Trial of accused cop-killing Colombo gangsters opens in Brooklyn Federal Court
Feds: Two men were professional killers who rose through mob ranks


BY JOHN MARZULLI / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, March 19, 2012, 3:19 PM

DEBBIE EGAN-CHIN/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Kim Kennaugh (right) has been married five times. Her fourth husband, Ralph Dols, was a cop. His murder was allegedly ordered by Kennaugh’s third husband, Joel Cacace, who is in prison.

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ALFRED GIANCARLI FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli, the reputed acting boss of the Columbo Crime Family, is on trial for six gangland murders, including the slaying of cop Ralph Dols.
Accused cop-killing gangster Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli ascended to the top of the Colombo crime family as a reward for supervising a ruthless crew of mob hit men, a federal prosecutor said Monday.

Gioeli is charged with six gangland murders, including the ambush of off-duty NYPD cop Ralph Dols in a racketeering trial that opened in Brooklyn Federal Court. His co-defendant, Dino (Little Dino) Saracino, is accused of three rubouts.

"Gioeli and Saracino literally got away with murder for years because as professional killers that was their speciality," Assistant U.S. Attorney Cristina Posa told the anonymous jury.

"Thomas Gioeli was so good at managing his crew of killers, he was running the family in 2008," she added.

But Gioeli and Saracino’s past has finally caught up with them, Posa said, promising that members of the murderous crew now cooperating with the government will take the witness stand and spill the secrets that have been buried - some literally - for decades.

Gioeli, 59, wearing a sweater vest and navy blue dress shirt, smiled and gave the thumbs up to his elderly mother and family members sitting in the front row of the courtroom.

The slain cop's mother also sat in the courtroom accompanied by uniformed cops from the Housing bureau.

Saracino is accused of being part of the hit team that pumped seven bullets into the off-duty cop in front of his Brooklyn apartment building in August 1999.

Dols was marked for death because he had married Kimberly Kennaugh, the ex-wife of then-Colombo acting boss Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace, who felt disrespected that she was with a cop, Posa said.

"(Cacace) wanted Ralph Dols dead and he turned to that man," the prosecutor said pointing at Gioeli, "to get it done."

Besides Dols' murder, Gioeli is charged in the rubouts of Frank (Chestnut) Marasa in 1991; John Minerva and Michael Imbergamo in 1992; Richard Greaves in 1995 whose buried corpse was never found; and William (Wild Bill) Cutolo in 1999.

Saracino, is charged with the murders of Dols, Greaves and Cutolo.

Defense lawyer Carl Herman went on the attack against the FBI, the turncoat witnesses and even blamed Dols for having the "bad sense" to marry the ex-wife of a jealous gangster.

Saracino's lawyer Sam Braverman ridiculed the government's cooperators as the "Fab Four."

FBI agent Katherine Kelley testified that Cutolo's corpse was unearthed in a mob graveyard in Farmingdale, L.I., not far from where Gioeli resided.

While excavating the site, the agents noticed the tip of Cutolo's Italian loafers protruding from the soil amid chunks of chemical lime.

"I stuck my hand in and around the shoes and smelled what I believed was human decomposition," Kelley said.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/tria...0#ixzz1paxaKM5R

cant wait to see any inside scoop we might learn about the family from the trial

I like the way the defense tries to blame the victim. I think the lawyers for basciano tried to do the same for him. Its either a desparate move or hes counting on some of the jurors to have some sort of admiration for mob life.

I think the trial will be interesting because the rats who are testifying were also involved in killing a cop so the jury might not be so nice towards them for cooperating

yeah definatley but i still dont see them getting found not guilty because of it. End of the day these cases are built on informants, wiretaps. and plus you have the recent informats that have been revealed to.

yeh they will be found guilty for sure, just saying after Gravano people don't want to make deals with cop killers and people like Rossetti who was involved in 6 murders and sold heroin from his moms house while being an informant, the informants may not get off so light for cooperating

The informats will probably at max get life but avoid the death penalty or at the minimum get 10-20 years no parole. But then again i dont know what was agreed upon when they became informants. Mark rossetis an idiot wasnt the only reason the state troopers found out he was an informant was because he rang the fbi office to ask if they would protect him because he was getting alot of heat. He should have just waited to get arrested and then flipped and now the feds definately aint gonna give him a good deal even if they wanted to because its all public now.

doubt that, i cant remember ANY mob informant that has served for than 10 years after flippping on murder charges, etc. This includes guys like Gravano, Vitale, Mikey Scars, etc.

i was just saying those figures taking into consideration the whole whitey bulger affair and everything, the fbi might not be so light on the informants in the future so that it looks good to the public.

