This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci
Murder Victim Who Wasn't Shows Up At Trial Of Gangster Who Couldn't
Gang Land Exclusive! The murder for hire trial of a Genovese gangster charged with signing up a hit team of Crips gangstas to kill rival Genovese associate Joseph Bonelli back in 2014 lived up to its billing as a truly bizarre case during the testimony last week of key prosecution witness Kelvin Duke, the go-between for the two crime groups in the failed rubout plot.
It turns out that Duke and his Crips gunmen made not one, not two but three unsuccessful attempts to whack Bonelli on three consecutive days in June of 2014. The first futile effort included a six-man hit team who drove from the Bronx to Queens in a three-car caravan. The deadly sextet, however, neglected to bring along a gun, Duke testified.
Duke spelled that out and more on the witness stand last Thursday against Genovese mob associate Salvatore (Fat Sal) Delligatti during a trial day like few Gang Land has ever seen. It began when the intended murder victim — Bonelli — showed up in court as a spectator. His arrival came a few minutes after Duke's brother, a convicted member of the murder plot, was thrown out of court by the judge following an angry, finger-pointing, kiss -blowing, verbal exchange with his brother.
The trial also featured testimony by Bonelli's former lawyer-former girlfriend about the second aborted rubout effort by Duke and a slightly reduced, five-man hit team. This time, they had two cars and a loaded .38 caliber revolver — which Delligatti allegedly provided — and were ready for action on their June 7, 2014 trip to Queens. But they had to put it off, in part, because Bonelli's girlfriend was with him at the time.
Duke also put the lie to the long-stated mob protocol against killing innocent women, including friends and relatives. The cooperating witness testified that Delligatti told him minutes after he called off the June 7 rubout that he should have just killed Bonelli's girlfriend, Virginia Alvarez, along with the intended target.
Among the tapes played in court was a June 7, 2014 talk in which Kelvin told Fat Sal that he had seen "Bonelli and the girl" and "he really pissed me the fuck off" and "he's gonna be a problem." Duke said in the taped talk, and confirmed on the stand, that he was reluctant to whack the woman. Besides, he added, there were too many witnesses at a car show across the street. As a result, he had to postpone the hit. (See the next item below for details of the three days of taped talks that are the centerpiece of the government's case.)
The courtroom fireworks began while Duke was under cross-examination by defense lawyer Jeremy Schneider, who had egged the witness into losing his temper several times the day before. Duke was on the stand for three days.
The brotherly confrontation began shortly after lead prosecutor Samson Enzer spotted Bertram (Birdy) Duke, whom Kelvin had implicated in the murder plot, walk into court and sit down next to Delligatti's mother, where he gave a kiss to her and another woman relative. Enzer asked Manhattan Federal Judge Katherine Forrest for a sidebar conference to discuss Birdy's appearance without informing jurors about it.
But the jury quickly saw for themselves what was going on. Moments later, when Forrest called for a break in the action, the two brothers each stated out loud more than once, "I love you brother," as Kelvin walked off the witness stand and the brothers blew kisses to each other.
Despite the words they used, their tone and looks said otherwise. As soon as Kelvin Duke and the jurors left the courtroom, Judge Forrest stated that the "exchanged words" clearly sounded like "angry language back and forth," and that she planned to exclude Birdy Duke for "inappropriate" conduct.
Forrest told the lawyers that Birdy wasn't a "random run-of-the-mill" spectator "sitting silently in a courtroom. He is a dramatist persona in this proceeding — an individual in this audience who was part of a murder-for-hire conspiracy," said the judge. "That individual has initiated contact with a witness who has got anger issues."
Schneider argued against excluding Birdy, whom co-counsel Peter Quijano had called "the good Duke," in his opening remarks. Schneider argued that "Bad Duke" Kelvin had caused the brouhaha. He did that by "blowing kisses to (Birdy)," the lawyer said. "Bertram Duke's statement of 'I love you, brother' was in response to Kelvin Duke's initiation of blowing kisses as he was walking past counsel table into the cell block."
Forrest noted that the "oral commentary" that she heard "was initiated by Bertram Duke" and opined that he was in court "to unsettle a witness who is known to be violent." She ordered Birdy removed and asked probation officials to determine whether his actions were a VOSR — a violation of his supervised release.
