"Three high-ranking members of the New Jersey mob family that purportedly inspired "The Sopranos""
"The New Jersey-based mob family claims to be the inspiration for HBO's "The Sopranos." Loose-lipped members were caught on FBI wiretaps comparing themselves to Tony Soprano's wiseguys."
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'SOPRANOS' MOB BIGS CONVICTED
Canary helps convict mobsters
By ROBERT GEARTY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Bada-klink!
Thanks to mob turncoat Vincent (Vinnie Ocean) Palermo, prosecutors won convictions yesterday against a trio of DeCavalcante gangsters who likened themselves to "The Sopranos."
Mobsters Stefano Vitabile, Guiseppe (Pino) Schifilliti and Philip Abramo were found guilty by a Manhattan Federal Court jury of a sweeping racketeering conspiracy that included murder, extortion and stock fraud.
The verdicts capped a six-week trial that featured riveting testimony from Palermo, the one-time acting boss of the DeCavalcante clan.
The trial marked Palermo's debut as the FBI's newest star witness. Three other mob snitches also testified about crimes that could send Vitabile, Schifilliti and Abramo to prison for life.
Palermo, who got his nickname working at the Fulton Fish Market, testified for four days about his stint as a DeCavalcante mobster bent on murder and violence.
He flipped over to the feds shortly after he was busted in December 1999.
The New Jersey-based mob family claims to be the inspiration for HBO's "The Sopranos." Loose-lipped members were caught on FBI wiretaps comparing themselves to Tony Soprano's wiseguys.
One of the crimes Palermo, 57, testified to was the hit on DeCavalcante underboss John D'Amato, who became marked for death because he was gay, an apparent gangland taboo. Palermo told how he was shot in Brooklyn in the back of a car and his body driven upstate and dumped.
Prosecutors said the order to kill D'Amato came from Vitabile, 67, the DeCavalcante's consigliere for 30 years. Schifilliti and Abramo are longtime DeCavalcante capos.
Palermo proved a strong witness, even amid the midtrial revelation that he gave $1.7 million in cash to his son before his 1999 arrest.
Originally published on June 5, 2003
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'SOPRANOS' MOB BIGS CONVICTED
By DAN MANGAN and TODD VENEZIA
Singing "Soprano" Vincent Palermo (right) was instrumental in bringing down "Pino" Schifilliti (left) and two other DeCavalcante big shots when the gangster testified against his mob mates.
June 5, 2003 -- Three high-ranking members of the New Jersey mob family that purportedly inspired "The Sopranos" were found guilty yesterday of a slew of racketeering charges related to murder, extortion and loan-sharking.
DeCavalcante family consigliere Stefano Vitabile and capos Philip Abramo and Giuseppe "Pino" Schifilliti face life in prison after a trial in Manhattan federal court that ripped open the embarrassing inner workings of La Cosa Nostra.
The trio of wiseguys were sunk by testimony from their former cohorts in the New Jersey-based family, who linked them to murders of former high-ranking gangsters and to a host of other gangland activities.
Jurors found Vitabile's racketeering endeavors included the killings of Louis "Fat Lou" LaRasso and former acting DeCavalcante boss John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato after he was outed as gay.
During the trial, LaRasso's widow testified that her husband, whose body was never found, was whacked two days before his birthday in 1991.
"He left right after dinner" and never came back, Stephanie LaRasso said of her "Fat Lou."
In other dramatic testimony, former soldier Anthony Capo - who like the other testifying turncoats spoke in return for a plea deal - described how the DeCavalcantes decided to bump off D'Amato after his girlfriend claimed he was gay.
"Nobody's gonna respect us if we have a gay homosexual boss sitting down discussing La Cosa Nostra business," Capo told jurors.
The gang's leaders decided that the only way to resolve the issue, and not let their image be tarnished in the super-macho Mafia world, was to rub out D'Amato, Capo said.
The hit went down in a gangster's car in Mill Basin, Brooklyn.
"We knew we'd have to sneak him - kill him without permission [from other Mafia bosses]."
Vitabile, the gang's counselor for some 30 years, also was convicted under federal RICO laws of conspiring to kill two other mobsters and commit extortion.
Schifilliti - a mob capo, or captain, and subordinate to Vitabile - was convicted under RICO statutes of participating in LaRasso's killing.
Abramo, another captain in the Jersey mob clan, was convicted of racketeering charges in LaRasso's killing and in the murders of businessman Fred Weiss and mob soldier Joseph Garofano.
Both Schifilliti and Abramo also were convicted of loan-sharking.
Yesterday's verdict came after less than two days of deliberations by jurors who heard the case before U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey.
The three gangland heavies sat stoically as the jurist read the guilty verdicts. Several family members who watched from the rows behind them dabbed tears at the word of a conviction that could put them behind bars for the rest of their lives.
The men will be held until sentencing, which is scheduled for Oct. 17. |
