by Dr031718 » Thu Aug 26, 2021 3:49 am
Carmine Persico Was No Rat
Gang Land Exclusive!Carmine PersicoIf last week's blockbuster New York Daily News story that fingered the late Mafia boss Carmine (Junior) Persico as a top echelon FBI informer proves anything, it's that you can't believe everything you read in a court brief — even one written by a nationally known appeals lawyer who helped win an impeachment trial for a mob-connected ex-President.
Gang Land carries no brief for Persico, a hardened mobster whose devious ruthlessness earned him the nickname "The Snake" among cops and agents. But a glance at the documents cited by lawyer David Schoen in his court brief, which was the basis for the News's story, shows that they actually cite a notorious FBI informant from Persico's crime family, the late Gregory Scarpa Sr. And Scarpa's role as an FBI snitch is decidedly old news.
Not that you can blame Schoen for trying. His brief was filed on behalf of former acting Colombo boss Victor (Little Vic) Orena, who was Persico's rival in the bloody 1991-93 Colombo war.
Orena, who is 87 and seeking compassionate release from prison, has been trying, in one way or another, for more than a decade to blame Scarpa, and his role as a prized FBI mole, for his conviction. Those claims have been shot down by every judge who's heard them so far. So what better way to breathe new life into the legal claims by upping the allegations by naming the boss of the family as yet another rat?
David SchoenUnfortunately for Orena — and Schoen — the documents show no such thing. The seven-page FBI report cited by Schoen lists Persico and 21 other notable mobsters from several crime families, including Paul (Big Paul) Castellano, Crazy Joe Gallo, and James (Jimmy Brown) Failla, on one side of the document. Next to most of the names, including Persico's is an FBI code "NY 3461-C-TE", under the heading "Symbol Number of Informant."
Veteran Scarpa observers, of which Gang Land is one, would quickly recognize this as the secret number assigned by the FBI to Scarpa Sr.
That's something that the uninitiated would not be expected to know. But lawyer Schoen, who has represented top mobsters for decades, surely knows better.
Instead, he claimed in his court filing that he had recently obtained a sensational FBI document that identified Persico as a Top Echelon FBI informant.
Presto, the result was a Daily News front page headline last Friday proclaiming Persico "a Rat."
Gregory ScarpaThe News broke the story online at about 8:30 Thursday night after Schoen assured reporters Larry McShane and Stephen Rex Brown that he had double checked the information he had cited in his court filing, and it was correct.
In addition to Schoen's flat out wrong assertion that the 1971 document showed that Persico was a rat, Gang Land has learned that the attorney was less than forthcoming in his legal brief, and in his statements to The News reporters about several important aspects about last week's court filings, including when he obtained the document, and their timing.
In his legal brief, which argued that Orena deserves compassionate release from prison after 29 years, Schoen wrote that he recently learned from the 50-year-old FBI report that for decades, Persico, "the 'official boss' of the Colombo family" had worked "in the government's employ as a member of its 'Top Echelon Informant Program.'"
One aspect of Schoen's assertion about the document was pretty straight-forward, albeit wrong. In a "heavily redacted" report he submitted as an exhibit, Schoen informed Brooklyn Federal Judge Eric Komitee that "the Court will see Carmine Persico listed as a Top Echelon Informant, under the 'Colombo LCN' Memorandum, with a corresponding 'TE' number for Mr. Persico."
Victor OrenaBut what Schoen described doing to confirm the "recent, shocking revelation about Persico" read like double talk. So the News rightly called him, and questioned his claim that the Department of Justice's Inspector General, Michael Horowitz and his agents "did not indicate they had any reason to believe (the memo) was anything other than what it purported to be or that any information reflected on it is inaccurate."
Schoen was ready for the call.
"Schoen said he met with Horowitz himself, not with any old member of the IG's office but the main guy," said Brown, who pulled the court documents after McShane, who was on vacation and had gotten a tip about the filing, and called him about it. Brown, who covers the courts for The News, then called Schoen.
The lawyer assured him that Horowitz, who has been the IG since 2012, had agreed with Schoen's request to meet with him without "any agents associated with the" Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office, said Brown. "He said he really had done his due diligence. I relied very much on Schoen's interpretation."
Mathew MariBrown and McShane dutifully noted in the story that if Persico was a top FBI informant he sure didn't get much for it since he died in prison serving a 139-year sentence. They also called attorney Anthony DiPietro who slammed the allegation as "ridiculous on its face." DiPietro added that "Persico would have won compassionate release" from his 100 year Commission case sentence "and not died in prison like a dog" if he had been a snitch.
