Little sports so Mafia is good

Sicilian Mafia boss dies in US jail.


Gaetano Badalamenti, once described as the "boss of all bosses" of the Sicilian Mafia, died yesterday in a prison hospital in the United States at the age of 80, an advanced age denied many of his former business associates.

Badalamenti rose swiftly through the Mafia ranks to lead the Cinisi clan until he fell foul of the ambitious Toto Riina. He left Sicily for Brazil and became a ringleader of a $1.65bn heroin and cocaine smuggling operation that used pizzerias as fronts to distribute the drugs in the US.

FBI surveillance finally trapped him and his confederates and, in 1987, they were charged with importing heroin from the Middle East and cocaine from South America and laundering profits through Swiss bank accounts. Prosecutors also claimed ring members were behind scores of murders in Sicily and the US.

The trial of Badalamenti and nearly two dozen conspirators in the case took 17 months, included more than 400 witnesses, 15,000 exhibits and 41,000 pages of transcripts. Prosecutors described Badalamenti as the former "boss of all bosses in Sicily".

He was found guilty and sentenced to 45 years in a US federal prison. He was also sentenced to life in prison in absentia in Italy in 2002 for the 1978 murder of a DJ who was frequently critical of the Mafia boss.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=517285

[This message was edited by The General on July 04, 2004 at 08:54 PM.]

Good post General. Stories like that are very interesting.....

The Mafia is a very, very interesting concept.

NEW YORK — As crime bosses go, Joseph Massino has been strictly old-school, a wise guy more wary than wild in a city that turns reputed mob leaders into celebrities.

Unlike John Gotti, who loved fancy clothes, flashy cars and media attention, the alleged head of the Bonanno crime family has long shunned the spotlight. But as Massino prepares to stand trial this month on seven murder charges — a case that is being billed as one of New York’s great mob trials — notoriety is about to engulf him.

Big Joey, as he is known, has been called the Last Don, the only leader of one of New York’s five crime families not to have been sent away to prison. Prosecutors are eager to bring him down, hoping to strike a major blow against organized crime.

``The Bonanno family is reeling,’’ said Pasquale J. D’Amuro, who spent four years directing an FBI probe of Massino and others, resulting in the indictment of 27 members. ``Today, to say it has an organized structure is to give it too much credit.’’

To many observers, a conviction in this trial — as well as in a separate murder case that might lead to a death sentence for Massino — could end a notorious chapter in Mafia history. His rise and fall is a classic tale of old-world mob values colliding with modern realities, according to federal court records, FBI reports and knowledgeable observers.

``He’s the last of the old time gangsters, and he’s had a 10-year run at the top of a legendary crime organization,’’ said Jerry Capeci, an expert on the mob and author of ``Gang Land,’’ a weekly column in the New York Sun. ``But now the end is in sight, because prosecutors are more powerful than ever and the Mafia itself has changed greatly.’’

Once a dominant force in the criminal underworld, members of the Bonanno, Gambino, Luchese, Colombo and Genovese crime organizations have seen their power slipping over the past 40 years. They no longer have the control over labor unions and politicians that they once enjoyed, and criminal organizations run by other ethnic groups — from Russia, China, Columbia, Jamaica and elsewhere — have gained more influence over a range of illegal activities, according to Ronald Goldstock, former head of the New York State Task Force on Organized Crime.

Despite this decline, he said, America’s cultural fascination with the New York families continues to echo in movies, novels and TV. And Massino’s saga has no shortage of Hollywood angles.

In 1976, for example, FBI agent Donnie Brasco — whose real name is Joseph Pistone — infiltrated the Bonanno crime family. He spent six years gathering crucial information from unsuspecting mobsters, and when he finally revealed himself, the federal agent helped put more than 120 members of the Mafia in jail.

The movie based on his exploits was a hit, yet Pistone’s testimony failed to get Massino and other family members convicted on murder charges. Some observers call the upcoming trial ``Donnie Brasco II’’ — an effort to complete unfinished business.

Others say the prosecution is a mean-spirited vendetta that is bound to fail.

``Massino is an innocent man being hounded by liars,’’ says his attorney, David Breitbart. ``This whole case is built on phony evidence, and it adds up to nothing.’’

Like many of his peers, Massino, 61, respected the importance of omerta, or silence, when he became a family member. This meant refusing to cooperate with prosecutors and giving information in exchange for a lesser sentence. To do so was unthinkable to members of his generation, an act of dishonor that could result in death.

But younger family members today feel no such ties of loyalty. And six of them — including Massino’s brother-in-law — are expected to offer damning testimony against him on seven mob-related slayings and other crimes.

``Look at the number of people who have turned against him (Massino) from his own family,’’ said Pistone. ``He’s been betrayed by a new, younger generation of Mafia guys who could care less about the traditions of refusing to cooperate with law enforcement officials. They’ll cut a deal for themselves the first chance they get.’’

http://www.bupipedream.com/050404/wire/w3.htm

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You are on a roll General, don't stop now! I took an ancient history course recently and came to the conclusion that what we call the mafia was just a fact of everyday life back then. I mean the way one faction would battle for supremacy over the other. In essence the king was the cappo di tutti cappi. They may not have engaged in the same "crimes" as they do now. But when you control trade and commerce there is no need to engage in other things. The "merchants" in Genoa and Venice were basically what we call mobsters. This was the case all over the world not only in Italy. I just used those two cities as an example because most people can relate to them or know a little about them.

