John Pennisi Sighting / Sit Down News

[NJShore4Life]

There’s no gray area - you either cooperated or you didn’t cooperate.

That’s like saying your girl didn’t really cheat on you because she only blew the guy.

There’s a clear line in the sand between cooperating and not cooperating. I can’t stand these rats who try to make it out like their cooperations were in this “gray area” - they’re fucking rats , there’s absolutely no gray area!

-Dante

[Amershire_Ed]

The more I listen to these podcasts the only one who seems honest and who’s story doesn’t change is pennisi.... the more I listen to hooties stuff the more confused I am about him... one minute he’s been with one arm since he was 14, then says he was like brothers with Al’s crew.. then will say that he has no idea why he got indicted with them cause he was never on record with any lcn guy?? And did he flip or not? All he will say is he didn’t go along with the global plea. But I would find it hard got someone who didn’t rat, to hangout around alite, gene, etc... also his name isn’t Anthony Russo.. when you google that all you get is the Colombo guy... his name is actually Anthino “hootie” Russo, if you google that, then the gambino indictments show up..

Right. There's also another Russo on that very same indictment. Hootie mentioned once that he has a brother who was a 'knockaround guy' but 'not a street guy' and not 'in the life' - I'm wondering who this other Russo is and whether or not it's his brother. It'd be strange if his own brother was on that indictment and an integral part of that crew but out of all the stories he's told, he's never once mentioned him.

Hootie's also let it slip that Todd LaBarca is his brother-in-law, and that "they" (not sure if he meant the Government, or people in his crew) were trying to tie him into the murder that LaBarca went down for, along with the tragic murder of the old pizzeria owner which resulted from a botched robbery attempted set up by a young pot dealer loosely affiliated with the Truccio crew (who I'm almost positive Hootie knows). Gene said he was 'with' Todd at one point too collecting money for those guys.

I don't think the lines are as clear as we make them out to be. With someone like Pennisi who was actually made, it's a little bit more cut and dry, but for guys like Hootie and Gene who were in the neighborhood - which legitimately does have a lot of activity - they were running around all over the place piecing together money however they could, under the wing of whoever they could gain from at the time, compounded with the fact that they're probably being selectively honest, stretching stories out, etc.

So that’s Todd labarca he was talking about when he said the pill dealer who was cooperating and showed up at hooties house and handed him 5,000 Vicodin in a bag and then a minute later law enforcement stormed his house with an arrest warrant? And he was saying my brother in law was over, who shouldn’t have beeen there cause I don’t like him, then he tried to say that labarca started crying about how he was on parole and didn’t want this affecting him, and hootie made it seem like labarca saying this is what got him fucked cause he had the pills hidden under his neighbors trash can or something , and after labarca said that, then the cops threatened to charge like everyone in the house including hooties wife, so hootie said fine and went and grabbed the pills and handed them to the cops, but he made it seem like if labarca didn’t start talking about his parole then hootie wouldn’t have got busted for the pills.
Like I said his whole stories are just all over the place..

Maybe it’s just me but that seems like a pretty simple story to follow.

I don’t get where the gaps in the story are supposed to be.

You’re referring to hootie and his story??? Cause that’s what I’m talking about and maybe you haven’t heard how much he flip flops maybe cause you haven’t listened to enough of the different podcasts he’s been on? I’m only guessing.... I’ve listened to pretty much every hootie interview on YouTube that I could come across including when he was on mba and the button man and vladtv..

He goes from saying he was around the life and around Ronnie one arm since he was a child.. then will say he was never on record or under Ronnie ever.. then he says how he met his son al and mike roc and that whole crew and how the plan was for them to all enter the life and get made one by one, so hootie stops selling drugs and goes to work at their bookmaking office... says he was put up to be made 3 times... then again will say that he wasn’t on record or a part of Al’s crew cause he sold drugs (they all sold drugs). Who’s never on record or with someone yet is sponsored and put up to be made 3 times??? Also how you get indicted with a crew that you claim you were never a part of???
Just like him talking about his dealings with the feds, he says he rejected the global plea, dropped his lawyer, got a public defender and cooperated with the fbi.. then goes on to say that he never said a word or mentioned crimes that anyone else did, he only admitted to the fbi about crimes he was involved in, and his dealing with the feds have never led to anyone ever being locked up and that he gave no info on anyone... that’s just someone in denial... if you stated that you “cooperated” with the feds, that means that you had to have given people up, or else there would be no point for them to even speak to you.. everyone knows with the fbi it’s a double sided relationship... they need information on crimes that they don’t know about from you, and you need to tell the feds these things so that they can make sure you get a favorable deal when sentencing day comes.. he says he got 60 months. He didn’t do 60 months. He got like 5 years probation...

