WebProNews

Tag: mob

  • Lufthansa Heist: 5 Mobsters Arrested For Crime

    Today a man alleged to have been involved in the 1978 Lufthansa heist at John F. Kennedy airport, New York,  is among 5 men taken into custody by the authorities for the crime.

    Federal agents have carried out a series of raids in the NY metro area to apprehend the suspects. A 78-year-old Vincent Asaro of Howard Beach is one of the mobsters facing a series of charges including the infamous JFK airport robbery that happened over 3 decades ago.

    “An FBI operation is ongoing. We will release further details later this morning,” said FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser to ABC News.

    Asaro will be the first suspect to face charges in the Lufthansa heist case. The only other person who has ever been charged is airport worker Louis Werner. Werner was accused of providing critical information to the mobsters in order for them to carry out the crime. Other suspects in the case have died and only a small fraction of the money has been recovered.

    More than $5 million in cash and $1 million worth of jewelry was stolen during the robbery that took place on Dec. 11, 1978. This is equivalent to about $20 million today. At the time, it was the biggest heist ever pulled off in the United States. Despite long investigations, nothing came of it, though in 1990 Hollywood released “Goodfellas”, a movie that made the heist even more famous.

    Federal prosecutors indicted the five men with a number of crimes including murder, robbery, exhortation, bookmaking and arson. The four other suspects apprehended are Jack Bonventre, Jerome Asaro, John “Bazoo” Ragano and Thomas “Tommy D” Di Fiore. The men are all believed to belong to the Bonanno crime family.

    The men will be arraigned in U.S district court in Brooklyn on Thursday.

    According to Langmesser, Vincent Asaro was arrested following an investigation conducted last summer at the home of another mobster called James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke. Some time ago human remains were found at Burke’s home and were identified as those of Paul Katz. Katz was allegedly murdered in 1969 by Vincent Asaro and his accomplice Jerome Asaro because they believed he was a police informant.

    Further details of the arrests are still developing.

    http://youtu.be/yt-GyX8-4Qg

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • John “Junior” Gotti Gets Stabbed In Fight

    John “Junior” Gotti Gets Stabbed In Fight

    Nassau County police and prosecutors are investigating the alleged stabbing of John Gotti Jr, but the Washington Post reports that Gotti is not cooperating with the police.  The authorities say that Gotti has refused to divulge information to the police regarding what happened on Sunday night when he was stabbed in the parking lot of CVS store in Syosset. All he says is that he was stabbed while trying to break up a fight between two strangers in the parking lot.

    “He’s being very uncooperative,” a source told ABC News. “He says these guys were fighting and he jumps in as this big savior and he gets stabbed in the stomach.”

    His narrative of trying to separate two fighting strangers is not being bought by the police either as one police source said, “It’s hard to believe he would break up a fight between two strangers.”

    Gotti arrived in Syosset Hospital on Sunday at around 10 p.m. seeking medical attention for the stab wound. Due to hospital protocol, the authorities were informed and Nassau police responded and attempted to interrogate him without much success. The wound was reportedly serious and he was transported to North Shore University Hospital where he was treated and later discharged.

    When Gotti’s lawyer, Charles Carnesi, was contacted, he said that he had been told that his client was ok, although he had not spoken to him personally.

    Gotti is the son of the late John Joseph Gotti Jr, the reputed former boss of the infamous Gambino Crime syndicate in New York. Junior’s father died of cancer in 2002 while in prison. He has since maintained that he had put his crime days behind him. The last time Gotti was sentenced for a crime was in 1999 when he pleaded guilty to racketeering and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.

    (image via youtube.com)

  • Hoffa Remains Sought by FBI in Michigan

    Hoffa Remains Sought by FBI in Michigan

    The final resting place of teamster official Jimmy Hoffa has remained a mystery for nearly 40 years. Various theories and speculative musings have kept the mystery alive all this time. Not a year goes by that someone doesn’t claim to know where the mob-connected union leader is buried (or interred, or mixed into cement, ect…).

