Gangland news 9th April 2020

[Hailbritain]

By Jerry Capeci

This Deadly Bug Doesn't Discriminate: Bites Victims Throughout Gang Land

Judge Kevin DuffyGang Land Exclusive!Like the Grim Reaper, the coronavirus is an equal opportunity killer that has plagued notable Gang Land figures on all sides of the law as it has raged through the New York metropolitan area. As of this writing, the deadly virus has killed more than 4,200 city residents and upwards of 8,000 people in the tristate area — staggering numbers that will surely grow before they taper off.

The pandemic has taken the life of law enforcers, like Federal Judge Kevin Duffy, who handled the trial that was interrupted by the midtown Manhattan assassination of mob Boss Paul Castellano. And it has claimed law breakers, such as a mob associate in the crew of Bonanno capo Ronald (Ronny G) Giallanzo.

In an especially grim attack, it also took the sister of Gambino consigliere Michael (Mickey Boy) Paradiso, along with three of her adult children.

The COVID-19 virus has also infected dozens of inmates and staffers at the four federal Bureau of Prisons facilities in the metro area that house New York area wiseguys, although only one organized crime figure is among those known to have been infected. That victim is a Gambino family associate doing his time in the federal prison in Danbury, a favored facility for sentenced inmates because its proximity to New York is more conducive to visits from family members.

Last week, the inmate, John Matera, 49, tested positive for the virus after running a high fever, and complaining of chest pain, loss of appetite, severe coughing and difficulty breathing. He asked to be released on home confinement based on a memo from Attorney General Barr to the BOP permitting prisons like Danbury that have been hit hard by COVID-19 to do just that.

Micahel ParadisoDanbury, which as of 3 PM yesterday had 34 inmates and 12 staffers test positive for the coronavirus, was named by Barr as one of the hardest hit BOP facilities that could consider releasing infected inmates to home confinement. The Warden quickly rejected Matera's request.

On Monday, attorney Seth Ginsberg filed an "emergency application" in Manhattan Federal Court seeking Matera's immediate release to home confinement. His client's release would help "avoid catastrophic consequences from his actual infection with COVID-19," wrote Ginsberg, noting that his client "has already served 90 percent of his sentence" for two convictions that go back to the 1990s.

Citing Matera's "history of hypertension and recent kidney infections," Ginsberg argued that "Matera is at increased risk of serious complications, including death" at Danbury and asked Judge Jesse Furman to release his client to his girlfriend's Staten Island home where he could be quarantined and monitored.

Ginsberg conceded that Matera's convictions — one was for a plot to kill a federal informer — were for serious crimes for which he was sentenced to 28 years. But he argued that Matera had no "history of violence or gang-related activity" or "recent disciplinary violations" while behind bars and asked Furman to release his client under strict house arrest conditions. The lawyer noted that Matera's confinement at a low security prison indicated he would not be a danger if released.

John MateraIn a biting retort, prosecutor David Nessim wrote that Matera did not have a viable claim and argued that even if the gangster did, Judge Furman would be unable to grant Matera any relief because Matera had not exhausted all the administrative steps he needed to take before seeking redress in federal court.

The BOP, wrote Nessim, has treated Matera properly since he contracted the COVID-19 virus and is monitoring him "at least twice a day." Matera's condition is stable, the prosecutor asserted, and he is suffering no "severe symptoms of COVID-19." In line with the CDC's dicta, Matera is slated "to be returned to the general population" tomorrow, assuming he continues to improve. And if his condition worsens, he'll be transferred to a local hospital.

Nessim also noted a series of notorious letters the gangster has penned over the years, arguing that he deserved to finish his sentence in 2023, when it is currently slated to end.

One of those ill-conceived missives was a letter Matera had written to the Daily News about the killing of informer Frank Hydell. In the letter, Matera stated: "I'm going to jail for killing a rat. I'm not proud of this. I'm just proud I'm not a rat. I never was."

Seth GinsbergThe letter was cited at Matera's sentencing as evidence that the defendant had no remorse for his crime. The judge cited the venomous letter as he ruled that Matera's 20 year sentence should be added to the 16 months he still owed for a prior racketeering conviction.

