Former mobster Salvatore &#8220;Sammy The Bull&#8221; Gravano called the latest allegations against President Joe Biden&#8217;s son Hunter Biden &#8220;mind-blowing,&#8221; saying that even the mafiosos he used to run with were &#8220;choirboys&#8221; in comparison.
The former Gambino underboss — who served time for his own crimes before becoming a witness against the infamous John Gotti — spoke with Fox News host Jesse Watters on Thursday, and he asserted that the younger Biden was getting the kid-glove treatment because of his family name.
Watters began the segment with the latest reports, including statements from a Bank Secrecy Act manager — who had flagged a number of large deposits into accounts controlled by Hunter Biden. Those deposits, the investigator said, had not matched &#8220;any services rendered&#8221; by the Biden-controlled Owasco P.C. Watters called that &#8220;bank lingo for &#8216;bribe.'&#8221;
According to Watters&#8217; report, the investigator had concluded that Biden&#8217;s transactions had amounted to actions that appeared &#8220;unusual and with no current business purpose and may require reevaluation of the bank’s relationship with the customer.&#8221;
Watters again offered his own translation of the investigator&#8217;s report, saying that it was &#8220;bank lingo for &#8216;the Chinese are bribing the [then]-vice president’s family and we should tell them to bank somewhere else.'&#8221;
Telling Watters that anyone else could be looking at serious time — &#8220;22 life sentences for that kind of stuff,&#8221; Gravano said, &#8220;It’s mind-blowing. I don’t understand how the country is just sitting back listening to these things and no action is being taken.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
New evidence drops in the Biden bribery scandal. Mobster Sammy the Bull says Joe Biden has committed treason and he&#39;s like a choir boy compared to Joe. <a href="https://t.co/aGMxMYXWof">pic.twitter.com/aGMxMYXWof</a>
&mdash; Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) <a href="https://twitter.com/JesseBWatters/status/1730412298647302215?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 1, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Gravano went on to say that the underworld had always had an unwritten rule that their activities should never harm the public — a rule that he said was now being broken regularly by the U.S. government.
&#8220;We did things – I don’t even want to compare. We’re like choirboys compared to these people,&#8221; he said.

WASHINGTON: INQUIRY INTO THE UNDERWORLD OF BOXING

‘Sammy The Bull’ Calls Hunter Biden Allegations ‘Mind-Blowing,’ Says Compared To Corrupt Government Officials, ‘We’re Like Choirboys’

'Sammy The Bull' Calls Hunter Biden Allegations 'Mind-Blowing,' Says Compared To Corrupt Government Officials, 'We're Like Choirboys'

Crime

Hunter Biden

Joe Biden

Mafia

A powerful Colombo crime family mobster pleaded guilty to racketeering on Thursday, over a year after a photo was snapped of him relaxing in a pool while on the run from the feds.
Ralph DiMatteo, the Colombo family’s third-most powerful member, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/07/06/high-ranking-gangster-ralph-dimatteo-who-lounged-shirtless-in-a-pool-while-on-the-lam-pleads-guilty-to-racketeering/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pleaded guilty</a> in federal court in Brooklyn to extortion, conspiracy, and money laundering between 2020 and 2021, including a plot to threaten a high-level union official.
In September, 2021, the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office for the Eastern District of New York leveled serious <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/14-defendants-indicted-including-entire-administration-colombo-organized-crime-family" target="_blank" rel="noopener">charges</a> at 14 people, including DiMatteo and the &#8220;entire administration of the Colombo organized crime family,&#8221; the office <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/14-defendants-indicted-including-entire-administration-colombo-organized-crime-family" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
A day before the charges were announced, DiMatteo flew to Florida, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/07/06/high-ranking-gangster-ralph-dimatteo-who-lounged-shirtless-in-a-pool-while-on-the-lam-pleads-guilty-to-racketeering/">The New York Post reported</a>. After he was supposed to turn himself into the feds, his son <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/09/17/mobster-in-colombo-takedown-surrenders-after-being-spotted-in-florida/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> a photo on Twitter of DiMatteo relaxing in a pool with the water up to his chest, leaning on the side and looking directly at the camera. He wore a large gold crucifix around his neck, and his tatted right arm was visible in the photo.
DiMatteo subsequently turned himself into authorities.
In court on Thursday, DiMatteo, 68, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/07/06/high-ranking-gangster-ralph-dimatteo-who-lounged-shirtless-in-a-pool-while-on-the-lam-pleads-guilty-to-racketeering/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> wore a dark blazer, dark blue shirt, and a dark green tie.
DiMatteo and the 13 other defendants were hit with a slew of charges including labor racketeering, extortion, money laundering, and loansharking involving a &#8220;long-running effort&#8221; to &#8220;infiltrate and take control&#8221; of a Queens labor union.
DiMatteo was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/14-defendants-indicted-including-entire-administration-colombo-organized-crime-family" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> of laundering money from the labor union&#8217;s health care benefit program to the Colombo crime family’s leaders. He was also accused of using extortion including &#8220;direct threats of bodily harm&#8221; to control the union&#8217;s management and force it to make decisions directly benefitting the Colombo family.
Prosecutors said DiMatteo was the Colombo family&#8217;s consigliere, or a high-ranking member that advises the family&#8217;s head and resolves disputes.
The judge said guidelines recommend 41 and 51 months in prison for DiMatteo, who is set to be sentenced in October, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/07/06/high-ranking-gangster-ralph-dimatteo-who-lounged-shirtless-in-a-pool-while-on-the-lam-pleads-guilty-to-racketeering/">according to The New York Post</a>.
Among the other people charged were Andrew “Mush” Russo, the boss of the Colombo crime family, Benjamin “Benji” Castellazzo, the underboss, and a member of the Bonanno crime family.
“Today’s charges describe a long-standing, ruthless pattern by the administration of the Colombo crime family, its captains, members and associates, of conspiring to exert control over the management of a labor union by threatening to inflict bodily harm on one of its senior officials and devising a scheme to divert and launder vendor contract funds from its health care benefit program,&#8221; said acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis in a statement when the charges were announced.
Kasulis said the defendants engaged in drug trafficking as well.
In one example of the alleged crimes, prosecutors claimed Vincent Ricciardo, known as &#8220;Vinny Unions,&#8221; 75, threatened to kill a senior labor union official in a profanity-laced rant.
“I’ll put him in the ground right in front of his wife and kids, right in front of his f***ing house, you laugh all you want pal, I’m not afraid to go to jail, let me tell you something, to prove a point? I would f***ing shoot him right in front of his wife and kids, call the police, f*** it, let me go, how long you think I’m gonna last anyway?” Ricciardo said in a recording, according to prosecutors.
&#8220;The underbelly of the crime families in New York City is alive and well,&#8221; FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael Driscoll said in September, adding that &#8220;we&#8217;re going to catch them.&#8221;

