Ed Rendell articles

Greg Bucceroni:

Street Hustler to Crime Victim Advocate

Vickie Fleisher-Gann

Revised May 2013

Table of Contents Introduction……………………………………………………………………..3

Overview………………………………………………………………………….4

Literature Review Ed Rendell and Ed Savitz……………….…………………………5 Ed Rendell, Samuel Savitz and Marjorie Rendell…………..7 Sam Rappaport and Ed Rendell…………………………………15 Gambino Crime Family……………………………………………25 Ralph Cipriano and John Veasey……………………………....55 Louis Freeh’s Connection …………………………..……………80

Conclusions................................................................................…...111

Discussion………………………………………………………………..………116

Bibliography………………………………………………………………..……119 Appendix………………………………………………………………………….131

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Introduction November 5, 2011. Jerry Sandusky, a former PSU assistant football coach, is arrested on child molestation charges stemming from an investigation spearheaded by Governor Tom Corbett and Attorney General, Linda Kelly. As the Sandusky Sex Scandal rocks the Penn State Community and everyone watches their beloved Joe Paterno, head football coach and Graham Spanier, Penn State University President fired from their jobs, in Philadelphia, Greg Bucceroni hears the news and begins to relive the past he has kept buried for 35 years. His decision to tell his story to the world begins and continues to this very day. This paper will show how the dots connect from one to another in defining the Philadelphia Pedophile Ring that has been in existence since the 1970s and 1980s to Louis B. Freeh, independent reviewer and accuser of Penn State University and Joe Paterno. Does the pedophile ring exist today? If so, an investigation needs to happen so these children are protected from the heinous crimes like Jerry Sandusky placed on his victims and these monsters are removed from society. Named by Greg are Ed Savitz and Sam Rappaport and pedophile enabler Ed Rendell along with the members of the Gambino Crime family who were instrumental in supplying the pedophiles with pictures of the victims to Louis B. Freeh who was a mid level FBI agent investigating the Gambino Crime Family and spear headed the Innocent Images National Initiative for child pornography which resided in Baltimore, Maryland during his FBI Directorship. Greg Bucceroni says he doesn’t remember the specific location he was driven to in 1979, when he says he was a troubled teenager who had been in and out of at least one Philadelphia after-school youth service program. Bucceroni says he accompanied Edward Savitz, a well-known Philadelphia businessman, Democratic political booster and advocate for at-risk children, to a fund-raiser “somewhere past Harrisburg.” The event was to raise money for the recently established Second Mile foundation, and Bucceroni says he remembers meeting the man everyone referred to as “The Coach,” Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, who founded Second Mile in 1977. Bucceroni says Savitz and Sandusky knew each other through The Second Mile and political fund-raising events. There are a number of dissertations regarding the entire fiasco from Spanier in Nebraska and his PhD dissertation on wife swapping, Ed Savitz and Greg Bucceroni involvement.

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Overview “I remember thinking that the Second Mile is going to save me. I have a chance to get out of trouble,” Greg Bucceroni, a troubled teenager in 1979, remembers being driven to a fundraiser in central PA, the first time he met Jerry Sandusky.

The event was to raise money for the recently established Second Mile foundation, and Bucceroni says he remembers meeting the man everyone referred to as “The Coach,” Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, who founded Second Mile in 1977. However, Bucceroni was NOT a victim of Jerry Sandusky - but rather a victim of another serial pedophile living in Philadelphia - Edward Savitz The Philadelphia native, who now works as a police officer in the city’s public school system, says he was sexually abused by Edward Savitz starting in 1977. Like Sandusky, Savitz met and groomed many of his alleged victims through his work with at-risk youths. More details below the fold - however, please note that all links to articles on Savitz are HIGHLY triggering and the details are EXTREMELY disturbing. Edward Savitz was an intelligent young man, voted most likely to succeed in his high school and won the only college scholarship [a full ride] to the University of Pennsylvania. A successful business man, he was quoted in Money Magazine on the wisdom of converting corporate retirement plan proceeds into annuities. Actuarial Expertise Many were surprised at how "normal" Savitz was. In business, he was an expert in his field, Vice President of his brother's company; he was highly successful and wellrespected in the community. He owned a house valued at $750 thousand dollars as well as a fancy apartment in the Rittenhouse Square. That was the pin-striped side of Edward I. Savitz, 50, then a principal with Retirement & Employee Benefit Consulting Associates, a division of the now-bankrupt Laventhol & Horwath accounting firm. Friday, the Philadelphia district attorney went public with the seamier side of Savitz, the one they called "Uncle Ed" or "Fast Eddie," the one arrested two days earlier and 4

accused of having sexual relations with hundreds of young men and boys - despite having had AIDS for the last year. Excellent Record Keeper Authorities also have confiscated extensive lists that Savitz made of the names and dates of his young liaisons. One police investigator described him as "a great recordkeeper," words often used - in other contexts - by his high school classmates and business associates, as well. When Savitz was arrested, police said they found 5,000 photographs of young boys in his 23rd floor apartment, including photos of Bucceroni. Bucceroni says he told police in 1980 about his abuse at the hands of Savitz, but that no charges were filed then; Savitz was finally arrested in March 1992, charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sex abuse of children, indecent assault and corrupting the morals of a minor. He died of AIDS in a hospice days before his trial was to begin in April 1993. Like many of us, Bucceroni says he is coming forward now in the hopes that sharing his story will compel others to come forward, hoping that by doing so, he might inspire “other people to have the courage to come forward.” PostScript - I was just watching "The Help" and there is a scene where Skeeter is sitting under a weeping willow on a bench and it was a beautifully peaceful shot. Just the imagery I needed after reading and writing about this. The sheltering coverage of the branches, the strength of the roots, the rejuvenation of the leaves - think I’ll climb up onto a high branch and recuperate for awhile. Greg has been ranting about his experience on Twitter in order to make others aware of the abuse he endured. Those twitter statements are highlighted in yellow throughout this paper and documentation can be found directly below them in support of his statements.

Ed Rendell and Ed Savitz Gregbucceroni 9:11am Ed Savitz and Rendell both went to the University of Penn together and belong to the same Alumni Edward Rendell attended Riverdale Country School before the University of Pennsylvania, where he joined the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity [2] in 1962 and earned a B.A. degree, 1965, and Villanova University School of Law, Juris Doctor, 1968.

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Edward Savitz won a full scholarship to study economics at the University of Pennsylvania, but dropped out after two years. In 1967, also after two years' study, he quit Temple University's graduate school of music. In 1976, Ed Rendell met Edward Savitz, a “youth advocate,” Democratic political booster, and big donor to thenPhiladelphia District Attorney Ed Rendell. In a July 17 article for the New York Daily News, Christian Reid wrote, “Savitz was finally arrested in March 1992, charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sex abuse of children, indecent assault and corrupting the morals of a minor. He died of AIDS in a hospice days before his trial was to begin in April 1993.” David L. Cohen is a businessman, attorney, and political figure in Pennsylvania. He is best known for being a close confidant of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, and he is the executive vice president of Comcast Corporation. In 1977, Cohen graduated from Swarthmore College, where he triple majored in political science, history and economics,[2] and in 1981 he graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School,[3] where reputedly he went by the nickname "Chief Justice Cohen," because of his legal intellect and work ethics.[4] He served as Chief of Staff to Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell from January 1992 to April 1997.[3] He also was a partner in Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll.[3] In July 2002, he became Executive Vice President of Comcast Corporation, dealing with corporate communications, government affairs, public affairs, corporate administration, and serving as senior counselor to the CEO.[3][5][6] The Pennsylvania Report named him to the 2003 "The Pennsylvania Report Power 75" list of influential figures in Pennsylvania politics, noting that "No one–in or out of government–is closer to Ed Rendell than Cohen”. No major policy decision, personnel, political or other decision will be made without his imprimatur or veto."[7] In 2009, the Pennsylvania Report named him to the "The Pennsylvania Report 100" list of

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influential figures in Pennsylvania politics, and called him "one Philadelphian that all statewide Dems should know."[8] He was named to the PoliticsPA "Power 50" list of politically influential individuals in 2002 and 2003.[9][10] In 2010, Politics Magazine named him one of the "Top 10 Democrats" in Pennsylvania.[11]

Ed Rendell, Samuel Savitz and Marjorie Rendell Gregbucceroni 9:10am Also Savitz's brother Samuel and his wife still remain good friends with Rendell and his ex wife the Fed judge Wikipedia states Ed Savitz is a University of Pennsylvania alumnus but it also states he dropped out of U of P but Sam Savitz knew his brother’s friends since they traveled in the same social circles. She’s as vigorous as any of us,” says music director Selma Savitz of Bala Cynwyd, a 72year-old dynamo herself. “We’re not professionals, but we try to deliver at the highest level,” says Savitz. The group has won a Pennsylvania Gold and Silver award as a volunteer group, and also earned commendation from Governor Ed Rendell for its volunteer service. And Savitz, wife of Samuel Savitz, was the 2006 recipient of a Volunteer of the Year Award. Judge Rendell is speaking on this video about energizing youth and there is no real video evidence to Sam Savitz but it shows she’s a down to earth woman who seems really interested in her work and dreams of helping children. From an article Feb 8, 2011, Marjorie and Ed Rendell are divorcing after 40 years of marriage after rumors surfaced that Rendell was named as Governor X, who was with Eliot Spitzer when he was arrested with a hooker. Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Why did Joseph Savitz commit suicide after my 1980 Philly pedophile scandal allegations after I named him as an enabler along with others? In 1981, Ed Savitz’s brother, Joseph, a lawyer who once served as a Deputy, used barbiturates to commit suicide. In 1968, his brother Samuel founded The Savitz Organization, an actuarial consulting firm specializing in retirement plans and other employee benefit programs. Ed later became the vice president. Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni What political pedophile enabler was associated with pedophiles Ed Savitz, Lawrence Scott Ward and Sam Rappaport, wants to be U.S. President.

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As Rendell himself has said over the years, both his style and life have been a little too undisciplined to make him a serious candidate for the Oval Office. Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Why did the Philly Police & District Attorney Ed Rendell cover up SanduskySavitz pedophile ring April 5th 1980? Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni 1980 the Philly Police Dept arrested me after I beat & robbed Ed Savitz, why were the charges dropped? Where are the police reports? Over the years the Philly police have made numerous police reports disappear in protecting their buddies or politics…April 5th 1980, the Philly police department covered up Greg’s assault & robbery arrest in protecting pedophile Ed Savitz …Philadelphia police department has a history of cover ups and police reports that disappear. The link reviews a more recent disappearance of police records which occurred September 2, 2012. Greg placed his 2011 police complaint against Ed Savitz and the pedophile ring on this website since all of his 1980 files conveniently disappeared!!!

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This slide shows Samuel Savitz and Hon Marjorie Rendell were Board of Directors together on Kimmel Center for FY 08

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This slide shows Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Savitz were $10,000+ donors to Kimmel Center…

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Slide on Page 12 shows Midge and Ed Rendell were $1,000+ donors to Kimmel Center.

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Slide on Page 14 shows Midge and Ed Rendell $100,000+ endowment and Mr. and Mrs. Sam Savitz $50,000 + endowment to Kimmel Center.

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Sam Rappaport and Ed Rendell Gregbucceroni 9:07am Connect Sam Rappaport and Ed Rendell. There you get the mobsters and pornography establishments. Sam Rappaport was partners with Savitz There was a definite connection between Sam Rappaport and Ed Rendell and Sam Rappaport and Richie Basciano, Porn King of Times Square. Each summer, Sam and Rita threw a lavish party with a guest list of friends and business associates that included Ed Rendell, Jerry Blavat and Julius Erving. Everyone wore "I Know Rappaport" t-shirts (except for Sam and Wil, whose shirts read "I Am Rappaport"). At a Christmas party when Wil was about 12, he and his friends gave a break-dance and roller-skating performance, backed by a live band. Back when his friends all dreamed of being rock stars, Wil Rappaport told everyone his goal was to work for his father. He and his sister Tracy— both adopted by Sam and his wife Rita— grew up in a 21-room Haverford mansion with a chauffeured limo parked out front, largely sheltered from their father's public image. It was in middle school at Welsh Valley that a classmate first taunted Wil with the taint of his father's reputation. "A kid said to me something like, 'Wow, your Dad's the porn king of Philadelphia,'" Wil remembers. When he asked his father about it later, "He told me, 'It's not me, son. It's the tenants we have.' I never was ashamed of him. I respected his business acumen." He has managed to keep a sometimes tenuous grasp on his father's business through nine years of family squabbles, nearly constant legal turmoil, and a final bitter falling-out with his late father's closest friend and estate executor, a man he'd known all his life as Uncle Richie but who is better known as Richard Basciano, the "Porn King of Times Square." A lot of people never fully emerge from the shadow of one overbearing father. For Wil Rappaport to get where he is today, he has had to survive two of them. After Sam's death in 1994, any hope Wil had for a career in real estate lay in the hands of Richard Basciano, his Uncle Richie, the executor of Sam's estate. If he wanted to, Basciano could have farmed out the running of the Rappaport portfolio to any property manager in the city. Instead, he installed Wil as president of his father's firm, renamed RRR Management for the three remaining Rappaports, and upped Wil's salary from $17,000 to $175,000. Under Basciano, Wil would get the real apprenticeship his father had promised him. As Rita Rappaport would say to a judge years later, "I think my son felt at times Basciano was more of a father to him than his father." Sam Rappaport and Richard Basciano are said to have met when Basciano rented some Rappaport properties in Philadelphia to extend his porn empire. Like Sam, he was a self-made real estate man, and a boxer to boot. And like Sam, he had a mail-fraud conviction in his past. The two became such close friends that Sam routinely referred to Basciano as another brother. He was Uncle Richie to Wil since before Wil could walk. For years, Richard Basciano was deeply involved in the Rappaport family's life. He used to hector Sam about the toll his philandering was taking on Rita. When Sam refused to 15

attend daughter Tracy's wedding, Uncle Richie escorted the bride down the aisle. He was godfather to Tracy's children. People who have done business, or tried to do business, with Richard Basciano alternately describe him as "a very bad guy" or "charming, unforgettable but exasperating." At age 78, he still works out and is reputed to have a punching bag in his office near Manhattan's Port Authority bus terminal. In his hometown of New York, Basciano is known as the Porn King of Times Square, and for his infamous ties to a member of the Gambino crime family, John Gotti's branch of La Cosa Nostra. In the 1980s, Basciano got into porn production and distribution through as many as 16 different partnerships with a Gambino family soldier who was later killed on Gotti's orders. Under the terms of Sam Rappaport's will, nearly everything was to be put into trusts that would be managed as his executors saw fit. Neither Basciano, who has never been quoted in the press, nor Wil will discuss what happened between them over the next several years, but the court record is clear enough: Uncle Richie made Wil Rappaport, and then he tried to break him. Rita and her divorce attorneys had big problems with the will, and though they found Basciano trustworthy, they had huge problems with his co-executor, Morris Hershman. Rita's lawyers filed a complaint alleging that Hershman had been helping Sam hide marital assets in various business partnerships with a Bucks County attorney named Marina Kats. In a deposition, Wil later said of Kats: "She was more my dad's girlfriend. I don't know if you would consider her a business colleague." Over the next few years, Uncle Richie made everything all right. He paid Hershman to go away. He settled with Marina Kats. He even denied the Jewish Federation more than $300,000 it claimed Sam had verbally promised to it— a claim the federation couldn't prove. Most importantly, he negotiated a truce among the three surviving Rappaports, so that Rita got more money and Tracy got a share of the estate. Basciano also delivered Sam's real estate business from the legal and financial crises it faced at Sam's death. He renegotiated the bank loans and sold off the most notorious Rappaport eyesores, including the Victory Building; the corner of 7th and Walnut; the row of shops on the 1600 block of Sansom Street; and many of the 13th Street properties that Tony Goldman has since used to revive that street. Basciano personally guaranteed $7.4 million in loans to preserve the estate's liquidity. In 1997, (Rendell was in office at this time) 96th Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania In office January 6, 1992 – January 3, 2000

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a sign from a Rappaport building tumbled down on Broad Street in a hail of bricks and mortar, killing a city judge as he was passing beneath. The city responded by mounting the largest code-violation case ever on any single property owner, citing 54 Rappaport properties with violations spanning years and years. Basciano steered the estate through the ensuing legal morass. One day, Wil sat down and penned Basciano a note, handwritten in a child-like script, bursting with gratitude, tinged with a desperate fear of abandonment. "I'm sitting at the office and have just hung the phone up with you and I am thinking of how lucky I am to have a man as genuine as you on my side. I wonder why God has given me such luck. In the past two years, I have probably spoken to you more than I spoke to my father his entire life ... but we both know he couldn't help himself. There is no way I could ever and I say ever repay or do what you have done for me...." That intensely private note is now part of the public court record, because Wil and Rita soon became convinced that Basciano was using the estate to cut sweetheart business deals for himself and his family. According to one of Wil's depositions, Basciano grew hostile whenever Wil started asking questions about a garage property the Rappaport estate had owned in Florida. A partnership that included Basciano had bought the property from the Rappaport estate without getting a third-party appraisal to ascertain its true worth. In essence, Basciano had "negotiated" with himself, on behalf of the estate, to arrive at a price. Not long after, Wil spied an item in a real estate trade journal touting a huge new entertainment development for Hollywood Beach, which promised to heat up all the nearby real estate values. Wil suspected Basciano had known about this project back when he persuaded Wil to sell the estate's nearby garage property, but when he asked Basciano about it, the old man was abrupt and dismissive. Soon enough, the issue blossomed into full-scale legal warfare, with the Rappaports suing to have Basciano removed as executor. When Basciano took the stand in his own defense at a hearing last year, he wrung his hands in grief and self-pity. "How dare they call me a thief," he moaned. " ... [T]hat's what's hurting me.... I was stupid, because I loved this family and never thought they would look to crucify me like they're trying to do now." Last August, a Bucks County judge determined that Basciano had indeed used the estate "as if it were his own personal property," and replaced Basciano with Wil and Mellon Bank as co-executors. The judge found that on several occasions, Basciano had engineered sales of estate assets to partnerships he controlled, or to his own family members. Among the judge's many "findings of fact" was this: "Wil Rappaport looked to Richard Basciano as a father figure whom he loved and trusted and feared." It didn't end there, and it still hasn't ended. The ensuing litigation revealed Basciano's not-so-

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charming side. He sued Wil and another RRR employee under the civil racketeering laws, claiming that Wil and the RRR controller were embezzling funds and committing tax fraud. (After Basciano was removed as executor, it was up to Mellon's lawyers to determine whether to pursue the case against Wil. They've dropped it.) All along the way, depositions and hearings put Wil in the humiliating position of admitting that he signed off on all of Basciano's self-dealing maneuvers that he trusted Basciano implicitly, and yes, though he was titular president, he didn't affect the company's decision-making in any meaningful way. In legal filings, hearings and personal letters, Basciano tried to make Wil out as a dupe, someone whose father had no use for him, who couldn't even make ends meet on a new $400,000 salary. "It was a challenge to me" is how Basciano described his decision to give Wil a job. "I wanted to take this young man that I loved as a son and actually prove his father wrong." Uncle Richie, a man Wil had grown to love and trust as deeply as his own late father, who had been so helpful and encouraging for so many years, was telling everyone now that Wil was a disappointment to him and Sam, an overpaid no-talent fake. For now, Wil can't discuss his nine years of travails with Basciano, or respond to his assertions about how Sam Rappaport felt about his son. His lawyers at Fox Rothschild say it's a simple matter of legal self-preservation. Basciano continues to appeal the court decision to remove him as executor, and the Rappaport family may want to sue Basciano for those self-dealing transactions, which may have cost the estate millions. Wil allows that the latest round of legal decisions has at last afforded him some freedom to start expanding his business where he wants to take it— brokering leases and contracting to manage other people's properties. Both lines of business are far more time-consuming and less lucrative than his father's high-wire act of buying and selling. Sam and Uncle Richie would have been bored senseless collecting minuscule management fees. At bottom, Sam's compulsive real estate hustling may have as much to do with Samson Asset Management as wildcatting for oil in the desert has to do with running a chain of neighborhood gas stations. And yet Wil, who proudly recalls how L&I recently deemed the company a "model landlord," consoles himself with a belief that his father would have come around if he had lived to see Center City in its current good health. "I think he ultimately wanted to go in that direction," Wil says. "I think he wanted to change his image, but he died before he was able to accomplish that." Richard Basciano, the multimillionaire real estate investors the New York Times once called "the undisputed king of Times Square porn," must pay the heirs of the late Philadelphia landlord Samuel Rappaport more than $10 million in refunds, fees and interest, and properties worth millions more, Bucks County Orphans' Court Judge C. Theodore Fritsch Jr. ruled in a decree Aug. 27. The payments stem from the years Basciano managed his friend Rappaport's estate, which included former Reading

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Railroad properties, the former PSFS Building and other vacant and decaying Center City landmarks, Atlantic City's sewer system, parking garages, a Florida resort, and a prime building site adjoining the University of Delaware, from Rappaport's death in 1994, until Basciano was removed as executor by court order in 2002. Basciano was a "close personal friend" of Rappaport , who "had a reputation for poorly maintaining his properties" and "received a significant number of code violations from the City of Philadelphia," according to Fritsch's decree. Here we establish a connection to Ed Rendell and also establish a connection between Ira Lubert, current BOT member at Penn State and Sam Rappaport. Rappaport bought the historical building in 1974. The property, built in 1873, is one of the best examples of Second Empire architectural style and is beloved by preservationists and architects alike. The property will now be converted into apartments for Thomas Jefferson University students. Lubert Adler Partners, a private Philadelphia real estate investment firm, bought the Victory from Rappaport's estate 1998 and is involved in its turnaround plans. Rappaport's veneer, while said to be tough when it came down to business, softened when it came to donating to charities or politicians. His money helped the Philadelphia Boys Choir, the Philadelphia Music Foundation, the Franklin Institute, and the Police Athletic League, among others. He gave to the Market Street East Improvement Program, a neighborhood where several of his properties sat. He liberally gave to Jewish charities, including the Federal Allied Jewish Appeal and, at one point, owned State of Israel bonds that were valued at more than $25 million, according to published reports. Politically he gave to former mayor Ed Rendell, and Sen. Arlen Specter, among others. While his generosity was notable, Rappaport's massive real estate portfolio made him notorious. Rappaport had a knack for seizing upon strategically located properties. For example, he owned land where the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Liberty Place and Market Street East, the Center City Commuter Tunnel and the Marriott Hotel now stand. When Rappaport bought a property, he would make minor improvements, such as to a building's lighting and insulation, and then raise the rents. Tenants often complained that he seldom made any upgrades but still insisted on increasing rents. In 1976, Rappaport won a 15-year lease to manage the Reading Terminal Market. He pledged to invest in the market but never did. Instead, he increased rents by 400 percent, and made tenants put up other onerous funds to secure space at the market. By 1978, 30 of Reading Terminal's 56 tenants had left. That prompted Reading Co. officials to buy Rappaport out of the lease and take over operations at the market. In another notorious episode, Rappaport was found guilty in 1959 of mail fraud. He served 10 months of a year-long sentence and was made to pay a $19,000 fine. Rappaport was found to have used fake businesses and dummy stores for credit references to swindle $130,000 in merchandise.

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While Rappaport didn't like to talk to reporters or like getting attention, a man who wore diamond rings and a studded belt buckle shaped like a Rolls Royce logo found that hard to avoid at times. Even after his death, Rappaport continued to make headlines. In 1997, (since Ed Rendell was mayor of Philly, he HAD to do something about his friend’s negligence [blame the dead guy syndrome] since a judge was killed and not a typical homeless man) a portion of a wall at a South Broad Street garage that was owned by the estate collapsed. The accident fatally injured Common Pleas Court Senior Judge Berel Caesar. That incident spurred the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections to reinspect more than 50 properties still owned by the Rappaport estate. Samuel A. Rappaport fancies himself a benefactor, a big political contributor and a party-thrower par excellence. He counts among his friends many of Philadelphia's movers and shakers - Mayor Rendell, business leaders, and even architectural preservationists. He lavishes money on charities and civic causes. Perhaps that is why - despite a 30-year record of real-estate practices that have left whole Center City blocks dilapidated, graffiti-scarred and depressed - he has escaped official denunciation. Pick your worst crumbling downtown facade, boarded-up storefront, litter- filled ally and the odds are you're looking at a Rappaport property. He buys buildings, letting them decay until land values soar, often for projects such as the convention center. Then he sells. From Mayor Rendell, to whose campaign Mr. Rappaport gave $40,000, there is uncharacteristic silence. Ed Rendell has been in government jobs for many years and is considering a comeback against Gov. Tom Corbett. When will this man be noticed as a pedophile enabler? Richard J. Tyler, the city's historic preservation officer, had no comment. Paul Levy, executive director of the Center City District, spoke generally about the message that vacant, boarded-up buildings give, but declined comment on Mr. Rappaport's vacant, boarded-up buildings. So Mr. Rappaport continues to present himself as a public benefactor while presiding over the decay of the city. He shows up increasingly at fundraisers, benefits, balls and dinners, while 22 of his 54 Center City buildings stand vacant; while the once-grand Victory Building at 10th and Chestnut, which he owns, stands fire-gutted and decaying; while his tattered properties around Washington Square discourage investment. The mayor and other civic boosters give speeches and write articles about the blight of the homeless, but they send no public ultimatum to Mr. Rappaport to clean up his act. It's time they found their tongues. 20

For it is not only impersonal economic and social forces that suck the life from Philadelphia's heart. It has also been the swaggering irresponsibility of Samuel A. Rappaport. @gregbucceroni states Lawrence Scott Ward, Bill Conlin, Sam Rappaport, Jerry Sandusky and Phil Foglietta were the least of my victimization, Savitz was biggest There are others Greg has mentioned and their story would make for good reading another day. Ex-Wharton Prof gets 10 years in sex case - Lawrence Scott Ward smuggled images of himself having sex with a 16-year-old boy and is currently serving another prison sentence for child pornography trafficking. Philadelphia Sportswriter Accused of Child Molestation was the headlines on Dec 20, 2011 when Bill Conlin, columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, was accused of sexually molesting children in the 1970s. As far back as 1999, Ed Rendell, U.S. Rep. Tom Foglietta, Bob Brady, David L. Cohen, and Sam Rappaport are discussed in this political notebook. Greg has been struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and a picture triggered off a memory from the past. After reading this article, he realized it discusses the involvement of Phil Foglietta with Jerry Sandusky and a child pedophile ring which was associated with Ed Savitz. @gregbucceroni says I knew a little bit more about Savitz because he took me under his wing and entrusted me with other pedophile cells that collaborated – refer to material on pages 4 - 5… 9 Oct Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni - It appears Ed Rendell doesn't like his criminal past made public, so he conspires with others to discredit me. I'm ready! Gregbucceroni September 30, 2012, 12:01PM Ed Rendell while Philadelphia District Attorney 1977-1980 covered up for pedophiles Sam Rappaport & Ed Savitz. Rendell is pedophile enabler Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Hey Ed Rendell, if I'm lying about you being a pedophile enabler than why aren't you suing me? Or pressing harassment charges? Hmmmm? Mr. Rappaport gave bundles to political campaigns. Ed Rendell, for example, got $40,000 - $20,000 before he was elected mayor and $20,000 since.

