RICO Charges Coming In White Plains For Westchester-Based Luchese Leaders

Steven CreaGang Land Exclusive!Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are planning to hit the two top leaders of the Luchese crime family with racketeering charges as part of their investigation into the 2013 gangland-style slaying of Michael Meldish, the former leader of the notorious Purple Gang, Gang land has learned.

Law enforcement sources say the family's two top wiseguys, Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea and Matthew (Matty) Madonna, are the main targets of a long-running grand jury probe that resulted in last month's indictment of two underlings for the Meldish murder. Crea's and Madonna's specific mob titles vary depending on whom you ask and when you pose the question, but sources agree that the duo is running the crime family for imprisoned-for-life boss, Vittorio (Vic) Amuso.

Prosecutors will ask the grand jury to indict Madonna, 81, for ordering the Meldish rubout that defendants Christopher Londonio and Terrence Caldwell allegedly carried out on November 15, 2013, the sources say. Madonna began serving an indeterminate sentence of up to five years for bookmaking in a New Jersey state prison 18 months ago. Sources told Gang Land this week that despite his incarceration, he is the acting boss. It's doubtful that Crea, 69, whom law enforcement sources say is the official family underboss, will be charged with any complicity in the murder.

Matthew MadonnaThe sources say Crea's son, Steven (Stevie Junior) Crea Jr., is another target of the three-year long investigation by the FBI and the White Plains Division of the U.S. Attorney's office. Prosecutors will also ask a federal grand jury that has been empaneled in White Plains to indict him on a number of racketeering charges, sources say.

Crea Jr., 45, of Yonkers, has no criminal record, but law enforcement sources say he is a "made man" and has been linked to extensive criminal activity in Westchester County. As early as 1999, The FBI listed him as a Luchese "soldier," according to an old wiretap affidavit. Turncoat mob associate Anthony Zoccolillo testified last year that he and Stevie Junior were "equal partners" in a Bronx social club gambling operation with another Luchese mobster about 10 years ago.

Madonna allegedly made millions of dollars in the city's heroin business that was booming in the 1960s and 70s as a business partner of notorious Harlem drug merchant Leroy (Nicky) Barnes. They met in state prison in 1959, and hooked up on the streets after they were released.

Steven Crea Jr.Madonna managed to evade any arrests connected to his drug dealing with Barnes. But he was convicted of separate heroin trafficking charges in 1975. He was inducted into the Luchese crime family in the mid-1990s after serving 20 years behind bars. He was quickly elevated to capo, and has been a major player in the crime family ever since, sources say.

"He's an old school gangster," said one law enforcement source. "He demands respect, and he usually gets it."

Sources say, however, that one Gang Land figure who failed to pay the elderly mobster the proper respect was Meldish, a move that turned out to be a fatal mistake for the longtime Luchese associate.

Like Madonna, Crea hails from the Bronx, but he has long been based in Yonkers. But Stevie Wonder's wealth, and his stature in the crime family — he was identified as acting Luchese boss by both state and federal prosecutors more than a decade ago — stems from his prowess as a construction magnate and a labor racketeer extraordinaire.

Christopher LondonioCrea owned several companies and made his millions through price-fixing, bid-rigging and kickback schemes involving a network of builders and corrupt officials in carpenters, bricklayers and other labor unions, according to court records. Convicted of labor racketeering in state and federal courts, he was released in 2006, after spending 30 months behind bars and paying a $50,000 fine.

The U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI declined to discuss the expected charges against the Creas and Madonna, whom Gang Lang first identified in 2015 as a suspect in the Meldish murder.

In a court filing this week, prosecutors told White Plains Federal Judge Nelson Roman that several unnamed high-ranked Luchese mobsters were involved in the slaying. They stated that the government has "proof to show that Londonio was commissioned to commit the murder of Meldish by the leadership of the Luchese Family."

"The Luchese family," the prosecutors told Judge Roman in a four-page letter, "is heavily tied to Westchester County."

Terrence CaldwellThe letter was a response to the Judge's order to explain why the case was filed in White Plains, since the Meldish rubout took place in the city. Prosecutors wrote that "substantial parts of the planning and execution of the murder occurred in Westchester County." They noted that Londonio and several Luchese leaders "who sanctioned the murder, are residents of Westchester, including Londonio's own captain," an apparent reference to Madonna, who lives in Selden.

