By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The headline on the website Gang Land News says it all: “Red Hot NY Lawyer Tacopina Gets Big Chill From Wiseguys.” The headline was in reference to hotshot lawyer Joseph Tacopina, who was once the go-to guy for a lot of mobsters. But no more — apparently not since he became a…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Mobsters have a reputation for enjoying free things: TVs, Rolex watches, meals, computers. You name it. Still, it’s fair to assume, Emilio Fusco, a made man in the New York Genovese Crime Family, was none to happy when he got a free plane ride back to the U.S. from Italy —…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A Yemen native who tried twice ramming open the cockpit door of American Airlines Flight 1561 bound for San Francisco Sunday night, and yelled “God is great” in Arabic, remained behind bars, the Associated Press reported. A federal judge in San Francisco on Tuesday ordered Rageh Al-Murisi, 28, of California, detained….
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com That’s a whole lot of chatter. The New York Daily News reports that the FBI intercepted 30,000 phone calls in a corruption probe involving N.Y. state Sen. Carl Kruger, who is charged with allegedly taking $1 million in bribes to help a developer, a lobbyist and two hospital execs. The feds…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — For roughly 30 years, the FBI kept files on tips and rumors suggesting Adolph Hitler had faked his suicide in a Berlin bunker in 1945 and was hiding somewhere around the world, according to FBI documents available on the agency’s website. In one of the many FBI memos, FBI…
By The New York Times Editorial Page Last year, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. described a federal court trial for the self-professed mastermind of Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, as ”the defining event of my time as attorney general.” On Monday, Mr. Holder’s dream for demonstrating the power of the American court system crumbled…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — In an about face — that appeared over time to be more and more likely of a possibility — the Obama administration has decided to prosecute self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad in a military commission at Guantanamo Bay instead of a civilian court in New York, CBS…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A goof by federal law enforcement resulted in the murder of Genovese family mobster Adolfo (Big Al) Bruno in 2003, Gang Land News reports. The website on the Mafia reported that a federal probation officer mentioned in a pre-sentence report to a Massachusetts federal judge that Bruno, who ran the Springfield,…