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Democratic National Committee chairman Ed Rendell took $21,000 in contributions for his personal campaign fund from the long-acknowledged porn king of New York City - just months before the DNC banned a fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion and Al Gore lashed out at sex and violence in the mass media. On Friday, after inquiries from the Daily News, an aide to Rendell said that the former Philadelphia mayor is returning the donations to Richard Basciano, the longtime owner of Show World in Manhattan's Times Square. Show World, New York City's largest porno establishment, is notorious for private peepshow booths and customers paying $10 to watch women dance nude on a small stage. Its owner, Basciano, gave $1,000 in December as Rendell was preparing to leave office. He wrote a $20,000 check to the campaign fund six weeks later. David Yarkin, Rendell's spokesman, said that after reviewing some of the information about Basciano's business dealings in New York, "we felt it was inappropriate to keep the contributions, and we will be returning them." Yarkin stressed that the ex-mayor's only dealings with Basciano had nothing to do with the pornography business. Since 1994, the New Yorker has been one of two executors of the will of controversial Center City speculator Sam Rappaport, who was the owner of nearly 60 Philadelphia properties, many of them once blighted and in violation of city codes. "Mayor Rendell got to know Mr. Basciano in his capacity as executor of Sam Rappaport's estate, and in his dealings with Mr. Basciano, he found him to be a businessman whose word was his bond," Yarkin said. "There were several times where Mr. Basciano's actions on behalf of the estate benefited the city - it was in that capacity that Mayor Rendell knew Mr. Basciano." Yarkin said he didn't know how Basciano came to be solicited for a campaign contribution. The former mayor has amassed a roughly $3.5 million campaign war chest for his possible gubernatorial run. Neither Basciano nor his longtime New York attorney, Harold Price Fahringer, returned phone calls seeking comment. As DNC chief, Rendell is currently leading efforts to raise millions of dollars in so-called "soft-money" donations from wealthy Democrats to aid Gore in his neck-and-neck fall campaign against the GOP's George W. Bush. Last week, he attended glitzy, Hollywoodheavy fund-raisers with Gore in New York and at the E-Center in Camden. However, the former mayor also continues to rake in donations for his own personal campaign committee - because he is likely to run for governor of Pennsylvania in 2002. An official from a leading Washington-based good-government group, the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity, criticized Rendell for raising money from Basciano. 22

"Here's a situation where they're talking about family values and ethics on one hand and yet they're unwilling to vet all their sources of campaign finance money on the other hand," said Peter Eisner, the center's managing director. In the long run, news that Rendell accepted money from the New York City porno king probably won't help his statewide political ambitions. But in the short term, Rendell's actions could open the DNC, and more importantly the Gore campaign, to charges of hypocrisy in light of its recent push against sexual and violent entertainment. Just last month, Gore officials and the Rendell-led DNC ordered a rising star in the Democratic Party, California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, to cancel a fund-raiser for party Latinos that she had arranged at the Playboy Mansion during the Democratic National Convention. But if the Democratic ticket of Gore and frequent Hollywood critic Sen. Joseph Lieberman, of Connecticut, is worried about violent video games, it's hard to say what they would make of Show World, the linchpin of Rendell donor Basciano's porno empire. Although live sex shows were halted there in the mid-1980s, officials said that Basciano has reaped millions from customers popping quarters into slots to watch women dance naked, accompanied by loud rock music. The definitive profile of the reclusive Basciano, written by New York Newsday in 1993, said that in addition to Show World, the largest porno palace in the city, his vast empire around Times Square also included X-rated movie theaters and video stores during its 1990s heyday. Basciano himself has never been tied to organized crime and was never a suspect in his friend DiBernardo's death, according to the report. His political contributions to Rendell are unusual. Officials with New York City's Campaign Finance Board said he has not been a recent donor in municipal elections in his hometown After the death of Caesar - whose heirs are suing the Rappaport estate and others in a case slated to come to trial this fall - officials at the city's Licenses and Inspections Department said that the Basciano-led Rappaport estate, threatened with millions of dollars in fines, made more than $1 million in improvements to its blighted buildings during Rendell's last two years in office. Rendell became DNC general chairman last fall, as he prepared to leave City Hall, and his tenure in national politics has not been without controversy. Long considered a master at political fund-raising, his supporters say he has helped the Democrats close a huge money gap with the GOP on the eve of the Gore-Bush showdown. However, Rendell's blunt and unguarded speaking style hasn't always played well in the national media. In August, he made headlines by suggesting that Lieberman's 23

biggest obstacle to the No. 2 slot was that he was Jewish and that he'd be a "slam dunk" if he were a Protestant. More shenanigans from Rendell that happened during his mayoral reign…As December dawned on the tattered stretch of 13th Street just north of Walnut, blightmeister Sam Rappaport was already months past a deadline to clean up the mess he'd made at the site of a soon-to-be parking lot. We've waited with baited breath to see if he'd make the city's extended deadline: Dec. 18. There's something else we'd like to add as the phrase "personal responsibility" becomes a watchword for those - very much including New Democrats of the Ed Rendell strain - who say that government can't do everything. Ed Rendell's quest for campaign dollars knows no limits. Monday night it was New York City. Tuesday night it was Bala Cynwyd. At the San Marco Restaurant on City Avenue, he was sequestered in a private dining room with a group of 25 stone-faced sheetmetal contractors. They listened to his 30-minute pitch and asked some very tough, politically sophisticated questions. No nonsense, polite applause at the end. Then came the hard sell for them to pull out their checkbooks. "You know what is going to hit the fan in the next few weeks," said Rendell, the frontrunner in the Democratic race for mayor of Philadelphia. ''So, I need money." So, what's the expected take in Bala Cynwyd? "About $15,000," said Harold Yaffe, the Center City dentist who helps coordinate Rendell's fund- raising. Rendell is pushing to raise $2 million. As the leading candidate in the five-way Democratic race, the former district attorney and his strategists are scouting the competition to figure out which opponent will pull the trigger on attack TV ads sometime in the final four weeks. That is why he is stockpiling cash - for a forceful rebuttal down the stretch. Who will go negative? Advisers to former City Councilman George R. Burrell Jr. say privately they don't need to. Lucien E. Blackwell, the other former councilman in the Democratic race, may not have enough money to promote himself and attack Rendell. Peter Hearn is not ruling it out. And James S. White, last in the polls, may have the same problem as Blackwell. If none of them do, Rendell would be well-positioned financially for the fall campaign, when you can bet the Republicans won't be gun-shy.

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Gambino Crime family Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Scarfo's weren't good for Philly Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Merlino tried Scarfo Jr several years ago. Scarfo Sr went to Lucchese family for protection for his son Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni I was a floating street hustler that hung with NYC mobsters more than Philly guys Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Henry Hill was a low level mob associate alcoholic junkie looser. Goodfellas was exaggerated about Hill's life Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni The Philly mob hasn't been 100 percent since Angelo Bruno. That guy was a "Goodfella" Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Knew him but never did anything criminal with him, he came after my era. Knew his dad Gregbucceroni 5:50pm via Twitter for iPhone Back in the early 1980's I sided with Harry Riccobene's feud against Scarfo, I knew it was time to get out. People were getting whacked. Gregbucceroni 5:58pm via Twitter for iPhone After Angelo Bruno was murdered Dan Scarfo took over things went down hill The Gambino crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia (or Cosa Nostra). The group is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963 when the structure of organized crime first gained public attention. The group's operations extend from New York and the eastern seaboard to California. Its illicit activities include labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loan sharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution,[3] fraud, hijacking, pier thefts, and fencing.

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The rise of what for a time was the most powerful crime family in America began in 1957, the day Albert Anastasia was assassinated while sitting in a barber chair at the Park-Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan. Experts believe Carlo Gambino helped orchestrate the hit to take over the family. Gambino partnered with Meyer Lansky to control gambling interests in Cuba. The family's fortunes grew through 1976, when Gambino appointed his brother-in-law, Paul Castellano, as boss. Castellano infuriated upstart capo John Gotti, who orchestrated Castellano's murder in 1985. Gotti's downfall came in 1992, when his underboss Sammy Gravano decided to cooperate with the FBI. Gravano's cooperation brought down Gotti, along with most of the top members of the Gambino family. The family is now run by Domenico Cefalu.

Contents [hide] 1 History

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1.1 Origins

o 

1.1.1 D'Aquila gang

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1.1.2 New York gangs

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1.1.3 Prohibition

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1.1.4 Castellammarese War

o

1.2 Mangano era

o

1.3 Anastasia regime 

1.4 Gambino era

o 

1.4.1 Control of other crime families 1.5 Castellano regime

o 

1.5.1 Gambino family case



1.5.2 Conflict with Gotti

o

1.6 Gotti regime

o

1.7 The family since Gotti

o 

1.3.1 Plot against Anastasia

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1.7.1 Jack Falcone

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1.7.2 Operation Old Bridge 1.8 Current position and leadership 2 Historical leadership of the Gambino crime family

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o

2.1 Boss (official and acting)

o

2.2 Street boss

o

2.3 Underboss (official and acting)

o

2.4 Consigliere (official and acting)

o

2.5 Committee

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3 Administration

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4 Current family capos 4.1 New York

o 

4.1.1 Brooklyn/Staten Island faction

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4.1.2 Queens faction

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4.1.3 Manhattan faction

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4.1.4 Bronx faction

o

4.2 Sicilian faction

o

4.3 New Jersey

o

4.4 Florida

o

4.5 Atlanta, Georgia

o

4.6 Soldiers

o

4.7 Imprisoned members 5 Crews

 o

5.1 Defunct

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6 Alliances with other criminal groups

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7 Government informants and witnesses

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8 Gambino family mobsters

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9 Trials involving Gambino family

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10 In popular culture

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11 References

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12 Further reading

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13 External links

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History Origins D'Aquila gang The origins of the Gambino crime family can be traced back to the D'Aguila gang of Manhattan. Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila was an influential emigrant from Palermo, Sicily who joined the Morello gang of East Harlem. Founded in the 1890s, the Morellos were the first Sicilian (or Italian) criminal gang in New York. As other gangs formed in New York, they acknowledged Giuseppe Morello as their boss of bosses.[5] In 1906, D'Aquila's name first appeared on police records for running a confidence scam. In 1910, Giuseppe Morello and his second-in-command, Ignazio Saietta, were sentenced to 30 years in prison for counterfeiting. With the Morello family weakened, D'Aquila used the opportunity to break away from them and form his own gang in East Harlem. D'Aquila quickly used his ties to other Mafia leaders in the United States to create a network of influence and connections and was soon a powerful force in New York.[5] New York gangs By 1910, more Italian gangs had formed in New York City. In Brooklyn, Nicola "Cola" Schiro established a gang of Sicilians from Castellammarese del Golfo in Sicily. A second Sicilian gang was formed by Alfred Mineo in Brooklyn.[6] Finally, there were two allied Neapolitans Camorra gangs, one on Coney Island and one on Navy Street in Brooklyn, that were run by Pellegrino Morano and Alessandro Vollero.[7] In 1917, D'Aquila successfully absorbed the two Camorra gangs. A year earlier, the Camorra had assassinated Nicholas Morello, head of the Morello gang. In response, D'Aquila allied with the Morellos to fight the Camorra. In 1917, both Morano and Vollero were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. With their leadership gone, the two Camorra gangs disappeared and D'Aquila took over many of their rackets in Brooklyn.[8] Soon after, Aquila also brought in the Mineo gang, making Mineo his first lieutenant. D'Aquila now controlled the largest and most influential Italian gang in New York City. Prohibition In 1920, the United States outlawed the production and sale of alcoholic beverages (Prohibition), creating the opportunity for an extremely lucrative illegal racket for the New York gangs. Around that time, two more Mafia gangs emerged in New York City. The first gang was a break-away faction from the Morello crime family based in the

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Bronx and led by Gaetano Reina, who had formerly been aligned with boss Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova. The second gang formed in the late 1920s in Brooklyn and was led by Joe Profaci. By 1920, D'Aquila's only significant rival was Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria. Masseria had taken over the Morello family interests, and by the mid-1920, had begun to amass power and influence to rival that of D'Aquila. By the late 1920s, D'Aquila and Masseria were headed for a showdown. On October 10, 1928 Masseria gunmen assassinated D'Aquila outside his home.[9] D'Aquila's second-in-command, Alfred Mineo, and his top lieutenant, Steve Ferrigno, now commanded the largest and most influential Sicilian gang in New York City. On November 5, 1930, outside Ferrigno's home in the Bronx, both men were assassinated by Masseria gunmen. Masseria now controlled the Mineo gang. Castellammarese War In 1931, the Castellammarese War started between Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, the new leader of Cola Schiro's Castellammarese gang. In April 1931, Masseria was murdered in a restaurant by several of his gang members who had defected to Maranzano.[10] Maranzano declared himself the boss of all bosses and reorganized all the New York gangs into five crime families. Maranzano appointed Frank Scalise as head of the old D'Aquila/Mineo gang, now designated as one of New York's new five families In September 1931, Maranzano was himself assassinated in his office by a squad of contract killers.[11] The main beneficiary (and organizer of both hits) was Charlie "Lucky" Luciano. Luciano kept Maranzano's five families and added a Commission to mediate disputes and prevent more gang warfare.[12] Also in 1931, Luciano replaced Scalise with Vincent Mangano as head of the D'Aquila/Mineo gang, now the Mangano crime family. Mangano also received a seat on the new Commission. The modern era of the Cosa Nostra had begun. Mangano era Vincent Mangano now became the first boss of what 26 years later would be called the Gambino family. Vincent's brother Philip Mangano also became a family leader. Vincent Mangano still believed in the Old World mob traditions of "honor", "tradition", "respect" and "dignity." However, he was somewhat more forward-looking than either Masseria or Maranzano. To compensate for loss of massive revenues with the end of Prohibition in 1933, Vincent Mangano moved his family into extortion, union racketeering, and illegal gambling operations including horse betting, running numbers and lotteries.

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Vincent Mangano also established the City Democratic Club, ostensibly to promote American values. In reality, the Club was as a cover for Murder, Inc., the notorious band of mainly Jewish hit men who performed contract murders for the Cosa Nostra nationwide. The operating head of the Murder Inc. was Mangano family underboss Albert Anastasia, known as the "Lord High Executioner". Vincent Mangano also had close ties with Emil Camarda, a vice-president of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA). Through the Association, Mangano and the family completely controlled the Manhattan and Brooklyn waterfronts. From 1932 onward, the president of ILA Local 1814 was Anthony "Tough Tony" Anastasio, Albert Anastasia's younger brother (Anthony kept the original spelling of their last name). Anastasio was one of the family's biggest earners, steering millions of dollars in kickbacks and payoffs into to the Mangano coffers. Anastasio made no secret of his ties to the mob; he only had to say "my brother Albert" to get his point across. Around this time, Carlo Gambino was promoted within the Mangano family, along with another future boss, Gambino's cousin Paul Castellano.[13] Anastasia and the Mangano brothers were usually in conflict, even though they worked together for 20 years. On numerous occasions, Anastasia and Vincent Mangano came close to physical conflict. Vincent Mangano felt uncomfortable with Anastasia's close ties to Luciano and other top mobsters outside his family. Mangano was also jealous of Anastasio's strong power base in Murder Inc. and the waterfront unions. In April 1951, Philip Mangano was discovered murdered, while his brother disappeared without a trace.[14] No one was ever charged in the Mangano brothers' deaths. However, it is generally believed that Anastasia murdered both of them. Anastasia regime Called to face the Commission, Anastasia refused to accept guilt for the Mangano murders. However, Anastasia did claim that Vincent Mangano had been planning to kill him. Anastasia was already running the family in Vincent Mangano's "absence", and the Commission members were intimidated by Anastasia. With the support of Frank Costello, boss of the Luciano crime family, the Commission confirmed Anastasia's ascension as boss of what was now the Anastasia crime family. Carlo Gambino, a wily character with designs on the leadership himself, maneuvered himself into position as underboss.[13] The former boss of Murder Inc., Anastasia was a vicious murderer who inspired fear throughout the New York families. With Costello as an ally, Anastasia came to control the Commission. Costello's bitter rival was Vito Genovese, a former underboss for Luciano. Since 1946, Genovese had been scheming to remove Costello from power, but was not powerful enough to face Anastasia.

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Plot against Anastasia Anastasia's own brutal actions soon created a favorable climate in New York for his removal. In 1952, Anastasia ordered the murder of a Brooklyn man Arnold Schuster who had aided in the capture of bank robber Willie Sutton. Anastasia did not like the fact that Schuster had helped the police. The New York families were outraged by this gratuitous killing that raised a large amount of public furor.[15][16] Anastasia also alienated one of Luciano's powerful associates, Meyer Lansky by opening casinos in Cuba to compete with Lansky's. Genovese and Lansky soon recruited Carlo Gambino to the conspiracy by offering him the chance to replace Anastasia. In May 1957, Costello escaped a Genovese-organized murder attempt with a minor injury and decided to resign as boss.[17] However, Genovese and Gambino soon learned that Costello was conspiring with Anastasia to regain power. They decided to kill Anastasia. On October 25, 1957, several masked gunmen murdered Anastasia while he was sitting in the barber shop at the Park Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan. As Anastasia sat in the barber's chair, the three assailants rushed in, shoved the barber out of the way, and started shooting. The wounded Anastasia allegedly lunged at his killers, but only hit their reflections in the wall mirror. Anastasia died at the scene.[18] Many historians believe that Gambino ordered capo regime Joseph Biondo to kill Anastasia and Biondo gave the contract to a squad of Gambino drug dealers led by Stephen Armone.[19] Gambino era With Anastasia's death, Carlo Gambino became boss of what was now called the Gambino crime family. Biondo became underboss, supposedly as a reward for the Anastasia killing. However, upset by Biondo's misbehavior, Gambino replaced him with Aniello Dellacroce in 1965.[20] By all accounts, Genovese was angling to become Boss of all Bosses, and believed that Gambino would support him. Gambino, however, had his own mind. He secretly joined forces with Luciano and Costello to get Genovese out of the way as well. Gambino helped trick Genovese into a lucrative drug deal, then paid a small-time Puerto Rican dealer to testify against him. In April 1959, Genovese was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison, where he died in 1969.[21] Gambino quickly built the family into the most powerful crime family in the United States. He was helped by Meyer Lansky's offshore gaming houses in Cuba and the Bahamas, a lucrative business for the Cosa Nostra.[22]

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Control of other crime families In 1962, Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno, the head of the Bonanno crime family and Joseph Magliocco, the new boss of the Profaci crime family, conspired to kill Gambino and his allies on the Commission. However, the man entrusted with the job, Joseph Colombo, instead revealed the plot to Gambino. Led by Gambino, the Commission forced Magliocco to resign while Bonanno fled New York.[23] Gambino had now become the most powerful leader of the "Five Families".[24] In 1971, Gambino allegedly use his power to organize the shooting of Joseph Colombo, now head of the Colombo crime family. Gambino and his allies were unhappy about Colombo's high public profile. On June 28, 1971; Jerome Johnson shot Colombo at a Manhattan rally. Johnson was tentatively linked to the Gambino family, but no one else was charged in the shooting.[25] Colombo survived the shooting, but remained paralyzed until his death in 1978.[26] Gambino's influence also stretched into behind-the-scenes control of the Lucchese crime family, led by Carmine "Mr. Gribbs" Tramunti. In 1972, Gambino allegedly picked Frank "Funzi" Tieri to be front boss of the Genovese crime family. Gambino had allegedly ordered the murder of Tieri's predecessor, Thomas Eboli, after Eboli failed to repay a $3 million loan to Gambino.[27][28] It is also more likely believed Eboli was killed by own crime family for his erratic ways. Under Gambino, the family gained particularly strong influence in the construction industry. It acquired behind-the-scenes control of Teamsters Local 282, which controlled access to most building materials in the New York area and could literally bring most construction jobs in New York City to a halt. On October 15, 1976, Gambino died of a heart attack.[29] Following Gambino's wishes, control of the family passed to Paul Castellano, whose sister was married to Gambino. Castellano kept longtime underboss Aniello Dellacroce in his position. Many Dellacroce allies were bitterly disappointed by Castellano's ascension, but Dellacroce insisted that they obey Gambino's instructions.[24] Castellano regime

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Paul Castellano When Castellano became boss, he negotiated a division of responsibilities between himself and Dellacroce. Castellano took control of the so-called "white collar" crimes that included stock embezzlement and other big money rackets. Dellacroce retained control of the traditional Cosa Nostra activities.[30] To maintain control over the Dellacroce faction, Castellano relied on the crew run by Anthony "Nino" Gaggi and Roy DeMeo. The DeMeo crew allegedly committed from 74 to 200 murders during the late 1970s and mid 1980s.[31] During his regime, Castellano vastly expanded the family's influence in the construction industry. His new alliance with the Irish-American Westside Gang made millions of dollars for the family in construction rackets. For all intents and purposes, the Gambinos held veto power over all construction projects worth over $2 million in New York City. The DeMeo gang also ran a very lucrative car theft ring. Castellano relied on a four-man ruling panel to supervise family operations. This panel consisted of powerful Garment District leader Thomas Gambino, bodyguard and later underboss Thomas Bilotti, and powerful Queens faction-leaders Daniel Marino and James Failla. Gambino family case In response to the Gambino rise, federal prosecutors targeted the family leadership. On March 31, 1984 a federal grand jury indicted Castellano and 20 other Gambino members and associates with charges of drug trafficking, murder, theft, and prostitution.[32] This group included John Gotti's brother, Gene, and his best friend, Angelo Ruggiero.[33] In early 1985, Castellano was indicted along with other Cosa Nostra leaders in the Mafia Commission case. Facing the possibility of time in prison, Castellano announced that Thomas Gambino would become acting boss in Castellano's absence, with Bilotti as acting underboss to replace the ailing Dellacroce.[33] Although the Gambino family was making more money, the internal strife continued to grow. The Dellacroce faction considered Castellano a businessman, not a mob boss. They grew infuriated when Castellano increased their tribute requirements while building himself a grand mansion in Staten Island. Castellano became increasingly detached from family members, conducting all family business at his mansion. Castellano's announcement about Gambino and Bilotti further enraged the Dellacroce partisans. Conflict with Gotti Castellano's most vocal critic was capo John Gotti, a Dellacroce protégée. Gotti was ambitious and wanted to be boss himself. He was also angry that Castellano allowed

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the DeMeo crew to deal in narcotics while forbidding him from doing it. Gotti and his men conducted their drug trade in secret. The 1983 Ruggiero indictment came from phone conversations that Federal agents had recorded on Gotti's phone. The taped conversations included Ruggiero discussing drug deals and expressing his contempt for Castellano.[34] By law, the defendants were allowed transcripts of these wiretap conversations to aid their defense. Castellano immediately demanded copies for himself. Dellacroce kept the transcripts from Castellano - the drug dealing and disrespectful language on the transcripts would have given Castellano cause to kill both Ruggiero and John Gotti.[35] In turn, Dellacroce prevented Gotti from deposing Castellano, citing his promise to Carlo Gambino. On December 2, 1985, Dellacroce died of cancer.[36] With Dellacroce gone, Ruggiero could no longer keep the incriminating transcripts away from Castellano. Gotti quickly realized that now was the best time to murder Castellano and seize power. On December 16, 1985, Bilotti and Castellano arrived at the Sparks Steak House in Manhattan for a dinner meeting with capo Frank DeCicco. As the two men were exiting their car, four unidentified men shot them to death.[37] Gotti regime

John Gotti Right after the Castellano murder, John Gotti was chosen as the new boss of the Gambino crime family. Gotti appointed DeCicco as underboss and promoted Ruggiero to capo regime. At that time, future underboss Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano was allegedly elevated to capo regime. Known as the "Dapper Don", Gotti was well known for his hand-tailored suits and silk ties. Unlike his colleagues, Gotti made little effort to hide his mob connections and was very willing to provide interesting sound bites to the media. Gotti's home in Howard Beach, Queens, was frequently seen on television. Gotti liked to hold meetings with family members while walking in public places so that law enforcement agents could not record the conversations. One of Gotti's neighbors in Howard Beach was his dear friend Joseph Massino, underboss of the Bonanno crime family.

