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

Dumbest Mob Hit In Philadelphia History? A Juror's View Of The Nicodemo South Philly Murder Trial

Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia is covering the Nicodemo murder trial for Bigtrial.net.

She listened to two days of testimony in the Anthony Nicodemo murder trial last month and said she wasn't buying the defense argument that Nicodemo was carjacked and became an unwitting getaway driver in the murder of Gino DiPietro.

"The story about the carjacking was absurd," the former Common Pleas Court panelist wrote in one of several e-mail exchanges with Bigtrial.net. She also said she surmised the shooting was a mob hit even though the judge had barred any mention of organized crime. And she correctly assumed that Nicodemo was being held without bail and that he was able to afford a high priced defense attorney.

The juror agreed to share her insights from the two days she heard testimony, but asked to remain anonymous. She was the first of three jurors dismissed during the case which ended in a mistrial on May 20. Lawyers for the defense and prosecution are to meet with Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart Thursday for a status conference during which a new trial date could be set.Nicodemo, 42, has been held without bail since his arrest on the day of the shooting, December 12, 2012.

... DiPietro, 50, was a convicted drug dealer who, according to some underworld and law enforcement sources, was cooperating with authorities at the time he was killed. His murder was described by one investigator as the "dumbest" mob hit in the history of Philadelphia.

No one, the investigator said, uses their own vehicle as the getaway car. And any experienced hitman knows that the first order of business after a shooting is to dispose of the murder weapon. The shooting occurred as mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and six co-defendants were being tried in a racketeering case in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. A shooting during a mob trial is also considered bad underworld form.

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

http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/06/a-jurors-view-of-nicodemo-trial.html

Mafia Smoke, No Fire in Fraud Case, Pelullo's Lawyer Says

Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia is covering the Pelullo and Scarfo federal fraud case for Bigtrial.net.

He wasn't a gangster. He was a turnaround expert.

And if the government had just left him alone, Salvatore Pelullo would have turned FirstPlus Financial, a struggling Texas mortgage company, into a profitable business enterprise.

Do the math!

That was the message, accompanied by nearly 100 slides and a heavy mixture of passion and sarcasm, that Pelullo's lawyer, Michael Farrell delivered to a federal jury today in a highly charged summation that offered a decidedly different view of the testimony and evidence from the one presented by the prosecution during the five-month trial.
You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/06/mafia-smoke-no-fire-in-fraud-case.html#more

Genovese, Costello and Anastasia: The Decline And Fall Of the American Mafia

Jim Zirin at Forbes.com offers a piece on the organized crime meeting at Apalachin, New York.

This year marks the 55^th anniversary of the trial in the infamous mobster conspiracy case, United States v. Bufalino, known as the “Apalachin affair,” a case that prosecutors won before a jury, and lost on appeal.  The case involved 20 of the more than 60 mobsters who attended a summit meeting of the American Mafia on November 14, 1957 at the 130-acre estate of boss “Joe the Barber” Barbera in Apalachin, New York. The meeting, which became a scene in Mario Puzo’s Godfather, occurred in Apalachin, a sleepy hamlet along the south shore of the Susquehanna River about 145 miles northwest of New York City. The jury must have wondered why anyone would go there.

Before the meeting could get off the ground, state police and federal agents raided Barbera’s home. At the time, no one knew what was on the bill of fare. There was no evidence at trial of the purpose of the meeting or that there was anything improper or illegal about it.

The government charged the Apalachin 20 with conspiracy to obstruct justice by giving similarly false and evasive answers before the grand jury as to the nature of the meeting.  The defendants, many of whom were festooned in Italian tailor-made suits, drove expensive cars and had come long distances to attend the meeting, were apprehended as they tried to escape the house into the nearby woods, which police found strewn with newly printed hundred dollar bills.

No one at the trial was permitted to say the word “Mafia,” as it was deemed too prejudicial. Still, the jury must have known that sitting in the well of the courtroom before them was an underworld stew of evil. The guest list at the Barberas that evening read like a mobster “social register.” Among those in attendance were notorious gangsters Don Vito Genovese, the kingpin of the mob, Carlo Gambino, Joe Profaci and Joseph “Joe Bananas” Bonnano.  Questioned by police, virtually all of them claimed that they had visited the house from such far-flung locations as Buffalo, Rochester, Dallas, Denver and Los Angeles because they heard Barbera was not feeling well.  Anther claimed he had visited the house to deliver fish.

