March 9, 2020 – Another person has come forward to say they believe they saw Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa’s body disposed of at the old Raleigh House disco and banquet hall in Southfield, Michigan, just four miles up the road from where Hoffa was last seen alive. The 62-year old Hoffa vanished from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Township, Michigan on the afternoon of July 30, 1975 on his way to meet Detroit mobster Anthony (Tony Jack) Giacalone and New Jersey mafioso Anthony (Tony Pro) Provenzano.

A former food-service employee claims he witnessed a car matching the description of the vehicle Hoffa was seen getting into at the Red Fox dumping what he suspects was a body in the trash compactor at the Raleigh House around Midnight that night and then a sanitation truck immediately scooping the contents of the compactor and driving away. The FBI began eyeing Raleigh House as a potential dump site for Hoffa early on in its investigation due to the establishment’s mob ties, specifically its’ sanitation contract with Central Sanitation, a trash company owned by three capos in Detroit’s Tocco-Zerilli crime family.

Preferring not to reveal his identity, the witness recounted the following:

“I always partied at Raleigh House back then, it was a real hot-spot and you always heard the whispers about who owned the place, who was hanging out there. That night, I got into a fight with a guy at the bar over a girl and I got tossed from the place. They booted out the backdoor and told me to come back next weekend. I was getting ready to leave and I saw two cars drive into the parking lot, a black Lincoln Continental and a maroon-colored Mercury Marquis. The guys in the Continental were big and brawny. They went to the trunk of the Mercury and pulled something heavy out. There were a few of them and they tossed it in the trash and signaled for the truck that was kind of idling in the background. The truck loaded up what was just dumped and went off into the night.”

Through his career, the man making the claim was employed for food-service companies with owners who had relatives in the Detroit mob. The company he worked for at the time Hoffa disappeared had a family connection to Tony Giacalone. Hoffa was last seen getting into a maroon-colored Mercury Marquis owned by Tony Jack’s son, Joey.

Hoffa himself was friendly with Raleigh House owner, Sammy (The Cigar) Lieberman, a former Purple Gang-affiliate and popular Metro Detroit restaurateur. Sammy the Cigar hosted Hoffa’s welcome home party in the Raleigh House banquet hall when he was released from prison four years earlier. The Purple Gang was the city of Detroit’s Jewish mob during Prohibition, with remnants of the group still wielding power in the local underworld well into the latter part of the 20^th Century.

Throughout his rise up the ranks of the Teamsters union, Hoffa relied on several ex-Purple Gangers as part of his powerbase. By then, those Purples were working for the city’s Italian mafia, the Tocco-Zerilli crime family, the organization responsible for putting Hoffa into the union’s presidency in 1957.

At the time of his disappearance, Hoffa was in a boiling hot feud with the mob over his desire to win back the top post in the Teamsters following relinquishing the reins in order to snare a White House commutation and early-release from his prison term for fraud. Hoffa was beefing with Tony Provenzano, an east coast Teamsters power broker, on a personal level stemming from a physical altercation they had behind bars over pension-fund insurance benefits being covered for Hoffa’s family but not Provenzano’s while they served their time.

Lieberman was a larger-than-life character known for his trademark stogie, string of delicatessens and a tradition of delivering Passover meals of his famous matzo ball soup to all the Jewish inmates at Jackson State Prison every spring. He opened the Raleigh House in 1962 in Northwest Detroit on 7 Mile Road and eventually moved it to a bigger building in suburban Southfield which held an event space, a performance venue and a bar and nightclub called the Lion’s Den.

Singer Paul Anka played a set of shows at the Raleigh House in 1976. A number of ex-Purple Gangers and Italian mob figures from the area frequented the Raleigh House, drank at the Lion’s Den bar and if you believe underworld lore, financed Lieberman’s restaurant and catering empire.

The FBI received tips in the months after Hoffa went missing that Hoffa’s body was put into the trash compactor on the Raleigh House property and then picked up by a Central Sanitation truck and driven away to a landfill 25 miles away. Central Sanitation was owned by mob capos Raffaele (Jimmy the Goon) Quasarano, Peter (Bozzy) Vitale and Dominic (Detroit Fats) Corrado and had a garbage-removal contract with Lieberman and Raleigh House. Other informants told the FBI and Michigan State Police that Hoffa’s body was disposed of in an incinerator at Central Sanitation in Hamtramck, Michigan, a municipality within Detroit city borders.

Central Sanitation burned down in 1978 before the FBI could execute a search warrant for the premises. A previously Vitale-owned sanitation company in the Detroit area (Tri-County Sanitation) was allegedly used to incinerate the bodies of a dozen victims of mob violence in the 1950s and 1960s, per federal informants.

Hoffa’s remains have never been found and nobody has ever been arrested for his kidnapping and murder. Lieberman died of natural causes in 1981 at 71 years old. He sold his interest in Raleigh House less than a year after Hoffa’s disappearance.

Quasarano and Vitale were observed by FBI surveillance units in New York visiting a Genovese crime family social club in East Harlem the week following Hoffa being killed, presumably traveling there to report the details of the hit to the “Commission,” (the American mafia’s board of directors). According to FBI records related to the still-ongoing Hoffa murder probe, Quasarano was one of the nation’s biggest mob narcotics traffickers and Vitale was the “Godfather of Greektown,” Detroit’s main downtown entertainment district. Both Vitale and Quasarano were linked to the Hoffa murder investigation from early on.

The only piece of physical evidence collected by investigators in the Hoffa case was the maroon-colored 1975 Mercury Marquis owned by Joey Giacalone and the FBI believes Hoffa was kidnapped in and his body transported to its disposal in. It was seized by the feds 10 days after Hoffa vanished. Traces of Hoffa’s DNA were found in the backseat and trunk of the car thought to have been used by the Giacalone crew-assembled hit team to pull off the mob murder of the century.

Tony Giacalone, the face of the Detroit mob for more than 40 years, was Hoffa’s liaison to the upper echelons of the mafia in the Midwest and the man authorities believe quarterbacked the entire Hoffa murder plot. He died of kidney failure in 2001 staring down the barrel of a federal RICO indictment.

In 2006, a Metro Detroit woman named Elizabeth Ward came forward and told FBI agents that her and her deceased first-husband, Kenneth Tubman, saw a maroon Mercury Marquis in the Raleigh House parking lot in the minutes after Hoffa was last seen just four miles away getting into a car matching that description. Tubman identified as Chuckie O’Brien at the wheel and two other men in the backseat, one of them appearing to be pressing down on something or someone on the floorboard. Ward said she saw a Central Sanitation truck idling in the back of the parking lot at the same time her and her husband witnessed the commotion going on in the Mercury Marquis.