Magazines And News Papers About The Mafia

Colombo Mobster Pleads Guilty To Racketeering After Relaxing At Pool On The Run

New York

New York City

The following is a transcript excerpt from Dr. Jordan Peterson’s conversation with Michael Franzese on following in his father’s footsteps and his former involvement in the mafia.
Start time: 00:00
Jordan: When you look at the situation now, because you are a changed man and we will get into that, you talked about viewing law enforcement as an enemy and an enemy worth continually battling against, even at personal cost and not blaming your father. You said you loved your father, and that he was a good father to you. When you look back on it now, I mean, obviously your father — and correct me at any point if I have this wrong — but obviously your father was engaged in widespread criminal activity. Why was that not an issue when you were young? Why do you think that his guilt on that front was more or less invisible to you? And how do you view his participation in these activities and his hand in establishing his destiny, even if he was framed on those charges? How do you view that now?
Michael: Well, totally different. You know, I have had many defining moments in my life, but when I stepped away from that life and walked away, I had a lot of trouble, Jordan. I mean, there was a contract on my life because you can’t walk away from that life. And everybody thought the next step for me would be to be a cooperating witness, because that’s what happens normally. People don’t just walk away. So I was in prison at the time and — you know, we can get into that, how that happened — but the law enforcement, the FBI, came into the prison and said, there’s a contract on your life. You’re a dead man anyway. Cooperate with us. And they said, your father went along with the contract; we got word from our informants.
Now, I understood that, you know. I understood that because sometimes in that life, if you proposed somebody and that person becomes an informant, you could be held responsible. In my case, probably not with my dad because of his reputation there, but it was possible. So I understood what he was doing. It hurt a little bit, but it didn’t bother me that much because I understood the life well. And I said, these are some of the consequences I’m going to face. I don’t believe my father would ever put a gun to my head, but he might have kept quiet, you know, and just [said], well, hey, my son violated the rules.
But it was really later on that I had a conversation with him, and this was many years later, after I walked away. It was probably, maybe 10 or 12 years ago. I visited him in prison on his last violation and I said, you know, Dad, our family’s destroyed. I mean, my mother, 33 years without a husband, at the end of her life — she died in 2012 — her relationship with my dad can only be described as ugly because she blamed him for everything that went wrong. What went wrong? I had a sister, 27-years-old, died of an overdose of drugs. My brother, 25 years a drug addict. I can’t even begin to tell you what he put the family through and me personally trying to keep him alive on the street. Another younger sister, you know, 41-years-old, she died of cancer, but she was never mentally stable.
And I said, you know, Dad, you got to claim responsibility. For what? You destroyed our family. Because he was asking me, you know, you walked away — why did you do this? And I said, because I don’t want to put my family through what we went through. And, you know, he looked at me and he said, well none of this was my fault. I said, what do you mean by that? He said, well I was framed on this case. And I said, Dad, you weren’t framed because you were a doctor, a lawyer, or a priest; you were framed because of who we were. I said, you got to come to terms with that because eventually you were going to go down. He wouldn’t accept responsibility.
Jordan: So that is it. That is interesting. Let’s talk about that a little bit because that is extremely interesting. You might think that given that he had lived an exceptional criminal life that he would have been willing, in some sense, to accept the guilt that would be part and parcel of that. I mean, if you engage in criminal activities, then you are doing criminal things. And obviously that is wrong in some sense, or it would not be called criminal, and you would think that that would be part of the price you pay for whatever success and respect you might generate as a consequence of doing that — maybe whatever adventure you might have as a consequence of doing that.
But the fact that he dwelt on the narrow fact of his innocence in that regard means to me — and I think this is what you are telling me — is that he was denying his culpability. You know, you often hear that, especially the high-level criminal types, are without conscience, but that does not seem to be an appropriate description of the situation with your father, because if he was without conscience, he would have just said, well of course I was guilty and they framed me, the sons of bitches, but that is exactly what you would expect — but you know, I had it coming to me in some sense because of all the other things I did.
But you said that he was clinging to his innocence and also unwilling to take responsibility for what he had done. Do you think that is an exaggerated version of what you had to do when you stepped outside yourself, so to speak, to commit the sorts of acts that you did not regard as part and parcel of you?
Michael: I think it could be described that way, yes. You know, and I got upset with him during that meeting, too, because I said, you know, how could you not claim responsibility for any of this? I said, our family was destroyed. And he refused to do it. Now, again, I don’t know if he just couldn’t face me and say it. Maybe inwardly, I can’t look into his heart and his mind. But he was very adamant about, you know, denying it. And maybe, in some sense, I don’t know, maybe that had a carryover effect on me during my time in that life.
Because my dad did teach me one thing. He taught me a lot of things that I thought were very helpful to me. But one of the things he said is: Never admit to anything. Never. No matter what. You don’t ever admit to anything. Let them prove it. Let somebody else prove it. And I saw that as being wrong later on. But during my time in that life and growing up, I would never admit to anything. You guys want to get me? You got to get me. You know, I’m not going to help you. So that was my mentality back then.
To hear the rest of the conversation, continue by listening or watching <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKWycjEXl5g">this episode</a> or watch more content with Dr. Jordan Peterson on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/watch">DailyWire+</a>. 
<a href="https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/">Dr. Jordan B. Peterson</a> is a clinical psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. From 1993 to 1998 he served as assistant and then associate professor of psychology at Harvard. He is the international bestselling author of Maps of Meaning, 12 Rules For Life, and Beyond Order. You can now<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast"> listen to</a> or<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/watch/jordan-peterson"> watch</a> his popular lectures on DailyWire+.

