Ernest Muscarella

Ernest "Ernie" Muscarella (born 1944) is a New York mobster and powerful Caporegime in the Genovese crime family. [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column387.htm]

Working for Salerno

A soldier in the crew of infamous Mob boss, Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, Muscarella operated with extortion, bookmaking and illegal gambling in the early 1980s, but as pressure on organized crime began to increase, and Salerno, plus all the other heads of the New York crime families were put on trial for labor racketeering, loansharking, extortion, illegal gambling, drug trafficking, money laundering, murder and conspiracy to commit murder, which resulted in the infamous Mafia Commission Trial, Muscarella, a young and strong member of the Genovese crime family, inherited Salerno's legendary crew located in the East Harlem and Upper Manhattan factions of the family. In 1986, Salerno and others received life imprisonment, and Muscarella received the position as Caporegime of the family's Manhattan faction.

East Harlem/Manhattan

As the 1980s roared against the Genovese crime family, with massive indictments and prosecutions, Muscarella reportedly went under the radar for more than 10 years, while operating out of the East Harlem and upper Manhattan factions with labor and construction racketeering, extortion, loansharking, illegal gambling, bid rigging and fraud activities. While other top Genovese mobsters were sent to prison during the late 1980s, Muscarella went to become one of the top earners of the family, working mostly with recognized Underboss Venero "Benny Eggs" Mangano of the Brooklyn faction, and top capos Liborio "Barney" Bellomo and Charles "Charlie" Tuzzo with stocks and pump-and-dump schemes. This made Muscarella one of the top members of the Genovese crime family during the early 1990s, and was soon recognized as a top loyalistto then-current boss, Vincent "Chin" Gigante.

Gigante Acting Boss

As the mid and late 1990s proved to be very lucrative for Muscarella, his boss, Vincent "Chin" Gigante, suffered through otherwise, as he was indicted and convicted on extortion, several racketeering and conspiracy charges and sentenced to 12 years in a federal prison in the summer of 1997. Despite his lawyers' and psychiatrists' claims that he has been legally insane for more than 30 years, the jury convicted him on all but the murder charges, which would have mandated a life sentence without parole. As things were to have it, longtime "capo" and alleged Street Boss Liborio "Barney" Bellomo was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, and longtime member of the Genovese crime family, Dominick "Quiet Dom" Cirillo was to step up as Gigante's Acting Boss during the year of 1997, but suffered from a heart attack and was forced to step down. This caused Gigante to promote Muscarella as the
Acting Boss of the Genovese crime family in late 1998.

Indictments & prison

In 2002, Muscarella found himself facing two serious indictments. The first was for heading up a stock fraud racket involving "Orex Gold Mines Corp". The second indictment occurred later that year when US law enforcement charged Muscarella of extorting "International Longshoremen Union" through his influence over piers located in Florida, New Jersey and New York. Additional charges against the defendents also brought in evidence of extorting the "Laborer' International Union of North America", Teamsters Local 32B/J of the "Building Services Workers Union and the Mason Tenders" District Council of Greater New York. In addition to this, US law enforcement tied Muscarella to large illegal gambling operations in South Florida and Brooklyn, New York. Plea agreements were eventually echoed by all defendents and Muscarella was sentenced to five years in prison in late 2002. He was released on December 31, 2007.

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/OrganizedCrimeSyndicates/GenoveseFamily.html Organized Crime Syndicates: The Genovese LCN Family]
* [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column387.htm This Week in Gangland: Like Son, Like Father] by Jerry Capeci
* [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column325.htm This Week in Gangland: Chin To Say He Was Only Fooling] by Jerry Capeci