"Calling Carmine Persico a rat is like calling George Washington a British spy!" said longtime Persico attorney Mathew Mari in a follow-up News account. "Junior was a great client, man, and friend. The government railroaded him and he fought back like a MAN," the lawyer added. The paper also quoted an expert debunking Schoen's explanation of the FBI document.
Both lawyers conceded that the fault for the erroneous story about Persico, whom they defended for about five years, lay with Schoen. But they each told Gang Land that their retorts will never erase all the "damage" to their client's reputation in respectable mob circles that was caused by the screaming front page headline, "SNAKE WAS A RAT," using the nickname that law enforcement officials had given their client.
The story quickly became catnip to mob gossip mongers. Other news accounts about the story, and the special "breaking news" show by ex-Luchese mobster turned podcaster John Pennisi and cohost Tom Lavecchia about the story within hours after the paper hit the streets, seems to back up their contention.
Anthony DiPietroOn Friday, Pennisi raved about the "Big Big News" about Persico, and Lavecchia described The News story as "the biggest story about the mob in decades" on their MBA and the Button Man podcast, as they interviewed McShane about how The News had gotten the story.
Their podcast, and no other quick-hitting mob social media pundits discussed the timing of Schoen's filing, or that his conclusion was dead wrong.
Schoen's legal brief, along with seven exhibits, were filed the same day that Komitee indicated that he was going to deny Orena's motion for compassion. In a brief ruling, the judge wrote that Orena would be re-sentenced on the same day as oral arguments are set to be heard "in the event that the motion for compassionate release is denied."
Gang Land wanted to ask Schoen when he obtained the document, which Orena's son Andrew had mentioned in a 2016 letter to the late Jack Weinstein, the judge who sentenced Little Vic and who denied all his prior efforts to upset his conviction. We also were curious about when he spoke to the IG about it, and when he decided to include the 1971 FBI document in his final submission of the motion for Orena's release.
Andrew & Victor OrenaSchoen took time out from his preparation for the impeachment trial of ex-President Trump to discuss the Orena case with Gang Land in February. But he declined to talk about any aspect of the 1971 FBI report, which has "Clemente" typed on the bottom right hand corner of several of its pages.
That indicates that the material Schoen was citing as a "recent, shocking revelation" had been actually obtained about 15 years ago by Angela Clemente, the self-styled "forensic analyst" who was working along with Andrew Orena back then in an effort to use Scarpa's work as an FBI informer to upset the 1992 murder and racketeering conviction of his father.
Reliable Gang Land sources say Schoen and Andrew Orena had discussed the 1971 FBI report in a "clandestine meeting" with Horowitz in 2014 without getting the "say-so" they felt they needed to allege that Persico was a rat, and they opted not to use it. But, the sources say, they recently decided they "had to move forward and present some outrageous new discovery to the court" to have any chance of winning a release for Little Vic.
In a brief interview, Andrew Orena confirmed that he and Schoen "believe that Judge Komitee has already decided to deny my father's compassionate release" and that he and Schoen had met Horowitz and discussed the 1971 document with him. But he declined to say anything about the document, or their meeting with Horowitz, other than what Schoen had written in his legal brief.
Alphonse (Allie Boy) Persico"My firm belief," said Orena, "is that my father was wrongly convicted due to a conspiracy involving mobsters, law enforcement officials and FBI informers and that in some way, Carmine Persico, as the boss of the family, was part of that conspiracy."
When Gang Land pressed about the lack of any indication — in the 1971 document, or any other FBI report that Persico had been an informant — Orena brought up the killing of longshoreman Steve Bove in 1951. Persico's brother Alphonse served 20 years for the murder, even though police reports say that Carmine committed it, and fingered his brother for it, in a bizarre, agreed upon plan to spare the then 17-year-old Carmine from a prison term.
"What about the Blue Beetle case," he said, referring to the Bove case that Gang Land wrote about twice in 2012, one that Persico had complained about. "If he was an informer then," said Orena, "he could have been an informer in 1971."
Not according to last week's court filings, or any other evidence out there. It's safe to say, Carmine Persico may have been a fierce, violent Mafia boss, but he wasn't a rat.
