Gangland 12/29/2022

[Dr031718]

Bonanno Crime Family Funeral Home Assault Is The Top Mob Story of 2022

The Top Mob Story Of 2022 is a Gang Land first. It's not based on a mob takedown or a verdict in a major Mafia trial in one of the federal courts in the New York area. It is also a first in Cosa Nostra history: An unprecedented assault by members of one of New York's notorious Five Families against one of their own at the wake of another member of the crime family.

It happened on July 19, sources say, when ex-Bonanno acting boss Joseph (Joe C) Cammarano stepped up to the casket at the Dodge-Thomas Funeral Home in Glen Cove to pay his respects to his father-in-law Vito Grimaldi. Moments later, he was clocked by a gaggle of wiseguys sent there by boss Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso and ordered to assault Cammarano if he dared to show up.

According to a law enforcement source, Cammarano knew he was courting trouble. When his father-in-law died a few days earlier, the source said, "Cammarano was explicitly told, 'Do not come to the wake.'"

Sources say that as Joe C approached the casket, mobster John Spirito Jr., backed up by a handful of wisguys, "punched him in the mouth and knocked him down." The attack continued until Cammarano's mobster brother Dino, along with several biker buddies who had accompanied Joe C to the wake, quickly came to his aid, pulling Spirito off him.

As Gang Land reported the following week, the Bonannos got the worst of it. The sources say that when the dust settled, Spirito, 40, and two other Bronx-based mobsters, capos John (Johnny Mulberry) Sciremammano, 65, and Ernest (Ernie) Aiello, 42, were left "bloodied and battered on the floor of the funeral parlor."

Even underworld sources who disputed some of the specifics of Gang Land's account a week later — essentially that the three Mancuso loyalists got the worst of it — concede that mobsters loyal to Mancuso got there early and began the fisticuffs as Cammarano approached the casket as the viewing at the one-day wake was beginning.

Aiello, however, still says differently. Sources say he was heard denying Gang Land's report about the funeral parlor dustup the day it was published to anyone who would listen on Graham Avenue in Williamsburg where he has an ice cream parlor. "I look pretty good for a guy who caught a beating from some dirt bag bikers," he was heard saying a week after Grimaldi was laid to rest.

Shortly after Gang Land broke the news, on July 28, Aiello denied being at the wake. "I absolutely had nothing to do with it," he stated, we were told, and duly reported. But sources on both sides of the law say Ernie Aiello, or his double, was there, and on the losing side of the dispute.

There's no dispute about the timing of what the Glen Cove Police Department called a "disturbance" that day. A Glen Cove Police report obtained by Gang Land states that at a minute before 4 PM, "Dodge Thomas called to request PD for a disturbance at the funeral home. They called back a minute later and cancelled stating the parties left the scene."

Sources say Mancuso has been furious with Cammarano since 2019. That's when he learned about testimony at Joe C's racketeering trial stating that his acting boss had tried to get the family's capos to name him as the official Bonanno family boss while Mikey Nose was still two years from completing a 15 year bid for a mob rubout.

When he learned of the attempted takeover, sources say that Mancuso, who had made Cammarano his acting boss in 2015, "shelved" both Joe C and Grimaldi. The move deprived them of all rights and privileges as "made men." Grimaldi, who was a capo, was punished for not reporting Joe C's plans to supersede Mikey Nose. Worse, the sources say, Grimaldi had gone along with his son-in-law's plan.

Underworld and law enforcement sources voiced concerns in the week following the dustup that there could be violent retaliations by the Bonannos against Cammarano for defying his boss's edict and for "bringing outsiders, bikers into the mix." But those fears have since eased with no reports of reprisals by either side.

Mancuso was slated to plead guilty to a violation of supervised release (VOSR) last month for meeting with two Colombo mobsters and two Bonanno wiseguys in 2020 and 2021. But the plea was put off after the judge declined to accept the wording of the guilty plea that had been worked out by the government and his lawyer. He is slated to try again next week.

According to a court filing by prosecutor Michael Gibaldi, Mikey Nose's mob rank and Bonanno mobsters John (Bazoo) Ragano and Jerome Asaro — items that Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis read aloud as specifications of the VOSR in November — have been deleted from a revised charge that has been filed by the Probation Department.

Mancuso, who was originally charged with associating with the four mobsters "as boss" of the Bonanno crime family, is now charged only with associating "with (two) persons engaged in criminal activity and previously convicted of felony offenses," namely Colombo mobsters Michael Uvino and Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo.

"Specifically," Gibaldi wrote, "the defendant intends to plead guilty to the current VOSR charge by admitting that he associated with Uvino and Ricciardo, both of whom he knew had prior felony convictions." His sentencing guidelines are five to 11 months, but he could receive two years in prison for the VOSR.

