Notorious Colombo mobster linked to at least 5 murders is reportedly the Underboss
Showing posts with label Joel Cacace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joel Cacace. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
Judge tells Colombo mobster Tommy Shots and feds to settle
She wants an offer no one can refuse.
The judge who will rule on jailed mobster Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli’s $10 million case against the feds for a prison rec-room slip-and-fall wants the two parties to settle.
Gioeli is suing the feds because he broke his kneecap after slipping on a puddle while retrieving an errant ping-pong ball during a game at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn in 2013.
But Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto nudged the two sides to strike a deal, rather than forcing her to issue a bench ruling on the case.
“Mr. Gioeli needs to lower his expectations,” Matsumoto said, referring to his $10 million ask. “The government ought to think about increasing its offer.”
Matsumoto indicated both sides may be at fault for the injury — the lockup for not addressing the underlying cause of the puddle, and Gioeli for chasing the ball into an area he knew was hazardous.
Gioeli, who has since been moved to a federal pen in North Carolina, is serving 18 years on a racketeering conviction.
He was convicted in 2012 of plotting the murders of gangland enemies and a general charge of orchestrating violence against rivals to gain power.
But Gioeli was acquitted of several murders in that case that could have sent him to jail for life, including the 1997 hit on NYPD cop Ralph Dols, who was rubbed out allegedly because he married the ex-wife of Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace, a former Colombo consigliere.
Gioeli and Colombo soldier Dino Saracino were also cleared of the 1999 slaying of Colombo underboss William “Wild Bill” Cutolo, and the 1995 execution of Colombo associate Richard Greaves.
Both sides have until July 18 to make submissions laying out the facts of the case — then they’ll be given two weeks to respond to one another before Matsumoto can issue a ruling.
Gioeli, who has since been moved to a federal pen in North Carolina, is serving 18 years on a racketeering conviction.
https://nypost.com/2018/06/05/judge-in-mobsters-ping-pong-injury-case-wants-settlement/
Saturday, November 4, 2017
Turncoat Colombo captain facing life is sentenced to 11 years for helping feds bring down the crime family
The
last time the world heard from Dino Calabro was in 2012 when,
swaggering and ruddy-faced, he appeared in court as a government
informant and testified about the brutal murders he had once committed
on behalf of his mob employers.
Shrunken
and remorseful, Mr. Calabro was back in court on Friday, this time
facing a possible sentence of life in prison for his crimes and begging a
judge for mercy. His pleas in Federal District Court in Brooklyn were
answered as the judge concluded that his assistance as a witness had
helped to bring down scores of Mafiosi. He was sentenced to a term of 11
years.
The
sentence capped an inglorious career in which Mr. Calabro, known as Big
Dino, rose from a teenage mobster to a vicious captain in the Colombo
crime family who, by his own account, had over the years killed at least
eight people, including Ralph C. Dols,
a New York City police officer whose mistake was marrying the former
wife of the Colombo family leader Joel Cacace, Mr. Calabro’s onetime
boss. After he was arrested in 2008, Mr. Calabro turned informant and
eventually testified at Mr. Cacace’s trial and at the trial of Thomas
Gioeli, the Colombo family’s “street boss.”
For
the last five years, Mr. Calabro, now 59, has been in the witness
protection program and has continued to help the government pursue the
mob, federal prosecutors said. Though many of the cases that he worked
on still remain secret, one of the prosecutors, James Gatta, told the
court on Friday that Mr. Calabro had helped the government essentially
“incapacitate” the Colombo clan.
At
his sentencing hearing, Mr. Calabro renounced his past, saying that he
had been “intoxicated by the greed, power and notoriety” that went with
the gangster life and now was “mortified by the criminal culture” in
which he had chosen to invest his “life and identity.” He apologized to
the relatives of his victims, some of whom were sitting in the room, and
to his own family, which he acknowledged he had left in “shambles.”
Ralph C. Dols, a New York City police officer, was killed in 1997. Mr. Calabro was part of a crew responsible for his murder.
Credit
New York Police Department
Among
his victims was Frank Marsala who was shot to death in 1991 on 19th
Avenue in Brooklyn after Mr. Calabro and members of his crew suspected
him of having helped to kill a Colombo family associate named Ennab
Awjab. The next year, as the Colombo family erupted into violent civil
war, Mr. Calabro took part in the murders of John Minerva and Michael
Imbergamo, two Colombo members who were fatally shot in a car outside a
diner on Long Island.
Even in a city inured to violent crime, the murder of Officer Dols in 1997 was a shock. Federal prosecutors accused Mr. Cacace of ordering the killing because it was embarrassing
that his former wife, Kim T. Kennaugh, would leave him for a man who
worked in law enforcement. At Mr. Cacace’s trial, Mr. Calabro testified
that he was part of a crew that staked out Officer Dols’ house in
Sheepshead Bay and executed him outside.
