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2024-03-29T12:51:11Z
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Kill to be on top of the hill - Profile of Genovese Mafia family soldier Louis Auricchio
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/kill-to-be-on-top-of-the-hill-profile-of-genovese-mafia-family-so
2021-01-10T08:44:05.000Z
2021-01-10T08:44:05.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/kill-to-be-on-top-of-the-hill-profile-of-genovese-mafia-family-so" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237154266,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237154266?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>In the Mafia, you don’t get to the top without leaving a trail of dead bodies in your wake. You have to kill to be on top of the hill. Whether you’re John Gotti, Carlo Gambino or Vito Genovese. Their soldiers know this all too well. Genovese crime family soldier Louis Auricchio was among them.</p>
<p>Auricchio was born on May 27, 1958 in Somerset, New Jersey. He came up in the crew of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family" target="_blank">Genovese Mafia family</a> capo John Joseph DiGilio Sr. Known by the nickname “Johnny Dee,” DiGilio was a former professional <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Boxing" target="_blank">boxer</a>, who was made by mob boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/get-the-right-man-how-the-fbn" target="_blank">Vito Genovese</a> in the 1950s, and went on to oversee the Genovese family rackets in New Jersey.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>The rise and fall of “Johnny Dee”</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237154300,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237154300?profile=original" /></a>By the 1970s, he was a powerhouse in the unions, becoming secretary-treasurer of International Longshoremen's Association Local 1588 in Bayonne, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=NJ" target="_blank">New Jersey</a>. For the right price, DiGilio (right) offered labor peace. It was one of the mob’s bread-and-butter rackets, ensuring the families of a steady flow of income – both legit and illegitimate.</p>
<p>Authorities were cracking down on La Cosa Nostra’s strong grip on <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Union" target="_blank">unions</a>, though. Mobsters and union officials were being subpoenaed and indicted left and right. In 1988 it was DiGilio’s turn. It was part of doing business in the life. It was what was expected even. What wasn’t was representing yourself during a racketeering trial. Yet that was exactly what DiGilio did.</p>
<p>His mob superiors did not appreciate his efforts. They were especially pissed off when the jury acquitted DiGilio but found his fellow Genovese family-connected defendants guilty. DiGilio’s success would be short-lived. Literally.</p>
<p>His dead body was found floating in the Hackensack River on May 26, 1988. He was shot in the head five times. The <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family" target="_blank">Genovese family</a> has its own way of meting out justice – and it is final.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: A friend of Vito’s - Profile of Genovese crime family mobster</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/a-friend-of-vito-s-profile-of-genovese-crime-family-mobster-salva" target="_blank"><strong>Salvatore “Sally Burns” Granello</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>His murder remained unsolved for years to come. The code of silence was taken seriously within the Genovese family, an organization so disciplined that its members never uttered the name of their boss, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-boss-vincent-chin" target="_blank">Vincent “Chin” Gigante</a>, aloud. Instead, they pointed to their chin when they referred to him.</p>
<p>While authorities were investigating the gangland killing of DiGilio, Auricchio was fighting his own legal battle with them. He was found guilty of evading over $300,000 in taxes from 1981 to 1983. The jury was deadlocked on a cocaine conspiracy charge. While Auricchio was in federal prison, authorities were getting closer to solving the murder of his boss. And their intel pointed to him as being the triggerman.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“I shot John”</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237155265,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237155265?profile=original" /></a>In 1993, an investigation by the New Jersey State Police and the Division of Criminal Justice uncovered detailed information that led to a state indictment of Auricchio on charges that included the 1988 murder of DiGilio. Auricchio (right) didn’t put up much of a fight. He pleaded guilty to first-degree state charges of aggravated manslaughter and racketeering in March of 1994.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: “I’m in waste management!” - <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-m-in-waste-management-genovese-mafia-family-soldier-frank-giovi" target="_blank">Genovese Mafia family soldier Frank Giovinco</a> guilty of racketeering</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>“I shot and killed him,” Auricchio said in court. “I shot John.” He admitted that he conspired with other Genovese family mobsters to murder DiGilio. He said he shot DiGilio several times in the back of the head with a .38 caliber handgun from the back seat of his own black Lincoln Continental, driven by George Weingartner, a former Bayonne police officer.</p>
<p>Later in 1994, Weingartner, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family" target="_blank">Genovese family</a> capo Angelo Prisco and 11 other Genovese mobsters were indicted on racketeering and other charges related to the murder of DiGilio. Again, a death caused for an unexpected turn of events.</p>
<p>During the trial in 1998, Weingartner was found dead in an idling car in the garage of his Brick home, asphyxiated by carbon monoxide. It was ruled a suicide but when the mob is involved things are never as clear cut as they seem.</p>
<p>Prisco pleaded guilty in 1997 to state charges of conspiracy to commit racketeering and arson for hire and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The other co-defendants were also convicted.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237155090,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237155090?profile=original" width="216" height="370" /></a>Doing time, moving on up</strong></span></p>
<p>By then, Auricchio (right) was already doing time for his role in the killing of DiGilio. On June 10, 1994, he had been sentenced to 30 years in New Jersey state prison on the murder charge, with a minimum of 15 years without parole. He was sentenced to 20 years, 10 without possibility of parole, on the racketeering charge, with the sentences to run concurrently with each other and with a federal sentence for racketeering that was imposed one month earlier.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Profile of</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-genovese-crime-family-boss-liborio-bellomo" target="_blank"><strong>Genovese crime family boss Liborio Bellomo</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Auricchio did his time and kept his mouth shut. He got out of prison in December of 2010 after his sentence was up. There were rumors that he had taken over DiGilio’s old crew and was appointed as capo within the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family" target="_blank">Genovese family</a>.</p>
<p>Things remained quiet until news of his passing was announced. He died on January 5, 2021, at age 62.</p>
<p><em>Photo at top of page and one to the right are courtesy of <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/domwoods74/" target="_blank">Dom Woods</a>.</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese crime family section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
The Clown: Profile of Chicago Mafia boss Joseph Lombardo
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/chicago-boss-joseph-lombardo
2019-10-21T14:42:18.000Z
2019-10-21T14:42:18.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236980256,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" /></p>
