Gangland - 9/13/18

[Chucky]

This Week in Gang Land

By Jerry Capeci

Gene Gotti; Like Brother, Like Brother

A lot has changed since he went to prison 29 years ago. The judge who sentenced him is dead. So is the brother who ran his crime family. And the brother who took over the Gambino family for his brother John is behind bars, and likely to die there as well. But on the eve of his release from prison, 71-year-old Gene Gotti is the same dyed-in-the wool, give-no-quarter, ask-for-none mobster he was when he began his prison term in June of 1989.

Gene Gotti will be entering a completely different world of organized crime than the one he left behind during the height of his brother John's reign as the Dapper Don, the boss of the Gambino crime family. Gene's official get-out-of-jail day is September 15, but since it falls on a Saturday, he will likely be released tomorrow from the federal prison in Pollock, Louisiana.

Informed sources on both sides of the law tell Gang Land that Gotti, who was a family capo when he began his prison stretch, is still a wiseguy in good standing who has earned the right to retain an active role in the revamped Gambino borghata that is currently led by its Sicilian faction.

"He's well-liked, and a well respected guy," is how a knowledgeable underworld source put it, who noted that even though "it's a different world out there today," there is a place in it for Gene Gotti. "That is," the source added, "if he wants it. He's old, but not that old. He could do whatever he wants."

"Gene is a legitimate tough guy and will be a wiseguy 'til the day he dies," said one law enforcement source. "He's a lot smarter and wiser than most, and he's a standup guy. He could have taken a plea deal (to drug dealing charges) and gotten seven or eight years, but the boss said no guilty pleas allowed, so he went to trial, got convicted, and got 50 years. And he maxed out."

Former FBI supervisor Bruce Mouw, whose agents obtained the bugs and wiretaps in 1981 and 1982 that led to the convictions of Gene Gotti and mobster John Carneglia in their third trial, says pretty much the same thing.

"He was a bona-fide wiseguy," Mouw told The Daily News two weeks ago. "He wasn't there because of his brother. He made it on his own," he said, also noting that Gene had rejected a plea deal in the heroin trafficking case because "his brother John said no."

But Gang Land's underworld source asserts that Mouw, current and former law enforcement officials — and Gang Land and other chroniclers of mob doings — have been underselling Gene Gotti's resolve as a Cosa Nostra Man of Honor in years past.

The source, who knew the late Mafia boss and who has known Gene Gotti and other Gotti family members for many years, says Gene feels the same way about not giving in to the feds as the Dapper Don, who told his son John A. (Junior) Gotti in a videotaped prison meeting that he would deny robbing a church even if he were caught with "a steeple sticking out of my ass."

"A lot of people have written over the years that because of the brother, Gene didn't take the plea," said the source. "But maybe that's not true. Maybe his actions speak for themselves. Maybe Gene felt the same way as his brother. And he was gonna fight them to the bitter end. Just like he did" — long after John Gotti died behind bars.

Gene Gotti's scheduled release — coming on his "max-out" day, 29 plus years after he began his prison term — is a telling indicator that, like the late Dapper Don, Gene would also refuse to cop to any crime, no matter how strong the evidence against him.

He proved that a year ago when he turned down a Bureau of Prisons placement into a so-called "halfway house" under a BOP re-entry program that is designed to help inmates "adjust to life in the community and find employment."

Since 2008, when the BOP lengthened the early prison release for assignment to a halfway house from six months to a year, every other reputed organized crime inmate who has come across Gang Land's desk, including Carneglia, who was placed in a halfway house last September, has accepted the designation.

But rather than breathe free air a year before his release date — and spend his days allegedly looking for a job and his nights at a new facility located in the trendy DUMBO (Down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass) section of Brooklyn — Gotti rejected the early release out of hand.

"And the new place is pretty nice," said an attorney who has visited clients at both locations. "It isn't a rat-infested cesspool like the old one" that was in a rundown section of Bedford Stuyvesant, the lawyer said.

Perhaps it was too close to the federal courthouse in downtown Brooklyn where he was found guilty by an 11-person jury on May 23, 1989, and where he showed up six weeks later to begin his prison term wearing a jogging suit, new Reeboks on his feet and a smirk on his face on Thursday June 29, 1989 at 9:52 AM.

