By Bayside Eddie

The three men were murdered in one fell swoop in May of 1981. I was 13 at that time. A year or two before they met their demise, they had had dinner with me and my family at my grandparent’s home at my grandfather’s invitation. Unfortunately, because I was so damn young when it happened,  I have only a few vague memories of the evening—an historical evening, in my opinion.

I asked my parents, and they don’t remember exactly when the dinner occurred, nor do they remember many details. My grandparents, in whose Queens, New York, condo the dinner took place, have since died—my grandfather 10 years ago, my grandmother about a year ago, each at ripe old ages. I love them both dearly and will never get over their deaths.

I may not remember much of that specific dinner, the one the three Bonanno capos attended before their murder at the hands of Joe Massino and Sonny Black Napolitano and Phil Rusty Rastelli, but I can imagine it. My grandmother would have cooked her sauce as she did every  Sunday, like any self-respecting Italian Grandmother with a hungry family to feed would do. There would have been giant bowls of ensalada and pasta, served first, followed by the arrival of huge oval platters of every kind of meat you could imagine—beef, pork, chicken—soaked in sauce, the meat so tender (and tasty) it would fall off the bone. An endless supply of thick tomato sauce, baskets of chunks of seeded Italian bread, pecorino romano shredded cheese and ricotta cheese would have been on hand as well, all par for the course.

We would all be seated at the custom-made, long-ass table that took up the entire dining room of my grandparents’ condo. (My grandfather was somewhat wealthy at the time—wealthy enough to have had the duplex  condo professionally decorated. Too bad he blew it all.) The comfortable, padded, long-backed chairs made sitting through the hours-long meal extremely easy, even after you finally dropped your cloth napkin on top of your sauce-smeared plate and were so full you felt like your stomach would burst (a rather tasteless analogy, I must admit, considering what is coming in the next couple of paragraphs).

Then coffee and dessert. I won’t delve into that. I have trouble writing about food—I tend to get carried away and lose the thread of what I am trying to say in favor of, say, the rich cream seemingly floating out of a cannolli shell – but I digress.

My grandfather would have been sitting at the head of the table. I, his daughter’s first born, was treated like a prince and usually sat at his right hand, though that night I have a feeling a Mafia captain was in my usual seat. I might have even been hurt by that, I don’t remember. To me, my grandfather was God: He had such a powerful presence, he could drown out an entire roomful of people (which he often did at family functions, to the chagrin of many). Whenever we gathered together he would hug me so tight, squeeze our faces together, his sometimes-bristling cheeks would tickle my face. When I was really young, he’d hold me aloft and take me in his car to the local candy story and buy any candy I wanted. (He was a business owner at the time; uneducated, like most men born where and when he was, in Brooklyn, he made some pretty bad decisions, which led to him losing the business, or rather having to sell it at bottom dollar to some guy named Floyd. I always remembered that name. Floyd. And it is not with fondness.)

Looking back, I wish I was older because I’d have surreptitiously taken notes so I’d be able to provide a fuller, more colorful portrait of that night. Instead I remember a heavyset man, who resembled a somewhat heavier version of my grandfather. That would have been Dominick “Big Trin” Trinchera. When they shot him, his stomach supposedly split open and pasta came flying out—that’s what happens when you whack someone after eating a big meal. The stealthy Bonannos should have arranged a dinner meeting; clean-up might have been easier.

I remember a thin, good looking man with sharply parted black hair:  Phil “Lucky” Giaccone, whose nickname carried an irony so very unfortunate for the man himself. I am not sure, but I believe my grandfather had a separate relationship with Phil; perhaps he knew Giaccone better than the other two, because over the years, before Giaccone’s body was found, my grandfather would sometimes mention with a deep sigh how his friend “Philly” had disappeared and no one knew what had happened to him. I know Giaccone was punched in the face by Massino himself before the execution in that basement from hell; Phil was once Massino’s capo, I have read.

Oddly, I don’t remember the third guy, who would have been Sonny Red Indelicato. (Forget the Pacino/Depp Brasco film, with its cinematically engineered Sonny Red/Sonny Black rivalry. The problems between the three capos and the rest of the family were more complex than what was portrayed in that film).

