My Crime Beat Column: South Philly Mobland

The below column originally appeared in the South Philadelphia American on March 27, 1998:

South Philadelphia was again the media focus of our region when Anthony Turra was shot and killed on his doorstep early one morning last week.

Turra, 61, stricken with cancer and aided by a cane, was on his way to Federal Court to await the verdict on a number of racketeering charges stemming from the widely reported conflict between his gang of drug dealers and the South Philadelphia Cosa Nostra organized crime family.

I was on the scene shortly after the shooting, as I live a few blocks from Turra's house. The local TV news vans and police vehicles quickly set up shop at the crime scene near the corner of 20th Street and Passyunk Avenue. As the police fanned out looking for evidence, the reporters, notebook or microphone in hand, went out among the curious onlookers in search of a good, colorful quote.

The broadcast and print reporters (including yours truly) were not disappointed, as South Philadelphians are generally earthy, honest and gregarious.

While some people were frightened and didn't want to get involved, others said they didn't see organized crime as an immediate threat to them and were unconcerned about the occasional shooting it generates. Some neighbors said they were taken aback at the bold early morning killing.

"At this time of morning there are children walking to school and people waiting for the bus to go to work," a neighbor named Rita said to me when I asked her about the shooting. "I don't know what the man was involved with, but I'm glad no innocent children were hurt."

One South Philly man on his way to work called both the shooter and the victim "Bums, criminals who can't hold down a real job."

One neighbor said he believed that by having mob guys as neighbors, muggers and burglars applied their trade elsewhere. And unlike other parts of the city, where idiot criminals who have more fire power than skill and technical knowledge shoot indiscriminately into a crowd, the local mob tends to get up close and personal with their hits.

Another neighbor I know, a man who dabbles in the rackets himself, told me that the general public has nothing to fear from mobsters.

"These guys only kill each other," he said. "And they only offer the things people want and the law says no to, like gambling and prostitution."

Of course, the law enforcement community has a different point of view.

A while back I asked Robert Courtney, III, the chief of the U.S. Attorney's Organized Crime Task Force, about this when he was my guest on Inside Government, a public affairs radio program that airs Sunday mornings at 6:30 AM on WMGK 102.9 FM and repeats on WPEN 950 AM at 7:00 AM.       

"This is misguided thinking," Courtney replied. "When you step back and look at what organized crime is about, it's about making money."

"The murders and the violence are used to enforce the discipline of the organization so they can ultimately make money," Courtney added. "Organized crime preys on legitimate businesses and involves corruption of the political process as well.'

While covering the crime scene, I ran into a detective I know who lives in South Philly and works out of South Detectives. He asked me not to use his name, but he told me that the occasional mob hit is to be expected, considering the mob's greed and propensity for violence.

"It's the nature of the business," the detective explained. "It's the natural thinning of the herd."

The day after the Turra murder, the Philadelphia Daily News' front page headline proclaimed South Philly to be "Mobland." Inside the newspaper was a multi-page spread that listed the long history of mob hits in South Philadelphia.

South Philly is known far and wide for good entertainers, good food, good neighbors - and the occasional mob hit. 

RIP: Memorial Day 2025

 

Memorial Day 2025

 

National Missing Children’s Day 2025: The FBI Reaffirms Its Year-Round Commitment To Reuniting Missing And Kidnapped Children With Their Families

The FBI offers a piece on National Missing Children’s Day.

On September 23, 2024, 13-year-old Stefanie Damron stepped out of her home and walked into the nearby woods in New Sweden, Maine. It was the last time anyone saw her. The next day, her parents filed a missing person report. 

The FBI immediately responded to assist the Maine State Police. The FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment—or CARD team—went to work. Since then, investigators have conducted dozens of interviews and followed up on leads in Maine, across the country, and even in Canada. 

But despite extensive investigative efforts, including a neighborhood canvas and video search, along with an expansive grid search using canines from the Maine Warden Service and Maine State Police, Stefanie is still missing 

Stefanie is one of dozens of missing children the FBI is working to bring home. Each year on May 25—National Missing Children's Day—we reaffirm our commitment to investigating these cases and finding children who have been reported kidnapped or missing, and we continue to encourage parents, caregivers, and others to make child safety a priority. 

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

National Missing Children’s Day 2025 — FBI

The Philadelphia Navy Yard - Past, Present, And Future

Broad & Liberty ran my piece on the Philadelphia Navy Yard today.

