Gangland News 5/20/21

[mafiastudent]

'The Button Man' Plotted To Whack Junior Gotti

Gang Land Exclusive!Mob defector John Pennisi, who has testified at three major racketeering trials against wiseguys from two crime families, now says he plotted to whack an old buddy — John A. (Junior) Gotti — for disrespecting him following his April 2013 induction into the Luchese crime family.

Pennisi, who shot and killed a neighborhood rival in 1989 when he was cutting his teeth as a young apprentice gangster under the erstwhile Junior Don, says the planned hit was okayed by Gotti's former Gambino crime family cohorts. "There's nothing to do with us, do what you want," the family's consigliere said, according to Pennisi.

Pennisi states that he planned, along with several Luchese wiseguys, including the current family underboss, to ambush Junior outside a Long Island restaurant.

"We were going to lay in the cut and ambush him," Pennisi told his cohost on his podcast, The MBA And The Button Man, stating "it wasn't going to go well for (Gotti pal) Steve (Dobies), and it wasn't going to go well for John Junior. We would have left the both of them there. Right in the parking lot. And we would have left."

Pennisi explained that he was looking to make Junior pay the price for disrespecting him and an underling he identified only as "A.J," in a dispute he had with Junior's nephew over a business deal. The feud, Pennisi said, began with a $25,000 dispute between a Luchese associate and a Gotti nephew who had starred with his mother Victoria on Growing Up Gotti in 2004 and 2005.

"The first thing we did," before coming up with a detailed plan to assault the former acting mob boss, said Pennisi, was get permission to do so from Lorenzo Mannino, who was then the Gambino family's consigliere, and now its underboss, according to most mob watchers.

He said underboss Patrick (Patty Red) Dellorusso was involved in seeking to find out "where is John Junior with the borghata, with the family." Pennisi noted that while it was common knowledge that Gotti had claimed to have quit the mob during the four racketeering trials that he beat, "no one had ever heard anything, officially" from the Gambinos.

Pennisi, who has also given the feds info about his old cohorts that is expected to lead to a major racketeering indictment, went back and forth about whether or not Mannino's response that they were free to do whatever they wanted was a "surprise." But he told his chuckling cohost Tom LaVecchia that it was "not good for John Junior."

Pennisi said the plot against Junior "never came to fruition," but he mentioned the planned assault against Gotti during another podcast talk with LaVecchia when the MBA half of the show asked The Button Man who would give "the order" to a crime family's "shooters" or "hitmen" to kill someone under mob protocol.

"Any friend in the life is expected to be capable" — that is, ready willing and able to kill a victim who is marked-for-death — Pennisi said. The order can come "from the administration," or a "captain," or even "a friend," he said. In the "episode about John Junior," he reminded his cohost, the order "kinda came from us."

As a government witness, Pennisi has never mentioned the planned assault on Gotti. Among those Pennisi testified against was Luchese underboss Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea, who was convicted of the 2013 gangland-style slaying of former Purple Gang leader Michael Meldish.

Anthony DiPietro, who represents Crea, said it was "outrageous" that the government failed to tell the defense "about Pennisi's plot to assault and murder Gotti Jr., which is a specific crime that it was required to disclose before he took the witness stand."

"Pennisi's decision to assault Gotti on his own," DiPietro said in a statement, "was particularly important evidence in this case because it undercuts the key testimony of the government's so-called Mafia expert that Steve Crea had to sign off on the Meldish murder due to his alleged position in the administration."

"That is just one of many things that Pennisi boasts about in his recent public appearances that the defense was never told about," the lawyer said. "These nondisclosures deprived Crea of a fair trial, and should mandate a new trial for all the defendants."

Pennisi has also been a guest on podcasts of other cooperating witnesses — including ex-Gambino associate Anthino (Hootie) Russo and former Philadelphia wiseguy Robert (Boston Bob) Luisi — and he discussed the Gotti plot with Russo on a Hootie podcast that Gang Land was unable to find this week. (Russo uses the name Anthony now but his given name is Anthino, according to court filings in his 2011 indictment.)