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Mob leaders from the other families were enraged at the Castellano murder and disapproved of Gotti's high-profile style. Gotti's strongest enemy was Genovese crime family boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, a former Castellano ally. Gigante conspired with Lucchese crime family leaders Vittorio "Vic" Amuso and Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, to put out a murder contract on Gotti's life. On April 13, 1986, a car bomb meant for Gotti instead killed DeCicco.[38] DeCicco's replacement, Joseph Armone, would be convicted of racketeering in 1987 alongside the family's consigliere Joseph N. Gallo.[39] Eventually, Gotti's brash demeanor and belief that he was untouchable (he was acquitted on charges three times, earning the nickname the "Teflon Don") proved his undoing. The FBI had managed to bug an apartment above the Ravenite Social Club in Little Italy, where an elderly widow let mobsters hold top-level meetings. Gotti was heard planning criminal activities and complaining about his underlings. In particular, he complained about Gravano, portraying him as a "mad dog" killer. Gravano responded by turning state's evidence and testifying against Gotti and other members of the family. On April 2, 1992, largely on the strength of Gravano's testimony, Gotti and consigliere Frank "Frankie Loc" LoCascio were convicted and received a sentence of life without parole.[40] The family since Gotti Gotti continued to rule the family from prison, while day-to-day operation of the family shifted to capos John "Jackie Nose" D'Amico and Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo. The latter was due to take over as acting boss but was himself sentenced to eight years in prison on racketeering charges. Gotti's son, John "Junior" Gotti, took over as head of the family, but in 1999 he too plead guilty to racketeering and was sentenced to 77 months in jail.[41] When Gotti, Sr. died in prison in 2002, his brother Peter took over as boss, allegedly alongside D'Amico, but the family's fortunes have dwindled to a remarkable extent given their power a few short decades ago, when they were considered the most powerful criminal organization on earth. Peter Gotti was imprisoned as well in 2003, as the leadership allegedly went to the current administration members, Nicholas Corozzo, Jackie D'Amico and Joseph Corozzo.[38] As former rivals of John Gotti took completely over the Gambino family, mostly because the rest of Gotti's loyalists were either jailed or under indictments, and because Gotti, Sr died in prison in 2002, then-current head of white collar crimes and capo regime, Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo turned state's evidence, due to increased law enforcement and credible evidence to be presented in his racketeering trial, and chose to testify against mobsters from all of the Five Families. One of the last Gotti supporters, DiLeonardo testified against, among others, Peter Gotti and Anthony

35

"Sonny" Ciccone from 2003 to 2005, and disappeared into the Witness Protection Program. At the same time, Sammy Gravano, Gotti's former Underboss, had evaded the program in 1995 and was arrested and jailed for operating an Ecstasy-ring that stretched from Arizona to New York City in 2003. During that same year, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison, ironically due to informants amongst his associates. In 2005, Nicholas Corozzo and his longtime underling Leonard "Lenny" DiMaria were released from prison after serving ten years for racketeering and loan sharking charges in New York and Florida. That same year, US law enforcement recognized Corozzo as the Boss of the Gambino crime family, with his brother Joseph Corozzo as the family Consigliere, Arnold "Zeke" Squitieri as the acting Underboss and Jackie D'Amico as a highly regarded member with the Corozzo brothers. Jack Falcone In 2002, then FBI agent Joaquin García infiltrated the Gambino crime family under the alias of Jack Falcone.[42] Gambino capo Greg DePalma was so impressed by Falcone that he offered to make him a family soldier. In 2005, the FBI terminated Garcia's assignment out of fear that the Gambinos might discover his true identity. However, evidence gathered by Garcia allowed the government to convict DePalma and several other Gambino leaders on racketeering charges. DePalma was sentenced to twelve years in federal prison.[43] Operation Old Bridge Main article: Operation Old Bridge On Thursday, February 7, 2008, an indictment was issued, leading to the arrest of 54 people affiliated with the Gambino family in New York City, its suburbs, New Jersey and Long Island. This was the culmination of a four-year FBI investigation known as Operation Old Bridge. A federal grand jury later that day accused 62 people of having ties to the Gambino crime family, and offenses such as murders, conspiracy, drug trafficking, robberies, extortion and other crimes were included in the indictment. By the end of the week, more than 80 people were indicted in the Eastern District of New York. The case is now referred to as United States of America v. Agate et al. It was assigned to Judge Nicholas Garaufis. The FBI used informant Joseph Vollaro, the owner of a truck company on Staten Island, who secretly recorded conversations between himself and members of the Gambino family over the previous three years.[44] Among the arrested were the current Gambino crime family leaders John "Jackie Nose" D'Amico, Joseph "Jo Jo" Corozzo and Domenico "Italian Dom" Cefalu, including Gambino family capo regime Leonard "Lenny" DiMaria, Francesco "Frank" Cali, Thomas "Tommy Sneakers" Cacciopoli. However, recognized captain and co-acting 36

boss Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo, one of the main leaders indicted in the case, fled his home on Long Island, acting on prior knowledge, and was considered a fugitive by US law enforcement, until his arrest before turning himself in on May 29, 2008, after almost four months on the run. The federal operation broke up a growing alliance between the Gambinos and the Sicilian Mafia, which wanted to get further into the drug trade. One of those arrested in the raids in the US was Frank Cali, a captain in the Gambino family. He is allegedly the "ambassador" in the US for the Inzerillo crime family.[45] Current position and leadership From 2005 to 2008, federal authorities successfully prosecuted the Gambino administration, several capos, and many soldiers and associates. Since both federal and New York State authorities rounded up the entire Gambino family hierarchy in early 2008, a three-man panel of street bosses Daniel "Danny" Marino, John Gambino and Bartolomeo Vernace was running the Gambino family while the administration members were in prison. Marino, Vernace, Gambino, Cefalu, D'Amico, Nicholas Corozzo, and Arnold Squitieri have all been listed as leaders in the family. In July 2011, it was reported that Domenico Cefalu has been promoted to official boss of the crime family, putting an end to the Gotti regime.[46] The current family is believed to have between 150 and 200 members as well as over 1500 associates. Today the Gambino family still controls the piers in Brooklyn and Staten Island through infiltrated labor unions.[47] A pair of indictments in 2009 and 2010, respectively, show that the family is still very active in New York City. During 2009, the Gambino family saw many important members released from prison.[48] In 2009, former National Basketball Association (NBA) referee Tim Donaghy accused Gambino associate James Battista of using Donaghy's knowledge of NBA games to pick winners in illegal sports gambling.[49][50][51] On November 18, 2009, the NYPD arrested 22 members and associates of the Lucchese and Gambino crime families as part of "Operation Pure Luck".[52] The raid was a result of cases involving loan sharking and sports gambling on Staten Island. There were also charges of bribing New York City court officers and Sanitation Department officials.[53] Historical Leadership of the Gambino Crime Family





Boss (official and acting) 1910–1928— Salvatore “Toto” D’Aquila [54][55][56] – took over the Brooklyn Camorra in 1916 and merged with “Al Mineo’s gang” forming the largest family in New York. He was killed on orders of boss Joe Masseria in 1928. 1928–1930—Alfred “Al Mineo” Manfredi – killed in Castellammarese War 1930. 37

   

 





1930–1931 — Francesco “Frank/Don Cheech” Scalise – demoted after murder of boss of all bosses Salvatore Maranzano. 1931–1951 — Vincenzo “Vincent” Mangano – disappeared in April 1951, allegedly killed on orders of underboss Albert Anastasia. 1951–1957 — Albert “Mad Hatter” Anastasia – murdered in October 1957 on orders of underboss Carlo Gambino. 1957–1976 — Carlo “The Godfather” Gambino – died of natural causes 1976.  Acting 1974–1976 — Paul Castellano – acting boss during Gambino’s illness, became official boss after his death. 1976–1985 — Paul “Big Paul” Castellano – killed on orders of capo John Gotti. 1985–2002 — John “Dapper Don” A Gotti – imprisoned in 1990, died in 2002.  Acting 1992–1999 — John Gotti, Jr., also known as John “Junior” Gotti, – imprisoned in 1999.  Acting 1999–2002 — Peter Gotti – promoted to official boss. 2002–2011 — Peter “One Eye” Gotti – imprisoned in 2002, serving life sentence.  Acting 2002–2005 — Arnold “Zeke” Squitieri – imprisoned in 2006, projected release date is December 18, 2012.[57]  Acting 2005–2008 — Nicholas “Little Nick” Corozzo – convicted in 2008, projected release date is in 2020.  Acting 2008–2010 — Ruling Committee/Panel: Daniel Marino (jailed), Bartolomeo “Bobby” Vernace (jailed), and John Gambino. 2011–present – Domenico Cefalu Street boss

Street boss is a position created 2005. It was the second most powerful position in the organization. 

2005–2011 Jackie "Jackie the Nose" D'Amico[58]

Underboss (official and acting) The underboss was traditionally the second most powerful position in the Gambino family (after the boss). However, the 2005 appointment of Jackie D'Amico as "street boss" made that position more important than underboss.    

19??-1928 Alfred Mineo (his group merged with the D'Aquila family at the start of Prohibition. Mineo was killed in 1930) 1928–1930 Steve Ferrigno (killed in 1930) 1931–1951 Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia (became official boss in 1951) 1951–1957 Frank Scalice (murdered in 1957) 38

1957 Carlo Gambino (became official boss in 1957) 1957–1965 Joseph Biondo (removed by boss Carlo Gambino in 1965) 1965–1985 Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce (died of natural causes in 1985)

      

after release from prison) Dec 1985 Thomas Bilotti (Murdered in 1985 on orders of capo John Gotti after 11 days) 1985–1986 Frank DeCicco (murdered in 1986 by Lucchese crime family hit men) 1986–1990 Joseph "Piney" Armone (imprisoned in 1986, died in prison 1992) 

  

Acting 1974–1975 James "Jimmy Brown" Failla (replaced by Dellacroce

Acting 1986–1990 Frank Locascio (moved to acting consigliere in 1990)

1990–1991 Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano (turned government witness in 1991) 1991–1999 Vacant 1999–2012 Arnold "Squiggy" Squitieri (imprisoned, projected release date is December 18, 2012) 

Acting 2002–2005 Anthony "The Genius" Megale (projected release date is July 18, 2014)[57]

 

Acting 2005–2011 Domenico "Italian Dom" Cefalu (became boss)[58] 2012-present Frank Cali

Consigliere (official and acting) In Italian, consigliere means "advisor." The consigliere's highest priority is to help the boss make decisions. Together, the boss, street boss, underboss, and consigliere are referred to as "the administration."          

19??-1930 Giuseppe Triana 1931–1951 Philip Mangano 1951–1957 Giuseppe "Joe Bandy" Biondo 1957–1967 Joseph "Staten Island Joe" Riccobono 1967–1987 Joseph "Joe N." Gallo 1987–1990 Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano 1990–1992 Joseph "Joe Piney" Armone 1990–1992 Frank "Frankie Loc" Locascio 1992–1999 1999–present Joseph "Jo Jo" Corozzo (jailed since 2008, release date to be determined)

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Committee Several capo committees have periodically replaced the underboss and consigliere positions, allowing an imprisoned boss better control of the family. 

   

1991–1992 – committee John Gotti, Jr., James "Jimmy Brown" Failla, Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo, John "Jackie Nose" D'Amico, Louis "Big Lou" Vallario, Peter "Petey Boy" Gotti 1992–1993 – committee John "Junior" Gotti, James Failla, John D'Amico, Louis Vallario, Peter Gotti 1993–1994 – committee John "Junior" Gotti, Nicholas Corozzo, John D'Amico, Louis Vallario, Peter Gotti 1994–1996 – committee Nicholas Corozzo, John D'Amico, Louis Vallario, Peter Gotti 1996–1999 – committee John D'Amico, Louis Vallario, Peter Gotti Administration



Boss Domenico Cefalu [46] – A Sicilian-born mobster who started out as a heroin trafficker in the Family's Sicilian "Zip" faction. He was inducted into the organization in 1990 by John Gotti and joined the Pasquale Conte crew, a group that included relatives of Cefalu and held strong ties to Sicily. After being identified as acting underboss in the mid-2000's, Cefalu was eventually confirmed as the new boss of the family in 2011.



Underboss Frank Cali - Like Cefalu, Cali has strong ties to Sicily, in particular those close to his relative, John Gambino. Though he maintains association with the Sicilian faction, Cali was born and raised in New York City and eventually rose in stature within the regime of Jackie D'Amico. Cali was later identified as acting captain of this crew, though in 2012 he has been identified as Cefalu's new underboss.[59]



Consigliere Joseph "Jo Jo" Corozzo – a former capo, Joseph and his brother Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo control the Queens-based "Corozzo faction". In 1992, Joseph became consigliere after Gotti's imprisonment. On February 8, 2008, Joseph and Nicholas were indicted during Operation Old Bridge. In June 2008, Joseph pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy charge concerning the extortion of a Staten Island concrete firm and was sentenced to 46 months in prison. In 2011,

40

Corozzo was indicted on new federal racketeering charges. He currently has no release date.[60][61]

Current Family Capos During the 1980s and 90s, the Gambino crime family under boss John Gotti, Sr. had 24 active crews operating in New York City, New Jersey, South Florida, and Connecticut. After 2000, the Gambino family had approximately 20 crews. However, according to a 2004 New Jersey Organized Crime Report, the Gambino family had only ten active crews.[62] New York Brooklyn/Staten Island faction 

George "Butters" DeCicco – Capo of a Staten Island and Brooklyn crew since the 1980s. The brother of former underboss Frank DeCicco, George is heavily involved in loan sharking.[63][64]



Joseph "Sonny" Juliano – Capo of a Brooklyn crew that operates illegal gambling, loan sharking, fraud and wire fraud activities. Juliano previously managed a multimillion dollar illegal gambling ring in 30 New York City locations.[65][66]



Francesco "Frank" Cali – Capo who operates in Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey. According to the FBI, Cali is the official Gambino "ambassador to the Sicilian Mafia" and a rising star in the crime family. Cali and Leonard DiMaria extorted money from businessman Joseph Vollaro's trucking company on Staten Island. A major suspect in the drug trafficking between the Sicilian Mafia and the Gambinos, Cali pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and was sent to prison. He was released on May 30, 2009.[67][68]



Pasquale Conte – Capo in the Sicilian faction which operates in Brooklyn and Staten Island.[69]



Carmine Sciandra – Capo of a crew in Staten Island who also co-owns three "Top Tomato" vegetable and fruit markets. In December 2005, Sciandra was shot and wounded by a retired policeman while working at his Staten Island market. On March 25, 2010, Sciandra plead guilty to state charges of enterprise corruption and grand larceny for running a massive sports betting and loan shark operation and was sentenced to serve between 1½ to 4½ years in prison.[70] He was released on January 5, 2012. 41

Queens faction 

Thomas "Tommy Sneakers" Cacciopoli – Capo of a crew in Queens, New Jersey, and Westchester.[71][72] Released from prison on April 4, 2011.[73]



Michael "Mickey Boy" Paradiso- Capo of a crew in Brooklyn and Queens. Paradiso has been involved in illegal gambling, loan sharking, extortion and narcotics activities. Released on May 15, 2011 .[74]

Manhattan faction 

Salvatore "Mr. Sal" Franco- Capo of a Manhattan crew.



Joseph "Joe the Blond" Giordano – Capo of a Manhattan and Long Island crew.[75][76][77]



Joseph "Joe" Lombardi – Capo of a Manhattan and Staten Island crew.



Vincent "Vinny Butch" Corrao – Capo of a Little Italy, Manhattan crew. Vincent's grandfather, "Vinny the Shrimp", operated the same crew and passed it to his son Joseph Corrao. Joseph later passed the crew to his son Vincent.[78][79][80][81]

Bronx faction 

Salvatore "Tore" LoCascio – Capo of a Bronx crew and son of Frank "Frankie Loc" LoCascio. Along with Richard Martino, Salvatore introduced the Gambinos to online pornography operations that earned the family up to $350 million per year. In 2003, Salvatore was convicted and sent to prison. On August 1, 2008, Salvatore was released from prison.[82][83][84]



Louis "Louie Bracciole" Ricco – Capo of a crew in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and New Jersey. The crew controls half of the illegal gambling, loan sharking and racketeering activities in the Bronx.[85][86]

Sicilian faction The Sicilian faction of the Gambino crime family is known as the Cherry Hill Gambinos. Gambino Boss Carlo Gambino created an alliance between the Gambino family and

42

three Sicilian clans: the Inzerillo's, the Spatola's and the Di Maggio's. Carlo Gambino's relatives controlled the Inzerillo clan under Salvatore Inzerillo in Passo di Ragano, a neighborhood in Palermo, Sicily. Salvatore Inzerillo coordinated the major heroin trafficking from Sicily to the US, bringing his cousins John, Giuseppe and Rosario Gambino to the US to supervise the operation. The Gambino brothers ran a Cafe on 18th Avenue in Bensonhurst and took their name "Cherry Hill Gambinos" from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The Gambino family in America began increasing in size with more Sicilian members.[87][88][89][90] 

Giovanni "John" Gambino – Capo in the Gambino Sicilian or Zip faction. Gambino is an Italian national who belongs to the Inzerillo-Gambino-DiMaggio-Spatola clan of Sicily as well as the Gambino family. Reputedly a prominent drug trafficker, Gambino allegedly participates in the three-man ruling panel/committee that runs the crime family.[91][92][93]

New Jersey In Northern New Jersey, the Gambino family operates crews in Bergen, Passaic, and Essex Counties. In Southern New Jersey, the family operates crews in South Trenton,[94] and Atlantic City. The two Gambino crews operating in New Jersey are the Mitarotonda crew and the Sisca crew. Other capos operating in New Jersey include John D'Amico, Louis Ricco, Francesco Cali, and Thomas Cacciopoli.[62] 

Alphonse "Funzi" Sisca – Capo of a crew in New Jersey. He was a John Gotti ally and a former drug dealing partner of Angelo Ruggiero and Arnold Squitieri. Prior to being convicted in 2006, Sisca had spent 20 of the past 30 years in prison.[95] He was released from prison on September 27, 2010.



Nicholas Mitarotonda – capo of a crew in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Mitarotonda was released from federal prison on March 1, 2011.



Nicholas "Looks" DiGiovanni – Former capo of a crew in Bloomfield, New Jersey. He is the great grandson of Carlo Gambino and currently resides in California where he is said to be responsible for crews in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. He was released from federal prison on August 25, 2008.

Florida The Gambino family's Florida faction operates in Tampa and the South Florida counties of Broward, Palm Beach and Dade.

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



Freddy Massaro – Capo of a South Florida crew. Massaro also owns Beachside Mario's, a restaurant in Sunny Isles Beach.[96][97] Leonard "Lenny" DiMaria—Capo of a South Florida crew.

Atlanta, Georgia 

Steven Kaplan, a family associate was the manager of the Gold Club a strip club in Atlanta, he employed women to provide sexual services in his club.[98]

Soldiers 

Blaise Corozzo – Soldier and another of the Corozzo brothers. He is serving a one to three year sentence in state prison for a 2008 illegal gambling operation. His son Nicholas Corozzo, also involved with the Gambino family, was arrested in 2004.[99] In 2009, Blaise Corozzo was released from prison.[100]



Andrew "Andy Campo" Campos – soldier and former acting capo of the Bronxbased LoCascio crew. Campos supervised Tore LoCascio's crew while he was in prison.[101]



Michael Murdocco – Soldier in Carmine Sciandra's crew. Murdocco and his son-inlaw Sanitation Deputy Chief Frederick Grimaldi, rigged bids to help a New Jersey firm win a sanitation contract. In exchange for kickbacks, Grimaldi allegedly leaked bid information to Murdocco in May 2009. Currently serving two to six years in state prison after pleading guilty in March 2010 to enterprise corruption, grand larceny and receiving bribes.[102] Murdocco was paroled on July 7, 2012.[103]



Rosario Spatola – member of the Cherry Hill Gambinos. His cousin is Giovanni "John" Gambino and his brother-in-law was Salvatore Inzerillo.

Imprisoned members 

Andrew Merola – former acting capo of the Mitarotonda crew. Merola is connected to Lucchese crime family Jersey faction leader Martin Taccetta. Merola's crew operates illegal gambling, loan sharking, extortion and labor racketeering.[104][105] Pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.[106] His projected release date is June 5, 2020.

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

Daniel "Danny" Marino – Capo of a Queens crew involved in labor and construction racketeering. A rival of John Gotti, Marino was involved in the 1986 murder conspiracy that accidentally killed Frank DeCicco instead of Gotti.[107][108]



Bartolomeo "Bobby" Vernace – Capo of a Queens crew. Vernace allegedly operates out of his Vita Cafe in Flushing, Queens, running illegal gambling activities.[91][109] Vernace is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn while awaiting trial.[110]



Vincent "Little Vinny" Artuso – capo of a crew in Broward County, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach County, Boca Raton and Palm Beach Island. Artuso lives in South Palm Beach, Florida. On January 22, 2008 in Fort Lauderdale, Artuso was charged with racketeering. In September 2008, Artuso was charged with racketeering, mail and wire fraud, and money laundering.[111][112] Artuso is currently imprisoned at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Florida; his projected release date is August 28, 2016.[113] His son, John Vincent Artuso, is also imprisoned at Coleman; his release date is July 29, 2016.[114]



Anthony "Sonny" Ciccone – Capo of the Gambino crew on the Brooklyn waterfront. Currently imprisoned on several extortion charges.[115] His projected release date is April 24, 2013.[116]



Louis "Big Lou" Vallario – Capo of a crew in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn since the 1980s. From 1996 to 2002, Vallario served as acting boss in the family's 'Ruling Committee/Panel. One of the last aides to John Gotti[117] His projected release date is October 15, 2013.[118]



Anthony "Tony Genius" Megale – Capo of the Connecticut faction and co-leader with Domenico Cefalu of the Sicilian faction. In 2002, Megale was named acting underboss after Peter Gotti went to prison.[119][120] His projected release date is July 18, 2014.[121]



Augustus Sclafani – former acting capo of the Corrao crew. Sclafani was the overseer of the crew while Corrao was imprisoned, but Sclafani came under indictment in 2008 Operation Old Bridge and is currently in prison.[122]



Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo – Capo. Brother of Consigliere Joseph Corozzo, uncle of Joseph, Jr. and currently the most influential capo regime in the crime family. Became a fugitive for almost four months, currently incarcerated on a 13 year sentence. His projected release date is March 2, 2020.[123]

[124]

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

Dominick "Skinny Dom" Pizzonia – Capo of a crew in Queens. An enforcer and hit man with John Gotti, Pizzonia is currently serving a 15-year-sentence for gambling and loan sharking conspiracy.[125][126] His projected release date is on February 28, 2020.[127] Crews

      

Ciccone Crew Waterfront Crew Franco Crew Sisca Crew The Ozone Park Boys Cherry Hill Gambinos (headed by John Gambino) Howard Beach Crew[128]

Defunct 

Baltimore Crew

Alliances with other criminal groups 

The Gambino-Lucchese-Genovese alliance (1953–1985) between Carlo Gambino, Tommy Lucchese, and Vito Genovese began with a plot to take over the Mafia Commission by murdering family bosses Frank Costello and Albert Anastasia. At that time, Gambino was Anastasia's new underboss and Vito Genovese was the underboss for Costello. Their first target was Costello on May 2, 1957. Costello survived the assassination attempt, but immediately decided to retire as boss in favor of Genovese. Their second target was Anastasia on October 25, 1957. The Gallo brothers (from the Colombo family) murdered Anastasia in a Manhattan barber shop, opening the war for Gambino to become the new boss of the now-Gambino crime family. After assuming power, Gambino started conspiring with Lucchese to remove their former ally Genovese. In 1959, with the assistance of Luciano, Costello, and Meyer Lansky, Genovese was arrested and Gambino assumed full control with Lucchese of the Mafia Commission. Under Gambino and Lucchese, the Commission pushed Bonanno boss Joseph Bonanno out of power, triggering an internal war in that family. In the 1960s, the Commission backed the Gallo brothers in their rebellion against Profaci family boss Joe Profaci. In 1962, Gambino's oldest son Thomas married Lucchese's daughter, strengthening the Gambino and Lucchese

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family alliance. Lucchese gave Gambino access into the New York airports rackets he controlled, and Gambino allowed Lucchese into some of their rackets. After Lucchese death in July 1967, Gambino used his power over the Commission to appoint Carmine Tramunti as the new Lucchese family leader. Gambino later continued the alliance with Tramunti's successor, Anthony Corallo. After Gambino's death, new Gambino boss Paul Castellano continued the Lucchese alliance. In 1985, the original Gambino-Lucchese alliance dissolved when John Gotti ordered Castellano's assassination and took power in the Gambino family without Commission approval.



The Gambino-Lucchese alliance (1999–present) was initiated by acting Lucchese boss Steven Crea in 1999. The two families extorted the construction industry and made millions of dollars in bid-rigging.[129] In early 2002, Lucchese Capo John Capra worked with Gambino acting Boss Arnold Squitieri, acting underboss Anthony Megale, and Bronx-based acting Capo Gregory DePalma. The group was involved in illegal gambling and extortion activities in Westchester County, New York. The members were arrested in 2005 leaving to reveal that Gambino acting Capo DePalma had allowed an FBI agent Joaquin Garcia (known as Jack Falcone) work undercover with his crew since 2002.[130][131] In late 2008, Gambino family acting Capo Andrew Merola teamed with Lucchese Jersey faction acting Boss Martin Taccetta in an illegal gambling ring, shaking down unions, and extorting car dealerships. Merola was indicted in 2008 and Taccetta was returned to prison in 2009.[104][105]



The Gambino-Genovese alliance (1962–1972) was between Carlo Gambino and Genovese family acting boss/front boss Tomas Eboli. The alliance was shortlived because Eboli was unable or unwilling to repay Gambino money from a bad narcotics deal. The alliance ended when Gambino ordered Eboli's murder on July 16, 1972.



The Gambino-Bonanno alliance (1991–2004) started with John Gotti and new Bonanno boss Joseph Massino. As a member of the Mafia Commission, Gotti helped Massino regain the Bonanno commission seat that was lost in the early 1970s. The Gambino family influenced the Bonanno family to give up narcotics trafficking and return to more traditional Cosa Nostra crimes (loan sharking,

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gambling, stock fraud, etc.) By the late 1990s, the Bonannos had become almost as strong as the Gambinos.[132]



The Gambino-Westies alliance (1970s-present) This alliance resulted from an ongoing war between the Genovese family and the Westside Gang, an IrishAmerican street gang in the Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan. Genovese front boss Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno wanted to seized control of lucrative construction rackets at the new Jacob Javits Convention Center from the Westies. When the Westies balked, Salerno ordered the murder of the top gang leaders. Eventually, the Genovese family invited the Gambinos to broker a peace agreement with the Westside Gang. As part of this agreement, the Westies formed an alliance with Gambino capo Roy DeMeo.[133][134]

Government Informants and Witnesses          

Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, Underboss Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo, Capo regime Dominic "Fat Dom" Borghese, Soldier[135] Frank "Frankie Fap" Fappiano, Soldier[136] Willie Boy Johnson, Associate Dominick "Big Dom" LoFaro, Associate Frank "Red" Scollo, Gambino-associated union official[137] Andrew DiDonato Associate Robert Mormando, Soldier (later stated in court that he is gay)[138] Lewis Kasman, associate, and self-described "adopted son" of John Gotti who first became an informant in 1996.[139][140] Was dropped from testifying against John Gotti, Jr. for unreliability,[141] but nevertheless received only probation for his offenses at sentencing.[140] Gambino family mobsters

    

Anthony "Tough Tony" Anastasio (Major racketeer in New York) Carmine Agnello Bartholomew "Bobby" Boriello Louis Capone (Worked under Albert Anastasia in the Murder Inc organisation) Roy DeMeo (Ran the DeMeo crew)

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      

William "Billy Batts" Devino Carmine "Charley Wagons" Fatico Carmine "Doctor" Lombardozzi Ralph "Ralphie Bones" Mosca Frank Piccolo[142] Angelo "Quack Quack" Ruggiero Anthony Scotto Trials Involving Gambino Family

 

Mafia Commission Trial Pizza Connection Trial In Popular Culture

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Witness to the Mob – A made-for-television movie about the life of Gambino underboss turned FBI informant Sammy Gravano. In the 2001 TV movie, Boss of Bosses, actor Chazz Palminteri portrays Gambino boss Paul Castellano. In the 1996 TV movie Gotti, actor Armand Assante portrays Gambino boss John Gotti . In the movie Goodfellas, Gambino family made member William "Billy Batts" DeVino (played by Frank Vincent) is killed in a fight with Thomas DeSimone (portrayed as "Tommy DeVito" by Joe Pesci) a Lucchese crime family associate. In the video game GTA IV, in which the setting is based on New York and New Jersey, the Gambetti family is a reference to the Gambinos. Also during the mission "Waste Not Want Knots" on route to a Mafia controlled waste management plant Michael Keane (a character) mentions the Gambinos while reciting numerous fictional and real Mafia families. Law & Order commonly references the Gambinos as a literary flourish but does not involve actual persons except to allude to them by the court cases that were inspired by actual events, commonly 'Ripped from the headlines'. The character of Frank Machuchi and the Machuchi crime family were based on John Gotti and the Gambino crime family. In Frasier season 4 episode 23, Frasier tells Daphne and Martin "It's like Christmas morning in the Gambino's household", at the end of their argument regarding their exchange of gifts.

