who stole cash and drugs, intimidated drug dealers and falsified police reports to cover up their actions.

Kushner, the first witness called in the racketeering conspiracy trial of Liciardello and five fellow officers, took the witness stand in U.S. District Court this morning and told a jury that he had  experienced all of that after being taken into custody, but not formally charged, on the night of Oct. 16, 2007.
You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2015/03/witness-says-cops-took-cash-and-drugs.html#more

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of George Anastasia's Gotti's Rules via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2015/02/my-philadelphia-inquirer-review-of.html

As Sentencings Approach, A Look At Mob Ties In FirstPlus Case

Veteran organized crime reporter and author George Anastasia (seen in the above photo) offers a look at the organized crime ties to the FirstPlus case for bigtrial.net.

Unless there are some unforeseen developments -- and in this case that's always possible -- the hammer comes down next week in the multi-million dollar FirstPlus Financial fraud case.

Nicodemo S. Scarfo, Salvatore Pelullo and the brothers John and William Maxwell each have sentencing hearings before U.S. District Court Judge Robert Kugler in the same federal courtroom in Camden where a jury delivered guilty verdicts last year.

Scarfo, the 49-year-old son of jailed mob boss Nicodemo D. "Little Nicky" Scarfo, is looking at a sentence that could land him in prison for the better part of the rest of his life. The same can be said for Pelullo, 47, described as a mob associate and with Scarfo the brains behind the 2007 takeover and looting of the Texas-based mortgage company.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2015/03/a-look-at-mob-ties-to-firstplus-case-as.html#more

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer of George Anastasia's latest true crime book, Gotti's Rules, via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2015/02/my-philadelphia-inquirer-review-of.html

South Philly Auto Shop Operator Sentenced In Murder-For-Hire Case

Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia, author of Gotti's Rules, reports on the sentencing of Ron Galati for Bigtrial.net.

Ron Galati, the South Philadelphia auto body shop operator with a Godfather complex, was sentenced to nearly 23 years in federal prison this morning in a convoluted murder-for-hire case that was more suited for Mob Wives than Mario Puzo's classic American Mafia saga.

Citing the "callous" nature of the crime, but acknowledging Galati's age (64) and health problems, Judge Joseph Rodriguez imposed a sentence of 271 months, less than the maximum 308-month sentence sought by prosecutors but considerably more than the "home confinement" Galati's defense attorney had asked for.
No one from Galati's family attended the sentencing hearing and Galati, dressed in a green prison jump suit, his toupee neatly in place, opted not to comment when asked by the judge if he had anything to say. Andrew Tuono, on the other hand, took a series of parting verbal shots at his one-time friend. The victim of the shooting, Tuono asked for a maximum sentence, telling Rodriguez that he lives every day with the aftermath of the attempted murder that Galati set in motion.

Tuono, 34, was dating Galati's daughter Tiffany when he was shot multiple times outside the Atlantic City townhouse they shared in November 2013.

"I have no doubt this came from him," Tuono, dressed in jeans and a starched white shirt, said after being called to the witness stand by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Richardson. Tuono said he still has a bullet lodged in his pelvis that gives him constant pain and that two of the fingers on his left hand are paralyzed from another bullet that ripped through his hand during the attempted murder.
Richardson, the prosecutor in the case, said the murder-for-hire plot was in many ways a twisted love story involving two men who loved the same woman. Tuono was living with Tiffany Galati at the time and her father didn't think he was good enough for her, the prosecutor said.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2015/03/galati-sentenced-in-murder-for-hire-case.html#more

You can also read Allison Steele's report on the Galati sentencing at the Philadelphia Inquirer via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20150303_22_years_for_Galati_in_plot_to_kill_daughter_s_boyfriend.html

New York Mobster John (Junior) Gotti Brags He Lied To Feds, Insists He's Not A 'Rat'

John Marzulli at the New York Daily News offers a piece on John "Junior" Gotti.

John (Junior) Gotti wants to make one thing perfectly clear — he’s not a rat.

In a sitdown with the Daily News, the mob scion and his lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman gave their most detailed explanation to date of Gotti’s stunning decision to sit down with federal prosecutors in 2005 for a proffer session where he discussed crimes of his own — and of other mobsters in the Gambino crime family.

But he insists the “rat” label is unfair, because he intentionally provided bad information to the feds he felt sick talking to.

“No one got indicted,” said Gotti, who recently published a memoir titled “Shadow of My Father.”

“No one suffered but me.”

Gotti acknowledged that his old-school father, the late Gambino boss John Gotti, would never have approved of the legal strategy. But Junior said he was in a bad place at the time.

He was facing trial on racketeering and stock fraud charges that could put him away for 100 years if he were convicted. Gotti was furious over the indictment because he thought federal prosecutors had given him coverage on those alleged charges from a prior plea agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office.

Gotti said he planned to give the feds information that was either useless or out-and-out false, and refused to ever testify against anyone. He hoped that prosecutors would give him a sweetheart plea deal while he would get two of his archenemies, reputed capo Daniel Marino and associate Joseph (Joe the German) Watts, jammed up with the feds.

The plan made no sense to anyone except Gotti — and got him excoriated as a “rat” by his ex-underling John Alite.

Alite cut a deal to get out of prison and somehow got ahold of the five-page summary of Gotti’s blabbing, and published the secret FBI report in his memoir, “Gotti’s Rules.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/exclusive-john-junior-gotti-brags-lied-feds-article-1.2118025

George Anastasia offers the documentation mentioned above in his book on John Alite and the Gotti family.