JP father’s day

When Your Father Is The Mafia

Fathers

interview

Jordan Peterson

Readers Pass

Five men with alleged ties to the mob were arrested Tuesday for stealing $2 million worth of jewelry at gunpoint in New York City, federal prosecutors <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/five-defendants-arrested-daytime-armed-robberies-manhattan-jewelry-stores" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a>.
Frank DiPietro, Vincent Cerchio, Vincent Spagnuolo, Michael Sellick, and Samuel Sorce are associates of the Lucchese and Genovese crime families, the NYPD said.
The five men were charged for two robberies at gunpoint in broad daylight, one in January in Midtown and the second in lower Manhattan in May.
They are charged with conspiracy, robbery, and brandishing a firearm in connection with a violent crime. The conspiracy and robbery charges carry 20-year prison sentences, while the firearm charge carries a seven-year sentence.
During the January 3 robbery, four of the men <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/06/06/five-men-busted-for-stealing-2m-in-jewelry-in-gunpoint-heists/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stole</a> three diamond pieces, including a 73-carat necklace, a six-carat ring, and a 17-carat pair of earrings at a Madison Avenue jewelry store, prosecutors said.
Two of the men, DiPietro, 65, and Sellick, 67, were disguised in orange and yellow construction clothes, according to prosecutors.
They entered Bayco Jewels on Madison Avenue near East 61st Street through a connected deli entrance just as workers placed jewelry in the display window case, prosecutors said.
Bayco Jewels is located in a penthouse and <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/alleged-mafia-robbery-crew-posing-as-construction-workers-targeted-nyc-jewelers-to-the-stars/4399409/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">caters</a> to customers like Beyoncé and Rihanna. Customers must pass a credit check before getting an appointment at the high-end shop.
DiPietro, also known as “Frankie the Fish,” allegedly pointed his gun at a worker and said, &#8220;Give it to me,&#8221; while Sellick, also <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/alleged-mafia-robbery-crew-posing-as-construction-workers-targeted-nyc-jewelers-to-the-stars/4399409/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">known</a> as &#8220;Skip,&#8221; allegedly told the worker to “turn around and get in the closet.”
The men used a stolen getaway car to leave the scene, prosecutors said.
DiPietro and Sellick allegedly disguised themselves in construction outfits again on May 20 and held up an Elizabeth Street jewelry store downtown.
Sellick pointed a gun at workers and told them to get on the ground, and DiPietro collected jewelry pieces, prosecutors said.
Sorce, 25, allegedly drove the car as they fled the scene, and he was also dressed in construction clothes.
The men then allegedly switched to a different car driven by Spagnuolo, 65.
In both robberies, the accused switched out the license plates of the getaway cars beforehand, according to the complaint.
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Four of the five men have many prior arrests for high-level crimes.
DiPietro has been arrested a dozen times, including for racketeering and murder in 1998, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig.
The chief detective also said Sellick had been arrested more than two dozen times, mostly for bank robberies that go back to the 1970s. Spagnuolo has been arrested six times, including for a fatal shooting in Manhattan back in 1986, and Cerchio, 69, has been arrested multiple times for conspiracy.
“These five defendants allegedly carried out brazen and dangerous daylight robberies of jewelry stores in Manhattan, stealing about $2 million in jewelry at gunpoint,” Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said.
The men&#8217;s lawyers have spoken out against the case.
“Law enforcement was desperate to solve these cases so they are rounding up the usual suspects,&#8221; DiPietri’s lawyer Mathew Mari <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/06/06/five-men-busted-for-stealing-2m-in-jewelry-in-gunpoint-heists/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the New York Post.
“This will be a trial that ends with the government having egg on their face!” the attorney said.
Sellick’s lawyer claimed his client was busy painting bridges and “couldn’t have been on Madison Avenue pulling off a jewelry heist,” calling the situation “a terrible case of mistaken identity.”

Newspapers And Magazines About Mafia

5 Alleged Mob Men Arrested For Stealing $2M In Jewelry In NYC At Gunpoint, Cops Say

NYPD

U.S.

A Mafia boss considered the most wanted man in Italy —who has been accused of involvement in the strangling of a 12-year-old boy and the dissolving of his body in a vat of acid among other crimes — was finally arrested.
Matteo Messina Denaro, nicknamed “The Devil,” was arrested at a hospital where he was undergoing a colon cancer check and taken to a secret location. Messina Denaro has been accused of dozens of murders, including the strangulation of a pregnant woman.
“A great victory for the state that shows it never gives up in the face of the mafia,” Conservative Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated.
“It is a victory for all the police forces that have worked together over these long years to bring the dangerous fugitive to justice,” Italy’s Chief of Police, Lamberto Giannini, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/16/europe/matteo-messina-denaro-arrested-italy-mafia-intl/index.html">echoed</a>.
“He&#8217;d been coming here on and off for about a year,” said a hospital staffer who preferred to remain anonymous. The Daily Mail <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11639717/Italys-wanted-mafia-mobster-Matteo-Messina-Denaro-arrested-Sicily-30-years-run.html">reported</a>. “He&#8217;d had an operation a few months ago and was back for more tests and chemotherapy. When I turned up for work this morning at 6 a.m. it was all quiet and then he arrived to do his Covid test. A few minutes later a police officer wearing full body armor as if he was going to war came in and said he was looking for a patient.”
“He said to remain calm and that armed officers were on every floor of the clinic,” the staffer continued. “We had no idea who he was or what his background was. The guy actually managed to get out and ran into a local bar but they tracked him down and that&#8217;s when all hell broke loose.”
Messina Denaro was sentenced in absentia in 1992 to a life term for complicity in the murders of anti-Mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino; he has also been accused of complicity in bomb attacks in Florence, Rome and Milan which killed ten people in 1993, the same year he reputedly helped supervise the kidnapping of Giuseppe Di Matteo in order to keep his father from testifying against the Mafia. The boy was held for two years, then reportedly strangled and his body dissolved in a vat of acid.
Messina Denaro had collaborators in Sicily who aided him to evade arrest over the years, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/world/europe/mafia-boss-arrested-matteo-messina-denaro.html">The New York Times</a> noted.

Italyâs most-wanted mafia boss Messina Denaro arrested in Sicily

Italian Mafia Boss, Nation’s Most Wanted Man, Arrested After Evading Police For 30 Years

Italian Mafia Boss, Nation's Most Wanted Man, Arrested After Evading Police For 30 Years

