Oct 22 2007
Organized Crime Takes Lead in Italy’s Economy
ROME — Organized crime represents the biggest segment of the Italian economy, accounting for more than $127 billion in receipts, according to a report issued on Monday. Continue Reading »
Archive for October, 2007
Oct 22 2007
Living on the Mafia hit list – a journalist’s tale
Italian journalists Lirio Abbate works in his office in Rome October 18, 2007 – REUTERS/Tony Gentile
ROME – Lirio Abbate has an unwelcome distinction among Italian journalists: correspondent in Sicily for the state news agency Ansa and La Stampa newspaper, he has had his own armed police escort for the past six months.
When anti-Mafia investigators using wiretaps heard mobsters discussing how to silence 37-year-old Abbate in revenge for his news reports and book about their illegal activities, police decided to give him and his wife a police escort. Continue Reading »
Oct 21 2007
The Mafia, an F.B.I. Agent and Murder: Mr. Scorsese, Your Next Film Awaits
Are you familiar, as the lawyers say, with a man named Alphonse Persico, known as Allie Boy? How about Nicky Black, Wild Bill, Joe Waverly, Joey Brains and Joe Brewster? Or Lawrence Mazza, James Delmasto, John Pate and Carmine Sessa?
If not, good luck following the blockbuster murder case on trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court before a spellbound audience of journalists, promoters, authors, conspiracy theorists, gadflies and some who answer to three or more of those designations. You need a scorecard just to track the players. Continue Reading »
Oct 16 2007
Mafia murder witness found dead
Police in Italy have confirmed that a key witness in a Mafia murder case has committed suicide by hanging himself.
Bruno Piccolo had helped identify the men who are currently on trial for the murder of a politician in 2005. Continue Reading »
Oct 16 2007
Ex-F.B.I. Agent Faces Scrutiny Over Mob Killings
Roy Lindley DeVecchio, who is retired from the F.B.I., and a lawyer, Ginnine Fried, in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn on Monday. Jesse Ward-Pool/Getty Images
The rumor was explosive, hard to believe: Gregory Scarpa Sr., a ruthless Colombo crime family capo known as the Grim Reaper, was receiving tips from a mysterious source inside law enforcement, a man he called “the girlfriend.”
The confirmation was devastating: Prosecutors working to cripple the family in the mid-1990s said that the source was their own Roy Lindley DeVecchio, a Federal Bureau of Investigation supervisor, the man assigned to lead the Colombo investigation. Continue Reading »
Oct 15 2007
Suspected mob figure won’t be returned to Italy
A U.S. court, citing the risk of torture, denies Italy’s request to extradite Rosario Gambino.
He served 22 years behind bars on a conviction for heroin trafficking. The U.S. wanted to deport him — and Italy wanted him back.
But there was a problem: His name was Rosario Gambino, with alleged ties to the infamous Gambino crime family. Continue Reading »
