Gangland 1/14/21

[Dr031718]

Feds: Discredited FBI Snitch Saved The Life Of Jailed Bonanno Family Boss

Gang Land Exclusive!Michael MancusoBonanno boss Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso should think about changing his mob moniker to "Lucky."

The veteran gangster would have been a sitting duck in a Bronx halfway house in August of 2018 after a rival mob boss targeted him for execution, Gang Land has learned. Mancuso only dodged assassination thanks to a controversial FBI snitch who spilled the beans about the plot hatched by Mancuso rival Matthew (Matty) Madonna, the acting boss of the Luchese crime family, according to federal prosecutors who told the tale in recently unsealed court filings.

Mikey Nose owes his life to Frank Pasqua III, the drug-abusing and drug dealing turncoat whose other claims about mob hits have turned out to be far wide of the mark. Pasqua wrongly fingered his own father as the killer of former Purple Gang leader Michael Meldish, a claim the feds say was an honest mistake. As a result, Pasqua was never used as a prosecution witness at the trial of Madonna and three other Luchese gangsters who were found guilty of the Meldish murder

Matthew MadonnaThe alleged plan to whack the 65-year-old Mancuso, who was released from federal custody in March of 2019, was revealed by prosecutors in their court filings for Pasqua's sentencing back last March.

In court papers, the governemnt and Pasqua's lawyer credit the informer with saving Mancuso's life by alerting the feds in 2016 that Madonna and Luchese soldier Christopher Londonio were also plotting to kill Mikey Nose.

In imposing a "time served" sentence of 33 months for Pasqua — his guidelines were 30-years-to life — White Plains Federal Judge Nelson Roman stated that Pasqua's government assistance was "substantial and credible and corroborated by independent evidence," including tape recordings of Londonio that were played during the Meldish murder trial.

In pressing for leniency, Manhattan federal prosecutor Hagan Scotten and defense attorney Avraham (Avi) Moskowitz — the Probation Department also recommended time served — disclosed for the first time that Pasqua had fingered both Madonna and Londonio for the planned rubout of Mancuso, and that Londonio had asked Pasqua for help in getting the job done.

Christopher LondonioMadonna's motive for wanting to whack Mikey Nose was not revealed in the redacted court filings or the transcript of Pasqua's sentencing. But Londonio told Pasqua "that Londonio was given primary responsibility for carrying out the murder" and he "sought Pasqua's help in carrying it out," Scotten wrote.

The discussion to whack Mancuso took place at the Metropolitan Detention Center in September of 2016, a year before the feds charged Londonio with the gangland-style slaying of Meldish, according to the filings by Scotten and Moskowitz. At the time, Londonio was in the MDC on federal weapons charges. Pasqua was there as well, having been jailed there after the feds arrested him for drug dealing while he was an FBI informer.

After Pasqua fingered Londonio and Madonna for an ongoing murder plot, the FBI wired up their jailhouse snitch and he tape recorded a talk "with Londonio on September 21, 2016," wrote Scotten.

That was "unique," Moskowitz declared at Pasqua's sentencing. A former assistant U.S. attorney who has been in private practice since 1991, Moskowitz noted that he "never had a client, when I was a prosecutor or a defense lawyer, who wore a wire when they were in the MDC." (Gang Land historical note: It is rare, but not unique. Turncoat Mafia boss Joseph Massino did it in 2004 and 2005 and tape recorded his acting boss, Vincent {Vinny Gorgeous}Basciano admit a murder.)

Avraham MoskowitzUnlike Massino's effort, Pasqua's effort didn't get the goods, unless the government is sandbagging its evidence. All Scotten wrote about the taped conversation was that during the talk, "Londonio discussed in detail his membership in the Luchese crime family, and other crimes."

Back in 2016, there was a glut of mob busters looking to nail the Meldish hit team. Working with police, the Bronx District Attorney's office had already charged Londonio with murder for the November 2013 slaying. And the FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn were close to signing Pasqua up as a cooperating witness for them, attorney Moskowitz told Judge Roman.

"He talked to them about the conspiracy to murder Michael Meldish, and until the last minute, I thought we had a deal in the Eastern District" with prosecutors in the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office, said Moskowitz.

Judge Nelson RomanBut their Manhattan counterparts in the Southern District, who had been working on a long-running investigation of the Luchese family, teamed up with the Bronx DA's office and included the Meldish rubout as part of their case, and they signed Pasqua up as a cooperating witness for them.

Scotten explained that Brooklyn prosecutors "declined to enter a cooperation agreement with Pasqua because they were unable to verify that he was present during the murder," which is what he told them when he sought them out after he was arrested for drug dealing in Mississippi in 2015 and said he was on the scene in the Bronx when his father killed Meldish.