Yeah he didn’t mince words at all when talking about cooperating. Vlad tried to give him an out and say “oh so you cooperated but not really” and Hootie corrected him and said, verbatim, “no I am a rat. I cooperated.”

I fully admit Hootie’s story on the other YT shows jumps all over the place but this Vlad interview makes it real easy to follow. Especially the way it’s broken up. I sincerely don’t understand the confusion if you are just talking about the Vlad interview.

[FriendofHenry]

There’s no gray area - you either cooperated or you didn’t cooperate.

That’s like saying your girl didn’t really cheat on you because she only blew the guy.

There’s a clear line in the sand between cooperating and not cooperating. I can’t stand these rats who try to make it out like their cooperations were in this “gray area” - they’re fucking rats , there’s absolutely no gray area!

-Dante

AMEN

[mafiastudent]

From Hootie's Full Interview:

55: 51 - "I never cooperated. I stepped away from a global plea."

1:04:31 - "I never got a 5k1 letter. When you cooperate you get a 5k1 letter."

1:04:51 - "No matter how you look at it, it's cooperating...I would have considered myself a rat...however you want to call it..I would consider myself, not an informant not a rat but a cooperator because I did go in and speak to them."

Unfortunately like most other "cooperators," his court files are sealed other than a judgment and the court transcript for when his supervised release was lifted early. So, no way to verify anything about his sentencing or plea agreement or whether there was a 5k1 letter. But within a short amount of time, in one interview, he goes from I never cooperated to I'm a cooperator.

[Amershire_Ed]

From Hootie's Full Interview:

55: 51 - "I never cooperated. I stepped away from a global plea."

1:04:31 - "I never got a 5k1 letter. When you cooperate you get a 5k1 letter."

1:04:51 - "No matter how you look at it, it's cooperating...I would have considered myself a rat...however you want to call it..I would consider myself, not an informant not a rat but a cooperator because I did go in and speak to them."

Unfortunately like most other "cooperators," his court files are sealed other than a judgment and the court transcript for when his supervised release was lifted early. So, no way to verify anything about his sentencing or plea agreement or whether there was a 5k1 letter. But within a short amount of time, in one interview, he goes from I never cooperated to I'm a cooperator.

Oh yeah he definitely parses. I’ve seen in other interviews where he kinda tries to categorize the different levels of cooperation. Taking the stand vs wearing a wire vs being a paid informant. He tries to make it seem like what he did (stepping off a global plea and playing queen for the day) wasn’t that bad compared to others.

But he *does* fully acknowledge being “bad”. He just tries to make it seem like what he did isn’t what Borello or Rubeo or Pennisi did.

[chubby]

From Hootie's Full Interview:

55: 51 - "I never cooperated. I stepped away from a global plea."

1:04:31 - "I never got a 5k1 letter. When you cooperate you get a 5k1 letter."

1:04:51 - "No matter how you look at it, it's cooperating...I would have considered myself a rat...however you want to call it..I would consider myself, not an informant not a rat but a cooperator because I did go in and speak to them."

Unfortunately like most other "cooperators," his court files are sealed other than a judgment and the court transcript for when his supervised release was lifted early. So, no way to verify anything about his sentencing or plea agreement or whether there was a 5k1 letter. But within a short amount of time, in one interview, he goes from I never cooperated to I'm a cooperator.

This is exactly the stuff I’m talking about... is that not flip flopping back and forth?? Now watch all his other interviews besides the vladtv one and he basically does this exact thing with every single topic he discusses...

[B.]

I continue to enjoy Pennisi's show. He said they asked him for his mother's maiden name before he was made -- curious if they did any research to verify it or if they were simply going through the motions. Also interesting he gives pushback on the idea that the Colombo family is a mess. He stresses that there are powerful crews in each family and you can't necessarily paint them with a broad brush.

Not the biggest fan of Russo. When he was on the MBA show, you could tell LaVecchia and Pennisi were confused and wanted clarification when Russo said he was never officially on record with Trucchio despite their supposedly close relationship, but they let it go. Since then I've noticed Russo talking more and more outside of his scope of knowledge and he's even made a comment along the lines of being "with" all of the families. He's a sharp thinker, but we see a pattern with these low-level associates talking about the organization.

