The feds in Western Massachusetts are breathing down the neck of reputed Springfield mob crew boss Albert (The Animal) Calvanese. One of the Calvanese’s alleged lieutenants Anthony Scibelli was arrested by the FBI last month for collecting juice loan payments and assaulting a wired-up debtor in front of Calvanese’s headquarters, the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Society Club earlier this summer. The club has long been an epicenter of underworld activity in the area.

Scibelli, 51, seems to reference Calvanese in one of the conversations his victim recorded. In another, he threatens to beat the victim’s brother-in-law with a walker used by his brother-in-law’s wife. He’s pleaded not guilty to the charges (carrying a maximum of 20 years behind bars) and was released Monday afternoon on bond to await trial from home confinement after six weeks in the federal detention center. Springfield resident mobologist Stephanie Barry has been breaking all the news in the case and it’s likely link to Calvanese.

According to court documents, the victim borrowed $5,000 in cash from Scibelli’s boss, called “Albert” in a transcript from the victim’s wire, in around January 2017 and with vig tacked on, he wound up paying back $40,000, mostly from social security checks, over the next two and a half years in installments collected by Scibelli. The victim went to the FBI in May and agreed to wire up.

The physical confrontation in front of the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Society Club in June was captured for sound and sight, as FBI video cameras were rolling from a parking lot across the street.

“I want my motherfucking money, you fucking cocksucker” Scibelli scolded him while slapping him four times in the head and face. “You understand me? I want my money. (You better) have all the fucking money on the first of the month.”

Per sources, the FBI and Massachusetts State Police have the 56-year old Calvanese and the social club under constant surveillance. Due to his cagey maneuvering since assuming the reins of the Springfield mafia regime several years ago, Calvanese avoided being indicted in federal and state racketeering cases targeting the city’s mob crew that dropped in the late summer of 2016.

Calvanese is a convicted loan shark and Springfield gangland figure who traces his roots back to the final glory days of the mob in Western Massachusetts when Frank (Frankie Sky Ball) Scibelli, his brothers “Baba” and “Turk” and his street boss Adolfo (Big Al) Bruno ruled over the local mafia in the 1990s with regal flair. Anthony Scibelli is a distant relative of the Scibelli brothers. The Springfield mob crew has always been a satellite wing of New York’s powerful Genovese crime family.

Bruno took over from the Scibellis in the early 2000s. Like Calvanese, Bruno headquartered out of the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Society Club. The larger-than-life mobster, famous for fat cigars, wise cracks to the press and a vast network of political connections was assassinated in November 2003, gunned down in the club’s parking lot as he walked to his SUV following his weekly Sunday card game.

Bruno’s protege, Anthony (Bingy) Arillotta, then just in his early 30s, coordinated details of the hit on orders from Genovese crime family boss Arthur (Little Artie) Nigro and replaced Bruno as skipper of the Springfield mob crew. Arillotta pleaded guilty to Bruno’s slaying in 2010 and testified against Nigro in court.

Calvanese and Anthony Scibelli worked for Arillotta and before that, Big Al Bruno. Scibelli managed and was suspected of pushing cocaine out of the State Street Tavern in the 2000s. The grimy establishment was vandalized in the fall of 2003, in the weeks preceding Bruno’s execution. Bruno demanded that Frankie Roche, the man who would go on to shoot him to death and was responsible the vandalism, to make restitution to Scibelli for the damage caused to the bar.

The burly, thick-handed Calvanese was convicted of loan sharking in 2006 and did five years of federal prison time. An FBI wire from that case caught Calvanese slamming a debtor’s arm in a car door as punishment for missing scheduled payments.

The post The Animal’s Kingdom: Govt. Has Springfield (MA) Mobster In Crosshairs, Crony Pinched For Extortion appeared first on The Gangster Report.

August 20, 2019 — Cancer-stricken Chicago mafia enforcer Charles (Chuckie the Electrician) Russell didn’t make it to his sentencing in federal court on weapons violations. The 70-year old mob heavy was supposed to be sentenced this fall but died in hospice care last week, out of prison on a medical bond since 2018.

Russell’s brother-in-law is Grand Avenue crew capo and alleged Outfit street boss Albert (Albie the Falcon) Vena. During his prime, Russell was one of Chicago’s most prolific thieves, a feared debt collector and a reputed hit man. FBI and Chicago Crime Commission documents have listed Russell as a member of the Outfit’s Grand Avenue regime dating back to the 1970s.

In December 2016, Russell was arrested by an undercover ATF agent when he showed up at a downtown Chicago deli in the South Loop to purchase eight weapons, including a sub machine gun and an AK-47 assault rifle. The agent had infiltrated Russell’s inner circle in the months before the bust and recorded the convicted murderer and sex offender bragging of killing a man (homicide probe ongoing), pulling off 2,000 burglaries throughout his career in the mob and his intention of using a blow torch to get a future robbery victim to open his safe.

“Nothing gets my juices flowing like putting a gun to someone’s head, taking their stuff and making it mine,” he bragged to the undercover agent at a Wicker Park restaurant and tavern in late 2016.

Last year, the sadistic Russell pled guilty to a single firearm offense. He was granted a bond to await trial at his girlfriend’s suburban Chicago home because of his battle with late-stage prostate cancer. He had been locked up for 24 months. Back in the spring, Russell entered a hospice program.

Russell’s longtime girlfriend is a niece of famed Chicago mobster Tony (The Ant) Spilotro, the Outfit’s representative in Las Vegas during the 1970s and first-half of the 1980s. Albie Vena is married to her sister. Spilotro and his younger brother Mike were heinously slain in June 1986 — strangled, beaten and stomped to death in a Bensenville neighborhood. The Spilotro brothers were part of the Grand Avenue crew.

Russell was convicted of a murder in 1973 and served two decades in prison for a gruesome sexual assault. In 1992, he raped a woman and threw her out of a second-story window. He was paroled from his rape case in 2011 and is suspected of committing hundreds of burglaries and shakedowns in his final years. Vena, called the most dangerous man in the Chicago underworld, has been the focus of a federal racketeering and murder probe for the last six years.

The post The Lights Go Out In Chitown: Outfit Soldier Chuckie Russell Succumbs To Cancer appeared first on The Gangster Report.

August 21, 2019 — The Bad Boys hung there after games, toasting their championship success among adoring fans. Another group of bad boys were often on the scene as well.

After being a Metro Detroit dining and hangout staple for close to 40 years, Ginopolis’, the famous bar and rib joint in Farmington Hills, Michigan, known as an area hotspot for pro sports stars, celebrities, media personalities and mobsters to gather for a good time in the 1980s and 90s, closed its doors last week.

Johnny and Pete Ginopolis opened the place in 1982 and it quickly established itself as the restaurant and nightclub to be and be seen at in the area during the post-disco era. Playboy Magazine named Ginopolis’ one of the Top 10 single bars in America in a 1983 issue.

Ginopolis’ was the unofficial post-game meeting place for players on the Detroit Pistons in the late 1980s and early 1990s when they were winning NBA world titles and were called the “Bad Boys” for their rugged, aggressive style of play. Pistons stars Isiah Thomas, Dennis Rodman, Vinnie Johnson, James Edwards, Mark Aguirre, John Salley and Bill Lambier were patrons during that era. So was the Detroit mob’s Giacalone crew.

Detroit mafia capos Vito (Billy Jack) Giacalone and his son, Jack (Jackie the Kid) Giacalone were frequently observed eating and congregating with Pistons and other members of their crew at the establishment by FBI surveillance units. Allen (The General) Hilf, the biggest bookie in Motown at the time, kept close company with the father-son Giacalone team and would often be in their party enjoying the St. Louis-style ribs and the access to the athletes.

Hilf and the Giacalones were investigated for a point-shaving conspiracy involving more than one Pistons starter as part of their 1991 gambling bust but no charges related to the allegations of game-fixing ever materialized. Subpoenaed to appear in front of the Giacalone grand jury, Hall of Fame point guard and Pistons captain Thomas faced questions regarding suspicious check-cashing activity at a grocery store owned by a Giacalone associate and the Casino Night dice games he allegedly allowed Hilf to host in the basement of his posh Bloomfield Hills, Michigan mansion.

