Gangland:2/2/17

[Dellacroce]

February 2, 2017 This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci

Feds Arrest Girlfriend And Brother Of Suspect In $5 Million Bank Heists

Gang Land Exclusive!Heather KornhaberIn a squeeze play aimed at smashing one of the biggest bank burglary rings in years, the feds have quietly arrested the girlfriend and a brother of one of three suspects charged in last year's $5 million bank heists, Gang Land has learned. The arrests are an apparent bid to pressure one of the defendants into cooperating about the sensational bank jobs and tell authorities where the money went: Sources say more than $3 million of the stolen loot is still missing.

In December, Heather Kornhaber, 38, a girlfriend of Charles (Duke) Kerrigan, was charged with receiving "money, valuables and other items" from the $4.3 million burglary of a Queens bank in May. Before hooking up with Kerrigan, she was the paramour of a major mob-linked cocaine trafficker, and, prosecutors say, was also his nominee owner of a Brooklyn nightclub.

In addition, Kerrigan's younger brother, Christopher, was indicted last week as a member of the team that hit banks in Queens and Brooklyn. Christopher, 39, is specifically accused of taking part in the Queens heist on May 21 and May 22 at the Maspeth Federal Savings bank. Sources say the FBI has surveillance video of him carrying stolen items outside the Queens bank.

Christopher KerriganKornhaber, a single mom, is charged in a separate case with possessing goods allegedly stolen from that job. She is also accused of trying to dispose of the loot between May and July 26, when Duke Kerrigan, 41, and the other mob associates in the case, Michael Mazzara, 44, and Anthony Mascuzzio, 45, were arrested.

Those were apparently busy days for Kornhaber. During that same time frame, she was trying to help a former paramour, longtime Luchese associate Roman (The Jew) Kitroser, with his own troubles with the law. Kitroser, 40, had copped a plea deal to cover more than 75 kilos of drugs, a small arsenal of weaponry and $2 million that the feds had seized from him, and prosecutors had asked the judge to impose the maximum called for by his sentencing guidelines, nearly 34 years.

Kornhaber and her mom showed up to support Kitroser on his sentencing day, June 3. She, her mom, and her eight-year-old son also submitted letters seeking leniency for Kitroser. In her letter, Kornhaber wrote that "Roman does have some redeeming qualities" and that 20 years, the minimum he could receive as a "kingpin" trafficker, was already too long a time for her to be taking their eight year old son to "visit his father behind prison bars."

Roman KitroserAt Kitroser's sentencing, the judge noted that Kornhaber had fronted for Kitroser as the owner of Nouveau, a now shuttered Bay Ridge, Brooklyn nightclub in 2013, a time when Kitroser's drug ring was in high gear and he was dealing "an awful lot of narcotics." The judge gave the Luchese associate 25 years. It wasn't what Kornhaber and Kitroser asked for, but it was still nine years less than what the government wanted.

Prosecutors and Kornhaber's attorney declined to comment about the charges against her, or her involvement with Kitroser.

The revised indictment against the four accused bank burglars charges Christopher Kerrigan and Mascuzzio with "loading items that had been stolen" from the Queens bank "into a vehicle" on May 22, the final day of the weekend-end long theft. According to the charges, it took the burglars that long to cut a hole in the roof of the bank, enter the vault, "and remove money and other valuables from the vault."

Charles KerriganThe indictment also identifies Christopher Kerrigan, who was arrested by FBI agents last Thursday at his Staten Island apartment, as the unnamed co-conspirator in the original arrest complaint who drove to Brooklyn over the Verrazano Narrows to take part in the Maspeth bank job. Kerrigan allegedly first crossed the bridge to Brooklyn on May 21, and then crossed back to Staten Island with the stolen loot on May 22.

As Gang Land noted in August, it was those trips over the bridge that enabled the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office to prosecute the bank break-ins which took place on the turf of the Eastern District of New York, the jurisdiction of the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office. While both boroughs and Staten Island are in the Eastern District, the Manhattan-based Southern District — many were surprised to learn — has jurisdiction over the waters between Staten Island and Brooklyn.