Anthony Scotto, Wiseguy And Onetime Waterfront Boss, Dead At 87
Anthony ScottoAnthony Scotto, a college-educated tough kid from Red Hook who worked on the Brooklyn waterfront as a teenager and earned praise from President Jimmy Carter and Mafia boss Paul (Big Paul) Castellano years later when he headed the International Longshoremen's Association's largest and most powerful local, died last week. He was 87.
Scotto, who was identified as a Gambino capo by numerous turncoats, was convicted of federal bribery charges in 1979. Unlike trials of most mobsters, the character witnesses came from the highest echelons of New York state. Among those testifying in Scotto's behalf were then-Governor Hugh Carey and ex-Mayors Robert Wagner and John Lindsay. Scotto always maintained his innocence and had no future troubles with the law when he completed his five year sentence in 1984.
In his heyday, the soft-spoken wiseguy was viewed by elected officials as a reformer who would make good on his promise to change the Johnny Friendly image of the corrupt waterfront union boss that was portrayed in On The Waterfront. He was one of several candidates for Secretary of Labor who were considered by Carter when he was campaigning in 1976.
Paul CastellanoScotto was also much admired by his Cosa Nostra colleagues.
During a tape-recorded conversation that Castellano had with his key aide Thomas Bilotti and his nephew Thomas Gambino in 1983, Big Paul bemoaned Scotto's conviction and the prison term he was still serving.
"We respected him (Scotto)," said Castellano. "It was our union," he said of Local 1814, the ILA local that Scotto had headed. "We were making him advance in our union. Go up, up, up ... the ladder. And ... what's gonna happen, we're gonna have a president."
As it turned out, John Gotti had a different view of Scotto's importance and value in 1986 when he succeeded Castellano as Gambino boss. The Dapper Don's opinion, and a decision he made based on that, may have been a break for the ex-union leader: It allowed Scotto to spend time with his grandkids, and at Fresco by Scotto, the Manhattan restaurant his family runs, and avoid any further problems with the law.
Anthony CicconeAnthony (Sonny) Ciccone, the mobster Gotti promoted to capo and anointed as the Gambino crime family's man on the docks, was convicted of labor racketeering on the Brooklyn and Staten Island waterfront in 2003 with then-family boss Peter Gotti and sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison.
During the investigation that landed Ciccone behind bars, he was tape-recorded badmouthing his former capo for trying to convince ILA leaders to approve a $280-a-month pension for him for the years he served as a union official before he was convicted and ousted from his post.
His discussion, ironically was with Scotto's cousin, Anthony (Todo) Anastasio, a namesake of his father-in-law, albeit with a different nickname, Anthony (Tough Tony) Anastasio. Cousin Todo had been convicted with Scotto back in 1979 and sentenced to two years.
At one point in the conversation, on April 12, 2001, Todo seemed to sympathize with his cousin's effort, telling Ciccone that perhaps Scotto was "entitled" to the pension and "they're not giving it to him."
Rosanna ScottoSonny angrily dismissed Todo and accused Scotto of "terrorizing" union officials who were worried about racketeering charges with such a petty matter.
"He's a legitimate guy?" Ciccone shouted. "I told him, 'Forget about it. What the fuck is it with you, two hundred and eighty dollars! You ain't got enough fucking money! I mean, you need this fucking two hundred and eighty dollars that fucking bad. C'mon. Jesus Christ all fucking mighty.'"
Scotto's death was announced by his daughter Rosanna, a co-anchor of Good Day New York. "He enjoyed golfing with his friends, loved a good cigar and relished making Sunday Sauce with his family," she stated in a Facebook post. "He was loved by everyone and will be missed dearly."
In addition to his daughter Rosanna, Scotto is survived by his wife of 64 years, Marion, his sons Anthony Jr. and John, a daughter, Elaina, and eight grandchildren.
Different Strokes For Different Folks On Persico As Rat
John PennisiWhile turncoat Luchese family podcaster John Pennisi was singing his praises of the faulty "paperwork" that painted Mafia boss Carmine (Junior) Persico as a rat last Friday, Chicago-based reporter-writer Lisa Babick and her anonymous New York partner who goes by "The Other Guy," were ripping apart David Schoen's "paperwork" as drivel and posting it for all to see on Instagram.
In Chicago, Babick was posting the full FBI document naming 21 gangsters along with Persico, and identifying the TE number 3461 as belonging to longtime FBI top echelon informer Gregory Scarpa Sr., and posting a New Yorker clip that detailed Scarpa's number back in 1966.
