The Mysterious Suicide Of Dr. James Kauffman D.O.

 Ralph Cipriano at BigTrial.net offers a piece on the prison suicide of Dr. James Kauffman, the subject of his and George Anastasia’s new true crime book, Doctor Dealer.  

On Jan. 26, 2018, the chaplain at the Hudson County Jail called the third wife of Dr. James Kauffman, to let her know that her husband had just committed suicide. 

Kauffman, originally arrested on a gun charge, was being held without bail at the Hudson County Jail for the alleged murder of his second wife, April Kauffman, a crime that the government alleged was a contract hit. 

The doctor, officials said, had been found face-down in his cell after carrying out what the Press of Atlantic City said was a "carefully planned" suicide by hanging himself with a twisted bed sheet. 

But not everybody was buying it. 

Andrew Glick, the outlaw Pagan biker and drug dealer turned lead prosecution witness, believed that Kauffman had faked his death and was alive somewhere else in the country under the witness protection program. 

After Kauffman's body was cremated, Carole Weintraub, Kauffman's third wife, and former high school sweetheart, wound up with an urn, but she wondered whose ashes were in it. The six-page suicide note that Kauffman left behind only added to the mystery.

The suicide note, handwritten on eight yellow pages of a legal pad, was signed, "Sincerely, JMK MD." 

There was only one problem -- James Michael Kauffman was a doctor of osteopathy, and not an MD, a doctor of medicine, a mistake he would have never consciously made. 

Was the signature on the note a clue that the doctor had written it under duress? After all, Freddy Auglello, the Pagan gang leader who was ultimately convicted of arranging the murder-for-hire of April Kauffman, had told Glick that he was using his South Philly mob connections to arrange the jailhouse murder of Dr. Kauffman. 

Or was it an inside joke? Nobody knew. 

But in the note, Dr. Kauffman claimed he was an innocent man. 

"As G-D is my witness and will be I cannot live like this. I, no matter what anybody, says did not do anything to my wife . . . " 

As far as the suicide note was concerned, Dr. Kauffman professed that he was a scapegoat framed by the real killers of April Kauffman. And that Dr. Kauffman had come to realization that he was never getting out of jail. 

"This left me with no choice but to do what I am going to do now," he wrote. "i see those dirt bags range dup to see their butts while frying mine. To those who think that is a fabrication or a prevarication, I put my money where my mouth is." 

"I'm Dead!," Kauffman wrote.  

The 2012 April Kauffman murder is the subject of a new book written by Big Trial correspondents George Anastasia and Ralph Cipriano. Doctor Dealer is now on sale on Amazon.com. 

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

 https://www.bigtrial.net/2020/09/the-mysterious-suicide-of-dr-james.html#more 

Babylon Bee: Genius Trump Nominates Joe Biden To Supreme Court Forcing Dems To Accuse Him Of Sexual Assault

 The Babylon Bee offers another clever satirical piece.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Trump has announced his pick for Supreme Court justice: Joe Biden. By nominating Biden, Trump has forced the Dems' hands, making them believe the sexual assault claims and allegations of inappropriate, creepy behavior against the former vice president.

The "4D chess" move forced Dems to immediately accuse Joe Biden of sexual assault and reverse their position on the current claims against him.

"We now believe Tara Reade," said a somber Kamala Harris, "and we will do everything in our power to destroy this man's life."

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

https://babylonbee.com/news/genius-trump-nominates-joe-biden-to-supreme-court 

GoodFellas’ Turns 30: Ray Liotta And Co-Stars Spill Secrets Of Martin Scorsese's Classic Crime Film

 Chuck Arnold at the New York Post offers a look back at the classic crime film Goodfellas.

While filming “GoodFellas” — one of the all-time-great New York movies, in the gangster genre or otherwise — Ray Liotta had no clue he was making a classic as he was being directed by a legendary fella: Martin Scorsese.

“During the middle of it, I didn’t know how it was gonna turn out,” said Liotta, 65, who stars as mobster Henry Hill in the real-life story based on Nicholas Pileggi’s 1985 book “Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family.” “It was just a lot of fun playing make-believe with all these other people who loved to play make-believe.” 

