by Dr031718 » Thu Dec 28, 2023 9:46 am
Did She Or Didn't She? FBI Agent's Alleged Forced Sex Trysts With Mob Turncoat Is Top Gang Land Story Of 2023
The Top Mob Story of 2023 is Gang Land's exclusive report that a mob-busting FBI agent was so attracted to a cooperating witness she allegedly coerced him into an unwanted sexual relationship for nearly three years. During that time, the mob turncoat worked undercover, a daring escapade that helped the feds convict dozens of mobsters, including the last two bosses of the powerful Genovese crime family.
The allegedly frisky agent, Joy Adam, retired six years ago and has not been charged with any wrongdoing. She has also refused to comment on the story.
Adam, 60, enjoyed her scandalous relationship with mob defector Michael (Cookie) D'Urso from mid-1998 until early 2001 as he was tape-recording thousands of conversations with members and associates of all five families, according to D'Urso, as Gang Land reported two months ago.
This is the second time that the number one mob story is not based on a major FBI takedown or a verdict in a New York area racketeering or murder trial. The Top Mob Story Of 2022, was the hard-to-fathom decision by Mafia boss Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso to have Bonanno mobsters assault a "shelved" wiseguy at the funeral home where his father-in-law was waked in violation of Mancuso's order.
D'Urso originally told Gang Land about Adam's sexual demands on him about 13 years ago. But at the time he swore us to secrecy until he was either killed or when he decided to release us from our promise. That release came in October when he learned that former FBI agent Mike Campi had disclosed the raunchy tale in a book he wrote with former federal prosecutor Dan Dorsky, War Against the Mafia.
Adam, the wife of a supervisor of the FBI's Genovese family squad, retired in 2017. She left the agency following an unrelated internal FBI inquiry that cleared her of violating agency policies during an investigation that she headed that led to the arrest and convictions of 46 mobsters from five families, including Philadelphia mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino.
D’Urso's story — for those who missed it the first time — goes like this: Shortly after he began cooperating, Adam solicited sex from him. She continued to use her power as an FBI agent to compel him to have sex with her until the undercover phase of the investigation ended with the arrest of 45 mobsters and associates of all five families in April of 2001.
It began, D'Urso said, at a hotel near Newark airport where she told him to meet her about the investigation. While they were having dinner Adam told him: "Hey, you wanna get laid tonight? I've been listening to your conversations for years and I've grown attracted to you."
Once the allegedly forced sex began, D'Urso stated he felt trapped by Adam, fearful that she would upend his deal with the feds — or worse — if he refused.
"Whenever I resisted," D'Urso said, "she'd stop approving the funding for living expenses that we needed to survive because I couldn't keep any of the money from scores I was making with Sammy (Genovese capo, Salvatore Aparo) and (wiseguy) Joe Zito because the FBI was keeping that as evidence. I really had no choices." Aparo and Zito were among those indicted in 2001. Family boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante and successor chieftain Liborio (Barney) Bellomo were indicted the following year.
"She demanded to have sex every time we met," he said. "She'd get there early before everybody and we'd have sex. It became a mandatory routine. And if it couldn't be before, it had to be after. She wouldn't let me go."
In War Against the Mafia, former G-man Campi wrote that he learned in 2007, years after he retired, about D'Urso's allegations and that they "shocked me to the very core." But to his "surprise and disappointment," he wrote, the FBI showed no desire to pursue the allegations and prosecute her. And FBI censors in Washington ordered Campi to omit many crucial details from his manuscript — including Adam's name.
The book was originally co-authored by Campi and Dorsky, who prosecuted several trials at which D'Urso testified, and scheduled for publication in November. The duo promoted War Against The Mafia in September and early October; they appeared in YouTube interviews and on Deadline NYC, the WBAI radio show hosted by my former Daily News colleague Tom Robbins.
Campi wrote 11 of the 28 chapters; Dorsky wrote 10. The duo collaborated on the introduction and seven chapters. But by mid-October, Dorsky dropped out of the project, and the book, now authored by Campi alone, was originally pushed ahead to this month. But rewriting by Campi and the editing caused by Dorsky's decision has delayed publication until April or May, a Skyhorse Publishing spokesman told Gang Land.
Gang Land made numerous attempts to reach Adam, or her husband, before we published our original story about the matter on October 19, but were unable to obtain a response. We were also unable to get the FBI, or any of their former or current colleagues, to have them get back to us regarding the allegations reported by D'Urso or as stated by Campi in War Against The Mafia.
This week, we contacted Seth Schechter, a California attorney for Adam. Schechter recently sent a "cease and desist" letter to former Washington Post reporter Allan Lengel who reprinted Gang Land's column on his website, ticklethewire.com, about the goings-on in federal law enforcement. Schechter did not respond to repeated telephone and email requests for comment from Gang Land.