Sources say that members of an FBI-NYPD task force searched Christopher's apartment last week and came up empty. According to the sources, the squad has conducted court-approved searches of several suspected mob safe houses and other locations looking for millions of dollars in still missing cash, jewelry and other valuables.

Judge Laura SwainSources say the task force, which has obviously suspected Chris Kerrigan's involvement in the bank heists since July, and had evidence of his trips back and forth over the Narrows, previously searched his car with no luck.

His attorney, Yan Katsnelson, declined to comment about the case since he had just been retained, but said he "might have something to say about it when my investigation is complete."

Kerrigan pleaded not guilty before Judge Laura Swain and was released on a $150,000 personal recognizance bond under "strict pre-trial supervision/home detention with electronic monitoring," according to the docket sheet in the case.

Meanwhile, Judge Swain recently gave permission to codefendant Mascuzzio, from whom FBI agents seized $1.4 million in cash they found in a duffel bag in his children's bedroom when they arrested him in July, to begin working at a Brooklyn body and fender shop where he was employed before his arrest.

Anthony MascuzzioOver the objections of prosecutors, Swain okayed a request by attorney James Kousouros to permit his client to toil from 9AM to 5PM five days a week, as well as every other Saturday, for the Sudden Impact Auto Body & Towing Company. He will answer phones, pick up customers' cars and other duties, like picking up parts or supplies needed for repairs, according to a letter from the owner of the company that was filed with the court.

Mascuzzio will be permitted to "make work-related phone calls" from his home phone if he needs to, but is required to obtain prior approval from Pretrial Services for any "work-related travel" he may be asked to perform for Sudden Impact, Swain ruled.

At the $9 an hour salary Mascuzzio is earning, it will take him more than 65 years to earn back the $1.4 million the FBI snatched from his children's bedroom. But a man's got to do what he can, and you got to give Mascuzzio credit for not sitting on his hands during his trying times.

Former Mob-Busting Detective Joe Simone Dead At 66

Joseph SimoneFormer NYPD Detective Joseph Simone, a top mob investigator who lost his job and his pension after much-disputed bribery accusations were lodged against him by a mob turncoat, was praised as an honest cop and a great dad last week at a funeral service that included the mournful sounds of Emerald Society bagpipes and a detail of uniformed police officers at a Staten Island church.

Simone, 66, died of a heart attack, his family said.

"My dad was most proud about becoming a detective," his son Louis stated Friday during a eulogy for his father at the Church of St. Clare in Great Kills. "He cherished that gold shield," said Louis, recalling that his dad had arrested scores of defendants during the bloody 1991-93 Colombo family war that claimed the lives of 10 gangsters and two innocent bystanders.

A Brooklyn Federal Court jury took just two hours to acquit Simone on October 20, 1994 of passing information to wiseguys after an eight day trial. Many joined him outside the courthouse when Simone told reporters he "was always a good cop and did my job well." He and his family had been "through hell," he said, but he "was very relieved" and "very happy" about the verdict.

Salvatore MiciottaBut prosecutors Stanley Okula and Karen Popp and FBI agent Chris Favo were very unhappy about the verdict that rejected turncoat Salvatore (Big Sal) Micciotta's testimony that Simone had taken a $200 bribe during a meeting that was not tape recorded. As Gang Land (in the Daily News) reported two weeks later, they pushed the NYPD to hit him with departmental charges, where guilt or innocence is decided by an NYPD trial judge, and then approved or rejected by the Police Commissioner.

At his NYPD trial, judge Rae Koshetz found him guilty, and in 1996, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton fired Simone shortly before he resigned his post after a squabble with then Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

"It was a damn shame," said John Patten, who represented Simone at both trials. "It was a bullshit case. And it wasn't that Joe was not guilty; he was innocent," the lawyer continued. "I loved Joe Simone. He was a good guy, a really decent human being who got screwed royally by the police department."