You can read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of Gotti's Rules via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2015/02/my-philadelphia-inquirer-review-of.html

My Philadelphia Inquirer Review Of 'Gotti's Rules'

My review of George Anastasia's Gotti's Rules appeared in today's Philadelphia Inquirer.

Appearing on ABC some years ago, former Mafia capo Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano told an interviewer about the time he was eating in a New York restaurant with Gambino crime family boss John Gotti.

A nearby couple was staring and whispering and Gotti grumbled. Gravano asked Gotti if he wanted him to handle it.

"No," Gotti told his underboss sternly. "This is my public."

Gravano said he was taken aback. They were both members of La Cosa Nostra, a secret criminal society. And here was a boss who believed he had a "public." Gravano said Gotti's ego and need for public attention led to his downfall.

In George Anastasia's Gotti's Rules, John Alite, an associate member of the Gotti crime family, outlines other Gotti shortcomings, such as rapacity, disloyalty, hypocrisy, and treachery.

As for Alite, Anastasia introduces him to the reader this way: "John Alite was a murderer, drug dealer and thug." For 25 years, Anastasia writes, Alite brutalized people. He stabbed them, shot them, and beat them with pipes, blackjacks, and baseball bats.

"He's not proud of that, but he doesn't try to hide from it, either," Anastasia writes. "It's who he was. But not who he is." Alite's years with the Gotti family ended when he testified in court against John Gotti's son, "Junior."

You can read the rest of the review below:

Note: You can click on the above to enlarge. 

"Old School" South Philly Mobster Pleads Guilty To Murder

George Anastasia, a veteran organized crime reporter and the author of Gotti's Rules, reports on the guilty pled of Anthony Nicodemno for bigtrial.net.

He's a throwback, a standup guy in a mob decimated by turncoat witnesses.  

And as a result, he's looking at 23 more years in state prison.

On the eve of his retrial for the December 2012 murder of Gino DiPietro, mobster Anthony Nicodemo pleaded guilty this morning to third degree murder, conspiracy and weapons charges.

Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart, under the terms of a plea deal, sentenced the reputed South Philadelphia hitman to a minimum of 25 years in prison. With two years already served, Nicodemo, 43, will be able to apply for parole in 2038.

According to several sources, Nicodemo rejected offers to cooperate that could have resulted in substantially less jail time. The married father of two young children opted instead to live by an underworld code that has been shattered again and again by members of the Philadelphia mob.
Omerta, the code of silence, is like the Liberty Bell, broke and inoperative. So many members and associates of the Philadelphia mob have chosen to cooperate that the once secret society has
crumbled.

But Nicodemo, who is also a suspect in the murder of mobster John "Johnny Gongs" Casasanto, proved to be old school.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2015/02/nicodemo-gets-25-50-for-dipietro-murder.html#more

My review of Gotti's Rules will appear in the Philadelphia Inquirer on February 15th.

You can read an earlier post on Anastasia's new organized crime book via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2015/01/george-anastasias-gottis-rules-in-new.html

Spoiled Fella: Former Mobster Calls 'Junior' Gotti A Pretend Tough Guy

Gary Buiso at the New York Post offers a piece on former New York mobster John Alite, who claims that 'Junior' Gotti was a pretend tough guy.

He was a spoiled fella.

John “Junior” Gotti was a “self-mutilating” stunad with no street cred, according to his former best friend and mob turncoat John Alite.

“He’s like Kim Jong-un — a spoiled brat that took advantage of guys around us by his dad’s authority,” the former Gambino crime-family enforcer seethed to The Post.

“Ever since we were kids, he’s self-mutilating himself, burning himself with cigars,” Alite said in his first interview before a book by George Anastasia — “Gotti’s Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia” (Dey St. Books) — hits shelves on Jan. 27.

“He would play drinking games with other guys, and part of these drinking games was if you lose, you gotta burn your hands with cigars,” he continued. “These are his ideas.” 

“This is what made Junior an inadequate boss: his insecurities,” Alite said of the Mafia scion who was always trying, and failing, to prove his toughness to the true tough guys around him.

... In advance of Anastasia’s book, Junior rushed out a self-published memoir last week called “Shadow of My Father,” in which he for the first time acknowledges his leadership role inside the Gambino family — but says his father was the one ordering hits.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://nypost.com/2015/01/18/former-mobster-calls-junior-gotti-a-pretend-tough-guy/

George Anastasia's 'Gotti's Rules': In New Book, Gambino Hit Man And Enforcer John Alite Say John Gotti Jr. Would Turn And Run When Things Got Tough

Sherryl Connelly at the New York Daily News offers a piece on mobster John Alite, the subject of veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia's new book Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia.

Not long after John Gotti went to prison in 1992, Gambino family hit man and enforcer John Alite plotted to murder his son. John Gotti Jr. survived, but Alite still seems to want him dead.

“Gotti’s Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia,” by George Anastasia, is Alite’s final revenge against Junior, an attempt to assassinate him in words.

Spilling family secrets to Anastasia is all Alite’s got left. He already tried to put Junior behind bars.

In 2009, Alite took the stand in the feds’ last attempt to nail Junior, this time on racketeering and murder conspiracy charges. Like the three trials that preceded it, this one ended with a hung jury.
But Alite, who has served time for a slew of crimes from two murders, eight shootings, home invasions and armed robberies, isn’t done with Junior.

In his book, Gotti comes across not just as a vicious criminal but as a coward who never really got how being a mobster worked.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/mob-enforcer-new-book-rips-john-gotti-jr-article-1.2073451