Jury Deliberations Resume in Ligambi Trial

By Ed Scarpo
Uncle Joe is waiting for the not
guilty verdict...
The third time's the charm -- hopefully, if the trial of alleged mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and six other alleged mobsters and associates is ever to reach its end.

After two misfires, a federal jury is once again moving forward with its deliberations.

In the two weeks since deliberations began, it has been rough sailing, with the removal of two jurors, one for being ill, the other for being acquainted with a witness in the trial.

The defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges they took part in illegal gambling and loan sharking and other offenses.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Stories

For Alleged Colombo Capo, Crime Really Does Pay

By Ed Scarpo
Image
John Staluppi, an American yachtsman supposedly known as much for his love of James Bond action films as yachts, is building up a super fleet of megayachts.

Diamonds Are Forever is his latest addition, and at 200 feet and with four decks, it is Staluppi’s largest megayacht to date. The ship's luxurious design includes two panoramic master suites and four guest staterooms; it even includes a central elevator.

Staluppi -- yacht owner and James Bond aficionado -- was identified by the FBI as a member of the Colombo family back in the early 1990s. An informer told the Feds Staluppi switched sides during the Colombo war in 1992, which quite a few guys did after potential usurper Vittorio Orena, with whom Staluppi had been aligned, was arrested.





But Staluppi still seems to have made it in the macro world, to the extent that the media seems to know him better as a yachtsman and a car dealer and a lover of 007 action flicks -- than as a mobster.

A source, a former law enforcement official,…
Read more

Hoodwinked: Restaurateur on Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Was a Mobster

By Ed Scarpo
Image
Peter "Peter Pasta" Pellegrino, formerly of the Babylon, New York restaurant Peter’s Italian Restaurant, really is -- or was -- a gangster.

The once-promising Bonanno member who appeared after the Kitchen Nightmares episode aired, now calls himself a brokester. And the Bonanno crime family, with which he was once affiliated has disowned him.

So has the rest of New York's Cosa Nostra, according to FBI documents and Peter Pasta himself.

But before all that he appeared on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares in which he acted very much like the mobster he allegedly was trying to become around the time of filming. (See Peter's Italian Restaurant menu here.)






Back then Peter Pasta was an up-and-coming Bonanno associate who "earned" $15 grand a week bookmaking.

At the time, he also owned two boats that he'd park in a pricey nearby Babylon harbor called Great South Bay.

Gang Land News's Jerry Capeci broke the news, reporting:

Today, like the battered and bruised…
Read more

Surveillance Images Reveal Suspect in Mob-Linked Restaurant Shooting

By Ed Scarpo
Image
Who fired a gun at the mobbed-up Marco Polo restaurant in Brooklyn early one February morning? The guy wearing the fedora hat and waist-length coat, below, of course....


That's what the NYPD said when they released surveillance footage of the suspect who fired several lead-filled shells into the eatery on Court St. and Union St. in Carroll Gardens at about 6 a.m. on Feb. 25.

He's white, about 6-foot-2 tall and thin, and was wearing a dark jacket and light pants.



A nearby surveillance camera filmed him that morning as he walked toward the restaurant near the time of the shooting, police sources told the Daily News.

Cops weren't alerted to the shooting until three hours after the fact.

As noted at the time, co-owner Marco Chricio told The New York Post that the restaurant "was caught in the crossfire between battling gangs from neighboring Gowanus and Red Hook housing projects."

Not so fast... The cops disputed that assessment, noting that the restaurant itself was …
Read more

Alleged Longtime Salamme Jr. Confidant Seeks Hail Mary Pass

By Ed Scarpo
Image
One of  Frank Salemme's co-defendants in the 1993 murder of a former nightclub owner claims he's irrelevant to this particular case and therefore should be left out of it.


His lawyers are making what seems like a bizarre argument. They in effect say that, despite the many, many incriminating allegations linking Weadick to Cosa Nostra activity (including a homicide), he should get a pass on this one since nothing directly ties him to the 1993 murder.




In a court filing, his lawyers, William Crowe and Mark Shea, note that nothing in the evidence against Weadick "has any relevance whatsoever to the charged crime."
Allegations about Weadick are limited to only the following: his general association with Salemme; a previous arrest for alleged involvement in 1987 drug ripoff; the fact that throughout the 1990s Weadick was generally known to be armed; his reputed involvement in drug dealing and collecting tribute from loansharks and bookmakers; and allegations that he was in…
Read more

Where's Genovese Boss Vincent Chin Gigante's Son?

By Ed Scarpo
Image
UPDATED
Larry McShane of the Daily News recently (well, somewhat recently) extolled the alleged virtues of Vincent (Chin) Gigante son Vincent Esposito, the "accused high-ranking Genovese crime family associate" arrested in January.



Esposito was living in the wretched confines of the Metropolitan Correctional Center. His defense attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, attempted to spring Vincent on bail, McShane reported.




Turns out, as per court filings, Vincent, 50, lived most of his life with his octogenarian mother in the Upper East Side townhouse and is her primary caregiver. He shopped for her, cooked for her, and rarely ventured beyond the part of Manhattan where he lived.

Esposito is the son Gigante had with longtime mistress Olympia Esposito, Vincent's aging mother, who is 83.

"According to a court filing by Lichtman, Esposito is “a man who is revered for his dedication to his immediate family and to others.”

"Olympia Esposito’s only son ferried his ailing mother to …
Read more

First Mob Burglary Crew Member Sentenced to Seven Years, Seven Months

By Ed Scarpo
Image
The first member of a four-member bank burglary crew who pleaded guilty in federal court to burglarizing Maspeth Federal Savings’ 64-19 Woodhaven Blvd. branch in 2016 has been sentenced.

Staten Island resident Christopher Kerrigan was given a seven-year, seven-month prison sentence last Friday, and three years of post-release supervision, for his role in a number of heists in addition to the one on the Rego Park-Middle Village border.




His brother, Charles Kerrigan, will be sentenced next Friday. Michael Mazzara, the alleged mastermind of the operation, and Anthony Mascuzzio will be sentenced on April 13 and May 4, respectively.
Last December, Mazzara and Mascuzzio each copped to two counts of bank theft, while the Kerrigans each pleaded to two counts of bank burglary, one count of bank theft and one count of conspiracy to commit bank burglary.

Charles Kerrigan also admitted to one count of witness intimidation after — while on pretrial release — he assaulted someone he thought provide…
Read more

Tommy Karate's "Invisible" Prison Assault

By Ed Scarpo
Image
COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE
On August 11, 1996, the seemingly impossible happened at the high-security U.S. Penitentiary in Allenwood, Pennsylvania.

An inmate was "serious[ly] assaulted," yet an incident report suggests there was little physical evidence in terms of wounds. Some witnesses said they could see no wounds. The inmate himself, who appeared "nervous," denied that he'd been assaulted. Nevertheless, he'd been beaten repeatedly in the face with a metal object that was never found.

Imprisoned Bonanno crime family member Thomas "Tommy Karate" Pitera was sanctioned by prison officials for committing the assault.

Read more