Thomas was never charged with any criminal behavior. Hilf died of a kidney disorder in 2014.

Billy Giacalone and his older brother Anthony (Tony Jack) Giacalone, the Motor City mob’s longtime street boss, introduced Ole’ Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra to Ginopolis ribs and the Chairman of the Board flipped, according to local Detroit gangland lore. The Ginopolis brothers sent special packages of ribs to Sinatra in Palm Springs, California, per an interview with the Ginopolis brothers in The Detroit Free Press that ran over the weekend. Sinatra began paling around with the Giacalone brothers on visits to Detroit in the 1950s.

The Giacalone brothers died as the prime suspects in the kidnapping and murder of labor union boss Jimmy Hoffa (disappeared from a Bloomfield Twp, Michigan restaurant’s parking lot July 30, 1975). Tony Jack died of kidney failure in 2001. Billy Jack passed away of natural causes in 2012. Jackie Giacalone, 69, replaced his uncle as street boss and is reputed to have been elevated to don status in 2014.

The post Ribbing & Running In A Fast Crowd: Detroit Eatery Closes Down, Had Pistons, Mob As Devotees appeared first on The Gangster Report.

August 22, 2019 — Another member of the Four Corner Hustlers street gang pleaded guilty to a federal drug and murder indictment this week, shedding one more co-defendant for an upcoming pair of trials which started with 11 alleged “Hustlers” ready to face a jury to five. The No. 1 target of the case remains though: His name is Labar (Bro Man) Spann and he’s considered one of the most powerful and lethal crime lords in Chicago.

Marchello Devine, one of a Spann’s lieutenants, copped a plea on Wednesday. He’s the third defendant in the case to plead out this summer and is reportedly a confidant of Chicago rap star Chief Keef.

The first trial in the case is scheduled to start on September 3. The 40-year old wheelchair- bound Spann and three others will go to trial next year with prosecutors seeking the death penalty as punishment for a half-dozen gang related homicides.

The Four Corner Hustlers are a notoriously violent and ruthless street gang based mainly on the Westside and a Southwest side of Chicago. The “4s” are known for being very thorough in completing crimes, especially murder. One of their former leaders, Angelo Roberts, was once arrested trying to buy a rocket launcher to shoot at the front door of the Wentworth Avenue Chicago Police Station.

Back in the spring, Sam (Sammie the Bug) Booker, Bro Man Spann’s right-hand man, flipped and cut a cooperation deal with the feds. Booker is the third defendant in the case to jump ship to Team America.

The sweeping indictment landed in 2017, charging Spann and ten of his men with a wide array of drug offenses and wanton violence. There are six murders charged in the case, all occurring between 2000 and 2003. The U.S. Attorneys Office linked Spann and his henchmen to three additional 2012 killings. Marchello Devine is named as a trigger man in one of the hits.

Bro Man Spann is the undisputed boss of the Four Corner Hustlers. His reputation on the streets and behind bars precedes him and his felony arrest record dates back to 1996. Spann survived an assassination attempt that paralyzed him from the waist down.

According to prosecutors, Spann ordered and took part in the June 2003 slaying of Rudy (Kato) Rangel, the boss of the Chicago Latin Kings Nation. Kangel was subsequently immortalized in the DMX song Yo Kato. Per the indictment, Rangel is alleged to have stolen 150 kilos of cocaine from Spann’s Four Corner Hustlers. He had been a conduit for many Chicago street gangs to the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel.

This story was filed by Gangster Report Chicago correspondent David McEvers.

The post Hustle Or Die: Pleas Keep Piling Up As Four Corner Hustlers Trial Approaches In Chicago appeared first on The Gangster Report.

In some circles of working class Ohio, they called him “Saint Pat,” for the sense of pride he re-instilled in a community of suddenly shuttered factories and mills being ravished by gangland corruption.

Pat Ungaro, the man who ushered in the anti-mafia era in the Mahoning Valley and the longest-ever serving mayor of Youngstown, Ohio, died of natural causes last week. Ungaro, 78, was Youngstown’s mayor from 1984 through 1997 and was laid to rest later this week.

His administration rid the notoriously mobbed up town of organized crime influence. He battled cancer in the last years of his life.

While in office, Ungaro built a reputation for being incorruptible, unlike many of his predecessors and eagerly pursued breaking the city’s firmly entrenched cycle of corruption. The Youngstown underworld was ripped apart by violence in the 1960s and 1970s, as warring mob factions from Cleveland and Pittsburgh duked it out for control of the local rackets.

The car bomb became a mafia enforcement calling card in the Mahoning Valley back in those days. The term “Youngstown tune-up” soon translated into parlance for a car-bomb attack even outside of Ohio. Cleveland mafia’s Youngstown crew chief Charles (Cadillac Charlie) Cavallaro and his young son were famously killed in a November 1962 car bombing on the Friday morning following Thanksgiving.

By the time Ungaro took office in the mid 1980s, the Pittsburgh mob’s LaRocca crime family had seized power in the local rackets, but violence continued. The Cleveland mob’s influence in the region waned due to the Scalish crime family being crippled by indictments and defections. One of the first things Ungaro did as mayor was to travel to Washington D.C. and testify on Capital Hill before a Senate committee on organized crime affairs and request an increase in federal funding to combat the mob’s grip over the Mahoning Valley. Within months, the Youngstown FBI branch beefed up its ranks and began preparing to take on the mafia.

Lenny Strollo emerged as the de facto don of Youngstown in the 1990s (after the sniper slaying of rival mob figure Little Joey” Naples in the spring of 1991) and instantly became Public Enemy No. 1 for the Ungaro administration. Strollo was busted in 1997, the same year Ungaro left the mayor’s office after 13 years.

Facing life in prison for murder and racketeering, Strollo cut a cooperation deal with the government, the final nail in the coffin of the Mahoning Valley mafia. Strollo admitted to ordering the June 1996 mob execution of rival Ernest (Ernie B) Biondillo and placing a murder contract on the head of newly-elected Mahoning County prosecutor Paul Gains later that same year.

Biondillo hand been Little Joey Naples’ No. 2 in charge and butted heads with Strollo over gambling turf. Gains, a former cop and steel mill worker, survived a December 1996 assassination attempt when he was shot multiple times at his home in the hours before he was supposed to be sworn into his post as prosecutor.

Following his more than a decade as mayor of so-called “Crimetown USA,” Ungaro had jobs as a high school football coach, elementary school vice principal and Liberty Township Administrator.

The integrity he displayed endeared him to his constituents.

“I was approached by legitimately bad people (with bribes), people representing the mafia and I always said no. Period,” he told News21 (WFMJ) in an interview five years ago. “But how many prosecutors, sheriffs, judges, county commissioners did end up going along with people like Lenny Strollo and his mafia pals? Those people ended up in jail with Strollo and the boys. This wasn’t phony. This was the mafia. They were the real thing.”

The post The Pride Of Youngstown: Mob Busting Mayor Pat Ungaro Put To Rest In Ohio appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Rudy Coles wants people to know he’s getting a raw deal.

The 63-year old Detroiter is being held in a North Carolina prison on drug charges, awaiting a second trial. Last December, Coles had a conviction for conspiracy to transport narcotics overturned by a state appeals court.

In 2013, Coles and several members of his family were indicted in Winston-Salem for trafficking heroin as part of the so-called Detroit Boys gang, a loosely affiliated group of Motown drug franchises set up across the Deep South. Authorities paint Rudy Coles as a kingpin in the press, despite little evidence to support that notion.

With no previous serious criminal record prior to his arrest six years ago, Rudy Coles insists he’s no drug boss.

“It was an election year, they needed someone to put this on and I was an easy target (because of my last name)……..the stories they’re telling, the rap they’re trying to lay on me is filled with lies and exaggerations,” Coles told Gangster Report in an exclusive phone interview from prison. “They say, ‘You’re a Detroit Boy, you’re with the Detroit Boys,’ I’m like, ‘Yes, I’m from Detroit, but I’m not a Detroit Boy.’ I’m not part of any of that.”