<p><br /> By David Amoruso<br /> <br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Lombardo" target="_blank">Joseph Lombardo</a> was considered one of the longest leading members of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-chicago-outfit-overview" target="_blank">Chicago Outfit</a>. He was nicknamed The Clown, and proved that he could play that role. When he was arrested in 1964 for beating a man who owned him money, he made it impossible for the police to take a good mug shot of him by opening his mouth in a wide yawn. It was typical Joey the Clown: acting goofy to outsmart the law. His fellow mobsters and his opponents in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a> considered him a smart criminal and stone killer first, his clown act was just that, an act.<br /> <br /> Lombardo grew up as one of eleven children in a poor depression-era <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Chicago" target="_blank">Chicago</a> family. Growing up he had lots of jobs ranging from shining shoes, being a paperboy, and handling room service at the Blackstone Hotel. He graduated from Wells High School. But eventually decided the criminal life was to be his kind of life.<br /> <br /> He committed burglaries and worked as muscle for neighborhood loan sharks. Becoming a trusted associate and later a member of the Chicago Outfit by the 1960s. He allegedly "made his bones" by killing mob associate and hotel owner Manny Skar in 1965. Lombardo shadowed Skar for two days until he killed him as he exited his car to enter his apartment on Lake Shore Drive. Lombardo proved a capable killer for <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-chicago-outfit-overview" target="_blank">The Outfit</a>. And the feds noticed it too, according to retired FBI agent Jack O'Rourke: "He was vicious and a killer. He was their prime enforcer."<br /> <br /> By the 1970s Lombardo was a capo of the Grand Avenue street crew. He controlled numerous business, both legal and illegal. He also controlled <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Spilotro" target="_blank">Anthony Spilotro</a>. Spilotro was the man Chicago had sent to Las Vegas to protect its operations there. He answered to Lombardo and executed his orders. Lombardo also was the man who handled Allen Dorfman, who controlled the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund for The Outfit as a front. Dorfman approved countless "loans" to mobsters who invested the money in casinos and other ventures via front men. Some of the loans were repaid but others were not. You couldn't muscle the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a>.<br /> <br /> Seeing how Lombardo was given these important tasks by his Outfit superiors one can only come to the conclusion that he was considered an intelligent and capable mobster. But no matter how capable, witnesses still caused the Outfit major head aches. In 1974 Lombardo and five others (including Dorfman and Spilotro) were indicted and charged with defrauding the Central States Teamsters Pension Fund of $1.4 million dollars. It would be a complicated case to prove involving several companies and thousands of bookkeeping records. But a cooperating witness would make things a lot easier for prosecutors.<br /> <br /> One of the involved companies' owners had decided to become a witness. Daniel Seifert was a 29 year old Chicago businessman with a wife and child. At one point he had got involved with Lombardo and other mobsters. But not as a victim. He and Lombardo were close friends. Seifert's son was named Joseph after Lombardo, who was also godfather of the boy. But upon hearing about Seifert's betrayal Lombardo had no second thoughts about taking action.<br /> <br /> On an early Friday morning in September 1974 Seifert and his wife and 4 year old son stopped by his plastics factory when four men wearing ski-masks and armed with guns showed up. Emma Seifert and son Joseph were pushed into the bathroom by one of the gunman. She later testified: "He told me to be quiet and not to worry. Then I heard a gunshot, and the man left my side. Then I didn't hear anything for a few seconds." Daniel Seifert was running for his life, but several shots forced him to the ground. There one of the gunman delivered the final shot at point-blank range to his head. With Daniel Seifert removed from the case, the case collapsed. Lombardo and his five codefendants were acquitted.<br /> <br /> With Lombardo and Spilotro free to run their business the skimming of the Las Vegas <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Casino" target="_blank">casinos</a> continued. But law enforcement was on their trail. In 1978 two big investigations into organized crime in Las Vegas were launched. Phones were tapped, locations and mobsters were put under surveillance and thanks to the information uncovered through these observations the feds raided several spots uncovering even more damaging info.<br /> <br /> The first investigation was called Operation Pendorf and went after Allen Dorfman and his mob pals defrauding the Teamsters fund. In May 1981 Dorfman, Lombardo and Spilotro were indicted and charged with conspiracy to bribe Senator Howard Cannon and defraud the Central States Pension Fund of the Teamsters. Spilotro would stand trial at a later date to health problems. Lombardo and Dorfman were found guilty. Worried that Dorfman would flip and give up all he knew about the mob's business interests they had him killed before he talked or went to prison to serve his sentence. Lombardo was on his way to prison though, he received a sentence of fifteen years.<br /> <br /> <img style="float:right;" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236980482,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" />In the other operation, titled Strawman II on September 30, 1983 fifteen men were charged with conspiring to skim $2 million dollars from the Stardust, Fremont, Marina and Hacienda casinos. Here too Lombardo was found guilty. He was sentenced to sixteen years to run concurrently with his sentence in operation Pendorf.<br /> <br /> In November 1992 Lombardo was released from prison. He was still on parole and could not meet any of his fellow mobsters. Several Chicago newspapers ran big stories about his release and possible rise to the position of boss of the Outfit. As a result Lombardo placed a public notice in the ad section of several newspapers in which he stated the following: "I am Joe Lombardo. I have been released on parole from Federal prison. I never took a secret oath with guns and daggers, pricked my finger, drew blood or burned paper to join a criminal organization. If anyone hears my name in connection with any criminal activity please notify the FBI, local police and my parole officer, Ron Kumke."<br /> <br /> Things remained quiet. No one even knew who the boss in Chicago was. But by 2005 The Outfit was again the focus of the newspapers. In the spring of 2005 the FBI brought indictments against the leading members of The Outfit charging them with racketeering conspiracy that involved illegal gambling, loan sharking, extortion and murders that date back decades. Among those indicted was Joseph Lombardo. But he had vanished from the scene. Now in his late 70s he again seemed to outsmart the law. But in January 2006 he was arrested in a Chicago suburb. He had grown a long beard that resembled the one Saddam Hussein had when he was captured.<br /> <br /> After a trial booming with stories that could (and did) fill several Hollywood movies Lombardo and his mob buddies were found guilty. Lombardo was found guilty of racketeering conspiracy, obstruction and impeding an official proceeding and the Daniel Seifert murder. After several decades in which the Chicago Outfit ruled large parts of the US, made millions defrauding the Teamsters Pension Fund and Las Vegas casinos, committed scores of murders, the few men still alive to be held accountable were found guilty. Lombardo received a life sentence.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> On October 19, 2019, Lombardo died at age 90 while incarcerated.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-chicago-outfit-overview">Chicago Outfit section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
Yakuza on Death Row: Playing tricks until time’s up
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/yakuza-on-death-row-playing-tricks-until-time-s-up
2018-12-29T12:30:00.000Z
2018-12-29T12:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/yakuza-on-death-row-playing-tricks-until-time-s-up" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237113855,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237113855?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Two different cases. Both, violent killings committed by members of the Yakuza, Japan’s Mafia, and both resulted in its murderers being on death row. One gangster was executed on Thursday. The other, a former Yakuza boss, is playing games with the justice system to evade a similar fate.</p>