In addition, they wrote that "high-ranking members of the Luchese family discussed and planned the murder of Meldish" in Westchester and that "Londonio drove from his home in Hartsdale to the scene of the murder." After the killing, prosecutors assert, Londonio drove "through southern Westchester County before re-entering New York" and dropping Caldwell off at his home in Harlem.

"Londonio then returned to his home in Hartsdale, where he placed a phone call related to the murder," prosecutors wrote, referring to a call that sources say he made to tell Madonna that he and Caldwell had carried out his assignment.

Alfonso D'ArcoProsecutors stated that they have evidence that Londonio committed a "wide variety of crimes" for the Luchese family in Westchester, including drug trafficking, robberies, extortion and illegal gambling since 2011, and to a lesser extent, have evidence linking Caldwell, a longtime associate, to criminal activity in Westchester.

Two of the three members of the prosecution team are now assigned to the Manhattan office, but the case still belongs in White Plains, prosecutors wrote.

The Luchese crime family is so much a part of Westchester these days that for several years now, prosecutors wrote, it has been holding its annual Christmas party at a restaurant in Westchester, and in order "to establish the enterprise and its membership," the government will prove that at trial.

The family's Christmas party is a long Luchese tradition, as Tom Robbins and I detailed in "Mob Boss," our book about acting boss-turned-government informant, Alfonso (Little Al) D'Arco.

Prosecutors did not identify the eatery, but Gang Land's crack investigative sources have determined that it is The Olde Stone Mill in Tuckahoe, a converted cotton mill with a gorgeous view that overlooks the Bronx River. Gang Land hasn't dined there, but it's gotten some pretty nice reviews, including one from Channel 2's Tony Tantillo. Buon appetito!

Bobby Glasses Vernace Dies Doing Time For The Shamrock Bar Murders

Bartolomeo VernaceGambino wiseguy Bartolomeo (Bobby Glasses) Vernace suffered a heart attack and died in federal custody last week, four years after he was found guilty of the senseless 1981 killings of the owners of a Woodhaven, Queens bar at a controversial racketeering and murder trial. He was 67.

Vernace, who was acquitted of the murders of Shamrock Bar owners Richard Godkin and John D'Agnese at a 2003 state court trial, had been behind bars since his arrest on Mafia Takedown Day in January of 2011. Prosecutors, citing new evidence, alleged that the slayings were Gambino crime family business even though they arose over a dispute over a spilled drink.

The Sicilian born mobster was serving a life sentence at the Allenwood Federal Penitentiary when he died.

A family friend told Gang Land that Vernace, who suffered from diabetes, kidney disease and heart disease, died at a hospital near the Pennsylvania federal Bureau of Prisons facility on Thursday, about two weeks after he was felled by a heart attack.

Richard GodkinIn upholding his conviction last year, a federal appeals court wrote: "Vernace argues that a mere spilled drink somehow cascaded into two brutal, and very public, murders. But the jury, seeking to make sense of the Shamrock Murders, could have reasonably rejected this theory and found instead that the Shamrock Murders were related to the activities of the Gambino crime family."

In its 26-page opinion, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals opined that an anonymous jury could have "reasonably inferred" that the killings were a direct result of a deadly allegiance that Bobby Glasses had with his mob family, and not just because of a spilled drink on a raucous night.

That was the message the government successfully conveyed to the jury: That the notion that the murders stemmed from a mere spilled drink carried such "an air of implausibility" that jurors were entitled to decide that the barroom slayings were Gambino family business, the court wrote.

"A reasonable jury could have concluded" that Vernace and two cohorts who were fingered by witnesses "went so far as to commit murder in a crowded bar because such a public display related to preserving (and even enhancing) the reputation of the Gambino crime family and its members," the appeals panel wrote.

John D'AgneseTrial testimony established that the killings were not sanctioned by the Gambino family, and that for a time, Vernace and his cohorts had gone into hiding to escape retribution for the unauthorized slayings. But testimony also showed that the murders didn't prevent Bobby Glasses from being inducted into the crime family and ultimately rising to the rank of family consigliere by the time of his arrest on the federal charges.

A smattering of wiseguys and mob associates were among the friends and relatives who paid their respects to Vernace and expressed their regrets to his family members at a one day wake that was held Sunday — and covered by local and federal law enforcement officials — at the Wanamaker & Carlough Funeral Home in Suffern.

"Bobby was one of a kind," said attorney Joseph DiBenedetto. "He was sharp, highly intelligent and a man of few words. He didn't need to be the loudest guy in the room for others to feel his presence. He will be missed."

Vernace was entombed Monday at Ascension Cemetery in Airmont following a funeral mass at the Sacred Heart Church in Suffern.