"They weren't able to corroborate his account nor (were they) comfortable going forward with him," Scotten told Roman. "Knowing a bit more about the facts and circumstances," the prosecutor continued, "we were able to understand how Mr. Pasqua's piece of the puzzle fit together with everything else that we knew."

Frank Pasqua IIIIn the government filing, Scotten wrote that based on their "extensive" investigation, his office "credits Pasqua's account that he and (his father) were directed to murder Meldish for the Luchese Family, and his account of his last meeting with Meldish" in which Pasqua claims to have heard a car door slam and think it was his father firing a bullet that killed the marked-for-death gangster.

"That Pasqua believed for a time that (his father) had physically carried out the murder appears to be an honest misinterpretation of his observations, and not a fabrication," Scotten wrote. His conduct "obviously made Pasqua less valuable" as a witness, but the decision "not to call Pasqua at trial" was "not based on concerns that Pasqua had provided false information about the murder" but on "the confusing nature of his understanding of the Meldish murder."

Scotten insisted that Pasqua "provided important historic evidence" that was "vital to the prosecution of several defendants" for the Meldish murder "and other serious crimes" including "the fact that Londonio had been commissioned" by Madonna to kill Mancuso and "was given primary responsibility for carrying out the murder."

John MeringoloLondonio lawyer John Meringolo said the assassination plot was a fantasy.

The notion that Londonio, "who is in federal prison on a gun charge, and under indictment on a state murder charge could carry out a murder against someone who was in an entirely different institution borders on the absurd," said Meringolo.

"They should have called in the common sense police when they heard that," said Meringolo.

The lawyer added that the allegation that Madonna and Londonio were planning to kill Mancuso "should have allowed the defense to argue that this plot was in retaliation for the Meldish murder, as an alternate suspect theory."

Hagan ScottenDuring the trial, Judge Cathy Seibel ruled that even though the FBI had received numerous tips linking Mancuso and other family mobsters to the slaying, none of them were accurate and the defense did not have a "good faith basis" to contend that the Bonannos had killed Meldish and she prevented defense lawyers from making that argument to the jury.

There's no question that there was "bad blood" between Mikey Nose and Meldish.

Mancuso was behind a very public beating that Bonanno soldiers gave Meldish two years before he was killed outside Rao's restaurant on Pleasant Avenue in August of 2011 for ignoring the Bonanno boss's order to stop seeing his girlfriend while he was behind bars.

In fact, prosecutors played a tape recording in which Mikey Nose reveled in the very public thrashing that Meldish got at the annual Pleasant Avenue Festival that honors Saint Anthony of Padua in a phone call he made from his South Carolina prison.

John Alite"They beat him, kicked him and everything," Mancuso said in the August 19, 2011 call. "I've been dying to call you," Mancuso chuckled. "He was on the floor and they were kicking him in his face and everything. (He had) blood all over him," he said.

Scotten told Seibel the government wanted to play the tape because Mancuso sounded "gleeful in sort of a childish way" and he was "not fired up to the level of murder" but "seems to have been content that Meldish, you know, got slapped around and (was) embarrassed."

Meanwhile, we were informed this week, very authoritatively (we hope) by John Alite, that his Johnny and Gene Show will air its long awaited discussion with Pasqua on Saturday. It's hard to imagine Pasqua talking about a Luchese plot to kill Mancuso on the podcast, but Gang Land has been told that Pasqua does discuss his cooperation with the feds regarding the Meldish rubout.

Mob Snitch: My FBI Agent Handler Had No Problem With Me Going On A Podcast With Ex-Cons

John RubeoA veteran FBI agent who was part of the investigation that snared 45 gangsters with ties to five crime families told mob informant John (J.R.) Rubeo that she had no problem with his decision to appear on the Johnny and Gene Show, according to Rubeo's attorney.

Rubeo is facing a possible return to prison for appearing on a podcast about organized crime with ex-cons John Alite and Gene Borrello in September.

In a memo to Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Sullivan, attorney Louis Fasulo wrote that when his client told agent Jennifer Laurie that he intended to appear on the show she "informed him that she did not take issue with him appearing on the podcast."

Fasulo is asking Sullivan to impose only a "reprimand and/or home confinement" for Rubeo next week.

Fasullo conceded that Rubeo "was wrong" to appear on the podcast "without prior approval from Probation." He added that his client "takes full responsibility for his actions and blames no one but himself." J.R. "attempted," but was unable to contact his probation official "before the podcast," according to the lawyer. But Rubeo did inform the probation department about it before the show aired, he wrote.

Louis FasuloIn seeking what amounts to five more months of supervised release, Fasulo cited the "no objection" response that agent Laurie gave Rubeo about his plan to associate with Alite and Borrello. He also pointed to what he described as the "otherwise perfect record" Rubeo has had during the 31 months he has been on post-prison "supervised release" as "significant mitigating circumstances."

