Detroit crime boss Corey (Cocaine Sonny) Bailey, the second-in-command and co-founder of the Seven Mile Bloods street gang, and four of the gang’s top lieutenants, were convicted on racketeering, narcotics, weapons, assault and murder counts in federal court this week. The 30-year old Bailey, also a rapper, has been in prison since the summer of 2014 on an unrelated gun charge.

Robert (Ro Da Great) Brown, Eugene (Fist) Fisher, Arlandis (Grimey) Shy and Keithon (KP the Prince) Porter were found guilty as well. The trial lasted nearly two months. The jury deliberated for an entire week. Fisher was only convicted on a pair of illegal firearm charges.  Brown is one of the gang’s co-founders and beat a murder rap.

The case was brought against the entire leadership structure of the Seven Mile Bloods in 2016 and broken up into separate trials for the 21 people named in the indictment. The first group of defendants to go to trial were either acquitted or had a hung jury back in the winter. The next group heads to trial in the fall.  Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Seven Mile Bloods boss Billy (Killa) Arnold. Four of the five men convicted this week face life in prison upon sentencing.

Bailey was convicted in the July 2014 killing of adversary Djuan (Neff) Page where Page was shot to death in a drive-by shooting. Porter, 32, was convicted in the May 2015 slaying of rival gang member Dvante (Little D) Roberts. Page belonged to the Hustle Boys gang and Roberts was a Mapleridge Boys gangbanger. Both the Hustle Boys and Mapleridge Boys were at war with the Seven Mile Bloods. Just days before Roberts’ homicide, Seven Mile Blood co-founder Devon (Block) McClure was killed.

The Seven Mile Bloods have been the most dominant street gang in Detroit’s underworld for the past decade, controlling the drug trade on the Motor City’s notoriously dangerous northeast side (dubbed the “Red Zone” or the “4820-DIE”) with a heavy handed, shoot-first-ask-questions-later mentality that has left a trail of rivals’ dead bodies and drawn the ire of federal law enforcement. The group’s penchant for being active and boastful on a number of different social media platforms and releasing rap videos (under the Hard Work Entertainment banner) bragging of their exploits gave the feds the ammunition they needed to go after it.

The post Convictions Across The Board In Detroit Feds’ Latest Assault Launched On Seven Mile Bloods appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Alleged Detroit mob associate Gino Accetola was slapped with a seven-year state prison term this week after pleading no contest to theft charges related to a credit card scam back in June. The 51-year old Accetola stole almost $150,000 from a local credit-card processing company he employed for his Metro Detroit tanning salon chain, Miami Tan. He did federal prison time for fraud in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Accetola owns five Miami Tan outlets across the Metro Detroit area. The case stems from a request for $200,000 dollars in additional funds from the credit-card processing firm (Interlink Repayment Systems) that he said was to sell a new tanning product. The product had in fact been recalled by its manufacturers and Accetola only repaid $52,000, using the remaining money to go on spending sprees and vacations with his girlfriend.

In an unrelated civil case from 2016, Accetola was found responsible for swindling 11 investors out of $4,000,000 in a construction-company linked Ponzi scheme. He’s been ordered to repay $12,000,000 to his victims, monies that have not yet been handed over according to the victims’ attorney. A chunk of the money pilfered, roughly $1,700,000, was gambled away at the MGM Grand Casino in downtown Detroit.

Throughout his Ponzi scheme, Accetola bragged of his mob ties, going as far as to blame the reason he was withholding profits from investors on orders from his bosses in the mafia. The 11 investors gave him money for bogus general contracting jobs. Back in 2013, he pled guilty in state court to another fraud offense and received a suspended 10-month jail sentence. Per sources, Accetola is connected to the Tocco wing of Detroit’s Tocco-Zerilli crime family.

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Former Pagan’s Motorcycle Club National President Dennis (Rooster) Katona lost his bid for freedom this week when the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court overturned the state’s appellate court ruling from almost two years ago tossing out Katona’s narcotics conviction from 2014. The hulking, long-haired and heavily-tattooed Katona, 52, was found guilty of intent to distribute a controlled substance at a bench trial and is serving a five-year prison sentence.

Rooster Katona’s conviction resulted from a summer 2011 raid on his Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania home where a state-police SWAT team found three ounces of cocaine and three ounces of methamphetamine, totaling a street value of close to $25,000. The appellate court ruled that the search was executed on a faulty warrant based on intelligence gleaned from a wired-up snitch and fellow Pagan’s club member who had been recording conversations with Katona for weeks.The problem was the police weren’t properly updating court authorization for the intercepts that led to the probable cause for the issuing of the warrant.

The founder and owner of East Coast Cycles, a custom bike shop with outlets in Pennsylvania, Florida, Germany and Austria, Katona did four years in federal prison in the 2000s for leading an attack on a rival biker gang’s banquet in Plainview, New York in 2002. The ensuing melee pitting Katona and his Pennsylvania Pagan’s cohorts against a contingent of Long Island Hells Angels left one dead – Pagan Robert (Mailman) Rutherford – dozens injured, ten hospitalized and over 70 arrested and convicted. At the time of the 2002 brawl, Katona was the sergeant-at-arms for the Pagan’s Pittsburgh chapter and the club’s national treasurer

The Pagan’s are the preeminent biker gang on the east coast, maintaining a particular stronghold in the areas in and around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, spanning across rural western Pennsylvania into Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia.

The post Pagan’s MC Boss “Rooster” Katona Quest For Conviction Reversal Hits Dead End At High Court In Penn. appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Detroit street gang member Mario (Ugg) Jackson received a nine-and-a-half year federal prison sentence this week in U.S. District Court for drug distribution, attempted murder and racketeering. The 24-year old Jackson is a part of the Cheddar Grove gang on Motown’s east side. He pleaded guilty in March to charges brought in a 2016 indictment naming 11 Cheddar Grove leaders and lieutenants, including Cheddar Grove boss Edwin (Eddie Boy) Mills and area rapper Philip (Team Eastside Peezy) Peaks. During his arrest, federal agent seized cocaine, marijuana, Oxycodone, illegal firearms and ammunition.

With its home base on Six Mile Road, Cheddar Grove is one of the Motor City’s fiercest street gangs. Following an altercation at a local shopping mall in 2014, Jackson was arrested on weapons and assault charges. The incident cost him two years of probation.

Earlier this week, several members of Detroit’s notorious Seven Mile Bloods gang were convicted in a federal murder and racketeering case. The Seven Mile Bloods also operate on the city’s far eastside. The two gangs have been at war for almost five years. Peazy was shot and robbed in February due to the tensions between the pair of street factions.

Like the more high-profile “SMB” case, the Cheddar Grove case included much evidence collected from postings on social media. Some of that evidence showed SMB boss Billy (Killa) Arnold stalking Peazy to try and murder him and Peazy disparaging SMB leaders on Facebook. Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Arnold, who is still awaiting trial.

