Free Republic

A reputed mobster caught-on-camera slugging a New York City restaurateur has “no regrets” about landing the blow, his lawyer said Monday — as the elderly tough guy was sentenced to two years in prison for the extortion plot. Jerry McMahon, the attorney for alleged Genovese crime family capo Anthony “Rom” Romanello, argued in Brooklyn federal court that even he would have punched steakhouse owner Shuqeri “Bruno” Selimaj during the 2017 encounter. “His lawyer thinks that beyond any shadow of a doubt that Rom has no regrets. And why should he?” McMahon said.

A former shoemaker pleaded guilty Tuesday to allegations that he ran an illegal gambling operation for the Mafia out of his shop in Brooklyn. Salvatore Rubino, also known as “Sal the Shoemaker,” admitted in federal court in Brooklyn to running card games and operating illegal gambling machines inside his former shoe repair business and to kicking profits to the Genovese crime family. He pleaded guilty to gambling charges. Four co-defendants — Carmelo "Carmine" Polito, Joseph "Joe Fish" Macario, Joseph "Joe Box" Rutigliano and Mark Feuer — pleaded guilty earlier this month to charges including racketeering, attempted extortion and illegal gambling...

In late 2020, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) met with Philip Sellinger, a private practice lawyer and former fundraiser for the senator, to assess his potential fit as the next U.S. attorney for the state of New Jersey - and to discuss one case in particular. If appointed, Sellinger would assume control of one of the largest prosecutor’s offices in the country, a post that comes with the power to bust mob bosses and go after corrupt public officials. But Menendez, federal prosecutors say, was fixated on a less consequential matter: ensuring the future prosecutor would act sympathetically toward a friend...

Luxury Manhattan building workers suspended for closing door on Asian hate crime victim after vicious sidewalk stomping By BRITTANY KRIEGSTEIN, MORGAN CHITTUM, THOMAS TRACY and LARRY MCSHANE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS MAR 30, 2021 AT 12:05 PM  An elderly woman walking through Hells Kitchen became the latest victim of an unprovoked anti-Asian attack, in a brutal, caught-on-video assault. A callous security guard at a luxury Manhattan building was suspended Tuesday after shutting the front door and offering no aid to a 65-year-old Asian woman kicked to the sidewalk outside and stomped in an apparent hate crime.

One-time Gambino crime family executioner Sammy “The Bull” Gravano’s new podcast arrives with a bang this week. The former underboss to John Gotti premieres his new venture Wednesday, the 35th anniversary of the holiday season mob hit on family boss Paul Castellano outside Sparks Steakhouse in Midtown. SNIP “I think (Gotti) single-handedly destroyed the Mafia,” Gravano told the Daily News in a recent interview. “I think he made every mistake you could make." The Apple podcast extends Gravano’s social media presence. The confessed killer of 19 is already out and about on Facebook and Instagram.

A Long Island attorney who specializes in representing people who won major lottery jackpots was arrested by the FBI Tuesday, along with a soldier in the Genovese organized crime family, on charges of ripping off the winners of three lotteries for a total of $107 million, federal prosecutors said. The three alleged victims, who were not named by prosecutors, were described as the winners of a $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot; a $245 million Powerball jackpot, and a $150 million jackpot, officials said. Jason Kurland, 45, of Dix Hills, who bills himself as “The Lottery Lawyer,” was charged in federal...

On the Friday night of June 27, 1969 the NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, and a firestorm of protest erupted that continued over the next several nights. The Stonewall riots are considered the birth of the modern gay rights movement, and over the following decades often has been characterized as a protest against police harassment. However, in actuality, the Stonewall Inn was raided pursuant to an investigation against its reputed mob owners, and the ensuing rage on the streets by its gay patrons was directed as much against the wise guys...

Winston Moseley, who stalked, raped and killed Kitty Genovese in a prolonged knife attack in New York in 1964 while neighbors failed to act on her desperate cries for help — a nightmarish tableau that came to symbolize urban apathy in America — died on March 28, in prison. He was 81.

On Friday, March 13, 1964, in Kew Gardens, Queens, Winston Moseley murdered Kitty Genovese, a twenty-eight-year-old bar manager, in Queens. In a March 10, 2014 column (HT Instapundit) in the New Yorker, Nicholas Lemann reviewed two recently published books on the murder and its aftermath, one by Catherine Pelonero and the other by Kevin Cook.