And there was yet another letter the virus-ailing gangster now likely wishes he could take back: When he got back to his cell, wrote Nessim, Matera penned another letter, in which he told his then-attorney that he "was not surprised by the Judge's doing." The judge, wrote Matera, was a "sick bastard" who would "have done the same thing" even "if I didn't write that letter. You want to know the truth. That letter is worth 16 months to me. I'd write it again if I had to."

In the three other New York area lockups, Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center, Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center, and the Otisville prison, the numbers of infected inmates and staffers are much lower than at Danbury, with four inmates and six staffers at the MCC, two and five at the MDC, and two and three at Otisville, according to BOP officials.

Roseann Paradiso-FoderaBut the deaths last month in Mickey Boy Paradiso's family were especially tragic: His sister, Grace Fusco, a Brooklyn native and mother of 11, and three of her children, Rita Fusco Jackson, 56, Carmine Fusco, 55, and Vincent Fusco, 53, died from the illness within days of each other following a family get together on March 3 in Freehold, NJ, where Mrs. Fusco lived.

Attorney Roseann Paradiso-Fodera, a cousin of the 80-year-old Gambino wiseguy, said two other Fusco family members were recuperating from the virus. She told Gang Land she'd call back with an update on Mickey Boy's own health after contacting him, but has yet to do so. Perhaps she couldn't reach him, or misplaced our number.

The vicious virus was also fatal for Bonanno associate Angelo Moccia, 46, who completed in December an 18 month sentence for racketeering crimes, including running a card game above a Queens funeral parlor. Moccia died last month.

Judge Duffy, 87, earned a reputation as a colorful, controversial judge after his appointment to the federal bench in 1972. He was viewed by lawyers and prosecutors who tried cases before him as a jovial but prickly jurist who "liked to shoot from the hip and bend over backwards" to give defendants a fair trial, and then hammer them with over the top sentences if they were convicted.

Louis IngleseDuffy figured in a legendary Gang Land moment in 1974 when, after presiding over his first major mob trial, he gave Luchese gangster Louis (Gigi The Whale) Inglese, who was serving 16 years and a half years for a prior crime, 40 more years. Inglese told Duffy, "Judge, I can't do 56 and a half years." The judge smiled and famously said, "Do the best you can."

After a three week-adjournment following Castellano's murder in December of 1985, several co-defendants were convicted of being part of a murderous multi-million-dollar-a-year stolen car ring, including mob associates Henry Borelli and Ronald Turekian.

When Borelli complained he didn't get a fair trial, Duffy replied that he did, and was a "contract killer" and promptly gave him 10 years for each of 15 counts for which he'd been found guilty. The judge made them consecutive, for a total of 150 years, a sentence that Borelli, now 70, is still serving.

When body shop owner Turekian faced the music and told Duffy, "There may be grease on my hands, but there's no blood on my hands," the judge softened. He gave him five years on each of five counts, to run concurrently. "When I came out here they were going to be consecutive sentences," the judge smiled.

Om On The Cell block: I Was An Awful Human Being, But Yoga's Made Me A Better Man, And I Want Out Of Jail

Michael SpinelliAfter nearly 28 years behind bars, a Luchese mobster who orchestrated the attempted murder of a Brooklyn mother of three in a low point in the history of the American Mafia says the yoga he has practiced behind bars has made him a "changed" and "better man."

On the yoga mat, they say: "Inhale the future, exhale the past." It's apparently worked wonders for Michael (Baldy Mike) Spinelli who now says he wants to go home and "make something of the few years" he has left with his "loving and supporting family."

In a letter to his sentencing judge, who called his 1992 ambush assault of Patricia Capozzalo "an unthinkable act of cowardice," Baldy Mike admits he was a miserable excuse for a human being back then. But the longtime gangster insists that since discovering yoga 10 years ago he has helped himself, along with other inmates, and "want(s) to be able to help people" outside prison walls now — rather than in March of 2028, when he's currently due to be released.