The post The String Cheese Incident: Eastside Detroit Gangbanger Gets Near-Decade Behind Bars For Racketeering appeared first on The Gangster Report.

A pair of Providence mob associates copped plea deals this week stemming from their arrest this summer for trying to avenge a 2017 burglary. Rhode Island wiseguy Ricky Dion pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor assault, disorderly conduct and conspiracy charges handed down in July and east coast real estate mogul Frank Zammiello, a treasured confidant to a string of New England mafia dons, entered a so-called “Alford plea” to a charge of assault.

Dion was sentenced to a one-year suspended sentence and received 12 months of probation. Courtesy of his Alford plea, Zammiello avoids any time behind bars or court-ordered supervision so long as he avoids arrest for the next year. In an Alford plea, the defendant admits the state holds enough evidence to convict him and is allowed to maintain his innocence. Acclaimed WPRI Target 12 television investigative reporter Tim White in Providence broke the news Friday night.

Last December, according to the indictment, the 67-year old Zammiello and the 52-year old Dion, along with two others, tried to kidnap a Rhode Island Department of Transportation employee named Danny Branca as he left work as retaliation for Branca’s reputed involvement in a burglary at Zammiello’s mansion in February 2017, where bandits ripped him off for $500,000 in cash and valuables. Branca told police the four assailants attacked him and tried to push him into a vehicle in the parking lot of his suburban Providence office, only relenting upon Branca’s screams attracting a crowd.

Per court records, Zammiello has been linked closely with three generations of Patriarca crime family dons and Dion is a member of crew run by imprisoned Providence mob captain Edward (Little Eddie) Lato. Zammiello’s name surfaced in testimony at this summer’s federal murder trial in Boston which saw one-time Patriarca clan boss Francis (Cadillac Frank) Salemme found guilty of ordering the May 1993 gangland slaying of nightclub owner Stevie DiSarro. Dion was sent to federal prison in 1998 for collecting shakedown money and trafficking cocaine and pain pills in a racketeering case involving Lato. He was released in 2003.

DiSarro and Salemme co-owned The Channel, a famous 1980s era rock club in South Boston. Zammiello was friends with both men and reportedly provided some of the financing for buying the club out of bankruptcy in the early 1990s. While Zammeillo admits he discussed funding the purchase, he claims he never ended up providing any start-up cash for the ill-fated venture. Salemme, 85, suspected DiSarro of skimming money from the club and cooperating with the FBI.

Zammiello rose from meager beginnings as an electrician in the Olneyville section of Providence to being the most prominent real estate developer in the state of Rhode Island. He developed land with Salemme’s predecessor as New England mafia boss, Raymond Patriarca, Jr., even paying Patriarca, Jr.’s bond money when he was busted on racketeering charges in 1986.

It’s widely known that Zammiello is also tight with Salemme’s successor as Godfather of the Patriarca family, Luigi (Baby Shacks) Manocchio. Throughout the 2000s, Zammiello and Manocchio were often seen dining together in Federal Hill, Providence’s Little Italy. FBI agents have followed the pair on vacation and Manocchio is said to have access to Zammiello’s private jet, the same jet that the U.S. State Department borrowed in the days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to ferry members of the Saudi royal family out of the country.

Manocchio, 90, and Patriarca, Jr., 72, are respectively retired from mob affairs today. To augment his vast real estate portfolio, Zammiello has a fleet of private aircraft he uses for his Northstar Aviation luxury jet rental business.

Dion once worked the beat as a cop in Providence for a short period of time. He got hooked up with Little Eddie Lato, currently at the back end of a prison term for extortion and being eyed by federal investigators in at least one cold-case murder, in the 1980s, according to sources familiar with both men. Informants have told the FBI that the 71-year old Lato helped plan and carry out the September 1992 mob hit on rogue enforcer Kevin Hanrahan, gunned down leaving a Federal Hill steakhouse one early autumn evening 26 years ago. As of last year, Dion was the day-to-day manager of Oxford Investment, the owners of Rhode Island’s historic Tillinghast estate.

The post New England Mafia Associates Secure Plea Deals In Assault Case Rooted In Audacious Robbery appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Montreal Irish mob boss Allen (The Weasel) Ross died behind bars last week in an American prison in North Carolina. He was 74 years old and had been locked up since the early 1990s. Court records reveal he battled colon cancer and diabetes.

Ross led Montreal’s West End Gang from 1984 until he was incarcerated in 1992 for narcotics trafficking and a murder conspiracy. His case was out of Florida, where he had hooked up with a Colombian crew of wholesale cocaine dealers to transport kilos of blow into Canada using Nashville, Tennessee as a mid-point way station. The Colombians were part of the Cali Cartel.

After the murder of West End Gang leader Frank (Dunny) Ryan in November 1984, Ross assumed control of the organization known as Quebec’s Irish mafia. In the months following Dunn’s killing over a drug debt owed to him by West End Gang underling, Paul April, Ross allegedly had April and three accomplices slain, blown up by a bomb placed in a VCR.

Another of April’s accomplices, Eddie Phillips, was gunned down weeks later. Ross then is reputed to have had the man who killed Phillips, David Singer, murdered for the belief he was cooperating with authorities. While Ross was found not guilty for first-degree murder in Singer’s slaying, he was convicted of conspiracy.

Ross’ attorney, Sidney Leithman, was shot to death in the months preceding his 1992 trial (Leithman acted as a mouthpiece for the Italian mob’s Cotroni crime family in Montreal as well). There were rumors floating around that Leithman had been acting as a middle man for Ross’ illicit dealings with Claude Savoi, the head of a Montreal police drug unit. Savoi committed suicide in the months after Ross was found guilty at a six-week jury trial in Florida, hours prior to being questioned by internal affairs personnel in the Royal Mounted Canadian Police force and a television news-magazine segment airing delving into the allegations against him.

The post Irish Mafia Don “The Weasel” Dead At 74, Montreal Drug Lord Dies In U.S. Prison System appeared first on The Gangster Report.

In the years before he was imprisoned for drugs and a murder conspiracy, Montreal Irish mob boss Allan (The Weasel) Ross ordered a pair of gangland slayings he never faced justice for, according to Royal Mounted Canadian Police records: the 1990 Salvatore Luzi homicide and the 1991 murder of Ricky McGurnaghan. The man they called “The Weasel,” for his elusive ways as a criminal, led Canada’s West End Gang in the mid-to-late 1980s and the early 1990s.

The 74-year old Ross died of cancer last week in a North Carolina prison hospital. He was convicted out of federal court in Gainesville, Florida for cocaine distribution in May 1992 and sentenced to life behind bars. Shortly thereafter he was found guilty of heading a first-degree homicide conspiracy to kill West End Gang soldier David Singer to cover tracks in a prior mob hit back in 1985.