During an DEA investigation into the Detroit Boys in Winston-Salem, agents placed a tracking device on Coles’ SUV before he took a trip from North Carolina to Michigan in the fall of 2013. The DEA had intercepted a phone conversation on the bugged cell phone of one of Coles’ relatives discussing his pending travel north. He was pulled over on his return to Winston-Salem on October 28, 2013 and police found 12 ounces of heroin hidden in the vehicle’s ceiling.

Coles is adamant he didn’t know the drugs were in the ceiling of his Ford Explorer that day. The jurors in his first trial didn’t necessarily think he did either.

The appellate court vacated Coles’ conviction in late 2018, ruling that Forsyth County Superior Court Judge L. Todd Burke failed to give the jury proper instructions at Coles’ trial. The higher court wrote in its opinion that Burke neglected to inform jurors that Coles needed to have knowledge of the heroin he was transporting in order for them to render a guilty verdict.

Starting in the 1980s Detroit Boys crews began sprouting up in places like Kentucky, North Carolina, West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. They were initially offshoots of Motor City drug gangs such as Young Boys, Inc. (YBI), the Sconey Oneys, the P.A. Boys and the Best Friends.

Coles served in the military in the 1970s and was stationed in Germany. He got his nursing degree and also ran a landscaping company. He admits having issues with substance abuse in the past, but denies ever profiting from drug sales.

“I’m not what they say I am, not even close,” Cole said. “The people who know me, the people who are around me every day, know I’m not a drug boss. Do I have a family that has some history in that type of stuff, yes, I do. But that’s not who I am, that’s not what I am about as a man. This is wrong, This is unfair.”

The post Detroit Native Waiting To See Jury Again In North Carolina Says He’s No Drug Kingpin appeared first on The Gangster Report.

August 29, 2019 – This week’s Gangland News column sheds new light on the young buck recently let into Philadelphia mafia chief Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino’s inner circle. According to the Dean of American crime writing, Jerry Capeci, baby-faced New York wiseguy Pete Tuccio, who acted as Merlino’s driver and bodyguard while he faced a federal racketeering case out of the Big Apple the last few years, is the nephew of sleeper powerhouse Lucchese crime family captain Joseph (Joe Café) DeSena.

Tuccio also has ties to the Gambino cime family. The slick, charismatic Skinny Joey has led the Philly mob in some form or another for the past two and a half decades. Capeci launched his Gangland News column in the 1990s.

Merlino, 57, pleaded guilty to an illegal gambling count following a trial that ended in a hung jury in February 2018. He is finishing up his prison sentence down in Florida and is expected to be released to a halfway house in October.

The 26-year old Tuccio faces a federal extortion trial next year. Prosecutors allege Tuccio and others collected $5,000 of back street tax from a Queens, New York pizza parlor owner being shaken down by Gambino capo Ignazio (Uncle Iggy) Alogna.

Tuccio and his co-defendant Jonny Gurino are charged with stalking the extortion victim and torching his car in 2015. A third co-defendant in the case, Gino Gaberielli, has reportedly cut a deal to testify against them at their January 2019 trial.

Alogna was a close friend of legendary Gambino boss John (The Dapper Don) Gotti, who dominated national news headlines in the 1980s and early 1990s and relished the spotlight. Gotti. They are both deceased. Gotti died behind bars in 2002. Alogna passed from natural causes two years ago.

Tuccio’s uncle, Joe Café DeSena began his mob career with the Gambinos before ascending up the latter in the Lucchese clan. DeSena, 68, headquarters out of Caffe Napoli in Little Italy.

The post Philly Mob Boss Skinny Joey’s Bodyguard Has Capo Uncle In The NY Mafia appeared first on The Gangster Report.

With this week’s plea deal cut by Keith (Lil’ Keith) Chatman, next month’s Four Corner Hustlers federal drug and racketeering trial in Chicago will only have a single defendant. Chatman, a suspect in more than one gangland slaying, pleaded guilty to narcotics offenses Wednesday. His plea deal states Chatman’s steadfast denies involvement in any shootings or killings.

The Four Corner Hustlers are one of the most ruthless street gangs in the Windy City and control large patches of territory on Chicago’s south and west sides.. The hierarchy of the gang was indicted in 2017 and the case was split into two separate trials, dividing the defendants by if they were charged in a homicide or not.

The defendants who haven’t been named in any of the six murders included in the case, were selected to kickoff the legal proceedings off in September. After Chatman’s plea this week capped a summer chalk-full of wheeling and dealing by the defense team, Stevon Sims remains the lone defendant ready to roll the dice with a jury.

Marchello Devine, Rontrell (Mane Mane) Turnispeed, De’Andre (Lil’ 12) Spann and Sam (Sammie the Bug) Booker all recently pleaded guilty. Booker, the gang’s main enforcer and alleged No. 2 man, agreed to cooperate in the case and testify against his co-defendants charged with the murders.

Reputed Four Corner Hustlers boss LaBar (Bro Man) Spann, the No. 1 target of the federal probe into the gang, is behind bars awaiting the murder portion of the case. Spann and three co-defendants will go to trial next year, charged with a half-dozen homicides that occurred in the early 2000s.

The post Four Corner Hustlers Trial In Chicago Left With One Defendant To Face Jury appeared first on The Gangster Report.

August 31, 2019 — The murder of Four Corner Hustlers affiliate Dominique (Snoopy) Green in Chicago in the summer of 2012 set off a violent chain reaction. Snoopy Green was the brother of Four Corner Hustlers lieutenant and aspiring rapper Rontrell (Mane Mane) Turnipseed and the best friend of Four Corner Hustlers enforcer Keith (Lil’ Keith) Chatman. He was slain in a hale of bullets on August 1, 2012. Hours later, on August 2, 2012, the two young men believed responsible for Green’s murder, 16 year olds Cornell Ferguson and Johnqualus Turner, were gunned down in an unsolved double homicide currently being probed by authorities.

Turnipseed, 26, and Chatman, 31, both pleaded guilty to federal narcotics trafficking charges this summer. Chatman is viewed by the DEA as a suspect in the Ferguson and Turner murders. He told agents he “cried for two days straight” after his close pal Snoopy Green was killed.

The Four Corner Hustlers are a powerful and violent street gang from the south side of Chicago. Turnipseed rapped for Chicago “drill rap” pioneer Chief Keef’s Glo Gang label before he was busted in the 2017 case.

Four Corner Hustlers shot caller LaBar (Bro Man) Spann and two others will head to trial in 2020 on six gangland slayings from the early 2000s. Along with Turnipseed, Chatman and a half-dozen other “4s,” they were all indicted in 2017. The 40-year old, wheelchair-bound Spann has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bond.

The post Hustling With Muscle: The Ripple Effects Of 2012 Snoopy Green Slaying In Chicago Were Immediate appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Behind bars and abandoned by his men, embattled Philadelphia mob don Ralph Natale became the first official American mafia boss to flip when he cut a deal with the feds 20 years ago this month. In September 1999, Natale, a polished and gregarious gangland chief known for keeping physically fit and being friendly with the press, copped a plea in a narcotics-trafficking case he was facing and agreed to testify against his underboss and protégé Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino in addition to corrupt Camden, New Jersey Mayor Milton Milan.

The 84-year old Natale currently resides in the Witness Protection Program. He headed the Bruno-Scarfo crime family out of Philly and North Jersey in the mid-to-late 1990s. As part of his cooperation deal, Natale admitted to ordering or personally carrying out nine separate gangland executions.

Most enticing for authorities’ in flipping Natale was what they believed was his ability to directly connect the magnetic, swashbuckling Merlino to a string of brazen mob hits that rocked the Philly underworld. Some of the murders were sanctioned by Natale from prison. Merlino, 57, has long been Public Enemy No. 1 for the feds in Pennsylvania.

Natale himself was taught to kill by storied Philly mob hit man and loanshark Felix (Skinny Razor) DiTullio, who operated out of the Friendly Lounge where Natale tended bar as a young man. Following learning the tricks of the mafia trade under Skinny Razor, he went on to craft a formidable reputation as a racketeer and enforcer for legendary Godfather Angelo Bruno in the 1960s and 1970s. Natale was Bruno’s point man in the crime family’s labor union rackets and traveled around the country on his behalf troubleshooting and palm-greasing.