But
Mr. Calabro reached what he described as “a tipping point” after
prosecutors in the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn issued an indictment
against him and 11 other Colombo family members in June 2008, charging
them with robbery, extortion, drug trafficking, loan-sharking and four
murders. (Officer Dols’ killing was not at first among them.) “Every
ounce of arrogance and bravado that had once been the bedrock of my
personality,” he said on Friday, “instantly sapped out of me.”
He
began to work with his former pursuers, testifying at separate trials
against Mr. Gioeli and Mr. Cacace, who, while acquitted on some of the
charges, were ultimately both imprisoned. The trials were remarkable for
the “level of hostility” with which the defendants’ lawyers treated Mr.
Calabro, his own lawyer, Richard Jasper, said on Friday. Judge Brian M.
Cogan, who oversaw the trials and issued Mr. Calabro’s sentence,
agreed. “I recall it vividly,” Judge Cogan said. “I have never seen
anything like it before or since.”
Before
Judge Cogan handed down the sentence, Rosa Gargano, the mother of a
young man the Colombo family killed, addressed the court. In 1994, Ms.
Gargano’s son, Carmine, then 21 and a college student in Brooklyn,
disappeared from his parents’ home. Years later, Mr. Calabro admitted in
court that he knew about the murder and helped to hide the body, which
has never been found.
“I am angry,” Ms. Gargano said, erupting into tears. “I want justice.”
After Mr. Calabro’s sentence was rendered, Ms. Gargano said she did not get it.
“My son got no mercy — he got mercy,” she said. “I am not happy.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/nyregion/dino-calabro-mob-turncoat-sentenced.html
Monday, May 9, 2016
Family of jailed Colombo family mobster fights over late son's forged will
Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace, former acting Colombo crime boss, is serving 20 years for murder conspiracy.The family of a high-ranking gangster who barely survived the Colombo civil war in the 1990s is being torn apart by a bitter legal battle over his late son’s estate.
While former acting boss Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace is away serving 20 years for murder conspiracy, his ex-wife and granddaughter are facing off in Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court amid allegations that a will signed by his son, Joel "JoJo" Cacace Jr., is a fake.
The suspicious document surfaced after JoJo died of a heart attack on Jan. 1, 2015, at age 44. The will names his mother, Vita Rose Cacace, as the executor, but JoJo’s name is misspelled in four places and the date it was signed is crossed out and changed to a date before his death.
It also contains a puzzling provision that if Dina Marie Cacace, the dead man’s 19-year-old daughter and sole beneficiary, contests the will, she gets nothing.
Dina Marie’s mother, Laura Meyer, who never married JoJo, has filed an explosive affidavit with Surrogate’s Court, alleging the will is a “fabrication,” and that her daughter was evicted from her father’s Long Island home by Cacace family members who have allegedly harassed the teen.
She also alleges that her daughter’s lawyer may have been in cahoots with the other side.
Colombo consigliere Joel Cacace seen in a photo admitted to evidence during a trial at Brooklyn Federal Court, Brooklyn NY, April 18, 2012.
“I get nothing out of this, this is about doing what is both ethically and morally correct,” Meyer told the Daily News.
“For me, this fight is (JoJo’s) fight and all about allowing him to be able to rest in peace.”
Cacace Jr.’s estate includes three homes, three boats, a snowmobile, a Harley Davidson motorcycle, bank accounts and a valuable comic book collection, according to Meyer’s affidavit.
Vita Rose is in full control of her son’s estate until Dina Marie turns 31. Neither she, nor her lawyer, returned calls.
But Vita Rose’s daughter Susan Giambertone said the family is heartbroken over the dispute.
Cacace Sr. is due to be released from prison in 2020.
“This situation has become like a ‘Jersey Shore’ freaking episode to the point of disgust,” Giambertone said, referring to the raucous reality TV show.
“We love Dina Marie. We want her to be part of our family. My niece is being brainwashed,” she added.
Meyer took her allegations to the Suffolk County district attorney’s office. But a spokesman said that after reviewing her complaint, it was determined the matter was civil, and not criminal, in nature.
Cacace Sr. is due to be released from prison in 2020. He was wounded in 1992 during the Colombo civil war in which he was aligned with boss Carmine "The Snake" Perscio’s faction.