<p>Keizo Kawamura (right, who also used the surname Okamoto), a 60-year-old gangster of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Yamaguchi" target="_blank">Yamaguchi-gumi</a>, Japan’s largest <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/yakuza-overview" target="_blank">Yakuza group</a>, was hanged on Thursday for his role in the kidnapping and murder of the president and a worker <a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237114058,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237114058?profile=original" /></a>of Cosmo Research Corp. – an investment firm - in an apartment building in Osaka on January 29, 1988, after robbing him of some ¥100 million in cash.</p>
<p>His partner in crime, 67-year-old investment adviser Hiroya Suemori, was hanged the same day. Both men tried to hide their crimes by burying the two bodies in concrete and dumping them in a mountainous area of Kyoto Prefecture. They had been sentenced to death in September of 2004.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/yakuza-boss-charged-with-ordering-hit-on-manager-of-car-dealershi" target="_blank">Yakuza boss charged with ordering hit</a> - Victim slashed with katana sword</strong></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Japan and capital punishment</strong></span></p>
<p>Japan resumed the death penalty in 1993. At the time of this writing 110 inmates are on death row and over 80 are seeking retrials. <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Japan" target="_blank">Japan</a>’s authorities are under pressure from human rights groups and various law organizations to abolish capital punishment. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations has called to abolish the death penalty by 2020 and replace it with lifetime imprisonment instead.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Yakuza boss tries to outsmart justice</strong></span></p>
<p>Such discussions give hope to many convicts currently on death row. Like 70-year-old Osamu Yano, the former head of the Yano Mutsumi-kai, at one-time an affiliate gang of the Sumiyoshi-kai. He is currently on death row for ordering two of his underlings to shoot up a “snack” hostess club in Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture on January 25, 2003. The attack left four people dead.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/yakuza-mob-boss-bludgeoned-to-death-outside-his-home" target="_blank"><strong>Yakuza mob boss bludgeoned to death outside his home</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>But, in light of the recent talk, he had some tricks up his sleeve to delay his own execution, a judge handling his case stated this month. How? By confessing to two murders he had previously been found innocent of.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Murder confessions</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237114465,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237114465?profile=original" /></a>Yano (right) began his confessions in April of 2016, when he told police about his role in the murder of 60-year-old real estate executive Shizuo Tsugawa over a dispute Yano’s group had with him over a redevelopment project near Isehara Station in Isehara City, Kanagawa Prefecture in 1996. With Yano’s information, police were able to locate man’s body in a mountainous area of Isehara.</p>
<p>A few months later, in November, Yano also confessed to the killing of 49-year-old Mamoru Saito, another real estate executive, who had been dumped in Saitama Prefecture. Police found human bones in a mountainous area of the town of Tokigawa that were later confirmed to belong to Saito, who went missing after a meeting in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Tokyo" target="_blank">Tokyo</a>’s Toshima Ward on April 5, 1998.</p>
<p>Yano told investigators that the man was kidnapped and subsequently strangled to death over money problems that included a loan of ¥86 million yen.</p>
<p>With all his cards on the table, one presumes, all Yano can do now is wait and see if his trick pays off. For that to happen he will be depending on Japan’s government to abolish capital punishment. If that will happen before they schedule his execution remains to be seen.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/yakuza-overview">Yakuza section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
Cocaine and guns? Nah, the real money is in stealing hair weaves and vanilla
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/cocaine-and-guns-nah-the-real-money-is-in-stealing-hair-weaves-an
2018-09-09T09:44:11.000Z
2018-09-09T09:44:11.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/cocaine-and-guns-nah-the-real-money-is-in-stealing-hair-weaves-an" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237108268,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237108268?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Crime is a flexible business. It can go from dealing in cars to trafficking cigarettes in the blink of an eye. Hell, it can do both at the same time. It can take bets and break skulls in the same inning. But crime usually revolves around a certain number of products and vices. Well, prepare to have your mind blown.</p>
<p>You see, though we tend to associate crime with <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drugs</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Guns" target="_blank">guns</a> or <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Prostitution" target="_blank">prostitution</a> it isn’t centered around any of these things. Crime is based on a product’s worth and availability to criminals. Apple is worth billions, but most if not all criminal masterminds are not in a position to steal or manipulate it.</p>
<p>They can steal Apple’s products though, you can get an iPhone or iPad at some very shady street corners around the world. Drugs and guns just offer a higher profit margin to gangsters, so they tend to stick with that product line. Sometimes, however, the market seduces them to take on a new product.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Crime is a hairy business</strong></span></p>
<p>Hair for instance. Human hair. Used for making hair weaves. With economies in Asian, African, and South American countries growing stronger, demand for hair weaves has rocketed. Rich and middle-class women in these countries want hair weaves made from the finest quality, creating a booming market in the process.</p>
<p>It is estimated that the hair weave business in South Africa alone is worth $200 million U.S. dollars annually. Not surprisingly, criminals have latched onto the trend. One South African man who proudly wears long dreadlocks recalled how he was almost robbed of his hair on the streets.</p>
<p>“I was lucky that some passersby were able to free me,” he tells Dutch newspaper <a href="http://www.trouw.nl" target="_blank">Trouw</a>. “These kind of robberies are occurring more and more. It’s dangerous. If you resist, they will violently pull the dreadlocks from your head.”</p>
<p>With his dreadlocks going for $1700 U.S. dollars, it’s not surprising these thieves are willing to go the extra mile. Wigs and weaves at a South African hair salon sell for $350 U.S. dollars. If you want them custom-made they sell for even more.</p>
<p>The owner of this hair salon gets ‘her’ hair from Hindus in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=India" target="_blank">India</a> who shave their heads and donate it to their temples. The religious leaders then sell the hair to be used in weaves and wigs. The price of hair online is around $300 U.S. dollars per kilogram. A profitable business for those seeking to make a quick, easy, and illegal buck.</p>
<p>This has resulted in an increase in violent “hair jackings” in the African country, as well as in other nations such as India, where many women are targeted by gangs who shave their heads and make off with their hair. Indian hair is highly valued as many of these women live in poverty and have not subjected their hair to chemical products for care or coloring.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Vanilla violence</strong></span></p>
<p>Ah, that sweet powder. White and brown. The good stuff. No, we’re not talking about <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> or <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Heroin" target="_blank">heroin</a>. We’re talking about vanilla. That stuff you taste in your ice cream, cookies, cake, and so many other delicious products.</p>
<p>The country of Madagascar is the world’s main supplier of vanilla and as the price of the most-wanted flavor went up, so did <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Robbery" target="_blank">robberies</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murders</a>. Locals tell <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/31/madagascars-vanilla-wars-prized-spice-drives-death-and-deforestation" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> newspaper they can sell a kilogram for $460 U.S. dollars, more than ten times the price of a few years ago.</p>