"Afraid we weren't going to show up?" Gotti razzed trial lawyers Ron Fischetti and Jerry Shargel, who had vouched for him and Carneglia, when they showed up eight minutes before their 10 AM deadline that had been set by Judge John Bartels, the 92-year-old judge who presided over the controversial five-week long trial.

But Gene Gotti, who was "made" a year before his swashbuckling brother, was dead serious about The Life in the 1980s, just as he's been during his prison bid, according to court records and various well-placed sources.

According to post-trial testimony by FBI agent William Noon, Gene, John Gotti, and drug dealing mobster Angelo Ruggiero "planned, orchestrated and directed" the spectacular 1985 midtown Manhattan slaying of Paul (Big Paul) Castellano, in part, because John Gotti feared Castellano might kill Gene and Angelo for being caught on tape talking about drugs and Mafia Commission rulings in which Big Paul voted to whack wiseguys caught dealing drugs.

And for at least two years beginning in 1999, then acting boss Peter Gotti, and several Gambino soldiers — including two who took part in the Castellano killing — often visited Gene at the McKean federal prison in Pennsylvania and discussed crime family business with him, according to court filings in Peter Gotti's 2002 waterfront racketeering case in Brooklyn.

In many animated and "caustic" conversations, Gene "would yell at Peter Gotti and attempt to learn what was going on within the Gambino family regarding their various enterprises," FBI agent Betsy Morris wrote in a 1999 affidavit.

According to a transcript of a November 18, 1999 conversation, Gene complained to crew member Salvatore (Fat Sally) Scala that he hadn't seen a share from a certain moneymaking scheme "since my brother Johnny went away. Ask my brother Pete when did I get anything?"

When Scala, who was between a rock in the room (Gene) and a hard place back home (Peter), replied that Gene was getting $1000 a month, you can almost hear Gene's voice rising in the bugged visiting room: "Who? Who's getting it? That's what I want to know. My wife ain't getting it."

"You get it every week," says Scala.
"I never got it. Who's taking it now?" Gene presses.
SS: Your brother gets it. Your brother has it.
GG: He's taking the money.
SS: He's not taking that – he gets it.
GG: What's he, holding it for me? Give it to my wife, she'll hold it.

The discussion ends with Gene stating an often-heard fact of mob life: Wiseguys get cheated out of their fair share of the spoils when they're behind bars, to which Scala stated: "That's what I've been trying to tell you for the past couple of years."

Two months later, Gene had a friendly, much more pleasant discussion with Frank Russo Jr., an influential Howard Beach entrepreneur and restaurateur whose glitzy catering hall, Russo's On The Bay, has been used for decades by elected officials and police organizations for fundraisers, awards dinners, retirement parties and other functions.

During a January 13, 2000 talk, Russo, who also owns several eateries, told Gene that "things are going to be straightened out very well" at a restaurant at which Russo "put up forty thousand," and that they'd likely be getting a return of "about twenty thousand a month."

They don't mention the name of the restaurant, or how many people will be sharing in the cash, but Gene is heard telling Russo: "As soon as you see Peter, just tell him. 'Here, here's eight for you, here's four for Genie, four for . . . .'"

Russo has never been accused of any wrongdoing. But at Peter Gotti's 2005 racketeering trial in Manhattan, turncoat capo Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo testified that Russo "would kick back a dollar a head" to the Gambino family for every dinner at weddings at Russo's On The Bay. Peter Gotti, 78, was found guilty in both racketeering trials. His release date is in 2032.

Russo did not return a Gang Land call for comment. Neither did Gotti's attorney. And the BOP, which is required to transport ex-cons to the federal district where they were convicted, was mum about how Gene would be returning home. But it's a safe bet that he turned down whatever mode of transportation the BOP offered him, and that he's made his own arrangements, most likely with the help of his wife, daughters and other family members who will give him the welcome home he's been waiting for.

Feds Raise The Stakes For Ronnie G Pal

Bonanno soldier Michael Padavona hoped the worst he was looking at when he goes before a Brooklyn federal judge for sentencing next week was about six and a half years in prison for racketeering charges.

