Funnyhow,

Start with this article for background info and then google mafia commission trial FBI documents and you will have all the info you need. Keep up the hard work in school, lots of young folks these days would of just bought a paper. Good luck.

Eight Mobsters Convicted of All Counts in Mafia Commission Trial

JOHN M. DOYLE, Associated Press

Nov. 19, 1986 4:45 PM ET


NEW YORK (AP) _ Eight people, including three Mafia bosses, were convicted Wednesday of participating in a ''commission'' that has split territories, sanctioned rubouts and kept organized crime organized since the days of Prohibition.


With the verdict, the FBI said, all the mob's policy makers were either in the grave or on their way to jail. The case also proved for the first time the existence of a panel that oversees national operations of the Mafia.


''It can no longer be passed off as a prosecutor's theory. It's been proven beyond a reasonable doubt there is a Mafia, La Cosa Nostra exists,'' said U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani.


When the racketeering indictment was handed up in February 1985, Justice Department officials described it as the most powerful blow ever directed at the Mafia's ''symbol of power.''


Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Chertoff, the chief prosecutor in the case, said the verdict was significant but was not the death knell for organized crime in the United States.


''This wasn't the only Mafia case and it won't be the last,'' he said.


However, ''As far as we are concerned, the commission that was involved in the policy decisions, the direction of La Cosa Nostra, is or has been convicted or killed,'' said William Doran, head of the Criminal Division in the FBI's New York office.


Convicted of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy were Genovese crime family boss Anthony ''Fat Tony'' Salerno, 75; Colombo boss Carmine ''Junior'' Persico, 53; and Lucchese boss Anthony ''Tony Ducks'' Corallo, 73.


Also convicted on those charges were Colombo underboss Gennaro ''Jerry Lang'' Langella, 47; Lucchese underboss Salvatore ''Tom Mix'' Santoro, 72; Lucchese counselor Christopher ''Christy Tick'' Furnari, 62; Ralph Scopo, 58, a former labor leader and Colombo soldier; and Bonanno soldier Anthony ''Bruno'' Indelicato, 38.


In addition to the racketeering and conspiracy counts, all but Indelicato were convicted of extortion, extortion conspiracy and labor payoffs.


Corallo and Santoro were also convicted of loansharking conspiracy.


Salerno, Persico, Langella, Furnari and Scopo face maximum sentences of 306 years. Corallo and Santoro face 326 years and Indelicato faces 40 years.


The verdict followed more than five days of deliberation by jurors whose names were kept confidential to avoid tampering.


By their decision, the jurors found all eight defendants were members of, or worked for, a commission that acted as a ''board of directors'' for the Mafia since 1931.


The reputed bosses of the Gambino and Bonanno organized crime families also were named in the indictment but Paul Castellano, reputed boss of the Gambino family, was gunned down last December. In addition, the case of reputed Bonanno boss Philip ''Rusty'' Rastelli was severed because of other federal charges in Brooklyn.


Evidence during the trial showed some of the defendants had ''an absolute willingness to kill'' people who get in their way, said U.S. District Judge Richard Owen, who set sentencing for Jan. 6.


Though Owen told jurors Mafia membership alone was not a crime, Scopo attorney John Jacobs complained that the Mafia became the central issue.


At the trial's start, several defense attorneys conceded the Mafia's existence and said some mob bosses may have formed a commission.


Prosecutors charged the commission periodically met to settle territorial disputes, divide loot, accept new Mafia members and, sometimes, authorize high-level mob executions including that of reputed Bonanno boss Carmine Galante.


The indictment charged the commission was behind three separate conspiracies: extortion and labor peace payoffs in New York's concrete pouring industry; loansharking; and the Galante murder.


The prosecution contended the commission exerted a stranglehold on New York's construction industry by creating a club of concrete pouring companies that were allowed to bid on jobs over $2 million if they kicked back 2 percent for labor peace.


The verdict was the second blow this week for Persico and Langella. Persico was sentenced Monday to 39 years on a previous racketeering conviction, and Langella received a 65-year sentence for his conviction in the same case, which involved extortion in the construction industry.


Persico took the unusual step of serving as his own lawyer in the commission case. While conceding he had been imprisoned for previous crimes, Persico neither admitted nor denied he belonged to the Mafia.


Persico has been imprisoned for most of the last 15 years for truck hijacking and parole violation, but prosecutors contended he ran the Colombo family from prison through acting bosses.


To determine guilt on the top two racketeering counts, the jury was required to find that each defendant had committed at least two of 23 alleged racketeering acts, including murder, loansharking and extortion. The jury found each defendant had committed each act charged against him.

http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1986/Eight-...02b510455ff746d