How do the wives avoid prosecution?

Now I know most of these women do not get directly involved with LCN business but, there is no doubt in my mind that the women do play a roll. For instance, Joe Massino's wife was writing checks out to a parking lot owner that Massino was extorting......... I am baffled out how they allow wives to play the, "He told me he worked downtown!" and, "He is very private and doesn't like me to ask about his work".

Basically, I wonder how the women are allowed to live a certain lifestyle, spend money that was acquired illegally and, when crunch time comes, they get away with saying they never knew their husband was involved in illegal activities or that the money was dirty (narcotics, prostitution)

It is amazing to me because the government accepts this response but fast forward 20 years and the same people who claimed to know nothing are, the same people writing a book with such detailed, first hand knowledge of it all, not to mention their own reality shows......Can't these women be prosecuted for perjury or lying in the past?......What is the statute of limitations on perjury?

To the extent that they actually do stuff, I believe they're liable to be prosecuted, but since they likely only deal with their husbands, perhaps there's often not enough actionable evidence to bring charges, unless the husband turns on his own wife(lol).

Of course if they DO have evidence, I don't think they'll hesitate to use that to leverage guilty pleas or cooperation on the husband, which I think is what they did with the Chin(his son, wasn't it?).

The statute of limitations on perjury is five years. Unless they can roll it into a RICO and prove an ongoing criminal enterprise, which in the case of a mob wife is unheard of.

Long story short, it depends on the circumstances. They used tapes of Karen Hill setting up dope deals to squeeze Henry (who, like it or not, was considered a stand-up guy up to that point). But Karen Hill was, much like her husband, a deranged junkie and sexual deviate. If the Feds gave that pig a million years it wouldn't have bothered me one bit.

Meanwhile, there are classy women, like Angela Basciano and Irene Prisco, who have both divorced their in-for-life husbands, and the scumbag Feds are still squeezing every nickel they have (and trust me, it ain't much in either case).

Agreed PB, some of these women just don't deserve the punishment that their husbands have brought upon them, and some absolutely do..case by case basis...some of them are active participants, and some are only guilty by association...to keep strangling them after their husbands are in the can, just makes no sense.

I am sure that all mob wives KNOW what their husbands do for a living although maybe not any details. Knowing and participating are two different things. In the example above regarding Basciano's wife, everything I've read says she is just a business woman and while maybe knowing what Vinnie did she sure wasn't participating. She has enough troubles between her ex-husband and their 3 sons so in my humble opinion, she ought to be left alone

Since you mentioned Josephine Massino:

Anthony M. Destefano, in his excellent Joe Massino biography, "King of the Godfathers," notes that "It had been something of an unwritten rule that the wives were off limits to prosecutors, that their spouses would take the fall. But [Assistant US Attorney Ruth] Nordenbrook didn't like playing by that mobe rule and chafed when some of her colleagues in law enforcement wanted to. She lived up to her ideals by prosecuting Marie Attanasio, the wife of Louis "Ha Ha" Attanasio." She was also the prosecutor who went after the Josephine Massino/Barry Weinberg connection.

In Italy the wives and sisters sometimes pass along the orders to whack somebody from the men in jail. Raffaele Cutolo's sister, for example.

And she also has her hands full with their youngest son, Michael, who has no male supervision now. Now he's basically a good kid and she's a very good woman, but it's a shit life. The Bascianos are a cautionary tale.

If they were independently minded and worked like everyone else I would maybe feel pity for them but most of them don't work and the ones that do have businesses set up/stolen for them with illegally gained money and assets. OK maybe some of them are not aware and are not involved in what their husbands do for a living. Maybe they honestly think that working men spend all their time in social clubs, don't work 9-5 hours and earn hundreds of thousands - sometimes millions - worth of dollars from sitting on a building site reading porno magazines and playing cards.

I honestly don't know about the feds hitting the wives and families in the pocket financially. IDK how that works but I honestly can't see them having a leg to stand on if they went after assets that weren't illegally acquired.

