Thought it was interesting to actually find two articles relating to the mafia on CNN on the same day. Here they are.
'They murdered for the mob'
Closing arguments begin in colorful 'Mafia cops' trialMonday, April 3, 2006; Posted: 5:14 p.m. EDT (21:14 GMT)
Former NYPD detective Louis Eppolito is accused of moonlighting for the mob.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Two ex-police detectives betrayed their badges by becoming hired guns for the Mafia, a prosecutor said Monday during closing arguments at their federal racketeering trial.
Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa "led double lives," helping unleash a wave of violence that left eight people dead, prosecutor Daniel Wenner told the jury.
"They gathered and sold information to the mob. They kidnapped for the mob. They murdered for the mob," Wenner said.
The prosecutor described the case as "the bloodiest, most violent betrayal of the badge this city has ever seen."
Caracappa's lawyer, Edward Hayes, countered by accusing the government of using the testimony of a convicted drug dealer, a gangster and an embezzler to frame an honest crime fighter.
The witnesses "have conned people their whole lives," he said.
The decorated detective "has no vices," Hayes said. "He doesn't have a secret life. ... What would possibly motivate him to betray everything? Nothing."
Authorities allege Eppolito, 57, and Caracappa, 64, were involved in eight slayings between 1986 and 1990 while on the payroll both of the New York Police Department and Luchese crime family underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso.
The "Mafia Cops" are accused of accepting $4,000 a month to help Casso silence informants and rub out rivals.
The partners retired to Las Vegas in the early 1990s but were arrested a year ago because of new evidence. It included the eyewitness account of a tow truck driver who managed a parking garage where a jeweler was executed in 1986 after running afoul of the Luchese family.
The driver testified last week that he was forced to dig the jeweler's grave while Eppolito stood guard.
During three weeks of testimony, the jury also heard allegations that the partners gunned down a Gambino family captain, Eddie Lino, in 1990 after pulling over his car in a phony traffic stop.
Another victim had the misfortune of having the same name as a mobster involved in a botched hit on Casso; when the underboss wanted revenge, the detectives allegedly provided an address for the wrong Nicholas Guido, who was killed outside his home in 1986.
Defense attorneys have argued that the five-year statute of limitations has expired on the most serious crimes. Prosecutors say the killings were part of a conspiracy that lasted through a 2005 drug deal with FBI informant Steven Corso.
Eppolito's lawyer was to give his closing argument on Tuesday.
'The Genius" sentenced for shaking down strip club
Connecticut's top mobster receives 7-year sentenceMonday, April 3, 2006; Posted: 4:29 p.m. EDT (20:29 GMT)
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP) -- Anthony "The Genius" Megale, a sanitation worker who prosecutors said became the highest-ranking mobster in Connecticut, was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison Monday.
Prosecutors said Megale was the underboss of the Gambino crime family, the New York mob syndicate once run by John Gotti. Megale pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy in October but did not acknowledge being part of the Mafia.
U.S. District Court Judge Janet Bond Arterton said there was no doubt that Megale made a career running a crime syndicate, and sentenced him to 86 months in prison.
Megale's attorney repeatedly tried to downplay the case, saying the shakedown of a Stamford strip club owner for $2,000 monthly payments did not warrant a hefty sentence.
"Is this case, as these types of cases go, so remarkable?" attorney Stephan Seeger asked. "This case would not make a great episode of 'The Sopranos.' It's not that interesting."
Arterton rejected that argument and cut down Seeger's assertion that Megale never acknowledged being the underboss of the family.
Secretly recorded FBI tapes were the foundation of a case that prosecutors said was the most significant assault on the region's Mafia in more than a decade. One defendant was recorded describing his Mafia induction ceremony and detailing the Gambino hierarchy.
Megale was recorded describing himself as the underboss, "so I'm over everybody," and was recorded setting up the monthly payments with the club owner and predicting dire consequences if he didn't pay.
"They'll come in and wreck the joint," Megale was recorded saying. "We do that downtown."
Though Megale's plea deal did not require him to admit his Mafia position, U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said the FBI tapes made his involvement clear.
"Those aren't our words. Those are his words," O'Connor said.
Megale appeared relaxed during the hearing, reclining in his chair with one arm up on the chair next to him. He smiled, winked and gave a thumbs up to his family and waved his hand dismissively when prosecutors described his gambling business.
When his three children tearfully pleaded with Arterton for leniency, Megale was much more stoic. He opted against a long speech to the judge.
"I got nothing to say, your honor," he said, pausing before adding, "I just want to apologize to my family and my kids. That's all."
The Gambino family, one of the five New York families, has traditionally made Fairfield County its Connecticut turf. In 1989, Megale admitted being Gotti's top man in Connecticut, an admission Megale's lawyers now say he never meant to make.
Megale, the last person in the case to be sentenced, is also awaiting sentencing in New York as part of a separate mob investigation.
