Free Republic

A mobster known as the "Pittsburgh connection" for the real-life gangsters portrayed in the Oscar-winning movie "Goodfellas" died Thursday evening after he suffered a heart attack at an Ormond Beach bar. Eugene "Nick the Blade" Gesuale, 73, was having his customary Pinot Grigio at Past Times Restaurant and Bar, when he suddenly fell over," said bar manager David Ruiz. "He was on his cellphone and it looked as if he was having a seizure," Ruiz said Friday afternoon. "I called 9-1-1." Ruiz said Gesuale, who was released from federal prison in October 2014 after serving 24 years for racketeering and...

US to Drop Charge Against Ex-Prosecutor By COREY WILLIAMS December 9, 2007 DETROIT (AP) — The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to drop the final charge against a former federal prosecutor acquitted of holding evidence from the defense in a major terrorism trial. In documents filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, the government asked that an obstruction of justice charge from a 2003 drug case be dismissed. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino had been accused of lying to a federal judge in that case. It is the last of four federal charges against Convertino, who...

Presidential candidate Donald Trump is now taking on one-time Obama "car czar" Steve Rattner.On Monday, Trump fired off a tweet telling Rattner: "I think you should have gone to prison for what you did, I guess Obama saved you." He ended the tweet telling Rattner to watch: "I will win!" It was unclear what activity Trump was referring to that should have landed Rattner in jail. Trump did not respond to CNNMoney's request for comment. In 2010, Rattner did pay $10 million in fines when he settled with the New York state attorney general for his alleged involvement in a...

Barack Obama stands on the brink of capturing the presidential nomination in large part because of Democratic Party reforms initiated by the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s -- movements in which Hillary Clinton's top strategist, Harold Ickes, was a key player. When Obama was barely three, Ickes took part in Mississippi Freedom Summer, helping the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party send a primarily black delegation to the 1964 national convention in Atlantic City. After the Freedom Democratic delegation was denied seating by the virtually all white male Democratic Party establishment, Ickes -- then 24 -- went on to...

Do you think Hillary Clinton should be criminally prosecuted for her use of a private email server while serving as Secretary of State? Yes No Undecided

CHARLOTTE, NC (WWBT) - A veteran of the NASCAR circuit and his daughter are recovering at a North Carolina hospital after they were allegedly attacked outside a concert in Charlotte. According to a post shared by former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace on Twitter, his brother and fellow NASCAR driver Mike Wallace, along with Mike's daughter Lindsay were beaten as they were leaving a Rascal Flatts concert in Charlotte at the PNC Amphitheater Friday evening. Kenny went on to say that the men "continued to kick Mike in the face while Mike was 'knocked out'" in a series of tweets Sunday...

Senior Hillary Clinton aide Jake Sullivan and former tech support staffer Brian Pagliano each signed agreements with the government pledging not to disclose classified information, according to government documents released Thursday by Republicans. Both men signed the nondisclosure statements swearing to protect ´marked or unmarked classified information, including email communications,´ according to documents released by the Republican National Committee. (Photo) The document each of them signed is called a form 312, which requires federal employees to swear, under potential criminal penalty, that they won´t mishandle classified information. Sullivan is a senior campaign advisor who served as Clinton´s direct of policy...

It only took two sentences for Edward Snowden to eviscerate Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server Wednesday morning. The former National Intelligence Agency contractor could face decades in prison for breaking laws governing the handling of classified government information, and he expressed confusion on why Hillary Clinton doesn’t share his fate.

It's the stuff of mafia lore -- a doomed target thrown into the depths of the ocean, with his feet encased in cement. And yet, on an unseasonably cool morning in Brooklyn, a body with so-called "cement shoes" washed ashore this week, igniting the mystery of who committed the crime, and why. Authorities have identified the body as that of a 28-year-old suspected gang member named Peter Martinez. Martinez was found wrapped in "black plastic bags, his arms were tied behind him, and his feet were submerged in poured concrete," said New York Police Chief of Department Robert Boyce. Martinez'...

It is as iconic an image from the criminal underworld as the Tommy gun, or the getaway car, a grim last act for the unfortunate soul whose life is about to end in a new pair of footwear. Cement shoes.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Vice Chairman Charles Munger criticized leading candidates from both major U.S. political parties. At a meeting with investors of his Daily Journal Corp. in Los Angeles Wednesday, Munger, 92, was asked whether a person who couldn’t make money in the gaming industry would be a good fit for the top office in the U.S. “Well, he did make money for quite a while,” Munger said of Republican Donald Trump. “My attitude is that anybody who makes money running a casino is not morally qualified.”

