Five Families of New York City

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

Showing posts with label Angelo Prisco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Angelo Prisco. Show all posts

Saturday, September 20, 2014

The mob did the lights for NYC's Feast of San Gennaro

  September 20, 2014    Dapper_Don

The charity that runs the Feast of San Gennaro insists it has been Mafia-free for years, but it’s not quite that simple when it comes to those red, white and green lights hanging over Mulberry St.

After the mob was allegedly tossed out by hard-charging Rudy Giuliani, organized crime sneaked back in via the contract to install those lights, records show.

A Bonanno informant, capo Richard "Shellackhead" Cantarella, has testified that Criscitelli was a soldier in that family.

From 1997 — the year the charity Figli di San Gennaro was put in as part of Giuliani’s clean sweep — through 2005, a mob-tied electrical contractor handled the festival’s pricey lights, according to law enforcement and court records.

The Daily News reported Friday that Figli di San Gennaro donated only a pittance to charity out of the $4.4 million it took in between 2007 and 2012.

Event organizers say much of that money went to pay for contractors to run the feast, including electricians who handle the lights that feature the colors of the Italian flag.

On Friday, the organizers tweeted that The News’ report was “false,” but later declined to answer questions from the newspaper.

In 1997, John Cappelli and his Bronx firm, N.Y. Christmas Lights, were cleared to install lights at the feast by a monitor put in place to keep out the mob.

Behind the scenes, the mob worked to ensure nobody else got the job, court papers reveal.


 Vincent Basciano was overheard in 2003 discussing his crime family’s “involvement in providing electrical service to the San Gennaro Feast.”

John Cappelli and his firm, N.Y. Christmas Lights, were cleared to install lights at the feast in 1997.

Prosecutors say in 2000, a rival contractor bid to handle lights at San Gennaro. Soon after, he got a call from Perry Criscitelli, then-chairman of the feast’s charity.

The Daily News reported Friday that Figli di San Gennaro donated only a pittance to charity out of the $4.4 million it took in between 2007 and 2012.

Criscitelli told him “he would have to pay approximately $75,000 to obtain the electrical contract for the feast.”

The victim “refused to pay the additional money to secure the contract and his bid was rejected,” prosecutors say.

A Bonanno informant, capo Richard "Shellackhead" Cantarella, has testified that Criscitelli was a soldier in that family. With the FBI listening in, Bonanno boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano was overheard in 2003 discussing his crime family’s “involvement in providing electrical service to the San Gennaro Feast.”

In 2004, Criscitelli suddenly resigned from the board after his mob credentials were exposed in testimony by Cantarella.

The mob was allegedly tossed out of the feast by hard-charging Rudy Giuliani.

Another prosecutor in 2005 identified yet another gangster, Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianiello, as “receiving benefits” from San Gennaro. The feast’s monitor, Richard Mark, seemed surprised: “I look at those books and believe firmly that no funds of the sponsoring organization are going to organized crime.”

Mark declined comment.

The charity Figli di San Gennaro was put in as part of Giuliani’s clean sweep in 1997.

By then, the feds were aware that yet another mobster, Angelo Prisco, a Genovese capo, was also involved in “doing ‘the lights for the feast,’ ” prosecutors said.

In 2004, the FBI overheard Prisco boasting about how he had done Cappelli a “big favor” by getting him the San Gennaro feast.” He said Cappelli paid him “$2,500 every two months in exchange for Prisco’s assistance in obtaining electrical contracts,” prosecutors alleged.

Cappelli wasn’t booted out until 2006 after he was charged with asking his mob handlers to “talk to” a competitor trying to underbid him on another feast in Jersey.

On Friday, officials made clear that the electrical vendor now hanging lights at San Gennaro, AMA Electrical, was vetted by the city Department of Investigation.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/exclusive-feast-san-gennaro-lights-mobsters-records-show-article-1.1946299