As for Mikey Nose Mancuso, he also had no troubles with the law over the slugfest at the Glen Cove funeral home where mobster Vito Grimaldi was waked. But Mancuso gets Gang Land's Free Room & Board Award. That's because Judge Nicholas Garaufis gave Mikey Nose 11 months at the Allenwood Pennsylvania Low Security prison for a Violation Of Supervised Release (VOSR) for continuing to hang out with his gangsters chums.
The Brooklyn jurist, who won last year's Best Quote of the year by a judge for telling the feds, "Put some meat on this bone for me," also gets the Best Quote of 2023 By A Judge award. He told the prosecutor and probation officer, "Are you playing me?" when they tried "to weasel out" and told Garaufis they planned to let Mancuso plead guilty to a lesser VOSR than the one he had been charged with.
U.S. Department of Probation Chief Robert Capers gets the Tony Ducks Award – named for the late Luchese boss Anthony Corallo who earned the moniker for beating numerous cases before he got 100 years in the Commission case. Capers ignored the judge's order to appear in court and explain why he had decided to let Mancuso plead guilty to a "lesser kind of charge." Capers sent an underling to take the heat.
Bellomo, who has had no run-ins with the law since his release from federal custody in 2008 for his D'Urso-connected conviction, gets the Love Is A Many Splendored Thing Award for buying a building lot with Nancy Rossi, his life partner for several years, in Crestwood, a leafy section of Yonkers, where sources say the couple plans to build a home. Buona Fortuna to the happy couple.
Mobster Joseph Celso gets the Knucklehead Award for attending a Genovese crime family Christmas party in Congers, NY while the jury was deliberating his case. It wouldn't have mattered if he'd been acquitted of all three charges, instead of only two. But since he wasn't, it did, and Celso is still cooling his heels in the Metropolitan Detention Center awaiting sentencing.
International Longshoreman's Association president Harold Daggett and assorted members and associates of the Genovese crime family are sharing The SCOTUS Gift Of The Year: the death of the 70-year-old Waterfront Commission. But Gang Land hears that before the waterfront watchdog went to sleep with the fishes, it turned over some very interesting stuff it had to the feds, not the New Jersey State police. Stay tuned.
Prosecutor of The Year Award: The Big Colombo Family Takedown
Assistant U.S. Attorney Devon Lash and former prosecutor James McDonald share Prosecutor Of The Year For 2023 for the blockbuster case against the hierarchy of the Colombo family for carrying out a 20-year-long shakedown of a labor union — a case that ended with guilty pleas of all the defendants, including the family's reputed heir apparent boss, capo Theodore (Skinny Teddy) Persico.
Persico, the oft-convicted nephew of the late, long-imprisoned, family boss Carmine (Junior) Persico, was sentenced to five years behind bars this month for his role in the extortion of Local 621 of the United Construction Trades and Industrial Employees Union. And there is little doubt that Skinny Teddy became the government's main target in the case, if he wasn't at the outset.
The indictment, unsealed on September 14, 2021, charged Skinny Teddy and seven others, including then-boss Andrew (Mush) Russo, his underboss and consigliere with the long-running shakedown of the union president. The indictment charged two others — and a third defendant a year later — with joining a Colombo plot to steal $10,000 a month from the union's benefit plans.
Russo died in 2022. But the seven other Colombos pleaded guilty to the extortion. The trio of mob associates all copped plea deals to being part of a plan to use a renowned tenor, Andrew Koslosky, who sang to the FBI when agents arrested him on weapons charges in April of 2021, to embezzle thousands of dollars a month from the union's benefit plans.
Consigliere Ralph (Big Ralph) DeMatteo gets Gang Land's Bathing Beauty Award for posing at a Florida pool while FBI agents were arresting all his codefendants but still searching for him. Along with two other gangsters, DeMatteo received lesser prison terms than Perisco.
Skinny Teddy gets the The Persico Family Award for getting a big number at sentencing. It wasn't way over the top, like the 100 years his Uncle Junior got, or the 25 years his Uncle Allie Boy got for loansharking and going on the lam for seven years. Or as bad as the 22 years his dad, Teddy Bear got for being a soldier in the Persico army during the bloody 1991-'93 Colombo mob war, but never shooting anyone. But it was nine months above the high end of his guidelines.
Three others are still awaiting sentencing, including capo Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo, who began the extortion scheme that netted more than $600,000 in payoffs — mostly to him — and who could get more than Skinny Teddy. His sentencing guidelines are 63-to-78 months.
Colombo, capo Richard Ferrara gets the Turncoat Mobster Of 2023 Award. He has yet to face the music, but when he does, Gang Land expects him to receive a time served sentence of four months, which he spent behind bars as a danger to the community before he was released 23 months ago.
Ferrara didn't do any damage to his old wiseguy friends, but he helped McDonald convict two Russian gangsters of lying to the FBI about the death of a Russian businessman who was killed in 2009 in a Sheepshead Bay night club and whose body they helped bury in a wooded area in Sullivan County. Their plea agreements carry sentencing guidelines of 10-to-16 months.
Four other defendants in the case pleaded guilty to crimes including drug trafficking, extortion and fraud, including Bonanno soldier John (Bazoo) Ragano, who was sentenced to 51 months in prison by Brooklyn Federal Judge Hector Gonzalez.