Cacace’s late son was not a Colombo gangster, although he served time for working a no-show union job.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mobster-family-fight-charges-late-son-forged-article-1.2629750
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Colombo cop killer turned rat sentenced to 12 years in prison for role in 5 murders
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
Monday, October 27, 2014
Feds urge leniency for Colombo cop killer turned rat
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.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Judge sentences Colombo soldier Little Dino to 50 years in prison for racketeering
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/
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Joe Waverly found not guilty of ordering murder of NYPD cop
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
Jury deliberates Colombo gangster's fate in NYPD cop killing case
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
Monday, November 25, 2013
Colombo consigliere ordered NYPD cop's murder out of jealousy
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
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Tommy Shots blogs that dead Colombo underboss ordered the murder of NYPD cop
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/
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Joe Waverly seeks help of first mob boss turned rat during NYPD cop's murder trial
Mob boss Joseph Massino, left, who ducked two life sentences after he
became a government informant, may be asked to sing once more — this
time for the defense in Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace's trial on charges
that he ordered a hit on a cop who married his former wife.
The fat man may be singing again.
But this time, heavyset former Bonanno crime boss Joseph Massino might be called as a defense witness for Colombo chieftain Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace, who is on trial for ordering a hit on an NYPD cop who married the gang goon’s ex-wife.
Massino, 70, was recently freed from prison after a federal judge threw out his two life sentences as a reward for becoming the highest-ranking New York mob boss to become a government rat.
Cacace’s defense team informed prosecutors over the weekend that they needed the tubby turncoat brought to Brooklyn federal court from wherever he’s been relocated. Defense lawyer David Stern declined to say what they might ask Massino.
Last year the feds planned to call Massino as a witness after he claimed he asked Cacace in prison about the 1997 murder of Officer Ralph Dols and Cacace allegedly “smiled.” But Massino later told the feds he could no longer remember the encounter and was dropped from their case.
Massino’s brother-in-law, former Bonanno underboss Salvatore Vitale, testified at Cacace’s trial last week. Vitale, who is also in the witness protection program, said he no longer had any relationship with Massino, who married his sister.
But this time, heavyset former Bonanno crime boss Joseph Massino might be called as a defense witness for Colombo chieftain Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace, who is on trial for ordering a hit on an NYPD cop who married the gang goon’s ex-wife.
Massino, 70, was recently freed from prison after a federal judge threw out his two life sentences as a reward for becoming the highest-ranking New York mob boss to become a government rat.
Cacace’s defense team informed prosecutors over the weekend that they needed the tubby turncoat brought to Brooklyn federal court from wherever he’s been relocated. Defense lawyer David Stern declined to say what they might ask Massino.
Last year the feds planned to call Massino as a witness after he claimed he asked Cacace in prison about the 1997 murder of Officer Ralph Dols and Cacace allegedly “smiled.” But Massino later told the feds he could no longer remember the encounter and was dropped from their case.
Massino’s brother-in-law, former Bonanno underboss Salvatore Vitale, testified at Cacace’s trial last week. Vitale, who is also in the witness protection program, said he no longer had any relationship with Massino, who married his sister.
Monday, November 18, 2013
Questioned after murder mob wife denied being married to gangster
Kim Kennaugh holding her wedding picture in Las Vegas with Ralph Dols.
The widow of an NYPD cop whacked by the mob denied that she was
previously married to a high-ranking Colombo gangster the day after her
husband’s murder, prosecutors say.
Kim Kennaugh Dols is not being called as a witness at the trial of Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace, but the feds are seeking to admit the stunning omission into evidence.
She had married Police Officer Ralph Dols in Las Vegas in 1995 — he was her fourth husband — one year after she divorced Cacace, who was the crime family’s consigliere .
Ralph Dols was fatally shot by two Colombo hit men outside his
Sheepshead Bay apartment building on Aug. 25, 1997. The gunmen testified
that they were carrying out Cacace’s orders to kill Dols but were not
told why or that he was a cop.
Investigators questioned Kennaugh Dols the next day and asked her about
two previous husbands — Colombo gangster Thomas Capelli, whom she
married as a teen, and Enrico Carini, who was slain in 1987.
Prosecutors filed court papers Friday referring to the police statement: “ ‘Questioned about living with or being married to any other men . . . she denied she had and never mentioned the name Joel Cacace.’ ”
“Her omission indicates that at the very least she knew (Cacace) was jealous of Dols and was capable of murdering him,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys James Gatta, Allon Lifshitz and Sam Nitze wrote.
Defense lawyer Susan Kellman told the federal jury that the suggestion Cacace was jealous is ridiculous and not supported by any evidence.
Kennaugh Dols has since remarried and could not be reached for comment. The trial is expected to go to the jury this week in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Kim Kennaugh Dols is not being called as a witness at the trial of Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace, but the feds are seeking to admit the stunning omission into evidence.
She had married Police Officer Ralph Dols in Las Vegas in 1995 — he was her fourth husband — one year after she divorced Cacace, who was the crime family’s consigliere .
Kim Kennaugh Dols in wedding picture with cop Ralph Dols, her fourth husband, who later was slain by two Colombo hit men.