The general, albeit vague, consensus: It was a good meal with plenty of laughter. The three capos were not threatening. Why would they be? Mobsters, after all, are human beings; they put their pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us do. One thing my parents did remember was that they were extremely respectful to all of us. My parents knew these men were involved in the Mafia, either at the dinner or after it, but, as I said, they have no specific memories, no anecdotes to tell me, other than it was a nice dinner—no cursing, just a bunch of well dressed men chain smoking cigarettes, along with my grandfather, who was the unfiltered Camel type. It was a typical Sunday dinner composed of family and friends.

We didn’t of course know about the power play going on in the Bonanno family about that time. It followed the Commission-sanctioned hit of Carmine Galante. The feud was for control of the family. Rastelli, who had the support of the other families, and his lieutenants, came out on top.

When I was reminded of this meal a few years ago by my grandmother when all the stuff about Joe Massino was on the news, and they found the remains of Big Trin and Phil Lucky, I transformed into a question machine: We had dinner with the three capos? What were they like? Why were they over for dinner? Was Grandpa involved with them?

From what she could recall they wanted my grandfather to do a “favor” for them. My grandfather, as I said, was a small-business owner and never a criminal, and had never been arrested, even though he was born in a time and place were Mafiosi were produced as if via an assembly line. He owned and operated a fleet of limos. His drivers would pick people up all over the place and drive them wherever they wanted to go. As a huge chunk of his business was tied into the airports—JFK and LaGuardia—my grandmother said it had something to do with my grandfather’s airport contacts … and garbage delivery. (What else? Really – what else?)

I do know the deal never panned out. I also know that once you enter their world, you are forever “in bed” with them. I would think that the failure of my grandfather to fulfill whatever his obligations were would have meant bad things for him, but nothing happened. While my grandfather wasn’t in the Mafia he had “friends.” This may have had something to do with his limo service. I know some of his regular customers had “Gambino” for their last name. Or maybe the three Capos were wiped out before they could punish him? Did Joe Massino, indirectly, save my Grandfather’s life? Or was it because my grandfather and Phil were good friends? Or because the Capos, all family men, couldn’t hurt a man who had invited them into his home for Sunday gravy with his family? Or maybe they just had other things on their mind, like a potentially approaching inter-family war. I can only speculate.

That’s it. Just a little story about how close my family and I came to Mafia infamy. We had dinner with it.

And I still remember the last thing my grandmother said about that night.

“Sonny, I felt so sorry for him. His son had bad trouble with drugs.” She was 91 when she told me that. I knew Sonny’s son Bruno had a Coke habit from books I have read over the years. But my grandmother knew it because she had dinner with a man some 30 years ago and he had told her about it and she felt a compassion for him and his problems that transcended decades. I call that a caring heart.

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Charges Include a Colombo Family Kickback and Extortion Scheme on Demolition Work at the World Trade Center Construction Site

NEW YORK, March 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — An eight-count indictment was unsealed this morning in Brooklyn federal court charging eight defendants – Theodore Persico, Jr., Michael Persico, Thomas Petrizzo, Edward Garofalo, Jr., James Bombino, Louis Romeo, Alicia Dimichelle, and Mike LNU variously with racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, extortion, and embezzlement of union benefit funds.  The defendants, who were arrested earlier today, are scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge James M. Orenstein, at the U.S. Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, N.Y.  The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Sandra L. Townes.

The charges were announced by Benton J. Campbell, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Joseph M. Demarest, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, FBI, New York Field Office, and Marjorie Franzman, Special Agent- in-Charge, New York Regional Office, Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (DOL/OIG).

As alleged in the indictment and the detention memorandum filed today by the government, Theodore Persico, Jr. is a member of the administration of the Colombo organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra, Petrizzo is a Colombo family soldier, and Michael Persico, Garofalo, and Bombino are Colombo family associates.  The indictment is the product of a multi-year investigation in which the FBI used a cooperating witness to infiltrate the Colombo family and make hundreds of consensual recordings.

