On Sept. 11, 1989, Staten Island real estate developer Fred Weiss was gunned down as he entered his vehicle in front of his New Springville home on Wellington Court.

Investigators say John “Jackie the Nose” D’Amico and Joseph “Joe the German” Watts were part of a death squad that carried out the hit.

Weiss, who was 49 at the time of his murder, was looking at seventy years in prison for his role in a Mafia-connected dumping operation in Arlington. Investigators believe he was killed when Gotti and company feared he might cooperate with federal authorities.

72-year-old D’Amico is charged with racketeering conspiracy and murdering a witness in a federal criminal case. D’Amico was already in federal custody after being picked up in a massive Gambino sweep last February.

Watts, 67, was arrested in Manhattan Wednesday and is also charged with murder.

Both men face life in prison if convicted.

via Two Members of Gambino Crime Family Charged in 1989 Murder.

BY DONNA BECK | wpix.com February 12, 2009 NEW YORK, N.Y. (WPIX)

It was scary watching Charles Carneglia pour water into his glass yesterday in Brooklyn Federal Court. After all, he was the mob’s go-to guy whenever John Gotti or his capos wanted a body dissolved in acid. One informant says he even tossed finger bones in a Gambino soldier’s soup once to prove he’d done the job.

Sounds like a monster. That’s precisely why Judge Jack Weinstein won’t allow the jury to know about Carneglia’s science projects. The 88-year-old jurist, who wrote the bible on evidence and is legendary for not wearing robes and refusing to sit up on the bench, is bending over backward to give Carneglia a fair trial on five charges of murder.

A wise man for a wiseguy. And Carneglia – whom a mob turncoat said yesterday had a reputation for being “capable,” Mafia lingo for “willing to kill” – benefits. Weinstein doesn’t want the jury to think Carneglia used acid to kill anybody. Well, maybe he did torture a couple of hoods by allegedly pouring acid on their feet with a turkey baster. But not kill with it.

Jurors heard from former Gambino capo Michael DiLeonardo, a third-generation mafioso, about the secret ritual of becoming a made member of the Mafia, “dripping your blood on a saint card” with a gun and a knife crossed before you. And Carneglia allegedly used both guns and knives on five victims.

The capo said he’s known as “Crazy Charles.” It doesn’t help that he’s got the full Manson beard and smiles frequently with his court-appointed defense lawyers, as if they’re sharing an inside joke.

“I can’t even look at him,” said Evelyn Colon, whose father, Jose Rivera Delgado, was an armored truck driver whom Carneglia is accused of killing at JFK. “My father was full of life – he was always laughing and dancing. If you admired his shirt, he would give it to you right there. It was 18 years ago, but I’m reliving it all over again.”

Memories are just as fresh for Dennis Quirk, head of the state court officers association, who brought three vans of fellow officers to remember Albert Gelb. Gelb was the city’s most-decorated court officer when prosecutors say Carneglia shot him to death as revenge for busting him for gun possession. “I remember his funeral like it was yesterday,” Quirk said.

Michael Cotillo’s family – or what’s left of it 30 years after Carneglia allegedly killed him at age 25 in a fit of temper – was in the second row. “His father, Pasquale, died of a broken heart five weeks after Michael was killed,” said his sister, Irene Cotillo.

They and the relatives of Salvatore Puma, whom Carneglia allegedly stabbed on a streetcorner in a fight over cash, and Louis DiBono, shot in the back of the head in the World Trade Center garage after he refused to meet with John Gotti, form a strange association. People Whose Lives Were Destroyed by Crazy Charles. Not exactly something to Facebook-friend about.

But the saddest thing about Charles Carneglia is that it was obvious he still believes it is DiLeonardo and other “rats,” “canaries” or turncoats who are betraying an oath. The oath of secrecy, of omerta. The disloyal ones, telling the world in a Brooklyn courtroom of their rituals and their business and their crimes and their passions. DiLeonardo couldn’t look him in the eye, but Carneglia stared at him and shook his head and gnashed his teeth, as if the former capo’s finally giving up on The Life was the crime.