In New Jersey, or wherever the MBA and the Button Man podcast emanates from – the duo are on split screens during the show – Lavecchia was flashing the front page of the Daily News and reading its headline, "Snake was a rat, Mafia boss Persico spent decades as fed snitch: court records."
Persico-Rat-DNews"In this case you're talking about a boss," said Pennisi. "It has a little bit of a Whitey Bulger twist to it," he said.
Several times, the ex-gangster stressed the importance of "paperwork" when mobsters suspect the worst about members or associates of their crime families.
"There's one thing that counts in that life," he said. "It's not what someone has to say, it's not a rumor that's spread. It's paperwork. Paperwork is so important in that life."
If "Persico slapped a guy, or embarrassed a guy" that wouldn't be enough to call him a rat because in the life "there's always an ax to grind," he said. "That's why I always say, paperwork speaks, and if you have paperwork on a guy, that speaks volumes."
Pennisi, who indicated that he had friends who were Colombo mobsters, stated that the news that Persico was a rat "wasn't a shock" to him. He wondered aloud how "guys on the Persico side (of the war with the Orena faction) who literally put their lives on the line must feel with this news, that they were fighting for someone who was actually giving up information to the government."
Lisa BabickOn Saturday, Babick noted on Instagram that the seven-page filing was part of the "thousands of pages" of FBI documents that Angela Clemente had obtained years ago (wrongly noting that Clemente broke the story that Scarpa was an FBI informer, which, as Gang Land readers know, was disclosed by Gang Land and Daily News colleague Tom Robbins in 1994.)
That same day, Pennisi stated in his blog that while he and his cohost had talked about the Daily News story that Persico was a rat on their special "breaking news" podcast, he really had "no opinion" about the veracity or lack of same of the "paperwork" that Schoen had filed.
"In good conscience," wrote the ex-Luchese mobster, "no person should be unjustly accused of something they are innocent of. The truth always prevails in the end, as life has shown us, and may this ring true for both sides of this dispute. May Carmine Persico Rest in Peace."
The next day, Babick, who wrote a Gang Land item about the very discredited Luchese cooperating witness Frank Pasqua III two months ago, and The Other Guy published a story titled, "Carmine Persico was NOT a Rat. End of Story," on their website.
Carmine Persico Was No Rat
Gang Land Exclusive!Carmine PersicoIf last week's blockbuster New York Daily News story that fingered the late Mafia boss Carmine (Junior) Persico as a top echelon FBI informer proves anything, it's that you can't believe everything you read in a court brief — even one written by a nationally known appeals lawyer who helped win an impeachment trial for a mob-connected ex-President.
Gang Land carries no brief for Persico, a hardened mobster whose devious ruthlessness earned him the nickname "The Snake" among cops and agents. But a glance at the documents cited by lawyer David Schoen in his court brief, which was the basis for the News's story, shows that they actually cite a notorious FBI informant from Persico's crime family, the late Gregory Scarpa Sr. And Scarpa's role as an FBI snitch is decidedly old news.
Not that you can blame Schoen for trying. His brief was filed on behalf of former acting Colombo boss Victor (Little Vic) Orena, who was Persico's rival in the bloody 1991-93 Colombo war.
Orena, who is 87 and seeking compassionate release from prison, has been trying, in one way or another, for more than a decade to blame Scarpa, and his role as a prized FBI mole, for his conviction. Those claims have been shot down by every judge who's heard them so far. So what better way to breathe new life into the legal claims by upping the allegations by naming the boss of the family as yet another rat?
David SchoenUnfortunately for Orena — and Schoen — the documents show no such thing. The seven-page FBI report cited by Schoen lists Persico and 21 other notable mobsters from several crime families, including Paul (Big Paul) Castellano, Crazy Joe Gallo, and James (Jimmy Brown) Failla, on one side of the document. Next to most of the names, including Persico's is an FBI code "NY 3461-C-TE", under the heading "Symbol Number of Informant."
Veteran Scarpa observers, of which Gang Land is one, would quickly recognize this as the secret number assigned by the FBI to Scarpa Sr.
That's something that the uninitiated would not be expected to know. But lawyer Schoen, who has represented top mobsters for decades, surely knows better.
Instead, he claimed in his court filing that he had recently obtained a sensational FBI document that identified Persico as a Top Echelon FBI informant.
Presto, the result was a Daily News front page headline last Friday proclaiming Persico "a Rat."
