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, June 14, 2005
In Today’s column: INFORMATION, MISINFORMATION, DISINFORMATION, PART III; A 'MAD DOG' IS UNLIKELY TO TURN STATE'S EVIDENCE, PART II; MOB COPS: CHICAGO AND NEW YORK; WHO IS JOEY DAVID CORBETT'S GUARDIAN TODAY?, IS JOHN A. 'JUNIOR' GOTTI GOING TO FLIP?
Why Mad Dog Joe Sullivan Is Not An Independent Operator In The Underworld
I used to think the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre of February 14, 1929 marked the end of the Irish American hoodlum as an independent operator in the American underworld. In my usage, the phrase the "American underworld" is synonymous with the phrase, the "Italian Mafia."
Today, I realize that an Irish American hoodlum, like James J. "Whitey" Bulger, can achieve a great deal of autonomy in the Italian Mafia by deviousness and treacherous means. There's an old saying, I think it originally comes from the Sicilians, "a man who plays alone never loses." To the extent that Mad Dog Joe Sullivan plays alone, he is an independent operator in the American underworld.
As T. J. English (February 15, 2005) tells us, in Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish-American Gangster, ReganBooks, ISBN: 0060590025:
"It was bad enough that, by the late 1970s, the Mafia was an insatiable, multi-tentacled octopus who believed the entire underworld was their oyster; now they were the official overlords of the Irish. It was an arrangement many Irish gangsters had been trying to avoid since the earliest days of the battle between the dagos and the micks.
This new arrangement made things especially difficult for the independent operator. The Westies, after all, had been called to the table not because they were Irish, but because they had something to offer: a neighborhood bounty that, however diminished, had historical antecedents going back to the beginnings of organized crime in America. Most Irish American gangsters weren't so lucky; they operated outside Hell's Kitchen or even outside the protection of the Irish Mob, as freelance operators looking for work wherever they could find it. Shorn of any overriding ethnic structure that might guarantee them a piece of the pie or back them in underworld disputes, they were, in many cases, underworld pariahs---lone meteors in a universe that was no longer of their making.
It would take a while for the Westies to realize that their pact with the Mafia had been a gangland version of the Trojan Horse. For non-West Side gangsters, however, the consequences were as clear as a slap in the face. The era of the Irish American hoodlum as independent operator was pushed further along the road to extinction. But given the breed's reputation for irascible, hard-headed acts of mayhem, there was a better-than-even chance they would not go down without a fight" (pp. 355-356).
T. J. English (February 15, 2005) provides his readers with some background information about Mad Dog Joe Sullivan.
"Joseph Sullivan was a hardened contract killer, who, in May 1976, had only recently been released from prison after serving ten years on a second-degree manslaughter charge. Sullivan was a well-known figure in the New York underworld. Born in the neighborhood of Woodside, Queens, he was a virtual product of the state who had spent twenty-five of his thirty-six years on Earth incarcerated in various penal institutions. He became famous in April 1971 when he escaped from Attica Correctional Facility in Upstate New York. At the time, no one had ever escaped from the maximum-security prison in its forty-year history. Sullivan did so by hiding himself beneath some grain and feed sacks piled abroad a truck that left the prison in broad daylight. He was captured five weeks later strolling down a street in Greenwich Village.
Even Sullivan was surprised when he was paroled by the state of New York just four years later. He was aided greatly by the fact that he had a powerful lawyer, Ramsy Clark, the former attorney general of the United States during the Johnson administration and a family friend. Upon his release, Sullivan resettled back in the borough of his birth. Before long, he was circulating in the underworld looking for work" (Ibid., p. 341).
To Mad Dog Joe Sullivan murder is strictly a business matter. That’s why Joe Sullivan is able to fulfill contracts against his fellow Irishmen. That is the main reason Mad Dog Joe Sullivan is not an independent operator. Business is business.
Murder and Mob Insulation
After Salvatore Maranzano was murdered on September 10. 1931, Salvatore “Charley Lucky” Luciano, his successor, used Maranzano’s blueprint to reorganize the New York underworld. Maranzano had already created and recognized the Five Families of New York. Charley Lucky took the Capo di Tutu Cappi position of the table and made it strictly and under the table position. Charley Lucky was the first under the table capo di tutti capi of the American Mafia. Charley Lucky also instituted a consigliere position. He also created Murder Incorporated, the enforcement arm of the national syndicate.