“He’s pure evil,” said one courtroom observer of Carneglia.

Perhaps, but it may be more complex than that.

The psychologist Helen Palmer writes that what’s wrong with the world is not that some people are good and some are evil, but that people have different ideals that are completely at odds with one another and clash. Carneglia and the other wiseguys valued loyalty, and the ability to kill for it, above all. In this room full of ghosts, he’d better be doubting everything he believed in. Or he is a monster.

Judge’s fair-trial acid test – BY JOANNA MOLLOY – DAILY NEWS COLUMNIST – Thursday, January 29th 2009, 9:29 PM – http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/01/30/2009-01-30_judges_fairtrial_acid_test.html

An American man claiming the Mafia and the CIA are conspiring to silence him — just as they killed his father and grandfather — was denied refugee protection in Canada because he could not prove the conspiracy in court.

The complicated tale of Michael Ellero, 44, of Phoenix, is told in some 700 pages of self-penned prose, a treatise he claims documents his work for the U. S. Department of Justice, payments by the Mafia to relatives of Hillary Clinton, and a nefarious campaign to destroy him after reporting office misdeeds to his boss — including the involvement of a lawyer in the death of a colleague.

He claims the CIA used psychological tricks against him and the FBI was investigating his mysterious uncle, who had multiple identities.

“My grandfather was killed, my father was killed, and [then] I learned that there was an attempt against me,” Mr. Ellero wrote in documents presented in the Federal Court of Canada, seeking emergency permission to stay in Canada.

Family members were coerced to co-operate with the Mafia, his phone calls were intercepted, documents were stolen from his bedroom and his job applications were inexplicably ignored, he said.

He did not get a chance to make his full case, however, because of another alleged conspiracy, this one by Canadian officials, he claimed: He was not permitted to enter his treatise into evidence and portions of the audio recording of his refugee hearing were erased.

Further, he is indignant that a Canadian immigration official suggested he might have a mental problem.

Mr. Ellero came to Canada in 2005 and a month later made a claim for refugee protection.

“Allegedly, his opponents are fearful that the book he has written will be published in due course, thereby exposing the corruption ‘in the federal government and elsewhere in the United States,’ ” Justice Michel Shore wrote in his 17-page ruling. “[He] claims he did not seek state protection from the U. S. authorities because he believes that the police cannot provide physical protection for him against ‘the evil and perils of the world.’ ”

The Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) rejected his claim two years ago because he was found not to be credible. He appealed to the Federal Court to overturn that decision but was denied; he then made an unsuccessful motion for that decision to be reconsidered.

He next claimed that returning him to the United States would place his life in danger. Officials found “no substantial grounds to believe” such a fate awaited him. Mr. Ellero once again took his case to the Federal Court, asking that his pending deportation be halted.

After a hearing in Ottawa last month at which Mr. Ellero represented himself, Judge Shore denied his appeal. “An applicant’s subjective fear of returning to his/her country does not constitute irreparable harm. Objective evidence of harm related to danger must be demonstrated,” he ruled. “The applicant has not shown that he would be subject to a serious likelihood of jeopardy to his life, liberty or security as a result of the removal.”

On Dec. 19,Mr. Ellero was turned over to U. S. officials south of Ottawa. He was inspected by U. S. border guards and released, said Kevin Cosaro, a spokesman for U. S. Customs and Border Protection.

Giovanna Gatti, a spokeswoman for the IRB, declined to comment on the specifics of Mr. Ellero’s complaints, but said the Federal Court is the appropriate venue for anyone disputing the handling of their case.

Mr. Ellero could not be reached for comment.