Using Natale as his muscle, Bruno took control of the freshly-minted Atlantic City hotel and casino industry through a hostile takeover of the city’s bartenders and hotel and casino workers unions. On orders from the man the media miscast as the Docile Don, Natale shot Irish mobsters George Feeney and Joey McGreal to death in 1970 and 1973. McGreal was slain on Christmas Eve in a dispute over power in Bartenders Union Local 170.

Bruno began losing his grip on the crime family when Natale was incarcerated for drug dealing and arson in January 1979 and was eventually assassinated in March 1980. Natale did 15 years in prison and plotted his return to the streets, linking up as cellmates with a 28-year old Merlino in 1990 (doing a short stint for an armored truck heist) and deciding to go to war for the Philly mob throne he proudly protected while Bruno was alive.

An ambitious Merlino and his eager-to-please pals became Natale’s arsenal on the street in his fight against Sicilian-born John Stanfa, believed to have been one of the conspirators in Bruno’s assassination and installed as boss by New York’s Gambino crime family in the early 1990s. From his prison cell, Natale commanded a war that left a trail of bodies, Stanfa locked up for his role in the violence and he and Merlino atop the Philly mafia.

Natale walked out of prison in the fall 1994 the don of the Bruno-Scarfo crime family. His networking in the prison yard paid dividends and he secured backing from the Genovese, Lucchese and Colombo borgatas in New York. Merlino was named his underboss.

It’s unclear exactly when Natale was “made” into the mob. During debriefings with the feds and testimony in court, he claimed Merlino inducted him upon his release in 1994, but his 2017 memoir Last Don Standing (co-authored by Larry McShane and Dan Pearson) states he was made by Bruno and New York Godfather Carlo Gambino in the 1960s.

Moving into a luxury condo resting on the Delaware River in Pennsauken, New Jersey, Natale set himself up a headquarters at the Garden State Park Raceway, holding daily meetings at the track’s Currier & Ives Room restaurant on the building’s top floor. The restaurant and the condo were wired for sound by the feds.

With Merlino handling collections and shakedowns in Philly, Natale angled for leverage in political circles and got his hooks into Camden, New Jersey Mayor Milton Milan, funneling the young politician $50,000 in bribes. He also started dabbling back into the drug market and engaging in an extramarital romance with one of Merlino’s female contemporaries who was friends with his daughter.

FBI agents arrested Natale at his riverfront condo on a parole violation (associating with known criminals) in the summer of 1998. Almost immediately, Merlino seized power and cut Natale out of the loop. He was on the shelf and no longer received tribute payments.

So, when Natale was nailed for pushing crystal meth, indicted in prison on September 16, 1999, he felt no more loyalty to Merlino and spilled the beans on their entire operation. Only Cleveland “acting boss” Angelo (Big Ange) Lonardo’s cooperation in the 1980s compared in terms of coups by the FBI in its battle against the mob.

Skinny Joey might have gotten the last laugh though. Merlino apparently kept Natale in the dark about certain mob murders carried out on his watch and jurors didn’t buy everything the animated former mob boss was selling on the stand at a heavily-publicized 2001 trial. Merlino and several co-defendants were convicted of racketeering however found not guilty of all the murder counts brought. Milan was convicted at an earlier trial on Natale’s testimony and did seven years in the can.

Both Natale and Merlino were released from prison in 2011. Merlino remains the boss of the Philadelphia mafia today.

The post Breaking The Seal By Breaking An Oath: Philly Don Natale Was First Boss To Flip In Fall Of ’99 appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The Rolling Stones’ famous frontman Mick Jagger narrowly avoided being killed in a dispute with the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in the 1970s, according to a new podcast interview with former Hells Angels Ventura chapter boss George Christy. The beef stemmed from $50,000 in legal fees accrued by the Hells Angels in the aftermath of teenager Meredith (Murdock) Hunter’s death at the Altamont Speedway Free Music Festival in December 1969 where the club was providing security for The Rolling Stones and other iconic bands of the era at California’s answer to Woodstock gone horribly wrong.

Hells Angel Alan Passaro was indicted for murdering Hunter but he beat the case at trial. Passaro stabbed Hunter to death in reaction to Hunter pulling out a pistol in front of the stage while Jagger and the Stones played their hit song Under My Thumb. The entire incident was caught on film by a camera crew capturing the festival for a documentary. Footage of Hunter brandishing his weapon played a major role in Passaro’s acquittal.

Christy, who was the No. 2 man for the entire Hells Angels organization from the 1980s until he left the club in 2011, sat down with The Original Gangsters Podcast to give the Skinny on the whole ordeal. The Original Gangsters Podcast is hosted by Gangster Report founder Scott Burnstein and criminology professor Dr. James Buccellato and is available at Radio.com and on ITunes.

Passaro’s legal defense cost $50k and the Hells Angels felt the Stones should pick up the tab. Jagger and the band refused to pay the money and even sent one of their bodyguard’s to the Hells Angels clubhouse in New York City to tell the bikers to back off. The bodyguard allegedly flashed a gun in his waistband for emphasis and was physically assaulted by club members.

At this point, according to Christy’s interview, the Hells Angels decided to kill Mick Jagger. The murder contract on Jagger’s head lingered for almost five years. The club unsuccessfully attempted to ambush him coming out of a hotel on tour in the mid 1970s and then started making arrangements to place a bomb on Jagger’s yacht in the New York Harbor. The Hells Angels scouted a soirée Jagger held on the vessel in 1979 and decided to blow him and his guests up in the middle of a party.

Fortunately for Jagger and Rolling Stones fans everywhere, one of the assassins assigned to the job, Clarence (Butch) Crouch, a Hells Angel from the club’s Cleveland chapter, became a government informant and tipped off the feds to what was being planned. The ATF warned Jagger of the threat on his life and the rock god acted fast. Within hours, the same bodyguard he had sent to deliver a message of non compliance weeks earlier was dispatched with $50,000 in cash back to the Hells Angels Manhattan headquarters to make peace and cover Passaro’s legal bill.

Crouch testified on Capital Hill in 1983. His testimony included recounting the multiple attempts he made to kill Jagger in his capacity as a Hells Angels hit man and his knowledge of the club providing Jagger and his Rolling Stones band mates drugs for recreational use. Crouch died in a bizarre 2013 murder-suicide inside the Witness Protection Program.

The 72-year old Christy has penned books, produced television docu series and performed a one-man stage play since leaving the Hells Angels. He’s currently working on a scripted television project.

The post The Rolling Stones Vs. The Hells Angels: Mick Jagger Dodged Murder Contract From Mad Bikers In 1970s appeared first on The Gangster Report.

They never found Jimmy Hoffa on his tip, nonetheless it earned him his freedom. Convicted drug dealer Don Wells, 88, died of natural causes last week in Detroit, 13 years after his debriefing with the FBI sent agents scurrying to dig up the former farm of a Hoffa ally-turned-enemy in search of his remains.

No trace of the slain labor union boss were unearthed in the 2006 dig at Hidden Dreams Ranch in Commerce Township, Michigan. Wells still walked free early from a prison term he was serving for narcotics trafficking.

Legendary investigative reporter and author Dan Moldea, the undisputed Godfather of Hoffa research, broke the news of Wells’ passing on his blog and social media accounts. Moldea personally interviewed Wells on several occasions.

The murder mystery surrounding the kidnapping and execution of Jimmy Hoffa is the single most enduring unsolved crime in American history. Nobody has ever been arrested in the case.

Hoffa disappeared on the afternoon of July 30, 1975 from a Bloomfield Township, Michigan restaurant parking lot on his way to a meeting with Detroit mafia street boss Anthony (Tony Jack) Giacalone and New Jersey mobster Anthony (Tony Pro) Provenzano. He was hoping to secure Tony Pro’s support in his bid to win back the Teamsters union presidency, a post Hoffa had relinquished in 1970 as a means of getting a prison sentence for bribery and fraud commuted by the Nixon White House.

Hoffa’s desire to reclaim power in the union was met by resistance from his one-time benefactors in the mob. The crime lords that had installed him in the job in 1957 made it clear they didn’t want him to return.

