Gang Lang News 22 Oct 2015

[chin_gigante]

Go Figure: This Turncoat Mobster Has A Blog — And The Mob & The Feds Are Both Furious

For more than two years, Gang Land has learned, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office has been putting together a racketeering case against acting Luchese boss Michael (Big Mike) DeSantis and underboss Patrick (Patty Red) Dellorusso who were publicly identified last year as the crime family's current leaders.

Details are scanty. The case, long in the making, has been slowed by delays in the trial of the former family leaders, and by the COVID-19 pandemic. And as DeSantis and Dellorusso wait for the hammer to drop on them, they're being forced to suffer and endure the views and thoughts of the turncoat wiseguy who's expected to finger them from the witness stand when prosecutors finally use his information to file their long-awaited indictment against them.

That's because renegade mobster John Pennisi, who testified at three trials last year, including the one that ended in life sentences for former acting boss Matthew (Matty) Madonna and underboss Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea, has begun a blog at www.sitdownnews.com about some of his old Luchese crime family "friends" he used to hang around with.

Sources say the feds — including the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI — are furious about the blog by their potential trial witness and have pushed him to take it down. But he has refused, and as of yesterday, it was still alive and well.

Contacted by Gang Land, Pennisi stated he had a "First Amendment right to speak his mind" and his writings on his blog did not violate his cooperation agreement. "I consider writing the blog therapy while I await my sentencing and get on with my life as a law-abiding citizen instead of the mobster I once was," he said.

At the outset, Pennisi announces that he created the site to give "readers education and insight into 'the life' from (his) first hand experience" as a "former member" of the crime family. But he quickly leaves no doubt that his blog is also payback for wrongly labeling him a "rat," marking him for death, and leading him to turn his back on the mob and join Team America.

In bold print, after stating that questions from readers "will be answered in a timely fashion," it states: "The hunters will no longer be glorified when the lion becomes the author — John Pennisi."

In the four "stories" he's posted thus far, he mentions the antics of several Luchese wiseguys whose names have appeared in Gang Land. Some he mocks, some he doesn't. They include John (Johnny Sideburns) Cerella, Carmine Avellino, Joseph (Joe C) Caridi, Louis (Louie Bagels) Daidone, Matty Madonna, and Dellorusso. A pal of John A. (Junior) Gotti in the 1980s, Pennisi also takes some shots at the Gambinos.

In one story, he relates that years after a cousin of Avellino had given Cerella a Rolex watch as a gift after Johnny Sideburns had "stepped in to save the day" for problems the cousin was having "with other street guys," Avellino put in a beef with Madonna that his cousin told him while he "was on his deathbed" that "Sideburns had 'bought' a Rolex from him and never paid him."

Pennisi wrote that since "money talks" in the mob and Avellino had funneled much of it to Madonna over the years, "Matty of course sided with Avellino and called for Sideburns to let him know he owed Carmine $14,000."

Johnny Sideburns was "besides himself" about Madonna's ruling, and told his "good friend," former consigliere Joe C Caridi about it, Pennisi wrote. Caridi gave Avellino $150, told him he would pay Carmine the $14,000 "a little at a time for Sideburns," and never gave him any more cash.

When Cerella told the tawdry Avellino tale to Pennisi, he said: "Did that fucking Carmine really expect me to believe that his cousin, on his deathbed, was talking about this fucking Rolex?"

If Avellino ever wondered, he now knows why he never got another dime from either Cerella or Caridi.

Pennisi wrote that in 2000, a year after Junior Gotti had gone to prison, his mobster brother-in-law, Carmine Agnello, broke the arm of a longtime associate of the erstwhile Junior Don with a baseball bat. The assault took place after Agnello wrongly suspected Junior's pal was fooling around with his wife Victoria on a trip to visit her Mafia boss father at the federal prison in Marion where he was housed.

But Pennisi, who testified at the trial of Madonna-and Stevie Wonder Crea that he got "close" to Dellorusso after he was inducted into the crime family in 2013, seemed to take special pleasure in slamming "newly appointed" underboss Patty Red. He termed him an unworthy replacement for the "old schooled" and "seasoned" Stevie Crea who had held the position from the 1990s until his conviction last year.