Court rejects U. S. man’s fears of CIA, Mafia – Adrian Humphreys, National Post – Published: Saturday, January 17, 2009 – http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=1187142

The charges against Gotti “are serious,” U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel said at the conclusion of a hearing in Manhattan federal court. “They provide a motive to flee.”

It was the first court appearance for Gotti in the city since his latest criminal case was transferred from Tampa, Fla., where a racketeering indictment against him was unsealed last year. Gotti, looking fit and upbeat, smiled broadly at his younger brother in the audience and pumped his fist as he entered the courtroom.

“I feel good,” the 44-year-old son of late Gambino crime family boss John Gotti said when the judge asked if he was prepared to decide whether to keep his lawyer.

The judge warned that the defense attorney, Charles Carnesi, had a potential conflict because investigators had recorded conversations between them that they say were suspicious. But Gotti insisted on sticking with “Charlie,” who represented him in two of three previous trials in 2005 and 2006 that ended with hung juries and mistrials.

“We developed a bond,” Gotti said. “He did his job. He was loyal to me.”

Carnesi, who won bail for Gotti in the earlier trials, argued that the new allegations were based on mob turncoats who were lying to protect themselves. He said Gotti wanted to be free to help prepare his defense.

“He’s not a flight risk or a danger,” Carnesi said. “He’s a fighter.”

Prosecutor Elie Honig countered that, unlike in the previous cases, Gotti faces charges that could land him in prison for life.

“He’s now an accused triple murderer and cocaine kingpin,” Honig said.

An indictment accused Gotti of being involved in three slayings in the late 1980s and early 1990s and possessing and trafficking more than 5 kilograms of cocaine.

Honig called Gotti’s claim that he retired from the mob long ago a “fabrication” and said he was still living off a misbegotten fortune. He claimed investigators have recordings of other Gambinos mocking the so-called withdrawal defense used in the earlier trials.

“That’s funny,” he quoted one as saying. “He kept taking money.”

Gotti’s father died behind bars in 2002 while serving a life term for racketeering and murder.

John ‘Junior’ Gotti is denied bail in NY court – By TOM HAYS – 16.01.2009 – Associated Press Writer – This story was found at: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/AP/story/855699.html

“I never seen anything like it,” Tommy Hussey was saying. “Guy gets 40 years and you’d think he won the lottery.”

It is true that John Connolly had just been sentenced to 40 years in prison for setting up a Boston businessman named John Callahan for murder. And it is true that Judge Stanford Blake told Connolly that he had tarnished the badge he wore as an FBI agent, that he was in league with the same gangsters he was supposed to be taking off the streets.

But it is equally true that John Connolly probably will never serve a single day of the 40 years, that he will most likely get out of prison in a couple of years after wrapping up his 10-year racketeering sentence.

This is because even as Judge Blake was telling Connolly he believed him to be guilty of helping Whitey Bulger kill people, he handed out a sentence that even he suggested will not withstand an appeal. The statute of limitations for the second-degree murder Connolly was convicted of had expired, the judge explained. He would have thrown out the verdict yesterday if Connolly’s lawyers hadn’t missed a deadline in filing their motion.

Judge Blake didn’t buy the government’s contention that Connolly’s carrying of his FBI gun made him a principal in the killing of John Callahan. But neither did he buy Connolly’s assertion that he did nothing wrong, that Connolly and the FBI used Bulger and Stevie Flemmi as informants for a greater good, taking down the Mafia. And he made it clear that he believed John Callahan was killed because John Connolly told Whitey Bulger that Callahan was going to implicate them all in the killing of Oklahoma businessman Roger Wheeler.

It took a judge in Florida to state what the Boston office of the FBI has always denied: The Winter Hill Gang run by Bulger and Flemmi was worse, and certainly more murderous, than the Mafia in Boston, that the FBI’s protection of Bulger and Flemmi succeeded only in getting a lot of people killed.

One of those people was Tommy Hussey’s daughter, Debbie, who was raised by Steve Flemmi after Tommy Hussey’s ex-wife moved in with Flemmi. When Debbie Hussey was 13, Steve Flemmi started having sex with her. At some point, she started taking drugs.