Years later, Ray Desfosses, Ross’ right hand man, would be convicted of paying freelance hit man Gerald Gallant to murder Luzi, McGurnaghan and four others. Prosecutors in Quebec argued that Desfosses was acting on behalf of Ross in taking out the contracts on Luzi and McGurnaghan’s life, but never charged him in the case. Gallant admitted to committing 26 contract murders in his prolific career on the streets working for multiple criminal factions in the Montreal underworld.

Ross had been feuding with both Luzi and McGurnhagan in the months before they were slain. Luzi was gunned down on May 28, 1990 after a business partnership with Ross went sour. The pair co-owned a strip club together and Ross suspected Luzi of stealing from him.

McGurnaghan, 42, died in a hail of bullets behind the bar at his establishment and headquarters, The Olympic Tavern on March 18, 1991. Spawning from a set of siblings with deep ties to the West End Gang dating back decades, he had gotten into a physical altercation with Ross during the previous holiday season, where he sliced Ross’ check with a broken beer bottle.

Two of McGurnaghan’s older brothers had met similar fates. Carl (Porky) McGurnaghan was slain in a September 1968 car bombing. Hughie McGurnaghan was killed in October 1981 finding himself on the losing end of a feud with then-West End Gang boss Frank (Dunny) Ryan over a gambling debt.

Ryan was murdered by an underling in 1984 resulting in Ross grabbing the reins of Montreal’s Irish mob. Ross avenged Ryan’s slaying by having the four men involved in the plot executed: three were blown up in a bomb placed in a VCR, one was killed in a drive-by shooting.

The post West End Gang Leader “The Weasel” Lives Up To Nickname, Avoided Arrest In Pair Of ’90s Hits appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Former Detroit drug lord Quasand (Q-Dawg) Lewis was released from federal prison last week and placed into a halfway house in Orlando, Florida. The 48-year old Lewis was Michigan’s biggest wholesale marijuana dealer of the early 2000s. His cousin, deceased NBA player Robert (Tractor) Traylor, got nailed for helping him hide money.

Lewis was convicted in 2005’s Operation Falling Star and sentenced to 18 years behind bars. He’s scheduled to be released from the halfway house in six months. Whether or not he’ll return to Michigan is unclear.

Traylor was embroiled in Operation Falling Star, found guilty of falsifying tax documents on behalf of Lewis — he died of a heart condition in 2011 at age 34. A star at the University of Michigan, the notoriously gregarious and rotund Traylor was an NBA Lottery Pick in 1998 and played eight years in the NBA.

Lewis did two separate prison terms in the 1990s for cocaine trafficking busts. By the dawning of the New Millennium though the Flenory brothers’ Black Mafia Family controlled the cocaine trade in Motown (and well beyond for that matter) so Lewis decided to concentrate on dominating the Motor City’s weed market.

It didn’t take long before he did.

By late 2002, Lewis’ drug empire was at war with a crew led by rival marijuana kingpin Thomas (Shotgun Tommie) Hodges, a conflict that left more than a dozen dead or wounded. Both Lewis and Hodges survived assassination attempts. In 2003, Hodges got into a shootout with the Lewis gang’s top enforcer Lamont (L-Boogie) Paris in the parking lot of a nightclub located across the street from what was then Detroit Police Headquarters. Paris opened fire on Hodges in his car and Hodges grabbed a weapon and returned fire in the middle of a crowded street.

Paris is doing 50 years in prison. Hodges went down in another case from 2005 and was released from federal custody in March 2015. Lewis’ girlfriend Sissy Walker, who helped him run his drug business, and his bodyguard and driver Lavert (Vicious Vito) Dafney each came home in 2015 too. Edward (Lemon) Walker, Sissy’s brother and Lewis’ No. 2 in charge, did six years and got out in 2011.

Quasand Lewis

The post Detroit Underworld Legend Of 2000s, Drug Kingpin Quasand Lewis Out Of Prison After 13 Years appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The Quasand (Q-Dawg) Lewis drug organization was a true force to be reckoned with in the Metro Detroit underworld of the early 2000s. Lewis, 48, was the Motor City’s most prominent marijuana kingpin at the dawning of the New Millennium, making tens of millions of dollars slinging his leafy product from the dark alleys of the inner city to the rolling hills of the area’s poshest suburbs.

Last week, Lewis was released from federal prison to a halfway house in Florida following a 13-year stay as a guest of the government. In the summer of 2005, Lewis and almost three dozen of his workers went down in the Operation Falling Star case. Authorities seized 9,000 pounds of weed in raids and estimated the dope crew cleared close to $200,000,000 in net profit.

Breaking down Lewis’ drug empire man-by-man:

Quasand (Q-Dawg) Lewis — Founder and boss of the Lewis drug organization

Edward (Lemon) Walker — Lewis’ second-in-command

Saeeda (Sissy) Walker — Lewis girlfriend, top advisor and Lemon Walker’s sister

Giovanni (Big G) Ruanova — Lewis wholesale connection, responsible for arranging and overseeing shipments of marijuana from Mexico to Detroit via Arizona

*Remains a fugitive of justice to this very day

Lavert (Vicious Vito) Dafney — Lewis’ bodyguard, driver and right-hand man

Robin (Slick) Wilson — Lemon Walker’s right-hand man

Lamont (L-Boogie) Paris — Leader of the Lewis organization’s enforcement wing known as the “Connecticut Boys”

*The moniker came from the fact that Paris and his crew often rocked University of Connecticut Huskies men’s basketball gear

Rhashi (Heartless) Harris — Paris’ right-hand man

Raymond (Red Ray) Amerson — Managed the Lewis organization’s stash houses and coordinated the group’s distribution routes

Jamil (Ice Cream Cone) Carter — One of Lewis’ main lieutenants

McKinley (Big Mac) Tigner — One of Lewis’ main lieutenants

Jason (Jamming Jay) Anderson — One of Lewis’ main lieutenants

Jason (Little Jay) Jenkins –One of Lewis’ main lieutenants

David (Baby D) Watson — One of Lewis’ main lieutenants

Mark (King) Saldate — One of Lemon Walker’s main enforcers

Brian (B-Cuz) Smith — One of Lemon Walker’s main enforcers

Jeff (Willow) Redmond — One of Lemon Walker’s main enforcers

The post The Q Rating: Running Down The Roster Of Detroit’s Lewis Drug Gang, Top Dogs In 2000s Weed Trade appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Most of the Manson Family has been cast in writer-director extraordinaire Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, a tale of Los Angeles and the movie industry in the late 1960s using the iconic Manson Family murders as a backdrop and lens into the juicy subject matter. Respected television character actor Damon Herriman got the nod to play the hippie-cult guru Manson, a failed musician who attracted a following of mostly young, impressionable, eager-to-please women and eventually had them kill for him. In subsequent years, Manson has become the face of evil in the pop culture pantheon of mass murderers and serial killers and the embodiment of the dark side of America’s much-chronicled Flower Power era.