You can read the piece via the below link or the below text:

Paul Davis: The Navy Yard — past, present, and future

After reading about Governor Shapiro’s announcement of a $30 million investment in the Philadelphia Navy Yard in South Philadelphia, I took a nostalgic walk through the old Navy base. 

The Navy Yard played a big part in my life. I was raised about a dozen blocks from the yard and back in the 1960s, the Navy was a major employer in Philadelphia. I knew many people back then who worked “down the yard,” as South Philadelphians described their place of employment at the southern-most point in Philadelphia.

My beginnings in both journalism and government, in a sense, occurred at the Navy Yard. After school and during summers in the mid-1960s, when I was a teenager, I sold the Philadelphia Daily News on a street corner at the yard to civilian yard workers and sailors.

I recall riding in the back of the newspaper truck as we passed the moored ships and I dreamed of joining the Navy, seeing the world, and eventually becoming a writer. I enlisted in the Navy when I was seventeen in 1970, and after serving two years on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk during the Vietnam War and another two years on a Navy tugboat at the nuclear submarine base at Holy Loch, Scotland, my final duty station was the Philadelphia Navy Yard, where I was discharged from the Navy. 

After my discharge, I became a civilian Defense Department employee and some years later, I became the civilian administrative officer of a Defense Department command. I oversaw security, safety and other programs for the command that was tasked with overseeing defense contractors in the tri-state area, including the Navy contractors who worked on the ships going through overhauls at the yard. 

My office was located at the Defense Personnel Support Center, locally known as the “Quartermaster,” in South Philadelphia, but I spent a good amount of time at the nearby Navy Yard. I began as a writer by contributing news and feature articles to an in-house Defense Department magazine, and I often ventured to the Navy Yard to cover stories for the magazine. In addition to my other work-related duties at the yard, I played softball each summer on the yard’s baseball fields and I attended many military ceremonies and holiday festivals there. I also dined and drank at the yard’s Officers’ Club.

In 1987, the USS Kitty Hawk returned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for an overhaul. Accompanied by my wife and infant daughter, I was on hand when the great warship pulled into the yard where she was commissioned in 1961. Wearing my public affairs “hat,” I organized tours of the carrier for the military and civilian employees of my Defense Department command. 

Like thousands of Navy employees, local residents and companies who did business with the Navy, I was saddened when the Navy Yard closed in 1996. As a tribute, I had Captain Jon C. Bergner, the Navy Yard’s commander, and Captain John R. Hutchison, the commanding officer of the USS John F. Kennedy, the last aircraft carrier worked on at the yard, as my guests on the “Inside Government” radio program.

I was then a producer and on-air host of the public affairs interview program, which aired on Sunday mornings on WPEN 950 AM and WMGK 102.5 FM. The two Navy captains discussed the Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) overhaul of the Kennedy, the mission and history of the yard, and the planned closing of the Navy Yard. 

The Navy Yard’s history began in 1776 when the Continental Congress leased land along Philadelphia’s Front Street docks to support naval defense. Southwark Yard was established at Front and Federal Streets, officially becoming part of the U.S. Navy. In 1868, League Island was purchased by the federal government for one dollar, establishing the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard at the base of South Philadelphia. 

The Navy Yard provided key support to the Navy during WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. On September 26, 1995, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) ruled that the Navy Yard was to be closed.

In 2000, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), took control of the Navy Yard on behalf of the City of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development (PAID). According to the PIDC, the post-Navy base is considered the most successful redevelopment of a former military facility in the country. 

The PIDC stated that more than $1 billion has been invested in the yard, creating a vibrant, waterfront home for more than 13,500 employees and more than 160 companies in the office, industrial/manufacturing, and R&D sectors. These companies occupy over 7.5 million square feet of real estate in spaces of varying heights, vintages, and floorplates — all powered by a nationally recognized microgrid.

On May 8, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro visited the Philadelphia Navy Yard and announced a $30 million investment through the Pennsylvania Strategic Investments to Enhance Sites (PA SITES). According to the Governor’s office, the funding supports the development of the Philadelphia Navy Yard Greenway District and will transform 54 acres into shovel-ready sites for advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and commercial use that will help grow Pennsylvania’s economy, foster innovation, and create jobs.  

The investment in Philadelphia is part of the Governor’s first-round of PA SITES funding, a total of $64 million awarded to eleven strategic sites across the Commonwealth.