McDonald, Lash and FBI agent Joseph Costello share the Two Wrongs Make A Right Award for getting Skinny Teddy on racketeering charges despite filing two erroneous charges against the Colombo capo in the case.
In affidavits the prosecutors submitted to obtain wiretaps, Costello wrongly stated Persico was the family boss. And prosecutors wrongly stated in a detention memo that Skinny Teddy attended a meeting with top family mobsters in Brooklyn when their own evidence showed he was in Staten Island.
The main Prosecutor of the Year award competitors for Mcdonald & Lash was Suffolk County assistant district attorney, Laura de Oliveira, and three Manhattan federal prosecutors, Jason Swergold, Danielle Sassoon, and Jun Xiang. They get an Honorable Mention for convicting 11 union officials of bribery charges.
James Cahill, the former president of the NY State Building & Trades Council, whom the sentencing judge called the "source of the rot" behind massive corruption in the plumbers union, pleaded guilty to accepting $51,000 in bribes from a wired up plumbing contractor from 2018 to 2020. Cahill, 74, got 51 months, 10 months more than the high end of his recommended prison term.
Joseph DiBenedetto gets the Defense Lawyer of the Year Award for getting probation from a tough sentencing judge for his client, an attorney who was a member of a Gambino family drug ring that distributed 1000 pounds of marijuana in the New York area while he was working as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn.
Ramy Joudeh, who was fired by the Brooklyn DA's office when he was nabbed in 2016 as a player in the ring, according to court records in the case, faced a mandatory minimum of five years in prison — and up to 40 years behind bars — if convicted at trial.
And the feds had the goods on him. Joudeh implicated himself in the drug scheme in 2016 while "en route to provide a sample of marijuana to a potential customer," according to a complaint by FBI agent Paul Harris. Joudeh was stopped by a DEA agent who "smelled a strong odor" of marijuana "emanating" from a "black plastic bag" that the agent had seen Joudeh carrying when he left his home, Harris wrote.
The FBI also had tape recorded Joudeh picking up money for his cohorts, but lawyer DiBenedetto wangled a plea agreement with the feds calling for a maximum of four years behind bars but with guidelines up to six months.
At sentencing, assistant U.S. attorney Benjamin Weintraub stated that Joudeh had "been the beneficiary of many privileges in his life" and yet had committed crimes while working as a prosecutor and argued he should be jailed and disbarred. DiBenedetto countered that it was a bad period in his client's life, that he had owned up to his guilt, was a completely changed man, and that prison was unnecessary in his case.
Brooklyn Federal Judge Dora Irizzary agreed with DiBenedetto, and meted out a sentence of five years probation for Joudeh, 38. He still faces a disciplinary hearing before the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court, but he has not been suspended and is still practicing law.
The FBI gets the Empty Vault Award for the Hudson Valley Big Dig for Gambino bodies last month that turned up exactly what 30 million people saw live on TV when newsman Geraldo Rivera opened up Al Capone's sealed vault in Chicago's Lexington Hotel in 1986 — nothing but dirt. At least Rivera had the guts to say, "Seems like we struck out." The FBI had no comment.
Gambino capo Joseph (Joe Brooklyn) Lanni gets the Blabbermouth of the Year Award for boasting that he "was a Gambino" when he threatened to burn down the Toms River restaurant whose owners threw him out for being drunk and disorderly on Labor Day weekend.
Lanni's young associate Vincent (Vinny Slick) Minsquero gets the Fireman of the Year Award for stopping Joe Brooklyn from burning down the restaurant.
Gambino gangster Anthony (Fat Anthony) Pandrella won't be able to spend it since he's behind bars for the next 35 years for the murder of Luchese loanshark Vincent Zito. But Pandrella gets the Crime Pays Award for being allowed to keep the 750K the feds say he got by killing Zito. The money would have been forfeited if prosecutors had convicted him of stealing the cash, but they only charged Fat Anthony with stealing watches from Zito when he shot him to death in his home.
Disgraced FBI agent John Connolly also gets a Crime Pays Award. Connolly, who was convicted of taking part in a 1982 murder conspiracy with his longtime informer Whitey Bulger, won parole from his 40 year sentence in February 2021 because he had less than a year to live. Connolly, 83, is still collecting his FBI pension as 2023 comes to a close.
Anthony (Little Anthony) Pipitone gets the Out House Award, no not for what you're thinking. He set the standard in 2023 for getting home detention furloughs while on bail awaiting trial. He was 29 for 44 in September. Since then he's raised his hard to top numbers to 33 for 50. His 51st request to celebrate New Year's Eve at his brother-in-law's house is still pending.
Dear Reader: No matter where you hang your hat, or where your current station in life is located, Gang Land wishes you a peaceful, prosperous, healthy and Happy New Year!