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Sunday, April 8, 2012

Alleged Genovese family hitman shares his connection to heaven in memoir

  April 08, 2012    Dapper_Don

He’s La Cosa Nostradamus.
Paul “Doc” Gaccione, 65, says he knows for a fact that there’s an afterlife — and it’s not because he once put someone there with his fist.
The beret-wearing alleged gangster, awaiting a June murder trial in a 1992 mob rubout in The Bronx, claims he speaks to the dead, has viewed the hereafter and witnessed miracles.
While out on $1 million bail, the Godfather of Souls decided to share his special gifts with the world, penning an autobiography, “Beyond the Beyond: My Journey to Destiny.”
“I bring good news, not from me but from my mother’s spirit,” he writes.
MAMMA MIA! Paul “Doc” Gaccione, facing trial over a 1992 mob killing, has written a memoir revealing that his departed mother is giving him guidance from above.
J.C. Rice
MAMMA MIA! Paul “Doc” Gaccione, facing trial over a 1992 mob killing, has written a memoir revealing that his departed mother is giving him guidance from above.
“One day your heart will stop beating. That will be the end of your body and your time on earth, but it will not be the end of you,” he adds.
The devout Catholic denies any mob connection or any role in the 1992 murder, but he does confess to once killing a man 44 years ago with a single punch during a brawl in a diner parking lot — and claims to still pray for his victim.
“This hand here took a man’s life, OK?” he said, weeping as he balled his hand into a fist. “There’s not a Sunday that I do not pray for this man’s spirit.”
The divorced father of four’s spiritual journey began in 2008, when he claims a portal dotted with orbs of light opened up in his bedroom wall one night.
“It was like an elevator type of a flow that was going into the direction of where the big opening was,” he said. “It was like a vacuum.”
That’s when his dead mamma appeared, telling him that there is life after death and that destiny is predetermined.
Gaccione tried to enter the heavenly hallway, but it disappeared faster than a bracciole in the Sunday sauce.
The experience left him feeling closer to higher beings — three specifically: Oprah, Don Imus and Deepak Chopra.
“I had no idea whatsoever why I felt that way about them,” he wrote. “All I knew was that they each have a special living spirit inside.”
Mamma also managed a miracle — smoking out the cancer afflicting his pal “Richie Cigar,” after Gaccione mailed him her St. Michael medallion.
“I’m cancer-free. You’re mother’s spirit did it!” Richie told him.
Richie’s cancer unfortunately came back, he reveals in the book.
Once, his dead mamma whispered to him that he should play her birthday — April 6 — at the roulette table in Atlantic City. He placed a $70 bet on 6.
“It came out of the very first spin, just as my mother’s spirit told me it would.”
He upped his bet to $200 and played the number again. He walked away, crying, with $9,600.
So far, mamma is adhering to omerta about Gaccione’s upcoming trial.
Prosecutors say that on June 3, 1992, Gaccione drove a getaway van for Genovese associate John “Johnny Balls” Leto, who whacked back-seat passenger Angelo Sangiuolo as a train rumbled by on Westchester and Wilkinson avenues in The Bronx.
They ditched the van, with the 32-year-old’s body inside, in a Pelham Bay McDonald’s parking lot, federal prosecutors say.
The hit was allegedly ordered by Genovese family boss Vinny “The Chin” Gigante after complaints that Sangiuolo was ripping off the family’s gambling joints. Capo Angelo Prisco was told to hire the hitmen.
Prisco and Leto were both convicted of murder in federal court. Prisco received a life sentence in 2009, and Leto cut a deal the next year to cooperate with authorities.
Secure in his knowledge of an afterlife, Gaccione seems at peace with the prospect of spending his mortal life behind bars. It will even give him time to write his next spiritual masterpiece, which will tackle the existence of God.
“If my destiny is to spend the rest of my life in prison, then I would . . . do everything I could to continue the mission.”

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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Out on bail for murder charge, reputed Lyndhurst mobster pens book

