Vinny Asaro, Lufthansa Heist's Last Loose End

By Ed Scarpo
In a Brooklyn courtroom this week commenced the trial of an 80-year-old Bonanno family gangster, Vincent Asaro, who allegedly was involved in the notorious 1978 Lufthansa Heist.
Vincent Asaro at Brooklyn Federal Court in 1966.

In a Brooklyn courtroom this week commenced the trial of an 80-year-old Bonanno family gangster, Vincent Asaro, who allegedly was involved in the notorious 1978 Lufthansa Heist. Not only was he supposedly the Bonanno family's overseer at JFK airport, the prosecution charged, noting that Asaro himself played a direct role in the heist.

Ex-underboss Salvatore Vitale testified yesterday, providing a window into events surrounding the notorious robbery at JFK airport. Asaro supposedly was heard muttering "motherfucker" constantly under his breath during testimony, trying all the while to stare Vitale in the eye.

Asaro personally handed off a case stuffed with jewelry from the infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist to future Bonanno boss Joseph Massino, Vitale said Monday at the first ever mob-related trial over the historic "unsolved" crime. Massino himself also is slated to testify, among others.


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Genovese Family Crew Still Running Springfield, Mass.?

By Ed Scarpo
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FINAL
A Springfield, Mass., man with a last name that harkens back to local mob royalty has been nailed for assaulting a wire-wearing informant described in court papers as a debtor.




Anthony J. Scibelli, 51, of Springfield, was arrested on July 2 and was held at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island until his release to home confinement on Monday by a federal judge.

He is a “ruthless mobster,” federal prosecutors say, who used violence to collect debts for a loan shark. Scibelli faces one charge for extortionate loan collection from an incident during which he allegedly assaulted a debtor while he wore a wire for the Massachusetts State Police and FBI. (The debtor had been wearing the wire since May.)

Scibelli also allegedly used mace and a taser to collect debts, and spat on another man who reportedly died shortly after the incident, whatever that means (court documents don’t specify).
He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years, and his next scheduled court date is Sept. 16.

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Ex-Genovese Springfield Crew Chief Discusses Big Al Bruno, Etc., In Podcast That Left Us Wanting More

By Ed Scarpo
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Scott Bernstein of Gangster Report did the podcast, something i didn't realize....

In the mid-1990s, mob associate Anthony (Bingy) Arillotta had a drug problem and didn't even know it...

Adolfo (Big Al) Bruno, the Genovese family capo who oversaw the crew in Springfield, Mass., had proposed Arillotta for membership.
Big Al Bruno was the Genovese family's seasoned hand in western Massachusetts. He had worked for the Scibelli brothers, including Frankie Skyball, making them fortunes, before he himself rose to become “capo” of the Springfield crew. Bruno was the consummate professional, who started his day early in the morning and ended it late in the evening.

Bingy had been Big Al’s protégé, and one can imagine Bruno’s high hopes for the young wiseguy.

But then Bingy got caught doing one of the worst things a mob associate can do: he was found to be dealing drugs on the street.

"Big Al proposed me three or four different times,” Arillotta says in Original Gangsters, a…
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Luchese Capo Who Was Abruptly Returned To Prison Faces 13-Year Prison Sentence (Apparently)

By Ed Scarpo
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After entering his plea on Tuesday before White Plains Federal Judge Cathy Seibel, reputed Luchese capo Steven Crea Jr. , 46, of New Rochelle, didn't get to return home (as he undoubtedly had hoped) to enjoy his last few months of freedom with his family before sentencing.

He was instead handcuffed and put in a prison cell.

Prosecutors had sought his immediate arrest after citing for the judge statutes mandating incarceration once a defendant is convicted of a violent crime.

Crea Jr. pleaded guilty to murder conspiracy and assault charges related to an unconsummated revenge scheme he and his father, Luchese underboss Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea, cooked up to whack a Bonanno associate stemming from a bizarre 2012 clash between the Luchese and Bonanno families at a Bronx social club.

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Luchese Capo Steve Crea Jr Cops To Plotting To Kill Bonanno Associate, But Not Meldish

By Ed Scarpo
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UPDATED Luchese captain Steven Crea Jr. admitted to plotting with his father, underboss Steven Crea, to kill Bonanno associate Carl Ulzheimer in 2012 following a Bronx social club encounter that Crea Senior deemed a personal affront.




He faces a maximum of 13 years behind bars for his part in an attempt to have another mobster whacked.

A federal indictment accused the younger Crea of participating in the slaying of Michael Meldish, 62, the one-time co-leader of a homicidal crew called the Purple Gang, but he did not admit to the killing as part of his guilty plea Tuesday, his lawyers said.

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Crea Jr., 46, passed a polygraph exam last November administered by retired FBI veteran Jeremiah Hanafin, "bes…
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Hoodwinked: Restaurateur on Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Was a Mobster

By Ed Scarpo
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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 crime family member who appeared in Kitchen Nightmares 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.)






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

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Today, like the…
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Grand Avenue Crew Member Chuckie Russell Died

By Ed Scarpo
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Charles (Chuckie) Russell --who boasted of pulling off thousands of burglaries in a four-year period --  died before he could be sentenced for gun possession in connection with a 2016 robbery plot, the Chicago Sun-Times reported, attributing this to court filings.



Russell, 70, a reputed member of the Chicago Outfit's Grand Avenue Crew (Joey the Clown Lombardo’s old bailiwick), was suffering from prostate cancer.
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He reportedly faced at least 15 years in prison.

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Gang Land News Reports Luchese Capo Stevie Junior Will Cop Plea Deal In Meldish Slay Case

By Ed Scarpo
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UPDATE: He also copped to plotting to kill a Bonanno associate, as reported since this story was written. We're positive we made the error and no one else...
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Prosecutors will seek a prison term of 13 years.

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