"I still have a great animosity with Bratton over that," said Patten, who said that while his client may "not have crossed his T's or dotted some I's" during the five years he worked on an elite NYPD-FBI mob task force, "but he was not corrupt. He never took a bribe."

"Bratton sat on making a final decision on that for over a year," said Patten. "Then as he was about to leave and go off into the sunset, he fired him. I couldn't believe it," he said, noting that Bratton could just as easily, and justifiably, suspended him for a month, or two. "But he fires Joe as he goes out the door," said Patten. "And Joe worked 19 years, had a legitimate disability, with a back injury, and four or five kids who were in high school and college age."

Bratton did not respond to a request for comment. Koshetz could not recall the specific charge the NYPD leveled at Simone but recalled that "he was accused of getting, or being too close to the people he was investigating" and that she had "credited the testimony of the federal agents, found him guilty, and recommended termination."

Rae KoshetzNumerous detectives, and a couple of agents, have voiced support for Simone's innocence to Gang Land. But the strong words of support for the beleaguered detective by retired FBI agent Lin DeVecchio, who was acquitted of murder when his sole accuser was shown to have told a different story than what she stated on the witness stand, stand out above all the others.

In his book about his own trial, DeVecchio noted that Simone's jury had "promptly" acquitted him and wrote: "Sadly, Detective Simone was bounced by the NYPD without a pension, and this was done by brass that had no idea what it means to investigate the Mafia."

He wrote that Simone's problem wasn't that he took a bribe, but not reporting an attempt "when someone pushed an envelope toward him that he assumed contained money" and he "walked out." He didn't take the envelope, DeVecchio wrote, but "the brass faulted him for not reporting the possible bribe attempt."

Simone "was dedicated to fighting the Mafia" and knew that "sometimes you have to fight the Mafia with a little honey and not vinegar," DeVecchio wrote in his book, We're Going To Win This Thing: The Shocking Frame-Up of a Mafia Crime Buster.

Lin DeVecchio"If you get the reputation of a straight arrow who reports the slightest infraction, you will never develop the sources of information that fighting the Mafia requires," he wrote. "The need for sources was especially high during the years when Detective Joseph Simone was part of our championship season."

Following the funeral mass, Simone was laid to rest at Resurrection Cemetery in Staten Island. In addition to his son Louis, he is survived by his wife Eileen, a son Joseph Jr, daughters Eileen, Chrissy and Annie, and nine grandchildren.

He will also be missed by four retired law enforcement officers from Staten Island who say he got a raw deal from the feds, and the NYPD — the former Chief Investigator for the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, Joseph Ponzi, and ex-detectives Joseph Grimaldi, Louis Scarcella and Thomas Dades. "He was a good cop, and a great guy," said Dades.

Ask Andy: Bombs Away

Andy PetepieceBombs are favored by terrorists, and are not in mob arsenals these days. But they used to be, as residents of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn learned on Sunday April 13, 1986 when the Luchese and Genovese families blew up John Gotti's first underboss, Frank DeCicco, as he sat in his car. But New York wiseguys aren't the only ones who have used explosive devices to settle scores.

Kansas City factions were involved in a ten-year-long bloody family feud that resulted in several bombing deaths, the last one on January 9, 1984 when mobster Carl Spero, who had been paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair in a shootout six years earlier, was blown to bits. As it turns out, Spero's brother Joe, in a failed effort to retaliate for Carl's wounding and the killings of two other brothers, was the origin of the bomb warfare.

That happened when Joe planted a bomb under the car of underboss Carl DeLuna on May 5, 1979 that was a dud. Joe was convicted of the attempted bombing of DeLuna and was allowed to remain free on bail while his appeal was pending. This was a fatal mistake. On August 20, 1980 when Spero opened a storage locker where he had stashed his explosives, it triggered a huge explosion that blew him apart.

Frank DeCicco Bomb CarDuring that same period, bombs also killed high ranked mobsters of two crime families. On April 23, 1978 Rochester underboss Salvatore (Sammy G) Gingello was blown up when he sat in car while making his rounds. Philadelphia boss Philip (Chicken Man) Testa got his at the front door of his home on March 15, 1981.