The Governor announced that the $30 million grant awarded to Ensemble/Mosaic Navy Yard LLC will fund utility infrastructure, soil excavation, grading, and stormwater management to develop the Greenway District. This accelerates a transformative redevelopment at one of the Commonwealth’s most strategic business campuses. This work will prepare six lots for up to 700,000 square feet of advanced manufacturing and commercial space — part of a broader $6 billion redevelopment effort expected to generate 12,000 new jobs.

Ensemble/Mosaic is a joint venture between national developer Ensemble Real Estate Investments and Mosaic Development Partners, a Philadelphia-based, Minority Certified commercial real estate development company. In 2020, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) awarded the partnership development rights to 109 acres at the Navy Yard, which they are transforming into a vibrant, mixed-use district. The master plan includes 9 million square feet of new development — with lab and manufacturing space for life sciences companies, 4,000 apartments, and 235,000 square feet of retail — reinforcing the Navy Yard’s position as a regional hub for innovation and growth. 

I’m pleased to see the Navy Yard’s commercial businesses grow alongside the U.S. Naval Warfare Center and the other Navy commands that are at the yard. But in addition to the new business ventures, I’d like to see the development of a Philadelphia Navy Yard Museum on a decommissioned aircraft carrier, much like the former USS Intrepid in New York City. 

The Navy Yard Museum would highlight and honor the yard workers, sailors, Marines and contractors who helped to support our Navy in wartime and the overall defense of our great nation.

Paul Davis, a Philadelphia writer and frequent contributor to Broad + Liberty, also contributes to Counterterrorism magazine and writes the “On Crime” column for the Washington Times. He can be reached at pauldavisoncrime.com.  

Note: The top photo of me standing along the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1987 was taken by Joe Piazza.

Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Found Guilty In Bribery Scheme

The U.S. Justice Department released the information below on May 19^th:

WASHINGTON – Admiral Robert Burke (USN-Ret.), 62, of Coconut Creek, Florida, was found guilty of bribery today in connection with accepting future employment at a government vendor in exchange for awarding that company a government contract. 

Following a five-day trial, a federal jury found Burke guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, performing acts affecting a personal financial interest, and concealing material facts from the United States. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden scheduled sentencing for August 22, 2025.

The verdict was announced by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, Matthew R. Galeotti Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Special Agent in Charge Greg Gross of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Economic Crimes Field Office, Assistant Director in Charge Steven J. Jensen of the FBI Washington Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Stanley Newell of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General’s (DoD OIG) Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) Transnational Field Office. 

“When you abuse your position and betray the public trust to line your own pockets, it undermines the confidence in the government you represent,” said U.S. Attorney Pirro. “Our office, with our law enforcement partners, will root out corruption – be it bribes or illegal contracts – and hold accountable the perpetrators, no matter what title or rank they hold.”

According to court documents and as the evidence proved at trial, from 2020 to 2022, Burke was a four-star Admiral who oversaw U.S. naval operations in Europe, Russia, and most of Africa, and commanded thousands of civilian and military personnel. The two co-defendants Kim and Messenger were the co-CEOs of a company (Company A) and provided a workforce training pilot program to a small component of the Navy from August 2018 through July 2019. The Navy terminated a contract with Company A in late 2019 and directed Company A not to contact Burke. 

Despite the Navy’s instructions, the co-defendants met with Burke in Washington, D.C., in July 2021, to reestablish Company A’s business relationship with the Navy. At the meeting, the charged defendants agreed that Burke would use his position as a Navy Admiral to steer a contract to Company A in exchange for future employment at the company. They further agreed that Burke would use his official position to influence other Navy officers to award another contract to Company A to train a large portion of the Navy with a value one of the co-defendants allegedly estimated to be “triple digit millions.” 

In December 2021, Burke ordered his staff to award a $355,000 contract to Company A to train personnel under Burke’s command in Italy and Spain. Company A performed the training in January 2022. Thereafter, Burke promoted Company A in a failed effort to convince another senior Navy Admiral to award another contract to Company A. To conceal the scheme, Burke made several false and misleading statements to the Navy, including by falsely implying that Company A’s employment discussions with Burke only began months after the contract was awarded and omitting the truth on his required government ethics disclosure forms. 

In October 2022, Burke began working at Company A at a yearly starting salary of $500,000 and a grant of 100,000 stock options. 