O’Brien was Hoffa’s surrogate son and admittedly had possession of Joey Giacalone’s Mercury Marquis that day, but has always denied any role in his adopted dad’s slaying. Tubman claimed to recognize O’Brien from his time working as the manager at Darby’s, a successful Northwest Detroit deli and restaurant and where Hoffa and O’Brien would often eat together. O’Brien, a Teamsters business agent, had also been close to Tony Giacalone since he was a child and referred to him as “Uncle Tony.” Today, he’s 84 and lives in Florida.

Most experts dismiss the likelihood that O’Brien was involved in the Hoffa murder conspiracy – citing a lack of trust by the conspiracy’s shot callers –, however, in Martin Scorsese’s new Netflix film The Irishman, based on the NY Times Best-Selling book I Heard You Paint Houses, O’Brien (played by Jesse Plemons) is portrayed as the man who drives Hoffa (played by Al Pacino) to his slaughter at the hands of self-confessed mob assassin Frank (The Irishman) Sheeran (played by Robert DeNiro). O’Brien’s stepson, highly-respected Harvard Law professor Jack Goldsmith wrote a widely-acclaimed book last year titled In Hoffa’s Shadow in which he lays out a convincing argument absolving his stepfather of playing any part in the Hoffa hit. Goldsmith penned a NY Times op-ed over the weekend condemning Scorsese, Pacino, DeNiro, et, al, for spreading lies about O’Brien in his depiction in their movie.

The post A Rage Up In The Raleigh House: Man Says He Watched Jimmy Hoffa’s Body Get Dumped At Detroit Disco appeared first on The Gangster Report.

March 12, 2020 — Kansas City mob soldier John (Johnny Labor) Caresio recently passed away and was laid to rest by a who’s-who of alleged Civella crime family figures. The 77-year old Caresio died of natural causes on February 23. Reputed Midwest mob chiefs John (Johnny Joe) Sciortino, Peter (Las Vegas Pete) Simone and Frank DeLuna served as pallbearers at his funeral.

Caresio was a convicted felon, working as an enforcer, arsonist and thief for the Kansas City mob in the organization’s final glory years of the 1970s and 1980s. He was found guilty of running dice games in 1968 and nailed for gun possession when he was caught by police trying to burn down a house for insurance money in 1979.

The mafia in Kansas City, while once a pearly and vast mob empire under the purview of Godfather Nick Civella, is now a small, relatively contained, tight-knit crew of bookies and loansharks made up of mostly old-school wiseguys and their pals. Sciortino, 76, is believed to be the boss of what’s left, Simone, his underboss and DeLuna, his top advisor. DeLuna’s dad, Carl (Tuffy) DeLuna, was Civella’s underboss and main muscle during his heyday.

Civella died of lung cancer in 1983 serving time behind bars. Per FBI records and surveillance logs, Caresio was on the frontlines of the Civella’s shooting war against the renegade Spero brothers in the late 1970s.

“John Labor was the consummate criminal in every way,” retired FBI agent Gary Jenkins of Ganglandwire.com said. “Caresio and his partner, Joey Ragusa, were the go-to guys if you wanted to collect on your fire insurance policy. They also cased jewelry salesmen, gathered intelligence like an FBI squad would on them, wait for them to slip, leave their stash unguarded and then rip them off. He wore gold necklaces, a pinky ring…all the things that made him look the part.”

“Joey Rags” Ragusa died at 78 of natural causes in March 2017. Sciortino, Simone and DeLuna were also pallbearers at Ragusa’s funeral,

The post Labor Of Love: K.C. Mafia Button Man “Johnny Labor” Dies, Buried By Civella Crew Leaders appeared first on The Gangster Report.

March 15, 2020 — Reputed Chicago mob street boss Albert (Albie the Falcon) Vena was not present last month at his Richard’s Bar headquarters on the Windy City’s near westside when a murder occurred outside its doors, multiple sources say. He or someone working on his behalf, did however, according to two different sources, try to leverage contacts in the Chicago Police Department in an attempt to influence the investigation.

As first reported by Gangster Report, an FBI surveillance unit witnessed the fatal altercation between patrons at Richard’s Bar just before Midnight on February 21 while on-duty watching the longtime Grand Avenue crew hangout from a squad car parked across the street. Furthermore, according to sources, the feds had to intervene in Cook County and press for action in the case. For the past number of years, Vena has been Public Enemy No. 1 in the FBI’s war against the Outfit.

Earlier this month, Thomas Tansey, 30, was charged in state court with stabbing Kenny Paterimos to death with a box cutter in the on the sidewalk in front of Richard’s Bar after being kicked out for throwing a homophobic slur at Paterimos inside the establishment minutes prior. After being apprehended at the scene by Paterimos brother and turned over to Chicago police, he was questioned and released within 72 hours. Vena usually leaves the bar at around 9:30 p.m., per sources, and was “livid” when he heard about what happened, knowing that he is already under a microscope.

Whether or not Tansey has any connection to Vena’s mob crew or Vena himself is unknown. Tansey, who has a history of violent behavior, told police he stabbed Paterimos in self defense. In 2016, Tansey was convicted of assault in suburban Arlington Heights and received probation.

Richard’s Bar and the La Scrola Italian restaurant next door has been the headquarters of the Grand Avenue mob crew since the 1990s when it was run by the legendary Joey (The Clown) Lombardo. Shortly after Lombardo’s arrest in 2006 in the epic Operation Family Secrets, several sources claim the diminutive, highly feared Albie Vena, considered the most dangerous man walking the streets of Chicago today, assumed control of the crew. Lombardo died of natural causes in prison back in October.

Multiple sources say at some point in the past decade, Vena, 71, was promoted to overall street boss of Windy City mob affairs. Grand Avenue crew soldiers and associates are known to carry box cutters for enforcement duties claim sources.

Vena has been the target of a multi-agency investigation into racketeering and a series of cold case gangland murders since at least 2014. He beat a murder rap at trial in 1995. Alleged Grand Avenue affiliate Bobby Dominic owns the building where Richard’s Bar and La Scrola is located.

The post GR Sources: Mob Chief Albie Vena Didn’t Have View To A Kill At Chicago Mafia HQ In Feb Bar Murder appeared first on The Gangster Report.