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PORN exists in a different world. Adult videotape sales were long ago surpassed by DVD sales. And now DVD sales are sluggish because of the Internet. You can sit at home and stream a seemingly limitless number of adult titles, thanks to companies like Ray Murray’s TLA. You can even have a live video chat with a gal who will do your bidding as you enjoy her, or at least a pixilated version of her, from the comfort of your home. So, the author wondered, what amazing business practices have allowed the Forum to remain open in the age of virtual sex? To find out, I decided to track down the masterminds behind the theater. In my search for the owners, I came across Anthony Trombetta, a 64-year old grandfather who has been involved in the porn business for decades. Trombetta was convicted in 1975 on federal charges of transporting women across state lines for prostitution, and he was named in the Meese Commission’s 1986 report as Philadelphia’s porn kingpin. The report also mentioned alleged ties between a company he operated and the Gambino crime family, once led by John Gotti. But the most valuable piece of information in my pursuit came from a 2004 “Ask the Geator” column in Atlantic City Weekly in which the Geator, a.k.a. Jerry Blavat, mentions an Anthony Trombetta who was once a crooner in the doo-wop band Rick & the Masters. “Tony Trombetta is a dear, dear friend,” said the Geator by cell phone in between gigs. “Do you want me to put you in touch with him?” The Geator put me on hold, and a few moments later, Trombetta was conferenced in, though he didn’t seem very happy to hear from me. He said that business at the Forum isn’t what it once was, then agreed to a sit-down to talk about it more, suggesting that I call him in a few days to set something up. Several calls and one letter later, I realized Trombetta wasn’t talking. So I moved on to the other name that kept popping up in my research: Richard Basciano. Basciano was once described by the New York Times as the “emperor of Times Square smut,” before Rudy Giuliani shut down most of those dens of iniquity, including the infamous Show World on Eighth Avenue, where Basciano had partnered with a Gambino crime family member who was murdered at the request of Gotti. Basciano was also best buds with lecherous Philadelphia slumlord Sam Rappaport, who named him executor of his estate. The Geator didn’t offer to do a three-way this time, but I did hear a rumor that Basciano would probably show up at Blavat’s birthday party at Memories in Margate in July. So down to Margate I went, joining the likes of Bob Brady, Stu Bykofsky and Chuck Peruto. Basciano was there, and I did get a brief audience with him, which amounted to him telling me, “Listen, kid, I’ve been out of that business for 20 years. Talk to Tony Trombetta.” Soon, Basciano may not have a choice. Prior to my Forum visits, I called Michael Nutter’s office to get his thoughts on the theater, and to find out whether he might clean up Philadelphia the same way Rudy Giuliani cleaned up Times Square, maybe starting with the Forum. Through his spokesperson, he declined comment, indicating 50

that he was concentrating on getting elected. But after I witnessed the red-light activity inside, I called him again with a firsthand report. “Let me be very clear that I have never been to the theater,” he emphasized. “But these kinds of places are the last of a dinosaur breed of facilities that certainly need to be inspected to see what’s going on. If there’s illegal activity taking place, then of course the illegal activity should be stopped, or the place should be closed. Whether it’s at 22nd and Market or anywhere else in the city, there’s a certain quality of life we should have. This kind of activity cannot be tolerated.” Just before press time, I finally got a call from Richard Basciano, brokered, of course, by Jerry Blavat. Basciano indicated that he has every intention of developing the Forum property, though he was unable to offer a time frame for doing so. He also noted that then-mayor Ed Rendell sent him personal letters of commendation for his development activities in Center City. But whether the Forum is closed down by an obscenity sweep under the impending reformist administration, as happened in Times Square, or whether Basciano or Casnoff converts the Forum into a business that Murano residents might actually utilize — say, a Starbucks or Banana Republic — it’s pretty clear that people are going to have to watch dirty movies and have their random sexual encounters somewhere other than at 2208 Market Street. And as more condos soar into the skyline, as Stephen Starr opens yet another restaurant, this little piece of seedy Philadelphia history will be happily forgotten. Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Richie Basciano took over the Gambino crime family's porn establishments after Sammy the Bull murdered "DB" in the 1980's – pgs 51 & 52 contain snippets from this link. http://books.google.com/books?id=Opv9nz2M5c0C&pg=PA1114&lpg=PA11 14&dq=Gambino+crime+family+and+pornography&source=bl&ots=cuHAMdX2I&sig=G7RqNZXVr_DUybIPE3O8Oj_jxDc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=PuKRU I76J5Ky0QGn4Ew&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Gambino%20crime%20family% 20and%20pornography&f=false

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Robert DiBernardo, also known as "DB", (May 31, 1937 Hewlett, New York - June 5, 1986 Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, declared legally dead December 1992) was a caporegime in the Gambino crime family. He gained notoriety when he was involved in a real estate business deal with John Zaccaro, the husband of Geraldine Anne Ferraro, a Democratic politician and a former member of the United States House of Representatives who at the time was 1984 Vice Presidential candidate for Walter Mondale.

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Contents

1 Biography

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1.1 Rise

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1.2 John Zaccaro and the Real Estate Scandal

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1.3 Assassination

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2 Popular culture

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3 References

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4 External references Biography Rise His early life is a mystery. He ran a pornography racket for several years up to the time of his death. He was reported to be one of the biggest pornographers in the United States. He was a good earner, garnering him a lot respect. John Zaccaro and the Real Estate Scandle Shortly after the 1984 Democratic National Convention, during the last week of July, questions were circulating about Geraldine's personal finances, those of her husband real estate developer John Zaccaro, and their separately filed tax returns.[1] (While the Mondale campaign had anticipated some questions, the drawn-out vice-presidential selection process had not fully vetted her on this aspect.[2]) Ferraro said that she would release both their returns within a month, but maintained that she was correct not to have included her husband's financial holdings on her past annual Congressional disclosure statements.[1] Notice of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's past investigation into Ferraro's 1978 campaign funds were exposed.[1] On August 12, Geraldine announced that her husband, John Zaccaro would not in fact be releasing his tax returns, on the grounds that to do so would disadvantage his real estate business and that such a disclosure was voluntary and not part of election law;[3] she then quipped, "You people who are married to Italian men, you know what it's like."[4] No campaign issue during the entire 1984 presidential campaign received more media attention than Ferraro's finances.[5] The exposure would have the effect of diminishing Ferraro's rising stardom, removing whatever momentum the Mondale– Ferraro ticket gained out of the convention, and delaying the formation of a coherent

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message for the fall campaign.[6] Her husband's business relationship with the notorious pornographer and organized crime figure DiBernardo ended the debate during the 1984 vice-presidential debate. On November 6, Mondale and Ferraro lost the general election in a landslide. They received only 41 percent of the popular vote compared to Reagan and Bush's 59 percent, and in the Electoral College won only Mondale's home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia.[7] Ferraro failed to carry her own congressional district, which always tended to vote Republican in presidential races.[8] Ferraro's presence on the ticket had little measurable effect overall.[9] Geraldine was later replaced by Democratic politician Mary Rose Oakar. Assassination Gambino underboss Sammy Gravano had a sitdown with boss John Gotti, telling him that he learned from caporegime Angelo Ruggiero that DiBernardo was being subversive. Gravano pleaded to have DiBernardo whacked, which a reluctant Gotti okayed. June 5, 1986 DiBernardo was lured to the basement offices of Gravano's drywall company on Stillwell Avenue in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Acting as if it were a regular business meeting, Gravano told Joseph Paruta to get DiBernardo a cup of coffee. Paruta, who was known as "Gravano's Personal Luca Brasi" got up, but instead of getting the coffee, took a .38-caliber revolver from a cabinet behind DiBernardo and shot him in the back of the head. Gravano claimed that he later learned that Ruggiero was $250,000 in debt to DiBernardo and realized Ruggiero may have fabricated the orders from Gotti or simply lied to Gotti about what DiBernardo was accused of saying in order to erase the debt and improve his own standing in the family. In any event, DiBernardo's death proved profitable for Gravano, as he took over the deceased man's control of Teamsters Local 282, speculating to many, particularly Gotti, that Gravano fabricated the situation for his own profit.[10] Popular culture In the 1996 HBO original movie Gotti made for television, actor Frank Vincent portrays DiBernardo. In Witness to the Mob, actor Tony Kruck portrays him simply as "Di Bernardo".

Ralph Cipriano and John Veasey Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni RC is just mad because he was doing a mob book & movie deal with Veasey and didn't want Veasey child prostitution made public

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Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Journalist Ralph Cipriano didn’t include me in the Veasey mafia book because I alleged Veasey slept with Ed Savitz for money! Interesting Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Ralph Cipriano I guess you can’t sell misleading mafia books if your star John Veasey liked sleeping with pedophiles? Put that in your book! Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Ralph Cipriano I guess you can't sell misleading mafia books if your star John Veasey liked sleeping with pedophiles? Put that in your book! Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Journalist Ralph Cipriano didn't include me in the Veasey mafia book because I alleged Veasey slept with Ed Savitz for money! Interesting Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni John Veasey has bashed and threatened other victims with murderer & rape if they mention him, so the gloves are coming off! Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Wannabe Philly mobster John John Veasey was never a true mobster, just another dummy with a gun and mental midget issues. Stanfa used him! Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni I have much respect for Billy Veasey RIP, Peachy Veasey and P-Nut Veasey. John John is a coward that was a rabid dog! Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni They should have called John Veasey's BS mafia book "The get hit man" because he couldn't fight as a kid and needed his older brother! Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni My beef with John Veasey is because he threatened to kill me and rape my then 6 year old daughter back in November 2011. Real tough guy! Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni John Veasey has bragged about being a tough guy back in his day, he was an amateur compared to me! Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni John Veasey forgot to mention his involvement along with us other kids in prostituting with Ed "Fast Eddie" Savitz!

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Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni John Veasey wasn't part of the Philadelphia fraction of Gambino crime family 1977-1981 and shouldn't second guess what they were into! Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Hey John John Veasey or whatever your name is now? Tell Joey Merlino mafia how you prostituted for Ed Savitz just like me pal. Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni John Veasey was never a "Made" member of the South Philly mob, just some dummy that was willing to pull the trigger and didn’t do that right! Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni John Veasey was a regular at Ed Savitz's Rittenhouse Square residence making $$$ before he became a mafia hit man! Ain't that some shit? Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Hey John Veasey you took $$$ from Ed Savitz just like I did tough guy and you know it! Write that shit in your mafia book asshole Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Isn't it Funny that wannabe tough guy John Veasey can't admit his involvement as a child prostitute since he has a mafia book & movie deal Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Isn’t it ironic that the Daily News is owned by friends & associates of a pedophile enabler? Who also is denying my allegations? WOW! Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Isn’t it ironic that a former mentally challenged drug addicted Philly mob hit man is calling another person nuts? What’s the world coming to Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Billy Veasey talked me out of it back in 1980 Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni The mob book about John Veasey is BS much of it isn't factual, some if it is. Greg Bucceroni @gregbucceroni Veasey was never a real mobster, a dummy with a gun

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Inquirer reporter Ralph Cipriano is suspended after filing a libel suit against Editor Bob Rosenthal. Ralph Cipriano still has a beef with the Inquirer, his employer for the last 11 years. The difference now is that the conflict has little to do with the Catholic Church. On Friday, Cipriano filed what might be an unprecedented lawsuit—a libel claim against Inquirer Editor Bob Rosenthal, the paper and its owner, Knight-Ridder. The suit alleges that Rosenthal defamed Cipriano in comments made to the Washington Post in June. And, if all this weren't scandalous enough, Cipriano's attorney is James Beasley, who won a $34 million verdict against the Inquirer in 1990 for fellow libel attorney Richard Sprague. Journalism may never be the same. On Tuesday, Cipriano met with attorneys for the Newspaper Guild Local 10 because on Monday—perhaps predictably—he was suspended with pay. (The Inquirer won't discuss his status.) He also was barred from stepping onto company property, and ordered to turn over all the notes, internal memos and drafts of stories that he says support his contention that the Inquirer for years has treated Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, leader of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, like a "sacred cow." That allegation is at the heart of this dispute. In June, a weekly newspaper, the National Catholic Reporter, published a 10,000-word investigative profile of Bevilacqua written by Cipriano. His decision to sell the story there—he says Inquirer editors prohibited him from writing about most of the allegations the story contained—was the basis of City Paper's June 11 cover story, "Holy War." Rosenthal declined to speak to City Paper for that article. But when Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post called him—apparently the day "Holy War" was published—Rosenthal was remarkably candid. "If you were an editor dealing with someone who has the kind of feelings Ralph admits to, how would you handle it?" Rosenthal asked, according to Kurtz's article. Rosenthal went on to describe Cipriano as having "a very strong personal point of view and an agenda.… There were things we didn't publish that Ralph wrote that we didn't think were truthful. He could never prove them." So in other words, Cipriano is so unethical he tried to publish rumor and innuendo simply to further some hateful personal crusade? That's how Cipriano interpreted it, and some colleagues agreed. Concerned about how this public criticism of one reporter would reflect on them all, several staffers requested a meeting with Rosenthal. More than 40 reporters and editors showed up (Cipriano was not among them), and sources later told City Paper that the wide-ranging discussion included the question of whether 58

Rosenthal should publicly apologize for and/or retract his comments. Rosenthal wouldn't commit to anything, but the consensus, according to a source, was that he should. But the letter that appeared in the Post in late July was more a rephrasing of the comments than a retraction. Rosenthal noted—as he had told City Paper following the publication of "Holy War"—that the Post article hadn't included his statement that much of the information in the NCR article already had appeared in the Inquirer, and that Cipriano had described the article to him, before its publication, as a "rehash." But in addressing his criticism of Cipriano, Rosenthal fell well short of the apology some had hoped for: "I should have said he told us things as he was reporting that he had not substantiated, and that we would not, of course, publish them until they were substantiated." According to Cipriano's suit, this "weak letter of explanation… did nothing to neither repair Ralph Cipriano's damaged reputation nor apologize for Rosenthal's scurrilous remarks." Curiously, however, the Inquirer has not publicly addressed the issue of Rosenthal's remarks. Rosenthal did not respond to a request for a comment. Spokeswoman Pamela Browner was quoted in Saturday's edition as saying: "We disagree with Ralph because we believe our coverage of the archdiocese has been fair, accurate and relevant. We regret that Ralph has chosen a lawsuit as his means of addressing the matter of how the Inquirer covers a topic of great interest to our readers." What that has to do with Rosenthal's allegedly libelous statements is anyone's guess; the paper's coverage of the archdiocese is incidental to the charge. Browner declined to elaborate on the statement when contacted by City Paper on Tuesday. She also refused to discuss Cipriano's employment status. Equally puzzling was a piece in Monday's edition by Arlene Notoro Morgan, assistant managing editor for readership. Morgan, who writes occasionally about coverage issues, repeated Rosenthal's contention that the Inquirer already had reported the key points of Cipriano's NCR story, then noted: "Inquirer editors said that they were satisfied the issues were covered fairly and fully." Next sentence: "The expanded NCR piece… juxtaposes the [archdiocese's] spending with church and school closings in poor city neighborhoods." Left unsaid is that the Inquirer didn't make this connection. So how then does the paper argue that it covered these issues "fully"? Also left dangling is this comment, later in the column: "The NCR piece presented an unvarnished portrait of the cardinal, which was not up to my standards of even-handed journalism." She offered no specifics, nor did she explain what exactly is unfair about an

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"unvarnished portrait." Aren't newspapers supposed to present information without prettying it up, so to speak? Morgan did not respond to City Paper's request for an interview. (It should be noted that Morgan also criticized City Paper's coverage of the issue: "The critics apparently didn't bother to dig much into the Inquirer archives to compare the NCR article with Cipriano stories published by the Inquirer" in 1993 and 1997.) The contradictory nature of Morgan's column may have been a result of editing by committee, and perhaps a dash of lawyering. The original version, leaked to City Paper by an Inquirer source (not Cipriano), was more clear—but riddled with inaccuracies, according to Cipriano, who read it before the scheduled publication date of Aug. 3 and fired off an angry letter to editorial page editor Jane Eisner. "Let's put the documents on the table," he wrote at the end of the point-by-point rebuttal (given to City Paper by the same source), "the original memos outlining the project, and the rejected versions of the story, and lets see if [associate managing Editor Phil] Dixon can refute this. [Dixon was quoted in Morgan's original draft as saying, among other things, that Cipriano was given 'a good deal of time' to write a 'fuller follow-up,' but submitted an article 'not much different from what was originally published.' Cipriano says most of his work was rejected by Dixon, Rosenthal and others as 'too confrontational.'] "If you print that he refutes this," Cipriano's letter continues, "you're printing something I know to be false, and something I called your attention to as being false." If this line didn't make it clear that Cipriano already was considering legal action, the last line must have. In it, he addressed the conclusion of Morgan's first draft, which was toned down before publication: "No matter what religious sensitivities the Inquirer may encounter, the public requires aggressive reporting on the church that is accurate and free of anyone's agenda." Cipriano wrote: "This agenda remark recalls what Rosenthal said about me in a June 13 Washington Post story, a story that I believe libeled me.… If you print the agenda bit, you libel me a second time." When Newspaper Guild Local 10, the Inquirer and Daily News reporters' union, will enter the ring remains unclear. "We support Ralph, 100 percent," says Guild President Kitty Caparella. "What Rosenthal chose to do was go external, and accuse his own staff member of… things that were false. And he knew it was false." But she would not comment on possible actions by the Guild. Discussions were scheduled to continue this week.

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Calls to Knight-Ridder, the Inquirer's Miami-based owner, were not returned. Beasley, Cipriano's attorney, says he named Knight-Ridder in the suit in order to obtain, through the discovery process, evidence of corporate pressure to increase the Inquirer's longdiminishing circulation. In the suit he contends that Cipriano's run-ins with editors over archdiocese coverage were the result of "pressure from Knight-Ridder to boost circulation and specifically… to avoid antagonizing the archdiocese so as not to further jeopardize declining readership." Beasley says his research has not turned up another case of a reporter suing an editor for libel. "But I don't think any editor has ever called his reporter a liar in public," he adds. John-John Veasey’s Life after the Philly Mob. He was one of the most colorful characters in the history of the Philly mob — a charming killer who tangled with two MAFIA bosses, survived three gunshots to the head, and suffered through the revenge murder of his own brother. Then he went into the Federal Witness-Protection Program — and built a new life for himself that may have been even crazier than his first one THE ITALIAN AMERICAN car salesman looked so out of place in Middle America that strangers would walk up to him and ask, “Say, are you in the Mafia?” He stood five-foot-seven, with bulging muscles, slicked-back hair, and chiseled features that reminded people of a young Robert De Niro. To the locals, he may have been an ethnic -curiosity, but they loved doing business with him. He was nicknamed “The Closer” because he sold three times as many cars as the average salesman. His secret was an ability to establish an instant rapport with people from all walks of life. Customers were so captivated by the Closer that they invited him to their weddings, football super boxes and NASCAR luxury suites. Neighbors and co-workers were also drawn to the surprisingly tenderhearted guy who’d pull off the highway after midnight to help a stranded motorist change a flat. At Christmas, the Closer would dress up as Santa and hand out presents that he bought to kids. Then, last May, somebody asked about the Mafia again. The Closer was lured to a latenight meeting in a deserted auto-body shop. He says an interrogator flashed a gold FBI badge at him and said: How ya doing, John-John? “What the hell you talking about?” the Closer replied. He says the interrogator hauled out a thick FBI file and showed him a photo of “John-John” Veasey, a notorious Mafia hit man from South Philadelphia. “That’s not me,” the Closer said.

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The interrogator displayed a photo of a bullet-riddled GMC Jimmy. The photo was from a crime scene, taken the day Veasey’s brother was shot to death on the street in 1995, hours before Veasey was scheduled to appear in federal court and testify against the godfather of the Philadelphia Mob. You didn’t just fall out of the sky, the interrogator said. The jig’s up. The Closer claims the interrogator was abusive, asking why he wouldn’t answer to his birth name, calling him a punk, a coward, a faggot. The Closer tried to leave, but the interrogator told him he wasn’t going anywhere. During a nearly three-hour grilling, the Closer got angry. He pointed to a bulge at the ankle of an off-duty cop the interrogator had brought with him, and said if he really was a Mafia hit man, “I would have grabbed your fucking gun, and you would have been the first person I shot.”

The old you is starting to show, the interrogator said. The Closer lowered his head and started to cry. The interrogator asked if he was scared. “I’m crying because I’m thinking of what I want to do to you right now,” the Closer snapped. “You don’t know how lucky you are. The old me would have just bit your fucking nose off, and you would need a rubber band to hold your glasses on for the rest of your fucking life.” PHILADELPHIANS REMEMBER JOHN Veasey as the star witness of the 1995 racketeering trial of Mob boss John Stanfa. Veasey’s stand against the Mob came at a steep price. He was shot three times in the head and once in the chest by his fellow mobsters, but miraculously survived. Then, on the day Veasey was scheduled to testify against Stanfa, the Mob murdered his brother Billy, who had talked him into surrendering to the feds. Veasey resolutely took the stand just days later and fried Stanfa. Jurors were mesmerized by his testimony. He was so raw, like a guy on a street corner telling a story. The judge sentenced Stanfa to five consecutive life terms, and seven Stanfa associates were also sent away for long prison stretches. By then, jurors were so taken with John Veasey that they bought transcripts of the trial as keepsakes. Veasey was sentenced to 10 years for two murders he’d admitted to committing. When he got out, Veasey had a new identity in the federal witness-protection program. But he didn’t know a soul when he got off a plane in fly-over country.

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This is when John Veasey’s already dramatic life took an even more dramatic left turn. It was so utterly unlikely, it’s as outrageous as his first incarnation as a mobster. A barely literate high-school dropout, Veasey started over again at the bottom, cleaning hotel toilets for $9 an hour. But he memorized new words, and read everything from the Bible to Machiavelli. Then he answered an ad for a car salesman and discovered he was a natural. That’s when he became the Closer. The onetime hit man from South Philly—trim, dark-haired, muscular, with tattoos of both God and the Devil on his chest—was so good as a car salesman that in the last couple of years he was pulling down $20,000 a month. “There’s my dealership coming up right here,” he says one day a few months ago, showing me around his adopted hometown, the name of which he asked me not to divulge. “I ran this whole place. I hired that kid right there. My office was right upstairs.” He rose to general manager of the dealership and general sales manager in charge of four car lots. He bought four houses, and drove Porsches and Lamborghinis. He flew around the country in private planes to speak at sales conventions, to teach others how to sell cars the way the Closer did. Of course, this being the life of John Veasey, this latest chapter has its own bizarre twist. That interrogator who Veasey says flashed a gold FBI badge at him last May? He wasn’t actually in the FBI—he was an ex-agent who was head of security at another dealership that Veasey had recently moved to. He became suspicious about Veasey’s true identity, so he did some digging to figure out who the Closer really was. Veasey was fired from the dealership. (The interrogator claims he didn’t misrepresent himself as a current FBI guy, though he’s now under federal investigation for the outing of a government witness.) Today, John Veasey has gone back into hiding. He is at large somewhere in America, wanted by the feds, who’d like him to stop running his mouth, and by the Philly Mob, who’d like to see him dead. The story of how everything happened—how a poor kid from South Philly became a violent Mob hit man; how that hit man became a government witness; how that government witness became a gifted car salesman— well, it can sound like something Hollywood made up. But John-John Veasey swears every word of it is true. JOHN VEASEY WAS raised in the public-housing projects at 5th and Washington, part of the only white family around. He was three years old when his father, Walter Veasey, a violent alcoholic, was found dead in a hotel in 1970. Veasey’s mother, Sophia Maria Cuticchia, a native of Sicily, was left to raise five kids on her own. “John-John” was the youngest. “We were just a poor family. We’d sit in the welfare office all day to get food stamps,” Veasey tells me. His clothes, usually “three times too big,” came from the charity box at 63

a local Catholic church. Billy, the eldest child, became a surrogate father to John, though he was only five years older. “We started fighting very young,” John says. The Veasey brothers were protective of their single mom, who worked as a bartender. John remembers her as a five-foot-tall beauty with black hair, dark olive skin, and a knockout figure that featured a pair of 44 double D’s. “I became her little warrior,” John says. That meant shooing away the garbage men who hung around waiting to see Mom in a tube top. John remembers that when he was nine, Billy, then 14, woke him up one night and handed him a stick, so the brothers could club into submission a boyfriend who had smacked their mother around. Billy and John-John worked out at the Goodfellas Gym, at 16th and Passyunk. Billy was so good; he sparred with pros, including Bennie Briscoe. The Veasey brothers were also premier street fighters. Billy, four inches taller, always got the best of John. The power punch for both Veaseys was their left hook. “I had over 1,500 fights,” John Veasey says. “I used to fight two and three times a day. That’s all I did. There ain’t nobody who walked the streets of South Philly who can say they kicked my ass.” Nobody except Billy Veasey; but John discovered one thing he could do better than his brother: weight lifting. John could power-lift 365 pounds; his biceps swelled to 19 inches. But John was a poor student, classified as learning disabled. He cried when he couldn’t spell “any” at a spelling bee. People told him he was stupid. So John found other outlets for his energy. He was 11 years old when he started smoking marijuana. He was 14 when an uncle who was a drug addict gave him his first injection of meth. At 15, John-John was arrested for aggravated assault and making terroristic threats after he pulled a knife on a teacher at Furness Junior High. In 1983, at 16, he was committed to St. Gabriel’s Home for Boys after his 41-year-old mother died of a heart attack. John became a drug addict, turning to crime to support a cocaine habit that escalated to $600 a day. He would rob anybody, leveling a sawed-off shotgun at drug dealers and mobsters. “This is a robbery,” he would say. “Don’t make it a homicide.” His drug use got him into trouble with brother, Billy, who beat John up whenever he caught him getting high. Billy also beat up the neighborhood drug dealers who sold to his kid brother. In 1990, 24-year-old John Veasey was arrested after he beat the ex-husband of his common-law wife, Lorraine, so badly that the guy died a couple hours later. While the

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death was ruled a drug overdose, Veasey pleaded guilty to related charges and served about two years before being paroled in 1993. While in jail, he quit drugs cold turkey. When Veasey got out, he got a job as a laborer at a concrete company owned by the brother-in-law of local Mob boss John Stanfa. In the summer of 1993, the Sicilian-born Stanfa was in the middle of a Mob war pitting his old-school crew against a bunch of Young Turks from the neighborhood led by Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino. After lifting weights and hauling cement blocks, Veasey was a rock-hard 200-pound slab of muscle. He was pouring concrete when he caught the eye of Frank Martines, a tile setter who was also Stanfa’s underboss. Martines asked Veasey if he knew Joey Merlino. Sure he knew Merlino. When they were kids, Veasey took Merlino’s go-cart away from him. When they were doing time together in prison, Veasey helped himself to Merlino’s new Nike sneakers. But Martines wasn’t thinking about robbing Skinny Joey. Martines made a gun with his hand, and asked Veasey if he’d be willing to kill Merlino for $10,000. No problem, Veasey said. And that’s how John Veasey got hired as a Mob hit man. ON AUGUST 5, 1993, Veasey and Phil Colletti were on patrol for John Stanfa. They drove a Ford Taurus past a Mob clubhouse at 6th and Catharine. Colletti, behind the wheel, peered through binoculars and spotted Skinny Joey and his closest associate, Michael “Mikey Chang” Ciancaglini, talking on the corner with a few guys. But when the hit men drove by to get a better look, they noticed that one of the guys on the corner was Billy Veasey, a boyhood friend of Merlino’s. “Phil, we can’t go,” John said. “My brother will see me.” So the hit men drove around until Billy left. “Let’s go get ’em,” John said. The Ford Taurus pulled up alongside Merlino and Ciancaglini, who were strolling down the street on a sunny afternoon. Colletti was in the front seat, armed with a .45-caliber semi-automatic, and Veasey was in back, with a 9mm pistol. The two hit men opened fire. Ciancaglini raised an arm to protect himself. A bullet ripped through his bicep and pierced his chest. Merlino was wounded in the buttocks. Veasey saw Ciancaglini fall down and try to get back up. “My job was to kill Michael Ciancaglini,” Veasey explains. “He was the muscle behind Joey. He died like a man.” But not Merlino. “That motherfucking Joey was screaming,” Veasey says. After Ciancaglini’s death, Merlino went into hiding. Veasey still expected a big payoff. “My mind was set on that $10, 000,” he says. But the only money he saw from Stanfa

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was his regular $300-a-week Mob paycheck, less than the $350 he used to earn mixing concrete. Veasey’s Mob duties included being an enforcer. He had a novel way of collecting protection money. “I never once had to use brute force on a shakedown,” Veasey says. Instead, he’d toss a roll of quarters to a bookie or drug dealer. This was back in the days when people still fed quarters into pay phones. “Give me my money or start calling the guys you pay for protection,” Veasey would say. “Because believe me, you need protection right now.” People paid because of his reputation. John’s most famous act of savagery came when Billy Veasey was doing construction work in a bar and overheard a rival mobster named “Joe Fudge” bragging that he was going to kill John Veasey. Billy called to warn his little brother. “I’ll handle it,” John assured him. He decided to make an example out of Joe Fudge. It didn’t matter to John that Joe Fudge was Frank Martines’s cousin. Veasey told a mobster pal to bring Joe Fudge over to his house, because he was under house arrest and had to be home when his parole officer called. When Joe Fudge showed up, he found Veasey inside waiting, with a power drill hooked up to a 50-foot cord. “I started slapping him with the drill,” Veasey says, “and asking, ‘Do you want to kill me?’” Veasey had a paddle tip on his power drill that yanked out big chunks of Joe Fudge’s hair. Veasey also whacked Joe Fudge in the knees with a baseball bat. The phone rang; it was an automated call from the probation department. Veasey took the phone in one hand and used the other to keep drilling Joe Fudge. Meanwhile, the parole officer, whose spiel was pre-recorded, asked Veasey to repeat the names of American states in a precise order to prove it was John Veasey live on the phone, and not some recording. “Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware,” Veasey repeated while he drilled Joe Fudge. After Veasey hung up, he kept drilling Joe Fudge. “I did his elbows first, and then I did his knees. Then my drill bit broke.” Veasey handed Joe Fudge a loaded gun. “Go ahead and shoot me,” he dared. “The Devil ain’t gonna die.” But Joe Fudge was in flight mode after being tortured, so John threw the bleeding mobster out on the street. The next day, Veasey’s parole officer played back the automated interview. She was shocked to hear buzzing and screaming, so she called Veasey to ask: “What’s all that noise in the background?” Veasey explained he’d been using an electric dildo on Lorraine, his wife.

