Family files $10M lawsuit against two turncoat Colombo mobsters for decades old murder

Family files $10M lawsuit against two turncoat Colombo mobsters for decades old murder

  July 14, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Maybe time heals all wounds — but for a Brooklyn family suing over a decades-old murder, the wound is still deep and raw.

It was 24 years ago this past week when Carmine Gargano Jr. walked out of his parents’ Bay Ridge home.

“Mommy, I’ll be right back,” he said.

It was the last time his mother, Rosa, would ever hear or see son.

A malicious mobster shot the 21-year-old man twice that day at a McDonald Ave. chop shop, and took a sledgehammer to his 6-foot-2, 230-pound frame. Joseph "Joey Caves" Competiello was acting on orders from Dino "Big Dino" Calabro to “take care of it,” Brooklyn federal prosecutors said.

Someone’s beloved son was just someone else’s dirty job.

And then the Colombo crime family bigs became cooperators. Competiello received a 12-year sentence in 2014 for his turncoat talents and Calabro received an 11-year term in 2017. They dodged the possibility of lifetime sentences for a multitude of admitted sins, and just like that, Gargano’s murder went away.

Competiello’s racketeering conspiracy plea counted the savage killing as one of his underlying crimes. Calabro was not charged with Gargano’s murder, but one of the underlying crimes in his racketeering conspiracy plea was being an accessory after the fact in connection to Gargano.

The Garganos say justice was not served. Rosa, 66, and Carmine Sr., 73, are now suing Calabro and Competiello in a $10 million wrongful death case.

“I’ll never let it go,” Rosa Gargano told the Daily News during a tearful interview. “Those guys changed my life and my family forever.”

The retired Navy custodian opted to sue because she “wants them to pay and that they suffer as much as possible.”

Everyone in the surviving family is pitching in with the Brooklyn Supreme Court case against the pair, and their help is sorely needed. Years ago, the wiseguy duo testified they were in witness protection, but it’s not clear where they are now. No lawyers wanted the Garganos’ civil case for fear of the Mafia, they said.

The December 2017 case is actually a second effort from the Garganos, after a judge said an initial 2015 wrongful death suit against the pair had technical defects.

Before they knew who was linked to crime, the Garganos knew to be worried when Carmine didn’t return soon that day. They traveled to Long Island, Staten Island and downtown Brooklyn looking for Carmine and his white van.

Gargano was a Pace University student eyeing an accounting career. But prosecutors said the young man was also helping to operate a chop shop with Competiello.

Rosa Gargano said her son didn’t really hang with Competiello and his circle, but only knew them briefly through a cousin she disliked and didn’t trust.

Shortly before he died, Gargano made the mistake of complaining to Competiello about getting his full share of the proceeds, according to prosecution court papers.

Joseph Competiello is walked by the FBI from Federal Plaza on June 4, 2008.

Competiello initially buried Gargano at the garage.

In that first, frantic search, Gargano’s brother, Michael, went to the McDonald Ave. spot.

“I probably walked by his body and didn’t know that,” he said.

Prosecutors said that at some point, Competiello, Calabro and others moved the body to a wooded spot in Farmingdale, Long Island.

Gargano’s corpse was never found, though investigators with Competiello’s cooperation found strands of his hair at the chop shop in 2008.

At Calabro’s sentencing, the eight-time killer said he knew “the words just don't exist to heal the wounds I have inflicted.”

“He doesn’t feel sorry. He got away with it.” Gargano’s brother, Jerry, 44, said.

“Look at their sentence,” fumed Gargano’s 46-year-old brother Michael. “Is that justice?”

No reply papers, or anything else, have been filed in the case.

Rosa Gargano said the family will press the lawsuit as much as they can.