But that was before the feds dropped the news in a court filing last week about how his response to a school-yard spat his daughter got into with another girl was to torch the girl's parents' car.

And that was before prosecutors let the judge know that he'd threatened to "cripple" a fine young man named John J. Gotti, grandson of the late Dapper Don, because the lad neglected to pay a debt.

And that was before these officers of the court decided the judge ought to know before she handed down her sentence that Padavona has a tattoo "VI VI VI" that translates from the Latin to "666," numbers commonly associated with the devil; and another tattoo that reads "MAYHEM"; and yet another that includes two skulls with the words "Morte Prima Di Disonore," which is Italian for "Death Before Dishonor."

Really. What ever happened to Freedom of Speech?

A seasoned gangster, Padavona, 50, recognizes the game that is afoot here: Prosecutors would like Brooklyn Federal Judge Dora Irizarry to deal with Padavona the same way she did with his mob supervisor, acting capo Ronald (Ronnie G) Giallanzo, and Nicholas (Pudgie) Festa, a fellow mobster she sentenced last week; and that is, hit him with a longer prison term than the one in his negotiated plea agreement.

Giallanzo faced the judge with a maximum recommended prison term of nine years. Irizarry gave him a total of 14 years. Festa, who is 40, was looking at guidelines of 41-to-51 months. Nothing doing. The judge ripped Festa for helping run Ronnie G's rackets while he was behind bars, and for bringing his nephew into the crew when he was only 18, and gave him six years behind bars.

The prosecution's sentencing memo was remarkably skimpy on the details of the uncharged charges involving the Howard Beach school girl and John J. Gotti.

Prosecutors Lindsay Gerdes and Keith Edelman allege that in 2006, when "Padavona's daughter had a dispute with another girl in school," the mobster got permission from Giallanzo to retaliate, and "directed (mob associate Gene Borrello) to burn the car of one of the girls' parents." Borrello's reward for the torch job, according to the feds? "A bottle of Vicodin for his efforts."

They offered about as much about the March of 2014, phone call that allegedly captured Padavona on a court-authorized wiretap telling young Gotti (who's had his own problems with the law) that "the 'kid' better 'pay up' or else Padavona will 'cripple him.'"

Ironically, Borrello, a Howard Beach one-man-crime-wave for years whose cooperation helped the feds sink Giallanzo & Company on racketeering charges, also helped prosecutors nail young Gotti for arson charges in the torching of a car whose owner had cut off Ronnie G's mobster uncle Vincent Asaro in 2013.

As for the tattoos, Gerdes and Edelman wrote that like Giallanzo, Padavona has "tattooed himself with words that reveal his life-long allegiance" to the violent Bonanno crime family.

In the filing, in which they cite five extortions Padavona pleaded guilty to, as well as several other uncharged crimes, the prosecutors wrote that even though his "correct guidelines" have been upped to 78-to-97 months, "in an exercise of discretion, the government only recommends a sentence of 78 months."

The sentences that Irizarry gave Giallanzo and Festa were so much longer than the recommended maximums in their plea agreements, that they can be appealed as excessive, something that their lawyers are expected to do.

Padavona's lawyers, Randy Zelin and Douglas Burns, have yet to respond to the government's sentence memo. Their client's plea agreement gives him the right to appeal any sentence that is above 97 months.

Lawyer: FBI Spreading Dangerous Lies Against Accused Wiseguys

Lawyer Joseph Corozzo has a message for potential witnesses in the racketeering trial of Bonanno soldiers Joseph (Joe Valet) Sabella and John (Porky) Zancocchio: Despite what they may have heard from an FBI agent or two, Sabella and Zancocchio are not cooperating witnesses for the government and they continue to profess their innocence of the charges lodged against them.

Corozzo, who represents Sabella, made that clear yesterday when he told Manhattan Federal Court Magistrate Judge Kevin Fox that FBI agents have been spreading false and potentially dangerous information about several wiseguys who were indicted in January based on the say so of Bonanno turncoat capo Peter (Petey B.S.) Lovaglio.