The Best Quote Of 2022 By A Judge was uttered by Garaufis last month when he refused to accept the guilty plea to the VOSR that Mikey Nose planned to make because, the judge said, the defendant was making a "conceptual statement of guilt," not admitting he did anything wrong.

"Put some meat on this bone here for me," Garaufis told Gibaldi and Mancuso's defense lawyer Stacey Richman.

John Meringolo Is Defense Lawyer Of The Year

Attorney John Meringolo, who died tragically this year at the age of 48, is Gang Land's Defense Lawyer of the Year. Meringolo gets the nod for his amazing body of work at the defense bar that began in Brooklyn Federal Court in 2011 and continued there, in Manhattan and Philadelphia until this year.

Back in 2011, in an early solo effort, Meringolo kept pushing for a speedy trial for a mobster charged with a 1980 murder, believing that the feds didn't have the goods and were looking to force a plea deal to a homicide. The canny barrister got the feds to knuckle under and give his client a sweet plea deal to loansharking and a sentence of probation after they picked a jury.

Meringolo, who suffered a fatal heart attack in November "will be dearly missed," said Anjelica Cappellino, an attorney who worked with him for 10 years. "John was an incredible trial lawyer and legal advocate with a larger-than-life courtroom presence. He went above and beyond for his clients and gave 110% of himself to every case."

Meringolo had a truly great year in 2019, when he won acquittals for a mob consigliere charged with racketeering, and an NYPD ex-deputy inspector who was charged with bribery. The year before, he helped Philadelphia mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino get a plea deal to a misdemeanor gambling charge following a hard-fought racketeering trial that ended in a hung jury.

His death was "a tragedy in so many ways," said lawyer Joseph Corozzo. "He was a friend, a colleague, a neighbor, a father of two young boys, and great lawyer who we lost much too soon," he said. "John's legal talents were just being exposed to the world over the last 10 years. He had some great courtroom victories, victories that many lawyers don't have in their entire careers."

Numerous defense lawyer colleagues echoed the praise that Cappellino and Corozzo heaped on him and agreed that not only was Meringolo a fierce advocate for his clients, he was also a "good guy" who would go out of his way to help you if he could.

The Grim Reaper was active in Gang Land this year, claiming two well-established giants of the defense bar: Gerald Shargel, who won an acquittal in federal court for Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano in 1985, and helped John Gotti win a state court acquittal in 1990, died at age 77. Jay Goldberg, who represented capo Matthew (Matty the Horse) Ianniello and other mobsters, passed away this month, at age 89.

Gang Land also lost several law enforcers, including the longtime Chief Investigator for the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office Joseph Ponzi, who played a crucial role in bringing down the so-called Mafia Cops, the most corrupt NYPD detectives who ever carried shields, and who was one of the most admired figures in local law enforcement. Ponzi was 65.

Ponzi possessed an amazing ability to solve the toughest cases, and make it look easy during the 37 years he was arresting bad guys. He also had self-assurance and the restraint to be able to bite his tongue and not rip someone who had wronged him, even when he had good reason to do so.

In all their pronouncements about the case, the feds ignored the key role Ponzi played in convincing a key gangster to flip and help convict rogue detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa — something the FBI and DEA hadn't been able to accomplish for more than 10 years. Still, Ponzi refused to publicly badmouth the feds for dissing him over a feud they had with the Brooklyn DA's office.

"Joe Ponzi was a cop's cop with all that implies: tough and street savvy, to be sure but with a quiet confidence that enabled him to relate to hardened wiseguys and street kids alike," said ex-ADA Bruce Maffeo. "But he was more than that: he had a heart of gold and an enduring sense of personal integrity and loyalty that endeared him to countless generations of ADAs whom he mentored. He was one of a kind, the likes of whom we'll never see again. End of Watch."

It was also last call for Andrew Maloney, who was Brooklyn U.S Attorney when Gotti was acquitted with the help of a corrupt juror, and was still there when the Dapper Don was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Maloney was 90. Likewise, Alfred (Alfie) McNeil, who ran the Witness Security Program for two decades and made sure that mob busting federal prosecutors Walter Mack and Edward McDonald always had the turncoat witnesses they needed, died at 77.

Judge Sterling Johnson Jr., an ex-marine who earned his law degree while working nights as an NYPD detective in Bedford Stuyvesant, and went on to serve nearly two decades as a state and federal prosecutor, and three decades as a federal judge in Brooklyn, was 88. Johnson, a strict but often wry-humored jurist, presided over racketeering and murder cases of dozens of wiseguys and mob associates.