“The rest is in God’s hands,” she said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-metro-mob-wrongful-death-brooklyn-lawsuit-20180713-story.html?outputType=amp

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Parents of murder victim sue two turncoat Colombo family mobsters

Parents of murder victim sue two turncoat Colombo family mobsters

  April 19, 2015    Dapper_Don

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The parents of an apparent mob murder victim have filed a $10 million wrongful-death claim against two crime-family turncoats.
Carmine and Rosa Gargano say wiseguys Dino Calabro and Joseph Competiello should pay up for the death of their son, Carmine Jr., who disappeared in 1994, according to papers they filed last month in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
The younger Gargano’s body has never been found.
In 2012, Calabro testified that Competiello confessed to murdering Gargano Jr. because he “felt like it,” according to court records.
Competiello, who was sentenced in December to 12 years on racketeering and murder charges, was not charged in Gargano’s death.
The two snitches were part of a sprawling federal case against Colombo crime boss Thomas Gioeli, during which Calabro testified in Brooklyn federal court.
Competiello allegedly admitted to shooting Gargano Jr. twice, including once in the eye, and then crushing his head with a sledgehammer for good measure, ­Calabro said on the stand.

http://nypost.com/2015/04/19/parents-of-murdered-mob-victim-suing-crime-family-turncoats/

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Colombo cop killer turned rat sentenced to 12 years in prison for role in 5 murders

Colombo cop killer turned rat sentenced to 12 years in prison for role in 5 murders

  December 09, 2014    Dapper_Don

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The family of slain NYPD cop Ralph Dols was a no-show Tuesday at the sentencing of a mob rat who received 12 years in prison for five gangland murders, including the rubout of the off-duty police officer.

Ex-Colombo soldier Joseph Competiello, who helped authorities crack the long-unsolved murder case, has maintained that he did not know Dols was a cop when he was given the contract by mob superiors in 1997.

No one from Dols’ family wrote the judge expressing a view on sentencing.

Linda Rosa Gargano holds a photograph of her murdered son Carmine. 'I still do not have my son’s body — and he wants to go home to his wife and family,' the bereaved mom cried in court Tuesday as her son's convicted killer, Joseph Competiello, was sentenced to 12 years behind bars.

Dols was allegedly marked for death by then-acting Colombo boss Joel Cacace because Cacace’s ex-wife had married the policeman. Cacace and two other alleged participants in the plot, Thomas Gioeli and Dino Saracino, were acquitted by federal juries of Dols’ murder.

Brooklyn Federal Judge Brian Cogan said he believed Competiello testified truthfully, but added: “I don’t think he played well to either jury.”

The scene of NYPD cop Ralph Dols' slaying.

Competiello, 43, has served more than six years in prison since he was arrested.

“I feel like a horrible, heartless person up here admitting to all these crimes I committed, but I’m not that person anymore,” he told the judge.

Ralph Dols was allegedly marked for death by then-acting Colombo boss Joel Cacace, pictured, because Cacace’s ex-wife had married the cop.

Rosa Gargano, the mother of victim Carmine Gargano, urged the judge to show no mercy to the “bloodthirsty” hit man.


“I still do not have my son’s body — and he wants to go home to his wife and family,” Gargano cried, holding a framed photo of her son who was fatally shot by Competiello and finished off with a sledgehammer.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ex-colombo-hitman-12-years-murder-nypd-dols-article-1.2039848

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Feds urge leniency for Colombo cop killer turned rat

Feds urge leniency for Colombo cop killer turned rat

  October 27, 2014    Dapper_Don

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Federal prosecutors are going to bat for the ex-Colombo hit man who came forward to solve the 1997 gangland rubout of NYPD cop Ralph Dols.

Joseph “Joey Caves” Competiello, a mob soldier who pleaded guilty to five murders as part of his government agreement, is facing life in prison when he is sentenced next month by Judge Brian Cogan.

But the feds are urging leniency for the turncoat who helped break the crime family and bring Dols' killers to justice.

"Competiello's cooperation initiated a chain of events which resulted in the cooperation of other Colombo family members and associates which led to the arrests and ultimately the convictions of nearly every inducted member of the crime family," Assistant Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes stated in court papers.

"Joe's cooperation was the beginning of the end of the Colombo family," another law enforcement source added.

Before Competiello was flipped by FBI special agent John Fallon, the Dols' murder had been exhaustively investigated by the NYPD and the feds, but was a cold case

Then Competiello revealed the participants in the killing, including then capos Thomas Gioeli and Dino Calabro - Calabro cooperated soon after and implicated former acting boss Joel Cacace who wanted the cop whacked because he had married Cacace's ex-wife.