March 16, 2020 — In late 2017, New Jersey Pagans Motorcycle Club member Ferdinand (Miserable Freddy) Augello met twice with Philadelphia mob figures to discuss superstar attorney Edwin Jacobs offering his name up to authorities as a suspect in the murder of radio host April Kaufman, according to FBI records, wiretap transcripts and a new book on Kaufman’s high-profile slaying.

The post Jersey Pagans MC’er “Miserable Freddy” Augello Took Issue With Famed Atty. To Philly Mafia Leaders appeared first on The Gangster Report.

March 18, 2020 – Philadelphia mafia boss Angelo Bruno was assassinated 40 years ago this week, sending his crime family reeling into a decade-and-half of intermittent violence that destabilized a once cohesive organization and led to a series of rocky tenures for his successors. Nicknamed the Docile Don for his low-key, level-headed demeanor, Bruno, 69, had the back half of his head blown off by a shotgun as he sat smoking a cigarette in a car outside his understated South Philly row house on March 21, 1980.

The palace coup led by Bruno’s consigliere Antonio (Tony Bananas) Caponigro and two capos failed and Tony Bananas and his brother-in-law were brutally murdered in New York by order of the Commission a month later. Caponigro’s co-conspirators, crew chiefs John (Johnny Keys) Simone and Frank (The Barracuda) Sindone, were slain that fall for their roles in the unsanctioned hit. Leaders of the Genovese crime family in New York had falsely promised Caponigro support in his takeover attempt.

Bruno was born in Sicily and came to the United States with his family, settling in South Philly. His father owned a grocery store and he was sponsored by local crime lord Mike Maggio, the Philly mob’s cheese king, for induction into the city’s mafia family.

Upon Godfather Joe Ida fleeing for Italy in 1958 to avoid facing narcotics trafficking charges, Bruno maneuvered his way onto the throne. When Ida’s acting boss Antonio (Miggs) Pollina put a murder contract on his head, Bruno went to the Commission in New York and his confidant, “boss of bosses,” Carlo Gambino, and got it removed, receiving permission to take control of the Philadelphia crime family himself instead. Subsequently, Bruno shelved Pollina (instead of whacking him) and earned his nickname and reputation for kindness.

Gambino gave Bruno a seat on the Commission and his time on top of the Philly and North Jersey underworld went smoothly for the first two decades. But by the late 1970s, dissension began to grow within the ranks of Bruno’s mob empire and he faced a groundswell of displeasure, some of it coming directly from within his administration.

Much of the dissent surrounded Bruno’s hypocrisy when it came to drug dealing — profiting from drugs while not allowing his men to partake in the trade — and his greediness as it related to the then new Atlantic City casino industry. Underboss Phil (Chicken Man) Testa was barely on speaking terms with Bruno by the end of the 1970s and Tony Bananas Caponigro began rallying his loyalists for a takeover plot. Authorities believe Caponigro pulled the trigger in the Bruno hit.

Testa was slain in a nail bomb attack a year later after succeeding Bruno, the result of another failed hostile takeover attempt. Testa’s best friend, the maniacal Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo, grabbed the reins for the rest of the 1980s and led a bloody regime, marked with internal acrimony and numerous killings of perceived threats to his power, including the murder of his own godson and the Chicken Man’s progeny, the fearless and popular Salvy Testa, in September 1984.

In the immediate aftermath of Bruno’s assassination and pictures of his body, mouth agape from the bullet wound in the back of his head, splashed across newspapers around the county, Scarfo wasn’t shy sharing his not-so flattering opinion of his former leader.

“Look at that photo, is there anything more appropriate? The guy’s mouth was always open, always trying to eat off other people’s plates,” he told his inner circle.

With backing from the Gambino clan in New York, John Stanfa, Bruno’s driver the night of his slaying, replaced an imprisoned Scarfo as boss in 1990, however was never able to get a tight grip over the crime family, seeing it again breakout into warfare pitting rival factions representing older and younger generations.

Stanfa’s main enemy during that time period, Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino, took over after Stanfa was locked up and remains in charge of the Philly mafia today. Merlino, 58, received his backing from former Bruno enforcer and labor union fixer Ralph Natale, who he met in prison and utilized to make connections with the Five Families in New York, not to mention co-sign his bonafides as a wiseguy.

Merlino’s dad had been Scarfo’s underboss. Natale, 85, flipped in 1999 and is currently living in the Witness Protection Program. Bruno was portrayed by Harvey Keitel in the 2019 Oscar-nominated film The Irishman.

The post No Brotherly Love: Philly Mob Don Murdered By His Own Consigliere 40 Years Ago appeared first on The Gangster Report.

March 20, 2020 – Attorneys for former Narcos crime lord Gilberto Rodriguez-Orejuela filed a brief in Miami’s U.S. District Court to have their client granted compassionate release based on a combination of the one-time Colombian cocaine kingpin’s fragile health and the outbreak of the Corona (COVID-19) virus , which is ravaging the American healthcare system and economy. Known as the “Chess Master” in gangland circles for his intelligence and strategic excellence in the drug game, Rodriguez-Orejeula, 81, has incurred bouts with colon and stomach cancer in his decade and a half locked up in the U.S. prison system.

In the 1990s, Rodriguez-Orejeula and his brother Miguel led the Cali Cartel and was responsible for pumping hundreds of thousands kilos of blow into North America – making up nearly 80 percent of the U.S. coke market –, keeping a headquarters in Miami manned by his son. His rise and fall are depicted in the first season of the hit Netflix show Narcos where he was portrayed by actor Damian Alcazar.

The Cali Cartel rocketed to prominence in the aftermath of rival Pablo Escobar’s death in 1993. Escobar, one of the globe’s most iconic criminals of all-time, headed the Medellin cartel and died on the run from the law in a hail of bullets on a Colombian rooftop shootout with authorities. The Rodriguez-Orejeula brothers were considerably more diplomatic in their affairs then the violence-prone Escobar was and structured their organization with an emphasis on decentralization and delegation.  

Rodriguez-Orejuela founded his Cali Cartel in the 1970s as a marijuana distribution network, before moving into cocaine trafficking the following decade. He began his climb in the Colombian underworld during the 1960s in the kidnap racket. Colombian officials arrested him in June 1995 and was sent to prison in his home country for 15 years.

After accidentally being released for five months in 2002, Rodriguez-Orejuelas was taken back into custody in March 2003 and then was extradited to the United States in December 2004. Two years later, he pleaded guilty in federal court in Florida to money laundering and received a 30-year prison sentence. He’s been serving his time in a North Carolina prison medical unit.

