Using “mob turncoats” to testify in court doesn’t always work. It comes down to credibility.
Apparently, jurors weren’t buying what “mob turncoat” John Alite was selling as a star prosecution witness in the the fourth and final unsuccessful trial in 2009 against his ex-best friend, John (Junior) Gotti, son of the late Godfather John Gotti.
Alite, a convicted murderer and associate of the Gambino Crime family, testified that the younger Gotti, who was a childhood friend, approved multiple murders. Apparently, his word was no good, at least in the eyes of some jurors. The case ended with a deadlock jury in December 2009, and the government decided after failing four times, not to go for a fifth trial.
Jerry Capeci, an expert on the mob who runs the website Gang Land News, reports that “Brooklyn federal prosecutors have figured out how to keep the flawed mob turncoat John Alite off the stand in a companion case to the failed prosecution of John (Junior) Gotti.”
Gang Land News reports that the feds have “rounded up a slew of better witnesses” in a multiple murder case against John Burke, a Queens gangster. One of the witnesses is expected to be Peter (Bud) Zuccaro, who was a defense witness for Gotti Junior, Gang Land News reported.
Gang Land News reported that “Burke is awaiting trial for three gangland-style slayings from 1982 to 1996, including one that Gotti allegedly ordered.”