This case was investigated by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and the FBI’s Washington Field Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca G. Ross for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorneys Trevor Wilmot and Kathryn E. Fifield of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section. It was investigated and indicted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein.

My Crime Fiction: 'Hit The Head'

The story below is another chapter in my novel Olongapo, which I hope to soon publish.

 The story originally appeared in American Crime Magazine.

Hit the Head

 By Paul Davis

 “I gotta hit the head,” is U.S. Navy speak for a sailor needing to use a urinal or toilet. 

Bathrooms on Navy ships and shore stations are called the "head.” As I heard it, the name derives from the old sailing ships, where the toilet was located in the bow, or the head of the ship. The Navy is big on traditions and nicknames.   

On the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk during our 1970-1971 combat cruise, the Communication Radio Division’s head was equipped with four urinals, a half dozen sinks, a half dozen toilet stalls and a half dozen shower stalls. 

Cleaning the head was the responsibility of the compartment cleaner, a position I held for a month when I was first assigned to the division. 

I told the other sailors at the time that I was the “head man." That always got a laugh. 

While on “Yankee Station” in the Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam, the radio division was on what was called “port and starboard” watches, with eight hours on watch and eight hours off. When half of the division was on watch and the other half were in their racks sleeping, the head was usually empty. 

One evening during our second line period on Yankee Station, I couldn’t sleep, so I was in the head brushing my teeth. Ronald Redman, a big and heavy sailor, wide as a refrigerator, waddled into the head. 

The Oklahoma sailor was so crude and ill mannered that another sailor from Oklahoma had to tell everyone that they were not all like Redman back home. 

Redman had a mouthful of chewing tobacco in his jaw when he entered the head, and he spit a glob into the sink next to me. He then began to walk away. 

“Yo! Clean the sink out, you fucking slob,” I said to him. 

“Fuck you, Davis,” Redman said. 

At that moment James Griffin, a chubby and congenial 2^nd class radioman, walked into the head. He saw me hit Redman square in the face with a swift short right. The punch caused Redman to step back, but he just stood there and didn’t say anything. 

“That’s enough, Davis,” Griffen said, stepping in between us. 

“I don’t want to fight you, Davis,” Redman said. “Because you is smaller than me.” 

“Oh, yeah,” I replied. I hit Redman in the face with another good short right. 

Redman fell against a sink and his left eye swelled and closed. 

Griffen grabbed my arms and warned me that he would put me on report if I hit Redman again. 

“I ain’t gonna fight you, Davis, cause I don’t fight guys smaller than me,” Redman said as he held his left eye and waddled out of the head. I heard him mutter, "I can't fight no smaller man. That would not be right."  

To my surprise, it appeared that Redman had one redeeming quality.

 

Most of the sailors entered the head wearing flip flop shower shoes, a white towel with snaps held around our waists, and another white towel around our necks. 

Jason Bullard was different. 

The tall and obese 3^rd class radioman came into the head wearing a white terrycloth bathrobe. After showering, he emerged from the shower stall with a towel wrapped around his head like a girl and the full robe on his body. 

Despite Bullard’s effeminate ways, he was not ridiculed or picked on. He was a popular guy in the division. We presumed he was a homosexual, but he didn’t proposition anyone as far as we knew. Bullard was intelligent, cheerful and funny. He often made self-deprecating comments about his swishy ways. We all laughed when he swayed into the head like a movie queen, and he would laugh back, usually making some clever quip.    

Bullard’s best friend on the Kitty Hawk was Jeffrey Greenberg, a 3^rd class radioman who shared Bullard’s love of books. I became friendly with Greenberg when he saw me reading Mark Twain’s short stories. He struck up a conversation with me about Ole Sam Clemens, a writer we both loved.  

I later became friendly with Bullard. We would often sit around and discuss the war, history and literature. “I’m surprised that a high school dropout and street urchin is so well read,” he said.  

I laughed. I told him that I wanted to be a writer, and he encouraged me to get my GED high school equivalency via a correspondence course and then take college correspondence courses. I took his advice. 

 

It was on another line period off North Vietnam when a serious assault was committed in our head. 

I didn’t like Louis Durand. The tall, lean 27-year-old 3^rd class radioman with curly reddish hair was from New Orleans. He was proud of his college degree from some university, and he often spoke of it and how he was better educated than our officers. 

He bragged that he had connections in the city, and he was in line to be a big shot when he received his draft notice. Not wanting to die in a Vietnamese rice paddy, he joined the Navy. But he often complained that the Navy was holding him back from his destiny.  