The probation officials decided there was no VOSR, and Birdy, who got a sweet plea deal to a three-year maximum count and served about 15 months behind bars, escaped with a tongue lashing, and didn't return.
Minutes later, after the Judge told jurors "to ignore and disregard" the interaction "between the witness and an audience member," Kelvin Duke took his spot on the witness stand. At that point, Bonelli, whom Duke had correctly described as a "big burly guy," walked in and sat in the back of the courtroom.
Bonelli, 36, is no newcomer to being targeted for murder. Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano told turncoat Mafia boss Joe Massino why in a taped jailhouse talk in January of 2005. "There's a kid named Joe Bonelli around the West Side that was creating fucking havoc," said Basciano. "Shot up the restaurant (of a Bonanno associate.) Went to the owner's house. Shot up the owner's house. We can't have people shooting up people's houses. I ain't fucking tolerating that."
But the stocky six-foot 230 pounder with a rep as a hothead who's quick with his fists, a knife, and a gun, wasn't looking for trouble. "I'm here to offer Virginia moral support," he told Gang Land later, after his former girlfriend and lawyer took the witness stand. "I felt she was dragged into the incident because of me, so I felt compelled to be here."
This time, Schneider asked for a sidebar to discuss the second unexpected spectator. The lawyer told Judge Forrest that he wanted to ask Duke if he could identify Bonelli, whom the witness stated he had eyeballed during the June 7 rubout effort, and who had engaged him in an angry staring match and "pissed" him off, and wanted to get permission to do so.
Co-prosecutor Jordan Estes objected, saying that identifying him in court was like "intimidating him." But Forrest, who had read court papers (which included several Gang Land mentions) that had been filed by both government and defense lawyers that painted Bonelli as a violent thug, quickly rejected that argument.
"I don't think that there is anything to suggest that Mr. Bonelli would be intimidated," said the judge. She noted that he was seated in the back of the courtroom and "seems to be friendly enough with law enforcement" officers who were there. But Forrest decided that an "in-court identification or lack of identification could potentially be misleading to the jury" and denied the defense request.
When Duke's testimony was over, and attorney Alvarez took his spot in the witness stand, Bonelli moved up to the second row, right behind Gang Land, to get a better listen to his one-time sweetheart and show his support.
Alvarez testified that she met Bonelli through mutual friends in 2005, and said that they had a "romantic relationship" from then until 2016, except for the time he was in state prison, from 2008 until 2012.
On June 7, 2014, she recalled, "it was still light out," when they returned from a family party. Bonelli parked his silver Mercedes near their apartment when a well-dressed black man "caught my eye" across the street near a bus stop, Alvarez testified. "I know that sounds strange to say that it caught your eye," she said, but it was "not common" to see a black man at a bus stop not wearing work clothes in Whitestone, a homogeneous white neighborhood, she said.
"He wasn't like right at the bus stop," she testified. "So it wasn't like he was waiting for a bus. As we pulled up, something just inside me said, this is weird. Something is off."
"And I said something like, 'That's strange.' He's like, 'What?' I'm like, 'I don't know. That guy, he's staring at us. That's weird.' He's like, 'You are probably paranoid.' I'm like OK. We get out of the car. When I got out of the car I noticed that he started crossing the street towards us."
"Joe turned around, I believe made eye contact. I know I made eye contact with the guy," she continued. "And, all of a sudden, the guy veered north on that road and went around the corner rather brusquely. I saw that there was a vehicle right there. And he got in and what was even weirder and just stood out to me was, he didn't get into the driver's seat."
Alvarez couldn't identify the black man, or any of the men in the car, but her testimony jibed with Duke's account, who like Alvarez, noted he and the teams of gunmen he used were acutely aware of the fact that they stood out in the all-white neighborhood.
Under gentle questioning by Enzer, the attorney testified that on one occasion, before their June 7, 2014 encounter and after Bonelli got out of prison in 2012, she told police that Bonelli had hit her and that for a time, either six months or a year, she had a restraining order against him.
During his cross-examination, attorney Quijano tried to question Alavarez about any knowledge of organized crime she picked up as a lawyer, as well as things "she did with Bonelli" during their on and off again relationship but Judge Forrest precluded him from going there.