In the year leading up to his murder, Hoffa became the target of a mob-funded goon squad looking to dissuade him from running in the union’s 1976 election by way of violence and intimidation tactics. The leader of the anti-Hoffa enforcement crew was Rolland (Big Mac) McMaster, a notorious Teamsters thug and mafia associate who had been Hoffa’s personal strong arm for years when he headed the union.

McMaster owned the Hidden Dreams Ranch in the 1970s and at the time Hoffa was killed, Don Wells was living on the property. Wells told the FBI he saw “suspicious activity” on the ranch in the hours after Hoffa went missing and a hole being dug in the north section of the property in the days preceding Hoffa’s murder. He went on to pass a polygraph exam and cut a deal with the Feds.

For a whole week in May 2006, FBI agents and Michigan State Police scoured the property, spending $6,000,000 and removing a barn in order to dig under. Nothing was found. McMaster died shortly after the search of his former farm at 94 years old.

Wells claimed to have run into Tony Provenzano as he dined with McMaster at Carl’s Chophouse in Detroit the night before Hoffa vanished. Carl’s Chophouse was a favorite of Tony Giacalone’s and a frequent meeting spot for Motor City wiseguys in the 1970s. Giacalone was Hoffa’s longtime contact in the mafia and married to a cousin of Provenzano’s.

The post Hoffa Tipster Dies, Detroit Dope Peddler Pointed Feds Towards Hidden Dreams Ranch In ‘06 appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Federal prosecutors specified their sentence- reduction request for notorious Washington D.C. drug boss Rayful Edmond this week, asking U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan to change Edmond’s life sentence to a 40-year term. The 54-year old Edmond has already done three decades behind bars for a non-violent narcotics offense. He’s been cooperating with authorities since the 1990s.

Edmond is the most infamous street criminal in the history of the District, pumping 2,000 pounds of cocaine into the region at the peak of the nation’s crack epidemic. Although never charged in any murders himself, the Edmond organization is alleged to have carried out nearly three dozen gangland homicides. Edmond was indicted and jailed in the spring of 1989 and found guilty at a 1990 trial of drug dealing and racketeering.

Back in February, the U.S. Attorneys Office filed a request for Judge Sullivan to reduce Edmond’s life sentence as reward for his extensive cooperation. Edmond’s lawyers are asking Sullivan to resentence Edmond to time served. Sullivan has scheduled a hearing for October to hear arguments from both sides and testimony from character witnesses.

The post D.C. Street Legend Looking For Time-Served Nod, Feds Want Him To Do Another Decade appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx will play fabled New York drug kingpin Kenny (Supreme) McGriff in a future movie according to the Gotti brothers, Irv and Chris, former owners of the Murder, Inc. hip hop label prominent in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Last week, Chris Gotti claimed in an interview on IHeartRadio that Foxx is signed to portray McGriff in a movie based on the Queens street icon that he and his brother intend on producing.

Foxx won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2005 for playing pioneering R&B singer-songwriter Ray Charles in the Taylor Hackford-directed movie Ray. He recently played a gangster character in the 2017 film Baby Driver. McGriff and his Supreme Team organization ran the Queens drug trade in the 1980s. They have both been frequently name checked in mainstream rap lyrics dating back more than two decades.

Rap superstar 50 Cent was famously shot nine times, allegedly on McGriff’s orders for feeling disrespected over the rapper’s Ghetto Quran single. A character named “Majestic” inspired by McGriff appeared in 50 Cent’s 2005 autobiographical film Get Rich Or Die Trying. 50 Cent and Murder, Inc. flagship artist Ja Rule beefed on wax and in the streets throughout the early and mid 2000s.

When McGriff came out of prison in the mid 1990s, the Gotti brothers arranged an introduction and immediately hired him to work for them at the Murder Inc. label. They also optioned a number of books written by celebrated slain crime novelist Donald Goins to make into movies.

The feds indicted McGriff for the 2001 gangland killings of Troy (Big Nose T) Singleton and Eric (E Money Bags) Smith and filed charges against the Gotti brothers for money laundering. While McGriff was convicted of the two murders, the Gottis (real name Lorenzo) were found not guilty.

Singleton has gotten into a physical altercation with an employee of the Gotti brothers in the months before he was gunned down as well as being suspected by McGriff of being the trigger man in a double homicide involving two of his associates. Smith was executed for killing Supreme Team lieutenant Colbert (Black Justice) Johnson in front of McGriff in a feud money.

The Gotti brothers have found success in the television world lately with their hit show Tales on BET. They co-produced the 2001 movie Crime Partners together with McGriff adapted from a Donald Goins book.

The post “Supreme” McGriff Movie Starring Jamie Foxx In Pipeline For Former Murder, Inc. Music Crew appeared first on The Gangster Report.

September 15, 2019 — From his federal prison cell in Portland, former drug kingpin Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory organized a back-to-school giveaway for kids in his hometown of Detroit over the weekend, packing a local clothing store parking lot with hundreds of elementary and junior high school children and providing them thousands dollars of free school supplies.

Several members of Flenory’s family were in attendance at an event sponsored by local fashion designer Bassem (Al Wissam) Souwaidan and held at his suburban Dearborn showroom property that featured food stands, basketball hoops and an exotic animal petting zoo. “Lil’ Meech,” Big Meech’s aspiring rapper son, made an appearance and thanked those present on behalf of his father. There are rumors floating around Hollywood that Lil Meech will soon be cast as Big Meech in the upcoming Starz Network television show based on his dad’s rise and fall being produced by rapper and actor 50 Cent.

Flenory, 51, founded and ran the historic Black Mafia Family or “BMF,” a narcotics empire that began in Motown in the 1990s and by the dawning of the New Millennium has grown to dominate cocaine trafficking across the country, establishing a stronghold in drug markets in two dozen strategically placed states. BMF was the biggest urban criminal organization America had ever witnessed and Big Meech himself became underworld royalty and an instant pop-culture icon, shouted out on literally hundreds of rap tracks over the years and known in hip hop circles and elsewhere as an African American version of a Al Capone, Lucky Luciano or John Gotti.

Old school Jewish mob whiz kid Meyer Lansky is probably a more apt comparison. Flenory redefined the dope game in terms of scope, vision implementation and the way business was conducted on the wholesale level. Lansky maintained heavy ties to the state of Michigan during his day and made a post Prohibition fortune in the state’s 1930s oil boom near Mt. Pleasant with his partners in Detroit’s infamous Purple Gang led by the Burnstein brothers.

The entire BMF crew was toppled by Operation Motor City Mafia in 2005. The feds estimated the organization had a net worth of close to $300,000,000. The organization’s nerve centers resided in Detroit, Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Flenory and his younger brother and BMF co-founder Terry (Southwest T) Flenory took 30-year plea deals on the eve of a 2007 trial that never happened. Neither Flenory brother was implicated in any acts of violence in the case.

Big Meech currently still has 13 years to serve on his prison sentence. Terry Flenory, 48, recently got five years shaved off his term as a result of a sentence reduction and now has a listed out date of 2026.

The post A Big Gesture From Behind Bars: BMF’s Big Meech Hosts Back-To-School Bash appeared first on The Gangster Report.

September 16, 2019 – The feds scored a clean sweep last week in Chicago, as Four Corner Hustlers street gang lieutenant Stevon (Tito) Sims pleaded guilty to racketeering and drug charges, concluding the first phase of the government’s assault on the notoriously lethal drug crew based on the Windy City’s west and southwest sides.

Next up: Bro Man and a half-dozen murders to solve.

The 29-year old Sims is the last of six Four Corner Hustlers who were slated to go to trial this month to cop a plea in the case and avoid a jury. He’ll do between two and three years in prison for his second narcotics-trafficking conviction in the past three years. All the co-defendants scheduled to start trial on September 17 have accepted plea deals since July. They will all be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin in October.

Well-known Windy City mob attorney Joe (The Shark) Lopez represents Sims. Authorities paint Sims as a section leader in the Four Corner Hustlers, responsible for drug business on the 3900 block of West Lexington and reporting directly to Four Corner Hustlers boss LaBar (Bro Man) Spann.

Come January, Spann and two of his reputed enforcers, Tremayne (Scarface Trigga) Thompson and Juhwun (Flair) Foster are headed to trial for six gangland homicides from the early 2000s. Per news reports out of the Chicago press back in the summer, the feds are actively probing three killings from 2012 also possibly linked to the ”4s.” Spann’s second in command, Sam (Sammie the Bug) Booker flipped in the spring and will be the star witness against Spann, Thompson and Foster at their trial.