<p>Farmers now find themselves having to form vigilante squads to ward of groups of robbers. Villagers told the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/madagascar_vanillla" target="_blank">BBC</a> that in “a nearby village, a machete-wielding crowd descended on five suspected gangsters - hacking and stabbing them to death.”</p>
<p>Death by machete is not a thing that pops into one’s mind when eating a vanilla ice cream. But it is all too real. The constant disbalance between demand and supply continues to create unrest in various parts of the world. If the price for whatever product goes high enough, criminals will seek to make a profit by force.</p>
<p>In this world nothing is free.</p>
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The South Side Cartel: Karma catches up to what was once known as Newark’s most violent street gang
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-south-side-cartel-karma-catches-up-to-what-was-once-known-as
2017-08-18T10:30:00.000Z
2017-08-18T10:30:00.000Z
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-south-side-cartel-karma-catches-up-to-what-was-once-known-as" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237091287,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237091287?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Violence begets violence. This was especially true for the South Side Cartel. Once known among law enforcement and the FBI as the most violent street gang operating in Newark, New Jersey, its members rose rapidly through sheer deadly force, only to fall as many went down in a hail of bullets or got locked up in a cell.</p>
<p>The South Side Cartel was founded by <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/leader-of-newark-s-south-side-cartel-gets-45-years-in-prison-for" target="_blank">Farad Roland</a> and his brother Amin in 2002 as a neighborhood gang whose main activities were selling drugs and using violence to expand their business, many of the group's members were officially brought into the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bloods" target="_blank">Bloods organization</a> in 2002 and 2003. They officially branded themselves as the South Side Cartel in 2005.</p>
<p>The gang’s center of activities were apartments located inside buildings dubbed the “Twin Towers,” located at 496-500 Hawthorne Avenue. These were the scene of repeated narcotics and gun arrests by local law enforcement between 2002 and 2010. Many of the South Side Cartel members had tattoos showing these buildings and the logo of “SSC” representing the group’s initials.</p>
<p>At its peak, the South Side Cartel had about 20 members or associates, who were involved in numerous murders, shootings, robberies and other violent acts in furtherance of the enterprise.</p>
<p>Though hugely successful in establishing a vicious reputation and supreme dominance over the area, many South Side Cartel gangsters have since been killed in gang-related murders or are serving prison sentences in state and federal prisons for gang-related crimes.</p>
<p>The final blow was dealt in December of 2012, when authorities indicted gang bosses Farad Roland (photo above, right), Mark Williams, and Malik Lowery (photo above, left) and charged them with <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murder</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Racketeering" target="_blank">racketeering</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Kidnapping" target="_blank">kidnapping</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Robbery" target="_blank">robbery</a>, weapons offenses, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drug dealing</a>. According to prosecutors, they represent the last of the leadership of the group.</p>
<p>“The gang members used murder and violence as tools of their criminal trade, punishing disloyal associates, intimidating rivals, and silencing those they believed were cooperating with law enforcement,” U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said. “They presided over a reign of terror along Hawthorne Avenue for years. These charges finally assign responsibility for more than half a dozen unsolved homicides and represent the latest efforts in our ongoing pursuit of members of violent street gangs.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237092258,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237092258?profile=original" width="325" /></a>Prosecutors asked for a sentence of life in prison for Mark “B.G.” Williams and Malik “Leek” Lowery, while dropping a bombshell of the death penalty on founder <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/leader-of-newark-s-south-side-cartel-gets-45-years-in-prison-for" target="_blank">Farad “B.U.” Roland</a> (right). On August 10, 2016, 35-year-old Williams pleaded guilty to racketeering and related charges. A few weeks later, Lowery did the same.</p>
<p>Last Wednesday, 36-year-old Lowery received a 315-month prison term for a variety of crimes related to the South Side Cartel. In addition to time behind bars, the judge sentenced Lowery to 10 years of supervised release.</p>
<p>Lowery admitted his role in the October 20, 2007 murder of a fellow gang member that took place on Bragaw Avenue in Newark. He also plead guilty to committing an armed carjacking with fellow South Side Cartel gangsters, to the robbery of a drug dealer and trafficking one kilogram or more of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Heroin" target="_blank">heroin</a> and 280 grams or more of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Crack" target="_blank">crack cocaine</a>.</p>
<p>Roland’s brother and fellow gang founder Amin was convicted by a jury in July 2012 on gun charges and sentenced to the statutory maximum prison sentence of 10 years.</p>
<p>32-year-old Farad Roland, meanwhile, is slated to go to trial in September. He is charged with playing a role in six gangland murders. The stone-cold killer now faces the death penalty after a life of violent crime he himself initiated by founding the South Side Cartel.</p>
<p>For many years, Roland and his underlings lived and died by the gun. Now all of them end up living in prison, dead by the gun or, in Roland’s case, a formal government execution.</p>
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Profile of Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo, infamous boss of the Philadelphia crime family, who died in prison at age 87
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/nicodemo-little-nicky-scarfo-boss-of-the-philadelphia-crime-famil
2017-01-15T13:30:00.000Z
2017-01-15T13:30:00.000Z
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/nicodemo-little-nicky-scarfo-boss-of-the-philadelphia-crime-famil"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237086297,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237086297?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Infamous <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bruno-crime-family">Philadelphia mob</a> boss Nicodemo Scarfo passed away in prison on Friday, underworld sources told mob reporter George Anastasia, who <a href="http://www.bigtrial.net/2017/01/report-nicodemo-scarfo-has-died-in.html" target="_blank">broke the news yesterday</a>. Scarfo was 87. He was serving a 55-year sentence for racketeering and murder and had been housed at a federal prison medical facility in Butner, North Carolina, for over a year now. Scarfo will go down as one of the most erratic and violent Mafia bosses in recent American crime history.</p>
<p>Originally from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Brooklyn">Brooklyn</a>, New York, Scarfo’s family moved to New Jersey in the early 1940s. By the 1950s, Scarfo was working for his uncle Nicholas “Nicky Buck” Piccolo, a member of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bruno-crime-family">Philadelphia crime family</a>. Nicknamed “Little Nicky” for his diminutive size, Scarfo made up for his small stature with a hair-trigger temper and a lust for deadly violence.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4uUUNVjL298?wmode=opaque" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p>This temper established his fearsome reputation within the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia">Mafia</a> but also got him in trouble with the law. In 1963, for instance, he stabbed a man to death at a restaurant over an argument that got out of hand. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was released from prison after less than a year.</p>
<p>He then went to Atlantic City to run the Philadelphia crime family’s interests there. Back then, the city was a cow town. Gambling had not yet arrived and Scarfo was scraping by with a small-time gambling and loansharking operation. Though he hated every day spent there, he endured, biding his time. By then, legalized gambling in Atlantic City was on the horizon, promising endless possibilities for an enterprising gangster such as Scarfo.</p>