Children

Italy

World

A group of divers discovered another set of skeletal remains in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lake-mead" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lake Mead</a> last week, marking the latest findings as the sixth set recovered since May.
A park service dive team searched the lake after a commercial diver found &#8220;what appeared to be a human bone in the Callville Bay area&#8221; on October 17, the Lake Mead National Park Service told Fox LA.
&#8220;At this time, no foul play is suspected,&#8221; Stefani Dawn, a Park Service spokesperson, told <a href="https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-nevada/human-remains-found-by-divers-at-lake-mead-2665166/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Las Vegas Review-Journal</a>. &#8220;The Clark County coroner&#8217;s office has been contacted to confirm the identity of the deceased.&#8221;
According to Clark County Public Affairs Officer Stacey Welling, the divers were performing contract work at the marina in Calville Bay when they discovered the initial evidence of the human remains.
While the details of the latest discovery are still unknown, the grim finding comes after five other sets of human remains have been found since May.
Historic drought levels have impacted the shrinking Colorado River reservoir near the Hoover Dam, drying up local waterbeds into deserts.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation <a href="https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g4000/riverops/hourly7.html#t0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a> Lake Mead&#8217;s water levels hit a historic low, roughly 1,046 feet, which has left mountains surrounding the area with an imprint showing how far the levels have dropped.
According to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/historic-lake-mead-drought-leads-disturbing-discoveries-dried/story?id=92124028" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ABC News</a>, D.J. Jenner, the owner of Las Vegas Scuba, said that he had witnessed the water levels sink down to approximately 40 feet after observing the lake for years when he first opened his business.
&#8220;There&#8217;s still plenty of water out here for people to come out and enjoy the lake, but it is going down pretty quickly,&#8221; he said.
Park services officials first announced that a group of boaters discovered the first body with a gunshot wound inside a metal barrel stuck in the mud near the lake&#8217;s Hemenway Harbor on May 1.
Detectives on the case believe the victim may have been murdered sometime between the mid-1970s to the early 1980s based on the clothing and footwear found with the body, a local NBC affiliate reports.
Less than a week later, authorities found a second set of remains that surfaced at Callville Bay, which a local County coroner said she believes belong to someone between 23 and 38 years old.
National Park Service authorities announced nearly two months later that rangers responded to a report on July 25 of the third set of human remains found at the park&#8217;s Swim Beach area in Boulder City, Nevada.
On August 16, park rangers responded to a report of the discovery of human skeletal remains in the Swim Beach area of Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
NASA, which recently released satellite images of the drought&#8217;s impact on Lake Mead, reports that the lake holds the record for the largest reservoir in the U.S. The reservoir supplies water to millions of people across seven states, tribal lands, and northern Mexico.
Lake Mead hit its peak in the 1980s, with levels reaching 1,225 feet above sea level. However, NASA satellite imagery shows a dramatic decrease in water levels as lakeshore areas have mineralized over the past 22 years.
The reservoir hit its lowest drop since April 1937 while the lake was still filling for the first time during the construction of the Hoover Dam.

US-CLIMATE-DROUGHT

Sixth Set Of Skeletal Remains Found In Lake Mead

Climate Change

drought

General

Lake Mead

Las Vegas

New details surrounding the inmates accused of beating to death James &#8220;Whitey” Bulger have emerged Monday, alleging that prisoners knew ahead of time the notorious Boston gangster and long-time FBI informant would soon be arriving at the penitentiary.
Sean McKinnon, 36, has been charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and making false statements to a federal agent. According to <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-u-s-news/call-shows-inmates-knew-whitey-bulger-was-moving-to-prison/">The Hill</a>, McKinnon told his mother during a phone call that inmates were aware of Bulger transferring to the U.S. Penitentiary Hazleton in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, in October 2018.
According to a transcript, U.S. Assistant Attorney Hannah Norwalk said McKinnon&#8217;s mother warned her son to stay away from Bulger.
&#8220;I can&#8217;t,&#8221; McKinnon said.
&#8220;You get in trouble,&#8221; the mother responded.
&#8220;Don&#8217;t worry. Oh, I don&#8217;t plan it,&#8221; McKinnon said.
McKinnon is accused of serving as the lookout while Fotios Geas, also known as &#8220;Freddy,&#8221; 55, and Paul J. DeCologero, also known as &#8220;Pauly,&#8221; 48, were allegedly pounding Bulger&#8217;s head with a padlock stuffed inside a sock 12 hours after authorities transferred him from another facility.
McKinnon and Geas shared a cell at the time of Bulger&#8217;s death.
McKinnon&#8217;s defense attorney told the judge that her client calling his mother does not indicate he was involved in any plot to kill Bulger, adding that &#8220;the entire unit was alerted&#8221; about Bulger&#8217;s transfer.
&#8220;The fact that his roommate was a henchman has nothing to do with him,&#8221; defense attorney Christine Bird said, according to the transcript. &#8220;He didn&#8217;t select his roommate.”
&#8220;The fact that he knew that doesn&#8217;t really tell the Court that he was involved in the conspiracy,&#8221; Bird added.
The Hill reports that Norwalk told the judge that security footage shows Geas and DeCologero entering Bulger&#8217;s cell around 6 a.m. At the same time, McKinnon sat at a table that looked straight at the other two men inside the cell for about seven minutes. Authorities found Bulger dead two hours later.
Norwalk said that DeCologero &#8220;said as soon as they saw Bulger come into the unit, they planned to kill him,&#8221; adding that he told this inmate witness that McKinnon was the lookout.
Geas and DeCologero received charges of allegedly aiding and abetting first-degree murder and assault, resulting in serious bodily injury. Authorities filed a separate charge against Geas for an alleged murder by a federal inmate serving a life sentence.
Geas remains incarcerated at the Hazleton penitentiary, while authorities have housed DeCologero within the federal prison system.
McKinnon was on federal supervised release at the time of the indictment, but was arrested Thursday in Florida and received a separate charge for allegedly making false statements to a federal agent.
Bulger, who had already been serving two life terms in person for his role in 11 murders spanning several decades, died at 89.
Bulger’s death has been called a security failure for the federal prison system, and with the new revelations unsealed in court Monday, it has raised additional questions about how authorities handle prison transfers — especially with one of the nation’s most prolific crime lords.
NBC <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/whitey-bulger-murder-case-twist-inmates-west-virginia-prison-knew-adva-rcna44502">reports</a> that a former Bureau of Prisons investigator said he would have “raised holy hell over” Bulger’s transfer into USP Hazleton’s general population.
“It’s just absurd that this happened,” Vito Maraviglia, the former investigator, told NBC.
WCVB <a href="https://www.wcvb.com/article/prosecution-prisoners-knew-whitey-bulger-would-be-transferred-conspired-to-kill-him/40970814#">reports</a> that Bugler’s family blames the federal prison system for allowing inmates to attack an elderly man who was in a wheelchair when he arrived.
Hank Brennan, an attorney for Bulger&#8217;s estate, told 5 Investigates that they “didn’t need affirmation to know that the system put a hit on James Bulger.”
“The DOJ has hidden this confirmatory information from the public and Mr. Bulger’s family for four years but covetously spews these facts publicly when it serves its interest to deprive a person of liberty,” Brennan said in a statement, according to WCVB. “The DOJ repeatedly proves it follows no moral compass and is strictly loyal to its own self-interest.&#8221;