  October 20, 2011    Dapper_Don

Last week, sitting in the Lyndhurst office of his close friend/publicist/legal adviser Michael O'Gorman, Paul "Doc" Gaccione has a wide smile on his face when discussing his e-book that was recently published by Brighton Publishing and made available at online stores like Barnes and Noble and Amazon. He is just as candid about how the federal government has labeled him.
Lyndhurst resident Paul Gaccione has authored a book that looks back on his life in and out of the headlines as well as dives deep into the spiritual connection he says he has with the forces of life after death. A reputed mobster, Gaccione is out on $1 million bail for a charge of second degree murder in connection to a gangland hit 19 years ago.
Lyndhurst resident Paul Gaccione has authored a book that looks back on his life in and out of the headlines as well as dives deep into the spiritual connection he says he has with the forces of life after death. A reputed mobster, Gaccione is out on $1 million bail for a charge of second degree murder in connection to a gangland hit 19 years ago.
"I've never killed anyone. I never gave the order to kill anyone. I'm not in the mafia," he says as his fists rattle the table in front of him. "I have friends who are politicians, medical doctors, law enforcement, movie stars…people from all walks of life. Do I have some people that I know that have been labeled members of organized crime, some that are currently incarcerated? Yes."
Last year, Gaccione was sitting in a Riker's Island jail cell; a second degree murder indictment lurking over his head for his alleged involvement in a mob-related hit that took place in the Bronx 19 years ago. It was last April when Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson made the announcement that Gaccione allegedly was the driver of a van that was used in a hit on 32-year-old Angelo Sangiuolo. Sangiuolo was shot for allegedly robbing the Genovese crime family gambling operations, according to prosecutors. Sangiuolo's cousin, Genovese capo Angelo Prisco, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 for ordering the hit and other federal charges. John Leto, the alleged triggerman, later pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the feds, according to published reports. Gaccione said Leto is the one that placed Gaccione at the scene that day and the only one to make such an accusation. He said he knows Prisco and Leto, but vehemently denies any involvement in Sangiuolo's murder.
Fast forward a year and out on $1 million bail, with the possibility of the 64-year-old Lyndhurst resident still spending 25 to life behind bars, Gaccione, through his "destiny," as he calls it, is a published author. He says he's ready to tell the world what life in and out of the headlines is like and how the forces of life after death and God's will have reached out to him along the way to guide him through his trials and tribulations.
Gaccione was just about a year into penning "Beyond the Beyond – My Journey to Destiny" when he was greeted at the door on April 20, 2010. It was the FBI, arresting him on the charge that could put him in jail for the rest of his life.
"As one agent cuffed me to the chair, another agent told me I was being arrested for murder," writes Gaccione in the book. "He mentioned a name – I had no idea who it was."
The story, although a memoir of his life, both living in Lyndhurst and behind bars in federal prison on previous drug charges, was written for a reason, which readers are not essentially greeted to until the last chapter. It was a Sunday evening in 2008 when Gaccione says he went to his bedroom, observed a tunnel with a bright shining light and several other lights. He walked toward the tunnel and heard his deceased mother say, "All our spirits live on, although we are accountable for our actions on earth. We can influence our destinies each and every day."
That reason, one of great spirituality and understanding of life after death is prefaced by diving deep into the life of a man that has been dubbed a "reputed mobster" and "Genovese enforcer" in the headlines, but started life as an awkward, skinny kid with thick glasses who was forced to stand up to his bullies with his fists.
"This is how my fighting began. The older kids would call my glasses Coca-Cola bottles, and I would get so mad that I would beat them up. Before you knew it, I was building a reputation around my town of being tough," writes Gaccione.
He soon beefed up and stood up for the other kids bullied in town. He excelled at sports; boxing being a passion, and he excelled through his teens in amateur bouts. In Lyndhurst High School, he played football and basketball and ran track. A fight on the courts ended basketball and an injury ended football. After junior college, he came home and got a job at a women's health spa. He soon asked for a $5,000 loan and using credit and workers from his father's fledgling construction business, he opened his own fitness center and turned it into a profitable operation.
Things soon began to spiral downward for Gaccione. It started just after junior college. He and a friend were entering the parking lot of the Lyndhurst Diner when a car backed up, almost hitting them. His friend honked the horn, words were exchanged, and three men came at Gaccione.
"That's when the guy closest to me began to throw the first punch. I blocked it and then threw a punch at him. He went down, hit his head on the ground, and died," writes Gaccione.
A trial declared the death self-defense on Gaccione's part. The fitness center was doing well. He and his wife would have four kids. In the midst however, he found gambling, drugs, failed business ideas and other women. He left his wife. He lost thousands on sports games and in Atlantic City casinos. He brought cocaine from the wrong people. He met them while he was operating a deli at the Harmon Cove towers in Secaucus. He just wanted small amounts to feed his addiction. His dealers sold large amounts and the DEA was onto them. Surveillance caught Gaccione on tape ordering coke. After trial, he would spend four years in federal prison.
"The problem was that when the jury heard 50 different people calling, saying 'Give me one or give me two or three,' there was no way to know if they were referring to kilos or ounces," writes Gaccione.
But the powers of "Beyond the Beyond" are what Gaccione wants readers to take away from the book. They appear frequently throughout; premonitions in a way. It happened as young as when he was in grammar school when he had a dream his music teacher had died. An announcement over the loudspeaker the next morning announced her death. He remembers getting the chills and realizing he had been to the "Beyond the Beyond" the night before for the first time. It happened after his mother's passing when he invited his two brothers on a trip to Atlantic City. Losing miserably, he heard his mother say "play my birthday." He played six on roulette and even when he told the croupier to not hit six, the number kept coming up. "Beyond the Beyond" came to Gaccione at two of his major court appearances. First was the trial on drug charges and then at a bail hearing for his murder charge. Something told him at the last minute to write to the judge from the heart. Eight years was cut to four in the drug case and a bail was granted in his murder case, a rarity for a murder charge.
Even how the book was published was destiny, said Gaccione. He sent a paper manuscript when Brighton only takes them electronically. The regular mailman at the company was out that day and would have discarded it. It made the way to acquisitions.
"Writers like this—and books like this—are very rare, not only because of who he is, but because of the scope of what he has written," said Kathie McGuire, director of Brighton Publishing.
Gaccione, expecting a trial on his murder charge in the spring of 2012, said the outcome will all be a part of his destiny. He feels his destiny will let him bring his writings to the masses, in an effort to help people with his message of "Beyond the Beyond."
"What He [God] has done in my life with the special occurrences He has given me, I have been chosen to be given them to spread them to the world," says Gaccione.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/132219723_Out_on_bail_for_murder__reputed_mobster_pens_book.html
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Thursday, May 5, 2011