Bookshops across Italy are refusing to stock a new book written by the son of one of the country's most notorious Mafia bosses. Signs have appeared in store windows from Sicily to Milan advising customers that the book - called Riina Family Life - won't be found on the shelves and can't be ordered either. It's written by Giuseppe Salvatore Riina, whose father, Toto, is serving multiple life sentences for murder. On Wednesday, state broadcaster Rai provoked outrage by airing an interview with the younger Riina, himself a convicted mobster. The first sign was posted in the Sicilian city of...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. judge is urging the Obama administration to protect from public disclosure federal court records related to the once-secret criminal history of a former Donald Trump business partner. In a highly unusual order prompted by The Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan said that unless the Justice Department acts before April 18, he will decide whether to make the court files public under the assumption that federal prosecutors don't care. The case involves Felix Sater, a Trump business associate who had pleaded guilty in a major Mafia-linked stock fraud scheme and cooperated with the...

I hope to get some feedback concerning voters and their choice to vote their conscience. I'm not advocating any candidate but these questions are an attempt to resolve how anyone can support silencing another American's vote. The radical statements concerning David Duke on a radio show, promoting Trump and how news stations everywhere want to control how David Duke votes. It sounds weird when it's stated like that but Trump cannot control who votes for him just like no one can tell Trump who to vote for. While the media witch hunters are brandishing their forks and flaming torches, ready...

Republican Presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz questioned Sunday whether Donald Trump’s business ties to a twice-convicted felon with prior mafia associations, described late last year in an ABC News investigation, could eventually undermine Trump’s chances in a general election contest. “The important point is, George, in the general election, Hillary Clinton is going to shine a light on all of this,” said Cruz, speaking on "This Week With George Stephanopoulos". “And Republican primary voters deserve to know.”

Sen. Ted Cruz speculated Sunday that Republican presidential rival Donald Trump might be delaying the release of his tax returns because of possible ties with the mob. "Maybe it is the case that Donald, there have been multiple media reports about Donald's business dealings with the mob, with the mafia," Cruz said on "Meet the Press." "Maybe his taxes show those business dealings are a lot more extensive than has been reported," he added. Cruz repeated the suggestion on ABC's "This Week," seemingly stunning host George Stephanopoulos. "Business dealings with the mafia?" Stephanopoulos asked, incredulously.

Roger Stone – Republican Political Consultant, Correspondent, The Daily Caller, Editor, StoneZone.com – joined Steve Malzberg on Newsmax TV to discuss Trump and his South Carolina win. Stone said CBS is about to SLIME Donald Trump on mafia tie claims. “The other thing you should be prepared for Steve is a major onslaught by CBS claiming that Donald Trump has ties to the mafia to the mob. Donald Trump has been licensed by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in toughest gaming regulatory law in the country. There’s nothing to this canard. This is the kind of smears that were...

Trump was building his eponymous empire of hotels, casinos, and high rises in the early 1980s in New York City and Atlantic City. In both places, the construction industry was firmly under the thumb of the mafia. And in both places there are literally concrete connections between La Cosa Nostra and Trump’s lavish projects. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston, who has covered Trump for decades, has written a very useful list of questions for Trump. Many focus on his ties to the mob. In addition in his 1992 book, “Trump, The Deals and the Downfall,” author Wayne Barrett lays...

ROME — Italian police have discovered an underground bunker in the countryside of southern Calabria with two fugitive mobsters holed up inside. The convicted ‘ndrangheta clan bosses had a dozen firearms, including a Kalashnikov, and a pasta pot neatly hanging on a wall. Tomatoes, salad and what looked like a plate of ricotta were on the counter when police raided the bunker early Friday. Vines and bushes camouflaged the hideout. Police said they are trying to find a network of accomplices they suspect helped Giuseppe Crea to elude capture for 10 years and Giuseppe Ferraro for almost 20 years. Crea...

Donald Trump is running for president. Many believed or hoped that the Donald's latest foray into national politics was nothing more than a public-relations move, not a serious attempt to reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But now that Trump holds the lead in national polls, as well as polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, it's time to take his campaign seriously. Media outlets like Huffington Post and the Wall Street Journal, which are covering Trump's run as an entertainment story, not a news story, are making a mistake. If Trump wants to be a serious candidate for president, and...