James ‘Whitey’ Bulger Mugshot

Inmates Suspected Of Involvement In Murder Of James ‘Whitey’ Bulger Were Allegedly Aware Of His Prison Transfer

Inmates Suspected Of Being Involved In Murder Of James 'Whitey’ Bulger Were Allegedly Aware Of His Prison Transfer

Murder

Prison

West Virginia

Three men accused of beating to death <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/boston" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Boston</a> crime boss and longtime <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> informant James “Whitey” Bulger were indicted Wednesday in Clarksburg, West Virginia, authorities <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndwv/pr/three-indicted-prison-homicide">said</a>.
Fotios Geas, also known as “Freddy,” 55, Paul J. DeCologero, also known as “Pauly,” 48, and Sean McKinnon, 36, were charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Authorities accused Geas and DeCologero of allegedly striking Bulger in the head multiple times, which led to his death at the U.S. Penitentiary Hazleton in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, in October of 2018.
Geas and DeCologero received charges of allegedly aiding and abetting first-degree murder and assault, resulting in serious bodily injury.
Authorities filed a separate charge against Geas for an alleged murder by a federal inmate serving a life sentence.
Geas, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, was already locked away for life after killing the leader of the Genovese crime family in 2003.
The Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/wv-state-wire-north-america-us-news-ap-top-news-whitey-bulger-7d205d9539e640b592783cda00854ac2">reports</a> that Ted McDonough, a private investigator who knew Geas and called him by his nickname, said &#8220;Freddy hated rats.”
“Freddy hated guys who abused women,&#8221; McDonough said. &#8220;Whitey was a rat who killed women — it’s probably that simple.”
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/us/who-killed-whitey-bulger.html">reported</a> in 2018 that Geas’ representative, Daniel D. Kelly, said in an interview he was not aware of his client killing Bulger.
However, his client had a “particular distaste for cooperators,” referring to Bulger’s long history of leaking information to federal agents leading to the betrayal and murder of rival gang members.
Geas’ “distaste” for informants was so strong that it barred him from accepting a shorter sentence if federal authorities offered for him to become one himself.
Geas remains incarcerated at the Hazleton penitentiary, while authorities have housed DeCologero within the federal prison system.
McKinnon was on federal supervised release at the time of the indictment, but was arrested Thursday in Florida and received a separate charge for allegedly making false statements to a federal agent.
Bulger, who had already been serving two life terms in person for his role in 11 murders spanning several decades, died at 89.
Officials reported his death within 12 hours after transferring him from another facility.
At the time of his death, at least two men allegedly moved the notorious crime boss out of the view of surveillance cameras before brutally pounding his head with a padlock stuffed inside a sock, law enforcement said at the time of his death, according to The New York Times.
A senior law enforcement official said Bulger’s eyes appeared to have been removed from his head when correctional officers discovered his body.
“They apparently tuned him up to the point where he was unrecognizable,” the anonymous source said, according to The New York Times.
Former Boston police commissioner Ed Davis told The New York Times that Bulger’s murder did not surprise him.
“I’m surprised that they let him get hit,” Davis said, adding that it baffled him that the prison had not kept Bulger “away from a convicted organized crime hit man from Massachusetts.”

Three Men Indicted In Connection To Prison Murder Of Boston Crime Boss James ‘Whitey’ Bulger

Boston

Organized crime

Italy&#8217;s second most wanted mobster has been extradited from Brazil after hiding in South America for decades.
Rocco Morabito, the &#8220;cocaine king of Milan,&#8221; arrived in Rome on Wednesday after 28 years on the run from the law.
Morabito, 55, was second on the list of Italy’s most wanted and dangerous mobsters and was regarded as one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the world. Italian authorities had been looking for him since 1994, and he was convicted in absentia by a Milan court in 2001.
&#8220;He was a major architect in the internationalization of the [crime] gangs and became the king of cocaine brokers,&#8221; Nicola Morra, the Italian senator who heads the anti-mafia commission, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/ndrangheta-mafia-kingpin-returns-italy-serve-30-year-sentence-rcna36928">wrote</a> on Facebook.
Morabito was a leading member of the &#8216;Ndrangheta, which has in recent decades become even more powerful and widespread than the infamous Sicilian mafia, especially in the cocaine business.
The mafia don was finally arrested last year in May, the result of a joint operation by Brazilian and Italian police.
He had been previously arrested in Uruguay in 2017, but Morabito escaped from prison two years later when he and three other inmates climbed through a hole in the roof, evading custody until 2021.
Last year, authorities finally located him again in João Pessoa, a port city in north-eastern Brazil. He had adopted a fake identity with a fake Brazilian passport, going by the name Francisco Capeletto.
Morabito was arrested there along with another &#8216;Ndrangheta mafia member, Vincenzo Pasquino, who has been sentenced for drug trafficking to the tune of 17 years behind bars.
Morabito will serve 30 years in prison for drug trafficking. He has also been convicted of mafia association.
His extradition to Italy was approved by Brazil&#8217;s federal supreme court last week.
Morabito rose to prominence as a young mafia associate by forging what are now major cocaine smuggling routes from South America to Milan. He was eventually caught on an audio recording attempting to make deals relating to importing more than a ton of cocaine along one of those routes.
In Uruguay, Morabito had lived large, collecting art and sometimes throwing big parties for his friends. Police began tracking him in South America when he registered his daughter at school under her real name.
During his arrest in 2017, police found a 9mm firearm, 13 cell phones, cash, a Mercedes coupe, and 150 photos of Morabito in different disguises that appeared to be meant for passports among his belongings.
<div class="ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i86" data-component="text-block">
<div class="ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1">The top most wanted mafia boss in Italy is still Matteo Messina Denaro, who is regarded as the most powerful boss of Cosa Nostra in Sicily. He has been on the run from authorities since 1993.</div>
<div></div>
</div>
<div>Besides Cosa Nostra of Sicily and the &#8216;Ndrangheta from Calabria, the other major mafia group in Italy is the Camorra from Campania, also known as the Neapolitan mafia.</div>
<div></div>
<div>In the U.S., Cosa Nostra is split into many different families, including the powerful five families of New York, the Gambino, Colombo, Bonanno, Genovese, and Lucchese families.</div>

