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To all Sho 'nuff Mob Study readers everywhere, we extend our unmitigated "WELCOME." We urge publishers who read our series to send us a complimentary copy of any recently, and/or soon-to-be, released organized crime book.
In the order in which they are received, the books will be read, then reviewed, and subsequently, cited in upcoming editions of the series. We ask only that our book donors remain patient.
Thank you.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
In Today’s column: "Disinformation Mafia Style;'" "'Why The Mob Wants Stephen Joseph Lenehan (March 30, 1955- ) Dead;" and "Who Was Vincent 'The Chin' Gigante?," "What Position Does Scott M. Deitche (September 2001) Hold In The Proposed Hypothetical Equation?;" and "Steve Lenehan's Version Of La Cosa Nostra's 'Party Line'."
By Sho Nuff (site columnist)
Disinformation, as a divisionary strategy, is most effective when it appears briefly in a discussion largely comprised of conclusions based logically upon factual information.
Disinformation Mafia Style
The following is an excerpt from the "Interview with Steve Lenehan" by Scott M. Deitche (September 2001). The interview is divided into two sections. The first section consists of questions from posters to diverse organized
crime forums, while the second section mainly consists of questions from Scott M. Deitche. The excerpt is from the second section.
"Who was Jack Panels?
Jack "Panels" Santoli was a Genovese guy. Jack was a class guy. He operated in Newark and was under Gyp Decarlo. The other made guys in Gyp’s crew were Joe Polverino, Lucky from Asbury Park (whose name I can never remember) Carl "Leash" Scalesa, Frank Casina and Tommy Lombardi (the last two guys were from Brooklyn). Jack died of a perforated colon in 1972 during surgery to close up his colostomy. He was in his 50’s..." (p. 12).
As he answers the question, "Who was Jack Panels?," Steve Lenehan goes on to say,
"...I've been told by more than one person, among them Joe Polverino, Nick Palmieri, Turk and Jimmy Palmieri and my father that Jack is the one who shot Frank Costello. I just don't repeat the story because everyone will think I’m nuts" (p. 12).
See: http://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_162.html
It is interesting to note that opinions concerning the aborted assassination of Frank Costello on May 2, 1957, by and/or about "Joe Polverino, Nick Palmieri, Turk and Jimmy Palmieri and my father," are nonexistent, i.e. the opinions of these men concerning who shot at "The Prime Minister of the Underworld" have never been published nor otherwise publicly quoted.
Why does the American Mafia have it in for Stephen Joseph Lenehan?
Why The Mob Wants Stephen Joseph Lenehan (March 30, 1955- ) Dead
The American Mafia would like to help Stephen Joseph Lenehan do The Houdini, but the mob rat has managed to disappear without La Cosa Nostra's assistance. See: Who Was 'The Great Houdini?', What Is 'The Houdini Effect?' and Along With His 'Houdini,' The Mob Victim's Remains Are Conspicuously Absent in "Organized Criminals Who Are Buried In Publicly Unmarked Graves", p. 2, the Tuesday, 17 January, 2006 edition of the Sho'nuff Mob Study at http://gangstersinc.tripod.com/ShoJan1706.html
Here’s a profile of Stephen Joseph Lenehan that comes straight from the "Interview with Steve Lenehan" (September 2001):
“On August 8, 1994 Steve Lenehan walked off the streets of New Jersey for the last time. He became, in the words of the U.S. Attorney in Newark, “one of the most productive cooperators the District of New Jersey has ever seen.”
For the previous two years he had worn a wire on the streets and caught 343 conversations between 50 mobsters in New Jersey and New York. That taped evidence, supported by his testimony, resulted in the conviction of 26 mobsters from the Genovese, Lucchese, Bonanno, Gambino, Columbo, and Bruno-Scarfo crime families” (p. 1).
Steve Lenehan has been known to post on mob forums under the handle, "Picasso."
Before he became an informant in 1994, Steve Lenehan had been a New Jersey mob associate. Lenehan used to live in Bloomfield and Bellville, New Jersey. Today, Steve Lenehan may be living in South Florida under the alias "Steve Kelly." Or Steve Lenehan may have relocated to Texas under another alias. He has had many brushes with the law but his major scam is acting as a land excavator.
See: http://www.whosarat.com/criminal_record/4qcx6wh71111712442.rtx
As an upwardly mobile mob associate, Steve Lenehan could never become "straightened out:" he is not the full product of an Italian union. Instead of Italian patrilineal heritage, Steve Lenehan's lineage is Irish and Italian, on the wrong side.