The post Last Of Four Corner Hustlers Pleads Out Of Trial In Chicago, Tito Sims Set To Do Two-Piece appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Below is an excerpt from Detroit gangster-turned-author Alan (Gunner) Tocco Lindbloom’s popular Lindbloom Chronicles, a series of blogs about his life in the mob back in the 1990s and early 2000s.

I am constantly remembering stories I’d love to share. Stories usually sparked into existence by someone or some thing. For example, I have this nutcase friend named Steve. Greek dude who in the past was also heavily in the streets, although not connected to LCN in any way. Just a hustler and through and through. His racket was insurance scams. He mastered the racket and made millions.

Today I was on the phone with him and he mentioned to me that he might be interested in selling his boat. This sparked a memory. Many years ago, in my early 20s, I made some good money stealing and re-tagging boats. Some of them were yachts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Unfortunately, because I was just a grunt, I was lucky to make a few grand. Still though, it was quite a racket and a rush. Let me first preface this story by saying I lived in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, at the time, with my grandma and grandpa Tocco. This is relevant because the city was an area with HUGE money—home to William Clay Ford (owner of Ford Motors), Art Van the furniture mogul, Mike Illich, owner of the Detroit Tigers and Red Wings.

Needless to say, the demographic could afford boats. In fact, there area was known for having the most registered boats, per capita, in the world. Where I grew up, anyone who was anyone had a boat. They were a sort of status symbol. All the ballers and bigshots had boats. Even the wannabe ballers had boats.

So, this is how it all began. I had a friend named Mike Timmons. A real scumbag character who loved to steal. One night, he brought my boy Ricky and me with him to pillage a boat marina. It was wintertime so all the boats were in dry-dock storage, neatly shrink-wrapped to protect them from the elements.

The marina had a security guard who did regular patrols, but we were like ninjas—dressed in all black, everything from masks to gloves. I wasn’t a thief, but Mike assured me we could make some serious bank by relieving these high-end boats of all their expensive electronics. And he was right.

After climbing a fence at the back of the marina, we slunk through the shadows, ducking under the massive yachts and sleek offshore race boats, keeping an eye out for the roving security guard. Within minutes we were slicing a hole through the blue shrink-wrap on a large cabin cruiser. Ricky stood watch as we climbed inside.

Using a small pen flashlight and a few tools, we went to work. Anything of value was targeted—fish finders, GPS units (which were still new technology and VERY expensive), stereo systems, TVs, CB radios, navigation systems. Even high-end liquors from the boat’s bar.

We ended up hitting a few boats that night and did alright. We took most of the merch to my uncle’s pawn shop and dumped it for about a grand. Mike and Ricky continued doing it but I just didn’t like stealing.

Call me a criminal hypocrite, but, like I’ve mentioned before, petty thievery never sat well with me. It just wasn’t my thing. Too many things could go wrong. I preferred to always be in control of my criminal exploits. I guess that’s why I preferred things like collecting for bookies and selling drugs.

However, about a year or two later, I was once again presented with the opportunity to work the boat racket. And this time, it was on a much larger scale. In fact, it’s what inspired a scene in my book, To Be A King, where the protagonist, Omnio (“King”) is given an offshore race boat for his 21st birthday.

It was actually my cousin Anthony’s 21st birthday. I can’t say his last name because he is still an active in the Family “business.” When he reads this, and I’m sure he will, he will have a good laugh. It was mid-summer and his father told us to meet him at Metropolitan Beach, in the marina, for a surprise.

We got there just after noon and found the whole family partying on a big cabin cruiser. I mean big! Like 54 feet. And beautiful, with three levels, hard wood floors, massive sound system, a full wet bar, a cabin to sleep 6, and a little 12’ dingy attached to its swim platform. The name on the back read “MONEY TALKS.” I had no idea whose boat it was, and we really didn’t care. Tony was now 21 one and legal to drink, so that’s exactly what we proceeded to do. Drink and get drunk. Although, I think I was only about 19 at the time. Still, none of my aunts and uncles said anything while a knocked back beer after beer.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Metro Beach during the summer is the place to be if you live on the east side of Metro Detroit. Especially if you have a boat. There are two marinas and both stay packed with boats. Several hundred of them. It’s like a car show for boats. Everyone in town goes there to show off. Guys to show off their expensive boats, and women to show off their bikini bodies—hoping to catch the attention of some bigshot baller with a big yacht and an even bigger bank.

In hindsight, it’s both funny and pathetic. It’s a freak show of pasty, older, potato-shaped men using their over-priced, midlife crisis boats to lure 20-year-old girls into having sex with them. Yeah, I know, creepy. But the girls are just as bad. Subtle young tits bursting out of bikinis two sizes too small. Flirting with fat middle-aged bald men, laughing at their jokes, listening to their aggrandized tales how rich and powerful they are, hoping that with a little luck and some drunk sex they might land a free ride to a life better than their own.

It goes on all summer long at Metro Beach. It’s like one big freak show. But at the time, we didn’t pay any attention to that. We were also there to play the game. The difference was, we didn’t need money and a boat to get girls. We just had to be the young bucks that we were.

At the time, I was doing bodybuilding shows and still had my Jersey Shore good looks. Tony wasn’t much of a stud in terms of looks, but what really helped him with the ladies was that his family was well known in the city. Just the mention of his last name was enough. Even young girls from our area knew who the Family was. And what it was.

Wherever we went, as soon as people learned who we were, we were treated like celebrities. And this day was no different. By the time night settled in, we must have had 20 girls on the boat. Music was bumping. Girls were dancing all over the boat in their bikinis. Unlimited bottles of liquor and ice-cold beer. Barbecued chicken and burgers. It was a hell of a 21st birthday party.

I remember some of the Detroit Pistons, John Sally, Vinny Johnson, and Joe Dumars were there, hanging out on Sally’s new boat a few slips down from us. At one point, they came over and hung out with us because we were the biggest party at the beach, and we had all the hotties hanging around our boat. A lot of people seemed star struck by them, but I didn’t care. To me they were just three tall dudes hanging out at the beach like the rest of us.

At one point, I started bugging Vinny Johnson to play me in a game of 1-on-1 basketball, just to say I did. After bugging him for a good hour, he walked over to a nearby court and we shot around. He even let me score a point on him. Back then there were no camera phones, but I wish I could have gotten it on video. I mean, he was one of Detroit’s “Bad Boys” who won back-to-back championships the previous two years. But hey, I have the memory.

Now this is where things get interesting. Most of the older members of my family left by sundown. Only my two uncles and my aunt, Tony’s mom, were still there.

I was pretty drunk and having a great time when my uncle (Pete Tocco, my mother’s brother) pulled me aside. “Listen, Al, you think you can drive this boat?” he asked in a hushed whisper so nobody else could hear.

I glanced at the boat. It was huge. I had driven plenty of boats but never one this size. Not even close. Plus, I was pretty hammered. And for the record, I was NOT a good drunk. I was belligerent, careless, and often violent. It’s why around age 20 I quit drinking altogether. I was smart enough to know that I was going to kill someone or someone was going to kill me.

“Yeah, sure, I can drive it,” I answered, too stubborn to admit I probably couldn’t.

He grinned one of his maniacal grins, which I had already come to know. It was the grin he made when he was using me for his advantage, to handle his dirty work. I would see it a lot in the years to come.

“Okay, here’s the deal,” he said, leading me away from the party and into the shadows. “Hang out with Tony on the boat. Party it up. Dry up the bar. Spend the night here. Have fun…”

He reached in his pocket and handed me a folded yellow piece of paper from a small notepad.

“That’s the GPS coordinates to a marina across the lake. In Canada. Just punch them in the boat’s navigation. It’ll take you right there. It’s got auto pilot and shit, you’ll figure it out. When you get there, call the number on the paper. Name’s Frankie. Windsor Frankie. He’s a friend of ours who handles things in Windsor for us. He’ll meet you at the marina and give you some money he owes me. He’s got another boat you can drive back. Bring it to Jefferson Beach Marina and park it behind Brownies. Go inside and call me. I’ll pick you up.”

