Gangland 3/9/2023

[Dr031718]

SCOTUS Appears Ready To Let The Waterfront Watchdog Sleep With The Fishes

On The WaterfrontWith a big assist from the Justice Department, the U.S. Supreme Court has slammed New York State and indicated quite strongly that the International Longshoremen's Association will soon win its long-running effort to end the Waterfront Commission's efforts to fight the control and influence of the ILA and the Mafia over the New Jersey piers after 70 years.

That was the major takeaway from oral arguments heard last week in New York's suit to block New Jersey from leaving the bi-state agency that Congress created a year before Marlon Brando and Lee J. Cobb immortalized the mob's control over the docks in both states in the 1954 movie classic, On The Waterfront.

With two New York born judges – Buffalo's Chief Justice John Roberts and The Bronx's Sonia Sotomayor – leading the way, the nine justices signaled their likely decision in the coming months by wrapping their arms around the claim by the U.S. Solicitor General that New Jersey had a "sovereign right" to withdraw from the waterfront watchdog.

"I think it's a pretty safe bet that the Court is going to affirm New Jersey's decision to leave the Waterfront Commission," said Barry Evenchick, a former Garden State Commissioner who seemed to question arguments by the ILA, Governor Phil Murphy, and virtually every elected official in New Jersey that the Commission is an anachronism that has outlived its usefulness in combatting the mob.

Evenchick served as New Jersey's commissioner in 2009 and in 2010, the year that then-ILA Local president Thomas (The Hook) Leonardis — who would be sentenced to 22 months in prison for extortion in 2015 — testified at the first anti-Commission hearing sponsored by former State Senator Raymond Lesniak that it was a useless body that perpetuated stereotypes of the mob.

Leonardis is one of three former presidents of ILA Local 1235 who have been convicted of labor racketeering charges following investigations by the Waterfront Commission. The others are Albert (The Bull) Cernadas and Vincent(The Vet) Aulisi.

"We can speculate as to what lies behind the decision that New Jersey made several years ago to leave the Waterfront Commission," said Evenchick, a former state prosecutor who is currently a partner at the Hackensack law firm of Pashman Stein Walder Hayden.

"But I can't imagine there was a conclusion that there was no longer criminality and corruption existing needing the Waterfront Commission's expertise," Evenchick told NJ Spotlight News after the hour-long session. Asked by Gang Land if he agreed with the decision to withdraw, Evenchick stated he has "decided to withhold further comment until the decision of the Supreme Court comes down."

"We can do a better job handling any potential corruption that turned up at the port," a gleeful Lesniak countered in his remarks to NJ Spotlight News. "Businesses have changed since On The Waterfront. It's not mobbed up, which was the genesis of the Waterfront Commission."

Ex-New York Commissioner Ronald Goldstock, former Organized Crime Task Force boss, predicted dire results for New Yorkers if the Court's final ruling, which is expected this Spring, disbands the Commission. "If the Supreme Court goes along with New Jersey, the ILA will own the waterfront," he told Gang Land. "And New York's economy will suffer as a result."

He declined to expand on his remarks, or speculate on the final decision by the Supreme Court. But last year, before Governor Hochul opted to file a lawsuit to block New Jersey's withdrawal, Goldstock declared that "the last bastion of the mob in New York is the waterfront" and warned that New Jersey's withdrawal from the Commission would have a "severe economic impact" on the Empire State.

"Unlike New Jersey," Goldstock said, "New York has done an incredible job removing organized crime from the industries they have historically dominated, with the sole exception being the waterfront."

Governor Murphy and ILA president Dennis Daggett "New York recognizes that, is concerned about that, and understands that an increased mob influence on the waterfront would have a substantial negative economic impact on New York," said Goldstock.

Goldstock argued that New York's interest in limiting the mob's influence on the piers remained paramount. "Whether or not the port operations have moved from 80% on the New York Side to the New Jersey side is largely irrelevant," said Goldstock. "New Jersey has lots of land for containers, but the port serves New York far more that it does the Garden State," he said.