Prosecutors filed court papers Friday referring to the police statement: “ ‘Questioned about living with or being married to any other men . . . she denied she had and never mentioned the name Joel Cacace.’ ”
“Her omission indicates that at the very least she knew (Cacace) was jealous of Dols and was capable of murdering him,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys James Gatta, Allon Lifshitz and Sam Nitze wrote.
Defense lawyer Susan Kellman told the federal jury that the suggestion Cacace was jealous is ridiculous and not supported by any evidence.
Kennaugh Dols has since remarried and could not be reached for comment. The trial is expected to go to the jury this week in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Turncoat Colombo captain says he was shocked to learn he whacked an NYPD officer
Mob snitch Dino Calabro (pictured) says he killed Ralph Dols on orders from Colombo honcho Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace.
An ex-Colombo hit man testified Thursday that he had no idea the victim he whacked on orders from his Mafia superior was an off-duty NYPD police officer.
Mob snitch Dino "Big Dino" Calabro claims he was shocked the day after the 1997 killing when the murder was splashed on the front pages of the tabloids.
"Whoa, what the f---, it was a cop!" Calabro said in Brooklyn Federal Court at the murder trial of Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace.
Calabro said he was part of a hit team that had been stalking Officer Ralph Dols for weeks after receiving orders from then-Colombo consigliere Cacace.
Prosecutors contend Cacace wanted the cop dead because he had "dared" to marry the gangster's ex-wife Kim Kennaugh.
NYPD Officer Ralph Dols, who was gunned down in 1997.
Cacace, who was referred to as "she" by his underlings because of his long hair, had only described the victim as a Mexican who worked in a Queens social club, according to Calabro.
"'She' had to know," Calabro said he fumed to alleged co-conspirator Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli the day after the killing.
Calabro admitted he shot Dols as he emerged from a car outside his Sheepshead Bay apartment building. Calabro identified his cousin, Dino "Little Dino" Saracino, as the second gunman.
Gioeli and Saracino were acquitted of the cop's murder last year.
Defense lawyer David Stern pounded the witness over lying to the government initially when he did not finger Saracino as a shooter and blamed someone else.
Prosecutors say Cacace wanted Dols dead because he had "dared" to marry the gangster's ex-wife Kim Kennaugh.
Stern also ridiculed Calabro's claim that he had discussed the murder with Cacace in a Bensonurst pastry shop two weeks before it was carried out.
"He (Cacace) didn't say 'We have to whack this guy,' did he?" Stern said.
"We don't use a vocabulary like that," Calabro insisted.
Calabro said it is against mob protocol to kill a cop. "You don't hurt children, you don't hurt girls, you don't hurt law enforcement," he said. "It's just a rule."
Fearful of the death penalty, the cop killers agreed to refer to the Dols murder with the code word "AIDS" or a gesture of sticking a needle in their arm to signify the lethal injection punishment.
Calabro was rewarded with induction into the Colombo family and promoted to captain before he decided to cooperate with the government and plead guilty to eight murders.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/mafia-snitch-shocked-learn-killed-article-1.1517856#ixzz2l3fQGamI
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Turncoat NYPD cop killer testifies during trial of former Colombo consigliere
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/
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Jealous mob boss ordered murder of NYPD cop
A jealous mafia boss ordered the 1997 assassination of an NYPD cop because the officer had the nerve to marry his ex-wife, prosecutors said during opening statements at former Colombo consigliere Joel Cacace’s murder trial in Brooklyn federal court Tuesday.
The aging mob heavyweight is accused of orchestrating the vicious slaying of Ralph Dols outside of the Gravesend home he shared with Cacace’s ex-wife, Kim Kennaugh, and their infant child.
“Officer Dols was gunned down for one reason,” said prosecutor Sam Nitze. “He married the former wife of a high-ranking member of the mafia.”
Nitze painted Cacace as a potent force within the formerly powerful crime clan whose blood-soaked orders were executed by eager underlings without question.
“They knew that an order from Joel Cacace was an order they had to follow,” Nitze said of the men who allegedly carried out the shooting.
“The defendant may not have pulled the trigger but he is responsible because he ordered it,” he said.
But Cacace’s attorney, Susan Kellman, said that there was scant evidence that her client had anything to do with Dols’ murder and that prosecutors were hitching their hopes for a conviction solely on his association with La Cosa Nostra.
Kellman skewered the government’s main witnesses — the shooters — 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.
With a long graying pony tail and a permanent scowl etched on his face, Cacace looked more Indian chief than mafia boss as he nodded gravely to family members as they filed into the standing room only courtroom.
http://nypost.com/2013/11/12/jealous-mafia-boss-ordered-murder-of-nypd-cop-over-ex-wife/
Monday, November 11, 2013
Colombo crime boss Joe Waverly to face trial for ordering the murder of an NYPD cop
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.
"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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
