Feature Articles

By John William Tuohy

The Magazines Network...

New York: John Gotti is in the advanced stages of head and neck cancer, but doctors cannot say how long he has to live, a lawyer for the convicted mob boss said.. Doctors removed a cancerous tumor from Gotti's neck in 1998. At that time, he was told the average patient does not survive more than a year, Corozzo said.

     Gotti is now being allowed "limited contact" with family members who visit him in which he is allowed to hug and kiss his wife, his two daughters, his son, and other relatives while prison videotape rolls. At the end of the two-hour sessions, Gotti is again allowed to hug and kiss his relatives before they are escorted from the room

A NEW MOB FILM: Drop by Http://www.ifilm.com/ifilm/skeletons/film_detail/0,1263,1078245,00.html for the Buckholts Brothers Film, COCAINE COWBOYS. You Deal. You Die Its now showing at IFilm.com for your viewing pleasure. Please take the time to view the film and encourage others to do so as well.. The running Time: 28:24 minutes.

     This is a violent tale of shifting values and loss of honor in the underworld takes place as two different generations and ethnic groups vie for money and power in a criminal lifestyle that is being polluted and destroyed by greed, lack of respect and betrayal.

     The indie film is a clever, straight forward genre flick with great acting, cinematography and lighting.

     A combination of "Mean Streets" and "Miami Vice" Wonderfully written, fast paced, exciting, stylish and extremely impressive.

New York: John Gotti�s son, Peter Gotti, 26, was arrested after being stopped by police at a checkpoint in Queens for not wearing a seat belt, according to Mary De Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the borough's district attorney's office. Officers also determined he was driving with a suspended license, she said. Gotti was held overnight and arraigned Sunday, when he paid a $50 fine and pleaded guilty to driving without a license, she said.

New York: The city has put on hold a contract that would bring 500 tons of Queens garbage each day through a transfer station as it investigates what officials called issues of "integrity" surrounding the facility.

     Omni Recycling of Babylon, which operates the transfer station, is owned by the niece and nephew of Westbury carter Emedio "Mimi" Fazzini, who has been labeled by the city's Trade Waste Commission as an associate of the Luchese crime family.

     Fazzini has been linked to the mob since he was taped in 1983 in what his lawyer said was a normal business conversation with carter Salvatore Avellino, later imprisoned as a Luchese family boss.

New York: A judge gave murder suspect Carmine Galante a week to decide whether he wanted to testify before a grand jury investigating the killing of a St. John's University student in 1999.

     Galante, 24, is charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Bill Manolis, a popular 18-year-old student at the Jamaica, Queens, university in a bar on April 4, 1999.

     The nephew of the slain gangster of the same name, Galante allegedly attacked Manolis after a friend called him from the bar to say the college student was chatting with Galante's girlfriend.

     He was arrested on Long Island after two years on the run.

     Galante has confessed to killing the student. "I wanted to stab him," Galante, 24, allegedly told detectives. "But I didn't want to kill him."

     He was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon .

     Galante had lived in a basement apartment with a stray pit bull for about six months, sources said.

     He worked odd jobs in construction and landscaping. He spent most of his time on the lam "eating and watching TV," the source said. He had added 80 pounds to his 5-foot-7, 190-pound frame and grew a goatee to mask his appearance.

New York: Joe Pesci, who won an Academy Award for his supporting role in mob drama "GoodFellas," is in talks to star in a film about Mafia hitman Sammy "The Bull" Gravano.

     Pesci's involvement in the film, titled "Sammy the Bull," is conditional upon the project being developed as a theatrical release. The film, which is set up at New Regency Prods., could become a TV movie, said Tom Colbert, a co-executive producer.

New York : Two Latin Kings gang members were convicted of threatening a witness despite a dramatic courtroom scene in which a 16-year-old girl recanted her grand jury testimony against them. Prosecutors in Brooklyn Federal Court seized on the girl's disavowal, however, as powerful evidence of the fear the gang members had instilled. Edwin Pedroza, 20, and Rasheem Meredith, 19, face up to four years behind bars following their conviction Wednesday by a jury that deliberated about four hours.