Manson ordered the slayings of nine people in the summer of 1969, eight occurring over 48 hours in August, most notably a beautiful actress and her unborn child. The murder spree included the brutal killing of burgeoning Hollywood starlet Sharon Tate, the heiress to the Folgers Coffee fortune, Abigail Folger and Jay Sebring, an in-demand male hairdresser who served as the inspiration for Warren Beatty’s lead character in movie Shampoo, on the first night of the slaughters. Manson and four of his followers were convicted at trial in 1971. Manson himself died behind bars last year.

Tarantino’s film is chalk-full of high-wattage acting talent and centers on a fictional past-his-prime actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double (Brad Pitt) and their struggle identifying with and thriving in a changing industry landscape. DiCaprio’s character is neighbors with Tate. The project has been shooting since June and is slated for a July 2019 release to theatres. Tate was married to Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski.

Herriman is best known for his memorable roles in the critically-acclaimed TV shows Justified and Breaking Bad. He played another notorious criminal in the Clint Eastwood-helmed 2011 movie J. Edgar, portraying Bruno Hauptmann, the man responsible for kidnapping and killing the “Lindberg Baby” in 1932.

Besides hiring Herriman for the Manson role, Tarantino has also tapped actors to play Charles (Tex) Watson, Manson’s right-hand man, and followers Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme, Catherine (Gypsy) Share, Kathryn (Kitty Kat) Lutesinger, Patricia (Katie) Krenwinkle and Leslie (Lulu) Van Houten. Watson, Krenwinkle and Van Houten were convicted in taking part in the so-called Tate-LaBianca slayings.

The role of Susan (Sadie) Atkins, Manson’s main female henchman and the woman who stabbed a pregnant Tate to death inside her Benedict Canyon mansion on August 8, 1969, has yet to be filled. Van Houten was only present on the second night of the murders, helping Watson, Atkins and Krenwinkle kill married couple Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in L.A.’s Los Feliz neighborhood on August 9, 1969.

Susan Atkin (L), Patricia Krenwinkle (C) & Leslie Van Houten (R) going to court in 1970

Early in the casting process, Dakota Fanning snagged the role of Squeaky Fromme, famous for trying to shoot U.S. President Gerald Ford in 1975 and being Manson’s mouthpiece to the press during his flashbulb-frenzy of a trial. Fanning has been in Hollywood since her childhood when she delivered well-received performances in studio movies from the 2000s like I Am Sam, Man on Fire and War of the Worlds.

More recently, one of Hollywood’s leading feminists, Lena Dunham, was cast as Gypsy Share, the Manson Family’s designated recruiter and lesser-known actresses Madison Beaty, Victoria Pedretti and Margaret Qualley, were selected to play “Manson girls” Katie Krenwinkle, Lulu Van Houten and Kitty Lutesinger, respectively. Tracing his roots in the industry to the Disney and Nickelodeon brand of the late 2000s, actor Austin Baker (Hannah Montana, ICarly), walked away with the Tex Watson part.

Dunham created, wrote and starred in the Emmy-nominated HBO series Girls, which ended in 2017. Her character, Gypsy Share did five years in prison in the 1970s for trying to kill another Family member set to testify at the Manson trial by dousing a hamburger with LSD and staging an armed robbery of an outdoorsmen surplus store as part of an effort to spring Manson from custody.

Krenwinkle and Van Houten were put on trial alongside Manson. So was Sadie Atkins. They were all convicted in a marathon court proceeding garnering coverage from around the world. Watson was found guilty at a separate trial. Today in their 70s, Krenwinkle, Van Houten and Watson remain behind bars. Atkins died of brain cancer in a prison hospital in 2009.

This will be the second time Beaty portrays Krenwinkle. She played the Manson disciple in the NBC television show Aquarius two years ago. Beaty had a recurring role on ABC Family’s The Fosters. Qualley was one of the stars in the HBO show The Leftovers.

The post Tarantino Finds A Majority Of His ‘Manson Family’ For New Movie, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The movie White Boy Rick hits theatres this week and Gangster Report is the place to get the skinny on what’s real and what’s fictionalized for the big screen. Starring newcomer Richie Merritt and Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey, the film tells the incredible true story of Richard (White Boy Rick) Wershe, Jr., the longest-serving non-violent juvenile offender in the American prison system.

The 49-year old Werhse, Jr. was recruited to work for the U.S. government out of the eighth grade and soon, with the help of a federal drug task force, rose through the ranks of the volatile and flamboyant 1980s Detroit dope game before he was old enough to legally drive a car. He’s been behind bars since he was 18 and he was convicted in 1988 of a single drug-possession charge stemming from a traffic stop.

Below is a breakdown of the actors and the characters they are playing in the film. We also take a look at who in real life are those characters are based on or inspired from.

THE SCORECARD

Richie Merritt as Richard (White Boy Rick) Wershe, Jr., the government-sponsored teenage drug-dealing prodigy who seamlessly integrated himself into the good graces of Detroit’s infamous Curry Brothers Gang and thrived in an entirely African-American Motown underworld at the height of the crack era.

Matthew McConaughey as Richard Wershe, Sr., Rick’s street hustler of a dad, a black market gun dealer whose status as an informant introduced his son to an all-too-eager, ethically-conflicted federal narcotics task force intent on bringing down politically-connected eastside Detroit dope kingpin Johnny Curry.

Bel Powley as Dawn Wershe, Rick’s spunky, drug-addled older sister.

Bruce Dern as Ray Wershe, Rick’s outspoken grandfather, a retired auto-line supervisor at Chrysler Motors.

Piper Laurie as Vera Wershe, Rick’s fiery grandmother, a retired executive secretary at Chrysler Motors.

Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rory Cochrane as FBI Agents Snyder and Byrd, the FBI agents who recruit Rick into his role as a drug mole at just 14 years old and task him with infiltrating the Curry Brothers Gang.

*The Agent Snyder and Byrd characters are composites of FBI agents Jim Dixon, Al Finch, Herm Groman and Marty Torgler. Dixon and Finch were the agents that actually recruited Rick to be an informant.

Brian Tyree Henry as Detroit Police Department officer Mel “Roach” Jackson, the undercover narcotics detective who helps Rick get on his feet as an aspiring drug pusher funded by the government.

*Jackson is a mostly fictionalized character but loosely based on DPD plain clothed drug unit detectives Billy Jasper and Kevin Green.

Jonathan Majors as Johnny (Lil’ Man) Curry, Rick’s flashy dope game mentor and Detroit’s premier eastside drug baron of the 1980s, who was married to Mayor Coleman Young’s favorite niece.

YG as Leo (Big Man) Curry, Johnny’s more subdued twin brother and second-in-command.

RJ Cyler as Rudell (Boo Baby) Curry, Johnny’s youngest brother and Rick’s way into the Curry Brothers Gang.