The charges include the Colombo family’s use of a trucking company they controlled, All Around Trucking (All Around), to execute a kickback and extortion scheme for debris removal subcontracting from Testa Corporation, a demolition contractor headquartered near Boston (Testa).  The Colombo family carried out the scheme at locations including the World Trade Center construction site, and the Newtown Creek wastewater treatment plant on the border between Brooklyn and Queens.  Specifically, as detailed in the detention memorandum, Theodore Persico, Jr., Michael Persico, and others agreed that, in exchange for All Around obtaining debris removal subcontracting with Testa, All Around would kickback a portion of its profits as a commercial bribe to a Testa foreman.  After All Around secured subcontracting work with Testa, Colombo family associates threatened Testa employees when Testa failed to pay All Around on the timetable set by the crime family.  Consensual recordings captured defendant Michael Persico directing Bombino to threaten Testa employees, and captured Bombino reporting back to Michael Persico that, when Bombino made the threats, the Testa employees were “shakin’ in their boots over us.”  Other charges in the indictment include an extortion of a furniture store owner, in which Michael Persico forced the furniture store owner to give Bombino control of the store until the owner repaid a loan owed to Colombo family associates.

The indictment also charges Colombo associate Garofalo and his wife, Alicia Dimichelle, with embezzlement from the welfare benefit plan and pension benefit plan funds operated on behalf of union laborers of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 282.  As described in the detention memorandum, Garofalo and Dimichelle engaged in a double-breasting scheme in which they used Colombo-controlled non-union shell companies, including DM Equipment, Big R Trucking, T&E Leasing, and Roman Sand and Stone, to circumvent Local 282 collective bargaining agreement union benefit contribution requirements.

The indictment is the latest in the U.S. Attorney Office’s on-going efforts to dismantle the Colombo family.  Those efforts have led in recent years to indictments and convictions of numerous members of the highest echelons of the crime family, including the 2007 conviction of former Colombo acting boss Alphonse Persico, Jr. and former Colombo administration member John DeRoss on murder in-aid-of racketeering and witness tampering charges, the 2008 conviction of Colombo captain Joseph Baudanza and others on stock fraud charges, and the 2009 indictment of former Colombo street boss Thomas Gioeli and other Colombo captains, soldiers, and associates on numerous racketeering-related murder charges and other crimes of violence.

“La Cosa Nostra continues to profit illegally in numerous sectors of our economy, allegedly including the World Trade Center construction site,” stated U.S. Attorney Campbell.  “Our Office is dedicated to eliminating these crime families, which take a significant economic toll.”  U.S. Attorney Campbell praised the outstanding investigative efforts by Special Agents of the FBI and DOL/OIG.

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Demarest stated, “This case illustrates yet again that the mob’s aim is to make money, and the means is almost always violence or the threat of violence.  Historically, the FBI referred to the economic impact of mob schemes as ‘the mob tax.’  Our goal continues to be elimination of the mob tax.”

DOL/OIG Special Agent-in-Charge Franzman stated, “Today’s RICO indictment represents a significant milestone in our efforts to eliminate the far reaching extortionate control of demolition trucking companies in New York City by the Colombo organized crime family.  Through their actions, two of the defendants allegedly caused the theft of International Brotherhood of Teamsters LU 282 employee benefit plan assets, directly impacting the welfare and retirement benefits of many union members.  We are committed to working with our law enforcement partners to combat this type of labor racketeering.”

If convicted of the most serious offenses, seven of the eight defendants face a maximum of 20 years in prison.  Defendant Alicia Dimichele faces a maximum of five years in prison.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amy Busa, Michael Tremonte and Duncan Levin.

The Defendants:

JAMES C. BOMBINO

Age: 47

ALICIA DIMICHELE, also known as “Alicia Garofalo”

Age: 36

EDWARD GAROFALO, JR., also known as “Bobble” and “Tall Guy”

Age: 43

MIKE LNU

MICHAEL J. PERSICO

Age: 53

THEODORE N. PERSICO, JR., also known as “Skinny” and “Teddy”

Age: 46

THOMAS PETRIZZO

Age: 76

LOUIS ROMEO

Age: 44

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

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Wiretaps and surveillance revealed that suspected Gambino solider Gaetano Napoli Sr. had a “close relationship” and “communicated extensively” with Roberto Settineri, a suspected member of the Sicilian Mafia facing charges in Florida and Italy, according to court papers charging Napoli and two sons. They said Napoli helped settle a dispute last year between Settineri and members of the Colombo crime family during a “sit down” at a social club in Pompano Beach, Fl.

