Gangland:4/14/16

[Dellacroce]

Family Seeks Freedom For Gambino Associate Serving 150 Years For Theft Of 15 Cars

Henry Borelli stands convicted of stealing 15 cars three decades ago. Two cohorts found guilty of the same crime got out of prison a dozen years ago. Two pals in the same notorious Gambino crew were convicted of many murders. They're still behind bars, but have a dim light at the end of their tunnel. But Borelli, whose 150-year sentence is a record for Mafia cases, will have to set a U.S. record for longevity to breathe free fresh air again. His daughter and sister are asking, where is the justice?

Two weeks ago, more than 30 years after Borelli, now 67, began his trek through nine states and a dozen federal prisons, his daughter Maida asked Manhattan Federal Court Chief Judge Loretta Preska to release him. "My family needs him home," she said at the end of her one-paragraph letter.

The letter — a week-long project written March 22, notarized the next day, and filed on March 28 — gives no good legal reason why Preska, who is not assigned to the case, should do it. Chances of it succeeding seem worse than the old phrase, slim and none. But Borelli's case illustrates the unequal ways that sentences are meted out by judges — and administered — by the Bureau Of Prisons, which currently holds sway over 196,285 inmates in 135 facilities around the country.

"I speak to him every day," she told Gang Land this week, after we spotted her filing and called. "It's terrible — 150 years for stealing 15 cars. My father has served more time than anyone else in his case. It's not fair to him, or to us. He needs to be released. We need him home," she said.

Maida, a school bus driver, says it's been several years since she's seen her dad, and about 16 years since the whole family was able to visit him, when he was in Kansas, at Leavenworth. He is currently in West Virginia, a tedious eight-hour ride.

The drive-time and cost are not the main reasons. "He tells us not to come," she said. "He has a tough time when we leave, getting back into population. He says it's less stressful if we talk on the phone, but I told him last week that I'm coming to see him pretty soon."

Borelli's sister Diane was a daily spectator at her brother's six month trial. Like her niece, she was leery about speaking to Gang Land since I had co-authored Murder Machine, a book that tells of many killings that Borelli committed over the years as a member of Gambino soldier Roy DeMeo's murderous crew. But she did, once assured that the focus of Gang Land's interest was her brother's trial, conviction and sentence, which was six years before the book I wrote with Gene Mustain was published in 1992.

Jurors told the New York Times they convicted Borelli and two co-defendants of specific auto-crime thefts because bills of lading recovered by the feds had a "coded word" or alias for them. "That's not much evidence," said Diane. "But even if it's true, and Henry did it, 10 years for each bill of lading is absurd; 150 years is just not fair," she added.

Borelli, though, was much more than a car thief. He was a member of a murderous mob crew headed by DeMeo in the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1984, along with Mafia boss Paul (Big Paul) Castellano and 22 others, he was indicted on racketeering charges that included 25 murders, and many other crimes. He was charged with six murders, including the slayings of two rival used-car dealers of the crime family's stolen car operation.

The crew, on orders from Castellano, according to FBI reports, turned on DeMeo and killed him in 1983.

Judge Kevin Duffy split the case up. The first trial involved Borelli, Castellano and eight others who were charged with five murders linked to the stolen car ring along with 23 separate counts of stealing hundreds of gas guzzlers that were shipped to oil rich Kuwait from 1977 to 1982. Castellano beat the rap when he was famously murdered during the trial. But Borelli and codefendant Ronald Ustica were found guilty of two killings and got life in prison for the murders. Not taking any chances, Duffy gave both men 10 years for each auto crime count. Ustica also got five years for his conspiracy conviction.

But there was a crucial difference in how the sentences were meted out: Borelli's were made consecutive to each other, resulting in a prison term of life plus 150 years. Ustica's auto-crime sentences were made concurrent — to be served at the same time as his life sentence. That didn't seem to matter much at the time. But it became a big deal for Ustica a year later when the car thief hit the jackpot after the murder convictions were reversed on appeal. Ustica was released from prison in 2003. He died in 2011.