“She was a smart girl, a beautiful girl,” Tommy Hussey was saying, as John Connolly embraced his childhood friend Franny Joyce. “I got her to come down here and live with me when she was about 20. I got her a job at a hotel in Boca, and the manager said she was the best waitress he ever had. But she couldn’t stay off the drugs and she went back to Flemmi.”

Debbie Hussey was 26 years old when Whitey Bulger decided she had become a liability and had to die. They lured her to a house in South Boston with the promise of a new coat. Whitey strangled her first, but when Steve Flemmi put his ear to her chest he heard something so he strangled her some more.

“I don’t buy this stuff that they needed Bulger and Flemmi to take out the Mafia,” Tommy Hussey was saying, as John Connolly’s sister Sally and brother Jim came forward to hug him. “But even if you buy that, the FBI bugged the Mafia guys in 1981 and took them off the street in 1983. They murdered my Debbie a couple of years after that.”

Tommy Hussey is 73 years old and he’s no lawyer. But he knows the truth when it’s staring right at him.

“My daughter’s dead because that guy protected Whitey Bulger and Stevie Flemmi,” he said, pointing at John Connolly, who stood 10 feet away hugging his wife, Liz.

John Connolly was still hugging everybody when Tommy Hussey walked, all alone, out of the courtroom and down the hall, on his way home to Deerfield Beach.

Outcome leaves victim’s father at a loss – By Kevin Cullen – Globe Columnist / January 16, 2009 – This story was found at: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/01/16/outcome_leaves_victims_father_at_a_loss/

“I never seen anything like it,” Tommy Hussey was saying. “Guy gets 40 years and you’d think he won the Lottery.”

It is true that John Connolly had just been sentenced to 40 years in prison for setting a Boston businessman named John Callahan up for murder. And it is true that Judge Stanford Blake told Connolly that he had tarnished the badge he wore as an FBI agent, that he was in league with the same gangsters he was supposed to be taking off the streets.

But it is equally true that John Connolly will never serve a single day of the 40 years, that he will most likely get out prison in a couple of years after wrapping up his 10-year racketeering sentence.

This is because even as Judge Blake was telling Connolly he believed him to be guilty of helping Whitey Bulger murder people, he handed out a sentence that even he suggested will not withstand an appeal.

The statute of limitations for the second-degree murder Connolly was convicted of had expired, the judge explained. He would have thrown out the verdict today if Connolly’s lawyers hadn’t missed a deadline in filing their motion.

Judge Blake didn’t buy the government’s contention that Connolly’s carrying his FBI gun made him a principal in the murder of John Callahan.

But neither did he buy Connolly’s claim that he did nothing wrong, that Connolly and the FBI used Bulger and Stevie Flemmi as informants for a greater good, taking down the Mafia.

And he made it clear that he believed John Callahan was murdered because John Connolly told Whitey Bulger that Callahan was going to implicate them all in the murder of an Oklahoma businessman named Roger Wheeler.

It took a judge in Florida to state what the Boston office of the FBI has always denied: the Winter Hill Gang run by Bulger and Flemmi was worse, and certainly more murderous, than the Mafia in Boston, that the FBI’s protection of Bulger and Flemmi only succeeded in getting a lot of people killed.

One of those people was Tommy Hussey’s daughter, Debbie, who was raised by Steve Flemmi after Tommy Hussey’s ex-wife moved in with Flemmi. When Debbie Hussey was 13, Steve Flemmi started having sex with her. At some point, she started taking drugs.

“She was a smart girl, a beautiful girl,” Tommy Hussey was saying, as John Connolly embraced his childhood friend Franny Joyce. “I got her to come down here and live with me when she was about 20. I got her a job at a hotel in Boca, and the manager said she was the best waitress he ever had. But she couldn’t stay off the drugs and she went back to Flemmi.”