He wrote that Dellorusso abused one childhood friend for years as a "punk and a coward" who "don't belong around us," and then proposed him to be "straightened out." Dellorusso, says Pennisi, also proposed an unqualified associate who asked Pennisi "how does one let another wiseguy know that he too is a wiseguy" after Patty Red had told the wannabe wiseguy that he was going to propose him.

"It is truly unbelievable," said Johnny Sideburns when Pennisi related his discussion with the latter Patty Red candidate. "A guy like that got no business getting that thing. What's it come to? They now gotta hand them a fucking handbook after they straighten them out."

Pennisi asserts that both candidates were subsequently inducted into the crime family, which Gang Land was unable to confirm.

Pennisi had little to say from the witness stand about Madonna and Crea at their trial for the 2013 murder of former Purple Gang leader Michael Meldish. But there's no question he'll have plenty to say about DeSantis and Dellorusso if they decide to contest whatever charges the feds get around to filing against the duo.

Law enforcement sources declined to give up any specifics, but they — as well as defense lawyers in the Madonna-Crea case — say that Pennisi has given the feds evidence of criminal activity by Big Mike, Patty Red and other Lucheses whom he had dealings with over the years, and that an indictment is "just a matter of time."

Madonna presided over Pennisi's induction in 2013, and the newly made man was introduced to Crea soon after that, But Pennisi spent little time with Stevie Wonder's Bronx-based crew during the next four years.

But during that same period, Pennisi testified, he was "very friendly and close" to Big Mike and Patty Red. Dellorusso initially told him, he said, about their plot to seize control of the crime family from Crea and Madonna.

At the Madonna-Crea trial, Pennisi testified that in 2017, DeSantis and Dellorusso threatened to kill Crea, his capo son Stevie Junior, and other members of two Bronx crews that were headed by Crea if he and Madonna didn't cede control of the crime family to Big Mike and Patty Red. The takeover plot was sanctioned by Vittorio (Vic) Amuso, the family's jailed for life official boss.

Pennisi testified that he had learned of the plan early on from Dellorusso, a Long Island based capo with whom Pennisi became closely associated following his 2013 induction. Patty Red told him to contact Amuso's son-in-law, Joseph (Little Joe) DiBenedetto, and have him send a "message" to his father-in-law about the takeover plan, Pennisi said.

He never gave the message to Little Joe. But Dellorusso later told him that "Vic approved" the takeover plan and had anointed DeSantis as acting family boss and ordered Crea and Madonna to step aside and return the day to day control of the family to the old Brooklyn crew that Amuso had headed until he was convicted and sentenced to life in 1992, Pennisi testified.

"In the event that they balked or they wanted to hold their positions," Pennisi testified, "we would deal with the guys from the Bronx."

Asked how they would deal with the "guys from the Bronx" if they didn't go along with the takeover, Pennisi said: "We would have killed members of the Bronx crews."

Former Mob Soldier Enzo The Baker Now A Spaghetti Cowboy

Enzo (The Baker) Stagno, the Bonanno soldier who was shot and wounded seven years ago as he sat in his car in East Harlem, has traded in his wiseguy button for a cowboy hat and a saddle. He plays himself in a pilot for a TV series about big city construction workers who drive out to the country on weekends to fulfill their American Dream as Spaghetti Cowboys.

During the 20-minute film, the camera follows Stagno, and fellow cowboys from Brooklyn and Long Island as they till the soil, and shoe horses. It's a fun-filled romp: the "cowboys" do repair work around the "ranch," and chase each other with broomsticks. Then they saddle up and ride away from the horse farm through the woods to enjoy lunch at a country diner.

Stagno has been badly in need of a new lifestyle. He was put on a "shelf" and lost his mobster rights and responsibilities after he admitted to cops that he was a Bonanno family member after he was shot by Luchese gangster Terrence Caldwell back on May 29, 2013. He seems happy in his new role. In an introductory scene he playfully smooches his horse, Blazing Saddles style, before mounting up and riding into the woods.

In the film, Stagno, 54, matter-of-factly mentions he's suffered a few bumps and bruises — along with a busted rib — from his ride-'em cowboy activities that include falling off his horse. But he exhibits no telling injury from being shot in the chest through the driver's side window while he was parked at the corner of First Avenue and 111th Street while minding his own business at about 6 PM.