Co-defendant Edward (Fast Eddie) Rendini also got lucky. Rendini was convicted of 16 auto-crime counts and also of being part of the overall conspiracy. Duffy gave him 10 years for each auto-theft count, and five for conspiracy. The judge made that sentence consecutive as well, for a total of 165 years. Duffy also recommended that Borelli and Fast Eddie, whom prosecutors charged with supplying guns that the DeMeo crew used in numerous killings, never be granted parole. Despite the judge's wishes, Rendini was inexplicably released in 2004.

A BOP spokeswoman declined to explain why Rendini, now 66, served less than 20 years of what was supposed to be a 165-year term. She also was mum as to why Borelli will have to make it to age 123 if he is to make it to his own release date, 2072. Neither Rendini nor his attorney could be reached.

"That's outrageous," said Maida's husband Vincent Rizzo, an air conditioner-heating unit mechanic who spent several hours with his wife on March 28 at the federal courthouse and delivered his wife's letter to Judge Preska's chambers himself after they finally got a clerk to accept it and time stamp it. "I wasn't going to leave without making sure it got to her," he said.

"There should be unity in sentencing, not disparity," said Joel Winograd, an attorney for a Borelli codefendant. "What's fair is fair. It doesn't seem fair for one person to get 150 years and someone else to get 10 or 20 years for the same crime. There's something radically wrong with that. The system of justice calls for equal justice under the law. Especially in sentencing."

At Borelli's trial, the jury acquitted two other indicted members of DeMeo's crew, Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter, of the auto-crimes charges but was unable to reach a verdict on their murder charges.

In 1988, both men went to trial on racketeering charges including 10 murders. But because Borelli was serving a 150-year sentence, prosecutors opted not to try him again. According to testimony, Borelli took part in six slayings, including the 1975 killing of Andrei Katz, whose dismembered remains were found in a dumpster outside a supermarket where his body was cut up, and the 1979 murder of crew member Chris Harvey Rosenberg. Testa and Senter were convicted of 10 murders and sentenced to life plus 20 years by trial judge Vincent Broderick.

But life sentences for crimes committed before 1987, according to BOP guidelines, are 30 years. All specific prison terms "max out" at two thirds for those inmates, and Testa and Senter, who are both 61, are slated to be released in 2032, at age 77, after serving about 43 years.

They still have a long way to go. But their situation is a lot better than Henry Borelli's. He has no shot of getting out. He would have been better off going to trial with Testa and Senter, being found guilty of six murders, and sentenced to life plus 20 years, rather than being convicted of 15 counts of auto-theft.

"That's crazy," said his son-in-law Vincent. "When I met Maida, she was 18, and her father was in prison. He's still there, and everyone else in his case is out. Rendini got out, Ustica got out. He should be out too."

Mob Mouthpiece Heirs In Ugly Legal Spat; Drag Gang Land Into It

A bitter family feud that erupted in Florida last month between the wealthy children and widow of lawyer Nicholas Gravante Sr. moved to Brooklyn last week where the late attorney made millions of dollars handling real estate transactions for wiseguys out of a storefront office in Bensonhurst.

In a federal lawsuit, Gravante's angry 81-year-old widow Elinor alleged that her three children — two of whom are attorneys — had cheated her out of millions of dollars. Ms. Gravante claimed that she is entitled to $600,000 a year in rental income from four properties that were gifts from her and her husband. The lawsuit also alleges that her children tricked her into giving them a luxurious waterfront home in Connecticut by telling her she was signing a "do not resuscitate order for her dying husband."

Mrs. Gravante demands that her lawyer sons Nicholas Jr. and Richard, and daughter Catherine Castellano, live up to rental agreements they signed in 2004 that entitle her to $50,000 monthly income. Her suit also seeks 50% of the $1.8 million New Fairfield, Connecticut home that was owned by her husband until the deed was transferred to her three kids in February of last year. Gravante, who suffered two strokes in late 2014, died in March of last year.