He is survived by his wife of 44 years, Jacqueline, a daughter Vita, a son Anthony, five grandchildren, Jacqueline, Alex, Brandon, Joe, and Gabe, as well as sisters, Franca, Josephine, and a brother Michael.

Ask Andy: Mafia Myths Debunked

Andy PetepieceMore than 15 years ago, Gang Land knocked down the myth that Crazy Joe Gallo & Company had killed Albert Anastasia as he sat in a Manhattan hotel barbershop on October 25, 1957. Today, we discuss two other long-held Mafia myths that belong in the garbage bin, including one that has Frank Sinatra performing a 1946 Christmas Eve songfest for mob bosses in Havana.

It's hard to pinpoint when it began, or who started it, but for more than 50 years, it's been said and written many times that Frank Sinatra sang at a private gathering of Mafia Bosses in Havana Cuba, on Christmas Eve of 1946. This story is in countless books and online reports. In an otherwise excellent 2015 documentary, Cuba Libre, on Netflix, the Sinatra/Havana Christmas Eve story was told by one of the talking heads as if it were a rock solid fact, etched in stone.

It's true that Sinatra was friends with many heavy hitters in the Mafia and was even in business with the Chicago boss for a short period of time. And the famous backstage picture taken of him at the Westchester Premiere Theatre in the 1970s with Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano, Jimmy the Weasel Fratianno and other Mafiosi solidified his reputation as a mob associate.

But there was no mention of Sinatra being in Havana in December 1946 in any American newspaper. Back then every move Sinatra made was chronicled. Sinatra was the Justin Beeber of the 1940s. The incredibly talented singer had hundreds of thousands of tremendously loyal fans who screamed at his every move, and the ups and downs of his love life, temper tantrums, and what have you were front page news from coast to coast.

Backstage with Frank Sinatra & Carlo GambinoAnd there is no report of the legendary Havana party in Kitty Kelly's intensely researched book, My Way. It's not mentioned in Robert Lacey's excellent book, Little Man, Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life either. And Sinatra's extensive FBI file contains no mention of a 1946 Christmas Eve bash. It's a myth.

Also, as it turns out, Sinatra, who had a radio show from 1945-to-1947 called Songs by Sinatra, did a special one on Christmas night of 1946, from Hollywood, at 9 PM Eastern Time. (EST) That means that after performing for the mob in Havana on Christmas Eve, he would have had to get back to Los Angeles for a 9 PM live show on Christmas night. Highly unlikely, if not impossible.

In 1946, it took approximately seven hours to fly from Havana to New York. The last flight from New York to Los Angeles left shortly after 11 PM EST. For Sinatra to have made that flight, he would have had to leave Cuba, at a bare minimum, seven hours earlier, which would have made his departure at 4 PM EST on December 24, 1946. If this were true, and it isn't, that means the famous Christmas Eve show would have been a lunchtime extravaganza. Utter Nonsense.

Willie MorettiThe other myth has the Genovese crime family killing Willie Moretti because he had syphilis and was losing his mind when he was whacked on October 4, 1951. Everyone cried crocodile tears, especially Frank Costello and Albert Anastasia.

Moretti had been the family underboss when Genovese fled to Italy and Costello became boss in 1937. Things went well for years, but on December 13, 1950, Moretti appeared before the Kefauver Committee in Washington and put on quite a show. Unlike most of the other witnesses who took the Fifth Amendment, Morelli talked a lot and was entertaining. Legend has it that his brain had been damaged by syphilis and he could no longer control himself. Years later Joe Bonanno wrote about Moretti, "He was in the later stages of syphilis. Willie's mind was rapidly disintegrating."

But the autopsy by Bergen County Medical Examiner, Dr. Ralph Gilady, reported no signs of brain damage. In other words, Moretti was not suffering from advanced syphilis. The real problem was that Moretti was extremely unhappy with a new alliance between his boss, Frank Costello, and Albert Anastasia, the new boss of the Gambino family. Moretti was not shy in complaining about this irritant in his life. Not long afterward the story was floated that his brain was a mess and a mercy killing was in order. The ruse worked and the myth that Moretti was a syphilis victim like Al Capone persists to this day even though the readily available medical evidence disputed that proposition from day one.

Lots of good info in this one. Thanks gangstereport.

Very good - thanks

Why are you thanking him?

Jerry Capeci wrote the article!

Because its still a pay to view site if I'm not mistaken and he took the time out to post it for everyone to read, that could be a reason.