Gregory ScarpaThe News broke the story online at about 8:30 Thursday night after Schoen assured reporters Larry McShane and Stephen Rex Brown that he had double checked the information he had cited in his court filing, and it was correct.
In addition to Schoen's flat out wrong assertion that the 1971 document showed that Persico was a rat, Gang Land has learned that the attorney was less than forthcoming in his legal brief, and in his statements to The News reporters about several important aspects about last week's court filings, including when he obtained the document, and their timing.
In his legal brief, which argued that Orena deserves compassionate release from prison after 29 years, Schoen wrote that he recently learned from the 50-year-old FBI report that for decades, Persico, "the 'official boss' of the Colombo family" had worked "in the government's employ as a member of its 'Top Echelon Informant Program.'"
One aspect of Schoen's assertion about the document was pretty straight-forward, albeit wrong. In a "heavily redacted" report he submitted as an exhibit, Schoen informed Brooklyn Federal Judge Eric Komitee that "the Court will see Carmine Persico listed as a Top Echelon Informant, under the 'Colombo LCN' Memorandum, with a corresponding 'TE' number for Mr. Persico."
Victor OrenaBut what Schoen described doing to confirm the "recent, shocking revelation about Persico" read like double talk. So the News rightly called him, and questioned his claim that the Department of Justice's Inspector General, Michael Horowitz and his agents "did not indicate they had any reason to believe (the memo) was anything other than what it purported to be or that any information reflected on it is inaccurate."
Schoen was ready for the call.
"Schoen said he met with Horowitz himself, not with any old member of the IG's office but the main guy," said Brown, who pulled the court documents after McShane, who was on vacation and had gotten a tip about the filing, and called him about it. Brown, who covers the courts for The News, then called Schoen.
The lawyer assured him that Horowitz, who has been the IG since 2012, had agreed with Schoen's request to meet with him without "any agents associated with the" Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office, said Brown. "He said he really had done his due diligence. I relied very much on Schoen's interpretation."
Mathew MariBrown and McShane dutifully noted in the story that if Persico was a top FBI informant he sure didn't get much for it since he died in prison serving a 139-year sentence. They also called attorney Anthony DiPietro who slammed the allegation as "ridiculous on its face." DiPietro added that "Persico would have won compassionate release" from his 100 year Commission case sentence "and not died in prison like a dog" if he had been a snitch.
"Calling Carmine Persico a rat is like calling George Washington a British spy!" said longtime Persico attorney Mathew Mari in a follow-up News account. "Junior was a great client, man, and friend. The government railroaded him and he fought back like a MAN," the lawyer added. The paper also quoted an expert debunking Schoen's explanation of the FBI document.
Both lawyers conceded that the fault for the erroneous story about Persico, whom they defended for about five years, lay with Schoen. But they each told Gang Land that their retorts will never erase all the "damage" to their client's reputation in respectable mob circles that was caused by the screaming front page headline, "SNAKE WAS A RAT," using the nickname that law enforcement officials had given their client.
The story quickly became catnip to mob gossip mongers. Other news accounts about the story, and the special "breaking news" show by ex-Luchese mobster turned podcaster John Pennisi and cohost Tom Lavecchia about the story within hours after the paper hit the streets, seems to back up their contention.
Anthony DiPietroOn Friday, Pennisi raved about the "Big Big News" about Persico, and Lavecchia described The News story as "the biggest story about the mob in decades" on their MBA and the Button Man podcast, as they interviewed McShane about how The News had gotten the story.
Their podcast, and no other quick-hitting mob social media pundits discussed the timing of Schoen's filing, or that his conclusion was dead wrong.
Schoen's legal brief, along with seven exhibits, were filed the same day that Komitee indicated that he was going to deny Orena's motion for compassion. In a brief ruling, the judge wrote that Orena would be re-sentenced on the same day as oral arguments are set to be heard "in the event that the motion for compassionate release is denied."
Gang Land wanted to ask Schoen when he obtained the document, which Orena's son Andrew had mentioned in a 2016 letter to the late Jack Weinstein, the judge who sentenced Little Vic and who denied all his prior efforts to upset his conviction. We also were curious about when he spoke to the IG about it, and when he decided to include the 1971 FBI document in his final submission of the motion for Orena's release.
Andrew & Victor OrenaSchoen took time out from his preparation for the impeachment trial of ex-President Trump to discuss the Orena case with Gang Land in February. But he declined to talk about any aspect of the 1971 FBI report, which has "Clemente" typed on the bottom right hand corner of several of its pages.