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March 22, 2020 — Chicago mob hot spot, Richard’s Bar, was investigated by police for operating an open bar after the city ordered all bars and restaurants closed to the public amid the Corona Virus (COVID 19) virus outbreak. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker issued a “shelter in place” order for the entire state Saturday.

Residents of the River West neighborhood where Richard’s Bar, has been a staple for years, as well as Westside hub for the Outfit’s Grand Avenue mob crew, reported activity at the tavern to police back on Tuesday night. Neighbors told police dispatchers that at least 9 different people were sitting and drinking inside Richard’s Bar at the three-way intersection of Grand Avenue, Milwaukee Avenue and Halsted Road.

The establishment has long been known to violate the state’s smoking ban. Before the shelter in place order went into effect this weekend, bars in the city were allowed to sell unopened alcohol to-go.

Reputed Chicago mafia street boss Albert (Albie the Falcon) Vena uses Richard’s Bar as his headquarters. Vena, 71, took over Grand Ave. capo duties in around 2008 and street boss affairs for the entire Outfit at some point around 2012, per sources. Richard’s Bar and its next door neighbor, Italian eatery La Scrola, once served as home base for legendary Outfit figure, Joey (The Clown) Lombardo, a Grand Ave. crew chief predecessor of Vena’s and the organization’s consigliere for most of the 1990s and first half of the 2000s.

Last month, Richard’s Bar was the location of a murder when a dispute inside the bar spilled outside onto the street and resulted in military vet Thomas Tansey stabbing Kenny Paterimos to death with a box cutter. The 30-year old Tansey was indicted for second-degree homicide on March 3. He was originally arrested at the scene and explained to responding police he was acting in self defense. Minutes prior to the stabbing, Tansey had been tossed off the premises for shouting a homophobic slur in Paterimos direction as they argued.

The post Windy City Mafia Hangout Received Visit From CPD For Allegedly Violating COVID-19 Restrictions appeared first on The Gangster Report.

March 24, 2020 – Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa’s body was possibly buried under one of the Briguglio brothers’ swimming pools, according to FBI records unearthed by Fox News. Slain New Jersey wiseguy Salvatore (Sally Bugs) Briguglio has always been considered one of the top suspects in the labor leader’s famed unsolved disappearance and murder. Many investigators believe Sally Bugs was the triggerman in the iconic mob hit. His brother, 81-year old Gabriel, a retired mob soldier long suspected of playing a role in the killing as well, is still alive and living in the Garden State.

The Briguglios and their respective former swimming pools share the focus of the third-part of Fox Nation’s investigative docu-series, Riddle: The Search For James R. Hoffa, hosted by Eric Shawn. The show premiered on the Fox News streaming service last year. Shawn sought access to the pair of swimming pools for the most-recent episode of the series that dropped on the platform last week but came up empty. The pools were never searched by the feds.

Hoffa, 62, vanished from a restaurant parking lot in Bloomfield Township, Michigan on the afternoon of July 30, 1975 while feuding with the mafia’s “Commission” over his desire to reclaim the Teamsters union presidency he had given up as a way of a getting out of prison early via a commutation from the White House. He was on his way to a lunch meeting with Detroit mob street boss Anthony (Tony Jack) Giacalone and New Jersey mafia capo Anthony (Tony Pro) Provenzano to discuss the issue when he went missing.

One-time close friends and allies, Provenzano and Hoffa were engaged in an intense personal beef that Hoffa needed to squash in order to take back the goliath Teamsters union he had headed from 1957 until 1970. Tony Jack was Hoffa’s direct contact with the mob, Tony Pro ran labor affairs for New York’s Genovese crime family. The Briguglio brothers worked for Provenzano and were members of his Teamsters powerbase at Local 250 in Union City, New Jersey. Per court testimony, Sally Bugs was the Provenzano mob crew’s top hit man and enforcer.

The FBI fielded tips that Hoffa’s body was dumped underneath the pool Sally Bugs was building at his Sherman, Connecticut vacation home in the summer of 1975. Investigators were also told that Hoffa was buried under Gabriel’s pool at his residence in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Neither property has any remaining ties to the Briguglios. Fox Nation put in a request to both current owners to allow a search of their pools with ground-penetrating radar equipment: the owners of the Connecticut cottage didn’t respond to the request and the owners of the East Rutherford residence wanted financial compensation Fox Nation wasn’t willing to pay.

Sally Bugs was gunned down gangland style exiting a Manhattan social club in 1978. He was 48 years old. Eric Shawn tried to interview Gabriel Briguglio at his Jersey home back in January, however Briguglio rebuked the attempt.

“I know who you are and I have nothing to say to you,” he barked at Shawn from his front door. “Did you drink before coming over or are you just high on something?…Get out of here.”

Briguglio, who did five years of federal prison time in the 1980s for labor racketeering, is one of two prime suspects left in the ongoing Hoffa murder probe. The other is fellow retired Goodfella Stevie Andretta, another former Provenzano crew goon and convicted felon.

Actor Louis Cancelmi played Sally Bugs in the Oscar-nominated 2019 film The Irishman, director Martin Scorsese’s 200-million dollar Netflix epic about the Hoffa case. Brit Stephen Graham drew rave reviews for his portrayal of Tony Pro in the movie. Provenzano died of a heart attack in 1988 behind bars doing prison time for an unrelated Teamsters mob murder that Sally Bugs allegedly participated in.

The post Swimming With Sharks: Hoffa Laid To Rest In NJ Mobsters Briguglio Bros. Swimming Pools, Per FBI Informants appeared first on The Gangster Report.

March 27, 2020 – Mario (The Cobra) Tabraue was the colorful Miami drug lord who inspired Al Pacino’s Tony Montana character in the iconic 1983 film Scarface. The 65-year old Tabraue appears in the Netflix docu-series Tiger King, a runaway streaming sensation and genuine pop-culture phenomenon that chronicles a business and legal war that erupted in the big-cat theme park industry during the 2010s.

Tabraue reigned supreme in Miami’s Cocaine Cowboy era of the 1980s and was tied to a hotel chainsaw dismemberment that Hollywood screenwriter Oliver Stone used as the basis for the famous scene in Scarface, where Tony Montana watches his childhood friend Angel Fernandez get chopped up via chainsaw in a dingy Ocean Drive motel bathroom. When he was finally busted by the feds in 1987, authorities estimated his drug-dealing activity netted him close to $100,000 in cash.