Ralph Dols was gunned down outside his home in 1997.

"Prior to Competiello's cooperation not a single lead implicated Competiello or the Gioeli crew in the murder," Geddes noted.

In a sad footnote to the case, Cacace, Gioeli and accused shooter Dino Saracino were acquitted of the young cop's slaying. Competiello and Calabro testified that they did not know Dols was a cop when they were tasked with gunning him down outside his Brooklyn apartment building.

Sources said Dols' family understood that it was necessary for the feds to make deals with the mob rats who participated in the murder in order to bring their accomplices to justice.

Competiello has served more than six years in prison since he was arrested and it is doubtful that the judge will give him time served, sources said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/exclusive-feds-urge-leniency-turncoat-hitman-joseph-joey-caves-competiello-article-1.1987995

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Judge sentences Colombo soldier Little Dino to 50 years in prison for racketeering

Judge sentences Colombo soldier Little Dino to 50 years in prison for racketeering

  May 11, 2014    Dapper_Don

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A veteran Colombo wiseguy suspected of taking part in the 1997 gangland slaying of an NYPD cop was hit with 50 years in prison for a slew of racketeering raps Monday in Brooklyn federal court.
Crime family soldier Dino Saracino, 41, was acquitted in 2012 of the slaying of officer Ralph Dols but was convicted of several other criminal charges that allowed Judge Brian Cogan to level the stiff term.
Saracino was accused of the slaying along with Colombo street boss Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli on orders from then family boss Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace.
Prosecutors said Cacace wanted Dols dead because he married his ex-wife. In a stunning verdict, both Gioeli and Saracino skated on that killing and several others.
Saracino celebrated his acquittals that day but was in a far less bubbly mood Monday after Cogan handed down the term that will carry him into his 90s for loan sharking, gambling and other mob staples.
The gangster’s family dissolved into wails and tears in the court gallery after Saracino’s fate was announced.
The seething mobster told prosecutors that the rats who testified against him at trial — Dino Calabro and Joe Competiello — deserved the same sentence.
“I hope you give Calabro and Competiello the same amount,” the hoodlum said before vanishing into custody for the next half century.

http://nypost.com/2014/04/28/mob-gangster-gets-50-years-in-prison-for-racketeering/

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Joe Waverly found not guilty of ordering murder of NYPD cop

Joe Waverly found not guilty of ordering murder of NYPD cop

  November 26, 2013    Dapper_Don

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A high-ranking Colombo gangster has been acquitted of ordering the 1997 killing of an NYPD cop who had married his ex-wife.

The federal jury took only four hours to clear Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace of murder in aid of racketeering in the killing of Police Officer Ralph Dols.

Cacace smiled, nodded his head and hugged defense lawyer David Stern. Then he touched his fingers to his lips and blew a kiss to family members in the court.

"The truth prevailed," Cacace's son Steve said outside court.

"It's the best day of my life!" added Cacace's sister Kathy Vandina.

Dols' mother and sister left Brooklyn Federal Court accompanied by somber FBI agents.

Last year, a different jury cleared Colombo gangster Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli of carrying out Cacace's alleged lethal order, along with hit man Dino Saracino, who allegedly shot Dols in front of the cop's Sheepshead Bay building.

Cacace, 72, is serving a 20-year sentence for racketeering after admitting to carrying out an order to kill a federal prosecutor and is not due to be released from prison until 2020.

Federal prosecutors argued that Cacace felt disrespected because his ex-wife, Kim Kennaugh, had married a cop and had a baby with him.

Kennaugh, dubbed "The Black Widow" by detectives because her second husband, a Colombo killer, was also whacked, did not take the stand in last year's trial, but she had received a subpoena to testify in Cacace's trial, the Daily News has learned.

But Kim told the feds she would invoke her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent and not answer questions under oath.

“I lawyered up,” Kennaugh told The News. "I don't like the way I was treated (by law enforcement) the last 16 years."

Kennaugh said she refused to testify not because she had anything to hide but because she feared the feds did not believe her and might bring criminal charges against her for perjury.

