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Casso, the former Lucchese underboss who couldn't cut it as a turncoat, claimed he deserved leniency for his cooperation and was a victim of corrupt prosecutors who broke promises they made to him four year ago.

The bespectacled 58-year-old Casso, with his salt-and-pepper hair, dark blue suit, white shirt and blue tie, looked more like an insurance salesman as he stood in the dock before Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block.

Casso complained he was being unfairly sentenced for his gangster activities instead of as the cooperating witness he tried to be. The feds had used him and then abused him by not living up to their deal to seek leniency for him.

His guns long since gone, Casso could only fire darts and wild charges. Using a shotgun approach, he sprayed current and former assistant U.S. attorneys with accusations that they lied to federal judges to cover up lies that other cooperating mobsters told from the witness stand at various trials.

Glancing at hand written notes, Casso said he was "being singled out in  retaliation" for accusing superstar prosecution witnesses Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano and Alfonse (Little Al) D'Arco of lying from the witness stand. Prosecutors moved to breach the agreement after Casso wrote a letter accusing Gravano and D'Arco of perjury at the racketeering trial of Genovese boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante. (In this Aug. 12, 1988 photo, Casso, Gravano and bosses Vittorio (Vic) Amuso and John Gotti talk mob talk outside a Bay Ridge, Brooklyn restaurant.)

"She's lying to you like she's lied to other judges,'' said Casso, pointing at Valerie Caproni, one of two federal prosecutors who had put Casso between a rock and a hard place.

In a rambling, animated statement, Casso charged that many cooperating mobsters had bribed prison guards to smuggle alcohol, food and other contraband into special witness units and had nonetheless gotten letters written on their behalf and heavy reductions in sentences they deserved.

"Nobody did what he did,'' countered Assistant U.S. Attorney George Stamboulidis, (right) noting that Casso had "assaulted other cooperating witnesses and also lied to the government'' about his crimes and other matters. And then, "Casso declared war on the government when we decided not to call him a witness at the Gigante trial," said Stamboulidis.

Block, who had ruled a week earlier that the feds were justified in slamming Casso, listened patiently to Casso's remarks, and ignored them. Block gave him 15 life sentences, and a slew of 20-year, 10-year, and five-year sentences -- the maximum sentence on each of 72-counts of murder and racketeering to which Casso had pleaded guilty four years ago.

At that time, the feds viewed Casso as another Gravano  - an underboss and serial killer who would be a superstar prosecution witness. Today, Casso's a total failure - both as a gangster, and as a turncoat. 

Gang Land Contest

The first prize winner in our second Gang Land contest is Rudy Negron, a 42-year-old transplanted New Yorker and former Marine now living in Southern California. A police officer in Orange County, Negron has nearly 100 books on organized crime, and a data base with over 2300 reputed mob figures on file.

Second prize goes to Bill Heneage, a 40-year-old life long resident of Newark N.J.'s North Ward, home of Richie (The Boot) Boiardo and a bunch of other wiseguys who triggered Heneage's interest in the mob. Heneage checks libraries, archives, death certificates and other public records to keep plugged into mob doings around his town and beyond.

Congrats to Rudy and Bill and thanks to the many Gang Land followers who submitted entries.

Their prizes, autographed copies of Murder Marchine and Gotti: Rise and Fall, are on their way to Rudy and Bill. The rest of you stay tuned, we'll be sending another contest at you as soon as we catch our breath.

Late tuners in can check out the questions and answers to our May 25 contest.

ASK ANDY
This week, Andy, seen posing with one of his all time favorite books, "Mob Star," answers this request from  Gang Land reader Peter Riehl:  "How about a little info on the Bay Area
Mafia: San Jose/San Francisco."

At one time, the west coast Cosa Nostra families in San Francisco and San Jose were viable. Today, they are basically gone, although there may be a few guys running around claiming to be mobsters. At the height of its power, the San Jose clan, led from the mid 1950's to the late 1970's by Joe Cerrito, had about 30  members. The San Francisco mob, led by Jimmy Lanza from the late 1930's into the late 1970's, had perhaps half that number of made members.

Lanza's office was illegally bugged by the FBI  from Aug. 11, 1960 to July 12, 1965. The fruits of the electronic surveillance could not be used in court but was often fed to reporters and disseminated nationally. In September, 1967, for example, Life Magazine published an article which contained a map of the United States showing the cities with resident Mafia families, the names of their Bosses and the approximate sizes of the families.

Cerrito and Lanza were in the general area of Apalachin, New York, on that fateful day in November of 1957, when a National Meeting of La Cosa Nostra at the estate of Joe Barbara was interrupted and disrupted by state troopers. A follow-up investigation discovered that Lanza and Cerrito where booked at the Hotel Casey in Scranton, Pennsylvania - about 50 miles from Apalachin. Apparently, Cerrito and Lanza were two lucky hoods who managed to escape through the woods. Fifty eight others were detained by the police as they exited Barbara's estate.