The organization Tabraue ran smuggled cocaine inside snakes, leading law enforcement to nickname him the Cobra and dub the bust that brought him down Operation Cobra. After serving more than a decade in federal prison for narcotics-trafficking, money laundering and murder conspiracy, Tabraue, got his case tossed on appeal, returned to Florida in 2003 and opened a wildlife preserve.

Stone researched his script by partying with real big-time dopers like Tabraue and wrote many of the characters as composites of the men and women he met through his time on the neon-drenched, high-octane Miami nightlife scene. Like Tabraue, Tony Montana was a Cuban refugee who build a cocaine empire and lived in a palatial estate furnished with a private zoo full of tigers and lions and throne-like desk chair in his office with his initials carved in it.

In the movie, Tabraue’s favorite haunt, the Mutiny Club in Coconut Grove, became the Babylon Club. Tabraue was famous for showing up at the exclusive gathering spot for the drug world elite in South Florida with his pet chimpanzee.

At his 1989 trial, Tabraue was acquitted of killing his wife eight years earlier, however, convicted of playing a role in the murder of DEA informant Larry Nash. Two Tabraue lieutenants shot Nash to death in a car and then along with Tabraue chopped up his body using a circular saw and chain saw in a hotel room and set it on fire.

Orlando Cicilia, a henchman inside the Tabraue crew and a brother-in-law to Florida U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, was allegedly linked to the slaying which occurred upon the crew finding out about Nash’s status as a snitch. Cicilia did 12 years behind bars on the Tabraue case.

“More than 50 percent of the Tony Montana character is taken from Mario Tabraue’s persona on the Narcos scene here in the Miami Vice days,” recalled one former Dade County detective consulted by Scarface scribe Stone and director Brian DePalma on film-content preparation. “Every major dope man from Miami circa 1980, 81, 82, says they were the archetype that Oliver wrote Tony Montana from, but with Mario is pretty much true.”

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March 29, 2020 – Music pioneer Chuck Berry got in hot water with the Milwaukee mafia in the 1960s after refusing to show up for a booked concert at a mob-owned nightclub in Wisconsin because he was angry for not being paid for previous appearances, per FBI records obtained and released by the Chicago Sun-Times this week. The club was The Scene, located on North 2^nd Street inside Milwaukee’s Hotel Antlers.

According to the federal documents, longtime Milwaukee don Frank Balistrieri had an enforcer of his threaten Berry with physical harm at his hotel if he didn’t get up on stage at The Scene and perform one chaotic night in 1966. Berry followed orders, avoiding any violence, and Balistrieri paid him the delinquent tab and for the concert that evening. The Scene played host to a who’s who of rockers, blues musicians and jazz legends, from Berry to Jimi Hendrix, the Allman Brothers to Miles Davis.

Dubbed the “Godfather of Rock’n Roll,” Berry fused early rock music with R&B and heavy usage of guitar solos and showmanship to bring the genre to the masses. His five Top 10 Billboard chart hits in the 1950s laid the foundation for the explosion of the artform into pop culture in the subsequent decades. He was part of the first induction class into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

Balistrieri led the Milwaukee mob from 1961 until he died of cancer in 1993 at 74 years old, having spent the final six years of his life in prison for skimming millions of dollars from a group of Las Vegas casinos in a conspiracy that included mafia crime families from Chicago, Kansas City and Cleveland. Balistrieri’s Milwaukee regime was under the thumb of the Chicago Outfit and Balistrieri reported directly to his counterpart in the Windy City, Tony (The Big Tuna) Accardo.

The post Chuck Berry & The Mob: The Godfather Of Rock’N Roll Vs. The Godfather Of Milwaukee appeared first on The Gangster Report.

March 31, 2020 – Chicago mob soldier Paulie (The Indian) Schiro is seeking early-release from his federal prison sentence for racketeering on the basis of being at risk for contracting the Coronavirus (COVID 19). Schiro was the Outfit’s representative in Arizona before getting swept up in a high-end jewelry-theft ring bust and the landmark Operations Family Secrets case. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, he still has four years left to serve.

The 82-year old wiseguy has battled lung cancer the past decade and had one of his lungs removed. His attorneys filed a request for a compassionate release Friday morning. He currently resides in a prison medical facility in North Carolina. Last week, one of the facility’s employees tested positive for the virus.

Schiro ran with the Grand Avenue crew in his early days in the Chicago mafia. He was close friends with Tony (The Ant) Spilotro and when Spilotro got put in charge of all Outfit affairs on the West Coast in the early 1970s, moving his base of operations from the Windy City’s westside to the Las Vegas Strip, he placed Schiro as his man in Arizona – Schiro’s headquarters was the Scotch Mist restaurant in Scottsdale, a popular gangster hangout for visitors from the Midwest.  

Spilotro was brutally murdered in the summer of 1986 for subversive behavior. The slaying and Spilotro’s reign in Vegas were dramatized by Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese in the 1995 film Casino. Actor Joe Pesci played Tony the Ant.

Less than two weeks before Spilotro was called back to Chicago and killed in June 1986, Schiro is suspected of playing a role in the murder of mob associate Emil (Little Mal) Vaci in Phoenix. Kidnapped from the restaurant he worked, Vaci was shot to death inside a moving van. Vaci, 73, and Schiro were partners in a bookmaking operation and a travel-junket business chartering flights to Vegas from the Phoenix area for gamblers and their wives.

Schiro was arrested in 1999 along with former top Chicago mob cop Bill Hanhardt for stealing tens of millions of dollars worth of jewelry, watches and furs, some boosted from safety deposits boxes, in a wide-reaching burglary ring that lasted for several years and pulled off jobs across the country. Hanhardt spawned from the same Westside Chicago neighborhood that Schiro and Spilotro grew up in.

The Operation Family Secrets indictment landed in April 2005 while Schiro was already incarcerated from his conviction in the theft case. In October 2007, he was found guilty in the Family Secrets case, but acquitted for participating in the Vaci hit.

The Family Secrets case brought charges for 18 previously unsolved cold-case mob murders tied to Outfit activity. Schiro was sentenced to 20 years in prison and is scheduled for release in the spring of 2024.

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April 2, 2020 – Serial killer Lonnie (The Grim Sleeper) Franklin died in San Quentin Prison this week at age 67. He had been on death row since 2016 for a series of slayings that spanned two decades. His bloodletting took a 14-year hiatus though.