Durand was also quite vocal in his detainment of those with only high school diplomas, and he was even more disdainful of high school dropouts. And he was especially disdainful of 18-year-old high school dropouts, like me, who appeared to be somewhat literate and intelligent. 

In the middle of a group discussion on our down time, Durand would quiz me about some fine point of the subject. I passed his quizzes, which made him scowl and others laugh. But he was positively gleeful when I happened to mispronounce the word rapprochement.

Bullard, also a college graduate, came to my defense, stating, “Davis is an autodidact. That’s why he sometimes mispronounces words. But I suspect that he is better read than you, dear Louis.”

That pissed off Durand. And he had no snappy comeback.

I didn’t know what an autodidact was. I had to look it up. Bullard was right. I was never a good student, having cut most classes in high school, but I was an avid reader. So I may have known what a word meant, but in some cases. I did not know how to properly pronounce the word due to my not ever having heard the word spoken in a classroom.

After Durand mocked me for mispronouncing the word, I made a joke about it. But in my head, I made a note to punch out Durand if I ever encountered him in Olongapo. Luckily for Durand, he frequented a different bar in Olongapo than I did, so I never saw him ashore.  

 

I later learned that Durand also displayed his haughtily ways in Olongapo. He mocked an airman from one of the airwings attached to the Kitty Hawk. The airman, John Makris, the son of a Greek restaurant owner in New York City, was offended but said nothing to Durand.  

“The Greeks have gone from being great philosophers to being short order cooks,” Durant said disdainfully. The bar girls laughed at Durand’s put down of Makris, even though they didn’t know what he was talking about. But hey, they thought, he’s buying the drinks.

Makris held his tongue and temper and allowed Durand to make disparaging remarks, but he drew the line when Durant coveted Lolita, Makris’ pretty bargirl.

After pulling into Subic Bay after a long line period, Markis went before a captain’s mass and was restricted to the ship as punishment for shoving another airman during an argument at sea. Not being allowed to visit Olongapo during our week-long port of call was a very cruel punishment for a young man.

To make matters even worse, Makris was told by another airman that Durand had paid the bar’s Mama-San, so he was able to take Lolita to a hotel for what was called “Short-time” sex. Durand later that evening left with Lolita when the bar closed.

Makris was furious. He had fallen for Lolita, and he thought she was in love with him. He took a combination lock and stuffed it into a white sock. The “lock in a sock” was a common weapon aboard ship and Makris planned to get revenge on Durand.

Makris lay in the passageway outside of the Message Processing Cener. He waited more than an hour and then saw Durand step out into the passageway and enter the radiomen’s compartment. Makris followed Durand into the head. Durand stood before a urinal when Makris came up behind him and hit Durand in the back of his head with the lock in a sock.

Durand screamed in pain and fell to the deck. Makris stood over Durand and struck him twice more. Three radiomen, alerted by Durant’s screams, entered the head and grabbed Makris.

Durand was taken to the ship’s sick bay and then flown off the carrier and admitted into the Subic Bay hospital. Makris was also flown off the carrier and landed in Subic Bay. He was met on the airfield by NIS special agents who arrested Makris for attempted murder.

I felt bad for both Durand and Makris, although I didn’t like Durand and I didn’t know Makris.

Bullard told us that he read a message that stated that Durand had been operated on and was in stable condition. The message also said that Durand was scheduled to be medically discharged from the Navy.

“Durand said he couldn’t wait to get out of the Navy,” Bullard said. “He said that with his fine education, he had a bright future in New Orleans. It is a shame that he had to be beaned on the head, in the head, to get a jump on his brilliant career.”

“Well,” I said. “That’s one way to get ahead in life.”   

© 2024 Paul Davis 

Note: You can read other chapters from my crime novel Olongapo via the links below:

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Butterfly'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Salvatore Lorino'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: The Old Huk

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: Join The Navy And See Olongapo

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Boots On The Ground'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The 30-Day Detail'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Cat Street'

Paul Davis On Crime: Chapter 12: On Yankee Station 

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The Cherry Boy'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The Hit'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: Welcome To Japan, Davis-San

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Murder By Fire'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Admiral McCain' 

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'A Night At The Americano' 

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Missing Muster'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The Barracks Thief'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The City of Bizarre Happenings'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The Refrigerator Thieves'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Go Forth, Goforth'