<p>The 1970s was the decade that Scarfo’s fortunes changed. It started off with him spending quality time in Yardville Correctional Center with several powerful mobsters, including <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/philadelphia-boss-angelo-bruno">Angelo Bruno</a>, leader of the Philadelphia mob. It was always good to be able to get close to those in power. Then, in 1976, New Jersey legalized casinos in Atlantic City and Scarfo’s good years had arrived.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/high-profile-philadelphia-mafia-boss-joseph-merlino-latest-gangst">Philadelphia Mafia boss Joey Merlino banned from casinos</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>All of a sudden, money was pouring into the city. Scarfo made sure all his businesses profited royally. He remained involved in gambling and loansharking, of course, but also held interests in bars and construction. His stature in the Philly mob was also on the rise, he was now their official man in a booming Atlantic City.</p>
<p>In 1980, after <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/philadelphia-boss-angelo-bruno">Angelo Bruno</a>, Philadelphia’s “docile” and respected Mafia leader, was shot to death in front of his home, Scarfo rose even more. Bruno’s underboss, Philip Testa, succeeded him as boss and appointed Scarfo as his consigliere. But Bruno’s murder was just the starting shot in a bloody power struggle and Testa himself was murdered in March of 1981 when an explosive device went off at his house and blew the newly crowned mob kingpin to bits.</p>
<p>Shortly thereafter, an extremely angry Scarfo ascended to the throne, hungry for revenge. What followed next can only be described as bloody carnage. Scarfo went after anyone he felt had been involved in Testa’s murder. When he ran out of targets, he invented new ones and carried on with his reign of terror.</p>
<p>Under his leadership, the Philadelphia crime family began to fester and burn from within. Scarfo demanded loyalty, but would turn on his men in a second if they’d failed to show up to a meet or said something that he felt was out of line. He would become especially deadly if he deemed you a threat to his power.</p>
<p>He shocked his own loyal henchmen when he ordered the murder of Salvatore “Salvie” Testa, the son of Philip Testa and one of Scarfo’s most capable hitmen. The young Testa was considered a rising mob star with a bright future in the rackets. Scarfo feared Testa’s popularity and wanted him gone. His men did as they were told. In 1984, Testa’s best friend lured him to a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Philadelphia">Philadelphia</a> candy store where he was shot to death.</p>
<p>The hit left a bad taste among Scarfo’s men. Paranoia increased as each feared for his life. While Scarfo felt he was running a tight ship, more and more of his once loyal soldiers began thinking about the unthinkable: They were opting to become a rat and join the Witness Protection Program where they would be safe from Scarfo’s violent orders.</p>
<p>As one after the other flipped and became a turncoat, prosecutors began collecting evidence and building cases. By the late 1980s, Scarfo was locked in a cell. With each court proceeding he was greeted by yet another former underling who had turned against him. The ultimate betrayal came when Philip “Crazy Phil” Leonetti, his own nephew and underboss, testified against him, providing prosecutors with the nail in Scarfo’s coffin as he was sentenced to 55 years behind bars for racketeering and several gangland murders.</p>
<p>From prison, Scarfo tried to maintain control over the Philadelphia underworld through his son Nicky Jr. However, unknown assassins put a stop to that in 1989 when they riddled Nick Jr.’s body with six bullets at a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Philadelphia">Philadelphia</a> restaurant.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/nicky-scarfo-junior-following-in-daddy-s-footsteps">Nicky Scarfo Junior follows in daddy's footsteps</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>The mob son survived the hit attempt and – thanks to his father’s close friendship with <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-lucchese-crime-family-boss-vittorio-vic-amuso">Lucchese mob boss Vic Amuso</a> - was later placed under protection of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family">New York’s Lucchese crime family</a>, where he became an official “made” member. He is currently serving a 30-year sentence for racketeering conspiracy.</p>
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Anthony Colombo, son of Mafia boss, dead at 71
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/anthony-colombo-son-of-mafia-boss-dead-at-71
2017-01-12T15:00:00.000Z
2017-01-12T15:00:00.000Z
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/anthony-colombo-son-of-mafia-boss-dead-at-71"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237080065,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237080065?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By Gangsters Inc. Editors</p>
<p>Retired mobster Anthony Colombo passed away last week, <a href="http://ganglandnews.com/" target="_blank">Gangland News</a> reports. He was 71. Anthony was the eldest son of Mafia boss Joseph Colombo, who founded the Italian-American Civil Rights League and was shot by an assassin at one of his civil rights rallies in 1971. He remained paralyzed and died almost seven years later.</p>
<p>Anthony followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming an official member – or made guy – and then a capo in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-colombo-crime-family">crime family</a> bearing his last name. His mob career earned <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Colombo">Colombo</a> time behind bars when he was busted by authorities leading a crew that ran illegal gambling operations in New York.</p>
<p>After retiring from “the life,” Colombo wrote a book about his father and family history titled <em><a href="http://amzn.to/2jArVEK" target="_blank">Colombo: The Unsolved Murder</a></em> with Don Capria. The book details his father’s rise in the Mafia and the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-colombo/did-the-fbi-kill-my-fathe_b_9190980.html" target="_blank">facts and theories</a> behind his death by the hands of a, supposed, lone assassin. </p>
<p>Colombo died of natural causes in his sleep.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237080865,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237080865?profile=original" width="500" /></a><em><strong>Joseph (left) and Anthony Colombo (right) on the Dick Cavett tv show</strong></em></p>
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Profile: Genovese crime family capo Salvatore Lombardi
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/profile-genovese-crime-family-capo-salvatore-lombardi
2016-02-18T23:15:42.000Z
2016-02-18T23:15:42.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-genovese-crime-family-capo-salvatore-lombardi"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237063277,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237063277?profile=original" width="400" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Salvatore “Sally Dogs” Lombardi was a perfect fit for the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese crime family</a>. Low-key and a huge earner. He derived the bulk of his illegal income from drugs.</p>
<p>His first arrest came in 1979, when he was charged with conspiracy to manufacture and sell Quaaludes. After that he remained on the law’s radar and in 1992 was sent to prison for heroin trafficking after a wiretap on his home telephone revealed he planned to buy a large amount of heroin.</p>
<p>He did his time. Serving 22 years. He died in 2009, just a few years shy of 70.</p>
<p>And also just in time to be spared the spotlight that would come just three years later, when his niece Angela “Big Ang” Raiola shared her Mafia connections with millions of viewers around the world on the “reality” television show Mob Wives on VH1.</p>
<p>It was a new world for the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">American mob</a>, one where omerta was to be shared with an audience, preferably on television and social media.</p>
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Profile of New Jersey DeCavalcante family boss John Riggi
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/new-jersey-decavalcante-family-boss-john-riggi-dies
2015-08-04T18:30:00.000Z
2015-08-04T18:30:00.000Z