Although at least 50 men managed to escape into the woods outside Barbera’s house, state troopers and federal agents successfully arrested another 58.  State Trooper Edgar Croswell, a real life Inspector Javert who had been channeling Barbera for about a year, headed the raiding party.

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

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jameszirin/2014/04/22/genovese-costello-and-anastasia-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-american-mafia/ 

Scarfo Family's Troubled History Now Part Of FirstPlus Trial

Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia is covering Philadelphia-South Jersey mob trials for Bigtrail.net.

He was nearly killed in one of the  most infamous gangland shootings in the violent history of the Philadelphia mob.

His older brother has changed his name to get out from under the family stigma.

A younger brother tried to commit suicide for the same reason and has been comatose for 25 years.

That's part of the depressing personal history of Nicodemo S. Scarfo, a story that has made its way into testimony in the now seven-week old racketeering and fraud trial playing out in federal district court in Camden.

Scarfo, 47, is the lead defendant in the case. He and Salvatore Pelullo, a 45-year-old Mafia wannabe, are charged with orchestrating the secret takeover of a Texas mortgage company in 2007 and then ripping it off to the tune of $12 million.

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

http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/02/scarfo-familys-troubled-history-now.html

Mob Trial Jurors Hear Of Serenade For A Takeover

Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia is covering the federal racketeering trial in New Jersey for Bigtrial.net.

It was mood music for a corporate takeover.

A few hours after a rowdy shareholders meeting formalized what federal authorities allege was Salvatore Pelullo's secret takeover of FirstPlus Financial, Pelullo hosted a celebratory dinner for company officers and members of the board of directors at a posh steakhouse in Dallas.

As he sat at the head of a long table in a private dining room at DelFrisco's on that night in October 2007, a violinist serenaded  Pelullo repeatedly with the same song, said Robert O'Neal, then chairman of the board and president of FirstPlus.

O'Neal, testifying for the prosecution at the racketeering trial of Pelullo, mobster Nicodemo S. Scarfo and five other defendants, said the song was all too familiar and somewhat ominous.

"It was the theme from The Godfather," he said in response to a question from Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Small.

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

http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/02/jurors-hear-of-serenade-for-takeover.html#more

Jerry Capeci On 'Mob Boss: The Life Of Little Al D'Arco, The Man Who Brought Down The Mafia

Veteran organized crime reporter and Gangland columnist Jerry Capeci talks to New York WCBS' Irene Cornell about his new book, Mob Book: The Life of Little Al D'Arco, the Man Who Brought Down the Mafia.

NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) — Mafioso Alfonso ”Little Al” D’Arco was one of the first mob bosses to tell all when he bailed on the Luchese crime family in 1991.

... “He had an incredible memory and he was the highest ranking gangster to flip when he did back in 1991. I mean, after he decided to flip Sammy Gravano followed him and it was kind of like an onslaught of gangsters who were looking to flip and make a better deal for themselves,” Capeci said.    

You can listen to the rest of the interview via the below link:

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/02/01/new-book-shines-light-on-life-of-former-luchese-boss-little-al-darco/

Charles "Charlie Lucky" Luciano Died On This Day In 1962

As Biography.com notes, New York mobster Charles "Charlie Lucky" Luciano died on this date in 1962.

Charles "Lucky" Luciano was born Salvatore Lucania in Sicily, Italy, on November 24, 1897. Luciano split New York City into five crime families, heading the Genovese crime family himself. He also initiated The Commission, which served as a governing body for organized crime nationwide. Luciano moved to Havana and was later deported to Italy, living out his final years in Naples.

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

http://www.biography.com/people/lucky-luciano-9388350

Juries Hear Different Versions Of Mob Racketeering Conspiracy

Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia is covering organized crime trials for Bigtrial.net.

There's racketeering conspiracy and then there's RACKETEERING CONSPIRACY!

Federal juries on opposite sides of the Delaware River began dealing with the differences today as the jury in the retrial of mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi started deliberations in his eight-week old trial and the jury in the fraud case against mobster Nicodemo S. Scarfo, the son of jailed mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, heard opening arguments in his case.