Laurie, who has been an FBI agent for at least 15 years and oversaw several tape-recorded meetings that Rubeo had with gangsters in 2016, the last year of the five-year-long probe, did not respond to a Gang Land query about her discussion with Rubeo about the podcast. Prosecutor Lauren Potter has yet to submit her own sentencing memo, which was due this past Tuesday.

Fasulo argues that Rubeo "has changed the entire direction of his life and maintains a law-abiding lifestyle" since his release. He said his client should be allowed to stay out of prison and continue to do his best to help support his wife and two children during these troubled COVID-19 days.

The lawyer wrote that Rubeo has been rejected for numerous jobs by employers including Home Depot, Lowes, Uber, Postmates, and Instacart all "because of his criminal conviction and the presence of his case in the media." As a result, Rubeo turned to his own devices and used the wiseguy knowhow he acquired as a mob associate for two decades to open a legitimate business, Fasulo wrote.

Judge Richard SulivanIn the fall of 2018, Rubeo got the approval of the Probation Department "to open his own professional gambling and consulting business," the lawyer wrote. J.R. was making a decent living working 12-to-14 hours days as a "professional gambler," placing bets on sporting events and as a consultant on sports betting until the COVID-19 pandemic brought the business to a "screeching halt," Fasulo wrote.

Since "all major sporting events were immediately and unexpectedly stopped," Rubeo "reapplied to several rideshare and food delivery services again, since they were all in desperate need of immediate hires." But his "conviction still disqualified him from employment," and he managed to survive only by getting a business loan, the lawyer wrote.

Judge Sullivan has ripped Rubeo's decision to appear on the podcast, and has described his talk with the hosts as "a sprawling conversation about organized crime from the perspective of cooperators" that "sort of glorifies it by perpetuating it." The judge is slated to sentence Rubeo next week.

The guidelines for the three supervised release violations Rubeo admitted are three to nine months, but technically, Judge Sullivan stated last month, J.R. faces up to five years in prison.

COVID-19 Takes Out Transplanted Colombo Wisgeuy In The City Of Angels

Dominic MontemaranoDominick (Donnie Shacks) Montemarano, a colorful Colombo family wiseguy and former football player who palled around with everyone from mob boss Carmine (Junior) Persico to Hollywood stars, has died of the COVID-19 virus. He was 82.

Montemarano was one of 266 persons who died in Los Angeles from the COVID-19 virus on Saturday. Donnie Shacks was a hard-charging running back for a semi-pro football team, the Mariners, in the 1960s. At the same time, he was exchanging gunshots on the streets of Brooklyn with rivals in the Profaci-Gallo war. He moved to California in the mid-1990s so he could visit with Persico who was then housed at the federal prison in Lompoc, California.

While on the west coast, Montemarano was befriended by philanthropist-film producer Steve Bing. Donnie Shacks was soon seen hobnobbing with Tinseltown celebrities including Sonny Bono and Bing's wife, actress Liz Hurley. He even landed a starring role as a gangster who tried, but failed miserably to go straight, in a forgettable 2002 movie that Bing produced, Night at the Golden Eagle.

In the late 1990s, Montemarano hosted a series of Monday Night Football parties for college athletes and celebrities at a Beverly Hill apartment that Bing is said to have paid for. FBI agents in New York and Los Angeles suspected Montemarano was using the parties to run betting pools — and perhaps fix a game or two — but the bi-coastal investigation never turned up any wrongdoing by Donnie Shacks or any attendees of his parties.

Steve BingBing, 55, committed suicide by leaping to his death from his luxury high-rise apartment in June of last year.

Montemarano befriended UCLA starting quarterback Cade McNown and, in 1999, took McNown and his family on a tour of the Big Apple. Among the stops was Sparks Steak House, where Paul Castellano was gunned down in 1985. When Donnie Shacks learned that the FBI was investigating him, he told McNown that it was nice knowing him but advised him to stay away from him in the future.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, McNown said that after FBI agents gave him an earful about Donnie Shacks, he approached him and before McNown could say anything, Montemarano told him: "You can't see me anymore. I don't want you to get in any trouble. We can't talk anymore. That's the way it's got to be."

Donnie Shacks was with Persico on what turned out to be Junior's last day as a free man.

The pair were hiding out at the Wantagh L.I. home of a relative on February 15, 1985 when the FBI, which had been tipped off by Persico's relative, Fred DeChristopher, arrested them on a four-month-old labor racketeering case charging extortion and bid-rigging through the Colombo family's control of Local 6A of the New York Cement and Concrete Workers Union.

Carmine PersicoPersico, who would later be sentenced to 100 years in the Commission case, was convicted at the Colombo racketeering trial in 1986, and sentenced to 39 years by Manhattan Federal Judge John Keenan. Montemarano, who was found guilty in a separate trial a year later, served about 11 years of an 18 year sentence that he received.