During the now-missing Hootie podcast, Russo, who also hails from the Howard Beach-Ozone Park area of Queens, asked Pennisi: "When you were sitting on John Junior, were you going to clip him?"

When Pennisi stated, "I can't say," Hootie smiled, and replied: "Well, you went there to get him."

Russo also tweaked Pennisi about saying he was also "going to hurt Big Steve," referring to Junior's pal, Steve Dobies. Despite his size, about 6-foot-8, Dobies has never been viewed by anyone as a tough guy. "The guy's a lullaby," said Russo, "he's going to sing you a lullaby."

"I'm going to give an answer from my mentality back then, not now," Pennisi replied. "Collateral damage, he would have been," Pennisi said. The turncoat did not identify A.J., Gotti's nephew, or the time frame of the plot, which had to take place before he flipped in October 2018, in any of the podcasts.

Junior — and anyone who would have been with him — had earned his planned violent reaction, Pennisi told LaVecchia on his own podcast. Gotti had ignored A.J.'s claim for the $25,000 he had stolen, and had also disrespected A.J., Pennisi, and the entire Luchese family by his words.

That put down occurred, Pennisi said, when A.J. went to the gym where Junior Gotti's son John, a highly regarded MMA fighter was training. A.J. "approached John Junior," telling him that his nephew had told him to see Gotti about getting his money back.

"He turns around and tells AJ," said Pennisi: "Let me tell you what I'm gonna do. First, I'm gonna embarrass you in front of your friend. And then I'm gonna embarrass him."

Gotti's reaction was "surprising" since he had "supposedly moved on with his life, and got out of the life, and was going to football games and cooking in restaurants," said Pennisi, in an apparent reference to a December 24, 2016 New York Post story that showed Junior decked out in a red shirt and a Christmas apron cooking a "spicy seafood stew" at Saggio's in East Norwich.

But after initially agreeing to meet A.J.'s "friend," Gotti declined A.J.'s offer to meet them both for lunch to discuss the problem, Pennisi said. He theorized that Junior probably "did his homework" and "found out" that A.J.'s "friend" was real and realized he was in trouble.

Junior's decision to pass, should have ended the planned assault, according to Pennisi. But Gotti pulled a "punk move" against A.J. that surprised and annoyed Pennisi so much that he tried again, and failed again, to make Gotti pay for his disrespect, he said.

That happened, Pennisi said, when A.J., who was "frustrated" about losing his $25,000, buttonholed Junior again at his son's gym. But when A.J. went outside to discuss the matter at Gotti's suggestion, "He pulls a little derringer out on him," said Pennisi, "and threatened him."

Pennisi, who had used the gun he pulled in 1989 to shoot and kill his rival, said Gotti pulling a gun on A.J., was a "punk move," because when it comes to guns, "if you pull it, use it. You don't go pulling guns if you're not going to use it." Gotti pulling a gun also "surprised" him, Pennisi said, because "I always knew him as a person who wouldn't back down from a fight."

"I can't let you get away with that," Pennisi told himself back then, he recalled, and he tried twice — and failed each time — to find Junior in restaurants he used to frequent, he said, because "that was a double disrespect; pulling a gun out on him, is like pulling a gun out on me."

In response to a query from LaVecchia, whose Linked-in photo is nothing like his MBA And The Button Man persona, Pennisi insisted that his plot against Gotti "was not a personal thing. This is disrespecting our borghata. He knows better. He was an acting boss for his father."

Gotti was said by his buddy Steve Dobies to be busy with a new film project and unavailable to comment, but Dobies trashed Pennisi's account in an email.

"I've been around John since the late 80s," he wrote, "hanging out and walking past the Bergin (Hunt and Fish Club.) "This guy Pennisi was never around John nor does anyone even know this guy. As far as his claims about not finding John A. Gotti, John is the biggest creature of habit. He's always out and about and always goes to the same places. So that just goes to show you how much credibility there is to that claim."

Michael Fitzpatrick, the Chief U.S. Probation Officer in Manhattan did not respond to a Gang Land call or email regarding Pennisi's numerous appearances with Russo and Luisi, since the "time served" sentence he received prohibits him from meeting with convicted felons for five years.

