John Pennisi Information & Articles

Lisa B here...wanted to share some John Pennisi information and articles...

John Pennisi was an alleged “soldier” in the Lucchese Family who had a criminal past that included a 1990 manslaughter conviction. He was only 20-years-old at the time. In 1989, he and another man were dating the same girl. When the other boyfriend found out Pennisi was at her house, he went there to confront her, but her father sent him away. He left and went to a bar.

Pennisi was upset that the other man had the nerve to show up the girl’s house, so Pennisi called up a friend and hunted the other boyfriend down, shooting him in the chest and killing him. It was never determined which one of the two friends killed the other man, but Pennisi took off and went into hiding for months. He was finally arrested, brought to trial and sentenced to 17 years behind bars.

However, he had lied during his testimony at that 1990 trial to protect him and his co-defendant. This “false narrative” was brought to light at the May 2019 trial of alleged Lucchese “soldier” Eugene Castelle when the government admitted this fact to the Court, saying in part: “CW-2 has admitted to the Government that during his testimony in the 1990 trial, he deliberately made false statements in an effort to shield himself and his co-defendant from liability.”

While in prison, Pennisi had many problems. He tried committing suicide because he couldn’t deal with prison life. He was a very paranoid and jealous man, too. He required his former girlfriend to “answer him on FaceTime (even if she was traveling on a highway or otherwise unable to use her phone at that moment) to ensure that another man was not present with her” and had burned her hair and knocked her teeth out with his fist.

However, the defense wasn’t allowed to ask about any of this because it wasn’t relevant to his "credibility." So, what was relevant to his credibility?

It seemed that the main purpose of having Pennisi testify was so the government could complete its special hierarchy board for the jury to see. His testimony mostly consisted of identifying people in pictures and providing background information on the "Mafia" and Lucchese Family activities because he, apparently, knew everything and everybody even though he was a self-described "nobody."

But despite being a “made” member from approximately 2013 to 2017 and knowing all the players allegedly involved, the prosecution didn’t even ask about the main plot of the trial – the murder of Michael Meldish.

Even Gang Land commented on it in their October 24, 2019 column, stating, “You’d think that a wiseguy who’d been made before the hit, and was active for more than four years after it took place, would have heard some scuttlebutt tying Crea or former acting boss Matthew (Matty) Madonna to the slaying.”

Thanks for the info NYMafia. Where does it say that he burned his girlfriend's hair and knocked her teeth out??

He's asked about the Meldish hit in the podcast interview. Only gives some background info that he picked up on the street. Still no first hand knowledge connecting it to Crea or Madonna.

Court documents. He also only had hearsay knowledge about the Coddington Club incident for which Crea was acquitted.

You don't have the address for that Coddington social club do you?

No. There was an original location and then it moved.

Some additional information and documents...

- He once beat someone with an ax handle (prior to him going to prison)
- Right before he walked into the FBI building to become an informant, there was a protective order against him by his then-wife (I believe it was his wife) which required him to pick up his child from the police station for visitation.
...and there's more but that'll be coming soon.

In addition, what's interesting, as far as the reasons he's stated as to why he became an informant, is that he did the exact same thing to his friend that he said others were doing to him....I thought that was sort of ironic.

Something else interesting he said on this last podcast episode was that his name was never in the paper until "after." Now, to be fair, "after" is open to interpretation. It could be he meant "after" he voluntarily walked into the FBI building to confess his crimes and those of others and his name hit the news or it could mean "after" he ran away after killing a guy out of jealousy and the murder, manhunt, and eventual arrest hit the news.

What was the story as to why Pennisi cooperated?

Pennisi hit a guy with an axe handle? Maybe he should of just asked him nicely, and not hit him. I'm surprised a mafia guy would be violent.

Lisa coming through once again. Mad props for going after rats

But why exactly did Pennisi cooperate? He must of done something to the lucchese’s.

This is from https://nypost.com/2020/10/24/mob-rats-wiseguy-blog-has-feds-all-fired-up/


"Pennisi, who was inducted into the Lucchese crime family in 2013, according to Gang Land, started cooperating with the FBI about two years ago after a series of incidents convinced him the Luccheses had him wrongly pegged as a stoolie and marked for death, he testified in federal court last year.

One day, Pennisi simply walked into the Manhattan headquarters of the FBI cold and said he needed protection and wanted to cooperate. He said he had spotted two guys parked on the street near his home in Levittown, The Post reported"

Now listen to this;

Pennisi, thanks to some New Age guru, writes that he “presently spends his time as a Dad, helping people, practicing self-betterment, a blogger and living life to the fullest.”