I have often wondered though. The money they try to recover. Does this cover solely the huge monetary costs of bringing scumbags to trial? Or does some of the money they chase from mobsters/families go to victims of mob killings and/or extortion?

As I said, I don't have much sympathy for the families. The fathers & the families know what they are getting into by entering into this life. The wives have a joint responsibility to ensure that their children can go to college and get educated. They have the same responsibilities - bills, mortgages - that all of us shmucks have.

If they can't buy thousand dollar suits and fur coats anymore... my heart bleeds for them.

How much money has it cost New York bringing that serial killer lowlife Junior Gotti to trial? That scumbag is still on the streets living in a mansion and having several properties on the side.

Another thing too. There are miscarriages of justice. But there are people that can't afford Bruce Cutler as a lawyer and can't get to juries to escape justice.

There are people that get screwed by the law. It's just I don't think mobsters generally do.

My pity goes to the children who have been left orphaned and the women who have been left widows because of mob crime. That's it.

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/father-calm-trial-son-killer-article-1.697765

It is people like Umberto Speranza, whose little boy was killed in the 90's Colombo Mob War, who has my sympathy.

Speranza and John Favara and their families are the real losers in all this.

never , ever put anything in their name besides primary residence..never put them on the books with you or anyone else in the street, tell them less than nothing ..ever..never have them pass a message..most street guys continue to make these mistakes..

there was no reason to kill favara, what he did was an accident, but gotti srs wife hounded him to kill favara,
he didn't have to do it but, he was gotti and he thought he was god.

so many mob killings of civilians are senseless, and the ones that kill them, should get the death penalty. gotti jr stabbed to death a man who did absolutely nothing to him.

all of this shows you what the gottis really are. murdering bullies, who both sr and jr should have been executed.

why is that scumbag jr, allowed to keep his house and properties, while the feds go after the poor wife of Vinnie basciano?

Thank you!




Thanks, I was totally unaware of this rule BUT, it does make rational sense ONLY because the American mafia has the unwritten rule of not going after government officials (police,fbi,judges). They are only doing their job.

How do the wives avoid prosecution? The same way old mobsters who got life in prison get to go home for Christmas....bribery of judges.

The time delay between conviction and sentencing allows convicts ample time to "work with" the judges through their lawyers and money men to score leniency and sweetheart deals.

That's my opinion.

Wives avoid prosecution by their husbands taking plea deals or even cooperating. There are many instances where law enforcement will charge a wife or even adult children for that matter and use it as leverage against the husband. Its a cruel thing to do but they do it a lot.
The charges are usually tax evasion, money laundering, or receiving stolen property. Sometimes its drug conspiracy.

It is well known that many wives avoid prosecution by ratting out the guys they fuck around with too. Everyone thinks wiseguys go out and fuck their girlfriends according to what goodfella's said don't you think the wifes are out getting fucked too when there husband is out fucking someone

There are no sitting federal judges being bribed by mobsters at this point. Can you even name a single such occurrence in the last decade?

The answer to this question: the wives are rarely involved in the overt criminal enterprise. They have no reason to ever talk to a cop, fbi agent or under oath. They can publically lie as much as they want so long as they aren't involved in the criminal proceeding- which is rare as they can't be compelled to testify many times.

The civil asset forfeiture is a complete different deal. They get hosed in this respect- or depending on your opinion, get their just deserts.

"But what really earned (Ruth) Nordenbrook some notoriety was her philosophy that the wives of mafiosi shouldn't be immune from prosecution if they too part in crimes, with or without their husbands. It had been something of an unwritten rule that the wives were off limits to prosecutors, that their spouses would take the fall. But Nordenbrook didn't like playing by the mob rule and chafed when some of her colleagues in law enforcement wanted to. She lived up to her ideals by prosecuting Marie Attanasio, the wife of Louis "Ha Ha" Attanasio, for tax fraud in 1984, a case that ended with an acquittal. Years later she prosecuted loanshark John Zancocchio and years later went after his wife, Lana, the daughter of Anthony Graziano, getting her convicted for tax evasion".

King of the Godfathers