- 1986 in organized crime
"See also:"
1985 in organized crime ,
other events of 1986,1987 in organized crime and the
list of 'years in Organized Crime'.----
Events
*According the government reports, it is estimated there are 2,500 members of the "La Cosa Nostra" and thousands of associate members. Reports also are said to include the Italian-American Mafia as the largest organized crime group in the
United States and continues to hold dominance over theNational Crime Syndicate , despite the increasing numbers of street gangs and other organizations of non-Italian or Sicilian ethnicity.
*Robert "Dee-Bee" DiBernardo,Gambino crime family caporegime involved in pornography operations, is murdered.
*Frank DeCicco , Capo and associate ofGambino crime family leaderPaul Castellano , who eventually betrayed Castellano toJohn Gotti , is murdered (carbomb).
*Peter "Little Pete" Tambone, a drug trafficker and former member of theGambino crime family , is reinstated byJohn Gotti . Tambone had been previously banished from the crime family by former leaderPaul Castellano after his participation in the (Angelo)Ruggerio-(Gene)Gotti heroin operation.
*January 21 - Resulting in an extensive 5-yearFBI investigation,Chicago Outfit members, Boss Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa, Underboss John "Jackie the Lackey" Cerone, and Capos Angelo J. "The Hook" LaPietra and Joseph "Joey The Clown" Lombardo areconvicted by aU.S. District Court inKansas City, Missouri for conspiring along with theCleveland ,Milwaukee , andKansas City crime families toembezzle loans from theInternational Brotherhood of Teamsters 'Central States Pension Fund .
*February 10 - Diamond merchantIsrael Greenwald disappears. His body is later discovered inApril 2005 by theFBI in a makeshift grave with two bullets lodged in his skull. He was killed byLouis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa , on the orders ofLucchese crime family captainAnthony "Gaspipe" Casso . [http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/am-mob0604,0,1627985.story?coll=ny-top-headlines]
*February 10 – Start of theMaxi Trial againstCosa Nostra inPalermo . The trial took place next to the "Ucciardone" (the Palermoprison ) in a bunker specially built to try the defendants. A total of 474 defendants were facing charges, although 119 of them were to be tried "in absentia " as they were fugitives. (Salvatore Riina andMichele Greco were among these absent defendants.) Amongst those present wereLuciano Leggio , Riina's predecessor, who acted as his ownlawyer , and also Giuseppe "Pippo" Calò. Most of the crucial evidence came fromTommaso Buscetta a mafioso captured in 1982 inBrazil . He had lost many relatives during the Mafia war, including two sons, as well as many allies such asStefano Bontade andSalvatore Inzerillo . He decided to cooperate with the Sicilian magistrates. TheCorleonesi continued its vendetta against Buscetta by killing several more of his relatives. Testifying against the Corleonesi was the only way to avenge his murdered family and friends. The information that Buscetta had given the investigative judgesGiovanni Falcone andPaolo Borsellino allowed a new understanding to how the Mafia functioned and how the clandestine groups of hierarchy in the Sicilian Cupola (theSicilian Mafia Commission ) actually agreed on policy and business. For the first time the Mafia had been prosecuted as an entity rather than a collection of individual crimes. Known as the Buscetta theorem it showed that Cosa Nostra was a single hierarchical organisation ruled by a commission and that its leaders could be held responsible for criminal acts that were committed to benefit the organisation.
*February 20 -Michele Greco , the boss of theCiaculli Mafia family and "chairman" of theSicilian Mafia Commission , arrested and charged in the1986 Maxi Trial for the murder of Italian Anti-Mafia magistrate Rocco Chinnici .
*March 19 –Michele Sindona is convicted of murder. The following day he dies in his prison cell after drinking a cup of poisoned coffee.
*March 20 -Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno , "Front Boss" of theGenovese crime family , along with 14 other Genovese members, are indicted on several charges including conspiracy, racketeering and extortion. Former Salerno soldierVincent Cafaro would turn informant and explained that after Salerno suffered a stroke in 1981, he was delegated to functioning as a figurehead boss to keep the pressure off the official bossVincent Gigante . Cafaro also explained that caporegimesVincent DiNapoli andLiborio Bellomo removed caporegimePeter DeFeo and soldierAlexander Morelli from the District Council of Carpenters rackets, and DiNapoli and Bellomo went on to control hiring at theJacob Javits Center as well as the drywall cartel. Cafaro would go on to testify at the trials of Gambino bossJohn Gotti .
*April 2 –Tommaso Buscetta andSalvatore Contorno arrive from the United States to testify in theMaxi Trial inPalermo
*June 13 - The entire leadership of theColombo crime family , BossCarmine "Junior" Persico , UnderbossGennaro "Jerry Lang" Langella , former Acting Boss/CapoAnthony "Scappy" Scarpati , CaposAlphonse "Little Allie Boy" Persico Jr. ,Andrew "Andy Mush" Russo ,Dominic "Little Dom" Cataldo ,John J. "Jackie" DeRoss , soldierFrank "The Beast" Falanga and associateHugh "Apples" McIntosh are convicted under theRICO Act of conspiracy, extortion, and bribery in the "Colombo Case". The U.S. Attorney's Office filed a Civil RICO complaint against family members soon after the trial, marking the first Civil RICO complaint filed against a crime family as an enterprise, including labor unions under their control.