Taylour Paige as Cathy Volsan-Curry, Johnny’s beautiful, sexy and sophisticated fiancé (wife in real life), whose uncle, Mayor Coleman Young, was the most powerful man the city of Detroit had ever seen, and who Rick soon covets for himself.

Alan Jones as Willie Volsan, Cathy’s dad and Mayor’s Young’s brother-in-law, an underworld jack-of-all-trades who has his hands in police-force shakedown scheme.

Donald White as Jimmy Harris, a corrupt Detroit Police Department lieutenant, the head of an extortion racket and a longtime confidant of Mayor Young.

Eddie Marsan as Art Derrick, a rumpled, but savvy rustbelt drug boss and the biggest wholesale cocaine dealer in Detroit, who like Johnny Curry, takes Rick under his wing and tries to school him in the ways of the street.

Danny Brown as Edward (Black Ed) Hanserd, a brash and always-peacocking Detroit drug don who is a Curry Brothers Gang rival.

*Black Ed Hanserd was a force to be reckoned with in the Detroit dope world of the 1980s but never a rival of the Curry Brothers Gang.

Kyanna Simone Simpson as Brenda Moore, Rick’s high school girlfriend and mother to his child.

*Brenda serves as composite character of all three of Rick’s “baby mamas,” Toy, Fran and Shawn.

Ishmael (IshDARR) Ali as Stephan (Freaky Steve) Roussell, Rick’s right-hand man, best friend and fellow aspiring cocaine king.

James Shinkle as Bill Bufalino, as Rick’s fast-talking, high-profile attorney.

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Dapper Detroit drug don Richard (Maserati Rick) Carter was killed in maybe the most brazen gangland slaying in Motown’s storied underworld history 30 years ago this week. The suave, handsome and notoriously well-connected crime lord is best remembered for being buried in a $25,000 custom-made gold-plated Mercedes-Benz coffin.

The 29-year old Carter was shot to death in his hospital bed by a hit man dressed in doctor’s scrubs September 12, 1988 on a busy early evening at Mt. Carmel Mercy Hospital (now Sinai-Grace) on the city’s northwest side. He had been engaged in a heated feud with rival drug kingpin Edward (Big Ed) Hanserd. Police found a wooden cross, a set of rosary beads and a .357 Magnum revolver resting on his hospital room’s bedside drawer.

Less than 48 hours prior to his slaying, Carter had gotten into a shootout with Hanserd and Hanserd’s top enforcer, Lodrick (Ricky the Hitman) Parker at Carter’s car wash headquarters and was wounded in the stomach. It was one of at least a half-dozen shootouts Carter and Hanserd squared off in — Carter was facing charges for attempted murder in an incident from the previous summer at the time of his passing. Authorities suspected Carter of playing a role in multiple gangland executions, yet never brought any indictments.

Parker went on trial for Carter’s murder, but was found not guilty. Hanserd and Carter, both tracing their roots to Detroit’s rugged eastside, had fallen out over a drug debt and Hanserd’s development of a wholesale supply source out in California for himself and others, which was cutting into Carter’s bottom line.

Maserati Rick and Big Ed ran two of the largest cocaine distributorships in the city at the devastating peak of the crack era. Carter was partners with the equally-debonair Demetrius Holloway, killed in the fall of 1990 at a downtown men’s fashion boutique. A month before Holloway’s murder, Clyde Carter, Maserati Rick’s older brother, was slain.

The beef between Carter and Hanserd became increasingly personal throughout late 1987 and into 1988. Hanserd nicknamed himself “Big Ed,” telling people it was a pet name bestowed on him by Carter’s mother. Most on the street referred to Hanserd as “Black Ed” or “Eddie Money.” While Parker is serving a life prison sentence on another case, Hanserd did the better half of three decades behind bars on a federal narcotics and racketeering conviction and was released in 2016.

Before he rose to infamy as a drug boss, Carter was an amateur boxer and ran a stolen-car ring — the moniker “Maserati Rick” came from him showing up at a local nightclub one night in a brand-new Maserati convertible he had bought in Ohio. His childhood best friend was five-time world-champion boxer Tommy Hearns, Detroit’s favorite son in the fight game in the late 20^th Century. During Hearns early career, Carter often acted as Hearns’ bodyguard. Southern rapper and hip-hop mogul Master P name-checked Carter in his 1997 song “I Miss My Homies.”

Despite his deep entrenchment in the Detroit dope game, Carter was never arrested on narcotics charges. His lone prison stint was for stealing cars.

If he wouldn’t have been bumped off, a major federal drug case would have most likely ensnared him, according to retired DEA personnel.

“We were well aware of Rick Carter’s position in the drug world, his reputation wasn’t lost on us and was getting attention,” former Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit DEA office Bill Coonce said.

Holloway was also receiving heavy scrutiny from law enforcement in the time surrounding his slaying, having been called to testify in front of a federal grand jury in the weeks preceding his homicide and invoking his Fifth Amendment rights in more than half of his answers.

“Carter and Holloway were a couple big fish, their heads would have been on our walls, if the streets hadn’t have beat us to it,” Coonce’s predecessor as Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit DEA office, Bob DeFauw, said of the pair.

The post “Maserati Rick” Met Brutal End To His Reign As Detroit Drug Boss, Bold Underworld Assassination Occurred 30 Yrs. Ago appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker will play legendary African-American crime lord Ellsworth (Bumpy) Johnson in an upcoming cable television series chronicling Johnson’s final years reigning over New York’s black underworld in the 1960s called The Godfather of Harlem. Part of the storyline will involve Johnson getting into a feud with the Genovese crime family of New York’s Italian mafia. Another part will explore his relationship with black revolutionary Malcom X.

Whitaker snagged the 2006 Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of African dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. More recently, he co-starred in the 2018 superhero smash Black Panther.

Created by Johnson historian Scott Brancato, hot off of making Netflix’s acclaimed Narcos, The Godfather of Harlem starts shooting this month and will air next year on the Epix premium-cable network. Vincent D’Onofrio (Men In Black, To Kill The Irishman) has been tapped to play Genovese mobster Vincent (The Chin) Gigante, the historic don who was an up-and-coming captain based in Greenwich Village at the time the show takes place.

Bumpy Johnson

Brancato penned the 1997 movie, Hoodlum, which starred Laurence Fishburne as Bumpy Johnson in his early days fighting the Dutch Schultz mob for control of the Harlem numbers racket. Johnson is by far the most represented real-life black crime boss in pop culture fare of the last half-century. Fishburne has played Bumpy twice, first coming in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1984 film The Cotton Club. Characters based on Bumpy have popped up in everything from James Bond films to alongside Clint Eastwood in Escape From Alcatraz to HBO’s heavily-lauded Boardwalk Empire. Clarence Williams played Bumpy in a cameo performance at the beginning of the movie American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington as Bumpy’s former driver and bodyguard, 1970s Harlem heroin don Frank Lucas.