Corozzo complained about the underhanded actions by unnamed FBI agents at the end of the arraignment of Sabella, Zancocchio, and eight other mobsters, who all pleaded not guilty to a new indictment that adds several additional charges against one of the defendants.

"I want to bring this to the attention of the court, and the government," Corozzo said, "because I do not have any information that the U.S. Attorney's office is involved in this," stating that he only has "information that FBI agents are involved in this."

Corozzo did not mention the identity of any FBI agent, or the names of the defendants who were allegedly smeared by the FBI in court, but sources say that Sabella, 52, and Zancocchio, 60, are the victims.

"What they're doing," said one source, "is going to potential witnesses and telling them, 'You better cooperate because Porky and Joe Valet are working with us and they're going to sink you.'"

The veteran defense lawyer told Judge Fox that "the misinformation" could easily be construed as "obstruction of justice" involving the "intimidation of potential defense witnesses." More onerously, he said, it "could put some defendants" whose names were thrown out by the agents "in danger of retaliation" for actions that were untrue.

"I believe it should be investigated," said Corozzo, who noted that any details that prosecutors uncover about the FBI activity, should be turned over to the defense as so-called Brady Material, which is information that would tend to help the defendants at trial.

The case, in which eight Bonanno wiseguys and a Genovese soldier are charged with a hodgepodge of extortion and racketeering charges from 2012 until this year — including a violent 2015 barroom assault in which Lovaglio blinded a restaurateur in an unprovoked attack — is slated for trial in February.

In a separate racketeering conspiracy count in the same indictment — it's confusing to Gang Land too — Luchese soldier Eugene (Boobsie) Castelle is charged with extortion and illegal gambling during the same time frame, from 2012 until 2018.

To make things even more confusing, Castelle and five Bonanno wiseguys are charged in a separate extortion conspiracy count involving protection payoffs from a contractor from the 1990s until 2018.

The FBI was mum about Corozzo's publicly stated allegations.

[slimshady_007]

Good gangland.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks chucky

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

Thanks chucky

Sonny, u want the pics this week?

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

good ones this week so I'll go ahead and put them up.
recent photos of older players:

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

[/img]

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

[Pogo The Clown]

According to a transcript of a November 18, 1999 conversation, Gene complained to crew member Salvatore (Fat Sally) Scala that he hadn't seen a share from a certain moneymaking scheme "since my brother Johnny went away. Ask my brother Pete when did I get anything?"

When Scala, who was between a rock in the room (Gene) and a hard place back home (Peter), replied that Gene was getting $1000 a month, you can almost hear Gene's voice rising in the bugged visiting room: "Who? Who's getting it? That's what I want to know. My wife ain't getting it."

"You get it every week," says Scala.
"I never got it. Who's taking it now?" Gene presses.
SS: Your brother gets it. Your brother has it.
GG: He's taking the money.
SS: He's not taking that – he gets it.
GG: What's he, holding it for me? Give it to my wife, she'll hold it.

The discussion ends with Gene stating an often-heard fact of mob life: Wiseguys get cheated out of their fair share of the spoils when they're behind bars, to which Scala stated: "That's what I've been trying to tell you for the past couple of years."

A perfect illustration of just how cheap, petty and treacherous the mob really is. His own brother, who was the Boss, was cheating him out of 1,000 bucks a month while he was in prison. It is why some of you guys are dreaming if you think that 20 years later the new bosses, who probably have never even met Gene, will take care of him with a nice big free money package for doing his time.


Pogo

[aleksandrored]

According to a transcript of a November 18, 1999 conversation, Gene complained to crew member Salvatore (Fat Sally) Scala that he hadn't seen a share from a certain moneymaking scheme "since my brother Johnny went away. Ask my brother Pete when did I get anything?"

When Scala, who was between a rock in the room (Gene) and a hard place back home (Peter), replied that Gene was getting $1000 a month, you can almost hear Gene's voice rising in the bugged visiting room: "Who? Who's getting it? That's what I want to know. My wife ain't getting it."

"You get it every week," says Scala.
"I never got it. Who's taking it now?" Gene presses.
SS: Your brother gets it. Your brother has it.
GG: He's taking the money.
SS: He's not taking that – he gets it.
GG: What's he, holding it for me? Give it to my wife, she'll hold it.