*June 14 - Anthony "Tony," "The Ant" Spilotro and his brotherMichael Spilotro are beaten to death and buried in a cornfield inMorocco, Indiana , their bodies being found onJune 23 . Spilotro had been sent to Las Vegas by theChicago Outfit as its', "Representato," or, "Outside Man," to protect its'casino skim ming operations and, "Inside Man." But, after gaining much too media attention and being blacklisted by the casinos, as well asallege dly having an affair with the wife of Outfit associate and "Inside Man" Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, it was decided that Anthony was a liability, and is murdered on the orders of the new Chicago Outfit boss , Joseph "Joe Negal" Ferriola.
*June 23 - After being largely controlled by theGenovese crime family for almost three decades underAnthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano , U.S. District Court JudgeHarold A. Ackerman is named as a trustee to oversee Teamsters Local 560.
*July 24 -Genovese crime family soldier Joseph "Joe Glitz" Galizia and Russian mobstersIgor Roizman ,Igor Porotsky , andSheldon Levine are indicted after a 6 month investigation by theFederal Organized Crime Strike Force for theEastern District of New York . The men were charged with operating a scam that evaded over $5 million in Federal gasoline excise taxes.
*September -The Commission Case goes to trial in Manhattan. The heads of the 5 New York Families called the Commission are all charged and braught to trial for the first time. There were 11 defendants indicted, but only 8 make it to trial. The defendants are Genovese crime family Boss (Front Boss) Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, Lucchese crime family Boss Antonio "Tony Ducks" Corallo, Lucchese Underboss Salvatore "Tom Mix" Santoro, Lucchese Consigliere Christopher "Christie Tick" Furnari, Colombo crime family Boss Carmine "Junior" Persico, Colombo Acting Boss/Underboss Gennaro "Jerry Lang" Langella, Colombo soldier Ralph Scopo and Bonano crime family soldier Anthony "Bruno" Indelicato. Defendant Philip "Rusty" Rastelli, Bonanno crime family Boss was severed from the trial, as he was subsequently indicted in another RICO case along with his underboss Joseph "Big Joey" Massino. Gambino crime family Underboss Aniello "Mr. Neil" Dellacroce died of brain cancer Dec 2, 1985. Gambino crime Family Boss Paul "Big Pauly" Castellano and his new Underboss Tommy Bilotti were assassinated in front of Sparks Steakhouse in Manhattan Dec. 16, 1985.
*September 25 -Gambino crime family leaderJohn "Johnny Boy" Gotti is brought to trial for the first time and charged with crimes over an 18-year period including illegal gambling, loan-sharking, armed robbery, and murder.
*October 24 - Members of the Colombo crime family including Colombo Family BossCarmine "Junior" Persico , (as well as two former leaders), 4 capos with 4 other members and 2 associates are charged with involvement in widespread racketeering and other criminal activities.
*October 31 - Philadelphia mobsterNicodemo Scarfo is indicted with several others by aNew Jersey grand jury for racketeering, loansharking, illegal gambling, and extortion.
*November 5 -Harry Davidoff , Vice President of theLucchese crime family -controlled IBT Local 851, is convicted under theRICO Act for conspiracy (as well as beinging charged with conspiracy and extortion under theHobbs Act ) at a jury trial in the Eastern District of New York (EDNY). This would be the first in a series of trials, in which a federal investigation focused on the control of theair freight industry atJFK International Airport byNew York 'sFive Families , using its influence within theTeamsters Union .
*October 10 - During the Davidoff trial, Lucchese CapoPaul Vario , with soldiersFrank Manzo andPasquale Raucci plead guilty of conspiracy and convicted under the RICO Act.
*November 18 - Among various members and associates of the Colombo Crime family, Colombo Boss Carmine "Junior" Persico is sentenced to 39 years' imprisonment for racketeering along with Underboss Gennaro "Jerry Lang" Langella who receives a 65 year prison sentence.
*November 19 - All 8 defendants are found guilty on all RICO counts-151 of them.They will be sentenced soon.
*November 24 -Genovese crime family "Front Boss" Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, with 3 other Genovese members are indicted for labor racketeering charges concerning "exerting influence and control over Jackie Presser's selection as General President for the scandal-plagued 1.7 million member union (IBT) in 1983 and then influencing his decisions and acts to benefit the mob."
*December 1 –Sicilian Mafioso , Gaetano "Tommy" Mazzara, aUnion Township, Union County, New Jersey pizzeria owner recently arrested for drug trafficking in connection to thePizza Connection , is murdered inBrooklyn . His body, stuffed in a garbage bag, is found on a street corner the following day.Arts and literature
*
John Woo 's "A Better Tomorrow " (film) [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092263/] starringLung Ti ,Yun-Fat Chow andEmily Chu is released.
*"Mafia Princess " (television movie) [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091458/] starringSusan Lucci ,Kathleen Widdoes andTony Curtis .Births
Deaths
*
Frank DeCicco , associate ofPaul Castellano
*June 14 -Anthony Spilotro , Las Vegas mobster andChicago Outfit member
*June 14 -Michael Spilotro ,Chicago Outfit associate and brother of Anthony Spilotro
*December 1 –Gaetano Mazzara "Tommy", New York businessman and cousin ofFrank Castronovo involved in thePizza Connection
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