    This week, the FBI has taken one of these tips seriously enough to commence digging operations near a small town north of Detroit. According to the Detroit Free Press, the FBI and Oakland County Sheriff’s Office are surveying a vacant field in Oakland Township, Michigan. The site is where Detroit mob boss Tony Zerilli claimed Hoffa is buried back in January. The FBI told the Free Press that Zerilli’s claims could be credible, based on his family connections at the time of Hoffa’s disappearance.

    Hoffa disappeared on July 30, 1975. His car was found in the parking lot of the Manchus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Township, a suburb of Detroit. He had allegedly gone to the restaurant to visit mafia leaders, who were later found not to have been at the restaurant. Though Hoffa was declared legally dead in 1982, the FBI has continued to investigate his disappearance.

    (via Detroit Free Press)

  • Whitey Bulger Trial Begins, Juror Falls Asleep

    Whitey Bulger, the infamous Boston gangster whose life has inspired several books and films–including “The Departed”–began his trial today on racketeering and murder charges. The story of how he rose to power over the Winter Hill Gang, allegedly killed 19 people, and somehow got the FBI in his pocket is sensational to say the least, but at least one juror didn’t think so; during opening statements this morning, the man nodded off for several minutes.

    Bulger is accused of using force–sometimes deadly–to get what he wanted from some of Boston’s undesirables. The Irish mob made their ill-gotten funds disappear by buying up property in their neighborhood, but in 1994, Bulger was tipped off by an FBI informant that he was on the verge of being busted on federal racketeering charges. He went into hiding, and that’s where he stayed for 16 years. Two years ago, he was captured in Santa Monica with his girlfriend, who received eight years for aiding and abetting a known criminal.

    Now, the stories of Bulger’s misdeeds are about to come to light, in grisly and fascinating detail.

    “The guy is a sociopathic killer,” Tom Foley, an organized crime investigator who spent most of his career with the Massachusetts State Police trying to bust Bulger, told CNN. “He loved that type of life. He’s one of the hardest and cruelest individuals that operated in the Boston area. He’s a bad, bad, bad guy.”

    Bulger’s tactics for avoiding detection reportedly included cutting off the fingers and pulling the teeth of the people he killed so they couldn’t be identified. It also helped that he had a friend working within the FBI who tipped him off to anything he wanted to know; disgraced agent John Connolly is now serving 50 years for second-degree murder in the death of a businessman who was about to testify against Bulger and other Mob members in 1982.

    The trial is just getting started, but it’s sure to be a doozy. And as more details of Bulger’s deeds come to light, it’s doubtful any more jurors will decide to take a nap. It may also make Johnny Depp rethink his position on salary.

  • Frank Calabrese Dies, Infamous Mob Hitman Was 75

    Frank Calabrese Sr., a name that should be familiar to anybody who has lived in Chicago, died on Christmas day at the Butner Federal Medical Center. The mob hitman was 75.

    Calabrese Sr. was a well-known hitman for the mob in Chicago who was responsible for numerous murders throughout the city. He was also responsible for a number of loansharking and illegal gambling rings throughout the years.

    The noted mobster got his start in the 1950s by providing loans on behalf of the mob to people in Chinatown. He was arrested, along with his sons, in 1995 for using threats, violence and intimidation to enforce a loansharking racket. He was sentenced to 118 months in prison in 1997.

    While serving his time in prison, Calabrese was charged in 2005 with murder, racketeering, extortion and illegal gambling as part of the Family Secrets investigation. His son, Frank Calabrese Jr., wore a wire while in prison that gave the FBI concrete proof that Calabrese Sr. was responsible for a number of murders over the years.

    Calabrese Sr. was convicted for 13 murders and was sentenced to life in prison. He was currently staying at the Butner Federal Medical Center in North Carolina when he died on December 25, 2012. His cause of death is currently unknown, but Fox News speculates it could have been a heart problem since he reportedly suffered from an enlarged heart.