Elinor Gravante filed suit Friday, two weeks after her son Nicholas, a partner in the high-powered Manhattan firm of Boise Schiller & Flexner, LLP, charged his mom with defamation in a Florida lawsuit. The son's suit accuses her of lying about him to Gang Land — and to many of their neighbors in the exclusive Pelican Bay section of Naples Florida where they both have homes. Mrs. Gravante, who also has a home in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, is a Florida resident. Her son, a New York resident, lives in Bay Ridge.

Gravante Jr.'s suit seeks to stop his mom from making any additional "false and defamatory statements" about him. In his complaint, Gravante Jr. alleges that "Mrs. Gravante knowingly made" the following "false and defamatory statements" concerning their Florida meetings in January of last year that Gang Land published on March 10:

"My son Nicholas came to visit me. … He took me to the Capital Grille. We had a nice dinner. We went over to my house. … He said … 'Sign his (Gravante Sr.'s) name and you're the agent.' I said okay and that was that. … I didn't know I was signing away the house in Connecticut. … I didn't see the front sheet of what I was signing. They tricked me into signing it away."

According to the complaint, Mrs. Gravante also defamed her son in remarks to employees, as well as a client of his law firm, and "has also made the same false and defamatory statements to many of Gravante Jr.'s business associates, solely in an effort to further damage his reputation in the business community." The state court suit was filed March 28, in Collier County, Florida.

The complaint listed several relatives, two Florida couples whom Gravante introduced to his mother, a bank employee, as well as "many other Florida individuals" whom Gravante was prepared to call "as witnesses against her" if the case went to trial.

"On several occasions" his mother has boasted to him "that she has successfully tarnished (his) reputation in his Florida community, on one occasion telling him that one of his neighbors said 'she wants to spit in your face' the next time she sees Gravante Jr," according to the complaint.

"Mrs. Gravante has also telephoned Gravante Jr.'s nieces, nephews and other family members, leaving some voicemail messages which repeat the same false and defamatory statements concerning Gravante Jr.," the complaint said.

Problems between Elinor and her three children began last summer when Christine told her mom she would not be able to sleep in the master bedroom during the family July Fourth celebration because there would be many other guests there for the holiday weekend, the complaint said.

"At the time," the complaint said, "Mrs. Gravante began an orchestrated campaign of verbally telling people that her children were stealing her money and had left her destitute with insufficient funds to pay bills even for basic necessities. Those statements were also demonstrably false, as Mrs. Gravante had substantial assets, including in excess of $2.5 million in liquid assets."

The son's defamation suit was the second filed last month against Elinor. She is believed to be on a 41 day cruise and could not be reached. Her attorney did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did Nicholas Gravante, nor his attorney in the Florida lawsuits.

In the first suit, the children asked an Orlando federal judge to declare the signed rental agreements "void and unenforceable" because they were never notarized or "recorded in the property records" in Brooklyn and Manhattan where the four properties, which are worth $15 million, are located. The suit also asks the court to validate the transfer of the Connecticut home to the three children.

In earlier comments, attorneys for both sides told Gang Land they hoped to reach an amicable settlement to the family dispute over the late Gravante's multi-million dollar legacy. During similar disputes in his heyday, the savvy wiseguy lawyer, whose office was on the same block as the home bases for the Gambino and Luchese clans, would have arranged a sitdown to resolve the matter.

Young Gun Grad Gives Up The Game

He no longer needs an investigator to check out the ten other suspects in a 2002 mob murder. And he's not looking anymore for an audio expert to examine a crucial tape linking him to the slaying. He's also stopped cracking jokes about the lousy job his lawyer is doing for him in letters to the judge in his case.

That's because longtime Gambino associate Gennaro (Jerry) Bruno, a 43-year-old graduate of the crime family's Young Guns farm team, now admits he did it. Last week, Bruno pleaded guilty to shooting Martin Bosshart in the back of the head at point-blank range at an isolated section off the Belt Parkway in Queens on January 2, 2002.

In a binding plea agreement worked out by defense attorney Thomas Nooter and Brooklyn federal prosecutor Kristin Mace, Bruno will be sentenced to 21 years in prison for killing Bosshart, a legendary Queens auto thief who made the fatal mistake of trying to move in on a Gambino family drug operation.