To sum up, the Northern California families were strictly small time although the reputation of La Cosa Nostra in the mid sixties was such that it gave an appearance of power to even these two minor operations. That was a myth. There were plenty of non-Italian organizations around the U.S. that were much stronger in size and influence than these two small left coast families .

Books, by Andy

HONOR THY FATHER by GAY TALESE

Amazon     $4.79                

First published in 1971, HONOR THY FATHER was the first of the "Bonanno Books" that include JOE BONANNO: A MAN OF HONOR and MAFIA MARRIAGE. Thanks to Bill Bonanno, eldest son of Mafia Joe Bonanno, the author had access to members of the Bonanno blood family and a limited view of the Bonanno crime family. Talese demonstrated his considerable talents as a writer as he detailed the trials and tribulations of the Bonannos as they lost their grip on their New York empire during the 1960's "Banana War." Interweaved throughout is one version of the history of the American Cosa Nostra and the Bonanno Crime Family. Talese, obviously impressed by the loyalty that Bill Bonanno had for his father, introduced a theme of a declining tradition that was continued by the elder Bonanno in his own  book a decade later.

In researching the book Talese performed a delicate balancing act of listening, observing and asking few pointed questions. Nevertheless, Talese points out that many Bonanno family problems arose when Bill Bonanno became family Consigliere, a selection that was looked upon with disdain by some powerful Bosses. Talese also recounted Bill Bonanno's affair with an Arizona employee during the early years of his marriage. The author detailed a jealous rage in which he punched his lover. In her own book, Bonanno's wife also discusses this unhappy event and others.

When HONOR THY FATHER was published, it created a rift between father and son that lasted a year. The elder Bonanno was incensed at some of Talese's interpretations of him and Mafia history. Talese's account of Joe Bonanno's reaction to the infamous National Meeting of La Cosa Nostra at Apalachin, New York in 1957 was certainly one sore point. Bill Bonanno, through Talese, tells how his father described gangsters running frantically about the Joseph Barbara estate when they learned that the State Police had set up a roadblock. Obviously, Joe Bonanno was there and saw this happening. Bonanno gave a totally contrary account in his own book, claiming he never attended the meeting, including a ludicrous story of how his name happened to be among those detained by the police.

HONOR THY FATHER is a valuable book for acquiring more about the personalities of the Bonanno family other than their arrest records and media accounts. It also gives a good summary of the Bonanno decline which began more than 30 years ago. While the book demonstrates a son's love for his father, it also shows them both to be men with towering egos, unable to accept their fall from the heights of power. However, there really was a silver lining among all their troubles. Ironically, by losing control of their crime family, they saved their family. Both Joe (right) and Bill Bonanno, by retiring to Arizona probably prevented their own ugly deaths in a New York gutter. By retiring they prevented their sons and grandsons from following in their footsteps. Unintended though it may have been, that is the real story behind HONOR THY FATHER.

MAFIA MARRIAGE by ROSALIE BONANNO    

Out of print but Amazon.com will search used book stores for the title and advise as to availability and price.

If ever there was any doubt that Bill Bonanno was worthy of contempt,
his wife puts a dramatic end to the debate with her tale of life with the eldest son of the long time Cosa Nostra Boss. For a man who claims to be bound to a tradition of honor, the young Bonanno must have forgotten to read the chapter on treating wives with respect. Rosalie tells us having to bare the humiliation of at least two affairs that her husband carried on with women whom he had hired. In the first, the Man of Honor sired a child with his mistress and we are lead to believe he may have beaten the woman and then conned Rosalie into lying to the victim that she and Bill were divorcing in order to prevent a court case. Left unsaid was whether Bonanno ever supported the child financially or was a dead beat dad as well. In the second case, Rosalie had to read press accounts of her husband's lover outlining the details of the affair in a public courtroom where Joe Bonanno was on trial for obstruction of justice. If those two blows were not enough, Mrs. Bonanno tells readers that her beloved husband pawned her favorite ring supposedly to help finance a friend's business venture. Not surprisingly, Rosalie never saw the ring again. We also hear of a number of occasions were Bonanno verbally denigrated his wife in an attempt to destroy her self esteem and keep her subservient. 

Like most wife abusers, Bonanno was often contrite and charming. For him, appearances meant everything, especially at sentencing time, or at a parole hearing. Time after time, Rosalie succumbs to the pleas of love and devotion that come from her con man husband. It is a classic tale of the battered wife, but Rosalie appears determined to let her religious beliefs bind her to this pathetic creature for life.

There is a happy note in the book however. Like most villains, Bonanno has some good traits. Most recognizable, due to the books written on the subject is his loyalty to his father. Secondly, despite the marriage difficulties, the couple appear to have raised an honest and respectable group of children. While the main credit must go to the long suffering wife, Bonanno must also have played a role in this success.

This book is not a pleasant read and the theme can be found in any book
on mentally abusive husbands or wives. However, it is further insight on the great con powers of both Joe Bonanno and his eldest son. They have spent two life times speaking of honor and convincing many close to them that this is what they stand for. Needless to say, for any outsider, it is clear that the two Bonannos have no idea what the word honor really means. It's time they both listened to Rosalie.

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