"I've been coming up here 23 years," says Stagno, with here being in Long Eddy, NY, about three hours north of the city, on the northeastern border of Pennsylvania. The 16-acre spread belongs to Anthony Labriola, of Hicksville, and is located about 20 miles northwest of Max Yasgur's Dairy Farm in Bethel, NY, the home of the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival.

On one ride through the woods, Labriola points to an old boot lying on the ground. "Hey guys, yo, I think I found Jimmy Hoffa," he shouts. "Oh my god," Stagno responds, "We don't know nothing; keep moving, keep moving, it's only a hillbilly" as he leads his fellow Spaghetti Cowboys away from the boot.

"Spaghetti Cowboys, I gave us that name," Stagno smiles into the camera. "I actually started calling it the Spaghetti Ranch because we're all Guineas — not to offend anybody, we don't care — we're all Italian guys, we're all Italian and the name was just right."

"It's regular farm work," he continues. "We come from the city. We're dealing with concrete and asphalt," says Stagno, who, on his non-cowboy days, is CEO of Cassino Concrete and Maintenance, a company he operates out of his Whitestone, Queens home.

"We come up here and we're dealing with hay; fill; cleaning up manure," smiled Stagno. "We do everything a farmer has to do. But we do it all in a weekend. Plus we get in our riding, and enjoy each other's company. It's like a family. That's all it's about — being a family."

Fellow cowboy Sonny Garguilo, of Brooklyn, says "there are many components" to being a Spaghetti Cowboy but the key ingredient "is the Italian Culture. We're Italian Americans. Everything we do is really a product of our upbringing. We all enjoy the same stuff."

And he praised Stagno as "one of the toughest guys I've ever met," and as a better pal than friends he's had for decades. "When I was diagnosed with cancer," Garguilo said, "Enzo called me every day. 'Hey cugine, how you doing. You need anything.' I have friends for 30 years that didn't do that."

"The friendship that we have is unbelievable," Labriola agrees. "To be able to come up here with these guys, and work with these horses, and to go out into the woods the way we do, you couldn't put a price on it."

And on a nice sunny day, after completing their farm work, said Garguilo, "We all sit down, eat some prosciutto, capicola, fresh mozzarella, have a glass of wine, a little vino, and we'll go out and ride."

Labriola's son, Anthony A. Labriola, who directed and edited the pilot, told Gang Land it was completed too late last year to be picked up by the Equus TV channel, which is "like Netflix to horse lovers," according to the Equus Film & Art Fest website.

The younger Labriola said he and the entire cast are "constantly collecting footage for Spaghetti Cowboys" and are looking forward to this year's Equus Film & Art Fest in Lexington Kentucky next month.

Informant: Big John Labelled Me A 'Rat' To Protect His Sleep-Around Brother

John Pennisi, who has testified that he flipped in fear for his life after Luchese capo John (Big John) Castellucci falsely labelled him a "rat," says the capo's claim was really a ruse to save his mobster brother Eugene (Boobsie) Castelle from a possible death sentence for violating mob protocol about sleeping with wives or girlfriends of fellow wiseguys.

In an exclusive interview with Gang Land this week, Pennisi recalled that for many months, when he saw Castellucci in Staten Island, "John would ask me, 'You still with that girl?'" Pennisi would regularly travel from his Levittown, Long Island home to meet with the capo who headed the so-called Brooklyn crew.

"That's not what we're supposed to be discussing — wives and girls," Pennisi said. But other than to say that he was still seeing her, Pennisi said he never made a big deal about the constant queries, assuming that "John had the hots for her, and was going to try and hit on the girl," noting that it wouldn't be a wise move to question his mob superior's motives.

Castellucci kept it up, Pennisi said, "until one day, it was right in front of the Cigar Bar," a Tottenville establishment that served as Big John's headquarters, he lost his cool. Pennisi described it this way: "In front of a bunch of guys that were standing there, I said, 'John, let me explain something to you. I may not be with her, but she's always going to be with me.'"