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-jersey-decavalcante-family-boss-john-riggi-dies"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237046278,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237046278?profile=original" width="540" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Longtime New Jersey mob boss John Riggi passed away on Monday. He was 90 years old. He had been released from prison almost three years ago and peacefully died at home surrounded by his family.</p>
<p>His obituary reads, “John M. Riggi, Laborers Local 394 business agent, Army Air Corps veteran, dedicated his life to his family.” Though the obit refers to his blood relatives, it just as well could’ve referred to his other family, New Jersey’s DeCavalcante crime family.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237046899,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237046899?profile=original" width="157" /></a>Riggi (right) was born in Elizabeth in 1925. He graduated from Linden High School in 1942 as class president and a three letter athlete after which he enlisted in the United States Army in 1943, where he was a staff sergeant in the Air Corps. He served as an airplane and engine mechanic for the campaigns in Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central Europe.</p>
<p>After coming home, the war veteran became involved with the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-decavalcante-crime-family">New Jersey mob</a> run by Simone “Sam the Plumber” DeCavalcante. The two men became close and within two decades of joining Riggi was a man of power and influence. He became a business agent of the International Laborers Local 394 of Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1963. In this role he was able to manipulate and extort the construction industry in the region. A typical mob racket. He would remain a business agent for the union until he was charged with labor racketeering in 1988 and was forced to step down.</p>
<p>By the early 1970s, Riggi had become the crime family’s leader, taking over from DeCavalcante. Riggi was a popular boss, well-liked by his men. A former New Jersey mobster who knew Riggi said, “He was an old school gentleman.” Riggi formed a close friendship with New York mob boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-boss-john-gotti-sr">John Gotti</a>, which he hoped would benefit his family as it was surrounded by the New York families and the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bruno-crime-family">Bruno family in Philadelphia</a>. With support from the powerful <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview">Gambinos</a> he hoped to keep the others in check.</p>
<p>That is why when Gotti asked Riggi to do him a favor, Riggi obliged. Like the time Gotti wanted Staten Island businessman Frederick Weiss dead. Riggi helped plan the hit, which took place on September 11, 1989. DeCavalcante soldier <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/turncoat-mobster-once-again">Vincent Palermo</a> was the triggerman and later testified, “I shot him twice in the head. Being I shot Weiss, they made me a captain.”</p>
<p>Testifying via televised broadcast from a federal prison hospital in Butner, North Carolina, Riggi said the following about the hit on Weiss: “We agreed he should be murdered. Pursuant to the agreement, he was murdered.”</p>
<p>Just like that. Nothing personal, strictly business.</p>
<p>By the time of the above testimony, in 2003, many of Riggi’s underlings had turned government witness. Riggi had missed most of that after spending his days in a cell after having been convicted of labor racketeering in 1990. Authorities claimed he still ran the family from prison, but as his health deteriorated and more and more mobsters flipped it is doubtful he was able to exert any control over what happened on the streets of New Jersey.</p>
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The Truth Behind Movie Classic Goodfellas
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-truth-behind-movie-classic-goodfellas
2015-07-22T09:00:00.000Z
2015-07-22T09:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-truth-behind-movie-classic-goodfellas"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237027487,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237027487?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Hollywood loves gangsters. Not because film makers condone their crimes, but because their stories make them lots of money. It’s difficult to name any other genre that has so many titles based on a true story. Yet, despite this label, the true story often gets twisted to fit the silver screen. That is why Gangsters Inc. shares its knowledge of the facts and truth behind these blockbuster gangster flicks.</p>
<p><a href="http://amzn.to/1okTkL2" target="_blank">Goodfellas</a> reinvented the Mafia movie genre. No doubt about it. Director Martin Scorsese outdid himself with his portrayal of the life and crimes of mob snitch Henry Hill. If you are reading this, chances are you’ve already seen this movie. If not: Shame on you and go get your fucking shine box!</p>
<p>For those who are unfamiliar with the story behind Goodfellas Gangsters Inc. has got all you need to know and then some.</p>
<p>Based on the book <a href="http://amzn.to/1r1olG5" target="_blank">Wiseguy</a> by <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lucchese-associate-henry-hill">Henry Hill</a> and <a href="http://amzn.to/1r1olG5" target="_blank">Nicholas Pileggi</a>, the movie recounts Hill’s life from a teenager to a grown man. A life that, from the very start, revolves around one premise: “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”</p>
<p>The words are spoken by Hill, played by actor Ray Liotta, who from that point on embarks on a rollercoaster ride into the gritty New York underworld inhabited by guys known as Jimmy Two Times, Billy Batts, Fat Andy, Mo Black, Frankie the Wop, Freddy No Nose, Pete the Killer, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lucchese-associate-james-jimmy">Jimmy the Gent</a>.</p>
<p>You know what <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD3y43cyddI" target="_blank">scene</a> I’m talking about. For those of you don’t know, the guy named Fat Andy in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD3y43cyddI" target="_blank">this scene</a> is played by <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-mafia-cops-how-two-nypd">Louis Eppolito</a>, the disgraced NYPD detective who turned out to be in cohorts with the Mafia and was convicted of helping wiseguys <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/cops-make-the-deadliest-mafia-hit-men">whack their enemies</a>. Coincidently, Eppolito was working for the same mafia family as Henry Hill, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family">Lucchese crime family</a>.</p>
<p>Goodfellas is filled with classic scenes that any mob buff can repeat by heart at any given moment. If you know someone like that never ever tell them that you think they are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EJLoxdoI-Q" target="_blank">funny</a>. Trust me.</p>
<p>Backing up Ray Liotta are crime movie legends Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, with Paul Sorvino in the background, not moving for nobody. Goodfellas is one of the all-time great mob movies and the true story behind it is every bit as fascinating as the movie.</p>
<p>Better yet, the true story didn’t end in the witness protection program. It <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/goodfella-henry-hill-dead-at-69">ended</a> somewhere on Howard Stern’s radio show <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-time-i-hurt-mobster-henry-hill-s-feelings">if you ask me</a>. The years in between could fill another movie about Henry Hill, but it would never be as intriguing as Goodfellas.</p>
<p><strong>More on Goodfellas:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lucchese-associate-james-jimmy">James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke</a> (dead)</li>
<li><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lucchese-associate-henry-hill">Henry Hill</a> (flipped)</li>
<li><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/goodfella-henry-hill-dead-at-69">Goodfella Henry Hill dead at 69</a></li>
<li><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-time-i-hurt-mobster-henry-hill-s-feelings">The Time I Hurt Mobster Henry Hill’s Feelings</a></li>
<li><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mobsters-in-prison-a-story">Mobsters in Prison: A Story From Behind Bars</a></li>
<li><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-goodfellas-turned-in-by-former-boss-massino">Bonanno goodfellas turned in by former boss Massino</a></li>
<li><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-bonanno-goodfellas-whacked-lufthansa-loot">How Bonanno goodfellas whacked Lufthansa heist loot</a></li>