Murder Incorporated 1
Murder Inc. 1 was a special group of killers who were available to the member groups of the national crime syndicate. I say "Murder Inc. I" because it was the first such group. But, other troops of syndicate killers have followed in the wake of Murder Inc. I.
Mad Dog Joe Sullivan is not a member of any troop of syndicate killers. As I said before, Mad Dog Joe Sullivan is not an independent operator, either.
But, like the members of Murder, Inc. 1, Mad Dog Joe Sullivan only kills when "contracted" to do so. Murder Inc. 1 contracts had to be approved unanimously by the National Mafia Commission, along with some members who claimed to have no vote (Meyer Lansky wanted no connection to the actual voting, but no one ever made a move without his approval). Mad Dog Joe Sullivan's contracts only had to be approved by the higher ups in the given Cosa Nostra Family for which he was working.
The Murder Inc. 1 set up: contracts were issued from various cities throughout the nation. If a contract needed to be completed in Baltimore, they'd hire someone from Cleveland or Los Angeles, bring them in for a week to study the "bum's" routine, and then off them in various ways - car accidents, strangulation, or as simple as gunning them down on a quiet street. One thing was certain, if a contract was issued, it was definitely carried out.
The idea of Murder, Inc. was based on the fact that killers would be strangers to the city in which their target was to be found. Sometimes the killers were even strangers to their victims, and therefore harder to trace. Police would concentrate on local suspects while the actual killers were already en route to their hometowns. They killed quickly and effectively with numerous methods. Many of the targets were informants or gang members who had embezzled mob money.
One of the more famous victims of Murder Inc. 1 was Dutch Schultz, the mob boss, who had defied the syndicate. Mendy Weiss, Charles Workman, and an unidentified gunman named "Piggy" shot Schultz and his associates Otto Berman, Abe Landau, and Lulu Rosenkrantz on October 23, 1935, in a Newark diner named the Palace Chop House.
Whatever happened to Murder Inc., 1? In the 1940s, Murder, Inc. 1 employee Harry Rudolph was framed for murder and sentenced to Rikers Island. He decided to talk to district attorney Burton B. Turkus. Turkus arrested Abe Reles, Martin Goldstein and Dukey Maffetore upon his information. When Reles and Maffetore learned that they had become the next targets lest they talk, they became informants. Allie Tannenbaum, arrested later, also decided to talk.
Abe Reles was promised immunity from prosecution. He informed on many killers, including Frank Abbandando, Harry Maione and Harry Strauss and described many of his own murders in court. The Syndicate promised a $100,000 reward for his death. Reles either fell or was pushed to his death from a guarded hotel room at the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island on November 12, 1941.
Murder, Inc. 1 vanished in a couple of years. Most members were sent to the electric chair. Some observers believe the American Mafia switched to murder deals arranged between family bosses.
While membership to La Cosa Nostra continues to be restricted to Italian-Americans, Murder Incorporated I was multicultural.
Another reason Mad Dog Joe Sullivan is not an independent operator is his status as a mob "sub-contractor."
Made Dog As Sub-Contractor
First, the contract is passed to a second party. This party alone assigns the executioner, i.e. the hitman, triggerman, killer. In fact, very often even this party will pass the order on to yet another party. All negotiations are handled on a one-to-one basis, so it does not matter if eventually someone in the line of command talks. What remains missing is the vital corroborative witness who knows the complete case.
Made Dog Joe Sullivan, the actual assassin, is simply given the identity of the victim, background on his habits and a place where he can most likely be found. Sometimes Mad Dog Joe Sullivan benefits from a spotter or fingerman who points out the victim.
From Enforcer To Executioner
Once a murder contract is ordered, the wheels are set in motion to guarantee protection for the enforcer, i.e. the party who is ordering the execution. The enforcer is isolated from the executioner in question, ne ver saying a word to him about The Job.
"On a warm, mid-May afternoon, Sullivan walked into the Coliseum Restaurant, located on Fifty-ninth Street and Columbus Circle, across from the Coliseum. There he met up with a man he knew only as J.J., whom he had first met in prison. J.J. was now a corrupt union official affiliated with Fat Tony Salerno. The two men sat at a booth, sipped bottles of beer, and talked about old times. Eventually, Joe Sullivan said, "Okay, enough small talk. What I wanna know is, can you use me or not?"
"Yeah, I can use you," said J.J. "In fact...." he pointed toward a man sitting at a table near the door, "see that guy, the guy sitting over there?"
Sullivan looked. "Yeah. What about him?"