Filings by FBI officials and the three metro area U.S. Attorneys (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Newark) in both states that backed New York's claim that the Commission was a needed ally in the fight against the mob were deemed irrelevant and never mentioned in the session. New Jersey's chief litigator, Jeremy Feigenbaum, and the judges focused on the U.S. Solicitor General's assertion that New Jersey could withdraw.

Roberts and Sotomayer were vocal in questioning the opposing claim by New York's deputy attorney general Judith Vale.

Vale argued that the "compact" to combat the mob on the docks of both states was an extension of the Port Authority compact which had linked the states permanently, so each state had to want out in order to disband the Commission. "The states would've said expressly if they were going to allow one state to withdraw at any time and regulate alone in their shared port," she said.

But the chief Supreme seemed to see the issue as largely a numbers game. "It's hard to unscramble the eggs when you're talking about the Port Authority as whole," said Roberts. "Here," the Chief Justice continued, because only 70 or so detectives and other employees who perform background checks and investigate criminal activity would be affected, "it's not that disruptive."

"If the parties don't expect this contract to be indefinite, unilateral withdrawal is presumed," said Sotomayor, after Vale conceded that both states believed that the compact would end at some point, but when both states agreed. "It's a simple rule," Sotomayor continued, "Here, the parties stated it wasn't going to be forever, unlike your Port Authority compact."

"Once you said you didn't think they intended it to be perpetual" Sotomayor told Vale at another point, implying that the Court's decision would be an easy one. "I think that's the end of the game," she said.

But Roberts did note that dissolving the Commission could be somewhat complicated because of the buildings in two states, the bank accounts, and other financial assets that are tied to the 70-year-old organization. He said there is a lot more at stake than just ending a compact between the two states.

"Isn't that a reason that the proper rule may be that you can't just walk away?" he seemed to wonder aloud during a colloquy with Feigenbaum. "You say either party can just walk away, but of course that's not true," he said.

But several justices spent a good 15 or 20 minutes towards the end of the session discussing with Feigenbaun how they could rule in his favor without upsetting legal precedents or undermining things that the Commission had done during its existence, stating several times that they couldn't it this way, or that way, and would have to reconsider their options.

In a last ditch effort to sway the justices to New York's side, Vale noted that as recently as 2006 when the states were bickering they solved their problem jointly because their compact was akin to a federal law that required them to do that, or decide together to end it, or to ask Congress, the entity that created the Commission in 1953, to solve it for them.

In a statement, Governor Murphy praised Feigenbaum for doing an "outstanding" job in Court, adding that he was "optimistic that New Jersey will prevail in this case and will finally be allowed to reclaim authority over its ports with a regulatory structure more suited for the 21st century."

Feds: Skinny Teddy Belongs Right Where He Is Now, Behind Bars

Theodore (Skinny Teddy) Persico's a "high-level" Colombo mobster, a convicted extortionist, drug dealer, and killer who's spent three decades behind bars and as surely as God made little green apples, he's going to violate any restrictions that the Court orders if he's released on bail. That's the position of federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, who want him behind bars as he awaits trial.

He did it in 2004, after serving 15 years for drug dealing. He did it in 2008, after his release from prison for extortion. And he did it again following his release from prison in 2020 for ordering a murder in 1993 while he was on a prison furlough to attend his grandmother's wake. That's "clear evidence," prosecutors say, "that his release here would lead to the same result."

To back up their claim opposing Persico's motion for bail, prosecutors filed a photo of Skinny Teddy meeting family consigliere Ralph (Big Ralph) DeMatteo in a Staten Island eatery on April Fools Day in 2021 a few hours after Persico had met with three Colombo mobsters to allegedly discuss a long-running extortion of a labor union that they are all charged with.

Theodore Persico & Ralph DeMatteo in FBI surveillance shot The photo isn't great, but you can barely make out DeMatteo sitting to the left of the masked server and talking to Persico seated to the right. Prosecutors say they met there shortly after wiseguys Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo, Richard Ferraro and Michael Uvino visited Skinny Teddy at the auto body shop where he "worked" until five months later when he was arrested and jailed on September 14.

The meetings, they say, corroborate their claim that Persico not only violated his supervised release (VOSR) restrictions but was involved in the union shakedown that was the brainchild of Vinny Unions. As a result, prosecutors James McDonald, Devon Lash, Michael Gibaldi and Andrew Reich say that Persico should be detained.