<li><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/video/when-ray-liotta-met-real-life-goodfellas" target="_blank">When Ray Liotta met real life goodfellas</a></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Follow Gangsters Inc. on <a href="http://twitter.com/GangstersIncWeb" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank">Facebook</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>Copyright © <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org">Gangsters Inc.</a></strong></p></div>
Profile: Camorra boss Pasquale Scotti
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/profile-camorra-boss-pasquale-scotti
2015-05-27T19:00:00.000Z
2015-05-27T19:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-camorra-boss-pasquale-scotti"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237052263,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237052263?profile=original" width="540" /></a></p>
<p>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Francisco de Castro Visconti seemed like the perfect example of an upstanding hardworking citizen. A resident of the tropical city of Recife on the north-eastern coast of Brazil, he ran a nightclub and food import business and was happily married with two beautiful kids.</p>
<p>Yet, he never really existed. Francisco de Castro Visconti was just an identity used by Camorra hitman Pasquale Scotti (photo above.) During his 31 years as a fugitive, Scotti established a new life in Brazil while a bloody war raged through Naples.</p>
<p>To manage to not only evade justice for almost 31 years, but to also set up a brand new life – complete with voting rights and successful businesses – is evidence of Scotti’s street smarts and savvy, behavior he first displayed back in the 1980s as a hitman for Raffaele Cutolo, boss of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO) or “New” Camorra Organization.</p>
<p>Though the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/camorra-overview">Camorra</a> had been active in the Campania region of Italy for decades earlier, Cutolo felt it had deviated from its origins and needed a return to its old ways. While in prison, he began recruiting young inmates into his organization. Once a member, the NCO took care of you and your family, in a good way. If you were sent to prison – again – the NCO would make regular payments to your relatives.</p>
<p>Cutolo’s leadership and power inside prison and his organization’s control outside it guaranteed a quick growth of the NCO, something the other, traditional, Camorra clans eyed with extreme suspicion.</p>
<p>As the NCO grew in numbers and strength, it became bold enough to make its move. In 1979, Cutolo demanded a cut from traditional Camorra boss Luigi Vollaro’s illegal gambling centers and lottery in Portici. Vollaro sought help from the more powerful Giuliano clan – which he got. A squad of assassins was assembled resulting in dozens of gangland murders related to this dispute that year.</p>
<p>After NCO members shot and wounded clan leader Luigi Giuliano on Christmas Eve 1980, the traditional Camorra clans came together in one major alliance called the Nuova Famiglia (NF) or New Family.</p>
<p>In the ensuing war mobsters of both groups were killed, bombs were detonated, and bookmakers offered Neapolitans bets on whether the murder rate would go up or down. It peaked in 1982 when 264 people lost their lives in the carnage.</p>
<p>It was during this time that Pasquale Scotti made his mark as a capable hitman - authorities suspect Scotti’s involvement in more than two dozen murders. He was one of Raffaele Cutolo’s most feared assassins and also one of his most loyal friends. He commanded Cutolo’s military wing.</p>
<p>The hostilities between the NCO and NF ended after authorities cracked down hard on the warring groups. In 1983, during several “maxi blitzes,” hundreds of Camorristi were arrested and sent to prison. Cutolo was moved to a maximum security prison on an island near Sardinia to prevent him from communicating with his underlings.</p>
<p>After Cutolo’s move to a maximum security prison, Scotti tried to reorganize the ranks of the NCO. But within a short time he too was arrested. On December 17, 1983, after a bloody shootout with police in which he was wounded, Scotti was brought in. After his arrest, he played an extremely dangerous game when he told authorities he wanted to cooperate and become a “<a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gangsters-inc-s-mafia-speak">pentito</a>,” <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gangsters-inc-s-mafia-speak">turncoat</a>. It was a ruse. While at a hospital in Caserta to receive treatment for the injuries sustained in the gunfight with police, he escaped and disappeared for the next three decades.</p>
<p>He was like a ghost. His presence was reported in Lombardy and various countries in Eastern Europe and South America. Renato Natale, the anti-mafia mayor of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-casalesi-clan-of-the">Casal di Principe</a>, told <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/26/italian-mafia-boss-pasquale-scotti-arrested-brazil" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> newspaper: “In the early 1980s [Scotti] was a big fish, but after that, when he became a fugitive, no one heard of him anymore.” There were rumors he had died, was murdered or had switched to the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ndrangheta-overview">‘Ndrangheta</a>. An international warrant for his arrest was issued in 1990 and he was also placed on Italy’s most wanted list.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237052290,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237052290?profile=original" width="272" /></a>By then he had already been living in Brazil for four years. He settled in Recife, a city (right) surrounded by tropical rainforests and sunny beaches. In 1995, he married his Brazilian wife with whom he has two sons. They lived in the Recife’s Sancho district.</p>
<p>Ten years later, back in Italy, Scotti received a life sentence in absentia for 26 murders.</p>
<p>Despite his seemingly permanent disappearance, Italian authorities never quit looking for him. Some Italian media are saying police received information about his current whereabouts from pentiti, turncoat mobsters. Whether this information is true has yet to be confirmed.</p>
<p>What is true, however, is that the law was on to him. Yesterday, after 56-year-old Scotti - or Francisco de Castro Visconti - dropped off his two sons at school, four police officers swooped in and placed him under arrest.</p>
<p>At first he denied being the NCO hitman and loyal henchman of Cutolo, but then surrendered saying, “It's me, you've got me. Pasquale Scotti no longer exists, he died in the eighties.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237052692,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237052692?profile=original" width="300" /></a>Perhaps he did. Maybe he buried his old self much like Viggo Mortensen’s character in the 2005 film A History of Violence. But there is no denying he once was that person. A man who committed horrendous crimes. You can’t run from your past.</p>
<p>Of which his new family apparently knew nothing. “He told us in a statement that his family was not aware of anything,” said Giovani Santoro, the communications officer of the Pernambuco federal police force.</p>
<p>Scotti could be protecting his family from prosecution, but he is probably telling the truth. Not telling his new wife about his past was the smart thing to do. It’s one of the reasons he stayed hidden for so long.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for him, he now faces justice in Italy. As a member of the New Camorra Organization he is going back to the place where the seed of his organization was planted. In a small concrete room with bars. No doubt he’ll see a lot of old faces he hasn’t seen in a long time.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/camorra-overview">Camorra section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/about-gangsters-inc">About Gangsters Inc.</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p></div>
Pure Evil - Profile of Russian mob boss Sergei Tsapok
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/russian-mob-boss-sergei-tsapok
2014-07-09T19:00:00.000Z
2014-07-09T19:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mob-boss-sergei-tsapok"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237022694,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237022694?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Pure evil. There is no other way to describe Russian mob boss Sergei Tsapok. He is a prime example of the totalitarian power Russian gangsters have over their respective territories. For a long time he got away with murder. But then he murdered twelve people, among them four children, and Moscow took notice.</p>