Spinelli, 66, has been behind bars since November of 1992, seven months after he helped engineer the shooting of Capozzalo, the sister of turncoat capo Peter Chiodo. Capozzalo was gunned down in front of her Bensonhurst home on March 10, 1992. Despite being shot three times when she got home after driving her kids to school, the Brooklyn mom survived the rubout ordered by Luchese boss Vittorio (Vic) Amuso.

Michael SpinelliBaldy Mike, whose sentence for the Capozzalo shooting and one for murder and other crimes totaled 41 years, still has eight years remaining on his prison term. But he won a reversal of a lesser charge in the attempted murder case last year, and will be resentenced next month. When Brooklyn Federal Judge Raymond Dearie sentenced him in 1999, the judge noted that the assault on the innocent woman broke one of the Mafia "rules that just aren't broken" and would be a "black indelible mark (on the Luchese family) that will never be washed away."

"I am embarrassed and ashamed" of the lasting damage "that I brought on Ms. Capozzalo and her family" and "I was justifiably exiled to prison" back in 1992, Spinelli told Dearie. "But I am not that person anymore," he wrote, and "I'm asking to come home a few years early to build a peaceful life as an old man that I did not do as a young man."

Michael Spinelli"Yoga has had a calming effect on me," he wrote, noting that inmates "used to call me a wuss for meditating." But after he started teaching classes, "guys who used to make fun of me, joined me." Eventually, "a mix" of fellow convicts would get "together meditating and breathing, de-stressing, and often laughing and joking. Judge," wrote Spinelli, "it's truly incredible."

"I've hurt a lot of people most of my life," Spinelli added, but now, "through yoga I feel like I can start to heal people."

Along with many letters of support from family members and inmates — including one at the MCC in Manhattan, where he's been since mid-January — Dearie received a gushing four-page "character reference letter" of praise from his Bureau of Prisons counselor, M. Ponzio, who like most BOP officials, goes through the daily rigmaroles of life with only a first initial.

"I feel that if he is given a chance to exercise his gifts and talents he would be an asset and not a threat to society," wrote Ponzio, stating that she was "happy to speak to his skills, work ethic, and professionalism" and would answer any questions that Dearie had for her.

Allegra GlashausserPonzio wrote that Baldy Mike has been a "great inspiration" at the Beaumont Texas Prison where he has been housed for many years by serving as an "inmate mentor" to both young and "elderly inmates." And while the BOP did not "formally recognize" the position, "inmate mentors like Mr. Spinelli play a very important role in helping other inmates," she wrote.

"There have been many occasions that Mr. Spinelli has helped settle disagreements, given advice, and helped first time offenders" who are statistically "more likely to commit suicide within the first year of incarceration" to adapt to prison life and "cope with family separation anxiety," the 19-year BOP veteran wrote.

The once incorrigible inmate regularly teaches small groups how to maintain "good health with yoga" and "hopes to go to school to become a yoga instructor" when he is released, Ponzio wrote. She said that Spinelli encourages inmates to pursue "education classes" and "helps nurture in them a general outlook on life to become productive citizens, (by) instilling personal pride and integrity into their daily lives."

In a 90-page filing, lawyer Allegra Glashausser asked Dearie to release Spinelli with a "time served" sentence, noting that through the Federal Defenders Office in Brooklyn, Baldy Mike has already gotten approval to be trained by a non-profit group on how to help himself and other inmates reintegrate themselves into society through yoga and other self-help programs.

Raymond DearieBut assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Hafetz isn't buying. He wrote that Spinelli's "personal growth in prison is commendable" and "a positive development" toward "rehabilitation and reentry into society" but argued that should take place in 2028. He asked Dearie to impose the same prison term, noting that the sentencing guidelines for the five remaining counts are the same.

"Spinelli should not have needed years in prison to know, at 38 years old," Haftez wrote, "that gunning down an innocent woman in order to terrorize government witnesses is a horrific and unacceptable act."

"This was no random or spontaneous act of violence," Hafetz wrote. Spinelli, he said "meticulously planned and led an execution, by gathering a hit team, choosing the shooter, test-firing the murder weapon and stalking the victim to choose the best time to strike her down, in front of her home."

Hafetz wisely avoided any cheap shots, but he could also have pointed out that yoga is considered a fountain of youth. So if Baldy Mike keeps it up, he'll still be a young man in 2028.