Anthony (Tough Tony) Federici, a longtime member of the Genovese crime family died at the age of 82 without ever getting nabbed for anything by the feds, who tried to get him for decades. But the more than 1000 mourners who showed up to say goodbye to him at his two day wake, says that he was a good guy, a good neighbor, and a good friend to thousands of New Yorkers.

The mourners were neighbors, close friends, lawyers, employees, and local store owners whom Federici had helped remain in business or open up new stores with no interest loans during the Covid pandemic. And yes, there were more than a few Genovese family wiseguys who didn't care they'd be photographed by the FBI as they paid their respects to a "friend."

Many mourners knew Federici as Chef Tony, the friendly restaurateur from Corona who would stop at your table, wearing a white coat with a smudge of tomato sauce on it, exchange pleasantries and tell you the special dishes that were on the menu at the Park Side that night.

Tough Tony Federici was also a very cagey wiseguy. He helped his pal become a made man in the 1990's and gave him his rackets so Tony could insulate himself from overt criminal activity and devote time to his passion — the Park Side.

He wasn't a silent partner, FBI agents of yesteryear noted incredulously in a summary of a report they wrote about him 22 years ago: "Tough Tony owns the (Park Side) restaurant and he really works there."

Gambino mobster Joseph (Joe Brewster) Delmonico, who set the hard to beat record as the Oldest Mobster Never Arrested when he died at the age of 101, worked under Mafia bosses going back to family patriarch Carlo Gambino. He was an official of Local 23 of the Mason and Tenders Union, had financial interests in a construction company and in a waste hauling business.

Other notable gangsters called by the Grim Reaper this year are Mafia boss Andrew (Mush) Russo, 87, who beat the blockbuster Colombo racketeering case when he checked out at 86, and former Gambino acting boss Arnold (Zeke) Squitieri, who was 86 when he died. Colombo capo Thomas Petrizzo, 89, ex-Luchese consigliere Frank (Big Frank) Lastorino, 82, Genovese wiseguys Stephen Andretta, 86, and Mario Gigante, 98, also passed away this year.

Gigante's brother, the Reverend Louis Gigante, who often walked arm-in-arm with their pajama-clad brother Vincent as the legendary Mafia boss played the role of a mentally challenged man until he was convicted and jailed in 1997, also died this year, at the age of 90.

Turns out that Reverend Gigante, who was charged in 2021 with sexual abuse of a nine year old boy when he was a parish priest 46 years ago in a still-pending civil suit, took two big secrets to the grave with him when he died in October, according to a Sunday New York Times story by reporter Mike Wilson with major help from my former Daily News colleague Sal Arena.

Father Lou made a pretty good living as a priest, and has a 32-year-old son. He is unlikely to seek a job on the docks where many Gigante family members are currently employed and undergo scrutiny by the Waterfront Commission regarding his family ties. His father left him $7 million.

Dear Reader: No matter where you hang your hat, or where your current station in life is located these days, Gang Land wishes you a peaceful, prosperous, healthy and Happy New Year!

Prosecutor Of The Year Award To AUSAs In Patricide Conviction In Sally Daz Murder Case

The intrepid assistant U.S. attorneys who secured the audacious and heinous conviction of Anthony Zottola for the murder of his mob-connected father Sylvester (Sally Daz) Zottola — namely Kayla Bensing, Emily Dean, Devon Lash, and Andrew Roddin — share Gang Land's Prosecutor of the Year Award in 2022.

On the fourth day of deliberations following a six-week trial, Zottola and Himen (Ace) Ross, the accused gunman in the October 2018 execution of Sally Daz, were found guilty of the murder-for-hire plot to kill Sally Daz and his son Salvatore, who survived a rubout attempt in front of his Bronx home three months earlier.

Lead prosecutor Bensing and FBI agent Michael Zoufal, who began investigating the case after the failed murder attempt of Salvatore Zottola in July of 2018 and prepared the thousands of text messages that Bloods leader Bushawn (Shelz) Shelton sent and received during the murder plot, get the Sonny & Cher Award for their dramatic readings of Shelton's texts at the trial.

In each reading, Zoufal played the role of the street gang boss and spoke the words that he was texting to his underlings, his wife Takeisha, who helped him avoid capture during an early attempt to whack Sally Daz, or Anthony Zottola. Bensing voiced the texted replies of whomever Shelton was communicating with at that point in the 13-month long murder for hire scheme.