A garbage man by trade, Franklin terrorized Los Angeles, killing at least 10 women in a murder spree that began in 1985 and concluded in 2007. Authorities suspect he was guilty of many more. There were no murders committed between 1988 and 2002 tied to Franklin, leading investigators to believe his instinct to kill “went to sleep” and giving way to his nickname. Prison guards found him unresponsive in his cell Saturday.

L.A. Police detectives finally nailed Franklin in 2010 after his son was arrested and a DNA sample showed similarities to the Grim Sleeper’s. An undercover team collected Franklin’s DNA to test when he attended a nephew’s birthday party at a local pizza parlor.

Police discovered a gun used as one of the murder weapons and pictures of some the murdered women in a search of Franklin’s residence. Almost 200 photos of seemingly random women were unearthed in storage boxes located in the garage.

The post Grim Sleeper Meets Grim Reaper: L.A. Serial Killer Dies In Prison appeared first on The Gangster Report.

April 3, 2020 – Retired New York mafia don John (Junior) Gotti met with a leader of the Latin Kings in Massachusetts and may have advised him to use a mob social club in Springfield for meetings, according to Gangland News this week, as reported by American mob journalist extraordinaire Jerry Capeci. The FBI is probing what, if any, role Gotti played in connecting the Latin Kings and the New York mafia.

The Latin Kings’ east coast boss Michael (King Merlin) Cecchetelli was indicted for racketeering along with 60 Latin Kings members and associates back in December. Gotti’s dad was famed Gambino crime family boss John (The Dapper Don) Gotti, who rocketed to underworld and pop-culture stardom in the 1980s.

The younger Gotti ran the Gambinos through most of the 1990s in his father’s stead, with the Dapper Don serving out the final years of his life in a federal prison. Junior Gotti survived four separate racketeering cases filed against him and, reportedly fed up with the treachery of the “Life,” left the mob behind in the 2000s. John Gotti died behind bars of cancer in 2002.

The Latin Kings is a mostly Hispanic criminal organization based out of Chicago. Despite being Italian, King Merlin Cecchetelli, 40, heads all Latin Kings affairs on the eastern seaboard. He has ties to the Italian mafia through his uncle and roommate, David (Fat Chicky) Cecchetelli, an animated and quite rotund Genovese crime family associate and convicted bookmaker.

Fat Chicky Cecchetelli, 52, took a pinch for weapons possession late last year and is linked to the mob in Western Massachusetts, specifically a Genovese family crew based out of his hometown of Springfield. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Cecchetelli ran a massive sports book for Springfield mob capo Adolfo (Big Al) Bruno and then his successor, Anthony (Bingy) Arillotta.  

Big Al Bruno was slain in 2003 in a power play orchestrated by his protégé Arillotta, around the same time Cecchetelli got busted millions of dollars of bets for both of them. Arillotta flipped in 2010 and testified against Genovese bosses out of New York, including acting don Arthur (Little Artie) Nigro, who had taken him in under his wing after he fell out with Bruno. Nigro ordered Bruno’s murder and installed Arillotta as his replacement.

Bruno was gunned down on the evening of November 24, 2003 in the parking lot of the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Social Club in Springfield’s South End. Per Capeci’s storied Gangland News column, the FBI is looking into if Junior Gotti played any role in arranging a pair of Latin Kings gatherings at the club last year called by King Merlin Cecchetelli. The two meetings were videotaped by the FBI and Latin Kings business, including chatting about potential murder plots, was discussed. The 56-year old Gotti wasn’t present at either of the meetings.

According to federal documents, Gotti made an alliance with the Latin Kings for himself when he was in jail in the 2000s in the wake of his father’s passing and a feud that erupted with his uncle, Peter (One-Eyed Pete) Gotti. One-Eyed Pete took over the Gambino crime family from Junior. The feud related to the distribution of John Gotti’s money.

The Cecchetellis know and are friendly with Junior Gotti. Pictures of the three of them together have appeared on various social media platforms in recent years. Gotti produced a movie about his dad’s rise and fall starring John Travolta, released in 2018.

Fat Chicky Cecchetelli has belonged to the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Social Club for the last three decades. These days, the club is the domain of alleged Springfield crew skipper Albert (The Animal) Calvanese. Both Cecchetellis have pleaded not guilty in their respective criminal cases and await trial on the charges. Calvanese used to collect for Fat Chickie Cecchetelli’s sports gambling business.

The post Junior Gotti Getting Glims From Feds For Possibly Helping Forge Latin Kings-Mob Union In Western Mass. appeared first on The Gangster Report.

April 7, 2020 – Montreal hit man Jean-Claude (The Fly) Gauthier has been transferred to a less-restrictive halfway house in Quebec after spending the last year in a high-security re-entry facility. He was locked up in 1992 and has five months left to serve out on his sentence.

The man they called The Fly is serving his remaining prison time on a 22-year old homicide conviction on day parole. His recent move is reportedly linked to the COVID-19 virus outbreak and an order from the Canadian government to trim the country’s prison population in an effort to stem exposure and contagion rates.

The 68-year old Gauthier was found guilty of a gangland murder at trial back in 1997 and pleaded guilty to a manslaughter count in 1993. He admitted to killing 42 men in a police interview.  

Gauthier was connected to Montreal’s Irish mob, known locally as the West End Gang. On April 12, 1987, he shot drug dealer James Hainey to death inside Hainey’s car. Before fleeing the scene, Gauthier killed Hainey’s dog.

In October 1992, Gauthier killed a debtor when he went to collect West End Gang loansharking money at an apartment in the Montreal suburb of Laval. Gauthier backed out of a cooperation deal with authorities two years later where he would have copped to carrying out 34 contract hits and killing 8 others for personal reasons.

The post Fly Away Home: Irish Mob Enforcer In Canada One Step Closer To Freedom appeared first on The Gangster Report.

April 8, 2020 – Rivals of retired New York mafia don John (Junior) Gotti had informants plant false information with the FBI and the feds are aware of the intelligence gleaned regarding accusations of Gotti middling relations between the Italian mob and the Latin Kings is compromised, per GR sources.

Last week, both Gangland News and the New York Daily Post reported the FBI was investigating Gotti’s possible role in arranging two Latin Kings meetings in 2019 held at the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Society Social Club in Springfield, Massachusetts, long known as home base for the Genovese crime family’s Western Mass. wing. The Latin Kings are an Hispanic organized crime group. Gotti led the Gambino crime family in the 1990s, taking over from his imprisoned father, the legendary John (The Dapper Don) Gotti, and is friends with the nephew of a Latin Kings shot caller.