Former Genovese Captain sentenced to 10 years in prison for murder conspiracy

  May 05, 2011    Dapper_Don

Mobster Anthony “Tony D” Palumbo of the Genovese crime family was sentenced Thursday in Manhattan federal court to 10 years in prison for “murder conspiracy”  that included a plot to bump off a hitman for the Russian mob.
Palumbo, a soldier and an “acting capo” in the Genovese family, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit murder in the aide of a racketeering enterprise.
“Anthony Palumbo’s decades long crime spree has finally come to an end,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.”He is going to prison which is exactly where he belongs.”
Authorities say that Palumbo operated mobster crews in Brooklyn and New Jersey.
In 1990, he was put in charge of the Genovese Crime Family’s interests in an illegal mob cartel that extorted petroleum companies affiliated with Russian organized crime figures.
The Russian mob was involved in a motor fuel bootlegging scheme in which petroleum companies evaded federal and state motor fuel excise taxes. In turn, the Genovese and other crime families extorted their share of illegal proceeds.
In late 1992 or early 1993, while Palumbo was involved in the scheme, one of the Russian organized crime figures asked Palumbo and others to murder a hit man who worked for the Russian mob, authorities charged.
Palumbo and others agreed to do it, but the higher ups in the Genovese Crime Family refused to authorize it, so it didn’t happen, authorities said.
Additionally, authorities said Palumbo was involved in the 1992 homicide of Angelo Sangiuolo, an associate of the Genovese Organized Crime Family.
Authorities said that former Genovese Crime Family boss Vincent “the Chin” Gigante ordered the murder of Sangiuolo because he had ripped off a gambling business associated with Palumbo.
After Palumbo complained to Gigante, Gigante ordered Angelo Prisco, a Genovese Capo, to murder Sangiuolo, authorities alleged. Prisco then recruited two of his associates to commit the murder, authorities said.
On June 2, 1992, Prisco’s mob associates shot and killed Sangiuolo in a van in the Bronx, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

http://www.ticklethewire.com/2011/05/05/mobster-for-genovese-crime-family-gets-10-years-for-murder-conspiracy-involving-a-hitman-for-the-russian-mob/
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Monday, July 5, 2010

The Life And Times Of A Genovese Family Witness

  July 05, 2010    Dapper_Don

 
In Providence, RI Michael Sparfven is making a new life for himself after testifying against reputed Genovese capo Angelo Prisco who was convicted last April in a NYC federal court for the 1992 murder of Angelo Sangiuolo, and Richard Salit provides the back story on Sparfven for The Providence Journal:

Michael Sparfven's ticket out of FCI Edgefield arrived one spring day in 2008 when New York mobster Angelo Prisco landed on Unit B-2 of the medium-security federal prison in South Carolina. Any Italians here? asked Prisco, a longtime captain in the infamous Genovese crime family. Anyone from up north? An inmate pointed at Sparfven, whose days as a charming, jet-setting CEO were bookended by stints in prison for fraud. He wasn't Italian, but he was from Rhode Island. A dropout from East Providence High School, he was comfortable with Mafia types and quickly struck up a friendship with Prisco. One day, according to court records, Prisco told Sparfven that he had arranged a hit on his mobster cousin in 1992. The feds were onto him and Prisco said he would have to rub out some witnesses. Sparfven secretly took notes and then tipped off federal agents.
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Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Reputed Genovese capo charged in 1992 murder plot

  June 15, 2010    Dapper_Don

A reputed acting captain in the Genovese crime family was arraigned this afternoon on a new indictment that ties him to the 1992 murder of a mobster's cousin.
Anthony "Tony D." Palumbo -- who was previously charged with racketeering and extortion -- is accused of conspiring to have Angelo Sangiuolo whacked for robbing Palumbo's gambling joints in the Bronx.
Sangiuolo -- whose rubout was allegedly sanctioned by then-Genovese boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante -- was later lured to his death by his first cousin Angelo Prisco, a Genovese captain who was sentenced to life last year after triggerman John "Johnny Balls" Leto turned rat and testified against him.
Alleged Genovese Capo Anthony Palumbo.
Alleged Genovese Capo Anthony Palumbo.
 
The remaining suspected member of the hit team -- alleged getaway driver Paul "Doc" Gaccione -- was arrested in April and charged with murder.
The new Manhattan federal court indictment against Palumbo, who the feds say was named head of the Genovese family's New Jersey operations in 2006, alleges that he met with Leto and Gaccione after the killing "to thank them for murdering Angelo Sangiuolo."
The indictment also says that that in late 1992 or early 1993, Palumbo -- who had allegedly been involved in a plot to shake down Russian mobsters running a gasoline-tax scam -- conspired to murder an unidentified hitman who worked for the Russians.
The plan, which never came off, was to lure the hitman to a Bronx social club "where Palumbo would murder (him)," the indictment said.
Palumbo, who's free on bond, pleaded not guilty to the new indictment during a brief court appearance.
Outside court, defense lawyer Steven Frankel called the new charges more of the "same nonsense."

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Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Reputed Genovese mobster Paul "Doc" Gaccione faces murder rap in 1992 slay of rival

  May 05, 2010    Dapper_Don

The getaway driver might not get away after all.

A reputed Genovese mobster was arraigned Tuesday on second-degree murder charges - for a 1992 rubout of a rival.

Paul (Doc) Gaccione pleaded not guilty to a single count of second-degree murder before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett. He was arrested at his New Jersey home last month after he was indicted by a Bronx grand jury.

Prosecutors say the 62-year-old Gaccione was the getaway driver in the murder of Angelo Sangiuolo, whom the Genoveses targeted when they thought he was robbing Bronx gambling operations controlled by the crime family.

Sangiuolo's bullet-riddled body was found in a van in a McDonald's parking lot in Pelham Bay in June 1992.

Sangiuolo's cousin, Genovese capo Angelo Prisco, ordered the hit and was sentenced to life in prison in federal court last year.

Triggerman John (Johnny Balls) Leto pleaded guilty

Gaccione's lawyer Michael Torres declined to comment outside the courtroom. Gaccione faces up to 25 years to life in prison if he is convicted.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/05/05/2010-05-05_murder_rap_for_driver_in_92_mob_slay.html#ixzz0n3c3eM4I


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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Alleged Getaway Driver Arrested In Genovese Hit