"I was never threatened (by Cacace); he never threatened Ralph," she said. "I just can't say something that wasn't true.

"(Dols' death) was a shock to me as to everyone else," Kennaugh said. "I know the truth. Ralph knows the truth. God knows the truth."

The anonymous jury rejected the testimony of cooperating witnesses Dino Calabro and Joseph Competiello, who were part of the hit team that killed Dols.

They pleaded guilty to the cop killing and are hoping they will receive a reduced sentence in return for their cooperation.

Dols' mother attended every day of the three week trial.

“It’s very upsetting,” she said on her way out of the courthouse.

http://m.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/mobster-joel-cacace-acquitted-ordering-nypd-killed-murder-trial-article-1.1530148

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Jury deliberates Colombo gangster's fate in NYPD cop killing case

Jury deliberates Colombo gangster's fate in NYPD cop killing case

  November 26, 2013    Dapper_Don

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A defense lawyer urged jurors in the cop-killing trial of Long Island mobster Joel Cacace to reject as "pure speculation" the prosecution theory that he acted out of jealousy over the NYPD officer's marriage to his ex-wife, in summations Monday.
"That is made up out of whole cloth," lawyer Susan Kellman argued. "They have no evidence."
Cacace, 72, of Deer Park, a ponytailed former Colombo family consigliere, is accused of ordering the 1997 ambush of Officer Ralph Dols outside his Brooklyn apartment just after he and Cacace's ex-wife Kim Kennaugh had a baby girl.
Prosecutors in the two-week trial in federal court in Brooklyn relied on testimony from two informants, Dino Calabro and Joe Competiello, who said they carried out the hit after their boss, Colombo captain Tommy Gioeli of Farmingdale, told them Cacace ordered it.
But there was no direct evidence of Cacace's involvement, no witness who heard him complain about the marriage and no testimony about any arguments with his ex-wife, said Kellman, who argued prosecutors hoped an anti-mob bias would fill the gaps.
"The government wants you to go back and say, 'Organized crime, organized crime, organized crime, Colombo family, Colombo family, consigliere,' " she said. "There's a different standard of proof for these guys."
But Competiello and Calabro didn't know Dols and had no reason to kill him except for an order, said prosecutors, who argued that Cacace's motive was a reasonable surmise based on his age, his status in the crime family and mob hostility to police.
"There is no other explanation for why Ralph Dols was killed by men who did not even know who he was," prosecutor James Gatta said. "Doesn't it make sense that a man like Joel Cacace would find it unacceptable that his ex-wife married a man in his 20s, started a family with a police officer?"
Gatta also told the jury that men who rose to Cacace's rank got there by being careful, and said it was unreasonable for the defense to suggest the government needed to have Cacace explicitly acknowledging guilt on tape or to a witness.
"You know that's not the way these guys operate," he said. "They're secretive."
Calabro and Competiello testified last year against Gioeli and Dino Saracino, a third alleged member of the team that executed Dols. The jury returned racketeering convictions, but found that their claims about the Dols killing were not proven.
Kellman said they were falsely implicating Cacace to improve their chance of leniency.
"Nobody is saying these guys weren't involved in the shooting of Dols," she said. "But they had every reason to point the finger at a figure higher up in the Colombo crime family."
Jury deliberations are expected to begin Tuesday.

http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/jury-gets-cop-killing-case-1.6497038

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Colombo consigliere ordered NYPD cop's murder out of jealousy

Colombo consigliere ordered NYPD cop's murder out of jealousy

  November 25, 2013    Dapper_Don

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Joel Cacace, 72, is on trial allegedly ordering the murder of NYPD police officer Ralph Dols in 1997 because the cop married his former wife.

A Colombo mobster felt so disrespected by his ex-wife marrying an NYPD Police Officer Ralph Dols and bearing his baby, he ordered the cop's murder, a federal prosecutor told jurors Monday.

Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace showed no reaction as Assistant U.S. Attorney Allon Lifshitz argued that the 72-year-old mobster was so consumed by jealousy he violated the Mafia's code against killing a member of law enforcement.