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ON SEPTEMBER 17, 1993, Veasey and two other mobsters—Frank Martines and Giuseppe Gallara—drove past the Melrose Diner at 15th and Passyunk and saw a white Cadillac Seville in the parking lot that they knew belonged to Frank Baldino, a bartender who was a go-fer for Joey Merlino. They were under orders from Stanfa to kill on sight anybody associated with Merlino. So they had a conference. “They wanted him dead,” Veasey says. “I argued that I thought he was harmless.” Veasey lost, so the hit men waited for Baldino to finish his chopped-steak dinner. When Baldino came out of the Melrose, he got in his Cadillac and put the car in reverse. Veasey raced up to the driver’s window. “Yo, Frank,” he yelled. Baldino looked up and started to roll down the window. “Don’t worry about that,” Veasey said as he rammed his .45 through the glass and started shooting. He emptied his gun, hitting Baldino seven times in the head and torso. Veasey saw Baldino’s head bounce back against the seat, and blood fly everywhere. Veasey was wearing a dark Fila sweat suit, a present from brother, Billy. Following Mob protocol, he changed outfits after he fled the crime scene. Local TV stations, however, broadcast descriptions of the assailants that included the Fila sweat suit. The cops didn’t know who killed Baldino yet, but Billy Veasey did. When John walked into his house, he found Billy sitting on his couch. “Where’s the fucking sweat suit I bought you?” Billy yelled. John made excuses. “You killed Baldino,” Billy said, but John denied it. Billy yelled at John, saying he had to be out of his mind—he’d just killed two men in two months! “Get in the car,” Billy told his little brother. John was still off drugs, but he’d picked up a new bad habit—-smoking up to four packs a day. Billy was a passionate non–smoker. So John used his smoking as an excuse, saying he didn’t want to stink up Billy’s car. But he got in because Billy insisted. Billy promptly punched John in the mouth. “That’s for stinking the fucking car up,” Billy said. Then he drove John around South Philly, alternately yelling at him and trying to talk some sense into him. JOHN VEASEY WAS NOW the most feared mobster in town. He renamed his Rottweiler and pit bull “Al Capone” and “Frank Nitti,” to fit his new gangster lifestyle. But Brother Billy wasn’t impressed. Billy Veasey lived in two worlds. He was a tough kid and street fighter who had done time, once for assault, once for a weapons charge. He worked as a demolition contractor with his own crew. Peter J. Scuderi, a lawyer and friend of Billy’s, describes him as a “human wrecking ball.” But Billy was also a great hockey player. And when he played hockey around town, he made new friends. Billy didn’t want to be a gangster. He aspired to be upwardly mobile. Billy had a beautiful wife and a son, Billy Jr., also a hockey player, who had just won a scholarship to the prestigious Episcopal Academy. 67

Billy didn’t want his son to hang out on street corners; he wanted his son to go places he couldn’t. He was horrified that his little brother was a gangster. Scuderi recalls a day in the early ’90s when he accompanied the Veasey brothers to a golf driving range on Passyunk Avenue. “John was hitting a million balls,” he says. “All John-John wants to do is hit it past his brother.” As it got dark and the other golfers left, the brothers argued about the local Mob war like it was a sporting event. Billy told John-John that the Merlino faction would win, and he called John Stanfa a faggot. Billy’s message was: Hey, little brother, not only are you a dummy for joining the Mob, but you’re so stupid, you picked the wrong side. And the Stanfa crew is just jerking you off. They’re not making you somebody, they’re just using you. And when they get done using you, they’re going to kill you. THREE MONTHS AFTER he shot Frank Baldino to death in the parking lot of the Melrose, John Veasey returned to the diner, this time for the creamed chipped beef. On a frigid December 30, 1993, John Veasey had a breakfast sit-down with brother, Billy and Pete Scuderi. “It was brutally cold,” Scuderi recalls. Scuderi had been planning on staying in until Billy called and begged him to meet him and John at the Melrose. “Things aren’t good with John-John,” Billy said. They ate at the counter of the venerable diner, with the regulars. By this time, JohnJohn had figured out that Billy was right: Stanfa was using him. Stanfa had given him a fancy jeweled ring as a Christmas present, for his recent work as a hit man. Billy told John to get the ring appraised because it was probably fake. John’s wife, Lorraine, tried to hock the ring and discovered it was. At the Melrose, Billy told John his only chance was to “flip”—turn himself in to the feds and become a cooperating witness. Otherwise, Stanfa would kill him. But John-John was too angry to listen. “Fuck Stanfa,” he erupted. “Fuck the Mafia. And fuck the feds, too.” John then loudly outlined his own plan of action: snort some meth, get “Rambo-ed up,” and go out and kill Stanfa and as many henchmen as he could. He slapped a nickel-plated .357 on the counter. “This is how I roll,” he said. The gun was just one weapon from an arsenal he had at home, including a bunch of shotguns and an Uzi. “I’ve got enough ammunition to kill ’em all,” John said. Old ladies at the counter had stopped eating and stared at the Veasey brothers. They kept arguing. “You’re a fucking asshole,” Billy yelled at John-John. “You can’t go kill anybody. That’s not the way to solve the problem.” Then Billy did something he hadn’t done since their mother died: The tough guy started crying right at the counter of the Melrose. 68

“You’re gonna get killed,” Billy told John. “You’re my brother. I don’t want to see you die. Or you’ll get caught, and they’re gonna put you in jail forever. Or they’re gonna put you in the electric chair on TV, and I’m gonna have to watch it. “If you do the right thing, turn yourself in, you’ll go to jail, but someday you’re gonna come out,” Billy pleaded. “And we’re gonna have Christmas dinner together and be a family again.” “If I do what you’re telling me to do, I’ll never be able to come back,” John protested. A rat wouldn’t be welcome in South Philly. “You’re only going to nail Stanfa,” Billy told him. John wouldn’t touch the Merlino gang. So what was the big deal? And, “Who’s gonna stop you from coming home?” Billy said. “These are our streets. Nobody’s gonna keep my little brother from coming home.” Billy was so important to John, more important than anyone, and to see him like this … “All right,” John said. “Do whatever you got to do. I don’t want to see you cry.” Scuderi got on the phone and called Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Gross. Then he handed the phone to Billy. “You know who my brother John is,” Billy told the federal prosecutor. “You know what he did. He’s not gonna do it anymore. I want to bring him in to talk to you. When can I come in?” WHEN WORD GOT OUT that John Veasey was coming in, the conference room at the U.S. Attorney’s Strike Force Office on Chestnut Street filled up with prosecutors and FBI agents. The Veasey brothers arrived in 20 minutes. Billy Veasey broke the ice. “John’s gonna tell you what he did, that he killed some people,” he said. “He was with John Stanfa, and he’s not gonna do it anymore.” John was unshaved under a knit cap. To Barry Gross, he looked just like John Belushi in

Animal House.

“Soon as I saw him, and as soon as he opened his mouth, I felt that this was the turning point,” Gross remembers. “It was what so many of us—prosecutors, FBI agents and police officers—had been working together for, to try and end this,” he says, meaning the Philly Mob. While Billy and John were talking with the feds, the lawmen asked the Veaseys if their brother, Dante “P-nut” Veasey, was responsible for a recent drug murder they were investigating. “Naah,” John-John said. “That guy was shot. P-nut would have stabbed him.”

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John asked to use the men’s room. Gross got the key and led him down the hallway. On the way, John stopped and stared intently at Gross. “I’m doing the right thing, aren’t I?” ON JANUARY 14, 1994, two weeks after John Veasey turned himself in, Frank Martines and Vincent “Al Pajamas” Pagano, who got his nickname for putting people to sleep, asked Veasey to take a ride with them; as a cooperating witness for the feds, he was still out and about. Martines told Veasey that because the cops were always following them, Veasey couldn’t bring any weapons. So he left behind his .357 magnum. After they had a few drinks at a bar, Veasey thought the two mobsters would drive him home. But they stopped instead at a butcher shop on 7th Street. Martines told Veasey the Mob was running a numbers operation out of a small apartment above the butcher shop, and they wanted Veasey to learn how to work it. When they walked into the apartment, Pagano locked the door behind them. Veasey saw that all the furniture in the place was covered in plastic. We’re painting, Martines told Veasey. Then Martines said he needed to use the bathroom. When Martines came out, he put a .22 to the back of Veasey’s head and said, “Bye-bye, John.” Then he pulled the trigger three times. Veasey jumped up and grabbed his head. His hand was full of blood; he felt like he’d been hit with a sledgehammer. Veasey stared at Martines and yelled, “Yo, Frank. You just fucking shot me?” One bullet had hit the back of Veasey’s head and broken into fragments; a second exited through his forehead. A third had bounced off his head and into his neck. Martines told Veasey why he’d shot him: “You talk too much.” Pagano grabbed Veasey from behind and told Martines to shoot again. Martines shot Veasey in the chest, piercing a new $3,800 leather jacket and depositing a bullet in Veasey’s ribs. But instead of going down, Veasey grabbed Martines and shoved him against the wall. “You’re fucking dead,” Martines told him. “I ain’t dead yet,” Veasey replied. The mobsters yanked down the sleeves of Veasey’s jacket to trap his arms by his side so Martines could pistol-whip him; he was out of bullets. But Veasey wiggled his left arm free, and every time Martines hit him with the gun, Veasey slugged him in the eye. Veasey knocked Martines to the ground, but Pagano jumped him, yanked his head back, and told Martines to “cut his fucking throat.” Martines whipped out a knife, but Veasey kicked him with both feet and slid out of Pagano’s grip. The knife landed on the floor; Veasey and Martines scrambled for it. Veasey got there first. When Martines grabbed him in a headlock, Veasey stabbed him near the eye. Martines, bleeding heavily, pleaded with Veasey not to kill him. He said he’d unlock the door if Veasey dropped the knife. Veasey buried the knife in a couch—where the cops 70

later found it. Martines unlocked the door, and Veasey ran down the stairs. “If you go to the cops, we’ll kill your family,” Pagano yelled after him. Veasey ran outside into a giant ice storm. He couldn’t stay on his feet. In desperation, he jumped on the hood of a passing car. The owner stopped, hopped out, and saw blood on his car. “You fucking crack head!” the guy yelled before driving off. Veasey staggered to the home of a neighborhood drug dealer named Tootsie, who called 911. While they waited, Tootsie kept slapping Veasey in the face, yelling, “Don’t you die on me, boy!” The cops found a raging Veasey covered in blood. He was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he was declared in critical but stable condition. Billy was immediately consumed with guilt, since he’d been the one to talk John into becoming a government witness. “I’m sorry,” Billy sobbed to his now-comatose brother. “I should have left you alone. I don’t want to see you die. I love you.” Scuderi came to see John-John in the ICU at Billy’s request. He peered through a big glass window, and what he saw reminded him of the scene in The Godfather where Vito Corleone is lying unconscious in the hospital after getting shot up. “I thought he was in a coma. He had all these tubes running in and out of him,” Scuderi says. “Then I see his left hand moving involuntary, almost like a twitch.” When Scuderi went to John’s bedside, he saw that John’s left hand was clicking a TV remote to switch the channel from one football game to another. When Veasey saw Scuderi, he ripped off his oxygen mask and came roaring back to life. “They shot me in the fucking head!” he yelled, as Scuderi watched his blood pressure spike on the bedside monitor. John told Scuderi about the fight and how he got away from Martines: “I stabbed him in the fucking eye.” They can’t kill this guy, Scuderi marveled to himself. Billy was amazed that John was awake, but embarrassed to find out his younger brother had heard every word he’d said. “Did you really mean what you said about how you love me?” John asked. “You lucky little bastard,” Billy said. “You’re a fucking asshole.” After he got out of the hospital, John warned Billy that he might become a target once John testified at the upcoming Mob trial against Stanfa. “Why don’t you go away?” he suggested. “I ain’t no pussy,” Billy replied. “Who do you think you are the toughest guy in the family?”

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“No,” John dutifully told his brother. “You’re the toughest guy in the family.” Billy had turned down the government’s offer to go into the witness-protection program. He wanted to stay in South Philly, and he didn’t want to miss his son’s hockey games. ON THE RAINY MORNING of October 5, 1995, Billy Veasey left his South Philly row house to drive to a Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee. He rode a block before halting at a stop sign. Two men ran up to his GMC Jimmy and opened fire. Nine gunshots shattered the front window; six bullets ripped into Billy’s body. Police found him slumped behind the wheel, a 9mm gun by his side. Billy, only 35, died in a hospital less than an hour later. Over at the federal courthouse, John Veasey was getting ready to take the witness stand against Stanfa when FBI agents and prosecutors surrounded him. The feds were so worried about how John would react to Billy’s murder that they put him in handcuffs. But instead of flying into a rage when he got the news, John fainted. And when he woke up, he was crying. The feds told John the Stanfa crew had killed Billy in retaliation for John’s decision to become a federal witness. The feds were so concerned about security that John wasn’t allowed to attend his brother’s viewing or funeral. Instead, he had to say goodbye to Billy in a dirty, dingy warehouse. When John saw his brother lying in a coffin, he was surprised to see a cigar in the pocket of Billy’s suit jacket. “My brother hated smoking,” John said. He threw the cigar away. “This is not the way this was supposed to end,” John told Billy. “I was supposed to be the one at the viewing, and now it’s you. It’s all wrong. I was the one who fucked his life up.” John told Billy he regretted all his mistakes. “It won’t happen again,” he vowed. “I won’t let you down again.” ON THE WITNESS STAND, Veasey told jurors about the two tattoos on his chest, of the Devil and God: “Everybody has a good side and a bad side,” he explained. He owned up to his criminal past: “I robbed to support my drug habit. I murdered for money.” And when he mentioned his late mother, he blessed himself and said, “God rest her soul.” For months before the trial, John had vacillated on whether he could go through with becoming a rat and testifying against Stanfa. But after Billy’s murder, he was transformed. “It was personal,” he says. So for three days, on the witness stand, he talked frankly about the Mob war and everything he had done. Defense lawyers tried to trip him up but didn’t get anywhere. Brian McMonagle, representing Frank Martines, showed Veasey a gory mug shot of his client and asked: Did you do this to Mr. Martines’s face?

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“After he shot me, Brian,” Veasey replied. Is it true you once fed your pet pit bull a live chicken? McMonagle asked. “No,” Veasey said. “It was a rooster.” Members of the jury showed up at two subsequent trials to follow Veasey and cheer him on as a witness. “I could have stayed at their houses,” Veasey tells me. STILL, HE WAS ANGRY and defiant when he went to prison for the murders of Frank Baldino and Michael Ciancaglini. He was so disrespectful of correction officers that he ended up in solitary confinement for 37 months. He had plenty of time to think about how he was going to take his revenge on the mobsters who’d killed his brother. One plot involved sneaking up on mobster wives in the supermarket and injecting them with HIV so they would infect their husbands. Veasey wanted the mobsters to die slow, painful deaths. While Veasey was in prison, the feds changed their mind about who’d murdered Billy Veasey. They’d originally blamed Stanfa, but subsequently determined that the killing was a classic setup—John would assume Stanfa was behind it, assuring his testimony against the Mob boss. The feds charged Joey Merlino and two -associates—George Borgesi and John Ciancaglini (Mikey Chang’s brother)—with the murder. All three, however, were acquitted in a 2001 trial. “He was an opportunist,” Veasey says of Merlino, who became Mob boss after Stanfa and his henchmen went to jail. “I know he’s responsible for my brother’s murder. I don’t care who pulled the trigger.” When I visit him, John lifts his shirt to show me a tattoo on his stomach that says, “In loving memory of Billy Veasey.” “My brother’s not gonna die in vain,” he says. WHEN VEASEY GOT OUT of jail after serving nearly a decade, the feds gave him some money, put him on a plane to fly-over country, and wished him luck. Veasey checked into a hotel, where he found work as a janitor. Then he fell for a hotel administrator, a petite Mexican woman with an hourglass figure. (Lorraine had died.) She reminded John of his late mother, especially when he saw her taking care of her siblings’ kids. She told John she didn’t date guests. So John promptly checked out of the hotel, even though the feds were willing to pay for his accommodations there for another 16 months. But he did get that date. “He’s very charming, very charismatic,” she says. “That kind of thing wins a woman’s heart. After that, I was just, like, gone.” 73

Within two weeks, the couple was ready to get married. But first, she wanted to come clean about her past. “I have something to tell you,” she told John. “I’m illegal. I don’t have any papers.” “That’s okay,” John said. “I have something to tell you, too.” “What are you,” she guessed, “a Mafia hit man?” “I have a past,” he admitted. They got married anyway. “She’s the first person I ever loved or who made me know what love is,” John says. But the tough guy who wasn’t afraid of anybody suddenly realized he had something to lose. “She’s the first person I’ve ever been afraid of,” he says. “Ain’t nobody back in Philly I can say that about.” John’s wife is the reason he gave up his plans to return to South Philly and seek revenge for his brother’s death. The former hit man is now surrogate father to three kids from his wife’s family; he also regularly baby sits eight nieces and nephews. The man who once owned that Rottweiler and pit bull now has a fluffy bichon and a cuddly toy poodle that weigh 20 pounds between them and answer to the names of Sparkle and Tabor. When his wife found out about her husband’s past, she told him, “I only know the good side of you. I’ve never seen that side.” And whenever she hears about it, “It’s, like, surreal to me. It’s like watching a movie.” WHILE IN PRISON in 1997, John Veasey started listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio. And John, a lifelong Democrat, was transformed into a conservative. He came to view government handouts as a way of controlling people. He decided he no longer wanted to be on the dole as part of the witness-protection program; he wanted to make it on his own, and live a life that would honor his brother’s memory. So when John moved out of the hotel, he filed papers to quit the program, which meant no more financial assistance. He also answered ads for jobs as a car salesman. He was turned down several times because of his tattoos. But one dealer took a chance. In the middle of August on 100-degree car lots, Veasey wore ties and long-sleeve shirts to hide his ink. He was a quick study with customers. “All my life, I’ve observed people,” he says. “I’m very observant.” Especially in prison, when he spent 37 months in the hole. He studied the guards to figure out how to win them over, so they would do him favors. “You find out what their hot buttons are.” John used the same approach on customers. “I never sell cars,” he says. “I help people buy them. And I never ask anybody, ‘What are you looking for?’ What do you think they’re looking for, a fucking plane?” 74

When he got his first weekly paycheck as a car salesman, for more than $8,000, John asked his boss, “Is this legal?” The Closer would say anything to make a sale. One customer wanted to buy a car for his young trophy wife, who had enormous fake breasts. The customer complained bitterly about the interest rate on the car loan. “I’m not paying 8.9 percent,” he said. John scanned the guy’s credit report. “Do you care about your wife’s tits?” he asked. “You paid 17.9 percent for them. That didn’t bother you at all. You show all your friends her boobs, don’t you?” The guy got up to leave, but John told him, “Sit down, you aren’t going anywhere.” He apologized to the wife: “With all due respect, ma’am, your tits look great.” But he said her husband was being cheap not buying protective air bags: “You’re gonna crash, there’s gonna be silicone all over the windows.” The guy bought the car and the optional air bags. He came back to buy two more cars. EVERYTHING WAS GOING GREAT for the Closer until he was in a restaurant in 2007 and heard a loudmouth repeatedly call a maître d’ a whore. John told the loudmouth to leave her alone, and the loudmouth made the mistake of calling John a midget, and then took a swing. John took a glancing blow to the ear, and then landed one punch, a left. The guy needed 38 stitches to patch his face, as well as plastic surgery because he bit his lower lip off before hitting the ground. John’s boss, the owner of the dealership where he worked, wrote a letter to the prosecutor in the fight case, confirming that Veasey consistently sold 30 cars a month, “which is just short of impossible.” “Yes, I broke the rule of letting someone that worked with me become my friend. The irony is that he turned out to be one of my best friends. He exaggerates, he is a conspiracy thinker, and he absolutely wears me out at times. However, I also believe him to be one of the most trustworthy and honest people I know. I have seen John do amazing heartfelt things for co-workers, family, customers and strangers. It is almost as if he possesses a higher sense of justice.” Veasey pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor—improper touching—for the restaurant fight. However, people at the dealership who were suspicious of him went on the Internet to figure out who he really might be, and they came across the legend of John-John Veasey, Mob hit man. That forced him to find work at another dealership, where the

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head of security—the former FBI agent—used his agency contacts to confirm, last spring, who the Closer really was. The feds told Veasey that with his cover blown, his life was again in danger from the Mob. They wanted Veasey back in the witness-protection program so he’d stop talking trash about them and about the program itself. The feds promised to relocate him, to give him a new identity, even to pay his bills in the interim. They also told John’s wife to quit her job. So Veasey stayed home and waited for the feds. Meanwhile, even though he was far from broke, he had no money coming in, and the bills piled up. “My electric gets shut off today,” he says when I visit him earlier this year, along with Dave Schratwieser of Fox 29. The feds were screwing him—and Veasey is pissed off. “They told me they were gonna give me a second chance,” he says of the feds. “I believed them. I got this second chance, and I exceeded all expectations. And they don’t know how to fix it?” His life in limbo was a long way from South Philly, where Veasey is still feared. Earlier this year, when rumors spread on Facebook that he was coming home to settle a few scores, the wives of local mobsters called the FBI to ask for protection. They’re afraid because the one constant in John’s life was Billy, before he was murdered, and the local Mob is nervous that John could still show up at the Melrose ready for more carnage, to avenge his brother’s death. Veasey certainly doesn’t sound intimidated by the Philly Mob. He dismisses them as a “street gang” that’s so behind the times, they’re still into video poker machines and busting the heads of people who can’t fight back. But he also doesn’t sound like he’s about to come East to rumble. “I enjoy my life,” he says—at least, he did until his cover was blown. When I visited him after he’d lost his job, Veasey was still clad in his Rolex, $300 Rock & Republic jeans, and a $750 pair of alligator-skin cowboy boots. A billionaire friend has a fleet of private planes. “If I wanted to, I could fly to Philadelphia in under two hours, anytime I want,” Veasey says. “But why would I want to do that? Why would I want to lose all this for them knuckleheads?” Meanwhile, “The final chapter hasn’t been written yet,” says a top official in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Philadelphia. But after waiting five months for the feds to act, John did what any self–respecting ditto head would do. He decided to take control of his own life, and accepted a new job in another city. He didn’t want a handout. Now, when the feds call, he doesn’t even answer the phone. They’re looking for him.

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“Tell them I’m in Alaska with Sarah Palin,” Veasey tells me the last time he calls. He also has a parting shot for Joey Merlino and friends. The truth is, John still can’t let go— he’s still tortured by what happened to Billy 15 years ago: “If the feds can’t find me, how the fuck can you fucking incompetent gangsters find me? The next time you think about finding me, I might be finding you. I could pop up at any time.” Hit man-turned-government informant John Veasey, whose testimony helped bring down mob boss John Stanfa and a dozen of his top associates in the 1990s, says he’s on the road to redemption. And he wants everyone to know it. “I never respected the Mafia or what it stood for,” Veasey said in an interview with Philly.com last week. “My only regret was being dumb enough to join . . . I always said they either rat or kill each other.” Veasey has done both. But now, he says, he’s a changed man. The outspoken and opinionated former South Philadelphia triggerman popped up on several local radio and television shows last week to talk about The Hit Man: A True Story of Murder, Redemption and the Melrose Diner, an e-book written by former Inquirer reporter Ralph Cipriano and Fox 29′s Dave Schratwieser. The book, available on Amazon.com, expands on a story Veasey first told from the witness stand in U.S. District Court in 1995. It details his early life growing up in South Philadelphia, his role as an enforcer for the Stanfa organization, the attempt on his life – two Stanfa associates shot him three times in the head, but he survived – and the hits he carried out. Those hits include the murders of Frank Baldino (killed outside the Melrose Diner) and Michael Ciancaglini, and the attempted murder of Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino. It also tracks his decision to cooperate, the murder of his brother Billy, his testimony in the Stanfa trial, and his new life as a highly successful car salesman somewhere in the Midwest. “I try to just be happy every day,” Veasey said in an interview with Marnie Hall of Philly.com. “I go to work every day. I kind of like it.” The story of redemption and Veasey’s media blitz have raised more than a few eyebrows on the streets of South Philadelphia, particularly among mob members and associates who targeted him or whom he targeted during the mob war in the 1990s.

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“He’s never going to change,” one former mob rival said. Federal authorities routinely warn Merlino associates whenever Veasey slips back into town, he said. “He’s nothing but trouble,” added another. The interview with Philly.com offers a study in contrasts. Veasey is self-effacing one moment, full of street-corner bravado the next. He talks about turning his life around and then takes potshots at his old enemies. Most of his taunts were aimed at Merlino, recently released from prison and now living in Florida. “When I shot Joey in the ass, he ran screaming,” Veasey said of the August 1993 driveby shooting in which he and Phil Colletti ambushed Merlino and Ciancaglini. Ciancaglini died on the sidewalk that afternoon. Merlino was wounded. The shooting was a major escalation in the war between the Stanfa and Merlino factions of the mob. Veasey said he had returned to the city about 20 times since his release from prison in 2005, despite reports that members of the crime family want him dead. “I’m never going to run,” he said. “I ain’t ever going to hide. . . . I like to consider myself a gladiator.” Returning again to Merlino, he added: “I’m back in Philly. He ain’t.” Moments later, Veasey offered a softer side. “I did a lot of bad things; now I’m doing a lot of good,” he said, claiming that he goes out of his way to help others, including his new wife’s children, nieces, and nephews. Asked whether he was sorry for the murders he committed, he said that if he could, he would “take back” the murder of Baldino, who by all accounts had nothing to do with organized crime. But of the shootings of Ciancaglini and Merlino, Veasey said, “I don’t lose sleep over it. They were trying to kill me, too.” A charismatic and highly effective witness during the racketeering trial of Stanfa and seven associates in 1995, Veasey spent nearly 11 years in jail on murder-racketeering charges that were part of his plea agreement.