Again, I glanced at the boat, wondering what the hell was going on? But even pickled from the booze it only took me a second to connect the dots. I felt like I was being positioned between a rock and a hard place. I mean, he was technically my boss. I had to do it. Well, I didn’t HAVE to do it, but if I wanted to continue reaping the benefits of being part of my uncle’s crew, I had to do what he asked. All part of the game. But he was always dumping his dirty laundry on me. It had already become a recurring theme.

I knew he must have been contracted to get rid of this boat, but rather than take the risk handling it himself, he was dumping another pile of dirty socks on my lap. And of course, he would get all the money for it.

“The boat’s hot?” I asked, already knowing the answer. His maniacal grin grew wider.

“Not yet, but it will be. Insurance job. Won’t be reported missing ‘til you’re across the lake, in another country.”

I glanced down at the yellow paper.

“So, all I have to do is get the boat across the lake?” “Yup, that’s it. But right now, it’s yours for the night. You guys have fun. Tap one of these little hotties running around here. Finish off the liquor cabinet. Just make sure you get to Frankie by noon tomorrow.”

“Nice of you to dump this shit on me,” I said, letting him know I was annoyed.

He slapped me on the back.

“Relax, kiddo. I’ll take care of you.”

Those were his famous words, “Relax kiddo, I’ll take care of you.” But he rarely did. He usually screwed me. And he would this time, too. But I’d screw him back. Worse. He was my uncle, and I loved the guy. He was funny as hell and like a big brother. He always had my back. But even to this day I can’t help but resent him for pulling me into this life, and for always fucking me over on money. He’d try to justify it with some bullshit. His lawyer. His new business. His wife. The Boss wanted his cut. Whatever.

Eventually, I got to the point where I was like, “Fuck you. We are family. Pay me!” And he did. But towards the end we barely had any business dealings. I refused to pay him or anyone else a cut of what I earned on my own. That led to my eventual downfall. But on this night, we had a riot. A bunch of our cousins showed up and we partied the night away. Sometime after midnight I crawled into a cabin with some bikini-clad brunette and got as far as a kiss before I passed out.

The next morning, Tony and my cousins were long gone. So, after cleaning the boat of empty beer cans and passed out strippers, I called my best friend, Jay, to ride with me as I made the 30-mile journey across Lake Saint Clair.

I’ll never forget how nervous I was. Not because I was driving a quarter million-dollar yacht, but because I knew my uncle was full of shit. I was sure the boat was already stolen. Trying to steer the massive boat out of the marina was a royal pain. I damn near hit 4-5 other boats. At one point, the harbor master cop guy (whatever the hell they’re called) yelled at me through his megaphone to slow down because I was in a “NO WAKE ZONE!”

We ended up making it across the lake with no problems. That’s the crazy thing about Detroit. You can literally bounce back and forth, from the U.S. to Canada, with impunity on a boat. Sure, there are a few coast guard boats and border patrol, but you never see them. And even if they see you, they don’t bother you. There are just too many boats. Too many people. It’s the reason why during prohibition, Detroit was instrumental in the trade of high-end European liquors. The Detroit “Partnership” literally controlled all the booze coming in from Canada, much of which ended up in the hands of Al Capone and LCN families in New York. It’s the reason that even to this day the Detroit Family has strong ties to the New York and Chicago Families—many of their sons and daughters cross-family married. In fact, the current Underboss in Detroit is a Chicago guy.

Frankie pulled up in a pickup truck and walked right over. He did not look how I pictured him in my mind. I figured he would be a middle-aged fat dago, but he was a handsome younger guy, maybe 30, dressed real sharp, hair slicked back. Reminded me of the actor Tony Danza. Except he had a nose that looked like it had been broken five too many times. He was cordial enough, but all business.

After inspecting the boat, he brought a pizza box in from his truck. I was starved so I was excited for a slice of pie. But when I opened the box, there was nothing inside but a paper bag containing $40,000.

“Tell Pete thanks,” Frankie said. “If he comes across any more boats, let me know. I got a broker.”

Of course, my mind began to race so I started asking questions. And I could NOT believe what this guy told me. Apparently, he had a crew of guys who would re-tag stolen merchandise from the States, and then re-sell it in Canada or even back in the States.

I felt stupid for never thinking of it. What they did was genius. They could take cars, boats, big machinery, whatever, and completely re-tag and sell them in another country. No record of the theft. They had someone on the inside in the Canadian Department of Motor Vehicles who would give them all new paperwork. I mean, they would contrive all kinds of false records to make it look like it had a history there in Canada. Sometimes—get this—they would basically duplicate the VIN and paperwork of an already existing boat or whatever. So suddenly there would be two boats with identical VINs, but nobody would ever know. Far as the DMV knew, it was the same boat. I was baffled by it all.

“So if I bring you a boat, you’ll cash me out and re-sell it?” I asked, surely a look of excitement on my face.

“Sure, we usually find a buyer before we put feelers out for big shit like this. But yeah, if it’s a nice boat, I’m sure we can work it out.”

Well, that was all I needed to hear. Over the next few days, I began scheming. I’d needed a crew. Just a couple guys with balls. Ricky was in right away. He was a thief and could hotwire cars. Turned out, boats were even easier to hotwire than cars. A LOT easier.

My boy Jay was down, and my cousin Johnny was in, too. We were ready. There is a huge Yacht Club in Grosse Pointe called, well, “The Grosse Pointe Yacht Club.” I had grown up not far from it, and had been there many times with friends and family. But this place was where all the biggest ballers kept their boats. Since I was just some teenage kid with no yacht parked there, I couldn’t just walk in the place.

There was only one way in and it is guarded by a security gate with an armed guard. But back then, my grandfather’s name held a lot of weight, so on our first mission we simply pulled right up to the gate and I dropped it.

“How you doing?” I said, flashing the guard a smile. “I’m Pete Tocco’s grandson. I’m supposed to meet him and some of my family back there.”

His eyes registered recognition immediately.

“What slip?” he asked, a perfunctory habit.

“Not sure,” I shrugged. “Just told me to meet him in the parking lot. We are supposed to go for a ride on my Uncle Joe’s boat.”

He flashed me a warm smile and tapped his badge nameplate with a finger.

“Well tell Mr. Tocco I said hi. Loved that box of peaches he gave my wife in the Market. He knows I love peaches. They’re my favorite. He always takes care of us. Good man.”

“Will do, Sam,” I said, and then motioned for Ricky to drive through the gate.

We ended up stealing an older cigarette boat. I can’t even remember the make. Wellcraft, maybe? I just remember it was fast. I mean REALLY fast! When we tore out of there, the twin 500 horsepower motors roared to life like thunder and could literally be heard for miles. It was funny because none of us knew how to work the transom trim settings at first, so the front of the boat was up in the air and there was a massive rooster tail behind the boat. But it only took maybe five minutes before we figured it out.

Frankie jewed us on price because it was an older model, even though we had naively thought it was new. He still gave us $10,000 cash and resold it to a buyer in British Columbia for $75,000. It’s surely still out there somewhere, with a Canadian paper trail saying it was bought and sold at Canadian boat broker in Windsor, Canada.

We ended up jacking a few more boats from the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club, but eventually the security guard started giving us a hard time at the gate. It was obvious he knew we were the ones stealing the boats. He was just scared to say anything. I considered cutting him in on a piece, but he was an old man, a civilian who would probably crack under questioning during an investigation. So we began hitting other marinas in the area. I remember the marinas really started ramping up security. Keep in mind, this is early 1990s, before there were security cameras everywhere. There was even an article in the local paper about a boat theft ring in Macomb County.

It was funny, because we started using this little Zodiac dingy with a silent electric motor to enter the marinas from the lake. We would launch the little boat from a launch off Jefferson and 9 Mile, called Blossom Heath. Then we would circle out into the lake and head to marinas as far as several miles away! It was super sketchy on days when the lake was rough. A couple times we almost sank from rogue waves. We’d be all decked out in black, even wearing face paint. I remember feeling like we were a team of Navy SEALS on a covert op.