BRAZIL-ITALY-MAFIA-MORABITO-ARRESTED

Italy’s Number Two Mobster Extradited From Brazil

Italy's Number Two Mobster Extradited From Brazil

Brazil

Readers Pass – Elrodi – What Happened To The Mafia_ (3)16×9

American Mafia: With Lurid Headlines Fading, Ex-Mobsters Weigh In On Resurgence

For much of the last century, the American mafia controlled industries, kept police, judges, and politicians on its payroll and literally got away with murder. But somewhere in between Don Corleone’s version of La Cosa Nostra and Tony Soprano’s, the once-powerful organized crime syndicate lost its grip on power. In a three-part investigation, The Daily Wire looks at what the mob once was, how it was brought down, and how it may soon be back on the rise.
It was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/christmas">Christmas</a> time in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/new-york">New York City</a>, but the crisp December air had just been shattered by the sound of bullets outside a midtown Manhattan steak house. Bystanders swarmed the area, craning their necks to stare aghast at a well-dressed man lying dead on the sidewalk.
The brazen public <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/17/nyregion/organized-crime-chief-shot-dead-stepping-from-car-on-e-46th-st.html">murder</a> of 70-year-old Gambino boss Paul Castellano on that December evening in 1985 was shocking, but old-style executions of mob bosses were familiar to Americans.
This one would turn out to be the last.
The hit was orchestrated by the infamously flashy and charismatic John Gotti, who took over the Gambino family after Castellano’s death. Gotti watched the murder from a car across the street before driving off.
<div id="attachment_392037" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392037" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-392037" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-97307215-300x238.jpg" alt="UNITED STATES - JANUARY 08: John Gotti (c.) with a smile on his face, older brother Peter Gotti (right) and John (Jackie Nose) D'Amico leave Manhattan Supreme Court where he is on trial on charges of conspiracy and assault in the 1986 shooting of a carpenter's union official. (Photo by Robert Rosamilio/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)" width="300" height="238" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-97307215-300x238.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-97307215-727x576.jpg 727w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-97307215-768x608.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-97307215.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />John Gotti leaves Manhattan Supreme Court (Robert Rosamilio/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)</div>
These days, some former made men blame Gotti’s ego and penchant for the spotlight for delivering one of the final blows to the glory days of the mafia, known as La Cosa Nostra in the U.S., which was already reeling from federal investigations and rats turning in their fellow wiseguys. The factors combined to largely end the mob&#8217;s decades-long rein of terror, a rubout commissioned by the feds and unwittingly aided by vain and volatile men unable to maintain the underworld life into which they were born. 
Bobby Luisi was a made man, a caporegime, in the Philadelphia mafia at the time of the hit on Castellano. He grew up in Boston&#8217;s Little Italy and was eventually tapped to lead the Boston crew of the City of Brotherly Love&#8217;s Bruno-Scarfo family. In 1999, Luisi was arrested and charged with cocaine distribution and served 14 years in federal prison. He has since renounced the life of a mobster.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rpwhat-happened-to-the-mafia-as-a-rusty-barrel-reveals-a-body-ex-mobsters-recall-blood-soaked-glory-days">AS A RUSTY BARREL REVALS A BODY, EX-MOBSTERS RECALL BLOOD-SOAKED GLORY DAYS</a>
“Terrible, terrible, terrible. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/nyregion/nicky-scarfo-mob-boss-who-plundered-atlantic-city-in-the-80s-dies-at-87.html">Nicky Scarfo</a>, John Gotti, ‘<a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-mobster-anthony-gaspipe-casso-death-20201216-35ykrc6d6jdqnj4ttmebmwjmde-story.html">Gaspipe</a>,’ there’s a list of them that shouldn’t have been there,” Luisi told <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/new-york">The Daily Wire</a>. “John was that typical street tough guy, you know, good capo, but he should have never been a boss. … Look what John did. He wanted to be a celebrity.”
“I thought I was a good boss. I was fair with everybody. I did the right things. But I was a little flamboyant myself. I can&#8217;t lie about that,” Luisi said. “I had the nice house. I had the cars. You know, in our life we say, &#8216;Ah, we&#8217;re either going to be dead by 40 or doing life in prison. Let&#8217;s enjoy it now.&#8217;”
Michael Franzese was once a powerful capo in the Colombo family and knew Gotti in the 1970s. Franzese was a pre-med student but joined the mob in 1971, four years after his father was sentenced to 50 years in prison for bank robbery. Franzese became fluent in sophisticated fraud schemes and estimated he earned $8 million a week in his prime, before going to prison on conspiracy charges in 1986. He was released in 1994 and has renounced the mafia.
<div id="attachment_392039" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392039" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-392039" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/table-solo-300x280.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="280" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/table-solo-300x280.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/table-solo.jpg 302w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Young Michael Franzese (Courtesy of Michael Franzese)</div>
<div id="attachment_392040" style="width: 296px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392040" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-392040" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/5dcd780ee6a09.image_-286x300.jpg" alt="Michael Franzese" width="286" height="300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/5dcd780ee6a09.image_-286x300.jpg 286w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/5dcd780ee6a09.image_-549x576.jpg 549w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/5dcd780ee6a09.image_.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 286px) 100vw, 286px" />Michael Franzese (Courtesy of Michael Franzese)</div>
Franzese said that while Gotti may have “played for the camera a little bit,” the media “just didn&#8217;t let it go.”
“To an extent, I think John gets a bad rap,” Franzese told <a href="https://www.dailywire.com">The Daily Wire</a>. “They say that John Gotti is responsible for the downfall of the mafia in New York. That&#8217;s not true. It was the RICO Act that&#8217;s responsible for the downfall.”
Franzese was referring to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which was passed in 1970, back when Gotti was a low level soldier known as &#8220;Crazy Horse&#8221; and was serving a three- year stint in federal prison for hijacking goods from a Northwest Airlines flight into what is now JFK Airport.
