Gangland news 22nd June 2017

[Hailbritain]

By Jerry Capeci

Meldish Should Have Heeded Warnings From His Old Purple Gang Pal

Gang Land Exclusive!Michael MeldishMichael Meldish, the slain former leader of the Purple Gang, survived many gun fights and legal battles during his heyday. But he may have sealed his fate by fooling around with the girlfriend of an imprisoned top banana with the Bonanno crime family, Gang Land has learned.

A year before he was shot to death in the Bronx in 2013, Meldish, a longtime Luchese crime family associate, was the victim of a very public and very dramatic beating. The assault was doled out by a Bonanno soldier and took place in as high-profile a mob location as could be found — outside Rao's restaurant in the middle of the annual Pleasant Avenue Festival that honors Saint Anthony of Padua.

The beating, sources say, came after the head-strong Meldish refused to heed warnings to stop seeing the girlfriend of Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso, a former Purple Gang member who had graduated to the top post in the Bonanno crime family.

Michael MancusoWitnessed by dozens of people at the August 2012 festival, the pummeling got the quick attention of the NYPD's Organized Crime Investigation Division (OCID,) whose detectives warned the Lucheses not to retaliate.

But sources say that the violence-prone Meldish, who led a large, multi-ethnic, loosely connected gang of drug dealers from East Harlem and The Bronx during the 1970s and 80s, insisted on revenge for the humiliating beat down. A few months later, near where the beating took place, sources say he took part in the shooting of a Bonanno soldier. That rash move, sources believe, sparked Meldish's ultimate demise at age 62 at the hands of a two-man hit team, allegedly acting under orders of Luchese family leaders who had had enough of the rogue gangster.

Matthew MadonnaOnce upon a time, Meldish, who was four years Mancuso's senior, had the clout to ignore Mancuso, or even to tell him what to do. But things had changed by 2012. Mancuso had become the boss of the Bonanno family, and even though he has been behind bars for murder conspiracy since 2006, he dispatched a trusted emissary to give Meldish the message to leave his former sweetheart alone, sources say.

When Meldish ignored the warning, Bronx-based wiseguy Ernest Aiello dutifully carried out what Manhattan prosecutors stated in a court filing was a "physical assault" of Meldish "for what Mancuso considered disrespectful acts toward Mancuso on Meldish's part."

"Dozens of people saw the whole thing happen," recalled one source.

Within days of the assault, sources say OCID detectives visited Luchese "street boss" Matthew (Matty) Madonna and warned him against retaliating against the Bonannos. "Stand down, let us deal with it, you don't want to start a war with the Bonannos over this," they told Madonna, said one source familiar with the conversation.

Terrence Caldwell After Shooting Enzo The BakerThe Luchese leadership presumably agreed that it wasn't worth it. Meldish, however, wasn't to be dissuaded. On May 29, 2013, just a block away from where Meldish had been assaulted nine months earlier, sources say he took part in the attempted murder of Bonanno soldier Enzo (The Baker) Stagno, who was shot and wounded as he sat in his car at First Avenue and 111th Street.

Sources say the plan called for Meldish to serve as the getaway driver in the shooting, but he bolted, leaving Terrence Caldwell, the Luchese associate who is charged with Stagno's attempted murder, high and dry. A neighborhood surveillance camera captured Caldwell as he walked away from the scene. Being abandoned at the scene plainly didn't endear Caldwell to his partner in crime: He currently stands accused of firing the fatal bullet into Meldish's head six months later as the gangster sat in a parked car in front of his Bronx home.

In addition to Caldwell and Madonna, longtime family underboss Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea, his son, Steven (Stevie Junior) Crea, and the alleged second member of the Meldish hit team, soldier Christopher Londonio, are charged with killing Meldish as part of a long-running racketeering conspiracy by the Luchese crime family.