Since Gotti left the mob behind in the 2000s after beating four racketeering trials, he’s been in an open beef with a former crew member of his named John Alite, who once helped the Gambinos run their affairs in Florida. Alite published a book on his life in the Gambino clan in 2015.

Alite turned government informant in 2008 and testified against Gotti the following year, admitting to committing murders on behalf of the Gambino regime with Gotti and being involved in a plan to kill Gotti when Gotti had a falling out with his uncles over Gambino business. Gotti’s dad, the Dapper Don, died behind bars of cancer in 2002.

In recent years, Alite and other anti-Gotti agitators have waged war against Junior Gotti on the internet and via social media barbs. Gotti and his brothers and sisters have fought back, lobbing their own on-line assault and doing media interviews attacking Alite. It’s unknown if it was Alite and his loyalists that were “tickling the wire” with the FBI, but GR sources claim the FBI knows the information coming to them was an attempt to twist the narrative related to Gotti’s links to the Latin Kings.

Gotti is friends with Genovese mob associate David (Fat Chicky) Cecchetelli, a convicted bookmaker from Springfield. Fat Chicky’s nephew, Michael (King Merlin) Cecchetelli, is the boss of the Latin Kings on the east coast. King Merlin, 40, reports directly to Latin Kings national leadership in Chicago and was indicted along with 60 Latin Kings and Latin Kings associates for racketeering back in December. Fat Chicky is facing an unrelated gun charge.

As part of the Latin Kings December 2019 indictment, U.S. Attorneys in Boston revealed recordings of a pair of meetings King Merlin held of east coast Latin Kings brass at the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Society Social Club. The 52-year old Fat Chicky has belonged to the club going on 30 years.

Gotti wasn’t at either of the Latin Kings gatherings hosted at the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Society Social Club. however, the feds were provided reports by informants that he helped broker the get-togethers. Gotti has never stepped foot in the club, per sources, and has never been involved in any illegal activity with the Cecchetellis, the east coast Latin Kings nor the Genovese crime family’s Springfield operations.

The club is the headquarters of Springfield mob crew chief Albert (The Animal) Calvanese, who once acted as a collector for Fat Chicky’s sports book before going to prison himself for a loansharking conviction in 2006. While locked up and awaiting trial in the early 2000s, Gotti made an alliance with the Latin Kings, according to FBI records. He hasn’t been connected to any Latin Kings’ business in well over a decade.

The post FBI Knows Motives Of Info Given On Junior Gotti, No Charges Expected In His Connection To Latin Kings appeared first on The Gangster Report.

April 9, 2020 — New England mob figure Billy (The Angel) Angelesco recently pleaded guilty to extortion in U.S. District Court out of Boston. Angelesco, 49, is a reputed member of the Patriarca crime family.

Along with two associates, he beat up and robbed a drug dealer in Abington, Massachusetts in September 2018. They pummeled a marijuana pusher and black-market sneaker broker and took $1,000 cash, 4 pounds of weed and several boxes of stolen Air Force Ones after their victim stopped paying shake down money months earlier.

Angelesco faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced this summer. FBI documents and court records link Angelesco to current New England mafia boss Carmen (The Big Cheese) DiNunzio and deceased don Peter (The Crazy Horse) Limone. In the 2000s, Angelesco ran a sports book for DiNunzio and did his collections. Around this same time, he was acting as a driver and bodyguard for Limone, fresh off three decades behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit.

Limone died of natural causes at 83 years old in June 2017. DiNunzio succeeded him as Godfather of New England. FBI surveillance units followed Angelesco as he delivered messages from Limone to DiNunzio in Boston’s North End and the directives from DiNunzio to the organization’s Providence faction.

Angelesco was found guilty of extortion in state court in 2008 and did four years in prison. He beat a murder rap in 2005, acquitted at trial for killing Pete DeVito, a nightclub manager who had assaulted him and thrown him out of a strip club.

The post Angelesco Cops To Extortion Beef In Boston, Mob Soldier Staring Down Two Decades In The Can appeared first on The Gangster Report.

April 12, 2020 — The much-hyped BMF television show was green-lit by the Starz network last week, officially giving hip hop mogul 50 Cent the okay to begin shooting his new show about the Flenory brothers and their colossal Black Mafia Family drug organization which reigned supreme in the 1990s and first half of the 2000s. Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory is the most iconic African-American crime lord in recent memory, holding a ubiquitous status of reverence in rap and pop-culture circles even a decade and a half after his imprisonment.

50 Cent helped create the hit show Power for Starz in 2014. Power tells the story of fictional drug kingpin James “Ghost” St. Patrick played by Omari Hardwick. Producer Randall Emmett and writer Randy Huggins, who worked with 50 Cent on Power, will join him in the BMF project. Huggins is a native Detroiter and has been hired as the showrunner. 50 Cent frequently posts “teasers” regarding a future BMF show on his social media accounts.

Big Meech Flenory, 51, and his younger brother Terry (Southwest T) Flenory started BMF in their hometown of Detroit in 1990. By the 2000s, BMF had satellite franchisee set up all around the country and controlled large swaths of the wholesale American narcotics markets from coast to coast.

The DEA’s Operation Motor City Mafia bust brought Big Meech and his whole BMF kingdom tumbling down in October 2005. Both Flenorys pleaded guilty to the charges on the morning their trial was supposed to start in 2007, each agreeing to do 30 years behind bars for their crimes.

The post Lights, Camera, Action: Starz Gives 50 Cent Go-Ahead For Black Mafia Family Project appeared first on The Gangster Report.

April 14, 2020 – The Outlaws Motorcycle Club’s European boss Stuart (Dink) Dawson is running a free-food campaign out of his Chicago 1935 American Diner in North Wales to help in the world’s fight against the COVID-19 virus. Dawson, 56, is giving away meals every day but Sunday, between 11:30 a.m. and 8 p.m.

The Chicago 1935 American Diner, located in Colwyn Bay, provides pasta, soup and sandwiches to anyone in need. Last weekend, Dawson ran an Easter toy drive. In 2010, Dawson was convicted of heading a narcotics trafficking conspiracy and served five years in prison.

The Outlaws MC was founded in Chicago in 1935. Authorities in the United States consider the Outlaws the most powerful biker crime group in the nation’s Midwest and Southeast regions and one of the most omnipresent in the entire world. The club has chapters all around the globe (25 different countries), maintaining 30 chapters in Great Britain alone.