Stevie Blue Takes A 3d Shot In His 'Smoking Gun' Case

Stephen LocurtoBonanno mobster Stephen (Stevie Blue) Locurto has been been living at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for seven years — he's the MDC's longest continuous resident. And while fears of viral contagion swarm around him, he is patiently waiting his third court fight in the "smoking gun" case, so-called of course because he was arrested with a still warm murder weapon in his pocket minutes after a mob associate was shot to death.

Locurto, 59, won one and lost one of his two trials in the May 9, 1986 murder of Joseph Platia in Manhattan. But for all intents and purposes there's no longer any doubt that he fired the fatal shots as Platia sat in the driver's seat of his 1986 Lincoln Continental. Locurto now wants to plead guilty to the killing, and take a 20-year-plea deal he turned down 15 years ago.

According to the lawsuit he filed in 2010, if Locurto hadn't gotten bad legal advice, he wouldn't have gone to trial and would not have been found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in 2006. Instead, he would have agreed to the plea offer he'd received and would be close to walking out of prison soon, instead of looking at leaving in a body bag.

Locurto's lawsuit was slated for a full blown hearing this Spring with the opposing lawyers in the original federal prosecution positioned on the opposite side of the case this time. The main issue revolves around a legal opinion that Locurto received from an appeals lawyer who was hired by his trial lawyer, Harry Batchelder.

Bernard FreamonBatchelder will be the government's key witness in the hearing before Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis, who presided over Locurto's racketeering and murder trial and sentenced him to life in prison. The lawyer claims that while appeals lawyer Laura Oppenheim may have told Locurto that any prison term he received greater than 20 years would be reversed, he told Stevie Blue otherwise, and that his former client's claims are all wet.

Greg Andres, the former federal prosecutor who filed the original indictment against Locurto, will be a witness for the mobster. Locurto's lawyer, Bernard Freamon, intends to question him about the discussions he had with Batchelder and his client about the plea offer. Freamon's main witness is Oppenheim. Andres, who returned to Davis Polk last year after convicting former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort of tax and bank fraud charges, did not respond to Gang Land calls and emails for comment.

Neither did Oppenheim, who filed an affidavit stating that she had advised Locurto that a 1988 amendment to the US code raising the maximum penalty to life for murders in racketeering indictments would not apply ex post facto to a 1986 murder. Oppenheim stated in the affidavit that she had told him, "I believed it likely he would prevail on that issue in the Court of Appeals if he (were) convicted at trial."

Batchelder, who stated in his affidavit that he advised Locurto that he would be sentenced to life in prison if he was convicted at trial, also did not respond to Gang Land calls for comment. In his affidavit, Batchelder wrote that Stevie Blue was "buoyed by the fact" he had been acquitted of the murder in Manhattan Supreme Court, and "advised me that he had 'beaten' the state court case by testifying at trial and he would 'beat this case also.'"

Greg AndresFreamon, a Seton Hall Law School professor, told Gang Land that Locurto's belief in the legal opinion provided by the appeals specialist who was hired by Batchelder, and his reliance on it, is the linchpin of his client's claim for relief, and he had expected to try the 10-year-old case in May.

His current hope, he said, is to resolve the case in August or September, noting that because of some failings of the clerk's office in Brooklyn Federal Court, he doubts the case would have been able to go forward in May, even if virtually all court cases had not been put on hold by the raging coronavirus pandemic.

"I've been waiting for six months for CJA records involving Batchelder's representation of Locurto that Judge Garuafis ruled I was entitled to," he said, referring to documents dealing with Batchelder's efforts to hire a "blood spatter" expert to rebut the government's contention that his client could have killed Platia even though there were no traces of blood found on his clothes minutes after the shooting.

Freamon said he needs those documents not only to prepare for his cross-examination of Batchelder, but also for the direct testimony of former prosecutor Andres, who didn't try the case against Locurto. He moved on after winning the 2004 conviction of Locurto's mob boss, Joseph Massino, who later became the first New York Mafia boss to wear a wire and testify at trial for the government.