Kim Kennaugh, ex-wife of Joel Carace, who allegedly put a hit out on her next nusband, NYPD cop Ralph Dols.

"The defendant simply could not accept that Ralph Dols, a young man, a police officer, had married his ex-wife and had a baby with her," Lifshitz said in Brooklyn federal court. "He could not accept that especially as a leader of organized crime and especially because Ralph Dols was a police officer."

Dols was gunned down by a hit team waiting to ambush him outside his Sheepshead Bay apartment building Aug. 25, 1997.

Ralph Dols, the NYPD cop who allegedly incurred the wrath of Joel Cacace by marrying the mobster's former wife.

Two of the killers, Dino Calabro and Joseph Competiello, testified for the government that they were carrying out the orders of then-consigliere Cacace to kill a "Mexican guy," and that they were not told the victim was a cop.

Kim Kennaugh married her fourth husband, NYPD cop Ralph Dols, pictured here at their wedding. Her ex-husband Joel Cacace allegedly didn't take kindly to the nuptials, and the mobster is on trial for arranging the policeman's murder.

Calabro, Competiello and a third alleged killer, Dino Saracino, were later rewarded for the rubout with induction as made men.

The jury listened to a tape of a conversation between Cacace in jail speaking on the phone to his son Steve the day after Calabro was arrested in 2008.

NYPD brass leave the crime scene where police officer Ralph Dols was shot dead in Brooklyn.

"The bicycle [a code name for Calabro]) broke down," Steve Cacace told his father.

Kim Kennaugh, former wife of murder defendant Joel Cacace and widow of the mobster's alleged victim Ralph Dols.

"Ah s---," Joel Cacace said wearily. "Everything's over. Ah s---."

Defense lawyer Susan Kellman urged the jury to focus on the lack of evidence to support the government's claim as to motive. She suggested no one knows why Dols was killed and that prosecutors invented the jealousy angle.

The family of slain police officer Ralph Dols outside Brooklyn federal court on April 12, 2012. The man who allegedly arranged the hit on Dols, Joel Cacace, is currently on trial.

"If Mr. Lifshitz had been married to Mr. Cacace, he might have known those things," Kellman scoffed. "Maybe Tony Soprano wouldn't want his wife married to a police officer, but this is real life."

The jury will begin deliberating murder in aid of racketeering charges Tuesday.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/prosecutor-mob-man-ordered-slay-envy-article-1.1528814#ixzz2lhy9VTGL

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Tommy Shots blogs that dead Colombo underboss ordered the murder of NYPD cop

Tommy Shots blogs that dead Colombo underboss ordered the murder of NYPD cop

  November 24, 2013    Dapper_Don

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When our justice system deprives targeted citizens of their constitutional rights because the prosecutors feel that they are (or want such persons to be guilty) it is illegal and morally wrong. It is inevitable that innocent men will be targeted and fall victim to this corrupt practice. It has happened before and it is happening now. Let me explain...

Dino (Hemorrhoids) Calabro and Joe (Caves) Competiello murdered NYPD officer Ralph Dols as a contract murder for Bill (Wild Bill) Cutolo.

Following Officer Dols' murder there were rumors of steroids, drugs, gambling, Russians and bad cops. Much later, after I heard a few more rumors, I surmised this murder contract had something to do with Wild Bill's multi-million dollar steroid, drug, and other illegal businesses that he had with some bad cops. I also heard that Calabro may have been involved in the killing.

After my arrest I came into a lot of evidence to support this scenario. Some NYPD officers even came forward with credible evidence that Wild Bill Cutolo had officer Dols killed. By then I already knew that this was a fact. Dino Calabro and Joe Competillo killed Bill Cutolo.

They did it to protect themselves from Bill Cutolo. They feared that he would become a government informant and turn them in for the Dols homicide. Cutolo was the target of a major FBI investigation and Calabro thought that Cutulo was too soft, too weak, and too rich to do serious prison time. Calabro was sure that Cutolo would crack and look to save his own ass by handing over some cop killers (Calabro and Competillo) to the FBI. So, they killed him on the sneak. Just another one of Calabro's loose ends.