Quijano also pressed her about the order of protection she had obtained against Bonelli four months before the June 7, 2014 incident outside her former boyfriend's home — in an effort to undermine her credibility with the jury.
Using government documents, the lawyer brought out that her direct testimony a few minutes earlier that detectives had interviewed her "several weeks or months" after June 7 did not jibe with a report she signed which stated that it really took place on June 11, only four days later.
That seems like a small point, but Quijano also got Alvarez to concede that in June, Bonelli was still under the order of protection to stay away from her. He implied that she misspoke, not because the timing was foggy in her mind, as she explained, but because she wasn't supposed to be with him, or at his apartment in June of 2014. "Didn't you hide in the cabinet because you knew the police were there" to interview him, he asked.
"No, sir," she said. "I can tell you why I hid in the cabinet."
Quijano confronted her with a report stating that she told federal prosecutors that she was "hiding in a cabinet," when Bonelli was talking to detectives because, "I wasn't supposed to be there because of the order of protection," and asked, "Did you say those words to federal prosecutors? Yes or No?"
No, Alvarez replied, a few times, until Forrest came to her rescue and told the lawyer he was done.
Waiting for Godot — Mafia Style
In their initial taped talk on June 5, 2014, Salvatore (Fat Sal) Delligatti allegedly talked in code to let Kelvin Duke know that he had a gun he could give him. "I got it in my possession," Fat Sal says on the tape. Over the next three days, until Duke and his hit team were arrested on Sunday June 8, the duo had 21 tape-recorded calls. The jury heard them all last week. Here are some of the choicer excerpts:
On Friday June 6, in the first of eight calls he had with Fat Sal that day, Duke said he was "trying to put my people together." Problem was, he had some "trust" issues with the driver and the "other guy" who was going to use "the hammer." Still, he assured Fat Sal that "it's a go," and that he would give him "a holler" when they got "over the (Throgg's Neck) bridge."
By the next call, everything had changed. Duke told Sal that he had "a whole new team and whole new driver and everything." But he was still "gonna need that thing" — a reference to the gun Sal had allegedly promised to provide. Duke added that Sal "might have to throw in some extra change" for the new six-man crew he'd assembled. This was not good news to Sal. "I'm fully extended on this," he said, sounding like an annoyed customer at an auto repair shop. "I quoted a price ($5000) and it was supposed to be done two weeks ago."
Sal Delligatti & Kelvin DukeIn their next five calls, Delligatti is heard giving Duke directions to a Jackson Hole Restaurant in Bayside, Queens where they were to meet. When they met up, however, according to Duke's testimony, Sal opted — for unstated reasons — to call off the hit. In the last call that night, Sal is heard directing Duke to a gas station where the crew could pick up some money in a robbery. This offer wasn't much help since the place was closed.
The next day, June 7, was a Saturday and Delligatti was heard giving Duke directions in their first five calls to the same Bayside eatery where they had met the night before. At around 8:25, Sal is photographed outside the restaurant by Nassau County detectives giving Duke a brown paper bag, which prosecutors claim contained the gun that was recovered the next day, and introduced into evidence at trial last week.
But once more, circumstances frustrated the would-be hit team: "You're not going to believe this dumb shit," Duke is heard saying about 20 minutes later. "They got an old car convention in the parking lot" across the street from Bonelli's home.
"Just wait there," Sal replies. "That's every Saturday. As soon as the sun goes down, it's over." "Okay," says Duke. "Nobody's going nowhere."
After checking with Delligatti on the seventh call to make sure that Bonelli would be driving a Mercedes, Duke gives Sal some bad news in the next call at 9:47 PM.
KD: Yo, we got him but we don't got him. You understand what I'm saying? Everybody's still there on the block. Everybody's watching what's going on. Nobody pulled out. All those cars are there. All those witnesses are there and he got out. You heard me?
SD: Yeah, so wait for him to come back.
KD: Okay we can give it a try. I think he's on point. I'm not sure.
SD: But wait for him to come home.
KD: He's home.
SD: Alright, so wait for him to leave.
KD: So he's gonna leave? You got it.
SD: Yeah, it's only nine thirty.