[Extortion]

There’s no gray area - you either cooperated or you didn’t cooperate.

That’s like saying your girl didn’t really cheat on you because she only blew the guy.

There’s a clear line in the sand between cooperating and not cooperating. I can’t stand these rats who try to make it out like their cooperations were in this “gray area” - they’re fucking rats , there’s absolutely no gray area!

-Dante

I disagree because hootie jumped off a global plea so they called him a rat. Thats a pretty gray area especially since he didnt give anyone up...

[Extortion]

I continue to enjoy Pennisi's show. He said they asked him for his mother's maiden name before he was made -- curious if they did any research to verify it or if they were simply going through the motions. Also interesting he gives pushback on the idea that the Colombo family is a mess. He stresses that there are powerful crews in each family and you can't necessarily paint them with a broad brush.

Not the biggest fan of Russo. When he was on the MBA show, you could tell LaVecchia and Pennisi were confused and wanted clarification when Russo said he was never officially on record with Trucchio despite their supposedly close relationship, but they let it go. Since then I've noticed Russo talking more and more outside of his scope of knowledge and he's even made a comment along the lines of being "with" all of the families. He's a sharp thinker, but we see a pattern with these low-level associates talking about the organization.

He’s pretty accurate most of the time but he comes from a different angle in the life you know he was a drug dealer and “friendly” street kid. He did say that John Pennisi was a “very high ranking member” of the lucchese which is pretty strange considering John never really made any real money, whacked anyone for a hit and was only a solider for like 4-5 years. I mean i dont think pennisi should have cooperated since clearly misunderstandings happen in the life but he took it so hard and I saw maybe that is deserved to an extent but were they really plotting to whack him in this day and age when he said it himself...most ppl just get shelved. They could have just shelved him, done an investigation then reinstated him......

[Amershire_Ed]

I continue to enjoy Pennisi's show. He said they asked him for his mother's maiden name before he was made -- curious if they did any research to verify it or if they were simply going through the motions. Also interesting he gives pushback on the idea that the Colombo family is a mess. He stresses that there are powerful crews in each family and you can't necessarily paint them with a broad brush.

Yeah I thought it was interesting in the most recent interview with Arilotta, Arilotta said Bruno chased him in like ‘96 because the cops raided his house and found 40 pounds of weed. Arilotta said that by the mid 90s, the attitude towards weed had been slowly changing amongst a lot of the old timers. He said there were definitely captains in other families at the time that wouldn’t have necessarily chased a guy over weed. But he said Bruno was old school and the Westside is particularly strict when it comes to drugs. He said Bruno viewed it no different than junk.

[Extortion]

Tuccio probably reminds Merlino of himself in his younger years when he was fighting with everyone, pissing off made guys, and for a time even being banished from the Philly Fam lol

No not all. I think he wants money from Tuccio and knows Tuccio will give him all his money no questions asked for a chance to take a photo w joey and say hes with him. Remember theres more angles to Joey than ppl think hes been boss for nearly 25 years

[newera_212]

I continue to enjoy Pennisi's show. He said they asked him for his mother's maiden name before he was made -- curious if they did any research to verify it or if they were simply going through the motions. Also interesting he gives pushback on the idea that the Colombo family is a mess. He stresses that there are powerful crews in each family and you can't necessarily paint them with a broad brush.

Not the biggest fan of Russo. When he was on the MBA show, you could tell LaVecchia and Pennisi were confused and wanted clarification when Russo said he was never officially on record with Trucchio despite their supposedly close relationship, but they let it go. Since then I've noticed Russo talking more and more outside of his scope of knowledge and he's even made a comment along the lines of being "with" all of the families. He's a sharp thinker, but we see a pattern with these low-level associates talking about the organization.

I thought the same thing and was leaning towards going through the motions, because I believe he said he was made within a few days, if not a week, of them asking for his mother's maiden name. I mean, i know info is pretty easy to come by these days, but picturing somebody like Madonna or better yet, a knuckle dragger like John C, sitting down in front of a computer trying to dig through Pennisi's Mom's family tree kinda made me laugh.

If they -did- do their due diligence on that, how do you think they'd go about it? I wonder now that the internet and technology is such an integral part of life, if these guys take any sort of precautions? Like Amato simply buying the GPS for his girl's car with his own credit card.

Pennisi moved around a lot, like most of these guys do, driving to meetings, businesses, etc. - in the car most of the day all over the boroughs. I wonder if they use a GPS, google maps, stuff that normal people do? If they are masking their online or traceable activity at all

[B.]