There are two innocent men serving life sentences for the slaying of Wild Bill Cutolo. There are another two innocent men serving life sentences for the murder of another of Calabro's victims. And today, they are trying to frame Joel Cacace for the homicide of Ralph Dols as they tried and failed with me.

There are many more innocent men paying with their lives for the crimes of government informants. We must end the tyrannical persecutions based on facts harvested from the movies and the government's prejudice.

TSG

SAVALOOO

http://tommygioelisvoice.blogspot.it/

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Turncoat NYPD cop killer testifies during trial of former Colombo consigliere

Turncoat NYPD cop killer testifies during trial of former Colombo consigliere

  November 13, 2013    Dapper_Don

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An embarrassed mobster ordered the brutal murder of an NYPD cop because the officer had the nerve to marry his ex-wife, prosecutors said at a former Colombo consigliere’s trial on Tuesday.
The pony-tailed Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace’s is accused of orchestrating the 1997 shooting of Ralph Dols outside the Gravesend home he shared with Cacace’s ex-wife, Kim Kennaugh, and their infant child.
“Officer Dols was gunned down for one reason — he dared to marry the wife of a high ranking member of organized crime,”said prosecutor Sam Nitze during his opening statement at Brooklyn federal court.
Nitze painted Cacace, 72, as a ruthless force within the powerful crime clan whose orders were carried out without question.
“They knew that an order from Joel Cacace was an order they had to follow,” Nitze said of the men who carried out the kill.
“The defendant may not have pulled the trigger, but he is responsible because he ordered it.”
But Cacace’s attorney, Susan Kellman, said that there was no evidence that her client had anything to do with Dols’s murder — and that prosecutors were hitching their hopes solely on his association with La Cosa Nostra.
Kellman skewered the government’s main witnesses — the alleged killers — who flipped on Cacace and will testify against him.
Calling them “subhuman,” “maniacs,” and “animals,” Kellman characterized the men as soulless killers who are looking to save their own hide by lying about her client.
“It gives me chills to think about the type of crimes they’ve committed,” she told jurors.
Kellman added that Cacace and his wife had split cleanly and that he didn’t care that she took up with a new man — even a cop.
One of the men involved in the Dols killing, Joseph Competiello, testified Tuesday that he and his pals were ordered to do a “favor” for Cacace by Colombo brass.
Asked what that favor was, the bald-headed, grunting lookout man said simply: “To kill.”
Competiello’s alleged mob accomplices, Dino Saracino and Dino Calabro, were accused of firing the shots that killed Dols.
Calabro admitted to his role in the crime but Saracino and Colombo hoodlum Tommy “Tommy Shots” Gioeli were acquitted last year.
Competiello made a deal with the feds on other killings and is awaiting sentencing.
Now dependent on a cane, Cacace is separately facing 10 more years in prison for his role in the botched 1987 hit on mafia prosecutor William Aronwald. The thugs killed their target’s elderly father by mistake.
One of the killers in the Aronwald case, Eddie Carnini, was married to Kennaugh at the time of that killing.
Cacace allegedly had Carnini killed because of the bungled slay — before shacking up with his widow.
Former Bonnano underboss Salvatore “Good Looking Sal” Vitale also made an appearance Tuesday to offer jurors a basic primer on mob activity.
Currently in a witness protection program for ratting out dozens of mobsters, Vitale’s main mafia rule was a simple one.
“Do what you’re told,” he said.

http://nypost.com/2013/11/12/capo-on-trial-for-ordering-hit-on-cop-whod-wed-his-ex/

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Colombo crime boss Joe Waverly to face trial for ordering the murder of an NYPD cop

Colombo crime boss Joe Waverly to face trial for ordering the murder of an NYPD cop

  November 11, 2013    Dapper_Don

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He looks like an aging hippie, but federal prosecutors say Joel
"Joe Waverly" Cacace is a lethal gangster who has repeatedly broken the cardinal rule of gangland: don’t murder a prosecutor or a cop.
The ponytailed 72-year-old Colombo crime boss goes on trial Tuesday for ordering the 1997 murder of NYPD police officer Ralph Dols.
It is the last chance to bring Dols' killers to justice
Cacace is halfway through serving a 20-year-sentence for orchestrating the bungled 1987 hit on the former mob prosecutor William Aronwald, killing the intended victim's elderly father by mistake.
That murderous order came from jailed Colombo boss Carmine "The Snake" Persico who believed Aronwald had prosecuted mobsters in a disrespectful way.