Huck Carbonaro Wants A Ghost of a Chance

His codefendants in a failed plot to whack turncoat underboss Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano each died while serving their prison terms. But at least Gambino boss Peter Gotti and soldier Edward Garafola had a chance of surviving their sentences. That's what Thomas (Huck) Carbonaro, 73, is now seeking. A reduction of his 70-year sentence to 25 years, he argues, would give him at least a ghost of a chance of not leaving prison in a body bag.

In motion papers filed under the First Step Act of 2018 to reduce his sentence, Carbonaro's lawyer told Manhattan Federal Judge Colleen McMahon that the ailing wiseguy is sure to be dead and buried when his prison term is slated to end in 2063. That's a good bet since Huck would be 114 years old.

In seeking compassion for Carbonaro, attorney Harlan Protass argues that Huck received a disproportionately longer sentence from the late Judge Richard Conway Casey than Gotti (25 years) or Garafola (30 years) got for their racketeering convictions. Gotti was 81 when he died in February; Garafola died in September at age 82.

"Unlike Mr. Carbonaro, both Mr. Gotti and Mr. Garafola each had at least a chance of surviving their prison sentences (even if they did not)," Protass wrote. "Realistically," he stated, "Carbonaro will not survive his current 70 year sentence."

"That sentence is significantly out-of-line with those of his co-defendants," Protass wrote and should be reduced to "avoid unwarranted sentence disparities among defendants with similar records who have been found guilty of similar conduct." The lawyer noted that in imposing the 70-year-term, Judge Casey negated findings by the jury and ignored a 30-year prison term that was recommended by the probation department.

Protass wrote that "Carbonaro has no disciplinary violations whatsoever over his more than 18 years behind bars." That accomplishment, the lawyer argued, is "an extraordinary achievement" that demonstrates "rehabilitation and respect for the law" by Huck since he was arrested and jailed without bail back in 2003.

Carbonaro also suffers "an array of serious medical conditions" that include heart disease, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. He's also got a bad hip "that may require bilateral hip replacement" and two bum knees that have already been replaced that keep him "in a wheelchair" most of the time, the lawyer wrote.

In addition, Protass wrote, "Carbonaro has had a 'loop recorder' implanted in his chest for purposes of monitoring his heart, has twice suffered from pneumonia, has twice suffered from sepsis," and is also "awaiting retinal surgery."

Together, all of those issues, the attorney wrote, "constitute 'extraordinary and compelling reasons' for a sentence reduction" and make him a worthy candidate for a compassion release under the First Step Act of 2018.

Even so, Protass has not asked McMahon for an immediate compassionate release, but for a reduction of his sentence to 25 years. Although the lawyer certainly gave the judge the option of reducing it even further, to time served if she sees fit, stating she "has broad discretion" to impose any "period of time shorter than 70 years that this Court finds is fair, just, (and) appropriate."

"He is a simple convict doing his time, trying to improve himself and attempting to maintain relationships with his large, loving and ever-growing family, including his three children and six grandchildren" and "his wife of 55 years, Catherine," wrote Protass, noting that the entire Carbonaro family misses him and submitted letters supporting his release from prison.

McMahon ordered the government, which is expected to oppose Huck's motion, to file its response on Monday.

Sentencing Of Lovesick Capo's Pal Put Off For Another Day

Philip LombardoA Brooklyn Federal Judge who was prepared to sentence a reputed mob associate at the low end of his recommended 15-to-21 month prison term — even though he once allegedly lured a cooperating witness to a beating — abruptly adjourned the matter yesterday amid indications that he was now considering a non-custodial sentence.

Stating that he needed more time to consider the somewhat contradictory and confusing facts he had just learned, Judge Brian Cogan put off the sentencing of Philip Lombardo, who had pleaded guilty to extorting a $5000 payment in return for a "lucrative contract" that the government witness received to store cars for a Mercedes Benz dealership in Brooklyn.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Geddes had argued that Lombardo deserved a guidelines sentence because he initially told cooperating witness Neil Devito that "(Colombo capo Joseph) Amato would destroy the cars that he was storing for the dealership" unless he agreed to pay him a $500 per month kickback. Lombardo allegedly told DeVito that he would split the kickback with the Staten Island based capo.