The feds were also idiots on the whole Rossetti thing because they flipped him in 1999 and they left him on the street for 10 years, they know he was quick to committ or order murder and he was selling large quantities of drugs, did they honestly think he would do anything in ten years, also Vitale,Massino,Cicale and other rats didn't kill a cop

well cosa nostra has had a long standing rule back in the day against killing law enforcement officials, so obcourse the possibilities for mobsters who killed cops to turn rat are only apparent in this colombo case

What do you guys think abouth gioeli interviews with Morano?

^^interesting to hear a mobster talk on the radio

If he counts as a "mob informant", Steve Flemmi has been in jail for over 10 years and will never get out. IIRC, his options were either lethal injection, or flip and never get out. He chose the latter.

Doesn't Casso count?

Just because they Feds didn't use him doesn't negate the fact that he ratted.

Didn't Phil Leonetti flip after he was convicted?

Yeah, but he's an odd case since he screwed up his deal with his lying and weird behavior.

I wonder how much time he would have had to have done if he hadn't screwed it up like that?

he said the feds had promised him 6 years I believe

Yep, and so did Massino

well he was asking for the long sentence as he kept committing crimes after he and bulger were cooperating

Photo furor at Colombo murder trial
By MITCHEL MADDUX
Last Updated: 9:48 AM, March 21, 2012
Posted: 12:54 AM, March 21, 2012


More Print
He’s a reputed wiseguy accused of killing a Brooklyn cop — but his lawyer says his client’s reputation would really take a hit if he’s seen with stars of “The Sopranos.”
Brooklyn federal prosecutors gunning for alleged Colombo crime-family street boss Thomas “Tommy Shots’’ Gioeli and hit man Dino Saracino in the slaying of Officer Ralph Dols and five others asked a judge yesterday to allow into evidence a 2007 photo of Gioeli posing with members of the HBO mob series.
But Gioeli’s lawyer, Adam Perlmutter, protested to the judge, “To connect Mr. Gioeli with ‘The Sopranos’ television show is extraordinarily prejudicial.’’

After all, “[It’s] a television show about organized crime,’’ Perlmutter said.
Gioeli is joined in the photo by some unidentified actors and former Colombo captain Reynold Maragni, now an FBI informant expected to testify in the case, said prosecutors who wouldn’t release further details.
The snapshot was taken Dec. 22, 2007, at the now-defunct Mirage nightclub in Westbury, LI.
Believed to have been at the event — a fund-raiser for two former show crew members with cancer — were the biggest stars, including James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli and Jamie-Lynn Sigler.
And wasn’t the first time that the Colombos and the “Sopranos’’ had gotten cozy.
Federico Castelluccio, who played mob enforcer Furio Giunta on the series, once turned to the family’s then-acting street boss, Andrew “Andy Mush’’ Russo, to help him recoup his investment in a failed New Jersey business, a source told The Post.
Judge Brian Cogan has yet to rule on whether the photo will be admitted.
The battle emerged after testimony yielded juicy details about a notoriously bloody time in New York mob history.
Taking the stand against Gioeli and Saracino was ex-Bonanno underboss-turned-rat Salvatore “Good-Looking Sal’’ Vitale.
Gioeli is accused of supervising the hit squad that killed Officer Dols as he and his wife and baby daughter were outside their Gravesend home in August 1997. Saracino was allegedly a member of the firing squad.
Dols’ crime? Falling in love and marrying Kim Kennaugh, the former wife of Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace, a former Colombo consigliere, prosecutors say.
Cacace perceived his ex-wife’s marriage to a cop as the ultimate in disrespect and ordered the hit, they say.
Vitale described the internal chaos that the Colombos had been engaged in during the years leading up to Dols’ execution.
He said the Colombo power struggle was so self-destructive that at one point, the city’s four other crime families took the rare step of convening the New York Mafia Commission to meet with them.
“Bodies are all over the street, and legitimate people are getting killed. We can’t go on like this,” a ranking Genovese mobster told the Colombo bigs at the secret sit-down, according to Vitale.
Vitale said he and Gioeli were present, as was Cacace.
At another meeting, the feuding family was told to settle its internal strife, or the other families wouldn’t sign off on proposed new Colombo made men, Vitale said.
It was, “Get your act together,” Vitale explained.
Cacace is to be tried in the Dols slaying at a separate trial.