That indicates that the material Schoen was citing as a "recent, shocking revelation" had been actually obtained about 15 years ago by Angela Clemente, the self-styled "forensic analyst" who was working along with Andrew Orena back then in an effort to use Scarpa's work as an FBI informer to upset the 1992 murder and racketeering conviction of his father.
Reliable Gang Land sources say Schoen and Andrew Orena had discussed the 1971 FBI report in a "clandestine meeting" with Horowitz in 2014 without getting the "say-so" they felt they needed to allege that Persico was a rat, and they opted not to use it. But, the sources say, they recently decided they "had to move forward and present some outrageous new discovery to the court" to have any chance of winning a release for Little Vic.
In a brief interview, Andrew Orena confirmed that he and Schoen "believe that Judge Komitee has already decided to deny my father's compassionate release" and that he and Schoen had met Horowitz and discussed the 1971 document with him. But he declined to say anything about the document, or their meeting with Horowitz, other than what Schoen had written in his legal brief.
Alphonse (Allie Boy) Persico"My firm belief," said Orena, "is that my father was wrongly convicted due to a conspiracy involving mobsters, law enforcement officials and FBI informers and that in some way, Carmine Persico, as the boss of the family, was part of that conspiracy."
When Gang Land pressed about the lack of any indication — in the 1971 document, or any other FBI report that Persico had been an informant — Orena brought up the killing of longshoreman Steve Bove in 1951. Persico's brother Alphonse served 20 years for the murder, even though police reports say that Carmine committed it, and fingered his brother for it, in a bizarre, agreed upon plan to spare the then 17-year-old Carmine from a prison term.
"What about the Blue Beetle case," he said, referring to the Bove case that Gang Land wrote about twice in 2012, one that Persico had complained about. "If he was an informer then," said Orena, "he could have been an informer in 1971."
Not according to last week's court filings, or any other evidence out there. It's safe to say, Carmine Persico may have been a fierce, violent Mafia boss, but he wasn't a rat.
Anthony Scotto, Wiseguy And Onetime Waterfront Boss, Dead At 87
Anthony ScottoAnthony Scotto, a college-educated tough kid from Red Hook who worked on the Brooklyn waterfront as a teenager and earned praise from President Jimmy Carter and Mafia boss Paul (Big Paul) Castellano years later when he headed the International Longshoremen's Association's largest and most powerful local, died last week. He was 87.
Scotto, who was identified as a Gambino capo by numerous turncoats, was convicted of federal bribery charges in 1979. Unlike trials of most mobsters, the character witnesses came from the highest echelons of New York state. Among those testifying in Scotto's behalf were then-Governor Hugh Carey and ex-Mayors Robert Wagner and John Lindsay. Scotto always maintained his innocence and had no future troubles with the law when he completed his five year sentence in 1984.
In his heyday, the soft-spoken wiseguy was viewed by elected officials as a reformer who would make good on his promise to change the Johnny Friendly image of the corrupt waterfront union boss that was portrayed in On The Waterfront. He was one of several candidates for Secretary of Labor who were considered by Carter when he was campaigning in 1976.
Paul CastellanoScotto was also much admired by his Cosa Nostra colleagues.
During a tape-recorded conversation that Castellano had with his key aide Thomas Bilotti and his nephew Thomas Gambino in 1983, Big Paul bemoaned Scotto's conviction and the prison term he was still serving.
"We respected him (Scotto)," said Castellano. "It was our union," he said of Local 1814, the ILA local that Scotto had headed. "We were making him advance in our union. Go up, up, up ... the ladder. And ... what's gonna happen, we're gonna have a president."
As it turned out, John Gotti had a different view of Scotto's importance and value in 1986 when he succeeded Castellano as Gambino boss. The Dapper Don's opinion, and a decision he made based on that, may have been a break for the ex-union leader: It allowed Scotto to spend time with his grandkids, and at Fresco by Scotto, the Manhattan restaurant his family runs, and avoid any further problems with the law.
Anthony CicconeAnthony (Sonny) Ciccone, the mobster Gotti promoted to capo and anointed as the Gambino crime family's man on the docks, was convicted of labor racketeering on the Brooklyn and Staten Island waterfront in 2003 with then-family boss Peter Gotti and sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison.