[JohnnyS]

Wow that's rough on the Paradiso family. This virus is no joke. RIP.

[TommyGambino]

Fucking hell i know paradiso is a scumbag but got to feel for him.

[Hailbritain]

Fuckin scary shit , nearly 1000 people a day are dying in the UK at the moment . Certainly puts life into perspective

[Ed]

I read about that poor woman and her family members that died. Sad. Didn't know about the connection to Paradiso.

thanks for posting.

[NYNighthawk]

The first COVID19 victim in NJ was John Brennan, a paddock Judge at Yonkers raceway. He apparently attended that party as well and died right after.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for the post.

Wonder if Mickey Boy ok’d the hit.

[Pogo The Clown]

Ironic that the wiseguy it kills is only 46. You'd figure the virus would have wiped out a bunch of the geezers already.


Pogo

[Hired_Goonz]

So heartbreaking about that woman and 3 of her adult children dying and to make it even worse, the family can't have any real service for them at this time.

[CTamg65]

My cousin is at Danbury finishing up 14 has a release date of June 2021 . He went in at 25 (his first bid) for basically marijuana and money laundering charges that if he was sentenced to today he would have gotten much less . He lost his appeals cause he was charged as the leader of the conspiracy. I spoke to him Monday and he said they refused to let him out early,he speaks with a couple guys that we talk about on here and he said they are legit scared . He said a C.O . Probably brought the virus in so guys are on edge , he said it's crazy. Literally everyone is trying to put in for some type of release. I think if your in on a non violent crime or near the end of your sentence they should do something for you . He said in most cases they aren't . I just came home in late January I thank God I got out in time. My cousin is stressed did all that time about to come home and now a virus could interupt that . The majority of guys in there I know are trying to be clean but you always have your Savages in there and being that close to each other your bound to catch it. I'm in Ct.and the whole tri state area is fucked right now . I hope everyone on here stays safe and hopefully this shi t will end sooner than later although what's to stop it from happening again when we share the earth with the magets that started this shit with there disgusting ways of living

[richard_belding]

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[richard_belding]

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[Philly d]

My cousin is at Danbury finishing up 14 has a release date of June 2021 . He went in at 25 (his first bid) for basically marijuana and money laundering charges that if he was sentenced to today he would have gotten much less . He lost his appeals cause he was charged as the leader of the conspiracy. I spoke to him Monday and he said they refused to let him out early,he speaks with a couple guys that we talk about on here and he said they are legit scared . He said a C.O . Probably brought the virus in so guys are on edge , he said it's crazy. Literally everyone is trying to put in for some type of release. I think if your in on a non violent crime or near the end of your sentence they should do something for you . He said in most cases they aren't . I just came home in late January I thank God I got out in time. My cousin is stressed did all that time about to come home and now a virus could interupt that . The majority of guys in there I know are trying to be clean but you always have your Savages in there and being that close to each other your bound to catch it. I'm in Ct.and the whole tri state area is fucked right now . I hope everyone on here stays safe and hopefully this shi t will end sooner than later although what's to stop it from happening again when we share the earth with the magets that started this shit with there disgusting ways of living

I agree with you CT. Usually I say they should finish their sentences, but you made a really case. It's not right to leave certain guys in. Especially with shitty prison medical care. It's almost torture.

[newera_212]

if a certain demographic could curb their insatiable appetite for things like badgers, rodents and bats, and could also spend the same amount of energy on actual solutions, versus coverups, than maybe we wouldn't be in this mess. but whatever, you really cant expect anything better or different from the Chinese. its insulting to us all that the entire world is taking their case data at face value, as well. i really hope this whole thing paves the way for us breaking free from them...as long and costly as that road will be, its not a bad idea.

anyway good for Baldy Mike. i hope the guy can get a chance to do some good when he gets out. it sounds like he really made good use of his time in there

whats up with this LoCurto guy? im pretty well versed on the Bonnanos but i dont know anything about him. so he was like 26-27 when he does this hit and by the time he turns 30 hes already locked up, doing life? who did he do the hit for? im assuming he was made before he went it? must have been a somebody to be made that young back in the mid 80s? anyone know anything about this guy? he a Manhattan guy?