Grim Reaper Takes A Toll On More Than A Few Gang Land Bold Face Names
They were from different walks of life, but lawyer Ronald Fischetti and TV newsman Pablo Guzman were both called out by the Grim Reaper within a day of each other a few weeks ago. Very different people, but both friendly professionals whenever we ran into them during the late 1980s when John Gotti was loving every minute of his fame and fortune after his acquittal of racketeering charges
When our paths would cross over the years, Fischetti would often recall the day that he was there on the sixth floor of the federal courthouse in Brooklyn when his client, Gene Gotti, blew his stack at me. Fischetti would smile, and joke, "You never thanked me for saving your life that day."
He hadn't, but Gene Gotti yelling at me during a recess in one of his drug trafficking trials, was a memorable moment of the back and forths we had during that unforgettable time period.
One day, most likely after a Gang Land column had painted an unfavorable picture of John Gotti, attorney Bruce Cutler conveyed a message from his most important client that spoke volumes about Guzman's ability to be liked, even when he was reporting ugly news.
"John says, 'Why can't you be like Pablo?," said Cutler. Gotti was definitely not a Gang Land fan. But he loved Guzman, even though Pablo reported the same dastardly things about him that Gang Land did.
The Grim Reaper also called quite a few folks this year whose names and exploits have appeared on these pages over the years.
John McNally, the extraordinary private investigator and former NYPD detective was 89. Thomas Gambino, the son of crime family patriarch Don Carlo Gambino was 94. Joseph Massino, the first Mafia Boss to flip, was 80. Vincent Asaro, who was acquitted of the $6 million Lufthansa Airlines Robbery despites scads of evidence that tied him to the heist, was 88.
McNally's NYPD star rose in 1964 when he arrested the legendary jewel thief known as "Murph the Surf" for stealing the 563-carat Star of India sapphire from the Museum of Natural History, in Florida. But McNally had a problem when he got back to New York with his prisoner.
As his daughter Lynn later told Gang Land: "The courts were closed or something, so he brought him home for dinner, and my mother cooked dinner for him. And I sat on his lap," she said, "So I get up and go into the kitchen, I go, 'Ma, don't worry, he's not a bad guy, he's got the cross of Jesus around his neck.'"
When Gang Land questioned the tale, Lynn insisted the story was true.. "Do you think I could make up a story like that?" she said. "Yep, it's true" said another attendee at McNally's wake, adding, "My understanding," he said, "is that Murphy stayed overnight, after John told him he'd find him and shoot him if he escaped."
Gambino followed his father into the criminal organization and, along with his brother Joseph, oversaw a multimillion-dollar empire that controlled all trucking in Manhattan's Garment Center. They had long controlled the area as a Mafia preserve until former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau ruined things for the Mafia scions.
Gambino was in Sparks Steakhouse when his uncle, Mafia boss Paul (Big Paul) Castellano was shot and killed outside the eatery. Seeing the wisdom of the moment, Tommy threw in with Gotti & Company after the assassination. He was indicted on racketeering charges along with the Dapper Don in 1990. Convicted in 1993 in a separate trial on charges of "supervising the Connecticut faction" of the family, he served five years behind bars.
Asaro, who was just as shocked as prosecutors and the entire legal community when a jury stated he was not guilty in 2015 of murder and taking part in the storied $6 million Lufthansa Airlines robbery that was immortalized in Goodfellas, soon got himself jammed up on other charges. But he had a few good years to brag about his amazing win.
Before he cashed in his chips, Massino had his own run of a decade of freedom as the first full-fledged Mafia boss to become a federal witness and testify against his fellow Cosa Nostra members for his Uncle Sam. Before his release, he spent ten and a half years behind bars for eight mob murders from 1981 until 1999,
Massino's decision to break his vow of omerta rocked the underworld when it was made public in late January of 2005. That same day, his acting boss, Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano was charged with the murder of low-level gangster Randolph (Randy) Pizzolo who had been killed weeks earlier. The charge was based on tape recorded admissions that Basciano made to Massino in the MDC.
Massino's main contribution to the feds may be simply that by deciding to flip and ally himself with Team America, he provided authorities a platform to showcase him as the first official New York mob boss to defect. His accomplishments as a government witness at two trials are uneven.
Gang Land also said goodbye to actor Burt Young, who portrayed wiseguys on the big screen, and on TV. He was only partly acting: during his long career, he was friendly with a slew of Luchese family leaders. But when he suggested they make him a made man they told him to stick to his acting job.. He was 83.
Bonanno mobster Frank (Curly) Lino, a Brooklyn-born mobster who was on the wrong side when three Bonanno capos where shot and killed in 1980, who flipped and testified against Massino, also checked out this year.
Lino, a colorful mobster, once whined to a sentencing judge that he had tickets to a Yankee game on the day he was slated to begin a 57-month sentence in September of 1999. He later stated he was shocked when the judge told him he was Yankee fan too and pushed back his surrender date by four days. But Lino spent that night in a bar, not at Yankee Stadium.
"He didn't have tickets to the game," said a source who saw Lino in a bar that night and spoke to him about it. "He was just being a wiseass in court. He never thought the judge would go along with his request."