The Ligambi jury got the case in federal court in Philadelphia shortly before 11 a.m. and deliberated for the rest of the day without a verdict. The panel is due back tomorrow. The case, against Ligambi and his co-defendant and nephew George Borgesi, is built around allegations that the two mobsters ran an organized crime enterprise that generated tens of thousands of dollars through illegal gambling, loansharking and extortion.

Scarfo, Elkins Park businessman Salvatore Pelullo and five others went on trial at the same time in federal court in Camden. The government alleges that Scarfo and Pelullo orchestrated the systematic looting of a Texas-based mortgage company, FirstPlus Financial, by secretly taking  control of the board of directors in June 2007. Over the next 10 months, authorities allege, Scarfo and Pelullo lined their pockets with cash for the company. The take? A staggering $12 million.

The difference underscores what lawyers in the Ligambi case have argued continuously -- that the government has taken a penny ante gambling case and turned into into a mob conspiracy.
You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/01/juries-heard-two-different-versionis-of.html

Jury Deliberations Set To Begin In Philly Mob Trial

 

Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia is coering the federal organized crime trial in Philadelphia for Bigtrial.net.

 

A jury is expected to begin deliberating early tomorrow in the racketeering conspiracy retrial of mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and his nephew and co-defendant George Borgesi.

The anonymously chosen panel of 10 women and two men heard more than two hours of closing arguments this morning and then sat through  two more hours of Judge Eduardo Robreno's explanation of the laws that apply to the case.

Robreno's methodical charge is expected to conclude tomorrow morning shortly after court is brought back into session at 9:30 a.m. Deliberations will begin once the judge completes his explanation.

Arguments today were a reprise of defense and prosecution positions outlined for the jury Monday.
Ligambi's lawyer, Edwin Jacobs Jr. continued with the two themes he had offered earlier --  the mob in Philadelphia no longer exists and the government failed to provide evidence to back up its charges.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Labor returned to the issues he had underscored in his opening statement back on Nov. 7. "What this case is about is how the mob makes money through crime," he said.

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

http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/01/jury-deliberations-set-to-begin-in-mob.html#more

Philly Mob On Trial: Closing Arguments Offer Differnet Stories In Ligambi Racketeering Trial

Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia is covering the federal organized crime trial in Philadelphia for Bigtrial.net.

The federal government is still fighting a war it won more than a decade ago, the lawyer for mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi told a jury this afternoon while asking the panel to reject the prosecution's case against his client and co-defendant George Borgesi.

"There was a sea change in 1999," Ligambi's lawyer, Edwin Jacobs Jr. told the jury. La Cosa Nostra in Philadelphia, he said, "is a shell" (of what it once was). "It's every man for himself...The FBI won the war."

And the result, said Christopher Warren, Borgesi's attorney, is a case built around "a theater of the absurd."

Those were two of the high points of more than two hours of spirited closing argument by the defense today in the racketeering conspiracy retrial of Ligambi, 74, and Borgesi, 50.

The prosecution, to no one's great surprise, presented the anonymously chosen jury panel with a decidedly different take, painting the two defendants as leaders of an organized crime family that engaged in gambling, loansharking and extortion and that used its reputation for violence to further the criminal conspiracy at the heart of the case.

"La Cosa Nostra, This Thing of Ours, Our Thing," said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Han. "It was Joe Ligambi's thing. It was George Borgesi's thing."

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

http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/01/closing-arguments-offer-diffrerent.html

Philly Mob On Trial: Frankie The Fixer's Encore Not As Sweet For The Defense

Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia is covering the federal organized crime trial in Philadelphia for Bigtrial.net.

Frankie the Fixer changed his tune.

And the music wasn't quite as sweet for the defense in the racketeering retrial of mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and his nephew, George Borgesi.

A government informant whom the prosecution opted not to call this time, Frank DiGiacomo, 49, took the stand today as the final defense witness in the eight-week old trial that is expected to go to the jury next week.

While DiGiacomo, an admitted con man, hustler and mob enforcer, helped the defense with his testimony in the first trial last year, his performance this morning was a mixed bag, not as pointedly hostile toward key government witness Louis "Bent Finger Lou" Monacello and on occasion damaging to Ligambi and Borgesi.