In 1977, bombing deaths hit Cleveland. The first was on May 17. John Nardi, a Teamsters Union official, who was part of a rebellion against the leadership of the Cleveland family then led by Jack (Jack White) Licavoli, was the victim of a bomb. Nardi was just about to get into his car when a bomb, placed in the door of a vehicle parked next to Nardi's went off and tore his legs off. He died from his injuries soon after.

Next up was Nardi's ally, Danny Greene. He had dodged a number of attempts to whack him out including a bomb that blew up his house. Finally, the Cleveland family discovered the date and time of a Green appointment and repeated the bomb-in-the-car-door trick that they used to kill Nardi. Greene was blown up on October 6, 1977.

Years earlier, in 1962, the Mafia Commission ordered an end to the use of bombings when one did the deed but also killed the targeted Youngstown Ohio mobster's 11-year-old son and maimed his 12-year-old son. The wiseguy, Charles (Cadillac Charlie) Cavalero, had headed a Cleveland mob faction in Youngstown. He was killed on November 22, 1962, when he got into his car to drive his two young sons to football practice.

Mickey CohenThe Commission ruling wasn't an altruistic one, but was triggered by the enormous heat that dozens of FBI agents had put on local rackets when they began investigating the bombing following immense negative publicity that was created by outraged citizens across the country.

But like most mob rules the anti-bombing order was observed only when convenient.

On February 6, 1950, after numerous mob rubout attempts in the 1940s had failed, the Los Angeles mob decided to blow up Mickey Cohen, an independent gangster who had taken over many of the murdered Bugsy Seigel's rackets and whose lucrative gambling business was coveted by the crime family.

Cohen was in bed when a bomb, placed in the crawl space under his house, went off with a huge bang. But luck was with the gambler that day. It seems that the dynamite was placed directly under a heavy safe. When the explosion went off, the blast was directed downward and outward rather than up. Mickey and his family got a good scare but walked away unscathed. The Los Angeles family never got Cohen but the law did, twice, for tax evasion.

[Hailbritain]

Shocking column , truly shocking . Ain't got a clue why I pay for this shit

[Cheech]

its embarrassing

[dave]

What can he write about when mob rats and murders are at an all time low? The mob just isn't as entertaining as it used to be.

[SonnyBlackstein]

What can he write about ...

Detroit?

[Cheech]

What can he write about when mob rats and murders are at an all time low? The mob just isn't as entertaining as it used to be.

Ugh Nicky Scarfo died?

[Cheech]

Over a mill in a duffel bag in your home. Jeez. Thats the best u can think of?

[TommyGambino]

Yawn. Mascuzzio is 36 as well, not 45.

[Rocco]

Thanks for posting. Pretty shitty gangland again. Capeci needs to move to Montreal or just hang it up at this point.

[Fughedaboutit]

What can he write about ...

Detroit?

Embarrassing.

[SonnyBlackstein]

What can he write about ...

Detroit?

Embarrassing.

Awwwww.


Hug?

[Fughedaboutit]

What can he write about ...

Detroit?

Embarrassing.

Awwwww.


Hug?

Not unless you are a big titted brunette preferably wearing yoga pants

[Cheech]

Jeez Andrew – The guy’s been in the joint for 30 years, and he’s from Philly! J Hope you enjoyed the obits I did four of the last five weeks about some New York guys who were in and around The Life.

Meanwhile, just in case you missed it, I’ve attached a story by George Anastasia about the late Little Nicky.
Jerry Capeci
P.O. Box 863
Long Beach, NY 11561
516-431-1277
www.ganglandnews.com

From:
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2017 7:02 PM
To: support@ganglandnews.com
Subject: what is going on?

scarfo dies and nothing. the news column is going down every week. what gives? you still have some die hards like myself, been reading since the daily news. what gives Jer?

[SonnyBlackstein]

Good stuff Cheech.

Most of us bitch and whinge but never actually do anything about it.

Thanks for actually trying to do something.

[phatmatress777]

Good job cheech!!!!


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