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Fear City

New Trial May Be In Cards For Four Reputed Luchese Mobsters, Including Alleged Bosses Stevie Wonder Boy, Matty Madonna

By Ed Scarpo
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A recent Appellate Court ruling granting a requested delay has cleared the path for a new trial for alleged Luchese underboss Steven L. Crea, acting boss Matthew (Matty) Madonna, soldier Christopher Londonio, and associate Terrence Caldwell, who were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a gangland hit in the Bronx in 2013. Reputed mob associate Meldish was shot dead in the Bronx in 2013. Lawyers for Crea, Madonna, Londonio, and Caldwell filed the joint motion last month to request a delay because, the lawyers say, they found new evidence containing Brady, Giglio, or Rule 16 material—which has to do with the disclosure of exculpatory and impeachment evidence—which they will use in a motion seeking a new trial. The Rule 33 motion was to be filed in U.S. District Court in White Plains, the same courthouse where Crea, Madonna, Londonio, and Caldwell stood trial in 2019 for the murder of alleged Luchese associate Michael Meldish . Crea and his three co-defendants were convicted on
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THE BAD OLD DAYS: Appeals Highlight Genovese Family Plot To Kill Gambino Boss John Gotti, Brother Gene

By Ed Scarpo
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Two Garden State mobsters, including the former head of the Genovese crime family's New Jersey contingent, are seeking to get out of prison on arguments that their decades-old convictions—for ordering a hit on a businessman in an Upper East Side Italian restaurant as well as for plotting to murder top members of the Gambino family—should be overturned owing to prosecutorial misconduct. Bobby Manna, center, and crew were nabbed in 1988. Former Genovese consiglieri Louis (Bobby) Manna, who served in the regime of Vincent (Chin) Gigante, and co-defendant Richard (Bocci) DeSciscio, an alleged associate whom Manna entrusted with carrying out murders, posed their arguments (via their attorneys) in motions recently filed in Federal court. Manna, 91, and DeSciscio and co-defendants Martin (Motts) Casella, who owned Casella's Restaurant, a Genovese hangout, and  Frank (Dipsy) Daniello, a retired Hoboken police lieutenant, were charged for involvement in  plotting to murder John Gotti
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Gambino Soldier Huck Carbonaro, Given 70 Years Inside, Leaps Onto Compassionate Release Bandwagon

By Ed Scarpo
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Thomas (Huck) Carbonaro, 73, saying he is a changed man who deserves a break, is filing for compassionate release in an attempt to delete the balance of the 70-year sentence he got for several mob murders, including for plotting to kill Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano in Arizona. Huck Carbonaro In addition to being convicted for his role in the infamous Gambino family conspiracy to find and kill Sammy the Bull out West around the turn of the 20th century, Huck was found guilty of participating in the 1998 slaying of Gambino associate Frank Hydell and the 1990 killing of construction official and reputed Gambino mobster Edward Garofalo. The Staten Island Advance recently reported on Huck's CR , noting that the Gambino soldier wants to spend what time he has left with his family. His projected release date is in March of 2063.  “Mr. Carbonaro is no longer the man who committed his offenses of conviction,” attorney Harlan Protass wrote, according to the Advance.  “Rather, today, he
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Kevin McTaggart, Cleveland Mob War Veteran, Seeks Compassionate Release

By Ed Scarpo
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A Cleveland mob associate who was a close ally of upstart Danny Greene*—and who allegedly was involved in multiple murders as an enforcer for a Cosa Nostra-affiliated narcotics trafficking operation—is seeking to get out of prison after spending almost 40 years there. Kevin McTaggart was a trusted ally of Danny Greene. Kevin McTaggart was all of 26 years old in 1983 when he was convicted of participating in seven murders in his role as an enforcer for a $15-20 million drug trafficking entity linked to the Cleveland Mafia. McTaggart was as violent as they come, and a judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole. Today, McTaggart, 64, who resides in a federal prison in Michigan, says he is a changed man, and his lawyers are citing his exemplary prison record in an attempt to sway U.S. District Judge John Adams to grant the inmate's compassionate release motion. “While these years of confinement have been difficult, it has been a journey of reflection, remorse, sorrow, inspira
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Two-Plus Years Later, Whitey Bulger Murder Suspects Still In Solitary With No End In Sight

By Ed Scarpo
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REVISED James (Whitey) Bulger, one of the most notorious gangster snitches of the 20th century, was found viciously beaten to death inside a West Virginia prison on October 30, 2018. Two years and seven months later, no one has been charged with the murder—but three inmates—suspects in the case—remain in the special housing unit at US Penitentiary Hazelton, locked in tiny cells for 23 hours a day, t he Boston Globe recently reported . Whitey Bulger was given two life terms for participating in 11 murders. Relatives of the three prisoners have said that the trio is being denied "basic human rights."  The COVID-19 pandemic is part of the reason why the Bulger murder probe is still open with no charges filed. Other than that and the grievances of suspects’ family members, practically no new developments in the Bulger case have come to light. We know about as much as we did in 2018.... Bulger had a hip injury and was in a wheelchair when he was brought to Hazelton that year. Bulg
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In An Historical First, Roman Catholic Church Moves To Excommunicate Mafiosi

By Ed Scarpo
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In the centuries since the various Mafia entities emerged in Italy—Cosa Nostra in Sicily, the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria, and the Camorra in Campania, to name three—the Vatican never used the power of excommunication against members of organized crime. Judge Rosario Livatino was killed in September 1990 near Agrigento. Until now. The Vatican News reports  that the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development—a department of the Roman Curia, the central body through which the Pope directs the Roman Catholic Church—has created a workgroup specifically tasked with excommunicating members of organized crime. The Dicastery was formed earlier this month on May 9, which also is the date when the Catholic Church marked the first ever beatification--the last step in the canonization process before sainthood-- of Rosario Livatino, a judge who was slain decades back by members of a Cosa Nostra offshoot group. The judge will become the first martyr slain by the Mafia. Behind the church’s newly
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