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

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Charges dropped after reputed Gambino mobster ‘Buddy Musk’ Muccigrosso dies from lung cancer



Time and time again over the last 50 years, prosecutors have sent Charles “Buddy Musk” Muccigrosso to prison.
The reputed mobster once spit in a State trooper’s drink at a Belleville pub, then attacked him with a beer mug. Another time, he fired two shotgun blasts through the front window of a house owned by a police detective’s father.
Today, federal prosecutors in Newark withdrew their final charges against Muccigrosso, citing his Feb. 28 death while out on bail.
Muccigrosso died at a hospital in Baltimore. He was 70 and the cause of death was lung cancer, according to a death certificate.
A beefy man, Muccigrosso was born in Newark and, authorities say, was a member of the Gambino crime family. He was among six alleged mobsters convicted in 1993 of running John Gotti’s crew in New Jersey. The marathon trial was as memorable for its 10-month duration as it was for its chaos.
A juror’s car wound up riddled with bullet holes. Union members held regular demonstrations outside the courthouse supporting one of the defendants. And midway through the trial, Muccigrosso was arrested for the Belleville bar brawl after the off-duty trooper accused him of being drunk.
“He was a career criminal. He was a gangster. And he was a violent one as well,” said V. Grady O’Malley, a federal prosecutor who heads the organized crime strike force for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark.
But an online memorial page paints a different portrait of Muccigrosso, who according to his obituary was a heavy equipment operator for Local 825 in Springfield. He is recalled as a husband, a father and a “dear and loyal friend.”
“They don’t make men like Buddy anymore,” one mourner wrote.
Muccigrosso’s lawyer did not return phone calls yesterday. Attempts to reach his relatives were unsuccessful.
Muccigrosso moved to Toms River three years ago. He was arrested for the final time in 2008 as part of a sweep that netted 23 people charged in a 30-count indictment with illegal gambling, identity theft, loansharking, extortion, fraud and labor racketeering.
Muccigrosso faced up to 20 years.
He is buried at Glendale Cemetery in Bloomfield.

NJ.com


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