[size=150]Did She Or Didn't She? FBI Agent's Alleged Forced Sex Trysts With Mob Turncoat Is Top Gang Land Story Of 2023
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The Top Mob Story of 2023 is Gang Land's exclusive report that a mob-busting FBI agent was so attracted to a cooperating witness she allegedly coerced him into an unwanted sexual relationship for nearly three years. During that time, the mob turncoat worked undercover, a daring escapade that helped the feds convict dozens of mobsters, including the last two bosses of the powerful Genovese crime family.
The allegedly frisky agent, Joy Adam, retired six years ago and has not been charged with any wrongdoing. She has also refused to comment on the story.
Adam, 60, enjoyed her scandalous relationship with mob defector Michael (Cookie) D'Urso from mid-1998 until early 2001 as he was tape-recording thousands of conversations with members and associates of all five families, according to D'Urso, as Gang Land reported two months ago.
This is the second time that the number one mob story is not based on a major FBI takedown or a verdict in a New York area racketeering or murder trial. The Top Mob Story Of 2022, was the hard-to-fathom decision by Mafia boss Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso to have Bonanno mobsters assault a "shelved" wiseguy at the funeral home where his father-in-law was waked in violation of Mancuso's order.
D'Urso originally told Gang Land about Adam's sexual demands on him about 13 years ago. But at the time he swore us to secrecy until he was either killed or when he decided to release us from our promise. That release came in October when he learned that former FBI agent Mike Campi had disclosed the raunchy tale in a book he wrote with former federal prosecutor Dan Dorsky, War Against the Mafia.
Adam, the wife of a supervisor of the FBI's Genovese family squad, retired in 2017. She left the agency following an unrelated internal FBI inquiry that cleared her of violating agency policies during an investigation that she headed that led to the arrest and convictions of 46 mobsters from five families, including Philadelphia mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino.
D’Urso's story — for those who missed it the first time — goes like this: Shortly after he began cooperating, Adam solicited sex from him. She continued to use her power as an FBI agent to compel him to have sex with her until the undercover phase of the investigation ended with the arrest of 45 mobsters and associates of all five families in April of 2001.
It began, D'Urso said, at a hotel near Newark airport where she told him to meet her about the investigation. While they were having dinner Adam told him: "Hey, you wanna get laid tonight? I've been listening to your conversations for years and I've grown attracted to you."
Once the allegedly forced sex began, D'Urso stated he felt trapped by Adam, fearful that she would upend his deal with the feds — or worse — if he refused.
"Whenever I resisted," D'Urso said, "she'd stop approving the funding for living expenses that we needed to survive because I couldn't keep any of the money from scores I was making with Sammy (Genovese capo, Salvatore Aparo) and (wiseguy) Joe Zito because the FBI was keeping that as evidence. I really had no choices." Aparo and Zito were among those indicted in 2001. Family boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante and successor chieftain Liborio (Barney) Bellomo were indicted the following year.
"She demanded to have sex every time we met," he said. "She'd get there early before everybody and we'd have sex. It became a mandatory routine. And if it couldn't be before, it had to be after. She wouldn't let me go."
In War Against the Mafia, former G-man Campi wrote that he learned in 2007, years after he retired, about D'Urso's allegations and that they "shocked me to the very core." But to his "surprise and disappointment," he wrote, the FBI showed no desire to pursue the allegations and prosecute her. And FBI censors in Washington ordered Campi to omit many crucial details from his manuscript — including Adam's name.
The book was originally co-authored by Campi and Dorsky, who prosecuted several trials at which D'Urso testified, and scheduled for publication in November. The duo promoted War Against The Mafia in September and early October; they appeared in YouTube interviews and on Deadline NYC, the WBAI radio show hosted by my former Daily News colleague Tom Robbins.
Campi wrote 11 of the 28 chapters; Dorsky wrote 10. The duo collaborated on the introduction and seven chapters. But by mid-October, Dorsky dropped out of the project, and the book, now authored by Campi alone, was originally pushed ahead to this month. But rewriting by Campi and the editing caused by Dorsky's decision has delayed publication until April or May, a Skyhorse Publishing spokesman told Gang Land.
Gang Land made numerous attempts to reach Adam, or her husband, before we published our original story about the matter on October 19, but were unable to obtain a response. We were also unable to get the FBI, or any of their former or current colleagues, to have them get back to us regarding the allegations reported by D'Urso or as stated by Campi in War Against The Mafia.
This week, we contacted Seth Schechter, a California attorney for Adam. Schechter recently sent a "cease and desist" letter to former Washington Post reporter Allan Lengel who reprinted Gang Land's column on his website, ticklethewire.com, about the goings-on in federal law enforcement. Schechter did not respond to repeated telephone and email requests for comment from Gang Land.
As for Mikey Nose Mancuso, he also had no troubles with the law over the slugfest at the Glen Cove funeral home where mobster Vito Grimaldi was waked. But Mancuso gets Gang Land's Free Room & Board Award. That's because Judge Nicholas Garaufis gave Mikey Nose 11 months at the Allenwood Pennsylvania Low Security prison for a Violation Of Supervised Release (VOSR) for continuing to hang out with his gangsters chums.