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/soprano_no_UhjXMTaeKMXnxMwcSbmoPN#ixzz1pmBLMe00

Tommy Shots taught me how to kill, former Colombo capo testifies

Comments (5)
BY JOHN MARZULLI AND BILL HUTCHINSON / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS


Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli, alleged acting head of the Colombo crime family, is walked by FBI from Federal Plaza.


Carmine (The Gorilla) Gargano Jr. wouldn’t stay down even after his Colombo family mob buddy put a bullet in his body and another in his eye.

Joseph (Joey Caves) Comtetiello eventually had to slam the 6-feet-2, 230-pound Gargano in the head with sledgehammer to kill him, mob turncoat Dino (Big Dino) Calabro testified Monday in Brooklyn Federal Court.

The 1994 slaying at a Brooklyn auto body shop was among a lengthy list of murders Calabro detailed as the government’s star witness against Colombo crime boss Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli.

The Sicilian-born Calabro, 45, spoke matter-of-factly of grisly killings during the height of the Colombo civil war, but his testimony prompted sobs from a woman seated at the back of the courtroom — Gargano’s mother.

“I hope these people die burning in hell,” Rosa Gargano told the Daily News after hearing Calabro describe her son’s death. “They pierced my soul.”

The one answer Calabro didn’t have is why her son was whacked.

Calabro said that question was on his mind when he first learned of Gargano’s murder from Comtetiello.

"I don’t know. I just felt like it. I was upset," Calabro said Comtetiello told him.

Calabro said he told Comtetiello, “I don’t care what you do with him, throw him out of a car, bury him where he sits.”

He said that as usual, he kept Gioeli, his mob mentor, abreast of the murder and what was done with the body.

Gargano’s corpse, which has never been found, was first buried outside the McDonald Ave. auto body shop where he was killed in a lot used to park ice cream trucks, Calabro said.

He said the body of the mobster — who got his nickname when he hoisted 90 pounds of masonry with one hand on a construction job — was dug up and moved to a Long Island mob dumping ground when the victim’s family started “snoopin’ around” asking questions about Gargano’s whereabouts.

“We dug a pretty deep hole and threw Carmine in there,” Calabro testified, explaining how he helped Comtetiello, another mob rat set to testify against Gioeli, transplant the body to an industrial park near Farmingdale.

He said they covered the remains with a bag of lime to “deter the smell.”

Rosa Gargano said she nearly bolted from the courtroom as Calabro described disposing of her son as if he were a piece of garbage.

“I’m trying to be strong,” said the tearful woman, who has attended every day of the trial since it began March 19. “One side of me wanted to hear this. But for me, this is not closure. I don’t understand the reason why they did this."

Earlier, Calabro, who has pleaded guilty to eight mob murders in exchange for his testimony, pointed out his old boss out, describing Gioeli as the man seated at the defense table “wearing the Argyle sweater.”

The former Colombo capo squealed that Tommy Shots taught him how to kill and turned him on to the glitz of a gangster’s life.

“I wanted what (Gioeli) had,” Calabro told Assistant U.S. Attorney James Gatta. “He had the power to get me in the family.”

Prosecutors contend Gioeli advanced his mob career supervising a lethal crew of killers that included Calabro and co-defendant Dino (Little Dino) Saracino.

Saracino, who is Calabro’s cousin, shook his head when Calabro entered the courtroom.

Recounting his first murder — of Bonanno associate Frank (Chestnut) Marasa in 1991 — Calabro said Gioeli gave him explicit advice.

“Tommy always said, ‘Shoot him in the body first. Then walk up and cap him,” he said.

The two men committed numerous crimes together, including six murders.

Calabro recalled killing Colombo mob associate Joe Miccio when Gioeli ordered him whacked for stealing a Mercedes-Benz from a customer of the famed Marco Polo Restaurant in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, which was owned by a Gambino soldier.

“Gioeli informed (the Gambinos) that he took care of the problem and no cars would ever be stolen out of that garage,” Calabro said.

whutchinson@nydailynews.com



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/broo...8#ixzz1qKbaDzJn

That's some sick shit, hitting a guy with a sledge hammer after he has been shot, moving a years old corpse, etc. I thought it was always believed Gargano was killed by John Pappa over some stupid stuff, I'm surprised to hear made Colombo guys were involved. It appears the FBI was right, Tommy Shots had a bunch of ruthless killers under him. Calabro seems like a real scumbag too, it would be a real shame if he gets a sweet heart deal and sees the light of day again. Gioeli is going to get his fat ass a first class ticket to supermax in Florence, then the Government will be able to finally shut him up, something I think they really want to do.




http://articles.nydailynews.com/2001-04-09/news/18170222_1_luchese-crime-family-carmine

There's zero doubt about that. I guess most OC trial verdicts are a forgone conclusion in this day and age, but this one was really over before it started. That's why Gioeli has been so vociferous. He's gone and he knows it.