"Ever see him before?"
"No. Never."
"Well, would it bother you terribly if I passed you a piece beneath the table and asked you to blow his brains out before we walked out the door?"
Sullivan laughed. "Just like that, huh?"
"Yeah, pal, just like that."
"Damn. Is he the butcher, baker, candlestick maker, or somebody like us?"
"Does it matter to you who or what he is, Joe?"
"No. J.J., it doesn't really matter. It doesn't matter at all."
J.J. explained that the man's name was Devaney, Tom Devaney, right hand man of Mickey Spillane. He told Sullivan Spillane and the West Side Irish Mob were on the outs with Fat Tony, who was looking to position himself as the Godfather of the Javits Convention Center. Sullivan asked few questions. He left the diner that day without killing Devaney, but the contract was now his: over the following months, he would do the bidding of the Italians and send a ripple of fear through the Irish American underworld" (Ibid., pp. 341-342).
Sometimes it is advantageous to the American Mafia to use a non-Italian-American executioner to carry out a hit.
"The concept of Cosa Nostra turning to an Irish hitman to do the dirty work was not new. As far back as Vincent Coll, who'd been hired by the Maranzano family to bump off Lucky Luciano in the late 1920s, the tactic had been firmly established. In the 1940s and 1950s, Elmer "Trigger" Burke was another well-known Irish subcontractor frequently used by the Italians. Throughout history, men like Coll and Burke were used to bump off an array of underworld victims---including other mafiosi---but the arrangement undoubtedly had added appeal to la famiglia when it involved one Paddy being whacked by another.
By the 1970s, many Irish American gangsters looking to hire themselves out as freelance gunmen had little choice but to turn to the Mafia for work. After decades of incarceration, prosecution, political reform, and assimilation, the Irish Mob barely existed outside of Hell's Kitchen and a few neighborhoods in Boston, and they already had their own supply of hitmen. A guy like Joe Sullivan, a cold-blooded mercenary who seemed to enjoy killing, was constantly on the lookout for gainful employment; in true capitalist fashion, he sold his services to the highest bidder, or, in most cases, the only bidder. His willingness to take on murder contracts involving fellow Irishmen earned him the nickname "Mad Dog," a tip of the cap to Vincent Coll, perhaps, but also a catchall moniker for a certain type of gangster with no scruples whatsoever" (Ibid., pp. 342-343).
As a contract killer, Mad Dog Joe Sullivan is rational and calculating. He is also dependable.
"Eight weeks after agreeing to murder Tom Devaney, Mad Dog Sullivan walked into a bar-and-grill in Midtown Manhattan, where Mickey Spillane's right-hand man was having a drink with a few friends. Sullivan was in disguise, with an afro-wig and darkened skin that made him appear vaguely Hispanic or Middle Eastern. He ordered a beer and observed Tom Devaney for a while until he was ready to make his move. After draining the last of his drink, he walked over to the man, pulled out a gun, and calmly did the deed" (Ibid., p. 343).
In "Information, Misinformation, Disinformation, Part II; A 'Mad Dog' Is Unlikely To Turn State's Evidence, Part I," I noted the following:
It is easy to perceive Mad Dog Joe Sullivan as a criminal independent operator. But, apparently the Mad Dog is having problems getting his autobiography published. This reality holds Mad Dog Joe Sullivan up to the light. We can see him for what he actually is, a man of flesh and blood who is more muscle than mythology.
Why Mad Dog Joe Sullivan's Autobiography Has Yet To Be Published
The fact that Mad Dog Joe Sullivan, to date, has refused to turn state's evidence makes the publication of his autobiography problematic, at least during his lifetime.
"From inside a prison cell, years later Sullivan wrote an autobiography that was never published. In it, he described the Devaney shooting.
(Devaney) had just lifted the beer to his lips when I brought my arm straight up, stopping inches from his ear as I pulled the trigger. The dull roar of the weapon echoed in one part of my mind while the other concentrated on the three men that had been facing him----all now wearing the rictus of fear as the shattered bits of bone and blood sprayed their horrified faces. I hadn't broken stride on my way to the door, and never took my eyes off them as I stepped outside onto the deserted street, breaking into a slow jog that wouldn't attract any attention... (p. 343).