Yeah I thought it was interesting in the most recent interview with Arilotta, Arilotta said Bruno chased him in like ‘96 because the cops raided his house and found 40 pounds of weed. Arilotta said that by the mid 90s, the attitude towards weed had been slowly changing amongst a lot of the old timers. He said there were definitely captains in other families at the time that wouldn’t have necessarily chased a guy over weed. But he said Bruno was old school and the Westside is particularly strict when it comes to drugs. He said Bruno viewed it no different than junk.

One thing I enjoy about Pennisi is even though he is a modern member who was only in the mafia a short time (even shorter as an on record associate), he understands and explains the protocol very well.

Arilotta specifically used the term "shelved" when he talked about the weed issue, and Pennisi responded with something like, "So you were already straightened out?" Pennisi assumed Arilotta was already a member because "shelved" technically only refers to a made member, but Arilotta clarified he was proposed and was obviously just using "shelved" and "chased" interchangeably. Pennisi knows what the term specifically refers to, though.

That's what I find most interesting about Pennisi... he makes it clear the mafia isn't what it used to be, but he avoids some of the obvious cliches and he also has great understanding of the protocol and rules. He doesn't waver when discussing them either, it's clearly drilled in his head and that's something casual listeners might not pick up on.

[Amershire_Ed]

I continue to enjoy Pennisi's show. He said they asked him for his mother's maiden name before he was made -- curious if they did any research to verify it or if they were simply going through the motions. Also interesting he gives pushback on the idea that the Colombo family is a mess. He stresses that there are powerful crews in each family and you can't necessarily paint them with a broad brush.

Not the biggest fan of Russo. When he was on the MBA show, you could tell LaVecchia and Pennisi were confused and wanted clarification when Russo said he was never officially on record with Trucchio despite their supposedly close relationship, but they let it go. Since then I've noticed Russo talking more and more outside of his scope of knowledge and he's even made a comment along the lines of being "with" all of the families. He's a sharp thinker, but we see a pattern with these low-level associates talking about the organization.

He’s pretty accurate most of the time but he comes from a different angle in the life you know he was a drug dealer and “friendly” street kid. He did say that John Pennisi was a “very high ranking member” of the lucchese which is pretty strange considering John never really made any real money, whacked anyone for a hit and was only a solider for like 4-5 years. I mean i dont think pennisi should have cooperated since clearly misunderstandings happen in the life but he took it so hard and I saw maybe that is deserved to an extent but were they really plotting to whack him in this day and age when he said it himself...most ppl just get shelved. They could have just shelved him, done an investigation then reinstated him......

The most confusing parts of Hootie’s story to me at first was the timeline and the “not on record” thing.

The timeline makes much more sense to me after the Vlad interview. He was a drug dealer street guy that got with Al Trucchio in the mid to late 90s based on his relationship with Ronnie One Arm. Over the next few years, he dabbled in coke and got big into weed until they told him to stop and come join their bookmaking operation. Hootie says he agreed to because there was no way he was ever gonna get made as a big drug dealer. But this led to a pinch in 2002.

After he got out, someone took like $110,000 of Al’s money. This led to Hootie getting involved with pharmaceuticals in an attempt to help get Al’s money back that was lost. While Hootie was supposed to be just doing 5000 pills a week, and using the profit to reimburse Al, he eventually started getting almost 30,000 a week. When Al gets home and realizes the scale and scope of the scheme, he tells Hootie to stop and Hootie agreed......only to get busted a few days later accepting 5000 more pills from the guy.

Hootie does 2 years, comes out and basically stays away (And is told to stay away) from his old crew. He said he had a successful bookmaking operation and was working a union job. On a few occasions he said he was asked to collect money for Ronnie one Arm—which he did. Those collections were discussed on tape by other people, which led to Hootie getting pinched on Mafia Takedown day.

[B.]

That's what gets me about Russo. He says he was never officially put on record because he was a drug dealer. Since when do the Gambino family's Ozone Park crews exclude drug dealers? I understand the Trucchio and Corozzo crews aren't the Bergin crew, who straighten out and promote their drug dealers, but something doesn't sit right about his explanation.

I do like hearing Russo talk about his Sicilian background. His parents came from Partinico, though he says he doesn't have mafia connections. He has done his homework, though, as he made a great point about the Sicilian mafia historically being made up of guys who worked in trades and held day jobs/professions.