Their letter was filed with Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Hector Gonzalez, who is presiding over Persico's racketeering case, and with Judge Rachel Kovner, who is handling his VOSR stemming from his conviction for a mob rubout in a 2010 case for which he was released from prison in 2020.

In addition to the photo, the prosecutors say they have more than two dozen tapes that back up their claims. A month before Persico dined with DeMatteo and was visited at work by the wiseguy trio, he was recorded 25 separate times in conversations with a number of "known and suspected members of organized crime" — each of whom he was proscribed from contacting — in order to arrange "in-person meetings" with Persico, the prosecutors wrote.

The taped talks included conversations with codefendants in the current case and with Francis (B.F.) Guerra, a codefendant in a 2010 who was accused — but acquitted — of murder. That's the same case in which Persico was convicted of ordering a mob rubout, and for which he faces a VOSR.

In letters to both judges, the prosecutors argue that Persico's "principal salvo" against the weight of the government's evidence against him — that bogus info that he was the Colombo boss that an FBI agent cited in an affidavit to obtain the wiretap of Persico's phone had "colored" their case — was "both misleading and irrelevant."

"The government has not relied on the assertion that Persico is the boss of the family to support its detention arguments," they wrote. "The government has only advanced the unremarkable argument that various captains and soldiers in the family wanted to and did obtain the defendant's approval of their plans concerning the extortion scheme."

"The pattern of consulting Perscio continued" until the end of the government's investigation, the prosecutors wrote, when Uvino told a cooperating witness about a prior discussion he had with Skinny Teddy about the crime family's union extortion scheme.

"I told him [Persico] everything's running smooth. No problem. He says, 'Do whatever youse have to do.' He don't care about nothing," said Uvino. "He just wants to go out, have a good time, the guy spent 30 fucking years in jail already," the mobster continued, adding: "He's just about, 'You know what, do the right thing with me, ah, and I'm good with it.' You know, he's not selfish."

While agreeing that Persico "may have other obligations for family and his business," a reference to his desire to help care for his mother, his fiancé, and her mother at their Brooklyn home, the prosecutors argue that his prior actions establish that "Colombo crime family (matters) will also be prioritized."

Whatever his title, they argue, he "is a committed leader of a dangerous and violent criminal organization" and "his detention and future imprisonment here are about incapacitation and prevention of all-but-certain future criminal activity by the defendant for the benefit of the crime family."

But Persico's lawyer has fired back. In a reply filed yesterday, attorney Joseph Corozzo requested a hearing to contest "erroneous" facts that the government stated in its reply and to play the taped talk between Persico and Guerra "as well as the other recordings" cited by the feds. Those recordings, Corozzo wrote, involve no wrongdoing by his client and show that Persico should not be denied bail.

The lawyer also accused the government of trying to "brush off" his claim that FBI agent Joseph Costello wrongly accused Persico with being the boss of the family "in sworn affidavit after affidavit" beginning in December of 2020. At a hearing, Corozzo wrote, he would establish that the agent "knowingly misrepresented" his client's status as boss of the crime family in April of 2021 as well.

On April 7, in an application for a search warrant of a codefendant's cell phone, "the FBI agent again repeated the erroneous claim that Mr. Persico was the boss of the racketeering enterprise" a day before cooperating witness Andrew Koslosky "began making consensual recordings" with defendants in the case, the lawyer wrote.

Before being wired-up by the FBI on April 8, Koslosky knew his client wasn't the boss, Corozzo wrote, and argued that "the timing of (Koslosky's) cooperation is evidence that the (agent) knowingly misrepresented Mr. Persico's role again on April 7, 2021."

Corozzo also chided the government for failing to respond to Persico's claims "that the MDC has been negligent in addressing his medical needs," another reason why he should be granted bail.

Anything And Everything You May Want To Know About The Gambino Family

For many years, longtime Gambino wiseguy Joseph (Joe N) Gallo, who served as consigliere for mob bosses Paul (Big) Paul Castellano and John Gotti, was in charge of the lucrative gambling and loansharking rackets operated by the little-known and long forgotten faction of the Gambino crime family that was based in Baltimore.