Debbie Hussey was 26 years old when Whitey Bulger decided she had become a liability and had to die. They lured her to a house in South Boston with the promise of a new coat. Debbie loved clothes. Whitey strangled her first, but when Steve Flemmi put his ear to her chest he heard something so then he strangled her some more until she was good and dead.

“I don’t buy this stuff that they needed Bulger and Flemmi to take out the Mafia,” Tommy Hussey was saying, as John Connolly’s sister Sally and brother Jim came forward to hug him. “But even if you buy that, the FBI bugged the Mafia guys in 1981 and took them off the street in 1983. They murdered my Debbie a couple of years after that.”

Tommy Hussey is 73 years old and he’s no lawyer. But he knows the truth when it’s staring right at him.

“My daughter’s dead because that guy protected Whitey Bulger and Stevie Flemmi,” he said, pointing at John Connolly, who stood ten feet away hugging his wife Liz.

John Connolly was still hugging everybody when Tommy Hussey walked, all alone, out of the courtroom and down the hall, on his way home to Deerfield Beach.

Amid sentencing, hugs and handshakes – January 15, 2009 05:09 PM – By Kevin Cullen, Globe Staff – This story was found at: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/01/amid_sentencing.html

U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks imposed the sentence on Vincent Artuso, 64, following his conviction in October on 41 fraud and racketeering charges involving a lengthy scam against ADT Security Services Inc. The scheme involved several crooked real estate deals that cost ADT, which is part of Tyco International Ltd., at least $11 million and possibly much more, prosecutors said.

“It was a large-scale, complex, multimillion-dollar scheme,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney William T. Shockley. “They were getting a big payday every year. It was like an annuity.”

Artuso was a “made member” of the Gambino family and directed a Palm Beach-based Mafia crew that included his own son, Shockley said. The prosecutor cited FBI affidavits and other evidence indicating that Artuso was present on Dec. 16, 1985 when former Gambino boss Paul Castellano was gunned down in front of a Manhattan steakhouse — allegedly on Gotti’s orders.

Shockley said Artuso was never prosecuted for the killing but had used a known penchant for violence as a form of intimidation to keep subordinates in line.

“That’s just the way the mob works,” the prosecutor said. “He’s behind the scenes, calling the shots.”

The dapper Gotti, known as the “Teflon Don” for his ability to avoid criminal convictions, was finally convicted in 1992 of racketeering and murder charges and died in prison a decade later.

At the Miami sentencing hearing, defense attorneys sought to minimize the Mafia references, arguing there was little direct testimony during a three-week trial linking Artuso and the others to the Gambinos. They claimed prosecutors used rumors and legends against the men.

“This wasn’t an organized crime family as the government would have you believe,” said Allen Kaiser, attorney for co-defendant Philip Forgione, who was awaiting sentencing.

The four men and a former ADT employee were convicted of defrauding the security company through real-estate deals in which the Gambino crew bought ADT office buildings far below market value, then leased them back to the company at inflated prices. ADT paid the men millions of dollars in excess lease payments over a five-year period, trial testimony showed.

Prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of more than $20 million from the defendants, while defense attorneys say the amount should be about $9.5 million. Middlebrooks said he would decide the exact amount later.

Reputed mob captain gets prison in Fla. fraud case – AP – This story was found at: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hwvha0N90V-RGXtbgT4B1CDQR7aQD9544RB00

U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said that an acting “capo” or boss in the Luchese family identified as Anthony Croce, was arrested together with seven others. Croce is facing up to five years imprisonment if found guilty on gambling charges.

The arrest of the eight mafia men underscores the FBI’s renewed intense focus against organized crime family, as well as the slow but steady decline of the mafia.

Last month, federal agents arrested John Gotti, also known as Junior to his friends and victims, the former head of the notorious Gambino family in New York in connection with three murders.