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His life change was first recounted by Schratwieser in a series of television interviews in 2010 and by Cipriano in a cover story in Philadelphia Magazine breathlessly titled “The Greatest Mob Story Ever.” The book expands on those stories, including the report that Veasey blossomed as a car salesman, turning his charm and charisma into a six-figure salary. He said he now lives in a house with a swimming pool, rides horses, hunts, and owns four Harley-Davidson motorcycles. The rags-to-riches tale started with his cleaning rooms in a motel shortly after his release from prison. He fell in love with a woman who was an administrator at the hotel where he was living. She thought he was a businessman because he carried a laptop computer. Each had a “secret.” She told Veasey she was in the country illegally. Veasey told her he was an ex-Mafia hit man. Theirs is a love story that, in Veasey’s version, has a happy Hollywood ending. He said he’d like Robert De Niro or Mark Wahlberg to play him in the film version, adding that he was in “negotiations” with a movie company. The hype and the self-promotion have ruffled feathers in the Philadelphia underworld, where Veasey is still referred to as a strung-out drug addict (he admits to a previous addiction) whose talk of turning the other cheek and walking away rings hollow. Underworld and law enforcement sources point out that only a few months ago, Veasey made another trip to Philadelphia during which he boldly sprayed graffiti on the storefront of a legitimate business owned by a former mob rival, and made threatening, obscenity-laden phone calls to the wise guy’s home. Those who have dealt with Veasey say this, rather than the look-at-me-I’ve-foundredemption character depicted in the book, is who John Veasey really is. “He’s a complicated guy,” said Cipriano, who spent more than a year working on the book. “He’s a murderer. He’s been convicted. He’s done his time. . . . But he has a fascinating story.”

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Louis Freeh’s Connection gregbucceroni Nov 10, 5:42pm Since Freeh was a mid level guy his name may not have been posted? Search FBI Gambino illegal porn investigations. Freeh worked on investigations Louis B. Freeh began his career as an agent of the FBI, and was later an assistant United States Attorney and a United States district court judge, the position he held when appointed FBI director. He is now a lawyer and consultant in the private sector. Freeh was an FBI Special Agent from 1975 to 1981 in the New York City field office and at F.B.I. Headquarters in Washington, D.C. A notable case Freeh was associated with was the "Pizza Connection" investigation, in which he was lead prosecutor. The case, prosecuted in the mid-1980s, involved a drug trafficking operation in the United States by Sicilian organized crime members who used pizza parlors as fronts. After a 14-month trial, 16 of 17 co-defendants were convicted. The "Pizza Connection" case was, at the time, the most complex criminal investigation ever undertaken by the U.S. government.[3] The prosecution in the United States was led by Louis J. Freeh and Richard A. Martin. Mr. Freeh, who later became a federal judge and Director of the FBI, was named the lead investigator during the two-year investigation that led to the arrests. At trial, Mr. Martin, who later became Special Representative of the U.S. Attorney General based in Rome, Italy, was designated lead counsel. He and Mr. Freeh shared responsibilities for the prosecution and were assisted by Robert C. Stewart of the Department of Justice, Robert B. Bucknam and Andrew C. McCarthy, both Assistant United States Attorneys in the Southern District of New York. For their efforts, each member of the prosecution team received the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service. The snippet on page 81 discusses Carmine F. Russo role in the FBI from 1978 to 2002 and he worked with Louis B. Freeh, a prosecutor and then FBI Director during this time.

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All of the red notes highlighted on page 80 regarding Freeh have very important links to his background as an FBI agent. It shows his “roots” from where he came and how he progressed up the ladder through the ranks of the FBI. The Department of Justice and FBI recently began reviewing 10,000 cases to look for flawed forensic evidence that might have convicted innocent people. The FBI and DOJ had previously formed another task force in the '90s to investigate flawed evidence, the Washington Post reported in April. The FBI director from 1993 to 2001, Louis Freeh, launched that task force with thenAttorney General Janet Reno. After nine years of working in secret, the unit neither published its reviews of specific cases nor informed potentially innocent defendants or their attorneys, according to the Post. Freeh has been praised lately for his independent investigation of the Penn State sexual abuse scandal and the alleged cover-up by top officials. But ex-FBI agent and whistleblower C. Fred Whitehurst told William Fisher of Prism magazine that Freeh's action were similar to those of PSU officials because Freeh "did everything in his power" to cover up mistakes made by FBI forensic analysts: “While I was reporting issues at the FBI crime lab, FBI Director Louis Freeh was doing every thing he could to shut me down including coming at me with proposed criminal charges, referrals for fitness for duty (psych evals), destroying my career, moving me around the lab like a rag doll, ruining my wife’s career. This man has no conscience and he is accusing Penn State managers of not taking any steps. He ought to be ashamed. Before the lab scandal is over you will find that Freeh was right in the middle of it. He did EXACTLY what the Penn State folks did.” We reached out to Freeh's law firm – Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan, LLP – but Freeh was unavailable for comment. Last week Whitehurst told Prism that the number of cases based on falsified or scientifically unfounded forensic evidence actually number in the hundreds of thousands because the FBI taught its forensic techniques to local, state, and federal crime lab personnel for decades. The Activities of the FBI, Part II Thursday June 5, 1997 House of Representatives Subcommittee on Crime, Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, DC. Please see page 14 where Louis B. Freeh testifies before the Committee.

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A Brief History Several weeks prior to July 26, 1908—when a special agent force that would ultimately become the FBI was officially created—I.C. Sauer was notified that he had been designated special agent in charge in New York City. Congress had recently ended the ability of the Department of Justice and other executive agencies to borrow investigators from the Treasury Department’s Secret Service, so Attorney General Charles Bonaparte began to reorganize the department, creating an experimental special agent force to answer the department’s investigative needs. Sauer was one of the first new agents hired for this force.

William M. Offley, Special Agent in Charge from 1912 to 1919

The early years The new force grew slowly, but from the beginning, agents were assigned to New York and Chicago because of the great need for regular investigative support in those cities. According to an agent who worked in the early Bureau, the New York Field Office had a special agent in charge and about six to eight field agents by 1911. A number of special examiners, accountants, and antitrust agents soon made New York City their operating base. Between 1910 and 1913, Mann Act (anti-prostitution) investigations were significant, as were a wide Early New York Field Office variety of white-collar crime matters. As World War I broke out in Europe, war-related investigations grew in importance, but the most significant violations—involving acts of sabotage—initially were not pursued by Bureau agents since there were no federal laws against such attacks, which were largely committed by German partisans. When the U.S. entered the war, Congress passed the Espionage Act of 1917, and New York became the key focus of much of the Bureau’s counterintelligence work. 1920s and 1930s Following the war, domestic terrorism became a focus of the New York Field Office as it pursued anarchist bombers responsible for a mail bombing campaign in the spring of 1919, a more direct bombing attack in June of that year, and the September 16, 1920 bombing of the J.P. Morgan Building on Wall Street that killed dozens and injured more

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than 300 people. Although much excellent investigative work was done, the Department of Justice’s attempt to round up and deport alien anarchists—commonly known as the Palmer Raids—generated intense criticism of the attorney general and the Bureau due to the abuse of the civil rights of many detainees. New York helped to develop another Bureau strength during the time period. Around 1918, the Bureau launched its first course of training for new agents in Chicago under Special Agent in Charge E.J. Brennan. The next year, Brennan was made special agent in charge of the New York Field Office, and the training program he developed followed him to New York City. Brennan was the chief, if not the only, lecturer in the school, and following his brief classroom instruction, new agents were assigned to tail experienced agents for several weeks to learn the ropes. This training was carried on in a more or less haphazard manner for a couple of years and reinstituted and formalized under Director Hoover in the late 1920s. Throughout the 1920s and into the early years of the Great Depression, the New York Field Office pursued a large and wide-ranging case load. In a Bureau-wide reorganization, the office took over cases from the Albany, Buffalo, and Newark Divisions. In 1932, it played an important role in the Bureau’s first kidnapping case, helping to investigate the disappearance and murder of the infant son of famed aviator Charles. New York agents provided assistance in the ransom handArtist sketch of ransom suspect in off, the arrest of Bruno Hauptmann (ultimately Lindbergh kidnapping case. convicted of the crime), and other aspects of the case. As early as 1933, New York agents sought specialized training in the use of firearms through the facilities of the New York Police Department (NYPD); this training was sought even before Congress authorized Bureau agents to carry firearms as federal law enforcement officials. By 1936, the New York Field Office had set up its own pistol range at the new federal courthouse in Foley Square, where the office had just relocated. Although many gangsters of the day operated in the Midwest, New York had its share of major organized criminals. The New York Field Office investigated the mob activities of Louis Lepke Buchalter and Jacob Shapiro in the extortion investigation known as the Fur Dressers Case. Buchalter’s organization, Murder Inc., was also investigated for extortion and racketeering. In 1939, through noted commentator Walter Winchell, Buchalter turned himself in to FBI Director Hoover in New York.

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World War II and the Cold War With World War II fast approaching in the late 1930s, counterintelligence investigations became more important, and the New York Field Office again played a significant role in the Bureau’s field cases. In 1938, New York investigators, namely Special Agent Leon Turrou, investigated a major German spy ring known as the Rumrich-Greibl Ring. The case was compromised from the beginning by the actions of other government agencies and the inexperience of our investigators, but the New York Field Office and the FBI learned some Mug shots of a few of the German spies valuable lessons. Within two years, the office was running a double agent named Sebold from the Duquesne case against the Duquesne Spy Ring. When the operation was over, 33 German spies were captured, significantly compromising German intelligence operations against the U.S. months before America entered World War II. The New York Field Office continued to be a major focus for FBI counterintelligence efforts throughout the war, supporting the Bureau’s Special Intelligence Service work in the Western Hemisphere, liaising with British intelligence through the British Security Coordination Office under William Stephenson, and pursuing many other investigations. New York agents also began investigating Soviet espionage, tracking dead letter drops in the city, and looking into the activities of Soviet diplomats, trade representatives at the Amtorg Office (a Soviet trade group that engaged in significant espionage as well), and others. With the end of World War II and the threat from Axis intelligence, the counterintelligence focus shifted to the Soviets. With the defection of Elizabeth Bentley in the fall of 1945, New York agents found themselves investigating dozens of previously unknown espionage suspects. Bentley had traveled regularly from New York City to Washington, D.C. to gather stolen Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, and Morton Sobell intelligence, so FBI offices in both cities were key to pursuing this case. With the deepening of relations between the FBI and the Army Signals Agency (later the National Security Agency) and the beginnings of a long-term project now called Venona, New York’s counterintelligence work moved from being reactive—chasing the past activities of suspected spies—to being more proactive. The office began tracking active spies like Judith Coplon and members of the Rosenberg

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Spy Ring and pursuing other actions to penetrate and disrupt Soviet espionage—from following leads provided by Venona to arresting the Soviet agent known as Rudolph Abel in 1958. National security investigations, of course, weren’t the only cases pursued by New York agents during the first decades of the Cold War. In 1952, New York agents had to investigate the murder of one of their own—Special Agent Joseph Brock, who was gunned down by violent bank robber Gerhard Arthur Puff. Puff was found guilty of murder the following year. New York agents also tracked down the kidnapper and murderer of 1-month-old Peter Weinberger—Angelo LaMarca—following a painstaking investigation that included the examination of two million handwriting samples. The 1960s and 1970s

John F. Malone

In November 1962, John F. Malone was appointed assistant director in charge of the New York Field Office. Malone served in that position until retiring in 1975, making him the longest-serving field division head in FBI history. Highlights of Malone’s tenure included investigations of: the early 1970s attacks on New York police and others by domestic terrorist groups like the Black Liberation Army and the Weather Underground; airplane hijackings; major Soviet, Chinese, and East Bloc spies operating in and around New York; and violent bank robbers as portrayed in the movie Dog Day Afternoon.

When Malone retired, the FBI was undergoing significant change. On the one hand, it was greatly revamping and reducing its domestic security program, in which the New York Field Office played a significant role. As a result, the office scaled back its investigation of a wide range of subversive groups, concentrating on those like the Weather Underground and the FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation) that used violence and serious criminal activity as part of their operations. On the other hand, new legislative tools like the Title III wiretap authority and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act of 1970 offered the Bureau new ways to attack organized criminal groups as a whole rather than piece-meal as it had in the past. These new approaches were pioneered in New York, leading to a series of major cases in the 1980s—including the Commission and Pizza Connection cases—that allowed the FBI to put the major New York mob leaders out of business. These cases were successful due the brave undercover work of agents like Joe Pistone, future Director Louis Freeh, and many others. Throughout this period, New York personnel often struggled with the high cost of living in the city, especially in the stagflation period of the late 1970s. Many had to commute long distances to work in order to maintain affordable housing. These problems led to strong calls for pay reform to address the issue. Over the next decade, changes were made—including efforts to increase the pay of agents, especially those working

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counterintelligence—but it was the eventual implementation of locality pay that finally began to ameliorate the burden of working in a high-cost-of-living area like New York. 1980s and 1990s Meanwhile, the New York Field Office continued to be on the cutting edge of FBI investigations. It pioneered, for example, the interagency task force approach to tackling crime problems. First, in 1979, the FBI/NYPD Joint Bank Robbery Task Force was established. By April of 1980, Bureau and NYPD counterterrorism investigators teamed up to form the nation’s first Joint Terrorism Task Force, or JTFF, which soon became Wreckage from the World Trade Center highly successful. NYPD and FBI personnel investigated a number of terrorism-related acts—from the deadly 1981 armored car robbery by one of the more violent domestic terrorist groups to a wide range of foreign terrorist-related matters, including the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 and the subsequent plot to bomb the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, all field offices that did not already have a JTTF were ordered to create one. Counterintelligence remained central to the work of the New York Field Office. The presence of the United Nations and the significant economic, educational, and cultural activities of New York meant that the city was a key figure in the last years of the Cold War. In 1984, for instance, New York agents arrested Alice Michelson, an East German agent heading for Czechoslovakia. New York personnel were also actively involved in Operation Famish, a response to increasing Soviet espionage that culminated in 1985 in what the media called the “Year of the Spy.” Under a National Security Council project, the FBI also identified dozens of Soviet intelligence personnel— a significant number from the New York area—who the State Department declared persona non grata. During this time, the New York Field Office pursued a variety of criminal cases, including not only organized crime and violent crime but also racketeering investigations like those involving Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and even political cases like the Wedtech scandal that led to the 1988 conviction of New York representative Robert Garcia on bribery and other corruption charges. The New York Field Office continued to grow as well. Its Long Island Resident Agency, for example, was larger than 12 other FBI field offices at 87

the time. By the 1990s, many of the investigations in New York were also beginning to have international dimensions. In the mid-1980s, Congress authorized the FBI to investigate crimes against U.S. persons, even if committed overseas. Under this authority, New York personnel pursued Ramzi Yousef to Pakistan, where FBI agents and Pakistani officials arrested him for his role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. In 1998, cooperation between the FBI and the Russian MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs) led to the arrest of three New York residents for kidnapping a Khazak businessman. Also in 1998, the office played a lead role in the investigation of the al Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. And that same year, an investigation by the FBI-NYPD Joint Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force led to racketeering charges against six Russian organized crime members. Post 9/11 The need for such cross-jurisdictional cooperation increased sharply with the terrorist attacks of 9/11. As soon as the first plane hit the World Trade Center building, the New York Field Office and the FBI as a whole were immersed in the largest single investigation in Bureau history. Setting up temporary space in a parking garage on the west side of Manhattan, the office quickly began its work. It soon learned that in the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings, the Bureau had lost New, who was working to evacuate people when the towers fell. In the ensuing months, FBI personnel from New York—together with a wide array of federal, state, and local partners—pursued thousands of leads and turned up vital information in the case. It also painstakingly sifted through the World Trade Center wreckage at the former Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, recovering evidence of the hijackers and their plot. Like the rest of the Bureau, in the wake of the horrific attacks the New York Field Office placed greater emphasis than ever on stopping terrorists before they strike, and that meant greatly strengthening its intelligence capabilities. Those capabilities were increasingly applied not only to national security cases but also to criminal investigations. The office has continued to take down leaders of the major organized crime families, corrupt CEOs and other corporate executives, major gang leaders, and sophisticated cyber criminals. The white-collar crime branch spearheaded major investigations of corporate and securities fraud, including the case that led to the conviction of Bernard Madoff on numerous fraud charges in connection with his massive Ponzi scheme; the conviction of WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers; the convictions of Tongsun Park and Bay Oil executive David Chalmers in the Oil-for-Food case; and the conviction of Martha Stewart on conspiracy and obstruction charges in connection with her disposition of Imclone stock.

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In the organized crime realm, since 9/11, the New York Field Office has arrested and convicted the leadership of all five La Cosa Nostra families twice over, and effectively put the “sixth” family, the DeCavalcante family, out of commission. In an unprecedented occurrence, Bonanno family boss Joe Massino became the highest-ranking mobster ever to become an FBI cooperator. The violent crime branch continues to address the threat posed by gangs and other violent criminal enterprises, including the geographic spread of gangs to areas outside New York City. Major initiatives with law enforcement partners have made significant inroads on Long Island and in Westchester and Orange Counties. The counterintelligence division, whose work, by necessity, remains mostly under the radar, continues to protect the nation from all forms of espionage. The recent arrests and deportations of a sleeper cell of Russian “illegals” represent just a fraction of the sophisticated counterespionage work being done by the New York Field Office in the post-Cold War era. Investigators search through debris on Counterterrorism remains the largest the USS Cole after the October 2000 priority for the office. The FBI’s Joint bombing in Yemen. Terrorism Task Force continues to aggressively investigate all forms of criminal activity, including the 2007 John F. Kennedy Airport bomb plot, the 2009 New York subway bomb plot, and the 2010 attempted Times Square bombing. The New York Field Office also has extraterritorial responsibilities to investigate criminal and terrorist attacks targeting U.S. citizens and interests abroad in cooperation with the host countries. In July 2010, an attack during the final match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup occurred in Kampala, Uganda. The FBI New York JTTF led the largest international response since the 2000USS Cole attacks, investigating several bombs that killed scores of people.

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Today, the New York Field Office is composed of over 2,000 agents, support staff, and task force members. It is the largest field office in terms of staff, and its territory has a population of over 13 million. As threats change and criminal activity becomes more sophisticated, the FBI’s President Obama visits the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force in October of 2009. New York Field Office will continue to adapt quickly yet judiciously to those who threaten America’s security. In combating traditional crimes and the newest threats, the New York Field Office will continue to proactively protect the nation as we work to advance our partnerships with law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world. The Rise of International Crime (1980s) in 1978, Director Kelley resigned and was replaced by former federal Judge William H. Webster. At the time of his appointment, Webster was serving as Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He had previously been a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Also in 1978, the FBI began using laser technology in the Identification Division to detect latent crime scene fingerprints. In 1982, following an explosion of terrorist incidents worldwide, Webster made counterterrorism a fourth national priority. He also expanded FBI efforts in the three others: foreign counterintelligence, organized crime, and white-collar crime. Part of this expansion was the creation of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. The FBI solved so many espionage cases during the mid-1980s that the press dubbed 1985 "the year of the spy." The most serious espionage damage uncovered by the FBI was perpetrated by the John Walker spy ring and by former National Security Agency employee William Pelton. Throughout the 1980s, the illegal drug trade severely challenged the resources of American law enforcement. To ease this challenge, in 1982 the attorney general gave the FBI concurrent jurisdiction with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) over narcotics violations in the United States. The expanded Department of Justice attention to drug crimes resulted in the confiscation of millions of dollars in controlled substances, the arrests of major narcotics figures, and the dismantling of important drug rings. One of the most publicized, dubbed "the Pizza Connection" case, and involved the heroin trade in the United States and Italy. It resulted in 18 convictions, including a former leader of the Sicilian Mafia. Then Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis J. Freeh, who was to be appointed FBI Director in 1993, was key to prosecutive successes in the case.

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On another front, Webster strengthened the FBI's response to white-collar crimes. Public corruption was attacked nationwide. Convictions resulting from FBI investigations included members of Congress (ABSCAM), the judiciary (Grey Lord), and state legislatures in California and South Carolina. A major investigation culminating in 1988 unveiled corruption in defense procurement (Ill Wind). As the U.S. faced a financial crisis in the failures of savings and loan associations during the 1980s, the FBI uncovered instances of fraud that lay behind many of those failures. It was perhaps the single largest investigative effort undertaken by the FBI to that date: from investigating 10 bank failures in 1981, it had 282 bank failures under investigation by February 1987. Resources to investigate fraud during the savings and loan crisis were provided by the Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enhancement Act. In 1984, the FBI acted as lead agency for security of the Los Angeles Olympics. In the course of its efforts to anticipate and prepare for acts of terrorism and street crime, it built important bridges of interaction and cooperation with local, state, and other federal agencies, as well as agencies of other countries. It also unveiled the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team as a domestic force capable of responding to complex hostage situations such as tragically occurred in Munich at the 1972 games. Perhaps as a result of the Bureau's emphasis on combating terrorism, such acts within the United States decreased dramatically during the 1980s. In 1986, Congress had expanded FBI jurisdiction to cover terrorist acts against U.S. citizens outside the U.S. boundaries. Later, in 1989, the Department of Justice authorized the FBI to arrest terrorists, drug traffickers, and other fugitives abroad without the consent of the foreign country in which they resided. Expanded resources were not limited to "established" crime areas like terrorism and violent crime. In 1984, the FBI established the Computer Analysis and Response Team (CART) to retrieve evidence from computers (it became a full program in 1991). On May 26, 1987, Judge Webster left the FBI to become Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Executive Assistant Director John E. Otto became Acting Director and served in that position until November 2, 1987. During his tenure, Acting Director Otto designated drug investigations as the FBI's fifth national priority. On November 2, 1987, former federal Judge William Steele Sessions was sworn in as FBI Director. Prior to his appointment as FBI Director, Sessions served as the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. He had previously served as a District Judge and as U.S. Attorney for that district. Under Director Sessions, crime prevention efforts, in place since Director Kelley's tenure, were expanded to include a drug demand reduction program. FBI offices nationwide began working closely with local school and civic groups to educate young people to the dangers of drugs. Subsequent nationwide community outreach efforts

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under that program evolved and expanded through such initiatives as the Adopt-ASchool/Junior G-man Program. The expansion in initiatives required a larger workforce and by 1988, the FBI employed 9,663 special agents and 13,651 support employees in 58 field offices and 15 legal attachés. America's Children and the American Mafia

The Gambino Mafia Family, which for decades has victimized America’s children through the trafficking of drugs and production of child pornography, may be about to take on a new direction in regards to it’s treatment of our Society’s most vulnerable; lawyers for John "Junior" Gotti, the son of the late Gambino Godfather, claimed in a Court proceeding that "Junior" has renounced crime and is writing children’s books. The stunning claims elicited an angry reaction from Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, who was in Federal Court in Manhattan when lawyers tried unsuccessfully to convince the Judge in Gotti’s case to release the convicted felon on bail. Junior is facing numerous new charges that could send him to prison for life, including charges he ordered the assassination of Sliwa, who was shot five times and narrowly escaped with his life in 1992. Sliwa, a popular radio talk show host, had angered the Gotti Family by denouncing the Gambino Godfather as "Public Enemy Number One" during the dark days when Gotti and his crew roamed - and ruled - New York City at will. The new claims about Junior, based in part upon conversations with him taped by prison inmate snitches, came as the FBI began digging up a vacant lot in New York where new information indicates there may be several Gambino murder victims buried. One such person thought to be in the lot is John Favara, abducted and murdered after Favara, a neighbor of the Gotti family, accidentally ran over and killed Gotti’s 12 year old son in 1980. Over the years the children of America have received a great disservice by the entertainment industry and some members of the Media, who have portrayed members of the Mafia in heroic and Romantic terms. Gambino Family Godfather Paul Castellano, sometimes portrayed as a "man of Honor" and a gentleman, was, in fact, in charge of a Mafia Family that victimized children through the production and distribution of child pornography. Castellano was in fact indicted on these charges and others, including murder, by Federal Prosecutor Rudolph Giuliani until his murder by the elder John Gotti and his crew outside Sparks Steak House in Manhattan in 1985. With John Gotti in control, the Gambino Family continued to victimize

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young people through the trafficking of drugs. Gene Gotti, John’s brother and Junior’s Uncle, is currently serving a life sentence for heroin trafficking. The Gambino Family also during the Gotti years continued to produce and distribute child pornography, with this operation being overseen by Associate Robert "Dibi" DiBernardo, who also handled corrupt labor unions for the Gambino Family. DiBernardo was one of several men eventually murdered by Gambino Underboss Sammy "The Bull" Gravano in order to take over their lucrative businesses, legal and otherwise. John Gotti finally was sent to prison for Life after Sammy "The Bull" ‘flipped’ and agreed to testify against him. Once free on the streets of America, Gravano then set up his own young son and daughter in a scheme that trafficked drugs to young people in four States. Gravano also allegedly participated in a plot to assassinate attorney Ron Kuby, who filed a lawsuit on behalf of children of men murdered by Gravano. The lawsuit, which eventually succeeded, sought the confiscation of the profits Gravano received from the sale of his best-selling book "Underboss," written with author Peter Maas. Many of the children of murder victims of Gravano involved in this lawsuit were in attendance at the 1997 trial of Genovese Mafia Family Godfather Vincent "Chin" Gigante, at which Gravano testified as a Prosecution Witness. These victims, who grew up without their fathers because of Gravano’s murderous greed, were a sad sight for those who attended the trial. One of the few books to deal with the subject of the psychological damage inflicted on children by Mafia operations was the 2001 best-seller "The Lost Son" by former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik. In his autobiography Kerik details the emotional trauma he suffered for years due to the first years of his life spent in the custody of his mother, a drug addict who worked as a prostitute for an Ohio operation associated with the Cleveland Mafia Family. Kerik overcame his demons by dedicating his life to the fight against organized crime. Kerik, along with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, became a national hero after nearly losing his life on 9/11. Kerik also narrowly escaped assassination while working as a civilian for the State Department in Baghdad, Iraq. The victimization of children by organized crime was also explored by reporters for the Boston Herald and Boston Globe during the late 1990s and into this decade as the scandal unfolded regarding the "Winter Hill" Gang, a group of Irish and Italian mobsters that ruled New England during the past two decades. This crime syndicate, led by "Whitey" Bulger, an FBI Informant, was made up of several pedophiles who preyed on underage girls, many of whom were plied with the illegal drugs that funded the gang’s operations. Some of these sexual encounters were videotaped for the pedophile market.

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Bulger’s top aides were Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi and "Cadillac Frank" Salemme. Flemmi’s sexual conquests included two teenagers he would eventually murder once they grew too "old" for him after leaving their teens; Deborah Davis, and Deborah Hussey. Hussey was Flemmi’s step-daughter whom Flemmi first raped when she was 14 years old. The Winter Hill gang was protected for many years by FBI agents, including Paul Rico, who had recruited Flemmi as an FBI Informant, and agent John Connolly, who handled Whitey Bulger. Rationale for this arrangement was Bulger’s and Flemmi’s role in assisting the FBI in targeting members of the Patriarca Family, Boston’s original Italian Mafia syndicate. In 1994, "Whitey" Bulger went on the lam after agent Connolly tipped him off he was about to be indicted for the murders of 18 people. Connolly is currently serving a 10 year prison sentence for his role in these crimes. Retired FBI agent Paul Rico was indicted for his role in helping the gang murder Tulsa businessman Roger Wheeler, but Rico died before his trial began. As the current sagas have unfolded in New York City, Scott Favara, the nowgrown son of Gotti murder victim John Favara, has broken his many years of silence, revealing to the New York Daily News the anguish his family has suffered through in the years since his father’s disappearance. Favara is hopeful that his father’s remains will be found so that he can give him what the family wants to provide - a decent burial. This sad and somber story is in stark contrast to some reports on Curtis Sliwa’s and Ron Kuby’s top-rated radio program, syndicated to a national audience every Monday through Friday morning. Their program has had a field day during the first week of these new disclosures and Court proceedings, running devastatingly humorous satires as to how children’s books by Junior Gotti might read. Putting the humor aside, the outcome of the upcoming trial is of grave concern for Sliwa, who is seeking Vindication and Justice, and for Gotti, who is seeking a second chance to live a life outside organized crime. Junior Gotti could in fact be on the level regarding his desire to write books, given that he could be taking inspiration from his sister Victoria Gotti, who has carved out a successful career as a best-selling author and journalist. However, Junior might best find inspiration for his writing from the best-selling book of all time, copies of which are available in every prison across America, which addresses the issue of the Sins of the Father being passed on to their sons.

