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March 29, 1999

By Jerry Capeci

Turncoat Wife Beater Back to Jail
Carmine SessaTurncoat Colombo consigliere Carmine Sessa may be "doing the right thing" and working for the government, but he's still a thug and a criminal through and through.

He was released on bail two years ago after testifying against his former pals, but returned to prison for beating his wife.

Sessa, who is credited with 13 bodies -- 12 men and a woman -- in his mobster days, pleaded guilty last month to lying to the FBI about terrorizing his wife Anne and son Thomas for seven months. He also pleaded guilty to unlawfully possessing two guns that belonged to his son. 

But the feds still think he's a credible prosecution witness.

Wimpy Boys Social ClubSessa, 48, who made his bones as a member of Greg Scarpa Sr.'s Bensonhurst-based crew that operated from the Wimpy Boys Social Club, (that's Sessa at the left in front of the club in this surveillance photo) is currently in a special prison unit for cooperating witnesses, and had been prepped to testify at the racketeering and murder trial of Colombo mobster Robert Zambardi.

Zambardi, also a member of the Scarpa crew, had been charged with four murders and other crimes, and faced life. His trial was scheduled for this month. But he pleaded guilty after prosecutors, looking to avoid calling an admitted wife beater as a witness, dropped their plea offer down from 18 years to one he couldn't refuse -- 11 years.

Sessa's wife Anne helped convince her husband to cooperate when he was arrested in 1993 following the bloody 1991-92 Colombo war.

"He was pretty devoted to his wife and his son, and once he spoke to her he agreed he'd cooperate," a law enforcement official said at the time.

Greg Scarpa Sr.Sessa also blew the whistle on an allegedly corrupt relationship between FBI supervisor Lindley DeVecchio and Scarpa. (right)

After serving about 50 months while testifying at trials of Colombo and Genovese mobsters, Sessa was released on bail in the summer of 1997, and rejoined his wife and son last May, according to court papers.

On Dec. 14, his wife and son told the FBI that Sessa began beating Anne "a few days" after he came home and had taken two handguns from their home and brought them back the next day.

Two days later, Sessa was back in prison and denied the allegations until Jan. 26, when he finally admitted he had punched out his wife during several "domestic disputes," and stealing the guns, but not using them.

Sessa had become "paranoid" his son was going to kill him and removed the guns, but replaced them the following day when he realized he had overreacted, assistant U.S. attorney Sung-Hee Suh said in court papers.

Sessa faces 20 years for his Colombo family crimes and 10 years for his Sessa family crimes.

But, hey, he's a cooperating witness and expects to get much less.

Donny Shacks and The Kid
Donny Shacks MontemaranoYou gotta like the way Colombo capo Dominick (Donny Shacks) Montemarano (right, circa 1963) handled UCLA's starting quarterback Cade McNown after dragging him into an FBI point shaving investigation.

Montemarano, 60, who had McNown and other current and former UCLA football players -- including Dallas Cowboys All Pro quarterback Troy Aikman -- to his apartment for parties, convinced McNown that he was a good guy with the kid's well being at heart.

He threw Monday Night Football parties and chauffeured him and his family around the Big Apple and took them to dinner at Sparks Steak House -- the place where Paul Castellano missed having his last meal -- because he's a nice guy.

Last week, after a workout for the benefit of NFL executives and scouts, McNown told the Los Angeles Times that even before he could take the FBI's advice and end their friendship, Montemarano, a transplanted New Yorker,   told him they couldn't see each other anymore.

"I just went over (to Montemarano) and said, 'Hey, look'--and before I even said [anything more], he said, 'You can't see me anymore.' He didn't want anything bad to ever happen to me," McNown told The Times.

Montemarano knew that "people [had] started asking questions," and told  him, "I don't want you to get in any trouble. We can't talk anymore. That's the way it's got to be, " McNown said, adding that his association with Montemarano "was a very innocent thing."

Kinda makes your eyes moisten.

   R.I.P.
sciascia02.JPG (12008 bytes)Gangsters and wannabe mobsters from several crime families paid their respects to Bonanno capo Gerlando Sciascia (right) last week, causing veteran mob watchers to rethink the prevailing theory that his murder was sanctioned.

Family boss Joseph Massino wasn't spotted at Sciascia's wake by any Gang Land sources but scores of Bonannos were on hand. Now there's talk that the 65-year-old mobster's death was  a "sneak job," the work of a renegade, a rebel, or a rival who was not a mob wiseguy.

Salvatore VitaleMassino's underboss, brother-in-law and reputed right-hand-man-in-crime, Salvatore Vitale, (left) was there with an entourage and wouldn't have  shown Sciascia that much respect if Massino hadn't approved. One source said that at least one member of Sciascia's crew from Montreal made it to the wake.

Sciascia, a Sicilian-born drug dealer who once operated in Canada and made millions of dollars  smuggling heroin to New York in the 1980's, last week was shot four times in the left side of his head and twice in the left side of his body and dumped on a dead end street in The Bronx. He was shot at very close range, perhaps inside a car, said one investigator.

Sciascia was charged with trafficking in heroin in 1982 with Gambino mobsters Gene Gotti and John Carneglia and 10 others. Gotti and Carneglia were convicted and sentenced to 50 years but Sciascia was tried later with two others, and acquitted.

Anthony Ruggiano
Anthony (Fat Andy) Ruggiano, a onetime Gambino capo who battled the   feds through five trials before going down for racketeering in 1987, died of a heart attack 10 days ago -- less than two years after his release from prison. He was 72.

Ruggiano, who hailed from the same Queens stomping grounds as John Gotti, was nailed on extortion and bribery charges after relocating to Miami and getting caught trying to bribe a police chief in an FBI sting operation.

Fat Andy RuggianoAs the sting drew to a close, Ruggiano became aware of what was going down, and hid out with a motorcycle gang, growing a beard and keeping his hair long to blend in. (left)

Ruggiano and Gotti rarely saw eye to eye on issues, but many Gambino mobsters and associates paid their respects to his wife and children, according to Gang Land sources.

One family member who couldn't get to the wake was son Anthony, 45, who followed his father to Florida, and to prison, after getting hit with racketeering charges along with capo Nicholas (Little Nick) Corozzo in 1996. Anthony's due out in 2006.

On The RecordON THE RECORD

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Email Jerry Capeci: editor@ganglandnews.com

Copyright, Jerry Capeci, 1999
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