But if anyone thinks the renegade mobster has gone all goombah-ya, he roars in bold print on the site, “The hunters will no longer be glorified when the lion becomes the author — John Pennisi.” 😂😂

"Pennisi, who was inducted into the Lucchese crime family in 2013, according to Gang Land, started cooperating with the FBI about two years ago after a series of incidents convinced him the Luccheses had him wrongly pegged as a stoolie and marked for death, he testified in federal court last year.

He decided to cooperate after a series of what incidents? What did he do or what did they think he did in order for him to worry he may be killed?

He thought they believed he was an informant. He started getting asked questions about who he thoughf the rats were in the family and then started getting the cold shoulder from Mike DeSantis. Then he saw two guys sitting in a car outside his house and one of them hid his face as he passed them, leading him to believe he knew whoever it was and they didn't wanna be seen staking his place out.

What Chin wrote is true as that's what he said in testimony. However, there's more and it has to do with what I've written previously. ~Lisa B

Pennisi flipped because he thought someone was giving cold shoulder and thought he seen someone cover there face .

Why do these bosses not just hire a lie detector service or train someone to read and do .... they could pay someone 3 G to do a bunch of guys .... they should be doing this constantly anyway.... stupid !

Agreed. The bosses cause half of their own problems with their stupidity and poor management style. It speaks of the overall lack of intelligence in Cosa Nostra today.

Lisa, you are saying Penessi, falsely accused a friend of being rat?

And what happened?

I'm not saying he 'falsely accused' a friend of being a rat. I'm saying that when he got out of prison, according to his own testimony, he 'stood away" from his friend (Gotti, Jr.) because he (meaning Pennisi) thought Gotti Jr. was "cooperating."

I'm not that familiar with the whole Gotti, Jr. saga, but I do believe that at the time Pennisi got out in 2007 it might have just been "rumors". I know that Gotti has said in a 2015 article (see below) that he sat down with the FBI in 2005 but I'm not sure if that was the first time he's admitted to that. Alite's book came out in 2015. Like I said, I'm not that familiar with that whole story and only have done some surface checking so I'm not completely sure of all the specific details.

(https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ormer-enforcer-turned-FBI-informant.html)

However, the point of my statement was that Pennisi had heard or suspected on his own or however he came to that conclusion that his friend was "cooperating" and he "stood away" much like what he has claimed his friends did to him before he took off to Savannah, Georgia and then came back and voluntarily walked into the FBI office. ~LisaB

And to clarify, whether or not the rumors at the time that Pennis was an informant were true or not and no matter how and why they started and even if as Pennisi has claimed in his blog that his friends then learned the rumors weren't true (these are his statements and recollections), the fact still remains that at the time he thought Gotti was an informant, it was all based on rumors no matter what the eventual outcome may have been.

In addition, Pennisi still went to the FBI. Plus, he hasn't told the complete story of how that came to be. ~LisaB

Some guys have a falling out over money. Example, they keep money that is supposed to go to a higher up and they wind up keeping the cash. That invariably causes a “ falling out” and they run to the feds. Im convinced thats why Al D’Arco flipped. He stole from Vic Amuso.
It also might be why Pennisi flipped.

Something like that ... no way did he just seen a guy cover his face. Boss gets wind of something is up in the family often stays out of contact ( cold shoulder ) so there is more to this .

From what I read more or less it appears that there was a luchese case at the time not sure which one, that there was a rat on and Big John assumed it was John, and with out any confirmation or anything they one by one started ice-ing him out have him the cold shoulder and were making remarks, to the point it became un mistakes le what they thought.

In the end it came out that he wasn't the rat is was someon else at that point the damage was done, there was no coming back from that.

They reached out when the found out they made a mistake I guess he made upnhi mind what he was going to do.

I know I dont have the story 100% not sure I missed some of it or he hasn't told all of it.
Serp, so it wasn't a one off isolated incendent the guys in the car, thre was multiple incidents prior too.

Oh...It's much more involved than that...~LisaB

Caring is SHARING
?

“ Oh...It's much more involved than that...~LisaB”

Can you please share that with us.

Soon...I'm working on the next podcast right now. You guys will enjoy it.

Lisa, below is what I remember about the Jr. story:

Gotti Jr as a strategy to try and out smart the feds he did a Proffer Session.

Proffer sessions are supposed to remain a secret however, the feds wanted to put jr. in the position, Penessi was in. (RUNNING SCARED)

The feds wanted the Gambino's to come after Gotti Jr so he would run to them for protection.