Last year, much to the prosecution's chagrin, DiGiacomo discredited Monacello and undermined much of his testimony. This time, while still labeling his former mob associate as a "greedy," sneaky and dangerous individual, he emphasized that both he and Monacello worked for and reported to Borgesi and Ligambi.

"I never called him boss," DiGiacomo said of his relationship to Monacello, a statement that was at odds with his testimony in the first trial.

"That was my boss, right there," he added, pointing to the 74-year-old Ligambi seated at the defense table.
You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/01/frankie-fixers-encore-not-as-sweet-for.html

Giuliani: Mafia Offered $800G To Kill Me

Drew Mackenzie at Newsmax.com offers a piece on former NYC Mayor and U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani.

Rudy Giuliani has claimed that the mafia in Italy put an $800,000 contract on his head while he was mayor of New York City.

Giuliani, who was praised for his leadership during the 9/11 terrorist attacksy, revealed to Oprah Winfrey on her OWN cable-channel show "Oprah: Where Are They Now" that as a former prosecutor he was a target for criminals who he'd put behind bars, especially mobsters.

"I don't think anybody prosecuted more mafia members than I did," said Giuliani, who was U.S. Attorney before becoming the mayor from 1994-2001.

"Certainly, no one sent them to prison for the lengthy periods of time that I did."

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

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Giuliani-Mafia-contract-kill/2013/11/27/id/539009?ns_mail_uid=266329&ns_mail_job=1548069_11272013&promo_code=15C56-1

The Philly Mob On Trial: The Saga Of Nicky Skins Continues

Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia is covering the federal organized crime trial in Philadelphia for Bigtrial.net

Pete the Crumb Caprio was a no-show this morning at the retrial of mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and his nephew George Borgesi.

The 84-year-old mobster-turned-informant reportedly tripped, fell and broke his knee while on his way to a safe house after testifying Thursday. Caprio, who was offering the jury a history lesson on the Philadelphia mob, is expected to be recalled as a witness once he recovers.

Prosecutors hoped the testimony of the admitted murderer would establish the fact that Ligambi and Borgesi were leaders of the Philadelphia crime family, a key element in the racketeering conspiracy charge they are facing.
Caprio was a longtime member of the organization and a member of a crew based in Newark. He was a soldier and later a capo. In testimony at previous trials, he has admitted that he plotted to kill Ligambi, Borgesi and another Philadelphia mob leader in the late 1990s with the idea of taking over the family.

Before that could happen, Caprio was indicted on unrelated murder and racketeering charges. He then cut a deal with the government to cooperate.

Changing gears with Caprio on the shelf, the prosecution today began setting the stage for the jury to hear from another North Jersey mob figure although he won't be on the witness stand. Just as they did in the first trial that ended in February, prosecutors plan to play a tape made by Nicholas "Nicky Skins" Stefanelli, the Gambino crime family soldier who wore a wire for the FBI for two years. Stefanelli, 69, committed suicide in March 2012, but tapes that he made for the feds live on.

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

http://www.bigtrial.net/2013/11/the-saga-of-nicky-skins-continues.html#more

Happy Birthday To Mario Puzo, Author of 'The Godfather'

Happy birthday to the late author Mario Puzo.

According to his web site, Mario Puzo was born October 15, 1920 in "Hell's Kitchen" on Manhattan's
West Side. Following military service in World War II, he attended New York's New School for Social Research and Columbia University.

His best known novel, The Godfather, was preceded by two critically acclaimed novels, The Dark Arena and The Fortunate Pilgrim.

You can read the rest of his biography at his web site via the below link:

http://www.mariopuzo.com/biography.shtml

My Philadelphia Inquirer Review Of Joseph Pistone's 'The Way Of The Wiseguy: True Stories From The FBI's Most Famous Undercover Agent'

You can read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of Joseph Pistone's The Way of the Wiseguy: True Stories From the FBI's Most Famous Undercover Agent below:

Note: You can click on the above to enlarge.

My American Crime Column: Gangster Chic With Crazy Joe Gallo and the Mad Ones

GreatHistory.com published my column on Tom Folson's new book on New York mobster Crazy Joe Gallo today.

Gallo, an extortionist and murderer who was cultivated and admired by entertainers, was the source of Jimmy Breslin's great satirical novel, The Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight.

You can read my column here