  April 20, 2010    Dapper_Don

Vincent "Chin" "Gigs" Giga...Vincent Gigante via Wikipedia
The feds have arrested Paul "Doc" Gaccione for allegedly serving as the getaway driver following the 1992 rubout of Genovese capo Angelo Sangiuolo as reported by Rocco Parascandola and John Lauinger for the Daily News:
Gaccione is charged with being the getaway driver for triggerman John (Johnny Balls) Leto, who was convicted of the killing last year. Sangiuolo's cousin, Genovese capo Angelo Prisco, arranged the hit after learning Sangiuolo had knocked off at least four Bronx gambling operations run by the crime family, law enforcement sources said.
Last August Prisco was sentenced to life in prison following his conviction for his role in the Prisco murder and a host of other charges, and the press release from the United States Attorney's Office stated:
Prisco was "made," or inducted, as a member of the Genovese Organized Crime Family in the late 1970s, and was later promoted to the supervisory position of captain. In his capacity as a captain, Prisco supervised, oversaw, and profited from the criminal activities of his own crew of Genovese Family Soldiers and associates, which operated in the New York City area and in New Jersey. On June 2, 1992, Prisco arranged the murder of his first cousin, Angelo Sangiuolo. Prisco received the order to kill Sangiuolo from Vincent Gigante, a/k/a "The Chin," who was then the boss of the Genovese Organized Crime Family. Gigante ordered the murder because Sangiuolo had been stealing from another Genovese Organized Crime Family soldier, Anthony Palumbo. Prisco assigned two of his own crew members, John Leto, a/k/a "Johnny Balls," and Paul Gaccione a/k/a "Doc," to carry out the murder. Priso then devised a plan to lure Sangiuolo to Prisco's Bronx, New York, social club. After Sangiuolo arrived, Prisco told him to get into a van with Leto and Gaccione, on the pretense that Leto and Gaccione would help Sangiuolo with a problem Sangiuolo was having with another person. Inside the van, Leto shot Sangiuolo numerous times, killing him, then left his body in the back of the van in the parking lot of a Bronx McDonald's. Prisco then picked up Leto at the McDonald's, and went with him to dispose of the murder weapon.
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Friday, December 4, 2009

Steven Seagal sought Genovese help to fend off Gambino Family

  December 04, 2009    Dapper_Don




So Steven Seagal is starring in a new reality series about his work as a "fully commissioned" officer with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office in Louisiana. The 57-year-old actor, who carries the title "Deputy Chief," has "gone out on patrol and worked major cases" for nearly 20 years, according to the A&E network, which is broadcasting "Steven Seagal Lawman." But when Seagal once found himself in a financial beef with a Mafia-backed partner, he did not react like a veteran law enforcement official, FBI records show. In the face of heavy pressure to fork over millions, the maximum lawman "considered the possibility of taking his problem to the FBI/law enforcement, but he did not believe they would be able to help him," according to 2002 FBI reports detailing several interviews with Seagal (who was accompanied by four lawyers). Instead of consulting fellow brothers in blue, Seagal met twice with Angelo Prisco, a Genovese family captain then residing in New Jersey's Rahway State Prison. Seagal sought Prisco's help in dealing with Anthony "Sonny" Ciccone, a Gambino family captain affiliated with Seagal's partner. Seagal told FBI agents that during one of his jailhouse meetings with Prisco, the hoodlum explained that the government was trying to add extra time to his sentence. "Seagal wanted to help Prisco because Prisco was helping Seagal with the problem with Ciccone," agents noted, so the actor "reached out for an attorney" whom Seagal paid $10,000 in "legal fees so the attorney would help Prisco." After contacting Prisco, the pressure directed at Deputy Chief Seagal by Ciccone & Co. ceased. Prisco, whose Genovese induction was sponsored by family powers Vincent "Chin" Gigante and his brother Mario, is pictured in the above mug shot. In August, Prisco, 70, was sentenced to life in prison following his conviction for racketeering (he engaged in mob staples like murder, robbery, extortion, arson, gambling, and loansharking). Last September, when agents visited Prisco at a South Carolina prison to inform him of his impending RICO indictment, he spoke candidly about several mob matters, according to an FBI report. Acknowledging that he was now "going to die in prison," Prisco said that while he suffered from diabetes and had been "taking good care of himself," he "intends to stop taking care of himself and eat whatever he wants to eat." (6 pages)

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/1202091seagal1.html

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Genovese Family Captain Sentenced to Life in Prison

  August 19, 2009    Dapper_Don

ANGELO PRISCO, a captain in the Genovese Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra, was sentenced today to life in prison by United States District Judge NAOMI REICE BUCHWALD in Manhattan federal court. PRISCO was convicted on April 27, 2009, after a two-week jury trial, of murder, racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, robbery, extortion, firearms offenses, arson, stolen property offenses, loansharking, and operating an illegal gambling business. According to documents filed in this case, the evidence at trial, and statements made at today's sentencing proceeding:

PRISCO was "made," or inducted, as a member of the Genovese Organized Crime Family in the late 1970s, and was later promoted to the supervisory position of captain. In his capacity as a captain, PRISCO supervised, oversaw, and profited from the criminal activities of his own crew of Genovese Family Soldiers and associates, which operated in the New York City area and in New Jersey.