Why do you think it took 3-4 years for the trial? Were they trying to flip him or get more evidence?

I remember the construction crews on route 109 in Farmingdale digging up looking for bodies.

New York

Colombo crime boss Thomas Gioeli gave sign to kill while praying in garden of LI church: Mob pal Witness testifies about infamous killing of gangster William Cutolo

BY JOHN MARZULLI AND LARRY MCSHANE / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 5:22 PM

William Cutolo was killed in an infamous ‘90s mob hit.

Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli is on trial for six murders.
In the garden outside a Long Island church, Colombo crime boss Thomas Gioeli folded both hands to pray — or placed just one over his heart to kill.

Mafia killer Dino (Big Dino) Calabro recounted the wordless 1999 gesture that permanently silenced Colombo capo William (Wild Bill) Cutolo in an infamous ‘90s mob hit long shrouded in secrecy.

The unholy, one-handed message from Tommy Shots was delivered inside the grotto at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Massapequa, L.I., the chief witness against Gioeli testified Tuesday.

The admitted killer of eight also testified about another spectacular ‘90s mob slaying: the killing of a city cop who married the ex-wife of a jealous Colombo consigliere.

In the Cutolo hit, Calabro recalled his summons to meet Gioeli at the church. “That’s the garden where Tommy would go to pray,” he recalled.

Gioeli placed a hand over his heart — a signal that he wanted somebody whacked. He then held up four fingers, indicating that Cutolo — who was missing part of his middle finger — was the target.

The plot involved luring Wild Bill to a Brooklyn home and eliminating him as a threat to then-acting boss Alphonse Persico’s rule atop the Colombos.

Gioeli drove Cutulo to the death house for a purported sitdown between Persico and Wild Bill. Calabro recounted greeting Cutolo in the driveway of the home.

“We shook hands,” Calabro said. “He said, ‘Allie’s here, right? Where are we going?’

“He went in, and I followed him and pulled out my gun and shot him in the head. He just went ‘Whoa,’ and fell backward into the closet.”

To cover up the crime, Cutolo’s watch, beeper and jewelry were mixed into a bucket filled with concrete and dumped off a Brooklyn pier.

The body was wrapped in garbage bags, hog-tied and buried in Farmingdale, L.I. Gioeli waited at a Dunkin’ Donuts while his henchmen put Cutolo into the ground, Calabro said.

Under cross-examination, cold-blooded killer Calabro said he forked over more than $750,000 in crooked gains to the government — not including the $65,000 stolen by his brother, Enzo.

Calabro also said he expected a better sentencing deal than the one given to Bonanno gangster Salvatore Vitale: seven years for 11 murders.

“You want an apology from the government, too?" asked defense attorney Adam Perlmutter.

Calabro earlier recounted his outrage over the 1997 hit ordered on “a Mexican guy who worked in a Queens social club.”

The victim turned out to be off-duty New York police officer Ralph Dols.

Calabro was stunned to learn that he joined in the killing of a cop. He even recalled asking Gioeli if they should whack the mobster who gave the order, Colombo consigliere Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace.

Gioeli “took a step back, he listened, and it was never brought up again,” he testified.

The Cutolo killing boosted Calabro’s murderous rep, and he became a made man at a ceremony in 2000. But after achieving his lifelong goal, Calabro’s bloodlust disappeared.

“I was tired of killing,” he testified. “I was tired of being used.”

jmarzulli@nydailynews.com



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/colo...3#ixzz1qMITzk5c

This Calabro guy, first telling the jury how you shot a man in the back of his head, then saying you expect a better deal than seven years . No shame.

^^^thats exactly what I thought as well

The way Tommy Shots gave the order to whack Wild Bill sounds like something out of a Mario Puzo novel

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brook...ontent=Brooklyn

testimony about ralph dols killing.

Joel Cacace really wanted Dols dead it seems, it pretty nuts how he told them Dols was some Mexican working at a club. Calabro used a 44 magnum revolver, and Saracino a 45 automatic, you don't usually see that kind of fire power used in a mafia hit.

The Wild Bill Cutolo murder reminds me of the way Tommy was killed in GoodFellas, they walk with him into the house, and guy from behind shots him in the head. The stuff about Tommy Shots giving the murder sign with the four fingers over his heart while praying in the yard of a church is the kind of thing you would think would be in a movie.