As Gang Land has previously reported, both law enforcement and other sources say that in the many months before the volatile gangster was killed, Madonna had badmouthed Meldish for "disrespecting" him by not obeying his orders. The current indictment does not spell out any reason for the murder, but the Meldish slaying is the centerpiece of the prosecution. It is specifically charged as a murder in aid of racketeering, and alleged in four of the nine counts in the indictment.

Christopher LondonioClearly, the federal government's understanding of this tangled case has evolved since the alleged hit team members Caldwell and Londonio were first indicted for the murder by a Bronx grand jury in May of 2015.

At a subsequent court hearing for a Bonanno wiseguy, Pasquale (Patty Boy) Maiorino, assistant U.S. attorney Scott Hartman, who is the lead prosecutor in the current racketeering case, stated that the feds were investigating "the possibility that Mr. Meldish was killed in part in retaliation for the attempted murder of Mr. Stagno."

Stagno, the prosecutor noted, was a close associate of Maiorino who had been arrested on federal weapons charges on a complaint by FBI agent Theodore Otto, who is also the case agent in the racketeering indictment. During a bail hearing for Maiorino, Hartman noted that both Bonanno soldiers had recently been spotted by OCID detectives meeting with top Bonanno mobsters.

Hartman said the men were "being investigated as part of the larger constellation of violent acts" involving members and associates of the Bonanno and Luchese crime families.

Maiorino, 57, has not been charged in the Meldish murder, but he's had enough legal problems to deal with. He received 30 months for the federal weapons charges cited above, and is awaiting sentencing on extortion charges with a recommended prison term between 37 and 46 months.

Meanwhile, the Luchese quintet charged with Meldish's murder — Caldwell, Londonio, Madonna, and the Creas — are all detained without bail awaiting trial that is unlikely to take place before next year. The next order of business is for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has been busy with other things, to decide whether to seek the death penalty for any of the five.

The next scheduled status conference in the 17-defendant case is set for September 20.

Feds Made Vinny Asaro An Offer He Couldn't Refuse

Vincent AsaroVincent Asaro didn't get a plea offer for murder and racketeering charges that stemmed from the storied Lufthansa heist, so he had no choice but to go to trial in 2015. And he was a big winner. But this time, the aging Bonanno capo got an offer he couldn't refuse, and has tentatively agreed to a pretty sweet plea deal in his pending arson case, Gang Land has learned.

All the details haven't been finalized yet, but sources say Asaro is likely to spend another year, or perhaps less, behind bars, according to the global plea deal that the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office has agreed to make with the 82-year-old Queens mobster and his two codefendants.

The others copping out and about to take plea deals, sources say, are John J. Gotti, the grandson of the late Gambino crime family boss, and a pal, Matthew (Fat Matt) Rullan. At Asaro's behest, the two junior wiseguys allegedly torched the car of a motorist who had angered the Bonanno bigshot by cutting in front of him at a stop light in Howard Beach, Queens in 2012.

John J. GottiIn a court filing last week, Rullan's lawyer, Eric Franz, told Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Alynne Ross that "all parties are engaged in active plea negotiations and are optimistic that a resolution may be reached" by this week. Franz, like prosecutors and lawyers for Asaro and Gotti, declined to comment about the status of the negotiations.

There are no guilty pleas scheduled for today, but sources say they could occur as early as tomorrow.

Gotti, 23, and Rullan, 26, were charged with setting fire to the car of the offending driver in front of his Belle Harbor Queens home along with mob associate turned-government witness Gene Borrello on April 4, 2012, four days after the motorist incurred Asaro's wrath while driving in the gangster's neighborhood.

Sources say that there are two key ingredients in the deal — from Asaro's standpoint — that convinced the gangster to take the plea deal rather than hope that a Brooklyn jury would acquit him of all charges for the second time in two years:

Matthew Rullan *The prosecutors agreed to accept a guilty plea to an arson charge that does not carry a mandatory minimum sentence of five years;
*They agreed to recommend that Asaro get credit for his 22 months behind bars before his stunning acquittal in the 1978 $6 million Kennedy Airport robbery and of a related murder charge.