Settineri, 41, an Italian citizen living in Miami Beach, was caught on tape telling Napoli he wanted his participation to “show everybody good manners” _ what authorities say was a reference to the La Cosa Nostra custom that only made members handle such negotiations.

At a news conference in Miami on Wednesday announcing three more arrests there, U.S. and Italian authorities told reporters the Sicilian mob had dispatched Settineri to the United States to generate more business with American gangsters.

“He had the important ties to the American crime families of Gambino and Colombo,” a top Italian National Police officer, Raffaele Grassi, said through a translator.

Napoli, 71, and a son, 44-year-old Gaetano Napoli Jr., were arrested Wednesday in North Carolina on extortion, bankruptcy fraud and other charges contained in an indictment unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn. They were to be arraigned in Raleigh on Thursday.

The indictment alleges the father was overheard admitting he had “schooled” a grand jury witness. He also was charged with threatening someone who owed him a $30,000 gambling debt.

“I’m giving you an extension which I shouldn’t even give,” court papers say he warned in one recorded message. “Don’t make me come around and look for you.”

A second son named in the indictment, Thomas Napoli, 31, pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn to concealing assets in a bankruptcy of a family business. He was released on $100,000 bond.

FBI agents arrested Settineri on Wednesday hours before he was to fly from Miami to Italy, authorities said. He and 39-year-old Daniel Dromberhauser were indicted on charges of obstruction of justice and conspiring to launder $10 million in crime proceeds.

Another Settineri associate, 37-year-old Italian citizen Antonio Tricamo, was indicted separately on charges of attempting to sell some 250,000 cigarettes without paying Florida taxes, laundering $1 million in ill-gotten gains and arranging a fake marriage in an attempt to gain legal status in the U.S.

Simultaneously, authorities in Italy executed about 20 arrest warrants targeting a Palermo-based Mafia crime family suspected of running extortion, money laundering and drug trafficking operations. Police there released video of the Palermo raids showing Italian officers and FBI agents discovering weapons, including guns stashed away in the rear compressor space of a refrigerator.

“The criminal dominion of La Cosa Nostra and the Sicilian Mafia is international,” U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell said in a statement. “But … both countries’ efforts to push back the tide of international organized crime have achieved success.”

It wasn’t immediately clear Wednesday if the Napolis being held in Raleigh and the Florida defendants _ in custody pending bail hearings next week _ had defense lawyers.

New York’s Gambino family has been the subject of a steady stream of government indictments and prosecutions since notorious boss John Gotti, the so-called “Dapper Don,” was sentenced to life in prison in 1992. He died in 2002.

In 2008, the Gambinos were the target of one of the largest Mafia takedowns in recent memory, with federal agents rounding up 62 reputed members and associates and charging them with gangland crimes spanning three decades _ including the brutal slaying of a court officer and extortion at a failed NASCAR track.

That case also coincided with a series of raids in Italy targeting alleged members of Mafia families who control drug trafficking between the two sides of the Atlantic. Authorities said at the time that the investigations, though technically unconnected, signaled an international attempt to sever Gambino ties to Sicily.
Source: WTOP.com

PRESS RELEASE

GAMBINO SOLDIER WHO PROTECTED SICILIAN MAFIA ACTIVITIES IN U.S. ARRESTED IN COORDINATED U.S. – ITALIAN LAW ENFORCEMENT OPERATION

A nine-count indictment was unsealed this morning in Brooklyn federal court charging three defendants variously with obstruction of justice, extortion, and concealment of assets in bankruptcy.1 The defendants – Gaetano Napoli, Sr., Thomas Napoli, and Gaetano Napoli, Jr. – were arrested earlier today in North Carolina and New York. Gaetano Napoli, Sr. and Gaetano Napoli, Jr. are scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow before United States Magistrate Judge William A. Webb, at the United States Courthouse, 310 New Berne Avenue, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Thomas Napoli is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Steven M. Gold, at the United States Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York. The case has been assigned to United States District Judge John Gleeson.

The charges were announced by Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Assistant Director-in-Charge Joseph M. Demarest, Jr., Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), James T. Hayes, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, New York (ICE), and Patricia J. Haynes, Special Agent-in-Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, New York (IRS).