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April 15, 2020 — Legendary Chicago gangland leader Larry Hoover is hoping that the First Step Act, championed by Windy City rap god Kanye West and signed into law by President Donald Trump a year ago, opens up the prison gates for him. A pair of his top lieutenants were set free in recent months due to the act of legislation allowing inmates to seek sentence reductions.

The 69-year old Hoover is the boss of the Gangster Disciples, one of the biggest organized crime groups in America. He’s been behind bars for almost five decades and currently resides in the Federal Supermax facility in Florence, Colorado, a prison reserved for the nation’s most high-profile and dangerous felons. Lawyers for Hoover filed motions in U.S. District Court in Illinois for consideration regarding a sentence reduction under the First Step Act. Hoover isn’t scheduled for release until April 2064.

Back in November, former GD “junior boss” Johnny (Crusher) Jackson was released from federal custody when U.S. District Court Judge Harry Leinenberger lifted his life sentence. Former Southside Chicago GD shot-caller William (Too Short) Edwards got out of his 100-year term late last summer courtesy of a Leinenberger ruling.

Both Jackson, 47, and Edwards, 49, went down with Hoover in 1995’s Operation Headache bust, where the feds nailed Hoover for running GD street activity through the two eager upstarts and his second-in-charge Greg (Shorty G) Shell. Hoover was doing a life sentence for the February 1973 slaying of William (Pooky) Young and had publicly re-branded himself a community activist in order to get placed in a low-security prison unit.

Shell, Jackson and Edwards visited Hoover frequently in the Vienna Correctional Center in Johnson County, Illinois, where the FBI succeeded in recording their conversations related to GD business in the visiting room by outfitting visitor badges with tiny hidden microphones. Edwards discovered his visitor’s badge was wired for sound on a trip to the bathroom in 1993 on a visit with Hoover. He went on the lamb and avoided capture for three years.

According to the Operation Headache indictment, Hoover’s orders would relay from Shell at his June’s Shrimp headquarters to Edwards and then from Edwards to Jackson on the ground at the old Robert Taylor Homes projects. Edwards controlled all GD drug-dealing turf on the city’s Southside and Jackson was tasked with overseeing the teenage street dealers at the towering Taylor projects’ near three dozen residential buildings on a day-to-day basis.

Beginning in 1991, Hoover, through Edwards and Jackson, installed what he called his “one day” policy, telling GDs and independent pushers in the area that they were required to pay one day a week’s worth of drug sales to him on the inside for protection. Those extortion payments totaled $300,000 per week and was always promptly delivered by Edwards to Hoover’s girlfriend. The Operation Headache case dropped on August 31, 1995.

The 62-year old Shell is seeking a release under the First Step Act as well. If Hoover gets sprung via the act, he’ll still have to seek an additional sentence reduction from the state court for his conviction in the Pooky Young murder case.

The post Gangster’s Paradise: GD Boss Larry Hoover Looking For Help From Federal Judge In Seeing Free World Again appeared first on The Gangster Report.

April 3, 2020 – Retired New York mafia don John (Junior) Gotti met with a leader of the Latin Kings in Massachusetts and may have advised him to use a mob social club in Springfield for meetings, according to Gangland News this week, as reported by American mob journalist extraordinaire Jerry Capeci. The FBI is probing what, if any, role Gotti played in connecting the Latin Kings and the New York mafia.

The Latin Kings’ east coast boss Michael (King Merlin) Cecchetelli was indicted for racketeering along with 60 Latin Kings members and associates back in December. Gotti’s dad was famed Gambino crime family boss John (The Dapper Don) Gotti, who rocketed to underworld and pop-culture stardom in the 1980s.

The younger Gotti ran the Gambinos through most of the 1990s in his father’s stead, with the Dapper Don serving out the final years of his life in a federal prison. Junior Gotti survived four separate racketeering cases filed against him and, reportedly fed up with the treachery of the “Life,” left the mob behind in the 2000s. John Gotti died behind bars of cancer in 2002.

The Latin Kings is a mostly Hispanic criminal organization based out of Chicago. Despite being Italian, King Merlin Cecchetelli, 40, heads all Latin Kings affairs on the eastern seaboard. He has ties to the Italian mafia through his uncle and roommate, David (Fat Chicky) Cecchetelli, an animated and quite rotund Genovese crime family associate and convicted bookmaker.

Fat Chicky Cecchetelli, 52, took a pinch for weapons possession late last year and is linked to the mob in Western Mass, specifically a Genovese family crew based out of his hometown of Springfield. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Cecchetelli ran a massive sports book for Springfield mob capo Adolfo (Big Al) Bruno and then his successor, Anthony (Bingy) Arillotta.  

Big Al Bruno was slain in 2003 in a power play orchestrated by his protégé Arillotta, around the same time Cecchetelli got busted millions of dollars of bets for both of them. Arillotta flipped in 2010 and testified against Genovese bosses out of New York, including acting don Arthur (Little Artie) Nigro, who had taken him in under his wing after he fell out with Bruno. Nigro ordered Bruno’s murder and installed Arillotta as his replacement.

Bruno was gunned down on the evening of November 24, 2003 in the parking lot of the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Social Club in Springfield’s South End. Per Capeci’s storied Gangland News column, the FBI is looking into if Junior Gotti played any role in arranging a pair of Latin Kings gatherings at the club last year called by King Merlin Cecchetelli. The two meetings were videotaped by the FBI and Latin Kings business, including chatting about potential murder plots, was discussed. The 56-year old Gotti wasn’t present at either of the meetings.

According to federal documents, Gotti made an alliance with the Latin Kings for himself when he was in jail in the 2000s in the wake of his father’s passing and a feud that erupted with his uncle, Peter (One-Eyed Pete) Gotti. One-Eyed Pete took over the Gambino crime family from Junior. The feud related to the distribution of John Gotti’s money.

The Cecchetellis know and are friendly with Junior Gotti. Pictures of the three of them together have appeared on various social media platforms in recent years. Gotti produced a movie about his dad’s rise and fall starring John Travolta, released in 2018.

Fat Chicky Cecchetelli has belonged to the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Social Club for the last three decades. These days, the club is the domain of alleged Springfield crew skipper Albert (The Animal) Calvanese. Both Cecchetellis have pleaded not guilty in their respective criminal cases and await trial on the charges. Calvanese used to collect for Fat Chickie Cecchetelli’s sports gambling business.

The post Junior Gotti Getting Glims From Feds For Possibly Helping Forge Latin Kings-Mob Union In Western Mass. appeared first on The Gangster Report.