There's a tactical reason behind the government's accommodating attitude: The plea deal enables prosecutors to keep Borrello, who is also their key witness in the pending racketeering case against Asaro's nephew, acting capo Ronald (Ronnie G) Giallanzo and nine others, under wraps until those defendants go to trial, or decide to cop plea deals.

Unlike Asaro, Giallanzo and his three mobster codefendants are all much younger — one is in his 30s and three, including Ronnie G are in their 40s — and have been allegedly more active in Bonanno crime family activity for the last decade.

Gene BorrelloSources say Asaro's tentative sentencing guidelines in the plea deal are in the three year range. Assuming that Judge Ross accepts the plea, and goes along with the recommendations, Asaro would be released from prison sometime next year.

Gotti's tentative deal calls for prosecutors to recommend that Judge Ross make half of whatever prison term she metes out to Gotti run concurrently to the eight years he is now serving for a Queens drug dealing conviction, sources say. His sentencing guidelines, which are advisory, not mandatory, are believed to be in four-to-five year range.

The sources say that Rullan's sentencing guidelines, which are also advisory, are also in the four-to-five year range.

The recommended prison terms for Gotti and Rullan are higher than Asaro's, the sources say, because their plea deals also cover charges that they robbed $5000 from a Maspeth Queens bank two week after the arson caper.

Gentleman Mob Lawyer Mike Rosen Checks Out At 78; RIP

Michael RosenLongtime defense lawyer Michael Rosen, who began his career as an assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn in the late 1960s and then spent the next five decades driving prosecutors crazy as he defended wiseguys and many other clients, died last week after losing a very short bout with cancer. He was 78.

Former Brooklyn U.S Attorney Alan Vinegrad, who told Gang Land he considered Rosen "a mentor," recalled that before Rosen began working the wiseguy side of the street, he was one of "Hoey's Heros," a group of distinguished federal prosecutors who served under then-U.S. Attorney Joseph Hoey.

"Mike played a role in many if not all of the big criminal trials of the 1970s', '80s, and '90s, and remained active in the practice until shortly before his death," said Roland Riopelle, the president of the Council of New York Defense Lawyers.

Rosen, whom Riopelle fondly recalled as a "gracious and fun older colleague" who was often called "Uncle Mike" by young attorneys because he was "always happy to share his expertise and his experience," is best remembered for the many organized crime figures he represented.

Thomas GambinoHis wiseguy clients included Thomas Gambino, the capo son of family patriarch Carlo Gambino; legendary Genovese mobster Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno; Gambino capo Antonino (Nino) Gaggi; Sammy Bull Gravano's mobster brother-in-law, Edward (Cousin Eddie) Garafola;, Barney Belllomo's wiseguy brother-in-law, Gerald Fiorino, and Carmine (Lilo) Galante.

And despite it all, laughed Riopelle, "Mike was a true gentleman lawyer, which was no mean feat since he grew up working as a junior partner with Roy Cohn."

Gang Land's favorite Mike Rosen story is how he snookered a horde of newsmen and women — including yours truly — in the early 90s after a pre-trial hearing for Tommy Gambino, who was then-awaiting trial on racketeering charges. All of a sudden, as reporters and photographers waited in the courthouse lobby to pepper Gambino with questions, there was Rosen walking quickly past us and out the door, arm-in-arm with Gambino, before we knew what happened.

Mike Rosen circa 1979When we caught them halfway down the block, we realized that we'd been had. The Gambino on Mike's arm was his smiling look-alike brother Joseph; Tommy had given us the slip.

"Mike was like a second father to me," said attorney James Froccaro, who was an intern for Rosen in the 1980s and with whom he shared office space the last few years.

Froccaro said that Rosen was doing fine until two weeks ago, when he went to the hospital thinking he had suffered a mild stroke. Doctors, however, learned that he had cancer throughout his body. Rosen underwent emergency surgery and returned home to convalesce. He died of an apparent heart attack on Friday.

Rosen is survived by his daughter Jillian, his son-in-law Neil, and grandchildren, Melissa and Andrew.