Gallo's frequent trips to Baltimore's Little Italy section to rendezvous with the crime family's underlings who paid their Gambino family tribute to Joe N during the 1960s are mentioned in the latest book by Gang Land's historian emeritus, Andy Petepiece. Befitting the no-frills researcher, whose many Ask Andy columns are a part of this website, the tome has a less than exciting title, The Gambino Family.

In his book, Petepiece notes that the Baltimore crew, which was headed by a second generation mobster named Frank Corbi, raked in $5000 a month from its gambling operations, and that Joe N liked to play the ponies and often met Corbi and others at Pimlico Race Track.

In his fact-driven book, Petepiece details the reign of the crime family's first boss, Salvatore D'Aqulia, from 1910 to 1928 and how it ended on October 10, 1928, when he was hit with nine bullets as he stood at the corner of 13th street and Avenue A on the Lower East Side.

Joseph N. GalloIn a chapter penned by mob researcher Edmond Valin, the book states that long before Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano flipped, the several Gambino members were FBI informers. They included two pretty well known wiseguys, Anthony (Tough Tony) Anastasio, the brother of the slain family boss Albert Anastasia and father-in-law of capo Anthony Scotto, and capo Carmine (The Doctor) Lombardozzi, according to FBI documents that Valin has obtained.

In a CAUTION before the Introduction to his 202 page tome, Petepiece writes: "I am not a great writer, and my editing skills are less than perfect. So if these things bother you, please do not buy this book. But on the other hand, if you are looking for thousands of details on the Gambino family, you are in the right place."

Petepiece, who has now penned books about the Mafia Commission and four of the notorious Five Families tells Gang Land that he expects to publish one about the so-called Ivy League of organized crime, titled, as you might expect, The Genovese Family.

.

[Ivan]

In his fact-driven book, Petepiece details the reign of the crime family's first boss, Salvatore D'Aqulia

[johnny_scootch]

In a CAUTION before the Introduction to his 202 page tome, Petepiece writes: "I am not a great writer, and my editing skills are less than perfect. So if these things bother you, please do not buy this book.

He ain’t joking.

[chin_gigante]

I'll buy it for Ed Vallin's chapter

[Ivan]

In his fact-driven book, Petepiece details the reign of the crime family's first boss, Salvatore D'Aqulia

I mean, calling it "fact-driven" and then stating something that is not... ah fuck it.

[Tonyd621]

In his fact-driven book, Petepiece details the reign of the crime family's first boss, Salvatore D'Aqulia

I mean, calling it "fact-driven" and then stating something that is not... ah fuck it.

Lolol

[Little_Al1991]

“ Filings by FBI officials and the three metro area U.S. Attorneys (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Newark) in both states that backed New York's claim that the Commission was a needed ally in the fight against the mob were deemed irrelevant and never mentioned in the session.”

Wonder if we can read those filings…Well some day soon at least

[Southshore88]

Thanks for sharing

[TommyGambino]

Still no mention of the Cammaranos dodging bullets. Capeci is finished

[mlm0047]

Sounds like there was a surveillance pic in the column, any chance we can see it here?

[OcSleeper]

Thanks for posting.

Is that a typo where it says Persico met with Richard Ferraro, probably meant Richard Ferrara right?

[JohnnyS]

Sounds like there was a surveillance pic in the column, any chance we can see it here?

[Wiseguy]

If New Jersey succeeds, they might as well do away with the Commission altogether since there really isn't any waterfront presence in New York to speak of.

And, as I've said before, I don't know why Goldstock claims the waterfront is the last bastion of mob influence. Even with its decline, it's presence in the construction industry is much more pervasive than a few ILA locals in Jersey.

[faffy444]

CORBI'S gambling operation raking in $5000 a month seems like peanuts to me.or did he mean to state he was kicking up $5000 a month ?

[dave]

CORBI'S gambling operation raking in $5000 a month seems like peanuts to me.or did he mean to state he was kicking up $5000 a month ?

It's the 1960s, so that's probably worth $50,000 a month in today's money.