In Italy, the first-ever study on women in Italian organized crime reveals that women are rising up the ranks to leadership positions. This is both because the mafia is changing, and women are changing the mafia.

From la dolce vita, the sweet life, to the malavita, the underworld, the growing presence of women is being felt everywhere in Italy.

Until recently, this was almost unthinkable. The first woman arrested for "criminal association" was just five years ago, in 1999. Police have known that women play a supporting role within the mafia: As mothers, wives, and daughters, they've carried out minor tasks.

Filling in for locked up hubbies

Occasionally, women have even stepped in to run things temporarily when their men have been jailed or murdered.

But a new study shows that women within the mafia are rising through the ranks and becoming bosses in their own right. And it says that the Italian judicial system should start paying closer attention.

Ernesto Savona of the Catholic University of Milan, one of the report’s authors, says criminal organizations are becoming more appealing to women. "Criminal organizations are changing. They’re producing less violence. Less people are killed in Palermo and Columbia and in others in proportion to how many were killed before. They’re transforming the hierarchical organization into a more flexible one. That means you’ll get more women having managerial roles. We call them 'sweet criminal organizations'," he told Deutsche Welle.

From hard crime to financial crime

As underworld activities have shifted to financial crimes, violence has dropped. Organizations have also become less centralized.

"That you find women having managerial roles in small criminal organization shows that it's very flexible and not hierarchical," Savona explains. "Especially juvenile gangs. Sometimes you find a woman who has the leadership in the organization."

The evolution of women in the criminal world is exactly the same as that of women in the business world.

Pierluigi Vigna, who heads up Italy’s national anti-mafia office, says that with politically motivated crimes, women are just as willing to kill as men. Mafia women, however, aren’t as willing when it comes to business. The researchers say that’s because women find murder for profit harder to justify. And their roles reflect this difference in values.

"They’re mainly found in areas that require a certain finesse," Vigna explains, "like money laundering rather than murder."

While there are no statistics on the exact number of women in the Italian mafia, the researchers say that more women in key positions are being arrested. In April, a 28-year-old Sicilian woman was found guilty of 50 percent ownership of a thriving underworld business.

This may not be this kind of emancipation feminists had in mind, but it does show that women in Italy need to be taken seriously in all facets of life.

http://www.dw-world.de/english

GENERAL.... GREAT PICS!!!

A Mafia hitman who confessed to killing 20 people in the United States and who helped convict a rogue FBI agent of protecting gangsters could be released from prison next year under a plea deal backed by prosecutors.

In a sentencing recommendation filed in a Boston federal court, prosecutors said John Martorano, 63, deserved the shortest prison term possible for co-operating with the government.

He is due to be sentenced on May 27.

Martorano has been in custody since 1995 after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and agreeing to a 12 year six month to 15 year prison sentence while working with investigators.

Depending on his sentencing, and with credit for good behaviour, Martorano could be released in late 2005 or early 2006.

Martorano helped prosecutors prove that former FBI agent John Connolly protected mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger.

Irish-American Bulger ran the notorious Winter Hill Gang in Boston. Connolly is serving a 10-year prison sentence.

Martorano pleaded guilty to killing his friend John “Jack” Callahan in 1982 on orders from Bulger.

Bulger feared Callahan would provide information on another gang execution.

Bulger, who disappeared in 1995, is on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list and is wanted in connection with 21 murders. The FBI believe he may have fled to Ireland.

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=104243018&p=yx4z437z4

A former Bonanno capo with damning evidence against his reputed godfather testified yesterday that he had no choice but to sing to the feds once the crime family's No. 2 wiseguy broke the Mafia's oath of silence.

"When I made my decision, I felt I was betrayed by Sal Vitale," Frank Lino said in Brooklyn federal court.

Lino, who has pleaded guilty to participating in six mob murders, testified during questioning by a lawyer for accused Bonanno boss Joseph Massino.

"There was no way I was going to win anymore," he said.

Lino, 66, recalled learning that Vitale — Massino's brother-in-law — had agreed to cooperate during a meeting with his co-defendants "that looked like a funeral."

"I knew I was going to be charged with many murders when Sal Vitale flipped," Lino said.

"He gave all the orders."

Lino isn't the only Bonanno to jump ship in Vitale's wake. At least eight mobsters are expected to testify against Massino, 61, who faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted of seven murders.

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/22160.htm

these new generations just don't know when to keep their mouths shut.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by spidermonkey:
these new generations just don't know when to keep their mouths shut.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


you broke your cherry! you broke your cherry!!!....

MILAN, June 5 (Reuters) - Police investigating organised crime in southern Italy have seized more than 100 kg (220 lb) of explosives and arrested 14 people, a police spokesman said on Saturday.

Police believed the trinitrotoluene (TNT) explosives were being offered for sale to criminal gangs in the Reggio Calabria region, the spokesman said, adding police did not yet know whether the TNT might have been used in terrorist activity.

The explosives had been divided up into packets of nearly 200 grams each with a total value of about 120,000 euros ($146,400), the spokesman said.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L05551518.htm