"Over the following months, hitman Sullivan eliminated two more of Spillane's closest associates in similar fashion. The most significant of these hits was the killing of Eddie "the Butcher" Cummiskey. Cummiskey was a tough West Side gangster who, like Sullivan himself, had done a stretch at Attica prison where he trained to be a butcher. When he returned to Hell's Kitchen, Cummiskey plied his new skills by cutting up the bodies of people he murdered, bagging the body parts and disposing of them in the river. It was believed that Cummiskey had brought about the disappearance of Eli Zicardi, the Genovese family bookie whom Mickey Spillane kidnapped back in the late 1960s. Zicardi's kidnapping and disappearance had been a catalyst for the current hostilities between the West Side Irish Mob and the Italians.
Eddie the Butcher's introduction of vivisection into the underworld discourse of hell's Kitchen would prove to be a landmark development. For one thing, it ushered in a new era of debauchery. The neighborhood had always been a violent place, but cutting cut bodies in the basement of Tenth Avenue tenements was something new. Cummiskey's grizzly proclivities were a harbinger of things to come; before he was shot and killed by Mad Dog Sullivan, the Butcher passed his skills along to Jimmy Coonan, who eventually utilized what he learned in his reign of terror as boss of the Westies.
Eddie the Butcher was taken out by Mad Dog Sullivan at the bar of the Sunbrite Saloon on August 20, 1976. When another of Spillane's men was gunned down a few months later, people began to get the picture: There was a professional assassin loose in the neighborhood who was systematically eliminating the old-guard leadership of the Hell's Kitchen Irish Mob. It was probably being engineered by the Italians, but who the hell knew?" (pp. 343-344).
In general, the Chicago Outfit, as opposed to the Five Families of New York, more effectively insulates its higher ups. This fact is evident when we observe the lower rate of defendants who are members and associates of the Chicago Outfit and who turn state's evidence. The more effective insulation results in fewer mob related lawsuits against the City of Chicago as compared to mob related lawsuits against the City of New York.
If either Louis Eppolito or Stephen Caracappa flips, the New York City Police Department will be involved in litigation From Here to Eternity. In any event, there will be hell to pay.
Defendants in court cases that involve the Chicago Outfit are less likely than defendants in court cases that involve the Five Families of New York to be sued for their alleged crimes. Authorities have not yet said who is to blame in which of the 18 homicides. Until authorities do so, it will remain unclear if, or, to what extent, Operation Family Secrets will produce plaintiffs.
Anthony Doyle and Michael Ricci, the two Chicago "mob cops," indicted on Monday, April 25, 2005 in Operation Family Secrets, have been accused of passing inside information, helping the Chicago Outfit do its business. Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, New York City's two "mob cops," were indicted in March on charges they were involved in eight murders for the Lucchese Cosa Nostra Family.
The indictment says that when Anthony Doyle, now 60, was on the Chicago police force, he helped a mob leader by keeping him informed on an investigation of one of the unsolved killings. When that leader went to jail at one point, Mr. Doyle passed his messages to other members of the Chicago Outfit, according to the document.
The indictment also accuses Michael Ricci, 75, who retired from the police department and the Cook County Sheriff's Office, of helping pass messages from a jailed mob leader to others and of collecting money the leader was extorting.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes before lawsuits are filed against the Chicago Police Department in regard to the 18 homicides authorities are trying to solve in the Operation Family Secrets indictment.
On Thursday June 2nd, Robert Folks, an attorney for Cathy Barstow and Nina Kubecka, widows of Robert Kubecka and Donald Barstow, charged that the NYPD stood by and did nothing while a pair of corrupt cops helped the mob rub out the two Long Island, New York garbage carters 16 years ago.
The widows are now seeking "several million dollars" in damages from the New York City Police Department in a suit they plan to file later this month.
Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, the ex-detectives, were indicted in March on charges they were involved in eight murders for the Lucchese Cosa Nostra Family.
Authorities said Robert Kubecka and Donald Barstow were killed because they were cooperating with the FBI in an investigation of mob influence in the garbage carting business. They were murdered in their East Northport office.
Folks contends Louis Eppolito and Steven Caracappa helped Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, the then Lucchese Cosa Nostra Family boss in fingering the victims as informants before he put out a contract on them.
Eppolito and Caracappa allegedly "aided, importuned, assisted and otherwise caused the deaths" of the carters, Folks said.
The widows have already won a $10.8 million judgment against the state of New York for failing to protect their husbands.
The ex-cops, who had settled in Las Vegas about 10 years ago, are jailed in New York awaiting trial.