As detailed in the detention letter filed today by the government, Gaetano Napoli, Sr. is a soldier in the Gambino crime family of La Cosa Nostra. Through wiretap interceptions, physical surveillance, consensual recordings, and other investigative techniques, the government uncovered numerous forms of criminal activity engaged in by Napoli and his co-defendants. The criminal charges filed against Napoli, Sr. include his threatening an extortion victim and obstruction of the government’s grand jury investigation of Napoli’s criminal activities. In one instance, Napoli admitted during a consensual recording that he had “schooled” a grand jury witness to influence the witness’ testimony. Napoli, Sr. is also charged with committing fraud and concealing assets in regard to federal bankruptcy proceedings for one of his companies, Napoli & Sons Meats & Provisions, Inc. Wiretap intercepts and visual surveillance revealed that, at the same time Napoli was claiming in the bankruptcy proceeding not to have assets, he and his co-defendants were secretly hiding some assets and conveying others to third parties.

The government’s investigation also revealed that Napoli, Sr., using his position in the Gambino crime family, provided protection for Roberto Settineri, a Sicilian mafia associate operating in the United States. In a coordinated action, the FBI arrested Settineri today in Florida on federal charges of money laundering and obstruction of justice filed in the Southern District of Florida, hours before he was scheduled to fly from Miami to Italy. Simultaneously, prosecutors in Palermo, Italy, charged Settineri and numerous others in Sicily variously with mafia association, extortion, drug trafficking, attempted homicide, and other crimes arising from their affiliation with Santa Maria di Gesù, a Sicilian mafia family. Italian authorities executed 20 arrests on those charges in and around Palermo earlier this morning.

Wiretap intercepts of Napoli, Sr. and Settineri revealed that in 2009, Napoli, Sr. “sat down” on behalf of Settineri when Settineri had a dispute with members of the Colombo crime family of La Cosa Nostra operating in the Miami area. In those interceptions Settineri referenced his Sicilian mafia affiliation. Because La Cosa Nostra protocol required Settineri to be represented by a member of La Cosa Nostra as to U.S.-based matters, Settineri turned to Napoli, a Gambino crime family representative, for assistance.

“The criminal dominion of La Cosa Nostra and the Sicilian mafia is international,” stated United States Attorney Campbell. “But, thanks to the vigilance and sustained cooperation of the Department of Justice and its law enforcement partners in the United States and Italy, both countries’ efforts to push back the tide of international organized crime have achieved success.” Mr. Campbell praised the outstanding investigative efforts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, the Italian Ministries of the Interior and Justice, and the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Demarest stated, “This investigation not only exposed an alleged scheme to commit bankruptcy fraud – wiretapped conversations also established that Gaetano Napoli and the Gambino family protected Roberto Settineri in the U.S. and captured Settineri admitting his association with the Sicilian mafia. However, while the Gambino crime family may have direct ties to Mafia families in Sicily, the FBI has even stronger ties to anti-Mafia investigators and prosecutors in Italy.”

ICE Special Agent-in-Charge Hayes stated, “This investigation is a culmination of an extensive joint law enforcement effort to dismantle criminal enterprises that threaten our local communities. ICE will continue to use its unique immigration and customs authority to assist our federal and international law enforcement partners to prevent and deter criminal organizations from breaking the law.”

IRS Special Agent-in-Charge Haynes stated, “The prosecution of individuals who charged with intentionally concealing income and evading taxes is a vital element in maintaining public confidence in our tax system. We should not expect the honest taxpayer to foot the bill for those who would hide income from the IRS.”

If convicted of the most serious offenses, Gaetano Napoli, Sr. and Gaetano Napoli, Jr. face a maximum of 20 years’ imprisonment, and Thomas Napoli faces a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Amy Busa, Cristina Posa, and Karen Hennigan.

The Defendants:

GAETANO NAPOLI, SR. , also known as “Thomas Napoli,”
Age: 71

THOMAS NAPOLI, also known as “Thomas Napoli, Jr.”
Age: 31

GAETANO NAPOLI, JR., also known as “Guy”
Age: 44

_____________________________

1 The charges contained in the indictment are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

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Reputed Colombo associate Robert C. Bombino, 47, of Meade Loop in Richmond Valley, and Louis Romeo, 44, of Atlantic Avenue in Dongan Hills, were arrested and indicted with six others on RICO charges stemming from a kickback and extortion scheme that was taken down by a cooperating witness who infiltrated the Colombos and made hundreds of recordings for the FBI.