<p>The village of Kushchevskaya is located in the Krasnodar Territory in southern Russia. Krasnodar is also home to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-boss-rakhimov-and-the-sochi-olympics">Sochi</a>, which held the 2014 Winter Olympics. It’s a region where agriculture is the main source of income. And where law and order is in the hands of private militias and crime gangs.</p>
<p>Tsapok is the son of one of Krasnodar’s wealthiest landowners. Besides that, he is also the muscle and protector. His influence even reached into regional politics as he was elected deputy in the local government. It’s part of doing business in the new Russia where it’s about knowing all the right people in all the right places.</p>
<p>With the right connections one could get away with just about anything.</p>
<p>When his brother Nikolai was murdered in 2002, Sergei assumed leadership of his family’s militia and, as a result, its (criminal) business empire. Bound by nothing but his own sense of right and wrong, Tsapok continued terrorizing Kushchevskaya.</p>
<p>Olga Bogacheva has experienced that terror up close. Four relatives of her were murdered by Tsapok and his men. In 2003, her son and her husband, a business rival of Tsapok, were shot dead. At that time no one was arrested for the killings. “The gang had total power,” Bogacheva told the BBC. “Prosecutors, police, local officials - they all did what Tsapok told them to. People were too frightened to complain.”</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9237023088,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237023088,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237023088?profile=original" width="201" /></a>And for those who had no reason to be afraid, Tsapok had other methods, “After my family was murdered,” Bogacheva says, “Tsapok gave the local police chief a gift - a brand new Mercedes. Just imagine: the head of police driving round in Tsapok's Merc. And everyone knew whose car it was. So there was no point running off to the police to complain about Tsapok's gang.”</p>
<p>Without boundaries Tsapok’s lust for blood only grew. As did his boldness.</p>
<p>On November 4, 2010, Tsapok decided he needed to avenge his brother’s murder. He thought that his death had been ordered by a wealthy local farmer named Server Ametov. That day, he sent out his men to kill Ametov.</p>
<p>What happened next is something straight out of a Truman Capote novel. The hit men waited for nightfall in an abandoned house not far from Ametov’s home. Under the cover of darkness they crept up to the house and mercifully knocked the guard dog out with a tranquilizer.</p>
<p>They had no such mercy for their fellow human beings.</p>
<p>Once inside, they first killed Irina Mironenko, Ametov’s wife’s sister, and Yelena Ametova, Ametov's 19-year-old daughter-in-law. According to the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11736312" target="_blank">BBC</a>, “The two women had been resting along with Marina's daughters on a sofa out in the hall. Neither of the little girls survived, but it appears that one of them was strangled while the other choked on smoke from fires the killers started before they left. Alerted to the noise, Ametov left his guests at the festive dinner table to see what was happening, and was killed along with Baby Amira, who was in his arms. The murderers then went into the dining-room where they stabbed to death Mr Mironenko, Pavel's mother and Ametov's wife Galina. Lidia and Viktor Ignatenko, the parents of Galina and Marina, were also killed. When Pavel arrived and tried to escape, they shot him with a traumatic pistol, then stabbed him to death too.”</p>
<p>After death had spread throughout the house, Tsapok’s men started fires around the house. Whether it was to draw attention to their gruesome handiwork or as a diversion is unknown.</p>
<p>The house of horrors they left behind, however, was now known and visible to the entire nation. Russia was shocked. Moscow sent detectives to Kushchevskaya to help solve the case. For the first time this farm village had something it hadn’t had since the fall of the Soviet Empire: The Law.</p>
<p>And they went to work with the backing of the country’s most powerful boss, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-dark-knight-of-mother">Vladimir Putin</a>.</p>
<p>Sergei Tsapok was no match for the big boss.</p>
<p>In November of 2013, Tsapok was found guilty of the murders and sentenced to life in prison. Two of his men were also given life sentences for the murders. Three other gang members were given sentences of 19 and 20 years.</p>
<p>Normally things would end there. Life in prison. For a guy with Tsapok’s power and wealth life behind bars could be very comfortable. But things turned out very differently for the boss and his men.</p>
<p>On the night of July 6, Tsapok died at a detention facility. His cause of death remains a bit of a <a href="http://rapsinews.com/news/20140707/271666754.html" target="_blank">mystery</a> with sources claiming he either died of a stroke or acute heart failure.</p>
<p>This normally wouldn’t be cause for suspicion. However, three members of Tsapok’s gang have recently committed suicide at detention facilities. One of the group’s principal hit men who received a life sentence, Igor Chernykh, hanged himself last Friday.</p>
<p>A coincidence?</p>
<p>Probably not.</p>
<p>In an excellent piece for <a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/grigorii-golosov/kushchevskaya-crime-and-punishment-in-russian-village" target="_blank">openDemocracy</a>, Grigorii Golosov <a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/grigorii-golosov/kushchevskaya-crime-and-punishment-in-russian-village" target="_blank">wrote</a> “In a public statement Tkachev explicitly called Tsapok a “traitor”. As is well known, a traitor's guilt consists in betraying a key secret. And the secret of Russian politics is that crime is linked to power. Everyone understands this, but any direct confirmation of this fact hits a raw nerve.”</p>
<p>There’s never a happy ending for traitors.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview">Russian Mafia section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Chicago Hitman Frank Calabrese Sr. Dies in Prison
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/chicago-hitman-frank-calabrese-sr-dies-in-prison
2012-12-27T13:00:00.000Z
2012-12-27T13:00:00.000Z
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/chicago-hitman-frank-calabrese-sr-dies-in-prison"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237020871,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237020871?profile=original" width="426" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Chicago mobster Frank Calabrese Sr. died Christmas day at the age of 75. He was serving a life sentence at Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina after having been convicted of several murders at the Family Secrets trial in Chicago.</p>
<p>Calabrese Sr. will not be remembered as a kind person. During his trial there was gruesome evidence of several vicious murders that Calabrese Sr. had a personal hand in. The evidence literally made the mob hitman laugh in a full courtroom.</p>
<p>His bad temper and violent behavior even alienated Calabrese Sr. from his own relatives. His own sons testified against him. Adding to the heap of evidence that resulted in guilty verdicts against Calabrese Sr. and Chicago bosses <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/chicago-boss-joseph-lombardo">Joseph Lombardo</a> and James Marcello. The <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/chicagos-family-secrets">Family Secrets trial</a> was the biggest trial against the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-chicago-outfit-overview">Chicago Outfit</a> in decades and succeeded in sending many top mobsters to prison for life.</p>
<p>Frank Calabrese Jr. told the <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-mob-hitman-frank-calabrese-sr-dies-in-prison-20121226,0,4793843.story" target="_blank">Sun-Times</a> on Wednesday that his father’s violent history made his death especially emotional. “I believe he was taken on Christmas Day for a reason. I hope he made peace. I hope he's up above looking down on us. He's not suffering anymore. The people on the street aren't suffering anymore.”</p>
<p>Calabrese’s attorney in the Family Secrets trial, Joseph “Shark” Lopez, told the <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-mob-hitman-frank-calabrese-sr-dies-in-prison-20121226,0,4793843.story" target="_blank">Chicago Tribune</a> that Calabrese Sr. had been in bad health. “Last I spoke with him a little over a year ago, he was a sick man,” Lopez said. “He was on about 17 different medications. But always a strong-willed individual.”</p>
<p> </p>
<ul>
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