<div id="attachment_392033" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392033" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-392033" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1445952-300x194.jpg" alt="Mugshot of John Gotti" width="300" height="194" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1445952-300x194.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1445952-891x576.jpg 891w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1445952-768x497.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1445952.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />John Gotti 1968 mugshot (Getty Images)</div>
<div id="attachment_392038" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392038" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-392038" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-938881570-300x183.jpg" alt="John Gotti 1990 mugshot (Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)" width="300" height="183" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-938881570-300x183.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-938881570-945x576.jpg 945w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-938881570-768x468.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-938881570.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />John Gotti 1990 mugshot (Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)</div>
One of the men who put Franzese behind bars was Edward McDonald, who led the Federal Organized Crime Strike Force in Brooklyn in the 1980s. McDonald investigated some of the most high-profile organized crime cases in the country and even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaUDNrtr9ow">played</a> himself in the seminal mob movie &#8220;Goodfellas.&#8221;
For the first few years after RICO was passed, the Department of Justice balked at deploying the law against the mob because they were worried it was too powerful of a weapon, McDonald said.
“The officials in Washington were so concerned that they would be seen by the courts as abusing the weapon that Congress had given us, so they were very, very cautious in approving RICO prosecutions at the outset,” McDonald told <a href="https://www.dailywire.com">The Daily Wire</a>. “It took a few years for people to really just come to grips with what it meant.”
Meanwhile, the FBI was wasting its time on things like bugging social clubs because agents wanted the overtime pay, the former prosecutor said.
“I said look, we&#8217;ve done this before. It&#8217;s a complete and total waste of time to put a bug in a social club because [there are] 40 people in there talking,” McDonald said. “You can&#8217;t understand anything.”
Eventually the FBI became more sophisticated in its use of electronic surveillance. They planted bugs in the inner sanctums where mob bosses were having significant conversations, including private rooms frequented by the likes of Castellano and Genovese underboss Tony &#8220;Fat Tony&#8221; Salerno, as well as the offices of labor unions that were controlled by the mob.
“We really began to get great conversations and that&#8217;s what led to the downfall of these people,” McDonald said.
Another crippling blow was the Witness Protection Program, which protected mafia turncoats from being killed by the associates they betrayed. Then in 1987, new federal sentencing guidelines began <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/01/us/uniform-rules-on-sentencing-to-take-effect-in-us-courts.html">mandating</a> daunting prison sentences of decades or hundreds of years without parole for mafia members. Faced with dying in prison, and given the protection of a new identity, wiseguys started to crack.
By the late 1980s, “big fish started to cooperate, and that went a long way in further destroying this veneer of a monolithic organization with no cracks in their armor,” said Scott Burnstein, author of several books on the mob including &#8220;Motor City Mafia: A Century of Organized Crime in Detroit.&#8221;
“And you had mob boss after mob boss, underboss after underboss, capo after capo running into the open arms of the government. And you had never had that before,” Burnstein told <a href="https://www.dailywire.com">The Daily Wire</a>.
One of the most colorful characters the feds nailed in the twilight of the glory days was Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, dubbed &#8220;The Oddfather&#8221; because for decades he could be seen wandering around Greenwich Village in his bathrobe and slippers, muttering to himself. Many assumed he had a screw loose, and he was initially judged mentally unfit to stand trial, but Gigante was ultimately sentenced to prison on racketeering and conspiracy charges in 1997. He later admitted that his bizarre behavior was a ploy to avoid prosecution.
<div id="attachment_392044" style="width: 255px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392044" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-392044" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-3161227-245x300.jpg" alt="NEW YORK - AUGUST 20: Vincent &quot;Chin&quot; Gigante is arrested August 20, 1957 in New York City. (Photo by Getty Images)" width="245" height="300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-3161227-245x300.jpg 245w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-3161227-470x576.jpg 470w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-3161227-768x941.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-3161227.jpg 836w" sizes="(max-width: 245px) 100vw, 245px" />Vincent &#8220;The Chin&#8221; Gigante 1957 arrest (Getty Images)</div>
<div class="mceTemp"></div>
<div id="attachment_392048" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392048" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-392048" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-515246052-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-515246052-300x199.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-515246052-870x576.jpg 870w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-515246052-768x509.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-515246052.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Vincent &#8220;The Chin&#8221; Gigante is arrested. (Getty Images)</div>
After Gotti was sentenced to prison in 1992, Gigante was considered the most powerful mafia boss in the country until he was locked up too. At the same time, the mafia was retreating into the shadows.
“They said, &#8216;No more. No more social clubs, no more guys hanging around the corner. That&#8217;s got to stop.&#8217; So they went totally underground,” said Nick Christophers, a mafia expert who co-authored “Prison Rules” with ex-mobster John Alite.
“I mean wiseguys used to be on the corners all the time. I remember, I used to see them in my neighborhood. I was attracted to that life when I was young myself,” Christophers told <a href="https://www.dailywire.com">The Daily Wire</a>.
Franzese said the mafia has gone back to where it should have been all along, adding that many people misunderstand that a low profile is what the oath of omertà demands in the first place.
“They think when you take that oath, like the night I was made, that it&#8217;s an oath to lie, steal, cheat, and kill,” Franzese said. “That&#8217;s not the oath. The oath is silence. We&#8217;re never supposed to admit that we belong to the life. We&#8217;re never supposed to say the life even exists.”
Now, flashy mob headlines in the New York tabloids are scarce, mobsters wear sneakers and jeans instead of Armani suits, and midtown sidewalks have fewer bloodstains. The mafia still hums along quietly, but as a shadow of its former self.
“The government destroyed Cosa Nostra. They set out to do it, and they did it,” Luisi said.