The Brooklyn jurist, who won last year's Best Quote of the year by a judge for telling the feds, "Put some meat on this bone for me," also gets the Best Quote of 2023 By A Judge award. He told the prosecutor and probation officer, "Are you playing me?" when they tried "to weasel out" and told Garaufis they planned to let Mancuso plead guilty to a lesser VOSR than the one he had been charged with.
U.S. Department of Probation Chief Robert Capers gets the Tony Ducks Award – named for the late Luchese boss Anthony Corallo who earned the moniker for beating numerous cases before he got 100 years in the Commission case. Capers ignored the judge's order to appear in court and explain why he had decided to let Mancuso plead guilty to a "lesser kind of charge." Capers sent an underling to take the heat.
Bellomo, who has had no run-ins with the law since his release from federal custody in 2008 for his D'Urso-connected conviction, gets the Love Is A Many Splendored Thing Award for buying a building lot with Nancy Rossi, his life partner for several years, in Crestwood, a leafy section of Yonkers, where sources say the couple plans to build a home. Buona Fortuna to the happy couple.
Mobster Joseph Celso gets the Knucklehead Award for attending a Genovese crime family Christmas party in Congers, NY while the jury was deliberating his case. It wouldn't have mattered if he'd been acquitted of all three charges, instead of only two. But since he wasn't, it did, and Celso is still cooling his heels in the Metropolitan Detention Center awaiting sentencing.
International Longshoreman's Association president Harold Daggett and assorted members and associates of the Genovese crime family are sharing The SCOTUS Gift Of The Year: the death of the 70-year-old Waterfront Commission. But Gang Land hears that before the waterfront watchdog went to sleep with the fishes, it turned over some very interesting stuff it had to the feds, not the New Jersey State police. Stay tuned.
[size=150]Prosecutor of The Year Award: The Big Colombo Family Takedown[/size]
Assistant U.S. Attorney Devon Lash and former prosecutor James McDonald share Prosecutor Of The Year For 2023 for the blockbuster case against the hierarchy of the Colombo family for carrying out a 20-year-long shakedown of a labor union — a case that ended with guilty pleas of all the defendants, including the family's reputed heir apparent boss, capo Theodore (Skinny Teddy) Persico.
Persico, the oft-convicted nephew of the late, long-imprisoned, family boss Carmine (Junior) Persico, was sentenced to five years behind bars this month for his role in the extortion of Local 621 of the United Construction Trades and Industrial Employees Union. And there is little doubt that Skinny Teddy became the government's main target in the case, if he wasn't at the outset.
The indictment, unsealed on September 14, 2021, charged Skinny Teddy and seven others, including then-boss Andrew (Mush) Russo, his underboss and consigliere with the long-running shakedown of the union president. The indictment charged two others — and a third defendant a year later — with joining a Colombo plot to steal $10,000 a month from the union's benefit plans.
Russo died in 2022. But the seven other Colombos pleaded guilty to the extortion. The trio of mob associates all copped plea deals to being part of a plan to use a renowned tenor, Andrew Koslosky, who sang to the FBI when agents arrested him on weapons charges in April of 2021, to embezzle thousands of dollars a month from the union's benefit plans.
Consigliere Ralph (Big Ralph) DeMatteo gets Gang Land's Bathing Beauty Award for posing at a Florida pool while FBI agents were arresting all his codefendants but still searching for him. Along with two other gangsters, DeMatteo received lesser prison terms than Perisco.
Skinny Teddy gets the The Persico Family Award for getting a big number at sentencing. It wasn't way over the top, like the 100 years his Uncle Junior got, or the 25 years his Uncle Allie Boy got for loansharking and going on the lam for seven years. Or as bad as the 22 years his dad, Teddy Bear got for being a soldier in the Persico army during the bloody 1991-'93 Colombo mob war, but never shooting anyone. But it was nine months above the high end of his guidelines.
Three others are still awaiting sentencing, including capo Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo, who began the extortion scheme that netted more than $600,000 in payoffs — mostly to him — and who could get more than Skinny Teddy. His sentencing guidelines are 63-to-78 months.
Colombo, capo Richard Ferrara gets the Turncoat Mobster Of 2023 Award. He has yet to face the music, but when he does, Gang Land expects him to receive a time served sentence of four months, which he spent behind bars as a danger to the community before he was released 23 months ago.
Ferrara didn't do any damage to his old wiseguy friends, but he helped McDonald convict two Russian gangsters of lying to the FBI about the death of a Russian businessman who was killed in 2009 in a Sheepshead Bay night club and whose body they helped bury in a wooded area in Sullivan County. Their plea agreements carry sentencing guidelines of 10-to-16 months.
Four other defendants in the case pleaded guilty to crimes including drug trafficking, extortion and fraud, including Bonanno soldier John (Bazoo) Ragano, who was sentenced to 51 months in prison by Brooklyn Federal Judge Hector Gonzalez.