Who Was Vincent 'The Chin' Gigante?
Vincent "The Oddfather" Gigante (March 29, 1928-to-December 19, 2005), known for a long-running insanity act that had him shuffling around Greenwich Village in a bathrobe, was found at 5:15 a.m. at the U.S. Medical Center in Springfield, Mo. unresponsive. The U.S. Medical Center in Springfield, Mo. is a prison hospital. Gigante, was 77-years-of-age. He apparently suffered a heart attack.
Vincent Gigante was serving a 12-year sentence for racketeering, plotting to murder John J. Gotti for the unsanctioned whacking of Paul Castellano, the Gambino Crime Family boss, and, obstructing justice by pretending to be insane.
Gigante's underworld career spanned multiple generations of wiseguys. He earned his bones as driver and bodyguard for Vito Genovese, the family's namesake.
As Carl Sifakis (June 30, 2005) tells us, in The Mafia Encyclopedia: From Accardo to Zwillman, Checkmark Books; 3rd edition, ISBN: 0816056943,
"From the public's point of view, Vincent "the Chin" Gigante's claim to fame springs from the attempted slaying of Frank Costello in 1957. Even though Gigante, who went on trial for that crime, walked out of court a free man, he remains in popular theory linked to it.
According to this version, Vito Genovese ordered Costello killed so that he could seize the leadership of organized crime in New York. The then-300-pound Gigante reportedly took shooting practice daily in a Greenwich Village basement in preparation for the rubout. On May 2, 1957, Costello entered his apartment building on Central Park West. At that moment a large black Cadillac pulled up to the curb, a hugh man got out, rushed past Costello, and entered the building. When Costello entered the lobby, the big man, from behind a pillar, appeared behind Costello. "This is for you, Frank," he called.
Costello turned, a movement that probably saved his life. The bulletgrazed the right side of his scalp just above the ear. The fat man turned and hurried from the lobby, convinced he had delivered a killing shot.
But Costello was not seriously hurt, although he required hospitalization. Following the code of omertà, he insisted he did not know his assailant. However, the building's doorman had gotten a good look at the gunman, and based on his evidence, an arrest order went out for the Chin. He didn't turn up. Informer Joe Valachi later reported, "The Chin was just taken somewhere up in the country to lose some weight." When fat camp adjourned, Gigante came in and surrendered, claiming he'd just heard the cops were looking for him.
It was a slim, trim Gigante who sat in the courtroom on trial for attempted murder. There wasn't much of a case against him. The doorman now wouldn't or couldn't identify him as the gunman.
He got the nickname "Chin" either from his mother calling him Vincenzo, or from his days as an amateur boxer managed by gangster Thomas "Tommy Ryan" Eboli in the 1940s.
What Position Does Scott M. Deitche (September 2001) Hold In The Proposed Hypothetical Equation?
Vincent "The Chin" Gigante did his best to silence Frank Costello on May 2, 1957 but failed to do so. If it were not for the fact that Frank Costello was a stand up guy, The Chin's bullet ridden body would probably have turned up in the trunk of an automobile. It is the mob's 'party line' that Vincent Gigante had no part in the Frank Costello assault. Despite the fact that he has fallen out of favor with the American Mafia, his contention that it was "Jack 'Panels' Santoli" who tried to murder Frank Costello is Steve Lenehan's version of the American Mafia's 'party line.'
Is Scott M. Deitche a confederate of the conspiracy to propagate disinformation alleging that it was Jack "Panels" Santoli, not Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, who made the unsuccessful effort to blow off Frank Costello's head? I think not. Deitche, the interviewer, just accurately quoted, the comments Steve Lenehan, the interviewee, made during the "Interview" (September 2001).
To his readers, Scott M. Deitche (2001, p. 16) confides that he, and Steve Lenehan "are currently working on a book about Steve’s life in the mob entitled, A Day’s Pay."
But, suppose Steve Lenehan's allegation that Jack 'Panels' Santoli really was the culprit is true?
Steve Lenehan's Version Of La Cosa Nostra's 'Party Line'
In the case that Jack 'Panels' Santoli really did fire the shot that missed Frank Costello's head, our initial skepticism was not amiss. After all, Steve Lenehan's Frank Costello Hit scenario, if it is not too ambitious to use the word "scenario," is strictly circumstantial. Steve Lenehan has offered no conclusive evidence.