Gambino, who has been under the FBI watch list for years, is facing charges of operating a drug ring in New York, New Jersey and Florida, as wall as killings that date back to the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The arrests, deaths and turncoatism of some members in the mafia organization, have weakend the five mafia crime families in New York, including the Bonnano, Colombo, Gambino, Genevese and Luchese.

Croce is facing between five and 40 years if found guilty on three other serious charges of cocaine distribution.

FBI Detains 8 Suspected Mafia Men In New York – November 25, 2008 7:26 a.m. EST – AHN – This story was found at: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7013179534

Three other associates were nabbed for distributing 500 grams of cocaine.

The feds say members of the gambling ring regularly kicked up a percentage of their profits to Anthony Croce, an acting captain for the crime family. Croce faces five years in prison.

Investigators uncovered the ring by secretly recording cell phone conversations of members taking in thousands of dollars in bets for football and other sporting events.

Members aided customers by providing them with access codes to an offshore gambling operation run over the Internet, according to a criminal complaint filed by the FBI in Manhattan Federal Court.

Bronx sports gambling ring led by Luchese family member busted – By Thomas Zambito – DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER – Monday, November 24th 2008, 11:41 PM – http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/11/24/2008-11-24_bronx_sports_gambling_ring_led_by_luches.html

American Nato officers have been renting a villa near Naples for years that belongs, indirectly, to Antonio Iovine, a clan chieftain of the Camorra, the Neapolitan Mafia.

Mr Iovine, 44, nicknamed “o’ninno” — the baby — because of his small stature, is wanted for murder and other crimes, and is listed among the 30 most dangerous criminals in Italy. He has been on the run for 12 years.

According to an investigation that was published in Corriere della Sera yesterday the villa of Mr Iovine may be only the tip of an iceberg. Italian police sources suggested that there were scores of similar cases in the Naples area of Nato service personnel living in houses that were owned by the Camorra. There are several Nato facilities in the area, notably a US telecommunications centre in Bagnoli and the US Air Force base at Capodichino.

“It’s ludicrous, isn’t it? The coffers of Nato, to which Italy also contributes, are helping to fill the coffers of the Camorra,” Franco Roberti, the co-ordinator of the local anti-Mafia bureau, said.

The villa rented by the American officers, near the town of San Cipriano d’Aversa, was bought in 1986 by Mr Iovine’s mother, with what investigators believe were the wages of his criminal activities. Because it is registered in her name, prosecutors have so far failed to present sufficient evidence of its criminal origins.

The two-storey villa is surrounded by a high wall topped by a fence with several video cameras along its perimeter. It is only 18 miles from the US bases.

Colonel Carmelo Burgio, who heads the 1,360 Carabinieri in the Naples area, which is infested by the many family-based clans that make up the Camorra, said: “Last year we succeeded in sequestering €100 million [£79 million] of assets belonging to the Bianco-Corvino clan of the Camorra, including about 50 villas. We then discovered that 40 of these were rented out to Nato personnel. Most of them are still living there, with the difference that the rent, which ranges between €1,500 and €3,000 a month, is now paid into a state fund.”

Colonel Burgio said that the Camorra clans were masters at camouflaging their purchases, which were used to launder illegal earnings. He said that Mr Iovine’s wife, who was arrested in July for extortion and for managing contacts between her husband and other clan chiefs, “has letters from friends saying they gave her as presents everything of any value in her house, furniture, TVs, clothes everything”. There were even hundreds of pairs of expensive shoes, each with a “present note” from a friend.

The military duty officer at the US Embassy in Rome said that he had no knowledge of the situation and declined to comment. Military personnel at the American Joint Forces Headquarters in Naples and at the Capodichino airbase also said that they knew nothing of the matter, and that nobody was available to comment.

Nato officers rent villa owned by Naples Mafia boss Antonio Iovine – Paul Bompard in Rome – The Times – October 27, 2008 – This story was found at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5019417.ece