The convicted defendants might call it the Bonnie & Clyde Award for the famous bank robbery team of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow who were shot and killed in 1934 by Texas Rangers and portrayed by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty in the 1967 movie. Whatever you call it, the dramatic readings, coupled with the exact words that jurors could see as they were read aloud, clearly established the charged murder-for-hire plot and helped sink Zottola and Ross.

Zottola, 45, and Ross, 36, each face life behind bars prison terms at their sentencings by Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Hector Gonzalez next year.

Alfred (Aloe) Lopez, the accused driver of the car that took Ross to the McDonald's drive thru in the Bronx where he shot and killed Sally Daz on October 4, 2018, and then drove Ross away from the murder scene, was not fingered by any government witness or snared in any text messages. He was acquitted on all charges.

The Don Quixote Impossible Dream Award goes to Lottery Lawyer Jason (Jay) Kurland. The feds, as he already knew, had two cohorts and tons of recorded calls and texts linking him to the $80 million rip-off of three Lottery winners, and the testimony of his fleeced clients. They also had planned testimony of his brother-in-law doctor against him. Kurland still opted to go to trial instead of following the lead of Genovese wiseguy Chris Chierchio and copping a plea deal.

The case was such a slam dunk that the prosecutors decided to rest without calling Dr. Scott Blyer, the cosmetic surgeon who promotes himself as DrBFixin, the Brazilian Buttlift expert, to testify that his brother-in-law Jay warned him not to invest any more cash with him as the FBI closed in on him.

Blyer, who told the feds that he gave Kurland shoeboxes filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to invest in the same lending companies as the lottery winners, who were not told that Kurland owned the companies and was getting a 1% kickback on the cash, gets the Great Escape Award for avoiding a stint on the witness stand and keeping his license as an MD.

Kurland's lawyer in the case, Telemachus (Tim) Kasulis gets the Gravy Train Award for failing to convince him to take a plea deal. It didn’t hurt that Kurland had an ironclad $10 million insurance policy that would pay all his legal bills up until a jury pronounced him guilty, which it did in less than a day of deliberations.

Bonanno family turncoat-turned-podcaster Gene Borrello and his lawyer Nancy Ennis share Gang Land's Whopper of the Year Award for filing a phony-looking unsigned and undated letter that was in fact a bogus letter offering Borrello a job as a roofer in Florida that got Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block to put off his sentencing and allow him to move to the Sunshine State.

When Borrello was reached and told that he had filed what the owner of the roofing company said was "a complete fabrication," Borrello replied, "I didn't file it, I gave it to my lawyer and she filed it." The letter remained sealed for 10 weeks until Block unsealed it, as well as a motion to put off the sentencing for his guilty plea to his second VOSR, which has been pending for 13 months. The oft-postponed sentencing is now slated for January 13.

Editor's Note: Gang Land is taking a slide next week. We'll be back with real stuff about organized crime on January 12

[CabriniGreen]

Why nothing on the Ndrangheta guys? So odd...

[Shellackhead]

This guys got nothing to post about. Talking about x of the year… man if you don’t get yo old ass on.

Thanks for posting

[outfit guy]

Gangster Report is much better and broader in scope.

[outfit guy]

Gangster Report is much better, and broader in scope, but as someone noted on another site, is he the new Capeci? meaning a mouthpiece for the government. His Al Grecco story cites homicides he was never charged. As the person stated, disgruntled FEDs feeding him.

[Ivan]

Man, I cannot get enough of these judge and lawyer obituaries. They are the high point of my week. No really they're the reason why I read this forum: so I can hear Capeci talk about some lawyer who croaked for twenty paragraphs. That's why all of you became mob buffs too, right?

[UTC]

Man, I cannot get enough of these judge and lawyer obituaries. They are the high point of my week. No really they're the reason why I read this forum: so I can hear Capeci talk about some lawyer who croaked for twenty paragraphs. That's why all of you became mob buffs too, right?

That was deadly boring

[Ivan]

Man, I cannot get enough of these judge and lawyer obituaries. They are the high point of my week. No really they're the reason why I read this forum: so I can hear Capeci talk about some lawyer who croaked for twenty paragraphs. That's why all of you became mob buffs too, right?

That was deadly boring

he keeps doing it over and over again someone please make it stop

"the late legal legend delighted prosecution and defense alike with his ready wit and courtroom flair that was only matched by his in-depth knowledge of blah blah blah" shut the FUCK up

[felice]

top story is an agression where a boss has to send two capos to beat up a couple of guys who are there with bikers. State of the mob in NY

[SonnyBlackstein]

top story is an agression where a boss has to send two capos to beat up a couple of guys who are there with bikers. State of the mob in NY

This was the biggest take away for yours. Sending CAPTAINS to dish out a beating. Disgrace.