Jul 19 2007
Skinny Dom Seeks Mafia Cops Treatment
Meanwhile, as both sides wait for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to schedule oral arguments for the government’s appeal of Judge Weinstein’s Mafia Cops case ruling, Mr. Eppolito is in Las Vegas, where he and his wife are set to stand trial for tax fraud in six weeks.
The move to take him to trial in Las Vegas for tax fraud is hard to fathom. Even if Judge Weinstein’s ruling is upheld, Mr. Eppolito will face federal drug charges and a state murder trial in Brooklyn. The feds also have charged Frances Eppolito with tax fraud — essentially for simply signing joint tax returns with her hubby in 2000, 2001, and 2002 — and are threatening to bring her to trial along with her husband. This is the kind of thing that doesn’t do much for the Justice Department’s fairness reputation.
Still, the prevailing wisdom is that common sense and fairness will ultimately triumph.
Knowledgeable sources say the case — which has been adjourned six times in the hope of a negotiated plea deal, according to Las Vegas federal court records — should be resolved in a plea deal with Mr. Eppolito taking the weight and his wife getting a pass.
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Bonanno wiseguy Nicholas “P. J.” Pisciotti was so bummed out by his own crime family’s reaction to the beating that he gave a Genovese family rival in a bloody brawl triggered by the city’s anti-smoking law that he turned on the mob and cooperated with the feds.
P.J., whose remarkable, seemingly inexplicable good fortune with state assault and federal drug charges was disclosed last week by Gang Land, explained the reason behind those dismissals Tuesday by taking the witness stand at the retrial of a one-time acting Bonanno boss, Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano.
Pisciotti, a former acting capo who admits killing a mob associate during a barroom brawl several years ago, began cooperating in an effort to lessen his exposure to a long prison stretch. But even before he signed up with the feds, he was trying to distance himself from his Bonanno cohorts, he testified.
The reason? Soon after the September 2005 fisticuffs, P.J. learned from a Genovese family cohort that two Bonanno family leaders, Anthony “Fat Anthony” Rabito and Nicholas “Nicky Mouth” Santora, failed to back him up at a sit-down over the incident and gave their blessings to a Genovese associate who told cops about the punchout.
“I felt betrayed. That was a rat move,” the 37-year-old turncoat said.
Pisciotti, who seemed somewhat tentative and unsure in his prosecution debut, gave a powerful snapshot of the disarray in the Bonanno family when he spoke of his induction into the crime family in a hotel ceremony presided over by Joseph Massino.
In addition to P.J. and Massino, the first New York Mafia boss to defect, almost every wiseguy whom he named as a participant or attendee at the initiation rites has turned his back on the mob, including a former underboss, Salvatore “Good Looking Sal” Vitale, and one-time capos Frank Coppa and Richard “Shellackhead” Cantarella.
Perhaps the most telling illustration of the disorder and confusion that plagues the family came when Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Busa asked how P.J.’s duties changed when he was promoted to acting capo from soldier: “I’m still trying to figure that out,” he said.
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A Colombo family gangster, John “Sonny” Franzese, got a break last week from a federal parole commission examiner who recommended that the legendary wiseguy serve 18 months for his fifth parole violation in the last two decades, Gang Land has learned.
But when you’re 90, even 18 months — about half the time he likely would have gotten for the hour-long get-together Sonny had two years ago with other wiseguys at a New Hyde Park pastry shop — could easily be a life sentence.
If Franzese survives his sixth separate prison stretch stemming from the 50-year sentence he received for a 1967 bank robbery conspiracy conviction, he will remain on parole until 2020, just before he turns 103.
Sonny is believed to be the oldest of about 1,600 federal parole violators incarcerated under sentencing provisions for pre-1987 crimes, but the chief of staff for the U.S. Parole Commission, Tom Hutchison, told Gang Land he couldn’t be certain.
“If he’s not, he’s pretty close,” Mr. Hutchison said.
This column and other news of organized crime will appear today at ganglandnews.com.
Skinny Dom Seeks Mafia Cops Treatment, BY JERRY CAPECI, July 19, 2007, URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/58731, Gang Land
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