The Mafia is a degenerate organization which exploits human misery for criminal profit, and even children are not beyond the reach of its dirty hands. For decades the

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Mafia has been the principal producer and distributor of kiddie porn and according to recently released FBI documents among the key figures in this racket was Gambino capo Robert DiBernardo who was a top lieutenant to family boss Paul Castellano. The pair would meet each Friday at Castellano's Staten Island mansion to gloat how filthy rich they were getting from their ungodly alliance. In 1986 federal postal inspectors discovered cartons of magazines seemingly depicting underage boys "engaged in sexually explicit conduct" at smut shops in Times Square and Greenwich Village which allegedly were distributed by DiBernardo, and during a subsequent March 1986 raid on DiBernardo's office seized alleged "child pornography and financial records." As "a result of the Postal Inspectors seizures [a federal prosecutor] is attempting to indict DiBernardo on child pornography violations" according to an FBI memo dated May 20, 1986. Since at least 1979 DiBernardo was "a well known pornography distributor also dealing in child pornography" according to a July 28, 1981 FBI document. Indeed, the FBI's New York field office had been monitoring DiBernardo's role in the smut trade since 1968 when he was arrested by the NYPD on his first obscenity charge for distributing a porno mag entitled Young Stuff which, of course, was later dismissed. Among those who may have supplied DiBernardo with material was Michael Umbers who was a suspected front for a Gambino gay bar or two on Christopher Street during the 1970s. The Gambino family through reputed soldiers Eddie DeCurtis and Paul DiBella allegedly had silent interests in a number of Greenwich Village gay bars. In addition to running gay bars Umbers produced boy-on-boy porn. For example, a Dec. 23, 1971 article by Arthur Bell for The Village Voice states that "a couple of years ago, Umbers was arrested along with two other men and indicted on charges related to violation of the state obscenity law": According to an official assigned to the case, the men conspired to conduct a pornography operation soliciting young boys of 16 and under. They'd have them participate in 'deviate sexual acts' which they’d film and distribute. Umbers procured the kids. Unfortunately, the feds were precluded by intervening events from indicting DiBernardo on the child pornography charges. In a power play for control over the Gambino family John Gotti whacked Castellano on December 16, 1985, and only months later whacked DiBernardo on June 5, 1986. A September 22, 1986 article ("Gotti OKd Hit On Porn Czar Rival") by Philip Messing for the New York Post states: [DiBernardo's] alleged involvement with porn had nothing to do with his death, law enforcement authorities say. Instead, DiBernardo is thought to have been slain after he sought to fill a slot in the family hierarchy left by the April 14 mob execution of Frank DeCicco. Indeed, according to FBI sources Gotti had no intention of giving up the crime family's interests in the smut trade after DiBernardo's death. For example, in April 1987 an

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informant told the FBI that "Gotti realizes the enormous profits to be made in the pornography industry and will certainly not be turning his back on a possibility of sharing in these profits," and Gotti recently had visited Florida to meet some "pornography dealers aligned with the Gambino family." Of course, notwithstanding his suspected heinous crimes DiBernardo wasn't all bad. The Gambino capo was a well-liked little league coach in the community. No word on whether any of his players ever became any of his models. Gale Encyclopedia of Biography: Louis J. Freeh Appointed director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1993, Louis J. Freeh (born 1950) was selected for this promotion because of the reputation he had earned in federal law enforcement. As an FBI agent and then a federal prosecutor, Freeh had helped win convictions in high-profile criminal cases. Despite controversy that swirled around the FBI during his watch, Freeh remained committed to running the bureau for as long as he could be effective. The son of Beatrice and William Freeh, Sr., Louis Freeh was born on January 6, 1950, in Jersey City, New Jersey. Although a youth of considerable promise and ambition, Freeh came from a family of modest means. As a result he attended local public universities and worked to defray his expenses. His family lived in three rooms on the first floor of their house, renting the second story, after his father, a transplanted Brooklynite and real estate broker, moved the family to Hudson County. Graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Rutgers University in 1971, Freeh earned his law degree in 1974 from Rutgers Law School at Newark. In 1974-1975 he served as a law clerk in the Newark office of New Jersey's Republican senator, Clifford Case, leaving in 1975 to accept an appointment as an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Assigned to New York Office Assigned to the FBI's New York office, Freeh worked in the organized crime unit. His diligence and skills were fully demonstrated in a major investigation he headed of corruption on the New York waterfront that resulted in the conviction of 125 union and waterfront officials on federal racketeering charges. Anthony Scotto, the president of the International Longshoremen's Union, was one of those convicted. For this achievement Freeh was awarded a special FBI commendation and was promoted to supervisor in the Organized Crime Unit at FBI headquarters in Washington. While employed as an FBI agent Freeh met his future wife, Marilyn, at the time employed as a clerk at FBI headquarters. They became the parents of five sons. Freeh's demonstrated skills and close cooperation with federal prosecutors earned him a further promotion in 1981 to assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York (New York City). Concurrent with this assignment,

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Freeh attended New York University Law School, earning the LLM degree in 1984. From 1988 to 1992 he served as adjunct associate professor at Fordham Law School. His matriculation and part-time teaching reflected his desire to enhance his knowledge of criminal law and his credentials for promotion in the federal judiciary. Rose on His Record His impressive record as prosecutor ensured such promotion, with his most important case involving the successful indictment and eventual conviction in 1987 of 16 of 17 crime leaders in the so-called Pizza Connection case. This complex criminal case involved a Sicilian-based drug-dealing (heroin) and money-laundering operation stretching from Turkey to Brazil that in the United States used pizza parlors as fronts for money laundering. Freeh not only won the respect of the law enforcement community for his skill in recruiting informers and tracing the elaborate ruses employed to sell drugs and launder money, but even defense attorneys praised his fairness when arguing the government's case in court. An innovative prosecutor, Freeh, for example, secured the cooperation of second-level criminals who provided the testimony that helped convict high-level Mafia leaders by setting up a U.S. witness protection program for foreign informers. The successful prosecution of the Pizza Connection case led in 1987 to his promotions first to head the Organized Crime Unit in the New York office and then, in January 1989, to deputy U.S. attorney. In addition, in 1989 he received the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Achievement Award. A Leading Prosecutor Recognized as one of the leading prosecutors in the nation, Freeh was selected by Attorney General Richard Thornburgh in May 1990 to head a special federal investigation into the mail bombing deaths of Federal Judge Robert Vance of Birmingham, Alabama, and Savannah (Georgia) alderman and NAACP official Robert Robinson. Freeh masterminded a nationwide investigation that culminated in the arrest and conviction of Walter Lee Moody for terrorist acts (which also included sending mail bombs to other civil rights offices throughout the South). His handling of this investigation earned him the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service in 1991 and then, in July 1991, his nomination by President George Bush and Senate confirmation as federal district judge in the Southern District of New York. Only 41 years old at the time of his appointment to the federal bench, Freeh's meteoric rise was based on his credentials as a skilled investigator and prosecutor and on his ability to work closely and effectively with others. Unlike others whose judicial appointments had been based on political connections, Freeh had never been directly involved in partisan politics.

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His reputation for fairness and ability to provide leadership earned him the unprecedented promotion, given his youthful age of 43, to the post of FBI director. President Bill Clinton's decision to fire FBI Director William Sessions came on July 19, 1993, owing to questions raised beginning in October 1992 about Sessions' personal abuse of office. Sessions was known to travel in an armored limousine and in a private jet at taxpayers' expense. Now the president needed the appointment of someone who could lead the bureau at a transitional time in its history and at the same time win quick confirmation. Nominated on July 20, 1993, Freeh's reputation in the law enforcement community and with leaders of the Senate (notably Senators Daniel Moynihan, Sam Nunn, and Joseph Biden) resulted in a trouble-free and speedy Senate confirmation on August 6, 1993. Freeh's appointment came at a critical time in the history of the FBI, confronting as he would the twin problems of redefining how the FBI should respond in the post-Cold War era to the international character of organized crime and religiously-based terrorism and at the same time finally settle the legacies of former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's controversial 48-year tenure. Under Hoover the FBI had strayed away from law enforcement to monitor and seek to contain the influence of dissident political organizations, had avoided hiring and promoting women and ethnic and racial minorities as agents, and had been constrained from instituting more innovative procedures and revised priorities to ensure successful prosecution of organized crime, political corruption, and white collar crime. Hoover's successors had moved slowly to contain FBI political surveillance, to increase the recruitment and promotion of women and minorities, and to adopt more flexible procedures and innovative strategies to address the more complex problems confronting the law enforcement community. Internal conflict within the bureau hierarchy, moreover, had slowed the pace of these administrative and personnel reforms. Toward the end of 1993 Freeh traveled to Sicily to honor an Italian official assassinated by the Mafia. The visit and his words became a pledge to curb the Mafia. Not Without Controversy Further into his 10-year term, Freeh was beset by a series of embarrassments that tarnished the reputation of the FBI as well as his own. In 1996, the FBI was maligned for being overzealous in its pursuit of Richard Jewell, suspected of detonating a bomb at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Jewell turned out to be innocent. The bureau's crime laboratory was found by the Justice Department's Inspector General in 1997 to be so sloppy in its practices that it potentially tainted hundreds of cases. "We're going to get hundreds, if not thousands, of motions that are going to encompass every part of the lab, from latent-fingerprint comparisons to tire-tread analysis," said one ranking FBI agent.

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On a different front, Freeh quarreled with the Clinton White House over whether agents investigating possible Chinese influence on elected U.S. officials told National Security Council aides receiving information from the investigation that they could pass it on to their superiors. Clinton maintained the agents told the Security Council aides they could not pass the information, and Freeh contradicted the president. An associate of Freeh's leaked an advance copy of an unflattering book about the White House written by a former FBI agent. The same associate also provided "hundreds of personal files" to White House security aides. In response to the charges, Freeh made it harder for the White House to obtain sensitive material from the FBI. The director recruited a scientist to run the FBI lab and made numerous procedural changes as well. Freeh also was criticized for showing favoritism to his friends, micromanaging bureau operations, and being aloof from the news media. Freeh's defenders lauded the director for cutting "chair-warmers" from bureau staff, streamlining the organization, getting in closer contact with agents working in the field, and fostering cooperation with the rival Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It also was noted that Freeh abandoned the personal excesses of his predecessor, opting to ride in a minivan instead of a limousine and fly on commercial jets instead of a private plane. Despite the controversies, Freeh had the support of agents in the field. "In spite of wellpublicized difficulties, the director's support within the bureau is largely intact," John J. Sennett, president of the FBI Agents Association told The New York Times in 1997. "Yet agents are very disturbed by recent negative press. Freeh's most significant shortcoming in the minds of agents has been his apparent unwillingness to get the bureau's story out." Despite the FBI's image problems, Freeh said he intended remain director until the end of his term or for as long has he can be effective running the large bureaucracy with an annual budget of about $3 billion and about 25,000 agents. Further Reading Freeh is the subject of a brief biographical sketch in Who's Who in American Law, 19921993. His role in the successful prosecution of the so-called Pizza Connection case is briefly described in Ralph Blumenthal, Last Days of the Sicilians: The FBI's War Against the Mafia (1988), and the controversy leading to Sessions' dismissal and Freeh's appointment as FBI director is sketchily surveyed in Ronald Kessler, The FBI: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency (1993). See also Leslie Grove's "The FBI's Freeh Agent" in Vanity Fair (December 1993). Researchers might more profitably consult the various news stories in national newspapers and periodicals (New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Newsweek, TIME) at the time of his nomination and confirmation as FBI director in July-September 1993 and the confirmation hearings

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held in August 1993 by the Senate Judiciary Committee on his nomination as FBI director. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72198634.html?FMT= ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Oct+31%2C+1993&author=Steve+Coll&pub=Th e+Washington+Post+(pre1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=W.10&desc=LOUIS+FREEH+AND+THE +ANTI-MAFIA+WAR – This link shows the names of others who worked with Louis B. Freeh during his mid level years as an FBI agent who investigated the Sicilian Mafia and all their operations. FREE Article Preview Buy Complete Document

LOUIS FREEH AND THE ANTI-MAFIA WAR

[FINAL Edition]

The Washington Post (pre-1997 Fulltext) - Washington, D.C. Author: Steve Coll Date: Oct 31, 1993 Start Page: W.10 Section: MAGAZINE Text Word Count: 652 The "we" refers to a tightly knit band of American and Italian prosecutors, investigators, street agents and undercover officers who first came together in New York during the early 1980s to take on the Sicilian Mafia and its U.S. branches. On the Italian side, the ranks of this cabal have been thinned by assassinations - Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino, others. For the survivors, the anti-Mafia enterprise they began 10 years ago, with [LOUIS FREEH] as a central player, remains a defining experience of their lives and careers. Some, like Robert Bucknam, have now joined Freeh as key aides. Others traveled to Washington from as far away as Rome because to watch Freeh sworn in, to hear President Clinton call him "a law enforcement legend," was a commemoration of something more than Freeh's personal achievement. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.

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Louis Freeh testifying before the FCC and states his service record in the FBI from 1975 to 1981.

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The figures were provided to CNN as FBI Director Louis Freeh prepared to brief a Senate panel Tuesday on the ongoing probe, codenamed Innocent Images. The FBIs Baltimore office is leading the nationwide effort to track down pedophiles using online services to transmit child porn or to recruit children into sexual relationships. FBI agents in Baltimore first became involved in the investigation in 1993 while attempting to find 10 year old George Stanley Burdynski, who was abducted from his Brentwood, Maryland neighborhood. Burdynski was never found, but the investigation led to the discovery that both adults and juveniles were routinely using computers to transmit images of children aged two to 13 showing frontal nudity or sexually explicit conduct; 1997 Cable News Network, Inc. All Rights Reserved.; 12 arrested in computer pornography sweep September 14, 1995 It’s heartbreaking, and it happens. Virtually every day, children are exploited and lured away from their families by cyber sexual predators. The FBI is committed to stopping these crimes through our Innocent Images National Initiative. Based in Maryland, it joins FBI agents with local and international task force members who collaborate in online undercover investigations specifically geared towards stopping those who prey on our children. Overview and History: Online Child Pornography/Child Sexual Exploitation Investigations The Innocent Images National Initiative (IINI) is a proactive, intelligence driven, multiagency investigative operation that focuses on combating the proliferation of child pornography/child sexual exploitation (CP/CSE) worldwide. The IINI provides centralized coordination and analysis of case information that by its very nature is both national and international in scope and requires unprecedented coordination between FBI field offices and legal attachés and state, local, and international governments. Today, computer telecommunications have become one of the most prevalent techniques used by pedophiles to not only share illegal images of minors, but to also lure child victims into illicit sexual relationships. The Internet has dramatically increased the access of the preferential sex offender to the population they seek to victimize and provides them with greater access to a community of people who validate their sexual preferences. The mission of the IINI is to reduce the vulnerability of children to acts of sexual exploitation and abuse that are facilitated through the use of computers; to identify and rescue child victims; to investigate and prosecute sexual predators who use the Internet and other online services to sexually exploit children for personal or financial gain; and to strengthen the capabilities of federal, state, local, and international law enforcement through training programs and investigative assistance.

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The History of the Innocent Images National Initiative While investigating the disappearance of a juvenile in May 1993, FBI special agents and Prince George’s County, Maryland police detectives identified two suspects who had sexually exploited numerous juveniles over a 25-year period. Investigation into these activities determined that adults were routinely utilizing computers to transmit sexually explicit images to minors and in some instances to lure minors into engaging in illicit sexual activity. Further investigation and discussions among experts, both within the FBI and in the private sector, revealed that the utilization of computer telecommunications was rapidly becoming one of the most prevalent techniques by which some sex offenders shared pornographic images of minors and identified/recruited child victims into sexually illicit relationships. In 1995, based upon information developed during this investigation, the Innocent Images National Initiative was started to address the illicit activities conducted by users of commercial and private online services and the Internet. The IINI is managed by the Innocent Images National Initiative Unit, which is a component of the Cyber Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Innocent Images field supervisors and investigative personnel work closely with the Innocent Images National Initiative Unit regarding all IINI investigative, administrative, policy, and training matters. The IINI provides a coordinated FBI response to this nationwide crime problem by collating and analyzing information obtained from all available sources. Today the FBI’s Innocent Images National Initiative focuses on: Online organizations, enterprises, and communities that exploit children for profit and/or personal gain;  Major distributors of child pornography, such as those who appear to have transmitted large volumes of child pornography on several occasions to several people;  Producers of child pornography;  Individuals who travel, or indicate a willingness to travel, for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity with a minor; and  Large volume possessors of child pornography. The FBI and the Department of Justice review all files and select the most egregious subjects for prosecution. In addition, the IINI works diligently to identify child victims and obtain appropriate services/assistance for them. It is the IINI’s intent to establish a law enforcement presence on the Internet that will act as a deterrent to those who seek to sexually exploit children. 

The Growth of the Innocent Images National Initiative Over the last several years, the FBI, state and local law enforcement, and the public have developed an increased awareness of the CP/CSE crime problem.

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More incidents of online CP/CSE are being identified for investigation than ever before. Between fiscal years 1996 and 2007, the number of IINI cases opened throughout the FBI catapulted from 113 to 2,443. From 2007 to the present, the numbers have steadily continued to rise. In April 2012, the FBI had approximately 5,600 pending CP/CSE investigations under the IINI program. As the power and popularity of the Internet continues to expand, the number of CP/CSE cases opened, and the resources utilized to address the CP/CSE crime problem, will likely continue to grow. The steady increase in Innocent Images investigations demonstrated the need for a mechanism that could not only track subject transactions, but also correlate the seemingly unrelated activities of thousands of subjects in a cyberspace environment. As a result, the Innocent Images Case Management System was developed and has proven to be an effective system to archive and retrieve the information necessary to identify and target priority subjects. Innocent Images National Initiative Investigations Each of the FBI’s 56 field offices has worked investigations developed by the IINI. In fact, many FBI field offices contain task forces that combine the resources of the FBI with other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to conduct IINI undercover operations. Additionally, the Department of Justice provides funding for numerous Internet Crimes against Children (ICAC) Task Forces, which combine various law enforcement resources to coordinate working IINI investigations. In order to foster a more cohesive working environment, the IINI provides investigative training to all law enforcement members involved in CP/CSE investigations, including those from other federal, state, local, and foreign law enforcement agencies. During the early stages of IINI, a substantial amount of time was spent conducting investigations on commercial online service providers that provided numerous easily accessible “chat rooms” where teenagers and pre-teens could meet and converse with one another. By using chat rooms, children could talk for hours with unknown individuals, often without the knowledge and/or approval of their parents. Investigation into many of these sites revealed that sex offenders were utilizing the chat rooms to contact children, especially since these children could not determine whether they were chatting with a 14-year-old or a 40-year-old. Today, not only chat rooms but other social networking and online media forums offer the advantage of immediate communication around the world, providing pedophiles with an anonymous means of identifying and recruiting child victims into sexually illicit relationships. As the years have passed, IINI has expanded its scope to include investigations involving all areas of the Internet and online services including:   

Internet websites that post child pornography; Internet news groups; Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels; 104

   

Online groups and organizations (eGroups); Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file-sharing programs; Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) and other online forums; and Social networking venues.

FBI agents and task force officers go online into predicated locations utilizing fictitious screen names and engaging in real-time chat or e-mail conversations with subjects in order to obtain evidence of criminal activity. Investigation of specific online locations can be initiated through:    

A citizen complaint; A complaint by an online service provider; A referral from a law enforcement agency; or Uncovering the name of the online location (i.e., a chat room) that suggests illicit activity.

International CP/CSE investigations are coordinated through the FBI’s legal attaché program, which continuously work with appropriate international law enforcement entities overseas. The Innocent Images International Task Force (IIITF) became operational on October 6, 2004 and serves as the largest task force of its kind in the world. The IIITF consists of online child sexual exploitation investigators from around the world, including more than 100 task force officers from 44 different countries. Each year the task force hosts a new member training session that brings newly invited task force officers to the United States to attend a six-week training session where they work side-by-side with special agents of the FBI at the Innocent Images Operations Unit. The IIITF also conducts an annual case coordination meeting where task force members come together in a central location to share best practices and coordinate transnational investigations between members. The IIITF allows for the real-time transfer of information between the FBI and task force members from other countries and successfully brings together law enforcement entities from around the world to address the global crime problem of online child exploitation. The most common crimes investigated under the IINI are in violation of Title 18 United States Codes (USC): § 1462. Importation or Transportation of Obscene Matters § 1465. Transportation of Obscene Matters for Sale or Distribution § 1466. Engaging in the Business of Selling or Transferring Obscene Matter § 1467. Criminal Forfeiture 
§ 1470. Transfer of Obscene Material to Minors § 2241(a)(b)(c). Aggravated Sexual Abuse § 2251(a)(b)(c). Sexual Exploitation of Children

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§ 2251A (a)(b). Selling or Buying of Children § 2252. Certain Activities Relating to Material Involving the Sexual Exploitation of Minors §2252A. Certain Activities Relating to Material Constituting or Containing Child Pornography § 2253. Criminal Forfeiture § 2254. Civil Forfeiture § 2257. Record Keeping Requirements § 2260(a)(b).Production of Sexually Explicit Depictions of a Minor for Importation into the U.S. § 2421. Transportation Generally § 2422. Coercion and Enticement § 2423(a). Transportation of Minors with Intent to Engage in Criminal Sexual Activity § 2423(b). Interstate or Foreign Travel with Intent to Engage in a Sexual Act with a Juvenile § 2425. Use of Interstate Facilities to Transmit Information about a Minor § 13032. Reporting of Child Pornography by Electronic Communication Service Providers The FBI has taken the necessary steps to ensure that the Innocent IINI remains viable and productive through the use of new technology and sophisticated investigative techniques, through coordination of the national investigative strategy, and through a national liaison initiative with a significant number of commercial and independent online service providers. To date, the IINI has been highly successful and has proven to be a logical, efficient, and effective method to identify and investigate individuals who are using the Internet for the sole purpose of sexually exploiting children. To date there have even been five IINI subjects placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list: 

On December 27, 2000, Eric Franklin Rosser became the first child predator to be placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List. Rosser was charged with the production, distribution, receipt, and transportation of child pornography, as well as conspiracy to do the same. His offenses included the production of a videotape in Thailand that allegedly depicted sexually explicit conduct between him and an 11 year-old female child. In February 2000, Rosser was arrested in Thailand on various charges, including possessing child pornography. He was released on bail and disappeared. A federal grand jury in Indianapolis, Indiana indicted Rosser in March 2000. After a tip from the public, Rosser was again arrested in Thailand on August 21, 2001. The Thai police said Rosser underwent liposuction, had cosmetic surgery to his face, and then traveled to the Netherlands, England, and France before returning to Thailand and being arrested. Rosser served a two-year sentence in Thailand and was then extradited to the United States. Rosser pled guilty and was

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sentenced on October 24, 2003 to more than 16 years in federal prison. Rosser’s coconspirator William Platz was sentenced in June 2000 to 11 years in prison. On January 31, 2002, Michael Scott Bliss became the second child predator to be placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List. Bliss was being sought by the FBI for the repeated molestation of a nine-year-old female victim in Vermont. Bliss videotaped these molestations, and the videos were converted to computer files for possible placement on the Internet. Bliss had a violent criminal history towards children and served nine years in state prison for committing aggravated assault against his girlfriend’s minor children. During that incident, Bliss repeatedly struck three of his girlfriend’s children with an aluminum baseball bat, rendering two of them unconscious. Bliss was released from prison just two months before the

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alleged molestations of the nine-year-old began. Bliss was arrested in Los Angeles, California, on April 23, 2002 and was charged in Vermont with 11 federal counts of various statutes related to sexual exploitation of children. Bliss pled guilty to all 11 counts on June 2, 2003 and was sentenced on February 18, 2004 to 22 years in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release. On June 14, 2002, Richard Steve Goldberg became the third child predator to be placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List. Goldberg was being sought for engaging in lewd acts in Long Beach, California with several girls under 10 years old. He also produced and possessed child pornography images of these sex acts, which were found on his computer. Goldberg gained the trust of his victims’ parents and then befriended their children. He entertained the girls by allowing them to play with his pets, watch television, and use his computer to play games. Some of these girls also took short trips with him. In July 2001, a state arrest warrant was issued in California charging Goldberg with six counts of lewd acts upon a child and two counts of possession of child pornography. On November 25, 2002, a federal arrest warrant was issued charging Goldberg with the production of child pornography and the unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. On May 12, 2007, Goldberg was arrested in Montreal by Canadian authorities and was extradited to the United States to face federal and state charges of sexual exploitation of children, unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, lewd acts upon a child, and possession of child pornography. Goldberg (age 62) pled guilty and was sentenced on December 10, 2007 to 20 years in federal prison.

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On September 7, 2007, Jon Savarino Schillaci became the fourth child predator to be placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List. Schillaci was being sought for the alleged sexual assault of a young boy in Deerfield, New Hampshire in 1999. 107

Prior to the alleged sexual abuse, Schillaci corresponded with the boy’s family when he was in a Texas prison serving a conviction for child molestation. After his release, Schillaci moved in with the family, who offered him an opportunity at a new life. The alleged sexual abuse occurred later that year. A Rockingham County Superior Court bench warrant was issued for Schillaci in late 1999, and in April 2000 a federal arrest warrant was issued charging Schillaci with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. After almost nine years on the run, Schillaci was captured on June 5, 2008 in San José de Gracia, Michoacán, Mexico. On December 22, 2009, Schillaci was sentenced to 20 to 50 years in prison. He is currently incarcerated in Northern New Hampshire Correctional Facility and will be eligible for parole in December 2039. 