At the time, Pennisi said, he thought Big John "had his eyes on her, but as it played out, I realized it was about Boobsie," Castellucci's mobster brother, who ended up in an affair with the woman. Castelle's lawyer, Gerald McMahon, brought the matter up at Boobsie's racketeering trial in an effort to paint Pennisi's testimony as the revenge of a spurned lover.

"So what's the best solution for Boobsie to keep from possibly getting killed for violating the rule about fooling around with the wives or girlfriends?" Pennisi asked. He then gave his own answer: "Say I was a rat."

Push came to shove on that issue, Pennisi testified, in February of 2018, at the wake of Bella Truscello, the wife of capo Dominic Truscello.

When he walked into the funeral parlor, he said, "it was almost like I had the plague. Everybody was hello and good-bying me. Nobody wanted to talk with me and people were even avoiding saying hello to me. I knew something was seriously wrong at that wake."

What was most distressing, and caused him to leave the wake, and start carrying his gun everywhere, was the way acting boss Big Mike DeSantis, with whom he was "very, very friendly and close," reacted when he saw Pennisi.

"He said hello, good-bye, and walked right past me. Didn't even blink. Just walked right past me," he testified.

"And we were very, very close at that time," Pennisi testified. "Very friendly. Whenever I was in his company, he wanted me to stay with him, have a drink with him or talk with him."

Eugene Castelle"I knew leaving the wake that something was seriously (wrong,)" he said. "I didn't know what it was, but I knew that there was a serious problem and it involved me. And obviously, it was nothing good."

Not long after that, Pennisi said, he spotted two guys he knew were mobsters laying for him at his house. He decided to move to Savannah Georgia, but he was unable to get a job there. Eight months later, he took a friend's advice , and walked into FBI headquarters in Downtown Manhattan and agreed to cooperate.

"Big John made a mistake" by falsely claiming he was a "rat," Pennisi told Gang Land this week. It turned out that Pennisi's decision to switch sides was a major surprise. The discovery material federal prosecutors turned over to the defendants in the case disclosed that the FBI had quite a few cooperating witnesses on board during its five year-long investigation. But none of them were named John Pennisi.

McMahon, who defended Castelle, who was convicted at trial and sentenced to 77 months, and represented Castellucci at his sentencing — he got 37 months — did not respond to the assertion that Big John labeled Pennisi a snitch to save his philandering brother from being ostracized by the mob — or worse. "Be a man Pennisi," the lawyer said. "Admit you became a 'rat' to save your puny ass hide and not because the defendant drove you to it."

[JohnnyS]

Great GL this week. Thanks for posting.

[Shellackhead]

Thanks dude

[chin_gigante]

Just realised I typed 2015 for some reason in the date. Obviously its this week's Gang Land

[bluehouse]

Is enzo the baker retarted ?????????????????

[slimshady_007]

Great gangland, thanks for posting.

[JohnnyS]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcqXWvopk94

[mafiastudent]

I guess there'll be no more Scarpo interview???? lol

[Amershire_Ed]

Has it been said this plainly before that DeSantis is about to get indicted? Maybe it was in previous Gangland News editions but this is the first time I remember seeing it.

[JohnnyS]

Has it been said this plainly before that DeSantis is about to get indicted? Maybe it was in previous Gangland News editions but this is the first time I remember seeing it.

First time I've seen it.

[slimshady_007]

Didn’t take long for the feds to build a case against DeSantis. Im guessing they’ll indict him for the usual gambling/ loansharking charges. Probably no violence in the case unless Pennisi is telling the feds something we don’t know.

[StandUpGuy]

Funny that Penissi is saying that Patty red is making no quality guys, whoever sponsored and made Penissi should of been shelved the minute he flipped.

[Hired_Goonz]

Thanks for posting. I don't buy what this Penninsi is selling, he comes off as full of crap to me.

[mafiastudent]

Can someone explain to me how the feds are upset at this bozo and his blog but yet turn around and spill the beans to Capeci about an upcoming indictment? Obviously, they had to have known the nutjob was talking/interviewing with Scarpo and didn't put much effort trying to squash that.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Funny that Penissi is saying that Patty red is making no quality guys, whoever sponsored and made Penissi should of been shelved the minute he flipped.

The standard ‘everyone else was a pussy I was the last true gangster’ delusion.