McDonald, Lash and FBI agent Joseph Costello share the Two Wrongs Make A Right Award for getting Skinny Teddy on racketeering charges despite filing two erroneous charges against the Colombo capo in the case.
In affidavits the prosecutors submitted to obtain wiretaps, Costello wrongly stated Persico was the family boss. And prosecutors wrongly stated in a detention memo that Skinny Teddy attended a meeting with top family mobsters in Brooklyn when their own evidence showed he was in Staten Island.
The main Prosecutor of the Year award competitors for Mcdonald & Lash was Suffolk County assistant district attorney, Laura de Oliveira, and three Manhattan federal prosecutors, Jason Swergold, Danielle Sassoon, and Jun Xiang. They get an Honorable Mention for convicting 11 union officials of bribery charges.
James Cahill, the former president of the NY State Building & Trades Council, whom the sentencing judge called the "source of the rot" behind massive corruption in the plumbers union, pleaded guilty to accepting $51,000 in bribes from a wired up plumbing contractor from 2018 to 2020. Cahill, 74, got 51 months, 10 months more than the high end of his recommended prison term.
Joseph DiBenedetto gets the Defense Lawyer of the Year Award for getting probation from a tough sentencing judge for his client, an attorney who was a member of a Gambino family drug ring that distributed 1000 pounds of marijuana in the New York area while he was working as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn.
Ramy Joudeh, who was fired by the Brooklyn DA's office when he was nabbed in 2016 as a player in the ring, according to court records in the case, faced a mandatory minimum of five years in prison — and up to 40 years behind bars — if convicted at trial.
And the feds had the goods on him. Joudeh implicated himself in the drug scheme in 2016 while "en route to provide a sample of marijuana to a potential customer," according to a complaint by FBI agent Paul Harris. Joudeh was stopped by a DEA agent who "smelled a strong odor" of marijuana "emanating" from a "black plastic bag" that the agent had seen Joudeh carrying when he left his home, Harris wrote.
The FBI also had tape recorded Joudeh picking up money for his cohorts, but lawyer DiBenedetto wangled a plea agreement with the feds calling for a maximum of four years behind bars but with guidelines up to six months.
At sentencing, assistant U.S. attorney Benjamin Weintraub stated that Joudeh had "been the beneficiary of many privileges in his life" and yet had committed crimes while working as a prosecutor and argued he should be jailed and disbarred. DiBenedetto countered that it was a bad period in his client's life, that he had owned up to his guilt, was a completely changed man, and that prison was unnecessary in his case.
Brooklyn Federal Judge Dora Irizzary agreed with DiBenedetto, and meted out a sentence of five years probation for Joudeh, 38. He still faces a disciplinary hearing before the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court, but he has not been suspended and is still practicing law.
The FBI gets the Empty Vault Award for the Hudson Valley Big Dig for Gambino bodies last month that turned up exactly what 30 million people saw live on TV when newsman Geraldo Rivera opened up Al Capone's sealed vault in Chicago's Lexington Hotel in 1986 — nothing but dirt. At least Rivera had the guts to say, "Seems like we struck out." The FBI had no comment.
Gambino capo Joseph (Joe Brooklyn) Lanni gets the Blabbermouth of the Year Award for boasting that he "was a Gambino" when he threatened to burn down the Toms River restaurant whose owners threw him out for being drunk and disorderly on Labor Day weekend.
Lanni's young associate Vincent (Vinny Slick) Minsquero gets the Fireman of the Year Award for stopping Joe Brooklyn from burning down the restaurant.
Gambino gangster Anthony (Fat Anthony) Pandrella won't be able to spend it since he's behind bars for the next 35 years for the murder of Luchese loanshark Vincent Zito. But Pandrella gets the Crime Pays Award for being allowed to keep the 750K the feds say he got by killing Zito. The money would have been forfeited if prosecutors had convicted him of stealing the cash, but they only charged Fat Anthony with stealing watches from Zito when he shot him to death in his home.
Disgraced FBI agent John Connolly also gets a Crime Pays Award. Connolly, who was convicted of taking part in a 1982 murder conspiracy with his longtime informer Whitey Bulger, won parole from his 40 year sentence in February 2021 because he had less than a year to live. Connolly, 83, is still collecting his FBI pension as 2023 comes to a close.
Anthony (Little Anthony) Pipitone gets the Out House Award, no not for what you're thinking. He set the standard in 2023 for getting home detention furloughs while on bail awaiting trial. He was 29 for 44 in September. Since then he's raised his hard to top numbers to 33 for 50. His 51st request to celebrate New Year's Eve at his brother-in-law's house is still pending.
Dear Reader: No matter where you hang your hat, or where your current station in life is located, Gang Land wishes you a peaceful, prosperous, healthy and Happy New Year!