Johnson, who cut a dashing figure in both gangland and more high-society circles, ran gambling, loansharking, extortion and narcotics rackets in Harlem for almost 40 years. He died of a sudden heart attack in 1968 at the age of 62.

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At last week’s sentencing hearing in federal court where former New England mafia don Francis (Cadillac Frank) Salemme got saddled with a life prison term for ordering the murder of his business partner, Boston nightclub owner Stevie DiSarro, back in May 1993, U.S. Attorney and famous mob buster Fred Wyshak told Judge Allison Burroughs that the government suspected Salemme took part in at least another half-dozen first-degree homicide conspiracies in his days as boss of the Patriarca crime family. The 85-year old Salemme led the New England mafia from 1991 until he was jailed in 1995, a tumultuous period in Patriarca syndicate history marked by internal warfare pitting Cadillac Frank against mob crews headquartered in East Boston and the North End (Boston’s Little Italy) headed by Joe (J.R.) Russo and his protégé Vinnie (The Animal) Ferrara, respectively.

Salemme was living in the Witness Protection Program when authorities unearthed DiSarro’s remains behind a converted textile mill in Providence in 2016 and arrested him for the crime. He was convicted in June of having DiSarro killed for the belief that he was cooperating with the FBI and stealing from their co-ownership in a nightclub-turned-strip joint called The Channel located in hardscrabble “Southie.”

Below is a list of seven gangland slayings spanning 1991 to 1994 that Salemme is believed to have either ordered or sanctioned.

Howard Ferrini (August 16, 1991) –The Russo and Ferrara loyalist and Fall River, Massachusetts bookie is beaten and stomped to death at his Berkley, Massachusetts home. Ferrini’s badly-battered corpse was found at Logan International Airport on August 21, 1991, stuffed into trunk of his blue colored Cadillac, his hands bound and a plastic bag placed over his head.

*Early on in his regime, Salemme sought to expand outside of the Greater Boston area into cities like Fall River, Framingham, Lowell and Milford. Ferrini, 53, was linked to Fall River crime lord Timothy (Timmy the Bat) Mello and Salemme enforcer Gordon O’Brien.

Robert (Bobby D) Donati (September 24, 1991) – Vinnie Ferrara’s driver and close friend, Donati was longtime low-level mover-and-shaker in the Beantown underworld and jack-of-all-trades mobster and is beaten and stabbed to death at his Revere, Massachusetts home. Bobby D’s body is found in the trunk of his own Cadillac automobile, hogtied and heavily battered.

*Donati,50, died one of the top suspects in the still-unsolved Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist (the daring 1990 armed robbery of the prestigious private museum in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood yielding a cool half-billion dollars in precious artwork). He was a paid informant for the Massachusetts State Police too.

Barry Lazzarini (October 3, 1991) – The Russo and Ferrara loyalist is beaten and shot to death inside his Manomet, Massachusetts home. His body is left hogtied in his kitchen. Lazzarini had formerly owned a restaurant that was a known hangout spot for gangster types in Boston

Kevin Hanrahan (September 18, 1992) – The notorious Irish mobster, an enforcer and reputed hit man for the Patriarca crime family for years, is slain as he’s leaving a Providence, Rhode Island steakhouse, shot dead by two assailants.

*A federal grand jury has been impaneled in Providence for the last two years looking into Hanrahan’s murder. Salemme’s one-time best friend and “kingsman’s capo” in Rhode Island during his reign has told the grand jury that Salemme ordered Hanrahan’s killing because Hanrahan was plotting to assassinate him and his underboss Luigi (Baby Shacks) Manoncchio and that then mob soldiers Rocco (Shaky) Argenti and Edward (Little Eddie) Lato were the triggermen, with Manocchio acting as the hit’s planner. Argenti rose to consiglieri before dying of cancer, Manocchio succeeded Salemme as boss and is now retired and Lato, currently a capo, is finishing up a prison stint for extortion. 

Rocco Scali (October 2, 1992) – The Russo and Ferrara loyalist and North End restaurant owner is shot in the back of the head as he sat in his car in the parking lot of a Dedham, Massachusetts International House of Pancakes.

Vinnie Arcieri (December 8, 1992) – The Russo and Ferrara loyalist and restaurateur is gunned down in the driveway of his Orient Heights, Massachusetts residence.

*Arcieri had allegedly gotten into a verbal altercation with Salemme’s East Boston capo Mark Rossetti at Arcieri’s restaurant in the weeks preceding his murder.

Michael (Little Mike) Romano (September 2, 1994) – The young Russo-Ferrara loyalist is slain changing a flat tire in front of an East Boston bar, only months after his father and Russo crew heavy Michael (Big Mike) Romano, Sr., had seemingly negotiated a peace treaty with the Salemme camp in a sit down at an East Boston tavern.

*Big Mike Romano killed Joe Souza on October 31, 1994, shooting him 11 times as he stood using an East Boston phone booth for the belief that Souza, a Salemme loyalists, was part of the hit team that killed his son the previous month.

The post The Open Case File On Cadillac Frank: Federal Prosecutor Claims Former N.E. Mob Boss Has Many More Hits Under Belt appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Imprisoned Florida Outlaws Motorcycle Club member Pedro (Pistol Pete) Saladrigas died recently of natural causes serving a life sentence in a Daytona Beach state prison for a double murder. He was 60 years old and in the club’s South Florida chapter based in Ft. Lauderdale. Saladrigas had been behind bars for more than three decades.

On Thanksgiving night 1984, Pistol Pete was involved in a brawl inside a local watering hole known as the Bimini Sea Shack that spilled out into the parking lot and ended up gunning down 29-year old bartender Robert Aunapu and a female patron named Carla McClain. Aunapu and Saladrigas were two of the main combatants in the brawl — Aunapu had thrown Saladrigas and his Outlaws pals out of the establishment moments earlier. McClain, 31, was an innocent bystander.

Saladrigas went to trial in January 1986 and was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. He claimed he only opened fire with his weapon when Aunapu pointed a shotgun at him, pleading self-defense.

The Outlaws are headquartered in the Midwest, but has kept a stronghold in Florida dating back to the early 1970s. The club maintains a robust 16 chapters across the Sunshine State. The first chapter in the state was founded out of a West Palm Beach bar called Kitty’s in 1967.

“Pistol Pete” Saladrigas

The post Gunning It Towards The Biker Gods: Outlaws MC’er “Pistol Pete” Saladrigas Passes Away In Prison appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Chicago wiseguy Sammy Galioto, the nephew of an Outfit don, died of natural causes this week at just 57. Galioto’s uncle was James (Jimmy the Man) Marcello, the Chicago mafia’s acting boss in the early-to-mid 2000s who is currently serving a life prison sentence. His father Billy Galioto, a bookie and former Chicago Police officer, used to occasionally drive for Marcello’s mentor, Sam (Wings) Carlisi, the Outfit’s Godfather from the late 1980s into the early 1990s. His brother Johnny was forced to relinquish a labor union post due to his organized crime ties two decades ago.

