Updated news on the Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Lucchese and Colombo Organized Crime Families of New York City.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Mob dad: I don't really think my boy's a rat


His son might be a coward, but he's not a rat.
All was forgiven -- almost -- yesterday when poison-pen Colombo soldier Frank "Frankie Camp" Campione stood up for the son he had railed against in a letter last week for going to the feds behind his back.
Although none of Campione's family attended his court hearing, he wanted everyone to know that he stands by his boy.
"The New York Post called him a rat," said the wheelchair-bound gangster just before a Brooklyn federal judge sentenced him to three years for racketeering. "He's not a rat -- that's why he's not here today. He's embarrassed. What's this country becoming?"

In a sprawling, handwritten letter submitted into evidence last week, Campione accused his son, Michael, of going to the feds to prevent him from getting out on bail before his sentencing.
"I thought you knew better than that, you know that I didn't bring you up that way," he wrote his son. "A rat is the worse thing anybody can be."
Campione was arrested in April 2008 in an FBI sweep of 12 Colombo crime family members, including the boss, Thomas Gioeli. Campione is accused of trying to shake down a Long Island Joker Poker parlor.
Assistant US Attorney Elizabeth Geddes argued that the letter proved that the 65-year-old Campione was far from turning his life around -- and Judge Brian M. Cogan agreed.


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