[size=150]Grim Reaper Takes A Toll On More Than A Few Gang Land Bold Face Names[/size]
They were from different walks of life, but lawyer Ronald Fischetti and TV newsman Pablo Guzman were both called out by the Grim Reaper within a day of each other a few weeks ago. Very different people, but both friendly professionals whenever we ran into them during the late 1980s when John Gotti was loving every minute of his fame and fortune after his acquittal of racketeering charges
When our paths would cross over the years, Fischetti would often recall the day that he was there on the sixth floor of the federal courthouse in Brooklyn when his client, Gene Gotti, blew his stack at me. Fischetti would smile, and joke, "You never thanked me for saving your life that day."
He hadn't, but Gene Gotti yelling at me during a recess in one of his drug trafficking trials, was a memorable moment of the back and forths we had during that unforgettable time period.
One day, most likely after a Gang Land column had painted an unfavorable picture of John Gotti, attorney Bruce Cutler conveyed a message from his most important client that spoke volumes about Guzman's ability to be liked, even when he was reporting ugly news.
"John says, 'Why can't you be like Pablo?," said Cutler. Gotti was definitely not a Gang Land fan. But he loved Guzman, even though Pablo reported the same dastardly things about him that Gang Land did.
The Grim Reaper also called quite a few folks this year whose names and exploits have appeared on these pages over the years.
John McNally, the extraordinary private investigator and former NYPD detective was 89. Thomas Gambino, the son of crime family patriarch Don Carlo Gambino was 94. Joseph Massino, the first Mafia Boss to flip, was 80. Vincent Asaro, who was acquitted of the $6 million Lufthansa Airlines Robbery despites scads of evidence that tied him to the heist, was 88.
McNally's NYPD star rose in 1964 when he arrested the legendary jewel thief known as "Murph the Surf" for stealing the 563-carat Star of India sapphire from the Museum of Natural History, in Florida. But McNally had a problem when he got back to New York with his prisoner.
As his daughter Lynn later told Gang Land: "The courts were closed or something, so he brought him home for dinner, and my mother cooked dinner for him. And I sat on his lap," she said, "So I get up and go into the kitchen, I go, 'Ma, don't worry, he's not a bad guy, he's got the cross of Jesus around his neck.'"
When Gang Land questioned the tale, Lynn insisted the story was true.. "Do you think I could make up a story like that?" she said. "Yep, it's true" said another attendee at McNally's wake, adding, "My understanding," he said, "is that Murphy stayed overnight, after John told him he'd find him and shoot him if he escaped."
Gambino followed his father into the criminal organization and, along with his brother Joseph, oversaw a multimillion-dollar empire that controlled all trucking in Manhattan's Garment Center. They had long controlled the area as a Mafia preserve until former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau ruined things for the Mafia scions.
Gambino was in Sparks Steakhouse when his uncle, Mafia boss Paul (Big Paul) Castellano was shot and killed outside the eatery. Seeing the wisdom of the moment, Tommy threw in with Gotti & Company after the assassination. He was indicted on racketeering charges along with the Dapper Don in 1990. Convicted in 1993 in a separate trial on charges of "supervising the Connecticut faction" of the family, he served five years behind bars.
Asaro, who was just as shocked as prosecutors and the entire legal community when a jury stated he was not guilty in 2015 of murder and taking part in the storied $6 million Lufthansa Airlines robbery that was immortalized in Goodfellas, soon got himself jammed up on other charges. But he had a few good years to brag about his amazing win.
Before he cashed in his chips, Massino had his own run of a decade of freedom as the first full-fledged Mafia boss to become a federal witness and testify against his fellow Cosa Nostra members for his Uncle Sam. Before his release, he spent ten and a half years behind bars for eight mob murders from 1981 until 1999,
Massino's decision to break his vow of omerta rocked the underworld when it was made public in late January of 2005. That same day, his acting boss, Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano was charged with the murder of low-level gangster Randolph (Randy) Pizzolo who had been killed weeks earlier. The charge was based on tape recorded admissions that Basciano made to Massino in the MDC.
Massino's main contribution to the feds may be simply that by deciding to flip and ally himself with Team America, he provided authorities a platform to showcase him as the first official New York mob boss to defect. His accomplishments as a government witness at two trials are uneven.
Gang Land also said goodbye to actor Burt Young, who portrayed wiseguys on the big screen, and on TV. He was only partly acting: during his long career, he was friendly with a slew of Luchese family leaders. But when he suggested they make him a made man they told him to stick to his acting job.. He was 83.
Bonanno mobster Frank (Curly) Lino, a Brooklyn-born mobster who was on the wrong side when three Bonanno capos where shot and killed in 1980, who flipped and testified against Massino, also checked out this year.
Lino, a colorful mobster, once whined to a sentencing judge that he had tickets to a Yankee game on the day he was slated to begin a 57-month sentence in September of 1999. He later stated he was shocked when the judge told him he was Yankee fan too and pushed back his surrender date by four days. But Lino spent that night in a bar, not at Yankee Stadium.
"He didn't have tickets to the game," said a source who saw Lino in a bar that night and spoke to him about it. "He was just being a wiseass in court. He never thought the judge would go along with his request."