On June 2, 1992, PRISCO arranged the murder of his first cousin, ANGELO SANGIUOLO. PRISCO received the order to kill SANGIUOLO from VINCENT GIGANTE, a/k/a "The Chin," who was then the boss of the Genovese Organized Crime Family. GIGANTE ordered the murder because SANGIUOLO had been stealing from another Genovese Organized Crime Family soldier, ANTHONY PALUMBO. PRISCO assigned two of his own crew members, JOHN LETO, a/k/a "Johnny Balls," and PAUL GACCIONE, a/k/a "Doc," to carry out the murder. PRISCO then devised a plan to lure SANGIUOLO to PRISCO's Bronx, New York, social club. After SANGIUOLO arrived, PRISCO told him to get into a van with LETO and GACCIONE, on the pretense that LETO and GACCIONE would help SANGIUOLO with a problem SANGIUOLO was having with another person. Inside the van, LETO shot SANGIUOLO numerous times, killing him, then left his body in the back of the van in the parking lot of a Bronx McDonald's. PRISCO then picked up LETO at the McDonald's, and went with him to dispose of the murder weapon.

PRISCO also was convicted of conspiring to commit robberies with members of his crew. In 1991 and 1992 robberies, PRISCO oversaw various crew members who carjacked and robbed at gunpoint jewelry dealers transporting large quantities of gold and other jewelry they had purchased in the Dominican Republic. PRISCO received $20,000 in cash from one robbery and a bag of gold worth about $50,000 from another robbery. PRISCO then bragged at his Bronx social club about the armed robberies, passing around a relevant newspaper article.

From 2003 to 2005, PRISCO ordered, approved, and supervised multiple violent home invasion robberies targeting individuals believed to keep cash in their homes, during which numerous victims were tied up and beaten. PRISCO had to "green light" the robberies before they could occur, and received a portion of any money stolen. PRISCO also instructed his crew members to "play dumb" if they discovered they had robbed another person tied to organized crime.

PRISCO also was convicted of committing extortion and conspiracy to commit the extortion of a Manhattan construction company owner. PRISCO and his crew first extorted the victim's company in 1997, when PETER RIZZO, an associate under PRISCO at the time, assaulted and broke a glass coffee pot over the head of the victim's business partner. Members of PRISCO's crew then pressured the victim and his business partner to drop the charges against RIZZO stemming from this 1997 assault. Seven years later, various other members of PRISCO's crew -- acting on his orders and following his advice about how to collect the money -- returned to the same construction company and threatened to cut off the victim's finger and harm the victim's family. The victim paid PRISCO and his crew a total of $50,000. Since the 1990s, PRISCO has extorted various other individuals and businesses, including the owner of a diner in the Bronx; the owner of a night club in Manhattan; and an electrical contractor in Brooklyn.

United States Attorney PREET BHARARA stated, "This conviction and the life sentence imposed today on Angelo Prisco puts an end to his decades-long career as a leader of the Genovese Organized Crime Family -- one marked by violence and intimidation. Today's sentence, and the dismantling of the defendant's mafia crew, serves as a reminder that those who pledge themselves to a life of crime will pay a high price in the end."

Mr. BHARARA praised the work of the FBI; the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation; the Orange County, New York District Attorney's Office; the Westchester County, New York District Attorney's Office; the New York State Police; the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner; the New York Police Department; the United States Bureau of Prisons; the Morris County, New Jersey Prosecutor's Office; and the Rockaway Township, New Jersey Police Department for their contributions.

This case is being prosecuted by the Office's Organized Crime Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys ELIE HONIG and LISA ZORNBERG are in charge of the prosecution.

http://www.australia.to/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13685:genovese-family-captain-sentenced-to-life-in-prison&catid=116:breaking-news&Itemid=202

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