Sammy Galioto was indicted in 2015 for tax evasion related to his alleged hiding of a $3,000,000 consulting fee in the purchase of the residential Pittsfield Building in the Windy City’s business district known as “The Loop.” He and his dad were busted for running a sports gambling ring in 1994, but had the case thrown out before they reached trial. In 2000, the younger Galioto was convicted of medical insurance fraud out of Missouri and served a year in federal prison.

The Galiotos were involved in Chicago’s movie and television industry for years. Between 1975 and 1995, the family owned a company that leased equipment to Hollywood productions teams doing business in Illinois. A deal to build a production studio themselves fell through in the 1990s when a loan from the City of Chicago was quashed once the family’s background and Outfit connections became public.

Sammy Galioto visited a friend of Chicago mob associate Joey Cusumano’s in a Nevada jail in the summer of 1999 to discuss a potential movie project linked to the life of Texas gangster-turned-casino mogul Benny Binion and his son, Ted, slain in 1998, according to FBI records. Having financed films in the past, including the Francis Ford Coppola picture, The Cotton Club, Cusumano helped look after Outfit affairs on the west coast and in the 1970s and 1980s was a part of notorious Las Vegas crew boss Tony (The Ant) Spilotro’s inner circle. The man Galioto visited in the Clark County Jailhouse in August 1999 (Rick Tabish) was about to go to trial for Ted Binion’s murder — Tabish, the boyfriend of Binion’s wife, would be convicted in the case, then granted a new trial and acquitted.

The Chicago mob has lost a half-dozen members and associates since the spring. Esteemed Outfit boss John (Johnny No Nose) DiFronzo died of dementia in May, kicking off the slew of passings. DiFronzo had been in semi-retirement for years and ran the crime syndicate through a string of acting bosses, like Marcello. Back in 2007, the 74-year old Jimmy Marcello was convicted in the epic Family Secrets case, found guilty in the 1986 gangland execution of Spilotro and his younger brother Michael for the elder Spilotro’s insubordinate behavior in Vegas. Galioto’s mother is Marcello’s sister. Spilotro’s violent reign in the desert was the focus of the classic 1995 Martin Scorsese flick Casino, with Oscar-winner Joe Pesci playing the Tony the Ant character (called Nicky Santoro on screen)

*Cover image courtesy of ABC7 TV in Chicago.

The post Jailed Chicago Mafia Boss’ Nephew Sammy Galioto Goes Down For The Count, Dies Young In ’18 appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Canadian mob figure Daniele (Dark Danny) Ranieri was killed in Cancun, Mexico earlier this year while on the run from the law, dodging an extortion indictment out of Ontario in 2015. The 33-year old Ranieri was the Rizzuto crime family’s crew boss in Toronto. He was found in a beachside ditch in February, bound, gagged and shot twice in the back of the head. Royal Canadian Mounted Police officials told the media of Ranieri’s death this week at a press conference.

Back in the spring, rumors spread that the young mafia lieutenant had been slain in a drug-world massacre in Los Cabos, Mexico in December 2017 where a half dozen dopers were found hanging from three different bridges in the resort town on the same night. The RCMP eventually shot down those rumors at a press conference in July.

The last confirmed sighting of Dark Danny Ranieri was in Havana, Cuba around Christmas in 2015. Authorities have traced his landing in Mexico to at least the fall of 2017.

Dark Danny’s rise in the Rizzuto crime family was a swift one.

Before his 30th birthday, he had been given oversight of the Montreal-based Rizzuto clan’s Ontario operations. He took over the syndicate’s crew in Toronto from his mob mentor, musclebound Juan (Joe Bravo) Fernandez, killed in Sicily in 2014, a casualty of the gangland war that has ripped through practically every nook and cranny of the Canadian underworld the past decade and resulted in hundreds of dead bodies.

Fernandez was don Vito Rizzuto’s man in Toronto before Fernandez was deported to Europe and he and Rizzuto fell out because Rizzuto felt Fernandez wasn’t offering him enough support in the war he was fighting to protect his mob kingdom. Rizzuto died suddenly of cancer in 2013, six months prior to Fernandez’s murder.

Ranieri was a building contractor and feared mob enforcer for Fernandez in the late 2000s. He served three prison-stints for robbery, assault, bookmaking and firearm offenses. When he was locked up, Ranieri got caught peddling drugs and had time tacked on to the end of his most recent bid for threatening a corrections officer. It was in prison where Ranieri met and became friends with Fernandez.

Dark Danny Ranieri

Joe Bravo was deported from Canada in January 2012, finally settling in Sicily. With Fernandez gone from Toronto, the handsome, coffee-skinned, heavily-tattooed Ranieri became his eyes and ears on the street. Ranieri had the words “Cosa Nostra” tattooed across his chest. In 2010, Joe Bravo was intercepted on tape telling other higher-ups in the Montreal mob that he wanted to propose Ranieri for membership.

A trip by Ranieri to visit Fernandez abroad actually alerted Sicilian police to Fernandez’s whereabouts in Palermo. Dark Danny’s visit to Sicily in July 2012 allowed the cops to pinpoint Joe Bravo’s exact location, as a surveillance squad followed Ranieri from the airport to a meeting with his boss at the Hotel Da Franco Il Conte in the town of Bagheria. An informant in Canada tipped off the RCMP of Ranieri’s travel itinerary and RCMP made law enforcement in Sicily aware of his exact arrival time.

According to his indictment, Ranieri’s face-to-face with Fernandez in the summer of 2012 was to warn him of Rizzuto’s displeasure with his decision to “sit things out” in the war he was engulfed in back in Canada. Upon his return to Toronto, Ranieri was bumped up into Fernandez’s crew boss slot

Ranieri’s name made it into testimony in April as part of a drug and racketeering trial in Toronto. A witness told jurors that Dark Danny taught him to put Vaseline on his face and hands prior to doing murders to avoid getting gun residue on yourself. One piece of audio surveillance played for the jury heard one mobster telling another, “Danny, that guy right there is a psychopath, he’s crazy man…..I hung around the guy for a week, after that, I was like ‘I can’t keep this guy by me no more…he’s fucking crazy (he’s going to bring all kinds of heat). I don’t need

The post Going Over To The Dark Side: Toronto Mobster “Dark Danny” Ranieri Meets His Maker In Mexico As A Fugitive appeared first on The Gangster Report.

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. Joe Glasses waited 16 years to seek his.

New York mobster Joseph (Joe Glasses) Datello copped a plea this week in federal court to an attempted murder charge related to a 2017 racketeering indictment aimed at dismantling the Lucchese crime family and fingering Datello in a plot to kill a New Jersey mafia don’s former son-in-law who was hiding in the Witness Protection Program. He faces a 10-20 year prison term. The grudge the near-blind Joe Glasses held dated back nearly two decades.