But 30 years after “GoodFellas” opened on Sept. 19, 1990, it remains an unforgettable experience for the actor. “I don’t know where my keys are right now, but I can remember just about every scene and what happened that day, because a movie like that just had such a big imprint on you,” said the Union, NJ, native. 

Indeed, “GoodFellas,” which also stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino, was nominated for six Academy Awards. Although it lost to “Dances with Wolves” for Best Picture and Best Director (Scorsese lost to Kevin Costner), Pesci took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and the movie was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2000, cementing its place in cinema history. 

“Martin Scorsese made a masterpiece,” said Bracco, 65, who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as Henry Hill’s wife, Karen. “He made a great film.”

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

https://nypost.com/2020/09/19/goodfellas-turns-30-ray-liotta-and-more-stars-remember-the-classic/?_ga=2.147454583.1397970298.1600362942-2015386453.1594808146 

Goodfellas: Celebrating The 30th Anniversary Of One Of The Greatest Crime Films

 Today is the 30^th anniversary of the opening of the film Goodfellas. In my view, Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas is one of the greatest crime films ever made. 

The late film critic Roger Ebert reviewed the film in 1990. You can read his review via the below link:

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/goodfellas-1990

You can also read my Crime Beat column on Martin Scorsese via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/11/happy-birthday-to-martin-scorsese.html 

FBI: Combating The Iranian Cyber Threat: Republic At The Center Of Cyber Crime Charges In Three Cases

 The FBI released the below information:

Criminal charges announced this week against multiple alleged hackers in Iran show the breadth of the cyber threat emanating from that country and the FBI and partner agency efforts to neutralize it and hold the individuals accountable.

The hacks included cyber intrusions and fraud, vandalism of U.S. websites, and intellectual property theft from U.S. aerospace and satellite technology companies. In each of the cases, the suspects were believed to be operating at the behest of the Iranian government, or in support of it.

While the cases filed in federal courts in Boston, Alexandria, and Newark are separate and unique, prosecutors and FBI investigators said they send a message that hackers will face consequences regardless of distance and borders.

“No cyber actor should think they can compromise U.S. networks, steal our intellectual property, or hold our critical infrastructure at risk without incurring risk themselves,” said Executive Assistant Director Terry Wade of the FBI’s Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. “The FBI will continue to work with our partners to protect U.S. interests and to impose consequences on those cyber actors working on behalf of the Government of Iran in furtherance of their nefarious goals.”

On Tuesday, Behzad Mohammadzadeh, of Iran, and Marwan Abusrour, of the Palestinian territories, were indicted in Massachusetts on charges of damaging multiple websites as retaliation for U.S. military action in January that killed the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.

On Wednesday, Hooman Heidarian and Mehdi Farhadi, both of Iran, were charged in New Jersey in connection with a coordinated cyber intrusion campaign. Investigators allege that the pair, sometimes at the behest of the government of Iran, targeted computers in New Jersey and around the world.

In addition to stealing hundreds of terabytes of sensitive data, the defendants also vandalized websites, often under the pseudonym “Sejeal,” and posted messages that appeared to signal the demise of Iran’s internal opposition, foreign adversaries, and countries identified as rivals, including Israel and Saudi Arabia.

On Thursday, an indictment unsealed in Virginia charged Said Pourkarim Arabi, Mohammad Reza Espargham, and Mohammad Bayati, all living in Iran, with engaging in a coordinated campaign of identity theft and hacking on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated foreign terrorist organization.

According the charges, the defendants’ campaign began back in 2015. At one time, they had a target list of more than 1,800 online accounts, including those of aerospace or satellite technology and international government organizations in Australia, Israel, Singapore, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The three allegedly used social engineering techniques to make contact with those on the target list and assume their identities online. This allowed the defendants to send messages to other unsuspecting individuals that contained malware hidden in links and documents. The malware allowed the hackers access to many additional computer systems.

Also Thursday, the FBI released the details of eight separate and distinct sets of malware used by a front company in Iran to raise awareness of the threat and provide tools to help companies defend their computer networks. The company, Rana Intelligence Computing Company, helped Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, target at least 15 U.S. companies along with hundreds of individuals and entities from more than 30 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. The investigation led to the U.S. Department of the Treasury issuing sanctions against Rana and 45 cyber actors.