On April 10, 2012, Eric Justin Toth became the fifth child predator to be placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List. Toth is a former private school teacher who is currently being sought for the alleged possession and production of child pornography in Washington, D.C. and Maryland. In June 2008, Toth was indicted in Maryland after pornographic images were found on a school camera that had been in his possession. Toth is a 6’3”, 155 lb. white male with brown hair, green eyes, and a noticeable mole under his left eye. He is often described as a computer “expert” who has demonstrated above-average knowledge regarding computers, the use of the Internet, and security awareness. He has the ability to integrate into various socio-economic classes and is also considered an expert at social engineering. Toth possesses an educational background conducive to gaining employment in fields having connection to children and may advertise himself online as a tutor or male nanny. Since June 2008, Toth is believed to have traveled to Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Minnesota and is believed to have lived in Arizona in 2009. His current whereabouts are unknown. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading directly to the arrest of Eric Justin Toth. Innocent Images Statistical Accomplishments

Since its inception, the IINI program has continued to grow exponentially, seeing an increase from approximately 80 pending cases in fiscal year 2001 to approximately 5,900 through fiscal year 2012. Also between the years of 2001 to 2011, the IINI program has recorded the following statistical accomplishments:   

Approximate number of informations and indictments: over 10,000 Approximate number of arrests: over 11,000 Approximate number of convictions: 11,400

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For additional information on the FBI’s Innocent Images National Initiative and Internet safety, please read the FBI brochure titled A Parent’s Guide to Internet Safety. This brochure, as well as other information about crimes against children, is available on the FBI website. Individual FBI field offices serve as primary points of contact for persons requesting FBI assistance. For further information about FBI services or to request assistance, please contact a Crimes against Children Coordinator at your local FBI field office. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) operates a CyberTipline at www.cybertipline.com that allows parents and children to report child pornography and other incidents of sexual exploitation of children by submitting an online form. The NCMEC also maintains a 24hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST, and a website at www.missingkids.com. Complaints received by the NCMEC that indicate a violation of federal law are referred to the FBI for appropriate action. An FBI supervisory special agent and several analysts are assigned full-time at the NCMEC to assist with these complaints. The analysts review and analyze information received by the NCMEC’s CyberTipline. The analysts conduct research and analysis in order to identify individuals suspected of any of the following: possession, manufacture and/or distribution of child pornography; online enticement of children for sexual acts; child sexual tourism; and/or other sexual exploitation of children. The analysts utilize various Internet tools and administrative subpoenas in their efforts to identify individuals who prey on children. Once a potential suspect has been identified, they compile an investigative packet that includes the applicable CyberTipline reports, subpoena results, public records search results, the illegal images associated with the suspect, and a myriad of other information that is forwarded to the appropriate FBI field office for investigation. Both the NCMEC and the FBI are devoted to ensuring the safety of America’s most precious gift…our children. Background on the National Sex Offenders Registry Our Crimes against Children Unit at FBI Headquarters coordinated the development of the National Sex Offenders Registry (NSOR), which is currently managed by the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division.

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The Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act of 1996 (Lychner Act) required the Attorney General to establish a national database at the FBI to track the whereabouts and movements of certain convicted sex offenders under Title 42 of the United States Code Section 14072. The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) run by the FBI enables the NSOR to retain the offender's current registered address and dates of registration, conviction, and residence. The Lychner Act imposed two major obligations on the FBI that became effective October 3, 1997: 1. To establish a national database that tracks the location and movements of each person who has been convicted of a criminal offense against a victim who is a minor, has been convicted of a sexually violent offense, or is a sexually violent predator. 2. To register and verify the addresses of sex offenders who reside in states without a "minimally sufficient" sex offender registry (SOR) program. Today, all 50 states have minimally sufficient SOR programs. Under the Act, the FBI may release relevant information to federal, state, and local criminal justice agencies for law enforcement purposes only. Public notification will only be made if it is necessary to protect the public. However, the Act specifically states that in no case shall the FBI release the identity of any victim of an offense that required registration of a sex offender. The legislation also made it a criminal offense for a registered sex offender to move to another state and knowingly fail to notify the FBI and authorities in the new state. Notification to the FBI and state authorities must be made within 10 days upon moving to a new state and/or establishing residence following release from prison or placed on parole, supervised release, or probation. Upon release, each sex offender is notified of their lawful duty to register with the FBI and appropriate local authorities. The Jacob Wetterling Crimes against Children and Sexual Violent Offender Registration Program Enacted in 1994, provides a financial incentive for states to establish registration programs for persons who have been convicted of certain sex crimes. Megan's Law, enacted in May 1996, amended the Wetterling Program legislation to give states broad discretion to determine to whom notification should be made about offenders, under what circumstances, and about which offenders.

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Conclusions @gregbucceroni’s goal is 2 raise #PublicAwareness in dealing w/pedophile rings & those who protect them including city officials & law enforcement? Via @gregbucceroni as a “Volunteer” victims advocate I am not politically correct or funded. True “Law & Order” public awareness is my goal. Per @gregbucceroni Public awareness has been achieved. America wake up! This could happen to anyone. @gregbucceroni s family members thought he should be low key & private about his victimization. That’s not what victim advocates should do. Let them hear Via @gregbucceroni Children’s safety is the only concern on my mind! No child should experience the nightmare I lived and buried for so long Per @gregbucceroni unfortunately some journalists twist words or quotes. That’s part of the game I guess? The only thing that matters is child safety today. @gregbucceroni #Networking #Partnering w/child sexual abuse survivor groups 2 establish help 4 survivors. No politics Per @gregbucceroni since the news article several sexual abuse survivors have contacted me in need of assistance; some good came out of this article after all. Per @gregbucceroni some victims suing for $, I’m holding officials accountable & raising public awareness. What’s that worth GOD? Via @gregbucceroni ironically politicians and friends of politicians own the Philly Daily News & Inquire. That's why I got a bad rap yesterday Per @gregbucceroni I support all victims of sexual abuse but when one victim slanders and threatens other victims with violence all bets are off! Per @gregbucceroni Well I guess a lot of pedophile enabling public officials, pedophiles & a few journalist are gonna burn in the end! Per @gregbucceroni some of the victims are suing for $, I'm in it in holding officials accountable & raising public awareness. What's that worth with GOD?

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Per @gregbucceroni all news good or bad creates public awareness and that has been my #1 goal. Mission achieved! Thank you haters. :-) Per @gregbucceroni my goal has always been to raise public awareness involving child sexual abuse, on Friday 09-28-2012 I achieved that goal people are talking Greg Bucceroni (left) is interviewed by Dr. Phil for Friday's show, on which Bucceroni… (CBS TELEVISION DISTRIBUTION…)

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GREG Bucceroni's story is finally going national. At least, the latest version. The anticrime activist made headlines over the summer in the New York Daily News, the Huffington Post, a Washington Post blog and Britain's The Daily Mail with a sordid tale about his time as a "child prostitute" caught in a web of perverts that included former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky and the late Philadelphia businessman Ed "Uncle Eddie" Savitz. Friday, he's scheduled to appear on the "Dr. Phil" show. "This is a complicated onion with many layers," Bucceroni, 48, explained by phone Tuesday from a Los Angeles hotel room, saying he was gazing up at the Hollywood sign on Mount Lee. "But the truth is never easy." Is it really the truth, though? Law-enforcement officials, a close relative and others familiar with Bucceroni's claims say that his story is baloney that he's just playing the media, and that Dr. Phil is only the latest victim. Last year, Bucceroni, a school police officer at a Philadelphia charter school, began pitching a story to any reporter who would listen - about being sexually abused and exploited more than 250 times in the 112

late 1970s and early '80s by Savitz, who died of AIDS in 1993 before going on trial on child-molestation charges. That story isn't far-fetched: Former District Attorney Lynne Abraham has said Savitz collected 3,500 kiddie-porn photos, boys' underwear smeared with feces and boys' dirty socks. His victims could have numbered in the hundreds. Bucceroni, the onetime head of the local Guardian Angels chapter, said in November that he was prompted to speak out about his abuse after seeing coverage of the Sandusky case. At the time, he never mentioned any personal involvement with Sandusky or his Second Mile charity for underprivileged youth. In recent weeks, however, Bucceroni's tale evolved dramatically. He began aggressively seeking a national audience by describing himself to reporters on Twitter as "one of the Sandusky victims." He now claims to be at the center of a conspiracy and "political cover-up" involving Sandusky, the Second Mile, Philly police brass, murdered cop Daniel Faulkner, the state Attorney General's Office, Ed Rendell, the Union League, the Mafia, Savitz, Abraham, a deceased Brooklyn high school football coach, former Penn professor Scott Ward and former Daily News sports columnist Bill Conlin. Bucceroni was behind a round of news stories and blog postings last week speculating about a Savitz-Sandusky connection. He claims that staffers from the Oprah Winfrey Network and HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" have reached out to him. Law-enforcement sources say there is no evidence supporting a Savitz-Sandusky link. But Bucceroni is ready for his close-up on national TV, anyway. "Jerry Sandusky started rubbing on my shoulder and touching me," Bucceroni says in an "exclusive" interview on the "Dr. Phil" show on CBS. "Every parent should hear his story," Dr. Phil says in a promo on the show's website. Rendell: 'He's crackers' Bucceroni, whose father was a Philly cop, has been quoted in dozens of local news stories over the years. But, until recently, he never spoke of being part of a "tri-state pedophile ring" between 1977 and 1980. He now says that Savitz took him to have sex with Sandusky at Second Mile events but that "due to time constraints" Sandusky was not able to have sex with him. So Phil Foglietta, the late coach at Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn, paid $200 to have sex with him in Philadelphia. Bucceroni emailed his allegations regarding Foglietta to Poly Prep officials last week, and the New York Daily News reported it with a "POLY PREP SHOCKER" headline. School headmaster David Harman did not respond to requests for comment. The school is being sued by former students who say Foglietta assaulted them. Asked why he

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hadn't previously mentioned Foglietta, Bucceroni said he only recently realized that Foglietta was one of his abusers. "I didn't know his name; I only knew Foglietta as 'Coach Phil,' “Bucceroni said. "I referred to him as the fat slob. It turns out the fat slob's last name is Foglietta." Bucceroni claims that Sandusky, Savitz and others would swap photos of naked children "like baseball cards." He also claims that Ward, the former Wharton professor now in prison for transporting child pornography, raped him twice in 1978. Conlin retired last year amid allegations that he molested four children in the 1970s. His attorney, George Bochetto, did not return a message seeking comment on Bucceroni's claims. Conlin has never been charged with a crime. These only scratch the surface of Bucceroni's latest allegations. None of it checks out. Bucceroni says he told Rendell about Savitz's abuse when Rendell was D.A. in the late '70s or early '80s. Rendell said Bucceroni is lying. "That guy is completely crazy. I don't know anything about what he's talking about, and none of it's true," Rendell said. "The guy is just crackers." Bucceroni says that he contacted senior Deputy Attorney General Joseph McGettigan, who prosecuted the Sandusky case, in July and that McGettigan was "rude and obnoxious" and tried to talk him into giving false testimony. "That's an absolute lie," McGettigan said. He said he doesn't know Bucceroni and doesn't recall ever speaking with him. "The story keeps evolving and changing," said Sara Ganim, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Patriot-News reporter who broke the Sandusky story. Ganim said Bucceroni contacted her over the summer with new allegations, but couldn't provide details. Bucceroni has since been harassing her by email and with vulgar tweets, Ganim said. "I asked him for the names of other guys in the pedophile ring, and he said he could only remember first names," Ganim said. "Now he can remember all these famous pedophiles?" Ralph Cipriano, a former Inquirer reporter who interviewed Bucceroni for his book The Hit Man, about Philly mobster John Veasey, said he considered Bucceroni to be "spectacularly unreliable" and cut him from the book because "his facts did not seem to be reality-based." A federal law-enforcement source familiar with Bucceroni said he is not considered credible. "He runs around grabbing headlines," said a close relative. "That's what I think this is. Somebody needs to out him. It's not fair to the real victims." The relative said that Bucceroni's "family is beside itself."

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Did he save 'Goodfellas'? Bucceroni claims to have been a junior mob associate who was supposed to carry out a hit on Mumia Abu-Jamal in 1981, when Bucceroni was 17. He said that Officer Daniel Faulkner was aware of the plot and was supposed to be waiting around the corner after Bucceroni shot Abu-Jamal so he could be the first on the scene. But Bucceroni said the timing wasn't right and he decided against the hit on Abu-Jamal. Weeks later, "Mumia, ironically, whacked Faulkner," Bucceroni said. He also claims to have been an associate of Jimmy Burke and Henry Hill, the mobsters depicted by Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta in the movie "Goodfellas." Bucceroni says he was supposed to have been part of a hit on Hill, but was talked out of it. If he had participated in the hit, the movie never would have been made, he wrote in a June article for The Public Record website, headlined "HOW I SAVED A MOVIE: Goodfellas' Henry Hill's Philly Connection." "There but for the grace of God, I would have been a mob victim instead of the goodcitizen crime-fighter I am today," Bucceroni wrote. Veasey, who did 11 years in prison after admitting his involvement in two mob murders, called Bucceroni a "psychopath." "You want me to believe the New York Mafia came down here to find a kid whose dad is a cop to have him whack Henry Hill? The s---'s funny when you think about it," said Veasey. Bucceroni gets angry when people cross him or don't believe his stories. He calls Abraham and Ganim derogatory names. He said that if he sees Veasey on the street, he's going to "get a hammer and bash him in the head." Last month, he told the sports website Crossing Broad that he once stalked Rendell "like a serial killer" and considered "putting a f------ bullet in his head." Bucceroni says he is dealing with his anger issues through counseling at Woman Organized Against Rape. Jill Maier, WOAR's director of counseling services, believes his stories and said it's not surprising that he would recall old memories gradually, rather than all at once. "I know a lot of people don't find Greg very credible, but he's a very passionate man who really is trying to give a voice to victims of sexual assault," Maier said. "I think he's really quite brave."

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Discussion Per @gregbucceroni all of you lying bastards and cowards and wannabe mafia tough guys who got kicked out of the witness protection program judgment day coming Per @gregbucceroni for those who don't believe that I volunteer for the Philadelphia District Attorney's office than why haven't I been arrested yet? Per @gregbucceroni it’s time to hold our law enforcement & elected officials accountable regarding child sexual abuse swayed or incompetent investigations Per @gregbucceroni for all of you bastard elected officials and or law enforcement officials who want to lie about your involvement regarding my allegations Per @gregbucceroni this is one of the reasons victims of child sexual abuse don't come forward, because we are treated like criminals when we do! Via @gregbucceroni If my story is BS why is it on the front page of the newspaper and pages 2, 3, 4? Trust me there’s a lot of real truth to my words I support the Paterno family says @gregbucceroni. Joe Paterno was never given a trial or his day in court. Freeh played everyone and got BIG $$$$ for it. @gregbucceroni never said he was a saint, his victimization has caused behavior problems that he’s finally getting help with them @gregbucceroni says I now know that I can’t change the past regarding my victimization but I can protect kids safety today & tomorrow. Per @gregbucceroni Citizens need to organize, states @gregbucceroni if law enforcement isn’t taking action then convince the brass and elected officials to look into allegations Per @gregbucceroni isn’t it odd that my story is questioned by authority figures but Freeh’s report considered gospel? RIP Joe Paterno Joe Paterno was a good man, states @gregbucceroni PSU students are great kids with a proud heritage. RIP Joe Paterno

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Via @gregbucceroni never lied about post child sexual abuse trauma, it clearly shows in my behavior at times. I’m getting help finally Per @gregbucceroni isn’t it amazing that officials can discredit an event that occurred over 34 years ago when they weren’t even involved at the time? Per @gregbucceroni A PA journalist who prints half truths and twisted words ironically claims victim credibility issues, what about journalism credibility? Per @gregbucceroni Law enforcement officials who won’t give their name and question others credibility has their own credibility issues! Why hide your name? Per @gregbucceroni the reason law enforcement officials won’t give their name while slandering others is because they will be found liable in court. Boom! Per @gregbucceroni has anyone ever tried to remember exact events from 34 years ago? Pretty spotty right? Hard to remember exactly? That’s my story! Per @gregbucceroni Elected officials who knowingly take $ from pedophiles then sway criminal investigations is wrong! 1980 that occurred in Philadelphia Per @gregbucceroni if an official suggest to a victim-witness that an allegation could be helpful if it is worded different is called leading a witness. Per @gregbucceroni for the record the alleged family members who claim I’m baloney aren’t close family members and are friends of a political pedophile enabler Per @gregbucceroni those I accuse only need to look into their pedophiles enabler mirror in calling someone a cracker! Per @gregbucceroni well it is what it is but all who complained about me have skeletons in their own closets, at least my closet door is open! Per @gregbucceroni I was never a PSU kid, I simply dislike journalists that claim they honestly interviewed me when they are twisting the truth! Per @gregbucceroni anyone in law enforcement that makes allegations but won't put their names behind it are cowards and liars. I always use my real name!

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Per @gregbucceroni regarding yesterday's Philly Daily News article, did anyone truly think they would admit guilt in the cover up & lies? Be for real! Per @gregbucceroni I'm not sure why Mumia Abu Jamal's name was thrown in the mix with Ed Savitz? Two different incidents with nothing in common. Per @gregbucceroni I've supported many "Good" police officers in the past, unfortunately some past in the line of duty with honor. Hate dirty cops. via @gregbucceroni Ppl who remember Ed Savitz & Sam Rappaport know connection 2 city officials 1977-1980. Poor kids under bus once again! @gregbucceroni says the only mouth beating is being done by overrated misleading journalists that twist the truth. Per @gregbucceroni why is it that since I've gone public in 2011 many law enforcement & elected officials have kept their distance from me? Greg and I met at the Corbett town hall meeting in Philadelphia on September 19, 2012 and I really believe he is telling the truth. After I read some research created by another PSU alumnus this summer, I began talking to Greg and listening to his story. With every spoken word, he verified the research this alumnus created. This alumnus and Greg didn't know each other and how could or why would Greg want to lie about these incidents that would ruin his reputation forever? Matter of fact, this alumnus, who is a forensic investigator, made this statement one evening as we spoke: “I have studied this topic for many, many months. Bucceroni could not make this up. He has to have inside knowledge of what was going on. You can not just go to Google and randomly start pulling people out of thin air and making deep cross link interconnections.” Greg even has Louis Freeh’s connection to investigating child pornography correct since Mr. Freeh worked as a mid level agent in the New York FBI Division Office and then headed the Innocent Images National Initiative for child pornography which resided in Baltimore, Maryland during his FBI Directorship. One question arises with this finding. Why did Louis B. Freeh accuse Joe Paterno and PSU of wrongdoing since Freeh investigated child pornography during his years as a mid level FBI agent, prosecuted child pedophiles and knew child pedophiles existed during his tenure as FBI Director? Doesn’t it seem that Freeh was the pot calling the kettle black? Greg developed great courage to break from the holds of Ed Savitz, join the Army and turn his life totally around from what it was in his childhood. When someone does that, they deserve the second chance in life!! I'm not a religious person, by no means, but I do believe in God and Jesus forgave his accusers on the cross so they could have a second chance. Doesn’t Greg deserve the second chance in life?

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It’s amazing how acts against children did, can or do occur in our modern society but corruption and exploitation do exist in our world. Joe Paterno didn’t deserve to be accused of knowing the existence of a pedophile and Greg Bucceroni doesn’t deserve to be treated like a criminal for what happened in his past. “All I wanted was my dignity,” Bucceroni says of why he decided to address his past. “I never went to college, my first marriage failed, there were failed job opportunities. It f---ed up my life. But maybe by talking, this will help others.”

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^

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^ "Federal Bureau of Prisons". Bop.gov. Retrieved 2008-10-08.

125. ^ Reputed Gambino Figure Sentenced in ’92 Deaths of Mob Antagonists By TRYMAINE LEE Published: September 6, 2007, New York Times 126. ^ Metro Briefing | New York: Brooklyn: Suspect In Mob Slaying Is Out On Bond By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM (NYT); COMPILED BY THOMAS J. LUECK Published: December 28, 2005, New York Times 127.

^ "Federal Bureau of Prisons". Bop.gov. Retrieved 2010-08-28.

128. ^ November 5, 2009 (2009-11-05). "Colombo Family authorized Junior Gotti Hit". Mafiatoday.com. Retrieved 2010-08-28. 129. ^ Raab, Selwyn (August 8, 1999). "Investigators Detail a New Mob Strategy on Building Trades". The New York Times. Retrieved May 3, 2010. 130. ^ "DOJ press release on Gambino Squitieri et al indictments". Thelaborers.net. Retrieved 2010-08-28. 131. ^ "60 Minutes: FBI Wiseguy Fooled The Mob". CBS News. October 9, 2008. 132. ^ Raab, Selwyn (September 3, 1995). "With Gotti Away, the Genoveses Succeed the Leaderless Gambinos". The New York Times. Retrieved May 3, 2010. 133. ^ Howe, Marvine (August 16, 1988). "Two Tied to Westies Gang Surrender to Face Charges". The New York Times. Retrieved May 3, 2010. 134. ^ Lubasch, Arnold H. (November 6, 1987). "Westies Informer Tells of Links to Gambino Mob". The New York Times. Retrieved May 3, 2010. ^ Greg B. Smith; Jerry Capeci (1998-07-16). "Fat Dom's Showdown". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2012-04-15.

135.

127

136. ^ Marzulli, John (2011-01-21). "Freed from jail thanks to DNA evidence, Scott Fappiano back in slammer after massive FBI Mafia bust". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2012-04-17. 137. ^ Glaberson, William (2003-01-29). "Former Union Boss at Mob Trial Says He Just Followed Orders". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-04-15. 138. ^ Feuer, Alan (October 21, 2009). "Telling Court He's Gay, Mob Informer Crosses Line". The New York Times. 139. ^ Hinckley, David (2008-03-26). "Mob turncoat Lewis Kasman was just 'like a son' to John Gotti". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2011-10-25. 140. ^ a b Marzulli, John (2010-09-16). "Ex-Gotti pal turned FBI snitch Lewis Kasman skirts jail". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2011-10-25. 141. ^ Alison Gendar; Larry McShane (2009-10-21). "Prosecutors won't call mafia turncoat Lewis Kasman to rat on 'adopted brother' John (Junior) Gotti". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2011-10-25. 142. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YAAhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WHUFAA AAIBAJ&pg=1317,4656045&dq=curcio+bridgeport+genovese&hl=en Further Reading   

 

Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 978-0-02-864225-3 Davis, John H. Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. ISBN 978-0-06-016357-0 Jacobs, James B., Christopher Panarella and Jay Worthington. Busting the Mob: The United States Vs. Cosa Nostra. New York: NYU Press, 1994. ISBN 978-0-81474230-3 Maas, Peter. Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997. ISBN 978-0-06-093096-7 Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-31230094-4 External Links

  

Seize The Night: Gambino Crime Family Gambino Mafia Leadership 2009 Gambino Mafia News

128

References 1. ^ a b c Gerth, Jeff and Blumenthal, Ralph (1984-07-26). "Rep. Ferraro's Transactions Detailed in Public Records". The New York Times. 2. ^ Goldman and Fuller, The Quest for the Presidency 1984, p. 213. 3. ^ Raines, Howell (1984-08-14). "G.O.P. Seizes 'Genderless Issue' of Tax Returns to Attack Ferraro". The New York Times. 4. ^ Ferraro, My Story, pp. 156–158. 5. ^ Patterson, Thomas E.; Dani, Richard (1985). "The Media Campaign: Struggle for the Agenda". In Nelson, Michael (ed.). The Elections of 1984. Congressional Quarterly, Inc.. ISBN 0-87187-330-3. p. 119. 6. ^ Scala, Dante, J.; Shade, William and Campbell, Ballard C. (eds.) (2003). American Presidential Campaigns and Elections. M.E. Sharpe Inc.. ISBN 0-7656-8042-4. p. 966. 7. ^ Germond and Witcover, Wake Us When It's Over, p. 537. 8. ^ Ferraro, My Story, pp. 312, 313. 9. ^ Light, Paul C.; Lake, Celinda (1985). "The Election: Candidates, Strategies and Decisions". In Nelson, Michael (ed.). The Elections of 1984. Congressional Quarterly, Inc.. ISBN 0-87187-330-3. pp. 103, 107–108. 10. ^ Maas, Peter. Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia. New York City: HarperCollins, 1996. ISBN 978-0-06-093096-7. 

http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi



http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/porn/interviews/taylor.html



http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17748598&BRD=1601&PAG=461& dept_id=478677&rfi=



http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_n2586_v122/ai_14995082/pg_1?t ag=artBody;col1



a b c d e f g h i j k l Perlez, Jane (1984-04-10). "Woman in the News: Democrat, Peacemaker: Geraldine Anne Ferraro", The New York Times.



a b Ferraro, Geraldine A.; Francke, Linda Bird (1985). My Story. Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-05110-5. p. 17.

 

^ Ferraro, Framing a Life, pp. 65–67. a b c d "Ferraro, Geraldine Anne, (1935 - )". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2008-08-30

129

External references 

Goombatah: The Improbable Rise and Fall of John Gotti and His Gang by John Cummings and Ernest Volkman



Underboss: Sammy The Bull Gravano's Story of Life in The Mafia by Peter Maas



Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family by John H. Davis



Boss of Bosses: The FBI and Paul Castellano by Joseph F. O'Brien and Andris Kurins



"Ferraro's Husband Is Said To Have Met Mob Figure" The New York Times September 12, 1992 by Ralph Blumenthal

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&tbo=d&sclient=psyab&q=fbi+law+enforcement+bulletin+archives&oq=FBI+Law+Enforcement+Bulletin+ &gs_l=hp.1.1.0l4.0.0.1.20699.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.bGv6cHM49w&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=cea928a3cb2ac156&bpcl=3809 3640&biw=1674&bih=915 – FBI Law Enforcement Archives for different web sources. http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/archive - This link goes to the FBI Law Enforcement archives for January 1999 through October 2012. http://www.communitydefense.org/lawlibrary/agreport.html Joe Paterno FBI file reveals threats, gambling theory http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/29/joe-paterno-fbi-file-revealsthreats-gambling-theo/?page=all

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Appendix

131

1977-1980 Pedophile Network Involved in child sex trafficking and child pornography Gambino Crime Family Members Illegal Pornography Establishments Involved in child sex trafficking & pornography

Michael Umbers - * Richie Basciano - # Roy DeMeo - * Robert DiBernardo - # Richie Kuklinski - * Tony Trombetta - # Richie Bildstein - * Chucky Smith - *

Philadelphia elected officials associated with pedophile network District Attorney Ed Rendell * Senator Vince Fumo Senator Arlen Specter *

Known pedophiles associated with network Jerry Sandusky - The Second Mile Foundation Lawrence Scott Ward - Professor University of Pennsylvania Bill Conlin - Philadelphia Daily News Reporter

Mayor Bill Green City Council President George X Schwartz * Democratic Ward Leader Bob Brady

Phil Foglietta - Poly Prep school football coach, Brooklyn, NY

Law Enforcement agencies with knowledge of Pedophile Network Philadelphia Police Department Philadelphia District Attorney's Office New York City Police Department

Organization guests and members connected to Ed Savitz and Sam Rappaport Union League of Philadelphia - Broad & Samson Street Free Masons of Philadelphia - Broad & Filbert Street

FBI Organized Crime Task Force

South Philly Boys Club used by Savitz and Rappaport to enlist boys for child pornography

Ed Savitz - * purchased kiddie porn & child sex trafficking Savitz Organization Philanthropist / Youth Advocate

Sam Rappaport - # purchased kiddie porn & child sex trafficking Philadelphia Real Estate Developer Philanthropist / Youth Advocate

Law Enforcement Agencies that had investigative knowledge of Pedophile Network 1. Philadelphia Police Department – April 5, 1980, report submitted to 9th District & Central Detective officials regarding Ed Savitz, Jerry Sandusky & others sexually exploiting troubled adolescent boys. 2. Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office - April 5, 1980, report submitted to DA Officials regarding Ed Savitz, Jerry Sandusky & others sexually exploiting troubled adolescent boys. 3. New York City Police Department – on several occasions, reported to NYPD officials while interrogating child prostitutes were soliciting inside mob run porn establishments regarding Ed Savitz, Jerry Sandusky & others sexually exploiting troubled adolescent boys. 4. FBI Organized Crime Task Force – on a few occasions, NYC FBI officials interrogated child prostitutes soliciting inside Gambino – run pornography establishments regarding mobsters associated with child sex trafficking and kiddie porn in addition to Ed Savitz, Jerry Sandusky & others sexually exploiting troubled adolescent boys.