Cacace, too, felt disrespected not only because ex-wife Kim Kennaugh had married a cop, but also because Dols was Hispanic, sources said.
"Joel Cacace is a thug and a cold-blooded murderer," Aronwald told The Daily News. "Crimes of violence have been his life."
During jury selection last week in Brooklyn Federal Court, defense lawyer Susan Kellman urged prospective jurors to keep an open mind about the charges even if they believe Cacace is a high-ranking mobster.

Cacace wore a pullover V-neck sweater in court and walked with a cane. He revealed the possible causes of his many health problems in frank, off-the-cuff comments to an NYPD sergeant.
"I'm tired of being told every day that I'm going to be assassinated. It takes its toll on you," he said, according to court papers.

 

Cacace is halfway through serving a 20-year-sentence for orchestrating the bungled 1987 hit on the former mob prosecutor William Aronwald, killing the intended victim's elderly father by mistake.

 

"I've been eating like an animal," he said. "I almost got everything in except for a lobster. I wanted to eat a lobster before I went in," Cacace said.
Aronwald, who waited 17 years to get justice for his father, said the idea that a conviction brings closure is an illusion. "You can't undo what has been done, but there's a relief that the why and how and by whom has been answered," Aronwald said.
Colombo snitches Dino Calabro and Joseph Competiello testified at the earlier trial that they were not told in advance of Dols' murder that he was a cop. Calabro testified that he wanted to whack Cacace for fooling them.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/gangster-trial-1997-murder-article-1.1512656#ixzz2kMhOwnJm

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Cousin's testimony backfires for Tommy Shots defense during murder trial

Cousin's testimony backfires for Tommy Shots defense during murder trial

  April 24, 2012    Dapper_Don

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Tommy Shots decision to call his cousin as a witness in his murder and racketeering trial backfired Monday.
Colombo crime boss Thomas Gioeli had hoped mob turncoat Thomas McLaughlin’s testimony would clear him of any role in the 1991 rubout of Frank "Chestnut" Marasa in Brooklyn. Instead it did the opposite.
McLaughlin testified that Gioeli had approved the killers on the hit team.
After Marasa was gunned down, McLaughlin said he drove shooter Dino Calabro to meet his cousin at the Cropsey Diner.
McLaughlin also testified that he was reprimanded by Gioeli for blabbing to people about “taking care of” Marasa.
Defense lawyer Adam Perlmutter looked stunned as McLaughlin unloaded on the stand and asked the turncoat if he told these details to investigators.
“I don’t recall if I did say it before, or if I didn’t,” McLaughlin sneered.
McLaughlin wore a wire for the feds, secretly recording conversations with multiple Colombo gangsters. But federal prosecutors decided not to call McLaughlin during the Gioeli trial.
The latest family betrayal in the trial — last week co-defendant Dino Saracino was implicated by his brother in multiple murders — triggered a volley of retorts in the courtroom.
With the jury present, Gioeli snapped, “Stop drinking,” to McLaughlin.
That prompted McLaughlin to reply, “Richie says hello,” apparently a reference to slain crew member Richard Greaves, whom Gioeli and Saracino are charged with murdering.
“How’s Joey Caves?” Gioeli shot back, referring to another turncoat witness, Joseph Competiello.
Then Gioeli’s daughter got in the act, shouting at McLaughlin from the gallery section.
Brooklyn Federal Judge Brian Cogan threatened to eject the next spectator who yelled at a witness.
Earlier, Cogan had threatened to boot Gioeli if he didn’t stay silent.
After getting sandbagged by McLaughlin, defense lawyers decided against calling their dozen character witnesses.
Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Wednesday, with Gioeli charged with six murders and Saracino charged with three.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/tommy-shots-gioeli-trial-testimony-mob-rat-cousin-bites-defense-article-1.1066524#ixzz1sz8dqjlv

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