Aging Capo To Admit Rubout Plot Against Mobster Who Didn't Respect His Elders

Gang Land Exclusive!Charles StangoCharles (Charlie The Hat) Stango, a DeCavalcante capo who was tape-recorded plotting to whack a rival gangster using the kind of colorful lingo uttered by Paulie Walnuts in a Sopranos episode, has agreed to a plea deal calling for 10 years in prison, Gang Land has learned.

Sources say Stango, 73, is set to plead guilty to murder-for-hire charges next week for telling an undercover FBI agent that a mob rival "had to meet death," be "maimed" or "put in a wheelchair for the rest of his life." The threats were recorded during a three-year long sting that led to murder conspiracy and other charges for 10 members and associates of the DeCavalcante crew, the often dysfunctional New Jersey-based crime family that helped inspire the cable TV series.

But the case, which Gang Land selected as the Best Mob Prosecution of 2015, was not a complete victory. In August, prosecutors quietly dropped all charges against consigliere Frank (Shipe) Nigro and a longtime, key family associate, Paul (Knuckles) Colella, who were both charged as Stango's accomplices in the murder plot back in March of last year.

The charges against Nigro, 74, and Colella, 70, were dismissed after New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman stated in separate court filings merely that going forward with the racketeering prosecution against the duo "is not in the interests of the United States at this time."

Paul FishmanSpokesmen for the FBI and U.S. Attorney's office in Newark each declined to explain the unusual decision to drop the murder conspiracy, drug dealing, and prostitution charges that were lodged against the duo in an arrest complaint by FBI agent Robert Conrad. The allegations were not presented to a grand jury.

At their arraignment 20 months ago, prosecutor James Donnelly asked that both gangsters, who each had state and federal arrests on their rap sheets, be held without bail to stop them from ordering either the murder of the rival gangster or a retaliatory strike against the undercover agent. If either was free, the prosecutor argued, "there is nothing that's going to prevent that."

But Magistrate Judge Mark Falk disagreed. He ruled that strict home detention, with electronic monitoring, assured by $250,000 personal recognizance bonds, would suffice.

The complaint states "Stango has had specific discussions about his plan to kill (mobster Luigi [Dog] Oliveri) with Nigro, Colella and the UC (undercover agent)." But sources say that while Charlie the Hat blabbed away on tape, neither Shipe or Knuckles were ever caught agreeing with Stango's plans to kill Oliveri, much less giving Charlie The Hat permission from the family hierarchy to do so.

Paul ColellaIndeed, the 40-page complaint indicates that while Stango, who relocated to Nevada in 2012 after a 13-year stretch for racketeering, pressed both men numerous times for permission to whack Oliveri, neither gangster ever told him that DeCavalcante leaders had sanctioned the hit.

They didn't tell Charlie The Hat not to whack Oliveri, but neither told him that DeCavalcante family leaders had authorized the rubout he was seeking, according to several sources, as well as the numerous taped excepts that are contained in the complaint.

On February 3 of 2015, after Stango stated that his hit team was ready, he was recorded pressing Colella: "I wanna know if it's a yes, or if it's a no," Stango said, according to FBI agent Conrad's complaint. Conrad wrote that "Colella told Stango that he would try to get an answer for him, and that he would call him back the next day."

Two days later, Colella told Stango that a DeCavalcante leader he did not name, "basically (said) 'Do what you feel like you should do.' Yeah. Then he said, 'Go over it again with him and the two of youse decide, whether yes or no', you know," according to the complaint. "Stango then insisted that Colella get a direct answer," wrote Conrad.

Frank NigroCharlie The Hat had at least six more telephone talks with Colella and Nigro, but the "direct answer" Stango wanted never came, according to the complaint.

Conrad wrote that in a long telephone call three days later, on February 8, 2015, Stango, who was in a Las Vegas suburb, told Colella and Nigro, who both live in Toms River: "You gotta let me know." But neither gangster told Stango he had the crime family's blessing to whack Oliveri. At the end of their talk, wrote Conrad, "Nigro asked Stango when he was 'coming in' and told him, 'F**k, for now just stop it.' Stango agreed and told Nigro, 'Whatever you say. You just tell me go ahead, and it's done.'"