Feds also say they picked up Colombo member Theodore (Skinny) Persico, Jr., 46, of Brooklyn; Colombo soldier Thomas Petrizzo, 76, of Brooklyn; Colombo associate Michael J. Persico, 53, of Brooklyn; Colombo associate Edward (Tall Guy) Garofalo, Jr., 43, of Brooklyn; Alicia DiMichele, 36, of Brooklyn; and Mike Lnu, whose age and address were not available.

Prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York alleged that the gang used a Colombo-controlled trucking company, All Around Trucking, to execute a kickback and extortion scheme for debris-removal subcontracting from Boston-based demolition contractors Testa Corporation at two sites: The World Trade Center construction site in Lower Manhattan, and the Newtown Creek wastewater treatment plant on the border between Brooklyn and Queens.

The Persicos spearheaded the scheme in which the trucking company would kick back a portion of its profits as a commercial bribe to a Testa foreman, according to the indictment.

But after All Around Trucking contracted with Testa, Colombo family associates threatened Testa employees when Testa failed to pay the trucking company according to the timetable set by the Colombos, federal prosecutors charged.

The cooperating witness who infiltrated the crime family recorded Michael Persico directing Bombino to threaten Testa employees, according to the indictment.

The tapes also captured Bombino telling Michael Persico that Testa employees were “shakin’ in their boots over us.”

Feds say Michael Persico also forced a furniture storeowner to give Bombino control over the store until the owner repaid a loan to Colombo associates.

Garofalo and his wife, Alicia DiMichele, were also charged with stealing funds from a welfare benefit plan and a pension benefit plan operated on behalf of union laborers of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 282.

The couple allegedly conducted a “double-breasting” scheme in which they used Colombo-controlled non-union shell companies to circumvent Local 282’s collective bargaining agreement union benefit contribution requirements.

“La Cosa Nostra continues to profit illegally in numerous sectors of our economy, allegedly including the World Trade Center construction site,” said U.S. Attorney Benton J. Campbell of the Eastern District of New York.

“This case illustrates yet again that the mob’s aim is to make money, and the means is almost always violence or the threat of violence,” added FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Joseph M. Demarest Jr.

Each of the defendants, except Ms. DiMichele, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges. Ms. DiMichele faces up to five years behind bars upon a conviction.

Souorce: SiLive.com

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Police executed 19 search warrants, 14 in NSW and 5 in Mildura.
Nine men have been arrested aged between 29 and 69 at their homes in West Hoxton, Eschol Park, Bringelly, Harrington Park, Greystanes, Macquarie Links and Macquarie Fields. They include sons, sons-in-law and cousins.
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Actors, cameramen and the curious went deep into Staten Island’s William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge Friday in search of spirits of the dead.

Not just any dead – but those snuffed by the mob whose relatives hope to reach them in the great beyond.

Searches for “Ghostfellas” is the concept of a possible new reality show whose pilot was shot in the sanctuary known to be a favorite gangland graveyard.

No ghosts dropped in Friday, but James McBratney, the brains behind the project, insisted “the shoot was great” because a woman whose father and brother were slain when she was 11 “found closure.”

“She said the deaths left her unable to have long-term relationships for fear of more painful loss,” said McBratney. “I told her that her loved ones want her to write a love story. It was like a burden lifted because she’s in fact writing a music album.”

And how did McBratney, a 48-year-old Staten Island private eye and substance abuse counselor, receive that message from the dead?

He shies away from the word psychic, even though he proudly says he nearly was a winner on “American Psychic Challenge.” And he admits he has yet to talk to any of the departed, although he hopes to.

“I call what I have intuition,” said McBratney. “I’ve always had the ability to read people, know what they’re thinking and tell them to watch out for this or that. It’s like this fortune cookie opens up in my mind and tells me things.”

He also believes he’s especially suited to do what he does because his dad, also named James, was gunned down in a Staten Island bar, allegedly by John Gotti and two cohorts when McBratney was just 10.

McBratney said he never really knew his dad. “He was in jail for four years, out for two and then they killed him.”

But with research and his “intuition,” McBratney said he learned “all about my father, what he did, who he was, what his choices were.”