Released from prison in 1996, he avoided any legal problems involving mob activity. But he was found guilty of seriously assaulting the 28-year-old woman he was living with in 2001 when she arrived home at 3AM while he was babysitting for her two kids, aged five and eight.

After serving two years in state prison for that crime, the feds used that arrest to get him two more years in federal prison for violating his parole. Montemarano had no other legal troubles since his release from prison in 2007.

Friends say that Donnie Shacks, who is survived by a daughter Donna and a grandson Dominick, was being treated for the deadly COVID-19 virus at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles when he passed away.

[JohnnyS]

Thanks for posting. I know Pennisi said the beef between the two families was because the Luccheses didnt want to recognize an imprisoned boss but I don't think thats the full story. I dont see them going as far as planning to kill Mancuso over that. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a personal beef between Madonna and Mancuso dating back to before they were made.

[JohnnyS]

If Pasqua is telling the truth of course.

[johnny_scootch]

Would have loved to have seen the fallout from Matty wacking Mikey.

I guess we now know why Matty said the Lucchese family wouldn't recognize Mikey Nose...obviously it wasn't 'because he's in jail' he hates the guy.

[chin_gigante]

That's pretty nuts wanting to kill the boss of another family in the 2010s, if what Pasqua says about it is true

[TommyGambino]

Imagine a mob war this day and age, would ruin the two families, weren't all the Bonanno told to carry guns at one point

[Hired_Goonz]

I don't know if I buy this supposed murder contract on Mancuso. So the source is Pasqua? Let me guess, Agent Otto was the one that Pasqua first told about the conspiracy? I guess this is why Londonio was so determined to break out of MDC, because he had to then break IN to Danbury to kill Mikey Nose.

[dack2001]

Agree. These agents that work with the rats all want cases to get brought. That's how they get recognition and promotions. If their rat turns out to be a lying lowlife scumbag, than their work goes down the drain and their reputation takes a hit. That's why agents are always bolstering their rats anyway they can (legally or illegally) and at sentencing time every rat is Joe Valachi come back to life. The whole thing stinks from head to toe.

[Nick Prango]

Imagine a mob war this day and age, would ruin the two families, weren't all the Bonanno told to carry guns at one point

Personally i think that in this day and age an all out mob war, would ruin all 5 NY families.

[SonnyBlackstein]

I guess this is why Londonio was so determined to break out of MDC, because he had to then break IN to Danbury to kill Mikey Nose.

I dont see how anything this guy says could be believed. He nails his father for the murder, which was, false. Yup throws his father under the bus in a lie. How anyone could 'misunderstand the circumstances' when they claimed to be present at a hit is beyond me. "If anyone asks who did this, tell them you did." his father said after 'clipping' Meldish and getting back in the car. That was a 'misunderstanding of circumstance' too?

And now Londonio who's faces a gun charge and federal murder charge is recruiting Pasqua for a hit on Mancuso, in another facility? I find that incredible, to put it mildly.



Shame GL didnt state Donnie's position.

Thanks for the post.

[Hired_Goonz]

I guess this is why Londonio was so determined to break out of MDC, because he had to then break IN to Danbury to kill Mikey Nose.

I dont see how anything this guy says could be believed. He nails his father for the murder, which was, false. Yup throws his father under the bus in a lie. How anyone could 'misunderstand the circumstances' when they claimed to be present at a hit is beyond me. "If anyone asks who did this, tell them you did." his father said after 'clipping' Meldish and getting back in the car. That was a 'misunderstanding of circumstance' too?

And now Londonio who's faces a gun charge and federal murder charge is recruiting Pasqua for a hit on Mancuso, in another facility? I find that incredible, to put it mildly.



Shame GL didnt state Donnie's position.

Thanks for the post.

Maybe when the father said "if anyone asks who did this, tell them you did" he was referring to the car door getting slammed? The one that Pasqua somehow mistook for his father committing a murder? Lol

[Hailbritain]

I remember pizzaboy saying years ago that everyone despised mancuso , it appears he was right

[chin_gigante]

When Gene Borrello was asked in the mugshots Q&A if Mancuso was liked or just feared he said feared

[newera_212]

I don't know if I buy this supposed murder contract on Mancuso. So the source is Pasqua? Let me guess, Agent Otto was the one that Pasqua first told about the conspiracy? I guess this is why Londonio was so determined to break out of MDC, because he had to then break IN to Danbury to kill Mikey Nose.

LOL. That's gold

[Dave65827]

The Pasqua guy sounds like the homeless man that hangs around the bus station can’t take anything he says seriously.

I seriously doubt there was a serious plan to whack Muncuso even with the beef between him and Madonna. If there was discussion is was probably in the heat of the moment