Before he proffered he sent his attorney (CARNISI) to go see Daniel Marino to tell him that this was his trial strategy. I believe he sent a message to Massino as well, not necessarily exactly what he was going to do meaning proffer, he asked if he could testify in his own defense?, If he did was he breaking any rules?, There clearly is a difference between testifying and proffering however, the proffer was supposed to be secret, so Jr, took a shot and the FEDS BURNED HIM.

The feds ended up trying 4 times to convict Gotti Jr. at trial. ( I NEVER SEEN THEM TRY ANYONE 4 times)

Nobody made a big deal about the proffer until Alite got a copy of it and he was show casing it calling Giotti Jr a RAT,

What I remember was Alite wanted to reconcile with Jr, and Jr. dismissed him calling him a DOG saying I chased you out of the neighborhood back in the day your a RAT, get out of here.

Alite then went on a campaign trying to convince everyone that Jr was a RAT.

I personally dont think Jr was a RAT, first of all NOT ONE PERSON GOT IN TROUBLE.
I think he broke Omerta by what he did however, just about every wiseguy breaks OMERTA, these days.

What most people dont know is that at one point back in the day
Jr actually out smarted the feds, they were building a case and sent out subpoena's to everyone in his crew, he had I think Agnello, seek out immunity to testify, the feds thought maybe he would flip or give them some evidence against Gotti Jr,
What happened was Agnello ended up confessing to the crime, he did not commit, and the feds never seen that coming, so now they couldn't charge Agnello, because they just gave him immunity from prosecution.

I remember seeing on you tube the video of Jr. up to see SR. at Marion, and in code telling Sr. what had happened and Sr. said I guess the guy that thought of that should get some stripes. (MEANING PROMOTED TO CAPO)

This is obviously what Pennesi was referring to and why he chose to stay away from Jr.

I don't really know the details. But Pennisi got out in 2007 and no 302s or whatever was published until Alite's book came out (I think...again I don't follow that saga and have ZERO opinion on Gotti Jr.'s status in this ongoing saga) but the fact that no matter what was or wasn't...Pennisi still did the exact same thing -- "stood away" from a friend because of suspicion or rumors or whatever.

In the whole scheme of things, him doing that isn't that important...but it is just one more item on the checklist of him pointing fingers but doing the same exact thing he's talking about or gossiping about that others are doing or did. Such as being jealous and controlling...that's a big one. And while he might criticize someone for putting tracking devices on cars, it still doesn't trump punching a woman in the face and knocking out all her teeth. Or killing a man because they were dating the same girl (then running away and lying on the stand at trial to protect him and his friend.) Or whatever he did that caused his ex-wife to put a protective order against him (that same ex-wife BTW, I would guess is who he was referring to in his latest blog post).

And like all abusers, it's always the other person's fault. Sort of like how he's blaming everyone else for why he became an informant. If they wouldn't have suspected him, if they would've shelved him, if they would've let him walk away....then there would've been no need for him to have become the "lion."

And yet there's still more to the story....~LisaB

Lotta good Pennisi interviews on YT.

https://youtu.be/OsCKCdAqe1I

Good interview. Love how he sets the record straight when it comes to the charts. More than half of those mafia groupie charts turn out to be wrong. Crazy that Dom had over 30 soldiers under him at one point. What is also noteworthy is that Pennisi says the Luccheses have over 100 made men, a bit more than what the charts would have us believe. If it's 110 members and 7 crews, that means each crew has between 10 to 20 soldiers. The Bonannos might actually be trailing them when it comes to manpower.

Good stuff .... but if not for Pennisi being a good story teller that interview would be shit because the questions the guy that has the podcast sucks ! Why don’t they reach out here or BH .

I dont know if I missed it however, it doesnt seem like he had much of anything going on pertaining to rackets, he mentions a very small sports book he stresses small, talked about a few juice loans, he said he never kicked up the right amount for X-mas, didnt hear of him owning any businesses, he didnt say part of the reason he flipped was because his former friends took over his rackets?

I am thinking part of what happened here is in that life you are as good as your last envelope?

Maybe I missed the part where he talked about the money he was naking and/or bringing in?

That could also explain why the feds weren't onto him, if he is not in the streets getting his hands dirty trying to bring money in, there isnt much for them to be coming after him for???

I got exactly the same from it. Not once did he mention anything particularly lucrative that he was part of. I suppose not everyone can be a big earner though. Probably an example of the general rank and file