McBratney said an eyewitness told him his father was gunned down fighting for his life in a Staten Island joint called Snoope’s on May 22, 1973.

The witness said the killers burst into the bar, fired a shot into the ceiling, then went after McBratney.

Investigators said it was Gotti’s first hit.

“To a lot of people, he was a tough guy, a hoodlum. But he took me swimming, crabbing, on picnics. I can still see him at the dinner table as big as life, happy, smiling and covered with tattoos. He was like a God to me, and no matter what, I loved him. And now I believe he’s resting peacefully.”

So who’ll be first to break death-imposed Omerta?

“I’d welcome the chance to chat with Jimmy Hoffa’s son,” said McBratney, and Crazy Joe Gallo’s stepdaughter has already talked to me. So who knows?”

Source: NY Daily News

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Anthony Antico, 74, planned the robbery of jewelry and cash from Louis Antonelli, according to an indictment filed by Brooklyn federal prosecutors.

Antonelli, 43, was gunned down as he left El Sabor Tropical restaurant on April 29, 2008.

Authorities believe the stickup was ordered because the jeweler owed the mob money.

The plot was hatched as early as four weeks before the killing, court papers said.

Antico, who goes by the names “Big Nose” and “Tico” is in prison on a separate racketeering conviction. He is the sixth defendant currently named in the case.

The others are John (Wizzie) DeLutro of New Dorp, Salvatore (Sally Fish) Maniscalco of Brooklyn, Anthony Pica of Bay Terrace, Christopher Prince of Ocean Breeze and Charles Santiago of Grant City.

Maniscalco, Pica, Prince and Santiago are charged with murder and other crimes. DeLutro is accused of acting as an accomplice.

Piecing together information provided by an unnamed cooperating witness, authorities said Pica contacted the witness and told him of a plan to rob Antonelli, who at the time was expected to be carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry and cash in two briefcases.

Prosecutors maintain Antonelli was ambushed and Santiago shot the jeweler twice in the chest. The assailants fled empty-handed.

DeLutro, Maniscalco and Santiago all have cut plea deals.

FBI spokesman James Margolin has said the agency “is pretty convinced” that Antonelli had a “business relationship” with the Genovese family. The agency believes one or more members of the family ordered the shooting, he said.

Besides racketeering conspiracy and robbery conspiracy, Antico is accused of attempted robbery.

Source: SiLive.com

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Apparently Figaro, who belongs to the Mazzarella clan, was leading a reasonably quiet life on a Marbella urbanization.

He had an arrest warrant on his name since 2007 and was believed to have set up his HQ in Malaga, from where he controlled the clan, which mainly dealt in drugs. He had an 11-year prison sentence pending for manslaughter, drug dealing and weapons possession.

The police had him under surveillance since January.

When he was arrested, in a joint operation between Spanish and Italian police and Interpol, he was with two other people, aged 30 and 60, who were also detained, and further arrests have not been ruled out.

Figaro was taken before the National Court as there is an extradition order against him.

Documents found by the police prove that he was running drugs between Spain and Italy, thanks to numerous contacts in North Africa. It is hoped that this discovery will lead to other members of different mafia gangs on the Costa del Sol, as well as preventing others from setting up operations in the area.

Source: Euro Weekly News

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The victim, who was not identified, owed a large sum to an upstate car dealership. The owner reached out to Borgese, who sought the gangster’s help in collecting.

“Tony (Borgese) says he’s got this Jew in New York State that owes him a few dollars,” Orlando said, according to a transcript.

“They go to the house…. The guy opens the door. He didn’t even have the door open, punches are going through the door. The wife comes out. They gave her a beating.”

Borgese, 71, uses the stage name Tony Darrow and is best known for his role in “Goodfellas” as Sonny Bunz, the sad sack owner of the Bamboo Lounge, which gets torched for insurance money. He and mob associate Giovanni Monteleone have been charged with extortion. In court, Orlando, 60, renounced the mob – sort of.

“I no longer have anything to do with anybody and, as the government knows, they no longer want anything to do with me,” he said.

“I just would like to get out and do what I want to do, open a little pizzeria, a restaurant, and do what I enjoy doing, which is cook.”

The victim apparently paid off the debt from the hospital where he recovered from a broken jaw and broken ribs.

Source: NY Daily News

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