In 2016, Datello, 67, allegedly received permission from Lucchese boss Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea to travel to New Hampshire to murder Sean Richard, once married to the daughter of New Jersey mob boss John (The Eagle) Riggi and the point man for joint labor-union rackets being conducted by Crea’s Lucchese clan and Riggi’s DeCalvacante crime syndicate until he flipped in 2000.

Datello, Crea and Riggi all did prison time because of Richard’s cooperation in a case dubbed “Operation Textbook.” Riggi died in the summer of 2015 at 90 years old, a free man. Crea and Datello were both busted again in the 2017 case. Crea, 71, is currently awaiting trial.

The 54-year old Richard disappeared into the “Program,” alongside his stripper girlfriend in January 2000 after wiring up on his co-conspirators and imprisoned father-in-law via a recording device placed in a fake arm cast for six months. Datello acted as Richard’s go-between in sending messages and money from Riggi to Crea and still considered Richard liable for a $100,000 debt from 18 years ago, according to court documents.

Around Thanksgiving 1999, Richard fled a meeting with Datello in Manhattan when he suspected it was hit. Datello was caught on FBI wires in 2016 lamenting the hassle of being held responsible for Richard’s debt with his superiors in the mob and being worried at the time that he going to get killed over it.

The post Through The Looking Glass: N.J. Mob Boss’ One-Time Son-In-Law Had Murder Contract On Head In WitSec appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Sean Richard lived a rags to riches gangland tale in his younger days before it crashed and burned two decades ago. To salvage himself from the wreckage, he turned on his New Jersey mob boss father-in-law and a group of powerful mafia figures in New York and disappeared into the Witness Protection Program. Out of sight, maybe, but he definitely wasn’t out of mind.

In 2016, one of the New York wiseguys he spurned, Joseph (Joe Glasses) Datello of the Lucchese crime family, found out Richard, 54 today, was living under an assumed identity in New Hampshire and planned to murder him for the betrayal. And for sticking him with a six-figure debt after he flipped.

The 67-year old Datello pled guilty in federal court this week to attempted murder as part of a plea deal in a racketeering case brought against him and a number of other Lucchese players in 2017. Discussions Datello had about his intentions to travel to New Hampshire and murder Richard were intercepted by an FBI wire.

Back in his 20s, Richard was a nobody carpenter from the Bronx. When he met Sara Riggi, the daughter of New Jersey Godfather John (The Eagle) Riggi, in 1995, he became a somebody. When he married her a year later, he became an even bigger somebody.

John Riggi (pictured above) ran the New Jersey mafia from the 1970s until his death of natural causes in 2015 at the ripe old age of 90. He based his affairs out of Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he controlled Local 394 of the LIUNA, a construction-workers union that came to dominate the industry in the region.

With John Riggi locked up, Richard became his point man in the labor unions. Richard and his new bride opened up a construction firm, S&S Contracting, and took counsel and direction from Riggi on visits to him in a federal prison in Maryland

Richard gave the don two granddaughters and headed his union rackets, including kickback, bribery, bid-rigging, extortion and theft schemes. Many of the construction scams Richard and his father-in-law Jersey mob were engaging in were being done in tandem with the Lucchese Family. Richard was dealing directly with a number of Lucchese luminaries on a regular basis. Joe Glasses Datello was Richard’s liaison to the New York mafia.

Datello is the muscle for Lucchese captain Dominick (Crazy Dom) Truscello, the crew boss on Prince Street in Manhattan and closely connected to Lucchese power Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea. Truscello, 85, Crea, 71, and Datello were all involved in Riggi’s labor union rackets and went to prison due to Richard’s cooperation and testimony against them. They all went down in the 2017 bust together too (Crea and Truscello are currently awaiting trial).

Things began unravelling for Richard in August 1999. The FBI raided Richard’s home and the offices at S&S Contracting. The mounting pressure from the federal probe sent Richard into a deep depression fueled by alcohol and drugs. The Luccheses uncovered Richard stealing from money envelopes being passed back and forth between the New York mobsters and Riggi. By November, Richard believed he was going to be killed and fled a meeting with Datello and Truscello thinking they were there to execute him on his father-in-law’s orders.

Weeks later, he reached out to the FBI and agreed to wire up. The feds placed the wire in an arm cast Richard wore following a ski accident. In January 2000, Richard left his wife and kids and vanished into the Witness Protection Program with his stripper girlfriend.

The forthcoming case ensnaring Riggi, Crea, Truscello and Datello was dubbed Operation Textbook. Riggi, who was slated to be getting out of prison in 2000, was forced to do another dozen years behind bars before being allowed to come home. Over the next decade, Richard would take the stand and testify successfully in five federal racketeering trials, resulting in dozens of guilty verdicts.

The post Who Is Sean Richard & Why Does The Mob Want Him Dead: N.J. Don’s Son-In-Law Vs. The Lucchese Family appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Leroy Buttrom, Jr., the son of 1980s Detroit drug lord, Leroy (Gun) Buttrom, is facing trial for drug trafficking himself out of Ohio in November. The feds did in his dear old dad more than three decades ago. Today, it’s the state authorities coming after junior.

The 39-year old Buttrom, Jr. was traveling in a car with three other men in April when they were pulled over by police in Sandusky County and 158 grams of heroin was found, along with an unregistered firearm. He’s charged with aggravated trafficking, heroin possession and receiving stolen property. The drugs’ street value were estimated at $30,000. His previous criminal record lists two convictions on weapons charges in Michigan in 2001 and 2003, respectively. Buttrom, Jr. resides in Redford Township, Michigan, right outside of Detroit proper.

Gun Buttrom, 69, led the Motor City’s infamous Pony Down Gang in the early-to-mid 1980s. The elder Buttrom was busted by the feds for drugs and racketeering in November 1985 and served almost 20 years in prison.

The Pony Down Gang went to war with the historic Young Boys, Incorporated crew for supremacy in the drug game on the Westside of Detroit in 1982, around the time of a big federal indictment that took out the bulk of YBI’s leadership and left the organization vulnerable to the ambitions of Buttrom and his three brothers and lieutenants, Walter, Tony and Larry. By late 1983, the Pony Down crew had acquired large swaths of territory in former YBI strongholds like the Brewster-Douglas and Herman Gardens project complexes.

While YBI wore Adidas brand sneakers and clothing, favoring red and white coloring, Pony Down wore Pony brand shoes and gear, sporting a blue and white color scheme. The war waged between the two gangs left at least a half-dozen dead. Upon moving in on YBI turf, the Buttroms would hold meetings with area street dignitaries and require them to say “I Pony Down” in allegiance to the new regime.

The post Son Of A Gun From Motown: Pony Down Progeny Going To Trial For Drug Dealing In Ohio appeared first on The Gangster Report.