Things went well and we made some nice bank until my stupid cousin Johnny blabbed to our cousin Tony what we were doing. Tony, being the spoiled brat that he was, told his dad he wanted one of our boats. Tony’s dad was the son of a very powerful Boss. When he learned what we were doing, it created a big shit storm.

My Uncle Pete was called in to take a tongue lashing from Tony’s grandfather. Apparently, Windsor Frankie was his guy. This swap racket was his, as his crew had been doing this for years. He was livid that my Uncle Pete had used Frankie as a fence behind his back.

I was also bitched at by the Boss when I saw him at the Roma Cafe in the Eastern Market a few weeks later.

“What the fuck’s wrong with you kids?” he growled, showing off for the lackies he had sitting at his table. “Frankie works for me. You want to use him, you go through me. He’s my fuckin’ guy. Capische?”

What he was saying is that if I wanted to continue flipping boats through Windsor Frankie, I had to pay him the Lion’s share. And of course, my uncle bitched me out and said the same thing. So in the end, I just said fuck it, and gave it up. Too many greedy hands wanting a piece of the pie. Johnny and the boys did a few more boats and ended up giving up for the same reasons. Our greedy patriarchs. Even this early on, I had already learned how it worked. If you weren’t spawned from their royal loins, all you’d ever get was table scraps. So, I just forgot about it and moved in to the next racket. Identity theft. But I’ll save that for next time.

Gunner Tocco Lindbloom served 13 years in state prison and was released in 2006. He published two volumes of his To Be A King novel and founded the Our Thing clothing and apparel line.

The post Detroit Mobbing On The Water: Boat Rackets & Bad Bosses appeared first on The Gangster Report.

September 18, 2019 — Philadelphia mafia bookie and reputed flim-flam man Stephen Sharkey will take his fraud case to trial, per Fox29’s Dave Schratwieser, a longtime leading authority on gangland affairs in the City of Brotherly Love. Schratwieser reported the news of Sharkey’s deciding to roll the dice in front of a jury on his Instagram account Monday.

The fast talking 50-year old mob associate was arrested for identity theft and money laundering last month. Sharkey is close to both Philly mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino and Merlino’s acting boss George (Georgie Boy) Borgesi. He was busted for racketeering with them in 2000 and did four years in prison. Returned behind bars for six months in 2010 for repeatedly breaking his parole restrictions, he had stayed out of handcuffs until his most recent pinch in August.

Good looking and hard drinking, Sharkey is famous in the South Philly underworld for his proficiency as a bookmaker and allegedly as a con artist. In the 1990s, he ran a sizable sports book with reputed Bruno-Scarfo crime family soldier Anthony (Tony Cugino) Accardo and helped Merlino and Borgesi extort other gambling operations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as they took over the city’s rackets by force.

Sharkey set one victim up to take a beating for refusing to pay “tribute” to Merlino, per his 2000 indictment. A bookie who testified at Merlino and Borgesi’s trial in 2001 told jurors Sharkey encouraged him to “kick upstairs” to Merlino and Borgesi if he wanted to avoid trouble. Sharkey pleaded guilty before the trial almost two decades ago.

Accardo, Merlino’s cousin, did four years in prison for his role in that case. Some mob watchers speculate the swarthy 59-year old Tony Cugino got his button at some point in the past five years.

Merlino, 57, is in the final two weeks of a federal prison stint for gambling down in Florida. The magnetic mob don relocated from Philly to Boca Raton in 2011. Borgesi, 55, is alleged to have taken over acting boss duties back in the summer.

The post Philly Mob Associate To Try His Luck At Trial, Merlino Pal Won’t Plead Out appeared first on The Gangster Report.

According to FBI records, retired Boston Celtics star point guard Bob Cousy had social relationships with powerful east coast mobsters Jerry Angiulo and Frank (Frankie Sky Ball) Scibelli during and after his playing days in the NBA and was eyed by the feds for possible wrongdoing. Cousy is considered one of the greatest floor generals in pro basketball history and won six world championships as a player. He was the NBA’s MVP in 1957 and a 13-time All-Star selection. Despite the interest from law enforcement about the company he kept, Cousy never faced any charges and was never implicated in any impropriety.

Angiulo was the mafia don of Boston from the late 1950s — the underboss of New England’s Patriarca crime family —- until he was imprisoned for racketeering in 1983. Sky Ball Scibelli was overseer of the Western Massachusetts rackets for the Genovese crime family out of New York in the 1980s and 1990s.

Cousy has admitted to partying, golfing and discussing sports gambling details with members of Scibelli’s Springfield-based crew, including prolific bookie Andy (The Arm) Pradella. Back in 1967, he broke down in tears at a press conference discussing his friendship with Pradella in response to a Time Magazine article that linked the two together.

Pradella was the biggest bookmaker in Western Massachusetts in his day. In interviews with the FBI, Cousy confirmed he had accompanied Pradella to a mob get-together in Hartford, Connecticut in 1966 attended by the entire Springfield mob crew, at that time a regime ran by Salvatore (Big Nose Sam) Cufari with Frankie Sky Ball acting as his No. 2 man.

Before becoming a pro, Cousy was an All-American college hoopster at nearby Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He met Pradella in 1954 when Pradella sent his sons to his summer basketball camp held on the Holy Cross campus.

Cousy was the head coach of Boston College’s men’s basketball program from 1963 through 1969. Jerry Angiulo frequently sat courtside for Eagles games when “Cooz” was on the BC bench in Chestnut Hill. Angiulo headquartered in the city’s historic North End.

Last month, Cousy, 91, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Donald Trump. Some journalists in Massachusetts pointed out Cousy’s past connections to organized crime figures in New England in op-eds written on Cousy’s August trip to the White House.

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September 21, 2019 — The FBI believes Philadelphia mobster Anthony Staino’s 2010 wedding doubled as an induction ceremony for new members of the Bruno-Scarfo crime family, part of a pattern by the organization in the past two decades of holding “making” rituals at public social gatherings, such as wedding nuptials, christenings and birthday and anniversary parties, per the most recent Mob Talk Sit Down episode on YouTube.

The 62-year old Staino just got released in the spring from doing a half-dozen years in federal prison for racketeering. Polished and business-minded, Staino climbed through the ranks of the Philly mafia in the 2000s, going from associate to soldier to capo to the storied syndicate’s “CFO” and No. 2 in charge. What exact position, if any, Staino holds today is unknown. He was indicted in 2011 and pleaded guilty in 2013.

Mob Talk Sit Down is hosted by legendary Philadelphia crime reporters Dave Schratwieser and George Anastasia. Nine years ago, Anastasia broke the news that the FBI had subpoenaed photos of Staino’s wedding held at The Atrium in the Curtis Center on the evening of September 11, 2010 and attended by the Philly mob’s then acting boss Joseph (Uncle Joe) Ligambi and most of the Bruno-Scarfo clan. Staino was mentored in the mafia by Ligambi, who recently hung up his spurs and retired.

Up until last month, Ligambi had helmed the mafia in Philadelphia on a day-to-day basis for the majority of the past 20 years on behalf of Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino. The sly, fashion conscious 57-year old Skinny Joey is set to be released from a short prison sentence for a gambling offense next week. Merlino has lived in Florida since 2011 however returns to South Philly often to tend to his shop.

Schratwieser and Anastasia have been told that close to 20 buttons have been given out in the last 18 years. More than half of the initiates have came into the fold in the past 8 years per Gangster Report sources.

Gangster Report broke the news of a 2015 making ceremony conducted by Merlino and Ligambi in order to beef up then capo George (Georgie Boy) Borgesi’s crew. Borgesi, 55, allegedly has replaced the low key, much-respected Ligambi as Merlino’s acting boss. Ligambi’s is Borgesi’s actual uncle, his mother’s brother. According to sources, just this decade alone, there have been five makings held (2011, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2018).

Ligambi was made in 1986. Merlino got straightened out in 1992 and then in the wake of winning a shooting war for power in the crime family inducted Borgesi in 1994. Borgesi was Merlino’s consigliere before they both were busted for racketeering in 2000 and did decade-plus terms behind bars.

The post Opening Up The Books: Philly Mafia Figure’s 2010 Wedding Wasn’t What It Seemed Feds Suspect appeared first on The Gangster Report.