Readers Pass – Elrodi – What Happened To The Mafia_ (2)16×9

American Mafia: Rats, Revenge, and RICO: Ex-Mobsters Talk The Downfall Of An Empire

For much of the last century, the American mafia controlled industries, kept police, judges, and politicians on its payroll and literally got away with murder. But somewhere in between Don Corleone’s version of La Cosa Nostra and Tony Soprano’s, the once-powerful organized crime syndicate lost its grip on power. In a three-part investigation, The Daily Wire looks at what the mob once was, how it was brought down, and how it may be back on the rise.
When a group of boaters went to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dead-man-talks-mob-experts-offer-three-identities-for-body-washed-up-in-lake-mead">Lake Mead near Las Vegas</a> on a sunny Sunday last month, they couldn’t have known they were about to muddy the waters around the most enduring of all mafia mysteries: What happened to Jimmy Hoffa?
On a sandbar newly exposed due to a drought dropping water levels to all-time lows, they spied a man’s decomposed body stuffed in a barrel. It had all the hallmarks of an old-fashioned mob hit, and when police said the man&#8217;s shoes indicated he had likely been shot sometime between the mid-’70s and early ‘80s, mob mavens did the math: Hoffa disappeared in July, 1975.
“I’m relatively sure it was not Jimmy Hoffa,” laughed former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, 82, who represented mobsters as a defense attorney before serving three terms running Sin City.
While the gruesome discovery, which is being investigated as a homicide, may not shed light on the fate of the legendary Teamsters union boss, the drama and subsequent speculation underscored America&#8217;s fascination with La Cosa Nostra, even if the glory days of the mob have receded like the waters of Lake Mead.
But when was the mafia&#8217;s golden age?
Bobby Luisi was a made man, a caporegime, in the Philadelphia mafia. In 1999, Luisi was arrested and charged with cocaine distribution and served 14 years in federal prison. Luisi recalls growing up in Boston&#8217;s Little Italy in the 1960s, when the mafia ruled the streets and being part of it meant power, money, and responsibility. It stayed that way in the 1970s, as he joined the life and was eventually tapped to lead the Boston crew of the City of Brotherly Love&#8217;s Bruno-Scarfo family.
<div id="attachment_391394" style="width: 231px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-391394" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-391394" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-03-at-4.07.19-PM2-221x300.png" alt="" width="221" height="300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-03-at-4.07.19-PM2-221x300.png 221w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-03-at-4.07.19-PM2-425x576.png 425w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-03-at-4.07.19-PM2.png 624w" sizes="(max-width: 221px) 100vw, 221px" />Bobby Luisi, Philadelphia mob capo (YouTube screenshot)</div>
But the mafia began to crumble in the 1980s, he said, when the feds finally broke the spell of the oath of omertà.
“When the government came out with witness protection, that ruined the mob,” Luisi told The Daily Wire. “You know, look at me. I was getting indicted for three murders. Wiseguys, guys that I come up with, they were all ratting on me. They turned me into a rat.”
Michael Franzese, who was once a powerful capo in the Colombo family before serving time and renouncing the life in his 1992 autobiography, &#8220;Quitting the Mob,&#8221; said the mafia&#8217;s zenith lasted from the 1950s through the mid-1980s.
“That&#8217;s when we exercised the most control and when we had the biggest presence and the most success in this country,” Franzese told The Daily Wire.
<div id="attachment_391387" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-391387" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-391387" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1321328283-300x231.jpg" alt="Michael Franzese" width="300" height="231" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1321328283-300x231.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1321328283-749x576.jpg 749w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1321328283-768x590.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1321328283.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Michael Franzese in a Manhattan office, 1985. (Jim Cummins/Newsday RM via Getty Images)</div>
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<div id="attachment_391391" style="width: 250px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-391391" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-391391" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-142516562-240x300.jpg" alt="Michael Franzese " width="240" height="300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-142516562-240x300.jpg 240w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-142516562-461x576.jpg 461w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-142516562-768x960.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-142516562.jpg 819w" sizes="(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" />Michael Franzese arrives at federal court. (Dennis Caruso/NY Daily News via Getty Images)</div>
The groundwork for that gilded age was lain during the 1920s and 1930s, and bought with blood and bribery, added Franzese, who was a pre-med student when his father, John &#8220;Sonny&#8221; Franzese was an underboss in the Colombo crime family. He joined the mob in 1971, four years after his father was sentenced to 50 years in prison for bank robbery.
“During the days of Prohibition, you had massive corruption among law enforcement and politicians,” said Franzese. “Go back to the days of Al Capone. There was massive corruption and it was massive money that came into mob coffers. That&#8217;s how the organization got built.”
Franzese proved his worth to the family by excelling at sophisticated fraud schemes, and knew future Gambino boss John Gotti in the 1970s, when both were making their mafia bones. Franzese estimated he earned $8 million a week in his prime, before going to prison on conspiracy charges in 1986. He was released in 1994.
<div id="attachment_391389" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-391389" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-391389" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-644663374-300x200.jpg" alt="Michael Franzese " width="300" height="200" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-644663374-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-644663374-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-644663374-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-644663374.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Michael Franzese mugshot, 1993. (Oklahoma County Sheriff&#8217;s Department/Getty Images)</div>
One of the men who got Franzese locked up is Edward McDonald, who led the Federal Organized Crime Strike Force in Brooklyn in the 1980s. McDonald investigated some of the most high-profile organized crime cases in the country and even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaUDNrtr9ow">played</a> himself in the seminal mob movie &#8220;Goodfellas.&#8221;
 “Don’t give me the babe in the woods routine, Karen,” was the iconic line McDonald delivered, speaking to the wife of mobster Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta.
In 1985, McDonald and other law enforcement officials helped prosecutors bring an indictment of Franzese.
“Michael was a significant, significant target because of the amount of money that he earned,” McDonald told The Daily Wire. “And he was very different because he was far more sophisticated than the others. His crimes were looting insurance companies and automobile dealerships. He had very fraudulent schemes that he used. And the threat of force was always behind what he was doing.”
While &#8220;The Godfather&#8221; trilogy tended to glorify the old world aspects of the mafia and convey some sense of honor among bad men, by the 1990s, dark films like &#8220;Goodfellas,&#8221; &#8220;Carlito&#8217;s Way&#8221; and &#8220;Donnie Brasco&#8221; captured the dysfunction and psychosis of the mob. Art was imitating life, according to Scott Burnstein, author of several books on the mob including &#8220;Motor City Mafia: A Century of Organized Crime in Detroit.&#8221; The heyday of Mario Puzo&#8217;s fictitious Don Corleone had seemingly run its course.
“The ‘70s and ‘80s was the last vestige of the glory era,” Burnstein said. “But ‘50s and ‘60s was the epicenter of the golden era,” Burnstein told The Daily Wire. “They got someone elected president of the United States. That’s all you need to know.”
Burnstein was referring to the Chicago mob, known as the “Outfit,” which is often <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-nov-09-mn-51973-story.html">credited</a> with installing John F. Kennedy in the White House in the closely contested 1960 presidential election.
Christian Cipollini, an organized crime historian and author of several mafia books about legendary Genovese crime boss Lucky Luciano, said the early American mafia thrived when it worked with Jewish and Irish crime syndicates.
“The Italian mafia was at its height in the 1930s and early ‘40s because there were guys involved who weren&#8217;t all about this thing of ours,” Cipollini said. “The Italians then took it back to what I call this traditionalism or whatever they did in the forties and fifties and sixties. I think it backfired. I think they were better off when it was the Luciano, Capone era of &#8216;I don&#8217;t care who you are or what color you are. It&#8217;s all about green.&#8217;”
The 1950s, when organized crime tightened its grip on the Las Vegas Strip, get a lot of hype, and the seventies were “possibly one of the dirtiest, violent” eras, Cipollini said. Then in the late eighties and nineties, the mafia had a resurgence, at least in the public consciousness, thanks to the flamboyant and publicity-conscious Gotti, the &#8220;Dapper Don&#8221; who Cipollini says “put them back on the map.”
The days of brazen mob hits in broad daylight and wiseguys in suits pulling up in Cadillacs are over at least for now, but all it takes is a grisly discovery at the bottom of a lake to fire the imaginations of amateur mafia enthusiasts. But Goodman said there was a dead giveaway that the body discovered last month in Lake Mead wasn&#8217;t a true gangster, much less Hoffa: His clothing was Kmart-issue, circa 1970s.
“Well, it can’t be a mobster then,” Goodman said.

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