Amato, 63, is the lovesick capo whose decision to place a tracking device on his girlfriend's car in 2015 enabled the feds to charge him, his son, and 18 others with a slew of racketeering charges, including the matter currently perplexing Judge Cogan.

In countering a defense request for a sentence of probation, Geddes had argued in her sentencing memo that Lombardo was a longtime associate of Amato, and had lured DeVito to a location on Hylan Boulevard. There, the prosecutor said, "Amato and others had violently assaulted" DeVito. The beat down, prosecutors allege, was the result of a "verbal dispute" that DeVito had with codefendant Joseph Amato Jr.

As Gang Land reported in 2019, DeVito had told the feds that his "verbal dispute" stemmed from a barroom confrontation in which DeVito had dressed down Amato's son for "abusing" a young woman at a local hotspot in the Spring of 2014. Sources say that during the dispute, DeVito told young Amato that he didn't know or care who his father was, and to stop harassing the woman.

Devito told the feds that not long after that, Amato and several carloads of his cronies jumped him in front of a Staten Island dealership and "punched, kicked and lumped him up." He told the feds that before and after the beating the angry capo taunted him about his words to Amato's son a few months earlier, stating: "You DON'T know who I am?"

While the government had no proof that Lombardo had known in advance that Amato and his cohorts would pummel DeVito back in 2014, Geddes argued that by 2018, when he hatched the extortion plot with the mob capo, he was well aware of Amato's penchant for violence and deserved a sentence within his agreed-upon sentencing guidelines.

But during yesterday's proceeding, Cogan was told by Lombardo that the Mercedes dealership had saved $20,000 by switching the location where it stored its cars and had known about and okayed Lombardo getting what the defendant had termed a "finder's fee." Judge Cogan rescheduled Lombardo's sentencing for next month.

Meanwhile, Amato Sr. is still cooling his heels behind bars awaiting his turn to face the music for his racketeering indictment in July. His sentencing guidelines are 63-to-78 months.

Amato Jr., 27, is slated to be sentenced the same day, July 20. His recommended prison term is 21 to 27 months.

[JohnnyS]

Thanks for posting ms.

[Chopper]

Thanks for posting, good read

[TommyGambino]

He's full of shit

[Hired_Goonz]

Thanks for posting this week's column. Lol at Capeci stirring the pot with the probation officer.

[Southshore88]

Thanks for posting

[Tonyd621]

Capeci really hating on Pennisi then changed Mannino titles based on the podcast. Lol

[Dapper_Don]

^^same thought I had haha

[JohnnyS]

Capeci really hating on Pennisi then changed Mannino titles based on the podcast. Lol

Looks like Capeci checked it with his sources hence why he has him as underboss now.

[Amershire_Ed]

Thanks for posting!

[ShockTroop]

Another rat Podcaster who never met a Gotti trying to cash in on the Gotti name.

[Dave65827]

Honestly these Guys let all these fucking movies go to there heads. Atleast Franzese and Gravano knew the people they talk about. Now we got Penis doing fucking hits for John Gotti Jr and planning to kill him

He’s definitely making this shit up or he was a retard for thinking he could get away for killing Gotti Jr especially in this day in age

[Chucky]

Appreciated Capeci goofing on LaVecchia a bit

[mafiastudent]

Honestly these Guys let all these fucking movies go to there heads. Atleast Franzese and Gravano knew the people they talk about. Now we got Penis doing fucking hits for John Gotti Jr and planning to kill him

He’s definitely making this shit up or he was a retard for thinking he could get away for killing Gotti Jr especially in this day in age

And yet you "want to hear" from Petey BS.

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=7528&p=193519#p193519

[Dave65827]

Hey I want to hear his point of view I’m not going to believe everything he says his nickname is literally “BS”

That Gaspipe book was fucking shit but I liked seeing what he had to say