[willychichi]

With the death penalty on the table someone is likely to talk in the Lucchese Family if they haven't already imo. Thanks for posting HB good read.

[Chucky]

Excellent column this week; clears some shit up. So it was Meldish who tried to clip Stango because he was beaten by Aiello, and the Lucchese took him out for it essentially. Interesting that Caldwell was involved with both, and that Meldish bailed on him after he shot Stango, must have been satisfying for Caldwell to blow his brains out.

So we got two of the hits cleared up, but now I'm curious which Bonanno member Crea order Cassano to kill? Also, Capeci seems to hint that the Bonannos may have been involved in the Meldish hit. Some good shit should come out during the trial.

[Rocco]

More Importantly who is the rat who wore a wire to gain the evidence for the indictment ?? You would think it would come out now.

[OlBlueEyesClub]

Interesting column this week, thanks for this HB. Thats messed up on Meldish's part for leaving Caldwell like that after a shooting of one of his own rivals. Shows that he didn't think much of Caldwell in the first place, it had to be so satisfying for Caldwell to kill him, as Chucky said before. These guys fool around with each others mistresses all the time, at the same time, Meldish had to know that that sort of thing could get him killed. He had to hear the story about the guy who fooled around with Milwaukee Phil's girl, lol. Probably not, but still, these articles make Meldish seem like an asshole, a very unlikable guy and tough type to deal with.

[TommyGambino]

So he was clipped for leaving the Stagno hit. Interesting, Capeci's sources were convinced it was because he was bad mouthing Madonna previously.

[Chucky]

So he was clipped for leaving the Stagno hit. Interesting, Capeci's sources were convinced it was because he was bad mouthing Madonna previously.

I think he was clipped for going after Stagno, not leaving Caldwell...though, I think that further pissed off Madonna.

[TommyGambino]

So he was clipped for leaving the Stagno hit. Interesting, Capeci's sources were convinced it was because he was bad mouthing Madonna previously.

I think he was clipped for going after Stagno, not leaving Caldwell...though, I think that further pissed off Madonna.

Yeah, I think I got it wrong. I thought this meant he defied orders by fleeing the hit on Stagno, makes more sense that Madonna had warned Meldish not to retaliate to the beating he took. Why did Caldwell get a pass for going after Stagno though?

'As Gang Land has previously reported, both law enforcement and other sources say that in the many months before the volatile gangster was killed, Madonna had badmouthed Meldish for "disrespecting" him by not obeying his orders.'

[thegunners]

Good column. But if it was Aiello who dished out the beating why did Meldish go after Stagno?

[TommyGambino]

Good column. But if it was Aiello who dished out the beating why did Meldish go after Stagno?

Maybe he was with Aiello when he beat him up? Or maybe he just wanted to kill any Bonanno he seen

[Etna]

Maybe he went after Stagno because he isn't made?

[TommyGambino]

Maybe he went after Stagno because he isn't made?

Stagno is made

[Etna]

Thanks for the clarification. I thought he was just an associate. Ernest Aiello is also made? Is he related to Anthony "Ace" Aiello?

[TommyGambino]

Thanks for the clarification. I thought he was just an associate. Ernest Aiello is also made? Is he related to Anthony "Ace" Aiello?

Actually, when the attempted hit happened on Stagno, he was described as an associate in the papers I think, I could be wrong. Then recently Capeci said he was a made guy, maybe your right and he was made after the shooting.

I asked the same question about the Aiello's being related, I don't think they are.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Meldish had a death wish.
Cheating with a bosses girlfriend. Ignoring warnings to stop. Then after getting tuned up as a result he tries to clip a made guy in retribution. Even though LCN tries to avoid clipping people at all costs he forced their hands here. 40yrs ago he would've got clipped at stage one.

Interesting story. LOVE to know what evidence they have against the Creas to charge. Whether it was wiretapping, a bug or someone's flipped.

Speaking off..

C'mon Wonder boy, roll already!