During the investigation that landed Ciccone behind bars, he was tape-recorded badmouthing his former capo for trying to convince ILA leaders to approve a $280-a-month pension for him for the years he served as a union official before he was convicted and ousted from his post.
His discussion, ironically was with Scotto's cousin, Anthony (Todo) Anastasio, a namesake of his father-in-law, albeit with a different nickname, Anthony (Tough Tony) Anastasio. Cousin Todo had been convicted with Scotto back in 1979 and sentenced to two years.
At one point in the conversation, on April 12, 2001, Todo seemed to sympathize with his cousin's effort, telling Ciccone that perhaps Scotto was "entitled" to the pension and "they're not giving it to him."
Rosanna ScottoSonny angrily dismissed Todo and accused Scotto of "terrorizing" union officials who were worried about racketeering charges with such a petty matter.
"He's a legitimate guy?" Ciccone shouted. "I told him, 'Forget about it. What the fuck is it with you, two hundred and eighty dollars! You ain't got enough fucking money! I mean, you need this fucking two hundred and eighty dollars that fucking bad. C'mon. Jesus Christ all fucking mighty.'"
Scotto's death was announced by his daughter Rosanna, a co-anchor of Good Day New York. "He enjoyed golfing with his friends, loved a good cigar and relished making Sunday Sauce with his family," she stated in a Facebook post. "He was loved by everyone and will be missed dearly."
In addition to his daughter Rosanna, Scotto is survived by his wife of 64 years, Marion, his sons Anthony Jr. and John, a daughter, Elaina, and eight grandchildren.
Different Strokes For Different Folks On Persico As Rat
John PennisiWhile turncoat Luchese family podcaster John Pennisi was singing his praises of the faulty "paperwork" that painted Mafia boss Carmine (Junior) Persico as a rat last Friday, Chicago-based reporter-writer Lisa Babick and her anonymous New York partner who goes by "The Other Guy," were ripping apart David Schoen's "paperwork" as drivel and posting it for all to see on Instagram.
In Chicago, Babick was posting the full FBI document naming 21 gangsters along with Persico, and identifying the TE number 3461 as belonging to longtime FBI top echelon informer Gregory Scarpa Sr., and posting a New Yorker clip that detailed Scarpa's number back in 1966.
In New Jersey, or wherever the MBA and the Button Man podcast emanates from – the duo are on split screens during the show – Lavecchia was flashing the front page of the Daily News and reading its headline, "Snake was a rat, Mafia boss Persico spent decades as fed snitch: court records."
Persico-Rat-DNews"In this case you're talking about a boss," said Pennisi. "It has a little bit of a Whitey Bulger twist to it," he said.
Several times, the ex-gangster stressed the importance of "paperwork" when mobsters suspect the worst about members or associates of their crime families.
"There's one thing that counts in that life," he said. "It's not what someone has to say, it's not a rumor that's spread. It's paperwork. Paperwork is so important in that life."
If "Persico slapped a guy, or embarrassed a guy" that wouldn't be enough to call him a rat because in the life "there's always an ax to grind," he said. "That's why I always say, paperwork speaks, and if you have paperwork on a guy, that speaks volumes."
Pennisi, who indicated that he had friends who were Colombo mobsters, stated that the news that Persico was a rat "wasn't a shock" to him. He wondered aloud how "guys on the Persico side (of the war with the Orena faction) who literally put their lives on the line must feel with this news, that they were fighting for someone who was actually giving up information to the government."
Lisa BabickOn Saturday, Babick noted on Instagram that the seven-page filing was part of the "thousands of pages" of FBI documents that Angela Clemente had obtained years ago (wrongly noting that Clemente broke the story that Scarpa was an FBI informer, which, as Gang Land readers know, was disclosed by Gang Land and Daily News colleague Tom Robbins in 1994.)
That same day, Pennisi stated in his blog that while he and his cohost had talked about the Daily News story that Persico was a rat on their special "breaking news" podcast, he really had "no opinion" about the veracity or lack of same of the "paperwork" that Schoen had filed.
"In good conscience," wrote the ex-Luchese mobster, "no person should be unjustly accused of something they are innocent of. The truth always prevails in the end, as life has shown us, and may this ring true for both sides of this dispute. May Carmine Persico Rest in Peace."
The next day, Babick, who wrote a Gang Land item about the very discredited Luchese cooperating witness Frank Pasqua III two months ago, and The Other Guy published a story titled, "Carmine Persico was NOT a Rat. End of Story," on their website.