Two hours later, at 11:22PM, Duke gave Delligatti more bad news: Bonelli was "not coming back out." But he was "a thousand percent" sure he'd get the job done on Sunday.
"And he really pissed me the fuck off," said Duke. "He pissed me and my man off. I know he's gonna be a problem," Duke added, while insisting "it's alright. It's done."
At about 7:30PM on Sunday, June 8, in their third and last phone call, Duke reported that he was parked in front of Bonelli's house. He told Delligatti he did "not see anything" yet, but the duo voiced confidence they would "definitely" get the job done by "nine, nine thirty."
Like the famous Godot in that play, however, the job — thankfully for all concerned — never did get done. And now, four years later, both men were listening to the tale of their botched assassination conspiracy from different sides of a courtroom in Manhattan, with the would-be victim, Joe Bonelli, finally putting in a cameo appearance.
Lufthansa Heist Snitch Gets A Pass On His Life Of Crime
Federal judges tend to like cooperating witnesses, even when trial juries don't. So it was this week as longtime mob associate Gaspare (Gary) Valenti got a pass on a life of crime — including his participation in the storied $6 million Lufthansa Airlines robbery back in 1978.
Brooklyn Federal Judge Alynne Ross praised Valenti as "entirely forthcoming" and "wholly credible" in his testimony in 2015 against Bonanno wiseguy Vincent Asaro. Never mind that the jury gave Asaro a stunning acquittal after hearing all that credible testimony from Gary Valenti.
The rapturous judge went on to declare that the testimony by the balding 71-year-old retired gangster at the racketeering and murder trial of his cousin Vinny was "extraordinary." Valenti, she said, is "the most valuable cooperator I have encountered in my 25 years on the bench."
At his sentencing on Monday, Ross gave Valenti three years probation. And after an unusual discussion in court with prosecutors and probation officials, the judge ordered his probation to be supervised by the two FBI agents who handled him, Adam Mininni and Robert Ypelaar, and who oversaw the Asaro prosecution.
Last year, Ross sentenced Asaro to eight years in prison for torching the car of a motorist back in 2012.
In court papers, and at Valenti's sentencing, prosecutors Lindsay Gerdes and Nicole Argentieri likewise praised the cooperating witness, who wore a wire for more than four years, for leading authorities in 2013 to the remains of Paul Katz, and for giving closure to the Katz family 44 years after he was killed by Asaro and James (Jimmy the Gent) Burke in 1969.
The prosecutors also stated that Valenti was responsible for a wealth of intelligence about the Bonanno family, as well as the convictions of four Asaro cohorts who pleaded guilty to racketeering and extortion charges — Asaro's son Jerome, a capo; soldier John (Bazoo) Ragano; acting capo Jack Bonventre, and former acting boss Thomas (Tommy D) DiFiore.
Technically, Valenti received a more severe sentence for his role in the storied Lufthansa heist than Asaro got when he was acquitted of all charges. But that's only if you forget about the 22 months that Asaro spent behind bars awaiting trial before he walked out of court with a huge grin on his face back in November of 2015.
Gangland - 3/22/18
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Gangland - 3/22/18
Just smile and blow me - Mel Gibson
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Re: Gangland - 3/22/18
Thanks for posting , It’s obvious Capeci had this written before the Phili bust went down
Maybe next week he will have something
Maybe next week he will have something
"if he's such A sports wizard , whys he tending bar ?" Nicky Scarfo
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Re: Gangland - 3/22/18
great article this week. ty for posting. cant believe the guy debella got dragged into this bullshit. wow.
if bonelli is/was "around" the genovese, who was he under? if he was from whitestone and always at odds with other whitestone guys (from the genovese and the bonannos)? former debello associate who went off the reservation? hes always been referred to as a genovese associate, in the mix since he was like 21 or 22. who did he come up under?
also funny that his latest girl was his former lawyer. he was with another lawyer who was connected to the queens DA office when he caught his first case
if bonelli is/was "around" the genovese, who was he under? if he was from whitestone and always at odds with other whitestone guys (from the genovese and the bonannos)? former debello associate who went off the reservation? hes always been referred to as a genovese associate, in the mix since he was like 21 or 22. who did he come up under?
also funny that his latest girl was his former lawyer. he was with another lawyer who was connected to the queens DA office when he caught his first case