Michael Corbitt, "who served as police chief in Willow Springs from 1973
to 1981, died July 27 of lung cancer at the age of 60. He admitted to
working for the Chicago mob from the time he was a teenager until he
began serving a prison sentence in the late-1980s." See: http://www.desplainesvalleynews.com/history_organized_crime.htm
http://homepage.interaccess.com/~harryusa/
In Double Deal: The Inside Story of Murder, Unbridled Corruption, and the Cop Who Was A Mobster, by Michael Corbitt with Sam Giancana, William Morrow, ISBN: 0060195851, Michael Corbitt (March 1, 2003) makes reference to
Joey David Corbitt, his beloved son who suffers from Down's syndrome. Michael Corbitt (March 1, 2003) was Joey David Corbitt's "most significant other." Do either Sherry, Michael Corbitt's (March 1, 2003) wife, or Cecilia, his sister, serve as Joey David's guardian today? A photo of Gayle Raveling holding Joey Corbitt -- her nephew and godson -- is the only mention of her in Double Deal: The Inside Story of Murder, Unbridled Corruption, and the Cop Who Was a Mobster. Is Gayle Raveling Joey David's guardian today?
When federal agents proved to Michael Corbitt (March 1, 2003) that Sal Bastone was preparing to have both him and Joey David whacked, Michael Corbitt (March 1, 2003) decided to cooperate with the federal government against the Chicago Outfit. See: http://www.ipsn.org/laborers/transcripts/Corbitt_testimony.html
Joey Corbitt must be 21-years-of-age today. Does Joey David live in a private home or in an institution today? Does Michael Corbitt's (March 1, 2003) untimely death preclude the chance that Joey Corbitt will ever enjoy anything even close to a normal life?
John A. "Junior" Gotti, 41, is the reputed onetime leader of the Gambino Cosa Nostra Family. The jailed mobster faces an August 8, 2005 trial date on an encyclopedic federal indictment. The indictment covers a wide range of alleged mob activities as well as the alleged hit attempt on Curtis Sliwa, the radio personality and Guardian Angels founder and two other murder conspiracies, securities fraud, loan sharking and extortion.
Sliwa was shot and wounded on June 19, 1992, in what the feds say was an effort by Junior Gotti to silence him for his outspoken criticism on WABC radio of his then-jailed mob-boss father.
Junior Gotti's lawyers have tried to get a judge to order Sliwa to keep quiet about the upcoming case. But Sliwa got the green light to keep on talking about it. The louder Curtis Sliwa talks, the more voluminous his words, the stronger his WABC radio ratings.
Junior Gotti was imprisoned in 1999 on a racketeering conviction. Just before his sentence ran out last September, he was charged in the Sliwa case.
Putting Junior Gotti behind bars for good is not enough to satisfy the feds. They also want $25 million in cash, his plush home on Long Island's Gold Coast and just about everything else Junior Gotti owns. Prosecutors have filed legal papers demanding forfeiture of what they call Junior Gotti's ill-gotten gains.
Did John A, "Junior" Gotti - the son of the late Gambino Crime Family boss John Gotti - get the cash and bought properties through extortion, loansharking and securities fraud as prosecutors allege? Or, is the whole allegation, as Jeffrey Lichtman----Junior Gotti's lawyer----surmises, just "a pressure tactic." The assets forfeiture move was filed in the Manhattan Federal Court during the week of June 5, 2005.
The feds estimate that over the years Junior Gotti squirreled away in excess of $25 million in cash in ill-gotten gains. Interestingly enough, in 1992 when Junior's dad began his life sentence; the feds estimated John J. Gotti's worth at $10 million. There's no indication that there's $25 million in Junior's hypothetical piggy bank. Neither is there any indication where that hypothetical piggy bank might be located.
Junior Gotti's sprawling multimillion-dollar 14-room home in Oyster Bay, L.I., has two fireplaces, a pool, a tennis court, a 220-foot deck and a guest house.
The feds also want a 4.5-acre parcel of land Junior Gotti owns in northeast Pennsylvania as well as three properties in Queens, New York that house auto-wrecking businesses.
Meanwhile, Curtis Sliwa cheered on the feds for moving to go after Junior Gotti's hypothetical assets. Sliwa said the assets forfeiture action was not overkill.
Lined up to testify against Junior Gotti is a parade of 10 mob rats. He faces up to 130 years behind bars if convicted.
When times are hard, when it becomes difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel, Junior Gotti ought to think of Gene Gotti, his uncle, who is currently serving a 50 year prison sentence for heroin trafficking. Gene Gotti is a stand up guy.