The FBI saw enough merit in a reputed Mafia captain’s tip to once again break out the digging equipment in search of the elusive remains of former Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa, last seen alive when he left for lunch with two mobsters 38 years ago. Federal agents brought excavation equipment Monday to a field in suburban Detroit where Tony Zerilli said Hoffa’s remains were buried. Zerilli, 85, told Detroit television station WDIV in February that he knew the location of the remains. …

Dennis Delucia faces 46 months when sentenced on an extortion conviction, and his lesbian daughter Donna has submitted a letter to Brooklyn federal judge Kiyo Matsumoto in an attempt to humanize the reputed Colombo capo who was supportive of her coming out process as reported by John Marzulli for the Daily News: "My dad accepted me, embraced me and has supported me. His love and acceptance helped me through the rough times and growing pains." Donna now lives in Kentucky with her partner and their 9-year-old boy, and she would like a light sentence for her gangster dad because "I...

A small group of 'made men' with mob ties are raking in more than $400,000 a year as humble dockworkers at ports in New York and New Jersey, a new report reveals. These longshoremen are being paid for working 24 hour a day, seven days a week — even though they only show up at work as little as 30 hours a week for their cushy gigs. These huge, inexplicable salaries come as the Port Authority shells out hundreds of millions of dollars in public money to upgrade the ports so goods can continue to flow into and out of...

MYFOXNY.COM - Sophomore Jackie Genovese, 16, of New Jersey, had the perfect prom dress and date. But tragedy struck last week when her boyfriend of two years was killed in a car accident. Jackie's boyfriend, James, died on the way home from a baseball team dinner. He was a popular Jackson High School senior only weeks from graduation. She bought her $1,200 dress at Freehold's Diane and Co., also known for their popular Oxygen show "Dress Coutoure." She wanted a refund for her dress so she could help pay for her boyfriend's funeral. Jackie's mom asked the owners of the...

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan? It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan, while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said. Long seen as the "forgotten war" eclipsed by Iraq in U.S. priorities, Afghanistan is in the Washington spotlight this week with the release of three independent reports concluding...

The bosses of New York's five Mafia families in the mid-1980s came a hair-trigger away from sanctioning a hit on then-federal prosecutor Rudy Giuliani, according to bombshell FBI records made public today. Before cooler heads prevailed - the mob bosses decided by a razor-thin 3-to-2 margin not to try to whack the future mayor and presidential candidate - at least two of the dons argued fervently that the mob-busting U.S. attorney should sleep with the fishes. Bonanno boss Philip “Rusty" Rastelli, Genovese chief Vincent “The Chin" Gigante and Lucchese honcho Anthony “Tony Ducks" Corallo all cast votes to spare the...

NEW YORK - At an age when most of his contemporaries were long out to pasture or in prison, Matty "The Horse" Ianniello was still riding high. Retirement held no appeal for the old man — and why would it? The notorious Genovese crime family captain, an eyewitness to gangland history from the slaying of "Crazy Joey" Gallo through the conviction of Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, ascended to family boss just three years before his 80th birthday. It was 1997, and big money was rolling in from rackets in Little Italy, the garbage industry, a mobbed-up union local. The silver-haired...

Mob rap in bagel boom   Feds tie S.I. attack in '01 to gangland rivals  BY ERNIE NASPRETTO and JOHN MARZULLI DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS  My Deli in Staten Island was the target of a firebomb attack in 2001. Only in New York would a Mafia associate nicknamed The Irishman allegedly provide a bomb used to destroy a Pakistani immigrant's deli that was competing with a bagel store protected by the mob. The feds yesterday charged reputed Gambino crime associate Edward Fisher with orchestrating the December 2001 arson attack on My Deli and Grocery in Staten Island. Police had...

A federal indictment unsealed Thursday charges 32 people with racketeering crimes, including people described as the acting boss, members and associates of the Genovese organized crime family. The 42-count indictment says the defendants engaged in crimes for more than a decade. Those crimes include murder, violent extortion of individuals and businesses, labor racketeering, obstruction of justice, narcotics trafficking, money laundering and firearms trafficking. Federal prosecutors planned to release details at a noon news conference.

NEW YORK - The acting boss of the city's most powerful crime family and 31 others are charged in a new indictment with racketeering crimes, including murder, extortion, drug trafficking and money laundering, authorities announced Thursday. The indictment "delivers an absolute body blow" to the Genovese family's structure, said FBI Assistant Director Mark J. Mershon. He said 30 people had been arrested. The 42-count indictment unsealed Thursday accuses the defendants of engaging in criminal activity for more than a decade. U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia also released details about a corrupt lawyer whom he said had enabled the family's acting...

    John Bowers, the aging president of the International Longshoremen’s Association, had gone to meet a local union official at the Smith & Wollensky in Miami Beach. Inside, he was surprised to discover George Barone seated amid the polished brass and dark wood decor of the pricey waterfront steakhouse.     Barone was no stranger. A Genovese family member, he once controlled ILA locals in New Jersey and Miami. He also had coldly killed at least 10 people, by his own count, as a mob enforcer.     In a sworn deposition, Bowers recounted the conversation:     ‘‘You’re doing a wonderful job,’’ Barone told him. ‘‘We...