The efforts were reflective of the FBI’s new cyber strategy, which is to impose risk and consequences on cyber adversaries—making it harder for both cyber criminals and foreign governments to use malicious cyber activity to achieve their objectives. The new strategy also emphasizes the role the FBI plays as an indispensable partner to federal counterparts, foreign partners, and private-sector partners. “We want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to help our partners do what they need to do,” said FBI Director Wray. “That means using our role as the lead federal agency with law enforcement and intelligence responsibilities to not only pursue our own actions, but to enable our partners to defend networks, attribute malicious activity, sanction bad behavior, and take the fight to our adversaries overseas.”

Job Hunting: Hunter S. Thompson’s Guide To Writing A Great Cover Letter

I came across an interesting piece online about the late, great writer Hunter S. Thompson, one of my favorite writers. 

Flashbak.com offers a letter that Hunter Thompson sent to an editor in 1958. 

Like his journalism, the query letter is uniquely Hunter Thompson. 

In 1958, Hunter S. Thompson was looking for work. He wrote to the Vancouver Sun newspaper.

TO JACK SCOTT, VANCOUVER SUN

October 1, 1958
57 Perry Street New York City

Sir,

I got a hell of a kick reading the piece Time magazine did this week on The Sun. In addition to wishing you the best of luck, I’d also like to offer my services.

Since I haven’t seen a copy of the “new” Sun yet, I’ll have to make this a tentative offer. I stepped into a dung-hole the last time I took a job with a paper I didn’t know anything about (see enclosed clippings) and I’m not quite ready to go charging up another blind alley.

By the time you get this letter, I’ll have gotten hold of some of the recent issues of The Sun. Unless it looks totally worthless, I’ll let my offer stand. And don’t think that my arrogance is unintentional: it’s just that I’d rather offend you now than after I started working for you.

I didn’t make myself clear to the last man I worked for until after I took the job. It was as if the Marquis de Sade had suddenly found himself working for Billy Graham. The man despised me, of course, and I had nothing but contempt for him and everything he stood for. If you asked him, he’d tell you that I’m “not very likable, (that I) hate people, (that I) just want to be left alone, and (that I) feel too superior to mingle with the average person.” (That’s a direct quote from a memo he sent to the publisher.)

Nothing beats having good references.

Of course if you asked some of the other people I’ve worked for, you’d get a different set of answers.

If you’re interested enough to answer this letter, I’ll be glad to furnish you with a list of references — including the lad I work for now.

The enclosed clippings should give you a rough idea of who I am. It’s a year old, however, and I’ve changed a bit since it was written. I’ve taken some writing courses from Columbia in my spare time, learned a hell of a lot about the newspaper business, and developed a healthy contempt for journalism as a profession.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s a damned shame that a field as potentially dynamic and vital as journalism should be overrun with dullards, bums, and hacks, hag-ridden with myopia, apathy, and complacence, and generally stuck in a bog of stagnant mediocrity. If this is what you’re trying to get The Sun away from, then I think I’d like to work for you.

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

https://flashbak.com/job-hunting-hunter-s-thompsons-guide-to-writing-a-great-cover-letter-40982/ 

FBI Director Wray: 'Antifa Is A Real Thing,' FBI Has Cases Against People Identifying With Movement

 Ronn Blitzer at FoNews.com reports on the FBI director testifying about Antifa. 

Director Chris Wray made clear that Antifa is not a made-up, right-wing conspiracy theory and that the FBI has cases involving those connected to it. Appearing at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Thursday, Wray explained that while Antifa is not an organization in the traditional sense, it is a movement and there have been suspects who claimed to be a part of it. 

"Antifa is a real thing. It's not a group or an organization. It's a movement, or an ideology may be one way of thinking of it," Wray said. "And we have quite a number -- and I've said this quite consistently since my first time appearing before this committee -- we have any number of properly predicated investigations into what we would describe as violent anarchist extremists and some of those individuals self-identify with Antifa." 

Wray's words were in response to Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., who claimed prominent Democrats have called Antifa a "fantasy." In July, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., had dismissed the idea of Antifa violence in Portland as "a myth that's being spread only in Washington, D.C." 

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

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fbi-director-wray-antifa-cases-real

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on Antifa via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2020/09/behind-black-mask-my-piece-on-threat.html