Feature Articles

By John William Tuohy

Arizona: "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, the former underboss of New York City's Gambino crime family, who admitted involvement in 19 Mafia executions, has put his Tempe, Arizona, home up for sale for $650,000.

     The property has four-bedrooms, four-baths a family room, a formal dining room, an eat-in kitchen, a master suite with a private bath, a three-car garage, and a swimming pool, and is located in home in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix.

     Gravano moved to Arizona in 1995 as part of the federal witness protection program after serving part of a five-year sentence in prison and testifying against his former boss, John Gotti.

     Gravano is being held on $5 million bail, accused of money laundering, illegal possession of firearms, and running a ring that distributed the drug ecstasy to teenagers.

Sicily: Salvatore Genovese, one of the most wanted Sicilian Mafia leaders, was arrested after seven years on the run.

     Genovese, 57, head of a Mafia family in the rural area of San Giuseppe Jato, was believed to have once been the right-hand man of Bernardo Provenzano, who remains the Mafia's leading fugitive.

     Genovese is accused of seven murders and is believed to have taken the place of Giovanni Brusca, an arrested boss who organized the 1992 twin bomb killings of anti-Mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

     Police arrested Genovese, who was among Italy's top 30 most wanted criminals, when they stormed a country house south of Palermo. He was armed with a pistol but gave up without a fight Genovese's arrest was a coup for police and raised the hope that they may one day be able to nab Provenzano. Provenanzo -- nicknamed ``Binu the Tractor'' because he mows people down -- has been at large for more than 25 years.

London: British gangster Reggie Kray, who died this month after three decades in prison, made a pop record to register his hatred of racism before he died.

     Kray, a convicted killer, condemned racism in his song ``What did he do?'' and made a plea for the people who killed black teenager Stephen Lawrence, in a racist attack in 1993, to be brought to justice.

     Kray recorded the song after hearing that the Acourt brothers, two of the five men who were first charged with killing Lawrence, described themselves as the new Krays' and regarded Reggie and his twin brother Ronnie as their heroes, the Observer said.

     Another song on the CD also shows that Kray was not under the thumb of his certified insane brother Ronnie as is popularly believed.

     Reggie Kray says in one song that he killed Jack ``The Hat'' McVitie of his own free will in 1969 and not under pressure from Ronnie.

Washington: The U.S. government is making efforts to hold U.S. corporations accountable for handling drug money that they obtain via the Black Market Peso Exchange.

     The New York Times says a meeting held in July by the U.S. Justice Department that included representatives from Hewlett-Packard, Ford Motor Company, and Whirlpool fell apart as the corporations revealed the many layers of intricate financial transactions that separate them from the money launderers that use the Black Market Peso Exchange.

"Round Up the Usual Suspects" is a Magazine Network Production.

Mr. Tuohy can be reached at MobStudy@aol.com

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