Bruno also pleaded guilty to conspiring to prevent a witness from testifying about the Bosshart murder before a federal grand jury that was looking into the slaying.

Bruno, who was behind bars from 2003 until 2013 on a variety of racketeering crimes, was charged with Bosshart's murder in 2014. The feds developed the key evidence against him on November 3, 2009, when FBI snitch Howard Santos tape-recorded Gambino associate Todd LaBarca talking about the slaying.

On the tape, Santos got LaBarca to name Bruno as the gunman, according to excerpts of the conversation about the killing that Judge William Kuntz ruled the government could use against Bruno. At one point, after LaBarca whispered the name "Jerry," Santos said: "The story I heard he (Bosshart) was taking a piss?"

"Yeah," replied LaBarca.
SANTOS: And Jerry just —
LABARCA: Yeah.
SANTOS: Boop. Right behind him?
LABARCA: Bup. Yeah.

A few minutes later, after LaBarca drove away in his car, and Santos got back in his car, he is heard boasting right before he turned off the tape recording device: "Howard Santos. November third, five fifty two PM. Just cracked the murder of Marty Bosshart," according to a complete transcript of the conversation obtained by Gang Land.

[Pogo The Clown]

Thanks for posting this weeks column.


Pogo

[Chucky]

No shot in hell Borelli sees the light of day

[AlexfromSouth]

No shot in hell Borelli sees the light of day

It's interesting how Borelli ,a guy who could never get made in his and was just around DeMeo ,never ever said a thing.He got 150 years ,never talked ,never became a rat.The same goes for most of DeMeo's crew.Vito Arena became a rat and Dom Montiglio.Those guys never really were in the crew...Very tough bunch.
Read somewhere that one or two of those guys was in Vietnam.Does anybody know who does guys were?

[SonnyBlackstein]

Anybody who thinks this guy should be released because of some bullshit technicality and that its not fair he got locked up because he was only convicted on stealing fifteen cars needs their fucking head examined.

He butchered 6 people. Let him rot.

[B.]

Anybody who thinks this guy should be released because of some bullshit technicality and that its not fair he got locked up because he was only convicted on stealing fifteen cars needs their fucking head examined.

He butchered 6 people. Let him rot.

See, I knew you and Wiseguy had some common ground.

[joeycigars]

No shot in hell Borelli sees the light of day

It's interesting how Borelli ,a guy who could never get made in his and was just around DeMeo ,never ever said a thing.He got 150 years ,never talked ,never became a rat.The same goes for most of DeMeo's crew.Vito Arena became a rat and Dom Montiglio.Those guys never really were in the crew...Very tough bunch.
Read somewhere that one or two of those guys was in Vietnam.Does anybody know who does guys were?

Montiglio and Featherstone

[SonnyBlackstein]

Despite appearances (and vastly different beliefs across a lot of boards), for the record, I hold Ivy in genuinely high regard.

[phatmatress777]

No shot in hell Borelli sees the light of day

It's interesting how Borelli ,a guy who could never get made in his and was just around DeMeo ,never ever said a thing.He got 150 years ,never talked ,never became a rat.The same goes for most of DeMeo's crew.Vito Arena became a rat and Dom Montiglio.Those guys never really were in the crew...Very tough bunch.
Read somewhere that one or two of those guys was in Vietnam.Does anybody know who does guys were?

Montiglio and Featherstone

dominicks time in Vietnam is questionable supposedly the guys he served with do not recall him or his stories jerry capeci investigated his service time after murder machine and his stories didn't check out

[brianwellbrock]

A couple things either not stated in the article or wrong.

-Borelli has been in jail since May of '83 when he plead guilty with Vito Arena on auto theft charges. Arena flipped as we know.

-Borelli wasnt convicted, even charged with 10 murders, only two. The Falico (sp) Doud murders. Arena was present for these murders and these were the only murders linked to the gang.

- At the time of the '84 indictment murder in aid of racketeering didnt exist only murder conspiracy.

-Senter and Testa were also only convicted of the Doud ect murders. They alao beat the same auto theft charges Borelli didnt.

- I think Borelli did get a raw deal legally. Though he is where he belongs, the sentence was unfair.