New York: A Bonanno family soldier and two associates have pleaded guilty to federal loansharking charges. John (Johnny Green) Faraci, 78, and Anthony (Tony Buck) Geraci, 76, face up to 46 months behind bars under the plea entered Thursday before Brooklyn Federal Judge Reena Raggi.

     Their accomplice, Anthony (Big Tony) Errante faces up to three years, according to the estimate by federal prosecutors. The crew's downfall came after one of their victims fell behind on a $15,000 debt in February 2000 and, fearing for his safety, went to the FBI.

New Jersey: Federal prosecutors said they had rubbed out the New Jersey crime family that fancies itself the Mafia's real-life Sopranos. The feds hit reputed members and associates of the DeCavalcante family with a string of charges, including an alleged plot to kill the wife of a suspected mob turncoat and their three young children Three of the reputed mobsters who were arrested also could face the death penalty for the bloody slaying of a former gangster who was gunned down on the Brooklyn waterfront in 1998 of Joseph (Joe Pits) Conigliaro, a capo in the Gambino crime family who managed to drive himself to the hospital before he died.

     The alleged masterminds behind that slaying were Joseph (Big Joey) Brideson, 42, of Staten Island, and Americo (Mike) Massa, 43, of Brooklyn. Prosecutors said the men were members of Conigliaro's mob crew who turned on him Jan. 23, 1998.

     Frank Polizzi, a reputed mob soldier, was charged with ordering the hit on the wife of a suspected informant, along with their three young kids.

     The planned hit, which didn't take place, would have marked a blatant violation of the rarely crossed Mafia proscription against killing innocent relatives of rival mobsters.

California - A federal grand jury has indicted five inmates and eight other people who allegedly orchestrated killings and other crimes through the Nuestra Familia prison gang,. The 13 people face charges that include murder, conspiracy, racketeering and drug dealing. Five of those indicted are inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison, the state's highest security prison. The suspects are accused of conducting a gang campaign to control a drug trafficking empire stretching from Santa Rosa to Salinas and the Central Valley, California.

     Two of those indicted, Rico ``Smiley'' Garcia and Ceasar ``Lobo'' Ramirez, are charged with the 1998 assassination of gang leader Michael ``Mikeo'' Castillo, who once oversaw the gang's drug operations in Sonoma. The violence was a result of competition between Nuestra Familia and the Mexican Mafia, another prison gang.

Boston: Four years after seizing cash and dozens of properties from gangsters James ''Whitey'' Bulger and Stephen Flemmi, prosecutors earlier this year quietly dropped their claim to the home of Flemmi's former girlfriend, Marion Hussey.

     Prosecutors told a judge that they no longer believed it was ''in the interests of justice'' to take the condominium that Flemmi allegedly bought for Hussey - noting that her daughter was allegedly killed by Bulger and Flemmi, and her son is now cooperating against the pair.

     The government has taken Bulger's $1.9 million lottery winnings and is pushing a forfeiture claim for Flemmi's vast real estate holdings, along with $14 million in cash from the two gangsters.

Boston: A former State Police lieutenant has allegedly admitted tipping off an associate of fugitive mobster James "Whitey" Bulger to surveillance efforts aimed at catching him.

     Two former Bulger associates have also implicated retired Lt. Richard Schneiderhan as a longtime mole.

     In 1999, the FBI suspected that Bulgers brothers might be calling the fugitive and ordered electronic surveillance of their home phones. But in the span of just three days, someone leaked the information to mobster Kevin Weeks, who told one of Bulger's brothers, and the surveillance was blown.

     Now, according to court documents, former state police lieutenant Schneiderhan confessed on two different occasions to two different sets of investigators that he was the leak to the mob.

Boston: A Peabody man was charged recently in federal court with loan sharking. Peter Gamache was held on loansharking charges in connection with attempts to collect a gambling debt from a victim who had sporting bets with him.

INFORMATION NEEDED: A California based author needs information on "Buster from Chicago", DeBeri's bar in the Lincoln heights section of L.A. and Lablanc's. Respond to devanier@earthlink.net

"Round Up The Usual Suspects" is produced by the MobMagazine.com
"Round Up The Usual Suspects" is produced by the MagazinesNetwork.com

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

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