In Stango's final tape-recorded discussion on that topic, on February 25, 2015, Conrad wrote that "Stango and Colella engaged in a recorded conversation in which Colella told Stango that he had gone to see Nigro yesterday, and that, 'Everything's the same.' Stango then asked, 'Yeah, uh, they ain't changed their mind now are they?' Colella replied, 'Nah.'"

But Charlie The Hat left no doubt he wanted to move forward with his plot against the then-41 year-old Oliveri for "disrespecting" old-school wiseguys "in his 70s" like him even without an okay from the DeCavalcante leadership, and he offered up several ways to get the job done in taped talks with the undercover agent, Conrad wrote.

Luigi OliveriStango suggested several possibilities, Conrad wrote. One was to "throw a couple of pineapples" (hand grenades) into Oliveri's place of business in Elizabeth, NJ. Another was to stage a bogus robbery attempt and "put twelve bullets in his nuts." A third was to "get a f**kin' jar of acid and throw it in his f**kin' face."

Stango is scheduled to enter his guilty plea before Newark Federal Judge William Walls on Wednesday. His court-appointed attorney, Chester Keller declined to discuss his client's plea deal. Neither would Donnelly or co-prosecutor Grady O'Malley.

But sources say Stango's plea agreement calls for his sentence to be capped at 10 years. He could face two more years, however, because his crimes also violated his post-prison supervised release restrictions stemming from a 2003 racketeering conviction in Manhattan Federal Court.

Meanwhile, the object of Stango's disaffection, mobster Luigi (Dog) Oliveri, who was charged with selling untaxed cigarettes to the undercover agent, is alive and well. He is the lone defendant whose case is still pending.

Lawyer Says Unmade Man In Five-Family Mob Case Deserves Bail

Israel TorresFederal prosecutors say Israel (Buddy) Torres is a violent, oft-convicted gangster who was taped espousing the use of guns, knives and baseball bats and who should remain behind bars for his role in a massive 46-defendant mob racketeering case in Manhattan Federal Court.

His lawyer counters that Torres, 66, is an ailing, all talk, no action geezer who is not even accused of being a "made man" in the five family case, and should therefore be out on bail as he awaits trial.

Judge Richard Sullivan, who just put the second status conference in the huge four-month-old racketeering conspiracy case off again — from next week to January 5 — has scheduled a bail hearing tomorrow to decide whether Torres should remain locked up along with the lead defendant in the case, powerful Genovese capo Pasquale (Patsy) Parrello.

Attorney Matthew Kluger says home detention with electronic monitoring would prevent his client from fleeing, and would assure the safety of the public as well. The lawyer proposed a $1 million bond secured by $575,000 in assets including $400,000 of stock and property owned by Torres's longtime fiancé Nancy Souhrada with whom he lives.

Abigail KurlandIn a court filing, Kluger stated that the violence Torres was heard discussing almost always "involve(d) Torres talking, complaining or venting to his acquaintances." He argued "there were precious few examples" where "Torres himself intimidated, threatened or physically harmed anyone. Granted," said Kluger, "Torres has a good bark, but there appears to be a decided lack of genuine bite."

In addition, the lawyer wrote, Torres is "in poor health" and not charged "in either the arson or firearms trafficking counts." And "unlike some of his codefendants who were permitted to post bail, Torres is not alleged to be a 'made' or top member of any 'criminal family'" and "will not pose a threat to the community" if he were released and confined to his home, Kluger wrote.

Prosecutors counter that Torres has been "engaged in organized crime for much of his life" and was no shrinking violet when it came to violence while serving for five years as Parrello's "muscle." They also argue that keeping Torres locked up at his Bronx home would not deter his violent tendencies.

Nancy SouhradaIn their filing, assistant U.S. attorney Abigail Kurland and her co-prosecutors wrote that in June of 2011, Buddy Torres "confronted a panhandler, armed with a knife" under orders from Parrello, and that a year later he and a codefendant were tape-recorded in Buddy's Bronx home by undercover operative John (J.R) Rubeo as they plotted the intimidation of an extortion victim.

And the government prosecutors didn't think that the current love of his life was a good influence either. They note that in 2002, Souhrada was charged with gambling and weapons possession charges along with Torres in a racketeering indictment in Florida, and that she pleaded guilty to operating an illegal gambling business with Torres, and was sentenced to three years probation.