The discussion ends with Gene stating an often-heard fact of mob life: Wiseguys get cheated out of their fair share of the spoils when they're behind bars, to which Scala stated: "That's what I've been trying to tell you for the past couple of years."

A perfect illustration of just how cheap, petty and treacherous the mob really is. His own brother, who was the Boss, was cheating him out of 1,000 bucks a month while he was in prison. It is why some of you guys are dreaming if you think that 20 years later the new bosses, who probably have never even met Gene, will take care of him with a nice big free money package for doing his time.


Pogo

I have a similar thought, if at the time he could already be disillusioned with the Mafia, nowadays he should not even want to go back, it is easier for him to act independently even or to leave this life.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks chucky

Sonny, u want the pics this week?

Thanks pal. Appreciated.

[Philly d]

Agreed pogo. Also how stupid is this guy catching a pinch for his daughters petty beef?

[joeycigars]

According to a transcript of a November 18, 1999 conversation, Gene complained to crew member Salvatore (Fat Sally) Scala that he hadn't seen a share from a certain moneymaking scheme "since my brother Johnny went away. Ask my brother Pete when did I get anything?"

When Scala, who was between a rock in the room (Gene) and a hard place back home (Peter), replied that Gene was getting $1000 a month, you can almost hear Gene's voice rising in the bugged visiting room: "Who? Who's getting it? That's what I want to know. My wife ain't getting it."

"You get it every week," says Scala.
"I never got it. Who's taking it now?" Gene presses.
SS: Your brother gets it. Your brother has it.
GG: He's taking the money.
SS: He's not taking that – he gets it.
GG: What's he, holding it for me? Give it to my wife, she'll hold it.

The discussion ends with Gene stating an often-heard fact of mob life: Wiseguys get cheated out of their fair share of the spoils when they're behind bars, to which Scala stated: "That's what I've been trying to tell you for the past couple of years."

A perfect illustration of just how cheap, petty and treacherous the mob really is. His own brother, who was the Boss, was cheating him out of 1,000 bucks a month while he was in prison. It is why some of you guys are dreaming if you think that 20 years later the new bosses, who probably have never even met Gene, will take care of him with a nice big free money package for doing his time.


Pogo

And some posters still think Genes book is still waiting for him ....30 years later

[gohnjotti]

According to a transcript of a November 18, 1999 conversation, Gene complained to crew member Salvatore (Fat Sally) Scala that he hadn't seen a share from a certain moneymaking scheme "since my brother Johnny went away. Ask my brother Pete when did I get anything?"

When Scala, who was between a rock in the room (Gene) and a hard place back home (Peter), replied that Gene was getting $1000 a month, you can almost hear Gene's voice rising in the bugged visiting room: "Who? Who's getting it? That's what I want to know. My wife ain't getting it."

"You get it every week," says Scala.
"I never got it. Who's taking it now?" Gene presses.
SS: Your brother gets it. Your brother has it.
GG: He's taking the money.
SS: He's not taking that – he gets it.
GG: What's he, holding it for me? Give it to my wife, she'll hold it.

The discussion ends with Gene stating an often-heard fact of mob life: Wiseguys get cheated out of their fair share of the spoils when they're behind bars, to which Scala stated: "That's what I've been trying to tell you for the past couple of years."

A perfect illustration of just how cheap, petty and treacherous the mob really is. His own brother, who was the Boss, was cheating him out of 1,000 bucks a month while he was in prison. It is why some of you guys are dreaming if you think that 20 years later the new bosses, who probably have never even met Gene, will take care of him with a nice big free money package for doing his time.


Pogo

And some posters still think Genes book is still waiting for him ....30 years later

16 years later, actually, considering it’s been confirmed that the book was not only still going in 2002, but had DOUBLED in size.

[Nicholas]

Agreed pogo. Also how stupid is this guy catching a pinch for his daughters petty beef?

The best part is the payment in Vicodin

[Philly d]

Agreed pogo. Also how stupid is this guy catching a pinch for his daughters petty beef?

The best part is the payment in Vicodin

Ha! Well worth the value.