In that same case, which was Buddy's fourth conviction in either New York or Florida since 1984, Torres was sentenced to seven years in prison. His first charged crime in the current indictment, the prosecutors noted, was only two months after his post-prison period of supervised release ended, in April of 2011.

Ask Andy: Mob Lawyers As Criminals

Andy PetepieceThe great comedian, WC Fields, once said, "Dentists, lawyers, and doctors are all a bunch of thieving bastards." Field's opinion was accurate about more than a few attorneys who have been associated with the mob.

Chicago mob lawyer Bob Cooley detailed a host of nefarious things he did in his book, When Corruption was King. Cooley, who spent decades in the slime pits of the Chicago judicial system, bribed a judge in 1972 on behalf of notorious Chicago Outfit hitman Harry Aleman in a murder case. In a rare, non-jury trial, the judge found Aleman not guilty and the mobster was freed to continue his criminal activity.

Years later, when Cooley got jammed up on gambling debts, he rolled over on the mob and their crooked associates and state authorities won the right to retry Aleman on murder charges in an unusual ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. This time, in the fall of 1997, a jury of his peers found him guilty. Aleman, who beat the system once, died behind bars. The corrupt judge, Frank Wilson, committed suicide after authorities questioned him about the case. Cooley beat the system twice. First, by selling out and getting into bed with the mob, and then by turning state's evidence and living out his life as a free man.

Bob CooleyFrank Ragano of Florida first came to national attention back in 1966 after a number of major mob figures were rousted by cops as they met in La Stella restaurant in Queens. Not long after, Ragano became known as a mob lawyer when the mobsters decided to openly mock authorities and reconvene in the same restaurant, and New York newspapers ran a picture of Ragano at the restaurant with the wiseguys.

Most of Ragano's defense work was for Tampa mob boss Santos Trafficante. But he also represented controversial Teamsters Union leader Jimmy Hoffa and New Orleans Mafia boss Carlo Marcello. In 1978, he testified before the House Assassination Committee investigating the murder of President Kennedy. Ragano said then he knew nothing about the JFK plot but years later, in 1994, he linked Hoffa, Marcello and Trafficante to the assassination, and related that a dying Trafficante, in 1987, confessed that he and Marcello had been involved in the Kennedy hit. Most likely, a broke and desperate Ragano invented these stories in the hopes of boosting sales of his book. In the end, taxes proved to be Ragano's downfall. He was convicted of tax evasion in the 1970s, and suspended from practicing law. He was convicted again in 1990, and spent 10 months in prison. He died in 1998.

Carlos Marcello, Santos Trafficante & Frank RaganoOne mob lawyer, Frank DeSimone, of Los Angeles, actually attended the famous meeting in November of 1957 of Mafia bosses from all over the country in Apalachin, NY. DeSimone, a graduate of the University of Southern California Law School who was admitted to the California bar in 1933, was elected boss of the Los Angeles family in 1956. He served in that capacity until he died in 1967. His dealings with Mickey Cohen and Johnny Roselli were detailed in The Last Mafioso, the 1981 biography of mob turncoat Jimmy The Weasel Fratianno, but DeSimone's claim to fame was his attendance at the mob conclave with Joe Bonanno, Carlo Gambino and more than 50 other wiseguys at Joseph Barbara's home in Apalachin, NY on November 14, 1957.

Leonardo RizzutoNorth of the border, Leonardo Rizzuto, the lawyer son of the late Montreal mob boss, Vito Rizzuto, has been behind bars since November of last year. According to Quebec police, Leonardo is a leader of Montreal's Sicilian Mafia faction – the organization that was run by his father, and his grandfather before him. Officially, Leonardo is charged with conspiring to traffic in cocaine "for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with, a criminal organization." Held without bail, Rizzuto is in no position to stabilize his family's very shaky status as a mob power in Quebec.

Other lawyers linked with mob figures who ended up behind bars include Philadelphia's Robert F. Simone and two sons of Milwaukee boss Frank Balistrieri, John and Joseph. Others, including Gino Gallina and Robert Weiswasser in New York, and George Franconero in North Caldwell, NJ, met a worse fate: They were murdered. The common denominator for that threesome seems to be that the moths paid the price for getting too close to the flame.